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foreign [Music] [Applause] [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 kind of likes the Opera crowd it makes him feel
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tough here is the captain a solomonia it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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Brewers and workers over Jackie ozar incredible and you know who else is good people it's our friends right here first
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of our episodes there starting February 14th and that is enough of the biggest Nas
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all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] foreign [Music] sighting of twelve-year-old Tina Marie Harmon of record was at 6 30 pm on
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Thursday October 29 1981. sources have Tina seen walking along Main Street in downtown Creston Ohio five days later
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her body was discovered in a remote location in Stark County approximately 45 miles away
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this was the first indication to the public that the demons had come out arrests were made and two men were
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convicted but mistakes were made and the convictions were overturned the men were
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set free and Tina's killer was still hiding in the shadows less than one year later on July 17 1982 on a stormy
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Saturday afternoon eleven-year-old Krista Harrison was snatched up from a park across the street from her home
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reports state that two juveniles witnessed the abduction just six days later in a decrepit old garage her
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remains were spotted by Turtle Trappers as they marched through the fields of Holmes County
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significant physical evidence was located at the body disposal site detectives struggled to turn this
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evidence into solid leads were the two cases in length then 65 days later just over 100 miles to the South another
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child goes missing eight-year-old kellyanne Prosser vanished from the bustling streets of the north side of
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the capital city of Columbus she failed to return to her mother after leaving school to walk home that Autumn
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afternoon in late September police searched the area high and low but there was no sign of the little girl
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no clue as to her whereabouts unfortunately Kelly would soon be found but the outcome was what everyone had
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feared her lifeless body was found in a peak height cornfield ten rows back the only obvious conclusion was that the
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spot that Kelly was found was far far from where she was picked up the spot seemed terribly random or perhaps as the
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detective's question familiar to the Killer but without question kellyanne Prosser's
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murder case was hauntingly familiar investigators in multiple counties were searching for a link for a connection
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for any clue at all as unsolved child homicide Case Files stacked up on desk none could deal with
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the level of this tragedy no one could explain just what was happening the community feared the worst and the
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people wanted to know who was killing our girls this is true crime garage [Music]
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foreign 1982 kellyanne frauser was eight years old she was a very outgoing happy chatty
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little girl who loved to dance with her sister and go to the pool and make arts and crafts she was in third grade at
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Indianola Elementary Kelly's mother Linda worked at OSU not far away Linda recently got remarried to a man named
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Larry Garner and according to Kelly's teacher Barbara Cleveland Kelly was excited about her new stepfather Kelly's
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11 year old brother Keith was in Middle School and her sister Christina was 14 years old on Monday September 20th this
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was just about two weeks into a new school year in the previous school years Kelly was accustomed to walking to
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school with her brother but now he is in middle school so he's going to a different School eight-year-old Kelly
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was insistent that she get to walk to school on her own her school was on East 16th Avenue right on the edge of the OSU
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campus in the University District surrounded by sorority houses and Residences this was not an isolated area
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that we hear so much about in these types of abduction cases it was a densely populated safe City neighborhood
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Kelly and her mom Linda planned out the 15 block route that Kelly would take to and from school yeah for the most part
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the OSU campus is a safe place but it's surrounded by areas that are high in crime rate she would walk along High
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Street this was a commercial area with store fronts we have OSU students out and about and public businesses on this
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Monday in late September Kelly's teacher Mrs Cleveland said that Kelly helped out
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by watering the plants in the classroom she seemed totally normal and happy at the end of the school day she set out to
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walk home a friend posted on web sluice that she was supposed to walk with Kelly
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that day but she got delayed for some reason Linda her mother said that there was no formal arrangement for Kelly to
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be accompanied by a friend friends just lived in the same area and sometimes they like to walk together it is
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believed that Kelly took her normal route home that day because a shopkeeper near 18th Avenue says that she saw Kelly
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looking into her store window this according to the witness was between 3 30 and 4 P.M which is the approximate
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time that Kelly would have been walking by if she stuck to her normal route and timeline the shopkeeper later related
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seeing a little girl in a blue raincoat and she did ID Kelly's photo for police according to the Columbus Dispatch Kelly
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was last seen at 3 30 PM walking westbound on East 16th Avenue near the corner of East 16th Avenue and North
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High Street by her third grade classmates Kelly also was seen at the intersection of Lane Avenue and North
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High Street walking home that day tough thing about this area is there's so many
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residents there and a lot of the students live in in old houses so what do old houses need they need maintenance
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so you have maintenance workers going in in and out of this area all day long you
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have deliveries being made to all these businesses all day long so there could be anywhere from 50
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000 to 100 000 individuals that go into this area and go out of this area daily on this day Kelly's mom Linda happened
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to have a dentist appointment after work so Kelly was supposed to walk home and should arrive there around 4 pm her
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sister Christina and her new dad Larry would be home at this time now due to some kind of miscommunication Christina
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and Larry assumed that Linda the mother was picking up Kelly and taking her with
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her to the dentist appointment so Kelly never made it home at 4pm but this didn't raise any red flags
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immediately because of this miscommunication right so when Linda gets home after the appointment she's
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wondering where Kelly is she thought she was going to be home the people at home thought they would be she
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would be at the dentist appointment now we have a problem she never came home that day right so the family jumped in
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the car they went to the school and then they drove around following Kelly's Route there was no sign of her Linda
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spotted a Columbus PD Patrol wagon and flagged it down and the officers then and there took a report and they started
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looking for Kelly the police officers told Linda you should go home and call 9-1-1 to report a missing juvenile so by
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602 PM Kelly's description was transmitted over the police wire and it was noted that officers were already
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looking for her per Linda talking to the patrol vehicle right Linda called All of
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Kelly's school friends her teacher and other family members looking for her daughter but Kelly was nowhere to be
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found well not only would Columbus PD be looking for her but I'm sure they would
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contact security at Ohio State to let them know what was going on by 9 A.M the next day the local news was covering the
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case they reported that the child was last seen leaving school wearing a blue raincoat jeans and a white and pink
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flowered blouse police taking this disappearance seriously from the get-go they set up a command post conducted
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area searches scoured the river they tracked down and questioned Kelly's biological father they interviewed
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neighbors friends classmates and acquaintances but there was no sign of Kelly it was as if she had simply
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vanished Into Thin Air once the news broadcast the story of the missing eight-year-old tips began to flood in at
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8 30 on Tuesday night the 21st A call came in from Lisa Richmond of Plain City this is a 30-minute drive away from
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where Kelly was last seen she said that her father an attorney named Charles Richmond was driving to
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pick up the family's housekeeper on A.W Wilson Road this is out in the sticks in
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Madison County Charles noted a blue piece of clothing in the road it was still there on his return Journey
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with the housekeeper Clara in the vehicle they stopped to pick up the little blue
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piece of outerwear after searching this was turned out to be a raincoat after searching the raincoat for
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identification they only found a metal bolt in one of the pockets no name or nothing so they put it on the floor of
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the vehicle and kind of just forgot about it when Lisa and her mother went to drive
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the housekeeper home at the end of the day Lisa saw the raincoat Clara decided to
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bring it home with her so that she could give it to maybe a niece or somebody else could use this
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they dropped her off with the coat and started on the return journey home now on the way home Captain Mrs Richmond
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told Lisa the story that she had heard on the news about the missing little girl from Columbus Ohio Lisa's interest
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was peaked and she found a newspaper article about Kelly about the case and there in the description of the little
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girl's attire was the blue raincoat Lisa sensed strongly that the little blue raincoat that they found on the country
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road may have belonged to the missing child so she called police and the cops followed her and her father to the
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housekeeper's house to get the coat and then Charles and Clara showed the investigators where they found the
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raincoat a lot of the listeners would be familiar with the case or The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer this is
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only probably a mile away from where Brian went missing now per The Columbus Dispatch a Columbus Police Homicide
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Sergeant stated that there appeared to be a couple of smears of Blood on the sleeve of the little blue raincoat the
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Richmonds did not notice this Blood until it was pointed out by police officers officers dedicated to Kelly's case
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brought the raincoat to Linda she identified it as Kelly's and told them that her daughter was wearing it on
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the day that she went missing Linda says that this was when she knew her daughter
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was not coming home now knowing that the raincoat was a sign that they were close
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to Kelly officers started combing the area where the raincoat was found this again is a rural area with A.W Wilson
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Road running between cornfields and the crops looming High by the time searches commenced it was dark and police called
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it at 2 A.M on the 22nd because it was just too dark it's the middle of the night they resumed the next morning this
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with dogs a helicopter and foot patrols running grid searches at 109 PM Ohio State Patrol Trooper
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Bryant found a child's body several rows back in a cornfield a budding A.W Wilson
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Road according to the dispatch the Madison County Sheriff said that Kelly was fully clothed with her shoes socks
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pants and underwear on there were no obvious signs of gunshot wounds or knife wounds and investigators were not sure
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how long she had been there there were no notable footprints around the body or in the cornfield the sheriff said that
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tire tracks in a neighboring field appear to be related to farmwork not from a potential suspect vehicle
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the spot where Kelly was found was very far away from where she was picked up I mean she's eight years old this is
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a 30 minute drive or so there's no way for her to get there on her own right this location is also quite a distance
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from the closest highway exit so this is a remote Country Road now this road Captain is straight enough
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and we've seen this in some other cases this is a straight long road that at night
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you could see cars coming for miles from their headlights right someone took the
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time to drive all the way out there and hide Kelly in the cornfield 10 rows back
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so that she was not visible from the road well a couple things there I would assume that this individual had to know
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the area a little bit because then they would know that this Rural Road is going
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to give them the opportunity and also because the road gave them the opportunity they were able to go further
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back we've seen many cases where they dump the victim right on the side of the road for anybody to see this this
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suspect is trying to cover up the body in some manner yeah putting it several rows back from the
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street so that it's not easily spotted not spotted right away the killer wanted some time before the killer wanted some
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time to expire before the body was found and when police notified Kelly's family
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of her death Kelly's Sister Christina had to be restrained as she ran screaming from their home well also this
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suspect would have to know a lot about the area in which she was picked up in it's it's actually a very interesting
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location because Lane and high if they believe that's where roughly where she got picked up at or I would question
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what was her route because if she was staying on on High Street obviously that's heavily populated you could go
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down further on Lane and jump on Indianola or Indiana Avenue and that would take you back ways and so
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I wonder if she got to one of those back roads but again what's interesting here
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is if you head West North or South there's going to be opportunities to hit the freeway and and not that far you're
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not miles from hitting the freeway in any direction Kelly's mother and Linda identified the body as that of her
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daughter Kelly Ann prossler there was evidence that the victim was sexually assaulted the coroner ruled the cause of
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death as lack of oxygen to the brain caused by strangulation marks around Kelly's neck indicated a rope or piece
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of fabric was used to strangle her there was some indication that she had been beaten on the head and of course the
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case was officially ruled a homicide Columbus PD would remain in charge of the case
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Alper and October 13 1982 Columbus Dispatch article Columbus Police announced that the FBI did not find any
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fingerprints that would help to identify Kelly's killer as quoted from the article police said clothing from
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Kelly's Body and clothing seized from a North Side man suspected in her murder were sent to the FBI crime lab police
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were looking for Kelly's fingerprints on the suspect's clothing and the suspect's
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fingerprints on Kelly's clothing the FBI used a laser device to try to find fingerprints from both sets of clothes
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Columbus Police were told by the FBI that they found no prints on the articles of clothing that were seized
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during the investigation the test on Kelly's clothes were inconclusive and the FBI didn't find anything of value
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police also said that there there was no evidence indicating whether the killer wore gloves
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regardless what we see here is a very important word in that statement suspect they already had a suspect very
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early on in their investigation they're looking for his Prince specifically on anything related to Kelly and at the
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dump site they're looking for her fingerprints on on his clothing that it was believed that he would have been
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wearing the day that she went missing or possibly they have a if they have a potential suspect the suspect has a
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vehicle I'm sure they can impound the vehicle and look for fingerprints there as well so if we don't have a situation
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we don't have a situation where anybody saw this girl get abducted and that's where we're kind of left with this
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mystery we have the last sighting of her okay it's at this location we know that
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she probably was picked up or abducted somewhere between that location and her home that's as best as we can come up
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with because there's no other witnesses that spotted her at any other point there's nobody come coming forward
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saying I saw a little girl screaming as she was pulled into a vehicle right but that's where I was saying her last known
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whereabouts were laying in high well that's heavily populated but it's coming towards the end of the Ohio State campus
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it's coming towards the end of the the most heavily populated area of her travels so the most sense to me
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based off of where she lives is that she'd be heading I believe it'd be heading East on lane and then should go
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north on Indianola but once you get to Indianola we're talking about you know one-tenth the people you know maybe one
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twentieth of the people I mean they're it's such a less populated Road compared to High Street but if the
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Killer's cunning enough it doesn't have to take place where nobody saw or nobody
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could see anything right I mean he simply could have asked her to get in his vehicle and she
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did well and you also wonder her being an eight-year-old a corner corner of Lane and high at that time would have
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been at least a gas station or a convenience store did he have some ruse to get her in the
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car at the at the gas station you know I again I would guess that she went to a less heavily populated area
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and that's where he made his move foreign [Music] we're back cheers mates cheers to
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everybody out there let's talk about this suspect because very early on in this investigation they are already
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talking about a suspect why do we have a suspect when we don't have any witnesses
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that say that they saw this man with Kelly so this viable suspect was immediately identified and tips were
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pouring in about this guy early on in the investigation this was because this suspect had sexually assaulted an 11
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year old girl on Sunday September 19th this is one day before Kelly was taken wow so
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this assault it's it's been described as a molestation as a sexual assault this was the day before she was taken before
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Kelly was taken this took place in the Park of Roses on the north side of Columbus so in the area the immediate
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area the victim was in the park on a picnic with the offender and with his grandchildren and consequently there was
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a warrant out for the arrest of this is the suspect Walter Mitchell Jr age 63 and the charges were of gross
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sexual imposition for this attack so he's a creepy old Dirtbag Walter conveniently left for West Virginia and
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the cops were yet to catch up to him so there are even more reasons than just that to think that old Walter might have
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killed Kelly other than just proximity and time and location of the two cases in their search in law enforcement
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search for the little girl officers took canines out to Canvas Kelly's neighborhood
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this obviously before they found her body shortly after she goes missing we want to see if we can retrace her steps
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to see where she may have been picked up or Where She Went you're still hoping for the best when she's still missing so
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they take the canines out the canvas Kelly's neighborhood and the dogs they went right to Mitchell's home
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they're alerting them on Mitchell's home right according to the fifth floor the dogs even tried to get into the back
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gate of his house from my understanding Captain this is information that came out years later
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the police obviously knew this information but it was nothing that they released to share this with the public
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they didn't share it with the public I think in part because one they had a good suspect they
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believed and two you don't want somebody in the public doing something to this guy you have to figure out if in fact he
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is actually guilty of Kelly's abduction and murder yeah you don't want to have a
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scene where they go out into the streets and try to take them down like Frankenstein so but they have this
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individual said he's 63 63 years old they have canines hitting on this unit and this is
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from her scent this these these aren't cadaver dogs no they're trying to retrace her steps they're trying to
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figure out you know she's just missing when they're when they're doing this canine search of her neighborhood so
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you're hoping it's a little kid maybe she got lost maybe she crawled into something maybe she got injured and
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couldn't finish the walk home you're hoping for all of those kind of things while you're searching for this girl
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these dogs they go straight to this dude's home they try to get into his back gate
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and at the same time police are very quickly going well uh who lives here oh this guy that we have a warrant out for
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his arrest for molesting a girl the day before Kelly went missing yeah we still got to pick up this dude we're still
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looking for this creep then a report came in from two police officers that said that they had seen a man matching
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the suspect's description Mitchell's description holding hands with a little girl who the officer said look like
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Kelly this was near North High Street on Monday night these officers even picked
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Mitchell out of a photo lineup and police believe that the girl who was an alleged victim of Walter Mitchell the
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day before that she was in fact a friend of Kelly's so everything's getting to be
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really tied together right now yeah there's a connection there so this is just too big of a coincidence right a
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child molester who lived near Kelly prayed on one of her friends the day before now Kelly vanishes she's found murdered
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and the dogs tracked Kelly near this man's home well the connection really is like you said this guy has grandkids so
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you're assuming that these grandkids are similar Age and and that's kind of his Gateway in if you're walking and you saw
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your your friend's parents or your friends grandparents and they said hey uh let me let me help you get home
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you're more inclined to go okay I know who you are you're you're so and so's Grandpa investigators were pretty
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confident that Mitchell knew all about what had happened to Kelly Prosser so they go to speak to Mitchell's wife and
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what she had to say or didn't have to say convince them even further that this in fact was their guy let's just hold up
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a second so this this old Dirtbag creep Deuce pilot he's married that's okay that's all the good ones are right when
00:30:01
they interview his wife this is when they learn that Mitchell apparently left for West Virginia he had
00:30:09
family there and quite suddenly he had to leave for West Virginia all of a sudden because he says to her that there
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was an illness in his family but his wife yeah it's called molesting kids she tells police you know I'm not sure who
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was sick or even exactly where the husband was you know she's not saying he went to this person's house in this city
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in West Virginia she's saying he went to West Virginia and that's about all that
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I know so the cops determined that Mitchell was at work on Monday this is the day that Kelly was taken and
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Mitchell was there or they could place him at his work at least until 3 25 pm he left work early this is agitated
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after getting two phone calls and he did not show up for work the next day so this is really looking like they've
00:31:08
found the right guy here the timeline fits but hold on but barely is what we need to point out here okay so we know
00:31:16
that he goes to work but we know that we know that he sexually assaulted a victim on Sunday so the calls that
00:31:26
he's getting are probably somebody letting him know that he's going to be charged with this
00:31:32
crime is what I'm guessing right or police saying that they wanted to question him I don't know what these
00:31:39
calls were exactly but if you want to lay out a very a brief timeline for this Mitchell
00:31:46
character it's allegedly he assaults this girl in the park on Sunday goes to work on Monday he
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receives two calls two phone calls and whatever these calls are they're enough to make him visibly upset to his
00:32:02
co-workers who say hey he left a little early because he was angry about something right he left at 3 25 and then
00:32:10
his wife is saying okay well he uh not only did he leave work a little early that day didn't go into work the next
00:32:16
day he also all of a sudden had to go out to West Virginia because there's an illness in his family right so this
00:32:24
looks really really bad for Mitchell to the cops this guy was Prime Suspect number one
00:32:31
the one thing I do want to point out here though you know we do have some time that goes
00:32:37
by before Kelly's Body is found and so it's not impossible but just for people trying to picture what's going on
00:32:47
Columbus is in the center of Ohio and if he were heading to West Virginia he would actually be heading east and her
00:32:56
body was found west of Columbus opposite direction of where he said he would be going right but we don't have to believe
00:33:05
everything he says Mitchell's daughter told the police that her father had been with her until about 5 30 p.m
00:33:14
on the day that Kelly vanished and again we know that Mitchell left work at 3 25
00:33:20
Kelly was last seen between 3 30 and 4 P.M so he's got an alibi it's just a a pretty weak one if you ask me right
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police got a search warrant for Mitchell's home and for his vehicle they found no evidence of Kelly having been
00:33:39
at either the home or in the vehicle at any time Mitchell returned to Columbus this was on Thursday and when he
00:33:48
returned to Columbus he turned himself into police he told police that his wife called him at work on Monday to tell him
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that a card was left by police on their door saying they wanted to talk to him about the
00:34:02
complaint from the day before right now we know what at least one of the calls were and it was related to police
00:34:09
activity and to his activity the day before this said that of course they wanted to
00:34:16
speak with him about the girl accusing him of molesting her so in the light of this news Mitchell I guess decides to
00:34:24
leave town he told his wife that due to Prior arrest he could not be caught with
00:34:30
a juvenile so he went to West Virginia and he says he was going to just kind of wait it out
00:34:38
Mitchell told the cops that he never touched the 11 year old girl in the picnic or I'm sorry at the picnic in the
00:34:46
park right and he went on to tell investigators that he had never seen kellyanne Prosser before he didn't know
00:34:52
who she was never knew who she was until she was missing and seeing her picture in the paper and being told
00:35:01
he's a suspect in the case right detectives of course looked hard at Mitchell his attorney William Abram
00:35:08
swore up and down that his client was innocent he told the Columbus citizen Journal that quote I can and I will
00:35:16
verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that my client was nowhere near Columbus when the terrible incident occurred I can say
00:35:25
this is one of the few times in my career that I have a man as a client who is totally innocent end quote well again
00:35:35
you have a eight-year-old girl going missing so the first person that you put on your radar if your police are are
00:35:42
known sex offenders in that area but you you're not saying that he was a known sex offender
00:35:49
but he did have this claim against him the day before correct but we also have the dogs going to his house I mean
00:35:57
there's there's good reason to look at this guy and then he magically decides to go to West Virginia so
00:36:04
he looks guilty yeah as investigators looked into Mitchell more and more though their case against him started to
00:36:13
fall apart while his supervisor confirmed that he left work left his job that day at 3 25 PM his wife said that
00:36:21
she was with him from the time that he returned home from work until he dropped her off at JCPenney catalog Distribution
00:36:30
Center on Scarborough Boulevard and I-70 on the far East side of Columbus so this this makes a little more sense
00:36:40
here because what she is telling police is he came home he came directly home I was with him until I had to go to work
00:36:48
he drove me to my work dropped me off we're assuming I'm assuming that's in his vehicle yeah I I I'm assuming that
00:36:56
they may only have one vehicle between the two of them now he's going to drive east he has to drive her this is far
00:37:04
east from Columbus right to her work so this makes sense that he would drop her off at her work and he's practically on
00:37:13
Interstate 70 at this point he would just continue on keep going east and go straight to West Virginia yeah he's a
00:37:20
good 30 40 minutes into that trip so I mean so now police are looking at it okay we have this guy kind of lines up
00:37:28
that he could be somebody that would be involved we have the dogs going to his house but now we have his wife which she
00:37:34
could be a scumbag too but you got to be whole another level of scumbag to cover
00:37:40
up a child's murder and we have no evidence of her seeing the victim we have no evidence she
00:37:49
doesn't see any child alive or dead and like you said where she's located where the victim's located
00:37:58
is 30 40 minutes from that spot but from where he's taking his wife it's an hour
00:38:05
or so away yeah from the dump site to where her work would be right yeah and so what we have here Captain is you
00:38:13
nailed it because if this dude did this if Mitchell is guilty of the abduction and murder
00:38:21
then it seems like when you put all these pieces together that that means that his wife had to have been involved
00:38:28
in some form or fashion because his window of opportunity or time that he's available to commit any part of this
00:38:36
crime it gets very small and you can really I mean there's no getting around it you
00:38:44
you know what time he left work you have credible Witnesses telling you he left at 325. now you have a whole bunch of
00:38:52
people that JC Penney catalog Distribution Center that's a big place of business back then there had to have
00:39:00
been a ton of employees working you have her arriving at work roughly around 5 30
00:39:06
p.m that night so you got a bunch of credible Witnesses stating that there's no way getting around that that
00:39:13
leaves for a very small window of time now you go okay well what about his whereabouts and is he
00:39:19
accounted for after he drops off his wife because then he has for the entirety of her shift in fact he doesn't
00:39:26
come back to Columbus until Thursday so you have to question his whereabouts then but this is this is why we see the
00:39:34
case against this guy starting to fall apart because the timeline it just doesn't track it doesn't Trace that that
00:39:42
he had a lot of availability to do any of this because Mitchell made a collect call to his wife
00:39:50
who was at home right about 7 41 pm on that night so this is an easily trackable call you can verify if this
00:40:01
call came in or not because it was called collect right you know somebody's got to pay this bill uh so that call
00:40:08
came in from Mineral Wells West Virginia so yeah you know the phone rings ring ring ring ring and you pick up and it
00:40:17
says you have a collect call from the prick sniffer do you accept the click call and then you say yes and then and
00:40:25
that's how we have the evidence that he was or at least somebody from that area called her but they also normally have
00:40:33
you state your name or they used to so you'd say uh you have a collect call from the captain or it would be my voice
00:40:42
saying the captain he also Mitchell said that he also made calls from Charleston
00:40:47
West Virginia later that same evening so police were able to find people who saw
00:40:54
Walter Mitchell in West Virginia on that Monday evening these calls are starting
00:41:00
to make it look like he was where he says he was and we have witnesses saying that they saw him in these locations in
00:41:06
West Virginia as well further Mitchell potential Mitchell siding with Kelly citing by the two police officers
00:41:15
this was proven to be mistaken identity it was learned that the man that police saw was not Mitchell
00:41:25
and the girl that police saw was not Kelly it wasn't Kelly with some other guy it was neither Mitchell nor Kelly
00:41:32
that was seen by the police Witnesses what we have here is a guy came forward and said
00:41:40
I think that police saw me and that makes sense because I was in the area with my daughter at that time right and
00:41:49
then police look at the daughter and this guy and they're like oh yeah that those are the people that we we saw but
00:41:54
two things about this case so far one the pressure you would feel being this guy's an employer right and
00:42:04
so when when the cops come to talk to you it's like you want to help them but obviously you want to tell them the
00:42:10
truth but you're also thinking in the back of your head man if this guy did this this
00:42:15
guy's an animal right and he needs to be locked up but you you don't want to falsify
00:42:22
anything right and then on the on the side of the police you have this girl going missing eight
00:42:30
years she's eight years old not only is her parents probably freaking out but the whole Community
00:42:36
because in that area there's a lot of elementary schools and and a lot of them walk to school and they're walking in
00:42:45
crowds of young adults 18 to 24 years old and so the whole Community then goes well this sucks and there's a whole
00:42:57
community that is fearful now but as the police officers you're going hey we're doing some leg work and every
00:43:05
step of the way we're getting confirmation that we're looking at the right guy well I I think
00:43:12
you are initially but but as your investigation continues on you're getting confirmation that you're not
00:43:18
looking at the right guy no but what I'm saying is the first few steps you go oh
00:43:22
we're on the right track and then once you you know hit that 10th step you're going okay wait a second this is now not
00:43:30
lining up and just to be processing that as a as a law enforcement officer that that would be really frustrating because
00:43:39
you'd go from this high of we're going to catch this bastard to this isn't the right bastard well and what you have too
00:43:45
Captain is this crime is so similar to the other crimes that we've already discussed we have an Abduction of a of a
00:43:56
young girl in this case we're talking eight-year-old kellyanne Prosser the two cases we previously discussed is that of
00:44:03
11 and 12 year old girls now mind you this is a 100 miles to the south of where the first two abductions and
00:44:11
murders took place but you have similar victimology you have similar set of circumstances
00:44:18
where it appears that the child was abducted off the streets the body is not found for a few days
00:44:25
later and the body is found a considerable distance away from where the little girl was last seen yeah so
00:44:34
that's similar in all three of these cases the only thing that's different in this case is that they immediately had a
00:44:41
suspect somebody that they was looking at of course as we discussed the the case against him starts to fall apart
00:44:48
but in review of Mitchell's criminal record he did have some convictions he had a
00:44:55
convict he was convicted of breaking and entering but this was 30 years earlier remember this is a 63 year old man that
00:45:03
we're talking about at the time he did have five intoxication related arrests but
00:45:10
in his defense he had zero violent crimes on his record and as we stated with the searches of his
00:45:18
vehicle and his home and his clothing there was simply no tangible evidence no physical evidence linking Mitchell to
00:45:30
the abduction and murder well no other claims against him as far as child molestation or sexual assault uh
00:45:38
Mitchell was eventually found guilty of the molestation charges and for that he received a sentence of 10 years again
00:45:48
back to being in law enforcement shoes yes this crime is happening a hundred and some miles away but we have an
00:45:56
individual that just fled to another state so that so that gives you more probable cause to go oh we're
00:46:04
looking at the right individual because if these crimes are connected we have a traveler
00:46:10
yeah and like you said a hundred miles that that ain't no joke you know uh I used to have to travel every weekend for
00:46:17
my job I know you've done a lot of traveling for your past jobs a hundred and some miles is is no joke well but
00:46:25
the thing is here we have a situation where in the first two cases we're talking about well heck in the second
00:46:31
case alone 45 to 50 miles between abduction site and the body disposal site yeah so like you pointed out we
00:46:41
have a traveler and there is reason to believe that there's a potential for these cases to be linked one because of
00:46:47
victimology is the same circumstances are very similar and these crimes in themselves are rare crimes yeah and it
00:46:58
just so happens that we have three of them that take place in a short amount of time
00:47:04
in roughly the same area now given that's the state of Ohio the top half of the state of Ohio but
00:47:11
when you compare how rare these crimes are it's not that far-fetched to think that we have a traveler we have a Serial
00:47:19
offender here that's hunting and abducting girls off of the street and killing them yeah and like you said
00:47:27
wherever he picks them up at that you're going to find a distance away it's uh again as far as where where are
00:47:36
the heads of the detectives you're you almost uh hope that they're not connected
00:47:43
you know I mean um because this this individual becomes way more dangerous and maybe harder to
00:47:52
track down well that's true I mean you hope that they're not connected but then at the same time you're left going okay
00:48:01
what's scarier we have a serial child killer or we have hunting the area or we have three
00:48:09
child Killers right that are out there on the loose undetected for everything True Crime Check out True
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