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thresholds May [Music] [Music] very [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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you are whatever you doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who processes all of
00:01:51
the unrequested information possibly maybe unbelievably what does it all mean he knows he's the captain the only thing
00:01:58
I know is I know nothing it's good to be seing and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
00:02:03
[Music] friend today we are still sipping on this fine NE i p a that's called instant
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to our friends that helped us out with this week's set of shows first up it's a long distance cheers to Irene in
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a double cheers going out to Jenny and asula Ohio and Grace over in Edinburgh Pennsylvania everybody we mentioned
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yourself a true crime Garage shirt hoodie or hat and you'll stand out like that that's enough of the business
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime we start off Today's Show by going
00:04:01
through an old newspaper article we won't go through every word every sentence every paragraph however this I
00:04:09
find to be by far the best article ever written about the Nancy eagleson unsolved homicide case the article is
00:04:21
titled girl Slayer remains at large ping crime still unsolved and this is from 5
00:04:29
years after the murder took place and it's written by a limma news staff writer by the name of Jean Rockwell who
00:04:37
did gangbusters work on this article because again I believe it to be the best and most thorough and it's rather
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updated as well as you will see as we go through this article and it reads somewhere a man walks the streets
00:04:53
outwardly as inconspicuous as anyone but with the burden of knowing 5 years ago he molested and murdered a young ping
00:05:02
high school girl subjected her little sister to a lasting emotional shock and blemished the family this man more
00:05:10
horrible than any fictional monster shot 14-year-old Nancy Lee eagleson to death
00:05:17
following a criminal assault on the evening of November 13th 1960 perhaps in such a twisted personality there is no
00:05:27
capacity for regret or remorse or perhaps his waking and sleeping hours are haunted by the memory of what he has
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done the history of such crime reveals many motives for the slaying of a rape victim usually the victim is slain to
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prevent future identification of the attacker sometimes the force of the attack itself is sufficient to cause
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death Nancy was brutally shot in the head by her unknown as salant no clues to the murderer have turned turned up
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after 5 years of Investigation by the paing county sheriff's department at 7:40 p.m. that Sunday Nancy and her
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sister Cheryl then five were walking along Jackson Street in Northeast paing on their way home from a movie their
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father Don operated a bowling alley in paing on the weekends and during the week he was employed at International
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Harvester in Fort Wayne he was at the bowling alley that night their mother also worked and instead of waiting for
00:06:32
their father the girls decided to walk home from the movie since Mrs eagleson would be home at that time Mrs eagleson
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was asked last week about the crime and about the failure of police to solve it Mrs eagleson said Cheryl now 10 years
00:06:50
old is still terrified by the memory of that never to be forgotten night quote I
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can talk about it now Mrs Eagles said but Dawn doesn't say very much about it it really broke him up they say a woman
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can adjust to something like ny's death better than a man or can cover their feelings more or something maybe that's
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the way it is with me I hide the hurt keep it inside Mrs eagleson said Cheryl has deep emotional scars from the events
00:07:25
of that night Cheryl loved Nancy the mother noted they were inseparable but Cheryl has changed now she isn't a
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loving child anymore she's afraid to get close to anyone emotionally for fear she
00:07:41
might lose them as she lost Nancy Nancy would have been 19 now her mother said and in college the bereaved mother said
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she does not blame police or the sheriff's department for their failure to solve the crime I believe they did
00:07:56
the best they could do she said she thinks the Slayer is from Pauling or immediate area he has to be she declared
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he knew his way around too well however her husband believes the killer was a hunter not from the area probably
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staying in a motel and committed the crime on the spur of the moment melting back into his home region when it was
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over Mrs eagleson still gets a lot of calls mostly from cranks saying they know the identity of the Slayer none of
00:08:32
them have proven authentic Mrs eagleson's Theory the crime is that the girls were seen by the killer as they
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were sipping Cokes in a local restaurant on their way home from the MAA movie along Jackson Street Cheryl said the man
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slowed the car and asked the girls if they wanted to ride she said Nancy replied no we're only a few doors away
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from home Cheryl said the man St stopped the car and asked Nancy directions he got out of the auto Cheryl recalled and
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came around the front in the full glare of the headlights he grabbed Nancy by the arm and during the ensuing struggle
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pushed his victim to the ground Cheryl said she tried to grab the man by the shoulders but he struck her in the
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stomach knocking her to the ground she said she did not see the man strike Nancy but he placed her inside the car
00:09:30
opposite the driver's seat the man got in and drove away as Cheryl screamed Mrs eagleson said Cheryl told her the man
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smelled like he had been drinking but her theory is that the girl smelled chloroform or some similar substance
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which accounted for nany's submission after the Frantic struggle Mrs eagleson theorizes her daughter was not killed
00:09:54
where the body was found but elsewhere then was left by the Slayer where she was discovered by the hunters paing
00:10:01
County Sheriff John Keeler was asked last week if the case is closed he said certainly not these cases are never
00:10:09
closed every now and then we get a lead and a possible suspect we check out these leads thoroughly but so far no
00:10:17
luck at all keer said he was convinced the Slayer was not from the Ping area the man is sick the sheriff observed he
00:10:26
can't help himself he would have killed again we would have had another slang on
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our hands if he were a local man Cheryl described the man who killed her sister as about 5' 8 in tall heavy with a belly
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like Santa Claus he wore horn rimmed glasses possibly with thick lenses that made his eyes appear larger than normal
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she stated she believed he was crippled a man who broke out of Michigan City Indiana prison a month before before
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Nancy was killed and who subsequently was executed in Tulsa Arizona for a similar crime was checked and cleared of
00:11:08
the paing slang another man from the paing area charged with rape in Napoleon and acquitted was consequently convicted
00:11:17
of a rape slang in Detroit Michigan his method of operation was similar to the mans who killed Nancy but he also was
00:11:25
investigated and cleared so the man who slew Nancy Lee eagleson is still at large free to commit another crime
00:11:34
police officials believe he will or has that he acted under a compulsion a mental illness and could not help
00:11:42
himself officers stress this certainly does not excuse the man but points to the dire necessity of his apprehension
00:11:52
well there's so much there to unpack so let's do some of that if you don't mind one go for it what's your theories on if
00:12:00
this man is local or not here's the thing if the two things that the family has told us and this is things that have
00:12:08
been told To Us by people outside of the family as well if the phone lines were cut to the eagleson home that
00:12:15
night if in fact somebody did try to abduct Cheryl weeks after Nancy's murder I think
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those not just point to but for me seal the deal that this was a local guy everything outside of that tells me that
00:12:34
this was somebody that was looking for a victim and may have traveled to this area and found the victim there that
00:12:42
night unfortunately right we could have an individual that has to travel here for work and so that they would be back
00:12:50
in the area multiple times to me it's too Brazen you're going to leave a eyewitness that sees you that possibly
00:12:58
like I said in church school somewhere is able to identify you the other thing that's tricky too because it no longer
00:13:08
exists to this day but back in 1960 it's my understanding that there was a hospital in the area and I've been told
00:13:18
that it may have been between the abduction location and where nany eagleson's body was eventually
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found which is very weird to me again that Drive felt very quick to me it almost felt like somebody abducted her
00:13:32
and either had to stop at this location or stopped at this location for some reason right would have passed the
00:13:41
hospital and again I believe that it was on Route 111 so could somebody have been
00:13:48
in the area for work because they were working at that hospital or could they have been visiting a loved one or a
00:13:55
friend or somebody that they knew that was in the hospital now I don't know if law enforcement did
00:14:01
this but I'm I'm guessing no because within two days they're saying we're at a standstill I'm going to the restaurant
00:14:08
and just asking was any was there any single male eating alone that possibly saw them go into the restaurant and then
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oh they're leaving I'm going to follow them out or look for local um local hotels or motels and see if there was
00:14:27
any single men staying in the area that would give me at least some kind of lead
00:14:33
to to go on the other thing that is bizarre here too Captain is that you could have a situation where somebody
00:14:41
spotted the girls walking alone or spotted the girls as the mother suspects sipping sodas at the
00:14:48
restaurant and decides then and there hey I'm going to take one of these girls right and the reason why I say that that
00:14:58
seems to to be likely is that according to Cheryl's accounts and it was key to me to read
00:15:06
that article because we see how Cheryl's accounts kind of I don't want to use the
00:15:11
word change but she seems to be able to fill in some of the blanks later as she got older she was 10 at the time of that
00:15:19
article was 1965 but according to Cheryl's account the vehicle there was a vehicle parked
00:15:28
at that plocks the old abandoned gas station no longer in operation on the corner that they passed before the
00:15:37
vehicle approached them I am of the belief that that may be the same vehicle that the person saw the girls walking
00:15:46
they walked past him he pulls up in the vehicle alongside of them following them
00:15:51
he's he would have been following them very shortly after they walked past plocks right now one could have have
00:15:58
spotted these girls and then decided to position themselves at plocks to intercept them
00:16:05
before they get home to do that if that was in fact the Killer's plan to intercept them before they got home well
00:16:14
then that means he already knew where the girls lived and so therefore he likely would be a local man or at least
00:16:21
somebody that knew Nancy in some form or fashion or knew her family well and might know that the husband is not going
00:16:28
to be there the the husband the father is going to be working at the bowling alley during this time so the only
00:16:33
person that's going to be home is the mother but again I know where you live so I'm going to intercept you now I
00:16:39
think she made a great point because she brings up chloroform and what we were saying before is if you're taking your
00:16:45
victim we're not talking about like a a very small victim or a very young victim
00:16:50
it is a child but she's 14 mhm so she's going to have the capability of putting up a a fight so the mom brings up a good
00:17:01
point is it possible that this murderer grabbed her and then um was able to subdue her with
00:17:09
chloroform and it could be a combination of both because she says well what I think my daughter was
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smelling the the eyewitness Cheryl the alcohol or chloroform it could be a combination of both this guy might have
00:17:24
been heavily intoxicated and then started driving around looking for a victim a lot of times these types will
00:17:32
ingest things like alcohol or drugs to build them up to a situation so that they don't chicken out or they don't
00:17:41
they they want to build themselves up to carry through with whatever it is their
00:17:45
sick fantasy or plan is and then if it is in fact chloroform we're talking about a whole
00:17:52
different level of premeditation one but two possible criminal sophistication as
00:18:00
well this to me if it was in fact chloroform and we don't we simply don't know and until the case is solved we
00:18:07
will not know but if it was chloroform then that tells me this guy has either done something like this before or he
00:18:17
had been studying up on doing something like this and thought about it for a good deal of time studying doing
00:18:23
research planning yeah I mean this is uh got an email the other day saying stop calling these murderers animals because
00:18:32
that's not fair to animals that's probably not fair this fair to the hyenas yeah this guy's a hyena I mean
00:18:40
this guy's a real piece of [ __ ] and again I I I I lean towards the idea that the person was from that area originally
00:18:50
but not anymore did not live in that area maybe a rental car that's a other thing rental car is it possible that
00:18:57
this person had a brunal car and then and that would be another thing that people could uh spend some time
00:19:04
investigating the chloroform would also go along with the thought that maybe some portion of this man's clothing or
00:19:11
the glasses were in fact some type of Disguise what's really weird to me is under hypnosis Cheryl says that the man
00:19:18
was skinny but in this news article it's saying that she believed that he was a heavy man with a belly like Santa Claus
00:19:27
so those are two very different things but we also know that it's not terribly uncommon for criminals to layer their
00:19:34
clothing or to wear larger clothing than necessary to give the appearance a different physical appearance right and
00:19:43
that's that's the tough thing too when you look at the composite sketch to me not not the one where you're looking at
00:19:50
him um you know face to face but the one where you're looking to him where he's on from the side to me it looks like he
00:19:57
was almost like slicking back his hair again is that the way he wears his hair or is that a a ruse this to me the
00:20:05
composite sketch to me looks like one of two things or or it could be a combo of
00:20:09
both I guess it looks to me like somebody that is dressed to potentially go visit somebody at the hospital or to
00:20:17
work there or it's a man that was still wearing his Sunday church attire and just remained in that attire throughout
00:20:26
the day of Sunday and maybe went into town and went out to a restaurant right or you know and then spotted the girls
00:20:34
somewhere as they walked it'd be interesting to know and it's too much to ask Cheryl to recall something like this
00:20:41
there's no way that she would be able to recall this but it would be interesting
00:20:45
to know if they were talking about walking home like if they were openly talking about that at any point in their
00:20:52
evening and and the wrong person heard them caught when that oh they might be by themselves and then you think about
00:20:59
the idea that the phone lines were cut at the eagleson home if in fact that were true to me that makes me think well
00:21:07
maybe the killer thought that they would end up home alone and thought of abducting Nancy
00:21:15
there right then it makes me want to question the family was the mother supposed to be somewhere and not that's
00:21:23
a very good question and here here's my thought on that I I can't answer for the
00:21:28
family but here's my suspicions so we know that the father Dawn was working at the bowling alley which he regularly did
00:21:35
on the weekends and what I've been told by everybody that knew Don they said that he worked at the bowling alley
00:21:43
probably for a little extra money but it was also like that was his number one hobby it's fun right he he likes to bowl
00:21:49
job he likes to hang out at the bowling alley probably got free bowling right and you know what's great about bowling
00:21:55
alleys too they often sell beer we like and pretzels the thing here is don't forget the pretzels from my
00:22:02
understanding is that it was very common for Dawn and his wife Betty the the two
00:22:08
eagleson adults the two eagleson parents to go to the bowling alley and hang out
00:22:13
together was this a night like you said captain that maybe Mrs eagleson was supposed to be at the bowling alley with
00:22:20
her husband Dawn but for whatever reason it fell through or at the last minute she decided not to go if that's
00:22:27
true true if that is true and obviously somebody in the family could answer that
00:22:33
to me I'd put a higher a way higher percentage at this point that they know this
00:22:40
individual if that was the case I mean it could be happen stance that here's this person in town sees these girls
00:22:48
walking and they're they are walking because their father is working their mother is going to visit the father at
00:22:55
at work so that does put you in that happen stance but starts at that point it would start
00:23:05
leaning towards this idea that they might know this kidnapper they might know this murderer this murderer might
00:23:11
be somebody uh family friend that maybe Cheryl just has not been able to maybe somebody that doesn't come around as
00:23:19
often anymore but again how much of what they were wearing and how they were doing their
00:23:27
hair and all that stuff how much was that their identity and how much of it was [Music]
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00:25:54
everybody cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain all right well we have praised the Sheriff John Keeler for his
00:26:04
efforts and for his wisdom and for his work ethic yes and for reaching out to others jurisdictions thinking outside of
00:26:13
the box if you will that was something that wasn't done back then so we praised him for that we criticized him in his
00:26:19
investigation for not being able to recover tire tracks at either the abduction scene or where Nancy was
00:26:26
eventually found right we also criticized but said that maybe the newspaper is to blame for the
00:26:33
weird statement of well the case is pretty much at a standstill just days into the
00:26:39
investigation I did criticize him for saying that we don't know he's kind of discounting Cheryl's account that the
00:26:45
man was wearing glasses which I think is a big misstep by the sheriff but here is
00:26:51
a huge misstep and I don't know if Sheriff Keeler is to blame or who is to blame but somebody was certainly at
00:26:58
fault here because in 1985 that's right we're jumping ahead 20 years in the timeline from 65 to 85 and
00:27:07
why are we pointing to 1985 well that's because in 1985 Nancy's family discovered that the physical
00:27:16
evidence that was collected at the scene where she was found was lost or misplaced or
00:27:25
discarded the Sheriff's Office in paon County no longer had any evidence in nany's case now there were
00:27:35
several persons or several agencies that were involved in the chain of custody of
00:27:40
this evidence so it may not fall on the sheriff department but who do you think's going to get the blame when
00:27:48
evidence is missing it's going to be the investigating agency they are the ones that are charged with securing that
00:27:53
evidence no matter who had it at what point yes they're going to get the blame but come on law enforcement do your job
00:28:00
you're here to Serve and Protect and you're not protecting or serving by losing this evidence so where we are
00:28:09
today and we're going to jump back here in a second but I want to focus on this now while we are talking about missing
00:28:16
evidence because it will make sense we are trying to exume nany eagleson that is for the purpose of
00:28:25
collecting additional evidence right we mentioned the the lack of nail clippings
00:28:31
we mentioned the lack of seamen samples and we don't know if those are things that we are even going to be able
00:28:38
to get once we exume her it would seem unlikely but there's a possibility given it's you know it's unlikely because it's
00:28:48
been 62 years and things get lost to to time and Decay but the other idea here Captain is could could some of these
00:28:58
items because this evidence was personal items these were personal items in nature compared to uh with our victim
00:29:06
here MH could some of these items be have been buried with her it's certainly a possibility and
00:29:13
something that we're very hopeful that that that that possibility remains and it's po again this is not
00:29:21
maybe something that the family would know and so can be hopeful of because Cheryl again was five at the time so
00:29:29
she's not going to just there's no way she's going to remember every single detail and you know mom lived a very
00:29:36
long life unfortunately Betty is no longer with us but keep in mind these are things that parents could forget or
00:29:47
be unaware of at the time there's a lot going on they just lost a child unexpectedly so again it's something
00:29:55
that we're hopeful for and that's why somebody like porchlight that's why we are jumping in we are getting involved
00:30:02
you know we can't save Nancy eagleson we can't help Nancy this isn't Quantum Leap
00:30:09
where we can go back in time and write a wrong or protect somebody or save someone what we can do is try to help
00:30:18
and save the sisters that are still alive to this day Cheryl can you imagine she's the level of victim
00:30:28
that she is how victimized she has been and traumatized she has been all of these years if we can find some form of
00:30:36
justice for the eagleson family it will be a big win not for porchlight it will be a big win for paen
00:30:44
County and this community and the eagleson family yeah big win and but so much frustration still to this day this
00:30:54
Captain will bring us to December 1st 201 10 and this is reporting from the local newspaper which is called the
00:31:01
paing county progress and they're doing a ongoing story of continuing to cover the Nancy eagleson case and
00:31:11
investigation and they're doing this article and it's a rather lengthy one but it's featuring a man named Don
00:31:19
rodenhouse now Don rodenhouse says that he was a witness to the abduction and this is very strange to me
00:31:31
this is something that I'm incredibly curious about so don Rhoden house says that he pulls up and he sees two people
00:31:41
in a vehicle that look like they are fighting and he says his sister is with him and the sister who's riding shotgun
00:31:51
tells Don hey that's you know that doesn't look like two adults that looks like a a little girl
00:31:58
right because I think Dawn thought maybe it was just a some kind of domestic right situ fighting Mar yeah boyfriend
00:32:06
girlfriend two adults fighting what have you but then little CIS points out no that doesn't appear to be a grown-up
00:32:14
that appears to be a little girl and Don says it's the flailing arms that he and his sister saw Nancy
00:32:23
eagleson fighting this man back he's holding her like the hair or the the head and trying to push her down maybe
00:32:31
to conceal her from any passer by or people in the area as he's fleeing from the abduction scene
00:32:41
right but he says that well he the abductor is trying to push Nancy Down Nancy is trying to
00:32:50
throw smacks or punches at the attacker and this would be kind kind of like a a sidearm I guess you will it's like a
00:33:01
a swimming motion almost and he says that they the vehicle was was speeding quite heavily which makes sense that the
00:33:11
man would have been fleeing from the abduction scene with a victim in his car and Don says that they gave Chase
00:33:18
they tried to follow the vehicle but at some point the vehicle lost them now he says that the following
00:33:28
morning he reported this to the authorities mhm saying that when he woke up the next day he learned that of the
00:33:38
murder remember Nancy was found overnight and when he learned of the murder and where they found ny's body he
00:33:45
knows where he was driving he says he was driving on Route 111 where Nancy was abducted from he contacts the police and
00:33:54
says tells them the story that we just told you and he says to throw a little shade here on the
00:34:03
sheriff's department back in 1960 he says that he doesn't believe that they they may not
00:34:11
have taken him seriously because he says at no point did they ever follow up with
00:34:15
him that he reported the information and they never approached him again to ask him to tell his story again and he says
00:34:23
that back in 1960 he believed that he could described the vehicle in great detail
00:34:33
now why he didn't describe it in great detail when he spoke to the sheriff on the day when he reported it I don't know
00:34:40
but his words make it sound like either he wasn't prompted to do so or decided not to do so because he thought that
00:34:46
they would follow up here becomes the problem a lot of problems we were privy to some some Insider information in this
00:34:57
case and the portion of the Sheriff's Office file on Nancy eagleson's case does not
00:35:05
reveal that Don rodenhouse reported this the day after Nancy was killed now he very very well may have but there's
00:35:16
nothing indicating that he did this other than this newspaper article his own words so when I hear a story like this I
00:35:24
go this is very problem for me one his story is problematic but it's problematic for me as a Storyteller here
00:35:33
in the garage I don't know how to take this Captain is this simply a guy that's tried to do a good deed tried to help
00:35:41
somebody out back in 1960 and has come forward all these years later and is still trying to help out is this just a
00:35:46
good guy or we've seen this before it wouldn't be the first time and if it is the case it won't be the last
00:35:56
time it could be the case that this man just injected himself into the investigation he wants to know what law
00:36:03
enforcement knows yeah he's a local so he'd know the area but the thing that he has gone for him
00:36:09
is his sister was with him so isn't that a pretty solid Alibi for the time of the
00:36:14
crime it would be if he in fact did report this back in 1960 right if we could find proof positive that he didn't
00:36:22
report it back then or if we could find proof positive that she didn't back his story in 196
00:36:28
or nobody else backed this story in 1960 wouldn't we want to know why 50 years later he's telling this story it the
00:36:36
other problem too is the details inside the story itself where Cheryl she states that she didn't see
00:36:48
her she sees her sister looking back right but also the suspicion that maybe she was chloroform so she was she would
00:36:56
have been knocked out out she would have been out there wouldn't be somebody with
00:36:59
flailing arms in the back seat yeah if that is if that's what happened right now could she have come too woke up and
00:37:08
tried to fight off her attacker yes that's a possibility the other problem though is he says he chases after the
00:37:15
vehicle and the vehicle loses him the problem with that Captain is if in fact the attacker went from abduction site to
00:37:23
where Nancy was eventually found we already talked about that's pretty much a straight shot you go around two curves
00:37:29
and boom it's a straight shot it's difficult to lose somebody on a straight shot yeah many pieces of his story just
00:37:36
don't add up but you want to kind of give him the benefit of Doubt because it's a traumatic situation it's a
00:37:42
stressful situation but also uh the time Gap there's been a lot of time that has
00:37:47
passed right and so things that would point to Don Rouse his statement being questionable his statement being
00:37:55
suspicious would be this for me is he concocting the story so that there is a reason why somebody would
00:38:04
have seen his vehicle at that location that night in the abduct in the area of the Abduction
00:38:13
the night that the abduction took place his story explains it away and his sister and I'm putting that in air
00:38:21
quotes being there with him would also give him an alibi as to yeah I wasn't the bad guy in this story I'm the good
00:38:28
guy in this story so there's there are some questionable things here but again it's
00:38:35
it really truly is either one or the other either he's just a good guy that tried to do a good thing and help
00:38:42
somebody and the bad guy won or he's the bad guy it's very tricky very tricky and
00:38:50
I know that there are people in ping to this day that are very suspicious ious of DA's story and of Da himself well I'm
00:38:59
sure there's tons of people teachers school bus drivers um people that have never got married that live in the town
00:39:09
alone there's probably a whole list of people that people are suspect of because you have this crime that
00:39:16
happened to such a young beautiful girl and there's no answers so but this brings us up to
00:39:25
2011 yes does in our timeline but I do want to speak to what you just said there Captain N and I think that that's
00:39:31
a very astute and insightful statement that you just gave because to this day the suspicions of the locals the people
00:39:40
that have been around since 1960 the people that knew Nancy people that went to school with her right or people that
00:39:47
knew her parents this is a small town this is a small town murder it affected the whole
00:39:55
Community the Community has not healed nor moved past the murder of Nancy eagleson and they shouldn't because it's
00:40:03
unresolved there's no justice here and if the killer was a local man he could still be local to this day he could
00:40:11
still be alive there are many people that have been suspected by the public throughout the years that are still
00:40:17
alive and still in the town or near paing Ohio now you said that it could be a teacher school bus driver you know
00:40:27
mechanic anybody you could look at all these people and raise an eyebrow and go well maybe it was him maybe it was that
00:40:34
guy maybe it was a local all along and that certainly has been the case for 62 years in Pauling Ohio
00:40:42
where the list of suspects per the public man it runs the entire town of Pauling nobody is safe
00:40:53
from suspicion the sheriff John Keeler right has been suspected by people to this day as possibly either
00:41:05
have committed the crimes or covered up the crimes because it was committed by somebody he may may
00:41:11
know now yeah and they go well look it's not solved it should be solved there's a
00:41:17
reason it's not solved oh the reason is you're covering for somebody the reason is you're covering for yourself this is
00:41:24
what happens these are how these rumors uh Build and Grow throughout the years so I'll give you a few examples one
00:41:32
example is Virgil Johnson that we talked about the restaurant owner one thing that people have pointed out that isn't
00:41:38
really something of evidence we talked about the blood earlier but one thing that was pointed out about Virgil was
00:41:45
there's a story that says that he he had a daughter that was roughly ny's age but
00:41:51
he was on the phone with Nancy a week maybe two weeks before she was killed inviting her to go skating
00:41:59
roller skating with his daughter and when she said no she couldn't go because she had a previous engagement or or
00:42:06
something that was already planned or maybe Mom and Dad just wouldn't let her go for whatever reason he he became
00:42:12
angry with her and angry at the situation that she would not go skating he was going to take his daughter and
00:42:18
several of her friends skating and to me that's a very bizarre if that's true that's a very weird scenario one for a
00:42:26
grown man to call his daughter's friend two to be angry that she wouldn't go I'm 40 years old I do not care if a
00:42:36
14-year-old goes skating or not it affects me zero right I'm not going to be angry I'm not going to be happy I'm
00:42:43
not going to be sad no matter how it shakes out another interesting story is that you're not 40 is that either a day
00:42:50
before or a week before her death Nancy babysat for the the bowling alley owner this was somebody that was well known
00:42:59
obviously to nany's family she babysat their child she tells her parents after the experience I'm
00:43:08
never doing that again I'm never going over there again but doesn't give any further explanation as to why it could
00:43:15
be something as simple as maybe the father short changed her or maybe it was an unpleasant experience because the kid
00:43:23
that she babysat sucked really bad or or could it be that she went over there to
00:43:28
babysit and learned that uh the dad's a creep yeah he pulled out his pee pee it's an interesting story pulled a Lou
00:43:35
CK could it have anything to do with this case difficult to say showed his turtle head another situation and this
00:43:42
is directly related to the Sheriff John Keeler at the time was that it's been reported that when he was out looking
00:43:50
for Nancy now keep in mind the coroner would list Nancy approximate time of death as 900 p.m. November 13th 1960 at
00:44:02
approximately 8:30 that night we have ny's parents who are in a car with their friends they are driving around
00:44:10
frantically looking for their daughter or the vehicle that took their daughter they go out Route 111 as
00:44:17
anybody would because that's the direction that we are told that the vehicle was traveling that took Nancy so
00:44:25
you go out that way and when they got out that way they get to the intersection where you have to make a
00:44:31
left to continue on Route 111 or you can go straight and now you are on paing County Road
00:44:40
176 her body was found off of that road this is approximately 8:30 the coroner says that she died at approximately 9900
00:44:48
p.m. that night there's reason to believe it's certainly possible that the Killer and the victim could have been at
00:44:56
that location at that time but also at that location is Sheriff John Keeler who tells the
00:45:04
eagleson and their friends who are out looking for Nancy go look elsewhere because I
00:45:10
already checked back here there's nothing back here many people have wondered did he find something and was
00:45:17
he covering for somebody or was he covering for himself and trying to direct people away from where Nancy was
00:45:25
eventually found the other possibility though is he was just a good man out trying to do a good
00:45:32
thing and trying to help Nancy and help the situation and for whatever reason didn't see a car or didn't see
00:45:41
Nancy and moved past and did in fact do as he said I just searched back here there's nothing here well and that's not
00:45:48
where this story ends there's more to the story possibly and who knows if this is related to all of that portion say
00:45:56
probably more to the rumors yes yeah because what we have that that takes place is many years later John keeler's
00:46:03
son John Keeler Jr his wife goes and tells police that Junior killed Nancy and was
00:46:12
responsible now Junior would have been of driving age he would have been a little bit older than Nancy a handful of
00:46:20
years older so it's certainly a possibility the thing though that I keep going back to though is the statement of
00:46:26
Cheryl saying that she do know how old the man was but she believed off of that short experience that the man was older
00:46:36
than her father or appeared to be older than her father right and so Junior would not fall into that category
00:46:42
wouldn't fall anywhere close to being in that category the other thing too that I
00:46:48
have a problem with and I'm not saying that we should discount the sheriff and say he's perfectly innocent or that the
00:46:54
son is innocent or the sheriff didn't cover for somebody I just I simply don't know but what my gut tells me is that no
00:47:02
that the sheriff probably was not covering for somebody because look at what he did we can learn we can learn from the
00:47:11
actions of his investigation well you got to go with your gut your nut and your butt that he was trying to solve
00:47:17
this case right he was contacting other agencies other law enforcement agencies if he was trying to cover up something
00:47:26
did or something that he knew the person that did it and was trying to cover for
00:47:30
them right he wouldn't be reaching out to other agencies that just brings that could bring somebody into the area that
00:47:37
is an expert and come in and see it for what it is and go nope the sheriff did this or nope the sheriff knows who did
00:47:44
this yeah not to cocka poo poo all over your idea but maybe you'd only do that if you're able to control the outside
00:47:52
entity you know oh well I can yeah bring them on board but I'm going to do so so
00:47:59
then I can see what they're going to investigate see what leads they they generate and then that I can kind of
00:48:05
steer the direction because even though you bring outside uh bring in outside sources you're still the lead in command
00:48:13
the other thing too if he if he were to cover for somebody another thing that presents the
00:48:20
idea and points to me that he was not covering for anybody would be the fact that he had several opportunities to
00:48:27
have a scapegoat for this crime yeah good point Robert Lee stovel was arrested and suspected immediately and
00:48:35
both murders and yet he investigates stovel and basically says it wasn't stoil Virgil Johnson was investigated and even
00:48:46
suspected to the point of the public that they were ready to string this man up and kill him and yet he steps in
00:48:52
intervenes and says it wasn't Virgil Johnson Thomas ball convicted of similar crimes
00:49:01
Keeler says didn't do it clears him yeah it doesn't sound like a guy that is trying to cover up a crime or cover for
00:49:07
somebody he had multiple opportunities to blame this on somebody that the public very likely would have accepted
00:49:14
right as the perpetrator of this murder and he didn't do that he investigated them and decided that they did not do it
00:49:22
leaving it open for whoever actually did it whether he's covering for them or not
00:49:27
to be charged and convicted of this crime now I presented that argument to the people that think that there that
00:49:34
there was some Mis dealings by the sheriff's office and said look this is why the sheriff didn't do it this is
00:49:40
why he wasn't covering for somebody and I think it's a valid argument but then they present the flip side of that coin
00:49:47
to me and they say was that happen stance or was that done on purpose Well normally the older cases don't they
00:49:54
don't get to me like like the newer cases or the the more recent cases but this one it seems like there's a couple
00:50:01
missteps but there doesn't seem like there's a blatant you know [ __ ] in in law
00:50:09
enforcement you know it just seems like maybe a couple missteps or maybe just where they just
00:50:15
didn't have information on certain things but this seems like it definitely solvable well and that was my personal
00:50:24
opinion as well when reviewing this case was I actually thought that the sheriff
00:50:28
worked it pretty well for 1960 again not perfect on the investigation but I thought that that Keeler did some good
00:50:36
work on this case and I know that the current Sheriff Jason Landers he has strong feelings about this case as well
00:50:46
and he too believes that it possibly could be still solved to this day and that's why porchlight and other people
00:50:53
are getting involved that's why the garage is reminding people about this old casee because it's not been solved
00:50:59
and we need to figure out what happened here now previous sheriffs and I want to
00:51:03
be clear here the current Sheriff spoke at length with us about this case and so
00:51:09
he deserves plenty of kudos for that he went out of his way giving up his valuable time to speak with us about
00:51:17
nany's unsolved case he does not fully agree with this but he passed this along to me he said that previous
00:51:26
sheriffs believe that a man named Mark Hodes committed this murder now Mark Hodges looks really good for something
00:51:35
like this something like Nancy's attack and her murder because he was believed to be driving around the area of
00:51:43
Northwest Ohio back in the day in the 60s committing very similar crimes and I say believed because Hodges
00:51:54
is a slippery dude he's one of these guys captain that he was brought to trial multiple times for
00:52:00
rape multiple times for attempted murder multiple times for murder he seemed to get acquitted every single time now I
00:52:09
did not have the ability to review those Court proceedings or those trials but what my gut tells me on Mark
00:52:19
Hodes sometimes where there's smoke there is fire and with Mark Hodes there's just too much d D smoke man he's
00:52:27
repeatedly accused and tried not arrested not suspected by the public tried brought to trial for similar
00:52:37
crimes and then eventually convicted in one of those crimes so I see a guy like Mark Hodges
00:52:44
and I go it's not impossible it's not out of the realm of possibility to believe he could have been there he
00:52:51
could have been the one that abducted and killed Nancy eagleson now we should point out that in
00:52:59
2011 a agency that is near and dear to our hearts the national Center for missing and exploited children they went
00:53:08
to paing Ohio they met with the sheriff's office they collected evidence and we are not allowed to say what it is
00:53:15
we've been asked to not say what that evidence was but they collected evidence back then that will help lead to a
00:53:22
conviction if they find the right person so that is a bright spot in this investigation and then in August of 2022
00:53:32
this year John deuth has filed a motion in paon County Probate Court to allow the body of Nancy
00:53:41
eagleson to be disinterred from the local Cemetery where she was buried nearly 62 years
00:53:49
ago a hearing is set for this September for September 20th to determine if we will be allowed to do
00:53:59
that and I'm begging we need to be able to do this because it's the last hope it's our last chance at Justice there
00:54:08
very likely could be something of strong evidentiary value found well and I don't
00:54:16
think this is going to hurt the case and I think maybe us covering it and and this happening in the news will bring
00:54:24
more attention maybe bring some more leads and and maybe we can get some actual evidence to test in this crime
00:54:33
but it's always a good case when you you know it's a good case when the colonel is getting fired up in the garage so
00:54:41
today we sit here with this case remaining unsolved since 1960 Nancy eagleson's family is still
00:54:47
searching for answers to her murder from more than 60 years ago this case is extensive and in time and in
00:54:57
materials but listen the current sheriff is passionate about this case there will be a fundraiser that
00:55:06
will be held this September 18th to help raise money for the exhumation of Nancy
00:55:13
to help further along her investigation and her case and get Justice for the people of Pauling and for the eagleson
00:55:21
and for her sisters so I encourage anybody that's in the area to go and experience that and take part in that
00:55:28
fundraiser on September 18th in ping Ohio sheriff Jason Landers believes that this case could still be solved he's a
00:55:36
good man he's a reasonable man if you know something about this crime please contact the paing County Sheriff's
00:55:44
Office at 419 399 [Music] [Applause] 3791 [Music] [Applause] like thank you so much for joining us
00:56:07
here each and every week we appreciate it we love Whispering into your sweet earlobes Colonel do we have any
00:56:16
recommended reading for the listeners this week we are coming to you with an ask for a little bit of help we don't
00:56:22
ask for help very often here at the garage but we're asking that you take a little bit of time and go to porchlight
00:56:28
online.org that is the website for the nonprofit organization the porch light project which is assisting the eagleson
00:56:37
family in hopes of exhuming Nancy eagleson's body and then reinvestigating opening up this investigation again for
00:56:45
one last crack at Justice for Nancy eagleson and for her family members please go to porchlight online.org and
00:56:54
if you wish to make a donation that will go directly toward the Nancy eagleson case we thank you so much in advance for
00:57:02
any help that you are able to offer and until next week be good be kind and don't
00:57:08
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