Casper Wyoming | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

this episode contains descriptions of sexual violence it may not be suitable for everyone please use discretion
I wish working as a detective and I was called and myself and my partner went to the where the girl's car was and
surveyed the scene and we could see where the tire on the car was cut purposely and then we just started going
door to door and asking questions if anybody saw anything this is David davala a retired detective
with the Casper Wyoming Police Department around 9pm on September 24 1973 18 year
old Becky Thompson and her 11 year old sister Amy drove to the grocery store in Casper
when they came out of the store they found the right rear tire on the family station wagon was flat they used a pay
phone to call their mother and uh they were in a quandary on what to do and then
these two guys pulled up and offered to help them the men said they would repair
the tire and then one of them pulled out a knife they took uh they took them at knifepoint and took them in their car
and that was the start of a trip through hell for them the two men drove back in Amy 30 miles
outside of Casper to a place called Fremont Canyon Fremont Canyon is a striking narrow Red
Rock Canyon with steep walls and a long Bridge the men stopped the car at the foot of
the bridge on this day it was really The Darkest Night there was no moon or anything and
there's an area there a rest area it's it's it's it's really way way off the TR you know out of sight and
everything unless you're driving through there one of the men took 11 year old Amy out
of the car he walked her to the middle of the bridge Becky was told to lay down in the back seat and couldn't see
anything when the man returned Amy was not with him both men then proceeded to rape Becky
and then they took her out of the car they took her to the bridge and walked around the bridge and
then they went to push her over and she fought so she wouldn't get thrown over she fought but then they were choking
her and so she figured is she just as well let them push her over and take her chances otherwise they're going to
strangle her so they pushed her over and as she it's 112 feet up from the bottom of this Canyon
she hit the water when she came the water wasn't very deep then but she it was deep enough so she stayed there
she made it to shore she and she couldn't see these guys they were on the bridge
but she could hear them so she's made it to shore and she did not find Amy she didn't know
where she was so she she stayed there fearing that they would come down and kill her if they thought she was still
alive and she stayed there and then just stayed there all night [Music] when the sun came up Becky began to try
to climb out of the canyon her pelvis was fractured she couldn't move her legs so she moved slowly pulling herself up
the steep sides finally she got to the top to the highway and there was a couple driving by and
saw her and they stopped and uh helped her and they took her in their car to Alcova which was about uh
10 to 14 miles away and there that where they could get to a phone there was nothing out there there was there's no
phones or nothing anyway they took her to the store and then they called an ambulance an
ambulance came and the sheriff came and they started that started the investigation
Casper Sheriff Bill Estes told reporters that you could easily see the path Becky
had taken because it was covered in blood detective davala was sent to the hospital to try to speak with Becky
about what had happened she was very coherent and able to give us details on what
happened she described what the two men looked like and she said that they called each
other Jerry and Ronnie and we had we were familiar with these two people they were small time hoodlums here in Casper
so we were familiar with the with who they were so we got some photos and did a photo lineup and she picked
him out immediately 27 year old Ronald Kennedy and 29 year old Jerry Jenkins were arrested that
same day a diver was sent back out to Fremont Canyon to start searching for Becky's
younger sister Amy her body was found underneath the bridge and about three feet of water
the autopsy found that the impact of the Fall had killed her almost instantly news of the crime spread quickly in
Casper and while police didn't release the names of the victims or assailants right away it didn't take long for
people to figure out what had happened to Becky and Amy and who'd done it Casper residents began calling the
police station desperate for more information it was pretty much a wake-up call probably
oh because you know we hadn't had any thing like that that I recall uh before that
any kidnapping and murder so it must have shook the town pretty hard yes it did yeah
it certainly did detective davala has lived in Casper since he was 19. he describes it as a
good town full of hard-working people a little bit of that old west feel to it it had always felt like a friendly town
he raised his kids there one of whom was 11 at the time the same age as Amy but Casper which had always felt so safe now
felt different I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal foreign of 1974 seven months after Becky and Amy
were thrown off the Fremont Canyon Bridge the trial of Ronald Kennedy and Jerry Jenkins began
it was held not in Casper but in Cheyenne the defense had argued that the two men could never get a fair trial in
Casper the case was just too well known Ron Kennedy and Jerry Jenkins were charged with two counts of rape two
counts of kidnapping and first degree murder Ron Kennedy lived at home with his mother he was unemployed and had been in
and out of prison Jerry Jenkins was married with a newborn baby just a few days out of the hospital
when the crimes occurred he also had a long arrest record almost 20 arrests by the time he was 18 for public
drunkenness theft and mischief in the months leading up to the trial Becky received threats
police believe the threats were coming from the defendant's relatives detective davala kept a close eye on her and when
it was time to travel from Casper to Cheyenne for the trial he escorted her and stayed in the hotel room right next
door so he could be close now I stayed with the with her all the time actually and uh
we grew to be friends were you in the courtroom when Becky testified yes I was there during the whole trial
the defendants were in the room while she described what happened the night of September 24th in detail
at one point telling the jury that she heard one of them say make sure she's going to die make sure she's going to be
dead oh it was pretty tough uh you know there were a lot of people in there and some of them were crying
it was uh you know pretty pretty rough on a lot of people but she did she did an excellent job she pretty much
did everything a matter of factly an agent from the FBI crime lab testified that hair found in Jerry
Jenkins car matched Becky he concluded it had been forcibly pulled from her head
and police officers from the Casper Police Department testified that the tire on the girl's car had gone flat
because it had been slashed the jury deliberated for just over four hours on April 30th 1974 Ron Kennedy and Jerry
Jenkins were found guilty on all counts they were sentenced to death and uh however
uh the year after that this Wyoming legislature abolished a death penalty so they
were then re-sentenced to life I uh I I I liked the first verdict better after the trial Becky and her mother
wanted to get out of Casper they went to Mexico where her stepfather was working on an oil rig they stayed
for a year Becky got a job as a teacher and when they returned detective davala took her under his wing he helped her
get a job working for the police department Chia she became a meter made she she worked down downtown with the
police department so I get to see her quite a bit she uh she wrote parking tickets and
did things like that I talked to her on the phone meet with her once in a while sometimes
we'd have lunch Becky then got a job selling advertising for a local radio station and detective
davala thought she seemed to be doing well but she wasn't she made an appointment with a doctor
and on the intake form she wrote I want to be normal again once a year she had to appear before the
parole board and tell the entire story of what had happened to her and her sister
detective devala remember she was terrified that the men would somehow be released
Kennedy used to come up every year for a parole and Becky would have to say something to the parole board she'd
have to meet with them and go over the story with them every year which was you know pretty tough on her also she
was drinking a lot and checked herself into a rehab facility and when she finished treatment she
seemed to be doing better she was doing well at work she met someone she got engaged and in 1987 as
she was planning her wedding she asked detective davala if he would walk her down the aisle and give her
away she asked me if I would do that and I did it was nice real nice I was quite honored
it was a you know a church wedding and she would you know really looked great in 1990 Becky had a baby a little girl
named Vale six months later her husband left she started drinking again and she still
every year had to go before that parole board and tell the whole story all over again
now I think she always thought about her sister and you know and wondered why she died and she didn't
and I think she had some uh I don't know if it'd be guilt or what or some remorse about that but that was
always on her mind and I think some you know some people may have reminded her of that
what do you mean who well I think sub you know I think maybe they'd bring it up and it would bother her
she couldn't have done anything different to save her sister [Music] so what happened
[Music] she went off the same bridge where she had gone off 19 years previously on July 31st 1991 Becky and her daughter
drove out to Fremont Canyon with a friend if she wanted to go out to the bridge so
her her friend took her out there and her daughter and it was at night and during the
time they were there the guy was watching the child and Becky walked out on the bridge and she was
sitting on the rail and then her friend suddenly heard the Big Splash and Becky was gone she
was in the water and nobody knows for sure if it was on purpose or if she slept anyway she ended up
dying in the water her how did you hear I got the word I was working I was the sheriff then and I was at the
fairgrounds they told me and so I I went out there as fast as I could she was still in the
water you could it had lights on her and you could see because she had her hair was real real long and you could see her
hair in the water uh you know it's pretty bad pretty bad still feel bad about it
uh you know you didn't you wonder could yeah could you have done something better for her
Becky's funeral was held in the same church where her sister Amy's had been 19 years before
more than 500 people showed up her body was then buried right next to her sister
they share a headstone [Music] people in Casper today still talk and know about what happened to Becky and
Amy Burridge oh yeah yeah the people that were here then yeah they sure do so they haven't been forgotten oh no no
do you ever go out to that bridge oh yeah I go there a lot once in a while they leave a flower they
built a bench there with her uh with the their names on it a little place where you can sit
out there by the bridge Detective davala spoke with Becky's daughter Vale a couple of years ago she
called to tell him that she was getting married she knew he'd walked her mother down the
aisle Jerry Jenkins died in 1998. Ron Kennedy is still incarcerated at Wyoming medium
Correctional Institution he's 71 now they killed her they killed her maybe they killed her
all the way back when she was 18. yeah they they killed her and just took her 19 years
foreign [Music] Spore Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Rob Byers matild erfelino is our intern
special thanks to Eric clay and Ron franzel he wrote a book about the case it's called The Darkest Night Julian
Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal you can see them at thisiscriminal.com where on
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stories of day-to-day life inside San Quentin State Prison produced by those living it
here's a bit of their first episode of their new season about first experiences in prison I took a lot of deep breaths I
try to like choreograph my uh hug because I haven't hugged my mom a long time but in the cell but wait wait how
did you practice how did you choreograph a hug so I didn't know because I haven't
hugged someone in a long time maybe by then it was 13 years right so I didn't know if my hand goes around her shoulder
um or her neck I didn't know if it went like diagonally like 245 degree angles and then I was like you know what I let
her lead like this is your mom right this is my mom and I don't know how to hug my mom so I was nervous about that
type of stuff did you actually practice hugging somebody else no just like wasn't up for that no go listen special
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[Music]

David Dovala has lived in Casper, Wyoming since he was 19. He’s worked all kinds of cases, first as a detective and later as sheriff, but a 1973 murder stays with him. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and may not be suitable for everyone.

For more information, check out Ron Franscell’s book, The Darkest Night.

Music in the episode “Vulcan Street” by Blue Dot Sessions “Ringtail” by Blue Dot Sessions “Noodle Opus” by Blue Dot Sessions “Warm Fingers” by Blue Dot Sessions

Criminal is a show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Episode 87 originally published 3/23/2018 https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-87-casper-wyoming

Brief Summary

Becky Thompson survived a brutal kidnapping, but struggled with trauma leading to her tragic death years later.

Key points

The Abduction of Becky and Amy. Two girls are abducted after their tire goes flat, leading to a horrific ordeal.
Becky's Escape. Becky manages to escape her captors and fights for her life.
The Trial and Aftermath. The trial of the men responsible for the crime unfolds, revealing the trauma faced by Becky.
Becky's Tragic End. Years later, Becky tragically dies under mysterious circumstances at the same bridge.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was the start of a trip through hell for them.

Describing the moment Becky and Amy were taken.

1:27WatchJan 9, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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