February 7, 2024 • 31 mins
After four and a half years since the original assignment, Mr. Campbell brings in two current students to continue finding justice for the victims of the Redhead murders. They were eager to get started.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
A group of high school students.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
High school students Elizabeth and high school students started a
project to research a string of unsolved murders.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Their research led to the identification of the killer. Investigators
now have an answer to a thirty four year old question.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Once you start getting a few tips, or a few leads,
or few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
There's a pretty good chance he's still alive.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out
to be accurate.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Redhead Killer profile mail Caucasian, five nine six, two hundred
and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother,
right handed, IQ above one hundred, most likely heterosexual.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
There is no profile of this killer except for the
ones the students created.
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Just because some of these women no longer have people
to speak for them does not mean that they deserve to.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Not be so anymore.
Speaker 7 (00:57):
What if this guy's still alive?
Speaker 8 (00:58):
Like, what if becomes after us?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You're gonna kill me? Who's a year? This is Murder
one oh one, Season one, Episode five, The Next Generation.
I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at Katie
Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arnold. It
(01:24):
had been four and a half years since the original
assignment wrapped up, but mister Campbell always felt there was
more to uncover. While scheduling and timing made it challenging
for mister Campbell to teach another sociology class, something even
better would come his way. In the fall of twenty
twenty two. I spoke to him about a potentially game
changing update.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I mean, who says it has to be them to
do the work? I mean, you know, I mean, this
class did this work four or five years ago, but
I have students now that could do the work too,
and may want to do the work. For example, had
two young ladies basically begged me to teach each a
class on criminal psychology. And it's so funny because I
don't even think they knew really all the background of
(02:08):
things I did years ago. They weren't even at the
high school then. But what I'm saying is there is
work that needs to be done, but we also have
other students that I think are really willing to do it,
and they want to learn, and they want to do
exciting things and help people too.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So if there's a world where we can bring current
high school students in and have then kind of be
a part of these group meets where you assign things
and we talk about it and exciten me up.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
We had a teacher gets sick and so we're short
of subs that you know, teachers helped cover each other's classes.
So I went into that classroom and it was a
you know, it was a health science class or something,
and I don't know how it came up, but you know,
they got their work done. There was a few minutes
at the end, and I'm just in there to make
sure everything's kind of calm. I don't have anything new
to teach them or anything. And they started talking about it,
(02:53):
and you know, it just comes out. They're so into this,
they're so into true crime. They're so into coology and
sociology and criminology. They were so excited. And then I'm
sitting here thinking like they don't have any idea who
they're talking to, because I'm excited about this stuff too,
and they don't realize that there's this very important work
that things to be continued.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
A few days later, mister Campbell officially enlisted juniors. Riley
Whitson and Marlee Mathena to help work the case. The
plan was for the two teens to start meeting mister
Campbell before school to see what they could find.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Okay, so, originally the students from about four or five
years ago were looking at six different victims, but because
of their work, a lot of stuff has.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Really been coming out in the last few years.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
So why don't you ladies tell me what you've been
working on. Marley, why don't you go first.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
I've been working on the de Putto County Jane Doe
and she was found January twenty fourth. I'm in nineteen
eighty five. She was adjacent Tiway seventy eight in all
of Rinch, Mississippi. And she was white with red or
strawberry blonde hair. She was about twenty to thirty five
years old. She was kind of smaller lady. There's only
one hundred and ten pounds, about five two to five four.
She was wearing a top, some jeans, but she had
(04:06):
no underwear, socks, shoes, broad jewelry, any of that. They
don't know her eye color. They think maybe brown, but
they don't know for sure. And she had scars from
surgeries and piercings and tattoos and everything, and they think
that she was sexually assaulted and her cause of death
was asphyxiation by ligature strangulation.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
So you fel the DeSoto County Jane do deserves to
be included with the other six that the students had
found a few years back.
Speaker 8 (04:35):
Yeah, I think she does.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
What.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I don't know, what is it that jumps out about
that case that makes you think it needs to be included.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
With that list.
Speaker 8 (04:42):
Well, it just kind of lines up with everything, like
the strangulation and that she's smaller, has red hair, and
that she was dumped off on a highway.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Now you said it was in Mississippi, Yes, and Mississippi
doesn't seem to fit the kind of East Well forty
corridor kind of thing. Where's that at in Mississippi?
Speaker 8 (05:04):
It's in Olive Branch, but I think that's where his
sister lives.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Jerry John's sister.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yes, he did have a sister that live in Batesville,
which I think was kind of just south of the
Tennessee state line. So maybe we need to look at
that and let's see how far this victim was found
from West Memphis, where Lisa Nichols was found, and then
let's see how far that is from his sister's hometown
(05:33):
there in Mississippi, So maybe we can do that by
next week.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That sound good, Riley, What have you been digging into?
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I've been looking at the case of baby girl Jane Doe,
who has now been identified as Tracy Sue Walker.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Walker was born.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
June second, nineteen sixty three and reportedly went missing from
tip A Canoe Mall in nineteen seventy eight, which made
her around fifteen years old at the time her disappearance.
Her mother also reported her as running away a couple
of times, so this made people believe that she had
just run away until she was identified in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Okay, so what are some of the things you think
make this case deserve to be included.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
With the original six.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Obviously, she had red hair, she was younger, smaller girls,
some of the previously mentioned similarities between all of these cases.
But something very interesting we found in the last couple
weeks of research was that there were similarities between the
knots and cloth of Tina Farmer and the survivor Linda Show.
So that's been a very interesting finding and pretty compelling
(06:38):
as far as tying this all to Jerry Leon john
did they.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Are you looking at there on your computer? Yes, let
me see that.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, this is fascinating because a few years back
we scoured the internet, the students scoured the internet looking
for all this information. And I'm gonna be honest, this
was not there a few years ago. And Holy Michael,
I think this was big.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So let me tell you this. What's they set in?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I know it's up north a little bit. I think
it was Indiana.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
Hold on, yeah, Indiana.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Lafayette, Lafayette, Yeah, Lafayette, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
That is very interesting because I know that area, not
because I've ever been up through there. But actually Tina Farmer,
who was the other Campbell County Jane Doe, went missing
from around Indianapolis, Yes, which is at that time probably
close to a ten hour drive from Knoxville, which is
where Jerry Leon Johns was spending a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And so think about this. Think about this for a second.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Tina Farmer goes missing from around Indianapolis. This girl goes
missing from Lafayette, which is about an hour from Indianapolis,
and those are about ten hours away. And both of
those girls end up dead within a mile of each
other ten hour drive away. I think that's really big.
(08:00):
What's the chance it.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
Is the greatest coincidence of all time?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Or and they're both red headed, and they're both white,
and they're both teenagers, and they both have the same
body style and hete and wait and all those things.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That is crazy. And then also I know.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
That by looking at the history of jer Leon Johns
that the cops put together for the lend of share prosecution,
that he had lived in Rockford.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Illinois, and he still had family in Rockford, Illinois.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
And if you look on the interstate, you have to
go through from from Tennessee, you have to go through
Indianapolis and Lafayette to get to Rockford.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Which is about an hour away.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So if he's traveling back and forth from his family
back down to areas here in Tennessee and East Tennessee,
those interstates and those cities are on the is on
that interstate, right on the way. And the fact that
both those young ladies went went missing from so far
away and then end up dead within a mile of
(09:02):
each other, within a couple of years of each other,
about thirty miles.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
North of where Jerry Leon Johnson is hanging out. That's crazy.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
And from what we've seen, I believe that Jerry Leon Johns.
I believe he's a very opportunistic but also calculated killer.
So I think wherever he's traveling, that's where we'll see
the path of destruction, you know what I'm saying. So
when we see these patterns of him traveling to these
different places, you know he's bound to recavoc where he goes.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, so I think that's big. I definitely agree with you.
We need to look at the Tracy Sue Walker case.
And that's not because of bad work of the original students.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's because it's new. Information's going right, and she.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Wasn't identified until August of this year.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You know, Okay, awesome, So I think you guys are
doing a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think we definitely need to continue to look at.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
These two victims and maybe they need to be included
in the inner circle. And Marty, we'll go back to you, like,
what do you think you need to do next to
solidify the fact that you think she's connected with these
other murders.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Murder one O one.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
I think I definitely need to figure out like the
relationship between where she was found and where his sister lives,
So definitely figure out that. So then it gives like
a reason for why he would be going down there,
and it just connects it, so it's not like it's
crazy out of the way, And then I think look
at the other victims a little bit more and try
and find like connecting factors between this.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
And an unfortunate fact too, is so many of these women
were done injustice as far as the investigation goes, just
because so many of them were transient or were a
possible sex workers away from home. So many of them
were done a disservice by the justice system and enough
wasn't enough, attention wasn't given to them. Yeah, for Tina
(11:09):
Farmer and Linda, they were cloth that had been tied
around their necks and the knot was in the cloth
around their necks.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
So all right, So right here I have a huge
three ring binder. This is all of the information that
was collected for the Linda attempted murder.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
By Jerry Leon Johnson.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
So that's the only one that went to court. So
we have all this information and I have it right here,
and in this stack of a couple hundred pages, we
actually went down to Nashville, and here are some pictures
of the knots that were tied around her neck. Now,
(11:50):
it says in here that he took the T shirt
she was wearing, ripped it into strips, and then used
that to bind her ankles together and then her wrist together,
and then tied her wrist her ankles like the hawg tie,
And when she was in the car, that's how she
was tied. And so then he used those T shirt
strips to strangle her. And you're telling me that they
(12:12):
found something similar on Tina Farmer, who was who was
also another the other Campbell County victim.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Yes, they found cloth that had been ripped up and
tied around the neck of her as well.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
So very very similar, as.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
You've said too, and just something interesting that when we
were personally into this case, it just kind of blew
my mind and shows you the ruthless, the ruthlessness and
the savageness of Jerry Leon Johns. Whenever Linda was choked,
she was choked so hard that she was blind for
three days after the assault, and the whites of her
(12:47):
eyes we've seen the pictures from the hospital. The whites
in her eyes were completely red, as deep as red
as you can think. It was a haunting sight to
see her picture from them.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I almost say something else like that.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Information about Tina Farmer being strangled with a cloth was
not out there either.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It didn't say anything like that when we were looking.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And I didn't even know that she was found in
a blanket until it came out that she was identified.
And they knew that Jerr Lee on John has killed
her because his DNA was found on the blanket, So
they didn't even release that. So the fact that now
we know that she was strangled with a.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Cloth shirt from a.
Speaker 8 (13:28):
T shirts, from her T shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Okay, from her T shirt, very very similar to Linda.
And then this girl Tracy Walker, who disappeared about an
hour from Tina Farmer up in Indianapolis, ends up about
a mile away from her. She also has been They
found the T shirt that survived, yes, I believe, so
they have strips of cloth with a knot in there.
(13:50):
And then we know for a fact on the Linden
case that he tied her and then strangled her with
a T shirt. If that is not signature on a Yeah,
then I don't know what is I totally agree that
Tracy C. Walker definitely needs to be like right in
the center of the possible victims.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And I believe we should look and see what we
can find on other victims to see if there's that
possible Samemo. I mean, if he did something so similar
for these three victims, he's bound to do it for others.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
You know, is there anything else we need to do
this week? You know, just kind of research and see
if we can continue to pull these together.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Like I said, just I think looking more into I mean,
we know some of these small details that may seem insignificant,
but these are the type of details that we're going
to put together to really make a compelling case for ourselves.
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Yeah, well, girls, great job. I know it's almost time
to go to class. I appreciate y'all coming in early.
I know you got your busy, you got basketball, you
got school. But I appreciate y'all coming in before school
and working on this in your spare time.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I really think we've come a long way. I can't
wait to see what else you guys find.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So who are the young women going above and beyond
in the search of justice.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
I'm Riley Wits, and obviously I'm sixteen. I'll be seventeen
the day before, no two days before Halloween, so I've
kind of always had that spooky ambiance follow me around
everywhere I go. But yeah, I've always been very interested,
morbidly and fascinated with stuff that most people are like, Wow,
You're either going to be a serial killer or a
(15:24):
brain surgeon when you grow up.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
Hi, I'm Malonsina. I'm a junior at elizabeth In High
School and I'm sixteen.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Marley spoke about the extracurricular club.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
We started, like a little club, which right now is
just me and Riley, so we just started getting into it.
I would say that it's definitely out there, like I'm
not gonna take away from that, but like anyone's capable
of anything.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
So we decided, you know, to come in early few
times a week and do some work on our own
when we could. Me and Marley both play play basketball
for the school, so we'll be in the locker room
talking about it, and all our teammates are like, what
the heck is going on?
Speaker 8 (16:02):
The rest is history.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I guess Marley and Riley are best friends.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Riley's my best friend. She has been since like third grade,
so we've always been close. Well in third grade, we
met her basketball and we both still play basketball now
and we go over to her or I used to
go over to her house all the time and we
just did everything together. And back then I used to
be like really really quiet, like I would have a
panic attack. Before I had this phone call and she
(16:27):
was more outgoing. But she's still pullay the more the
outgoing one and all that. But I think I've gained
a little bit more of the outgoing this her.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
We spoke to Riley's dad, mister Woodson.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, they are literally best bff's best friends. Our
families are best friends. We vacation together, like we go
we go to Florida together every year. We you know,
we travel, we stay together. We you know, we get
together on the weekend's cookouts with them, hang by the
pool where and she has a younger brother who is
the same age as my youngest daughter, and their best friends.
(17:02):
So it's just like our whole folent family dynamic. It's
we were We didn't know them back then, but me
and my wife got married like a month apart from
Marley's mom and dad, Mikey and Courtney, and then we
had our first kids at the same time and our
second kids at the same time. They're just a couple
of parts. So yeah, it's a pretty interesting dynamic.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
We also got the chance to connect with Marley's mom,
missus Mathena.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
They are peanut, butter and jelly. Riley is much more.
Riley is the extrovert. She's out going, she could talk
to anyone. She's definitely not shy. She performs. She has
a beautiful singing voice, and it's comfortable. She you know,
at many events. She everything from performing with the praise
(17:50):
band at her church, she sings at funeral she has
sung from the very large crowds for community events, the
national anthem. So Riley's there. Marley's more of the quiet
behind the scenes. But they balanced each other so well.
You know, one is more cautious, one is more of
a risk taker. You know, you've got one pulling the
turtle out of the shell and the other one tempering,
(18:12):
you know. I mean, they are just in and yank.
They are a perfect sweet little friendship. Basketball is their passion.
Last year their team went to the state tournament. We
didn't win the championship, but we had an awesome run
and we lost no players. We had the juniors and
sophomores last year. So our goal this year is for
(18:35):
the girls to go back. They're working very hard. Riley
is point guard. She is an awesome shooter. She has
the most beautiful three point shot you've ever seen. Marley
plays the post position and again, you know, her timidness
has been, you know, something that she's been working to
come out of, and she has really grown and pushed
(18:56):
herself again to the next level and in her post
position really going after the ball and crashing the boards
and rebounding. They both girls are very, very very hard
workers on the court, off the court, in the classroom.
Whatever they do their work ethic, they will put in
one hundred and ten percent. So them getting up at
seven o'clock in the morning, that's not out of character
(19:18):
for them.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Aside from being on her students and star basketball players,
what truly bonded the girls was their obsession with true crime,
and I think.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That falls in with wanting to solve the Jane Doe
type stuff. She loves helping people less fortunate. It like
at church before at church and there's kids in the
youth who are kind of less fortunate, Riley will gravitate
to those kids. She wants to love on those kids
and help those kids, and I think they kind of
really as part of her passion for one to solve
the Jane Doe. She wants to help these ladies out,
or these people, these victims who don't have a voice anymore.
She wants to help them out. She is a typical teenager,
(19:52):
but she's she's.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
On her phone a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
But I'm not kidding. If she's on her phone for
five hours in her spare time of day, four and
a half hours is with the crime podcasts.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
For Marley's mom, the newfound interest came as a bit
of a shock.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
She is not the child that enjoys thrill rides. She
has never watched scary movies, you know, and it's like, wows,
And I'm interested in true crime. That's kind of surprising.
But she's really interested into the scientific, the forensic, and
she's like, to make big, big impacts in life, you
kind of have to go outside the box.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
The club took a few days to review the information
before meeting back up.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
So what have you been finding so like I said previously,
we're just trying to tie Tracy Walker with the rest
of these victims, and really because we feel that there's
a lot of compelling evidence that ties her to Juy
Lean Johns. So something very interesting I found here. I'm
looking at my map. Tina Farmer was from Indianapolis and Indiana,
(20:59):
and a Walker was from Lafayette in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And that's about an hour or maybe yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Round about something like that. Well, we've covered that Jerry
Leon John was a trucker. Well, there's a highway or
interstate that goes directly between these two and he would
have taken this route so he didn't have to go
through Chicago, which most truckers would not want to go
through Chicago due to traffic obvious reasons. So there's a
direct line between these two cities which he would have taken,
(21:28):
which I think is very just give us a direct line.
But even more than that, directly above to the left
of these two cities is Rockford, Illinois, which was where
Jerry Leon John's family was from, and when him and
his wife divorced, she actually moved back there. I mean,
it's practically a perfect diagonal line.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's highway of death. Yes, as sad as that he is.
Speaker 8 (21:52):
So.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I mean, there's just so many similarities.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
There's no way it's coincidental.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
It's hard to say to people got kidnapped ten hours
away and their bodies ended up within a mile of.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Each other, and it wasn't the same person. Everything else
matches exactly it.
Speaker 8 (22:07):
And this is actually pretty interesting. But her name is
We figured out that the Desto count and Jane Doe
was also strangled with the ligature?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Did it say anything about what type of ligature?
Speaker 7 (22:19):
On?
Speaker 8 (22:19):
NamUs didn't and just said that it was a ligature,
but she was missing like a jacket and undergarments, which
I don't know if that has anything to do with it,
but he could use the jacket.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, that's a lot of good work for a couple
of days. They got to give y' all a pretty
good grade too. But you getting ready to have your
big three day weekend, don't rub it in. These teachers
have to work on Friday.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
But what do you think we need to.
Speaker 8 (22:40):
Do figure out more about the what the ligature could
have been?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Riley? What are you going to be working?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
I believe just again trying to tie more more of
these cases together. Looking into specific small details, even if
they seem insignificant, because I feel like those add up.
Like just seeing that Tina Farm and Tracy Walker were
from Lafayette and Indianapolis, you wouldn't think too much into that,
But seeing that route to Rockford, I mean, that's just
(23:07):
pretty compelling in my opinion. So maybe looking at some
more geography, seeing if these would have been roots that
he would have taken.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I think also we need to keep working on our timeline.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, where what was he doing when Tracy Walker disappears?
Speaker 6 (23:21):
Maybe since that I've thought about too those intricate knots.
Could he have got those from his military training? Yeah,
in his boot camp. You know, it'd be interesting to
see what those types of notes are used for, if
we could identify them.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I would love to maybe show this to a not expert.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Absolutely, in between meetings, Riley spoke about why she was
motivated to do this work.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
These were people.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
They weren't names, they weren't Jane Doe's, they weren't people
who didn't They were loved and they were cherished at
some point in their lives, and their family members have
gone this long, maybe not even knowing if they're dead
or alive, you know, just wondering if there's still out
there and nobody wants to hear that their daughter or
sister or cousin has been killed. But I think if
we can bring closure to some of these people and
(24:08):
to some of these families and say, you know, this
is what happened, this is who did it. They didn't
run away willingly or you know they were still out
there or they're not still out there, I think that
would just be so rewarding in itself, just to know
that we were able to bring some peace and some
closure to people. That gets me so frustrated because you know,
I've heard it people like, we'll talk about it, and
people are like, you're so young, Like why are you
(24:29):
worried about this? I'm like, because if we don't face
this issue now, my daughter, or my mom or.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
My sister, it could be them one day.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
If this was anybody in my family, I would want
everybody and anybody doing whatever they could to help out.
If I can give a little bit of my time to,
you know, honor these women and take back their names
from Jerry Leon John's. It's just so heartbreaking to see
these women die and no change come from it like
this is the worst possible circumstance and the worst possible
(24:59):
thing that could happened to a person, and there's not
even change coming from that. They shouldn't have died at all,
but they should not have died in vain. More than that.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Let's stop here for another quick break murder one on one.
While Riley and Marley continued to research, mister Campbell set
off to locate the only known surviving victim of the
(25:37):
Bible Belt strangler. When the club reconvened, he had promising news.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Hey, good morning, ladies. How y'all doing. Yeah, yeah, this
is our last.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Day before a little three day weekend, you guys get
I appreciate y'all coming in early.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
If this story had.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
A hero, in my opinion, that is his final victim,
which is Linn. She was the lady who was attacked
left for dead beside the road. He knew what it
was like to literally see the life go out of
their eyes because he choked them, probably facing them with
the ligature, and so he left her for dead beside
(26:13):
the road. And we have to assume that she wasn't breathing,
and she was, for all intentsive purposes dead but she
comes back to life. She starts breathing again, and then
she gets out of the culvert and goes into the
interstate and gets somebody to help her. Remember, she was
blind for three days. He choked her so badly she
couldn't see. She actually made it all the way across
(26:35):
two lanes of traffic, through the median and into the
other lane, and she really didn't know she was out
in the middle road. She just knew she was close
to some traffic. But because she got out there and
she got helped so quickly, she was able to tell
the police, you know, what he looked like, what he
was driving, where they were, and they caught him. They
caught him that night. And because of that, he didn't
(26:55):
get to hurt anybody else, right, which is great, But
if it wasn't for her will to live, and you know,
just the toughness and tenasty she had, he would have
gone on to hurt more and more and more people.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
He wasn't going to stop.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
So if there's anybody that's the hero in the story,
it's Lindy. And I've been looking for her for a
long time and what I found was she had gotten
divorced a couple of years later, she had a child
and then she moved. So whenever I found him, I
started looking up his name, and then I found the
death notice in the paper and down at the bottom
(27:30):
had listed like a special friend and it mentioned Linda.
So I was like, all right, not many people make
it into that death announcement, so maybe it's her. So
whenever I began to look for that, I found a
lot of lends you can imagine, across the country. So
I just began to look, where do you look when
you want to find somebody?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
On Facebook? So I pulled out Facebook.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I started looking, and when I looked, I'm like, this
is probably her.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
So I began to dig through.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Her posts and I find that she had mentioned something
about being with her son and his last name was
so that was her first child. And then I find
like all these kind of links to like Greenville, Green County,
Washington County, Tennessee. And then that kind of falls off
a few years ago and she appears and it looks
(28:15):
like that's where one of her at least one of
her children live, So I think I found her.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And it's kind of like.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
The dog that you know, chased the car and then
caught it, like, what are you going to do? You know,
I've looked for so long and now I know where
she's at and I have a way to.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Contact her, and she may not know the lives that
she's possibly saved.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
You know, well, that's true. You know, I was talking
about her being like the hero of the story. If
she doesn't have that will to live, if she doesn't
call the police and go through with the prosecution, then
he continues to hurt people and kill people.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So does she even know this?
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I mean, it's been part.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
She was just a few years older than you all.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
So y'all have any advice for me as I reach
out to her.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
I wouldn't go into it as if you're don't make
her feel she's on trial or like you're asking her
questions questions. Get to know her first, ask her about,
you know, her current interest, her family, how she likes.
To Just get to know her first and get that
personal connection. I think it'll be a lot easier for
her to open up with you if she wants to.
(29:18):
And at the same time, don't push obviously, you know,
don't push if she if she doesn't want.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
To send me a message to her instead of calling her,
so that may be better than she can answer on
her own time and not feel like pressured like she
has to talk about it right then, like if you can,
it's supposed to.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
I mean, she might need a little bit to gather
what she wants to say and what she doesn't want.
So that's a good point, just really reinforcing the idea
that her story could save even more lives. It's save
the lives because she stopped Jay lean John in my opinion,
but at the same time, she could bring so much
justice and peace and closure to so many families.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Now I would think so too. Okay, well, hey, I
think that's been a pretty good week. So what are
you gonna do over your three day weekend?
Speaker 8 (30:02):
Probably just research some more.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So y'all do school work even when you're off school.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, not like calculus there.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
Oh no, I have to go do my calculus homework
right now in first period because I was looking at this.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
The bell just rang right, So well, you guys, scurry
on the class, But thank you for your works.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I think it's been a really good week, and we'll
just keep working.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
And see what we find, yeah for.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Sure, And then I'll see if I can get up
the nerve to call into and see how she feels about.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
That, crossing my fingers toes and eyes.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yes, yes, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Well, thank you guys, have a great day.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Is this Lennon?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, more on that next time. Murder one oh one
is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker, Alex Campbell, Courtney Armstrong,
Andrew Arnault and me Jeff Shane. Additional producing by Connor
(31:03):
Powell and Gabriel Castillo. Editing by Jeff Twa and Davey
Cooper Wasser. Music by Vancor Music. Murder one oh one
is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
A group of high school students.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
High school students Elizabeth and high school students started a
project to research a string of unsolved murders.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Their research led to the identification of the killer. Investigators
now have an answer to a thirty four year old question.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Once you start getting a few tips, or a few leads,
or few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
There's a pretty good chance he's still alive.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out
to be accurate.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Redhead Killer profile mail Caucasian, five nine six, two hundred
and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother,
right handed, IQ above one hundred, most likely heterosexual.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
There is no profile of this killer except for the
ones the students created.
Speaker 6 (00:51):
Just because some of these women no longer have people
to speak for them does not mean that they deserve to.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Not be so anymore.
Speaker 7 (00:57):
What if this guy's still alive?
Speaker 8 (00:58):
Like, what if becomes after us?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You're gonna kill me? Who's a year? This is Murder
one oh one, Season one, Episode five, The Next Generation.
I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at Katie
Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arnold. It
(01:24):
had been four and a half years since the original
assignment wrapped up, but mister Campbell always felt there was
more to uncover. While scheduling and timing made it challenging
for mister Campbell to teach another sociology class, something even
better would come his way. In the fall of twenty
twenty two. I spoke to him about a potentially game
changing update.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I mean, who says it has to be them to
do the work? I mean, you know, I mean, this
class did this work four or five years ago, but
I have students now that could do the work too,
and may want to do the work. For example, had
two young ladies basically begged me to teach each a
class on criminal psychology. And it's so funny because I
don't even think they knew really all the background of
(02:08):
things I did years ago. They weren't even at the
high school then. But what I'm saying is there is
work that needs to be done, but we also have
other students that I think are really willing to do it,
and they want to learn, and they want to do
exciting things and help people too.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So if there's a world where we can bring current
high school students in and have then kind of be
a part of these group meets where you assign things
and we talk about it and exciten me up.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
We had a teacher gets sick and so we're short
of subs that you know, teachers helped cover each other's classes.
So I went into that classroom and it was a
you know, it was a health science class or something,
and I don't know how it came up, but you know,
they got their work done. There was a few minutes
at the end, and I'm just in there to make
sure everything's kind of calm. I don't have anything new
to teach them or anything. And they started talking about it,
(02:53):
and you know, it just comes out. They're so into this,
they're so into true crime. They're so into coology and
sociology and criminology. They were so excited. And then I'm
sitting here thinking like they don't have any idea who
they're talking to, because I'm excited about this stuff too,
and they don't realize that there's this very important work
that things to be continued.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
A few days later, mister Campbell officially enlisted juniors. Riley
Whitson and Marlee Mathena to help work the case. The
plan was for the two teens to start meeting mister
Campbell before school to see what they could find.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Okay, so, originally the students from about four or five
years ago were looking at six different victims, but because
of their work, a lot of stuff has.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Really been coming out in the last few years.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
So why don't you ladies tell me what you've been
working on. Marley, why don't you go first.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
I've been working on the de Putto County Jane Doe
and she was found January twenty fourth. I'm in nineteen
eighty five. She was adjacent Tiway seventy eight in all
of Rinch, Mississippi. And she was white with red or
strawberry blonde hair. She was about twenty to thirty five
years old. She was kind of smaller lady. There's only
one hundred and ten pounds, about five two to five four.
She was wearing a top, some jeans, but she had
(04:06):
no underwear, socks, shoes, broad jewelry, any of that. They
don't know her eye color. They think maybe brown, but
they don't know for sure. And she had scars from
surgeries and piercings and tattoos and everything, and they think
that she was sexually assaulted and her cause of death
was asphyxiation by ligature strangulation.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
So you fel the DeSoto County Jane do deserves to
be included with the other six that the students had
found a few years back.
Speaker 8 (04:35):
Yeah, I think she does.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
What.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I don't know, what is it that jumps out about
that case that makes you think it needs to be included.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
With that list.
Speaker 8 (04:42):
Well, it just kind of lines up with everything, like
the strangulation and that she's smaller, has red hair, and
that she was dumped off on a highway.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Now you said it was in Mississippi, Yes, and Mississippi
doesn't seem to fit the kind of East Well forty
corridor kind of thing. Where's that at in Mississippi?
Speaker 8 (05:04):
It's in Olive Branch, but I think that's where his
sister lives.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Jerry John's sister.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yes, he did have a sister that live in Batesville,
which I think was kind of just south of the
Tennessee state line. So maybe we need to look at
that and let's see how far this victim was found
from West Memphis, where Lisa Nichols was found, and then
let's see how far that is from his sister's hometown
(05:33):
there in Mississippi, So maybe we can do that by
next week.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
That sound good, Riley, What have you been digging into?
Speaker 6 (05:38):
I've been looking at the case of baby girl Jane Doe,
who has now been identified as Tracy Sue Walker.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Walker was born.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
June second, nineteen sixty three and reportedly went missing from
tip A Canoe Mall in nineteen seventy eight, which made
her around fifteen years old at the time her disappearance.
Her mother also reported her as running away a couple
of times, so this made people believe that she had
just run away until she was identified in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Okay, so what are some of the things you think
make this case deserve to be included.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
With the original six.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Obviously, she had red hair, she was younger, smaller girls,
some of the previously mentioned similarities between all of these cases.
But something very interesting we found in the last couple
weeks of research was that there were similarities between the
knots and cloth of Tina Farmer and the survivor Linda Show.
So that's been a very interesting finding and pretty compelling
(06:38):
as far as tying this all to Jerry Leon john
did they.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Are you looking at there on your computer? Yes, let
me see that.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, this is fascinating because a few years back
we scoured the internet, the students scoured the internet looking
for all this information. And I'm gonna be honest, this
was not there a few years ago. And Holy Michael,
I think this was big.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So let me tell you this. What's they set in?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I know it's up north a little bit. I think
it was Indiana.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
Hold on, yeah, Indiana.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Lafayette, Lafayette, Yeah, Lafayette, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
That is very interesting because I know that area, not
because I've ever been up through there. But actually Tina Farmer,
who was the other Campbell County Jane Doe, went missing
from around Indianapolis, Yes, which is at that time probably
close to a ten hour drive from Knoxville, which is
where Jerry Leon Johns was spending a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And so think about this. Think about this for a second.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Tina Farmer goes missing from around Indianapolis. This girl goes
missing from Lafayette, which is about an hour from Indianapolis,
and those are about ten hours away. And both of
those girls end up dead within a mile of each
other ten hour drive away. I think that's really big.
(08:00):
What's the chance it.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
Is the greatest coincidence of all time?
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Or and they're both red headed, and they're both white,
and they're both teenagers, and they both have the same
body style and hete and wait and all those things.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
That is crazy. And then also I know.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
That by looking at the history of jer Leon Johns
that the cops put together for the lend of share prosecution,
that he had lived in Rockford.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Illinois, and he still had family in Rockford, Illinois.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
And if you look on the interstate, you have to
go through from from Tennessee, you have to go through
Indianapolis and Lafayette to get to Rockford.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Which is about an hour away.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
So if he's traveling back and forth from his family
back down to areas here in Tennessee and East Tennessee,
those interstates and those cities are on the is on
that interstate, right on the way. And the fact that
both those young ladies went went missing from so far
away and then end up dead within a mile of
(09:02):
each other, within a couple of years of each other,
about thirty miles.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
North of where Jerry Leon Johnson is hanging out. That's crazy.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
And from what we've seen, I believe that Jerry Leon Johns.
I believe he's a very opportunistic but also calculated killer.
So I think wherever he's traveling, that's where we'll see
the path of destruction, you know what I'm saying. So
when we see these patterns of him traveling to these
different places, you know he's bound to recavoc where he goes.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, so I think that's big. I definitely agree with you.
We need to look at the Tracy Sue Walker case.
And that's not because of bad work of the original students.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's because it's new. Information's going right, and she.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Wasn't identified until August of this year.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You know, Okay, awesome, So I think you guys are
doing a good job.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think we definitely need to continue to look at.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
These two victims and maybe they need to be included
in the inner circle. And Marty, we'll go back to you, like,
what do you think you need to do next to
solidify the fact that you think she's connected with these
other murders.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Murder one O one.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
I think I definitely need to figure out like the
relationship between where she was found and where his sister lives,
So definitely figure out that. So then it gives like
a reason for why he would be going down there,
and it just connects it, so it's not like it's
crazy out of the way, And then I think look
at the other victims a little bit more and try
and find like connecting factors between this.
Speaker 6 (10:49):
And an unfortunate fact too, is so many of these women
were done injustice as far as the investigation goes, just
because so many of them were transient or were a
possible sex workers away from home. So many of them
were done a disservice by the justice system and enough
wasn't enough, attention wasn't given to them. Yeah, for Tina
(11:09):
Farmer and Linda, they were cloth that had been tied
around their necks and the knot was in the cloth
around their necks.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
So all right, So right here I have a huge
three ring binder. This is all of the information that
was collected for the Linda attempted murder.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
By Jerry Leon Johnson.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
So that's the only one that went to court. So
we have all this information and I have it right here,
and in this stack of a couple hundred pages, we
actually went down to Nashville, and here are some pictures
of the knots that were tied around her neck. Now,
(11:50):
it says in here that he took the T shirt
she was wearing, ripped it into strips, and then used
that to bind her ankles together and then her wrist together,
and then tied her wrist her ankles like the hawg tie,
And when she was in the car, that's how she
was tied. And so then he used those T shirt
strips to strangle her. And you're telling me that they
(12:12):
found something similar on Tina Farmer, who was who was
also another the other Campbell County victim.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
Yes, they found cloth that had been ripped up and
tied around the neck of her as well.
Speaker 8 (12:24):
So very very similar, as.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
You've said too, and just something interesting that when we
were personally into this case, it just kind of blew
my mind and shows you the ruthless, the ruthlessness and
the savageness of Jerry Leon Johns. Whenever Linda was choked,
she was choked so hard that she was blind for
three days after the assault, and the whites of her
(12:47):
eyes we've seen the pictures from the hospital. The whites
in her eyes were completely red, as deep as red
as you can think. It was a haunting sight to
see her picture from them.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I almost say something else like that.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Information about Tina Farmer being strangled with a cloth was
not out there either.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It didn't say anything like that when we were looking.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And I didn't even know that she was found in
a blanket until it came out that she was identified.
And they knew that Jerr Lee on John has killed
her because his DNA was found on the blanket, So
they didn't even release that. So the fact that now
we know that she was strangled with a.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Cloth shirt from a.
Speaker 8 (13:28):
T shirts, from her T shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Okay, from her T shirt, very very similar to Linda.
And then this girl Tracy Walker, who disappeared about an
hour from Tina Farmer up in Indianapolis, ends up about
a mile away from her. She also has been They
found the T shirt that survived, yes, I believe, so
they have strips of cloth with a knot in there.
(13:50):
And then we know for a fact on the Linden
case that he tied her and then strangled her with
a T shirt. If that is not signature on a Yeah,
then I don't know what is I totally agree that
Tracy C. Walker definitely needs to be like right in
the center of the possible victims.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And I believe we should look and see what we
can find on other victims to see if there's that
possible Samemo. I mean, if he did something so similar
for these three victims, he's bound to do it for others.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
You know, is there anything else we need to do
this week? You know, just kind of research and see
if we can continue to pull these together.
Speaker 6 (14:28):
Like I said, just I think looking more into I mean,
we know some of these small details that may seem insignificant,
but these are the type of details that we're going
to put together to really make a compelling case for ourselves.
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Yeah, well, girls, great job. I know it's almost time
to go to class. I appreciate y'all coming in early.
I know you got your busy, you got basketball, you
got school. But I appreciate y'all coming in before school
and working on this in your spare time.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I really think we've come a long way. I can't
wait to see what else you guys find.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So who are the young women going above and beyond
in the search of justice.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
I'm Riley Wits, and obviously I'm sixteen. I'll be seventeen
the day before, no two days before Halloween, so I've
kind of always had that spooky ambiance follow me around
everywhere I go. But yeah, I've always been very interested,
morbidly and fascinated with stuff that most people are like, Wow,
You're either going to be a serial killer or a
(15:24):
brain surgeon when you grow up.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
Hi, I'm Malonsina. I'm a junior at elizabeth In High
School and I'm sixteen.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Marley spoke about the extracurricular club.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
We started, like a little club, which right now is
just me and Riley, so we just started getting into it.
I would say that it's definitely out there, like I'm
not gonna take away from that, but like anyone's capable
of anything.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
So we decided, you know, to come in early few
times a week and do some work on our own
when we could. Me and Marley both play play basketball
for the school, so we'll be in the locker room
talking about it, and all our teammates are like, what
the heck is going on?
Speaker 8 (16:02):
The rest is history.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I guess Marley and Riley are best friends.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
Riley's my best friend. She has been since like third grade,
so we've always been close. Well in third grade, we
met her basketball and we both still play basketball now
and we go over to her or I used to
go over to her house all the time and we
just did everything together. And back then I used to
be like really really quiet, like I would have a
panic attack. Before I had this phone call and she
(16:27):
was more outgoing. But she's still pullay the more the
outgoing one and all that. But I think I've gained
a little bit more of the outgoing this her.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
We spoke to Riley's dad, mister Woodson.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, they are literally best bff's best friends. Our
families are best friends. We vacation together, like we go
we go to Florida together every year. We you know,
we travel, we stay together. We you know, we get
together on the weekend's cookouts with them, hang by the
pool where and she has a younger brother who is
the same age as my youngest daughter, and their best friends.
(17:02):
So it's just like our whole folent family dynamic. It's
we were We didn't know them back then, but me
and my wife got married like a month apart from
Marley's mom and dad, Mikey and Courtney, and then we
had our first kids at the same time and our
second kids at the same time. They're just a couple
of parts. So yeah, it's a pretty interesting dynamic.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
We also got the chance to connect with Marley's mom,
missus Mathena.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
They are peanut, butter and jelly. Riley is much more.
Riley is the extrovert. She's out going, she could talk
to anyone. She's definitely not shy. She performs. She has
a beautiful singing voice, and it's comfortable. She you know,
at many events. She everything from performing with the praise
(17:50):
band at her church, she sings at funeral she has
sung from the very large crowds for community events, the
national anthem. So Riley's there. Marley's more of the quiet
behind the scenes. But they balanced each other so well.
You know, one is more cautious, one is more of
a risk taker. You know, you've got one pulling the
turtle out of the shell and the other one tempering,
(18:12):
you know. I mean, they are just in and yank.
They are a perfect sweet little friendship. Basketball is their passion.
Last year their team went to the state tournament. We
didn't win the championship, but we had an awesome run
and we lost no players. We had the juniors and
sophomores last year. So our goal this year is for
(18:35):
the girls to go back. They're working very hard. Riley
is point guard. She is an awesome shooter. She has
the most beautiful three point shot you've ever seen. Marley
plays the post position and again, you know, her timidness
has been, you know, something that she's been working to
come out of, and she has really grown and pushed
(18:56):
herself again to the next level and in her post
position really going after the ball and crashing the boards
and rebounding. They both girls are very, very very hard
workers on the court, off the court, in the classroom.
Whatever they do their work ethic, they will put in
one hundred and ten percent. So them getting up at
seven o'clock in the morning, that's not out of character
(19:18):
for them.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Aside from being on her students and star basketball players,
what truly bonded the girls was their obsession with true crime,
and I think.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That falls in with wanting to solve the Jane Doe
type stuff. She loves helping people less fortunate. It like
at church before at church and there's kids in the
youth who are kind of less fortunate, Riley will gravitate
to those kids. She wants to love on those kids
and help those kids, and I think they kind of
really as part of her passion for one to solve
the Jane Doe. She wants to help these ladies out,
or these people, these victims who don't have a voice anymore.
She wants to help them out. She is a typical teenager,
(19:52):
but she's she's.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
On her phone a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
But I'm not kidding. If she's on her phone for
five hours in her spare time of day, four and
a half hours is with the crime podcasts.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
For Marley's mom, the newfound interest came as a bit
of a shock.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
She is not the child that enjoys thrill rides. She
has never watched scary movies, you know, and it's like, wows,
And I'm interested in true crime. That's kind of surprising.
But she's really interested into the scientific, the forensic, and
she's like, to make big, big impacts in life, you
kind of have to go outside the box.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
The club took a few days to review the information
before meeting back up.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
So what have you been finding so like I said previously,
we're just trying to tie Tracy Walker with the rest
of these victims, and really because we feel that there's
a lot of compelling evidence that ties her to Juy
Lean Johns. So something very interesting I found here. I'm
looking at my map. Tina Farmer was from Indianapolis and Indiana,
(20:59):
and a Walker was from Lafayette in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And that's about an hour or maybe yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Round about something like that. Well, we've covered that Jerry
Leon John was a trucker. Well, there's a highway or
interstate that goes directly between these two and he would
have taken this route so he didn't have to go
through Chicago, which most truckers would not want to go
through Chicago due to traffic obvious reasons. So there's a
direct line between these two cities which he would have taken,
(21:28):
which I think is very just give us a direct line.
But even more than that, directly above to the left
of these two cities is Rockford, Illinois, which was where
Jerry Leon John's family was from, and when him and
his wife divorced, she actually moved back there. I mean,
it's practically a perfect diagonal line.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's highway of death. Yes, as sad as that he is.
Speaker 8 (21:52):
So.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I mean, there's just so many similarities.
Speaker 8 (21:55):
There's no way it's coincidental.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
It's hard to say to people got kidnapped ten hours
away and their bodies ended up within a mile of.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Each other, and it wasn't the same person. Everything else
matches exactly it.
Speaker 8 (22:07):
And this is actually pretty interesting. But her name is
We figured out that the Desto count and Jane Doe
was also strangled with the ligature?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Did it say anything about what type of ligature?
Speaker 7 (22:19):
On?
Speaker 8 (22:19):
NamUs didn't and just said that it was a ligature,
but she was missing like a jacket and undergarments, which
I don't know if that has anything to do with it,
but he could use the jacket.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, that's a lot of good work for a couple
of days. They got to give y' all a pretty
good grade too. But you getting ready to have your
big three day weekend, don't rub it in. These teachers
have to work on Friday.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
But what do you think we need to.
Speaker 8 (22:40):
Do figure out more about the what the ligature could
have been?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Riley? What are you going to be working?
Speaker 6 (22:46):
I believe just again trying to tie more more of
these cases together. Looking into specific small details, even if
they seem insignificant, because I feel like those add up.
Like just seeing that Tina Farm and Tracy Walker were
from Lafayette and Indianapolis, you wouldn't think too much into that,
But seeing that route to Rockford, I mean, that's just
(23:07):
pretty compelling in my opinion. So maybe looking at some
more geography, seeing if these would have been roots that
he would have taken.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I think also we need to keep working on our timeline.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, where what was he doing when Tracy Walker disappears?
Speaker 6 (23:21):
Maybe since that I've thought about too those intricate knots.
Could he have got those from his military training? Yeah,
in his boot camp. You know, it'd be interesting to
see what those types of notes are used for, if
we could identify them.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I would love to maybe show this to a not expert.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Absolutely, in between meetings, Riley spoke about why she was
motivated to do this work.
Speaker 8 (23:45):
These were people.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
They weren't names, they weren't Jane Doe's, they weren't people
who didn't They were loved and they were cherished at
some point in their lives, and their family members have
gone this long, maybe not even knowing if they're dead
or alive, you know, just wondering if there's still out
there and nobody wants to hear that their daughter or
sister or cousin has been killed. But I think if
we can bring closure to some of these people and
(24:08):
to some of these families and say, you know, this
is what happened, this is who did it. They didn't
run away willingly or you know they were still out
there or they're not still out there, I think that
would just be so rewarding in itself, just to know
that we were able to bring some peace and some
closure to people. That gets me so frustrated because you know,
I've heard it people like, we'll talk about it, and
people are like, you're so young, Like why are you
(24:29):
worried about this? I'm like, because if we don't face
this issue now, my daughter, or my mom or.
Speaker 8 (24:35):
My sister, it could be them one day.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
If this was anybody in my family, I would want
everybody and anybody doing whatever they could to help out.
If I can give a little bit of my time to,
you know, honor these women and take back their names
from Jerry Leon John's. It's just so heartbreaking to see
these women die and no change come from it like
this is the worst possible circumstance and the worst possible
(24:59):
thing that could happened to a person, and there's not
even change coming from that. They shouldn't have died at all,
but they should not have died in vain. More than that.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Let's stop here for another quick break murder one on one.
While Riley and Marley continued to research, mister Campbell set
off to locate the only known surviving victim of the
(25:37):
Bible Belt strangler. When the club reconvened, he had promising news.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Hey, good morning, ladies. How y'all doing. Yeah, yeah, this
is our last.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Day before a little three day weekend, you guys get
I appreciate y'all coming in early.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
If this story had.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
A hero, in my opinion, that is his final victim,
which is Linn. She was the lady who was attacked
left for dead beside the road. He knew what it
was like to literally see the life go out of
their eyes because he choked them, probably facing them with
the ligature, and so he left her for dead beside
(26:13):
the road. And we have to assume that she wasn't breathing,
and she was, for all intentsive purposes dead but she
comes back to life. She starts breathing again, and then
she gets out of the culvert and goes into the
interstate and gets somebody to help her. Remember, she was
blind for three days. He choked her so badly she
couldn't see. She actually made it all the way across
(26:35):
two lanes of traffic, through the median and into the
other lane, and she really didn't know she was out
in the middle road. She just knew she was close
to some traffic. But because she got out there and
she got helped so quickly, she was able to tell
the police, you know, what he looked like, what he
was driving, where they were, and they caught him. They
caught him that night. And because of that, he didn't
(26:55):
get to hurt anybody else, right, which is great, But
if it wasn't for her will to live, and you know,
just the toughness and tenasty she had, he would have
gone on to hurt more and more and more people.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
He wasn't going to stop.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
So if there's anybody that's the hero in the story,
it's Lindy. And I've been looking for her for a
long time and what I found was she had gotten
divorced a couple of years later, she had a child
and then she moved. So whenever I found him, I
started looking up his name, and then I found the
death notice in the paper and down at the bottom
(27:30):
had listed like a special friend and it mentioned Linda.
So I was like, all right, not many people make
it into that death announcement, so maybe it's her. So
whenever I began to look for that, I found a
lot of lends you can imagine, across the country. So
I just began to look, where do you look when
you want to find somebody?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
On Facebook? So I pulled out Facebook.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
I started looking, and when I looked, I'm like, this
is probably her.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
So I began to dig through.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Her posts and I find that she had mentioned something
about being with her son and his last name was
so that was her first child. And then I find
like all these kind of links to like Greenville, Green County,
Washington County, Tennessee. And then that kind of falls off
a few years ago and she appears and it looks
(28:15):
like that's where one of her at least one of
her children live, So I think I found her.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And it's kind of like.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
The dog that you know, chased the car and then
caught it, like, what are you going to do? You know,
I've looked for so long and now I know where
she's at and I have a way to.
Speaker 6 (28:30):
Contact her, and she may not know the lives that
she's possibly saved.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
You know, well, that's true. You know, I was talking
about her being like the hero of the story. If
she doesn't have that will to live, if she doesn't
call the police and go through with the prosecution, then
he continues to hurt people and kill people.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So does she even know this?
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I mean, it's been part.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
She was just a few years older than you all.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
So y'all have any advice for me as I reach
out to her.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
I wouldn't go into it as if you're don't make
her feel she's on trial or like you're asking her
questions questions. Get to know her first, ask her about,
you know, her current interest, her family, how she likes.
To Just get to know her first and get that
personal connection. I think it'll be a lot easier for
her to open up with you if she wants to.
(29:18):
And at the same time, don't push obviously, you know,
don't push if she if she doesn't want.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
To send me a message to her instead of calling her,
so that may be better than she can answer on
her own time and not feel like pressured like she
has to talk about it right then, like if you can,
it's supposed to.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
I mean, she might need a little bit to gather
what she wants to say and what she doesn't want.
So that's a good point, just really reinforcing the idea
that her story could save even more lives. It's save
the lives because she stopped Jay lean John in my opinion,
but at the same time, she could bring so much
justice and peace and closure to so many families.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Now I would think so too. Okay, well, hey, I
think that's been a pretty good week. So what are
you gonna do over your three day weekend?
Speaker 8 (30:02):
Probably just research some more.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So y'all do school work even when you're off school.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, not like calculus there.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
Oh no, I have to go do my calculus homework
right now in first period because I was looking at this.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
The bell just rang right, So well, you guys, scurry
on the class, But thank you for your works.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I think it's been a really good week, and we'll
just keep working.
Speaker 6 (30:22):
And see what we find, yeah for.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Sure, And then I'll see if I can get up
the nerve to call into and see how she feels about.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
That, crossing my fingers toes and eyes.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yes, yes, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Well, thank you guys, have a great day.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Is this Lennon?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, more on that next time. Murder one oh one
is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker, Alex Campbell, Courtney Armstrong,
Andrew Arnault and me Jeff Shane. Additional producing by Connor
(31:03):
Powell and Gabriel Castillo. Editing by Jeff Twa and Davey
Cooper Wasser. Music by Vancor Music. Murder one oh one
is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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