America’s Highway Serial Killers /// Part 4 /// 593 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
wonders who's buried in the grave of the guy that invented the old Switcheroo ladies and gentlemen here is the captain
yeah it's good to be seen good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a friend
today we are switching things up a bit here we are still drinking fine beer from our friends at Fat Bottom Brewing
Company but today we are going with their other beer made four major league soccer in Nashville's own soccer club
this delightful Brew is called pitch Invasion this is a logger it's crisp it's clean it's delicious it's a
traditional American lager with super Crush ability ABV 4.5 garage grade three and three-quarter
bottle caps out of five and let's give some praise and thank yous to our good friends for helping us out with this
week's show first up a big cheers to Regina in Mackinaw Illinois and a big shout out to Gwen in Alexandria Virginia
here's a cheers to Fatma and Dearborn Michigan a big shout out to Jill in Elkhart Indiana next we have Valenta and
we also have Diane both who reside in beautiful Parts Unknown and both who donated very generously to this week's
beer fun so we of course send Valenta and Diane a big warm Ron Swanson please and thank you because they along with
everyone else we just mentioned here today well they went to True Crime garage.com and helped us out with this
week's shows and for that we thank you yeah bwr you win beer run how about you treat yourself go to our
store Page and treat yourself we have a bunch of new shirts I think you'll look fabulous in one of them and you get to
support the show in the process keep the lights on keep the beers flowing and uh
keep that paycheck coming into the kernel and Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] foreign
[Music] most of us are used to driving on the interstates and hardly give it a second
thought but we should some of the nation's worst criminals including serial killers proud those busy highways
tonight news 13's Kim Holland is on special assignment to report on the danger and a new weapon to fight it
she was Somebody's Daughter most likely murdered and dumped in the harsh New Mexico desert she still had a ribbon on
her from a County Fair in Missouri and she wore handmade jewelry her bloody body buried in a shallow grave two men
on Horseback stumbled upon the body here in 1999 just outside of Grants the case
had grown cold so 10 years later in 2009 the FBI headed back out to the woman's grave site her body has never been
identified so we never found a wallet or any ID the interstate roadway system connects cities towns and
communities across the country allowing anyone with a vehicle to move quickly easily and anonymously because the New
Mexico Jane Doe was found near Interstate 40. the FBI wondered if she could have been murdered by a serial
killer we look at any connection to the highway just this year the FBI utilized a new tool to try to crack the New
Mexico's place they entered it into a program the agency created in 2004 all the cases in
the database have one thing in common the victim or suspect had some link to the interstate local law enforcement
officers are able to submit violent crime cases involving rape murder found human remains and suspicious kidnappings
to the FBI the FBI then decides if the case should be included in the database this map shows the more than 500 cases
that are in the serial killing database the FBI and officers across the country can search the system to see if any of
the cases can be connected and traced back to a serial killer oftentimes interstates allow for a crime of
opportunity for Killers who Target drug users prostitutes and hitchhikers investigators for example will look for
a link to a transient or a truck driver follow an interstate and you may find a death here more victims down the road
and a killer at the end of the line that's exactly what spurred the FBI's Highway serial killings database in 2004
in investigators noticed patterns in up to 200 unsolved cases numerous prostitutes working truck stops had been
killed and dumped mostly along I-40 from Oklahoma all the way to the east coast the feds along with local agencies
linked a bunch of the cases and arrested long-haul trucker John Williams and his
girlfriend at the time Rachel Cumberland for about 20 of the murders the FBI then
realized cases not obviously related might be so it created the highway serial killings database and opened it
up to police and Sheriff's departments across the country so every law enforcement agency now can look into the
database put their cases in there modify their cases and do their own searches and the system works agencies across the
country with the help of the FBI have identified about 200 suspects in nearly 600 unsolved cases since the database
began detectives in New Mexico have solved two of four cases in the database although it doesn't appear they're
connected to a serial killer yet but they're still looking for the killer of new Mexico's Jane Doe investigators hope
the highway serial killers initiative will help Crack the Case and bring a daughter back home to her family Kim
Holland KRQE news 13. now if you would like to see the highway serial killers initiative map or check out the specific
items found on Jane Doe's body go to our website at krqe.com [Music] if you go to
fbi.gov and you go to the category of seeking information you will find a report and a poster seeking information
to help solve the murder of Tammy J zawicki and I'm going to read some information from that poster I wish
everybody will go to fbi.gov and view that there and review that information this is a good review of everything that
we covered here yesterday in the garage captain and it says that Tammy zwicki was found murdered in Lawrence County
Missouri August 23rd 1992 and it has a picture of her 1985 Pontiac T-1000 that she was driving that
was a white vehicle with New Jersey plates the description of our victim they have her listed as has blonde hair
height five foot two inches tall green eyes 120 pounds and she was a Caucasian female there is a reward the FBI is
offering a reward for up to fifty thousand dollars for information leading to the identification of the individual
or individuals responsible for this crime and it gives us a little bit of a brief history in this report that says
the wiki was reportedly last seen with her vehicle at mile marker 83 on Interstate 80 in Central Illinois
between 3 10 p.m and 4 P.M on August 23rd 1992. it was also reported that a tractor-trailer was seen near zawiki's
vehicle during this time period the driver of the tractor-trailer is described as a white male between 35 and
40 years of age over six feet tall with dark bushy hair some of the victim's personal property
is known to be missing and I want everybody to pay close attention to these items here because finding these
items locating one of these items could be the breadcrumb in the trail that we need to create to lead us to Tammy's
killer so these missing items these are known to be missing items include a Canon 35 millimeter camera a musical
wrist watch the watch is Loris brand this one's very interesting to me here Captain because this doesn't
it's not a one-of-a-kind item but it's an item that I've never heard of before so it must be somewhat rare right this
wristwatch Loris brand l-o-r-u-s in case I'm not saying that correct correctly but at the time that
she went missing the watch played the tune Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head that's interesting so this item would be
of particular interest if anyone can locate an item like that and why these are important because we know that a lot
of killers like to keep items of their victims have souvenirs might be some items that you would stumble upon
your uncles office or something where it doesn't make sense for them to have these items
now we went through The Disappearance yesterday we went through all of the items in the timeline as
and the details of the early investigation and what we have now here Captain is we're kind of lost in the aftermath a
little bit we have her parents her family who are searching for answers we have investigators in three different
agencies that we know of that are working the case we have Tammy's parents Hank and Joanne who they appeared on a
couple of different TV shows and radio shows trying to raise awareness for their daughter's case they appeared on
am Philadelphia and they also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on the Oprah Winfrey Show they were focusing in
on Highway murders of women we have a quote from Joanne her mother who says as tough as it was emotionally to talk
about we decided on lots of exposure to keep Tammy's story alive her husband Hank added that they wanted to help take
back America's highways then expressing his frustration at the slow pace of the investigation Nation at the time of the
Oprah Winfrey Show he stated I just want them to find the person who killed our daughter if they don't catch that son of
a [ __ ] I don't know what I will do yeah sad stuff now we have Joanne's sister Bonnie who says losing your kid is every
parent's worst nightmare she said I just told Joanne hang in there if you let yourself fall apart the criminal hasn't
only taken one life but two or more I understand the parents frustrations but these types of crimes are very hard to
investigate because we don't know exactly who was in that area or why they were in that area agreed and this is
very likely a stranger on Stranger crime and we're probably dealing with an individual that has the ability to
travel a great distance and a short period of time again the other problems with the investigation will be that we
don't know when exactly she was killed or where so we are missing at least one crime scene in this case we have some
more quotes from her mother Joanne and she says it's coming on one year so this is leading up to the one year very sad
anniversary of their daughters first disappearance and then death right she says it's coming up on a year still no
results from the investigation but what can I do I have no faith in the FBI or police in particular she is concerned
about a recent loss of possible evidence the evidence was this we have witnesses
at a gas station near where Tammy's body was found they reported seeing a truck and a
trucker that might be could be linked to Tammy's case yet police who initially said they had collected receipts from
this gas station turns out that they never actually did and the receipts were eventually thrown
away Master Sergeant Harold Hendrickson of the Illinois State Police said the oversight occurred because they were
simply stretched too thin in this case like many others the victim's parents take on this responsibility on
themselves they don't trust the FBI they don't trust the police department so they're going to start reaching out and
trying to support other individuals that have been through the same type of situation and trying to bring awareness
to crimes of this nature the first of these situations of giving back and being an advocate not only for their
daughter but for other victims out there to my knowledge Captain came before just
the day before Tammy would have turned 22 years old when we have Joanne her mother who stood before about 50 or so
students she was a speaker for a talk sponsored by the South Jersey survivors of violent crimes
to have an impact to make people aware of Highway homicides in America of prevention of such crimes and the role
of police this would become a mission one that would soon blossom into other talks other support group visits from
Joanne and members of Tammy's family in Iowa a local private detective had volunteered his services to
Tammy's family this is former Grinnell Police Chief Jim Ahrens he was investigating trucking companies and
their routes he and the police believe the likely killer of Tammy was a trucker because Tammy's body was found a
sufficient distance down the on-ramp to have been dumped from the back of a truck so this is really interesting here
Captain because we got two angles to this Theory right one angle is that because her body was transported such a
great distance away in a somewhat relatively short period of time it makes sense that the killer had the
ability to do this and so therefore a trucker would fit this scenario and could be a a possible
occupation of our suspect yeah it makes sense but they're going to double down on this thought in this Theory this Jim
Aarons who is saying that us and the police when we look at where her body was located where where it was actually
found 14 feet from the side of that on-ramp or off-ramp they're saying that if you took a truck and you lined it up
to just where where it would meet to you know get almost to the turn so we have a tractor trailer right
the back of the trailer is about the distance from where her body was found to where the vehicle
would make the turn that makes sense so it almost like fit perfectly right like it's almost like a
puzzle piece when you're looking at this crime scene of where her body was eventually located the private detective
goes on to say that he also believed that the murderer may be responsible for other unsolved cases in that region he
said I want nothing to do with the reward I just want to catch the guy I believe
he's still out there and I think he's going to do it again now at the time of that interview the private detective was
referring to the 100 000 reward that was offered up by an anonymous Pennsylvania donor to anyone
with a tip that would help arrest and convict the murderer of Tammy zwicki right as he had in the past her father
Hank continued to feel that he was somewhat somehow partly responsible for his daughter's fate because of the
faulty car well so they've heard a lot of pushback from the general public right they've a little bit of victim
blaming here saying you know why wasn't she driving a a safer vehicle a better running vehicle why was she traveling
alone and because she's a college student and you know how much College cost well and
not only that this this is here's the thing we don't need the public to point that out to the parents of a dead child
that when their child has been murdered they wrestle with all these with all these thoughts and and second guessing
themselves and questioning everything they did every day every day so we don't have to do that
for them trust me this is something that when when your child is taken from you and when you're a loved one is killed
especially a child that you you are supposed to be protecting right that you're going to blame yourself you're
going to blame things that you did or did not do through the course of their lifetime and say constantly go what if I
could have done this what if I sh maybe I should have done this and this is just
another example he's saying that he feels partly responsible for his daughter's fate because he he raised her
to be cautious with strangers saying that maybe if she had been more of a free spirit or if I had raised her
to be more of a free spirit then she would have just taken the first ride that was available to her
and got through the whole thing without a problem you know we did say that multiple people according to Witnesses
stopped that day so maybe the killer the abductor would seem to be one of the last or the
last person to stop and he's saying if I just would have raised her different and and taught her to not be
so cautious and worried about strangers then maybe she would have just taken the first ride
just got in and maybe that wouldn't have been a problem it would have been somebody that would have been okay for
her to ride but the the first person that stopped could be the the murderer you know yeah I I I understand what
you're saying in this case it seems like a multiple people stop but there could be a situation where the
only person that does stop is somebody that's there to harm you well exactly there's no correct answer to these
questions or these things that that eat these family members up of victims I mean this stuff eats at you and he goes
on to say in this article he said that what's so frustrating there are prostitutes and other kinds of women in
Crazy situations and they're still alive then there's a kid like Tammy someone you protected nurtured and guided she
worked hard went to school on a scholarship did all of the right things and someone takes her life it's unfair
totally wrong he says people talk about God and how he controls things well why did he let this happen right
I do want to go on to point out some of the better things here in regard to the family and and their thoughts
you know when when pressed with those types of questions why was she traveling alone
the zwickeys have said quote Tammy has incredibly good judgment she wouldn't get into a car with a stranger
her mother pointed out Tammy Street smarts adding that her daughter was a strong-willed tough cookie who worked in
many jobs throughout her life and keep in mind she traveled to Spain on her own she was in another country
for a semester less than a year before she is abducted and killed right but um a person with a knife or a person with a
gun it's a whole different scenario maybe she is the type of person that wouldn't have gotten in a car with a
stranger but that gun that knife told her otherwise agreed you may not have a a choice in the matter but what
the family is pointing out is they're saying what why would we have any concern of her traveling by herself
right you know this is nothing new to her she went to a whole other country by herself for a semester well and as a
parent at some point you have to let go and let them Venture off into the world you can't protect them 24 7. yeah if
your kid is 57 years old and you're still a helicopter mom well there's other problems going on in that Dynamic
yeah I mean you could put your child in a bubble if you want Bubble Boy well let's get into some of the possible
suspects because we do have suspects that have been that we will recognize by name here so the first one is Clark
Perry Baldwin he's a long-haul trucker from Iowa he was arrested in May of 2020 this after forensic genealogy linked his
DNA to the 1990s era slangs of three different women women from Wyoming and Tennessee the Des Moines Register
reported that Clark Perry Baldwin age 58 at the time was taken into custody at his Waterloo home after investigators
linked his DNA with semen and other materials recovered from the victims two of whom were pregnant Baldwin worked as
an over-the-road truck driver for most of his career living in Nashua and Waterloo Iowa and Springfield ill and
Springfield Missouri in 1991 he was charged with raping a 21 year old hitchhiker at gunpoint in Wheeling
County Texas the woman told police that Baldwin struck her on the head bound her
hands and mouth and tried to choke her to death he allegedly admitted to the assault but
was released pending grand jury proceedings the charges were then dismissed after the state was unable to
locate the victim that's according to court documents what else do we have on this giant pile of donkey turds we'll go
back to the register for this next bit which says the 1990s murders Baldwin is accused of include the 91 murders in a
Tennessee of 32 year old Pamela Rose McCall and her unborn fetus Pamela was last seen at a Tennessee truck stop days
before she was found in the woods off of Interstate 65 in Spring Hill Tennessee she was located in March of 91. an
autopsy determined she had neck injuries and died of strangulation sperm was recovered from pantyhose that she was
wearing in Wyoming Baldwin was charged in the deaths of two women whose bodies were found in 1992
the bodies were found roughly 400 miles apart the women were never identified unfortunately and are referred to as
Bitter Creek Betty and I-90 Jane Doe all these crimes are going to be linked through CODIS and forensic genealogy was
conducted to lead detectives and investigators to Baldwin according to investigators they had
always suspected that a truck driver killed the three women in all three cases here we learned captain that
investigators zeroed in on Baldwin after finding DNA in commercial genealogy databases of someone related to this
suspect to his profile court documents State this now we had Waterloo FBI who secretly collected DNA from Baldwin's
trash and a shopping cart he used at a Walmart and testing revealed that we have a match and according to CBS News
investigators from multiple States this after we've already figured out boom this guy is a long-haul trucker and boom
he's a serial killer investigators from multiple States started looking into whether Baldwin
could be responsible for several other unsolved homicides and we have detectives with the Iowa division of
criminal investigation that stated we are looking at any connections that Baldwin may have had to other cold cases
right one case involves the 1992 death of Tammy Joe zwicki age 21 in an Iowa college student who was last seen after
her car broke down on Interstate 80 in Illinois so investigators from multiple states are looking at being at this
Clark Perry Baldwin for possible involvement in any of their unsolved Highway killings good news here they
have his DNA they've already connected his DNA to multiple cases that we know of
unfortunately shortly unfortunately recently what we learned here Captain is that while they were
looking at Baldwin in the case of Tammy Joe's Wiki they have recently backed away from that
idea now I have seen it reported that DNA evidence has proven that he's not the perpetrator
of Tammy's murder however it's a little inconclusive I've not seen anything to back that statement up I've
only found that in one location so I'm a little I'm a little sketchy of that being the absolute
in this case but it would make sense knowing that they do have his DNA right we should note though that the case that
kicked off all of these different stories that we've reviewed this week and last week is the unsolved murder of
Kristen Schmidt we should note that Baldwin was a free man driving around this country when Kristen Schmidt was
killed he wasn't apprehended until 2020. maybe not responsible for murdering Tammy but possibly responsible for
murdering Kristen foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we are back cheers mates
we have no bad edits ever ever but we've had a couple people complaining saying that they're
listening to the show and it's like repeating lines so you want to make sure that one you're subscribed to that
you're downloading the episodes or that you're listening through Wi-Fi if you're
not and it loses signal it will rebuffer back to a spot that was previously downloaded as you're streaming so that's
why you're probably hearing lines repeated so you want to make sure that you subscribe download or listen to the
show through Wi-Fi thank you so much for that this is going to lead us to a case
where the highway serial killer initiative by the FBI provided information that assisted local law
enforcement with homing in on a killer a killer trucker this takes place in 2007
when Sergeant Pat postiglione a veteran homicide investigator with the Nashville
Police Department had a case in which a 25 year old sex worker named Sarah Holbert was found on June 26 2007. her
body was found behind a truck stop in Nashville Tennessee she had been shot with a 22 caliber gun and a plastic bag
fastened over her head with electrical tape just three weeks earlier on June 6 48 year old Samantha winters
also a sex worker had been found in a trash can at the Pilot Travel Center on Highway 231 in Lebanon Tennessee
she was also shot with a 22 caliber and her head was bagged as well now on a hunch
our detective called the FBI and learned that sure enough there were a number of recent cases in which sex
workers were found dead along highways in the states of Georgia and Tennessee and they all had been shot with the 22
caliber gun so our detective and his partner spent hundreds of hours reviewing videotape
footage from the truck stop from the night that Sarah disappeared checking out all the big rigs that came in and
out and looking for anything suspicious they noted one yellow truck that parked and departed within a 30-minute window
so very short for a typical trucker stop they put out a B on the lookout for the
truck purely on Instinct and the next day our detective found that truck at a truck stop near an area known to be
frequented by sex workers so he goes up to the truck knocks on the cab we get a generic looking white man that
comes out of the truck his name was Bruce Mendenhall now this is from the LA Times quote his shirt was unbuttoned and
he wore no shoes as postiglione that's our detective sized him up he said he noticed a speck
of Blood on the man's thumb and what he thought were several corresponding drops
on the driver's door of the truck Mendenhall calmly agreed to submit to a DNA swab and signed a consent form
granting the detective permission to search his truck guess what they found in the truck a thong some whipped cream
and a nine iron a cell phone an ATM card that did not belong to him in fact it belonged to a 31 year old
mother of two who had gone missing from a truck stop near Indianapolis just 12 hours earlier
he also found bloody women's clothing in a plastic bag gun cartridges a rifle tape a night
stick latex gloves handcuffs sex toys and more than 300 items of what was listed as items of Interest they found
blood or DNA that would link him to five victims linking him to at least five female victims this all located inside
his truck and that is not the worst of it right you'd think it can't get worse than anything that these two garage have
already listed for me no it does because they found a piece of cut out flesh containing the tattoo of what would turn
out to be one of his victims so he just had a random piece of Flesh that had a tattoo on it as a souvenir yeah who
knows I'm not going to try to get inside his mind I don't think this is a um Jane
Gum situation Buffalo Bill situation where he's creating a skin suit this to me might be we've seen this in some
other cases where a killer will in the hopes of the victim not being able to be identified will remove a
tattoo by cutting off the flesh where the tattoo is on the body and so that appears to be what he did
here either to deter investigators make it more difficult for them to identify the
victim or as you said who knows this could just be some kind of sick weird souvenir that he kept for any
number of disgusting reasons now fortunately he's picked up by this good detective
who not lazy not stupid did all the extra work did all the smart stuff and got this monster off of our highways and
in 2010 this Bruce mandenhall guy was convicted of first degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison he
eventually confessed to killing Six Women these were women who had last been seen near
truck stops in Tennessee Indiana Georgia and Alabama we prefer the smart not stupid not lazy police officers but
on the flip side of that Captain we prefer stupid and lazy criminals so listen to this because when this Bruce
Mendenhall while he's awaiting trial yeah he digs himself a little bit deeper right by offering to pay two other
inmates to kill three Witnesses who were scheduled to testify against him what a
dumbass now police catch on to this as well this ends up earning Mendenhall a conviction for conspiracy to commit
murder and an additional 30 years test run on the blood that was found in mendenhall's truck showed that it
belonged to Leticia Milliken a 28 year old drug addicted transient from Tennessee Latricia was reported missing
in June of 2007. her family hadn't heard from her in some time now blood links him to her disappearance unfortunately
she has never been located her body has never been found so he's he's a scumbag but how would he be connected to
Schmidt's case or Zoo Wiki's case well the of course the obvious answer here is that he's a
long-haul truck driver and in both situations that is where the investigation is taking investigators so
he's reportedly a suspect in multiple other murders keep in mind Mendenhall was a trucker for 18 years
who knows how many women he could have killed during that time period we know that he's guilty of six
um he suspected in several other homicides one of those is in fact Tami zawicki our Grinnell college student
that was found stabbed to death in 92 the one that we spent the majority of yesterday talking about now
this report here states that Mendenhall is the prime suspect in Tammy's murder and I think that part of this is because
he was based in Illinois this is where Tammy went missing from the last known location of where Tammy was before she
was later found killed but it's interesting to me here captain that on several news outlets we find that Bruce
Mendenhall is listed as the prime suspect in Tammy's a Wiki's case and I'm not doubting those sources
I'm simply pointing out that if you go to other news outlets they actually suggest that another guy is the prime
suspect in Tammy's murder now Mendenhall has a few nasty monikers and is known by
the names of the truck stop killer the rest stop killer and the frosty shooter now those names aren't cool but his name
should be more like wrinkly balls panty sniffer killer he was not picked up until
2007 and as we just stated he is listed by some news outlets as the prime suspect in Tammy's case but because he
was not arrested until 2007 Kristen Schmidt could possibly be one of his victims although the caveat here with
Bruce Mendenhall being the perpetrator of Kristen's murder is that he was not known to travel to the Pacific Northwest
so we don't have anything directly linking him to Oregon where she was picked up now
some words from the great Detective Pat postiglione who retired from Nashville homicide after 25 years on the
force and was the one to crack the case that ultimately took down this trucker serial killer Bruce Mendenhall
he said quote there's evil out there unfortunately I wish that wasn't the case but there's real evil out there
there's true evil and it lurks everywhere you have to really be aware of your surroundings Bruce Mendenhall
did not have killer printed on his forehead you would walk past him in a grocery store and not look twice at him
just said stupid this is going to bring us to another suspect in Tammy's case a short list of suspects which included
the name of a man named Lonnie beardbroke this man was detained and interviewed just two months after
Tammy's body was found Lonnie then was Lonnie then was 32 years old he had served some time in prison
nine years for two counts of armed robbery he received concurrent 20-year sentences but there were significantly
reduced unfortunately yes and what this points out though is a History of Violence or violent crimes committed by
this individual right now I don't know how Cooperative he was with their investigation or during the course of
these interviews that took place two months after Tammy's body was found the reports do state captain that he did
give or was forced to give hair samples and fingerprints but today what we learn
is that investigators are saying the problem with that is great he gave us hair samples and fingerprints but we
don't have a whole lot of physical evidence in this case right there wasn't a whole lot of physical evidence found
with Tammy's body and authorities didn't know where the crime scene was or even when the murder had taken place so again
we're missing that other crime scene we're missing the location where she was killed and
we know she was killed due to being stabbed but law enforcement has never recovered the murder weapon
right so there's not a lot that we're working with here now they had to let this
Lonnie beer broke go right because they don't have any evidence directly connecting him to Tammy's murder and
when they did even though they liked him a lot they didn't make they didn't make
his name public at that time now this his story is is really interesting in the way that it's all tied up in with
Tammy's case and this is why I kind of question those other outlets that say Bruce Mendenhall is the prime suspect in
Tammy's case right because we have one witness that doubles down on the doubles down on this Lonnie person being a good
suspect so in January of 1993 right Tammy was killed in 92. we have a nurse we'll just refer to her as a nurse her
husband was a judge okay so that adds to some credibility here on her part he calls the State Police in regard to
Tammy's case she's calling for the second time this is January of 93. she's calling for the
second time the first time she called her first call was made shortly after Tammy went missing this woman witnessed
Tammy on the side of the road on the side of Interstate 80. she had given a description of a man that she
said she saw standing with Tammy on that day in that question in that in that time that's in question in her second
call she said that the man she saw had came into her Clinic so she sees a guy with Tammy on the day
that Tammy goes missing she reports this shortly after Tammy goes missing two police now she's on the phone a second
time months later in January because she's going oh yeah you know the guy that I told you I saw standing with
Tammy that day he's in my office right now right it's the same guy so I couldn't provide you
with a name before to go track this guy down and interview him but today I know his name because he's in my clinic there
he is got him so she identified him to police this Lonnie beard brought and this man
was from Missouri uh who had family in the LaSalle area so think about this he has family in the general area of
where she goes missing right he also has ties to the area the general area where
she's found well that's kind of difficult considering that they're 490 miles apart
that's a tough coincidence to get over when you have this guy that you can now interview that's a real quinky dink I
don't know how aggressively police pursued him there's some reports out there that say that they they may not
have taken some of these calls as seriously as they should have I don't want to go too far down that road
because I don't know the details of of such well also sometimes they're just under staff what we what we do have
today when we look back on the case is this detectives saying that they think several things in regard to this witness
her statements and Lonnie as a potential suspect so detectives say one the nurse
we believe her to be a credible Witness and on top of that they find her statement her witness statement extra
valuable and they let it carry a little more weight because they say one she knows
the time that she saw Tammy and this is based off of fact because she had just left a McDonald's restaurant just swung
through the drive-through picked up some McDonald's and she had her receipt which was time stamped
and she said that she went to the McDonald's shortly before she saw Tammy and the man that she described standing
with Tammy so we have we don't have somebody looking back and going oh I think it was on that day that
the girl went missing no we have a date and a time stamp that puts this witness in the area yeah it confirms the time in
the day yeah exactly so according to investigators when they start looking into this Lonnie guy [ __ ]
bag [ __ ] face supposedly he's on vacation from his truck driving job he's also a trucker
when Tammy went missing he's supposedly on vacation at this time now his wife says well he couldn't have picked up
Tammy and killed her because he was at home with me in Missouri again where they live is not terribly
far from where Tammy's body was found the other thing too is they figured out that this Lonnie character once owned a
green Dotson truck the one that a bunch of eyewitnesses thought they saw yeah so
we had this tractor-trailer truck that's seen and we'll we've provided a description for that and we'll look to
put some pictures on our social media of this tractor-trailer truck that they were looking for information on but we
also had this witness that said they saw a green Dotson truck I'm assuming that that witness is the same as the nurse
I don't know that for certain but we do know that at least one witness said they
saw this green Dotson truck Lonnie happened to own one at the time that Tammy went missing and oh by the way
police later find out that he cleaned it steam cleaned it and sold the truck shortly after Tammy's body was found
surprise surprise but seems like there's a pile of evidence piling up on this pile of [ __ ] that there is and
in fact there's at least one detective retired now that's on record with several news outlets saying look he
Lonnie beer broad was our Prime Suspect I believe that he is guilty of killing Tammy he thinks that the case is
solvable so much so that he says that he thinks that there is enough that they could lay out there to the public to
convince everyone that they could go ahead and close out the case now what's interesting to me is let's find some
more evidence on this guy I don't want to just close something out it'd be nice to get some DNA connecting this guy one
problem though is Lonnie passed away in 2002 another very strange thing in the Lonnie
being a suspect situation is it's been reported I I've not seen any names linking this or really tying down
this fact a little bit better we're putting a bow on it but it's been reported that he gave a watch
that was similar or damn near the same as the one that was missing from Tammy and from her car
when she was found killed the plays The Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head that he gave a watch to somebody that he
knew I believe a family member gave this as a gift again I don't think that that's a one of a kind item but I think
we all can agree here in the garage that that seems like a rather unique item yeah very unique that there's maybe not
100 million of them out there unique New York and so that seems like there's less
than 100 million of them yes it seems like that's an awfully big coincidence to to kind of get over that's a big
hurdle to get over and not connect him to Tammy's case another Winky Dink now we don't have anything linking him to
Kristen's case I know we went through several individuals and in fact we could have spent a whole year going
through this FBI's Highway serial killer initiative once you start looking at all
the suspected serial killers looking at all their victims looking at each of the
actual trucker serial killers that came up and I still think that that is going to be
how they track down Kristen Schmidt's killer that is going to be the Avenue that leads
them to Kristen Schmidt's killer I think it's a very solvable case me too I think
Tammy's case is very solvable and in a lot of ways I'm rather pissed off that Tammy's case isn't solved it
seems like there was a lot of meat on the bone there a lot to work with and if maybe certain people at certain agencies
would have just acted a little quicker maybe we wouldn't find ourselves in this situation the situation is this
we're just a month away from the 30-year anniversary of when Tammy was taken and
killed a long time has passed but it's too long without any answers that's too long without any justice well and then
double down on that here Captain because next year in June of next year will be 20 years
since Kristen Schmidt was killed now back to Kristen's case we posed a series of questions
on the unsolved murder of Kristen Schmidt to the Oregon State Police one of them was in reference to a 2015
article and the Legrand Observer which reports that police have identified a suspect
and a person of interest several years ago but no arrests have been made the Oregon State Police would not answer
our questions about that person or persons but it's worth noting that the OSP detective Greg Rutherford told the
Observer that investigators believe Kristen fell victim to a serial killer saying quote we suspect it was a serial
killer because of the method of death the killer appeared to be experienced he said that there were details about the
manner of death that they were keeping close to the vest because only the killer would know them
then D.A Martin Birnbaum told the East Oregonian way back in 2003 quote their running test to try to find out if
there's any DNA that can be salvaged from Kristin and guess what they do have DNA from Kristen's killer that's
awesome they were able to extract a profile from the sexual assault kit and some blood found on Kristin right we
don't know why the killer was bleeding perhaps Kristen scratched him hopefully she fought like hell and clawed him damn
near to death or perhaps he cut himself hitting her or on a weapon that has not been disclosed by police
the OSP would not tell us when we asked this question but good news the two samples yielded
one consistent DNA profile the OSP told us in an email suspect profile DNA was loaded into CODIS early on and to date
there have been no suspect hits from CODIS but the agency also told us something else
here is the email exchange True Crime garage what is the current status of the investigation are you considering the
use of forensic genealogy answer forensic genealogy testing is pending for suspect DNA identification
pending to us it sounds as though the DNA profile from Kristen's killer has been submitted for forensic genealogy
analysis right and we might have some answers soon as to who killed this young woman I'm hoping that the same thing is
happening in Tammy's case and that we are only days weeks maybe even a couple of months away from solving one if not
both of these horrific murders [Music] [Music] fascinating stuff thank you so much for
joining us here and let us enter your ear balls for another couple hours Colonel do you have
any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners we'd like to recommend Ginger strand's book killer on
the road violence and the American Interstate Ginger strand set out to write a book about the interstate
highway system but became so taken with the number of murders that the project morphed into a study on Highway
homicides and the suspects who commit them check out killer on the road violence in the American Interstate you
can find that great title and many more great recommendations on truecrimegarage.com's recommended page
and make sure you follow us on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook we appreciate it
until next week be good be kind and don't wither thank you [Music]

America’s Highway Serial Killers /// Part 4 /// 593

Part 4 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week we pick up right where we left off with more bad guys and bad news from America’s Highways. Tammy Jo Zywicki was an amazing young woman who had just one year left at Grinnell college before going on to some big and wonderful things. When her car broke down in central Illinois that all changed. Most of us would have stopped to help the young woman or felt guilty as we continued on our journey hoping not to be later for our next stop. Unfortunately in this real life true crime story that was not to be. As her Pontiac sat on the side of Interstate 80 (I-80) Tammy had her head under the hood trying to fix the problem but then along came a spider. A predator saw an opportunity and pounced. Police have come up with some suspects over the years and we are ready to serve them up to you as we close out this four part series. If you have any information regarding the still unsolved murder of Tammy Jo Zywicki please call or email your local FBI office. If you have any information regarding the still unsolved murder of Kristin Schmidt please call the Oregon State Police - dial *OSP or *677 if you are calling from a mobile phone, or dial: 503-378-3720

Beer of the Week - Pitch Invasion Lager (Nashville Soccer Club) by the amazing folks over at Fat Bottom Brewing Co. Nashville, Tennessee

Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

Recommended Reading - Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate by Ginger Strand

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode covers the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Database and the unsolved murder of Tammy Zawicki, discussing several suspected trucker killers.

Key points

Highway Serial Killings Database. The FBI created a database to connect unsolved cases linked to highways and serial killers.
The Search for Tammy Zawicki. Tammy Zawicki was found murdered in 1992, and her family continues to seek justice.
Parents' Advocacy for Awareness. Tammy's parents became advocates for awareness of highway homicides after her murder.
Bruce Mendenhall: The Truck Stop Killer. Bruce Mendenhall, a long-haul trucker, was convicted of murdering six women.
Lonnie Beardbroke: A Prime Suspect. Lonnie Beardbroke was a suspect in Tammy's murder but lacked direct evidence.
Frustration Over Unsolved Cases. The hosts express anger at the lack of progress in Tammy's case as the anniversary approaches.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just want them to find the person who killed our daughter.

Hank, Tammy's father, expressing frustration over the investigation.

11:47WatchOct 21, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.