June 22, 2021 • 31 mins
Jackie investigates the cases Hargrove's algorithm identified. But there aren't any major leads... until Afrikka's murder.
What really happened the night Afrikka was killed?
Find out more about the case on twitter, instagram, or facebook. And follow host Ben Kuebrich on twitter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener
discretion is advised. Previously, an algorithm journalist Thomas Hargrove developed
(00:24):
a computer program to try to detect serial killers. We
selected ten major cities that appeared to have a suspicious
number of algorithm identified murders, and Gary was one of
those ten. Hargrove reached out to police in Gary, Indiana
and told them about a suspicious cluster of strangulations in
the area, but he didn't hear back. He did, however,
(00:48):
get through to the coroner's office, which assigned one of
its corners assistants to look at the issue. She totally
bought into the idea that these could be connected murders
and was trying to have a conversation with the Gary
Police department. So what was going on in Gary, Indiana
And why weren't the Gary police talking to Hargrove from
(01:10):
iHeart Media and Tenderfoot TV. This is Algorithm. I'm ben Keebrick,
Gary sits on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, just
fifteen miles southeast of downtown Chicago. Growing up in Chicago,
did you have any kind of sense of Gary? There's
(01:30):
a whole song about Gary in the musical The Music Man. Gary, Indiana.
What a wonderful name. That was quite a joke because Gary,
Indiana was not an attractive place to live. The city
of Gary was founded by the U. S. Steel Corporation
in nineteen o six to house a massive new steel mill.
(01:51):
Every night, this Fourth of July when the best first
go into action. And here's your action, Roman Candles launching
the flexness of the n G. Gary shy up like
a rocket to meet the U. S. Steel Corporation's needs.
Its population grew to over a hundred thousand people by
nineteen thirty, and it became the second largest city in Indiana.
(02:12):
The steel jobs and Gary paid well and didn't require
formal education or even much English, so it became a
destination for immigrants, especially young men shrouded by smoke from
the steel mills. It gained a reputation both as a
city of industry but also a city of vice, with gambling, prostitution,
(02:33):
and violence. When the Great migration began. Gary Steel jobs
attracted black workers who were leaving the Jim Crow South
for better opportunities up north, and in nineteen sixty seven,
Gary became one of the nation's first cities to elect
a black mayor, Richard de Hatcher. This has been one
of the most significant campaign in the history of our city.
(02:56):
Marxian of years of corrupt machines us and did a
great day for the city of Garret. Gary was also
the birthplace of Michael Jackson, and the Jackson Five released
their first single, Big Boy, In on Gary's own Steel
Town Records label. But just as the U. S. Steel
(03:21):
Corporation created Gary seemingly overnight, the company also left the
city and alerch. It summed up well in the film
Original Gangsters. Back in the fifties, the community was supported
by the U. S. Steel Mill. It was damn hard work,
but people raised their family as well. Then, just twenty
years later, without warning, US Steel shut down the mill. First,
(03:46):
the workers thought it was temporary, but it wasn't. Their
savings went unemployment ran out and that has been the
inheritance of the children of Gary. Gary's story is similar
to other Respells cities, just more extreme because the whole
city was built around the steel mill, so the loss
of steel jobs destroyed the local academy. And at the
(04:10):
same time, many white residents fled and took their tax
base with them. The population shrunk and people abandoned their homes,
and without jobs or money to provide social services, crime grew.
Throughout the nineties, Gary often had the highest homicide rate
in the nation. And that period during the nineties when
(04:31):
Gary was experiencing this extremely high homicide rate, that's the
same period where Hargrove's algorithms starts detecting unsolved strangulations in Gary,
and that's probably at least part of the reason why
when Hargrove reached out to the Gary Police Department, they
didn't respond. The police already knew that Gary had too
many unsolved murders, but the department was under resourced. They
(04:54):
were struggling to investigate recent murders, let alone cold cases
going back more than a decade. But when Jackie, the
assistant corner, saw Hargrove's list, it didn't matter to her
how old these cases were. It was a tragedy that
they'd gone unsolved in the first place. Hello, Hi, this
(05:16):
is Ben, I'm the journalist that reached out to you.
Oh hi, how are you? What can I do for you?
I told Jackie that I was looking into the cold
cases from Hargrove's algorithm, and I wanted to know more
about the investigation she had done. Back in My boss
came to me with the latter at the time. He
(05:37):
asked me if I you know, would we didn't look
into it or whatever? And of course I will, you know,
I mean, that's what our job was. We were supposed
to look into stuff. So uh. I started by pulling
the charts because we didn't have no computer system to
show us that her group's algorithm had identified a cluster
of fifteen strangulations that had taken place between nineteen and
(06:00):
two thousand seven, and all of those homicides were listed
as unsolved. I started just making a chart, you know, females,
where they were found, how they were killed. And she
looked to see what evidence had been collected. Importantly, she
wanted to know if rape kits had been performed. If so,
(06:22):
there might be DNA evidence that could show if cases
were linked to each other, were to other cases from
across the US. As she went through the cases, One
victim stood out to Jackie, the two thousand six murder
of S. E. Mitchell. Mitchell was an eighty four year
old woman who had been strangled and sexually assaulted right
(06:43):
outside her own home. You don't find that too often.
Or somebody raped and killed the Graham on their yards.
So and it reminded Jackie of two other recent murders
that had stood out to her. Both were old women
who had been sexually assaulted, it and killed near their homes.
One of these murders had taken place in Gary, and
(07:05):
Jackie had worked on the case personally. Another one took
place in nearby Hammond, and she'd heard about it from
a coworker. Yeah, it was pretty upsetting that day when
I had my case and then I found out somebody
else had one, you know, a town over, and then
you're like, what in the world. Jackie had already wondered
if those two cases were connected, and now with the
(07:27):
extra name on Hargrove's list, she was even more suspicious.
But you know, I got hurt and then I got
let go. So I'm curious and no worries if this
is too personal, but what what happened? Oh, I got
hurt at work. We were carrying bodies out of a
house and the other person had dropped their end and
(07:48):
I hung on and it pulled my vertebrae and my
neck and busted it. I got a cadaver bone put
in and a plate, and then I couldn't go back
to work because I can't physically do the work. Yeah,
what happens to people all the time. So you know,
my idea was, you know, stay positive. You can still
help people, you know, see your grandkids more than you
(08:10):
ever could. But then you start to look back at
this stuff and you start to realize how people, you know,
they could use another head, you know, is that something
you're interested in, like continuing looking into this stuff? Oh well, yeah,
I mean I would love to help people find some
(08:31):
kind of comfort or closure. Working in true crime, you
hear a lot about the concept of closure. Victims relatives
sometimes express ambivalence about the idea, but Jackie is speaking
from a place of personal experience. When she was in college,
her niece disappeared. She was a Jane Doe. For a
long time, we didn't know where she was, and so,
(08:55):
you know, somebody found out and worked hard enough to
let us know and she went from missing person who
identify and you know that's nice? Yeah, did they eventually
find the killer? You know, they've never arrested no one
for her. So yeah, I twitched my college around and
and ended up getting into this. You know, I thought
(09:16):
I could help some other family that would be great. Yeah,
so you know, you get a a reason why you
do things. I think, you know, and Jackie wonders if
there's more that needs to be done with her gross
list and with the research that she did back in
I hate to see somebody else's kids get killed when
(09:38):
there's ways it can possibly be stopped, you know, if
you have a pattern or something. I'm sure you know
the police know how to follow all that. So you're saying,
your boss kind of like told you to look into this.
Did you ever like go back to him, and do
you know if that ever like was given to the
police or Oh yeah, I worked. I saw the Gary
(10:00):
police going over it how much I detectives went over
it with me. My chart mad So they were interested
in it and they were taking it seriously. You felt, well, yeah,
I mean, if you bring something to the police, they
take it serious normally. Yeah, Well, it's just because her.
Grow wasn't sure, so I think hard Grow sent them
the letter and they didn't want to get back to him.
(10:23):
Maybe they were given hard Grow over harder time. But
me being at the corner's office and now he's working
with them, you know, they came down to my office
more than once, I could say that, and sat down
with me with the file that I had pulled and
the chart I'd made. They did do that. The Gary
detectives did come down and and see what I had,
(10:43):
you know, but you know, we're not police. I can't
only do so much, and you don't know what really
happens in their departments and stuff. Jackie wasn't sure what
the detectives did with the information she'd given them, and
she'd still been doing research and pulling document mints when
she injured her back and lost her job. She doesn't
(11:03):
think any annelis at the coroner's office picked up the
project once she left. In October, Hargrove published his story
about the algorithm and its various findings across the nation.
The final version included only a few lines on Gary
(11:24):
about the letter Hardgrove sent to police, describing strangulations going
back to the nineties and how the letter had prompted
Jackie's investigation, and it seemed like that was that a
set of murders in Northwest Indiana unlikely to ever be
solved until four years later on October, when Africa Hardy
(11:47):
was strangled, and there's cold cases Hargrove had identified suddenly
didn't seem so cold. I want to jump away from
(12:18):
the algorithm for a bit here and focus on Africa
Hardy's investigation and how her case came to be linked
to a serial killer. For years, very little was known
about what happened to Africa Hardy. Police never released much
about their investigation. Do you do you know what Indiana law?
Is there any way to get a copy of records
(12:42):
like that? I have no idea. UM, I don't know
what the limits are for their open records law. UM
what Hammond did might be available to you if you
push for it. They don't want to talk about it either,
I assume, because they don't want to embarrass their name
bring police agency. But at the same time it might
(13:03):
be an open record. I don't know. You should try
and you should try to find out that would be
you'd be the first to do that. Last April through
Indiana's version of the Freedom of Information Act. I requested
all the information related to Africa's case and cases that
could be connected. For five months, my request got bounced
(13:23):
around between the Hammond Police and their legal department. I
was told they'd have to figure out what, if anything,
they were allowed to release. I wasn't sure if I'd
ever get these documents, so I tried to interview any
and I could who was connected to the case. I
heard stories of conspiracies and police and competence, but it
was hard to sort through what was real and what
(13:46):
was just a rumor, especially because some of the people
closest to the case, like the officers and the Hammond
Police Department, had been prohibited from speaking to me on
the record. Then in September, I got an email with
the ink. It was a dropbox folder with forty five
gigs worth of videos, including audio from the night Africa died.
(14:09):
Yeah and number one, Hey him, and it's Geary transferring
the calls. You know, the Motel sixth and female is responsible.
She thinks she did. Okay, ma'am, okay, what room are
you in, ma'am? One song one was the last time
you saw her earlier today like, well, ok I need
(14:31):
you to tell like like three o'clock. Okay, I need
to is there any blood or anything on her? No?
Need you know how to take your fingers and put
him on the side of her neck. I want to
know if I'm so scared to do that, I'm some scared.
On October seventem Africa Hardy's friend Shamika, had discovered Africa's
(14:53):
body in the bathtub of a motel six in him
in Indiana. The clock was now kicking. The first forty
eight hours following a murder are the most crucial to
solving it. Crime scene investigators found signs of a struggle.
There was a shirt button on the floor, a broken fingernail,
and a torn condom wrapper. They found blood on a
(15:16):
pillow case and a knit hat under the bed, and
it appeared that someone had rifled through Africa's belongings because
her wallet and I D were there, but her cell
phone was missing. Police check to see if any nearby
security cameras had captured footage of the motel parking lot
or the door outside Africa's room. They brought Shamika back
(15:38):
to the station and Detective Shaan Ford started interviewing her.
Just after midnight, how Africa Day detective Forward and Shamika
sat at a small table in a bear window lists room.
(16:02):
Shamika was wearing a pink sweatshirt with the hood up
and looked nervous. Shamika told police that Africa had been
working as an escort at the Motel six, and that
she'd sought out clients by posting ads on backpage dot com,
an online classifieds website that's since been shut down. I
know you've been through a hard deal tonight. Here's where
(16:25):
the problem was. I have to start eliminating people as
much as I put them in. So like, obviously you're
the last one to see her alive, and you're the
one to find her. Okay, you've been in our company
all day long and nobody else now because she had
contacted some guy on here and he killed her during
a date or something pretty possible. But as an investigator,
(16:47):
I have to remain very objective and looked at the
whole picture. Let's go through today real quick. Where did
you really up today? Yeah? Yeah, we're geting together, Yeah place?
What time? Anything? You got up late? Canons of Himika
(17:07):
says she dropped off Africa at the Mitel six round
two or two thirty pm. She says Africa met up
with one client in the early afternoon and another man
had called and said he was interested in meeting her.
The guy was called like he really was interesting, that
he really was come. He helped calling saying he's gonna
come for shore. You know they he really liked it
(17:30):
up pictures that he's not come and that you just
had to get a baby, so and so once you
get it, he'll calm. So when would you say the
first time you started calling Africa? I talked to her
two tigh coup times, just about the stuff here and there,
even before the first guy came. Um, I know right
before she had the second kind of talk maybe twice,
(17:52):
but it was real short being the one that came
in U five thirteen. Ok she actually called me and
told me she was like he's here, and that was
at five thirteen. Is that what you're saying that time? Okay?
Did you ever hear from her again? It's hard to hear,
(18:13):
but Schimika said that after Africa called at five thirteen
to say the second client had arrived, Shimika didn't hear
from her again after five thirteen. How many times? Do
you think you call her? Ah? It's a Shimika was
worried about Africa, so she called up her friend ed Wardo,
(18:34):
and they headed to the motel. I don't even know
she's listening one. I don't want to grow, so we
kind of listen, you know, to the door and for
the kid. We didn't see anyone. It was just think
to be like I got away from the wall a
little bit and then I see her shoe on the
floor and um. We talked on the light which is
(18:57):
on the outside of the Bed of Tomorrow, my album.
I just flying back and he's like called plies, called
the ambulist, called belief and the end they asked me
what she um when she breathed her? Did she held
a post? Come too scared to touch a post? At
Ronald he touched it and he's like it's nothing him
(19:24):
had a round twelve thirty am. Another officer enters the
interrogation room. How it's detective for its boss, Captain Zeke Kinajosa.
Kinajosa sits down and shake Shamika's hand. Had you guys
ever dealt what this is gonna before? Did you see
him at all? You talked? Woman all on the phone. Okay,
(19:48):
what number did he call her from? What number? I
made sure I remember his number? Three? One two? What
made you remember that number? Because I always come phone
type of prosesssions with each other. Tell each other the normals,
tell each other. Makes the license place in case somebody
happen in case? Okay, what else did she say to you?
(20:09):
She said, he sounded like an older guy. What do
you consider over what would she consider over that? That's
important in the nineteen I'm an old man, you know.
So did she show you the number? She showed me
a text? You take the whole taste and how wars
and how much he likes her tittures and stuff like that. Okay, Kinajosa, thanks,
(20:33):
Shamika shuts down a note and then leaves the room. Obviously,
like we over this. There's people working on other stuff,
so we just got to get through, you know, some
of the stuff here. Now, does she have anybody that
you know that would want to hurt her or anything
like that? She was a good girl. She was a
really good cool I mean, I know it's probably hard
(20:53):
tool to leave because of the situation that happened, but
just feels a good heart and personal give you a
last Now, I don't know how far this is gonna
progress or how fast. I mean, if we're gonna make
an arrest tonight. I don't make an arrest tonight. Obviously,
in an investigation, we have to look at all angles,
at everything. The phone you have on you right now,
with the phone around that, do you mind if I
(21:17):
look in here on this phone. It's not it doesn't
not link with this. It's not not helping. But well,
I kind of need to to look. But it's up
to you. I'm not gonna force you to or anything
like that. Okay, Um, do you have any other phones
(21:37):
on you or anything like that? All right, As we
said here, they had nothing to do it led to
the death of your friend. No, absolutely no. Why wouldn't
able to try to hanging anybody? So no, I'm not
saying that you killed her, But I'm saying sometimes people here,
here's what I'm worried about this want this business here?
All right, Holy Bible. I was not that you make
(21:59):
it harm anybody I love and I love kids, I
love just taking know what I'm saying, This business here
is very bro and sometimes what we find is people
almost become like a prisoner, a slave, that this kind
of work, and there are people behind the scenes, pulling
strangers and making money. And I just want to make
(22:21):
sure that something didn't happen here today where your good
friend got killed. And there's a reason that maybe you're scared.
I can't tell me what append something like that. I
will tell you didn't thinking everything that I know, I
would never not tell. I want you to find this person.
(22:41):
So I was I'm not scared of anybody. I don't
know abody get me under hostage or controlled. So I'm
not a decommanded person. I'm want that saying I don't
about but I'm very strong man, so and I would
not let anybody scare me or do anything this devilish.
And you have no idea other than the numbers you
provided us who could have done this. Will that number
(23:04):
be in that phone at all? No? What makes you
uncomfortable about me having the phone because there might be
like naked pictures or something like that, or piss outfits,
ang and stuff like that. That's okay, Hey, we could
look through here together so that I'm not looking through
your stuff, you know, But where I can you know,
(23:26):
I actually see the call out. Captain Kinejosa opens the
door and leans his head into the room just for
one second. Detective Ford leaves the room for three minutes,
then he returns with Hinejosa. It's now almost one thirty
in the morning. All right, real quick, you said you
(23:48):
called nyme one one? Right? Did you one? Uh? How
many balls you find you right now? M this is
easy question. How many faults do we have on you
right now? I am our? Okay him out? Why didn't
(24:09):
tell us that I don't want you to know? It's
(24:32):
now one thirty am on the night of Africa's murder.
Her friend Shimika has just revealed to police that she's
had a second phone on her this whole time, and
it's the one with the number that they posted to
backpage dot com. Why didn't tell us that, I don't
want you to know? First out? Looking now, we are
(24:53):
not worried about that. No, no, no, I promise you
We're not interested about prostitution. Were interested about solving this
hot side. The whole encounter shows how difficult it is
for sex workers to report crimes to police, which then
in turn complicates trying to solve these crimes. Luckily, in
(25:14):
this case Detective Forward and Captain Kinahosa managed to convince
Shamika that they aren't interested in prosecuting her for facilitating
sex work, and Shamika starts to give them a more
accurate story of what really happened. She was walking. Also,
everything is that now, Okay, everything's in there, including the
number that the guy called. That's why you get the
(25:36):
number because you actually had the phone. The way the
system worked, Shamika talked to and booked Africa's clients. Then
she'd call Africa or text the information to Africa's personal phone.
Shamika says that when the five thirteen appointment should have
been finished, Shamika tried to get in touch with Africa
right away. I'm about al was called her phone, I
(26:01):
was called his phone, and then I started reading to
call the police. So I really was just trying to
tell her this so she could call me and be like, no,
everything's okay, you don't have to call the police. But
then she started texting stuff like you're scaring him. You
gotta text message from her fault saying you're scaring him.
So I'm like, I don't want to do that. I
(26:23):
don't want to mess up business. I don't want to
get him or whatever, okay with After that, she started
taking stuff that I know she didn't text, like, she
texts something to say, I have a client's gonna be
a long date. I'll see in two hours, and I'm like,
m oh right. These texts that were coming from Africa
(26:44):
were a big red flag because Shamika was the one
who talked to and booked Africa's clients. But before Shamika
could get anything resolved, she says, her phone ran out
of batteries. When she got the phone charged and turned
back on, she saw that she'd received more strange messages.
But these weren't messages from Africa's phone, but from the
(27:06):
five thirteen client, some about at all that and I'll
be back if I cannot come back and the years
still there and LV. Shamika wasn't sure what to make
of the messages. She was terrified for Africa, but she
was also worried that if she went to the police,
she could get them both arrested for prostitution. So she
(27:30):
decided to check on Africa herself, and that's when she
went to the motel with Eduardo. Detective Ford starts going
through Shamika's text messages, and he gets to one that
she hadn't yet mentioned. Why don't here I want to
ask you about Here's a text from Shamika's phone to
Africa's make sure you hide your money good because the
(27:52):
other client is waiting outside or is referring to she
was speaking correct, well one of them though. He tells
the other clan is waiting outside. Some other guys had
text or whatever saying that he wanted her too, but
he was he was coming at the same time, and
the other guy like double bump head. Okay, so where
(28:13):
is his text? That we guy that was outside? Okay?
This is him saying you messed out. He's leaving. Man,
So he's there, he was there. You know who this is? No?
Oh my, I'm never to pay a pension for him.
(28:33):
He said he's not kind of jumping out, but he
never made his and it don't looks like That's why
I don't think he did. He watched the guy leave.
It chills your friend. Oh my god. Detective Forward picks
up the phone and starts walking out the door. Do
(28:56):
you guys try to we we're sent on a couple
of different things, and you know that's one of them.
It was now two thirty AM, around nine hours after
Africa had been killed. Police continued working through the night,
chasing down leads using the text messages from Shamika's second
(29:17):
cell phone. Police requested search warrants for the five thirteen
Clients phone records. Meanwhile, other detectives poured through surveillance footage
from the motel and businesses nearby. One camera captured footage
of a man in a puffy jacket entering Africa's room
shortly after PM at five. He leaves the room and
(29:40):
runs out to a blue jeep. Another security camera captured
the jeep's license plate and Bureau of Motor Vehicle records
showed it was registered to a woman named Regina Beard,
who lived in Gary, Indiana. Police found that the five
thirteen clients cell phone was also registered to Regina b
Heard at the same address, twenty minutes away from the
(30:03):
Hammond Police station in the neighborhood on the south side
of Gary. At five PM, just twenty four hours after
Africa had been killed, detectives raced out to the address.
It was a small, one story brick house directly across
from a church and parked in front of the house
was the blue jeep they were looking for. Next time
(30:31):
on Algorithm, I'm not gonna lie. It was scary because
we would only be maybe floor of us in the house,
and we don't know who's in the house, so who's
in the area, and there's they like police officers, a
want of driving out. What are you trying to get
out of it? Good thing? You could be crazy, You're
could be sitting here and talking man already five a
(30:54):
Most Lakes Room one five shot, Conscious of your fem
bars and chowder. This episode was written and produced by
me ben Key Brick. Algorithm is executive produced by Alex Williams,
(31:16):
Donald Albright, and Matt Frederick. Production assistance in mixing by
Eric Quintana. The music is by Makeup and Vanity Set
and Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,
Jamie Albright, rema El Kaili, Trevor Young, and Josh Thane
for their help and notes, and thanks for listening. I've
(31:38):
put a ton of work into this show over the
last year and I really appreciate all of the feedback
I got after episodes one and two, So if you
haven't yet, please reach out subscribe and leave a review.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener
discretion is advised. Previously, an algorithm journalist Thomas Hargrove developed
(00:24):
a computer program to try to detect serial killers. We
selected ten major cities that appeared to have a suspicious
number of algorithm identified murders, and Gary was one of
those ten. Hargrove reached out to police in Gary, Indiana
and told them about a suspicious cluster of strangulations in
the area, but he didn't hear back. He did, however,
(00:48):
get through to the coroner's office, which assigned one of
its corners assistants to look at the issue. She totally
bought into the idea that these could be connected murders
and was trying to have a conversation with the Gary
Police department. So what was going on in Gary, Indiana
And why weren't the Gary police talking to Hargrove from
(01:10):
iHeart Media and Tenderfoot TV. This is Algorithm. I'm ben Keebrick,
Gary sits on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, just
fifteen miles southeast of downtown Chicago. Growing up in Chicago,
did you have any kind of sense of Gary? There's
(01:30):
a whole song about Gary in the musical The Music Man. Gary, Indiana.
What a wonderful name. That was quite a joke because Gary,
Indiana was not an attractive place to live. The city
of Gary was founded by the U. S. Steel Corporation
in nineteen o six to house a massive new steel mill.
(01:51):
Every night, this Fourth of July when the best first
go into action. And here's your action, Roman Candles launching
the flexness of the n G. Gary shy up like
a rocket to meet the U. S. Steel Corporation's needs.
Its population grew to over a hundred thousand people by
nineteen thirty, and it became the second largest city in Indiana.
(02:12):
The steel jobs and Gary paid well and didn't require
formal education or even much English, so it became a
destination for immigrants, especially young men shrouded by smoke from
the steel mills. It gained a reputation both as a
city of industry but also a city of vice, with gambling, prostitution,
(02:33):
and violence. When the Great migration began. Gary Steel jobs
attracted black workers who were leaving the Jim Crow South
for better opportunities up north, and in nineteen sixty seven,
Gary became one of the nation's first cities to elect
a black mayor, Richard de Hatcher. This has been one
of the most significant campaign in the history of our city.
(02:56):
Marxian of years of corrupt machines us and did a
great day for the city of Garret. Gary was also
the birthplace of Michael Jackson, and the Jackson Five released
their first single, Big Boy, In on Gary's own Steel
Town Records label. But just as the U. S. Steel
(03:21):
Corporation created Gary seemingly overnight, the company also left the
city and alerch. It summed up well in the film
Original Gangsters. Back in the fifties, the community was supported
by the U. S. Steel Mill. It was damn hard work,
but people raised their family as well. Then, just twenty
years later, without warning, US Steel shut down the mill. First,
(03:46):
the workers thought it was temporary, but it wasn't. Their
savings went unemployment ran out and that has been the
inheritance of the children of Gary. Gary's story is similar
to other Respells cities, just more extreme because the whole
city was built around the steel mill, so the loss
of steel jobs destroyed the local academy. And at the
(04:10):
same time, many white residents fled and took their tax
base with them. The population shrunk and people abandoned their homes,
and without jobs or money to provide social services, crime grew.
Throughout the nineties, Gary often had the highest homicide rate
in the nation. And that period during the nineties when
(04:31):
Gary was experiencing this extremely high homicide rate, that's the
same period where Hargrove's algorithms starts detecting unsolved strangulations in Gary,
and that's probably at least part of the reason why
when Hargrove reached out to the Gary Police Department, they
didn't respond. The police already knew that Gary had too
many unsolved murders, but the department was under resourced. They
(04:54):
were struggling to investigate recent murders, let alone cold cases
going back more than a decade. But when Jackie, the
assistant corner, saw Hargrove's list, it didn't matter to her
how old these cases were. It was a tragedy that
they'd gone unsolved in the first place. Hello, Hi, this
(05:16):
is Ben, I'm the journalist that reached out to you.
Oh hi, how are you? What can I do for you?
I told Jackie that I was looking into the cold
cases from Hargrove's algorithm, and I wanted to know more
about the investigation she had done. Back in My boss
came to me with the latter at the time. He
(05:37):
asked me if I you know, would we didn't look
into it or whatever? And of course I will, you know,
I mean, that's what our job was. We were supposed
to look into stuff. So uh. I started by pulling
the charts because we didn't have no computer system to
show us that her group's algorithm had identified a cluster
of fifteen strangulations that had taken place between nineteen and
(06:00):
two thousand seven, and all of those homicides were listed
as unsolved. I started just making a chart, you know, females,
where they were found, how they were killed. And she
looked to see what evidence had been collected. Importantly, she
wanted to know if rape kits had been performed. If so,
(06:22):
there might be DNA evidence that could show if cases
were linked to each other, were to other cases from
across the US. As she went through the cases, One
victim stood out to Jackie, the two thousand six murder
of S. E. Mitchell. Mitchell was an eighty four year
old woman who had been strangled and sexually assaulted right
(06:43):
outside her own home. You don't find that too often.
Or somebody raped and killed the Graham on their yards.
So and it reminded Jackie of two other recent murders
that had stood out to her. Both were old women
who had been sexually assaulted, it and killed near their homes.
One of these murders had taken place in Gary, and
(07:05):
Jackie had worked on the case personally. Another one took
place in nearby Hammond, and she'd heard about it from
a coworker. Yeah, it was pretty upsetting that day when
I had my case and then I found out somebody
else had one, you know, a town over, and then
you're like, what in the world. Jackie had already wondered
if those two cases were connected, and now with the
(07:27):
extra name on Hargrove's list, she was even more suspicious.
But you know, I got hurt and then I got
let go. So I'm curious and no worries if this
is too personal, but what what happened? Oh, I got
hurt at work. We were carrying bodies out of a
house and the other person had dropped their end and
(07:48):
I hung on and it pulled my vertebrae and my
neck and busted it. I got a cadaver bone put
in and a plate, and then I couldn't go back
to work because I can't physically do the work. Yeah,
what happens to people all the time. So you know,
my idea was, you know, stay positive. You can still
help people, you know, see your grandkids more than you
(08:10):
ever could. But then you start to look back at
this stuff and you start to realize how people, you know,
they could use another head, you know, is that something
you're interested in, like continuing looking into this stuff? Oh well, yeah,
I mean I would love to help people find some
(08:31):
kind of comfort or closure. Working in true crime, you
hear a lot about the concept of closure. Victims relatives
sometimes express ambivalence about the idea, but Jackie is speaking
from a place of personal experience. When she was in college,
her niece disappeared. She was a Jane Doe. For a
long time, we didn't know where she was, and so,
(08:55):
you know, somebody found out and worked hard enough to
let us know and she went from missing person who
identify and you know that's nice? Yeah, did they eventually
find the killer? You know, they've never arrested no one
for her. So yeah, I twitched my college around and
and ended up getting into this. You know, I thought
(09:16):
I could help some other family that would be great. Yeah,
so you know, you get a a reason why you
do things. I think, you know, and Jackie wonders if
there's more that needs to be done with her gross
list and with the research that she did back in
I hate to see somebody else's kids get killed when
(09:38):
there's ways it can possibly be stopped, you know, if
you have a pattern or something. I'm sure you know
the police know how to follow all that. So you're saying,
your boss kind of like told you to look into this.
Did you ever like go back to him, and do
you know if that ever like was given to the
police or Oh yeah, I worked. I saw the Gary
(10:00):
police going over it how much I detectives went over
it with me. My chart mad So they were interested
in it and they were taking it seriously. You felt, well, yeah,
I mean, if you bring something to the police, they
take it serious normally. Yeah, Well, it's just because her.
Grow wasn't sure, so I think hard Grow sent them
the letter and they didn't want to get back to him.
(10:23):
Maybe they were given hard Grow over harder time. But
me being at the corner's office and now he's working
with them, you know, they came down to my office
more than once, I could say that, and sat down
with me with the file that I had pulled and
the chart I'd made. They did do that. The Gary
detectives did come down and and see what I had,
(10:43):
you know, but you know, we're not police. I can't
only do so much, and you don't know what really
happens in their departments and stuff. Jackie wasn't sure what
the detectives did with the information she'd given them, and
she'd still been doing research and pulling document mints when
she injured her back and lost her job. She doesn't
(11:03):
think any annelis at the coroner's office picked up the
project once she left. In October, Hargrove published his story
about the algorithm and its various findings across the nation.
The final version included only a few lines on Gary
(11:24):
about the letter Hardgrove sent to police, describing strangulations going
back to the nineties and how the letter had prompted
Jackie's investigation, and it seemed like that was that a
set of murders in Northwest Indiana unlikely to ever be
solved until four years later on October, when Africa Hardy
(11:47):
was strangled, and there's cold cases Hargrove had identified suddenly
didn't seem so cold. I want to jump away from
(12:18):
the algorithm for a bit here and focus on Africa
Hardy's investigation and how her case came to be linked
to a serial killer. For years, very little was known
about what happened to Africa Hardy. Police never released much
about their investigation. Do you do you know what Indiana law?
Is there any way to get a copy of records
(12:42):
like that? I have no idea. UM, I don't know
what the limits are for their open records law. UM
what Hammond did might be available to you if you
push for it. They don't want to talk about it either,
I assume, because they don't want to embarrass their name
bring police agency. But at the same time it might
(13:03):
be an open record. I don't know. You should try
and you should try to find out that would be
you'd be the first to do that. Last April through
Indiana's version of the Freedom of Information Act. I requested
all the information related to Africa's case and cases that
could be connected. For five months, my request got bounced
(13:23):
around between the Hammond Police and their legal department. I
was told they'd have to figure out what, if anything,
they were allowed to release. I wasn't sure if I'd
ever get these documents, so I tried to interview any
and I could who was connected to the case. I
heard stories of conspiracies and police and competence, but it
was hard to sort through what was real and what
(13:46):
was just a rumor, especially because some of the people
closest to the case, like the officers and the Hammond
Police Department, had been prohibited from speaking to me on
the record. Then in September, I got an email with
the ink. It was a dropbox folder with forty five
gigs worth of videos, including audio from the night Africa died.
(14:09):
Yeah and number one, Hey him, and it's Geary transferring
the calls. You know, the Motel sixth and female is responsible.
She thinks she did. Okay, ma'am, okay, what room are
you in, ma'am? One song one was the last time
you saw her earlier today like, well, ok I need
(14:31):
you to tell like like three o'clock. Okay, I need
to is there any blood or anything on her? No?
Need you know how to take your fingers and put
him on the side of her neck. I want to
know if I'm so scared to do that, I'm some scared.
On October seventem Africa Hardy's friend Shamika, had discovered Africa's
(14:53):
body in the bathtub of a motel six in him
in Indiana. The clock was now kicking. The first forty
eight hours following a murder are the most crucial to
solving it. Crime scene investigators found signs of a struggle.
There was a shirt button on the floor, a broken fingernail,
and a torn condom wrapper. They found blood on a
(15:16):
pillow case and a knit hat under the bed, and
it appeared that someone had rifled through Africa's belongings because
her wallet and I D were there, but her cell
phone was missing. Police check to see if any nearby
security cameras had captured footage of the motel parking lot
or the door outside Africa's room. They brought Shamika back
(15:38):
to the station and Detective Shaan Ford started interviewing her.
Just after midnight, how Africa Day detective Forward and Shamika
sat at a small table in a bear window lists room.
(16:02):
Shamika was wearing a pink sweatshirt with the hood up
and looked nervous. Shamika told police that Africa had been
working as an escort at the Motel six, and that
she'd sought out clients by posting ads on backpage dot com,
an online classifieds website that's since been shut down. I
know you've been through a hard deal tonight. Here's where
(16:25):
the problem was. I have to start eliminating people as
much as I put them in. So like, obviously you're
the last one to see her alive, and you're the
one to find her. Okay, you've been in our company
all day long and nobody else now because she had
contacted some guy on here and he killed her during
a date or something pretty possible. But as an investigator,
(16:47):
I have to remain very objective and looked at the
whole picture. Let's go through today real quick. Where did
you really up today? Yeah? Yeah, we're geting together, Yeah place?
What time? Anything? You got up late? Canons of Himika
(17:07):
says she dropped off Africa at the Mitel six round
two or two thirty pm. She says Africa met up
with one client in the early afternoon and another man
had called and said he was interested in meeting her.
The guy was called like he really was interesting, that
he really was come. He helped calling saying he's gonna
come for shore. You know they he really liked it
(17:30):
up pictures that he's not come and that you just
had to get a baby, so and so once you
get it, he'll calm. So when would you say the
first time you started calling Africa? I talked to her
two tigh coup times, just about the stuff here and there,
even before the first guy came. Um, I know right
before she had the second kind of talk maybe twice,
(17:52):
but it was real short being the one that came
in U five thirteen. Ok she actually called me and
told me she was like he's here, and that was
at five thirteen. Is that what you're saying that time? Okay?
Did you ever hear from her again? It's hard to hear,
(18:13):
but Schimika said that after Africa called at five thirteen
to say the second client had arrived, Shimika didn't hear
from her again after five thirteen. How many times? Do
you think you call her? Ah? It's a Shimika was
worried about Africa, so she called up her friend ed Wardo,
(18:34):
and they headed to the motel. I don't even know
she's listening one. I don't want to grow, so we
kind of listen, you know, to the door and for
the kid. We didn't see anyone. It was just think
to be like I got away from the wall a
little bit and then I see her shoe on the
floor and um. We talked on the light which is
(18:57):
on the outside of the Bed of Tomorrow, my album.
I just flying back and he's like called plies, called
the ambulist, called belief and the end they asked me
what she um when she breathed her? Did she held
a post? Come too scared to touch a post? At
Ronald he touched it and he's like it's nothing him
(19:24):
had a round twelve thirty am. Another officer enters the
interrogation room. How it's detective for its boss, Captain Zeke Kinajosa.
Kinajosa sits down and shake Shamika's hand. Had you guys
ever dealt what this is gonna before? Did you see
him at all? You talked? Woman all on the phone. Okay,
(19:48):
what number did he call her from? What number? I
made sure I remember his number? Three? One two? What
made you remember that number? Because I always come phone
type of prosesssions with each other. Tell each other the normals,
tell each other. Makes the license place in case somebody
happen in case? Okay, what else did she say to you?
(20:09):
She said, he sounded like an older guy. What do
you consider over what would she consider over that? That's
important in the nineteen I'm an old man, you know.
So did she show you the number? She showed me
a text? You take the whole taste and how wars
and how much he likes her tittures and stuff like that. Okay, Kinajosa, thanks,
(20:33):
Shamika shuts down a note and then leaves the room. Obviously,
like we over this. There's people working on other stuff,
so we just got to get through, you know, some
of the stuff here. Now, does she have anybody that
you know that would want to hurt her or anything
like that? She was a good girl. She was a
really good cool I mean, I know it's probably hard
(20:53):
tool to leave because of the situation that happened, but
just feels a good heart and personal give you a
last Now, I don't know how far this is gonna
progress or how fast. I mean, if we're gonna make
an arrest tonight. I don't make an arrest tonight. Obviously,
in an investigation, we have to look at all angles,
at everything. The phone you have on you right now,
with the phone around that, do you mind if I
(21:17):
look in here on this phone. It's not it doesn't
not link with this. It's not not helping. But well,
I kind of need to to look. But it's up
to you. I'm not gonna force you to or anything
like that. Okay, Um, do you have any other phones
(21:37):
on you or anything like that? All right, As we
said here, they had nothing to do it led to
the death of your friend. No, absolutely no. Why wouldn't
able to try to hanging anybody? So no, I'm not
saying that you killed her, But I'm saying sometimes people here,
here's what I'm worried about this want this business here?
All right, Holy Bible. I was not that you make
(21:59):
it harm anybody I love and I love kids, I
love just taking know what I'm saying, This business here
is very bro and sometimes what we find is people
almost become like a prisoner, a slave, that this kind
of work, and there are people behind the scenes, pulling
strangers and making money. And I just want to make
(22:21):
sure that something didn't happen here today where your good
friend got killed. And there's a reason that maybe you're scared.
I can't tell me what append something like that. I
will tell you didn't thinking everything that I know, I
would never not tell. I want you to find this person.
(22:41):
So I was I'm not scared of anybody. I don't
know abody get me under hostage or controlled. So I'm
not a decommanded person. I'm want that saying I don't
about but I'm very strong man, so and I would
not let anybody scare me or do anything this devilish.
And you have no idea other than the numbers you
provided us who could have done this. Will that number
(23:04):
be in that phone at all? No? What makes you
uncomfortable about me having the phone because there might be
like naked pictures or something like that, or piss outfits,
ang and stuff like that. That's okay, Hey, we could
look through here together so that I'm not looking through
your stuff, you know, But where I can you know,
(23:26):
I actually see the call out. Captain Kinejosa opens the
door and leans his head into the room just for
one second. Detective Ford leaves the room for three minutes,
then he returns with Hinejosa. It's now almost one thirty
in the morning. All right, real quick, you said you
(23:48):
called nyme one one? Right? Did you one? Uh? How
many balls you find you right now? M this is
easy question. How many faults do we have on you
right now? I am our? Okay him out? Why didn't
(24:09):
tell us that I don't want you to know? It's
(24:32):
now one thirty am on the night of Africa's murder.
Her friend Shimika has just revealed to police that she's
had a second phone on her this whole time, and
it's the one with the number that they posted to
backpage dot com. Why didn't tell us that, I don't
want you to know? First out? Looking now, we are
(24:53):
not worried about that. No, no, no, I promise you
We're not interested about prostitution. Were interested about solving this
hot side. The whole encounter shows how difficult it is
for sex workers to report crimes to police, which then
in turn complicates trying to solve these crimes. Luckily, in
(25:14):
this case Detective Forward and Captain Kinahosa managed to convince
Shamika that they aren't interested in prosecuting her for facilitating
sex work, and Shamika starts to give them a more
accurate story of what really happened. She was walking. Also,
everything is that now, Okay, everything's in there, including the
number that the guy called. That's why you get the
(25:36):
number because you actually had the phone. The way the
system worked, Shamika talked to and booked Africa's clients. Then
she'd call Africa or text the information to Africa's personal phone.
Shamika says that when the five thirteen appointment should have
been finished, Shamika tried to get in touch with Africa
right away. I'm about al was called her phone, I
(26:01):
was called his phone, and then I started reading to
call the police. So I really was just trying to
tell her this so she could call me and be like, no,
everything's okay, you don't have to call the police. But
then she started texting stuff like you're scaring him. You
gotta text message from her fault saying you're scaring him.
So I'm like, I don't want to do that. I
(26:23):
don't want to mess up business. I don't want to
get him or whatever, okay with After that, she started
taking stuff that I know she didn't text, like, she
texts something to say, I have a client's gonna be
a long date. I'll see in two hours, and I'm like,
m oh right. These texts that were coming from Africa
(26:44):
were a big red flag because Shamika was the one
who talked to and booked Africa's clients. But before Shamika
could get anything resolved, she says, her phone ran out
of batteries. When she got the phone charged and turned
back on, she saw that she'd received more strange messages.
But these weren't messages from Africa's phone, but from the
(27:06):
five thirteen client, some about at all that and I'll
be back if I cannot come back and the years
still there and LV. Shamika wasn't sure what to make
of the messages. She was terrified for Africa, but she
was also worried that if she went to the police,
she could get them both arrested for prostitution. So she
(27:30):
decided to check on Africa herself, and that's when she
went to the motel with Eduardo. Detective Ford starts going
through Shamika's text messages, and he gets to one that
she hadn't yet mentioned. Why don't here I want to
ask you about Here's a text from Shamika's phone to
Africa's make sure you hide your money good because the
(27:52):
other client is waiting outside or is referring to she
was speaking correct, well one of them though. He tells
the other clan is waiting outside. Some other guys had
text or whatever saying that he wanted her too, but
he was he was coming at the same time, and
the other guy like double bump head. Okay, so where
(28:13):
is his text? That we guy that was outside? Okay?
This is him saying you messed out. He's leaving. Man,
So he's there, he was there. You know who this is? No?
Oh my, I'm never to pay a pension for him.
(28:33):
He said he's not kind of jumping out, but he
never made his and it don't looks like That's why
I don't think he did. He watched the guy leave.
It chills your friend. Oh my god. Detective Forward picks
up the phone and starts walking out the door. Do
(28:56):
you guys try to we we're sent on a couple
of different things, and you know that's one of them.
It was now two thirty AM, around nine hours after
Africa had been killed. Police continued working through the night,
chasing down leads using the text messages from Shamika's second
(29:17):
cell phone. Police requested search warrants for the five thirteen
Clients phone records. Meanwhile, other detectives poured through surveillance footage
from the motel and businesses nearby. One camera captured footage
of a man in a puffy jacket entering Africa's room
shortly after PM at five. He leaves the room and
(29:40):
runs out to a blue jeep. Another security camera captured
the jeep's license plate and Bureau of Motor Vehicle records
showed it was registered to a woman named Regina Beard,
who lived in Gary, Indiana. Police found that the five
thirteen clients cell phone was also registered to Regina b
Heard at the same address, twenty minutes away from the
(30:03):
Hammond Police station in the neighborhood on the south side
of Gary. At five PM, just twenty four hours after
Africa had been killed, detectives raced out to the address.
It was a small, one story brick house directly across
from a church and parked in front of the house
was the blue jeep they were looking for. Next time
(30:31):
on Algorithm, I'm not gonna lie. It was scary because
we would only be maybe floor of us in the house,
and we don't know who's in the house, so who's
in the area, and there's they like police officers, a
want of driving out. What are you trying to get
out of it? Good thing? You could be crazy, You're
could be sitting here and talking man already five a
(30:54):
Most Lakes Room one five shot, Conscious of your fem
bars and chowder. This episode was written and produced by
me ben Key Brick. Algorithm is executive produced by Alex Williams,
(31:16):
Donald Albright, and Matt Frederick. Production assistance in mixing by
Eric Quintana. The music is by Makeup and Vanity Set
and Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,
Jamie Albright, rema El Kaili, Trevor Young, and Josh Thane
for their help and notes, and thanks for listening. I've
(31:38):
put a ton of work into this show over the
last year and I really appreciate all of the feedback
I got after episodes one and two, So if you
haven't yet, please reach out subscribe and leave a review.
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