May 24, 2023 • 45 mins
On July 27th, 1971, 10-year-old Brenda Crockett did not return home from a trip to the grocery store. Hours later, Brenda called home to deliver a cryptic message. And then, the line went dead. Her body was discovered just hours later...
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Freeway Phantom is available each week on Wednesdays. To hear
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Speaker 2 (00:13):
You're listening to The Freeway Phantom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:36):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, you never know what.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
To expect, to expect the unexpected, I guess. I mean,
you never know what time you're going to be called
out for an assignment. It could be during the day,
it could be in the middle of the night. Typically,
if you're working day, if the second shift, you would
just go ahead and work whatever's on your caseload. But
I remember getting a call. It was towards morning. It
(01:08):
came over as what we call the signal eighty one.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
That was a death.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
It was a warm morning and it was pretty dry
when I got there. I guess there was a crowd
starting to come out arriving on a scene. I was
directed to where this child was laying on the side
of the road and just making more observations whatever I
could detect at the scene, which wasn't very much at
(01:36):
the time. It appeared that she was probably either dragged
out of the car or thrown out of the car,
and I just called our ID section and they responded
and did what they do typically taking pictures and if
there's anything else at this area. I mean, there was
no fingerprints to be taken or anything like that, look
for tire tracks, so there was really nothing to look
(01:59):
for except the deceased person. Everything happened so quick and
just the type of crime it was, in the place
where it happened and everything. I'm sure this happened at
someplace else, but she was merely dumped in that area.
Another one hundred feet it probably would have been in DC,
and I wouldn't add any involvement at all.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
This child was laying on the side of the road.
I wouldn't go no way.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
I would call him my house.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Those first five murders should have been a huge warning
bell for the police.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
We just want to know what happened.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
This person must have saw that. They were thinking that
maybe it's just one person, and he says, oh, they
need to know.
Speaker 8 (02:49):
This is me.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
I thought that they would catch him. I thought it
was just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. The Freeway
Phantom had already claimed two victims, Carol Spinks and Darlinia Johnson.
Although Carol and Darlinia's bodies were dumped fifteen feet from
each other and were killed the same way, law enforcements
(03:16):
still hadn't linked the two murders. They'd asked a potential
suspect in Darlinia's death if he knew Carol Spinks. He didn't,
so the two murders were still being treated as individual cases.
But on July twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one, eight days
after Darlinia's decomposed body was found, the Freeway Phantom's third
(03:36):
victim would be discovered.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I remember how she was clad, I remember how she
was dressed. I remember she had some pink rollers in
her hair, and she had just a little outfit on
a little top. But it was. It seems to me
it was a matching outfit. There wasn't really that much
to see there far. She was concerned. I just wrapped
(04:00):
her hands in baggies and called for a corner to
go ahead and transport her. Or was an ambulance.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I should say this is a retired detective Hillary Zuklowski,
who we heard from at the top of this episode.
He was one of the first to arrive at the
crime scene.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
We weren't there very long because there really wasn't much
evidence to gather, maybe an hour. I don't think they
shut down the roads or anything like that because the
manner of the way she was dumped on the side.
Speaker 9 (04:29):
Of the road.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Brenda Crockett was four and half feet tall and weighed
only seventy five pounds. She was the youngest victim of
the Freeway Phantom, and like Carol Spinks and der Linia Johnson,
she was discovered right off a busy highway.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
She was a child of God. She loved church.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
She was going to refrigerate it eat raw bacon, but
you know, the pigs were better back then. She had
a dimp whip here her cheek. She loved bacon and
she loved the lord at ten years old, but I
do remember that I looked up to her that.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
She was cute.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
My name is Berta Crockett and I am the youngest
sibling of my family. Brenda was my oldest sister. She
was four years older. I have a twin brother who
is deceased now, and we had an older brother. We
lived on to ours place. It was a beautiful community
(05:33):
to be honest. As a child, we did everything. We
had the fire hydrants out in the summertime. We had
arts and craft. We had a lot going on. Because
one of the gentlemen that lived in the area, he
worked for the Department of res so he bought all
of this activity to our street and we were like
(05:55):
like a one way street.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Brenda lived with her family in Northwest Washington, DC, which
was across town from the first two murders. Like the
neighborhoods where Carol Spinks and Delinia Johnson lived, it was
tight knit. I briefly visited her neighborhood and found where
Brenda's house used to be. So we're standing in front
of the house where Brenda Crockett lived.
Speaker 10 (06:17):
She would have stepped down this step to leave her
house for the last time. We see again this quiet
I would call it a sweet residential street. And she
walked just a few blocks the blocks it's five blocks,
but the blocks here are quite small. This is not
a New York block. And she walked just a short
(06:39):
way to the Safeway and bought what she needed to
buy and never came home again. How someone can snatch
a little girl off the street like that, I mean,
this is not like where Carol Spinks and Derlinia were living.
We do not see aunties on the porch, but that
could also be because the Guiney neighborhood is obviously flipped.
(07:00):
This is not a majority black neighborhood anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Still, leading up to Brenda's murder, fear hadn't infiltrated this community.
It could be that Carolyn Delinia's murders hadn't been connected,
or that they happened too far away for anyone here
to notice. Whatever the reason, people here had yet to
realize that there was a killer targeting young girls. If
(07:25):
they had, things might have gone differently. It was neighborhood
movie night on Main Street when Brenda headed to the store.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
All the kids in the neighborhood could watch movies on
the screen. So in the summertime, you remember, it was
daylight until about nine o'clock PM. So my mom my
sister being older, to the store that she went to
was literally two blocks around the corner, two blocks down
the street, and because she didn't come back by the
(07:57):
time it was turning dark, my mom when looking for
because we were getting ready to watch the movies on
the big screen.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Brenda wore a white and blue plaid halter top with
matching shorts and had pink rollers in her freshly pressed hair.
A witness said Brenda had been barefoot. She was headed
to buy food for Ringo, Rex and Romeo, the family's
three dogs, along with bread and typing paper.
Speaker 7 (08:23):
When my sister didn't return from the grocery store, my
mom didn't realize that no one had went with her,
and so after she didn't come back, because it should
have been literally a half hour forty five minutes, my
mom went looking for her and she didn't find her.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
My sister didn't return.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Here's what Retha Crockett, Brenda's mother, told the police about
the night Brenda went missing, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
I sent my daughter to People's drug Store to get
type in paper. Also did the Safewoyt store located at
fourteen and U Streets northwest to get some dog food.
This was about eight o'clock. After a while, she didn't return,
so I looked at the door for her. I thought
she went to the store with her brother and sister
and a friend like she always does. I went outside
and it was starting to get dog I found my
(09:15):
other two children, Benjamin and Bertha, and asked them if
they had seen Brendan and they said no. All three
of us watched the corner of thirteenth in W Streets
to look for I told Benjamin to return to the
house to lock the door, and when he didn't return,
I sent Bertha to get him. She came back and
said he was going to stay and watch the street movie.
She said he don't want to go, Mamma, Can I
stay too? So I said yes. I walked down the
(09:37):
safeway and it was closed and there were some boys
sitting outside, and went back home to see you she there,
but she wasn't. I then asked my neighbor, missed A Bundy,
if he has seen her, and he said no. I
walked back to fourteenth Street, where I seen a police
car and asked him what to do when your daughter
goes missing. They told me to stand on the corner,
that they were out of the area and that they
would have another policeman come and take a missing person report.
(10:01):
I was standing there, I see mister Bundy walking out
Seventh Street, so I ran across the street, thinking she
had come home. Mister Buddy said she was not home,
but she called.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
At around nine twenty that night, the phone at Brenda's
house rang, and Bertha answered.
Speaker 9 (10:18):
I'm in vin in a white man's house. The whiteness
put came a car and curried me over to his house.
Did my mother see me?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
I'm seven years old. I remember it like it was yesterday.
So my sister was ten years old. She was old
enough and wise enough to remember our home number at
that time. She called home and she said that somebody
had picked her up and took her to Virginia and
they were going to send her home in a cab.
And I answered the phone the first time. I'm too
young to even understand what's really going on. So that
(10:56):
call went out, and then the next call came in.
My mom's fiance at the time, who became my mom's
husband answered the next call and.
Speaker 8 (11:05):
He said, well, Brenda, if you tell me where you are,
come and get you. She says, I'm in Virginia.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
This man picked me up and took me to Virginia
and he's going to put me in a cab and
send me home.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
She's ten years old.
Speaker 7 (11:16):
At the same time, my mom was looking for her,
and she was asking my stepfather me or whoever at
that time.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Did my mom see me?
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Which led us to believe that whoever captured her had
her in a vehicle.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
Or some sort and saw my mom.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
Looking for her. I thought it was that Mama is
out looking for you. Where are you?
Speaker 8 (11:41):
That's my thought.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Then, even now to this day, I look at the
scenario of where from DC from where we grew up
to Maryland to Virginia because we grew up at Twelfth
Street Northwest and then I work at twelfth Street Southwest.
Then right around the corner, you just hit that bridge
(12:02):
and you're at Virginia. So I'm like, was she really
familiar with where she was going? Did she see a
sign that says she was going to Virginia? Now it's
like all kinds of questions in my head. I got
the impression that she was a little frightened, that she
was like just thinking that whoever it was was going
to put her in a cab and send her back home.
(12:23):
She said, I'm in Virginia and he's gonna put me
in a cabin send me back home.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
This was new. This was a complete change from the
Freeway Phantom's mo Although there had been reports of him
calling the families of the first two victims, this is
the only confirmed contact. What makes this even more strange
is that Brenda didn't call once, but twice. Theodore Caldwell
was raythist fiance. In his statement, Caldwell said he met
(12:51):
Bertha coming up the street. This was right after Brenda
had called the first time, so Caldwell was aware Brenda
had said a white man took her to Virginia. When
Brenda called again around nine forty five, Caldwell picked up
the receiver. This is a voice actor reading his statement.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
Brenda said, mister Ted, I said, yes, Brenda, where are
you at? She said, I'm in Virginia in a white
man's house. I asked how she got over there. She
said the white man put her in the car and
carried her over to his house. I asked her, is
there anyone there besides you and the man? She said no.
I told her to tell him to come to the
phone and tell me where you're at and I'll come
(13:31):
pick you up. And she said, did my mother see me?
I said no, How could she see you when you're
in Virginia. Asked her again, tell the man to come
to the phone. I heard someone walk in Heaven. She said,
really low, I'll see you, and someone just cut the phone.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
There's no definite reason why Brenda went to the store
alone that night. Eartha thinks it could be because it
was only two blocks from where they lived at the time,
and the fact it didn't get dark until nine pm.
But there was another person to see Brenda before she disappeared.
Here's how one investigator described their interview with a witness
named Paulette Johnson.
Speaker 12 (14:13):
Missus Johnson was asked if she could recall the night
of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, and the incident
involving Brenda Faye Crockett. Missus Johnson stated she was well
aware of that evening and the night, and that she
had become acquainted with the victim. Brenda Crockett prior to
her abduction on that night. Missus Johnson stated that at
(14:35):
approximately eight forty five to nine pm on the night
of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, she was walking
from the quarner of fourteenth and U Street northwest, heading
south on the east side of Fourteenth Street, near the
Safeway store. Just as she approached the Safeway store, Brenda
Crockett walked around beside her and passed just in front
(14:57):
of her, heading toward the door of the safe Way store.
Missus Johnson stated she knew Brenda Crockett by sight because
the Crockett girl's father works for one of her boyfriends,
and she recalled that Brenda had been to her daughter's
birthday party a few days before this incident. Missus Johnson
stated that it was her opinion that Brenda Crockett could
(15:19):
not have been taken from in front of the Safeway
store by force without someone seeing and observing the incident.
She stated that as she turned the corner on Wallack Place,
she lost sight of the Crockett girl, and shortly thereafter
when she returned, she did not see her in front
of the store. She stated that the time elapsing after
(15:40):
she last saw the Crockett girl and when she returned
to in front of the Safeway store was approximately five minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
If missus Johnson's timing was accurate, this means Brenda was
kidnapped within a five minute window. This means Missus Johnson
could possibly be the last person to see Brenda alone
other than the killer. Police questioned Raytha about the abduction.
Speaker 13 (16:05):
Has your daughter ever told or advised you that men
were trying to entice her into a vehicle?
Speaker 14 (16:10):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:11):
Did she often go to the store alone?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Just the star around the corner, not the safe a
buzz self.
Speaker 13 (16:17):
Is there anyone you suspect?
Speaker 6 (16:19):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:20):
Is there anything else you can add to the statement?
Speaker 14 (16:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
As we heard before the break, Brenda called home not once,
but twice. Brenda had said that a white man abducted
her and that she was in Virginia. This information seemed
suspicious and it raised a lot of questions. Was the
killer Brenda lies to tell her family and why he.
Speaker 15 (17:05):
Was doing a lot of things to deliberately mislead the authorities.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co wrote a book
about the Freeway Phantom. He says it didn't make sense
that a white man would have abducted Brenda, as she
claimed over the phone. When we talked with members of
the local community, they agreed that a white man would
have stood out in the Congress Heights neighborhood since the
area has always been predominantly black.
Speaker 15 (17:31):
Anything he had her say, you have to put under
a microscope and go, is he trying to throw the
trail off? In this case? I definitely think he was
in terms of Virginia. I don't know for sure on
his race, though, very creepy and if he was, imagine
her knowing that she's lying to her family about this.
(17:53):
That had to ratchet up her terror level.
Speaker 12 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (17:57):
It's one thing. If somebody's holding you and they said
you could tell him where Virginia, and you're in Virginia,
you tell him I'm why because I'm white. But if
they're telling you things that you know aren't true, you've
got to be more scared. That just ugh scares me
to think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Having Brenda call home was a new mo for the
Freeway Phantom, and it showed that he was starting to escalate.
In fact, it was only eight hours or so after
that phone call that Brenda's body was discovered in the
early morning hours of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one,
Donald Ray Carter began to head home from work. He
worked at the Safeway Bakery in Landover, Maryland, but lived
(18:37):
in Alexandria, Virginia. While he was trying to hitch a ride,
he spotted Brenda's body in Chevley, Maryland. Carter had the
cab that had stopped for him take him to Joy
Donut Shop to call law enforcement and let them know
about the body. After law officials were on the scene,
the medical examiner declared Brenda's time of death at six
fifty five am. Brenda was killed and disposed of in
(19:00):
less than eight hours.
Speaker 15 (19:03):
It was really sad when we saw the pictures of her.
I was deeply moved because she's laying on her back
and her eyes are open looking up and it's on
the curve of a cloverleaf exit.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Blaine tells us he spoke with Carter.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
You know.
Speaker 15 (19:21):
He said it was the saddest thing because he said,
she's just laying there, and he said, I just thought
maybe she's asleep, maybe she's not feeling well, something along
those lines. And it turns out that's not the case.
What's interesting too, is you see a trend with this.
Her shoes are missing, and the killer has taken shoes
(19:41):
off several of the victims. That's usually a control mechanism,
you know, if you take someone's shoes, it's harder for
them to get away or flee or whatever, and he
may be keeping those things as souvenirs. Also missing from
her were some pink hair curlers that she had. We know,
so it was a fairly narrow window of time, so
(20:03):
narrow in fact, that it almost rules out when you
know the geography of d DC being kind of wedged
between Virginia and Maryland, the time that her body is
found versus the phone calls, etc. And when she disappeared,
it would have been very difficult for someone to go
anywhere but other than right across the border into Virginia.
(20:24):
If indeed the killer was there, the thinking that most
law enforcement have had is that he had fed her
that information to deliberately mislead the authorities. We just don't
know for sure, but you know, the concept of a
killer taking his victim back and then letting her call
home twice is very disturbing. It's just incredibly creepy.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
The killer placed Brenda's body along the Prince George's County,
Maryland line. Here's how the police report describes the scene.
Speaker 12 (20:56):
The body was viewed by this detective and it was
observed that she was clad in a blue and white halter,
matching shorts, white cotton underpads, and around her neck was
an orchid colored silk scarf knotted and a greenish colored
quarter inch cord attached to which was a silver house key.
(21:17):
The body was rigor and no visible trauma was present.
The deceased was laying approximately five feet six inches from
the curb side, flat on her back with her arms outstretched.
After the body was removed, it was noted that the
ground was extremely dry under the deceased, however, around the
(21:39):
body was wet.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
The orchid scarf was new, Brenda hadn't been wearing it
when she left for Safeway, and this further added to
the theory that the freeway phantom was redressing the girls.
Brenda's body was taken to the morgue at Prince George's
County Hospital. This is her autopsy report.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Cause of death was ruled to be ligature and manual strangulation.
She had been vaginally raped and There were ring like
contusions around her nipples, suggesting they had been bitten. There
was a small contusion in the left temple region of
her scalp. She was fully clothed, with the exception of
her shoes. It was noted no soil on her feet.
(22:21):
On her head were pink plastic hair curlers, several of
which were missing. A few small hairs of negroid origin
were found on the palm of her right hand, but
were too small for any sort of comparison. Synthetic black
textile fibers were recovered from her scarf. Green synthetic fibers
were also recovered from her blouse, shorts, and panties. Blood
(22:43):
mixed with semen was found in the crotch of her panties,
but could not be conclusively grouped.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Brenda's case is different from Carol and der Linia's in
two major ways. One is the time period between capture
and killing. Carol was kept alive and even fed for
about a week. Authorities weren't able to determine an exact
time of Darlinia's death due to the decomposition of her
body when she was found. However, they did confirm that
it was a shorter interval than the previous murder. The
(23:15):
second difference, as we've mentioned, are the phone calls. But
outside of that, the similarities remain. How the girls were killed,
the killer's dump sight, and the washed feet. Although Brenda
had been barefoot, her feet had still been washed. But
there's another detail in Brenda Crockett's case that wasn't initially noticed.
(23:37):
This is Romaine Jenkins, the retired Metropolitan Police Department sergeant
who investigated the freeway phantom cases. We visited her at
her home.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
What do you think of her hair?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Her hair's been washed, Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
See, men didn't notice that. I noticed that in me
all said, Oh, the hay has been washed in war
some way.
Speaker 10 (23:57):
Yeah, see how tied up it is.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
And and and her sister said their hair had just
been done. They had had just been pressed and curled
and put on rollers and look at it now she's
been in water. Yep. But the but the guys didn't
notice that. They did not. I knew that when I
saw that picture.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Here's what Bertha Crockett has to say about her sister's
hair being wet.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
When they found her. I think her hair was wet
with the rollers in it. If that's the case, I
think he would have tried to remove evidence. If you're
gonna wash your victims, you're removed trying to remove evidence.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
And you know, as black women, we don't do wet hair.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
I can't even remember my hair back then, but I
have one picture of her at Easter and her hair
was cute, So I guess we would have had to
been pressing, pressing curl back then. In the seventies, it
met shampoo, blowd dry, and curl on the stove and
(25:03):
pressed and roll up with rollers.
Speaker 8 (25:06):
None of this. I don't remember curling eyes. I don't
remember flat eyes. I don't remember any of that.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
It's just you press it with the straightening comb on
the stove and you roll it up with some greens.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Reports also showed the negroid headhairs in Brenda's right palm
were not hers, and for the third time now green
rayon fibers were found on the body. Here's Blaine Pardo again.
Speaker 15 (25:37):
So we now know for sure she's linked to Carol Spakes.
So at that point, lawn firstman knows they've got somebody
who's doing this, and more importantly, those fibers are showing
up under their clothing. If you think about it from
from a perspective of what's happening. If you get your
(25:57):
victim to disrobe because you're going to actually assault them,
or you just robe them. If you're putting their clothes
on the source of those fibers, you're still kind of
laying clothes on. Let's say it was a green blanket
on a bed. When you're throwing the clothes on there,
the fibers are still going to be on the outside
(26:19):
of the clothing. These things are showing up inside, and
you know, it's a real scary concept of what's happening
here as to how they're picking these fibers up and
from what.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
The Maryland Police Department issued a reward for any information
on the case, and while the police were searching for
the killer birth ascent. The community changed.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
After that.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
The community became really strict.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
Like I was in a short block.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
I mean, I'm talking like maybe a quote amount, not
even that when the lights came on, you better be
in front of your home to go in the house.
In our neighborhood, the community raised us. So if you
did anything wrong, the neighbors told your parents before they
even got home. So everything everybody was watching out for everybody.
(27:18):
It was so strict, and it was just what it
was after that, And I think I think my sister's
death is what sparked such a tight knit a lookout
for everybody on that block and on the next blocks.
I go was on twelfth Place, so we had twelfth Street.
On the next block, we had thirteenth Street, So we
(27:41):
just kept a tight knit community after that. It was
so sad, though, because I didn't understand the restrictions that
I had on me as a little child, But my
mother didn't want anything to happen to me either.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Here's an excerpt from the book The Mystery of the
Freeway Phantom by Wilma Harper.
Speaker 16 (28:03):
The death of Brenda had a traumatic effect on the
neighborhood where she lived. The residents said the area would
never be the same. In contrast to the usual crowds
of frolicking youngsters, only a few children were playing ball
on the block after Brenda's body was found. An eight
year old boy refused to go to the store for
his mother because he was afraid he would be kidnapped.
(28:24):
Neighbors and friends along twelfth Place, which is just behind
Cardoza High school described Brenda as a bright fifth grade
student at nearby Harrison Elementary School. Missus Eva Artist, a
neighbor who cared for the children when their mother was
at work, said, we usually have lots of games going
on the street, but nobody's been acting right today. I
(28:45):
think everyone is disturbed.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But Bertha Crockett says the death of her sister had
an even bigger impact on her immediate family.
Speaker 8 (28:56):
I know it took a lot on my mom.
Speaker 7 (28:58):
Though I saw my mom just appreciate from that, but
she just wasn't her stuff anymore. It's like life went
out of her. And so then that's when you that's
when you you say, well, why wasn't it me?
Speaker 8 (29:19):
Why would God take that antel?
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Because she had going no way better than me, even
at seven years old. You want to think that, like,
I know her, I knew her, I didn't, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
I didn't.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
I wasn't on her level because she had her own girlfriends,
set of friends. At ten years old, she had a
whole school of girlfriend that left her. I went to
the cemetery about a month ago, but I could not
find her, and I couldn't.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
My mom is in the same place, the same cemetery, but.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
I couldn't, so I would have to literally go back
and ask them to show me the plot because it's
been fifty years to show me where my sister. I
know she's located in Hilltop Garden of Roses. That's the
name of the place where they, you know, have her
laid to rest. But my mom is in the same place.
(30:19):
My mom is under a big tree. But yeah, it's
said that, you know, having a sister that I really
didn't get to know because she got taken away at
such a young age, growing up without a sister, and
then like in my early twenties, I lost my mom.
So I mean out here forever and sold some things
(30:43):
just bring.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
Emotion back.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Bertha and her family were grieving Brenda's death. The police
had begun to suspect that her murder might be connected
to Carol and derlinea and months later, though, suspicions were
finally confirmed when another girl was found dead. Sixteen year
(31:27):
old Stephen James Potopio was watching TV when he decided
to go visit his friend Chuck. On his way to
Chuck's house, he passed by a broken down pontiac on
the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue, near a sign that said
Upper Harborough twelve. Stephen said he heard a man holler
a girl's name and told her to cut the lights on.
He described the woman as young and white, no older
(31:49):
than nineteen or twenty. The man was also white and
well dressed, with brownish blonde hair, glasses, and about five
foot ten inches. Stephen said he noticed the guy with
staring at him, so when Stephen was about twenty feet
from the car, he jumped the bank to cut across
the cemetery to Chuck's house. When he got there, nobody
(32:09):
was home, so Stephen decided to head back to his house.
This next part is an excerpt from Stephen's statement to
the police.
Speaker 14 (32:18):
I then left and headed home the identical where I came.
As I was walking up Pennsylvania Avenue toward Maryland, I
started walking backwards, shying the thumb hitchhike. I noticed a
box sitting off the shoulder on the grass. I walked
over to the box and saw a glass in it.
I turned and saw something in the grass, but right
then I didn't know what it was. I walked up
to it, but I didn't know if it was a
(32:39):
man or a girl. I stood there a couple seconds
to see if he would move. I took my right
foot and kicked it two or three times, and the
body seemed to wiggle. I stood there a couple seconds,
and it felt the body under the ribs to see
if the heart was beating. The body felt cold, and
then something hit me, maybe it was dead.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Stephen had found the body of two twelve year road
Ninomosha Yates, a sixth grader at Kelly Miller Junior High.
She was a well behaved, quiet child, and now she
was the fourth victim of the freeway phantom. Ninomosha lived
with her father and stepmother in the Benning Heights neighborhood
in southeast Washington d C. Benning Heights is about six
(33:20):
miles from Congress Heights, a completely different area on the
other side of d C from the first three murders.
It was Friday, October first, nineteen seventy one. Ninomosha's stepmother
had just given birth and was at the hospital with
Nina's dad. About seven pm. Ninomosha was given five dollars
and sent to Safeway to buy sugar, flour and paper plates.
(33:43):
The grocery store was located at forty eight oh one
Benning Road Southeast. That's the same road Ninomosha lived on.
Although the store was only about a block away, her
father had instructed her not to talk to strangers. According
to witnesses, Ninamosha made it to the grocery store, but
she never made it back. Here's Victoria Hester, who co
(34:05):
wrote a book about the Freeway Phantom with her father,
Blaine Pardo.
Speaker 17 (34:09):
We know that for sure she was at the Safeway
because the store manager confirmed on October first. It would
have been pretty dark at that time. It was normal
to go down the street to a Safeway at nine
o'clock at night in DC at that time.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It wasn't until the next day, October second, that a
Safeway employee found the items Ninemosha had purchased.
Speaker 17 (34:33):
We know wherever she went she was either forcibly taken
only because the bag of sugar that she had bought
from Safeway was found in the parking lot of Safeway,
so she didn't get very far. She wouldn't have left
that bag of sugar if she was getting a ride
home or getting a ride to somewhere else by someone
driving by. She would have taken that with her, which
(34:55):
kind of leads us to believe it was forcibly, But
at the same time, with it being a well lit
parking lot, she would have screamed, She would have made
some sort of noise and a area of she was
being forcibly taken, So it gets kind of tricky in
that sense.
Speaker 15 (35:13):
Because of her.
Speaker 17 (35:14):
Age too, she was twelve. Was she easy to convince
to get in a vehicle? Just to me? It makes
it look forcible since her bag of groceries that she
went out to get was left behind. Another important thing
about it was her body was found dry on wet grass,
so we know she wasn't killed where she was dumped,
(35:36):
and she wasn't killed outside or she would have been wet.
She was wearing her clothes that she was wearing when
she disappeared.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
The cause of death was.
Speaker 17 (35:46):
Known to be strangulation and she was sexually assaulted. She
also had fingernail marks on her neck, so either from
being strangled or trying to fight back and getting marks
on her neck.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Ninomosha was found in cut off brown shorts, a white
sweatshirt with green lettering that spelled Randall, Highland hornets, and
white zips, tennis shoes. Autopsy reports indicated her esophagus was crushed.
Not only did Ninomosha have more wounds than previous victims,
but the killer had accelerated his timeline. She'd left home
(36:21):
around seven p m and her body was found around
nine fifteen PM. This means she was taken, murdered, and
disposed of in roughly two hours. Like the others, green
fibers were found on the body. Negroid hairs from a
person's head were on her panties, brazier sweatshirt, cut off
jean shorts, and shoes. At the time of her disappearance,
(36:44):
Ninomosha was wearing a sanitary napkin. Semen was found in
that napkin. Additionally, two dollars ninety one cents and a
grocery list were found in her pocket, along with two
house keys. Attached to a string. Near her body were
several items, including a woman's loafer. Police considered the loafer
was dragged out of the vehicle with Ninomosha's body because
(37:06):
it was also dry. Remember Darlinia Johnson was missing loafers
when she was found. There were also drag marks from
Ninamosha's heels in the wet dirt. The police report noted
that tire tracks created by a small vehicle were found
near the body and had been photographed. Later, another witness
(37:26):
told police they'd seen Ninamosha get into a blue Volkswagen
with a yellow stripe down the side, headed in the
direction of the safeway. The witness assumed it was her mom,
since she drove a similar car.
Speaker 17 (37:39):
Kind of sent a wild goose chase on the Volkswagen issue.
With a witness thinking that they saw her get into
a Volkswagen, it kind of created this well, now we
got to find this car that happens to be one
of the most popular cars right now, and it really
went nowhere. It's kind of unfortunate. It's nice that the
witness thought this saw something. At the same time, it
(38:01):
created a lot of misleading information about who they were
looking for, and it wasted a lot of police time
running all these plates and trying to identify all these cars.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Later, investigators interviewed Stephen again. This time he added to
a statement the following is from that report.
Speaker 12 (38:24):
He advised he furnished what he thought was the full
facts of what he had seen that evening, but he
has since recalled he had seen another car in the
vicinity of where he discovered the body. Potopia related. After
he left his residence and turned east toward Washington, DC
on Pennsylvania Avenue in the right hand lane, he observed
(38:46):
a Volkswagen in the westbound lane. This Volkswagen pulled off
onto the side of the road and parked about twenty
five feet west of where Potopia discovered the body. Potopia
looked back after he's the car park and observed two
men get out of the Volkswagen, a white from the
driver's side and a Negro man from the passenger side.
(39:09):
The two men walked along the side of the road
a short distance and then went down the embankment, and
she no longer thought anything about it. Potopia then crossed
the westerly lane the median, and then in the westerly
lane observed the other car with the hood up, which
he had put into the signed statements.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
The car with the hood up belonged to the young
couple we heard earlier. Police were now investigating two sets
of individuals, one a young Caucasian couple, the other a
black man and Caucasian man, but this didn't last long.
Shortly after the news broke about Ninomosha Yates. A witness
(39:52):
came forward. Here's what James Richard Lloyd told police, as
read by a voice actor.
Speaker 18 (39:59):
I was with a Robinson in his nineteen seventy one
Pontiac Lahmann, which is brown in color, and we were
coming from the Fairfax Village in Washington, d C. Jay
heard a noise coming from the engine, so we stopped
along Pennsylvania Avenue, just past the big gates to the cemetery.
We got out and opened the hood. Jay was trying
to find where the noise was coming from. About that time,
someone walked past us. I first saw him walking up
(40:21):
the road as we pulled off. He was walking toward DC.
While we stopped, I saw two cars stopped along the
road in front of us, about one hundred yards up
the road from us. They were close together, but I
don't know what type of cars they were. We got
back in our car and drove off.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
James told police he came to speak with them after
Jerry's mother had read about the news. It had been
only him and Jerry in the car when they stopped
just past the entrance to the cemetery along Pennsylvania Avenue.
He said he saw both cars the entire time he
and Jerry were pulled over. This was about three to
four minutes. James also told police the cars were there
(40:58):
when he and Jerry left, and he didn't see anyone
or anything else as they drove off. With James's statement,
both sets of suspects were ruled out. Authorities were back
to square one. There were now four young dead black girls,
girls that were from tight knit neighborhoods, places where the
community kept an eye on children, places that were meant
(41:21):
to be safe, yet the police had no leans. Here's
Romaine again.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
Whoever grabbed these young ladies grabbed them right in their
own neighborhood. Nina most Yates went to the grocery store
in the forty eight hundred block of Benning Road. She's
picked up that she she's grabbed in the forty nine
hundred block, and nobody sees anything. All the people out
there don't care. When you go out there. You have
East Capitol Street there, it's always people because you're close
(41:50):
to the district line. People are doing shopping. She's grabbed
at a time when there are lots of people out,
kids are out, and nobody sees the thing. Because he
feel what the community nobody was suspicion.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
What happened to Ninemosha was also true in the case
of Brenda Crockett. Both girls had been snatched in broad daylight.
As Romayne has said, it's very likely the killer was
somebody from the neighborhood. I asked Bertha Crockett if she
had any suspicions about who the killer could be.
Speaker 7 (42:23):
Back then, we used to have officer friendlies that came
to our school and they got to know the kids.
That means officers that used to come to your school
and make sure that the kids feel safe. Like right
now they have patrol officers or officers in the school
and make sure kids are not doing the violence stuff
that they've been doing lately. But back then they were
(42:45):
called officer friendlies and they would come to your school
and have like little conversations with you. And it always
made me feel like an officer friendly was somebody that
saw different girls and he selected them.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Next time on Freeway, Phantom.
Speaker 10 (43:13):
DC had never had a serial killing before, and so
it wasn't something not that you ever get used to it,
but it wasn't something they were familiar with.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
The fourth body that brought more people in because where's
the body found. You're talking about PG County, right, You're
talking about crossing jurisdictional lines, So then he is PG
County coming into play.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
All of these girls were not from runaway families.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
These girls, they were good families.
Speaker 11 (43:43):
And if they do investigate, they don't investigate when it
comes to black people, you know, unless it's something that's juicy.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
And all of a sudden, the guy, he comes out
of the driverside and he comes around the front of
the car.
Speaker 6 (43:55):
And snatches me.
Speaker 8 (43:57):
There's no emotion on his face none.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV,
and Black Bar Mitzvah. Our host is Selese Hilly. The
show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright, and CELESE.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Hilly.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Radio include Matt Frederick
and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers
on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on
behalf of Black bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and
Aaron Bergman with producer Sidney Fools. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
(44:41):
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tenderfoot TV
and iHeartMedia, as well as Black Bar Mitzvah, have increased
the reward for information leading to the arrest and can
of the person or persons responsible for their Freeway phantom murders.
(45:04):
The previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
A new total reward of up to three hundred thousand
dollars is now being offered. If you have any information
relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department
at area code two zero two seven two seven nine
(45:25):
zero ninety nine. For more information, please visit Freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
Freeway Phantom is available each week on Wednesdays. To hear
each episode ad free and one week early, check out
tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You're listening to The Freeway Phantom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:36):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, you never know what.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
To expect, to expect the unexpected, I guess. I mean,
you never know what time you're going to be called
out for an assignment. It could be during the day,
it could be in the middle of the night. Typically,
if you're working day, if the second shift, you would
just go ahead and work whatever's on your caseload. But
I remember getting a call. It was towards morning. It
(01:08):
came over as what we call the signal eighty one.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
That was a death.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
It was a warm morning and it was pretty dry
when I got there. I guess there was a crowd
starting to come out arriving on a scene. I was
directed to where this child was laying on the side
of the road and just making more observations whatever I
could detect at the scene, which wasn't very much at
(01:36):
the time. It appeared that she was probably either dragged
out of the car or thrown out of the car,
and I just called our ID section and they responded
and did what they do typically taking pictures and if
there's anything else at this area. I mean, there was
no fingerprints to be taken or anything like that, look
for tire tracks, so there was really nothing to look
(01:59):
for except the deceased person. Everything happened so quick and
just the type of crime it was, in the place
where it happened and everything. I'm sure this happened at
someplace else, but she was merely dumped in that area.
Another one hundred feet it probably would have been in DC,
and I wouldn't add any involvement at all.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
This child was laying on the side of the road.
I wouldn't go no way.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
I would call him my house.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Those first five murders should have been a huge warning
bell for the police.
Speaker 8 (02:41):
We just want to know what happened.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
This person must have saw that. They were thinking that
maybe it's just one person, and he says, oh, they
need to know.
Speaker 8 (02:49):
This is me.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
I thought that they would catch him. I thought it
was just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. The Freeway
Phantom had already claimed two victims, Carol Spinks and Darlinia Johnson.
Although Carol and Darlinia's bodies were dumped fifteen feet from
each other and were killed the same way, law enforcements
(03:16):
still hadn't linked the two murders. They'd asked a potential
suspect in Darlinia's death if he knew Carol Spinks. He didn't,
so the two murders were still being treated as individual cases.
But on July twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one, eight days
after Darlinia's decomposed body was found, the Freeway Phantom's third
(03:36):
victim would be discovered.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I remember how she was clad, I remember how she
was dressed. I remember she had some pink rollers in
her hair, and she had just a little outfit on
a little top. But it was. It seems to me
it was a matching outfit. There wasn't really that much
to see there far. She was concerned. I just wrapped
(04:00):
her hands in baggies and called for a corner to
go ahead and transport her. Or was an ambulance.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I should say this is a retired detective Hillary Zuklowski,
who we heard from at the top of this episode.
He was one of the first to arrive at the
crime scene.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
We weren't there very long because there really wasn't much
evidence to gather, maybe an hour. I don't think they
shut down the roads or anything like that because the
manner of the way she was dumped on the side.
Speaker 9 (04:29):
Of the road.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Brenda Crockett was four and half feet tall and weighed
only seventy five pounds. She was the youngest victim of
the Freeway Phantom, and like Carol Spinks and der Linia Johnson,
she was discovered right off a busy highway.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
She was a child of God. She loved church.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
She was going to refrigerate it eat raw bacon, but
you know, the pigs were better back then. She had
a dimp whip here her cheek. She loved bacon and
she loved the lord at ten years old, but I
do remember that I looked up to her that.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
She was cute.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
My name is Berta Crockett and I am the youngest
sibling of my family. Brenda was my oldest sister. She
was four years older. I have a twin brother who
is deceased now, and we had an older brother. We
lived on to ours place. It was a beautiful community
(05:33):
to be honest. As a child, we did everything. We
had the fire hydrants out in the summertime. We had
arts and craft. We had a lot going on. Because
one of the gentlemen that lived in the area, he
worked for the Department of res so he bought all
of this activity to our street and we were like
(05:55):
like a one way street.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Brenda lived with her family in Northwest Washington, DC, which
was across town from the first two murders. Like the
neighborhoods where Carol Spinks and Delinia Johnson lived, it was
tight knit. I briefly visited her neighborhood and found where
Brenda's house used to be. So we're standing in front
of the house where Brenda Crockett lived.
Speaker 10 (06:17):
She would have stepped down this step to leave her
house for the last time. We see again this quiet
I would call it a sweet residential street. And she
walked just a few blocks the blocks it's five blocks,
but the blocks here are quite small. This is not
a New York block. And she walked just a short
(06:39):
way to the Safeway and bought what she needed to
buy and never came home again. How someone can snatch
a little girl off the street like that, I mean,
this is not like where Carol Spinks and Derlinia were living.
We do not see aunties on the porch, but that
could also be because the Guiney neighborhood is obviously flipped.
(07:00):
This is not a majority black neighborhood anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Still, leading up to Brenda's murder, fear hadn't infiltrated this community.
It could be that Carolyn Delinia's murders hadn't been connected,
or that they happened too far away for anyone here
to notice. Whatever the reason, people here had yet to
realize that there was a killer targeting young girls. If
(07:25):
they had, things might have gone differently. It was neighborhood
movie night on Main Street when Brenda headed to the store.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
All the kids in the neighborhood could watch movies on
the screen. So in the summertime, you remember, it was
daylight until about nine o'clock PM. So my mom my
sister being older, to the store that she went to
was literally two blocks around the corner, two blocks down
the street, and because she didn't come back by the
(07:57):
time it was turning dark, my mom when looking for
because we were getting ready to watch the movies on
the big screen.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Brenda wore a white and blue plaid halter top with
matching shorts and had pink rollers in her freshly pressed hair.
A witness said Brenda had been barefoot. She was headed
to buy food for Ringo, Rex and Romeo, the family's
three dogs, along with bread and typing paper.
Speaker 7 (08:23):
When my sister didn't return from the grocery store, my
mom didn't realize that no one had went with her,
and so after she didn't come back, because it should
have been literally a half hour forty five minutes, my
mom went looking for her and she didn't find her.
Speaker 8 (08:42):
My sister didn't return.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Here's what Retha Crockett, Brenda's mother, told the police about
the night Brenda went missing, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
I sent my daughter to People's drug Store to get
type in paper. Also did the Safewoyt store located at
fourteen and U Streets northwest to get some dog food.
This was about eight o'clock. After a while, she didn't return,
so I looked at the door for her. I thought
she went to the store with her brother and sister
and a friend like she always does. I went outside
and it was starting to get dog I found my
(09:15):
other two children, Benjamin and Bertha, and asked them if
they had seen Brendan and they said no. All three
of us watched the corner of thirteenth in W Streets
to look for I told Benjamin to return to the
house to lock the door, and when he didn't return,
I sent Bertha to get him. She came back and
said he was going to stay and watch the street movie.
She said he don't want to go, Mamma, Can I
stay too? So I said yes. I walked down the
(09:37):
safeway and it was closed and there were some boys
sitting outside, and went back home to see you she there,
but she wasn't. I then asked my neighbor, missed A Bundy,
if he has seen her, and he said no. I
walked back to fourteenth Street, where I seen a police
car and asked him what to do when your daughter
goes missing. They told me to stand on the corner,
that they were out of the area and that they
would have another policeman come and take a missing person report.
(10:01):
I was standing there, I see mister Bundy walking out
Seventh Street, so I ran across the street, thinking she
had come home. Mister Buddy said she was not home,
but she called.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
At around nine twenty that night, the phone at Brenda's
house rang, and Bertha answered.
Speaker 9 (10:18):
I'm in vin in a white man's house. The whiteness
put came a car and curried me over to his house.
Did my mother see me?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
I'm seven years old. I remember it like it was yesterday.
So my sister was ten years old. She was old
enough and wise enough to remember our home number at
that time. She called home and she said that somebody
had picked her up and took her to Virginia and
they were going to send her home in a cab.
And I answered the phone the first time. I'm too
young to even understand what's really going on. So that
(10:56):
call went out, and then the next call came in.
My mom's fiance at the time, who became my mom's
husband answered the next call and.
Speaker 8 (11:05):
He said, well, Brenda, if you tell me where you are,
come and get you. She says, I'm in Virginia.
Speaker 7 (11:09):
This man picked me up and took me to Virginia
and he's going to put me in a cab and
send me home.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
She's ten years old.
Speaker 7 (11:16):
At the same time, my mom was looking for her,
and she was asking my stepfather me or whoever at
that time.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Did my mom see me?
Speaker 7 (11:26):
Which led us to believe that whoever captured her had
her in a vehicle.
Speaker 8 (11:31):
Or some sort and saw my mom.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
Looking for her. I thought it was that Mama is
out looking for you. Where are you?
Speaker 8 (11:41):
That's my thought.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Then, even now to this day, I look at the
scenario of where from DC from where we grew up
to Maryland to Virginia because we grew up at Twelfth
Street Northwest and then I work at twelfth Street Southwest.
Then right around the corner, you just hit that bridge
(12:02):
and you're at Virginia. So I'm like, was she really
familiar with where she was going? Did she see a
sign that says she was going to Virginia? Now it's
like all kinds of questions in my head. I got
the impression that she was a little frightened, that she
was like just thinking that whoever it was was going
to put her in a cab and send her back home.
(12:23):
She said, I'm in Virginia and he's gonna put me
in a cabin send me back home.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
This was new. This was a complete change from the
Freeway Phantom's mo Although there had been reports of him
calling the families of the first two victims, this is
the only confirmed contact. What makes this even more strange
is that Brenda didn't call once, but twice. Theodore Caldwell
was raythist fiance. In his statement, Caldwell said he met
(12:51):
Bertha coming up the street. This was right after Brenda
had called the first time, so Caldwell was aware Brenda
had said a white man took her to Virginia. When
Brenda called again around nine forty five, Caldwell picked up
the receiver. This is a voice actor reading his statement.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
Brenda said, mister Ted, I said, yes, Brenda, where are
you at? She said, I'm in Virginia in a white
man's house. I asked how she got over there. She
said the white man put her in the car and
carried her over to his house. I asked her, is
there anyone there besides you and the man? She said no.
I told her to tell him to come to the
phone and tell me where you're at and I'll come
(13:31):
pick you up. And she said, did my mother see me?
I said no, How could she see you when you're
in Virginia. Asked her again, tell the man to come
to the phone. I heard someone walk in Heaven. She said,
really low, I'll see you, and someone just cut the phone.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
There's no definite reason why Brenda went to the store
alone that night. Eartha thinks it could be because it
was only two blocks from where they lived at the time,
and the fact it didn't get dark until nine pm.
But there was another person to see Brenda before she disappeared.
Here's how one investigator described their interview with a witness
named Paulette Johnson.
Speaker 12 (14:13):
Missus Johnson was asked if she could recall the night
of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, and the incident
involving Brenda Faye Crockett. Missus Johnson stated she was well
aware of that evening and the night, and that she
had become acquainted with the victim. Brenda Crockett prior to
her abduction on that night. Missus Johnson stated that at
(14:35):
approximately eight forty five to nine pm on the night
of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, she was walking
from the quarner of fourteenth and U Street northwest, heading
south on the east side of Fourteenth Street, near the
Safeway store. Just as she approached the Safeway store, Brenda
Crockett walked around beside her and passed just in front
(14:57):
of her, heading toward the door of the safe Way store.
Missus Johnson stated she knew Brenda Crockett by sight because
the Crockett girl's father works for one of her boyfriends,
and she recalled that Brenda had been to her daughter's
birthday party a few days before this incident. Missus Johnson
stated that it was her opinion that Brenda Crockett could
(15:19):
not have been taken from in front of the Safeway
store by force without someone seeing and observing the incident.
She stated that as she turned the corner on Wallack Place,
she lost sight of the Crockett girl, and shortly thereafter
when she returned, she did not see her in front
of the store. She stated that the time elapsing after
(15:40):
she last saw the Crockett girl and when she returned
to in front of the Safeway store was approximately five minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
If missus Johnson's timing was accurate, this means Brenda was
kidnapped within a five minute window. This means Missus Johnson
could possibly be the last person to see Brenda alone
other than the killer. Police questioned Raytha about the abduction.
Speaker 13 (16:05):
Has your daughter ever told or advised you that men
were trying to entice her into a vehicle?
Speaker 14 (16:10):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:11):
Did she often go to the store alone?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Just the star around the corner, not the safe a
buzz self.
Speaker 13 (16:17):
Is there anyone you suspect?
Speaker 6 (16:19):
No?
Speaker 13 (16:20):
Is there anything else you can add to the statement?
Speaker 14 (16:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
As we heard before the break, Brenda called home not once,
but twice. Brenda had said that a white man abducted
her and that she was in Virginia. This information seemed
suspicious and it raised a lot of questions. Was the
killer Brenda lies to tell her family and why he.
Speaker 15 (17:05):
Was doing a lot of things to deliberately mislead the authorities.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co wrote a book
about the Freeway Phantom. He says it didn't make sense
that a white man would have abducted Brenda, as she
claimed over the phone. When we talked with members of
the local community, they agreed that a white man would
have stood out in the Congress Heights neighborhood since the
area has always been predominantly black.
Speaker 15 (17:31):
Anything he had her say, you have to put under
a microscope and go, is he trying to throw the
trail off? In this case? I definitely think he was
in terms of Virginia. I don't know for sure on
his race, though, very creepy and if he was, imagine
her knowing that she's lying to her family about this.
(17:53):
That had to ratchet up her terror level.
Speaker 12 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (17:57):
It's one thing. If somebody's holding you and they said
you could tell him where Virginia, and you're in Virginia,
you tell him I'm why because I'm white. But if
they're telling you things that you know aren't true, you've
got to be more scared. That just ugh scares me
to think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Having Brenda call home was a new mo for the
Freeway Phantom, and it showed that he was starting to escalate.
In fact, it was only eight hours or so after
that phone call that Brenda's body was discovered in the
early morning hours of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one,
Donald Ray Carter began to head home from work. He
worked at the Safeway Bakery in Landover, Maryland, but lived
(18:37):
in Alexandria, Virginia. While he was trying to hitch a ride,
he spotted Brenda's body in Chevley, Maryland. Carter had the
cab that had stopped for him take him to Joy
Donut Shop to call law enforcement and let them know
about the body. After law officials were on the scene,
the medical examiner declared Brenda's time of death at six
fifty five am. Brenda was killed and disposed of in
(19:00):
less than eight hours.
Speaker 15 (19:03):
It was really sad when we saw the pictures of her.
I was deeply moved because she's laying on her back
and her eyes are open looking up and it's on
the curve of a cloverleaf exit.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Blaine tells us he spoke with Carter.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
You know.
Speaker 15 (19:21):
He said it was the saddest thing because he said,
she's just laying there, and he said, I just thought
maybe she's asleep, maybe she's not feeling well, something along
those lines. And it turns out that's not the case.
What's interesting too, is you see a trend with this.
Her shoes are missing, and the killer has taken shoes
(19:41):
off several of the victims. That's usually a control mechanism,
you know, if you take someone's shoes, it's harder for
them to get away or flee or whatever, and he
may be keeping those things as souvenirs. Also missing from
her were some pink hair curlers that she had. We know,
so it was a fairly narrow window of time, so
(20:03):
narrow in fact, that it almost rules out when you
know the geography of d DC being kind of wedged
between Virginia and Maryland, the time that her body is
found versus the phone calls, etc. And when she disappeared,
it would have been very difficult for someone to go
anywhere but other than right across the border into Virginia.
(20:24):
If indeed the killer was there, the thinking that most
law enforcement have had is that he had fed her
that information to deliberately mislead the authorities. We just don't
know for sure, but you know, the concept of a
killer taking his victim back and then letting her call
home twice is very disturbing. It's just incredibly creepy.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
The killer placed Brenda's body along the Prince George's County,
Maryland line. Here's how the police report describes the scene.
Speaker 12 (20:56):
The body was viewed by this detective and it was
observed that she was clad in a blue and white halter,
matching shorts, white cotton underpads, and around her neck was
an orchid colored silk scarf knotted and a greenish colored
quarter inch cord attached to which was a silver house key.
(21:17):
The body was rigor and no visible trauma was present.
The deceased was laying approximately five feet six inches from
the curb side, flat on her back with her arms outstretched.
After the body was removed, it was noted that the
ground was extremely dry under the deceased, however, around the
(21:39):
body was wet.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
The orchid scarf was new, Brenda hadn't been wearing it
when she left for Safeway, and this further added to
the theory that the freeway phantom was redressing the girls.
Brenda's body was taken to the morgue at Prince George's
County Hospital. This is her autopsy report.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Cause of death was ruled to be ligature and manual strangulation.
She had been vaginally raped and There were ring like
contusions around her nipples, suggesting they had been bitten. There
was a small contusion in the left temple region of
her scalp. She was fully clothed, with the exception of
her shoes. It was noted no soil on her feet.
(22:21):
On her head were pink plastic hair curlers, several of
which were missing. A few small hairs of negroid origin
were found on the palm of her right hand, but
were too small for any sort of comparison. Synthetic black
textile fibers were recovered from her scarf. Green synthetic fibers
were also recovered from her blouse, shorts, and panties. Blood
(22:43):
mixed with semen was found in the crotch of her panties,
but could not be conclusively grouped.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Brenda's case is different from Carol and der Linia's in
two major ways. One is the time period between capture
and killing. Carol was kept alive and even fed for
about a week. Authorities weren't able to determine an exact
time of Darlinia's death due to the decomposition of her
body when she was found. However, they did confirm that
it was a shorter interval than the previous murder. The
(23:15):
second difference, as we've mentioned, are the phone calls. But
outside of that, the similarities remain. How the girls were killed,
the killer's dump sight, and the washed feet. Although Brenda
had been barefoot, her feet had still been washed. But
there's another detail in Brenda Crockett's case that wasn't initially noticed.
(23:37):
This is Romaine Jenkins, the retired Metropolitan Police Department sergeant
who investigated the freeway phantom cases. We visited her at
her home.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
What do you think of her hair?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Her hair's been washed, Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
See, men didn't notice that. I noticed that in me
all said, Oh, the hay has been washed in war
some way.
Speaker 10 (23:57):
Yeah, see how tied up it is.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
And and and her sister said their hair had just
been done. They had had just been pressed and curled
and put on rollers and look at it now she's
been in water. Yep. But the but the guys didn't
notice that. They did not. I knew that when I
saw that picture.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Here's what Bertha Crockett has to say about her sister's
hair being wet.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
When they found her. I think her hair was wet
with the rollers in it. If that's the case, I
think he would have tried to remove evidence. If you're
gonna wash your victims, you're removed trying to remove evidence.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
And you know, as black women, we don't do wet hair.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
I can't even remember my hair back then, but I
have one picture of her at Easter and her hair
was cute, So I guess we would have had to
been pressing, pressing curl back then. In the seventies, it
met shampoo, blowd dry, and curl on the stove and
(25:03):
pressed and roll up with rollers.
Speaker 8 (25:06):
None of this. I don't remember curling eyes. I don't
remember flat eyes. I don't remember any of that.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
It's just you press it with the straightening comb on
the stove and you roll it up with some greens.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Reports also showed the negroid headhairs in Brenda's right palm
were not hers, and for the third time now green
rayon fibers were found on the body. Here's Blaine Pardo again.
Speaker 15 (25:37):
So we now know for sure she's linked to Carol Spakes.
So at that point, lawn firstman knows they've got somebody
who's doing this, and more importantly, those fibers are showing
up under their clothing. If you think about it from
from a perspective of what's happening. If you get your
(25:57):
victim to disrobe because you're going to actually assault them,
or you just robe them. If you're putting their clothes
on the source of those fibers, you're still kind of
laying clothes on. Let's say it was a green blanket
on a bed. When you're throwing the clothes on there,
the fibers are still going to be on the outside
(26:19):
of the clothing. These things are showing up inside, and
you know, it's a real scary concept of what's happening
here as to how they're picking these fibers up and
from what.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
The Maryland Police Department issued a reward for any information
on the case, and while the police were searching for
the killer birth ascent. The community changed.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
After that.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
The community became really strict.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
Like I was in a short block.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
I mean, I'm talking like maybe a quote amount, not
even that when the lights came on, you better be
in front of your home to go in the house.
In our neighborhood, the community raised us. So if you
did anything wrong, the neighbors told your parents before they
even got home. So everything everybody was watching out for everybody.
(27:18):
It was so strict, and it was just what it
was after that, And I think I think my sister's
death is what sparked such a tight knit a lookout
for everybody on that block and on the next blocks.
I go was on twelfth Place, so we had twelfth Street.
On the next block, we had thirteenth Street, So we
(27:41):
just kept a tight knit community after that. It was
so sad, though, because I didn't understand the restrictions that
I had on me as a little child, But my
mother didn't want anything to happen to me either.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Here's an excerpt from the book The Mystery of the
Freeway Phantom by Wilma Harper.
Speaker 16 (28:03):
The death of Brenda had a traumatic effect on the
neighborhood where she lived. The residents said the area would
never be the same. In contrast to the usual crowds
of frolicking youngsters, only a few children were playing ball
on the block after Brenda's body was found. An eight
year old boy refused to go to the store for
his mother because he was afraid he would be kidnapped.
(28:24):
Neighbors and friends along twelfth Place, which is just behind
Cardoza High school described Brenda as a bright fifth grade
student at nearby Harrison Elementary School. Missus Eva Artist, a
neighbor who cared for the children when their mother was
at work, said, we usually have lots of games going
on the street, but nobody's been acting right today. I
(28:45):
think everyone is disturbed.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But Bertha Crockett says the death of her sister had
an even bigger impact on her immediate family.
Speaker 8 (28:56):
I know it took a lot on my mom.
Speaker 7 (28:58):
Though I saw my mom just appreciate from that, but
she just wasn't her stuff anymore. It's like life went
out of her. And so then that's when you that's
when you you say, well, why wasn't it me?
Speaker 8 (29:19):
Why would God take that antel?
Speaker 7 (29:21):
Because she had going no way better than me, even
at seven years old. You want to think that, like,
I know her, I knew her, I didn't, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (29:30):
I didn't.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
I wasn't on her level because she had her own girlfriends,
set of friends. At ten years old, she had a
whole school of girlfriend that left her. I went to
the cemetery about a month ago, but I could not
find her, and I couldn't.
Speaker 8 (29:54):
My mom is in the same place, the same cemetery, but.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
I couldn't, so I would have to literally go back
and ask them to show me the plot because it's
been fifty years to show me where my sister. I
know she's located in Hilltop Garden of Roses. That's the
name of the place where they, you know, have her
laid to rest. But my mom is in the same place.
(30:19):
My mom is under a big tree. But yeah, it's
said that, you know, having a sister that I really
didn't get to know because she got taken away at
such a young age, growing up without a sister, and
then like in my early twenties, I lost my mom.
So I mean out here forever and sold some things
(30:43):
just bring.
Speaker 8 (30:44):
Emotion back.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Bertha and her family were grieving Brenda's death. The police
had begun to suspect that her murder might be connected
to Carol and derlinea and months later, though, suspicions were
finally confirmed when another girl was found dead. Sixteen year
(31:27):
old Stephen James Potopio was watching TV when he decided
to go visit his friend Chuck. On his way to
Chuck's house, he passed by a broken down pontiac on
the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue, near a sign that said
Upper Harborough twelve. Stephen said he heard a man holler
a girl's name and told her to cut the lights on.
He described the woman as young and white, no older
(31:49):
than nineteen or twenty. The man was also white and
well dressed, with brownish blonde hair, glasses, and about five
foot ten inches. Stephen said he noticed the guy with
staring at him, so when Stephen was about twenty feet
from the car, he jumped the bank to cut across
the cemetery to Chuck's house. When he got there, nobody
(32:09):
was home, so Stephen decided to head back to his house.
This next part is an excerpt from Stephen's statement to
the police.
Speaker 14 (32:18):
I then left and headed home the identical where I came.
As I was walking up Pennsylvania Avenue toward Maryland, I
started walking backwards, shying the thumb hitchhike. I noticed a
box sitting off the shoulder on the grass. I walked
over to the box and saw a glass in it.
I turned and saw something in the grass, but right
then I didn't know what it was. I walked up
to it, but I didn't know if it was a
(32:39):
man or a girl. I stood there a couple seconds
to see if he would move. I took my right
foot and kicked it two or three times, and the
body seemed to wiggle. I stood there a couple seconds,
and it felt the body under the ribs to see
if the heart was beating. The body felt cold, and
then something hit me, maybe it was dead.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Stephen had found the body of two twelve year road
Ninomosha Yates, a sixth grader at Kelly Miller Junior High.
She was a well behaved, quiet child, and now she
was the fourth victim of the freeway phantom. Ninomosha lived
with her father and stepmother in the Benning Heights neighborhood
in southeast Washington d C. Benning Heights is about six
(33:20):
miles from Congress Heights, a completely different area on the
other side of d C from the first three murders.
It was Friday, October first, nineteen seventy one. Ninomosha's stepmother
had just given birth and was at the hospital with
Nina's dad. About seven pm. Ninomosha was given five dollars
and sent to Safeway to buy sugar, flour and paper plates.
(33:43):
The grocery store was located at forty eight oh one
Benning Road Southeast. That's the same road Ninomosha lived on.
Although the store was only about a block away, her
father had instructed her not to talk to strangers. According
to witnesses, Ninamosha made it to the grocery store, but
she never made it back. Here's Victoria Hester, who co
(34:05):
wrote a book about the Freeway Phantom with her father,
Blaine Pardo.
Speaker 17 (34:09):
We know that for sure she was at the Safeway
because the store manager confirmed on October first. It would
have been pretty dark at that time. It was normal
to go down the street to a Safeway at nine
o'clock at night in DC at that time.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It wasn't until the next day, October second, that a
Safeway employee found the items Ninemosha had purchased.
Speaker 17 (34:33):
We know wherever she went she was either forcibly taken
only because the bag of sugar that she had bought
from Safeway was found in the parking lot of Safeway,
so she didn't get very far. She wouldn't have left
that bag of sugar if she was getting a ride
home or getting a ride to somewhere else by someone
driving by. She would have taken that with her, which
(34:55):
kind of leads us to believe it was forcibly, But
at the same time, with it being a well lit
parking lot, she would have screamed, She would have made
some sort of noise and a area of she was
being forcibly taken, So it gets kind of tricky in
that sense.
Speaker 15 (35:13):
Because of her.
Speaker 17 (35:14):
Age too, she was twelve. Was she easy to convince
to get in a vehicle? Just to me? It makes
it look forcible since her bag of groceries that she
went out to get was left behind. Another important thing
about it was her body was found dry on wet grass,
so we know she wasn't killed where she was dumped,
(35:36):
and she wasn't killed outside or she would have been wet.
She was wearing her clothes that she was wearing when
she disappeared.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
The cause of death was.
Speaker 17 (35:46):
Known to be strangulation and she was sexually assaulted. She
also had fingernail marks on her neck, so either from
being strangled or trying to fight back and getting marks
on her neck.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Ninomosha was found in cut off brown shorts, a white
sweatshirt with green lettering that spelled Randall, Highland hornets, and
white zips, tennis shoes. Autopsy reports indicated her esophagus was crushed.
Not only did Ninomosha have more wounds than previous victims,
but the killer had accelerated his timeline. She'd left home
(36:21):
around seven p m and her body was found around
nine fifteen PM. This means she was taken, murdered, and
disposed of in roughly two hours. Like the others, green
fibers were found on the body. Negroid hairs from a
person's head were on her panties, brazier sweatshirt, cut off
jean shorts, and shoes. At the time of her disappearance,
(36:44):
Ninomosha was wearing a sanitary napkin. Semen was found in
that napkin. Additionally, two dollars ninety one cents and a
grocery list were found in her pocket, along with two
house keys. Attached to a string. Near her body were
several items, including a woman's loafer. Police considered the loafer
was dragged out of the vehicle with Ninomosha's body because
(37:06):
it was also dry. Remember Darlinia Johnson was missing loafers
when she was found. There were also drag marks from
Ninamosha's heels in the wet dirt. The police report noted
that tire tracks created by a small vehicle were found
near the body and had been photographed. Later, another witness
(37:26):
told police they'd seen Ninamosha get into a blue Volkswagen
with a yellow stripe down the side, headed in the
direction of the safeway. The witness assumed it was her mom,
since she drove a similar car.
Speaker 17 (37:39):
Kind of sent a wild goose chase on the Volkswagen issue.
With a witness thinking that they saw her get into
a Volkswagen, it kind of created this well, now we
got to find this car that happens to be one
of the most popular cars right now, and it really
went nowhere. It's kind of unfortunate. It's nice that the
witness thought this saw something. At the same time, it
(38:01):
created a lot of misleading information about who they were
looking for, and it wasted a lot of police time
running all these plates and trying to identify all these cars.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Later, investigators interviewed Stephen again. This time he added to
a statement the following is from that report.
Speaker 12 (38:24):
He advised he furnished what he thought was the full
facts of what he had seen that evening, but he
has since recalled he had seen another car in the
vicinity of where he discovered the body. Potopia related. After
he left his residence and turned east toward Washington, DC
on Pennsylvania Avenue in the right hand lane, he observed
(38:46):
a Volkswagen in the westbound lane. This Volkswagen pulled off
onto the side of the road and parked about twenty
five feet west of where Potopia discovered the body. Potopia
looked back after he's the car park and observed two
men get out of the Volkswagen, a white from the
driver's side and a Negro man from the passenger side.
(39:09):
The two men walked along the side of the road
a short distance and then went down the embankment, and
she no longer thought anything about it. Potopia then crossed
the westerly lane the median, and then in the westerly
lane observed the other car with the hood up, which
he had put into the signed statements.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
The car with the hood up belonged to the young
couple we heard earlier. Police were now investigating two sets
of individuals, one a young Caucasian couple, the other a
black man and Caucasian man, but this didn't last long.
Shortly after the news broke about Ninomosha Yates. A witness
(39:52):
came forward. Here's what James Richard Lloyd told police, as
read by a voice actor.
Speaker 18 (39:59):
I was with a Robinson in his nineteen seventy one
Pontiac Lahmann, which is brown in color, and we were
coming from the Fairfax Village in Washington, d C. Jay
heard a noise coming from the engine, so we stopped
along Pennsylvania Avenue, just past the big gates to the cemetery.
We got out and opened the hood. Jay was trying
to find where the noise was coming from. About that time,
someone walked past us. I first saw him walking up
(40:21):
the road as we pulled off. He was walking toward DC.
While we stopped, I saw two cars stopped along the
road in front of us, about one hundred yards up
the road from us. They were close together, but I
don't know what type of cars they were. We got
back in our car and drove off.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
James told police he came to speak with them after
Jerry's mother had read about the news. It had been
only him and Jerry in the car when they stopped
just past the entrance to the cemetery along Pennsylvania Avenue.
He said he saw both cars the entire time he
and Jerry were pulled over. This was about three to
four minutes. James also told police the cars were there
(40:58):
when he and Jerry left, and he didn't see anyone
or anything else as they drove off. With James's statement,
both sets of suspects were ruled out. Authorities were back
to square one. There were now four young dead black girls,
girls that were from tight knit neighborhoods, places where the
community kept an eye on children, places that were meant
(41:21):
to be safe, yet the police had no leans. Here's
Romaine again.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
Whoever grabbed these young ladies grabbed them right in their
own neighborhood. Nina most Yates went to the grocery store
in the forty eight hundred block of Benning Road. She's
picked up that she she's grabbed in the forty nine
hundred block, and nobody sees anything. All the people out
there don't care. When you go out there. You have
East Capitol Street there, it's always people because you're close
(41:50):
to the district line. People are doing shopping. She's grabbed
at a time when there are lots of people out,
kids are out, and nobody sees the thing. Because he
feel what the community nobody was suspicion.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
What happened to Ninemosha was also true in the case
of Brenda Crockett. Both girls had been snatched in broad daylight.
As Romayne has said, it's very likely the killer was
somebody from the neighborhood. I asked Bertha Crockett if she
had any suspicions about who the killer could be.
Speaker 7 (42:23):
Back then, we used to have officer friendlies that came
to our school and they got to know the kids.
That means officers that used to come to your school
and make sure that the kids feel safe. Like right
now they have patrol officers or officers in the school
and make sure kids are not doing the violence stuff
that they've been doing lately. But back then they were
(42:45):
called officer friendlies and they would come to your school
and have like little conversations with you. And it always
made me feel like an officer friendly was somebody that
saw different girls and he selected them.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Next time on Freeway, Phantom.
Speaker 10 (43:13):
DC had never had a serial killing before, and so
it wasn't something not that you ever get used to it,
but it wasn't something they were familiar with.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
The fourth body that brought more people in because where's
the body found. You're talking about PG County, right, You're
talking about crossing jurisdictional lines, So then he is PG
County coming into play.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
All of these girls were not from runaway families.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
These girls, they were good families.
Speaker 11 (43:43):
And if they do investigate, they don't investigate when it
comes to black people, you know, unless it's something that's juicy.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
And all of a sudden, the guy, he comes out
of the driverside and he comes around the front of
the car.
Speaker 6 (43:55):
And snatches me.
Speaker 8 (43:57):
There's no emotion on his face none.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV,
and Black Bar Mitzvah. Our host is Selese Hilly. The
show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright, and CELESE.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Hilly.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Radio include Matt Frederick
and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers
on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on
behalf of Black bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and
Aaron Bergman with producer Sidney Fools. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
(44:41):
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tenderfoot TV
and iHeartMedia, as well as Black Bar Mitzvah, have increased
the reward for information leading to the arrest and can
of the person or persons responsible for their Freeway phantom murders.
(45:04):
The previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
A new total reward of up to three hundred thousand
dollars is now being offered. If you have any information
relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department
at area code two zero two seven two seven nine
(45:25):
zero ninety nine. For more information, please visit Freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
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