Casefile True Crime - Case 121: The Freeway Phantom

Episode Date: August 17, 2019

During the early 1970s in Washington, D.C, six black girls aged between 10 and 18 were abducted and murdered in separate brutal attacks. The bodies of Carole Spinks, Darlenia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia Yates, Brenda Woodard and Diane Williams were all found alongside busy roads, with most showing evidence of strangulation and sexual assault. The unidentified perpetrator, thought to be Washington’s first serial killer, became known as The Freeway Phantom. --- Episode researched and narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode written by Elsha McGill Map: https://casefilepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Case-121-The-Freeway-Phantom-map.pdf For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-121-the-freeway-phantom

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode contains violence against children that won't be suitable for all listeners. It was a barmy afternoon in the United States capital of Washington, D.C. on Sunday, April 25, 1971. Allentine Spinks left her apartment on Walla Place, southeast in Congress Heights to visit

an aunt who lived on the other side of town. Before she left, Allentine warned her children they were not to leave while she was gone. Her 24-year-old daughter Valerie lived in a different apartment within the same complex. At around 7pm, she dropped in to ask if one of the older children could do her a favour by running out to buy some groceries from the nearby 7-Eleven convenience store. She knew their mother would disapprove, but it was a trip the youngest Spinks children had made many times before, and Valerie trusted them to take the seven-block journey alone. 13-year-old Carol agreed to complete the errand, tempted by the offer of a free soda.

Valerie handed her little sister a $5 bill and instructed her to purchase a loaf of bread, five TV dinners, and the drink for herself. As Carol sat out wearing blue gym shorts and a red sweater, she soon ran into her mother who was returning from her day out. Allentine was not pleased that Carol had disobeyed her orders. She told her to continue with the errand but to come straight home afterwards where she would then be punished. Carol agreed and hurried off to the store.

Three hours passed and Carol still hadn't returned home. And her family contacted friends and neighbours to see if anyone had heard from her. They also contacted the 7-Eleven and to the clerk explained that Carol had entered the store at around 7.40pm. She purchased the items her sister had requested, but there had been no sightings after that. Allentine called the Washington Metropolitan Police and reported her daughter missing. The 40 members of the local community joined the Spinks family in scouring the neighbourhood and surrounding areas and door-knocking homes.

The search continued for days, but there were no sightings or contact from Carol. Six days later, at approximately 2pm on Saturday, May 1, 1971, several children were playing on an embankment outside the St Elizabeth Hospital alongside the Suitland Parkway at a busy 9-mile freeway in southeast Washington. An 11-year-old boy wandered away from the group onto a grassy mound where he came upon the body of a young girl. He waved down a passing police patrol car. The body was identified as that of Carol Spinks, who was dressed in the same clothes that she

had been wearing on the day she left home, minus her shoes. From the way she was positioned on her back, it appeared as though Carol had either been thrown down the embankment from the freeway or had been dragged to the location. An autopsy concluded she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, with her death occurring two to three days before she was found. Green fibres were recovered on her body and undigested citrus fruit was found in her stomach. Carol's family confirmed she had not consumed any citrus fruit on the day she went missing. This detail, combined with the level of decomposition, indicated that her killer had likely fed and

kept her alive for several days after her abduction. News of Carol Spinks' murder received very little coverage in the media. The police did not disclose whether they had any leads or suspects, and revealed very little about their investigative efforts into identifying her killer. On the morning of Thursday, July 8, 1971, 16-year-old Darlenia Johnson woke and prepared herself for the day ahead. She lived on Wheeler Road, southeast in Congress Heights, just a few blocks from the Spinks apartment, and attended the same school as Carol, although the two girls didn't know

one another. Darlenia had recently landed a summer job as a youth counselor at the Oxon Run Recreation Center, which was close enough to her home that she could walk to and from work each day. That day, in addition to her regular shift, she would be staying at the rec center overnight as they were holding a special sleepover for the kids in the neighborhood. Darlenia dressed in a green sweater, blue blouse, blue shorts, and a red, white and blue striped miniskirt, and reminded her mother not to expect her home that night.

She said goodbye and began her walk to work, heading down the same street Carol Spinks traversed nine weeks earlier. Later that evening, Darlenia's mother, Helen, was informed that her daughter had failed to show up for work. She immediately called friends and neighbors, but nobody had seen Darlenia or had any idea where she could be. Helen spent the night sick with worry, hoping Darlenia would walk through the door. But when there still hadn't been any sign of her by the next morning, Helen contacted

the Washington Metropolitan Police Department and filed a missing person report. A week later, a driver on the Interstate 295 Highway was having car trouble and pulled over, stopping 15 feet from where Carol Spinks' body had been found. There, within the heavy brush, he noticed what looked like a human body and called the police. There was the second call they had received that morning about a possible sighting of human remains in the area. A patrol car was sent out to investigate, but the dispatched officers drove by the site

without getting out of their vehicle. To see a body, they deduced it was a false sighting and left the scene. On Monday, July 19, 11 days after Darlenia went missing, one of the witnesses returned to the side of the highway, curious to know the outcome of their grim discovery. To their surprise, the body was still in the same place it had been when they reported it days prior. This time, when the police were called, they located the body. Exposure to the hot summer weather had left the body heavily decomposed and it was not

possible to make an immediate identification. The remains were taken to the county coroner's office, where fingerprints and clothing were used to identify the body to be Darlenia Johnson. The 16-year-old was fully clothed in the outfit she was last seen wearing, and just like Carol Spinks, her shoes were also missing. Decomposition prevented the coroner from determining the cause of death or if she had been sexually assaulted. Once again, the police conducted door knocks in the Congress Heights area seeking any information

about the teenager's death. One witness reported seeing Darlenia getting into an old black car being driven by a black male. Six days before Darlenia's body was discovered, a motorist driving roughly 25 miles south of Washington along Highway Route 228 in Waldorf, Maryland, spotted a body on the side of the road. It was 14-year-old Angela Barnes who had disappeared a week earlier on Monday, July 12, after leaving a friend's house at 11.45pm to walk the 10 blocks to her home on Martin

Luther King Junior Avenue in Congress Heights. Angela was bound fully clothed with a fatal gunshot wound to the back of her head. Connections were immediately drawn between her murder and that of Carol Spinks and Darlenia Johnson, but there were some differences. While Carol and Darlenia had both been strangled in what appeared to be a sexually motivated attack and disposed of near where they were last seen, Angela showed no signs of sexual assault and had been shot, then left a considerable distance from her last known whereabouts. All three girls were fully clothed, but Angela still had shoes on, whereas Carol and Darlenia

did not. However, the similarities were also uncanny. All three victims lived in the Congress Heights area and were of similar age, race and appearance. They were all abducted while walking the streets of their neighborhood and their bodies had been left on the side of a highway. The police were reluctant to admit that all three murders were carried out by the same perpetrator, but couldn't ignore the similarities. Three young women being violently murdered under similar circumstances in less than a

three month period should have been major news, but the cases were receiving very little media coverage. Many members of the community believed it was due to the color of the victim's skin. In 1971, DC was in a state of racial turmoil. Three years earlier, in April 1968, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Baptist minister and civil rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Tennessee during a visit to support African American public sanitary workers. As one of the leading and most influential advocates fighting against racial inequality,

Reverend King's murder triggered riots across the country, particularly in DC, where 70% of the population was African American. Despite being the majority population, people of color were subject to racial segregation, injustice, workplace discrimination, deficient education opportunities, and police brutality. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death sparked four days of violent protests, fires, and looting throughout DC, leaving 13 people dead and almost 1,000 businesses significantly damaged. As Washington DC's police force was predominantly white, the widespread distrust of law enforcement remained for many years that followed.

On Wednesday, July 21, Congress Heights residents called a press conference outside Carroll Spinks apartment building, where a crowd of 75 people protested the lack of police and media attention over the three murders. Calvin Rollark, editor and publisher of weekly newspaper The Washington Informer and president of the Washington Highland Civic Association, accused the police of failing to give equal treatment to crimes in the southeast, saying it took up to six hours for police to respond when called to their neighborhoods. Calvin stated,

If they won't protect us, we'll have to protect ourselves, form vigilantes. He was also critical of the media's inadequate coverage of the murders, remarking, If it was a blue-eyed white girl from Silver Spring, her picture would have been all over page one. A concerned citizen who had helped organize the search for Carroll Spinks blamed city officials for failing to install proper street lighting in lower-income neighborhoods, stating, We're sick and tired of the deaths of our girls. We get no help from the police at all.

Given the community felt overlooked, young local men were encouraged to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious and to arm themselves with rocks in case they needed to help Vandalf an attacker. Darlene Johnson's mother, Helen, said, I thought this was a nice neighborhood. We want protection out here. We're a bunch of forgotten people. In response to this criticism, law enforcement maintained that the number of vehicles and helicopters patrolling the area had been increased.

They stated that there was no physical evidence to link the three murders, but announced that a seven-member task force had been formed to investigate the crimes. Less than a week later, on Tuesday, July 27, 10-year-old Brenda Crockett was spending the warm evening splashing in a fire hydrant on her street, 12th place in northwest Washington. At around 8 p.m., her mother, Rita, asked her to go to the store to grab a loaf of bread and some pet food. Rita told Brenda to take a companion with her, either her seven-year-old sister Bertha or a friend.

Brenda set out on the five-block walk to the nearby Safeway Market, dressed in blue and white floral shorts and a matching top with pink rollers in her hair. When her daughter failed to reappear half an hour later, Rita realized that Brenda did not follow her instructions and had embarked on the errand alone. She conducted a frantic search of the local streets, but her child was nowhere to be seen. An hour and 20 minutes had passed since Brenda left when, at approximately 9.20 p.m., the phone rang at the Crockett home. Seven-year-old Bertha answered, hearing her older sister's voice on the other line, clearly

sobbing. Brenda explained that a white man had picked her up, but he was now sending her home in a cab. She said she thought she was in Virginia, a neighboring state, before abruptly saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. Twenty-five minutes later, the phone rang for a second time. Rita's partner, Theodore, answered. It was Brenda again who was still crying.

Theodore asked if she knew whereabouts in Virginia she was, to which Brenda responded, A white man took me. I'm alone in a house with a white man. Theodore instructed her to put the man on the phone, telling her he could come and pick her up. Brenda then asked, did my mother see me? Unsure what she meant, Theodore repeated his request to speak to the man, but Brenda explained he was outside.

Theodore then heard heavy footsteps in the background, prompting Brenda to whisper quickly, well, I'll see you, before the line went dead. At 5.50am the following morning, the police received a phone call from a hitchhiker who had discovered the body of a young girl lying in full view on a grassy mount alongside the John Hanson Highway in the Maryland town of Chevrolet, near an underpass west of the Kennellworth Avenue exit. The body was confirmed to be that of Brenda Crockett. The 10-year-old was 9 miles from home, positioned to face up with her arms above her head.

Some investigators believed she had been thrown from a vehicle. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a scarf knotted around her neck and was wearing the same outfit she had left her house in, but was barefoot. The similarities to the murders of Carol Spinks and Darlenea Johnson were clear, however, Brenda's body was found in Prince George's County, some 20 miles from where the other girl's bodies were discovered. During her harrowing phone calls home, Brenda stated her whereabouts as somewhere in Virginia. Investigators theorized that the killer had fed her misleading information and may have

forced Brenda to make the calls to buy some time and throw off police. Her question in the second call as to whether her mother had seen her led to the possibility that Reethan knew her daughter's abductor, and he was checking to see if he had been seen with Brenda. Another possibility was that Brenda spotted her mother during her captivity, perhaps while Reethan was wondering the local streets looking for her. News of Brenda's murder spread, causing the usually vibrant streets of her former neighborhood to empty as children were kept inside.

One resident remarked, We usually have lots of gangs going on in the street, but nobody's been acting right today. I think everyone is disturbed. On Friday October 1, a little over two months after Brenda's murder, construction worker William Yates asked his 12 year old daughter, Nana Mosia, if she could go to the store to pick up some sugar, flour and paper plates. His wife, Nana Mosia's stepmother, had recently given birth, and William was heading to the

hospital to visit her and his newborn. He trusted Nana Mosia wholeheartedly. As the second eldest of his four children, she was mature and could be relied on. Dressed in brown shorts, a sweatshirt and white tennis shoes, Nana Mosia left her family's apartment building on Benning Road, southeast in Washington DC at approximately 7pm, and made her way towards the Safeway Market Store located at the end of her street. When William returned from the hospital, he noticed Nana Mosia wasn't home. After calls to friends and neighbors failed to locate her, William ran to the Safeway

Market, where staff confirmed she had arrived earlier and purchased the items on her grocery list. Less than three hours later, a hitchhiker was walking along Pennsylvania Avenue in Maryland, less than half a mile off the freeway, when they came across a grassy area holding the still warm body of Nana Mosia Yates. The 12-year-old was fully clothed, except for her white tennis shoes, which were missing. Nana Mosia's house key and $2.91 in loose change were scattered next to her body, along with a bag of sugar. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with such force that her esophagus had been broken. There was a small scratch on her forehead and green fibers on her body.

A Safeway Market employee said that the morning after Nana Mosia had visited the store, they found a bag of flour and a pack of paper plates outside, near the front entrance. Police suspected Nana Mosia had likely been abducted as soon as she had left the store, causing her to drop two of her grocery items. A local resident recalled seeing the young girl getting into a blue Volkswagen with a Maryland license plate on the night of her disappearance. Police tracked down and seized 25 vehicles matching this description, but found no evidence to suggest any of the owners had been involved in the crime. From the outset, detectives admitted there were similarities between Nana Mosia's death

and the other four unsolved murders, and increased their task force to include 40 investigators. They came from various divisions, including the Washington Metropolitan, Prince George's County and Montgomery County Police Departments, the Maryland State Police, and the FBI. The crimes finally started receiving widespread media coverage, with the press naming the unknown killer, the Freeway Phantom. 18-year-old Brenda Woodard had recently moved out of the home she shared with her parents and five siblings on Maryland Avenue, northeast in D.C. After some recent disputes with her parents, Brenda relocated to a friend's place across the courtyard. The move was only temporary,

and she stayed in regular contact with her family. On the night she found out about Nana Mosia Yates's murder, Brenda called her mother to warn her to keep an extra close eye on her younger sisters. On the evening of Monday, November 15, Brenda visited her family, requesting a ride to Cardozo High School, where she was attending night classes to obtain typing and shorthand skills. Throughout the summer, she had worked as a counselor for the Department of Recreation and was seeking more stable employment. Her father agreed to drop her off, giving her a kiss goodbye and telling her to give him a call if she couldn't find a lift home, in which case he or one of her younger sisters would come and pick her up. Brenda attended class, and afterwards

joined a classmate for a late dinner at a nearby restaurant, Ben's Chili Bowl. The pair decided to catch the bus home together, and at 10.25pm, they boarded a bus on the corner of 8th and 8th Street, northeast. As it didn't travel directly to Brenda's neighborhood, she had to switch buses halfway through the journey. Just before 11pm, she said goodbye to her friend and disembarked to wait at the nearby stop for the line that would take her back home to Maryland Avenue. The following morning, rush hour traffic along the Maryland Route 202 Highway was at a standstill. Mary Woodard had been waiting over an hour for a bus to attend a doctor's appointment, when a passing security guard told her there had been a delay as traffic was held up due to the

discovery of a man's body off Route 202. As Mary began walking to a different bus stop, she saw crowds of police, press, and onlookers gathered on the other side of the road, near the shoulder of the highway. A little further on, she noticed a wig lying in the middle of the road, and recognized it as similar to one that belonged to her 18-year-old daughter, Brenda. Unable to get the wig out of her mind, Mary returned home from her doctor's appointment just before midday to find her phone ringing off the hook. But turned out, the body found on Highway 202 hadn't been a man after all, but a young woman. Mary received a call from her daughter's housemate, informing her that Brenda hadn't returned home after her classes the night

before. A panicked stricken Mary called the police to report her daughter missing, and they arrived to the Woodard house to present photographs of the body found on the grassy embankment along Highway 202. It was Brenda Woodard. At 5am earlier that morning, a police officer was conducting his routine patrol on hospital drive in Chevrolet when he sighted Brenda's body. She was fully clothed, wearing a black and white checkered skirt, a black turtleneck sweater which was inside out, a pair of black boots, and a maroon velvet coat that had been draped over her body. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and stabbed in the chest six times, the deep wound to her breastbone proving fatal. A small bone in her neck was broken due to

strangulation, and defensive wounds indicated she had put up a fight. Two human hairs were found on her body, one from a Caucasian person and one from an African American person. As this was before the implementation of DNA testing, the hairs were not deemed to be vital evidence, as there was no way for investigators to know whether they had come from the killer, an officer at the scene, or someone else Brenda had bumped into prior to her attack. Inside the pocket of her coat was a piece of white notebook paper with a handwritten message that read, this is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can. The note was signed, the freeway phantom.

The paper had been cut from Brenda's school notebook and FBI handwriting experts ascertained it was penned by Brenda herself. It was believed the killer forced her to write the note as he dictated the message. However, as the writing was neat and showed no signs of fear or panic, some investigators theorized that Brenda may have known her killer and he had asked her to write the note under the guise of being a joke before launching his attack. If the killer was unknown to Brenda, police had no explanation for why the note was written the way it was. On Wednesday November 17, the day after Brenda Woodard's body was found, a press conference was held wherein a special phone tip line was announced. Washington Metropolitan

Police Inspector Maylan Pitts had admitted that while it was impossible to ignore the similarities between the six murders, he was unable to confirm for certain whether they were connected. He acknowledged the pattern that had emerged in which each of the victims had been young black females who were residents of the Washington DC area and had been killed in a similar manner before being left near the side of a busy highway. A majority of the girls had also been left without their shoes. Although there was a significant age gap between the youngest victim, 10-year-old Brenda Crockett and the eldest, 18-year-old Brenda Woodard, the latter appeared youthful and could have been mistaken for being younger. Inspector Pitts said investigators

were keeping an open mind about the possibility that separate killers were responsible, but were staging their crimes to fit the circumstances of the other cases to detract attention from themselves. In anticipation of people coming forward to make false confessions, the police withheld details about the note found in Brenda Woodard's pocket, ensuring only the killer would know this information. He clarified that there were no direct links between any of the victims and that none of the girls were known to one another. He said that the police were working hard to solve the murders, but had no leads and were uncertain how many perpetrators were involved. The police strongly believed that the victims had been either lured or forced into the perpetrator's

vehicle and that there may have been others who had escaped similar attempts. Anyone who had refused the offer of a lift or had successfully fought off someone who tried to force them into a car was encouraged to come forward. Inspector Pitts quote, Somewhere in this community is an individual who probably has a clue that will help solve this case. Somebody knows a sex deviant or a child molester. Somebody knows something. Mayor Walter Washington also made an appearance to pledge that the task force had the full support of the city's government resources. Maryland Senator Charles Mathias made a plea to the parents of young girls throughout DC's metropolitan area to take extra precautions until the killer was

apprehended. After the press conference roadblocks were set up around the highway exit near where Brenda Woodard's body was found. Peak hour traffic was stalled as police questioned motorists, but little of interest was uncovered. Investigators turned their focus to the St. Elizabeth Hospital, a federally operated mental health facility that sat alongside the Suitland Parkway, right near where the bodies of Carol Spinks and Darlenea Johnson had been found. In recent times, more than 30 court-ordered maximum security patients had escaped from the institution. The backgrounds of the escapees who had been institutionalized for committing serious sexual offenses after being found not guilty due to reasons of insanity were looked into,

but after tracking them down, all were ruled out of the investigation and returned to the facility. Dr. Sheldon Freud, a psychologist who worked with the Prince George's County Police Department, noticed another detail in the Freeway Phantom's pattern. Four out of the six victims shared the same middle name, Denise. Dr. Freud believed the killer was deliberately seeking out young girls associated with the name Denise and warned, I would think that any girl with the name Denise would be particularly careful. Random killing is not very common. Assuming that this is one man, we might suppose that he has some hostile association with the name Denise or even the letter D. A doctor who worked in the maximum security wing at the St. Elizabeth Hospital agreed it was

possible that the killer had a fixation on the name. Yet, Denise was an incredibly common name at the time, and if it proved true, it didn't explain why Brenda Crockett and Nana Mosier Yates were targeted, as they had no association with the name. Police Inspector Maylan Pitts dismissed the theory, stating that the Denise connection was nothing more than sheer coincidence. Hundreds of calls were placed to the Task Force Hotline, with the team of six operators quickly doubling to 12 to deal with the influx of tip-offs. Within just four days, 4,000 calls had come through from the public. Most were from female residents of Southeast D.C., who reported being offered rides from strange men and witnessing suspicious cars cruising the area, with the male drivers and

passengers sometimes hurling out insults. Multiple theories arose around the identity of the killer, including that he was a taxi driver or a teacher or employee within the public school system who had access to school records, enabling him to select victims with the middle name of Denise. One call made to the tip line was from a young girl with a high-pitched, squeaky voice, who simply said, my father is the phantom. When the operator asked for her father's name, the girl disconnected the call. During another call, a voice announced, I've got some information for you. When you find the phantom, you'll be surprised, because the phantom wears a policeman's uniform. With no concrete evidence, solid leads or prime suspects, high-level government officials

from the White House expressed their concern over the unsolved murders and instructed the Justice Department to provide an extra level of support to aid the investigation. The increase in media attention intensified fear across the city, with one resident remarking, I feel like I'm going to carry me a gun every damn place I go, and to the first one that looks at me wrong is going to get the wrong end of the deal. Other members of the community took a more peaceful yet unconventional approach. A religious organization called the Christian Services Corporation launched radio and television appeals pleading to the killer to turn himself in, so that they could offer him their assistance. The group received support and guidance from Dr

Sheldon Freud, the psychologist behind the Denise theory, who voiced his belief that the killer could not control his impulses, and that the atmosphere of panic created by the freeway phantom nickname was likely only feeding his psychosis. Quote, This is not a horror movie. We are dealing with a human being who probably cannot control himself. He should be told that if he'll give himself up, he'll get treatment. Instead of saying to the police, you catch the guy. People are beginning to realize the community is the first echelon. The police come in when the community fails. The change in strategy presented by the Christian Services Corporation led to a public service announcement appearing in newspapers and being broadcast on the radio. Written by an

anonymous citizen, the message read, This is an appeal to the person or persons responsible for the deaths of the young girls. Please call this number 4629415. This is a pay phone and it is not taped and you'll hear my voice only. Here's why I'm asking you to call right now. I'm more concerned about you. You probably feel the whole world is after you. You may be scared. You may be just plain tired. If you are, there is someone you can turn to without fear. Believed to be the first public service announcement of its kind, within one hour of its broadcast, eight calls were placed to the pay phone. Three callers just breathed heavily into the receiver, purposely holding up the line. The other five, one of whom was a woman named Denise

near hysterical with worry, simply wanted to discuss their theories about the killer. The Freeway Phantom himself remained silent. By late November, the Freeway Phantom case had reached full media saturation. The National Fraternal Order of Police Detectives and Special Police Association posted a $50 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. A spokesperson for the group said they hoped their actions would inspire others to contribute to the reward fund. Their appeal was successful, prompting contributions to come in from Washington's Evening Star newspaper, local radio station WUST and members of the local warehouse union.

Soon, the reward pool reached a total of $9,000. In early December, police released a series of coloured photographs of a mannequin dressed in the same clothes and hairstyle Brenda Woodard was sporting on the night of her abduction. The mannequin also held a stack of four school books that matched ones Brenda was carrying. The FBI had achieved success with this technique in the past, crediting their last mannequin display for the arrest and conviction of a criminal who kidnapped and murdered a seven-year-old child. Yet, the effort proved fruitless in Brenda's case. One of the strongest leads was a late model red Chevrolet Chevelle with chrome strips that had

been seen near where Brenda's body was found. Police appealed to the public to be on the lookout for vehicles that matched this description, which prompted an unlikely response from a group of Vietnam war veterans who formed an organisation titled the Veterans Protective League. Dressed in their service uniforms, the men used private vehicles to patrol several of Washington's major freeways 24 hours a day on the lookout for the red Chevrolet Chevelle. When the police found out about the vigilante group, they admitted they needed all the help they could get, but advised the public to leave the dangerous work to the authorities. The pressure was on for the task force to make an arrest, but in addition to the lack of evidence

highlighting a suspect, the Freeway Phantom case was just one of many ongoing murder investigations plaguing the DC area. In the previous 11 months, 250 murders had occurred within the district, 36 of which remained unsolved. Calls to the hotline slowed, and soon the phones fell completely silent. Anticipations remained high that the killer would strike again, but the months began to pass without incident. The people of Washington wondered if the Freeway Phantom's killing spree had come to an end and deliberated over what prompted him to stop. Metropolitan Police Inspector Maylan Pitz considered the possibilities, telling the public, quote, The suspect could have been attached to a military base and been transferred. He could have been

arrested on some other charge and incarcerated without our knowing it, or he could have been committed to an institution. By September 1972, almost a year and a half had passed since the beginning of the Freeway Phantom's crime spree. It had been 10 months since the body of the body of Brenda Woodard had been discovered, and the case had slipped from the headlines, replaced by the political Watergate scandal, which diverted the FBI's attention from the unsolved murders. Life slowly returned to normal for the residents of Southeast DC. 17-year-old Diane Williams lived with her parents and five younger siblings on Halley Terrace, Southeast, in Congress Heights, just off the exit of the Interstate 295 Highway.

Her summer vacation was spent working for the Department of Recreation, and by Tuesday, September 5, the program had come to an end, so Diane and her siblings were preparing to return to school. That morning, Diane visited the Recreation Center to collect her final paycheck, and to then went shopping with her family to pick out paint colors for a staircase they were redecorating. The group returned home just after midday, and Diane took an afternoon nap, arising several hours later to prepare dinner. As they sat down to wait, Diane's boyfriend, James, called the house. He had purchased some new records and invited Diane over to listen to them together. Her parents agreed, on the condition that she returned home no later than 10.30pm.

Diane borrowed some change from her mother for the bus fare and set out on her journey. At 10.30pm, Diane's mother Margaret informed her husband to Leon that their daughter had missed curfew. Leon told her not to worry, certain that Diane had just gotten caught up and would be home any minute. He left for work as Margaret kept due to full watch of the clock. 11.00pm came and went, and there was still no sign of Diane. Margaret called James and was informed Diane had since left her boyfriend's house. James had escorted her to the bus stop on the corner of Martin Luther King Road and Howard Avenue over an hour ago, waiting until she was safely on board. Not wanting to jump to any conclusions,

Margaret decided not to alert her husband of the situation unfolding, and instead stayed up waiting for Diane. 12.00pm The next morning, Leon was driving home from work when he saw a truck pulled to the side of the Interstate 295 Highway with a hand full of men gathered around. He didn't think much of it and arrived home, where he learned that his daughter was still missing. He called the police to notify them of Diane's disappearance, describing her outfit, blue jeans with a yellow blouse. 13.00pm Across the border in Maryland, the Prince George's County Police Department

had just received reports of a body of a young woman found on a grassy incline eight feet from the edge of the Interstate 295, roughly 200 yards south from the Washington state line. A truck driver had been passing through the area when he noticed the figure and pulled over to investigate, finding the woman lying face down in the grass, fully clothed in jeans and a yellow top, but barefoot, with $1.26 in her pocket. She had been manually strangled and had a small bruise inside her left arm. A foreign hair was also found inside her mouth. As reports of the grim discovery circulated, the Washington Metropolitan Police contacted

the Prince George's County Police, believing the victim might be 17-year-old Diane Williams. Leon and Margaret viewed the body at the morgue, positively identifying the deceased as their daughter. As Diane's clothing was damp, the medical examiner deduced she had been left on the embankment overnight and estimated her time of death to be at least nine hours before she was found. If this was accurate, it meant Diane was killed not long after saying goodbye to her boyfriend. The five other Williams children were at home watching television when a news report flashed on screen detailing that Diane had been killed. Their neighbors heard screams and loud crashing noises as the children learned that their older sister was never coming home.

Margaret Williams later remarked, No one who has ever lost a child in such a manner as I could ever know what it is like. They think they know. You try to live, but really, you are living on the surface. The inside is dead. Bus driver Warren Williams had driven the same route five nights a week for the past two months. At approximately 11.21 p.m. on September 5, he recalled Diane Williams board his bus at the Martin Luther King Avenue stop near Howard Road. He distinctly remembered Diane as it was unusual for a young girl to be riding the bus alone late at night. At the time, there were roughly 20 other passengers on the bus, most of whom were men. He was certain that she, along with at least

three other passengers, disembarked at the Martin Luther King Avenue and South Capitol Street intersection at around 11.50 p.m. Warren took no note of the other passengers as he had no reason to be suspicious. If his recollections were accurate, the only way for Diane to reach her home, a block and a half away on Halley Terrace, would have been to cross through a parking lot along a poorly lit street. Warren's story was bolstered by several of Diane's neighbors who heard screaming at around midnight on September 5. Two of Diane's sisters and two other teenage girls recalled an incident three weeks earlier wherein a man in a yellow car exposed himself to the group as they were out on the street. Believing this incident may be related,

the girls worked with a police sketch artist to create an image of the flasher, described as being of Mexican or Indian heritage. Three days after Diane's murder, a police spokesperson confirmed they were now treating the case as part of the Freeway Phantom investigation, stating that the teenager had likely been abducted after getting off the bus. They had conducted hundreds of interviews and were following up several leads, but were still no closer to identifying a prime suspect or making an arrest. Meanwhile, the Williams family received prank phone calls at all hours of the day and night. Some callers would ring and ask to speak to Diane before hanging up,

while others unleashed a string of obscenities. One call came through at two in the morning with the caller declaring in a sinister voice, ''I killed your daughter.'' Yet they were also inundated with messages of support. Jennifer Woodard, the 16-year-old sister of Freeway Phantom victim Brenda Woodard, reached out to the Williams family with a letter expressing her greatest sympathies and mutual struggles. She wrote, ''I know that all the sympathy cards and notes of condolence in the world cannot erase away any portion of the pain that you must feel at this moment.

A big part of living includes accepting the bad with the good, but why in God's name does such a large part of it have to be bad? One day, and I hope very soon, this insane maniac will be found. But until then, I hope and pray that another innocent girl will never fall into the hands of such an evil and purposeless death.'' Jennifer shared a poem which had brought her some comfort. It read, ''I cannot say and I will not say that she is dead. She is just the way. With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand, she has wandered into an unknown land,

and left us dreaming how very fair its needs must be since she lingers there. So think of her fairing on as dear in the love of there as the love of here. Think of her still as the same I say, for she is not dead. She is just the way.'' With the Freeway Phantom now active once again, investigators and the media began reflecting over the similarities between each known victim. Some remained uncertain whether 14-year-old Angela Barnes had fallen prey to the Freeway Phantom, as she was the only girl to sustain a gunshot wound and did not exhibit any signs of sexual assault. Many felt her murder was committed by another individual entirely. The densely populated areas where each of the

seven victims had lived presented a contrasting mix of middle-class family homes and public housing projects, where the streets were poorly lit and there were many run-down neglected areas. The killer's hunting grounds were east of the Anacostia River, far from DC's tourist hotspots, where the residential enclaves were bisected with highways and parks, making it popular with transients. Most of the girls had come from well-educated, middle- or working-class families with varying social and economic status, who either lived in homes on quiet, treeline streets or in apartment buildings. Each girl was similar in physical appearance, indicating the killer always had a specific target in mind. Despite their age difference, all were black, slim, tall and well

dressed. Captain Robert Boyd from the Washington Metropolitan Homicides Squad explained, their physical description was about the same. The older girls looked younger and the younger girls looked older. They looked between 14 and 16. The theory that their killer was targeting girls with the middle name of Denise was losing merit, as the latest victim Diane Williams had no association with the name. The locations where each body was found were also similar, with a remarkable lack of clues or physical evidence. The killer more than likely had access to a vehicle, carrying out the rapes and murders elsewhere to purposefully limit any evidence left behind. The disposal of the bodies at night or in the early hours appeared

to be a tactic that took advantage of the cover of darkness, while enabling the killer to easily spot the headlights of approaching cars. How the freeway phantom lured his victims was a point of contention. With the exception of Nana Mosier Yates and Brenda Woodard, no other victims carried obvious defensive injuries, nor were there any signs of a struggle in the area of their abduction. Either the girls knew their killer and voluntarily entered his car, or he was respectfully presented and well articulated enough to convince them to accept the ride. Some criminal profilers believed the killer was likely a middle class, older, black male. They didn't rule out the possibility he was Caucasian, but were certain locals would have recalled a white man frequenting

the area. He could have also disguised himself as a woman, or had a female accomplice to earn his victims trust. The killer's propensity for strangulation was more commonly associated with criminals from a middle or upper class background. A psychologist who worked with sex offenders, Dr. Murray Cowan, concluded that the killer likely presented himself as gentle, well-meaning, and in control, while hiding a bitter hatred. He believed the murders were fueled by rage, and that the sexual assaults were a secondary motive, providing an additional outlet for anger expression and degradation. The killer appeared familiar with the southeast area, possibly from having lived in Washington for a long period of time while working a job that

required him to travel around the city. He may have crossed paths or come into contact with these victims in the past, and this recognition allowed them to interact with him with little concern. Male teachers, including substitute teachers within the southeast D.C. area were looked into, but none had taught all seven of the victims. There were also loose links between the fact that Diane Williams, Darlenea Johnson, and Brenda Woodard had summer jobs with the Department of Recreation, and that Nanomotia Yates and Carol Spinks lived near public parks and swimming pools. Recreation centers and popular youth spots were looked into, but this too was deemed a coincidence. Detective Lewis Richardson from the Washington Metropolitan Homicide Squad

voiced his opinion that members of the community were withholding information out of fear the killer would seek retribution. Quote, We believe someone has seen something, but they don't want to get involved. This man has confided in a close relative or friend. We're seeking this person to come forward, to save the next victim's life. Although there were no major developments over the following months, efforts were underway to improve coordination between the different agencies working on solving the case. This hindrance may have been the killer's intention, that abducting victims from one jurisdiction and leaving their bodies in another would result in a muddled investigation.

If this was indeed his tactic, some believed that the killer was a member of law enforcement, fully aware of the pitfalls of the force. This correlated well with the theory that the victims voluntarily accepted a riot from the killer, as they would have trusted or complied with a police officer. Several officers were investigated, but none were identified as suspects. Leads were followed up as far away as Mexico, and crimes that shared similar Ramos were checked for possible links. Allegations continued to surface that the police weren't taking the investigation seriously because of the victim's race, prompting Detective Richardson to respond defensively. I'm Black, and I'm from the ghetto, and in this city, a homicide is a homicide.

A body is a body, whether it's a banker or a junkie, they get the same attention. Contrary to popular opinion, the freeway phantom investigation had received a large amount of police attention. Many who worked on the case stated it was the largest manhunt they had ever been involved with. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours were poured into the case. Thousands of leads were investigated, and thousands of interviews were conducted. Maintaining his belief that someone was withholding information out of fear or loyalty, Detective Richardson said the community was just as responsible for helping uncover the truth. He finished with an apology. Quote,

I'm sorry we haven't caught anyone. I feel we're letting the community down. By May 1973, the investigation had stagnated, and the number of detectives assigned to the case had dwindled to two. Wilma Harper, the aunt of Diane Williams, was in the process of writing a book about the case when she founded a support group for the victim's families, named the Freeway Phantom Committee. They bonded over their shared losses, with Brenda Crockett's mother, Rita, explaining, People have said to me, I know how you must feel, but they really don't know. They didn't lose a child like that. If mine is dead and yours is dead, then we can understand each

other. It's as simple as that. The unsolved murders had a profound impact on each family. Darlenea Johnson's sister was so terrified of intruders coming into their home that her family had to move. Carol Spinks' family also relocated, with her mother, Alan Teane, succumbing to the weight of public scrutiny. After being forced by police to take a lie detector test, rumors had circulated that she was protecting her daughter's killer. Some siblings of the victims struggled at school and were afraid to go anywhere alone. They distrusted men and had a general wariness of their community, with some developing a bitterness towards Washington DC as a whole.

Acknowledging that the distrust of police held by the community might be preventing someone with information from coming forward, the committee questioned citizens themselves. They also rallied together to boost the reward money. Carol's mother, Alan Teane Spinks, quote, Our kids are gone now, but we have to find the person responsible for the sake of other children. The police say they have no clues and no suspects. I know someone out there knows a piece of the puzzle and money talks. Committee members appeared on talk shows, organized school safety programs, and held self-defense classes to keep the case in the public consciousness. The start of 1974 marked one year and nine months since the freeway phantom last

struck. What caused the end of his killing spree remained a mystery, but the theories were that he had been arrested for an unrelated crime, being institutionalized, moved away, or died. Psychologists speculated that his crimes may have been triggered by a conflict in his life, which had since been resolved. On February 17, an article written by John Sa in The Washington Post revisited the racial issue. Calvin Rollark, the president of the Washington Highland Civic Association, stated, For years, blacks have been at the mercy of white-run police departments who held them at low priority as long as blacks were killing blacks, and I haven't seen much change in this. You will find a pattern of young blacks being missing and murdered,

and were never able to bring the individuals to justice. But if white folks are murdered, they don't stop investigating until they find out who did it. Washington Metropolitan Police Captain Robert Boyd disputed this vehemently, stating, nothing could be further from the truth. The article supported Captain Boyd's assertions through statistics, which showed in 1972 the closure rate for homicide cases was identical for black and white victims, and in 1973 cases involving white victims actually had a higher unsolved rate. Captain Boyd blamed the media for the widespread misconception that his department didn't take the murders of black people seriously. He maintained it was really the media that showed

a calculated disinterest in reporting crimes committed in DC's black neighborhoods. He did accept that police had no excuse for why an arrest had not yet been made, calling the killer clever and tremendously lucky for carrying out his crimes without anyone witnessing. The publication of John Sarr's article generated renewed public interest, and in March 1974, the police launched a new inquiry into the Freeway Phantom case. Later that month, they received a phone call from a woman who said the article had taken its toll on her conscience, and she couldn't remain silent any longer. Based on the undisclosed tip-off she provided, on Saturday, April 6, it was announced that arrests had been made for the 1971 murder of

14-year-old Angela Barnes. Edward Selman and Tommy Simmons met in 1970 while undergoing training at the Washington Metropolitan Police Academy. During their first year probation in early 1971, they reported having their police-issued 38-caliber firearm stolen from Simmons' home in Temple Hills. As there were no signs of forced entry and no other valuables were missing, major doubts were raised about their story. An internal inquiry was launched, and when faced with the possibility of disciplinary action, both Selman and Simmons resigned from the force. When questioned about Angela Barnes' murder, Simmons confessed to the crime, saying that in the late hours of July 12, 1971, he and Selman were driving his Volkswagen down Wheel of Road

Southeast when they spotted Angela walking alone. They made a U-turn and forced her into their vehicle at gunpoint with the intention to, quote, take sexual advantage of her. When Angela tried to escape, Selman held the gun to her head and ordered her to hold still. A struggle ensued, during which he claimed the gun accidentally went off, killing her instantly. Panicked, they drove out to Waldorf where they disposed of her body, before driving back to Washington to clean blood from the vehicle. Selman denied any involvement, saying he had been at home that night with his wife playing Monopoly when Simmons knocked on his door, distressed, saying he had killed a girl and needed help disposing of the body. But his now ex-wife

debunked his alibi and eventually testified against him, saying she had witnessed Selman destroy his gun in the days following the murder. Two days after Simmons and Selman's arrest, a police spokesperson announced that both men had been ruled out of the Freeway Phantom investigation and were not suspects in the remaining six unsolved murders. The pair were found guilty for the kidnapping and murder of Angela Barnes and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years to life in prison. Members of the Freeway Phantom Committee were relieved as it gave them hope that they too would receive closure in the future. However, they were aware that the community's distrust

in law enforcement would only increase as the convicted men were former officers. Diane Williams' aunt, Wilma Harper, quote. Most of the telephone calls we get criticised the police. The fact that they suspects were policemen saddens us. We know how the public feels toward the police, and this will make it harder for them. On June 5, 1974, it was announced that new and credible information had been obtained in relation to the Freeway Phantom case. The year prior, three men had been convicted for committing a string of violent kidnappings and sexual assaults against seven young women in the D.C. area. The attacks dated back to 1969 and shared the same ammo. The men would lure a woman into their car

before driving to an abandoned building where they proceeded to rape her before dropping her off in the city. Given that the vehicle used was a green Chevrolet Vega, investigators named the gang the Green Vega Rapists. In October 1973, three men aged in their 20s were convicted for the crimes. As they served their time, additional charges were laid against them as more victims came forward. It was soon determined that at least five men had been involved and that the gang may have been responsible for up to 1,000 rapes committed between 1969 and 1973. As the new charges were piling up, one of the convicted men, Maris Warren, attempted to secure a plea deal with the prosecution, alleging that he had information about the Freeway Phantom.

He proceeded to identify several of the Freeway Phantom victims as Green Vega targets, taking police to the crime scenes and providing details about how the girls were killed. Warren was convinced that other members of the gang were striking similar deals with the prosecution and wanted to be the first one to talk to ensure he secured the best possible bargain. However, the others were all remaining silent and when the prosecution refused Warren's offer of total immunity, he retracted his statements and admitted everything he said about the Green Vega Rapists' involvement with the Freeway Phantom case had been an elaborate lie. This came as little surprise to some investigators, as Warren only provided details that had been

widely circulated in the media. He failed to mention any undisclosed information, like the handwritten note left in Brenda Woodard's pocket. Heirs found on the bodies of some of the victims were tested against Green Vega gang members with zero match. Despite this, some investigators were convinced Warren was telling the truth. A full police probe was conducted into the possible connection, but there was no evidence or witnesses to link the two cases together, and with Warren's statements now retracted, in 1976, a grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to issue an indictment. Four members of the gang were sentenced to life in

prison for their involvement with the Green Vega attacks, each of whom denied any involvement with the Freeway Phantom case. In March 1977, 58-year-old computer technician Robert Askins was arrested in D.C. for the kidnapping and rape of a 24-year-old woman. Askins had previously spent several years in the St. Elizabeth Hospital after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity for the 1938 murder of a sex worker named Ruth MacDonald, who he had poisoned to death using cyanide laced whiskey. His sentence was later overturned on a legal technicality, and he was released from the psychiatric facility in 1958. After his latest rape charge, the police conducted a search of

Askins' property, where homicide detective Lloyd Davis came across the appellate court decision relating to his release from St. Elizabeth's. Something in the documents caught his eye, the word Tantamount. The same word featured in the note from the Freeway Phantom found in Brenda Woodard's coat pocket. As it wasn't a word he heard often, it stuck out to Detective Davis, and he wondered whether Askins could have been responsible for the crimes. Detective Davis questioned Askins' former colleagues, who confirmed he often used the word Tantamount when expressing important matters. A search of Askins' home uncovered photos of young girls, soiled women's scarves, and a knife that was linked to another unsolved crime. A gold earring

and two buttons were found in his vehicle, but no fibers were found that matched those on the bodies of several Freeway Phantom victims. Askins was questioned at length regarding the Freeway Phantom murders, but he denied involvement, saying he wasn't depraved enough to commit such crimes. He was convicted for the kidnapping and rape of the 24-year-old woman and another victim, and was sentenced to life in prison. Although there was no physical evidence to link him to the Freeway Phantom murders, he was considered by some to be the prime suspect. In 1987, former Washington Metropolitan Homicide Detective Romaine Jenkins was reassigned to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Jenkins had worked on the Freeway Phantom investigation since the

beginning, becoming invested from the moment she canvassed homes in Carol Spinks' neighborhood. With the resources of the U.S. Attorney's Office now at her disposal, Jenkins formally reopened the case. She re-interviewed witnesses, questioned friends and relatives of the victims, and visited key locations. While Jenkins believed Robert Askins was capable of committing such crimes, she was not convinced that he was the killer. She thought the person responsible was more likely a transient, a member of the military, a Vietnam war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or someone who felt they had a score to settle with the police. As a black woman herself, Jenkins agreed that the race of the victims had played a part in the

initial mishandling of the investigation, but also blamed the general disorganization of the police departments involved for not being able to solve the crime. Given the significant advancements in forensic technology that had emerged since the 1970s, she requested the physical evidence found on the victims' bodies, including the note from Brenda Woodard's pocket, be tested for traces of DNA. However, most of the physical evidence had either been lost, destroyed, or preserved so poorly that nothing was in a condition to yield any conclusive results. Jenkins retired in 1994 and remained haunted by the unsolved case, reflecting on it daily and often re-reading her notes to see if there was any small detail she may have overlooked. In an interview with

The Washington Post, she declared that she will keep searching for answers until the day she dies. Quote, What happens when people like me and the families are gone? This will be forgotten. In 2004, the case was reopened once again by Washington Metropolitan Police Department Detective James Traynham. By this time, many of the original police files had been lost, and the ones he was able to recover from the FBI and Prince George's County were missing multiple pages and essential information. Detective Traynham thought it was important to look at the case from a fresh angle and employed the help of a former Canadian police

officer turned criminology professor, Dr. Kim Rossmo from Texas State University. Rossmo had developed a computer program that used the geographic areas of a crime to help determine where the suspect may work or live, known as their anchor point. The system concluded that the freeway phantom likely had an anchor point in DC's Congress Heights District, somewhere on the south side of the St. Elizabeth Hospital. This aligned with Detective Traynham's belief that the killer lived in the same neighborhood as the first two victims, Carol Spinks and Darlenea Johnson, before he expanded elsewhere in an effort to detract attention from himself. In a revived plea for information, it was announced that a $150,000

reward was now available for anyone with a tip that led to an arrest. In 2009, the human hair found in Diane Williams' mouth was submitted to the FBI for advanced DNA testing, but the authorities remained tight lipped about the results. Like Detective Jenkins before him, Detective Traynham was not convinced that Robert Askins was the killer, telling The Washington Post that the police tried their best to make him fit the profile, but it simply wasn't working. On Friday, April 30, 2010, Robert Askins died in prison, aged 91 years. Detective Traynham retired without ever getting the answers he so desperately saw. For almost 50 years, the families of Carol Spinks, Darlenea Johnson, Brenda Crockett,

Nanomotia Yates, Brenda Woodard and Diane Williams have awaited justice. In a 2018 interview with journalist Cheryl Thompson for The Washington Post, Bertha Crockett said she still beats herself up for not going to the store with Brenda on the day she was abducted. Her trauma manifested in a rebellious streak in her youth. If Brenda was living, I would have done things differently. I wish I would have grown up with her. We could have encouraged each other to be better women. Patricia Williams' entire world changed on the day she found out her sister Diane had been murdered. The search for the truth motivated her to become an officer with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department,

with the ultimate goal to catch the freeway phantom. Patricia has since retired from the police department and she hasn't had any contact from law enforcement for years. She has no idea if the case is still being reviewed and if so who is in charge or which department has what files that remain scattered over the three jurisdictions, D.C., Prince George's County and Maryland. Patricia told The Washington Post, quote, You never forget, there is no closure. Whoever did it has gotten away. They may be living somewhere else doing it again. It's not too late to say something. You have a whole generation of family members who would like to see someone brought to justice.

As of 2019, the freeway phantom remains unknown. The $150,000 reward is still available and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Washington Police Department or the FBI.