FULL EPISODE ON CAMERA - Dana Chisholm (Jack of Diamonds, Washington D.C.) | The Deck | Forensic Files

hi crime junkies I'm your host Ashley flowers and I know you're probably not used to seeing my face I always get told
it's a little trippy for people the first time they see the disembodied voice that they know so well actually
come out of a real life human and that's because I don't always make video podcasts but when I do you know it's
going to be good like today now millions of you already listen to my weekly True
Crime podcast crime junkie which is part of my company audio cheuck with a network of a dozen other shows we are
your One-Stop shop for the most trusted responsible compelling mission-driven True Crime content and one of those
podcasts is my other weekly show the deck the deck is super special to me it was inspired by my time serving on the
board of my local Crim Stoppers I came across this deck of playing cards with cold cases on them and I found out that
this was actually an initiative that law enforcement agencies across the country
were utilizing to try and breathe new life into cold cases they would pass these out prisons and hope that they
would get in the hands of the right people who might have information so I took that concept and kind of ran with
it every week we now tell you the stories behind the cards hoping that information reaches the right ears now
and you know now maybe the right eyes now the reason I'm doing this episode now as a video is because I mean there's
something about this week's card that I couldn't let go of I mean I needed to know that I did everything in my power
to make sure as many people as possible heard this story because in the 6 and 1 half years that I've been telling victim
stories and the lifetime that I've been consuming them few stories have haunted me the way that this one has and it's
one of those cases that have been living in my head like on repeat one where the
killer was so bold so confident that police would never catch him that he taunted them and for nearly 30 years
he's been able to get away with it but I think that's coming to an end because even though it seems like he tried to do
everything he could to erase himself from the crime scene in the victim's life it looks like he didn't cover all
of his tracks and he may have left something behind that could finally give him away our card this week is Dana
Chisum the jack of diamonds from Washington DC I'm Ashley flowers and this is the deck
[Music] on Monday February 27th 1995 over 400 miles away from DC in Rock Hill South
Carolina the landline at the Chisum residence rang out in the middle of the night it woke up John Johny and Joe Gary
from a deep sleep and in his half awake state Johnny clocked the time close to 1:30 a.m. and from where they lived in
the South everyone knew you didn't dare make a call past supper time unless of course it was an emergency groggy and
days Joe Gary was the one to answer the phone but the person on the other end spoke loud enough for Johnny to hear and
it was a man introducing himself as detective Lewis Douglas with the Metropolitan Police Department in
Washington DC and to their utter shock the detective said that their 25-year-old daughter Dana was in jail
the detective explained that they had this sting operation at the Omni Hotel there in DC and Dana was one of the
women that they' arrested that night for charges related to sex work now that didn't sound like their daughter at all
I mean Dana had an office job in the city the only time she'd ever really been in trouble was with her parents
right after high school I mean she started hanging out with the wrong crowd she got mixed up in drugs for a minute
but that was years in the past and at no time had there ever been any arrests for
sex work but more than what this detective was saying Johnny said that the way that this guy talked his
attitude his energy were just off here's retired detective Jim trainum he remembers the details of Dana's case
well from his time reviewing cold cases at MPD Mr Chisum talked about how he kind of felt like the phone call itself
was odd because the person who was identifying himself as Douglas was seemed to be excited uh he was saying he
was going to get a promotion the man on the other end of the phone carried on saying that Dana
was going to be arranged she should be out at some point during the day and then he said something like don't worry
she's fine just call in the morning it's late and although the tone of the conversation was a bit bizarre this guy
did leave the chisms a phone number that they could call later to check in which
was the one thing that made this call seem more legit so all they could do at that point was wait around worrying
about their daughter until they hopefully heard from her later that day but when the we hours of the morning
turned into more reasonable business hours and there was still no word from Dana Johnny decided to give that number
a call and I know what you're thinking it was fake that's what I expected but it wasn't the line rang and it was in
fact MPD but when Johnny asked for detective Douglas and then detective Douglas got on the phone his response
instantly made Johnny's heart sink well the real detective Douglas was actually very puzzled about what was going on of
course he didn't call the Family he said I have no idea what you're talking about
a detective in the second district wouldn't be one who would be doing a prostitution sting anyway that would be
a part of another totally different unit so he would not be somebody who would have participated in something like this
it was all a lie now when he learned about the previous call the real detective Douglas asked
where Dana worked but Johnny was hesitant to say I mean if this was all some sick prank then he didn't want to
get his daughter into any trouble at the Hudson Institute this political Think Tank where she was a secretary Johnny
recalled detective Douglas saying something along the lines of but don't you want to find your daughter which
felt weird to Johnny because he didn't think he'd used any language that implied he was necessarily looking for
her just that he was worried about Dana being detained but desperate Johnny ended up giving Douglas his daughter's
work address anyway now there was no missing person's report filed or case opened on Dana at the time but detective
Douglas let Johnny know that he would look into it and call him back he didn't know what was going on so that's when he
decided that he would just go by the house where she lived and check on her see what's happening when he got there
and there was no answer that's when he left his card Douglas never did call Johnny back to let him know that he
didn't have any luck making contact with Dana he might have just been waiting to
hear something back from her or may have even assumed this was all a bunch of nothing I mean after all the house he
went to was in a very nice neighborhood the kind of neighborhood where it's easy
to believe that bad things don't happen we spoke to retired MPD Captain Michael ferish and here's what he said argal
terce was more of upscale they call that the Gold Coast in fact the address we were at if you went through the backyard
and hopped a big old fence you were on an estate owned by the Rockefeller family so I guess you're kind of getting
the idea what kind of neighborhood it was what Captain ferish referred to there the Gold Coast is the designated
name for an enclave in the northwest corner of DC for black professionals and intellectuals according to the New York
Times and fish used to patrol that area so he can speak to the crime rates or rather lack thereof now remember this
was 1995 cell phones weren't at all common yet so when Johnny never heard back from detective Douglas he decided
that he would just call Dana's employer himself to try and find out what was going on maybe this was all some huge
misunderstanding and she was at the office working as she should be on a Monday but a call to her office just
made Johnny more concerned he recalled that her boss was rude stating that Dana hadn't shown up for work that morning
and then he was quick to hang up on him now it seems like Dana may have had a history of showing up late even skipping
every so often so perhaps the response was just out of frustration I don't know but annoyed by this guy apparent apathy
Johnny ended up calling back and this time he spoke to one of Dana's female co-workers her friend who spoke
respectfully but she said the same thing nope Dana hadn't shown up and she never
called in to tell anyone she'd be out that day though people at work seemed to be letting her absence slide there was
at least one person in DC who was worried enough about Dana to dig a little deeper and that was her landlord
she and her teenage son actually shared a home with Dana they lived upstairs while Dana had the entire basement floor
to herself with her own separate entrance and the landlord was the one to find the business card that detective
Douglas left detective cards don't just like show up every day so figuring something was wrong she called him and
learned that no one had been able to get in touch with Dana this really bothered
her cuz Dana's car was right there in the driveway so she decided to to do a little investigating of her own after
she hung up first she went to check and see if Dana would open the basement door
maybe she hadn't heard when detective Douglas knocked earlier but after getting no response her landlord decided
to enter the basement area using her own key and that's when it became clear why
no one had heard from Dana back in South Carolina about 24 hours after they had received that odd call in the dead of
the night the chism's phone startled them awake once again this time it was dispatch asking them to go to their
front door where two County deputies were waiting for them Johnny opened the door and one of them handed him a number
for the DC police when he called that's when they were finally told the horrific
news that their daughter Dana had been murdered the chisms never went to DC they still haven't been to this day it
was just too much for them to Bear instead they had a family member who was already living in the area confirm their
daughter's identity on their behalf not having to make the identification was a blessing because what police had found
at the scene was disturbing Dana was located in the hallway she was nude and a cord had been
wrapped around her neck and was sitting up against the bedroom door with the cord wrapped around the handle of the
door with her arms crossed in front of her Dana had been strangled with a piece of phone cord that had been cut part of
it was still laying on top of her bed and detectives also observed these ligature marks where her hands or wrists
had been tied up at some point having viewed photographs of the scene it seemed to be selectively ransacked it
wasn't like a lot of your typical burglary scenes that I used to work where they were just trying to find
anything that they could it's like this person knew what they were looking for and they were going into specific
areas police believe the killer did take something with them that day but he also left something behind an
ominous message written on the calendar in the hallway it referred to Dana in kind of a vulgar uh manner but then it
says something really interesting which is I'll be back MPD solving the toughest criminal
investigations sometimes requires a game of Risk with the coldest of cases investigators sometimes have no choice
face but to show their hand in hopes of getting Killers to fold the deck takes true crime listeners through a deck of
playing cards that is unlike any other are you ready to be dealt in follow the deck wherever you listen to podcast to
make sure you don't miss out on a single episode then Sergeant Michael fish responded to the crime scene that day
that this all broke in his 30s at the time working in the so-called murder capital he'd seen a lot of terrible
things but this sexually explicit note ending in I'll be back MPD is permanently imprinted in his mind as is
the fear that he felt when reading that final line could that have meant I'll be
back in in other words there are more victims coming for boing warning that there were going to be more female
victims is this the first one we've identified in perhaps a string of cases that we haven't had enough indications
to say or l or is this the first one of somebody who's a real Wacko and goes you
know what this is my first but not my last the department was clearly dealing with a killer who liked to play games
not only had he left a pointed message for police but the medical examiner had Dana's likely time of death at Sometime
Late on the evening of February 26th meaning that she was probably deceased hours before her poor parents received
that mysterious call from a fake detective Douglas now they know that the killer didn't make the call from Dana's
house because they were eventually able to trace it to a pay phone right by an area on Interstate 395 where you could
hop on to go to Virginia or Maryland but they do think that this killer probably
stuck around her apartment after she was dead Dana's landlord remembered hearing
someone taking a long shower at some point the evening of Dana's murder and at the time she probably thought it was
Dana but she did likely suspect even then that Dana wasn't alone in her basement apartment and that's because at
around 6:00 p.m. she'd noticed an unknown car parked in the driveway right behind Dana's though it's important to
note she couldn't remember any specific details about the car not thinking anything was out of the norm at the time
I mean she hadn't really been paying much attention the landlord and her teenage son were home around the time
Dana was thought to have been killed but they didn't hear anything concerning no
loud arguments no sound of a struggle or screams for help but it was a pretty big
house after all now it should have been easy to figure out who Dana was with that night detectives discovered that
she kept a detailed date book and a diary that gave a pretty good play-by-play of her life she also had a
caller ID box so for 1995 I mean police had everything they could possibly want to pinpoint who she was with or who
she'd at least been in contact with leading up to her death except they didn't she had a landline so when somebody
would call the call number would come up on the caller ID box and you could delete that but in this case the person
took the actual box with them it seems most likely that the killer took the box with them because their number would
have shown up in the recent call list possibly the most recent you see detectives spoke to one of Dana's
friends who had been hanging out with her at Dana's place on Saturday afternoon before leaving around 5:30 and
she had observed something very telling there was a friend of hers who was over there Saturday afternoon and they were
planning to go out but then Dana changed her mind and during the time that she was over there uh Dana kept getting
these phone calls that when she check the caller ID she just didn't bother answering now along with the caller ID
box there were at least three other items known to be missing the first being Dana's apartment key seemingly it
had been takeen with her killer probably used to lock the door on his way out but
the weird thing is the killer didn't keep it and of all people it was a reporter who found it as they were
filming news coverage outside of her place he finds the key in the street he calls the detectives over to comment on
it and sure enough it's the key to Dana's apartment it's interesting that the uh killer felt the need to lock the
door after he left from my understanding it was taken off a key ring and so why did he do that why did he feel the need
to take it off the key ring and of course once I didn't need it anymore I would have gotten rid of it as soon as
possible because that's would be something to link me to her and I wouldn't want that to be found in my
possession the other two items that appeared to be missing were never found her most recent datebook and diary which
makes detective Trum think that someone was trying to erase any sign that they had ever existed in Dana's life but
there was something left behind that couldn't be erased her autopsy revealed that Dana was 4 weeks pregnant Johnny
told our reporter Madison that her family hadn't known about the pregnancy but in hindsight he did remember
something Dana had recently called him to let him know that she would be making a trip home soon she said she had
something to tell him you could theorize that she had just learned that she may be pregnant maybe it hasn't
been confirmed yet but she's just learned this and she told this person that one of the things that in Reading
information about the interviews she would use a condom maybe with this person she did maybe she developed you
know some kind of more personal relationship with him and didn't use a condom and became pregnant we really
don't know these things are all theories that you really can't prove one way or the other we know Dana did know about
the pregnancy because about a week before her Murder She confided the news to a coworker it came up because this
friend or coworker caught Dana crying at the office so it seemed like this Revelation was not something Dana had
planned or was happy about at least not in that vulnerable moment we don't know for sure if Dana told this friend or
anyone else who she thought the father may have been both Trum and fish didn't think that friend or anyone else
detective spoke to had ever off offered up a possible name at least that they could remember and you would think that
a comment like that would stand out enough to leave a lasting impression we asked present day DC police Commander
Kevin kentish if Dana had given her friend a name of a potential guy but he said he couldn't comment as obviously
this person would be considered a suspect finding out who Dana's with before she died was police's number one
priority and lucky for them Dana herself might have left them their first list of
potential suspects hi crime junkie I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and every
week we cover all kinds of True Crime cases from the most infamous to mysterious deaths and disappearances
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podcasts Dana had been keeping track of the various men she'd been seeing inside
her apartment police found notes that included some names and phone numbers what her job didn't know what her
parents didn't know what a lot of her close friends did was that once she had a lot of boyfriends but two she was
working part-time as an escort she was advertising for dates and back then you didn't have the internet of course and
so we were to advertise in like the local weekly newspaper you know people looking for a companionship or what not
there was like some phone lines that you could call and exchange information and
from my understanding from what her friends were saying about her and from what some of her clients of her
interview were saying about her was that she was asking for money directly typically if she got involved with a
client and they had sex she would maybe drop a hint that she could use and they would often times pay her I
think it's important to clear something up there are some things I found online that seem to imply that what she was
doing was extortion but both Trum and ferish said none of the men who were interviewed described it as being
blatant or malicious fish said it was more like Dana was making suggestions it was the let me play the sympathy card
heart string or don't be a dant whatever way you want to put it uh yeah I I it isn't like she came out
and said 'l give me some cash or I'm calling the old lady uh we had no indication of that it was just you know
there were men that did stupid things and you know no pun intended basically got caught with their pants down and you
know had the the monetary wherewithal to say you know what it's e easier to give
her $100 and roll out of here pretend like this never happened and I think that was more along the lines of what
would occur it was the quote unquote my roommates suddenly moved out soab story type thing one of the interesting things
about her and this is actually what one of her friends warned her about she would become emotionally involved with
some of these folks and she would begin to see them as friends so that probably did play a part in her demise and I hate
to phrase it that way cuz the last thing that we need to do is start victim blaming just because she engaged in that
lifestyle does not mean that she deserved to die so I think we have to be careful but we also have to understand
victimology is very important because we have to understand what might have been
going on around the victim's life during that time and again a bad word but appropriate word contributed to her
demise often times that's the only way that you can identify the person who killed her by looking at that aspect and
looking at timelines and things like that now the kind of men she saw varied businessmen flashy guys she met out at
clubs some were single others were married but according to fish there was one type that she seemed to go for above
all others she kind of had a thing for cops there was several cops that we identified whether they were local or
federal law enforcement had relations with her whether it was a date and sex or just meeting somewhere and hooking up
out of all the long La enforcement that they identified and interviewed fairish things at least two were cops who were
working for MPD at the time it was one of those look you're going to come down and talk to us or I'm going to call your
house and have you come down and talk to us don't you think it would just be easier I don't care if you're stepping
out on your marriage that's not my business that's between you and your conscience and your wife not me the ones
in law enforcement that we did identify I were very confident you know and believe me they were scrutinized we
looked at them sideways so you know no doubt and rest assured every effort was put into identifying who we could
getting the story out of them and then trying to pick it apart so that we didn't have egg on our face later there
was another MPD officer who wasn't necessarily on Dana's list who may have been familiar with her though remember
Detective detective LS Douglas although he hadn't initially remembered any connection to Dana after her body was
found and he came down to the homicide office to make a statement he realized that he had actually met her before you
see about a week or so before Dana's murder there had been some things stolen at the Hudson Institute where she worked
and Douglas was the one handling that case and he'd actually talked to Dana he denied any sort of contact with her
beyond that he said that when he got back to the station after her body had been found he went through the
complaintant file and found her name in the file system as someone he had talked
to or someone he had taken a report from he said that he had no memory of her until he went back and pulled that up
Dana kept this book filled with business cards which was found during investigators search of her place and
the theory that emerged was that her killer could have found the card that detective Douglas would have given Dana
inside that book book and then had taken it with him to the pay phone that night
and that's why he used the name detective Douglas when he called the chisms and that might be true it might
not but either way it didn't explain why he made the call in the first place was
it intended to give a reason to her parents why she wouldn't be in touch maybe to try and prolong anyone
realizing that Dana was dead or was it purely just to mess with them one day in March when the phone at the homicide
office rang then Sergeant Michael ferish got the answer to that question we brought you the deck podcast
to tell the stories of cold cases each week that need your attention but in doing so we stumbled
across a case that we couldn't possibly scratch the surface of in a single episode so we dug deeper to bring you a
brand new limited series this is the deck investigates listen wherever you get your
podcast and I'm sitting at my desk and someone hollered hey sge line one so I hit line one yeah Sergeant ferish
homicide and the person starts talking to me and that's when I realize they know something about this case I'm
looking back at the detectives in the office who are working going okay someone's just messing with me but they
start talking about the case not in particulars but more about data as Squad sergeant of the homicide
unit at that time fish had naturally become kind of the talking head for Dana's case any updates to the media
were made through him so it made sense why this caller would have asked for him specifically when I'm talking to him
it's quick phone call I'm talking about maybe a minute 90 seconds but he said enough for me to go uh this might be
legit if it ain't one of the guys messing with me this might be legit and the voice is not familiar to
me uh so when he's talking he's like well you know you know how to reach out to me and I'm like no dude I don't know
how to reach out to you and I was like you know give me a name and he goes what do you think I'm going to give you my
name and I go well you got to give me something I go because I'm tired of calling you sir and dude
and I said so give me a name so I know if you call me again I'll know I'm talking to you and he gave me a
name though the voice was similar to the one who called the chisms a bit raspy maybe a guy in his 30s or 40s this time
he didn't call himself detective Douglas now this time he used the name of a Marvel character now I'm not going to
reveal which one because it's something that fish believes could be important to
hold back in fact the first time Madison called him and mentioned the nickname she heard he was taken a back afraid
that the cat was out of the bag but he wanted you to know the Marvel part because after all of this time he thinks
that there's a chance that that's what could stand out to someone who may have information maybe the caller chose this
specific Marvel Superhero for a reason because I a was hoping that this guy would call me again because he called
two or three times he always asked to speak to me sometimes he called you know I'm working day work and he'd call on
the midnight shift or he'd call on the 3 to 11 shift and I would come in and and
my mail sloppy one of those little yellow or pink you were called by and they would write down the name you were
called by so and so but we had no caller ID we couldn't do trap and Trace we couldn't do any of
that so on my desk phone I had what they called an induction coil which is basically just a a suction cup it was a
suction cup with a microphone and you would put it on like the back side of the receiver that you put up here here
and it had a wire and it would run to an oldfashioned tape recorder and when you
went to take a call so whenever I was at my desk I would hit record on the tape deck and pick up the phone in case it
was him of course he never called when I was sitting at my damn desk there was no
set schedule or anything and he would never stay on the phone he would never let me put him on hold I
guess because he always thought that you know oh you're going to trace the phone
number and I would be like dude we can't trace the phone this is the DC police department you know we're using dial
phones we don't have that kind of Technology but for whatever reason he didn't buy it we couldn't Trace those
calls it was impossible believe me we looked into it if was there any way to trace incoming calls calls the answer
was flat no the one thing they did find out was that the incoming calls were local fish
said the man sounded intelligent not genius but smart and in control of his emotions this guy would never straight
up say that he killed Dana but the insinuation was definitely there in one of the few calls where he made contact
with fish he said that he knew why Dana was murdered said it was because of her life style because she went out to clubs
and slept with multiple men and he wanted ferish to let the world know that he wanted him to announce it to the
media so after seeking some advice from behavioral analysis experts at quanico fish did go public with more information
on Dana but he painted a picture very opposite of the one that the caller had described I think I referred to her as
the All American Girl the kind of you know the cheerleader sang in the choir kind of girl you bring home to Mom and
Dad it seemed to work he got aise out of this collar and after a bit of a break the man called again saying he was back
in town and now he was willing to meet face to face with ferish all I remember is I I had a trench coat on cuz it was
raining and it was chilly but I was in the office the phone rang it was him and he said if you want to meet me and he
gave me a location out in uh I if I remember correctly I believe it was out in Southeast DC out off Minnesota Avenue
and he said come and meet me there and I grabbed my coat grabbed my radio and I ran out the
door uh I don't I don't even remember telling anybody else in the unit that I was headed out I was just like you need
me I'm on the radio I drove over there I parked the cruiser um you know it was an
unmarked Cruiser but you know every every mope in the city knew what unmarked police cruisers look like and I
sat there in the rain drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and looking at every car and every person that walked
by uh hoping that if he comes up on me and he goes to shoot me at least I hope we see him coming
and he doesn't come in from an angle from a mirror that I don't see uh but that's how badly I wanted meet this son
of them uh because I I don't want to say I took a personal but I guess it sort is like
oh you've you've taunted with me I I really want to see the one behind this the guy who poked the bear and said yeah
oh you want to meet me come and meet me and had me sitting in a car for God I don't remember how many hours I sat
there uh just burning gas sitting in the cold wet hoping that he would show up and and if he did I never saw him but he
would have seen me I honestly don't know I I mean I know that that that feeling you say you know where you feel like
you're being watched um I don't know I I wouldn't say that that overcame me there was plenty
of Vantage points to see me without approaching hell he could have walked right past the car looked in the window
I wouldn't have known it was him you know what I mean after about 2 months and three short phone calls this
mysterious man never contacted police or the chisms again at least to anyone's knowledge which left that provocative
message that the killer had written on Dana's wall calendar to just Loom over them but then it says something really
interesting which is I'll be back in PD anticipation and anxiety morphed into relief when the killer didn't follow
through on his threat there didn't seem to be any other victims connected to this case and even better they realized
that his note and the warning at the end might actually include a big clue about
who their suspect could be when you think of New England you don't think of this
I'm Kylie low I'm an investigative journalist and Storyteller each week I share homicides and missing persons
cases from across the state of Maine and greater New England this is my home these stories are my passion and this
podcast is my platform to help friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the
attention Fades this is dark down east Trum and fish both believe that this man had some type of relationship
with Dana this wasn't some random stranger what he wrote the fact that he called her parents and told them that
she was busted for sex work even the stuff he told feris to say to the media it all led to the same possible
conclusion I think it can be argued that one he's very angry with her uh he is involved in some kind of relationship
with her he's very angry he wants her to grade it uh probably because she hurt him or whatever along that line or maybe
she wasn't monogamous like he wanted her to be but he definitely want wanted the
world to know and wanted her parents to know that he considered her to be an awful person the second clue was an even
bigger one you see both Trum and ferish said that around this time those outside
of law enforcement weren't likely referring to the force as MPD it was much more common to Simply say DC police
my tenative Theory at this point would be that I mean this would be somebody who she had established a relationship
with relatively soon before her death that he was extremely possessive he had some sort of knowledge or contact with
uh police officers so he did either worked in law enforcement had a law enforcement Source or maybe was a
criminal himself who had enough information about okay though fish feels fairly confident that the killer wasn't
with MPD at the time he like Trum is pretty sure that there's at least some link to local police somebody maybe had
been a cop and got fired for whatever reason you know they could have had dirty pee you know got fired because
they smoked a joint or some crap who knows but there could have been an ax to grind towards the department too
along with the use of the acronym MPD Trum also points out the way that the killer talked to Dana's parents the
night that he called them his lingo and the information he gave uh he didn't really know that much about
investigations but he knew enough about prostitutions things he knew enough about how police booking Works things
along that line you want to know the thing that makes me the most convinced where that call to Johnny was made from
remember it was traced to a pay phone by the interstate and they were only able to do that because longdistance calls
were recorded by the phone providers back then and a call from DC to her parents down in South Carolina would
have been long distance I think he knew that and let me tell you why some say that he might have picked that location
because it was right where you could hop on the highway to leave the district you
know High tail it out of town and sure maybe that's it but maybe it's deeper than that maybe it was another
message there's a place called Triple Nickel which was 555 4th Street Northwest that was us attorney's office
two blocks south of that was Police Headquarters two blocks north of that was a carry out on a corner at Fourth
and Massachusetts Avenue and then like a block block and a half north of that was
what we called Court parking where back at that time if you had a if you were an
officer there was a parking lot that you had a court P parking permit you put it
in your windshield you could park your car on this lot to go and attend court because next door to police headquarters
was the DC Superior Court which is where most of the trials occurred so the phone
call to the Chism we don't know if it was intentionally made from that location but it was made between Court
parking us attorney's office and and then just below that headquarters and court so it was a it was a location very
well known to any cop that did any work and ever had to go to the US attorney's court or
headquarters that carry out at that corner where the pay phones were also was a place where a lot of cops would
stop and get a cup of coffee so was this a coincidence was it possible the killer
was one of their own or was it someone who hated law enforcement and made the calculated move
to stick their metaphorical middle finger up at investigators like I just killed a woman and now I'm right outside
practically on your doorstep calling her parents pretending to be one of you the
list of men who were officially connected to law enforcement in Dana's case is limited if you remember at least
two who are working for MPD who were known to have engaged with Dana socially maybe about a handful of others who
worked for different law enforcement agencies who she had seen in some form or fashion and detective Lewis Douglas
now that's not to say that there weren't more because again her most recent datebook and diary and caller ID were
taken intentionally trying to erase some record of someone but of the people who we do know
about someone stands out to Johnny Chisum he has always wondered if there was more more to this detective Lewis
Douglas story for one he told our reporter Madison that the one time they spoke Douglas asked him about finding
his daughter before Johnny even clarified what exactly was going on two he thinks it's possible that the voice
he heard on the phone that fateful night sounded similar enough to have potentially been the real detective
Douglas he called later that morning and three he found it odd that detective Douglas never did call him back never
explained why his name had gotten mixed up in all of this you could say Johnny just thought it was all a little
sketchy had the Killer really just found Douglas's card and decided to roll with
it that's actually what both retired detective trainum and retired Captain ferish think of course that thought was
in our head you know did Lewis meet her when he was down on a call you know working give her his card and said hey
let's hook up and did she maybe say yeah we you know we had to flesh that out and
we did and you know long story short we we were able to clear Lewis Douglas from
any any kind of involvement in this fish also had an explanation for some of Johnny's concerns at the time Douglas
was young he was inexperienced in his role maybe even a little reserved the seemingly odd interaction Johnny had
could just be blamed on the fact that Douglas was I mean shocked that his name had been dragged into something so
brutal present day DC police Commander Kevin kenes also confirmed this for our reporter Madison yes Douglas was looked
into but nothing LED them to believe that he could have been the killer he was not considered a suspect and that
wasn't just true of Douglas police looked at a lot of people and each of them were getting eliminated as suspects
one by one either through aliis voice stress tests or the like they did focus in a lot on a couple of
Associates uh both personal and professional of Dana mostly ones that had either a violent background a
criminal background may have been involved in some sort of domestic issues on their own I don't have any specific
numbers as to how many people they questioned or looked at or whatever but there were a lot I mean I would say
dozens and some they looked at much more carefully than others um some they could
rule out pretty quickly because they had good aliis that they were able to cooperate others especially if they
weren't Cooperative or whatever it it took longer to rule them out um and like I said I just don't know how many they
ruled out you know based on voice stress analysis test back then you would investigate by polygraph and you would
use that to make decisions as to who you would follow up on and who you wouldn't
not recognizing the number of false positives and the false negatives um you know the best polygraph examiners you
know first off I don't believe in the polygraph for many reasons but I have worked with polygraph examiners and the
best ones that I have worked with the main value of the polygraph is the Mystique behind it and it's the pre-
polygraph interview where the person is so freaked out that they're going to be caught on a polygraph that they give
more information that that they intended to but the best polygraph examiners I ever worked with would always tell me
that you always follow the evidence you don't follow the polygraph don't follow the polygraph follow the evidence well
lucky for MPD it seems like they should have some of that to work with our world is full of natural
wonders but what happens when human Predators visit these Serene Landscapes with evil in
mind I'm taking you beyond the beauty of some of the most unique places on Earth
to explore the chilling stories that devastate these picturesque destinations because some times the most
beautiful places hide the darkest Secrets listen to park Predators wherever you get your
podcasts during Dana's autopsy in 1995 a full examination was done along with a sexual assault kit from her autopsy
there was no uh indication of Sean uh I I don't recall any being found on the bed uh because there was
evidence they had been in the bed prior to where she was ultimately found near a
uh hallway door or closet door uh outside of the bedroom but that doesn't mean there wasn't any sexual
activity involved in that there was some question as to whether or not there was
seing on another article within the house according to trainum that other article might be a towel well we know
that they wanted to test back in 1995 however during that time period there was no codus database and so no
laboratory would just test an item just to get a DNA sample if they had nothing to compare it to you needed to submit
somebody's DNA uh to the laboratory so that they could do a one-on-one comparison now I do know that they did
take um you know salava samples you know DNA you know from several people but I don't have any information as to if
those were submitted and compared to the towel fish also remembers some folks offering up saliva samples voluntarily
but at least while he was on the force resources kept detectives from being able to send anything off DNA work at
that time we had to farm out uh to b b labs and it was expensive I mean for like two items to be tested was like
five grand and you got to remember this is a time when the city was broke H we were sometimes putting tires on police
cars out of our own pocket the police department couldn't afford to buy tires for the freaking cars I mean it was bad
you know we had rotary phones at the homicide unit no caller ID no voicemail no it it was bad financially it was bad
so DNA testing was very specific and it wasn't a fishing expedition to see oh well let's do DNA testing to see if
something's in codus that'll match because you got to remember I I I don't even know if they called it cotus yet it
was in its infancy I mean we understood the concept of DNA but we also understood how financially prohibitive
it was for our department to have DNA work done basically back then what they did is they would look at DNA a as more
of a way to prove that the suspect you already had did it not a way to like go looking for suspects and the problem
they had was truly that they had no idea who killed Dana and I know that sounds like a party line but we even asked
Faris straight up you know like okay no official suspects we get it but every detective has a favorite even if it's
just a hunch who is your hunch who is your favorite there's no one that I sat there and I went you know I think this
some is good for it I've been in homicide around long enough to know 90 to 95% of the cases that are
investigated within a reasonable amount of time most of the time the detectives got a pretty good idea who did the
murder it's one thing to know and it's another thing to take the court and prove and they just lack that proof in
Dana's case honestly my answer is no without even an oldfashioned Columbo hun to follow they needed what DNA has
now become it's not as cost prohibitive nowadays and with the growth of cod is the database over 30 years and now you
throw in the genetic DNA work that can be done it's only going to get better because that's only going to improve and
lead to more suspects being identified starting at around the year 2000 during the entire last decade of his career
with MPD Trum was working to identify cold cases within the department that had the potential of being solved using
DNA evidence I mean that's the whole reason he had familiarized himself with Dana's case in the first place it was
part of this bigger review he was flagging the ones with the best chances and within those cases identifying which
items would be sent off first but here's the thing when it came to the forensic evidence in Dana's case they hadn't been
able to move forward with testing any items not because they didn't want to but because they couldn't find them we
have a very poor track record uh especially back then of keeping evidence um it's often times misplaced what was
going on during the time right before I left was they were actually moving the warehouse and so evidence that we could
not find earlier they were now going through every piece of evidence and barcoding it and putting into a database
and that's why this case was listed on my spreadsheet as one where we hadn't found the
evidence yet but the information about property control numbers were there and so if they were able to find the
evidence in the future during his review Trum says that there were several items
of interest that stood out right away but at that point they were stuck they had to just wait and see if they would
be able to locate any of those things during the move but there were several things that I mean could be tested um
not only the towel but also the ligatures um you know the phone cord the one around her neck we didn't know this back
then but of course if somebody grabs a cord and they pull it they tighten it their skin cells are going to go off
from the cord and you can often times get a DNA profile from that and there's something else there's like over 100
fingerprints found in our house back then you needed to have somebody's prints to compare it to one to one I
never saw any information about any fingerprint comparison that were done with any of these suspects but now they
have automatic fingerprint comparison system where you can take prints that are or of sufficient quality run them
through this database and it will kick back with like the top 10 top 20 top 30 you then have to do a manual comparison
that would be something that I would have done go back and re-evaluate these prints put them through the system see
what kicks back there was also special attention given to the bathroom in Dana's apartment because of what her
land lady had heard that long shower it's believed that the killer took that night I think that's why uh that much
attention was paid on the whole uh shower you know the drain and the trap and all that is because that information
she shared while we were still on the scene they even pulled the drain in the tub you know for hairs or anything
else what about Dana being pregnant what I wondered more than anything else else
was couldn't some DNA samples have been obtained from the fetal tissue to determine paternity the short answer is
yes it could yes there would have been a a a sample tissue sample taken by the medical examiner during
autopsy this is where things get a little frustrating when Trum eventually retired in 2010 to his knowledge they
had yet to locate the potential forensic evidence in Dana's case now it's worth noting that that fish wasn't on the same
cold case review team as tra towards the end of his career he was more focused on
current homicide so he wasn't really privy to the notion that anything in Dana's case had perhaps even gone
missing but fish did say that when he retired 2 years after trainum in 2012 as far as he was aware still nothing in
Dana's case had been sent off for testing so we needed to go directly to the source The Authority currently in
charge to find out what's been going on here but it remains unclear because when Madison spoke with
Commander kenes during an informal half-hour phone conversation he wouldn't get into specifics are you able to say
anything about you know if items are still around that can be tested because I think Trum was unsure if you know I
think during that time evidence was kind of being moved from a warehouse so it was unsure if these if these are even
still existed no so um the evidence has been preserved um there's no fear of that um
I can't speak to the exact testing of evidence but I can say that we have made um some progress in that case um and uh
it is being investigated right now it is not a cold case as far as on the Shelf uh somebody's actively investigating
that case and we have made some uh some good progress in that case that unfortunately because it's open I can't
talk about can you say if the progress is like related to testing evidence or like potential evidence that that's
played a role in um us making the progress okay okay that's great to hear okay so it's safe to say you know for
the story we we can say that evidence in this case that you know forensic evidence in this case has been preserved
does exist and that um you know testing of those items has led to progress yes that is correct can you say um the last
time one or more of those items was tested like was it recently no comment on that
one I really want to hold on to what he said about making good progress but because I don't know what testing he's
referring to or how recently it may have happened maybe it's false hope Commander
kenes did specifically confirm that some sort of fetal tissue evidence does exist
and that attempting to figure out who the father was using forensic technology is something detectives are looking into
now I'm going to say the obvious thing real quick like getting Dana pregnant does not automatically mean that this
person is also her killer but Johnny Chisum told our reporting team that he feels like her pregnancy has to be
connected to her death in some way police have to find the biological father they have to find the person who
tried so hard to wipe his existence from Dana place and her life whether they're
the same person or not her friends might know this person and they might not be aware that he's never been identified or
never been interviewed I think it would be very helpful there was anybody that they knew that Dana was involved with in
any way shape or form that they didn't tell the police about or maybe they learned about later after they were
interviewed by the police or even if they did tell the police back then that they for whatever reason they still have
a strong suspicion or they even have a stronger suspicion now with the passage of time because things have happened
just because police ruled out somebody back then doesn't mean that new information might lead them right back
so just as an example uh yeah there was this guy who was seeing Dana he seemed like he was really nice oh but a few
years later he gets locked up for violently assaulting his girlfriend and some other stuff you know maybe you want
to call back and say Hey you might want to recheck this guy just in case that was tram's call out and mine is to MPD I
don't know if funding is still an issue but if it is please consider applying for a grant with season of Justice it's
a nonprofit that will pay the private lab of your choosing to test DNA in a few short years they've already issued
over a million dollars in Grants that have gone on to actually solve cold cases I started that nonprofit because I
believe that money should never be the the reason that a family like the chisms doesn't get answers and listen I'm not
ignorant to the fickleness of the legal system depending on what DNA you get and
from where it might not be the Smoking Gun you need if the DNA is matched to this person who says that he's never
been in the house boom that's probative if the if the towel is in a place where look like draped on top of items that
were part of the rans sacking that makes it more approp if we learn uh from Dana's friends or
Associates that every Saturday uh or every Sunday morning she does her laundry washes all the towels that makes
it more probative I'll take probative probative is a place to start but those ligatures
more than anything seem like a treasure Trove to me pretty hard to explain away your DNA on the phone cord wrapped
around her neck listen I wish I could tell you more about the testing I wish I knew more I bet the chisms wish they
knew more too they have been kind and patient for a long time I know many other families I work with feel like
they have to be like they don't want to alienate the one line they have to the people and the agencies who are supposed
to solve their loved ones case but that's why it's all of our jobs to make the noise it is unacceptable to me that
it has taken this long to do everything possible in Dana's case there should be viable evidence there are available
funding methods so there are no excuses Dana deserves so much better her family deserves better the people of DC should
be furious because they deserve better too it's evident Dana's murderer wanted to degrade her wanted everyone to think
less of her but I hope he knows that we don't not a single person we spoke to does
Dana was kind-hearted someone who never met a stranger her dad described her like this there are some people who were
just put on this Earth because they were meant to serve others and that was his Dana always helpful forever a true
friend she was a loving young woman with a beautiful smile her life was full and
it was valuable and that is how she will always be remembered but to Dana's murderer
it's all about to come apart for you people are going to know how small you are and how ugly your heart
is you know Dana was so much more in 25 years than you have ever had the potential to be I don't know how people
look at you right now if there's even anyone who looks at you with love or something like
respect but i' take it in you're on a clock now and I'm not the the only one who thinks
so obviously you don't feel safe obviously you think that any day the hammer could come down and you're right
the hammer may be coming down tomorrow it's about time past time for someone who knows something to come
forward be that call that brings the chism's faith after almost 30 years with no
answers if you are that someone please call the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC at 202 727
999 or you can remain anonymous and just type what you know to mpd's text tipline
50411 there is a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in the homicide of Dana Chism
the deck is an audio cheuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis to learn more about the deck and our advocacy
work visit theed deck podcast.com and don't forget to check out our weekly podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts
so what do you think Chuck do you approve

Dana Chisholm, Jack of Diamonds from Washington, DC was just 25 years old when she was murdered. Her killer was unlike anyone I have come across in my almost 7 years of covering cases - he was so confident police would never catch him, that he taunted them. Yet, as smart as he thought he was with this…he didn’t cover all his tracks…and left something behind that could finally bring this case to justice.

If you have any information about the murder of Dana Chisholm in February of 1995 in Washington, D.C., please contact the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099, or remain anonymous by texting your tip to MPD's Text Top Line at 50411. There is a $25,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction in the homicide of Dana Chisholm.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the cold case of Dana Chisum, a 1995 murder involving a taunting phone call to her parents and police investigation challenges.

Key points

The Mysterious Call. A shocking phone call reveals Dana Chisum's unexpected arrest, leaving her family in disbelief.
The Horrific Discovery. Dana's family receives devastating news about her murder, shattering their lives forever.
A Chilling Message. The killer leaves a disturbing note, hinting at more victims to come.
Dana's Complicated Relationships. Dana's emotional involvement with clients complicates her story and raises questions about victimology.
The Mysterious Caller. A mysterious caller claims to know details about Dana's murder, raising suspicions.
The Connection to Law Enforcement. Investigators explore the possibility that Dana's killer had ties to law enforcement.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This one has haunted me the way that few stories have.

Ashley Flowers reflects on the impact of Dana's case.

1:37WatchJul 24, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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