Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Ruby J. Doss

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

In 1986, a young woman named Ruby Doss is found strangled to death in the East Sprague area of Spokane, Washington. For decades, similarities between Ruby’s death and a string of other murders in th...e area send investigators chasing false leads. It seems like justice for Ruby is a lost cause, until a completely unrelated crime in another state blows the case wide open.  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-ruby-doss/

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and the story I have for you today is one that left investigators stumped for decades as they pursued numerous leads and suspects, including one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. But that was before discovering the truth was a lot closer to home than they ever could have predicted. This is the story of Ruby Jean Doss. A little after 10.30 p.m. on Thursday, January 30, 1986, police in Spokane, Washington receive a call that a passerby has discovered a body in an open field not far from the East Sprague area of town. Investigators are sent to the scene when they arrive. They discover the
Starting point is 00:01:15 body of a young woman, and they can tell right away that this is a fresh crime scene. In fact, the murder happened so recently that they can see steam coming off the body in the cold January air. Now, obviously, investigators at the scene can't officially rule a cause of death then and there, but they do notice that she has been struck in the head by what appears to have been some sort of blunt object. The woman is fully clothed, so investigators don't initially suspect any sexual assault. Quickly, they identify her as 27-year-old Ruby Jean Doss. There aren't many details around how they make this identification so quickly, but I think the simplest explanation would be that she probably had some kind of
Starting point is 00:01:57 identification on her at the time, though I don't know that for sure. So while processing the scene, police span out looking for any evidence related to her murder, and about a block away at a manure pit, police discover a stray piece of wood. They find earrings, a steak knife, a $50 bill, and a used condom. In the manure pit, they also discover a few items of clothing that they believe Ruby had been wearing, specifically a fur coat, a lighter jacket, and a black collar-length wig. They collect all of these items along with shoe impressions found on the ground. To them, it looks like there was some sort of struggle at this pit before Ruby was chased to where her body was eventually
Starting point is 00:02:39 found about 250 feet away. Ruby's body is sent for autopsy while investigators start trying to get a better sense of who she was and what happened to her. As I mentioned, Ruby was found not too far from the East Sprig area, which at the time didn't have the greatest reputation, was kind of known to be heavily frequented by sex workers. And as it turns out, although she had no arrest record, Ruby was already known to vice officers in the area as a sex worker herself. So detectives start asking around, trying to learn more about Ruby's last known whereabouts. They learn that she was picked up by a client less than two hours before her body was found,
Starting point is 00:03:18 but it doesn't sound like they have any eyewitnesses. There are no description of the client or even their vehicle. So police go and speak to Ruby's boyfriend, who tells them that they were living together in a motel along with Ruby's five-year-old daughter, but it doesn't seem like he's a person of interest in any way as far as the investigators are concerned. What they learn is that it seems like the last person to see Ruby alive is a clerk at a pornography store who says that Ruby purchased a single condom from him at about 9pm, which I think investigators are likely assuming is the used condom that was found at the scene. Meanwhile, Ruby's autopsy report has come back and shows that her cause of death was
Starting point is 00:03:54 actually strangulation, not the blow to her head that investigators initially suspected. Even with all of this, police don't have much to go on. Like even the condom found isn't much help because DNA testing wasn't really in a place yet to be helpful, so investigators ultimately go to the press asking for help. In an article published by the Spokane Chronicle just a few days after Ruby's murder, police asked the public for any tips they might have that could help their investigation, but it doesn't seem like that yields any new leads. And honestly, things are really quiet, even after a $2,000 reward is offered for information a month later, but even that doesn't help.
Starting point is 00:04:32 And I think there are a number of possible explanations for this. I mean, we all know by now that police don't necessarily have the greatest track record when it comes to taking crimes involving sex workers as seriously as they should. I mean, that's true today, but especially true a few decades ago when Ruby was killed. But it could also be that witnesses themselves are less likely to come forward and talk to authorities if they're worried about being implicated in or associated with sex work. Ultimately though, it's hard for anyone to ignore Ruby's case because in November of 1986, another woman 30 year old Mary Ann Turner is found murdered in Spokane's east side. Like Ruby, she was a sex worker
Starting point is 00:05:12 based in the same area. And like Ruby, she was found strangled. And then there are more victims over the course of about 20 months after Ruby's murder, five other women are found strangled to death in Spokane. Two of them, Mary Ann and a woman named Rochelle English are sex workers. Another named Kathleen DeHart had worked at a topless bar and the other two victims, Dorothy Burdette and Nadine Johnson don't seem to have any known connection to sex work. Now investigators are clear that at this point, they don't have any evidence to suggest that this is the work of a single serial killer or anything like that. Yes, there are some similarities between the victims, but there are also differences in how each
Starting point is 00:05:56 murder was carried out. Like one of the victims had been sexually assaulted while that wasn't confirmed in any of the other cases. And some of the victims were found outside like Ruby while others were found inside apartments. So to police, the cases are distinct enough that it doesn't really scream serial killer to them. But I know a lot of you crime junkies out there are probably connecting some dots right now. Washington State, 1980s, a series of sex workers murdered by strangulation, that's got to be ringing some Green River killer bells. And you're not alone. According to Bill Morland's reporting for the spokesman review, the Green River Task Force is interested in these murders, although they also don't
Starting point is 00:06:36 necessarily think the similarities are enough to say it's the work of a serial killer either, much less their serial killer. And it's also important to remember that the Green River killer primarily worked in the Seattle area, which is literally the opposite side of Washington State from Spokane where these murders are taking place. So the Green River Task Force ultimately stays uninvolved and these murders remain unsolved and don't even get a lot of press or attention over the next few years. Although a couple of years later, there is an interesting development in Ruby's case that catches the task forces attention. In November of 1989, investigators are looking into the suicide of a Spokane County assistant
Starting point is 00:07:17 public defender named Dale Wells. So while looking into this, they come across this guy named Terry Herrick, who runs a local motel. And according to Terry, he remembers Dale coming to this motel and looking for Ruby about a week before her murder. Now at the time Dale's story to Terry, why he was coming around looking for her was that Ruby had stolen a wallet from a Spokane police officer and he was just trying to get it back. And not like for any upstanding reasons, apparently he was trying to avoid word getting around that this police officer had been with a sex worker. But Terry wasn't able to help him. He told Dale that Ruby had been staying at this motel, but had recently moved to a different
Starting point is 00:07:59 motel on East Sprague. And that was the end of it. Even following Ruby's murder, Terry didn't think it was anything significant until he learned of Dale's death in the news. And that's when their interaction all those years ago took kind of a whole new meaning on for him. And he called investigators with this information. Now another reason that Dale feels like a very strong lead is because they learned that he was good friends with a man named William Stevens, Jr. Like so close, they would often spend holidays together. But at the time, William was also considered a lead suspect in the Green River killings. Now in hindsight, we all know that Gary Ridgway was the true Green River killer, not William
Starting point is 00:08:40 Stevens, Jr. But at the time, this feels like too big of a coincidence for investigators to ignore. And so Dale becomes their primary suspect and they begin looking into his possible involvement in Ruby's death, or at least that's what I assume. It's kind of hard to say because Ruby's case goes without any public updates for years, years that her daughter is growing up without any clear answers as to what happened to her mother. And then out of nowhere in March of 1996, this is more than 10 years after Ruby's murder, Kim Baker reports for the spokesman review that a man named Robert Clark has been charged with the strangling murder of Rochelle English. Now, if you remember, Rochelle was one of
Starting point is 00:09:24 the five other women who were strangled in Spokane in the months following Ruby's murder. Though police still maintain that these cases are not connected. And it seems like maybe they're not because he goes down for her murder. And that's truly as close as we get to an update on Ruby's though he's never connected to Ruby's case. But in 2008, they start to revisit that idea. What if these cases are connected after all? In May of that year, Jody Lawrence Turner reports for the spokesman review that investigators believe there could be a connection between Robert Clark's murder of Rochelle English and the murders of Ruby Doss, Mary Ann Turner, Dorothy Burdette, Kathleen DeHart, and another woman
Starting point is 00:10:07 named Linda Lewis who was murdered in 1995. So now in 2008, all of a sudden they're saying that these cases actually do share many similarities. Obviously the victims were all strangled, but they also suffered head wounds and apparently most were sexually assaulted. Now, I'm not sure if they knew this all along and just weren't telling the news outlets like if this is information they were holding back or if something new is actually found when they were reworking the cases. It's not super clear from the source material. But either way, here's the scoop. While serving time for Rochelle's murder, Robert Clark had confessed to the murder of another woman in Illinois. And I think police see this as
Starting point is 00:10:44 proof that at least Rochelle's murder wasn't an isolated incident. And so maybe this is what got them to take another look at all of the cases. So like I said, one of the big things that's standing out to detectives is that all of these women were strangled. Detective Kip Hollenbeck tells the spokesman review, quote, the vast majority of the murders are gunshots, knife wounds, and blunt trauma. Strangulation is not one of the top ways. When strangulation is involved, it's common that it is the same person because they get off on it for some reason, end quote. Now, this doesn't mean, though, that there's any new evidence at this point that connects Robert Clark to these other murders. In fact,
Starting point is 00:11:23 in that same article, Detective Hollenbeck says their theory is purely circumstantial. But still, investigators from Spokane visit Robert in Illinois to question him and see if he'll confess to the other murders. But no luck. So without any physical evidence or a confession, investigators seem to hit a dead end yet again. However, a couple of years later in October of 2010, another arrest is made. And this arrest gives them the only new lead that they can find. A man named Gary Trimble is arrested in Lincoln, Montana for a probation violation. And during his arrest, he's asked to provide a DNA sample, which gets entered into the national database. And wouldn't you know it? That sample is a match
Starting point is 00:12:08 for semen that was found at the scene of Dorothy Burdette's murder in Spokane. Now, of course, everyone wants to know if this man could be responsible for all of the other unsolved strangulations in Spokane, including rubies. And according to Angela Brandt's reporting in the Missoulian, police are absolutely looking into that. After all, we know there was a used condom found near Ruby's body, so maybe now, all of these years later, there could finally be a match. But there isn't. Gary Trimble's DNA is not a match for the used condom, and he's never connected to Ruby's death or any other of the murders around the same time. And so once again, Ruby's murder and the others go unsolved year after year
Starting point is 00:12:51 passes without an update. Until one day, seemingly out of nowhere, Ruby's case blows wide open. In January of 2015, down in Pasco, a city in Franklin County about a couple hours south of Spokane, officials are investigating a police officer named Richard Aguirre for sexual assault. Now, just like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA is collected as part of that investigation. And just like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA is submitted to a national database. And just like Gary Trimble, Richard's DNA matches another sample found at a Spokane crime scene. Only this time, it matches the DNA pulled from the used condom found near Ruby's body. Franklin County officials notify the Spokane police right away and they start gearing up their
Starting point is 00:13:48 investigation and getting a better sense of, you know, who this guy is and how he and Ruby might have crossed paths back in 1986. What they learn is that prior to joining the Pasco police, Richard was a member of the U.S. Air Force. And at the time of Ruby's death, he was actually stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, which is just 12 miles southwest of Spokane. Now, eventually, Richard is notified about this DNA match. And although he denies any involvement in Ruby's death, he does decide to resign from the Pasco police department. It isn't until May of 2015 that authorities decide to go public with the new development in Ruby's case. But first, they contact Ruby's daughter, Keisha, who by now is around 30 years
Starting point is 00:14:34 old. And they inform her of the development before any charges are filed. Now, even though at this point, they haven't filed charges against Richard for Ruby's death, he still has that sexual assault charge hanging over him, which he pleads not guilty to, and he's released on his own recognizance. In an interview with the spokesman review, Richard's attorney also maintains Richard's innocence in Ruby's murder. And he says, quote, it's really hard to remember a lot of specific details from 30 years ago. But he believes he was an acquaintance of Miss Doss, end quote, which like, no kidding, his semen was found in a condom near her abandoned body. Now around the same time that this is all happening and he's being released, police
Starting point is 00:15:17 are talking to some of Richard's friends and family, and they provide even more details about his life in Spokane back in 1986. Richard's sisters say that in the wake of the new allegations being made public, Richard had told them he once had a sexual encounter with a woman around the time of Ruby's murder, but he can't say for certain if that woman was Ruby, which seems like the most like vague way to try and cover your own butt. Like, yeah, you know, I had sex with someone in 1986, might have been her, who's to say, but one of Richard's friends tells police something disturbing more than this, like, oh, I might have won upon a time BS. He says that he and Richard would often visit East Sprague to frequent
Starting point is 00:15:57 strip clubs and then they would pick up sex workers. And Richard told him that he had once hit a woman in the head and choked her, but he told him that he believed she was still alive and moving when he left. So here's a fun question. Why on earth wouldn't this friend go to the police with that information before now? I mean, even if Richard had been adamant that the woman was still alive and even if this friend was unaware of Ruby's murder, I mean, this is still a vicious assault that Richard described to him. So just we're on the same page. This isn't the kind of behavior you just like right off. Ultimately, this information combined with the DNA match is enough for police to feel like they can
Starting point is 00:16:36 officially make their move. And on June 2nd, Richard is in a hearing regarding the sexual assault case when three Spokane police officers enter the courtroom and place him under arrest for Ruby's murder. And the next day he is officially charged with first degree murder. Just after Richard, a Gary's arrest, homicide investigators are conducting a search of his property. And during that search, they see cell phones and computers. And that's when they find something disturbing, something they truly didn't expect. There on Richard's phone are thousands of sexually explicit photos and hundreds of videos that he had taken with both men and women. And these aren't run of the mill sex tapes. According to Mike Prager's
Starting point is 00:17:24 reporting in the spokesman review, what investigators see on these recordings suggest Richard had committed a number of other crimes, including rape and voyeurism. Investigators are able to identify some of the people depicted on the recordings, but they actually publicly call for any witnesses to come forward to confirm whether or not the acts captured on video were consensual. And that call out works. Suddenly, Spokane police are receiving call after call from both men and women who are concerned that they might have been recorded without their consent. I mean, in one of the videos, a man in a motel room can actually be heard fearfully saying over and over again that he does not want to be recorded. And
Starting point is 00:18:04 the man tells investigators that although the sex was consensual, he absolutely did not agree to be recorded. And it's actually this video that ultimately leads to Richard being officially charged with voyeurism on June 6th. Again, through his attorney, Richard denies the allegation and says that any sexually explicit recordings were made with permission. But this is really just the beginning of what investigators are able to uncover following their search of Richard's phone. Through searches of his internet history, detectives learn that Richard visited websites depicting violent rape. And they also are able to identify and contact some of Richard's former partners who confirm that he would choke them during
Starting point is 00:18:44 sex. Nina Culver reports in the spokesman review that some of these exes say the choking was light while others actually feared for their lives. As investigators are once again deciding whether or not to add more charges against Richard, they learn from one of his former girlfriends that he may have also engaged in witness tampering. She says that she visited Richard at his house back in April following a police search of his home. And there he told her that he was a suspect in Ruby's murder but denied any involvement. And then he gave her $2,000 and apologized for his treatment of her when they were together. And like this isn't enough, after his arrest, Richard was recorded on telephone calls with
Starting point is 00:19:27 his sister discussing this former girlfriend and encouraging his sister to find her contact information. So police allege that he knows this woman is likely going to be a witness and he was hoping to influence her testimony about their time together. Whether by getting her to change what she was going to say or by getting her to not say anything at all. So on July 1st, 2015, Richard's charges are updated once again. In addition to first remurder and voyeurism, now he's also facing charges for tampering with the witness. And as part of these updated charges, the prosecution also requests that Richard have no contact with any members of the Pasco Police Department. And that's all part of this like little
Starting point is 00:20:08 side scandal that I probably should just mention briefly. Basically, the prosecution alleges that members of the Pasco Police Department, former colleagues of Richards have been feeding him information on the investigation. Now, Richard, his attorney and the Pasco Police Department all vehemently deny this, but the prosecution remains firm and says that this is something that happened. Unfortunately, though, that's kind of all the information I can find on this specific incident. And it doesn't lead to any official charges. And there are never any concrete details released around what information was apparently leaked, if any. Now, a couple of weeks after this, so on July 15, Richard officially enters
Starting point is 00:20:47 a plea of not guilty. Although by this point, the first degree murder charge has been actually reduced to second degree. And the witness tampering charge seems to have kind of been dropped entirely, like it's not even mentioned. And I can't figure out like there are no details in the source material about why the charge was reduced. It's kind of honestly just mentioned as like an aside in a few articles, even though it feels like a pretty big development to me. And just to note, even though this guy was a police officer, it doesn't seem like the prosecution has been playing favorites with Richard. So I have to assume that maybe they just felt like their chances of a conviction were better with a second degree charge. And
Starting point is 00:21:23 I don't know if this was like a negotiation between prosecution and defense or what. But after that, after this not guilty plea, nothing seems to happen for months. That is until March of 2016, when there's an update in the case. And honestly, it was a pretty big decision. Richard's attorney files a motion to have the murder charge dropped, claiming that he has evidence Richard wasn't even in the country at the time of Ruby's death. Now, I mentioned earlier, prior to joining the police department, Richard was a member of the Air Force and he was stationed near Spokane when she died. Well, according to Richard's attorney, he actually didn't stay in Spokane. He was deployed to South Korea.
Starting point is 00:22:01 And to prove it, he produces a performance report that lists Richard's reporting period at Osan Air Base in South Korea as beginning on December 24, 1985 and ending on December 23, 1986. In other words, this document says that Richard was on a different continent beginning a month before Ruby's murder. Now, obviously, this is a huge development, but it's not quite the rock solid alibi you might expect. First of all, you cannot ignore that Richard's DNA was found at the crime scene. But also, the prosecution argues that a reporting period at a specific airbase isn't the same as actually being at the airbase. In fact, they produce medical and dental records showing that Richard received care at the Spokane base as late
Starting point is 00:22:50 as January 16, 1986. And not only that, but as I said earlier, Richard himself has already mentioned to family and friends that he had a sexual encounter with a woman who may or may not have been Ruby around the time of the murder. So even he has made claims that don't line up with his alibi. Ultimately, this supposed alibi isn't strong enough for the court to dismiss the case and both sides prepare to go to trial. Although the prosecution does file a motion to have the trial delayed, which seems to work as it's more than a year before there's another update on the case. Now, in that year's time, Richard is released on bail and also exonerated on the unrelated sexual assault charges that led to his DNA
Starting point is 00:23:32 sample being collected in the first place. Additionally, the voyeurism charges are dropped. Though according to Rachel Alexander's reporting in the spokesman review, investigators are still investigating whether or not they're able to press any additional voyeurism charges. And I think those are particularly difficult to pursue because it can be difficult to find victims who are willing to cooperate due to the fear of being publicly exposed and embarrassed, which we know is something investigators dealt with on this case. Okay, so just to recap, at this point, Richard is just facing the second degree murder charge. But then in December of 2017, he's not even facing that because suddenly the prosecution
Starting point is 00:24:11 drops the charge entirely. Now, obviously, the prosecution's case has always been hinged on the used condom DNA sample. But according to a motion to dismiss that was filed by the prosecution, quote, recent DNA results raise significant evidentiary issues. Therefore, in the interest of justice, it is respectfully requested that the above named matter be dismissed without prejudice. Okay, so these significant evidentiary issues aren't elaborated on in the court documents. But according to Jonathan Glover's reporting in the spokesman review, it may stem from the condom itself going missing at some point after the DNA was extracted in 1989. Now, the prosecution says that the condom itself doesn't really matter since
Starting point is 00:25:00 the DNA was extracted and processed. But it seems that the issue at play here is that without the condom, the defense isn't able to do their own testing. But the way that the charges are dropped, it allows the prosecution the opportunity to recharge Richard in the future if there are any changes or new evidence. And it just so happens that they actually do plan to recharge him. In September 11, 2020, less than three years after the initial murder charges were dropped, Richard is once again charged with the first degree murder of Ruby Doss. Spokane County prosecutors refiled the charges based on what they say is new DNA evidence. Now, initially,
Starting point is 00:25:46 it isn't really clear what this new evidence might be. Even Richard's defense attorney seems to be kind of in the dark about what's going on. Like in an interview with Caitlin Knapp of KXLY, he basically says that he's heard there might be new lab reports, but he's never seen them, and they're not included in the court documents. So Richard once again pleads not guilty. And while awaiting trial, it seems like he is never actually held in custody. The trial itself doesn't begin until more than a year later, on November of 2021. And that's when we finally learn more about the new evidence that has caused the prosecutors to refile. According to Emma Eberly's reporting in the spokesman review, that used condom
Starting point is 00:26:27 that apparently went missing. Well, it actually didn't go missing at all. It was destroyed during the testing process back in 1989. But the envelope that it was kept in was preserved. So without the condom itself still around a test, investigators decided to try their luck on the envelope. And when the envelope was retested, they found a sample of Richard's DNA. The prosecution and the defense deliver opening statements on November 30. The prosecution of course focuses primarily on the DNA evidence, as well as statements that Richard had made to friends placing him with Ruby around the time of her death. And the defense again tries to discredit the DNA evidence due to the missing condom. But they also continue to present
Starting point is 00:27:11 Richard's Air Force records as evidence. They say that he was in South Korea at the time of Ruby's murder. And following these opening statements, the prosecution calls to the stand a string of officers from both Spokane County and Pasco. Spokane officers recount all of the major steps of their investigation since 1986. And during that testimony, lead investigator Kip Hollenbeck discusses one of his visits to Richard's home in 2015. And he says, quote, he told me he was married in 1986 to another member of the Air Force. He told me he was upset because the Air Force wasn't going to send her with him when he was deployed to South Korea. He told me he was deployed in February of 1986, end quote.
Starting point is 00:27:55 Additionally, the prosecution shows reports from a counselor that Richard met with in April of 1986. And in those reports, the counselor notes that Richard arrived in Korea in late February of 1986. So again, just to kind of put this all in perspective, Ruby was murdered in January of 1986. So it definitely seems to further punch holes in the defense's argument that Richard was out of the country at the time. And after Kip's testimony, the jury hears from a Pasco police sergeant who had known Richard since 2005 when they first worked together. And he tells the jury that when Richard was first suspected of Ruby's murder, he and Richard had discussed the case. And apparently Richard told him, quote, yeah,
Starting point is 00:28:37 I knew her and she was alive when I left. Another Pasco officer testifies that Richard told him he had sex with Ruby but didn't murder her. And after hearing from these officers, the jury next hears from a forensic expert who worked on the case. And he goes into further detail regarding the used condom and why they're more confident about it today than they were even back in 2017 when the charges were dropped. She says that although they no longer have access to the original condom, the envelope was kept and tested for DNA and the swab found mixtures of both male and female DNA. Now back in 2017, the technology wasn't there to accurately compare this mixture to Richard, which is why the charges were
Starting point is 00:29:16 dropped. But in 2018, a new type of testing became available that allowed the lab to confirm that the sample was most certainly a mixture of Ruby Doss's DNA and Richard Agary's DNA. But the defense presses her on some of the other details in this case. Specifically, they ask if Richard's DNA was found anywhere else other than the used condom and its envelope. Was it found on any of the other items at the crime scene? Was it found on Ruby's body under her fingernails? And the expert says no, there were no other samples that matched Richard's DNA, although there were other samples found on Ruby's body. But when tested, they didn't provide a match with anyone in the system. Now this might naturally raise
Starting point is 00:30:00 some red flags, but the jury also hears from a store clerk who sold Ruby that single condom shortly before her death. And he says that that was around 9pm or later. And we know Ruby's body was found at around 10.30pm that night. There's just such a short window of time for this murder to have taken place that it seems unlikely it could be anyone but the person whose DNA was found at the scene in that condom. In closing arguments, the prosecution, of course, focuses on the DNA match, the fact that Richard himself told his friends and colleagues about his interaction with Ruby, and whether she was alive or not when he left the scene, they argue that his actions caused
Starting point is 00:30:35 her death. And in turn, the defense points out that the DNA in the condom is the only evidence linking Richard to the scene, and they also argue that the prosecution has failed to produce any kind of motive for Richard to murder Ruby. The jury begins deliberations on the morning of Wednesday, December 8th. By the time Thursday afternoon rolls around, they are deadlocked, and they say that there's absolutely no way that they can reach a verdict. And so, the defense actually files for a mistrial, which the judge grants, and a new trial is set for March of 2022, although it was later delayed until May. And that's where the case remains to this day, even though you'll
Starting point is 00:31:17 note it's way past May. More than 36 years have passed since Ruby's murder. Richard's second trial did not get underway in May of this year, as expected, after some digging into the court records, we've learned that it's now set to begin in November of this year. We'll, of course, be keeping an eye on this case, and if there are any updates, we'll be sure to share those on social, in our headlines episodes in the fan club. But in the meantime, I can't help but think of Ruby and the many years that she went without justice. And I think it's easy for us to hear about this case and think, well, there's nothing that could have been done until Richard's DNA was entered into the system. And of course,
Starting point is 00:31:56 that was a huge important development. But I also keep thinking back to Richard's friend, the one who heard Richard talk about violently choking and beating a woman. And he chose to say nothing until after Richard was accused of Ruby's murder. We'll never know what influenced that friend's decision to say nothing. We'll never know how it might have changed the investigation if he had spoken up earlier. But we do know that Mary Ann Turner and Kathleen DeHart's murders still remain unsolved. And we also know that hoping and waiting for a magical DNA match is not the only way to solve a cold case. Someone out there might know something about those women's murders too, and they're afraid
Starting point is 00:32:36 to come forward. Even if what you think you know is trivial, it is important to report information like this, because what might seem trivial to you could be the missing piece of information that leads to justice for people like Ruby Doss. You can find all of the pictures and source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at CrimeJunkie Podcast, and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. CrimeJunkie is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?

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