The Murder Years: Ep. 1 - Lisa

This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters who are played by actors.

I'll be honest with you, there are certain murders I'm scared to discuss. It's just all too ugly, and I'm scared what will happen to me if I do speak out.

I'm not sure why you're digging up all this old stuff again, but I'd be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Nancy, I'm Nancy Clark. I was born and raised in the small Midwest town of Meine. It was a great place to grow up, lovely, picturesque, like right out of a movie. Still looks pretty much the same. Main street is lined with little brick storefronts built in the nineteen twenties. A teeny limestone post office sits at the end of the oak Tree Line block. The smell of fresh bread from the bakery is always in the air. But even as a young girl, I was very aware that a

But what.

Then?

The year after my friends and I graduated, the death seemed to just stop. I could breathe again, I could stop worrying. I went away to college, studied communications, and spent the next couple of decades writing for various publications. But life took a turn recently when I had to move back home to take care of my mom, who

This is just in A woman's body has been found in the woods behind Mount Pine Community College.

A gruesome discovery in a north side home.

Again, after thirty years of peace, Mount Pine was rocked with another murder. I tried to process this shocking news, and I couldn't help. But wonder could this be the beginning of another crime spree. As I slowly cleaned out the house, I decided to revisit the murders that happened when I was in high school. Luckily I kept detailed diaries back then. I wanted to see if there was anything that could really help me make sense of what

Lisa nine, what's your emergency?

Hi?

Yeah, I went back behind my born too, and I think, yeah, there's a.

Girl there, a young girl out there.

She's dead.

It all starts on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty four, hours before that horrific nine to one one call comes in. Teen life in Mount Pine is all that matters?

Oh my gosh, I remember it like it was yesterday.

That's Melanie Porter in nineteen eighty four. We are both fourteen years old and freshman at Mount Pine High School. Melanie's my best friend.

May nineteen, it was a Saturday. I looked it up in my journal, and that day I had just gotten done with being grounded for spending too much money on a blouse.

Today, Melanie's fifty two and owns a party planning business in Mount Pine.

I got all my homework done, finished my chores, and was super excited because that night I was going to a party at Tammy's house. Her parents were going to be out of town at some Amway convention or something.

I didn't go to that party, and I can't remember why exactly. But Melanie, she remembers a lot about how excited she was to go.

I remember picking out what I was gonna wear took me like forever, seriously. Around seven point thirty, I heard a honk outside, so I grabbed my purse, kissed my parents good night, then I headed out to Scott, who was sitting in his dad's light blue Ford Thunderbird also known as the Blue Ballmer. Scott was two years older. He was sixteen and just got his driver's license.

On the way to the party, Melanie says, she and Scott go through Danny's drive through. Scott has a fake ID which he uses to buy Melanie some peach snaps in a case of Old Milwaukee for himself. Yeah, you could buy alcohol from the comfort of your own car back then and then drive.

So then we drove down County Road H twenty nine on our way to the party.

In nineteen eighty four. Mount Pine has a population of around twelve thousand people, so pretty small, very rural, lots of farms and tons of lakes in town. We have one pizza joint, one bank, one supermarket, and one high school. Our school is small and unassuming, a one story brick box with narrow slit windows. It looks more like a prison than a high school.

When we got to the party, Tammy's house was packed. There must have been like one hundred kids there. I remember some kids were playing pool downstairs. Some kids were drinking ever clear at the kitchen table. Some kids were smoking pot outside.

Melanie says, just before midnight, the kids with curfews leave, kids like her and Scott, They're gone, I hear through the grapevine. Others stay later. The last ones leave around three am. What happens next? No one sees coming.

Nine. What's your emergency?

I yeah, I went back behind my barn too, and I think, oh my god, she's so young. She looks really really bad. There's a lot of blood and her head is all smashed in. Please come quick.

Officers are on their way.

Police are dispatched to a location about three miles away from Tammy's party.

Up until that and I we really didn't have murders in Mount Pine.

I tracked down the first officer who arrived on the scene that day, Officer Pat Shepherd. Back then he has two months on the job and has never been two or worked a murder scene.

I mean, they've only been like four in the previous twenty five years.

Today, Pat Shepherd is a sergeant with Mount Pine PD. He said he doesn't even need to check his files on the case because he remembers it so clearly.

Since this was my first one, I was nervous, I remember, I felt sick to my stomach. So I arrived that day around seven am found the body of a teenage girl behind a barn. The nine one one caller had no idea who she was or how she got there. She had been severely beaten.

In the head and face.

Her jeans and pink tank top were soaked blood. We didn't know with what though, because there was no weapon nearby. It appeared she'd been killed somewhere else and dumped there, and it seemed like she hadt met dead for more than a few hours. Then more officers arrived and searched

Our victim, Seventeen year old Lisa Anderson, was a senior at Mount Pine High School. She ran track and worked at Buddy's, the local ice cream shop. She was nice to everyone. Back in nineteen eighty four, Detective Tom Wallace is the lead investigator on the case. Today, he's in his seventies and retired. Wallace agrees to talk with me about the case.

This one, this one was hard. I knew the family. They were a good family, and they'd already been through so much.

Detective Wallace is talking about what happened to Lisa's younger brother only a year before, he dove headfirst into Owl Lake, breaking his neck. He became paralyzed and eventually moved into a home where to this day he's still getting round the clock care. Their mom, Mary is now in her mid seventies. I asked if she'd be willing to speak with me, and she says yes, even though it's still painful. She feels like she doesn't get the chance to talk about her daughter, Lisa enough.

So I remember that day unfortunately, like it was yesterday. I was cooking scramble that haggs with graft singles and oh and sausage links and then there was someone at the front door knocking. I was thinking, why was someone at the front door this early on a weekend? So I put the Spachela down and walked towards the front door. But before I even got there, I saw Tom Wallace, well, detective Tom Wallace through the beveled glass. You see, we went to Mount Pine High School together. But but I

So.

Wallace kept talking, but I couldn't hear him. He was talking, but my eyes were scanning our living room instead.

I was fixating on the things.

In the living room that were Lisa's, like, like there was a pair of Lisa's white kids by the front door, in her blue jean booked bag with buttons all over it, that was right next to the TV trade where she always did her homework. Then Wallace asked me when I saw Lisa last, and I told him it was around eight o'clock the night before. She said she was going to a party with a best friend, Tiffany, and then she was going to spend the night at Tiffany's.

Detective Wallace learns the party was at the house of some girl, naw Tammy.

I remember I hugged Mary goodbye, and as it walked to my car, I could hear her wailing. It was pretty brutal.

Detective Wallace tells me that next he goes to talk with the host of the party, Tammy, who happens to be in big trouble with her parents for having the blowout while they were away. Tammy tells Wallace she saw Lisa at the party, but all seem fine with her. Tammy agrees to write down the names of everyone at our house with her parents' permission. Detective Wallace looks around the home and property. A few red plastic cups still litter the floor, but much of the party has been

These kids looked nervous. I reassured them they wouldn't get in trouble for drinking or smoking pot. We just wanted to ask some questions, try to find out what they saw or heard and if they knew what may have happened to Lisa. We audio taped these interviews.

After a lot of digging, Detective Wallace is able to track down some of those recordings.

I don't want to get in trouble, okay, but Lisa gave me one of her one of her California coolers, and she seemed like she was in a good mood.

She kept asking me what time it was I saw her outside. She let me use her lipsmackers. We talked about chemistry class and how mister Kober gave me attention for talking too much.

A few hours later, it's fifteen year old Bobby McCabe's turn, a tall and lanky kid with jet black hair.

I saw Lisa plainpool with a guy had never seen before. They were like, they're having fun.

With Then.

I heard him assports go upstairs.

With him and.

That's why all the kids were making out, were having sex or whatever, and she said no, I have a boyfriend, and the guy got.

Mad, like really mad.

I mean he threw down his pool stick and said, you're a fucking Copti's and a fucking bitch.

I'm listening to the mount Pine Peades interviews with the kids who were at the party the night before where Lisa Anderson was last seen alive, and investigators may have gotten their first real lead from fifteen year old Bobby McCabe. He just told detectives he saw some guy get really angry at Lisa when she turned him down for sex, and there's more.

On his way out. I heard him say he was going to get hurt back for this. She will pay for this.

So Bobby described the guy as late teen's tall, brown, shaggy hair, and he was wearing a concert t shirt, but he couldn't remember which one. The interviews with the partygoers lasted into the early morning hours, but none of the other kids reported seeing anything strange or any of that exchange between Lisa and the angry guy. In fact, none of them even knew who that guy.

Could be, including my friend Melanie, who calls me completely freaked out after being interviewed by police.

I couldn't believe any of it. I was in shock. I went back to my journal to see what I wrote about about my interview with the police. This is what I wrote. I told the detective I saw Lisa at the party, and at one point she was behind me in line waiting for the bathroom. I told her I liked her charm bracelet, and she pointed out her face charm, which was a running shoe, which made sense.

Good morning, students, it's Monday, May twenty first tickets to the spring dance go on sale today.

You could purchase them in the cafeteria during a lunch period.

Less than twenty four hours after being interviewed by police, the kids are back in school. News of Lisa Anderson's murder fills the halls. It's the only thing anyone's talking about, especially one of my friends, Tatiana Campbell. She's a freshman like me.

I couldn't believe it. I knew Lisa. I mean, you know, not well because she was older than us, but still, oh god, I remember this so clearly. When the bell rang, I ran to meet my friends at my locker.

In the three minutes we have between classes. Tatiana, Melanie and I are trying to truly process what happened to Lisa. Here's Melanie.

I was telling them about the party since neither of them were there, and I told them what I told the police that Lisa seemed, I don't know normal. I told them about seeing her while waiting for the bathroom and us talking about her charm bracelet and stuff. That was the last time I saw her. Ever.

Detective Wallace tells me that when the autopsy results come in, they confirm her cause of death is blunt force trauma.

There was a lot of pressure to say of this horrible crime. I wondered, was it a crime of passion at the hands of a boyfriend or was it completely random? Could the kids be covering up for one of their own and then just like that we got a break. Someone called in a tip about the guy who got maddedly said the party when she turned him down for sex.

His name is Nick Kerr, an eighteen year old kid from Northgate, the next town over.

When he came in for questioning, he looked really stressed out and wouldn't make eye contact with me. I asked him, since he was from Northgate, who did he know at the party. He said he didn't know anyone there. He and his friend had hurt there was going to be a big party at this house in Mount Pine. Then I asked him about Lisa. He said that he'd been playing pool with some other guy when she came up

Police asked Nick to take a polygraph. He does and he passes, although Nick's dad will still need to verify his son was at home at the time of the murder. It seems like Nick's not their guy.

So he were thinking if Nick Kerr didn't murder Lisa, and who did. Lisa told Kerr well, allegedly told him she had a boyfriend. Her mom didn't know of any boyfriend, we thought, but the person who know best would be her best friend. Tiffany Mack.

Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is a senior at Mount Pine High School. I didn't really know her, but she was one of the popular girls. She had a reputation for dating a lot of boys. Anyway, Detective Wallace says he contacts Tiffany's parents and asks them to bring her in for an interview. Late Monday, Tiffany and her parents go down to the station together.

When Tiffany and her parents arrived, she looked very upset. She went on to tell me how on Saturday night, Lisa walked over to her house and then Tiffany drove them to get pizza, then they went to the party. The plan was that Lisa was going to sleep over at Tiffany's house that night, but the sleepover never happened. I wanted to note why not. Tiffany looked at her

Seventeen year old Tiffany Mack is at the Mount Pine Police station with her parents. She's just revealed the name of her best friend, Lisa's secret boyfriend, Zimmer. Although she's never met him, she thinks he's white and in his twenties.

So the interview room and entered the name Zimmer into the system. There was only one guy who seemed to fit the description of Lisa's secret boyfriend, and that was Tom Zimmer. He was white and twenty five years old and from Tucker's City, a town about six miles away. He had a lot of priors. But then I saw something that stopped me cold. He was currently in prison for breaking into a woman's home and killing her over her silver coin collection. So it couldn't have been that Zimmer.

It's now been seven day since Lisa Anderson was found brutally murdered. Her funeral is held at first Presbyterian church and it's packed. Almost the whole town turned out to pay the respects. We're all there.

It was my first funeral and it was so sad. God, poor Lisa's mother Mary. You could tell how much she was hurting.

It was just the most devastating day. I just couldn't believe.

What Lisa, What was it good?

After the funeral? Most go home, some go for pizza, That's what we did, and others they choose to drown their sorrows at the quarter Horse Saloon. What happens there? Change everything?

Nine one? What's your emergency?

I don't know.

I probably shouldn't be calling, but I'm the bartender at the Quarterhouse, and I just overheard something about that Lisa Anderson murder. I think there are two guys in here who know something about it. Can you send someone over here like soon?

Detective Wallace says he gets the call and heads right over with backup just in case pulls up without lights or sirens. He doesn't want to give anyone the chance or time to run.

Once we got inside, the bartender subtly waved us over to the end of the bar. She said, these two guys walked in she'd never seen them before. They ordered beers, She carded them, and then they went to playpool, and that's when the bartender indicated with her eyes the two guys were still there, back behind her and to the right. She said. When they sat down at the bar, there was a program from Lisa Anderson's memorial service nearby. She heard one of the guys say, what a fucking night

Disgusted and not buying one ounce of Zimmer's story, Detective Wallace says he goes into Interrogation Room three to see what Zimmer's friend Mark Tolman may know.

I came right out and asked him what happened to Lisa Anderson. I was fully expecting him to say he didn't know, but that was not what happened. Tolman asked if he could get some sort of plea deal if he talked, and I told him, just talk and sort that stuff out later, he said. Late Saturday night, Zimmer met Lisa outside the party and drove her to his house for They drank some beer and pooled around he sat. Around four am. Lisa asked Zimber to take her to

So if Tolman's account is to be believed, it seems like it was a senseless thrill kill. But Detective Wallace knows they'll need more. They will need physical evidence to tie Joe Zimmer to Lisa's murder. They get it when they search Zimmer's car and find blood in the trunk that will come back to match Lisa Anderson's blood type. Joe Zimmer is arrested in charge with first degree murder. His friend, Mark Tolman is charged with being an accessory

We felt like maybe we didn't have to be so on edge anymore now that he was going away. But still her poor mom.

Sure he was going to be locked up forever, but that wasn't going to bring my baby back.

Ever, that can never bring my baby back.

It's true, Lisa Anderson is gone, and her murder, that first murder in May of nineteen eighty four, changes us.

So why did it happen?

I mean, the Zimmer family produced two brothers who both became killers. It be chalked up to one messed up family. But if that was the case, those brothers were behind bars. So why did the murders still keep coming?

Coming up?

This season? On The Murder Years.

Nine one one, What's your emergency?

There are lots of gunshots, but I think I just oh my god.

Oh my god.

I mean, it was like how many more of us were going to die?

And who would be next? I was scared. I mean I just kept feeling it and saying it. I don't know, I'm sure I was a broken record, but I was really scared.

They knew we had been through so much shit, so much death those last couple of years, and so many of us were really screwed up in the head trying to process it all.

I was starting to come around to thinking maybe Mount Pyne was cursed.

Somehow we managed to survive the Murder Years. Not everyone was as lucky.

The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia. Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media, co executive producer Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Selditch. Original concept developed in partnership with Anne, Margaret Johns and Greg Spring. Casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting Senior Associate producer Eric Newman, Associate producer Jill Pushesnik. Editing in sound as by Tristan Bankston, mastering by Cameron Taggie, Audio engineering by