Criminology - The Murder of Anita Taylor

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

In 1966, Anita Taylor was murdered inside her home in Springfield, Ohio. Her husband came home from work to find her clinging to life and their infant son in his crib, alive, but with a broken leg. Anita was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The investigation into Anita's murder began and a number of persons of interest were ruled. Join Mike and Morf as they dive into this baffling case. Anita's son, Aaron, who as a baby survived the attack that killed his mother, joins us for this episode and provides his insight into the case. Aaron has been searching for his mother's killer for many years. Over time, some revelations have come to light, and they have provided additional insight into possible motives for Anita's murder. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast.

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 160 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And I'm Mike Morford. Morph, what's going on with you, buddy? Not a whole lot. How about you?

I'm doing great. I'm having a really good week. This is my anniversary week, 25 years. Yeah, I'm right behind you. I just celebrated 24 and I'm looking at. forward to my 25th. So congratulations on that. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. It's kind of amazing. When you look back at 25 years or even 24, in your case, it's a long time. You know, it really is to think about all the things that have happened in that time, getting married, having kids.

It's been, it's been amazing. Yeah, sometimes I wonder how my wife puts up with my shenanigans. Oh, I always wonder how my wife puts up with me. especially since I started podcasting. And that's something that you and I don't talk about a lot more, but when you're doing the number of podcasts that you and I do, your family kind of has to be all in. Because for the hours that you're recording, you need quiet and that can be tough on your family.

Yeah, even if you've got a nice isolated spot and it's soundproof, there's always going to be those funny sound. of someone flushing the toilet and you can hear the pipes crinkling down the wall or things like that. Yeah, and no doubt. So, you know, you really have to give it up for them because they're sacrificing a lot to allow you and I to do what we want to do. CrimeCon is coming up pretty quick and just a week and a half from when this episode airs, give or take. So Gibby and I will be in Austin on podcast row you're choosing to stay home and and do it virtually but you're participating right oh definitely i'm a little bit bummed out that i can't go in person but um they put on a really good

virtual event as well so even if you're doing it virtually it's it's pretty cool so next year is Vegas so i will be there no matter what whether i have to crawl there or whatever oh i'm excited about Vegas i'm excited but you know if you're there come see us If not, do the virtual thing. I'm going to set something up. I got to figure it out once I get down there, but so that people can experience it virtually. And it should be pretty good.

Yeah, it's always a good time. And like I said, I think you've been to everyone. I've been to everyone. And it's just a really fun time for people that are into true crime. Morphy, you got some Patreon shoutouts to give. We had Jeff Kirkup,

Denise Jenkins, Brittany Just, and Wendy. Connell. So that's some great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, we mentioned every week how how much that goes a long way to help him put the show out. So thank you very much. And if anyone would like to support the show, they can go to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, it's time to jump into this case. And this one for me takes place pretty close to home. We're in the state of Ohio. And we're in the city of Springfield, which is about,

30 to 40 minutes from where I live. It's an hour and a half north of Cincinnati and about 45 minutes west of Columbus. In 1966, Springfield had about 82,000 residents, which is actually more than it has today as the population has decreased. In December of 1965, a string of murder started in Cincinnati. These were murders of women living in Cincinnati of various ages between 30 and 80 and involved sexual assault and in most cases strangulation. A Springfield woman by the name of Anita Taylor was shaken by these murders. She was a young woman at home alone with her baby. And although these murders were not happening right next door to her, she was alarmed. She even told her newspaper boy, that the Cincinnati murders were the reason she always locked her door and took extra precautions,

especially while her husband was away working the night shift. But despite Anita's best efforts, she too would become the victim of a brutal rape and murder in her own Springfield home. Her baby boy, Aaron, was also attacked by the killer, but somehow he survived. He lived to tell his story, and you'll hear from him in this episode. With me, it's kind of strange. I was, you know, I was 18 months old when it all happened. Ironically, right after I was, I was injured in the attack as well. But when I came out of the hospital, just a few months later, I can actually remember bits and pieces of that. So it's a little frustrating for me because I don't remember the actual incident.

But I do remember things from just a couple of months afterwards. You know, I didn't know or that doesn't make it any easier. or don't ever let people tell you that you can't miss something that you never, you know, you never had. That's straight out, not true. But it's strange watching people around me. Definitely my grandmother, her mother, who her mother and father raised me from roughly 18 months old until I left for college.

So watching them was sometimes difficult. I always wanted to ask questions about mom when I was younger. and my grandmother would just, you know, would always end up with her crying. So it was kind of, well, I guess I won't do that. And so I didn't really ask a lot of questions. But that was, you know, the hardest part was watching how it impacted everyone, you know, in the family around me. For me, it was I didn't really know her.

I didn't really, I don't think I carried a whole lot of anger about it. I probably, I probably do and don't realize it. But it's pretty, you know, it's frustrating to not, to not have any memories. But the biggest thing was just, you watch. the people around you and how they react and the topic comes up or something will happen on the television or Halloween rolls around, which is, you know, roughly the anniversary of her, of her partner. And, yeah, people aren't, people in my family aren't really fond of Halloween anymore. So, so watching everyone else around the family and even friends and growing up and those family

members, when they find out who you are, it's a little, it's a little strange to watch their reaction. I was beaten, but found in my crib. So it was one of those. And the neighbors didn't hear anything. So I might, you know, if you try to piece together what probably happened was, you know, I'm guessing someone comes in, grabs me and starts tossing me around. And, you know, mom was very protective. And then she was from all that I understand of, a very good mom. And, you know, probably just said, hey, you know, just leave him alone and, you know, do whatever you need to do.

Which is why I was coming to my crib, but I had a broken, broken leg. Anita Eileen Huffenberger was born on November 25, 1945. She met Larry Taylor while they were in high school together. They both graduated from southeastern high school in South Charleston, Ohio in 1963, and in 1964. They married. By April 1965, the couple welcomed their child, a son named Aaron. The family lived in a small run-ed home located at 415 Ludlow Avenue in Springfield. Larry worked full-time, but his income just paid the bills.

Anita wanted a bigger home, and she decided that rather than stay home full-time, taking care of Aaron, by getting a part-time job, she'd be able to save up the money to get ahead to buy a bigger home. Anita went out determined to find a job, and she found one pretty quickly. She was hired by a company close to home called Springfield Finance in early October 1966. after Anita was hired, she discovered that she was hired over seven or eight much more qualified candidates. And she really couldn't understand why. At the time, she was happy to have the job and eager to learn only days into the job.

She started to feel uncomfortable around her supervisor, the man who had hired her Ellsworth Miller. On multiple occasions over the next few weeks, she caught Elshworth. worth following her home. She asked him directly why he was following her, and he assured her it was to make sure she got home okay. But Anita was creeped out by it, and she even told her mom about the situation. Mom started to apply at a job where she had very little experience. There were, I think, seven or eight other women that were going for that position that did

have experience. And somehow she was given the job instead of these other applicants. Now, Mom was a very, she was a pretty attractive girl, and she kept asking my grandmother, her mother, that she didn't know why she was hired, really, because she certainly wasn't the most qualified person for the job. Shortly after she started, her, her boss followed her home every night, and she actually asked him, why are you following me home? And he just said that he wanted to make sure that she got home okay. And she'd actually said that to my, again, my grandmother. She talked to my grandmother nearly every night, and she told her about it. And said, yeah, he said he wants to make sure that I get home okay.

And it wasn't more than a couple weeks later she was dead. On October 28th, Anita made it home from work like she normally did, just as her husband left for his night shift at Robbins & Myers Incorporated, a nearby factory. At some point, Anita started the laundry. which was part of her routine while she spent time with Aaron. Being away from Larry while he worked nights made Anita nervous, but she bided the time the best she could until he got off after 1 a.m. She kept the doors locked and wouldn't open them for anyone she didn't know.

Early on the morning of October 29, Larry clocked out of his job at 136 a.m. and carpooled with a co-worker home. Larry knocked on the front door, which was apparently the normal routine. for him and expected Anita to come unlock the door. But she never did. When Larry knocked again and got no answer, he thought he heard moaning noises coming from the bedroom, as well as the sound of the television in the living room.

So he forced the door open. It was a strong aluminum storm door, but after a few tries, Larry made it inside. What he found was awful. He found Anita in the bedroom, bloody, she was barely alive and trying to speak. In shock, Larry ran to Bill's Cafe, where his co-workers were still hanging out to ask for help. It's not clear whether the tailors had a phone of their own or not.

If they didn't, it would have been faster to run to a neighbor's, but, you know, Larry was in shock. So he may not have been thinking clearly. The police were called and Larry's co-workers took him back to his house. When police entered the tailor home, Anita had expired, and she was in the bedroom, lying on her back on the floor next to the bed in a pool of her own blood. She had been beaten and kicked, and possibly bludgeoned with an object like a Coke bottle. She had lacerations on her face and neck from a broken glass soda bottle. Anita's shirt and brawl were pulled up around her neck, and her shorts and underwear were next to her on the floor. They looked for Little Aaron and found him in his crib.

horribly he too had been attacked and he had a broken leg but he was alive an ambulance took anita and Aaron to a community hospital but Anita was pronounced dead on arrival police knew that the killer could have easily murdered Aaron but didn't and this alone led investigators to believe that Anita pleaded with whoever was there that night and promised to cooperate if they would put Aaron down safely in his crib police found that there was no sign of a struggle in the home even though this was a very violent crime. The only sign of forced entry was the front door that Larry Taylor had pushed in to gain entrance to the home. Police were pretty sure that Anita's killer had left just prior to Larry arriving home.

They thought that he either broke in and attacked Anita or that her killer had been in the home for quite some time before finally attacking. The back door of the home was found unlocked and police theorized that the murderer left through the back door undetected. Since Anita was very safety conscious, it seems logical that she would have locked both doors. And after all, she was very worried about rapes, murders nearby. She even told her paper boy that she was very security conscious. It would later be determined that Anita drowned in her own blood. but after someone stepped on her throat, crushing it. As we mentioned, she was still alive when Larry arrived home just before 2 a.m.

So it seems likely that with those injuries, the attack did happen shortly before Larry came home. Obviously, as the person closest to the victim, Larry Taylor was looked at by police very early on. One thing he said to police when they arrived stands out, as written in quotes in the police report. My wife has been beaten and raped. And, Morph, I think to some people, this statement from Larry Taylor may sound suspicious, but Larry saw Anita and even tried to talk to her. So he obviously would have seen her shirt up, her underwear on the floor and may have assumed she was raped. I think a lot of people finding their spouse in that situation would most likely think the same thing. What do you think, Morph?

Yeah, it seems like the first go-to thought that someone might have that they see someone battered and bleeding on the floor and their clothes are off. That might likely be where their mind goes. But Larry Taylor had an alibi. He was at work until 136 a.m. And his coworkers verified what time he was dropped off at his home. And that just moments later, he came running into the diner. He couldn't have had time to do.

what was done to Anita and Aaron. But just to be sure, in 1966, Larry Taylor willingly took and passed a polygraph test. That, along with his alibi, seemed to clear him in the minds of police. Investigators retraced and rebuilt a timeline of events. Larry left for work around 4 p.m. on the 28th. Anita's mother, Elizabeth Huffenberger,

stopped by to visit that evening and left the Taylor home around 17. p.m. When she left, Anita and Aaron were fine. Investigators believe that sometime between 7.30 p.m. on October 28th and 1.30 a.m. on October 29th, the killer entered the home. Since there was no clear case of forced entry, and because the killer likely escaped undetected just before Larry arrived home from work, it was a distinct possibility that the killer knew Anita or Larry and was familiar with her schedule. Police tried to stay focused on the crime scene. re-reviewing everything carefully.

Anita's neck and throat appeared to have been stepped on by a foot. Aaron's face also had a shoe print on it. There was a bloody footprint left at the crime scene. It appeared to be from a men size 8 and a half or 9 shoe. One partial fingerprint was taken from a light bulb on the back porch. And here are more if this is something that we've seen before. I think this was something even the Golden State killer did. The killer may have unscrewed the ball to create more darkness and cover for their crime and their escape.

The bulb was found to be loose. Investigators were able to fill almost 30 evidence bags with evidence collected from the house. Evidence collected included hair samples, sweepings from around the house, and scrapings from under Anita's finger. nails. The blood on the floor around Anita was fresh, but the coroner estimated that Anita could have been attacked as early as 9.30 p.m. There was a trail of bloody footprints visible under UV light heading out the back door into the grass in the backyard. There was seamen into scene which police collected. And more if I think we have to take a minute here just to talk about this attack. And the crime scene. Obviously, this was a brutal murder and sexual assault. We just mentioned it.

They found semen and collected semen at the crime scene. But to imagine a man stepping on a woman's throat and crushing it. To imagine a man stepping on a baby's face. I mean, these are really horrific things. Yeah, I think anyone that attacks someone like this is obviously dangerous and But to do this to a baby as well is just beyond what we normally see in a lot of these cases. This is someone that seems to have no conscience if they're willing to do this to even a little baby like that. Yeah, this is something that really jumped out at me about this crime. I mean, what happened to Anita was horrible. Unfortunately, we see this in a lot of the episodes that we do, but take it a step further.

and think about, you know, why would someone need to harm a little baby? Why step on a baby's face? Why do anything to this baby? It's not going to be able to identify you. I just don't get it. It almost seems as if there was some malice there beyond just the randomness of a sexual assault and a murder, this to me almost seems. personal in a way. And you mentioned it possibly being personal, it feels personal. And I wonder if at 18

months, it's been so long since my kids started talking that I can't honestly remember, but was Aaron capable of saying little words of like mama or someone else's name that this killer thought might identify them in some way? As vicious and macabre as it is, then I have to ask the question. If this person felt as though little Aaron could have identified him, then why did he leave Aaron alive? Why did he, you know, step on his face, but leave him alive? I think these are all questions that have to be asked, have to be thought about. One of those clues police found that really interest me is the light bulb because it shows to me, in my opinion, that the person put some thought into this and planned it and took the time to do that, which makes it seem

like it maybe wasn't a spur of the moment attack and they had this planned all along. Yeah, I agree. And it also goes back to the question, was this a complete stranger? Or was this someone known to Anita and Larry? So then that dovetails into, did the attacker know the layout of the house? Did they know exactly where that light bulb was? Or, you know, if it was a stranger, did they just happen upon the light bulb and think, okay, I need to unscrew that. That gives myself more cover, more darkness.

When police questioned Anita's friends and family, one name came up as a possible suspect, Elsworth Miller, Anita's supervisor at work. Anita's boss, Elsworth Miller, has often been looked at with suspicion by people discussing this case. According to news reports and online obituaries, Elzworth Miller appears to have died in 2013, and it's unknown whether investigators ever gave him a hard look or not. In fact, it's unclear if he was ever even questioned at all. If he was, he may have been cleared through an alibi.

But we just don't know as police have been tight-lipped about the case. case. That's one of the things I've tried to find out as, you know, who was a suspect, who was questioned. I think there were a few people that were brought in for questioning. There was an old boyfriend that I think was brought in for questioning. We were always very curious about her boss at the time, and I'm not even sure that he was ever questioned. I tried to, I went through the file at one point, and quite a, quite a lengthy, you know, written dissertation of what, of what, who was questioned and what was taken from the crime scene and what the what the thoughts were who was talked to but no

mention of him so really i i saw some some names here and there that that looked familiar but i don't i to be honest i don't know exactly who was questioned who was who was cleared now obviously there was no such thing as dna in 1966 but in recent years police reported that larry taylor's DNA did not match DNA taken from the scene. However, Aaron would later learn that some of the DNA had never actually been tested. And authorities apparently just cleared Larry Taylor in an effort to seem productive and keep pressure off of themselves. This was certainly disheartening news for Aaron to find out that the police were essentially making stuff up. The good news is authorities have been able to after about 50 years,

extract a DNA profile from the scene. Somehow the DNA was properly preserved all this time. We mentioned not knowing if police ever questioned Ellsworth Miller. So we definitely can't be sure that his DNA was ever compared to the sample that police have. Following Anita's murder, newspapers described her as kind and timid. Sadly, in a sign of the Times, early articles about her death noted that she was not, quote, the kind of girl who would give any

indication she was flirting. And I think more of you have to look at that in today's terms and think, why? Why would they write that? Why would flirting even come into the equation? But we're talking about the 1960s. It's almost as if the newspaper report is somehow blaming her for flirting and bringing this on herself, which is pretty bad. Yeah, you and I investigate, you know, so many cases. We do the research on so many cases. A lot of times that involves going back and looking at newspaper articles from the time period. And, you know, when you go back to the 50s and 60s, there's In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency.

We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. There's a lot of stuff that was written that would shock people today. And I think this is one example of it. There was on the part of some people a thought that, and I hate to say this, is not me saying it, but a thought that women somehow brought on some of these sexual attacks

themselves by the way they dressed, by the way they acted. it's incomprehensible to think in those terms today. Some people have also been suspicious of the paperboy that talked to Anita about locking her door. The October 30th, 1966 article, which ran in the Dayton Daily News with the headline, Fear Creeps over Shock of Springfield slang, mentions that Paperboy Charles Herring, just 14 years old at the time, actually asked a, Anita why her door was locked. It was only then that Anita offered up the information about being afraid due to the murders

in Cincinnati. While Herring says he often spoke with Anita and tried to be friendly with her, it does seem like a pretty odd question to ask. While the conversation was most likely the actions of a curious teenage boy, it's unknown if police ever questioned him regarding the case. but as for Aaron, he tracked down and talked to that paper boy. I've gone as far as tracked down the paper boy. That was in North Carolina.

So I drove all the way to North Carolina just to knock on the, knock on his door. And super, super nice guy, you know, pretty clear that he didn't, he didn't have any, any idea of what went on. Aaron didn't stop with the paper boy. He even tracked down the man who had given his dad a ride home on the night Anita was killed. I did actually talk to one of the guys that even 50 years later, when I knocked on their door, which I was unamounced, I asked if he was home. And his wife wanted to know who was, who I was. And I gave her my name, and she just immediately kind of went white and just said, are you, are you Larry and Anita's boy?

And that's 50 years later. So it was, you know, people definitely remember it. There's no question. And I did ask him a few questions about, you know, coming into that crime. and he, you know, 50 years later, the guy starts kind of breaking down a little bit. I can only imagine that was a pretty horrific scene. The attack that killed Anita changed the lives of many people in Springfield. A brutal murder like the ones they saw in big cities on the nightly news had come to Springfield.

People were shaken and on high alert. The woman who lived across the street from the tellers couldn't stand to see that house every day, and she actually moved. Even decades later, people remember the case. Small town, I mean, everybody knew her murder. When they find out who you are, all of a sudden, each person has their own little hypothesis of, you know, what went on. And, you know, yeah, you'll talk to somebody and they'll give you a new angle to look at. And the least you can do is to explore it, you know, no stone left unturned.

I still meet people. A year doesn't go by where I don't at least meet one or two people where I'll, you know, tell them my name. I kind of look at you a little funny and then, you know, where are you from and who was your mom and dad? So they'll kind of, yeah, it's very well remembered, especially of, you know, with people that are over, you know, say 60, 65. I went to, it's a long story, but the long and the short is that I went to a funeral home to actually to look at a suspect that had passed and wanted to just kind of see him and, you know, see if something about his, would trigger something in my head. And when I went there, he had not come from being prepared for the service.

It was the day before his actual viewing. And she was the only one at the funeral home. Kept saying how it was very odd that she was left there by herself. And eventually when we were talking, she had asked, I mentioned that both my parents had passed, told her that my father was killed, the motorcycle wreck gave her his name,

and then she asked about mom. I said, well, she was actually murdered here in Springfield. Her name was Anita Taylor. And she kind of freaked out a little bit and looked at me in. She said, where'd that happen? And I said, here in Springfield. She said, no, it's street. And I said, it happened on Ludlow Avenue.

And she gave me the address. She said, 415 Lovello Avenue. And that was, again, 50 years ago. And I said, yeah, someone was even strangers. She said, honey, I was the lady that moved out of that house when your parents moved in. But she actually was, just the oddball chances of that happening, of running into that person. I'd love to know what the odds are.

But that seems to go on all the time before. I'll just meet people that either worked with dad or live down the street from where it happened. Anita's friends and family no longer loved to celebrate Halloween. Larry Taylor moved in with Anita's parents. Aaron spent a month in the hospital recovering with. from the attack with his left leg elevated and immobilized the whole time. He had to relearn how to walk at almost two years old. Life was definitely changed forever for Larry Taylor and his son Aaron.

After a dispute about how to discipline Aaron, Larry took Aaron to live with Larry's mother for a while, but soon Larry asked Anita's parents to take Aaron back in. They agreed as long as they were able to raise Aaron as they saw fit without Larry trying to intervene. Larry agreed and left Aaron with Anita's parents. Aaron would see Larry during holidays and then his time went on less and less. Plans got canceled, calls went unanswered, not long after leaving Aaron with Anita's parents. Larry remarried and moved to Urbana, Ohio, with his new wife, eventually having two more sons, Michael and Jared. Many years later, when he was, was about 18 or 19 years old, Aaron learned that he had a brother who was nine months younger than

him, conceived during a time when Larry and Anita were still married. It appears that Larry must have had an affair while Anita was alive and possibly still pregnant with Aaron. Oddly enough, the two boys were on sports teams at rival high schools and played against each other without ever knowing or even suspecting the truth that they were brothers. This younger brother never got to meet his biological father, Larry Taylor. This revelation of a possible affair and secret shop seems to open up the suspect pool and brings new motives to the table. Was there an angry husband who found out that his wife's son wasn't his,

found out that Larry Taylor was the father. And to me, more, if this brings up a lot of possibilities, it opens up a lot of things, you know, I know that Larry was cleared by police. He took a polygraph. He had an alibi. But I think this revelation does add a new motive for Larry possibly wanting Anita dead. It could have been possible that he wanted a new life with. someone else. But I think the angry husband angle is something that you definitely can't discount.

You know, imagine a man finding out that his wife is pregnant. He's this whole time thought that the baby was his finds out that it's not. Maybe finds out that his wife is having an affair with Larry Taylor. Then you get into the, well, I'll get even with Larry Taylor. Yeah, I think it opens up a whole slew of possibilities. Maybe you have someone who wants to be with Larry and he says, I'm not leaving my wife, and there's some jealousy there. I think it just makes the pool of what police have to wade through to find answers that much deeper. Now, obviously, a woman couldn't have sexually assaulted Anita and left semen at the scene,

but maybe she hired someone to do it. Again, it's speculation, but it just opens up these. kinds of possibilities. Well, and I think we'd be remiss if we didn't kind of talk about all the possibilities. I think this kind of second life affair, it does open up a number of things. The relationship between Aaron and his father, as we mentioned, was strained, and visits became less frequent. Aaron does remember Christmas Eve, 1977, when he was 12 years old, that he and his father,

Larry, stood over a car of some kind. And Larry randomly asked him, You know I loved your mother, don't you? Larry went on and explained that many people thought he killed Anita, but he wanted Aaron to know that he loved her and would never have done anything like that. Sadly, the father and son would never heal their relationship. Larry Taylor died in a motorcycle accident at age 33 in 1978 when Aaron was just 13. He was told by his aunt just two days after his 13th birthday that his father was dead.

While Aaron lost his father at 13, and their relationship may have been shaky. He at least had that time with him. But anything Aaron knew about his mom, he had to learn from friends and family. He shared some of the things he learned about her. She was fairly kind of shy in high school. And then after having, you know,

right around about the time that she had me, things started to change. I mean, she started to become a lot more confident, outgoing. She started going to college in Elkhart, Indiana, right out of high school. She was only 20 when she was killed. She was a month from her 21st birthday. So she was, she was, she was very young.

You know, there's a whole, an entire life of, of growing up and learning and living that, that she never got to experience. So, but yeah, it sounded like she was just kind of coming into that part of her life where she was, she was really starting to, to change and to, and to, and the blossom. And that was, and that was all cut short. Aaron is still trying to find his mother's killer today. He's also trying to figure out who would have been cruel enough to have harmed him when he was just 18 months old. If the killer was an older person in 1966, they would likely be deceased.

But if it was someone younger, there's definitely the chance that this murderer could still be alive today. Anita's mother never let Aaron forget her. keeping the memory of his mother alive in each room of the home, though she wouldn't really speak about her death. From my grandmother's perspective, she was fairly religious prior to prior to murder. And I don't think she was ever in a church after that other than four weddings and funerals.

That was about it. So she certainly kind of lost her faith after mom's mother, definitely less trusting. I mean, to be honest, she was almost institutionalized. She just absolutely lost, just lost her mind just because of how violent it was.

I mean, it had to be a closed casket. It was, it was, it was, it was very rough. And probably raising me is what helped her kind of focus. Instead of just wallowing in the memory of what it happens, she had, she had a reason to keep going. You know, every room was like a little mini shrine to mom's memories. So it was a little, it was a little weird growing up.

You know, everywhere and there was never a time when I didn't know what happened. I can't remember ever wondering what happened to my mom. I always knew. I mean, from the time I was, I have a memory. My grandmother told me exactly what had gone on. But yeah, other family members definitely kind of stepping up and trying to take on different, I don't think it was ever explicitly said or discussed. It was just something that happened. We had different family members that all played kind of a different role in, you know, in kind of my upbringing. So it's very strange. You know, I don't know anything different, but it was, it's certainly one of those things that

wasn't, wasn't talked about much. And if it was, it was brief because everybody in the family would just kind of, you know, a lot of crying going on. And then we would change the subject, that's for sure. We wanted to know if Aaron remembers as a child wanting to know more about his mom's case. Yeah, it did happen. It was pretty early, too. I was probably second or third grade, maybe. So I was probably maybe eight years old.

And I knew that asking my grandmother was not a, you know, that doesn't, that's not going to end well. So I knew she had a cedar chest, which was like, I don't think people do it nowadays. Back in the day, they called them Hope Chess or whatever. It was like a big trunk. And all kinds of stuff in there. My grandmother was getting something out of there one day. She happened to open it. And I saw all these newspaper clippings.

And I thought, okay, well, that's where the mother load is. I'll wait until I can just get in there unknown to her. And I'll just read. And that's really how I did it. All the information that I received was predominantly, through those newspaper articles that I found in her, in her, in her, in her cedar chest. So word of mouth became a little bit more prevalent later on. But when I was a kid, I didn't really want to bring it up because it wasn't, it wasn't

an easy thing for her to talk about. So I really found all of my information from, from those articles. It wasn't long before Aaron went from exploring news articles that his grandmother had hidden away. Soon, he was able to go out on his own. to search for clues. The funny thing was after I got my driver's license, it was probably less than, I would say, two weeks after I got my driver's license. That was one of the first places I went was the police department

and asked if it was possible to see the evidence from the case, which at that point they didn't allow me to do it. I was 16 years old. So I'm sure that has something to do with it. But yeah, so it's been ongoing. You kind of get caught up in your own formative years between 18 and 22, trying to get to college and start a career and all that fun stuff. So I'd say that in earnest, probably when I was 20, maybe 25, things started to kick back in.

But from the time I've been able to drive, I was asking questions. In the late 1980s, Aaronie, even underwent hypnosis to try and remember the events of the night that his mother was killed in an effort to help solve the case. It was unfortunately mostly unsuccessful. Aaron remembered someone holding an iron near his face and having to pull back from the heat coming from it. He also remembered piles of laundry. Aaron could remember a few things about coming home from the hospital, but he didn't remember anything about the attack on his mom. I'm guardedly optimistic and somewhat skeptical about that type of thing.

So going into it, I thought, again, one of those things that you just give it a shot. You never know. You have to try. So I really wasn't putting too much credence into the whole process and kind of just one of those relaxation things. And I did remember some things that came back in like flashes. It was like pictures. Like you would open your eyes real quick and then close them. And it would just be that image real quick in your mind.

So I remember a few things. I mean, it was a little odd. I remember clothes being folded and clothes being on the floor. I remember seeing my own feet, like I was being pushed in a cart or something. I remember seeing my feet. I remember feeling heat on the side of my face. That's roughly when I woke up. I mean, it kind of came out of it, as well.

I thought it took about 20 minutes. It was, I can't remember, an hour and a half, something like that. I thought it was just a few minutes, and then we'd gone for hours. So it was very odd. and certainly the loss in time was something that made me think, all right, well, maybe there's something to this. It's Aaron's belief that Anita died, trying to defend him. It's a possibility that Anita's killer threatened to harm Aaron to get Anita to cooperate,

breaking his leg in the process. Aaron has tried valiantly to find an answer his entire life. He even went to the police station personally after he turned 16. in search of information, but since it was an open case, police wouldn't release any additional information. In January 2021, it was announced that the Ohio Attorney General's cold case unit was looking at the Anita Taylor case. This cold case unit, at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, offers forensic analysis and fresh investigative techniques to cases no matter how old or cold. It remains to be seen what, if anything,

can be or has been discovered with this latest effort. Anita's father died in November 1978, and her mother Elizabeth passed away in March 2008, both never knowing who killed their daughter and who hurt their grandson. Aaron still wonders daily. Aaron Taylor now lives in Newport, Kentucky. He went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and worked as a forklift driver for champion pay.

paper in Hamilton, Ohio, he remains dedicated to finding his mom's killer and is hopeful that advances in DNA technology mean that the cold case unit looking into the case will provide new leads, maybe even a solution. Aaron discussed his relationship with investigators, as well as some of the things that he feels that they did both right and wrong. They've been cordial, I guess, the easiest way to put it. They don't really provide me with much information. You know, at one point they told us that they'd tested. They actually received DNA hits from the evidence.

They were able to test it, and they were able to tell that it wasn't my father. We found out not long after that, that that was completely fabricated because there was a news broadcast that was being done. And the person doing the news broadcast said, in short, you've had, you know, you've had 40 years to do this. you've got two weeks. And so, you know, what the concept was they didn't want to be looked at as not helping out, not being forthcoming and assisting in the investigation. So they just said, yeah, we tested it and it came back. You know, it wasn't Larry Taylor.

And I thought, well, if you tested it, that's fantastic. I really don't care about who it wasn't. I care about who it is. And wouldn't stop calling. Found out later that it actually had never been tested. it. They never even ran the DNA on it. So it took years to get that done. And now we're back to the point where, yeah, they're actually, apparently there is a DNA sample somewhere on a partial DNA print from the crime scene. So it's just a lot of, not much work gets done on it, to be

honest. I mean, they're nice enough to talk to, but as far as activity, it's really not there. That's kind of the next step. I'm now trying to find out who's in charge. They did have two individuals that were working in a cold case division or unit. I think both of those individuals have moved on to other positions now. So to my knowledge, there's no, there's no one actively working on it. But yeah, I don't know whether or not there's enough of a DNA sample to do some type of a genetic, genetic test. I think they, you know, they did a good enough job as far as trying to get evidence from the crime scene. I think they were focusing on my father, and they weren't really spending enough time trying to find who actually did it.

To be honest, I don't think that it was handled in the best fashion. Even now, I've been given false information. A lot of times I think that they just kind of want to get rid of me, and that's probably not going to happen. But there was quite a bit of evidence that was taken. everything from carpet samples to furniture to my bed clothes, my mother's clothes. I've been told that there was over 20 boxes of evidence that was taken. I was also told later that they more or less they had lost some of the evidence because they changed locations. And some of the evidence was, quote, misplaced.

So it's a little frustrating when you try to get information. And I've just been kind of running into brickwall. here and there. Aaron started a website about the case, talercase.com, which allows visitors to learn more about the case. And it's also allowed people with potential tips and theories to share them.

Really, just a repository of information. You know, if people want to go out and take a look at, you know, what we have as evidence or what we've been able to find from the case and put it on the website, ideas that they might have. You know, the big thing is that Springfield wasn't a big town,

still not a big town. And really, she grew up in an even smaller town. Ironically, I went to the same high school that she did. I graduated from the same high school that she graduated from almost 20 years to the day when she did. So I went to school with a lot of her classmates, kids. So that was very, very strange. And it's a small town. And so the website, in part, was kind of like that small town.

People talk. You hear things. and if you wanted a place where you can safely go out there and say, hey, this is, this is something that we'd always thought about or people had always talked about in the town. Have you ever looked at this or talked to this person? So it was, yeah, it was just a way for people to get and give information about her case because it was, it was a rare small town. And I think there were a lot of people that had ideas about what had happened. Aaron's had to balance his responsibilities of everyday life with his efforts to see his mom's case solved. It kind of goes in waves.

You get a little bit of an energy boost when something comes up and it peaks your curiosity or someone comes forward and gives you information. And all of a sudden it's like there's a resurgence of the efforts. So, yeah, I bet I'm on the flip side of that, I'm always surprised when people just, kind of say, well, you know, I'm at peace with it and they're fine with not knowing the truth. And that's, that is not me. I've, you know, I've wanted to find out exactly what went on. And, you know, it's tough because you don't get a lot of help from law enforcement. I mean, a lot of times you can't get any of that type of information that would make, make the job a lot easier.

It's been cyclical as far as, you know, the time that I spend on some things. It's difficult, you know, having just a regular job and trying to do that too. After almost 55 years, it remains to be seen if Anita's case will be solved. While there is no such thing as closure in a case like this, Aaron most definitely wants answers. I sometimes laugh at the word closure because it's like, I don't, you know, there's no such thing. I mean, it's just doesn't, you know, it's not going to change anything. But knowing, I'm not as, I'm not. us concerned about someone going to prison and, you know, paying their debt to society or,

or any of that, you know, that nature. It's just, I think I just read, I'd like to know. And I know the family members would be, you know, I think that would be a sigh of relief for them where it's just kind of like, okay, now we, now we, we've got that taken care of. We've, we've found out what happened, why it happened, and who did it? We can, we can move on. So, yeah, I'm more concerned about just knowing. If you have any information about the murder of, of Anita Taylor and the attempted murder of baby Aaron Lee Taylor, please call the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations tip line at 855-2246.

So Morphe as we wrap up this case, you know, go back to the description of the scene, an extremely brutal murder and sexual assault. I just can't get over how callous this individual, this killer was. And I wonder what that says about who the perpetrator really was. Does it mean that there was some intimacy involved?

And when I say intimacy, was the perpetrator known at least in some small way to the victim or the victim's husband? there were things done that in my view, it doesn't seem as though needed to be done. You don't, you don't need to hurt a baby who is in his crib unless that baby was maybe not in the crib the crib the entire time, right? We kind of hinted at it that police were wondering, you know, was this a kind of a blitz style attack or had the perpetrator been in the house, maybe known to Anita, and then decided to attack. If that was the case, then Anita could have had Aaron out, let's say in the living room with

her before the attack happened and Aaron somehow ended up in the crib later. This is just one of those cases where there are definitely a lot of questions, a lot of mysteries, and, you know, it's one that obviously you and I want to see Saul. the fact that they have some DNA, you know, really kind of makes me hopeful in this one. Yeah, the one thing that jumps out to me is that whether the killer is a familiar face to the family or if it's someone that happened to just, you know, some kind of dangerous criminal that just happened to get into the house and the family didn't know them at all, this person definitely had to be dangerous. And, and again, I go back to the baby.

just a helpless baby laying in a crib. I just don't know how you can hurt someone like that. You know, I think the person that did all of this just has to be some kind of diabolical monster that might be capable of doing something similar to someone else. Well, and I think that's a great question. One that we really didn't dive into in the episode. You know, to me, Morp, what has? happened here doesn't seem like the work of an isolated killer.

Meaning, what are the chances that this person capable of doing these things didn't go on to do them again unless it was a planned out attack for a very specific reason, which we kind of touched on, right? The whole adultery angle and maybe an enraged husband, something like that. If this is just a random monster, there is no way that this is his one and only murder, his one and only sexual assault. He wouldn't stop. That's my theory.

Yeah. I'm right there with you because, as we mentioned, you could tell that there was some degree of pre-planning, taking the time to loosen the light bulb and thinking ahead, thinking of a getaway. So it's not like a spur of the moment thing. And as far as I can see, I think there was some kind of planning and some advance knowledge that he was going to do this. Well,

and I just talked about he would go on to do it again. What if he had done it already, right? So many times that he had at that point had kind of honed his craft for the lack of a better term, knew about the light bulbs and knew about things like that. Because, you know, he had done it. multiple times before. I wouldn't be surprised if one day in the near future

this case is solved and it comes with and this person also did this, this, this, and this, I would not be surprised at all if that's the case. Well, and I think the best thing we've got going is that DNA and hopefully it does provide answers one day. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon

for writing and research assistance in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done so yet. Please take a minute. Go out, give us a five-star rating. Keep telling your friends about criminology. That word of mouth really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media,

we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. So that's it for our episode on the murder of Anita Taylor. hopefully one that in the not so distant future, there will be some revelations that come out, and hopefully they'll solve this one. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode of

criminology. So until then, for Mike. And Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care of everyone.