Amy Blumberg ////// 639 | Forensic Files

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[Music] oallen Illinois December 31st 1999 New Year's Eve 20-year-old Eastern Illinois University
student Amy blumber was working a dayshift at the onstage dance apparel store the store is a small Standalone
store owned by Amy's aunt and uncle the store was located at 138 Eagle Drive just a Stones Throw from US
Highway 50 and not far at all from Interstate 64 it was the holiday season and Amy was
on winter break from her college courses at Eastern Illinois University it was a
Friday and because it was New Year's Eve it was expected to be a rather slow day
at the dance store Amy was working alone around 6:00 p.m. Amy's parents Ken and Sue blumber began receiving phone
calls from Amy's friends they were wondering where Amy was Amy had plans to spend the evening with
some of these friends to celebrate the New Year her mother Sue made multiple calls to the store trying to reach Amy
without success after a couple of hours and was still no word from their daughter they
became increasingly concerned they decided to drive to the store the blumbergs arrived at the store
around 900 p.m. when they pulled into the lot they observed Amy car still parked in the
lot the lights were on inside the store by now the store should have been closed
and Amy should have left long before 900 p.m. Amy's parents parked their vehicle
and both of them hurried to the front door of the business they found the door unlocked after entering the store Amy's
parents saw Blood on the door jam of the entryway to the hall in the back of the
store Sue stayed in the front portion of the store and immediately called 911 to
request an ambulance Ken went to the back part of the store where he encountered a tremendous amount of blood
in the back hallway Ken came back to the front part of the store and told Sue that they were
too late then they went outside and waited until police arrived at the scene this is True Crime
[Music] Garage New Year's Eve is a day when many choose to move on from the past year and
look forward to the bright days in the new year to come if last year wasn't your best year well don't worry about it
next year will certainly be better and if last year was great well then get ready for maybe the best year of your
life all starting tomorrow it's a day and night that is often celebrated with dancing eating drinking singing and
sometimes even fireworks the celebrations generally go on past midnight into January 1st New Year's Day
now sadly in Eastern Illinois for many there was nothing to celebrate only sorrow and grief brief while many
Americans were bracing for the Y2K scare the blumbergs were wondering what happened to their daughter and the
oallen police department just caught a murder investigation officers with the Ofallon
Police Department arrived on the scene shortly after 9900 p.m. officers Schaefer and Stover entered the store
together the store itself looked as they had expected it looked normal but but behind a door on the left side of the
store they spotted blood there was a trail of blood and blood spatter on the floor of a small hallway behind this
door down the hall the first door was to the men's bathroom the officers noticed
a pool of blood on the floor of the bathroom the hallway then continued to the right where the blood trail
continued as well that hallway at the door to the women bathroom inside this door the officers
found the body of a female on the floor the officers checked for a pulse confirmed that she was dead and went
outside to secure the scene unfortunately the deceased was Amy blumberg she was born September 28th
1979 she was just 20 years old a junior at Eastern Illinois University taken Way
Too Soon by some unknown killer and Amy was survived by her parents and brother in the coming days hundreds gathered at
the Grand Ballroom in the Student Union at Eastern Illinois University this was a memorial service
for Amy a room full of classmates friends and her sisters from Sigma Kappa so many wonderful people had so many
wonderful things to say and fond memories to share that day her mother said at the service that quote God will
get us through this now Captain before we get into the investigation I'd like to go through
some of the evidence that was found and recovered at the crime scene so back at the dance store crime scene technicians
arrived at the scene of the murder at 9:35 p.m. on December 31st 1999 they immediately located a purse
and keys on top of a counter in the store the cast register in the store appeared to be UND Disturbed they found
blood on a door frame about 1T off of the floor leading to the hallway looking at the blood trail in the hallway it
appears that someone was dragged across the carpet towards the men's bathroom in
the men's bathroom they located a pair of nylon pants underwear socks and Tennis Shoes then the blood trail LED
from the men's room to the women's restroom the victim's body was lying on the floor she was nuded from the waist
down and bullet evidence was found at the scene so what we have here Captain is when unfortunately the blumbergs arrive
at the dance store to look for their daughter Amy the first thing that they notice is that her vehicle is still in
the parking lot and that the door to the business itself was unlocked right from
my understanding when you walk into the store and scan the store everything looked in a appeared as normal however
if you walked in further you would start seeing signs of a struggle and seeing this Blood Trail in this
hallway at the back of the store that would tell you something horrible had happened and as we just described with
this Blood Trail and what the police and technicians perception of this Trail was
that somebody was dragged it looks like our victim Amy was attacked and then possibly moved once or twice to where
she is finally found in the women's restroom can you explain this dance store a little bit better for the
listeners it's a dance apparel store I don't know everything that they sold but that was their key product that they
were pedaling and the store itself was relatively new again this is not a holiday but it's the day before a
holiday and as we see often a lot of times we have shortened hours on days like this and that was the case here
from my understanding as well but she was the only one working at this store at this time well like you said it was
the day before a holiday so it shorten hours so let's dive into the timeline of this case Okay using the experts
opinions and some known facts of the case we can get a pretty firm timeline for the day in question now we know that
the door to the store was found unlocked when Amy's parents arrived at 900 p.m. but we can likely get rid of about 3
hours that are in question on this day here because of a couple of things one the store was scheduled to close at 6:00
p.m. shortly after 6 this is when Amy's parents are notified by at least one of Amy's friends that they could not get in
touch with her so whatever happened had to have happened before 6 PM or Amy would have just closed the store left
and went about her business for the day well like you said the door was unlocked
her car was in the same position it was when she got there and no contact with friends or family through at least a
telephone anyways yeah so something would have happened at 6pm or prior preventing Amy from closing the store
and going with her friends also there's a side note here that I think is key Amy
was given permission to close even earlier if the store was really slow now the coroner gave an estimated time of
death of 400 p.m. and we usually know that that's more of a window of time less of an
exact time but using that let's go through some of these other details so we have the cast register which showed
the last sale was recorded for a $29 96 pair of black leotards this was at 2:26 p.m. so if the corner is correct
and the register is right well then the killer was in the store sometime between
2:26 p.m. and roughly 400 p.m. as given the estimated time of death so roughly a
hour and a half window we can go back before 2:26 p.m. before this recorded sale because we have in this case two
eyewitnesses we have a father and daughter these are customers that were in the store that day the gentleman's
name is Leroy yogger he told detectives that he and his daughter arrived at the onstage store around 12:30 p.m. on
December 31st 1999 the purpose for the visit was to exchange a purchase for his daughter that was too small when they
arrived this again at approximately 12:30 p.m. the store was closed with a sign indicating that the clerk would be
returning soon Leroy figures this was a lunch break that makes sense given the time of day so Leroy and his daughter
went to lunch at a place nearby when they returned to the store the store was open so the two walked in
this is when Leroy noticed a male customer who Leroy estimated to be in his 40s looking through the clothing
racks Leroy's daughter then proceeded to try on several leotards until she found
the correct size now while doing so Leroy was busy speaking with Amy the solo store clerk at that time right
Leroy's daughter over heard the mail customer ask Amy if they sold dance shoes in the store
then the man left the store a short time after this then Leroy and his daughter they
complete their purchase and then they left the store but to be perfectly clear here Leroy's
purchase was not the 226 p.m. purchase in question right later that evening when he learned that Amy had been found
dead in the store he contacted the oallen police Department ultimately working with a sketch artist to create a
likeness of the man he saw in the store obviously police want to speak with this
man because you have two situations that are possible either he's a potential eyewitness with additional information
that they need or he's somebody that they may want to consider as a person of interest or a suspect in this case yeah
because he could have came into the store by himself and basically surveillance the area Leroy described
the man's clothing as washed out jeans with a dark colored jacket he recalled that the jacket reminded him of a ski
coat he also told police that there were two vehicles in the parking lot while they were there and he described them as
a black car and a maroon car remember this is a standalone store that does not share a parking lot with other
businesses and the lot is itself is rather small so it's one of those situations captain that you pull into
the lot and you're pretty sure that the vehicles that you're seeing belong to the store either there are people
working there or customers inside this store when it seemed like Amy parked in the front of the store which some stores
are like that there's no back parking for employees well what we can figure out here is one of these vehicles is
Amy's so what we need to know is who does that other vehicle belong belong to so as you can see we are dealing with a
short window of time here we know that Leroy and his daughter did not go into the store until
after 12:30 p.m. because when they first arrived the store was closed briefly right he says that they had lunch they
went back to the store so even conservatively we're looking at probably at least 1 p.m. probably later in fact
that they return to the store and they are in the store well this is good for law enforcement that it's a standalone
store with a standalone parking lot because you have people driving by that could give you some kind of account you
hear on the news that this young girl is murdered maybe you drove by and saw which cars were in the parking lot
around that time so that is a good thing for law enforcement and to close up our
time our window of time here even more again we have Leroy and his daughter in the store they're in the store long
enough for Leroy to make several observations to chitchat with Amy exchanged their previous purchase
all before leaving so now we are probably looking at 130 at the very earliest that they are departing the
store I think it's likely closer to two or maybe even 2:15 but to stay conservative we can say
Leroy left the store at 1:30 p.m. maybe later and everything was fine at the time that he left then a sale recorded
on the register at 2:26 p.m. MH so still business as usual and then we have the estimated
time of death is roughly 4 p.m. kind of reminds you of a couple of other cases doesn't it Captain several that we have
covered in fact here in the garage but to keep it brief I'm just going to name two real quick one solved that's the
super bikes case and one unsolved yogurt shop where we have information from eyewitnesses from persons patrons at
these businesses that are telling us one the times that they were in the business
and what they saw while they were there another thing going for law enforcement is Leroy is you're you're not looking at
at Leroy as just an eyewitness at first you have to put him in the person of interest category but because they have
such a solid timeline then they can quickly figure out if Leroy has an alibi because it's possible that Leroy goes to
the store with his daughter and then comes back but I believe they were able to figure out that Leroy himself had an
alibi for the time of where they think the murder took place yeah that's exactly right and I don't think that at
any time they were looking at this individual as a suspect what you have here is you have a a conflict and that
conf conflict immediately is two things you find this young woman working by herself at a store who is murdered you
have a short window of time of when that murder could have taken place and now you're asking the public hey anybody
that was at the store here that day please come forward with information and help us out you have two very different
things you have Leroy who was there with his daughter coming forward with helpful
information and you have an unknown man who is not coming forward with any information at all I'm just saying that
if I'm law enforcement I'm going to do my due diligence and make sure that Leroy has an alibi for the time and make
sure that he didn't have some conversation with this young girl and decide to come back well of course yes I
I would hope that they would be as diligent as you there Captain well somebody's a condescending dick today it
it does very much remind me of both of those cases super bikes and yogurt shop because because in both of those cases
we have detectives who are looking for that quote last customer or the very last person in the store before the [ __ ]
hit the fan we do have some of the autopsy information here in this case they found several bruises on different
portions of the body indicating a struggle signs that Amy defended herself she was shot once at close range or what
is listed as an indeterminate range again this was just one shot it was an indeterminant range but it is
listed at a close range there was an entry wound to the back of her left ear and an exit wound in front of her right
ear in the doctor's opinion the bullet wound would have caused a rapid death well we do have some forensic evidence
so let's dive into that a red substance was found on the carpet in front of the cash register this was determined to be
human blood matching Amy's DNA blood and debris was found on a dress on a rack in
the front of the store human blood was found on the hallway door frame as we had already mentioned there were several
hairs that were collected from the body and the victim's clothing that did not belong to the victim a hair was
collected from from the victim's right ankle a single bullet was recovered from the scene this was a 38 caliber bullet
with six lands and grooves with a right twist this particular bullet was from a 38 caliber class of bullets and given
the bullets weight design and bearing surface this bullet was consistent with a 38 automatic caliber bullet between
the the 38 caliber revolvers and the 38 caliber special deringers there were 49 different
possibilities for making model of the gun that was used in this crime now experts at the time when asked how
many of these types of guns were in circulation they put the guess at well this would be in the millions they said
it's fascinating how many different models and types of guns there are so police needed a gun for comparison
purposes with this bullet that they found this wasn't a unique situation that was unique enough that they were
able to really hone in on exactly the make and model that they were looking for and police were also asking the
public for help as we said they were looking for anybody that had been in the store that day and frankly as you
pointed out Captain do your due diligence they're probably looking for anybody that had been in the store at
any time at all if you want to come forward with any bit of information that you think was suspicious or of could be
of some importance to the case right and possibly like I said before the eyewitness is driving by because we have
a single store with a single parking lot did somebody did somebody see a certain
vehicle around 4:00 that could come forward and let you know and then also there's some businesses around there so
what time did those employees get off did they notice anything out of the ordinary when it comes to the Dance
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back cheers to you Colonel cheers everybody a Happy New Year's cheers to everybody out there yes as we said the
police were asking the public for help in Amy's case and specifically they announced that they
are looking for a white middle a man who was a customer in the Dance Shop the day
of the murder they described this individual as 56 Ines to 5 foot 8 in tall wearing blue jeans a gray t-shirt
white tennis shoes and a dark ski jacket so police need your help and then in this case Captain this is this is
interesting I I love to see the different tactics that are used by different jurisdictions and what
unique crimes generate different unique tactics and this is something that's not
terribly uncommon but they set up a special 24-hour phone line so this was a voicemail phone line that is set up to
record tips for police and detectives you could call any time of day and you could leave any information that you
want there and because it's a voicemail I'm guessing it's Anonymous maybe they can track your or trace your your call
if they want but from my understanding they were putting out the vibe to everybody that these are going to
be anonymous that you could call anonymously and leave your information what they have here and what they bring
in and this is one thing that I think is Paramount to any case and I love when I
see investigators and police police departments doing this they very quickly identify that this case is problematic
for many reasons and so they're not above calling in help and so what they get here is they
get 18 investigators from the Greater St Louis area from the major case Squad who
were assisting in the case and the FBI was called in as well in Ofallon they had a three detect
unit that we all putting in very long hours to try to find the killer who the newspaper said shot Amy blumberg in the
head for no obvious reason on New Year's Eve Police Captain Jim Stover said that
the detectives will be working on the case as long as I need them and that overtime was not a concern and in
regards to the comment of shot for no obvious reason I believe is warranted as the police were seeking not only a
suspect but they were trying to figure out a motive for this as well right per the information released to the public
the store was not robbed and Amy's car was found undisturbed in the parking lot of the dance store but she was found
nude from the waist down so possible sexual motive in just a couple of days a $5,000 reward for information was put
together this was from donors that reward would grow to over $118,000 within a couple of months and then
something happened that I'm sure many in the area were thinking might happen as the investigation dragged on right due
to the lack of an obvious motive detectives were looking into similar cases 20 other murder cases in fact
spanning from Maryland to Washington State specifically they were checking into possible parallels with the one that was
called the interstate 70 or the I70 killer well because this dance shop it's how far away from I70 it's not terribly
far and it's also within the uh range of states that these some of these killings
were taking place similar descriptions of the individual exactly so what we have here is the I70 killer 8 years
prior to Amy blumberg's murder had shot and killed store clerks for no apparent reason
along the same Interstate in several States including the St Louis area which we are talking about the greater being
very near the Greater St Louis area here with this case and like the I70 victims
Amy blumberg was working alone in a low trffic specialty store she was shot once
in the head in the middle of the afternoon the store was not robbed Captain Stover is quot quoted as saying
we have no evidence whatsoever to indicate that this homicide is related to the I70 murders but on the other hand
we have no evidence that it is not there are a lot of things that are similar and
a lot of things that are disimilar end quote right just to fill everybody in in case anybody's wondering the I70 killer
is a still unidentified serial killer that is known to have killed six store clerks in the midwest in the spring of
1992 the nickname derives from the fact that several of the stores in which the victims worked were located a few miles
off of Interstate 70 his victims were usually young women all of the stores attacked were specialty stores and were
usually only robbed of very small amounts of cash right he is also suspected of shooting three more store
clerks in Texas during 1993 and 1994 one of which survived D also there is a 2001
murder of a store clerk in Terra Hope Indiana this is believed to possibly be connected to the I70 case as well due to
the lack of leads in Amy's case and given the similarities in these scenarios Amy's case was easy to try to
fit in with the I70 cases well and if you're not following us on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram what are you doing
with your life we'll put a deposite sketch of the I70 killer on our social media now the I70 killer case has been
covered extensively the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries America's Most Wanted and dark minds and as said
the Killer is yet to be identified and police have not publicly identified any suspects save but one and we'll get to
that here in a bit now in Amy's case the oallen police department did release two
composite sketches of persons that they would like to talk to along with those descriptions given one of which was the
male customer scene in the dance store and the other was of a man that was seen in a nearby store behaving
suspiciously on the same day of the shooting so I want to be clear here because this is a little bit difficult
these are two composite sketches that they're putting out at the same time time right and the police are telling
you this one is given from one eyewitness who says I saw this man in the dance store this is what he looked
like on the day in question the other is from a separate eyewitness at a different location that says this man
who looks like this description was behaving weird that day apparently there was a guy in some business and I I want
to say that it was a real estate office I I had it in my notes somewhere here Captain but I can't find it at the
moment but the interaction was strange because the person was saying this was a a female eyewitness says this man
approached me and he kept asking if I was alone or if there was anybody else in the building and then he left now the
caveat here that police are throwing out to the public is look we're not saying that this
guy is the same guy but doesn't mean it's not right they're saying he could be the same guy but we want you to be
well aware that these are two descriptions coming they're they're actually similar descriptions these are
two descriptions coming from two different eyewitnesses that were at two different locations at different times
of the day so they're they're throwing out that that warning that buyer beware to to the public that this could be the
same person it also could not be the same person so don't lock in on that too much and don't bother yourself with that
too much we just want to know if you can Mr public come forward with any information on either of these composite
sketch drawings what I do know from doing this podcast for so many years there's so many cases where it's washed
out jeans and some dark colored jacket uh that is not the look that I'm ever going to go for ever well it's just like
the deli case you have people come they're like uh this man must have must be responsible because he was wearing a
blue jacket and jeans um news flash most of America wears a blue jacket and jeans
most men in their 30s or 40s in America at 1999 were wearing dark jackets and jeans so while this individual Leroy and
his daughter are trying to be very helpful unfortunately the clothing is pretty much nondescript well yeah
because this is like like the uniform of the guy that has given up like I just wear my old faded jeans and and some
jacket some dark jacket that's it you just describe me although I've not given up but I've I'm also not giving up my
[ __ ] jeans or or black jacket here's some interesting things though captain and these may all be
coincidental the dance apparel store was relatively new and these are like just some sad again when we cover these you
find these little tidbits of information that just make the story even more tragic and even more happen stance right
that this is is almost a little more random the dance apparel store was relatively new again it's a small
building itself and only about a year old the business is only about a year old at the time of the crime and it
never opens again after Amy is killed and in fact they put it on the real estate market one month after the murder
doors never open up again so it's listed for sale in early February of 2000 Amy was the owner's niece she was only
working there because she's on winter break from college and likely covering and working by herself on a day that
they were expecting very low traffic and probably very few customers at all so Amy is K on
the last day of 1999 by early March 2000 police had ditch the two composite sketches of the men that they wanted to
interview now I've said this plenty of times here in the garage Captain I am a fan of the composite sketches as they
always generate a lot of calls and a lot of information coming into police but the big problem always seems to be the
same people have a tendency to hyperbolize these sketches right I know this sounds like I am stating the
obvious but it clearly is not so obvious to the masses so I'll say it anyway it's
not a picture it's not a photograph of the suspect in this case it's just a sketch of persons that law enforcement
want to identify and interview it's not a picture it's a sketch of a person as described by another person with a
fallible memory who was doing their best to to piece together the likeness of this individual that they saw at a time
when they didn't know they were supposed to be paying so much attention to everything but also we have cases where
we actually have photographs but maybe the maybe the photograph is a little bit blurry or pixelated so it's hard to make
out an in individual like you said the composite sketch I think it's a good thing I think having a picture is a
great thing too but I think sometimes it it leads to people going they're trying
to help but they go oh I got a I got a buddy that lives out of state it's never even been in the state but he kind of
looks like that guy I should probably call so I think there it becomes sometimes that they actually get too
many leads right and I'm not trying to fault the eyewitnesses for trying to help they are simply giving a
description of someone that they saw often you know th this case thankfully with Leroy he's calling in
that night and he's so it's a little more recent but often times we're talking about somebody trying to give a
description of someone that they saw 24 48 72 hours earlier when they themselves
were just going about everyday normal activities so often these Witnesses they do not know or would not have any way of
knowing that they are looking at someone that at a later time it might be important to be able to describe that
person in great detail and when I worked at the bank this is something that we actually did to practice they would give
us a scenario and maybe it was on video footage and we were told to pay attention and then we were told to give
the best description as we could and yes if you do it more often more frequent you get better at it but it's pretty
astonishing how bad some people are well and then when we talk about yes it's great because a lot of information comes
in a lot of tips a lot of calls come in but the reverse of that is you have to take into consideration this would
anybody like to try to come up with an accurate over and under number for the tips calls email submissions and social
media side by sides that were wrong in the deli case right how about the hundreds of tips called in in 1989 1990
and 91 in the Amy mahalic case which still is yet to see an arrest here police did the right thing this is
something that I've not seen done very often we've seen it once or twice but they are forced to scrap the composite
and not just scrap the composite they come out and they tell the public please disregard and
forget about the composits that we released the key they said at the same time is to Focus heavy on the physical
description that we gave out so thanks for calling in but the guy you were calling about that looks just like the
sketch in the mahalic case the suspect lives in California well he cannot be the abductor and killer if he physically
was not in Bay Village Ohio in 1989 and that's one of the things that we've had to deal with when we go do a live event
or we go to a conference somebody would come up and go I think the Killer is this guy and the description of the
Killer is let's say 5'6 to 510 and the person that they think was the killer is 64 MH and you start by going well I
think you you need to especially when there's a picture you need to be able to match the picture but then also like you
said match the description and that was the problem the exact problem that they were having here right like just like
you said if if we're looking for a guy that that is of this description well then if you're calling about some guy
that's 4' 2 in or some guy that's 6' 10 in tall you're calling us with the wrong
person and that was the problem with the sketch in the Amy blumberg case and in this case Captain Stover is telling the
public look thank you people for coming forward with information however we're scrapping these composite sketches and
we're telling you public to forget about it because tipsters that are called falling in have
been focusing solely on the face of this composite sketch and totally ignoring other details of the man's General
description and he says look we are spending a lot of time and working a lot of leads from people who look at the
composite but do not look at the description so they're showing up to talk to some guy that yes his face might
match that very general face that's in the sketch but very quickly they can look at the guy and tell from
any number of other reasons that this is probably not a great lead we spent our time driving out here to meet this
person we are wasting resources at the time when we're we got this case with with this uh essentially even though
they never announced it but we talked about the major Cas Squad persons from the Greater St Louis area assisting and
the FBI calling in so essentially what you have here is a task task force than the early days and months of this
investigation but also know thyself don't go around and act like an expert if you're not and some of these
people look all the people that I met that gave me some far out there suspects to look
into in plenty of uh cases that we've covered they all mean well they just don't really understand that they have
no clue what they're talking about on the one-year anniversary of the murder the case was still unsolved and it looks
like the leads had pretty much dried up at that point the tip line did receive a
lot of calls and a lot of incoming information early on most of the calls were tips and leads on persons who who
were resembled the composite sketch none of those panned out in that year to come
the police interviewed they said they interviewed more than 225 people that all knew Amy and the same one common
theme that they found throughout all of those interviews Captain was we interviewed 225 people and came up with
zero enemies for our victim and so they they come out and they say look we can tell
from everybody we spoke to that Amy was wholesome she was energetic she was well-liked she was kind and funloving
her friends called her blums and police were now actively telling the public we believe this was a stranger
killing that was what they were calling it a stranger killing they were focusing
their search for a suspect on similar killings in other cities and states like we said earlier with the I70 cases Sue
blumberg told the Belleview news democrat quote that's what makes this difficult to believe even after a year
why would somebody do this to a person they don't even know end quote police said that the FBI profilers in Quantico
were adding to their study whenever the oallen police department fed them new information well it's proof that there's
just evil people out there oallen police department come up with this Theory after working the case very hard that
this is probably a stranger killing and we don't have any of the experts to disagree with them we have the major K
Squad unit and we have the FBI agents in quanico who seem to be all on board with
this theory that oall and police department are now using and working in Amy's case so this will bring us up to two
years into the investigation the reward fund stopped growing by this point captain now we're sitting at about
$20,000 and the calls to the tip line were rare at this point Sue blumberg after the case was open still open the
second year stated that it's in God's hands now when the time is right something will happen well sadly let's
go out another year then we get to three years later three years after the Murder
by this time the tip line had gone silent but police had not they told the Belleview news democrat there's somebody
out there who knows something and people eventually talk we are still looking for
the last customer at the store that day who bought a black leotard around 230 p.m. we can't tell the size because they
didn't keep track of that and detective J Stanley had one last thing to say on the matter quote it's personal now we've
become very close to Sue and Ken blumberg Amy's parents and we would like to close this what's not clear captain
in Leroy's statement and I'd like to go back to the statement here because now we can see three years later and it
seems like it always has been from the get-go that a heavy focus and rightfully show and rightfully so is on this last
customer but what's not clear about Leroy state stat to me and I'm sure it probably was to police at the time
because I'm sure they spoke with him extensively and on a multiple occasions but if both of these vehicles were
parked in the lot when he and his daughter were in the store it his statement as far as the way
that it reaches US states these were the two vehicles that I saw while we were there what we don't what we don't know
and what we we cannot tell from that statement is what exactly does that mean does that mean that these two vehicles
were parked in the parking lot when you arrived were they parked in the parking lot while you were in the store were
they parked in the parking lot when you left this is going to take us up to December 20th 2003 this is 11 days
before the 4-year anniversary of that terrible day when Amy was taken away and a long awaited announcement was
made on this day the Ofallon authorities charged a suspect in the 1999 East Illinois University students
murder it took a messy divorce and a strange ex-wife and almost four years who finally make an arrest in this
case Edward Scott Phillips 37 years old who also went by the names of Ed and Eddie was charged with first degree
murder police were looking at Edward Scott Phillips for about two and a half weeks very quietly right before actually
charging him and announcing that they were charging him with this murder to the public Edward Scott Phillips was
already in prison serving time on unrelated charges of burglary perjury and obstructing
justice it looks like all of those charges are in direct relation to Edward's ex-wife and their messy divorce
mhm from my understanding Captain I think she had moved on they were divorced Edward clearly had not moved on
and he had broken into her home broken into the home of the person he believed to be his ex-wife's boyfriend and he had
left threatening messages and threatening calls to both individuals so he's eventually picked up and charged
and put in uh jail or prison for those charges so he's already locked up and had been for a period of time before
police get to him to talk to him about Amy's case now before all of that mess Edward worked for the Illinois
Department of Corrections for which he drove a truck delivering food to different
prisons now the tip that comes out that leads law enforcement to their suspect after all
of these years really came out of the blue completely out of the blue the arrest came by way of a tip called in
from Edward's ex-wife Dawn she passed along her suspicions to her attorney her divorce attorney at the
time right who then began talking with police what police Learned was that Edward owned a 38 caliber gun at the
time of the murder and that that night the night in question Edward came home with blood on his clothes which at the
time he had told his wife that his clothes were bloody because he was forced to move a
dead animal off of the road sounds fishy now Edward also fits the description no matter how much you one
argues how vague it is or not vague right he fits the description of the person that the police were looking for
as either a witness or suspect that last customer well it probably took her a minute to come forward too because once
he's in jail or prison like you said maybe she felt safe enough to go to her attorney and say hey this guy should be
looked at in this crime I think that's what you have here I think that you have this wife who was suspicious about this
situ situation all along never never brought it to anybody's attention until she felt like I don't have to worry
about this guy doing something to me the general description that we get of Edward now mind keep it keep in mind
this is four years after the the homicide at the time of his arrest he's 5 fo 8 in tall fits the height he's
roughly 210 PBS with brown hair and Hazel Eyes now at the time of the murder he lived about 130 miles roughly from
the crime scene wow now this is weird captain because when asked by detectives about the day in question Edward Scott
Phillips says he was the quote last customer that they had been looking for but he goes on to tell them I did not
kill Amy so detectives go and talk to this guy Edward Phillips who is already in
prison at the time anyway again his charges weren't particularly serious offenses compared
to to the other cases we have discussed here today right but what what is his reason for buying these leotards well at
the time I and I I can't tell you what he told police because I don't know we don't have those statements but at the
time of Amy's murder Edward Phillips lived with his wife Dawn and his daughter in Mount Sterling Illinois so
he admits that he was at the dance store that day okay well this has got to make
the detectives extremely suspicious right from Jump Street right because here you have been asking the public for
help in the case for damn near four years and at no point does this guy come forward and say hey I was there that day
this is what I know I would like to help this poor family the police and the community but instead no he chose to do
nothing well like you said he lived over 130 mil away so right out of the gate with this guy you're already you already
know one of two things either this guy is a soulless gutless loser or he's your killer
now look even the devil hates a loser so if I'm in there questioning this guy I'm
thinking he's probably both he's everything we just said and he's probably our guy right his General story
Captain was that he drove out of town to attend I believe he said a gun show but
there was something that he drove to this area and he was looking he he had a destination that was not the dance store
he couldn't find that destination so he decides to turn around and start heading
home and when he heads home he sees this dance store and he thinks that he's going to stop in and buy something for
his daughter I do not like the cut of this guy's jib well it gets it gets so much worse so he he already tells police
that yes I I was in the store that day but you got to you got to listen if you pay if you don't pay any attention to
anything else that we've said so far today in this case pay attention to of this not only does he tell police yes I
was the last customer that was in the store that day I I'm the guy that you were looking for uh as far as that final
charge on the register the final sale on the register that was recorded but he says Hey I was in the store on that day
in question by myself I bought something for my daughter then I left the store a
short time later I returned to the store because I decided to return the item or
exchanged the item he says that when he arrived he couldn't find the store clerk instead he finds a trail of blood
he follows the trail which leads him eventually to Amy's body he says that he then panicked because he had an
unregistered firearm in his possession on that day so he decides to flee the scene drives back to his home in Mount
Sterling again about 130 mil away and disposing of the unre registered pistol along the way he gets home and his wife
sees blood on his pants he says Ive got blood on my clothing because I had to move a dead animal off the road that gun
that Edward disposed of and the murder weapon which I and many others firmly believe to be one and the same has never
been located right after Phillips and his wife Dawn got divorced they were in this heated child
custody battle and that's when Dawn told her attorney the attorney tells the police about the blood stains on
Edward's pants on the night of December 31st 1999 this of course leading them to
question him so unfortunately the waight continued for those Seeking Justice for Amy the trial
against this scumbag took some time to get to Edward entered a plea of not guilty at trial prosecutors showed the
members of the jury an empty box for 38 caliber pistol bullets found in Philip's
home which would match the small caliber bullets that killed Amy Bloomberg and the
prosecution had a man testify a man who knew Edward Phillips this man testified that he sold a pistol to
Edward and the prosecution had the bill of sale with Edward signature on it in evidence so this gun that he admits was
unregistered he has it on him at the time of the murder and he disposes of it shortly after Amy is
killed matches the caliber that killed our victim and we have proof positive from his own words
and from this gentleman who sold him the gun and kept this bill of sale with Edward's signature on it all of these
years later and like you said law enforcement was looking for this last customer for years never comes forward
and then when they actually do talk to him he's like oh well not only was I the last customer I went back in and I saw
that she was murdered and I I didn't come forward M I didn't tell anybody so you want to talk about put Painting
yourself into a corner that's exactly what this knob head did and there's going to be some people that will say
man I I can see why he panicked and he just kind of freaked out and yeah maybe he wasn't thinking clearly but here's
the thing at the end of the day they have the evidence to match the bullet to the gun that killed this poor young
woman even if you are in possession of a firearm with you that day they can very
quickly go yep that doesn't match the bullet that killed this young woman right so just just by having a gun
doesn't make you guilty of anything you could have if he was innocent which he's
clearly not uh he could have helped in this situation well he doesn't know what the actual murder weapon is or he
shouldn't if he's innocent he shouldn't know so it could be a 9 MIM or 22 see see what I'm saying so the fact
that he would get rid of his gun when you don't even know what the murder weapon would be if you were innocent
right not not to mention the fact that there would be uh intricate markings on that would be able to tell exactly which
gun fired that bullet now despite what the defense called only circumstantial evidence the jury only needed 24 hours
of deliberation and on May 29th 2007 Edward Phillips was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 55
years in prison without parole at sentencing Edward Phillips who declined to testify at trial turned to Amy's
parents and told them quote I did I didn't kill your daughter if you didn't commit this crime crime you wouldn't be
freaking out you call 911 they come you have an unregistered gun and then you tell them do a ballistic test I never
shot my gun today well and what's interesting here too even all of these years later is that well Amy's case
while it was looked at in in consideration to be a part of the series of the I70 Killers
cases well that cannot be the case if Edward Scott Phillips is not the i7 killer because Edward Scott Phillips
regardless of what he said to Amy's parents I believe and so do everybody else including that jury the only people
that matter they believe he is the Killer and I think that you could the defense can call it whatever they want
circumstantial evidence whatever it looks to me like a pretty good mountain of evidence convicted this guy and they
found their right guy now for some quick followup on the I70 killer case our longtime listeners know that we covered
the case in depth over two years ago if anybody would like to go back and listen
to those episodes that's true crime garage episodes 441 and 442 from November of 2020 Great episodes if IID
say so myself thank you you did you did an excellent job I mean your part was okay but my part was some of my best
work my part was hacking at best lackluster as some of the reviews stated since then there has been some movement
on the I70 cases in October of 2021 we get updated suspect composite sketches now a little bit more of my
rant here Captain this is the part where I have a big problem WTHR who I know does some great work
I've read a lot of their articles over the years but this is where they this was very
disappointing to me because they titled their article authorities with St Charles Police Department in Missouri
released age enhanced photos of the suspected I70 killer these are not photos nobody would look at these and go
those are photos but again the masses sometimes have trouble understanding and and comprehending exactly what's going
on and if you tell them that they're photos there are going to be some people out there that believe that these are
photos these are sketches that they are releasing to the public of an unknown individual sketches of an unknown
individual will never be as accurate as a photo so I think it's just I think it's poor reporting to call them photos
yeah definitely poor reporting which you don't get on this show I don't want it to make it I don't want to seem like
we're coming down hard on people that see a image and go well that could be my neighbor bear or that looks kind of like
my uncle and maybe he was responsible because again when people go out of their way to actually call in call in
these tips their gut is telling them I I I should call in cuz worst case scenario
I'm wrong but if I don't call in they don't have this information so I know that there's a lot of people out there
that see these sketches I mean that's one of the reasons why in the deli case they said hey stop
comparing these people online that's that's not going to help the case any and I would argue in the deli case that
the man they arrested does not look much like the first composite sketch or the second composite sketch maybe he looks
somewhere to me looks somewhere in between the following month a month after we get these updated suspect
composite sketches uh and November of 20 21 Tera Hope Police announced that the I70
killer was a possible suspect in a 2001 murder of a liquor store clerk his name was Billy
brosman the crime went down like this on the evening of November 30th 2001 brosman was working alone at the 7th and
70 liquor store in terao Indiana security camera footage showed a white male suspect entered the store and pull
a gun on brosman and Rob the cash register the footage then showed the suspect lead brosman to the back of the
store and murder him with a single shot to the back of the head the murder of brosman occurred just seven blocks from
the murder of Michael maau and was similar Ino to the I70 murders unlike in the I70 murders though we have security
footage of brossman's killer that exist and police have stated that they have a person of interest in the case so
they're they're telling us hey the this could be connected it also may not be if
this person of interest pans out and he is not tied to any of these other killings then we get this intriguing
update from KMOV news4 that reads the person identified earlier this week as the I65
serial killer is is now being looked at as a possible suspect in the I70 murders
with a local task force scrambling to compare notes with police authorities in Indiana so this would be information
from last year captain and they go on to say that Indiana State Police have announced that numerous pieces of DNA
evidence tied Harry Edward Greenwell to three Motel Highway killings in Indiana and Kentucky between 1986 7 in
1990 the I70 killings happened just two years later as we know in 1992 Greenwell this guy who they already know
killed three people died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 68 the I65 killer was also known as the
days in killer his uh first victim was at a super eight motel in Elizabeth Town Kentucky
before he killed again at the days in in Merillville Indiana and then finally at
the Remington Indiana days in police say Greenwell attacked a fourth victim later
at the days in in Columbia Indiana but she survived and gave police a composite sketch which matched Greenwell quote we
are talking with the Indiana task force said detective Raymond Floyd who is heading up the St Louis task force
investigating the I70 murders right now it's preliminary but there are definitely some
similarities and we are going to pursue them also last year in 2022 we get confirmation that DNA evidence exist in
the I70 killer case and was sent away for testing police have said that DNA testing results were back they received
the results back last year they had some material from the April 1992 Tera hope case this was murder of Michael maau
that had DNA evidence on it they sent it out for testing last year they get this
uh results back however due to the active investigation investigators are not sharing the results currently from
that testing because they have said several other agencies other police agencies and other jurisdictions have
evidence that is currently being processed or will be process processed and tested soon so the police are
reminding the public and all of these jurisdictions that involveed the I70 cases that they're refusing to call the
I70 cases cold and I say rightfully so look at all the activity in these cases it looks more and
more likely that maybe even 30 years later that we are finally going to get some answers in some of these still
unsolved homicide cases all I got to say is winner winner chicken dinner if it's
confirmed like you said it is that they have DNA that gives me a lot of hope that the I70 serial killer case could be
solved in [Music] 2023 again we want to thank you for an awesome 2022 onward and upward in
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go to our website true Crim garage.com click on the recommended Tab and you will find that great title there for you
along with many more yes and we'll see you back in the True Crime garage Batcave next week and until then be good
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Amy Blumberg ////// 639

Part 1 of 1

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New Year’s Eve 1999, O’Fallon, Illinois - Police respond to a call of an unresponsive store clerk at the On Stage Dance Apparel store. They find blood all over the back hallway of the store. The female clerk was working the day shift alone. Unfortunately there was nothing that medical technicians could do to save her life, she was dead when they arrived. Police quickly secured the scene and the hunt for her killer began. This week we explore a case out of Illinois that had locals and Law Enforcement personal examining possible links with that of the I-70 Killer.

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Brief Summary

Amy Blumberg was murdered on New Year's Eve 1999; Edward Phillips was later convicted of her murder after years of investigation.

Key points

The Tragic Murder of Amy Blumberg. On New Year's Eve 1999, 20-year-old Amy Blumberg was found murdered in her aunt's store.
Police Seek Public Help in Amy's Case. Authorities are looking for a white male customer seen in the Dance Shop on the day of the murder.
Reward for Information Grows. A reward for information in Amy's case increases from $5,000 to over $118,000.
The I70 Killer Connection. Detectives explore links between Amy's murder and a series of unsolved killings along Interstate 70.
Composite Sketches Released. Police release two composite sketches of suspicious individuals seen near the crime scene.
Store Never Reopens After Murder. The Dance Shop, where Amy was killed, never opens again after the incident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This case is problematic for many reasons.

Discussion about the challenges in Amy's case.

32:04WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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