July 12, 2023 • 52 mins
The Freeway Phantom case is but one example of a wider epidemic of missing black girls in DC who don't get the attention they need. How can we fix this? And how can we finally bring the Phantom to justice?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Freeway Fanom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black Bar METSPHAH. 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 Ourheartmedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black Bar, MITZVAH, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:24):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In nineteen eighty four, when I decided to reopen the cases,
I was really concerned because in talking to some other
detectives that other people around they were under the impression
that the cases were closed.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And I knew better.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I knew that, you know, there had been a massive
investigation of the being Vega guys, but the evidence eventually
showed that that was a farce, that they didn't have
anything to do with it. So I decided I was
going to take up the banner of these cases because
they should have been close. There wasn't a real emotional
(01:06):
toll on me when I went to homicide. My primary
reason for going to homicide was to handle all the
instant deaths, the child's deaths in the city, the abortion cases,
and so seeing young people dead, you don't ever get
used to it, but you know that's part of your job,
and once you break down and cry and so forth,
(01:29):
then you're not serving the public because your personal feelings
get in the way of what you're.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know, after you work so hard on the case
and you talk to so many people, you kind of
get a feeling of what types of young ladies they were,
and the fact that the youngest woman was ten years
of age. You know, you can imagine how they felt
that somebody had abducted them off the street and there was.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Nobody to stop it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then the abduction site were heavily populated places, but.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Nobody saw anything, and it's just so hard to believe.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And so, you know, I felt that, hey, if I
can bring resolution to these cases, I will do it.
I'm going to try my best to do it. But
I'm also going to try to make sure should I
not be able to get a resolution in these cases,
then I'm going to see that everything that was humanly
possible is done to solve these cases. I felt I
(02:33):
owe that to the family and owe that to the girl.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
This child was laying on the side of the road.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
I wouldn't go no way, I wouldn't talk about house.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Those first five murderers should have been a huge warning
belt for the police.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
We just want to know what happened.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Person must have saw that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They were thinking that maybe it's just one person, and
he says, oh, they need to know.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This is me.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I thought that they would catch him.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I thought it was just a matter of time.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
I'm Celeste Headley, and this is freeway Phantom. The murders
of eight young black girls, six of whom were confirmed
Freeway Phantom victims, were undeniably tragic, but their cases were
just the beginning. In the decades since their murder, the
plight of missing and murdered black girls in DC has
(03:34):
only intensified. Today, it just looks a little different, but
the issue of these cases not getting the proper media
coverage or police attention they deserve is still too prominent.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Each year, they are over six hundred thousand people reported
missing in the United States, and close to forty percent
of persons of color, and that numbers about two hundred
and seventy thousand a year that's reported missing. There's so
many more individuals that are not reported missing to law enforcement,
(04:12):
where they're not added to the national crime database. These
families are not speaking up, so we believe that the
numbers are much larger.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
This is Natalie Wilson, one of the co founders of
the Black and Missing Foundation.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
The inspiration behind the Black and Missing Foundation is that
in two thousand and four, Tamka Houston vanished from Spartanburg,
South Carolina, and that's the hometown of my sister in law, Derko,
and we learn how her family struggled to get media coverage,
particularly national media coverage around her disappearance. So Derek and
(04:51):
I decided to do some research. We weren't sure if
this was an issue affecting the minority community, particularly the
Africa American community, and most aren't young, attractive white women.
In fact, most were persons of color, particularly black African Americans,
and they made up thirty percent of all persons missing
(05:15):
and attracted almost no media coverage at all, especially nationally.
So you know, it weighed really heavy on our hearts,
and Dereka and I decided why not us, why don't
we do something about it because I'm in public relations
or media relations and Dereka's in law enforcement, and those
are the two critical professions needed to bring awareness to
(05:37):
our missing and that's how the organization, the Black and
Missing Foundation was created. We said, you know, if we
can just bring one person home or provide closure for
one family, we have done our job. And now we're
motivated to keep going because forty percent of all persons
missing are of color, and these families rely on us.
(06:01):
We are their last resort. By the time they get
to us, they're desperate, they don't know what to do,
and many times they're not getting the assistance from law
enforcement or the media to help find their missing loved one.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Natalie says one of their core objectives is getting the
media involved. Whenever there's a new missing person's case.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Media coverage is very important, especially intense early media coverage.
It ensures that the community is looking for that missing
individual and it increases the chance of a recovery. And
for us throughout the years, because we started this organization
in two thousand and eight, I've been able to build
(06:48):
media partnerships with black Press so that again they're using
their platforms with millions or hundreds of thousands of followers
to help us get the word out about a missing individual.
So it's vital and we believe that media coverage should
be equal across the board.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
We asked Natalie why historically the media is so hesitant
to report on these cases.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Well, there are a number of reasons for the lack
of media coverage. One is we're realizing that when a
child is reported missing oftentime, law enforcement they classify the
child as a runaway, so they do not receive any
type of media coverage or especially the Amber alert at all,
(07:41):
and that is not necessarily the case. We have so
many cases of missing children where law enforcement classified them
as a runaway and they did not leave voluntarily. So
we need to stay away from that phrase as runaway
because ultimately, even if the child left home voluntarily, what
(08:05):
are they leaving from and ultimately what are they running too.
We know that children who leave home voluntarily, they're on
the streets within twenty four to forty eight hours. Their
proposition for sex because they have to find a way
to survive, and they have to find a way for
you know, housing, food security, and these predators, you know,
(08:30):
they get them into a lifestyle that they cannot get
out of us. We also need to change the narrative
that missing black and brown individuals are most likely involved
with some type of criminal activity and they're represented as
such in the news cycle. You know, we have to
realize that these missing individuals, they have names, and they
(08:52):
are an important part of our society, our community. Their mothers,
their fathers, their sisters. There's brothers, aunts, uncles, their grandparents,
and we need to make sure that we represent them
in the best light.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Natalie says the issue has become much more complex than
it was during the time of the Freeway Phantom, but
she says there are things we can do now.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
You know, many of our cases, it highlights the significant
racial injustices, you know, not just in policing but media.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So we need.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
To make sure that we vote and that there are
laws to protect our children. You know, Marylyn has a
safe harbor law where if an underage child has been
arrested for prostitution, that they are not thrown into jail.
(09:52):
They are then taken to a safe house where they're
given the resources to be rehabilitated. So we need to
see laws like this that protects our community. And there
also needs to be laws where there's a sense of
urgency and a sense of fairness when a person is
(10:17):
reported missing. So again there's a loophole with the Amber Alert.
So if you're classified as a runaway, you do not
receive the Amber Alert or any type of media coverage.
How do we close that gap? We need to really
take a look at it to ensure that the individual
who did not voluntarily leave home gets the right classification
(10:42):
when they're reported missing.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
Natalie told us about one case that highlights the problems
evident in the current system. It was a story of
a girl named Relisha Rudd who went missing in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
She and her family were evicted from their apartment in
Das and they moved to the DC General Homeless Shelter
and Relicia was one of six hundred children living at
the shelter. And we became involved with relicious case as
one of our then board members and she was Assistant
(11:16):
Chief of Police. Diane Grooms shared the news release issued
by MPD on March to twentieth about relicious disappearance.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Flicia was last spotted on a hotel security camera, accompanied
by a man named Khalil Tatum, a friend of Relicia's mother.
A few weeks later, Tatum's wife was found shot dead
in a hotel, and after that, Tatum's body was found
in a shed, dead from an apparent suicide. Relicia was
never found.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
We were very alarmed, but we were very determined to
find Relicia. And there are so many unanswered questions about
this case, and the most disheartening is that no one
was really keeping up with Relicious whereabouts, you know, not
her family, not the shelter, not the school. So there
(12:12):
is enough blame to go around for everyone. And we
believe that, you know, African American and Hispanic children, they
deserve the same innocence as other children. So it's definitely
a case that weighs heavy on our hearts. And when
someone finds out that I'm, you know, one of the
(12:34):
co founders of the Black Missing Foundation in the DC area,
the first case they always ask us about is Relicious.
What happened to her? We believe that she was a
victim of sex trafficking and the janitor whom her mother
gave supervision over her was grooming her for sex trafficking.
(12:57):
It's just so heartbreaking, but we will never stop searching
for Militia. Behold on to hope that she's alive and
that she can be reunited. So much love in the
DC area for her.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
One of the people working in the Relasia Rudd case
all these years is Henderson Long, who he met last episode.
Henderson is the CEO of DC's Missing Voice. He essentially
acts as a go between for d c's Metropolitan Police
and the black community. Henderson says that in many cases
of missing and murdered children, someone in the community knows something,
(13:37):
So you have to get out there and talk to folks.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Tian Jones, you know, and I know y'all know about
that homicide.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
And from Saturday, Henderson invited us to one outreach event
at a seven to eleven in southeast d C. He
was there handing out flyers with missing persons information about
Relasia Rudd.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
The goal of to day is to create greater awareness about,
you know, the tragic circumstances of all our children in
the District of Columbia.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Militia Rudd.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Her day being a platform, I was going to read
the proclamation and show you the proclamations, the Mayas sign
regarding Militia Rudd Day.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Like the Freeway Phantom Victims Relicious case, did not receive
sufficient media coverage. For the first three weeks that she
was missing, there was no mainstream media outlet covering the
story at all. This was also due to the fact
that no one, including police, considered her a missing person.
But after she was officially reported missing, people like Henderson
(14:42):
Long were able to get the media involved.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
Well, y'all on July eleven. That was the big media pushing.
You know, everybody's not on social media.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
So my goal was to take Milicia Rudd's plight and
all the plight of all our children and missing persons
to the street because you never know what you're gonna
run into. We may run into some information that's usual
to help us close the case and bring some closures
to some families and make the district a little safer,
you know, it's our cart.
Speaker 8 (15:12):
I approach this work with the.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Understanding that the police can't do it alone, that we
both need each other and in the community is a
tremendous asset to the police department when they can get
these tips in. I heard Chief Conti yesterday begging people
to call me. I'm send the rest in pieces up,
but I need phone calls.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
I need people to call in and give me some tips.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Now.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
I appreciate the flowers, the cars, this that and the other,
but we need calls. We need people to call in.
We need information in the community. They know who's committing
these crimes. These crimes, anything that involve criminal malice, they
know who's doing and we need the police to handle
that type of stuff. When it's not anything a criminal nature,
(15:55):
you need them.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
To be involved.
Speaker 6 (15:57):
Henderson says, there are certain valuable pieces of info you
need when investigating one of these cases. You need an
up to date photo, a complete physical description, and if possible, fingerprints.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Fingerprints is heavy in terms of identification union positivity. I
d somebody who it is, because sometimes you'll find someone,
you'll locate someone, somebody will come upon them. They may
be incapacitated, they may even be deceased. We can roll
those fingerprints and if they had any pride, run INDs.
You know, y'all know the deal, You pull them right up.
So fingerprints are invaluable.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Henderson says the biggest goal of these outreach events is
to build relationships between the community and the police. That's
why there were a handful of officers there unarmed, handing
out flyers.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
We try to educate people on what MPD within their
general orders, what kind of what they expect, because some
people come to the thing with the wrong expectation. So
we get out into the elementary schools, we get out
into the daycare centers, we fingerprint children, We educate the
parents on what to do.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
A lot of parents don't know to.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
Call the police, and then you know, you got the
street code out there too, don't deal with the police.
So we try to deal with some of that by
fostering relationship with the police, showing people that hey, look
the police are not all what you think it is.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Ninety eight percent of them are good people do down here.
They trying to do their job.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
So Henderson says, the case of Relasia Rudd is a
prime example of what can happen when communities like this
remain relatively closed off. Over the last nine years, there's
been a little movement on the case, but Henderson is
convinced someone knows something. By reminding people about Relitia, he
says he's hoping to prevent cases like hers in the future.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
This is an age regression photo of what Relitia Rudd
would look like today.
Speaker 8 (17:57):
That's her age regression photo is what they think she
would look like. I think at age fifteen.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
And as I said when I talked to the media,
a murder, suicide, and deception attached to a child, eight
year old child name, that's totally unacceptable. Murder, lies, and suicide.
That's the worst you can get for child seven. Relasia
Rudd that totally dependent on us, to totally dependent on
(18:24):
people around her.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
You know, kids are totally dependent on us. They have
no other choice but to trust the people that they're
under their care.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
One of the people we met at the outreach event
for Relasia Rudd was MPD Commander Pamela Wheeler Taylor. She
was there helping Handerson handout flyers and after the event
we had a number of questions about how her unit
investigates these types of cases. Commander Wheeler Taylor agreed to
sit down with us. Hello everyone, I am Commander Pamela
(19:17):
Wheeler Taylor of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. I'm the
commander of the Youth and Family Services Division. I've been
a member of the Metropolitan Police Department for approximately thirty
one years, and my experience runs the gamut from patrol
to internal affairs to human resources, and now, like I said,
(19:38):
I actually happened to have been appointed to the rank
of commander in January of twenty twenty one. So obviously
the case that we're focusing on was fifty years ago,
and we were surprised at how sort of blase law
enforcement was when these children went missing. So I wondered,
if you would first walk us through today what happens
if I call you and say my child was supposed
(20:01):
to be home at three, she's not home.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
What happens?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Typically?
Speaker 9 (20:05):
What happens, and in cases such as that, the response
of the very first responding officers of utmost importance. That's
where you gather the most critical information. Things that are
set and the heat of the moment are things that
have to be memorialized because they could actually, you know,
bring about successful closure at the end. Little things that
(20:26):
you feel might not be important. Something as simple as
my kids said they were going to visit their friend
and I told them that they couldn't go, Or something
as simple as maybe you've taken the kid to a
location the kid may say, you know, you know, i'd
awfully I want to visit that again. You may not
think because it's in the back of your mind that
(20:47):
you've never taken the kid to that place, or you're
not going to take the kid again. But it's something
you have to listen to. Things that are spontaneously uttered.
You know they have a valuable evidence. At what point, then,
do you know, does the case become more serious? At
what point does does an.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Officer feel that there is a need to that it's
no longer to become aware. Could this kid have gone
as opposed to maybe something untoward happened to this kid.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
Okay, so generally what happens And let me back up
a bit and maybe just explain to you what a
missing person definition is in the District of Columbia. Missing
person is anyone adult or child that is missing from
their lawful place of abode within the District of Columbia,
and they they're missing as unusual, highly unusual, or for
(21:40):
their patterns or things that they normally their routine, things
of that nature. Or the missing person could be missing
from another jurisdiction close to the district, but there's reasonably
there's incredible knowledge that the individual was lasting in the
District of Columbia. So again, the reporting person initial responder
are critical and determining the soircumstances surrounding the missing person's disappearance.
(22:02):
The first step again is to interview the reporting person.
Try to gather as much information as you possibly can,
as far as demographics available, friends, a clothing description. What
is definitely invaluable to us is a recent photo. If
you have a recent photo of the individual, it's very
valuable in the issues of a missing person's flyer, which
(22:23):
we distribute in every case. So, I mean, obviously you
were not around in the nineteen sevent well, you were
in a police officer and not a police officer, but
your career spans three decades, yes it does. So this
is another thing that keeps coming up to us is
how differently, even based on our very small knowledge of
police procedure, how differently cases were handled back then as
(22:46):
to now. And I'm wondering if you could give us
a kind of a concept of how not just technology
but resources have changed even since when you first started, mean,
how much better equipped our office to do this kind
of work. Absolutely, absolutely, And just like in anything in life,
of course, technology brings about improvements and things we have
(23:08):
the ability to be able to now actually track cell phones.
These cell phones are invaluable and you'll see that every
juvenile has a cell phone in his or her hand.
Once the missing person's detectives get on the scene, the
first thing we are able to do is be able
to track that cell phone. And like I said, how
quickly can that very quickly? Very quickly. It's a matter
(23:28):
of us forwarding an emergency disclosure request social media. Also,
we can develop an IP address for where that phone
is actually pinging that has proven invaluable or not. That's
something that we definitely did not have. It gives us
a leg up on a possible location of the individual
if we're lucky enough to have a case where a
cell phone is involved. So definitely technology, even with fingerprinting,
(23:52):
even with you know, like I said, just being able
to transmit a photo, transmit a photo through a cell phone.
The expediency of the inform that we receive gives us
a leg up on our search for the individual. And
there's more cameras around, definitely CCTV cameras. Again, like I said,
just social media in and of itself just invaluable. What
(24:12):
about the importance of just community members who live in
that neighborhood, who see these kids perhaps every day. How
important are they in the whole investigation of a child's disappearance.
Very valuable, And that's one of the first things. As
the first responding unit, we go around and we call
it door knocks, good old fashioned boots on the ground
(24:32):
door knocks. You're knocking on neighbors doors, and a lot
of times the neighbors have information, well, yes, I saw
a little Johnny head that way, or yes, little Johnny
hangs with my friend, you know, and they hang at
the park up the street. The community is at the
root of the missing person's investigations. Getting their collaboration and
cooperation with us is invaluable. They are actually paramount insolving
(24:55):
the cases, which requires that they trust the police. Trust
is it absolutely is something that we cannot do our
job without. You have to have to trust to the community.
I mean, I think people maybe underestimate this particular piece
because we were out getting gathering tape in a couple
of neighborhoods yesterday and people had their eyes on us,
like they were over a dozen people watching us. Especially Yeah,
(25:18):
because people know what's specific to their area, to their neighborhood.
And people are cultish of their neighborhood I know. So
don't believe just because things are not said, don't believe
that you're not viewed it. Like you said, a prime
example is of them being aware of their surroundings in
their neighborhoods.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
So when we're talking about the requiring the trust of
communities and how important that can be in locating, especially
a missing child, does that mean it's maybe harder right
now when trust of the police is in many areas
as at a low.
Speaker 9 (25:50):
You know, I have not found that to be a
deterrent when you're talking about a missing kid. Folks have
a tendency to be able to look on the other
side of things. They'll see that we're there for the good.
So I have not in my personal experience, have not
and I've never heard of any of my officers complain
about the neighborhood not talking to have a tendency. Again,
I don't know whether it's part of the code, you know,
(26:12):
but anytime a senior or a juvenile is involved, I
have not experienced any type of not wanting to get
involved in the process. And I'm sure you're aware, and
we keep hearing it over and over this impression that
black communities are a lower priority for law enforcement than
white communities are. And so what is your response to, say,
black residents who believe that their crises their children are
(26:38):
of lower priority. I'd have to stand on the laurels
of police Chief Robert J. Cont In that we investigate
all of our cases the same. We have a standardized procedure.
There's no one case that is given a higher priority
than another case. Now in the media you may see
that which we don't have control over, but we investigate
every last one of our cases the same. No one
(26:59):
case has any priority over the other. So I would
consistently tell the residents. I would explain to them, being transparent,
this is what we do in every case, and I
would give him a highlight of each investigative step that
we've taken. So what advice do you give to somebody.
Let's say that my son is expected home at four
pm and it's five point thirty and I'm worried, Yes,
(27:20):
what recommendation do you have for me short of that
given in the district of Columbia. And that's a common
misperception as well, that you'll hear folks say, well, he
has to be missing for twenty four hours or there's
a certain time period. There is no time period for
you to be able to report your loved one missing.
It's based more on what is unusual for that person's situation.
If your kid is missing fifteen minutes and you know
(27:41):
that that's unusual for your kid, you immediately pick up
the phone and call the police. What we're seeing now
is that that gap in time from disappearance to reporting
actually puts us behind, especially in cases of elderly folks
and with juveniles maybe under the age of twelve, actually
puts us behind. So there's no time limit. As soon
(28:02):
as you feel that something is unusual about your kid's disappearance,
call the police. Back at the outreach event for a
relationsiou Rudd a prayer was delivered by Shantis Cotton.
Speaker 10 (28:15):
We all have a destiny, we all have a purpose,
and you just have to let the Lord continue to
work in you all of the gifts and talents that
He's placed on the inside of you for his glory.
That you can get anywhere, you can be anywhere, You
can do anything that you have been allowed to do,
because God has purpose and a reason for you to
be on this earth, and so I just encourage people
(28:35):
just to know that God has a reason for them,
and that He has allowed the account talents that He's
placed on the inside of them to come into fruition
and to manifestation, to use them wherever they are and
to give them wherever they need to be in life,
so they can make it. Yes, they can make it.
Yes they can. Thank you, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
In learning about the cases that Henderson Long works on today,
it was striking to me how many of the same
barriers exist now that existed fifty years ago. Young Black
girls are still at a higher risk of victimization, and
their disappearances get little or no attention. Commander Wheeler Taylor
says all cases are investigated the same, and she doesn't
(29:40):
find a lack of trust in law enforcement to impact
cases of missing youth, But she says Henderson helps break
down the barrier between law enforcement and the black community. Today,
we have so many resources for solving these kinds of cases,
better technologies, social media, a much better understanding of DNA
and forensic evidence. We've also got people like Henderson Long
(30:04):
working in the community to try and make a difference.
But the fact that Henderson's work is still so needed
in twenty twenty three is a sign of failure on
one level at least. There's a problem that has been
with us since the nineteen seventies, and it's that police
have still not earned the trust of black communities in
many of these neighborhoods. And as we've learned painfully that piece,
(30:28):
it's just crucial when you want to solve these cases.
It's very likely that somebody in the community knows what
happened or knows something significant, and for the Freeway phantom cases,
their testimony may be all that we have left.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I think when it comes to the physical evidence, what
was left has been exhausted, so we probably will not
be able to do anything with DNA not for the
physical evidence.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
This is retired MPD Detective Romaine Jenkins.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
What I'm hoping is that by keeping the cases in
the public's views that.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Maybe somebody, you don't job somebody's.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Memory that you know something that they never told anybody.
They came across some hyping books, you know, that they
found when it cleaned out an apartment, or one of
their younger cousins brought some hyping books home, or some
property that didn't belong to them, some properties that had
the name Brenda Woodard on it. And this is what
(31:29):
I'm hoping that somebody's memory will be jobs.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Romaine says, that's why the work of Henderson Long is
so important.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well, you always need someone who trusts the police. If
you're going to be an investigator and you don't have
someone who's going to give you information or what's going
on in the community, then you're wasting your time. If
you always have to pay for information. I think one
time in my whole career did I ever pay for
(31:59):
any You give me the information because you want to
be a good citizen.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You've given me the information because you know I'm not.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Going to divulge your name to anybody, and I don't,
and so you have got to have that trust.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I asked Romaine how we can get people to come
forward with information about the freeway phantom.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
What you have to do is keep these cases in
front of the public. A lot of people don't know
about these cases, and a lot of people who who
lived here years ago when these cases happen, they are
aware of them, but they thought they were closed. So
you have to constantly remind the public that these cases
(32:45):
are open.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The person who did it was.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Never apprehended, so we don't know what else that person
could have done.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
Romaine says that with the emergence of the Internet and
social media, there just might be new avenues for people
to investigate the Freeway Phantom case further.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
You know, now that everything is computerized, I think if
somebody does have some information, they could really put it
on their.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Internet if they don't want to be involved in it
per se.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Back then, we just didn't have The only thing we
had was the newspaper and the TV and the newspaper,
which was at the time the biggest circulating one I
think was the Washington Post. You know, now we have
more and there's so many different sites, and it takes
longer to investigate things now because I think back then
they had over a thousand people who were suspects in
(33:38):
the case. They investigated every last one of them, but
they could not come to a favorable conclusion.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Romaine also says law enforcement is much more capable in
today's world than they might have been fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
If you talk to THATBI they said at one time
they thought there was more than one hundred serial killings
operating within the United States. I think what's happening today,
it's being highlighted more. These cases were happening back in
the early seventies, but there was so much else going
on and they were not equipped. They didn't even use
(34:14):
the term serial murder cases back in the early seventies.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
You know, we call them pattern cases.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Well, we gave them a name by what was the
outstanding thing that the suspect did. Because of the fact
that nowadays you can put a it's name in a
computer and god knows, you can find out everything, all
about his family tree and everything.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
So everything is it's there.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
But it's important that the police recognized that whoever did
a particular case is going to do it again.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
It's not a one time thing.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
That's why the name Freeway Phantom came in because somebody
asked in a press conference, somebody on the Metropolitan Police Department,
do you think it's more than one person involved in
and the person said, well, we think it's probably more.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Than one person.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
When the water case happened, that's when the note is sound,
and the note lets you know it was just one purpose.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
It was clear to us during our investigation of the
Freeway phantom. The police response at the time was impacted
to at least some degree by racial bias. I asked
Ramaine how much she worries about that when it comes
to similar cases today, it.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Might still be a problem somewhat, but it can be
hidden nowadays because everybody is looking at the police. Everybody
has a camera, they have a microphone, They're paying attention
to what is going on, and so you really don't
have not that all the prejudice and racism has dissipated.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
It's still there, but it's not highlighted.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
And back then what you saw a lot of the
times officers brought their personal grievances and opinions to the
office when they investigated the case. I mean, you know,
I read reports in these cases where some officers wrote
up that these young girls who were tight shorts. Not
one of these girls had on a pair of tight shorts,
(36:13):
and if she did, what does that have to do
with anything?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
And that really upset me.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Because they're blaming these girls for their own abductions.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
And rates strangulations.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You know, but this is how they felt. This is
a memo that they put out there. You know that
they wore type.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
Jeans Romayne still hopes that the Freeway Phantom cases can
be solved, but she says more people need to know
about these cases and somebody needs to step up.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
If I had the power, I would love to see
that these cases were resolved, either by someone telling the
police or calling the police, calling the newspapers. In fact,
get on the internet and say it. Everybody hides information
on the internet. But you know, at least in part
(37:05):
the information that you have that might be crucial. And
maybe you might think it didn't mean anything, but you know,
if you keep it to yourself, we'll never know. Also
that these cases are always kept alive in some manner
with PG County Police and with the Metropolitan Police Department,
(37:27):
and with thatbi that the files and the evidence to
not be destroyed, that it be kept forever and ever.
And maybe you can't do anything with the evidence. But
you know, maybe somebody who's in their seventies. I figured,
if the Phantom were alive today, he probably did his
late sixties or early seventies. Maybe he wants to relieve
(37:48):
his conscients of what he had done. You don't know,
you know, And also always keep in touch with the
families because a lot of times people in part inflammation
in them and they said, when the police don't really care,
so I'm not going to go. You know, even in
the Fantom cases, we had people who were interviewed the
(38:11):
knight the cases happened, and two years later they gave
up information that they didn't inationially give which was good inflammation.
It's a matter of always communicating with people.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
We're also doing our part in this fight. As a reminder,
Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia are matching the one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars reward offered by the Metropolitan Police Department.
This brings the total reward for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for
these murders to three hundred thousand dollars. If you have
(38:49):
information that may lead to the identification of the Freeway Phantom,
it's time to speak up. Tips can be provided to
MPD or Tenderfoot TV at tips at tenderfoot dot tv.
For the family members of these victims, any hope of
discovering the truth is complicated because it's hard to say
(39:14):
how they might feel about new details that could emerge.
Closure doesn't come easily when you've had a loved one
taken away by violence. Here again is Evander Spink's older
sister of Carol Spinx.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
I mean, for the most part, my family is still together,
but it's still put a wedge in our family amongst
us Like me, I hold guilt because I felt like
I didn't do what I was supposed to do, and
I'm sure my older sister does even to this day,
I know I'm a lot more stronger than they are,
(39:52):
my younger siblings. I knew more and I learned more
because I wanted to know more and i wanted to
understand it. And I've always been trying to figure out
a way to get the hurt off of me. So
it made me stronger and more tougher and a harder
(40:13):
person because I wanted to know. And you can't be
a chicken and you can't be timid if you want
to know something, because you're going to have to take
some hard knocks to get that information. And that's what
this is. He's a hard knox. I told Yeah Yea
(40:35):
today that she came to me other night, two nights ago,
and it wasn't in spirit, it wasn't in body form,
and it's like out the peripheral view, I could see
her in her coffin, but not in her coughing dead,
(40:56):
but maybe just laying there. And people were talking about
her and as if she wasn't in the room.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Or.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
I can I explain this.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
They were talking about her as if she wasn't in
a room, but talking to her. And I was responding
because I remember saying this one thing. Wait a minute,
I want to interject on that right there. I said, No,
she wasn't like that at all. She was quiet, and
(41:28):
I kind of was looking at her out my side
eye and she was bybye, Carol.
Speaker 9 (41:36):
She was just there.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
And this just happened a couple days ago, and I
was saying, I was telling, yayyay, how good I felt
that I could. I always called her a visit. When
my family visited me, I always say.
Speaker 8 (41:51):
I had a visit.
Speaker 6 (41:54):
Here's what Bertha Crockett, the sister of Brenda Crockett, told
us about how she thinks about herself.
Speaker 11 (42:02):
There are other family members that lost their sisters and
they became officers and detectives because they wanted to put
the cuffs on the man that killed their family member.
But we've had no closure, no resolution, so I mean,
I've done so many podcasts and live TV and so
(42:26):
it's just I don't know. The gentleman that could have
done this has to be old, old now or even deceased.
And that's said, but I don't know, you know, vengeance's minds,
I would repay, said the Lord. So that's all you
have to live by when you really can't see judgment
(42:47):
after all these years, I don't know if it's important anymore.
I just know that if you do wrong, wrong would
come back on you. It's God's choice and chance in time.
So you know, if you think you're doing something and
getting away with it, you're not. It's not if I
don't ever see what occurred as a resolution or you know,
(43:13):
as closure. I know that God has me and anything
around me, So when people do stuff, they have to
recognize that you're not going to get away with it.
So if you think you have, I think God has
had something in store for them or whatever the case
may be, in their future, their present, their past. So
(43:35):
if I don't see I've never I haven't seen closure
in fifty years, so I can't say, you know, I
have to worry about it. And now I just hope
that that what's deserved is deserved, because I don't want
to sound bad, but I feel like if you take
a life, you shouldn't have a life. If you do wrong,
wrong should not be granted for you to be out
(43:56):
here doing wrong forever. And it's not that you know
somebody had to come back and take it out on
your Purposely. Stuff just happens by circumstance, So you just
have to be good in everything you do. So no,
I'm not sitting here worrying about whether that person is
still around or whatever. I just know that God has
(44:18):
had me and I'm just grateful that I'm still here.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
After Diane Williams was killed, her sister, Patricia Williams, went
on to become a police officer.
Speaker 12 (44:30):
I did not become a police officer because my sister's death.
I became a police officer because I was taking a
class in investigations and it was during one of those
classes that the professor put up at the Metrono Police
Department would be having a test at Beloosunior High School.
(44:54):
That's the high school that I went to. I decided
to go and take the test, and almost arrest is history.
I wounded up joining the police department. After Romayne Jenkins retired,
there was another detective, Jim Trainer, that I was in
a training academy with, and he had gotten or was
(45:15):
starting to pick up with the Freeway Phantom investigations from
where Romaine Jenkins had left off. One day, we just
so happened to see each other, you know, years after
we had gotten up their training academy, and he mentioned
that to me, and so we started talking about the
free Fist and he was telling me what he's going
(45:36):
to do, and they had gotten a grant. He was
able to get someone to assist him with reenacting every
single case, and I was fortunate enough to write with
them on one of the reenactments that they were doing.
It felt like I was back, like in nineteen seventy one.
(45:58):
I felt like I was there at the time that
it happened, and it really touched me just to be
a part of that and to kind of like see
what happened and what these girls may have felt like
or felt when this was going on. It put me
in a whole new different light as to this whole
(46:21):
investigation because I was sort of like a part of
it all the other times I was not a part
of the investigation. I remember Romayne Jenkins telling me Pat,
I don't want to show you anything involving your sister.
It's too hard to look at. You can't unsee this,
and I respected that. So even though we would talk
(46:43):
about it, I never saw any reports on investigations, any
photographs involving the investigations, any of that. It was always
just dialogue, talking back and forth about this, and then
they would always guard me against telling me or let
me see anything that would upset me. There is no
(47:07):
closure I have. Of course, I'm a lot older. There's
some things that I don't even remember. I don't know
if that's selective amnesia or what. But they'll never be
any closure. But I have also accepted that Diane's and
(47:27):
the other Preway Phantom victims murder will never be found.
I've already accepted it, and I believe in God, and
I believe that this individual has to or individuals have
an accounting, and maybe not in this life, but they will.
And I've pretty much left that now in their hands
(47:48):
God's hands. Excuse me to deal with them, because I
don't believe we will ever know.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
And I can't.
Speaker 12 (47:55):
I can't live a life of you know, hating somebody
or spending all all my time worrying about when are
they going to catch somebody? What are they doing? You know,
because in Diane's case, I honestly believe that everything has
been done. They can be done with the exception of
(48:17):
our confession. And even if somebody confessed to do it,
they'd have to prove it, because it's been so long,
you'd have to they would have to have some kind
of evidence to.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Prove that they did it.
Speaker 12 (48:27):
After fifty years, I'm believe that that individual is no
longer with us either.
Speaker 6 (48:37):
Throughout this podcast, there were a number of goals we
were trying to accomplish. First and foremost, we just wanted
to tell the stories of these young girls and make
their names heard and again. The six confirmed victims are
Carol Spinks, Darlinia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Ninamosha Yates, Brenda Woodard,
and Diane Williams. There was also Tara Bryant, a seven
(49:00):
unconfirmed victim, and Angela Barnes, who was briefly on the
official list of victims. What cannot get lost here is
that these young girls were innocent, beloved members of their families,
and their community, and the impact their murders had on
their loved ones was severe. It was tragic and in
some cases insurmountable. It is our hope that they do
(49:25):
find some manner of peace. It's also our mission that
they someday received the justice they deserve, and that brings
us to the next goal of this podcast. We hope
to discover the identity of the Freeway phantom, and we
truly believe it's possible, but we cannot do that alone.
What we've done here is lay out the facts, give
you as much information as we could find, and now
(49:49):
we need the community to step up and share whatever
tips they might have. That may be the only way
that this fifty year old case gets resolved, and it
just might be the own only way that these young
girls finally receive justice. Our last goal with this podcast
has been to raise awareness of an even bigger, more
(50:10):
persistent issue, not just in Washington, d C. But all
throughout this country. Missing children from black and marginalized communities
rarely get the attention they need. It's past time that
we prioritize cases like Militia Rudd, both in terms of
media attention and police resources. Only then can we start
(50:32):
to save these lives and ensure that what happened to Carol, Darlinia,
Brenda Ninamosha, Brenda Woodard, Diane and Tara never happens again.
I'm Celeste Hedley. This has been Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
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 Celes Hiley.
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,
(51:24):
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 Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
(51:46):
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 conviction
of the person or persons responsible for their freeway phantom.
The previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
(52:07):
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
zero ninety nine. For more information, please visit freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
(52:31):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
You're listening to the Freeway Fanom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black Bar METSPHAH. 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 Ourheartmedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black Bar, MITZVAH, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:24):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In nineteen eighty four, when I decided to reopen the cases,
I was really concerned because in talking to some other
detectives that other people around they were under the impression
that the cases were closed.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And I knew better.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I knew that, you know, there had been a massive
investigation of the being Vega guys, but the evidence eventually
showed that that was a farce, that they didn't have
anything to do with it. So I decided I was
going to take up the banner of these cases because
they should have been close. There wasn't a real emotional
(01:06):
toll on me when I went to homicide. My primary
reason for going to homicide was to handle all the
instant deaths, the child's deaths in the city, the abortion cases,
and so seeing young people dead, you don't ever get
used to it, but you know that's part of your job,
and once you break down and cry and so forth,
(01:29):
then you're not serving the public because your personal feelings
get in the way of what you're.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know, after you work so hard on the case
and you talk to so many people, you kind of
get a feeling of what types of young ladies they were,
and the fact that the youngest woman was ten years
of age. You know, you can imagine how they felt
that somebody had abducted them off the street and there was.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Nobody to stop it.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then the abduction site were heavily populated places, but.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Nobody saw anything, and it's just so hard to believe.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
And so, you know, I felt that, hey, if I
can bring resolution to these cases, I will do it.
I'm going to try my best to do it. But
I'm also going to try to make sure should I
not be able to get a resolution in these cases,
then I'm going to see that everything that was humanly
possible is done to solve these cases. I felt I
(02:33):
owe that to the family and owe that to the girl.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
This child was laying on the side of the road.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
I wouldn't go no way, I wouldn't talk about house.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Those first five murderers should have been a huge warning
belt for the police.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
We just want to know what happened.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Person must have saw that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They were thinking that maybe it's just one person, and
he says, oh, they need to know.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This is me.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I thought that they would catch him.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I thought it was just a matter of time.
Speaker 6 (03:12):
I'm Celeste Headley, and this is freeway Phantom. The murders
of eight young black girls, six of whom were confirmed
Freeway Phantom victims, were undeniably tragic, but their cases were
just the beginning. In the decades since their murder, the
plight of missing and murdered black girls in DC has
(03:34):
only intensified. Today, it just looks a little different, but
the issue of these cases not getting the proper media
coverage or police attention they deserve is still too prominent.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Each year, they are over six hundred thousand people reported
missing in the United States, and close to forty percent
of persons of color, and that numbers about two hundred
and seventy thousand a year that's reported missing. There's so
many more individuals that are not reported missing to law enforcement,
(04:12):
where they're not added to the national crime database. These
families are not speaking up, so we believe that the
numbers are much larger.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
This is Natalie Wilson, one of the co founders of
the Black and Missing Foundation.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
The inspiration behind the Black and Missing Foundation is that
in two thousand and four, Tamka Houston vanished from Spartanburg,
South Carolina, and that's the hometown of my sister in law, Derko,
and we learn how her family struggled to get media coverage,
particularly national media coverage around her disappearance. So Derek and
(04:51):
I decided to do some research. We weren't sure if
this was an issue affecting the minority community, particularly the
Africa American community, and most aren't young, attractive white women.
In fact, most were persons of color, particularly black African Americans,
and they made up thirty percent of all persons missing
(05:15):
and attracted almost no media coverage at all, especially nationally.
So you know, it weighed really heavy on our hearts,
and Dereka and I decided why not us, why don't
we do something about it because I'm in public relations
or media relations and Dereka's in law enforcement, and those
are the two critical professions needed to bring awareness to
(05:37):
our missing and that's how the organization, the Black and
Missing Foundation was created. We said, you know, if we
can just bring one person home or provide closure for
one family, we have done our job. And now we're
motivated to keep going because forty percent of all persons
missing are of color, and these families rely on us.
(06:01):
We are their last resort. By the time they get
to us, they're desperate, they don't know what to do,
and many times they're not getting the assistance from law
enforcement or the media to help find their missing loved one.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Natalie says one of their core objectives is getting the
media involved. Whenever there's a new missing person's case.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Media coverage is very important, especially intense early media coverage.
It ensures that the community is looking for that missing
individual and it increases the chance of a recovery. And
for us throughout the years, because we started this organization
in two thousand and eight, I've been able to build
(06:48):
media partnerships with black Press so that again they're using
their platforms with millions or hundreds of thousands of followers
to help us get the word out about a missing individual.
So it's vital and we believe that media coverage should
be equal across the board.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
We asked Natalie why historically the media is so hesitant
to report on these cases.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Well, there are a number of reasons for the lack
of media coverage. One is we're realizing that when a
child is reported missing oftentime, law enforcement they classify the
child as a runaway, so they do not receive any
type of media coverage or especially the Amber alert at all,
(07:41):
and that is not necessarily the case. We have so
many cases of missing children where law enforcement classified them
as a runaway and they did not leave voluntarily. So
we need to stay away from that phrase as runaway
because ultimately, even if the child left home voluntarily, what
(08:05):
are they leaving from and ultimately what are they running too.
We know that children who leave home voluntarily, they're on
the streets within twenty four to forty eight hours. Their
proposition for sex because they have to find a way
to survive, and they have to find a way for
you know, housing, food security, and these predators, you know,
(08:30):
they get them into a lifestyle that they cannot get
out of us. We also need to change the narrative
that missing black and brown individuals are most likely involved
with some type of criminal activity and they're represented as
such in the news cycle. You know, we have to
realize that these missing individuals, they have names, and they
(08:52):
are an important part of our society, our community. Their mothers,
their fathers, their sisters. There's brothers, aunts, uncles, their grandparents,
and we need to make sure that we represent them
in the best light.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Natalie says the issue has become much more complex than
it was during the time of the Freeway Phantom, but
she says there are things we can do now.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
You know, many of our cases, it highlights the significant
racial injustices, you know, not just in policing but media.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So we need.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
To make sure that we vote and that there are
laws to protect our children. You know, Marylyn has a
safe harbor law where if an underage child has been
arrested for prostitution, that they are not thrown into jail.
(09:52):
They are then taken to a safe house where they're
given the resources to be rehabilitated. So we need to
see laws like this that protects our community. And there
also needs to be laws where there's a sense of
urgency and a sense of fairness when a person is
(10:17):
reported missing. So again there's a loophole with the Amber Alert.
So if you're classified as a runaway, you do not
receive the Amber Alert or any type of media coverage.
How do we close that gap? We need to really
take a look at it to ensure that the individual
who did not voluntarily leave home gets the right classification
(10:42):
when they're reported missing.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
Natalie told us about one case that highlights the problems
evident in the current system. It was a story of
a girl named Relisha Rudd who went missing in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
She and her family were evicted from their apartment in
Das and they moved to the DC General Homeless Shelter
and Relicia was one of six hundred children living at
the shelter. And we became involved with relicious case as
one of our then board members and she was Assistant
(11:16):
Chief of Police. Diane Grooms shared the news release issued
by MPD on March to twentieth about relicious disappearance.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Flicia was last spotted on a hotel security camera, accompanied
by a man named Khalil Tatum, a friend of Relicia's mother.
A few weeks later, Tatum's wife was found shot dead
in a hotel, and after that, Tatum's body was found
in a shed, dead from an apparent suicide. Relicia was
never found.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
We were very alarmed, but we were very determined to
find Relicia. And there are so many unanswered questions about
this case, and the most disheartening is that no one
was really keeping up with Relicious whereabouts, you know, not
her family, not the shelter, not the school. So there
(12:12):
is enough blame to go around for everyone. And we
believe that, you know, African American and Hispanic children, they
deserve the same innocence as other children. So it's definitely
a case that weighs heavy on our hearts. And when
someone finds out that I'm, you know, one of the
(12:34):
co founders of the Black Missing Foundation in the DC area,
the first case they always ask us about is Relicious.
What happened to her? We believe that she was a
victim of sex trafficking and the janitor whom her mother
gave supervision over her was grooming her for sex trafficking.
(12:57):
It's just so heartbreaking, but we will never stop searching
for Militia. Behold on to hope that she's alive and
that she can be reunited. So much love in the
DC area for her.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
One of the people working in the Relasia Rudd case
all these years is Henderson Long, who he met last episode.
Henderson is the CEO of DC's Missing Voice. He essentially
acts as a go between for d c's Metropolitan Police
and the black community. Henderson says that in many cases
of missing and murdered children, someone in the community knows something,
(13:37):
So you have to get out there and talk to folks.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Tian Jones, you know, and I know y'all know about
that homicide.
Speaker 6 (13:46):
And from Saturday, Henderson invited us to one outreach event
at a seven to eleven in southeast d C. He
was there handing out flyers with missing persons information about
Relasia Rudd.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
The goal of to day is to create greater awareness about,
you know, the tragic circumstances of all our children in
the District of Columbia.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Militia Rudd.
Speaker 7 (14:10):
Her day being a platform, I was going to read
the proclamation and show you the proclamations, the Mayas sign
regarding Militia Rudd Day.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Like the Freeway Phantom Victims Relicious case, did not receive
sufficient media coverage. For the first three weeks that she
was missing, there was no mainstream media outlet covering the
story at all. This was also due to the fact
that no one, including police, considered her a missing person.
But after she was officially reported missing, people like Henderson
(14:42):
Long were able to get the media involved.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
Well, y'all on July eleven. That was the big media pushing.
You know, everybody's not on social media.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
So my goal was to take Milicia Rudd's plight and
all the plight of all our children and missing persons
to the street because you never know what you're gonna
run into. We may run into some information that's usual
to help us close the case and bring some closures
to some families and make the district a little safer,
you know, it's our cart.
Speaker 8 (15:12):
I approach this work with the.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Understanding that the police can't do it alone, that we
both need each other and in the community is a
tremendous asset to the police department when they can get
these tips in. I heard Chief Conti yesterday begging people
to call me. I'm send the rest in pieces up,
but I need phone calls.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
I need people to call in and give me some tips.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Now.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
I appreciate the flowers, the cars, this that and the other,
but we need calls. We need people to call in.
We need information in the community. They know who's committing
these crimes. These crimes, anything that involve criminal malice, they
know who's doing and we need the police to handle
that type of stuff. When it's not anything a criminal nature,
(15:55):
you need them.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
To be involved.
Speaker 6 (15:57):
Henderson says, there are certain valuable pieces of info you
need when investigating one of these cases. You need an
up to date photo, a complete physical description, and if possible, fingerprints.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Fingerprints is heavy in terms of identification union positivity. I
d somebody who it is, because sometimes you'll find someone,
you'll locate someone, somebody will come upon them. They may
be incapacitated, they may even be deceased. We can roll
those fingerprints and if they had any pride, run INDs.
You know, y'all know the deal, You pull them right up.
So fingerprints are invaluable.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Henderson says the biggest goal of these outreach events is
to build relationships between the community and the police. That's
why there were a handful of officers there unarmed, handing
out flyers.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
We try to educate people on what MPD within their
general orders, what kind of what they expect, because some
people come to the thing with the wrong expectation. So
we get out into the elementary schools, we get out
into the daycare centers, we fingerprint children, We educate the
parents on what to do.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
A lot of parents don't know to.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
Call the police, and then you know, you got the
street code out there too, don't deal with the police.
So we try to deal with some of that by
fostering relationship with the police, showing people that hey, look
the police are not all what you think it is.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Ninety eight percent of them are good people do down here.
They trying to do their job.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
So Henderson says, the case of Relasia Rudd is a
prime example of what can happen when communities like this
remain relatively closed off. Over the last nine years, there's
been a little movement on the case, but Henderson is
convinced someone knows something. By reminding people about Relitia, he
says he's hoping to prevent cases like hers in the future.
Speaker 7 (17:52):
This is an age regression photo of what Relitia Rudd
would look like today.
Speaker 8 (17:57):
That's her age regression photo is what they think she
would look like. I think at age fifteen.
Speaker 7 (18:03):
And as I said when I talked to the media,
a murder, suicide, and deception attached to a child, eight
year old child name, that's totally unacceptable. Murder, lies, and suicide.
That's the worst you can get for child seven. Relasia
Rudd that totally dependent on us, to totally dependent on
(18:24):
people around her.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
You know, kids are totally dependent on us. They have
no other choice but to trust the people that they're
under their care.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
One of the people we met at the outreach event
for Relasia Rudd was MPD Commander Pamela Wheeler Taylor. She
was there helping Handerson handout flyers and after the event
we had a number of questions about how her unit
investigates these types of cases. Commander Wheeler Taylor agreed to
sit down with us. Hello everyone, I am Commander Pamela
(19:17):
Wheeler Taylor of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. I'm the
commander of the Youth and Family Services Division. I've been
a member of the Metropolitan Police Department for approximately thirty
one years, and my experience runs the gamut from patrol
to internal affairs to human resources, and now, like I said,
(19:38):
I actually happened to have been appointed to the rank
of commander in January of twenty twenty one. So obviously
the case that we're focusing on was fifty years ago,
and we were surprised at how sort of blase law
enforcement was when these children went missing. So I wondered,
if you would first walk us through today what happens
if I call you and say my child was supposed
(20:01):
to be home at three, she's not home.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
What happens?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Typically?
Speaker 9 (20:05):
What happens, and in cases such as that, the response
of the very first responding officers of utmost importance. That's
where you gather the most critical information. Things that are
set and the heat of the moment are things that
have to be memorialized because they could actually, you know,
bring about successful closure at the end. Little things that
(20:26):
you feel might not be important. Something as simple as
my kids said they were going to visit their friend
and I told them that they couldn't go, Or something
as simple as maybe you've taken the kid to a
location the kid may say, you know, you know, i'd
awfully I want to visit that again. You may not
think because it's in the back of your mind that
(20:47):
you've never taken the kid to that place, or you're
not going to take the kid again. But it's something
you have to listen to. Things that are spontaneously uttered.
You know they have a valuable evidence. At what point, then,
do you know, does the case become more serious? At
what point does does an.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Officer feel that there is a need to that it's
no longer to become aware. Could this kid have gone
as opposed to maybe something untoward happened to this kid.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
Okay, so generally what happens And let me back up
a bit and maybe just explain to you what a
missing person definition is in the District of Columbia. Missing
person is anyone adult or child that is missing from
their lawful place of abode within the District of Columbia,
and they they're missing as unusual, highly unusual, or for
(21:40):
their patterns or things that they normally their routine, things
of that nature. Or the missing person could be missing
from another jurisdiction close to the district, but there's reasonably
there's incredible knowledge that the individual was lasting in the
District of Columbia. So again, the reporting person initial responder
are critical and determining the soircumstances surrounding the missing person's disappearance.
(22:02):
The first step again is to interview the reporting person.
Try to gather as much information as you possibly can,
as far as demographics available, friends, a clothing description. What
is definitely invaluable to us is a recent photo. If
you have a recent photo of the individual, it's very
valuable in the issues of a missing person's flyer, which
(22:23):
we distribute in every case. So, I mean, obviously you
were not around in the nineteen sevent well, you were
in a police officer and not a police officer, but
your career spans three decades, yes it does. So this
is another thing that keeps coming up to us is
how differently, even based on our very small knowledge of
police procedure, how differently cases were handled back then as
(22:46):
to now. And I'm wondering if you could give us
a kind of a concept of how not just technology
but resources have changed even since when you first started, mean,
how much better equipped our office to do this kind
of work. Absolutely, absolutely, And just like in anything in life,
of course, technology brings about improvements and things we have
(23:08):
the ability to be able to now actually track cell phones.
These cell phones are invaluable and you'll see that every
juvenile has a cell phone in his or her hand.
Once the missing person's detectives get on the scene, the
first thing we are able to do is be able
to track that cell phone. And like I said, how
quickly can that very quickly? Very quickly. It's a matter
(23:28):
of us forwarding an emergency disclosure request social media. Also,
we can develop an IP address for where that phone
is actually pinging that has proven invaluable or not. That's
something that we definitely did not have. It gives us
a leg up on a possible location of the individual
if we're lucky enough to have a case where a
cell phone is involved. So definitely technology, even with fingerprinting,
(23:52):
even with you know, like I said, just being able
to transmit a photo, transmit a photo through a cell phone.
The expediency of the inform that we receive gives us
a leg up on our search for the individual. And
there's more cameras around, definitely CCTV cameras. Again, like I said,
just social media in and of itself just invaluable. What
(24:12):
about the importance of just community members who live in
that neighborhood, who see these kids perhaps every day. How
important are they in the whole investigation of a child's disappearance.
Very valuable, And that's one of the first things. As
the first responding unit, we go around and we call
it door knocks, good old fashioned boots on the ground
(24:32):
door knocks. You're knocking on neighbors doors, and a lot
of times the neighbors have information, well, yes, I saw
a little Johnny head that way, or yes, little Johnny
hangs with my friend, you know, and they hang at
the park up the street. The community is at the
root of the missing person's investigations. Getting their collaboration and
cooperation with us is invaluable. They are actually paramount insolving
(24:55):
the cases, which requires that they trust the police. Trust
is it absolutely is something that we cannot do our
job without. You have to have to trust to the community.
I mean, I think people maybe underestimate this particular piece
because we were out getting gathering tape in a couple
of neighborhoods yesterday and people had their eyes on us,
like they were over a dozen people watching us. Especially Yeah,
(25:18):
because people know what's specific to their area, to their neighborhood.
And people are cultish of their neighborhood I know. So
don't believe just because things are not said, don't believe
that you're not viewed it. Like you said, a prime
example is of them being aware of their surroundings in
their neighborhoods.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
So when we're talking about the requiring the trust of
communities and how important that can be in locating, especially
a missing child, does that mean it's maybe harder right
now when trust of the police is in many areas
as at a low.
Speaker 9 (25:50):
You know, I have not found that to be a
deterrent when you're talking about a missing kid. Folks have
a tendency to be able to look on the other
side of things. They'll see that we're there for the good.
So I have not in my personal experience, have not
and I've never heard of any of my officers complain
about the neighborhood not talking to have a tendency. Again,
I don't know whether it's part of the code, you know,
(26:12):
but anytime a senior or a juvenile is involved, I
have not experienced any type of not wanting to get
involved in the process. And I'm sure you're aware, and
we keep hearing it over and over this impression that
black communities are a lower priority for law enforcement than
white communities are. And so what is your response to, say,
black residents who believe that their crises their children are
(26:38):
of lower priority. I'd have to stand on the laurels
of police Chief Robert J. Cont In that we investigate
all of our cases the same. We have a standardized procedure.
There's no one case that is given a higher priority
than another case. Now in the media you may see
that which we don't have control over, but we investigate
every last one of our cases the same. No one
(26:59):
case has any priority over the other. So I would
consistently tell the residents. I would explain to them, being transparent,
this is what we do in every case, and I
would give him a highlight of each investigative step that
we've taken. So what advice do you give to somebody.
Let's say that my son is expected home at four
pm and it's five point thirty and I'm worried, Yes,
(27:20):
what recommendation do you have for me short of that
given in the district of Columbia. And that's a common
misperception as well, that you'll hear folks say, well, he
has to be missing for twenty four hours or there's
a certain time period. There is no time period for
you to be able to report your loved one missing.
It's based more on what is unusual for that person's situation.
If your kid is missing fifteen minutes and you know
(27:41):
that that's unusual for your kid, you immediately pick up
the phone and call the police. What we're seeing now
is that that gap in time from disappearance to reporting
actually puts us behind, especially in cases of elderly folks
and with juveniles maybe under the age of twelve, actually
puts us behind. So there's no time limit. As soon
(28:02):
as you feel that something is unusual about your kid's disappearance,
call the police. Back at the outreach event for a
relationsiou Rudd a prayer was delivered by Shantis Cotton.
Speaker 10 (28:15):
We all have a destiny, we all have a purpose,
and you just have to let the Lord continue to
work in you all of the gifts and talents that
He's placed on the inside of you for his glory.
That you can get anywhere, you can be anywhere, You
can do anything that you have been allowed to do,
because God has purpose and a reason for you to
be on this earth, and so I just encourage people
(28:35):
just to know that God has a reason for them,
and that He has allowed the account talents that He's
placed on the inside of them to come into fruition
and to manifestation, to use them wherever they are and
to give them wherever they need to be in life,
so they can make it. Yes, they can make it.
Yes they can. Thank you, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
In learning about the cases that Henderson Long works on today,
it was striking to me how many of the same
barriers exist now that existed fifty years ago. Young Black
girls are still at a higher risk of victimization, and
their disappearances get little or no attention. Commander Wheeler Taylor
says all cases are investigated the same, and she doesn't
(29:40):
find a lack of trust in law enforcement to impact
cases of missing youth, But she says Henderson helps break
down the barrier between law enforcement and the black community. Today,
we have so many resources for solving these kinds of cases,
better technologies, social media, a much better understanding of DNA
and forensic evidence. We've also got people like Henderson Long
(30:04):
working in the community to try and make a difference.
But the fact that Henderson's work is still so needed
in twenty twenty three is a sign of failure on
one level at least. There's a problem that has been
with us since the nineteen seventies, and it's that police
have still not earned the trust of black communities in
many of these neighborhoods. And as we've learned painfully that piece,
(30:28):
it's just crucial when you want to solve these cases.
It's very likely that somebody in the community knows what
happened or knows something significant, and for the Freeway phantom cases,
their testimony may be all that we have left.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I think when it comes to the physical evidence, what
was left has been exhausted, so we probably will not
be able to do anything with DNA not for the
physical evidence.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
This is retired MPD Detective Romaine Jenkins.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
What I'm hoping is that by keeping the cases in
the public's views that.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Maybe somebody, you don't job somebody's.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Memory that you know something that they never told anybody.
They came across some hyping books, you know, that they
found when it cleaned out an apartment, or one of
their younger cousins brought some hyping books home, or some
property that didn't belong to them, some properties that had
the name Brenda Woodard on it. And this is what
(31:29):
I'm hoping that somebody's memory will be jobs.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Romaine says, that's why the work of Henderson Long is
so important.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well, you always need someone who trusts the police. If
you're going to be an investigator and you don't have
someone who's going to give you information or what's going
on in the community, then you're wasting your time. If
you always have to pay for information. I think one
time in my whole career did I ever pay for
(31:59):
any You give me the information because you want to
be a good citizen.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
You've given me the information because you know I'm not.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Going to divulge your name to anybody, and I don't,
and so you have got to have that trust.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I asked Romaine how we can get people to come
forward with information about the freeway phantom.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
What you have to do is keep these cases in
front of the public. A lot of people don't know
about these cases, and a lot of people who who
lived here years ago when these cases happen, they are
aware of them, but they thought they were closed. So
you have to constantly remind the public that these cases
(32:45):
are open.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The person who did it was.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Never apprehended, so we don't know what else that person
could have done.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
Romaine says that with the emergence of the Internet and
social media, there just might be new avenues for people
to investigate the Freeway Phantom case further.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
You know, now that everything is computerized, I think if
somebody does have some information, they could really put it
on their.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Internet if they don't want to be involved in it
per se.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Back then, we just didn't have The only thing we
had was the newspaper and the TV and the newspaper,
which was at the time the biggest circulating one I
think was the Washington Post. You know, now we have
more and there's so many different sites, and it takes
longer to investigate things now because I think back then
they had over a thousand people who were suspects in
(33:38):
the case. They investigated every last one of them, but
they could not come to a favorable conclusion.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Romaine also says law enforcement is much more capable in
today's world than they might have been fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
If you talk to THATBI they said at one time
they thought there was more than one hundred serial killings
operating within the United States. I think what's happening today,
it's being highlighted more. These cases were happening back in
the early seventies, but there was so much else going
on and they were not equipped. They didn't even use
(34:14):
the term serial murder cases back in the early seventies.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
You know, we call them pattern cases.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Well, we gave them a name by what was the
outstanding thing that the suspect did. Because of the fact
that nowadays you can put a it's name in a
computer and god knows, you can find out everything, all
about his family tree and everything.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
So everything is it's there.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
But it's important that the police recognized that whoever did
a particular case is going to do it again.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
It's not a one time thing.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
That's why the name Freeway Phantom came in because somebody
asked in a press conference, somebody on the Metropolitan Police Department,
do you think it's more than one person involved in
and the person said, well, we think it's probably more.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Than one person.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
When the water case happened, that's when the note is sound,
and the note lets you know it was just one purpose.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
It was clear to us during our investigation of the
Freeway phantom. The police response at the time was impacted
to at least some degree by racial bias. I asked
Ramaine how much she worries about that when it comes
to similar cases today, it.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Might still be a problem somewhat, but it can be
hidden nowadays because everybody is looking at the police. Everybody
has a camera, they have a microphone, They're paying attention
to what is going on, and so you really don't
have not that all the prejudice and racism has dissipated.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
It's still there, but it's not highlighted.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
And back then what you saw a lot of the
times officers brought their personal grievances and opinions to the
office when they investigated the case. I mean, you know,
I read reports in these cases where some officers wrote
up that these young girls who were tight shorts. Not
one of these girls had on a pair of tight shorts,
(36:13):
and if she did, what does that have to do
with anything?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
And that really upset me.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Because they're blaming these girls for their own abductions.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
And rates strangulations.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You know, but this is how they felt. This is
a memo that they put out there. You know that
they wore type.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
Jeans Romayne still hopes that the Freeway Phantom cases can
be solved, but she says more people need to know
about these cases and somebody needs to step up.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
If I had the power, I would love to see
that these cases were resolved, either by someone telling the
police or calling the police, calling the newspapers. In fact,
get on the internet and say it. Everybody hides information
on the internet. But you know, at least in part
(37:05):
the information that you have that might be crucial. And
maybe you might think it didn't mean anything, but you know,
if you keep it to yourself, we'll never know. Also
that these cases are always kept alive in some manner
with PG County Police and with the Metropolitan Police Department,
(37:27):
and with thatbi that the files and the evidence to
not be destroyed, that it be kept forever and ever.
And maybe you can't do anything with the evidence. But
you know, maybe somebody who's in their seventies. I figured,
if the Phantom were alive today, he probably did his
late sixties or early seventies. Maybe he wants to relieve
(37:48):
his conscients of what he had done. You don't know,
you know, And also always keep in touch with the
families because a lot of times people in part inflammation
in them and they said, when the police don't really care,
so I'm not going to go. You know, even in
the Fantom cases, we had people who were interviewed the
(38:11):
knight the cases happened, and two years later they gave
up information that they didn't inationially give which was good inflammation.
It's a matter of always communicating with people.
Speaker 6 (38:26):
We're also doing our part in this fight. As a reminder,
Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia are matching the one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars reward offered by the Metropolitan Police Department.
This brings the total reward for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for
these murders to three hundred thousand dollars. If you have
(38:49):
information that may lead to the identification of the Freeway Phantom,
it's time to speak up. Tips can be provided to
MPD or Tenderfoot TV at tips at tenderfoot dot tv.
For the family members of these victims, any hope of
discovering the truth is complicated because it's hard to say
(39:14):
how they might feel about new details that could emerge.
Closure doesn't come easily when you've had a loved one
taken away by violence. Here again is Evander Spink's older
sister of Carol Spinx.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
I mean, for the most part, my family is still together,
but it's still put a wedge in our family amongst
us Like me, I hold guilt because I felt like
I didn't do what I was supposed to do, and
I'm sure my older sister does even to this day,
I know I'm a lot more stronger than they are,
(39:52):
my younger siblings. I knew more and I learned more
because I wanted to know more and i wanted to
understand it. And I've always been trying to figure out
a way to get the hurt off of me. So
it made me stronger and more tougher and a harder
(40:13):
person because I wanted to know. And you can't be
a chicken and you can't be timid if you want
to know something, because you're going to have to take
some hard knocks to get that information. And that's what
this is. He's a hard knox. I told Yeah Yea
(40:35):
today that she came to me other night, two nights ago,
and it wasn't in spirit, it wasn't in body form,
and it's like out the peripheral view, I could see
her in her coffin, but not in her coughing dead,
(40:56):
but maybe just laying there. And people were talking about
her and as if she wasn't in the room.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Or.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
I can I explain this.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
They were talking about her as if she wasn't in
a room, but talking to her. And I was responding
because I remember saying this one thing. Wait a minute,
I want to interject on that right there. I said, No,
she wasn't like that at all. She was quiet, and
(41:28):
I kind of was looking at her out my side
eye and she was bybye, Carol.
Speaker 9 (41:36):
She was just there.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
And this just happened a couple days ago, and I
was saying, I was telling, yayyay, how good I felt
that I could. I always called her a visit. When
my family visited me, I always say.
Speaker 8 (41:51):
I had a visit.
Speaker 6 (41:54):
Here's what Bertha Crockett, the sister of Brenda Crockett, told
us about how she thinks about herself.
Speaker 11 (42:02):
There are other family members that lost their sisters and
they became officers and detectives because they wanted to put
the cuffs on the man that killed their family member.
But we've had no closure, no resolution, so I mean,
I've done so many podcasts and live TV and so
(42:26):
it's just I don't know. The gentleman that could have
done this has to be old, old now or even deceased.
And that's said, but I don't know, you know, vengeance's minds,
I would repay, said the Lord. So that's all you
have to live by when you really can't see judgment
(42:47):
after all these years, I don't know if it's important anymore.
I just know that if you do wrong, wrong would
come back on you. It's God's choice and chance in time.
So you know, if you think you're doing something and
getting away with it, you're not. It's not if I
don't ever see what occurred as a resolution or you know,
(43:13):
as closure. I know that God has me and anything
around me, So when people do stuff, they have to
recognize that you're not going to get away with it.
So if you think you have, I think God has
had something in store for them or whatever the case
may be, in their future, their present, their past. So
(43:35):
if I don't see I've never I haven't seen closure
in fifty years, so I can't say, you know, I
have to worry about it. And now I just hope
that that what's deserved is deserved, because I don't want
to sound bad, but I feel like if you take
a life, you shouldn't have a life. If you do wrong,
wrong should not be granted for you to be out
(43:56):
here doing wrong forever. And it's not that you know
somebody had to come back and take it out on
your Purposely. Stuff just happens by circumstance, So you just
have to be good in everything you do. So no,
I'm not sitting here worrying about whether that person is
still around or whatever. I just know that God has
(44:18):
had me and I'm just grateful that I'm still here.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
After Diane Williams was killed, her sister, Patricia Williams, went
on to become a police officer.
Speaker 12 (44:30):
I did not become a police officer because my sister's death.
I became a police officer because I was taking a
class in investigations and it was during one of those
classes that the professor put up at the Metrono Police
Department would be having a test at Beloosunior High School.
(44:54):
That's the high school that I went to. I decided
to go and take the test, and almost arrest is history.
I wounded up joining the police department. After Romayne Jenkins retired,
there was another detective, Jim Trainer, that I was in
a training academy with, and he had gotten or was
(45:15):
starting to pick up with the Freeway Phantom investigations from
where Romaine Jenkins had left off. One day, we just
so happened to see each other, you know, years after
we had gotten up their training academy, and he mentioned
that to me, and so we started talking about the
free Fist and he was telling me what he's going
(45:36):
to do, and they had gotten a grant. He was
able to get someone to assist him with reenacting every
single case, and I was fortunate enough to write with
them on one of the reenactments that they were doing.
It felt like I was back, like in nineteen seventy one.
(45:58):
I felt like I was there at the time that
it happened, and it really touched me just to be
a part of that and to kind of like see
what happened and what these girls may have felt like
or felt when this was going on. It put me
in a whole new different light as to this whole
(46:21):
investigation because I was sort of like a part of
it all the other times I was not a part
of the investigation. I remember Romayne Jenkins telling me Pat,
I don't want to show you anything involving your sister.
It's too hard to look at. You can't unsee this,
and I respected that. So even though we would talk
(46:43):
about it, I never saw any reports on investigations, any
photographs involving the investigations, any of that. It was always
just dialogue, talking back and forth about this, and then
they would always guard me against telling me or let
me see anything that would upset me. There is no
(47:07):
closure I have. Of course, I'm a lot older. There's
some things that I don't even remember. I don't know
if that's selective amnesia or what. But they'll never be
any closure. But I have also accepted that Diane's and
(47:27):
the other Preway Phantom victims murder will never be found.
I've already accepted it, and I believe in God, and
I believe that this individual has to or individuals have
an accounting, and maybe not in this life, but they will.
And I've pretty much left that now in their hands
(47:48):
God's hands. Excuse me to deal with them, because I
don't believe we will ever know.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
And I can't.
Speaker 12 (47:55):
I can't live a life of you know, hating somebody
or spending all all my time worrying about when are
they going to catch somebody? What are they doing? You know,
because in Diane's case, I honestly believe that everything has
been done. They can be done with the exception of
(48:17):
our confession. And even if somebody confessed to do it,
they'd have to prove it, because it's been so long,
you'd have to they would have to have some kind
of evidence to.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
Prove that they did it.
Speaker 12 (48:27):
After fifty years, I'm believe that that individual is no
longer with us either.
Speaker 6 (48:37):
Throughout this podcast, there were a number of goals we
were trying to accomplish. First and foremost, we just wanted
to tell the stories of these young girls and make
their names heard and again. The six confirmed victims are
Carol Spinks, Darlinia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Ninamosha Yates, Brenda Woodard,
and Diane Williams. There was also Tara Bryant, a seven
(49:00):
unconfirmed victim, and Angela Barnes, who was briefly on the
official list of victims. What cannot get lost here is
that these young girls were innocent, beloved members of their families,
and their community, and the impact their murders had on
their loved ones was severe. It was tragic and in
some cases insurmountable. It is our hope that they do
(49:25):
find some manner of peace. It's also our mission that
they someday received the justice they deserve, and that brings
us to the next goal of this podcast. We hope
to discover the identity of the Freeway phantom, and we
truly believe it's possible, but we cannot do that alone.
What we've done here is lay out the facts, give
you as much information as we could find, and now
(49:49):
we need the community to step up and share whatever
tips they might have. That may be the only way
that this fifty year old case gets resolved, and it
just might be the own only way that these young
girls finally receive justice. Our last goal with this podcast
has been to raise awareness of an even bigger, more
(50:10):
persistent issue, not just in Washington, d C. But all
throughout this country. Missing children from black and marginalized communities
rarely get the attention they need. It's past time that
we prioritize cases like Militia Rudd, both in terms of
media attention and police resources. Only then can we start
(50:32):
to save these lives and ensure that what happened to Carol, Darlinia,
Brenda Ninamosha, Brenda Woodard, Diane and Tara never happens again.
I'm Celeste Hedley. This has been Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
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 Celes Hiley.
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,
(51:24):
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 Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
(51:46):
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 conviction
of the person or persons responsible for their freeway phantom.
The previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
(52:07):
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
zero ninety nine. For more information, please visit freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
(52:31):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
Host
Celeste Headlee
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