Nancy Eagleson /// Murder Investigation /// 610 | Forensic Files

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through an old newspaper article we won't go through every word every sentence every paragraph however this I
find to be by far the best article ever written about the Nancy eagleson unsolved homicide case the article is
titled girl Slayer remains at large ping crime still unsolved and this is from 5
years after the murder took place and it's written by a limma news staff writer by the name of Jean Rockwell who
did gangbusters work on this article because again I believe it to be the best and most thorough and it's rather
updated as well as you will see as we go through this article and it reads somewhere a man walks the streets
outwardly as inconspicuous as anyone but with the burden of knowing 5 years ago he molested and murdered a young ping
high school girl subjected her little sister to a lasting emotional shock and blemished the family this man more
horrible than any fictional monster shot 14-year-old Nancy Lee eagleson to death
following a criminal assault on the evening of November 13th 1960 perhaps in such a twisted personality there is no
capacity for regret or remorse or perhaps his waking and sleeping hours are haunted by the memory of what he has
done the history of such crime reveals many motives for the slaying of a rape victim usually the victim is slain to
prevent future identification of the attacker sometimes the force of the attack itself is sufficient to cause
death Nancy was brutally shot in the head by her unknown as salant no clues to the murderer have turned turned up
after 5 years of Investigation by the paing county sheriff's department at 7:40 p.m. that Sunday Nancy and her
sister Cheryl then five were walking along Jackson Street in Northeast paing on their way home from a movie their
father Don operated a bowling alley in paing on the weekends and during the week he was employed at International
Harvester in Fort Wayne he was at the bowling alley that night their mother also worked and instead of waiting for
their father the girls decided to walk home from the movie since Mrs eagleson would be home at that time Mrs eagleson
was asked last week about the crime and about the failure of police to solve it Mrs eagleson said Cheryl now 10 years
old is still terrified by the memory of that never to be forgotten night quote I
can talk about it now Mrs Eagles said but Dawn doesn't say very much about it it really broke him up they say a woman
can adjust to something like ny's death better than a man or can cover their feelings more or something maybe that's
the way it is with me I hide the hurt keep it inside Mrs eagleson said Cheryl has deep emotional scars from the events
of that night Cheryl loved Nancy the mother noted they were inseparable but Cheryl has changed now she isn't a
loving child anymore she's afraid to get close to anyone emotionally for fear she
might lose them as she lost Nancy Nancy would have been 19 now her mother said and in college the bereaved mother said
she does not blame police or the sheriff's department for their failure to solve the crime I believe they did
the best they could do she said she thinks the Slayer is from Pauling or immediate area he has to be she declared
he knew his way around too well however her husband believes the killer was a hunter not from the area probably
staying in a motel and committed the crime on the spur of the moment melting back into his home region when it was
over Mrs eagleson still gets a lot of calls mostly from cranks saying they know the identity of the Slayer none of
them have proven authentic Mrs eagleson's Theory the crime is that the girls were seen by the killer as they
were sipping Cokes in a local restaurant on their way home from the MAA movie along Jackson Street Cheryl said the man
slowed the car and asked the girls if they wanted to ride she said Nancy replied no we're only a few doors away
from home Cheryl said the man St stopped the car and asked Nancy directions he got out of the auto Cheryl recalled and
came around the front in the full glare of the headlights he grabbed Nancy by the arm and during the ensuing struggle
pushed his victim to the ground Cheryl said she tried to grab the man by the shoulders but he struck her in the
stomach knocking her to the ground she said she did not see the man strike Nancy but he placed her inside the car
opposite the driver's seat the man got in and drove away as Cheryl screamed Mrs eagleson said Cheryl told her the man
smelled like he had been drinking but her theory is that the girl smelled chloroform or some similar substance
which accounted for nany's submission after the Frantic struggle Mrs eagleson theorizes her daughter was not killed
where the body was found but elsewhere then was left by the Slayer where she was discovered by the hunters paing
County Sheriff John Keeler was asked last week if the case is closed he said certainly not these cases are never
closed every now and then we get a lead and a possible suspect we check out these leads thoroughly but so far no
luck at all keer said he was convinced the Slayer was not from the Ping area the man is sick the sheriff observed he
can't help himself he would have killed again we would have had another slang on
our hands if he were a local man Cheryl described the man who killed her sister as about 5' 8 in tall heavy with a belly
like Santa Claus he wore horn rimmed glasses possibly with thick lenses that made his eyes appear larger than normal
she stated she believed he was crippled a man who broke out of Michigan City Indiana prison a month before before
Nancy was killed and who subsequently was executed in Tulsa Arizona for a similar crime was checked and cleared of
the paing slang another man from the paing area charged with rape in Napoleon and acquitted was consequently convicted
of a rape slang in Detroit Michigan his method of operation was similar to the mans who killed Nancy but he also was
investigated and cleared so the man who slew Nancy Lee eagleson is still at large free to commit another crime
police officials believe he will or has that he acted under a compulsion a mental illness and could not help
himself officers stress this certainly does not excuse the man but points to the dire necessity of his apprehension
well there's so much there to unpack so let's do some of that if you don't mind one go for it what's your theories on if
this man is local or not here's the thing if the two things that the family has told us and this is things that have
been told To Us by people outside of the family as well if the phone lines were cut to the eagleson home that
night if in fact somebody did try to abduct Cheryl weeks after Nancy's murder I think
those not just point to but for me seal the deal that this was a local guy everything outside of that tells me that
this was somebody that was looking for a victim and may have traveled to this area and found the victim there that
night unfortunately right we could have an individual that has to travel here for work and so that they would be back
in the area multiple times to me it's too Brazen you're going to leave a eyewitness that sees you that possibly
like I said in church school somewhere is able to identify you the other thing that's tricky too because it no longer
exists to this day but back in 1960 it's my understanding that there was a hospital in the area and I've been told
that it may have been between the abduction location and where nany eagleson's body was eventually
found which is very weird to me again that Drive felt very quick to me it almost felt like somebody abducted her
and either had to stop at this location or stopped at this location for some reason right would have passed the
hospital and again I believe that it was on Route 111 so could somebody have been
in the area for work because they were working at that hospital or could they have been visiting a loved one or a
friend or somebody that they knew that was in the hospital now I don't know if law enforcement did
this but I'm I'm guessing no because within two days they're saying we're at a standstill I'm going to the restaurant
and just asking was any was there any single male eating alone that possibly saw them go into the restaurant and then
oh they're leaving I'm going to follow them out or look for local um local hotels or motels and see if there was
any single men staying in the area that would give me at least some kind of lead
to to go on the other thing that is bizarre here too Captain is that you could have a situation where somebody
spotted the girls walking alone or spotted the girls as the mother suspects sipping sodas at the
restaurant and decides then and there hey I'm going to take one of these girls right and the reason why I say that that
seems to to be likely is that according to Cheryl's accounts and it was key to me to read
that article because we see how Cheryl's accounts kind of I don't want to use the
word change but she seems to be able to fill in some of the blanks later as she got older she was 10 at the time of that
article was 1965 but according to Cheryl's account the vehicle there was a vehicle parked
at that plocks the old abandoned gas station no longer in operation on the corner that they passed before the
vehicle approached them I am of the belief that that may be the same vehicle that the person saw the girls walking
they walked past him he pulls up in the vehicle alongside of them following them
he's he would have been following them very shortly after they walked past plocks right now one could have have
spotted these girls and then decided to position themselves at plocks to intercept them
before they get home to do that if that was in fact the Killer's plan to intercept them before they got home well
then that means he already knew where the girls lived and so therefore he likely would be a local man or at least
somebody that knew Nancy in some form or fashion or knew her family well and might know that the husband is not going
to be there the the husband the father is going to be working at the bowling alley during this time so the only
person that's going to be home is the mother but again I know where you live so I'm going to intercept you now I
think she made a great point because she brings up chloroform and what we were saying before is if you're taking your
victim we're not talking about like a a very small victim or a very young victim
it is a child but she's 14 mhm so she's going to have the capability of putting up a a fight so the mom brings up a good
point is it possible that this murderer grabbed her and then um was able to subdue her with
chloroform and it could be a combination of both because she says well what I think my daughter was
smelling the the eyewitness Cheryl the alcohol or chloroform it could be a combination of both this guy might have
been heavily intoxicated and then started driving around looking for a victim a lot of times these types will
ingest things like alcohol or drugs to build them up to a situation so that they don't chicken out or they don't
they they want to build themselves up to carry through with whatever it is their
sick fantasy or plan is and then if it is in fact chloroform we're talking about a whole
different level of premeditation one but two possible criminal sophistication as
well this to me if it was in fact chloroform and we don't we simply don't know and until the case is solved we
will not know but if it was chloroform then that tells me this guy has either done something like this before or he
had been studying up on doing something like this and thought about it for a good deal of time studying doing
research planning yeah I mean this is uh got an email the other day saying stop calling these murderers animals because
that's not fair to animals that's probably not fair this fair to the hyenas yeah this guy's a hyena I mean
this guy's a real piece of [ __ ] and again I I I I lean towards the idea that the person was from that area originally
but not anymore did not live in that area maybe a rental car that's a other thing rental car is it possible that
this person had a brunal car and then and that would be another thing that people could uh spend some time
investigating the chloroform would also go along with the thought that maybe some portion of this man's clothing or
the glasses were in fact some type of Disguise what's really weird to me is under hypnosis Cheryl says that the man
was skinny but in this news article it's saying that she believed that he was a heavy man with a belly like Santa Claus
so those are two very different things but we also know that it's not terribly uncommon for criminals to layer their
clothing or to wear larger clothing than necessary to give the appearance a different physical appearance right and
that's that's the tough thing too when you look at the composite sketch to me not not the one where you're looking at
him um you know face to face but the one where you're looking to him where he's on from the side to me it looks like he
was almost like slicking back his hair again is that the way he wears his hair or is that a a ruse this to me the
composite sketch to me looks like one of two things or or it could be a combo of
both I guess it looks to me like somebody that is dressed to potentially go visit somebody at the hospital or to
work there or it's a man that was still wearing his Sunday church attire and just remained in that attire throughout
the day of Sunday and maybe went into town and went out to a restaurant right or you know and then spotted the girls
somewhere as they walked it'd be interesting to know and it's too much to ask Cheryl to recall something like this
there's no way that she would be able to recall this but it would be interesting
to know if they were talking about walking home like if they were openly talking about that at any point in their
evening and and the wrong person heard them caught when that oh they might be by themselves and then you think about
the idea that the phone lines were cut at the eagleson home if in fact that were true to me that makes me think well
maybe the killer thought that they would end up home alone and thought of abducting Nancy
there right then it makes me want to question the family was the mother supposed to be somewhere and not that's
a very good question and here here's my thought on that I I can't answer for the
family but here's my suspicions so we know that the father Dawn was working at the bowling alley which he regularly did
on the weekends and what I've been told by everybody that knew Don they said that he worked at the bowling alley
probably for a little extra money but it was also like that was his number one hobby it's fun right he he likes to bowl
job he likes to hang out at the bowling alley probably got free bowling right and you know what's great about bowling
alleys too they often sell beer we like and pretzels the thing here is don't forget the pretzels from my
understanding is that it was very common for Dawn and his wife Betty the the two
eagleson adults the two eagleson parents to go to the bowling alley and hang out
together was this a night like you said captain that maybe Mrs eagleson was supposed to be at the bowling alley with
her husband Dawn but for whatever reason it fell through or at the last minute she decided not to go if that's
true true if that is true and obviously somebody in the family could answer that
to me I'd put a higher a way higher percentage at this point that they know this
individual if that was the case I mean it could be happen stance that here's this person in town sees these girls
walking and they're they are walking because their father is working their mother is going to visit the father at
at work so that does put you in that happen stance but starts at that point it would start
leaning towards this idea that they might know this kidnapper they might know this murderer this murderer might
be somebody uh family friend that maybe Cheryl just has not been able to maybe somebody that doesn't come around as
often anymore but again how much of what they were wearing and how they were doing their
hair and all that stuff how much was that their identity and how much of it was [Music]
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order of colorful Home Essentials that's s a r n everyday.com [Music] all right we are back cheers to
everybody cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain all right well we have praised the Sheriff John Keeler for his
efforts and for his wisdom and for his work ethic yes and for reaching out to others jurisdictions thinking outside of
the box if you will that was something that wasn't done back then so we praised him for that we criticized him in his
investigation for not being able to recover tire tracks at either the abduction scene or where Nancy was
eventually found right we also criticized but said that maybe the newspaper is to blame for the
weird statement of well the case is pretty much at a standstill just days into the
investigation I did criticize him for saying that we don't know he's kind of discounting Cheryl's account that the
man was wearing glasses which I think is a big misstep by the sheriff but here is
a huge misstep and I don't know if Sheriff Keeler is to blame or who is to blame but somebody was certainly at
fault here because in 1985 that's right we're jumping ahead 20 years in the timeline from 65 to 85 and
why are we pointing to 1985 well that's because in 1985 Nancy's family discovered that the physical
evidence that was collected at the scene where she was found was lost or misplaced or
discarded the Sheriff's Office in paon County no longer had any evidence in nany's case now there were
several persons or several agencies that were involved in the chain of custody of
this evidence so it may not fall on the sheriff department but who do you think's going to get the blame when
evidence is missing it's going to be the investigating agency they are the ones that are charged with securing that
evidence no matter who had it at what point yes they're going to get the blame but come on law enforcement do your job
you're here to Serve and Protect and you're not protecting or serving by losing this evidence so where we are
today and we're going to jump back here in a second but I want to focus on this now while we are talking about missing
evidence because it will make sense we are trying to exume nany eagleson that is for the purpose of
collecting additional evidence right we mentioned the the lack of nail clippings
we mentioned the lack of seamen samples and we don't know if those are things that we are even going to be able
to get once we exume her it would seem unlikely but there's a possibility given it's you know it's unlikely because it's
been 62 years and things get lost to to time and Decay but the other idea here Captain is could could some of these
items because this evidence was personal items these were personal items in nature compared to uh with our victim
here MH could some of these items be have been buried with her it's certainly a possibility and
something that we're very hopeful that that that that possibility remains and it's po again this is not
maybe something that the family would know and so can be hopeful of because Cheryl again was five at the time so
she's not going to just there's no way she's going to remember every single detail and you know mom lived a very
long life unfortunately Betty is no longer with us but keep in mind these are things that parents could forget or
be unaware of at the time there's a lot going on they just lost a child unexpectedly so again it's something
that we're hopeful for and that's why somebody like porchlight that's why we are jumping in we are getting involved
you know we can't save Nancy eagleson we can't help Nancy this isn't Quantum Leap
where we can go back in time and write a wrong or protect somebody or save someone what we can do is try to help
and save the sisters that are still alive to this day Cheryl can you imagine she's the level of victim
that she is how victimized she has been and traumatized she has been all of these years if we can find some form of
justice for the eagleson family it will be a big win not for porchlight it will be a big win for paen
County and this community and the eagleson family yeah big win and but so much frustration still to this day this
Captain will bring us to December 1st 201 10 and this is reporting from the local newspaper which is called the
paing county progress and they're doing a ongoing story of continuing to cover the Nancy eagleson case and
investigation and they're doing this article and it's a rather lengthy one but it's featuring a man named Don
rodenhouse now Don rodenhouse says that he was a witness to the abduction and this is very strange to me
this is something that I'm incredibly curious about so don Rhoden house says that he pulls up and he sees two people
in a vehicle that look like they are fighting and he says his sister is with him and the sister who's riding shotgun
tells Don hey that's you know that doesn't look like two adults that looks like a a little girl
right because I think Dawn thought maybe it was just a some kind of domestic right situ fighting Mar yeah boyfriend
girlfriend two adults fighting what have you but then little CIS points out no that doesn't appear to be a grown-up
that appears to be a little girl and Don says it's the flailing arms that he and his sister saw Nancy
eagleson fighting this man back he's holding her like the hair or the the head and trying to push her down maybe
to conceal her from any passer by or people in the area as he's fleeing from the abduction scene
right but he says that well he the abductor is trying to push Nancy Down Nancy is trying to
throw smacks or punches at the attacker and this would be kind kind of like a a sidearm I guess you will it's like a
a swimming motion almost and he says that they the vehicle was was speeding quite heavily which makes sense that the
man would have been fleeing from the abduction scene with a victim in his car and Don says that they gave Chase
they tried to follow the vehicle but at some point the vehicle lost them now he says that the following
morning he reported this to the authorities mhm saying that when he woke up the next day he learned that of the
murder remember Nancy was found overnight and when he learned of the murder and where they found ny's body he
knows where he was driving he says he was driving on Route 111 where Nancy was abducted from he contacts the police and
says tells them the story that we just told you and he says to throw a little shade here on the
sheriff's department back in 1960 he says that he doesn't believe that they they may not
have taken him seriously because he says at no point did they ever follow up with
him that he reported the information and they never approached him again to ask him to tell his story again and he says
that back in 1960 he believed that he could described the vehicle in great detail
now why he didn't describe it in great detail when he spoke to the sheriff on the day when he reported it I don't know
but his words make it sound like either he wasn't prompted to do so or decided not to do so because he thought that
they would follow up here becomes the problem a lot of problems we were privy to some some Insider information in this
case and the portion of the Sheriff's Office file on Nancy eagleson's case does not
reveal that Don rodenhouse reported this the day after Nancy was killed now he very very well may have but there's
nothing indicating that he did this other than this newspaper article his own words so when I hear a story like this I
go this is very problem for me one his story is problematic but it's problematic for me as a Storyteller here
in the garage I don't know how to take this Captain is this simply a guy that's tried to do a good deed tried to help
somebody out back in 1960 and has come forward all these years later and is still trying to help out is this just a
good guy or we've seen this before it wouldn't be the first time and if it is the case it won't be the last
time it could be the case that this man just injected himself into the investigation he wants to know what law
enforcement knows yeah he's a local so he'd know the area but the thing that he has gone for him
is his sister was with him so isn't that a pretty solid Alibi for the time of the
crime it would be if he in fact did report this back in 1960 right if we could find proof positive that he didn't
report it back then or if we could find proof positive that she didn't back his story in 196
or nobody else backed this story in 1960 wouldn't we want to know why 50 years later he's telling this story it the
other problem too is the details inside the story itself where Cheryl she states that she didn't see
her she sees her sister looking back right but also the suspicion that maybe she was chloroform so she was she would
have been knocked out out she would have been out there wouldn't be somebody with
flailing arms in the back seat yeah if that is if that's what happened right now could she have come too woke up and
tried to fight off her attacker yes that's a possibility the other problem though is he says he chases after the
vehicle and the vehicle loses him the problem with that Captain is if in fact the attacker went from abduction site to
where Nancy was eventually found we already talked about that's pretty much a straight shot you go around two curves
and boom it's a straight shot it's difficult to lose somebody on a straight shot yeah many pieces of his story just
don't add up but you want to kind of give him the benefit of Doubt because it's a traumatic situation it's a
stressful situation but also uh the time Gap there's been a lot of time that has
passed right and so things that would point to Don Rouse his statement being questionable his statement being
suspicious would be this for me is he concocting the story so that there is a reason why somebody would
have seen his vehicle at that location that night in the abduct in the area of the Abduction
the night that the abduction took place his story explains it away and his sister and I'm putting that in air
quotes being there with him would also give him an alibi as to yeah I wasn't the bad guy in this story I'm the good
guy in this story so there's there are some questionable things here but again it's
it really truly is either one or the other either he's just a good guy that tried to do a good thing and help
somebody and the bad guy won or he's the bad guy it's very tricky very tricky and
I know that there are people in ping to this day that are very suspicious ious of DA's story and of Da himself well I'm
sure there's tons of people teachers school bus drivers um people that have never got married that live in the town
alone there's probably a whole list of people that people are suspect of because you have this crime that
happened to such a young beautiful girl and there's no answers so but this brings us up to
2011 yes does in our timeline but I do want to speak to what you just said there Captain N and I think that that's
a very astute and insightful statement that you just gave because to this day the suspicions of the locals the people
that have been around since 1960 the people that knew Nancy people that went to school with her right or people that
knew her parents this is a small town this is a small town murder it affected the whole
Community the Community has not healed nor moved past the murder of Nancy eagleson and they shouldn't because it's
unresolved there's no justice here and if the killer was a local man he could still be local to this day he could
still be alive there are many people that have been suspected by the public throughout the years that are still
alive and still in the town or near paing Ohio now you said that it could be a teacher school bus driver you know
mechanic anybody you could look at all these people and raise an eyebrow and go well maybe it was him maybe it was that
guy maybe it was a local all along and that certainly has been the case for 62 years in Pauling Ohio
where the list of suspects per the public man it runs the entire town of Pauling nobody is safe
from suspicion the sheriff John Keeler right has been suspected by people to this day as possibly either
have committed the crimes or covered up the crimes because it was committed by somebody he may may
know now yeah and they go well look it's not solved it should be solved there's a
reason it's not solved oh the reason is you're covering for somebody the reason is you're covering for yourself this is
what happens these are how these rumors uh Build and Grow throughout the years so I'll give you a few examples one
example is Virgil Johnson that we talked about the restaurant owner one thing that people have pointed out that isn't
really something of evidence we talked about the blood earlier but one thing that was pointed out about Virgil was
there's a story that says that he he had a daughter that was roughly ny's age but
he was on the phone with Nancy a week maybe two weeks before she was killed inviting her to go skating
roller skating with his daughter and when she said no she couldn't go because she had a previous engagement or or
something that was already planned or maybe Mom and Dad just wouldn't let her go for whatever reason he he became
angry with her and angry at the situation that she would not go skating he was going to take his daughter and
several of her friends skating and to me that's a very bizarre if that's true that's a very weird scenario one for a
grown man to call his daughter's friend two to be angry that she wouldn't go I'm 40 years old I do not care if a
14-year-old goes skating or not it affects me zero right I'm not going to be angry I'm not going to be happy I'm
not going to be sad no matter how it shakes out another interesting story is that you're not 40 is that either a day
before or a week before her death Nancy babysat for the the bowling alley owner this was somebody that was well known
obviously to nany's family she babysat their child she tells her parents after the experience I'm
never doing that again I'm never going over there again but doesn't give any further explanation as to why it could
be something as simple as maybe the father short changed her or maybe it was an unpleasant experience because the kid
that she babysat sucked really bad or or could it be that she went over there to
babysit and learned that uh the dad's a creep yeah he pulled out his pee pee it's an interesting story pulled a Lou
CK could it have anything to do with this case difficult to say showed his turtle head another situation and this
is directly related to the Sheriff John Keeler at the time was that it's been reported that when he was out looking
for Nancy now keep in mind the coroner would list Nancy approximate time of death as 900 p.m. November 13th 1960 at
approximately 8:30 that night we have ny's parents who are in a car with their friends they are driving around
frantically looking for their daughter or the vehicle that took their daughter they go out Route 111 as
anybody would because that's the direction that we are told that the vehicle was traveling that took Nancy so
you go out that way and when they got out that way they get to the intersection where you have to make a
left to continue on Route 111 or you can go straight and now you are on paing County Road
176 her body was found off of that road this is approximately 8:30 the coroner says that she died at approximately 9900
p.m. that night there's reason to believe it's certainly possible that the Killer and the victim could have been at
that location at that time but also at that location is Sheriff John Keeler who tells the
eagleson and their friends who are out looking for Nancy go look elsewhere because I
already checked back here there's nothing back here many people have wondered did he find something and was
he covering for somebody or was he covering for himself and trying to direct people away from where Nancy was
eventually found the other possibility though is he was just a good man out trying to do a good
thing and trying to help Nancy and help the situation and for whatever reason didn't see a car or didn't see
Nancy and moved past and did in fact do as he said I just searched back here there's nothing here well and that's not
where this story ends there's more to the story possibly and who knows if this is related to all of that portion say
probably more to the rumors yes yeah because what we have that that takes place is many years later John keeler's
son John Keeler Jr his wife goes and tells police that Junior killed Nancy and was
responsible now Junior would have been of driving age he would have been a little bit older than Nancy a handful of
years older so it's certainly a possibility the thing though that I keep going back to though is the statement of
Cheryl saying that she do know how old the man was but she believed off of that short experience that the man was older
than her father or appeared to be older than her father right and so Junior would not fall into that category
wouldn't fall anywhere close to being in that category the other thing too that I
have a problem with and I'm not saying that we should discount the sheriff and say he's perfectly innocent or that the
son is innocent or the sheriff didn't cover for somebody I just I simply don't know but what my gut tells me is that no
that the sheriff probably was not covering for somebody because look at what he did we can learn we can learn from the
actions of his investigation well you got to go with your gut your nut and your butt that he was trying to solve
this case right he was contacting other agencies other law enforcement agencies if he was trying to cover up something
did or something that he knew the person that did it and was trying to cover for
them right he wouldn't be reaching out to other agencies that just brings that could bring somebody into the area that
is an expert and come in and see it for what it is and go nope the sheriff did this or nope the sheriff knows who did
this yeah not to cocka poo poo all over your idea but maybe you'd only do that if you're able to control the outside
entity you know oh well I can yeah bring them on board but I'm going to do so so
then I can see what they're going to investigate see what leads they they generate and then that I can kind of
steer the direction because even though you bring outside uh bring in outside sources you're still the lead in command
the other thing too if he if he were to cover for somebody another thing that presents the
idea and points to me that he was not covering for anybody would be the fact that he had several opportunities to
have a scapegoat for this crime yeah good point Robert Lee stovel was arrested and suspected immediately and
both murders and yet he investigates stovel and basically says it wasn't stoil Virgil Johnson was investigated and even
suspected to the point of the public that they were ready to string this man up and kill him and yet he steps in
intervenes and says it wasn't Virgil Johnson Thomas ball convicted of similar crimes
Keeler says didn't do it clears him yeah it doesn't sound like a guy that is trying to cover up a crime or cover for
somebody he had multiple opportunities to blame this on somebody that the public very likely would have accepted
right as the perpetrator of this murder and he didn't do that he investigated them and decided that they did not do it
leaving it open for whoever actually did it whether he's covering for them or not
to be charged and convicted of this crime now I presented that argument to the people that think that there that
there was some Mis dealings by the sheriff's office and said look this is why the sheriff didn't do it this is
why he wasn't covering for somebody and I think it's a valid argument but then they present the flip side of that coin
to me and they say was that happen stance or was that done on purpose Well normally the older cases don't they
don't get to me like like the newer cases or the the more recent cases but this one it seems like there's a couple
missteps but there doesn't seem like there's a blatant you know [ __ ] in in law
enforcement you know it just seems like maybe a couple missteps or maybe just where they just
didn't have information on certain things but this seems like it definitely solvable well and that was my personal
opinion as well when reviewing this case was I actually thought that the sheriff
worked it pretty well for 1960 again not perfect on the investigation but I thought that that Keeler did some good
work on this case and I know that the current Sheriff Jason Landers he has strong feelings about this case as well
and he too believes that it possibly could be still solved to this day and that's why porchlight and other people
are getting involved that's why the garage is reminding people about this old casee because it's not been solved
and we need to figure out what happened here now previous sheriffs and I want to
be clear here the current Sheriff spoke at length with us about this case and so
he deserves plenty of kudos for that he went out of his way giving up his valuable time to speak with us about
nany's unsolved case he does not fully agree with this but he passed this along to me he said that previous
sheriffs believe that a man named Mark Hodes committed this murder now Mark Hodges looks really good for something
like this something like Nancy's attack and her murder because he was believed to be driving around the area of
Northwest Ohio back in the day in the 60s committing very similar crimes and I say believed because Hodges
is a slippery dude he's one of these guys captain that he was brought to trial multiple times for
rape multiple times for attempted murder multiple times for murder he seemed to get acquitted every single time now I
did not have the ability to review those Court proceedings or those trials but what my gut tells me on Mark
Hodes sometimes where there's smoke there is fire and with Mark Hodes there's just too much d D smoke man he's
repeatedly accused and tried not arrested not suspected by the public tried brought to trial for similar
crimes and then eventually convicted in one of those crimes so I see a guy like Mark Hodges
and I go it's not impossible it's not out of the realm of possibility to believe he could have been there he
could have been the one that abducted and killed Nancy eagleson now we should point out that in
2011 a agency that is near and dear to our hearts the national Center for missing and exploited children they went
to paing Ohio they met with the sheriff's office they collected evidence and we are not allowed to say what it is
we've been asked to not say what that evidence was but they collected evidence back then that will help lead to a
conviction if they find the right person so that is a bright spot in this investigation and then in August of 2022
this year John deuth has filed a motion in paon County Probate Court to allow the body of Nancy
eagleson to be disinterred from the local Cemetery where she was buried nearly 62 years
ago a hearing is set for this September for September 20th to determine if we will be allowed to do
that and I'm begging we need to be able to do this because it's the last hope it's our last chance at Justice there
very likely could be something of strong evidentiary value found well and I don't
think this is going to hurt the case and I think maybe us covering it and and this happening in the news will bring
more attention maybe bring some more leads and and maybe we can get some actual evidence to test in this crime
but it's always a good case when you you know it's a good case when the colonel is getting fired up in the garage so
today we sit here with this case remaining unsolved since 1960 Nancy eagleson's family is still
searching for answers to her murder from more than 60 years ago this case is extensive and in time and in
materials but listen the current sheriff is passionate about this case there will be a fundraiser that
will be held this September 18th to help raise money for the exhumation of Nancy
to help further along her investigation and her case and get Justice for the people of Pauling and for the eagleson
and for her sisters so I encourage anybody that's in the area to go and experience that and take part in that
fundraiser on September 18th in ping Ohio sheriff Jason Landers believes that this case could still be solved he's a
good man he's a reasonable man if you know something about this crime please contact the paing County Sheriff's
Office at 419 399 [Music] [Applause] 3791 [Music] [Applause] like thank you so much for joining us
here each and every week we appreciate it we love Whispering into your sweet earlobes Colonel do we have any
recommended reading for the listeners this week we are coming to you with an ask for a little bit of help we don't
ask for help very often here at the garage but we're asking that you take a little bit of time and go to porchlight
online.org that is the website for the nonprofit organization the porch light project which is assisting the eagleson
family in hopes of exhuming Nancy eagleson's body and then reinvestigating opening up this investigation again for
one last crack at Justice for Nancy eagleson and for her family members please go to porchlight online.org and
if you wish to make a donation that will go directly toward the Nancy eagleson case we thank you so much in advance for
any help that you are able to offer and until next week be good be kind and don't
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Nancy Eagleson /// Murder Investigation /// 610

Part 4 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 murder of Nancy Eagleson and ongoing efforts for justice.

Key points

The Unsolved Homicide of Nancy Eagleson. A deep dive into the chilling case of Nancy Lee Eagleson, who was murdered in 1960.
Emotional Impact on the Family. Mrs. Eagleson shares the lasting emotional scars on her family after Nancy's murder.
Theories on the Killer's Identity. Discussion on whether the murderer was local or a transient.
Starting Therapy. Adding something new and positive to your life can counteract feelings of sadness.
Missing Evidence. In 1985, Nancy's family discovered that crucial evidence in her case was lost.
Witness to Abduction. Don Rodenhouse claims he witnessed Nancy's abduction but faced skepticism from authorities.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This man more horrible than any fictional monster.

Describing the murderer of Nancy Lee Eagleson.

5:13WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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