A group of high school student High school.
Students Elizabeth and high school students started a project to research.
A string of unsolved murders.
Their research led to the identification of the killer.
Investigators now have an answer to a thirty four year old question.
Once you start getting a few tips, or a few leads, or few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold anymore. There's a pretty good chance he's still alive. Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate.
Redhead Killer profile male Caucasian, five nine, six hundred and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother, right handed, i Q above one hundred, most likely heterosexual.
There is no profile of this killer except for the ones the students created.
Just because some of these women no longer have people to speak for them does not mean that they deserve to not be so anymore.
What if this guy's still alive? Like, what if becomes after us?
You're gonna kill me?
Who's a Yeah?
This is Murder one oh one, Season one, Episode four, Major Breaks. I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arnoult. The semester may have been over, but the mystery was just beginning to unravel.
So what happened was the students had tried to bring the case back up. It had this media blitz, It'd been featured all over the nation. They have a name for the killer, they have a way to separate these six out from the rest of the victims, and I think it just really got a media firestorm really going, and it brought up a lot of attention back to these cases.
In the fall of twenty eighteen, with the Campbell County Jane Doe identified as Tina Farmer, mister Campbell got incredible news that officials were retesting the DNA of yet another case.
I'll tell you what's so crazy is that we knew they were testing the DNA of the Knox County chained up, and we knew that had been they had collected the DNA because we talked to the woman who they felt was her daughter. So we had we'd talked to her and I talked to her, and she had written this letters and so we had communicated with her. So we were just waiting on that DNA because the Kentucky State Police are like, we submitted it. It's going to be
any day. We don't know when, but like it could be a day.
The alleged daughter of the Knox County Jane Doe, a woman named Elizabeth Pilgrim, spoke about how she felt about the whole situation.
I think it's her the necklaces, my brother recognizing the birthmark, the stay, you know, the two's, the scar, like it just fits into place. Not knowing is like the worst part. And then you got to keep being put on hold and put on hold. You know, it's heartbreaking a little bit. And when that is her is a major part. But I don't think that's gonna be fully all my closure.
As it turned out, Elizabeth's mother, Apsey, was in fact the Knox County Jane Doe.
You have two identifications by in rapid succession. And now what happens is the media frenzy is going even more right because of course people start calling the TBI, and they start calling the local police agencies and they start saying, well, what does this mean? Are we looking at other cases? Are these related to any others? Could she have been killed, you know, by the same person? As somebody else. So within six months of the press conference, we now have four of the victims identified.
Here's what we know about each victim, according to mister Campbell's classes research.
On October first, twenty eighteen, the Knox County Sheriff's Office now this woman had been positively identified as Esbi Regina Black Pilgrim of western North Carolina. A DNA match was made between her and her grown daughter, who said her mother disappeared when the girl was six weeks old. Pilgrim also had four older children. A friend of Pilgrim's had noticed the case when the Kentucky State Police posted about unidentified victims on social media sites, and she contacted the
daughter saying she felt it was her missing mother. They both contacted authorities with the information Esbee was a stay at home mom. The husband came home for lunch only to find his wife missing and the youngest child crying in the crib. The husband went to authorities, but it appears it was not taken seriously as she had left the home many times before.
The Green County Jane Doe was not identified until November twenty eighteen, when officials announced that the victim was new Hampshire native Elizabeth Lamont at the time of her death. Lamont had disappeared on April sixth, nineteen eighty four, after gaining lead from her youth facility to attend a football game at the local high school, but never returned to the group home where she resided in Manchester. She was identified through a DNA magic.
But identifying the victim wasn't the biggest break in the case. Mister Campbell spoke about the investigation into Tina Farmer's murder.
Once she's identified, of course, there's like this renewed interest and maybe we should look at things, and they resubmit, or maybe for the first time they submitted, because DNA really wasn't much of an investigative tool at that time, but they submit some of the evidence from her case. In this case, it was a blanket and they find DNA on it that's in you know, the database for offenders.
When they found out that he was the killer man, the case just went crazy because now instead of all of us having all that we had was victimology, now we actually had a suspect. So not only can we look at the victims and say where were they, when were they there? We can begin to look at the suspect and say where was he?
Investigators now have an answer to a thirty four year old question. The TBI says it knows who killed Tina Marie Farmer.
In December of twenty eighteen, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigators otherwise known as the TBI, held a surprise press conference.
Good afternoon, I'm Jared Efler, the elected District Attorney for Tennessee's eighth Judicial District, of which Campbell County is a part of. On January the first, nineteen eighty five, an unidentified female body was discovered murdered along Interstate seventy five in Campbell County, Tennessee. At that time, an investigation was launched by the TBI to determine two things, the identity
of the unknown female and who was responsible for her debt. Yesterday, the results of that investigation were presented to the Campbell County Grand Jury.
The grand jury.
Found that the unidentified body was that of Tina Marie Farmer of Marion County, Indiana. Additionally, the grand jury found that there was affiicient proof to believe that Jerry Johns of Cleveland, Tennessee, caused her death.
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in a moment. Murder one on one.
I'm Brad Neeland, Deputy director for the Tennessee Girl Investigation. We'd like to thank General Efforts in his office for their efforts and support on this case. Hasn't been easy, but we never gave up, and that represents our commitment to all cases, even those deemed cold. Our agency exists that ghilpshall askate, no insocence, suffer, and we're gratified that we can now provide some answers to the family of Tina Farmer. DNA was found on items that was analyzed.
As a result, a DNA profile was entered into combined DNA index system, resulting in a match that profile mastered out of Jerry John's.
It's a major break. TBI agents say they now know who killed Tina Farmer in nineteen eighty four and then dump that redhead on the side of I seventy five in Campbell County. Investigators today named the suspect in the death of Tina Farmer. It could also be the break agents need to close a half dozen other murder cases. This is a key step for an investigation spanning more than three decades.
Since these students started connecting the dots, the name of another victim was identified, and TBI investigators now say Jerry Leon Johns is believed to be the killer of at least one of the victims.
You know, the killer behind an infamous three decade old murdering Campbell County. The TBI says Jerry Johns from Cleveland, Tennessee, killed Tina Farmer and dumped her body a long eye seventy five.
During the press conference, a reporter asked the connection between Tina Farmer and Jerry Johns.
How john happening?
Is there any kind of insight you have on what might have.
Happened to lead to this.
You know that she had been at a truck stop near her hometown, and mister Johns was a long haul truck driver, and we believe the connection lies somewhere in there.
Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate. What jumped out to us immediately is that Jerry Johns was a trucker. Now, that really blew the case wide opened, because you're not just working it from the angle of the victim, You're working it from the angle of the perpetrator as will.
During his investigative work on the story, Shane Waters was able to track down Jerry John's ex wife. She provided shocking details about the man that would eventually become the Bible Belt strangler. The following is based off of Shane's recollection of his conversation.
Well, when I met with Jerry Johnson's ex wife, she tells me the story about when they first met. He was I think twenty one, and he was a wall from the military hiding out in her parents's at it. They were his neighbors, his parents's neighbors, so he was a wall from the military hiding out in her attic. She was very young. I think she said that she was twelve, and they end up having a sexual relationship. And when she told me that at this moment where I thought he may be even more of a monster
than I realized. So they end up getting married, he ends up getting her pregnant, and you know, she's only at that point where she gets pregnant. She says she was thirteen, and she goes to her dad and she tells him that she's pregnant, and that is when Jerry Johnson her learns that they're actually half brother and sister because Jerry Johns's mom, she was a prostitute and she slept with her neighbor's dad, and because of that, Jerry
Johns was actually his son. So when they learned that her dad was trying to convince them to have an abortion to abort that child, they refuse to do that. And so what they ended up doing was moving down to Texas with his mom for a few reasons. One because she was so young, even in Tennessee at that time, that was not acceptable for him being over twenty one in her only being thirteen.
To clarify, Jerry Johns's ex wife told Shane that she had inadvertently married and gotten pregnant with her half brother's baby. To avoid punishment, the couple moved to Texas to raise their child.
He ended up having to go to prison because of going a wall from the military, and during that time she told me that his mom would take her to different bars in places and prostitute her out to help make aanes meet. His ex wife told me he developed a lot of resentment for his mom.
Shane learned another seemingly important detail during his conversation with Jerry Johns's ex wife, his mom.
And his wife was a redhead and though John's.
Over the years, we learned that Jerry Johns have been arrested for a variety in fractions, everything from auto theft, caring concil weapon, obstructing an officer all the way to arson. So during our research we were able to find what a lot of law enforcement and medical officials said about Jerry Johns. And let me tell you the things that we read, it was just chilling how accurate they would
come to be. Johns is conniving. He's a manipulating type of individual whose own self interest has played a large part in his arrival at this situation. Jerry Johns is viewed as immature, dissocial individual who admits to the use of depressants and hallucinogenic drugs. He has demonstrated a pattern of having escaped from the brig at Camp Pendleton and then escaping from an armed guard and plotting to escape
from a county jail. Mister John's demonstrated inability to profit from experience, making him a prime candidate for continued criminal activity. He is considered by this writer to be criminally oriented, and a good prediction would be that this man will continue to be involved in law violations for a number of years to come. It is believed that Johns is just beginning a long career as a law violator. It is this writer's impression that John's is capable of serious crimes. However,
it is noted that this opinion cannot be documented. It should be noted that he is considered a definite escape risk. John's is a very immature and responsible individual with a hot temper. He openly verbalizes anger and hostility toward authority figures his prognosis or community adjustment is guarded.
The tbi's press conference revealed an update that would change the investigation.
Obviously, the most challenging thing for me is just the fact that we're not able to charge this individual because he's already deceased.
He died in prison in twenty fifteen, serving time for the attempted murderer of another redhead.
Despite knowing her killer, agents say they can't charge him. The suspect died four years ago. Jerry Johns was serving time for trying to kill someone else.
Both women had red hair, and he tried to kill them in the same way, leaving their bodies in the side of the interstate.
Jerry Johns died in prison in twenty fifteen, where he was serving time for the attempted murder of another redheaded woman, a woman named Linda more On.
Her later, had mister Johns been alive at the time the case was presented to the grand jury yesterday, he would have been charged for the first degree murder of Tana Marie Farmer. We are extremely disappointed that we're not able to prosecute mister Johns.
Jerry Leon Johnson is dead, so they can't have a trial for a dead man. But the best thing they could do to consider the case closed was to take the information they had to a grand jury, and if the grand jury returned to Trouville, then they would consider
this a closed case. When you go to a grand jury, they the return what's called a true bill if they feel there is enough evidence to proceed to a trial, or they return a no bill where there is not enough evidence that they think it should proceed to a trial. And then once that is returned, it's up to the DA's office to decide if they want to continue with charges. So it has happened at times that a true bill has been returned and the DA did not decide to
take it to trial. That for example, happened in the John in a Ramsey case in case you're curious, but normally that is why das take it to a grand jury, to see if a jury of the peers would think that was enough evidence to go ahead and move forward with the trial. That's what they did in the Tena Farmer case, and they could presumably do that again in
some of these other cases as well. Getting a true bill from a grand jury, especially against someone who's already dead and they can be punished in any way, may not feel like a priority for maybe law enforcement, but for these families know who is responsible for taking their loved one away, that would be very important for them.
And then, of course also we have two victims that have not even been identified yet, so continuing to work on those cases and get their identifications would be very important for those families as well.
The tbi's press conference also led to more questions.
There's people who have.
Drawn connections between Farmer's murderer and others.
Is this potentially the person who.
Did all of these crimes.
We're open to options on that. We're still looking into other possibilities on other cases Right now, I can't tell you with any definitive proof that he's involved in any other cases.
Despite mister Campbell's class having just presented their findings months earlier that helped lead to Tina Farmer's identification, the TBI made no mention of them during their press conference.
I'd like to recognize Special Agent Brandon Alkins an intelligence analyst Amy Emberton for the work on this case years. Agan Elkins has been working this case for the last ten years. He was assigned the case as a detective while working for the Campbell County Sheriff's Department, and continued to work on the case after he was hired by the TBI. In twenty sixteen, Agan Elkins resubmitted evidence in this case to the TBI Crime Lavatory for examination.
As a reminder, mister Campbell's students presented their findings in May of twenty eighteen.
In August twenty eighteen, Agent Elkins was made aware of Elena Marie Ken McKinney Farmer, who was reportedly missing from Indiana. MSS Farmer matched description of the unidentified female found in Campbell County. TBI intelligence analyst Amy Emerton was able to track down a fingerprint card on Farmer from the early eighties. Those fingerprints were compared against the postmortem prints of the
Campbell County Jane Do, resulting in a positive match. Since that time, Agan Elkins has been working diligently to put the missing pieces of this case together. This is a perfect example of how determination, combined the traditional police work and modern day science could lead to major developments in cold cases. We have more cases like this to pursue, and we will pursue them as time and resources allow, because we believe justice demands it.
The TBI did all they could to make sure that Alex and I did not show up to that press comfort. So what happened was late the night before the press conference of the TV I was putting together, they put out a little fee to the local media and cannesee it letting them know that early the next morning, I think it was like an eight o'clock there is going
to be a press conference in regards to Tina Farmer's case. Well, one of the local reporters who still have my number called me and to let me know, and he's like, this is very unusual and they did this. But he's like, I have a feeling that it's it's to keep someone from coming there, and I was like, well, I wonder who that is. So I called Alex to let him know, and he's like, well, I'm going to try to go. And so Alex was able to maneuver himself to be able to get their time the next morning to get
to this press conference. They get to the end, they allowed people to ask questions. So then I hear a very familiar with boys.
Thanks guys.
Yes, our PI has a copy of those, and you know that's like public record at this time, and she will distribute those at the conclusion of this conference.
Okay, and you know the name of the family members that you spent with the verses the last fun.
That's the question for Joel als.
I don't feel comfortable releasing that information right now.
Let's stop here for another quick break. Murder one O one.
Immediately, I think that they realized that Alex was with the podcast group, and so they shut the whole thing down. The director of the TBI kind of steps in and he's like, all right, we're gonna end this here. Everyone have a good day, and they all walk out, and as they walk out, the director walks up to Alex and he's like, you must be with the podcast group.
We've reached out to the TBI and they've to participate in this podcast.
I mean, look, they're the cops. They test the DNA, they get the fingerprints, they go knock on the doors. They do very important work that you know, the students can't do. But you know, keeping this in the media spotlight and out there in the public and you know, on true crime websites and blogs and podcasts like that is actually how they got the tip about Tina Farmer from a woman who was looking at these true crime
missing persons blogs. So we know that that's keeping it out there just kind of seems disingenuous to say, you know, we want the public to help us, and then you have these people that have probably worked harder than anybody except law enforcement, and they're not really recognized for that help that they request. There so much should happened, and we had so much new information to look at. It seemed like the perfect time to dive back into these cases.
We really just needed to look at all the information kind of trickled out over the last five years, put that together and see, you know, are there some of these victims that need to be excluded redhead victims, yes, but maybe not victims of the Bible belt strangler. Or maybe there's some new victims that need to be included. Lots of new information that come out and it needed
to be reanalyzed. In a lot of these kind of new developments, I mean, there's still victims out here that have not been identified, so there's still families that do not know what happened to their weapons. We also find out that maybe we need to relook at our list. So our list of six, for example, we just used open source information. We had nobody on the inside the police department's given us the information. So as the heat began to get turned back up on these cases, more
information comes out that needs to be investigated. This class did this work four or five years ago, but I have students now that could do the work too, and they want to do the work. And I'm sitting here in the back of my mine thinking I've already got the project. I know exactly what we would do and where we would pick.
Up more on that next time. Murder one oh one is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker, Alex Campbell, Courtney Armstrong, Andrew Arnot and me Jeff Shane. Additional producing by Connor Powell and Gabriel Castillo. Editing by Jeff Twa and Davey Cooper Wasser, Music by Vanikor Music. Murder one oh one is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.