Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Ruby J. Doss
Episode Date: July 11, 2022In 1986, a young woman named Ruby Doss is found strangled to death in the East Sprague area of Spokane, Washington. For decades, similarities between Ruby’s death and a string of other murders in th...e area send investigators chasing false leads. It seems like justice for Ruby is a lost cause, until a completely unrelated crime in another state blows the case wide open.  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-ruby-doss/
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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and the story I have for you today
is one that left investigators stumped for decades as they pursued numerous leads and
suspects, including one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. But that was
before discovering the truth was a lot closer to home than they ever could have predicted.
This is the story of Ruby Jean Doss.
A little after 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, 1986, police in Spokane, Washington receive
a call that a passerby has discovered a body in an open field not far from the East Sprague
area of town. Investigators are sent to the scene when they arrive. They discover the
body of a young woman, and they can tell right away that this is a fresh crime scene. In fact,
the murder happened so recently that they can see steam coming off the body in the cold
January air. Now, obviously, investigators at the scene can't officially rule a cause
of death then and there, but they do notice that she has been struck in the head by what
appears to have been some sort of blunt object. The woman is fully clothed, so investigators
don't initially suspect any sexual assault. Quickly, they identify her as 27-year-old
Ruby Jean Doss. There aren't many details around how they make this identification
so quickly, but I think the simplest explanation would be that she probably had some kind of
identification on her at the time, though I don't know that for sure.
So while processing the scene, police span out looking for any evidence related to her
murder, and about a block away at a manure pit, police discover a stray piece of wood.
They find earrings, a steak knife, a $50 bill, and a used condom. In the manure pit,
they also discover a few items of clothing that they believe Ruby had been wearing, specifically
a fur coat, a lighter jacket, and a black collar-length wig. They collect all of these
items along with shoe impressions found on the ground. To them, it looks like there was
some sort of struggle at this pit before Ruby was chased to where her body was eventually
found about 250 feet away.
Ruby's body is sent for autopsy while investigators start trying to get a better sense of who
she was and what happened to her. As I mentioned, Ruby was found not too far from the East
Sprig area, which at the time didn't have the greatest reputation, was kind of known
to be heavily frequented by sex workers. And as it turns out, although she had no arrest
record, Ruby was already known to vice officers in the area as a sex worker herself.
So detectives start asking around, trying to learn more about Ruby's last known whereabouts.
They learn that she was picked up by a client less than two hours before her body was found,
but it doesn't sound like they have any eyewitnesses. There are no description of the client or even
their vehicle. So police go and speak to Ruby's boyfriend, who tells them that they were living
together in a motel along with Ruby's five-year-old daughter, but it doesn't seem like he's
a person of interest in any way as far as the investigators are concerned.
What they learn is that it seems like the last person to see Ruby alive is a clerk at
a pornography store who says that Ruby purchased a single condom from him at about 9pm, which
I think investigators are likely assuming is the used condom that was found at the scene.
Meanwhile, Ruby's autopsy report has come back and shows that her cause of death was
actually strangulation, not the blow to her head that investigators initially suspected.
Even with all of this, police don't have much to go on. Like even the condom found
isn't much help because DNA testing wasn't really in a place yet to be helpful, so investigators
ultimately go to the press asking for help.
In an article published by the Spokane Chronicle just a few days after Ruby's murder, police
asked the public for any tips they might have that could help their investigation, but it
doesn't seem like that yields any new leads. And honestly, things are really quiet, even
after a $2,000 reward is offered for information a month later, but even that doesn't help.
And I think there are a number of possible explanations for this. I mean, we all know
by now that police don't necessarily have the greatest track record when it comes to
taking crimes involving sex workers as seriously as they should. I mean, that's true today,
but especially true a few decades ago when Ruby was killed. But it could also be that
witnesses themselves are less likely to come forward and talk to authorities if they're
worried about being implicated in or associated with sex work. Ultimately though, it's hard
for anyone to ignore Ruby's case because in November of 1986, another woman 30 year
old Mary Ann Turner is found murdered in Spokane's east side. Like Ruby, she was a sex worker
based in the same area. And like Ruby, she was found strangled. And then there are more
victims over the course of about 20 months after Ruby's murder, five other women are
found strangled to death in Spokane. Two of them, Mary Ann and a woman named Rochelle
English are sex workers. Another named Kathleen DeHart had worked at a topless bar and the
other two victims, Dorothy Burdette and Nadine Johnson don't seem to have any known connection
to sex work. Now investigators are clear that at this point, they don't have any evidence
to suggest that this is the work of a single serial killer or anything like that. Yes,
there are some similarities between the victims, but there are also differences in how each
murder was carried out. Like one of the victims had been sexually assaulted while that wasn't
confirmed in any of the other cases. And some of the victims were found outside like Ruby
while others were found inside apartments. So to police, the cases are distinct enough
that it doesn't really scream serial killer to them. But I know a lot of you crime junkies
out there are probably connecting some dots right now. Washington State, 1980s, a series
of sex workers murdered by strangulation, that's got to be ringing some Green River
killer bells. And you're not alone. According to Bill Morland's reporting for the spokesman
review, the Green River Task Force is interested in these murders, although they also don't
necessarily think the similarities are enough to say it's the work of a serial killer either,
much less their serial killer. And it's also important to remember that the Green River
killer primarily worked in the Seattle area, which is literally the opposite side of Washington
State from Spokane where these murders are taking place. So the Green River Task Force
ultimately stays uninvolved and these murders remain unsolved and don't even get a lot
of press or attention over the next few years. Although a couple of years later, there is
an interesting development in Ruby's case that catches the task forces attention. In
November of 1989, investigators are looking into the suicide of a Spokane County assistant
public defender named Dale Wells. So while looking into this, they come across this guy
named Terry Herrick, who runs a local motel. And according to Terry, he remembers Dale
coming to this motel and looking for Ruby about a week before her murder. Now at the
time Dale's story to Terry, why he was coming around looking for her was that Ruby had stolen
a wallet from a Spokane police officer and he was just trying to get it back. And not
like for any upstanding reasons, apparently he was trying to avoid word getting around
that this police officer had been with a sex worker. But Terry wasn't able to help him.
He told Dale that Ruby had been staying at this motel, but had recently moved to a different
motel on East Sprague. And that was the end of it. Even following Ruby's murder, Terry
didn't think it was anything significant until he learned of Dale's death in the news.
And that's when their interaction all those years ago took kind of a whole new meaning
on for him. And he called investigators with this information. Now another reason that
Dale feels like a very strong lead is because they learned that he was good friends with
a man named William Stevens, Jr. Like so close, they would often spend holidays together.
But at the time, William was also considered a lead suspect in the Green River killings.
Now in hindsight, we all know that Gary Ridgway was the true Green River killer, not William
Stevens, Jr. But at the time, this feels like too big of a coincidence for investigators
to ignore. And so Dale becomes their primary suspect and they begin looking into his possible
involvement in Ruby's death, or at least that's what I assume. It's kind of hard
to say because Ruby's case goes without any public updates for years, years that her
daughter is growing up without any clear answers as to what happened to her mother. And then
out of nowhere in March of 1996, this is more than 10 years after Ruby's murder, Kim
Baker reports for the spokesman review that a man named Robert Clark has been charged
with the strangling murder of Rochelle English. Now, if you remember, Rochelle was one of
the five other women who were strangled in Spokane in the months following Ruby's murder.
Though police still maintain that these cases are not connected. And it seems like maybe
they're not because he goes down for her murder. And that's truly as close as we
get to an update on Ruby's though he's never connected to Ruby's case. But in 2008,
they start to revisit that idea. What if these cases are connected after all? In May of that
year, Jody Lawrence Turner reports for the spokesman review that investigators believe
there could be a connection between Robert Clark's murder of Rochelle English and the
murders of Ruby Doss, Mary Ann Turner, Dorothy Burdette, Kathleen DeHart, and another woman
named Linda Lewis who was murdered in 1995. So now in 2008, all of a sudden they're
saying that these cases actually do share many similarities. Obviously the victims were
all strangled, but they also suffered head wounds and apparently most were sexually
assaulted. Now, I'm not sure if they knew this all along and just weren't telling the
news outlets like if this is information they were holding back or if something new is actually
found when they were reworking the cases. It's not super clear from the source material.
But either way, here's the scoop. While serving time for Rochelle's murder, Robert Clark
had confessed to the murder of another woman in Illinois. And I think police see this as
proof that at least Rochelle's murder wasn't an isolated incident. And so maybe this is
what got them to take another look at all of the cases. So like I said, one of the big
things that's standing out to detectives is that all of these women were strangled.
Detective Kip Hollenbeck tells the spokesman review, quote, the vast majority of the murders
are gunshots, knife wounds, and blunt trauma. Strangulation is not one of the top ways.
When strangulation is involved, it's common that it is the same person because they get
off on it for some reason, end quote. Now, this doesn't mean, though, that there's
any new evidence at this point that connects Robert Clark to these other murders. In fact,
in that same article, Detective Hollenbeck says their theory is purely circumstantial.
But still, investigators from Spokane visit Robert in Illinois to question him and see
if he'll confess to the other murders. But no luck. So without any physical evidence
or a confession, investigators seem to hit a dead end yet again. However, a couple of
years later in October of 2010, another arrest is made. And this arrest gives them the only
new lead that they can find. A man named Gary Trimble is arrested in Lincoln, Montana for
a probation violation. And during his arrest, he's asked to provide a DNA sample, which
gets entered into the national database. And wouldn't you know it? That sample is a match
for semen that was found at the scene of Dorothy Burdette's murder in Spokane. Now, of course,
everyone wants to know if this man could be responsible for all of the other unsolved
strangulations in Spokane, including rubies. And according to Angela Brandt's reporting
in the Missoulian, police are absolutely looking into that. After all, we know there was a
used condom found near Ruby's body, so maybe now, all of these years later, there could
finally be a match. But there isn't. Gary Trimble's DNA is not a match for the used
condom, and he's never connected to Ruby's death or any other of the murders around the
same time. And so once again, Ruby's murder and the others go unsolved year after year
passes without an update. Until one day, seemingly out of nowhere, Ruby's case blows wide open.
In January of 2015, down in Pasco, a city in Franklin County about a couple hours south
of Spokane, officials are investigating a police officer named Richard Aguirre for sexual
assault. Now, just like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA is collected as part of that investigation.
And just like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA is submitted to a national database. And just
like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA matches another sample found at a Spokane crime scene. Only
this time, it matches the DNA pulled from the used condom found near Ruby's body. Franklin
County officials notify the Spokane police right away and they start gearing up their
investigation and getting a better sense of, you know, who this guy is and how he and Ruby
might have crossed paths back in 1986. What they learn is that prior to joining the Pasco
police, Richard was a member of the U.S. Air Force. And at the time of Ruby's death,
he was actually stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, which is just 12 miles southwest
of Spokane. Now, eventually, Richard is notified about this DNA match. And although he denies
any involvement in Ruby's death, he does decide to resign from the Pasco police department.
It isn't until May of 2015 that authorities decide to go public with the new development
in Ruby's case. But first, they contact Ruby's daughter, Keisha, who by now is around 30 years
old. And they inform her of the development before any charges are filed. Now, even though
at this point, they haven't filed charges against Richard for Ruby's death, he still
has that sexual assault charge hanging over him, which he pleads not guilty to, and he's
released on his own recognizance. In an interview with the spokesman review, Richard's attorney
also maintains Richard's innocence in Ruby's murder. And he says, quote, it's really hard
to remember a lot of specific details from 30 years ago. But he believes he was an acquaintance
of Miss Doss, end quote, which like, no kidding, his semen was found in a condom near her abandoned
body. Now around the same time that this is all happening and he's being released, police
are talking to some of Richard's friends and family, and they provide even more details
about his life in Spokane back in 1986. Richard's sisters say that in the wake of the new allegations
being made public, Richard had told them he once had a sexual encounter with a woman around
the time of Ruby's murder, but he can't say for certain if that woman was Ruby, which
seems like the most like vague way to try and cover your own butt. Like, yeah, you know,
I had sex with someone in 1986, might have been her, who's to say, but one of Richard's
friends tells police something disturbing more than this, like, oh, I might have won
upon a time BS. He says that he and Richard would often visit East Sprague to frequent
strip clubs and then they would pick up sex workers. And Richard told him that he had
once hit a woman in the head and choked her, but he told him that he believed she was still
alive and moving when he left. So here's a fun question. Why on earth wouldn't this
friend go to the police with that information before now? I mean, even if Richard had been
adamant that the woman was still alive and even if this friend was unaware of Ruby's
murder, I mean, this is still a vicious assault that Richard described to him. So just we're
on the same page. This isn't the kind of behavior you just like right off. Ultimately,
this information combined with the DNA match is enough for police to feel like they can
officially make their move. And on June 2nd, Richard is in a hearing regarding the sexual
assault case when three Spokane police officers enter the courtroom and place him under arrest
for Ruby's murder. And the next day he is officially charged with first degree murder.
Just after Richard, a Gary's arrest, homicide investigators are conducting a search of his
property. And during that search, they see cell phones and computers. And that's when
they find something disturbing, something they truly didn't expect. There on Richard's
phone are thousands of sexually explicit photos and hundreds of videos that he had taken with
both men and women. And these aren't run of the mill sex tapes. According to Mike Prager's
reporting in the spokesman review, what investigators see on these recordings suggest Richard had
committed a number of other crimes, including rape and voyeurism. Investigators are able
to identify some of the people depicted on the recordings, but they actually publicly
call for any witnesses to come forward to confirm whether or not the acts captured on
video were consensual. And that call out works. Suddenly, Spokane police are receiving call
after call from both men and women who are concerned that they might have been recorded
without their consent. I mean, in one of the videos, a man in a motel room can actually
be heard fearfully saying over and over again that he does not want to be recorded. And
the man tells investigators that although the sex was consensual, he absolutely did
not agree to be recorded. And it's actually this video that ultimately leads to Richard
being officially charged with voyeurism on June 6th. Again, through his attorney, Richard
denies the allegation and says that any sexually explicit recordings were made with permission.
But this is really just the beginning of what investigators are able to uncover following
their search of Richard's phone. Through searches of his internet history, detectives
learn that Richard visited websites depicting violent rape. And they also are able to identify
and contact some of Richard's former partners who confirm that he would choke them during
sex. Nina Culver reports in the spokesman review that some of these exes say the choking
was light while others actually feared for their lives. As investigators are once again
deciding whether or not to add more charges against Richard, they learn from one of his
former girlfriends that he may have also engaged in witness tampering. She says that
she visited Richard at his house back in April following a police search of his home. And
there he told her that he was a suspect in Ruby's murder but denied any involvement.
And then he gave her $2,000 and apologized for his treatment of her when they were together.
And like this isn't enough, after his arrest, Richard was recorded on telephone calls with
his sister discussing this former girlfriend and encouraging his sister to find her contact
information. So police allege that he knows this woman is likely going to be a witness
and he was hoping to influence her testimony about their time together. Whether by getting
her to change what she was going to say or by getting her to not say anything at all.
So on July 1st, 2015, Richard's charges are updated once again. In addition to first
remurder and voyeurism, now he's also facing charges for tampering with the witness. And
as part of these updated charges, the prosecution also requests that Richard have no contact
with any members of the Pasco Police Department. And that's all part of this like little
side scandal that I probably should just mention briefly. Basically, the prosecution alleges
that members of the Pasco Police Department, former colleagues of Richards have been feeding
him information on the investigation. Now, Richard, his attorney and the Pasco Police
Department all vehemently deny this, but the prosecution remains firm and says that this
is something that happened. Unfortunately, though, that's kind of all the information
I can find on this specific incident. And it doesn't lead to any official charges.
And there are never any concrete details released around what information was apparently leaked,
if any. Now, a couple of weeks after this, so on July 15, Richard officially enters
a plea of not guilty. Although by this point, the first degree murder charge has been actually
reduced to second degree. And the witness tampering charge seems to have kind of been
dropped entirely, like it's not even mentioned. And I can't figure out like there are no
details in the source material about why the charge was reduced. It's kind of honestly
just mentioned as like an aside in a few articles, even though it feels like a pretty big development
to me. And just to note, even though this guy was a police officer, it doesn't seem
like the prosecution has been playing favorites with Richard. So I have to assume that maybe
they just felt like their chances of a conviction were better with a second degree charge. And
I don't know if this was like a negotiation between prosecution and defense or what. But
after that, after this not guilty plea, nothing seems to happen for months. That is until
March of 2016, when there's an update in the case. And honestly, it was a pretty big
decision. Richard's attorney files a motion to have the murder charge dropped, claiming
that he has evidence Richard wasn't even in the country at the time of Ruby's death.
Now, I mentioned earlier, prior to joining the police department, Richard was a member
of the Air Force and he was stationed near Spokane when she died. Well, according to
Richard's attorney, he actually didn't stay in Spokane. He was deployed to South Korea.
And to prove it, he produces a performance report that lists Richard's reporting period
at Osan Air Base in South Korea as beginning on December 24, 1985 and ending on December
23, 1986. In other words, this document says that Richard was on a different continent beginning
a month before Ruby's murder. Now, obviously, this is a huge development, but it's not quite
the rock solid alibi you might expect. First of all, you cannot ignore that Richard's
DNA was found at the crime scene. But also, the prosecution argues that a reporting period
at a specific airbase isn't the same as actually being at the airbase. In fact, they produce
medical and dental records showing that Richard received care at the Spokane base as late
as January 16, 1986. And not only that, but as I said earlier, Richard himself has already
mentioned to family and friends that he had a sexual encounter with a woman who may or
may not have been Ruby around the time of the murder. So even he has made claims that
don't line up with his alibi. Ultimately, this supposed alibi isn't strong enough for
the court to dismiss the case and both sides prepare to go to trial. Although the prosecution
does file a motion to have the trial delayed, which seems to work as it's more than a year
before there's another update on the case. Now, in that year's time, Richard is released
on bail and also exonerated on the unrelated sexual assault charges that led to his DNA
sample being collected in the first place. Additionally, the voyeurism charges are dropped.
Though according to Rachel Alexander's reporting in the spokesman review, investigators are
still investigating whether or not they're able to press any additional voyeurism charges.
And I think those are particularly difficult to pursue because it can be difficult to find
victims who are willing to cooperate due to the fear of being publicly exposed and embarrassed,
which we know is something investigators dealt with on this case.
Okay, so just to recap, at this point, Richard is just facing the second degree murder charge.
But then in December of 2017, he's not even facing that because suddenly the prosecution
drops the charge entirely. Now, obviously, the prosecution's case has always been hinged
on the used condom DNA sample. But according to a motion to dismiss that was filed by the
prosecution, quote, recent DNA results raise significant evidentiary issues. Therefore,
in the interest of justice, it is respectfully requested that the above named matter be dismissed
without prejudice. Okay, so these significant evidentiary issues aren't elaborated on in
the court documents. But according to Jonathan Glover's reporting in the spokesman review,
it may stem from the condom itself going missing at some point after the DNA was extracted
in 1989. Now, the prosecution says that the condom itself doesn't really matter since
the DNA was extracted and processed. But it seems that the issue at play here is that
without the condom, the defense isn't able to do their own testing. But the way that
the charges are dropped, it allows the prosecution the opportunity to recharge Richard in the
future if there are any changes or new evidence. And it just so happens that they actually
do plan to recharge him.
In September 11, 2020, less than three years after the initial murder charges were dropped,
Richard is once again charged with the first degree murder of Ruby Doss. Spokane County
prosecutors refiled the charges based on what they say is new DNA evidence. Now, initially,
it isn't really clear what this new evidence might be. Even Richard's defense attorney
seems to be kind of in the dark about what's going on. Like in an interview with Caitlin
Knapp of KXLY, he basically says that he's heard there might be new lab reports, but
he's never seen them, and they're not included in the court documents. So Richard once again
pleads not guilty. And while awaiting trial, it seems like he is never actually held in
custody. The trial itself doesn't begin until more than a year later, on November of 2021.
And that's when we finally learn more about the new evidence that has caused the prosecutors
to refile. According to Emma Eberly's reporting in the spokesman review, that used condom
that apparently went missing. Well, it actually didn't go missing at all. It was destroyed
during the testing process back in 1989. But the envelope that it was kept in was preserved.
So without the condom itself still around a test, investigators decided to try their
luck on the envelope. And when the envelope was retested, they found a sample of Richard's
DNA. The prosecution and the defense deliver opening statements on November 30. The prosecution
of course focuses primarily on the DNA evidence, as well as statements that Richard had made
to friends placing him with Ruby around the time of her death. And the defense again tries
to discredit the DNA evidence due to the missing condom. But they also continue to present
Richard's Air Force records as evidence. They say that he was in South Korea at the
time of Ruby's murder. And following these opening statements, the prosecution calls
to the stand a string of officers from both Spokane County and Pasco. Spokane officers
recount all of the major steps of their investigation since 1986. And during that testimony, lead
investigator Kip Hollenbeck discusses one of his visits to Richard's home in 2015.
And he says, quote, he told me he was married in 1986 to another member of the Air Force.
He told me he was upset because the Air Force wasn't going to send her with him when he
was deployed to South Korea. He told me he was deployed in February of 1986, end quote.
Additionally, the prosecution shows reports from a counselor that Richard met with in
April of 1986. And in those reports, the counselor notes that Richard arrived in Korea in late
February of 1986. So again, just to kind of put this all in perspective, Ruby was murdered
in January of 1986. So it definitely seems to further punch holes in the defense's argument
that Richard was out of the country at the time. And after Kip's testimony, the jury
hears from a Pasco police sergeant who had known Richard since 2005 when they first worked
together. And he tells the jury that when Richard was first suspected of Ruby's murder,
he and Richard had discussed the case. And apparently Richard told him, quote, yeah,
I knew her and she was alive when I left. Another Pasco officer testifies that Richard
told him he had sex with Ruby but didn't murder her. And after hearing from these officers,
the jury next hears from a forensic expert who worked on the case. And he goes into
further detail regarding the used condom and why they're more confident about it today
than they were even back in 2017 when the charges were dropped. She says that although
they no longer have access to the original condom, the envelope was kept and tested for
DNA and the swab found mixtures of both male and female DNA. Now back in 2017, the technology
wasn't there to accurately compare this mixture to Richard, which is why the charges were
dropped. But in 2018, a new type of testing became available that allowed the lab to confirm
that the sample was most certainly a mixture of Ruby Doss's DNA and Richard Agary's DNA.
But the defense presses her on some of the other details in this case. Specifically, they
ask if Richard's DNA was found anywhere else other than the used condom and its envelope.
Was it found on any of the other items at the crime scene? Was it found on Ruby's body
under her fingernails? And the expert says no, there were no other samples that matched
Richard's DNA, although there were other samples found on Ruby's body. But when tested,
they didn't provide a match with anyone in the system. Now this might naturally raise
some red flags, but the jury also hears from a store clerk who sold Ruby that single condom
shortly before her death. And he says that that was around 9pm or later. And we know
Ruby's body was found at around 10.30pm that night. There's just such a short window
of time for this murder to have taken place that it seems unlikely it could be anyone
but the person whose DNA was found at the scene in that condom.
In closing arguments, the prosecution, of course, focuses on the DNA match, the fact
that Richard himself told his friends and colleagues about his interaction with Ruby,
and whether she was alive or not when he left the scene, they argue that his actions caused
her death. And in turn, the defense points out that the DNA in the condom is the only
evidence linking Richard to the scene, and they also argue that the prosecution has failed
to produce any kind of motive for Richard to murder Ruby.
The jury begins deliberations on the morning of Wednesday, December 8th. By the time Thursday
afternoon rolls around, they are deadlocked, and they say that there's absolutely no
way that they can reach a verdict. And so, the defense actually files for a mistrial,
which the judge grants, and a new trial is set for March of 2022, although it was later
delayed until May. And that's where the case remains to this day, even though you'll
note it's way past May. More than 36 years have passed since Ruby's murder. Richard's
second trial did not get underway in May of this year, as expected, after some digging
into the court records, we've learned that it's now set to begin in November of this
year. We'll, of course, be keeping an eye on this case, and if there are any updates,
we'll be sure to share those on social, in our headlines episodes in the fan club. But
in the meantime, I can't help but think of Ruby and the many years that she went without
justice. And I think it's easy for us to hear about this case and think, well, there's
nothing that could have been done until Richard's DNA was entered into the system. And of course,
that was a huge important development. But I also keep thinking back to Richard's friend,
the one who heard Richard talk about violently choking and beating a woman. And he chose
to say nothing until after Richard was accused of Ruby's murder. We'll never know what
influenced that friend's decision to say nothing. We'll never know how it might have
changed the investigation if he had spoken up earlier. But we do know that Mary Ann
Turner and Kathleen DeHart's murders still remain unsolved. And we also know that hoping
and waiting for a magical DNA match is not the only way to solve a cold case. Someone
out there might know something about those women's murders too, and they're afraid
to come forward. Even if what you think you know is trivial, it is important to report
information like this, because what might seem trivial to you could be the missing piece
of information that leads to justice for people like Ruby Doss.
You can find all of the pictures and source material for this episode on our website,
CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at CrimeJunkie Podcast, and
we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
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