Brookville

years after the Stevenson murders. At the time, was the youth leader at a church and uh I had taken the the youth on a canoe trip and we went to canoe the Whitewater. He's referring to the Whitewater River in Indiana, just about an hour's drive from Bethel, Ohio. And as we were canoeing down the river, we saw a bag floating in the river, and you know, canoes turned over, people lose stuff. We thought somebody had lost their bag, so we picked it up, put it in

the canoe, finished out the trip. When we got back, we had opened the bag and we saw the name and the phone number inside the bag, so we started calling and it just ring, ring, ring, no answer. Later that evening I was at home watching the news, and the news flash was there was a family that was killed and and burned in a in the house. And the name was the same as the name us calling. That name was Linda Stevenson. It was July, just two days after the fire when Linda's leather handbag was found

floating in the river, stuck on a large branch. Inside the bag was a rolled up twenty dollar bill tucked in the corner, and some loose papers, no keys, no wallet. What stands out to me is the location seventy miles from the crime scene, a person the water, and Linda's name found inside. As I've said before, there are no coincidences in murder, only connections. So I called the police

station right away, told them what happened. They came right up, got the bag to me, pour ride down the police station, question me about it. Then the next morning some detectives called me back and asked me if I would be willing to take the day and go with them to the white Water and show show me the approxate location where I picked it up. How did you feel about that?

Finding that bag of It was a little scary, yeah, because you know, I didn't know what my involvement really was finding it, and you know how how that was going to involve me with murderers or something like that. But I was glad I did it. It was a any good person or a decent person would know it's the right thing to do. The handbag being found in another state could have meant the killer or killers cross state lines sometime after committing the homicides, which in turn

is what activated the FBI's involvement. While keeping in mind the bags certainly could have floated a great distance. The White Water River travels nowhere near Betheville, Ohio. That said, the Claremont County Sheriff's Department had a new rather promising focus Brookville, Indiana, previously on paper ghosts. There was some pretty bad blood going on for a while. It was getting out of hand. And that's god damn punk threatening

us with guns and ship. And now you can look down on the floor and you can see the outline of where her body was to the point where I could see that she raised a hand. I could see it. And what's interesting, I think is there's two different caliber bullets. You guys begin finding right. What does that tell you? As a cop? Uh let lens? Thank to shooters. My name is and William Phelps. I am an investigative journalist and author of forty four true crime books. This is

season two of Paper Ghosts Burned. Now past the forty eight hour mark. In the investigation, the police went back to what they could confirm who was at the Stevenson's house that night. After a successful July four weekend in fireworks sales, the Stevenson family returned from a celebratory dinner

to their home around ten thirty pm. After saying goodbye to her stepdad Billy, mom Linda, uncle Lettie, and her five year old brother, Billy Jr. Carol Thompson recalls what happened as she and her young daughter were about to head out. As I was getting ready to leave and I was gathering Shannon off. I was getting ready to walk out the door, and as I got to the foyer, the doorbell rang or they knocked. I don't remember how it went down, but opened the door. Ron Thomas is

standing there. Ron Thomas was a close family friend of Billy and Lynda Stevenson. Billy had known the guy for at least ten years, having bought and sold silver and gold and other types of jewelry from and with him. He was Steve's befriend. Hello, I remember Incoln, you know. Ron was like one of the coolest guys I've ever met. I remember and bouncing little Billy you know on his knee. Um. Ron was a good guy. Ron was a big duke six three or so. He had the seventies porn style mustache,

brown hair, solid build. He, Billy and Linda often hung out at the house together, along with Ron's wife, and he stayed in the doorway. That's nothing unusual, you know, nothing unusual. So I haven't you know, step in, come in. But what is unusual in my mind, okay, is there's a man behind him with him, steps in with him. I was told it was uncommon for strangers just to pop in at the Stevenson house, though when invited over, Billy and Linda opened their home and their hearts close friends.

This is my mother's house, okay. I wouldn't bring a stranger to my mother's house, me her own. And you don't remember anyone calling and saying they were coming over while you guys were there. Definitely didn't never Ron. That would be normal for Ron to just show up, that would be normal. I found it odd that he brought this guy. But I find out later that this guy has been with Ron a couple of times at various shops, mostly my dad's, and supposedly this guy's his bodyguard. But me,

I don't know this. And and even even so, Ron showing up unannounced does not surprise me at all. He's a friend, a very close friend, but the stranger to me, just that just rocked my world to the point where I needed a point of saying hi to the guy because I wanted him to speak. I needed, you know, something, I don't know what I needed, but I needed something. Ron comes in and I'm like, hey, Ron, has it going?

Hey Mom, Ron's here, And I'm like Hi to the guy, and the guy says hi to me, and then I'm almost like, okay, guys gotta go kind of attitude like I'm going to pass them and going out the door, right but Ron stops me. It's almost it was weird. Really, he stops me and start talking to me, and all of the BLUEY asked me, how's Jim, how's Jim doing, which I found so weird. But now that these two, you know, have this little pot thing going, I guess

that's normal, but I still found it very weird. The gym that Carol's referring to as her husband, James Dean Thompson. And what she meant by this little pot thing was that Ron Thomas and her husband were quote business partners. Ron provided a product, Jim sold it. Nonetheless, Carol mentioned this short, stocky guys being Ron's bodyguard. So the question then becomes, why would Ron Thomas need a bodyguard? So Ron wasn't the type of guy to ask you how

your husband? God, No, absolutely not. Now he was my parents friend, he wasn't mine. So like I could see him saying how are you? It just as a common courtesy, but no to really know. But he did. He he stopped me literally because I was going to go out the door. And did this guy say hi back to you his buddy. And I don't remember it exactly, to be honest with you, but I remember him replying. I think it was a gruff hey with a nod of the head. I remember had the kod of the head.

I had no idea who he was, no idea at all. Detective Tom Cooper, the lead investigator on the Stevenson murders, was in the process of tracking down Stevenson family friend Ron Thomas. They needed more intel about that other man with Ron, so Cooper showed Carol a series of photographs, like a lineup of bad guys from the area to see if she could recognize anybody. Carol pointed to one photo of a man with a mustache and said, I think this is probably him, but I'm not sure. She

just couldn't remember. So the Sheriff's department approached Carroll with an idea. Was she willing to undergo investigative forensic hypnosis in order to try and recall what the man looked like? Started with we had a whole train to the darkness best the entirely the idea of doing this relates to you in hypnosis, being able to convert thanks from your

subconscious never to you're conscious. According to the U. S. Department of Justice quote, the use of hypnosis to refresh memory is a widely accepted therapeutic tool in helping various professions, but its use in a forensic setting is less widely accepted, even though it can be a viable and effective technique. That said, investigative hypnosis itself is controversial. Some believe it

works while others do not. In the world of law enforcement, its success has been demonstrated in many cases, but its use as a valuable forensic tool is generally debated and categorized under a banner of quote junk science. Play for you, just take a couple of real deep breaths, I just want to pluck the finger, Concentrate on the typ my fingers. My finger comes closer and closer. At some point you kind of start to feel more and more relized, and

just notice the ridges, the lines, the finger grip. The problems I have seen with hypnosis as a forensic tool begin when the case winds up in a courtroom. Anything learned through hypnosis will be challenged, JE disbelieved and argued. Some states allow information obtained under hypnosis as evidence, most do not. The major concern is that because the procedure itself is leading, hypnosis can plant false memories in the brain, and the subject being hypnotized likely doesn't even realize it.

What we wish to do now it's on the count five. I want you to imagine as you're now sitting in your chair, wanting to tee recording of the advance that occurred evening unt a lot of fifth qualify count Will you see everything it's possible to see? Just like that scene? Yeah, I m s. This audio from an old school real to real tape is part of a cash Carol Thompson and her daughter Shannon acquired and handed off to me. No one outside of law enforcement has ever heard them,

not even Carol or Shannon. Many parts of this investigation were fully resolved before I ever came into it, but hearing the case unfold in real time gives me a unique perspective, along with an opportunity to try to find new information and answers. Unfortunately, forty years of time and temperature have taken their toll on a good portion of the tape, and the audio quality is rough as you can hear. Where do you see first? Watch? Yeah? Okay,

tell me about his heris. Carol's responses are difficult to make out, but she was able to recall that the stranger's hair was brown and messed up on top our is and the length was past the nape of his neck. For Detective Tom Cooper, what he hoped for from Carol's forensic hypnosis examination was not evidence per se, but just a clue to locating that mystery man. The background room atmosphere on the hypnosis tape has this eerie, espionage like

interrogation vibe to it. I'm going to touch your left shoulder, which will assist you in relaxing and also assist you in performing to zoolands. It's as if I am listening to something nobody outside of those involved was ever supposed to hear. One to M three. As the tape continues, the audio doesn't improve much, but Carol continued to recall

physical details about the stranger. She described them as white with a dark complexion, in his late thirties early forties, between five nine and five eleven, with wavy, medium brown hair, a mustache, brown eyes, pudgy nose, heavy build, with a big belly. Eyewitness testimony is often scrutinized for this very reason. Carol looked at this man close up as she was walking out the door, yet describes him differently in several documents and my interviews with her. What I think is,

at times her memory is combining both men she saw together. Now, I want you to see that you're able to see any clothing. Comparing what Carol told law enforcement immediately after the murders, what she said during her hypnosis session, and what she said to me over the years is so important. Describe that man for me. Okay, he's supper munches shorter than Ron. Now I know for a fact Ron six too, So I'm gonna peg this guy. It's pretty short, so

I'm gonna pay him in like five nine. And he has brown, unkept hair, so it's very messy, and it was a little overse ears and dark skin and husky a husky build. The in hypnth Highs was really weird. I mean, is really weird. Um. The only thing I can really say about him being hypnotized, it kind of makes you release any kind of fear. A fear Errol had to let go of at the time was her initial suspicion and accusation toward her family's business rival, Jim Riley.

Despite investigators being initially interested in Jim Riley as a major suspect, the guy had an alibi. His wife, Wanda, assured police he was at home with her the entire night. I was so so ashamed of myself really for even thinking that, but it really was. I'm trying to justify it, but it really was because of the phone call. If I hadn't gotten that phone call from him telling me that he was gonna come over, and you know, and just the way he said it, I guess threw me off.

And to this day I feel terrible. I've never I've never seen James since then. But if I if I ran into him, if I recognized him, I would apologize. I really would, because I really did believe it's him. I would have laid down my soul that it was him. As firefighters waged battle against the flames engulfing the Stevenson's house, a patrol officer working the overnight shift in Amelia, a neighboring town to Bethel, pulled over two men in a

pickup truck speeding down Route One. At the time of the stop, nothing from the encounter seemed off to the officer two men speeding, routine traffic stop, but nine days later, giving no reason why he waited so long, that same officer contacted the Claremont County Sheriff's Department with information that would change the course of Tom Cooper's investigation. In one of the unearthed audio recordings I've obtained, you can hear

the officer recall how the events unfolded that night. I had a huge standard next to the watching the rally. They said he was really when on the street, and I think I said to ring Or twice and went on fifty five and went twot two. I think I wanted in two. The patrol officer stopped the truck, which had kept driving for about a quarter mile before finally pulling over, which makes me wonder what were they doing during that time? And then when I got out, I

didn't call it in it in writing down. It came right out of truck back guys, So I got out so I could be staying at up based. Basically, in light of today's policing standards, this would seem absurd, dangerous, and out of touch with the reality of police work. But look in night in such a small town, cops didn't think too much of it. If someone they just pulled over got out of their car and approached them, more than likely, in fact, the cop could have known

the guy. The one characteristic the officer did recall with certainty was the driver's height approximately the same as his but not quite as tall as the cops six ft to frame. He was hapty, what kind of just stressed slope. I remember, I can't remember what he was wearing, but I remember he had like Roby looked to him. You know, they can make them to the bars somewhere all that or something. Yet but he didn't be toxic you at all. I remember when he turned. Yeah, definitely had like a skinning.

The Great designed something he had like like a blood blister. And but yeah, where the white people? Because I was thinking that, yeah, it probably hearts. I said that myself. You know when I seen I just asked him for Great's license. He told him what he was doing and his ascens and because I just a soon as it came back, I heard the passing your door open and clothes Okay, yeah, I thought maybe because I was gonna

get out. So I kind of looked over going over around the back of the truck, kind of watched that side of this year he wouldn't coming out on or something. Yeah, I thought, I figured maybe I want to do that can of beer or something you vinent late? And then got his operator's license. I woman have a seat back in the truck. I looked at his license. I was, but I don't remember his name. I don't remember the address or anything. The officer recalled the driver's quote, messy,

dark hair. He never bothered to look at the passenger, which spoke really to how routine he felt the stop was. And he could not recall the color of the truck, you know, and I can't really remember by the trump is it hid and nana tags on They're white tags, screen numbers or letters or whatever they were. And I walked back up to this truck and just told him, yes, I know, it's late, you know, in Carl the route,

just trying to slow down in the games. By the time the officer got home that night, he was well aware of the Stevenson fire because he had heard the fire alarms go off about fifteen minutes before he pulled that truck over. It still meant nothing to him since it was in a different town, so he never thought to report the incident, that is until the local news reported Linda's bag had been found in an Indiana river.

Something clicked. Talking to law enforcement and reading through the reports, it's clear that had the Amelia police officer followed procedure to a t that night, he would have been murder victim number five. After corroborating several details about the truck pulled over in Amelia on the night of the murders, the Sheriff's department was confident the two men were stevenson family friend Ron Thomas, and the man he'd brought to their home just hours earlier. That same man, Carol Thompson,

had never seen before. What's more, the last place Ron Thomas was known to live Brookville, Indiana, the same town where Linda Stevenson's bag had been found in the White Water River. In the next episode of Paper Ghosts, I said you left eleven thirty. He said, yeah, I left the eleventh, Like, oh okay. So we get off the phone and then bam. In my head, It's just I keep hearing that in my head, What the hell? Why

did you lie to me? Didn't care for My grandmother used to say, you get that good feeling, Well, when I get to do it feeling, it say it steaks waiting nine percent the time he gets the traffic like Middell Brookville and stops the traffic light. And we took him down between us and the FBI and all everything. Ever, how did that go oh it was. One person in Brookly said, I've never seen some many guns out on

one time. Paper Ghosts is written and executive produced by me and William Phelps and I Heart executive producer Christina Everett, with script consultant Matthew Riddle, audio editing and mixing by a Booze Afar thanks to Will Pearson at I Heart Radio. Series theme number four four two is written and performed by Thomas Phelps and Tom Mooney. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows