Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Boogeyman in the Blue Bandana” Timothy Krajcir Pt. 1

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

Believing he had been reformed, the parole board released 31-year-old Timothy Krajcir from prison in 1976 after serving a little over 10 years for attempted murder and rape. He then enrolled in a criminal justice course. Not to start a new career, but to learn how to get away with murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, sexual assault, and child abuse. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Ellen Blatel took a long sip of coffee and tried to shake off the morning cobwebs. She hadn't slept well, not after last night. Her husband had walked into their bedroom around 10 p.m. looking pale. He said he'd heard what sounded like two gunshots from next door. Ellen was stunned. They lived in a quiet, supposedly safe neighborhood in the

Riverside City of Cape Girardo, Missouri. Nothing bad ever happened here, especially not something as serious as a shooting. They considered calling the police, but after talking it over, they decided it must have just been a car backfiring. But even though Ellen tried to put it out of her mind, she had spent the night tossing and turning unable to relax. That uneasy, followed her into the morning. She was so on edge that when the phone rang, she jumped. It was her neighbor, Floyd Parish, and he sounded just as anxious as she felt. Floyd was in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. He said that his wife and daughter was supposed to visit him that morning, but they never showed up. He was worried about them

and asked if Ellen could go and check that they were all right. Ellen did her best to reassure Floyd that everything was fine. The poor guy had enough problems. He didn't need to know about her own fears. She told Floyd that she'd go over to the house right away. Ellen shielded her eyes when she stepped outside, the late summer sun almost blinding her as she made the short walk across the street. When she reached the parches, that queasy feeling from last night returned. The front door was open, and Mary's keys were dangling from the lock. Ellen took a shaky breath and tried to loosen the knot in the pit of her stomach. Then she pushed the door open and called out for Mary and Brenda.

Nobody answered. And when Ellen reached the main bedroom, she understood why. James hadn't heard a car backfiring. He'd heard the sound of their neighbors being murdered. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parkast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're exploring the murders of Timothy Kreacher, aka the Boogie Man in the Blue Bandana. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Today we'll discuss how Krecher's early sexual fantasies morphed into real-life violence when he was a teenager and landed him behind bars. Then we'll delve

into his first murders and how being an EMT helped him hide in plain sight. In the next episode, we'll chronicle the tragic story of how an innocent man went to prison for Kreutcher's crimes and the vicious killing spree Krecher was able to commit as a result. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives, Looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the Unit Bomber. It's tedious work to find what you're looking for.

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This was the case with Timothy Kreacher. Fresh out of prison in his 20s, he sought out new information in hopes of making himself a better criminal. And it worked. But long before then, Krecher already had a fascination with the forbidden. Born in rural Pennsylvania in November of 1944, he was mostly raised by his mother, Fern. And by the time he was 10 years old, he had reportedly developed a sexual obsession with her. His father had abandoned the family when Krecher was an infant and his mother quickly became his entire world. According to him, though, the feeling wasn't reciprocated.

Fern was cold and unaffectionate towards him and became even more so when she met her second husband, Bernie Kreacher. As Fern doted on her new partner, her son felt even more alone. It seemed that the less time she had for him, the more Krecher yearned for her. And as he neared adolescence, that longing for her attention turned into a twisted curiosity. Vanessa is going to take over in the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. As psychology fans will know, the pioneering psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, put a heavy

emphasis on a patient's relationship with their mother. In 1899, he introduced the Oedipus complex, which states that all boys experience a phase in which they're sexually attracted to their mother. In turn, they're envious of their father, or whatever father figure is in their life. Although these feelings are often unconscious, they can have a powerful impact on a young boy's development. Keep in mind that throughout history, the field of psychology has disproportionately blamed mothers for their children. children's mental illness or violent behavior. And like many of Freud's theories, the Oedipus complex has been heavily criticized and somewhat discredited. Nonetheless, it does seem to apply to Krecher's specific case.

By the time he was in fifth grade, Krecher liked to spy on Fern while she was changing and showering, and reportedly had numerous sexual fantasies about her. Simultaneously, he felt a huge amount of anger towards Bernie, who in Krecher's mind had taken his mom away from him. This fixation with his mother persisted throughout his adolescence. Eventually, he broadened his horizons, but he still wasn't interested in girls his own age. He gravitated towards women who could function as a substitute for fern. Before long, Kreacher was a regular peeping tom, spying on women in his neighborhood.

That wasn't enough, though. Soon, he started to steal female clothing and wear it himself. He even escalated to groping women in public. though it seems he was never caught for any of these offenses. By this point, Krecher hadn't physically heard anyone, but he was headed down a twisted path. And as his voyeuristic urges grew stronger, his complex feelings toward his mother took a dark turn.

By the early 1960s, his obsession with her had curdled into hate. We don't have much information about what motivated this shift, but coupled with his animosity towards his stepfather, things at home were surely tense. Kreacher knew that if he didn't get out of the house soon, his anger would boil over and someone would get hurt. He had to leave. So as soon as he graduated from high school in 1962, he and two friends enlisted in the Navy. Perhaps the 18-year-old hope that the rigid structure and high expectations of military life would help keep him on the straight and narrow.

Unfortunately, it didn't. His first stop was boot camp at a naval base near Chicago. Krecher dreamed about going out to sea afterward, but during his training, he came down with double pneumonia. He was so sick that he had to spend a month in the hospital. Possibly, as a result of this delay, Krecher wasn't moved to a naval ship like he'd wanted. Instead, he ended up working as a cook.

With his big career plans down the drain, Krecher was left feeling disillusioned about the service. Bored and resentful, he turned back to the one source of comfort he'd always relied on, his own mind. Before long, Krecher was again consumed by sexual fantasies, and they were more violent than ever. But by 1963, his imagination wasn't cutting it anymore. On one of his days off from the naval base, he drove 20 minutes north to the city of Waukegan. It's not clear what drew him there.

Maybe he didn't quite know himself. All he knew was that he couldn't control his urges anymore. In Waikiggen, Kreacher broke into a house and attacked a woman inside. He raped her, then stabbed her with a 10-inch pair of scissors. Afterward, he took off, leaving his victim for dead. Although it may seem like this attack came out of the blue, Kreacher had actually been building up to it for years. His excessive preoccupation with sexual fantasies as a young boy

had set the stage for him to become violent, later on. In a 2014 paper, Massachusetts researchers found that this preoccupation, known as hypersexuality, is a precursor to voyeurism. And it turns out that voyeurism itself is a precursor to sexual violence, especially against women. Another study confirmed the link between voyeurism and sexual violence and examined why this connection may exist.

According to researchers from the University of Southern Mississippi, this is likely because both behaviors involve being sexually aroused by a non-consenting person. When understood through this lens, it isn't surprising that Krecher's predatory behavior as an adolescent eventually turned into actual violence. And it seemed Krecher was riding a high after finally acting on his dark impulses, because he couldn't wait to do it again. Soon after attacking his first victim, he raped another woman in the Chicago area. We don't have many details about either of these crows.

crimes or how they were investigated, but we know that both women survived and that Kreacher was arrested for the attacks in May of 1963. Charged with two counts of rape and one count of attempted murder, Krecher pleaded guilty. At 19, he was sentenced to 25 to 30 years in an Illinois prison. While he was behind bars, Krecher had a lot of time to stew on the mistakes he'd made. He didn't know when he'd see the outside world again and couldn't help but wonder where he went wrong. He wasn't concerned about the horrific crimes he'd committed, though. He didn't have any remorse about those whatsoever. No, in Kreacher's mind, his critical error had been getting caught.

He'd left behind so much physical evidence at the crime scenes that his conviction was inevitable, and as he learned from his cellmate, he'd broken another cardinal rule of violent crime. Never leave witnesses. With this valuable piece of information in hand, Kreacher vowed never to be so foolish again. If he wanted to get out of jail and stay out, he needed to get smarter to expand his knowledge of the world and use that knowledge to his advantage. So Krecher tapped into the resources available to him in prison. He got his associate's degree from a local community college, and after about 10 years, he started training to become an inmate EMT. To the prison authorities, it looked like Krecher was earnestly trying to become a better person.

So when he was eligible for parole 13 years into his sentence, his application was granted. In September of 1976, 31-year-old Krecher was a free man, but not a reformed one. And now that he understood how to commit crimes and get away with them, he was rearing for another shot. In a moment, Kreacher outsmarts the system. Hi, listeners, I'm Tom Morton, host of Parkast's landmark show, Real Pirates, where we set sail alongside history's most notorious villains. Dive into their world during the golden age of piracy in an immersive audio experience. Listen as experts reveal the reality of life under the black flag.

There is no evidence that I have ever seen of any pirate burying their treasure. Catch our previous episodes on Major Steve Bonnet, Charles Vane and Blackbeard. Blackbeard himself as a pirate was a larger-than-life figure. He would put candles into his hair to frighten his victims. And still to come are the stories of Anne Bonny, Captain Kidd and Henry Morgan. Join us for new episodes every Monday as we follow the rise and fall of the most legendary outlaws ever to sail the seven seas. Real Pirates is a Spotify original from Parkast.

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In the fall of 1976, 31-year-old Timothy Kreacher was released from prison after serving more than a decade for rape and attempted murder. As a condition of his parole, he had to complete a mandated educational program at Southern Illinois University. During his time behind bars, he developed a passion for learning, so he was only too happy to fulfill this requirement. When Kreutcher scanned the syllabus, he noticed that there was a criminal justice course on offer. He grinned to himself, perfect. The class would teach him about physical and forensic evidence and the techniques investigators used to collect it. He'd also get familiar with the ins and outs of the criminal justice system

and how investigations proceed. And perhaps most importantly, he'd get the inside scoop on the limitations of local law enforcement, especially when it came to interstate. crimes. Thanks to the program that was supposed to steer him away from violence, Krecher was essentially offered a masterclass in how to get away with murder, and nobody else realized it. To the outside world, he was a reformed man who'd spent his time in prison learning how to be a contributing member of society. While he spent part of his time studying, Krecher put his other skills to use. Shortly after his release, he was hired as an EMT in Southern Illinois.

To his colleagues on the close-knit team, he appeared soft-spoken, polite, and diligent about his work. Since Kreacher had been hired on the basis of his experience as an inmate EMT, he couldn't hide his criminal past from his co-workers. Still, he didn't want them to know just how horrific his crimes really were, so he came up with a cover story to explain away his guilt. He told his co-workers that when he was a teenager, he'd been with a girl who was underage. He claimed that when her father discovered them in bed, the man freaked out. From there, the whole thing was blown out of proportion. Of course, this story bears no resemblance to the violent rapes Krecher actually committed. But people seemed to buy the story.

And why wouldn't they? They had no reason to doubt him. Krecher worked alongside them, helping to save lives. He seemed kind and genuinely interested in the work. It was unthinkable that he could ever harm anyone. Being an EMT was a helpful smokescreen for Krecher, but it was also a way for him to feel a sense of power over others. As an ambulance worker, people found him trustworthy, purely on the basis of his uniform. When he was treating someone, their life was in his hands.

It's possible that for someone like Krecher, this experience might have fostered a kind of God complex. This concept usually refers to an exaggerated, unshakable belief in one's own abilities or knowledge. Although it's not an official diagnosis in and of itself, it's closely linked to antisocial personality disorder. Coupled with the criminal justice course he was taking, Kreacher's role as an EMT might have upped his confidence and fueled his desire for control. And perhaps as he racked up more hours on the job, he started to realize that if he could save lives, he could also end them.

No matter what twisted impulses he may have been hiding though, Kreutcher stayed up. on the straight and narrow for the next few months. He became one of the gang at work and often went out on the town with his co-workers. He reportedly even had a girlfriend for a while. But when that relationship sputtered to a close, something in Kreutcher changed. The breakup seemed to reignite his hatred of women,

which had been brewing ever since childhood. Although his earlier crimes had landed him in prison for a decade, his violent urges had never gone away. They were just simmering below the surface. waiting to be triggered. And the breakup was seemingly that trigger, but this time he was determined to be smarter. He wasn't going to get caught again.

Thanks to his criminology class, Kreacher had learned just how siloed law enforcement was. Cops in different states rarely talk to each other, and information sharing was limited. That made interstate murders much harder to solve. With all that in mind, Kreacher was fine with a little travel, His work as an EMT often involved transporting patients home across state lines.

Recently, he dropped off a patient in Cape Girardo, a city on the very eastern edge of Missouri, perched on the bank of the Mississippi River. Now he couldn't stop thinking about the spot. It was an hour away, but that didn't matter. He had no ties to the town and couldn't easily be traced back to it. It was the ideal place to find a victim. So, in August of 1976, Krecher set out for Cape Girardeau. He drove through the residential streets at a leisurely pace, getting the lay of the land.

After a while, he caught sight of 58-year-old Mary Parche, leaving a neighborhood park. Something about her fascinated Krecher. Perhaps it was the fact that she was around his mother's age, or maybe it was something else entirely. He watched Mary climb into her car and when she was her car. When she drove away, he followed. Crichter tailed his target, careful to give her just enough space that she wouldn't notice him behind her.

He could feel his heart racing in anticipation. He followed Mary back to her modest yellow frame house and looked on as she let herself in. There were no lights on and it seemed like she lived alone. As a bonus, her street was quiet and poorly lit. It was perfect. But Kreacher knew that as much as he wanted to, he couldn't attack Mary just yet. First, he needed a plan.

He thought back to what he learned in his class, to the importance of physical evidence at crime scenes, and he recalled the kernel of wisdom from his cellmate, who told him never to leave a witness. Krecher was prepared to take his time and make sure to cover his tracks. There was no rush. He knew where Mary lived now. He spent the next few days getting ready. Then on August 12th, he felt thoroughly prepared and returned to Cape Girardeau.

This time, he carried a gun in his pocket and wore a thick pair of gloves. As he stepped out of his car, he fastened a blue bandana over his face. He walked around to the back of Mary's house and picked up a rock. Holding his coat up to the window to muffle the noise, he smashed the glass clean through. Kreacher climbed inside, moving carefully to avoid cutting himself. He tiptoed through the house, listening for any hint of activity. But there was nothing. Just as he'd hoped, it was empty.

At that very moment, Mary was on her way to the airport to pick up her daughter, Brenda. The 27-year-old had flown in from St. Louis to visit her father, Floyd, who was in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. Barry had spent most of the day with Floyd already and planned to return with Brenda that night. In the morning, they were going to drive up to Alton, Illinois. for a family reunion. It had been a stressful, emotional week, and both women were exhausted, so after meeting up at the airport, they decided to make a brief stop at home before heading to the hospital. When Cracher heard a car pulling into the driveway, he peered through the window. To his surprise,

he saw two women walking towards the house. This was unexpected, but he could adapt his plan. He waited in the main bedroom, perfectly silent. as Mary and Brenda made their way into the house. They headed upstairs with Brenda's suitcase and put it in the spare bedroom where she'd be sleeping that night. As they walked back out into the hallway, Krecher ambushed them at gunpoint. He told Brenda and Mary to go to the main bedroom.

They didn't dare disobey him. Once there, Krecher bound their hands with electrical cords. He warned them that if they made any noise, he'd kill them. Then he began to second. actually assault Brenda. But after a few moments, the phone rang. It seemed the night was full of unexpected surprises for Krecher. After thinking about it for a second, he held the phone up to Brenda's ear and instructed

her to tell the caller that everything was fine. When Brenda heard her father's voice on the line, it must have taken everything she had not to cry out for help. It was getting late and he was calling to check in. Trying to sound normal, Brenda told Floyd that she was too tired. to make it to the hospital that night. She said she'd see him tomorrow morning and told him she loved him.

Krecher was on edge. He could tell from Brenda's side of the call that her dad was concerned. Even though she hadn't said anything to give him away, Krecher worried that Floyd sensed something was wrong. For all Krecher knew, he might already be calling the police. He had to wrap this up. And this time, no one would live to tell the tale.

He told Brenda and Mary. to lie on the bed side by side face down. Then he shot them both dead with a single bullet to the back of the head. Afterwards, he felt calm, perfectly in control. Moving quickly, he slipped out of the house, pulling the front door closed behind him. He checked his watch and realized he was running late. He had a party to get to. One of Kreacher's friends from the ambulance service was getting married that weekend,

So, less than an hour after murdering Mary and Brenda, Krecher attended his friend's bachelor party back in Carbondale. The following day, he was a groomsman at the wedding. A picture from that sunny Saturday shows Kreacher dressed up in a tuxedo, smiling alongside his fellow groomsman. He looks like he doesn't have a care in the world. And the truth was, he wasn't worried about the police catching up with him. And he certainly wasn't remorseful about the two women he'd just brutally executed. After leaving the Parsh House, he didn't give the killings another thought. It's often said that people with antisocial personality disorder can easily pass a polygraph test.

That's because the test relies on physiological signs of anxiety, like an increased heart rate. But these reactions don't happen if you feel no guilt. In fact, because there's no single physiological pattern that indicates deception, polygraphic evidence has been widely discredited. However, this idea can be helpful in understanding what separates people with ASPD from others. Those with ASPD are often emotionally detached and lack remorse for their actions, which adds up to a reduced capacity for guilt. It's not clear whether Krecher was ever diagnosed with ASPD, but Carbondale Police

Lieutenant Paul Eccles later led the investigation into Krecher's crimes and noted his extraordinary lack of empathy. In his lay opinion, Kreacher didn't have a functioning conscience. When viewed through this lens, it makes sense that Krecher had no qualms about attending a wedding 12 hours after committing a double murder. He acted perfectly normal, laughing and mingling and raising a toast as if it were just another day. No one at the event noticed anything out of the ordinary.

It seemed like he had a great time. And he probably did. He was on top of the world. Up next, Kreuter has almost caught red-handed. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activio yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual.

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He'd just killed his first two victims, Mary and Brenda Parish, and it had gone perfectly, so much so that it didn't even get in the way of his groomsmen duties the following day. While Kreacher was out celebrating, Floyd Parche was trying to figure out where his wife and daughter were. When he woke up in his hospital bed that Saturday morning, he assumed they were on their way to visit him. But when Brenda and Mary failed to show up, he knew that something was wrong. As the minutes ticked by, he thought back to the strange phone conversation he'd had with Brenda the previous night. She'd sounded so subdued, way beyond tired as she insisted. In fact, she almost sounded like she was reading lines from a script.

All Floyd wanted was to talk to her again. to hear her voice and make sure that she and her mother were okay. But when he called the house, there was no answer. He tried again. Still nothing. Growing increasingly worried with each unanswered call, Floyd phoned his neighbor, Ellen Vlattel, and told her what was going on. He asked her to go to the house and check on them. When she got there, Ellen was alarmed to find Mary's keys dangling in her front door.

But inside, nothing looked amiss. until she got upstairs. In the main bedroom, she discovered Mary and Brenda's lifeless bodies. Horrified, Ellen staggered downstairs to the kitchen and called the police. Officers arrived at the house within minutes, but they quickly realized they had no fingerprints or DNA to work with. Just as he'd planned, Kreutcher hadn't left any physical evidence at the scene whatsoever. All that remained were the bullets that killed the portion.

From those, the authorities determined that the murder weapon was a 38-caliber revolver, and judging from the shattered window, they knew that the person responsible had broken in, but even that information didn't get them too far. Brenda and Mary didn't have any known enemies. An investigator struggled to think of someone who could have wanted them dead. Based on the minimal evidence, the cop's best theory was that this was a burglary gone wrong. They decided that Brenda and Mary must have simply come home at the wrong time and interrupted a robber who shot them in a panic. It's not clear whether the police were aware that Brenda had also been sexually assaulted, but it isn't mentioned in any reports.

Whatever the case, the investigation ultimately went cold. It looked like Kreacher had done an expert job of covering his tracks after all. As the 32-year-old reflected on how well his plan had turned out, he also noticed. something else. Originally, killing Brenda and Mary had been a purely strategic move. He couldn't risk his victims blabbing to the cops, but as he thought back to that night, he realized how much he'd enjoyed ending their lives. It had been so easy, so natural, and the more he remembered how good it had felt, the more he wanted to do it again. He knew he should bite his time, though. It was risky to make another move so soon after an attack. So, He decided to lay low for a while.

But try as he might, self-restraint wasn't his strong suit. Although he wasn't out on the hunt, it wasn't long before someone caught his eye. Eleven-year-old Angel Ambrose lived on the east side of Carbondale with her parents and grandmother. That fall, Kreacher moved into a trailer park behind the family's home. One afternoon, when Angel was out in the backyard, he struck up a conversation with the young girl. Angel had had a rough year. Her mother, sick of her husband's abuse, had left the family. With his primary target now gone, he'd started beating Angel instead.

Isolated and terrified, Angel was desperate for a stable, supportive adult in her life, and when she first met Krecher, she believed she'd found it. He seemed gentle, avuncular, and genuinely interested in what she had to say. He was exactly the kind of person she needed. They continued to chat and after a few weeks Angel confided in Krecher about her father's physical abuse. He was sympathetic and it's likely that he responded with stories of his own difficulties with his mother and stepfather. When she was with Krecher, Angel felt like she was in a fantasy world, a safe cocoon.

He understood what she was going through and seemed poised to protect her. In reality though, Krecher was just a different kind of predator. He took advantage of Angel's trauma and spent weeks gaining her trust. He feigned empathy, despite his total lack of it. It's striking that despite not actually having any compassion, Krecher was able to mimic it so convincingly, not only to Angel, but also to his colleagues in the ambulance service. Again, Krecher was never diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder,

but he displayed several traits that suggest he might have lived with the condition, which has been researched thoroughly. In fact, some research is beginning to show that people with ASPD are capable of empathy, in the sense that they understand what others are feeling. The difference is that they'll use that information to their advantage. To quote James Fallon, a neuroscientist who has written extensively on this subject, people with ASPD can understand what you're thinking. It's just that they don't care, so they can use you against yourself.

This is precisely what Kreutcher did with Angel, but he could only keep up the guys for so long. One day he told the 11-year-old that he had a surprise for her. Then he took her into the basement of her grandmother's house and sexually assaulted her. Afterward, he said this was a special secret between the two of them. His gentle facade now completely gone. He warned her that if she told anyone, he would hurt her grandmother. Angel was shocked by Kreutcher's abrupt transformation. It's also likely that his actions re-traumatized her.

When someone who's been traumatized is confronted by a similar event, they may re-experience their reaction to the initial event. In Angel's case, she'd already been physically abused by her father, who she was terrified of. She put her trust in Krecher, and perhaps even saw him as a surrogate dad, only for him to sexually abuse her. Even without the threat to her grandmother, she would have been deeply afraid of him.

So she did as he said and didn't tell anyone about the assault. Although Angel couldn't have known Kreacher's threat was probably an empty one. It also seems unlikely that he ever considered murdering her. Given his criminal history with underage girls, he knew he would have been a prime suspect if anything happened to her. The same was true of her family. But even though Angel was off limits, Kreacher's desire to kill was as strong as ever, so that November he headed back across the

Missouri state line to his familiar hunting ground in Cape Girardo. Now that three months had passed since he'd killed Brenda and Mary, he figured the dust had settled. He could risk striking again, and on November 16th, he decided it was time. That day, Kreacher pulled into a Walmart parking lot. Before long, his eyes fell on 21-year-old Sheila Cole, who was parked next to him. Sheila was a student at Southeast Missouri State University and was killing time between classes. When Kreacher spotted her, she was distracted, putting a tape into her car stereo and getting ready to drive back to campus.

As with most of Kreutcher's victims, it's not clear why he chose Sheila. Beyond the fact they were all female, there was no clear pattern or preference, which was likely a deliberate choice meant to throw off investigators. That day, Krecher was just searching for an easy target and decided that Sheila was it. There was nobody else in the lot, and a large truck was parked on the other side of Sheila, blocking her from the view of the store. Seizing the moment, Krecher grabbed his revolver and got out of his car. Then he tapped on Sheila's window with the barrel of the gun. When she looked up, all she saw was the end of a firearm.

Krecher told her to get out of her car. Too scared to resist, Shee was. obeyed. He ordered her into his vehicle and bundled her into the passenger seat. Once she was secured in place, he locked the door behind her. He started up the engine, pulled out of the lot, and headed back towards Carbondale. When they reached his trailer, Kreacher walked Sheila inside at gunpoint. There he sexually assaulted her. Afterwards, he told Sheila that he would drive her back to the Walmart parking lot. He let her believe that her ordeal was almost over. Kreacher's plan was going smoothly, but there was a complication.

Angel was out in her backyard that evening and saw Kreacher and Sheila walking out of his trailer. She'd never noticed Kreacher bring anyone home before, and it struck her as strange. She called out to him and asked who the woman was. Kreacher said she was just a friend and explained he was giving her a ride home. Then, his eyes dark, he told Angel she needed to go inside. The little girl did as she was told. but she couldn't stop thinking about the encounter. In her gut, she knew something was wrong.

Sheila had seemed subdued, almost dazed. Angel knew firsthand just how easily Kreacher could play the role of a good guy. He knew how to put someone at ease. And after what he'd done to her, she also knew what he was capable of. She was terrified for Sheila, but was too afraid of Kreacher to risk saying anything. And even if she'd wanted to, she was only 11, and had no adults she could confide in. The reality was she couldn't do anything to stop him.

With Angel out of the way, Krecher steered Sheila into the passenger seat, started the engine, and drove. He promised her they'd be back in Cape Girardeau within the hour. But he had no intention of ever letting her go. After just a few miles, he stopped at a rest area just to cross the river in Illinois. As he and Sheena stepped out of the car, Kreacher pointed the gun at her again. This time he intended to use it. He marched her into the restroom and shot her twice in the head, killing her. He left her body inside a stall and headed

back home to Carbondale. For a while, the adrenaline high from killing was so intense that he could think of nothing else. After a few minutes, though, worry began to creep in. He'd been reckless, taking Sheila home to his trailer. He was pretty sure Angel wouldn't say anything, but he couldn't be certain. That wasn't his only concern. He'd used the same weapon to kill Sheila as he'd used on Brenda and Mary Parish, and he'd shot all three women in the back of the head, in the same town, less than three months apart. He knew the cops would be looking for patterns as they tried to establish an ammo. It wouldn't take much for them to link the murders.

Cursing to himself, Kreacher stopped on a bridge over the river and got out of his car. He pulled the gun out of his pocket and threw it into the water. The Mississippi River flows fast around Cape Girardo, and Kreacher hoped the current would whisk the murder weapon far, far away. After watching it drift downstream and out of view, he got into his car and drove home. Back at his trailer, he went straight to bed and slept soundly, knowing he'd done all he could to fix his mistake. Meanwhile, as the sun was starting to rise, a passer-by discovered Sheila's body at the restop and called the police. But just as Kreacher had suspected,

officers at the scene quickly noted the similarities between this killing and those of Brenda and Mary. The bullets that had killed Sheila were sent for ballistics analysis to see whether they came from the same gun that had been used on the parishes. But even when the report confirmed they matched, the police had no real leads. Just like at the parche scene, there was no physical evidence left behind.

and ultimately the case went cold. Throughout the police investigation, Krecher laid low, checking the news to see how things were proceeding. He waited anxiously for any hint that a suspect had been identified. While he sweated, he had plenty to keep him occupied. In addition to his EMT work, he was still attending criminal justice classes. And after his first three kills, he threw himself back into his studies with a renewed zeal. During class, Krecher began plotting his next attack, analyzing what had gone well in the past and where he needed to improve. Next time, he was determined that his plan would go off without a hitch.

Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with Part 2, where we'll explore the miscarriage of justice that saw an innocent man go down for Krecher's crimes. We'll also chronicle how the bandana boogeyman was finally brought. to justice. For more information on Timothy Kreacher, amongst the many sources we used, we found KFVS 12 Heartland News' documentary, The Two Lives of Timothy Kreacher, extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Natalie Pritzowski and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Haley Milliken, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood.

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