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1:02

So so

1:25

welcome to True Crime Garage, wherever you

1:28

are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for

1:30

listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with

1:32

me, as always, is a man who

1:34

knows that Refrigerator Perry wasn't even his

1:36

real name. Here is the captain. That's

1:38

right. It's good to be seen and

1:40

good to see you. Thanks for listening.

1:43

Thanks for telling a friend. This

1:48

week, we are very happy to

1:50

be featuring Trolls, Trolls, Trolls by

1:53

the clever, hardworking brewers over at

1:55

3 Floyd's Brewing in

1:57

Munster, Indiana. Troll

2:00

Stroll Strolls is a barrel

2:02

aged Imperial Stout with vanilla beans

2:04

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this stout for over one year

2:09

in bourbon barrels with the

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vanilla beans inside the barrels. ABV

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13% so drink this one at

2:16

home in your garage. Garage

2:19

grade 4.25 bottle caps out of

2:21

5. Let's give

2:23

some thanks and praise to our good

2:25

garage friends that helped us fill up

2:27

the old fridge for this week's show.

2:29

First up, a shout out to Christine

2:31

Ramirez in Las Cruces, New Mexico. And

2:34

a big we like your jib goes

2:36

out to Kennedy Davis in Bowling Green,

2:38

Kentucky. Next here's a double fisted cheers

2:40

to Riva and Viet

2:43

in Kansas City, Missouri. And

2:45

a big how do you

2:47

do from Suzanne in New

2:49

York. And here's the cheers

2:51

to a Steelers fan, Nick

2:53

Hiller from Irwin, Pennsylvania. And

2:56

last but certainly not least,

2:58

we got a triple fisted cheers

3:00

to Chrishawn, Kira, and Maddie

3:02

all in Los Angeles, California. We

3:05

love you. We love everybody that

3:07

contributed to this week's beer fund.

3:09

If you want to contribute to

3:11

next week's beer fund and help

3:13

out the show, go to truecrimegarage.com

3:15

and click on the pint class.

3:17

Yeah, B-W-E-W-R-U-N beer run. You

3:20

know, Colonel, I boo Pittsburgh

3:22

Steelers, but I do like watching

3:24

Justin Fields command the offense.

3:27

If you need more true crime garage

3:29

for your ear balls, make sure you

3:31

subscribe to us on Patreon or Apple

3:33

Podcasts. And Colonel, that's enough of the

3:35

business. All right, everybody gather around, grab

3:38

a chair, grab a beer. Let's

3:40

talk some true crime. What

3:55

attributes make a victim the right kind

3:57

of victim? will

4:00

elicit public sympathy and be

4:02

worthy of a rigorous, thorough

4:04

police investigation into their brutal

4:06

murder, who is deserving

4:09

of empathy and compassion from

4:11

our society. Shouldn't

4:14

that be freely granted to anyone who

4:16

has suffered such an atrocity? Well,

4:19

that may not have been the case in regard

4:21

to the August 1972 murder of 25-year-old Vicky Lynn

4:26

Harrell. Or

4:28

at least, that was the concern of

4:31

one particular columnist. A

4:34

concern that he wrote so passionately

4:36

about on several occasions. A

4:39

concern that maybe she didn't make a

4:41

good victim, one worthy

4:44

of the public's unwavering compassion.

4:47

His concern was warranted, no

4:50

matter how real or unreal his

4:52

assessment of the public's interest in

4:54

the case and the victim. He

4:58

was trying to advance the investigation.

5:02

His attempts to stir the pot

5:04

are welcomed, especially

5:06

to us here in the garage, as

5:09

we, the Captain and I attempt

5:11

to do the exact same thing each

5:14

and every week when we

5:17

cover a new unsolved and cold

5:19

case homicide. The

5:21

columnist clearly was disturbed by the

5:23

lack of tips from the general public.

5:27

Tips or information that never made

5:29

their way to the detectives working

5:31

the case. Could

5:34

it be that the public simply shrugged

5:36

their shoulders and shielded not just their

5:38

eyes, but their hearts from a ruthless

5:41

slaying of one of their own? Maybe.

5:45

Or maybe for some undefinable

5:48

reason Bloomington, Indiana had already

5:50

turned a cold heart to

5:52

real-life horror and mountainous levels

5:54

of heartache. But

5:58

if there's no information... And

6:00

if we don't have eye witnesses

6:02

and or ear witnesses, well

6:05

then the lack of tips does not

6:07

equal how people feel emotionally about a

6:10

victim. It

6:12

is simply a rare occurrence of

6:14

no news is actually bad news.

6:18

We have reviewed this case deeply, and

6:21

I think the public cared dearly. I

6:25

know the victim's family certainly did. Those

6:28

who knew Vicki still have

6:30

never healed, not even to

6:32

this very day, decades later.

6:36

On that sad day, we

6:38

lost a good one. A

6:41

real good one. A

6:43

dearly loved daughter, sister, and

6:45

a really good mother. This

6:48

is the true crime story of

6:51

a loved, dearly missed and

6:53

never forgotten woman, 25 year

6:56

old Vicki Lynn Harrell. And

6:59

this is True Crime

7:01

Garage. Lawrence

7:25

and Janice Harrell gave birth to

7:27

their first child, a daughter that

7:29

they named Vicki Lynn. This

7:31

was August of 1946. At

7:34

the time, the young family was

7:36

living in Crane, Indiana. This is

7:38

a town about 30 miles west

7:40

of Bedford, but they would soon

7:42

move to the more rural area

7:44

of Shaulswick after Vicki's

7:47

sister, Kathy, is born. This

7:49

is just a few years later. This

7:52

is very cool here, Captain.

7:54

The intention behind this move

7:56

was so that the children

7:58

could grow up on their

8:00

maternal grandparents farm. Then

8:02

after the move, another sister,

8:04

Laura, is born, completing the

8:06

Harrell family of five. By

8:09

all accounts, Vicky and her

8:11

sisters enjoyed a happy childhood

8:13

filled with all of the

8:15

implements that life on a

8:17

rural farm entails. The

8:19

children helped around the property with animals

8:21

and chores, and Vicky

8:24

quickly gains the reputation of

8:26

being a true perfectionist. Family

8:28

members say she took way

8:30

too long to complete task

8:33

because the tasks were never up

8:35

to her own personal satisfaction. Some

8:38

of these tasks, she took so long

8:40

that she was often excused from

8:42

certain chores, but her level of

8:44

perfectionism did not stop there. She

8:47

was meticulously precise in all

8:50

of her endeavors from arranging

8:52

her hair. Her sisters say her hair

8:54

had to be perfect all of the

8:56

time to completing her homework. It is

8:59

said that this caused minor issues at

9:01

school as she's

9:03

turning in these absolutely perfect papers

9:06

and projects and homework, but regularly

9:08

taking too long to do so.

9:11

At school and elsewhere, Vicky is

9:13

outgoing and is known for her

9:15

friendliness, especially to those who were

9:17

new in town or new to the

9:19

school. She was one of those types

9:21

that would always extend a welcoming

9:24

hand or hello to the new kid

9:26

at school. Vicky attended Bedford

9:28

High School for several years before

9:31

transferring to Shawswick High

9:33

School from which she graduated from

9:36

in 1965. After

9:38

graduation, Vicky was eager to

9:41

begin the adult

9:43

portion of her life. She moved out

9:45

of mom and dad's house on the farm. Around

9:48

1967, she

9:50

lands in the college town of

9:52

Bloomington, Indiana, home to

9:55

the flagship campus of Indiana

9:57

University. Along with the

9:59

famed campus, B-town as some

10:02

call it, this area is quickly

10:04

becoming known as a premier destination

10:06

to enjoy live musical

10:08

performances by rock bands and

10:10

artists at its many

10:12

bars, taverns, and clubs. Vicky

10:15

was drawn to the nightlife.

10:17

Of course, along with the

10:20

live entertainment, these establishments feature

10:22

plenty of drinking, socializing, and

10:25

generally carefree, youth-oriented lifestyle, no doubt

10:27

due to its proximity to the

10:30

university. These businesses will thrive and

10:32

a lot of youngsters, young

10:35

adults, will attend these

10:37

various bars, taverns, and other

10:39

locations. Vicky was known to

10:41

be sociable and she enjoyed

10:44

live music. So of course she's going to

10:46

fit in. She's going to fit right in

10:48

at this new location. She

10:50

somewhat quickly establishes herself at several

10:52

of these watering holes where she

10:54

becomes somewhat of a regular. She

10:57

simply loves a lot of the local

11:00

rock bands that were performing at these

11:02

different establishments at this time. In

11:04

the summer of 1968, Vicky became pregnant. Little

11:09

is known about the father of the

11:12

child and there does not seem to

11:14

be any confirmation that she and

11:16

this man ever married. Though

11:19

some articles report that she

11:21

was a divorcee, but most

11:23

articles label her as a

11:26

single mother or an unwed mother. By

11:28

the way, I can't stand the term

11:30

unwed mother. It seems like,

11:33

yeah, if you're a mother, you have to be

11:36

married or you should be married where what

11:38

if you always wanted to have a child,

11:40

but the man wasn't the right guy for

11:42

you. You know, there's a lot of

11:45

dudes that are not the right guy. Most of

11:47

the time they're not the right guy. So

11:49

now we're going to fast forward, captain, to March

11:51

of 1969. This

11:54

is when Vicky's daughter, Samantha, is

11:56

born. Vicky appears

11:58

to dial back her. lifestyle a bit.

12:01

So she's not going out as much.

12:03

She's busy working, which she was always

12:06

working and had always worked since moving

12:09

out of her parents' home. But

12:11

she's really starting to shape

12:14

and mold her life out nicely at

12:17

this time. She's providing a

12:19

nice home for her daughter, and Vicki

12:21

enrolls in evening classes in

12:23

1971 in hopes of securing better

12:26

work opportunities in the future so

12:28

she can raise her daughter. So

12:31

we're at 1971 on our timeline

12:33

here, captain. At this time, Vicki

12:36

is working at the Eastside Kmart

12:38

store. Now for

12:40

our younger listeners, Kmart was

12:42

a fantastic store. There was

12:45

one near our neighborhood growing

12:47

up. It was so fantastic they're not out

12:49

of business. They're no longer in existence, yeah.

12:52

Kmart was the kind of store that you could

12:54

buy pretty much anything, right? I

12:56

loved it. Yeah, they had clothing. They had

12:59

a good kids toy section. They sold cassettes

13:02

and CDs when we were kids. I think

13:04

you could even buy tires at

13:06

some of the locations, and they usually had a big outdoor

13:10

gardening lawn care. Kmart was Walmart

13:12

before Walmart was Walmart. Yes,

13:16

a smaller version, I would say,

13:18

of a Walmart. But

13:21

this was a very popular store in the

13:23

state of Ohio, so I imagine it was

13:25

rather popular in the neighboring state

13:28

of Indiana. So she works at

13:30

this Eastside Kmart store. This is

13:32

near the College Mall on East

13:35

3rd Street. This

13:37

is a pretty busy side of

13:39

the city. By early July, she

13:41

finds her niche. She is

13:44

one of the persons in charge of helping

13:47

to run the men's and the

13:49

boys' clothing departments of this store.

13:52

She works with and reports to

13:54

a manager. His name is Charles.

13:56

He goes by Chuck. Chuck

13:59

Holdman. Vicki, at some point during

14:02

her time working there, she confides in

14:04

Chuck that she's having a tough

14:07

time securing housing. She tells Chuck

14:09

that most apartment managers were unwilling

14:11

to rent to an unwed

14:14

mother. So it's

14:17

the early seventies. This is really just a

14:19

sign of the times. My friend, again,

14:21

I'm going to use the words to it's dumb. I

14:23

mean, really as a apartment

14:26

manager or a landlord, all you care

14:28

about is does the person pay the

14:30

rent? Are they, are they

14:32

clean? Are they tidy? Do they keep the noise down?

14:34

Yeah. My first question would be, do you have a

14:36

job? Yes. The answer is yes. And

14:38

then I go, do you have the money? Yes. Cool. She

14:41

has a late work history and

14:44

she's having no trouble raising her

14:46

daughter without the presence of a guy.

14:48

But after some time, this is a

14:51

bit of good news. Vicki finally finds

14:53

an apartment that will rent to a

14:55

single mother. She and another

14:57

young woman. This is Joanne Heagle.

14:59

She is a work colleague. They

15:01

decide to move in together so

15:03

they can split the rent. They

15:05

move into apartment number 41 E

15:07

at the heritage

15:09

apartments. I believe that this is

15:12

located at 1600 East Hillside Drive. This

15:16

sounds like a good arrangement to

15:19

me because both of these young

15:21

ladies each have a child of

15:23

their own. So a good setup. She doesn't

15:26

have to live alone. She's got somebody to split

15:28

the rent with and maybe

15:30

we can even help each other babysit

15:33

from time to time. On August 10th, 1972, the

15:36

rear window of Vicki's 1965 blue Plymouth Valiant

15:43

four-door vehicle is smashed. So

15:46

somebody smashed out her rear window. This is

15:48

while the vehicle was parked on

15:50

the street near a bar called

15:52

the still. The still tavern is a

15:54

local night spot located on North College

15:57

Avenue that Vicki was known to frequent.

15:59

Let's jump ahead two days to August

16:02

12th, which is a Saturday

16:04

after Vicky's roommate agrees to

16:06

babysit Vicki's daughter Vicki's

16:09

daughter's name is Samantha. She's three years

16:11

old at this time. So Vicki leaves

16:13

her apartment. Her daughter's going to stay

16:15

with her roommate and her roommates kid

16:17

as well. The purpose

16:19

of her leaving that

16:22

evening is going to be

16:24

to go to the Kmart store where

16:26

she works. So she's going to be

16:28

returning a comforter that she purchased at

16:31

the Kmart. She mentions to the roommate

16:33

that she's also going to go and

16:35

stop and make a payment

16:37

at a nearby airway there. She has

16:39

an item on layaway again for the

16:41

younger listeners. This is something that I

16:44

wasn't very familiar with growing up, but

16:46

there was layaway back in

16:48

the day where you could go in, you're

16:51

simply making payments periodically on

16:54

an item that you want to buy. Usually

16:56

these are more expensive items and

16:59

they hold the item for you and you

17:01

go and make the payments. And then once

17:03

you've, once you've completed the payments, you've completed

17:05

the purchase and you can leave with the

17:07

item. So I want

17:10

to be very clear

17:12

about this because I think, unfortunately,

17:14

Vicki's not going to return home

17:16

that night from running these two

17:18

errands, but I want to

17:20

paint a clear picture for the

17:23

listeners here regarding this case and

17:25

her movements that evening. So she

17:29

lived, let's say, and this

17:31

is figuring it conservatively.

17:34

She lived about 10 minutes,

17:36

a quick 10 minute drive from

17:39

her apartment to the Kmart. The

17:41

Kmart, if you were to

17:43

look this up on an old map, it's

17:46

next to this Bloomington

17:49

mall slash Plaza. They

17:53

practically share a large parking lot. If you want to

17:56

look at it that way, like she could drive. her

18:00

car from the Kmart to

18:02

this airway store and

18:06

never really have to hit any roads, if

18:08

that makes sense. I'm trying to paint the

18:10

picture as to how close these two businesses

18:13

were to one another back then. And

18:15

like you were saying, her roommate is

18:17

watching her daughter, but because it's such

18:20

a quick trip, it's not like the

18:22

roommate was planning on watching the daughter

18:24

all night long. Right. I

18:26

mean, it's a quick drive to and from

18:28

the two businesses. Their two stops are very

18:31

close to one another. Now sometimes when you're

18:33

returning an item that can take

18:35

a little longer than one might plan for.

18:37

And I don't know, I've never made a

18:39

layaway payment on anything. So I don't know

18:43

how long that typically would take, but this

18:45

sounds to me, captain, like a very quick

18:47

trip. Hey, could you watch Samantha for a little

18:49

bit? I'll be back as

18:51

soon as possible. Well, and she also works at

18:53

the Kmart. So it's not like she needs a

18:56

stroll around in and

18:58

browse and see what, see what's in

19:00

stock because she already knows. So

19:03

unfortunately, as said, Vicki's not going

19:05

to return home that night. Now we

19:08

do know that she made it to

19:10

Kmart with no problems. So

19:12

she made the return. So she returns the

19:14

comforter. We know this because a fellow

19:17

Kmart employee is on

19:19

record telling authorities later

19:21

that this person,

19:23

I don't know if it was a female or

19:25

male worker, but they tell the police, I

19:28

witnessed Vicki in the store and I

19:30

saw her leaving the store. And the

19:32

last time I saw her, she was

19:35

walking toward her vehicle. Well, we should

19:37

know if she made it to the

19:39

other store because did she

19:41

make the layaway payment or not? That's tricky.

19:44

That is a bit of information that

19:46

is not found when

19:48

reviewing this case. So

19:50

Vicki is last seen, according to all

19:53

reports out there, she's last seen alive

19:55

getting into her dark blue 1965 Plymouth

19:57

Valiant. which

20:00

was a four-door vehicle, and

20:03

she's getting into her vehicle at the

20:05

Kmart parking lot on the east side

20:07

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24:42

All right, we are back. Cheers,

24:44

mates, talk hands in the air. Much

24:46

love to the people in the back. And

24:50

a big shout out and we like your jib. And

24:59

we love you to everybody in Florida.

25:02

Yeah, everybody out there regardless of where

25:04

you are, stay safe, the weather has

25:06

been crazy and mother nature

25:08

has been taking

25:10

few prisoners lately. So it's been

25:13

hard times for a lot of people.

25:15

Our thoughts and prayers are with all

25:17

of you out there. When

25:20

we left off captain, we

25:22

know that Vicki made it to the Kmart store and

25:26

we know that she left there. So here's

25:29

my thoughts on the matter. Give

25:32

it to me. We can kind of read between

25:34

the lines a little bit here. If she's returning

25:36

a comforter, they're going to hand her, it's 1972. They're

25:40

gonna hand her cash. So I

25:42

imagine she's like, I'm gonna return this comforter that

25:44

I decided for whatever reason I don't want

25:47

or don't need. They're gonna hand

25:49

me cash. And since I have cash in hand,

25:51

I'm gonna drive over to the airway, which is

25:54

very close and probably use a portion of

25:56

that cash or all of it to make a payment on

25:58

this other item that I have on layaway. You

26:00

brought up a great question

26:02

and one that needs to be

26:05

answered. Something that the information is

26:07

lacking here. Did she make it

26:09

to the airway? Because as you said, there would be

26:11

a paper trail of that. It would be easy to

26:13

know if she made it in there and

26:16

if she made it out safely.

26:18

Because this is our window of concern.

26:21

This is our time in question here

26:23

on our timeline. What the hell happened

26:25

to Vicki that night? Because we know

26:28

she doesn't come home. She doesn't return

26:30

to the apartment with her roommate

26:32

and the two kids there that

26:35

night. And when she doesn't return later that

26:37

evening, Joanne, the roommate, she

26:39

begins calling around. Reaching

26:42

out to friends to see, you know, has anyone

26:44

seen Vicki? Look,

26:46

when a mother has a good

26:48

friend who's another mother and the

26:50

mother doesn't come home, moms come

26:52

home to their kids, right? And

26:54

Vicki, yes, she had this period in her

26:57

life where she liked to go out a

26:59

lot and she loved rock bands. But

27:01

she doesn't strike me as she's a responsible mother.

27:03

She doesn't strike me as the kind of person

27:05

that's going to be like, hey, Joanne, can you

27:07

watch my kid? I'm going to run a quick

27:09

errand and then just decides to stay out all

27:11

night. Yeah, most mothers come home to their child.

27:14

My mother went out for a pack of cigarettes in

27:16

1983 and I haven't seen her since. But

27:19

at first, if you're the roommate, you're going to

27:21

be getting a little annoyed, right? Hey, I said,

27:24

I'm going to watch your kid. This

27:26

is supposed to be a quick trip. What the heck is

27:28

going on? And then after

27:31

that frustration, then you start

27:33

worrying. Yeah. What the heck? You

27:35

know, this is not like her. Something

27:38

bad could have happened. And it's also the

27:40

time period that we don't have

27:43

cell phones. So it's not like she could text real

27:45

quick or call real quick and say, Oh, I

27:47

have to run another errand or something came up.

27:49

Our emergency came up. So that

27:52

very evening, remember

27:54

Vicki's last spotted in the parking

27:56

lot of the Kmart, her roommate,

27:58

Joanne notifies police. and

28:00

reports her 25-year-old roommate

28:03

Vicky Lynn Harrell missing.

28:07

And I hate that we always have to

28:09

bring this up, but when it's in the

28:11

report, we have to. According

28:13

to several accounts or opinions, however you

28:15

want to shake it, the

28:17

information here is that it's

28:19

the opinion that the police didn't seem to

28:21

take the report very seriously. Vicky

28:24

is an adult, and

28:27

as far as the police are concerned, she

28:30

can come and go as she pleases. Yeah, but on

28:32

top of that, I mean, look,

28:34

if you have a, quote

28:36

unquote, unwed mother that is

28:39

having difficulty finding a place

28:41

to rent when she

28:43

has a stable job and she's a

28:45

stable individual, do you really think law

28:47

enforcement is going to take this

28:49

case as serious as other cases? So

28:51

if, look, and I'm not trying to

28:53

put myself- Sign of the times, my

28:55

friend. I'm not trying to put myself

28:57

above anyone here, but if I show

28:59

up and I'm the one taking the

29:01

report and I see the little three-year-old

29:03

kid, her daughter there at the apartment,

29:07

and this other young woman who's responsible

29:09

and raising her child as well, does

29:12

Vicky have a job? Yes. How long

29:14

has she worked there? So I'm learning

29:16

very quickly that she's responsible. Because

29:19

of the kid, I'm going to take

29:21

that to another level. And the other thing, you know,

29:23

I say it a hundred times on this show, but

29:25

I'll continue to say it. Whether you want

29:27

to take it seriously or not, of

29:29

course adults are allowed to come and go as

29:31

they please. But this is

29:33

Bloomington, Indiana, 1972.

29:36

This is not

29:38

a crime-ridden area. It's not

29:40

a, there might not

29:42

be a whole lot going on that night

29:45

and it doesn't hurt to

29:47

drive around and look for Vicky. And

29:49

you're out there anyway, man. You're out

29:52

there patrolling anyway. Just tell your, tell

29:54

your co-workers, hey, if anybody sees a

29:56

young lady that looks like this or

29:58

sees a a vehicle that looks like

30:00

this, go up and talk to the

30:03

person. It seems

30:05

pretty easy to me. Pretty. Well, not

30:07

to, not to defend

30:09

law enforcement, but there's some cases,

30:12

a some college kids called

30:15

on a Saturday morning and their roommate

30:17

went out to a party last night.

30:19

It hasn't come home yet. Maybe

30:22

that's a situation where you go, Hey

30:24

guys, if he doesn't come home in

30:26

the next few hours, give me

30:28

a call because there's reason to believe. Well,

30:30

if you went to a party, maybe you

30:32

went home with somebody, maybe he stayed at

30:35

the party. That makes sense. But we have

30:37

a situation where like you said, single

30:39

mother roommates going to watch the child for just

30:41

a little bit. Why does she runs these quick

30:44

errands? She should have been back within

30:46

an hour, maybe within

30:48

two hours tops. So

30:50

after that time period of her not

30:53

showing up, maybe take it a little

30:55

more serious, you're patrolling anyway. So it

30:57

doesn't seem like any extra work at

30:59

all. So we said

31:01

she's reported missing. We know

31:03

that she's last spotted at the Kmart. The

31:06

police are notified cars missing though. Right. Cars missing

31:08

as well, because she took her vehicle with her

31:10

to run these errands. So now we're going to

31:12

skip ahead to two days

31:14

after this. So the 14th. Yeah.

31:17

Now it's Monday, August 14th,

31:19

and it's around one 30 in

31:21

the afternoon. We have a Owen

31:24

County highway department worker

31:26

who stumbles upon an

31:29

appalling site while

31:31

looking for a secluded place. So he he's

31:33

out working in the, this area and he's

31:35

supposed to be out working in this area

31:38

early in the afternoon. He decides I got

31:40

to find a secluded place to relieve myself.

31:42

Take a leak. Take a leak.

31:45

Yeah. I was just trying to make a

31:47

joke, but he's really going to take

31:49

a pee. Well, people who work

31:51

outside, sometimes they have to

31:53

do this. Right. Um, so

31:56

he goes over to this large pile

31:58

of rocks. And

32:01

this is where he discovers

32:03

the nude strangled body of

32:05

a deceased woman. So

32:08

the woman he finds is lying face down

32:10

in a ditch. This ditch is

32:12

filled with water from recent

32:15

rainstorms. This is

32:17

on a access

32:19

road to a place

32:22

called McCormick's Creek State Park.

32:26

So this is three miles east

32:28

of Spencer, Indiana, and

32:30

just off of Concord Road, one mile north

32:32

of Indiana 46. Horrified,

32:35

terrified, the highway department

32:37

employee contacts the authorities

32:39

immediately. The Owen County

32:42

Sheriff's deputies soon descend

32:44

upon the scene. Upon

32:46

reaching the scene, we have Sheriff Robert

32:48

Mason, who immediately

32:51

makes the connection to two

32:54

days prior of the missing

32:56

persons report. So almost

32:58

instantly, Sheriff Robert Mason

33:01

is uneasy and suspicious as

33:03

to the identity of the

33:05

victim, believing that it

33:08

might be, very well could be, this

33:10

missing young woman who was reported missing

33:12

just two days prior. And if your

33:14

law enforcement and you would have took

33:16

this serious, you would have no

33:18

regret. If you take a

33:20

missing person report seriously and

33:22

they show up the next day, no big

33:25

deal. Well, exactly.

33:27

But if you find the

33:29

individual now dead. Well, and

33:31

again, it's alarming too, because her roommate

33:33

Joanne is no dummy. She's

33:35

going to tell the officer that's

33:38

taking the report. Like, I called

33:40

a bunch of her friends. Nobody's

33:42

seen her. You know, I did, I did

33:44

some of the work trying to track her

33:46

down myself. Nobody's seen her. Something might be

33:48

up here. So the

33:50

sheriff and his workers

33:52

are already under

33:55

the belief, even before the identification

33:57

process starts, may

34:00

know who the victim is. Now, of

34:02

course, later she is

34:04

identified as Vicki Lynn Harrell. And

34:08

the victim has

34:10

been strangled with a rope or

34:12

a similar type of item, according

34:15

to authorities. Now, one

34:18

thing that has been a big part

34:20

of this case is that when

34:23

the authorities turn the body over, so

34:25

remember the body's lying face down in

34:27

the stitch. Nude.

34:30

When they turn the body over in

34:34

preparation to transport for the

34:36

autopsy, they

34:38

discover that, and it's always

34:40

reported as initials, but

34:42

the report is they discovered that

34:45

initials, K-N, the letters K and

34:47

the letter N, as

34:49

a Nick, have been

34:51

crudely carved into the victim's upper

34:53

abdomen or lower chest area. Don't

34:56

you find that stupid though? This is

34:59

a murder victim, not a painting, not

35:01

something that it's not a paycheck, something

35:03

you're going to sign your name to.

35:06

We have no clue

35:08

if this is initials or if this is

35:10

a start of a word

35:13

or what. I just think it's a stupid

35:15

term. Yeah, I too do

35:17

not like that it's always

35:19

reported as initials, K-N. If

35:22

you go to the police, the

35:24

Indiana State Police, if you go to their

35:27

website on cold cases,

35:29

I believe that they have it

35:31

correctly. They're saying simply letters,

35:34

the letters K and N were

35:37

carved into the victim here. You

35:39

heard my conversation with Dr.

35:42

Scott Bond. No, I never listened

35:44

to him. I missed

35:46

that episode. We talked about Will

35:48

Graham, the nemesis of Hannibal Lecter.

35:51

When he's looking at the crime scenes, he's supposed

35:54

to be like the super detective. When he's looking

35:56

at crime scenes, the first thing he says to

35:58

himself is he's trying to put

36:00

himself in the mind of the killer, he

36:02

says, this is my design. Yes, it's something

36:05

that's very dumb here to call

36:07

it initials. It's strange that anybody

36:09

would take the time to crudely

36:12

carve letters into a victim's chest

36:15

area, but this was done

36:17

for a purpose, done for a reason. And

36:19

sometimes if you can find and figure

36:21

out why that was, that might

36:23

get you one step closer to

36:26

finding and identifying the perpetrator of

36:28

this horrific murder. The reports here,

36:30

captain, are that there appears to

36:32

have been no sign of a

36:34

struggle in this

36:36

area or nearby, signifying

36:38

that the victim may have been

36:40

killed elsewhere and the body dumped

36:43

in Owen County. Neither

36:45

the rope used to strangle the victim

36:47

or whatever was used to strangle the

36:50

victim, nor the tool used

36:52

to carve the initials or the letters into

36:55

the victim. None of this is

36:57

found at the scene. The reports too,

36:59

are that there are no tire tracks

37:02

nearby and no sign of the

37:04

clothing that the victim had been wearing. As

37:07

far as we can tell, the clothing

37:09

had never been found. Now, one

37:11

thing that I was- So all

37:14

we have here is a victim. All

37:16

the other items were either discarded

37:18

somewhere else or kept by the

37:20

killer. The other information in the

37:23

reports are that despite

37:25

the body being faced down in the water,

37:28

there are twigs and leaves stuck to the

37:30

victim's back and her bare feet are caked

37:32

in mud. So this could indicate

37:35

that she was walking at

37:37

some point after her shoes were removed. But

37:40

according to an article, this

37:42

is a 1975 newspaper

37:44

article by Larry Nkalingo.

37:47

And I hope that I

37:49

got his last name right because we'll reference him

37:51

more than once in the telling of this true

37:53

crime story. But according to

37:55

the article by this Larry Nkalingo, the

37:59

only footprints that So

40:00

the pro tip is walk backwards

40:03

on your own footprints. Yes.

40:07

Don't pull a Nick Miller and

40:09

do the moonwalk. That same day,

40:11

shortly after the discovery of the

40:13

body in Owen County, Vicki's

40:15

1965 Plymouth Valiant

40:17

is found parked in a

40:20

lot behind the College Mall Shopping Center.

40:22

Okay, this is why you take

40:24

the missing persons report seriously. The

40:27

vehicle is situated between the airway department

40:29

store to the south and

40:32

cinemas one and two to the north.

40:35

If you take the report from the roommate

40:37

and she says, yeah, she was going to

40:39

go to the Kmart into the airway. If

40:43

you just would have drove by there, unless

40:45

the killer or Vicki or somehow

40:48

the vehicle was moving

40:50

around, it looks to me,

40:52

and I am of the firm belief that

40:55

that vehicle, she

40:58

parked it near the airway department

41:01

store and something happened

41:03

to her in that parking lot. I don't

41:05

know if it was prior to going into

41:07

the store or after coming out of the

41:10

store. That is my belief that

41:12

something happened to her in that parking lot. You

41:15

would find a patrol officer would find

41:17

her vehicle right where you think one

41:20

might think it would be. If

41:22

you had just gone and looked for her that night, it's

41:25

a 10 minute drive from the apartment. It

41:28

would have taken you all of 10 to 12 minutes to

41:31

locate this missing woman's vehicle.

41:33

Couple questions because you talked

41:35

about her back window being

41:37

busted out. I'm

41:39

guessing that she wasn't able to

41:41

get this fixed before she went

41:43

on this trip, this

41:46

errands trip. That is, you're

41:48

exactly right. And that's why I pointed

41:50

out the short turnaround between the day

41:52

on that Thursday when the window

41:55

was smashed out and the Saturday

41:57

when she goes missing. notice

42:00

is that the, the

42:02

window had been smashed out. Yeah. And

42:04

if you're a perpetrator, you're looking for

42:06

a victim, you see her

42:08

go into that Kmart store. You

42:11

could probably easily reach your

42:13

hand in, unlock the door, maybe

42:15

even being in the back seat

42:18

waiting for her. Yeah. That's why

42:20

I, that's why I always check the

42:22

back seat before I get in my car. This smashed

42:26

out rear window would provide

42:28

an opportunity for somebody who's out

42:30

looking for a victim. Like

42:33

you said, you could figure out a way to

42:35

get into the vehicle and ambush

42:37

her when she comes back to her vehicle.

42:40

The other thing is it might, if

42:43

you're not setting up an ambush, it

42:45

could give you an opportunity

42:48

to approach her with a conversation. Oh,

42:50

I noticed your windows smashed out. I

42:52

work for a body shop or blah,

42:54

blah, blah. Now you're in close proximity

42:57

of this person. And

42:59

the reason why we, and we don't have to

43:02

go too far down this road because we don't

43:04

know for certain that it

43:07

sounds like we're giving out a lot of

43:09

information here about this case, but really they,

43:11

the holdback information on this case, I

43:14

suspect there's a lot. So

43:18

there are some sources that indicate that there

43:20

was damage to the driver side door and

43:22

that the left rear door window was missing.

43:24

Remember, it's a four door vehicle, but

43:28

if that's true, it's

43:30

not clear number one. And number two,

43:33

there's never been any clear information to come

43:36

out about the vehicle. Now, what we do

43:38

know is the following day, authorities tow the

43:40

vehicle to the city's service center lot to

43:43

dust for fingerprints and process the

43:45

vehicle. The results in the

43:47

information that they get from the vehicle has

43:49

never been released to the public. But, but

43:51

there's a couple of things that, that my

43:53

mind jumps to immediately. One, I

43:56

believe that I'm looking for a person with a

43:58

vehicle. The killer, I think. had

44:00

their own vehicle. And I think that was

44:02

the method that they use to transport Vicky

44:05

to how many locations? We don't know. Right.

44:08

But I say that because, look, nobody

44:10

wants to get caught. You'd have to be an

44:12

insane person to be

44:14

fine with getting arrested for a horrible crime like

44:16

this. You're not going to drive

44:18

around with a victim alive or otherwise

44:20

in a vehicle where the

44:23

rear window smashed out. You're going to give

44:25

the police an excuse to pull you over.

44:27

You're going to stick out like a sore

44:29

thumb. But the other thing my mind jumps

44:31

to here too, Captain, is I want to

44:33

know, like, we know the clothing was never

44:36

recovered, but what

44:39

about her purse? I have

44:41

to believe she's carrying a purse with her.

44:43

She went to return an item. She's going

44:45

to go pay for another item at a

44:47

different location. I would believe she's carrying a

44:49

purse and likely a driver's license with her.

44:52

Did they recover her driver's license? We know.

44:54

And the reason why I'm going

44:56

down this road is the letters

44:59

carved into the chest. To

45:01

me, it's suggestive that

45:05

this person may be a serial

45:07

offender. I'm

45:09

sure that it has happened in plenty of

45:12

cases, standalone cases, one-offs,

45:16

but letters, words written

45:18

on the victim left with the victim

45:20

carved into the victim. That

45:22

to me screams serial killer. And I hate that

45:24

my brain goes there all the time, but the

45:26

other thing I go back to the purse, where

45:29

are the contents of the purse? Where are the purse? Were

45:31

they found in the vehicle? Did it look like the person

45:34

was attempting to take money from the purse? Or

45:36

was the purse simply never found? If the

45:39

purse was located, was the driver's license removed?

45:41

We know that some of these guys like

45:43

to build up a little

45:45

collection of driver's license of different

45:48

victims. Well, again, if they would have

45:50

took the missing person report seriously and

45:52

they would have found her car quickly,

45:55

then you have a better chance

45:57

of getting good eyewitness statements. Did

45:59

somebody? Everybody see a

46:01

creepy van hashtag ban the van,

46:04

but we only have eyewitnesses claiming

46:06

that they saw her getting into

46:09

her car. The autopsy reveals bruises

46:11

to her mouth and left forehead.

46:14

The pathologist maintains that

46:16

she had most likely

46:19

been sexually assaulted. Again,

46:21

I think that's part of the hold

46:23

back information. They don't go into any

46:25

kind of detail with that or even

46:27

confirm the sexual assault. If

46:30

this was a blitz attack by

46:32

the perpetrator, the bruises

46:35

to the left forehead might be an

46:37

indicator that our perpetrator is right handed.

46:41

So I mean, if you're trying to

46:43

really build

46:45

this investigation on some

46:48

pretty simplistic terms

46:50

here, you would think you're

46:52

looking for a right handed man who

46:54

owns a vehicle that might have the

46:57

initials K and N if you really

46:59

want to start somewhere. And

47:01

based off of the information or the

47:03

lack of information that's provided in the

47:05

sources out there, we

47:08

don't know what else they would have to go on at

47:10

the time. Now, of course, the letters

47:13

or the initials, whatever you want to

47:15

label these, have become a topic of

47:17

much speculation for not

47:19

only investigators, but for the general public

47:22

over the years. Now, maybe

47:26

we should address our own speculation here

47:28

with these letters. I was

47:30

thinking of, you know,

47:32

they keep saying initials and most people,

47:34

that's their immediate reaction. They're

47:37

like, well, look for somebody with the first name that

47:39

starts with K and the last name that starts with

47:41

N. Some

47:45

of the information that's come out over the years

47:47

have said that, and this

47:50

sounds like an opinion of an

47:52

investigator, but have said that, well,

47:55

we're not absolutely sure that it's a K

47:57

and an N. Look.

47:59

If they're capital letters, it

48:02

would seem pretty easy to know if it's a

48:05

K and an N. If

48:07

they're lowercase, I think the N might be

48:09

more difficult, but it's

48:12

not easy to carve. I don't know this from

48:14

personal experience, but it can't be easy to carve

48:17

and cut letters into skin. I would

48:19

imagine it's somewhat similar to, I know

48:22

a tree bark is much more

48:24

of a solid and hard item

48:28

compared to skin, but when

48:30

you try to carve letters into anything, they

48:33

never turn out the way

48:35

that you envision them. So

48:38

it's always very easy to

48:40

make straight lines to create

48:43

your letters. So a capital K and

48:45

a capital N would seem

48:47

the most likely here. I know that

48:49

there's that speculation out there that says

48:52

the one guy's opinion of, well, we're not exactly sure

48:54

that it was a K and an N, but

48:59

it sounds like the guys, the

49:02

detectives that work this case the

49:05

most, it

49:08

sounds like they are, it's general consensus

49:10

amongst them that it was a K

49:12

and an N. Again, I

49:15

guess if the

49:17

letters never come out the way that one intended

49:19

when you're trying to carve them into something, maybe

49:21

the K could be the straight line to

49:24

the left of the K, it was intended

49:26

to be an

49:28

I or an L, and

49:30

the other is maybe a C or something

49:32

that happened to just get too close to

49:34

that line. I don't know, but what

49:36

we do know, Captain, is the K and the N have never

49:38

led to an

49:42

arrest or a conviction in this case. So

49:44

I think it's fair to speculate. And

49:46

the other thing too is from

49:49

the limited experience I have

49:52

with reviewing cases where somebody has written

49:55

on the victim or carved something into the

49:57

victim, because it's rather rare, but

49:59

we can't do it. covered a case

50:01

where it's believed that the person carved

50:03

the word fat into the victim. And

50:07

there's a famous, there's famous cases out

50:09

there. There was a serial killer in

50:11

California a long time ago

50:13

that was using lipstick to

50:16

write BDA on

50:19

victims. And the BDA

50:21

we would learn later learn what

50:23

BDA likely stood for because this

50:25

killer, while never apprehended,

50:29

never identified, communicated

50:31

with either police or media. I can't

50:33

remember who it was, but

50:36

what did the BDA stand for?

50:39

Black Dahlia Avenger is

50:41

what the letters said, the

50:44

letter sent to police or the

50:46

media or both. That's what the,

50:48

the author of those letters said

50:50

BDA stood for. Black Dahlia Avenger.

50:53

So in both of

50:55

those scenarios, Black Dahlia

50:57

Avenger and the word fat, which is

50:59

a completely different case of more recent

51:02

case. Think about that

51:04

for a second. The, the killer

51:06

is not necessarily identifying themselves, even

51:08

though the killer may identify as

51:10

the Black Dahlia Avenger, but

51:13

they're not saying like, so

51:17

K and N could stand for anything. And

51:21

if you want to, if you want to go

51:23

really into some fictional movie type stuff,

51:25

K and N could be, could

51:28

have been a previous victim, the

51:31

initials of a previous victim and the killer

51:33

is trying to tell police like, yeah, I

51:35

did that one. Now I'm doing this one.

51:38

I don't think that there's never any mention

51:40

of this. So I don't think that it

51:42

happened with BDA and, and BTK and a

51:44

lot of these other killers,

51:47

when, when they do leave these little

51:49

letters or, or

51:51

information, they often communicate

51:53

with the police or the media at some

51:56

point. And that doesn't

51:58

seem to be the case here. If

52:00

it is, they've either never, they've

52:03

either never connected that

52:05

communication to this murder

52:09

or they've never released it to the public. Well,

52:11

and if you're law enforcement, like

52:13

you said, very, very, very

52:16

rare to have this

52:18

situation happen, but

52:21

knowing what we know, and like you said, they, they a

52:23

lot of times communicate with law enforcement.

52:27

Maybe this is some of the reason

52:29

why they didn't hold back this information because they

52:31

go, well, let's put it out there. It could

52:33

be a K and an N. We

52:36

don't know. Maybe the killer will

52:38

reach out to us to tell

52:40

us what it means. Well, and

52:42

I couldn't find another podcast that

52:44

was dedicated to the case of

52:46

Vicki Lynn Harrell. I did see

52:48

some that were featuring the case

52:51

of Pamela Milam. So

52:53

September 16th, 1972, we're going to go out about

52:55

55 miles away from

52:58

Spencer, Indiana, where, which

53:01

is nearby where the, our victim

53:03

Vicki was found. So we're going

53:05

to Terre Haute, Indiana. Keep in

53:07

mind, this is a month and a

53:09

day or a month and two days after

53:11

Vicki's killed. We have the

53:13

body of Indiana State University co-ed

53:15

Pamela Milam is discovered in the

53:17

trunk of her vehicle. The

53:20

student had last been spotted at a

53:22

sorority event the prior night on campus.

53:25

She failed to appear for

53:27

a planned visit home. Her father

53:30

instigates a search of the campus

53:33

and he, he's out

53:35

searching for his daughter. He and

53:37

another family member spot the vehicle at

53:40

a campus parking lot. And he's the one

53:42

that unfortunately goes through the vehicle and

53:45

checks the trunk, opens up the trunk and

53:47

makes the grim discovery of his daughter's body.

53:50

She's found bound, gagged and stuffed into

53:52

the trunk of her own car. She

53:55

was 19 years old. She was a

53:57

sophomore at the university.