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