The Boardman Murders /// Part 2 /// 568 | Forensic Files

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chair, grab a beer, let's talk some true crime. We are in Boardman, Ohio for part two of
this week's true crime story and we already discussed the first two still unsolved cases. The first being that of
Thomas Bard who was killed in December of 1970. He was found badly beaten. Actually
found by a police officer. Thomas was unconscious when found, taken immediately to the hospital, placed in
intensive care where sadly he passes away days later, never regaining consciousness. Police are never able to
ask him any questions about who attacked him or how he was attacked or why. Brad Bellino was the second in this sad
series. He was abducted on the last day of March, 1972 and according to the coroner's report,
he was killed more than 24 hours after he leaves his best friend's house and his body is found on April 4th, 1972.
There were unconfirmed sightings of Brad on that Saturday, but police have said since that they don't believe those
sightings to be accurate as they have information and evidence that suggests that he was held somewhere by his captor
until he was killed. Then at some point, the killer or killers place him in that trash
container where he is found on April 4th. The killer or killers possibly, I say likely Captain, covering him with debris
before leaving the scene. Now, both of us have reviewed this picture and I want to describe this picture to the
listeners. What it is is we have a normal looking trash truck that comes around and picks up, you know,
everybody's trash and it picks up the dumpsters and it empties the trash from these dumpsters right into the back of
the trash truck that has the trash compactor back there. So, we've all seen those, but this is 1972 when Brad
Bellino's body is found and all the papers refer to this dumpster as a trash container, which I
think is much more fitting once you see the picture, you go, "Okay, I don't know
that I would call that a dumpster." You know, nowadays when we say the word dumpster,
you think of these very large objects. I mean, I'm I'm 6'1 and a lot of times these dumpsters come up to my shoulders
or, you know, almost my chin, I guess. Luckily, I've never been in one, never had to go dumpster diving,
but I'm saving that for my my senior years, but um the this years. Yes, the gold years. The this is
a container that is considerably smaller than what I would call a dumpster and you see the two officers standing next
to this dumpster. So, the refuse collector, he spots the boy's feet sticking out of it
and goes over and tries to push them down thinking it's just a mannequin, right? Because this is in a in a
shopping area of town. You know, normal trash, store type trash in these in these trash containers that he's
collecting. And he quickly figures out, "No, this is this is a body." He calls the police.
I've seen the reports, Captain. I think the police were on the scene 7 minutes after It's like 6 or 7 minutes
after he calls it and and in this picture, we get a really good idea of the size of this trash container because
we have two officers who are responding and they're standing next to this trash container in this
picture. And again, you can see this picture, it's pretty readily available on the internet, but if you want to
guarantee to find it, go to porchlightonline.org and click on news. It's like the first
thing that comes up. We'll also put it on our social media at truecrimegarage on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.
Yes, and this is the picture that is really like now infamous in the town of Boardman. This is one that I've heard
over the years and seen discussed on message boards over the years where people will say, "Yeah, I grew up in the
'70s in in Boardman, Ohio and I saw that picture." This picture was in the newspaper. This picture like scared the
hell out of children and and parents, of course, because you you you are seeing the body recovery site. One thing I
wanted to ask you before we move on too far here, get your opinion on. I've always kind of
struggled with this. If I had not seen this picture and somebody told me that that boy's body
was found in a dumpster, I would tell you that I would lean on the side of two perpetrators or at least two people
dumping the body to get it up that high and into a large dumpster. This, Captain, it appears to me and I'm again,
I'm judging off of these two officers who appear to be average height, this appears to me like this trash
container probably comes up to their waist, maybe maybe their above their waist, yeah.
Yeah, belly button or elbow level. Um The kid, Brad, is listed as approximately 80 lb.
I've never won any strongman contest. I don't think that's ever going to happen for me, but uh
you know, what What do you think? Do you Do you lean more towards two people? Obviously, it would be
easier for two people to put him in there, but I don't think necessary. I think even if it was a large dumpster,
it's not impossible to just say that there was one perpetrator, but I think what your point
is is because this one is only waist height, that it would be pretty easy for somebody with maybe not even that much
strength to be able to put him inside that dumpster. Yeah, I think all you have to do is get something that's 80
lb, unfortunately dead weight, and you have to be able to get it up to probably your
chest height to to put him in there. And we don't know how he was lugged, but I would
imagine the way that this goes down and because this case is unsolved, you always have to kind of look at these and
go, "Okay, well, why is it unsolved?" Well, it's unsolved because unfortunately, the killer wasn't
witnessed by anybody, right? The The abduction, we don't know at what point Brad was intercepted between his house
and home between his home and Dawn's house. Right. We don't know if he willingly hitched a
ride and got in the wrong car. We don't know if somebody pulled up and had to grab him off the street or maybe two
people grab him off the street. All we know is that this is a a sexual assault homicide
and involving a juvenile victim and but you you look at these things and go why are they unsolved? Okay, well, we we
know no witness for the abduction however happened whether he no witness of him getting into a vehicle willingly.
And we also don't have we don't have a witness saying well, I saw the the body being dumped as well. So
I'm picturing under the cover of darkness middle of the night vehicle pulls up as close as they can to
this trash container. Maybe they know the trash schedule or or know it loosely. If this were me if I were the
perpetrator and and remember we've discussed this plenty of times. The the killer's goal when you see a
sexually related homicide the killer's goal we don't have to get too far into that to know what it is. That's already
taken place up to this point. Now once the murder is committed the killer or killers have a problem.
They have a body that they need to get rid of. I'm guessing here Captain that it may be no coincidence
that this trash is being collected that morning early morning 7:55 a.m. is when the truck pulls up to empty this thing.
And if nobody spots him in that container beforehand well, he's he's off to the incinerator
or off to the landfill wherever that trash truck was going and may have never been discovered at all and maybe that
was the killer or killers intention. And you pull up there the night before under the cover of
darkness maybe in the middle of the night 1 2 3 in the morning place him in there and then attempt to
cover him up as much as you can with some of the debris in the boxes that are already found in that container.
Well, I believe this case because of the time period it if it would have happened
if it would have happened in the last couple years I think this case would have been solved very quickly.
Because like you said at some point unless the murderer lured him into his house or into their house
that there's multiple crime scenes so there'd be evidence on there'd be evidence on Bradley.
Right? On his clothes there'd be fibers. There would be and if he was placed somewhere else now
look he could have been sexually assaulted and murdered within a vehicle and then placed in the the trunk
of that vehicle and driven around for a couple days. It's it's also a rural you know, it's on the outskirts.
In in the sense where like we said you have shopping centers and stuff but couple miles down the road you can find
a place to dump a body and that didn't happen here. This this body was dumped in a trash can so again that I think
that leads to your idea of the person possibly knowing trash schedule or it could just be as
simple as I have this victim in the back of my car. I got to get rid of it some point. Maybe I go out to my car and I
can really start telling that there's a dead body in my car and now I I'm panicked and I can't go look in a
rural area for the best dumping spot. I have to now just find a place to put this victim. Right. And it feels like to
me it it feels like a poor choice of driving to what sounds to me to be one of the busier areas of town back then.
We should we should state that the population back then would have been between 30 and
35,000 people and as the captain pointed out you have this is a growing town. Boardman is a
growing town where you have parts and pieces of it that have a lot of homes and have a lot of shops and businesses
and things like that but there are also country roads. There are also roads where the businesses are way off of the
way set back from the road and that's some of the spaces that had Brad made the entire trip from Don's house to his
house. That's kind of given the the landscape of what he would have traversed during that time. And so it
seems a little odd to me for someone to drive into this busy area of town to dispose of the body but I guess if
you have a situation where for whatever reason you you don't have the ability to bury because what I'm
getting at is I feel like the killer hoping to get lucky that the trash is actually collected with with
him still there is your hope that you're you're getting lucky in concealing the body. Where
there's other ways and avenues of doing that but for whatever reason this killer
or killers just chose not to. Well, like you said maybe this murderer knows the the trash schedule
and that and that was a part of their plan or they just know the schedule of that
building. I mean this is in the 70s. A lot of these towns shut down by 10:00 at night. No restaurants would be open.
May maybe most of the bars would have been closed by that point. There might not have been much of a night life for
this town in the 70s. The third victim in this series takes us to January 1975. This is when another boy aged 13 he goes
missing on Friday January 17th 1975. This is David Evans. This was a a great little kid. I know
they they all are and I'm not picking a favorite here Captain but I very much enjoyed reading about David Evans who he
was how he was in a lot of ways he was very much a lot like Brad and probably a lot like the other boys that were 12 or
13 years old growing up in Boardman Ohio in the early to mid-70s. David went to Boardman Center Middle
School the same as Brad. He played in the band. He got good grades. He didn't have a ton of friends. David
was not extremely outgoing or quite as adventurous as Brad as reported to me. the piccolo. I I wanted for you being
the musician I wanted to find what instrument he played and I I could not find that. Well, it's the piccolo and
that's why he didn't have a lot of friends. David is said by most or all that I could find anyway to be more reserved.
More likely to sit back observe and study people rather than just to dive into situations.
David like Brad was a little smaller for his age but David was a mighty little man. This kid had the will and
determination to overcome the obstacles of life. David was born with what all of the
reports are calling a narrow left hand. So this is a hand that for whatever scientific biological
reason never fully formed before his birth. So his left hand was a thumb and two fingers.
However, David never let this minor issue set him back in any way. David just like Brad played baseball and as we
all can imagine any game where one will be catching throwing and batting will well, could get quite difficult for
David's situation. Well, and maybe not so hard once that fingers and and hand that you do have grows to full size but
especially when you're a kid, you know, throwing a baseball or throwing a football when you're a kid with small
hands is it's hard enough let alone telling you have half of a hand. I'm sure there were even those at the time
that thought maybe David would never be able to participate in certain sports because of
the situation but not this kid Captain. David's father would later tell the papers that David spent most of one
entire summer when he was off from school learning to play with this added difficulty.
So this kid I'm sure with a little help with you know, from his parents siblings and
and friends taught himself to play ball so that he could go and sign up and play
baseball but with this added difficulty. Yeah, and again with this uh handicap it would make playing certain
instruments a lot more difficult. Mhm. And he wasn't obviously afraid of doing that. He wasn't going to let it set him
back. He was going to do the things that he wanted. He was going to to try to do the things that he thought would
bring him enjoyment and it seems like he was very successful with that and that's
one thing that kind of it was inspirational to read about that and and really makes this story even sadder. Now
oddly enough here's another little nugget to this story that is just one of those haunting parts of a story that
really just kind of sticks with you. This is something that having learned this I will not be able
to shake this from memory when it comes to David Evans case. As far as all of the reports go
and I'm going to say this twice cuz it might take a second to set set in here. David was last seen by his own father in
passing. Okay, so David was last seen by his own father in passing. The way that this works is is just like
this. So David was last seen at 6:00 p.m. by his father in their own neighborhood
at the intersection of Stillson Place and Withers Drive. This is just about two dozen houses away from his own. So
roughly 25 houses away from where he lived is the last place that anyone has ever reported to have seen this boy
alive. Now, what's weird about this? So, David is is walking home. He's He's returning home.
He went to Boardman Lake. Apparently, he had been checking on the lake from time to time to see if it had
frozen over so he could skate on it. Well, he went and checked that day and it's my understanding, Captain, that he
did not bring ice skates with him. He was going to check to see if it would be thick enough to skate on at some point.
Right. He goes to the lake. He finds that no, the the ice is still not thick enough, and so he's returning
home. And now we know this because he happens to bump into his father. His father's driving out of the
neighborhood, leaving. His father was attending night classes at Youngstown University.
So, at this intersection, you know, he sees his boy, rolls down the window. David walks over and talks to him for a
little bit, tells him he went to the lake, the ice isn't thick enough. Dad says, "Hey, I I'm going to my night
class. Are you going home?" "Yes, I'm going home." "Okay, I'll see you when I get back."
Well, that's ends up not being the case, unfortunately. David's father returns home from his class and finds
that David is not at their house. David never made it home that evening. Well, like you said, it's
10 10 12 houses away. It's It's It's about two dozen houses from from his his home. So, it's very very close.
This This boy is almost home. Yeah. He's minutes from being at his house. You know, threat level midnight at this
point. Exactly. So, of course, the Evans family, they immediately jump into search mode. So,
it's not a long period of time for his night class. So, David not there is not No alarm bells are going off until the
father returns and says, "Wait a minute. I saw him on my way to my class an hour and a half ago
and he was very close to home telling me that he was next stop was home." Right.
"I'm going home, Dad." The first thing that they do, they're in search mode. They call the
high school, which was hosting a basketball game that night. They wanted to see, well, maybe
did he bump into a friend and they decided to walk to the high school and watch the basketball game or maybe he
had a change of heart and went to the basketball game himself. They very quickly confirm with teachers there that
no, David is not at the high school. Nobody saw him there that night at the basketball game.
They call his friends to no avail. Now, the scary part is when they start calling hospitals looking for their son
to see if maybe he was involved in some kind of accident. And no, they still no David. So, very
soon after making these calls and doing a little bit of searching themselves, they call the Boardman Police
Department. They tell them that their 13-year-old son, David Evans, did not return home
earlier that night. They told police David was 4 ft 10 in tall. This is going to sound almost like I'm reading
the same description of the Bolino kid that we talked about in yesterday's episode.
David Evans was 4 ft 10 in tall, about 80 lb. He has medium-length blonde hair, brown eyes. He had scar tissue on his
left eye. This was from an operation that he had at some point. He had the narrow left hand that we
discussed. They said that he was wearing a blue plaid jacket with some red in it. It had
fleece lining and a fleece collar. He was wearing suede ankle-high shoes, a maroon and blue sweatshirt, blue
jeans, and most likely his medical ID. So, David was diabetic, would often wear a medical ID to tell anybody if should
you find me and I'm not awake, I'm unconscious, I have diabetes. All right. So, what I see here, Captain,
is a case that appears to be you know, it's it's a couple years later, but it appears to be very much like the Brad
Bolino case and again, victimology Victimology is almost the same. Almost the same kid.
And uh like you said, height, weight, and also just the circumstances. Yes. It's It's getting dark
and the kid is returning back to his home on foot. Friday nights, too. I believe both of these are on Friday
nights and they're both Friday evenings. And really, if if Brad is abducted after
7:30 and he was in fact en route to his own house, that trek could only have taken
him at at the longest, what? 45 minutes, an hour? So, he should have been home by
8:30-ish. Yeah. And I know I know these are kids that are given the time, so we don't have,
you know, Don always says it was about 7:30. So, 8:30, 9:00, he should have been home.
David Evans is spotted by his father at 6:00. We're getting a good time from David Evans' father because David Evans'
father has an appointment to make, too. He doesn't want to be late for his own class. So, he knows I saw my son and and
he's going to give us a very accurate time frame of 6:00 p.m. And And again, as you pointed out, he's
he's just blocks from his house. He's just blocks from his house at this A couple differences right away, though,
is is in Bradley's case, we he could have had a distance to get to to go home, Yeah. making it easier to
want to hitch a ride from somebody. Yep. As far as David's case, he was you know, like you said, 20-some houses from
his his house. I wouldn't assume that somebody would jump in a car. The major differences here are a few and and you
got into some of those. Some additional information here, as we said, David is diabetic. From my understanding, David
required an insulin shot. I believe it was roughly like every 12 hours. So, he would have been due for his next
insulin shot the next morning at 7:30, around breakfast time. So, the the major scary part here for the
family is this is not a situation where okay, he might turn up tomorrow, but if he doesn't
in a couple days, he'll turn up. No, this is This kid needs his shot or bad stuff is going to start happening.
Right. And so, with Brad, with his case, we got this adventurous kid, maybe hitchhikes rides. David is much more
reserved. Everybody said there's no way this kid would have gotten into anybody's car willingly. He wouldn't
even approach the vehicle and talk to the person. So, a little bit difference in personality and then of course, the
medical issues with David. And then there's the this scary scary fact that oh my god, if if I
if this is the knife in the heart if you're a parent with a kid who's only been missing a short period of time. At
11:30 p.m. that night, David's hat that he was wearing. He was wearing a red knit hat
was found at Stilson Place and Withers Drive. That intersection, the same intersection that his dad last saw him.
And this hat is confirmed by the parents to be that of their son's, David Evans.
They said that the police said that snow was trampled in about a 3-ft circle around this hat. This to me points to an
obvious abduction. All right, we are back. Cheers to everybody. Cheers to you, Captain. Hope everybody's
having a good week and we're finding you well and let's get back to our true crime story. Before we jump
back in here, Captain, I want to shift gears just very briefly because there's something that I wanted to test out here
on our show. You know, you and I and the garage listeners, we understand that this show and listening to the show,
being a part of the garage group is more more than just about this. It's about trying to do some good along the way. I
wanted to try a little experiment and I'm hoping that the listeners will join in and help us with this. We are very
lucky to have a great audience, a lot of listeners, people that are very engaged,
and people that want to make good change themselves. And when we've covered cases, it's very common.
I'm going to peel back the curtain here and let the listeners take a look behind
the scenes for a minute. But very often when we cover a case, we usually will get some information in
the case. You know, we've we've seen this with missing persons cases. We've seen it with unidentified
remains cases. We've also seen it with uh cases with that there are suspects and information that's still needed in
cold cases where we receive some information or we have been told, "Hey, when you guys covered this, we received
a few tips." Now, I wanted to see if we could turn this into a bit of a crowdsourcing
technique and see if this works. Because we have such a great audience all over the world and a very engaged audience, I
wanted to see if we could pull something off. And I know that the Delaware County
Sheriff's Office, they have an outstanding warrant for a man named Thomas Blankenship. And I'll give a
brief description of him here, but we'll put a picture up on our social. I want everybody to to send this out to
everybody to retweet it, to send it to other people, to see if we could track down somebody that law enforcement is
looking for. He's described as 6'2", 175 lb, gray hair, brown eyes, and he is again wanted
by Delaware County Sheriff's Office, which is in Central Ohio, but he has ties to West Virginia and really ties to
all kinds of cities in the great state of Ohio, but that doesn't mean that he is in any of those locations. So, share
his picture, share his information, and let's see if we can get a tip on his location and his whereabouts so that he
can be arrested and that warrant can be served. Now, we were talking about this David Evans case
and how immediately to me, Captain, his hat being found kind of trampled in the snow
at that intersection looks to me like we always talk about There was Somebody was killed in their
home. There was no sign of a struggle or no sign of a break-in. This to me is sign of an abduction because it's sign
of a struggle right there in the streets where somebody probably pulled up, maybe one or two persons, they have a
confrontation with this boy and grab him and put him in their car. You know, we have
we have his family, we have his teachers, we have his coaches that are saying David was shy and reserved, especially
with strangers. His parents said he they didn't think they that he would willingly go off with a stranger. He's
not the type to hitch rides. He's shy, reserved. Again, this is echoed by everybody that knew David, his teachers
and his baseball coach, and the hat trampled in the snow points to a sign of a struggle and then an
abduction right there in the street. Again, a difficult situation because you just saw your son
within the last couple hours. Then you go back and you're retracing his steps, at at least the steps that you know, and
and pretty quickly you find like you said, a sign of a struggle or at least a sign
of something's not right here. Yeah, there's something There's something happened. I mean, you heard the initial
suspicions that the parents had that maybe he went elsewhere, went to the high school basketball game, and they
checked and called friends and called the high school, and you're you're being told no over the phone, but you're still
hopeful, and then you find his hat Right. trampled in the snow, and now that like
confirms that, "Oh, we might be looking for him in the wrong places because he probably didn't go
somewhere willingly." Now, I want to talk about the the police work that was conducted in the search for David Evans.
The Boardman Police Department did a great job. I mean, these cases we say that they're unsolved, and it's all
these years later, but from everything I have seen, Captain, and everybody that I've spoke to, these cases are not
unsolved because of a lack of effort by the Boardman Police Department. No, they brought in
everybody that they could think of in and went to every They They went to every effort to try to locate these
kids, in David Evans' case, for 6 days. We got volunteers, we got law enforcement searching for David on the
ground. They even brought in a helicopter from the National Guard to try to help search and
find David Evans. The retired Boardman Police Chief, Glenn Bowers, was in it and remembers overlooking the snow in
Boardman Park and parts of Mill Creek Park. The Boardman Police really worked this missing case well, as I said. They
did all the right stuff, calling on other agencies. At one point, Captain, they will even seek the help of the FBI.
Now, the FBI kind of denies this request, and I say kind of because while they didn't
put any agents They didn't dedicate any agents to the case. They did say, you know, if you need our crime labs or you
need use of some of the resources that we have that you don't, we are happy to help you. Just, you know, send us your
stuff and we we can test it, we can help analyze anything that you want, but they
never dedicated an agent to the case. And I believe they were from what I've been told and what it
looks like to me, they requested the FBI's help several times. So, that's why I say that
these cases don't remain unsolved due to a lack of effort. And this is not a situation where we have a
police department that's going, "No, we don't worry, we can handle this." Right.
Uh no, they're saying, "Yes, please. Anybody that wants to help, we will accept your help. Let's Let's band
together and find out who who did this." Well, I wish because like you said, this is a community that's
under 40,000 people. So, it's just It's not that these people It's not that law enforcement in these
areas are incompetent. They're just inexperienced with some of these things. And even though
this is there's a trend now going in their community, even more of a reason to reach out for
outside sources and and for to connect with other law enforcement agents that have been through this process multiple
times. And just again, not not better, just more experienced. And that's exactly right. And what we've seen here,
too, I want to go into the kind of the thoroughness of the Boardman Police Department and in their efforts to find
David Evans. So, I've seen documentation that the Boardman Police officers were actively
calling the high school and the hospitals and other people at this after being told by the parents, "We've
already called you know, those locations." And they're saying, "No, that's cool.
We're going to call them as well." They immediately called the state highway troopers, notifying them to be on the
lookout for this missing boy. And they called surrounding jurisdictions and agencies as well to be on the lookout
for this boy. So, if somebody was transporting him somewhere or by chance if he had run away for some reason, that
maybe he would be spotted elsewhere. Now, David Evans' case is different from Brad's
in the sense that Brad's had a lot of unconfirmed sightings that again now we believe to be
inaccurate based off of what the police have said about the investigation about their case. David Evans was was not the
same way. There There was one or two situations where somebody called in and said, "I might have seen the Evans boy."
or "This person might have information on the Evans boy." Now, one thing that the police did and did
very well in this case, too, is they canvassed the area, the neighborhood, because we have a crime scene that is
much smaller to work with than the potential abduction scene of Bradley Bellino, right? We have that
intersection where his father says, "I saw him there, spoke to him there at 6:00 p.m.-ish."
And in that same intersection, near that same intersection, his hat is found. So, police canvassed that neighborhood,
David Evans' own neighborhood, knocking on doors, and they took notes on every address. You know, who lived there, if
they did talk to somebody, if they saw anything, if they heard anything. Most of the people really didn't see anything
or hear anything. There were a few people that said, "I think I might have saw something, but at the time didn't
know if it was anything." The The best possible piece of information was somebody having seen a vehicle
where they thought that they saw a struggle between two people. And the The problem with this this witness statement
is it was actually two witnesses that gave different statements. It was a husband and wife that were returning
home, and they lived near that intersection, and they happened to be returning home roughly about the time
that it would be believed that that David was abducted. He's last seen by his father, talks to
his father. He's only 20-some houses away from his his destination. Yeah. So, we're talking about a very small time
period of in which something bad could have happened. Right. And so, this husband and wife, again, they have
different stories of the same story. And it's not that it's not that either not to be believed,
it's just these are normal people going about their everyday lives, and they're they're witnessing something that is
only important later when you know that a child has gone missing. It's not important at the time, and
there was obviously nothing alarming enough about it for either them to take notice.
From the report I have read, obviously one of this married couple was driving, the other was in the passenger seat. And
they had varying sto- stories, and these stories varied simply because the person
driving said, "Yeah, I thought I saw this, but keep in mind I was paying much more attention to
the road and where I was going. I wasn't looking all around or paying attention to what might be going on with
with uh pedestrians." So, some information, unfortunately, it doesn't help the police too much because
it's it's very vague information, and it's a little unconfirmed when we have two people saying that they saw slightly
different uh things. Now, this, too, like Brad's case, was well reported in the newspapers at the time.
The Vindicator covered this case and interviewed the police and family daily, uh and continued to after
after his body was found. And unfortunately, he's he goes missing, he's reported missing late on the 17th
of January. And one thing we got to keep in mind, too, not only is this kid diabetic, so you're
scared of that. We talked about there being snow on the ground. It's it's freaking cold out there, right? As
a parent, you're like, "My god, my kid's out there missing, and it's freezing." So, he's found his body is found January
23rd, 1975. Basically, David is missing for 6 days before he's found. Yes, last sighting at 6:00 in Oddly
enough, he's found in the evening hours of the 23rd. And what's really weird about that, too, being found on the
23rd, and we'll get into that information, but you know, we talked about the FBI trying
to get the FBI involved. There was a call. So, at 1:10 p.m. on the 23rd, this is
the same day that his body would later be found. A man called the the police department
and spoke to the dispatcher. And it was a very short call. All the man said was, "Do you want the Evans
boy? Don't hunt." Now, this is 1975, so my guess here, Captain, is that that this may not have
been recorded, and this is just the dispatcher taking a note and then typing up a report immediately afterwards. But
according to the dispatcher, the caller was a male caller, and the caller said, "Do you want the
Evans boy? They don't hunt." And then the caller hung up the phone. I'm only bringing that up because I'm hoping
somebody can tell me what to make of it. I don't know I don't know how to take that. The best
way that I can take that is that I know in other cases that we've covered that there have been phone calls received or
letters sent that later were confirmed to be just a complete hoax that had nothing to do
with the actual case when the case is solved. But this to me, almost like I thought when I first found this
information, oh, maybe we're getting some kind of ransom request. But it's such a short conversation, and
then again, the odd thing is the boy's body is found just hours later. Yeah, when you get that call initially,
like you said, "Don't hunt." What's that mean? Does that mean don't go looking for the child in in in rural areas? Does
it mean that he's going to be in the city somewhere, or is this a set up call to set up some kind of negotiation for
ransom? But then, like you said, David's found a few hours after this phone call.
The other thing that's an interesting thought on this phone call, too, here, Captain, is that
the Evans family, and this was not made clear while he was still missing. I believe
this information only came out in the papers after his body was recovered, but his family had said
that they were receiving strange phone calls before he even went missing, that they
were getting uh hang-up calls, which again could have everything to do with the case or could mean absolutely
nothing at all. It's just it's too difficult to decipher. What's tough, too, when you have kids of this age,
this is the perfect age where kids are playing around on the phone. Or when you called your buddy,
I I I had I had several friends that I would call, and if their their dad answered the phone, I'm
hanging up cuz he was mean and scary. You know, if the mom Right. If the mom answered the phone, it
was like, "Hey, is Tommy there?" You know, anytime when you hear phone calls, you know, or or suspicious
phone calls, it makes a juicier story, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with these
kids going missing. Right. And it was the '70s, and you know, I'm I'm not proud of this, but uh you know, me and
my buddies used to hear people make prank phone calls on the radio, and we thought it was hilarious, and we would
try to do our own, which were not very funny at all, to be honest. But mine were great.
Yours were fantastic. We should have recorded those. Um It was illegal, too. Right, right.
His His body, unfortunately, was found roughly at 5:00 p.m. on January 23rd, 1975. So, the body is spotted by Hugh
McCall. He's a realtor, and he is his company is at 12 Boardman-Poland Road. This is
not terribly far away from where Bellino's body was recovered. Again, this is more in the businessy area of
Boardman, where both bodies are recovered. Now, mind you, yes, it's almost 3 years later. But so, the way
that this works, Captain, is Mr. McCall, he's at work all day at this location, at his, you know, realty firm.
And him and his wife are getting ready to leave. His wife works for him or works with him there.
And they're getting ready to leave, and while they're leaving, he's spots something
in the bushes, or as he puts it, in the bushes. And when he goes over to look and investigate to see what it is,
unfortunately, it turns out to be David Evans. Which makes you wonder if if the call saying "Don't hunt" means
the kid is going to be found within the city. That's what I was trying to think about there, that that maybe there
is some that there's something going on with that call because he was found so close
to to the time the same time frame. But So, McCall calls the police right away, and he says, "I think I found the boy
that you are looking for." So, obviously, he knows what he's seeing. He knows he we have a body here, and
he's phoning it in to police. And the dispatcher hands the phone to the detective because this is what everybody
at the police department has been working on for 6 straight days, right? So, this is, as you pointed out, threat
level midnight, right? Everything's extremely important here, and now this is this is the biggest call.
Well, and more so in this case because, like we said, there was there was another case before this that
Yes. So, the cops Look, the the Thomas case, the Bradley case, and the David case are probably the three
biggest cases in that, you know, time period that have ever happened to this small
law enforcement department. Yeah, and you have a lot of these guys, a lot of the officers and and the
you know, the men and women of the Boardman Police Department have all worked Now, now they're sitting
there going, "I'm [ __ ] And in the course of 5 years, I'm working my my third child homicide case?" I mean, so these
guys and and the women of Boardman Police Department, they don't forget this stuff. And so, they they know the
severity of it. I could only imagine the stress that it put on on these good people who are trying to do everything
that they can to return these children alive, first of all, and then, if if need be,
bring some justice for the victim and the victim's family. So, the dispatcher hands the phone to the
detective. It's Detective Balog who's working this case. He There's two or three that worked this case
really really hard here over the course of a couple of years, the the early parts of the investigation, and then
obviously uh would have been replaced at some point. But the detective gets on the phone and says, "Would you repeat
what you just said?" And Mr. McCall repeated, "I think I found the missing boy that you were looking for."
And Mr. McCall goes on to say he is behind the Famous Recipe Fried Chicken restaurant on Route 224. So, Mr. McCall
was asked to give his location and his telephone number, which he does. He gives his business location.
He was told to wait there for the police, wait behind the Famous Recipe Fried Chicken building. Now, his wife,
while he's you know, this is 1975, so he's he has to run into his business to make this
phone call to police. His wife thought, "You know what? Well, somebody should watch over the scene
until either my husband returns to watch over it or the police arrive on the scene."
Very smart and good by her. She says that she went over and stood there and and tried to watch over the scene, but
at some point, she she couldn't do it. It it at some point, it it broke her down, and she had to to leave. So,
she's still there, but but not directly at the scene and the police are there very, very quickly. They basically find
David Evans frozen there at the scene. Remember we talked about it being cold. He's been gone for 6 days.
And everything that I've reviewed, Captain, it it seems very difficult and I've not seen anybody report when they
think he was place there. I do know that Mr. McCall and his wife both said the same thing that obviously
we didn't notice him there until till we called it in. Or we would have went over
and checked before and called it in. And these two are going in and out of work each day. So, there's a lot of reason to
believe that Well, hold on because they're real estate agents, right? Yeah. They're going in and out of their
building probably more than most people because they're part of their job is to leave their office and to show people
houses. Unless they're bad at their job. All right. They're not staying busy. But again,
smart dumping spot because the person wouldn't be constantly within their office.
And if you knew the vehicles that were spo- if you knew the vehicles that were connected to that building and you knew
that the vehicles were gone then you would know when there was a good opportunity to leave a victim behind.
And one thing I do not like and I'm I'm not happy to report this to the garage listeners because
I do not have a good understanding on how this on where he was found. So, I don't have
a good understanding on what kind of landscaping we have here because in some reports it's stated as he's found
near an embankment or having been thrown over some type of embankment and then other reports say
just like the one we reported where he's found behind some bush bushes. Now, could the bushes and the embankment all
be the same location? Yes. Right. I don't have a picture of it from 1975 to tell you what it exactly it looks like.
All I can do is go off of words from people that are not here to tell me what it looked like. What else do we know
about David when he was found? You said he was frozen. Yes, he was frozen. So, the way that this has been
reported is that what the McCall's say that they saw when they were getting into their car was that they saw a knee
sticking up in the snow in the bushes. That's why they go over to investigate. It's not just that they saw some random
thing. They saw what looked to be a person or a part of a person. So, they see this
knee sticking up in the snow in the bushes. The newspaper reported that David's body
he was found when he was found he was on his back with one knee bent and one leg
straight. His hands were on his chest. His clothing was pulled up to about the neck area.
Uh but they believe police believe that this is because he was dragged. So, that
somebody pulled up and when they were disposing of the body, they got him out of their vehicle and then
then had to drag him along the way. So, I guess if you're being dragged by your feet, it would
naturally push your your shirt up as you're being dragged along the ground. Right. The coroner told the newspaper
that an X-ray showed that David's left wrist had been broken. And that there was and I I want to
clarify on this. His words to the newspaper is that there was a half inch in diameter
by half inch deep perfectly round puncture wound that was found on David Evans's back. This would
be roughly about 3 inches above the belt line and it's not directly in the center
of the back. The way that it looks to me, Captain, that this is would be a little bit to the right.
And they don't seem to understand what could have caused that hole and I I do want to report here that this report
is probably the most accurate because this is the coroner saying it's a half inch in diameter and a half inch deep,
but I've also seen this reported as big as 1 inch in diameter and 1 inch deep and as small as a quarter inch in
diameter and a quarter inch deep. So, a little inconclusive on the exact size of
that, but the interesting thing here is we're told per the coroner that the wrist he could
confirm that the wrist was broken after the boy's death. They didn't know exactly what caused
this puncture wound or this hole, but what they could say is that it didn't come from a knife
and it didn't come from a bullet. I guess the other thing that we should clear up here, too, is they go on to say
that it did not it was not consistent with an insulin injection as well. So, unfortunately,
we know that David Evans is diabetic. The cause of death was determined to be a diabetic coma.
Right. This is going to cause a lot of problems for the investigation in in my opinion and from what I've seen that has
taken place over the years. So, because he dies of you know, I guess natural causes, this
diabetic coma, there in there becomes a debate if this is a homicide or not. Well, like you said, we have three
three young boys that go missing that are found. All three looks like some version of homicide.
Like you said, you could debate this about David's. Where to me it leans more so that this
is a homicide is because we almost have a secondary crime scene with some kind of struggle
and he he's obviously he'd taken away from where he was heading to or he he him not ending up at his house
to me means that this is a crime. And you are spot on, my friend. And I'll tell you what, and that's why I'm giving
mad kudos and props to the Boardman Police Department because shh again, we've seen this situation
where a coroner an autopsy is conducted and we have someone who rules it an OD or uh
or an accidental death or in this case uh diabetic coma and then the police department in that area just
doesn't do anything with it because No. And was there any sign of sexual assault?
there is no sign of sexual assault which or no obvious signs of sexual assault according to the coroner. And that I
think further complicates the case. Now, kudos to the Boardman Police Department
because they go, "Okay, well, this is this is a suspicious death." You know, and that's how we're going to
treat this going forward. We can't we don't have the coroner backing us up saying that this was a homicide,
but we can say given the evidence that we have that we believe it to be a suspicious death and they they treated
it as such. So, they didn't just close up shop once he was found. They continued to investigate this for years
and did a lot of really good boots-on-the-ground work. And you even have the the the police officers and
detectives who have come out and they said, "No, look, this is why it was a homicide,
right? And we believe that this was an abduction because as you pointed out, the kid said he was going home. He was
very close to his home when he said he was going home. His hat is found in the snow. His hat is found in the snow
trampled. So, obvious signs of a struggle. Probably somebody grabbed him off the streets, put him in their
vehicle. And then here's the other thing. He's not just going to die of a diabetic
coma as soon as he's, you know, at 6:01 p.m. right after his dad finds him or talks to him.
No, he didn't need that insulin shot until 7:30 a.m. the next morning. So, he's not going to start to get into
trouble with that until the next morning. So, again, somebody kept this kid. Kept
him where? I don't know. But the other thing they were able to determine was the
the contents of his stomach. The contents found in his stomach did not match up with what was known to be his
last meal. So, signs of a struggle in the street. He obviously was somewhere for a long
period of time before his diabetes took over. And he ate a meal and it's it's reported
to be a a considerably large meal. So, he was fed something or ate somewhere. And the police have gone on to say,
"Look, the the broken wrist, this took place after he died." He didn't just sneak off in the middle of the night,
hang out somewhere all night long even though he knew that he needed an insulin shot, eat a meal somewhere, and then
decide to curl up in the snow behind these bushes and die and then break his own wrist
afterwards. You know, so that they're they're pointing out that there's obvious signs
to seasoned detectives and seasoned police officers that are saying, "We have signs that are pointing to not only
an abduction, but then somebody having dumped the body after the boy died." With you.
With you. And Captain, this is such a large case spanning the course of 5 years, three different
homicides. Next week, we're going to revisit these cases. We got much more to discuss in
all three cases, as well as are they connected? And if so, who are some of the suspects that could have been
involved in these murders? Thank you so much for joining us. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast.
We appreciate the support more than we could ever let you know. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the
beautiful listeners? Baseball is back, baby, and opening day is upon us. If you are a fan of the Bigs and/or
Cleveland sports in general, you will want to check out this week's recommended reading titled Cleveland
Indians Yesterday and Today by friend of the show Phil Trexler. Everybody loves an underdog, and few teams can claim to
have as many decks stacked against them as the Cleveland Indians, or the Guardians, as the kids are calling them.
Despite winning only two World Series in more than 100 years, the Indians have captured the hearts of their fans. Check
out Cleveland Indians Yesterday and Today. You can find that title and many more on the recommended page at
truecrimegarage.com. And if you need more True Crime Garage, go to truecrimegarage.com
and sign up for our bonus show called Off the Record. Until next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

The Boardman Murders /// Part 2 /// 568

Part 2 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Boardman, Ohio is a great place to live and raise a family. Located in Northeast Ohio close to the Pennsylvania border directly south of Youngstown. Back in the 70’s Boardman was growing but some of the citizens were growing concerned that something strange and terrifying had come to town. Three boys were killed in the span of just five years. This week we take a look at these three still unsolved cases. One of the cases is far from cold the other two well that’s up for debate. The other debate that has always been a hot one, are three cases connected in anyway? Find out this week on True Crime Garage.

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Brief Summary

Three unsolved cases of young boys in Boardman, Ohio, are discussed, focusing on their disappearances and the investigations that followed.

Key points

The Unsolved Cases of Boardman, Ohio. Exploring the tragic unsolved cases of Thomas Bard and Brad Bellino.
David Evans: A Haunting Story. The story of David Evans, a boy who faced challenges but was tragically lost.
David Evans Goes Missing. David Evans, a 13-year-old boy, fails to return home after a basketball game, prompting a frantic search.
The Urgency of David's Condition. David's diabetes raises concerns for his health as he goes missing, emphasizing the need for his insulin.
Mysterious Phone Call. A strange call to the police raises questions about David's fate just hours before his body is found.
Discovery of David Evans. Realtor Hugh McCall discovers the body of David Evans, leading to a police investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.

Captain's warm welcome to listeners.

0:57WatchOct 25, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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