Cold Case Files - Where's Peggy?

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

After a mother hears about allegations that her physically abusive boyfriend has sexually abused her daughter, she goes mysteriously missing for over a decade. A trunk, a storage unit, and a Cold Case detective's dogged determination help solve the mystery. Check out our great sponsors! Madison Reed: Find your perfect shade at Madison-Reed.com and get 10% off plus FREE SHIPPING on your first Color Kit with code CCF! NetSuite: Let NetSuite show you how they’ll benefit your business with a FREE Product Tour at NetSuite.com/ccf  SimpliSafe: Get a FREE home security camera - PLUS a 60 day risk free trial - when you purchase a SimpliSafe system at SimpliSafe.com/coldcase 

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production. Available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One. This is the storage unit number B32. I could see the bottom of a green metal steamer type trunk. Within about six seconds, you could smell a strong odor, distinct odor of death. I looked at Detective Doyle and I said, Peggy's going to be in there. In 1990, Gerilyn Reome lived at home in Syracuse with her mother, Peggy, and her mother's boyfriend, George. On the surface, they may have seemed like a happy family, but that was tragically far from the truth.

I'll tell you now that this story ends with a murder and a dead body, but it starts with a little girl and the villain who lived in her own home. Gerilyn Reome was 13 when her mother's boyfriend, George Geddes, began to abuse her. And in the way that one bad deed usually breeds another, George's abuse kicked off a chain of events that led to the mysterious disappearance of Gerilyn's mother, Peggy Reome. Peggy would remain missing for another 12 years, while her daughter hoped against all odds that her mom was alive somewhere and would someday come home.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. I'm Brooke, and this story, adapted from a classic episode of Cold Case Files, is told by the unparalleled Bill Curtis. We're here at the Sheriff's Office inactive records file. We're heading down to the case file where Peggy Reome's case was kept. Detective Keith Hall works cold cases for the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office. Spring of 2002, I was assigned the Peggy Reome case.

At that time, it was classified as a missing person investigation. She was 31 when she disappeared, without a trace. In 1990, I was in the sixth grade. I was living with my mother and George Geddes. And it wasn't a happy time. In 1990, Jerry Lynn Reom is 13 years old and living in fear of her mother's boyfriend, George Geddes. George was sexually abusing me repeatedly.

There was a time that he got caught and by another adult and that's when I told. So I knew that somebody was there behind me to say, yes, I've seen this. Jerry Lynn runs away to her biological father, Jerry Reum, and reports the abuse. First thing I did was call the police. I told all of us, don't let Peggy or George know what you just told them, because George would have probably skipped. Police arrest George Geddes in early February. A few weeks after that, Jerry Lynn turns 14

and expects a visit from her mom. She didn't come around, no phone call, no nothing. So February 26th, I was calling reporting her missing. Detective Lenny Storto picks up the missing person's case. It's a long time, a long time to go without knowing what happened to a loved one. Storto visits George Geddes in the county jail and asks about Margaret. Geddes claims he last saw her the day before he was arrested. George said that they got into an argument.

It got heated and he left and went to get a pack of cigarettes. Upon his return to the apartment, he saw one set of prints leading out in the snow to the road, and that's the last he saw of Margaret. Storto doesn't believe Geddes and suspects Margaret Reum might have somehow caught wind of her daughter's alleged rape. I knew from talking to Gerilyn and talking to her grandmother,

Margaret's mother, that she was very protective of her children. And I knew that when she found out about the abuse with Gerilyn, that she was going to confront George. It probably got physical. And that was always in the back of my head. Storto has a murder suspect, but no evidence or even a body to examine. He returns to Geddes' apartment, hoping to catch a break.

When he asked me where things were and what was in the apartment and what I'd done with it, he wasn't too happy when I told him that I'd disposed of almost everything. Bill Waltos is Peggy Reum's landlord. With her apartment vacant more than a month, Waltos tells Detective Storto he threw everything out of the unit, including a mattress stained with blood. Maybe six, eight inches. It almost looked like, you know, that time of the month for a woman, so I just didn't, I never gave it another thought.

Very frustrating when you're trying to determine what happened to somebody who's missing and kind of just, like, dropped off the face of the earth. So try to start back where the last person saw her. And then she had her car here. Did he come back and get her car? Storto knocks on a few more doors and finds a downstairs neighbor named Butch Oka.

He tells a story that is right out of Rear Window about George Geddes and a rather large and heavy trunk. I'm McKamey, the producer of Cold Case Files, and I wanted to tell you about our sponsor, Madison Reed. Take coloring your hair at home to the next level with Madison Reed, gorgeous salon-quality color that comes right to your door. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty fed up with having the same two old options for coloring my hair, either outdated at-home color or spending a lot of time and a small fortune at a traditional salon.

But Madison Reed is changing all of that with color kits that start at just $22. And Madison Reed users love their results. Gorgeous, shiny, healthy-looking hair. It really is a game changer. Madison Reed's color is crafted by master colorists Thank you. Have you ever heard that story that Napoleon used the Egyptian Sphinx for target practice and shot its nose off? Or maybe you've heard that a French astrologer named Nostradamus correctly predicted nearly 500 years of human history.

Or maybe someone told you that the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. These stories are what I like to call historical myths. Great little tales that may or may not have any basis in historical fact. On Our Fake History, we explore these historical myths and try to determine what's fact, what's fiction, and what is such a good story it simply must be told. If you dig stories about death-obsessed emperors, lost civilizations, desperate sieges, voodoo black magic, and famous historical figures you thought you knew, then Our Fake History might just be your new favorite podcast. Still not sure? Then stick around to the end of the episode today to hear a teaser episode of Our Fake History. If you dig it, then subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we heard this big banging coming down the stairs, like bang, bang, bang.

I came out the door to see what it was. He was coming down these stairs here, and he had a steamer trunk, like a blue steamer trunk, coming down, all the way down. And his truck was parked out here. And he came down, and he put it in the back of his truck. Oka asked George Geddes if he needed help carrying the trunk, but Geddes seemed to be in a hurry. Normally he would talk, but he didn't even talk.

He just went and got there as fast as he could, and he left as fast as he could. George Geddes' trunk appeared around the time Margaret Reum disappeared, a coincidence that is not lost on Detective Storto. George was asked about the trunk, and he was a contractor and said that the trunk was heavy because he had his tools, saw blades, his tools of trade. When I asked him what he did with the trunk, he said he sold it to some guy in a bar

and couldn't give us any of the information on who the recipient was or what bar it was, and he said he was pretty wasted. Geddes is convicted of raping Jerry Lynn Reum. The investigation into Peggy Reum's disappearance, however, goes cold. Meanwhile, Jerry Lynn Reum faces life without a mother. This is my mother's wedding day. I wrote back on here,

Mom, I hope you're happy wherever you're at. Remember, I'll always love you. I hope you come back real soon. Love, Jerry Lynn. My mother knew where we were living, and then we moved. And then when we moved, I remember sitting in my bedroom crying because if my mother knew where we were living, and then we moved. And then when we moved, I remember sitting in my bedroom crying because if my mother came back, she wouldn't know where we moved to. For 12 years, neither Peggy Riome nor the mysterious steamer trunk can be located.

That is, until a cold case detective happens upon a woman with a story about George. What is the one thing you've always scratched your head wondering about George? And that's when she looked at me and said, well, I don't know. Oh, there's that storage shed. This is where Peggy was last seen. She lived in the upstairs apartment.

Keith Hall is a cold case detective. In 2002, he walks a street in Mattydale, New York, where Margaret Peggy Reum disappeared 12 years prior. Reum is presumed dead. The number one suspect, her ex-boyfriend, George Geddes. Witnesses saw George Geddes dragging a trunk down a flight of stairs. They actually were drawn to this action by hearing the loud banging noise of the trunk bouncing off the steps. Original detectives thought the trunk might contain the body of Peggy Reum. I was motivated. Getting this case was a challenge. I knew it when I was assigned the case.

From that point on, it became personal. Detective Hall meets with the victim's daughter, Cherry Lynn. After it fell in Keith's lap, from day one he was telling me he's given his 110%. I still remember the look that I saw in Geraldine's eye. She wanted to believe me, but it had been so long since her mother had disappeared that, you know, she looked like a little hopeless. In 1990, George Geddes went to prison for raping Jerry Lynn.

He's now out. His conviction reversed on appeal. I talked with his ex-wives. I was able to develop his personality. He was a violent individual. He would punch him, strike him, choke him. George Geddes' most recent punching bag is a woman named Alicia Geddes. The two have recently divorced. Paul calls her up to see what she knows. He was very controlling. He had a very bad temper. Possessive, even? The two have recently divorced. Hall calls her up to see what she knows. He was very controlling. He had a very bad temper.

Possessive, even? Yes, very possessive. He got violent a couple of times. And on domestic violence, he hit me. Alicia provides valuable background on George Geddes. Then Hall steers the conversation toward Peggy Reum. You had just told me little differences of what George had said, that Peggy had taken off to, I believe it was Arizona, with a cab driver. Yeah, with another cab driver.

Right. Keith was very easy to talk to. He got me thinking way back, you know, bringing out things that I was trying to forget. And the last question I asked Alicia before, you know, walking her to the door was, what is the one thing you've always scratched your head wondering about George? Alicia thought for a few moments, said, geez, well, there is that storage shed he's always rented. He had a storage unit that he had, and he would call me from jail to make sure that the payments were made all the time.

Alicia once asked what was in the storage shed. George said it was tools. And if you pushed the issue about it... He would get angry. He would get very angry. It's like, you know, we really have to skip this payment. No, we can't do that. It would mean that I could get a lot of time in jail. Alicia tells detectives Geddes has rented the shed

since 1990. Now I'm able to piece together the time frame. Peggy's missing since 1990. George has been running a storage shed since 1990. At some point, I'm going to need to obtain a statement from her. Detective Hall tries to obtain a search warrant for the shed. The county prosecutor, however, says Hall lacks probable cause. Then the cold case detective tries a different tack. And initially I wanted to know if you had the authority to go in there and search the

storage shed. Correct. Initially, I wanted to know if you had the authority to go in there and search the storage shed. Lori Albright is a federal probation agent supervising George Geddes on a recent firearms violation. As part of his probation, Geddes must file a report with Albright every month. There is one question on the front here where it asks, do you rent or have access to a post office box, a safety deposit box, or a storage space? And on this report, Mr. Geddes had checked no for all three of these things. And that's when I said, we need to get into that storage shed. That's right.

There's a reason why he's lying about this. He doesn't want you to know, doesn't want anybody to know he's renting the storage shed. Geddes' lie constitutes probable cause for a search. The order is issued, and Hall heads out to the shed. This is the storage unit that George Geddes rented, and number B-32, that's the storage shed that we opened up on April 1st, 2004. Armed with a federal search warrant and a pair of bolt cutters, detectives opened storage unit B32.

Upon doing that, I could see the bottom of a green metal steamer-type trunk, the same trunk that was described by witnesses in 1990. I looked at Detective Doyle and I said, Peggy's going to be in there. Agent Bragg unclipped the hasp locks, picked up the lid. At that point, I could see a stained blanket with two decomposed feet sticking out from underneath. Within about six seconds, you could smell a strong odor, distinct odor of death.

It was time to go find George Geddes and bring this case to a close I said George tell me about the storage shed out in Cicero detective Hall gets right down to business with George Geddes. George looked at me for approximately 10 seconds, didn't say a word, just staring. At that point, he broke down, started crying, started flailing his fists, pounding on the table, saying he'd been keeping a secret for such a long time. If you're a business owner, I don't need to tell you 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

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monitoring your home 24-7 and ready to send help the moment there's an alarm. Plus, with SimpliSafe, there's no long-term contract, no hidden fees or installation costs. Right now, get a free home security camera when you purchase a SimpliSafe system at SimpliSafe.com slash coldcase. You also get a 60-day risk-free trial, so there's nothing to lose. Visit SimpliSafe.com slash coldcase for your free security camera today. That's SimpliSafe.com slash coldcase. George admits his ex-girlfriend Peggy Reum is in the shed. Geddes claims her death was an accident.

His final version of what happened to Peggy was that they got in an argument. He punched her. She fell down, hit her head on a wood buffet, and died. Not knowing what to do with Peggy, he went into Gerilyn's room. The trunk that Peggy was entombed in was actually Gerilyn's toy chest. He put her inside the chest and transported her out to the storage shed. The story didn't make sense from the beginning. Joe O'Donnell is an assistant DA for Onondaga County.

Here's a guy who accidentally kills his girlfriend, stuffs her in a trunk, puts her in a storage shed for 14 years. He drives past the police station. He drives past the fire department. He drives past the ambulance corps. It just was preposterous from the beginning. We're looking at the skull of the decedent. This is her skull. Mary Jambalek is the chief medical examiner for Onondaga County.

This is the mastoid process, portion of the temporal bone is a very thick hard portion of skull and you can see a very distinct and dramatic fracture through the mastoid. Jobelik rules out Geddes' contention that Peggy Riome hit her head on a table. It was our conclusion that this is a forceful blow probably with an instrument, to the skull to cause this type of damage. It's not a simple fall from a standing height or a fist. One of the lead suspects into the disappearance of Peggy Riome has been her former boyfriend, 52-year-old George Geddes, arrested Friday afternoon on charges of violating his federal parole, charged in 1993 for raping a 13-year-old girl. I am the 13-year-old that George raped. After George Geddes' arrest,

Jerry Lynn goes public with the tragedy that was her childhood. I got out of that situation, and somehow my mother found out, and that's what led to her being gone. The drama is heightened at Geddes' murder trial, when prosecutor Joe O'Donnell brings in a green steamer trunk and places it before the jury. There's been an odor in this courtroom all week,

and it's the smell of death. And it's Margaret Reone. And I pointed to him and said, and he brought her in here. He did not intentionally cause the death of Peggy Reome. Geddes sticks to his story. Peggy Reome's death was an accident. It's a theory the jury dismisses. Their verdict, guilty of second-degree murder.

George Geddes is sentenced to the maximum, 25 years to life. I would best describe George Geddes as sentenced to the maximum, 25 years to life. I would best describe George Geddes as a waste of humanity. I think there were dregs left over that God had nothing to do with, and he dumped them in George Geddes' body. Here's one of my mom and my dad and the three of us. After the trial and sentencing, Jerry Lynn Reome is finally able to grieve for the mother she lost at age 13. It was weird.

Like, we even had a service for her. It's not like I was, you know, really crying and everything. I was happy. And then there came anger just just all this emotion this is a case I'll never forget I took this case personal because I like a challenge and this type of case certainly was a challenge he did find my mother he gave gave his 110%. And, you know, I always have a place for him in my heart. I love him.

Geraldine Riome endured a tragedy that I could not imagine. Not only did she suffer terrible abuse at the hands of George Geddes, a man living in her home, but he also took her mother from her in an extremely violent way. By all accounts, this story should end with justice and retribution and even revenge for Gerilyn, and in many ways it does. But the fact that there was some friendship and love found between Gerilyn and the detective who kept his promise makes me think that there's more to this case than justice served. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn,

Scott Brody, and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. We're distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and presented by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at aetv.com and by downloading the A&E app. The 2020 presidential campaign in the United States was a pretty wild spectacle to watch, no matter what your political perspective may be. But there was one particular bit of rhetoric that jumped out at me. It was a criticism of Donald Trump leveled by Bernie Sanders that made use of a well-known historical tidbit. Here's what Sanders had to say. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs. The senator was riffing on one of the best-known stories from the history of ancient Rome. That is that during a great fire that consumed the Roman capital in the year 64 AD, the self-absorbed Emperor Nero not only did nothing to help, but laughed and played the fiddle while his city burned. It's the kind of story that many people know, even if they know absolutely nothing else about Roman history. For a whole lot of people, the history of Rome is basically just Julius Caesar, beware the Ides of March, and Nero fiddled as Rome burned. So, in a way, it's not surprising that this story has proved so enduring. It's just too perfectly symbolic. If you need a historical

example of the ruling elite being hopelessly and heartlessly out of touch, I mean, this is it. Nothing quite says, I could care less, like playing a jaunty little tune on the fiddle. But we really should ask, is any of this true? Did the emperor of Rome really sit back and put on an impromptu hoedown as his city crumbled beneath his feet? Well, here's the thing. If he did, there was no way he played the fiddle is basically the same as Charlemagne shredding the electric guitar. In 64 AD, the violin was an impossibly futuristic instrument. But we do know that Nero was an amateur musician and was particularly fond of an instrument known as the lyre, which was a small Greek harp. He was known to put on long recitals for his advisors, where attendance was mandatory. So, the original story was that Nero actually played the lyre and sang as the great fire ravaged Rome.

But, there's good reason to doubt that story too. The most trustworthy Roman sources inform us that the Emperor Nero wasn't even in Rome when the Great Fire broke out. In fact, we're told that the Emperor rushed back to the city as soon as he was informed so he could personally oversee the relief effort. So Nero didn't fiddle as Rome burned, and he didn't play the liar. He didn't sing. He didn't sit back all smug and laugh as his people suffered. He learned about the fire through messengers and did his best to respond. Now, that doesn't mean that Nero was somehow a good emperor or even a good guy. In fact, he was probably one of the worst.

But the fiddle, well, that just wasn't a thing. Nero fiddling as Rome burned is a perfect example of what I call a historical myth, a little legend that got wrapped up in the transmission of our history and often gets repeated as a historical fact. My name's Sebastian Major, and on the podcast Our Fake History, we explore these historical myths and try to determine what's fact, what's fiction, and what is such a good story that it simply must be told. The podcast is one part storytelling and one part historical detective work. I do my best to bring these weird stories from our past to life, while also asking probing questions about whether or not we should believe them, and how these misunderstandings took root in the first place. On Our Fake History,

the goal is to celebrate everything that's weird and wonderful about the past, while also thinking critically and trying to grab on to the slippery concept known as the truth. If Our Fake History sounds like it's for you, then subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.