Blue Lights and Broken Hearts: The Myra Stalbosky Case

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What begins as a routine missing person report reveals itself as one of Kentucky's most heinous crimes when Detective Sonny Boggs takes on the case of 18-year-old Myra Stalbosky, a newly graduated police officer whose promising career was tragically cut short in April 1995.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Blue lights from the dead of the night, lying on a
run of dim street light,laughing through the written
reports.
Truth stranger than the wildestcourts.
Tales from the force goneastray, caught up in the games
they play.
High speed chases gone awry.
Serious turns into pie in thesky, just out of jurisdiction,

(00:27):
left during the conviction Allright guys, we're back with
another episode.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
We've had a little bit of time in between the last
one.
We've had some schedulingconflicts.
I've got a new job so I've beenrunning through that training
and all that, and Travis is jetsetting around the world and
doing his thing.
But we're back.
We've got an awesome guest foryou tonight.
A little bit of a differentepisode, a little more serious

(01:00):
on this side of things.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's not all going to be serious no, no, it's not the
whole thing We've got some funstuff.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's not all going to be serious, no, no, it's not
the whole thing.
We got some fun stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
That's the intro we got.
Yeah, we are going to switchgears a little bit, because this
week is a very special week forlaw enforcement Absolutely,
with it being the NationalPolice Memorial Week and they're
honoring officers, fallenofficers all over the united
states, and I think I read wherekennedy put this together way,

(01:31):
but you know, like in 62 orsomething like that, and it was
uh, so it's been ongoing.
They got the memorial in dc.
It's um, it's someplace thatall three of us haven't went to,
that they're sitting sittinghere tonight and we need to go
Having friends that are on thatwall.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Absolutely, we need to go see that.
But yeah, we've got other bignews.
Now, too, we are officially asponsored podcast now.
This will be the firstsponsored episode that we have
out.
Ascend Wellness has decided tothrow their hat in the ring and
sponsor us, and they deal withmental health support and trauma
, trauma counseling and thingslike that, and we'll we'll tell

(02:12):
you a little bit more about thatafter after this episode
concludes, we'll we'll have alittle ad for for them.
But without further ado, wehave an honored guest here with
us, sonny Boggs.
Sonny, you started out.
You've been policing for a long, long time, right?
A very long time.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
My policing career actually started back in the 80s
.
I started out as well let's gowith my first responder stuff
when I was but a young kid.
My role models on TV it wasn'tsports figures or music stars or
anything, it was.
I don't know if you guys everremember the television show

(02:54):
Emergency.
Yeah, Okay, yeah, Gage andDeSoto.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's where it was at for me, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
And I grew up here in a local community down in East
Bernstadt, Kentucky, and at ayoung age of about 16 years old
I was able to join the EastBernstadt Fire Department.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Oh, my gosh.
Was it always right there onthe corner of 490 and 25?

Speaker 4 (03:18):
It was, but we had a substation across the tracks
right there too, okay, but itwas mostly right there there.
Uh, at the yeah, it used to bean old shell station that was
there, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It happens that's all right for the first several
episodes we had.
I had an alarm go off at thesame time don't bother us.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
So I grew up on on school street.
So, yeah, I was telling youabout that.
So I was a You're familiar withTwin Branch.
No, yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Right, there is kind of where I grew up and you know,
since I got of the age to whereI could join the fire
department, the volunteer firedepartment, that was just the
thing for me.
I mean, I knew that publicservice was what I wanted to do
at a very young age.
And you guys probably don'teven remember bob hurley, the

(04:08):
old fire chief of the eastbernstead fire department yeah,
uh, he took me on.
I was like 16, maybe 17, and mybrother he was two years younger
he still took him on at age 15,wow.
So that that's where it gotstarted.
And you know, we went throughall the training and all that
good stuff and then I was like,well, I want to do a little bit
more, I want, I want to be in, Iwant to.
So that's where it got started.
And you know, we went throughall the training and all that
good stuff and then I was like,well, I want to do a little bit
more, I want to be a paramedic.

(04:30):
Well, there was no paramedicsin Kentucky back at that time.
The only paramedics in Kentuckywas two, maybe three places,
either Louisville, jeffersonCounty or Louisville and Fayette
County.
There was none in this area.
So I went to EMT school and gotto meet another role model
after that, bill Smith.
Oh, Bill.

(04:50):
Bill and Janet.
Bill and Janet Smith, as ayoung man, gave me chances I
surely didn't deserve.
They gave me a job at theambulance service and I worked
for them for a period of time.
I was also on the Laurel CountyRescue Squad here.
This was back in the early 80s.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Bill was a fire chief .
No, I'm sorry, he was a policechief back that time too right,
yeah, he was In the earlier 80s.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
He was.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
And I don't know how long he did, but they had the
ambulance service.
I remember stories they talkedabout the funeral homes used to
run in, you know, running EMScalls.
Back in the day that was thetransporting and then Bill came
in and kind of got thatcentralized with the EMS.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, he's done a.
Him and his family have done aheck of a job in the Es thing
here for our county, uh, butthat was you know a long time,
you know a long time ago, and uh, he's done a good job with.
I drove like la2, la3, la1 wasthere, I know you remember these
.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, uh, I, wewas around during that time and
and I come up with a lot ofpeople that you, you guys, know,
yeah, uh, that were justawesome people and, if you don't

(06:06):
mind me mentioning, oh yeahbilly madden.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
You know the mad dog.
We're gonna have him.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
He says he's coming I call him mad pup yeah, uh, mad
pup, uh, you know uh, billy, uh,billy osborne.
I don't know if y'all knowbilly.
I don't know.
I worked with billy and and andand jimmy jimmy johnny phelps
can't forget about them andtheir mom.
You know their mom worked thereat the ambulance service.
She was you know that's what wecalled her.
We called her mom.

(06:32):
She's just just an awesome lady.
And and, uh, that's kind ofwhere I got my start in law
enforcement, and and and and andI later or not law enforcement,
I'm sorry and for as a firstresponder, and the one event I
think that inspired me to wantto.
I'm also a military veteran andthe event that inspired me to

(06:53):
want to be a part of themilitary is that Bill Smith has
a son.
His name is Tim Smith and I wasworking for the ambulance
service when Tim Smith came offactive duty and walked up the
driveway when he first got homeand I remember the response that
Bill and Janet gave him I waslike that's it, I think I might

(07:17):
want to do the military.
I didn't know what I wanted todo.
I don't even know what Tim did,but I seen how proud his
parents was of him for hismilitary service.
I was like that's it, I want todo.
I don't even know what tim did,but I seen how proud his
parents was of him for hismilitary service.
I was like that's it, yeah, Iwant to do that.
And uh, I walked into arecruiter's office.
Uh, on north, main north is itnorth south main street, where
there used to be an old hotelthere and there's a recruiter's

(07:38):
office and I walked in I said Ithink I'd, uh, I'd like to join
the army.
They said, well, okay, says uh,sit down and take a test.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
You're the easiest person, yeah I said we didn't
even have to lie to you I thinkI want to join the army.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
They said, well, you're going to have to take a
test and I had to show my id andall that stuff and back during
that time there was no computertest, it was all fill in the
bubble with the pencil and thisand that and I filled, filled it
in.
They looked at it and they said, well, looks like you qualify
for MP.
I said what's that mean?
And they said, well, that'smilitary police.
I said you mean like a policeofficer?

(08:15):
They said yeah, but only you doit for the military.
I said well, okay, sign me up.
Yeah, there we go, I'm in andthen I was off and that's how my
career got started.
Uh, I went to uh fort mcclellan, alabama, for basic and ait and
got sent to uh fort devins,massachusetts, and I was up

(08:37):
there for uh four years uhactive duty, uh garrison mp, and
I know I was I was a road MP.
I was responding to calls forpolice service on a military
base.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's amazing how many calls for domestics.
It's just like working rightout here there is no difference
there's not a lot of difference.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
You just operate under uniform code of military
justice and things like that.
I had a good time.
I knew that ASVAB told me youknow this is where you belong,
you know, and you know I kind ofenjoyed myself.
You know I'd never been toMassachusetts.
I don't know if you all everbeen to Massachusetts.
I've been to.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Boston Okay.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
What have those people, what have we ever done
to those people?
You drive through Boston andeverybody's got the metal
fingers stuck up at you.
And as a young man I got to tryto say what is wrong with these
people.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
But saying that the people I've met from there
because my father-in-law livesin Florida and all these Boston
people come around some of thenicest people that would but
driving wise.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Oh, and they're well, they don't like it they don't
like anybody.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
They're worse than new york.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
You don't drive that car very well yeah anyway, I
stationed up there and, uh, uh,you know, early on I knew I was
one of these, uh, policemen, orif you uh that didn't just want
to go take a report and throw itin a box and walk away, right,
I just wasn't that guy, right,if somebody took some cookies

(10:17):
out of the cookie jar, I want toknow who took them, why they
took them, where they went.
Know, early on that kind ofstuck out with me.
I was given a job as aninvestigator, a criminal
investigator for them, back inthe 80s and that's back when the

(10:39):
Cold War was still on.
Awol still meant something, ohyeah, and Deserter still went to
jail.
Awol still meant something anddeserters still went to jail.
So I and four other guys no,five other guys covered the
whole six state New England areaand we served warrants on
fugitives, awols and deserters.

(10:59):
We would pick them up, we wouldbring them back and we would
transport them to wherever theywas wanted from.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Wow, that would be because I remember, sadly, we
would pick them up, we wouldbring them back and we would
transport them to wherever theywas wanted from.
Wow, because that would be.
Because I remember, sadly, inpeace, and these guys coming to
find somebody at our church whenI was growing up.
The guy that I was joining forended up going AWOL, I'm like.
And then they get knocks on thedoor and I was like, oh my gosh
, what did this guy do?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
But they're knocks on the door and I was like, oh my
gosh, what did this guy do?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
But they're serious now.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Well, it's like a felony.
I don't know what they do withit now.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
You know I don't know what they're doing, but back
then you know they were serious.
We'd get warrants once a weekfrom Fort Bend, harrison,
indiana, and you know thewarrants in our area.
We'd set up and go try to pickthese guys up and they were in
Lincoln.
They were in not Lincoln Fairbut they were in NCIC and some
of these guys had been in NCICfor a long time.
I've picked up Vietnam vetdeserters back in the 80s.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
So they was in there forever, but, yeah, it was a
good time.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
I got out, enjoyed the military done that out, come
home and I my mom lived over onhampton road, I don't know, you
know.
Okay, uh, and I come home and Isaid, well, I got a good job.
She said, well, how about astate job?
I said I'll try it.
So, uh, I take off and I go tofrankfurt and I walk in and
start taking some state tests.
I see a posting for a a policeofficer job.
I said, well, let's try thatkentucky state university are
y'all familiar with kentucky?
And start taking some statetests.
I see a posting for a policeofficer job.
I said, well, let's try thatKentucky State University.

(12:28):
Are you all familiar withKentucky?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
State In Frankfurt right.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I walked in there andfilled out a paper application,
had my military discharge papermy DDT-14, and showed them where
I was a military policeman, andthe chief sitting there at the
time.
He says you know, do you got arecord?
I said no.
I said I ain't got no records.
I said you can read some.

(12:51):
He says looks like you've beenan MP.
I said yeah.
He says well, I'll tell you what.
I'm going to run your criminalhistory here.
If you don't have records, Ithink I'm going to hire you.
I said well, want to hire you.

(13:14):
I said well, just like that.
I said that's all there is toyou.
See, yeah, that's all there isto it.
So those processes are not thatshort anymore.
Yeah, yeah, which is which isfine, yeah, yeah.
But they hired me.
And uh, right there on the spot, and he says get in that closet
.
Right there, the chief justsaid get in that closet, pick
you up some uniforms that'll fityou and get you some leather
gear.
Basket weave leather gear,model 1038 wheel gun yeah, and
he said I need you to worktomorrow night.
I said wait a minute.
I said I ain't been to thepolice academy here.

(13:35):
He said you been an MP, haven'tyou?
I said yes, sir.
He says well, that'll do till Iget you to the academy.
He said no, I need you here towork tomorrow night oh man, so
it started like that yesstraight to the wall.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
I was like what have I got myself into?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
so you had you moved back to the to London.
I was in London at the time.
I got that job there.
Do you go to all of a sudden?
You go up there for a estate,maybe working at the
transportation.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, and then I'm hired by Kentucky State
University Police.
So did you move up?
I did.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
I did.
That's a big transition.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
I'll tell you.
I moved up there.
I didn't have nothing.
I had a couch and a TV with abox that had come on and some.
I didn't have nothing and I hadto rent an apartment from
Kentucky State University.
So the money that I made atKentucky State University at
1989 when I got hired there, waslike four dollars and thirty
cents an hour.

(14:29):
True, so it would take myentire paycheck that I made from
the university to pay rent.
To pay rent and in order tohave groceries and eat, you know
I would.
I would, on my nights off, Iwould work at a five-star market
down there on US 60 next tomake money.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
That's crazy.
It was, it was.
It was crazy.
We talked about that we didn'tget into this for the money.
But that does.
No, but it helps it helps, itdoes.
It's a little better now.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Yeah, it does, but you know, I didn't know nothing
else.
I didn't have a formaleducation, I had my DD-214, and
I was young and I had a lot ofdesire to learn and do this.
And they took a chance andhired me and they sent me to
DOCJT in Richmond.
Back then, docjt was 10 weekslong.

(15:21):
I don't know, was it 24 weeksnow?
What class number do youremember?
Do you remember 110?
Maybe 110.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Wow, what was yours 324.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Mine was 482.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Okay, I can't be wrong, but I think it was like
110 or something.
And I got through there and assoon as I got hired, as soon as
I got through there, I was likeyou know, I don't want to work
for Kentucky State University.
It was just not a place Iwanted to work and the first
place that popped up wasLaGrange Police Department.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
What a beautiful city .
Probably the like, with thatrailroad running right downtown.
I got a buddy that works, that,retired from the, he might have
worked for the county police.
They got a county police upthere still, I think, and then,
and then they had, um, the citypolice and then the sheriff's
office, of course.

(16:15):
But lagrange, there's a greatlittle restaurant that said, I
mean we were sitting outsidelike track side track, yeah,
we're sitting there like, andthey had they were on dinners,
drive-ins and dives for somekind of derby pie or something.
I mean they were famous forthat.
We were sitting out there.
It was February but I wanted tosit out there close to the train

(16:37):
.
I mean, dylan, you could reachout and touch.
It felt like the trains wouldcome by and they they come by
like two miles an hour becauseit can't go really slow.
They were right, I mean, forfor 30 minutes we couldn't talk
because that thing would justmove out, yeah, and we were like
maybe we should have ate inside, but it was what a cool
atmosphere I don't know ifthere's I don't know if there's

(16:58):
another city around that haslike that where they come right.
I mean, it is Main Street andthe railroad are together.
It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
There's so many places in Kentucky.
I've lived here my entire lifeand I've not went to them and
I'm like, why, why?

Speaker 3 (17:13):
have I not?
Yeah, lagrange, there's a lotof places I've got to check out.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
It's on the bucket list, so it's a nice it's a
really I looked at LaGrange I.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
It's a nice, it's a really.
I looked at LaGrange I thinkit's like most of the people
that work, the big executivesand things that work in
Louisville, like Anthem theyusually live over in that county
, right, Well see you know Ilive in.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
currently I live in Woodford County, kentucky.
Woodford County is very muchlike Oldham County, the county
that LaGrange is in, and youknow usually the highest income
per household, lowestunemployment rate and it goes
back and forth month to monthbetween them and maybe I don't
know shelby county and that'sbecause, they're bedroom
communities to the largestmetropolitan areas in the state

(17:56):
yeah, yeah then oldham county.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
I mean the only thing about other than that would be
that would be awkward.
There would be the state.
Pen is right, in Oldham County.
It was a grange, but that'skind of pretty far out of the
city limits.
I think what a beautiful.
I mean it's got a little museumwith the trains and the

(18:20):
courthouse.
When I was up there last year,two years ago, they were
remodeling the courthouse that'ssitting.
I was up there last year, twoyears ago.
They were remodeling thecourthouse that's sitting.
Right there is off on its own,yeah, and just a beautiful
downtown setting.
So that's, that was your nextplace.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
It was, it was my next place and I went from
making like maybe four dollarsand forty cents an hour at
kentucky state university tonine dollars and eleven cents an
hour.
That's a big pay jump and A bigpay jump.
I thought that I had hit thebig time.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
My every two-week paycheck I'll never forget it is
$526.05.
That's because the city paidfor our insurance.
Oh yeah, and that was just—.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
That's a huge benefit it was.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
It was a very big thing.
We were treated well.
It was a good place to work and, quite frankly, I'm sorry that
I ever left there.
It was a good place, but Iworked there up until about 1998
.
Then I left there and then Iwent to the not Louisville Metro
.
It wasn't Louisville Metrountil 2003.
Right, so I went to theLouisville Division of Police,
because Louisville and JeffersonCounty, you know they had two

(19:20):
different.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, the Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Oh, two different.
Yeah, the sheriff's office ohno, they had a county?

Speaker 3 (19:29):
did they have a?

Speaker 4 (19:29):
county police.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Yeah, they had county police and then louisville
division and I worked for look,I went on down to louisville, so
you worked downtown, so it waslike a city police and a county
police, yeah, and then they hada sheriff's office and then you
got a bunch of smaller agencies

Speaker 4 (19:38):
like jerry's in town st matthews uh, indian hills, uh
sh.
There's a bunch of differentsmaller agencies yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I know about Shively, butanyway I stayed there.
I was also in the Kentucky ArmyNational Guard.
I was in the 223rd MilitaryPolice Unit out of Louisville

(20:00):
and while I was working for theLouisville Police Department,
louisville Division of Police, Igot sent to Iraq and I spent
about a year deployed to Iraq.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, that was, what year?
Was that 90?
Oh, I left.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
I went to Iraq and I left here in December of 2002.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Oh, so you went to Kuwait, so you'd been in the.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
Guard for a little while.
Yeah, I'd been in the Guard fora little while and I went to
Kuwait initially, and then wewere there when the war first
started 03.
And 03 was on the border.
When they said go, we went.
We weren't the first one to go,we was an MP unit, we weren't a
heavy fighting unit, we werehandling enemy prisoners of war
and we seen very little.

(20:46):
I seen a lot more stuff, aspolicemen, yeah, but you go and
thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's the hardest, they said the tip of the spear,
but you're just kind of backhere on the hosel.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
I seen a lot of things, but I didn't see those
infantry units and stuff.
It's a different thing, that'scool though.
But I came back and I thoughtit was time for me to get out of
the police work.
This had been very hard on myfamily for me being gone.

(21:22):
Yeah, I get it I went through adifficult time and I came home
and I decided, well, you knowwhat?
And uh guys, I can't.
I can't go on withoutmentioning my wife.
I have the most wonderful wifein the world.
You know.
If it hadn't been for her, Idon't know what I've done.
I, I mean that came back.
It's kind of rough and but wegot through it and I said well,

(21:42):
you know, I'm not gonna be aplace for policeman anymore, I'm
going to do a business.
Let's do some business here.
I said I just don't think Iwant it.
So I did that for a few years.
First of all, I figured outnumber one I'm not a businessman
.
I'm not a businessman.
In my heart lives a policeofficer or a cop.
And my wife she says to me, shesays honey wife.

(22:07):
She says to me, she says honey.
She says you're not happy doingwhat we're doing.
She says you need to go backand do police work.
I said I don't want to go dopolice work again.
She says, well, I have somefriends that work for this
federal law enforcement agencyhere in central kentucky that I
believe would be glad to haveyou.
I said, well, let me take alook at it.
And I took a look at it andthey said we'd love to have you,

(22:29):
and they hired me.
Currently I work for a federallaw enforcement agency in
central Kentucky that I'm notallowed to say who it is because
I don't want to get in trouble,but it's probably the best,
probably the best job I've everhad.
I work with a lot of good,honorable, decent men and women.

(22:52):
One of those is my oldest son,who's a police officer for us,
and I can't say who the agencyis, but I'm a detective sergeant
currently and I still conductcriminal investigations.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
So you get to go around different areas.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
I go to different areas throughout central
Kentucky, eastern andsoutheastern Kentucky, depending
on what the needs of our agencyis.
I conduct criminalinvestigations and they get
presented in respective statecourts in whatever county it
happens to be in.
Or the eastern district court,us district court for the
eastern that's cool.
Respective state courts inwhatever counties that's being.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Or the Eastern District Court, yes, yes,
district court for this school,yeah so just think so we'll
change off of that, just in caseme and him give it away.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
But you, you found your niche, kind of invested
investigations, and like I saidearlier, I figured out I was
that guy that couldn't justthrow that take a report on a
burglary or something like that.
No, ever work in peace andfigure out the puzzle, and yeah
I wanted to know who took thecookies out of the cookie jar,

(23:55):
why did they take them and wheredid they go?
Yeah, right, you know, I don'tknow what gave me that drive,
but but I had that and thatstarted early on in my career,
back in the 80s that's somelet's.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
I know there's some funny stuff.
I'm sure that along the wayyou've seen and done and you can
, we can go into that anytime.
But I really want to transitionback into lagrange.
Yeah, um, how were you do youwhen you was up there at this
time?

Speaker 4 (24:25):
Well, I started there .
I think it was 1991.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
Ninety-one.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
And I'd been 27.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
27.
That's when I started.
I started in at 26 when I cameback from deployment myself.
But I went to Belgium, the realwar zone.
I was in Belgium, oh yeah,fight ourselves After 9-11.

(24:53):
We went right.
I mean, we were gone.
We were like here it is, we'regetting those phone calls.
You remember in the guard theywere like said some kind of code
word over the phone.
You're like oh my gosh, I don'teven know what's going on here?
Rutabaga, yeah something.
Santa Claus has landed on theplane.
You're like what?
I remember a trooper buddy ofmine called me and he was like,

(25:18):
did you get that message?
I was like, yeah, but I thoughtit was a prank call.
I don't know what's going onhere.
That was that.
But this was in between.
This was in 2001, 2002.
So Iraq hadn't kicked off andthey were really still doing a
lot of special forces stuff inAfghanistan at the time.

(25:39):
So we went actually to guardthe Supreme Allied Commanders of
Europe, his air base, and togive the MPs a break, but not
for the war and not forAfghanistan.
But it was still Kosovo andSerbia.
All this stuff was still goingon.

(25:59):
But they were gearing up forthis fight, you know, for war on
on terrorism, but they weretrying to get everybody
transitioned.
But our so we wasn't even partof that.
We was part of the this ongoingconflict and and you know it's
been going on since bill clintonstuff.
So we were like okay, so but itwas uh, it was pretty pretty

(26:21):
cool and kind of seen thetransition from the national
guard to what it, you know,became, because we're going over
there with old a, a, one m16,just I mean like holy moly, yes,
and I I mean I hadn't seen.
You know, you saw all thattransition and the gear that
they said like hey, if we'regoing to use the guard, we need

(26:43):
to utilize and get them the besttraining, the best equipment,
and it was pretty it.
So I got to be involved in that.
But, um, but that was my time.
When I got out I went to thepolice department so I was done
with military and I then went inthat route.
So that's how that journey went.
So I was about the same age.
Yeah, you've been policing alittle longer.

(27:05):
I guess how long did you stayat k state before you went to?

Speaker 4 (27:08):
about.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Well, just a cat, almost two years yeah, so we
were about the same age, youknow in that.
So and and dealing as well.
So so you go up to lagrange andwere you in?
How long had you done likepatrol?

Speaker 4 (27:26):
I was a patrol officer there to start out with.
I was one of those eagerbeavers.
I was ready to come to work.
It was time to go to work.
I was ready to get on the radioand call 10-8.
It's time to catch the bad guy.
That's what.
I was supposed to do.
I was a DUI I know nobody likesthis word.
I was a DUI hunter, any othercriminal wrongdoer.
I was there.
That's what I was for and Iwent and did my job and I worked

(27:49):
on nights for a long time andthen I finally went to days.
We had nine officers and I wasone of nine and a lot of times
I'd be on shift by myself and ifI needed backup or whatever,
you had KSP post five there.
Sometimes they were around,sometimes they weren't.
They didn't even have a trooperthat was assigned to that

(28:10):
County.
There where I worked, they wereall.
They worked in northerncounties because we had the
Oldham County police there.
Then sometimes, you know, I'dget back up from them.
Sometimes you just had to besmart instead of tough, you know
, because you can't win in everysituation.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
No, and I learned that early on you know, put
yourself in an advantage somehow.
Yeah, yeah, whether it beknowledge or or, you know
exactly.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
You can't be, you can't be the tough guy all the
time.
You gotta wait for backup.
You gotta, you know, figuresomething out.
But uh, I worked there as as apatrol officer up until well
1995.
I was still working there in1995.
Okay, but I got a story to telland I think it's important to
tell this story.

(28:54):
We're right here at the end ofthe Police Officers Memorial
Week in 2025, and this storythat I'm about to tell is a it's
kind of the granddaddy of themall of my whole career as far as
a criminal investigation, andit started on the morning of

(29:15):
April, the 27th 1995.
I went to work, I was working onday shift and I went in to
leave this officer and I don'tcare to mention his name, my
good friend today, jerry Colston.
I said hey, jerry, what did wehave last night?
He said, well, we had twothings that happened.
We had an armed robbery thatoccurred at the BP, but we also

(29:36):
had an individual that showed uphere last night in the middle
of the night and he's reportingthat his daughter, uh, his
daughter, is missing.
I was busy, I took a missingperson's report from him, but I
have not been able to follow upon that.
So that's the two things thathappened.
So I picked up on this missingpersons case and he told me that

(30:00):
the complainant on this was atthe Waffle House there in
LaGrange, Kentucky.
So as soon as I cleared I wentup there and I located this
individual and his name wasStabowski.
The father's name is MichaelStabowski and he reported to me
that his daughter had departedfrom their home in Peebles, ohio

(30:25):
and she had left on April 28,1995, when I went up to follow
up on this investigation.
And he says that his daughterhad left the previous day, she
had left from their home in Ohioand she was traveling.

(30:48):
She brought her brother to work, dropped him off in northern
Kentucky at his place ofemployment, then she left from
there and then she was going toEddyville Kentucky to pick up
her brother's girlfriend wholived there brother's girlfriend
who lived there and that shedrove as far south as somewhere

(31:10):
south of Louisville on I-65 whenhe received a phone call from
her telling him that she hadexperienced some mechanical
problems with her vehicle andthat she didn't believe that she
was going to be able to make itto Eddyville Kentucky and that
she was turned around, uh, tocome back home because he could,
she couldn't make it.
So she turns around there oni-65, comes back north, gets on

(31:32):
265 going around the gene snyderback towards i-71 to where she
traveled back to ohio.
And when she gets on i-71 goingnorthbound, uh, there's a rest
area there.
Uh, and she starts havingtrouble with her truck again.
Uh, it's a her truck and andthe truck is an old blue 1978

(31:53):
ford f-250 I guess they wouldcall them uh and skinny tires,
you know.
But she was having trouble withit and she pulled into that
rest area.
Uh, she made a another phonecall to her father from that
rest area because there wasn'tjust portable cell phones back
at that time.
So she made a phone call from apay station or a pay phone to

(32:17):
her father in Ohio and says hey,dad, I've made it to this rest
area and I'm on I-71, and mytruck's messed up again.
But this truck driver is tryingto help me fix it.
And he said okay, you know, I'mgonna try to get off the
interstate somewhere and I'llcall you.
So she gets off the phone.

(32:38):
He doesn't hear from her againfor quite a while.
Then she leaves the rest area,she drives to exit 22 on i-71,
which is the lagrange exit offi-71.
Um, she gets off the interstate, she pulls uh up onto a parking

(32:59):
lot of a there's.
I don't think there's any superamericas anymore, but I think
it's any.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Super Americas anymore.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
I think Speedway or something bought them all out
she pulled up on the parking lotof this Super America and this
trucker followed her in there.
You could see her truck thatshe was driving, pull on and you
see a big truck pull up aftershe had pulled.
Pull on and you see a a bigtruck pull up after she had

(33:26):
pulled on and then you see thethe big truck depart and she's
nowhere to be found after that.
And how I learned that they hadpulled on to that parking lot.
There is that when mr Stavoskyarrived there on the late night
hours of April the 27th, youknow that's where his daughter's
truck was at, so we wasassuming that she may have

(33:47):
called from there.
But the third and final phonecall, through investigation we
discovered was made fromPendleton, was Pendleton S,
kentucky, exit 28.
There was a Davis Brothers 76truck stop there.

(34:07):
Her last phone call lasted, andI'll never forget it it lasted
for 14.7 seconds and sheallegedly says to her father Dad
, I'll be at exit 22 in LaGrange, hence why he comes to LaGrange
, kentucky, to look for hisdaughter and that would be the
last time he talked to hisdaughter so let's see here where

(34:31):
is i-71 starts in louisville,right and kind of goes all the
way it does, goes all the way upinto like uh east kent, ohio
yeah, it goes away, and then soyou.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
So you're not too far from the Gene Snyder up there
in Odom County.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
No, I'm about.
We're about 18 miles from theGene Snyder right there in
LaGrange.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Okay and she's heading back.
So it kind of referencedCincinnati, so she'd be kind of
traveling from Louisvilleheading towards Cincinnati in
that way.
So how far up was the townwhere they lived at in Ohio?

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Because that's a long way.
Isn't that out in westernKentucky?
It is western Kentucky.
So the town that they lived inwas right across the river from
Maysville, kentucky.
Yeah, is where the family wasfrom.
Okay, wow.
So I sat down with Mr Stolboski.
He relays all this informationto me and I'll tell you about
the phone records and stuff in aminute.

(35:35):
Yeah, but he relays thisinformation to me and you know,
you've got somebody missing.
You know, young girl, she's 18years old, she's not even turned
19 yet.
Somebody missed.
You know young girl, she's 18years old, just made him.
She's not even turned 19 yet,not 18 years old, really.
And it seems like that there'ssomething wrong here, because
this is way out of norm for thefamily.

(35:55):
That way out of norm for thatfamily.
I said this deserves someattention.
And I, who took the cookies outof the cookie jar, had no boys.
I had to know yeah, right, youknow, I was.
I was that guy, so I startedworking this thing.
So after I met with him thereat the waffle house, uh, we went
across the street over to thesuper america and I went in and

(36:18):
I looked back during that time.
You know this black and whitevhs video, oh yeah.
So I looked at this video tapeand I could see this large
tractor trailer.
I could see her truck come onthere.
I could see this large tractortrailer come on there, but I
don't see where it went.
And then it comes out and itleaves.
I couldn't tell really whatcolor it was, though it was

(36:38):
light colored and had somewriting on the door and it was
pulling what I described back atthe time a heavy-duty, bulk
type chemical trailer.
And I was like, well, you know,obviously, you know she left
here.
Something went wrong and she'sgone right with this truck
driver whom she's met at thisrest area.
So I called my boss and I saidboss, I said we got a problem

(37:02):
with this and I said I thinkthat we need to put out some put
out a press release on this.
So he called her publicinformation officer, who came up
there and called a bunch ofnews media who was responding
there to that parking lot to doa news release about this girl

(37:23):
missing.
So, as I was telling you on theday previous, on April 27th, I
know both the big truck and MsDoboski was traveling north on
I-71.
And so I know both of them.
Their destination was somewherenorth of there and I was, uh,

(37:46):
standing in the parking lot ofthat super america and, uh, are
you familiar with the term jakebreak, compression break?
Yeah, I heard a compressionbreak on the truck and I turned
around and I looked at thesouthbound lanes of I-71.

(38:07):
And I looked directly at atruck that looked exactly like
the one that I had just seen onthe video.
Wow, you talked about divineintervention right there.
There is no other way todescribe it.
So I said, you know, I pausedbriefly, I, I paused briefly

(38:27):
like, ah, this is shot in thedark, but I'm gonna take it.
Jump on the radio.
I call a county policeman and Isaid, hey, this truck is coming
us.
Where are you?
He said I'm sitting at the.
He said I'm sitting at the 17on the southbound side.
I said when this truck comesthrough, I said, pull him over,
I'd like to talk to him.
And he found him, pulled himover and I left from the Super

(38:53):
America.
I had the victim's father andher brother with me.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Complicates some stuff.
Yes, it does.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
And my police cruiser .
It was during this time, whenwe departed the scene to go talk
to this truck driver, that thefather told me that his daughter
, whom I was trying to find, wasa young female police officer I

(39:27):
think it was with RussellvilleOhio Police Department, and that
she had just graduated from theBrown County Ohio Police
Academy.
Furthermore, he told me that hewas a chief of police.
Hmm, I learned that after I seenthis truck and was on the way
to the yeah, I couldn't leavethese people who were upset

(39:48):
there in it parking lot so Itook them with me.
I went down there I said sitstill, so I get out and they
have this.
I'm not going to say thesuspects name because he doesn't
deserve to have his name said.
Absolutely okay, yeah, exactlyokay.
So I get out in the suspectstand at the back of the truck
with the other officer, I walkup to him and identify myself.
I said look.

(40:09):
I said you know you're notunder arrest, man, we're doing a
missing person investigationhere and we're trying to locate
somebody that may have been in atruck or been seen around the
truck like the one you weredriving.
I said do you mind to talk tome?
He says no, sir, I'll talk toyou.
I said what is your?
I got his license.

(40:29):
I seen what his name was.
I said do you mind if I callyou by your first name?
He said no, go ahead.
I said well, my first name'sSonny.
I said well, just talk here fora minute.
I said listen, I did.

(40:50):
You happen to be through thisarea yesterday?
He said well, um, I'm not sure.
Uh, I don't remember, I don'tknow.
Hmm, odd, yeah, odd.
I said I said, well, mr such andsuch.
I said, uh, you're driving thiscommercial vehicle.
I know that you have a.
You run a logbook.
Oh, yeah, I got a logbook, butI lie and I cheat on it all the
time.
And I was like, oh, the spideysenses just kicked in and I
really need to know about thatcookie jar.
I want to know, I want to knowmore.

(41:10):
So I said, man, I appreciateyou cooperating with us and
everything.
I said, uh, I said did you, didyou happen to stop at the rest
area on the northbound side asyou came through Gerstee, if you
came through here, he finallyadmitted to me that he came
through there.
He said, yeah, I did.
I said did you encounter ayoung lady while he was over

(41:33):
there?
And instead of saying yeah, Idid, I looked back on it.
The manner with which heresponded to me meant a lot, but
I didn't know what it meant atthe time.
He says dad, which was hisfather, was trucking in concert
with him in another truck andtire changer did like, okay,
well, what, what happened?

(41:53):
He says, well, she was havingtrouble with her truck and they
knew that I had in his way, butI had mechanic experience and
they asked me to look at hertruck.
I said can you describe thisgirl for me?
Yeah, I said can you describethe truck?
Yeah, he described the truckjust like it, like I described
earlier.
I said, uh, what was wrong withit?

(42:15):
I said you looked her truckright.
He said, yeah, I said what waswrong with her truck?
Says, uh, I think she had athermostat in it that was
sticking.
And he said I was able to peckon the thermostat to get it to
open up.
And uh, then it was okay andshe took off and I followed her
up to exit 22 where I got offthe interstate with her and I

(42:36):
pulled up behind her there onthe parking lot and says she
told me that she had neverridden in a big truck before and
asked me to take her for a ride.
I said, really.
I said did you take her for aride?
I said really.
I said did you take her for aride?
He said yeah, I did.
He said where'd you take her to?
He said I pulled out of theSuper America Instead of turning
left to get back on I-71, Iturned right and I just went up
the hill to the Walmart and Iturned in the parking lot and

(43:13):
she got out of, took off walkingtoward the parking lot and
never, uh, and that's the lasttime I seen her, so I don't know
where she went.
No, okay, well, I appreciateyour time and everything I said.
I said, sir, I said let me askyou one more question.
I said would you have anyobjection to me looking inside
your truck?
Just just to say that you know,I know that she's not in there.
Oh, no, I said.
Well, let me ask you anotherquestion.
I said would you agree to aconsent of a search of your
truck?
He says absolutely.
So I get out the good oldconsent to search forms, go into

(43:36):
great detail, explain to himlike we're supposed to do, and
he signs a consent to searchform.
So I just walk up to the side ofthe truck and I climb up on the
side of the truck and I look init and one thing that I noticed
is that there were numerousstrands of blonde, long blonde
hair that had matter attached toone end of them, which would

(44:00):
lead me to believe that therewas something that went wrong in
that truck, some kind ofstruggle, some kind of struggle
that would have caused that hairto be removed by force because
it had some matter attached toone end and another end didn't.
So again, you know, it reallycaused me a lot of concern.
I was like, well, I'm scared,what have I got into here?

(44:20):
I'm young and I'm inexperiencedand you know, listen, I can
catch the heck out of a DUI andI'll make the heck out of a
domestic call and other crimesin progress or whatever.
But this may be somethingdifferent.
I might need some help here.
So I go back to the back of thetruck and I start talking to
this suspect.
I said look.
I said again, thank you foryour cooperation.

(44:43):
We appreciate your time.
I I said if you had a daughteryou'd probably understand you'd
want somebody to find her andall that stuff just getting
trying to get along with him.
I said I want to do a detailedsearch of your truck, but I
don't think it's safe that we doit here on the side of the
interstate.
I said if my agency will agreeto pay for having your truck

(45:05):
towed off the interstate to haveit towed, would you do that?
Yeah, yeah yeah, I'll do it, Isaid.
Furthermore, I said I'mprobably going to want to talk
to you somewhere off theinterstate too.
Will you agree to go with ussomewhere so I can talk to you?
Yeah, yeah, I will.
So back during this time periodthere were cell phones and I

(45:27):
was one of them super cool copsthat had a phone around in his
car.
So you got the victim's fathersitting in the front.
I forgot about them sittingthere.
You got the victim's fathersitting in the front seat of my
car, you got the victim'sbrother sitting in the back seat
and I'm having to come up hereand get on my cell phone and
call my boss.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
And you know, the longer your interaction with
this guy, you know that dad'sback there Because- he's
probably putting two and twotogether.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
He is.
He's putting two and twotogether.
So you know he's getting alittle bit like he is and he's
upset and his brother's upsetand I'm having to talk about
this stuff in front of himbecause I don't want him to get
out of the vehicle, is upset andI'm having to talk about this
stuff in front of him because Idon't want him to get out of the
vehicle and I had to callsomebody that's seen there to
pick those two up to get themaway yeah uh.
So, and I did so, this thesuspect agreed to uh go back to

(46:17):
the pd with me and or with, withwith us.
And we went back and I'll tellyou something I you know I
wasn't the best interviewer andI wasn't the best interviewer
and I wasn't the the fastest catin the barn back then when it
comes to sitting down,interviewing somebody and
getting information.
You know, I don't know whattool I need, but I know where a
tool is that and I can get it.
And his name is is bill bosmerand he's an old detective, uh

(46:39):
that worked for, uh, oldhamcounty pd and they, they sent
him out to help me and took himin and we interviewed him and
certain part of his interview Istarted questioning him.
You know I'm this militaristicguy.
You know, duh duh, duh, duh duh.
I wanna know this, this, this,this, this.
That wasn't the right way forme to go about it.
Bosmer kept hitting me on theleg, slow down, slow down, slow

(47:00):
down, and he gets mad.
The suspect does, he takes hisfist and he slams it against the
table and he says gee, did it,gee, did it.
You think I did it.
I did not do it.
I don't know who did it.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
At that time you accused him of anything.

Speaker 4 (47:26):
The only thing we had was a missing person.
The only thing we had was amissing person.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
He's admitted guilt.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
In the world that I live in now we call that an
admission.
Yeah, it's not a confession,but it's an admission.
You're making a you know uh,subliminal admission to me, that
about information I don't knowright.
So, uh, we got him.
Got him said.
I was like look man, I'm nottrying to make you mad or upset
you.
I said, please understand,we're just trying to do our job,
cool him out.
I said listen.

(47:56):
I said would you mind consent,you know, to a male sexual
assault evidence kit beingcollected on you?
Absolutely, I'll be glad to doit.
I want to help you boys.
I want to go join the usmarshals, come back down here
and see you.
I said, well, such and such I Iwon't say his name on here I
said, uh, that's good.
I said, well, we'll, we'll takeand get that done, I said.

(48:17):
I said I'm gonna tell you.
I got your truck secured and anofficer is sitting on it right
now waiting for us to go searchit and let's go up here and get
this sexual assault kit out ofthe way.
First.
We took him to the hospitalthere in lagrange.
They collected all thisevidence that we need.
The truck was secured at animpound lot with a commercial

(48:40):
tow truck and we had a policeofficer sitting on it.
So me, detective Bosmer and I.
He reminds me of I don't knowif you guys ever watch Hill
Street Blues.
He reminds me of Sipowitz.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
Okay, we say it.
He reminds me of Seppowitz.
Okay, we say it every time.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
He reminds me of Seppowitz.
So we go to where the truck issecured.
We take the suspect with usbecause we don't have a search
warrant.
We've got a consent to search.
We know that if he decides towithdraw consent to search any
time that we have to stop thatsearch.
We have know that if he decidesto withdraw consent to search
any time that we have to stopthat search.
Okay, so we have to set himthere while we're doing this

(49:18):
search, along with anotherpolice officer just there
watching him.
He didn't stop the search, helet us do our thing.
So as we started the search onthis vehicle, we photographed
everything.
First we climbed into it,photographed the hair and
everything else, and then welooked in the back and one thing
and a sleeper compartment.
The truck, I'll never forgetit's a 1989 International and

(49:43):
when you look between two seatsin the back there's a sleeper
compartment and it had amattress back there.
The first thing that we notedis that there was no linen
pillows or anything like thatthing that we noted is that
there was no linen pillows oranything like that, and it
appeared as though the mattressthat was the side of the
mattress was up, was dirty, usedand it looked like it may have
been laying on the other sidefor a long time.

(50:04):
I was like, well, you know,that's odd, you know.
And when, uh, we wanted to lookat the other side of the
mattress, we lifted it up.
We heard a noise on theplatform like you drop a ring or
something like that, and welooked down on the platform

(50:27):
where this mattress was layingand as we picked it up, an
earring was stuck in thismattress and it fell and hit the
platform the mattress waslaying on.
We didn't know what it meant,but we collected it.
But when we collected it and weexamined it, there at the scene
, it was a gold post angelearring and the post had been

(50:48):
bent, which would lead me tobelieve that something happened
because it had been removedbefore us.
We collected that and then whenwe flipped the mattress up, the
other side of the mattress thatwas laying down on the platform
had two big, large splotches ofwhat I believe was blood.

(51:10):
So we collected that leaf.
Was was blood.
So we we collected that.
Uh, during that search therethat night, we also collected
some other items that wouldlater out to be later turn out
to be very important.
We collected a, a, a wire, awiring kit, tools, uh and stuff
such uh like that you'd use tocut wires and stuff.

(51:30):
And we collected pieces ofwires, uh, yellow wire with like
blue connectors.
We didn't know what they meant,we didn't know if they'd been
used to do whatever, but wecollected them and once we got
done with the search here, wefound that stuff got down.
You know, I didn't have nothingto charge him with.
I had a whole lot of uneasyfeeling and suspicion, but it

(51:51):
takes probable cause to chargesomebody with a crime and I
uneasy feeling and suspicion,but it takes probable cause to
charge somebody the crime.
And I didn't feel that we hadit, neither did the other
detective there that was helpingme, and uh, we had, we had
suspicion we had a lot ofsuspicion, yeah, but you know I
can't, uh, I can't hold him nolonger.
I mean, I need probable causecharge if I want to, and I
didn't, so we had to let him go.
So this was on Friday evening,april the 28th, so we didn't

(52:16):
know what this earring meant.
So by this time the family ofthe victim the grandmother, the
mother, the brother, youngerbrothers.
They had all converged onLaGrange, Kentucky, and they
were there at a hotel.
So we took this earring backand we spoke to the family there

(52:39):
and we showed in this earring.
They said have you?
Do you know if Myra her namewas Myra?
Do you know if Myra has a pair?
of earrings like it so thegrandmother looks at it and you
know she kind of tears up alittle bit and she says that
looks like a set, one of a setof earrings that I bought for
her, uh, during christmas, theprevious christmas, which would

(53:02):
have been christmas in 1994 wow,just a couple months back yeah,
just a few months back and Isaid, okay, well, I appreciate
that.
I thought we're going tocontinue this thing and I got
you know all the information Ineeded for phone records.
And I found out I was able toget way scale records Because
there was a way scale north ofthe 28 where I know where the

(53:24):
last phone call came from.
That would have shown when thathe went across that way scale
and I'd be able to identifywitnesses and so on and so forth
and I'd have a timelineTimeline on this is going to be
important and I was able toidentify witnesses and so on and
so forth and I'd have atimeline Timeline on.
This is going to be importantRight, and I was able to
identify witnesses later.
That was important in this case.
But anyway, we go on and I knewthe route that he was trucking.

(53:44):
He was trucking, he was workingfor a company in West Tennessee
and he was trucking from acompany in Paris, kentucky, and
he was driving to east canton,ohio.
He was dry hauling dry, uh,bulk clay and he was doing that
two or three times a weekrunning back and forth on that
route.
So my boss says you know.
He says, hey, this might havebeen a case that crossed state

(54:07):
state lines.
We may need to call in someother assistance.
I said, said well, you knowyou're the boss.
And he said, well, I think weneed to call the FBI.
I said, okay, so we made a callto the FBI on Saturday morning
early.
We got in touch with them andyou know there's a lot of you
know your Bob Band thing aboutthe FBI.
I said I'm going to tell yousomething.
Those guys sent an army to uson Saturday morning.

(54:31):
They was there and they wasready to be the police and they
were completely and fullyinvolved and did a good job
helping me with this.
So I got the weigh scalerecords.
I know what time her last phonecall was made.
I know what time he crosses theweigh scale.

(54:51):
So the FBI says, hey, I thinkthat we need to do an
air-to-ground search with ahelicopter along the route that
he trucked up to that truck stop.
So we called the JeffersonCounty Police and they sent a

(55:13):
helicopter and we couldn't getup that next day until about 11
o'clock because of bad weather,it's foggy or whatever.
But we, we, we got up.
They got the helicopter up andI was, uh, I was on the ground
and my cruiser, you know, and,and with me was an FBI agent, ed

(55:34):
Evans awesome dude, he was withme and the helicopter took off
from LaGrange.
There it was traveling north onI-71.
Yeah, north on I-71.
We got up to the 28, where theDavis Brothers 76 truck stop was
at.
They searched around the areaseveral times, looked in there,
couldn't find nothing.
Then we proceeded to go onnorth toward the weigh station

(55:58):
and as we got on the interstate,going north at the 28, as we
traveled north, I could see inthe distance that there was a
bunch of buzzards.
And I was like I didn't think Iwas like.
Well, a lot of deer, tons ofdeer there in that area.
So it's not uncommon.
But as we travel north on I-71,searching slowly along the

(56:22):
interstate, my boss and my chiefwas in the helicopter at the
time with Jefferson County pilot, and he radios me and tells me
he says hey, go ahead and shutdown the the slow lane of i-71.
We got a crime scene hmm, sofrom the helicopter they were

(56:45):
able to, they was able to seethe remains, an unknown of who
it would be or whatever, butthey could.
They could.
They could see the remains ofsomebody at about the 29 and a
half mile marker on thenorthbound side of i-71 and it
was laying over a guardrail,over an embankment.
Where you couldn't see it fromthe road is a steep embankment

(57:06):
and I don't know if this is theproper word not perpendicular
with where the truck would have,would you know, would have
stopped to eject her if he did.
And we also noted as weapproached the scene, where that
body was located on theinterstate, in the slow lane of
the interstate there were doubletractor-trailer skid marks like

(57:29):
a tractor-trailer would havecome to a stop and where it had
come to a stop and in partswhere it come to a stop, it
would have been sitting out inthe travel portion of the, the
slow lane of i-71.
That would be important later.
But as we drove up there, evansand I had Evans and I got out of

(57:51):
the cruiser and we walked upand looked over the bank and
yell, we could see.
And I got out of the cruiserand we walked up and looked over
the bank and yelled we couldsee somebody you know, the
remains of somebody laying overthe bank.
Couldn't tell who it was orwhat it was, but as we looked
there at her, we looked down theground and we seen a yellow
piece of wire with a light bluein color attachment on one end,

(58:13):
and the other end had beenfreshly tied so he used his tie
that he's bounder with no, no,no, no, no, but it did tie him
to that vehicle, though, thenyeah, because that here's what
you all do.
Here's why that piece ofevidence would be so important
later on in our case, becausethat piece of evidence right
there connects the truck yeah tohim to the scene where the body

(58:36):
was found yeah, whether he usedit or not.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
That gives you more than just suspicion, because
y'all take it out so in evidence.

Speaker 4 (58:46):
So this was probably 25 or 35 feet down the
embankment where she was laying.
So I walked down to the, to theremains, to check for vital
signs just to see what was.
And there was no vital signs.
But in her right ear was anearring that looked just like

(59:15):
the one that I had recoveredfrom her truck two days
previously.
And the left ear there was noearring.
Oh, so this was a huge mediacircus, if you will.
A huge media circus, if youwill.

(59:38):
And there was a Wave 3television reporter that was
following us down the interstateand we had stopped her back
away from the scene and I'llnever forget her name.
I walk back and I'll say hername is Kelly Burkeen, and I
walk back up off the embankment.
We had, we had, we had theworld coming.

(59:59):
You know we got this crimescene.
So I went back, I said I saidmiss burkeen, I said we have a
crime scene here.
I said I'm asking you not toreport.
Give me, give me 30 to 45minutes before you report on
this, please.
And I explained to her.
I said we have a family that'swatching this stuff on TV right
now as we're doing this search,and this family does not need to

(01:00:22):
know that we have a crime sceneuntil somebody's able to talk
to them.
And she agreed.
She agreed and she didn'treport.
So, consulting with the FBI,ksp was coming.
Her body was found in HenryCounty, kentucky, henry County.
Coroner was coming.
The FBI says hey, we'll callour evidence response unit,

(01:00:43):
we'll do your scene for you.
Thank God, because you know wedidn't have the resources to do
that scene.
Ksp probably would have.
But the FBI says we're, we'rein it for a penny, we're in it
for a pound, we're here with youand, and I'll tell you those,
those guys are awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
That's awesome.
They got access to stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
That's absolutely, absolutely.
And they come in there andprocess your scene.
But, um, I've done a lot oftough things in my career.
I've delivered a lot of deathnotifications and so on and so

(01:01:23):
forth.
I've seen people killed infront of me, I've seen a lot of
bad things, but I knew that Icould not let this family learn
of this on the news.
So after the scene was securedand we had people there working
the scene, I jumped on, runnorth for a piece and turned

(01:01:46):
around and headed back toLaGrange.
It's a hundred-mile iron fastlug drive.
I was heading back.
These people need to know this100 mile iron fast, like a drive
.
You know, I was heading backthese people.
These people need to know.
And I'm not this most religiousperson, you know.
I just I have a strongChristian belief.
But I said a prayer that dayand I prayed for the words that

(01:02:18):
would lessen the blow of themessage that I was about to
receive, that I was about todeliver to these people.
And I got back to this hotelit's called the Luxbury Hotel
and back during that time youactually had rooms there that
had door keys.
So, my composer, I was a coolcommon clerk.

(01:02:38):
When I walked in, they were allin the lobby, the whole family
was, and they wanted to knowwhat was going on.
I said give me just a second.
So I walked to the clerk thereat the hotel.
I said could you please give mea key for a room that's
downstairs?
And they did and said mr andmiss stolboski, could you come
back here with me?
I need to talk to you inprivate.
And and the look, it's just thelook of dread on their face.

(01:03:04):
The, the, the, the color fellout of them and I went back and
unlocked this door and I walkedin first and mr and miss
stolboski followed me and hishotel room's got two beds and
the cop that I am, I had to set,was where my back was, not to
the door, and I put them on theother one, on the other bed, and
I reached across and I took MsStolboski's hand and I said I

(01:03:26):
have some, some news to deliver.
That's, that's not easy.
I said we've discovered theremains of what I believe to be
is your daughter.
Complete meltdown, just acomplete.
I was like God I am, I don'tknow what to do here.

(01:03:52):
So we got clergy coming.
We never had a pastor, know apastor or anything.
But we did with the OldhamCounty Police and they finally
sent someone there.
They want to know where wefound her.
I told them where we found her.
They said what, what, what, andI told them that she, you know
she was deceased and I believeit was her, clothes matched.
She matched, matched.
I said I believe it's her.

(01:04:13):
I said, but they wanted to goto the scene.
I said I can't do it.
They said please take us to.
I said no, we cannot do that.
I mean it would compromise theintegrity of the evidence and
you know that just justsomething for a defense attorney
to poke holes in.
And they said how did she die?
I said I believe that she was avictim of a homicide and

(01:04:34):
furthermore, I believe that theindividual that I had on the
road two days ago was the guythat's responsible for your
daughter's homicide.
That's what I think.
We got the clergy there, we gotsome other officers there, some
other people there.
I'm able to leave.
I'm talking to my boss.

(01:04:56):
We got to go to the CommonwealthAttorney's office.
We got drafted up.
I first got to convince theCommonwealth Attorney that we
need an arrest warrant.
So I, along with an agent withthe FBI, and I call him
Sepulvitz Bill Bosmer.
With the FBI, and I call himSipowitz Bill Bosmer.

(01:05:17):
We go and meet with theCommonwealth's attorney there in
Oldham County and in thegreatest amount of details I can
, I explained to them the reasonwhy that I think that the
individual whom I had stopped acouple days ago on the side of
the road was responsible for thedeath of this, this young
female.
They agreed with me and we wewrote, they wrote an arrest

(01:05:38):
warrant and it's back duringtime there you know we had
arrest warrants.
Go don't know if y'all went tojudge's house yeah so we had to
go to a district court judge'shouse there late that evening
and get that warrant signed.
So back up a little bit.
I've got the warrant signed.
But before getting that signedthe fbi had tracked my suspect

(01:06:02):
down again after I had releasedhim and they wanted to
re-interview him and had him intheir office in paducah,
kentucky, re-interviewing him.
At the time we found the body.
Wow so um were they just wantmore information or they just
they, they wanted from they, youknow following anything that's

(01:06:24):
following anything that you may,maybe some unanswered questions
that we didn't get.
You know, I didn't have all theanswers, uh, but they would.
They had him there, they wasinterviewing him and we got in
touch with that agent and wesaid, hey, I think his name.
Lou.
Zader was his name.
Please don't let this guy gostand by.

(01:06:45):
We found the remains of thevictim and we got an arrest
warrant coming your way.
So we got the arrest warrantsigned and, yes, we had fax
machines back then too.
So we was able to get the faxmachine, or the warrant, fax to
the McCracken County Jail inPaducah.
That's a pretty long drive.
It is, it is.

(01:07:07):
We got faxed down there and theylocked him up and that was on
April, the 30th of 1995.
Gosh, and so we had to go downand pick him up, bring him back
the next day.
I was dead, I was just spenttired.

(01:07:28):
You ever be so tired workingthat you're angry and you snap
at people?
That's where I was at andthat's outside my character.
And my boss said hey, sonny,you're too tired, you need to
slow down and take a nap for aminute, do something.
But anyway, we got up early thenext morning, we drove to
Paducah, kentucky, we broughthim back, we put him in the

(01:07:48):
Oldham County Jail and they sethis bond at $500,000 and we had
all this mountain of evidence.
Well, let me back up to theCommonwealth Attorney's Office.
So after we got this arrestwarrant you know KSP the post
commander, come out there.
There was a I think there was alieutenant from KSP and I was

(01:08:14):
scared.
I was in over my head I mean,you know there was and I was
like well, you know, okay, myinvolvement is about to end,
I'll just be a witness and myboss, state police post
commander and the FBI went inand had a meeting behind closed

(01:08:35):
doors outside me.
I was out in the waiting roomlobby and I was hoping they was
deciding who was going to takethis case and run with it.
Fifteen minutes later they comeout and they said come in,
you're taking lead on this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
I've been there.
Inside myself, I said no, butI'm still that guy that I
described earlier on.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
You've got to figure it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:06):
I want to know who took those cookies from the
cookie jar.
You've got to see it to the endnow, baby.
You've got to see it to the end.
And we had all this evidencefrom know from every KSP 41s
sick of seeing KSP.
I wrote so many of them, youknow well.
We had evidence going to KSPlab.
We had evidence going to labsin Washington DC.

(01:09:29):
Oh yeah, you had to maintainstrict chains of custody on this
evidence.
It was a very stressful timefor me.
Ksp assigned a detective tohelp me.
He helped me some.
We did searches in CallowayCounty, kentucky, and found
evidence that was important tothis case.

(01:09:50):
So I'm getting ahead of myself.
That was important in this case, so I'm getting ahead of myself
.
Later that night, on April 28,1995, I had to take the family
to the state medical examiner'soffice on Barrett Avenue in
Louisville to make a positiveidentification on this body.
So you know, everybody watchesTV.

(01:10:12):
Well, the ME takes somebody in,they pull out a slide and pull.
That's not the way it worksthis body.
So you know, everybody watchesTV.
Well, they imagine.
Well, the, the.
The me take somebody in, theypull out a slide, pull.
That's not the way it works.
You know, they put them in aroom.
There's glass window curtain,they put the.
You know, bring the remains inanother complete, just down
there, just the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
They're just a horrible meltdown um, I can't
imagine what a horrible thing tosee, I mean, you know, I'll
y'all have daughters, I do okay.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
So I don't have no daughters I got.
I got all roughneck boys, but Ido got two granddaughters now
and I can tell you something byhaving those two granddaughters,
those little girls, there'ssomething special about fathers
and their daughters.
Oh my gosh, I know.
Okay, there's something realspecial there and that was tough

(01:11:06):
for both of them.
And you know, this family was asalt of the earth family.
The father was a retired AirForce veteran.
I later found out, you know,when he come out of the Air
Force he become this chief ofpolice and his daughter wanted
to follow her daddy's.
Oh my gosh.
And this has happened.

(01:11:27):
And this family, you know theywas like.
You know we want to see justicedone and the weight of the
world was on my shoulder.
This is not about poor, poor,pitiful me.
I'm just saying I had a lot onme because I was so terrified
that I was going to do somethingwrong that was going to mess
this up.
And that's one important thing Ilearned about being a policeman

(01:11:49):
back during this time is thatthere is nothing more important,
no important, more importantattribute that a police officer
can have than to be resourceful.
Your man, be resourceful, slowdown, take a look, ask questions
, get help, because there ain'tno one policeman out here that
knows everything.
No, they don't exist.
No and uh.

(01:12:10):
But I muddled through thisthing.
The evidence, uh, first of allthe case was going to be he's
this capital case, because youhad, uh had, rape and murder.
We couldn't prove a kidnapping,but we could prove the rape, we
could prove the murder, uh, soit went on my this back during

(01:12:31):
time when dna evidence was justgetting started.
So we sent the ksp was doingour dna stuff back during that
time.
The dna was taking for six,eight months to get it back.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Yeah, so we had two sets of dna.
We had the dna from themattress and then during the
post-mortem exam um.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Did they do a rape kit?

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
for an exam.
They do a rape kit.
Well, yeah, we did lots ofblood.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So lick fluid found inside ofher matched his DNA and there
was, there was evidence of,there was substantial evidence
that she had been raped and thatevidence matched him.
The blood in the mattressmatched her.
The earring that we found insleeper we sent it off, along

(01:13:25):
with the one from her ear, tothe FBI lab, quantico, virginia.
They handled that.
Their their metallurgist giveus an opinion that it was a very
high and strong probabilitythat this was a matched pair of
earrings.
But the most important piece ofevidence in my mind, like I

(01:13:45):
talked about earlier, was thewire to see.
That wire to seen connects thatwire to the truck, to the girl,
to him.
So I sent those tools off tothe FBI lab, that wire to the
FBI lab.
They said not only do you havethe wire that this piece of wire

(01:14:06):
was cut from on the groundthere next to the body, but you
also got the tools that was usedto cut it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Because they could use.
You know, I guess it puts out a, a specific cut in that stuff.
Yes, yeah, tool marks.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Yeah, tool marks and they said we can.
We can definitively opine thatthis, this tool that you seized
two days before that you guysfound her body and this wire on
the side of the road, was thetools that was used to cut this
wire that was found on the sideof the road.
Plus, we got the piece of wirefrom the truck that this other

(01:14:43):
piece of the scene was cut from.
Yeah, so sometimes, guys, luckor divine intervention as you
call it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
I just how.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
What was the turnaround from the time that
she was reported to the time ofactually having him in custody?

Speaker 4 (01:15:04):
Okay, april, the 27th timeline, April 27th 1995.
We took a report.
Our agency took a report onmissing person from him that
night.

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
So that's about the only part of the case that you
didn't do Was take the missingperson Was take the missing
person.
Yeah, wow, so, which youprobably adopted.
I mean it's probably just partof the yeah, the case was
handled.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
Because I followed, took it and ran with it.
So on the morning of April 28thI come to work it's on a Friday
I pick up this missing personreport and I start following up
on it.
April 28th, early in theafternoon I find the truck we're
had to turn him loose.

(01:15:53):
April 28th we searched thetruck and found the evidence in
the truck.
April 29th I got the weighscale records and the phone
records.
I don't know how I got thephone.
How did you get that so fast?
I don't know.
I can't explain it.
I know that his phone carrierwas AT&T and I remember I called
AT&T Corporate Security.

(01:16:14):
It was somewhere in New Jerseyand I explained to them what we
were doing and who we are.
They say can you get us asubpoena?
And I was.
I had a good relationship withthe county attorney's office
there and they got me a subpoena.
I got the subpoena fax to themand they sent me back the
records with real.
That's awesome yeah, that's andin in conjunction with that I

(01:16:35):
was able on late friday night,april the 28th, I was able to
get the uh the way skill recordsfrom uh department
transportation in frankford.
Now, this would be importanttoo, because on those way skill
records those trucks are trackedby uh kyu number number and I

(01:16:56):
know what his KYU number was.
By looking at that I was ableto identify individuals who may
have been witnesses to himsitting there on the side of the
road through finding whobelonged to his KYU numbers.
And I tracked down severalindividuals and interviewed them
in very close proximity to thetime this happened.

(01:17:16):
These were all separateinterviews, away from everybody.
I think I did three interviewsand all three of the interviews
that I did on these truckdrivers that were from various
places in the United States alltalked about one thing that the
back of that truck was sittingin the travel portion of the

(01:17:38):
slow lane of I-71 on thenorthbound side, which matched
with the physical evidence atthe scene of the skid marks that
was up there on the scene.
So I got three independentwitnesses describing that.
You know, got the KYU stuff.
We just had a mountain ofevidence.
So uh, working overtime, givethem up, got to do a pc hearing.

(01:18:00):
You know, charge some othercrime, we got 10 days of custody
, 20 days throughout a custody.
Do a probable cause hearing.
Probable cause hearing come up.
Uh, I, along with the FBI, gavetestimony in this probable
cause hearing.
The judge ruled that.
You know we had a problemprobable call sent over to a
grand jury.
I present because the body wasfound in Henry County, kentucky,
and I believe that she wasprobably killed in Henry County.

(01:18:22):
I presented a case to a HenryCounty grand jury and they
returned indictment against him.
Initially he was represented bypublic offenders but once his
family got word of all this theyraised money.
The suspect's family raisedmoney and hired probably the

(01:18:50):
most prolific criminal defenseteam that they could hire that
was from central Kentucky torepresent him on this and I knew
who they were.
I dealt with them in otherthings and they was kind of like
the who's who of criminaldefense.
And I was like, well, there wego, this is just getting ready

(01:19:10):
to get worse.
They wore me out in court.
They wore me out Suppressionhearing after suppression
hearing.
There was all kinds of hearingsabout this DNA, which was
relatively new in Kentucky atthe time, and they wanted to go
through and I couldn't talkabout it.
I don't know nothing about DNA,I just know what DNA and we had

(01:19:34):
all these experts that wascoming in from the FBI and KSP.
It wore us out in court for along time.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
Did so?
What year did it take, like ayear to go to trial?
Two years, two years because ofall the suppression.

Speaker 4 (01:19:49):
Yeah, all suppression and we had to get all of our
evidence back.
Did the parents?

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
did the family come to every hearing Every?

Speaker 4 (01:19:55):
last hearing, they never missed one the mother, the
father the brother thegrandparents everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
I wouldn't have either.

Speaker 4 (01:20:04):
And I can't say enough good things about this is
just a family that just they'vedone it right.
They've got an excellent familyand this horrible tragedy has
has occurred and this littlegirl's trying to follow her
daddy's footsteps to be a sickperson.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
Uh yeah, just crossed paths or just to just uh are
you familiar?

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
I'm sure that you guys are.
You're my god.
You're a retired chief ofpolice.
You're going to be familiarwith this VICAP.
So when I submitted the VICAPon this case, got a call from
behavioral sciences oh yeah tellus about your guy.
I said, okay, well, he's thisold and so on and so forth, and

(01:20:50):
this is how this happened, andso on and so forth.
Can you tell us the route thathe's been trucking?
I said, well, I have a goodidea where he's been trucking
for the last couple of years andI told them the route that he
was trucking and they had anumber of open cases that were
very similar to ours.

Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
But the victims in these other cases that they had,
they were in such a state ofdecomposition and all these
girls in these other cases and Iknow you guys got truck stops
here, it's here for me A lot oflizard Truck stop prostitutes
Nobody would report immediately.
They were really interested andwanted to talk to him back.

(01:21:35):
I said well, you know he'srepresented by council and I I
would, I would bet the farm thatthey'll never let you talk to
him yeah, but you could try, andthey did and they said, no,
you're not talking to him.
Uh, so those cases were nevermade.
But post-mortem uh autopsyrevealed that Ms Stoboski died.
As you know, manner of deathwas homicide.

(01:21:57):
Cause death completedisarticulation, c2, c3, broken
neck.
But it also you know that shehad been raped, but in addition,
there too she had severalimpact sites on her head that we
couldn't figure out what it was.
Now, this is gonna call it missit.
I'm cough, you know we makemistakes.

(01:22:18):
So we searched that truck onApril the 28th.
We noticed in that truck thatthere was a blue in color I call
it, you know real policeflashlight, like we used to
carry once more time like a canof lye.
Yeah, yeah, yeah in that truck.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
We didn't seize, it didn't know what it meant,
didn't look like.

Speaker 4 (01:22:33):
We examined it, carry once upon a time Like a K-11.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, in that truck.
We didn't seize it, didn't knowwhat it meant, didn't look like
it.
We examined it, looked at it.
Didn't see anything on it thatwould.
We just didn't take it.
But when we started doing hisbackground, we went and talked
to one of his girlfriends downin West Tennessee where he was
from and she says you know, whenhe came home that night, well,
when he came home that night hewas acting very, very weird

(01:22:53):
after you guys had released himand he had this flashlight that
he carried with him everywhere.
And he goes out into the shopand he cuts this flashlight up
and he takes and throws it inhis pond out here.
So we had to do a searchwarrant for this farm down in
Callaway County, kentucky, wow,and we was able to recover

(01:23:16):
pieces of that cut-up flashlight.
Ah, and the state medicalexaminer at the time.
I know you're going to know her, I believe you will.
I think her dad is an attorneyhere in London.
Handy, yeah, tracy, tracy, yeahyeah.
Tracy's the one that done thepost-mortem and she looked at
this flashlight and she says Iwill testify that this is what
caused the impact sites on herhead.

(01:23:37):
Huh, but wow, case went totrial.
I was in the hot seat.
They set me on fire andwouldn't stand it After
everything they could.
You know that's what they do.
They're getting paid.
Yeah, they have to.
That's their job.
That's their job.
That's what they do.
They're getting paid, yeah theyhave to.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
That's their job.
That's their job and nothingpersonal.
I don't take it personally.
You get irritated at defense,but that is their job, it is
their job.
And then once you figure thatyoung cops have a harder time
than veterans, do they do?

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
It was hard for me to put it in that perspective back
then because I just didn't havethe experience that I have now.
They wrecked me over the coals.
So we got to about the eighthday of trial Gosh, that's long,
and her attorneys.
It was being tried as a capitalcase.
Have you all ever tried acapital case?
No, I've never.
When you do a jury selection,it's called individual boarder.

(01:24:23):
You take and they intervieweach potential juror
individually, wow.
And so we finally see the jury.
We had a good jury out of HenryCounty, kentucky, and in a
layman's term, I'll describe itas an eye for an eye, tooth for
a tooth kind of jury, thisdefense team that was
representing them.

(01:24:44):
If I was in trouble and neededhelp today, I would go to them.
They're just good.
They read the writing on thewall.
They knew that they had a jurythat was going to do their job.
Yeah, and the mountain ofevidence that we had was just
overwhelming.
Eighth day of trial they walkedin.
They said we're pleading guilty.

(01:25:04):
Take the death penalty.
The Commonwealth attorney sayswe ain't got nothing on the tape
.
He said you don't understand.
You can't stop us from pleadingguilty to what he's charged
with in the middle of this trial.
They pled guilty in the middleof the trial, dismissed the jury
pool because they would berecommended in a sentence.
Yeah, and he wrote a statementadmitting to the offense and the

(01:25:32):
judge gave him 25 years to life.
Well, that's the 25 years tolife back at the time of the
smash he did in Kentucky withoutthe death penalty for his
eligible and he went to prison.
So about six years ago I get acall hey, this case is coming up

(01:25:55):
for parole.
Can you give?
Would you give testimony on it?
I said absolutely so.
I called the family whom I havea decent, good relationship
with.
They're good people.
I said do you guys want to givetestimony on this?
They said we just don't havethe stamina to go relive this
again.
Would mind doing it?
I said absolutely so.

(01:26:19):
I, along with the Commonwealthattorney for that judicial
district that handled this casein North Kentucky, appeared
before the parole board.
I give about an hour and a halfworth of testimony about how
this case impacted that family,you know, and everything and

(01:26:41):
everybody involved.
The Commonwealth's attorneytold what she knew about the
case but she didn't she wasinvolved in because two
Commonwealth's attorneys thatwere involved in it were either
retired one of them was deceasedand but but she says you know
what?
This is the worst case thatwe've had in our judicial
district, that that I am awareof, and the commonwealth
attorney previous to me asked meto go and and talk about this.

(01:27:02):
She brought the whole case file, pictures to everything.
So at uh, the conclusion of thehearing, they they could have
given him parole.
They could have deferred himfor five years to be considered
for parole again in five years.
They could have deferred himfor ten years or they could have

(01:27:24):
given him the remainder of hislife in prison.
And that's what they did.
They gave him the remainder ofhis life in prison.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
So no more hearings Done.

Speaker 4 (01:27:36):
He's locked away for the rest of his life.
We'll never see, unlesssomething changes, of course, we
know how things go, so you know.
You spoke a minute ago abouthow this has the touch or smell
or feel of a divine intervention.
Yeah, so you see, certain partsit's been tough for me to talk

(01:27:56):
about.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
Okay, rightfully so.

Speaker 4 (01:28:01):
So after I left the parole hearing that day, do
y'all know much about Frankfurt?

Speaker 3 (01:28:06):
Just you know down toward the state buildings.

Speaker 4 (01:28:08):
Yeah, Public justice cabinets.
They got an office down on highhomes and me row street
somewhere in that area.
So I leave there and I'mheading back to my office out in
Lexington and and I'm going upthe hill up to us 60 toward the
other state place Academy isyeah and as I'm going up this

(01:28:37):
hill on us 60 it's four lane.
you got turn lane the middle.
I'm sitting in a turn laneright adjacent to Arby's it's,
there was a truck exactly like Idon't know the truck she was
driving.
Oh, exactly like the truck thatshe was driving on the day that

(01:29:01):
she was killed.
Wow, and it was like, for thelove of God, what has just
happened here?

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
I felt like somebody was saying we heard you Kind of
a tip of the hat thank you thankyou, old blue Ford 78 F250,
same kind of tires, white wheelssitting there.

Speaker 4 (01:29:28):
You can't explain it.
I was like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
I don't believe in coincidences.

Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
I can't for the life of me.
A simple Jake Brake sound andyou turn your head.
I mean trucks go by on I-71.
Thousands, thousands andprobably thousands an hour.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
And for that one jake break to get your attention.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
To get my attention to look at that truck.

Speaker 3 (01:30:04):
And then for you to just say, you know, because
there's a lot of trucks thatlook a lot alike, there are lot
of trucks that look a lot likethat.
There are um for you toactually go after that one or
call ahead and say, hey, thisone looks, you know, looking at
a black and white um video of ofa truck and not I'm sure you

(01:30:25):
couldn't see plates, okay onlything I've seen dot numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
There's a light colored truck.
It was pulling the type oftrailer that I had seen on the
day pre and he went up andcompleted his route.

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
come back through investigation I learned that he
was light colored truck that waspulling the top of the trailer
that I had seen on the dayprevious, had he went up and
completed his route and comeback.

Speaker 4 (01:30:36):
Through investigation I learned that he was trucking
to East Canton, ohio, where hedumped his load and he was
turning around and going back toParis, tennessee.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
Okay, so, whether he did or not, well, he did.
He went up there and dumped hisload and came back.

Speaker 4 (01:30:50):
We had FBI in East Canton, ohio searching for
evidence.
Up there.

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
Come back because we had FBI in East Canton Ohio
searching for evidence up there.

Speaker 4 (01:30:57):
It was spread out all over.
I've told you the Reader's.

Speaker 3 (01:31:02):
Digest first the best I can.
Lots of involved around.

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
If I have a message to tell to any of your young
listeners that are policeofficers out there, do your job.
Yeah, don't take that reportand throw it in the box.
Some family, somebody,somewhere is depend upon you.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
It's so, so easy just to knock out that little report
.
I gotta go turn it in my wife'swaiting on my girlfriend's way.

Speaker 4 (01:31:29):
Hey, wait a minute, there's a family here looking to
you to help them you're thepolice.

Speaker 3 (01:31:33):
Yeah, it's a selfless job and you have to be
committed.
You have to, and I know we'vefought through fatigue, we've
had a lot of stuff and there'sthat easy.
You can press that easy button.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
Oh yeah, and I you know a lot of people may not
agree with me that it's insidethe profession, but I feel like
your faith is very importantinside this type of profession.
To get you through things tohelp you.
I mean divine intervention onhelping you solve something.

Speaker 3 (01:32:13):
Because I think that case goes cold.

Speaker 4 (01:32:16):
If you missed that truck at that point in time that
could have went cold.
Through a lot of investigationwe may have been able to
identify the truck, but crucialpieces of physical evidence
Would have been gone.
Would have been gone and itwould have been it may not have
led to a conviction, there wouldhave been tons and tons and
tons.

Speaker 3 (01:32:33):
You would have had a lot of circumstantial evidence,
you may not be able to get airsupport.

Speaker 4 (01:32:37):
A lot of things.

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
You may not have been able to get an FBI to get
involved at that point you couldhave.
There's a lot of things, andI'm not saying it could.
I mean you know the Lord worksin all kinds of mysterious ways,
so it could have been.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
And I would say that there was a lot of prayers for
mommy and daddy.
I would say that there was alot of prayers for Mommy and
Daddy.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:32:58):
Oh, there's no doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:33:01):
But I've seen that stuff too in our it's just you
know, there's a greater powerthan us.

Speaker 3 (01:33:07):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
That's, you know, for the good and the bad.
I believe throughout my lifeand my career, that God has put
me where he wanted me or neededme to be.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:33:20):
Not for the good, not always for the good, but
sometimes I need to be checked.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
And I fully believe that you'll be in the right
place at the right time, or thewrong place at the right time if
you're listening.
You're right or the wrong placeat the right time.
If you're listening, You'reright.

Speaker 3 (01:33:36):
There is something you said you was talking about.
There's people, there's parents, there's people that are
counting on you, there's victimsthat are you know, and it goes
to every little thing, not justthe sympathy and the empathy of
human Like.
I don't know how many we talkedabout.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
How many wrecks have we worked parking lot wrecks,
the fender benders and it'smundane, but this is the worst
day that they've ever had.
It's a Monday for you, but it'sthe worst day that they've ever
had it's the worst day they'veever had.

Speaker 4 (01:34:11):
And they look at you, you know, and I just I don't
want to be the guy that throwsthat ball down and walks away,
says somebody else will do it noit's me, I'm gonna do it.
You know that's what I'mgetting paid to do, and it's the
right thing so let's talk aboutthe family a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:34:28):
What?
What is her full?
What was?

Speaker 4 (01:34:29):
her.
Her full name is myra dinettem-y-r-a dinette d-a-n-e-t-t-e
stalbos-A-N-E-T-T-E Stalbosky,s-t-a-l-b-o-s-k-y.

Speaker 3 (01:34:41):
You'll never forget that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
And you said that she's.
Where did they memorialize hername at?

Speaker 4 (01:34:47):
In 1995 of the pastor over the state FOP Lodge, david
Burke.
They memorialized her name onthe police officer's memorial in
Frankfurt, kentucky.

Speaker 3 (01:35:02):
That's awesome, because she was an Ohio officer.

Speaker 4 (01:35:06):
Ohio officer.

Speaker 3 (01:35:06):
Yeah, and she's been remembered in Kentucky, In
Kentucky.
That is awesome, so I want tomake sure we always remember her
and that family, what they wentthrough.
Absolutely.
That's what this podcast isabout today.

Speaker 4 (01:35:23):
That's exactly what this is about, and I spoke with
the family last night and theysaid if, by telling this story,
that you educate the publicabout things like this that
happen, the public about thingslike this that happened, give
them a higher and greaterawareness, and it saves one
person in the whole world, sinceyou've done something good,

(01:35:44):
they said by all means, pleasego tell the story, her story's
worth, always worth mentioning.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Her name should never be forgotten, I agree.
And that family, and I agree,and that family, and I will pray
for their family from now on,because I have a daughter, I can
imagine I can't imagine.
There's an officer that waslost, that I never knew about
until you told this story of her, because my first thought was

(01:36:14):
1995.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
She must have just graduated high school, um she
just graduated and then got aplace, place straight into the
brown county ohio police academyand just graduated so she was
how old then?
19, 18, 19 18 years old, hadn'tturned 19 yet that was.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
She is exactly my age I was.
I was, uh.
I was graduating high schoolthat year.
I was a hold back, not forsports, though, but uh, so her
and I are the same age.
She would be 49 years old I'llbe 49 next month and so we were
about the same age, so we're andI think, I think, I think her

(01:36:55):
birthday.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
If I remember correctly, her birthday was in
July.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
So mine's in June, so I was a month older and we'll
never know what she could havedone, but we know that we can
tell her story for the family toremember her and who she is and
who she was to them, and that'swhat's important.

(01:37:21):
Yes, the story is incredible.
The police work is incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:37:27):
I want to say that I'm not smarter than the average
bear.
I'm not the best police officerin the whole world.
Average bear, I'm not the bestpolice officer in the whole
world, and sometimes I won'tcall it luck, but divine

(01:37:48):
intervention plays a thing.
I'm not some super sleuth, youknow I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:37:55):
But you were willing to put out the effort.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
Yeah, absolutely, and that's your effort and your
desire is different than, uhlike, I always felt like my
specialty is more in the um withyou know I did sro work and I'm
still doing it and I've done itfor years.
I did a little administration.
I enjoyed that.
You know leadership side of ittoo.
But we all have our specialtiesthat we really key in it on and

(01:38:22):
dylan I mean you, you hunteddope and and those things for
years and did some detectivework and things like that and
supervision and we.
But the cool thing is now Ithink if we can learn other
things is teamwork makes thedream Absolutely and
collaborating.

Speaker 4 (01:38:40):
This was not my show.
This was not, and I want togive credit to every one of
those agencies and those peoplewho spent hours helping me along
the way.
I would have been in trouble.
Those FBIs, those guys helpedme a lot.
I would have been in trouble.
Those FBIs, those guys helpedme a lot.

(01:39:02):
The detective assigned from KSPto help me my God, for the love
of everything, Bill Bosmer.
He was just a godsend to mebecause he's like slow down,
Tiger, Settle it down here,let's slow down.

Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
Let's walk down.
This profession getscompetitive.
Yeah, but it's awesome to heara story of how everybody came
together to the common good andthe common goal.
Yes, to get what they want.

Speaker 4 (01:39:28):
Well, I had the torch .
I had a lot of people help mehold that torch and move forward
.
It wasn't a one-man show, guys.
It was not.

Speaker 3 (01:39:35):
It was not that it never is, unless you're the one
you know somewhere in alaskaremote.
Yeah, yeah that you have to doit all, but, um, it takes a lot,
and people supporting thepolice and and deputies is so
important, important, and therelationships that police build
in their community is soimportant too.

(01:39:57):
So I think, uh, without withoutcitizens in in the in the town
to support and give that back aswell, to for you to go and ask
officers or you to go and asktruck drivers along the way it
is, it's not just you got tobuild that, relationships with
people.
I I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
And this is the least important fact out of this
whole thing.
So after this case happened, hewent to jail my boss there and
the city council.
He's like we've never had adetective before, we're going to
have one now.
So they called the city councilmeeting and appointed me.

(01:40:35):
It wasn't a promotion, becauseI didn't get no more money,
which I'm not complaining, I wasthe first detective that we'd
ever had Good, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
Well, I think this story needed to be told.
I'm sure it's remembered moreup in northern Kentucky, up in
Ohio for them, and up towardsLaGrange, louisville and things
like that, but I've never heardit until there's plenty of
information out there on theinternet.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
On it too.
If you guys decide looking upand don't know if y'all have,
y'all have court in it oh yeahyeah, it's a.
It's a Henry County case, a1995 case, it's there.
Okay, interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:41:18):
If you want to check into it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
Yeah, there's pictures and videos and stuff of
the memorial event at the FOPPeace House, waller Memorial
there in Frankfurt.

Speaker 3 (01:41:29):
Well, that's awesome, that is awesome.
Today it's somber, it hurts.
It kind of gut punches you andI don't think it's hard to we
can't transition to somethingcrazy, but it's hard to, it's
hard to even.

Speaker 2 (01:41:45):
You know we weren't there, but it's hard to listen
to those yeah, this one storieslike that, especially having
when I read when you sent methat to read.

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
I at first I glanced and thought wait a second, you
know how cops are.
When I went back and I readthat your email to me three
times the case report, I guess,is what you're saying.
It was just an overview and Icouldn't.
I was like, oh my gosh.
I was like read this.

(01:42:16):
Talking to my counselor I wasworking with, he said where did
this happen?
Is this some kind of?
I said no, this was, you know,a couple hours away from us.
I never heard of it, you know,and just things like that.
So we'll always remember herand we'll keep that family in
our thoughts, because it's been30 years ago, right, like a

(01:42:38):
month ago or a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (01:42:44):
Yeah, 30 years ago I was deep in the middle of this
case.
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
I want to thank you guys for having me on here.
Yeah, thank you for coming.

Speaker 4 (01:42:51):
London, kentucky, is my hometown.
I love this place and if itwasn't for my grandbabies, when
I retire finally next year, Iwould come home, but I'm not
leaving.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
No, I don't blame you , I don't blame you.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
I don't blame you.

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
London is come visit us.

Speaker 4 (01:43:08):
I have three brothers that live here.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
The rest of my family is gone but I've got three
brothers.
Two brothers lives here in thiscounty, one lives in whitley
okay, so you get to come down alot I'll spend.
Hey, I love to come down hereand spend the time with my.
I spend time with my brother,you know, spend all day with him
let's, let's do this again.
We will yes, and and be alive.

Speaker 3 (01:43:26):
I know you got more and then I know you got a lot of
connections, so let's, let's dothat side of it too.
We'll uh, there's people thathave there's officers, there's
ems, there's fire that you know,that have stories, and it needs
to be told for the nextgeneration and plus, just for
them to kind of relive that.

Speaker 2 (01:43:47):
Yeah, it's good.
This is the.
I mean, this is a good form oftherapy really.

Speaker 4 (01:43:52):
I mean to get it out guys, I'm gonna tell you, uh,
this had had an impact upon you.
Know god, this is not about me,but it was impactful on me.
It was a very eye-opening high,high stress, you know, yeah,
high stress situation, and itwas absolutely you know well,

(01:44:13):
don't break you, we'll make youstronger.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
I've been in those.
You were talking about thatnotification.
You know I've done a couplethat still sent me into some
therapy yeah, that was where Ikept going to is in a family
room telling somebody that youknow their son's dead and I'm.

(01:44:38):
That was a hard place to be andI still just hearing you talk
about that triggers some of thatemotion on that grief and that
pain and that stress that theywere under and I was under.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
I remember throwing up in the front yard and I had
to give that notice twice wecarry so much responsibility, so
much on our shoulders because,like we said, you know you're
that family's counting on you tohave all the answers, to be
there, to be the counselor to beable to guide them through this
difficult process, when there'sno one really to guide you

(01:45:14):
through that process after,after it's all done, you know
the case is closed and it's.
You know they've got closureand then you're walking out.
You know which is I mean and wetalk about mental health a lot
on here and getting you know, Iwas lucky, and still am lucky,
to have, you know, a wife.
That is a good support systemfor me.

(01:45:34):
I can talk to her aboutanything and she just listens.

Speaker 3 (01:45:37):
She doesn't sign that you mentioned that Mine has
been a support for me for mywhole career.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
And faith, that's what I said.
I mean your faith is a must inthis profession, in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:45:50):
I couldn't imagine doing this job without a strong
faith in Jesus.
Yeah, we all fall short, we allhave our ebbs and flows in our
walk, but he definitely sendshis guardian angels over us too
and his watchful hand on us.

Speaker 4 (01:46:10):
I think he knows who we are?

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
Yeah, he knows us, he knows who we are Absolutely,
absolutely, and that transitionsus into our sponsor.
I mean, I'm proud for us tohave this type of sponsor
because you did what was that,emdr?

Speaker 3 (01:46:30):
I did EMDR.
Emdr, which is the IBE movement.
They probably have that at aplace that you may have worked
or you know that you go to andit helps.

Speaker 2 (01:46:39):
it helped me tremendously and um but uh, our
sponsor, like I said earlier, isit's ascend wellness and they
they specialize in traumatherapy and things like that, um
, for those of you who don'tknow, ascend wellness.
It's a family-owned mentalhealth practice in London,
kentucky, which is where we'reall from.

(01:46:59):
I mean, I think everybody'spretty much aware of that.
They can't tell the bag what.
They've got over 65 years ofcombined experience.
They specialize intrauma-focused care, offering
EMDR therapy for firstresponders and other impacted by
traumatic events.
When Logan died, I mean therewas a lot of us.

(01:47:22):
I never got to go.
I wish I would have.
You still need to go, I stillneed to go at some point in time
and will but their servicesalso include individual marriage
and family counseling.
No police officer would everneed to go through marriage

(01:47:42):
counseling or anything like thatMAT, substance abuse counseling
, parenting classes, supervisedvisitations and medication
management, all delivered in asupportive, client-centered
environment.

Speaker 3 (01:48:00):
Thank you all for sponsoring us.
I'm definitely going to takeyou up on the EMDR again.
I thought I'm going to behonest.
I thought it was voodoo atfirst.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
And it sounds like it Because you hold two paddles
and vibrate.

Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
I don't know if you've ever been through so.
It's desensitizing from thetraumatic.
It doesn't mean I forget,because, like you said, you just
talked about being there andthat triggered some things in,
but it puts you in rim,basically, and then you're able
to go through that with thecounseling, to where it

(01:48:39):
desensitizes that traumaticevent, doesn't mean you forget
it, but it helps you overcomesome of the trauma the emotional
response to it rather than so.
I'm a believer and I was likewhat, but it really impacted me
a lot, so thank you guys forsupporting us and we encourage
you.

Speaker 2 (01:48:57):
I mean don't be ashamed of it.
There's nothing to be ashamedabout needing to go talk to
somebody and if you aren'twilling to go talk to somebody
about some kind of traumaticevent that you've went through,
then talk to a loved one, a wife, a brother.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
Reach out to us.

Speaker 2 (01:49:12):
Call us.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
We'll tell you to call him.
We're not trained but if youneeded somebody to talk, to
listen.
We've all been through somethings in our life and we don't
know it all, but we know peoplethat can help, but sometimes
just getting it off your chestthat's what's so important about
this podcast, I think, is likeminded people getting back

(01:49:35):
together and telling stories.
It's therapy for us to do this.

Speaker 2 (01:49:39):
So again, thank you all.
Yep and Sonny, thank you forcoming on.
Absolutely Thank you, guys forhaving me.

Speaker 4 (01:49:44):
It's been a pleasure it has been and I feel, by
telling this story to you guys,I feel a closeness I didn't have
before with you guys.
Thank you for listening to me.

Speaker 3 (01:49:54):
Thank you for being here, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:57):
All right, guys, hope you enjoyed this episode, a
little more somber than whatwe're used to, but it's a great
story.
It needs to be out there.
Don't let these people beforgotten.
Don't let the ones that we'velost be forgotten.
Don't be afraid to say theirnames, and until next time we'll
see you.