Garage Refill /// Lane Bryant Shooting /// Part 1 | Forensic Files

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everyone gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
[Music] thank you [Music] police say a gunman shot and killed five women in a robbery at a women's clothing
store late Saturday morning the incident happened at this Lane Riot southwest of
Chicago the store is at a strip mall called the Brookside Marketplace authorities say the store was open when
the incident happened when police arrived they found the victims in the back of the store Defender is described
as a medium-skinned male black five foot nine 230 to 260 pounds he was wearing a black waist length
winter coat a black knit cat and dark jeans authorities haven't identified the victims but say they range in age from
22 to 37. they say four were from suburban Chicago and one was from South Bend Indiana when resident says crime is
a growing problem in the area and security needs to be beefed up and this could have been us and I just feel
really sorry for the people's family and the victims because you know this could
have been this could have been prevented police brought in a helicopter and dogs
to search for the gunman but found no sign of him there was no security camera inside the Lane Bryant store but police
say they're trying to determine if the suspect was recorded by any cameras at neighboring stores
[Music] our true crime story this week is from a lovely place called Tinley Park Tinley
Park is a village located in Cook County Illinois it is one of the fastest growing suburbs south of Chicago this
horrific crime took place in 2008 but to give you a general idea of the location
Tinley Park Illinois in 2007 had no murders and only 15 robberies were reported in this Village the population
was just over 56 000 at the 2010 census and in 2009 Tinley Park was selected by businessweek a very good magazine as the
best place to raise a family in America so the single best place in all of America Captain oh that sounds pretty
lovely in 2017 Tinley Park was listed as one of the 50 safest cities in America did you know that um the garage was
voted number one place to do a podcast and the world and Parts Unknown was number two desired
place to live for the very low taxes we pay you to live there yeah so while I feel very good about those assessments
being quite accurate you know that this is a safe place great place to raise a family this crime may make you feel
different but it is crimes like this that remind all of us that unfortunately these sort of things while they can be
rare they can happen anywhere anywhere Lane Bryant is at the center of this case and it's going to be a Lane Bryant
store in Tinley Park Lane Bryant is a store for the ladies uh according to their website Lane Bryant is the most
recognized name in plus size clothing and their emphasis is on fashion and fit not merely size well I just want to
point out the fact that and the Lululemon case they didn't sell to plus size and now Lane Bryant they're known
for plus sizes I don't think they sell to the petite ladies there's a lot of discrimination going on
in selling both ways um but they Lane Bryant will tell you that their emphasis on fashion and fit
is what makes them a style leader so a quick and interesting story history here for uh Lane Bryant the company was
founded way back in 1904 by Lena Bryant uh she made maternity clothing mainly dresses I think Lena rented a storefront
on Fifth Avenue the name Lane Bryant well the company got that name because a bank officer misspelled Lena's name on
the paperwork the business opened its first Branch store in Chicago in 1915 so Lane Bryant has been deep rooted in the
Chicago area for a long time as of 2013 the chain consisted of 812 stores in 46 U.S states only Alaska Hawaii Montana
and Wyoming at that time didn't not have Lane Bryant stores in 2010 Lane Bryant accused Fox and ABC of censoring their
30-second ad spot during commercial breaks for the Dancing with the Stars in American Idol TV shows the ads featured
plus size model Ashley Graham in their line of lingerie Lane Bryant accused the networks of discrimination because
stating that the networks had no problem airing Victoria's Secret advertisements
with similar similarly clad models right in the same time slots I'm a lover of all women of all sizes just putting that
out there hey I'm a lover of Ashley Graham um so all right Lane Bryant stored this
particular Lane Bryant store that we are discussing today is located in the Great
Village of Tinley Park at the Brookside Marketplace which was built in 2005. Lane Bryant there were there were
probably what about six or seven Lane Bryant stores in the Greater Columbus area
around us somewhere I don't know I never go shopping but it's pretty much like a
big box store right yeah so smaller than a Target but still a decent sized store
yeah you normally find them in a mall or a strip mall so this particular one is a
23 000 square foot store now back in 2008 Brookside Marketplace included some store fronts that were not open yet this
making the Lane Bryant store more ice isolated the strip mall skirts a major section of Interstate 80. uh the belt of
America and it also has a Holiday Inn and a Sleep Inn nearby so hotels nearby hotel motel Holiday Inn no houses are in
immediate in the immediate area and a few apartment buildings are about a half a mile away okay so this brings us
Captain to Saturday February February 2nd 2008 which was a very cold day the ground was frozen and snow covered yeah
it was actually the day before the Super Bowl yes it was Captain we have uh 42 year old Rhoda McFarland she went to
work on this Saturday but she was not scheduled to work uh she was the store manager at the Lane Bryant store now she
knew that her employees would be stretched on that Saturday after the corporate office mailed customers Flyers
promoting a big 9.99 clearance sale now I'm not I don't know much about the Lane Bryant store
but from what I understand it's some of the items can be more expensive and so this is a pretty good deal for everybody
this will draw in the customers on a on a busy Saturday everybody's going to line up to get some good deals did you
say 9.99 that's right so rather than she's a she's a team player uh this store manager wrote a she rather than
force her have to go It Alone she decides to pitch in and go in that day now the Lane Bryant store opened its
doors for business at 10 A.M the crime began to unfold shortly after at 1008 a man entered the store and engaged the
clerk asking her questions about a delivery he carried with him some type of papers that he stated were related to
the delivery that he was attempting to make at this store now this man was wearing a dark colored below the waist
length winter coat as he entered the Lane Bryant store it is reported that he looked toward the
ceiling and this is believed that he was looking for cameras he chatted briefly with Rhoda McFarland
the store manager he also talked to another person that we will refer to as the witness we don't use her real name
we don't know her real name but she is called Martha and we're not using our name because the police don't use her
name right she's only referred to as Martha so that's what we we will have to call her here so the man spoke to both
of these ladies regarding this delivery well this this was a ruse um he was not there to make some kind of
delivery this was used to engage somebody with inside the store I'm a little confused why he would use this as some
kind of tactic but we're gonna see where it goes from there okay so Rhoda the manager she decides to try to help out
so she calls another store location to see if there was some kind of mix-up with the delivery because she's telling
the guy we don't have any delivery scheduled right so maybe this delivery was supposed to go to another store
anyway during this time two customers entered the store it is at this time the police would later say that the man then
pulled out a gun and announced a hold up he forced the four women into the back room this was a small employee break
room he forced the women to tape each other's hands and then he bound the remaining
women or woman himself after binding them he told them to lay face down on the floor then two more
women who who later entered the store they were also taken to the back room they were bound and placed next to the
others now the order so we have four customers at this time right everybody's been taken hostage the order of which
the customers came in is unknown it is known that Connie woolfork uh was a fighter and at some point during this
hold up she had a physical altercation with the suspect she was struck in the face with what is believed to have been
the butt of the gun that the man had brought with him she also had blood under her fingernails
which is believed to have come from the suspect so she fought this guy at some point right this man also took some of
the store's clothing and placed it over the heads of some of the women now I want to be clear here on this statement
because I've this has been reported multiple ways from multiple sources and several of the sources suggest that all
of the women had their heads covered with with clothing items some suggest that it was just a few of the women
um and also one report a couple reports state that women's panties were used to cover their heads now while this might
not seem important I think that it is somewhat important because we're going to be relying on some
witness statements to have conclusions and thoughts about this suspect and we will have to use our own opinions to
determine how much weight to apply to those witness statements later so apparently one of the victims
um one of the ladies that was bound was the was a target of sexual advances by the suspect during the time that he had
them taken hostage it is stated that she was fondled there was that's not sexual advances
that's that's assault right sexual assault I I apologize I'm reporting it as it as it was whoever reported it as a
tool bag um there there were no further sexual content or contact from suspect to any
of the other victims beyond that point now store manager Rhoda McFarland somehow she managed to call 9-1-1 she
had her cell phone Bluetooth yeah she calls 9-1-1 at 10 44 a.m and I want everybody to kind of Mark that time in
their in their heads here because remember we're saying that the man entered the store at approximately 1008
so he's been in the store for quite some time all right 1008 he enters at 10 44 there's a 9-1-1 call and he's
still on the store at this time now Rhoda she managed to to make this call while the gunman was distracted uh even
though she was bound with tape on the call which is posted on the Tinley Park Police website
um so very very brave Rhoda McFarland calls to notify 9-1-1 of the robbery in progress the the 911 dispatcher picks up
and at this point Rhoda says Lane Bryant she Whispers it to the uh dispatcher and
the dispatcher asked where at and she states Tinley Park please hurry let's take a listen to that 9-1-1 call 9-1-1
emergency on the line stay on the line let me get you to Tinley Park don't hang up
It is believed that the suspect heard the dispatcher's voice over Rhoda McFarland's Bluetooth
the police were dispatched a Tinley Park police officer was in an adjacent parking lot at the time of the 9-1-1
call it is approximated that he was about 20 I'm sorry 200 yards away so police arrived on the scene very
quickly and it is reported that the first officer arrived only about two minutes after the short 9-1-1 call now
the the witness that we are calling Martha she has stated that she believes she heard police sirens before the
shooting started so this is at approximately 10 46 A.M so all six women at this point at 10 46
a.m were shot execution Style Rhoda McFarland was the only one shot in the forehead the rest in the back of
their heads the man then walked out the front door and disappeared five of the ladies were dead when police
arrived and as we said only a couple minutes from the beginning of McFarland's 9-1-1 call one woman
survived this is who we are we are calling Martha right she too had been shot and left for dead but she tricked
the Killer by moving her head at the last second causing a severe graze in her neck she then pretended to be dead
until police arrived a black SUV as well as a black sedan were seen on video leaving the Lane Bryant parking lot at
approximately 10 48 A.M so all of this happened within a time span of about 40 minutes the suspect
arrives at the Lane Bryant store at approximately 1008 the call to 9-1-1 is placed at 10 44. shots are fired at
approximately 10 46 and the suspect left the scene at approximately 10 48. [Music]
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the doorsteps and newsstands the following morning the Sunday Chicago Tribune LED with the headline five women
slain in store police hunt gunman in shooting at Tinley Park Mall the article reads A gunman LED women into the back
of a clothing store Saturday morning killed them then walked out the front door and disappeared police said there
were no survivors at the Lane Bryant store in a Suburban strip mall along interstate highway 80. and what they are
calling a botched robbery still with little information made public conflicting reports and rumors about
motives and Witnesses swirled throughout the day officers from at least eight local departments quickly descended on
the shopping center some went from door to door combing stores for Clues others hunted in a nearby subdivision for a
stocky man described by one witness while helicopters hovered in the sky one Helicopter Armed with an infrared camera
scanned snow-covered open land and forest preserves police pleaded for help from anyone with information on the
killing spree as night fell the gunman remained on the loose Tinley Park police chief Michael O'Connell tried to calm
fear saying we are very confident that the offender is out of the area but earlier in the day an officer at the
scene admitted we have no idea who he is the gunman was still at large late Saturday do they have any evidence of
what he took or did he take anything let's get into that but I want to kind of clarify some things I found that that
article to be very interesting this is what the the locals are hearing these are the reports they're hearing and
reading just the day after and I thought we should comb through that because there's one very important detail here
and that is that the the police are stating that there were no survivors that five women were taken hostage they
were all shot and killed before the man left the store the reason for this this is not any
confusion on anyone's part this is simply to protect the living witness they did not want the offender to be
aware that there was a Survivor right they didn't want this person to know that there is still a person alive from
the scene that could identify them and that he might I mean we have to keep this in mind
whether he went into the store with intending to kill anyone at all we don't know right but at the end of the day
what he did do what this person did do is murder five people very capable of looking for this woman finding her and
killing her we wouldn't even know at this point in the investigation if he would have known who she was yeah I mean
there could be ties from the suspect to one or more of the victims or I mean is she being kept in a hospital for
observation for days right on end you know we've we've all seen the the mob movies where there's somebody that
survives something and they're a living witness and they gotta put the police officers by their door because we could
get some mobster dude right coming in the middle of the night and take this person out but on the other side of
things you could say there was a Survivor and if this was just a robbery that went bad and this person snapped
that could force the hand of this individual to turn himself in um like oh somebody survived I'm gonna
get caught let me turn myself in well let's take a look real quick captain at the key players in this whole crime
let's talk about some let's talk about the victims as well as what they may know about the suspect so there were
five women killed one wounded uh she was treated that you know the wounded one would go on to be known as Martha she
would be treated at St James hospital in Olympia Fields and she was released on Sunday so she was in the hospital for
approximately 24 hours right uh currently it's my understanding that this living witness is living out of the
area now um but she stays in close phone contact with police investigators and she's been
extremely cooperative and she is there for them whenever they need to ask questions of her so one of the victims
that we've already mentioned by name was Rhoda McFarland age 42 she was the manager of the Lane Bryant store in
Tinley Park she had been there for two years she was a U.S Air Force veteran she worked as a nurse at Andrews Air
Force Base Rhoda served as an associate pastor at Embassy Christian Center she began
working at Lane Bryant after her Crest Hill Church had closed she started a program at her church called Princess
this program teaches girls proper etiquette and guides them to help them grow to be young productive women
she was planning on expanding this program and expanding it to other churches in the areas in other areas as
well right she went to work that Saturday was but was not scheduled to work as we had
already said now Rhoda was engaged over the holidays of 2007 to a man named Stuart Gibbs she continued to answer her
Christian calling at the Lane Bryant store often often using her employee discount to buy clothes for people who
are less fortunate she is the only victim that was shot in the forehead this is believed that the
Killer caught her on the phone talking to 9-1-1 and when he confronted her that's when he shot her in the forehead
and another one of the victims is Jenny Lynn Bishop yeah Jenny was 34 at the time of this crime she was from South
Bend and she was a customer at the Lane Bryant she was married to Brian Bishop and they had three young children she
graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1996.
she had been employed by Memorial hospital since 1995. she worked in the Intensive Care Unit fellow nurses
described her as a compassionate caring knowledgeable and efficient worker well she's a nurse so you know she was a
badass relatives of Jenny Bishop believe that she may have gone to the Lynn Bryant store that day to cash in a
birthday gift card yeah the Lane Bryant yeah she had sell celebrated her 34th birthday just five days prior to the
crime her husband was in the area for business and she was out while he was working our next victim is Sarah
zafranski she's 22 years old at the time of the crime from Oak Forest she was a customer as well the future looked
promising for Sarah because in May of 2007 she had graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in
finance and had a job already lined up at CNA Financial Corps and this is in Chicago
she went to the Lane Bryant store that day because she needed work clothes for her first post-college job right now
later after life a a park bench in Oak Forest Bears her name she was the youngest of the five murdered victims
just 22 years old now scholarships were also awarded in her name Connie woolfork
uh was one that we had mentioned by name as well she was 37 at the time of Flossmoor she was a customer as well at
the store that day she was a single mother of two sons ages 16 and 10. her youngest child suffers from spina bifida
and requires much of his mother's time and attention for seven years she served the village of Park Forest in a variety
of positions working in the finance and Community Development departments she left her job with the village in
December of 2006 this to pursue a Family Mortgage business with her mother Connie
worked as a mortgage lender lived with her mother and two sons to help make ends meet in the troubled housing market
she took a second job stocking shelves overnight at the Super Target in the same Tinley Park Shopping Center
she was treating herself to a manicure and pedicure on that Saturday and some shopping at Lane Bryant to buy a new
outfit when she didn't show up for a scheduled meeting with a client at 2PM her family grew increasingly worried her
family said that she was a fighter and would not have gone along without a fight it is reported that she had
bruising and blood under her fingernails that might have been from the suspect the bruising as we said is thought to be
from being struck in the head with the gun we also have Carrie chusu she's 33 years
old of Frankfurt she was a customer Carrie was a social worker at her school um Homewood Flossmoor High School that
my friends social worker at a high school is an extremely tough and difficult job I don't know this
particular high school but I know two ladies that work in these very same capacities and let me tell you friends
that is no walk in the park now Carrie and her husband married a year and a half before the murders her husband was
waiting for her to return home from a quick shopping trip to the Lane Bryant clothing store when he saw the news
reports on TV and he actually recognized her car parked in front of the store on
the news coverage you want to talk about sick feeling yeah after Tony saw his wife's car in the news reports he left
their home and he went to the Tinley Park police station there he was what he was suspecting was confirmed
that she was one of the victims now the day after Carrie died her brother's wife
went into labor they had a little girl who they named they named her Carrie Carrie's current and former students
packed into the what ended up being a seven hour wake for Carrie in in Memorial of her life
Martha as we said not her real name she was the surviving victim she was 30 she was 33 years old at the time a part-time
employee at the Lane Bryant store she was shot along with the rest but the bullet went into her neck missing vital
organs she was enrolled in nursing school and working two jobs to make ends meet recently divorced she stated that
she had heard the police sirens prior to the shooting started so what do we know
about the suspect well the killer was not wearing a mask or disguise he was described as six foot tall and I do want
to kind of add to that though a little bit because I've read and watched news reports yeah that will state that he
could have been as short as I believe five nine yeah um male or he could have been as tall as
six two now I want to throw this in there though the overwhelming majority of these stories
say that the man was six foot tall that he was approximately six foot tall yeah but don't they also say he was stocky
yeah so he it's an he's an African-American male of average weight um he the police have described him as
stocky but also average weight see that doesn't make any sense to me well they state that they believe he's between 2
and 220 pounds all right but at six foot tall I wouldn't call somebody stocky he's also described as a medium to dark
skin tone with braided hair with three to five poofy cornrows pulled toward the back of his head one braid hung down the
right cheek and had four light green beads on the end this man is believed to have been between the ages of 25 and 35
years old at the time of the murders now the suspect this is where we might have
a little issue with his weight Captain the suspect was wearing a dark colored waist length jacket or coat right now we
did say it was very cold that day the ground was frozen snow covered depending on the the the poofiness or the bulk of
this coat that could change the perception of his weight yeah my jacket makes me look a little fluffy there are
some reports out there that state that he was seen having a roll of duct tape in one of the pockets of this coat
the suspect was also wearing black jeans with an embroidery on the back pocket similar to a cursive G now one
possibility here Captain is that he was wearing G-Unit clothing the G-Unit clothing company was established in 2003
this is because of 50 Cent and you know he teamed up with Mark Echo to create this line of clothing and accessories
inspired by 50 Cent and fellow G Unit members these genes have a cursive G on the pocket right so possibly wearing
this line of clothing now the suspect was also wearing a charcoal gray or dark ski skull cap on his head a couple of
websites mentioned that he had possibly left behind a baseball hat at the scene of the crime
the Survivor said the killer may have had professionally manicured fingernails this is only mentioned once so you know
I I actually hesitated to even put this in the report but on airing on the side of full disclosure throw it in there and
and let people make what they want of it now police have released a composite sketch based on the witness's
description the weapon that he used is a Smith and Wesson Glock the gunman took a few hundred dollars
according to police there were two vehicles seen leaving the area shortly after the shooting this was a black SUV
and a black sedan now police have said that they have fingernail clippings remember we said
that one of the victims had it's believed that she had blood underneath her fingernails
remember we also stated that the man came in with papers that are supposed to be part of this delivery that he was
making maybe instructions or some type of invoice something like that it's believed that the police had these
papers that he left them at the scene of the Cross possibly touched DNA on those
correct correct so that's what we know for certain on the suspect do you think this is just a robbery turned murder
well that seems to be the strongest Theory or motive that's out there because this is a very strange crime
Captain when you when you really think of this implicity of it yeah where you have so many people being killed so many
murdered victims and yet you have almost a robbery situation that doesn't make a
lot of sense when you look at it and I know that there are probably details of this crime that have just not been made
public and therefore we are only working with part of the story sorry but yes I would say that probably the strongest or
most popular Theory regarding this crime out there is that the thought is it was
a simple robbery that turned violent um so a botched robbery in which the offender made off with very little cash
in the course of the robbery he figures out that one of the ladies had called 9-1-1 and he panics and shoots all of
them yeah within a couple minutes yeah so and what I mean I understand that this is the
most likely Theory but you're robbing a store at the beginning of the work day the store
opens at 10 o'clock you enter the store at 80 or 1008 sorry you know you're out of the store within
45 minutes you take a couple hundred dollars I mean you're going to rob a store where most
people understand that there's a night drop done for all these stores and a lot of these stores especially like Elaine
Bryant these are credit card based stores and and now most stores don't carry a lot of
cash on them so so you see what I'm saying like no no I follow you and that's why I feel like
this is a crime that doesn't make a lot of sense right and and and here's where I go with that my thought is that I what
I can see from what we know from the living Witnesses statements right is that we are probably working and talking
about a very unorganized offender here and I see where this guy may have had some type of plan whether whether it all
makes sense to us may not be the case right we don't know what kind of Rhyme or Reason this dude's
working with first of all and then second of all it appears to me like he lost control of the situation fairly
quickly and when things weren't going his way he's not intelligent enough to work
through the problem to problem solve on the spot in the end his only result the only thing he can come up with is to
kill everybody and leave um so so let's let's go through this first Theory here okay because you bring
up some good points so if this was to be a robbery why would somebody choose a store like Lane Bryant or any kind of
clothing store at all to Rob Early on a Saturday right so I get my first thought
there would be that we have a guy that is looking for what he would perceive to be a soft target an easy target yeah
chances are the employees are going to be female chance chances are the customers are going to be female and by
choosing early morning hours you may have less people in the store to have to deal with yeah because we as we
mentioned this is a 23 000 square foot store it could be tough it could be tough to Corral everybody and manage the
scene just given the space of this place I mean people can hide fairly easily in
a 23 000 square foot building but that also might be to your point that this suspect is not thinking things clearly
and so he's going to rob a place that one is not going to have a lot of cash on it and it's a big building
now when we say that a soft target that that potential victims or people being in the store would all be female or most
likely to be female let's be clear here we're using we're trying to use the criminals thought process here trying to
use the suspect's thought process here and we don't know that for certainty but the guess would be that that may have
put some kind of put him at ease in some way that there was a reason for picking
this particular store that is really the only thing that stands out to me or is could it be that this man believes
that okay they're they're not selling low-lying stuff right you know maybe there's some more money in this store
than would be in some of the other stores because they're you know more expensive items right so a soft target
too should be secluded in some way um from from busy areas and we know the Lane Bryant store was away from the rest
of the businesses and it's in a strip mall that was not fully rented out at the time yeah also an easy target should
have an easy Escape Route the Lane Bryant is just minutes from Interstate 80. this is a huge uh freeway that that
starts in New Jersey and ends in California we had mentioned that the timing is a little weird
um but for the sake of wanting an easy target the timing is great so he walks into the store that just
opened its doors eight minutes prior less likely to encounter a large number of customers but if it's the money that
you're after Why not pick a bank or a gas station right yeah well we have the the
surviving Witnesses account the killer according to her the killer walked in and was looking up at the ceiling and
it's believed he was possibly looking for cameras now my thought here is that this man knows that Banks and gas
stations because of their high probability of getting robbed will be outfitted with cameras yeah multiple
cameras so when he went into the store he has he's technically committed zero infractions against the law at this
point right so if he walks in and he's never been in the store before and he's looking up and he sees cameras he can
simply just turn around and walk out and go pick another Target at this well he is wearing G-Unit pants so I think that
is a crime um there's there are some drawbacks to this Theory and you've mentioned a
couple of them Captain but I kind of want to go through my laundry list here so we don't leave any out as long as it
doesn't include any G Unit pants I'm okay with your laundry list so as you mentioned how much money would there be
in a register that that's you know they just opened up the store eight minutes prior
okay um I don't know well here's the other thing too and a couple of accounts they state that the
guy may have robbed the women too so most of the material out there does not State this but this could
this could be possible maybe even likely you know he had the ladies bound and if
he felt in control of the situation he gets the cash from the register and from the office and finds out it's not that
much money he decides to rob the ladies as well I mean as well yes it's it's it's reminiscent of that conversation in
the diner scene in Pulp Fiction when the couple is getting ready to rob the diner
and they're talking about what their plan is and their last Heist and they say that they both agree that it was a
good idea that they robbed both the business and the customers in the last Heist because they they doubled their
take yeah but again not very well thought out because how many people are carrying cash well
I'm just stating this could be a possibility After he finds out he's not got much money at this point I agree so
and keep in mind the killer was in the store for approximately 40 minutes this gives him enough time to rob the ladies
as well now I do Wonder here one thing that I one thing that I wish that we had here
is a lot more information I think there was probably a lot of stuff that went down in that store over the course of
the 40 minutes what at what time did he draw his gun is a big question for me I would love to know what time the store
manager called the other store to inquire about the delivery that he was pretending to do
so let's say that this theory is right that this is correct this would lead me to believe and I'm
sure that the police have looked into this and I if not I don't understand why they wouldn't have but um then we need
to get new police officers yeah my thought would be just food for thought here Captain potentially this guy might
have some experience in doing this and what I mean by this is maybe the plan doesn't seem so bad
when you work it over the course of many different stores I mean it only didn't work out in this situation is what I'm
getting at because here's the thought the suspect may have hit what he perceives to be soft targets before and
he's hitting them early in the morning for a good reason maybe he's only looking to get a few hundred dollars
let's say 200 whatever's in the register right now why would he do this the thought is that he would bring he brings
a gun into the store with him but probably most of the time he never even needs to draw the weapon to make the
threat he just goes up threatens the person at the register or speaks to somebody in the store tells them it's
going to be a robbery and he makes off with two hundred dollars now keep in mind if he doesn't pull a gun a 200
unarmed robbery will go away pretty fast in most police jurisdictions well and if you did this at the bank
it's a federal offense second of all if you if you mention that there's a gun then his arm robbery so it doesn't
matter if you show your gun or not right an implied threat of a firearm is the same as having right but chances are
that these registers are not going to have bait money or die packs that's what a bank would have you know the die packs
are normally within like a football field or so they just blow up and they turn everything blue
I Smurf your ass um so yes I agree that this plan doesn't seem so dumb except for the fact that you're
going into a store showing your face and yes less likely that there's going to be there's going to be less cameras
than a bank but they're still going to be cameras but now you have all these eyewitnesses that see your face
so I still think it's a really horrible plan but I I think that he manages to get out of the store and there are no
cameras to take footage of him well we have cameras seeing cars leave right those are from another store right so
all right let's get into let's go to the theory two real quick all right this is
a very similar theory in the sense that it's robbery but possibly an inside job meaning our offender the killer had
inside help maybe an assistant manager or former manager or former employee correct right so I'll break this down
real quick Inside Job meaning that this robbery was set up with the help of a current
employee or former employee of this particular Lane Bryant store or maybe even another Lane Bryant store these
would be the only so one thing that I'm curious about here with the money we know that a few I'll
call you whiskers a few hundred dollars was taken in this robbery I would love to know did this come from the safe did
it come from the register did it come from a combination of both also robbing the the uh
customers as well where did this money come from because one thing here is that current managers
current assistant managers or previous managers and assistant managers are likely to be the only people with the
safe combination so if money was taken from the safe he accessed that safe in some form or fashion whether it be
through the employees that were at the Lane Bryant that day or he walked in there with prior knowledge of this store
right now where I worked before there was a safe but all it had was the two drawers that we used so there was no
extra funds it was just whatever's in those drawers so again even if you just got the one
drawer and then you open up the safe so I can get the next drawer I wouldn't want to assume that he would get more
than a few hundred dollars if he could get to both drawers so again that would be information that
I don't know if it would help the investigation but again I mean this crime is now 10 years old I think at
some point try to get the public involved I mean that's one of the reasons why we're
covering the case to shine some light on it and get people talking about this so if this in fact were the correct
Theory here uh the correct motive this is kind of how I see it it playing out okay so the inside person the accomplice
that this man had that this killer had failed to show up to the store for whatever reason that day you know the
inside accomplice got cold feet or whatever decided not to show this leaving the suspect stuck with six women
who he thought could identify him he walks in there without any type of Disguise maybe he doesn't he doesn't
Discover that his helper that his accomplice is not there until after he's drawn the gun and already told everybody
that there's going to be a hold up so as the suspect is is waiting he had to control the workers and the customers
and as time went on at the scene he starts to lose control of the scene and once he hears the 911 operator on
McFarland's phone he knew that the robbery was a total bust except for the register money and then the suspect
hears the sirens in the distance and in a moment of anger or Panic or both he killed the women and fled the scene
I I think this could be a strong Theory the only reason why I I really question the weight of this theory is like what
you for what you just said 10 years has passed okay and this theory is easily investigated and we know from detectives
that we know here in Columbus and in the Greater Columbus area that this is often
the theory that they look at first when they start looking into these crimes can
we tie anybody that's working there previous employees to this criminal act whether it just be the theft robbery or
what went down here so in exploring this possibility here's some more information and this is
what I was able to gather from an assistant manager of a Lane Bryant store and it is a stating this person told me
that it is store policy it was then and is currently store policy to have a manager or an assistant manager open the
store along with a regular employee right which we kind of learned from the Lululemon case it is also a policy to
drop off the previous day's proceeds at the bank in the morning before the store
opened so this has been one thing that's highly contested so all I can go off of is what
this person told me I've never worked a day in my life at Lane Bryant I don't work today in your life I filled out two
applications they didn't even call me for an interview or anything for Lane Bryant yeah oh I'm just because
I'm joking oh I was gonna say it's because you have a fascination with their spokes models so just to be clear
on that all the money taken in the day before is then counted the next morning and dropped off at the bank before they
open for business on that day pretty clear yeah so if you get there early enough
you get the drop according to this person the assistant manager and the manager are the only two that had the
safe combination so if like you said if this person could have got to the store before they opened
their doors there's a chance at that time the safe would have been open money is out and being counted by each
employee um and during this time once the money's counted they sign off on it and here's
my thought any chance this guy didn't do much homework and thought the store was
opening at 11. because that's where that's where you start to wonder about the delivery he seems to have a ruse to
want to get in the store now you don't need a ruse to get into the store and assess the situation when the doors are
open anybody can just walk you just go in and act like you're shopping yeah yeah but this guy had uh what he a fake
delivery that he was planning on doing yeah but I think to me the the fake delivery is more of a setup to for him
to get into the building and for him to be looking around and the kind of case casing the joint with this ruse and also
I think with this Insider job idea right that it's an Insider job I also think that there's a lot of there's High
turnover rate in these retail stores and you're talking about normally a lot of different ages you know when I worked at
PacSun there was a lot of people uh in their late teens early 20s and then you had other people in their mid-30s so you
got this pretty decent range and it could have just been somebody drinking at a party
saying when I used to work there and blah blah blah you see what I'm saying right I get you and telling about the
workings of of the store right you or this guy dated some girl that worked at Lane Bryant two years ago I mean he
could have some kind of Insider knowledge on some different level well where the this is where I have a big
issue with this whole story is that we have if if he in fact had Insider knowledge of the intricate workings of
the Lane Bryant store or if he was working with an accomplice remember we were stating that according to this
person that we spoke to that the money is counted in the morning and then taken to the bank that day
and this is done by an assistant manager or a manager and the store is opened by
a manager or assistant manager and another employee right the the thing that I have a big question mark on here
is and it makes this whole thing very curious to me is that Rhoda McFarland the store manager
she was not it's general knowledge that she was not scheduled to work that day and according to newspaper accounts she
was ends up being the only manager that we can get the name of of being in the store that day right so what could have
happened though is that a manager gets sick System Manager somebody gets sick something happens
they have to call off work and she had to come in of course no I understand how that works I'm saying what makes it
weird is that either that's just a coincidence or this happened on this day for a reason right and so the questions
here are some some questions that were likely asked by the investigators and hopefully they receive satisfactory
answers to help clear suspects or potential suspects in this case so one was there an assistant manager
scheduled to work on the morning of February 2nd 2008 and if so where was he or she and what was the reason for them
not being at the store two did the money from the previous day get dropped at the bank on the day of
the shooting if so did the bank have any cameras that they could see if the people making the
money drop were followed to or from the bank yeah number three could an ex-employee or an assistant manager have
promised a large payout from a safe and then change their mind and failed to show up to assist this offender and
yeah next question I would have would be have Lane Bryant employees or ex-employees from other locations been
investigated thought here too a little bit going deeper into this going back a little bit
the Lane Bryant store was open this particular store was open prior to Rhoda McFarland having taken over as a manager
so who was the prior manager and was the combination to the safe changed when management changed yeah sometimes those
safes just change randomly yeah and who and who's in charge of save changing the
safe combination is that something that they send somebody in from corporate to do that or is that just going making a
phone call and stating well now you have to change the combination here's the old
one um you know is that left up to that particular store what's the protocol on that and then here's another question
that I would have regarding the safe combination are the safe combinations different per location or are they
similar enough to figure out a different stores combination now that seems like a
weird question right no there most of these but it doesn't does it when people who have worked retail or worked where
there are safes especially in franchises or chains they understand that that question is not that strange of a
thought right I think it's strange the reason why is because most of those people hire security companies to help
them do this stuff so the security companies are not going to have branches in similar locations to have
combinations that are even remotely close that's my guess I mean and that's just from my experience with Banking and
how many times we had to change combinations to everything to the main Vault to the teller Vault to individual
vaults on our teller stations and in the back room and so I'm guessing that Lane
Bryant being such a big store what do you say 800 in some stores yeah 800 some stores as of 2013 they're going to have
some security company that's kind of monitoring all that stuff they're going to pay somebody to to monitor that I
agree I could be wrong I agree but let me throw this at you and and I know you're speaking on experience but you're
speaking from your experience having worked in a bank now I know you worked retail at some point as well I don't
know if you had any Insider knowledge of how they did the the safes there well I
was telling you at the well I think it was just a key but I was telling you during the break I believe
our safe uh at PacSun he could have just picked up and walked out with like it wasn't like I don't even think it was
attached to a wall or anything because but that's a strong person could carry it out of the store yeah and this would
have been 2001 when I worked there so we're talking about a long time ago there was there was barely any cash ever
in that store if somebody wanted came in to Rob us it's like here's your couple hundred bucks have a nice day I worked
retail very briefly and I was such a low-level employee I had no knowledge of anything I went in there and worked for
fun twice a week basically um I worked for fun well I mean they paid me but it was just kind of a fun
job that I took but however I did work as a manager at a gas station and a manager at a pizza shop now we had
pretty at both places we had pretty loosey-goosey rules as far as how we conducted business I will say this at
the yeah but this was what 1976. no no no it would have been like 99 2000. so I will say this the one the gas station
that I worked for is a major chain I'm not going to say what what the brand is because I don't want people to know this
well we don't want people looking down on that brand for hiring you at the location that I worked
we had a four digit combination to the safe and the reason why I posed this question of could an employee of another
store have some general knowledge of how this store works and I don't think that's far-fetched even as much so as a
possible combination idea for the safe and I bring this up because of my experience there so ours we had a store
number a four digit store number which is not easily known to the general public it had nothing to do with our
street address it wasn't posted anywhere on the outside of the store on the inside of the store it was something
that usually only the managers would know most of the employees were unaware of our store number however
I will say this and and I only know this and maybe it didn't work this way at every location but at the time that I
worked at this gas station our combination our four digit combination to our safe was the store number
well that's stupid well no it is stupid it is it's very stupid but it's also not it's
not crazy it's not out of the realm of possibility that this type of thing was going on on other places
um but again all we have to know is how much money did he get and I'm sure that the law enforcement is well aware of
where he got the money from oh we got the money from so this is a question that they could obviously answer Captain
before we move on to I have a bit of an outside the box Theory here but before we move out of talking about robbery
that turned into a got turned violent and turned into murder right there's another theory out there that's that I
find to be very interesting and the theory is to simplify fi is an out of town offender meets an out of town
murdered witness and what I mean by that is remember we mentioned earlier that Jenny Bishop she was from out of town
she was in town with her husband that was there on work and Jenny was going shopping while her husband was out
working that day [Music] is there is there a chance and this is just food for thought that the offender
that the the man that went in to rob the Lane Bryant store could he have been staying at one of those local hotels
where she was staying and they they had seen each other prior to the robbery he gets in in there in the back room and
now he's got a customer that he recognizes her face he doesn't know her name but if he recognizes her as having
stayed at the same hotel as he had the night before he would probably assume that she might be able to say hey that
guy that took off with the money out of here he was staying at the blah blah blah hotel last night possibly I I do
believe that the suspect was triggered by the 9-1-1 call because once that call happened you know five murders within
minutes yeah that's when the shooting starts so I I find this Theory intriguing and and I find it to be very
interesting and it makes me kind of think about other possibilities here I would believe that that a lot of
time was spent investigating those local hotels you know most of the time people
they keep records of license plates Vehicles they normally need a credit card to rent credit card ID all those
sort of things not that this individual couldn't have stolen you know couldn't have put together materials to travel
and use somebody else's funds or vehicle for that one of the theories here is that this was not a robbery at all that
this was kind of is kind of staged to be a robbery but and since there was there
was a murder that was actually going to happen and the thought on this is Rhoda McFarland
she would be at the center of this Theory because for several years Rhoda had been deeply involved with the
embassy Christian Center which is a now defunct Church in Crest Hill Illinois she began as an administrative assistant
to the pastor George Ajay Jr and soon became one of his most trusted colleagues she was ordained as a
minister and had become an associate pastor at the church and she was even counseling girls remember we said she
set up that Princess program at some point Rota began to feel uncomfortable with some of ajay's
financial decisions it's unclear of what if any wrongdoing transpired and whether
Rhoda's discomfort was solely over finances or if it included something more personal that she had uncovered so
a bad relationship happens between these two now around this same time the church's membership
went from 1 000 people to 75 by the time of 2006 and this is when Rhoda decides to leave yes just looking looking on the
outside in when you see drastic numbers like that drop you assume you kind of assumed something weird is
going on there right yeah well it sounds to me that he was making some weird decisions this got out to uh his the the
members of the church most of the members of the church probably thought it was shady or or not a part of their
belief systems and they left well ajai he moved with his family and several church members to Austin Texas and this
was to start a new church Embassy Nation Network which now appears to be closed as well well the only
problem with this theory for me is that Rona wasn't scheduled to work that day yeah no I I get what you're saying but I
want to kind of go into this in a little more depth here because this was something that the police investigated
and even though they've been very tight-lipped about it one intriguing clue that the investigators uncovered is
a 20-minute phone call placed by a former Embassy member now this took place about an hour before the murders
and it was routed through the tower the cell phone tower nearest the Lane Bryant
store apparently this was enough to Peak the task force interest because in Late July
of the year of the murders nearly a dozen detectives from the major crimes task force traveled to Texas to
interview former church members and Associates of Rhoda including ajai and now apparently at this time he was living in
some big mansion up in the hills and uh somewhere in Texas when they tracked him
down now all right so you go from a thousand members to 75 and then you go to Texas and you close
down another church but you're still living in a mansion hmm well interesting how that works ajai has
publicly and forcefully rejected any notion that his church is linked to the homicides and investigators have
continually said that um currently that they have no suspects so but but it's an intriguing connection the
Texas connect connection for several reasons and one is the day before the murders
there was a San Antonio news site this is w-o-a-i.com ran a story about a sex scandal involving a pastor named Rick
Hawkins Hawkins is alleged to have used church funds to silence women either because he had had affairs with them or
he has sexually harassed them now a poster on that site using the name for what's right left the following comment
under the Hawkins story for what's right February 1st 2008 posted well someone should check out George Ajay in Austin
Texas formerly of Illinois he has ties with Hawkins and has been suspected of doing the same thing the name of his
church is Embassy Nation Church formerly Embassy Christian Center records show for what's right registered on that day
and posted on that day and never commented again there are some out there that believe
that this for what's right could actually have been Rhoda McFarland so I here's the thing Captain that's an
interesting Theory it's an interesting thought very interesting one that we shouldn't completely rule out here that
that maybe somebody was sent to kill Rhoda or one of these other people now regarding this particular Theory there
is the cell phone tower information but really nothing much else right um so while it sounds like a very juicy lead
impossible Theory keep in mind the police did investigate this and currently today they are stating that
while through the course of 10 years they have had what they thought to be many good suspects as we sit here today
they are telling us they have no suspects so having investigated this telling us they have no suspects it
seems like it's been thoroughly investigated and possibly no connection but I do want to mention this before we
conclude today another possible Texas connection is that America's Most Wanted are the great TV show right they covered
this case when it was fresh well after doing a segment on the Lane Bryant click case
They concluded that the killer sounded like he had some type of southern accent [Music]
if you'd like to help shine some light on this case get people talking make sure you share our post on social media
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Garage Refill /// Lane Bryant Shooting /// Part 1

Episode 200

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.TrueCrimeGarage.com)

10 years ago a man walked into a Lane Bryant clothing store posing as a delivery man. He announced a holdup and began taking women to a back room where they were bound with tape. One of the brave ladies managed to call 911. The robbery escalated and turned very violent. Before fleeing he shot all six ladies. Despite police arriving on the scene within minutes of the 911 call the killer managed to get away. Police have spent millions of dollars trying to catch this man. Was this a robbery gone very bad or are there bigger motives at play? Beer of the Week - Grinderpunch by Soundgrowler Brewing Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

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Brief Summary

The episode details the 2008 Lane Bryant shooting in Illinois, where five women were murdered during a robbery, and discusses the ongoing investigation.

Key points

A New Era of Sleep. Ashley invites you to experience the latest in sleep technologies for better rest.
Brave Call for Help. Store manager Rhoda McFarland makes a desperate 9-1-1 call during a robbery.
Tragic Crime in Tinley Park. A robbery at a clothing store leads to a horrific shooting, shocking the community.
Five Women Slain in Store Shooting. A gunman killed five women in a botched robbery at a Tinley Park mall.
Victims Remembered. The victims of the shooting were diverse, each with their own stories and lives.
Survivor's Account. Martha, the sole survivor, shares her harrowing experience during the shooting.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This could have been prevented.

A resident's reaction to the crime's occurrence.

6:37WatchAug 23, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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