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

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you 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 4in playing field between your
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our show called off the record it is for the nasty people across the world and that's
enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime me this is the end anybody love me anybody love me this is the end anybody love
me don't Don't This is the End don't don't don't [Music] anybody 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 Meyers News
Press throughout the article the newspaper will site statistics sourced from the FBI Lee County Sheriff's Office
Fort Meyers police and Cape Coral PD one such statistic cited states that nationally in
1995 about 8 to 10 people were murdered mured 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 177%
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 $20 worth of cracked
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 but homicides like that of the Breakin the kitchen
knife murder reflected a national Trend that began about 3 years prior to 1995 and officials were saying that the
relationship between victim and killer were starting to become more anonymous Nationwide
23,35 people were murdered in 1994 among the killings in which the victim killer relationship was
reported 53% of the murderers Were Strangers or the police had not proven a link to the victim according to Alfred
bloomstein a professor at the Hines School of public policy and management at Carnegie melon University in Pitts
Berg 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 ation 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 count IES 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 [Music] murders anybody
me this is the end one day before that newspaper article ran a very strange an 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 hi traic 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 cuz 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 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 that 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 2
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 animals 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 we have one body
that's found by the dog the dog brings a 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 do and this 96 John do 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
identified male victim was tortured and killed likely right where he was found where he was later found yeah disgusting
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 2 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 our 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 well 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 do 1 and John do 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 friends so
we shall stay water live in the moment as we go through this timeline after all this is a very fluid situation 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 do number two a third man's mutilated body was
discovered in Northport on March 7th 1996 in this case police through 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 do 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 noticed at the joho 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's
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 it 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 leature 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 2 years prior yeah you got to applaud law
enforcement and Detective 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 reexamine the area where John Doe number two was found right there they observed
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 taking 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 uh 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
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hosers cheers captain Che 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 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 well when you go back to the signatures obviously the victim's being bound but I think the 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 ination 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 who each one of these one two three John Doe were well then just one month in 10 days
later the following happened this would be another disturbing f that occurred in a wooded isolated area
this in Charlotte County Florida the following takes place on April 17th 1996 this is when two storm utility
Engineers Thomas Ree and Michael Tish 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 John Doe number one was found
like you said this is in the area of John Doe number one if I'm law enforcement if I'm the detective and I
get my detective voice on I'm going to be running Cav 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 17th 1996 of course they called the Charlotte County Police dep Department patrolman 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
coming 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 postmortem 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 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 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 it seems very clear and cut and dried for us right that it's John Doe 1 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 twig and berries the state of this body of
John do 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 yard from where the John do 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 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 new news to 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 do 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 Hogs so that
seems the reason that might make a little more sense why we're calling it The Hog Trail murders well also it could
be that there were hog tied 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 well I'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 AR braided grooves around his wrist the victim's
genitals had been removed with a very sharp knife or scalpel now all of the leature marks and 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 ided 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 in a seemingly string of possibly connected murders and you're saying
based off of these Mar s 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 victim 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 do 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 Do's 1 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 was found in in an area very near John Doe's 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 Strate y 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 do number two was found considerably closer to joho's 1 four and
five uh 1 14 and five again they were all like kind of within walking distance but that's what I'm saying one another
but yeah you're right this 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 mutilating 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 the 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 and you
also I would be doing searches on trees because let's say we found 10 trees that
have 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 dis um uh they were completely
dismembered uh by animals and de and decomposed completely where we'll never find them but maybe we'd find evidence
uh 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 vicm Richard Montgomery which it was determined had been there for
several weeks might prove to to be a little more difficult but not as difficult as the first three John Doe's
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 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 do number
four was Kenneth L Smith age 25 from nearby Naples Florida now we've covered so many cases I mean this is what
episode number 600 oh past the goalie I 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 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 however it 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 three of my victims here's another one not terribly
far from where I left the first one right 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 and 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 praying 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 [Music] bastard This Is the End [Music] me thank you so much for listening
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doing that keeps the lights on in the garage join us back here tomorrow and until then be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size
organ models help to map out complex surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you
know where to go

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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Brief Summary

True Crime Garage discusses the Hog Trail murders in Florida, detailing the discovery of five mutilated victims and the investigation into a possible serial killer.

Key points

Murder Trends in Lee County. In 1995, Lee County saw 23 murders, below the national average but with alarming trends.
Dog Brings Human Skull. A family's dog finds a human skull in their backyard, leading to a police investigation.
Unidentified Victims. Two unidentified male victims found in similar circumstances raise questions about a potential serial killer.
The Hog Trail Killings. A series of gruesome murders leads to the discovery of five victims in Florida.
Identification Breakthrough. Richard Montgomery is identified as one of the victims, shedding light on the case.
The Profile of a Killer. Profiling involves understanding the offender, victims, and locations involved in the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This Is the End.

3:54WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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