Latest news with #RedheadMurders
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
TBI asks Tennessee high school students for help solving nearly 50-year-old cold case
The killer carried the body across the creek, along the mining road, out to the sticks. The killer dumped her in Elk Valley, an unincorporated area about an hour north of Knoxville off Interstate 75. It was the last week of July in 1978 when she was abducted, but she wasn't discovered until 1985. Only about 30 bones were left of her. "If you weren't from there, you wouldn't know how to find the spot where she was found," said Alex Campbell, a high school teacher from 2 1/2 hours away. He and his students are now involved in the search for the person who put her there. Local law enforcement, at the time, called her Baby Girl Jane Doe. She wasn't a baby, however. She was a 15-year-old high school freshman, just like some of the kids at Elizabethton High where Campbell has become known as the sociology teacher whose classes solve murder cases. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, stymied in their Baby Girl investigation for 40 years, have turned to Campbell's class for help. Campbell's students have a growing crime-solving reputation after a podcast (called "Murder 101") and a new movie (being developed by Spider-Man trilogy director Jon Watts) have focused on their cold case efforts. In the last few years, Campbell's students have helped solve the "Redhead Murders" case of missing girls that began in the 1970s and helped identify the killer, a man named Jerry Johns, whom they labeled the "Bible Belt Strangler." In 2017, Campbell had noticed his sociology students becoming uninterested in the waning months of the school year, so he asked them if they wanted to do some detective work. At Campbell's urging, the students began looking at the unsolved "Redhead Murders" case, in which about a dozen girls across several states were missing. Campbell's class not only linked many of the victims; they produced a profile of who might be the killer. They settled on truck driver Jerry Johns, who had died in prison. The bodies were usually discarded by the sides of interstate highways. Johns' DNA was eventually linked to a victim who had survived his attack. During one of their non-serial-killer semesters, the Elizabethton High students took on the case of Suzanne Johnson, who was serving 25-years-to-life for child murder. A babysitter in 1997, Johnson said she was watching a baby who died when the high chair fell over. Johnson said it was an accident. Police investigators said it was a case of shaken baby syndrome. The students found that the science behind shaken baby syndrome hasn't always been consistent, and has led to convictions being overturned. The students worked with the California Innocence Project and submitted their findings to both then-Gov. Jerry Brown and current Gov. Gavin Newsom. One of the missing girls the class looked at in the "Redhead Murders" case was the Baby Girl Jane Doe found in Elk Valley in 1985. In 2022, the TBI positively identified the Baby Girl remains as those of Tracy Sue Walker of Lafayette, Indiana. Since she wasn't discarded off an interstate, Campbell believes she doesn't fit with the "Redhead Murders," even though she had red hair. "She probably wasn't part of a serial killing," Campbell said. "This was not the work of a truck driver from somewhere along the highway. How did she end up in Elk Valley?" Campbell's class worked with the TBI to build a website called " (There is also a tip line: 1-800-TBI-FIND.) The students wrote her story from her first-person point of view as if she were asking people to help find her killer 47 years after she disappeared. The students made flyers, hired planes to fly banners, launched a direct-mail campaign and even tricked out a car with Walker's picture and a QR code. They focused their efforts on Campbell County, where Elk Valley is located and the bones were discovered in 1985. 'We hope that by sharing her story now, someone who knows something will come forward,' said EHS student Andrew Barnett. 'There are still people out there — even in Campbell County — who haven't heard her name or what happened. We want to change that. We want her story to be heard everywhere, in hopes that someone will come forward with the information the TBI needs to help solve this case.' The theory is that someone in Campbell County saw something or knows something about the 1978 murder. 'In cold case homicides, we often find that relationships and relationship changes are the key to solving a case,' said TBI Special Agent Brandon Elkins in a news release. 'I believe those types of changes may now make it possible for people in this community to speak up and give us the clues we need in Tracy's case. Someone out there is Tracy's hero, and I just hope they have the courage to come forward.' The TBI, which had always worked separately from Campbell's class, has now fully joined forces, apparently inspired by the media attention the class can generate. Gov. Bill Lee has also offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case. "The TBI saw they (the students) were doing quality work," Campbell said. "It's the most attention the case has ever gotten. If (the killer) is still alive, they can be held accountable." Walker's disappearance didn't receive much attention in 1978. She was last seen at the Tippecanoe Mall in Lafayette, Indiana. She had been dropped off with a friend at McDonald's, and she was later seen outside JCPenney. She was last seen getting into a car. The car was filled with a group of older men, who are believed to have been temporarily working in the area and to have left the state with Walker, the TBI said. She later ended up in Elk Valley, where she was murdered. The TBI said this group of men may have been well organized, and Walker might not have been their only victim. Walker's parents are both dead. Her brother, Randy, was contacted by the TBI when Walker's remains were identified. 'When Brandon called me with that information a couple of years ago, it was the happiest day of my life,' said Randy Walker in the news release. 'I never did forget about her. It was so hard not knowing.' This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TBI asks Tennessee high school students for help in solving cold case
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Yahoo
Was the Wetzel County Jane Doe the victim of a serial killer?
LITTLETON, (WBOY) — Beginning as early as 1978 and potentially lasting until 1992, the bodies of multiple women were located off of several highways in the United States, all sharing one unique trait—red or reddish hair. One of the confirmed victims was a West Virginia resident, 28-year-old Lisa Ann Jarvis, also known as Lisa Ann Nichols and Lisa Ann Fuller. In 1984, Jarvis was found dead in Arkansas and was described as having strawberry blonde hair. While other confirmed victims were found in Tennessee and Kentucky, it's possible the killer also made a stop in Wetzel County, West Virginia. On Feb. 13, 1983, an elderly couple contacted law enforcement to report what they first thought was a mannequin that had been thrown over a hill along US Route 250 in Littleton, as the area was known for illegal trash dumping. This mannequin turned out to be the body of a woman, and a possible victim of the 'Redhead Murders.' The woman has remained unidentified since, and is known today only as the Wetzel County Jane Doe. According to The Doe Network, the woman had been dead for two or three days, but had only recently been moved to the area, as snow had fallen in previous days and there was no snow on her body. Fresh tracks and footprints were also found near the body. 5 of West Virginia's most disturbing unsolved mysteries A possible witness was subjected to 'forensic hypnosis' and described a white male in his 40s who stood at roughly 5 feet 10 inches tall. An unnamed additional suspect was already serving a life sentence, but he could not be prosecuted without the victim being identified. A cause of death could not be determined and strangulation was excluded as a possible cause as there were no ligature marks or bruising on her neck, but suffocation could not be ruled out. The Jane Doe was described as having auburn, medium length hair and possibly brown eyes, standing at around 5 feet 5 inches tall and being between 30-45 years old. She had a scar on her index finger, double pierced ears and orange painted toenails. She had also recently been fitted for dentures, and may have been seen at a bar in Wheeling before her death. No clothing, jewelry or personal items were found. She was not suspected of being linked to the Redhead Murders until 2 years later. In 2018, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation linked the late Jerry Leon Johns to one of the Redhead Murder victims, Tina Marie McKenney Farmer. Johns was already serving time in prison for the aggravated kidnapping and assault of a woman who 'resembled Tina Farmer', which he was convicted of in 1987. He died while in custody in December of 2015. Although these deaths have been linked together by many, it has never been confirmed that they are connected. Law enforcement from multiple states noted that the cases had several 'dissimilarities' between them in addition to the similarities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
