Missing Paperboys /// Chapter 2 /// Nebraska Nightmare | Forensic Files

Finding ways to be financially [music] savvy is a smart move, and knowing you could be saving money for the things you
really want, [music] like that dream home or new ride, is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price
Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling, [music] just another way to save with
the Personal Price Plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. [music] Coverage options are
selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.
Lowe's Pros, just because something on the job runs out, doesn't [music] mean you have to. Order it on the Lowe's app.
My Lowe's Pro Rewards members get free same-day delivery on eligible orders over $25. Get the fasteners, hardware,
or tools you need to keep the job moving. Order [music] by 2:00 p.m. and get eligible in-stock items delivered
right to your job site by 8:00 p.m. Members get more at Lowe's. Loyalty program subject [music] to terms and
conditions. Subject to availability. Restrictions and terms at lowes.com/shippingterms. Subject to
change. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
>> In September of 1982, 12-year-old paperboy Johnny Gosch disappeared. Plucked off the street in the early
morning hours and in the early portion of his paper route. Paperboys were not safe in Des Moines,
Iowa, and months later, almost exactly 1 year later, another kid vanished from another street. This time, it was in a
suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. He was the next paperboy. 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle vanished
from his paper route on a Sunday in September under very similar eerily similar circumstances.
He was carrying the Omaha World-Herald. For $0.65, you can read all the news that the
paperboy can deliver. Or for the price of a broken heart and an empty home, you can stand by the window watching the
street and wondering why your little paperboy never came home. This is True Crime Garage.
And this is our look at the missing paperboys, chapter two, Nebraska Nightmare. >> [music]
[music] [music] [music] >> We started off chapter one by talking about the case of Danny Joe Eberle.
[music] So, let's go back to the 18th of September, 1983. Bellevue, Nebraska, just south of Omaha,
Nebraska. >> [music] >> And that September day in 1983 was in fact a Sunday. When 13-year-old Danny
Joe Eberle got up early, he headed down to a nearby convenience store to pick up
his supply of Sunday newspapers to be delivered. He rolled the papers and he put the entire load in a delivery
bag and on his bicycle, he went off to get to his route to make the first delivery. What we would later learn,
Captain, is that this boy only made three stops on that delivery. When some people
on that route didn't receive their papers, they started calling Danny's parents' home. And after receiving more
than one call, his parents headed out to the route to look for Danny. Finding his
bike inside a gated yard. So, inside the gate of a fence of a home on his paper route. Now, they find his bicycle, they
find his newspaper delivery bag with a bunch of papers still stuffed inside. But Danny Joe was nowhere to be found.
His parents drove along the route, they drove beyond the route hoping to find their son, but they could not.
And they very quickly called the Bellevue Police Department and a search began for the boy right away. So, that
that's a little bit of a difference here between these two cases. But as said, things that were put into
place shortly after the time that somebody like Johnny Gosch went missing, and there were others, too,
unfortunately. That there were grieving parents who had been fighting to change the way that law
enforcement receive and react to a missing child call. Yeah, this is something that families are still
fighting for to this day. And we talked about as well those families meeting with people in power,
especially the at the time President Ronald Reagan, who changed the way that FBI, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation would be involved in cases of missing kids, but also murder cases. And today, it's just commonplace.
But back then, it was very new, and it changed the way that the federal law enforcement officers were involved
in such cases. So, the Sheriff's Department is directly involved. This is the Sarpy Sheriff's Department in Sarpy
County, Nebraska. But of course, we have the Bellevue Police Department that is the initial phone call that was made by
the parents. And it was the Bellevue Police Chief, as I understand it, that said, "You know what? We got to contact
the local FBI field office here in Nebraska." Agents were immediately assigned to help with the search for the
little boy. And which would It would at some point shift from a search to an investigation
into the boy's disappearance. And a lot of that has to do with the circumstances of the boy's home life,
school life. They found no problems, no reasons for him to run away. And immediately, they started getting
suspicious that this could be, and hopefully not, that it wouldn't turn out to be something exactly like the Johnny
Gosch case. Now, keep in mind, this is almost exactly 1 year later. In fact, it's about 13 days beyond the 1-year
anniversary that Johnny Gosch went missing from Des Moines, Iowa. And they had no clue as to where
that little boy, where Johnny had gone. As we had stated, we have Special Agent in charge Herb
Hawkins gets the call. He's running, I believe, two states at this time. With And there's varying
various investigations going on with that branch of the FBI at the time. So, he's going to get his assistant,
Assistant Special Agent in Charge John Evans to be the lead on this. Which Evans was
heavily involved in organized crime and and other investigations typically conducted by the FBI. He wasn't so
experienced in murder cases. And that's why they wanted to bring in somebody like Peter Klismet Jr., who had Quantico
training. He had received the FBI profiler training courses. He was But he was still getting acclimated to that
type of investigative work. So, he's still wet behind the ears here, Captain, when he gets this call. And in fact, in
his book, he openly expresses saying like, "Look, I feel like I've had the right training, that I was trained by
some of the best, but I didn't feel like they're calling me an expert when I arrive on the scene." He goes, "I didn't
feel much like an expert arriving to the scene of a missing child case." He was very thankful that they also notified
Quantico, wanting to bring in one of the the the big guns, as we had said yesterday, one of the original mind
hunters, somebody that has done this before. But this was also going to be a bit of a transition period in Robert
Ressler's FBI career as well. Now, the short of it is sadly Danny Joe Eberle was found it was a short time
later just days later that he was located but he had obviously been murdered. So at the time of it's the
fall of 1983 Robert Ressler is at the Michigan State University. He's there to teach at an annual homicide seminar.
Keep in mind he's a graduate of Michigan State University. He says once he gets back to his hotel mind you it's 1983 so
he's not walking around with a cell phone. Once he gets back to his hotel the front desk hands him a message.
And he said as soon as I read it I didn't need any it didn't need any explaining. It just said call the office
immediately. Look that means something has happened. It's something urgent something ugly something that cannot
will not wait. He makes the call and that is when Robert Ressler was told about a young paperboy named Danny Joe
Eberle that had been abducted and later found murdered in Bellevue Nebraska near Omaha.
So they needed Ressler in Omaha to help identify the killer. He is going to be receiving
this call and then in route to Omaha shortly after they find the body. In fact by the time he gets there they
still have to wait for the autopsy results. Now long time listeners of this show
know what it means when these cases the an abducted child missing and then later
found murdered. Our listeners know what it means when these cases are not handled with speed
and coordination. There will be more victims. Ressler's initial reaction to being told as to what was going on there
in Bellevue Nebraska he says I couldn't help but think of the case that had already scarred the
country's conscience. He says almost precisely a year earlier in Des Moines Johnny Gosch had vanished
on a Sunday morning while delivering newspapers. He was never found. I meaning Ressler had spoken with Mr.
and Mrs. Gosch and I had heard the anger directly. The FBI had been slow to become involved.
Ressler says technically the Bureau could not they could point to jurisdiction being
an obstacle. He said with no clear evidence that the crime crossed state lines with
no ransom note there was no real federal hook there for them to become involved especially right away.
But he said look those type of technicalities do not comfort grieving parents. Absolutely not. So in this case
we have paperboy goes out is abducted. We find his bike. The Johnny Gosch case we find the wagon.
Mhm. But this case is different because we find a body. We don't find a body in the Johnny Gosch case. But in the Johnny
Gosch case we have a lot of eyewitnesses. Do we have any eyewitnesses in this case?
We do end up with some potential let's say potential witnesses. So we don't get any witnesses to the actual abduction
Right. >> but we get some witnesses that might be able to provide some insights that could
end up being a lead. Okay so it was two and a half days after what would later be known to everyone as an abduction
that Danny Joe Eberle's body was found. And Ressler's brought in at that time once the body is found. And it Ressler
says at this time you know we've talked about this plenty of times on the show that that at one point in the career his
career he and John Douglas are out busy doing what they called their road schools going
around and teaching different police departments and then assisting in cases if they happened to be there or
via phone when they would get back to Quantico and then receive calls from a detective or police chief that had
something very strange something very difficult to deal with they would become involved but they would do that remotely
from Quantico. Ressler says up until about this time period in his career so we're at 1983 he says much of his
work had been conducted through phones teletype paperwork and second hand descriptions. This call puts him in
Omaha Nebraska Bellevue Nebraska and this is a chance to be on the ground in the middle of an unfolding murder
investigation called in and what we will see is this will become more commonplace after
an investigation like this where you send an FBI or team of FBI agents to another
city to work a case. Right. He says this was stepping out of the classroom and onto the front line. So the Bellevue
police headquarters there had been a task force set up. It's already assembled by the time
Ressler gets there. He says the building had the charged atmosphere of true urgency. Phones are ringing voices are
constant people were moving quickly information arriving faster than it could be absorbed and sorted through. He
said Bellevue was the kind of suburb people imagined when they imagined stability. Modest incomes routines
neighbors who assumed their streets are safe and their children will come home. And of course this case a kid going
missing and then later found dead that normalcy was broken. Was forever broken. Crimes like this don't just take a life
they puncture a community and that community's belief that life is predictable. So let's go back just a
couple days here Captain as you were asking to the day the morning that Danny vanished.
Before dawn on that Sunday morning Danny Joe Eberle woke to start his route. He got dressed. Apparently everything
except his shoes which I found very odd because all reports stated it was quite cold
there that fall in 1983 but it's reported that he liked to go barefoot even when his parents told him not to.
Danny did what he always did he climbed onto his bicycle pedaled to the local convenience store picked up his stack of
newspapers started the folding process and then went out to deliver them along his
route. Danny was 13 years old blondish bright eyed about 5 ft 2 in tall about 100 lb.
He's the son of a post office employee. His older brother delivered papers as well
in that same neighborhood. And folks would say you know seeing the Eberle boys boys out very early in the
morning was usual. It it was part of daily life. At 7:00 a.m. Danny's route supervisor
began getting calls. Papers hadn't arrived. One missing paper might have been a delay he thought.
Several calls meant something else was going on. So the supervisor in this case we have the supervisor goes out to
check. He's looking for Danny or for dropped papers or something like I would guess
if you're mother father or route supervisor you're getting calls like this if you're going
out what would you think would probably happen? Kid got into some kind of bicycle
accident maybe he's laying there on the you know side of the road or sidewalk somewhere
next to somebody's driveway having wrecked his bike gone over front of the handlebars
what have you. That's what this supervisor is looking for. He doesn't find Danny so he calls the Eberle household.
They're already receiving calls too about missing papers or undelivered papers. And the Eberle family says
you know we've we've gotten calls too he's not home. Now very quickly what the parents and supervisor realize the first
three newspapers had in fact been delivered. So Danny did start his route as normal.
He had made it to three houses and then something happened after that third delivery and near what should have been
the fourth drop that's where they found Danny's bicycle propped up beside a fence. The remaining newspapers are
still inside the bag. No signs of a struggle at the scene though. No scattered papers or anything like that.
No obvious diser disturbance. In fact the bicycle looked like it was just propped up against the fence like like
neatly like the way that the owner the carer of the the person caring for the bike
would set it in that manner. Well and this is just not commonplace either. It's if you
have a paper route it's every day rain or shine sleet or snow you deliver the papers but I'd say
maybe once a year there's a situation that the papers might be late but you're not missing
uh No. And that the paper's late is almost always the the kids overslept or did the alarm didn't go off or in
some cases maybe the paper drop off the bundle didn't show up on time. Right. And what would happen as a paperboy is
if they dropped off the papers late you would contact your supervisor and they would tell you well deliver them if
you can, but don't make yourself late for school. So, if you can't deliver them in the
morning, well, then right after school, deliver them then. Mhm. Yeah, the police
were notified as we had said earlier very quickly and in turn they contacted the FBI's Omaha office.
And those early hour searches by just a few people, it it would grow very quickly to many people looking for
this little boy. And of course, they're looking for explanation as to why that they can't
find him that that do not require a predator to play out the equation, right? There
was some brief talk or speculation that maybe Danny might have taken off. That theory was
as I understand it quickly checked, quickly disproved, and they moved on from that. Yeah, cuz it just again,
doesn't make a lot of sense. Deliver a couple papers and then decide to run away. Ah, this is too much for me
today. A massive building-to-building search began. Doors were knocked, yards [snorts] are checked, streets are
combed. Investigators and volunteers, again, we get a lot of volunteers in this search as well. They're hunting for
anything, any trace of the little boy. They were looking for maybe somebody who had spotted someone talking to the boy.
Maybe it it had somebody seen a car stop and talk to the kid while he's on his bicycle. They
they they're not finding any of that. No leads really at all at this point and I'll circle back to what you had asked
in just a minute, but I want to get into this because as we had said, it was just
a couple days that same week Danny's body is found in high grass along a gravel road. This was just about 4 miles
from where his bicycle was located. Just a few miles from the Iowa state line. After arriving in Bellevue, Robert
Ressler wanted to see the location where Danny's body was found. And he said standing there, he's
standing there with Agent Klismet at his side and he says, we could see the gravel road. This would be the
obvious spot where a vehicle would stop. We could see how close the tall weeds were to the gravel road, how visible the
site still was from the road, the major road, if a passerby if a passerby looked
carefully. Now, Ressler noted that there was a nearby crossroads and one road led to a river and he said
that raised questions immediately for him. Right. He said, look, if somebody put a
body here, why not just go to the river where you would place the body in the water and it might
drift off or be better concealed at least. Well, and also destroy evidence. Mhm.
And we get this expert mind there that is already informing detectives, local detectives of what he's seeing and what
his experience is telling him about what they are finding. And he's telling the detectives right away, he's like, I
think that the the offender or offenders made that choice simply out of fear. You know, why why not put him in the
river? Uh he said, the person or persons dumping this body would have to be worried about
headlights from other vehicles. About being seen, about being caught in the act.
Lit up by headlights, exposed. So, he believed that the killer or killers were in a hurry to leave the body and get out
of this location unseen. The public was told Danny had been killed with a knife. That was
technically true, but it really didn't explain the severity of what they found or the
extent of what they found, which is not uncommon. They're not going to release all the details to the public.
But Danny in all reality, unfortunately, wasn't only killed, he was mutilated. He was found face down in the weeds. His
hands and feet were tied behind his body. So, behind his back with rope. His hands were taped as well and there
was tape covering his mouth. He had been stripped down to his undershorts. He had suffered multiple stab wounds to
the chest and back. His neck had been slashed. There was a wound on his shoulder that
looked as if a slice had been taken away. On his left some reports say calf, but other reports
say that it was up on the thigh area. There was some sort of crisscross pattern, almost like like picture like a
tic-tac-toe pattern uh that that investigators found to be odd and again, they wondered if this was
something that was done postmortem to cover up something else, to cover up some detail of the crime
or the attack and his face was battered. So, he had been punched or beaten prior to
being killed. Yeah, it was a brutal mutilation, but it also makes me wonder, too, because
yes, you said he was 5'2" 100 lb probably soaking wet. Vulnerable situation because they're out
on their own, but where are paper boys? They're in neighborhoods and normally neighborhoods have houses that are
closer together. So, there's more of a chance that somebody might see you. More of a chance that somebody might
hear the abduction. But even though, like I said, he's small. He's a young boy, a responsible boy
that's waking up every day to deliver papers. So, there's a possibility that he's
going to put up a fight. And then it makes you wonder like what Ressler was saying, well, why wouldn't
you just dump him in the river? Is that because of fear or is that because they didn't have a great concept of the
location? >> Well, and you asked about witnesses and while we don't have any witnesses to the
abduction or the placement of the body. What we do have is several witnesses who
have accounts that tell police about accounts experiences that they had that could be possibly connected to
this murder case. And the one witness' account that's going to stand out among the others is Danny's older brother. So,
Danny's older brother reported that on his own route prior to his brother going missing, he
believed that on more than one occasion, he had been tailed or followed by a young white male
in a tan car. Now, that's the best description he could provide, but what we do get is
other witnesses who come forward with even less details but some of them believing that either
they were being tailed by somebody similar, similar description or had seen a man
in a vehicle trailing teenage boys from time to time and some of them even describing it as
watching them pacing them. Yeah, then I'd also want to know if I'm law enforcement
has there been any suspicious activities in the weeks leading up to this abduction and murder?
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Learn more at adobe.com/dothatwithacrobat.
More cheese? [music] Say less. The Applebee's O M Cheeseburger is back with even more cheese. So, now you can get
our juicy bacon cheeseburger served on a sizzling skillet of even more cheesy deliciousness.
>> [music] >> Dip your fries in more cheese. Dip your burger in more cheese. And dip your
cheese in more cheese. Applebee's even cheesier O M Cheeseburger for $11.99. Also on our 2 for $25 menu.
Dine-in only for a limited time. Price and participation [music] varies. No substitutions. Offer valid per person
per order. >> [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you,
Captain. The best part about Peter Klismet's book, FBI diary profiles of evil, is
in a case like this. So, there there are many cases that are discussed in that book, but when we're talking about the
Danny Joe Eberle case, Klismet is talking about how he's pretty much receiving on the job
training with Robert Ressler, working hand-in-hand with Robert Ressler on this particular homicide case. And he's But,
he's also in a scenario where the local detectives are looking at him as being some kind of expert. And so, this task
force made up of these FBI agents and detectives are working together really with Robert Ressler, the mind hunter,
being the lead and teaching as he's investigating the case as well. After the body's found, we already discussed
the injuries, the mutilation to our victim here. The FBI, everybody involved have already been to the crime
scene. Now, they're back at the headquarters and they're looking at photographs that were taken from that
crime scene. Photographs of the victim and how he was found. Robert Ressler pointed at the
ropes on the boy's wrist and ankles saying, quote, "People with sadistic inclinations tend to want to completely
immobilize their victim. It gives them a feeling of control, power over their victim, and it lets him do exactly what
he wants without any resistance." End quote. Now, this might seem to our listeners who have been in the
garage looking at these cases for years now as an obvious statement. In 1983 to some of these detectives that are there
working this case, it's not such an obvious statement. It's actually an education. And he told these detectives,
he says, "Here's what I want you to do. I want I want to understand how this happened." He says, "And I definitely
know what happened, but I want to understand why and how this happened. And that was not such a
big portion of any murder investigation at this department at this time. They were always so worried about what
happened, right? He's letting them know, if you if you can concern yourself and figure out how it happened, why it
happened, that might tell you who did this. Right. So, he's putting emphasis on the
ideas of we know who it happened to and where the body of the boy was found. What we need to know is why all of these
things happened. So, he tells the agent, he tells the detectives, "All right, here is what I want you guys to do.
Every one of you has a good understanding of the case, but I want to know why did this guy do what he did?
Did he take a big risk when he grabbed the boy off the street? If he did, what does that tell you? Did he have to use
Did he have to use physical force on the boy or did he have a weapon with him? Right. Where he's able to Right.
>> Where he doesn't have to use the weapon, he's using the weapon as a threat. How
long did he keep the boy? >> Well, you know, I'm I'm going to the our go to our our standby, round up the perverts.
Yeah, and one detail that we did go through, he says to his team, "Look, apparently there wasn't any sex
involved. No rape involved, sexual assault involved. And but he believes, Ressler believes, "Look, that doesn't
mean that it's not sexual in nature, that the crime isn't sexually motivated." And he's asking these guys,
"Are we looking at a crime that was impulsive, spur of the moment, or did this guy do
some prior planning?" Yeah, like I said, what was happening in the weeks before the abduction, but it could be a little
bit of both. This individual is heading to work or heading home from work, Mhm. or heading home from the bar, sees this
paper boy, just notices, sees him multiple times, maybe follows him a little bit on one of the times,
and then starts getting these ideas. Or is this somebody that's from a whole different location and not local to the
crime? >> Well, and the light bulb is going off for these detectives that are essentially learning at the foot of
Robert Ressler. And he says to him, he goes, "You know, look, it Maybe he didn't tie the boy up
this way for complete control or domination. Maybe he did. But, if he didn't tie him up that way for complete
control and domination, then why did he do it? Why did he tie him up that way? He's He's essentially hog-tied. And
Peter Klismet says, "You know, that was a pivotal moment for his career and for him being a young FBI profiler
to think a little bit differently when you're looking at a crime scene, when you're looking at a victim." And
immediately he says to Ressler, he goes, "You know, maybe this maybe this killer
used that because it was something familiar to him. Maybe he grew up on a farm. Maybe he was used to doing this.
Maybe he had experience slaughtering animals." >> Well, we've talked about this before,
too. If you have certain bindings, does that make it easier to move the the body? Exactly. Exactly. There is a
reason why most of these things happen, why the killer or killers made certain choices.
There's not always an absolute reason. It's not always all well thought out, but most of the time there's a reason
why somebody chose something over other options. So, simply, why did the killer do what he did at any given point?
Ressler tells the guys, "That is If we can figure that out, that's going to give us some serious clues into the
motivation behind this guy, what motivated this guy, and who he is." Now, the medical
examiner's report suggested Danny might have been kept alive for as much as a day after his abduction and killed close
to the time when his body was eventually discovered. And as we said, there was no
sexual assault in the usual sense, um as it was put by the detectives on this case. I I want to circle back to the um
because I have the benefit We have the benefit of knowing some of the future events and results of this
investigation. I'm That whole statement of that Danny might have been kept alive for as much as a
day or killed very close to the time of when his body was discovered. The later report suggests something
completely different. And actually, it falls into the statistics, the unfortunate statistics that we know that
often times the a young victim, especially if it's a child abduction, when murdered, there
it's it's relatively quickly after the abduction. So, they they kind of go back and forth the when you examine this the
entirety of this investigation, they're really all over the the shop on their idea of, "Well, was he killed quickly?
Was he kept for a couple days? Was he killed right before he was found?" They kind of go all around
on that idea. And I don't think they ever really came up with a great understanding of that. Now,
>> Well, like you said though, this is extreme violence, and then you have to question, was this done
postmortem or not? And then I think that plays into the psychology, too. Was this
victim similar to the the killer? And was that the reason for the extreme violence or
was this Was this victim some kind of representation of something negative in this killer's
world, if that makes any sense? Well, and we don't get a great breakdown of what they determined to
be postmortem wounds. I I'm guessing that's a little bit to do with just the lack of technology. Yes, or if they do
know that, they've chosen not to release some or most of that information to to the public. Uh one One thing that kind
of cracked me up here when reviewing this case and going through all of Robert Ressler's information on this
case. Again, it's the time frame, right? 1983. And he says that when he's there collecting information at the crime
scene and about the victim and the wounds to the victim, he says he's putting all of that into VICAP
computer. We've talked about VICAP system on the show many times. But, he's saying because of technology at the time
and because of the limited resources at the time, he's not actually plugging it into the VICAP
computer. He goes, "I'm putting this information into the VICAP computer in my head." He said, "I'm comparing this
case and what I'm seeing here to all the other cases that I've worked, some that
have similarities and some that don't, and and trying to figure out what have I learned in those previous cases that I
can apply to this case." Because as said, he says this right away, and our listeners know this, you get a call like
this, you know that there's a very high chance that there's going to be a future
victim or future victims. So, you are working not just against the clock of a typical murder investigation, but you
are working against the clock of when if this guy does act again or these people
act again, when will that be? Right. And I got to beat that clock. Well, cuz what
we we've heard so often is when these people kill an individual, especially if it's the first time, they
kill the individual and they think that the cops are going to rain down on them right away. And then that doesn't
happen. And they go through this time period where they're a little scared that they might get caught and then that
wears off. And but that seems to wear off faster the more victims that the this killer has. Well, and the information
that we talked about with the other boys saying that they thought they had been followed or thought they may
have seen somebody following a boy, that information must have carried a lot of weight
with Agent Ressler because within just a day or about 36 hours of him arriving on the scene, he starts to
put together a preliminary profile of the likely offender or offenders. And that information is a is part of his
profile. So, his profile, his initial profile reads as such, saying, "I, Robert Ressler, believe the
killer is a young white male, likely in his late teens or early 20s. The body dump looked risky and imperfect,
suggesting inexperience." He says, "The offender likely had access to a vehicle and a license, but the
crime did not show the practiced competence associated with a seasoned offender. He says, "I think it's
possible the killer may have known Danny, but only casually. He may have known him enough to approach
him without triggering any type of alarm. And he could have talked him into a vehicle voluntarily.
Or he says a car or possibly a van. He also says, "At this stage, he could not rule
out multiple offenders or the possibility of more than one offender." He said, "If it is more than one, he
would believe that it would be all young males to be involved. No more than three total." He also said,
"In considering a sexual motive, he says, "Perhaps an attempted assault was met with resistance, but he did state
that the absence of defensive wounds complicated this picture or that that being
likely." He said that the body's disposal suggested panic. Remote, but not carefully concealed as if the
offender needed the body gone quickly rather than to be hidden well. He also states that the bindings mattered. The
ropes and tape indicated control, but the overall event suggested partial planning mixed with impro-
improvisation. Yeah. I I don't know how much they released on these bindings, but I'd want to know,
are they consistent with each other? >> He says that he he suspects that the offender
is local, likely single, not educated beyond high school, possibly in menial work or unemployed. The rope work
suggested someone used to tying and handling practical materials. So, tying knots
or experience with rope and maybe specifically this type of rope. Well, location matters and so thinking that
it's local, that makes sense to me because of the time period cuz this individual either had to
stay up and stay awake Yeah. for this time period or they had to wake up early. And like we said, if we believe
that these other paper boys were saying that, "Hey, I had a situation where I thought
somebody was following me." If we think those are connected, again, that's multiple times that the person is
either staying up or getting up early. And then it would also make you wonder what kind of shift,
if this person had a job, what kind of shift were they working? Were they a first shift employee? Were they a second
shift employee? Because then you could go, was the panic for the disposal of the body because
they're afraid they're going to get caught or is the panic because they have to get somewhere? And whether that Now,
Ressler said he believed that this person was probably single, but it's like did he have to get somewhere to go to
work or did he have to get somewhere to go back to to be with his family? Or it could be
a individual that's living, you know, like a late teen, early 20s guy living with his family and to go, "Well, if I'm
not back by the time everybody wakes up, they're going to be suspicious of what I'm doing." Well, and for
Look, I understand that it sometimes these likely offender profiles are not very satisfying
or in some cases >> not very detailed, but what I think is so fascinating about this particular
profile is as we said, by this point when he's delivering this profile, this this is him telling the detectives that
are going to be working this case. This is him telling the police chief, the sheriff, the people in power, not just
not some deputies, not some uh beat cops, not the newspaper, not the parents. And this is not some you're looking for
a single white male and he's a loner. Right. Uh that it's not that. This is This is pretty detailed information. In
fact, it's over a page long and he's delivering this within 36 to 48 hours at most
to after having arrived on the scene. I mean, the case is completely new to him until he steps
off that that airplane. Right, but sometimes you just have to jot down these notes and thoughts in the moment and you
can then go back and edit later. >> Well, true. I mean, the like John Douglas says that the a profile is
living, breathing. It can be altered and should be altered when new information or better information is found. But in
this case, as said, he's he's there a day and a half and delivering this information to
the people that will be working the case, the police and the sheriff's department. And And I'm not done with
the profile. He goes on to say that >> please. He says, "One detail remains central to the case. The boy stripped to
his undershorts without conventional sexual assault." He says, "In my experience, that combination often
pointed to a young male offender with little genuine sexual experience, someone driven toward domination,
humiliation, and fantasy rather than adult sexual completion." Right. >> He says, "The mutilation on the victim
suggests deviant fantasies that didn't erupt suddenly." He says, "The offender likely had chronic sexual problems, a
history of deviancy, a and might be an avid consumer of pornography. The offender might have experienced recent
stress such as a breakup, job loss, being dropped from school, family trouble, and might have been absent from
work for days before or after the crime." Right. The abduction's early hour suggests a person not accountable
to a spouse or attentive household. Th- That's a long way of saying this guy lives alone. And he goes on to say,
"Sometimes offenders act early after being awake all night drinking, building courage." He also talked about what he
referred to as something that every investigator learns the hard way. He says, "The abduction site is often not
the murder site and the murder site is often not where the body is found." He says, "The place where the body is
discovered becomes the crime scene because it yields the most evidence. But the mechanics of the abduction and
the killing remain hidden." He says, "In Danny's case, he believed that the victim was killed elsewhere and
dumped near the river." And he also warned the investigators about offender behavior that he said he had seen
before. He said the killer might insert himself into the investigation, hovering
around the dump area, going to the funeral, going to the gravesite, going to the neighborhood, seeking proximity
and information. Somebody that wants to be close to the investigation. Somebody that wants to know what the
investigators know or what they don't know. And he advised that the artist conceptions should not
be made public. So, this is This is interesting because in the Gosh case, we have
that composite sketch that they choose to hold back based off that they didn't know how accurate it would be, but they
eventually release it to the public. Right. >> Here, what Ressler's saying is what what
I think it means, I'm kind of reading between the lines here, Captain, is I think what he's saying is, you know,
those witness reports of of some guy, a young man in a vehicle following other kids? He's putting a lot of weight and
credibility into those statements. And so much so that they they put together a composite sketch or started to build one
at the very least. He's saying two things. Don't release my profile to the public and don't release a composite
sketch yet to the public. He said because the chance that the killer or killers would want to insert themselves
into the investigation, you need to give them time to come forward. That if you do this now, it could scare them off.
Yes, he's forewarned that he might be recognized. >> Well, and I know we bring up the Delphi case a
lot, but it's like if you hold certain things back, then even though this perpetrator killer might insert
themselves, they might insert themselves again because when you hold back, the more evidence that you hold back, the
bigger the question mark is to the killer of what do they know and what don't they know? Mhm. And then
what you were saying is like, well, he's not killed in the location that he was disposed of. So, but that
what makes me wonder then, well, is the crime scene inside of a vehicle, a car, van, creepy camper,
truck? >> Well, you mean the murder scene because what we what we're going to have here is
something we've talked about plenty of times, multiple crime scenes, right? The crime scene is going to be where the kid
was when he was abducted. >> Right. Whether whether that was violently or not violently, the vehicle
used to transport him from the abduction site, and if he was killed anywhere other than that vehicle, now we have an
additional crime scene, and whatever vehicle moved him from where he was killed to where he was found. So,
multiple crime scenes. And what I love about when you get a when Douglas and Winn Rassler are able to
provide law enforcement with such a detailed profile of the likely offender, that they don't just give them that Oh,
here's my profile. This is the guy that you're looking for. They usually give them some
strategy, some some things that they can use to either find the guy, locate the guy, figure out who it is,
>> or draw them out. Things that they could use with during the course of their investigation that would be to their
advantage later. So, like one item would be don't release the composite sketch, don't release my profile yet, give him a
chance to come forward and talk to you. Give him a chance to come forward and insert himself into the investigation.
Now, here, he also said So, in Bellevue, one of the big things that you have in Bellevue is an Air
Force base. Rassler told the task force two things. He goes, I think the rope is extremely important.
He goes, I don't know this, but I believe the rope to be unique, to be rare, and if it is, if you figure
out where that rope came from, you might be able to find your guy. He said at the very least, if you can find
more of that rope with somebody, then that's probably your guy. Right. And then two, he also told them that he
thought the Air Force base had very much to do with the offender. And he told them, he said, you need to
start going back through the records and find out who arrived here within the last 6 months. Who got transferred here?
Who started working there within the last 6 months? He he And he told them, he goes, I really think He goes, I don't
know what that number will be. That's for you guys to sort out. It could be a few people, could be a hundreds of
people. He goes, but I think you're going to find the guy in that list, on that list. Well, what would that base
have? It would have males in the age range that Rassler was looking for. So, you you go in there, you you line them
all up, you have them drop their pants, you look for a bruised banana, you look for all the perverts, and you
go, okay, let's let's question these guys. Yeah, I think one of the problems became here that that number of
transfers or airmen coming into that base was was a significant number within the
last 6 months. The other thing cuz what you what you would think to do and what wasn't done early on in the Long Island
investigation, the Long Island serial killer investigation that seemed to be the big break in the case that seemed to
be the moment too where everybody goes, Oh, really? That's what they did? That's
how they found the guy? Why didn't Why didn't they do that to start with? You know, in in that case, you had a couple
things to cross-reference. You knew a general area where he had gone to pick up one of the
victims, and that a male, a very large male, was described to police as being a John,
and that very large male drove a unique vehicle. Yeah. And really, the big break
in that case was after other investigators and better investigators took over that
case, they went back to that idea and said, you know what? Let's How about we just just to check a box, even if it's
not Let's run down this lead and see if it's something or nothing. Let's find a really big guy that owns a
unique truck. And they did, and it turns out that was their killer. Now, here, well, allegedly, we have to say, right?
He's not been convicted Well, I mean, it's look Well, they're suspecting that he's going
to plead guilty, so to seven of the murders. In this case, you have more than one
I would like to know if those if those kids, those teenagers were all describing and giving a very similar
description of the vehicle, of the young white male in the tan car tailing kids,
because if they're giving a very similar description and you're and you're hearing it time and time again, oh, it's
a four-door vehicle, it's a sedan, it's a you know, don't know what model it is,
but it might be this make or that make. You have, like you said, the age range of the majority of the folks at that Air
Force base are going to be in the age range of Rassler's likely offender. Now, you have
a tan vehicle. You could cross-reference that information and go, well, even though we've had hundreds, if not a
couple thousand people in and out in the last 6 months, uh how many of them had a vehicle that
matched that description or access to a vehicle that matched that description? Yeah, and I look, I think Rassler is a a
genius. I think John Douglas is a genius. Though the only thing here is when he talks about a transfer, I I understand
where he's coming from cuz he the idea is, well, if well, one, why were they transferred? Was it for some deviant
reason? So, uh you know, it wouldn't be the first time that the military's, you know,
swept under the rug a evil individual. A evil individual. But where I would kind of go against
this idea, and it might be somebody that's been there longer, is we don't know how
because he said inexperience. So, if there is inexperience, how long did the escalation take to
go from uh curious mind to killer. And what I mean by that is, okay, well, I went out
drinking, so now I I drive around a little bit. Oh, I spotted some paper boys out on their routes.
Then at some point, now I'm following them. Right? And and and what's the escalation? And then also, you know,
no-brainer, did any of these individuals feel threatened or did Was there any action other than being followed take
place? Yeah, I other than one s- one version of a story where the male may have got out of the vehicle, I don't
recall there being anything other than kids being suspicious of seeing a car. Because here's the deal. Look, you're on
a bike or you're walking, you're not traveling very fast. Cars are much faster than bicycles and and people
walking. Bipeds, as they call them. >> Yeah. Um Depends on who's riding the bike, though. I guess it
depends on the clunker, too, but the >> [laughter] >> it I think what would be obvious, these
are teenagers, these are these are kids that are not toddlers. It It I think it look can be fairly obvious when a car is
tailing someone on a bicycle, especially somebody walking. Right. Um you would have to be traveling at a very low rate
of speed. And then to circle back to what you had just mentioned about the deviant behavior. Okay, so that's part
of the profile that's interesting and where I think you have to read between the lines, and I don't think Rassler
made any of these detectives read between the lines because he's there to catch this guy and catch him with the
quickness. So, part of that profile says the mutilation suggested the deviant fantasies didn't erupt suddenly, meaning
they had been there for a long period of time. He said the offender likely had chronic sexual problems, a history of
deviancy, and might be an avid consumer of pornography, and then goes on to say the offender might have experienced
recent stress, breakups, job loss, and so on, family trouble. What he's saying is
even though his profile, he's telling you that this guy lives alone, he's not what you would be
looking for is somebody that at some point lived with this guy. Or if he is somebody that lives on the Air Force
base, he likely has a roommate, and this is behavior that would be recognized by
somebody that lived with this offender at one time. Yeah, which again, if you're on this base,
your superiors have the right to check your property. And if you have a roommate that won't stop molesting
himself, this might have been reported to the higher-ups. Yes, and we're looking for a knife that the killer may
have kept. We're also looking for additional rope that matches the bindings on our victim. The evidence
that was collected at the body discovery scene, of course, was sent off to the lab for
testing. The rope is going to be something that they will be testing. They the immediate
response and findings was that the rope that was analyzed did not match like known samples that they had on hand.
They couldn't So, they the scientific findings were lining up with Ressler's suspicions that the rope could be
unique, that it was possibly rare. And again, that's going to be key evidence in your investigation. We do
know that Danny's older brother and some of those other witnesses were hypnotized.
Uh a hypnosis team was brought in from Texas to hypnotize these witnesses uh to try to recover
additional details, but the report is little new information emerged from that technique.
And eventually, Robert Ressler returned to Quantico. And eventually, Agent Klismat returned to Iowa while the task
force continued their work looking for the killer of Danny Joe Eberle. But it was
in early December when Robert Ressler was in the state of Alabama. He was doing some teaching in Alabama. He
receives a second call related to this homicide. This time it is a call from the assistant agent in charge. We
mentioned his name prior, Captain. His name's John Evans. And John Evans is reporting to Robert
Ressler that another boy had been abducted again near Omaha, Nebraska. And the fear that Robert Ressler warned the
task force about that the killer of Danny Joe Eberle, that he will do it again, seemingly had now become fact.
>> [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage for this series,
[music] Missing Paper Boys. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. And join us back here in
the garage for the conclusion of this series next week. >> And until [music] then, be good, be
kind, and don't >> [music] [music] [music] [music]

Missing Paperboys /// Chapter 2 /// Nebraska Nightmare

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

In the early eighties middle America experienced tragedies that no parent could imagine. Newspaper boys were disappearing. They would step out into the dark of the early morning hours to deliver the daily news to their neighborhoods and some of them did not return. It started in Iowa and then moved to Nebraska. Kids were plucked off the street just a few steps into their routes and some have vanished forever. One year after Johnny Gosch went missing, Danny Joe Eberle was abducted during his early morning paper route.

More True Crime Garage can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions with our show - Off The Record.

True Crime Garage merchandise is available on our website’s store page.

Follow the show on Insta @TrueCrimeGarage

Thanks for listening and thanks for telling a friend. Be good, be kind, and don‘t litter.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

The episode details the abduction and murder of paperboy Danny Joe Eberle, highlighting investigative efforts and profiling of the suspect.

Key points

The Disappearance of Danny Joe Eberle. In September 1983, 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle vanished while delivering newspapers, sparking a frantic search.
Ressler's Urgent Call to Action. FBI agent Robert Ressler is called to assist in the investigation of a missing child.
The Impact of a Missing Child. The case of Danny Joe Eberle highlights the emotional toll on families and communities.
Brutal Mutilation. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and severe injuries, indicating a brutal attack.
Witness Accounts. Several witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man following young boys in the area.
Ressler's Profile. Robert Ressler creates a detailed profile of the likely offender within 36 hours of the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Paperboys were not safe in Des Moines, Iowa.

Introduction to the dangers faced by paperboys.

2:25WatchApr 8, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.