Rhonda Knutson /// Part 2 /// 666 | Forensic Files

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and Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true crime [Music] when we left off yesterday Captain we were discussing the release of a
composite sketch that police were putting out in hopes of talking to somebody that they say
they believe may have been one of the last persons to see Rhonda canuteson alive when the sketch comes out we are
in a bit of shock because we are not getting a sketch of one individual in fact we end up getting a sketch of Two
Men and the two men are described both as Caucasian between the ages of 35 to 45 years old medium height with heavy
builds one man is is described having bushy hair a beard and mustache dark bushy hair a beard and mustache believed
to be The Driver of a semi-tractor trailer described as a conventional tractor with a white or silver van or
white or silver box trailer the other man is described the same 35 to 45 years old medium height heavy build but this
individual is described as having no facial hair and this individual is not tied to any
description of a vehicle the thing that is strange here is one I want to know where these were coming from what hour
we get no context with these individuals other than we believe that this person may have been one of the last to see
Ronda Canen alive and that these individuals were seen inside the billstown store well like we
said it's the Wei hours of the morning so you're not going to expect to see or expect to have a lot of eyewitnesses and
when you pull up the Cold Case file on Iowa cold cases.org for Rhonda cans and they have the original a copy of the
original flyer that's going out to the general public that they were posting in stores and I would guess other
businesses along the highways because of the trucking aspect or trucker aspect to the
potential person that they're looking for and they want to be clear like they are saying
that the persons that you see in the sketches we're not saying that they were seen together they're not saying that
they were seen separately they're saying that they were witnessed inside the store itself I'll read you
the exact description that they have the three composits shown are based on observations of witnesses of two
subjects seen in the store earlier that morning they have also been described as
being a medium height heavy set white males between 35 and 45 years these two individuals need to be identified so
they can be interviewed It is believed they may be drivers of tractor trailers earlier described as a conventional
tractor and white SLS silver van or box trailer all persons who were in The Williamstown store or driving by the
store and the early morning hours of Labor Day Monday September 7th 1992 are asked to call the Chickasaw County
Sheriff's office regarding their observations of the area and then it list the telephone number in this
particular flyer we we technically see as described there three composite sketches so you see the one on the far
left and it's we don't get any composite sketch of the build of these individuals but it's just the face and
you see a bushy hair bushy beard mustache dark hair man then in the center composite you get much less hair
uh maybe a potentially less bushy beard and mustache but looks to be the same guy and then on the far right you get a
very different looking man different haircut different hairstyle and no facial hair and in fact
this other man is simply described as no facial hair where with the other guy we
get dark hair with this guy we don't get any type of brown hair blonde hair and look maybe I've become a little jaded
here Captain right because just a few weeks ago Aaron and I from the Generation Y podcast we covered a case
that's out of the Cleveland area that took place just a couple years ago and in that case what happens is it starts
to go cold and then somebody sends in an anonymous letter saying that the person
the suspect they are looking for is described as a woman and they go on to describe clothing and the build and the
general appearance of this individual but then later we learned that that Anonymous letter came from
somebody who believed that they were dialed into visions of what took place that there that day and so that's made
me a little jaded when I hear okay these composits are based off of observations of witnesses because the
way that the news spun that story was based on an eyewitness account this is Who The Who police should be looking for
and I was hesitant to jump in Full Throttle on that one because law enforcement wasn't saying this is who we
should be looking for and so in this case we do have saying we do have law enforcement saying this is who we are
looking for and I think that take my jadedness out of it uh that's my own problem because what I think here and
what I I believe is the situation here is whoever is giving and providing these descriptions to law
enforcement they probably believe or know that this individual or these individuals saw them in
return and they have to protect the identity of the witness yeah which would make sense but what's confusing to me is
so we have these composits of these two individuals are they seen at the same time in the station or are they seen
separately exact and that question 31 years later is not clear and I get it hold back
information and it is necessary but a little more information when you're asking the public for information let's
give a little more information help me to help you yeah sometimes just answer the freaking question and in their
defense they may not have a clear understanding either and and we we don't know what law enforcement knows in this
case and why they have chose to use this strategy as opposed to others well sometimes their strategy is just [ __ ]
Paws it is but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt knowing that they requested the help from other
agencies that to me shows a level-headedness about the investigation from the local level especially when you
have local rumor that deputies may be involved that's the thing that I have a difficult time getting past
because when we talk about the injuries and the way that the injuries are described to our victim here that she
was had severe head injuries from having been beaten by a potentially heavy object and then we
know that the Searchers were instructed to look for a quote piece of iron the way that that that's described to me I
sit there and I go okay it makes sense that truckers and deputies would be rumored locally to be suspects because
of the nature of the injuries themselves right you can a tire iron or you know don't truckers use uh clubs to to thump
the the uh tires from time to time right and we know that they're instructed to look for a quote piece of iron but then
also you think if you're talking potential Deputy being a suspect Billy night stick it all kinds
of it those rumors and a lot of times we see this in these cases the rumors while
they are just that rumors they do tend to make some sense yeah where there's smoke there's fire
one of the things that always intrigues me about true crime is the press conferences and they have a press
conference in this case yeah they held a press conference and this would be about
three weeks not quite four weeks after the murder of Rhonda canson but but they hold this press conference and this is
for a couple reasons one to address the local rumors which I like when they don't shy away from that and two to
bring the public up to speed on the current status of the investigation as we said yesterday murders don't happen
in this County and in fact we're talking about a 30 4year time span where there's
only three murders and it might be even longer than that but that's the most we could find from
1967 until late in the 90s so authorities hold this press conference and at this press conference
one of the status updates of the investigation they say look the investigation is continuing with the
help of five Agents from the state department of criminal investigation they also say the FBI has
been called on in this case but is not yet actively involved in fact I don't I've not seen anything to suggest that
they ever became actively involved chikasaw County Sheriff's Office though is pointing out at this press conference
this investigation has not yet come to a standstill that we are still quote we are still proceeding full steam ahead
and saying as of this week and estimated 300 tips have been followed up on and the same number of individuals have been
interviewed so they've interviewed up to 300 people they're saying as of October
first some of those interviewed have also been the target of rumors circulating around town and nearby
counties quote there have been Rumors in the community that have included deputies close personal friends and Over
The Road Truckers we have followed up on each and every one of them so they're stating the rumors could be it could be
a deputy that was involved could be somebody that knew Rhonda cansen as a close person personal friend as well
as truckers going on to address the rumors they say we haven't heard a rumor to date that we hadn't already
investigated so any of these rumors that are coming out they're saying they were
previously investigated by us before they they heard the rumors themselves and what the sheriff's department is
pointing out is unfortunately when they go to talk to somebody to get information May some can
help out with the cas maybe they drove by maybe they went to the St that night maybe they know Rhonda what they're
saying is that's having a domino effect where they're just talking to somebody to see what they know not because
they're a suspect but then the small town is going Sheriff's Office was out talking to soand so he must be a suspect
in the murder and then that gets spread around town now the sheriff does say look this is not a bad thing it's bad
that certain individuals are being singled out and certain individuals are being accused on the public level of
committing a murder that they really had no involvement and in police are not saying that they do nor have any
suspicion that they do but he does say that rumors are not terrible for our investigation because it
extends and also helps to maintain interest public interest in the case so on that level they're good back in the
day law enforcement sometimes would use psychics to get a different perspective it wasn't like these detectives were
going in and always saying well I believe in the spiritual realm it was just if I give this information maybe
maybe they'll tip me to a rabbit hole that I could jump down that's why I think the internet is actually so
important now with these cases I was law enforcement I wouldn't shy away from listening to a
podcast cover a case because they might say something that leads me down a rabbit hole that leads to an actual
solid lead right and that works with the the rumors and then back to that Cleveland case that I was talking about
that's why you didn't see law enforcement referencing any of that information that that the the media was referencing
because they didn't believe anything that they were being told in that Anonymous letter and psychic information
here in this case I don't have a lot not a lot of it made its way to uh where where I could find it in any public
forum and I don't know if that was the result of Psychics coming out of the woodwork which tends to happen in these
cases or a psychic or two contacting the family or law enforcement they're not really referenced a whole lot when it
comes to information that we get directly from law enforcement and the Rhonda cansen
case but I do like that they are addressing these rumors and not shying away from the fact that some of those
rumors include deputies well you got to think about who's on the road at that time and like we said you have a
convenience store these Law Enforcement Officers know here's a place that we stop to get coffee we're regulars is it
possible somebody from another County could have used this as a as a stop as well exactly and to touch further upon
something that you brought up yesterday You' mentioned 3:00 being the witching hour
well we had mentioned that we have law enforcement asking the public for their help yet we don't get any time of death
we don't we don't get it narrowed down the general description of this case is she was working the overnight shift
which was 9:00 p.m. to 5: a.m. it's a little known fact but if you do enough digging you do come up with a way
to kind of close that time window a little bit and hone in on a on a a more precise time frame so once they release
the sketches the composite sketches of the truckers or trucker and person they can't tied to a vehicle that they want
to speak to saying that we believe this individual was one of the last people to
see Ronda cansen alive in one of their postings they state that they they referen 300 a.m. and so it's my belief
based off of that that that uh information making its way from the mouths of law enforcement 3:00
a.m. to 5:00 a.m. is the time that we're concerned with so you can even close that Gap a
little bit more by knowing that Roy shows I'm sorry you could even close that Gap a little bit more knowing that
Ry shows up at five shows up at 4:45 phones it in really it looks like the window we need to be concerned with in
Rhonda's case is 3:00 am. to 4:45 am whatever happened happened before Ry got there and
unless unless Ry is saying well I saw this trucker in the parking lot or saw people inside the building when I went
in which I don't know why you would leave that out when you're telling the story
to the public it doesn't seem likely so it seems like to me whatever happened happened before 4 4:45 a.m. and the
killer or whoever was responsible whether it's one of these truckers or both or somebody else entirely was
completely gone by the time Ray shows up but what you do if you're in law enforcement and you know this we're not
the New Kids on the Block anymore more my friend we're more like the we're the old [ __ ] bags on the Block
like like Donnie on Blue Bloods if you're Donnie then then who who am I Joey I probably shouldn't
mention this but you know this Captain Donnie from Blue Bloods he's now on some show on uh on maybe ID or something but
he wanted to come on our garage show and talk about uh the the upcoming True Crime show that he's doing and we of
course W with him the best of luck and I'm sure it's a great show well our response was if you were Jordan would
let you on if you were Jordan Knight cuz that that boy can sing he's good that Jordan's more of a more of a garage guy
than Donnie ever was he's good that boy can sing so let's fill in some of the blanks a little bit here right Captain
so this is this I love this stuff when we get this kind of information this is the stuff that you and I are always
looking for we geek out about it we we do and we're about to geek out right in front of you right
here police state that they there was a recorded number of purchases that night during
Ronda canson shift the register recorded 63 purchases they are saying and I would
love to know what this number is today because here we sit over 30 years later but they're saying in October of
1992 that they have identified 32 of those purchases and investigators spoke to the persons that made those purchases
so they identified 32 of the 63 sales that Rhonda Canen recorded on the register tape the night that she was
killed and they go on to say we need to know who those people are and what they purchased so we can fill in the blanks
in time before Ronda Canon's death authorities still have not determined a motive for
murder and they go on to say that it was determined that robbery was not attempted and there was
no signs of sexual [Music] [Applause] [Music] assault this show is sponsored by better
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in the garage cheers to you all thanks for sharing the show with your friends and families we appreciate it and cheers
to you my good friend the CR cheers to you Captain so in addressing the rumors and who could be involved in the murder
of Ronda canuts and the sheriff states that deputies being involved or a deputy having committed this murder was
something they were not going to shy away from stating that several of the deputies the sheriff's deputies were
acquaintances with Ronda cansen several of them were even good friends with Ronda saying that his deputies would
often stop by the store stopped by the store to make a fuel purchase or purchase a snack go in to check on the
store check on the attendant not just Ronda whoever may be working there that night but as of October 1992 the direct
statement from the county attorney was quote we haven't ruled out anybody other than the deputies end
quote Yeah but what they say about lawyers how do you know they're lying their mouths are moving so but but look
this is what you have to do if you're a detective right you have a victim she has an inner circle she has an Outer
Circle it's just like the boyfriend is he a suspect is he a person of interest everybody is her family
members are and we're going to rule them out one by one process of elimination so
I I I do commend them and I applaud them for not shying away from the fact that they said who's on the road deputies are
on the road who makes stops here law enforcement maybe it's one of our own and we need to look into that well and
think about this too one thing you'll notice in all of the quotes that we put together yesterday and today where are
they coming from they're coming from either the sheriff or the County Attorney so that needs to tell you
something this chickasa County Sheriff's Office at the time this gives me reason to believe
that they do not have a homicide a dedicated homicide detective in 1992 I want to expect Chickasaw hehal to have
one of those right and there might be people out there scratching their heads and going an entire Sheriff's Department
in 1992 you don't believe they had a dedicated homicide detective well they didn't because they didn't have
homicides right right you have you have burglary robbery uh theft drug narcotics
you have those detectives when you have those problems when homicide is not a problem and you don't experience them
you often don't dedicate a detective to working those types of cases in particular now you can
also take that and go wow the inexperience level of this Sheriff's Department to fully thoroughly and
comprehend and fully comprehend the investig a at in front of them is probably not
likely but again very early on they called in DCI who's at the state level who's who is working homicide cases all
of the time so they knew enough to call in experts they knew enough to call in persons in an agency that had bigger and
better resources than they did the other rumor that was going around we talked about the truckers but the other rumor
was that we could be talking about a serial killer and here is an article from The Courier out of waterl Iowa from
November 4th 1992 that says officials say canes and death not linked to other murders despite the theories that a
serial killer may be stalking the Midwest authorities investigating the murder of R canuts and say the person
they are searching for is probably not responsible for other Regional murders now one in particular that we have to
talk about is Tammy Joe zwicki now yesterday we reminded everybody that we covered the highway
serial killers initiative this was something that came to light via the FBI it actually came to
light kudos to the media because this was something that several really good boots on the ground investigative
journalists one here in Ohio in particular that brought this information to the FBI saying in several Pittsburgh
Columbus Indiana and several different cities and states that you have these journalists coming forward and saying we
think that a lot of these cases are connected and they seem to all involve truck stops highways gas stations and so
the FBI starts looking at this and they say we have always stated for years that
the ideal and this is no slight to any of the great truckers out there because we have a lot of people that are driving
for a living that listen to this show and we love you and we thank you and I love the truckers don't stop what you're
doing truckers because if you do this country will shut down very quickly we rely and depend on you but the FBI says
and it's obvious why the an ideal job for someone that is a serial killer would be somebody that travels a lot and
so the first thing that comes to mind would be a highway traveler or a trucker and so you have America's Highway serial
killers that we covered in a four-part series in episodes 591 to 593 on your true crime garage radio dial back in
June of 2022 and in those episodes two of the cases that we specifically highlighted
that of Kristen Alice Schmidt still unsolved homicide in Oregon and Tammy Joe zwiki still unsolved homicide and
this involves three states Illinois Iowa which matches up with Ronda Canon's case
and Missouri and one thing that was awfully haunting when doing some of the research for this week's case for Ronda
Canon's case is it's difficult to look through a newspaper from September of 1992 and not see Ronda Canon's case
right next to tamy joea Wiki's case and that's because Tammy Joe was a college student in the state of Iowa
she was driving from Illinois and going back to school and unfortunately her vehicle was found
abandoned in Illinois she never returns to her College in grenell Iowa and later her
body's found in Missouri that's why her case kind of spans these three states but her body's not
found until a couple weeks later she's located and then later ided positively as Tammy joa wikii who was missing and
she's positively ided about a day or two before Ronda kuden is murdered in Iowa and that's why we're seeing these
two cases almost side by side and oddly I think the other thing that connects them is not just these newspaper
articles and being unfortunately front page headline news at the same time but also that we have a trucker or truckers
described in the composite sketch for Canon's case but it's also believed that maybe a
trucker was involved in Tammy joea Wiki's case so can we describe the person that is last
scene with these victims yeah that's one thing that's a little haunting here as well so keep in mind that tamy Joe zwiki
she's driving back to to college right and she disappears on August 23rd she's seen at mile marker 83 on
Interstate 80 in Central Illinois she's not terribly far away in fact from the great state of Iowa seene between 3: and
400 p.m. on the 23rd of August according to Witnesses a tractor trailer truck was
observed right next to Z's Pontiac her vehicle at multiple times during that 3 to 4 p.m. window Witnesses
described a faded Rusty orange stripe around the center of this tractor trailer truck the semi the semis driver
was described as a Caucasian male between the age of 35 and 40 who was either at or just over 6 feet tall the
semi driver according to Witnesses had dark and bushy hair now that is August 23rd not
terribly far away from Ronda Canon's case that takes place September 7th of the same year
here and in that case and in Canon's case remember we're talking about somebody that's described two men that
are described as 35 to 45 years of age medium height with heavy builds one thing that's missing from Tammy josa
Wiki's case it's not mentioned the build of the person at all let alone a heavy build but it's also weird that we're
hearing Caucasian male with bushy hair and a beard and a mustache where we get beard and bushy
hair in Tammy joa Wiki's cases well I don't know that they're connected and in fact it appears that as far as the
Public's concerned that they might be two decent suspects in both cases that are not one in the same we
have Lonnie beardbald in Tammy Joe Z Wiki's case who is a person of interest he has passed away I believe and remains
a person of interest one person that has never been excluded as a possibility in
the Ron cansen case is now known serial killer Clark Perry Baldwin he was a long
haul trucker from Iowa but he wasn't arrested until May of 2020 this after forensic genealogy linked his DNA to
several 1990s ERA slangs this is the murders of three different women from Wyoming and Tennessee the de Moes
register reports that Clark Perry Baldwin age 58 was taken into custody at his waterl Iowa home after investigators
linked his DNA with seen and other materials recovered from the victims two of whom were pregnant at the time
Baldwin worked as an over the road truck driver for most of his career living in Iowa he also lived in
Springfield Missouri for a period of time in 1991 he was charged with raping a 21-year-old hitchhiker at gunpoint
this took place in Texas the woman told police that Baldwin struck her on the head then bound her
hands and mouth and tried to choke her to death he allegedly admitted to the assault but was released pending grand
jury proceedings the Chargers were later dismissed after the state was unable to
locate the victim so they have to drop their charges because they can no longer find the victim to testify against him
and I mean if you look into him he he is a piece of work he's a big guy with the Caucasian he looks exactly
like buy beard the compos except for now when we see him because it's all these years later he's
got gray hair rather than the dark head of hair and the dark beard but yeah I was doing some digging on this guy and
and and some people close to him were so shocked by all this information coming out and other people were like no this
guy was a monster he was very abusive I guess towards his step kids would would beat
them um with a belt to Bear bottom would hold their heads underwater in the in the bathtub to
punish them and then other people said that this guy was the gentle giant yeah I don't know if maybe he aged
out of some of his violence I it's it's difficult to say what we do know though is that he's been
charged with three homicides so and and these homicides while none of them take place in Iowa we can't get past the fact
that they all take place in the same years as Ronda Canon's murder uh and Tammy joa Wiki murder and then on top of
that he's living in Iowa around this time in waterl which we know is not terribly far from where Ronda canson was
killed yeah I'm horrible because every time I hear W what and we're not alone on this
Captain because we know that investigators from multiple states started looking into Baldwin to see if
he was involved in other murders one thing that's incredibly tragic here Beyond The Murders thank God they get
some some kind of Justice at least this guy's locked up now but one thing that's
incredibly tragic is that two of the victims still have not been identified we don't know who two of these victims
were so while we talk about some form of Justice here in these cases the family members the loved ones
of these two individuals that have not been identified they don't know that there's
been any justice they probably don't even know why loved one is is missing it was
noted and reported in multiple from multiple news outlets that Baldwin was looked at after he was arrested for the
Tammy joea Wiki case the Iowa college student case but it was stated that he was ruled
out now I had a little trouble double triple checking this statement and I also couldn't back up why uh the the two
statements that I could find that say he was ruled out they do not State why he was ruled out it could be simply that
they were able to prove that he was nowhere near where she was Abdu abducted from but again with her being missing
for a period of time right she's missing for about 10 days or so s to 10 days it
her timeline gets a little wonky and it's difficult to say if she was killed immediately after she was abducted or
how how much time it passed uh we only know how much time it passed from when they found her body which was in a state
of decomposition and somewhat concealed but there's a part of me that says Nick do not rule out the the very slight all
right this is a very minor possibility that could Ronda kutsin have been told something did I mean did could somebody
have stop a trucker have stopped in that may have been responsible for Z Wiki's case because at the time that Ronda
cansen is killed the description of the person last scene or the trucker scene with Tammy joa Wiki's vehicle broken
down on the side of the road we get a description of that driver of the of the semi Tru and we get a description
of the semi TR itself is I don't think not not having enough information to rule it out that
you can go past the idea again as slight as it may be does somebody pull in matching that truck and she says the
wrong thing and this person attacks her because it goes back to motive for Ronda
Canon's case to me we're told VI law enforcement through the news and through the media that there was no sign of
sexual assault we do not believe that robbery was attempted so why the hell was she
killed there's a motive there for some for for something yeah you're you're absolutely right but it just makes me it
makes me come to the conclusion that they don't have DNA right and I wonder if in Tammy joea Wiki's case if they do
have DNA we know that Baldwin was connected in the other cases by DNA and if they were able to rule him out in
Tammy's case because of that and then in Ronda Canon's case I'm not willing to believe I know they've told us this and
I know they've told us this repeatedly I'm not willing to believe 100% that sexual assault did not take
place just because I I know that we have the statement that she was found fully clothed and that sexual assault did not
occur but remember we covered the Amy blumberg case right and unfortunately she was
killed New Year's Eve in 1999 she was working in a store some guy comes in kills her leaves and the case actually
went cold for a period of time I think it was a couple years I'm going off a memory here pardon me Captain
but at no point did they ever say to the public or through the media that she was sexually
assaulted they just kind of left that out and in fact they went out of their way to say that it's difficult for us to
determine the motive here it wasn't robbery and when that took place it it had the the public reacting going well
maybe this is linked to the I70 killer where the I70 killer comes in with a gun he doesn't rape anybody he doesn't Rob
anybody he doesn't Rob the store he kills and he leaves and then later on we find after
this guy is arrested that yes in fact he did sexually assault the victim could that be hold back information in the
Ronda canson case as well I I again it goes back to I believe in hold back information I also believe
that when you're asking the public for help help me to help you the more that the public knows the more that somebody
might be able to help connect the dots for you and if if we're talking about no sexual assault then we're talking about
a different kind of criminal than if there is sexual assault but like I said some of these serial killers they just
don't have that many personal connections so I mean look at somebody like dmer or Bundy
they're just roaming free nobody knows where they're are where they're at they don't have any place to be
if I went missing for a weekend people would know they'd be call they'd be calling
and searching for me but these guys can go missing for days I mean for all we know this
individual had had stopped at this station multiple times well and it would seem to me like it wouldn't be to again
as you're pointing out this the person responsible could live states away and so that would make this case
incredibly difficult they don't find the murder weapon that makes the case incredibly difficult yeah and again we
don't know if there's DNA makes it but the general correct we don't know if there's DNA we do have a couple things
that are on the record though that are of Interest I believe in this cansen case well hit us with them so one we
have the we have the attorney the county attorney who would ultimately be the one that would
prosecute this case if they were able ever able to bring it to trial who states multiple
times look we are looking for uh forensic evidence accumulated at the crime scene has been reanalyzed
during the past year I'm looking for a date of when this was released I don't have a date of this I believe it's
around the 20year anniversary so 2012 forensic evidence accumulated at the crime scene has been reanalyzed
during the past year Laboratory test of any unknown substances found at the scene including fingerprints have been
in review to see if they can produce leads not formally identified those tests are continuing hundreds of
interviews have also been conducted and then they go on to say I think this is a year later quote particularly
damning sorry then they go on to say I believe this is a year later where he says hope that a quote particularly
damning piece of evidence might still be found that would allow the complex the complexion of this
case the prosecuting attorney goes on to express hope that a quote particularly damning piece of evidence might still be
found that would allow the complexion of this investigation to change for the good end
quote it it's statements like those that make me wonder what did what did they pull from the crime scene there it
sounds like they're still holding on to something that they hope that they can extract some type of information from
some evidence from that will lead them to who is responsible for Ronica newson's murder and not to sound like a
old Captain boot licker here but law enforcement they're asking for help they asked for the FBI's help they asked for
other law enforcement's help and then I think it was seven years case is cold and they're asking
for a special prosecutor to be brought in yeah unfortunately it looks to me Captain like this case could have been
called three or four months into the investigation and you're absolutely right it was right around that seven
years after Ronda canson was killed that the county requested let's bring in a special prosecutor to review
information in Canon's murder investigation this is interesting to me because I can only relate this to the
very few times that we have seen in the cases that we've reviewed that they bring in
they actually bring in a special prosecutor and as the title would tell you they only bring in a special
prosecutor for special circumstances now it's not always clear what those special circumstances are
some of the cases that we've reviewed that when they do bring in a special prosecutor are when either it's believed
that a potential coverup is involved or that a person in Authority or law enforcement may have been involved in
the homicide a case was botched from the beginning by a bad investigation and or a case that is incredibly
complex it's hard for us to sit here all these years later and this far away and
know which one of these factors if any of them was the reason for bringing in a special prosecutor my guess would be the
complexity of the case based off of look I maybe I should remain suspicious but I tend to not see
coverups when immediately local law enforcement are bringing in other agencies that would
seem to just kind of pull the curtain back and expose whatever's going on and here I wonder if the complexity
of this case is what and why they believe the only and best strategy would be to bring in a
special prosecutor one that has an incredibly good success rate for prosecuting murders in the state of Iowa
so the person that they brought in was labeled as one of the most experienced homicide Specialists working in the
Attorney General's office in the state of Iowa and then you say well what are the
complex ities with the case there Nick we have a young woman that's killed at a gas station in the middle of the night
the complexities of the case to me would seem to be the evidence or lack thereof
right they're not able to unless they're holding it back they're not able to tell
us the motive well and the possibility they determined it themselves well and the possibility that the killer could be
from hundreds of miles away it could be a traveler right stranger on Stranger crime the perpetrator does not live in
the jurisdiction or even in the state and then on top of that the lack of evidence we are big Believers in
transfer Theory but is this one of those cases where that did not occur or they were not able to
identify any items that are missing from the scene or any items that were left at
the scene by the killer we know that they searched the area two mile radius they were hoping you know Captain they
were hoping and they were praying and this was good work by them they were walking and looking searching the ground
hoping that this killer or The Killers toss something out the window while they were fleeing the the crime scene hoping
that maybe they threw the murder weapon out out and that maybe somehow that this
thing would have identifiers on it that could lead us to someone or to a trucking company
or in some way make it breadcrumbs to the Killer and it's shocking to me that I haven't heard of this case before it's
shocking to me that this case hasn't been covered and hopefully we do some good by
shining some light on this case the crime remains unsolved and the chickasa County Sheriff's Office continues to ask
for assistance for any information related to this murder anyone with information is asked to call the chiasa
county sheriff's office at 641 394 3121 [Music] as always thank you for joining us in
the garage if you like what you hear if you love the show please leave us a fstar or positive review wherever you
listen this week I am incredibly excited and proud to be recommending a new book
it's my first book I wrote this with a great author who many of you know Brian Whitney the book is titled the deli
murders the quest to find the man on the bridge and it's published by one of the
very best names in True Crime wild blue press legendary narrator Kevin Pierce did the audio book for which I am
incredibly grateful if you have Audible the audio book is available now in the pre-sale orders are running for both
paperback and hardback copies on Amazon just search Nick Edwards Nic Edwards I'm
hoping that you will check it out make sure you follow True Crime Garage on Twitter and Instagram we will see you
next week and until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] you can live out your Master Chef
dreams when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel
connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well inside to outside repairs to
Renovations get started on the Angie app or visit angie.com today you can do this when you Angie
that

Rhonda Knutson /// Part 2 /// 666

Part 2 of 2

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On Labor Day, 1992 the body of Rhonda Knutson was found in a back room at a gas station. Rhonda was working the overnight shift. This is a small-town murder mystery. Sadly her case remains unsolved all of these years later. Anyone with information about Rhonda Knutson, either or both of the men in the composite sketches or if you have information that could help the investigation please contact the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office at 641-394-3121 or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010 or email dcinfo@dps.state.ia.us

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses Rhonda Canen's unsolved murder, composite sketches of suspects, and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

Quality Sleep with Ashley. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices with financing options.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Nick welcomes listeners and introduces the episode's theme with a cold beer.
Composite Sketch Release. Police release a composite sketch of two men believed to be linked to a case.
Investigation Update. Authorities address local rumors and provide updates on the investigation's progress.
Consumer Cellular Savings. Get the same coverage for half the cost with Consumer Cellular.
Angie's List Rebranding. Angie's List is now Angie, simplifying service comparisons and bookings.

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Episode quotes

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2:35WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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