00:00:00
this ad is about AT&T's deal on the new iPhone 15 Pro and it's real guaranteed that's not always the case with other
00:00:06
ads the view of a lifetime only with a pricey upgrade breathe in to find inner peace then pay extra to remove the ads
00:00:14
at AT&T we mean what we say learn how to get iPhone 15 Pro with Titanium on us with eligible tradein guaranteed
00:00:21
connecting changes everything AT&T c.com Ione for details about the guarantee trade in promo for new and
00:00:27
existing customers available for limited time terms and restrictions app when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley
00:00:33
has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special financing options available you can
00:00:39
snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of better sleep to children in need and US
00:00:47
Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today and make every snooze count financing is
00:00:57
subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for [Music] [Applause] details [Music]
00:01:43
welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
00:01:49
with me as always is a man who kind of likes the Opera crowd it makes them feel tough here is the captain
00:01:56
[Music] Asia it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks
00:02:02
for telling a [Music] friend this week in the garage we are very excited to be featuring roaring
00:02:13
Silence from the good people at Jackie O's and beautiful Athens Ohio roaring silence is a hazy double India Pale Ale
00:02:21
featuring cashmere hops paired with Citra Centennial cryo and sabro ABV 9% garage grade four and a half bottle caps
00:02:32
the Brewers and workers over Jacko are incredible and you know who else is good people it's our friends right here first
00:02:39
up a big cheers to Tracy in Fargo North Dakota do you know what roaring silence sounds
00:02:46
like there you go and a big shout out to Julie and Reynolds North Dakota next up
00:02:53
a shout to Lisa G all the way in linkoping Sweden and a big we like your jib to Catherine in Lexington South
00:03:00
Carolina here's a big shout out to Dr Gonzo and Rosland Dale Massachusetts and last but certainly not least we have
00:03:09
Glenn and Nicole and Clem Falls Oregon everyone we just mentioned went to True Crim garage.com and contributed to this
00:03:17
week's beer fund and for that we thank you yeah shout out to Gonzo that makes me miss our Gonzo Nick and Emma from
00:03:25
Australia so cheers to them mates and some exciting news starting February 14th our gift to you you could be our
00:03:34
Valentine's all of our episodes will be available everywhere on Apple podcast Spotify wherever you listen to your
00:03:43
podcast you can find all of our episodes there starting February 14th and that is enough of the business
00:03:51
all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
00:04:03
[Music] the last confirmed sighting of 12-year-old Tina Marie Harmon of record was at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday October
00:04:32
29th 1981 sources have Tina seen walking along Main Street in downtown Creston Ohio 5 days later her body was
00:04:41
discovered in a remote location in Stark County approximately 45 M away this was
00:04:48
the first indication to the public that the demons had come out arrests were made and two men were convicted but
00:04:56
mistakes were made and the convictions were over returned the men were set free and Tina killer was still hiding in the
00:05:04
shadows less than one year later on July 17th 1982 on a stormy Saturday afternoon
00:05:11
11-year-old Christa Harrison was snatched up from a park across the street from her home reports state that
00:05:19
two juveniles witnessed the abduction just 6 days later in a decrepit old garage her remains were spotted by
00:05:26
Turtle Trappers as they marched through the fields of home County significant physical evidence was located at the
00:05:33
body disposal site detectives struggled to turn this evidence into solid leads were the two cases
00:05:42
linked then 65 days later and just over 100 miles to the South another child goes missing 8-year-old kellyanne procer
00:05:53
vanished from the bustling streets of the north side of the capital city of Columbus she failed to return to her
00:05:59
mother after leaving school to walk home that Autumn afternoon in late September
00:06:04
police searched the area high and low but there was no sign of the little girl no clue as to her whereabouts
00:06:11
unfortunately Kelly would soon be found but the outcome was what everyone had feared her lifeless body was found in a
00:06:19
peak height cornfield 10 rows back the only obvious conclusion was that the spot that Kelly was found was far far
00:06:27
from where she was picked up the spot seemed terribly random or perhaps as the detectives question familiar to the
00:06:35
killer but without question Kelly ander's murder case was hauntingly familiar investigators in multiple
00:06:43
counties were searching for a link for a connection for any clue at all as unsolved child homicide Case Files
00:06:52
stacked up on desk none could deal with the level of this tragedy no one could explain just what what was happening the
00:07:00
community feared the worst and the people wanted to know who was killing our girls this is true crime
00:07:09
[Music] Garage in 1982 Kelly Anne prer was 8 years old she was a very outgoing happy
00:07:31
chatty little girl who loved to dance with her sister and go to the pool and make arts and crafts she was in third
00:07:38
grade at Indianola Elementary Kelly's mother Linda worked at OSU not far away Linda recently got remarried to a man
00:07:47
named Larry Garner and according to Kelly's teacher Barbara Cleveland Kelly was excited about her new stepfather
00:07:55
Kelly's 11-year-old brother Keith was in Middle School and her sister Christina was 14 years old on Monday September
00:08:05
20th this was just about 2 weeks into a new school year in the previous school years Kelly was accustomed to walking to
00:08:13
school with her brother but now he is in middle school so he's going to a different School 8-year-old Kelly was
00:08:21
insistent that she get to walk to school on her own her school was on East 16th Avenue right on the edge of the OSU
00:08:30
campus in the University District surrounded by sorority houses and Residences this was not an isolated area
00:08:38
that we hear so much about in these types of abduction cases it was a densely populated safe City neighborhood
00:08:47
Kelly and her mom Linda planned out the 15 block route that Kelly would take to and from school yeah for the most part
00:08:56
the OSU campus is a safe place but it's surrounded by areas that are high in crime rate she would walk along High
00:09:03
Street this was a commercial area with storefronts we have OSU students out and about and public businesses on this
00:09:12
Monday in late September Kelly's teacher Mrs Cleveland said that Kelly helped out
00:09:17
by watering the plants in the classroom she seemed totally normal and happy at the end of the school day she set out to
00:09:24
walk home a friend posted on webu that she was supposed to walk with Kelly that day but she got delayed for some reason
00:09:33
Linda her mother said that there was no formal arrangement for Kelly to be accompanied by a friend friends just
00:09:41
lived in the same area and sometimes they like to walk together it is believed that Kelly took her normal
00:09:48
route home that day because a shopkeeper near 18th Avenue says that she saw Kelly
00:09:55
looking into her store window this according according to the witness was between 3:30 and 400 p.m. which is the
00:10:04
approximate time that Kelly would have been walking by if she stuck to her normal route and timeline the shopkeeper
00:10:11
later related seeing a little girl in a blue rain coat and she did ID Kelly's photo for police according to the
00:10:20
Columbus Dispatch Kelly was last seen at 3:30 p.m. walking westbound on East 16th
00:10:27
Avenue near the corner of East 16th Avenue in North High Street by her third grade classmates Kelly also was seen at
00:10:35
the intersection of Lane Avenue and North High Street walking home that day tough thing about this area is there's
00:10:43
so many residents there and a lot of the students live in old houses so what do old houses need they need maintenance so
00:10:52
you have maintenance workers going in in and out of this area all day long you have deliveries being made to all these
00:10:59
businesses all day long so there could be anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 individuals that go into this area and
00:11:07
go out of this area daily on this day Kelly's mom Linda happened to have a dentist appointment after work so Kelly
00:11:16
was supposed to walk home and should arrive there around 400 p.m. her sister Christina and her new dad Larry would be
00:11:25
home at this time now due to some kind of miscommunication Christina and Larry assumed that Linda the mother was
00:11:33
picking up Kelly and taking her with her to the dentist appointment so Kelly never made it home at 4 p.m. but this
00:11:42
didn't raise any red flags immediately because of this miscommunication right so when Linda gets home after the
00:11:50
appointment she's wondering where Kelly is she thought she was going to be home the people at home thought they would be
00:11:56
she would be at the dentist appointment now we have a problem she never came home that day right so the family jumped
00:12:03
in the car they went to the school and then they drove around following Kelly's Route there was no sign of her Linda
00:12:11
spotted a Columbus PD Patrol wagon and flagged it down and the officers then and there took a report and they started
00:12:19
looking for Kelly the police officers told Linda you should go home and call 911 to report the a missing juvenile so
00:12:29
by 6:02 p.m. Kelly's description was transmitted over the police wire and it was noted that officers were already
00:12:37
looking for her per Linda talking to the patrol vehicle right Linda called All of
00:12:42
Kelly's school friends her teacher and other family members looking for her daughter but Kelly was nowhere to be
00:12:50
found well not only would kumus PD be looking for her but I'm sure they would contact security at Ohio State to let
00:12:58
them know what was going on by 9:00 a.m. the next day the local news was covering
00:13:03
the case they reported that the child was last seen leaving school wearing a blue raincoat jeans and a white and pink
00:13:11
flowered blouse police taking this disappearance seriously from the get-go they set up a command post conducted
00:13:20
area searches scoured the river they tracked down and questioned Kelly's biological father they interviewed
00:13:28
Neighbors friends classmates and acquaintances but there was no sign of Kelly it was as if she had simply
00:13:35
vanished Into Thin Air once the news broadcast the story of the missing 8-year-old tips began to flood in at
00:13:44
8:30 on Tuesday night the 21st A call came in from Lisa Richmond of Plain City this is a 30 minute drive away from
00:13:54
where Kelly was last seen she said that her father an attorney named Charles Richmond was driving to pick up the
00:14:03
family's housekeeper on AW Wilson Road this is out in the sticks in Madison County Charles noted a blue piece of
00:14:13
clothing in the road it was still there on his return Journey with the housekeeper Clara in the vehicle they
00:14:21
stopped to pick up the little blue piece of outerwear after searching this was turned out to be a rainco after after
00:14:28
searching the raincoat for identification they only found a metal bolt in one of the pockets no name or
00:14:36
nothing so they put it on the floor of the vehicle and kind of just forgot about it when Lisa and her mother went
00:14:43
to drive the housekeeper home at the end of the day Lisa saw the raincoat Clara decided to bring it home with her so
00:14:52
that she could give it to maybe a niece or somebody else could use this they dropped her off with the coat and
00:14:59
started on the return journey home now on the way home Captain Mrs Richmond told Lisa the story that she had heard
00:15:06
on the news about the missing little girl from Columbus Ohio Lisa's interest was peaked and she found a newspaper
00:15:13
article about Kelly about the case and there in the description of the little girl's attire was the blue raincoat Lisa
00:15:23
sensed strongly that the little blue raincoat that they found on the country road may have belonged to the missing
00:15:30
child so she called police and the cops followed her and her father to the housekeeper's house to get the coat and
00:15:39
then Charles and Clara showed the investigators where they found the raincoat a lot of the listeners would be
00:15:45
familiar with the case or The Disappearance of Brian Schaefer this is only probably a mile away from where
00:15:53
Brian went missing now per The Columbus Dispatch a Columbus Police Homicide Sergeant stated ated that there appeared
00:16:00
to be a couple of smears of Blood on the sleeve of the little blue raincoat the richmans did not notice this Blood until
00:16:10
it was pointed out by police officers officers dedicated to Kelly's case brought the raincoat to Linda she
00:16:19
identified it as Kelly's and told them that her daughter was wearing it on the day that she went missing Linda says
00:16:26
that this was when she knew her daughter was not coming home yeah knowing that the raincoat was a sign that they were
00:16:34
close to Kelly officers started combing the area where the raincoat was found this again is a rural area with aw
00:16:43
Wilson Road running between cornfields and the crops looming High by the time searches commenced it was dark and
00:16:51
police called it at 2 a.m. on the 22nd because it was just too dark it's the middle of the night they resume the next
00:16:58
morning this with dogs a helicopter and foot patrols running grid searches at 1:09 p.m Ohio State Patrol
00:17:08
Trooper Bryant found a child's body several rows back in a cornfield AB budding aw Wilson Road according to the
00:17:17
dispatch the Madison County Sheriff said that Kelly was fully clothed with her shoes socks pants and underwear on there
00:17:25
were no obvious signs of gunshot wound or knife wounds and investigators were not sure how long she had been there
00:17:33
there were no notable footprints around the body or in the cornfield the sheriff
00:17:38
said that tire tracks in a neighboring field appear to be related to farmwork not from a potential suspect
00:17:46
vehicle the spot where Kelly was found was very far away from where she was picked up I mean she's 8 years old this
00:17:55
is a 30 minute drive or so there's no way for her to get there on her own right this location is also quite a
00:18:02
distance from the closest highway exit so this is a remote country road now this road Captain is straight enough and
00:18:12
we've seen this in some other cases this is a straight long road that at night you could see cars
00:18:20
coming for miles from their headlights right someone took the time to drive all the way out there and hi Kelly in the
00:18:29
cornfield 10 rows back so that she was not visible from the road well a couple things there I I would assume that this
00:18:38
individual had to know the area a little bit because then they would know that this Rural Road is going to give them
00:18:43
the opportunity and also because the road gave them the opportunity they were able to go further back we've seen many
00:18:51
cases where they dump the victim right on the the side of the road for anybody to see this this suspect is trying to
00:19:01
cover up the body in some manner yeah putting it several rows back from the street so that it's not easily spotted
00:19:09
not spotted right away the killer wanted some time before the killer wanted some
00:19:16
time to expire before the body was found and when police notified Kelly's family
00:19:22
of her death Kelly's Sister Christina had to be restrained as she ran screaming from their home well also this
00:19:30
suspect would have to know a lot about the area in which she was picked up in it's it's actually a very interesting
00:19:39
location because laye in high if they believe that's where roughly where she got picked up at or I would question
00:19:47
what was her route because if she was staying on on High Street obviously that's heavily populated you could go
00:19:55
down further on Lane and Jump On In Indianola or Indiana Avenue and that would take you back ways and so I wonder
00:20:03
if she got to one of those back roads but again what's interesting here is if you head West North or South there's
00:20:11
going to be opportunities to hit the freeway and and not that far you're not miles from hitting the freeway in any
00:20:19
direction Kelly's mother Linda identified the body as that of her daughter Kelly an prer there was
00:20:27
evidence that the victim was sexually assaulted the coroner ruled the cause of death as lack of oxygen to the brain
00:20:36
caused by strangulation marks around Kelly's neck indicated a rope or piece of fabric was used to strangle her there
00:20:44
was some indication that she had been beaten on the head and of course the case was officially ruled a homicide
00:20:51
Columbus PD would remain in charge of the case now per an October 13th 1982 Columbus Dispatch article Columbus
00:21:02
Police announced that the FBI did not find any fingerprints that would help to identify Kelly's killer as quoted from
00:21:11
the article police said clothing from Kelly's Body and clothing seized from a Northside man suspected in her murder
00:21:20
were sent to the FBI crime lab police were looking for Kelly's fingerprints on the suspect's clothing and the suspect's
00:21:29
fingerprints on Kelly's clothing the FBI used a laser device to try to find fingerprints from both sets of clothes
00:21:38
Columbus Police were told by the FBI that they found no prints on the articles of clothing that were seized
00:21:45
during the investigation the test on Kelly's clothes were inconclusive and the FBI didn't find anything of value
00:21:54
police also said that there was no evidence indic a whether the killer wore gloves
00:22:02
regardless what we see here is a very important word in that statement suspect they already had a suspect very early on
00:22:13
in their investigation they're looking for his Prince specifically on anything related to Kelly and at the dump site
00:22:22
they're looking for her fingerprints on on his clothing that it was believed that he would have been wearing the day
00:22:28
that she went missing or possibly they have a if they have a potential suspect the suspect has a vehicle I'm sure they
00:22:36
can impound the vehicle and look for fingerprints there as well so if we don't have a situation we don't have a
00:22:43
situation where anybody saw this girl get abducted and that's where we're kind of left with this mystery we have the
00:22:51
last sighting of her okay it's at this location we know that she probably was picked up or abducted some where between
00:22:59
that location and her home that's as best as we can come up with because there's no other witnesses that spotted
00:23:06
her at any other point there's nobody coming forward saying I saw a little girl screaming as she was pulled into a
00:23:12
vehicle right but that's where I was saying her last known whereabouts were laying in high well that's heavily
00:23:18
populated but it's coming towards the end of the Ohio State campus it's coming towards the end of the the most heavily
00:23:27
populated area of her travels so the most sense to me based off of where she lives is that she'd be heading I I
00:23:36
believe it' be heading East on lane and then she'd go north on Indianola but once you get to Indianola we're talking
00:23:45
about you know oneth the people you know maybe 12th of the people I mean there it's such a less populated Road compared
00:23:55
to High Street but if the Killer's cunning enough it doesn't have to take place where nobody saw or nobody could
00:24:02
see anything right I mean he simply could have asked her to get in his vehicle and she did well and you also
00:24:09
wonder her being an 8-year-old corner corner of Lane in high at that time would have been at least a
00:24:16
gas station or a convenience store did he have some ruse to get her in the car at the at the gas
00:24:24
station you know I again I would guess that she went went to a less heavily populated area and that's where he made
00:24:32
his [Music] move this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
00:24:51
maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even
00:24:57
anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
00:25:03
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
00:25:11
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
00:25:18
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
00:25:24
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
00:25:30
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com Garay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
00:25:39
hp.com garage you can cross your fingers and all your toes during a data center migration you can knock on wood pluck a
00:25:50
dozen fourleaf clovers or look to your lucky stars for a successful office expansion you could hold your breath
00:25:55
shut your eyes and say all the well wishes to help avoid cyber attacks but none of that truly helps you because
00:26:02
next level moments need the next level network with the security reliability and expertise to take your business
00:26:08
further AT&T business the network more businesses are choosing dreaming of overseas Adventures
00:26:17
or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but
00:26:24
Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are GameChanger dive into 25 Languages by learning
00:26:30
intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50%
00:26:39
gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50% all right we're back cheers mates cheers
00:27:06
to everybody out there let's talk about this suspect because very early on in this investigation they are already
00:27:13
talking about a suspect why do we have a suspect when we don't have any witnesses
00:27:19
that say that they saw this man with Kelly so this viable suspect was immediately
00:27:25
identified and tips were pouring in about this guy early on in the investigation this was because this
00:27:33
suspect had sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl on Sunday September 19th this is one day before Kelly was
00:27:44
taken wow so this assault it's it's been described as a molestation as a sexual assault this was the day before she was
00:27:53
taken before Kelly was taken this took place in the Park of Roses on the north side of Columbus so in the area the
00:28:00
immediate area the victim was in the park on a picnic with the offender and with his
00:28:08
grandchildren and consequently there was a warrant out for the arrest of this is
00:28:14
the suspect Walter Mitchell Jr age 63 and the charges were of gross sexual imposition for this attack so he's a
00:28:26
creepy old dirt bag Walter conveniently left for West Virginia and the cops were
00:28:33
yet to catch up to him so there are even more reasons than just that to think that old Walter might have
00:28:42
killed Kelly other than just proximity and time and location of the two cases in their search in law enforcement
00:28:51
search for the little girl officers took canines out to Canvas Kelly's neighbor neighborhood this obviously before they
00:29:00
found her body shortly after she goes missing we want to see if we can retrace her steps to see where she may have been
00:29:08
picked up or Where She Went you're still hoping for the best when she's still missing so they take the canines out the
00:29:15
canvas Kelly's neighborhood and the dogs they went right to Mitchell's home they're alerting them on Mitchell's home
00:29:24
right according to the fifth floor the dogs even triy to get into the back gate of his house from my understanding
00:29:34
Captain this is information that came out years later the police obviously knew this information but it was nothing
00:29:41
that they released share this with the public they didn't share it with the public I think in part because one they
00:29:50
had a good suspect they believed and two you don't want somebody in the public doing something to this guy you you have
00:29:57
to figure out if in fact he is actually guilty of Kelly's abduction and murder yeah you don't want to have a scene
00:30:04
where they go out into the streets and try to take him down like Frankenstein so but they have this
00:30:10
individual said he's 60 Three 63 years old they have Kines hitting on this unit and this is from her scent this these
00:30:21
these aren't cadaver dogs no they're trying to retrace her steps they're trying to figure out you know she's just
00:30:28
missing when they're when they're doing this can9 search of her neighborhood so you're hoping it's a little kid maybe
00:30:34
she got lost maybe she crawled into something maybe she got injured and couldn't finish the the walk home you're
00:30:41
hoping for all of those kind of things while you're searching for this girl these dogs they go straight to this
00:30:47
dude's home they try to get into his back gate and at the same time police are very quickly going well uh who lives
00:30:57
here oh this guy that we have a warrant out for his arrest for molesting a girl the day before Kelly went missing yeah
00:31:05
we still got to pick up this dude we're still looking for this creep then a report came in from two police officers
00:31:12
that said that they had seen a man matching the suspect's description Mitchell's description holding hands
00:31:19
with a little girl who the officer said look like Kelly this was near North High
00:31:25
Street on Monday night these officers even picked Mitchell out of a photo lineup and police believe that the girl
00:31:33
who was an alleged victim of Walter Mitchell the day before that she was in fact a friend of Kelly's so everything's
00:31:42
getting to be really tied together right now yeah there's a connection there so this is just too big of a coincidence
00:31:50
right a child molester who lived near Kelly prayed on one of her friends the day before
00:31:57
now Kelly vanishes she's found murdered and the dogs track Kelly near this man's
00:32:04
home well on the connection really is like you said this guy has grandkids so you're assuming that these grandkids are
00:32:10
similar Age and and that's kind of his Gateway in if you were walking and you saw your your friend's parents or your
00:32:20
friend's grandparents and they said hey uh let me let me help you get home you're more inclined to go okay I I know
00:32:29
who you are you're you're so and so's Grandpa investigators were pretty confident that Mitchell knew all about
00:32:37
what had happened to Kelly prer so they go to speak to Mitchell's wife and what she had to say or didn't have to say
00:32:45
convinced them even further that this in fact was their guy let's just hold up a
00:32:50
second so this this old dirt bag creep douche pilot he's married mhm that's okay all the good ones are right when
00:33:02
they interview his wife this is when they learned that Mitchell apparently left for West
00:33:08
Virginia he had family there and quite suddenly he had to leave for West Virginia all of a sudden because he says
00:33:17
to her that there was an illness in his family but his wife yeah it's called molesting kids she tells police you know
00:33:25
I'm not sure who was sick or even exactly where the husband was you know she's not saying he went to this
00:33:33
person's house in this city in West Virginia she's saying he went to West Virginia and that's about all that I
00:33:40
know so the cops determined that Mitchell was at work on Monday this is the day that Kelly was taken and
00:33:49
Mitchell was there or they could place him at his work at least until 3:25 p.m. he he left work early this is agitated
00:34:00
after getting two phone calls and he did not show up for work the next day so this is really looking like they've
00:34:08
found the right guy here the timeline fits but hold on so but barely is what we need to point out here okay so we
00:34:16
know that he goes to work but we know that we know that he sexually assaulted a victim on Sunday mhm so the
00:34:26
calls that he's getting are probably somebody letting him know that he's going to be charged with this crime is
00:34:34
what I'm guessing right or police saying that they wanted to question him I don't
00:34:39
know what these calls were exactly but if you want to lay out a very brief timeline for this Mitchell character
00:34:48
it's allegedly he assaults this girl in the park on Sunday goes to work on Monday he receives two calls two phone
00:34:56
calls calls and whatever these calls are they're enough to make him visibly upset
00:35:03
to his co-workers who say hey he left a little early cuz he was angry about something right he left at
00:35:09
3:25 and then his wife is saying okay well he uh not only did he leave work a little early that day he didn't go into
00:35:16
work the next day he also all of a sudden had to go out to West Virginia because there's an illness in his family
00:35:24
right so this looks really really bad or Mitchell to the cops this guy was Prime
00:35:30
Suspect number one the one thing I do want to point out here though you know we do have some
00:35:37
time that goes by before Kelly's Body is found and so it's not impossible but just for people trying to picture what's
00:35:46
going on Columbus is in the center of Ohio and if he were heading to West Virginia he would actually be heading
00:35:55
east and her body was found west of Columbus opposite direction of where he said he would be going right but we
00:36:05
don't have to believe everything he says Mitchell's daughter told the police that
00:36:10
her father had been with her until about 5:30 p.m. on the day that Kelly vanished
00:36:18
and again we know that Mitchell left work at 3:25 Kelly was last seen between 3:30
00:36:24
and 400 p.m. so he's got an alibi it's just a a pretty weak one if you ask me right police got a search warrant for
00:36:33
Mitchell's home and for his vehicle they found no evidence of Kelly having been at either the home or in the vehicle at
00:36:42
any time Mitchell returned to Columbus this was on Thursday and when he returned to Columbus he turned himself
00:36:50
into to police he told police that his wife called him at work on Monday to tell him that a
00:36:57
card was left by police on their door saying they wanted to talk to him about the complaint from the day before right
00:37:05
now we know what at least one of the calls were and it was related to police activity and to his activity the day
00:37:13
before uh this said that of course they wanted to speak with him about the girl accusing him of molesting her so in the
00:37:22
light of this news Mitchell I guess decides to leave town he told his wife that due to Prior arrest he could not be
00:37:30
caught with a juvenile so he went to West Virginia and he says he was going to just kind of wait it out Mitchell
00:37:39
told the cops that he never touched the 11-year-old girl in the picnic or I'm sorry at the picnic in the park right
00:37:47
and he went on to tell investigators that he had never seen Kelly Anne prer before he didn't know who she was never
00:37:55
knew who she was until she was missing and seeing her picture in the paper and being told he's a suspect in the case
00:38:03
right detectives of course looked hard at Mitchell his attorney William Abram swore up and down that his client was
00:38:11
innocent he told the Columbus citizen Journal that quote I can and I will verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that
00:38:20
my client was nowhere near Columbus when the terrible incident occurred I can say
00:38:26
this is one of the few times in my career that I have a man as a client who is totally innocent end quote well again
00:38:35
you have a 8-year-old girl going missing so the first person that you put on your
00:38:41
radar if your police or are known sex offenders in that area but you you're not saying that he was a known sex
00:38:49
offender but he did have this claim against him the day before correct but we also have the dogs going going to his
00:38:57
house I mean there's there's good reason to look at this guy and then he magically decides to go to West Virginia
00:39:05
so he he looks guilty yeah as investigators looked into Mitchell more and more though their case against him
00:39:12
started to fall apart while his supervisor confirmed that he left work left his job that day at 3:25 p.m. his
00:39:21
wife said that she was with him from the time that he returned home from work until he dropped her off at JC Penney
00:39:29
catalog Distribution Center on Scarboro Boulevard and I70 on the far East side of Columbus so this this makes a little
00:39:40
more sense here because what she is telling police is he came home he came directly home I was with him until I had
00:39:48
to go to work he drove me to my work dropped me off we're assuming I'm assuming that's in his vehicle yeah I
00:39:55
I'm I'm assuming that they may only have one vehicle between the two of them now
00:40:02
he's going to drive east he has to drive her this is far east from Columbus right
00:40:07
to her work so this makes sense that he would drop her off at her work and he's practically on Interstate 70 at this
00:40:15
point he would just continue on keep going east and go straight to West Virginia yeah he's a good 30 40 minutes
00:40:22
into that trip so I mean so now police are looking at it okay we have this guy kind of lines up that he could be
00:40:30
somebody that would be involved we have the dogs going to his house but now we have his wife which she could be a
00:40:35
scumbag too but you got to be a whole another level of scumbag to cover up a a child's murder and we have no evidence
00:40:45
of her seeing the victim we have no evidence she doesn't see any child alive or dead
00:40:54
and like you said where she she's located where the victim's located is 30 40 minutes from that spot but from where
00:41:03
he's taking his wife it's an hour or so away yeah from the dump site to where her work would be right yeah and so what
00:41:12
we have here Captain is you nailed it because if this dude did this if Mitchell is guilty of the abduction and
00:41:21
murder then it seems like when you put all these pieces together that that means that his wife had to have been
00:41:29
involved in some form or fashion because his window of opportunity or time that he's available to commit any part of
00:41:37
this crime gets very small and you can really I there's no getting around it you you know what time he left work you
00:41:47
have credible Witnesses telling you he left at 325 now you have a whole bunch of people that JC Penny catalog
00:41:56
Distribution Center that's a big place of business back then there had to have been a ton of employees working you have
00:42:04
her arriving at work roughly around 5:30 p.m. that night so you got a bunch of credible Witnesses stating that there's
00:42:12
no way getting around that that leaves for a very small window of time now you go okay well what about his whereabouts
00:42:20
and is he accounted for after he drops off his wife because then he has for the entirety of her shift in fact he doesn't
00:42:27
come back to Columbus until Thursday so you have to question his whereabouts then but this is this is why we see the
00:42:35
case against this guy starting to fall apart because the timeline it just doesn't track it doesn't Trace that that
00:42:43
he had a lot of availability to do any of this because Mitchell made a collect call to his wife who was at home right
00:42:53
about 7:41 p.m. on that night so this is an easily trackable call you can verify
00:43:02
if this call came in or not because it was called collect right you know somebody's got to pay this bill uh so
00:43:09
that call came in from Mineral Wells West Virginia so yeah the phone rings ring ring ring ring and you pick up and
00:43:17
it says you have a collect call from the prick sniffer do you accept the collect
00:43:23
call and then you say yes and then and that's how we have the evidence that he was or at least somebody from that area
00:43:31
called her but they also normally have you state your name or they used to so you'd say uh you have a collect call
00:43:40
from the captain or it would be my voice saying the captain he also Mitchell said
00:43:46
that he also made calls from Charleston West Virginia later that same evening so
00:43:51
police were able to find people who saw Walter Mitch in West Virginia on that Monday evening these calls are starting
00:44:00
to make it look like he was where he says he was and we have witnesses saying that they saw him in these locations in
00:44:07
West Virginia as well further Mitchell potential Mitchell sighting with Kelly sighting by the two police officers this
00:44:17
was proven to be mistaken identity it was learned that the man that police saw was not Mitchell and the
00:44:26
girl that police saw was not Kelly it wasn't Kelly was some other guy it was neither Mitchell nor Kelly that was seen
00:44:34
by the uh police Witnesses what we have here is a guy came forward and said I think that police saw me and that makes
00:44:44
sense because I was in the area with my daughter at that time right and then police look at the daughter and this guy
00:44:52
and they're like oh yeah that those are the people that we we saw but two things
00:44:55
about about this case so far one the pressure you would feel being this guy's employer right and
00:45:05
so when when the cops come to talk to you it's like you want to help them but obviously you want to tell them the
00:45:11
truth but you're also thinking in the back of your head man if this guy did this this guy's an animal right and he
00:45:18
needs to be locked up but you you don't want to falsify anything right and then on the on the side of the police you
00:45:28
have this girl going missing 8 years she's 8 years old not only is her parents probably freaking out but the
00:45:37
whole Community because in that area there's a lot of elementary schools and and a lot of them walk to school and
00:45:44
they're walking in crowds of young adults 18 to 24 years old and so the whole Community then goes oh this this
00:45:56
sucks and there's a whole community that is fearful now but as the police officers you're going hey we're doing
00:46:04
some leg work and every step of the way we're getting confirmation that we're looking at the right guy well I I think
00:46:13
you are initially but but as your investigation continues on you're getting confirmation that you're not
00:46:19
looking at the right guy no but what I'm saying is the first few steps you go oh
00:46:23
we're on the right track and then once you you know hit that 10th step you're going
00:46:28
okay wait a second this is now not lining up and just to to be processing that as a as a law enforcement officer
00:46:37
that that would be really frustrating because you would go from this high of we're going to catch this bastard to
00:46:43
this isn't the right bastard well and what you have too Captain is this crime is so similar to the other crimes that
00:46:52
we've already discussed we have an Abduction of a of a young girl in this case we're talking 8-year-old kellyanne
00:47:00
prer the two cases we previously discussed is that of 11 and 12 year old girls now mind you this is 100 miles to
00:47:09
the south of where the first two abductions and murders took place but you have similar
00:47:15
victimology you have similar set of circumstances where it appears that the child was abducted off the streets the
00:47:23
body is not found for a few days later and the body is found a considerable distance away from where the little girl
00:47:32
was last seen yeah so that's similar in all three of these cases the only thing that's different in this case is that
00:47:40
they immediately had a suspect somebody that they was looking at of course as we
00:47:46
discussed the the case against him starts to fall apart but in review of Mitchell's criminal record he did have
00:47:54
some convictions he had had a convict he was convicted of breaking and entering but this was 30 years earlier remember
00:48:02
this is 63y old man that we're talking about at the time he did have five intoxication related arrests
00:48:10
but in his defense he had zero violent crimes on his record and as we stated with the searches of his vehicle and his
00:48:21
home and his clothing there was simply no tangible evidence no physical evidence linking
00:48:30
Mitchell to the abduction and murder well no other claims against him as far as uh child molestation or or sexual
00:48:38
assault uh Mitchell was eventually found guilty of the molestation charges and for that he received a sentence of 10
00:48:47
years again back to being in law enforcement shoes yes this crime is happening 10 and some miles away but we
00:48:56
have an individual that just fled to another state so so that gives you more probable cause to go oh we're
00:49:04
looking at the right individual because if these crimes are connected we have a traveler yes and like you said a 100
00:49:12
miles that that ain't no joke you know uh I used to have to travel every weekend for my job I know you've done a
00:49:19
lot of traveling for your past jobs 10 and some miles is is no joke well but the thing is here we have a situation
00:49:28
where in the first two cases we're talking about well heck in the second case alone it 45 to 50 miles between
00:49:37
abduction site and the body disposal site so like you pointed out we have a traveler and there is reason to believe
00:49:45
that there's a potential for these cases to be linked one because of victimology
00:49:49
is the same circumstances are very similar and these crimes in themselves are rare crimes yeah and it just so
00:49:59
happens that we have three of them that take place in a short amount of time in roughly the same area now given that's
00:50:07
the state of Ohio the top half of the state of Ohio but when you compare how rare these crimes are it's not that
00:50:16
far-fetched to think that we have a traveler we have a Serial offender here that's hunting and and abducting girls
00:50:24
off of the street and killing them yeah and like you said wherever he picks them
00:50:29
up at that you're going to find them a distance away it's um again as far as where where are the heads of the
00:50:37
detectives you're you almost uh hope that they're not connected you know what I mean um
00:50:46
because this this individual becomes way more dangerous and maybe harder to track
00:50:53
down well that's true I mean I mean you hope that they're not connected but then
00:50:58
at at the same time you're left going okay what's scarier we have a Serial child killer or we have hunting the area
00:51:08
or we have three child Killers right that are out there on the loose undetected for everything True Crime Check out True
00:51:30
Crime garage.com while you're there sign up on the mailing list the ones that have
00:51:35
signed up on the mailing list you guys got a promo code last night so check your inboxes and until tomorrow be good
00:51:43
be kind and don't [Music] litter [Music] Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why
00:52:25
thought it was an Eco move few your worse less paper no it was so you could say it faster no it's to be more iconic
00:52:33
must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare upfront prices book a service
00:52:39
instantly and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than
00:52:45
just a list get started at angie.com that's a nggi or download the app today