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

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[Music] crime I don't need you it's [Music] me I you miss [Music] me 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 prow 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 Grant 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
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 case 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 often times 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 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 investigators noticed patterns in up to
200 unsolved cases numerous prostitutes working truck stops had been killed and dumped mostly along I40 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 Cas is 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 krq News
13 now if you would like to see the highway serial killers initiative map or check out the specific items found on
Jane Do's body go to our website at krqe.com [Music] I don't need you miss me 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 zwicki 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 uh and it says that Tammy zwiki was found murdered in Lawrence County Missouri August 23rd
1992 and it has a picture of her 1985 Pontiac T1000 that she was driving that was a
white vehicle with New Jersey plates the description of our victim they have her
listed as blonde hair height 5'2 in tall green eyes 120 lb and she was a Caucasian female there is a reward the
FBI is offering a reward for up to $50,000 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 this says Z wiki
was reportedly last seen with her vehicle at mile marker 833 on Interstate 80 in Central Illinois between 310 p.m.
and 400 p.m. on August 23rd 1992 it was also reported that a tractor trailer was seen near Z Wiki's vehicle
during this time per period the driver of the tractor trailer is described as a white male between 35 and 40 years of
age over 6 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 35mm camera a musical wristatch 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 r u in case I'm not saying that corre
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 cuz we know that a lot of killers like to keep items of their victims as
souvenirs might be some items that you would stumble upon your uncle's 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 opra 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 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 parents 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 and 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 in 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 oneye
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 grenell police chief Jim ains he was investigating
trucking companies and their routes he and the police believed the likely killer of Tammy was a trucker because
Tammy's body was found a sufficient distance down the onramp to have been dumped from 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 makes sense but they're going to double down
on this thought and this Theory this Jim aons who is saying that us and the police when we look at where her body
was located where where was actually found 14 ft from the side of that on ramp or offramp they're saying that it
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 belied that
the murder may be responsible for other unsolved cases in that region he said I want nothing to do 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 zi
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 push back 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 don't need the
public to point that out to the parents of a dead child that when their child has been murdered they russle 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 th 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 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 and 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 with but the the first person that stops could be the the murderer you know like 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 EXA 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 can contrs 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 zis have said quote
tamy 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 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 got 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 another country by herself for aest 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 Hall trucker
from Iowa he was arrested in May of 2020 this after for forensic genealogy linked
his DNA to the 1990s era slangs of three different women women from Wyoming and Tennessee the De Moine register reported
that Clark Perry Baldwin h58 at the time was taken into custody at his waterl home after investigators linked his DNA
with Sean and other materials recovered from the victims uh two of whom were pregnant Baldwin worked as an over the
road truck driver for most of his career living in NASA and Waterloo Iowa and Springfield 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 well 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 Tennessee of 32-year-old Pamela Rose McCall and her unborn fet
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 panty hose 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 mil apart the women were never identified unfortunately and are
referred to as Bitter Creek Betty and I90 Jane do all these crimes are going to be linked through codus 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 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 uh court documents State this now we had waterl 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 got him 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 code cases right one case involves the 1992 death of tamy Joe zi age 21 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 looking 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 zwiki 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 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 [Music] [Music] [Music] Kristen this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
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[Music] that all right we are back cheers mates we have no bad edits ever ever but we've had a couple people
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repeated so you want to make sure that you subscribe download or listen to the show through WiFi 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 postigo own a veteran homicide investigator with the Nashville
Police Department had a case in which a 25-year-old sex worker named Sarah hbert
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 3 weeks
earlier on June 6th 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 a22
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 a 22 caliber gun so our detective
and his partner spent hundreds of hours reviewing videotaped 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 third 30 minute window so very short for a
typical trucker stop they put out a be 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 mendenhal now
this is from the LA time quote his shirt was unbuttoned and he wore no shoes as postly own 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 menend and Hall 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 three 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 you think it can't get worse than anything that these two garage yahoos have already listed for me
no it does because they found a piece of cutout flesh containing the tattoo of what would turn
out to be one of his victims so he does 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 Manden hall 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 menen Hall 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 men and Hall a conviction for conspiracy to
commit murder and an additional 30 years test run on the blood that was found in
men and Hall's truck showed that it belonged to Leticia milikin a 28-year-old drug addicted transient from
Tennessee lria was reported missing in June of 201 seven 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 smid's case or Zu 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 mhm he's reportedly a suspect in multiple other
murders keep in mind men and Hall 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's suspected in several other homicides one of those is in fact Tammi
zawicki our grenell 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 menen Hall 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 menen Hall is listed as the prime
suspect in Tammy Za 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
menen Hall has a few nasty monikers and and is known by the names of the truck stop killer the rest stop killer and the
prosty 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 Christ Schmidt could possibly be one of his victims although the
caveat here with Bruce menal 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 poig Leone 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 mendenhal 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 menen Hall 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 beard bro 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 9 years for two counts of armed robbery he received
concurrent 20-year sentences but they 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 taken place so again we're missing that other crime scene we were 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 beard
Brook 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 mendenhal is the prime suspect in Tammy's case
right because we have one witness that doubles down on that doubles down on on this lawny 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 she 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 tamy on the day that Tammy goes missing she
reports this shortly after Tammy goes missing to 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 as Lonnie beard bro and this man
was from Missouri uh who had family in the lale 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 yeah 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 underst staff what we what we do have
today when we look back on the case is 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 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-thru picked up some McDonald's and she had her receipt which was timestamped 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 and
exactly 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 have this tractor
trailer truck that's seen and we'll 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 uh police later find out that he cleaned it steam
cleaned it and sold the truck shortly after Tammy's body was found surprise surprise it 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 uh 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 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 lon 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 or 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 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 now quinky dink now we
don't have anything linking him to christen'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 Schmid's killer
that is going to be the Avenue that leads them to Kristen Schmid's killer I think it's a very solvable case me too I
think Tammy's case is very solvable and in a lot 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 are
just a month away from the 30-year anniversary of when Tammy was taken and killed a long time has passed but that'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 Oregan State
Police one of them was in reference to a 2015 article and the LR Observer which reports that
police have identified a suspect and a person of interest several years ago but no arrest 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 da Martin burn bomb told the East Oregonian way back in 2003 quote they're
running test to try to find out if there's any DNA that can be salvaged from Kristen and guess what they do do
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 Kristen 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 cotus early on and to date there have been no suspect hits from cotus 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 Skiller 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 [Music] murders I you [Music] me fascinating stuff thank you so much
for joining us here here and let us enter your earballs 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 out killer on the road violence in the American Interstate you can find that
great title and many more great recommendations on true Crim garage.com 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to
get your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

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

Part 4 of 4

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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

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murders of Tammy Zwicky and Kristen Schmidt, exploring suspects and the FBI's Highway Serial Killers initiative.

Key points

Highway Serial Killings Database. The FBI created a database to connect unsolved cases linked to highways.
Tammy's Disappearance. Tammy Zwiki was last seen on August 23, 1992, and her body was found later.
Family's Advocacy. Tammy's family became advocates for awareness of highway homicides after her death.
The Capture of Bruce Mendenhall. Detective Pat Poig Leone uncovers a trucker serial killer linked to multiple murders.
Lonnie Beard: A Suspect Emerges. A nurse identifies Lonnie Beard as a potential suspect in Tammy's case.
Evidence Against Lonnie. Investigators uncover mounting evidence linking Lonnie to Tammy's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Hank, Tammy's father, expressing his frustration.

12:46WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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