Lane Bryant Murders 2026 /// Part 2 | Forensic Files

[music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who is wondering, "Why did you fail to clean
off the lap pull-down machine?" Here is the Captain. [music] It's cuz you're a dirty, dirty bastard. It's good to be
seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling [music] a friend.
On this day in the garage, we are still sipping on this wonderful hazy [music] double IPA called Saturday in the park
by North Park Beer Company and they got together with their friends at Microphone from Chicago to create a beer
to fully embody the feeling of summer. It ain't summer here in the garage, I got to tell you friends, but this one is
brewed with an assortment of Citra varieties. It's triple dry hopped but still juicy and a double at that. Garage
grade four and a quarter bottle caps at a five. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good garage friends. First
up, a cheers to Karen in De Pere, Missouri. And a big we like to jib goes out to Barbara Armstrong from
Flintstone, Georgia. Next, a double cheers to Tom and Corey Gazinski in Dyer, Indiana. And
a big tall cans in the air to Johnny Neckbones in Louisville, Kentucky. And last but certainly not least, we have a
double-fisted cheers going out to Lauren and Dylan in Maumelle, Arkansas. Everybody we just mentioned, they
contributed to the beer fund for the beer run and the garage [music] fridge thanks you. Yeah, b w r u n beer
run. >> [music] >> Make sure you check us out on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe to the [music]
podcast and Colonel, that's enough of the BS'ing us. All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a
beer. Let's talk some true crime. When we left off yesterday, we were going through some of the press releases
by the Tinley Park Police Department coming out regarding the homicides that took place at the Lane Bryant store.
Five women were killed, one survived. We had good information by the survivor giving a good description of the
assailant, of the killer who as far as we know, Captain, walked out the front door on that Saturday morning
in 2008 and we don't know who he is, we don't know where he went. And police are
relying on you, all of you and us, the public, for information about this man. The
description we get is pretty on point here and decisive about who this guy is and what he looked like at least at the
time of the murders. And to me, it's a bit surprising and shocking that nobody came
forward to say, "I know who this man is." Now, I say that, but there's been thousands
of tips over the years. So, I'm sure somebody called in saying, "I I think I know who
this guy is." And police constantly reminding us in the days after the murders, when giving the description of the
killer, that he may have and very likely has changed his appearance since fleeing
the scene, but that doesn't change the fact that this man looked this way prior to these murders. It's a very unique
hairstyle down to the the single braid hanging down the right cheek of the man with
four The report is four light green beads in this braid. >> Yeah, one of my issues with this
hairstyle, not only should his friends and family members and even co-workers recognize this hair,
but this is also possibly a hairstyle that he didn't do himself, that somebody helped him do.
And so, obviously, that individual would definitely know who this person was. That's my thought
exactly, Captain. I know that we've been at this for 10 years together sitting in
the garage, the True Crime Garage, and talking about these cases for 10 years, but I don't think I don't think for a
second that you need the experience of being in here for 10 years to think that the likelihood that this guy woke up
that day, did his hair in this style for the very first time, and then walked into the Lane Bryant store.
That That doesn't even seem like a viable option. >> Yeah, but if there was somebody else
involved in this crime and maybe they're the ones that did this hairstyle for him,
obviously, they would have a reason to not come forward. >> Yes, eventually, we will get a released
composite image. It It's first a sketch and then it will morph its way over a period of time into a 3D image of the
killer. I got to tell you, as long as we've been doing this, the 3D image that we get, it's probably the most haunting
of composites that we've viewed over the years. Because Because of it being 3D, it is so lifelike. It's It's not like
looking at a composite sketch. It almost looks like we are looking at a picture,
a snapshot picture of the killer himself. >> Yeah, and just to address what I feel is the elephant in the room,
is this case has been covered by so many individuals and one of the things that we spent a
little bit of time on in our initial coverage, our initial deep dive into this case was was this
perpetrator male or female? Because there was some speculation, I believe, that this possibly could have been a
female. With all the time that has passed, with the DNA evidence, even if it's not a full profile, law enforcement
should be at least able to tell us the sex of the individual. And everything that has come out from law
enforcement and the eyewitness and basically everybody else is that this individual is a male and not female. I
feel like the thought of Look, and we always say, "Stay water," right? Don't close a whole
bunch of doors and and come up with a theory and push everything else aside. So, I won't fault anybody. There was a
lot of online chatter about the potential that this killer was could be a a woman, you know? Instead of
Jack the Ripper, we got Jill the Ripper. I think all of that came from the internet, from chat rooms, from people
trying to openly discuss this case and keep the case, the story, alive so we can find this perpetrator, but
all indicators from the people that are working the case and the hardcore information that has come out over the
years is everyone telling us that the perpetrator, the killer, is male. Now, we did go through a pretty thorough
description of the suspect in episode one. We've also went over that description in our previous coverage,
which took place back in 2018. And we did have a lot of those talks and a bit of a debate of was the killer man
or woman back in our previous coverage in 2018 as well. But as we sit here today, Captain, what else
do we know about this suspect? Going over some of my additional notes, I just want to add
on a little addendum to something I said in episode one. We talked about the height of the killer. The initial
reports coming out saying 5'8" to 5'10" inches tall. Later, we have reports of saying up to 6 foot tall. And I have now
seen on two occasions and have this in my note that some have listed him between 6 foot and 6 foot 2 inches tall.
So, that's all to say, don't disregard somebody just because they look like the guy, but he might be 1 inch too tall or
1 inch too short. That >> Right. That should not be part of the equation here. We do know that the
suspect used a Smith & Wesson Glock .40 caliber. And this is based off of shell casings found at the scene as well as
bullets that were recovered from the victims. The overwhelming majority of the reports
out there is that the gunman took a few hundred dollars. And I've seen this little as $200 in
change. I've also seen it reported upward of more than $300. I don't think that they 100% know how
much the killer took. Part of that just simply based off of the idea that police
have not shied away from being open saying that he was he didn't just rob the store. He was
robbing the customers as well and may have even robbed the two employees that were there that morning. We discussed
that he was wearing a dark-colored waist-length jacket. Reports are that he had a roll of duct tape in one of his
pockets of this jacket and that he was wearing black jeans or jeans with embroidery on the back pockets similar
to a cursive G. And in our previous coverage in 2018, we went through a lot of this stuff stuff a lot deeper as to
what the man was wearing or what is suspected that he was wearing. Now, to say the duct tape in one of his pockets
is quite interesting because I've seen it reported many different ways. I think that it's
it's difficult to say 100%. I'm with you. You had said yesterday that uh most of the items used in this in the
commission of these crimes were items that were found or believed to have been into the store prior to his arrival. We
know that he brought the gun with him obviously. The duct tape's a little bit of a debate, but couldn't you see this
playing out as such where he walks into this store and we know that he did not conceal his identity in the form of a
mask or attempt to hide his face. Right. >> But you could see him walking into the
store with this jacket on with a gun in one pocket and duct tape in the other. Now,
to say he didn't disguise himself, who knows? Maybe maybe he somebody did his hair that way the night prior or the
morning of and he's never before or after wore his hair that way. It That could be a possibility. And it's also
reported that he came in with some type type of covering on his head and that he
may have or likely was wearing a ball cap as well. Now, to have the very down to the point description of his
hairstyle would indicate to me at some point he took those those head coverings off willingly or or they fell off at
some point during the commission of these crimes. There was a criminal profile that was
created by two FBI profilers. This is Greg McCrary and last agent Van Zandt. And this was released to the Chicago
Sun-Times. This was not part of our coverage in 2018 and we we have a a bunch of stuff that we got to in part
one and and more that we'll get to in this episode that was not part of that coverage as well. But these two
profilers sat down together, went through all of the information and evidence and came up with the following
profile that that they pieced together Yes. stating I always like the profiles. I And I Well, and I enjoy when we have
more than one profiler in the room to bang one of these things out. And they say they believe that the killer had
very likely been incarcerated before. And they say that his willingness to indiscriminately murder several women
indicated that he had vowed to never go back to prison. So, they're speculating that the killer likely
believed himself to have been mistreated by society Right. >> he had likely taken the wrong lessons
from his prior incarceration. The two even theorized that the killer might have known one of the victims or
had personally targeted them believing that they could identify him. This fear of being identified, they
believed, caused the gunman to pull the trigger on all six women. Yeah, that's something that I've contemplated a lot
in this case. is what was the motivation if they're being truthful with what they believe this individual
got out of this. This is a vicious execution of multiple people for a few hundred bucks. I have a very
hard time and I'm not in the business of disagreeing with very experienced profilers and these two in particular I
have a lot of respect for. But I think that they're throwing a few extra things out there, that they're leaving some
doors open uh in that because they're relying so heavily on the general public for
information about this killer. I don't believe for a second that he targeted anybody there.
And let me let me break it down for you like this. We have two employees. One was killed, one survived.
We have four customers. So, logic tells you that the only two people that this person or others
may have a high percentage chance of being in that store or absolutely being in that
store that day would be the two employees. The four customers are seemingly random.
And I say that because as the story goes and as the narrative always has been, he
was in the store prior to any of the customers arriving at that store. He didn't follow a customer into the store.
He engaged the two employees in conversation and the customers started arriving.
So, that would tell me that if a person was targeted, it had to be one of those employees.
Well, the surviving employee doesn't tell us who this man's name is. And furthermore, if the person targeted
was an employee, think about this scenario that played out. He had four women, those two employees,
part of those four women, in the back of the store bound, face down on the floor. If he was
sent there to kill a target, he would have killed all four women and left then. But that didn't happen.
Two more customers came in and he took them hostage as well and placed them back in the back of the store. So, I I
would put the chances of him I'm not saying he didn't know any of these women by happenstance. What I'm saying is
I put him targeting these women very close to one of these women very close to zero.
The other thing that they say that's interesting that's in this profile that we should point out is that
maybe they say, well, maybe he he was recognized or one of the victims recognized him. But they very astutely
follow that up in their profile by saying or he simply may have felt that he was
recognized. I think there's too much else going on here, captain. That could be a
possibility, but I mean, you got a 911 call, you got witness saying the police siren was
heard before the shots were fired. I if there was a straw that broke the camel's
back, if there if he was teetering on the edge and something put pushed him over, it's either the 911 call or the
sirens police sirens going off or both. Right, which I think would lend towards their profile of this individual had a
criminal history, was incarcerated at some point, decided that never going to go back again,
not alive at least. The two profilers also believe that this mass killer not only has been likely incarcerated
before the killings, would do anything to avoid going back to prison. And of course, they remind us that he is
very still very dangerous. And this is a even more scary part. And maybe this is why the right person
has not come forward. They state in their profile, they believe that the killer feels that anyone that is in a
position to help police catch him, that he will kill again, even if it's somebody very close to him, a relative,
a loved one, a friend, that he would do anything not to return to prison. And we talked a lot about some of the
theories that have been bandied about over the years. I think that probably I you know, I've
gone down many roads with this mentally on mic and off mic. And I'm I'm not going to say that I'm
locked in hardcore on any one theory. I think that there's too many options here.
And and a lot of them seem likely just as much as as the next one. I think that there's something to the idea that
he's robbing the customers as well. That he's not just there to rob the business. Like that seems like
something that I don't think that he decided to do that on the fly. I think that he went in there with the
intention of I'm taking whatever I want in that store including whatever these people have on them that I want.
>> enters the store pretty quickly after opening, he has a ruse. Right? Hey, I got this delivery.
Okay, well, that's made up. He has a gun at that point. He has possibly duct tape at that point.
He could have easily shut the front door, locked the front door, made sure all the
doors were locked, but he chose not to do that. Yeah, I think that there may have been enough time to give him
that option. And if so, then you're right. That's a choice that he made and and Look, it's very Pulp Fiction.
Right? Remember when they're robbing the diner? And I don't know if they're boyfriend
and girlfriend or husband and wife, but the the the male robber says to the female robber, "Hey, remember when you
decided to rob the customers at our as well at our last robbery at our last hold up? That was a really good idea. We
got more money from them than we did from the business." So, it seems to me like this was
something that why he's robbing, that's anyone's guess. There's been a lot of talk that maybe the this
individual was a drug addict that that was desperate for money and would have done anything
to get a few hundred dollars to to make a fix. I Look, he's he's losing it. We we we we
agree on that. He's losing control of the situation. He He's becoming increasingly agitated. Maybe that means
that he's a bit strung out. I think he To me, I think he's a little too controlled
to suggest that he's strung out to the point that he would be so desperate to kill for a few
hundred bucks, kill five people, six people. Remember, he he thought he was killing six people
right there that day. And And I say that I think he's too controlled because we went through the background of our
victims a little more briefly in this coverage than we did in our prior coverage. These were not dumb women.
He convinced them he he was convincing enough to them that they didn't panic in the moment
when he said, "Hey, I'm here for a delivery." They He has paperwork. They're talking and interacting with
him. The manager calls another store thinking that there's some kind of mix-up. That the delivery guy is where
he thinks he needs to be. He's convincing enough in that regard. These were smart
women, smart educated women. This manager had been there for 2 years. So, he's convincing enough
upon arrival and during those conversations. There's no giveaways to them in those
moments that he is there to rob and or potentially harm or kill people. Yeah, I think the other thing, too, is
everybody is affected by when your family or friends they're addicted, have some substance
abuse problem. But most of those people don't go out of their way to be violent towards others.
And so, this idea that he Well, he was just a crackhead that came up with this idea to
rob a retail store and >> [clears throat] >> to execute six individuals so they can make sure
they get high that day. I think that's kind of a And think about it, too. He's also
described as well-groomed. Yeah. And cleanly dressed. I mean, it to me, that doesn't It's It's an
interesting theory. I don't say I say don't close the door on that one, but it doesn't seem to ring so true.
Seems a little less likely. I also think also his erratic behavior some people can point to Well, was there
something mentally ill? Well, you have to be somewhat mentally ill to want to execute six innocent people.
So, but I think you see him like you said, there's a sense of control. There's a ruse. There's a plan.
Whether or not the SUV is a getaway vehicle, whether or not there's a good getaway
vehicle or not, you still have to have the plan to get away on foot. And I think the timing of this, store
opens at 10:00. Not all stores open right on time. Some Some stores open 5 minutes early.
But the fact that he's entering the building basically when it opens makes me feel [music] like this person
had a plan and they had their [ __ ] together in a criminal sense. All right, we are back.
Talk hands in the air. Word to your mother. Big ups. Big ups and cheers. Word to your mother.
Let's talk about the DNA, right? The DNA {question mark} we should say. DNA? DNA?
And it's been highly highly highly highly suspected by many many many that there
is DNA and the police have the killer's DNA. Is it a clean sample? Difficult to say.
But where could that DNA have come from? Okay, so there's some obvious obvious places here where that could
have come from. First and foremost, we've talked about it multiple times. We had one of the
victims, it's believed that she fought back and that the rumor has always been that they collected her
fingernails because and the probably I mean, they would collect the fingernails of every victim. But hers in particular
had blood under them and it may have come from the suspect. So, there's there's one place.
Another rumor has always been that that the killer dropped his ball cap. That the ball cap was recovered.
Well, maybe there was a hair with with the follicle still connected. Yeah. That's a location that
they could have recovered some DNA. The other rumor that's always been talked about in this case is that the
surviving victim took detectives, went to the scene with the detectives to show them where the killer had discarded of a
disposable coffee cup. That when he walked into the store, he's got fake delivery paperwork in one hand and a
to-go coffee in the other hand. And that he was drinking from that and that he either sat it down on a counter top
somewhere or a table somewhere or threw it in a waste basket. Again, this seems like something
that would be easy once you have that cup. Where did this cup of coffee come from?
And a lot of gas stations have surveillance. You are going down the right road, my friend. Remind me to
circle back to that after we talk about this DNA. Another rumor, and this one was actually
dug up by True Crime Garage after our coverage in 2018. Look, it was no mistake that we were
covering it around the 10-year anniversary. We were hoping it would be back in the news cycle, people would be
talking about it again, and that that our coverage could further those conversations. And maybe they did. And
one conversation that we know took place based off of that was something that seems very likely and very credible. And
I cannot tell you the the persons It was more than one person. I could I can say that.
That had this conversation with the garage. These are persons in the state of Illinois is the most that I will say.
But that the the DNA may have come from something that the killer brought with him to the
scene. And I don't mean a coffee cup, disposable coffee cup, or his hat. That it came from the duct tape. Now, look,
duct tape picks up a lot of guck and hair and things if you leave it lying around in a dirty location.
So, that seems like a possibility. But what seems to me like the the most likelihood here can't happen is What do
you see people do time and time again when it comes to duct tape? Sometimes it's hard to tear or start the tear.
Right? You see time and time again somebody will pull off a little bit of it. And once they get the length that
they want, they use their teeth to cut and start the tear for them. And then if he did this saliva repeatedly. Yeah, if
he did this six times over. And some reports out there are that he not only bound the women's hands, but their their
feet as well. Some reports state that he ordered the women to tie each other up. But if he
did this once, twice, three times, or all six times, that's six chances that he left saliva
his DNA on that duct tape. Yeah, or like you said, if they bound the hands and feet, then 12 times. Even
better. We're doing some math in the garage. Now, I asked you to remind me to circle back to something and I've
completely forgotten what that item was. I got all wrapped up in the duct tape. Oh, the gas station coffee cup.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, here's where we have to we have to
critique the police department. >> You, I think sometimes you have an issue with this. I don't have an issue with
this. I have no issue with critiquing We're almost out of what? No, I if I had an issue, I wouldn't do it. I'm I'm
about ready to do it right now. Get out of my way. I'm about to about to do it right now.
>> [laughter] >> I'm going to throw these [ __ ] under the bus. Just like I think that
they've not released enough information. You've I've said [clears throat] this a
million times in the garage. If you're asking the public for help, you know what I used to always say when
when I would have customers and and they're asking for something or or or want help with something, sometimes you
have to remind them, "Help me to help you." You're asking me of something, but you're not giving me enough information
to correct the situation or to to help you get to where you need to go. I want to help you. I just need a little more
information. You hit on something there, my friend. If this dude brought in a coffee
disposable coffee cup with him, there's indicators where that thing came from. Did it come from a hotel? Did it come
from a gas station? Was it a Starbucks? Was it a Dunkin' Donuts? >> Was it a Dunkin'?
>> Your this this stupid box store F U Lane Bryant didn't have surveillance cameras.
Maybe care about your employees and the customers for starters and their safety, but
maybe the place where he got that coffee from had surveillance footage that you could
have got to if it was a BP or someplace that that was just down the road. Right.
They had eight agencies there. They could have been in every gas station, every coffee shop within
within 40 minutes drive time of there, within an hour or as or as soon as they're made
aware of that an hour of being made aware of that coffee cup. Yeah, and if I'm law enforcement if if
I'm in charge of this investigation, I'm walking in and going, "Well, one, we have a survivor, but we have
we have five executed victims. I am calling anybody for help. FBI, CIA, I don't care. Anybody that can help
us. And I'm I'm pulling everybody into this case. I am calling everybody that's off work
and going, "Get it Get your ass to the police department cuz we're going to round up as much surveillance footage as
we can from this area." Now, the coffee cup, as we said, could just be a rumor. Could be Maybe there never was a coffee
cup. But one of the other rumors was that he left or dropped his hat at the scene.
Okay. Well, if that were to be true, don't just give me a description of that hat.
Take a photo of it and release it to the public. Yeah. Now again, just a rumor. We don't know if there was a hat that
was left at all or a hat involved at in at all. Okay? Another rumor was that the
fake delivery paperwork that he arrived with was also left at the scene. There should be some indicators of what that I
can't believe if if that was the case. Mhm. It It's not like he just walked in there with some rolled up notebook
paper. This would have been something that would have Now Now, look, he could have just pulled this out of any random
trash can, right? But it all But still, run down that lead. And I'm not saying that they
haven't, but what they haven't done is shown that to the public. Let's pretend for a moment that all
these rumors are true. If all these rumors are true and you're begging the public for help on five
homicides and a woman that had to uproot and change her entire life and her family's life came within inches of
dying, being murdered, Yeah. release a picture of the hat, release a picture of the coffee cup, release a
picture of the paperwork, and how about you get on the internet and download a an image of the gun that was used and
release all four of those images along with your computer 3D image of the suspect as well. You want information,
give us some information. You want tips, give us the tips. Just the tip. Just give us the tip. The One thing I will
agree Look, I agree with the profilers a lot on on their findings and their speculation about who this guy is and
where he came from and maybe even some of his motivations, even if they came about at the last minute. I I found just
a a quick search of if there's any real meaning to green beads, light green beads, a few
different websites that I found said that green beads are often a indicator of some type of growth or
rebirth. Mhm. Which would play along with the idea of like somebody bettering themselves at the you know, I'm out of
prison now. I'm I'm never going back. Uh so here, let me read this for you. A single braid in the hair often carries
deep cultural, spiritual, and personal meanings symbolizing unity, strength, and connection to ancestry, mind, body,
spirit balance, and even marital status depending on their traditions. So that's
is there any meaning behind a single braid in the hair? The as far as the green beads go, But
here's one thing though, too. If this guy was planning this out, which I believe he
was, maybe he didn't have a complete detailed plan of what was going to happen and maybe there was some
improvising going on, but you would know that by having this unique hair hairstyle even
though you're covering most of it up with a hat. But if somebody came in and I saw their side profile, I could tell
you if they had braids in their hair or not even though they're wearing a hat. And then obviously you have this
single braid in front of their right side of their face. So, it wouldn't matter to him or or maybe he's not that bright
to go, "Hey, this is a a way for them to identify me." So that again kind of goes back to my
thought of maybe the plan all along was I'm going to take whoever hostage. I will leave no witnesses, so it doesn't
matter if they see my face. Doesn't matter if they hear my voice. It doesn't matter
if they see my braids or these beads. And I think a lot of this gang activity is
it's way more complicated and way more thought out than I think a lot of people think. I
was watching a thing the other day on gangs that will identify the For example, though,
that gang will use like Chicago Bulls. So they'll have the colors of the Chicago Bulls and
a lot of the gang members will wear clothing items of the Chicago Bulls. So that's where I go to it. Is there
some kind of gang or criminal activity happening in that area and and are there colors
green? Cuz I I don't see somebody going, "Well, I'm braiding my hair, put green in there cuz of my rebirth, and by the
way, I'm going to go down to the local Lane Bryant store and execute a bunch of women." Oh, I agree. I mean,
the green could mean anything. It all could It also could mean nothing at all. I mean, it But it's a it's a choice that
somebody made. Either he made the choice for four light green beads to be at the end
of this braid or or the person that did his hair decided on that. Now, America's Most
Wanted covered the case multiple times. One of the things they say is the biggest clue, {question mark}
This could be the biggest clue to the killer's identification. Eyewitnesses told or an eyewitness, I
should say, told cops that she saw the killer had a braid over his right ear. The end of the braid had four light
green beads on the end. And back to something I was talking about prior, this was my findings. Light green beads
generally symbolize renewal, growth, healing, harmony, and luck, representing fresh starts, balance, and a connection
to nature, often linked to the heart chakra for love and compassion. But specifically shades like mint and jade
can add meanings like prosperity, peace, or transformation. They're popular in jewelry for personal growth and or
meditation. Back to those vehicles that we talked about, which I also think could be a
very very big clue as well. America's Most Wanted took surveillance video from the parking lot of the
shopping center where the killings happened to the leading expert on video enhancement.
This is Dr. David Hathaway of NASA. Dr. Hathaway and America's Most Wanted correspondent John Lieberman found two
mysterious vehicles on the tape. At 10:39 a.m. shortly before the 911 call is made from inside the store, a van or
SUV arrives in front of the store and parks head-on directly in front of the door. At 10:40 a.m. another car arrives
and parks nearby. What's more, at 10:45 a.m. that vehicle leaves and less than a
minute later the other vehicle departs. The vehicles leave right around the same
time police believe the killer would be leaving the area. Cops think the vehicles at the very least contain
witnesses to the crime and could even be linked to the killer. Yeah, I mean, I think this case is very difficult and I
don't think any detail too small or too big to examine and re-examine and see if there if there's a little bit
of smoke that maybe there's fire. I mean, look, maybe I'm a son of a [ __ ] I don't know, but
and maybe I've watched too many M. Night Shyamalan ding-dong movies. But again, if I'm investigating this
crime, I am vetting the crap out of the surviving employee. Because these actions of this guy coming in
right after the start uh of the day with this delivery and this seems to be something that
happens, I mean, it's common enough where they call another store to see if this individual just has the wrong
store. I I'm going to vet her as much as I can. And and and and it's not even just about
her being involved. It'd be more of what is her information of the other employees that weren't there that day?
How much did these other employees talk about the operations? We were not the only ones to have criticism for the
Tinley Park Police Department on this. It's gone on over the years and you had talked about getting everybody involved
and we do know that they had they got involved with the that one particular south
south area task force was helping them and assisting them in the investigation right from the jump. They had other
agencies that were called in responding to the area as well, which is helpful and the right thing to do. Part
of this criticism publicly though comes from the idea that the FBI was not asked to officially get involved
until September of 2008, which would be six to seven months later and they've taken some heat as to why did they wait
so long to get the FBI involved. And you had are hitting on something here that we've been thinking about a lot over the
last couple of days and weeks here [snorts] is that we have a note from a friend and
I'll read this note to our beautiful listeners. Eyeballs up. It reads, from 2005 to 2008,
I was employed by Charming Shops, the parent company of Lane Bryant and Fashion Bug. I served as a store manager
for Fashion Bug. Based on my first-hand knowledge of company procedures, I have long believed the Lane Bryant murders
may have involved someone with inside knowledge of store operations. When merchandise deliveries occurred,
the driver would enter the store through the front entrance holding delivery paperwork. That sounds identical to what
has been described to us that the killer did back in 2008. They go on to write, the
driver would notify store staff of the delivery and then return to the truck to move it around to the rear of the
building where the stockroom doors are located. The fact that the perpetrator entered
the store holding papers and claiming to have a delivery strongly suggests familiarity with these procedures.
Another common question is why the robbery occurred so early in the day when stores are assumed to have little
cash on hand. That makes sense because you would if you're just opening for the day and a
robbery takes place minutes into the business day, one would expect there to be very few if
if if not zero sales at that time. And our friend goes on to write, in reality, corporate policies required managers to
take deposits to the bank in the morning due to safety concerns about making night deposits. Because the murders
occurred so close to opening time, it is very possible that the previous day's deposit had not yet been taken to the
bank. In addition to the deposit, each cash register typically contained between $200
at opening and there was also a backup change order kept in the safe. It was not unusual for a store to have
several thousands to have several thousands of dollars on hand in the morning when the deposit, register
tills, and change funds were were considered together. I do not know whether the perpetrator was a former
delivery driver, a former employee, or someone assisted by an employee at the time. However, based on my experience
and understanding of the store operations, I believe law enforcement should give serious
consideration to suspects who had direct knowledge of or connections to the store. I'll expand
on some of this. Now, I don't have any knowledge of Lane Bryant. I don't have any knowledge of this Charming Shops
corporation, which was the parent company of of several different chains. In fact, I've never set foot in a Lane
Bryant store. Uh so so Well, you haven't lived, my friend. That's right. One day, Captain, I'll get there. It's
very nice to go into a retail store and know that you're not on surveillance. I'm going to go
flying through the front doors of the Lane Bryant shirtless on roller skates with with sparklers tied to the roller
skates >> Mhm. like Benson Boone and just just open up the open up the whole joint right there.
No, in all seriousness, so when our friend wrote to us saying that corporate policies required managers to
take deposits to the bank in the morning due to safety concerns about making night deposits. I'll echo that
statement. Again, I don't know of this corporation and how they do their work, but in the one retail setting that I
worked in, that was it was forbidden to do night deposits at the bank. In fact, it was explained to me by the general
manager and the regional manager, cuz one of my duties at some point became making the bank deposits,
was that they could only be conducted during the day because the company's insurance
only covered that money or harm done to the employee if the deposit was made during the like
there was all kinds of parameters that you had to follow Right. when making that deposit. One, and you may know this
from your days being a banker, but one of one of the rules was you had to park in the parking lot of
the bank. Now, that sound might sound silly, like a no-brainer, but the bank that we made our deposit at was in a
much larger parking lot and you had surrounding businesses. So, it was explained to me multiple
times, "Hey, if you pull into the parking lot and every spot is taken, don't park in a neighboring parking lot
and run over. You wait until a spot opens up, then park, and then make the deposit." And we
didn't make the deposit I was making was on a Sunday, so the bank wasn't open, so
I had to make the uh put it in the drop box. >> Yeah, it's called the night drop.
Exactly. But we were doing it during the day and as explained to me, the insurance only covered us during the
day, only covered us if we were in that parking lot. So, that makes a lot of sense to me. Now, I will say in this
particular case, we do know that a spokesperson for Lane Bryant came out very shortly after the
murders and explained that there would only have been a very small amount of cash on hand at the time of the murders
and the robbery because they had made their deposits prior to opening the store. Now, I think
some people took that to mean that the deposits were made at night. That may be. I don't know. I don't have any
reason to dis- credit the spokesperson, but I will say this, regardless of what time they
typically make the deposits, I trust our friend's statement more. One, that we know the person, and two, based off of
this speculation. If this [ __ ] goes down, of course you're going to say, "We keep very little money on it." You don't
want to become a target for somebody else. You don't want somebody seeing this in the news thinking, "Oh, this
person, yeah, they had to kill some people. I would never do that, but they probably got away with a whole bunch of
money." No, you want to get out in front of that. >> Well, it makes sense though if you only
have two employees showing up, you show up. [snorts] You double-check the deposit, you make
the deposit, then you come back and you open up the the store. Yep. Somebody might not know
all those details, so that's why this individual shows up right after opening. All they open the store at 10:00 as long
as I get there within minutes of them opening, there could be a deposit. And then my question would be, well, do we
know how much money was meant to be deposited that day? And what I was told is if you have a manager, it's normally
the manager and like the assistant manager, they count and double-check the deposit. You know, what one looking
after the other. Well, if uh one of the managers isn't there, then one of the associates will do it.
So, who was working that night? Did anybody tell any of their friends or family members
about how much money they were meant to deposit the next day? And like you said,
there was a sale. Was the sale starting that day or was the sale going on? Did they have a lot of traffic the last
couple days? Was it a higher amount made the day before than normally was made? And an
employee that may not regularly close or never closes the store or never opens the store may have no awareness of when
that deposit to the bank is actually delivered. Like when I worked at PacSun in the mall,
you just went in. And at some point you had like a a daily sales number that you quota that you
needed to try to hit. But I didn't know what the store's quota was cuz I didn't work there that long, but
if I would have worked there longer, I probably would have known. I remember working at a guitar store for
many years and I didn't even know that they had like a daily quota. And it wasn't like,
"Oh, we got to make this or we're going to close." It was just like based on what we normally sell, we we need to
make X amount of dollars. Obviously, on the weekend, that was a higher amount than on a Monday. If Tinley Park Police
Department has more information that can be shared, one, you should have done it a long time ago, but let's not
delay it any any further because everybody is saying the same thing. At the time, minutes after, they're saying
suspect is believed to be 29 years old. The description that they released to the public that following day is that
they believe the suspect is between 25 and 35 years old. That killer, if he is still alive, would still be a relatively
young man. Still young man. And it's not yet been 20 years on this case. Right. >> be talking about somebody who's
43 years old, 45 years old, 50 years old. I went back and I wanted to double-check something on the DNA part
of this. And I was very impressed with the state of Illinois. Look, I love my state and I
think that they've done a lot of great things, especially to deter crime and crack down on crime over the years. One
thing that we did was passing a law in 2010 and enacting that law in 2010 that if you commit a felony or if you're
locked up for a felony, we take a DNA sample. Yeah. And you are then in our CODIS system.
Well, my concern was that maybe Illinois didn't do this until 2010 like we did here in Ohio or after
and that's why, you know, cuz everybody says every regular Joe out there, the colonel, yours truly included, says
this guy has committed violent crimes prior, maybe after. Where is he? Why haven't we
found him? What's wrong with the DNA? Do they have DNA? I think they have DNA. Use the damn DNA. And what's impressive
with Illinois is that they had enacted that law back in 2002, back in 2002. So, this was something
that they were doing many years, six years roughly, prior to these murders. And so that puts the likelihood of him
being a violent felon in the state of Illinois at a much lower percentage. However, I did find within
that study that persons were saying that they are fully aware that that they believe approximately 2,000 inmates
were released and DNA was not connected or collected from those inmates before they were
released. And it simply came down to the law came into effect and they didn't have the manpower resources, the
collecting uh test to to collect those before those persons were released. Now, what what I find to be really
interesting about that is if the general public's idea is right that this guy was a violent offender and
the profilers were right that he had been locked up before, what if he's in that batch of 2,000?
That's not a big batch of people. So, the other part of that, Captain, that I was getting to is what you are
the door that you're knocking down right now is what if he's from another state? What if
he's from another state? To get to Hammond, Indiana or Munster, Indiana from Tinley Park, 25 minutes,
>> [snorts] >> 35 minutes if you're a slow driver taking the long the wrong route. You
could be in Indiana in less than an hour. What if he's a violent felon with a previous conviction from the state of
Indiana? And guess what? What do we know about the state of Indiana? They did not
enact that same DNA felony law in their state until 2018 or 2019. Right. So, 10 or more years after these
murders were committed. One of the things that I admire about you, and you said before we
even started the podcast, before we even recorded the first episode, you said, "I
would like to be a show that covers a case and when we have more information that we revisit those cases,
especially the ones that aren't solved that we feel like we could shine some light on."
This letter that you read was from a listener that is very fascinated with this case,
was actually going back and listening to our episode, which caused her to watch different documentaries online.
And because she worked for this company, she was very fascinated with this case because she had a connection
to it. She felt so compelled by the information that she thought she had that she called in this tip. So, it's
not just something that we're reading to our listeners. This is a tip that has been given to law enforcement, but we
feel like time has passed since we covered it last. It's important to revisit these cases. It's important to
continue to shine light on these cases that aren't solved. We have five individuals that were executed and one
that was almost executed. This case needs to be solved. >> I do want to add here, Captain, that
there is a documentary about this case. I believe it's going to be titled Who Killed These Women: The
Tinley Park Five. And it's slated to come out in February of 2026. In fact, there are some
theaters, some special advanced screenings at select theaters in Crestwood, Illinois and in Chicago,
Illinois. This is on the 3rd of February and the 13th of February. I will let those
people who are interested look that information up. But I I want to point out too that this documentary
is done by documentarian and director Charlie Minn. And while that name may not be familiar with everybody listening
today, I am somewhat familiar with his work. He's done a bunch of true crime documentaries over the years, some
really good ones, ones that we have discussed here on our show. One that we've discussed, Captain, you'll
remember this one is Where Is Robert Fisher? He's a FBI Most Wanted Fugitive. He's
done a documentary on that one as well as Parkland: Inside Building 12, which I thought was
incredibly incredibly well done. And then another one that we've discussed here was the
Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre. He's done a documentary on that one as well. So,
that is due to come out in February. I imagine what that will do is spark a lot of more conversation
about this case. Hopefully, it inspires Tinley Park Police Department to up the ante and release some more
information. And I think it's also going to inspire an off-the-record or two where we continue
the conversation about this horrific case. The public is reminded that the offender remains at large and should be
considered armed and dangerous. Remember what we said, the profilers believe that
he will turn on anyone who attempts to turn him in, may even result in violence or killing that person. So, be very very
careful, but do not allow that to deter you providing information. There is a $100,000
reward that has been established for information leading to the arrest of the offender. The Tinley Park Police
Department has said the reward is not is not dependent upon conviction. And they urge anyone with information to
come forward and reminding you that that information will be kept confidential. The tip hotline is 708-444-5394.
And there's also a tip email, lanebryant. l a n e b r y a n t dot tipline at tinleypark.org.
Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the
beautiful listeners? Yes, we do, Captain. Thank you. This week we are recommending the
unknown darkness, profiling the predators among us, a former FBI profiler examines his most fascinating
and haunting cases. This is by Greg McCrary, one of the profilers that we discussed
here in this case today. And it features some very fascinating cases. Once again, that title is the unknown
darkness by retired FBI profiler Greg McCrary. You don't have to write down that title right now. You can go to our
website truecrimegarage.com, click on the recommended page and view all of our wonderful recommendations
sitting there waiting for you to enjoy. >> Make sure you subscribe to the podcast
and make sure you tell a friend. Until next week. >> Be good. Be kind. And don't litter.
>> [music] [music]

Lane Bryant Murders 2026 /// Part 2

Episode: 898

Part 2 of 2

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

Police have spent millions of dollars trying to catch a man who on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 walked into a Lane Bryant clothing store and murdered five women in cold blood. We need your help to identify this man and locate him. We first covered this case back in 2018. The public is reminded that the offender remains at-large and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. A $100,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest of the offender. The reward is NOT dependent upon conviction. Any information will be kept confidential. Tip Hotline (708) 444-5394 Email LaneBryant.tipline@tinleypark.org

Previous coverage - True Crime Garage episodes #200 and #201 from April of 2018

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved Lane Bryant murders, suspect details, DNA evidence, and investigation challenges.

Key points

The Lane Bryant Murders. Five women were killed in a robbery at the Lane Bryant store, one survived.
The Killer's Unique Hairstyle. The killer had a distinctive hairstyle that could help identify him.
The Profile of the Killer. FBI profilers suggest the killer may have been incarcerated before and is very dangerous.
The DNA Mystery. There's a strong suspicion that police have the killer's DNA, but is it a clean sample?
Inside Knowledge. A former employee suggests the killer may have had inside knowledge of store operations.
Documentary Announcement. A documentary titled 'Who Killed These Women: The Tinley Park Five' is set to release in February 2026.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and good to see you.

Introduction by the host Nick.

0:52WatchJan 14, 2026

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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