When the Demons Came Out /// Part 3 /// 461 | Forensic Files

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[Music] the last confirmed sighting of 12-year-old Tina Marie Harmon of record was at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday October
29th 1981 sources have Tina seen walking along Main Street in downtown Creston Ohio 5 days later her body was
discovered in a remote location in Stark County approximately 45 M away this was
the first indication to the public that the demons had come out arrests were made and two men were convicted but
mistakes were made and the convictions were over returned the men were set free and Tina killer was still hiding in the
shadows less than one year later on July 17th 1982 on a stormy Saturday afternoon
11-year-old Christa Harrison was snatched up from a park across the street from her home reports state that
two juveniles witnessed the abduction just 6 days later in a decrepit old garage her remains were spotted by
Turtle Trappers as they marched through the fields of home County significant physical evidence was located at the
body disposal site detectives struggled to turn this evidence into solid leads were the two cases
linked then 65 days later and just over 100 miles to the South another child goes missing 8-year-old kellyanne procer
vanished from the bustling streets of the north side of the capital city of Columbus she failed to return to her
mother after leaving school to walk home that Autumn afternoon in late September
police searched the area high and low but there was no sign of the little girl no clue as to her whereabouts
unfortunately Kelly would soon be found but the outcome was what everyone had feared her lifeless body was found in a
peak height cornfield 10 rows back the only obvious conclusion was that the spot that Kelly was found was far far
from where she was picked up the spot seemed terribly random or perhaps as the detectives question familiar to the
killer but without question Kelly ander's murder case was hauntingly familiar investigators in multiple
counties were searching for a link for a connection for any clue at all as unsolved child homicide Case Files
stacked up on desk none could deal with the level of this tragedy no one could explain just what what was happening the
community feared the worst and the people wanted to know who was killing our girls this is true crime
[Music] Garage in 1982 Kelly Anne prer was 8 years old she was a very outgoing happy
chatty little girl who loved to dance with her sister and go to the pool and make arts and crafts she was in third
grade at Indianola Elementary Kelly's mother Linda worked at OSU not far away Linda recently got remarried to a man
named Larry Garner and according to Kelly's teacher Barbara Cleveland Kelly was excited about her new stepfather
Kelly's 11-year-old brother Keith was in Middle School and her sister Christina was 14 years old on Monday September
20th this was just about 2 weeks into a new school year in the previous school years Kelly was accustomed to walking to
school with her brother but now he is in middle school so he's going to a different School 8-year-old Kelly was
insistent that she get to walk to school on her own her school was on East 16th Avenue right on the edge of the OSU
campus in the University District surrounded by sorority houses and Residences this was not an isolated area
that we hear so much about in these types of abduction cases it was a densely populated safe City neighborhood
Kelly and her mom Linda planned out the 15 block route that Kelly would take to and from school yeah for the most part
the OSU campus is a safe place but it's surrounded by areas that are high in crime rate she would walk along High
Street this was a commercial area with storefronts we have OSU students out and about and public businesses on this
Monday in late September Kelly's teacher Mrs Cleveland said that Kelly helped out
by watering the plants in the classroom she seemed totally normal and happy at the end of the school day she set out to
walk home a friend posted on webu that she was supposed to walk with Kelly that day but she got delayed for some reason
Linda her mother said that there was no formal arrangement for Kelly to be accompanied by a friend friends just
lived in the same area and sometimes they like to walk together it is believed that Kelly took her normal
route home that day because a shopkeeper near 18th Avenue says that she saw Kelly
looking into her store window this according according to the witness was between 3:30 and 400 p.m. which is the
approximate time that Kelly would have been walking by if she stuck to her normal route and timeline the shopkeeper
later related seeing a little girl in a blue rain coat and she did ID Kelly's photo for police according to the
Columbus Dispatch Kelly was last seen at 3:30 p.m. walking westbound on East 16th
Avenue near the corner of East 16th Avenue in North High Street by her third grade classmates Kelly also was seen at
the intersection of Lane Avenue and North High Street walking home that day tough thing about this area is there's
so many residents there and a lot of the students live in old houses so what do old houses need they need maintenance so
you have maintenance workers going in in and out of this area all day long you have deliveries being made to all these
businesses all day long so there could be anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 individuals that go into this area and
go out of this area daily on this day Kelly's mom Linda happened to have a dentist appointment after work so Kelly
was supposed to walk home and should arrive there around 400 p.m. her sister Christina and her new dad Larry would be
home at this time now due to some kind of miscommunication Christina and Larry assumed that Linda the mother was
picking up Kelly and taking her with her to the dentist appointment so Kelly never made it home at 4 p.m. but this
didn't raise any red flags immediately because of this miscommunication right so when Linda gets home after the
appointment she's wondering where Kelly is she thought she was going to be home the people at home thought they would be
she would be at the dentist appointment now we have a problem she never came home that day right so the family jumped
in the car they went to the school and then they drove around following Kelly's Route there was no sign of her Linda
spotted a Columbus PD Patrol wagon and flagged it down and the officers then and there took a report and they started
looking for Kelly the police officers told Linda you should go home and call 911 to report the a missing juvenile so
by 6:02 p.m. Kelly's description was transmitted over the police wire and it was noted that officers were already
looking for her per Linda talking to the patrol vehicle right Linda called All of
Kelly's school friends her teacher and other family members looking for her daughter but Kelly was nowhere to be
found well not only would kumus PD be looking for her but I'm sure they would contact security at Ohio State to let
them know what was going on by 9:00 a.m. the next day the local news was covering
the case they reported that the child was last seen leaving school wearing a blue raincoat jeans and a white and pink
flowered blouse police taking this disappearance seriously from the get-go they set up a command post conducted
area searches scoured the river they tracked down and questioned Kelly's biological father they interviewed
Neighbors friends classmates and acquaintances but there was no sign of Kelly it was as if she had simply
vanished Into Thin Air once the news broadcast the story of the missing 8-year-old tips began to flood in at
8:30 on Tuesday night the 21st A call came in from Lisa Richmond of Plain City this is a 30 minute drive away from
where Kelly was last seen she said that her father an attorney named Charles Richmond was driving to pick up the
family's housekeeper on AW Wilson Road this is out in the sticks in Madison County Charles noted a blue piece of
clothing in the road it was still there on his return Journey with the housekeeper Clara in the vehicle they
stopped to pick up the little blue piece of outerwear after searching this was turned out to be a rainco after after
searching the raincoat for identification they only found a metal bolt in one of the pockets no name or
nothing so they put it on the floor of the vehicle and kind of just forgot about it when Lisa and her mother went
to drive the housekeeper home at the end of the day Lisa saw the raincoat Clara decided to bring it home with her so
that she could give it to maybe a niece or somebody else could use this they dropped her off with the coat and
started on the return journey home now on the way home Captain Mrs Richmond told Lisa the story that she had heard
on the news about the missing little girl from Columbus Ohio Lisa's interest was peaked and she found a newspaper
article about Kelly about the case and there in the description of the little girl's attire was the blue raincoat Lisa
sensed strongly that the little blue raincoat that they found on the country road may have belonged to the missing
child so she called police and the cops followed her and her father to the housekeeper's house to get the coat and
then Charles and Clara showed the investigators where they found the raincoat a lot of the listeners would be
familiar with the case or The Disappearance of Brian Schaefer this is only probably a mile away from where
Brian went missing now per The Columbus Dispatch a Columbus Police Homicide Sergeant stated ated that there appeared
to be a couple of smears of Blood on the sleeve of the little blue raincoat the richmans did not notice this Blood until
it was pointed out by police officers officers dedicated to Kelly's case brought the raincoat to Linda she
identified it as Kelly's and told them that her daughter was wearing it on the day that she went missing Linda says
that this was when she knew her daughter was not coming home yeah knowing that the raincoat was a sign that they were
close to Kelly officers started combing the area where the raincoat was found this again is a rural area with aw
Wilson Road running between cornfields and the crops looming High by the time searches commenced it was dark and
police called it at 2 a.m. on the 22nd because it was just too dark it's the middle of the night they resume the next
morning this with dogs a helicopter and foot patrols running grid searches at 1:09 p.m Ohio State Patrol
Trooper Bryant found a child's body several rows back in a cornfield AB budding aw Wilson Road according to the
dispatch the Madison County Sheriff said that Kelly was fully clothed with her shoes socks pants and underwear on there
were no obvious signs of gunshot wound or knife wounds and investigators were not sure how long she had been there
there were no notable footprints around the body or in the cornfield the sheriff
said that tire tracks in a neighboring field appear to be related to farmwork not from a potential suspect
vehicle the spot where Kelly was found was very far away from where she was picked up I mean she's 8 years old this
is a 30 minute drive or so there's no way for her to get there on her own right this location is also quite a
distance from the closest highway exit so this is a remote country road now this road Captain is straight enough and
we've seen this in some other cases this is a straight long road that at night you could see cars
coming for miles from their headlights right someone took the time to drive all the way out there and hi Kelly in the
cornfield 10 rows back so that she was not visible from the road well a couple things there I I would assume that this
individual had to know the area a little bit because then they would know that this Rural Road is going to give them
the opportunity and also because the road gave them the opportunity they were able to go further back we've seen many
cases where they dump the victim right on the the side of the road for anybody to see this this suspect is trying to
cover up the body in some manner yeah putting it several rows back from the street so that it's not easily spotted
not spotted right away the killer wanted some time before the killer wanted some
time to expire before the body was found and when police notified Kelly's family
of her death Kelly's Sister Christina had to be restrained as she ran screaming from their home well also this
suspect would have to know a lot about the area in which she was picked up in it's it's actually a very interesting
location because laye in high if they believe that's where roughly where she got picked up at or I would question
what was her route because if she was staying on on High Street obviously that's heavily populated you could go
down further on Lane and Jump On In Indianola or Indiana Avenue and that would take you back ways and so I wonder
if she got to one of those back roads but again what's interesting here is if you head West North or South there's
going to be opportunities to hit the freeway and and not that far you're not miles from hitting the freeway in any
direction Kelly's mother Linda identified the body as that of her daughter Kelly an prer there was
evidence that the victim was sexually assaulted the coroner ruled the cause of death as lack of oxygen to the brain
caused by strangulation marks around Kelly's neck indicated a rope or piece of fabric was used to strangle her there
was some indication that she had been beaten on the head and of course the case was officially ruled a homicide
Columbus PD would remain in charge of the case now per an October 13th 1982 Columbus Dispatch article Columbus
Police announced that the FBI did not find any fingerprints that would help to identify Kelly's killer as quoted from
the article police said clothing from Kelly's Body and clothing seized from a Northside man suspected in her murder
were sent to the FBI crime lab police were looking for Kelly's fingerprints on the suspect's clothing and the suspect's
fingerprints on Kelly's clothing the FBI used a laser device to try to find fingerprints from both sets of clothes
Columbus Police were told by the FBI that they found no prints on the articles of clothing that were seized
during the investigation the test on Kelly's clothes were inconclusive and the FBI didn't find anything of value
police also said that there was no evidence indic a whether the killer wore gloves
regardless what we see here is a very important word in that statement suspect they already had a suspect very early on
in their investigation they're looking for his Prince specifically on anything related to Kelly and at the dump site
they're looking for her fingerprints on on his clothing that it was believed that he would have been wearing the day
that she went missing or possibly they have a if they have a potential suspect the suspect has a vehicle I'm sure they
can impound the vehicle and look for fingerprints there as well so if we don't have a situation we don't have a
situation where anybody saw this girl get abducted and that's where we're kind of left with this mystery we have the
last sighting of her okay it's at this location we know that she probably was picked up or abducted some where between
that location and her home that's as best as we can come up with because there's no other witnesses that spotted
her at any other point there's nobody coming forward saying I saw a little girl screaming as she was pulled into a
vehicle right but that's where I was saying her last known whereabouts were laying in high well that's heavily
populated but it's coming towards the end of the Ohio State campus it's coming towards the end of the the most heavily
populated area of her travels so the most sense to me based off of where she lives is that she'd be heading I I
believe it' be heading East on lane and then she'd go north on Indianola but once you get to Indianola we're talking
about you know oneth the people you know maybe 12th of the people I mean there it's such a less populated Road compared
to High Street but if the Killer's cunning enough it doesn't have to take place where nobody saw or nobody could
see anything right I mean he simply could have asked her to get in his vehicle and she did well and you also
wonder her being an 8-year-old corner corner of Lane in high at that time would have been at least a
gas station or a convenience store did he have some ruse to get her in the car at the at the gas
station you know I again I would guess that she went went to a less heavily populated area and that's where he made
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to everybody out there let's talk about this suspect because very early on in this investigation they are already
talking about a suspect why do we have a suspect when we don't have any witnesses
that say that they saw this man with Kelly so this viable suspect was immediately
identified and tips were pouring in about this guy early on in the investigation this was because this
suspect had sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl on Sunday September 19th this is one day before Kelly was
taken wow so this assault it's it's been described as a molestation as a sexual assault this was the day before she was
taken before Kelly was taken this took place in the Park of Roses on the north side of Columbus so in the area the
immediate area the victim was in the park on a picnic with the offender and with his
grandchildren and consequently there was a warrant out for the arrest of this is
the suspect Walter Mitchell Jr age 63 and the charges were of gross sexual imposition for this attack so he's a
creepy old dirt bag Walter conveniently left for West Virginia and the cops were
yet to catch up to him so there are even more reasons than just that to think that old Walter might have
killed Kelly other than just proximity and time and location of the two cases in their search in law enforcement
search for the little girl officers took canines out to Canvas Kelly's neighbor neighborhood this obviously before they
found her body shortly after she goes missing we want to see if we can retrace her steps to see where she may have been
picked up or Where She Went you're still hoping for the best when she's still missing so they take the canines out the
canvas Kelly's neighborhood and the dogs they went right to Mitchell's home they're alerting them on Mitchell's home
right according to the fifth floor the dogs even triy to get into the back gate of his house from my understanding
Captain this is information that came out years later the police obviously knew this information but it was nothing
that they released share this with the public they didn't share it with the public I think in part because one they
had a good suspect they believed and two you don't want somebody in the public doing something to this guy you you have
to figure out if in fact he is actually guilty of Kelly's abduction and murder yeah you don't want to have a scene
where they go out into the streets and try to take him down like Frankenstein so but they have this
individual said he's 60 Three 63 years old they have Kines hitting on this unit and this is from her scent this these
these aren't cadaver dogs no they're trying to retrace her steps they're trying to figure out you know she's just
missing when they're when they're doing this can9 search of her neighborhood so you're hoping it's a little kid maybe
she got lost maybe she crawled into something maybe she got injured and couldn't finish the the walk home you're
hoping for all of those kind of things while you're searching for this girl these dogs they go straight to this
dude's home they try to get into his back gate and at the same time police are very quickly going well uh who lives
here oh this guy that we have a warrant out for his arrest for molesting a girl the day before Kelly went missing yeah
we still got to pick up this dude we're still looking for this creep then a report came in from two police officers
that said that they had seen a man matching the suspect's description Mitchell's description holding hands
with a little girl who the officer said look like Kelly this was near North High
Street on Monday night these officers even picked Mitchell out of a photo lineup and police believe that the girl
who was an alleged victim of Walter Mitchell the day before that she was in fact a friend of Kelly's so everything's
getting to be really tied together right now yeah there's a connection there so this is just too big of a coincidence
right a child molester who lived near Kelly prayed on one of her friends the day before
now Kelly vanishes she's found murdered and the dogs track Kelly near this man's
home well on the connection really is like you said this guy has grandkids so you're assuming that these grandkids are
similar Age and and that's kind of his Gateway in if you were walking and you saw your your friend's parents or your
friend's grandparents and they said hey uh let me let me help you get home you're more inclined to go okay I I know
who you are you're you're so and so's Grandpa investigators were pretty confident that Mitchell knew all about
what had happened to Kelly prer so they go to speak to Mitchell's wife and what she had to say or didn't have to say
convinced them even further that this in fact was their guy let's just hold up a
second so this this old dirt bag creep douche pilot he's married mhm that's okay all the good ones are right when
they interview his wife this is when they learned that Mitchell apparently left for West
Virginia he had family there and quite suddenly he had to leave for West Virginia all of a sudden because he says
to her that there was an illness in his family but his wife yeah it's called molesting kids she tells police you know
I'm not sure who was sick or even exactly where the husband was you know she's not saying he went to this
person's house in this city in West Virginia she's saying he went to West Virginia and that's about all that I
know so the cops determined that Mitchell was at work on Monday this is the day that Kelly was taken and
Mitchell was there or they could place him at his work at least until 3:25 p.m. he he left work early this is agitated
after getting two phone calls and he did not show up for work the next day so this is really looking like they've
found the right guy here the timeline fits but hold on so but barely is what we need to point out here okay so we
know that he goes to work but we know that we know that he sexually assaulted a victim on Sunday mhm so the
calls that he's getting are probably somebody letting him know that he's going to be charged with this crime is
what I'm guessing right or police saying that they wanted to question him I don't
know what these calls were exactly but if you want to lay out a very brief timeline for this Mitchell character
it's allegedly he assaults this girl in the park on Sunday goes to work on Monday he receives two calls two phone
calls calls and whatever these calls are they're enough to make him visibly upset
to his co-workers who say hey he left a little early cuz he was angry about something right he left at
3:25 and then his wife is saying okay well he uh not only did he leave work a little early that day he didn't go into
work the next day he also all of a sudden had to go out to West Virginia because there's an illness in his family
right so this looks really really bad or Mitchell to the cops this guy was Prime
Suspect number one the one thing I do want to point out here though you know we do have some
time that goes by before Kelly's Body is found and so it's not impossible but just for people trying to picture what's
going on Columbus is in the center of Ohio and if he were heading to West Virginia he would actually be heading
east and her body was found west of Columbus opposite direction of where he said he would be going right but we
don't have to believe everything he says Mitchell's daughter told the police that
her father had been with her until about 5:30 p.m. on the day that Kelly vanished
and again we know that Mitchell left work at 3:25 Kelly was last seen between 3:30
and 400 p.m. so he's got an alibi it's just a a pretty weak one if you ask me right police got a search warrant for
Mitchell's home and for his vehicle they found no evidence of Kelly having been at either the home or in the vehicle at
any time Mitchell returned to Columbus this was on Thursday and when he returned to Columbus he turned himself
into to police he told police that his wife called him at work on Monday to tell him that a
card was left by police on their door saying they wanted to talk to him about the complaint from the day before right
now we know what at least one of the calls were and it was related to police activity and to his activity the day
before uh this said that of course they wanted to speak with him about the girl accusing him of molesting her so in the
light of this news Mitchell I guess decides to leave town he told his wife that due to Prior arrest he could not be
caught with a juvenile so he went to West Virginia and he says he was going to just kind of wait it out Mitchell
told the cops that he never touched the 11-year-old girl in the picnic or I'm sorry at the picnic in the park right
and he went on to tell investigators that he had never seen Kelly Anne prer before he didn't know who she was never
knew who she was until she was missing and seeing her picture in the paper and being told he's a suspect in the case
right detectives of course looked hard at Mitchell his attorney William Abram swore up and down that his client was
innocent he told the Columbus citizen Journal that quote I can and I will verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that
my client was nowhere near Columbus when the terrible incident occurred I can say
this is one of the few times in my career that I have a man as a client who is totally innocent end quote well again
you have a 8-year-old girl going missing so the first person that you put on your
radar if your police or are known sex offenders in that area but you you're not saying that he was a known sex
offender but he did have this claim against him the day before correct but we also have the dogs going going to his
house I mean there's there's good reason to look at this guy and then he magically decides to go to West Virginia
so he he looks guilty yeah as investigators looked into Mitchell more and more though their case against him
started to fall apart while his supervisor confirmed that he left work left his job that day at 3:25 p.m. his
wife said that she was with him from the time that he returned home from work until he dropped her off at JC Penney
catalog Distribution Center on Scarboro Boulevard and I70 on the far East side of Columbus so this this makes a little
more sense here because what she is telling police is he came home he came directly home I was with him until I had
to go to work he drove me to my work dropped me off we're assuming I'm assuming that's in his vehicle yeah I
I'm I'm assuming that they may only have one vehicle between the two of them now
he's going to drive east he has to drive her this is far east from Columbus right
to her work so this makes sense that he would drop her off at her work and he's practically on Interstate 70 at this
point he would just continue on keep going east and go straight to West Virginia yeah he's a good 30 40 minutes
into that trip so I mean so now police are looking at it okay we have this guy kind of lines up that he could be
somebody that would be involved we have the dogs going to his house but now we have his wife which she could be a
scumbag too but you got to be a whole another level of scumbag to cover up a a child's murder and we have no evidence
of her seeing the victim we have no evidence she doesn't see any child alive or dead
and like you said where she she's located where the victim's located is 30 40 minutes from that spot but from where
he's taking his wife it's an hour or so away yeah from the dump site to where her work would be right yeah and so what
we have here Captain is you nailed it because if this dude did this if Mitchell is guilty of the abduction and
murder then it seems like when you put all these pieces together that that means that his wife had to have been
involved in some form or fashion because his window of opportunity or time that he's available to commit any part of
this crime gets very small and you can really I there's no getting around it you you know what time he left work you
have credible Witnesses telling you he left at 325 now you have a whole bunch of people that JC Penny catalog
Distribution Center that's a big place of business back then there had to have been a ton of employees working you have
her arriving at work roughly around 5:30 p.m. that night so you got a bunch of credible Witnesses stating that there's
no way getting around that that leaves for a very small window of time now you go okay well what about his whereabouts
and is he accounted for after he drops off his wife because then he has for the entirety of her shift in fact he doesn't
come back to Columbus until Thursday so you have to question his whereabouts then but this is this is why we see the
case against this guy starting to fall apart because the timeline it just doesn't track it doesn't Trace that that
he had a lot of availability to do any of this because Mitchell made a collect call to his wife who was at home right
about 7:41 p.m. on that night so this is an easily trackable call you can verify
if this call came in or not because it was called collect right you know somebody's got to pay this bill uh so
that call came in from Mineral Wells West Virginia so yeah the phone rings ring ring ring ring and you pick up and
it says you have a collect call from the prick sniffer do you accept the collect
call and then you say yes and then and that's how we have the evidence that he was or at least somebody from that area
called her but they also normally have you state your name or they used to so you'd say uh you have a collect call
from the captain or it would be my voice saying the captain he also Mitchell said
that he also made calls from Charleston West Virginia later that same evening so
police were able to find people who saw Walter Mitch in West Virginia on that Monday evening these calls are starting
to make it look like he was where he says he was and we have witnesses saying that they saw him in these locations in
West Virginia as well further Mitchell potential Mitchell sighting with Kelly sighting by the two police officers this
was proven to be mistaken identity it was learned that the man that police saw was not Mitchell and the
girl that police saw was not Kelly it wasn't Kelly was some other guy it was neither Mitchell nor Kelly that was seen
by the uh police Witnesses what we have here is a guy came forward and said I think that police saw me and that makes
sense because I was in the area with my daughter at that time right and then police look at the daughter and this guy
and they're like oh yeah that those are the people that we we saw but two things
about about this case so far one the pressure you would feel being this guy's employer right and
so when when the cops come to talk to you it's like you want to help them but obviously you want to tell them the
truth but you're also thinking in the back of your head man if this guy did this this guy's an animal right and he
needs to be locked up but you you don't want to falsify anything right and then on the on the side of the police you
have this girl going missing 8 years she's 8 years old not only is her parents probably freaking out but the
whole Community because in that area there's a lot of elementary schools and and a lot of them walk to school and
they're walking in crowds of young adults 18 to 24 years old and so the whole Community then goes oh this this
sucks and there's a whole community that is fearful now but as the police officers you're going hey we're doing
some leg work and every step of the way we're getting confirmation that we're looking at the right guy well I I think
you are initially but but as your investigation continues on you're getting confirmation that you're not
looking at the right guy no but what I'm saying is the first few steps you go oh
we're on the right track and then once you you know hit that 10th step you're going
okay wait a second this is now not lining up and just to to be processing that as a as a law enforcement officer
that that would be really frustrating because you would go from this high of we're going to catch this bastard to
this isn't the right bastard well and what you have too Captain is this crime is so similar to the other crimes that
we've already discussed we have an Abduction of a of a young girl in this case we're talking 8-year-old kellyanne
prer the two cases we previously discussed is that of 11 and 12 year old girls now mind you this is 100 miles to
the south of where the first two abductions and murders took place but you have similar
victimology you have similar set of circumstances where it appears that the child was abducted off the streets the
body is not found for a few days later and the body is found a considerable distance away from where the little girl
was last seen yeah so that's similar in all three of these cases the only thing that's different in this case is that
they immediately had a suspect somebody that they was looking at of course as we
discussed the the case against him starts to fall apart but in review of Mitchell's criminal record he did have
some convictions he had had a convict he was convicted of breaking and entering but this was 30 years earlier remember
this is 63y old man that we're talking about at the time he did have five intoxication related arrests
but in his defense he had zero violent crimes on his record and as we stated with the searches of his vehicle and his
home and his clothing there was simply no tangible evidence no physical evidence linking
Mitchell to the abduction and murder well no other claims against him as far as uh child molestation or or sexual
assault uh Mitchell was eventually found guilty of the molestation charges and for that he received a sentence of 10
years again back to being in law enforcement shoes yes this crime is happening 10 and some miles away but we
have an individual that just fled to another state so so that gives you more probable cause to go oh we're
looking at the right individual because if these crimes are connected we have a traveler yes and like you said a 100
miles that that ain't no joke you know uh I used to have to travel every weekend for my job I know you've done a
lot of traveling for your past jobs 10 and some miles is is no joke well but the thing is here we have a situation
where in the first two cases we're talking about well heck in the second case alone it 45 to 50 miles between
abduction site and the body disposal site so like you pointed out we have a traveler and there is reason to believe
that there's a potential for these cases to be linked one because of victimology
is the same circumstances are very similar and these crimes in themselves are rare crimes yeah and it just so
happens that we have three of them that take place in a short amount of time in roughly the same area now given that's
the state of Ohio the top half of the state of Ohio but when you compare how rare these crimes are it's not that
far-fetched to think that we have a traveler we have a Serial offender here that's hunting and and abducting girls
off of the street and killing them yeah and like you said wherever he picks them
up at that you're going to find them a distance away it's um again as far as where where are the heads of the
detectives you're you almost uh hope that they're not connected you know what I mean um
because this this individual becomes way more dangerous and maybe harder to track
down well that's true I mean I mean you hope that they're not connected but then
at at the same time you're left going okay what's scarier we have a Serial child killer or we have hunting the area
or we have three child Killers right that are out there on the loose undetected for everything True Crime Check out True
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When the Demons Came Out /// Part 3 /// 461

Part 3 of 4

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This week we pick up where we left off. A young girl goes missing in Columbus, Ohio. A woman escapes from her abductor in Northeast Ohio. Are the cases connected? Join us in the garage as we discuss the crimes of Serial Killer Robert Buell.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the abductions and murders of three young girls in Ohio, focusing on suspect Walter Mitchell Jr.

Key points

The Disappearance of Kelly Anne Prer. A chilling account of the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Kelly Anne Prer.
The Discovery of the Raincoat. A significant clue in Kelly's case, leading to a tragic conclusion.
The Creepy Old Dirt Bag. Walter Mitchell Jr., a suspect in Kelly's case, has a troubling past.
A Coincidence Too Big. The suspect's connection to a previous assault raises alarms.
Mitchell's Alibi Falls Apart. Investigators find inconsistencies in Walter Mitchell's timeline during the investigation.
The Search for a Serial Offender. Investigators suspect a potential serial offender linked to multiple abductions and murders.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is true crime.

A chilling reminder of the reality of crime stories.

7:09WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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