This American Doctor /// Part 1 /// 288 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always this gun is for hire ladies and gents the captain they like
to call me Big Boss applesauce it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
your father this week we are featureing bourbon barrel-aged milk and cookies by the crafty Brewers at wicked weed
brewing and beautiful Asheville North Carolina this is an imperial milk style so very much a desert style as indicated
from the clever name of milk and cookies garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps out of five and this beer was
loaded with kindness into the garage fridge by these crafty garage friends first up a big cheers to April in
Riverside California I'm a big we like YouTube to Shannon in Chicago next up a long-distance cheers to Alex in Adelaide
Australia and a big shout out to Mary and Louisville Kentucky and here's the cheers to Darin in San Diego and last
but not least we have Taylor in Mansfield Ohio so thanks everybody for helping us out with this week's show if
you want to help us out with next week's show go to true crime garage comm and click on the donate button and then the
next couple weeks going to be restocking a lot of the stuff in the store that has
been missing for a while plus we're finally gonna have some stickers so check out the store page at true crime
garage calm and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
talk some true crime [Music] the psyche of a murderer has fascinated us for centuries what could they have
possibly been thinking were they even thinking at all when we look into these crime stories much of the time we find
ourselves asking the same question why what drives seemingly normal peaceful average people to do horrible violent
criminal things within these stories after all the digging sometimes we get our answer a crime of passion
sudden rage hidden compulsions an accident followed by a cover-up in this week's case we take a close look at a
small-town doctor beloved by his community who suddenly and without warning commits a heinous
and brutal murder of someone close to him what drove this doctor who had a passion for healing and caring for his
fellow man to kill and destroy a life [Music] this is the case of dr. Vince Gilmer
[Music] this week captain we pay homage to a great show called This American Life you
are a regular regular I'm a rabid fan very you listen to it on the Reg as Kenny Powers would say yeah I step in
and check it out from time to time with your suggestion and they covered a case a while back that has inspired us to
take a deeper look into something brought to light by their fantastic show and we're gonna start off by talking
about dr. Benjamin Gilmer dr. Benjamin Gilmer was looking for a small-town medical clinic where he could establish
a medical practice well he found it in 2009 dr. Benjamin Gilmer set up shop at the Cane Creek Family Clinic but Ben was
a little weirded out the clinic was originally founded and run by a man who shared his occupation and named dr.
Benjamin Gilmer would be the second dr. Gilmore to run the Cane Creek Family Clinic the first was dr. Vince Gilmer
and the two were not related in fact they never even met before Ben took over the practice and dr. Benjamin knew very
little about dr. Vince Gilmer but he did know a couple of things he knew from the
patients and staff that dr. Vince was in fact a very good and caring doctor but he was also a convicted murderer then
when patients at the clinic were told that there was a new dr. Gilmer they were weirded out as well dr. Ben noticed
how many of the patients and staff of the clinic raved about how wonderful Vince Gilmer was Ben heard stories of
the caring generous dependable doctor and he couldn't reconcile that impression with what he knew to be true
the Vince was a vial confessed murderer right so he started to do some digging looking into Vince's
past and even accessing the trial materials dr. ben sent a letter to Vince in prison eight years after the murder
and Vince wrote back but dr. ben was horrified at the letter he received it was virtually illegible scrawled across
the paper as though written by a child mm-hmm Vince rambled on and on for multiple
pages about the effects of SSRI withdraw one thing dr. ben could make out for sure was that the letter was asking for
help the two continued to correspond and Vince made it clear in his letters that
he believed he needed lexapro or celexa but was not receiving it in prison now a
little side note here to discuss these drugs that that Vince is talking about in the implications so lexapro is a drug
designed to treat generalized anxiety disorder and depression an important neurotransmitter chemical in the body
serotonin helps to send signals to the brain and is often associated with contentment or happiness however
serotonin is actually linked to many complex functions and regulates cognition learning memory and other
processes if your brain is lacking in serotonin it can impact your mood antidepressants work to redress this by
increasing serotonin levels these drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs for short are
intended to build up in the body over time improving depression symptoms if you stop taking them abruptly this could
have severe effects including suicidal thoughts agitation and even psychosis so lexapro
is an SSRI now that's just my general garage guy understanding of the drugs that we are going to be
discussing and how they work that's a guy that studied computers yeah tips his understanding of drugs take that with a
grain of salt I guess eventually dr. ben and dr. Vince they began conversing by phone and dr. Ben noticed that Vince's
speech was often slurred and he seemed to have extreme trouble articulating what he was trying to say Ryan let's be
clear this is not just a doctor this is a doctor that is running an entire clinic mm-hmm and he goes from doing
that to barely being able to write a letter barely being able to talk on the phone and on top of that Vince tells Ben
about the uncontrolled movements that he started to exhibit around the time of his arrest and this continued and it got
worse over time Ben decided that an in-person visit to Vince in prison was an order and he was
shocked at what he saw dr. Vince the prisoner looked very ill mm-hmm he seemed unable to control his body's
jerking and sudden movements and he had trouble talking like a normal person was
also missing some teeth and he was getting in fights with all the other inmates right he Vince walked with a
shuffle he seemed anxious and paranoid and he was the one that tells Ben about stories of him aggressively attacking
other inmates right in no uncertain terms in these phone calls and visits Vince asked Ben repeatedly and often
emotionally for help he was unable to grasp what was wrong with him and he guessed that it was a deficiency in
serotonin Vince had been asking prison officials for years to prescribe him an SSRI like celexa but he was ignored
now captain let's go back and take a look right at the once beloved small-town doctor back in 2004 dr.
Vincent Donald Gilmer a burly balding 41 year old doctor of Family Medicine worked in Fletcher North Carolina at a
small medical clinic that he founded the rural town is a fifteen miles from Asheville and catered
to the locals in the somewhat isolated area but Vince wasn't your everyday dispassionate impersonal medical service
provider he was truly a member of the community having chosen Fletcher as a place that he wanted to work and live he
was fully invested in his patients lives and he truly cared he even made house calls I believe yeah he cared to the
point that he not only dedicated his time to meeting with and listening to his patients but he found a way to
diagnose or treat them even if they couldn't afford it some patients receive their medications
out of free samples the doctor got from the drug companies some patients receive
along grace periods for their bills or large discounts on necessary services right and then there's even some stories
of situations where if a patient couldn't pay at all Vince would accept bartered goods or services like food or
work and trade for the doctor bills and he even gave free checkups to the local firefighters which is a fantastic thing
right doctor Vince Gilmer was known and loved as a generous thoughtful caring man who would buy people presents for no
reason or help anybody out at any time his nickname was bear because he was known to give great big bear hugs dr.
Vince was married to a woman named Karen she was also a doctor and she started the Cane Creek Family Health Center with
Vince and they worked side-by-side there the couple didn't have children but they
didn't seem to miss that aspect as they stayed quite busy with their practice and socializing with their friends this
included Vince and Karen's close friend in an office manager Terry Worley everything seemed to be as normal as can
be as American as apple pie this up until without the cheese on it yeah this up until around 2003 about one year
earlier when things began to change and the good doctor began to change so how had this caring beloved small
town you're morphed into a violent murder seemingly out of the blue it seemed to
be completely totally out of character for Vince Gilmer what possibly could explain this change well there are some
things that one might be able to point to as possible triggers that may have pushed this man to the limit and then
over for one thing about a year before the murder Vince was in what can only be explained
or described as a serious car accident he was driving his truck Vince hit a light pole and flipped his truck the
vehicle was totaled and Vince suffered a significant head injury Vince's office assistant Terry Worley saw Vince in the
hospital on the day of the accident she said at first that Vince didn't even know who he was right he didn't
recognize his wife or he didn't even know that he was married mm-hmm after a short period of time Vince was back to
his senses and he was allowed to go home about 24 hours later but it was evident
that he had hit his head very hard in this accident right much later and strangely teri express expressed to
journalist Sarah Koenig of the serial Fame and this American life right there she wondered whether Vince had possibly
crashed his truck on purpose I know this seems very strange but go with me on this she was suspicious for a couple of
reasons one she noted that Vince was scheduled to take his medical boards pretty soon after this accident right -
like reinstate yeah is that like I'm guessing that some kind of confirmation of continued education or or keeping up
on your knowledge of your very important job yeah that's what I think it was okay
well she had some suspicions that he couldn't handle that kind of pressure very well of knowing that these tests
were coming up so he was stressed about that also teri said Vince wanted a new truck but his wife who handled the
finances was telling him no right so with this accident he was able to postpone taking his boards and got a new
truck of course I don't only almost costs his life right now of course there is no
evidence that Vince's accident was anything or any way deliberate this is just a you know suspicion of someone who
knew Vince quite well this simply could just be what it appears to have been an accident another thing that happened was
Vince divorced his wife Karen right after this accident according to people who knew the couple this was totally out
of the blue yeah but there was some speculation because I believe she said that they were having some issues before
that yeah Terry Worley who we've discussed says Karen asked Vince to consider counseling before you know
ending the marriage but he says no he doesn't want to do the counseling way and that he actually already had a place
to live and he moved out that weekend when they start discussing the possibility of counseling sometime
around this point it could be just before just after Vince starts drinking quite a bit and he is frequenting bars
three or four nights a week yeah and this is weird too because you go did this kind of bump his head or is he just
having a midlife crisis yes yes very much so and but keep in mind this is also someone that no one considered him
to be a big drinker before this right you know so we're seeing almost a complete shift in personality but I mean
have you had a friend that has done that as far as like once they hit middle age
they they kind of go off the deep in for a while I mean usually they'll buy a fast car or a motorcycle or or you'll
see somebody get into a hobby that they've always talked about right he's giving the hobby going to bars going to
bars and driving a brand-new truck right people close to Vince also notice that he started behaving differently he was
easily distracted and seemed to lose focus very quickly well they talked a lot about when somebody has an accident
especially when there's head trauma that they can have a shift in personality mm-hmm yeah and
just overall behavior yeah that's why I've recommended to you to run your head into a wall a couple times Wow
one friend a person one friend tells a story in which Vince ran over his dog's tail with his vehicle this was very
likely an accident and he called the friend crying hysterically and what the friend would later say you know Vince
was reacting completely Dysport dis portion Utley to his to this minor accident for someone who is a doctor
who's too you know stressful situations it is after the divorce and after the car crash that Vince starts he says he
started taking lexapro now the Washington County Sheriff told a news show that their department they were
unable to locate any prescription for lexapro issued to Vince Gilmer so it seems likely that Vince Gilmer was
self-medicating yeah but if he's given he could be getting a bunch of free samples so maybe he's just taken those
in any event the changes in Vince people notice them and they say these were significant well and think about Ben
Gilmer the guy taken over Vince's practice as he's talking to these patients and learning a lot about him
some of these patients are coming in and saying you know Vince was a sweetheart and he loved his wife and the fact that
uh that he would even want to divorce his wife is strange mm-hm and then you're being compared to him people were
saying you look like him you act like him right you're you're a saint like him and then to hear all these little
stories I didn't have you know maybe insurance and he and he [ __ ] you know gave me some samples to get me by mm-hmm
I mean that's what you're hearing and that's what you're seeing every day and then but there's this other side to this
doctor mm-hmm you know almost like this well and this is weird too I mean it's obviously very weird but I think
everybody out there think about your own personal life in your own work history for a minute many of us have walked into
a job that we sought that we were lucky to get hired for and you are interacting
with customers who worked with the person that you replaced you are working with coworkers and bosses of people that
worked with the person that you replaced and you this it's very normal to hear a
lot about the person that that worked at that position before and even here situations of you being compared to that
person right and the the weird thing here is not only do they share the same occupation not only do they share the
same goals of running this practice of this clinic they share the same last name and the really weird thing here is
you have two very smart individuals dr. Vince Gilmer and then dr. Benjamin Gilmer and you almost have a situation
where dr. Benjamin Gilmer is trying to make sense out of what the heck happened to the guy he replaced hearing these
wonderful stories from from the the patients and from the staff and can you imagine being a patient and you're like
yeah I read about me and my doctor was arrested for a murder right and then the next time I go in for a checkup dr.
Gilmore would be in to see you shortly was a prank right what happened what happened I read about that in the paper
they let him out but then you have dr. Benjamin Gilmore who's trying to make sense out of something that happened to
the guy they see that he's replacing well I think some of that too is like we kind of have a fear of that I think when
you think of these horror stories are these urban legends when you look at like the Amityville Horror it was this
whole thing with family moves into a house and then the the crazy guy that lived in the house
before now the father is becoming crazy just like he was mm-hmm you know I mean and you're going oh no you know like and
so I think maybe part of Benjamin's thought was am I gonna become this guy right which doesn't sound like a sane
thought but no but who'd of all seen the shining right and I think dr. Benjamin Gilmer he saw it a lot I think he
referred to it on this American life as there's there's a ghost in this building
there's a ghost in this clinic it the ghost of dr. Vince Gilmer or the ghost of something you know he can't really
put his finger on yeah or the possible fear of what if this guy gets out and does he come looking for me
yeah does he know about me I know about him he's on the inside does he know about me and and then you have a guy
that did some pretty insane stuff and is this guy gonna kind of freak out because
a dr. Gilmer took his place mm-hmm wasn't there even a story where where some somebody gave some information or
passed something along to the staff there that said hey I heard dr. Vince Gilmer's getting out of prison soon yeah
like a technicality or something yeah yeah so could you imagine constantly like double-checking that see and you
don't know this guy you've just seen pictures of him you never met him a person mm-hmm so I'd be pretty pretty
intense well as we said the changes to dr. Vince Gilmer people noticed this they were significant changes in his
personality and his behavior and then the murder happened and it became even clearer that there was something very
wrong with dr. Vince Gill Robin Hood is an investment app that lets you buy and sell stocks ETFs
options and Kryptos all commission-free while other brokerages charge up to $10 for every trade Robin Hood doesn't
charge any Commission fees so you can trade stocks and keep all your profits plus there is no account minimum deposit
needed to get started so you can start investing at any level the simple intuitive design of Robin Hood makes
investing easy for newcomers and experts alike view easy to understand charts and
market data and place a trade in just four taps on your smart phone you can also view stock collections such as 100
most popular with Robin Hood you can learn how to invest in the market as you build your portfolio discover new stocks
track your favorite companies and get custom notifications for price movements so you never miss the right moment to
invest Robin Hood is giving listeners of true-crime garage a free stock like Apple Ford or sprint to help you build
your portfolio sign up and garage down Robin Hood calm that's garage Robin Hood calm check them out today hiring is
challenging but there's one place that you can go we're hiring is simple fast and smart a place where growing
businesses connect to qualified candidates the place is zip recruiter dot-com / garage zip recruiter sends
your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards but they don't stop there with their powerful matching
technology zip recruiter scans thousands of resumes to find people with the right
experience and then they invite them to apply to your job as the applications come in zipper cruder analyzes each one
and spotlights the top candidates so you never miss a great match the zipper cruder is so effective the 80% of
employers who post on zip recruiter get a quality candidate through the site within the first day and right now our
listeners can try zipper or for free at this exclusive web address zipper cruder dot-com slash
garage that zip recruiter comm slash garage zi p re CR u ITER comm / garage zip recruiter
dot-com / garage zipper cruder the smartest way to hire the winter blues are coming to an end which means it's
finally time to get back into a routine that empowers you to feel your healthiest with care of it can be really
hard to know what vitamins or supplements you should be taking but kariv makes it easy to find out what you
specifically need to be your healthiest with their fun online quiz simply answer
a few questions about your diet health goals and lifestyle choices and get your personal scientifically backed vitamin
and supplement recommendations in just five minutes there are even vegan and vegetarian
supplement options available to match your dietary needs I went to the kariv website and the quiz was actually fun
and it made me think about what changes I want to make to my lifestyle so you answer the questions they send you
supplements and I'm telling you the changes I've seen in myself have been pretty dramatic I have more energy and
I'm more focused than I ever have been Nick could probably tell you that that's right and the individual packets are
super convenient for 50% off your first month of personalized care of vitamins go to take care of comm and enter garage
50 that's take care of comm and enter garage 54 50% off your first month of personalized care of vitamins
[Music] all right cheers mates and a big cheers to my buddy Joe which I got a text last
night mm-hmm they had a baby Oh congratulations Anna so I hope everybody's doing well and Joe's a great
guy so cheers to you Joe all right I think we have set this up pretty good so far
we have talked about dr. Ben Gilmer taking over the practice him learning about the previous doctor Vince Gilmer
the to sharing letters phone conversations and Ben even visiting Vince in prison we have talked about
some of the events in Vince's life that led up to the murder but we are yet to talk about the murder so on the day in
question this is a Monday June 28 2004 Vince Gilmer told his office manager Terry to close the clinic early on this
day afterward Vince left to drive to bråten Hospital Braaten Hospital is a psychiatric facility located about 60
miles away from Morganton Vince was going there to pick up his father right Vince's father Dalton Gilmer aged 60 was
a resident at Broughton Hospital now I don't fully know the ins and outs of why Dalton was a patient at this psychiatric
hospital but court records indicate that Dalton could barely walk he used a wheelchair or walker and he
was on antipsychotic medication and did he have some form of dementia well so one of Vince's former patients later
told a reporter that Dalton had Alzheimer's right so it's possible that that he may have had that or possible
that Vince told people that he had Alzheimer's but we don't know whether that's the actual case or whether dalton
suffered from some different physical affliction or just mental impairment now but the key thing here is Dalton needed
assistance to perform everyday functions such as bathing eating and getting dressed right
okay so apparently Vince picked up his father that day as part of a plan he said to
move Dalton to a nursing facility closer to Cane Creek presumably so that Vince could visit his father more often on
Tuesday June 29th Vince returned to work at Cane Creek Family Medical Center he told Terry you know one of the staff
members there and others on his staff that he had brought his father Dalton home with him on Monday but that Dalton
wandered off during the night and he hadn't been able to locate him yet hmm Vince said that he filled out a he filed
a police report which he which he did but this was not technically until June 30th the the report that I saw says June
30th as the date but Vince continued to work as normal that day seeing his first
patient of the day Terry's son for asthma right on schedule at 9:00 a.m. he seemed completely normal according to
those who interacted with him that day he did not seem at all anxious or worried despite the fact that his
elderly ailing father was missing and at this time in fact he completely he was completely
normal all week long even taking the staff out to lunch on Friday at a spot that they liked called
aiya new cheese it was while he was at this lunch that doctor Vince Gilmore received a phone call this call was from
Washington County Virginia Sheriff's Department detective Mike Martin informing Vince that a body had been
found in virginia terry Worley reported afterwards that upon hearing this news Vince
nearly fainted he turned ashen and had to lie down on a bench at the restaurant someone brought him a cold compress
they're trying to tend to the doctor to everyone present it seemed that Vince was reeling from the shock of the loss
of his father right he was unable to continue to converse with detective Martin and insisted that Terry take over the
phone call Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman later told the media that Vince Gilmer's hysterical reaction well
he considered this to be over-the-top quote he was just torn all to pieces more so than was actually normal he said
authorities made arrangements for detail though we also have him over reacting to
running over his dog's tail that's true that's very true authorities made arrangements for detective Martin to
meet with Vince at his home when the time came for the arranged meeting between Vince and detective Martin
detective Martin says that Vince was polite and composed asking no questions and showing no emotion here is detective
Martin in his own words about what went down in this meeting quote during the interview at mr. Gilmer's home he told
me that he had brought his father to North Carolina to stay with him then upon their arrival the dalton was so
delighted to be there they have went out into the yard and played with the dog throwing a frisbee
i already knew that could not be true because the people at Broughton Hospital told me that mr. Gilmer senior could not
have walked on his own anytime he said you don't believe me what I'm telling you I said no sir not at all not in the
least I do not believe you I said the very questions that any person would be asking in reference to his parents death
you've not asked which is an excellent indicator that you already know he wasn't scared
he wasn't agitated he told me he said look he said you don't know who you are messing with he said I am a doctor of
medicine I am well respected in the state of North Carolina and I will have your damn job
I said sir it is my job to do the investigation and based on what I know I will consult with the Commonwealth
attorney and I will ask for a warrant for your arrest for murder when we left we said sir thank you for your time and
he closed the door and never said a word [Music] so he did exchange between the doctor
and the detective yeah in interesting exchange as well because what I find fascinating here is you have a very much
seasoned detective somebody that's that done the job for quite some time and his
first reaction is saying you know he's he's just saying what he's thinking he's saying look doctor I told you that your
your father is dead you're not asking certain questions that through my experience in conducting this job I'm
used to hearing right you know again that's we always assume how people are supposed to act no I know that but but
there's there's some indicators here that are interesting to me right because we don't we only have this small window
of their interaction this little heated exchange here what we don't have is some
of the questions and interaction that may have led up to this but what I'm thinking that the detective is finding
interesting and that he may have found his first suspect is look if if I tell you that your father died and you don't
ask me well how did he die that's weird all right no it's gonna be just like Elvis well that's that's dying on the
crap no but that's what the detective is simply saying to the doctor is that because you're not asking me certain
questions that indicates to me that you already know the answer to a lot of these questions that I would expect you
to be asking there I think there's probably something else happening because if somebody said that my father
died or or or a grandparent died or something like that there I mean there's been times that people have told me this
stuff and and I don't know exactly what to react you know like or how to react so there isn't a reaction of what
happened because I'm just contemplating oh crap they're gone you know but in them and we might get to that eventually
you know in this same exchange though we have dr. Gilmore saying hey this is what
happened when I last saw my father and the detective outright saying look that cannot be true it cannot be true that
your your father was out playing with the dog in the yard but based on what I've been told by the people that were
taking care of him at the facility that you placed him that can't be true the man can't dress himself he can't feed
himself he can't walk without assistance he's not out the dog in the yard throwing the frisbee with the dog right
he seems like there there comes a time and my grandpa used to talk about this all the time was when he'd go to the
nursing homes or the facilities where they have older patients and they there was nothing that they could do for the
patient and they didn't have enough staff to like be one-on-one with the patient so they basically get the
patient dressed and wheeled the patient out into the hallway yeah you make them comfortable and they try to yeah yeah I
mean it's off it's awful so well you and I will be there in about three or five years at this pace well in the course of
this meeting detectives they did search Vince Gilmer's home this was due to a warrant that they brought with him that
day now it was not known exactly what was found but we do know that the police collected a receipt from a local Walmart
dated early on the morning of June 29th which showed the purchase of five bottles of peroxide and the cops they
presume that this meant that Vince had used the peroxide to clean something up and in combination with the perceived
lies about Dalton playing frisbee with the dog the cops had enough for an arrest warrant for
first-degree murder which they obtained and returned to execute but after the meeting with detective Martin and the
search of his home by law enforcement dr. Vince Gilmer had not acted like an innocent man instead of mourning his
father's passing he packed up some basic camping gear and fled when he was finally found chased down and arrested
he was living in a tent behind a Lowe's home improvement store in the at the Asheville mall okay I want to get in
touch with nature but not too far not to nature right you want to be close to a raster and some public restrooms yeah
police received a tip from an unknown source that Vince was hiding out in the area and that's how they tracked him
down now when they approached him or attempted to do so he ran from police through the wooded area behind the
Lowe's Building hiding behind trees and this is like a dark forested area and right but look in the initial let's say
confrontation between the detective and the doctor they have to be seeing that something's not right not only is he not
acting like an innocent man or a grieving son he's just acting a little strange as well mmm
they have to see that now we have that this doctor again a doctor right right a smart guy right super smart guy
and a guy that's trying to I mean cops and firefighters are close that's normally a close-knit organization even
though they're kind of separate entities they they know each other really well so they'd hear about him doing all these
checkups for free on the firefighters mm-hmm and now we have the situation where this guy is after his dad is dead
and we are we think he's our number-one suspect that it's murder he has a tent behind Lowe's and then when they go to a
arrest him he's running from them yeah there has to be red flags well and he's already threatened the detective I mean
as soon as the detective is up front and says look man I don't believe you to put it as frank as possible look man
I don't believe you the doctor then immediately like you said point it out goodbye you a smart guy he immediately
jumps into threatening the detective of do you know who I am do you know how important I am I can have I'll have your
damn job I'll have you fired right for this accusation so we have dr. Gilmour and he is running from the cops yeah
from his little tent site yeah in a wooded area in the middle of the night hmm and when police searches finally
sent in a k-9 Vince charged the dog and the police handler and it was said by an
officer on the scene that Vince Gill March arged at the officer and k9 with absolutely no expression on his face
he's lucky he didn't get shot hmm Vince Gilmer was finally apprehended around 1:00 a.m. so this desperate and
somewhat pitiful flight from justice was just the tip of the iceberg on July 6th
Vince Gilmer was charged with the first-degree murder of his father Daulton Gilmer what came out about the
killing and the arrest shocked everyone in the community when Daulton Gilmer's body was found it was determined that he
was strangled to death the implement used was a rope an autopsy confirmed death by rope
strangulation the medical examiner specifically noted that Daulton Gilmer had been strangled
twice and there were two distinct rope marks visible on his throat the body was discarded at the side of Good Hope Road
near the virginia/tennessee border in Washington County on the Virginia side not five miles from a medical clinic
where dr. Vince Gilmer had previously practiced years before the body had been found where it was still it was still
worn by a resident ma'am who was driving home from the movies just after midnight
the body was lying visibly on the side of the road dressed in shorts and a pulled up t-shirt the no shoes no teeth
now I do want to make a side note of this because there doesn't seem to be from the articles I could find there
doesn't seem to be any indication that teeth were removed from the victim it's very likely that mr. Dalton Gilmore may
have had dentures at his old 8 you know and these were just removed but there was also no wallet present it was
quickly identified by clothing labels however reading Dalton Gilmer right missus he was in the hospital yeah these
these labels were stamped with Dalton's name inside his polo shirt collar and shorts around the waistband labels that
actually his son Vince had arranged to have attached to help identify Dalton's clothing at the psychiatric hospital
from that of the other patients Vince must have forgotten about these identifying labels because before
dumping the body he severed all 10 of his father's fingers with what some have said to be medical precision cutting off
each digit right at the base of the palm he used what he later described as a little salt to do this the instrument
has also been referred to as a set of pruning shears the fingers have never been found now the medical examiner
determined that it was likely that that Vince the killer had initially strangled
Dalton but that Dalton was still alive and came to and when Vince started to sever the fingers this is probably when
he came to write because there was blood on his body and clothes indicating that
his heart was still pumping when some of the fingers were being cut off and brain
so Vince the second strangulation right Vince strangled him a second time this to come to complete the task I guess
a rubber surgical glove was found in the road near Dalton's corpse so what this suggests very obviously with the
removing of the fingers with the removal of what I believed to be dentures with finding no wallet is very simply
somebody dumping a body dumping a murder victim right and trying to make it difficult for them to be identified
however we have the situation where we have the name of the victim stamped on the labels and the clothing yeah maybe
that's just something he forgot about mm-hmm but obviously like you said there remove
oil teeth could just not have had his teeth on him that day but the removal of the fingers that mean that gets me every
time yeah you know especially as a guitar player well the another thing that I find
strange about this situation too is now I now I understand that they drove some distance from where he picked up his
father so that indicates further trying to conceal the identity of the victim right but what kind of shocks me here is
mind you we've we both agreed multiple times that we're talking about a smart guy the murderer is a smart guy and the
efforts taken to cover up or hide the identity of his father of his victim it's almost shocking to me that the
bodies just left on the side of the road that there wasn't some further you know
concealment of that to begin with but we have again this is way out of character
for him anyways to be committing a crime like this and so this should be out of character for damn near everybody
well not the people on our show yeah this is in character there was some other information that started to come
out around this time after Vince's arrest one bit of information Vince had been his father Dalton's legal
guardian something that is obviously pretty common in a case where your parent becomes incompetent or is living
in a facility as part of his guardianship Vince was in charge of handling Dalton's money.this
responsibilities included paying the cost associated with Dalton's psychiatric hospital inpatient status
but when Dalton was killed it came out that he owed Broughton hospital over two hundred and seventy thousand dollars
Vince had not been paying his father's bills we don't know whether he he kept the money for himself or even whether he
ever withdrew it from Dalton's account at all right perhaps this is how Vince was able to afford possibly cutting his
patients so many breaks who knows but I but either way sure yeah either way well he would have got
something from the insurance I'm guessing but either way he owed a lot of money for his father's care at the time
of this murder yeah but just because you kill him doesn't mean that the bill goes
away well another thing that looked bad for Vince Gilmer was a trip to Alaska they even planned now we don't know
exactly when he booked this trip but the timing of the trip coincided with his father's being released from the
hospital now this is how this has been reported it's unclear exactly what dates the trip was planned for Terry Worley
the office manager at the clinic says she had booked the roundtrip ticket to Alaska at Vince Gilmer's request but
detectives discovered that at some point as some time after that someone had changed the ticket to a one-way ticket
now it's unclear whether Vince just decided not to go or whether this is probably more likely he probably had
plans of going to Alaska and never coming back you know much better plan and hiding out behind the Lowe's home
improvement store do you think possibly a little bit better of a vacation the other interesting thing here to
captain is later when asked Vince said he could not recall having any plans to go to Alaska that's not like you know
it's not like taking a trip down the road this is good this is going to Alaska and booking a roundtrip ticket
but the did he seem believable when he was saying he don't know about this I don't know because there's I didn't see
like an interview or you know interrogation or anything of that process but just the simple statement of
them saying yeah we asked about Alaska we asked about the the one-way ticket to Alaska and he basically just says yeah
des I don't recall any plans having any plans to go to Alaska the tricky thing too that makes this a
little could be difficult for investigators is initially the tickets were booked by the office assistant and
I mean Vince's office assistant well she says Vince requested this life of her but I mean it does make it a little
tricky now finally investigators on the case said that Vince told them that when he
picked up his father from the hospital to bring him to a new nursing home because that's what he was supposed to
do he was supposed to pick him up at Broughton Hospital and transfer him to another hospital closer to Vince's home
as we said presumably to make it more convenient on the son visiting the father but later after his arrest he's
saying hey look when I went to pick him up I promised my father that we would stop first for a quick Lake kayaking
outing Vince said his father once lived near little Wilbur Lake in Carter County
Tennessee and Vince thought the kayaking outing would be soothing would be nice nice thing to do for his father now a
green kayak was apparently seen in the truck in Vince's truck that day but remember Dalton couldn't walk and
reports are that there was no Walker found Brian detectives were highly skeptical of this kayak story especially
as when Vince picked up Dalton it was already getting toward the evening hours in fact they said Vince had picked up
Dalton that day with the rope the gloves and saw or pruning shears already in his
truck police believe that this was not a spur-of-the-moment killing in their minds this was pre-planned premeditated
murder all right if you need more of the garage check out our old episodes starting from episode one back in 2015
mm-hmm seems like just yesterday we were in your hot garage sweating sweating bullets
you can sweat to the oldies with us yeah by using the free stitcher app is free listening stitcher app it's amazing and
it's free you have no reason to not check it yeah just go to your App Store it's for Android it's for Apple users
download the stitcher app and then on the left hand side it will give you the year and you just select what year you
want and then you can scroll through all the episodes we're almost up to episode
300 and you can check those out for free on the stitcher app also if you want to
come hang out with us if you want to come drink with us and New Orleans or New Orleans however you say it all in
stalin's you can go I think there's a link on our website if not I believe it's crime con-com crime con-com and our
promo code is TCG 19 and we would love to see everyone at crime Con this year in nollans
and we want to see everybody back here in the garage for the rest of today's case until then be good be kind
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gg6be-ab5fdb

This American Doctor /// Part 1 /// 288 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com The psyche of a murderer has fascinated us for centuries. At the center of this week’s case we have a small-town doctor, beloved by his community. The doctor suddenly and without warning commits a heinous and brutal murder of someone close to him. What drove this seemingly gentle and caring man to kill. This week we discuss the case of Dr. Vince Gilmer Beer of the Week - Bourbon Barrel Aged Milk & Cookies by Wicked Weed Brewing Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5 Show some love to this week’s fine sponsors. The companies that keep the Garage going! Start investing today with Robinhood - Sign up today at GARAGE.robinhood.com www.ZipRecruiter.com/Garage - try it for FREE - It’s the smartest way to hire Visit TakeCareOf.com - use code GARAGE50 for 50% off your first month of personalized vitamins

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

Dr. Vince Gilmer, a respected doctor, murders his father, leading to shocking revelations about his mental health and the crime's details.

Key points

The Case of Dr. Vince Gilmer. A beloved small-town doctor suddenly commits a brutal murder. What drove him to this?
Dr. Vince Gilmer's Transformation. From a caring physician to a convicted murderer, what changed in Dr. Gilmer?
Vince's Father's Mysterious Disappearance. Vince claims his father wandered off, but the timeline raises suspicions.
The Shocking Discovery. A body is found, leading to Vince's emotional breakdown at a restaurant.
Vince's Threat to the Detective. Vince's reaction during the investigation raises suspicion about his innocence.
The Arrest of Dr. Vince Gilmer. After fleeing, Vince is arrested living in a tent, raising red flags.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the case of Dr. Vince Gilmer.

Introduction to the specific case being discussed

4:09WatchMar 19, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.

This American Doctor /// Part 1 /// 288 | Forensic Files