Cold Case Files - The Rifkin Murders Part 4

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

After 30 years, serial killer Joel Rifkin is providing clues to New York State Police in order to identify two of his 17 victims--the only victims that remain nameless. The information he’s... given has brought investigators closer than ever before to naming Victims Six and Nine. But when they visit him in prison, Rifkin throws them a curveball. In an effort to bring about justice, TV producer Peter Reiss follows up with his own on camera sit down with Rifkin to get answers once and for all. Homes.com: We’ve done your homework.Marley Spoon: Head to MarleySpoon.com/offer/COLDCASE for up to 25 free meals!Rosetta Stone: Cold Case Files listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50% off when you go to RosettaStone.com/coldcaseShopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/coldcase and take your retail business to the next level today!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:21 please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. Police in New York have now linked the deaths of 12 women to the confessed mass murderer, Joel Rifkin.
Starting point is 00:01:01 In 1989, serial killer Joel Rifkin murdered the first of his 17 victims. It took police over two decades to solve the mystery of her identity. Lieutenant Bruce Carnal responded to the initial call that led to the discovery of the victim's remains. When Joel Rifkin was arrested and confessed to a number of murders, that's when I contacted New York State Police. And as soon as I spoke to the investigators, the first thing they said to me was, I think we have your man.
Starting point is 00:01:36 Rifkin said the first girl he had killed, was a prostitute that he picked up in New York in 89, took her back to his mother's house, beat her across the head with an artillery shield, and drug her down to the basement and dismembered her. Then he admitted dumping the legs and dumping the head in New Jersey. It fit the information that we had on this case. At that point, we had identified who actually did the murder,
Starting point is 00:02:03 but we needed to identify her. She's someone's daughter, someone's sister, and some relative out there that may not have never known what happened to her. And so I felt that was my responsibility to find out who she was. I continued to work on this case up to the time I retired in 2005, but we were never able to identify her. I became angry that I didn't solve it. And I remember to all my detectives, don't let it go, don't give up, keep working it.
Starting point is 00:02:35 In 2013, Lieutenant William Springer, of the Hopewell Township Police Department took up the case. Bruce was getting close to retirement when I was a very young officer. He was very influential. I remember one thing he always taught was never give up on a case, no matter how minor or how big it is. I didn't start really looking into the case until 2013. I was newly promoted to acting lieutenant at the time.
Starting point is 00:03:01 And I was wondering now with newer technology, newer approaches, better DNA analysis, was there a way to possibly solve? this case. This is one of the primary boxes of evidence in the case. This is one of the first boxes I looked at contains various information from the crime scene and some of the initial reports and supplemental reports completed by Detective Bruce Carnell. We had the actual crime scene photographs, and then there was a rubber rendition that was made of what the victim would have looked like. But I didn't really have much information other than they knew she was a first victim of Joel Rifkin. They knew she was a prostitute from New York City. And Rifkin referred to the first victim,
Starting point is 00:03:50 Susie. It led me to reading the book from the mouth of a monster by Robert Miladnich about this. And I began to gain more of an interest. It was very specific that Joel said that he picked her up between 1st and 2nd Avenue and 10th and 11th in New York City. which would be the Lower East Side of Manhattan. So after reading the book and realizing that Susie was picked up somewhere in the Lower East Side and determining it was the ninth precinct. It went to the ninth precinct to sit down with the detectives to review case files from the 1988, 1988,
Starting point is 00:04:27 area to see if we can find any prostitutes that were arrested around that time that may have matched the description of our Susie. And one of the detectives was diligent, and he kept plugging our parameters in with eye colors and height and weight and hair color. And he gave us a list of 19 names that were possible matches to our victim. But we didn't have pictures. All we had was raw data. I actually thought when we left that day that it was a waste of time, but it turned out not to be a waste of time. On the list, there was one that jumped out to me.
Starting point is 00:05:04 and that name was Susan Spencer. We knew that Joel Rifkin referred to the first victim as Susie. The date of birth that was listed fell right into the date range of a possible date of birth or possible age of the victim. The eye color matched, the hair color matched. So I pulled a rap sheet and I took a look at it. It did not have a picture. But what was very telling about this rap sheet was that Susan Spencer had been arrested nearly
Starting point is 00:05:34 30 times, with her last arrest being February of 1989, and that case was never adjudicated. She never came to court. And the head was found March of 89. Major crimes investigator Tiffany Attai is leading the cold case investigation into Rifkin's killings. So in any investigation, you don't know where it's going to lead you. Sometimes it's a long shot that'll solve a case, but we don't stop trying to find those answers. and sometimes those answers come years and decades later. And we saw that with the detective who investigated victim number one. For the third day in a row, investigators were looking for bodies, clues,
Starting point is 00:06:15 trying to solve as many as 17 murders now that they have an apparent serial killer in custody. Police say some of Rifkin's alleged victims were dismembered. When I started looking into the case, I was the first victim of Joel Rifkin. Some of my colleagues didn't think there was any chance I was going to identify her. But after I pulled Susan Spencer's rap sheet, and I took a look at it. I knew that I was on to something. But the criminal history just tells us how many arrests she had.
Starting point is 00:06:46 It doesn't give specifics. So we crafted a letter to the NYPD and requested as much documentation as we could from them. Arrest reports, fingerprint cards, pictures that were taken. We only received a couple of reports, but we received. one booking photograph from 1986, which turned out to be extremely helpful in this case. Susan Spencer had a very distinct scar through a right eyebrow,
Starting point is 00:07:16 which you can clearly see in the arrest photograph, and she had the mole on her left side of her chin area, cheek area. It became very evident that the photograph that we had was a possible match to the victim from 1919. the victim from 1989. But we had all of these alias names. We just needed to figure out what her real name was. The goal was that we're going to run all of the alias names and date of births on this rap sheet
Starting point is 00:07:45 and see if we can find a missing persons report. And I'll never forget this. It was a Monday and I was here late at the department teaching CPR to the patrol officers. And someone from the missing persons unit said, ah, you know, I'm staying late tonight. I'll run the names for you. And he called me at like 8 o'clock at night, and he's like, I found a missing person's report out of New York. And I think it's our girl. There was a missing person's report for Heidi Bolch, and it matched our criminal history for Susan Spencer.
Starting point is 00:08:17 And I was fairly certain at this point that if someone reported a Heidi Bulch missing, it was probably her real name. And a few hours later, on the upper west side of Manhattan, knocking on the door of the aunt who had originally reported her missing. We sat in her apartment and we talked for a little bit. She said Heidi ran away when she was very young. It's 16 years old. She had come to New York to try to pursue an acting and modeling career. And they always thought that something bad happened because they did know that she had started using drugs fairly heavily.
Starting point is 00:08:50 I had the picture and I said, can you tell me if you know this girl? And I showed her the picture and she said, yes, that's my niece, that's Heidi. And right then and there, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I said, ironically, when she got arrested here, she used the name Susan Spencer. She grabbed my arm like a little old lady would and she just goes, she went by Susie for the longest time. At that point, we were 99% sure we had it. Now you have to prove it forensically.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Heidi's parents were still alive. I got mom and dad's DNA and they did a comparison between the DNA and the head that was found here in Hopeletownship. The day we actually got the DNA results is just one of those moments. For years, this is all police had to go on, a forensic reconstruction of the woman's dismembered head found at the Hopewell Valley Golf Course in 1989. Now, police have identified her as 25-year-old Heidi Balch. To identify something 24 years after it happened is pretty remarkable. For me, this is the greatest accomplishment of my career.
Starting point is 00:09:56 It was not only rewarding for myself. but I'm glad I could bring closure to the family. TV producer Peter Rice has been communicating with Rifkin about his crimes since first meeting him in 2004 while working on a documentary. The other thing that to me is super significant is that when that happened, Detective Springer asked a prison guard to show Rifkin a picture of Heidi Balch and ask him if this was his first victim. So they show the picture to Rifkin and said,
Starting point is 00:10:26 is this your first victim? Do you recognize this victim? And he said, probably. Now, the police already knew that it was definitely her, and they already have genetic confirmation that it is. He knew the police knew it was her, but he didn't go all the way to say that this is my first victim. He just said, probably, which is what he's saying about Denise Griffin. And that's as far as he wants to go. He doesn't want to completely close it. He wants to get close, but he's reluctant to go all the way. And without a body and without DNA, it's very difficult for police to conclusively say that Denise Griffin's victim number six. Is he playing us? To be honest, I don't know. Rifkin is the only one who knows what his true motives are. But at the end of the day, if any of the information
Starting point is 00:11:16 he gave first six and nine leads us to an identification, the motive doesn't matter. And there's a lot left to do that can lead to answers on who six is. We need to identify who those earrings belong to. Could they be Denise Griffin's and we still have to locate where he dumped victim six? Where is she? We're going to do everything we can to get answers. With the Olympics going on, I've been daydreaming about visiting Italy one day. And just today, I was imagining how great it would feel to order a real Italian coffee in Italian instead of pointing and hoping for the right thing. That's actually why, if I ever get to take my dream trip, I'll be using Rosetta Stone. It makes that kind of confidence feel totally doable.
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Starting point is 00:13:58 Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash cold case for 45% off your first order and free delivery. That's right, 45% off your first order and free delivery. That's Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash cold case. I went back and forth a lot with Starlight Park, the area where I think he dumped victim number six. I wasn't 100% sold on that being the area. But still, it. checked the most boxes.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Investigator Atai meets with senior investigator Sean Lammons, who has also been working the case. How are you feeling about the river area? So I was going to see if you were available to check the area. I know he drew the map, and I just keep going back to the same spot, even though he said no. This part on the Bronx River over here by Starlight Park, you remember we showed him the pictures, and he's like,
Starting point is 00:14:51 oh, I don't remember that building. It seems like his memories just keep getting mixed up. With the map, Rifkin Drew, of the area where he dumped victim number six, there was some things that didn't fit actually to any area on the Bronx River. So it's like a huge puzzle to match the area because what he was providing didn't 100% match his descriptors. If you see here, he keeps talking about that triangle. So there's two triangles right at that area.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Yeah. And then he talks about the freight line, the railroad. being across the way. And there's one right over there, right? Exactly. And then bridges, right? He mentioned a couple bridges. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:33 So that's the thing. There's a lot of characteristics that he describes in this area. I keep going back to that spot. That, you know, hits most of the marks. It's a long shot, but... I have a feeling we're going to end up searching there. I don't think I'm going to be able to move past it if I don't. Starlight Park still check the most boxes.
Starting point is 00:15:51 But before I send a dive team in the water, I wanted to make sure it was Starlight Park was the right area for them to search. So I had reached out to a historian, Stephen DeVillo. He's written books on the Bronx River, and I thought it would be important to speak to him and, you know, see what knowledge he has and what he could make of the area that Rifkin was describing. Are you excited to meet Stephen DeVillo?
Starting point is 00:16:20 Yeah, I'm curious what you say, yeah. Have you shown him Rifkin's map or no? Yes. In August 2022, investigators at Tie and Lammons meet Stephen DeVillo at the Bronx River. So you've seen the map that Rifkin drew, what are your thoughts about it and your knowledge of the river and the Bronx? I think this reach of the river is the most likely location. Just south of Starlight Park, it seems like when I look at historical maps, there used to be like a pull-off area. Yeah, that's right. There was a small pull-off area at that point.
Starting point is 00:16:56 A shoulder's created by the roadway turning and then also the river, which kind of fits the triangle. That's my gut feelings. This reach of the river is likely. Well, we appreciate your help. Yeah. The meeting with Stephen DeVilleau was beneficial. It made me feel like, okay, I'm not missing something. It just could be that Rifkin is recalling things incorrectly because there's time that has passed since the crimes.
Starting point is 00:17:22 So this wasn't here. Obviously, this is newer. Right, the bridge. But it's good to just maybe go up on top of it and we'll get a better view. So that over there, see where the boat launch ramp is? Yes. That would be the first triangle. The second triangle is right over here on the right.
Starting point is 00:17:39 Trees this way, right? Yes. Yep. You have the railroad tracks across the way. You have apartments. Right. And you have the recycling auto salvage yards, which have been consistent. I just feel like it checks more boxes than further south. No, definitely, definitely.
Starting point is 00:17:57 If Starlight Park was the area where he dumped victim number six, and we located the victim in a barrel, that would be a huge break in the case. And if we find her remains, we can potentially get DNA that can be used for investigative genetic genealogy. So the next step is requesting that our dive team search the Bronx River near Starlight Park. It's going to be a lot of resources to coordinate.
Starting point is 00:18:23 Yeah, we could search it, turn up with nothing, but... I don't know how I see this ending, but I know it's not over. So they're going to send in the dive team and actually look for the barrel. And I'm still talking to Rifkin to see if I can get any more information from him. And then back to where you dumped her, you drew the map, but, you know, if there's any last details that you remember about it... Well, when I pulled all the... I pulled all the passenger side was facing the water, driver's side was facing the road,
Starting point is 00:18:57 and then he just backed straight back. I think he's given information to the best of his recollection. But there's no way to really know. Is he holding back anything, or is his memory just failing? I was going to tell what things going with. I think the hope is to send in that dive team in the next couple weeks. Okay.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Because it's near these auto body stuff, there's a good chance to barrel caught on something, and it's still there. Yeah, yeah. I know Investigator Tai has been thinking about this for a long time. And finally, after doing her due diligence and investigating as much as she can,
Starting point is 00:19:39 she feels that Starlight Park is the location, and she's going to send in the New York State Police dive team, which is a major deal for her. It's a big commitment. It's people's time. It's money, but I think that she feels confident now that this is the place and this is the time to go look for the barrel. It just feels like the culmination of a lot of work and it might lead to a breakthrough. In December 2022, a tie and Lammons meet the dive team in Starlight Park.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Do you think today is part of the last thing we could do as far as any sort of possibility as far as identifying victim six? Right now, I mean, this is what we need. Right. We need a body. We'll see. There's other things we can do. There's other things that are in the works, but if we find this, this is huge.
Starting point is 00:20:28 I went back and forth a lot with requesting that our dive team searched the Bronx River near Starlight Park. I knew in the back of my mind that Rifkin's memories could be mixed, where maybe he is confusing it with another time that he disposed of a woman in a barrel. But I kept telling myself, we have to do this.
Starting point is 00:20:46 We had to see if victim number six was there. Captain Christopher Kozala is leading the search. Good morning, everybody. How we brought here today was a direct result of the hard work of our investigative team. So at this time, I'm going to have the investigator a tie brief us on where we're at
Starting point is 00:21:03 and what the game plan is for today. We're here to try and locate a victim that Joel Rifkin dumped back in 1991, victim number six. He said he dumped her in a 55-gallon metal drum, so that's what we're looking for. This area, right over the case, Over here where the river takes a turn is the focal point,
Starting point is 00:21:21 see where the fence is. You could access it back then. That's kind of where I'm thinking he dropped the barrel from. Okay, yep. There is a possibility that further north he might have dumped that drum. The one thing he did say the river was narrow, so it's a little bit more narrow up in that way. That's kind of why I think maybe going up a little bit north would help.
Starting point is 00:21:41 Sergeant Neil Case commences the search. Our plan is going to be to start from this point, on the side scan sonar and go downriver. We're using our side scan sonar and sector scan sonar down in around the docks here. If there's any structure left to that barrel, we're gonna pick it up. Once that target is identified as something of interest,
Starting point is 00:22:06 you put a diver on that target. And then once the diver's in, he searches that area and determines, okay, yes, this is what we are looking for, or no, it's something different. It takes a special person to look at that solar screen all day long and interpret the data. Kevin and Lance are probably two of our best solar operators. Something here? No, it should be out here.
Starting point is 00:22:31 There's a tire. There. If we do find a barrel today, what we'll do is contact our investigators and remove the barrel from the water, hopefully keeping the barrel completely intact, and then just handing it over to our investigators. So it's all dark here because the bottom comes up in a hill. See, now that's interesting, you know, right there. Right here? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:56 Beryl? I mean, I don't know, but it's the right shape. And it's measuring about four feet, which is about the size of a large barrel would be. And the location's good. With this little path here, with him saying that he rolled it down a concrete structure, kind of makes sense for this location to work.
Starting point is 00:23:16 When they got a hit on an image that looked like it could be a barrel, everyone's anticipation ramped up. I think anything's possible. He's saying that this was the area. Some of his other victims, he put in barrels and put in water. Makes sense that it could be here. Three tires, two logs. Four foot by two and a half? Five, four and a half, five.
Starting point is 00:23:40 Yeah. Yep. The logs are what we're seeing. It's round, about two and a half foot wide, four foot. foot long. That matches up with the image we had, so not the barrel. Nope. All right, good job. It turned out it was a big log about the same size of the barrel.
Starting point is 00:23:57 That was obviously a little disappointing. Well, there's a tire right there, and this is all bridge structure. So we were excited about the possibility that they could have found the barrel. And when they didn't, it was kind of like back to business. Let's see what else they can find. There you go. About an hour after the diver went in the first time, the sector sonar scan from the dock,
Starting point is 00:24:23 they got a hit on something that kind of looked like a barrel too, on their sonar. We had the sector scan in earlier, and there was an object over here. Both of these places were kind of right where the barrel should have been if this is the right area. So expectations were definitely high, but both times when the diver came up,
Starting point is 00:24:44 came up, it turned out that it wasn't the barrel. And you found that perpendicular rock? Yeah, so that's like on the side over there. I got to find it. Towards the end of the day, there was one more spot that Investigator Attai wanted the team to check out a little bit further up river. The river was a little bit more narrow,
Starting point is 00:25:04 like Rifkin had describes. Are we going to be able to get over that dam? We're going to be fighting daylight. Yeah. We fighting daylight. But I think if we can get over that dam, I don't think it would take us too long to an up and back. I kept telling myself, we have to do this.
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Starting point is 00:27:58 You can't leave any stone on turns. You have to exhaust every lead. And then you could say I've done everything I can now. The final search upriver took about another hour. And as the sun was starting to go down, our hopes were starting to go down to that they weren't going to find anything. And sure enough, that's what happened. I think there's a lot of difference. what could have happened with this barrel if it was put here.
Starting point is 00:28:23 Could have been buried under all this debris and silt for the last 30 years. Could have stayed on the surface and gone out to the ocean by now. But one thing I can say is that the area that we searched with the sonar definitely was not there. We appreciate that. Anyway, we had you guys here. Yeah, Sergeant, I appreciate you guys coming down. I thank your team for doing this for us. Obviously, it's not the outcome that we were hoping for today, but we don't have
Starting point is 00:28:50 control over what the outcome is. Yeah, if the investigation leads to another body water, let us know when we can easily come back down. A different section of this body water, whatever. We appreciate it. I'm happy we did today. I know I'm going to be able to sleep better. And the thing, too, that I was thinking about,
Starting point is 00:29:06 of the four barrels, all three were floating. And for some reason, this one was never found. So either it never occurred or it made it way out. And it was never discovered in time. Well, thanks for keeping me up today. No, we appreciate it. We're here because, you know, you had a relationship with Rifkin. That's why we're here.
Starting point is 00:29:25 So, thank you. Like I said, I don't think this is the end. I think it's just the beginning. After the search, Peter Rice speaks to Rifkin on the phone. And they're sending a diet, but they didn't find the barrel. All right. Said they're still going to keep looking for it. With any investigation, there's a lot of bumps in the road.
Starting point is 00:29:48 Everybody wants to see the pretty. Not every case is pretty. Sometimes you think you're going to get an answer and you don't. I don't think myself or Tiffany lost faith, we knew we still had several other good leads to go with. We still have that partial DNA profile on those earrings that can lead to answers on who six is. Once we can show that those earrings don't belong to any of the known victims,
Starting point is 00:30:09 it's now time to reach out to the family of Denise Griffin and see if they'd be willing to give a DNA sample for comparison. If it doesn't match, the next step is investigating. genetic genealogy. For victim number nine, the lab wasn't able to obtain any DNA off the snake bracelet, so we can't explore the DNA option for linking it to victim number nine. But the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City says they're going to keep looking for her remains.
Starting point is 00:30:39 So there's hope that they will find her remains and that she can be identified that way. Ramon Aguilar is a retired New York police detective. I think it's great that the New York State Police has gone through the length of trying to find out who she is. Anything is possible. And they have a lot more tools at their disposal, more tools than what we had back then. And there's got to be some family member or maybe one of her friends that if they see this bracelet, it might give them the idea, okay, I know who they're talking about. I know who they're trying to find out.
Starting point is 00:31:18 We need them to come forward and make that phone ring. The only thing left to do is wait. And if anybody recognizes the bracelet belonging to somebody they knew, they need to call us and let us know. There's also dental records on file with the medical examiner so they could match dental records. I continue to talk to Rifkin, continue to try to get whatever information I can from him,
Starting point is 00:31:44 and you never know what might pry loose from his memory. Hi, Joel. Hi. Every time I talk to you, I feel like it's an opportunity to try to test your memory bank once again, about six or nine. We're still dealing with, you know, ancient memories, but yeah. One of the things that reinforced my belief that this mission is true was talking to Judith Volo's relatives and Marilyn Mera's daughter. Judith Willows and Marilyn Mara didn't fit being a Rifkin victim based on the timeline and the victims that Rifkin identified belonging to him.
Starting point is 00:32:23 But we still need to get them answers. Arliss Jones is Judith Fallows' daughter. The goal is to get some more puzzle pieces so that hopefully one day we can finish the whole puzzle and get some real closure. Sue Ona is. Judith Veloes' sister. I do believe answers are out there. I just wish someone would come forward and say what it is, whatever it is. Tanya Papagianicus is Marilyn Mara's daughter.
Starting point is 00:32:57 I will never stop looking for my mother. Somebody has to know something. Somebody had to see something or hear about something. I want our story to be told. And I'm definitely so grateful for Tiffany. She really does care and she really does want to help to find answers. You can never bring a victim back. You can never undo what's done, but it is our duty in law enforcement to give answers to crimes. And your job as an investigator is to have that person's
Starting point is 00:33:35 voice to tell their story. Not only for the victim, but for the families of the victims. I'm honored to be able to look into this case, and this case isn't over for me. The wheels are in motion, and it will happen. It might not happen in a TV show to fit that time period, but just because the camera shut down doesn't mean that the case stops. If anyone has any information regarding victims number six and nine, or Judith Veloes and Marilyn Mara, please contact the New York State Police. 631-756. 3300. Homes.com knows that when it comes to home shopping, it's never just about the house or condo.
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