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Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620

October 06, 2022 / 49:39

This episode discusses the unsolved murder of Amy Baker, who was abducted and killed in 1989 after her car broke down on Interstate 95. The hosts, Nick and Captain, detail the timeline of events leading to her disappearance, including eyewitness accounts and police investigations.

Amy Baker, an 18-year-old from Stafford, Virginia, ran out of gas and left her vehicle to seek help at a nearby gas station. She was last seen walking towards the station before being abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered. The police have been actively seeking public assistance in solving this cold case, which remains open decades later.

The hosts highlight the challenges faced by investigators, including a lack of eyewitnesses and the difficulty of gathering evidence from the crime scene. They discuss the DNA evidence collected from Amy's body, which has led to the elimination of several suspects but has not yet identified the perpetrator.

Melvin Irving Shifflett, a convicted murderer, is mentioned as a potential suspect, but the DNA evidence does not match him. The episode emphasizes the ongoing efforts of law enforcement to keep the case alive and the importance of public awareness in solving cold cases.

Listeners are encouraged to come forward with any information that could help bring justice for Amy Baker and her family.

TLDR

The episode covers the unsolved murder of Amy Baker in 1989 and ongoing investigations into her abduction and death.

Episode

49:39
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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man who
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serves up Soul rolls and pimping the poultry ladies and gentlemen the captain yep I'm spending most of my life living
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in a gangster's paradise it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] today we are still sipping on Spats in Oktoberfest by our good friends overseas
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serving up the traditional Oktoberfest beer it's that time of year Captain I love the fall and I was built nice and
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sturdy for a good Oktoberfest and if you want to get authentic or pretty close to
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it for us here in the states fill up a glass with Spats in Oktoberfest garage grade three and three quarter bottle
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caps out of five and let's give a good cheers to our friend Andy from Cincinnati this cheers are coming from
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Nick in the captain but also Jamie so big shout out to our friends in Ohio yeah don't be an ass fill up a glass a
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big we like to jib goes out to Amy from Virginia everyone we mentioned went to our website truecrime garage.com helped
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us out with this week's beer funding for that we think yeah you want to help out
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the garage go to iTunes and leave us a five-star review b double e double r-u-n the that is enough of the business all
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right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] unfortunately Amy Baker is no longer with us and 33 years ago someone took
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her life after she ran into car trouble on the side of Interstate 95 way back in
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1989. now police have been up front and investigators have been up front with the public here captain and telling us
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here is what happened and the reason why they are telling us in this case and which is a little bizarre because we've
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seen in other cases where they tell us nothing about what they know that happened and still ask us for our help
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us being the public the older we're going to keep the information close to the vest statement in this case they're
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saying here is what happened public now please help us out and you'll see why they are desperate for information from
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the public based off of the evidence what the evidence suggests to them in this case so police have said repeatedly
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in the case of Amy Baker that what happened that night was that Amy ran out of gas she decided to leave
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her vehicle she walked started walking toward the this gas station that was nearby and someone unknown to her
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abducted raped and murdered her along her way along the way to getting help for her vehicle we have several reports
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that will back up this statement from the local law enforcement the first being from the Richmond Times Dispatch
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that says quote the night of March 29 1989 Amy Elizabeth Baker was driving South on Interstate 95
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when her 1970 Volkswagen broke down forcing her to pull onto the shoulder just south of State Route 617 617 exit
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in Fairfax police believe the 18-year-old Stafford woman was walking up the exit ramp
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and had nearly reached the top about 9 15 PM when she was confronted by her assailant she was then forcibly taken
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into the nearby Woods sexually assaulted and strangled this again all according to the police another report that backs
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this up comes from the Washington examiner that reports on May 29 1989 Baker was driving South on Interstate 95
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when her car stalled out around 9 00 PM the 18 year old left her blue 1970 Volkswagen Beetle on the shoulder and
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started walking toward an Exxon station on nearby Blacklick Road police believe someone accosted Baker at the top of the
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exit ramp and forced her into the woods now note that this time frame right the 9 pm sighting makes a lot of sense the
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police spotted the beetle after 10 pm with the hazard lights on but Amy left her aunt's house around 8 20. the
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distance between Falls Church in Newington is about 20 miles it should have taken Amy maybe 30 minutes even
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with some traffic to get where her car was found it seems that if Amy was seen this is all key to this case we have an
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eyewitness now it seems that if Amy was seen around nine the timing lines up nearly
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perfectly yeah and in so many cases that we've covered the timelines don't line up so it also means that her car was
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there for we could say quite a while before it was spotted by the trooper around 10 and and
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the original report says just after 10 p.m we had a press release that was issued in 2010. note the years
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right this case takes place in 1989. we have the the police actively asking the public for help in this case
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we yesterday we cited a 2005 request from law enforcement to the public asking for whoever called Crime Stoppers
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on April 3rd 1989 with some information please call us back we are still looking
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for you we want to talk to you we believe you know something that is of great importance to this case and to
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this investigation that's 2005. this press release is 2010. so what should be of no and should be a kudos to the
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police and in the investigators in this case is that they have actively been working this case all of these years
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later so this press release that was issued in 2010 says it's titled 1989 homicide of Amy Baker
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and this is now the Cold Case investigation that is happening in her case and the
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Fairfax County crime solvers had this news release from the Cold Case investigation in
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2010. it says crime solvers seeking information on Cold Case homicide Fairfax County crime solvers is seeking
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is still seeking The public's assistance identifying the person responsible for a
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homicide that occurred 21 years ago about 9 pm on Wednesday March 29 1989 18 year old Amy Baker was driving
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Southbound on Interstate 95 near Blacklick Road when her car experienced difficulties
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Amy abandoned her blue 1970 Volkswagen Bug and walked up the exit ramp onto Blacklick Road toward the Exxon gas
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station I believe it's called back lick Road and not Black Lick Road detectives believe that her attacker confronted her
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and forced her into the woods near the top of the exit ramp where she was sexually assaulted and strangled her
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body which was found two days later was partially buried in some leaves detectives continue to investigate her
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death and would like to speak with anyone who may have been in the area at the time of the attack or who may have
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knowledge of the incident in addition to the one thousand dollar cash reward offered by crime solvers a 26 thousand
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dollar private reward is also being offered for information which leads to an arrest and indictment in this case
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anyone with information is asked to contact crime solvers by phone at 1 1-866-411 tips which is 8477 you could
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also email at www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text tip 187 tip187 plus your message to
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crimes274-637 as always callers never have to give their names or appear in court well a couple things that I find
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difficult in this one is that nobody no eyewitnesses that we know of saw another vehicle
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but because this is so close to an exit ramp I also I often wonder with this case did the perpetrator
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get off the exit park somewhere and then walk back on foot that way they could make they could
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commit the crime they could commit the rape the murder and then walk back to their vehicle I would like a better
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description of what the officer who spotted these vehicles remember the vehicles that they were asking the
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public to call about so a couple things here what this tells me is those even though those are pretty
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vague descriptions either that information didn't reach those drivers and they don't know to
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reach out to police or one of those drivers does not want police knowing that they were in the
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area that night and so what I'm talking about is that 80s Buick and the um Ford Escort that police were asking for
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I want more of a description by law enforcement of why are these vehicles of importance okay they were in the area is
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what we're told what does in the area mean were they parked alongside the interstate or was one of them seen on
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Blacklick Road or were these just simply vehicles that had happened to pass by uh around the time the other thing
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that's difficult though too Captain is the vehicles that are in question that the police are asking about information
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for those Vehicles we have to keep in mind were spotted by the state trooper which
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would have been after 10 pm her car based off of the timeline that we've gone through and I know it was a little
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repetitive for the listeners there but the reason why we went through multiple reports was to confirm what police have
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said always has happened in this case right that around 9 00 PM her vehicle was already broken down out of gas
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hazards on she's on foot and they have a witness some kind of witness has told them that she was spotted on foot up
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near the exit ramp right so she had made it at least a short distance before someone accosted her those are are their
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words and so they have reason to believe based off of this eyewitness deciding that she made it pretty close to this
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gas station before the abductor happened upon her so again that again this is this is all
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very weird stuff because I keep going back to how the vehicle was found and it's found in the unlocked State the the
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doors were not locked now that could just be simple it could be something as simple as she intended to lock the doors
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but for whatever reason failed to do so because the change in her pocket suggests to me her intention was to call
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for help and remember she's only about 20 minutes away from her home my guess here if I had to try to crawl
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inside the victim's mind here would be that her intentions were to call home ask Dad or Mom to come and meet her her
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or bring her gasoline because there's nobody saying that she had a gas can which which is a little
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weird to me too seeing how this is not the first time that she's run into this problem
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but it all indicators to me are the is that she made an effort to lock her personal belongings in her vehicle
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flashers on and intended to make a phone call and then be back at her vehicle rather quickly and this gas station's
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not terribly far from her car so and I want to point that out that's something that I think when we attempt to profile
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our victim in our victims movements of that night to me that is very key because I know there's a lot of people
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out there out there that are going to say well maybe somebody offered her help and she got into somebody's vehicle
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that's certainly a possibility but I would put it at the very low probability based off of two things one if I'm an 18
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year old woman and I'm on the side of the road at night and I can see the Exxon station from my
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broken down vehicle I ain't getting in nobody's car I'm walking to that gas station and two
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we have what police tell us are and I witnessed that saw her walking and saw her up near
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that exit ramp right so here here becomes another question though if you're an 18 year old
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female and you're walking and you can see the gas station you're not going to get in the car of a
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stranger that doesn't mean you wouldn't get in a car if somebody you were familiar with
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and I also wonder is where the body was found is that the crime scene because if she did get into a vehicle
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it's very likely that the vehicle became the crime scene and they decided to drop her back off
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at this point they would have access to her keys and so they could have unlocked the door
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they could have been the ones to put on the flashers who knows yeah I mean it's it's difficult to say
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exactly what happened here but we do have the statements of police that seem pretty definitive in their statements of
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her car broke down ran out of gas she was walking on foot when she was accosted and abducted by somebody
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unknown to her and taken into the woods where she was assaulted and killed there
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um again we don't know exactly what they're basing all that information off of we do
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know that there was a an eyewitness um that saw her walking but for them to repeat that statement to the
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public and then ask the public for help time and time again it sounds to me like
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they have reason to be very locked in on that situation the other thing too is and and I know I've said this in a in a
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previous episode and somebody tried to challenge me on it but I have reviewed hundreds of cases I've never ever recall
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and you sometimes you're playing the probability and you're playing the numbers here when you're trying to
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profile these things but I've never reviewed a case where somebody has abducted sexually assaulted and killed
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and then returned to the area where they were abducted from it's to me I'm not saying it's never ever
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happened in the history of mankind what I'm saying is out of the hundreds of cases I've reviewed that it's I've never
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come across that once so that being the situation I would put that at uh very very small probability
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well obviously technology has changed since 1989 but don't you think because of the
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sexual assault because of the rape because of the strangulation that we would have some kind of evidence to test
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now to get this you know douchebag to get this murderer off the streets well the answer to that is I have two
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answers for you yes and no and as as we will see we'll get into it so luckily we
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have um some more information that comes by way of the family and this is really
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important information to me here Captain because it's coming from Mary who is Amy Baker's Aunt who was with
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Amy Baker's mother Sue Mary's the one that that first finds the body and she posted on a Fairfax message
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board about the case and I'm going to just read part of her post for the listeners because it was rather lengthy
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but here's the important stuff is is as the colonel sees it so it says quote thank you for your concern and
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compassion about Amy her car broke down at 9 30 at night and it was dark outside
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at the time it is believed she was walking to the gas station to call someone for help but never made it that
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far before being abducted I had parked my car at the gas station the morning we started searching for her and you
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couldn't see the spot where we found her from there however since she broke down on
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Interstate 95 I still find it hard to believe with all of the traffic at that exit that no one saw her with anyone
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we know she made it part way to the station before being abducted and Newington is always a busy interchange
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Blacklick which is the other Road did go across 95 at the time remember we had said that that area has changed a little
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bit and we believe she was heading for the gas station on Blacklick near the top of
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the ramp the only businesses around that area at that time were the Newington motel and the Exxon station
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no the ramp was not icy that night in fact it was very warm for a March night almost like spring we do know she made
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it to the top of the ramp and everyone was checked out that worked close to that area that night she never made it
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to the Exxon station if she had she would have made a phone call for help and a call was never made
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she had relatives that drove tow trucks that's very important and she would have
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called them not the first time she had broken down but in a different car she knew who to call
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and then it said and then just some items from my notes here remember the change was found in the pocket of Amy
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shorts we know this based off of the police reports and we know that her wallet was found in her vehicle
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so her aunt is pointing out that the most likely spot or I'm sorry what her aunt is pointing
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out is likely spot on Amy intended to use the pay phone at that Exxon station to call for help
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yeah the problem with some of these cases again is technology because at this point you know
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today if somebody makes a call well one they could have a cell phone so they could call you at the side of the road
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but let's say she made it to the gas station and made some phone calls I'm sure there was not everybody in her
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family that she could have called pulled their phone records to see if she called
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but because of the change because nobody is is admitting that they heard from her
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it's probably more likely like you said what they believe that she never made it
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to the gas station she never was able to make a call again I'm putting a lot of weight in the the investigator
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statements to the public they're not going to try to mislead us and then ask us for our help we you know as stated
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one we don't have anybody saying that they spoke to to Amy via phone that night and you're
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right Captain we I'm sure that not everyone that's related to her or um who she may have attempted to call
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that the phone records were in fact checked or confirmed that she didn't call them but we also have the statement
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that everybody that worked in the area at that time has been interviewed by police so what I'm getting at is we have
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zero eyewitnesses that put her at the Payphone zero eyewitnesses that put her at or inside the Exxon gas station this
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is a congested area high traffic area and I also imagine we don't have a ton of people that she's going to call it's
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not a list of 30 people it sounds like she would have called her home or she would have called one of these
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relatives that owned a tow truck I'm look I I know that we live in a different world today than we did in 89
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and nobody can remember anybody's phone number because we don't have to these days but I I still can't imagine an 18
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year old woman knowing that the tow truck relative's phone number by heart I she's calling
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Mom and Dad and we have we have from the from the family statement that they were home that whole night
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so I again I'm just gonna have to go off of the police statements to the public base and based off of what we do know
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and what is pointed out that that has never been brought to to light that to believe otherwise that
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that she never made it to that Exxon station well it's so frustrating because one
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the cops show up they find the vehicle they don't find her if they do a better search they find her right away we're
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able to preserve the crime scene a little bit better but on top of that there's a lot of
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missing person cases where the the person wrecks on the side of the road but it's kind of a desolate
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Road there's not a lot of people on that road she is on a road where it's a I would say a pseudo-busy
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exit you have a hotel you have a gas station and especially at that time of night you
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have a gas station that is open because this is 89 not every station is going to
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be open 24 hours or even into the late night so it's just so frustrating that the
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cops didn't find her sooner and so frustrating that there's not an eyewitness coming forward
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and telling us more information that somebody chances are somebody saw something and just thought maybe never
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followed up on it or maybe never even heard about the crime because they were traveling and passing through the area
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or maybe they they knew something but they were afraid but either way it's it's so frustrating
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that you'd think in this case there would be some eyewitness that that could really put a nail and find this bastard
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and and get this guy off the streets [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] cheers mates
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welcome back so much more to get into and so such a frustrating case for the baker family cheers to you Colonel
00:25:27
cheers Captain you're exactly right a frustrating case to the the heartbreaking and frustrating to the
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baker family and then frustrating to all involved and look again there were some
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mistakes made in our opinions early on in the case a great search was not done of that area and not that I
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would expect for a great search of that area to be conducted that night when her
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vehicle was found but certainly the next day and certainly given the items that were found in her vehicle I would have
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expected there to have been a better search of that area but we can't change that one and two the current day
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investigators are not responsible for those mistakes they they are currently Baker's case is very active and again I
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I only point that out based off of recent information coming out of law enforcement one and two you
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see the consistent and constant effort to ask the public for help we see this as late as 2005 and then again in 2010
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and 2011 and even in 2020 so there's been an effort to keep this case in the media and remind people from time to
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time that this case exists and that it's still unsolved and then we went through
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those multiple reports that were coming out early on in this case because I wanted everyone to understand the
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consistencies within those reports again it seems like police are pretty locked in on the
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following that Amy pulled over put on her hazards and started walking along the highway up the exit ramp again we
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know that a witness saw her walking since we know the timing and that she made it to the top of the exit ramp
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that's important the the the the quote that's been made of made it to the top of the exit ramp but here's the thing
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her body was found a mere 200 yards from her vehicle so we're sitting here you say frustrating Captain I agree we're
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sitting here going what the heck happened this area was not really a pedestrian area at all but it was a
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highly trafficked area Amy is walking so did some guy come along in a vehicle and
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and grab her and drag her into the woods or you know as you pointed out earlier there's still
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a possibility that pulls up in a vehicle and he drags her into the vehicle rapes
00:28:04
and kills her in his vehicle and then but again I go to the idea of why backtrack to the area where the car was
00:28:11
found just to get rid of the body this is right Beyond risky if the killer was in fact in a vehicle did he pull his
00:28:20
vehicle over and chase her into the woods that too is risky right because his vehicle would be sitting there on the
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roadside it would have attracted some attention and we do have we do have the statement
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from police in 2005 that says police don't believe Amy knew her attacker rather it was believed to have been a
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crime of opportunity a stranger on Stranger attack unless the vehicle wasn't a car and it was something like a
00:28:50
motorcycle where he could kind of hide it behind her car right that's what that's what I'm that's
00:28:57
the thing that I can't get around in this case if the perpetrator did have some kind of vehicle motorcycles very
00:29:06
interesting to think about if he did have a vehicle where did he leave the vehicle during
00:29:13
the attack and during the murder again it's difficult too because we talked about this in the Nancy eagleson case
00:29:20
that we covered not too long ago tire tracks would be key but you're not finding the body until two days later we
00:29:27
know that there were would have been other vehicles that could have contaminated that area with tire tracks
00:29:35
tire tracks near the body would be of of a bigger concern than tire tracks near where her car was found
00:29:42
the other thing too we don't know did they dust her car for Prince because we said the possibility that he
00:29:49
could have come back and placed a purse or something in the car right I I think that's the other thing though
00:29:56
too is would she get into a car with somebody she didn't know they say most likely not but it's like
00:30:05
or if she gets up to that exit so now she's inside of the gas gas station she feels a little more safe somebody pulls
00:30:12
up and says hey can I help you no I'm I just ran out of gas and the guy says oh well I have a gas can
00:30:20
and now it changes the whole game okay well I could call somebody and bother somebody and wait
00:30:27
right wait all this time for them to get dressed and come you know come find me and they're going
00:30:35
to have to get a gas can or something or we're gonna have to leave my car on the side of the road you see what I'm
00:30:42
saying so it's like yeah maybe a normal situations Amy wanted to get in to a car
00:30:48
with a stranger or get into a truck or get into a van with a stranger but what if they're offering such a
00:30:55
simple solution oh well I got a gas can we can just go fill that up real quick and put some gas in your car and you'll
00:31:02
be on your way or what if she didn't have a choice what if there's a situation where she's
00:31:09
pulled in or there's a a gun a knife or something that's presented a Threat Level that's presented that she doesn't
00:31:15
believe that she has a choice in the matter yeah it could have been Threat Level Midnight so let's go to 1995. this
00:31:23
is going to be roughly about six years after Amy's murder this is when the Fairfax County's four-member Cold Case
00:31:31
Squad was formed Amy's case was just one of many that the unit is going to be tasked with solving now as of 1998
00:31:41
Fairfax County has 71 unsolved murder cases on the books dating as far back as 1964. Fairfax County Police have a good
00:31:51
solvery they are closing more than 70 percent of the approximately 12 murders that occur in the county annually so a
00:32:00
very good solve rate by Fairfax County there are between 1400 and 1500 officers on the force so a rather large Force
00:32:11
um detective dick Klein inherited the cardboard box full of Amy Baker's murder investigation evidence
00:32:20
this in 1992 after another detective resigned Amy's case still generates phone calls to the County's crime
00:32:28
solvers hotline and two criminal investigators police continue to compare the circumstances of Amy's death with other
00:32:37
seemingly unrelated but similar crimes around the country again they're working off of
00:32:46
they seem to have evidence that they believe this is a stranger on Stranger crime So Good by them to be looking at
00:32:54
similar crimes not just in their County not just in their state but around the country detective clients experience and
00:33:01
the extreme violence of this crime of Amy Baker's murder has led this detective to conclude that whoever
00:33:08
killed Amy baker has a police record believe it or not that's pretty much the end
00:33:15
of what we know for sure about Amy's case except for one thing something you had asked about earlier captain
00:33:22
there is DNA in this case so in 1999 detective Klein told the Times Dispatch that the autopsy on Amy
00:33:33
turned up DNA evidence belonging to the killer detective Klein has had the DNA re-analyzed and run through a state
00:33:42
database of known offenders the work allowed detective Klein to eliminate five names from a list of six suspects
00:33:52
that he compiled so This Cold Case Detective comes up with six suspects after reviewing the evidence after reviewing
00:34:03
the file and working the case for a period of time the DNA evidence that they have that was collected
00:34:10
back in 1989 has eliminated five of those six suspects that this detective had repeat that again
00:34:22
out of the six suspects they had five of them have been eliminated yes detective
00:34:29
Klein after he worked the case he's a Cold Case detective after he had time to to review the evidence review the file
00:34:37
test some things and work the case for a period of time he came up with what he says is six suspects
00:34:45
and he says that the DNA evidence that was collected back then back in 1989 has eliminated five of those persons from
00:34:54
his short list of six suspects well wouldn't that mean they have one left well there's some there's some problems
00:35:01
so when earlier when I gave you the answer of yes and no when it comes to right don't we have something today that
00:35:09
we can test that can lead us to finding this offender well there's a couple problems and this also creates a problem
00:35:19
for the detective's statement that he believes based off of the evidence of the crime that he thinks whoever would
00:35:27
have killed Amy Baker would have a police record so the offender's DNA is not encodis
00:35:34
so what that means is they don't have anybody on file that doesn't mean that this guy never committed another crime
00:35:40
this doesn't mean that he never committed another felony it just means that from the time that they started that
00:35:47
CODIS started collecting DNA offender DNA the DNA that they're looking for in the Amy Baker case is not in the CODIS
00:35:56
database as we just pointed out the DNA collected at the time did not match those five other suspects so let's get
00:36:03
into the weeds a little bit and get into some better detail with this so this is
00:36:08
all based off of information that's coming from Fairfax County Police this says DNA evidence was also
00:36:16
collected at the scene but at the time the technology wasn't at the level that it is today there's no longer enough of
00:36:23
the sample left to conduct additional tests so basically they've used it all up the DNA
00:36:30
evidence that they had they used it all up the only hope now is that a suspect turns up and CODIS at some point or
00:36:39
police discover a suspect who is a match after a one-to-one comparison what I'm pointing out here Captain is that the
00:36:49
biological material that's left there's there's no more biological material left
00:36:54
so we cannot go and do a forensic genealogy right but you know think about this it's investigation
00:37:01
guy commits this crime in 89 maybe commits a similar crime and 90 when he's arrested for that crime he is then put
00:37:10
in prison but they don't take his DNA and then he's let's say murdered later on that year his information his DNA
00:37:18
would would have never been collected and there are so many obviously possibilities of this person being
00:37:26
arrested for another crime and them not getting his DNA that's correct that's that's absolutely correct
00:37:36
and so the other possibility that we have here that we should explore and this is where we need people that
00:37:44
know Amy Baker to come forward this is conversations that should have been had and maybe maybe these conversations took
00:37:51
place and that's why we are where we are today so I think it's probably uh an error on my
00:38:01
part to say that this is offender DNA that this is suspect DNA but we certainly see that they're using it to
00:38:09
eliminate people but I don't know where that DNA came from the the reports are that it was
00:38:18
collected at the scene where her body was found that you know and without getting too
00:38:24
you know I'm not going to get into to Too Much discussion of our victim here because we know that she was attacked
00:38:30
they believed that she was sexually assaulted uh that a rape was committed and then she was murdered that's been
00:38:37
their statement so based off of their statements I would suspect that to be the Killer's DNA it's
00:38:45
the it belongs to the the rapist and the killer who are the same person is there
00:38:50
a chance that we could have a situation where there was a consensual sexual encounter
00:38:56
leading up to her before her car breaks down I'm not saying you know sometime earlier that day
00:39:04
and this is kind of boogered up the investigation right because there's a chance that she
00:39:10
could have been abducted assaulted and killed but it's not in the traditional sexual
00:39:19
slash rape manner that we're thinking of so and I I bring all that messy stuff and disgusting stuff up for good reason
00:39:28
and that is because there is a suspect we we said that has not been cleared through
00:39:36
um sorry and I say that because there is that sixth suspect one who has not been cleared by DNA
00:39:45
so you think that that's pretty easy right but there's also a suspect that the police really like in this case
00:39:54
who has been cleared by the DNA well that's that's pretty interesting so that makes the DNA very confusing here in
00:40:02
this situation right and this this suspect is Melvin Irving shifflett so Melvin Shiflett is a convicted
00:40:12
murderer and he has also sexually assaulted and attempted to murder another victim but
00:40:20
thankfully she smacks him in the head with a bottle damn near knocks him out and she flees the scene and is later
00:40:27
able to testify against him so the sexual assault that he conducted on these two victims one that was
00:40:35
murdered one that he attempted to murder was that he forced the victim to perform
00:40:42
oral sex on him he was unable to perform he's unable to get an erection and yet he murders the
00:40:52
one victim and attempts to murder the other victim and by the way in both cases strangulation
00:41:01
was the method of murder and the method of attempted murder so this is not the kernel just bringing
00:41:08
up a suspect here this is a suspect that is being looked at in this case by the investigators that are working this case
00:41:16
yeah you're not being all willy-nilly or sing-along ding dong so where we see science help in so many cases we can
00:41:24
also see situations where science is confusing stupid science and it's not so helpful right but again
00:41:33
you would think that they would have information about Amy's personal life and details of the events of her
00:41:42
personal life that led up to her car running out of gas before she's because the period of time that goes
00:41:50
down between her running out of gas and the murder some of that's going to be based off of
00:41:56
science off of the coroner's findings at the autopsy and some of that's going to be based off
00:42:02
of eyewitnesses and who are those eyewitnesses the eyewitnesses are her family that know the time that she left their
00:42:13
home to travel home her family that she spoke to on the phone that says I'm leaving I'm on my
00:42:20
way home I'll be there soon and the potential witness that saw her at the top or near the top of the exit
00:42:28
ramp you are going to include all of those in your findings and in your statement
00:42:36
of making a time of death which they have stated occurred within 30 to maybe 60 minutes after she left her vehicle
00:42:49
we should point out a couple of things before we move off of this suspect Melvin Irving schifflett
00:42:56
so while I've seen two I've seen several reports that that make him the sixth suspect or an uncleared suspect again
00:43:05
the the clearing of five with the DNA based off the reports I've seen doesn't clear him in this case right he's one of
00:43:14
the five that the DNA doesn't match but to say that it cleared him is difficult because
00:43:21
it seems like he's remained on their list of suspects based off of his previous crimes
00:43:28
the murder that he committed the attempted murder that he he committed but the DNA
00:43:36
doesn't match up so I I we need to point out all angles here especially when we're talking about a quote unquote
00:43:44
suspect here right so we should note that Melvin Irving shiftlet he did get out of prison one month before Amy was
00:43:53
killed but one local paper this is the freelance star reported that Melvin Irvin schifflett one of the Region's
00:44:03
known Killers now serving time on rape and murder charges was cleared after a comparison with DNA evidence taken from
00:44:10
Amy's body so he he remains a a very confusing suspect in this case and in this on the list of suspects and we
00:44:21
don't have other people being named publicly it's very frustrating and frustrating
00:44:28
probably for law enforcement because so much time has gone by but even more frustrating for Amy Baker's family and
00:44:36
friends and loved ones and to expand on that frustration Captain we have a 2014 article again from the freelance star
00:44:44
that reports Fairfax police this is detective John Farrell who is the Cold Case officer in charge
00:44:53
at at the time of 2014 in charge of Amy's case he acknowledged publicly the frustration a case such as this brings
00:45:03
to the family and to police he would not speak at the time specifically about the
00:45:09
case in particular about the condition or the availability of DNA evidence that was recovered
00:45:15
from our victim we pretty much we got pretty much the same thing when we contacted the Fairfax police Cold
00:45:25
Case unit the the email that we received back was the Amy Baker case is an active case
00:45:31
being investigated by our Cold Case Squad due to the case being active I will not comment on suspect or evidence
00:45:39
status at this time we always welcome the documentaries so that the public knows we have not forgotten the victims
00:45:47
and the potential that someone out there listening will come forward with new information if you saw something say
00:45:55
something or if you've heard something say something this case is solvable this case is very solvable and it's one
00:46:05
captain that there there are some local rumors and such that that we didn't feel
00:46:11
would be appropriate to review here um for reasons that we cannot get into at this time but this is a case that you
00:46:20
may find us revisiting on off the Record at some point as as Clarity comes forward in some of this
00:46:29
information that we are currently sitting on again like the captain says if you if you saw something say
00:46:36
something if you know something that's I think that's the the other thing that we need to point
00:46:42
out here right a lot of time has expired between the time that Amy was killed and
00:46:48
today somebody likely has told somebody something along the way something that they did back in 1989
00:46:56
something that they're not proud of something that they they may even be scared of
00:47:01
uh somebody that's been looking over their shoulder all of this time so if anybody has said anything to you uh over
00:47:09
the years and you know something help this family out please please help this family out help them find some peace
00:47:16
right it's been a long time and Sue Baker and the the wonderful Baker family they deserve to
00:47:26
to have some peace and to get some justice for their daughter who never made it home that night
00:47:34
[Music] I want to thank you so much for joining us here in the garage and thank you so
00:47:49
much for tagging us in your stories on Instagram we absolutely love it and we love seeing those Colonel do we have any
00:47:57
recommended reading for the beautiful listeners you know what this week Captain we are recommending a book by
00:48:03
Christopher Barry D titled talking with serial killers the most evil people in the world tell their own stories and I
00:48:11
blanked a couple weeks ago when we talked about the Texas monster that is Kenneth McDuff and I blanked because I
00:48:20
should have recommended this book when we covered that case because there's an interview with Kenneth mcduffin here and
00:48:27
I use that for part of the research there's also interviews with several other serial killers this is the most
00:48:33
evil people in their own words so check out that great title again it is talking
00:48:39
with serial killers by Christopher Barry D you can find that book and other titles including podcasts other books
00:48:48
maybe movies documentaries several recommendations all on our recommended page on our website
00:48:54
truecrimegarage.com and you know they're good because they're coming from the goat
00:48:59
until next week be good be kind and don't live [Music] foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most heartbreaking

Episode Highlights

  • Police Seek Public Help
    Law enforcement is actively seeking information about Amy's case, which remains unsolved.
    “They have reason to believe based off of this eyewitness.”
    @ 16m 11s
    October 06, 2022
  • The Tragic Case of Amy Baker
    33 years ago, Amy Baker was abducted after her car broke down on Interstate 95.
    “She never made it that far before being abducted.”
    @ 18m 29s
    October 06, 2022
  • Frustrating Investigation
    The investigation into Amy Baker's murder has been filled with frustration for her family and law enforcement. "It's so frustrating that you'd think there would be some eyewitness."
    “It's so frustrating that you'd think there would be some eyewitness.”
    @ 24m 31s
    October 06, 2022
  • DNA Evidence Complications
    Detective Klein's investigation reveals DNA evidence that has eliminated five suspects but leaves one still unclear. "The DNA evidence that was collected back in 1989 has eliminated five of those six suspects."
    “The DNA evidence that was collected back in 1989 has eliminated five of those six suspects.”
    @ 34m 10s
    October 06, 2022
  • Call for Public Help
    Detectives urge anyone with information about Amy Baker's case to come forward. "If you saw something, say something."
    “If you saw something, say something.”
    @ 45m 55s
    October 06, 2022
  • Talking with Serial Killers
    A must-read book featuring interviews with serial killers, revealing their thoughts in their own words.
    “This is the most evil people in their own words.”
    @ 48m 30s
    October 06, 2022
  • True Crime Recommendations
    Find books, podcasts, and documentaries on our recommended page at truecrimegarage.com.
    “You know they're good because they're coming from the goat.”
    @ 48m 58s
    October 06, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Don't be an ass, fill up a glass!
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620
  • She never made it that far before being abducted.
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620
  • It's so frustrating that you'd think there would be some eyewitness.
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620
  • Please help this family out, help them find some peace.
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620
  • Check out that great title again: Talking with Serial Killers.
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620
  • Be good, be kind, and don't live.
    Amy Baker /// Part 2 /// 620

Key Moments

  • Amy's Abduction02:35
  • Desperate for Information03:21
  • Eyewitness Account06:01
  • Cold Case Investigation07:25
  • Frustration24:31
  • Public Appeal45:55
  • Book Recommendation48:36
  • Closing Thoughts48:59

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown