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March 12, 2021 • 20 mins
When two female hitchhikers were murdered in separate incidents on the same day back in 1982, the only evidence was some blood on a glove and a tissue. It took 39 years and many man-hours of genetic genealogy tracking to finally identify their killer. A man was arrested last week for their murders. More and more often, genetic genealogy databases are helping solve long-cold crimes. Tune in for the story of these two young women.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:14):
Hi, and welcome back to forensicFridays here on kad Zoo Killer's Homicide and

(00:34):
so we tea. We hope you'vehad a good week. I got my
first COVID shot, and boy wasmy arm sore for a couple of days.
But I'm ready to get the secondone. Now, what are you
good for? You? Thank you? Anything happened with you this lord?
Anything happened with you this week?Lark? Well, Actually, Jody and

(00:54):
I both have our appointment for nineo'clock in the morning to get our poke.
So we'll line up and take oursnacks and our bottled water and our
coffee and we'll get in line.So I'm excited. It took no time
for me. I just pulled upto the place and it was drive through,
stuck my arm out the window,and they gave me a shot.

(01:17):
It took maybe fifteen minutes total,and then I sat over maybe ten minutes,
and then I said around for fifteenminutes like they tell you too.
And it was quick and I didn'teven feel it. Really wow, no
doubt. I mean, I'm noteven worried about anything like that. I
just want it. I mean,I have not been able to hug my

(01:38):
mother in over a year, andshe with you. She had her final
two shots the other day, andI boo, who cried? But now
I've got to get mine and wecan officially hug each other. So that's
right, y'all, get out therein get your damn vaccines. I'm sorry,
but there's gonna be no trouble.No one dies from there us.

(02:00):
I didn't even get sick, likeI said, I just had little you
know, I didn't have anything happenedto me. They say on the second
one, you might get a littlebit of a fever or something for a
few hours, but this first one, I didn't even feel it go in,
and and I didn't get anything buta little bit of a bruise on
my arm, for it hurt formaybe a day or so. And there's
nothing too a child, nothing toit. So worth it to be able

(02:23):
to be with your family again andhug and stuff like that and not have
to wear masks and all that mess. You know, well, I just
had no idea how I much shedamaged and how miserable I had been until
I had hacked my mom and Icried. So now I haven't seen mine
in a year, and a half. So I'm really looking forward to being

(02:44):
able to go takes the dropt longdrive up and see her. You know,
she's eighty eight. She'll be eightynine next week. So yeah,
you know, so Patrick's day,yep, gives mama's Birthday's on say Patrick's
hey, miss Cannon. So anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

(03:05):
But come on, y'all, justjust if everybody's so worried about it,
this is this is the time tobe worried about everybody else. Yeah,
get out there and get you shot. So meanwhile, and what's Scott going
for us today? Kim? Well, today I'm going to talk about another
decades old crime that was recently solvedby ancestral DNA. Again, that's really

(03:28):
exciting. I love it when youdo that. Yeah, it's awesome.
This one I hadn't really heard aboutbefore, and it was really I just
ran across it because they arrested himlast week and wow, yeah, they
just arrested him and announced it lastweek. And so I wanted to tell
you a little bit about these girlsand about the guy that committed the crimes

(03:50):
that's now in jail. Who whoohoo, I'm all ears now. I
can't imagine why they're folks out therewho don't want this to be used,
but there are. I could seeif they were finding innocent people and throwing
them in jail using this, butthat's actually it's the opposite. They're helping
find criminals that could possibly lead tothe release of innocent people who may be
wrongfully convicted and in jail. Soif they'd had this technology back in the

(04:15):
thirties, when Joe Aridi from ourTuesday episode was executed for a crime he
didn't commit, he might not havedied at least not in the idea,
not in the gas chamber like hedid. I can't I can't imagine a
more horrible way to go. Well, I see what you're saying, and
I know that a lot of peopledon't see it from the flip side,
but that's how I see it.Hey, this can prove your innocence as

(04:38):
much as you can prove your guilty. Come right, It's science. Science
is so very cool, so please, yes, it is so so Back
in nineteen eighty two, January sixth, to be exact, two women were
picked up while hitchhiking. They weren'ttraveling together. They didn't know each other,
and they were picked up separately inseparate incidents on the same day,

(05:00):
hitching home from out near Breckinridge,Colorado, And for those who don't know,
that's kind of west northwest of Denver. Their names were Barbara Joe Bobby
Oberholtzer, aged twenty nine, andAnnette k Shne, aged twenty two.
New Babie. Joe's body was foundthe day after she disappeared near the summit

(05:21):
of Hoosier Pass, and Annett's bodywasn't found for six months later in a
rural area of Park County near fairPlay, which is just south of Breckinridge,
like maybe twenty minutes south. Bothwomen had died from a gunshot wound,
and orange booty sock was found atboth crime scenes. Annette was wearing

(05:42):
one of them, and on herother foot was her own striped sock.
The matching one was stuffed in hercoat pocket. So I don't know what
that was all about. Did hemake them change into orange booty socks or
you know? If so, hwy, Well, yeah, everybody's got there
kink, so there, Yeah,that's a weird fetish though, I'll watch
you wan't you wear these orange bootysocks. Well, you just never know

(06:08):
what does it for some of theseguys. Well maybe one day soon we'll
have the answer to that question.Because last week March third, like I
said, police announced and arrest inthe cases. Alan Lee Phillips, now
seventy, of Clear Creek County inColorado was charged with the murders of both
women. He'd been under surveillance fora while and was arrested in a traffic

(06:30):
stop with no resistance. These aretwo more cases, like I said,
that we're solved using genetic genealogy.They had obtained a DNA profile having a
hard time today a DNA profile ofthe possible killer back in nineteen ninety eight
when the technology was in its infancy, but there weren't any matches in CODUS,
the FBI database, which is alot of you probably already know,

(06:53):
since you're all true crime fans,stands for Combined DNA Index System. Really,
after that, there wasn't a wholelot they could do to solve the
murders other than hope they got alead from somewhere sometime in the future.
And although it took another twenty threeyears get a lead they did awesome.
Now, It's it's not like thesegirls were out hitching at two or three

(07:15):
in the morning after some hard partyingor anything. I mean, this still
wouldn't be okay for them to bemurdered by somebody. But these these kidnappings
happened during the day. It's believedAnnette was hitching her way back home to
get ready for work because she hada shift at a at a bar and
grill that started at eight pm.So she was last seen around four forty

(07:35):
five pm earlier in the day.But I guess she was hitch hiking along
the road and nobody saw anything,so it's probably not well traveled road or
something. She was found, asI said, six months later, about
twenty miles south of Breckinridge, faceddown in a stream. Now you'd think

(07:57):
in July, six months after shedied, there wouldn't be much left,
but there was enough for an autopsysince they think she was killed on a
night that saw minus twenty four degrees. Wow. Yeah, I couldn't believe
that I had not got that coldin Colorado near you know, that close
to Denver. But evidently, andshe was also laying in a cold stream

(08:20):
for all that time face down,and so she'd been preserved pretty well.
They could tell she'd been shot inthe back and had either bled out or
had frozen to death. They thinkbled out, but you know, it
could have happened either way, rightright combination? Sure? Yeah, Now,
Valby Joe was seen last around eightpm. It was also most likely

(08:43):
hitchhiking home after having a few drinkswith her co workers at the village pub.
Now, this girl evidently fought backand for her Yeah, she had
a man's blood on her glove andthere was a tissue nearby with a man's
blood on it, and that's wherethey got their DNA back in two that
they finally were able to sequence inninety eight. Wow, after all that

(09:03):
time. Now, Bobby Joe wasmarried and her husband had made a special
keychain for her with a hook onthe end of it for self defense.
So to my thinking, they haven'ttold really, but to my thinking,
she probably used that hook and gota good swipe in on him and then
ran. Good for her, Ihope it hurt like ow. Yeah,

(09:24):
But the killer caught up with herand shot her in the chest and another
bullet grazed her right breast and shewas left there on her back in a
snow bank to die. As onewebsite put it, she then seemed to
have gone over the snow embankment towardsa stand of trees, running away from
him, stopping short of the trees. And then she's afraid of getting lost.

(09:46):
I guess she started retracing her tracksback before she evidently met up with
the guy again and she was shotand slid down the snow embankment a short
distance before coming to rest dying.So basically, she literally raced for her
life, but she lost now.Allan Lee Phillips, the guy they arrested,

(10:07):
is a part time mechanic, semiretired, a father and a grandfather
who lived all over Colorado. Theblood from Bobby Joe's glove and the tissue
belonged to him. They know thisbecause of a company in Denver called United
Data Connect co founded by a formerDenver District attorney by the name of Mitch
Morrissey. Love that wom with thehelp of UDC in Denver, Crime Stoppers

(10:31):
and the Colorado Burea of Investigation inthe FBI. All these guys working together,
and that's hard to do. Theyused genetic genealogy to track down Phillips
from the blood on the glove andthe tissue. There were over twelve thousand
people in the Phillips family tree thatthey had to go through one by one

(10:52):
to narrow it down to find hisfamily, his immediate family. That's the
thing about these genetic genealogy studies,it's a labor intensive thing to do.
Lots of hours, lots and lotsof hours go into narrowing down these family
trees through the DNA websites to focuson a specific person. So and then

(11:13):
it's not over. They have toget DNA from that person to be absolutely
sure that they match their DNA samplefrom the crime scene. So they followed.
They tailed Phillips for about six weeksto finally get something with his DNA
on it to test to make thefinal match, and it did. That's

(11:33):
awesome. When I asked if theythought Phillips might have committed more than just
these two murders, Sheriff Tom McGrawbasically said, it's very possible, especially
dealing with someone these with these violenttendencies, and they're just waiting to see
how it all shakes out. Inother words, they're looking to see if
there's anybody else out there, andyeah, hopefully they can solve some more

(11:56):
crimes with this. You know,well, good deal, good job.
Yeah. Now, in Nette's mom, who's eighty eight, like my mom,
said she didn't think she'd lived tosee the day. That had been
thirty nine years of hell waiting forthem to find who did this to her
daughter. Ah, Bobby Joe's husbandsaid in a statement, I cannot think

(12:18):
enough all who never gave up thesearch for the truth. They are,
without doubt extremely dedicated in extraordinary individuals. Phillips is finally in the hands of
the judicial system. May justice beserved. And I'm sure I know what
his idea of justice is exactly minewould be. I think, on a
flip the switch, here we go. Yeah. Ah, well that's good,

(12:43):
that's awesome. Bobby Joe had aneleven year old daughter when she was
murdered, who said she'd lived witha monster in her head for thirty nine
years and now she could finally beat peace. I bet she's probably imagining
everything she could possibly imagine. This, Oh, a little girl growing up,
and at eleven, she was probablyafraid he's gonna come and get her.
You know how that is, Well, yeah, exactly. Now,

(13:05):
this isn't the only cold case thatwas solved in the Denver area and announced
last week, David Dwight Anderson,sixty two, off Kozad, Nebraska,
was arrested for the nineteen eighty onekilling if Sylvia may Quail, thirty four
inside her home. They got toconfirm the DNA from the same labs,

(13:26):
the same company that did the otherDNA testing did this testing, and they
followed him around just like they followedthe other guy around, and they got
his DNA from a vanilla coke can, which led to his arrest. Love
it, Love it. The realreason we wanted to work on this case

(13:48):
is that if you read the factsof this case and you think about these
two beautiful young women lying in thesnow after being shot in the darkness by
themselves, dying basically freezing to death, it would make you not give up,
said Mitch Morrissey, the head ofUDC. That's all the former attorney,
Yeah, it would make you wantto answer the question of who would

(14:09):
do such a horrible thing to somebody. So he's very dedicated to this,
I guess, being a former DA, he wants to see these crimes salved
as much as the other people do. So it's pretty It's just to show
you guys out there who think aboutdoing something like this, that it's getting
harder and harder to get away withsomething like this. Even if you think

(14:31):
you got away with it forty yearsago, may catch up with you pretty
soon, So don't get caught.And I love it. I do too,
I too, very very happy aboutthat, and so I was happy
to bring this story up because thisis happening more and more. I'm so
happy to see it more and more. And like I said, I can't
imagine anybody who would be against this. I if I had a relative who

(14:56):
was murdered, would want to seethis used everywhere because I'd want to be
able to finally find out who didthat. You know. Well, my
thoughts on that is that people whoare against it just don't really understand the
magnitude and the amazing thing that isscience well, and I don't. I

(15:16):
don't think they maybe have a frameof reference to know where these people are
coming from, that have these familymembers who have been murdered like this,
you know, right, So right, I mean, I can't imagine anybody
who had who would not want thisto be used, you know, I
don't know. It's it's hard tospeculate. Lots of people are just they're

(15:39):
all about keeping their wagons in acircle, which is kind of kind of
rotten, because if you really dowant to look out for each other and
make the world a better place them, this is one of a wonderful way
you can be a part of thatwell. And it's also a warning to
people who want to murder somebody,You're going to get caught one of these
days. You're gonna get caught oneof these days, and it's gonna be

(16:03):
your time. It's gonna be yourtime. So yeah, but that was
my story today. It was aquick one, and just wanted to get
that news since it only happened lastweek, out to everybody and let them
know this is working. The systemis working all over the country, and
I love it. I'm happy tolove it. Yeah. Yeah, And

(16:23):
it's only gonna get bigger and bigger. They'll become a larger database, and
and it won't take so long,even though it's saying a long time now,
eventually won't take long at all,just like fingerprints, you know.
And it's really used to have totake days to look at the fingerprint.
Now it doesn't. I don't knowhow long it takes, but I know

(16:45):
it doesn't take a week to matchup two fingerprints anymore. But this is
all really exciting and it's good newsclosure for family. So thanks him,
Okay, thank you. So besure to listen to Tuesday's episode because it
was a miscarriage of justice if youdidn't already hear it, where a man

(17:07):
in nineteen thirty nine was executed fora murder he didn't commit, right,
And I think they knew he didn'tcommit it back in nineteen thirty six or
thirty you know, when they wereinvestigating it, but they just didn't want
to admit it. So he waswrongfully executed along with the man who actually
admitted to doing it. So doyou get a chance to go listen to
that one't two, and stay tunedfor next Tuesday's Two Chicks in a Crucifix

(17:30):
where Lark's going to talk about somethingor is it me it's my turn?
Next week? Is it's Kim's turnto talk about? Really awesome? On
Monday on Two Chicks in a Crucifix. Yeah, I don't know what that's
gonna be yet. But well,if you want something a little fun,

(17:52):
a little crazy, a little justget yourself out of this world for a
minute or two. Check us outon sign Up Cross the Facts, and
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(18:12):
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(18:34):
up to because I'm only planting tomatosend another week or so, I know.
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(18:56):
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(19:17):
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(19:38):
So um, you know, justsaying meanwhile, thank you again for
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