School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members, their statements should not be considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
On Tuesday, November twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven, Thanksgiving Day, sixteen year old Karen Mitchell had the day off from school and was thinking about her future. Karen grew up in southern California and for a long time lived with her mother, Mary Casper, and her brother James in Whittier,
a town about twenty miles from Long Beach, California. Karen had been attending high school in Long Beach, but Karen had recently made the decision to move in with her aunt and uncle to a small town in northern California called Eureka in Humboldt County, population twenty eight thousand. The Guardian newspaper did an interview with Karen's mother, Mary and her brother James in twenty fifteen, and according to what Mary told the newspaper, Karen didn't really fit in in
Long Beach. She was kind of a hippie, very into the environment, animals and nature. She didn't care about fashion or makeup like a lot of the other girls in her class. It seemed like there was some conflict brewing at home, her mom told the newspaper. They had been butting heads and arguing more often. A lot of it seemed to be typical teenage stuff, But they came to the conclusion Karen wasn't happy in southern California. It just didn't seem to be the right environment for kid Karen.
So Karen and Mary decided that Karen would spend a year living with her aunt Annie and uncle Bill Casper in northern California. This was a much more rural area where she could enjoy nature, and also thought to be a safer area with a slower pace of living.
After living in Eureka.
For a few months, it seemed like Karen was happy there, at least at first. She had found a job at a local daycare and was scheduled to work on that Tuesday afternoon. Annie Casper, Karen's aunt, was her legal guardian. She owned a shoe store inside the Bay Shore Mall.
That day, because there was no school, Karen caught a ride with Annie to her shoe shop, which was in the thirty three hundred block of Broadway Street, the local name for the one oh one Freeway now the one oh one Freeway, was the main and pretty much only thoroughfare through town.
The mall was about three quarters.
Of a mile to a mile from Humboldt Childcare Council, the daycare where Karen worked. Spent some time hanging out with her Anne at the store, then she left for work. Her route took her north on a street that in Eureka is sometimes referred to as Broadway. Karen headed on foot in the direction of West Sonoma Street in Eureka
to her workplace at around two forty five pm. Karen's trip to work should have taken her about a mile down the one oh one, a highway that was heavily populated and This was in the middle of the day, but her aunt Annie came to the childcare center around three hours later to pick Karen up. That's when she figured out Karen never made it to work. Annie immediately knew that something was wrong. She called Karen's mother, Mary in southern California. They called the police to report Karen missing.
Mary drove up to Eureka to help look for Karen, but Mary never saw her daughter alive again. Karen Mitchell was gone. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five, or you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Karen Mitchell was born on November thirtieth, nineteen eighty. She grew up in Whittier, about twenty five miles from Long Beach, California, and stayed
there through junior high school. Her mom and aunt told Dateline that even as a little girl, Karen cared deeply about people and causes. She did things like attend peace rallies or give money to people in need. Her aunt, Annie described her to Dateline as a very smart young woman.
Who was an old soul.
And even though Karen had moved Nora to be with her aunt and uncle, she maintained a close relationship with her mother, Mary and her brother. They spoke regularly. Karen came home for summer and for school holidays. In fact, Karen had been planning to fly home over Christmas. She had already bought the tickets, but the tickets remained unused. Police asked Karen's family about their last contact with her. Mary told investigators that her last phone conversation was on
the morning that Karen disappeared. Because even though Karen was happy in Eureka and making friends and getting good grades, she also seemed to be getting restless. She had told her mom she hoped to finish high school in the next few months, to graduate early, and then to enroll at Humboldt State College. The school now known as California State Polytechnic University. So Karen and her mother had spent the morning chatting and filling out a college application over
the phone. Both her mom and her aunt said Karen would never disappear voluntarily. Soon police and searchers were scouring the area. Karen's missing posters went up everywhere. According to the missing person's info posted on the dough project, Karen was five feet inches tall, weighing one hundred and thirty pounds. She had short, sandy blonde hair that went to her neck, and greenish blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a long sleeved tan shirt, baggy dark brown corduroy pants, and
tan leather shoes with buckles. Karen was also wearing some jewelry, a silver necklace with crystal, three silver rings, and small hoop earrings, and she was carrying a reusable now Jean water bottle. Police scoured the area with canines and kidaver sniffing dogs. Volunteers in law enforcement searched a lot of terrain. They had a big response. A lot of people saw
those posters and some reached out with tips. A motel owner reached out to Mary and said he believed that Karen was at his motel, so she rushed there and saw young woman. This young woman looked like Karen, but it wasn't her. Then a few months after Karen disappeared, police got a potential lead. A witness came forward who said that he saw a woman whom he believed to be Karen on the day she disappeared getting into a vehicle.
The witness described the vehicle as a light blue fordor nineteen seventy six to nineteen seventy eight sedan, possibly a Ford Granada, a Mercury Monarch, or a Nissan. The most memorable part of the description was actually the license plates. According to the witness, the driver had California license plates and the word Eureka printed on the rear plate's frame.
This person, the witness, claimed that they actually almost got into a car accident when the man in the mystery vehicle turned onto Broadway Street aka the one oh one, and nearly hit him. After that, the witness said the car stopped and picked up a young woman who matched Karen's description, so, presumably because they were probably a little
bit shaken, the witness remembered the driver well. The witness described the driver of the car as a white mail approximately sixty to seventy years old, with balding, light gray or sandy blonde hair. The witness helped police create a composite sketch with even more details, including that the man had green or gray eyes and a large sized nose that appeared to have been previously broken, and that he
had a small build and wore eyeglasses. The witness stated that the driver of the car was wearing a long sleeve, buttoned down light blue shirt. We're going to be posting sketches of the car and the driver on Instagram at hellen gonpod. Because this case is still technically open, there is not a lot of information out there about how police chase down this leet, but it was reported on Charlie project dot org that police did find a car
similar to the car reported by the witness. Then, shortly after Karen disappeared, they apparently located the driver and gave that person a polygraph test. It was reported that that person w ultimately cleared of any involvement in Karen's disappearance, but again we don't know details. Was this definitely the car the witness saw, did the Eureka plates match or did police just find a car that resembled the description given by the witness and questioned the driver of that car.
Like a lot of things.
In this case, because this is still an open investigation, we're just not sure. I also have some other questions, including how reliable is this witness description, because it hits me that the witness must have been very close to
that other car to see the driver's eye color. Again, I wish we had access to the case file so that we could see exactly what this person told the police in the complete interview, because so much of the subsequent investigation appears to be based on this witness description. It would be super helpful to find out if police were able to be sure that this was Karen the
witness saw. Karen's disappearance shocked the local community. For the most part, the area where Karen vanished as known as a pretty safe area, and Karen went missing in the middle of the day in a well trafficked area. Plus, of course, the irony of all this was a part of the reason why Karen moved to Humboldt County in the first place was because she and her mom thought of it as safer than where she had been living in southern California. Karen's mother, Mary, gave the Guardian more background.
She said she had Karen when she was eighteen years old and Karen's brother when she was just sixteen years old. Karen's mother was married to their father, but they divorced when the kids were young, so Mary raised those two children as a single mom for years. She worked multiple jobs to support her family. Mary said that her brother Bill and his wife Annie were the ones who suggested that Karen come and live with them and their three
sons in Eureka. But, as we said before, or even though she seemed to find some peace in Eureka, Karen seemed to be getting bored. She started making more concrete plans to go to college. Police did consider the possibility that Karen could have been a runaway, so just to briefly touch on that, on the day she disappeared, she was figuring out applications and financial aid. It seemed like she was planning for the future, so this made her
friends and family believe she would not have run away. Also, she was very reliable about getting to work on time, and she specifically said she was headed there. She didn't pack anything to take with her. And also, Karen had a bank account. After she disappeared, no one ever tried to access that money, and as we said before, she never came back home to visit her mother and brother with her prepaid airline tickets. Months went by and there
was zero sign of Karen. Eventually, the searches died down and the headline stopped. James went back to southern California and they waited. Over the years, Mary has talked to the media. She appeared on the Sally Jesse Raphael talk show, and she talked regularly with the detective in charge of the case, Dave Paris.
From the interviews that Dave Paris has given.
About the case, it seems clear that he cared deeply about it and it's something that he reflected on a lot during his time in law enforcement. Dave Paris told the Eureka Time Standard back in twenty twelve that he was haunted by the case. He said he'd spent a lot of time thinking about what could have happened to Karen Parts of Humboldt County are places where it could be easy for a person to disappear. It's an area that's surrounded by a lot of forests, and there were
a lot of people growing marijuana in those forests. Giant redwood trees block out the view from the road. There were also a lot of transients in the area and a lot of hitchhikers.
Karen was added to an.
Ominous list of young women who had gone missing in and around Humboldt County. They were known as the Humbolt Five. These young women went missing years apart under different circumstances in various parts of the county. There's no evident connection between any of the cases. The only commonality is that all of them were young women, and none of them were ever seen again. There's actually a spot there called
Alder Point that is nicknamed Murder Mountain. It was originally apparently nicknamed that after a serial killing couple hid out there in nineteen eighty two, but the name kind of stuck around. Netflix actually made a documentary about missing people in the area called Murder Mountain, but later questions emerged about how accurate these statistics of missing people were. In
the area because it's been widely reported that. The California Department of Justice stated that in twenty twenty four, two hundred and forty four children and two hundred and thirty eight adults were reported missing from Homboldt County, But the Sheriff of Humboldt County made a statement to KRCR news.
He pointed out that of the two hundred and forty four juveniles reported missing, two hundred and forty two of them were later found, and out of the two hundred and thirty eight adults that were reported missing, two hundred and three were found.
So yes, at first glance, the.
Sheriff said, there seemed to be a lot of missing people in Humboldt County, but you have to look at the other side of the equation. Most of those people are eventually found. Unfortunately, Karen Mitchell was not one of them. Over the years, there were some suspects and people of interest who popped up, including two very high profile serial killers. One of them was a man named Wayne adam Ford.
At around six thirty pm on November third, nineteen ninety eight, thirty six year old Wayne adam Ford walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff's office with his brother. He told police he wanted to confess to murder. Then he held out a piece of female breast that was sealed inside a plastic bag that he had in his jacket pocket. Wayne adam Ford had a connection to the area. He had lived in Trinidad, a town about thirty minutes outside of Eureka. He was recently divorced at the time and had a
two year old son. He lived a fairly isolated life. His wife and son were living in Las Vegas. Wayne was a long haul trucker, which he claimed gave him access to his female victims. Women came forward and described being attacked by a man who matched Wayne's description, and he drove a truck.
Police explored the possibility.
That he may have been involved in other crimes, including other murders. Carlton Smith, author of a book called Shadows of Evil, pointed out in the book that this was an interesting case because behavioral analysts at the FBI training facility at Quantico at the time believed serial killers tend to escalate over time. In other words, their murders get worse and more brutal. But Wayne's trajectory seemed to be the opposite. Wayne eventually confessed to murdering four people, including
a young woman, Jane Doe. Her torso was found floating in Humboldt County near Eureka. Her case was known as the Torso Case. In twenty twenty three, Jane Doe was finally identified as twenty five year old carry Ann Cummings. Wayne was eventually convicted of killing carry Anne and three other victims. Twenty six year old Tina Renee Gibbs, who was killed in Las Vegas on May sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight,
and her body dumped in Kern County, California. Twenty five year old Lynette White, who was murdered on September twenty fifth, nineteen nine, and Ontario, California. Her body was dumped in an irrigation canal near Lodi, California. The final victim was twenty nine year old Patricia Times. She was murdered in Hissperia, California, in October of nineteen ninety eight. Her body was dumped
in an aqueduct in San Bernardino County. Wayne claimed that he picked up three of his victims as hitchhikers, but police said there were parts of his story that didn't really make sense. They said three of Wayne's victims were known sex workers. Because of that, they believe Wain was lying about the real reason why they initially got into his vehicle, but he was telling the truth.
About where the bodies were located.
Waine was also unusual, and then he randomly showed up to confess to his crimes, and he seemed to have a genuine desire to stop rather than trying to just taunt the police. Police have stated Wayne killed his first victim about a month before Karen disappeared, but other than proximity to Karen, there wasn't much to.
Go on evidence wise.
Neither the vehicle nor the description of the driver matched Wayne Ford's appearance. It was reported in nineteen ninety nine in the Los Angeles Times that police were waiting on DNA tests to see if Wayne could be linked to Karen's case, but after that nothing further was reported and police did not move forward with pursuing a case against Wayne.
Wayne was operating in the same area as where Karen went missing, but he drove a truck, not the car the witness described, and the link between him and Karen was never established. Not to mention the fact that Wayne confessed to his kills but he never mentioned Karen. Of course, serial killers and killers in general, can lie, especially when they have something to gain. In Mary and James's twenty fifteen interview with the Guardian, the writer asked Mary Casper
about the Wayne Ford rumors. Mary told the Guardian the detective Ferris told her Wayne Ford was given a lie detector test and that he was specifically questioned about Karen, that Wayne had denied having anything to do with her disappearance, and that apparently he passed that test. Mary also told the newspapers she went a step further. She said in two thousand she personally went to see Wayne Ford in prison. Mary said she asked him point blank if he killed Karen.
She also showed Wayne pictures of her daughter. Mary claimed that Wayne told her that quote she looks like she could be one of mine.
End quote.
But Mary said Wayne was asking her to write to him in prison and offering to give her information little by little, so she said no.
For what it's worth.
I think that Mary refusing to write to Wayne was the right call. This is just my opinion, but I see way too many instances of killers in prison who seemed to get a kick out of streaming along journalists and family members other people who write to them. In the end, most of them just end up wasting a lot of time and for those closest to the victim, causing.
Even more heartache.
But it does show how much Mary loved her daughter and how she was willing to go to any links to try to get answers about what happened to her. Karen's case made headlines again in two thousand and two. It was reported in the Sioux City Journal that police in California were looking at similarities between Karen's case and the cases of two young women who were murdered in Oregon. In January of two thousand and two, twelve year old Ashley Pond disappeared on her way to the bus stop
in Oregon City. Then two months later, a classmate of hers, thirteen year old Miranda Gaddis, also disappeared in the same neighborhood, also near a bus stop. The two girls' bodies were eventually found at a property rented by thirty nine year old Ward Weaver the Third. Ward Weaver the Third lived near the area where both girls disappeared. One of the girl's bodies was found in a shed. The other body
was found buried under a concrete slab. Police found the bodies when they were investigating Ward Weaver for the rape of his son's girlfriend. In two thousand and four, Ward Weaver was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the sexual assault and murders of Miranda and Ashley. Even though those murders happened in Oregon, it was reported that Ward Weaver grew up in Eureka, the same town
where Karen was living at the time of her disappearance. Randomly, Ward Weaver the Third's father, Ward Weaver Junior, is also a convicted serial killer. Ward Weaver Junior was arrested and convicted of the murders of a young couple in nineteen eighty one and dumping their bodies under concrete in his backyard. At the time Karen went missing, it was reported that Ward Junior, the father was in prison. Other than Ward
the Third's proximity to Karen Mitchell's hometown. At some point, police apparently determined there was no connection between Ward Weaver and Karen Mitchell, but in twenty fifteen, another very infamous name came up as being potentially connected to Karen's case. Multi millionaire real estate scion turned serial killer Robert Durst. Robert Durst, of course, was a member of the Durst
family of Manhattan real estate magnets. His family was worth an estimated eight billion dollars and founded the Durst Organization, which eventually went on to own, manage, and build and estimated thirteen million square feet in Manhattan office towers. Robert Durst, of course, became a household name early in twenty fifteen after being the subject of the HBO documentary series The James. I won't go through all the details of this case.
This story is a much too long and bizarre to cover completely here, but just to briefly recap, Robert Durst was suspected of several murders when the documentary aired in twenty fifteen, including the killing of his neighbor Morris Black in Texas in two thousand and one, the murder of his friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles in two thousand and the murder of his wife, Kathleen, who went missing
in nineteen eighty two under very suspicious circumstances. Kathleen was twenty nine years old and in medical school when she vanished without a trace on January thirty first, nineteen eighty two. She and Robert had been living in Westchester County, New York. He told police they had an argument and she left their home and he had no idea where she was, but Robert waited five days to report her missing, and
their marriage had been volladle. Kathleen's family said Robert was controlling and had rage issues, so from the beginning, Kathleen's family always suspected that Robert killed Kathleen.
After Kathleen disappeared, Robert did too.
For a long time, he kind of disappeared off the grid. Family and friends had no idea where he was. Then, on September thirtieth, two thousand and one, the body of Robert's neighbor and friend, seventy one year old Morris Black, washed up in Galveston Bay, Texas. Morris Black had been dismembered. Police quickly focused on Robert Durst because at the time he was living in the same apartment complex as Morris Black. Robert Durst admitted he did dismember Morris's body and get
rid of it, but he denied murdering him. He claimed Morris had attacked him, and that he fatally shot Morris in self defense before dumping his body. In two thousand and three, Robert Durst was acquitted of Morris Black's murder in Texas, he ended up pleading guilty to tampering with evidence relating to him cutting up Morris Black's body and disposing of it rather than calling law enforcement. Then, in twenty fifteen, Robert Durst was arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana
on weapons charges. He was charged with the murder of his friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles, and then in twenty twenty one, following the massive global publicity that was brought to the case by the show The Jinks and a long drawn out trial in La Robert Durst was eventually convicted.
Of murdering Susan Burman.
Robert Durst got life without the possibility of parole. He was sent to prison. Then in October of twenty twenty one, he was finally charged with Kathleen's murder, but that trial never happen because in January of twenty twenty two, Robert Durst died in prison at the age of seventy eight. So there are a lot of questions that police can't ask Robert Durst about his past. There were a lot of years after Kathleen went missing and before Morris Black's
body washed up. When Robert Durst flew under the radar, he cut off contact with pretty much his entire family.
He lived under various.
Aliases, paying cash, sometimes living or presenting as a woman in different cities around the country.
But we do know where.
He was for at least some of that time, and as it turns out, during the time when went missing, Robert Durst was living in the small town of Trinidad, about twenty two miles or less than half an hour's drive from where Karen Mitchell lived with her aunt and uncle. Robert had bought himself a modest three story house near
the coast. In March of twenty fifteen, after the last episode of The Jinks Aard and after Robert Durst was arrested in New Orleans, several law enforcement agencies apparently were trying to review his address history. They wanted to figure out if he could be responsible for more crimes. FBI Director James Comey announced that he was ordering.
Every FBI bureau in the United.
States to review cold cases he wanted to find out where Robert Durst was over all those years, and according to multiple media reports, the FBI did appear to be covering all bases and taking the Humboldt County potential connection seriously. Police in Eureka announced they wanted to speak to Robert Durst about Karen mad though the Guardian article noted nothing was ever confirmed. We have to take a lot of these theories with a grain of salt when you try
to trace them back to their source. A lot of these theories seemed to have been circulated at the time by a journalist named.
Matt burt Beck.
He wrote a book about Robert Durst called A Deadly Secret. He stated in that book that he believed Robert Durst could be responsible for Karen's murder because he has claimed on his website there are credit card records that put Robert Durst in Eureka on the day Karen disappeared. Matt also claims Robert Durst resembles the composite sketch, the one that police made of the man with glasses and a broken nose who was driving the vehicle that the witness
said they believe they saw Karen getting into. The New York Daily News also reported Robert Durst apparently visited the shoe store where Karen's aunt Annie worked at least four times. At this time, he was dressing in women's clothing and presenting as female. Matt burt Beck told the Daily News Robert Durst had also been seen at a homeless shelter,
one where he claimed that Karen volunteered. Robert Durst was never charged in connection with Karen Mitchell's case, and though the case file is still open and can't be accessed through FOYA, we have no way of knowing if police ever even talk to him about Karen's disappearance in the years between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty one, when he.
Died in prison.
I will say Robert Durst, when he presents as a man, does appear to resemble the composite sketch of the stranger who was supposedly the driver of the car.
Karen was seen getting into.
Robert Durst also had connections with the area.
But a lot of other people resemble that composite sketch.
It's very general and even if Robert Durst was in Humbolt County at the same time as Karen Mitchell.
I'm still skeptical.
It's definitely possible that Robert Durst committed other crimes, maybe even other killings, while flying under the radar for all those years. For example, in two thousand and fifty, police announced they were looking at Robert Durst as a possible suspect in the disappearance of an eighteen year old named Lynn Schultz. Lynn Schultz went missing in Middlebury, Vermont, on December tenth, nineteen seventy one. Police figured out Robert Durst and his wife, Kathleen were living in the area at
the time. Kathleen owned a health food store called All Good Things, and the last place that Lynn was seen was eating dates or prunes outside of that health food store. Also, Lynn had been telling friends she was considering starting a new life somewhere else. She told at least one friend on the last day she was seen alive, she was planning on buying a bus ticket to New York, which is,
of course where Robert's family lived. Again, we don't know for sure what investigating police have done on all these leads, but at least on the surface, it does not seem as though Karen Mitchell's disappearance would have fit Robert Dursimo. Robert killed his wife Kathleen following domestic violence. Kathleen was threatening to leave it. He killed Susan Burman because she had information about Kathleen's disappearance, and she may have been
blackmailing Robert. And whether or not you believe Robert's story about self defense or not. And again, Robert was acquitted of killing Morris Black. Morris was his neighbor and witnesses said Morris was very confrontational. So Robert's killings, at least the ones that we know about, all appeared to have been motivated by some kind of personal conflict. But there's no suggestion that, other than Robert possibly going to her aunt's shoe shop, there was any kind of a personal
connection between Robert Durst and Karen Mitchell. Also, it's been reported that Robert presented as a woman and wore women's clothing when he came into her aunt's shop, But the driver of the car that Karen Mitchell got into was described as a man. So what happens next in Karen Mitchell's investigation. In twenty fifteen, the family stated they were still in communication with the Eureka police Department and the FBI.
This is still an open investigation. Mary Casper told The Guardian that for a long time, part of her was still hoping Karen was out there somewhere alive. That she caught herself holding onto that hope at times, but at the same time she desperately wanted closure. She wanted to know what happened to her daughter, and she wants justice, even if the truth about what happened to Karen ends up being horrifying. She told The Guardian, quote, we can't
have both. We can't have closure without details end quote. Police have asked anyone with any information about Karen Mitchell contact the Eureka Police Department at seven oh seven four four one four three zero zero. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Etilye's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance.
Noah Camera mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley.
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Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
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