199. Backwoods Horror: The Appalachian Serial Killer Caught by Teenagers

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Exclusively for new users of Rover, use code HEARTSTARTS20 for a $20 discount off your first booking. Valid only on eligible bookings. Offer expires January 24th, 2027. Welcome back to another episode of Heartstars Pounding. As always, I'm your host, Kaitlin Moore. We are now officially moving out of spooky season into the rest of the year. I truly can't believe this year is already almost over. It's both flown by and has also been the longest year of my life. I guess having a baby really does that to you. The other day, my baby was actually standing without holding onto anything. And I was like, oh, so you're a grownup now. Got it. Got it, got it, got it. Cool, cool, cool. I spent a lot of time, though, thinking about the programming that I wanted to do for the rest of the year. And I'm really excited to share that with you guys. We have a lot of great episodes coming up. A lot of year-end reviews, like big mysteries that were solved this year, cold cases that were solved this year, even the most viral and unexplained paranormal encounters of the year. I think you guys are gonna really, really enjoy it. But today, I wanna share with you a story that I actually found while I was looking up scary things that have happened in Appalachia one night at 2 a.m. It's a story about how bodies kept turning up on the side of the road in Appalachia in the 80s. Police pretty much wrote it off, but almost 40 years later, a high school class noticed something that no one else had. And as always, if you wanna join me over on Patreon, you can sign up at the $5 tier and we'll send you a sticker after three months. And if you sign up for three months at the high council tier, we're gonna send you a limited edition Rogue Detecting Society mug. And you can also listen to our most recent bonus episode that we released on terrifying trucker encounters. You're not gonna wanna miss it. But for now, let's get into the episode. This story starts like many Heart Starts Pounding stories in the dark backwoods of Appalachia. There are legends about what lurks at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, eyes in the trees that watch you, a whistling song to lure travelers off of the path. Well, 40 years ago, a different kind of prowler stalked the dark woods in all too human terror. It's the morning of April 1st, 1985. Two men are ambling along a back road in their pickup just outside of Gray, Kentucky. It's a place that's so small, it's technically not even a town. It's just a dot on the map, lucky enough to have a post office. These men are scavenging. They're looking for discarded appliances on the side of the road that they can take home. The town doesn't have a proper junkyard, so locals have turned the roadside into their own dumping ground. Their truck rumbles down Highway 25, when all of a sudden, they see it. Jackpot. In the middle of the heap of discarded appliances stands a white Admiral refrigerator. It's an older model. It's a little dinged up, but they can strip it for copper and make some cash. They scramble down to inspect it. It definitely hasn't been here long. There was rain the previous day, and there's fresh dirt on the metal handle. Without any ceremony, they yank on that handle, springing the door free, and they freeze. Any experience, any excitement they had about this find has dried up, because what they see inside is a woman's body. Knox County authorities arrive on the scene a little after 9 a.m. They dusted the refrigerator for prints, and they searched the area for any clues as to who the woman was, what happened to her, and how she ended up there. Nothing at the scene identified her, though. She was a Jane Doe. They could see that she was naked, except for short white socks. She wore two on each foot, and she also wore two gold necklaces, one with an eagle pendant and the other a heart. She was petite, under five feet tall, about 100 pounds, and had reddish auburn hair. The police found a pair of boots in the junk pile that might have belonged to her, but it was only a guess based on the shoe size. They found nothing else, though, that might help identify this woman. And the coroner wasn't any more successful in answering what had happened to her. The only thing he knew for certain was that she was a woman. was that she had been asphyxiated. But how was a total mystery. There were no marks on her neck to imply strangulation, no broken blood vessels around her nose that indicated she had been smothered. Now, it was possible that she suffocated inside the sealed refrigerator, but there were no scratch marks on the inside of the door like she had tried to escape. So the coroner figured that she was either incapacitated when she was placed inside, or she was already dead. A toxicology screen showed no drugs or alcohol in her system, though. This whole situation was baffling. And not just for the officials that were grasping at straws in their investigation. The surrounding community was deeply shaken by the gruesome discovery. In an attempt to identify her, police released a post-mortem photograph of Jane Doe's face in the local newspaper, but no one recognized her. I mean, of course they didn't. This was a really small town. Everyone knew everyone. If she was from around here, someone would have spoken up the day that she was discovered. And the article also listed some identifying marks. There was a small mole on her neck, a birthmark on her left ankle, stretch marks on her abdomen that suggested she had given birth. She was probably a mother. But without an identity, there was not much the police could do to solve her murder. They only had one bare scrap of a lead. There was a report that there was a red-haired woman at a truck stop off of I-75, trying to hitch a ride to North Carolina. She was last seen around 2 a.m., six hours before Jane Doe was found in the refrigerator. If that was Jane Doe, she was probably picked up by her killer. It's not enough to solve the case, not by a long shot, but it's at least something. And this piece of information actually gives the investigators pause because in April of 1985, their Jane Doe isn't the only woman linked to I-75. See, over the last six months, nearly a dozen women had been found murdered alongside major highways, four of them on I-75. And some of these women had been found within a few miles of each other. They were all white, petite, young, and all of them had red hair. Now, this suggests the unthinkable, that there is a serial killer who is a serial killer who is a serial killer down in Appalachia. The murders eventually got the name the Redhead Murders. Now, Steve Watson, with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, hated that nickname when he started looking into the murders. But despite his personal feelings, that name had stuck. And the public was now really wanting answers. So on the morning of April 24th, 1985, Watson sat at the head of a conference table in the TBI office in Nashville with one item on the agenda. The Redhead Murders. 20 investigators filled the chairs around him. A few representatives from each state that this killer had struck. Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Now, they needed to figure out if this was just a coincidence or if there really was a serial killer. Throughout their six-hour summit meeting, investigators compared notes on eight Jane Doe cases that they thought might be related, might all have been committed, by the same person. So on October 22nd, 1983, a woman was found on a river bluff about a mile off of I-40 outside of Memphis, Tennessee. She had strawberry blonde hair and she had been strangled. Almost a year later, on September 16th, 1984, another woman was found off of I-40 by a hitchhiker. She had also been strangled. Now, she was a natural blonde, but her hair had previously been dyed red and washed out. On December 22nd, On the 23rd, another woman, was found wrapped in a blanket near Highway 222 outside of Redding, Pennsylvania. And again, she had been strangled, but she was a brunette. Then on New Year's Day in 1985, a couple from Florida had stopped along the shoulder of I-75 in Tennessee to take some pictures of the mountains, a little souvenir from their holiday trip. Once they stepped over the guardrail, they were able to see clearly down the steep embankment. And there was something wedged up against the trees below. It looked like a sleeping bag or a bedroll, but then they realized there was a barefoot sticking out of the bottom. When the police arrived, they found a woman wrapped in a thick green blanket wearing a tan velour blouse and blue jeans. She had been dead for a few days, strangled with a strip of cloth that was still knotted around her neck. Her hands and feet were bound with the same material. She was petite, 5'4", 110 pounds, and she had curly red hair. She was the fourth woman that was found. The fifth was found on January 24th along Highway 78. She had strawberry blonde hair and had been strangled with a twisted cord, possibly her own shoelaces. And then on March 31st, a couple from Indiana was driving west on I-24 when their engine overheated. They pulled onto the shoulder and they saw a creek at the bottom of the steep embankment. They carefully trekked down to get some water to cool off their engine. And on the way down, they saw scattered pieces of women's clothing, a white blouse with small red flowers, a cable-knit sweater, a pair of jeans, a black bra. They were nearly in a line, like a makeshift trail that was leading them to the creek. And that is where they found the bones. Police were able to recover a woman's skull and several bones from the area, as well as scattered pieces of clothing. The sweater had a large, bloody gash on one sleeve, and they found several strands of long, red hair at the scene. Now, with only the bones to examine, the coroner wasn't able to determine the cause of death, but it did seem like her clothes had been removed and then deliberately placed down the embankment. If she had been wearing them when she died, they would have been affected by her decomposing body, but instead they were mostly intact, apart from the bloody gashes. And it was just one day later that the unidentified woman in the refrigerator was found, marking the seventh body. And as we know, she had red hair and was possibly last seen at a truck stop along I-75, and she died of asphyxiation, but the coroner said that she wasn't strangled. And finally, on April 14th, a woman was found 50 feet from I-81 in Greenville, Tennessee. She had been dead for several weeks, so it was difficult to determine an exact cause of death. However, she had been struck in the head and had stab wounds on her back. Her hair, though, was light brown. Now, when you hear all of those details together, it is pretty compelling. I mean, it sounds like they're linked in some way, right? But that's what the summit was called to determine. And they argued that, you know, while there's a lot of similarities, there also were a lot of inconsistencies. Now, physically, the women all resembled each other, all white, all petite, all in their 20s or 30s, but not all of them were redheads, no matter what the headlines claimed. They had all been murdered and left along major highways, suggesting a suicide, a similar M.O. But some had been found nude, some were still wearing clothes. Most had been strangled, but not all. And even among those, some had been strangled with rope or cord, and some hadn't. There was really only one thing that unified them all. They were all Jane Doe's. In every case, investigators had tried to identify them, published their descriptions in newspapers, compared them to hundreds of missing persons files, but they all came up empty. So, this led them to the same conclusion, that they were probably unidentified for a reason. They were probably transient women who were maybe drug users or sex workers, who had found themselves untethered from society and estranged from their families. They weren't in the missing persons files because they had no one who would report them. And you and I, when we hear that, we think, "Oh, that's probably why they were targeted." But to a meeting of investigators in the 1980s, they figured that, whether or not these women died at the hands of a serial killer, was almost irrelevant. They had put themselves in harm's way, they said. And at the end of their six-hour summit, the officials denied the existence of such a killer. There were just too many differences between the cases to say otherwise. Each department remained committed to solving each murder, but any notion of a task force was totally dissolved. In public statements, they once again asked the public for help in identifying the murdered women, because that was, "Key" to solving these crimes. But then for the next few months, the cases sat stagnant, growing colder. But then that summer, they finally caught a break. In June of 1984, a tip came in about one of the Jane Doe's identities. A woman named Marie Williams came forward. She was a sex worker, and she was living with a man named Thomas Gatewood. Marie told the Fort Lauderdale police that in the fall of 1984, she and Gatewood were living in West Memphis, Arkansas, with another woman, also a sex worker. And one night, that woman disappeared. The last time Marie saw the woman, she was at a truck stop, climbing into the cab of a truck rig. And Marie remembered that there were two other men inside of the truck. A few days later, police found a murdered woman along I-40, only a few miles away from that truck stop. And Marie felt certain that it was her missing friend. So that was something. Police were then, able to compare the West Memphis Jane Doe's fingerprints to an old arrest record of the woman that Marie told them about. And they got a hit. Authorities had confirmed their first identity. She was 26-year-old Lisa Ann Nichols. Lisa grew up in West Virginia with two older sisters and a brother. When she was nine, her home life splintered. Her parents got divorced. Her sisters got married and moved out. And her mom started working nights at a bar to make ends meet. After running away from home, Lisa spent a few years in foster care. She was living with her grandma when she got pregnant. And at 19, she left home for good, her one-year-old son in tow. She eventually made her way to Nashville. But the only details of her time there came from her arrest record. Criminal trespassing, two counts of larceny, and at least five arrests for prostitution. Throughout the years, she kept in touch with one of her sisters through sporadic phone calls. But one day, those phone calls stopped. And her sister never knew what had happened to her. Now, she hadn't reported her sister missing because the stretches in between their phone calls were getting longer and longer. And she figured that Lisa was living a life that she didn't want her sister to know about. So when Lisa went dark, her sister just thought she had cut her off. Until one day, when police arrived at her door to let her know that Lisa had been killed. This was devastating to hear, but it only, got worse from there. See, Lisa was exactly who investigators already thought she was. Transient, drug user, sex worker. And rather than restart the conversation about a possible serial killer, reconsider the new links between the cases, they thought that it proved what they already thought. That Lisa Nichols willingly got into cars with strange men. And one night, she picked the wrong guy. That was the risk she took with the life she led. If anything, it made it less likely that there was a serial killer on the loose. It was just what happened to those kinds of women, is what they said. And so, investigators closed the book. And for decades, that was the end of the story. None of the other Jane Does were identified. Eight cases were shelved and seven women were left unidentified. Seven families had no idea why they had heard from their loved one for the last time. Some of the evidence was even discarded. The so-called redhead murders were relegated to, as a result of a series of serial killings. Some of them were even reported to the police. So I want to fast forward to 2018, 34 years later. A teacher named Alex Campbell had taught sociology at Elizabethton High School in East Tennessee for the last 10 years. And he had been noticing a disappointing trend amongst his students, apathy. They just weren't engaged. The school system was more obsessed with passing tests than actually learning anything. And over time, that disaffected attitude started to creep up on Mr. Campbell, too. He lost his own excitement for learning and teaching. But Mr. Campbell was like you and I. He was obsessed with true crime, specifically cold cases, and he loved when justice was served after years of a case sitting on a shelf. So when the semester resumed in January of 2018, he asked his students a question. How do you identify one person out of 250 million? Now, it does sound like a weird riddle that a teacher would ask you, but he was serious. He was talking about the redhead murders. That's what he wanted the class to work on that semester. Could they find the person responsible for these crimes? The one person out of 250 million in America. And they would do it through the tenets of sociology, society, family, patterns of behavior, interpersonal relationships, but also through the lens of these 30-year-old cold cases. real people who had died in their own backyard that they had a chance to help. And it worked. The whole dynamic of Mr. Campbell's classroom changed. His students were more than engaged. They were passionate in their search for answers. Their eyes all lit back up. They became advocates for the women who for way too long had all remained Jane Does. And that's where this class started. They needed to identify their victim pool. At the law enforcement summit back in 1985, officials had considered eight cases for possible links. And in the years since, the number of suspected redhead victims had actually doubled as more information came to light. The cases now ranged from 1978 to 2001, and they shared familiar characteristics, the physicality of the victims, how they had died, and where their bodies were found. But after researching each one of these cases, Mr. Campbell's class decided to focus on six of them that they believed had enough evidence to be linked. Five of the six I have already mentioned to you in this episode, as they were part of the official summit meeting, but I'll summarize them again here. So there was Lisa Nichols found in September of 1984 in West Memphis, Arkansas, the only victim to have been identified so far. The victim that we started our story with found on April 1st in the refrigerator along Highway 25. There was also the Campbell County victim found on New Year's Day 1985, wrapped in a blanket off of I-75. Then there was also the Cheatham County victim found on March 31st near I-24. She had been dead for several months and her body was mostly decomposed. There was also the Jane Doe found in Greene County on April 14th next to I-81. She had been dragged 50 feet through the grass, stabbed, and suffered a blunt force blow to the head, perhaps because she was trying to fight off her attacker. And finally, the woman that was discovered on February 13th, 1983, earlier than the other ones, she was found off of Highway 250 in West Virginia. The students believed that these six cases represented a compelling pattern, a signature, one that was sort of disregarded by the original investigators who thought that these women brought their deaths upon themselves because of their lifestyles. But these students were not buying that. These women looked like each other. They had similar backgrounds. They had been killed in similar ways and died during a discrete period of time in a close geographical area. Yes, they were discovered in different states, but the highways that they were found beside provided nearly direct routes to one another. So they believed it was the hunting ground of a serial killer. And they even gave that serial killer a name because catchy names, unfortunately, are usually what helps bring more attention to cases. They named him the Bible Belt Strangler. So the class then does all of this research. They have consultations with law enforcement and they go through all of this. And they find that there's a lot of information that they don't know about. And they find that there's a lot of FBI profiling techniques. And they actually identify 21 characteristics that they believe the Bible Belt Strangler has in an attempt to unmask him. They say that he was probably a white heterosexual male born between 1936 and 1962, which would have made him roughly early 20s to late 40s at the times that the murder started. He was of average or slightly above average height, like five, nine to six, two. He was also between 180 to 270 pounds. He was strong enough to physically overpower his victims without the use of a weapon and carry their bodies to a different location to dispose of them. And they got even more specific. They believed he either lived in or worked out of Knoxville, Tennessee, the geographical center of the six cases. I-40 ran through the city as a main artery. The other relevant highways all branched off of it. For this and other reasons, he probably worked as a truck driver. Rest on top of that, he also worked as a truck driver. Rest on top of that, he probably worked as a truck driver. Rest on top of that, he probably gave him ready access to his preferred victim pool, sex workers and hitchhikers. Trucking also provided cover when disposing of bodies. No one thought twice about a big rig pulled over on the side of a highway. They also said that the Bible Belt Strangler was a mission-oriented killer, meaning he had taken up a personal crusade against an identifiable group. It's possible that he felt like he was ridding the world of undesirable women as he mostly targeted sex workers. However, given the overwhelming similarities between the victim's physical appearance, it's also possible that they were surrogates for another figure in his life that he hated, possibly a redheaded mother or maybe a wife. They said he was an organized killer, smart enough to acquire and dispose of his victims without drawing suspicion, careful enough to not leave any evidence behind for police, but he also would leave his victims out in the open because he wanted them to be discovered. Remember, one victim had a trail of clothing that led to her remains. And most importantly, the students described him as probably being an average Joe. He wasn't obviously a psychopath. He was able to hold down a steady job. He was capable of long-term relationships. He might even be married with a family. He made sure to only kill while he was out on the road. His friends and loved ones would likely be shocked if they looked at him like that. His true nature. The students went ahead and they compiled all of these details and the reasoning behind it into this seven-page profile. At the beginning of the semester, Mr. Campbell had asked them, how do you identify one person out of 250 million? And with this profile in hand, they were much closer to their goal. But now, what exactly were they supposed to do with that report? Well, on May 15th, 2018, Mr. Campbell's class held a televised press conference at their high school to present their profile of the Bible Belt Strangler. Standing behind them were officers from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and the various county sheriff's departments with the six open Jane Doe cases. They made their objective clear. With enough public attention, someone will come forward with new information. They might recognize one of the Jane Does from their description. They might have seen something years ago that they thought wasn't important at the time, but now they understand that it's a vital clue. They might read the profile of the Bible Belt Strangler and realize that it sounds like someone they know. They urged the gathered journalists not to let these women's stories go silent again. They asked the people watching to share the details with friends and family. Someone knows something, so we have to keep asking until we have answers, they said. And in a direct address to the killer, Mr. Campbell warned, the Bible Belt Strangler, we know you're out there. We know somebody has information to help find you and hold you accountable. And after today, everyone knows that we're looking for you. And well, they found him. This episode is brought to you by Cachava. Cachava has been my go-to for really years now. I think I've been drinking Cachava for two years. And I am so excited that they have a new flavor, salted caramel. It feels like it was made specifically for me. Me personally, my favorite types of sweet treats are always ones that have a little bit of salt to them, like a chocolate covered pretzel or something. It's a perfect blend of buttery, salty, sweet, and none of the sugary drawbacks. And like every Cachava shake, two scoops gives you plant-based protein, fiber, greens, and so much more. No artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners, no fillers, just clean nutrition that actually satisfies a craving. And they have- So many flavors now. Flavors truly for any time of day. Drink it in the morning, have it as an afternoon snack. 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They're releasing exclusive Christmas prints alongside their signature blankets. And I honestly want to get one for everyone on my list. The best gifts are the ones that make people feel loved and wrapped in comfort. Join us in-store or online November 7th and find the best gifts ever. So 2018 had two things that the 1980s just didn't have when it came to the redhead murders. One, a group of teenagers who actually cared about the cases. And two, a. boatload of new science. The student's profile said that the Bible Belt Strangler was an organized, methodical killer who removed any evidence from his victims. But this killer had made a mistake. Police did have some bodily fluids from the killer. They found semen on a blanket wrapped around one of the victims. But in 1985, they didn't have the technology to do anything with it. But now they did. The DNA was sequenced and it was uploaded to their system, police waited eagerly see if anything would come up. The students showed up to class every day, waiting for an update, knowing that there might just not be a match in the system. But then one day they got the call. There was a match. His name was Jerry Leon Johns. And once the police started looking into him, they could not believe how well he matched the Bible Belt Strangler profile. So he's a white, heterosexual male. The students guessed that he was born between 1932 and 1951. Johns was born in 1948. They said that he would be slightly above average height. Johns, six foot two, 185 pounds. And not only all of that, there's also his profession. He was a truck driver. His company, Rebel Trucking, was based in Cleveland, Tennessee, roughly 80 miles south of Knoxville on I-70. The exact road several of the women had been found alongside, and right where the students felt like he'd be based. The students also figured that he would be an average Joe. And from the research, Jerry Leon Johns was a family man. He had a wife. He had kids, though him and his wife did eventually separate. And who was his ex-wife, you might ask? The woman who had been married to this monster? Phyllis. She was white, petite, and she hated him. And he was a man who had been had red hair. Now, Phyllis described Johns as unfailingly loyal, a wonderful father, and completely incapable of murder. But we know exactly the type of violence that he was capable of. Let me take you back to the night of March 5th, 1985. Jerry Leon Johns is out in Knoxville with his brother Wayne at a strip joint, the Catch One Club. He's a regular there, and he even has a a redhead named Linda, and he makes her an offer. His brother's been feeling a little bit blue, and Jerry's trying to show him a good time, cheer him up a little bit. If she and a friend would come back to their motel, he would make it worth their while. And then he flashed four $100 bills. Linda considered the money. It was more than she would make the rest of the night dancing, so she agreed. Jerry tore two of the bills in the middle and gave Linda the halves, promising the rest after she made good. Jerry Leon Johns was a man who had been married for a long time, and he So Linda grabbed a friend, and the four of them drove to a Holiday Inn, each in their own cars. Jerry paid for two rooms, and they coupled off. After Jerry and Linda had sex, Linda went and took a shower. But when she came out of the bathroom, Jerry was there holding a gun. He claimed that he was actually an undercover Texas Ranger and said that if she didn't do exactly as he said, he would have her arrested. He told her to get dressed and then led her out to the parking lot at gunpoint, shoving her into the passenger's car. Jerry Leon Johns was a man who had been married for a long time, of her own car. Jerry then ripped her t-shirt into strips and used the cloth to bind her hands and feet and gag her. He warned her, try to run or try to scream, and he would shoot her in the head. Then he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the interstate. When he finally stopped, they were parked alongside a thick area of trees. Jerry forced Linda out of the car into the darkness, and she pleaded with him. Are you going to kill me? She asked. Yes, he said. She had become a nuisance to him. And then Jerry tied one of the t-shirt strips around Linda's neck and he strangled her. Eventually, she blacked out. But against all odds, Linda woke up. One corner of the collar on Linda's jacket had gotten wedged between her skin and the ligature, leaving her just enough space to breathe and regain consciousness. And when she came to, she was under the road in a to climb back up to the highway and flag down a passing car for help. While Linda was taken to the hospital, Knox County police went to the Holiday Inn that she described. They were able to track down Jerry, and he was still driving Linda's car, his gun sitting on the passenger seat. In his pockets, they found the motel room key and two halves of $100 bills. It was more than enough evidence to arrest him for the attack. And Jerry was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 73 years in prison. So, let's just make this crystal clear. Jerry was a truck driver who had abducted a red-haired woman, strangled her, and left her body in a ditch off the side of the freeway. Does this sound familiar? I mean, of course it does. And the police investigating the murder cases recognized the similarities too. They strongly considered him as a suspect in the Campbell County Jane Doe murder as well. She was the one that was discovered on New Year's Day, 1985, just two months after Linda's attack alongside I-75 in Tennessee. She was found wrapped in a thick green blanket, strangled with a strip of cloth that was still knotted around her neck. Her hands and her feet were bound with the same material. And that knot that was used to strangle her was almost identical to the one that Jerry Johns used on Linda. And it turns out that at the time, investigators felt strongly that he was involved, but they just didn't have enough evidence to prove it. And, you know, maybe they let themselves off the hook a little bit because Jerry had already been sentenced to spend the next seven decades behind bars. But luckily, science stepped up where they felt short. And in 2016, new analysis confirmed that Jerry's DNA was on both the blanket the Campbell County Jane Doe was wrapped in and the blouse that she was wearing. Finally, solid evidence that he was involved. But unfortunately, they still had no idea who this to 2018. Thanks to the class's press conference for the Bible Belt Strangler, the cold cases were now fresh in everyone's minds. And the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations received a tip about a blog that published descriptions of missing persons. One of the descriptions seemed to match the Campbell County Jane Doe. Agents were able to obtain a fingerprint match from old records and finally confirm an identity. Tina Marie Farmer. She was last seen in November of 1984. And she was able to obtain a fingerprint match from old records and finally at her family's Thanksgiving in Indianapolis. They actually had reported her missing. But for whatever reason, Tina's file was never registered in the National Missing Persons Database. So when investigators tried to compare their Jane Doe's description to open cases, she wasn't there. But now that she had been identified and Jerry Johns had been conclusively linked to her death, the wheels of justice could finally turn. In 2019, a grand jury ruled that there was sufficient evidence to indict her. And in 2019, a grand jury ruled that there was sufficient evidence to indict Jerry for Tina's murder. And Mr. Campbell's class was really to thank for it. Except Jerry Leon Johns was dead. He had died in prison in 2015 while he was still serving time for Linda's attempted murder. Now, there are a lot of mixed feelings here. On one hand, Jerry died in prison, which is exactly where he should have been. But justice for one is not justice for all here. Because there are a lot of mixed feelings here. And there are a lot of mixed feelings here. And there are a lot of mixed feelings Those women would have never been identified. And those murders would have never been looked at again, if not for Mr. Campbell's class. So now we have to wonder, how many other women did Jerry kill? Eight years after their press conference, I'm happy to say that it had the exact effect Mr. Campbell's students intended. Tina Farmer was just the first domino to fall. Month after month, year after year, more and more victims were identified. Like the Cheatham County Jane Doe. She was part of both the original summit meeting and the class grouping. On March 31st, 1985, she was found off of I-24 with her clothes deliberately removed. And thanks to advancements and genealogy sequencing, the Cheatham County Jane Doe was finally identified as 24-year-old Michelle Inman. She lived in Nashville and like other Bible Belt victims, she was a sex worker. Evidence collected from Jerry John's truck, as well as statements that he made to the police back in the day, placed him in the Nashville area at the same timeframe they estimated Michelle was killed. Her case is still open and under investigation. The TBI has published pictures of the clothing found with her body, and they are still actively seeking information from anyone who recognizes Michelle, what she was wearing, or if they know anything about who she was last seen with. It does seem like this is one where there's just not DNA evidence that can be retested. After a hotline tip, the Green County Jane Doe was identified as 17-year-old Elizabeth Lamott. When her body was discovered on April 14th, 1985, she was a very long way from home. She was last seen on November 22nd, 1984 in New Hampshire. She was living in a group home at the time, and she'd gotten permission to attend the high school football game. She left that afternoon and she never returned. It is possible that she was abducted. It's also possible that she used that opportunity to run away, which she had done in the past. The coroner estimated that Elizabeth had been dead for three to six weeks before she was found. So that still left several months between leaving the group home and her murder. If she had run away, it is possible that she spent that time hitchhiking, which might have put her in Jerry John's path. It is pure speculation, but investigators found a business card on Elizabeth's body for a motel in Houston, Texas. And when Jerry was arrested for attacking Linda, she was found dead. She was found dead. She was found dead. She was found police recovered a recent receipt from a gas station just a few miles away from that motel. This episode is brought to you by Rula. This time of year always kind of sneaks up on me. The days get shorter, the nights longer, the holidays start piling up. And sometimes I notice that I'm not quite myself, just a little bit more tired, a little bit more on edge. It can be easy to brush that feeling off, but talking to someone about it actually makes a real difference. And that's where Rula comes in. Rula is a healthcare company that helps you find a licensed therapist who takes your insurance. They work with over 120 plans and Rula patients typically pay around $15 a session, just $15. You don't have to spend weeks searching either. 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The best way I can describe it is it's like Christmas in a cup, except you get to drink it all year long. Then I learned the story behind it, which made me love it even more. Constant Comment was created by Ruth Campbell Bigelow and her New York City kitchen in 1945. She shared it with her friends and everyone kept talking about it. And all of those Constant Comments actually gave it its name. The recipe is still a Bigelow family secret over 80 years later. So this one is a mystery worth investigating for yourself. Bigelow Constant Comment. Curiously different, impossible to forget. This episode is brought to you by SoFi, the everything app for smarter money. SoFi brings award-winning banking, investing, borrowing, and more together in one place. So every dollar is working. Your money is a lot less mysterious when you can see it in one place. With SoFi checking and savings, earn up to 4% savings. SoFi brings award-winning banking, investing, borrowing, and savings APY for up to six months. Pay no account fees, no minimum deposit to open and get a bonus of up to $400 when you sign up with eligible direct deposit. Terms apply. SoFi Bank and a member FDIC. When you're ready to invest or pay down debt, it's all right there. SoFi members can also access SoFi Wealth's world-class financial planners. Get started at SoFi.com slash heart starts. This is a paid advertisement by SoFi Technologies and is not intended to be financial advice. Since 2018, new groups of Mr. Campbell students continued to research the cold cases and their possible links to Jerry Johns. They added another potential victim found on April 1st, 1985 in Jellicoe, Tennessee. Because of her young age, investigators referred to her as Baby Girl. Now, all that was left of Baby Girl was a skeleton. It was found by a local man near an abandoned strip mine. Baby Girl had been dead for a year and a half. SoFi and SoFi have been working together at least a year and the suspected cause of death was strangulation. The case caught the student's attention because the bones were discovered only seven miles away from Tina Farmer. And DNA analysis eventually identified Baby Girl as 15-year-old Tracy Sue Walker. She was last seen in July of 1987 hanging out at the mall with her friends. She got into a car with a pair of men, which takes investigators back to Linda getting in the car. SoFi and SoFi have been working together in the car with Jerry and his brother, but then she disappeared. Now, Jerry Johns often drove up to Illinois to visit his estranged wife and children. I-75 was a straight shot from Knoxville to home and it passed right through Indiana where Tracy vanished. It also passed Indianapolis where Tina Farmer disappeared. Now, here's another kicker. Tracy was discovered in an abandoned strip mine. Jerry's trucking company had a contract with a manufacturer that's applied parts used in coal mining. So even if this dump site was a bit farther off the beaten path than his usual, it was entirely possible that he was already familiar with this area because of his work. In 2025, Mr. Campbell's class participated in a documentary series continuing the work of the students before them. In particular, they were focused now on Tracy Sue Walker or Baby Girl. And this time, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations was right, alongside them. Special agent Brandon Elkins presented the class with newly discovered evidence from Tracy's case. He had photographs of the original crime scene discovery. Her body had been discovered only 30 minutes away from their town, Elizabethton, and together, they took a field trip and they walked through the overgrown woods where she was found. And here's where there's a little bit of a twist in the story, because this area was not at all what the students were expecting. The site was completely out of the way. It was down a steep hill and it had been described in their research as an abandoned strip mine, but it was actually more like a junkyard. Agent Elkins introduced the students to some locals who said that the area had been a favorite spot for bootleggers who would make moonshine. And after seeing this area with their own eyes, they started to reconsider Jerry's involvement because it was just too different from his normal MO. He liked to dump bodies out in the open where he knew they would be discovered. It was only by chance that Tracy had been found. She was that concealed, but that didn't mean they were going to give up on her case. Even if she wasn't a Bible Belt strangler victim, she still deserved just as much attention. Mr. Campbell's students created a full court press campaign centered around the tagline, someone knows who killed Tracy Sue. Is it you? They created flyers, yard signs, and direct mailers with her photo, urging the public to contact the TBI with any tips. They even had an airplane fly a banner over the area with a hotline number. And they also created a website, justicefortracysue.com, which has even more resources and material. And I strongly encourage you to check it out and share Tracy's story. I'll link it in the description of this episode. But Tracy's story wasn't the only one they were reconsidering when it came to Jerry's involvement. They had to accept the same conclusion for the Knox County Jane Doe, the woman who was found in the refrigerator that I told you about first in this episode. She had to accept the same conclusion She had been killed on April 1st, 1985. Jerry Johns was already in jail at that time, charged with attacking Linda on March 6th. But even if she wasn't one of the Bible Belt strangler victims, there is one bright spot in her story, and that is that her headstone finally has a name. She was identified as S.B. Pilgrim after a family member recognized an enhanced photo in a missing and unidentified person's group on Facebook. At the time of her disappearance, she left behind a six-week-old daughter. And while she doesn't know who stole her mother from her life, she at least has a small measure of closure. There is still a lot more to be done. But as heartbreaking as this episode is, I did want to end on a little bit of a positive note. After S.B. Pilgrim's autopsy, while she was still unidentified, the Hampton Funeral Home volunteered to claim her body, footing the bill to transport her back from Lexington for a proper service burial, a department store donated clothes, a navy skirt, and a pale blue blouse. Dozens of other businesses and residents donated flower arrangements for the service, including a spray of red carnations to sit on top of her casket. About 60 mourners attended the funeral for a woman that they did not know. People did care about these women. The small Appalachian communities did, even when the police didn't. And that alone gives me hope. I've said it in the show, but all it takes is for one person to care about it enough to continue to fight for justice. I've said it before, but you can stay annoying and you can contact places and you can fight to keep people's names alive. We are truly in a golden age of DNA testing right now. And there's going to be a lot more stories like this making headlines. And I want Heart Starts Pounding to be there for every single one of them. I'm very, very curious to see where this next year takes us in terms of solving cold cases. And now I turn it over to you guys. What is the cold case that you want to see solved? Are there any cold cases from where you live that you're eager to see answers on? And maybe, maybe, maybe there's something that can be done in the near future to help bring justice. And if you want to hear more about this story, because there is more, you can join me on the High Council tier over on Patreon, where on footnotes, I'm going to be telling you about what didn't make it into the episode. And I want to find out as much information as I can on Jerry Johns' wife. And I'm going to put that in the episode. So join me over there for more info. That is all I have for today. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next week. I'm going to be here next week with another episode for you guys. Thank you for joining me here. And I'll see you then. Until next time, stay annoying. or a case request, check out heartsarespounding.com. This episode is brought to you by our partner, Vistaprint. 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That's 20% off at vistaprint.com using code new20. Do you want more darkly curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool Jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven-day trial. Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash hearts starts pounding. Well, Whatever you do, stay curious.