Cold Case Files - Man in the Shadows

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

Police in Columbus, Ohio spend more than a decade hunting a man who terrorized a neighborhood known as Linden. In the process, he became one of the most prolific rapists in U.S. history. Let NetSuite by Oracle show you how they’ll benefit your business with a FREE Product Tour at www.NetSuite.com/CCF 

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production, available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One. Hi, everyone. If you go to the episode description, you can check out our sponsor deals. Our sponsors make it possible for you to download cold case files each week for free. So check out the promo code deals. You might just find something you like, something you need, or a great gift for your friends and family. On to the show. In February of 1991, Christina Ruth was warmly settled in for the night at her home in Columbus, Ohio. It was winter, and the cold, suffocating winds were knocking at her windows and doors. She also heard another knock. She thought it was the neighbor's dog trapped out in the cold.

It wasn't. I went ahead and opened the door and suddenly this person like came into my doorway and I went to shut the door and he reached out and like slammed the door open. One-third of all murder cases in America remain open. Each one is called a cold case, and only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare cases. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. The man entered Christina's home and quickly turned off the lights. She couldn't even see how he looked. He started to attack her. We made it to the living room.

It's where he had me, had his hands around my neck, and he was choking me and was beating my head into the floor. And he kept saying he was going to kill me. Her attacker rips at her clothes, and Christina's defense mechanisms start to work. She disassociates. Her brain convinces itself that her body and being are separate. You pray.

You step out of your body. It's just my body. It wasn't me. It's just my body. It wasn't me. It was just my body. Three agonizing hours later, the man who broke into her home and assaulted Christina leaves. She calls 911. She's taken to the

hospital, and they examine her and collect biological evidence left on her body by the attacker. The Columbus police begin their investigation. And there just really wasn't much for them to go on. And I knew that even with DNA, it's just like a fingerprint. Unless you have a person to go with that, it doesn't help. The case went cold in a matter of weeks, and the unidentified predator walked around freely, deciding who his next victim would be.

Within a year's time, five more women were raped by the same person, all of them in the same area of Columbus. The neighborhood was known as Linden, and this is where we meet Detective John Weeks. A lot of the earlier attacks were in this close concentrated area here. You know, the distance here between like attack one and attack two locations, probably a half a mile or less. The assaults all followed a similar pattern. The attacker trying to keep his identity a secret and his face hidden. Some of the women, though, were able to provide a rough description. This is Detective Weeks again. Male, black, usually six foot or taller, a little bit heavier build, usually would commit multiple sex offenses, usually armed with some type of a household knife. It was not uncommon for him to

converse with the victims before, during, and after the attacks. A composite sketch is made and circulated around the city. The man becomes known by the moniker, Linden Area Rapist. The investigation is at a standstill, and the police assume that the man will continue his sickening pattern of behavior until he's finally caught. They're wrong, though, because in the fall of 1992, the attacks suddenly stop. We often thought that he was a resident somewhere in that neighborhood, a current resident, but we kept, you would think over time that you would stumble onto him in that respect, and we never did.

So we really didn't know where he was or who he was, obviously, and didn't know what to think about him. In February of 1994, years after Christina was assaulted, the perpetrator breaks into a house of another woman. This is Yvonne Murrell. I'm sleeping, and then the next thing I felt was someone leaning on the bed. I was scared, and then he just threw me to my side real quick and told me not to look and had a knife. And he was real close to me, his face was,

and then he had a knife by my throat. Yvonne was 8 1⁄2 months pregnant. She begged the attacker to have mercy on her, if not for her sake, at least for the sake of the child she was carrying. I did tell him, don't hurt. You know, I'm pregnant. Please don't hurt the baby.

And then he kneeled on the bed and pulled my underwear down. So then at that time, I knew what he was going to do. And I said, please, please, you know, I'm pregnant, you know. But he went ahead. Yvonne calls the police, and Sergeant Jeff Sackstetter joins the investigation. After conferring with Detective Weeks, they determine that Yvonne's assault was part of a larger pattern. This is Sergeant Sackstetter.

His positioning of the victim, his entry into the house, his language spoken to her. And Detective Weeks. He was back in that linden neighborhood in the city. We couldn't account for that gap of time between the 91, 92 attacks and then his sudden reoccurrence in 94.

We didn't know if he'd been sent off to prison, if he'd gone in military commitment, whether a job had moved him out of town. We had no way of knowing. The detectives released new sketches, and the number of officers patrolling the streets was also increased. The Linden area rapist wasn't deterred. Seven more women were assaulted in their own homes, and the detectives didn't even have a suspect. We didn't know who he was. We didn't know anything about him, didn't know where he was. If you don't know those things,

you don't know what the likelihood of him returning is. If you're a business owner, you don't need to tell us that running a business is tough, but you might be making it harder on yourself than necessary. Don't let QuickBooks and spreadsheets slow you down anymore. It's time to upgrade to NetSuite. Stop paying for multiple systems that don't give you the information you need when you need it. Ditch the spreadsheets and all of the old software you've outgrown. Now is the time to upgrade to NetSuite by Oracle, the world's number one cloud business system. NetSuite gives you visibility and control over your financials,

HR, inventory, e-commerce, and more. Everything you need, all in one place, instantaneously. Whether you're doing a million or hundreds of millions in revenue, save time and money with NetSuite. Join the over 21,000 companies using NetSuite right now. Let NetSuite show you how they'll benefit your business with a free product tour at netsuite.com slash ccf. Schedule your free product tour right now at netsuite.com slash ccf. netsuite.com slash ccf. By the year 2002, the number of women who were thought to be assaulted by the Linden Area Rapist had grown substantially. In one incident, a woman was raped on Christmas night while her two-year-old son watched. During a different attack, the Linden Area Rapist stayed for two hours after assaulting a woman named Lisa Woolley. She was one of the few women who got a good look at him.

It's important for each case to be recognized as a person and as an individual. That was Detective Dave McKee, a detective in the Columbus Sexual Abuse Squad in the early 2000s. On a slow afternoon, which I imagine are few and far between, he decided to take a look at the string of unsolved rape cases attributed to the Linden area rapist. He reviewed the files put together by Detective Weeks and Sergeant Sackstetter and agreed that the cases were linked. To confirm that theory, they decided it was time to get science on their side. So we took the DNA from the first series and compared it to DNA on the second series,

and it was determined that they were both the same suspect. It feels like a very small breakthrough, but this piece of information rekindled the interest of the previous detectives, and ultimately, without it, the cases may have never been solved. This is Detective Weeks explaining their next steps. We kind of came to that conclusion that the number of years that he kept disappearing would be consistent with someone being sent off to be incarcerated somewhere. A year and a half, six and a half, seven years, those are consistent with prison terms.

In Ohio, at the time, DNA profiles from people who had been convicted of a felony offense was uploaded in CODIS, the National Data Bank of DNA Profiles. If the Linden area rapist had been in prison for a felony, it'd be easy to match the DNA samples from the victims to the DNA in the database. But we weren't getting any hits. It was kind of the situation where everybody was geared up and we were thinking, well, we're going to get a hit out of it, and we didn't. The detectives had once again resigned themselves to a wait-and-see strategy.

In the most tragic of circumstances, unless he raped again, he likely wouldn't be caught. Three years later, and over 10 years since his attack on Christina Ruth, another sexual assault occurred in the Linden area. Detective Weeks was the one who got the call. When you looked at the offense on paper and you compared the description of the suspects and his characteristics and his behavior and the location he had committed the attack

and the method he had entered the home, you felt pretty certain that this was probably this man back again. The DNA evidence taken from the victim was a match. The Linden rapist was at it again. . Columbus police as a whole were more committed than ever to finding the perpetrator of these horrific attacks. They form a task force

with the purpose of finding the Linden rapist. They review all of the previous notes, and they notice the attacker's made some improvements They review all of the previous notes, and they notice the attackers made some improvements in his techniques over the years. Changed area, changed MOs. When I say areas, just on the other side of the freeway to the campus area, he really started hitting it at the end. We realized how far he had spread out. Like that number nine attack over there, we thought for a number of years that he was concentrated just in this neighborhood.

Almost none of the women had gotten more than a glimpse of their attacker, making it hard for investigators to know, even physically, who they might be looking for. It kind of demonstrates when you've got a victim in a situation like that where they may, because it's so traumatic, may not be able to completely give you a full description or an accurate description.

I mean, you knew you had two. Like, there were some instances where we had two attacks where we knew it was him because of the DNA match, but when you looked at the physical descriptions, there was big disparities in it. They kept hoping that he would make a mistake, that no more women would have to be attacked to figure out who this person was. But that strategy didn't seem to be working out so well. On June 6, 2004, Diana Cunningham was sleeping in her own bed, in her own home, when she was startled awake.

I had no idea what was going on. And at first, I mean, I was half asleep, pretty groggy. You know, all I knew was that I couldn't breathe. He was on top of her. He had his hands around her throat. She couldn't talk. She could barely breathe. You know, he's telling me to shut up or he'll kill me.

He had told me that if I opened my eyes, he would slit my throat. He first demands money. Then he raped Diana. When I just kind of realized that this is going to happen, there's nothing I can do to stop it, I started crying. At first, he kept saying, shut up, stop crying, that kind of thing.

Although later on, when I cried a little bit, he would wipe my tears away. He assaulted her for over an hour, wiping her tears away, reminding her that if she opens her eyes, she might suffer more severe consequences. Diana stayed strong. She stayed smart. There were times when I knew that he could not see my face, that I did open my eyes and try to see anything that I could.

She tried to keep his picture in her mind, making a mental sketch to share with the police. Diana gathered all the information she could in her vulnerable position to share with law enforcement. During the assault itself, I don't know what he thought I was doing, but I kind of felt around on his head, face, arms, you know, found the scar on his arm. That was another identifying characteristic. I got the bald spot on the back of his head.

She didn't just get a visual and physical description. Diana talked to the man. She tried to keep a continual conversation going. Diana Cunningham seems to be one of the bravest women on the planet. I had actually read a magazine article from another woman who had been raped in her own home, and that was one of the tactics that she had used, and I remembered that. It makes them see you as a person, just any attacker in general. If you can get them talking and open up a little bit about yourself and get them to open up a little bit if it's possible, it just helps them to see you as a human being,

and it makes it harder for them to attack you, really. It makes it harder for them to see you as a human being and it makes it harder for them to attack you, really. It makes it harder for them to hurt you. She used all the resources available to her while she was being assaulted. She prevailed during a traumatic event in which she could have shut down without blame. No matter how this case ends, we have just met one of the heroes. Diana's strategy worked. The attacker assured her that he was not going to kill her. He had, however, become wise to the evolution of DNA heroes. Diana's strategy worked. The attacker assured her that he was not going to kill her. He had, however, become wise to the evolution of DNA testing. There was one more

thing she had to do before he left. Basically, he said, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take a shower. And he watched me wash myself to make sure that I did. And while I was in the shower, wiped my apartment for prints, actually poked his head in the bathroom to let me know that he was leaving, told me to lock the door to keep people like him out. I knew there was a house full of just college students, all guys across the street. And so I grabbed a knife from my kitchen,

went across the street, knocked on the guy's door, told him what happened. They sat with me and let me use their phone to call the police, you know, stayed with me through the whole thing. The police swarm upon Diana's neighborhood. They recognize the Linden rapist's work,

and they were intent on catching him. Back at the Columbus Police Crime Lab, Rena Clarkson is doing her part to aid in the investigation. She's a forensic scientist, and on Monday mornings, the DNA database is updated and compares new entries to past entries. On Monday, June 4, 2004, there's a red star by the unknown DNA profile that's associated with the Linden rapes, indicating that a match has been found. It's 2225, and it also matches the 2225 in the unknown profile. This match was a match at all 13 loci that we look at, as well as the amyloid genin, which is the sex of the sample, which is the best match that you can get. I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly what Rena was saying, but I did understand that she was positive that she had identified the Linden area rapist. His name was Robert Patton.

Here's Detective Weeks. He's a convicted felon. Here's Detective Weeks. He's a convicted felon. He'd been in prison in 1995. He'd entered Ohio prison systems. Like all convicted felons, Robert Patton had been required to give a DNA sample. It turns out, though, that the sample had not been entered until much later. This is Detective Weeks again.

So he'd been stockpiled somewhere for some reasons that are beyond me to explain. And it had never been taken and processed and entered into that indexing system until 2004. While his DNA profile sat backlogged, waiting to be entered, Robert Patton continued to rape. I don't always agree with law enforcement, but I think Sergeant Sackstetter is right

on in his opinion. Robert Patton, Sackstetter's Law Enforcement Officer, I believe the system failed. Not advising law enforcement agencies that, yes, we're swabbing your suspects, but we're not running the test from the swabs. And that was never given to us. And that's the dead of night, four seemingly random individuals pulled the ultimate heist and almost walked away with half a million dollars. But by daybreak, one of them was in the hospital, one was in jail, one was dead, and one got away with it. Now Arden Maxwell,

the daughter of the man who disappeared all those years ago, is searching for the truth behind her father's involvement in the heist gone wrong. Little does she know, two of her father's co-conspirators are watching her every move. Providence Journal calls Thick as Thieves a bold, embracing, hard-boiled crime thriller that's utterly riveting from the first page to the last. And it's available now wherever books are sold. Hey everyone, it's Brennan Taylor. You may have seen me on YouTube or even your television. Well, I'm starting a podcast called Suss. Share your scare on Podcast One. Have you ever been in a suspicious, crazy, or wild situation? Well, on Suss, we're going to dive into first-hand accounts of all things terrifyingly thrilling, intense, and paranormal.

From myself, from you the listener, and from some of my friends. You may actually know them. Don't miss Suss. Share your scare. Dropping every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Podcast One, and Spotify. Frustrations aside, and Warren in hand, the detectives arrest and question Robert Patton. Here are some of the clips of the interrogation by Detective Weeks. Anything on that one looks familiar. That's how it's there. Robert Patton. Here are some of the clips of the interrogation by Detective Weeks. I'm not only going to try to make your guy's job easier, right? I want to make this whole process easier, right? I mean, if I can get you to judge or whatever, listen, we don't even have to go to trial or whatever.

My plea won't change. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Did you hear that? In less than five minutes, the suspect admits guilt. He even offers to help expedite the process of his own conviction. He then goes on to give Detective Weeks even more information, sharing things that law enforcement hadn't yet discovered. He says, well, you obviously know about these cases, but there's more out there. There's more cases out there that I'm responsible for. I mean, I'm not going to dispute any of them.

Well, some of them we know are you, without a doubt. Okay, well, probably maybe all of them is me. I'm not even talking about the burglars. I'm talking about the other rapes. All right, where else are these other rapes? Patton does more than share information about the alleged other rapes. He gets into a police van and leads a tour in which he identifies the locations of the crimes he had committed over the past 17 years. And I didn't see him get upset,

excited. I didn't see him really show a whole lot of emotion. He's pointing out things and telling us to turn down this street and stop here and we're one street too far and that sort of thing. By the end of the evening, Weeks and the other investigators discover that Robert Patton had committed more than double the amount of rapes that they had attributed to him, along with burglaries galore. He took us to 69 locations and of those, you know, 39 were the rapes and 30 of them were burglaries. And the list that we were looking at and working from primarily was 17 known rapes. Robert Patton was eventually conclusively linked to at least 37 sexual assaults, making him one of the most prolific serial rapists in the country, maybe even the world. He was indicted on 37 charges of rape.

Robert Patton was prosecuted by Christian Damas from the Franklin County District Attorney's Office in Columbus. Though Robert Patton was the most prolific rape case that Damas had ever been a part of, Patton didn't react like the typical defendant he was accustomed to. Here's Christian Damas to explain. When he walked into the courtroom, the first thing he said was, let's get this party started. And he's got this smile on his face, and he's smirking. And the judge asks him, how do you plea?

And he smiles and says, guilty as charged. It seemed that Patton hadn't wavered from his original statement. He was going to plead guilty. It seemed that way, at first. But then something seemed to have changed his mind. Robert Patton requested a public defender. He made a statement, as told by Christian Damas. And he said, well, I'm not going to plead anything.

I want my trial, and I want it today. Despite the immense amount of evidence, the DNA, the confessions, the tour in the police van, Robert Patton wanted his day in court. I mean, this is America. So Christian Damas prepares to prosecute Robert Patton for his alleged crimes. Seven months later, his day comes. The jury selection process begins, and his victims brace themselves for the trauma to come. The trial doesn't come, though. Patton changes his mind again. He pleads guilty. He pled guilty to 58 counts of robbery and 76 counts of rape and assault, and in the process, he requests, or more so demands, that the judge sentence him to a lot of years

in prison. I've researched a lot of cases, but I've never heard such a request. Neither had Christian Damas. At one point, he said 50 years isn't enough. So the judge, after hearing that he wanted more than 50 years, granted his request and gave him 68. I've never had a defendant ask for more time and actually get it from the judge. Many of Patton's victims sat in the courtroom

and watched as the man who assaulted them, the one who had tried to show dominance by rendering them powerless during the attacks, was stripped of his own rights and power and freedom. I hope that they were able to heal. Among those present was Diana Cunningham, the brave woman who had memorized every detail she could during her attack. I imagine she wasn't troubled by his incarceration,

but there was one aspect of the case that did trouble her. Here's Diana Cunningham. When I found out that they had the evidence to put him away in 2001. That just astonished me. That I'm still having a little trouble with. It's very hard not to be bitter about something like that. But aside from that, what's important now is just making sure that every state reduces their backlog and keeps up on it. Had they done what they were supposed to do in the very beginning, it never would have happened. Thank you. produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more cold case files at aetv.com

and by downloading the A&E app. Also, please take a minute to leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people find the show. Thanks for listening.