June 27, 2023 • 43 mins
Theresa Lynn Morris was a Phenix City, Alabama mother of four who was found deceased behind a Piggly Wiggly in Ladonia, Alabama on April 28, 1994. There wasn’t much left of her. Her head was missing and it appeared the remains were likely scattered by animals. She had been missing since April 2nd before she was found deceased. She was only 21 years old when she died, but her entire life had been troubled. According to her daughter Danica Hovey, she had her first child at 15 and was sexually abused as child.
Theresa was born in California on October 18th, 1972. Her mother parents were Diane Pulaski and William Morris. Theresa was the middle child of three. She has an older brother named Kenneth and a younger sister named Melissa who recently passed away.
Unfortunately, other than a tiny newspaper article in an Alabama newspaper article there is no information about Theresa. Theresa’s story deserves to receive as much media coverage as anyone else’s. And since her case has been mostly forgotten, it reduces the chances her killer will ever be arrested.
Theresa was the mother of four children who lost their mother when they were young. So, none of them have any memories of spending Mother’s Day with her or even celebrating birthdays, holidays or even sitting around the family dinner table having a nice dinner together. Unfortunately, someone took her life and has denied her children of creating any memories with her.
For Theresa’s story, I spoke to her daughter Danica Hovey. This is the conclusion of a two-part story. If you have any information about this unsolved homicide, please contact the Russell County Sheriff’s department in Phenix City, Alabama at 334-298-6535.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
Theresa was born in California on October 18th, 1972. Her mother parents were Diane Pulaski and William Morris. Theresa was the middle child of three. She has an older brother named Kenneth and a younger sister named Melissa who recently passed away.
Unfortunately, other than a tiny newspaper article in an Alabama newspaper article there is no information about Theresa. Theresa’s story deserves to receive as much media coverage as anyone else’s. And since her case has been mostly forgotten, it reduces the chances her killer will ever be arrested.
Theresa was the mother of four children who lost their mother when they were young. So, none of them have any memories of spending Mother’s Day with her or even celebrating birthdays, holidays or even sitting around the family dinner table having a nice dinner together. Unfortunately, someone took her life and has denied her children of creating any memories with her.
For Theresa’s story, I spoke to her daughter Danica Hovey. This is the conclusion of a two-part story. If you have any information about this unsolved homicide, please contact the Russell County Sheriff’s department in Phenix City, Alabama at 334-298-6535.
Please also visit my website for more information about my true crime and paranormal newspaper columns at www.themarcabe.com. You can also help support my podcast by purchasing a cup of $5 coffee every month. To help support the podcast, please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/catchmykiller. If you would like to contact me about this podcast, please visit my websites www.catchmykiller.com or www.themarcabe.com where you can submit a case.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to try to
(00:33):
bring attention to the cases that haven'treceived much media attention, if any.
This week's story involves a twenty oneyear old Alabama woman named Teresalyn Morris,
who was found dead and wrapped upin a blanket behind a Piggy Wiggly store
in Ladonia, Alabama, on Apriltwenty eighth, nineteen ninety four. The
(00:56):
young mother of four had vanished onApril second, ninety four. Her homicide
has remained unsolved for nearly thirty years. This is the conclusion of a two
part story, and if you haven'talready listened to the first half, please
go back and listen to it.Teresa Len Morris was a Phoenix City,
(01:29):
Alabama mother of four who was founddeceased behind a Piggy Wiggly and Ladonia,
Alabama, on April twenty eighth,nineteen ninety four. There wasn't much left
of her once she was found,and what did remain of her was likely
scattered by animals. She had beenmissing since April second before she was found
(01:52):
deceased. Teresa was only twenty oneyears old when she died, but her
entire life had been troubled. Accordingto her daughter Danica, she had her
first child at fifteen and was alsosexually abused as a child. Teresa was
born in California on October eighteenth,nineteen seventy two. Her parents were Diane
(02:15):
Pulaski and William Morris. According toher daughter Danica, it was unknown whether
or not William Morris was actually herbiological father. Teresa was a middle child
of three. She has an olderbrother named Kenneth and a younger sister named
Melissa, who recently passed away.Other than a tiny newspaper article in an
(02:38):
Alabama newspaper, there is no informationabout Teresa's death, and that is a
major issue with telling her story andmany of the stories that I share.
There are videos, news coverage,and other information that I can share about
the victim's story, and for storieslike Teresa's, these are the reasons why
(02:59):
do this podcast. Teresa's story deservesto receive as much media coverage as anyone
else's, and since her case hasbeen mostly forgotten, it reduces the chances
that her killer will ever be arrested. Teresa was the mother of four children
who lost their mother when they wereyoung, so none of them have any
(03:20):
warm memories of spending Mother's Day withher, or even celebrating birthdays, holidays,
or even just sitting around the familydinner table having a nice dinner.
Unfortunately, someone took her life andhas denied her children of creating any memories
with their mother. Teresa's daughter Danica, has reached out the law enforcement for
(03:40):
help and trying to find out whathappened to her mother nearly thirty years ago.
Unfortunately, there is no longer anygenetic evidence and she doesn't have many
people who can speak to her abouther mother's final moments alive. She was
able to connect with the man whofound her mother's body, but he wasn't
(04:01):
able to provide any useful information forTeresa's story. I spoke to her daughter,
Dannekah Hovey. This is the conclusionof a two part story, and
now on with Teresa's story as toldby her daughter Dannikah Hovey. During the
(04:21):
first half of this story, Ihad spoken to Teresa's daughter, Danica about
genetic evidence being left behind. Danikatold me that there was actually genetic evidence
left behind. Unfortunately, law enforcementdid not keep the evidence in a storage
facility. Instead, they turned itover to the funeral home with Teresa's remains.
(04:46):
The evidence was then disposed of.Had it been buried with Teresa's remains,
it would then have been possible forlaw enforcement to exhume Teresa's remains and
then examine it for genetic evidence.Janika had shared with me her frustration over
no one's storing evidence that could havepossibly led to the arrest of her mother's
(05:11):
killer. Had they had stored itproperly and kept it, they could have
tested that. With the way technologyhave come now, they could have taken
that out of evidence and test itto see if there was DNA on it.
But now they can't. And Ididn't know that. I just found
that out. I thought they hadthis evidence locked away somewhere and we could
pull it out and I know itmight take some time, but get them
(05:33):
to retest it. And then Ifind out. I read the report and
everything was signed over to the funeralhome. So I called McMullan, which
is a local funeral home here.I called them to see if they could
pull the report because it said thatif the clothes were sent with her in
the body bag, that it wouldhave been buried with her. I was
going to pay to get her bodyexhumed, to get that stuff out of
(05:56):
there and to get it tested.Yeah, I was going to ask about
getting her exhumed. So maybe thereis some type of evidence that remained behind
or do you think there's a chancethat there's anything that could be useful.
It wouldn't help us. There wasn'tenough of her left to get a right
kid. I mean, there wasn'tenough of her, and that's the messed
(06:20):
up part. I think that's reallya shame. But I think back in
ninety four that DNA was still inthe stages of early development, So I'm
not thinking that a lot of differentpolice departments were thinking about storing evidence and
(06:40):
instead they just found it easier tojust dispose of it. I don't really
know how it works out with differentpolice departments, but I've heard stories that
some kept items even back from theeighties because they figured there might be some
type of advances and technology, whileothers just one and disposed of the items.
(07:01):
I don't think there was a setstandard among every police department in the
country. I don't think there everhas been. I think they just saw
do whatever it is they do.Yeah, but if you're going to say
you're investigating something as a murder,common sense would tell you we need to
hang on to this because this caseis a murder investigation, not a suicide
(07:23):
or an accident. Why keep itopen all these years? Well, you'd
be surprised how uncommon common senses thesedays, not with just law enforcement,
but just people in general. Youain't never lied? And where are your
mom's remains today? You said she'sburied. Do you live near the area
(07:44):
where she was buried? So thestate paid for her burial. She is
buried in town. I have notbeen to her grave. It has a
marker on it, it doesn't havea headstone or anything. I wouldn't see
the point. If those things werewith her, I would seriously look into
getting her body zoomed and getting thatevidence out of there. But since they
(08:07):
disposed of it, there's no point. I'm not going to disturb what's left
of her to try to prove apoint when it's not going to do me
any good. Now, how didyou find out about the evidence being disposed
of? Did law enforcement tell youthis or did you learn this from the
funeral home? The police report thatI read stated that they signed it over
(08:28):
and then I called McMullin. Theypoured her file and it says that they
disposed of her stuff because it wasconsidered a biohazard. So to me,
it really sounds like you're truly stuckbehind the proverbial eight paul in your mother's
case because you don't have any evidence. You don't have anything, so you
really don't have a good starting placeto find out what happened to your mother.
(08:54):
But I would suggest that even thoughyou don't have that much to go
on, that you still keep upwith the police and see which you can
find out on your own. Ican tell you one of the very first
interviews that I ever did when Ifirst started this podcast several years ago,
the young lady I interviewed was tryingto get justice for her brother because her
(09:16):
brother's death was ruled an accident,if I recall, and she told me
several years ago, I'm not gonnalet this go until I find out what
happened to my brother and his killergoes to prison. While low and behold,
she just put up a recent postthat the person who shot her brother
to death has been arrested and chargedwith the murder of her brother. So
(09:41):
she's never let go, and shetold me several years ago she's going to
keep going till she gets justice.So it's taken her while to have this
success because it's taken her years becauseher brother's been deceased for a while.
So if you're really determined to findout what happened to your mother, then
I think it's just something that you'regonna have to stick it out no matter
(10:05):
how long it takes, because itcould be a very lengthy process for you
to ever find out what truly happenedto her. But she was your mother,
and I'm sure to you it's worthit to wait. Whatever time you
spend and trying to find out whathappened to her, it will all come
down to being worth it if you'reable to get the truth. That's been
(10:26):
me for the past three weeks.I had an appointment with the sheriff over
in Merstll County, which is inAlabama, where her death happened, and
I sat down with the guy fromthe DA's office and I was explaining to
them my questions, my concerned datesthat didn't match up. So there's one
(10:48):
piece of evidence left somewhere unless it'sbeen crushed or disposed of whatever. After
asking Daneka about a potential suspect beinginvolved killing her mother, she told me
that her and her siblings have anidea that they know who did this.
However, the police have never officiallynamed anyone as a suspect, so I
(11:11):
bleeped out the name for privacy reasons. There's a car out there somewhere that
was reported that was driving and couldhave possibly been involved with her murder.
And I actually had to get withmy sister to find this car because nothing
would come back on the VIN number. And my sister actually found the rest
(11:35):
of the VIN number that the policecouldn't find. And when I went and
had this meeting with the sheriff andthe guy from adia's office, I said,
y'all are missing a number on thisthen, which is why nothing ever
came back on it. And Itold him I'm like, there should be
a four at the end of that, and both of them looked at me,
like, what are you talking about? I said that vin number that
y'all are trying to search for thecar of that y'all are trying to find.
(11:56):
I said, y'all have the wrongven number. I said, you'll
have all of it, but number, which is why it's coming back in
valid or not registered. And theywrote down a fall on both of their
papers. Is something that is thatsimple that y'all miss But I'm thirty two
years old. I don't have anyexperience in this. And me and my
sister put turns you together and foundthe last then number on a car that
(12:18):
y'all should have been searching for thirtyyears ago. According to Danica, the
only possible evidence left behind of hermother's homicide is a vehicle that she believes
was used to transport her mother's bodyafter she was killed. She hasn't had
any luck with finding the vehicle andbelieves that if it can be located,
it could provide biological evidence leading toher mother's killer. We will take a
(12:43):
short break in return with Danica explainingthe significance of locating this missing vehicle.
So tell me more about this car. What's the significance of it. So
(13:07):
it's a card that owned when mymom went missing and when she was found
dead, he was driving this car. It is believed to be the car
that she was transported in when shewas killed. The way that she was
wrapped in the blanket, it hada hole in it, and it was
a twin size blanket, and thisblanket had a hole in it, and
part of the blanket was pulled throughthat hole. Like it was used to
(13:28):
fot her in from one location toanother. It wasn't like she was wrapped
in it and somebody just dumped her. This was like used as a support
thing to tote her body. Andthey believed the Dodge Daytona was used to
transport her body from wherever she waskilled to wherever she was dumped. And
law enforcement has been looking for thecar supposedly supposedly yes, until I gave
(13:56):
him the last number on the VN. So I don't know where the car
is now. It's not registered,but I don't know if it's been crushed
or if at the junkyard or whatever. But that would be our last piece
because you can clean a car andyou can get the blood stain out,
but you'll never get rid of thetraces of blood. Well, and this
was nineteen ninety four, so ifthe body was transported in this car,
(14:20):
then I'm sure the person who wasdoing it wasn't really thinking about cleaning the
car. I mean, I'm surethe person was thinking about cleaning it,
but knowing that there's DNA, peopletry to be a lot more careful about
not leaving trace evidence behind. Yes. Well, if I'm not mistaken,
cars from the eighties and nineties hadvelvet in a lot of their cars anyways,
(14:46):
and I'm pretty sure it was likethe burgundy dark red velvet or carpet
whatever it was, But I'm prettysure the color kind of blended with the
blood. So even if you wereto try to spot clean it or just
clean it real quick. Yeah,So in other words, you're not going
to get all of the blood outbecause the blood's actually going to leave a
(15:07):
stain that you can't remove. Yeah, but that's the last piece of evidence
that would connect him to the murder, And we don't know where it's at.
If the sheriff wanted to look,I'm sure they could locate it,
but as near the pavilion, wecan't locate it. And I'm guessing that
if whoever possibly killed your mother andtransported, or if it was done with
(15:30):
a car, I'm sure that ifthis person got rid of the car,
he probably didn't go too far awayto get rid of it. If he
didn't sell to someone, he probablyjust got rid of it somewhere local,
a local junkyard or scrapyard, I'msure. And then you have to figure
that there's only so many junkyards outthere. How many are out there,
(15:50):
Probably not a whole lot, maybejust a few. Well, I'm not
mistaken. There's only two in Alabamaand one right within a startain distance for
me. So back then, I'mnot even sure if all of them are
open. So if you didn't havemany options back then like you do now,
(16:10):
right, and well, you know, it's possible that they may keep
records. Have you contacted your localjunkyards. I have not. That is
a very good idea. I havenot thought about that. Well, you
know, it's like these landfills,these garbage companies that come and pick up
your trash. Although they pick upmillions of pounds of garbage, they actually
(16:33):
keep track of where they dumped thetrash from all different houses. I believe
the landfills are sectored off, soif law enforcement or anybody else was looking
for something specific, something say dumpedin a particular dumpster at a certain area,
so it might be the same thingwith a junkyard. Well, I'll
(16:56):
be making some calls tomorrow. Well, it certainly doesn't to look I mean,
based on what you're saying, thevehicle wasn't sold because there's no records
of the VN number being anywhere,And if this individual didn't actually destroy the
vehicle and hide it somewhere, theymay have just dropped it off at a
(17:17):
landfill or junkyard somewhere. But again, it doesn't hurt to check it out.
I mean, who knows. Youcould get lucky in maybe someone at
the junkyard or the local landfill mightknow something, or maybe that employee has
worked there for a long time andmaybe there was something distinctive that they remember
(17:37):
about someone or that vehicle. Butthat's a really good idea. Well,
so on the report that I gotwhen we did run the VN number,
So I wasn't going to pay toget the history or whatever. But there's
only one owner reported on that car. But I didn't want to pay the
twenty dollars to see who the ownerwas. Well, it's possible that someone
(18:00):
up records of this vehicle. Wedon't really know. It's been almost thirty
years, but it's definitely worth checkinginto. I know I would look into
it. I might even look at, say not just the local junkyards or
scrap yards, maybe say within twentyor thirty miles of the area where your
mom's body was found. It's wortha shot. Now, does this guy
(18:22):
that your family suspects of killing yourmother, does he have any friends or
ex girlfriends or family members that arestill alive that you could possibly speak to.
Maybe this guy said something to afamily member or close friend. And
a lot of these cases, sometimesthese guys will talk to someone, you
know, maybe get it off yourchests, or maybe just a brag that
(18:47):
I don't know. However, somethingthat it's messed up in ironic is this
guy married a Teresa and that justdoesn't sit right with me for some reason.
And I don't know, it couldjust be you know, coincidence,
whatever. But he beat my mom. There is record of that. There's
a police report there. He wentto jail for beating my mom and broke
(19:10):
bones in her face. And thelast words to her was I'll get you,
bitch, And then when you getout of jail, she's gone.
Well, and here's something else.You know, sometimes when these guys commit
a crime, they may not eventell their family member, but you know,
they're incarcerated, so and if they'vebeen incarcerated for a while, I
(19:32):
guess they developed friendships with other inmates. And some of these criminals have been
known to tell or confide in otherinmates with information about the crimes they committed.
And I know this does happen oftenbecause there's many cases that have been
sold because of this. But thebottom line is, you know, did
(19:55):
this guy talk to someone? Andin this particular case, based on what
you've told me about this guy,it really wouldn't surprise me if I learned
that he had confided in someone aboutwhat he had done to your mother.
Okay, so about that. Apparentlywhile he was in jail, he admitted
(20:17):
to two different people he killed her, and one of those people wrote a
letter to somebody on the outside datingThis guy told me he took care of
a female in Phoenix City, dumpedno body behind a pigligally like all the
details of it, and a letterto I guess a family or friend or
whatever. But the police have acopy of that letter that this guy wrote
(20:41):
to somebody outside of jail, butthey won't let me see it. Well,
that would be considered hearsay, butstill you would think that law enforcement
would be able to do something withthat. Exactly, you have two different
people that he admitted to while hewas in jail that he killed her and
dispose of the He took care ofit as he fed, and he's living
(21:03):
his best life and never had todeal with the consequences of his actions,
or didn't really serve any consequences forthe beating. He gave her nothing.
The battery case is still open againstmy mom, and I went up there
to the spirit for it and Isaid, why she's dead. I need
to get a copy of what happened, you know, the day that the
report was made. I need tosee the officer notes, all this stuff.
(21:27):
But I can't see it if it'sstill open. It's been almost thirty
years. Why is this case stillopen. If she's dead, you can't
prove nothing. You can't charge himwith anything because she is no longer here.
Well, most likely if he's goingto discuss his crime with a couple
of fellow inmates. It's highly probablethat he may have said something to an
(21:49):
ex girl friend or possibly a friendor a relative. It sounds like this
guy probably is one of those menthat people to know what he did.
I mean, you do have theguys that commit crimes and they do tell
people, because otherwise, what's thepoint of being able to get away with
(22:10):
a crime if you can't tell someoneabout it. It's an ego trip and
we all know that a lot ofthese guys have one Ted Bundy, for
example, who had a bigger egothan that guy. What's hether thing is
is my uncle refuses to talk tome about my mom and Kenneth will super
good friends when my mom was missing. That's how my mom met was through
(22:34):
Kenneth. And I think Kenneth knowsabout it, and that's why he doesn't
want to talk to me about it. So you're saying that your uncle,
who's your mom's brother, refuses todiscuss your mom's homicide. It's kind of
strange that he refuses to talk aboutit. I mean, especially if he
won't discuss it with his own familyand he refuses, he will not.
(22:57):
I have never talked to him,taught to him on Facebook messenger, but
I've never had a compatient in personwith him ever, never met him.
Nothing he refuses to talk to me. Is there anyone else in your family
that he might talk to? Nope. And I'm sure there's a reason behind
this, yep. And you saidthat he was friends with this guy who
(23:18):
you all suspect of harming your mother. He have a quite extensive criminal history.
He was born in seventy and hiscriminal history started in nineteen eighty nine
when he wrought the church, andhe's been in and out of jail his
whole life. So he was alwaysmixed up with the wrong people. And
the people that my mama was introducedto you were the wrong people. And
(23:40):
that's all she really knew was peoplethat was introduced to her, except for
my dad. At this point,I was curious as to why Danika head
weighted nearly thirty years to try tofind out what had happened to her mother.
I often get many different answers whenI make this inquiry. People will
begin searching for answers immediately after aloved one is killed, while others may
(24:06):
wait for years we will take afinal break in return with what has motivated
Dannicus quest for justice? Now,are there other people in your family that
(24:30):
are trying to find out what happenedto your mother? Or are you the
only person that's trying to get answersright now? It's just me. It's
not even me and my sister.It's just me. I'm keeping my sister
in the loop, but I'm theonly one that doing these meetings, is
making these phone calls, it's goingthese places, that is doing all of
(24:51):
this, and I'm just relying whatinformation I get back to them. Okay,
So then let me ask you this, after thirty years, why not
just let it rest in peace andjust move on. What is motivating you
all these years later to try tofind out what exactly happened to your mother?
(25:12):
Why now? I picked it uplast year, me and my brother.
Over the past two or three years, I've gotten super close and just
something I've never been at ease withjust letting it go. My curiosity got
a little bit higher when my auntMelissa passed away, because my outlet wasn't
here anymore to bounce these questions offof, because I know she would have
(25:34):
answered them honestly. But when myoutlet was gone, I felt like I
had to hyper focus and try toget some kind of answers for myself because
all I have her story, She'snot here to defend herself on anything story.
So I felt like I needed concretethings to read about her, whether
they're good or bad. I neededsomething for myself. I can't just listen
(25:56):
to what people have to say becauseit's one sided, now, you know.
I always like to ask people whythey are trying to get answers for
their loved ones. I mean,I find it really interesting how people have
different reactions to this question. Okay, for example, I've reached out for
(26:18):
all the episodes that I've done.There's also been a lot of people that
I have reached out to who havetold me absolutely not, I don't want
to do a podcast. I don'twant to talk about my deceased loved one.
And I ask, but can youtell me why, And they'll tell
me the person's gone. We justlet that person go. We just leave
it up to the police. Nobodyin the family wants to get involved.
(26:41):
And I'm thinking, well, ifyou leave it up to the police,
it'll never get solved. And alot of homicide cases, I think that
many of them don't get solved unlessthere's a family member or someone else who
was close to the victim who reallypushes for it. And I'd like to
use an example of the person Ispoke to you earlier, Amanda. She
(27:03):
was one of the first people thatI ever spoke to when I started my
podcast, and she's an amazing womanand somebody that I look up to and
admire. I'll call her a heroshe really is, because her brother was
killed. Someone shot him to death, and it was a homicide in her
(27:26):
eyes, but officially it was justruled an accident and Tennessee law enforcement never
wanted to pursue it. This happenedall several years ago, and this young
lady told me she would never letthis go. She would keep pushing for
justice. She would contact everybody thatshe could contact, and she would do
everything humanly possible to get the manwho killed her brother locked up in prison
(27:51):
for killing her brother. And recentlyit happened this guy was arrested, and
I recently saw a Facebook post fromher where she said, finally, after
all these years, I'm going tosit in a courtroom and I'm going to
stare down the man who killed mybrother, and I want him to know
that I'm the reason why he's goingto go to prison. Those are very
(28:15):
powerful words, and I admire thatabout her, you know, because she
just never gave up, and shetold me she would never give up,
and I believed her. And Ijust knew that this young woman would find
out who killed her brother. Iknew it because I had so much faith
in her. And I'm not knockinganyone that doesn't pursue anything. I mean,
if you want to just let yourfamily member rest in peace and not
(28:38):
get involved and just let it go, I understand if that's what you want
to do. But I always liketo find out the motivation that makes someone
want to pursue justice, or eventhe motivation behind someone who doesn't. The
reasoning. It's night and day betweenpeople. You know. People want to
(29:02):
get answers for different reasons, onebeing this was my loved one and I
love this person and I'll never quit. I'll keep doing it. Or this
was my friend and we grew uptogether and this person meant so much to
me, this person did this forme, Or this person helped me when
I was down and I feel likeI owe them, So that's another reason.
(29:22):
So everybody has their own reasons,you know, either way, whether
you want to do something or not. I don't judge anyone, but I
just like to know people's thoughts onwhy they want to push for justice.
The thing about doing this is ifsomebody happened to follow you, or has
someone happened to listen to your stuffthat would know something and didn't know who
(29:45):
to contact or you know who toreach out to, it could spark that
one person. What's interesting about podcastsis that a lot of people listen to
them. You really only need oneperson with a solid lead, something that
law enforcement can act upon, andyou just never know where that one person
(30:08):
is. You just have to findthat person, like like damn, I
know about that right, and youonly need that one person because again,
a lot of people like to listento podcasts, and there's people that watch
true crime shows and a lot ofthem have actually been solved by people who
(30:33):
have either listened to a podcast orwatched something about a criminal on a true
crime program. I'll give you agood example. I'm a big fan of
John Walsh, and for many yearshe's been profiling criminals that are on the
run. And I think about allthe people that he's captured with his program.
(30:55):
I believe he's probably helped capture overone hundred different people. And if
you think about it, if notfor America's Most Wanted, I'm sure a
lot of the guys that he profiledwould still be running the streets. I
can remember the first time I eversaw the show was back in nineteen eighty
eight or nineteen eighty nine, whereJohn Walsh profiled John List, and I've
(31:22):
never forgotten that story. Are youfamiliar with John List? I'm not.
Well. John List was this psychopathwho killed this entire family. He killed
his mother, his wife, andhis children. He shotted him to death,
and then he lined their bodies upside by side by side, and
(31:44):
then he split and no one eversaw him again. John Walsh did the
story about John List, and thenthey had someone do a bust of him
of what he would look like basedon age progression technologology, and they showed
this and I'm going to say thatwithin months of that episode airing, someone
(32:09):
recognized List a neighbor, I believe. And the thing was, although he
had left and been gone for allthese years, his habits were still the
same. He was an accountant whenthey found him, he was doing accounting
work, which he had always done. He was a Lutheran, so he
continued the same faith as a Lutheran. Even though he was gone for so
(32:32):
many years, he still maintained thesame type of life. And he did
this throughout the time that he wason the run. So eventually someone called
in who recognized him, and sureenough was John List, and he was
living under an alias. He wascaptured and sent to prison, and he
(32:54):
eventually died in prison. But hedid get away with killing his family for
many years. Wow. So hadit not been for John Walsh profiling lists
on America's most wanted lists, probablywould have gotten away with killing his family.
I doubt if he would have evergot captured because no one knew about
(33:17):
John List or the story. I'venever heard of it, and neither had
anyone else in America, not really, except for probably the law enforcement department
that originally handled the case. Buthe had been gone for so many years
that I'm sure that law enforcement probablyassumed that he was dead. But this
episode was profiled about him, andthe public got to see who this guy
(33:42):
was in this case. It onlytook a few people who recognized him which
led to him being captured. Likeyou said, podcasts are, they're starting
to be really, really popular anda lot of people like the true crime,
the homicide and the mystery behind it. So if this conversation right here,
this podcast is to reach one,just one person that it could possibly
(34:06):
know something, then you've done morethan you could ever probably do for me.
Yes, And it's just a matterof getting your mother's story out there.
All you need is the right personto hear it. But what I
find sad about your mother's case isthat there is nothing about it. There
was just that one little tiny articleof your mother's homicide and it was probably
(34:29):
what three paragraphs long, and that'sit. If that's all you have,
you're not going to find very manypeople that know anything. So now tell
me, if anyone has any informationabout your mom's case and they're listening to
this, who do they need tocall if they know anything? What police
(34:50):
apartment is handling your mother's case.It would be Russell County Sheriff's office.
And that's an Alabama correct, Yes, it's an Alabama. And are you
using any type of social media tohelp people learn about your mother's case.
No, no, no, howno, I have not used social media
platform yet. When I went andmet with the sheriff every Musta County,
(35:14):
he said to hold off posting throughthe Project Cold Case. He said to
hold off for them posting on Facebookand on that because we might spook somebody,
which doesn't make any sense to me. Well, I will definitely have
to respectfully disagree with the sheriff's departmentthere. I mean, they've had this
case for thirty years. What doyou mean they're going to spook someone?
(35:35):
Who are you going to spook afterthirty years? At this point doesn't really
matter. And one of the thingsthat I always tell people that I talked
to is that social media it's justanother tool. And I find it interesting
that there are law enforcement departments thatdon't use it, and there are also
some that do use it. Butwhy wouldn't you use it? Why not
(35:58):
put something out about a case onyour Facebook page? You just never know
who's going to see it. Andthat's why I always recommend that, if
nothing else, just put up aFacebook page about your loved one. You
can also request tips through your pageand then people will tell me, well,
yeah, but I don't really havea lot of information, or what
(36:19):
if I don't have enough to puton my page. Well, the solution
is fairly simple. You don't haveto just put your family members information on
there. I'm sure there's plenty ofother cases in your local area, in
the same area where your mother waskilled, other unsolved cases. You can
share those stories. You can sharestories from different areas of the country.
(36:43):
You can help bringing attention to otherpeople's cases other than your mom's. And
you just put out fresh content asthe bottom line and invite people to participate,
look at pictures, and like Isaid, the more people who visit
your page and return, the betterthe chances are that you'll find the right
(37:05):
person that knows something. Because anotherthing that's good about social media is people
like to share. So someone seessomething about your mom and they know nothing
about it, they may feel freeto share it on their Facebook page and
ask people on their page to shareit. So it's not unusual for a
story to go viral. And thenyou also have producers and other podcasters that
(37:30):
come across these stories and they mayreach out to you to put the episode
on say I D Discovery or maybeanother podcaster will want to do an episode
about your mother. But unfortunately,right now, it's a typical podcaster can't
do anything about your mother's case becausethere's nothing about it. There's no information
(37:51):
about her case. So the onlyway that they could get any information would
be to speak to you. Soif they wanted to speak to you,
they could go through your page andcontact you. So, you know,
social media could really help your mom'scase and push it forward, and I
always suggest people do it. There'sno reason not to do it. It's
(38:12):
free. You can put it onTwitter, you can put it on TikTok.
These platforms are all free, sothere's no reason not to use social
media. Yeah, that's definitely agood idea. So it would probably be
a good idea for you sometime downthe road to just go ahead and put
together a basic Facebook page and justinvite people to learn about your mother's story.
(38:35):
I think that was a scare tactic. Well. I've spoken to many
other people who have told me thatlaw enforcement has encouraged them not to put
the story on social media or notto ask the public for help. I
really don't understand why any law enforcementagency would do that. I mean maybe
if it's the first couple of weeksor first couple of months of something happening.
(39:00):
But in your mother's case, we'retalking about it happened thirty years ago.
They've had plenty of time to catchthis guy and they haven't. So
it's not like anything you do isgoing to hinder any type of investigation.
After thirty years, What are yougoing to hinder? Who are you going
to spook? Maybe you'll get someonetalking and someone will say something stupid thirty
(39:22):
years later, and that would begood. You don't know who's going to
listen. You don't know who's goingto react. There's no reason for you
not to ask the public to helpyou out if they know anything. Okay,
And with that being said, myfinal question for you would be for
anyone out there that's listening to thispodcast, if they happen to know anything
(39:44):
about what happened to your mother,what would you say to that person or
persons if they knew about it.I wish they would have came forward,
regardless of what they were scared of, because they could have put a very
dangerous man behind bars. But sayingthat, I do understand being scared because
(40:04):
I've been in that situation. However, I just hate that her four kids
never got answers, They never hada piece of mind, they never had
closure, nothing. We've been handedan empty box and I'm trying to fill
it with as much as i canwhile I can. But if anybody did
know anything, or does know anything, it's not too late. And this
(40:29):
concludes the story of Teresa Alone Morris, who was killed nearly thirty years ago.
She never had a chance to trulybe a mother or create any memories
with her children. She had thefirst of her four children at fifteen.
She would eventually be found dead behinda Piggy Wiggly store in Ladonia, Alabama,
(40:51):
on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninetyfour. Unfortunately, her four children
have no memories of their mother.Teresa's daughter, Dannika Hovey, has stepped
up and decided that she wants tofind out who killed her mother and why.
There was biological evidence left behind atone time, most likely, but
(41:12):
it wasn't maintained and eventually discarded.Dannika faces an uphill battle in her quest.
There is no evidence, as shehas said that law enforcement won't provide
her with any useful information. Doyou know who killed this young mother of
four back in nineteen ninety four.If you have any information about this unsolved
thomicide, please contact the Russell CountySheriff's Apartment in Phoenix City, Alabama at
(41:38):
three three four two eight six fivethree five. I will also be sure
to provide this information in the casestory notes. And if you are a
parent, law enforcement official, friend, or relative seeking justice for an unsolved
thomicide case, please visit my websiteand complete the contact form. You can
(41:59):
also to contact with your Facebook.Thank you for listening
Hello, and welcome to the CatchMy Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly
newspaper column about true crimes and missingpeople for the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With the column and podcast, myobjective has always been to try to
(00:33):
bring attention to the cases that haven'treceived much media attention, if any.
This week's story involves a twenty oneyear old Alabama woman named Teresalyn Morris,
who was found dead and wrapped upin a blanket behind a Piggy Wiggly store
in Ladonia, Alabama, on Apriltwenty eighth, nineteen ninety four. The
(00:56):
young mother of four had vanished onApril second, ninety four. Her homicide
has remained unsolved for nearly thirty years. This is the conclusion of a two
part story, and if you haven'talready listened to the first half, please
go back and listen to it.Teresa Len Morris was a Phoenix City,
(01:29):
Alabama mother of four who was founddeceased behind a Piggy Wiggly and Ladonia,
Alabama, on April twenty eighth,nineteen ninety four. There wasn't much left
of her once she was found,and what did remain of her was likely
scattered by animals. She had beenmissing since April second before she was found
(01:52):
deceased. Teresa was only twenty oneyears old when she died, but her
entire life had been troubled. Accordingto her daughter Danica, she had her
first child at fifteen and was alsosexually abused as a child. Teresa was
born in California on October eighteenth,nineteen seventy two. Her parents were Diane
(02:15):
Pulaski and William Morris. According toher daughter Danica, it was unknown whether
or not William Morris was actually herbiological father. Teresa was a middle child
of three. She has an olderbrother named Kenneth and a younger sister named
Melissa, who recently passed away.Other than a tiny newspaper article in an
(02:38):
Alabama newspaper, there is no informationabout Teresa's death, and that is a
major issue with telling her story andmany of the stories that I share.
There are videos, news coverage,and other information that I can share about
the victim's story, and for storieslike Teresa's, these are the reasons why
(02:59):
do this podcast. Teresa's story deservesto receive as much media coverage as anyone
else's, and since her case hasbeen mostly forgotten, it reduces the chances
that her killer will ever be arrested. Teresa was the mother of four children
who lost their mother when they wereyoung, so none of them have any
(03:20):
warm memories of spending Mother's Day withher, or even celebrating birthdays, holidays,
or even just sitting around the familydinner table having a nice dinner.
Unfortunately, someone took her life andhas denied her children of creating any memories
with their mother. Teresa's daughter Danica, has reached out the law enforcement for
(03:40):
help and trying to find out whathappened to her mother nearly thirty years ago.
Unfortunately, there is no longer anygenetic evidence and she doesn't have many
people who can speak to her abouther mother's final moments alive. She was
able to connect with the man whofound her mother's body, but he wasn't
(04:01):
able to provide any useful information forTeresa's story. I spoke to her daughter,
Dannekah Hovey. This is the conclusionof a two part story, and
now on with Teresa's story as toldby her daughter Dannikah Hovey. During the
(04:21):
first half of this story, Ihad spoken to Teresa's daughter, Danica about
genetic evidence being left behind. Danikatold me that there was actually genetic evidence
left behind. Unfortunately, law enforcementdid not keep the evidence in a storage
facility. Instead, they turned itover to the funeral home with Teresa's remains.
(04:46):
The evidence was then disposed of.Had it been buried with Teresa's remains,
it would then have been possible forlaw enforcement to exhume Teresa's remains and
then examine it for genetic evidence.Janika had shared with me her frustration over
no one's storing evidence that could havepossibly led to the arrest of her mother's
(05:11):
killer. Had they had stored itproperly and kept it, they could have
tested that. With the way technologyhave come now, they could have taken
that out of evidence and test itto see if there was DNA on it.
But now they can't. And Ididn't know that. I just found
that out. I thought they hadthis evidence locked away somewhere and we could
pull it out and I know itmight take some time, but get them
(05:33):
to retest it. And then Ifind out. I read the report and
everything was signed over to the funeralhome. So I called McMullan, which
is a local funeral home here.I called them to see if they could
pull the report because it said thatif the clothes were sent with her in
the body bag, that it wouldhave been buried with her. I was
going to pay to get her bodyexhumed, to get that stuff out of
(05:56):
there and to get it tested.Yeah, I was going to ask about
getting her exhumed. So maybe thereis some type of evidence that remained behind
or do you think there's a chancethat there's anything that could be useful.
It wouldn't help us. There wasn'tenough of her left to get a right
kid. I mean, there wasn'tenough of her, and that's the messed
(06:20):
up part. I think that's reallya shame. But I think back in
ninety four that DNA was still inthe stages of early development, So I'm
not thinking that a lot of differentpolice departments were thinking about storing evidence and
(06:40):
instead they just found it easier tojust dispose of it. I don't really
know how it works out with differentpolice departments, but I've heard stories that
some kept items even back from theeighties because they figured there might be some
type of advances and technology, whileothers just one and disposed of the items.
(07:01):
I don't think there was a setstandard among every police department in the
country. I don't think there everhas been. I think they just saw
do whatever it is they do.Yeah, but if you're going to say
you're investigating something as a murder,common sense would tell you we need to
hang on to this because this caseis a murder investigation, not a suicide
(07:23):
or an accident. Why keep itopen all these years? Well, you'd
be surprised how uncommon common senses thesedays, not with just law enforcement,
but just people in general. Youain't never lied? And where are your
mom's remains today? You said she'sburied. Do you live near the area
(07:44):
where she was buried? So thestate paid for her burial. She is
buried in town. I have notbeen to her grave. It has a
marker on it, it doesn't havea headstone or anything. I wouldn't see
the point. If those things werewith her, I would seriously look into
getting her body zoomed and getting thatevidence out of there. But since they
(08:07):
disposed of it, there's no point. I'm not going to disturb what's left
of her to try to prove apoint when it's not going to do me
any good. Now, how didyou find out about the evidence being disposed
of? Did law enforcement tell youthis or did you learn this from the
funeral home? The police report thatI read stated that they signed it over
(08:28):
and then I called McMullin. Theypoured her file and it says that they
disposed of her stuff because it wasconsidered a biohazard. So to me,
it really sounds like you're truly stuckbehind the proverbial eight paul in your mother's
case because you don't have any evidence. You don't have anything, so you
really don't have a good starting placeto find out what happened to your mother.
(08:54):
But I would suggest that even thoughyou don't have that much to go
on, that you still keep upwith the police and see which you can
find out on your own. Ican tell you one of the very first
interviews that I ever did when Ifirst started this podcast several years ago,
the young lady I interviewed was tryingto get justice for her brother because her
(09:16):
brother's death was ruled an accident,if I recall, and she told me
several years ago, I'm not gonnalet this go until I find out what
happened to my brother and his killergoes to prison. While low and behold,
she just put up a recent postthat the person who shot her brother
to death has been arrested and chargedwith the murder of her brother. So
(09:41):
she's never let go, and shetold me several years ago she's going to
keep going till she gets justice.So it's taken her while to have this
success because it's taken her years becauseher brother's been deceased for a while.
So if you're really determined to findout what happened to your mother, then
I think it's just something that you'regonna have to stick it out no matter
(10:05):
how long it takes, because itcould be a very lengthy process for you
to ever find out what truly happenedto her. But she was your mother,
and I'm sure to you it's worthit to wait. Whatever time you
spend and trying to find out whathappened to her, it will all come
down to being worth it if you'reable to get the truth. That's been
(10:26):
me for the past three weeks.I had an appointment with the sheriff over
in Merstll County, which is inAlabama, where her death happened, and
I sat down with the guy fromthe DA's office and I was explaining to
them my questions, my concerned datesthat didn't match up. So there's one
(10:48):
piece of evidence left somewhere unless it'sbeen crushed or disposed of whatever. After
asking Daneka about a potential suspect beinginvolved killing her mother, she told me
that her and her siblings have anidea that they know who did this.
However, the police have never officiallynamed anyone as a suspect, so I
(11:11):
bleeped out the name for privacy reasons. There's a car out there somewhere that
was reported that was driving and couldhave possibly been involved with her murder.
And I actually had to get withmy sister to find this car because nothing
would come back on the VIN number. And my sister actually found the rest
(11:35):
of the VIN number that the policecouldn't find. And when I went and
had this meeting with the sheriff andthe guy from adia's office, I said,
y'all are missing a number on thisthen, which is why nothing ever
came back on it. And Itold him I'm like, there should be
a four at the end of that, and both of them looked at me,
like, what are you talking about? I said that vin number that
y'all are trying to search for thecar of that y'all are trying to find.
(11:56):
I said, y'all have the wrongven number. I said, you'll
have all of it, but number, which is why it's coming back in
valid or not registered. And theywrote down a fall on both of their
papers. Is something that is thatsimple that y'all miss But I'm thirty two
years old. I don't have anyexperience in this. And me and my
sister put turns you together and foundthe last then number on a car that
(12:18):
y'all should have been searching for thirtyyears ago. According to Danica, the
only possible evidence left behind of hermother's homicide is a vehicle that she believes
was used to transport her mother's bodyafter she was killed. She hasn't had
any luck with finding the vehicle andbelieves that if it can be located,
it could provide biological evidence leading toher mother's killer. We will take a
(12:43):
short break in return with Danica explainingthe significance of locating this missing vehicle.
So tell me more about this car. What's the significance of it. So
(13:07):
it's a card that owned when mymom went missing and when she was found
dead, he was driving this car. It is believed to be the car
that she was transported in when shewas killed. The way that she was
wrapped in the blanket, it hada hole in it, and it was
a twin size blanket, and thisblanket had a hole in it, and
part of the blanket was pulled throughthat hole. Like it was used to
(13:28):
fot her in from one location toanother. It wasn't like she was wrapped
in it and somebody just dumped her. This was like used as a support
thing to tote her body. Andthey believed the Dodge Daytona was used to
transport her body from wherever she waskilled to wherever she was dumped. And
law enforcement has been looking for thecar supposedly supposedly yes, until I gave
(13:56):
him the last number on the VN. So I don't know where the car
is now. It's not registered,but I don't know if it's been crushed
or if at the junkyard or whatever. But that would be our last piece
because you can clean a car andyou can get the blood stain out,
but you'll never get rid of thetraces of blood. Well, and this
was nineteen ninety four, so ifthe body was transported in this car,
(14:20):
then I'm sure the person who wasdoing it wasn't really thinking about cleaning the
car. I mean, I'm surethe person was thinking about cleaning it,
but knowing that there's DNA, peopletry to be a lot more careful about
not leaving trace evidence behind. Yes. Well, if I'm not mistaken,
cars from the eighties and nineties hadvelvet in a lot of their cars anyways,
(14:46):
and I'm pretty sure it was likethe burgundy dark red velvet or carpet
whatever it was, But I'm prettysure the color kind of blended with the
blood. So even if you wereto try to spot clean it or just
clean it real quick. Yeah,So in other words, you're not going
to get all of the blood outbecause the blood's actually going to leave a
(15:07):
stain that you can't remove. Yeah, but that's the last piece of evidence
that would connect him to the murder, And we don't know where it's at.
If the sheriff wanted to look,I'm sure they could locate it,
but as near the pavilion, wecan't locate it. And I'm guessing that
if whoever possibly killed your mother andtransported, or if it was done with
(15:30):
a car, I'm sure that ifthis person got rid of the car,
he probably didn't go too far awayto get rid of it. If he
didn't sell to someone, he probablyjust got rid of it somewhere local,
a local junkyard or scrapyard, I'msure. And then you have to figure
that there's only so many junkyards outthere. How many are out there,
(15:50):
Probably not a whole lot, maybejust a few. Well, I'm not
mistaken. There's only two in Alabamaand one right within a startain distance for
me. So back then, I'mnot even sure if all of them are
open. So if you didn't havemany options back then like you do now,
(16:10):
right, and well, you know, it's possible that they may keep
records. Have you contacted your localjunkyards. I have not. That is
a very good idea. I havenot thought about that. Well, you
know, it's like these landfills,these garbage companies that come and pick up
your trash. Although they pick upmillions of pounds of garbage, they actually
(16:33):
keep track of where they dumped thetrash from all different houses. I believe
the landfills are sectored off, soif law enforcement or anybody else was looking
for something specific, something say dumpedin a particular dumpster at a certain area,
so it might be the same thingwith a junkyard. Well, I'll
(16:56):
be making some calls tomorrow. Well, it certainly doesn't to look I mean,
based on what you're saying, thevehicle wasn't sold because there's no records
of the VN number being anywhere,And if this individual didn't actually destroy the
vehicle and hide it somewhere, theymay have just dropped it off at a
(17:17):
landfill or junkyard somewhere. But again, it doesn't hurt to check it out.
I mean, who knows. Youcould get lucky in maybe someone at
the junkyard or the local landfill mightknow something, or maybe that employee has
worked there for a long time andmaybe there was something distinctive that they remember
(17:37):
about someone or that vehicle. Butthat's a really good idea. Well,
so on the report that I gotwhen we did run the VN number,
So I wasn't going to pay toget the history or whatever. But there's
only one owner reported on that car. But I didn't want to pay the
twenty dollars to see who the ownerwas. Well, it's possible that someone
(18:00):
up records of this vehicle. Wedon't really know. It's been almost thirty
years, but it's definitely worth checkinginto. I know I would look into
it. I might even look at, say not just the local junkyards or
scrap yards, maybe say within twentyor thirty miles of the area where your
mom's body was found. It's wortha shot. Now, does this guy
(18:22):
that your family suspects of killing yourmother, does he have any friends or
ex girlfriends or family members that arestill alive that you could possibly speak to.
Maybe this guy said something to afamily member or close friend. And
a lot of these cases, sometimesthese guys will talk to someone, you
know, maybe get it off yourchests, or maybe just a brag that
(18:47):
I don't know. However, somethingthat it's messed up in ironic is this
guy married a Teresa and that justdoesn't sit right with me for some reason.
And I don't know, it couldjust be you know, coincidence,
whatever. But he beat my mom. There is record of that. There's
a police report there. He wentto jail for beating my mom and broke
(19:10):
bones in her face. And thelast words to her was I'll get you,
bitch, And then when you getout of jail, she's gone.
Well, and here's something else.You know, sometimes when these guys commit
a crime, they may not eventell their family member, but you know,
they're incarcerated, so and if they'vebeen incarcerated for a while, I
(19:32):
guess they developed friendships with other inmates. And some of these criminals have been
known to tell or confide in otherinmates with information about the crimes they committed.
And I know this does happen oftenbecause there's many cases that have been
sold because of this. But thebottom line is, you know, did
(19:55):
this guy talk to someone? Andin this particular case, based on what
you've told me about this guy,it really wouldn't surprise me if I learned
that he had confided in someone aboutwhat he had done to your mother.
Okay, so about that. Apparentlywhile he was in jail, he admitted
(20:17):
to two different people he killed her, and one of those people wrote a
letter to somebody on the outside datingThis guy told me he took care of
a female in Phoenix City, dumpedno body behind a pigligally like all the
details of it, and a letterto I guess a family or friend or
whatever. But the police have acopy of that letter that this guy wrote
(20:41):
to somebody outside of jail, butthey won't let me see it. Well,
that would be considered hearsay, butstill you would think that law enforcement
would be able to do something withthat. Exactly, you have two different
people that he admitted to while hewas in jail that he killed her and
dispose of the He took care ofit as he fed, and he's living
(21:03):
his best life and never had todeal with the consequences of his actions,
or didn't really serve any consequences forthe beating. He gave her nothing.
The battery case is still open againstmy mom, and I went up there
to the spirit for it and Isaid, why she's dead. I need
to get a copy of what happened, you know, the day that the
report was made. I need tosee the officer notes, all this stuff.
(21:27):
But I can't see it if it'sstill open. It's been almost thirty
years. Why is this case stillopen. If she's dead, you can't
prove nothing. You can't charge himwith anything because she is no longer here.
Well, most likely if he's goingto discuss his crime with a couple
of fellow inmates. It's highly probablethat he may have said something to an
(21:49):
ex girl friend or possibly a friendor a relative. It sounds like this
guy probably is one of those menthat people to know what he did.
I mean, you do have theguys that commit crimes and they do tell
people, because otherwise, what's thepoint of being able to get away with
(22:10):
a crime if you can't tell someoneabout it. It's an ego trip and
we all know that a lot ofthese guys have one Ted Bundy, for
example, who had a bigger egothan that guy. What's hether thing is
is my uncle refuses to talk tome about my mom and Kenneth will super
good friends when my mom was missing. That's how my mom met was through
(22:34):
Kenneth. And I think Kenneth knowsabout it, and that's why he doesn't
want to talk to me about it. So you're saying that your uncle,
who's your mom's brother, refuses todiscuss your mom's homicide. It's kind of
strange that he refuses to talk aboutit. I mean, especially if he
won't discuss it with his own familyand he refuses, he will not.
(22:57):
I have never talked to him,taught to him on Facebook messenger, but
I've never had a compatient in personwith him ever, never met him.
Nothing he refuses to talk to me. Is there anyone else in your family
that he might talk to? Nope. And I'm sure there's a reason behind
this, yep. And you saidthat he was friends with this guy who
(23:18):
you all suspect of harming your mother. He have a quite extensive criminal history.
He was born in seventy and hiscriminal history started in nineteen eighty nine
when he wrought the church, andhe's been in and out of jail his
whole life. So he was alwaysmixed up with the wrong people. And
the people that my mama was introducedto you were the wrong people. And
(23:40):
that's all she really knew was peoplethat was introduced to her, except for
my dad. At this point,I was curious as to why Danika head
weighted nearly thirty years to try tofind out what had happened to her mother.
I often get many different answers whenI make this inquiry. People will
begin searching for answers immediately after aloved one is killed, while others may
(24:06):
wait for years we will take afinal break in return with what has motivated
Dannicus quest for justice? Now,are there other people in your family that
(24:30):
are trying to find out what happenedto your mother? Or are you the
only person that's trying to get answersright now? It's just me. It's
not even me and my sister.It's just me. I'm keeping my sister
in the loop, but I'm theonly one that doing these meetings, is
making these phone calls, it's goingthese places, that is doing all of
(24:51):
this, and I'm just relying whatinformation I get back to them. Okay,
So then let me ask you this, after thirty years, why not
just let it rest in peace andjust move on. What is motivating you
all these years later to try tofind out what exactly happened to your mother?
(25:12):
Why now? I picked it uplast year, me and my brother.
Over the past two or three years, I've gotten super close and just
something I've never been at ease withjust letting it go. My curiosity got
a little bit higher when my auntMelissa passed away, because my outlet wasn't
here anymore to bounce these questions offof, because I know she would have
(25:34):
answered them honestly. But when myoutlet was gone, I felt like I
had to hyper focus and try toget some kind of answers for myself because
all I have her story, She'snot here to defend herself on anything story.
So I felt like I needed concretethings to read about her, whether
they're good or bad. I neededsomething for myself. I can't just listen
(25:56):
to what people have to say becauseit's one sided, now, you know.
I always like to ask people whythey are trying to get answers for
their loved ones. I mean,I find it really interesting how people have
different reactions to this question. Okay, for example, I've reached out for
(26:18):
all the episodes that I've done.There's also been a lot of people that
I have reached out to who havetold me absolutely not, I don't want
to do a podcast. I don'twant to talk about my deceased loved one.
And I ask, but can youtell me why, And they'll tell
me the person's gone. We justlet that person go. We just leave
it up to the police. Nobodyin the family wants to get involved.
(26:41):
And I'm thinking, well, ifyou leave it up to the police,
it'll never get solved. And alot of homicide cases, I think that
many of them don't get solved unlessthere's a family member or someone else who
was close to the victim who reallypushes for it. And I'd like to
use an example of the person Ispoke to you earlier, Amanda. She
(27:03):
was one of the first people thatI ever spoke to when I started my
podcast, and she's an amazing womanand somebody that I look up to and
admire. I'll call her a heroshe really is, because her brother was
killed. Someone shot him to death, and it was a homicide in her
(27:26):
eyes, but officially it was justruled an accident and Tennessee law enforcement never
wanted to pursue it. This happenedall several years ago, and this young
lady told me she would never letthis go. She would keep pushing for
justice. She would contact everybody thatshe could contact, and she would do
everything humanly possible to get the manwho killed her brother locked up in prison
(27:51):
for killing her brother. And recentlyit happened this guy was arrested, and
I recently saw a Facebook post fromher where she said, finally, after
all these years, I'm going tosit in a courtroom and I'm going to
stare down the man who killed mybrother, and I want him to know
that I'm the reason why he's goingto go to prison. Those are very
(28:15):
powerful words, and I admire thatabout her, you know, because she
just never gave up, and shetold me she would never give up,
and I believed her. And Ijust knew that this young woman would find
out who killed her brother. Iknew it because I had so much faith
in her. And I'm not knockinganyone that doesn't pursue anything. I mean,
if you want to just let yourfamily member rest in peace and not
(28:38):
get involved and just let it go, I understand if that's what you want
to do. But I always liketo find out the motivation that makes someone
want to pursue justice, or eventhe motivation behind someone who doesn't. The
reasoning. It's night and day betweenpeople. You know. People want to
(29:02):
get answers for different reasons, onebeing this was my loved one and I
love this person and I'll never quit. I'll keep doing it. Or this
was my friend and we grew uptogether and this person meant so much to
me, this person did this forme, Or this person helped me when
I was down and I feel likeI owe them, So that's another reason.
(29:22):
So everybody has their own reasons,you know, either way, whether
you want to do something or not. I don't judge anyone, but I
just like to know people's thoughts onwhy they want to push for justice.
The thing about doing this is ifsomebody happened to follow you, or has
someone happened to listen to your stuffthat would know something and didn't know who
(29:45):
to contact or you know who toreach out to, it could spark that
one person. What's interesting about podcastsis that a lot of people listen to
them. You really only need oneperson with a solid lead, something that
law enforcement can act upon, andyou just never know where that one person
(30:08):
is. You just have to findthat person, like like damn, I
know about that right, and youonly need that one person because again,
a lot of people like to listento podcasts, and there's people that watch
true crime shows and a lot ofthem have actually been solved by people who
(30:33):
have either listened to a podcast orwatched something about a criminal on a true
crime program. I'll give you agood example. I'm a big fan of
John Walsh, and for many yearshe's been profiling criminals that are on the
run. And I think about allthe people that he's captured with his program.
(30:55):
I believe he's probably helped capture overone hundred different people. And if
you think about it, if notfor America's Most Wanted, I'm sure a
lot of the guys that he profiledwould still be running the streets. I
can remember the first time I eversaw the show was back in nineteen eighty
eight or nineteen eighty nine, whereJohn Walsh profiled John List, and I've
(31:22):
never forgotten that story. Are youfamiliar with John List? I'm not.
Well. John List was this psychopathwho killed this entire family. He killed
his mother, his wife, andhis children. He shotted him to death,
and then he lined their bodies upside by side by side, and
(31:44):
then he split and no one eversaw him again. John Walsh did the
story about John List, and thenthey had someone do a bust of him
of what he would look like basedon age progression technologology, and they showed
this and I'm going to say thatwithin months of that episode airing, someone
(32:09):
recognized List a neighbor, I believe. And the thing was, although he
had left and been gone for allthese years, his habits were still the
same. He was an accountant whenthey found him, he was doing accounting
work, which he had always done. He was a Lutheran, so he
continued the same faith as a Lutheran. Even though he was gone for so
(32:32):
many years, he still maintained thesame type of life. And he did
this throughout the time that he wason the run. So eventually someone called
in who recognized him, and sureenough was John List, and he was
living under an alias. He wascaptured and sent to prison, and he
(32:54):
eventually died in prison. But hedid get away with killing his family for
many years. Wow. So hadit not been for John Walsh profiling lists
on America's most wanted lists, probablywould have gotten away with killing his family.
I doubt if he would have evergot captured because no one knew about
(33:17):
John List or the story. I'venever heard of it, and neither had
anyone else in America, not really, except for probably the law enforcement department
that originally handled the case. Buthe had been gone for so many years
that I'm sure that law enforcement probablyassumed that he was dead. But this
episode was profiled about him, andthe public got to see who this guy
(33:42):
was in this case. It onlytook a few people who recognized him which
led to him being captured. Likeyou said, podcasts are, they're starting
to be really, really popular anda lot of people like the true crime,
the homicide and the mystery behind it. So if this conversation right here,
this podcast is to reach one,just one person that it could possibly
(34:06):
know something, then you've done morethan you could ever probably do for me.
Yes, And it's just a matterof getting your mother's story out there.
All you need is the right personto hear it. But what I
find sad about your mother's case isthat there is nothing about it. There
was just that one little tiny articleof your mother's homicide and it was probably
(34:29):
what three paragraphs long, and that'sit. If that's all you have,
you're not going to find very manypeople that know anything. So now tell
me, if anyone has any informationabout your mom's case and they're listening to
this, who do they need tocall if they know anything? What police
(34:50):
apartment is handling your mother's case.It would be Russell County Sheriff's office.
And that's an Alabama correct, Yes, it's an Alabama. And are you
using any type of social media tohelp people learn about your mother's case.
No, no, no, howno, I have not used social media
platform yet. When I went andmet with the sheriff every Musta County,
(35:14):
he said to hold off posting throughthe Project Cold Case. He said to
hold off for them posting on Facebookand on that because we might spook somebody,
which doesn't make any sense to me. Well, I will definitely have
to respectfully disagree with the sheriff's departmentthere. I mean, they've had this
case for thirty years. What doyou mean they're going to spook someone?
(35:35):
Who are you going to spook afterthirty years? At this point doesn't really
matter. And one of the thingsthat I always tell people that I talked
to is that social media it's justanother tool. And I find it interesting
that there are law enforcement departments thatdon't use it, and there are also
some that do use it. Butwhy wouldn't you use it? Why not
(35:58):
put something out about a case onyour Facebook page? You just never know
who's going to see it. Andthat's why I always recommend that, if
nothing else, just put up aFacebook page about your loved one. You
can also request tips through your pageand then people will tell me, well,
yeah, but I don't really havea lot of information, or what
(36:19):
if I don't have enough to puton my page. Well, the solution
is fairly simple. You don't haveto just put your family members information on
there. I'm sure there's plenty ofother cases in your local area, in
the same area where your mother waskilled, other unsolved cases. You can
share those stories. You can sharestories from different areas of the country.
(36:43):
You can help bringing attention to otherpeople's cases other than your mom's. And
you just put out fresh content asthe bottom line and invite people to participate,
look at pictures, and like Isaid, the more people who visit
your page and return, the betterthe chances are that you'll find the right
(37:05):
person that knows something. Because anotherthing that's good about social media is people
like to share. So someone seessomething about your mom and they know nothing
about it, they may feel freeto share it on their Facebook page and
ask people on their page to shareit. So it's not unusual for a
story to go viral. And thenyou also have producers and other podcasters that
(37:30):
come across these stories and they mayreach out to you to put the episode
on say I D Discovery or maybeanother podcaster will want to do an episode
about your mother. But unfortunately,right now, it's a typical podcaster can't
do anything about your mother's case becausethere's nothing about it. There's no information
(37:51):
about her case. So the onlyway that they could get any information would
be to speak to you. Soif they wanted to speak to you,
they could go through your page andcontact you. So, you know,
social media could really help your mom'scase and push it forward, and I
always suggest people do it. There'sno reason not to do it. It's
(38:12):
free. You can put it onTwitter, you can put it on TikTok.
These platforms are all free, sothere's no reason not to use social
media. Yeah, that's definitely agood idea. So it would probably be
a good idea for you sometime downthe road to just go ahead and put
together a basic Facebook page and justinvite people to learn about your mother's story.
(38:35):
I think that was a scare tactic. Well. I've spoken to many
other people who have told me thatlaw enforcement has encouraged them not to put
the story on social media or notto ask the public for help. I
really don't understand why any law enforcementagency would do that. I mean maybe
if it's the first couple of weeksor first couple of months of something happening.
(39:00):
But in your mother's case, we'retalking about it happened thirty years ago.
They've had plenty of time to catchthis guy and they haven't. So
it's not like anything you do isgoing to hinder any type of investigation.
After thirty years, What are yougoing to hinder? Who are you going
to spook? Maybe you'll get someonetalking and someone will say something stupid thirty
(39:22):
years later, and that would begood. You don't know who's going to
listen. You don't know who's goingto react. There's no reason for you
not to ask the public to helpyou out if they know anything. Okay,
And with that being said, myfinal question for you would be for
anyone out there that's listening to thispodcast, if they happen to know anything
(39:44):
about what happened to your mother,what would you say to that person or
persons if they knew about it.I wish they would have came forward,
regardless of what they were scared of, because they could have put a very
dangerous man behind bars. But sayingthat, I do understand being scared because
(40:04):
I've been in that situation. However, I just hate that her four kids
never got answers, They never hada piece of mind, they never had
closure, nothing. We've been handedan empty box and I'm trying to fill
it with as much as i canwhile I can. But if anybody did
know anything, or does know anything, it's not too late. And this
(40:29):
concludes the story of Teresa Alone Morris, who was killed nearly thirty years ago.
She never had a chance to trulybe a mother or create any memories
with her children. She had thefirst of her four children at fifteen.
She would eventually be found dead behinda Piggy Wiggly store in Ladonia, Alabama,
(40:51):
on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninetyfour. Unfortunately, her four children
have no memories of their mother.Teresa's daughter, Dannika Hovey, has stepped
up and decided that she wants tofind out who killed her mother and why.
There was biological evidence left behind atone time, most likely, but
(41:12):
it wasn't maintained and eventually discarded.Dannika faces an uphill battle in her quest.
There is no evidence, as shehas said that law enforcement won't provide
her with any useful information. Doyou know who killed this young mother of
four back in nineteen ninety four.If you have any information about this unsolved
thomicide, please contact the Russell CountySheriff's Apartment in Phoenix City, Alabama at
(41:38):
three three four two eight six fivethree five. I will also be sure
to provide this information in the casestory notes. And if you are a
parent, law enforcement official, friend, or relative seeking justice for an unsolved
thomicide case, please visit my websiteand complete the contact form. You can
(41:59):
also to contact with your Facebook.Thank you for listening
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