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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that knows that April
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showers bring May flowers and May Flowers bring pilgrims here is the cat but you don't want to have an April
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Shower in your pants it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] today here in the garage fridge we still have some swinging Brews left right
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there on the top shelf swinging is an 8.5 ABV pineapple upside down cake Imperial
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Shandy that will make you sweet enough to take home it's Rich warm and filled with sugar and spice this Shandy might
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just be your dream come true garage grade 4 out of five bottle caps and here's some of our dreams come true
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filled by our good friends first up a shout out to Steve bombarder in Montreal Quebec Canada and a big we like to jib
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to Susan from Calvert County Maryland and last but certainly not least Captain we have a shout out that goes to Liz
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from Plymouth Massachusetts America's Hometown everyone we just mentioned they went to our website they helped us fill
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up the fridge for this week's show and for that we thank you yeah bwrun beer run if you haven't picked up next first
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book you need to do so check out True Crime garage.com for all the details and you can order that on Amazon or wherever
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you like to get your books it's also available on Audible that's enough of the business all right
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everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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on April 15 1986 36 year old Linda Moore was home alone while her husband was at work at
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around 2PM that afternoon she was seen in the yard by someone passing by the home
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approximately an hour to an hour and 15 minutes later her husband found her dead
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in their living room in the entrance way between the kitchen and the living room
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the autopsy would tell us that she was stabbed more than two dozen times it's believed that 25 times approximately is
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how many blade bladed weapon injuries she suffered evidence at the scene indicated that she
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was engaged in a very violent struggle with her assailant and to go further against her husbands to even more in the
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suspicion that was kind of piling on him in the early hours into the investigation was that police could find
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no signs of forced entry into the home or that nothing was stolen from the home there was no ransacking that took place
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within the house itself initially detectives thought that the Linda Moore case would be solved
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relatively quickly that was 1986. here we sit in the garage Captain 2023 and this case is still not been
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solved and one of the things that you brought up or or multiple things that you brought up on yesterday's episode
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was the actions of the husband seemed a little suspicious to law enforcement but one of the actions I don't think is
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that suspicious is he's at a work site his house isn't that far away a few miles
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he has to get a check to pay this dump truck driver so the dump truck driver can take it back to the landfill to pay
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them but he could simply if he knew that his wife was murdered or if he knew that he
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murdered his wife he could have simply drove back to the house got the checkbook and came back but he brings
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somebody to the scene with him or he could have conveniently sent the driver without going himself
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as well and let the driver discover his wife in the home making it look less suspicious on Stephen Moore because as
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you pointed out and as we all know police are usually suspicious of the person that finds the body they're
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suspicious of the husband and here you have that person as one in the same there were and remained to this day a
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lot of people in that area the local area there that believe that Stephen Moore is and should be the prime suspect in
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his wife's murder in fact there was a rumor that because given his job and the nature of his job
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as somebody that owns a home remodeling business that he would have started of the murder weapon possibly at
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one of his construction sites buried it somewhere somewhere very difficult for the
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authorities to find or wasn't he also putting in a pool correct I don't I could not figure out
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if that was on their property or if it was at another property yeah looking into
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this everybody that I talked to that knew anything about this case said well it's
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most likely that if the husband did it he took he took the murder weapon and he buried it where he was going to build a
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pool but like you said it's very unclear was he going to build the pool on their
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property or was that for a client and a lot of people have said throughout the years that his wife was outside sunning
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uh sunbathing and it when I picture that I immediately think somebody sitting by
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the pool this is Vermont April 15th yes it was a warm sunny day that day but I don't know how warm it
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could have been uh but we do know that she was seen outside sunning I don't know if that involved a pool or not but
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what's key here Captain is that the murder weapon is not found at the scene not found at the Moore household and you
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would think with police being on the scene so quickly that they are actively looking for that knife for that murder
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weapon upon their arrival and when they are going through the scene we know that
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the kids were sent away that day and we know that Stephen stayed behind and sat down at the table at the kitchen
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table with detectives and answered all of their questions again they thought that he was emotionless
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but a lot of people would come forward and tell detectives later that that's just kind of how the guy was wired right
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that he he was not the type to show a lot of emotion he was a very controlled very restraint
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type of person and so this would go along with his personality the other thing that we need to be clear on here
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is regardless of what the rumors say and unfortunately if anyone's wife is ever murdered or girlfriend is killed
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the boyfriend and husband is always going to be rumored to be a suspect even if he's the the best guy in the world
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it's always going to be a rumor plain and simple well and if you're law enforcement I think okay he's he doesn't
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seem all choked up he's not crying about this ah we can note that but that doesn't that doesn't mean anything
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necessarily because we've seen on the other hand where people are calling 9-1-1 they're hysterical they're create
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in a big scene when they're being questioned and they're actually the ones that are responsible for the murder and
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he doesn't lawyer up and he cooperates fully from what I could see with the police in their investigation
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he asked he's asked to take a lie detector test he takes it he passes no signs of deception at all
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in the lie detector test he's asked to take give a blood sample right they take his clothing in as
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evidence the only blood that they find on his clothing belongs to his wife they don't
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find any of his blood or anybody else's blood on his clothing just his wife's blood and he did say that he moved her
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and that he checked for a pulse before calling for the ambulance and we know that he had blood on him because he left
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Blood on the receiver to the phone when he called the ambulance when he was gone
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comes back to his house and then goes to get a sandwich or whatever that goes back to the work site
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nobody's saying that he changed clothes so you start you start tightening this window of
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possibilities of of him being able to even be responsible for this crime well keep
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in mind too he is in full view of the authorities of the detectives within minutes
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not an hour within 30 minutes roughly of finding his wife and they do not notice any cuts on him
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he doesn't look like he's been in any type of struggle we're talking about minimum 25 stab
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wounds or cuts to the victim we've said this a dozen times and we'll say it a dozen more
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given the nature of this attack one would expect the killer to likely have cut himself or
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receive some type of injury during the during the struggle what's crazy is the viciousness of this attack
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and the Blitzkrieg style of the attack so the medical examiner in Vermont would tell us that Linda Moore while she had
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all of these injuries and this was a very vicious attack it was a very rapid and very quick attack
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they believed that the attack only took approximately 45 to 60 Seconds from start to finish wow
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and police were were thrown off by the scene because given the given the nature and the brutality of
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this attack there was not like there wasn't Furniture knocked over there wasn't obvious signs of a struggle
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other than our victim on the floor and I think what happened here Captain is probably from the time that the
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assailant in the victim engaged one another it probably took place right where she
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was found and being told being told by the medical examiner that the attack probably lasted
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a minute or less it's not inconceivable that the attack took place very quickly in this very
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isolated spot in the entryway between the kitchen and the living room and thus because it didn't expand Beyond
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that space in the home that none of these other items were Disturbed Stephen Moore was very Cooperative with
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police and so regardless of what the rooms rumors are here that have lasted all of these years there's a couple
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things that we need to point out and this is when I I would wish and I know that police don't get in the
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habit of clearing anybody publicly right but I feel like this is one of those situations where I see so much more
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evidence to suggest that this guy just didn't do it he did not have enough time to
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arrive home before the dump truck driver kill his wife even though it took place
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very quickly and then discarded the murder weapon all before telling his worker to come in
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calling the ambulance and then calling the police and everybody arriving on scene he just didn't have time to cover
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it all up had he killed her right when he got home that day and the problem go ahead
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and I wonder if this report is accurate or if they're going here we have this full picture if the husband is
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responsible the attack would have had to happen very quickly so we're gonna surmise that it did to keep him as a
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suspect well and keep in mind we know his timeline for that day he's with his workers we know that he talked to his
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wife so and we know that she's seen Alive by other eyewitnesses that don't have a dog
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in the fight at 2 pm at 2 pm he's either on the at the work site or he goes to a local
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store to pick up a quick sandwich Hobbies we got the meats and that happens all before all prior to 2 p.m so
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his only opportunity to attack and kill his wife would be when he arrived home shortly after or right around three
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o'clock that day when his worker pulls in just minutes behind him the other problem with that too is what
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the experts would tell us so the medical examiner is going to tell us that Linda Moore was killed between
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the hours of noon and 3 P.M that afternoon the ambulance driver who arrives on scene
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said to police she has been dead for a minimum of 30 minutes probably more than an hour
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if she had been dead less than 30 minutes I would have transported her in the ambulance to the hospital trying to save
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her life trying to bring her back right he says when he arrives on the scene he quickly
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recognizes and understands that she's been dead for quite some time she's be Beyond
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any opportunity of saving her and now it's a crime scene as you pointed out yesterday the the EMT was very careful
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to not contaminate the crime scene the detective when he arrives he's on scene approximately 30 minutes maybe 25
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minutes after Stephen Moore arrives on scene and he says the same thing it's not his first
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rodeo he assesses the situation and says to himself This Woman's been dead for a
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couple of hours right so you have multiple people telling us and the medical examiner saying that she
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was killed between noon and three well it would appear by what the detective in the EMT is saying that she was killed
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closer to the noon hour than the three o'clock hour and she's seen alive at 2 pm according
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to eyewitnesses or close to 2PM so that in my opinion Captain makes it practically impossible that Stephen
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Moore is the killer so the Moore's house was uh was basically a landmark when it comes
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to this country road and again the town pretty small very small population but this is a town that people pass
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through to get too busier towns so there was a lot of people that saw her out sunbathing that day yes this is Route
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121. it's heavily trafficked and what police did was they set up roadblocks as well as putting out requests for help
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and for information on the news and through the newspapers saying everybody that drove past the Moore's Home anybody
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traveling on 121 on that day April 15 1986 at Tuesday especially in the afternoon call us
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tell us if you saw anything did you see Linda Moore outside did you see any Vehicles parked at the home right things
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of that nature and again they set up roadblocks for on two different occasions for two
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days and ask everybody that they stopped do you typically drive through here were
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you passing through here on April 15th if so did you see anything and what what they end up getting is they get at least
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15 different stories I don't want to say 15 I I Witnesses because I think that some of these statements
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were given and they were multiple eyewitnesses saw the same thing on a couple of the these cases so there were
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15 different things of interest that the police learned from either people calling in and telling them what
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they saw or people they spoke to at the roadblocks well let's dive into these 15
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items that law enforcement found yes because these are going to be 15 different things that were reported by
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different eyewitnesses that you need to check off you need a vet and you need to figure out why
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person a person B person C was in the area spotted in the area on the afternoon that Linda Moore was killed
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and what happens I'll give you the short version of it Captain because there was
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a bunch of reports of oh I saw a car and a man walking he was parked on the street not at the Morehouse but a
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vehicle of this description and a man walking nearby and a person reported uh no vehicle but somebody walking
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more than one person reported somebody with a knapsack which I I wish that we'd get a better description of the
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individual with the knapsack uh it was a man with cheap glasses and a knapsack how would you know that
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the glasses were cheap that's a good question uh reported it reportedly uh that's what the witness
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statements are it's weird too what witnesses will add to a statement right the the necessary information is I saw a
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guy will describe him he was a white male wearing glasses had a backpack or a knapsack but it's weird what witnesses
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will add in clearly somebody added in look like cheap glasses yeah um I'm a glasses connoisseur I could
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spot a good pair of glasses from from a good distance away I mean I would have to take the glasses and put them in my
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mouth and swish them around to know for sure if there are cheap glasses there was also a report of men two men jogging
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in the area now after four days this is key here after four days after the murder of Linda Moore
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police had Tracked Down 13 of the 15 items that they wanted to check off their box the witness statements that
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they needed to vet so 13 of these items they had Tracked Down the person found out who it was that was in
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the area vetted their story and then checked their Alibis and checked their timelines
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for the day and everything checks off so after four days the only two things that they had left that they couldn't
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verify or figure out or confirm who these people were were the two men that were seen jogging in the area
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and the man that was by himself with the glasses and the knapsack well In fairness the guy with the cheap glasses
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didn't want to come forward because he didn't want everybody in town to know that he had cheap glasses what's
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interesting though here Captain is none of this information is public at this time
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four days into it right on day five this is when I think we see a big shift in the public awareness of the
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investigation or something that the public should have picked up on because in the lender more investigation the
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detective is saying to the newspapers on day five unless we catch a big break I'm not so confident that this is going
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to be solved soon right those words should tell us that we've checked out the husband
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we're kind of moving on from that angle at this point even though they've never publicly cleared him right but that's
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what that statement should tell you because the detectives say when they arrive on
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the scene when they interview the husband when they look at the scene the first thing that everything that tells
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them in their experience this is a domestic situation we will be able to arrest somebody rather quickly in this
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investigation because it's likely the husband and here on day five we hear a different story unless we catch a big
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break soon we're not confident that we're going to solve this thing relatively quickly well think about if
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you're law enforcement the husband was off the work site for a time period okay did he change his
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clothes no then the husband's timeline is very tight don't know if he would have had an
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opportunity to do to do so the husband could have sent the dump truck driver back to the house by
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himself or he could have just got the checkbook and came back nobody needs to go to the
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house but he invites him to the house oh the the husband calls his lawyer well it's his business lawyer but also his
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best friend the the husband is being cooperative the husband takes a lie detector the husband
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passes that lie detector so even though maybe some of his actions initially seemed a little strange the
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the further they went down that rabbit hole the more he looks like an innocent person
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the people in the back people in the front to the left and the right and most of all cheers to you colonel
00:29:33
cheers to the people that are up front in Center a written description of this man that
00:29:41
ZZ Top would have described as wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses right these are
00:29:47
actually eyeglasses but a written description of this man was released to the general public about a week or so
00:29:53
after Linda Moore's murder now unfortunately as the case sits as of March of 1987 so
00:30:02
a little less than 11 months later police are releasing a composite sketch of this individual they're not calling
00:30:09
him a suspect they're calling him a person of interest somebody that they would like to talk to a possible witness
00:30:14
that may have information that could help further their investigation and this is coming from the Vermont state
00:30:21
police but the the the general description is rather vague but it tells us that they are looking
00:30:29
for someone that was spotted by several reputable Witnesses in the area of the more home on the day
00:30:39
of the murder in fact uh this person is believed to have been spotted close to what is believed to be the
00:30:49
possible time of death so this newspaper article that comes out in 1987 they cite the time of death
00:30:57
between 12 30 and 3 P.M that afternoon and they're stating that this person was seen in the noon hour so
00:31:08
about 12 40 p.m is one of the statements so early that afternoon near the Moore home the description is a man described
00:31:18
as being a white male five foot eight inches to five foot ten inches tall age 20 to 25 years old again a white
00:31:27
male with dark hair eyeglasses and a dark or blue knapsack remember we had talked about two men
00:31:37
that were seen jogging in the area as well one thing that police quickly figured out and this was on day six or
00:31:44
seven that the two men spotted in the area jogging they were not of immediate concern
00:31:53
because they were spotted in the area in the early morning hours right in the time that they knew Linda Moore was
00:32:01
still alive again it's not again it's one of those details in a case that it's not clear when they say two men are
00:32:09
spotted jogging why are they jogging together or are they separate in this case we know we know they were jogging
00:32:16
together based off of eyewitness reports and what's really cool here in this situation Captain is the eyewitness
00:32:24
reports of the two men jogging were so good that they were actually able to track down these two men so we have all
00:32:31
of this movement and all of these people based off of eyewitness statements that
00:32:37
police need to track down and after four or five days into their investigation they had checked off 13 of 15 boxes the
00:32:45
only two boxes that remained unchecked was the man that we just described with the knapsack and the glasses
00:32:52
and the two joggers several days later they identified the two joggers now the joggers again were
00:33:00
seen around nine o'clock at the latest in the morning we know Linda Moore was still alive at that time so that's not
00:33:06
of great concern the odd thing though is these two men were seen again later that afternoon
00:33:13
this was after Linda Moore was already found so again not of great concern but now you have two people that you know to
00:33:22
be jogging in the area right even though you know that they're seen when she's still alive and then later
00:33:30
seen after she has been killed and found you want to talk to them because what did they see while they were out jogging
00:33:39
if it was somebody that was watching the house how long have they have been watching
00:33:43
the house for the key thing here though is out of all of those eyewitnesses that come forward
00:33:50
what's the number one thing that's missing from this equation no one ever see says that they see
00:33:58
Stephen Moore's vehicle at the home right during the time in question nobody says that they see Stephen Moore
00:34:07
coming in and out of the home during the time in question so they track down these two joggers and
00:34:17
what's interesting to me here Captain is unfortunately one of these joggers had left the area so the joggers turn out to
00:34:24
be two brothers who lived in the area can't trust those Brothers nope and the reason why
00:34:31
they were able to identify the brothers is the one man was wearing a shirt that after they started talking to some
00:34:44
locals law enforcement they figured out that the shirt was some kind of reference to the Navy either a naval
00:34:51
ship or a navy base something of that nature well they tracked down a an individual
00:34:58
that says a relative of mine my young relative he just left for the Navy right he was out with his brother and his
00:35:09
brother tells him the full story that day they would go jogging together on occasion they were out jogging that
00:35:16
morning and then they went out jogging again that afternoon the male in the navy shirt
00:35:23
he had already gone overseas to be stationed at Subic Bay well we've heard that name before sbtc
00:35:34
at the training facility in Subic Bay this individual is of particular interest to me in this case
00:35:42
so this is a young man he was approximately 19 years of age at the time of Linda Moore's murder so it'd be
00:35:50
capable of a vicious attack and an attack to happen very quickly here's why he's of particular interest to me
00:36:00
he does not have a great Alibi for that early afternoon that Linda Moore was killed the brother tells law enforcement
00:36:08
we went out jogging together we came back home all right we went out for a nice long jog had a great time
00:36:15
right my brother wanted to go back out so we went back out on a second jog that morning
00:36:20
I got tired I decided to turn around he continued on the police reach out to this individual
00:36:28
after he's identified and talked to him at the training facility the naval training base
00:36:36
and he backs up some of his brother's story but again his brother can't account for
00:36:42
his brother after he left the Jog and returned home so he tells authorities that after his
00:36:50
brother left him he continued on his jog he went back to his old high school where he visited with some people for a
00:36:56
period of time he went to a friend's house where he stayed for a couple of hours
00:37:03
just relaxing his friend was gone at work for approximately two and a half to three hours
00:37:10
and before his friend came back he decided to leave and he went to his friend's house
00:37:17
another friend's home this was a former teacher of his who happened to live very near Linda
00:37:26
Moore's home and some stories they say across the street I've looked up her home it looks
00:37:31
like it would be impossible for this home to be across the street right but this would be very nearby and this is
00:37:38
after Linda Moore was discovered the friend of this man who Renee who will remain anonymous
00:37:46
says that when he was there she brings up to him there was a murder today across the street
00:37:55
one of my neighbors was killed she's reacting to this news he is going on and on and talking about
00:38:04
well he's getting ready to go overseas how excited he is for to go into the Navy she says the odd thing was that she
00:38:12
could understand he was excited to leave and excited to go into the Navy and go overseas he had never been overseas
00:38:17
before but she's trying to bring up her concern about this murder that just took place
00:38:24
in close proximity to her home she lives by herself right and he doesn't seem to
00:38:29
it seems lost on him he doesn't seem to notice her concern nor want to talk about it with her which is
00:38:37
very odd behavior a little bit so then he leaves for the Navy he's not identified as one of the joggers until
00:38:44
after he's already sent overseas to Subic Bay before he is identified he has a phone call with that same lady
00:38:52
that lives near Linda Moore's home and one of the first thing he says to her on the phone is hey whatever
00:39:00
happened with that murder case that that murder investigation near your home right and so she tells police
00:39:07
she's kind of weirded out because face to face in person the afternoon that it happened he seemed to not care
00:39:14
not give two Winks about it two shits two shits couple days later several shits are given about this piles
00:39:24
of [ __ ] he's very interested in the homicide investigation did they ever catch that guy do they have any leads do
00:39:30
they know who did it what are the police saying so that's a very different reaction than
00:39:37
what he was giving a couple days earlier I'd love to be able to question some of
00:39:42
the other individuals he was claiming to be with during that day when the authorities
00:39:48
talk to his supervisors at the Navy at the training center they tell him that he arrived with very
00:39:56
few belongings as one would when they go into the military but of those belongings he arrives there with a dark
00:40:04
colored knapsack and clothing and glasses that are not terribly unlike the description given by eyewitnesses of the
00:40:13
man that they still never identified so out of 15 boxes to check off now after identifying both of these joggers
00:40:20
they've checked off 14 of 15 but not the 15th box who is this mysterious guy that we give the description of five
00:40:29
foot eight inches to 5 foot 10 inches tall Caucasian male wearing glasses aged 20 to 25 so these Witnesses are spotting
00:40:38
a younger man the man that we're talking about is 19 years of age when he enters
00:40:44
the Navy and I sit here captain and I tell you I have to wonder given that this guy has no alibi no
00:40:57
solid Alibi for that afternoon and when and we know he was in the area we know he was in the area by his own account
00:41:04
and by his brother's admission and by eyewitness statements as being a jogger that morning and then later that day
00:41:13
where was he in between there well I was at the school visiting friends then I went to my friend's house and watched TV
00:41:19
lay down relaxed for a little bit no my friend wasn't there he was at work then I went and visited a former teacher who
00:41:24
lives nearby she's concerned about the murder he doesn't seem to care goes off to the Navy now all of a sudden it's a
00:41:30
big deal but also has a similar outfit to what one eyewitness saw that day you have to wonder
00:41:41
and there were several people that came forward and said you know what Linda Moore was a was an attractive
00:41:49
woman it did not go unnoticed when she would be outside sunbathing at this property
00:41:55
that was in full view of the road you have to wonder was he out there jogging and then he goes out there his
00:42:03
brother turns around and now something else has piqued his interest he sees something else
00:42:11
they never find the hunting knife that they believe that killed Linda Moore and they have the Navy issue a
00:42:20
lie detector test to this individual the Navy says that he fails badly okay they're not they're not even trying to
00:42:30
fail badly or protect him the Navy does disagree with the police of of the items
00:42:36
that arrived with this man they say yes they are similar they are not terribly unlike what your eyewitnesses are saying
00:42:45
but they're saying that they're slight variations you know different difference of color and things of that nature
00:42:52
uh the glasses that he arrived with were not cheap glasses but again I don't think that means you can't factor that
00:42:59
into your eyewitness statement in my opinion I we sit here all of these years later I
00:43:06
still think this is the best possible lead in this case this 19 year old man that happened to leave and and it's not
00:43:15
happened to leave the area after the murder he knew he was leaving and he knew he was going a great
00:43:23
distance away for a long period of time yeah so if he was struggling with any kind of urges
00:43:32
to or any kind of fantasies to commit some crime he would know hey I have this window
00:43:41
where if I commit a crime I'll be gone in a couple days and there'll be none the wiser
00:43:47
and I know that you can't use the lie detector in the court of law but I think it's a good barometer and I think they
00:43:55
need to dive more into this individual one individual that we talked about at length when we covered the Connecticut
00:44:01
River Valley killer case was Michael nicolau and he was an individual that burst onto the scene as a possible
00:44:12
suspect because years later he goes down to Florida and he kills his wife and then kills himself
00:44:21
and his previous wife before that was missing for a period of time he lived in this general area during the times of
00:44:30
the river valley cases so he becomes posthumously he becomes a suspect in the river valley cases
00:44:40
he does not look unlike the description that was given of the man seen the unidentified man seen near Linda Moore's
00:44:48
Home on the day in question however one thing I was shocked to learn Captain is in further digging of the Linda Moore
00:44:58
case it appears that Michael nicolau didn't just burst onto the scene like we thought and liked the story as the story
00:45:05
is generally told after killing himself after killing his wife years later it sounds like he was being looked at by
00:45:14
police not for the Linda Moore case but for some of some of the other River Valley cases right I sit here 2023 I
00:45:23
can't say with absolute certainty this case and the reason why we chose to cover it separately is it felt very
00:45:30
different and there was a lot more information about this case than there are the other unsolved cases in the
00:45:36
river valley cases and that simply because of the evidence the nature of this homicide is different
00:45:43
it took place within a home she's found relatively quickly we don't lose evidence due to time or to the location
00:45:52
and so this case felt very different and I know that people say that you have to talk about them at the same time you
00:46:00
can't talk about one case without talking about the other I think we probably have a situation
00:46:05
where the Linda Moore case is not tied to the others I think that some of those other cases are probably connected to
00:46:12
one another that were committed by the same individual maybe not all of them but a lot of them
00:46:19
share similarities beyond the believed injuries beyond the belief of the way that the
00:46:29
victim was killed but a lot of these individuals too were last seen in the early afternoon hours
00:46:35
of the day they disappear they were hitchhiking or a vehicle broke down or had some kind
00:46:42
of vehicle trouble those victims I believe ended up in a car or a vehicle or a truck with the Killer
00:46:52
and he at some point turned on them and attacked them and killed them in a isolated area took them to an isolated
00:46:59
area where they were killed and later found well and you were saying that a lot of
00:47:04
these victims because they were found later there was decomposition which would make
00:47:10
the stab patterns and the attack patterns a little bit harder to identify so to say that the Linda Moore case is
00:47:19
connected to them because of the stab patterns I I just don't know if that makes a lot of sense
00:47:25
and one individual that we talked about too that's always kind of been linked to
00:47:30
the river valley cases is a man by the name of Delbert Tolman well Delbert Tallman is linked to the
00:47:38
river valley cases because he was a suspect in a case that oddly enough is not believed to be a victim of the river
00:47:45
valley killer Heidi Martin in 1984 May 21st her body was found behind the Heartland
00:47:54
Elementary School she was stabbed four times eventually Delbert Tallman confesses to
00:48:05
being at the scene and witnessing the murder that he sees the bad guy kill her in the woods he approaches the body
00:48:12
afterwards to see if he can help by that point she's already dead and once police
00:48:18
get onto him they arrest him and that story then changes from him being there and witnessing it to he did it himself
00:48:26
Delbert Tolman faced a lot of mental challenges right a lot a lot of challenges and I
00:48:34
believe there's a chance that police encouraged him to expand on his story and change his
00:48:42
story and they probably rightfully so right isn't it difficult to sit across from a guy and him to tell you that yeah
00:48:48
I was there but I didn't do it I didn't kill her I witnessed it don't know who did it
00:48:54
I approached her after the bad guy left but he's acquitted he's he goes to trial
00:49:01
for this case that's never 100 connected to the river valley cases and he's acquitted
00:49:10
and the problem with Delbert Tallman being the river valley killer is he's arrested
00:49:17
I believe it's hours or the next day after they find her body and he's held in jail
00:49:26
for over a year until his trial takes place to which he's acquitted well one of our victims
00:49:36
Alan Ruth freed she's abducted July 22nd 1984. Heidi Martin's body was found May 21
00:49:47
1984. Delbert Tallman is locked up in jail shortly thereafter and he's in jail at the time of Ellen
00:49:59
Ruth Freed's abduction who is believed to be one of the river valley Killers victims
00:50:04
so he doesn't fit great into this whole equation of being the possible River Valley killer
00:50:11
don't believe that the person that killed Linda Moore is responsible for many of those other murders what I see
00:50:18
here is I think we have a younger assailant a younger killer that behaved and acted impulsively on something that
00:50:26
he saw he saw an opportunity and he took it he probably watched Linda Moore outside that day
00:50:33
the phone rings a couple of times she goes inside comes back out he Witnesses this on more than one occasion and
00:50:41
decides the next time she goes in she's probably alone there's probably nobody home he decides to follow her in
00:50:49
and then the attack takes place and he flees and I think the guy that that was looked at and that they should revisit
00:50:58
even all of these years later is the guy that was thousands of miles away being trained at a naval base
00:51:07
[Music] all right we want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage make sure
00:51:26
you check out our website true Chrome garage.com and sign up on the mailing list Colonel do we have any recommended
00:51:32
reading for these beautiful beautiful listeners yes we do Captain this week we are recommending the shadow of death the
00:51:39
hunt for the Connecticut River Valley Killer by Philip Ginsburg this is available on all formats you're
00:51:47
going to want to check this one out this is the most complete book put together on this serial killer
00:51:53
that is still unidentified and still unknown check out the shadow of death you'll find that great title and many
00:52:02
more wonderful recommendations on our website True Crime garage on the recommended page and until next week be
00:52:09
good be kind and don't litter foreign [Music]