Freeway Phantom - Did My Mother See Me?

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

On July 27th, 1971, 10-year-old Brenda Crockett did not return home from a trip to the grocery store. Hours later, Brenda called home to deliver a cryptic message. And then, the line went dead. Her body was discovered just hours later...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alphabet Boys is a podcast that takes you inside undercover investigations. In the second season, we've got an alphabet soup with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case. So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? No, no, no. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm's deal. Alphabet Boys, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm deal. Alpha Bet Boys.

On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So there is a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Yeah, like does the US government really have alien technology? Or what about the future of AI? What happens when computers actually learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers and government cover-ups, from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events.

Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Freeway Phantom is available each week on Wednesdays. To hear each episode add free and one week early, check out TenderfootPlus at TenderfootPlus.com. You'll listen to Freeway Phantom, a production of I Heart Radio, Tenderfoot TV, and Black Bar Metsville. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast and do not represent those of IHR Media, Tendrified TV, Black Bar Mitzvah or their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may not be suitable for everyone.

Listener discretion is advised. Well, you never know what to expect. To expect the unexpected, I guess. I mean, you never know what time you're gonna be called out for an assignment. It could be during the day. It could be in the middle of the night. Typically, if you're working day shift or second shift, you would just go ahead and work

whatever is on your caseload. But I remember getting a call, it was towards morning. It came over as what we call the signal 781, that was a death. It was warm morning and it was pretty dry. When I got there, I guess there was a crowd starting to come out. Arriving on a scene I was directed to where this child was laying on the side of the road. And just making mere observations, whatever I could detect at the scene, which wasn't very much at the time. It appeared that she was probably either dragged out of the car, thrown out of the car.

And I just called our ID section and they responded and did what they did. Typically taking pictures, and if there's anything else, at this area, I mean, there was no fingerprints to be taken or anything like that. Look for tire cracks. So there was really nothing to look for except the deceased person. Everything happened so quick and just the type of crime it was and the place where it happened and everything.

I'm sure this happened at some place else, but she was merely dumped in that area. Another hundred feet, it probably would have been in DC and I wouldn't have had any involvement at all. The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases. This child was laying down the side of the road. I wouldn't go, no way. I would come out of the house. Those first five murders should have been a huge warning bell for the police. We just want to know what happened.

This person must have saw that they was thinking that maybe it's just one person. He says, oh, they need to know. This is me. I thought they'd take with kitchen. I thought it was just a matter of time. I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. The Freeway Phantom had already claimed two victims, Carol Spinks and Darlenea Johnson.

Although Carol and Darlenea's bodies were dumped 15 feet from each other and were killed the same way, law enforcement still hadn't linked the two murders. They'd asked a potential suspect in Darlinia's death if he knew Carol Spinks. He didn't, so the two murders were still being treated as individual cases. But on July 27th, 1971, eight days after Darlinia's decomposed body was found, the freeway Phantom's

third victim would be discovered. I remember how she was clad. I remember how she was dressed. I remember she had some pink rollers in her hair and she had just a little outfit on a little top, but it was, it seems to me it was a matching outfit. There wasn't really that much to see there. As far as she was concerned, I just wrapped her hands in baggies and called for a corner to go ahead and transport her or was an ambulance, I should say. This is retired detective Hillary Zukolowski, who we heard from

at the top of this episode. He was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene. We weren't there very long because there really wasn't much evidence to gather. Maybe an hour. I don't think they shut down the roads or anything like that because the manner the way she was dumped on the side of the road. Brenda Crockett was four and a half feet tall and weighed only 75 pounds. She was the youngest victim of the freeway phantom. And like Carol Spinks and Derlinia Johnson, she was discovered right off a busy highway.

She was the child of God. She loved church. She was going to refrigerator to eat raw bacon. But you know, the pigs were better back then. She had a dimple up here in her cheek. you know the pigs sibling of my family. Brenda was my oldest sister. She was four years older. I have a twin brother who is deceased now,

and we had an older brother. We lived on to our place. It was a beautiful community to be honest. As a child, we did everything. We had the fire hydrants out in the summer time. We had arts and craft. We had a lot going on because one of the gentlemen that lived in the area, he worked for the Department of Wrecks, so he brought all of this activity to our street. And we was like a one-way street.

Brenda lived with her family in Northwest Washington, D.C., which was a cross town from the first two murders. Like the neighborhoods where Carol Spinks and Delaney at Johnson lived, it was tight knit. I briefly visited her neighborhood and found where Brenda's house used to be. So we're standing in front of the house where Brenda Crockett lived. She would have stepped down this step to leave her house for the last time. We see again this quiet, I would call it a sweet residential street.

And she walked just a few blocks. The blocks, it's five blocks, but the blocks here are quite small. This is not a New York block. And she walked just a short way to the Safeway and bought what she needed to buy and never came home again. How someone can snatch a little girl off the street like that. I mean this is not like where Carol Spinks and D'Aulini were living. We do not see aunties on the porch but but that could also be because the neighborhood is obviously flipped over. This is not a majority black neighborhood anymore. Still. Leading up to Brenda's murder, fear hadn't infiltrated this community. It could be that

Carolyn Delineas murders hadn't been connected or that they happened too far away for anyone here to notice. Whatever the reason, people here had yet to realize that there was a killer targeting young girls. If they had, things might have gone differently. It was neighborhood movie night on Main Street when Brenda headed to the store. All the kids in the neighborhood

could watch movies on the screen. So in the summertime, you remember it was daylight until about nine o'clock, PM. So my mom, my sister being older, the store that she went to was, literally two blocks around the corner, two blocks down the street. And because she didn't come back by the time

it was turning dark, my mom, we're looking for her. Because we were getting ready to watch the movies on the big screen. Brenda wore a white and blue plaid halter top with matching shorts and had pink rollers in her freshly pressed hair. A witness said Brenda had been barefoot. She was headed to buy food for Ringo, Rex, and Romeo,

the family's three dogs, along with Brad and typing paper. When my sister didn't return from the grocery store, my mom didn't realize that no one had went with her. And so after she didn't come back because it should have been literally a half hour, 45 minutes, my mom went looking for her, and she didn't find her. My sister didn't return.

Here's what Ritha Crockett, Brenda's mother, told the police about the night Brenda went missing as read by a voice actor. I sent my daughter to People's Drug Store to get type in paper. Also to the Safeway store located at 14th and U-street's northwest to get some dog food. This was about 8 o'clock. After a while she didn't return so I looked at the door for her.

I thought she went to the store with her brother and sister in a friend like she always does. I went outside and it was starting to get dog. I found my other two children, Benjamin and Bertha and asked them if they had seen Bren and they said no. All three of us watched the corner of 13th and W's streets to look for. I told Benjamin to return to the house to lock the door and when he didn't return I sent Bertha to get him. She came back and said he was going to stay and watch the street movie. She said he don't want to go mama, can I stay too? So I said yes. I walked down the save way and it was closed

and there was some boys sitting outside. I went back home to see you, she there, but she wasn't. I then asked my neighbor, Mr. Bundy, if he has seen her and he said no. I walked back to 14th Street where I seen a police car and asked them what to do when your daughter goes missing. They told me to stay in the corner that they were out of their area

and that they would have another policeman come and take a missing person report. I will stand there, I see Mr. Bundy walking out seven streets who I ran across the street thinking she had come home. Mr. Bundy said she was not home, but she called. At around 9.20 that night, the phone at Brenda's house rang and Bertha answered. The members and yours in the lightning house. The waiting in the car and carried me over to this house.

My mother's home. I'm seven years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. So my sister was ten years old. She was old enough and wise enough to remember a home number at that time. She called home and she said that somebody had picked her up and took her to Virginia. And they were gonna send her home in a cab. And I answered the phone the first time. I'm too young to even understand what's really going on.

So that call went out and then the next call came in. My mom's fiance at the time who became my mom's husband answered the next call. And he said, well, Brenda, if you tell me where you are, come and get you. She says, I'm in Virginia, this man picked me up and took me to Virginia. He's gonna put me in a cab and send me home.

She's 10 years old. At the same time, my mom was looking for her. And she was asking my stepfather, me, or whoever, at that time, then my mom see me, which led us to believe that whoever captured her had her in a vehicle or some sort and saw my mom looking for her. I thought is that mama is out looking for you, where are you? That's my thought then. Even now to this day, I look at the scenario

of where from DC, from where we grew up, to Maryland, to Virginia, because like we grew up at 12th Street, Northwest. And then I work at 12th Street, Southwest. And then I worked at 12th Street Southwest and then right around the corner, you just hit that bridge and you're at Virginia. So I'm like, was she really familiar with where she was going?

Did she see a sign that said she was going to Virginia? It's like all kinds of questions in my head. I got the impression that she was a little frightened and that she was like just thinking that whoever it was was gonna put her in a cabin center back home. She said, I'm in Virginia and he's gonna put me in a cabin and send me back home. This was new. This was a complete change from the Freeway Phantoms M.O. Although there had been reports of him calling the families of the first two

victims, this is the only confirmed contact. What makes this even more strange is that Brenda didn't call once, but twice. Theodore Caldwell was Rathus fiancee. In his statement, Caldwell said he met Bertha coming up the street. This was right after Brenda had called the first time. So Caldwell was aware Brenda had said a white man took her to Virginia. When Brenda called again around 945, Caldwell picked up the receiver. This is a voice actor reading his statement. Brenda said Mr. Ted, I say yes Brenda, where are you at? She said I'm in Virginia

in a white man's house. Axis she got over there. She said the white'm in Virginia in a white man's house. I asked her, she got over there. She said the white man put her in the car and carried her over to his house. I asked her, is there anyone there besides you in the man? She said, no. I told her, tell him to come to the phone and tell me where you're at and I'll come pick you up.

And she said, did my mother see me? I said, no. How could she see you when you're in Virginia? Asked her again, tell the man to come to the phone. I heard someone walking heaven, she said, really low. I'll see you and someone just cut the phone. There's no definite reason why Brenda went to the store alone that night.

Eartha thinks it could be because it was only two blocks from where they lived at the time, and the fact it didn't get dark until 9pm. But there was another person to see Brenda before she disappeared. Here's how one investigator described their interview with a witness named Paulette Johnson. Mrs. Johnson was asked if she could recall the night of July 28, 1971, and the incident involving Brenda Faye Crockett. Mrs. Johnson stated she was well aware of that evening 9pm of the night of July 28, 1971, she was walking from the quarter of 14th and U Street, northwest, heading south on the east side of 14th Street near the Safeway Store.

Just as she approached the Safeway Store, Brenda Crockett walked around beside her and passed just in front of her, heading toward the door of the Safeway store. Mrs. Johnson stated she knew Brenda Crockett by sight because the Crockett girl's father works for one of her boyfriends and she recalled that Brenda had been to her daughter's birthday party a few days before this incident. Mrs. Johnson stated that it was her opinion that Brenda Crockett could not have been taken from in front of the Safeway store by force without someone seeing and observing the incident. She stated that as she turned the corner on Wallock Place, she

lost sight of the Crockett girl, and shortly thereafter when she returned, she did not see her in front of the store. She stated that the time a lap seen after she last saw the crocket girl and when she returned to in front of the safeway store was approximately five minutes. If Mrs. Johnson's timing was accurate, this means Brenda was kidnapped within a five-minute window. This means Mrs. Johnson could possibly be the last person to see Brenda alive, other than the killer.

Police questioned Ratha about the abduction. Has your daughter ever told or advised you that men were trying to attice her into a vehicle? No. Did she often go to the store alone? Just the store around the corner, not the safety bus, self. Is there anyone you suspect? No.

Is there anything else you can add to the statement? No. In the podcast, Alphabet Boys, we take you inside undercover investigations. I'm Trevor Aronson. And in our second season, we have an Alphabet Soup, with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case. At the center of this story is Flavio. But who is Flavio?

I see movies with arm dealers on TV. OK, I'm going there for say, but I'm gonna die. When I land, there's Flavio in a suit. It's like follow me and he slams down his badge in my passport. And I'm like, uh, something's going on here. So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? Not, not certified grenades, a lot of ammunition.

It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm steel. Who are the cops? Who are the criminals? And is anyone really who they claim to be? Listen to Alphabet Boys on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Does the US government really have alien technology?

And what about the future of artificial intelligence? AI, what happens when computers learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers and government cover-ups from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science. History is riddled with unexplained events. We spent a decade applying critical thinking to some of the most bizarre phenomenon civilization

and beyond. Each week, we dive deep into unsolved mysteries, conspiracy theories and actual conspiracies. You've heard about these things, but what's the full story? Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your favorite shows. As we heard before the break, Brenda called home not once, but twice. Brenda had said that a white man abducted her in that she was in Virginia. This information seemed suspicious, and it raised a lot of questions. Was the killer feeding Brenda lies to tell her family?

And why? He was doing a lot of things to deliberately mislead the authorities. This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co-wrote a book about the freeway phantom. He says it didn't make sense that a white man would have abducted Brenda as she claimed over the phone. When we talked with members of the local community, they agreed that a white man would have stood out in the Congress Heights neighborhood since the area has always been predominantly black. Anything he had her say, you have to put under a microscope and go,

is he trying to throw the trail off in this case? I definitely think he was in terms of Virginia. I don't know for sure on his race, though. Very creepy. And if he was, imagine her knowing that she's lying to her family about this, that had to ratchet up her terror level. Yeah, it's one thing of somebody's holding you and they said, you could tell him we're in Virginia and you're in Virginia. You tell him, I'm white, because I'm white. But if they're telling you things that you know aren in Virginia and you're in Virginia. You tell them I'm white, because I'm white. But if they're telling you things that you know aren't true, you gotta be more scared. That just, oh, scares me to think about that.

Having Brenda call home was a new MO for the Freeway Phantom and it showed that he was starting to escalate. In fact, it was only eight hours or so after that phone call that Brenda's body was discovered. In the early morning hours of July 28th, 1971, Donald Ray Carter began to head home from work. He worked at the Safeway Bakery in Landover, Maryland, but lived in Alexandria, Virginia.

While he was trying to hitch a ride, he spotted Brenda's body in Sheffield, Maryland. Carter had the cab that had stopped for him, take him to Joy Donut Shop to call law enforcement and let them know about the body. After law officials were on the scene, the medical examiner declared Brenda's time of death at 6.55 a.m. Brenda was killed and disposed of in less than eight hours. It was really sad when we saw the pictures of her.

I was deeply moved because she's laying on her back and her eyes are open looking up. And it's on the curve of a clover-lafe exit. Blaine tells us he spoke with Carter. You know, he said it was a saddest thing because he said she's just laying there and he said I just thought maybe she's asleep. Maybe she's not feeling well, something along those lines and it turns out that's not the case. What's interesting too is you see I've tried with this her shoes are missing and the killer has taken shoes off several of the victims.

shoes are missing and the killer has taken shoes off several of the victims. That's usually a control mechanism. If you take someone's shoes, it's harder for them to get away or flee or whatever. And he may be keeping those things as souvenirs. Also missing from her were some pink hair curlers that she had. We know it was a fairly narrow window of time, so narrow in fact that it almost rules out when you know the geography of DC, DC being kind of wedged between Virginia and Maryland. The time that her body is found, first of the phone calls, etc. and when she disappeared, it would have been very difficult for someone to go anywhere but other than right across

the border into Virginia. If indeed the killer was there. The thinking that most law enforcement have had is that he had fed her that information to deliberately mislead the authorities. We just don't know for sure but you know the concept of a killer taking his victim back and then letting her call home twice is very disturbing. It's just incredibly creepy. The killer placed Brenda's body along the Prince George's County Maryland line.

Here's how the police report describes the scene. The body was viewed by this detective and it was observed that she was clad in a blue and white halter, matching shorts, white cotton underpants, and around her neck was an orchid color silk scarf, nodded, and a greenish colored quarter-inch cord attached to which was a silver house key. The body was rigor, and no visible trauma was present. The deceased was laying approximately five feet six inches from the curb side, flat on her back with her arms outstretched.

After the body was removed, he was noted that the ground was extremely dry under the deceased. However, around the body was wet. The Orcant Scarf was new, Brenda hadn't been wearing it when she left for Safeway. And this further added to the theory that the freeway phantom was redressing the girls. Brenda's body was taken to the morgue at Prince George's County Hospital. This is her autopsy report.

CAUSE OF DEATH was ruled to be a ligature and manual strangulation. She had been vaginally raped, and there were ring-like contusions around her nipples, suggesting they had been bitten. There was a small contusion in the left temple region of her scalp. She was fully clothed with the exception of her shoes. It was noted, no soil on her feet. On her head were pink plastic hair curlers, several of which were missing. A few small hairs of Negroid origin were found on the palm of her right hand,

but were too small for any sort of comparison. Synthetic black textile fibers were recovered from her scarf. Green synthetic fibers were also recovered from her blouse, shorts, and panties. Blood mixed with semen was found in the crotch of her panties, but could not be conclusively grouped. Brenda's case is different from Carol and Arlenia's in two major ways. One is the time period between capture and killing.

Carol was kept alive and even fed for about a week. Authorities weren't able to determine an exact time of Darlinia's death due to the decomposition of her body when she was found. However, they did confirm that it was a shorter interval than the previous murder. The second difference, as we've mentioned, are the phone calls.

But outside of that, the similarities remain, how the girls were killed, the killer's dump site, and the washed feet. Although Brenda had been barefoot, her feet had still been washed. But there's another detail in Brenda Crocket's case that wasn't initially noticed. This is Remaine Jenkins, the retired Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant, who investigated the freeway phantom cases. We visited her at her home.

What do you think of her hair? Her hair is been washed. Thank you very much. See, men didn't notice that. I noticed that. And me also, the hair has been washed in water some way. Yeah. So, it got tied up.

It is. And her sister said their hair had just been done. They had just been pressed and curled and put on rollers and look at it now. She's been in water. But the guys didn't notice that. I knew that when I saw that picture. Here's what Bertha Crockett has to say about her sister's hair being wet. When they found her, I think her hair was wet with the rollers in it.

If that's the case, I think he would have tried to remove evidence. If you're going to wash your victims, you're removed trying to remove evidence. And you know, as black women, we know to wet hair. I can't ever remember my hair back then, but I have one picture of her at Easter and her hair was cute. So I guess we would have had to impress and impress and curl back then. In the 70s it met shampoo blow dry and curl on the stove blow dry and curl on the stove and press and roll up with rollers. None of this, I don't remember curling eyes, I don't remember flat eyes, I don't remember any of that, it just be you press it with the

straining comb on the stove and you roll it up with some grease. Reports also showed the Negroid head hairs in Brenda's right palm were not hers. And for the third time now, green rayon fibers were found on the body. Here's Blaine Parto again. So we now know for sure she's linked to Carol Spiggs. So at that point, Lawn law enforcement knows they've got somebody who's doing this. And more importantly, those fibers are showing up under their clothing. If you think about it from perspective of what's happening, if you get your victim to disrobe because you're going to sexually assault them or you disrobe them. If you're putting their clothes

on the source of those fibers, you're still kind of laying clothes on, let's say it was a green blanket on a bed. When you're throwing the clothes on there, the fibers are still going to be on the outside of the clothing. These things are showing up inside. And, you know, it's a real scary concept of what's happening here, as to how they're picking these fibers up and from what. The Maryland Police Department issued a reward for any information on the case, and while the police were searching for the killer, Bertha said the community changed. After that, the community became really strict. Like, I was in a short block. I mean, I'm talking like maybe a quarter mile,

not even that. When the lights came on, you better be in front of your home to go in the house. And our neighborhood, the community raised us. So if you did anything wrong, the neighbors told your parents before they even got home. So everybody was watching out for everybody. It was so strict and it was just what it was after that. And I think my sister's death is what sparked such a tight knit look out for everybody on their block.

And on the next block, I was on 12th place. So we had 12 street on the next block. We had 13th street. So we just kept a tight knit community after that. It was so sad though, because I didn't understand the restrictions that I had on me as a little child, but my mother didn't want anything to happen to me either. Here's an excerpt from the book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom by Wilma Harper. The death of Brenda had a traumatic effect on the neighborhood where she lived.

The resident said the area would never be the same. In contrast to the usual crowds of frolicing youngsters, only a few children were playing ball on the block after Brenda's body was found. An eight-year-old boy refused to go to the store for his mother because he was afraid he would be kidnapped. Neighbors and friends along 12th place, which is just behind Cardoza High School, describe Grinda as a bright fifth grade student at nearby Harrison Elementary School. Mrs. Eva Artist, a neighbor who cared for the children when their mother was at work said,

we usually have lots of games going on the street, but nobody's been acting right today. I think everyone is disturbed. But Bertha Crockett says the death of her sister had an even bigger impact on her immediate family. I know it took a lot on my mom though. I saw my mom just appreciate from that. But she just wasn't her stuff anymore. It's like life went out of her.

And so then that's when you say, well, why wasn't it me? My God, take that angel. Cause she had a going away better than me. Even that seven years old, you want to think that, like, I know her. I knew her. I didn't, you know what I'm saying? I didn't, I wasn't on her level because she had her own girlfriends, that friend, that

10 years old. I said, a whole school of girlfriend that left her. I went to the cemetery about a month ago, but I could not find her, and my mom is in the same place, the same cemetery, but I couldn't, so I will have the literally go back and ask them to show me the plots because it's been 50 years. To show me where my sister,

I know she's located in Hilltop Garden of Roses. That's the name of the place where they, you know, have her laid to rest, but my mom is in the same place and my mom is under a big tree, but yeah, it's sad that you know having assisted that I really didn't get to know because she got taken away at such a young age, growing up without a sister, and then like in my early 20s I lost my mom. So I mean I'll hear forever And so some things just bring emotion back. While Bertha and her family were grieving Brenda's death, the police had begun to suspect that her murder might be connected to Carol and Delinia.

And months later, those suspicions were finally confirmed when another girl was found dead. And the podcast Alphabet Boys, we take you inside undercover investigations. I'm Trevor Aronson. And in our second season, we have an alphabetsuit with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case. At the center of this story is Flavio.

But who is Flavio? I see movies with arm dealers on TV. Okay, I'm going there for the AI, but I'm gonna die. When I land, there's Flavio in a suit, it's like follow me. And he slams down his badge in my passport. And I'm like, uh, something's going on here. So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say,

can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? Not, not certified grenades, a lot of ammunition. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm's deal. Who are the cops? Who are the criminals? And is anyone really who they claim to be? Listen to alphabet boys on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Does the U.S. government really have alien technology?

And what about the future of artificial intelligence, AI? What happens when computers learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers, and government cover-ups from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events. We've spent a decade applying critical thinking to some of the most bizarre phenomenon civilization

and beyond. Each week, we dive deep into unsolved mysteries, conspiracy theories and actual conspiracies. You've heard about these things, but what's the full story? Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows. 16-year-old Stephen James Potopia was watching TV when he decided to go visit his friend Chuck. On his way to Chuck's house, he passed by a broken-down Pontiac on the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue, near a sign that said Upper Harbor, 12. Stephen said he heard a man Holler a girl's name and told her to cut the lights on.

He described the woman as young and white no older than 19 or 20. The man was also white and well dressed, with brownish blonde hair, glasses, and about five foot ten inches. Steven said he noticed the guy was staring at him. So when Steven was about 20 feet from the car, he jumped the bank to cut across the cemetery to Chuck's house. When he got there, nobody was home. So Stephen decided to head back to his house. This next part is an excerpt from Stephen's statement to the police. I didn't let them head at home the identical way I came. As I was walking up Pennsylvania Avenue toward Maryland, I started walking backwards trying to thund, hitchhike. I noticed a box sitting off the shoulder on the grass.

I walked over to the box and saw a glass in it. I turned and saw something in the grass, but right then I didn't know what it was. I walked up to it, but I didn't know if it was a man or a girl. I stood there a couple seconds to see if it would move. I took my right foot and kicked it two or three times and the body seemed to wiggle. I stood there a couple seconds and it felt the body under the ribs to see if the heart was beating. The body felt cold, and then something hit me.

Maybe it was dead. Stephen had found the body of 12-year-old Nina Mosha Yates, a sixth grader at Kelly Miller, Junior High. She was a well-behaved, quiet child, and now she was the fourth victim of the Freeway Phantom. Nina Mosha lived with her father and stepmother in the Benning Heights neighborhood in South East Washington, D.C. Benning Heights is about six miles from Congress Heights, a completely different area on the

other side of D.C. from the first three murders. It was Friday, October 1, 1971. Nina Mosha's stepmother had just given birth and was at the hospital with Nina's dad. About 7pm, Nina Mosha was given $5 and sent to Safeway to buy sugar, flour, and paper plates. The grocery store was located at 48.01 Benning Road, South East. That's the same road Nina Mosha lived on. Although the store was only about a block away, her father had instructed her not to talk to strangers.

According to witnesses, Nino Moshe made it to the grocery store, but she never made it back. Here's Victoria Hester, who co-wrote a book about the freeway phantom with her father, Blaine Parto. We know that for sure she was at the Safeway because the store manager confirmed. On October 1st, it would have been pretty dark at that time. It was normal to go down the street to a Safeway

at nine o'clock at night in DC at that time. It wasn't until the next day, October 2nd, that a Safeway employee found the items Nina Mosha had purchased. We know wherever she went, she was either forcibly taken, only because the bag of sugar that she had bought from Safeway was found in the parking lot of Safeway. So she didn't get very far. She wouldn't have left that bag of sugar if she was getting a ride home or getting a ride to somewhere else by someone driving by.

She would have taken that with her, which kind of leads us to believe it was forcibly, but at the same time with it being a well-lit parking lot, she would have screamed. She would have made some sort of noise in an area of she was being forcibly taken. So it gets kind of tricky in that sense. Because of her age, she was 12. Was she easy to convince to get in a vehicle? Just to me, it makes it look forcible since her bag of groceries that she went out to get was left behind. Another important thing about it was her body was found dry on wet grass,

so we know she wasn't killed where she was dumped, and she wasn't killed outside, or she would have been wet. She was wearing her clothes that she was wearing when she disappeared. The cause of death was known to be strangulation and she was actually assaulted. She also had fingernail marks on her neck, so either from being strangled or trying to fight back and getting marks on her neck. Nina Mosha was found in cut off brown shorts, a white sweatshirt with green lettering that spelled Randall Highland Hornets and White Zips 10 Issues. Autopsy reports indicated her esophagus was crushed.

Not only did Neenemotia have more wounds than previous victims, but the killer had accelerated his timeline. She'd left home around 7 pm, and her body was found around 9.15 pm. This means she was taken, murdered, and disposed of in roughly two hours. Like the others, green fibers were found on the body. Negroid hairs from a person's head were on her panties, brazier, sweatshirt, cut off jeans shorts, and shoes. At the time of her disappearance, Nina Mosha was wearing a sanitary napkin. Seaman was found in that napkin. Additionally, $2.91 and a grocery list were found in her pocket, along with two house keys attached to a string.

Near her body were several items, including a single woman's loafer. Police considered the loafer was dragged out of the vehicle with Nina Moshe's body because it was also dry. Remember, Darlinia Johnson was missing loafers when she was found. There were also drag marks from Nino Moshe's heels in the wet dirt.

The police report noted that tire tracks created by a small vehicle were found near the body and had been photographed. Later, another witness told police they'd seen Nino Mosha get into a blue Volkswagen with a yellow stripe down the side, headed in the direction of the Safeway. The witness assumed it was her mom since she drove a similar car. Kind of sent a wild goose chase on the Volkswagen issue with the witness thinking that they saw

her get into a Volkswagen. It kind of created this, well now we got to find this car. That happens to be one of the most popular cars right now. And it really went nowhere. It's kind of unfortunate. It's nice that the witness thought they saw something about the same time. It created a lot of misleading information about who they were looking for. And it wasted a lot of police time running all these plates and trying to identify all these cars. Later investigators interviewed Stephen again.

This time he added to his statement. The following is from that report. He advised he furnished what he thought was the full facts of what he had seen that evening, but he has since recalled he had seen another car in the vicinity of where he discovered the body. Potopia related after he left his residence and turned east toward Washington, DC on Pennsylvania Avenue in the right-hand lane. He observed a Volkswagen in the Westbound lane. lane. He observed a Volkswagen in the westbound lane. This Volkswagen pulled off onto the side of the road and parked about 25 feet west of where Potopia discovered the body. Potopia looked back after he had seen the car park and observed two men get out of the Volkswagen, a white from the driver's

side and a negro man from the passenger side. The two men walked along the side of the road, a short distance, and then went down the embankment, and she no longer thought anything about it. Potopia then crossed the Westerly Lane, the median, and then in the Westerly Lane observed the other car with the hood up, which he had put into the signed statements. The car with the hood up belonged to the young couple we heard earlier. Police were now investigating two sets of individuals, one a young Caucasian couple, the other a black man and Caucasian man, but this didn't last long. Shortly after the news broke about Nina Moshe Yates,

a witness came forward. Here's what James Richard Lloyd told police as read by a voice actor. I was with Jay Robinson in his 1971 Pontiac Le Mans, which is brown in color, and we were coming from the Fairfax Village in Washington, DC. Jay had a noise coming from the engine, so we stopped at the lung pins of media, Avenue just passed the big gate to the cemetery. and we were coming from the Fairfax Village in Washington, DC. Jair had a noise coming from the engine,

so we stopped at the Long Pins of Mania Avenue just past the big gates to the cemetery. We got out and opened the hood. Jair was trying to find where the noise was coming from. About that time, someone walked past us. I first saw him walking up the road as we pulled off. He was walking toward DC. While we stopped, I saw two cars

stopped along the road in front of us about a hundred yards up the road from us. They were close together, but I don't know what type of cars they were. We got back in our car and drove off. James told police he came to speak with him after Jerry's mother had read about the news. It had been only him and Jerry in the car when they stopped to just pass the entrance to the cemetery along Pennsylvania Avenue. He said he saw both cars the entire

time he and Jerry were pulled over. This was about three to four minutes. James also told police the cars were there when he and Jerry left and he didn't see anyone or anything else as they drove off. With James' statement, both sets of suspects were ruled out. Authorities were back to square one. There were now four young dead black girls, girls that were from tight-knit neighborhoods, places where the community kept an eye on children, places that were meant to be safe. Yet the police had no leads. Here's your main again. Whoever grabbed these young ladies,

grabbed them right in their own neighborhood, mean the most she hates, went to the grocery store in the 4800 block of Ben & Road. She's picked up and she's grabbed in the 4900 block. And nobody sees anything, all them people are down-cared when you go out there. You have East Capital Street there, it's always people,

because you're close to the district line people are doing shopping. She's grabbed at a time when there are lots of people out. Kids are out and nobody sees a thing because he fed in with the community. Nobody was suspicion. What happened to Nenemosia was also true in the case of Brenda Crockett. Both girls had been snatched in broad daylight. As Romaine has said, it's very likely the killer was somebody from the neighborhood. I asked Bertha Crockett if she had any suspicions

about who the killer could be. Back then, we used to have officer friendlies that came to our school and they got to know the kids. That means officers, they used to come to your school and make sure that the kids feel safe. Like right now, they have patrol officers or officers in the school to make sure kids are not doing the violence stuff that they've been doing lately.

But back then, they were called Officer Friendlies. And they would come to your school and have like little conversations with you. And it always made me feel like an Officer Friendly was somebody that saw different girls and he selected them. Next time on Freeway Phantom. DC had never had a serial killing before, and so it wasn't something that you ever get used to, but it wasn't something they were familiar with. The fourth body that brought more people in because where's the body found?

You're talking about PG County, right? You're talking about crossing jurisdictional lines, so then he is PG County coming into play. All of these girls were not from runaway families. These girls, they were good families. And if they do investigate, they don't investigate when it comes to black people. You know, unless there's something that's juicy. And all of a sudden, the guy, he comes out of the driver's eye

and he comes around the front of the car and snatches me. There's no emotion on his face, none. Fruer Phantom is a production of I Heart Radio, Tinderfoot TV, and Black Bar Mitzvah. Our host is Celeste Hiddley. The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Arbright, and Celeste Hiddley. Executive producers on behalf of I Heart Radio include Matt Fredjick and Alex Williams with supervising producer Trevor Young.

Executive producers on behalf of Tinderfoot TV include Donald Arbright and Payne Lindsay with producers Jamie Arbright and Payne Lindsay with producers Jamie Arbright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of Black Bar Mitzfa include myself Jay Ellis and Aaron Bergman with producer Sidney Fooves. Lead researcher is Jamie Arbright, artwork by Mr. Soul 216, original music by makeup and vanity set, special thanks to a team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tinder for TV and I Heart Media, as well as Black Bar Mitzvah,

have increased the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for their freeway fan of murders. The previous reward of up to $150,000 offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched. A new total reward of up to $300,000 is now being offered.

If you have any information relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department at area code 202-727-9099. For more information, please visit freeway-phantom.com. For more podcasts from our radio and Tinder for TV, visit the IHR radio app, Apple Podcast, or ever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening. Alphabet Boys is a podcast that takes you inside

undercover investigations. In the second season, we've got an alphabet soup, with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case. So you do personal security all over the world, and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? No, no, no, no. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm deal, alphabet boys.

On the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So there is a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Yeah, like does the US government really have alien technology? Or what about the future of AI? What happens when computers actually learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town?

From UFOs to psychic powers and government cover-ups, from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events. Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows. app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows.