On the Line (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

One night in August of 1992, a sheriff's deputy raised down an empty road in a rural part of Tennessee. A local woman had been kidnapped that morning, and right this very second, the supposed kidnapper was making a ransom call, and that call had been traced to a pay phone that was just up ahead, and so the deputy was racing to get there before the suspect left. And so the deputy, they're charging down this road, and they eventually speed up to the curb in front of the phone booth, and they leap out of the car, but inside the booth, the phone was dangling on its cord, and there was no one around. The suspect was gone. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place, because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So if that's of interest to you, the next time you're over the follow-button's house, go into their pantry, and pull all the chocolate chips out of their cookies, and then replace them with raisins. Okay, let's get into today's story. Around 9.30 in the morning on August 7, 1992, a 65-year-old woman named Martha Roberts, who just went by the nickname Doe, washed the dishes in the kitchen of her house in Eid's Tennessee. Doe and her husband, Alan, had just had breakfast, and now she was cleaning up while Alan got ready for the day. Doe and Alan had been married for 43 years, and eating breakfast together was like their daily tradition. They loved it. It was just nice to sit together and just, you know, spend time in each other's presence before the day got started, especially since typically they both had very hectic schedules. So for most of their lives, Doe and Alan had owned and operated multiple businesses, including a restaurant, and a chain of auto-part stores. They had been incredibly successful and made a ton of money as a result, and then about 10 years ago, they decided to just go ahead and slow things down a bit, and sell off their stores, and move to this farmhouse out in the countryside. But, you know, despite effectively retiring, they hadn't stopped working completely. After all, they literally lived in a farmhouse, and so they had a farm to run, and they also still developed and sold real estate, and also Doe, she worked part-time as a bookkeeper at the local Methodist Church. For the most part, Doe actually really enjoyed working at the church, but lately it had been a bigger commitment than she thought it would be. One of her co-workers was pretty incompetent, and lately, she'd had to do a lot of oversight on him, because of his incompetence. But you know, ultimately Doe, she cared a lot about the church, and working there made her feel close to her community, and so that was how she sort of rationalized that this was still worth it. Now, as Doe was finishing tidying up the kitchen, she placed her asthma inhaler on the counter, so she'd remembered to bring it with her when she left the house. And the phone on the counter rang, and so Joe, she'd towel off her hands, and she walked over, and she picked up the phone, and on the other line, was this man named Sam Wagner, who was calling to confirm his meeting with her husband Alan that morning. Sam was a business man from Indiana, who had gotten in touch with Alan yesterday, about buying a property that Doe and Alan, they owned in the next county over. Alan was apparently supposed to meet with the sky today to look at this property, and to begin to discuss the deal that they might do together. Joe obviously knew about this, and so she told him that Alan would be there at about 10, just as they had planned, and then after that, she hung up, and a few seconds later, Alan came down the stairs, and so Doe told him about the call from Sam, and Alan thanked her for taking care of it, then he kissed her goodbye, and he said he'd be backed by lunchtime. About half an hour later, Doe walked down their very long driveway towards their mailbox. So their farmhouse was, you know, part of a farm, and the farm itself was 150 acres. And you know, these 150 acres were very rural, it was very wooded, so it was just very quiet and peaceful when you were outside on this property. And so Doe, she's taken in the sights and the sound, she gets to the end of the driveway, she gets to the mailbox, she opens it up, and she sees there's a stack of envelopes inside, and so she grabs them, she pulls them out, and she's sort of like looking through them as she walked back up to the house. And as she's flipping through this mail, she saw it was mostly bills and junk mail, but then she got really excited when she saw there was a letter from one of her nephews. Doe and Alan had actually never had kids of their own, but they had more than two dozen nieces and nephews, and some of them, like two of her nephews, whose names were William and Larry, they lived in the area, and so they were able to keep in touch that way, but a lot of them were living much further away. But they all made it a point to stay in touch with Doe and Alan, because they knew it meant a lot to them. And so Doe is about to rip open this envelope and see what one of her beloved nephews has to say to her when she stops, because she hears the sound of like a rattly car engine right behind her, and so she turns around and she sees there's this truck that is now pulling it right up the driveway right towards her. An hour and a half later, at 11.30am, Doe's husband, Alan, drove down a quiet road that would bring him back to his farmhouse. He was returning from his morning meeting, which had been at the property that he and Doe owned all the way over in the other county, but, you know, despite having gone there at the time they've said they were going to meet, the potential buyer Sam Wagner had not shown up. Now Alan had waited at the property for over an hour, but still when Sam didn't show up, he eventually called it off and he left, and now he was making his way back home. The whole thing was really annoying, but Alan had tried to make the best of it. The property, it was not far from a little town center, so on his way back, he had stopped by a deli and picked up some sandwiches, he figured that he and Doe could at least have a nice lunch when he got back. And so Alan, he turned his truck on to their long driveway, and up he went, and as he was getting closer to the farmhouse, he saw the garage door, like his garage was open, and his wife's car was in the garage. And so he parked his truck and he got out of the car, and he brought the sandwiches inside, and once inside he began calling out for his wife, but she didn't respond. And so Alan, he walked all through the farmhouse looking for his wife calling out for her, but it was clear she wasn't home, which didn't really make any sense, because her car was there. And he could also see that her asthma inhaler was on the kitchen counter, which she literally would never have left the house without. So she's got to be here somewhere, like maybe she's not in the house, but she's definitely on the property. And also Doe did have a whole lot of chores on the farm, which would call her, you know, out of the house to different parts of the property. And so Alan, he left the farmhouse and he went out to the garden, she wasn't there, and then he went to the barn, but he still couldn't find his wife, like she's not out here. And so as he continued to search and not find his wife or any sign of her, his confusion sort of turned into worry, and by the time he finished looking really all around the property, and when he still had not found his wife, his chest was now tight with panic, and he was sure that Doe not being here, it had to mean something bad had happened to her. And so Alan, you know, trying to keep his composure, he hustled back inside of the farmhouse to call the police, but literally just as he was about to pick up the phone receiver to dial 911, the phone rang. And so Alan immediately picked it up, sort of hoping it was going to be his wife, but it wasn't. It was the voice of a man with a very faint Asian accent who came over the line. And this man, he told Alan that he had his wife, he had Doe with him. And if Alan didn't bring him $100,000, he would split her head open. Hours later, on the evening of August 7, 1992, FBI Special Agent Joanne Overall parked a car outside of a small farmhouse in rural Tennessee, which was now swarming with sheriff's deputies. And behind the house, a bunch of officers were shining their flashlights around the farm's pastures, searching for evidence. Special Agent Overall worked at the FBI field office in Memphis, just over 20 miles away. And the FBI had really taken an interest in Doe's kidnapping because the town of Eads was close to two different state borders. And if the suspect had taken Doe across state lines, it was a federal crime, hence the FBI getting involved. So overall had been sent out to work with the Shelby County Sheriff's Department on the investigation. And all she knew at this point was that the victim, Doe Roberts, had disappeared from her farm that morning. And her husband, Alan, had received a ransom call from someone who claimed to have kidnapped her. Now, as overall walked up towards the house, she could see a few crime technicians taking photos of what appeared to be a bunch of males scattered around the side of the driveway, as if someone had just dropped it there. And when she saw that, it made her realize that this, very likely, was where Doe was when she was ultimately taken, like reading the mail and then, you know, whatever happened happened. Now, overall, she didn't see any blood or or tire marks on the pavement of the driveway, but she would check in with the crime tax later to see if maybe they had found some. And so overall, she left them to it and walked past the crime tax and went into the house. And once she got inside the living room, she saw a man who appeared to be in his sixties who was standing inside of there and he was speaking to two of the sheriff's deputies. And his hand was an asthma inhaler, and overall could hear this guy. guy, explaining to the deputies that if Doe had an asthma attack, without this inhaler, she could die. And so, overall went over and quickly introduced herself to the deputies and to this man who confirmed he was the victim's husband, Alan. Overall looked at Alan and sort of just immediately sensed that this was a man who could be in shock here. Like he kept staring off into space and was just unusually quiet besides when he was actually answering. It was like he was despondent. Overall asked Alan if she could speak to him for a moment. And he nodded and so she let him over to the couch to sit down and then once they were seated, she asked Alan to just walk her through what he had seen, you know, what had happened. And so Alan, who still sort of looked like a deer caught in the headlights, he told her about coming home to an empty house and, you know, looking around for his wife and not finding her anywhere and then going inside and getting that strange, you know, ransom phone call and how the man that had called him, you know, this ransom call that he had an accent that sounded vaguely Asian. But what stood out about his story was actually that last little bit about the, you know, slight Asian accent because overall she's thinking, you know, in rural Tennessee, there just was not a large or really in any way meaningful Asian population. Now, overall knew that obviously the caller could just be faking the accent, but she also wondered if the actual kidnapper was just from out of town, or maybe even out of the country, or maybe they'd been hired to commit the crime on someone else's behalf. But the question now was, you know, sort of independent of who was doing this. It was like, why was Doe Roberts targeted? Like why was she abducted? As far as overall could tell, Doe and Allen seemed like a very normal small town older couple. Their house was very small and simple and there was no obvious reason for someone to assume that they even had like $100,000 to pay a ransom. I mean, these are people that just were going about their lives, not really, you know, upsetting anyone around them, it was just odd. But when overall asked Allen about their finances, Allen explained that, you know, despite, you know, their outward appearance, they were actually pretty well off financially. He told her about, you know, their cattle business and their real estate that they owned, and how they had sold some businesses in the past. And then, after saying that, Allen, he sat up straight and he said that, you know, just thinking about that, it reminded him of something. Something had happened earlier that morning, and he didn't know if it was important or not, but around the same time that his wife apparently had been kidnapped. Allen said he was supposed to be meeting with the sky name Sam Wagner, who wanted to buy one of their properties in the county over. But Allen said he had gone over there to meet the sky, and he hadn't shown up. And Allen told overall that he thought this was really weird, because Sam had come all the way from Indiana to look at this property, and he'd even called that morning just to confirm the appointment. And so to not show up, it just, that seemed really weird. However, Allen did say that, you know, he had spoken to Sam on the phone, you know, very recently, and he certainly did not have an Asian accent. So he doubted he was the one who made the ransom call, at least, you know, at first glance. However, special agent overall still made a mental note to look into Sam Wagner, because as she had already concluded in her mind, it was entirely possible that whoever made that ransom call had just been faking the accent. Or it could have been any number of the couple's other business associates. Or it could have been one of their friends or their relatives or their neighbors. I mean, basically anybody who theoretically knew that Allen and Doe were financially well off could have been motivated to potentially kidnap Doe and try to extort $100,000 from them. But overall new from experience that in a case like this, the first 24 hours were really crucial. And so she really couldn't waste time just waiting around for all those people to be located and questioned, and so the fastest way to find the person or people responsible here, the kidnapper, was to lure them to a ransom drop. So she asked Allen, you know, when you got this ransom call, where were you instructed to take the $100,000, and Allen, he sort of sat there for a minute, thinking, and he shrugged and said he didn't know. I mean, the caller didn't actually say they just demanded $100,000. And this was really, really strange to overall. I mean, it was highly unusual in her experience for a real kidnapper to demand a ransom and then not give any instruction about how to actually deliver the money. But you know, unusual or not, this seemed like a big opportunity for the investigation. Overall new that sooner or later, the kidnapper would probably call back with more details. And if she and her team could intercept that call, they might be able to track their suspects location. So she asked Allen if they could place tracing equipment on his home phone, and he immediately agreed. A couple hours later, special agent overall watched as an FBI technician hooked a tape recorder up to the phone in Doe and Allen's kitchen. It was just the two of them in the kitchen, and Allen was in the living room with a couple of sheriff's deputies. A long search of the property had not turned up any new evidence, and there was no tire tracks or blood traces found on the driveway where the mail had been found scattered on the ground. So because of that, all but a few of the sheriff's deputies had already left for the night. And overall, wasn't far behind him. After all, it could be hours or even days, until the suspect made contact again. So her plan was just to leave as soon as this equipment was set up. Now, the technician finished getting the tape recorder all set, and then once it was all good, overall called Allen back into the kitchen and showed him how to turn this on, you know, if the suspect called again, and then she explained that the telephone company was watching and waiting. And as soon as the call came in, they would trace, you know, where it was coming from, and they would alert the investigators. And so Allen, he confirmed that he understood, and at that point, overall, and the tech, they got ready to leave, and suddenly, wouldn't you know it? The phone rang. Overall, quickly nodded to Allen, like, come on, go ahead and answer it. And Allen, he kind of seemed to hesitate for a second, but then, you know, was shaking hands. He flipped on the tape recorder that he had just been taught how to use, and then he picked up the phone. And so as Allen is on the phone, overall, is leaning in close, like putting her ear up against basically Allen's cheek, trying to listen. And so, you know, Allen's on the phone, and a man on the other end of the line starts speaking. And overall, even as she's listening, like outside of the phone receiver, she could hear, like a faint accent, a faint Asian accent that Allen had mentioned. And this man with the accent, he told Allen, that Doe was still safe for now. And at the same time, one of the sheriff's deputies, who was still on the property, came running up to the door from outside, speaking frantically into the radio, and also gesturing to overall, that the telephone company had already traced the call, and they had a location. And so overall, she nodded, like, yep, got it. But she stayed with Allen and continued listening to the caller. And the caller went on to say that he knew law enforcement was recording this call, and so as soon as he hung up, he told Allen, you better take that tape outside and crush it in the driveway, or else. And then, the guy hung up, and the line went dead. Overall was totally baffled here. The kidnapper had now called twice, but had not given any concrete instructions about how to deliver the ransom. It's like you're threatening Allen, but you're not giving him the opportunity to acquiesce and give you what you want in exchange for his wife. And so this made overall wonder if money was not actually the motive here. And maybe the suspect was just trying to taunt Allen and the police. Law could only hope that when officers got to the location that call was coming from, that the suspect would still be there. But the next day, overall was back at the FBI field office in Memphis, no closer to finding Dowe than she'd been last night. She sat at her desk where she'd been all morning, scanning through DMV records on her computer. And she could not find what she was looking for. So the whole first day of this investigation had basically been one disappointment after another. The ransom call had been traced to this payphone not far from Dowe and Allen's farm, but by the time police officers got to the location, the caller was gone. And furthermore, canvassing those friends and family had not led to any suspects either. Dowe and Allen had a big extended family, so investigators were still in the process of tracking down and questioning each of their many nieces and nephews, but so far everyone they'd spoken to either had an alibi or just did not seem like a good suspect. Dowe and Allen were also in the process of combing through the couple's business records. But so far, they hadn't found anything significant. And after speaking to Dowe's friends and neighbors and the people she worked with of the church, it seemed like everyone in town knew that Dowe and Allen, despite their outward appearance, actually had a lot of money, which of course meant that anyone could be a suspect. And there was just no easy way to narrow it down, at least not yet. And now the DMV database overall was searching through on her computer was also leading nowhere. But she was also realizing at the same time that this actually might not be a dead end. It might be a huge lead, just sort of indirectly. Because overall, she was searching for Sam Wagner from Indiana, the man Allen had claimed he was supposed to meet on the morning Dowe disappeared. But it appeared that Sam didn't exist. She'd run his name through FBI and DMV databases, and there was no one in Indiana with that name. Now there were a few Sam Wagner's in other states in the region, but they'd already reached out to all of them, and they all had alibis and couldn't have possibly been in AIDS on the morning dough went missing, which meant either Allen had been lied to by whoever was pretending to be Sam Wagner, or Allen himself was lying. And overall, she was starting to suspect the latter. The one significant detail that had come up during the canvas of those friends and neighbors was that there seemed to have been some tension between Allen and Doe recently. Someone at their church said it seemed like something was up between them, but nobody knew exactly what that was. Now overall knew this could just be gossip, but if it were true that things were not going particularly well between Allen and Doe, maybe that gave Allen a motive to to want her out of the picture. And now that overall thought about it, I mean, Allen, you know, when she had seen him, he had seemed unusually calm. Just hours after his wife had been reported missing and very likely had been kidnapped for ransom. Like, yeah, he could have been in shock, but also he could just be unfazed because he could have had something to do with it. And then also, the alleged kidnappers' demands were so illogical that overall she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something Allen wasn't telling her here. If Allen had totally made up Sam Wagner in their meeting, that meant Allen was completely unaccounted for on the morning that Doe disappeared. So it was entirely possible that Doe had not actually been kidnapped. Maybe Allen had killed her and was using an accomplice to make these ransom calls to try to throw off the investigation. The next morning, overall stood in a hallway at the Shelby County Sheriff's Station looking through a window into a small room where a technician was hooking Allen up to a polygraph machine. So by this point, the investigation had basically gone all in on Allen very quickly. After confirming that Sam Wagner didn't exist, overall had asked Allen to come down to the station and take a polygraph test. And right now there was also a team of investigators doing a second search of Allen and Doe's farm, looking for any traces of blood they might have missed. They were also taking samples of carpet fibers and hair from Allen's truck to see if there was any evidence that he had used it to dispose of Doe's body. Even though Allen at this point was cooperating, he had been noticeably quiet and subdued ever since he got to the station, which almost seemed like he was resigned to what was going to happen here. Once the polygraph test began and he began answering the examiner's questions, he would say that he and his wife Doe were very happy. They were in love and they really had no issues going on. He certainly had no reason to hurt her. And then when he walked through what had happened on the day Doe disappeared, he said exactly the same things that he had initially told investigators. And then when the test was done and the examiner finally came out into the hallway, he told overall that, according to the test, Allen was telling the truth. And overall, she was frustrated. I mean, polygraph results aren't always accurate, so this didn't fully eliminate Allen as a suspect, but it also certainly didn't give her any new evidence or leads to work with here. And so at this point, she was kind of hopeful that maybe when the team was done searching Allen and Doe's farm, that they would find something, anything, that might contradict Allen's story. One morning in November of 1992, so three months after Doe Roberts had disappeared, special agent Joanne overall, sped her car down a rural road in Eid's Tennessee. Her heart was pounding with excitement because for the first time in months, she had a fresh lead in Doe Roberts' kidnapping case. By this point, three months in, the investigation had basically completely stalled out. They still obviously had not found Doe, and overall doubted at this point that she was even still alive. The mysterious Sam Wagner had also never been found, and they'd finished looking into all of Doe and Allen's relatives and business associates and friends, and there was just nothing tying any of them to Doe's kidnapping. Also on top of that, they hadn't found anything at Allen and Doe's farm to connect Allen to any crime. However, they were still keeping Allen under surveillance, and Allen seemed to have moved on from his wife's kidnapping very quickly. Within a couple of weeks, Allen was out square dancing and socializing and seeming to have just a great time, and so of course that was like really suspicious, but was not actually evidence of anything. And there had been no progress on tracking down the person who was making the ransom calls. Allen would still get the occasional call from the kidnapper who continued to demand a ransom, but they refused to give any details on where to actually bring the ransom money. And all the calls had been traced to phone booths in very public, well-traffic parts of Eats, but by the time investigators arrived at whatever phone booth the call had come from, the suspect was always gone. And since these were public phones that everyone in town used, it was impossible to pull any useful prints or DNA from the phone itself. But one of the weirder parts of this case was that the kidnapper wasn't just making calls to Allen anymore. They'd started calling other random people in town who seemingly had no obvious connection to Doe, saying they were still waiting for the ransom like they were updating people in town about it or something. And a lot of these people who got these calls, they had caller ID on their phones. And just like Allen's calls, these calls were all traced to various payphones around Eats that were abandoned by the time authorities got there. So at this point, overall was very sure that this kidnapping was just not about money. At least money was not the priority here. It seemed like the suspect was now just playing games with them, or just trying to confuse them. Also, overall no longer believed that the suspect was like this this foreign outsider. If there really had been a stranger hanging around a small town like this, placing calls from public payphones for three months, you know, also having an accent that would have stood out in a rural part of Tennessee, somebody probably would have noticed them. So overall now believed it was actually a local from the Eats community who was familiar enough not to raise any suspicion who was doing all of this, who potentially was the kidnapper and the ransom caller. But that really was all overall hat, a theory. Even after questioning pretty much everybody in town, there was zero forensic evidence to back up any of her ideas. That is, until now. Because right after overall had gotten into the office that morning, she had received a call from a local man whose name was Charles Lorde who actually worked with Doe at the Methodist Church. And he said that late the night before, he'd heard a car outside of his house, and when he went out to see what was going on, he'd found an envelope in his mailbox. And when he pulled it out and looked at it, he saw it was a ransom letter from apparently Doe's kidnapper. And so now overall was speeding out to investigate, because that letter, potentially was the first piece of physical evidence in this entire case. And so she was hopeful there'd be fingerprints or hair or clothing fibers that were on this envelope on this note that could finally help pinpoint who had kidnapped Doe. Half an hour later, overall sat down inside of Charles's living room, and Charles, he'd walked over to a desk, he opened a drawer up, and he pulled out this piece of paper, which was the letter he had gotten, and he sort of nervously held it out to her. And overall she took the letter and she looked at it, and you know, didn't really know what to make of it. It definitely was a ransom letter, but it was sort of like more of the same, you know. It was a, it was demanding money, you know, for Doe's release, but it was less money than what had previously been asked for on the phone calls. And also there was still no instruction of where to actually bring the money. And so overall, very carefully put the letter inside of an evidence bag, and then she asked Charles if anyone other than him had touched this letter, and his face immediately went bright red, and he said, yes, he'd actually shown it to a few of his friends in town before calling the authorities, because he actually didn't know what to make of it. And at this, overall couldn't help but feel completely deflated. I mean, what appeared to be her only piece of physical evidence was now very likely contaminated. And probably was useless. They were going to find, you know, physical evidence on it. They were going to find prints and fibers and that type of thing, but it could belong to any number of the people that Charles had allowed to touch this thing. But, you know, still, overall was happy that Charles came forward with it, and so she didn't give off like how upset she was. She just said, okay, well, you know, Charles, do you mind if we set up a surveillance camera around his mailbox in case the suspect came back? And Charles was like, yeah, sure. And so they set up this camera, but weeks went by, and the surveillance cameras never captured the kidnapper coming back to Charles' mailbox. And months went by without any progress. And special agent overall, she really began to lose hope that this case was ever going to get solved. One morning in June of 1993, so 10 months after Dow disappeared. Special agent overall was at her desk at the FBI field office in Memphis going over a file for another investigation when her phone rang. So she answered it, and the man on the line said his name was William, and he was Doe Roberts' nephew. Overall was still working on Doe's case, but there hadn't been any new leads in a long time, so she was actually kind of excited just to hear Doe's name again. And so she quickly asked William, "You know, why are you calling?" And he explained that he just received a ransom call from Doe's kidnapper. And this time, the kidnapper had set up a location for the ransom drop. A few nights later, overall sat in her car right outside of a motel and needs. The parking lot was dark, it was quiet, and she was intently focused on the door of a particular room in this motel. Because inside of that room, Doe Roberts' two nephews, William and his brother Larry, were waiting. William and Larry had arranged to meet Doe's kidnapper at this motel under the pretense of delivering the ransom money. But in reality, this was not a ransom drop. It was a sting operation. Special agent overall and other law enforcement officers were hiding in the parking lot, waiting to catch the kidnapper in the act. And so overall and her team, they're all watching and waiting. And then at some point, overall saw this, this shadowy figure walking along the sidewalk. And they eventually went up the stairs of the motel and toward the room, where Doe's nephews were waiting. And so overall's heart pounded as she watched this figure, hoping that this was it. This was the kidnapper coming to make the drop. And so everybody's watching and waiting, and overall, she got her binoculars out and sure enough, this figure, this person, made their way down the hallway. And they stopped outside the correct room, and they looked both ways, and then they knocked. This was the kidnapper. Based on a confession and forensic evidence, the following is what investigators believe happened to Doe Roberts on the morning of August 7, 1992. Around 10 a.m. that morning, the kidnapper drove down the road toward Doe's farm. Their heart was pounding and their stomach was in knots, but they had to do this now before they missed their chance. The kidnapper turned down Doe's driveway, and as they did, they actually saw Doe towards the top of the driveway, walking back up towards the house, and she was carrying some mail in her hands, and she was flipping through it. And so the kidnapper knew, like now's the time to do it. And so the kidnapper kind of sped up the driveway, which, you know, kicked up some rocks, like the squeal of the tire was pretty obvious. And, you know, Doe, she heard it, and she turned around and looked. And when she saw the kidnapper, she waved, like there was recognition there. But the kidnapper jammed on their brakes, rolled down the window, and yelled out to Doe that there had been a terrible accident. They told Doe that one of her family members was gravely injured in this car accident, and they had to get to the hospital right now. And so Doe, she's horrified, she drops the mail, and she runs over and jumps in the kidnapper's truck. And together they back out down the driveway, and they speed off down the road, but instead of going to the hospital, the kidnapper took Doe to a house. And when they got to that house, Doe seemed to realize that something was off here. Like why aren't we going to the hospital? And so she confronted the kidnapper, saying, like, what's going on? At which point, the kidnapper overpowered her and dragged her inside the house up to the small room above the garage, where they tied her up, they drugged her, and then sexually assaulted her. After that, the kidnapper called Doe's husband, Alan, and using this fake Asian accent, they told Alan that they had kidnapped his wife, and they demanded a ransom. But the kidnapper had no actual plans to return Doe alive. In fact, later that same night, the kidnapper went right back up to that room above the garage, where Doe still was. She was still alive, begging to be set free, and they proceeded to smother her with a pillow until she stopped breathing. After that, the killer took Doe's body out to the backyard, and they buried her at the bottom of their compost heap. And then from that point forward, they would spend the next few months making random ransom calls to Alan and other people in town, and they even left a ransom note in their own mailbox. The kidnapper/killer was Charles Lord, the man who worked with Doe at the church, and who claimed to have gotten that ransom letter in the mail. Charles was the church's treasurer, and it would turn out that he had embezzled thousands of dollars from the church. Investigators believe that Doe, who was the bookkeeper, very likely found out about his crime, and Charles wanted to make sure she didn't tell anyone. And so Charles pretended to be this out of town businessman named Sam Wagner, and he set up fake meetings to get Alan away from the farm, and then once he was gone, Charles went to the farm, Lord Doe, into his truck, using the facade of a car accident to get her to come with him, and then he brought her back. And then assaulted her and killed her. And then for a couple of months, he just sort of played the game of pretending to fire off these ransom calls and whatnot, you know, just trying to keep people off his back. And for the most part, you know, it worked. No one was on to Charles. However, almost a year after the murder, Charles' personal financial trouble got so serious that he decided he would actually try to secure some ransom money that he had previously been sort of pretending to care about. And so that was when he reached out to one of Doe's nephews and set up this actual ransom drop. And then he literally showed up at the motel to get the money and agent overall and her team were waiting for him in the parking lot. Charles Lord was charged with Doe's kidnapping and murder in August of 1993, and he would ultimately lead police to her body just a few days later. He eventually pleaded guilty to first degree murder and aggravated rape, as well as kidnapping, abesselment and bank fraud and was sentenced to life in prison. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ball and Podcast, Strange Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole Lacasio. This episode was written by Kate Gallagher, story editing by Kate Murdoch, research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoothse, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fassiano, research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Jordan Stidem, production support by Antonio Manada and Delana Corley, artwork by Jessica Clogston Keiner, theme song "Something Wicked" by Ross Bugden. Thank you for listening to The Mr. Ballin Podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on The Mr. Ballin Podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and add free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com/podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. [Music]