The Hog Trail Murders /// Part 1 /// 600 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
knows that the greatest battle of Life can sometimes be on the four inch playing field between your ears here is
the captain my head is so big I believe it's a five inch playing field it's good
to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music]
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record it is for the nasty people across the world and that's enough to be as Nas all right everybody gather round
grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime time for me [Music] in Lee County Florida at the start of
the new year the local papers were releasing a special report about murders in the area
from the previous year 1995 the title of the article murderers mainly strangers and it says Lee County sees 23 people
slain in 1995 the article I'm referencing was in the January 2nd Fort Myers News Press
throughout the article the newspaper will cite statistics sourced from the FBI Lee County Sheriff's Office Fort
Myers police and Cape Coral PD one such statistic cited states that nationally in 1995
about eight to ten people were murdered for every 100 000 people Lee County's population in 95 was about
377 000 people Lee County saw 23 murders in 1995. which put them well below the national
average the article reads in part to be a victim of murder in Lee County last year was in
many cases to fall prey to someone who had set out to commit a robbery burglary or some other crime
of the 23 people who died at the hands of others at least 10 were killed by thieves or
drug dealers who stepped over a deadly line nationally only about 17 percent of murders are committed during other
felonies in Lee County while the number of murders fell well below the national average
they were well above the stranger on Stranger murder rate where someone committing some other type
of felony offense kills a stranger in the process for instance a young man lost his life
trying to fend off a robber who broke into his duplex the renter was stabbed to death with a
kitchen knife the man who broke into the home killed the young man and made off with his television later trading the TV
for twenty dollars worth of crack cocaine but more traditionally murder is a crime of passion
committed by a jealous lover or angry friend that close connection between victim and
attacker makes murder one of the simpler crimes to solve and one of the least preventable
some of the homicides in Lee County in 1995 did not fit that mold some law enforcement officials were
saying quote each year we get further and further away from the old homicide adage
where it used to be the nearest and dearest said Lieutenant Jeff Taylor commander of the Lee County Sheriff's
Office Major Crimes unit Bahama sides like that of the break-in the kitchen knife murder reflected a
national trend that began about three years prior to 1995. and officials were saying that the
relationship between victim and killer were starting to become more anonymous Nationwide
23 305 people were murdered in 1994. among the killings in which the victim killer relationship was reported
53 percent of the murderers Were Strangers where the police had not proven a link to the victim according to
Alfred bloomstein a professor at the Heinz School of public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh he says that is due to the growing rate of homicides committed by young people
who are more likely to kill someone they didn't know these statements are true based on the
numbers and statistics listed throughout the article Lee County was smart while the murder
rate there was low they still did not lose sight of the fact that the Killer and victim relationship was changing
nationally and changing even more so per capita in Lee County good on them to keep an eye on crime
statistics and Trends and the jurisdiction that they are sworn to protect and serve
it may or may not come as a surprise to you but not all law enforcement agencies
care this much about crime statistics in fact I'm sure that several may just chalk it up to a bad year or bad luck
not taking the time to examine the situation and better understand the situation
one must first identify the problem and understand it before you can come up with a solution
the article we cited came out on January 2nd 1996. and what the Sheriff's Office did not
know is that murder trend would continue not just for Lee County but some of the surrounding counties as
well and it would not be the youths of the area that they would need to be so concerned about
because in the counties of Lee Charlotte and Sarasota Florida someone was picking up strangers
torturing and killing them and leaving their mutilated bodies in the woods this is true crime garage
and this is the hog Trail murders one day before that newspaper article ran a very strange and unusual incident
was reported in Northport Northport is actually in Sarasota County Florida this week we will be talking a lot about
three different counties all in the Southwest District of Florida those Three Counties going from north to south
are Sarasota County Charlotte and Lee County on New Year's Day a nice family in Northport were horrified when their
dog trotted up the lawn to their house with a human skull in the dog's mouth this is a much more quiet neighborhood
this is not a high crime area or really even a high traffic area at all the dog regularly went into the woods back
behind the family's backyard of course this is nothing that anyone would even expect that their dog would find and
find so near to their home I might add and then bring it to the family's backyard this is a complete shock and a
very disturbing surprise to this good family so they phone it into police the police
come out to take a look see what's going on take a report the usual police business
but put on your boots fellas and bring a forensic team with you because it looks
like you're going to be body hunting in the woods today oh goody now almost as unnerving as the dog with the skull
incident the family tells police that that same dog had been bringing bones to the family for about a month
now but they thought that these bones had come from some kind of dead animal or dead animals in the
area that makes sense detectives scour the area now we don't get a lot of information about the discovery that day
but here are what little details that are revealed by law enforcement at the scene
police do not find any items personal or otherwise that would help to identify who it was in the woods in fact they do
not find any clothing either however police eventually pieced together much of a skeleton a skeleton belonging to
one individual later it was determined that the body was then of a male and because of how
and where the remains were found they were going to work this as a homicide unless they found evidence to suggest
that it was not a homicide right so now we have a John Doe homicide or at least a suspicious death of a John Doe with an
investigation to follow now this is interesting because about two years earlier one County over
in the Port Charlotte area just on the other side of the county line on February 1st 1994 a mutilated
corpse was discovered this is when a construction worker stumbled upon a partially decomposed body of a male who
was naked and lying on his back unfortunately there was not much at the scene to help police with an
identification in that case either do we know if the body was mutilated before it
was buried or was it mutilated afterwards possibly by animals from my understanding in these two situations we
don't have a burial at all from my understanding both are thought to have just been lying on the ground the victim
that is right and of course with the dog situation we know that we do have the animal scattering the bones
but with this February 1st 1994 case I don't know so much about the the activity the animal activity that that
came with that one we do know that this corpse was mutilated and it was found not buried it was a male victim found
naked lying on his back by this construction worker you have one body that's found by the dog the dog brings
the skeleton back to its owners and that's in 1996 and then a county away they find this other unburied but
mutilated body in 1994. yes and I know we said one County over but this is really just a matter of a handful of
miles away it's not really a great distance at all right and this 1994 John Doe and this 96 John Doe this is
all a very similar situation minus the dog however now at the scene of the 94 case police do not find any personal
items that would identify who it was that they found in the woods they do not find any clothing either just like in
the 96 case they do conclude a few pieces of information though one the body had been outside for about a month
two they find rope burns on the skin and three the genitalia had been removed and
discarded so the victim was tortured the unidentified male victim was tortured and killed
likely right where he was found where he was later found let me discuss now because this victim was found first he
is later referred to as John Doe number one the victim found almost two years later
becomes John Doe number two but keep in mind at this time we don't know that they
that these cases are in fact related okay so to recap here before we move on because this could get a little
confusing we have an unidentified male victim found February 1st 1994 and then another unidentified male victim found a
few miles away almost two years later on January 1st 1996. also we can deduce from the family story
of the dog bringing bones for almost daily for up to a month that at the very least are John Doe number two was likely
dead for a month if not two prior to the report that was given once the skull was brought to the family
on New Year's Day 1996. when I believe both bodies were pretty badly decomposed that's right and I've heard one expert
say that in Florida based off of the humidity the rate of decomposition is increased
and therefore you could put somebody in the woods put a body in the woods and then later within a matter of weeks
you could have a skeleton if not a month so it the the rate is certainly enhanced
and increased in this area we're heading to Florida police much later will say that in all likelihood these homicides
are connected so we have John Doe one and John Doe number two again to be perfectly clear
in all reality we actually sit here 20 years well over 20 years later and we cannot say with
100 certainty that these two cases are directly related but like the late great Bruce Lee said be as water my friend so
we shall stay water live in the moment as we go through this timeline after all this is a very fluid situation I don't
know if that's what Bruce Lee meant by that so we will take it one case at a time but unfortunately that also means
one body at a time because two months after the discovery of John Doe number two a third man's mutilated body was
discovered in Northport on March 7 1996. in this case police threw their forensics analysis and autopsy
information they determined that this unidentified male victim was murdered but he had been killed only 10 days
earlier so only approximately 10 days before the discovery of the body the male victim would quickly have to assume
the name of John Doe number three now pardon the expression but because this body was quite a bit more fresh than the
other two that old saying dead men tell no Tales well [ __ ] hey now while they may not
be able to reveal all secrets the body of John Doe number three told a tale of a truly and deeply disturbing death
there were ligature marks on both the chest and legs of John Doe number three's body yeah meaning that the
victim was bound the victim's genitals had been amputated several sources have stated this is
believed to have occurred after death now of course the detectives noting the similarities that they are seeing at the
crime scenes and on the victims as well one detail they notice at the John Doe number three crime scene was ligature
marks on a tree near the body one glaring difference that they noticed with John Doe number three
were cuts on the bottoms of his feet this suggests that the victim had likely ran through the forest Sans shoes
detectives had to wonder why and who was chasing this man through the woods did this man almost get away and what kind
of killer would be out there so ruthlessly and determinedly pursuing the victim and makes you question was the
victim bound before they're taken out to the woods or were they bound after they
were caught did they play a game of cat and mouse right you can almost see this playing
out like some kind of horror flick right with the the killer chasing down the victim at night in these woods and then
mutilating the body in that despicable manner before he himself flees the area now let's back up just a little bit here
captain at the John Doe number three crime scene detectives took special interest in those legature marks found
on the tree that we briefly discussed well and here's why so after making that Discovery they
decide to go back to the other two crime scenes and when returning to the crime scene of John Doe number one detectives
discovered similar damage to a tree near where the body had been found over two years prior yeah you got to applaud law
enforcement and detectives on this one this was a very smart idea then detectives took another trip this time
out to the donut shop this time out to re-examine the area where John Doe number two was found right there they
observe comparable marks on a tree near the spot where the body was found because of the very specific mutilation
done to at least two of the victims possibly all three again we don't have a lot of information in some of these and
as the captain pointed out we have a great deal of decomposition that's taken place
but this specific type of Mutilation we should note this would be a signature this will indicate to a seasoned and
experienced detective that they are very likely looking for one killer in all three cases or at least the same set of
killers well similar dumping grounds but like you said they're miles away but these this is a signature now if you
have a body that's not fully decomposed then you can see the bound marks obviously a body that's very badly
decomposed you can't but sometimes there is evidence when they do the autopsy that they can see that the the victim
was bound even if there's no skin left on that victim well and more so you have the mutilation of the body itself with
the amputation of the genitals so a signature found at a crime scene a murder scene is an act that is not
required in order to commit the crime rather it serves the emotional or psychological needs of the offender
right the signature comes from within the psyche of the offender and it reflects a deep fantasy need that the
killer has about his victims well I'm sure they did some tests because obviously these victims are found in
these wooded areas and they're they're susceptible to having animals come upon them but there's a big difference
between between a body being mutilated by animals and a body being mutilated by a killer
love me [Music] all right we are back you hosers cheers captains cheers so the local authorities in Charlotte
County and Sarasota County are armed and equipped with a good deal of information
at least enough at this point that they believe that they are not harbored or hindered by linkage blindness they are
seeing and finding details telling them that they are most likely looking for a Serial
offender or serial killer but one very troubling fact of their case and investigation at this time was they were
still unable to identify any of these victims they did not know who these victims were and therefore how these
victims could be possibly related how did they all end up where they did and how did each one of
them cross paths with the Killer and of course it's homicide investigation 101 all of our listeners
know this but you start with the victim you start with their Inner Circle and you fan out from there on your
investigation the problem here you don't know who the victim is not in just one case but all three cases but when you go
back to the signatures obviously the victims being bound but I think the big red flag to connect these is is the
markings on on the tree yes and and of course you know we we should continue to go back to that actual mutilation as
well that's not something that's right common in any homicide I've been trying to forget about that information you're
right we I probably should have wiped it from my mind as well I will do the best
that I can to achieve that after Today's Show oh good luck now what's interesting
to me here Captain though is the investigators seem to be hip to the idea that these cases could
all be related but the public was not blind to this either there was now talk and rumors of
a local serial killer being on the hunt in the area this talk was being bandied about at this time in our timeline
so while the police were still trying to identify and sort out just to each one of these
one two and three John does were well then just one month and 10 days later the following happened this would be
another disturbing find that occurred in a wooded isolated area this in Charlotte
County Florida the following takes place on April 17 1996. this is when two storm utility
Engineers Thomas Rhys and Michael Tisch are out working in a heavy wooded and secluded area off of Highway 41.
in fact this is very very close to where the body of John Doe was found I'm sorry
John Doe number one was found like you said this is in the area of John Doe number one if I'm law enforcement and if
I'm the detective and I get my detective voice on I'm going to be running cadaver
dogs all through this area but the problem is this victim wasn't dead yet yes so this victim is
discovered we have these two workers that discovered a human skull in the woods on April 17 1996 of course they
called the Charlotte County Police Department patrolmen detectives and the forensic
team arrive on the scene they secure the location and they start working now they are looking for your typical
items right clothing weapons or anything else that would help them to identify the victim or would help them in their
case their investigation they find a single pink fiber on a tree near where the skull was found
then just a few feet from the skull they find a decomposed torso and part of a pelvis
the body had been dismembered and was listed as John Doe number four but unfortunately
that's not it a further calming of the area provided a severely haunting spectacle this is when one of the
detectives spotted a still hand sticking up amongst the grass and the debris of the woods this hand belonged to another
body the body hand attached was found wrapped up in a carpet padding lying at the foot of a
tree the victim found in the carpet will be John Doe number five I mean this is a a
vicious level of killer it seems as if he's there's evidence that he's chasing his victims there's evidence that he's
bounding his victims up and torturing them and then dismembering them and then mutilating parts of their body I mean
this this is a psycho yeah this is about as as weird and evil as it gets you know if
one were to create a scale of such horrific things but we're talking about a situation where
you can look at this and view this and and view what's happened to these unfortunately what's happened to these
people either you know pre or post-mortem regardless what we have here is a situation where the Killer is
spending a good deal of time with the victims this is not something where he abducts somebody or uses some type of
ruse and 45 minutes later they're dead and he's gone hitting the highway right this is all things that are going to
take a good amount of time all of these really disgusting and horrific activities that are taking place and we
have no clue how long he has them at a different location whether that location is a house or
a workshop somewhere or even just in a in a van right we're talking it could be as short as minutes it could be days and
again the the problem really goes back to the core of your investigation at this time is that you don't know who any
of these victims are yeah so you can't determine the the length of time that they spent captive or under the control
of the killer it's all it's just all complete speculation with no basis at this point until you can
identify any of these victims now they see this hand the body's still attached wrapped up in carpet padding lying near
the foot of the tree they would of course label this victim as John Doe number five we don't know at this point
in their investigation they have these suspicions based off of what they're seeing we review this and we have it
seems very clear and cut and dried for us right that it's John Doe one through five well at the time they're likely
just finding another John Doe and maybe for clarification purposes later applying numbers to them based off of
when they were found well every time you say cut and dry keep grabbing my twigging berries the state of this body
of John Doe number five was very much like the previous four it was devastating of course the victim in this
case was naked lying on his back with signs of ligature marks around his neck chest and legs and his genitals too had
been removed the detectives found rope marks on a tree near the body so this is all lining up with what they found at
the other scenes so this find was about 50 yards from where the John Doe number four skull and body
were found so not a very far distance from the fourth victim this fifth victim and I apologize
there's no nice way of saying a lot of these things this fifth victim had a head and had likely been killed based
off of what they're seeing at the crime scene in the state of the body had likely been killed
within a few days prior to the Grim Discovery maybe even less time had gone by than that right and like you said
because of the Florida Heat and the humidity they're going to be able to you know
deduce a time frame they also find a tiny paint chip that was found on the body and rope fibers were found on the
ground and a tree this information quickly hits the streets and the news so where there was once talk and rumors of
an active serial killer in the area these were sort of Whispers from the bushes at that time now with this noon
news two more bodies being found two more male victims both unidentified still even after police were done
searching the area where the bodies were located now Captain speculation became rampant
about a serial killer and how quickly the media dubbed the murders the hog Trail killings so we have five victims
five John does and obviously based off science we're trying to identify these individuals but there's no wallet found
but we do have we have this carpet padding found we have some rope and we said we have some paint chips kind of
makes you think that we should be looking for somebody maybe in the construction field yeah the um media as
said quickly dubbed the murders the hog Trail killings name so for the wooded areas in which the bodies of the victims
were found at least one source that I found Captain said that this general area was a popular spot where people
would discard Pig and hog carcasses which I'm not sure how right that sounds I was unaware that there was such a need
for the discarding of pig and hog carcasses that there would be quote a place popular for this sort of activity
or that there would even be one place more popular than another for that sort of activity I also read that this area
was an area where one would expect to see quite a bit of wildlife activity likely an abundance of Wild Hawks
so that seems to reason that might make a little more sense why we're calling it
The Hog Trail murders well also it could be that they were hogtied now we will get back to the news covered of
these last two bodies that were found here in a minute but I do have some brief but intriguing information that
was discovered during the autopsy process so I'd like to get to all of that first we'll make it fast the
autopsy from the male victim found in the carpet was determined to be that of a white male victim in his 20s they
found that he was strangled to death with rope they found several ligature marks on the body that included two
ligature marks on the front of his neck two horizontal marks on the right side of his chest a braided grooves around
his wrist the victim's genitals had been removed with a very sharp knife or scalpel now all of the ligature marks in
a braided grooves were of similar width but these marks didn't extend to the victim's back
this was telling the marks were found on the body and equally as important were where they were not found on the
body this was consistent with marks that would be left on an individual that had
been tied to a tree they figured the man had been dead for a little more than 24
hours before being found they will be able to fingerprint this victim because he's not been there very long
they fingerprinted the victim and ran the prince through the system it was then discovered
this victim who was dubbed John Doe number five was rather quickly and positively id'd as 21 year old Richard
Montgomery so we have one identification of five victims this young Richard Montgomery had been arrested at one
point in his life and when he was arrested they took his fingerprints and thus he was in the system and now
identified as a murder victim and a seemingly string of possibly connected murders and you're saying based off of
these marks on his body this would indicate that he was tied to a tree correct if you if you think about
where I said all of the marks were on the body right they're all on the front of the body none of them are on the back
and then we also have similar markings that are found on nearby trees so you put two and two together and it
would appear that not only were the victims tied to this tree but he would be tied
facing out his back is up against the the trunk of the tree right so unfortunately two more bodies found
is bringing us to five possibly connected victims but the big break here is at least we have identified one of
them yeah I'm guessing at this point law enforcement is leaning heavily towards the idea that these John does are
connected and that these murders are connected and possibly done by one individual so one male victim found in
February of 1994. one male victim recovered in January of 96. in March another male victim recovered and then
in April again of 1996 two more male victims found so five victims in total found in three different locations in
four separate discoveries John does one through four unidentified John Doe number five identified as 21 year old
Richard Montgomery and we've unfortunately have covered other cases where there's dumping grounds like Gilgo
Beach and West Mesa body pit but normally when they found one victim they're finding the other victims you
know back to back but this is almost even scarier because they're finding a victim later they're finding another
victim and then they're finding victims that are only been deceased a couple weeks or maybe less than a week yeah
we've we've reviewed some cases where a body is found and then months or even a year or so later they return to the
scene because they're kind of they're sitting there with an unsolved case and they want to go back to square one they
go back to square one they find another body and in those cases it's it's quite alarming and really disturbing that you
learn that oh that body had been there the whole time it you know when they found the first victim right this body
was already there here in this situation it's much different John Doe was found in in an area very near
John does number four and five or number five who is later identified as Richard
Montgomery but John Doe number four and Richard Montgomery they were able to determine they were not dead at the time
that they found John Doe number one right but think about that so this killer has to know that law enforcement
is finding these bodies or we should assume that they might know and they don't really change their strategy they
don't change their Killing Fields they don't change their dumping grounds yes like you said there's multiple locations
but they're not that far apart it's a you know if you drew a circle around all the three locations it's a
what 10 mile radius maybe um it's it's difficult to say I'm looking at it here on the map the um
John Doe number two was found considerably closer to John Doe's one four and five uh one four
and five again they were all like kind of within walking distance but that's what I'm saying one another but yeah
your right guy is he is tying his victims up to trees he is cutting off their genitals he is torturing them he's
chasing them he's you know immediately in the bodies probably postmortem also and he's going hey I like this area this
is my spot and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and uh good luck trying to catch me well yeah and it makes you
wonder not only to this psychology of the Killer but also what has happened throughout the course of this case right
you've you've only identified one of the five right doesn't that make you worry that oh John
Doe number one may have been there for consider even even longer than we had originally anticipated and the killer
was happy to place another body there because John Doe number one went undiscovered for so long
well no you also I would be doing searches on trees because let's say we found 10 trees that
had these similar markings well there might be five other victims that we haven't found that maybe were buried
deeper or weren't buried at all and they were completely just um uh they were completely dismembered uh
by animals and d and decomposed completely where we'll never find them but maybe we'd
find evidence of these tree markings on other trees so as said police get their first big
break this is with the identification of John Doe number five as being that of 21
year old Richard Montgomery and as we said identifying him was easy due to the fingerprints
the dismembered body found near victim Richard Montgomery which it was determined had been there
for several weeks might prove to be a little more difficult but not as difficult as the first three John does
this is because of an identifier found on John Doe number Four's body detectives found a tattoo on the
shoulder of this victim and hope that this would help to identify this person so on the Nightly News
they tell the public what they had discovered on those hog trails they showed a picture of what I was hoping to
find a description of this tattoo and could not but they showed a picture of what they were calling a unique tattoo
on the Nightly News in hopes that someone could identify this person well they get their second break here because
after showing this picture on the Nightly News a woman called in and said my brother 25 year old Kenny Smith had
that same tattoo on his shoulder So based off of this information and some information that they collect from the
Smith family and with the help of dental records they would later confirm that it
was him John Doe number four was Kenneth L Smith age 25 from nearby Naples Florida and we've covered so many cases
I mean this is what episode number 600. oh slip past the goalie I'd boom didn't even make the uh
what an accomplishment we should have celebrated better only two more episodes to go and then I quit right I told you
from the beginning don't worry America I'll do the last nine by myself no but I we've covered so many cases but
it's hard to get over how sick this individual is and I uh and Brazen it's almost like I am going to
torture I'm going to kill these people and by the way you can't stop me and I'm going to keep coming back to this area
it seems as if these this is not just the Killing Fields or Gilgo Beach this is just not dumping grounds this is also
his torture chamber well and I want to let's hit on something right here so we can move past it going forward right
because it would be silly to sit here and constantly say possibly related victims possibly related crimes as you
pointed out Captain law enforcement in this area are actively treating this as these crimes are in fact connected again
to be fair we cannot sit here even 20 years later and say with 100 certainty that they are but let's go off of law
enforcement's assessment of these crimes they're working it as it's all connected
so we're going to treat it the same and you're right you're really hitting in on something here that I think is
kind of lost in this overall story it gets it gets lost in the shuffle here you either have two very
extremely scary situations one if they're not connected then you have two individuals in your area
doing very similar horrific crimes that involve mutilation and torture and killing people and leaving them in the
woods that's terrifying right forget about one person doing it if you had two or more horrific
how old is Florida however going off of what law enforcement's assessment is that these are in fact
connected and they're working it as such you can still sit here and go my God how scary is this where you have
one individual doing this and as you point out so Brazen that oh you found one of my bodies you found two or three
of my victims here's another one not terribly far from where I left the first one right here oh
here's another one here's here's an individual that cannot stop doing this even now that the threat of getting
caught the risk level for his activities has increased significantly with the finding of the first second and third
body he is still active still hunting prey in this area now without getting too far into the psychology of this
particular killer now we've said it before and we'll say it again in the captain's last two episodes in my last
11. that on these cases especially the serial offender cases you can build a profile of your killer or Killers but
you don't just profile the offender no in this case you're going to profile the offender the
victims the locations and the situation and good old-fashioned detective work and your profile are going to tell you
we got someone hunting in this area preying on vulnerable men that are either transient or homeless this is
based off of the identification of two of your victims right the perpetrator was torturing and killing his victims
after tying them to trees and out of the way wooded areas he mutilates and leaves
the victims where they are killed and then they go undiscovered for some time the bodies that are found relatively
quick show a great deal of trauma and degradation done to the body right Florida authorities were looking for one
sick bastard [Music] thank you so much for listening thanks for telling a friend thank you I wanna
I'll hug you and kiss you and hug you and kiss you some more for sharing our show with your friends and
your family on social media means a lot we get a lot of new listeners by doing that keeps the lights on in the garage
join us back here tomorrow and until then be good be kind and don't live foreign
[Music] [Applause] [Music]

The Hog Trail Murders /// Part 1 /// 600

Part 1 of 2

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Wow! 600 episodes of True Crime Garage in the books but as you will hear it was lost on both of us until the conversation started flowing. Thank you all for helping the Garage to hit this milestone! The Hog Trail Murders refers to series a murders that took place in the Southwest District of Florida from 1994 - 1996. Warning this is some pretty gruesome stuff. Today we take a look at the crimes as people working and living in two Florida counties begin finding the bodies of victims that were left in the woods and on the Hog Trails.

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Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Hog Trail murders in Florida, highlighting a series of gruesome killings and the investigation into a potential serial killer.

Key points

A Dog's Disturbing Find. A family's dog brings home a human skull, shocking the neighborhood.
Changing Murder Trends. Law enforcement notes a shift in murder patterns, with more anonymous relationships.
The Hog Trail Murders. A chilling introduction to a series of murders in Florida.
Discovery of John Doe Victims. Five unidentified victims were found in a wooded area, raising concerns of a serial killer.
Identification of Richard Montgomery. The first victim identified was Richard Montgomery, found with clear signs of torture.
Tattoo Leads to Identification. A unique tattoo helped identify John Doe number four as Kenny Smith.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a complete shock and a very disturbing surprise to this good family.

Describing the family's reaction to the dog bringing a skull home.

1:00WatchOct 19, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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