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The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512

November 06, 2022 / 45:30

This episode covers the case of the Bone Breaker killer, focusing on the disappearance and death of 14-year-old Christian Steiner in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1994. The hosts discuss sadistic murder, victimology, and the investigation surrounding Christian's case. They also touch on the subsequent abduction of 13-year-old Thaddeus Phillips by Joseph Clark.

The episode begins with a brief introduction to the beer being consumed, a Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout. The hosts, Nick and Captain, acknowledge contributions from listeners and transition into the true crime discussion.

Christian Steiner went missing on July 4, 1994, after his parents discovered he was not home for work. Initial theories suggested he may have sneaked out, but evidence indicated otherwise. The police found signs of a break-in, including a slit in a window screen.

After days of searching, Christian's body was discovered in the Wisconsin River. The cause of death was ruled drowning, but the manner remained undetermined, leading to speculation about foul play. The episode highlights the emotional toll on the Steiner family as they seek answers.

The narrative shifts to the case of Thaddeus Phillips, who was abducted by 17-year-old Joseph Clark. Thaddeus was found in poor condition after a 911 call, revealing the brutality of his captivity. The episode concludes with the connection between the two cases and the ongoing search for justice.

TLDR

The episode discusses the disappearance of Christian Steiner and the abduction of Thaddeus Phillips, highlighting sadistic murder and the search for justice.

Episode

45:30
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foreign [Music] [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man who is very tightly holding on to some tasty
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little nuggets of alien technology here is the captain yeah if you squeeze me too hard I might fart it's good to be
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seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music]
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this week we are very excited to be featuring gray Monday 2021 this is a decadent that's right decadent Bourbon
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Barrel aged Imperial Stout with hazelnuts by the brewery garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of
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five ABV 19 so again drink this one at home in your garage we are drinking it in ours and here are some friends that
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came to party with us this week first up we have a cheers to Kim and Spencer Ohio
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Utah a big wheel like your jib to Tristan and Del City Oklahoma and here's the cheers to Jennifer in Portland
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Oregon and last but certainly not least we have a cheers to Emily and Ottawa Canada everyone we just mentioned they
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went to our website and they contributed to this week's beer fund and for that we
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thank you yeah BW double r-u-n if you've been listening for years and you haven't
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donated what you're waiting for and if you need more TCG in your ear balls make sure you check out our other show called
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off the Record it is off the hizzy for shizzy and you can check out that link at truecrime
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garage.com and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true crime [Music] [Music] over the years during these trailers we have provided
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differing definitions and opinions about sexual sadists or the great white sharks
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as Roy Hazelwood calls them in his books the evil that men do and dark dreams and on several occasions we presented
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case studies from John Douglas Ann and Alan Burgess and Robert ressler's crime classification manual
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today we present another case study from the manual case study number 134. sadistic murder as it pertains to this
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week's killer who is a real-life monster with a unique fetish a sexual sadist is someone who has
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established an enduring pattern of sexual arousal in response to sadistic imagery
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sexual gratification is obtained from torture involving excessive mental and physical means
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the offender derives the greatest satisfaction from the victim's response to torture
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sexually sadistic fantasies in which sexual acts are paired with domination degradation and violence are translated
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into criminal action that results in death sadistic murder victimology has some similarities to the victimology of
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organized sexual homicides the victims are chosen through systematic stalking and surveillance
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they are approached under the pretext such as the offenders requesting or offering assistance
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asking directions or impersonating a police officer a ruse may be employed such as posing as a talent scout looking
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for prospective models or actresses and promising them jobs there are often multiple crime scenes
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involved with this type of sexual homicide the place of the initial encounter the
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torture slash death scene and or the body disposal site the very nature of this crime
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sadism expressed through torture necessitates a secluded or solitary place for the prolonged period of time
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the offender spends with a victim this captivity may be from a few hours to As Long As several weeks
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the offender's residents may be used if it can provide the required seclusion the body is routinely concealed
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especially with the more organized offender it is possible that there are implications of Overkill and or deep
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personalization for pragmatic reasons often to obscure the victim's identity the offender May tamper with the crime
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scene by staging secondary criminal activity most often rape or robbery to Veil the
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primary motive of sadistic murder The Act of Killing is often eroticized death comes in a slow deliberate manner
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that is savored by the offender but because an unconscious or dead victim does not afford the offender the
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gratification he seeks great care is taken not to end the victim's life prematurely
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in several cases offenders not only took special measures to keep their victims conscious but actually revived near-dead
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victims in order to cause additional suffering one of the many search warrant suggestions for this case type of
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offender is to look for items dealing with the offenses these would be written records
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manuscripts Diaries threatening letters calendars sketches drawings audio tapes videotapes and photographs the Green
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River Killer Gary Ridgeway was highly focused on the necks of his many victims for the Malala Force killer Dayton Leroy
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Rogers his thing was the feat of his victims and in this week's case study the serial offender was fascinated by
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the breaking of Bones this is true crime garage and this is the case the Bone Breaker killer
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[Music] this week we go to Baraboo Wisconsin Baraboo is a city of about 12 000 people
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and is part of sock County Sauk County is located in an absolutely beautiful part of the state of Wisconsin which is
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not only a beautiful state but a proud beer drinking State as well by the way our story really starts off on the 4th
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of July one of my favorite days of the year this is Independence Day 1994. this is a Monday but it's a
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holiday so normally most people might sleep in on this day but 14 year old Christian
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Steiner started working at his first job just weeks ago Chris was working at the
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McDonald's a few miles from his family's home and on this holiday Monday Chris was
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scheduled to work at the McDonald's so his parents George and Kathy went to wake Chris up at 6 15 a.m that morning
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but Chris was not there he was nowhere to be found they look around the home he's not
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already up and starting his day he's nowhere to be found so George and Kathy called the police reporting that
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something strange was going on and they didn't know where their son was so this is what the police and Chris's
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parents George and Kathy were able to determine they found two doors unlocked these are
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two doors on the ground level of the home and next they found a window screen with
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a slit in it now on July 3rd it was a very comfortable night as far as temperature
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goes and the family left many of the windows open that night at the house the screen with the slit was for a
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window to Chris's older brother's room this bedroom was located on the ground level and the Slit was described as
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large enough that someone could climb through it now Chris's brother was not there that
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night in fact he was staying over at a friend's house so the police and the concerned parents
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had a couple of theories the theory they all liked the best was that Chris along with the help of a
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friend or some friends snuck out of the house and at some point he would probably be back soon or maybe he might
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even wait a while to come home knowing that he's going to be in trouble for sneaking out of the house yeah or he
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might just find his own way to get to work the other possibility that they thought is that maybe he ran away from
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home this would be a possibility of course we are talking about a 14 year old boy but his parents said look we
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don't have any problems with Chris we don't argue with him he doesn't argue with us everyone in the family gets
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along very well and they said although Chris did not get very good grades in school he had recently started this job
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and was really liking his job you know there are some kids that are able to shine in the classroom and then
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there are some that are just great little worker bees and shine more in a workplace type setting well right that
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was Chris's thing here's what they told the police because keep in mind when they went to bed
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the day before on July 3rd everything was fine the Steiners knew where all of their
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kids were so they told police all about what went down on July 3rd and they said that on July 3rd at about
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3 pm both parents picked up Chris from the McDonald's where Chris worked Chris helped his mom get ready for dinner then
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Chris played with his little brother for a while in the backyard George said that at 10 pm he went
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upstairs to check on Chris and found him asleep still in his clothes but asleep in his clothes on his bed so George says
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he shut the light off in Chris's room and that was the last time either parent saw Chris by the next morning at 6 15
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a.m he is gone I would be guessing here a couple things you're going to have some indicators to
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tell you that he probably did not go to work on his own one you don't have a note from him it was agreed upon when
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they went to sleep the night before that the parents would be driving him early in the morning and you're probably going
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to find his work uniform in the closet or still you know in his room somewhere so this is a really interesting case to
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look at as this is not the typical situation that we have encountered before here in the garage in most cases
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there is a major concern and panic normally we have terrified parents but in those cases we are talking about a
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parent waking up to a cut screen and a toddler missing from the home here it could just be what it seems that
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he snuck out in the middle of the night met up with some friends and they got into a little teenage boy mischief and
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he would be back and well unfortunately that does not end up being the case right but a couple other things too I
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mean he's 14 so it's possible is there some girl that he was talking to that they didn't know of that he wanted to
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meet up with or he has this new job he's working with people probably older than
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him did he meet up with one of them right and I think that word friends encompasses all of those possibilities
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because you're right Captain he is 14 he's at that age where you don't always tell Mom and Dad everything that you're
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doing when it's not on the up and up and there were some other indicators and I'm a little reluctant to throw these
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out there because I could only find one source that stated this that they had found some muddy shoe prints inside the
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home and my guess here and this is why I'm a little hesitant to go down this road but
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my guess here is that those muddy shoe prints would have indicated to the parents and to the police that somebody
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entered the home and then possibly left with Chris out one of the doors meaning I'm guessing
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because of this slit in the the window screen that possibly there was Footprints from that cut screen
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through the home because we have a statement later from George from from Chris's father that
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says you know I think that he someone may have come to the house and left with Chris one of his friends
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may have come to the house and left with Chris because he throws out there in that same in that same statement that it
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would have been somebody that knew the layout of our home so what I'm guessing if these Footprints exist
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um is that it showed not somebody walking around the house trying to look for something
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you know this is a fairly large home there's multiple people that are living and staying there
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that the footprints if they did exist were an indicator to Chris's parents and to police that whoever entered the home
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knew where they were going meaning one they went through Chris's brother's room because they may have known that the
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brother was gone for the night and it might be one of the only ground level bedrooms of the home
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and then made their way to Chris's room and then left through one of the doors on the ground level leaving it unlocked
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behind them well and again this is different than like a child abduction because the perpetrator could come in
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the house and carry the victim out this is a 14 year old young man basically so it's
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yeah I'm guessing he'd be pretty difficult to carry out on your own yeah and what I was pointing out earlier too
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Captain is that again this is a situation where I could tell from the the parents statements and from the
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police statements at the time well I should say the sheriff of the Sheriff's Department
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that get it right nobody was really panicked it just seemed like this was you know Boyhood childish uh Mischief
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going on and the initial belief was that at some point on this day on this Monday
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on this holiday Monday he'll come back home and oh he's going to be in trouble when he gets back here yeah now the
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Steiners say that they spent that first night waiting up until dawn sitting on their front porch expecting
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that at any point he would come home they said that they would stare down every car that pulled onto their street
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thinking okay here he is someone's dropping him off but as the sun came up Tuesday July 5th
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Chris never came home well yeah and again like you said before then at some point midday you're going
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kids not even in trouble anymore in my mind I just want him home yeah you know and
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now it's getting dark something's wrong that would be the moment once it started getting dark
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where I go something's wrong man my boys should be home by now unfortunately most
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parents out there have had a similar situation where they go from being angry or upset at their child yeah to feeling
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stressed and panicked and just worried out of their mind worried sick as my mom used to say and so this is that
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situation and most of the time for parents the situation ends up being it's it's no real big deal it was just a
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misunderstanding but here as you're pointing out captain now it's the next day and your son still has not come home
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and the Steiners went on to say that they spent the next few days passing out flyers looking for their son and George
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took to sleeping on the couch with the front door unlocked every night because he knew that Chris did not have his own
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set of keys to the house yeah so that at any time at any hour of the day if Chris
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returned he would be able to walk inside the home yeah it becomes a very kind of sad desperate scene that's right
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and Captain we do get some information that may give some more weight to The Runaway Theory and this is per the
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sheriff this is the sock County sheriff and he has a cool sounding old school country Sheriff name this is Sheriff
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Butch steinhurst he says there were two unconfirmed let's be very clear about that two unconfirmed let's underline
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that word unconfirmed reports where someone says they saw Chris Steiner near the Quick Trip convenience store this
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would be on July 4th so the first day that he was missing and then there's another unconfirmed report of a sighting
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of Chris at the local Kmart this is the next day on July 5th well again he's working with individuals that are
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probably a little bit older than him some of them probably live on their own so it starts making you wonder did he go
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look I'm not that great at school but I like this job maybe I've worked maybe I got a couple paychecks and I got a
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little bit of money now hey I'm gonna go move in with Steve that runs the friar what do you think law enforcement would
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be in contact with obviously that McDonald's and any employee that works there well and we're talking about a
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town of twelve thousand people right so it should be fairly easy to ask the appropriate people and talk to anybody
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that would have known Chris and question where he may have been and usually when
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those situations are going on you do have people that know where the child is know where the teenager is but I'm
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saying when you have a couple people going hey I think I saw him then you start going well is he staying
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with somebody and they're not coming forward right and that's where you go okay maybe the sheriff's department had
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it right in the beginning and this is a runaway situation foreign [Music] all right we're back from the beer break
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and cheers mates to everybody in the back cheers to the crispiest of the kernelist
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of the colonelist cheers to you Captain so if I'm the sheriff right I'm all I'm Mr
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Butch right I'm looking at this first my first guess she snuck out with your friends
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to drink some beer smoke some pot right or maybe prank some houses that's what I'm thinking initially
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meet up with girls meet up with a girl go hang out with some older dudes that you've met at work yeah it's any number
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of things yeah you're right and maybe the older guys are gonna they're they're going through a hazing process who knows
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when that doesn't come through I I start going okay he's a runaway now we have these two possible sightings
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but they're not confirmed so I'm not leaning on that theory but that that's probably where I'm leaning
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towards but as more time goes by and then with these Footprints too so you go everybody's home
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they have a younger child younger child's still there the 14 year old is the one that goes missing and
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then you have this the other Sun just happens to not be there that night you have this rip in the screen
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as the sheriff I'm starting to wonder did something happen and did the parents like set up this
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scene you see what I'm saying and so I wonder if that's something they looked into
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as this kid's missing from what I could find here Captain Sheriff Butch steinhurst and his uh
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the people working under his command and his rules seem to be fairly thorough and
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so I'm sure that's probably something they looked at but here and as is the case in most situations I'm guessing
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there's probably some details uh about that night that we are not privy to right so um because there
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never seems to be that voice or that concern ever presented in any portion of the early stages of
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that case well we're not also privy to their actions their demeanor their tone and voice and which they're
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presenting any of this information to the sheriff that's correct and well basically what's going to
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happen here is that it's going to be hell week for the Steiners they last see Chris Sunday July 3rd at
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10 pm and then they go through hell all week long and on the next Sunday July 10th
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detectives showed up once again to the Steiner home knocked on the door and well they didn't necessarily have the
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worst news for the Steiners but it certainly was not good news detectives wanted to know if they could get Chris's
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dental records because a body had been found in the Wisconsin River in or near depending on
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the source the Pine Island Wildlife Refuge the Steiners provided the dental records for the detectives and the
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Steiners were no dummies they knew that if Sauk County detectives were at their door that these detectives
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would not have been on their doorstep if they did not think that the body was that of their son the next day the
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Steiners were notified that the body found in the Wisconsin River was their 14 year old son so now they knew that
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they had lost Chris forever so the body is recovered from the river but in the neighboring County so now you have
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counties you have two counties sock and Columbia investigating plus you have the Columbia
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County coroner and the Wisconsin State Pathologists all working the case according to the County coroner this is
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Keith Epps because of course he was asked to speculate when the body when it was recovered he was asked to
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speculate about the body and what they could infer from what they were seeing at the scene
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and Epson the sheriff both described the body as bloated and Epps adding that his guess would be
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that the body was in the river for at least three days because he says it usually takes about three days for
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the body to surface the local news media questioned this I'm guessing because either they received
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some bad information on this case or possibly due to a local rumor but they pose the question of well we
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heard or we were told that law enforcement believes that Chris was in the water for just two days and both the
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sheriff in the coroner were very very clear saying we don't know how long he was in the water but it was longer than
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two days again the coroner's saying it usually takes about three days to surface and the sheriff adding
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they usually don't get that bad in two days that's his vague description of the remains
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and from everything they were saying Captain it sounds like they couldn't really prove it
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but they were working on the idea based on evidence and what their experience is
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telling them that Chris probably died closer to the time when he went missing and likely ended up in the water closer
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to the night when he went missing yeah so remember it was just a few hours over a week
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that he was gone so law enforcement putting the time of death much closer to that Sunday morning
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when Chris's parents noticed that he was not home the cause of death was ruled to
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be drowning but the manner of death was left as undetermined the sheriff said that they were actively looking for the
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entry point into the river this might help to better determine the manner of death do we have puncture
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wounds they're not very descriptive about what they're going to release to the public right at this time and maybe
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they're holding that back because they know that some that's something that a suspect would now or the killer would
00:27:06
know well I think you're going to get a better idea of what their suspicions were
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uh when I give you this information the sheriff said that he was hopeful that they would be able to locate a party
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spot with obvious signs and evidence of a recent teenager party along the water after days of trying
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we were told no such party spot was located it sounds like the sheriff's department
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was now fully on board with the idea that Chris's parents had in the beginning right from Jump Street that
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Chris was not only you know not only did he leave their home in the middle of the night
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probably with somebody else he wasn't alone then but he probably wasn't alone whenever he
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went into the Waters of the Wisconsin now George and Kathy Steiner were left with only photographs and memories of
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their son Chris they remember him as a happy loud and boisterous boy who was a delight to be
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around remembering that Chris did exactly what the dentist told him for a full seven years so that he could get
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out of those braces on schedule he had a new job that he liked and was already calculating the extra money he
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could make working on Sundays and holidays he loved fishing the outdoors and playing baseball George and Kathy
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set up a reward fund this is very interesting here Captain because what we are faced with again is
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even though you have the ruling of drowning as the cause of death you don't have the manner of death was it an
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accident did somebody put him in the water did you know any number of things could
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have happened here and again you're not saying that there's a toxicology report so we don't know if he went out with
00:28:58
somebody's drinking and got drunk and end up drowning in this in this body of water yes you hear exactly right and one
00:29:05
thing they did State early on is that they were going to run toxicology but it would be several weeks before they would
00:29:13
get the results for that we have to keep in mind this is 1994. so Chris's parents George and
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Kathy they set up this reward fund offering a cash reward to anyone who came forward with information that would
00:29:27
provide answers to Chris's mysterious death because that's what you have here you have a mysterious death
00:29:34
a suspicious death right and one thing that I noticed kind of reading between the lines here it seems like the
00:29:42
sheriff's department kind of felt that way that we have a quote-unquote suspicious death even though they never
00:29:47
said those words well like I said at this point even if the parents are being cooperative the way you find him you
00:29:55
start going well they're also the last people that saw him so that they become Under the Umbrella
00:30:03
of Suspicion right and that's exactly it it's he didn't get to the river on his own yeah
00:30:10
uh well and technically what his dad's saying is like yeah I roughly saw him a rough
00:30:15
ly saw him stop me if I'm wrong roughly around the 10 p.m area and then he was supposed to wake him up in the six
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o'clock period and he wasn't there so that's a large gap that's you have about eight hours yeah that's a large gap of
00:30:33
and so it's like well where are you guys's whereabouts and then that makes it more difficult
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too because one it's his parents so you don't want to you know piss them off by asking too many questions because you
00:30:45
see they're grieving do they know more that they're just not telling you well and I think this will show there's kind
00:30:52
of a united front here with the sheriff's department and that was my nickname in college the Steiners because
00:30:59
remember the signers set up this reward fund offering a cash reward to anyone who would have information that could
00:31:05
provide answers about Chris's death a phone number was listed in multiple newspapers so that people could call
00:31:13
should they have any information now George Chris's father told the Wisconsin State Journal what hurts so much is that
00:31:22
you know that other kids were out there with him something happened out there something terrible happened out there
00:31:28
but what we can't understand is how someone could have left him there without calling and Sheriff Butch
00:31:35
steinhurst said that no charges of withholding information or underage drinking would be brought against anyone
00:31:44
who provides information regarding Chris's death yeah that's a smart move because
00:31:51
they should do that more often because I think there's a lot of times where there's
00:31:56
accidental deaths that that people go to the extreme to cover up well there was a
00:32:02
newspaper article that I think sums up what their concerns were regarding the mystery about Chris Steiner's death
00:32:10
the article is titled clue saw and death of Youth and it goes on to say exactly how a Baraboo youth succumbed to the
00:32:18
dark and murky Waters of the Wisconsin River May remain a mystery unless authorities are aided by Witnesses
00:32:27
and that's kind of how they left it captain and how it would remain for quite some time
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this brings us to Sunday July 30th 1995 in our timeline this is almost exactly one year really just a couple weeks over
00:32:42
the one year mark in fact when Chris Steiner went missing and then later was found dead in the
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river and now we're going to introduce another family this is the Phillips family here
00:32:54
captain at 4am Donald Phillips woke up and noticed something strange his son and daughter fell asleep on couches in
00:33:04
the living room the night before now at 4 AM his daughter is still asleep on the
00:33:10
couch but his 13 year old son Thaddeus is nowhere to be found Donald checked the boy's room and again
00:33:18
his son was not there and strangely the boy's shoes were right where he had left
00:33:24
them the night before so no boy but his shoes are right here and yet there was not any sign of any type of struggle
00:33:34
inside of this home and there was no note or anything left behind from his son so Donald and his wife called it into
00:33:43
police telling police what they knew about the night before and finding their daughter still asleep but not Thad and
00:33:51
adding that that had never taken off before and both were certain that if the boy had left on his own that he would
00:33:59
have left some kind of note for his parents to find what is odd here as well Captain is the
00:34:06
Phillips Family Thad his parents and sister were new to this specific area they moved into this neighborhood just
00:34:14
about two weeks before they lived about 11 miles away a 17-minute drive from their previous
00:34:21
residence so they checked anywhere they could think of that Thad may have taken off to
00:34:27
this would be places like the fairgrounds in the community pool but no Thad and the people they talked
00:34:34
to and the people that they asked had not seen the boy either and offered no information as to where they might find
00:34:41
their son so either the boy took off under the cloak of Darkness or someone had stolen
00:34:48
the boy in the night but like he said there are also nudes the area so you do have that sometimes you hear about
00:34:54
people uh when they move into a new area it's not going well for the kids so the
00:34:58
kid decides to try to take back off to where they came from yeah truly a difficult situation here because he's at
00:35:06
an age where it would be difficult for him to cover any great kind of distance on his own
00:35:14
um you know he doesn't have a vehicle and it would be obvious if his bike were missing and I think again the alarming
00:35:20
situation here Captain is we say either he took off under the cloak of Darkness or someone came into the home and stole
00:35:29
the boy in the night but again 13 year old that's it's hard to carry a 13 year old but when you see the boy's shoes
00:35:38
where they were the night before when he had fallen asleep on the couch I think as a parent for me that would be
00:35:46
my major concern I'm going wait my son's not here yet his shoes are right here did he
00:35:53
I get it if he snuck out of the house but I think he's probably putting his shoes on before he goes out
00:36:00
that's telling me something else has happened in this situation yeah yeah I I agree that's definitely a sign
00:36:08
that if you're going to run away you're not going to do it Barefoot exactly that
00:36:15
would be my thought here and what you're pointing out Captain is a very common thing people move away kid gets weird
00:36:21
about the move maybe doesn't know anybody in the neighborhood it makes an impulsive decision to take off but those
00:36:28
shoes being there would scare me quite a bit this is going to lead us to Sunday July
00:36:33
31st 1995 just before 8 PM this is when a 9-1-1 call came in on the line was a boy who said he was
00:36:44
taken from his home in the middle of the night and was being tortured and held captive
00:36:51
the boy said he did not know his attacker or the location where he was being held
00:36:57
the call was traced and once the location of the call was determined police and Emergency Services were on
00:37:05
the scene less than 30 minutes from the start of the 9-1-1 call when they arrived on the scene they
00:37:13
found the caller a boy in bad shape the call came from 13 year old Thaddeus Phillips the boy who vanished less than
00:37:23
48 hours earlier he told them that an older boy had kidnapped him and held him there
00:37:30
they rushed that off to the local hospital and they went looking for the perpetrator police were looking for
00:37:38
17-year-old Joseph Clark who was said to be according to the police call Joe was driving an old painted over
00:37:47
vehicle and maybe in the company of a quote big girl or woman the location where Thad was being held
00:37:56
was less than half a mile from his home police didn't have much luck searching for the 17 year old suspect Joseph Clark
00:38:06
so they set up a Stakeout so to speak leaving officers and unmarked cars watching the house and waiting for Joe
00:38:16
to return and he did just before midnight and when he returned to the home he was placed in
00:38:22
cuffs and arrested well wouldn't that cause 9-1-1 and when he states that it was an older boy that kidnapped him I
00:38:29
mean this is a very abnormal situation I would think if I was a police officer yeah I'm thinking a teenager is going to
00:38:38
come around the corner but I wouldn't have been surprised if it was a 25 year old man or a 30 year old man that told
00:38:45
this you know teenager hey uh yeah I'm I'm just a couple years older than you are it's just such a abnormal strange
00:38:55
situation to have basically a kid abduct a kid yeah and I don't know it's unclear
00:39:02
how much Thad knew about his abductor we know that he spent um about approximately 43 hours
00:39:09
being held captive by this older boy yeah but again he doesn't know Joe Clark even though they're both technically
00:39:18
children he doesn't know anybody in that area he does know some of the people in
00:39:24
in the area I mean he he lived about 10 11 miles from this location but you're right it this most of the people here
00:39:32
are going to be completely new to him and his family yeah it's a new town he's only been there for a little bit it's
00:39:38
very strange he would know a few year older Joe Clark yeah and he doesn't and in fact that is why he's not able to
00:39:47
tell 9-1-1 where he's being held he doesn't have anything to offer up as to hey here's a clue as to where I'm
00:39:57
located so you can come and rescue me they have to trace the call and keep him on the line so our victim
00:40:04
here Captain Thad Phillips 13 year old Thad Phillips as we said was sent immediately to the
00:40:12
hospital this is because again when he's found at this location he's in very bad
00:40:18
shape it's obvious right from when they see him he needs to go immediately to the hospital this is where he's going to
00:40:26
have to undergo several surgeries to try to repair his legs in fact in the first
00:40:32
two surgeries they put pins in one leg and a rod in the other the injuries were listed a couple of
00:40:40
different ways depending on which source you have but what seems to be the general consensus is that thad's legs
00:40:48
were broken four times both ankles were broke one of his knees and a femur bone all broken
00:40:56
that's crazy and let's not forget the femur this is your thigh bone which is the longest and strongest bone in the
00:41:04
human body Thad not only told police about what happened to him but he told his father
00:41:10
Don at the hospital as far as what was being released to the public early on well they were mostly small details
00:41:18
coming from thad's father Dawn as he answered reporters questions while pretty much living at the hospital for
00:41:26
days while doctors and nurses worked to repair his boy Don told reporters that neither he nor
00:41:33
Thad knew the boy Joe Clark who abducted thaad prior to this incident so there you go that rules out any type of
00:41:41
personal motive Don said thad's captor brutalized and tortured the boy in the form of beatings that involved Joe
00:41:50
choking punching Thad as well as twisting The Boy's ankles and legs and jumping up and down on thad's legs
00:41:58
according to Don Joe told thaad that he had kidnapped the boy because he liked busting people's bones and that he had
00:42:07
done this type of thing before to other victims Don said that the girl or the woman companion of Joe's according to
00:42:15
Thad never saw the boy and that she was not in any way a part of the kidnapping or the torture that followed she's never
00:42:25
saw the boy she you'd think that she at least heard the boy these are thad's words that he saw the
00:42:33
girl but she never saw him and look my belief is that he probably saw her through a window and saw her
00:42:43
outside again according to Thad and to Dawn the girl had nothing to do with the abduction or any of the torture that
00:42:51
followed well on a quick Google search I I put in how many pounds of pressure to
00:42:56
break your ankle one of the suggestions is there's a link to the best ways to break
00:43:04
your own leg it says a rough estimate it would take about 218 pounds of pressure to produce a
00:43:12
tibial fracture and a healthy adult using a hammer so I'm guessing less for a teenager you could decrease the force
00:43:22
requirement by choosing a tool with less surface area such as a hatchet then again you'd be increasing the risk of
00:43:31
sauce soft tissue damage and significant blood loss so here we have the abduction and
00:43:39
torture of a 13 year old Thad Phillips and now we have 17 year old Joseph Clark who lives just half a mile away in
00:43:50
custody and we have the parents of Chris Steiner who are sitting there wondering
00:43:56
look our boy disappeared vanished in the middle of the night from our home much like that of this young Thad Phillips
00:44:03
kid and we are still here over a year later wondering how our son died foreign [Music]
00:44:21
so much more to get to while you're waiting go to truecramgarage.com and sign up on our mailing list what do you
00:44:28
get hey you get promo codes to the store Page and what you don't have to do nothing we just sign up for the email
00:44:37
list and we shoot you a promo code every few weeks and uh you just save a little
00:44:42
cheddar so join us back here for episode number two and until then be good be kind and don't
00:44:50
litter [Music] [Applause] foreign

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Biggest twist
  • 60
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • The Bone Breaker Killer
    This week's case study focuses on a sadistic murderer with a unique fetish.
    “This is true crime garage and this is the case the Bone Breaker killer.”
    @ 07m 14s
    November 06, 2022
  • The Disappearance of Christian Steiner
    14-year-old Christian Steiner goes missing on July 4th, 1994, leading to a frantic search.
    “The Steiners spent the next few days passing out flyers looking for their son.”
    @ 17m 34s
    November 06, 2022
  • The Mysterious Death of Chris Steiner
    Chris Steiner's body was found in the river, raising questions about his death.
    “The cause of death was ruled to be drowning, but the manner of death was left undetermined.”
    @ 26m 38s
    November 06, 2022
  • Thaddeus Phillips' Abduction
    Thaddeus Phillips, 13, was kidnapped and held captive for 43 hours before escaping.
    “He told them that an older boy had kidnapped him and held him there.”
    @ 37m 20s
    November 06, 2022
  • The Brutality of the Abduction
    Thaddeus suffered severe injuries during his captivity, requiring multiple surgeries.
    “Thad's legs were broken four times, both ankles were broke, one of his knees and a femur bone.”
    @ 40m 51s
    November 06, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • This is a real-life monster with a unique fetish.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512
  • Death comes in a slow deliberate manner that is savored by the offender.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512
  • It becomes a very kind of sad desperate scene.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512
  • He probably wasn't alone whenever he went into the waters.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512
  • What hurts so much is that other kids were out there with him.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512
  • Something terrible happened out there.
    The Bonebreaker Killer /// Part 1 /// 512

Key Moments

  • Desperate Search17:34
  • Tragic Discovery24:10
  • Body Recovery24:19
  • Reward Fund Established28:35
  • Thad Goes Missing33:14
  • 9-1-1 Call36:38
  • Thad Rescued37:20
  • Injuries Revealed40:40

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown