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How High Schoolers Solved a Cold Case Police Called IMPOSSIBLE — Transcript

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0:00Cold cases can sit on shelves for years
0:02without answers, [music] but sometimes
0:04all it takes is a set of fresh eyes to
0:06find something that no one else could
0:08see. [music] And in today's story, that
0:10fresh look came from a group of high
0:12school students who noticed something
0:14that no police officer had before.
0:16>> [music]
0:16>> And if you're interested in cold cases
0:18getting solved, mysterious
0:19disappearances, and true crime that
0:21keeps you up at night, you're just like
0:22me. We are one in the same. You're in
0:24the right place. This is Heart Starts
0:25Pounding. I'm Kaelen Moore. We upload
0:27once a week, so make sure you're
0:28subscribed. I think we can get to
0:30700,000 subscribers this year. So,
0:32please go hit that subscribe button.
0:41It's when your heart starts pounding.
0:43Starts pounding.
0:44>> [sighs]
0:47>> This story starts like many Heart Starts
0:49Pounding stories in the dark backwoods
0:52of Appalachia. There are legends about
0:55what lurks at the foothills of the
0:56Appalachian Mountains. Eyes in the trees
0:58that watch you, a whistling song to lure
1:01travelers off of the path. Well, 40
1:03years ago, a different kind of prowler
1:05stalked the dark woods, an all too human
1:09terror. It's the morning of April 1st,
1:111985. Two men are ambling along a back
1:14road in their pickup just outside of
1:16Gray, Kentucky. It's a place that's so
1:19small it's technically not even a town.
1:21It's just a dot on the map lucky enough
1:23to have a post office. These men are
1:25scavenging. [music]
1:27They're looking for discarded appliances
1:28on the side of the road that they can
1:30take home. The town doesn't have a
1:32proper junkyard, so locals have turned
1:34the roadside into their own dumping
1:36ground. Their truck rumbles down Highway
1:3925 when all of a sudden they see it.
1:42Jackpot. In the middle of the heap of
1:45discarded appliances stands a white
1:48Admiral refrigerator. It's an older
1:50model. It's a little dinged up, but they
1:52can strip it for copper and make some
1:54cash. They scramble down to inspect it.
1:57It definitely hasn't been here long.
1:59There was rain the previous day and
2:00there's fresh dirt on the metal handle.
2:03Without any ceremony, they yank on that
2:06handle, springing the door free
2:08and they freeze.
2:10Any excitement they had about this find
2:13has dried up
2:14because what they see inside is a
2:16woman's body.
2:18Knox County authorities arrive on the
2:19scene a little after 9:00 a.m. They
2:21dusted the refrigerator for prints and
2:23they searched the area for any clues as
2:25to who the woman was, what happened to
2:28her and how she ended up there.
2:30Nothing at the scene identified her
2:32though. She was a Jane Doe.
2:35They could see that she was naked except
2:37for short white socks. She wore two on
2:40each foot and she also wore two gold
2:42necklaces. One with an eagle pendant and
2:45the other a heart. She was petite, under
2:485 ft tall, about 100 lb and had reddish
2:51auburn hair. The police found a pair of
2:54boots in the junk pile that might have
2:56belonged to her but it was only a guess
2:58based on the shoe size. They found
3:00nothing else though that might help
3:03identify this woman.
3:04And the coroner wasn't any more
3:06successful in answering what had
3:07happened to her. The only thing he knew
3:10for certain was that she had been
3:11asphyxiated. But how was a total
3:15mystery.
3:16There were no marks on her neck to imply
3:18strangulation, no broken blood vessels
3:21around her nose that indicated she had
3:23been smothered. Now, it was possible
3:25that she suffocated inside the sealed
3:27refrigerator but there were no scratch
3:29marks on the inside of the door like she
3:31had tried to escape. So, the coroner
3:34figured that she was either
3:35incapacitated when she was placed inside
3:37or she was already dead. A toxicology
3:40screen showed no drugs or alcohol in her
3:42system though.
3:44This whole situation was baffling
3:47and not just for the officials that were
3:49grasping at straws in their
3:50investigation. The surrounding community
3:52was deeply shaken by the gruesome
3:54discovery. In an attempt to identify
3:57her, police released a postmortem
3:59photograph of Jane Doe's face in the
4:01local newspaper but no one recognized
4:04her. I mean, of course they didn't. This
4:06was a really small town. Everyone knew
4:08everyone. If she was from around here,
4:11someone would have spoken up the day
4:12that she was discovered. And the article
4:14also listed some identifying marks.
4:17There was a small mole on her neck, a
4:19birthmark on her left ankle, stretch
4:21marks on her abdomen that suggested she
4:24had given birth. She was probably a
4:26mother.
4:27But without an identity, there was not
4:29much the police could do to solve her
4:31murder. They only had one bare scrap of
4:35a lead. There was a report that there
4:37was a red-haired woman at a truck stop
4:39off of I-75 trying to hitch a ride to
4:42North Carolina. She was last seen around
4:452:00 a.m., 6 hours before Jane Doe was
4:48found in the refrigerator. If that was
4:50Jane Doe, she was probably picked up by
4:53her killer.
4:55It's not enough to solve the case, not
4:57by a long shot, but it's at least
4:59something.
5:01And this piece of information actually
5:03gives the investigators pause because in
5:06April of 1985,
5:08their Jane Doe isn't the only dead woman
5:11linked to I-75.
5:13See, over the last 6 months, nearly a
5:17dozen women had been found murdered
5:19alongside major highways. Four of them
5:22on I-75. And some of these women had
5:25been found within a few miles of each
5:27other. They were all white, petite,
5:30young,
5:32and all of them had red hair.
5:35Now, this suggests the unthinkable,
5:38that there is a serial killer down in
5:41Appalachia.
5:42The murders eventually got the name the
5:45Redhead murders. Now, Steve Watson with
5:48the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations
5:50hated that nickname when he started
5:52looking into the murders, but despite
5:53his personal feelings, that name had
5:56stuck. And the public was now really
5:58wanting answers.
6:00>> [music]
6:00>> So, on the morning of April 24th, 1985,
6:03Watson sat at the head of a conference
6:05table in the TBI office in Nashville
6:08with one item on the agenda, the redhead
6:11murders. 20 investigators filled the
6:14chairs around him, a few representatives
6:16from each state that this killer had
6:18struck. Kentucky, Tennessee,
6:21Pennsylvania, Arkansas, [music] and
6:22Mississippi. Now, they needed to figure
6:25out if this was just a coincidence or if
6:29there really was a serial killer.
6:31Throughout their 6-hour summit meeting,
6:33investigators compared notes on eight
6:35Jane Doe cases that they thought might
6:38be related, might all have been
6:40committed by the same person. So, on
6:43October 22nd, 1983, a woman was found on
6:46a river bluff about a mile off of I-40
6:49outside of Memphis, [music] Tennessee.
6:51She had strawberry blonde hair and she
6:53had been strangled. Almost a year later,
6:56on September 16th, 1984, another woman
6:59was found off of I-40 by a hitchhiker.
7:01She had also been strangled. Now, she
7:04was a natural blonde, but her hair had
7:06previously been dyed red and washed out.
7:10On December 23rd, another woman was
7:12found wrapped in a blanket near Highway
7:14222 outside of Reading, Pennsylvania.
7:17And again, she had been strangled, but
7:20she was a brunette. Then, on New Year's
7:23Day in 1985,
7:24>> [music]
7:24>> a couple from Florida had stopped along
7:26the shoulder of I-75 in Tennessee to
7:29take some pictures of the mountains, a
7:31little souvenir from their holiday trip.
7:33Once they stepped over the guardrail,
7:35they were able to see clearly down the
7:37steep embankment. And there was
7:39something wedged up against the trees
7:41below. It looked like a sleeping bag or
7:44a bedroll, but then they realized there
7:46was a barefoot sticking out of the
7:49bottom.
7:50When the police arrived, they found a
7:52woman wrapped in a thick green blanket
7:54wearing a tan velour blouse and blue
7:56jeans. She had been dead for a few days,
7:59strangled with a strip of cloth that was
8:01still knotted around her neck. Her hands
8:03and feet were bound with the same
8:05material. She was petite, 5'4, 110 lbs,
8:10and she had curly red hair. She was the
8:13fourth woman that was found. The fifth
8:16was found on January 24th along Highway
8:1978. She had strawberry blonde hair and
8:21had been strangled with a twisted cord,
8:23possibly her own shoelaces. And then on
8:27March 31st, a couple from Indiana was
8:29driving west on I-24 when their engine
8:31overheated. They pulled onto the
8:33shoulder and they saw a creek at the
8:35bottom of the steep embankment. They
8:37carefully trekked down to get some water
8:39to cool off their engine, and on the way
8:41down, they saw scattered pieces of
8:43women's clothing, a white blouse with
8:45small red flowers, a cable-knit sweater,
8:47a pair of jeans, a black bra. They were
8:50nearly in a line, like a makeshift trail
8:54that was leading them to the creek. And
8:56that is where they found the bones.
8:59Police were able to recover a woman's
9:00skull and several bones from the area,
9:03as well as scattered pieces of clothing.
9:05The sweater had a large bloody gash on
9:08one sleeve, and they found several
9:11strands of long red hair at the scene.
9:14Now, with only the bones to examine, the
9:16coroner wasn't able to determine the
9:17cause of death,
9:19but it did seem like her clothes had
9:21been removed and then deliberately
9:23placed down the embankment. If she had
9:25been wearing them when she died, they
9:27would have been affected by her
9:29decomposing body, but instead they were
9:31mostly intact, apart from the bloody
9:34gashes. And it was just one day later
9:37that the unidentified woman in the
9:38refrigerator was found, marking the
9:41seventh body. And as we know, she had
9:43red hair and was possibly last seen at a
9:45truck stop along I-75, and she died of
9:48asphyxiation, but the coroner said that
9:50she wasn't strangled. And finally, on
9:53April 14th, a woman was found 50 ft from
9:56I-81 in Greenville, Tennessee. She had
9:59been dead for several weeks, so it was
10:01difficult to determine an exact cause of
10:03death. However, she had been struck in
10:06the head and had stab wounds on her
10:08back. Her hair, though, was light brown.
10:11Now, when you hear all of those details
10:13together, it is pretty compelling. I
10:15mean, it sounds like they're linked in
10:17some way, right? But, that's what the
10:19summit was called to determine, and they
10:21argued that, you know, while there's a
10:23lot of similarities, there also were a
10:26lot of inconsistencies. Now, physically,
10:29the women all resembled each other. All
10:31white, all petite, all in their 20s or
10:3230s, but not all of them were redheads,
10:35no matter what the headlines claimed.
10:37They had all been murdered and left
10:39along major highways, suggesting a
10:41similar MO, but some had been found
10:44nude, some were still wearing clothes,
10:46most had been strangled, but not all,
10:49and even among those, some had been
10:51strangled with rope or cord, and some
10:54hadn't. [music]
10:55There was really only one thing that
10:57unified them all. They were all Jane
10:59Does. In every case, investigators had
11:02tried to identify them, published their
11:03descriptions in newspapers, compared
11:06them to hundreds of missing persons
11:07files, but they all came up empty. So,
11:11this led them to the same conclusion,
11:13that they were probably unidentified for
11:15a reason. They were probably transient
11:17women who were maybe drug users or sex
11:20workers who had found themselves
11:22untethered from society and estranged
11:24from their families. They weren't in the
11:26missing persons files because they had
11:28no one who would report them. And you
11:30and I, when we hear that, we think, "Oh,
11:33that's probably why they were targeted."
11:36But, to a meeting of investigators in
11:38the 1980s, they figured that whether or
11:41not these women died at the hands of a
11:42serial killer was almost irrelevant.
11:45They had put themselves in harm's way,
11:48they said. And at the end of their
11:506-hour summit, the officials denied the
11:53existence of such a killer. There were
11:55just too many differences between the
11:57cases to say otherwise. Each department
11:59remained committed to solving each
12:01murder, but any notion of a task force
12:04was totally dissolved. In public
12:06statements, they once again asked the
12:07public for help in identifying the
12:09murdered women because that was key to
12:11solving these crimes. But then, [music]
12:13for the next few months, the cases sat
12:15stagnant, growing colder.
12:17But then,
12:19that summer, they finally caught a
12:21break. In June of 1984, a tip came in
12:24about one of the Jane Does' identities.
12:27A woman named Marie Williams came
12:29forward. She was a sex worker, and she
12:31was living with a man named Thomas
12:32Gatewood. Marie told the Fort Lauderdale
12:35police that in the fall of 1984, she and
12:37Gatewood were living in West Memphis,
12:39Arkansas, with another woman, also a sex
12:42worker. And one night, that woman
12:44disappeared.
12:46The last time Marie saw the woman, she
12:48was at a truck stop climbing into the
12:50cab of a truck rig. And Marie remembered
12:54that there were two other men inside of
12:56the truck.
12:58A few days later, police found a
12:59murdered woman along I-40, only a few
13:01miles away from that truck stop. And
13:04Marie felt certain that it was her
13:06missing friend. So, that was something.
13:09Police were then able to compare the
13:11West Memphis Jane Does' fingerprints to
13:13an old arrest record of the woman that
13:16Marie told them about.
13:17And they got a hit. Authorities had
13:20confirmed their first identity. She was
13:2326-year-old Lisa Ann Nichols.
13:26Lisa grew up in West Virginia with two
13:28older sisters and a brother. When she
13:30was nine, her home life splintered. Her
13:33parents got divorced, her sisters got
13:35married and moved out, and her mom
13:36started working nights at a bar to make
13:38ends meet. After running away from home,
13:41Lisa spent a few years in foster care.
13:43She was living with her grandma when she
13:45got pregnant, and at 19, she left home
13:47for good, her 1-year-old son in tow. She
13:50eventually made her way to Nashville,
13:52but the only details of her time there
13:54came from her arrest record, criminal
13:57trespassing, two counts of larceny, and
13:59at least five arrests for prostitution.
14:02Throughout the years, she kept in touch
14:04with one of her sisters through sporadic
14:06phone calls.
14:07But one day,
14:08those phone calls stopped, and her
14:10sister never knew what had happened to
14:13her. Now, she hadn't reported her sister
14:16missing because the stretches in between
14:18their phone calls were getting longer
14:20and longer and she figured that Lisa was
14:22living a life that she didn't want her
14:24sister to know about. So, when Lisa went
14:26dark, her sister just thought she had
14:28cut her off until one day when police
14:31arrived at her door to let her know that
14:33Lisa had been killed.
14:36This was devastating to hear, but it
14:39only got worse from there.
14:42See, Lisa was exactly who investigators
14:45already thought she was. Transient, drug
14:48user, sex worker, and rather than
14:50restart the conversation about a
14:51possible serial killer, reconsider the
14:53new links between the cases, they
14:56thought that it proved what they already
14:58thought. That Lisa Nichols willingly got
15:00into cars with strange men and one night
15:03she picked the wrong guy. That was the
15:05risk she took with the life she led. If
15:07anything, it made it less likely that
15:09there was a serial killer on the loose.
15:11It was just what happened to those kinds
15:14of women, [music]
15:14is what they said.
15:16And so, investigators closed the book
15:19and for decades that was the end of the
15:22story. None of the other Jane Does were
15:24identified, eight cases were shelved,
15:26and seven women were left unidentified.
15:29Seven families had no idea why they had
15:31heard from their loved one for the last
15:33time. [music] Some of the evidence was
15:35even discarded. The so-called redhead
15:37murders were relegated to blog posts and
15:40Reddit forums. But then, an unsuspecting
15:43group of teenagers did what no one else
15:47could.
15:48So, I want to fast forward to 2018, 34
15:51years later. A teacher named Alex
15:53Campbell had taught sociology at
15:55Elizabethton High School in East
15:57Tennessee for the last 10 years and he
15:59had been noticing a disappointing trend
16:01amongst his students, apathy. They just
16:04weren't engaged. The school system was
16:07more obsessed with passing tests than
16:09actually learning anything and over time
16:12that disaffected attitude started to
16:14creep up on Mr. Campbell, too. He lost
16:16his own excitement for learning and
16:18teaching. But Mr. Campbell was like you
16:21and I. He was obsessed with true crime,
16:24specifically cold cases, and he loved
16:27when justice was served after years of a
16:29case sitting on a shelf. So, when the
16:31semester resumed in January of 2018, he
16:34asked his students a question.
16:36"How do you identify one person out of
16:38250 million?"
16:40Now, it does sound like a weird riddle
16:43that a teacher would ask you, but he was
16:45serious. He was talking about the
16:46Redhead murders. That's what he wanted
16:48the class to work on that semester.
16:50Could they find the person responsible
16:53for these crimes? The one person out of
16:55250 million in America. And they would
16:58do it through the tenants of sociology,
17:00society, family, patterns of behavior,
17:03interpersonal relationships,
17:05but also through the lens of these
17:0730-year-old cold cases. Real people who
17:10had died in their own backyard that they
17:12had a chance to help. And it worked. The
17:15whole dynamic of Mr. Campbell's
17:17classroom changed. His students were
17:19more than engaged. They were passionate
17:21in their search for answers. Their eyes
17:23all lit back up. They became advocates
17:25for the women who for way too long had
17:28all remained Jane Does. And that's where
17:31this class started. They needed to
17:33identify their victim pool. At the law
17:36enforcement summit back in 1985,
17:38officials had considered eight cases for
17:40possible links. And in the years since,
17:43the number of suspected Redhead victims
17:46had actually doubled as more information
17:48came to light. The cases now ranged from
17:511978 to 2001, and they shared familiar
17:55characteristics. The physicality of the
17:57victims, how they had died, and where
17:59their bodies were found. But after
18:01researching each one of these cases, Mr.
18:04Campbell's class decided to focus on six
18:06of them that they believed had enough
18:08evidence to be linked. Five of the six I
18:11have already mentioned to you in this
18:13episode as they were part of the
18:14official summit meeting, but I'll
18:16summarize them again here. So, there was
18:18Lisa Nichols found in September of 1984
18:21in West Memphis, Arkansas, the only
18:23victim to have been identified so far.
18:25The victim that we started our story
18:27with, found on April 1st in the
18:29refrigerator along Highway 25. There was
18:31also the Campbell County victim, found
18:34on New Year's Day 1985, wrapped in a
18:36blanket off of I-75. Then, there was
18:39also the Cheatham County victim, found
18:42on March 31st near I-24. She had been
18:44dead for several months and her body was
18:46mostly decomposed. There was also the
18:48Jane Doe found in Green County on April
18:5114th next to I-81. She had been dragged
18:5450 ft through the grass, stabbed, and
18:56suffered a blunt force blow to the head,
18:59perhaps because she was trying to fight
19:01off her attacker. And finally, the woman
19:04that was discovered on February 13th,
19:061983, earlier than the other ones. She
19:09was found off of Highway 250 in West
19:11Virginia. The students believed that
19:14these six cases represented a compelling
19:17pattern, a signature. One that was sort
19:21of disregarded by the original
19:22investigators who thought that these
19:24women brought their deaths upon
19:26themselves because of their lifestyles.
19:28But these students were not buying that.
19:30These women looked like each other, they
19:32had similar backgrounds, they had been
19:33killed in similar ways, and died during
19:36a discrete period of time in a close
19:38geographical area. Yes, they were
19:40discovered in different states, but the
19:43highways that they were found beside
19:45provided nearly direct routes to one
19:47another. So, they believed it was the
19:50hunting ground of a serial killer, and
19:52they even gave that serial killer a
19:55name, because catchy names,
19:56unfortunately, are usually what helps
19:58bring more attention to cases. They
20:01named him the Bible Belt Strangler. So,
20:04the class then does all of this
20:06research. They have consultations with
20:07law enforcement, and they go through old
20:09FBI profiling techniques, and they
20:12actually identify 21 characteristics
20:15that they believe the Bible Belt
20:16Strangler has in an attempt to unmask
20:19him. They say that he was probably a
20:22white, heterosexual male born between
20:251936 and 1962, which would have made him
20:28roughly early 20s to late 40s at the
20:30times that the murders started. He was
20:32of average or slightly above average
20:35height, like 5'9" to 6'2". He was also
20:37between 180 to 270 lbs. He was strong
20:41enough to physically overpower his
20:43victims without the use of a weapon and
20:45carry their bodies to a different
20:47location to dispose of them. And they
20:49got even more specific. They believed he
20:52either lived in or worked out of
20:54Knoxville, Tennessee, the geographical
20:56center of the six cases. I-40 ran
20:59through the city as a main artery. The
21:01other relevant highways all branched off
21:03of it. For this and other reasons, he
21:06probably worked as a truck driver. Rest
21:09stops and gas stations gave him ready
21:11access to his preferred victim pool, sex
21:14workers and hitchhikers. Trucking also
21:17provided cover when disposing of bodies.
21:19No one thought twice about a big rig
21:21pulled over on the side of a highway.
21:23They also said that the Bible Belt
21:25Strangler was a mission-oriented killer,
21:28meaning he had taken up a personal
21:30crusade against an identifiable group.
21:33It's possible that he felt like he was
21:36ridding the world of undesirable women,
21:38as he mostly targeted sex workers.
21:41However, given the overwhelming
21:43similarities between the victims'
21:45physical appearance, it's also possible
21:47that they were surrogates for another
21:49figure in his life that he hated.
21:52Possibly a red-headed mother or maybe a
21:55wife. They said he was an organized
21:58killer, smart enough to acquire and
22:00dispose of his victims without drawing
22:02suspicion, careful enough to not leave
22:04any evidence behind for police, but he
22:06also would leave his victims out in the
22:08open because he wanted them to be
22:10discovered. Remember, one victim had a
22:13trail of clothing that led to her
22:15remains.
22:16And most importantly, the students
22:18described him as probably being an
22:21average Joe. He wasn't obviously a
22:23psychopath. He was able to hold down a
22:26steady job. He was capable of long-term
22:28relationships. He might even be married
22:31with a family. He made sure to only kill
22:34while he was out on the road. His
22:36friends and loved ones would likely be
22:38shocked if they learned his true nature.
22:41The students went ahead and they
22:42compiled all of these details and the
22:45reasoning behind it into this seven-page
22:47profile. At the beginning of the
22:49semester, Mr. Campbell had asked them,
22:51"How do you identify one person out of
22:54250 million?" And with this profile in
22:57hand, they were much closer to their
22:59goal.
23:00But now, what exactly were they supposed
23:03to do with that report? Well, on May
23:0615th, 2018, Mr. Campbell's class held a
23:09televised press conference [music] at
23:11their high school to present their
23:12profile of the Bible Belt Strangler.
23:15Standing behind them were officers from
23:17the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations
23:19and the various county sheriff's
23:20departments with the six open Jane Doe
23:22cases. They made their objective clear.
23:25With enough public attention, someone
23:28will come forward with new information.
23:31They might recognize one of the Jane
23:32Does from their description. They might
23:34have seen something years ago that they
23:37thought wasn't important at the time,
23:39but now they understand that it's a
23:40vital clue.
23:42They might read the profile of the Bible
23:44Belt Strangler and realize that it
23:46sounds like someone they know. They
23:49urged the gathered journalists not to
23:51let these women's stories go silent
23:53again. They asked the people watching to
23:55share the details with friends and
23:57family. Someone knows something. So, we
24:01have to keep asking until we have
24:03answers, [music] they said. And in a
24:05direct address to the killer, Mr.
24:08Campbell warned, "The Bible Belt
24:10Strangler,
24:11we know you're out there. We know
24:13somebody has information to help find
24:15you and hold you accountable. And after
24:18today,
24:19everyone knows that we're looking for
24:22you."
24:24And well,
24:26they found him.
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26:30So, 2018 had two things that the 1980s
26:33just didn't have when it came to the
26:35Redhead murders.
26:36>> [music]
26:36>> One, a group of teenagers who actually
26:38cared about the cases, and two, a
26:40boatload of new science. [music] The
26:43students' profile said that the Bible
26:45Belt Strangler was an organized,
26:47methodical killer who removed any
26:49evidence from his victims.
26:51But,
26:52this killer [music]
26:53had made a mistake. Police did have some
26:56bodily fluids [music] from the killer.
26:58They found semen on a blanket wrapped
27:01around one of the victims, but in 1985,
27:03they didn't have the technology to do
27:05anything with it. But, now they did.
27:08>> [music]
27:08>> The DNA was sequenced, and it was
27:10uploaded to their system. Police waited
27:13eagerly to see if anything would come
27:15up. The students showed up to class
27:17every day waiting for an update, knowing
27:19that there might just not be a match in
27:21the system.
27:23But, then,
27:24one day, they got the call.
27:26There was a match.
27:28His name was Jerry Leon Johns, and once
27:32the police started looking into him,
27:35they could not believe how well he
27:38matched the Bible Belt Strangler
27:40profile. So, he's a white, heterosexual
27:44male. The students guessed that he was
27:46born between 1932 and 1951.
27:49Johns was born in 1948. They said that
27:52he would be slightly above average
27:54height. Johns, 6'2, 185 lb. And not only
27:59all of that, there's also his
28:01profession.
28:03He was a truck driver. His company,
28:05Rebel Trucking, was based in Cleveland,
28:08Tennessee, roughly 80 mi south of
28:10Knoxville on I-70, the exact road
28:14several of the women had been found
28:15alongside, and right where the students
28:18felt like he'd be based. The students
28:20also figured that he would be an average
28:22Joe. And from the research, Jerry Leon
28:25Johns was a family man. He had a wife,
28:28he had kids, though him and his wife did
28:30eventually separate. And who was his
28:33ex-wife, you might ask? The woman who
28:35had been married to this monster?
28:38Phyllis. She was white, petite, and she
28:42had red hair.
28:43Now, Phyllis described Johns as
28:46"unfailingly loyal, a wonderful father,
28:49and completely incapable of murder."
28:52But we know exactly the type of violence
28:55that he was capable of.
28:57Let me take you back to the night of
28:59March 5th, 1985. Jerry Leon Johns is out
29:03in Knoxville with his brother Wayne at a
29:05strip joint, the Catch One Club. He's a
29:07regular there, and he even has a
29:09membership card. He pulls aside one of
29:11the dancers, a redhead named Linda, and
29:14he makes her an offer. His brother's
29:16been feeling a little bit blue, and
29:18Jerry's trying to show him a good time,
29:19cheer him up a little bit. If she and a
29:21friend would come back to their motel,
29:23he would make it worth their while. And
29:25then, he flashed four $100 bills.
29:29Linda considered the money. It was more
29:31than she would make the rest of the
29:33night dancing, so she agreed. Jerry tore
29:36two of the bills in the middle and gave
29:38Linda the halves, promising the rest
29:41after she made good. So, Linda grabbed a
29:43friend, and the four of them drove to a
29:45Holiday Inn, each in their own cars.
29:48Jerry paid for two rooms, and they
29:49coupled off. After Jerry and Linda had
29:52sex, Linda went and took a shower. But
29:54when she came out of the bathroom, Jerry
29:56was there, holding a gun.
29:59He claimed that he was actually an
30:00undercover Texas Ranger, and said that
30:02if she didn't do exactly as he said, he
30:04would have her arrested. He told her to
30:07get dressed, and then led her out to the
30:09parking lot at gunpoint, shoving her
30:11into the passenger seat of her own car.
30:13Jerry then ripped her T-shirt into
30:15strips and used the cloth to bind her
30:17hands and feet and gag her. He warned
30:20her, "Try to run or try to scream, and
30:22he would shoot her in the head."
30:24Then he pulled out of the parking lot
30:26and onto the interstate. When he finally
30:28stopped, they were parked alongside a
30:30thick area of trees. Jerry forced Linda
30:33out of the car into the darkness, and
30:35she pleaded with him.
30:37"Are you going to kill me?" she asked.
30:40"Yes," he said. She had become a
30:42nuisance to him.
30:44And then, Jerry tied one of the T-shirt
30:47strips around Linda's neck, and he
30:49strangled her.
30:50Eventually, she blacked out.
30:53But against all odds,
30:56Linda woke up. One corner of the collar
30:59on Linda's jacket had gotten wedged
31:01between her skin and the ligature,
31:03leaving her just
31:05to breathe and regain consciousness. And
31:07when she came to, she was under the road
31:09in a drainage ditch. She managed to
31:11climb back up to the highway and flag
31:13down a passing car for help.
31:16While Linda was taken to the hospital,
31:18Knox County police went to the Holiday
31:20Inn that she described. They were able
31:21to track down Jerry, and he was still
31:23driving Linda's car, his gun sitting on
31:26the passenger seat. In his pockets, they
31:28found the motel room key and two halves
31:31of $100 bills.
31:33It was more than enough evidence to
31:35arrest him for the attack, and Jerry was
31:37ultimately convicted and sentenced
31:39[music]
31:40to 73 years in prison.
31:42So,
31:43let's just make this crystal clear.
31:44Jerry was a truck driver who had
31:46abducted a red-haired woman, strangled
31:49her, and left her body in a ditch off
31:50the side [music] of the freeway.
31:53Does this sound familiar? I mean, of
31:54course it does. And the police
31:56investigating the murder cases
31:57recognized the similarities, too. They
31:59strongly considered him as a suspect in
32:02the Camel County Jane Doe murder, as
32:03well. She was the one that was
32:05discovered on New Year's Day, 1985, just
32:082 months after Linda's attack alongside
32:10I-75 in Tennessee. She was found wrapped
32:13in a thick green blanket, strangled with
32:15a strip of cloth that was still knotted
32:18around her neck. Her hands and her feet
32:20were bound with the same material.
32:22And that knot that was used to strangle
32:25her was almost identical to the one that
32:27Jerry Johns used on Linda. And it turns
32:30out that at the time, investigators felt
32:33strongly that he was involved, but they
32:35just didn't have enough evidence to
32:36prove it.
32:37And, you know, maybe they let themselves
32:39off the hook a little bit because Jerry
32:41had already been sentenced to [music]
32:42spend the next seven decades behind
32:44bars.
32:45But, luckily, science stepped up where
32:48they fell short. And in 2016, new
32:51analysis confirmed that Jerry's DNA was
32:54on both the blanket the Campbell County
32:57Jane Doe was wrapped in and the blouse
32:59that she was wearing.
33:01Finally,
33:02solid evidence that he was involved.
33:05But, unfortunately,
33:07they still had no idea who this woman
33:09was. Fast forward to 2018. Thanks to the
33:13classes press conference for the Bible
33:15Belt Strangler, the cold cases were now
33:17fresh in everyone's minds. And the
33:19Tennessee Bureau of Investigations
33:21received a tip about a blog that
33:23published descriptions of missing
33:24persons. One of the descriptions seemed
33:27to match the Campbell County Jane Doe.
33:29Agents were able to obtain a fingerprint
33:31match from old records and finally
33:34confirm an identity.
33:36Tina Marie Farmer.
33:39She was last seen in November of 1984 at
33:41her family's Thanksgiving in
33:43Indianapolis. They actually had reported
33:46her missing, but for whatever reason,
33:48Tina's file was never registered in the
33:50national missing persons database. So,
33:52when investigators tried to compare
33:54their Jane Doe's description to open
33:56cases, she wasn't there. But, now that
33:59she had been identified and Jerry Johns
34:01had been conclusively linked to her
34:03death, the wheels of justice could
34:06finally turn. In 2019, a grand jury
34:09ruled that there was sufficient evidence
34:11to indict Jerry for Tina's murder. And
34:13Mr. Campbell's class was really to thank
34:16for it.
34:18Except,
34:19Jerry Leon Johns was dead.
34:22He had died in prison in 2015 while he
34:24was still serving time for Linda's
34:26attempted murder.
34:28Now, there are a lot of mixed feelings
34:31here.
34:32On one hand, Jerry died in prison, which
34:35is exactly where he should have been.
34:38But, justice for one is not justice for
34:40all here because those women would have
34:42never been identified, and those murders
34:44would have never been looked at again if
34:46not for Mr. Campbell's class. So, now we
34:49have to wonder
34:51how many other women did Jerry kill?
34:54Eight years after their press
34:55conference, I'm happy to say that it had
34:57the exact effect Mr. Campbell's students
34:59intended. Tina Farmer was just [music]
35:02the first domino to fall. Month after
35:04month, year after year, more and more
35:07victims were identified. Like the
35:09Cheatham County Jane Doe, she was part
35:12of both the original summit meeting and
35:14the class grouping. On March 31st, 1985,
35:17she was found off of I-24 with her
35:19clothes deliberately removed, and thanks
35:22to advancements in genealogy sequencing
35:25the Cheatham County Jane Doe was finally
35:27identified
35:28>> [music]
35:28>> as 24-year-old Michelle Inman. She lived
35:31in Nashville, and like other Bible Belt
35:34victims, she was a sex worker.
35:36Evidence collected from Jerry Johns'
35:37truck, as well as statements that he
35:39made to the police back in 1985, placed
35:42him in the Nashville area at the same
35:45time frame they estimated Michelle was
35:46killed. Her case is still open and under
35:50investigation. The TBI has published
35:52pictures of the clothing found with her
35:54body, and they are still actively
35:56seeking information from anyone who
35:58recognizes Michelle, what she was
36:00wearing, or if they know anything about
36:02who she was last seen with.
36:04>> [music]
36:04>> It does seem like this is one where
36:05there's just not DNA evidence that can
36:07be retested. After a hotline tip, the
36:10Greene County Jane Doe was identified as
36:1317-year-old Elizabeth Lamont. When her
36:16body was discovered on April 14th, 1985
36:20she was a very long way from home. She
36:22was last seen on November 22nd, 1984 in
36:25New Hampshire. She was living in a group
36:27home at the time, and she'd gotten
36:29permission to attend the high school
36:30football game. She left that afternoon,
36:33and she never returned. It is possible
36:36that she was abducted. It's also
36:38possible that she used that opportunity
36:40to run away, which she had done in the
36:42past. The coroner estimated that
36:45Elizabeth had been dead for 3 to 6 weeks
36:47before she was found. So, that still
36:51left several months between leaving the
36:53group home and her murder. If she had
36:55run away, it is possible that she spent
36:57that time hitchhiking, which might have
36:59put her in Jerry Johns path. It is
37:02pure speculation, but investigators
37:05found a business card on Elizabeth's
37:07body for a motel in Houston, Texas. And
37:09when Jerry was arrested for attacking
37:11Lynn, the police recovered a recent
37:13receipt from a gas station just a few
37:16miles away from that motel.
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40:16Since 2018, new groups of Mr. Campbell's
40:18students continued to research the cold
40:20cases and their possible links to Jerry
40:22Johns. They added another potential
40:25victim found on April 1st, 1985,
40:28Angelico, Tennessee. Because of her
40:31young age, investigators referred to her
40:33as Baby Girl. Now, all that was left of
40:37Baby Girl was a skeleton. It was found
40:40by a local man near an abandoned strip
40:42mine. Baby Girl had been dead at least a
40:45year, and the suspected cause of death
40:47was strangulation. The case caught the
40:50students' attention because the bones
40:53were discovered only 7 miles away from
40:55Tina Farmer, and DNA analysis eventually
40:58identified baby girl as 15-year-old
41:01Tracy Sue Walker. She was last seen in
41:04July of 1987 hanging out at the mall
41:06with her friends. She got into a car
41:09with a pair of men, which takes
41:12investigators back to Linda getting in
41:14the car with Jerry and his brother. But
41:16then she disappeared. Now, Jerry Johns
41:19often drove up to Illinois to visit his
41:21estranged wife and children. I-75 was a
41:24straight shot from Knoxville to home,
41:27and it passed right through Indiana
41:29where Tracy vanished. It also passed
41:32Indianapolis where Tina Farmer
41:34disappeared. Now, here's another kicker.
41:37Tracy was discovered in an abandoned
41:39strip mine. Jerry's trucking company had
41:42a contract with a manufacturer that
41:44supplied parts used in coal mining. So,
41:48even if this dump site was a bit farther
41:50off the beaten path than his usual, it
41:53was entirely possible that he was
41:55already familiar with this area because
41:57of his work. In 2025, Mr. Campbell's
42:00class participated in a documentary
42:02series continuing the work of the
42:03students before them. In particular,
42:06they were focused now on Tracy Sue
42:08Walker or baby girl. And this time, the
42:11Tennessee Bureau of Investigations was
42:13right alongside them. Special Agent
42:16Brandon Elkins presented the class with
42:19newly discovered evidence from Tracy's
42:21case. He had photographs of the original
42:24crime scene discovery. Her body had been
42:27discovered only 30 minutes away from
42:28their town, Elizabethton, and together
42:31they took a field trip and they walked
42:33through the overgrown woods where she
42:34was found. And here is where there's a
42:36little bit of a twist in the story
42:38because this area was not at all what
42:40the students were expecting. The site
42:42was completely out of the way. It was
42:44down a steep hill, and it had been
42:46described in their research as an
42:48abandoned strip mine,
42:50but it was actually more a junkyard.
42:53Agent Elkins introduced the students to
42:55some locals who said that the area had
42:57been a favorite spot for bootleggers who
42:59would make moonshine.
43:01And after seeing this area with their
43:03own eyes, they started to reconsider
43:05Jerry's involvement because it was just
43:08too different from his normal MO. He
43:11liked to dump bodies out in the open
43:12where he knew they would be discovered.
43:14It was only by chance that Tracy had
43:17been found. She was that concealed. But,
43:19that didn't mean they were going to give
43:20up on her case. Even if she wasn't a
43:22Bible Belt Strangler victim, she still
43:24deserved just as much attention. Mr.
43:27Campbell's students created a full court
43:29press campaign centered around the
43:31tagline, "Someone knows who killed Tracy
43:34Sue. Is it you?" They created flyers,
43:37yard signs, and direct mailers with her
43:39photo urging the public to contact the
43:41TBI with any tips. They even had an
43:43airplane fly a banner over the area with
43:46a hotline number. And they also created
43:48a website, justicefortracysue.com,
43:52which has even more resources and
43:54material, and I strongly encourage you
43:56to check it out and share Tracy's story.
43:58I'll link it in the description of this
43:59episode. Tracy's story wasn't the only
44:01one they were reconsidering when it came
44:03to Jerry's involvement. They had to
44:05accept the same conclusion for the Knox
44:08County Jane Doe, the woman who was found
44:10in the refrigerator that I told you
44:11about first in this episode. She had
44:13been killed on April 1st, 1985.
44:16Jerry Johns was already in jail at that
44:18time, charged with attacking Linda on
44:20March 6th. But, even if she wasn't one
44:23of the Bible Belt Strangler victims,
44:25there is one bright spot in her story,
44:28and that is that her headstone finally
44:30has a name. She was identified as Esby
44:33Pilgrim after a family member recognized
44:36an enhanced photo in a missing and
44:38unidentified persons group on Facebook.
44:41At the time of her disappearance, she
44:43left behind a 6-week-old
44:46daughter.
44:48And while she doesn't know who stole her
44:49mother from her life, she at least has a
44:51small measure of closure.
44:54There is still a lot more to be done,
44:56but
44:57as heartbreaking as this episode is, I
44:59did want to end on a little bit of a
45:01positive note. After SB Pilgrim's
45:03autopsy, while she was still
45:04unidentified, the Hampton Funeral Home
45:07volunteered to claim her body, footing
45:09the bill to transport her back from
45:10Lexington for a proper service and
45:12burial. A department store donated
45:15clothes, a navy skirt and a pale blue
45:17blouse. Dozens of other businesses and
45:19residents donated flower arrangements
45:21for the service, including a spray of
45:24red carnations to sit on top of her
45:26casket. About 60 mourners attended the
45:28funeral for a woman that they did not
45:30know.
45:31People
45:33did care about these women. The small
45:36Appalachian communities did, even when
45:38the police didn't. And that alone gives
45:41me hope. I've said it before on the
45:43show, but all it takes is for one person
45:45to care about it enough to continue to
45:48fight for justice. I've said it before,
45:50but you can stay annoying and you can
45:52contact places and you can fight to keep
45:54people's names alive. We are truly in a
45:57golden age of DNA testing right now and
45:59there's going to be a lot more stories
46:01like this making headlines and I want
46:03Heart to Start Pounding to be there for
46:04every single one of them.
46:06>> [music]
46:06>> I'm very, very curious to see where this
46:08next year takes us in terms of solving
46:10cold cases. And now I turn it over to
46:12you guys. What is the cold case that you
46:14want to see solved? Are there any cold
46:15cases from where you live that you're
46:17eager to see answers [music] on? And
46:19maybe, maybe, maybe there's something
46:20that can be done in the near future to
46:22help bring justice.
46:24And if you want to hear more about this
46:26story cuz there is more, you can join me
46:27on the High Council tier over on Patreon
46:30where on Footnotes, I'm going to be
46:31telling you about what didn't make it
46:32into the episode and I want to find out
46:34as much information as I can on Jerry
46:36Johnson's wife and I'm going to put that
46:38in the episode. So join me over there
46:40for more info. That [music]
46:42is all I have for you today. I'm going
46:44to be here next week with another
46:45episode for you guys. [music] Thank you
46:47for joining me here
46:48and I'll see you then. Until next time,
46:51stay annoying.
46:53Do you want more darkly curious stories
46:55in your life? Sign up for our Patreon
46:57for free and get access to a rotating
46:59shelf of bonus content, [music] our
47:00weekly Rogue Detecting Society
47:02newsletter, and the HSP book club. Paid
47:04members also get monthly bonus episodes
47:06and archive [music] access, which I
47:08think is more than 40 episodes at this
47:10point. You also get a cool Jinx sticker
47:11after your first 3 [music] months. And
47:13you can check it all out with a free
47:157-day trial. Link in the bio or go to
47:17patreon.com/heartstartspounding. [music]
47:20But whatever you do, stay curious.
47:24Heart Starts Pounding is written and
47:25produced by me, Killa Moore.
47:26>> [music]
47:26>> Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs.
47:28Heart Starts Pounding is also produced
47:29by Matt Brown. Additional research and
47:31writing by Abigail Cannon. Sound [music]
47:33design and mix by Red Room Creative.
47:35Video editing by Creative Step. Special
47:38thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson
47:39Jernigan, and the team at WME. [music]
47:41Have a heart-pounding story or a case
47:42request? Check out
47:43heartstartspounding.com.

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