May 27, 2024 • 27 mins
While Detective Mindy gets to talk to a (real life) cop about the case of our Lost Sister, the rest of the gang gets a breakthrough.
If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show please reach out to DNA Doe Project, an organisation we’ve partnered with.
The Girlfriends: Our Lost Sister is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.
For more from Novel visit novel.audio
Listen to our soundtrack and buy the album from Bandcamp. All proceeds go to our charity partner DNA Doe Project.
You can also donate to DNA Doe Project here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Novel.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, listener, in this episode, we'll talk a lot about
acts of extreme violence, including murder. We'll mention serial killers,
and we'll speak about drug use and sex work. But
also we'll hear our very own doctor, detective Mindy Shapiro,
get the chance to spar with a real life police detective.
If you feel impacted by any of the themes while listening,
(00:34):
I encourage you to check out our charity partner, DNA
Doe Project. They work with law enforcement to identify Jane
and John does using genetic genealogy in the hopes of
reuniting the bodies of unidentified people with their families. You
can find them at DNADO project dot org. And you
already know you're probably gonna hear some swear words from me.
(00:57):
I'm passionate. What can I tell you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Do you mind if I send the text? Yeah, I
might get something right away.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
What who do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
In the last episode you heard producer Anna and Raoul
Montero are New York citizen sleuth zeroing in on one killer,
in particular, Joel Rifkin. Shortly before Anna went to visit Raoul,
she got her hands on a book.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Not just any book.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's called from the Mouth of a Monster, which is
written by someone who attended college with Rifkin. In the book,
Rifkin confesses to seventeen murders between nineteen eighty nine and
nineteen ninety three. His first victim was a sex worker
named Susie, who he killed in March of nineteen eighty nine.
(01:51):
He told the books author about her murder and what
he did with her remains.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Driving back into New York City, he had it straight
for an area near the East River in Lower Manhattan,
the same area where he had been serviced by street
walkers countless times before. His head was spinning as he
parked the truck and flung the bags containing Susie's arms
and torso into the frigid's swirling waters.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Holy shit, Rifkin dumps Susie's torso in the East River.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And you know where The East River.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Opens up into the Bay which flows directly towards Front Street,
Pier three, Staten Island. I'm Carol Fisher and from the
teams at Novel and iHeart Podcast, this is the Girlfriend's
Our Last Sister, Episode four, Desperately seeking Susie Coat.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Am I taking us the wrong way?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (03:32):
That must be that way that way.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I'm with Mindy and producer Anna in Alphabet City on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh, I forgot to have too short legged peak pop.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Here, Come on, Goliath, we're here because we've been mining
from the mouth of a monster for more information. In
the book, Riff can describe picking up a sex worker
named Susie in Alphabet City back in the eighties. This
block was one of New York's Red Lake districts.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
It feels powerful, like walking on pavements that you know somebody.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yet, Oh, it's really eerie to meet.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, it's weird finding it with Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
We're walking towards Tompkins Square Park.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's a natural meeting point in the area and was
a popular hangout for sex workers. But according to our
resident New york Or Mindy, it has a radical pass
going back much further.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
It was kind.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
Of the place where people stood on their soapboxes and
expressed dissenting views in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, but
then in the sixties and seventies it sort of became
a free speech revolutionary place.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And that would be the sound of a pneumatic drill.
New York is such a peaceful place.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
In the seventies and eighties, it became sort of like
a needle park, and the vitat devastated during the AIDS epidemic.
The police kept on trying to clean it up, and
they were.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Like riots here.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
I remember seeing as a kid lies on horseback and
you know, with their batons.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
At the time, there were clashes between the police and
locals protesting against the gentrification of the park and homeless
people being pushed out, but ultimately the police won the
Tompkins Square park that we're in todays, where trendy moms
push around expensive strollers while sipping out lattes. We sit
down on a bench and Anna pulls out a copy
(05:46):
of the book From the Mouth of a Monster.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
An excerpt from the book where Joel confessed to earling Susie,
and I was wondering if maybe also want to read
it because she proud about her Yeah.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Okay, yeah, because reshig in silence is not good for
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're reading this book because we're longing to learn whatever
we can about this woman who could be our lost sister.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
She said her name was Susie.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
After they negotiated a price for her to accompany him
to Long Island. The relationship quickly deteriorated and his blood
began to boil. Before leaving the city, she wanted to
make a few stops for drugs.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
First, we stopped at her girlfriend's house.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Were called, Joel contemptuously, because you always have to take
care of their narcotic need.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
She's in this.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Girl's bathroom like for hours as she chatted and smoked
with her friend.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
We're not going to read out the whole passage. It
goes into graphic detail about Susie's violent death, but there
is one moment that for us gives a small but
powerful insight into who this woman was. It happened just
after Rifkin attacked her and thought she was already dead.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
To his horror, Susie suddenly popped up on the couch
in a last ditch effort to salvage her life. She
tore into her assailant and out of shape man with
all the strengths she could muster. She even bit my
finger almost to the bone.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Joel said, how do you feel, count, I'm a little
in shock, actually, I'm just a little bit in All
of her strength to get the shit kicked out of
her and then to kind of rise again and try.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
To, you know, set herself free.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
She must have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Been an amazingly strong woman, not just physically but emotionally.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, it's just it's horrible.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
It's just horrific.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Yeah, nothing living, nothing living, should die like that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
The three of us contemplate what we've just heard as
we watch the other people in the park pass by,
people who are probably doing something much more normal with
their days, and we wonder where.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Do we go from here. We know that when the.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Book From the Mouth of a Monster was published in
two thousand and one, Susie's torso is still missing. But
it's been over twenty years since this book was written.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And we're wondering was she ever found.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
We put in a freedom of information request to Hope
Well Police department, who handled the criminal investigation into Susie's murder,
and luckily, unlike our usual track record, we don't need
to wait very long for a response. It's more info
than we bargained for, So I call up Mindy and
ask her.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
To talk me through it.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Oh, you don't even really want to know.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh God, your tone doesn't sound good.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Yeah, well, I've gotten a whole bunch of information.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
I'm trying to be kind. This is kind of difficult information.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Really yeah, it's bad. Yeah, it's like really bad.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
I read it and had an emotional reaction to it,
so hearing it might be difficult.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh boy, Mindy's not wrong. It was difficult to hear.
So I'll cut to the chase. We told you before
that Susie's torso was never found, but some of her
other remains were. In March of nineteen eighty nine, Susie's
head was discovered on a golf course in Hope Will Township,
(09:54):
New Jersey, fifty five miles down from New York. A
short while later, her were discovered in a wooded area
sixty five miles away. Nobody could understand such a senseless killing,
and at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Nobody could figure out who Susie was.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
But in these documents we see the great lens the
police went to and trying to identify her. They did
nationwide requests asking for information on any missing person that
would fit the description of the murdered woman. They put
out flyers, held press conferences, They did canine searches, had
divers dredged lakes, and a helicopter did an aerial search.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Of the golf course where her head was found.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
The police spoke to the FBI about building a psychological
profile of the killer. They conducted interviews with parents of
missing women who believed her remains could be their daughters
or sisters. After this initial flurry of activity, the case
went cold. But then in two thousand one From the
(11:01):
Mouth of a Monster came out and in the book,
Riskin admits to killing a woman he knew is Susie.
He then admits to dumping her head on a golf
course and her legs in a wooded area. It was
clear he was talking about the same case the Hopewell
cops have been investigating for twelve years, but when they
(11:25):
put the name Susie or Susan into the missing person's databases,
nothing came up.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Another dead end until she.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
Looks at it and she says, Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I think that's your girl.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Hi, Stephen, it's wonderful to talk to transcontinentally.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Across the US.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Him Anina, I'm.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
In northern California.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Where are you.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I'm actually talking to you from Mammouth County, New Jersey.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
I know it well.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I grew up across the river okay, hi mindy speaking
to Captain Stephen Orbanski, who in twenty thirteen was Detective Orbanski.
Back then he was working in the missing persons unit,
and he was the guy you called when you wanted
help getting to the bottom of a case.
Speaker 9 (12:33):
I was called by two detectors from Hopewell Township Police Department.
They called me for some advice and they want to
get my personal opinion on what we can do more
with the case.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
The Hopewell cops pass on all of their case files
to Urbanski, but the thing that stands out the most
is the book where Riskin describes the first time he
killed a sex worker.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
He said that he could only remember her name as Susie,
but he didn't have a last name. He didn't know
any anything about her. So now we're looking at a
girl named Susan. That's all we have.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
The first thing you do in trying to identify someone
is look at the missing person's databases for a match.
But when nothing turned up, Urbanski suggested trying something else,
looking at arrest records of New York sex workers from
the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
And we pulled all the girls that were named Susan.
There was one that I was able to look at.
It was a girl by the name of Susan Spencer.
That's kind of something that stuck out to me. We
also noticed after her last arrest, she kind of went
off the map.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Urbanski was able to obtain an arrest photo of Susan Spencer.
In it, he sees a pale woman with long, light
brown hair and blue eyes. Her face is covered with
marks the kind you'd associate with the heavy drug user.
But other than the photo, Urbanski struggled to find any
other information in the system.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
We couldn't find any reports on Susan being missing. I
think I went home that night after a long, long
day of trying to look through pictures and doing interviews,
you know, eating dinner, and right away open up my
laptop computer and I start looking at different websites.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Detective or Banski starts combing through New York and New
Jersey databases. He's hoping to match the arrest photo he
has with the missing person's report.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
A picture came up, believe it or not.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
I actually get my wife involved, and she comes over
yelling at me because I have these pictures throughout on
the top of.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
My table and I'm trying to review.
Speaker 9 (14:36):
It, but she looks at it and she says, yeah,
I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I think that's your girl.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
But the missing woman's name isn't Susan Spencer.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Her name is Heidi Bulch. The missing person's report for
(15:14):
Heidi Balt was filed in two thousand and one by
her aunt, Robin. At the time, Robin lived in New York,
so the detectives decided to pay her a visit.
Speaker 9 (15:23):
Pulling up to New York City, it's a lot going on.
There's a lot of traffic, you know, people walking by, and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
We pull up to this high rise building. It was
more of apartment complex.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
I don't know how to explain how I felt that day,
but definitely excited, like is this it? Is this going
to be the person that we looking for?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Is this the answer an answer that the Hoopwo Police
Department had been searching for for twenty four years.
Speaker 9 (15:47):
I remember knocking on the door and an elderly lady
answered the door, and I think just her face alone
was like that total shock, you know, is this about Heidi.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Urbanski and his colleagues try to find out more information
about Heidi from her aunt.
Speaker 9 (16:03):
She kind of talked her up, saying that she was
a good kid growing up and she just got involved
with the wrong people and got involved with drugs, and
she just went down a wrong avenue during her you know, upbringing,
and that it kind of brought it to dark places.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The next stage in the investigation was to find Heidi's
parents and get their DNA tested against the head and
legs found in New Jersey. The detective sent local police
to Heidie's father, who lived in Florida, while her Banski
and two Hopewoll cops make it drive to Baltimore to
track down Heidie's mother, and after a two hour journey,
(16:38):
they pull up the Heidie's mom's house. They knock on
the door, she lets them in, and then they tell
her we think we found your daughter's remains.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
She was very quiet when we told her.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
She looked like was maybe ready to cry or like,
you know, she didn't really have any questions for us.
She gave us, you know, the background out of a
daughter be involved with the prostitution and the drugs, and
she said she has some problems back then herself since
then got her life together. So I explained to her
about the DNA, how we're going to compare it to
the head that was found on the golf course and
(17:14):
the legs. She was more than willing to give her DNA.
She was very cooperative at that point.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
They take a swab from the inside of her cheek,
they pack it away in a sterile container, and then
they haul asked back to get it tested.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
There was a one hundred percent match. It was definitely Heidi.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Finally, twenty four years after Heidi's murder, her case was solved.
But when Heidi's DNA profile was entered into the system
in the spring of twenty thirteen, there was another match
for a torso, a torso that was buried on Hart Island. Okay, listener, so,
(18:28):
if you're anything like me, you've probably been listening to
this while putting dinner in the oven, driving to work,
and getting your nails done all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So let's recap what we know so far, because it's
a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Joe Rifkin killed his first victim in March of nineteen
eighty nine and confessed to dumping her torso in New
York's East River. We now know that her name was
Heidi Balch. Twenty four years later, in twenty thirteen, detectives
investigating Heidi's case located her torso on Hart Island.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And why does all this matter to us?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, because we know that our lost sister's torso was
disinterred from Hart Island in twenty thirteen. We've said before
that the only reason our girl would have been removed
from her grave on Heart Island is because she was identified,
or because her body became part of a criminal investigation,
(19:33):
or both. Could the torso of our lost sister and
the torso of Heidi Balch be one and the same.
Mindy pitches our theory to Captain Urbanski.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
In nineteen eighty nine, we knew that a torso had
washed up on Shoren's Taten Island and that it was
identified as the torso of Ga Cats and the family
buried the remains of that torso in a cemetery in
Queens Yes, the torso nineteen ninety nine or two thousand,
(20:11):
somewhere around there.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It was exhumed and oops, that's Mindy dropping her headphones.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Way to play a cool detective Shapiro.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
And the remains were basically buried on Hart Island. So
we got actually the records from Heart Island and saw
that the body was exhumed in two thousand and thirteen.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It all seems to add up to us.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
There's a lot of questions because there's so many bodies there.
You might have another torso that's in. I know, for fact,
you'd have a couple.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
We can't deny that he's right. At this point.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Our theory is still just a theory. But a reality
check is not all Urbanski gives mindy. He also has
much appreciated advice for his fellow detective. What really matters
in an investigation like this.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
If my sister, my mother, or somebody my wife went missing,
I would want somebody putting their heart and.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Soul into it.
Speaker 9 (21:10):
So do your job basically, and do it with compassion,
do it with hard work, do it with an open mind,
and do it as as if it was your own child.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
That's so beautiful.
Speaker 7 (21:21):
You know, the team here and my girlfriend Carol, they
have dubbed me a dog with a bone because I'm
just so persist about this. I frankly have not really
found that term endearing. But speaking to you and your persistence,
it makes me feel like that's not such a bet term.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
After all, I knew you'd come around eventually, Mindy, despite
Urbanski's doubts, we really believe that Heidi Balt is our
lost sister. There are just too many similarities, like the
(22:03):
estimated date of death in early nineteen eighty nine and
the year of disinterminent from Hart Island in twenty thirteen.
But we need absolute, undeniable proof. More than that, we
need to learn her story, and the best way to
do that is by reaching out to Heidie's family in
(22:23):
the hopes that they might have something, anything, that could
prove the connection. After a bit more Internet sleuthen, producer
Anna manages to track down one of Heidie's cousins, who
lives in Maine.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Dear Anne, I'm sorry to email you about this so
out of the blue, but I've been searching for you
for over a year. My name is Annasinfield. I'm a
journalist and radio producer from the UK.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's funny I remember getting one of these emails from
Anna myself before this crazy journey started. In the email,
Anna tells Anne all about our investigation, that we think
there's a link between our last sister and Heidi. That
we want to bring her cousin's story to life and
make sure she's not just a plot point in Gailcat's murder.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I come with absolutely no judgment of the way she
lived or how life happened to her. I'd just love
to know more about her as a person. All the best, Annas.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Anna sends off the email, and we hope and pray
that Heidi's family are interested in speaking with us.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
For now, we wait.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
This whole journey has been one crazy ride.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
We'd been to the medical Examiner.
Speaker 8 (23:43):
We have like case number les.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
Yes, the Emmy case number is eighty nine five six.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We trilled the archives at New York's biggest public library.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
And I'd like all information that I can find about
that Torso.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
We spoke to pri investigators, criminal profilers, DNA experts. We
went to the biggest public burial ground in the USA
and trailed around.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
The city and beyond looking for leads.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Hundreds and hundreds of hours have gone into this investigation,
but our love and friendship have gone into it too,
not to mention copious amounts of food and wine.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And now it all comes down to this one last
shot in the dark.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Hello, Hi, is this Anne?
Speaker 9 (24:35):
It is?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's next time on the girlfriends Our Lost Sister, The
(25:10):
girlfriends Our Last Sister is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts.
For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show
is hosted by me Carol Fisher, and our chief investigator
is Mindy Shapiro. To find me on social media, search
Carol A. Fisher, That's Carol with an E. The season
(25:32):
is written and produced by Anna Sinfield and Lee Meyer.
Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr. The editor is Joe Wheeler.
Max O'Brien is our executive producer. Our fact checker is
Dannia Suleiman. Production management from Shurie Houston and Charlotte woolf
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander, Additional engineering
(25:55):
by Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Anna Sinfield and Nicholas Alexander.
Original music composed and performed by Luisa Gerstin and produced
by Louisa Gerstine and Nicholas Alexander. The series artwork was
designed by Christina Linkol. Story development by Anna Sinfield. Willard
(26:15):
Foxton is creative director of Development. Our executive producers at
iHeart Podcasts are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etour special thanks
to Leona Hamid plus Ali Canter, Carrie Lieberman, and Will
Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, as well as Carly Frankel and
the whole team at w m E. And a special
(26:35):
shout out to Vince Hayward, who's my life partner in
True Crime for taking on the role of girlfriend's confidant
and lead tech support
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Novel
Novel.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, listener, in this episode, we'll talk a lot about
acts of extreme violence, including murder. We'll mention serial killers,
and we'll speak about drug use and sex work. But
also we'll hear our very own doctor, detective Mindy Shapiro,
get the chance to spar with a real life police detective.
If you feel impacted by any of the themes while listening,
(00:34):
I encourage you to check out our charity partner, DNA
Doe Project. They work with law enforcement to identify Jane
and John does using genetic genealogy in the hopes of
reuniting the bodies of unidentified people with their families. You
can find them at DNADO project dot org. And you
already know you're probably gonna hear some swear words from me.
(00:57):
I'm passionate. What can I tell you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Do you mind if I send the text? Yeah, I
might get something right away.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
What who do you know?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
In the last episode you heard producer Anna and Raoul
Montero are New York citizen sleuth zeroing in on one killer,
in particular, Joel Rifkin. Shortly before Anna went to visit Raoul,
she got her hands on a book.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Not just any book.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's called from the Mouth of a Monster, which is
written by someone who attended college with Rifkin. In the book,
Rifkin confesses to seventeen murders between nineteen eighty nine and
nineteen ninety three. His first victim was a sex worker
named Susie, who he killed in March of nineteen eighty nine.
(01:51):
He told the books author about her murder and what
he did with her remains.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Driving back into New York City, he had it straight
for an area near the East River in Lower Manhattan,
the same area where he had been serviced by street
walkers countless times before. His head was spinning as he
parked the truck and flung the bags containing Susie's arms
and torso into the frigid's swirling waters.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Holy shit, Rifkin dumps Susie's torso in the East River.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And you know where The East River.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Opens up into the Bay which flows directly towards Front Street,
Pier three, Staten Island. I'm Carol Fisher and from the
teams at Novel and iHeart Podcast, this is the Girlfriend's
Our Last Sister, Episode four, Desperately seeking Susie Coat.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Am I taking us the wrong way?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (03:32):
That must be that way that way.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I'm with Mindy and producer Anna in Alphabet City on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh, I forgot to have too short legged peak pop.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Here, Come on, Goliath, we're here because we've been mining
from the mouth of a monster for more information. In
the book, Riff can describe picking up a sex worker
named Susie in Alphabet City back in the eighties. This
block was one of New York's Red Lake districts.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
It feels powerful, like walking on pavements that you know somebody.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yet, Oh, it's really eerie to meet.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, it's weird finding it with Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
We're walking towards Tompkins Square Park.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's a natural meeting point in the area and was
a popular hangout for sex workers. But according to our
resident New york Or Mindy, it has a radical pass
going back much further.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
It was kind.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
Of the place where people stood on their soapboxes and
expressed dissenting views in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, but
then in the sixties and seventies it sort of became
a free speech revolutionary place.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And that would be the sound of a pneumatic drill.
New York is such a peaceful place.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
In the seventies and eighties, it became sort of like
a needle park, and the vitat devastated during the AIDS epidemic.
The police kept on trying to clean it up, and
they were.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Like riots here.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
I remember seeing as a kid lies on horseback and
you know, with their batons.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
At the time, there were clashes between the police and
locals protesting against the gentrification of the park and homeless
people being pushed out, but ultimately the police won the
Tompkins Square park that we're in todays, where trendy moms
push around expensive strollers while sipping out lattes. We sit
down on a bench and Anna pulls out a copy
(05:46):
of the book From the Mouth of a Monster.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
An excerpt from the book where Joel confessed to earling Susie,
and I was wondering if maybe also want to read
it because she proud about her Yeah.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
Okay, yeah, because reshig in silence is not good for
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're reading this book because we're longing to learn whatever
we can about this woman who could be our lost sister.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
She said her name was Susie.
Speaker 7 (06:19):
After they negotiated a price for her to accompany him
to Long Island. The relationship quickly deteriorated and his blood
began to boil. Before leaving the city, she wanted to
make a few stops for drugs.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
First, we stopped at her girlfriend's house.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Were called, Joel contemptuously, because you always have to take
care of their narcotic need.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
She's in this.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Girl's bathroom like for hours as she chatted and smoked
with her friend.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
We're not going to read out the whole passage. It
goes into graphic detail about Susie's violent death, but there
is one moment that for us gives a small but
powerful insight into who this woman was. It happened just
after Rifkin attacked her and thought she was already dead.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
To his horror, Susie suddenly popped up on the couch
in a last ditch effort to salvage her life. She
tore into her assailant and out of shape man with
all the strengths she could muster. She even bit my
finger almost to the bone.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Joel said, how do you feel, count, I'm a little
in shock, actually, I'm just a little bit in All
of her strength to get the shit kicked out of
her and then to kind of rise again and try.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
To, you know, set herself free.
Speaker 8 (07:50):
She must have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Been an amazingly strong woman, not just physically but emotionally.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, it's just it's horrible.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
It's just horrific.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Yeah, nothing living, nothing living, should die like that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
The three of us contemplate what we've just heard as
we watch the other people in the park pass by,
people who are probably doing something much more normal with
their days, and we wonder where.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Do we go from here. We know that when the.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Book From the Mouth of a Monster was published in
two thousand and one, Susie's torso is still missing. But
it's been over twenty years since this book was written.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And we're wondering was she ever found.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
We put in a freedom of information request to Hope
Well Police department, who handled the criminal investigation into Susie's murder,
and luckily, unlike our usual track record, we don't need
to wait very long for a response. It's more info
than we bargained for, So I call up Mindy and
ask her.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
To talk me through it.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Oh, you don't even really want to know.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh God, your tone doesn't sound good.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Yeah, well, I've gotten a whole bunch of information.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
I'm trying to be kind. This is kind of difficult information.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Really yeah, it's bad. Yeah, it's like really bad.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
I read it and had an emotional reaction to it,
so hearing it might be difficult.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh boy, Mindy's not wrong. It was difficult to hear.
So I'll cut to the chase. We told you before
that Susie's torso was never found, but some of her
other remains were. In March of nineteen eighty nine, Susie's
head was discovered on a golf course in Hope Will Township,
(09:54):
New Jersey, fifty five miles down from New York. A
short while later, her were discovered in a wooded area
sixty five miles away. Nobody could understand such a senseless killing,
and at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Nobody could figure out who Susie was.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
But in these documents we see the great lens the
police went to and trying to identify her. They did
nationwide requests asking for information on any missing person that
would fit the description of the murdered woman. They put
out flyers, held press conferences, They did canine searches, had
divers dredged lakes, and a helicopter did an aerial search.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Of the golf course where her head was found.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
The police spoke to the FBI about building a psychological
profile of the killer. They conducted interviews with parents of
missing women who believed her remains could be their daughters
or sisters. After this initial flurry of activity, the case
went cold. But then in two thousand one From the
(11:01):
Mouth of a Monster came out and in the book,
Riskin admits to killing a woman he knew is Susie.
He then admits to dumping her head on a golf
course and her legs in a wooded area. It was
clear he was talking about the same case the Hopewell
cops have been investigating for twelve years, but when they
(11:25):
put the name Susie or Susan into the missing person's databases,
nothing came up.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Another dead end until she.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
Looks at it and she says, Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I think that's your girl.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Hi, Stephen, it's wonderful to talk to transcontinentally.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Across the US.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Him Anina, I'm.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
In northern California.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
Where are you.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I'm actually talking to you from Mammouth County, New Jersey.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
I know it well.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I grew up across the river okay, hi mindy speaking
to Captain Stephen Orbanski, who in twenty thirteen was Detective Orbanski.
Back then he was working in the missing persons unit,
and he was the guy you called when you wanted
help getting to the bottom of a case.
Speaker 9 (12:33):
I was called by two detectors from Hopewell Township Police Department.
They called me for some advice and they want to
get my personal opinion on what we can do more
with the case.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
The Hopewell cops pass on all of their case files
to Urbanski, but the thing that stands out the most
is the book where Riskin describes the first time he
killed a sex worker.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
He said that he could only remember her name as Susie,
but he didn't have a last name. He didn't know
any anything about her. So now we're looking at a
girl named Susan. That's all we have.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
The first thing you do in trying to identify someone
is look at the missing person's databases for a match.
But when nothing turned up, Urbanski suggested trying something else,
looking at arrest records of New York sex workers from
the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 9 (13:22):
And we pulled all the girls that were named Susan.
There was one that I was able to look at.
It was a girl by the name of Susan Spencer.
That's kind of something that stuck out to me. We
also noticed after her last arrest, she kind of went
off the map.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Urbanski was able to obtain an arrest photo of Susan Spencer.
In it, he sees a pale woman with long, light
brown hair and blue eyes. Her face is covered with
marks the kind you'd associate with the heavy drug user.
But other than the photo, Urbanski struggled to find any
other information in the system.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
We couldn't find any reports on Susan being missing. I
think I went home that night after a long, long
day of trying to look through pictures and doing interviews,
you know, eating dinner, and right away open up my
laptop computer and I start looking at different websites.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Detective or Banski starts combing through New York and New
Jersey databases. He's hoping to match the arrest photo he
has with the missing person's report.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
A picture came up, believe it or not.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
I actually get my wife involved, and she comes over
yelling at me because I have these pictures throughout on
the top of.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
My table and I'm trying to review.
Speaker 9 (14:36):
It, but she looks at it and she says, yeah,
I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I think that's your girl.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
But the missing woman's name isn't Susan Spencer.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Her name is Heidi Bulch. The missing person's report for
(15:14):
Heidi Balt was filed in two thousand and one by
her aunt, Robin. At the time, Robin lived in New York,
so the detectives decided to pay her a visit.
Speaker 9 (15:23):
Pulling up to New York City, it's a lot going on.
There's a lot of traffic, you know, people walking by, and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
We pull up to this high rise building. It was
more of apartment complex.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
I don't know how to explain how I felt that day,
but definitely excited, like is this it? Is this going
to be the person that we looking for?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Is this the answer an answer that the Hoopwo Police
Department had been searching for for twenty four years.
Speaker 9 (15:47):
I remember knocking on the door and an elderly lady
answered the door, and I think just her face alone
was like that total shock, you know, is this about Heidi.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Urbanski and his colleagues try to find out more information
about Heidi from her aunt.
Speaker 9 (16:03):
She kind of talked her up, saying that she was
a good kid growing up and she just got involved
with the wrong people and got involved with drugs, and
she just went down a wrong avenue during her you know, upbringing,
and that it kind of brought it to dark places.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The next stage in the investigation was to find Heidi's
parents and get their DNA tested against the head and
legs found in New Jersey. The detective sent local police
to Heidie's father, who lived in Florida, while her Banski
and two Hopewoll cops make it drive to Baltimore to
track down Heidie's mother, and after a two hour journey,
(16:38):
they pull up the Heidie's mom's house. They knock on
the door, she lets them in, and then they tell
her we think we found your daughter's remains.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
She was very quiet when we told her.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
She looked like was maybe ready to cry or like,
you know, she didn't really have any questions for us.
She gave us, you know, the background out of a
daughter be involved with the prostitution and the drugs, and
she said she has some problems back then herself since
then got her life together. So I explained to her
about the DNA, how we're going to compare it to
the head that was found on the golf course and
(17:14):
the legs. She was more than willing to give her DNA.
She was very cooperative at that point.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
They take a swab from the inside of her cheek,
they pack it away in a sterile container, and then
they haul asked back to get it tested.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
There was a one hundred percent match. It was definitely Heidi.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Finally, twenty four years after Heidi's murder, her case was solved.
But when Heidi's DNA profile was entered into the system
in the spring of twenty thirteen, there was another match
for a torso, a torso that was buried on Hart Island. Okay, listener, so,
(18:28):
if you're anything like me, you've probably been listening to
this while putting dinner in the oven, driving to work,
and getting your nails done all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So let's recap what we know so far, because it's
a lot.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Joe Rifkin killed his first victim in March of nineteen
eighty nine and confessed to dumping her torso in New
York's East River. We now know that her name was
Heidi Balch. Twenty four years later, in twenty thirteen, detectives
investigating Heidi's case located her torso on Hart Island.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And why does all this matter to us?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, because we know that our lost sister's torso was
disinterred from Hart Island in twenty thirteen. We've said before
that the only reason our girl would have been removed
from her grave on Heart Island is because she was identified,
or because her body became part of a criminal investigation,
(19:33):
or both. Could the torso of our lost sister and
the torso of Heidi Balch be one and the same.
Mindy pitches our theory to Captain Urbanski.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
In nineteen eighty nine, we knew that a torso had
washed up on Shoren's Taten Island and that it was
identified as the torso of Ga Cats and the family
buried the remains of that torso in a cemetery in
Queens Yes, the torso nineteen ninety nine or two thousand,
(20:11):
somewhere around there.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It was exhumed and oops, that's Mindy dropping her headphones.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Way to play a cool detective Shapiro.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
And the remains were basically buried on Hart Island. So
we got actually the records from Heart Island and saw
that the body was exhumed in two thousand and thirteen.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It all seems to add up to us.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
There's a lot of questions because there's so many bodies there.
You might have another torso that's in. I know, for fact,
you'd have a couple.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
We can't deny that he's right. At this point.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Our theory is still just a theory. But a reality
check is not all Urbanski gives mindy. He also has
much appreciated advice for his fellow detective. What really matters
in an investigation like this.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
If my sister, my mother, or somebody my wife went missing,
I would want somebody putting their heart and.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Soul into it.
Speaker 9 (21:10):
So do your job basically, and do it with compassion,
do it with hard work, do it with an open mind,
and do it as as if it was your own child.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
That's so beautiful.
Speaker 7 (21:21):
You know, the team here and my girlfriend Carol, they
have dubbed me a dog with a bone because I'm
just so persist about this. I frankly have not really
found that term endearing. But speaking to you and your persistence,
it makes me feel like that's not such a bet term.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
After all, I knew you'd come around eventually, Mindy, despite
Urbanski's doubts, we really believe that Heidi Balt is our
lost sister. There are just too many similarities, like the
(22:03):
estimated date of death in early nineteen eighty nine and
the year of disinterminent from Hart Island in twenty thirteen.
But we need absolute, undeniable proof. More than that, we
need to learn her story, and the best way to
do that is by reaching out to Heidie's family in
(22:23):
the hopes that they might have something, anything, that could
prove the connection. After a bit more Internet sleuthen, producer
Anna manages to track down one of Heidie's cousins, who
lives in Maine.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Dear Anne, I'm sorry to email you about this so
out of the blue, but I've been searching for you
for over a year. My name is Annasinfield. I'm a
journalist and radio producer from the UK.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's funny I remember getting one of these emails from
Anna myself before this crazy journey started. In the email,
Anna tells Anne all about our investigation, that we think
there's a link between our last sister and Heidi. That
we want to bring her cousin's story to life and
make sure she's not just a plot point in Gailcat's murder.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I come with absolutely no judgment of the way she
lived or how life happened to her. I'd just love
to know more about her as a person. All the best, Annas.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Anna sends off the email, and we hope and pray
that Heidi's family are interested in speaking with us.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
For now, we wait.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
This whole journey has been one crazy ride.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
We'd been to the medical Examiner.
Speaker 8 (23:43):
We have like case number les.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
Yes, the Emmy case number is eighty nine five six.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We trilled the archives at New York's biggest public library.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
And I'd like all information that I can find about
that Torso.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
We spoke to pri investigators, criminal profilers, DNA experts. We
went to the biggest public burial ground in the USA
and trailed around.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
The city and beyond looking for leads.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Hundreds and hundreds of hours have gone into this investigation,
but our love and friendship have gone into it too,
not to mention copious amounts of food and wine.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And now it all comes down to this one last
shot in the dark.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
Hello, Hi, is this Anne?
Speaker 9 (24:35):
It is?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's next time on the girlfriends Our Lost Sister, The
(25:10):
girlfriends Our Last Sister is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts.
For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show
is hosted by me Carol Fisher, and our chief investigator
is Mindy Shapiro. To find me on social media, search
Carol A. Fisher, That's Carol with an E. The season
(25:32):
is written and produced by Anna Sinfield and Lee Meyer.
Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr. The editor is Joe Wheeler.
Max O'Brien is our executive producer. Our fact checker is
Dannia Suleiman. Production management from Shurie Houston and Charlotte woolf
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander, Additional engineering
(25:55):
by Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Anna Sinfield and Nicholas Alexander.
Original music composed and performed by Luisa Gerstin and produced
by Louisa Gerstine and Nicholas Alexander. The series artwork was
designed by Christina Linkol. Story development by Anna Sinfield. Willard
(26:15):
Foxton is creative director of Development. Our executive producers at
iHeart Podcasts are Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etour special thanks
to Leona Hamid plus Ali Canter, Carrie Lieberman, and Will
Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, as well as Carly Frankel and
the whole team at w m E. And a special
(26:35):
shout out to Vince Hayward, who's my life partner in
True Crime for taking on the role of girlfriend's confidant
and lead tech support
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Novel
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