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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man who cuts his grass like he's mad at it he is the
00:01:50
captain Oh grass I'm not mad at you I'm just pissed off at my co-workers it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
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thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are drinking focal Banger
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by The Alchemist garage grade four out of five bottle caps focal Banger is an American India Pale Ale ABV
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7% at The Alchemist they have a real love for IPA and everything is brewed with a heavy focus on freshness and
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control so you know you will be drinking a fresh clean and delicious beer and this week we are drinking because of our
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good friends right here first up we have Martha in Pittsburgh and a big shout out
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to John and ramono California and a tip of the cap and a cheers of the glass to Carrie she's an artist in wilmy North
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Carolina and a big cheers mates to Stephanie and Eugene Oregon and here's a cheers to Kristen in Lanesville Indiana
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and last but not least we have Nicole from Northern Ireland so thanks to everybody for helping us out with this
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week's show if you want to help us out with the future show go to True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate
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list or click on the store Page and pick you up a T-shirt and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime according to Barbie's friend Michelle
00:03:37
Michelle dropped Barbie off near the bike shop that we have discussed as well as near her boyfriend's home Jerry so we
00:03:46
need to discuss what are the possibilities of what happened after 3:30 a.m. where we have nobody else
00:03:54
who's come forward saying that they saw her after that time period so let's let's pretend that either she decided
00:04:01
not to go to Jerry's house or that she did in fact go to Jerry's house he was not home and there was no one there to
00:04:10
let her in or or nobody answered the door one thing that I find Curious here Captain is this situation
00:04:19
of if she in fact wanted to go to Jerry's house why not just drop a her off right at Jerry's house yeah and I
00:04:26
know that that that was my initial immediate thought and reaction to finding out that she that we knew her
00:04:34
whereabouts until about 3:30 a.m. that morning again though these are younger people Barbara is not even an adult yet
00:04:46
and it's 3:30 in the morning I don't know that she would just pull right up to Jerry's house get out of Michelle's
00:04:54
car walk up and ring the doorbell yeah so I would I would be curious to find out from Michelle or if any of Barbara's
00:05:03
friends from way back then if they have any idea or clue as to how this would typically go down because I'm kind of
00:05:12
guessing here but if they had been on and off for about a year I'm wondering if this was not so
00:05:21
entirely uncommon that this wasn't the first time that she thought about showing up at Jerry's in the middle of
00:05:26
the night was there some type of procedure that they had you know to throw the Little Rock the little Pebble
00:05:34
at the window or did she in fact call Jerry earlier that night we know that she called her parents and we don't have
00:05:44
anybody saying that they were present or around Barbie when that call was made so
00:05:48
is there a chance that she called Jerry as well and said hey I'm going to be here till the bar closes and I might
00:05:54
come over to your house afterwards well and that would make some sense cuz again
00:05:58
hypothetically let's say she called Jerry she can't get a hold of Jerry this would make sense on why she would call
00:06:04
her her parents she normally doesn't call her parents to let them know where she's going to go or what's happening
00:06:10
but maybe she called in hopes that Jerry called and left a message that's a possibility I also think that it might
00:06:17
be likely too that there was something else going on with the blatnik family that she may not have wanted to miss out
00:06:25
on we mentioned that her sister and mother went shopping they a shopping trip the next morning right is there a
00:06:32
chance that she was asked if she wanted to go on that trip and this unusual call
00:06:37
for her to call home is her saying hey I'm on my way home and that's you know I want to be a part of that shopping trip
00:06:44
tomorrow or letting them know I will be home tonight so don't allow me to miss out on the events of tomorrow yeah wake
00:06:51
me up tomorrow yeah so back to the boyfriend Jerry thing though I mean it wasn't this wasn't something that that
00:06:58
you or I did every night but I have to imagine I know with myself and I'm sure with you as well that there was more
00:07:07
than one occasion where you call a friend and say hey I'll meet you in your backyard at 11:30 or I'll meet you in
00:07:15
your backyard at 2: in the morning and you sneak out of your house and you go meet your buddy well sometimes it's hard
00:07:21
to remember times before cell phones yeah but but yeah that that was very common or it was also more common than
00:07:30
just to swing by somebody's house just to see if they're there possibly but what I'm getting at is with Jerry's Home
00:07:37
and with this with this possibility of her going over there with their not being cell phones if I was going to meet
00:07:45
up with a buddy at 1: in the morning or 2 in the morning in in somebody's backyard you did that because you
00:07:52
couldn't call their house that late at night to let them know hey I'm outside right or you couldn't ring the doorbell
00:07:57
because you'd wake up their parents I'm talking about being 15 16 17 years old sneaking out and meeting up with
00:08:03
somebody is there was there a procedure if they had done this before that they would not necessarily meet at Jerry's
00:08:12
house not necessarily meet on his front at his front door you know what I mean where they stre yeah meet me at uh uh in
00:08:19
the churchyard or meet me in my backyard at this time and I can actually think of
00:08:24
a time or two where I went to meet the person and for whatever reason they didn't show up mhm you don't panic you
00:08:30
just leave because you're like oh their mom or dad must have caught them sneaking out the window or trying to get
00:08:37
out the back door yeah the guy that didn't show up he actually told me he didn't like you so whatever may have
00:08:43
happened here let's say that she decides to do something else other than to go to
00:08:49
Jerry's or for whatever reason that Meetup didn't take place and I don't mean to sound a little douchy here
00:08:56
but to toss out the the old anything's possible but this could be as simple as drop me off down
00:09:04
the street so I can smoke a cigarette before I get to his house drop me off down the street because I want to walk
00:09:10
off this Buzz I have it could be so many things oh yeah there's a bazillion options here but what we what we can go
00:09:18
the rabbit hole we can go down is this she didn't meet up with Jerry she didn't get into Jerry's house or whatever that
00:09:25
meeting was supposed to be let's say that didn't take place or she changed her mind a bazillion things like we said
00:09:32
right regardless that meeting doesn't happen she would find herself on the street at close to 4:00 a.m. so what
00:09:40
would she likely have done at that time well we do know we've spoked with some of her friends and spoke with her sister
00:09:47
so we do have some thoughts on that my first thought is she could have went over to see if anyone was still at
00:09:56
the bike shop this is just a short walk away from where she was if she if she did do this she could have run into
00:10:04
anyone including there was a person that was named an ex of hers Named Dave who was at a party that night at the bike
00:10:13
shop party at some point that night mhm apparently police looked at this guy pretty hard apparently he had an alibi
00:10:20
for the time when Barbie went missing there's another option that she could have proceeded down the street to where
00:10:27
her very close friend Gina lived now we've not yet mentioned Gina Gina was living with her boyfriend just two
00:10:35
blocks up Grand Division Avenue she was in a relatively new relationship and her
00:10:42
boyfriend Rodney did not want her to go out and hang out on Warner Avenue the night before with Barbie now Gina says
00:10:52
that Barbie had called her on that Saturday in question and asked her to come out with her but Gina declined a
00:10:59
decision that she says she later regretted adding that if she had been with Barbie that night no one would have
00:11:07
messed with her apparently according to Gina her boyfriend at the time was one of three brothers who were not only
00:11:15
known in the area but kind of feared in the area as well yeah according to Gina Barbie did not make it to her house that
00:11:23
night but I point out that as being an option for two reasons one it's not terribly far from where she got dropped
00:11:31
off mhm it's her very good friend and she she would be under the belief that her friend is at home because she spoke
00:11:38
to her earlier that day she's not coming out I'm not coming out I'm staying at home yeah so maybe she wanted to see her
00:11:45
friend now we know she didn't arrive there but is it possible that something happened to her on on her route to that
00:11:51
way yeah and again it's it might be a punt but she gets dropped off she tells her friend she's going to Jerry's house
00:11:59
she goes over to Jerry's house there's nobody there there's no lights on oh [ __ ] what I'm going what am I going to
00:12:04
do let me head towards a friend's house yeah she's she's been drinking or doesn't want to go home yet I'll drop in
00:12:12
on Gina and see what she's doing okay so there's another option here and it's just plain and simple that
00:12:20
maybe Barbie decided to walk home from that location how far away is it well I don't have the exact distance
00:12:29
here but what is interesting is it's a much further walk if she were to stick to the streets but there's a park that
00:12:40
she could have cut through now this is not terribly far from where she lives I do know that but I don't have an exact
00:12:48
you know miles or anything here if she chose to cut through the park it's 4 in the morning right if
00:12:56
anything's going on at the park there nothing good right and if if anyone's there yeah they're nothing good too this
00:13:03
is Jack Donovan park with it had baseball fields in wooded areas this was in fact between Barbie where she would
00:13:12
have been near Jerry's Home and her home so perhaps someone seized upon her in the park while she was making the cut
00:13:21
through right Barbie's family said that she would never accept a ride from a stranger but they did add that she would
00:13:30
have taken a ride from somebody that she knew yeah and of course there's always the possibility that she was snatched
00:13:36
off the road maybe from the park whatever and just thrown into a car against her will well with that rabbit
00:13:43
hole again yes somebody picks her up throws her in a vehicle fine but also this is the age where I mean how many
00:13:52
times did you end up at a party or end up in somebody's car that you you knew from school
00:13:59
or knew they were a friend of a friend you know so this this makes it wide open if somebody saw her that was just an
00:14:09
acquaintance you know so they're saying yeah she wouldn't get into a car with the stranger a complete stranger but she
00:14:14
might get into a car with you know local Jack that she kind of knows well and I mean consider this she's dropped off at
00:14:23
3:30 in the morning we've only looked into this case for about a week or so and we've already identified three
00:14:31
possible places that she could have gone to and she would have known multiple people there that's where I Circle back
00:14:37
to what the detectives were saying at the time and even 10 years after the fact where they say look she was a
00:14:45
popular kid had a ton of friends we interviewed everybody that we could think of and we're we're not coming up
00:14:52
with any suspects here and and part of the issue they're saying is there could have been just like you pointed out that
00:14:58
the possibilities do seem somewhat endless they're saying look there's so many options here of whom she could have
00:15:06
been with and until we find somebody saying that they saw her with somebody or somebody saying that she was with me
00:15:13
we got this marker of 3:30 a.m. and that's where the road dead ends for us yeah but that goes back to you're
00:15:20
breaking down those categories of these teenagers or early 20 some year olds that don't want to talk that don't want
00:15:28
to get in trou trouble or get their friends in trouble right and so it goes back to that is there it almost seems
00:15:35
like there's a piece of the puzzle missing that possibly could be given to us by one of these individuals well
00:15:41
here's the thing too look man it's been 30 years if you saw Barbara that night if you hung out with her after 3:30 a.m.
00:15:51
or if you can add further detail regarding that night Now's the Time I mean [ __ ] the time was decades
00:16:00
ago but right right it's never too late to do the right thing and nobody gives a
00:16:05
[ __ ] if you were underage drinking or smoking a Dube yeah just help us out tell somebody something you know add to
00:16:15
the timeline help police maybe they'll get back involved in this thing and what was the uh Facebook page again I believe
00:16:23
it's Justice for Barbara blatnik so they could contact the page as well correct correct but regardless of these Endless
00:16:32
Possibilities the reality is where we sit today that after 3:30 a.m. no one is saying that they know
00:16:41
where Barbie was or what she was doing or how she ended up on the side of O'Neal Road and K kyoga Falls yeah now
00:16:50
after Barbara was killed the media in the akan area was quick to highlight her murder multiple stories ran about the
00:16:58
case in the days that followed the discovery of her body this is particularly because murders in the area
00:17:07
were relatively rare yeah in 1987 there were only nine women murdered in akan proper I want to point out that Barbara
00:17:17
is not part of that statistic akan police had about an 88% solve rate on average not bad right 88%
00:17:27
solve rate M but Barbie's case Drew special attention and not just because it was the brutal murder and rape of a
00:17:34
pretty young girl Barbie's murder was the Tipping Point in the eyes of many who believed that a serial killer was at
00:17:43
work in Summit County mhm as of the end of 1987 there were four cases of murders
00:17:51
of women which remained unsolved and which the police did not seem to have any leads on all of these involved
00:17:59
bodies dumped in a diamond pattern on the map of Northern Summit County within just a few miles of each other all were
00:18:08
middle class white females living in a lowrisk area lowrisk lifestyle who were last seen going about their usual daily
00:18:19
routine in very safe neighborhoods only to be found murdered within a short time period okay I'm I'm
00:18:26
just trying to make sure I'm following go ahead one these bodies were laid out seems like a diamond pattern if you look
00:18:33
at a map yeah if you're looking at a map it it would it would look like a diamond
00:18:38
pattern some people have pointed out pointed out that pattern that it means something some people have pointed out
00:18:44
that that adds to the serial killer Theory MH and so then all these women were living highrisk lives lowrisk
00:18:54
Lifestyles lowrisk lowrisk Lifestyles and they all were in very safe neighborhoods I think what's more
00:19:01
important scratch the diamond pattern throw that out the window that seems like some Hollywood [ __ ] to me what
00:19:08
seems more important is that we have similar victimology and all of them are within a few miles of each other right
00:19:15
all of these all but one were found stabbed and all but one were raped all were found out in public spaces no
00:19:24
weapons were found in any of the cases and all of them had occurred with within the last 4 months of
00:19:31
1987 this series of murders was causing near Panic among the residents of the area articles appeared in local papers
00:19:39
about women being afraid to leave their homes gun sales spiked and pepper spray tear gas and mace flew off the shelves
00:19:48
okay so and then in these four cases did they believe that the attacks happened where the the bodies were found or were
00:19:55
they did they happen somewhere else well we're going to dive into each one of these cases and we'll look at each one
00:20:01
of them specifically rather than uh you know just doing it as a whole but there there were calls to hotlines to rape
00:20:12
hotlines that were going through the roof this is women looking for advice on how to protect themselves and
00:20:18
self-defense class registrations shot up now I will I want to point something out
00:20:22
anybody that has never done self-defense classes or has considered it but for whatever reason has not g around to it I
00:20:31
highly encourage these types of classes for a million reasons I'll name just a couple one it's going to give you some
00:20:38
tactics that you do not know these are life-saving tactics as well as the confidence to to push through this type
00:20:47
of situation right I don't know Catey but I know crazy there were rumors at at the time that were spreading about
00:20:56
perpetrators lying in weight for women hiding under their cars cutting their ankles with knives or disguising
00:21:03
themselves as old ladies asking for assistance and then attacking women this is something that you often see in a
00:21:10
situation where there's there's cause to panic we have the general public that are coming up with these folklore type
00:21:18
stories in an area we got four murders that took place in a short period of time and all that the public knows is
00:21:25
that these murders are unsolved regard regardless of how many perpetrators it was they're still out there so police
00:21:33
are going to step up Manpower they did Issue statements assuring the public that they were on it and debunking these
00:21:40
wild stories that were circulating through the county in response to public outcry a task force was in fact formed
00:21:49
this is just days after Barbie's death they wanted to get to the bottom of these murders the task force was formed
00:21:56
by Summit County prosecutor Lynn slabby and included akan kyoga Falls Hudson Township the office of Summit County
00:22:06
sheriff and the we also have the coroner Cox that we mentioned earlier as well as
00:22:11
representatives from the FBI prosecutor slabby said there have never been this many homicides in this short of a time
00:22:21
without one or more being resolved we cannot tolerate this the plan was for the task forc to share information get
00:22:31
centralized they wanted to do a computer database which we've talked about and I
00:22:36
think the first time I recall us talking about this might have been during the course of the Ted murders uh which we
00:22:43
know eventually led to the arrest of Ted Bundy MH they wanted to get this centralized computer database put
00:22:51
together with information on all of the murders and then work together all these
00:22:55
different agencies now one akan detective at the time said any idea is a good one and
00:23:03
hopefully we will be able to gain some information we don't feel the murders are related but it doesn't hurt to get
00:23:10
together and exchange ideas so let's take a quick look at the other three murders as you have inquired
00:23:17
Captain these three murders that stump police proceded Barbies authorities believed at the time that none of the
00:23:26
victims knew their killer or Killers which made the cases very hard to solve and investigate right here are the three
00:23:36
victims the first is Janice Christensen so on Monday August 10th 1987 in Hudson 31-year-old Janice
00:23:45
Christensen laced up her running shoes Janice was a computer operator at kyoga Falls General Hospital and she was also
00:23:54
a fitness Enthusiast who liked to run MH many days she brought along with her her
00:24:00
very large 70b dog named wolf but for some reason on this day she did not around 9:30 a.m. she got into her
00:24:10
vehicle a Toyota Tel and headed out to the Metro Park District Bike and Hike Trail in Hudson for her run when Janice
00:24:21
didn't show up for lunch with her mom it this being very unlike her and when her
00:24:27
husband Ken arrived home from work at 5:45 and didn't find her there and then checks with Mom and finds out she hadn't
00:24:35
shown up for lunch he calls the police and he filed a missing person's report after spending a very uneasy night alone
00:24:44
at home I mean he can't sleep and it's like 6:30 in the morning he decides I'm going
00:24:51
to go out and look for her yeah he knows that she was going to go out for a run I'm guessing that he knew the areas that
00:24:59
she preferred to run because he ended up heading to the very same trail that Janice had went to and this is around
00:25:06
6:30 a.m. he brought the dog with him he and the dog walked the path and wolf started acting very strange and was
00:25:16
alerting to some bushes unfortunately there hidden in the brush was Janice's partially nude body her husband said he
00:25:25
touched her arm it was cold and he noticed Dr blood on her shirt yeah later police determined that Janice had been
00:25:32
raped and stabbed to death in the chest they say about 10:00 a.m. the day before
00:25:38
when she had gone running this was a very popular recreational trail and if it was in fact that she was
00:25:45
murdered at 10: a.m. this would have been in broad daylight right and you'd think that somebody would have saw
00:25:51
something yeah and we talked about safe areas and safe neighborhoods this was the first serious crime ever to happen
00:25:57
since the trail opened in 1973 I've actually been to Hudson quite a bit it's a nice area whoever killed
00:26:04
Janice they were either Brazen enough to do it in a public area in broad daylight
00:26:10
or dumb enough to do it that way her car and this is the weird part man her car was found in a drugstore parking lot in
00:26:21
Bedford but police have stated that they believe that she was killed near the trail where her body was found right so
00:26:29
somebody took her keys moved her car yeah and Ken was looked at uh the couple apparently was having some type of
00:26:37
marital troubles that they may or may not have resolved isn't everybody having Mar if you're married you have problems
00:26:44
you you have problems that's the rules right yeah the report was that whatever these troubles were they were resolved
00:26:51
and that resolved so much that the couple was planning on moving together to Florida police weren't able to link
00:26:58
Ken or anyone else to the murder and no weapons were found in this murder Janice's murder remains unsolved coroner
00:27:08
Cox collected a DNA sample left from the rape but nothing has come of it and nothing has been stated regarding that
00:27:16
publicly as well our next victim is Joanne Bartholomew two months later this is after Janice's murder just
00:27:26
two months later on Wednesday October 21st 47-year-old Joanne Bartholomew headed out alone to an evening church
00:27:35
service Joanne's husband Chuck often accompanied her but on this night he was busy working on opening the couple's
00:27:42
second Dairy Queen franchise now Joanne made it to the 8:00 service and then she
00:27:48
headed to the mall she was seen at a store called O'Neal's looking at VCRs and according to police she made a
00:27:56
purchase there Chuck got home around 9:30 fell asleep on the couch around midnight the couple's son woke him up
00:28:04
and saying look mom's not home she's still not home and her car's not in the driveway yeah so father and son go off
00:28:13
in the car to look for Joanne driving the route to the church and back because they didn't know that she had gone to
00:28:20
the mall so they didn't bother looking there Chuck called churchgoers from the night before to ask asked if they had
00:28:28
seen his wife after the church service they had not then he called the police and reported Joanne missing by 7:30 the
00:28:36
next morning after Chuck and Tom decided to go back out and drive around in daylight hours this time they spotted
00:28:45
Joanne's Cadillac it was parked in an outdoor lot at the Chapel Hill Mall this is close to the mall entrance Joanne's
00:28:54
poor husband had to open the trunk of the car in the company of police but to their relief it was empty police
00:29:04
theorized that Joanne never re-entered her car after shopping Chuck's relief was shortlived
00:29:12
because on Saturday at 300 p.m. Joanne's body was found in a wooded area behind the best product store at the mall she
00:29:21
was found face up partially naked raped and stabbed to death in the neck and chest no knife or other evidence was
00:29:29
found Joanne had also been robbed according to the akan PD her purse and credit cards including the one used to
00:29:38
make the purchase at O'Neal's were taken her things were found in two separate locations one set of credit cards and ID
00:29:47
were found by a jogger dumped about 3 mil away in North Hill and some more cards were found by someone about 2
00:29:55
miles away in Patterson Park Park that makes you wonder if the person was on foot police searched the park and found
00:30:02
the missing purse as well except for the robbery the case looked very similar to
00:30:07
that of Janice Christensen and the public began to be [Music] concerned this show is sponsored by
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Cheers Cheers a Hoy unfortunately Captain we have another victim in this string of
00:32:34
murders that the task force is going to have to investigate now this is the murder of Marsha
00:32:42
Potter on Monday December 14th Marsha Potter aged 36 she was getting ready to leave bingo at her
00:32:51
church this is around 10:30 p.m. Marsha was a wife mother and aad dental office receptionist she was in the company of
00:33:01
her parents on that evening this is in North akan not far from her home Marsha was reported to be very safety conscious
00:33:10
she made a point of double-checking that her car doors were always locked and she
00:33:16
even counseled her friends and family to do the same now on this night after Bingo Marsha's parents walked her to her
00:33:25
car in the church parking lot they saw her lock the doors and then drive off but by 4:30 a.m. on Thursday
00:33:35
morning Marsha's husband Larry was alarmed that she had not come home so he calls police it didn't take long to find
00:33:43
her at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday Mara's body was found inside of her car by residents
00:33:50
in an apartment complex on North persing Avenue in North akan this is just six blocked
00:33:58
just six blocks from her home yeah she was lying on the floor or the seat the reports vary but she was stabbed to
00:34:07
death in the neck newspaper reports are also they also report that she was robbed the acan police said that
00:34:15
Marsha's purse was emptied and several credit cards were missing now there are some interesting things about Marsha's
00:34:23
case she was not raped she was found fully clothed and media reports were that the doors of her car were still
00:34:33
locked when her body was found akan police theorized that she might have been killed elsewhere and then driven to
00:34:42
that spot by the killer again with this crime no murder weapon was found some final thoughts on the murders these four
00:34:53
murders and the task force that was assembled there was a lot of disagreement right off the bat about
00:34:59
whether the cases were even in fact related to one another we have detective Sam massina and other kyoga Falls Police
00:35:07
spokespersons who told the Beacon Journal repeatedly that Barbara's murder had no similarities to the other three
00:35:15
cases of murdered women in Summit County coroner Cox seems to agree with these statements investigating officers
00:35:26
in North akan felt that it was likely that Mara Potter was killed by someone she knew they're basing this off of the
00:35:34
thought in fact that she was found in her locked car implying that maybe she had picked
00:35:41
someone up also her case she was not raped I guess they had a a strong suspect in her case but there was never
00:35:51
an arrest made so I'm guessing they didn't have enough evidence in Marsha Potter's case well it's difficult too
00:35:57
cuz it kind of seemed like a robbery as well so you can go under the you can go down the rabbit hole that maybe she knew
00:36:05
the person but it's also possible that she just didn't have a door locked when she was driving and I guess generally
00:36:12
investigators did not feel that Barbie's case fit the pattern if there was a pattern going on right one we can point
00:36:20
out some things here that are obvious from the get-go she's much younger than the other three victims right she lived
00:36:28
30 mil away which I think is a huge indicator that it might not be connected and she was strangled not stabbed but
00:36:37
not so fast because do you feel like the three other than Barbie's case are connected that's a tricky one I actually
00:36:47
think that two of them are connected and the other two have no connection to any
00:36:51
of the others yeah so it seems like the first two that you discussed the first two two seem very similar yeah well
00:36:58
there's a park involved and that's the only reason why I would go okay well 30 Mi away yes
00:37:05
but possibly Barbie would have cut through that Park to reach her house so that puts a park into play and
00:37:14
I know that's a stretch but the first two had Parks possibly involved where I would say that there could be the
00:37:24
possibility that we have similar cases is Barbie's case would fit with the first two in the fact that it looks like
00:37:32
the the first two victims were just kind of snatched out in public yeah and it was a it seemed like a the motive was
00:37:40
sexual right 100% And in the same way in in Barbie's case as well mhm well sadly all of these cases
00:37:49
whether they're connected or not went cold and they actually went cold very quickly by August of 1988 this is the
00:37:58
first anniversary after the murder of Janice Christensen she was the first one murdered yeah Hudson police said that
00:38:05
they had little hope of solving the case what a kick in the freaking pants right
00:38:10
less than a right in the grle right we got a year later and we have the police straight up saying we have little hope
00:38:17
of solving this case but but don't they have DNA they did but that didn't mean anything in 1987 or 1988 they didn't
00:38:25
have a crystal ball to know that hey right one day but again that's like it seems like they would be able to
00:38:32
test all this stuff by now I mean You' think this is not like a some you know dirt poor area that they
00:38:41
don't have tax money coming in for these people to do their jobs right so it just
00:38:46
seems like I wonder what it' feel like to be a detective the day that they caught
00:38:54
Golden State killer just to go oh [ __ ] now think about the hundreds of cases that are not solved that have DNA that
00:39:03
they can start doing this test to well that's the thing though that's what we're doing here essentially is
00:39:08
reminding everyone that these cases are unsolved there was evidence collected in
00:39:14
these cases if that evidence is still around and still exist let's see if we can do something with it yeah yeah the
00:39:23
Beacon Journal this is also another not uplifting thing to report here but what was reported was that the task force
00:39:32
never really got off the ground it stalled because the information sharing software wasn't yet completed so the
00:39:39
task force basically just kind of fell apart and the other thing too that seems like the case for the task force in
00:39:47
their defense frankly there just weren't leads to pursue in some of these cases so police did admit that they were never
00:39:57
close to an arrest on any of these four cases and still to this day there's no consensus about whether they were
00:40:05
looking for one killer Two Three or maybe even four different Killers right again because it's not clear even
00:40:14
with the autopsy of Barbie's case is it are we looking for one individual or two
00:40:20
and if we're looking at two then I would say that this this case is definitely not connected to the other three and I
00:40:27
lean more towards what you were saying that the first two seem more likely to be connected if any of them are
00:40:34
connected those first two we don't know about the third one maybe that's maybe that's a robbery maybe that's somebody
00:40:41
that she knew and Barbie's case maybe it's two individuals and if that's the case
00:40:45
then but it's like couldn't they come out and tell us that are we looking for one person or two do you want to hear a
00:40:53
theory this is this is an interesting Theory I want to pass along the theory that Barbara's family told us yes right
00:41:03
her sister Donna says Barbie's family does not believe that her case is related to the other three
00:41:10
murders according to Donna word on the street after Barbie's brutal slaying was that her sort of boyfriend Jerry may
00:41:18
have been responsible this along with two other men who were brothers Donna believes that Barbie got
00:41:27
into a car with these guys that night and they drove around drinking maybe doing drugs and then something went very
00:41:36
wrong I'm not I want to be clear we obviously know Barbie's death was not an accident at all so nothing wrong like
00:41:44
that something occurred and one two or all three of these men were involved in the murder of Barbara blatnik now Donna
00:41:54
says that Barbie there would be involved in her rape as well one two or three of
00:41:59
them yes according according to this rumor according to word on the street and according to the theory that the
00:42:06
family seems to believe now Donna made sure to point out that Barbie was a tough cookie she
00:42:16
was a fighter she had been in several physical fights in the past there are people that knew Barbara who have
00:42:24
pointed out that if may have taken multiple men to to overcome her so this is where this thought gets in theory
00:42:34
gets some legs here from people that knew Barbara now Donna also heard a rumor that a car matching the
00:42:41
description of Jerry's car was seen that night in the Blossom Music Center area we do know that police searched
00:42:49
Jerry's home at one point in the investigation they didn't find anything now just a few years ago a local man
00:42:57
named George was drunk in an area bar and recounted a story to a friend of barbes named
00:43:06
Kelly this drunk guy George said that on the night of Barbie's death Jerry and the two brothers that we had mentioned
00:43:14
came to him for help they wanted help cleaning out their car with bleach and they wanted him to help them wash their
00:43:23
clothes mhm when he asked why they need his help what is this mess what the hell's going on they say one of them
00:43:31
tells him we just killed Barbie blatnik so this Jesus this woman Kelly relayed this story that she hears from
00:43:41
this drunk guy George one night to Barbie's best friend Gina remember the one who decided not to go out that night
00:43:49
the one with the new boyfriend Gina takes this information and pass this along to a detective
00:43:56
according to Gina her thoughts on this scenario was that the detective did not seem overly interested in this
00:44:05
information but that's hard to say if there is any truth to this story and George is not a lying drunk
00:44:15
then it's unlikely that the blatnik they may never see closure because here's some problems with the
00:44:22
current state of this case yeah I hesitated there for a second captain I was going to say
00:44:30
current state of the investigation I'm I really feel like in this case there's no
00:44:36
investigating currently going on but anyway if if in fact this is true they may never see closure because Jerry and
00:44:45
one of the brothers named by this George guy both of them are deceased by now right and even if there is DNA that
00:44:55
remains in Barbara's case we don't know if it was ever tested against Jerry or the brothers and now it it could be too
00:45:03
late to test you know it's it's too late to test these two men no it's not too late dig up their bones well the other
00:45:11
thing too is that it it's always possible that one of them could have killed her but not left their
00:45:18
DNA I don't want to go down that road too far because I'm not very comfortable with with some of the things that we
00:45:26
think that happened that occurred during the attack of Barbara right but but what
00:45:32
I'm getting at here is there's a chance that more than one person was involved maybe even as many as three if we're
00:45:39
going to believe this rumor or this Theory or or thought that that one of the perpetrators didn't leave behind any
00:45:48
evidence well yeah let's hold our horses for a second too on the idea that that maybe that law enforcement didn't care
00:45:55
because cuz what I've noticed or what I've come to find The more I've hung out with local detectives in an our in our
00:46:02
area when they talk about cases there's a lot of cases that they believe they know what happened they just can't prove
00:46:11
it and so if you have your coroner telling you I think there's multiple people involved in the rape which would
00:46:18
be mean that there's multiple people in the murder multiple people in the cover up and The Dumping of the
00:46:24
body and now maybe not law enforcement and uh kyoga but law enforcement in the you know in the area
00:46:37
uh that Barbie grew up in they probably heard these Rumblings of these rumors and you might have a a bunch of
00:46:46
circumstantial evidence but like you said we have two people dead so it's not like you can start rounding them up and
00:46:54
turning them against each other so it could be one of those situations where they've heard these Rumblings
00:47:01
maybe that's why they didn't seem so interested you know like cuz they're but it's
00:47:07
like and I don't even know what you do as a detective what do you do if you go I this is what I think happened but I
00:47:13
can't prove it well but on top of that and I wanted to make sure that we came across we well I want to make sure that
00:47:20
we're clear on this right when we state that we're saying that Gina says when when I passed this information along I
00:47:28
didn't feel that the detective found it very interesting right now I don't know Gina I've never spoken to Gina so I
00:47:36
don't know exactly how this went down or what gave her those thoughts and feelings but a detective isn't going to
00:47:42
jump out of his chair and go oh I got a live one here you know city they're going to take in the information and and
00:47:50
take a look at it but there are times when they take the information and don't look at it I
00:48:00
mean we're not going to sit here and pretend that that never happens yeah I actually got a hear a really cool
00:48:05
interview on of a pretty high-profile case I can't tell you what the case is but it was um people that were
00:48:12
presenting information to law enforcement and the reason why they presented this to me was for me to hear
00:48:20
the law enforcement's reactions and some of the stuff they would drop these B shells stuff I've never heard about
00:48:27
these this big case and I'm I'm going oh my God I can't believe what I'm hearing and the
00:48:34
detective is stone-faced you know yeah what else you got well throughout the interview you
00:48:41
start realizing that big bombshell that they're dropping on him he's already heard he's already been working on
00:48:47
somebody else told him or they've already worked it or they know that it's a dead end right uh that there was a
00:48:53
couple other things again bring up a couple things that I thought were Bombshells didn't seem that interested
00:49:00
the longer they talked you start realizing uh he you know actually showed his hand on a couple things saying you
00:49:06
know that one thing that you brought up I've never heard before that's that's pretty interesting mhm he just didn't do
00:49:13
it so at the time and I and that could mean nothing but I think um it just seems like one of the again I
00:49:23
I hate to you know keep beating this drum but it seems like there's some information that maybe law enforcement
00:49:30
can give us that would help and and and or somebody could come forward and say I
00:49:35
saw these three guys that night or this drunk guy George somebody else could come forward mhm if they told drunk ride
00:49:43
George if they were dumb enough to go to a a fourth party if there's three individuals involved and say can you
00:49:51
help us clean our car which seems it that seems like uh that's why it sounds like a drunk [ __ ] story right at
00:49:58
first when I go through that I'm like I'm I want to toss it out and say no doesn't seem right to me
00:50:04
but if maybe in a panic they go we have no ability to wash our clothes you know what I mean if if whatever they're
00:50:14
trying to achieve they young and and dumb enough right if whatever they're trying to achieve they have no ability
00:50:20
at that time to do that they may have reached out to somebody that they thought wouldn't tell
00:50:26
anybody yeah and again this is years later so or somebody that would help them and then in trade you go well he
00:50:34
can't tell anybody now he helped us right or or he he likely would less be less likely to tell someone or he was on
00:50:41
drugs or he's such drunk that I also don't want this to to deter anybody from going to police or any type of law
00:50:50
enforcement agency with information I'm a big if you see something say something
00:50:57
and if it's even if it's something that you don't know if it has any importance to a case at
00:51:02
all let let somebody know let the experts decide if it has any importance to the case all yeah let's be very clear
00:51:10
let's start with the idea if you know something go to police right because I feel like in Barbara's case here that's
00:51:17
what we're missing there's somebody that night I have a my gut tells me that this
00:51:23
is less likely to be connected to the first two murders in this series I feel like there's too many moving parts and
00:51:32
pieces where she could have just went with somebody she knew we have her family saying she would have went in a
00:51:38
car with people she knew she would have accepted a ride with somebody she knew there's the bike shop there's her other
00:51:44
friend's house there's her boyfriend's house whatever type of relationship they were having and she knows all these
00:51:51
people in this area this area we're talking is about one mile from her her home yeah I wish we knew who gave Jerry
00:52:00
The Alibi because if one of those individuals is somebody that is a part of one of these rumors could be the two
00:52:06
brothers right then it you know and then of course that makes a great Alibi too because you got two people saying well
00:52:12
he was actually with us so a big deal but uh by the way he was with us while we were killing this poor girl so but I
00:52:21
think sometimes with there when there's smoke there's fire and there seems to be
00:52:25
some details about this you know one some piece of of possible evidence that points to more than one person and then
00:52:34
you have a story that's pointing to more than one person when there's smoke there's sometimes fire yeah I mean you
00:52:41
have just the simple fact of all right I like a nice drunk person as much as the
00:52:47
next guy let's pretend that drunk George is telling the truth well now we have two stories linking Barbara to to Jerry
00:52:56
we have her friend Michelle saying not only did she tell me to drop her off in this area she was getting dropped off in
00:53:04
this area because she said she was going to Jerry's or that she was going to meet
00:53:08
up with Jerry right then some time frame goes by and now poof Jerry and two brothers show up talking to George and
00:53:17
they need help getting their car cleaned up and their clothes cleaned up right which would makees sense that the murder
00:53:24
took place somewhere maybe even in the car or that blood happened during the transportation of of the body yeah I'm
00:53:32
not going to lie I will never say 100% that I trust this George's story but the interesting thing is the missing time
00:53:41
frame involved all seems to ends with Jerry and then picks up and starts again with
00:53:49
[Music] Jerry [Music] for more information on this case you can check out the justice for Barbara
00:54:03
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00:54:11
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00:54:37
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