Nancy Eagleson /// Murder Investigation /// 609 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
is here to sprinkle a little magic dust on the situation here is the captain this magic does has my allergies growing
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all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
[Music] foreign [Music] these kinds of stories from time to time and it never gets any easier
stories that involve the senseless murder of children last week we told the True Crime tale of
an innocent little child walking to church no less taken off the streets just a couple of
blocks from her home and then executed her body discovered just a few hours later in a Ravine and a forest preserve
what kind of monster could shoot a little girl in the head then just one day later and two states
away two girls walking home one of them is grabbed stolen in the night just four houses away from her own
she met a similar fate as the first girl was found just a short drive from where
she was abducted what kind of monster could kidnap one sister in front of the other and in
plain view of so many houses only to leave her body and the cold dark woods the answer in both cases
is the kind of monster who was left to walk around a free man while early on it seems investigators
were looking for a connection between the two murders but after a few days they failed to find
one so the two homicide investigations parted and went their separate ways police in Chicago landed on the theory
that a local man who likely committed several similar crimes was probably responsible for the murder of the little
girl who never made it to church that Saturday morning in Ohio the sheriff and the people of the Tiny
Town of Paulding could never quite agree was it a local man or someone driving through who spotted two sisters walking
in the dark and then forever took one away the individuals responsible for these
heinous acts never paid for these crimes not these crimes anyway now today we continue to look for these
monsters because even if they themselves are dead Justice still has not been served
on that terrible weekend back in November of 1960 [Music] evil one twice this is true crime garage
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] last week we told you about the horrifying abduction and murder of two
girls Gloria kowalowitz in Chicago who was just nine years old and also Nancy eagleson a 14 year old from Paulding
Ohio early on the two murder investigations shared the same suspect this was 17 year old Robert Lee Stovall
who was questioned about both murders extensively this after he was arrested in Indiana found by police there
sleeping in a stolen car the car he was found in was reported stolen from the Chicago area police
wondered if Robert had stolen the car and killed the girl in Chicago before leaving the state and while traveling
through Ohio spotted Nancy and was also responsible for her murder all before turning around and heading back to
Illinois police determined that Robert Stouffville lived in Jacksonville Illinois and was recently released from
the State Mental Hospital there this of course did not go along with Robert Lee stovall's Story who first told officers
that he lived in Montrose Michigan and was a mechanic for the General Motors Corporation
when he was arrested for the stolen vehicle the state trooper discovered blood stains on the inside of stovall's
coat and on his trousers and that is how he found himself involved in not one but
two homicide investigations Robert Lee Stovall had a lot of miles on him for a 17 year old he looked a little too
rugged and too dirty for 17 and frankly probably could have passed for 23 or 24 years of age
he was described as a goateeed beatnik type and he told officers what they called fantastic stories about his
whereabouts that weekend he told police that the car was not stolen and in fact he had borrowed it from his sister or
maybe it was his sister's boyfriend but of course it wasn't his sister or even her boyfriend's vehicle the car was in
fact a stolen car he told police that his clothing became blood-stained in a Tavern brawl in Detroit
investigators took note of Stovall having been a patient at the mental hospital and described him as a
psychopathic liar stovall's clothing was sent to the Chicago crime laboratory for examination
Robert Lee stouville was charged with Otto larceny but he quickly and quietly Fades from the newspapers and both
murder investigations without the public being told exactly why but we can look at these cases and arrive at some
possible conclusions last week here in the garage the intention was to solely focus on and
explore the Nancy eagleson murder the Ohio case in just two episodes however Gloria's case is a part of the
story and again still unsolved so that warranted further examination to tell a more complete story we decided to go to
four episodes and take a really good look at both cases this week we will really be focusing in on Nancy
eagleson's case so why would the authorities move on from Robert Lee stovel and both murder
investigations well consider the evidence Stovall is arrested about five miles east of LaPorte Indiana so
proximity doesn't really put him up front and center on either murder or does it but the car he was found
sleeping in was reported stolen from Chicago so the car puts him at the center of Gloria's case correct but in
Gloria's case they also have a decent amount of evidence remember that they have a finger and or palm print we say
either because it was reported both ways from all that I have reviewed I believe
that it's likely that they had both a fingerprint and a partial palm print this was found on the victim's purse
there was a tire track found at the scene where Gloria's body was recovered we know the blood-stained clothes were
being examined and stovall's shoes were sent off for analysis as well they were checking mud from the shoes law
enforcement knows he's from Illinois and now he's saying he got on this bar fight
in Detroit well he would have to go through Ohio to get to Detroit exactly so with this evidence they would have
ways of not necessarily clearing stoval but they may have ways of moving on from
him from Gloria's murder because of the evidence now one real troubling thing about
Stovall being a good suspect in Nancy eagleson's case is the timing of everything the captain just pointed out
that the car was stolen in Illinois and then he says he was up in Detroit he would have had to go through Ohio at
some point and unfortunately Northwest Ohio is where he would need to travel through and Nancy eagleson was murdered
in northwest Ohio but the troubling thing for him to be a good suspect in Nancy's case again is
the timing the reports are not really clear here on what time Robert Lee Stovall was picked up by police in
Indiana just that it was Sunday night well we know that Nancy was abducted at approximately 740 to 7 50 p.m that
Sunday right I'm not really wondering about what time he was arrested there because the port
is not terribly far from Paulding but time and distance alone could potentially eliminate stove from having
committed the Nancy eagleson homicide to give a little more perspective depending
on current day routes from Paulding to five miles east of Laporte where he was picked up
it's about a two hour and 30 minute to closer to three hours drive so if he's picked up 30 minutes one hour or 90
minutes after Nancy was abducted it makes it very difficult in a impossible for Stovall to be responsible
for Nancy's murder the other thing too is he tells the story of being involved in a bar fight in Detroit Michigan
and I know they are calling him a liar and he's been telling these air quotes fantastic stories but is there a chance
that upon further checking law enforcement is able to determine that yes he was in a bar fight in Michigan
why or whatever the cause police in both cases moved on from Robert Lee Stovall well just because he's a known
Psychopathic liar doesn't mean that he's a psychopathic killer why or whatever the cause police in both cases moved on
from Robert Lee Stovall so will we as well so the next item on our Nancy eagleson
investigation timeline is a strange one Captain this is when it is reported that
quote authorities admitted their investigation of the slaying of Nancy eagleson was pretty well at a standstill
note the date of this statement this is on November 16th Nancy was killed on the
13th the body was found in small hours of the 14th how are we already at a standstill right
is this the sheriff telling us less than 72 hours into the investigation that the
cases already gone cold or maybe he's telling us that he's incompetent you have to wonder is this comment more in
direct relationship to connecting the two cases that we've already discussed well that's a good point the koalowitz
case in Chicago and the Paulding case of Nancy eagleson and then the suspect Robert Lee Stovall altogether because
he's in the news quite a bit for those first two days he Fades from the news and it's at this same time that
we have the sheriff this is Sheriff Keeler in Paulding Ohio saying the case is pretty much at a standstill well even
if this is where you're at because look you know there's that show you just brought it up off air the show The First
48 The First 48 being the most important well yeah I guess they're really important in this case
but even if you came to a standstill after a couple days you don't need to address this to the media yeah this is
something that you write in your notes to not say yeah to the newspaper reporters and what's funny do not tell
them we don't know what we're doing we got nothing in our investigation and what's interesting too is the Articles
themselves are quite short so there's no room for explanation as to what that statement means what it's in direct
relationship to and I'm sure that's the trouble right when you when you speak to
somebody else and you're talking about an investigation or you're talking about something as important as this you are
then relying on them to understand that information correctly and then deliver it properly to the
audience and who knows Sheriff Keeler may have gone into great description and great detail about what
he meant and what he was talking about and those words just failed to make it to the Articles right so we got to look
at it and say well maybe Keeler did know what he was doing maybe the person that
wrote the article painted him in a poor light or didn't know what they were doing all right Captain so should we do
a review of the timeline simply because it's been a few days since most people have listened to Nancy's case or should
we do a review of The Evidence first I'm going with what's behind door number one
let's start with the timeline I like it I like it I'll tell you what why don't we do kind of both at the same time
considering that we just pointed out not too long ago how the timeline can be evidence itself well that wasn't the
options you gave me right so Captain approved Dude abides let's move on whatever you want the timeline is as
such November 13th 19 1960 around 2PM Nancy and her sister leave home to see a movie after this movie the girl stopped
for a soft drink and then went to the bowling alley before heading home on foot this is in the 7 PM hour closer to
8 P.M the two girls noticed a car is following them the car stops to ask them if they would like a ride and we know
that Nancy the older sister who's 14 explains to the driver no we are getting close to our home we are only a few
houses away between 7 40 pm and approximately 7 50 p.m Nancy is abducted by the man driving
the car right in front of her sister Cheryl Cheryl is very little at this time she's
only five years old she says that the man threw Nancy into the back seat of his car
let's examine this this is very bizarre to me we know from covering so many of these cases that the perpetrator
especially in an abduction what they want to do is control their victim this man does not want Nancy to escape
this man wants to control her yet according to our surviving Witness the man threw her into the back seat of
the car and of course he's going to have to drive the car from the front seat this complicating the situation of
trying to control her as he's fleeing from the abduction scene well it's possible that there's somebody in the
back seat that she didn't see that is one thing that I always thought there could there be somebody that was maybe
lying down or concealing themselves in some Manner and helping and assisting and this wasn't just a single
perpetrator that there was more than one person involved the other thing too that
we also have to consider is this is a lot of things happening very quickly Cheryl explained to us
us two garage guys here that she was already afraid when she felt the presence of the vehicle following them
and so maybe the memory is not spot on maybe it's not 100 percent that is her story that's what she stuck
to for all of these years so we just have to believe it but she was five she was five years old and again terrified
at the situation yeah and you can't blame her if her memory isn't correct if she doesn't remember every detail my my
thought would be is this a two-door car or a four-door car the witness Cheryl she says that it was a four-door vehicle
because that makes more sense on tossing her in the in the back because it'd be easier to actually do that
anybody with a two-door car knows that you'd have to lift up the seat and you know move things around just to get into
the back seat and maybe has he set up this situation so that his cars kind of rigged like a police car where if you
put somebody in the back seat they can't open the doors anyway right I mean we know that other perpetrators other
Killers have outfitted their vehicles or rigged them up so that the passenger or
the victim or the abducted person is at a significant disadvantage once they are
inside the vehicle Ted Bundy altered his vehicles in many different ways right Edmund Kemper did something as simple as
taking a little chapstick a little you know one of the little chapstick things and wedging it down in
the door handle so when you try to pull open the door using the handle it wouldn't go all the way you couldn't
pull it open all the way and get you know allowing the vehicle door to open and maybe this killer had a destination
spot because like we know she's found not that far from where she was abducted so was it let me put her in the back
seat I'll drive as fast I can to that spot and then I get out of the car to controller so after midnight on the 14th
this is around 2 A.M Nancy's body is found by hunters now let's pause and hone in on this for a minute right the
abduction location was in a housing area of State Route 111. the spot where Nancy
was taken from was well lit she was abducted in full view of seven houses the state route runs between the Indiana
state line and the City of Defiance Ohio most of this route is a rural two-lane Highway and passes through both farmland
and Residential Properties the body recovery location is a rural wooded area near Junction
Ohio so Nancy's body was found by hunters approximately 100 feet off of Paulding County Road
176. this is just seven miles from Nancy's home and the abduction location right and as we explained last week
this road takes a couple of Curves but it's pretty much a straight shot if you stayed on Route 111 and just didn't turn
left to continue on to Route 111 because it cuts there and it goes left if you just went straight ahead
you're now on Paulding County Road 176. so it's essentially the same road now what is weird here captain
is I walked the abduction scene with Cheryl and she explained everything as she remembered
it from that horrible night back in 1960 right then afterward she got her car I got mine and I followed her to where the
body was recovered and I had a friend riding shotgun with me and we had two very different opinions on the distance
between the two locations I thought that it was a very quick drive I was like shockingly surprised at how quick it
seemed like we went from abduction site to where the body was later recovered right so so quick in such a short
distance that I was really surprised that somebody that was committing such a horrible crime and that would want to
get away with it would would not have driven further or to a more this is a secluded location but again
because you're essentially on the exact same road it doesn't feel so secluded the person that was riding shotgun with
me thought that it seemed like a very long drive so two very different perspectives and
my friend said that they were just picturing themselves being in the back seat of this criminal
this murderer's car and being scared being terrified and they felt that the minutes
felt like much more real question for you were you talking to your friend as you did this drive
because briefly I was more looking around and trying to make some observations I was
gonna say maybe your story was a little long-winded and they're like oh man this
this is a long trip but it was as we got close like I was unsure of the exact location of where they recovered the
body right and when I saw the brake lights come on and I saw Cheryl her vehicle stop in front of me and parked
to the side of the road that's that's when it occurred to me I was like oh snap we're there already this is that
was incredibly fast and I had seen it and reviewed it prior on a map right so I knew we weren't
going a great distance but it just seemed like a like a two-minute drive and according to Cheryl's statement when
the guy took off with Nancy in the back seat he speeds off so this dude was likely traveling much faster than I was
again I was a little shocked that that the perpetrator didn't go further but again as you pointed out last week
Captain there could be another crime scene that we are unaware of he could have in fact taken her to another
location and then brought her and and disposed of her in the area where she was found
looking at the scene and and being told what I was told from the family as far as what they found back in 1960 it looks
to me like my gut feeling says no that he abducted Nancy rushed off to that spot that spot may have been
predetermined may not have been predetermined by our killer but the way that they described the what
would have been probably tire tracks and they found paint on a tree stump that was located near her body
they believed at the time that the paint may have come from the perpetrator's vehicle that he didn't see the tree
stump we're talking there are no lights out there even today right let alone 1960.
and that he likely didn't see the tree stump and either hit it with his vehicle brushed up against it somehow leaving
paint from his vehicle to the tree stump one thing that's a pisser here though my
friend is nobody seems to be able to recall what color paint it was I was told it might be this color it might be
that color I'm choosing to leave out both of those colors because nobody seems to be certain
as to what color it could have been we have our witness Cheryl who said that it she
believed it was either a black car or a dark green car now neither of those colors match up with the color of paint
that people thought it could have been back in 1960. it definitely seems like a possible misstep in this investigation
but if it's seven miles away in this murderer's driving high speeds it's going to take him less than seven
minutes to get there so I would go with you on the idea that it's a that's a shorter ride but again we don't know if
they went somewhere else let's go back to we're throwing the victim in the car we don't know if there's anybody in the
car to control her is it possible that she started fighting him off and he had to pull over very likely that
he lost control of the victim and he had to pull over to straighten out the situation and again that would mean that
this was a location that he didn't determine in advance we know that criminals are typically
you know nobody likes when I say this I don't know why but uh I I find that the majority of criminals typically are
rather dumb and who knows this could have been an impulsive act he sees two girls walking
alone he's not really planned anything out grabs one of them drives off with the
intention of going to a specific location but as you said she starts to fight him off he starts to lose control
of the situation and says oh I gotta stop the car right here this is one of those crimes where you
review it and you can argue five six seven points of reason that say this was a premeditated well thought out
crime and then on the very flip of all those items that you just list there you could say well that points to an
impulsive crime a crime that wasn't really planned out of love [Music] [Music] [Applause]
all right we are back mates cheers to the people in the front to the back side he's back I'm back people are laying on
the ground in the air pants on the ground pants on the ground looking like a fool
are looking very cool that's what I thought or maybe you should be arrested if your Panther I was looking very cool
with my on the ground ground let's continue on this uh timeline and the set of evidence
while we're going through this evidence in this timeline I want to make sure that we take a little bit of a stop here
to kind of hone in on what Cheryl's description was of the man now one thing that I did not appreciate
in my research of this case the sheriff Keeler he's a weird dude because I've asked a lot of people about Sheriff
Keeler and remember he is the main investigator here he's he's leading the investigation he was out searching for
Nancy that night that she was abducted and it's a mixed bag man half the people you talk to tell you that sheriff Keeler
was the greatest man that ever lived and that the the town of Paulding and the county of Paulding are better for
having a sheriff like him and then there's other people that you talk to and they say it's a bit of a
weasel yeah squeeze in the juice a bit of a guy that you might not trust so I think it will be fair even though
keeler's not here to present his side of the argument I think it will be fair to
examine some of his actions throughout this investigation because we are sitting here 62 years later with an
unsolved case one thing I did not appreciate that Keeler did was the following he said to the papers
at the time this is just days after the abduction and the murder of Nancy eagleson the newspapers say
that Cheryl's description of the suspect is limited though he may have been wearing glasses
in fact a quote attributed to the sheriff at the time says quote we only know two things for sure it was a man
and he drove an automobile I do not appreciate this because one thing that we do have is Cheryl claiming that the
suspect wore glasses and she's not she's not willy-nilly about this this is something she told the sheriff that
night when Nancy was abducted this is something she told her parents and everyone willing to listen
and 62 years later she still says the man was wearing glasses one and not to be silly or nitpicky here but this is
also at dusk so this kidnapper would not be wearing sunglasses that she would be
mistaken you know she is saying glasses exactly somebody that's driving with glasses
to me means some of that probably needs glasses 24 7. very likely and so I don't really
appreciate him taking away that one detail I mean that's a that's a pretty vital detail if you ask me when we say
hey we're worried about the description we're getting from our eyewitness we know one thing for sure Cheryl knows one
thing for sure 100 this man that night was wearing glasses now she did tell me she said
Nick there's a chance that he had disguised himself maybe he was wearing them just because he knew he was going
out looking to take somebody and that's a good point but let's not steer away from the fact
that the man was wearing glasses that night yeah it could be Again part of a disguise
we're gonna wear glasses this will throw them off the scent but this sketch I'm will post it on Instagram and Facebook
and Twitter this sketch is to me the eyes hit you right away very dead eyes doesn't put me in the mind
frame of a younger perpetrator 17 to 20. this puts me to me late 20s mid-30s yeah you know we have
that old joke that we referenced from time to time here in the garage that back in the 1960s men either looked like
two men either they look like the Zodiac or they looked like Charles Manson yeah
this is this is much more zodiac yep short hair uh shorter hair in the sketch we're holding in front of us has glasses
on one sketch no glasses on the other sketch but this man is wearing a suit and tie
dressed almost in his Sunday's best uh short hair he looks like a like an ugly version of Pee Wee Herman to me
kind of an older uglier Pee-wee Herman Mr Herman and we'll put these suspect composite
sketches that to my knowledge have never been released to the public which again
is a bit of a misstep of making sense they may have obviously you know with the case being 62 years old we can only
review so much or or can only get our hands on certain things as some things are just certainly lost to time but
everything I've reviewed everything the captain's reviewed we've not seen these being released to
the public anywhere so it's a little if if they have not been released it's long
overdue because you were looking for this guy Cheryl says this is the guy you are looking for now in the profile
picture the man looks a little more distinguished a little more proper the hair might be a
little bit longer than expected when you look at the front view of the suspect but again we will post these on
Instagram and Twitter so that you can put your own eyeballs on them and see what Cheryl says that she saw yeah to me
they they look like two different people I agree I agree like when I see the front view and then I flip to the
profile I that's not exactly it's not completely off but it's not exactly what I was picturing the profile to look like
after seeing the front view there was some evidence in last week we kind of complained about the lack of finding
tire tracks both situations the abduction scene and where Nancy's body was recovered from one would think that
there would be tire tracks and we know law enforcement are very good at looking for cars they are very good at looking
for cars and very knowledgeable about Vehicles tires uh vehicle lights and things of that nature so I think that
was a misstep if if in fact they failed to collect those nowhere in the file does it say that they had any tire
tracks or collected them again we know that the scene where they found the body there were a lot of people in and out of
that scene they really didn't secure the scene but some things that were collected
in this case were two pieces of a dress and a jacket with blood on them these were Nancy's they found a scarf
her purse shoes her bra her under clothes garter belt a necklace they found some of her hair on a low
hanging tree branch and here's the things that are kind of missing though some things that you would expect to
find or have as your evidence we know that a very thorough autopsy was conducted
however nowhere in the list of evidence do they say anything about fingernail clippings Captain just brought up the
fact that our victim was probably fighting this man in the vehicle probably fighting him at
the scene the final scene and fighting him during the course of the sexual assault
we could have very good suspect evidence underneath her fingernails now just because there's no mention of these on
any evidence list doesn't mean that they never existed but from what we can say and see today
it looks like the finger fingernails were never collected yeah another misstep the other thing too is we are
told time and time again that this was a rape and a murder well there's no mention of semen samples
which we know in 2022 would solve this case right away yeah it'd be uh a very quick got him
moment one thing that we did have is that they believe that the type of weapon used to kill Nancy was a 22
caliber gun this based off of some evidence that we find in the autopsy where it says quote
around the base of the brain is found a fragment of a lead jacketed bullet it goes into some measurements there and
it says it is roughly Arrowhead in shape and appears to be about 22 caliber so yeah she is abducted on the 13th
just three days later on the 16th law enforcement and saying hey we're at stand still which look look there's not
a lot of witnesses to this crime but you'd think in this neighborhood more people would have seen this vehicle
and maybe they could have followed more of those leads but maybe they worked every lead that they had and once they
made these announcements to the public maybe they thought well come 14th and 15th we're going to get a ton of leads
and they just didn't I don't like their statements I don't think I would have put that out to the public but maybe
they thought if we put that out to the public somebody's going to come forward to help us maybe if we show a little
desperation right it will light a fire and people come forward and help us out I agree that it who knows what the
strategy was if there was a strategy in that statement again we don't know what the sheriff told the reporter and what
what didn't make it into the newspaper article one big question of course when we talk
about a village this small a County with a very low population is people wanted to know did Nancy potentially
know who her killer was was the murder simply a way to cover up the abduction and the rape
was the killer from outside of Paulding Ohio outside of the community or was the killer somebody known to Nancy known
to the area was the killer is this the Killer's first or last murder these things we don't know so when we
investigate and we look at these pieces of evidence we have to question do they suggest that this is a man from outside
of the area or a local man now one thing that was told to us from the family are two things in my opinion
that would strongly strongly suggest that this was in fact a local man that abducted and killed Nancy
the family says that on the night of the Abduction the phone lines were cut at the eagleson home now I've
not seen this reported in any newspaper I've not seen it in the police file I've
not seen it reported anywhere else but the family has said to me that on that night the phone lines were cut that
would suggest that this was a premeditated abduction and somebody already had start to set things into
motion before Nancy was even abducted the second and this is one that is you know I want to be clear here I'm not
questioning what the Eagles and family is saying and sitting here going well do do I believe them or do I not believe
them I I have no reason to not believe them but this second portion seems even more
credible because this is said by several different people more than one source says that Cheryl
the eyewitness who witnessed her sister being abducted was almost taken in what they believe to be a botched
abduction attempt that took place about three weeks after Nancy's death according to the Eagles and family
someone tried to come in the back door of their home and grab the little girl the lock
was jimmied or the door was jammed open with a screwdriver there was visible physical damage to
the door what a scary scene now Cheryl thankfully was not abducted and not taken right
but that would strongly suggest that hey I've got to shut up this person the one
person that saw me do this the one person that knows who did this that could identify me that could pick me out
of a lineup is still alive and oh by the way I'm a local person I know where she lives I'm
going to go and shut her up yeah or what if we're out in public and she sees me can she identify me or
is he connected to the family somehow and knows that hey at a family party she's going to see me or hear me or
something might trigger heard of scream bloody murder and maybe Sheriff Keeler was a Sly dog
maybe he was a little wiser than we're giving him credit for maybe he was hurting too okay maybe he was playing
Coy right maybe he was just posturing for the papers and as we said maybe he's acting desperate so that the
public will come and help his investigation because you take that statement and then you look behind the
scenes and you see that no this case was far from a standstill and in fact they wanted to see if they could extract more
information from their eyewitness Cheryl would be the key to finding this killer
if she could tell you things like the license plate if she could tell you give you a very good description of the
vehicle or a better description of the perpetrator now one thing that they did in an attempt to extract this
information and help her to remember better is they subjected Cheryl to several hypnosis sessions
and I've taken some notes from those sessions and these were conducted within weeks of the murder
and from her statements while under hypnosis we learn that this is what she's remembering the suspect's vehicle
was facing the same way that the girls were traveling one person was in the vehicle she says
the suspect was alone from what she could see the suspect was wearing a white shirt wearing black clothes and
black glasses he was skinny with black hair and when asked to give an age she doesn't provide an age for the suspect
but she does say that he appeared to be older than my dad older than my father and he she also says that the man was
not wearing a hat the vehicle was all one color and she describes it as both black but
also said that she thinks that it could be green a dark green the lights were off
as she remembers and she says that it was a new or newer car it was a four-door vehicle the black
clothing that the suspect was wearing she says is black pants and a short coat black shoes she says not boots black
shoes and that the man had to walk around the car she actually says that he walked around the front of the car and
then after the abduction in the hypnosis sessions she's saying that after the abduction he
drove toward town so there's some conflicting stories just within Cheryl's story itself
and some versions of her story she says that the man pulls up abducts Nancy and then drives off continuing going the
direction that the girls were walking which would be heading out of Paulding heading away from Paulding under
hypnosis in one of the sessions she says that the man actually pulled up said something to the girls went away drove
away from Paulding then turns around comes back and then that's when he abducts Nancy now his vehicle's facing
the opposite direction and when he speeds off with Nancy he is heading back into town so that part's a little
unclear but again we're getting one statement from her when she is awake and other statements when she's under
hypnosis but this leads to our timeline of law enforcement getting a new suspect
in December this is a weird story this almost sounds like something out of an old movie
where we have a man his name is Virgil Johnson and in fact we kind of know a little bit about Virgil Johnson already
remember we said that Nancy and her little sister stopped off at a restaurant a locally owned restaurant to
grab some sodas sitting there in the restaurant chatting with people sipping sodas before they
walk off to the bowling alley well the owner of that restaurant that they stopped off to have these sodas is
Virgil Johnson so Virgil Johnson becomes a suspect if you will in the minds of the public
right maybe not so much in the minds of the sheriff or law enforcement but the way that this story goes is that he
Virgil Johnson is hearing rumors that they have a suspect and the suspect is a local businessman
well what he does not realize for a couple of days anyway is that that suspect is him he is the local
businessman that the public are talking about as being the killer of Nancy eagleson right but any of the places
that they stopped on their walk home people are going to say we should look into those those individuals of course
but again we have people in town openly discussing Virgil Johnson as the man who killed Nancy eagleson maybe he
was a little bit of odd duck well part of this may have come from a statement that says that Virgil's wife
said that she found blood on his clothing and that he explained that so there was
blood found in the back of his vehicle and there was blood found on his clothing according to this statement
now the blood in the back of his car is very questionable right because we talked about this last week where some
people have suggested that Nancy was not killed where she was found some people suggest and believe that
there is evidence that may point to her actually being killed in the vehicle that
abducted her right and then the body transported 100 feet off of the road and laid in the water if
that's true that we would see a lot of blood in that vehicle from my understanding Virgil Johnson says well
of course there's blood in my vehicle I own a restaurant and I'm regularly picking up beef
you know a big side of beef you know items from the butcher shop that is miles away and driving them to
my restaurant and the blood found on my clothing is from unloading these items from the car
now that seems somewhat reasonable given that it's 1960 and that he is in fact the restaurant owner we don't know if
this Blood was ever tested or even collected to be tested it sounds to me or at least the way that the story goes
is that the vehicle was cleaned up by the time he becomes a suspect right the other interesting thing though is
remember he's hearing these rumors because people were openly talking about him being the person that killed Nancy
eagleson for several days and then he realizes oh they're talking about me right I better do something about this
but if they're not looking into him until a week later you can't say it's suspicious that his car is clean because
some people that's their weekly routine especially back then well this is early December so we've we have a minimum of
two weeks that have passed by this time and we don't have an exact day I did have I did I do know what the day is I
failed to put it in my notes but I put it down as early December because what's weird here Captain is step into my
office because you're fired again he does not appear to be a suspect per law enforcement this is a local suspect this
is the public thinking this dude did it he goes to the sheriff and says everybody in town saying that I killed
Nancy eagleson and so the sheriff decides he starts hearing rumors that the townspeople have decided that
Virgil Johnson did it and they're going to go get Justice them damn selves they're going to go find Virgil Johnson
and they're going to Lynch him up in the center of town so Sheriff Keeler decides you know what
I'm going to have to put your butt in jail not because I think you did anything just so that these people don't
come in here and kill you so he throws Virgil Johnson in jail and then he comes out and tells the
village of Paulding and all of Paulding County I Sheriff Keeler I've checked into Virgil Johnson he's not the guy we
we subjected him to a lie detector test he passed the poly and therefore he is not a suspect do not
harm this man and they publicly announced that Virgil Johnson is cleared as being the killer of
Nancy eagleson he's innocent yeah and if he's hearing these rumors then you know
law enforcement is and then once you start hearing these other rumors of let's take him to the middle of the town
and and hang him well he better start doing the due diligence very quickly and and so yeah uh I I wish they'd do
that more in cases I mean look at the Delphi case I think there's a lot of suspects that have been
identified publicly that they could have came out and and ruled out or in you know by late December of 1960 the reward
fund for information about Nancy's murder was increased to 6595 dollars that would be the
equivalent of approximately 65 000 today that's a lot of money for a small town this reward money was raised by
businesses businessmen and other community leaders and in hopes of solving the Nancy eagleson murder in
January of 1961. this is where we start to see the case kind of drag on you know
we talk so much about how the first 48 are so important to any murder investigation well also the first two
weeks the first two months now we're getting outside of that world and we're getting beyond that because in January
of 1961 Sheriff Keeler is trading and swapping information with a town up in Michigan that
experienced a similar murder right so this is where we need to make sure that we give Sheriff Keeler some
well-deserved Kudos give him an old attaboy right because this is one thing that most law enforcement agencies did
not do in nineteen even in 1980 or 1970 let alone 1960 this guy's reaching out to
other agencies other law enforcement agencies and comparing notes and saying hey what happened there we had something
that happened here that's similar let's discuss let's see if we're talking about
the same perpetrator or is there things in your case in your investigation that you got right or got wrong and we can
learn from that here and apply that to what we are doing in Paulding Ohio so we got to give him some credit for reaching
out and discussing this with other agencies and other jurisdictions because again that is stuff that just did not
happen back in that day well reaching out to other jurisdictions other departments to locking this guy up
clearing people all this hoopla that's going to bring us to another suspect yes this is a grown man his name is Thomas
ball and the reason that he becomes on the police radar and this is to be clear a law enforcement suspect not a public
suspect he gets on to sheriff keeler's radar because in 1961 in February Thomas ball is
charged with the rape of Janet Bergstrom in Defiance County Ohio now they're looking at him he's charged
with this rape with this assault he's about 30 31 years of age at this time and so they start looking at him at in
the Nancy case because they see some similarities in their cases now where I will
say that I don't think Keeler did a great job on this case is that we will see again here he questions Thomas ball
about the Nancy eagleson case he subjects Thomas ball to a lie detector test and ball according to
Keeler passes the poly and he is publicly cleared the sheriff comes forward and tells everybody this man was not
involved in Nancy eagleson's case the problem with this is this really seems to be their only one of their few
options back then in 1960 especially when they didn't feel like they had a great evidence in Nancy's case
so they're using polygraph examinations to determine whether they should continue to investigate an individual
for her murder or if they should move on from the individual in Nancy's case and so they are publicly clearing People
based off of the results of these polygraph tests which we still do in some jurisdictions
they still do to this day and the captain and I don't like it now we don't like it back in 1960 either because
experts would tell you that the individual that was capable the type of individual capable of abducting
raping and executing a child very likely could feel no remorse very likely would not be nervous at all about
your questions and very likely could look you in the eyes and tell you whatever it is that you
want to hear tell you whatever story will get them out of the room from you and their heartbeat their heart rate
won't budge at all well I like giving somebody a polygraph test to see like it's a
barometer really are they telling us the truth on anything are they being are they telling tall tales about everything
or just a few things does it give a barometer of where this person is but in no way shape or forms should you be
clearing anybody of the murders because of these tests especially somebody like Thomas ball so the the charges for the
rape and the assault that took place in Defiance County Ohio were eventually dismissed right and that is what gets
him on to the police radar in Paulding County right they look at him for Nancy eagleson's murder they give him the
polygraph test he passes it and Sheriff Keeler says cleared and we move on but here's why you don't move on from
somebody like Thomas ball because in 1963 in September he lured a 19 year old girl into his hotel room in Detroit
Michigan and then stabbed and killed that 19 year old and so in 1964 he's convicted of that
murder yeah this guy's a psychopath he's capable of anything really he gets sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison
and then in 1976 after serving 12 years he's moved to a psych facility in Detroit which he escapes from
and then he moves down to Tennessee where he remains there undercover undetected
until 2006. he's living under the name of Thomas fry down in Tennessee and one day police
hello show up knocking on his door down in Tennessee and arrest him and say this
is Thomas ball who escaped from Michigan back in 1976 so they find him 30 years later right he's eventually paroled in
2007 in Michigan but for me Captain he remains and should remain a suspect to Nancy eagleson's murder
[Music] [Applause] so much more to get to in part four join us back here in the garage tomorrow
until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] foreign

Nancy Eagleson /// Murder Investigation /// 609

Part 3 of 4

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November 13, 1960 - Nancy Eagleson was abducted while walking home. A man driving a dark car pulled up alongside of her and asked if she would like a ride. Seconds later the car was gone and so was Nancy. Unfortunately her body was discovered a short time later and only a few miles from the abduction location. Who could do such a thing? This is a small town murder that shocked the community of Paulding, Ohio and still haunts them to this day. This week we take a hard look at the murder investigation and the suspects.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murders of Gloria Kowalowitz and Nancy Eagleson, focusing on suspects and investigative challenges.

Key points

The Search for Justice. The search continues for the monsters responsible for the murders of two young girls.
Investigation at a Standstill. Authorities admit the investigation into Nancy Eagleson's murder is at a standstill just days in.
The Horrifying Abduction. Nancy Eagleson, a 14-year-old girl, is abducted in front of her sister.
Sheriff Keeler's Mixed Reputation. Sheriff Keeler's reputation is split; some view him as a hero, others as untrustworthy.
Cheryl's Eyewitness Account. Cheryl's description of the suspect is crucial, yet the sheriff downplays it.
Local Suspect Emerges. Virgil Johnson, a local businessman, becomes a suspect amid rumors.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What kind of monster could shoot a little girl in the head?

3:19WatchOct 15, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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