00:00:00
And now for a bit of breaking news between your breaking news with me, the Geico Gecko.
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Here are some things you ought to know today. People who switch their car insurance to Geico save about $900 a
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year. Experts are calling that nice to know. Also, plants can hear when bees buzz.
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My fers just heard that. And finally, animal experts have confirmed that goats have regional accents.
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I'm getting a hint of Irish there. >> It feels good to get good news. It feels good to Geico.
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>> Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub listening to your favorite true crime
00:00:37
podcast. And then chronic hives come back again in the middle of the episode. What a wet blanket. Looks like another
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spell of itchy, swollen, red, or skin colored hives. If you have chronic spontaneous urtdicaria or CSU, there may
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be a different treatment option. Worried about your chronic hives interrupting our next episode? Learn more at
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treatmyhives.com/g. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:01:51
for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man who would like to have the sensitive and dumb
00:01:58
combo platter removed from the world's menu. Here is the captain. >> That's cuz I keep eating it. It's good
00:02:04
to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
00:02:12
This week we are excited to be featuring Boneface Killer by longtime friends of the show Tactical Brewing Company in
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beautiful Orlando, Florida. Boneface Killer is a hazy IPA loaded with Citra, Cryo, Mosaic, and Northeast Chinook
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hops. ABV, 7% Garage Grade 4, and 3/4 bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and high praise to some of
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our good friends for helping us fill up the old garage fridge. First up, a cheers, a double cheers to Jerry and
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Lisa in Arkansas. Treat yourself. >> And a big relationship goes out to Ashley P and Woodlands, Texas. And last,
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but certainly not least, we have a longdistance cheers to Arnica, Nasty Painter, and Exit, England. Everyone we
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just mentioned went to true crimegar.com and helped us out with this week's beer
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fund. And for that, we thank you. >> Yeah. PW ru beer run for everything true crime. Check out true crimegar.com.
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While you're there, sign up on the mailing list. And Colonel, that's enough of the Bas.
00:03:27
>> All right, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
00:03:43
The following is an excerpt from the Orlando Sentinel, a Henry Curtis article published in
00:03:51
1992, One Day after Christmas, titled Oyola Killers Leave Bloody Trail of Terror in
00:04:01
' 92. CMI, Florida detective John Meyers knows almost everything about the day Bonnie
00:04:08
Goodson died except the final 20 minutes before her killing. Closing that small gap could help CMI law enforcement
00:04:18
protect its 109year record of solving murders. A record now threatened by two unsolved cases during Oyola County's
00:04:28
deadliest year since the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began tracking homicide data in 1971.
00:04:38
By late 1992, 10 people had died in violent crimes in the county. Bonnie Goodson, killed in late November of '92,
00:04:46
was the 10th. Meyers says, "Many cases have been solved with community help, often from details people dismissed as
00:04:56
minor." Quote, "Sometimes it's been with something someone thought was unimportant, but there's nothing
00:05:04
unimportant in a homicide investigation. He is seeking any information about Bonnie Goodson's movements on the
00:05:13
afternoon of November 30th, 1992, especially at the Truck Accessory Superstore located at 205
00:05:22
South Bermuda Avenue. That day should be memorable. Murder dominated local conversation after two local men were
00:05:33
killed in a carjacking outside CM the day before. Bonnie Goodson, a 34year-old mother of
00:05:41
two daughters, went to work as usual, riding a red singlese bicycle. She served a couple of customers until
00:05:49
around noon when a co-orker brought her soup from Fat Boy's Barbecue Restaurant on Vine Street. The last known
00:05:59
customers, a husband and wife, arrived at 2:30 p.m. and bought a latch for their pickup truck cover about 20
00:06:08
minutes later. Goodson was found bleeding heavily from head wounds. She died after being flown to Orlando
00:06:17
Regional Medical Center. Less than $500 was missing from the register. Detective
00:06:23
Meyers describes the attack as brutal and questions the motive. Was it anger? Was it robbery? Or both? The 1992
00:06:34
killings began only three blocks from Goodson's store on the night of February 26th, 1992
00:06:43
when Dr. Ruth How, a CMI chiropractor, was abducted from her Bermuda Avenue office. This true crime story focuses on
00:06:52
Curtis Huff Jr., a suspect in multiple unsolved homicides in Oyola County, and five still unsolved cases.
00:07:02
The 1992 murders of Ruth How, Mary Ellen Wise, Antonio Zuko, and Bonnie Goodson,
00:07:10
and the 2006 murder of Helen McFersonen. This is True Crime Garage. And this is suspect number one.
00:07:40
Wednesday evening, February 26th, 1992. This is CM, Florida. We have Dr. Ruth How, age 41. She's going about what
00:07:53
should have been an ordinary workday. The good doctor is a chiropractor at the Sandre Roberts Chiropractic Clinic. That
00:08:03
day, patients came and went as usual. The clinic's rhythm of appointments, phone calls, all led to the typical
00:08:12
routine end of the day steps. But sometime that evening, those rhythms broke. Ruth's partner, Jean Wagner,
00:08:22
tried calling the office and reached what sounded like an automated message. So instead of getting a hold of the
00:08:31
roommate, they get the automated message instead. Ruth does not pick up the phone
00:08:37
there at the office. This seemed odd to Jean as she knew that Ruth would be working late that evening. It was the
00:08:45
kind of small oddity that can nag at a person, especially when paired with another because when Jean gets home from
00:08:54
work, Ruth's car was not there, expecting to see Ruth's car. If she was not at the office, her car should have
00:09:00
been been at their home. Jean's worry sharpened into something heavier, an intuition that something was incredibly
00:09:09
wrong. So, Jean drove to Ruth's office that same night to check for herself. What she found looked like a scene
00:09:19
absolutely interrupted. The office door to the business was a jar. A telephone line had been cut. So, this is the line
00:09:29
that runs from the wall to the desk phone for Ruth. This line had been cut. >> Well, that's not bizarre at all.
00:09:38
>> Not at all. Gan recalled that someone had scheduled a late appointment that evening with Ruth. This was an
00:09:45
appointment that now in hindsight felt less like a patient visit and more like some kind of lure. Ruth was officially
00:09:54
reported missing that night at 10:30 p.m. This is February 26th, 1992. And investigators obviously based off of
00:10:05
the details we just covered and what they are seeing at the scene believe that Ruth had been abducted from her
00:10:12
place of work and that this likely had occurred hours prior to her being reported missing. In fact, they put the
00:10:21
believed time of abduction at 7:30 p.m. This from her Bermuda Avenue office. >> Yeah. You don't think about how
00:10:31
vulnerable some of these jobs are. We've talked a lot about real estate agents being vulnerable. I think chiropractors
00:10:39
or masseuse and especially in situations where you have clients that you're in physical contact with them. Some of
00:10:47
these men might not understand that this individual is just doing their job. There's no romantic intimacy here.
00:10:55
>> Well, and anytime you have somebody looking for a victim or looking to victimize someone, they're often looking
00:11:04
for an individual, right? There's strength in numbers, the old buddy system. And so when you talk about
00:11:10
people like a realtor or in this case a chiropractor, if you can arrange an appointment, you very likely will
00:11:19
encounter that person whether you they are your specific target or not on a solo one- on-one situation.
00:11:27
>> Well, and all these individuals, they're essentially being paid to also be nice
00:11:32
to you. They're selling a service. Ruth's business partner, chiropractor Sandre Roberts, said that the office
00:11:40
appeared to have been robbed. Though publicly, what was stated is that the stolen items were described as not
00:11:46
valuable. So, I guess the kind of theft that doesn't seem to quite add up unless
00:11:51
robbery is only part of the story. >> Yeah. Or maybe it's items that the killer touched. I think it's also we
00:12:00
don't want to be too specific when we tell the public what was stolen because you're hoping to find these items on
00:12:08
your perpetrator. After being abducted from the office, investigators believe Ruth was then driven 3 hours
00:12:15
away to Vero Beach, Florida. The basis for this belief wasn't rumor or some vague theory. It was a camera and a bank
00:12:25
card. An ATM camera at the Sunrust Bank at 1716 Highway A1A captured an image of a
00:12:35
person using Ruth Hal's bank card. The person on the footage seems to have taken deliberate steps to hide their
00:12:44
identity. What you can see on the footage is an individual wearing a green short sleeved shirt with two buttoned
00:12:55
pockets on each side over top. So this short sleeve shirt is over top of a hooded sweatshirt and the hood is pulled
00:13:04
up and the strings on the hood pulled tight. So it's concealing the face. You cannot see the person's face. So it
00:13:13
looks like a hooded person with no face at all. And the hood again is completely
00:13:20
closed shut. Authorities could not say this was this was weird in the beginning parts of this case. So to I think just
00:13:29
to cover all bases here when reviewing this photo and then when it was released to the public they did state like we we
00:13:38
can't say that that's not Ruth in the underneath the hooded sweatshirt because again you can't see any features of this
00:13:48
person but they'll do further analysis of this security camera footage later that we will have details of But that
00:13:57
was their statement right out the gate that, you know, we can't say if this is Ruth or not, but we do not believe it to
00:14:05
be Ruth based off of the stature and the uh posture of this individual. >> Yeah, you would think they'd be able to
00:14:13
figure out the height pretty quickly, but if I'm law enforcement, I'm just putting out this image and saying,
00:14:19
"We're looking for this person." The other part of this though too is this is a walk up ATM and part of what I believe
00:14:29
that they are saying is Ruth could still be present in this moment just not caught on the camera because the camera
00:14:37
is fixed in a way that it's up close and personal to whoever is the one accessing
00:14:44
that ATM. what they can say it's absolutely Ruth's ATM card and what they were also saying you know you can kind
00:14:52
of just forget everything that they said right out the gate because what they are
00:14:55
saying is we believe the person seen here is the person who is responsible for abducting Ruth it's the only thing
00:15:04
that makes sense why else who else would be this person uh Ruth wouldn't stage a
00:15:10
scene I don't think and then disguise herself only to use her her own personal card at a bank three hours away.
00:15:20
>> Well, we've seen a quite a few women like to stage their own kidnapping. Now,
00:15:29
the implication here, while maybe not so clear, should be clear. Financially accessing her personal accounts, you're
00:15:39
going to need to you're going to use this marker on your timeline to narrow the window between her disappearance and
00:15:45
what would soon be found. So on the following morning, this is February 27th, this is a Thursday, a child, this
00:15:54
is a fifth grader, riding the school bus to school, looks out the window and saw
00:15:59
something that no child should ever have to see. This is around 8:30 a.m. that morning when the child spotted a body in
00:16:08
an orange grove. way to start the day. >> Yeah. From my understanding, this good
00:16:14
kid right here, she sits in the very back of the bus and it's believed that she's the only one that spotted or at
00:16:22
least the only one that reported this site based off of her vantage point in the bus. And this poor girl very quietly
00:16:31
and respectfully reports to the bus driver what she saw or believed she was seeing. And so what we do learn is this
00:16:40
was in fact the body and this is about 10 miles east of St. Cloud, Florida. And that body was later determined to be
00:16:49
that of Ruth House. >> Well, the eyewitness almost didn't see the body because she was listening to
00:16:55
Outcast so loud. >> Ruth was found sprawled in the orange grove. She was fully clothed and
00:17:03
barefoot. There were no signs of sexual assault, but there was unmistakable violence. Her blouse was covered in
00:17:11
blood. Ruth was stabbed 11 times and her throat was slashed. She did have defensive wounds. Near her body lay a
00:17:21
clue that seemed oddly specific. It was a plastic case for a Children of the Sun
00:17:28
cassette tape, an album by Billy Thorp. There was however no cassette tape. So it's the case with the album cover and
00:17:38
the liner notes but without the actual cassette tape itself. >> And because it's in a field there is a
00:17:44
possibility that this doesn't belong to the crime scene but very strange. >> That is the complication of any outdoor
00:17:54
crime scene discussed many times on this show. >> As investigators tried to reconstruct
00:17:59
the final hours of their victim. And they be they began collecting sightings from these same places and the times
00:18:10
that they suspected that there would be activity. So they wanted information from the public about a red pickup truck
00:18:17
that was reportedly seen near the Orange Grove area around the time that Ruth was
00:18:24
considered missing. Was the red truck seen on surveillance footage? Like the hooded individual?
00:18:32
>> No, this is a truck that was seen reported to have been seen by someone in the area. I believe possibly by more
00:18:40
than one person, >> right? >> And it's here's the problem. They think they know about what time she was
00:18:48
abducted. Okay? And this is why I think they they are honing in on that 7:30 time period. There's no one there at the
00:18:57
office when she's abducted. They have some other information that might lead them to believe that it's 7:30, but but
00:19:04
your critical piece of evidence here that you're going to use is that ATM footage because it's going to have a
00:19:12
time stamp on it. You know that the distance traveled is r roughly three hours from point A where the abduction
00:19:19
took place at her office to point B, the ATM. Now, you don't know if she's already been, sorry for the poor
00:19:28
terminology here, disposed of by this point, but you have that that marker there. Okay, so you're going to use that
00:19:37
marker to come up with that 7:30 abduction time. And then you know that obviously she was placed there before
00:19:45
8:30 a.m. So a red truck in this remote location reported to have been seen in this remote location. its activity
00:19:55
unknown is going to be important to you especially you know if if once it's in that window of time and I bet you that
00:20:04
window that time frame is much smaller much more condensed at what they were looking at in this investigation
00:20:11
>> right so currently we have the abduction site or office >> we have the surveillance on the ATM and
00:20:20
then we have this truck which might be the transport vehicle and then we have the disposal site. Sorry for the crude
00:20:30
term, but do we think that site is where the murder took place or do we think the
00:20:37
murder took place somewhere else? Possibly in a vehicle. >> Yeah. So, we're looking at a minimum
00:20:44
four crime scene situation here. No, they they believe that while the science would tell you that she expired where
00:20:55
she was found, the amount of blood found there does not line up with the amount of blood she would have lost. So, the
00:21:02
attack started, the physical attack of the stabbing started someplace other than where she was eventually found. So,
00:21:10
back to the truck here, Captain. Witnesses described the truck as possibly a Chevy S10 or a Ford Ranger.
00:21:18
So, this would be a smaller sized pickup truck. They have some pretty good detailed information here, though,
00:21:26
>> right? >> They state that there was a crescentshaped logo on the driver's side
00:21:30
door and a black side to side toolbox in the bed of the truck. >> So, maybe a handyman's vehicle. They
00:21:40
also were looking for answers, of course, at Ruth's last known location, or at least closer to her office. This
00:21:49
leads police to finding another sighting of a different vehicle. This is a white
00:21:55
1979 Monte Carlo sedan that was spotted parked in front of Ruth's office on the night that she disappeared. Now, there's
00:22:04
another witness that reports seeing a white sedan. The part that's missing from this account is the 79 Monte Carlo,
00:22:13
but this is a white sedan similar to a Monte Carlo driving erratically north on Bermuda Avenue, then speeding east on
00:22:22
Vine Street. And the witness thought that there may have been two people inside the vehicle. So, this is this is
00:22:29
very difficult. Here you see the truck at this location where the body is later discovered. So you have interest in the
00:22:36
truck. You would expect that there would be the abductor and the the victim here
00:22:42
inside a vehicle together. So now you have two vehicles of interest in your investigation.
00:22:50
>> So if you're law enforcement, are you thinking two vehicles possibly involved
00:22:55
in this crime? Are we thinking one perpetrator or are we thinking possibly two? >> That's a great question. I I don't think
00:23:03
they're closing doors on either of those possibilities uh at the at the >> because with the eyewitness seeing the
00:23:10
white sedan with the two ve um with the two passengers, you go, well, is that the perpetrator and the victim or is
00:23:19
that two perpetrators and the victims somewhere else in the vehicle? >> Exactly. And to your point of the
00:23:25
cassette tape, does it have anything to do with the case at all? >> Yeah, I am going and pushing eject my
00:23:33
friend and all the car stereoss. I'm I'm looking for that tape that there can't be there wasn't millions of records
00:23:42
sold. >> Now, to keep in mind, you know, it's very easy to come in and be a contrarian
00:23:48
on these cases and point to this that and the other thing and go, "Well, it may not have anything to do with the
00:23:53
case at all. may not have anything to do but but the way that you need to approach these if you want to solve a
00:23:58
case >> the way that you do it is it has everything to do with your case until it
00:24:02
doesn't until you can prove that it doesn't. So right now as it stands if I'm the investigator the red truck means
00:24:09
something. It was there where the body was found. I want to know when and why it was there. Who was driving it? And
00:24:15
was that truck there before or after the the body was placed there? Uh the the white vehicle, the white sedan. I want
00:24:23
to know why was it parked in front of her office. I mean, that's a crime scene. Both of these are crime scenes.
00:24:29
So, a vehicle at either crime scene has everything to do with your crime, with that crime. And same with the plastic
00:24:38
cassette tape uh box or cover, whatever you want to call it, the the case. Now, our victim, Ruth How was known to see
00:24:48
patients in the evening. Now most of us know typically doctors are going to do a
00:24:54
9-to-f5 Monday through Friday operation. Ruth would see patients in the evening,
00:25:00
but this was strictly by appointment only. So, we now go back to this appointment and remember her roommate
00:25:08
Jean said, "I knew that she had an appointment that night and and that's why it was weird that I got the
00:25:13
automated service or the voicemail when I called the office instead of Ruth picking up the phone."
00:25:19
>> Well, and that's why I was curious when they state that there was things stolen.
00:25:24
I'm starting to think, was there a day planner stolen? Was their contact information stolen that would lead to
00:25:31
the identity of who set up that appointment? >> Yeah. And they have that information. So
00:25:37
the office very rightfully so would not identify the appointment or the patient of that appointment to the papers. That
00:25:46
information was of course given to the investigating officers. >> Right. >> Okay. So let's circle back to some
00:25:54
things here. Ruth's bank card had been used at this automated teller machine to withdraw funds from her account on the
00:26:04
night that she went missing. And again, this is done by someone caught on camera
00:26:08
wearing a strange outfit, concealing their identity, and then her body is discovered the following morning laying
00:26:16
in an orange grove. And we will have these images that were captured at the automated teller machine on that
00:26:26
February night in 1992 on our social for you to view for yourself. So you know me, Captain, I live in the weeds, baby.
00:26:35
So let's get into the weeds here, shall we? >> Cuz we have that information, that
00:26:41
information that wasn't given to the papers. We have additional information like the identity or fake identity
00:26:48
rather of the after hours patient. >> Well, and like our buddy Ken says, it's a nice garage, but it's full of weeds.
00:26:55
>> According to the police report, Dr. How had been scheduled at the last minute to
00:27:01
see a new patient. So, this is somebody that neither doctor would be familiar with. A new patient who said that their
00:27:07
name was Michael Greenwell. This so-called Michael Greenwell had phoned the office, left a call back number of
00:27:16
8703847, and I believe the area code there would be 407. So, if you're bored this evening, give
00:27:25
that number a call a few times to see who picks up. >> Yeah, tell them we sent you.
00:27:29
>> That's right. And the caller stated that they had insurance. You know, this is a
00:27:34
medical practice, so that's going to be a common question. and they stated that their insurance carrier was Blue Cross
00:27:40
Blue Shield. >> I don't know any Green Wells. So, I don't know if that makes it a good fake
00:27:46
name or not. >> So, in the weeds here, Captain, on the night of February 26, 1992, the CMI
00:27:52
Police Department responded to 22 North Bermuda Avenue in CM, Florida. This in reference to what was the call was a
00:28:03
suspicious incident. Okay. So when the officers arrived, they learned that Dr. Ruth How had been working late. And they
00:28:10
talked to the owner, her partner, Dr. Sandre Roberts. She owns that chiropractic office. They learned that
00:28:17
about at approximately 10:15 is when Dr. Hout's roommate went to the office and found the front door, a jar. Okay, so
00:28:27
she's missing. The roommate enters the office, finds her missing, finds her car still parked out front of the building,
00:28:36
and this is when she discovers the cut phone line. Okay, and I know I'm kind of rehashing some of this here, but again,
00:28:44
the devil is in the details here, and there are a lot of details in this abduction and murder case, and I want to
00:28:51
make sure that none of them are lost on any of us here in the garage. >> Yeah, you don't need to apologize. just
00:28:56
tell the story the way you want to tell the story. >> So, some of the items that were missing
00:29:00
from the two scenes, right? One, the scene where the body was found and to the scene where the likely abduction,
00:29:08
the chiropractic office were as follows. So, they believe that some additional cards would be missing. So, the bank
00:29:16
card or additional bank cards and personal and business type cards of Dr. for Ruth House. Also missing, and I
00:29:24
think this goes along with the ATM card and the activity at the ATM, the item not described, simply described as not
00:29:33
important or not of value to the newspaper was actually a silver cash box. So, this would be an item of value
00:29:40
that could have cash in it. In fact, it was the business's petty cash box, >> right? Uh, it stated only that this box
00:29:48
contained a small amount of cash, but it also contained two Marriott dinner tickets, which is something that I don't
00:29:55
think exists to this day, but back in the '90s, it was a thing. Now, they did find Ruth H's car keys on her desk next
00:30:07
to that cut telephone line. And then the following morning when the deputies from
00:30:12
the Oyola County Sheriff's Office responded to an orange grove off of Hickory Tree Road in St. Cloud, Florida.
00:30:20
Again, this is the morning of the 27th. When they arrived, they find that Ruth's
00:30:25
body in the orange grove. Again, this is a rural section of Oyola County. And very quickly they connect the dots from
00:30:34
the call the night before to this call that they're getting in the morning that we've located our missing person. We
00:30:43
thought it was an abduction and it's not only unfortunately an abduction but a extremely violent one that ended in the
00:30:51
stabbing death of our victim. And now we have this additional information that there was someone who stopped and
00:30:59
attempted to use her bank card at an ATM approximately a 3 hours drive from the abduction location.
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in the air. Thank you for letting us tickle your ear balls. Cheers to you, Colonel.
00:36:48
>> Cheers to you, Captain. raise them high. Items at the crime scene that were discovered and information that would
00:36:55
later come out about this brutal murder was the medical examiner's office later determined that the cause of death was
00:37:03
multiple sharp force injuries to the head, neck, trunk, and extremities of the victim. The injuries were caused by
00:37:11
a cutting instrument not less than 2 in and not greater than 14 in in length. The Oyola County Sheriff's Office and
00:37:21
the CMI Police Department joined together to investigate the death of Dr. Ruth Hout. Again, we have numerous
00:37:30
investigative leads right out of the gate here. Again, we already talked about uh possibility of a small model
00:37:37
red pickup truck seen at the Orange Grove. police in their notes. We have some portions of the police report and
00:37:46
the police file here in this story and they're stating a lot of obvious stuff in the notes, but I find that to be
00:37:56
great thorough police work. Okay, they're saying things as simple as the distance between where her body was
00:38:03
found and the abduction location is it would be necessary for a vehicle to be used. Okay. So, they they are asking
00:38:12
this question to the medical examiner. We found her here. She was abducted way over here. We know that a vehicle had to
00:38:21
have been used to transport her. What's your opinion, medical examiner, about what took place between the abduction
00:38:30
time and us discovering the body? And that's when the medical examiner explains, look, do the vehicle used
00:38:38
would have had a large m amount of blood staining in it due to the amount of blood missing from the victim's body.
00:38:45
Right? So the doctor explains that while Dr. How may have been stabbed in a vehicle, she expired in the orange
00:38:54
grove. At the orange grove, they also recovered tire impressions from the crime scene. These tire castings were
00:39:03
examined and found to be that of BFG Goodrich Comp Ta model P215/65. Okay, I say all that just to tell you
00:39:15
this, that tire comes from the factory, which is most often used on a small model pickup truck. Okay. You can also
00:39:24
buy it aftermarket and put it on your pickup truck, but it's most commonly used on on newer GMC S15s and Chevy S10s
00:39:35
and other small GMC pickup trucks. Again, some of these from the factory when you purchase the sports value
00:39:44
package. >> Yeah. So, not impossible that it would be on a Ford Ranger, but we have people
00:39:49
saying, "Well, maybe it's a Ford Ranger, maybe it's a S10, but if you're going to
00:39:54
go into a direction, you're probably looking for a S10 S10 or GMC." And what's cool about this
00:40:02
information is you can kind of pri right, you're going to keep a list of all these possible trucks and the
00:40:09
models, but you can kind of prioritize them based off of this information. Well, I want to know how far away this
00:40:15
is milewise. And depending on if it if we know it's a S10 or or roughly an S10, then what's
00:40:24
the range of an S10 on a full tank of gas? And where would an individual possibly have to refill? And are there
00:40:35
any eyewitnesses in around those areas? Yeah. What I'm finding to be the most interesting here, circling back to one
00:40:44
abductor or a team of of abductors, is either way, this would appear to me to be highly thought out and planned.
00:40:55
Whether the abductor or abductors knew the victim or not, that's neither here nor there. That doesn't it will mean
00:41:03
something to your investigation, but it doesn't mean anything to the indicators of this being highly planned because
00:41:10
what I'm seeing here is this red truck while spotted at the orange grove never seen at the abduction location.
00:41:20
>> Right? The white sedan, white Monte Carlo seen at the abduction location, never seen at the location where the
00:41:28
body's later discovered. And we don't have any vehicle information regarding the ATM situation, but what I'm seeing
00:41:36
here is the likelihood of one abductor that managed to use two vehicles in the course of this abduction.
00:41:44
>> Yeah, there's a sophistication to this, right? If if one vehicle is seen at the
00:41:50
abduction site and there's a different vehicle seen at the disposal site, then is it possible that law enforcement
00:41:58
won't take certain eyewitness accounts as serious? >> I would prioritize the small red pickup
00:42:07
truck because what's the difference between the two locations? One's very remote and rural and the other is uh a
00:42:15
business area highly populated. So, if I've if I think that my killer is smart enough to think this out and think this
00:42:23
through and put some things into place, >> right, >> I then would have to believe that he was
00:42:28
would be smart enough to use someone else's vehicle conveniently for the abduction and use his truck, which would
00:42:36
less likely to have been seen for the actual attack, killing, and disposal of the victim. So, with the information we
00:42:44
have so far is your we're talking about this at Crime Con. You you used to do your own profiles and I really enjoyed
00:42:54
them, but uh you have kind of gone away from doing your own profiles. >> Well, I don't know that I I look
00:43:04
obviously I'm not qualified to do them, but it is our show and my show and our garage. So,
00:43:10
>> yeah. If I'm qualified for whatever I claim here, once you've stepped into once you come press past the threshold
00:43:18
of the garage door, my friends, you are at our mercy. Um, here the the problem is I would love to tell you what I think
00:43:27
my profile would be, but I cannot in good faith do so knowing that we are only about a quarter of the way through
00:43:39
the information that will point to our point to what what we think happened here. So, here's some other things that
00:43:50
that may indicate that this was well planned and well thought out. >> So, so what you're saying is this killer
00:43:56
is organized. >> Yeah. So, at at the one of the crime scenes, this would be where the the
00:44:02
victim was recovered. They also recovered black duct tape. So, a small portion of
00:44:10
a latex glove and some black duct tape was discovered at the body discovery scene. Okay. So, a physical examination
00:44:19
of this black duct tape in comparison with the victim's body indicate that this tape was used to bind her and also
00:44:31
placed over her eyes during the portion of transporting this victim. So, they found a sticky substance on the victim's
00:44:41
forehead and eyebrow that was similar to the substance on the backing of the tape
00:44:46
that was found at that scene. So, while not attached to the body, found near the
00:44:52
body, they've confirmed, "We have everything indicating that this tape has everything to do with our crime." Now
00:45:00
they also find near the body a tennis shoe or sneaker impression. Shoe print impressions were found near the body.
00:45:10
They would later determine that this these impressions came from a Reebok style tennis shoe or sneaker.
00:45:17
>> So we have tire marks. We have shoe prints. >> Yep. >> So we're getting some identifiers here.
00:45:25
>> Duct tape, a piece of a latex glove. If if our abductor is using duct tape, I
00:45:31
would I would absolutely believe that he's using gloves. >> Yeah. >> And again, we also have that cassette
00:45:37
tape box or case bearing the name Billy Thorp, Children of the Sun. >> Classic. >> It's it's it's a good song. I don't know
00:45:47
the album, but that's a good song. Detectives learned that Dr. Hout's Sunbank automatic teller card had been
00:45:54
used at the Sunbank in Vero Beach, Florida. The unidentified suspect was captured on film by the ATM security
00:46:02
camera. And again, that person's identity concealed. And this wasn't by accident. This was somebody that made
00:46:10
sure you were not going to see who was accessing that machine. Now, they further examination
00:46:19
of this security camera footage. They couldn't confirm this, Captain, but they were saying, "We think that the
00:46:27
individual using the machine is wearing latex gloves." And they also think that the top shirt, remember the person put a
00:46:37
short sleeve shirt over top of uh a hooded sweatshirt, >> right, >> can be seen in the ATM footage. A shirt
00:46:46
similar to this is found next to the doctor's body. This shirt was saturated with a red substance, later determined
00:46:56
to be blood. It was never stated whose blood it was. I'm guessing it was the victim's blood. And the shirt had a
00:47:04
label attached to it that was labeled DAX or DAX. Further analysis of the camera footage determined that the
00:47:14
person in that video was between 5' 3 in tall and 5' 6 in tall and they openly stated the individual is Caucasian.
00:47:27
>> Do we have any indication because that's a that'd be a short male. Is there any
00:47:32
thought that this could be a female? Again, based off of the stature and the the posture of the individual, it looks
00:47:41
male to me. Now, >> um I'm basing a lot of that off of the what I think I can see with the neck and
00:47:48
the shoulders, but I've watched American Gladiators and I've I've seen some pretty cool shoulders on on those women.
00:47:57
So, it's it I I think you can't say with a great degree of certainty. >> And you're right. The height is
00:48:05
interesting. >> Well, the shoulders, it's a it's um it's an underappreciated thing on women. I
00:48:12
like a woman with some nice shoulders. >> The suspect, whoever it was, was unable
00:48:18
to retrieve any money from the ATM and discarded the receipts from the machine next to the doctor's body.
00:48:29
That particular ATM card has never been recovered. At this point in our investigation, of course, they are
00:48:36
attempting to try to identify the subject who made the appointment under the name of Michael Greenwell.
00:48:43
Detectives contacted Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the supposed insurance company,
00:48:49
and a representative told investigators that they did not have anyone covered under their insurance by the name of
00:48:57
Michael Greenwell. Well, question for you because it seems like this disposal site's not just disposing of the body,
00:49:04
but it's disposing of other parts of the crime. >> Mhm. >> And so it makes me wonder, and I don't
00:49:11
know how well you know or understand this location, but is it the type of location where it's like, I'm disposing
00:49:19
of this victim and they may never find her there? >> It looks a little too open. I I don't
00:49:26
know. I think I've been to this Verarough Beach general area once in my lifetime. So, I'm not going to claim to
00:49:33
have a good understanding. I certainly don't have a great understanding of this very specific location, but looking at
00:49:38
it on a map and from the pictures I've seen, it looks way too open to think that the victim would not be found. And
00:49:46
in fact, it looks way too open to think that the victim might not be found relatively quickly. I think that it it
00:49:53
was a location that was more about not concealing the body >> and more about just
00:50:00
>> getting rid of something that you needed to get rid of and not being seen in that
00:50:04
moment, not being connected to it in that moment. Now, investigators did locate >> one individual by the name of Michael
00:50:13
Greenwell that lived in South Florida. There was apparently there was only one of them. Um, and he's a professional
00:50:20
baseball player with the Boston Red Sox. And >> okay, >> they also noted that uh while they
00:50:28
didn't give out his specific height, he doesn't match the height requirements of
00:50:32
our suspect seen at the ATM machine. >> You don't have to be tall to be a good baseball player, but
00:50:38
>> you don't. But I don't there's not a whole lot of 5 foot three, 5 foot4, >> right?
00:50:43
>> Uh, professional baseball players. So m the just to be clear here this Michael Greenwell very quickly ruled out
00:50:52
and I'm sure I would wager a Franklin here captain that his height is not the only reason why he was
00:51:00
>> right. I mean obviously if he's playing for the Red Sox, right? He he probably is
00:51:06
not in the Florida area at the time. >> Well, it's February. >> It's February. >> Okay. Well, we need to check his alibis
00:51:15
then. >> That's right. >> Maybe he was on his knees at the ATM machine. >> You never Hey, very talented man.
00:51:22
>> Unfortunately, Captain Ruth House's case did not stand alone. So later that same year, 1992,
00:51:32
this year would become a bleak ledger of unsolved violence. Another woman's life
00:51:41
was torn apart in a crime that investigators describe as eerily similar in its pattern of both abduction and forced
00:51:51
bank activity. >> Okay. And I know you're moving on to another crime, but just to throw this
00:51:58
out there be because I won't have a chance later. Is there any reason to believe that this person would pick this
00:52:05
name knowing it was a baseball player? >> There are people that would later share
00:52:12
that suspicion if that >> right >> if that is a suspicion of yours. Like it >> I'm suspicious of everything, my friend.
00:52:18
Yeah, there there are people that say that this name is wasn't completely pulled out of thin air
00:52:25
>> cuz I was just watching Catch Me If You Can again and Frank Abanel would use names from comic books.
00:52:33
>> So later that same year, again, this is 1992, we're now in the month of November,
00:52:40
this is November 2nd, we're again in Vero Beach, Florida. We have Mary Ellen Wise. She's 39 years old. She's at home
00:52:50
doing something as ordinary as laundry and it's around 7:30 a.m. and she is working in the garage of her
00:53:00
home. So, she owns the home. Her boyfriend lives with her. They've been together about 3 years from what I could
00:53:08
find at this time. And the reason why we're starting this timeline at 7:30 a.m. is because that is when he leaves
00:53:16
for work. And so now starting at 7:30 a.m. she is alone. It's believed that shortly after the boyfriend left that an
00:53:26
unknown asalent entered her home. Now those are the words that they always use. I would like to push back on that.
00:53:35
I think that that's just I I think that's just reporter speak or that's what the cops told the reporters and
00:53:41
they ran with it because the what's always stated in this crime is that there's no signs of forced entry. I
00:53:48
think that that is a critical point in this case and in the investigation. The other part of this too is Mary Allen
00:53:56
Wise, she was a dog mother, right? Got the the the godfather. She's a dog mother. Uh
00:54:06
she has two Doberman pincher dogs which are which can be very most dogs can be protective of their owners and their
00:54:15
loved ones. But these dogs are reported to be very protective of Mary Ellen. Number one. And number two, these are
00:54:24
typically dogs that are used for security purposes. >> Right. >> If I call them aggressive, I'm going to
00:54:30
get some nasty email by some overly affectionate dog person. No, >> I love dogs as much as the next guy I've
00:54:37
had. Maybe more. >> I've been fortunate enough to have many have several in my lifetime. So,
00:54:42
>> well, and I had a rescue for just a little bit just helping out to make sure it got a proper home uh proper home that
00:54:51
I wasn't able to give the dog. But that dog was very protective, a big dog, strong dog. And there's something uh
00:54:58
empowering by, you know, the UPS driver would knock on the door and I thought the dog was going to jump through the
00:55:06
door and rip the driver's head off just to protect me. So, I think this is a a crucial piece of information in this
00:55:15
case. >> Yes. And as someone who worked in security for a long period of time, you
00:55:20
are always trained to look at every location, building, access point, backyard, front yard, property from the
00:55:31
potential criminal's perspective. What would the criminal looking at this view as a weakness or a deterrent for the
00:55:40
crime that they want to commit? A Doberman to me as a criminal would be a highlevel deterrent because not only are
00:55:50
they strong, powerful dogs, they are incredibly fast. They are faster than human beings. I'm not going to dance
00:55:58
with that animal. So around this time, an asalent, as they say it, entered her home. Again, no signs of forced entry.
00:56:06
What we're going to see here at this crime scene here, Captain, is why I don't think the asalent ever actually
00:56:13
entered her home. I think the asalent entered her garage where she was out doing laundry. I think that the asalent
00:56:21
got lucky that those dogs were inside where they couldn't get outside to assist Mary Ellen.
00:56:27
>> And the timeline starts, like you said, 7:30. The partner is leaving the house. I'm
00:56:35
guessing leaving through the garage. If she's doing laundry, there's a good possibility that she's like, "I'll just
00:56:41
leave the door open. I'll I'll shut it later." >> Yeah. Maybe it's nice outside and leaves
00:56:48
it open because of the the great weather. What we do know that's going to be missing from the scene is not just
00:56:55
our victim, but also the victim's car. So, somebody forcefully abducted Mary Ellen using her own vehicle. This was a
00:57:02
Honda CRX. And from there, what we have is what appears to be a controlled transactional
00:57:10
phase of this abduction. So, Mary Ellen was forced to drive to a bank in Melbourne, Florida to withdraw an
00:57:20
undisclosed amount of money from an ATM. It was undisclosed in '92. I'm here to tell you that all the reports I found
00:57:27
since '92 indicate that it was about $500. that was removed from an ATM, >> which could be the standard limit on an
00:57:35
ATM, >> could be the the max amount allowed. >> Now, later that day, another withdrawal
00:57:41
was made, this time at a drive-thru window at the United Savings of America Bank on US Highway 1 in Vero Beach,
00:57:50
Florida. So, for this, Mary would have had to have written a check from my understanding. Now, the details of that
00:57:58
drive-thru withdrawal are interesting because the bank teller believes something was off. Maybe in
00:58:06
just a happen stance type of scenario, but the bank teller would later tell police that it was odd
00:58:16
because they had three lanes for the window that you could drive through. And the bank teller was familiar with Mary
00:58:25
Ellen and had waited on Mary Ellen many many times. She's lived in this area forever. And so she the I said she, but
00:58:36
I don't know if it was a male or female bank teller, so forgive me. But the bank
00:58:40
teller told police that Mary Ellen would always pull up to the window that was attached to the building, you know, so
00:58:47
that she pulls up in the nearest lane all the time. and they exchange pleasantries and talk for a little bit
00:58:54
while they're doing the transaction. But this time, for reasons unknown to the teller, Mary Ellen pulls up to the third
00:59:03
lane, the furthest from the window. And remember, she's got this little small Honda CRX car. So, this is a twodoor
00:59:12
vehicle with a very small back seat, if it has much of a back seat at all. The teller would tell police that they They
00:59:21
didn't think that they saw anybody inside the vehicle, but that doesn't mean that somebody isn't in there. And
00:59:27
the teller >> as a I was going to say as a bank teller, yeah, most the time they're
00:59:33
friendly. Most of the time we're we're chatting it up a little bit. But okay, but it didn't happen this time. But
00:59:41
probably no alarm bells are going off. It's just after the fact once you know she was abducted that you go, "Oh, well
00:59:51
now these these things that didn't really matter then make sense now." >> Yes. And the teller would tell police
01:00:01
that they had said something to Mary Ellen like, "Oh, what? You don't like me anymore?" And that Marie Ellen laughed
01:00:09
but wasn't her normal talkative self. And so they they cashed the check or made the withdrawal and then Mary Ellen
01:00:18
and the CRX Honda moved on and everybody went about their day. Now Mary back at her house, Mary Ellen's living
01:00:27
boyfriend, his name is John, reported her missing. But this would be later that night. So a lot of time has gone by
01:00:33
between the time that he leaves for work when she's reported missing. So, he is both believed to be the last person to
01:00:43
see her, well, at least the last person to see her at her home and the same person to report her missing. Police
01:00:51
seemed to think after reviewing the scene that a she was abducted and b that it happened shortly after Jon had left
01:01:00
the house. They found blood in the garage area and near where her car would have been parked. And another strange
01:01:11
thing here, they found a robe, like a bathrobe that was like ripped in half or torn and stuffed inside their mailbox.
01:01:23
>> That's I'm guessing it might be some of the laundry that she was doing. >> Yeah. Wouldn't the partner be able to
01:01:31
identify that? >> Well, just because just because they didn't tell us where where it came from
01:01:35
doesn't mean they don't know. >> Very true. >> So, two >> I want them to tell me everything. Okay.
01:01:41
>> Well, I do, too. >> How can I solve these crimes if you don't tell me everything?
01:01:45
>> I I'm guessing it doesn't belong to the perpetrator. It would be be some good
01:01:50
evidence there. Two days later, her 1991 red Honda CRX is found in Fort Pierce, Florida. This is in a parking lot at a
01:01:59
boat ramp on Seaway Drive and Indian River Drive. So, at near that intersection, the car had a broken
01:02:08
window and there was glass lying on the ground beside it. >> But that could have happened afterwards,
01:02:15
right? >> And I I apologize here. I'm reviewing my notes and it states Oh, no, it doesn't.
01:02:21
It does not state who the torn robe belonged to. It just simply says torn robe was found in her mailbox and blood
01:02:27
was found in the garage where the car had originally been parked. Authorities declined to say what other evidence
01:02:34
might have been found with the vehicle and they did not discuss details of lab test on the blood. Remember the blood
01:02:41
found in the garage. So, she's missing for almost a week when on November 8th, her fully clothed body, already very
01:02:51
badly decomposed, was found in a field about 200 yards northwest of Peanut Lake, roughly 4 miles west of Fort
01:03:00
Pierce, discovered by a local Fort Pierce resident. Reports later concluded she died of she died from blunt force
01:03:08
trauma to the head. Investigators believe that she had struggled and that she had suffered massive trauma, a
01:03:16
beating severe enough to register as brutal, even among harden case investigators. Those who loved Mary
01:03:24
Ellen remembered her not as a headline, but as a person who had already survived
01:03:29
enormous pain in her life. In the early 1980s, she had been in a very, very serious car accident and nearly
01:03:39
shattered every bone in her body. recovery took roughly a decade and she fought her way back to life only for
01:03:47
someone in 1992 to take it from her. So much more to get to in this true crime story. Stick around for part two.
01:04:07
Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter. You're listening to this podcast, so
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