Murder 101 - Major Breaks

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Within six months of the press conference, Mr. Campbells class has identified four of the six original victims. The TBI holds a surprise press conference and names a possible suspect.  Follow us on Instagram @kt_studiosSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new kind of daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robay, and me, Simone Boyce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side.

I'm Johnny B. Goode, the host of the podcast, Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin. This podcast dives deep into the story of Ray Trapani and his company, Centratech. I'll explore how 320-somethings

built a company out of lies, deceit, and greed. I've been saying since a very young age that I. Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or whereverers in Hollywood are as old as the Hollywood sign itself. And while fame is the ultimate prize in Tinseltown, underneath it lies a shroud of mystery. Binge this season of Variety Confidential from Variety, Hollywood's number one entertainment news source and iHeart podcasts. Six episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into the secret history of the casting couch to explore the scandalous history of Hollywood's casting process. Listen to Variety Confidential on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A group of high school students. High school students.

High school students started a project to research a string of unsolved murders. Their research led to the identification of the killer. Investigators now have an answer to a 34-year-old question. Once you start getting a few tips or a few leads or a few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold anymore. There's a pretty good chance he's still alive. Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate. Redhead Killer Profile Male Caucasian 5'9"-6'2", 180-270 pounds Unstable home Absent father and a domineering mother

Right handed IQ above 100 Most likely heterosexual There is no profile of this killer except for the ones the students created. Just because some of these women no longer have people to speak for them does not mean that they deserve to not be spoken for. What if this guy's still alive? Like, what if he comes after us? I said, are you going to kill me? And he said, yes. This is Murder 101, Season 1, Episode 4, Major Breaks. I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at KT Studios

with Stephanie Lidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arno. The semester may have been over, but the mystery was just beginning to unravel. So what happened was the students had tried to bring the case back up. It had this media blitz. It had been featured all over the nation. They have a name for the killer. They have a way to separate these six out from the rest of the victims. And I think it just really got a media firestorm really going.

And it brought a lot of attention back to these cases. In the fall of 2018, with the Campbell County Jane Doe identified as Tina Farmer, of a lot of attention back to these cases. In the fall of 2018, with the Campbell County Jane Doe identified as Tina Farmer, Mr. Campbell got incredible news that officials were retesting the DNA of yet another case. I'll tell you what was so crazy is that we knew they were testing the DNA of the Knox County Jane Doe.

We knew that had been, they had collected the DNA because we talked to the woman who they felt was her daughter. So we had talked to her and I had talked to her and she had written us letters. So we had communicated with her. So we were just waiting on that DNA because the Kentucky State Police were like, we submitted it. It's going to be any day. We don't know when, but it could be today. The alleged daughter of the Knox County Jane Doe, a woman named Elizabeth Pilgrim spoke about how she felt about the whole situation.

I think it's her. The necklaces my brother recognizing, the birthmark, the stain, you know, the tooth, the scar, like it just fits into place. Not knowing is like the worst part. And then you got to keep being put on hold and put on hold. You know, it's heartbreaking a little bit. Knowing that it's her is a major part, but I don't think that's going to be fully all my closure. As it turned out, Elizabeth's mother, Epsy, was in fact the Knox County Jane Doe. You have two identifications in rapid succession. And now what happens is the media frenzy is going even more, right? Because, of course, people start calling the TBI and they start

calling the local police agencies and they start saying, well, what does this mean? Are we looking at other cases? Are these related to any others? Could she have been killed by the same person as somebody else? So within six months of the press conference, we now have four of the victims identified. Here's what we know about each victim according to Mr. Campbell's class's research. Mr. Campbell's class's research. On October 1st, 2018, the Knox County Sheriff's Office announced this woman had been positively identified as S.B. Regina Black Pilgrim of Western North Carolina. A DNA match was made between her and her grown daughter, who said her mother disappeared when the girl was six weeks old. Pilgrim also had four older children. A friend of Pilgrim's had noticed the case when the Kentucky

State Police posted about unidentified victims on social media sites, and she contacted the daughter saying she felt it was her missing mother. They both contacted authorities with the information. it was her missing mother. They both contacted authorities with the information. Espy was a stay-at-home mom. The husband came home for lunch only to find his wife missing and the youngest child crying in the crib. The husband went to authorities, but it appears it was not taken seriously as she had left the home many times before. The Greene County Jane Doe was not identified until November 2018 when officials announced that the victim was New Hampshire native Elizabeth Lamont. She was 17 at the time of her death.

Lamont had disappeared on April 6, 1984 after gaining leave from her youth facility to attend a football game at the local high school, but never returned to the group home where she resided in Manchester. She was identified through a DNA match. But identifying the victim wasn't the biggest break in the case. Mr. Campbell spoke about the investigation into Tina Farmer's murder. Once she's identified, of course, there's like this renewed interest and maybe we should look at things and they resubmit or maybe for the first time they submitted because DNA really wasn't much of an investigative tool at that time but they submit

you know some of the evidence from her case and in this case it was a blanket and they find dna on it that's in you know the database for offenders when they found out that he was the killer man the case just went crazy because now, instead of all of us having, all that we had was victimology, now we actually have a suspect. So not only can we look at the victims and say, where were they? When were they there? We can begin to look at the suspect and say, where was he? Investigators now have an answer to a 34-year-old question. The TBI says it knows who killed Tina Marie Farmer. In December of 2018, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigators, otherwise known as the TBI, held a surprise press conference.

Good afternoon. I am Jared Effler, the elected district attorney for Tennessee's 8th Judicial District, of which Campbell County is a part of. On January 1, 1985, an unidentified female body was discovered by the TBI to determine two things, the identity of the unknown female and who was responsible for her death. Yesterday, the results of that investigation were presented to the Campbell County Grand Jury. The Grand Jury found that the unidentified body was that of Tina Marie Farmer of Marion County, Indiana. Additionally, the grand jury found that there was sufficient proof to believe that Jerry Johns of Cleveland, Tennessee caused her death. Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in a moment. trends, inspiration, and so much more. Thank you for taking the light and you're going to shine it

all over the world. And it makes me really happy. I never imagined that I would get the chance to carry this honor and help be a part of this legacy. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. My name is Johnny B. Good, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin. Over this nine-part series, I'll'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin. Over this nine-part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Trapani. I always wanted to be a criminal. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money?

I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them. They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratech, was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was going to change the world. Until it didn't. I came into my office, opened my email, and the subject heading was FBI request. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out.

You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson. How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm in the world? Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Harvard plaque. Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents. She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentleys

all in the driveway. Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. That this queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes. About six million. Approximately eleven million dollars. Nearly ten

million dollars was all gone. Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry. She would probably have sex with one of her clients. Hide your money in your old rich man because she is on the prowl. Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Murder 101. I'm Brad Nealon, Deputy Director for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

We'd like to thank General Efford and his office for their efforts and support on this case. This hasn't been easy, but we never gave up. And that represents our commitment to all cases, even those deemed cold. Our agency exists so that guilt shall not escape, nor innocence suffer. And we're gratified that we can now provide some answers to the family of Tina Farmer. DNA was found on items that was analyzed. As a result, a DNA profile was entered into the combined DNA index system, resulting in a match. That profile matches that of Jerry Johns.

It's a major break. TBI agents say they now know who killed Tina Farmer in 1984 and then dumped that redhead on the side of I-75 in Campbell County. Investigators today named a suspect in the death of Tina Farmer. It could also be the break agents need to close a half dozen other murder cases. This is a key step forward in an investigation spanning more than three decades. Since these students started connecting the dots, the name of another victim was identified and TBI investigators now say Jerry Leon Johns is believed to be the killer of at least one of the victims. I know the killer behind an infamous three-decade-old murder in Campbell County. The TBI says Jerry Johns from Cleveland, Tennessee, killed Tina Farmer and dumped her body along I-75.

During the press conference, a reporter asked the connection between Tina Farmer and Jerry Johns. How did she come to know Mr. Johns? How did this end up happening? Is there any kind of insight you have on what might have happened to lead to this? We know that she had been at a truck stop near her hometown, and Mr. Johns was a long-haul truck driver, and we believe the connection lies somewhere in there. Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate. What jumped out to us immediately is that Jerry Johns was a trucker. So now that really blew the case wide open because you're not just working it from the angle of the victim, you're working it from the angle of the perpetrator as well.

During his investigative work on the story, Shane Waters was able to track down Jerry Johns' ex-wife. She provided shocking details about the man that would eventually become the Bible Belt Strangler. The following is based off of Shane's recollection of his conversation. Well, when I met with Jerry Johns' ex-wife, she tells me this story about when they first met, he was, I think, 21, and he was AWOL from the military, hiding out in her parents' attic. They were his neighbors, his parents' neighbors. So he was AWOL from the military, hiding out in her attic. And she was very young. I think she said that she was 12. and they end up having a sexual relationship. And when she told me that,

I had this moment where I thought he may be even more of a monster than I realized. So they end up getting married. He ends up getting her pregnant, and she's only at that point when she gets pregnant. She says she was 13. And she goes to her dad and she tells him that she's pregnant. And that is when Jerry Johns and her learns that they're actually half brother and sister. Because Jerry Johns' mom, she was a prostitute. And she slept with her neighbor's dad.

And because of that, Jerry Johns was actually his son. So when they learned that, her dad was trying to convince them to have an abortion, to abort that child. They refused to do that. to abort that child. They refused to do that. And so what they ended up doing was moving down to Texas with his mom for a few reasons. One, because she was so young, even in Tennessee at that time, that was not acceptable for him being over 21 and her only being 13. To clarify, Jerry Johns' ex-wife told Shane that she had inadvertently married and gotten pregnant with her half-brother's baby. To avoid punishment, the couple moved to Texas to raise their child. He ended up having to go to prison because of going AWOL from the

military. And during that time, she told me that his mom would take her to different bars and places and prostitute her out to help make ends meet. His ex-wife told me he developed a lot of resentment for his mom. Shane learned another seemingly important detail during his conversation with Jerry Johns' ex-wife. His mom and his wife was a redhead, and Jerry Johns was a redhead. Over the years, we learned that Jerry Johns had been arrested for a variety of infractions, everything from auto theft, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing an officer, and all the way to arson. So during our research, we were able to find what a lot of law enforcement and medical officials said about Jerry Johns. And let me tell you, the things that we read, it was just chilling how accurate they would come to be.

Johns is conniving. He's a manipulating type of individual whose own self-interest has played a large part in his arrival at this situation. Now, Jerry Johns is viewed as immature, dissocial individual who admits to the use of depressants and hallucinogenic drugs. He has demonstrated a pattern of having escaped from the brig at Camp Pendleton and then escaping from an armed guard and plotting to escape from a county jail. Mr. Johns demonstrated inability to profit from experience, making him a prime candidate for continued criminal activity. He is considered by this writer to be criminally

oriented and a good prediction would be that this man will continue to be involved in law violations for a number of years to come. It is believed that Johns is just beginning a long career as a law violator. It is this writer's impression that Johns is capable of serious crimes. However, it is noted that this opinion cannot be documented. It should be noted that he is considered a definite escape risk. noted that he is considered a definite escape risk. Johns is a very immature and responsible individual with a hot temper. He openly verbalizes anger and hostility toward authority figures. His prognosis for community adjustment is guarded. The TBI's press conference revealed an update that would change the investigation. Obviously the most challenging thing for me is just the fact that we're not able to charge this individual because he's already deceased.

He died in prison in 2015 serving time for the attempted murder of another red head. Despite knowing her killer, agents say they can't charge him. The suspect died four years ago. Jerry Johns was serving time for trying to kill someone else. Both women had red hair and he tried to kill them in the same way, leaving their bodies on the side of the interstate. Jerry Johns died in prison in 2015, where he was serving time for the attempted murder of another redheaded woman, a woman named Linda. More on her later. Had Mr. Johns been alive at the time the case was presented to the grand jury yesterday,

he would have been charged for the first-degree murder of Tina Marie Farmer. We are extremely disappointed that we're not able to prosecute Mr. Johns. Jerry Leon Johns is dead, so they can't have a trial for a dead man. But the best thing they could do to consider the case closed was to take the information they had to a grand jury. And if the grand jury returned a true bill, then they would consider this a closed case. When you go to a grand jury, they either return what's called a true bill if they feel there is enough evidence to proceed to a trial, or they return a no bill where there is not

enough evidence that they think it should proceed to a trial. And then once that is returned, it's up to the DA's office to decide if they want to continue with charges. So it has happened at times that a true bill has been returned and the DA did not decide to take it to trial. That, for example, happened in the JonBenet Ramsey case, in case you're curious. case, in case you're curious. But normally that is why DAs take it to a grand jury to see if a jury of the peers would think that was enough evidence to go ahead and move forward with the trial. That's what they did in the Tina Farmer case and they could presumably do that again in some of these other cases as well. Getting a true bill from a grand jury, especially against someone who's already dead and they can't be punished in any way, may not feel like a priority

for maybe law enforcement, but for these families to know who is responsible for taking their loved one away, that would be very important for them. And then of course also we have two victims that have not even been identified yet, so continuing to work on those cases and get their identifications would be very important for those families as well. The TBI's press conference also led to more questions. There's people who have drawn connections between farmers, murder, and others. Is this potentially the person who did all of these crimes? We're open to options on that. We're still looking

into other possibilities on other cases. Right now, I can't tell you with any definitive proof that he's involved in any other cases. Despite Mr. Campbell's class having just presented their findings months earlier that helped lead to Tina Farmer's identification, the TBI made no mention of them during their press conference. I'd like to recognize Special Agent Brandon Elkins and Intelligence Analyst Amy Emberton for their work on this case over the years. Agent Elkins has been working this case for the last 10 years. He was assigned the case as a detective while working for the Campbell County Sheriff's Department and continued to work on the case after he was hired by the TBI.

In 2016, Agent Elkins resubmitted evidence in this case to the TBI Crime Laboratory for examination. As a reminder, Mr. Campbell's students presented their findings in May of 2018. In August 2018, Agent Elkins was made aware of Athena Marie Kenneth McKinney Farmer, who was reportedly missing from Indiana. Ms. Farmer matched description of the unidentified female found in Campbell County. TBI intelligence analyst Amy Emerton was able to track down a fingerprint card on Farmer from the early 80s. Those fingerprints were compared against the post-mortem prints of the Campbell County Jane Doe,

resulting in a positive match. Since that time, Agent Elkins has been working diligently to put the missing pieces of this case together. This is a perfect example of how determination combined with traditional police work and modern day science can lead to major developments in cold cases. We have more cases like this to pursue and we will pursue them as time and resources allow

because we believe justice demands it. The TBI did all they could to make sure that Alex and I did not show up to that press conference. So what happened was, late the night before the press conference that the TBI was putting together, they put out a little thing to the local media in Tennessee, letting them know that early the next morning, I think it was like at eight o'clock, there was going to be a press conference in regards to

Tina Farmer's case. Well, one of the local reporters who still have my number called me and to let me know. And he's like, this is very unusual that they did this. But he's like, I have a feeling that it's to keep someone from coming there. And I was like, well, I wonder who that is. So I called Alex to let him know. And he's like, well, I'm going to try to go. And so Alex was able to maneuver himself to be able to get there in time the next morning to get to this press conference. They get to the end, they allow people to ask questions, so then I hear a very familiar voice. Thanks guys.

Thank you. Will those documents be made available to the public? Yes, our PIO has a copy of those and that's like public record at this time, and she will distribute those at the conclusion of this conference. Okay, and do you know the name of the family members that you spoke with, that doesn't include her sister, Liza Plummer? That's a question for Agent Alkins. I don't feel comfortable releasing that information right now.

Let's stop here for another quick break. about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more. Thank you for taking the light and you're going to shine it all over the world. And it makes me really happy. I never imagined that I would get the chance to carry this honor and help be a part of this legacy. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. My name is Johnny B. Good, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin. Over this nine-part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Trapani. I always wanted to be a criminal.

If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money? I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them. They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratech, was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was going to change the world. Until it didn't.

I came into my office, opened my email, and the subject heading was FBI request. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out. You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson. How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm in the world? Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Abusers in Hollywood are as old as the Hollywood sign itself. And while fame is the ultimate prize in Tinseltown, underneath it lies a shroud of mystery. Binge this season of Variety Confidential from Variety, Hollywood's number one entertainment news source and iHeart podcasts. Six episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into what lies beneath the glitzy image of Hollywood's golden age and all the sex, money and murder that's been swept under the rug for decades. Using the Variety archives, each episode offers a rare glimpse into little-known casting couch stories that have long lived in the shadows. So join us as we navigate the tangled web of Hollywood's secret history with host Tracy Patton, along with expert Variety reporters and correspondents,

as they discuss the secret history of the casting couch to explore the scandalous history of Hollywood's casting process. Listen to Variety Confidential on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Murder 101. Murder 101 end this here, everyone have a good day. And they all walk out, and as they walk out, the director walks up to Alex, and he's like, you must be with the podcast group. And Alex is like, oh, I'm with the students,

but yeah, we work with Shane with the podcast. And it was a very weird confrontational moment. And Alex leaves, and he gets back to the school but there was a threat that came to him from the director of the TBI that basically told us that we needed to back off or basically or else which is crazy to me like why why are they scared of some high school students who are just trying to help spread the word of what happened to these women and to help prevent it from happening? Like, nowhere have we tried to tarnish the reputation of TBI. Like, nowhere did any of us deserve to be threatened. And to be honest with you, I'm not sure Alex will want to tell you about that threat because it did scare us. But I'm a firm believer of sharing these things and talking about it.

We've reached out to the TBI and they've declined to participate in this podcast. Maybe it's an ego thing. Maybe they just have these huge egos and they are so scared of people thinking that this little podcaster in Indiana and these high school kids did something that they couldn't do. Or maybe that they are worried that it's going to look bad on them because they, for so many years, didn't work on the case. You know, because it did sit with them for so long. You know, they could have worked on this for all this time, but no one did. I mean, look, they're the cops. They test the DNA. They get the fingerprints.

They go knock on the doors. They do very important work that, you know, the students can't do. But, you know, keeping this in the media spotlight and out there in the public and, you know, on true crime websites and blogs and podcasts, like that is actually how they got the tip about Tina Farmer from a woman who was looking at these true crime missing persons blogs. So we know that that's keeping it out there. Just kind of seems disingenuous to say, you know, we want the public to help us. And then you have these people that have probably worked harder than anybody except law enforcement, and they're not really recognized for that help that they request.

So much had happened, and we had so much new information to look at. It seemed like the perfect time to dive back into these cases. We really just needed to look at all the information kind of trickled out over the last five years, put that together and see, you know, are there some of these victims that need to be excluded? Redhead victims, yes, but maybe not victims of the Bible Belt Strangler. Or maybe there's some new victims that need to be included. Lots of new information had come out and it needed to be reanalyzed in light of these kind of new developments. I mean, there's still victims out here that have not been identified. So there's still families that do not know what happened to their loved ones.

We also find out that maybe we need to relook at our list. So our list of six, for example, we just used open source information. We had nobody on the inside. The police department's given us the information. source information. We had nobody on the inside. The police department's given us the information. So as the heat began to get turned back up on these cases, more information comes out. That needs to be investigated. This class did this work four or five years ago, but I have students now that could do the work too and may want to do the work.

And I'm sitting here in the back of my mind thinking I've already got the project. I know exactly what we would do and where we would pick up. More on that next time. Murder 101 is executive produced by Stephanie Lidecker, Alex Campbell, Courtney Armstrong, Andrew Arno, and me, Jeff Shane. Additional producing by Connor Powell and Gabriel Castillo. Editing by Jeff Twa and Davey Cooperwasser. Music by Vanacore Music. Murder 101 is a production of iHeartRadio and KT Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or, and so much more. I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys

are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share. Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. I'm Johnny B. Good, the host of the podcast Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin. This podcast dives deep into the story of Ray Trapani and his company, Centratech. I'll explore how 320-somethings built a company out of lies, deceit, and greed. I've been saying since a very young age that I was going to be a millionaire. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money? I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme.

Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Abusers in Hollywood are as old as the Hollywood sign itself. And while fame is the ultimate prize in Tinseltown, underneath it lies a shroud of mystery. Binge this season of Variety Confidential from Variety, Hollywood's number one entertainment news source and iHeart podcasts. Six episodes are waiting for you right now to dive into the secret history of the casting couch to explore the scandalous history of Hollywood's casting process. Listen to Variety Confidential on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.