Unsolved Hardee's Murder in Tennessee

Who Killed Peggy Cox?

By Robert A. Waters

Peggy Cox (pictured above) "wasn't the kind of person that was involved in  nefarious things," said Franklin Police Department Detective Matthew Thompson. "She was a working mother. That's what she did." For years, she manned the drive-thru at Hardee's, raised her children to be diligent citizens, and regularly attended the local Catholic Church. Detectives say Peggy had no known romantic relationships and no irate boyfriends. Her wholesomeness is likely why her murder has never been solved.

The question has always been: what was the motive?

It was nearing midnight on February 1, 1991. The last customer of the day pulled in and placed an order. A roast beef combo. But then, with no warning, he raised a pistol and fired twice. One round pierced Peggy's brain stem and she died instantly. Investigators got no accurate description of the car--it may have been a white Chevy Impala, or maybe a compact blueish gray vehicle.  

Her son, Jude, a cook, heard the shots and watched his mother crumble to the floor. He dropped behind the counter, thinking more shots would be fired. After waiting a few seconds, he rushed to Peggy. For many hours after the shooting, Jude was in a state of severe shock. He could barely speak, and for a time, was unable to even tell investigators what had happened. When cops arrived, he still held onto Peggy's bloody glasses.

There had been no hint of an attempted robbery. Just the order and then gunfire. Jude heard the killer speak into the outside intercom, and later told police the male voice had a slight "twang." Much like many of those who lived in the area.

In the year 1991, Franklin, Tennessee had one murder, that of Peggy Cox. At the time, the town had a population of 20,000 souls. Much of the area was rural, with a country flavor. (Today, Franklin has grown to more than 60,000.)

For 33 years, the murder of Peggy Cox has remained unsolved. The Franklin Police Department has spent tens of thousands of hours attempting to find the answer. At the time, there were no surveillance cameras in the area. There was no DNA, and no witnesses. Without a known motive, leads have been scarce. Local cops have enlisted the FBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and even the Vidocq Society. This group of former highly-skilled detectives provides a fresh look into cold cases. So far, no clues have lead to a solution.

Long before the murder, Peggy's husband died from injuries suffered in a violent car crash. Peggy never remarried and focused on raising her children. There seemed to be no angry suitor from the past who wanted revenge. To many, it seemed like another random murder. Maybe a "thrill-kill."

Could she have had an unknown stalker? While that is unlikely, it's hard to rule anything out in such a baffling case. 

Jude Cox told reporters the family keeps the memory of their mother alive because "if other people keep thinking about it, one day somebody that knows more about it might decide to say something. I still hope everyday that they find out who done it and find out why. Because it just didn't make any sense."

The video below was created by the Franklin Police Department. It's about 8 minutes long and gives a lot of extra information about Peggy Cox's murder. If you have information about this case, please call the Peggy Cox Tip Line at 615-550-8404. There is a $25,000 reward.

Be Careful Who You Let Into Your Life

The Satanist

By Robert A. Waters

UK Daily Mail reported that "Hendersonville [Tennessee] Police said no charges will be filed against the widower of late country music singer Jean Shepard in deaths at his home Saturday.

"Police said Benny Birchfield, Shepard's widower, fired shots to 'neutralize the threat' at Elnora Court over the weekend. Police said Birchfield shot five times in self-defense and killed Travis Sanders, 21. Birchfield said he was trying to protect his granddaughter, Icie Hawkins (pictured above)."

Icie, 18, lived in the furnished basement of Birchfield's home. A former member of  the Osborne Brothers bluegrass band and later a bus driver for rock star Roy Orbison, Birchfield returned home at about 3:00 A.M. on December 17, 2016. He heard Icie's panicked voice and a struggle in the basement. Walking downstairs to investigate, Birchfield, 73, was attacked.

After shooting Sanders, Birchfield called 9-1-1 and retreated to his front lawn.

Investigators found Sanders, with a bloody 10-inch Bowie knife lying beside his body, dead on the basement floor. Icie lay on her bed suffering from numerous stab wounds--she would die enroute to the hospital. Paramedics transported Birchfield to the hospital where he underwent surgery for severe wounds to his face, head, neck and shoulder. He later recovered.

All Icie's friends and family loathed her boyfriend, Travis Sanders. Many repeatedly warned the pretty teen that her relationship with him would cause misery, or even death, to her gentle soul. On several occasions, she attempted to break up with him, but they always ended up getting back together.

Icie was the granddaughter of Country Music Hall of Fame legend Jean Shepard and Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw" Hawkins. A World War II hero and popular country crooner, Hawkins died in the infamous plane crash that killed Patsy Cline and singer Cowboy Copas. After a second marriage ended in divorce, Shepard married Benny Birchfield. They remained together until Shepard died, three months before the murder.

A critical type 1 diabetic, Icie needed daily doses of insulin to control the disease. Her obituary read: "Independent, fearless, with a loving heart, Icie was an 'old soul' that looked at life in a way that you don't often see in our youth today." A talented musician, she favored tunes from the 1960s and 1970s. 

As her grandmother, Jean Shepard, gradually succumbed to Parkinson's disease, Icie moved into the home to help care for her. When Shepard passed, Icie stayed on to assist Bennie. She loved her family and loved life.

Eight months before he died at the hands of Bennie Birchfield, Icie and Travis Sanders began their journey to disaster. She met him through a friend and he immediately became obsessed with the teen. Their relationship was tumultuous, to say the least. 

One former friend described Sanders as a loser, "with no direction in his life." He claimed to be a Satanist, and had cut his fingernails to look like claws. He had an upside-down cross tattooed on his chest. One friend told reporters that Sanders once scrawled "666" and other satanic scribblings onto the pages of her Bible. He loved knives and told friends he enjoyed stabbing small animals to death.

Sanders rarely bathed and, according to many reports, smelled bad all the time. "It was really gross," one of Icie's friends said. "He got in my car once and I told him he smelled really bad. He thought it was funny." She also told reporters he had no ambition except to play video games.

Icie's friends repeatedly begged her to break her ties with him. UK Daily Mail reports that when her mother, Velvet Sloan, learned Sanders was into devil worship, she warned her daughter to end the relationship. "In the summer," Sloan said, "we were in the swimming pool and Icie told me Travis was a Satanist and into devil worship. I said, 'Icie, come on, that's not a man you would want to be involved with.' But she said he had some problems and she was trying to help him. She said people needed other people to help them through things.  I told her guys like that will end up killing you and she just looked at me and said, 'I know, I know.'"

After Sanders stole money from Icie, she decided to break it off. Unfortunately, Sanders smooth-talked her into returning to him.

Shortly after that, he murdered her.

Sinkhole Swallows Florida Resident

Into the Abyss with No Way Out

By Robert A. Waters

Just after 11:00 P.M. on February 28, 2013, thirty-seven-year-old Jeffrey Bush (pictured above) went to bed. A roadside assistance worker, i.e., a "road ranger," for the Florida Department of Transportation, Jeffrey had to get up early the following morning.

His brother, Jeremy, along with several other family members, lived in a four-bedroom home on 240 Faithway Drive in Seffner. 

The Tampa Bay Times reported that "Jeremy Bush just went to bed when he heard what sounded like a car hitting the house. Then screams from his brother Jeffrey's bedroom.

"'Help me! Help me!'

"Someone flipped the lights. Jeremy, 36, threw the door open, revealing a sight that defied belief: The earth had opened beneath his brother's bedroom and was swallowing everything in sight. The tip of Jeffrey's mattress was the only thing left, and it was sinking into a churning sinkhole."

Jeremy didn't hesitate. He jumped into the vast hole and reached to grab his brother. An ever-shifting quick-sand-like mound of dirt sucked at Jeremy's legs as his brother disappeared into the black abyss. 

Meanwhile, a family member called 9-1-1.

Jeremy clawed at the dirt, trying to rescue his brother from the cavern. Stunned, Jeremy screamed his brother's name. Over and over. In his panic to save Jeffrey, Jeremy didn't realize that he, too, was in grave danger.

According to USA Today, "within minutes, a sheriff's deputy arrived and helped pull him from the hole, telling him the ground was still crumbling around them...They ran out of the home. No one ever went inside again."

 The family escaped and gathered outside. Hugging, crying, praying, they watched as dozens of rescue vehicles surged into the neighborhood. Cops, EMTs and state experts on natural disasters gathered in clusters, trying to figure out what to do. Should they send a team in to try to save Jeffrey? Should they evacuate neighbors? Could the home be saved, or should it be razed?

Authorities seemed stumped. Jeremy stood in the crowd of neighbors who had now lined up outside. He and other family members were angry that none of the so-called rescuers seemed willing to go into the belly of the beast to try to save Jeffrey. 

Later in the day, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials decided to use state of the art equipment to look into the hole. They set up cameras and a listening device and lowered them into the cavern. But soon the ever-moving ground swallowed the equipment. Shortly after that, authorities condemned the home.

Jeremy said, "They say [the hole] keeps getting bigger and I don't think they're going to find him. I think he'll be in that hole forever."

Florida is sometimes called the sinkhole capital of America. The Orlando Sentinel reported that "central Florida--particularly the Interstate 4 corridor--is more susceptible to sinkholes than the rest of the state because of its geology. Its subdivisions, shopping malls, schools and roads are built on Florida's sponge-like crust of limestone, which is full of cavities and cracks that sometimes collapse."

Three days after the sinkhole engulfed much of the home on Faithway Drive, demolition began. A backhoe operator cautiously approached and began tearing apart the cinder-block house. Crews were available to salvage what they could for the family. They managed to save a centuries-old family Bible with baptismal records, a few portraits, a purse, two antique rifles, and a jewelry box. 

Relatives reminisced about Jeffrey. He loved his family, they said, especially his young niece. Just a few days earlier, he had cooked the family a pork chop supper. 

So is Jeffrey still entombed in the earth beneath where his bedroom sat? One theory is that the chasm carried him down into the aquifer. From there, county officials told the family, he may drift into the Alafia River. But an environmental scientist told reporters it's more likely the body "sunk into a 60-foot-tall water-filled void between the sinkhole and the bedrock and is trapped in sediment."

The first cop to arrive at the scene, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duval, spoke to reporters. "These are everyday working people, " he said. "They're good people. You guys out there, if you know these people, if you know this neighborhood, pray for them."

"We've Got to Hide!"

James III and Acelin Persyn

14-Year-Old Boy Saves University Student

By Robert A. Waters

For obvious reasons, the victim in this story has not been publicly identified. She was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Student Activity Center parking lot of Central Michigan University, driven to a nearby home, and raped. Then her abductor, Eric Ramsey, 30, wrapped her upper body with clear packing tape, pinning her arms to her sides, and forced her into the passenger seat of her own car. He showed the victim two cans of gasoline and told her he planned to kill her and cremate her body. As the car sped along at close to 50-miles-per-hour, the victim managed to open the car door and roll out onto the road. Breaking her arm in the fall, and still wrapped in tape, the victim ran for her life.

Here's where our part of the story starts.

It was nearing midnight in a small Shepherd, Michigan residence. 

The Associated Press reported that "James Persyn III, 14, was home alone with his 11-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother Wednesday night when a Central Michigan University student started banging on the door and screaming for help." 

James, who had been playing video games as his siblings, Acelin and Angus, romped about the living room, later told reporters: "[The victim's] voice was, like, she was going to die if I didn't open that door. I let her in and she asked me if my parents were home. I told her no. She said, 'We've got to hide. I was just kidnapped and I jumped out of a vehicle. We've got to hide now!'"

The teenager saw the woman's battered, bruised, and bloodied face. He noticed her now-useless arm cradled against her chest. But even more horrifying, he observed the victim's body wrapped in that weird-looking packing tape.

James quickly locked the door, then ran to the side door and locked it. He herded his sister and brother and the injured woman into the bathroom. He then ran into his bedroom and retrieved his hunting knife and his dog. As the others cowered in the bath tub, James turned out the lights and used his cell phone to call his father. Then he handed his phone to the victim to call 9-1-1.

Eric Ramsey had stopped his car in the driveway and began trying to force the door open. He screamed over and over, "Let me in or I'll kill you."

James' father, James, Jr., had made a quick run in his car to pick up his fiancee from work. When he got the call from James III, he turned around and flew home. 

John Carlisle, of the Detroit Free Press, described the scene inside the house: "There they were--a rape victim, a dog too friendly to offer much protection, and three frightened children, hiding in the dark, convinced they were about to die at the hands of a man trying to get inside. And the only thing that stood between them and him was a 5-foot-8, 142-pound 14-year-old boy holding a small knife."

Ramsey seemed out-of-control psychotic. But no matter how loud he screamed or how hard he slammed his shoulder against the door, he couldn't get inside. After several minutes, the ex-con ran back to the car, grabbed a can of gasoline, and poured it against the base of the house. Then he lit it and fled.

Acelin had resigned herself to her fate--which she figured was death. She kept calling for James. "I wanted him to come in the bathtub with me and just hug each other and say goodbye," she said. "I didn't know what was going to happen, if we didn't make it, if [the assailant] actually did make it in here and my dad didn't get home in time."

James, Jr., hoping to catch the attacker by surprise, turned off his car lights as he neared his home. But by that time, the man had fled. To the father's horror, however, he saw flames billowing up from the front of the house.

Carlisle wrote: "[James, Jr.] roared up in his car, scrambled out and began throwing his body against the flames to extinguish them. He tried opening the locked doors, but he had no key, so he started trying to break windows to get inside."

Finally, a deputy pulled up. And then, dozens of cops, sirens blazing and lights flashing, seemed to appear out of nowhere. (James, Jr. later said he considered himself lucky he didn't get shot by the first deputy who appeared and thought he was the suspect.) Finally, deputies extinguished the blaze .

The victim was transported to a local hospital. As the story emerged, cops got a bead on where Ramsey was headed. For the next hour, they chased the suspect through several small towns in the area. When they cornered him, he used his cell phone to write a final message on his Facebook page: "Well folkes i'm about to get shot. Peace."

He was right. When he approached officers holding a fake pistol, they gunned him down. After his death, it was learned that he'd just been released early from prison on an assault charge.

NOTE:  This story happened a few years ago. While some armchair critics questioned whether James III should have opened that door, he was given an award for saving the life of the victim.

University of Georgia Murder Went Unsolved for Decades

The Ghastly Death of Jonathan Foundling

By Robert A. Waters

Killing an Innocent

On January 8, 1996, in the basement of Oglethorpe House Residence Hall, or O-House as it is called, two janitors working in the ground-floor women's restroom discovered a grisly sight. The Athens Banner-Herald reported that "custodians cleaning the bathroom found blood on and around a toilet and droplets leading to the trash can, where they reported finding an infant covered in blood." 

The boy had been born, and murdered, only hours earlier.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported: "A baby found in a trash can in a dormitory restroom died of a stab wound to the heart, University of Georgia police said Tuesday. The state crime lab in Atlanta determined that the baby was a full-term white male, and was breathing before being stabbed. The baby had numerous other injuries, police said." Those "other injuries" included several more stab wounds.

Detectives, having no way to identify the child, named him "Johnathan Foundling." Appalled at the circumstances of his death, university police devoted much of its efforts to the investigation. Unfortunately, there seemed little to go on. Hundreds of students and staff were questioned, but none could recall a student who looked pregnant.

UGA police would not let the once-healthy 8-pound baby be buried in a  pauper's grave, as is often the case when an unidentified body is found. Officers led a drive to donate money for a funeral and proper burial. The boy was interred at Evergreen Memorial Park in Athens. UGA police served as pallbearers and more than 200 people attended the funeral. 

The child's marker reads, "Gift of God, Johnathan Foundling."

Despite an intense, decades-long investigation, police were unable to identify the child's mother or father.

Secrets Uncovered

On August 4, 2004, hikers walking the Little River Trail in rural Wilkes County, Georgia, found a young woman's body. Next to her corpse, investigators discovered an empty bottle of sleeping pills. Kathryn Anne Grant had been reported missing by a roommate a few days earlier. Detectives from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded she had driven to the area in her Ford F-150 truck, then walked about 200 yards into a dense forest, and ingested the pills. Grant's death was ruled a suicide.

Investigators found no note. For many years, the reason for her death remained a mystery.

In 2021, University of Georgia investigators still had blood samples and the placenta for Baby Johnathan. In an effort to determine the identity of the child's mother and father, detectives sent the evidence to Othram, Inc., a forensics genealogy lab in Texas. After months of genetic testing, the company got a hit.

The Banner-Herald reported that the lab found the names of two brothers, one of whom would likely be the father of the infant. One of the men (whose name has not been made public) admitted to detectives that in 1995, while a student at UGA, he'd had sex with a student matching the description of the dead girl, but could not remember her full name. He said he thought her last name was "Grant." The man stated that the affair was brief, and he didn't know she was pregnant.

After taking DNA from the father of Kathryn Grant, and comparing it with the murdered child's DNA, UGA finally learned some of the sordid facts surrounding the infanticide. 

Kathryn Grant lived in O-House at the time where she majored in Veterinary Science. Somehow, she was able to hide her pregnancy from roommates and others. After the child's murder, Grant's grades began to fall, and she soon left UGA. Grant later got her degree from another university and worked as a veterinary technologist for the Exotic Animal, Wildlife and Zoological Medical Service at the UGA College of Veterinary Science until her death.

Somehow, Grant managed to live with her conscience for eight years. Then she drove into an isolated patch of woods and killed herself. While there was no note, it's likely the killing of her infant son tore at her soul, night and day, until she could no longer stand it.

NOTE: Webster dictionary defines foundling as "an infant found after its unknown parents have abandoned it."

Sex Offender Shot by Woman Home Alone

 Jayson Magrum

The Equalizer

By Robert A. Waters

On the afternoon of August 11, 2023, Pima County Sheriff's Department deputies arrived with sirens blazing to a neat residence in Tucson, Arizona. Cops quickly spied a body lying in the middle of the driveway. Blood pooled the concrete around him, and trailed back to the front of the house.

Deputies applied chest compressions to the man, but he was already dead.

Sandra Stacy, 54, the homeowner, was shaken...but alive!

FOX 10 News reported that "a convicted sex offender was shot and killed by an Arizona woman as he tried to break into her home last Friday...

"The fatal encounter occurred about 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, at a residence near Garvey and Pyle Roads in Tucson when a woman defended herself by fatally shooting the man attempting to break into her house.

"The 54-year-old woman was home alone when the suspect, identified as Jayson Magrum, 42, tried to break into her residence, the Pima County Sherriff's Department said.

"The woman saw Magrum...and began yelling at him to leave, yet he reportedly continued in his efforts to gain access to the house.

"As a result, the woman obtained a firearm and defended herself.

"The female armed herself with a handgun and fired a shot out of a window to attempt to scare the male away.

"Following the warning shot, Magrum reportedly reached into the home and tried to disarm the woman, but she opened fire and struck the intruder..."

After being shot, Magrum tried to flee. He made it as far as the driveway where he collapsed and died.

News reports stated that the dead man was a registered sex offender in Utah.

The Arizona Republic reported "Magrum had a lengthy criminal record with Pima County, including at least eight charges dating back to 2006. Among them: multiple charges of threatening or intimidating, disorderly conduct as well as assault. Most recently, a case filed in Pima County Justice Court in January says Magrum was accused of threatening to cause damage to the property of another."

NOTE: I could only find four news articles describing this case. The stories were brief, without much detail, and poorly written. I'd like to know more. For instance, what kind of gun was used? Had Magrum been stalking Tracy? (Although she didn't know her attacker, he lived nearby.) Why didn't this case receive more publicity?

I did find one brief article about why he was labeled a Registered Sex Offender. On March 21, 2001, the Gunnison Valley News reported: "MAGRUM, Jayson Keith, 20, Elsinore, Utah, committed to jail for 6 months on a commitment out of District Court for attempted forcible sexual abuse."

It's likely Sandra Tracy would have been yet another victim of violent sexual attack had she not used an "equalizer" to protect herself.

Murdered for Four Bucks and a Nickel

The Sad Death of Morris "Rick" Fleming

By Robert A. Waters

It was March 5, 1986. Standing in the shadows of a patch of woods, Jerry Wickham (pictured) waited. Stone-broke, his battered old car was running on fumes. But he had a plan. On the grass beside a rural road, his vehicle sat with its hood up. Two bedraggled-looking women stood in front of the car.

One day earlier, this "odyssey" had started in Gaylesville, Alabama. Ten family members and friends, with Jerry Wickham the leader, had packed into two cars and headed out for Tampa, Florida. The trip was poorly planned, and they had no real prospects in Tampa, but they drove toward that city, ending up on U. S. Highway 319 near the Georgia-Florida line. Court documents reported that, along the way, the group members "consumed large quantities of alcohol and drugs."

Sylvia, Wickham's wife, held a baby so passing motorists would notice. Tammy Jordan, Wickham's daughter-in-law, stood close to the road to flag down a driver. (The second car had been stowed out of sight a mile away.)

Morris F. "Rick" Fleming drove a baby-blue 1977 Grand Prix. He noticed the women and braked to a stop. The twenty-seven-year-old, a loan officer for Blazer Finance Company, had a wife and young daughter at home. A regular church-goer, Fleming was known for helping those in need. Sylvia told him her car had broken down. As Rick leaned over to check out the engine, he never saw Jerry Wickham step out of the woods. 

Rick fiddled with the motor and concluded there was nothing amiss. It was then he noticed Wickham coming toward him holding a .22-caliber revolver. Rick, recognizing the threat, turned and began to walk back to his own car.

Wickham fired. The first bullet hit Rick in the back, near his shoulder. It spun him around and he fell to the ground. As he lay dazed, Wickham fired again, placing a bullet into Rick's chest. A Florida appeals court later wrote that "while Fleming pled for his life, Wickham shot the victim twice in the head. He then dragged the body away from the roadside and rummaged through Fleming's pockets. He found only four dollars and five cents." (NOTE: my italics.)

Turning to Sylvia, Wickham screamed, "Why didn't you stop someone with more money?" In shock, Sylvia burst into tears. She had been against the robbery all along, telling Wickham they could go to a church and get money. But he had decided on the robbery.

According to court documents, "the group drove to a gas station and put two dollars' worth of gas in one of the cars, and two dollars' worth in a gas can [which they put in the second car]. Wickham then changed his clothes and threw his bloodstained pants and shoes into a dumpster. Wickham directed one of the others to throw the empty bullet casings and live rounds out the window."

They later stopped at a church and obtained enough gas money to take them to Tampa.

Soon after the robbers left, a passerby spotted Rick's body and contacted police.

 

For nearly two years, cops had little luck in determining the identity of Rick's murderers. Then, in Ocala, Florida, a man charged with burglary decided to make a deal with investigators. For a reduced charge, the thief said he would tell cops about an unsolved murder that occurred near Tallahassee. He said he'd been with the group that murdered Rick Fleming.

Leon County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested Jerry Wickham. On December 8, 1988, a Florida court gave him an early Christmas present. Jurors found him guilty of First Degree Murder and Armed Robbery with a firearm and sentenced him to death.

Sylvia Wickham was convicted of Second Degree Murder and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Several other members of the group were convicted of lesser crimes. 

For 36 years, Jerry Wickham has cheated justice. He has filed appeal after appeal, all of which have been denied. Due to the broken criminal justice system in Florida, he'll likely die in prison before he comes up close and personal with a poison needle.

The Coast-to-Coast Killer

Hiking Toward a Nightmare

By Robert A. Waters

On August 8, 2023, the Baltimore Sun reported "police have opened a homicide investigation after a dead body, believed to be a woman recently reported missing, was found Sunday afternoon near a popular trail in Bel Air (Maryland)..."

Rachel Hannah Morin, 37, had been reported missing on August 6. A mother of five, Rachel was a fitness enthusiast. Late in the afternoon, she drove to the Maryland and Pennsylvania Trail (also called the Ma-Pa Trail) and began jogging through the heavily forested park. When she failed to return home, her boyfriend, Richard Tobin, reported her missing.

The next morning, a tracker named Michael Gabriszeski, with the help of his daughter, Cynthia, found Rachel's body in a drainage tunnel about 70 yards off the trail. Although this information had not yet been released by authorities, Gabriszeski told Daily Mail that Rachel "was laying on her back, fully naked, and she had brutal head trauma...it looked like her head had been smashed in with a rock." A blood trail leading to the tunnel helped Gabriszeski find the body.

WBALTV confirmed the tracker's account, reporting that "Martinez-Hernandez laid in wait for Morin as she was out for a jog. Prosecutors said he then attacked and dragged her through the woods to a drainage ditch tunnel. The medical examiner found 10-15 head wounds, and the report indicated Morin died from blunt force trauma and strangulation."

From the start, this case had the feel of a stranger-on-stranger crime. The Harford County district attorney told reporters "it was the most brutal and violent offense that has ever happened in Harford County."

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler quickly called in the FBI for assistance. The killer had left DNA, so investigators obtained a genetic profile and entered it into CODIS, the FBI databank. 

They quickly got a hit.

In Los Angeles, 2,657 miles from Harford County, a mother and her nine-year-old daughter had managed to survive a violent home invasion. An unidentified Hispanic male broke into the home and sexually assaulted the two. Police speculated he would likely have murdered them, but another member of the household interrupted the attack. Doorbell camera footage recorded the intruder fleeing the home. After LAPD entered the killer's DNA profile into CODIS, they got the call from Harford County.

It took ten months, but, using genetic genealogy, investigators determined the suspect to be Victor Martinez Hernandez. According to Daily Mail, "Hernandez had illegally crossed the southern border in February 2023 after he also allegedly murdered another woman in El Salvador a month earlier."

Law enforcement officers gave reporters a timeline of the alleged crimes of Hernandez. According to police, Hernandez murdered the El Salvador woman in January. In March, investigators claim he assaulted the mother and daughter in California. Then in August, his DNA profile matched that of the rapist and killer of Rachel in Maryland.

FBI agent Bill DelBango informed reporters that "our investigative genetic genealogy team in Baltimore worked countless hours to identify the suspect by using crime scene DNA and tracing that DNA to potential family members."  

In June, 2024, cops captured Hernandez in a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

He has been extradited back to Maryland.

So how many other victims has Hernandez assaulted or murdered? A reputed gang member, he had no problem traveling the length of the United States more than once in a ten-month period. Where did he obtain funds to travel? Why is our border wide open to unvetted criminals and terrorists? At least ten million known illegal aliens from every country in the world have come unimpeded into our country since 2020. There are likely millions more "getaways," (i.e., unknown migrants).

Why is Rachel Morin dead? Why isn't she living her normal life today? Why is her family grieving her untimely death?

At a press conference, Sheriff Gahler echoed the thoughts of millions of Americans. "Victor Hernandez," he said, "did not come to this country to make a better life for him or his family, he came here to escape the crimes he committed in El Salvador. He came here to murder Rachel and, God willing, no one else. But that should never have been allowed to happen." (NOTE: my italics)

9-1-1 Calls, Bodycam Footage, and Arrest Video in Julian Wood Murder

Bionca Ellis has been arrested for the stabbing of Margot Wood, 37, and the murder of her three-year-old son, Julian Wood.

This dramatic video from Law & Crime Network shows the scene outside Giant Eagle store in North Olmsted, Ohio seconds after the attack. The murder seems to be yet another random crime. The video lasts for 21 minutes.

Murder in Micanopy

 Pearle Bartley

55 Years Later, Pearle Bartley's Murder is still Unsolved

By Robert A. Waters

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), there are at least 350,000 unsolved murders in America. In Florida, 20,000 cases have gone cold. Florida's clearance rate on murders is the national average, about 66%, meaning one-third of murders in the state are still open. I find those numbers staggering. How many killers live among us? In 1969, a 72-year-old store owner met a gruesome death in a historic central Florida town. There isn't a great deal of information about the case, but here's what is known.

Micanopy, named after a Seminole chieftain, was founded in 1821. It is the oldest inland town in the state. During the Seminole Indian wars, many residents holed up in Fort Defiance, located near the town. In 1836, Seminole chief Osceola unsuccessfully attacked the fort. After a battle lasting a little more than an hour, Osceola retreated. More soldiers in Fort Defiance died of malaria than fighting Indians. Major J. F. Hieleman, who led the counter-attack on Osceola, perished from the disease a few days after the battle.

In 1969, Micanopy had a population of about 750. Pearle Bartley, born in 1897, owned a small general store there. Called "Pearle's Place," she resided alone in a home attached to the store. On October 29, two customers walked into the business and found her lying on the floor. She'd been strangled to death and money was missing from the cash drawer.

Pearle's granddaughter, Marci Buchanan, said, "She was a very caring, gentle, docile person. She would have given anybody anything. So it just really shocked our family she was murdered like that." Marci remembers Pearle playing the "Missouri Waltz" on the piano. She told reporters her grandmother taught her to "tend a garden and crochet."

Micanopy lies about 12 miles south of Gainesville and 26 miles north of Ocala. Today it still has a population of less than 1,000. Canopied by hundreds of huge oak trees, the village is known for its eclectic mix of stores that sell vintage books, art, crafts, rare jewelry, music, and antiques. Many of the businesses are located in 19th century-era  buildings (see picture below). The town has no police force, so the Alachua County Sheriff's Office investigates any major criminal activity in the area.

After the murder, Alachua County homicide investigator Kevin Allen said deputies set up roadblocks to question drivers coming into or going out of Micanopy. While canvassing the area, many residents had noticed "that there was a blue or black motorcycle at or around the scene at the time of the homicide." No local citizen was known to own such a motorcycle.

Decades after the murder, two suspects emerged. Georgia serial killer Carlton Gary (pictured below) resided in Gainesville at the time of the murder. Pearle fit the killer's profile--he enjoyed strangling elderly white women to death while raping them. (Investigators have never said whether Pearle was sexually assaulted.)

A fingerprint found at the crime scene did not match Gary. Detective Allen spoke with Gary while he was on death row and said "he made admissions to almost every crime he had committed including robberies and burglaries, but he said he was not involved with any sexual murders of elderly females in Georgia or the state of Florida." On March 15, 2018, the killer was executed for the rapes and murders of three women in Georgia.

The fingerprint had been lifted off a Coca Cola cooler that sat near the body of Pearle. It came back to a "hustler and con-man" named Austin Felker. According to Allen, Felker had recently moved to Florida and "was the new owner of a blue and black motorcycle." But he had no history of violence. Was he the killer or just a customer? It's likely no one will ever know since he died many years ago.

The murder of Pearle Bartley is still being investigated. It speaks highly of Detective Allen and others who won't let the coldest of cases rest.

Unsolved Double Murder in North Carolina

Who Killed Jenna and Ethen Nielsen?

By Robert A. Waters

Seventeen years ago, twenty-two-year-old Jennifer “Jenna” Kathleen Nielsen (pictured above) died in a convenience store parking lot.

At 4:45 A.M., on June 14, 2007, a 9-1-1 call came in to the Raleigh, North Carolina Police Department.

Dispatcher: "What is your emergency?"

Caller: "Yeah, I don't know if this is an emergency or not but there's a car sitting in front of another newspaper box and I can tell it's normally a newspaper guy's also. The lights are on inside the car. There's papers laying on the ground outside his car. So I rode around the building to see if he was outside or anything. I don't see anybody beside the building."

(The Ameriking Food Mart on Lake Wheeler Road had news racks outside. In the early mornings, carriers would load newspapers into them, removing coins from the previous day.)

Dispatcher: "You say the car was empty?"

Caller: "Yeah, the car was empty. It was funny because the light was on inside the car. The car was pulled over right in front of the paper box."

Dispatcher: "Are you calling from a payphone?"

Caller: "Yeah, I'm at the corner gas station on the south side...I'm still on my paper route. And the car still has Utah license plates on it."

Dispatcher: "What kind of car is it?"

Caller: "I think it's a Honda civic."

Dispatcher: "You have the color on it?"

Caller: "Gray."

The dispatcher told the caller she would send officers to the scene. 

 

A few minutes after the 9-1-1 call, two officers from the Raleigh Police Department arrived. 

Jim Sughrue, spokesman for the police department, described the scene to reporters. “As [police] investigated the area,” he said, “they located a female behind the building who is a homicide victim.” Robbery seemed an unlikely motive since Jenna Nielsen’s purse and other personal belongings were found in the vehicle. The victim’s pants had been pulled down to her knees, causing investigators to theorize that she may have been murdered while fighting off a sexual attack.

When she died, Jenna was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with a boy already named Ethen. Married and the mother of two boys, Jenna had been going about her job restocking newspaper boxes for USA Today. Her husband, Tim, worked during the day and kept the children at night while his wife delivered papers.

An autopsy revealed a single stab wound to the neck. Only three inches deep, it had slashed her carotid artery and jugular vein, causing her to bleed to death. There were abrasions on Jenna’s arms and legs, as if she’d been dragged or had fallen. The autopsy also showed that Ethen was 39-40 weeks old, weighed 6.35 pounds, and was 19.9 inches long. He was healthy and normal in every way.

Even though he would have been delivered within a few days, at the time, North Carolina had no fetal victim law that would allow for the conviction of Ethen's killer.

After detectives interviewed area residents and business owners, they released a sketch of a “person of interest” (pictured below) who had been seen in the area near the time of the murder. According to police, that neighborhood is usually deserted at four-forty-five in the morning.

From the start, leads were few. It seemed to be a random attack, possibly committed by a sexual predator. The double murder made national headlines for a few weeks, and America's Most Wanted, a popular true crime show, picked up the case. USA Today published ads calling for information about the case.

As the investigation continued, the family released a statement to the press. “Jenna was a loving mother, wife and daughter,” the statement said. “She had a very outgoing personality, [and] was everyone’s friend. Jenna and her Husband Tim had 2 wonderful sons: Schyler, 3, and Kaiden, 11 months. They were expecting their third son Ethen on July 8th. Jenna’s family recently relocated to the area from Utah when her father and husband’s jobs were relocated. She enjoyed living in the Raleigh area for the warm weather and the friendly people. She fit right in.”

Seventeen years later, the family is still waiting for an arrest. The news crews are long-gone, and stories about their beloved wife and daughter only seem to come on anniversaries of Jenna's murder.

The family has a website, justice4jenna.

Tim and Jenna's father, Kevin Blaine, worked to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in North Carolina. The law, enacted in 2011, reads: “AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT A PERSON WHO commits the crime of murder or manslaughter OF A PREGNANT WOMAN is GUILTY OF A SEPARATE OFFENSE for THE RESULTING DEATH OF THE unborn child and to provide that a person who commits a felony or a misdemeanor that is an act of domestic violence and injures a pregnant woman that results in a miscarriage or stillbirth by the woman is guilty of a separate offense that is punishable at the same class and level as the underlying offense.”

The day after Jenna's murder, someone discovered a bloody knife discarded near a sidewalk not far from the crime scene. Police quickly confiscated the weapon, but remained tight-lipped on its significance to the case. Investigators also found a single human hair in Jenna's hand. Other items collected from the scene were a broken earring, a flip-flop, two shirts, bloodstains, cigarette butts, and a broken red vehicle light lens. Whether any of those items belonged to the killer remains to be seen. 

Investigators are still searching for the person of interest noticed by a witness in the area of the murder. The suspect was thought to be in his late teens or early twenties and is about five-feet-three-inches tall, weighing 120 pounds. Police said he may be Hispanic. At the time of the murder, he wore a dark-colored sleeveless shirt and baggy denim shorts. His most noticeable characteristic was black hair pulled into a long pony-tail.

Police have one major clue that could lead to the killer’s capture. Family members informed reporters that police have DNA thought to be from the killer. Investigators continue to run the sample through CODIS, the FBI's national database that contains profiles of convicted offenders. So far, they have not gotten a match. 

Meanwhile, a murderer, unless he's in prison for another crime or dead, lives and breathes free air. Justice waits to be served.

If you have any information about this case, please contact the Raleigh Police Department at 919-227-6220.

Drifting Towards Death -- Or Freedom

Cuban Boat Washed up on Marquesas Keys

Quiet Martyrs

By Robert A. Waters

In the dead of night, on March 3, 1964, a rickety 22-foot-long fishing boat called the Delfin moved slowly off a beach near Santiago de Cuba. Equipped only with an antique outboard motor and sails made from flour sacks, eighteen men, women and children crowded its decks. They were bound for Jamaica, 140 miles away. From there, they knew they could obtain visas to freedom (i.e., the United States of America).

If caught by patrolling Cuban gunboats or Russian helicopters, they would be machine-gunned. But they decided freedom was worth the risk.

After working for many years as a salesman, Vicente Mayans saved up enough money to purchase the Delfin. When friends and neighbors learned of his plan to flee, many asked to join. Mayans later said he couldn't turn them down. Thinking the trip would take two days, they stocked up with only six cans of ham and ten gallons of water.

Almost immediately, things went wrong. First, the motor quit. A mechanic named Alberto spent 24 hours attempting to repair it, but to no avail. Next, heavy winds blew down the flimsy mast. Now the boat was at the mercy of the ocean currents. And soon their food and water ran out.

Mayans later told Ian Glass, a reporter for the Miami News, "We became hopelessly lost." The boat began drifting, first in one direction, then another. Vicente's pretty wife, Digna, had joined him in their quest for freedom but now it seemed they both might die. 

It never rained. The sun beat down all day every day. They tried fishing, using a few crumbs of bread for bait. Luis, a former hotel worker, landed a small shark. "We tore it apart with our hands like animals," Mayans said. "We ate it raw." 

The refugees tried to row, but the current was too strong. As the boat floated aimlessly through heavy seas, some began slowly losing their minds. Two men jumped into the water and were never seen again. Starving, dehydrated, sunken-eyed and so thin they looked like skeletons, one-by-one the freedom-seekers dropped dead on the deck. Many died clutching their rosaries.

Mayans said, "Death came almost quietly. They would just lie down in the boat to conserve strength and assumed when they woke up we would have been rescued. But they never woke up." A trail of vicious sharks, smelling death, followed the boat. Mayans and his fellow Cubans reluctantly pushed corpses over the edge and watched the sharks fight for the bodies.

Day after day, the sad boat drifted.

Mayans recounted, "Soon there was only Digna and me. And then she, too, died. One minute she was asleep, and the next..." Unwilling to throw his beloved wife to the sharks, he held her and vowed they would die together.

After seventeen days, the boat washed up on the shores of Grand Cayman, one of a group of British-owned islands. Beachgoers found the sole survivor, Vicente Mayans.

He was hospitalized for nearly a week, then finally made it to the United States. He spent many years working to commemorate lost freedom-seekers from Cuba.

The Straits of Florida, called the "Death Corridor," lies between Cuba and Florida. For Cubans, the 92 miles of ocean has remained a watery gauntlet to be sailed through. Refugees face hurricanes, Cuban militia patrols, man-hungry sharks, exposure to scorching weather, high seas and rogue waves, the loneliness of the open ocean, and other deadly obstacles to reach freedom.

Perhaps Vicente Mayans said it best. Cuban refugees "are quiet martyrs who are testimony to the hell that Cuba must be, if they are willing to give up their lives rather than live there."

Here are some other stories I've written on this subject.

https://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2014/05/animal-farm-in-tropics.html

https://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2023/07/book-review-cubas-eternal-revolution-by.html

https://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2019/12/anthony-bryant-10-skyjackers-who-found.html

Unsolved Murder of "Old Man" John Maxwell

Prospector Led a Solitary Life

By Robert A. Waters

For nearly a hundred years, the one-room log cabin sat high up in the Continental Divide, seven miles above Butte, Montana. It weathered blizzards and freezing weather each winter, and summer thunderstorms that rocked the landscape with killer bolts of lightning.  

In 1957, seventy-six-year-old John Maxwell called the cabin home.

The Montana Standard reported that "at the age of 26 [he] was employed by the Corry Consolidated Mining Co., as a stationary engineer and later in charge of mining operations." Many years later, when the gold and silver "played out," the company hired Maxwell to remain there as caretaker. During those decades alone on the mountain, he enjoyed prospecting, occasionally finding a nugget or two missed by the mining company.

But Maxwell was no miser. He made monthly trips down steep, dangerous mountain trails to resupply and meet with friends. The Standard said his modest cabin "was a haven for hikers, skiers, and Boy Scouts out on an adventure. Everyone passing by received a warm welcome and most returned again and again to visit with the friendly prospector."

On August 7, Curley Robbins, a forest ranger, saw smoke rising near Maxwell's cabin. While checking to find the exact location of the fire, he stopped by to see if his prospector friend could direct him to the source. As he entered the cabin, Robbins encountered a gruesome sight. Maxwell lay near his bed, severely beaten and shot twice.

When Jefferson County Sheriff George Paradis and Coroner Kyle Scott arrived at the scene, the place was neat and orderly. They found no sign of ransacking, or any other clue to provide a reason for the violence inflicted on the old man. Maxwell's own gun, an old Colt Peacemaker, "a 38-40 caliber revolver" he had brought home after serving in the Spanish-American War, was the murder weapon.

Maxwell's eyes were swollen shut from heavy blows, and two of his teeth had been knocked out. Paradis found them on the bed. Coroner Scott said "the slug that killed Maxwell entered the back near the left shoulder blade, coursed through the body, and emerged near the groin. The bullet was found embedded in the cabin's wooden floor..." It's possible that Maxwell had been sleeping when attacked.

The neatness of the cabin surprised the sheriff. A bookcase held many well-worn editions, such as the complete works of Dickens, The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, The Plattsburg Manual, and hundreds more. A transistor radio sat beside Maxwell's bed. Friends said he could sometimes pick up music stations at night.

Maxwell's body was taken down the mountain to the Scott Funeral Home in Whitehall. A few days later, staff transported him to the Masonic Temple in Butte where services were held. His remains were then shipped to his hometown of Portland, Oregon for burial.

Although the sheriff put a lot of effort into solving the case, there seemed to be no viable clues to follow. In addition to the bullet that killed him, a second round hit him in the back and exited his shoulder. But cops never found the old man's gun.

The Standard reported that "lawmen rummaged inch-by-inch through Maxwell's cabin Friday night. They found a bullet embedded in the cabin's wooden floor near a large, iron-posted bed and was found about five feet from Maxwell's body." The sheriff interviewed everyone known to be in the area at the time of the murder, but all were cleared.

Sheriff Paradis told reporters he'd found nothing of any real value inside the cabin.

The years passed, and the old prospector eventually faded from memory. 

And there the case remains. Unsolved and cold as a Montana winter. In 2024, bare remnants of the old log cabin remain, still fighting harsh winters and summer thunderstorms that break down on it like random cannon blasts.

NOTE: The cabin pictured above is from an old postcard. It is not the prospector's original home.

"The Silent City of the Dead"

A Twist of Fate

By Robert A. Waters

Vanished

On April 16, 1960, a mild spring day in middle Tennessee, a seventeen-year-old girl walked toward the Duck River (pictured below) carrying a fishing rod and a can of worms. Given the nice weather, fish should be biting, she thought. Bass, perch, catfish, maybe even a rainbow trout might be tempted by her bait. But while fishing would be fun, she had confided to friends her real motive was to get a suntan.

In a twist of fate, her brother had planned to drive her to the river, but the family's car wouldn't start. So the shy country girl decided to hike the four miles to the river. 

She never returned home. Late that afternoon, her mother reported her missing. As the investigation began, three residents who knew the girl reported seeing her walking toward the river. They told investigators she wore red shorts and carried a rod and reel. 

"Searchers beat through miles of rugged backwoods near here yesterday," the Nashville Tennessean reported, "without finding a trace of a pretty blonde teenage girl who vanished Wednesday. More than 50 persons searched on the ground and from the air for Anna Kelnhofer...National Guardsmen also checked an empty house at Devil's Backbone, a ridge along the Duck River a few miles east of Riley Creek Road. They also checked a burned house in a small field spotted by a CAP plane."

Coffee County Sheriff Dan Daniel seemed perplexed. "You can't help but think there was foul play," he said. "You look at it any way you want to, and you come up with the same thing." In addition to the sheriff's department, the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification joined the search.

The area Anna walked was sparsely populated. A few houses lay scattered along the road, but as it neared the river, craggy outcrops appeared in the heavily forested terrain. 

According to friends, Anna seemed happy one day and depressed the next. A few days before, she'd broken up with her boyfriend. Then she decided to quit school. Friends told cops she could be "moody" at times. Years later, someone would coin the term teenage angst, but in the early 1960s, her attitude seemed relatively normal.

Anna's father, Harold Kelnhofer, employed by the U. S. army corps of engineers in Seattle, Washington, was said to be flying back home to join the hunt.

For two days, the search continued. In frustration, Daniels called in the Tullahoma National Guard, the Civil Air Patrol, boy scouts, and dozens of volunteers.

The Rod and Reel

On the second day of the search, Fred Hickerson, of Tullahoma, a city of 12,000, reported to police that Arthur Roger Ivey, a local insurance salesman, had given him a rod and reel. Detectives soon determined it was the same one Anna had carried. Hickerson said Ivey had first attempted to sell it for $2.00 at a pawn shop, but was unsuccessful.

Cops quickly descended on Ivey.

As they interrogated the suspect, he quickly broke. The Tennessean reported that "Ivey said he hit the girl accidentally, then panicked, piled her body into the trunk of his car, and drove to the old military reservation." (Camp Forrest, one of the army's largest military bases during World War II, had long been abandoned and was now undergoing new forest growth.) Investigators went to the location where Ivey said he ran into the girl, but saw no skid marks or disturbances on or near the road. In addition, they found no damage to Ivey's vehicle.

Ivey led cops to Camp Forrest, eight miles from Tullahoma. There he pointed out the gravesite where he buried the girl. She lay in a shallow grave, covered by brush and trash. After finding the victim, detectives charged Ivey with first degree murder and ordered him held without bail. 

Dr. W. J. Core performed the autopsy. He stated that in his opinion "the pretty young girl died as a result of a fractured skull caused by repeated blows on the head by a heavy, jagged instrument...Dr. Core, who said he examined the body six and a half days after death, said he discovered brush and thorn marks on Miss Kelnhofer's legs which strongly indicated to him that she had been running through heavy brush just prior to her death." Dr. Core found no broken bones or other injuries to her body, except for the head area.

He said he could not tell if she had been sexually assaulted because of decomposition. 

The Trials

At trial, Special Prosecutor Walter "Pete" Haynes stated that only two people know for sure what happened. One is Ivey, he said. The other is Anna Kelnhofer, who now "sleeps in the silent city of the dead."

The prosecution theorized that Ivey was driving his insurance route when he saw Kelnhofer walking toward the Duck River. He offered the pretty teen a ride, which she accepted, then drove her to Camp Forrest. There, according to the prosecution, he likely made sexual advances toward Kelnhofer and she resisted. At some point, she escaped from his vehicle and fled through the woods. Ivey chased her down and struck her with a tire iron or possibly a rock. Then he hastily buried her.

Jurors convicted Arthur Roger Ivey of the first degree murder of Anna Kelnhofer and he received a sentence of 99 years. 

But in 1963, the State Supreme Court overturned Ivey's conviction and ordered a new trial. The court ruled that the presiding judge in the first trial "erred in allowing testimony on Ivey's moral character to be introduced." In the first trial, two women testified that they'd had affairs with the defendant. This testimony was meant to convince jurors that Ivey wanted to have sexual relations with Kelnhofer and her rejection was the motive for he murder.

In the second trial, Ivey's attorneys convinced a new set of jurors that he had indeed accidentally hit Kelnhofer with his car and, in a panic, hid the body. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to one-to-five years. 

Ivy was released from prison  in 1966.

He died in 2001, a free man.