Suspect #1 /// Part 1 /// Episode: 935 /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

[music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who would like to have the sensitive and dumb
combo platter removed from the world's menu. Here is the captain. [music] >> That's cuz I keep eating it. It's good
to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks to Tone and Brent. >> [music]
>> This week we are excited to be featuring Bone Face Killer by longtime friends of
the show Tactical Brewing Company in beautiful Orlando, Florida. Bone Face Killer is a hazy IPA loaded with Citra,
Cryo, Mosaic and Northeast Chinook Hops. ABV 7% garage grade four and three-quarter bottle caps out of five
and let's give some thanks and high praise to some of our good friends for helping us fill up the
old garage fridge. First up, a cheers, a double cheers to Jerry and Lisa in Arkansas. Treat yourself.
>> And a big relaxation chip goes out to Ashley P and Woodlands, Texas. >> And last but certainly not least, we
have a long distance cheers to Arnica, Nasty Painter and Exeter, England. Everyone we just mentioned went to
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>> Yeah, be double e double r u n beer run. For everything true crime check out truecrimegarage.com. [music]
While you're there sign up on the mailing list and Colonel that's enough of the beer news.
>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
true crime. >> [music] >> The following is an excerpt from the Orlando Sentinel,
a Henry Curtis article published in 1992. One day after Christmas titled Osceola killers leave bloody
trail of terror in '92. Kissimmee, Florida detective John Myers knows almost everything about the day
Bonnie Goodson died except the final 20 minutes before her killing. Closing that small gap could help
Kissimmee law enforcement protect its 109 year record of solving murders. A record now threatened by two unsolved
cases during Osceola County's deadliest year since the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement began tracking homicide data in 1971. By late 1992, 10 people had died in
violent crimes in the county. Bonnie Goodson killed in late November of '92 was the 10th.
Myers says many cases have been solved with community help. Often from details people dismissed as
minor. Quote, "Sometimes it's been with something someone thought was unimportant, but there's nothing
unimportant in a homicide investigation." He is seeking any information about Bonnie Goodson's movements on the
afternoon of November 30th, 1992, especially at the Truck Accessory Superstore located at 205 South Bermuda
Avenue. That day should be memorable. Murder dominated local conversation after two
local men were killed in a carjacking outside Kissimmee the day before. Bonnie Goodson, a 34-year-old mother of
two daughters, went to work as usual riding a red single-speed bicycle. She served a couple of customers until
around noon when a co-worker brought her soup from Fat Boys Barbecue Restaurant on Vine Street.
The last known customers, a husband and wife, arrived at 2:30 p.m. and bought a latch for their pickup
truck cover. About 20 minutes later, Goodson was found bleeding heavily from head wounds.
She died after being flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Less than $500 was missing from the
register. Detective Myers describes the attack as brutal and questions the motive.
Was it anger? Was it robbery or both? The 1992 killings began only three blocks from Goodson's store on the night
of February 26, 1992, when Dr. Ruth Haut, a Kissimmee chiropractor, was abducted from her
Bermuda Avenue office. This true crime story focuses on Curtis Huff Jr., a suspect in multiple unsolved
homicides in Osceola County. In five still unsolved cases, the 1992 murders of Ruth Haut,
Mary Ellen Wise, Antonio Zucca, and Bonnie Goodson, and the 2006 murder of Helen McPherson.
This is True Crime Garage. This is suspect number one. >> [music] [music] >> Wednesday [music] evening, February 26,
1992, this is Kissimmee, Florida. We have Dr. Ruth Haut, age 41. She's going in about what should have been an
ordinary work day. The good doctor is a chiropractor at the Sandra Roberts Chiropractic Clinic.
That day, patients came and went as usual. The clinic's rhythm of appointments, phone calls, all led to
the typical routine end-of-the-day steps. But sometime that evening, those rhythms
broke. Ruth's partner, Jean Wagner, tried calling the office and reached what sounded like an automated message.
So, instead of getting a hold of the roommate, they get the automated message instead.
Ruth does not pick up the phone there at the office. This seemed odd to Jean as she knew that Ruth would be working late
that evening. It was the kind of small oddity that can nag at a person, especially when paired with another.
Because when Jean gets home from work, Ruth's car was not there. Expecting to see Ruth's car, if she was
not at the office, her car should have been been at their home. Jean's worry sharpened into something heavier, an
intuition that something was incredibly wrong. So, Jean drove to Ruth's office that same night to check for herself.
What she found looked like a scene absolutely interrupted. The office door to the business was
ajar. A telephone line had been cut. So, this is the line that runs from the wall
to the desk phone for Ruth. This line had been cut. >> Well, that's not bizarre at all.
>> Not at all. Jean recalled that someone had scheduled a late appointment that evening with Ruth. This was an
appointment that, now in hindsight, felt less like a patient visit and more like
some kind of lure. Ruth was officially reported missing that night at 10:30 p.m. This is February 26th, 1992,
and investigators, obviously based off of the details we just covered and what they are seeing at the scene, believe
that Ruth had been abducted from her place of work and that [clears throat] this likely had occurred hours prior to
her being reported missing. In fact, they put the believed time of abduction at 7:30 p.m. This from her Bermuda
Avenue office. >> Yeah, you don't think about how vulnerable some of these jobs are. We've
talked a lot about real estate agents being vulnerable. I'd think chiropractors or masseuse, and
especially in situations where you have clients that you're in physical contact with them. Some of
these men might not understand that this individual is just doing their job. There's no romantic intimacy here.
>> Well, and anytime you have somebody looking for a victim or looking to victimize someone,
they're often looking for an individual, right? There's strength in numbers, the
old buddy system. And so, when you talk about people like a realtor or in this case a chiropractor, if you can arrange
an appointment, you very likely will encounter that person, whether you they are your specific target or not, on a
solo one-on-one situation. >> Well, and all these individuals, they're essentially being paid to also be nice
to you. They're selling a service. >> Ruth's business partner, chiropractor Sandra Roberts, said that the office
appeared to have been robbed. Though, publicly what was stated is that the stolen items were described as not
valuable. So, I guess the kind of theft that doesn't seem to quite add up unless
robbery is only part of the story. >> Yeah, or maybe it's items that the killer touched.
>> I think it's also we don't want to be too specific when we tell the public what was stolen because you're hoping to
find these items on your perpetrator. After being abducted from the office, investigators believe Ruth was then
driven 3 hours away to Vero Beach, Florida. The basis for this belief wasn't rumor or some
vague theory, it was a camera and a bank card. An ATM camera at the SunTrust Bank
at 1716 Highway A1A captured an image of a person using Ruth Haut's bank card. The person on the footage seems to have
taken deliberate steps to hide their identity. What you can see on the footage is an individual wearing a green
short-sleeved shirt with two buttoned pockets on each side over top. So, the short-sleeved shirt is over top of a
hooded sweatshirt, and the hood is pulled up and the strings on the hood pulled tight. So, it's concealing the
face. You cannot see the person's face. So, it looks like a hooded person with no face at all.
And the hood, again, is completely closed shut. Authorities could not say this was This was weird in the beginning
parts of this case. So, to I think just to cover all bases here, when reviewing this photo and then when it was released
to the public, they did state like we >> We can't say that that's not Ruth in the
underneath the hooded sweatshirt. Because you again, you can't see any features of this person, but they'll do
further analysis of this security camera footage later that we will have details
of. But, that was their statement right out the gate that, you know, we can't say if this is Ruth or not, but we do
not believe it to be Ruth based off of the stature in the uh posture of this individual.
>> Yeah, you'd think they'd be able to figure out the height pretty quickly. But, if I'm law enforcement, I'm just
putting out this image and saying, "We're looking for this person." >> The other part of this though, too, is
this is a walk-up ATM. And part of what I believe that they are saying is Ruth could still be present in this moment,
just not caught on the camera because the camera is fixed in a way that it's up close and personal to whoever is the
one accessing that ATM. What they can say it's absolutely Ruth's ATM card. And what they were also saying, you know,
you can kind of just forget everything that they said right out the gate because what they are saying is we
believe the person seen here is the person who is responsible for abducting Ruth. It's the only thing that makes
sense. Why else who else would be this person? Uh Ruth wouldn't stage a scene, I don't
think, and then disguise herself only to use her her own personal card at a bank 3 hours away.
>> Well, we've seen a quite a few women like to stage their own kidnapping. >> Now,
the implication here, while maybe not so clear, should be clear. Financially accessing
her personal accounts, you're going to need to you're going to use this marker on your timeline to narrow the window
between her disappearance and what would soon be found. So, on the following morning, this is February 27th, this is
a Thursday, a child, this is a fifth grader riding the school bus to school, looks out the window and saw something
that no child should ever have to see. This is around 8:30 a.m. that morning when the child spotted a body in an
orange grove. >> Now, that's a hell of a way to start the day. >> Yeah, from my understanding, this good
kid right here, she sits in the very back of the bus and it's believed that she's the only one that spotted or at
least only one that reported this site based off of her vantage point in the bus. And this poor girl very quietly and
respectfully reports to the bus driver what she saw or believed she was seeing. And so what we do learn is this was in
fact a body. And this is about 10 miles east of St. Cloud, Florida. And that body was later determined to be
that of Ruth Haught. >> Well, the eyewitness almost didn't see the body because she was listening to
Outcast so loud. >> Ruth was found sprawled in the orange grove. She was fully clothed and
barefoot. There were no signs of sexual assault, but there was unmistakable violence. Her blouse was covered in
blood. Ruth was stabbed 11 times and her throat was slashed. She did have defensive wounds.
Near her body lay a clue that seemed oddly specific. It was a plastic case for a children of the sun cassette tape,
an album by Billy Thorpe. There was, however, no cassette tape. So it's the case with the album cover and
the liner notes, but without the actual cassette tape itself. >> And because it's in a field, there is a
possibility that this doesn't belong to the crime scene, but very strange. >> That is the complication of any outdoor
crime scene, as we've discussed many times on this show. As investigators tried to reconstruct the final hours of
their victim, they ba- they began collecting sightings from the same places and the times that they
suspected that there would be activity. So they wanted information from the public about a red pickup truck that was
reportedly seen near the orange grove area around the time that Ruth was considered missing.
>> Was the red truck seen on surveillance footage like the hooded [snorts and clears throat]
individual? >> No, this is a truck that was seen reported to have been seen by someone in
the area. I believe possibly by more than one person. >> Right. >> And it's Here's the problem. They think they know
about what time she was abducted, okay? And this is why I think they they are honing
in on that 7:30 time period. There's no one there at the office when she's abducted. They have
some other information that might lead them to believe that it's 7:30, but but your critical piece of evidence here
that you're going to use is that ATM footage because it's going to have a time stamp on it. You know that the
distance traveled is roughly 3 hours from point A where the abduction took place at her office to point B the ATM.
Now, you don't know if she's already been Sorry for the poor terminology here, disposed of
by this point. But you have that that marker there, okay? So, you're going to use that marker to come up with that
7:30 abduction time and then you know that obviously she was placed there before 8:30 a.m. So, a a red truck in
this remote location reported to have been seen in this remote location, its activity unknown, is going to be
important to you especially you know, if if once it's in that window of time and I bet you that window that
time frame is much smaller, much more condensed than what they were looking at in this investigation.
>> Right. So, currently we have the abduction site her office. >> Mhm. >> We have the surveillance on the ATM and
then we have this truck which might be the transport vehicle. And then we have the disposal site.
Sorry for the crude term, but do we think that site is where the murder took place or do we think the murder took
place somewhere else possibly in a vehicle? >> Yeah, so we're looking at a minimum four
crime scene situation here. No, they they believe that while the science would tell you that
she expired where she was found, the amount of blood found there does not line up with the amount of blood she
would have lost. So, the attack started, the physical attack of the stabbing started someplace other than where she
was eventually found. So, back to the truck here, Captain. Witnesses described the truck as possibly a Chevy S10 or a
Ford Ranger. So, this would be a smaller sized pickup truck. They have some pretty good detailed information here
though. >> Right. >> They state that there was a crescent-shaped logo on the driver's
side door and a black side-to-side toolbox in the bed of the truck. >> So, maybe a handyman's vehicle.
>> They also were looking for answers, of course, at Ruth's last known location or
at least closer to her office. This leads police to finding another sighting of a different vehicle. This is a white
1979 Monte Carlo sedan that was spotted parked in front of Ruth's office on the night that she disappeared. Now, there's
another witness that reports seeing a white sedan. The part that's missing from this account is the
79 Monte Carlo, but this is a white sedan similar to a Monte Carlo driving erratically north on Bermuda Avenue,
then speeding east on Vine Street. And the witness thought that there may have been two people inside the vehicle. So,
this is This is very difficult here. You see the truck at this location where the
body is later discovered. So, you have interest in the truck. You would expect that there would be the abductor and the
the victim here inside a vehicle together. So, now you have two vehicles of interest in your investigation.
>> So, if you're law enforcement, are you thinking two vehicles possibly involved in this
crime? Are we thinking one perpetrator, or we thinking possibly two? >> That's a great question. I I don't think
they're closing doors on either of those possibilities. Uh at the at >> Because with the eyewitness seeing the
white sedan with the two with the two passengers, you go, well, is that the perpetrator and the victim,
or is that two perpetrators and the victim somewhere else in the vehicle? >> Exactly. And to your point of the
cassette tape, does it have anything to do with the case at all? >> Yeah, I am going and pushing eject, my friend,
and all the car stereos. I'm I'm looking for that tape. There can't be There wasn't millions of records sold.
>> Now, to keep in mind, you know, it's very easy to come in and be a contrarian
on these cases and point to this, that, and the other thing and go, well, it may
not have anything to do with the case at all. It may not have anything to do with
it. But But the way that you need to approach these, if you want to solve a case,
the way that you do it is it has everything to do with your case until it doesn't, until you can prove that it
doesn't. So, right now, as it stands, if I'm the investigator, the red truck means something. It was there where the
body was found. I want to know when and why it was there, who was driving it, and was that truck there before or after
the the body was placed there. Uh the the white vehicle, the white sedan, I want to know it
why was it parked in front of her office? I mean, that's a crime scene. Both of these are crime scenes. So, a
vehicle at either crime scene has everything to do with your crime, with that crime. And same with the plastic
cassette tape [clears throat] uh box or cover, whatever you want to call it, the the case. Now,
our victim, Ruth Hout, was known to see patients in the evening. Now, most of us know typically doctors
are going to do a 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday operation. Ruth would see patients in the evening, but this was
strictly by appointment only. So, we now go back to this appointment, and remember her roommate Jean said, "I knew
that she had an appointment that night, and and that's why it was weird that I got the automated service or the
voicemail when I called the office instead of Ruth picking up the phone." >> Well, and that's why I was curious. When
they state that there was things stolen, I'm starting to think, was there a day planner stolen? Was there contact
information stolen that would lead to the identity of who set up that appointment?
>> Yeah, and they have that information. So, the very rightfully so would not identify
the appointment or the patient of that appointment to the papers. That information was, of course, given to the
investigating officers. >> Right. >> Okay, so let's circle back to some things here.
Ruth's bank card had been used at this automated teller machine to withdraw funds from her account on
the night that she went missing. And again, this is done by someone caught on camera wearing a strange outfit
concealing their identity. And then her body is discovered the following morning
laying in an orange grove. And we will have these images that were captured at the automated teller machine on that
February night in 1992 on our social for you to view for yourself. So, you know me, Captain. I live in the
weeds, baby. So, let's get into the weeds here. >> Shall we? Cuz we have that information.
That information that wasn't given to the papers. We have additional information like the
identity or fake identity, rather, of the after-hours patient. >> Well, like our buddy Ken says, it's a
nice garage, but it's full of weeds. >> According to the police report, Dr. Howe
had been scheduled at the last minute to see a new patient. So, this is somebody
that neither doctor would be familiar with. A new patient who said that their name was Michael Greenwell. This
so-called Michael Greenwell had phoned the office, left a callback number of 870-384-7.
And I believe the area code there would be 407. So, if you're bored this evening, give
that number a call a few times to see who picks up. >> Yeah. Tell them we sent you.
>> That's right. And the caller stated that they had insurance. You know, this is a
medical practice, so that's going to be a common question. And they stated that their insurance carrier was Blue Cross
Blue Shield. >> I don't know any Greenwells. So, I don't know if that makes it a good fake name
or not. >> So, in the weeds here, Captain, on the night of February 26th, 1992, the
Kissimmee Police Department responded to 22 North Bermuda Avenue in Kissimmee, Florida. This in reference to what was
The call was a suspicious incident. Okay, so when the officers arrived, they learned that Dr. Ruth Hoult had been
working late and they talked to the owner, her partner, Dr. Sandra Roberts. She owns that chiropractic office. They
learned that about approximately 10:15 is when Dr. Hoult's roommate went to the office and found
the front door ajar. Okay, so she's missing. The roommate enters the office, finds her missing, finds her car
still parked out front of the building. And this is when she discovers the cut phone line, okay? And I know I'm kind of
rehashing some of this here, but again, the devil is in the details here and there are a lot of details in this
abduction and murder case and I want to make sure that none of them are lost on any of us here in the garage.
>> Yeah, you don't need to apologize. Tell the story the way you want to tell the
story. >> So, some of the items that were missing from the two scenes, right? One, the scene where the body was
found and two, the scene where the likely abduction, the chiropractic office, were as follows. So, they believe that
some additional cards would be missing. So, the bank card or additional bank cards
and personal and business type cards of Dr. Ruth Hoult's. Also missing, and I think this goes
along with the ATM card and the activity at the ATM, the item not described, simply described as not important or not
a value to the newspaper, was actually a silver cash box. So, this would be an item of value that could have cash in
it. In fact, it was the business's petty cash box. >> Right. >> Uh it stated only that this box
contained a small amount of cash, but it also contained two Marriott dinner tickets, which is something that I don't
think exists to this day, but back in the '90s it was a thing. Now, they did find Ruth Houts' car keys on
her desk next to that cut telephone line. And then the following morning when the deputies from the Osceola
County Sheriff's Office responded to an orange grove off of Hickory Tree Road in
St. Cloud, Florida. Again, this is the morning of the 27th. When they arrived, they find that Ruth Houts' body in the
orange grove. Again, this is a rural section of Osceola County and very quickly they connect the dots from the
call the night before to this call that they're getting in the morning that we've located our missing person. We
thought it was an abduction and it's not only unfortunately an abduction, but a straight extremely violent one that
ended in the stabbing death of our victim. And now we have this additional information that there was someone who
stopped and attempted to use her bank card at an ATM approximately a 3-hour drive from the [music] abduction
location. >> [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Talk hands in the air. Thank you for letting us tickle
your ear balls. Cheers to you, Colonel. >> Cheers to you, Captain. Raise them high.
Items at the crime scene that were discovered and information that would later come out about this brutal murder
was the medical examiner's office later determined that the cause of death was multiple sharp force
injuries to the head, neck, trunk, and extremities of the victim. The injuries were caused by a cutting instrument not
less than 2 in and and not greater than 14 in in length. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office and the Kissimmee
Police Department joined together to investigate the death of Dr. Ruth Haut. Again, we have numerous investigative
leads right out of the gate here. Again, we already talked about possibility of a
small model red pickup truck seen at the orange grove. Police in their notes, we
have some portions of the police report and the police file here in this story and
they're stating a lot of obvious stuff in the notes, but I find that to be great thorough police work, okay?
They're saying things as simple as the distance between where her body was found and the abduction location is
it would be necessary for a vehicle to be used. Okay, so they they are asking this
question to the medical examiner. We found her here. She was abducted way over here. We know that a vehicle had to
have been used to transport her. What's your opinion, medical examiner, about what took place between the
abduction time and us discovering the body? And that's when the medical examiner explains, "Look, do The vehicle
used would have had a large amount amount of blood staining in it due to the amount of blood missing from the
victim's body, right?" So, the doctor explains that while Dr. Haut may have been stabbed in a vehicle, she expired
in the orange grove. At the orange grove, they also recovered tire impressions from the crime scene.
These tire castings were examined and found to be that of BFGoodrich Comp T/A model P215/65.
Okay, I say all that just to tell you this. That tire comes from the factory, which
is most often used on a small model pickup truck. Okay, you can also buy it aftermarket and put it on your pickup
truck, but it's most commonly used on on newer GMC S15s and Chevy S10s and other small
GMC pickup trucks. Again, some of these from the factory when you purchase the sports value package.
>> Yeah, so not impossible that it would be on a Ford Ranger, but we have people
saying, well, maybe it's a Ford Ranger. Maybe it's a S10. But, if you're going to go in that direction,
you're probably looking for a S10. >> S10 or GMC. And what's cool about this information is you can kind of pri-
right, you're going to keep a list of all these possible trucks and the models, but you can kind of
prioritize them based off of this information. >> Well, I want to know how far away this
is mile-wise. And depending on if it if we know it's a S10 or or roughly an S10,
then what's the range of an S10 on a full tank of gas and where would the individual possibly have to refill?
And now are there any eyewitnesses in around those areas? >> Yeah, what I'm finding to be the most
interesting here, circling back to one abductor or a team of of abductors, is either way this would appear to me to
be highly thought out and planned. Whether the abductor or abductors knew the victim or not, that's
neither here nor there. That doesn't it will mean something to your investigation, but it doesn't mean
anything to the indicators of this being highly planned. Because what I'm seeing
here is this red truck while spotted at the Orange Grove, never seen at the abduction location.
>> Right. >> The white sedan, white Monte Carlo, seen at the abduction location, never seen at
the location where the body's later discovered. And we don't have any vehicle information regarding the ATM
situation. But what I'm seeing here is the likelihood of one abductor that managed to use two vehicles in the
course of this abduction. >> Yeah, there's a sophistication to this, right? If If one
vehicle is seen at the abduction site and there's a different vehicle seen at the disposal site, then is it possible
that law enforcement won't take certain eyewitness accounts as [clears throat] serious?
>> I would prioritize the small red pickup truck because what's the difference between
the two locations? One's very remote and rural, and the other is uh a business area, highly populated.
So, if I've if I think that my killer is smart enough to think this out and think
this through and put some things into place, >> Right. >> I then would have to believe that he was
would be smart enough to use someone else's vehicle conveniently for the abduction and use his truck, which would
less likely to have been seen for the actual attack, killing, and disposal of the victim.
>> So, with the information we have so far, is your we're talking about this at Crime Con.
You You used to do your own profiles. And I really enjoyed them. But, uh you have kind of gone away from doing
your own profiles. >> Well, I don't know that I I Look, obviously, I'm not qualified to do them,
but it is our show and my show and our garage, so >> Yeah. >> I'm qualified for whatever I claim here
once you stepped into Once you come back press past the threshold of the garage door, my friends, you are at our mercy.
Um here the the problem is I would love to tell you what I think my profile would be, but
I cannot in good faith do so knowing that we are only about a quarter of the way through the
information that will point to our point to what what we think happened here. So, here's some other
things that that may indicate that this was well planned and well thought out. >> So, so what you're saying is this killer
is organized. >> Yeah, so at at the one of the crime scenes, this would be where the the
victim was recovered, they also recovered black duct tape. So, a small portion of
a latex glove and some black duct tape was discovered at the body discovery scene. Okay, so a physical examination
of this black duct tape in comparison with the victim's body indicate that this tape was used to bind her and also
placed over her eyes during the portion of transporting this victim. So, they found a sticky
substance on the victim's forehead and eyebrow that was similar to the substance on the backing of the tape
that was found at that scene. So, while not attached to the body, found near the
body, they've confirmed we have everything indicating that this tape has everything
to do with our crime. Now, they also find near the body a tennis shoe or sneaker impression. Shoe
print impressions were found near the body. They would later determine that this
these impressions came from a Reebok style tennis shoe or sneaker. >> So, we have tire
marks, we have shoe prints. >> Yep. >> So, we're getting some identifiers here. >> Duct tape, a piece of a latex glove. If
If our abductor's using duct tape, I would I would absolutely believe that he's using gloves.
>> Yeah. >> And again, we also have that cassette tape box or case bearing the name Billy Thorpe,
Children of the Sun. >> Classic. >> It's It's It's a good song. I don't know the album, but that's a good song.
Detectives learned that Dr. Haught's SunBank automatic teller card had been used at the SunBank in Vero Beach,
Florida. The unidentified suspect was captured on film by the ATM security camera, and
again, that person's identity concealed, and this wasn't by accident. This was somebody that made sure you were not
going to see who was accessing that machine. Now, they further examination of this security camera footage, they
couldn't confirm this, Captain, but they were saying, "We think that the individual using the machine is wearing
latex gloves." And they also think that the top shirt, remember the person put a short-sleeve
shirt over top of a hooded sweatshirt >> Right. >> can be seen in the ATM footage.
A shirt similar to this is found next to the doctor's body. This shirt was saturated with a red substance, later
determined to be blood. It was never stated whose blood it was. I'm guessing it was the victim's blood. And the shirt
had a label attached to it that was labeled D A X or DAX. Further analysis of the camera footage
determined that the person in that video was between 5'3" tall and 5'6" tall and
they s- openly stated the individual is Caucasian. >> Do we have any indication because that's
a that'd be a short male. Is there any thought that this could be a female? >> Again, based off of the stature and the
the posture of the individual it looks male to me. Now >> Right. >> um I'm basing a lot of that off of the
what I think I can see with the neck and the shoulders, but I've watched American
Gladiators and I've I've seen some pretty cool shoulders on on those women. So it's it
I I think you can't say with a great degree of certainty. And you're right that the height is
interesting. >> Well, the shoulders it's it's um it's a under appreciated thing on women.
I like a woman with some nice shoulders. >> The suspect, whoever it was, was unable
to retrieve any money from the ATM and discarded the receipts from the machine next to the doctor's body.
That particular ATM card has never been recovered. At this point in our investigation, of
course, they are attempting to try to identify the subject who made the appointment under the name of Michael
Greenwell. Detectives contacted Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the supposed insurance company,
and a representative told investigators that they did not have anyone covered under their insurance by the
name of Michael Greenwell. >> One question for you because it seems like this disposal site's not just disposing
of the body, but it's disposing of other parts of the crime. >> Mhm. >> And so, it makes me wonder and and I
don't know how well you know or understand this location, but is it the type of location where it's like
I'm disposing of this victim and they may never find her there? >> It looks a little too open. I I don't
know. I think if they in the this Vero Beach general area once in my lifetime, so I'm
not going to claim to have a good understanding. I certainly don't have a great understanding of this very
specific location, but looking at it on a map and from the pictures I've seen, it looks way too open
to think that the victim would not be found. And in fact, it looks way too open to think that the victim might not
be found relatively quickly. I think that it it was a location that was more about not concealing the body
and more about just >> Getting >> getting rid of something that you needed to get rid of and not being seen in that
moment. Not being connected to it in that moment. Now, investigators did locate one individual by the name of Michael
Greenwell that lived in South Florida. There was Apparently, there was only one of them.
Um and he's a professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox and >> Okay. >> They also noted that while they didn't
give out his specific height, he doesn't match the height requirements of our suspect seen at the ATM machine.
>> You don't have to be tall to be a good baseball player, but >> You don't. But I don't There's not a
whole lot of 5 ft 3, 5 ft 4 >> Right. >> professional baseball players. And so my the
Just to be clear here, this Michael Greenwell very quickly ruled out and I'm sure
I would wager a Franklin here, Captain, that his height is not the only reason why he was
>> Right. I mean, obviously if he's playing for the Red Sox, right? He he probably is
not in the Florida area at the time. >> And well, it's February. >> Well, it's February.
>> Okay. Well, we need to check his alibis then. >> That's right. Maybe he was on his knees
at the ATM machine. >> hey, very talented man. >> Unfortunately, Captain, Ruth Houts' case
did not stand alone. So later that same year, 1992, this year would become a bleak ledger of
unsolved violence. Another woman's life was torn apart in a crime that investigators
describe as eerily similar in its pattern of both abduction and forced bank activity.
>> Okay, and I know you're moving on to another crime, but just to throw this out there be cuz I
won't have a chance later, is there any reason to believe that this person would
pick this name knowing it was a baseball player? >> There are people that would later
share that suspicion if that is >> Right. >> is a suspicion of yours. Like it >> I'm suspicious of everything, my friend.
>> Yeah, there there are people that say that this name is wasn't completely pulled out of
thin air. >> Cuz I was just watching Catch Me If You Can again. And Frank Abagnale would use names from
comic books. >> So later that same year, again this is 1992, we're now in the month of
November. This is November 2nd. We're again in Vero Beach, Florida. We have Mary Ellen Wise. She's 39 years
old. She's at home doing something as ordinary as laundry. And it's around 7:30 a.m.
And she is working in the garage of her home. So she owns the home. Her boyfriend
lives with her. They've been together about 3 years from what I could find at this time. And the reason why we're
starting this timeline at 7:30 a.m. is because that is when he leaves for work. And so now starting at 7:30 a.m. she is
alone. It's believed that shortly after the boyfriend left that an unknown assailant entered her home. Now, those
are the words that they always use. I would like to push back on that. I think that that's just
I think that's just reporter speak or that's what the cops told the reporters and they ran with it. Because that
what's always stated in this crime is that there's no signs of forced entry. I think that that is a critical point in
this case and in the investigation. The other part of this too is Mary Ellen Wise,
she was a dog mother mother, right? You got the the the Godfather, she's a dog mother. Uh she has two Doberman
Pinscher dogs. Which are which can be very Most dogs can be protective of their owners and
their loved ones, but these dogs are reported to be very protective of Mary Ellen. Number
one, and number two, these are typically dogs that are used for security purposes.
>> Right. >> If I call them aggressive, I'm going to get some nasty email by some overly
affectionate dog person. I love dogs as much as the next guy. I've I've had >> Maybe more.
>> I've been fortunate enough to have many have several in my lifetime, so >> Well, and I had a rescue for just a
little bit just helping out to make sure it got a proper home. A proper home that I wasn't able to give
the dog, but that dog was very protective. Big dog, strong dog. And there's something
empowering by, you know, the UPS driver would knock on the door and I thought the dog was going to jump
through the door and rip the driver's head off just to protect me. So, I think this is a a crucial piece of
information in this case. >> Yes, and as someone who worked in security for a long period of time, you
are always trained to look at every location, building, access point, backyard, front yard, property from the
potential criminal's perspective. What would the criminal looking at this view as a weakness or a deterrent
for the crime that they want to commit? A Doberman to me as a criminal would be a
high-level deterrent because not only are they strong, powerful dogs, they are incredibly fast. They are faster than
human beings. I'm not going to dance with that animal. So, around this time, an assailant, as they say it, entered
her home. Again, no signs of forced entry. What we're going to see here at this crime scene here, Captain, is why I
don't think the assailant ever actually entered her home. I think the assailant entered her garage where she was out
doing laundry. I think that the assailant got lucky that those dogs were inside where they couldn't get outside
to assist Mary Ellen. >> And the timeline starts, like you said, 7:30. The partner is leaving the house.
I'm guessing leaving through the garage. If she's doing laundry, there's a good possibility that she's like I'll just
leave the door open. I'll I'll shut it later. >> Yeah, maybe it's nice outside and leaves
it open because of the the great weather. What we do know that's going to be missing from the scene
is not just our victim, but also the victim's car. So, somebody forcefully abducted Mary Ellen using her own
vehicle. This was a Honda CRX. And from there, what we have is what appears to be a controlled transactional
phase of this abduction. So, Mary Ellen was forced to drive to a bank in Melbourne, Florida to withdraw an
undisclosed amount of money from an ATM. It was undisclosed in '92. I'm here to tell you that all the reports I found
since '92 indicate that it was about $500 that was removed from an ATM. >> Which could be the standard limit on an
ATM. >> Could be the the max amount allowed. >> Right. >> Now, later that day, another withdrawal
was made, this time at a drive-thru window at the United Savings of America Bank on US Highway 1 in Vero Beach,
Florida. So, for this, Mary would have had to have written a check from my understanding. Now, the details of that
drive-thru withdrawal are interesting because the bank teller believes something was off. Maybe in
just a happenstance type of scenario. But the bank teller would later tell police that it was odd
because they had three lanes for the window that you could drive through. And the bank teller was
familiar with Mary Ellen and had waited on Mary Ellen many, many times. She's lived in this area forever.
And so she the I said she, but I don't know if it was a male or female bank teller, so forgive
me. But the bank teller told police that Mary Ellen would always pull up to the window that was attached to the
building. You know, so that she's pulls up in the nearest lane all the time. And
they exchanged pleasantries and talked for a little bit while they're doing the transaction. But this time
for reasons unknown to the teller, Mary Ellen pulls up to the third lane, the furthest from the window. And remember
she's got this little small Honda CRX car. So this is a two-door vehicle with a very small backseat if it has
much of a backseat at all. The teller would tell police that they they didn't think that they saw anybody
inside the vehicle, but that doesn't mean that somebody isn't in there. And the teller said
>> I was going to say as a bank teller, yeah, most of the time they're friendly. Most of the time we're
we're chatting it up a little bit. But okay. But it didn't happen this time. But
probably no alarm bells are going off. It's just after the fact once you know she was
abducted that you go, oh, well, now these these things that didn't really matter then make sense now.
>> Yes. And the teller would tell police that they had said something to Mary Ellen like, "Oh,
what? You don't like me anymore?" And that Mary Ellen laughed, but wasn't her normal talkative self. And so they
they cashed the check or made the withdrawal, and then Mary Ellen and the CRX Honda moved on.
And everybody went about their day. Now, Mary back at her house, Mary Ellen's living boyfriend, his name is John,
reported her missing, but this would be later that night. So a lot of time has gone by between the time that he leaves
for work when she's reported missing. So he is both believed to be the last person to see her, well, at least the
last person to see her at her home, and the same person to report her missing. Police seem to think after
reviewing the scene that A, she was abducted, and B, that it happened shortly after John had left the house.
They found blood in the garage area and near where her car would have been parked. And another
strange thing here, they found a robe, like a bathrobe, that was like ripped in half or torn, and stuffed inside their
mailbox. >> Mhm. That's bizarre. >> guessing it might be some of the laundry that she was doing.
>> Yeah, but wouldn't the partner be able to identify that? >> Well, just because just because they
didn't tell us where where it came from doesn't mean they don't know. >> Very true.
>> So two days >> to tell me everything, okay? >> Well, I do too. >> How can I solve these crimes if you
don't tell me everything? >> I I'm guessing it doesn't belong to the perpetrator would have be
[clears throat] be some good evidence there. Two days later, her 1991 red Honda CRX is found in Fort Pierce,
Florida. This is in a parking lot at a boat ramp on Seaway Drive and Indian River Drive, so near that
intersection. The car had a broken window and there was glass lying on the ground beside it.
>> But that could have happened afterwards, right? >> And I I apologize here. I'm reviewing my
notes and it states Oh, no, it doesn't. It does not state who the torn robe belong to. It just
simply says torn robe was found in her mailbox and blood was found in the garage where the car had originally been
parked. Authorities declined to say what other evidence might have been found with the vehicle and they did not
discuss details of lab test on the blood. Remember the blood found in the garage. So, she's missing for almost a
week when on November 8th, her fully clothed body, already very badly decomposed, was found in a field about
200 yards northwest of Peanut Lake, roughly 4 miles west of Fort Pierce, discovered by a local Fort Pierce
resident. Reports later concluded she died of she died from blunt force trauma to the
head. Investigators believed that she had struggled and that she had suffered massive trauma, a beating severe enough
to register as brutal even among hardened case investigators. Those who loved Mary Ellen remembered
her not as a headline, but as a person who had already survived enormous pain in her life. In the early 1980s, she had
been in a very very serious car accident and nearly shattered every bone in her body.
Recovery took roughly a decade and she fought her way back to life only for someone in 1992 to take it from her.
>> [music] >> So much more to get to in this true crime story. >> [music] >> Stick around for part two. Until then,
>> be good, be kind, and don't let her >> [music] [music] [music]

Suspect #1 /// Part 1 /// 935

Part 1 of 2

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On January 22, 1993 a man walked into the Maple Leaf Motel and attempted to rob and kill the owner operator. Hamid Jebailey, owner of the Maple Leaf Motel was somehow able to fight off 24 year old Curtis Huff Junior after being shot at and struck with a tire iron repeatedly. Before he could flee the scene, Huff was taken into custody in Kissimmee, Florida. By this time Curtis Huff Junior had already earned his habitual offender status after a series of robberies throughout the Midwest in the late 1980’s. After his arrest at the motel, police detectives began to take a close and hard look at Curtis, his history, and his possible connection to four unsolved homicides

Ruth Haut - February 26, 1992

Mary Ellen Wise - November 2, 1992

Antonio Zucco - November 20, 1992

Bonnie Goodson - November 30, 1992

Curtis Huff Junior a man who reportedly had a reputation for charm and sudden violence entered a plea to avoid additional robbery charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and was released July 1, 2005. Since then he has remained a suspect in multiple murder cases and has been looked at for possible involvement in the 2006 unsolved homicide of Helen McPherson in Vero Beach. Anyone with information is asked to call the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office 772-569-6700 OR to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers 1-800-273-8477. There may be reward money in one or all five of these open homicide cases.

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Brief Summary

This episode discusses the unsolved murders of Bonnie Goodson, Dr. Ruth Haut, and Mary Ellen Wise in Florida during the early 1990s.

Key points

The Abduction of Ruth Haut. Ruth Haut, a chiropractor, is reported missing after her office shows signs of a struggle.
Discovery of Ruth's Body. A child on a school bus spots a body in an orange grove, leading to a grim discovery.
The Mysterious Red Truck. Witnesses report a red pickup truck seen near the crime scene, raising questions about its involvement.
Ruth Houts' ATM Withdrawal. Ruth's bank card was used at an ATM on the night she went missing.
Investigation Details. The police found evidence indicating a planned abduction and murder.
Suspicious Name Used. The name 'Michael Greenwell' was used for a fake appointment, raising questions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There's nothing unimportant in a homicide investigation.

Detective John Myers emphasizes the importance of every detail in solving murders.

3:54WatchJun 17, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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