Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast

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126. Smells Like Sending Barbara Ann Home - With Special Guest Todd Matthews Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

You may recall, dear Tip-Ster, way back in Episode 8, when Melissa recalled the tragic-yet-amazing story of "Tent Girl," a young woman whose body was found wrapped in a canvas designed to wrap circus tents, on the side of a road near Georgetown Kentucky in May 1968. Tent Girl's story is remarkable for two reasons. The first remarkable fact is that after a couple of years of trying everything that could be tried to learn Tent Girl's identity to no avail, the tiny town of Georgetown essentially adopted her as its own - even paying for her burial and a stunningly beautiful headstone at the local cemetery. But the most stunning part of Tent Girl's story is how her true identity - Barbara Ann Hackman - was finally revealed by a complete stranger living in a completely different state. The man who had discovered the young woman's body, it turns out, had moved his family from Georgetown Kentucky - to Tennessee - kand there his daughter, Lori, found a high school sweetheart - a young 17 year-old boy named Todd Matthews. When Lori's dad retold his story about finding Tent Girl's body and the subsequent search for her identity back in Kentucky, young Todd - at 17! - decided there and then that he would make it his mission to uncover the woman's name and return her to her family, wherever they were. Over the course of the years, Todd and Lori got married and raised a family. Todd got a job at a local plant that manufactures auto parts. And every night, day off - every waking hour - Todd carried out his mission to find out who the tragically-murdered victim was and where she came from. In the process, Todd essentially helped invent the modern-day independent Internet sleuth. At first using the telephone and the U.S. Mail, then gradually using the early rudimentary tool of the Worldwide Web before most of us even knew it existed, he began working with law enforcement on not just the Tent Girl case, but many other missing person and unidentified body cases. He was a key player in the founding of the Doe Network and NamUs, two online resources that today help hundreds of law enforcement agencies and families identify missing or unidentified loved ones. Oh - and yes - nearly 30 years after beginning his quest, Todd's hard work paid off - and Barbara Ann Hackman was Tent Girl no more. Todd Matthews, in short, is a hero. And Todd Matthews is Melissa's guest on this week's episode. Listen in as a true legend in the world of Internet sleuthing, still married to Lori and now a grandfather but still as passionate as ever - retells his story in a fascinating discussion about how one person can change the world by simply deciding to become dedicated.

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125. Smells Like Evil Comes To A Small Town - A Requiem For Taylor And Skyla Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

On a warm summer Oklahoma day in 2008, two best friends - 13 year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11 year-old Skyla Whitaker - went for a walk along a desolate dirt road near Taylor's home in the small town of Weleetka, on their way to a local creek, where they were going to hunt for pebbles and shells. When they didn't return after darkness fell, Taylor's grandfather went looking for the girls - and came upon a scene no grandparent, parent or decent human being - ever should see. The girls had been shot in the head and chest a total of 13 times with two different guns, their bodies left along the side of the dirt road. Evidence later indicated that at least one of them had been sexually violated. Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, the case went cold with absolutely no clues as to the identity of the monster who took the lives of these two beautiful girls...until three years later - in 2011 - when the monster revealed himself by killing Ashley Taylor - his fiancee - and setting her corpse ablaze on a relative's property. But it was how the monster - then 25 year-old Kevin Sweat - revealed his crimes that sent a chill down the spines of everyone involved in the case. Listen as Melissa details the madness of Sweat's behavior and ponders the very nature of evil itself - are some people just born evil - or is there something somewhere - in an evildoer's past or biology that sets evil loose amid an otherwise sane world?

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124. Smells Like Injustice In Fort Collins - The Peggy Hettrick Murder - With Special Guest Scott Howard Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

In the cold early morning hours of February 11, 1987, 37 year-old Peggy Hettrick left the Prime Minister nightclub in Fort Collins, Colorado, heading across the street to an open field, toward her ex-boyfriend's apartment on the other side of the field, where she hoped to get some shelter until she could get back into her own apartment, for which she had lost her key. As the sun rose a few hours later, a passing bicycle rider saw what looked to be almost a posed mannequin lying in the field - but when he noticed blood running into the street, he called the police. And what police found was as horrific as it was bizarre: Peggy Hettrick had been murdered and sexually mutilated in an unthinkably grotesque manner. The cops quickjly latched on to their prime suspect - a 15 year-old high school sophomore named Tim Masters who lived in a house overlooking the field, who was also known to have seen (and ignored as a fake) Hettrick's body that morning - and had a number of dark, teenage-boy illustrations in his personal notebooks that convinced investigators that he must have committed the murder. Yet it took 10 more years - after Masters had honorably served in the Navy - for prosecutors to finally decide they had enough circumstantial evidence to arrest him. And it was on that circumstantial evidence that he was convicted and sent to prison...until 2008, when he was released and eventually exonerated after a mound of evidence pointing to a much more logical suspect - the existence of whom was hidden from Masters' defense team - came to light. Masters finally received his justice when he received a multi-million dollar settlement from the government, but years of his life were taken from him that he will never get back. What makes this particular case so compelling for Melissa is that the comedy team of Scott Howard and Russ Smith, who called themselves "Elroy Bondo," was playing the Prime Minister nightclub on the night of the murder; were probably the last people to see Peggy Hettrick alive...and Melissa knows Scott Howard from her days as a comedy club manager...and Scott was actually the Tip-Ster who told Melissa about the duo's experience...AND Scott Howard was cool enough to call in to tell Melissa about it as she went over the case! Join in on the re-telling of this disturbing case of myopic investigation and injuistice with Melissa and Scott - and hear what it's like to realize you may have been witnessed the final moments of the life of a murder victim.

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123. Smells Like The U.S. Marshals Got Peter Chadwick Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Melissa was lucky enough to be in beautiful Laguna Beach, California a couple of weeks ago,when a longtime friend of the show - "Detective Joe," a law enforcement officer who spent some serious time on loan to the U.S. Marshals, was able to drop by for a chat. And what a chat it is! You see,Detective Joe was attached to the U.S. Marshals unit that tracked down and finally caught suspected serial killer (and the world's lousiest alibi storyteller) Peter Chadwick,who spent nearly five years on the run after skipping bail in 2015. The Chadwick case has been covered a couple of times on "Just The Tip-Sters," once while the cops were still looking for the fugitive millionaire and again when he was apprehended in a small town in Mexico late last year. In his interview with Melissa, Detective Joe talks about the details of how the Marshals methodically tracked Chadwick, the movie-esque meeting with Chadwick's father at a plush Montecito estate and the nuts and bolts of how an international manhunt operates. (Special thanks to Greg Krueger at Peacock Plantation for technical assistance on this episode.)

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122. Smells Like There Must Be Someone Missing Valentine Sally Feb 11, 2020

Show notes

On Valentine's Day 1982, eleven miles west of the traveler-stopover town of Williams Arizona, the body of a beautiful young woman was discovered in a ditch on the side of Interstate 40. She was impeccably dressed, had not been sexually assaulted, but had - according to the coroner - been suffocated somehow. What baffled police - and baffles them to this day - is why no one ever claimed her. Over the years the authorities believed 15 different reported missing girls and young women might have been the body that came to be called "Valentine Sally," who to this day is buried in Williams - believe it or not - with the headstone showing the name of one of the 15 proven to NOT be her. There is some evidence that she could have been the victim of convicted serial killer Royal Russell Long, but he never admitted to it and died in jail before any real attempt could be made to find out what he knew. It seems clear that Valentine Sally came from a good home; that she hadn't been away for long; and that it would make sense that someone - somewhere - would know who she is and be looking for her. Maybe that someone is YOU, beloved Tip-Ster...We wrap up this installment with a recap of a visit Melissa and Producer Mark made to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Headquarters - quite the fascinating experience - and quite humbling meeting men and women so dedicated to protecting and serving.

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121. Smells Like B.S. In The Hog Pen - Randy Sellers, Melissa And The FBI Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

In 2019 Melissa covered the 1980 missing person case of 17 year-old Randy Sellers, who disappeared after attending the Kenton County (Kentucky) Fair, becoming drunk and disorderly and after taking a swing at one of the Sheriff's Deputies sent to deal with him. He was last seen in the company of four officers, who claimed to have dropped him off a mile from his home so he could avoid getting in trouble with his parents. Uh huh. Well. Let's just say that Randy Sellers never made it home. Or anywhere else. Since the original "Just The Tip-Sters" episode on this case, Melissa had the opportunity in the early autumn of 2019 to visit Northern Kentucky (where it just so happens she grew up) and visit the area where the Sellers disappearance occurred. But it was when she returned home from that trip that things got dicey. Fast. A message from a Tip-Ster back in Kentucky began a string of events leading to a phone call that shook Melissa - and her perception of a case already shrouded in more shade than light - to her core. And led her straight to the FBI - where her story actually made the intake officer on duty gasp out loud. You read that right - Melissa made the FBI gasp. And now you will gasp too. Oh yes, yes you will. The road that leads to the truth about what actually happened to Randy Sellers and whoever did to him what was done to him may never be fully revealed - but when you hear Melissa's story, you most probably won't be wondering what acreage that road runs through.

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120. Smells Like Six Minutes And Gone - The Will Cierzan Case Three Years Later Jan 28, 2020

Show notes

This is the case that inspired Melissa to start this very podcast. As she has since the first January of "Just The Tip-Sters," Melissa recaps and updates the "shouldn't-be-a" cold case of Will Cierzan, a regular guy living a simple life with the love of his life in the Southern California suburb of Santa Clarita - whose wife came home from work one early evening in January 2017 to find dinner sitting on the counter, Will's wallet and keys out in the open - and her husband - gone. Disappeared. Seemingly without a trace. Over the next days and months, as his wife Linda and his loved ones fought to keep public attention and law enforcement dedicated to finding him, Will's "disappearance," it quickly became clear, was no disappearance at all - that something sinister happened at the Cierzan home between 5:06 and 5:12 p.m. - six minutes caught on camera that said so much but proved so little And the two people who were most likely involved almost immediately lawyered up and laid low. They have yet to be arrested. But the saddest part of it all is who those people are - family. Listen in as Melissa details all of the facts known so far, and highlights the most recent efforts of those who have dedicated themselves to bringing solace to a grieving wife and a multitude of friends, loved ones and co-workers whose life this sweet, kind man brought into the world.

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119. Smells Like An Impossible Suicide - Who Really Killed Diane Sherman Young? Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

In 1988 Diane Sherman Young was a 22 year-old working mother living in rural Indiana. Diane was married to Scott Young, whose brother -Mike - was actually married to Susan, one of Diane's sisters. Diane worked in a local convenience store and seemed by all appearances to be leading a normal, everyday life. Then, suddenly, everyday became a horror story. On May 21, 1988 a local man driving his truck on a farm road between the towns of Hebron and Kouts, Indiana saw a car completely engulfed in flames - on farm land leased to Mike and Scott Young's family. By the time firefighters put out the blaze, all that was left inside the car were the almost completely incinerated remains of Diane Young - her purse found neatly sitting up 48 feet away for authorities to find - and a melted .22 Ruger on the floor. Oh, and an empty gasoline can was sitting outside the vehicle, its handle melted off. For reasons still unfathomable, the authorities originally declared Diane's death a suicide. Wait. What? Now nearly 32 years later,the story of how a few (but certainly not all) family members pressed for, and got, a coroner's inquiry to investigate the matter, and how the facts surrounding the entire affair reveal a surreal and twisted tale of deceit, romantic and familial betrayal, sex (in various and sundry forms), greed and paranoia, leading to only more confusion - and the ultimate conclusion - as is so often the case - that someone knows the truth about Diane's death. And the truth is just barely beneath the surface.

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118. Smells Like The Hunter Became The Hunted - The Mysterious Shooting Of Terry Brisk Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

Terry Brisk was your average Minnesota family man and sportsman - not a big game hunter, but someone who did enjoy deer hunting during Deer Season - and who doesn't like a hot bowl of venison stew on a chilly autumn evening? So when Terry took off early from work in November of 2016 to spend a couple of hours on his family's 100-acre property hunting for dinner, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. And when Terry's 16 year-old son John came home from school and found out his dad was taking advantage of the season, it wasnt unusual for John to head out to meet Terry and join the hunt. But unusual is exactly what happened. John eventually found his dad - shot dead in the woods, his Winchester hunting rifle nowhere to be found - and not to be found for months. At first it was thought to be a self-inflicted wound - but law enforcement - after a full year of saying virtually nothing on the case - now insists that it was flat-out murder,and that the killer was someone known to Terry. But who? And why? And for Heaven's sake - how? Melissa explores a raft of possibilities - and seeks help from all of you, dear Tip-Sters, on coming up with suggestions on how this baffling mystery might be solved.

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117. Smells Like A Farce - The Bigoted Conviction Of Joe Bryan Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

Season 3 open with the story of Joe Bryan, a high school principal who lived with the love of his life - his wife Mickey, an elementary school teacher - in (seemingly) idyllic Clifton Texas. The Bryans were known not only as pillars of their community, but truly good people who cared about their young charges and even spent their own money to buy clothing and lunches for those most in need. Everyone in town knew them to be God-fearing and deeply in love with each other. And then the unthinkable happened. Over and over again. It started in 1985 when Mickey was shot to death in the master bedroom of the Bryant home while Joe was away on a business trip 120 miles away. It got worse when Joe became a suspect in Mickey's murder and was arrested. And it got unbearably awful when the reasoning was revealed for the Texas Rangers' and other law enforcement officials' suspicions - reasoning beyond belief even in the mid-1980s. Join Melissa as she unfolds this sad and anger-inducing tale of a murder conviction based on completely flimsy circumstantial evidence and a whole lot of bigoted assumptions.

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