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Well, you never know what to expect, to expect the unexpected, I guess. I mean, you never know what time you're going to be called out for an assignment. It could be during the day, it could be in the middle of the night. Typically, if you're working day shift or second shift, you would just go ahead and work whatever's on your caseload. But I remember getting a call. It was towards morning. It came over as what we call the signal seven eighty one that was a death. It
was a warm morning and it was pretty dry. When I got there, I guess there was a crowd starting to come out arriving on a scene. I was directed to where this child was laying on the side of the road and just making more observations whatever I could detect at the scene, which wasn't very much at the time.
It appeared that she was probably either dragged out of the car or thrown out of the car, and I just called our ID section and they responded and did what they do typically taking pictures and if there's anything else at this area. I mean, there was no fingerprints to be taken or anything like that, look for tire tracks, so there was really nothing to look for except the deceased person. Everything happened so quick and just the type of crime it was, in the place where it happened
and everything. I'm sure this happened at someplace house, but she was merely dumped in that area another one hundred feet it probably would have been in DC, and I wouldn't add any involvement at all.
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl case.
This child was laying on the side of the road.
I wouldn't go no way, I would call up my house.
Those first five murderers should have been a huge warning bell for the police.
We just want to know what happened.
This person must have saw that.
They were thinking that maybe it's just one person and he says, they need to know this is me.
I thought that they would catch him. I thought it was just a matter of time.
I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. The Freeway Phantom had already claimed two victims, Carol Spinks and Derlinia Johnson. Although Carolyn Darlinia's bodies were dumped fifteen feet from each other and were killed the same way, law enforcements still hadn't linked the two murders. They'd asked a potential suspect in Darlinia's death if he knew Carol Spinks. He didn't, so the two murders were still being treated as individual cases.
But on July twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one, eight days after Darlinia's decomposed body was found, the Freeway Phantom's third victim would be discovered.
I remember how she was clad. I remember how she was dressed. I remember she had some pink rollers in her hair, and she had just a little outfit on a little top. But it was it seems to me it was a matching outfit. There wasn't really that much to see there far as she was concerned. I just wrapped her hands in baggies and called for a corner to go ahead and transport her or was an ambulance. I should say this is.
A retired detective Hillary Zuklowski, who we heard from at the top of this episode. He was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene.
We weren't there very long because there really wasn't much evidence together, maybe an hour. I don't think they shut down the roads or anything like that because the manner of the way she was dumped on the side of the road.
Brenda Crockett was four and a half feet tall and weighed only seventy five pounds. She was the youngest victim of the Freeway Phantom, and like Carol Spinks and de Linia Johnson, she was discovered right off a busy highway.
She was a child of God. She loved church. She was going to refrigerate it eat raw bacon, but you know, the pigs were better back then. She had a dimple up here in her cheek. She loved bacon and she loved the Lord at ten years old, but I do remember that I looked up to her that as she was cute. My name is Berta Crockett and I am the youngest sibling of my family. Brenda was my oldest sister. She was four years older. I have a twin brother who is deceased now, and we had an older brother.
We lived on to ours place. It was a beautiful community to be honest. As a child, we did everything. We had the fire hydrants out in the summertime. We had arts and craft. We had a lot going on. Because one of the gentlemen that lived in the area, he worked for the Department of Rets, so he bought all of this activity to our street and we were like like a one way street.
Brenda lived with her family in Northwest Washington, d C. Which was a crosstown from the first two murders. Like the neighborhoods where Carol Spinks and Delinia Johnson lived, it was tight knit. I briefly visited her neighborhood and found where Brenda's house used to be. So we're standing in front of the house where Brenda Crockett lived. She would have stepped down this step uh to leave her house for the last time. We see again this quiet I
would call it a sweet residential street. And she walked just a few blocks. The blocks it's five blocks, but The blocks here are quite small. This is not a New York block. And she walked just a short way to the Safeway and bought what she needed to buy and never came home again. How someone can snatch a little girl off the street like that, I mean, this is not like where Carol Spinks and Derlinia we're living.
We do not see aunties on the porch. But that could also be because the the Gude neighborhood is obviously flipped over. This is not a majority black neighborhood anymore. Still, leading up to Brenda's murder, fear hadn't infiltrated this community. It could be that Carolyn Delini's murders hadn't been connected, or that they happened too far away for anyone here to notice. Whatever the reason, people here had yet to realize that there was a killer targeting young girls. If
they had, things might have gone differently. It was neighborhood movie night on Main Street when Brenda headed to the store.
All the kids in the neighborhood could watch movies on the screen. So in the summertime, you remember, it was daylight until about nine o'clock PM. So my mom, my sister, being older the store that she went to was literally two blocks around the corner and two blocks down the street, and because she didn't come back by the time it was turning dark, my mom went looking for her because we were getting ready to watch the movies on the big screen.
Brenda wore a white and blue plaid halter top with matching shorts and had pink rollers in her freshly pressed hair. A witness said Brenda had been barefoot. She was headed to buy food for Ringo, Rex and Romeo, the family's three dogs, along with bread and typing paper.
When my sister didn't return from the grocery store, my mom didn't realize that no one had went with her, and so after she didn't come back, because it should have been literally a half hour forty five minutes, my mom went looking for her and she didn't find her. My sister didn't return.
Here's what Reetha Crockett, Brenda's mother, told the police about the night Brenda went missing, as read by a voice actor.
I sent my daughter to People's drug store to get type in paper, also to the Safeway store located at fourteenth and U Street's northwest to get some dog food. This was about eight o'clock. After a while, she didn't return, so I looked at the door for her. I thought she went to the store with her brother and sister and a friend, like she always does. I went outside
and it was starting to get dark. I found my other two children, Benjamin and Bertha, and asked them if they had seen Brendan, and they said no. All three of us watched the corner of thirteenth in w streets to look for I told Benjamin to return to the house to lock the door, and when he didn't return, I sent Bertha to get him. She came back and said he was going to stay and watch the street movie. She said he don't want to go. Mamma, Can I
stay too? So I said yes. I walked down the safeway and it was closed and there were some boys sitting outside, and went back home to see you she there, but she wasn't. I then asked my neighbor, missed A. Bundy, if he had seen her, and he said no. I walked back to fourteenth Street, where I seen a police car and asked him what to do when your daughter goes missing. They told me to stand on the corner
that they were out at their area. And that they would have another policeman come and take a missing person report. I was stand there, I see mister Bundy walking out Seventh Street, so I ran across the street, thinking she had come home. Mister Buddy said she was not home, but she called.
At around nine twenty that night, the phone at Brenda's house rang, and Bertha answered.
I'm in Virginia in a white man's house.
The witness came a car and cured me.
To his house. My mother see me.
I'm seven years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. So my sister was ten years old. She was old enough and wise enough to remember our home number at that time. She called home and she said that somebody had picked her up and took her to Virginia. They were going to send her home in a cab. And I answered the phone the first time. I'm too young to even understand what's really going on. So that call
went out, and then the next call came in. My mom's fiance at the time, who became my mom's husband, answered the next call and he said, well, Brenda, if you tell me where you are, come and get you. She says, I'm in Virginia. This man picked me up and took me to He's going to put me in a cab and send me home. She's ten years old. At the same time, my mom went looking for her, and she was asking my stepfather me or whoever at
that time did my mom see me? Which led us to believe that whoever captured her had her in a vehicle or some sort and saw my mom looking for her. I thought it was that Mama is out looking for you.
Where are you? That's my thought, Dan, even now to this day, I look at the scenario of where from DC from where we grew up to Maryland to Virginia, because like, we grew up at twelfth Street Northwest, and then I work at twelfth Street Southwest and then right around the corner, you just hit that bridge and you're at Virginia. So I'm like, was she really familiar with where she was going? Did she see a sign that says she was going to Virginia? You know, It's like
all of the questions in my head. I got the impression that she was a little frightened, that she was like just thinking as whoever it was was gonna put her in a cab and send her back home. She said I'm in Virginia and he's gonna put me in a cabin send me back home.
This was new. This was a complete change from the Freeway Phantom's mo Although there had been reports of him calling the families of the first two victims, this is the only confirmed contact. What makes this even more strange is that Brenda didn't call once, but twice. Theodore Caldwell was raythist fiance. In his statement, Caldwell said he met Bertha coming up the street. This was right after Brenda had called the first time, so Caldwell was aware Brenda
had said a white man took her to Virginia. When Brenda called again around nine forty five, Caldwell picked up the receiver. This is a voice actor reading his statement.
Brenda said, mister Ted, I say, yes, Brenda, are you at She said, I'm in Virginia and a white man's house. I asked how she got over there. She said the white man put her in the car and carried her over to his house. I asked her, is there anyone there besides you and the man? She said no. I told her tell him to come to the phone and tell me where you're at, and I'll come pick you up,
and she said, did my mother see me? I said no, how could she see you when you're in Virginia asked her again, tell the man to come to the phone. I heard someone walk in Heaven. She said, really low, I'll see you, and someone just cut the phone.
There's no definite reason why Brenda went to the store alone that night. Eartha thinks it could be because it was only two blocks from where they lived at the time, and the fact it didn't get dark until nine pm. But there was another person to see Brenda before she disappeared. Here's how one investigator described their interview with a witness named Paulette Johnson.
Missus Johnson was asked if she could recall the night of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, and the incident involving Brenda Faye Crockett. Missus Johnson stated she was well aware of that evening and the night, and that she had become acquainted with the victim, Brenda Crockett, prior to
her abduction on that night. Missus Johnson stated that at approximately eight forty five to nine pm on the night of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, She was walking from the quarner of Fourteenth and U Street northwest, heading south on the east side of fourteenth Street, near the Safeway store. Just as she approached the Safeway store, Brenda Crockett walked around beside her and passed just in front of her, heading toward the door of the Safeway store.
Missus Johnson stated she knew Brenda Crockett by sight because the Crockett Girl's father works for one of her boyfriends, and she recalled that Brenda had been to her daughter's birthday party a few days before this incident. Missus Johnson stated that it was her opinion that Brenda Crockett could not have been taken from in front of the Safeway store by force without someone seeing and observing the incident.
She stated that as she turned the corner on Wallick Place, she lost sight of the Crockett girl, and shortly thereafter when she returned, she did not see her in front of the store. She stated that the time elapsing after she last saw the Crockett girl and when she returned to in front of the Safeway store was approximately five minutes.
If missus Johnson's timing was accurate, this means Brenda was kidnapped within a five minute window. This means missus Johnson could possibly be the last person to see Brenda alive other than the killer. Police questioned Raytha about the abduction.
Has your daughter ever told or advised you that men were trying to entice her into a vehicle?
No?
Did she often go to the door alone?
Just the star around the corna, not the safety buzz self.
Is there anyone you suspect?
No?
Is there anything else you can add to the statement?
No?
As we heard before the break, Brenda called home not once, but twice. Brenda had said that a white man abducted her and that she was in Virginia. This information seemed suspicious and it raised a lot of questions. Was the killer feeding Brenda lies to tell her family and.
Why he was doing a lot of things to deliberately mislead the authorities.
This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co wrote a book about the Freeway Phantom. He says it didn't make sense that a white man would have abducted Brenda as she claimed over the phone. When we talked with members of the local community, they agreed that a white man would have stood out in the congress Heights neighborhood, since the area has always been predominantly black.
Anything he had her say, you have to put under a microscope and go Is he trying to throw the trail off?
In this case?
I definitely think he was in terms of Virginia. I don't know for sure on his race, though, very creepy and if he was, imagine her knowing that she's lying to her family about this. That had to ratchet up her terror level.
Yeah.
It's one thing. If somebody's holding you and they said you could tell him we're in Virginia and you're in Virginia, you tell him I'm white because I'm white. But if they're telling you things that you know aren't true, you got to be more scared. That just ugh scares me to think about that.
Having Brenda call home was a new mo for the Freeway Phantom, and it showed that he was starting to escalate. In fact, it was only eight hours or so after that phone call that Brenda's body was discovered. In the early morning hours of July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, Donald Ray Carter began to head home from work. He worked at the Safeway Bakery in Landover, Maryland, but lived in Alexandria, Virginia. While he was trying to hitch a ride,
he spotted Brenda's body in Chevley, Maryland. Carter had the cab that had stopped for him take him to Joy Donut Shop to call law enforcement and let them know about the body. After law officials were on the scene, the medical examiner declared Brenda's time of death at six fifty five am. Brenda was killed and disposed of in less than eight hours.
It was really sad when we saw the pictures of her. I was deeply moved because she's laid on her back and her eyes are open, looking up and it's on the curve of a cloverleaf exit.
Blaine tells us he spoke with Carter, you know.
He said it was the saddest thing because he said, she's just laying there, and he said, I just thought maybe she's asleep, maybe she's not feeling well, something along those lines, And it turns out that's not the case. What's interesting, too, is you see a trend with this. Her shoes are missing and the killer has taken shoes off several of the victims. That's usually a control mechanism. You know, if you take someone's shoes, it's harder for them to get away or flee or whatever, and he
may be keeping those things as souvenirs. Also missing from her were some pink hair curlers that she had. We know it was a fairly narrow window of time, so narrow in fact, that it almost rules out when you know the geography of dc DC being kind of wedged between Virginia and Maryland, the time that her her body is found versus the phone calls, etc. And when she disappeared, it would have been very difficult for someone to go anywhere but other than right across the border into Virginia.
If indeed the killer was there, the thinking that most law enforcement have had is that he had fed her that information to deliberately mislead the authorities. We just don't know for sure, but you know, the concept of a killer taking his victim back and then letting her call home twice is very disturbing. It's just incredibly creepy.
The killer placed Brenda's body along the Prince George's County, Maryland line. Here's how the police report describes the scene.
The body was viewed by this detective and it was observed that she was clad in a blue and white halter, matching shorts, white cotton underpats, and around her neck was an orchid colored silk scarf knotted and a greenish colored quarter inch cord attached to which was a silver house key. The body was rigor and no visible trauma was present. The deceased was laying approximately five feet six inches from the curb side, flat on her back with her arms outstretched.
After the body was removed, it was noted that the ground was extremely dry under the deceased, however, around the body was wet.
The orchid scarf was new, Brenda hadn't been wearing it when she left for Safeway, and this further added to the theory that the Freeway phantom was redressing the girls. Brenda's body was taken to the Morgue at Prince George's County Hospital. This is her autopsy report.
Cause of death was ruled to be ligature and manual strangulation. She had been vaginally raped and there were ring like contusions around her nipples, suggesting they had been bitten. There was a small contusion in the left temple region of her scalp she was fully clothed, with the exception of her shoes. It was noted no soil on her feet. On her head were pink plastic hair curlers, several of which were missing. A few small hairs of negroid origin were found on the palm of her right hand, but
were too small for any sort of comparison. Synthetic black textile fibers were recovered from her scarf. Green synthetic fibers were also recovered from her blouse, shorts, and panties. Blood mixed with semen was found in the crotch of her panties, but could not be conclusively grouped.
Brenda's case is different from Carol and Darlinia's in two major ways. One is the time period between capture and killing. Carol was kept alive and even fed for about a week. Authorities weren't able to determine an exact time of Darlinia's death due to the decomposition of her body when she was found. However, they did confirm that it was a shorter interval than the previous murder. The second difference, as we mentioned, are the phone calls, but outside of that,
the similarities remain. How the girls were killed, the killer's dump sight and the washed feet. Although Brenda had been barefoot, her feet had still been washed. But there's another detail in Brenda Crockett's case that wasn't initially noticed. This is Romaine Jenkins, the retired Metropolitan Police Department sergeant who investigated the freeway phantom cases. We visited her at her home.
What do you think of her hair?
Her hair's been washed, thank you very much.
See, men didn't notice that. I noticed that and me all said, oh, the hay has been washed in water some way, So how tied up it is? And her sister said their hair had just been done. They had just been pressed and curled and put on rollers and look at it. Now, she's been in water. Yeah, but the guys didn't notice that. They did not. I knew that when I saw that picture.
Here's what Bertha Crockett has to say about her sister's hair being wet.
When they found her. I think her hair was wet with the rollers in it. If that's the case, I think he would have tried to remove evidence. If you're gonna wash your victims, you're removed trying to remove evidence. And you know, as black women, we don't do wet hair. I can't even remember my hair back then, but I have one picture of her at Easter and her hair was cute, So I guess we would have had to
been pressing, pressing curl back then. In the seventies, it met shampoo, blow dry, iron, curl on the stove and press and roll up with rollers. None of this.
Uh.
I don't remember curling eyes. I don't remember h flat eyes. I don't remember any of that. It's just you press it with the straightening comb on the stove and you rolled it up with some greeds.
Reports also showed the negroid headhairs in Brenda's right palm were not hers, and for the third time now green rayon fibers were found on the body. Here's Blaine Pardo again, So.
We now know for sure she's linked to Carol Spakes. So at that point law enforceman knows they've got somebody who's doing this. And more importantly, those fibers are showing up under their clothing. If you think about it from a perspective of what's happening, if you get your victim to disrobe because you're going to sexually assault them, or you disrobe them if you're putting their clothes on the source of those fibers, You're still kind of laying clothes on.
Let's say it was a reading blanket out of bed. When you're throwing the clothes on there, the fibers are still going to be on the outside of the clothing. These things are showing up inside. And you know, it's a real scary concept of what's happening here as to how they're picking these fibers up and from.
What The Maryland Police Department issued an award for any information on the case. And while the police were searching for the killer, birth as send. The community changed.
After that. The community became really strict. Like I was in a short block. I mean I'm talking like maybe a quarter mile, not even that. When the lights came on, you better be in front of your home to go in the house. In our neighborhood, the community raised us. So if you did anything wrong, the neighbors told your parents be for they even got home. So everything. Everybody
was watching out for everybody. It was so strict, and it was just what it was after that, And I think I think my sister's death is what sparked such a tight knit a lookout for everybody on that block and on the next blocks. I I was on twelfth Place, so we had Twelfth Street. On the next block we had thirteenth Street. So we just kept a tight knit community after that. It was so sad, though, because I didn't understand the restrictions that I had on me as
a little child. But my mother didn't want anything to happen to me either.
Here's an excerpt from the book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom by Wilma Harper.
The death of Brenda had a traumatic effect on the neighborhood where she lived. The residents said the area would never be the same. In contrast to the usual crowd to frolicking youngsters, only a few children were playing ball on the block. After Brenda's body was found. An eight year old boy refused to go to the store for his mother because he was afraid he would be kidnapped.
Neighbors and friends along twelfth Place, which is just behind Cardoza High School, described Brenda as a bright fifth grade student at nearby Harrison Elementary School. Missus Eva Artist, a neighbor who cared for the children when their mother was at work, said we usually have lots of games going on the street, but nobody's been acting right today. I think everyone is disturbed.
But Bertha Crockett says the death of her sister had an even bigger impact on her immediate family.
I know it took a lot on my mom, though I saw my mom just appreciate from that. But she just wasn't her stuff anymore. It's like life went out her. And so then that's when you that's when you you say, well, why wasn't it me? Why would God take that Anchel? Because she had going no way better than me, even at seven years old. You want to think that, like I know her, I knew her. I didn't, you know
what I'm saying. I didn't. I wasn't on her level because she had her own girlfriendstead of friends at ten years old, she had a whole school of girlfriend that loved her. I went to the cemetery about a month ago, but I could not find her, and I couldn't. My mama is in the same place, the same cemetery, but I couldn't. So I will have to literally go back and ask them to show me the plot, because it's been fifty years to show me where my sister I
know she's located in Hilltop Garden of Roses. That the name of the place where they, you know, have her laid to rest. But my mom is in the same place. My mom is on that big tree. But yeah, it's said that, you know, having a sister that I really didn't get to know because she got taken away at such a young age, growing up without a sister, and then like in my early twenties, I lost my mom, so I mean out here forever, and so some things just bring emotion back.
Well. Bertha and her family were grieving Brenda's death. The police had begun to suspect that her murder might be connected to Carol and Derlinia, and months later those suspicions were finally confirmed when another girl was found dead. Sixteen year old Stephen James Potopio was watching TV when he decided to go visit his friend Chuck. On his way to Chuck's house, he passed by a broken down pontiac on the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue near a sign that
said Upper Harborough twelve. Stephen said he heard a man holler a girl's name and told her to cut the lights on. He described the woman as young and white, no older than nineteen or twenty. The man was also white and well dressed, with brownish blonde hair, glasses, and about five foot ten inches. Stephen said he noticed the guy was staring at him, so when Stephen was about twenty feet from the car, he jumped the bank to
cut across the cemetery to Chuck's house. When he got there, nobody was home, so Stephen decided to head back to his house. This next part is an excerpt from Stephen's statement to the police.
I then left and headed home the identical where I came. As I was walking up Pennsylvania Avenue toward Maryland, I started walking backwards, shying the thumb hitchhike. I noticed a box sitting off the shoulder on the grass. I walked over to the box and saw glass in it. I turned and saw something in the grass, but right then I didn't know what it was. I walked up to it, but I didn't know if it was a man or a girl. I stood there a couple seconds to see
if you wuld move. I took my right foot and kicked it two or three times, and the body seemed to wiggle. I stood there a couple seconds, and it felt the body under the ribs to see if the heart was beating. The body felt cold, and then something hit me, maybe it was dead.
Stephen had found the body of twelve year old Ninamosha Yates, a sixth grader at Kelly Miller Junior High She was a well behaved, quiet child, and now she was the fourth victim of the Freeway phantom. Ninamosha lived with her father and stepmother in the Benning Heights neighborhood in southeast Washington, d C. Benning Heights is about six miles from Congress Heights, a completely different area on the other side of d C from the first three murders. It was Friday, October first,
nineteen seventy one. Ninomosha's stepmother had just given birth and was at the hospital with Nina's dad. About seven p m. Ninomosha was given five dollars and sent to Safeway to buy sugar, flour, and paper plates. The grocery store was located at forty eight oh one Benning Road Southeast. That's the same road Ninomosha lived on. Although the store was only about a block away, her father had instructed her
not to talk to strangers. According to witnesses, Ninamosha made it to the grocery store, but she never made it back. Here's Victoria Hester, who co wrote a book about the Freeway Phantom with her father, Blaine Pardo.
We know that for sure she was at the Safeway. The store manager confirmed on October first. It would have been pretty dark at that time. It was normal to go down the street to a Safeway at nine o'clock at night in DC at that time.
It wasn't until the next day, October second, that a Safeway employee found the items nan Emosha had purchased.
We know wherever she went she was either forcibly taken only because the bag of sugar that she had bought from Safeway was found in the parking lot of Safeway, so she didn't get very far. She wouldn't have left that bag of sugar. If she was getting a ride home or getting a ride to somewhere else by someone driving by, she would have taken that with her, which kind of leads us to believe it was forcibly. But at the same time, with it being a well lit
parking lot, she would have screamed. She would have made some sort of noise and a area I she was being forcibly taken, so it gets kind of tricky and that sense because of her age too, she was twelve. Was she easy to convince to get in a vehicle?
Just to me?
It makes it look forcible since her bag of groceries that she went out to get was left behind. Another important thing about it was her body was found dry on wet grass, so we know she wasn't killed where she was dumped, and she wasn't killed outside or she would have been wet. She was wearing her clothes that she was wearing when she disappeared. The cause of death was known to be strangulation and she was sexually assaulted.
She also had fingernail marks on her neck, so either from being strangled or trying to fight back and getting marks on her neck.
Ninemosha was found in cut off brown shorts, a white sweatshirt with green lettering that spelled Randall, Highland hornets, and white zips tennis shoes. Autopsy reports indicated her a soft was crushed. Not only did Ninomosha have more wounds than previous victims, but the killer had accelerated his timeline. She'd left home around seven pm and her body was found around nine fifteen pm. This means she was taken, murdered,
and disposed of in roughly two hours. Like the others, green fibers were found on the body, Negroid hairs from a person's head were on her panties, brazier, sweatshirt, cut off jean shorts, and shoes. At the time of her disappearance, Ninomosha was wearing a sanitary napkin. Semen was found in that napkin. Additionally, two dollars ninety one cents and a grocery list were found in her pocket, along with two house keys. Attached to a string. Near her body were
several items, including a single woman's loafer. Police considered the loafer was dragged out of the vehicle with Ninomosha's body because it was also dry. Remember Darlinia Johnson was missing loafers when she was found. There were also drag marks from Ninamosha's heels in the wet dirt. The police report noted that tire tracks created by a small vehicle were
found near the body and had been photographed. Later. Another witness told police they'd seen Ninamosha get into a blue Volkswagen with a yellow stripe down the side headed in the direction of the safeway. The witness assumed it was her mom, since she drove a similar car.
Kind of sent a wild goose chase on the Volkswagen issue with a witness thinking that they saw her get into a Volkswagen. It kind of created this, well, now we've got to find this car that happens to be one of the most popular cars right now, and it
really went nowhere. It's kind of unfortunate. It's nice that the witness thought they saw something, but at the same time, it created a lot of misleading information about who they were looking for, and it wasted a lot of police time running all these plates and trying to identify all these cars.
Later, investigators interviewed Stephen again. This time he added to a statement The following is from that report.
He advised he furnished what he thought was the full facts of what he had seen that evening, but he has since recalled he had seen another car in the vicinity of where he discovered the body Potopia related after he left his residence and turned east toward Washington d C. On Pennsylvania Avenue in the right hand lane, he observed a Volkswagen in the westbound lane. This Volkswagen pulled off onto the side of the road and parked about twenty
five feet west of where Potopia discovered the body. Potopia looked back after he had seen the car park and observed two men get out of the Volkswagen, a white from the driver's side and a Negro man from the passenger side. The two men walked along the side of the road distance and then went down the embankment, and
she no longer thought anything about it. Potopia then crossed the westerly lane the median and then in the westerly lane observed the other car with the hood up, which he had put into the signed statements.
The car with the hood up belonged to the young couple we heard earlier. Police were now investigating two sets of individuals, one a young Caucasian couple, the other a black man and Caucasian man, but this didn't last long. Shortly after the news broke about Nina Moosha Yates, a witness came forward. Here's what James Richard Lloyd told police, as read by a voice actor.
I was with Jay Robinson in his nineteen seventy one Pontiac Laman, which is brown in color, and we were coming from the Fairfax Village in Washington, d C. Jay heard a noise coming from the engine, so we stopped along Pennsylvania Avenue, just passed the gates to the cemetery. We got out and opened the hood. Jay was trying to find where the noise was coming from. About that time, someone walked past us. I first saw him walking up the road as we pulled off. He was walking toward DC.
While we stopped, I saw two cars stopped along the road in front of us, about one hundred yards up the road from us. They were close together, but I don't know what type of cars they were. We got back in our car and drove off.
James told police he came to speak with them after Jerry's mother had read about the news. It had been only him and Jerry in the car when they stopped just pass the entrance to the cemetery along Pennsylvania Avenue. He said he saw both cars the entire time he and Jerry were pulled over. This was about three to four minutes. James also told police the cars were there when he and Jerry left, and he didn't see anyone or anything else as they drove off. With James's statement,
both sets of suspects were ruled out. Authorities were back to square one. There were now four young dead black girls, girls that were from tight knit neighborhoods, places where the community kept an eye on children, places that were meant to be safe, Yet the police had no leans. Here's Romain again.
Whoever grabbed these young ladies grabbed them right in their own neighborhood. Nina Mostates went to the grocery store in the forty eight hundred block of Benning Road. She's picked up that she she's grabbed in the forty nine hundred block, and nobody sees anything. All the people out there, I don't care. When you go out there. You have East Capitol Street there, it's always people because you're close to
the district line. People are doing shopping. She's grabbed at a time when there are lots of people out, kids are out, and nobody.
Sees the thing. Because he fit in with the community, nobody was suspicion.
What happened to Ninemosha was also true in the case of Brenda Crockett. Both girls had been snatched in broad Daylight. As Romaine has said, it's very likely the killer was somebody from the neighborhood. I asked Bertha Crockett if she had any suspicions about who the killer could be.
Back then, we used to have officer friendlies that came to our school and they got to know the kids. That means officers that used to come to your school and make sure that the kids feel safe. Like right now they have patrol officers or officers in the school and make sure kids are not doing the violence stuff
that they've been doing lately. But back then they were called officer friendlies and they would come to your school and have like little conversations with you and and it always made me feel like an officer friendly was somebody that saw different girls and he selected them.
Next time on Freeway Phantom.
DC had never had a serial killing before, and so it wasn't something not that you ever get used to it, but it wasn't something they were familiar with. The fourth body that brought more people in because where's the body found. You're talking about PG County, right, You're talking about crossing jurisdictional lines, So then he is PG County coming into play?
All of these girls were not from runaway families.
These girls, they were good families.
And if they do investigate, they don't investigate when it comes to black people, you know, unless it's something that's juicy.
And all of a sudden, the guy, he comes out of the driverside and he comes around the front of the car.
And snatches me.
There's no emotion on his face. None.
Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeartRadio, Tenderfoot TV and Black Bar Mitslaw. Our host is Teless Hilly. The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright, and CELESE.
Hidley.
Executive producers on behalf of iHeartRadio include Matt Frederick and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay, with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of Black Bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and Aaron Bergman, with producer Sidney Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six, original music by Makeup and Vanity set special thanks to a teammate, Uta Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia, as well as Black Bar Mitzvah, have increased the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for their Freeway Fan
of murders. The previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched a new toe A reward of up to three hundred thousand dollars is now being offered. If you have any information relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department at area code two zero two seven two seven nine zero ninety nine. For more information,
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