Cold Case Files - The Heartland Killer

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several states are terrorized by a sadistic serial killer, until the murders abruptly stop. In 2006, a cold case detective and producer on the set of “Cold Case Files” begins to unknowingly connect the dots while discussing the unsolved murder of 23-year-old Sothern Illinois University student Deborah Sheppard. Check out our great sponsors! ClickUp: Use code "coldcase" at ClickUp.com to get 15% off ClickUp's massive Unlimited Plan for a year! 1-800 Contacts: Order online at 1800contacts.com - download their free app - OR call 1-800 Contacts (that’s 1-800-266-8228) June's Journey: Download June’s Journey today! Available on Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as on PC through Facebook Games! DON’T MISS VH1’S MY TRUE CRIME STORY - NARRATED BY REMY MA! ONLY ON VH1. CATCH UP ON DEMAND. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 27 million drivers who trust Progressive!

An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. I had unanswered questions. Even though I knew she was gone, I didn't believe it. It was Easter weekend, and we were planning to go and see Debra. We were looking forward to that Easter egg hunt, just being together. Instead, it was 25 years before we knew what happened to Deborah.

There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's April 8th, 1982 in Carbondale, Illinois, and the Easter holiday is approaching. 23-year-old Deborah Shepard returns to her ground floor apartment at the Regal Apartments on Graham Street after classes at Southern Illinois University. Her boyfriend, Randy, invites her to go see a movie, but it's already late, almost 11 p.m., and Deborah wants an early night because she has a busy day tomorrow. The following morning, Deborah's family is going to be visiting from Chicago, and we'll be

picking her up early. Easter is important to the Shepard family. They like to get together each year to celebrate with a large meal and an Easter egg hunt. Deborah's sister Bridget is looking forward to seeing her. They haven't been able to spend much time together since Deborah moved to Carbondale to study. We couldn't wait to get Deborah. We were really looking forward to celebrating, enjoying Easter, knowing that her graduation was just a few weeks away. Deborah turns down the movie invitation.

She tells Randy that she needs to clean up the apartment before her parents and sisters arrive in the morning. She told him if he wanted to come over, he could. Randy makes his way to the apartment. As he approaches the front door, he spots a note stuck to it. It's from Deborah, and it reads, knock loud. I'm in the shower. Deb. Randy knocks several times but receives no response. He tries the front door and discovers that it's unlocked. He enters the apartment and calls out Deborah's name, but he's met by silence.

Randy looks through the apartment for his girlfriend, and when he walks into her bedroom, he finds a horrific scene. Deborah's naked body is lying on the floor. She appears to be dead. Randy runs to the living room to use the phone, but the line is dead. He races to a friend's apartment nearby and calls for help. Paramedics and police are dispatched to the scene. Officer Paul Eccles is one of the first to arrive.

I was still a rookie patrol officer with the Carbondale Police Department, and I heard the call come in over my radio to assist an ambulance at Debra Shepard's apartment. Typically when you hear a sergeant being sent to the scene and then later detectives arriving on the scene, I mean, I knew it was something big. The police and paramedics are perplexed by the scene right away. It's clear that Deborah is deceased. Her body is cold to the touch. But there are no obvious injuries, including no defensive injuries. There also doesn't appear to be any sign of a struggle. They continue to scour the apartment for clues.

Investigators uncover that the phone line in Deborah's apartment has been cut and the glass from one of her windows has been removed. It's now apparent that Deborah's death was no tragic accident. Somebody had crept into her apartment and killed her. Officer Echols also notices something peculiar in the bathroom. They didn't really notice that much out of place, except for in Deborah's bedroom. Of course, that's where Deborah's body was.

It was apparent that Deborah had taken a shower. And also noticed that there was some mud in the bathtub, which was out of place. Deborah's body is transported to the medical examiner's office for a cause of death to be determined. While Deborah's family are making the final preparations for their trip to Carbondale, the following morning, the phone begins to ring. It's Carbondale Police. Bridget remembers the moment she found out that her sister had been killed. I woke up in the morning and found all my family members, cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone at our house at like seven in the morning. And my dad looked me in my eye and told me,

Bridget, your sister Debra passed away. She died. He just fell out crying. It was just devastating. Debra was born on December 10, 1958, in Chicago to Bernie and Hazel Anthony Shepard. She graduated from Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields and they attended Prairie State College in Chicago Heights before transferring to Southern Illinois University where she was majoring in marketing.

Debra had been anxiously anticipating her graduation, which was set for May 1982. Debra's family was well off, so much that to celebrate, her parents planned on surprising her with a brand new sports car. Deborah was one of three girls. She was always close to her sisters, Nicole and Bridget. The trio were inseparable growing up. Deborah was such a warm-spirited, loving person. She was loved by everyone. Deborah was like a mom to me. She always would, you know, make Rice Krispie treats for me and my sister. I remember her getting ready to go out sometimes to a concert with her friends, and I would be sitting right by her in the bathroom while she's making her face up. She props me up on the sink.

And she's putting on her makeup, and she puts a little lip gloss on me. She had so many dreams, so many goals and dreams. You know, one day have a family of her own and have a successful career. And all of that was taken away. My father loved his family. His daughters, you know, would do anything. There was no mountain high enough. But my father felt helpless.

We all felt helpless, but especially him. Investigators immediately went to speak to Randy, Deborah's boyfriend who made the gruesome discovery. He takes investigators through the gruesome discovery. He takes investigators through the night in question. He tells Officer Eccles that he had invited Deborah to a movie, and when she turned down the offer, she invited him over. Investigators looked at Deborah's friend Randy. His reaction in finding her, his emotions seemed consistent with him truly being surprised when he found her. There was no evidence that they had had any issues. His story seemed consistent with him truly being surprised when he found her.

There was no evidence that they had had any issues. His story seemed to check out. There was just nothing to link him to her death. At the medical examiner's office, Deborah's body is prepped for autopsy. The pathologist performs a rape kit, but in 1982, the use of rape kits is still very much in its infancy. DNA technology is non-existent at the time, which means that the rape kit could only identify things such as foreign hairs, the presence of semen and blood type. Officer Echols describes the findings of the autopsy. The initial autopsy that was conducted on Deborah Shepard was done by a pathologist

that the Jackson County, Illinois coroner brought to Carbondale. There were no marks or wounds on Debra's body. There was some evidence of pulmonary edema, a little bit of bloody froth that had come from Debra's mouth. The autopsy does very little to answer any questions about the perplexing death. The pathologist even considers that Deborah may have had some kind of medical episode which resulted in her death. Deborah's family refuses to accept this.

Deborah was a 23-year-old healthy woman in the prime of her life, and there is evidence of foul play in her apartment. They find it unfathomable that her death was accidental. Bridget recalls how their father, Bernie, dismissed the pathologist's findings. You know, she was never sick. She was never, you know, she was always full of life. She was not ill. My dad wanted to be for sure because my dad is trying to figure out who did this. Police accept the findings of the pathologist and rule Deborah's death as natural.

The autopsy findings are made public, and the following morning, the media begins to report that Deborah's death was simply an accident. The headlines in the newspaper Southern Illinoisian read, Other newspapers report the same, The headlines in the newspaper Southern Illinoisian read, Student death now believed not foul play. Other newspapers report the same, leaving Deborah's family feeling devastated. Bridget and their father have their own suspicions as to why Deborah's death was dismissed as natural. He was angry. He was extremely angry.

He most definitely felt that they were sweeping it under the rug, possibly because of her being African American, as well as they didn't want the publicity. But I know that my father was definitely trying to investigate to help find out what happened to her. My father knew something bad that happened. Bernie told the Chicago Tribune, I think they thought that because Deborah was Black, her family would have limited resources and skills to fight with

them. What Carbondale police don't realize is that the family has more than enough resources and skills to pursue justice. Determined in his search for the truth, Bernie drives five hours from his home in the Chicago suburbs to police headquarters in Carbondale. When Debra's father, Bernie Shepard, arrived in town, of course, he met with investigators, but they were still waiting for toxicology results. They were also still waiting for the crime lab to do the analysis on the rape kit. So things were still up in the air. Emotions are running high, and Bernie is impatient with the wait for answers.

He knows that something sinister has happened to his daughter. He just needs the proof. Bernie decides to bring Deborah's body back to Chicago for a second autopsy. Five days after Deborah is found in her apartment, her body is transported to the medical examiner's office in Chicago. Dr. Robert Stein closely examines her, looking for any telltale signs of foul play. Right away, Dr. Stein notices something a little off. In the tissues of

Deborah's neck, Dr. Stein discovers deep bruising, evidence of manual strangulation. He also finds that she sustained blows to her head. He writes in his report, Deborah Shepard definitely did not die from natural causes. I feel she was strangled and received blows about the head. I saw discoloration inside and outside her throat. These bruise marks don't always show up immediately on black skin and may not have been recognizable to an inexperienced pathologist. As his report was completed,

the results come back from the rape kit that was carried out on Debra in Carbondale. It says that there was evidence of semen recovered from the oral swabs. Debra's family are informed of the gruesome discoveries. My father was adamant about finding out what happened to her. How did this happen? Who did this? And he wanted justice. The second autopsy report is handed over to Carbondale Police, and the case finally transforms into

a murder investigation. It's now been five weeks since Deborah was killed, and Carbondale Police issued a press release informing the public and the media of the developments in the case. The release said, the results of the second autopsy were telephoned to this department earlier this week. It was the opinion of the second pathologist that there was compression of the muscles in the back of the deceased's neck, indicating someone may have suffocated or choked her. The family is relieved that Deborah's murder is now being taken seriously, all thanks to the determination of her father, who refused to accept the police's assertions that she had died naturally.

If he had not gone down to do the second autopsy and bring her body back, there would be no investigation. And he did it all because of the love he has for his daughter. Investigators begin looking into people in Deborah's life, hoping to gather some information that could lead to a potential suspect. Another man in Deborah's life draws suspicion. Deborah had various female roommates throughout her time in university. One of these roommates had just recently left the university, and Deborah was trying to find somebody to rent out her room.

A friend of hers, Anthony, offered to move in. When Debra made her family aware of this, Bernie wasn't too pleased. He didn't like the idea of his daughter living with a man, especially a man he didn't know. At first, my father did not want her to roommate with a male, you know, being the protective father he is. But Deborah needed help covering the costs of rent, and despite her father's qualms, she allowed Anthony to move in. Anthony had been living with Deborah for just a couple of months

when she was killed. When he was questioned, he told investigators that he had been at work that night and returned to the apartment to find it swarming with police and paramedics. Naturally, he becomes a person of interest. Delving deeper into Anthony, investigators chat with some of Deborah's friends. One of them informs investigators that one night Anthony had tried to kiss Deborah, but she turned down his advances. Investigators decide to check out Anthony's alibi, and they discover that it was airtight. Anthony was definitely at work when Deborah was killed, ruling him out of their investigation.

Carbondale is a small city, and the police department has never handled a case of this magnitude before. They turned to the FBI for assistance. The FBI had experienced a sharp increase in profile requests from smaller police forces throughout the United States from the beginning of the 1980s. Using Deborah's profile, combined with the autopsy report and crime scene report, the behavioral science unit at the FBI creates a profile of the killer's likely characteristics to aid in the investigation. The suspect profile provided by the behavioral science unit of the FBI led investigators to believe that the suspect was likely someone who was African American, someone who was the same age as De Deborah, and someone that she knew.

Bernie turns his attention to all of Deborah's friends. He fears that one of them could have been involved, but one by one, they all deny any involvement in her murder and voluntarily take polygraph examinations, which show that they are not being deceitful. With no other suspects or even persons of interest in the murder, investigators are stumped. Over the next year, Carbondale police continue to investigate Deborah's murder. The case is just about to go cold when the media begin to

report that another woman in Carbondale has been the victim of a sexual assault and a man has been arrested. On June 18th, investigators begin examining the sexual assault case that happened just across town. They quickly learn of an interesting piece of information about the suspect in this second attack. About a year after Deborah's death, there was another sexual assault across town. Investigators really thought that they had found the suspect since the crime scenes were similar. And then they found out that this individual was a friend of Deborah Shepard's and actually had been there the night that her body was found.

Investigators now have their strongest lead in the murder of Deborah, a local man who was involved in a similar attack. Officer Echols details the second attack. About a year after Deborah Shepard's murder, investigators made an arrest in a rape across town. The point of entry was a window. Investigators really thought that they had found the suspect since the crime scenes were similar. of entry was a window. Investigators really thought that they had found the suspect since

the crime scenes were similar. And eventually, fingerprints were identified to another individual who had been part of Deborah Shepard's circle of friends. Theories were running rampant in the small community. This was someone who had a crush on Deborah, and some people thought that he knew something about her murder. Investigators interview the man, hoping he will slip up and prove his guilt. He acknowledges that he was in Deborah's apartment the night she was killed, but he staunchly denies that he killed her. He tells investigators that he had been with Deborah before she was killed, but had left to go to another friend's apartment who lived nearby. He tells them that when he heard the sirens and saw police outside Debra's apartment after her body was discovered, he walked over to find out what was

going on. Investigators are not satisfied and are unyielding in their belief that they have their guy. Doing their due diligence, they check out the friend's alibi, only to learn that it's rock solid. No fingerprints were ever identified, no other physical evidence was ever linked to this friend, and the lead, as exciting as it was, grew cold. The friend is ruled out of the inquiries, and investigators find themselves back at square one. The detectives continue to investigate for two years, but despite their best efforts, the case goes cold. Life for the family continues,

their grief further compounded by each passing day that the murder remains unsolved. I just couldn't accept that she was no longer with us. It was the most painful thing in my life I had to go through. What detectives in Carbondale don't know is that investigators 50 miles away in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, are dealing with their own string of unexplained murders. Ten weeks before Deborah was attacked in her apartment,

55-year-old Margie Call left work and went out for the evening with a group of her friends. Margie was a widow who lived on her own. She and her friends always looked out for one another, and they were very particular about nobody being left to walk home alone. This night was no different, and after playing cards with about nobody being left to walk home alone. This night was no different, and after playing cards with her club as she usually did, Margie and her friends walked the short distance to her apartment. Once safely inside her apartment, Margie turned the light on,

something that her friends outside recognized as a signal that she got in safely. The following morning, Margie never showed up to work. Her concerned colleagues contacted her brother. Detective Jimmy Smith with the Cape Girardeau Police Department recalls what happened next. When Margie's brother arrived at her residence that morning to check her welfare, he entered through the carport door leading into the residence, went back to the bedroom, and found Margie lying face down on the bed.

Her hands were bound behind her back. She was naked and wearing a pair of black boots. Deborah's brother immediately called 911. Upon entering the apartment, officers who had been dispatched to the scene find Debra with her hands bound behind her back with a leather cord. She had been strangled to death. They conducted a sweep of her apartment and discovered a second piece of leather cord in the bathroom. They observed the scene further and noticed that the window in the bathroom had been smashed. They determined that this must have been the entry point for the killer. The apartment was cordoned off with crime scene tape as forensic experts examined the scene.

They collected two hairs that did not belong to Margie and sent them to be analyzed. They collected those hair samples and forwarded the hair samples to the laboratory, but we had no DNA. DNA was years away at that time. The autopsy report revealed that Mrs. Call was strangled and had been sexually assaulted. Margie's son, Don, remembers the moment he was informed that she had been killed. When I heard my mother was murdered,

I think my first thought was, that doesn't happen to somebody like my mom. Never said a bad word about anybody, and. Never said a bad word about anybody. And nobody ever said a bad word about her. She worked for 42 years at Woolworths as a bookkeeper. My dad died of a heart attack in 1978. So after that, she lived by herself. She didn't date or anything like that.

She had a lot of friends, the same group of friends that she had before Dad died. Now she had grandchildren. It was the last thing in the world that you would ever think to happen to Mom or in Cape Girardeau. Things like that just did not happen. Investigators began piecing together Margie's last known movements. They knew that she had arrived home safe and well the night before. And they knew that she was still wearing the clothing she had been wearing that night while out with her friends.

They speculated that Margie's killer broke into the apartment and lay in wait for her to return home, or broken shortly after she returned. In an attempt to produce a person of interest, investigators started questioning people who Margie had been in contact with. These routine interviews uncovered that Margie had recently been in the hospital. Don details a disturbing incident from her stay. A policeman would come and they wanted to know about her friends and things like that. We just couldn't tell them anything. We had found out she had been in the hospital for something and somebody had bothered her in the hospital for something and somebody

had bothered her in the hospital, one of the orderlies. She was, you know, laying down and maybe he did things he should not have done with her, groped her or something like that. Investigators identified the orderly and questioned him, but he provided an airtight alibi for the time that Margie was killed. Six months pass without a strong lead in Margie's murder until Cape Girardeau investigators are called to yet another brutal discovery that sounds eerily similar.

KFBS 12 News anchor Carly O'Keefe covered the developing story. Mildred Wallace is found dead. She's 65 years old. She's blindfolded. She's tied up and sexually assaulted in really just gruesome fashion. Mildred lived just five blocks away from Margie and Gerardo. Investigators working on Margie's murder case are taken aback by the similarities between the two cases. Detective Smith recalls some of those similarities. Very similar. Point of entry into the residence, both bathroom windows,

both were found deceased in their bedrooms with hands tied behind their back. But one particular thing stood out. Mrs. Call was strangled to death and Mildred Wallace was shot in the head with a.38 caliber handgun. Despite the difference in the method of murder, investigators are faced with a terrifying possibility that all of these murders were connected and that a sadistic killer could be lurking among the community. Carly from KFVS 12 News details the aura of fear that circulated in the air. These are all very small bedroom communities. And suddenly, another woman is found dead in a very similar manner.

Husbands were afraid to let their wives go anywhere without them. They were afraid they'd come home from work and find their wife was the next victim. The murders of Margie Call and Mildred Wallace in Cape Girardeau over the last six months have left the Missouri town shaken. Gun sales go through the roof, and residents are terrified of being home alone or leaving their wives or mothers alone. At the time, DNA technology was still years away. The FBI laboratory can only determine if blood found at a crime scene is human blood and the blood type. The investigations are exhaustive,

as Detective Smith recalls. They did an extensive investigation of Mildred Wallace's background, who she was associated with, whether she had a boyfriend, and interviewed various people at work that were friends with Mrs. Wallace. They were unable to turn up any suspects. After three years of dead-end leads, both the Margie Call and Mildred Wallace cases go cold. Just an hour's drive away in Carbondale, Illinois, the case of Deborah Shepard had been shelved the year beforehand after two years of investigation. Bridget describes how life changed for the family in the wake of Deborah's murder.

After so many years of not knowing who murdered her, we lost hope. My parents became very overprotective with my sister, Nicole, and I. They held us very tight and sheltered us so much that, you know, it was overwhelming. But we understood the reason. The years slowly turn into decades. And in 2006, it's the 24-year anniversary of Deborah's murder. The family has all but given up hope that one day justice would be served. In May of that year, an unexpected conversation

during a television interview heats up the case. Officer Echols was part of that conversation. In 2006, I was at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab in Carbondale sitting with the DNA expert Suzanne Kidd being interviewed by Code Case Files about another case. I'd been a Carbondale police officer for one week. That's the same day that Susan Chumate was murdered. During some of our downtime, I mentioned to Suzanne that I had another case that I wanted her to take a look at.

It was the 1982 murder of Deborah Shepard. Officer Echols has solved another cold case two years prior, the 1981 murder of another student at Southern Illinois University. After that success, he is more determined than ever to try and solve the murder of Deborah. But he's hindered by the small amount of DNA that was recovered from the crime scene. He spoke with Suzanne, the DNA expert. I explained to her that I had some things I'd like for her to look at.

So she suggested that I bring that over and she would take a look at it. After my conversation with Suzanne, I went back to my boss and said, hey, you know, I'd like to reopen from a forensic level Deborah Shepard's murder case. At the time, I was a patrol sergeant working midnights, and I was told that I needed to concentrate on my patrol responsibilities. So it was about another year, I was promoted to lieutenant, and I was put in charge of investigations,

and he said, yes, go ahead. Several weeks after I dropped off a few items that had been collected from Deborah's crime scene, including a purple shirt, which had been recovered from the bedroom floor, I met with Suzanne Kidd, who told me that she had had some success and had actually found a tiny speck of semen on the purple shirt. Up until this point, the only DNA evidence that we had were a couple sperm that were on a microscopic slide where a smear had been taken during the autopsy. Now, the purple shirt actually

belonged to Deborah Shepard and was on the floor next to Deborah's body. And of course, the big question was, how did semen get on that shirt? The T-shirt with the semen stain has been sitting in the evidence drawer for the past 25 years. Officer Echols, who is now Lieutenant Echols, discovers that when the paramedics were moving Deborah's body onto the stretcher to be removed from the apartment,

semen had dripped from her mouth onto the t-shirt. Lieutenant Eccles sends the semen sample to be analyzed. The examination reveals nine of the genetic codes needed to enter it into the DNA database on a state level. In August of the following year, Lieutenant Eccles is invited by Suzanne and her partner Stacy Spaeth to enter the genetic codes into the computer. They all stand in silence. Lieutenant Echols has his fingers crossed as he recites a prayer that they identify a match. Oh my gosh, we can finally put a face to this case and finally bring justice to Deborah Shepard. A press release is sent out to the media, including KFVS 12 News.

It was 2007, and we got a press release that there had been a break in a cold case. The Carbondale police said that after 25 years, finally technology had caught up with their investigation, and we finally know who murdered Deborah Shepherd. There was a DNA match. 63-year-old Timothy Wayne Kreutzer. He was an EMT. He would go into houses if people had a heart attack. He would bring them to the hospital.

He delivered babies. He saved lives. The female EMTs that he worked with often talked about what a nice guy he was and how he looked out for them. He would warn them, you know, don't go out late at night. Don't, you know, walk through parking lots alone. You don't know who you're going to run into. When Lieutenant Echols delves deeper into Kreutzer's background, he discovers that Kreutzer has been living a double life. He originally had come from the Allentown, Pennsylvania area.

He had joined the Navy, had been shipped to the Waukegan, North Chicago area where he got in trouble in 1963. He had committed several rapes. He had stabbed one lady and had been sentenced to 40 years in prison. By 1972, he became part of a group that was trained to be paramedics. After Kreutzer served just 13 of his 40-year sentence, he was paroled in 1976. Upon his release, he applied for a job with Southern Illinois University Ambulance Service. He was hired on the spot.

Lieutenant Echols continues looking into Kreutzer's past and uncovers some disturbing incidents. I pulled a report that had been investigated in 1979 where Tim Kreutzer had been arrested for indecent liberties with a child. By the fall of 1979, he was sent back to prison and he became the first person ever in the history of Jackson County to be certified as a sexually dangerous person, which required him to attend counseling. He was released from prison in June of 1981 and returned back to Carbondale to live. Lieutenant Echols then discovers that Cratcher had not changed his ways, and he is currently in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting three women in Pennsylvania 19 years earlier. He is now 63 years old and incarcerated at the Big Muddy Correctional Center in Ina, Illinois, not too far away from Carbondale.

Lieutenant Echols drives to the prison to interview him about Debra's murder. Maybe you can help us out with something. What are you talking about? He immediately was on defense. This girl's name was Debra Shepard. Does that mean anything to you? No. We know you did it. Oh, boy, I got down name was Deborah Shepard. Does that mean anything to you? We know you did it. Oh, boy, I'm telling you. That's the wrong person.

Kreutzer steadfastly denies that he was involved in Deborah's murder. So Lieutenant Echols produces a copy of the report from the laboratory, showing that his DNA was found at the crime scene. I think we need to end this right now. I'll talk to him in a turn. Lieutenant Echols leaves the prison that afternoon feeling embittered. He had anticipated a confession, but he remained hopeful that they had gathered enough evidence against Kreutzer for murder charges to be filed.

Early the next morning, Lieutenant Echols awakens to find a voicemail on his phone. It's from Lieutenant Shuler from the Big Muddy Correctional Center. He informs Lieutenant Echols that Kreutzer wants him to come back and that he wants to confess. Kreutzer graphically describes Deborah's murder. He tells Lieutenant Eccles that he has been watching Deborah through the window. When he heard her start the water in the shower, he took off the window panel, climbed in,

and then lay in wait at the other side of the bathroom door with a gun. When Deborah came out of the bathroom and saw the unknown man standing before her, she jumped backwards and fell into the bathtub. Kreutzer explained that he grabbed Deborah and shoved her into the bedroom where he forced her to perform a sexual act before he strangled her to death. When the interview with Kreutzer ends, Lieutenant Eccles places a phone call to Bernie to inform him that they have caught his daughter's killer.

It's the phone call that the family has been waiting for for over 25 years. When they found the person who killed Deborah, we hugged each other. Justice was going to be served and peace came over us. But then at the same time, we have to go to

see this monster that killed my sister, to see and tell him what we think of him and how could you. As news of the new developments circulate through the state and the surrounding areas, Detective Smith over in Cape Girardeau is transfixed to his television. Something clicked when I heard murder case 1982 solved after all these years. I couldn't get to work soon enough that morning. Now I contacted Lieutenant Echols with the Carbondale Police Department. I inquired if he felt like Kreutzer could have been in Cape Girardeau during the years that our homicides

occurred, 1977 to 1982. Investigators speak with Kreitzer's cellmate and learn that Kreitzer was very likely in Cape Girardeau during that same time frame. So then I started working very closely with Detective Jimmy Smith, which advised me that they had some DNA from the 1982 cases of Margie Call and Mildred Wallace. They also had a partial palm print from the window of Mildred Wallace. The DNA and palm print are compared to Kreutzer's DNA and palms.

They both come back as a match. Detective Smith couldn't quite believe it. When I got the news, I, hair set up on the back of my neck, and it brought tears to my eyes. But these murders were only the beginning of Kreutzer's cold-blooded crime spree. Investigators were about to uncover a reign of terror that spanned across four states, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. I just couldn't say no. I couldn't stop. Lieutenant Echols and Detective Smith speak with Kreischer, hoping to get further confessions. He already confessed to Deborah's murder, but he denied any involvement in Margie and Mildred's murders,

despite the fact that he had been connected to the crime scenes. Carly had her own suspicions as to why. Missouri has the death penalty. Illinois does not. So Timothy Kreutzer couldn't be put to death for Deborah Shepard's case, but he could have been in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. So while they had the DNA evidence in the Mildred Wallace case, they didn't have evidence to back up the other murders. So they made a deal.

The investigators decide that in order to elicit a confession, the death penalty needs to be taken off the table. But first, they need permission from the victim's families. They all agreed. They were willing to forego the death penalty in exchange for a full confession from Kreutzer. Investigators learned that Kreutzer hunted women, stalking them in parking lots, following them home, and then peeping through their windows. He did this to establish whether they lived alone and what their daily routine was.

Kreutzer would stalk his victims for a week or two before finally breaking in, where he would then lay in wait, ready to attack. In addition to the details of Mildred's case, Detective Smith finally gets some answers about the unsolved murder of Margie. I killed her. I killed her. How'd you do that? Strangling.

Detective Smith knows what Kreutzer's confession will mean to the victim's families. He had no remorse. As I sat there and listening, I'm thinking I'm going to be able to contact surviving family members and tell them that we have a person responsible for sexually assaulting or murdering their loved ones after all these years. Timothy Kreitscher claims responsibility for six other murders, including the 1977 double murder and sexual assault of 58-year-old Mary Parsh and her 27-year-old daughter Brenda in Cape Girardeau. Was there any particular race that you sought out? No.

That's just... Easy victims. Easy to victim. That's what you look for was easy victims. I look for easy victims. He also confesses to the 1979 murder of 51-year-old Myrtle Rupp from Temple, Pennsylvania, the 1977 murder of 21-year-old Sheila Cole, and the 1978 murder of 51-year-old Virginia Lee Witte from Marion, Illinois, and the 1978 murder of 51-year-old Virginia Lee Witte from Marion, Illinois.

Kreischer isn't finished confessing just yet. He additionally admits to over 20 unsolved sexual assaults, home burglaries, and an attempted murder that led to a wrongful conviction in 1981. Lieutenant Echols and Detective Smith let out a collective sigh of relief, knowing that they had finally caught such a dangerous predator, a predator that had been stalking the United States for decades

and even put an innocent man behind bars. You realize that you finally have resolved what so many people have worked so hard to resolve, but yet, you know, there's still the devastation that one person has done to so many people. At least we can make sure he never gets out of prison and can never victimize anybody else. In April 2008,

Timothy Kreutzer is sentenced to 13 consecutive life sentences for the murders of nine women in four different states. The victim's families are in attendance to finally see the man who turned their lives upside down. Kreutzer speaks to them and says, I don't know if I would have been so generous if I were in the same situation. Thank you for sparing my life. Kreutzer is currently incarcerated at the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Illinois, where he will remain until his death.

And it was through the DNA that was matched in Deborah Shepard's case that we were able to solve all of these murders. Deborah took care of me. You know, my parents took care of me, but she most definitely took care of us. So when she passed away, I lost not only a sister, I lost a mother. I had dreams, you know, of my sister. One day in my dream, we were looking for her and we found her in a church and we brought her home. We were celebrating that we found her. Then after a while, she tapped me on my shoulder and said, Bridget, I have to go now.

And then she was gone. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barres. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson. Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McKamey Lin. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Maite Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, Cold Case Files.

For more Cold Case Files, visit abetv.com.