Suspect #1 /// Part 2 /// Episode: 936 /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and
with me as always is a man who's been let loose from his noose that's kept him hanging around. Here is the captain. and
it's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
Today we are still sipping on this hazy IPA called Boneface Killer from Tactical
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Texas. >> And a big tall cans in there to Sophie and Minnesota. >> Next up, we have Jen Daly in Oyola,
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ear balls. And that's enough of the business. All right, everybody, gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
talk some True Crime. When we left off here, Captain, we have two unsolved murders. And in my humble
garage opinion, they are eerily similar in nature and in the details. And it seems like the detectives agreed as well
back in 1992 when they were conducting their investigations. regarding the investigation to the second murder of in
this series here is Mary Ellen Wise and we talked at length about her abduction and then being moved to two different
banks to make transactions and then later her body being found. But one thing that we will read in the papers
and see on the news when the detectives are asking for help or being probed themselves and being asked about the the
case in the investigation is detectives explained why the lack of forced entry mattered in the Mary Ellen Wise case.
And they stated clearly that if Mary Ellen did not know her abductor, it would mean that she opened her door to a
stranger. This would be in complete contrast to something that her family said to investigators. They're saying
she would not, this was not her nature. She was very, very cautious, a very cautious person. She would not open her
door to a stranger. So that either means a, like we talked about in episode 1, perhaps the asalent approached her while
she was in the garage, garage door open. She's doing laundry. We know that there
certainly had to have been a lot of activity in that garage based off of blood evidence. Clear signs of a
struggle. And again, we talked about her dogs. So either this was somebody that she knew and she did let in. the dogs
didn't perceive any kind of threat. They perhaps went out to the garage together
and then the attack happened or the asalent had to approach the victim inside of that garage on that morning.
>> Well, like I said, if they left the door open, maybe it's a sneak attack or maybe
there's some ruse. And in the first murder, because of the some of the items left behind, the duct tape, the gloves,
and then the eyewitnesses seeing this small truck with possibly possibly a toolbox in the back. It makes me wonder
if there's some kind of connection to a handyman or handyman service. About a week after the murder of Mary Ellen
Wise, an anonymous letter was sent to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. Now, we don't have the
complete contents of this letter, and to my knowledge, I don't think it's ever been made public. Now, we don't know
what was discussed in the letter, what was mentioned, or how or the length of the letter other than what law
enforcement has chose to make public. And what they've made public is that in one portion of this letter, the writer
offered an opinion about the killer's identity and mentioned a young man who was a boxer
and a dog owner. And what I am here to tell you all of these years later is while very interesting, the letter did
not solve the case, it just simply became part of the long uneasy paper trail. Just another fragment of this
story. As investigators reviewed the pattern in Mary Ellen's case, abduction, forced bank withdrawals, a body left in
a rural area, they increasingly considered whether her murder could be connected to other crimes, possibly
committed by the same person who had killed Ruth How just 8 months prior. >> But these are different locations. So,
and I understand that there's similarities, but there's similarities in a lot of crimes. What What do you
think sparks the interest or the speculation that it's the same perpetrator? Well, these are different
areas, but if I'm reading my notes correctly here, you do have one agency that is involved in So, you have
multiple agencies that are involved in these investigations, but one agency that's involved in both. And so I think
it's easier to draw a line from A to B when you have investigators working crimes that not only appear to be
similar in nature, but also they're they're similar in victimology, they're also similar in the fact that
they took place within just an eight or nine month span of time. >> And do these victims have similar looks?
I think it might be a stretch to say yes, but I also would I would say that they don't look crazy dissimilar from
one another. But keep in mind, when you have two cases with no rape or sign of sexual assault, I don't think that the
the the appearance of the victim is what >> the perpetrator was honing in on. And
and look, the bank activity in both is very interesting. It's it's not completely
off the radar, right, that somebody's abducted and then taken to a bank, but it doesn't happen that often. And in
this case, it happened in both of these cases. And so where I say the victimology is very similar, it's
similar in the nature that >> these individuals had access to funds and clearly that's what the perpetrator
wanted. If you want me to go into full profiler mode here, >> what I what I see is somebody who
changed and adapted to the situation. Okay. So, we both agreed that the first crime was has indicators that suggest
that it's well thought out and it's well planned. However, what was the outcome?
Well, there was a security camera at the ATM. There was someone who may have spotted the suspect's vehicle. And so
what do I if if I'm that guy or the perpetrators and I want to do a repeat, but I what am I going to want to do? I'm
going to want to eliminate all of the things that could have got me caught in the first one. And I'm going to want to
exploit all of the things that I did that that people have no witness of. So, I don't want to drive my if if if I'm
sitting here going, "Oh, yeah. I killed that lady and [ __ ] my red truck was spotted at the orange grove,
>> right? >> Guess what I don't want to do this time is use my vehicle. I Mary Ellen Wise,
abducted eight, nine months later, was abducted using her vehicle. >> What else do I not want to do?" I I mean
you did the report is that the an ATM was accessed in Mary Allen Wise's case, but did the perpetrator make Mary Allen
Wise do that? Because what I think is a difference here, and I couldn't find verification of it, I think that the
drive I think that the ATM withdrawal in Mary Ellen Wise's case was a drive up ATM.
>> Mhm. And what what else is different in this the second case that that didn't go
well for the perpetrator in the first one? He actually got money from the withdrawals in the second case. The
first case he didn't. What did police tell us about the first case? They think that it was actually the perpetrator,
the abductor who was attempting to access that ATM. Who accesses the ATM and who who completes the withdrawal at
the drive-thru was the victim. So to me, the all the similarities tell me it's the same
person. The things that are different tell me that they're different for a reason that he is evolving. He's trying
to get better. >> So because there's no sexual assault, that's probably not the motivation.
So is it just simply the motivation is monetary? >> Yeah. Cash box stolen at the first one.
uh bank card used at the first one. This one we have we have a withdrawal and a bank card used again in the second one.
Now keep in mind this is Mary Alan Wise is killed abducted and killed on November 2nd 1992 and her body was found
what 8 days later. So let's go on our timeline here to November 21st 1992. So, we're now in the sta same month, same
general area of Florida when a discount ticket salesman, his name Antonio Zuko, was beaten to death at a location on
West US Highway 192. So, tourist stopping to ask for directions and to do some shopping. So
they stop. They find this Antonio Zuko, the victim, age 50 at the time, in the bathroom of his ticket shop in tourist
information center. An undisclosed amount of cash and a number of tickets to area attractions were taken along
with Zuko's wallet. Deputies think that the murder weapon may have been a hammer. The Oyola Sheriff's Office was
the lead investigating agency on this one. So in different parts of the country, especially in the 90s and
especially in Florida, you would have these places that they would sell tickets to area attractions.
And Florida being a huge tourist destination, you're going to have a lot of these people that they're they're
basically vendors that sell the tickets. They make a little bit of money for selling the tickets. And um this is what
Antonio's business was. And it appears to detectives that somebody came in there with the intent of robbing him.
But he's not abducted, >> right? >> But but also keep in mind if the intent was robbery that
>> cash is on hand. >> I'm not going to argue that, >> right? But I what I would argue is I I'm
looking for the part of in the piece of this story that tells me that the killer
didn't think that he had to kill Antonio Zuko. I'm looking for the part of of where Antonio Zuko fights back or puts
the puts the robber in a position where he thinks he has to kill to get out of there or severely injure the individual.
that part of the story. We don't have any good witnesses, so we don't have that part of the story.
>> But is it also something very simple, just the size and weight of the victim or like you said, the aggression back?
It's more risky to try to abduct this individual. >> One of the the major reasons for murder
would be to cover up another crime. And then how many time it's always you see it in the movies all the time, but it's
all it's a sad fact of life with these evil people that commit crimes. They don't think the way that you and I think
they don't see the victim as a human being that has a family and is pro and is a great guy and all these good
things. They don't see that. They don't care. That's it's leave no witnesses. Who knows what Antonio could have told
us about the person who robbed him and attacked him if he would have been around to tell us.
>> Well, there's a there's a possibility there's no disguise. This uh killer could have just saw this as an
opportunity. But would I be correct in saying that if you're law enforcement, you're looking for an individual more
like the I70 killer than a Ted Bundy? >> Yes. um the brutality of these attacks,
especially with the type of instrument used on Mary Allen Wise and now Antonio Zuko,
>> right? >> I mean, it's it's Ted Bundy without the rape portion of it. >> The motivation seems to be simply money.
>> Yes. But I also think that there there's a reason for the killing and it's either
the the if if these are connected, we need we need to be very clear about that. If these are connected, there
needs to be a reason for the killing. Could it just simply be leave no witness? Very likely. Could it be that
the individual thinks that they could be identified later or that they know any of these victims? or
I believe in very rare occasions the killer just can't stop themselves. It's part of
it's part of it. And I can't tell you without more information if I feel strongly about that here, but it could
just be part of it. And now we have to introduce to everyone another individual named Bonnie Goodson. and she lived a
life that took her across several corners of this great country before it ended in a way that no family should
ever have to imagine. Bonnie Goodson was born in Enkott, New York, and over time
her life carried her far from her hometown. Eventually, she made her way to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. From there,
she relocated again, this time to central Florida, moving to CM, Florida in 1975.
She built a working life that placed her in a position of trust and familiarity in the community. She became a manager
at a CMI truck accessory store, also referred to as the truck accessory superstore. Now, by the early 1990s,
Bonnie was not only working, but pushing herself forward in a very personable personal way. She had recently returned
to school through adult education classes. And after doing that while working her job,
continuing her work responsibilities and her home life responsibilities, she managed to graduate and received a
degree in June of 1992. Our timeline, we are now in November of 1992. This was the kind of milestone. This degree was
supposed to be the kind of milestone that tends to mark a new chapter in someone's life. This was certainly proof
that she was still building something for herself. She was also a wife and a mother. But then in late 1992, her life
was broken by violence. On Monday, November 30th, Bonnie Goodson was at the truck accessory store located at 205
South Bermuda Avenue. We've heard that that road name before, >> right? >> This in CMI, it was an afternoon. It's
daylight, an ordinary time of day when people would be out shopping, working, running
errands, as such and such. At some point between 1:30 p.m. and 300 p.m., a robbery occurred inside the store.
During that robbery, Bonnie was attacked. Police said she had been beaten unconscious,
struck with a blunt instrument. Two city employees entered the store and found her there, and she was airlifted to the
hospital at about 300 p.m. that afternoon. An undetermined amount of cash was missing from the store. And an
early description of the scene and the investigation from police made it clear that they were trying to piece together
what happened and who was responsible. Their words were, "We are at the scene and we are scraping for clues." This is
as they put it to the press. >> Right. Do we have any eyewitness that sees any vehicle
>> here? We have very little in the way of any type of witnesses and same it's very
similar in that regard to the Antonio Zuko murder that took place really just days prior to this where it appears
somebody entered a building, entered a business, a store and attacked a robbed and killed the solo individual inside
that business. Bonnie was taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, listed in critical condition. The injuries, of
course, were severe. She underwent multiple surgeries. She spent hours in the intensive care unit as doctors
fought to save her. And despite those efforts, she died that night around 9:45 p.m. after several hours of of what they
were hoping would be lifesaving surgeries. And that'd be tough, too, cuz as as a doctor, you're going, "Okay, I
can save this life, but also we might be able to get justice if we're able to save her and she's able to tell us what
happened." >> Absolutely. In the aftermath of this, the CMI police asked the public for
help, emphasizing this little narrow window of when the attack occurred, right? They were asking anyone who had
been in or near the truck accessory superstore at 205 South Bermuda Avenue between 1:30 p.m. and 300 p.m. on
November 30th, 1992. What remains clearest in this telling is not only the brutality of this specific crime, a
senseless homicide committed during an afternoon robbery, but also the shape of the life it cut short. a mother with two
daughters, a woman who had just celebrated the achievement of finishing her education in June of '92, only to be
taken before she could fully step into whatever would come next for her. We only have small amounts of information,
but I don't think that I need to point them out here that we have strong similarities to the Zuko murder that
took place just days prior. And speaking of similarities, the grim symmetry between Ruth House's still unsolved case
from February of 92 and Mary Ellen Wise's case continue to stand out to police even clearer, in fact much, much
clearer, as their investigations would drag on. And those there would be both women were kidnapped, both were
connected to bank withdrawals, and both were ultimately found dead in an outdoor
rural location in Florida. But as we know, Captain similarities do not by themselves
deliver a conviction. They do however shape how people, family members, detectives, journalists understand what
might have happened and who might be responsible. >> Right? The year of 1992 would cast a long dark shadow over
central and southern Florida, linking a series potentially linking a series of brutal unsolved crimes with an unnerving
thread of similarity. All right, we are back. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling
your brother. Talk tall can hands in the air. Cheers to the people in the back. >> You know, thanks for telling your uncle.
That would be your mother's brother. >> Yeah, if if she has one. >> But this these crimes to me, it makes
you wonder, is just the killing the motivation and the money is an afterthought? Well, I
abducted her. I should take the money. I have her. I'm not I haven't killed her yet, but I
>> I'm glad you bring that up because that's hard for a lot of people to comprehend that idea because murder is
obviously such a much more consequential, heinous crime than robbery. But we are not criminals. We do
not think like criminals. So when this hits your ears, remind yourself that you're not a criminal and that they call
it psycho for a reason, >> right? that it's not easily understood. So where where this sort of thinking
would work out is into a different type of crime. And this is something that we were educated by the FBI on. So what we
were told by an FBI agent, retired now, Jeffrey Reinick, who investigated a lot of crimes, uh, child murders, sexual
crimes, crimes that were sexual in nature, rape, and things of that, serial rapist. Mhm.
>> One thing he taught us was that often times when you're looking for a serial rapist, you may only have one actual
rape or at least only one in your file that's made it to your file because we do know unfortunately due to the the the
shame and the embarrassment and and how the person is victimized that some assault victims will not even come
forward. But what he said is that oftent times what he would find is that his perpetrator would be locked up or have
been charged with other crimes that are not rape. And so that would be things of
burglary or robbery where the offender broke into a home or an apartment with the intent of sexually assaulting or
raping the female individual that's inside that dwelling. >> Right. But because the person woke up,
startled the burglar or the break-in or the wouldbe rapist, fought him off, managed to call police, police show up,
any number of reasons, the person doesn't get charged with rape because they didn't commit the sexual assault or
the rape. Even though that was their intent when they broke into the home, they get charged with breaking and
entering or robbery or burglary because they got caught inside the home or caught fleeing the home.
>> Right? And so that goes along to with what you're thinking and where again rape, sexual assault much more heinous
than just breaking in and hoping to steal some valuables. But it goes to intent. Now intent is very hard to
prove. Intent is also very difficult to get a direct line of insight on for these individuals. Again, they call it
psycho for a reason. We finished up 1992 before the break. Talks in the air. But
1993 in Central and South Florida is going to start off very differently. Thank God.
We're now at January 22nd, 1993 on our timeline. This was a day that did not go as planned for one individual and that
individual is a one Curtis Huff Jr. So, the story I'll summarize, but as printed
in the Orlando Sentinel under the headline, motel owner shoots robber. Again, this is in CMI, Florida. And we
are at the Maple Leaf Motel on West US Highway 192. Oh, also another road that we have mentioned in previous cases thus
far in the telling of this true crime story. So, this is a framed This is framed as an account of a robbery
attempt that didn't go the way the attacker expected because the motel owner, Hamemed Jaba, this is my dude,
this guy is a dude. He refused to stop fighting even after he had been badly injured by the robber, by his attacker.
Deputies said the incident happened on a Friday afternoon inside the motel office. Jabailey was confronted by
Curtis Huff Jr. a 24 year old from CMI, Florida. According to Jaba and what he told police, Huff came in acting like a
normal customer asking about buying discount tickets to local attractions. H where have we heard that before?
Ticket sales. For a moment, Jubilee said it looked like an ordinary interaction until Huff abruptly escalated the
situation by throwing coffee into Jaba's face. So, the store owner is blinded by
this hot coffee and shocked. And he says that is when Huff Jr. attacked him with
a tire iron and Huff beat him in the head with it hard enough to leave him with multiple head injuries and cuts.
The assault was so severe that later witnesses would describe Jaba as drenched in blood and unrecognizable.
But even so, deputies said the beating wasn't the end of it. In the chaos, Curtis Huff Jr. produced a gun. What
followed, investigators believed, was a violent struggle in close quarters for control of that weapon. What ends up
happening here is Curtis Huff Jr. fires three shots during the course of this time that the two men are grappling.
None of these shots thankfully hit Jamealey. Our dude Juba manages to wrench the gun
away from Curtis Huff Jr. And now the balance of power has changed, my friends. Two more shots were fired, but
this is not while the gun is in the hands of Curtis Huff Jr. Jailey's got control of this firearm. So by the time
the struggle broke apart, Curtis Huff Jr. had been hit. Detectives said that he was struck in the right calf, but the
scene did not end neatly. So after he's hit, the robber, later identified as Curtis Huff Jr., attempts to flee.
Now, our victim, even though he's he's shot Huff Jr., he's very badly injured. So, he collapses briefly, and I think
this gives Huff the opportunity to try to get out of there. Jaba, soaked in his own blood, keeps fighting. He gets up
with sheer willpower and he goes outside after Huff Jr. And so, it there's a lot
going on right here, right now. But you have two people that know Hameid Jaba. They pull up. This is Eric and Jane
Albury. They pulled up for what they would typically do. They they would do this often. They would drop in for a
quick visit to say hello to their friend, but instead they pull up in their vehicle and they see their friend
who they don't recognize because he's drenched in blood coming out of his own business and he's holding a gun. So,
they're freaking out. Hammed is yelling at the guy who's attempting to flee on foot through the parking lot, but he's
hobbling because he's been shot in the leg. And he's trying, Jaba is trying to shoot him again, but because there's so
much blood on the gun and on his hands, he couldn't quite get >> the hammer pulled back.
>> So, this is called in. This is the um it was a 38 caliber gun. And as said, Jabailey's thumb thumb kept slipping off
the hammer because it was too slick with blood from from him to [ __ ] it. And the
gun had already been fired five times by this point. So it seems like he was attempting for a sixth and maybe final
shot on this dude, but the blood coating his hands defeated him in the moment. So
police pull up, they they end up getting a LifeFlight helicopter for Curtis Huff Jr. and he is flown to
the same medical facility where one of our victims, Goodson, had passed away prior, that Orlando Medical Center. Now
Huff's injuries are far less severe than what Goodson's were, and he survives being shot, but now he's being arrested
for his robbery and assault on Kamid Jailey at the Maple Leaf Motel. The Oyola Sentinel wrote about Curtis Huff
Jr. and described him as a ticket salesman with a reputation for two things that did not seem to belong
together. charm and sudden violence. He was identified as a habitual violent felony offender. And of course, this
means he has a history and a pattern of violence that is recognized by our legal
system and he's been caught for these actions. Now, the short of this here, Captain, is that Curtis Huff Jr. would
plea no contest to the charges brought against him in his robbery attempt at the Maple Leaf Motel. They linked him to
another robbery. This was in the summer of 1992 when a ticket seller, again, an occupation we've already mentioned
before, was attacked inside their business and left hog tied. >> Now, I wish we had further details on
that. why this person was left alive. And it appears that that was not the intent here. I I don't believe he after
striking Hammed in the head with a tire iron and then pulling a gun. I don't I can't imagine that he his intent was to
leave Hammed alive. But regardless, what takes place here is he pleads no contest
to the crimes that we know he's absolutely guilty of. the Maple Leaf Motel attack, an attempted robbery,
>> to the one he's suspected of that they were going to charge him with, but they
don't charge him with that robbery from the summer of 92 in sort of a plea agreement.
>> So, he's going to be locked up. >> He's going to be locked up. But, but what's interesting here is we get we
have two witnesses now. >> Mhm. >> Right. The Hog Tide victim and and our dude Jailey. So these two cases, both
victims tell a story that starts off very similar of Curtis Huff Jr. doing something that it's it's routine
business, right? The victims say that he approached them simply wanted to buy tickets to an attraction. They both
describe described his demeanor as calm, friendly, and chatty. They say that the
type of person that's easy to talk to and the type of person that you can talk up and very quickly become familiar with
just simply within minutes. But both both of them said the the same thing that that comfortable moment didn't
last. And they said that the shift in this individual was not gradual. It was abrupt. They both of them said the same
words. He snapped. It was like he snapped. So, Patricia Bennett was the victim who was hog tied in the summer
robbery. She said that like his physical description changed, too. >> Well, we we've heard this from other
detectives. >> She said that when she she was looking at him when she believes it was that he
snapped. She says these are her words. It was like his nose spread and his eyes seemed to turn hard, very violent. It
wasn't only what he did, it was how quickly the person in front of me no longer matched the man who had been
chatting with me moments earlier. So, both of them simply say that he seemed to snap at the same time that he
demanded money and he became very violent right away. And Bennett, she says that the situation became almost as
non-negotiable. She says he's putting on rubber gloves and now I'm begging for my life.
>> Well, we have gloves in other cases as well. >> So, this this Curtis Huff Jr.
>> was designated as a habitual offender and this was tied to >> he's still fairly young. He's 24, but
this is tied to an earlier chapter in his life. He had served time in prison in Indiana for a string of Midwest
robberies that took place in the late 1980s. Again, a pattern reportedly looking
somewhat familiar to what's going on here in Florida. Well, at least the two we know he's guilty of. He was allowed
to serve out his parole once he's parrolled for those crimes. He was allowed to serve that out in uh the
state of Florida. He is originally from Vero Beach. As I understand it, he's a graduate of Vero Beach High School.
>> So, going back to his hometown to commit crimes. >> Well, I imagine that's probably why he
was allowed to serve his parole in that state because that's not typically the way these things go down. They don't
they don't really love you moving out of state in most cases. Once he's back in Florida, he found work as a ticket
salesman for area attractions. Again, this is a job that itself mirrors some of these robberies,
>> right? So, he would have an understanding of the layout, possibly understanding of how the business works,
how they collect money, >> and also, you know, while he's So, this is May of 1993. He attempted to rob the
motel in January. And after his arrest and they pull the bullet from his leg, he's of course he's he's a great guy,
Captain. He He was leading He's at the Oyola County Jail leading a Bible study group.
>> Oh. Oh, yeah. We probably shouldn't give him the maximum penalty, should we? He's
a man of God and he's trying to educate the other individuals and lead them to the light. Well, in fairness, the Bible
is a very violent book. >> It's It's Yes. The violence in the Bible is >> They crucified a guy.
>> They did. >> Yeah, >> that was part of it. >> That That's a little part of it. Yeah,
>> it's a little bit of a part of it. But so the judge thankfully sees through this BS of him being a Bible study
leader at the jail and he gets he receives 20 years a 20ear sentence and he will not be eligible for parole for
10 years of that. And look, this punishment was structured to ensure ensure a long stretch of confinement for
this individual. And I'm looking to see if I have in my notes here what the judge said at the sentencing because it
said, "Listen here, you little piece of shit." I don't have it the direct quote in my
notes here, but basically he's saying like when I look at you and I see you and I review what you are here being
charged with and the details of these crimes that there's something psychologically
wrong and violent with you. So while Curtis Huff Jr. is locked up. In 1995, Oyola County investigators officially
named Curtis J. Huff Jr. as a primary suspect in the murder of Ruth Halp, the chiropractor. They say that the
circumstantial evidence against him was substantial and damning. And then they also say that
there are similarities in that crime that mirror other crimes, unsolved crimes that they have in that area at
about that same time period. Those being the ones that we just got went through.
So let's go through this evidence here, Captain. First, the truck. Curtis Huff Jr. owned a red 1991 GMC Soma pickup
truck, matching the description of the vehicle seen near the orange grove where Ruth's body was found. Another witness
says that they saw a pickup truck near Antonio Zuko's business. Now, we don't get a great description of that pickup
truck other than a small pickup truck. We do know that tire tracks at the Hal crime scene where her body was found
matched for the BF Goodriidge tires that were found to be on Curtis Huff's truck.
A Children of the Sun cassette tape with no case was found inside of Curtis Huff's truck. Mhm.
>> Remember the empty case for that exact tape or well maybe not that exact tape
but >> right but a tape >> matching that was found near Ruth's body. ATM footage remember the physical
description provided by police after further analysis of that footage. A smaller man Curtis Huff Jr. is 5'4 in
tall. >> There you go. And this seems like a like a kind of not so important thing, but
they're saying he was known to wear hooded sweatshirts a lot. He grew up in Vero Beach.
>> He lived a short distance from the very bank where Ruth's ATM card was used. His
girlfriend at the time told police that he traveled there often to that bank. Footprints from Reebok sneakers were
found at the crime scene where Hout's body was found matched a pair of Reeboks that were seized from Curtis Huff's
father's home in St. Cloud where he was living at the time of his arrest. >> Well, well, well.
>> The Mike Greenwell appointment, the name used for the final appointment at Ruth's
office, Mike Greenwell was the name of a Boston Red Sox left fielder, as we said
earlier. Curtis Huff was an avid baseball fan who also played left field for a local softball team. Huff's
girlfriend in 1992 lived near Ruth Hout's chiropractic office. Furthermore, detectives verified that a cover, a
truck bed cover, the one on the bed of Huff's truck, had been purchased from the very store where Bonnie Goodson
worked and was murdered. And we know that Curtis Huff was also in the ticket business. And what did they find on him
when he was arrested? He had Antonio Zuko's business card in his wallet when he was arrested.
>> And you wonder if they're able to get any DNA off the glove that was found. >> It doesn't stop there. Huff's parents
knew Mary Ellen Wise. >> Can't stop. Won't stop. >> They lived across the street from her.
now, not at the time of her murder, but she she lived in that house for a long period of time. They knew her and they
said that Curtis Huff knew her as well. And it goes beyond that. His stepfather,
his name is John Harren, said that they were close, fairly close friends with Mary Allen Wise.
>> Mhm. and later told investigators that Curtis Huff knew Mary Allen knew Mary Ellen had been hurt in an auto accident
and received a large settlement. So remember we talked about her being severely injured in a car accident. She
from a lawsuit of that injury, from that car accident, they settled. The settlement was for, I believe, a million
or a little more than a million dollars. It took her 10 years to recover, physically recover. She had to damn near
teach herself to walk again, >> right? >> She spent a lot of time in hospitals, a
lot of surgeries to put her back together again. and she gets this settlement, but the settlement was a
stipen. They paid it out in monthly payments. And from my understanding, she received $1,500 a month. Oh, well, that
pretty much matches up with what's reported on how much was with withdrawn from her bank account on the day that
she was abducted. 500 bucks from an ATM, $1,000 for a check written for the drive-thru. Mhm.
>> And his stepfather, when John Harren was shown the ATM photo from the Ruth homicide, the stepfather says, "Look,
although the suspect's face isn't visible, the posture suggested to him that the person could very possibly be
his stepson." His exact words, "Very possibly could be my stepson." in regard to the Mary Ellen Wise case. Now, see,
now the detectives are starting to open up, but they need they collected, keep in mind, they're getting a lot of this
information, a lot of this evidence after the fact that he's arrested and then they get a search warrant for
Curtis Huff's father's home where he was living and they find some additional evidence there. This is all building and
building with this Curtis Huff thing. I think they had some suspicions that some
of these cases were connected, but now they have a lot of suspicions and they're being a little more vocal about
what their suspicions were early on in some of these investigations, stating that, look, when we were looking into
the Mary Ellen Wise case, the lead investigators stated very quickly that I don't think it's this the first time
this killer's acted. Two of the autopsy reports, okay, so you have those of Mary
Ellen Wise and Bonnie Goodson were described by the lead investigator as eerily similar. Both victims had 11
fractures to the skull and defensive breaks to the arms. Homicide by blunt force trauma to the head is relatively
uncommon, making a pattern like this stand out. Despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence, Curtis J. Huff
Jr. was never charged with the murders of Ruth Hout, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, or Antonio Zuko. In Bonnie
Goodson's case, a witness saw a man walking away from the crime scene, but was unable to pick Curtis Huff out of a
lineup. Ultimately, prosecutors could not indict Huff for the Goodson murder, and the evidence across the other three
cases wasn't strong enough to charge him. But how much time is he going to spend?
>> Well, remember he he received a 20-year sentence. In the end, he served 12 years. So, using our highly
sophisticated garage math, that means that this guy gets out in 2005. And because law enforcement simply could
not get him for any of these murders, this 5'4 in [ __ ] stack built like a fireplug is free to roam and kill again,
>> right? and will I mean like you said charming with a very short fuse seems to
be very a unique characteristic. Well, and you know, and you hear in all fairness, we have to be clear, as we
were just very clear, he's not been charged in any of these murders, not been convicted of any of them. But you,
we heard this in John Wayne Gasey. We heard it with Ted Bundy. He didn't look like a killer. I would tell you that he
Curtis Huff Jr. does in pictures does not look like a killer to me either, >> right?
>> Doesn't mean that he isn't. These guys are not so easily spotted. So the years
passed since the 1992 murders. A new brutality shocked Vero Beach, Florida. This is in July of 2006 when 87year-old
Helen McFersonson was murdered in her home. >> Helen lived in Vero Beach for 60 years.
She was a homemaker and a member of the First Baptist Church. She was widowed in
2000. And so she spent her days at her home and in her neighborhood. On the evening of Friday, July 14th, 2006,
Helen's son Doug and her daughter-in-law took Helen to dinner at Swenson's restaurant. I love Swenson's. If you
have one near you, go to it immediately. >> Sponsor, but we >> Yeah, >> would love for them to sponsor the show.
>> I love this. I love the sloppy joe. All right. So, this Swinson's is on US Highway 1 in
Vero Beach. After dinner, what a good son. Taking mom out to dinner. Brings her back home, returns her to her home.
They're watching TV for a little bit, and then they leave. They say between 8 and 900 p.m.
>> Mhm. >> When they leave, good son reminds mom, "Lock your door." The next day,
Saturday, July 15th, a neighbor noticed a screen missing from Helen's door. So, she's got the screen door and then you
have the actual door. The screen is missing from that screen door. So, the neighbor calls the son, says, "Hey, your
the screen door is popped out or you might want to go check on your mom." He tries calling her.
We're now at 5:30 5:45 p.m. the following day. can't get her on the phone. So, they decide
they're going to drive out there and check on mom. So, around 6 PM, unfortunately, they found Helen's
lifeless body in her bedroom, lying against the wall with blood on her face. The home and her bedroom had been
ransacked, things turned upside down. They called 911 immediately. The medical examiner revealed multiple injuries from
both strangulation and blunt force trauma inflicted with a sharpedged object. And the investigators on the
scene described the killing as among the most vicious they had ever seen. There were no gunshots, no stab wounds. Helen
had been beaten with an unknown object or instrument. They said she was not sexually assaulted. There were signs of
forced entry through the carport door. And they also noted in the report that there had been or according to the son
and the neighbor an attempted breakin 10 days prior that Helen did not report. >> So Curtis Huff Jr. gets out in 2005
after serving 12 years of his 20year sentence. Upon release, he moved to 582520th
Street in Vero Beach, about a mile from Helen's residence. He's living just north of a Target store and across from
the Ryan Wood shopping center. >> This guy's a real douchebag. >> These are places that Helen's son would
tell police that that she went frequently. And so he is suspected of involvement in prior
cases that have similarities and some of this is a lot of this really is the blunt force trauma along with the
robberies to his defense here. Captain investigators compared his fingerprints which obviously are going they are going
to have on file to partial prints that were recovered from Helen's crime scene. They did not match. What do we know
about if if Curtis Huff committed these prior murders? What do we know about that killer? He wear he wore gloves. So,
it's logical to assume that maybe he did. If he was in fact the person that broke into Helen McFersonson's home. The
case, just like the others, had been in and out of the news over the years. >> Well, and hold on for a second because
we have a handful of crimes that we see the similarities. We see the connections, but those are just the ones
we know of. This guy could be responsible for so many crimes. >> You're exactly right. And keep in mind,
he lived in a couple different states. And so he has >> So when did this start? I mean, and yes,
he's pretty young when he first gets locked up, but this could have started late teens. Well, you can track his
footprints to areas like Michigan, Indiana, and then regarding the charges that he gets convicted of and we know
he's later on parole for in Florida were for robberies in what's simply stated as
Midwest states. So, how far did he travel during that time? And like you said, >> yeah,
>> I think it's Look, I I don't know that he did all five of these. I feel very confident that he did two or four of
them. And if he did any of them at all and he's got other priors, like you said, I I it's it's very it would be
dumb not to question how many other cases could this guy be involved with. And if he is of the type that the
violence and the murder is part of it for him or that it's simply leave no witnesses.
>> Mhm. >> Does he have other homicides in and out of the state of Florida? This
case they have openly said they have openly said in some of these cases that Curtis Huff Jr. is a suspect. They've
also openly named him as a person of interest. So this is nothing new here with this guy. It's just a name that
most of us have never heard and crimes that need more awareness. A string of crimes that need more awareness outside
of this area. This case, just like just like so many that we've covered, has been in and out of the news since 2006
and the earlier crimes of 1992. >> Mhm. But there's been real not not any real movement on the cases even though
they've been in and out of the news since we are told that the cases are not cold and that law enforcement agencies
continue to work the cases. I would put together a task force on these five homicides led by a cold case expert.
Underline the word expert about 10 times. I believe that there are reasons to work some of these cases together and
others on the periphery. So these unsolved five homicides remain for the families more than cold case files.
These are ongoing stories without a endings without answers. Stories marked by very specific dates, spec specific
places and a reoccurring name that investigators had pointed to but never successfully carried through to a
prosecution. As of June of 2026, 34 years have passed since the terrible string of murders in 1992 and 20 years
since Helen McFersonson was killed in her home. The murders of Ruth Hal, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, Antonio
Zuko, and Helen McFersonson remain officially unsolved. Investigators continue to ask the public for help,
hoping that one tip will finally break the silence. The families are still suffering, trapped in the torment of not
knowing, while a prime suspect in at least four of the cases was never brought to trial for them. For the
Indian River County Sheriff's Office, the promise to Helen's family remains firm. quote, "We're confident that we're
going to get there." End quote. So, in the quiet seaside community of Vero Beach, Florida, a shadow from the past
looms large. A chilling narrative of violence that has haunted families in this community for decades. This story
begins and ends with a man named Curtis Huff Jr., whose name is linked to a string of brutal, unsolved murders that
terrorized Central and South Florida. With a criminal history that already included an attempted murder conviction,
Curtis Huff Jr. is a central figure in a dark chapter of Florida's history. Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and check out truecrimerg.com.
Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? >> Yes, Captain. Let's go way back. This
title is from 1983. I love these old back pocket true crime paperbacks. >> Yeah. This one is titled Mass Murders:
Human Time Bombs. They explode in violence to kill by the dozen. This is way back when they still sold True
Detective Magazine. And this is from the files of True Detective Magazine. Mass Murderers from True Detective Magazine,
edited by Rose Mansenberg. You don't have to write down that title now. We will have it listed on our website on
our recommended page. Just go to true crimegar.com. And until next week, be good, be kind,
and don't limit.

Suspect #1 /// Part 2 /// 936

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

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

True Crime Garage examines a series of unsolved murders in Florida, linking them to suspect Curtis Huff Jr. and discussing the brutality of the crimes.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Hosts Nick and Captain introduce the show and thank listeners for tuning in.
The Brutal Attack on Bonnie Goodson. Bonnie Goodson's life is tragically cut short during a robbery at her workplace.
Unsolved Murders Linked. Investigators draw connections between several unsolved murders in Florida during the early 90s.
Motel Owner Fights Back. Hamamed Jaba fights off a violent robbery attempt at his motel, turning the tables on Curtis Huff Jr.
Curtis Huff Jr.'s Violent History. Curtis Huff Jr. is revealed as a habitual offender with a pattern of violence.
Curtis Huff Jr. Pleads No Contest. Curtis Huff Jr. pleads no contest to robbery charges but is linked to other violent crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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1:49WatchJun 17, 2026

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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