The Connecticut River Valley Killer /// Part 2 /// 637 | Forensic Files

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at least seven women stabbed and murdered series of murders in the Connecticut River Valley
you suspect it was the work of a serial killer all were stabbed multiple times and that's why I'm here to look for
results to have results to give those families an answer when we left off yesterday Captain we
had gone through all of the victims the ones that are believed to be connected to this Connecticut River Valley killer
and the ones that are debatable we went into some of the evidence we went into the great debate of if in fact one
individual is responsible for all of these murders or do we have a situation where we may have a couple people that
are involved in some of these homicides here working unrelated to one another and one thing
that's troubling when we start to look at suspects in any of these types of cases
we start to see a weird pattern that there's a lot of bad dudes that seem to be in one area during the course of just
a handful of years and that's always terrifying to learn so we'll go through the suspects that have been listed or
named throughout the years in connection to the Connecticut River Valley killer one suspect was Christopher Wilder now
this is a known serial killer he killed in the area but not he's not likely in my opinion to have been the river valley
killer we know that he abducted and raped at least 12 young women and girls he tortured some of them and killed at
least eight of his victims but this took place all within a short six-week time period when he went off the rails and he
went on this cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. so his series of murders began in
Florida on February 26 1984 and then continued across the country through Texas Oklahoma Colorado Nevada and
California and he had attempted abductions in Washington state and New York State before he was eventually
tracked down and killed during his struggle with police in New Hampshire now he's killed by police in New
Hampshire on April 13 1984. so when you just factor in those dates now there there are people that
suspect that he may have killed before he went on this six weeks the six week long crime spree that led to many other
victims he's not in the New Hampshire area until he's Tracked Down by police when he's killed there in 1984. that
also means that he would not have even been alive for some of the later attacks yeah this guy is a real douche canoe
ship princess but it's hard to put him in that region during the times of those killings our next suspect is Edwin town
he was looked at Big Time in a couple of these cases this guy was no doubt a killer now I don't know about Edwin
being a serial killer he may have been one in the making in my opinion but he certainly was a serial rapist he is one
of these horrible true stories where you hear that this dude gets out of prison and then he goes out
and commits another horrible violent crime this guy unfortunately he's one of these dudes man that he was locked up he
had been arrested for a sexual assault got in trouble they knew that he did it then he goes
out he gets out of prison goes out and commits another sexual assault they arrest him they throw him back in prison
he's supposed to be doing this lengthy prison sentence because he's a repeat offender he's a
violent offender right and they let him out early and then unfortunately when he's out
he abducted a teenage girl and and killed her the victim's father rightfully so has been up front and
center for all media pointing out time and time again look if this guy if Edwin town would have been forced to
serve out his time to the sentence that that was granted to him he would have been locked up at the time
that he abducted and killed my daughter and so this one's as much as Edwin town is to blame so is the parole board and
the people that let him back out on the streets yeah this is a huge stain on our
justice system and it makes it look pretty pathetic next on our suspect list Captain we have Delbert Tallman Tallman
on May 20th 1984 is suspected of having abducted 16 year old Heidi Martin who went out for a jog in Heartland Vermont
the next day her body was found in a swampy area behind Heartland Elementary School
she had been raped and stabbed to death Tallman who was 21 years old at the time
after he's picked up Captain he confesses to the rape and murder and then he's brought to trial however
he later recants his confession and then gets an acquittal now nearly three years
later Barbara agnew's body would be found approximately one mile from where Heidi Martin's body was discovered so in
the The General same general area Tallman was a resident in Bellows Falls Springfield and Windsor
Vermont as well as Claremont New Hampshire this is the epicenter of most of the Connecticut River Valley killings
he was later convicted in 1996 on two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and was incarcerated at
Lake County prison in Florida for failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements he was
released from prison in 2010. yeah it makes you wonder how they got that confession I'd like to dive more into
that it definitely does but his later crimes would back up the thought that yes he should be a suspect in that Heidi
Martin case right now if you want to look at victimology and say well this killer this River Valley killer likely
would would hone in on a certain type of victim well Heidi Martin doesn't seem to fit
that victimology to a t anyway and if his later crimes are any indication of who he is and what kind of monster he
was then his preferred victimology seems to be younger people children and he's acting on this if he was guilty of the
Heidi Martin case he's he's acting at it at the young age of 21. so he's one of these people just like the other two
where you can certainly put him on the list there's good reason to put him on the list as a suspect in this case but
I think where you probably have to lean with Tallman is that you can't eliminate
him I can see reasons why to eliminate Christopher Wilder he likely wasn't even in the area he wasn't even alive when
some of the killings took place right Edwin Town looks better than Wilder Tallman looks better than both of them
yeah like you said if if his victimology if the victims that he is looking for is
is of a younger age then it doesn't make sense to me that this individual would be driving around
as much as they would have to because look I guarantee you and I I don't know what
the percentage would be but I guarantee you they're driving around and going to these spots and looking for
opportunities a lot more they're visiting those locations a lot more than they're actually finding
opportunities and finding victims and just how much driving could this person be doing if we do in fact have one
individual that's responsible for the majority of these killings you take a serial killer like William suff for
example he was driving around and trolling for victims so much putting so many miles on his vehicle that they said
that he had to replace anywhere between three to six tires a year on his vehicle
wow so all of us just think think to our own personal lives on how long it is between times when you have to put two
or four more tires on your car this dude and likely whoever is responsible for a
lot of these killings in in Connecticut River Valley they're changing out a tire
almost every other month right because they're putting so many miles on their vehicle they're spending so much time so
much time of their each day each week trolling around looking for a victim for every one of these victims this is
fortunately and unfortunately all at the same time for every one of these victims
that we've named here today there's likely four or five maybe more that for whatever reason he decided not to take a
chance on right either he attempted to get him into his vehicle or he pulled up and was getting ready to do something
but somebody else pulled up and he was interrupted there's any number of reasons why
other victims didn't look good enough or the time just wasn't right to take them and make them a victim one of
the more popular suspects here Captain is a man by the name of Michael nicolao he is incredibly interesting to me he's
one of these guys that's a giant pile of [ __ ] that we should light on fire I'm
convinced this guy was a serial killer and crimes that we know that he he did will back a lot of that thinking up so
in 2005 he kills his wife and his stepdaughter and himself in Tampa Florida a Saint
Petersburg private investigator comes out says that she is certain that there's a connection between Michael
nicolao and to six homicide victims from the Connecticut River Valley case the problem with nikolao is his residence
was in Holyoke which was about 90 miles from Claremont yeah not so fast now this
Pi this private investigator was able to determine that his wife one of his wives
uh her her name was Michelle had relatives in this area that might explain some of the gaps
in the killings yeah that's pretty fascinating do we potentially have a killer that is operating in this area
but only when he is in the area and that he's not there all of the time right this is an interesting thought to ponder
because one we got this guy that we know is capable of homicide he kills his wife
he kills his stepdaughter and then kills himself this is all during the course of
a police standoff but it goes a little more psychotic than just a this guy losing his mind and taking his wife and
stepdaughter hostage and then in the course of a standoff he kills them no he traveled to Tampa
to do this to his wife he traveled to Tampa they had been separated he went down there with the purpose of harming
and likely with the purpose of killing her and her daughter he then kills himself we know that this
private investigator was able to create to link ties to the Claremont area where
the epicenter of these killings were taking place one we don't know what she learned about him is it possible that
she learned something awful about him and that that was the straw that broke the camel's back and he decided that
they had to die and that he had to die as well what's weird about him though his first wife disappeared she's never
been seen again well surprise surprise do we have a situation where these marriages are
getting in the way of doing what it is that he wants to do the thing that's really interesting about him too is that
Michael nicolau owned a Jeep Wagoneer in the 1980s which is consistent with the vehicle described by the living
the surviving victim Jane Borowski yeah which we'll get into more details on her
attack in a little bit one of the thoughts that the profiler put together Captain was that is there a potential
that this guy travels for work either only kills when he's home because he lives in the area or only kills when
he's out traveling in the area I've reviewed at least one other killer and I'm sure that there are probably more
out there well no duh there's more than one killer out there eugenius but there's one killer that I reviewed and
His Name Escapes me at the moment but he is suspected of three homicides convicted of one and confess to another
So within those three he's been convicted of one and he's confessed to one of the others
they can't lock him down for the third one but he didn't live in the area but he traveled to the area regularly
and he chose to make that his hunting ground because the problem for the investigators became that this guy's not
local he doesn't live in the area he's not easily it's not easy to link him to that area for when these victims
disappear or when they're later found right and like you said this guy lived roughly 90 miles away
that's not that far of a drive especially if he has time and he has the means to get out and chooses to hunt
outside of an area where he lives with the purpose of making it much more difficult to detect him as the actual
killer so like you said there's a great debate whether these cases are connected
or they're not and in a lot of these cases we just don't have a lot of details we don't have eyewitnesses but
we have a possible case that is connected to the rest of them but we have a surviving victim and I was able
to sit down with Jane Borowski to go over the events the terrifying horrible events of the attack which led to her
being named being dubbed the the surviving victim of the Connecticut River Valley
foreign [Music] I was just uh looking forward to being a mom I decided to go to a fair where I
lived is also a small community um and they have a a County Fair every year in Swansea New Hampshire so I went
to the fair it was hot hot and humid that summer it was brutal driving home from the fair I met up with evil I
stopped off at a closed store it was it was right on a main route from uh Keene to Winchester I was living in Winchester
at the time and uh route 10. I stopped at this closed door because they had a vending machine outside a soda vending
machine so I just wanted to stop in and grab a quick soda on my way home and then
you're met with this horrible experience in this terrible man approaches your vehicle you know I hate
to kind of try to crawl into the mind of this individual but I really want everybody to fully understand
the situation and how everything played out so when you pull into this clothes store with the intention of hey I'm
going to grab something to drink is it dark out at this time yeah it was fairly late it was um you know between 11 11 30
at night the fair had just closed yeah I pulled in I grabbed my soda the soda vending machine got back in my car I
opened the soda took a couple of steps and I was getting ready to pull out to head home this Jeep Wagoneer pulled up
beside me on my passenger side and I didn't think anything of it it was you know there there was the vending
machine and there was also a pay phone next to the vending machine so I really didn't think anything of it
I was getting ready to leave and I see him walking around the back of my car and next thing I know he's at my
driver's door and he says um the Payphone working and right as he said that he opened the door and tried to
grab me and take me out of the car I was so scared I was screaming I was fighting
um I screamed so much and so hard that I broke blood vessels in my eyes somehow I
got my foot up to kick him and I was kicking him and as I was kicking him I kicked my windshield and smashed my
windshield next thing I know he takes a knife out and he said maybe this will persuade you
to get out of the car so obviously it did I got out of the car he was just acting so calm like he wanted me to go
with him that was that was obvious he wanted me to go with him and I was determined I was not going
with him he had said that I beat up his girlfriend and said that my car was a Massachusetts car and and I was like no
I didn't beat up no girlfriend and uh my car is me I'm sure my car has New Hampshire plates
and at this time I'm thinking oh my God this guy's a whack job what what the hell what does he want you know I I just
couldn't understand he started walking around the back side of my car at that time I didn't feel threatened
anymore I thought maybe he just confused me with somebody else he looked at the plate and then he
started walking back to his vehicle on the other side of my car and I'm thinking
oh wait a minute I have a smashed windshield so of course not feeling threatened I
said to him hey [ __ ] what about my windshield you know I regret those words for the
rest of my life but I I didn't feel threatened so he came back around and put the knife
up against my neck you had no way of knowing what you were dealing with in that moment you think
you're just this is some guy he he mistook me for somebody that probably got into some kind of
situation with his girlfriend he's angry he approached you either he figured out
you're the wrong person or you know you have no idea who this guy is in the in that moment and then
it sounds like you pissed him off I I didn't know what he was capable of doing I had no
idea what why he was even there or why he was approaching me I mean this is a small community uh
Swansea New Hampshire virtually no major crime in 1988 a safe community and don't
forget back then in 1988 there was no cell phones there was no social media I I didn't know
about these other cases I didn't know that there was a serial killer hunting New Hampshire in Vermont I had no idea
so when he came back around the car and he put the knife up against my neck I I saw a vehicle start driving was driving
by the store and I knew the only way I was going to get out of that situation was to run to
the road and scream and try and get their attention so I did I just dashed I I started running to the road I was
screaming and the car just went right by next thing I know he tackled me down on
the ground like a football player like right on the pavement and he got on top of me I was on my back
and he just proceeded to stab me like just was just stabbing uncontrollably I ultimately was stabbed 27 times
and I was doing everything I could to protect my baby so I have a lot of defensive wounds on
my hands all of a sudden he just stopped stabbing and he got up and he walked away and I
could hear him walking away like not running or anything like that just walking away
and I'm thinking to myself oh my God I can't believe this just happened for one and I'm like where is he you know I
couldn't see him I heard the vehicle start and start driving by this time I I knew
I needed to get help so I got on I rolled over onto my hands and knees and I started getting up and I
I could just hear the the blood just gushing out of me I happened to look up and he just drove right by and looked
right at me and I looked right at him but it ain't rush it was just a slow drive by my head and then he drove off
I obviously my body went into shock and I just knew I needed to get help so uh I
had a friend of mine that lived right on that main road Route 10 about two miles
down the road so I said okay I'm gonna go to his house and he's gonna get me help so I got my
car I started driving down the road and before I knew it I was driving right behind him and I was like oh my God he's
gonna know where I'm gonna pull off he's gonna see where I'm pulling in and I just um
fear all over again I pulled into my friend's house and and he came right to the screen door
and uh he said that uh I told him I said some [ __ ] just stabbed the [ __ ] out of me
I need help and I collapsed on his steps and then a few minutes later well not even a few minutes later a minute later
all of a sudden we hear the vehicle drive back by the house and like squealed its tires like almost slamming
on his brakes and then took off so we we knew we knew it was him um he definitely knew that I would I was
at somebody's house getting out your attacker is aware that you survived the attack is he aware that to your
knowledge best of your knowledge anyway is he aware that you survived the attack
before he leaves the parking lot of the closed store well he knows that I was getting up I
was trying to get up and and you know get to my car and I believe he knows I was behind him um
otherwise he would have never turned around and came back when you were in the parking lot did you
see when did you become aware of the other vehicle did you do you see him pull in or are you only aware once he
pulls up next to your car yeah pretty much when he pulled in and parked right next to me I mean like I
said I didn't really pay much attention to it the soda machine was there a payphone was there he just uh pulled in
and parked next to my car on my drive on my passenger side did you see which direction he came from did he pull in
from the same direction that you were coming from or or I didn't I never noticed that describe the
vehicle for everybody out there these uh vehicle and I know we're we're talking about this well after the fact you know
we're we're many years later and um but vehicle description suspect description those things are are very important
add wood grain sides um now according to the lighting in the parking lot because they were like
fluorescent lighting it was either a dark blue or a dark green it was four-wheel drive he was like
um not too awfully tall maybe five nine five eight five nine slender his uh he had kind of a
brownish hair um slicked back um while I was in the hospital I actually did a composite of yeah there's
one that's been out for a long time and I was going to wonder I was wondering are you responsible for the the one the
one that I remember the most when looking into this case years ago is the one with the the the dark kind of
circles around the eyes uh there's there's more than one composite out there for this case but the one that I
remember is kind of the short short hair dark colored hair the uh you know the wrinkles across the forehead and the
dark around the eyes Slender face yeah there's two of them there's one for the Linda Linda Moore case that one
he was wearing uh glasses in a fluorescent lights they have a tendency at night time to make a a black or blue
vehicle appear to be that green color exactly exactly and so he approaches you and what is I mean it's not mind-blowing
now knowing that this your attack is likely connected to these all these other cases but what's kind of
mind-blowing In the Heat of the Moment is with the way you describe this to me he says something to you that's smoke
and mirrors that's the old magician trick right because it's it's human nature when somebody speaks to you to
look toward their face which is going to draw your attention away from what he really wants to do which is get that
latch on your car door open before you have a time time to react to that exactly and so that to me tells me one
of two things or both that this guy one has done this type of thing before or he's practiced to do this type of thing
um and but for whatever reason and we we will never know until he's caught but for whatever reason you
survive this attack because he leaves uh you you know in and as you said we believe he doesn't think that he's
killed you at this point when he did when he decides to leave or do you I believe I survived because I didn't go
with him he really wanted me to go with him and like the other victims of the Connecticut River Valley murders they
all went with him whether it was willingly or he they he forced them to go with him
but they except for Linda Moore they all would went with him so I believe if I if
I had gone with with him I would not be alive I I wholeheartedly believe yeah the the thing here to just describe him
again I know you gave a good description but I really want to hone in on on what
this guy looked like uh back in August of 1988. it's hard for me to describe because I mean it was 34 years ago you
know I I can I can remember his manner how he carried himself which was very cool and very calm and not nervous I I
believe he's done this before before me not his first rodeo and obviously you're I mean you're fighting
for your life you're you're the adrenaline kicks in you're not so much paying attention to him and taking notes
on what he he looks like but was there anything in particular that was uh that that stood out to you about him in his
his appearance or his clothing or anything that you was very distinctive well I remember way back
were questioning me and when I was hypnotized he had no smell to him so he wasn't a dirty man he didn't have any
body odor smell or anything like that which was unusual especially being um such a hot humid summer
so they felt like he was um obviously a clean person I don't remember him I remember him wearing dark clothing
but exactly what kind of dark clothing I really don't remember see I wish I had paid attention to these details
at the time but again hiding and realize what he was gonna do there's a lot of little details I wish I
remembered but I don't [Music] [Music] terrifying stuff there Captain thank you to Jane barowski for sitting down with
us and and educating us and giving her insights and and what actually happened to her that that terrifying evening now
Borowski mentioned returning to her car and then driving on New Hampshire Route 32 she's now fleeing to a friend's house
for help after this attack as she gets close to the house now we have this it's like straight out of a horror flick
oh my God I I'm right behind the vehicle of the person that just attacked me that
just tried to kill me she then gets to her friend's house the friend comes running out to to Aid her she's barely
able to walk at this point and this is she says her attacker apparently made a u-turn and then drives slowly past her
and her friend staring them down before speeding off into the dark of night yes so when you
hear this part of the story and when I heard this part of the story it makes it seem like maybe the attacker
knew that this could be his victim and maybe that she was still alive I don't think that at all
if we connect all these cases and I think there's a strong argument that you can because it's crimes of opportunity
it's a killer and his vehicle driving around hunting looking at stores looking for
people broke down on the side of the road looking for hitchhikers looking for anybody that's vulnerable
he's driving away from this attack he is miles away from the attack a car drives is driving behind him this
is also these areas that these huntings that the hunting is taking place in they're remote there's not a bunch of
cars all the time the time of day there's not a ton of vehicles out so he sees a vehicle turn off into a
drive and I think this was just another thing that he did another way of hunting okay I'm going to
make a U-turn because this car just turned off into their driveway I'm going to drive back
and drive back slowly to see if there's an opportunity and then once I look he might not even
known it was the same vehicle he might not have known that it was a female driver
but once he sees more than one person he drives away and I think that just proves
that all these cases the victimology in these cases don't really matter too much
to me because I think the more important thing is when he's out there hunting and having these urges
that when there was an opportunity that seemed there's no other cars coming in like you said how many other victims
would there be if a car didn't pull up another car didn't pull up or maybe that when they saw somebody at
the pay phone when they pulled up to to put themselves into a better opportunity to commit this crime that
they saw multiple people in the car waiting on the person that's making the phone call I think it's more about that
they they didn't see the killer come back because he thought it was the victim I think he was looking for another
victim yeah you could certainly make a strong argument for both sides of the fence here right we we know that with
other killers that when they set out to do something a lot of them have to do that they have to achieve that before
they are done hunting for the day we know that to be the case in several other serial killers so we have the
experts here who say all right well if Jane borowski's case is in fact connected to these other ones well it's
only different the result is only different and circumstances are only different from some of the other attacks
and the other victims because the killer must have been interrupted so you're exactly right Captain if these experts
are correct and he was in fact interrupted and was aware that he had not killed this victim that he found
in the parking lot was his Dark Passenger his factor x not associated was it was he not able to
get that thrill that he was seeking that night and was he trolling for another victim and happens to see this vehicle
and thinks oh they turned in there I'll see where they turned into and how vulnerable they look as they're getting
out of their vehicle and then realizes oh no that's the the woman that I attacked and she did survive and then
drives off the other thing though too the other argument for that for against it would be
Jane's description of that night where she says oh [ __ ] the first car she comes
in contact with she is very aware that it's the it's the vehicle of the man who just attacked her so we know that she's
close enough to identify his vehicle right even though they were only together for a brief period of time in
that parking lot together she was well aware of what kind of vehicle he was driving he very likely as well she was
close enough for him to identify her vehicle and he he has his oh [ __ ] moment I've got to turn around she pulled in
I'm gonna finish the job and now as he's slowing down to get a look at what's going on he realizes there's somebody
else there this is a safe place for Jane and I can't go into further risk by by attempting to attack both of these
people now I'm better off to just drive off one thing that I thought was amazing
in her case and and terrifying this was one of the things that stuck with me from being a little boy watching that
Unsolved Mysteries when they show that reenactment of her hypnosis session where she's saying she's trying to see
the license plate the rear license plate of her attacker and this as portrayed on
Unsolved Mysteries would have been from when she pulled up from behind he's already fleeing this the scene where he
attempted to kill her she survives she's fleeing trying to get help for herself and then she sees the
the attacker's vehicle sees his license plate he's trying she's trying to make it out but in that hypnosis reenactment
she says the the license plate is dirty okay well a Wagoneer is a vehicle that you could have taken off-road you could
see given the terrain off of some parts of Interstate 91 that yeah you could have muddy tires or dirty vehicles or
vehicles that appear to have been off-roading but I remember as a kid thinking how scary is that it's very likely that
this dude simply at some point stuck his hand in mud or a puddle and rubbed it on
the back of his license plate because he knew he was going out trolling he knew he was going to be out doing some very
suspicious committing some very suspicious behavior and any deterrent from people being able to identify him
as that person is in his favor right or is this guy a sick son of a [ __ ] and wipes his own ass with his own hand then
uses his little [ __ ] hand to cover up his license plate I mean it's possible thankfully Jane survived as we all are
well aware from the interview there but and I say that chuckling not uh just because it's silly for for me to lead in
that way but I do want to get into some of the some of the details here because it's it's important the devil is in the
details her life was saved that night by herself and by her friend and by Personnel at the hospital where she was
later treated right this was a horrific attack she suffered a severed jugular vein two collapsed lungs
a kidney laceration and severed tendons in her knees and in her thumb she's pregnant at the time and fortunately God
bless her baby survived although with not without complications what we do get though is
Jane is able to provide authorities with a composite sketch and then later the first three
characters of the attacker's license plate there are many that believe given the manner of her attack the weapon
being a knife and the location in which it took place that Jane's case is absolutely connected to some of these
other cases I personally believe that it's connected to some of these other cases too and I say that simply because
of the nature of the attack the vending machine and the pay phone and I know that sounds silly but we cannot
discredit the fact that in two of the other cases there is a pay phone now we know that Jane didn't use the pay phone
but to me it it is almost mesmerizing and in some forms possibly even brilliant if that was purposely done
in the reenactment on Unsolved Mysteries and again it's just a reenactment that we we don't know how much truth is in
that it we can't say that it 100 went down that way but when the attacker asked her about the phone is that pay
phone working that's and then immediately opens up her car door that's almost like a magician's trick a
little sleight of hand right I'll start talking so your eyes your eyes move up to my face up to my
mouth where the words are coming out and in the meantime I'm using I'm I'm moving
my hand toward that car door which you do not want me opening up that car door I've taken your attention off of the
corridor and now away from my hands the other thing that's almost brilliant too is was that just a very simple way of
figuring out very quickly had she called anybody right because if and again I think in some of these cases
there's evidence to suggest that maybe the victim's vehicle was moved if he intended to abduct her from there
before she puts up a struggle he may have intended to go back and move her vehicle yeah that makes a lot of
sense but you don't really yeah you don't really want to do that or you don't need to do that I guess if
somebody is already aware that you were in this location hey does that pay phone work she says I
don't know she doesn't know because she didn't use it that might be good Intel for the
attacker originally shortly after her attack we have a big shift in the investigation now we have with this with
this composite sketch and with her statements and police believing that she would be able to identify her attacker
should we place him in a lineup they're now very optimistic that they're finally
going to be able to bring closure to potentially some of these other cases well the vehicle that she describes as a
Jeep Wagoneer and she doesn't describe it as a beat up vehicle and so again you're in this area you're hunting for
victims you see people that are that are hitchhiking if you have a nicer vehicle they're more
likely to get in the car and also that type of vehicle not hard if you attack somebody at one
location that you're able then to move them pretty quickly it's it's not like it's a two-door
sports car and it'd be difficult to get a victim in and out this is this is a vehicle that has a has
a big hatchback if you commit a crime somewhere else you can take that body and put it in the
hatchback drive down the road and then quickly get them out of the vehicle as well she
described the attacker as driving a Jeep Wagoneer with faux wood paneling and that that is more concrete
than this portion because we have the hypnosis session which leads to her stating that the
three of the numbers on the license plate were likely six six and two and she also states that it's possible that
the license plate was from New Hampshire again I think you put the the heavy weighted material and evidence here is
the Jeep Wagoneer with the faux wood paneling she seems certain on that the 662 on the plate and potential New
Hampshire plate a lot less credible although all she's trying to do is help now she goes on to describe the attacker
as being blonde with thinning hair and had a narrow face and was between five seven
maybe five eight 150 to 160 pounds one thing that was interesting to me here Captain was I always thought of
this type of vehicle as rather unique uh you know not certainly not one of a kind
but more rare than than more commonly driven Vehicles yeah but we have information here that police armed with
this information from baraski from her attack they tracked down 1600 wagoneers that were in the larger area here and
they were unable to connect one of them to Jane's attack and it would appear that the killings
stopped following Jane borowski's attack and then as we pointed out earlier in our coverage
a lot of these cases if not all of them have become very cold since that's a good difficult thing too
because with some of these killers we see that they wrestle with this demon themselves
and is it possible that this serial killer was wrestling with these demons and then
by realizing that one of his victims got away and that she was able to identify him
now there's a sketch out there now the identity of my car is out there is that enough for this
person to try to put that part of their life behind them and not only put that part of their life
behind them but if they weren't even local to the area right and chose this as their hunting in their killing ground
maybe they then say you know what it's gotten too risky it's gotten a little hot here for me I I need to move on and
pick another area start operations up in another location well what I would like to know too is
out of those vehicles that you're able to identify as law enforcement which of those Vehicles were sold
because I could see somebody going well I was identified my vehicle was identified I am going to sell this
vehicle you'd also like to know the details of the tracking down 1600 wagoneers right
what does that in fact mean does that just simply mean oh we we gotta pulled up records on 1600 wagoneers and none of
them had a 662 license plate so we we moved on or does that mean boots on the ground
actually going out and talking to the owners and looking at the vehicles yeah the other difficult thing in this case
and it was talked I think a little bit I mean I watched so many different things
on this case and like we said it was on Unsolved Mysteries but I believe at some point
Jane claims that she believed that she she knew the identity of her killer Yes and she cleared that
up when I spoke with her because what had happened over the course of some years was Michael nicolau the man that
killed his wife his stepdaughter and then himself in December of 2005 and keep in mind his first wife had
disappeared he suspected for being responsible for her disappearance and many believe that that he killed her and
is able to tuck her away somewhere that nobody's been able to locate her remains
at one point Jane does identify Michael nicolau as the man that attacked her that night
and for a lot of people that was the final solution okay case closed this guy that killed himself is responsible for a
lot of these if not all of these homicides that went unsolved and responsible for the Jane Borowski attack
there are several people that think Michael nicolau is good for all of these I think there's a good chance that he he
could be responsible for some of them but Jane says look she changed her mind later that Michael nicolau was not the
man that she saw that night and she says that she simply felt pressured by other
people to name him as her attacker and she did name him and she faults herself but she says look I was vulnerable and I
felt a little bullied and I felt pressured to name him as my attacker and she said that for maybe a portion of her
life she even believed it herself or convinced herself that Michael nikolao was her attacker she now says all of
these years later no it was not Michael nicolau that attacked her that night when you
can't fault her for anything because the amount of trauma that she went through with the attack then after the attack
and again lucky to be able to deliver her child but then her child has repercussions of the attack and then and
what your life must be after something I mean could you imagine she stopped to get something to drink
on her way home no big deal and within that small time frame she is confronted with a monster
the fact that she can even get up and get out of her house ever is is a is a huge win
because I I don't know how somebody could go through that and find the strength to to trust
Society again well and that's what's so terrifying when you review these number of cases as that we just did in this
coverage of this Connecticut River Valley killer whether or not these attacks are connected
it's terrifying to review it because you can go all right well three of the victims were hitchhiking and not the
victim blame here but every one of us does this when you review these things you go okay well it's not very safe
that's a dangerous thing to be getting into a stranger's car especially if you're a woman out walking on a road by
yourself or you're in an area that you're not familiar with but in Jane's case it's likely a pregnant craving that
nudged her to stop and pick up a soda on the way home she's just minding her own business
she's just a young woman living her her normal life and then out of nowhere she's attacked in a parking lot and damn
near killed there is a lot of work and and one thing that is good in this case captain
it has received a good amount of coverage there are a lot of websites out there that are dedicated or devoted
space to the investigation and into some of the information in this case and it's been
covered fairly well on TV as well and in the media there is a profile out there and again depending on where you go
you're going to get various forms of this profile but I'll give you the simple version which states that
the Killer is a loner now to really kind of dissect that statement you look at somebody like Dennis Rader
he would have been considered a loner as well even though he had a wife children
he was active in his community at his church he was involved with the Boy Scouts you look at that and you go well
this guy's not really much of a loner this Dennis Raider but when you really start to peel back the layers of the
onion and you get to the core of Dennis Raider you realize that while he's out doing these other activities it's a
facade he's only he's only pretending to be the guy that you know the friendly neighbor the active Boy Scout
troop leader the person that's involved in their Church he's that he knows that he needs to pretend to do that all of
his true self is experienced through loan activities through solitary individual activities he's trolling
around for hours by himself in his car he's fantasizing about killing and torturing people for hours by himself
this dude Dennis Rader even would go to a hotel and check in and spend the night
by himself just to have a night to himself that's how much of a loner he was with putting on the act of being
normal one I think Dennis Dennis's case is not unique in the fact that see some people close to him
knew a little bit about these demons and because of that I think is is another reason why he was involved in
his church so Heavenly because then it the facade is maybe not just to society but the facade is to the people closest
to him the profile goes on to state that these are calculated attacks that the killer has attention to detail
and and routine and is likely a collector that's interesting because where we have these
cases and many of them there's no signs of sexual assault what we've been told for years by the expert is that by the
experts is that a knife is certainly representative of a psychological sexual assault
and that a lot of times when there's no sexual assault present by these serial offenders that they are collectors they
take something of the victim and it is a sexual component there always is a sexual component to the killings I think
with some of these cases it gets incredibly difficult to deduce exactly what happened because of the
decomposition because the amount of time between the victim was abducted and then
the remains later found well yeah and again I know I keep harping on this point but
these are all crimes of opportunity so therefore in one case there could be an opportunity the crime
the crime starts it evolves and maybe then there's an opportunity for sexual assault or rape and in some
of the other cases there there wasn't and so I think that's what makes it so difficult to figure out if these
cases are connected because like we said you can make an argument well the ages are different
their backgrounds are different but to me that all goes out in the wash and it's the hunting ground are they
within that hunting ground and if they are then that it's a possibility that it's the same killer
the killer in their normal life will experience Outburst of Rage will have strange relationships with
women or the inability to have real true relationships with women his father was either abusive or absent
his violence shows he could be recreating an early experience or reacting to an early life experience a
lot of times with these serial killers you see that they have multiple wives well that's one a sign that they can't
keep a long-term relationship and I think sometimes these people get married again like you said it's a facade you
start to see the real person once you live with them and spend that amount of time with them and they can only keep up
the act for so long and you're right he may have the ability to get himself into
a relationship with an adult woman he just does not have the ability to maintain
that relationship the killer will have a history of voyeurism this is one that you any type
of Serial offender especially if there's a sexual component you're going to see some kind of voyeuristic behavior before
The Killing start it's all I mean you can almost slap this on every single one of them because you see it time and time
again that either this would be a peeping Tom situation or exposing themselves to someone we've seen it time
and time again where there are these types of behaviors that lead up to eventually
murder or a series of murder this suspect is reliant on his car or vehicle and spends a lot of time a lot of hours
on the road that is just echoing what we've been saying all along when we look at this victimology here the suspect
spends so much time driving that driving is a form of therapy or self-hypnosis for him
again just backing up what we were saying earlier in the book shadow of death the hunt for the Connecticut River
Valley Killer by Philip Ginsburg he creates this book he wrote this book with a lot of help from psychologist
John philpin who is the one that is featured on Unsolved Mysteries now John in the book shadow of death gives a very
a much more extensive and thorough suspect profile in chapter 23. the profile takes up the entirety of the
chapter I recommend checking out that book especially that chapter as it's very interesting if you are
if you find yourself eyeballs deep in this case and want to learn more one thing that I thought was intriguing here
Captain was an editorial in the Claremont paper that I think while it's quite Elementary it sums up this killer
very well and in fact sums up many serial killers out there and it reads as follows he's a man who took the innocent
at random and killed without reason and then went hunting for the opportunity to
do it again these cases are always going to be debated whether they're connected
or not until we solve one and that might then lead us to be able to connect the other cases together or eliminate them
from being connected together also in these cases Captain the case is not just that we talked about here today in the
garage but cases that are serial killer cases we usually throw out the possibility of a deathbed confession and
rarely do we ever get one sometimes times you have confessions of evil men once they are caught
they come clean with investigators Dennis Rader comes to mind Ted Bundy even though he lied a lot and even one
of Texas's most evil of all time Kenneth McDuff they come out they tell you about
additional victims they tell you how to find victims they tell you what they did
and how they did it one such deathbed confession a lesser-known one was a case that we covered the still missing person
case of Judy Martins we discussed a deathbed confession there not in Judy's case but connected to her case when
William Posey finally admitted to abducting and killing Iris Brown in 1981. he admitted this in a deathbed
confession the Judy Martin's case is very intriguing and anyone that wants to give that a good garage listen check out
our two episodes numbers 522 and 523 titled missing on campus so those are just a few examples of how
such confessions in cases that we've covered come about and with the William Posey confession very much a deathbed
confession he was terminal and wanted to try to fully confess his sins in an attempt to get right with God before
dying so while it's rare deathbed confessions do actually happen and and we have one in this case believe it or
not now Ben Montgomery wrote a beautiful piece for the Saint Petersburg times now
owned by Tampa Bay times but his story was so masterfully told and in a very story-like manner
so I didn't want to change it up too much here so let's review and explore Ben's story and it starts off with
I'm going to hell Cindy I'm going to hell Gary Westover was pale and sweating maybe he was on drugs maybe the
nightmares that robbed him of sleep that caused him to wake up screaming and soaking wet were now robbing his mind
Westover was full of hell and fire he had been paralyzed in a driving accident leaving him with partial use of one arm
he lived his adult life in a wheelchair collecting disability checks and peddling drugs on the side
the leaves outside were changing that fall of 1997 and Westover felt as if he wasn't going to make it to Winter
the 46 year old was dying he called his uncle the person he trusted most he needed to confess
his cousin and uncle sat down his cousin took his hand I'm going to hell Westover said don't
say that Gary said his cousin Cindy I've got something to tell you Uncle Howard he said
Uncle Howard was Howard Menon a retired sheriff's deputy in Grafton County New Hampshire
before Westover could continue his uncle Howard told Cindy to leave the room the two men spoke while the women of the
family waited in the kitchen when Uncle Howard emerged his face was cold and stiff in the following days he
shared the details of the conversation with his wife and daughter Westover told his uncle that three of
his buddies picked him up for a night of partying they loaded his wheelchair into a van
they insisted that he'd go with them so that he was culpable recalled his aunt his Aunt Louise goes on to say quote he
had no choice but they took him over in the van with his wheelchair they made him be there end quote
Westover told his uncle that he and three men abducted a woman butchered her and dumped her body off a back road
his uncle wrote the names of the three men on a scrap of paper then called the authorities
his family goes on to back him up Howard Westover eventually passed away but his
family goes on to back him up saying that he was he was hurt more than anything the the uncle that that informed the
authorities because he reaches out to police and he says look I have this information from my nephew who passed
away making a confession that three of his buddies picked them up and they abducted and killed a woman and dumped
her body and he says that the police didn't seem interested in his information that they didn't believe
this deathbed confession which truly hurt the uncle because he's like I'm former law enforcement
I heard this confession and I believed it to be true and that's the only reason why I'm bringing it to you guys
Carrie Westover died in 1998 and the details of this confession are murky we have the family that says you
know he told us he gave this detailed confession it was passed along to law enforcement and as far as the media goes
that's where the confession sits but what's interesting is within that confession
Michael nicolau is one of the individuals that is hinted at being one of the three men that picked up Gary
West over that night and made him be a part of this attack and in fact the family believes that this
confession was in regard to the Barbara Agnew case the still unsolved Barbara Agnew case yeah so they communicated all
of this information not only to the authorities but to Barbara agnew's family as well
they stated that because of Gary westover's Health you know he's quadriplegic and that he was involved in
this that of course he's not innocent of anything but they believe that he was simply afraid for his life and that's
why he didn't tell anybody until he was at death's doorstep because one he didn't have the ability to defend
himself against these three other men or the ability to defend his family against these three other men I think
his family lays out a good point of the reason why we should believe this story and I wish law enforcement would have
taken this story way more serious I would like to know the details of this case because it seems very odd seems
very strange that three men would pick up their their friend their wheelchair-bound friend
and bring him along for something that it on the surface from what we do know it appears that he might not have fully
been on board with or didn't know what he's going to be involved in part of me wanders Captain was he used
in in more ways than one but maybe as some kind of ruse or lore to to to obtain a victim which is pretty sick
remember when you go back and you you look at some of the details of the barber Agnew case we know that her
vehicle was found at that rest area no one's really certain in fact they're baffled as to why she would stop so
close to her home why would we find her vehicle stopped so close to her home we know that it was snowing out that
night I mean if you're out there looking to procure a victim or get somebody to stop
to be a potential victim a guy in a wheelchair on the side of the road on a snowy night might just get
somebody to stop Barbara Agnew was a nurse a person that cared cared about helping other people
well she took an oath it might be her love and her care for her fellow man that that led to her being tricked into
to stopping that night well and if the confession is true which I believe it is I have no reason not to believe
him or believe his family then you have three individuals that are capable of committing any of these crimes all in
the same area are these crimes connected and was there one killer on one of the crimes two
killers on a different crime three killers on some of the other crimes and is that
why it's even harder to piece this puzzle together because sometimes you have one killer
and sometimes you have multiple killers and do not let the Westover deathbed confession deter you or anyone else from
bringing information to the authorities because while all of these cases sit very cold at the moment we are reminded
by both the New Hampshire and the Vermont State Police that these are considered active homicide
investigations that if there is a lead if there's new information they're going to follow up on it in the Westover case
we simply do not know the details of that confession did in fact when the information was
provided from the Westover family and made its way to law enforcement were they able to check very quickly that one
of those names or some of those names that were of those men that were named by Westover that it was proven quickly that
they could not have been in the area or that Gary Westover was simply mistaken there he does he did have a history of
drugs and drug abuse and so again we we don't know the details of that case so I wouldn't go so
quickly out of the way to discredit law enforcement here again if you have any information at all in one or any of
these homicide cases that we've discussed here today or any case that you think may be connected in any way to
one of the homicides that we discussed here today the Vermont State Police and the New Hampshire State Police are still
actively seeking leads in all of these cases please reach out to them at least seven women stabbed and
murdered series of murders in the Connecticut River Event [Music] serial killer all were stabbed multiple times
that's why I'm here to look for results to have results to give those families an answer
I want to thank everybody for another awesome year such an awesome year of support and love from you guys Colonel
do we have any recommended reading this week we are asking that you check out Jane's podcast the invisible tears
podcast from trauma to Healing that's the invisible tears podcast available everywhere you get podcasts if you don't
have time to write that title down right now don't worry because you can find that great title and many many more on
our website's recommended page at truecrimegarage.com and we hope you have a great holiday season with your family
and friends we will be doing so and will be off next week but we'll we'll see you
here in the garage next year and until then be good be kind and don't litter thank you
[Music] foreign

The Connecticut River Valley Killer /// Part 2 /// 637

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

For about ten years between 1978 and 1988, eight women were murdered and the bodies scattered in wooded areas in the Connecticut River Valley region near Interstate 91 along the Vermont and New Hampshire border. Many of the victims were stabbed to death. Some stabbed in a specific pattern across the upper body. With some of the victims a cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition. Was this the work of a serial killer? Many think so. Join us in the Garage as we take a look at this strange case and review some of the suspects. A very special thank you to Jane Boroski for joining us and talking about her experience as the only known survivor of this vicious killer. Check out Jane’s podcast - Invisible Tears.

Beer of the Week - Angel of Abomination by Track Seven Brewing Company

Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Connecticut River Valley murders, suspects, and survivor Jane Borowski's attack and insights.

Key points

The Connecticut River Valley Killer. A series of murders leaves at least seven women dead, suspected to be the work of a serial killer.
Surviving Victim's Harrowing Tale. Jane Borowski recounts her terrifying encounter with a would-be killer.
The Moment of Collapse. After reaching her friend's house, Jane collapses on the steps, desperate for help.
Surviving the Attack. Jane reflects on her survival and the choices she made during the attack.
Details of the Attacker. Jane recalls important details about her attacker, which could aid the investigation.
A Terrifying Drive. Jane realizes she is driving behind her attacker, heightening the suspense of her escape.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Shut up, Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie!

A humorous remark about a popular movie.

0:47WatchDec 22, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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