Cold Case Files - A Husband's Secret

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

After the murder of Barbara Jean Galliher goes cold investigators are left with few options. Almost three decades later, after being caught in a compromising situation by his wife and admitting to a sex addiction, Donald Vanderbent has something else he wants to get off his chest. Progressive - Progressive.com  SimpliSafe - Right now, get 20% off any new SimpliSafe system with Fast Protect Monitoring at SimpliSafe.com/COLDCASE There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe 

Hi Cold Case listeners, I'm Marissa Pinson, and before we get into this week's episode, I just wanted to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential, are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now, on to the show. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. On the evening of August 15th, 1970, in the dusty town of Sedalia, Missouri,

Helen Gallagher is worried. Her daughter-in-law, Barbara Jean Gallagher, is not picking up her phone. Helen knows the newlywed is alone in the house. Her husband, Stephen, is stationed in the military overseas. So why does the phone continue to ring? And where is Barbara Jean? Finally, Helen walks one block to her daughter-in-law's house and lets herself in. A few minutes later, Helen calls the local police department. Barbara Jean Gallagher is dead, and a murder investigation begins. Pettis County Sheriff Emmett Fairfax takes up the case.

We had a body laying in the living room floor with things scattered around. Barbara's hair had been on rollers, and there was rollers different places in the room, so there had been somewhat of a struggle there. Barbara Jean's shirt is ripped open, her shorts half-zipped. Her neck shows scratch marks, and there is blood caked around her mouth, strong indications the victim might have been strangled. Close by the body is a note printed in block letters, apparently left by Gallagher's killer. Well, it was kind of a misleading note. I told you to stay away from him, so it was a little

bit of a mystery. To police, the note would seem to imply it was written by a woman who perhaps fought with a victim over a man. Details on the note are kept secret from the public. The media, however, does get a look at the body. In 1970, Pete Daniels writes for the Sedalia Democrat. The mark that I saw on her neck indicated to me, even as a young 30-year-old journalist, that whatever it was that happened here was done by someone from behind and that it was extremely violent.

For those living in Sedalia, the sudden presence of a corpse makes death a personal and constant companion. Even worse, whoever killed Barbara Jean Gallagher most likely knew her and was probably living in their small town. Two days later, Fairfax reviews Gallagher's autopsy report as he thought the young woman had been strangled to death.

Surprisingly, no evidence of semen is found. Meanwhile, the best piece of evidence, a mysterious note found at the scene, is shipped to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for forensic analysis. Using the chemical ninhydrin, the Bureau is able to lift fingerprints from the notepaper. The most interesting set comes from a man investigators had already interviewed and dismissed as a suspect. A neighbor of the victim, named Donald Vanderbilt. Demeanor was very calm. I mean, he wasn't agitated or anything.

So that's why, you know, it's pretty tough to get much out of somebody that appears, tries to appear that he doesn't know what happened. Vanderbilt is brought in a second time for questioning and refuses to talk. The print match is not enough to support a charge of murder. The neighbor is released and the murder of Barbara Jane Gallagher goes into the cold files. Whoever it was had to constantly be looking over his shoulders because of that knowledge. Afraid that somewhere, somehow, someday, he might make a mistake that would let the cat out of the bag. The small town that knew Barbara Jean Gallagher waits for an answer to her murder, a wait that will last more than three decades.

In 1999, nearly 30 years after Barbara Jean Gallagher was murdered, Donald Vanderbent resides in St. Augustine, Florida. He is now an alcoholic and addicted to pills. In March of 1999, he marries Julie, a woman he had already once divorced. I was so taken. It sounds selfish. Taken in the moment of just being with him, even in the shape he was in. A year into her second attempt at marriage,

Julie Vanderbent climbs into bed with her husband, and everything changes. I got into bed, and right next to him were my daughter's underwear. Donald Vanderbent tells Julie he is a sex addict and used his daughter's underwear for masturbation. But Bent doesn't stop there. He tells Julie he's been on the internet, taken a test for sex addicts, and answered yes to every single question. Julie Vanderbent believes her life has hit rock bottom, that things can't get any worse. But then, her husband confesses one more thing.

And he said, I have to know if you're in this marriage for the long haul, because I'm going straight to hell, and you've got to decide if you're coming with me. 30 years ago, I murdered someone. And I said, you're lying to me. Vanderbilt insists he's not, and that the woman he killed was his next-door neighbor.

I said, you have to turn yourself in. He said, I am not going to prison. Do you hear me? I am not going to prison. He said, are you going to stick with me through this? I said, isn't that what a wife does? Vanderbent appears relieved and within minutes is sound asleep. Julie Vanderbilt, however, lays awake wondering just what to do. Hey, Cold Case listeners. One of the most important things in life is keeping our homes

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In 1999, Julie Vanderbilt gave her ex-husband a second chance at marriage. A year later, Julie's marriage to Donald Vanderbilt falls apart in an instant when her husband confessed he was a sex addict and then revealed the secret of a murder he committed 30 years earlier. Julie decides to bring her story to the police. James Gimignaro has been a detective at the St. Augustine Police Department for just a little over a month when Julie Vanderbent walks in. I was a brand new

detective, eager, trying to learn. I go up to the front office to get some paperwork or look up a report, and she's in the lobby crying hysterical. I was hoping they'd tell me he was lying to me, or that he had supposed he'd done something that he didn't. Jimenaro doesn't give Julie the news she is hoping for. Instead, he asks her to go undercover and work with police to build a case against her husband. We did something that was, you know, very risky. We

said, look, Julie, we don't have a lot of stuff to go on. I'm going to have to ask you to go back to your house and act like nothing ever happened and to try to get more information for us. He wanted me to find out if I could get a year that he did it, how he did it, and a name. I said, well, I'll try. Julie challenges her husband, telling him she doesn't believe he really killed someone. She says, I don't believe you. Tell me more.

I don't believe it happened. You just want attention. So of course, at that point, he gets a little more specific as far as the details and how we broke in, how we waited for her. Vanderbent tells his wife he only meant to rape his victim, but things got out of control, and he killed his neighbor with a piece of wood. Then Vanderbent composed a note and left it by the body. He told me he left a note next to the body in all capital letters that said,

I told you once to stay away from him. I said, why? I left that note, he said, because I wanted to divert suspicion and have them think a woman did it. Julie presses for the woman's name, but Vanderbilt says he doesn't remember. He gets very edgy at that point, and I stop, because at that point, I'm getting more and more afraid. Over the next four days, alone in her house, Julie Vanderbent continues to play detective, picking through her husband's belongings, looking for some clues as to whom he might have killed. All she is sure of is that the crime happened sometime in the early 70s.

I asked her to go back and look at his military files and to find out where he was stationed at in this time period he says this occurred. In the early 70s, Donald Vanderbilt was stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. For cold case detectives, it is at least a starting point. Jim Minero composes a teletype providing details on the alleged murder and asking for information on Donald Vanderbilt. On the afternoon of February 22nd, Jim Minero's teletype comes into the police department in Sedalia, Missouri and makes its way to Commander Jim Gardner. He immediately recognizes the description as belonging to the most famous murder in Sedalia's history, the unsolved slaying of Barbara Jean Gallagher. I had always thought, you know, one of these days,

when I get some time, I'm going to pull that file up and take a look at it and see what we've got. Now Gardner has his opportunity, and he pulls the Gallagher file. Not only do the facts fit the St. Augustine teletype, so does the suspect. The Donald Vanderbent who confessed to his wife in Florida was a neighbor of Barbara Gallagher in Missouri, was questioned about the crime, and even has his prints on a note found beside Gallagher's body. Gartner and Lieutenant Bill Shobe get on the phone with Jim Minero in St. Augustine and compare notes. When we received the information and checked with Air Force officials

and also pulled up the old case, it was clear to us that we were talking about the same person, Donald Vanderbent. Cold case detectives tell Julie Vanderbent the man she married is most likely a killer. They ask her to sit tight and not alert her husband. Julie agrees to continue to help. You know what happened? The victim, Barbara Jean Gellar, she then had a name. He was able to tell me a name.

And from the time I heard her name, I knew, I knew I'd done the right thing. Jim Gartner is leading the investigation. For 10 days, his men watched Vanderbilt, hoping the suspect would provide them with more evidence of his guilt. On March 1st, concerned about Julie Vanderbilt's safety inside the house, detectives decide to confront Vanderbilt directly. I felt that it was time to roll the dice with Donald Vanderbilt. We had one shot to do it, and we better get it right. Hey, Cold Case listeners.

One of the most important things in life is keeping our homes and families safe. I've trusted and recommended SimpliSafe for home security, and I want you to experience the same peace of mind. I've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer an exclusive 50% discount. Just visit simplisafe.com slash coldcase to claim it. I use SimpliSafe every day, arming it before bed and when I leave for trips. It's incredible how much more relaxed I feel knowing my home is protected 24-7. Recently, there was a burglary in our neighborhood, which really shook everyone up, but I was able to feel confident

that if someone ever tries to enter our home, SimpliSafe will be watching and with their FastProtect monitoring, can have agents respond within five seconds of an alert. That's the kind of rapid response that can actually stop a crime in progress. So my family and I stay safe. I also love how easy it is to use SimpliSafe.

It took me less than an hour to set up and the app is super intuitive. And the best part is I've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer you an exclusive 50% discount on a new system, plus a free indoor security camera with fast protect monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash cold case to claim this amazing deal. But hurry, this offer is for a limited time only, so order today. Remember that simplisafe.com slash cold case. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Donald Vanderbent is working at an aluminum factory in St. Augustine, Florida, when police show up and ask him to come downtown. Now 49 years old, Vanderbent is not told exactly

why the law wants to talk with him. He does, however, have a suspicion. Somewhere along the line on the ride from work to wherever we were going at that point, I didn't know. But I knew there was like a calm came over me, and I knew where we were going and why we were going there. Fifteen minutes later, Vanderbilt walks into a police interrogation room. On the table is a case file and pictures of Barbara Jean Gallagher. Special Agent Rick Look and Chief David Shore

handled the interrogation. I think it took it right back to 1970. He hung his head and started crying. Felt we were going to be very successful at that point. He wanted to tell a story. And most people do, I think, subconsciously. They wanted to tell their story. Vanderbent freely admits strangling Gallagher.

The details of his story, however, are far different from the tale he told his wife. Now Vanderbent claims the murder was merely a flirtation gone horribly wrong. Vanderbilt is trying to finesse the story, minimize his guilt, and perhaps make a plea of manslaughter. Cold case detectives will have none of it. The 49 year old is returned to Missouri

and pleads guilty to murder in the second degree. He was free for 30 years. That was his parole. Now it was time for him to pay the price for killing Barbara Jean Gallagher. Donald Vanderbent is sentenced to 25 years for killing Barbara Jean Gallagher. He does his time at Missouri's Northeast Correctional Center.

With parole a possibility down the road, Vanderbent admits the story he told police was a lie. There was no flirtation with Barbara Jean Gallagher, just a man lying in wait with a piece of wood in his hand. I was trying to reduce my culpability and make myself not look as guilty. I was trying to put some of the fault on Barbara Jean, and there was absolutely none. This was my fault, plain and simple. As for the woman who put him in prison, Julie Vanderbent has moved on,

putting her husband and the horror behind her, holding on to only one thing, the memory of a young woman who deserved better in life and found a friend 30 years after her death. I had a very hard time. From the day that I found out this was true, I had a name and a face of a beautiful woman. And when I got the case file, before me was a picture of her body and what he did to her. And when I saw that picture, I said, thank God I did what I did. Thank God. Cold Case Files is hosted by Marissa Pinson,

produced by Jeff DeRay, and distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at anetv.com. I love free and I love Jersey Shore. For me, it's the Godfather. SpongeBob SquarePants. I am Patrick. Patrick is me. Oh, Forrest Gump, come on. Criminal Minds, solving crime after bedtime.

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