A group of high school student High school.
Students Elizabethan 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 mal Caucasian, five nine six, two hundred and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother, right handed, a 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 desire to not be so anymore.
What if this guy's still alive?
Like what becomes after us?
You're gonna kill me?
Yeah, this is Murder one on one, Season one, episode two, With a little help from my friends. I'm Jeff Sheen, a television and podcast producer at Kati Studios with Stephanie Leideker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arno. Once the class had named their killer, they wanted to focus on the victims connected by his senseless crimes. Who were these six women? And why did he choose them to die?
How do six women go missing and nobody knows that they're missing. There were six victims, all with red or reddish hair. Only one of the victims is identified. They were found along like highways or interstates. Most of them were in Tennessee, there was one in West Virginia, Kentucky. They were all around the South, So we named the killer the Bible Belt strangler, just because he was killing in the Bible belts of more suffocated.
They also had some other interesting similarities. They were all white, all of them were estrange from their family, Many of them were transient, oftentimes involved with prostitution, and it appeared that many of them were actually abducted on or along the interstate, so was this tie to these interstates. They were either pregnant, had recently lost a baby, or had had a c section, so there were some very interesting things though. They were all killed up close with the hands,
so some of them had blunt force trauma. Or suffocation or strangling was how they died. So those are the major similarities.
It's scary to think that somebody in my community or in any community could go missing and nobody look for her, nobody know her name, and she'd be found a state away and nobody knows that she's from here.
During the semester, junior Cayle Van Dervor recalls the assignment structure our class.
We each divided into groups to pick a specific victim. We got to know every detail about that victim, and we felt very connected to our victim. I had the West Virginia victim, and I picked her because I have family in West Virginia, so I felt very connected to her. I felt like I would basically say, I felt like she was family because I'd worked so hard to find her justice.
Here's what we know about each victim, according to mister Campbell's classes research.
At Campbell County Jane Doe.
On January first, nineteen eighty five, the body of a woman was found disposed of over the side of the guardrail near Stinking Creek in Campbell County, Tennessee. The body was hauled up the embankment off the southbound side of Interstate seventy five in the small town of Jellicoe. The victim had been dead for an estimated three days and was in an advanced state of decomposition. She had been beaten bound with strips of cloth taken from her shirt
and strangled with a ligature. She was Caucasian and had shoulder length, curly red hair. Her age was estimated to be between seventeen and twenty five, but possibly as old as thirty. The victim was found clothed in a tan pullover, a shirt and jeans. The young woman had freckles over her body in various scars, including a burn mark on one arm. She was ten to twelve weeks pregnant.
When she died.
She had a partial upper denture holding two false teeth. It is believed that she was between five foot one and five foot four inches when she died, and was approximately one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifteen pounds with green eyes. Additionally, she had been wrapped in what has been variously described as a blanket, comforter or bedspread.
Cheatham County, Jane Doe. On March thirty first, nineteen eighty five, the skeletonized body of a red haired female was found in Pleasant View, Cheatham County, Tennessee, by a driver who had a mechanical breakdown. She was believed to have died between three and five months previously from an unknown cause. Her remains were found at the side of Intersex twenty four, between mile markers twenty nine and thirty, in the same timeframe as the rest of the victims in the known
physical features being similar. The body was found with a shirt, sweater, pants, and underwear. She was white, between five feet and five feet two inches tall. However, her weight could not be determined. An examination of her teeth showed that the victim had some evidence of crowding and overlapping in her mouth. This woman was believed to be between the ages of thirty one and forty at the time of her death. The Knox County Jane Doe.
On April one, nineteen eighty five, the body of a woman was found in a large white admiral refrigerator in Gray, Knox County, Kentucky, alongside Route twenty five. Her death was by suffocation. Contradicting reports have her being killed from the
night before to a few days earlier. Distinguishing features of the body included a number of moles on the right side of her neck, near one ankle and below each breast, a yellow stained upper incisor, and a scar and other marks on her abdomen indicating that she had borne at least one child. Her eyes were light brown and hair was red and nearly a foot long, which fit the
pattern of the red Head murders. After the autopsy, this victim was determined to be between twenty four and thirty five years old and approximately four feet nine to four feet eleven inches tall. The victim was nude except for two distinctive necklace pendits, one of a heart and the other of a gold colored eagle, and two pairs of socks, one white and the other white with green and yellow stripes.
There are reports that the victim may have been soliciting a ride to North Carolina over seabee radio, and she could have been at a nearby truck stop the previous knot Five hundred people attended the Jane Doe victim's funeral, which was even televised, and a headstone and burial plot were donated. The case was a local sensation, as the town was a quiet and sleepy place where little out of the ordinary usually happened.
The DeSoto County Jane Doe is a woman found murdered on January twenty fourth, nineteen eighty five, in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The victim was found by a truck driver driving southbound on US Highway seventy eight, one hundred feet east of Coldwater River Bridge at around seven thirty a m. Her body was twenty feet south of the highway and her shoes, undergarments, and jacket were missing. She was strangled with a ligature
and possibly sexually assaulted. Authorities speculate she may have been tossed over the side of the bridge. She was estimated to be twenty to forty years old. She was approximately five feet two inches to five feet four inches tall, with a weight of one hundred and five to one hundred and thirty pounds. She is believed to have been a heavy smoker. She had three piercings in each ear and her fingernails were deeply bitten. She also was a Caucasian with red hair. The Campbell County Jane Doe.
On April third, nineteen eighty five, the skeletonized partial remains of a young girl were discovered about two hundred yards off Big Wheel Gap Road, four miles southwest of Jellico, Tennessee, in Campbell County, near a stripmond. She was believed to have been dead between one and four years Her age was estimated between nine and fifteen years old. She was found by a passerby in an area where trash was often dumped, and it appeared her body had been moved
from its original site because of animal activity. The cause of death was listed as undetermined, which did not rule out homicide. Thirty two bones, including her skull, were recovered from the scene. Walker was Caucasian, had a very small build with red hair and freckles. A necklace and bracelet made of plastic buttons were found nearby, as well as a pair of size five boots and a few scraps of clothing. The Green County Jane Doe.
On April fourteenth, nineteen eighty five, the body of a young white female was found in Greenville, Green County, Tennessee. Her body was discovered by a fisherman in the brush beside a small creek that was fifty eight feet from the exit ramp for Gerald'stown Road. She was determined to have been killed between three and six weeks previously, and
her body was in an advanced state of decomposition. She appeared to be beaten and died, most likely from blunt forest trauma, which caused a head wound and could not roll out a laceration to an internal organ. However, decomposition hindered these assessments. She had been approximately six to eight weeks pregnant shortly by before she died, but had miscarried before her death. She was estimated to be fourteen to
twenty years old, possibly as old as twenty five. She was approximately five feet four inches to five feet six inches tall, with a weight of one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty pounds. She had a slight overby and had some feelings in her teeth, showing that she had dental care in her life. Her fingernails had pink polish. She had light brown to blonde hair with red highlights.
Only one of the six victims would be identified.
The Crittenden County Jane Doe. On September sixteenth, nineteen eighty four, the body of a woman was found in Critenon County, Arkansas, along Interstate forty near West Memphis. Despite all the traffic. Her body lay alongside the highway for four days before a hitchhiker noticed nichols corpse and contacted local authorities. She was found near the exit ramp. Her body had been there for several days and was beginning to decompose. Her body was covered only by the remnants of a nit top.
She had been killed by strangulation. She was identified as a twenty eight year old Lisa Nichols. She was Caucasian and had a petite frame. Her family members described her as growing up with beautiful red hair, but many would characterize it as strawberry blonde. By this time. She was identified by a couple from Florida who had allowed her to stay with them for a period of time. She was positively identified through fingerprints.
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in a moment. Murder one oh one with their list of six victims, the class wanted to figure out what drew the killer to these particular ku woman.
Were looked at two parts, the how of the crime and the why of the crime. So the how would be things like picking up people along the interstate, killing them with a knife or something like that, but the why is really what drives the killer to do this? Why do they want to choose a redhead, Why do they want to choose Caucasian? Why do they want to choose somebody who's in the sex trade. Why would they prefer to kill.
Them with their hands instead of a gun or knife. That's what makes each.
Killer an individual is that there's this profile they share which hardly any other killer will match.
I think, especially with the prominence of legal and law enforcement and crime see investigation entertainment that you see on TV and in the movies and right now, that that helps peak the interest of the students in a situation like this, and also to explore what it's really like true or is it really you know, much more difficult and dirty. My name is Josh, But when I'm and what Elizabeth? In high school, the first I heard about it was when mister Campbell came to me and pitched
the idea. He's walked in and say, I got kind of a crazy idea. Let me see what you think about it. Honestly, the first thought is usually wow, what would happen if this was was my inn, or my sister or you know, someone in my community. Now, you know, how would I feel and what would I want the justice system to do?
But how did the project fit into Elizabeth In High school's curriculum.
Our job is obviously to teach academic standards in your English and math and science, but even more so, we have a social responsibility to our students to prepare them for life after school. How do you engage with people? How do you engage in your community? How do you apply what you've learned? I think that that's a school we're really focusing heavily on right now, is how can we take this basic core knowledge and really apply that
to our personal lives. Would I rather be doing something like that or sitting in class learning from a textbook, hatting a lecture from a teacher? You know, really just kind of thought it'd be a great idea for the kids to apply what they're learning and kind of take ownership.
But when the students, you know, step into a role where they're they're learning and their their application and knowledge ties to the community and ties to the world around them, and they become passionate and interested in the subject matter, the learning almost comes as a secondhand product of that, and it's it's fun and it's exciting for them, and they're engaged in a way that you don't always see students.
If you look back in human history, you know, at times a fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year olds considered a grown adult and had grown responsibilities. And too many times we don't expect enough of our youth. You know, Yes, they still need mentoring, and they still need help, they still need guidance, but they're capable of phenomenal things.
As the semester continued, the class worked in groups to uncover information.
We shared information like if the group that was working on a victim found something that might help another group. They shared that one group found the podcast that Shane had done about the murders, and then like, we relay all our information to mister Campbell and he would make the phone calls.
And then Alex found me through Facebook and explains that he's a teacher out of Tennessee. In his class, is noticed that one of the Jane does in this case is in their county and he would like to do some type of project with his students. To be honest with you, I thought that it was a weird prank.
So I'm Shane Shane Waters from a foul play crime series podcast been doing this podcast for a long time, started it in January of twenty fourteen, which makes it one of the only crime series podcasts that predates Cereal.
Shane Waters is a podcaster and journalist who happened to be working on a story about the same six women.
I try to come up with some type of similarities between the victims and try to find some type of link of which ones were more than likely linked together, and that's when I came with the six. The only one that I thought could be the seventh was a young child who was also found in Campbell County, but she was so young, and I thought that was going to be a really far fetched thing just because of her age. So I ended up not including her and
just calling it the six. When Alex and I had our first conversation, he was like, how many did you come up with? And I was like six, and he's like, what six? And I told him which six I had, and he's like, that's funny because that's the sixth we had.
Shane had a deep connection that drew him to the story.
So before I went into college, I was actually homeless. I was in high school and I was homeless. Yeah, and because of the experience of being homeless, I would go on and that's why I was so determined to make sure that these women who people were calling throwaway people, that people, you know, take them seriously. But I know what it's like to feel less than a human being and for other people to treat you.
Like that, which is why when Shane first connected with meter Campbell, he felt it was important to make sure the class was going to handle these cases with care.
And the very first conversation I have with him when he told me that his students wanted to work on this case, I was very nervous because I already knew at that point in time why the case in this series of cases had gone cold. I knew that it was because society was treating these women less than people. So I was curious on how high school students would
portray sex workers. I was amazed that they understood and that they came away with the understanding of knowing that these women weren't defined by where they were in that point in their lives.
Sex Workers are often ignored when it comes to crimes committed against them, despite the fact that they are among the most vulnerable populations. According to a report by the World Health Organization, sex workers experience high levels of violence, including physical assault, rape, and murder. Further, up to seventy five percent of sex workers report experiencing violence at some
point in their lives. Another study found that only twenty five percent of homicides against sex workers in the US resulted in an arrest, compared to the sixty one percent of rest rate for homicides in general. Ignoring crimes against sex workers perpetuates the stigma and discrimination that these people face, making it more difficult for them to access services and support when they need it the most. This is a human rights issue that requires urgent attention and action by policymakers,
law enforcement, and society at large. Shane was shocked to discover that he and mister Campbell's class seemed to be the only ones working these cases.
But then the more that I read about it, I was just like, this is very weird that no one knows about this, Like why were these riverages forgotten about? Like surely this case was solved or something like what am I missing? So I called the TBI and eventually I talked to this lady and the lady explains to me that the case was still unsolved, and the case was with the cold case unit, but it wasn't an active case that's being worked out. She was just very
not having it. And I was like, is there someone of the cold case team by her contact if I receieking tips And she's like, no, we would contact you. You don't contact them, and I was like okay, and then she hung up on me, and I was like, that was a very odd interaction. So that was like the very first contact that I have with the TBI.
I was very confused at that point on one why the case wasn't being covered in the media since the eighties, and then also why the TBI was telling me that it wasn't being.
Worked Soon, Shane and the class got into a groove.
It was kind of like they were working in a classroom and doing like the FBI work and like the book work, like the textbook work, and then I was out in the field doing the on the ground work and talking to people, and then I would go back to the school and report back and we would collaborate. Then.
So I would go out and go to the locations and talk to all these people and you know, actually see the locations where these women were dropped and talk to the locals, talk to the people who own the property, talk to eyewitnesses. So each time I found those bits and pieces, I would kind of go back to the school to report my findings.
For Shane, there were advantages to having the class have his back.
I'm out there talking to people, and the last thing I'm sure the killer would have wanted was for work to get out, you know. So the fact that I have a classroom of students and a teacher in Tennessee who if I go missing, they would be ringing doorbells,
you know what I mean. So that also was comforting as well, because it was kind of scary, to be honest with you, because I don't know if you've ever been to rural Kentucky or Tennessee or or West Virginia, but you don't have cell phone service out there, so you're going and knocking on doors and you're you don't know who is going to be answering that door or if you're gonna be very welcome, Like it's it's kind of scary. I'm I'm almost shaking right now just telling
you about it. I'm a very large person, like I'm very very tall, but when you're out there alone, it was a little scary. I'm not gonna lie.
Shane Waters wouldn't be the only ally the class had.
You know, I always had a respected law enforcement But you know, it's kind of offensive in a way when somebody says, well, you're a wanna be cop. It's if I wanted to be a cop, I perfectly will could have been. If I wanted to be, I could have DoD the normal route. I'm not trying to go behind the thing. I don't want to be a cop. So my name is Todd Matthews and currently I'm the executive
director for donat at Work and then NAMOUS. The National Missing and Unidentified Person Systems nam US is based on dental rakers standing a fingerprint analysis and fairly clinical descriptions in the circumstances of disappearance or condition that a bodybusman. So it's very very not outside the layman's ability to understand, but it's very very scientifically written to the point that it's not. It's very clinical, and the DOUGH Network we use anecdotal data.
Founded in two thousand and one, the Dough Network is a volunteer organization devoted to assisting investigating agencies and bringing closure to the national and international cold cases considering missing and unidentified people. In two thousand and five, Todd Matthews created a larger database called NamUs. It's a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified and unclaimed persons
across the US. The name of database application fills the nation's need for a unified, online, free, secure database for unidentified remains and missing person records. Most commonly, NamUs is used by law enforcement, victims, loved ones, and medical examiners and corners. Todd Matthews remembers when he and mister Campbell first connected.
Well, it was, you know, some call, you know originally, and you know, you get a lot of them calls, but one when you have an accent that's very close to yours, you kind of you kind of pay attention to it a little bit, you know, and it's easy to talk to them. They're from a very similar background that I am, so it's comfortable you know that their their areas are facing some of the same problems that
we have in classrooms. So we kind of got each other kind of understood, and I thought, this is something I want to do. This is not something I have to do. I want to talk to this guy. I want to see what he's gotten, you know in mind, you know, to plant a seed into these kids and hopefully it'll it'll be something. Doesn't have to be a lot, as long as it makes the change, as long as
somebody understands it. So it's definitely worth it. So the thing that we set up was a virtual meeting, So we did, you know, like a FaceTime share where I could see the students. It's fun, you know, when you first talked to kids like that, you think, I know, you think this is the thing you watch csilos, not who's got it? Who's got it? To go forward? Because it ain't going to be easy. So you know, you just got to let the cream rise to the top.
And they had the interest, you know, they had the desire, they had the youth, and they had the numbers, all those eyes and all those hands. So a lot of what they did was, you know, just going through what would be the basic thing you would do comparison process of elimination. So they were asking kind of high level questions to get.
To know a murder. It was a little eerie to have to think about every single detail of this man who took the lives of six women. So it was it was a challenge, I think for the class to try to find every single detail.
And the scariest thing about it. It might be a person that you know or somebody that your family member might know. That could just be that you kind of knew that they were kind of offer they were kind of doing something, but they're close to home and they're killing people. It really does shock you.
Let's stop here for another quick break murder. One on one, Todd Matthews encouraged the class to look at every detail.
Pour over these files, gather up every piece of data and save it and try to do something with it. Have conversations, look at these things, compare notes. And they had so many people to bounce ideas over, so many people to see one little thing that might have been slightly different in another article. You know, people talking to town. So there was opportunity for them to find stories, comments, things that people have passed along, and they had the time and the desire to do it.
He really got all of us really excited to find maybe just a name for one of these victims, because if we could just give one of these victims justice That would be more than has happened in the last thirty years. So I think we want all the victims eventually identified. But I think that our main goal was to just try to bring this story to lot, try to give these victims a name, try to give them family, and I think that we did that by considering them our sisters.
And there's always something if you go back and reread something the kids could have looked for a later article that maybe described another opject that was found, honoring our body, some other clue, a comment that somebody made in a
news report. But this is going to require going back and reading a lot of information, going back and just literally rereading articles and looking for little Dugan, maybe a photograph that was a scene that maybe is not digitally available, comments from law enforcement where they might have mentioned something about a ligature not a bean in a file or in an autopsy report that was publicly viewable. So there was comments locally that you might pick up that you
might not see on the national level. During that time period.
As the semester was winding down, mister Campbell thought the class was at an impass.
What happened was once there were no leads. Once they had arrested no one, and the case got really cold and they could never identify them, and there was no family pushing for this. I think a lot of those cases were just forgotten. Actually, I know some of those cases were forgotten. I know a semester seems like a long time, but really you only have so much time to do so much. There are people that deserve to pay for their crimes, and there are families that deserve
to have closure. And so I think that they realized that if we didn't do something now, in ten years, how many witnesses are left?
Or in twenty years is this person still alive.
So it was really strange that, even though it was over thirty years ago, I think there was a sense of like immediacy, that they needed to do something.
Now because it was going to be too late.
Eventually, the class had two thorough and complete profiles, one of the alleged killer and the other for his victims. With so many years of experience, Todd gave the class a suggestion that changed everything.
The best way to try and help identify a serial killer is to identify bodies that we think are attributed to that serial killer.
So I would say the ultimate goal is to spread the word and get these victims spaces out there. Maybe somebody could recognize someone and.
See, here's the issue. Law enforcement never said determined that any of these murders were related to one another.
In class one day, one of the students came up with a brilliant idea.
Once we had this information, I told the students, what are you going to do with it? You have something that nobody else has. You have a lot of evidence that all these six are connected, and you have this profile of this person.
So what do you want to do with that?
So the students said they wanted to share it so that others could have the profile. And so that's when the students came up with the idea of trying to share this, you know, with everybody. Do was They said, well, how would you know if the police had a profile and they were looking for a certain person, what would they do? They'd have press conference, they would get the information out. So the students decided that they wanted to hold a press conference at the school.
We invited different law enforcement officials, different media and news outlets to connect the murders. Would make these cases go from single murders to a serial killer in the eyes of law enforcement.
So we began to work very hard with the police agencies from four different states that were involved, and also we looked up all the print media and the TV media that are in those areas and asked them if they would all run a story on the same day and kind of have a region wide media blitz. And so that was their strategy, get as many police and media people involved as possible, to get the word out to as many people as possible, to try to generate some leads that would help in the case.
We knew that we needed to spread the word for it and get more people aware of what happened, especially in the areas where these women were found.
It went from a class investigating something to a class trying to share something with the rest of the world to try to have an impact or to create some change.
During the semester, mister Campbell's students discussed their motivations.
It's important to bring justice to these women because, like many of us, they have families and people who cared about them. They might not know they're missing, or they might be a strange, but they're still a person. They still had a voice.
The women didn't have anybody to fight for their right to be found, because no one was pushing for.
It or finally giving them the justice that they deserved.
Whether they were a strange from their family, whether they may have been.
Prostitutes or not, they still deserved to have this justice.
The Bible Belt Strangler could still be out there if you look at the age range the students have and the time stillapsed. He's getting a little older, but there's a pretty good chance he's still alive.
During the semester at the class talk to a local reporter.
He deserves pay for what he did. He needs to come and face the consequences of what he did.
So you think this guy is like still alive and out there.
I'm not sure that he's still a truck driver, but I do think that he is still alive.
Do you think we're going to find the Bible Belt Strangler?
Yes?
I do.
It's just a matter of time now that the words don't 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's Studios. For more podcast from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.