August 31, 2023 • 36 mins
Writer Nancy Clark goes home to Mt. Pine following her mother’s death when a gruesome murder triggers memories of a childhood killing spree that rocked this small town in the ‘80’s. Could this be the start of a new crime spree 30 years later? Nancy revisits each of those murders starting with 17-year-old Lisa Anderson.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're
about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters
who are played by actors.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'll be honest with you, there are certain murders I'm
scared to discuss. It's just all too ugly, and I'm
scared what will happen to me if I do speak out.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old
stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't
warn you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Nancy, I'm Nancy Clark. I was born and raised in
the small Midwest town of Meine. It was a great
place to grow up, lovely, picturesque, like right out of
(01:06):
a movie. Still looks pretty much the same. Main street
is lined with little brick storefronts built in the nineteen twenties.
A teeny limestone post office sits at the end of
the oak Tree Line block. The smell of fresh bread
from the bakery is always in the air. But even
as a young girl, I was very aware that a
(01:28):
lot of strange stuff seemed to happen here. I always
wanted I needed to know more. At night, i'd sneak
the newspaper under the covers with my dad's flashlight and
read about the latest tragedy to hit our town, and
I wondered, why did so many bad things keep happening?
(01:51):
And it seemed to only get worse. When I was
in high school in the mid eighties, we were losing
people at an alarming rate. Horrible, violent deaths, unthinkable murders.
There were so many deaths that I believed our town
had to be cursed. It felt like we were being
made to pay some awful price for something we'd done.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
But what.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Then?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The year after my friends and I graduated, the death
seemed to just stop. I could breathe again, I could
stop worrying. I went away to college, studied communications, and
spent the next couple of decades writing for various publications.
But life took a turn recently when I had to
move back home to take care of my mom, who
(02:37):
was sick. She passed away earlier this year. As I
was packing up my childhood home, I ran across some
old newspaper articles that brought back the all two vivid
and tragic memories of my high school years, and later
that night, on the ten o'clock news.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
This is just in A woman's body has been found
in the woods behind Mount Pine Community College.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
A gruesome discovery in a north side home.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Again, after thirty years of peace, Mount Pine was rocked
with another murder. I tried to process this shocking news,
and I couldn't help. But wonder could this be the
beginning of another crime spree. As I slowly cleaned out
the house, I decided to revisit the murders that happened
when I was in high school. Luckily I kept detailed
(03:32):
diaries back then. I wanted to see if there was
anything that could really help me make sense of what
was going on in Mount Pine today. So I decided,
I'm going to talk to the people who were at
the center of these stories, police teachers, even some of
my high school friends, who may remember some really important
(03:53):
details from those years, details I either forgot or never
even knew in the first place. The stories I'm about
to tell you are inspired by real people and real events.
For everyone's safety, we're going to change a lot of
the details and all of the names, including my own,
and we're changing the name of our town. It's not
(04:14):
really called Mount Pine. I truly hope I find some answers.
At the very least it might give us all some
much needed closure. This is The Murder Years, Episode one.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
Lisa nine, what's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (04:45):
Yeah, I went back behind my born too, and I think, yeah,
there's a.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
Girl there, a young girl out there.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
She's dead.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It all starts on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, hours
before that horrific nine to one one call comes in.
Teen life in Mount Pine is all that matters?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Oh my gosh, I remember it like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
That's Melanie Porter in nineteen eighty four. We are both
fourteen years old and freshman at Mount Pine High School.
Melanie's my best friend.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
May nineteen, it was a Saturday. I looked it up
in my journal, and that day I had just gotten
done with being grounded for spending too much money on
a blouse.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Today, Melanie's fifty two and owns a party planning business
in Mount Pine.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I got all my homework done, finished my chores, and
was super excited because that night I was going to
a party at Tammy's house. Her parents were going to
be out of town at some Amway convention or something.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I didn't go to that party, and I can't remember
why exactly. But Melanie, she remembers a lot about how
excited she was to go.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
I remember picking out what I was gonna wear took
me like forever, seriously. Around seven point thirty, I heard
a honk outside, so I grabbed my purse, kissed my
parents good night, then I headed out to Scott, who
was sitting in his dad's light blue Ford Thunderbird also
known as the Blue Ballmer. Scott was two years older.
(06:34):
He was sixteen and just got his driver's license.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
On the way to the party, Melanie says, she and
Scott go through Danny's drive through. Scott has a fake
ID which he uses to buy Melanie some peach snaps
in a case of Old Milwaukee for himself. Yeah, you
could buy alcohol from the comfort of your own car
back then and then drive.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So then we drove down County Road H twenty nine
on our way to the party.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
In nineteen eighty four. Mount Pine has a population of
around twelve thousand people, so pretty small, very rural, lots
of farms and tons of lakes in town. We have
one pizza joint, one bank, one supermarket, and one high school.
Our school is small and unassuming, a one story brick
(07:21):
box with narrow slit windows. It looks more like a
prison than a high school.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
When we got to the party, Tammy's house was packed.
There must have been like one hundred kids there. I
remember some kids were playing pool downstairs. Some kids were
drinking ever clear at the kitchen table. Some kids were
smoking pot outside.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Melanie says, just before midnight, the kids with curfews leave,
kids like her and Scott, They're gone, I hear through
the grapevine. Others stay later. The last ones leave around
three am. What happens next? No one sees coming.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Nine. What's your emergency?
Speaker 7 (08:08):
I yeah, I went back behind my barn too, and
I think, oh my god, she's so young. She looks
really really bad. There's a lot of blood and her
head is all smashed in. Please come quick.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Officers are on their way.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Police are dispatched to a location about three miles away
from Tammy's party.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
Up until that and I we really didn't have murders
in Mount Pine.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I tracked down the first officer who arrived on the
scene that day, Officer Pat Shepherd. Back then he has
two months on the job and has never been two
or worked a murder scene.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I mean, they've only been like four in the previous
twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Today, Pat Shepherd is a sergeant with Mount Pine PD.
He said he doesn't even need to check his files
on the case because he remembers it so clearly.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
Since this was my first one, I was nervous, I remember,
I felt sick to my stomach. So I arrived that
day around seven am found the body of a teenage
girl behind a barn. The nine one one caller had
no idea who she was or how she got there.
She had been severely beaten.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
In the head and face.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
Her jeans and pink tank top were soaked blood. We
didn't know with what though, because there was no weapon nearby.
It appeared she'd been killed somewhere else and dumped there,
and it seemed like she hadt met dead for more
than a few hours. Then more officers arrived and searched
(09:47):
the surrounding area. About two hundred yards from the body,
in the woods behind the barn, an officer found a
white purse in it, where a set of keys on
a Duran Duran keychain, bublgum, flared lipsmackers, a wallet with
six dollars and a driver's license. That's when we were
able to identify.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Our victim, Seventeen year old Lisa Anderson, was a senior
at Mount Pine High School. She ran track and worked
at Buddy's, the local ice cream shop. She was nice
to everyone. Back in nineteen eighty four, Detective Tom Wallace
is the lead investigator on the case. Today, he's in
his seventies and retired. Wallace agrees to talk with me
(10:30):
about the case.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
This one, this one was hard. I knew the family.
They were a good family, and they'd already been through
so much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Detective Wallace is talking about what happened to Lisa's younger
brother only a year before, he dove headfirst into Owl Lake,
breaking his neck. He became paralyzed and eventually moved into
a home where to this day he's still getting round
the clock care. Their mom, Mary is now in her
mid seventies. I asked if she'd be willing to speak
(11:06):
with me, and she says yes, even though it's still painful.
She feels like she doesn't get the chance to talk
about her daughter, Lisa enough.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
So I remember that day unfortunately, like it was yesterday.
I was cooking scramble that haggs with graft singles and
oh and sausage links and then there was someone at
(11:38):
the front door knocking. I was thinking, why was someone
at the front door this early on a weekend? So
I put the Spachela down and walked towards the front door.
But before I even got there, I saw Tom Wallace, well,
(11:59):
detective Tom Wallace through the beveled glass. You see, we
went to Mount Pine High School together. But but I
couldn't imagine why he was at the house. We sat
down in the living room. His corduroy jacket stunk from cigarettes. Well,
(12:22):
then Wallace said the word's eye I will never forget.
He said, I'm so sorry, but we found Lisa today,
and she said.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So.
Speaker 9 (12:43):
Wallace kept talking, but I couldn't hear him. He was talking,
but my eyes were scanning our living room instead.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
I was fixating on the things.
Speaker 9 (13:05):
In the living room that were Lisa's, like, like there
was a pair of Lisa's white kids by the front door,
in her blue jean booked bag with buttons all over it,
that was right next to the TV trade where she
(13:27):
always did her homework. Then Wallace asked me when I
saw Lisa last, and I told him it was around
eight o'clock the night before. She said she was going
to a party with a best friend, Tiffany, and then
she was going to spend the night at Tiffany's.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Detective Wallace learns the party was at the house of
some girl, naw Tammy.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I remember I hugged Mary goodbye, and as it walked
to my car, I could hear her wailing. It was
pretty brutal.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Detective Wallace tells me that next he goes to talk
with the host of the party, Tammy, who happens to
be in big trouble with her parents for having the
blowout while they were away. Tammy tells Wallace she saw
Lisa at the party, but all seem fine with her.
Tammy agrees to write down the names of everyone at
our house with her parents' permission. Detective Wallace looks around
(14:35):
the home and property. A few red plastic cups still
litter the floor, but much of the party has been
cleaned up. He doesn't see anything suspicious. Within a couple
of hours, the lobby at the police station is packed
with really shaking up teens.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
These kids looked nervous. I reassured them they wouldn't get
in trouble for drinking or smoking pot. We just wanted
to ask some questions, try to find out what they
saw or heard and if they knew what may have
happened to Lisa. We audio taped these interviews.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
After a lot of digging, Detective Wallace is able to
track down some of those recordings.
Speaker 10 (15:14):
I don't want to get in trouble, okay, but Lisa
gave me one of her one of her California coolers,
and she seemed like she was in a good mood.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
She kept asking me what time it was I saw
her outside. She let me use her lipsmackers. We talked
about chemistry class and how mister Kober gave me attention
for talking too much.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
A few hours later, it's fifteen year old Bobby McCabe's turn,
a tall and lanky kid with jet black hair.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I saw Lisa plainpool with a guy had never seen before.
They were like, they're having fun.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
With Then.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I heard him assports go upstairs.
Speaker 8 (16:00):
With him and.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
That's why all the kids were making out, were having
sex or whatever, and she said no, I have a boyfriend,
and the guy got.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Mad, like really mad.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
I mean he threw down his pool stick and said,
you're a fucking Copti's and a fucking bitch.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I'm listening to the mount Pine Peades interviews with the
kids who were at the party the night before where
Lisa Anderson was last seen alive, and investigators may have
gotten their first real lead from fifteen year old Bobby McCabe.
He just told detectives he saw some guy get really
angry at Lisa when she turned him down for sex,
(16:50):
and there's more.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
On his way out. I heard him say he was
going to get hurt back for this. She will pay
for this.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So Bobby described the guy as late teen's tall, brown,
shaggy hair, and he was wearing a concert t shirt,
but he couldn't remember which one. The interviews with the
partygoers lasted into the early morning hours, but none of
the other kids reported seeing anything strange or any of
that exchange between Lisa and the angry guy. In fact,
(17:27):
none of them even knew who that guy.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Could be, including my friend Melanie, who calls me completely
freaked out after being interviewed by police.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I couldn't believe any of it. I was in shock.
I went back to my journal to see what I
wrote about about my interview with the police. This is
what I wrote. I told the detective I saw Lisa
at the party, and at one point she was behind
me in line waiting for the bathroom. I told her
(17:57):
I liked her charm bracelet, and she pointed out her
face charm, which was a running shoe, which made sense.
Lisa ran cross country in track. But yeah, I told
the detective there was nothing weird about her or anything
else that night.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Good morning, students, it's Monday, May twenty first tickets to
the spring dance go on sale today.
Speaker 10 (18:26):
You could purchase them in the cafeteria during a lunch period.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Less than twenty four hours after being interviewed by police,
the kids are back in school. News of Lisa Anderson's
murder fills the halls. It's the only thing anyone's talking about,
especially one of my friends, Tatiana Campbell. She's a freshman
like me.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I couldn't believe it. I knew Lisa. I mean, you know,
not well because she was older than us, but still,
oh god, I remember this so clearly. When the bell rang,
I ran to meet my friends at my locker.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
In the three minutes we have between classes. Tatiana, Melanie
and I are trying to truly process what happened to Lisa.
Here's Melanie.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I was telling them about the party since neither of
them were there, and I told them what I told
the police that Lisa seemed, I don't know normal. I
told them about seeing her while waiting for the bathroom
and us talking about her charm bracelet and stuff. That
was the last time I saw her. Ever.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Detective Wallace tells me that when the autopsy results come in,
they confirm her cause of death is blunt force trauma.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
There was a lot of pressure to say of this
horrible crime. I wondered, was it a crime of passion
at the hands of a boyfriend or was it completely random?
Could the kids be covering up for one of their
own and then just like that we got a break.
Someone called in a tip about the guy who got
(20:19):
maddedly said the party when she turned him down for sex.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
His name is Nick Kerr, an eighteen year old kid
from Northgate, the next town over.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
When he came in for questioning, he looked really stressed
out and wouldn't make eye contact with me. I asked him,
since he was from Northgate, who did he know at
the party. He said he didn't know anyone there. He
and his friend had hurt there was going to be
a big party at this house in Mount Pine. Then
I asked him about Lisa. He said that he'd been
(20:52):
playing pool with some other guy when she came up
and asked if she could play. The winner, which turned
out to be him, played a few games and he
thought she was flirting with him, so when he suggested
they go upstairs and she said she had a boyfriend,
he felt dumb and embarrassed and that's why he got angry.
(21:14):
He also admitted he was drinking, but said he would
never do anything to hurt her. It was all talk.
I then asked him where he went after the party,
and he said he went back to his house and
his dad was still up so he could verify his whereabouts.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Police asked Nick to take a polygraph. He does and
he passes, although Nick's dad will still need to verify
his son was at home at the time of the murder.
It seems like Nick's not their guy.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
So he were thinking if Nick Kerr didn't murder Lisa,
and who did. Lisa told Kerr well, allegedly told him
she had a boyfriend. Her mom didn't know of any boyfriend,
we thought, but the person who know best would be
her best friend. Tiffany Mack.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is a senior at Mount
Pine High School. I didn't really know her, but she
was one of the popular girls. She had a reputation
for dating a lot of boys. Anyway, Detective Wallace says
he contacts Tiffany's parents and asks them to bring her
in for an interview. Late Monday, Tiffany and her parents
(22:27):
go down to the station together.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
When Tiffany and her parents arrived, she looked very upset.
She went on to tell me how on Saturday night,
Lisa walked over to her house and then Tiffany drove
them to get pizza, then they went to the party.
The plan was that Lisa was going to sleep over
at Tiffany's house that night, but the sleepover never happened.
(22:53):
I wanted to note why not. Tiffany looked at her
mom and started to cry again. Then she said, Lisa
just started seeing someone secretly, someone her parents would not
want her to be with because he's not a good guy.
I asked if he was at the party that night.
(23:15):
Tiffany said she'd never met him, so she didn't know
what he looked like, but Lisa told her she was
going outside to meet him, and this was around one am.
Then I asked if she knew his name, and she
said she only knows him by his last name, Zimmer.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is at the Mount Pine
Police station with her parents. She's just revealed the name
of her best friend, Lisa's secret boyfriend, Zimmer. Although she's
never met him, she thinks he's white and in his twenties.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
So the interview room and entered the name Zimmer into
the system. There was only one guy who seemed to
fit the description of Lisa's secret boyfriend, and that was
Tom Zimmer. He was white and twenty five years old
and from Tucker's City, a town about six miles away.
(24:20):
He had a lot of priors. But then I saw
something that stopped me cold. He was currently in prison
for breaking into a woman's home and killing her over
her silver coin collection. So it couldn't have been that Zimmer.
If Lisa didn't leave with Tom Zimmer that night, I
(24:42):
was thinking, who the hell did she leave with.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's now been seven day since Lisa Anderson was found
brutally murdered. Her funeral is held at first Presbyterian church
and it's packed. Almost the whole town turned out to
pay the respects. We're all there.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
It was my first funeral and it was so sad. God,
poor Lisa's mother Mary. You could tell how much she
was hurting.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
It was just the most devastating day. I just couldn't believe.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
What Lisa, What was it good?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
After the funeral? Most go home, some go for pizza,
That's what we did, and others they choose to drown
their sorrows at the quarter Horse Saloon. What happens there?
Change everything?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Nine one? What's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (26:04):
I probably shouldn't be calling, but I'm the bartender at
the Quarterhouse, and I just overheard something about that Lisa
Anderson murder. I think there are two guys in here
who know something about it. Can you send someone over
here like soon?
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Detective Wallace says he gets the call and heads right
over with backup just in case pulls up without lights
or sirens. He doesn't want to give anyone the chance
or time to run.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Once we got inside, the bartender subtly waved us over
to the end of the bar. She said, these two
guys walked in she'd never seen them before. They ordered beers,
She carded them, and then they went to playpool, and
that's when the bartender indicated with her eyes the two
guys were still there, back behind her and to the right.
(26:56):
She said. When they sat down at the bar, there
was a program from Lisa Anderson's memorial service nearby. She
heard one of the guys say, what a fucking night
that was. She barely put up a fight. Then they
both laughed. She said her gun told her she had
to call nine to one one and report it. These
(27:19):
guys looked rough. One had a long scar under his
left eye. I noticed specks of dark brown and the
one guy's iron Maiden T shirt. My gut was telling
me it was blood. So I identified myself and asked
him his name. He said, my name is Joe Zimmer.
(27:42):
Joe Zimmer. I asked them if he and his friend,
who'd ideed himself as Mark Tolman, would be willing to
come to the station with me and answer some questions.
So we were at the station and I asked Zimmer
(28:02):
some basic questions about himself. He said he came from
a broken family. His dad basically was never around. He
dropped out of Tucker City High School a few years
before to work construction. Oh when he said his brother
Tom Zimmer was in prison for the murder of some lady,
but he didn't do it. Then I asked him about
(28:24):
the stains on his shirt and shoes, and he stopped
and said it was blood, his blood. He said it
happened on the job. I then asked him if he
knew Lisa Anderson, and to my surprise, he said yes.
He said he and Lisa started hanging out a couple
(28:46):
of weeks ago and they were having fun. It wasn't
anything serious. I asked him if he heard about Lisa
Anderson's murder, and again he said yes. Zimmer said he
even saw her that night. He said he picked Lisa
up from the party and they went to his house.
They were fooling around and he wanted to do more
(29:07):
than she did, so they stopped and he drove her
to Tiffany's. I drove off. He said, he pulled away
before she got inside, so someone probably abducted her from
Tiffany's front steps and then killed her.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Disgusted and not buying one ounce of Zimmer's story, Detective
Wallace says he goes into Interrogation Room three to see
what Zimmer's friend Mark Tolman may know.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I came right out and asked him what happened to
Lisa Anderson. I was fully expecting him to say he
didn't know, but that was not what happened. Tolman asked
if he could get some sort of plea deal if
he talked, and I told him, just talk and sort
that stuff out later, he said. Late Saturday night, Zimmer
(29:55):
met Lisa outside the party and drove her to his
house for They drank some beer and pooled around he sat.
Around four am. Lisa asked Zimber to take her to
Tiffany's house, but he didn't want her to leave. Zimer
talked her into going for a romantic walk with him
(30:16):
in the woods behind his house before he'd take her
to Tiffany's, and when she wasn't looking, he picked up
a brick and hit her in the head from behind.
She fell down, and then he smashed her head and
face in with the bricks several times until she stopped moving.
(30:37):
Zimmer then called him to come over. When he got
to Zimmer's house, Zimmer confessed Tolman asked him why he
did it, and Zimmer said because he wanted to see
what it was like to watch someone die. Then Zimmer
made Tolman help him clean up. They wrapped Lisa's body
(30:59):
in a tar and drove her to where they jumped her,
not far from the party.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
So if Tolman's account is to be believed, it seems
like it was a senseless thrill kill. But Detective Wallace
knows they'll need more. They will need physical evidence to
tie Joe Zimmer to Lisa's murder. They get it when
they search Zimmer's car and find blood in the trunk
that will come back to match Lisa Anderson's blood type.
(31:27):
Joe Zimmer is arrested in charge with first degree murder.
His friend, Mark Tolman is charged with being an accessory
after the fact. He accepts to reduce sentence in exchange
for his testimony. The trial begins on December third, nineteen
(31:48):
eighty four. Joe Zimmer never takes the stand. On the
sixth day, the case goes to the jury. They come
back in one hour in seventeen minutes with a verdict guilty.
Joe Zimmer is sentenced to life without parole. You could
almost hear the collective sigh of relief reverberate from the
(32:10):
ice cream shop to the public library.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
We felt like maybe we didn't have to be so
on edge anymore now that he was going away. But
still her poor mom.
Speaker 9 (32:22):
Sure he was going to be locked up forever, but
that wasn't going to bring my baby back.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Ever, that can never bring my baby back.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It's true, Lisa Anderson is gone, and her murder, that
first murder in May of nineteen eighty four, changes us.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So why did it happen?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I mean, the Zimmer family produced two brothers who both
became killers. It be chalked up to one messed up family.
But if that was the case, those brothers were behind bars.
So why did the murders still keep coming?
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Coming up?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
This season? On The Murder Years.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
Nine one one, What's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
There are lots of gunshots, but I think I just
oh my god.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 11 (33:33):
I mean, it was like how many more of us
were going to die?
Speaker 5 (33:38):
And who would be next? I was scared. I mean
I just kept feeling it and saying it. I don't know,
I'm sure I was a broken record, but I was
really scared.
Speaker 11 (33:49):
They knew we had been through so much shit, so
much death those last couple of years, and so many
of us were really screwed up in the head trying
to process it all.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I was starting to come around to thinking maybe Mount
Pyne was cursed.
Speaker 12 (34:05):
Somehow we managed to survive the Murder Years. Not everyone
was as lucky.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media, co executive producer
Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Selditch.
Original concept developed in partnership with Anne, Margaret Johns and
Greg Spring. Casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting Senior Associate producer
(34:54):
Eric Newman, Associate producer Jill Pushesnik. Editing in sound as
by Tristan Bankston, mastering by Cameron Taggie, Audio engineering by
Matt Jacobson, Studio engineering by Jay Brannan. Legal counsel for
a y R Media, Gianni Douglas, Executive producer for iHeartMedia,
(35:16):
Maya Howard. Performances for this episode by Gabrielle Carteris as
Nancy Clark, Kelly Deadman as Tatiana, Orla Cassidy as Melanie
Maricilda Garcia as Carla beau Kine as Officer Shephard. Annie
Abbott is Mary Anderson, Carolyn Jania as nine one one caller,
(35:40):
Carolyn Jania as voicemail caller number two. Charles Carroll as
Prosecutor Blythe Desiree Rodriguez is nine one one operator H.
Richard Greene as Detective Wallace, James B. Kennedy as Young
Principal Palumbo, Joe Pachico as nine one caller Number one,
(36:02):
John Ralston Craig as Reporter Number one. John Ralston Craig
as voicemail caller Number one. Sarah Alasco as girl in
police Interview Number one. Sarah Alasco as girl in Police
Interview Number two, you Donna Daniels as Reporter number two.
Zakma is Bobby McCabe Zakma as boy in police Interview.
(36:26):
Additional voices by Alex Salem.
This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're
about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters
who are played by actors.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'll be honest with you, there are certain murders I'm
scared to discuss. It's just all too ugly, and I'm
scared what will happen to me if I do speak out.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old
stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't
warn you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Nancy, I'm Nancy Clark. I was born and raised in
the small Midwest town of Meine. It was a great
place to grow up, lovely, picturesque, like right out of
(01:06):
a movie. Still looks pretty much the same. Main street
is lined with little brick storefronts built in the nineteen twenties.
A teeny limestone post office sits at the end of
the oak Tree Line block. The smell of fresh bread
from the bakery is always in the air. But even
as a young girl, I was very aware that a
(01:28):
lot of strange stuff seemed to happen here. I always
wanted I needed to know more. At night, i'd sneak
the newspaper under the covers with my dad's flashlight and
read about the latest tragedy to hit our town, and
I wondered, why did so many bad things keep happening?
(01:51):
And it seemed to only get worse. When I was
in high school in the mid eighties, we were losing
people at an alarming rate. Horrible, violent deaths, unthinkable murders.
There were so many deaths that I believed our town
had to be cursed. It felt like we were being
made to pay some awful price for something we'd done.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
But what.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Then?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The year after my friends and I graduated, the death
seemed to just stop. I could breathe again, I could
stop worrying. I went away to college, studied communications, and
spent the next couple of decades writing for various publications.
But life took a turn recently when I had to
move back home to take care of my mom, who
(02:37):
was sick. She passed away earlier this year. As I
was packing up my childhood home, I ran across some
old newspaper articles that brought back the all two vivid
and tragic memories of my high school years, and later
that night, on the ten o'clock news.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
This is just in A woman's body has been found
in the woods behind Mount Pine Community College.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
A gruesome discovery in a north side home.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Again, after thirty years of peace, Mount Pine was rocked
with another murder. I tried to process this shocking news,
and I couldn't help. But wonder could this be the
beginning of another crime spree. As I slowly cleaned out
the house, I decided to revisit the murders that happened
when I was in high school. Luckily I kept detailed
(03:32):
diaries back then. I wanted to see if there was
anything that could really help me make sense of what
was going on in Mount Pine today. So I decided,
I'm going to talk to the people who were at
the center of these stories, police teachers, even some of
my high school friends, who may remember some really important
(03:53):
details from those years, details I either forgot or never
even knew in the first place. The stories I'm about
to tell you are inspired by real people and real events.
For everyone's safety, we're going to change a lot of
the details and all of the names, including my own,
and we're changing the name of our town. It's not
(04:14):
really called Mount Pine. I truly hope I find some answers.
At the very least it might give us all some
much needed closure. This is The Murder Years, Episode one.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
Lisa nine, what's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (04:45):
Yeah, I went back behind my born too, and I think, yeah,
there's a.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
Girl there, a young girl out there.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
She's dead.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It all starts on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, hours
before that horrific nine to one one call comes in.
Teen life in Mount Pine is all that matters?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Oh my gosh, I remember it like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
That's Melanie Porter in nineteen eighty four. We are both
fourteen years old and freshman at Mount Pine High School.
Melanie's my best friend.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
May nineteen, it was a Saturday. I looked it up
in my journal, and that day I had just gotten
done with being grounded for spending too much money on
a blouse.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Today, Melanie's fifty two and owns a party planning business
in Mount Pine.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I got all my homework done, finished my chores, and
was super excited because that night I was going to
a party at Tammy's house. Her parents were going to
be out of town at some Amway convention or something.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I didn't go to that party, and I can't remember
why exactly. But Melanie, she remembers a lot about how
excited she was to go.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
I remember picking out what I was gonna wear took
me like forever, seriously. Around seven point thirty, I heard
a honk outside, so I grabbed my purse, kissed my
parents good night, then I headed out to Scott, who
was sitting in his dad's light blue Ford Thunderbird also
known as the Blue Ballmer. Scott was two years older.
(06:34):
He was sixteen and just got his driver's license.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
On the way to the party, Melanie says, she and
Scott go through Danny's drive through. Scott has a fake
ID which he uses to buy Melanie some peach snaps
in a case of Old Milwaukee for himself. Yeah, you
could buy alcohol from the comfort of your own car
back then and then drive.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So then we drove down County Road H twenty nine
on our way to the party.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
In nineteen eighty four. Mount Pine has a population of
around twelve thousand people, so pretty small, very rural, lots
of farms and tons of lakes in town. We have
one pizza joint, one bank, one supermarket, and one high school.
Our school is small and unassuming, a one story brick
(07:21):
box with narrow slit windows. It looks more like a
prison than a high school.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
When we got to the party, Tammy's house was packed.
There must have been like one hundred kids there. I
remember some kids were playing pool downstairs. Some kids were
drinking ever clear at the kitchen table. Some kids were
smoking pot outside.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Melanie says, just before midnight, the kids with curfews leave,
kids like her and Scott, They're gone, I hear through
the grapevine. Others stay later. The last ones leave around
three am. What happens next? No one sees coming.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Nine. What's your emergency?
Speaker 7 (08:08):
I yeah, I went back behind my barn too, and
I think, oh my god, she's so young. She looks
really really bad. There's a lot of blood and her
head is all smashed in. Please come quick.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Officers are on their way.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Police are dispatched to a location about three miles away
from Tammy's party.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
Up until that and I we really didn't have murders
in Mount Pine.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I tracked down the first officer who arrived on the
scene that day, Officer Pat Shepherd. Back then he has
two months on the job and has never been two
or worked a murder scene.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I mean, they've only been like four in the previous
twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Today, Pat Shepherd is a sergeant with Mount Pine PD.
He said he doesn't even need to check his files
on the case because he remembers it so clearly.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
Since this was my first one, I was nervous, I remember,
I felt sick to my stomach. So I arrived that
day around seven am found the body of a teenage
girl behind a barn. The nine one one caller had
no idea who she was or how she got there.
She had been severely beaten.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
In the head and face.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
Her jeans and pink tank top were soaked blood. We
didn't know with what though, because there was no weapon nearby.
It appeared she'd been killed somewhere else and dumped there,
and it seemed like she hadt met dead for more
than a few hours. Then more officers arrived and searched
(09:47):
the surrounding area. About two hundred yards from the body,
in the woods behind the barn, an officer found a
white purse in it, where a set of keys on
a Duran Duran keychain, bublgum, flared lipsmackers, a wallet with
six dollars and a driver's license. That's when we were
able to identify.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Our victim, Seventeen year old Lisa Anderson, was a senior
at Mount Pine High School. She ran track and worked
at Buddy's, the local ice cream shop. She was nice
to everyone. Back in nineteen eighty four, Detective Tom Wallace
is the lead investigator on the case. Today, he's in
his seventies and retired. Wallace agrees to talk with me
(10:30):
about the case.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
This one, this one was hard. I knew the family.
They were a good family, and they'd already been through
so much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Detective Wallace is talking about what happened to Lisa's younger
brother only a year before, he dove headfirst into Owl Lake,
breaking his neck. He became paralyzed and eventually moved into
a home where to this day he's still getting round
the clock care. Their mom, Mary is now in her
mid seventies. I asked if she'd be willing to speak
(11:06):
with me, and she says yes, even though it's still painful.
She feels like she doesn't get the chance to talk
about her daughter, Lisa enough.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
So I remember that day unfortunately, like it was yesterday.
I was cooking scramble that haggs with graft singles and
oh and sausage links and then there was someone at
(11:38):
the front door knocking. I was thinking, why was someone
at the front door this early on a weekend? So
I put the Spachela down and walked towards the front door.
But before I even got there, I saw Tom Wallace, well,
(11:59):
detective Tom Wallace through the beveled glass. You see, we
went to Mount Pine High School together. But but I
couldn't imagine why he was at the house. We sat
down in the living room. His corduroy jacket stunk from cigarettes. Well,
(12:22):
then Wallace said the word's eye I will never forget.
He said, I'm so sorry, but we found Lisa today,
and she said.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So.
Speaker 9 (12:43):
Wallace kept talking, but I couldn't hear him. He was talking,
but my eyes were scanning our living room instead.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
I was fixating on the things.
Speaker 9 (13:05):
In the living room that were Lisa's, like, like there
was a pair of Lisa's white kids by the front door,
in her blue jean booked bag with buttons all over it,
that was right next to the TV trade where she
(13:27):
always did her homework. Then Wallace asked me when I
saw Lisa last, and I told him it was around
eight o'clock the night before. She said she was going
to a party with a best friend, Tiffany, and then
she was going to spend the night at Tiffany's.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Detective Wallace learns the party was at the house of
some girl, naw Tammy.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I remember I hugged Mary goodbye, and as it walked
to my car, I could hear her wailing. It was
pretty brutal.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Detective Wallace tells me that next he goes to talk
with the host of the party, Tammy, who happens to
be in big trouble with her parents for having the
blowout while they were away. Tammy tells Wallace she saw
Lisa at the party, but all seem fine with her.
Tammy agrees to write down the names of everyone at
our house with her parents' permission. Detective Wallace looks around
(14:35):
the home and property. A few red plastic cups still
litter the floor, but much of the party has been
cleaned up. He doesn't see anything suspicious. Within a couple
of hours, the lobby at the police station is packed
with really shaking up teens.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
These kids looked nervous. I reassured them they wouldn't get
in trouble for drinking or smoking pot. We just wanted
to ask some questions, try to find out what they
saw or heard and if they knew what may have
happened to Lisa. We audio taped these interviews.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
After a lot of digging, Detective Wallace is able to
track down some of those recordings.
Speaker 10 (15:14):
I don't want to get in trouble, okay, but Lisa
gave me one of her one of her California coolers,
and she seemed like she was in a good mood.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
She kept asking me what time it was I saw
her outside. She let me use her lipsmackers. We talked
about chemistry class and how mister Kober gave me attention
for talking too much.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
A few hours later, it's fifteen year old Bobby McCabe's turn,
a tall and lanky kid with jet black hair.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I saw Lisa plainpool with a guy had never seen before.
They were like, they're having fun.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
With Then.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I heard him assports go upstairs.
Speaker 8 (16:00):
With him and.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
That's why all the kids were making out, were having
sex or whatever, and she said no, I have a boyfriend,
and the guy got.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Mad, like really mad.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
I mean he threw down his pool stick and said,
you're a fucking Copti's and a fucking bitch.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I'm listening to the mount Pine Peades interviews with the
kids who were at the party the night before where
Lisa Anderson was last seen alive, and investigators may have
gotten their first real lead from fifteen year old Bobby McCabe.
He just told detectives he saw some guy get really
angry at Lisa when she turned him down for sex,
(16:50):
and there's more.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
On his way out. I heard him say he was
going to get hurt back for this. She will pay
for this.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So Bobby described the guy as late teen's tall, brown,
shaggy hair, and he was wearing a concert t shirt,
but he couldn't remember which one. The interviews with the
partygoers lasted into the early morning hours, but none of
the other kids reported seeing anything strange or any of
that exchange between Lisa and the angry guy. In fact,
(17:27):
none of them even knew who that guy.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Could be, including my friend Melanie, who calls me completely
freaked out after being interviewed by police.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
I couldn't believe any of it. I was in shock.
I went back to my journal to see what I
wrote about about my interview with the police. This is
what I wrote. I told the detective I saw Lisa
at the party, and at one point she was behind
me in line waiting for the bathroom. I told her
(17:57):
I liked her charm bracelet, and she pointed out her
face charm, which was a running shoe, which made sense.
Lisa ran cross country in track. But yeah, I told
the detective there was nothing weird about her or anything
else that night.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Good morning, students, it's Monday, May twenty first tickets to
the spring dance go on sale today.
Speaker 10 (18:26):
You could purchase them in the cafeteria during a lunch period.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Less than twenty four hours after being interviewed by police,
the kids are back in school. News of Lisa Anderson's
murder fills the halls. It's the only thing anyone's talking about,
especially one of my friends, Tatiana Campbell. She's a freshman
like me.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I couldn't believe it. I knew Lisa. I mean, you know,
not well because she was older than us, but still,
oh god, I remember this so clearly. When the bell rang,
I ran to meet my friends at my locker.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
In the three minutes we have between classes. Tatiana, Melanie
and I are trying to truly process what happened to Lisa.
Here's Melanie.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I was telling them about the party since neither of
them were there, and I told them what I told
the police that Lisa seemed, I don't know normal. I
told them about seeing her while waiting for the bathroom
and us talking about her charm bracelet and stuff. That
was the last time I saw her. Ever.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Detective Wallace tells me that when the autopsy results come in,
they confirm her cause of death is blunt force trauma.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
There was a lot of pressure to say of this
horrible crime. I wondered, was it a crime of passion
at the hands of a boyfriend or was it completely random?
Could the kids be covering up for one of their
own and then just like that we got a break.
Someone called in a tip about the guy who got
(20:19):
maddedly said the party when she turned him down for sex.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
His name is Nick Kerr, an eighteen year old kid
from Northgate, the next town over.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
When he came in for questioning, he looked really stressed
out and wouldn't make eye contact with me. I asked him,
since he was from Northgate, who did he know at
the party. He said he didn't know anyone there. He
and his friend had hurt there was going to be
a big party at this house in Mount Pine. Then
I asked him about Lisa. He said that he'd been
(20:52):
playing pool with some other guy when she came up
and asked if she could play. The winner, which turned
out to be him, played a few games and he
thought she was flirting with him, so when he suggested
they go upstairs and she said she had a boyfriend,
he felt dumb and embarrassed and that's why he got angry.
(21:14):
He also admitted he was drinking, but said he would
never do anything to hurt her. It was all talk.
I then asked him where he went after the party,
and he said he went back to his house and
his dad was still up so he could verify his whereabouts.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Police asked Nick to take a polygraph. He does and
he passes, although Nick's dad will still need to verify
his son was at home at the time of the murder.
It seems like Nick's not their guy.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
So he were thinking if Nick Kerr didn't murder Lisa,
and who did. Lisa told Kerr well, allegedly told him
she had a boyfriend. Her mom didn't know of any boyfriend,
we thought, but the person who know best would be
her best friend. Tiffany Mack.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is a senior at Mount
Pine High School. I didn't really know her, but she
was one of the popular girls. She had a reputation
for dating a lot of boys. Anyway, Detective Wallace says
he contacts Tiffany's parents and asks them to bring her
in for an interview. Late Monday, Tiffany and her parents
(22:27):
go down to the station together.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
When Tiffany and her parents arrived, she looked very upset.
She went on to tell me how on Saturday night,
Lisa walked over to her house and then Tiffany drove
them to get pizza, then they went to the party.
The plan was that Lisa was going to sleep over
at Tiffany's house that night, but the sleepover never happened.
(22:53):
I wanted to note why not. Tiffany looked at her
mom and started to cry again. Then she said, Lisa
just started seeing someone secretly, someone her parents would not
want her to be with because he's not a good guy.
I asked if he was at the party that night.
(23:15):
Tiffany said she'd never met him, so she didn't know
what he looked like, but Lisa told her she was
going outside to meet him, and this was around one am.
Then I asked if she knew his name, and she
said she only knows him by his last name, Zimmer.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is at the Mount Pine
Police station with her parents. She's just revealed the name
of her best friend, Lisa's secret boyfriend, Zimmer. Although she's
never met him, she thinks he's white and in his twenties.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
So the interview room and entered the name Zimmer into
the system. There was only one guy who seemed to
fit the description of Lisa's secret boyfriend, and that was
Tom Zimmer. He was white and twenty five years old
and from Tucker's City, a town about six miles away.
(24:20):
He had a lot of priors. But then I saw
something that stopped me cold. He was currently in prison
for breaking into a woman's home and killing her over
her silver coin collection. So it couldn't have been that Zimmer.
If Lisa didn't leave with Tom Zimmer that night, I
(24:42):
was thinking, who the hell did she leave with.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's now been seven day since Lisa Anderson was found
brutally murdered. Her funeral is held at first Presbyterian church
and it's packed. Almost the whole town turned out to
pay the respects. We're all there.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
It was my first funeral and it was so sad. God,
poor Lisa's mother Mary. You could tell how much she
was hurting.
Speaker 9 (25:26):
It was just the most devastating day. I just couldn't believe.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
What Lisa, What was it good?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
After the funeral? Most go home, some go for pizza,
That's what we did, and others they choose to drown
their sorrows at the quarter Horse Saloon. What happens there?
Change everything?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Nine one? What's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (26:04):
I probably shouldn't be calling, but I'm the bartender at
the Quarterhouse, and I just overheard something about that Lisa
Anderson murder. I think there are two guys in here
who know something about it. Can you send someone over
here like soon?
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Detective Wallace says he gets the call and heads right
over with backup just in case pulls up without lights
or sirens. He doesn't want to give anyone the chance
or time to run.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Once we got inside, the bartender subtly waved us over
to the end of the bar. She said, these two
guys walked in she'd never seen them before. They ordered beers,
She carded them, and then they went to playpool, and
that's when the bartender indicated with her eyes the two
guys were still there, back behind her and to the right.
(26:56):
She said. When they sat down at the bar, there
was a program from Lisa Anderson's memorial service nearby. She
heard one of the guys say, what a fucking night
that was. She barely put up a fight. Then they
both laughed. She said her gun told her she had
to call nine to one one and report it. These
(27:19):
guys looked rough. One had a long scar under his
left eye. I noticed specks of dark brown and the
one guy's iron Maiden T shirt. My gut was telling
me it was blood. So I identified myself and asked
him his name. He said, my name is Joe Zimmer.
(27:42):
Joe Zimmer. I asked them if he and his friend,
who'd ideed himself as Mark Tolman, would be willing to
come to the station with me and answer some questions.
So we were at the station and I asked Zimmer
(28:02):
some basic questions about himself. He said he came from
a broken family. His dad basically was never around. He
dropped out of Tucker City High School a few years
before to work construction. Oh when he said his brother
Tom Zimmer was in prison for the murder of some lady,
but he didn't do it. Then I asked him about
(28:24):
the stains on his shirt and shoes, and he stopped
and said it was blood, his blood. He said it
happened on the job. I then asked him if he
knew Lisa Anderson, and to my surprise, he said yes.
He said he and Lisa started hanging out a couple
(28:46):
of weeks ago and they were having fun. It wasn't
anything serious. I asked him if he heard about Lisa
Anderson's murder, and again he said yes. Zimmer said he
even saw her that night. He said he picked Lisa
up from the party and they went to his house.
They were fooling around and he wanted to do more
(29:07):
than she did, so they stopped and he drove her
to Tiffany's. I drove off. He said, he pulled away
before she got inside, so someone probably abducted her from
Tiffany's front steps and then killed her.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Disgusted and not buying one ounce of Zimmer's story, Detective
Wallace says he goes into Interrogation Room three to see
what Zimmer's friend Mark Tolman may know.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I came right out and asked him what happened to
Lisa Anderson. I was fully expecting him to say he
didn't know, but that was not what happened. Tolman asked
if he could get some sort of plea deal if
he talked, and I told him, just talk and sort
that stuff out later, he said. Late Saturday night, Zimmer
(29:55):
met Lisa outside the party and drove her to his
house for They drank some beer and pooled around he sat.
Around four am. Lisa asked Zimber to take her to
Tiffany's house, but he didn't want her to leave. Zimer
talked her into going for a romantic walk with him
(30:16):
in the woods behind his house before he'd take her
to Tiffany's, and when she wasn't looking, he picked up
a brick and hit her in the head from behind.
She fell down, and then he smashed her head and
face in with the bricks several times until she stopped moving.
(30:37):
Zimmer then called him to come over. When he got
to Zimmer's house, Zimmer confessed Tolman asked him why he
did it, and Zimmer said because he wanted to see
what it was like to watch someone die. Then Zimmer
made Tolman help him clean up. They wrapped Lisa's body
(30:59):
in a tar and drove her to where they jumped her,
not far from the party.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
So if Tolman's account is to be believed, it seems
like it was a senseless thrill kill. But Detective Wallace
knows they'll need more. They will need physical evidence to
tie Joe Zimmer to Lisa's murder. They get it when
they search Zimmer's car and find blood in the trunk
that will come back to match Lisa Anderson's blood type.
(31:27):
Joe Zimmer is arrested in charge with first degree murder.
His friend, Mark Tolman is charged with being an accessory
after the fact. He accepts to reduce sentence in exchange
for his testimony. The trial begins on December third, nineteen
(31:48):
eighty four. Joe Zimmer never takes the stand. On the
sixth day, the case goes to the jury. They come
back in one hour in seventeen minutes with a verdict guilty.
Joe Zimmer is sentenced to life without parole. You could
almost hear the collective sigh of relief reverberate from the
(32:10):
ice cream shop to the public library.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
We felt like maybe we didn't have to be so
on edge anymore now that he was going away. But
still her poor mom.
Speaker 9 (32:22):
Sure he was going to be locked up forever, but
that wasn't going to bring my baby back.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Ever, that can never bring my baby back.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
It's true, Lisa Anderson is gone, and her murder, that
first murder in May of nineteen eighty four, changes us.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So why did it happen?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I mean, the Zimmer family produced two brothers who both
became killers. It be chalked up to one messed up family.
But if that was the case, those brothers were behind bars.
So why did the murders still keep coming?
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Coming up?
Speaker 1 (33:20):
This season? On The Murder Years.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
Nine one one, What's your emergency?
Speaker 4 (33:27):
There are lots of gunshots, but I think I just
oh my god.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Oh my god.
Speaker 11 (33:33):
I mean, it was like how many more of us
were going to die?
Speaker 5 (33:38):
And who would be next? I was scared. I mean
I just kept feeling it and saying it. I don't know,
I'm sure I was a broken record, but I was
really scared.
Speaker 11 (33:49):
They knew we had been through so much shit, so
much death those last couple of years, and so many
of us were really screwed up in the head trying
to process it all.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I was starting to come around to thinking maybe Mount
Pyne was cursed.
Speaker 12 (34:05):
Somehow we managed to survive the Murder Years. Not everyone
was as lucky.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media, co executive producer
Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Selditch.
Original concept developed in partnership with Anne, Margaret Johns and
Greg Spring. Casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting Senior Associate producer
(34:54):
Eric Newman, Associate producer Jill Pushesnik. Editing in sound as
by Tristan Bankston, mastering by Cameron Taggie, Audio engineering by
Matt Jacobson, Studio engineering by Jay Brannan. Legal counsel for
a y R Media, Gianni Douglas, Executive producer for iHeartMedia,
(35:16):
Maya Howard. Performances for this episode by Gabrielle Carteris as
Nancy Clark, Kelly Deadman as Tatiana, Orla Cassidy as Melanie
Maricilda Garcia as Carla beau Kine as Officer Shephard. Annie
Abbott is Mary Anderson, Carolyn Jania as nine one one caller,
(35:40):
Carolyn Jania as voicemail caller number two. Charles Carroll as
Prosecutor Blythe Desiree Rodriguez is nine one one operator H.
Richard Greene as Detective Wallace, James B. Kennedy as Young
Principal Palumbo, Joe Pachico as nine one caller Number one,
(36:02):
John Ralston Craig as Reporter Number one. John Ralston Craig
as voicemail caller Number one. Sarah Alasco as girl in
police Interview Number one. Sarah Alasco as girl in Police
Interview Number two, you Donna Daniels as Reporter number two.
Zakma is Bobby McCabe Zakma as boy in police Interview.
(36:26):
Additional voices by Alex Salem.
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