Murder In America - EP. 123 COLORADO - The Breckenridge Killer: Caught After 40 Years

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

In 1982, two young women were brutally murdered at random in the icy cold of Breckenridge, Colorado. And their killer escaped justice, for years... but in 2021, a break in the case would finally lead to the arrest of their killer... and it was somebody with a CRAZY story to share.  - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Life is a journey. I know this. I think we all know this. Some days feel good and other days feel absolutely overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy sometimes to feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. But the truth is, nobody has all the answers. And no journey should be taken alone.

However, having someone with you to listen, to understand, and to support. you can make all the difference. I know that I'm a huge therapy advocate I've advocated for therapy for years. And if you want to give therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great place to start. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S. BetterHelp also does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. And something that I love is if you aren't happy with your therapist match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations.

I've personally used BetterHelp in the past, and I think that if you're on the edge, if you're thinking maybe it's time to start therapy, I say just go ahead and do it. There's literally no downside because you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash MIA. That's BetterHELP.com slash MIA. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories

by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. Every time you get on an airplane and fly thousands of miles up into the sky, you can look out of your window and beneath you is a bird's eye view of earth.

There are ant-like cars, homes that look like doll houses, and bodies of water that resemble small rain puddles. When you're up that high, everything seems so small. And if you're lucky enough to get a window seat, you'll likely spend a few minutes staring down at earth, taking in everything there is to see. On the night of January 6, 1982, a man named Harold E. Bray was doing just that. His Rocky Mountain Airways flight was from Denver to San Francisco. And as the plane flew over the Colorado Mountains, he stared out the window taking in the beautiful scenery. It was a cold and snowy day, so all he could really see for miles and miles was the thick white snow beneath him.

But then suddenly, as they fly over a canyon, something catches his eye. Amongst the vast white snow were several flashes of lights. First, there were three short flashes, then three long ones, followed by another three short flashes. And as soon as he saw this, Harold E. Bray knew exactly what he was looking at. An SOS signal. Someone was in need of help. So from here, Harold immediately gets up from his seat and alerts the pilot Mike Wilcox, who then radioed the Federal Aviation Administration about the SOS. And soon enough, there are two airplanes flying over the location,

trying to locate the person in distress. Once they find him, the fire department goes out and finds 30-year-old Alan Lee Phillips. He had been traveling through a canyon in the middle of a snowstorm, and along the way his truck got stuck in a snowdrift. And luckily for him, they were able to rescue him just in time. Alan had a pretty bad injury to his face, which he said he got from hitting his head while trying to maneuver through the snow. And with negative 20-degree weather, who knows how long he would have lasted out there.

After being rescued, Alan's story was quickly picked up by the media. After all, everyone loves a good story about people escaping death. But little did anyone know. The man being rescued was not the victim in this story. Their names were Annette Schnee and Bobby Joe Oberholzer, the women he murdered just hours before being rescued. So this is the story of Alan Lee Phillips. I'm Courtney Browne.

And I'm Colin Brown. And you're listening to Murder in America. Breckenridge, Colorado is a place that many people go to get away, a place where you can escape the busyness of life and sit in the stillness of nature. There are beautiful mountains that cover the land, ski resorts, hiking. It's breathtaking, which is part of the reason 21-year-old Annette Schnee ended up there. She was born on January 16, 1960, in Sioux City, Iowa, and graduated from East High School in 1978, where she was an active member of the drill team and went on to graduate from a modeling school called Patricia Stevens, college in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1979, Annette was a vibrant young woman with long blonde hair and a very friendly smile, and she was ready to leave her hometown and follow her dreams. She moved

to Breckenridge, Colorado just one year prior to our story to pursue her career as a model. And according to everyone who knew her, Annette was kind-hearted, generous, and dedicated to her work. Her mother, Eileen Franklin, said, all I know was she loved people. She was a fun-loving person to be around. She was a wonderful person. Annette also had big dream. for her future and hoped to one day become a flight attendant. But obviously, she wasn't qualified for the job just yet. So to make ends meet while trying to break into the modeling industry, Annette worked as a maid at a holiday inn in Frisco, Colorado during the day, and a cocktail waitress at a bar called the Flipside at night. Now in early 1982, Annette started planning a trip to

Sioux City that upcoming April for her mom's birthday. It was just 10 days before her 22nd birthday when Annette was last seen alive. In the afternoon hours of January 6, 1982, Annette left her job at Holiday Inn because she wasn't feeling well. So she went to the doctor and afterwards, she stopped by a pharmacy called the Drugstore in Breckenridge. She would pick up her prescription around 4 p.m. And while there, she was seen having a conversation with an unknown dark-haired woman.

Someone in the store overheard Annette reminding the dark-haired woman to purchase her Marlborough cigarettes. The witness would later describe the woman as being 5'4 with a slender build. They also noticed that she looked a little dishevelled, almost like she had been camping the last few days. Now, to this day, police have never been able to identify the woman Annette was speaking to. But at around 4.30 p.m., Annette would leave the pharmacy and decided to hitchhike back to her house in Blue River. She had to get ready for her waitress job at the flip side, where her shifts started at 8 p.m.

Now, in the 1980s, hitchhiking was very common. Of course, now we know that that's how many serial killers found their victims in the past. But back in the 80s, it was normal. Especially when you didn't have a car, hitchhiking was a much better option than walking in the cold. So that afternoon, Annette stood on the side of the road and eventually a man pulled over and rolled down his window. Hey, uh, you need a ride?

Yeah, I'm just heading over to Blue River back to my house. Well, shit, that isn't too far of a ride. And it's too cold for you to be sitting out there just hoping that someone will pick you up. Hop on in, I'll take you there. As Annette hopped into the pickup, she was immediately relieved. It was negative 20 degrees, not your ideal weather for walking outside. But luckily for her, this kind Samaritan had the heat turned up in his truck, and he was going to get her home in time to make her shift.

Or so she thought, as he continued down the road, Annette slowly began to realize that they weren't driving the same route she usually took back to her house. Something just wasn't right. And as they continued down the road, that bad feeling inside continued to grow. It's unknown if Annette confronted the driver. But soon enough, her worst fears would come true. As the driver took a sharp turn down a dead-in road about 20 miles south of Breckenridge, Annette's heart started pounding.

We aren't sure if she was forced to remove her own clothing, or if they were forcibly removed. But once the truck came to a stop at the end of the desolate road, she was sexually assaulted. Afterwards, the man ordered her to put her clothes back on. But as she was putting on her orange sock, she couldn't seem to find the other one. So instead, she quickly put her boot on without the sock,

and once she was fully clothed, she opened up the door and made a run for it. Annette ran as fast as she could, with the cold air burning her throat. She likely even screamed, hoping someone in the area would help her, but soon enough her attacker would emerge from his vehicle. And from here, he would raise up his gun and pull the trigger. As Annette was running, she suddenly felt a lot of pressure in her back. And then she dropped to the cold ground.

Not long after, 21-year-old Annette Schnee would succumb to her injuries. The investigators who worked her disappearance would later realize that Annette's cocktail waitress uniform was still in her bedroom after she went missing. And from that, they were able to determine that Annette had never made it home from the drugstore after she hitchhiked.

Annette's mother, Eileen, was devastated to hear about her daughter's disappearance. That previous Christmas, she had sent Annette a pair of orange socks that represented Annette's alma mater at East High School in Sioux City, Iowa. In the weeks before her disappearance, she had also called her daughter, but wasn't able to get through due to the Colorado snowstorm that had taken out the phone lines. Eileen would later say she was overcome by a strange feeling after trying to reach her daughter that day, a dark and ominous feeling that she just couldn't shake, a mother's intuition, perhaps.

Then, just a few weeks later, on January 10, 1982, authorities from Colorado would call her to inform her of her daughter's disappearance. They asked Eileen if she knew anyone who could have taken Annette, but Eileen told them that she had no idea. A few days later, she arrived at Annette's home in Blue River to retrieve her belongings, and everything was in place and very organized. In the first few weeks after her disappearance, Eileen and Annette's siblings walked the desolate roads in Summit and Park counties in search of clues, but unfortunately, every time they came up empty-handed. For the next six months, no one heard from Annette. And then on July 3rd,

In 1982, a boy fishing in a nearby Sacramento Creek noticed the body of a young woman sticking out of knee-deep water with her upper half resting on a bank near a willow tree. Following this discovery, he immediately ran and told his parents who called the police. And once they arrived, they were able to identify her pretty quickly, even though Annette had been dead for nearly six months. Her body was very well preserved due to the cold weather. From here, she was taken to the coroner's office for an autopsy, and they quickly discovered that she had been shot in the back. This was not a tragic accident like they initially thought. This was a murder.

At the time, police believed that the gun used to murder Annette was likely a 38 or a 357 caliber weapon, and they concluded this because of the entry and exit wound, but the actual bullet was never found. Detectives also concluded that whoever killed her likely knew the area pretty well. Her body had been found close to a shooting range. This meant that if anyone in the area heard a gunshot

on the night of her murder, it wouldn't have raised any red flags. Now Annette's body was also found fully clothed, But after further inspection, they did find that her clothing was in disarray, which led investigators to believe that she had been sexually assaulted. The zipper on Annette's jeans was broken. Her shoes were on the wrong feet. And more importantly, she only had on one single orange sock. The reason this immediately stood out to investigators is because they had seen this exact orange sock before.

at another crime scene. In fact, on January 7, 1982, the very day after Annette disappeared, police found the body of another young woman named Bobby Joe Oberholzer. She had been found lying off the road in a snowbank on Hoosier Pass, nearly 10 miles away from Breckenridge, Colorado.

And lying near her body was Annette's missing orange sock. Bobby Joe Oberholzer was born on Christmas, December 25th, 1952 in Racine, Wisconsin. She had a normal loving childhood. Her sister told 48 hours, Bobby Joe was free-spirited, she loved life, she was happy wherever she was. And in the late 1970s, Bobby Joe would meet the love of her life, a man named Jeff Oberholzer. Jeff said he fell head over heels for Bobby Joe. They dated a couple years, and then in 1977 they tied the nod and got married.

And shortly after, they packed up their belongings. said goodbye to their families and moved across the country to Alma, Colorado. To everyone in Alma who knew the couple, Jeff and Bobby Joe seemed to have a wonderful marriage and were always extremely happy and sweet to those who met them. In a later interview, Jeff said that on New Year's Day in 1982, just a few years into their Grand Colorado adventure, Bobby had sat him down and told him that she was ready to try for a baby. You see, although Bobby already had an 11-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, She wanted she and Jeff to have one of their own.

So Jeff agreed that it was a great idea, and they decided to start trying. At the beginning of the year 1982, things seemed to be going better than ever for the young couple. Bobby had recently been promoted from a receptionist to an office manager for a company she worked for in Breckenridge, and Jeff now owned his own business repairing electric appliances. Bobby was also known as a meticulous planner and often carried around a notebook filled with elaborate plans, plans in a budget for a horse corral that she and Jeff had planned on adding to their property in Alma. But that would never happen. The morning of January 6, 1982, started out like any normal day for the couple.

And on that day, Bobby Joe woke up early and left the couple's home at 7.15 a.m. to hitchhike to work. To everyone who knew her, Bobby was a free spirit who often got around town by hitchhiking. It was just what she did. According to Sergeant Wendy Kippel of the Park County Sheriff's Office, hitchhiking was quite common at the time. and still is today due to the popular ski area nearby. The presence of this skiing area had attracted wealthy tourists to the small town and caused the cost of living to rise. And so, many residents, son to this day,

had been left struggling to keep up with the rising costs and simply couldn't afford to purchase a car of their own. Now, at the time of our story, Bobby Joe had just gotten a promotion at her job. So at around 6.20 p.m., she calls her husband Jeff to let him know that she was going to the village pub with a few friends to celebrate her promotion. So Jeff asked if she would need a ride home that night, but she said no because she already had a ride lined up. And from here, Jeff decided to take a

quick nap while he waited for his wife to come back home. But when he awoke at midnight, Bobby Joe was still gone. And right then, he knew something wasn't right. The night of Wednesday, January 6th, 1982 was one of the coldest nights that winter and temperatures dipping as low as negative 20 degrees. Jeff waited anxiously by the phone until 2 a.m. By then, all of the bars in the city were closed, and Bobby Joe should have been home by then. So in the dead of night, Jeff decided to go out and look for her himself. Jeff hopped into his vehicle and drove into Breckenridge towards the village pub. Once there, he spoke to a few of the friends that she had been out with that night, but they all told Jeff that Bobby had actually left the bar at around 7.50 p.m. over five hours earlier.

Her friends said that they had all assumed that Bobby had found a ride home. But according to some other people, she had actually decided to hitchhike that evening and was last seen outside of a mini-mark, about 100 yards away from the entrance of the village pub. Hearing this, Jeff grew gravely concerned, and he quickly drove over to the Breckenridge police station to file a missing person's report. But surprise, surprise, they advised him that it was too soon to file something and that he would have to wait 24 hours. And from here, Jeff had no other choice but to go home and pray that his wife would eventually make her way back. The next morning at around 7.45 a.m., Jeff awoke to the sound of a ringing phone. On the other end of the line was a local rancher who lived about 30 miles

outside of Breckenridge. And the rancher told Jeff that he had found Bobby's driver's license on his property. So hearing this, Jeff and his two friends quickly get into his car and drive out to retrieve her license. And along the drive,

he kept his eyes peeled for any signs of his wife. The group would drive past a big open field and up in the distance, Jeff spots something blue sticking out of the snow. So they quickly pull over to see what it is, and as soon as he grabs it, his heart drops. It was Bobby's blue backpack

that she would carry every day to work. And even worse, was that next to the backpack was one of Bobby's wool gloves, spattered with what appeared to be blood. And next to that were a few bloody tissues. Jeff still wasn't sure what happened to his wife, but he would later say, I knew something was horribly wrong. Immediately, they called in all their friends and family members, and before long, a group of people were combing through the snow banks of Hoosier Pass, an area in Breckenridge in Alma. The same route Bobby took to and from work. Using cross-country skis to help navigate through the deep snow, they slowly covered the area foot by foot, searching for any clues as to where Bobby may have gone. And two hours later, about 15 miles away from where her backpack was found, they would make

a gruesome discovery. There, lodged in a snow embankment, was the last one of the last one of the lifeless, frozen body of Bobby Joe Oberholz. She was located about 10 miles south of Breckenridge, near the summit of Hoosier Pass, 20 feet below the southbound lane of Highway 9. As police got to the crime scene, they noticed that the only footprints in the snow belonged to Bobby, which was strange. Her body was frozen due to the frigid temperatures, and there was a zip tie around her left wrist. The evidence seemed to indicate that she had fought her attacker inside of a parked car

and then eventually escaped down a steep embankment. According to Charlie McCormick, a member of the Homicide Task Force, quote, it appears she popped him in the nose. But as Bobby Joe tried to escape, her attacker fired off a Winchester Hollow Point copper bullet that immediately pierced her right breast. He then shot her again. and that bullet lodged into her chest from the back. The crime scene evidence indicated that she had hesitated and staggered backwards before she fell to the ground. Sadly, it also appeared that Bobby hadn't been killed immediately before succumbing to her bullet wounds. There was evidence that she had tried to claw and climb her way out of the snowbank.

Charlie McCormick said, quote, She collapsed on her back and froze or bled to death. It's difficult to tell, end quote. And like we mentioned earlier, investigators also located a single orange sock next to her body, and it didn't appear to belong to Bobby. Police were puzzled at the finding. Keep in mind, they hadn't yet found Annette Schnee's body, so they had no idea where the sock came from.

Agent Jim Hardkey, an agent with a friend. the Colorado Bureau of Investigation told 48 hours, quote, it didn't belong, it didn't fit anything connected to Bobby Joe. It was just one of those mysterious things you pick up at a crime scene, end quote. Also found at the top of the embankment was a large brass hook key ring that was made by Bobby's husband, Jeff. He had given it to her to use for self-defense just in case she ever needed it. But the brass hook was no match.

when Bobby came face to face with a man with an overwhelming desire to kill. Now on January 8, 1982, one day after Bobby's body was discovered, a coworker of Annette Schnee reported her missing, and although her body wouldn't be found for another six months, police believed that the two murders were connected. For one, both Annette and Bobby Joe looked very similar. Both were attractive blondes, and they both frequently hitchhiked in the same area. Investigators also determined that they had been killed within hours of each other.

So seeing the connection between these cases, local authorities knew that they had a monster on their hands. They urged women in the area to stop hitchhiking, and for the first time, everyone that lived there, especially women, were scared to be alone. The first person of interest that authorities looked into was Bobby's husband, Jeff. As we know, they always look into the husband. And two months after Bobby's body was found, Jeff was brought into the police station for a polygraph test. Ultimately, he passed the test and established an alibi for the night of Bobby's murder.

According to Jeff's story, a male friend had stopped by his house for a visit that evening. But when the police went to question Jeff's friend and validate his alibi, the friend was nowhere to be found, which they found to be suspicious. But something that raised even more red flags was when Annette Schnee's body was found on July 3rd, 1982. And they also found her backpack nearby. And inside of her backpack, they found a business card bearing the name Jeff Oberholzer. Bobby Joe's husband. Was it a coincidence that Jeff was married to one of the victims and had given his business card to the other?

Agent Jim Hardkey said, When I first asked Jeff if he knew Annette Schnee, he denied it. It was several days later, after seeing her picture in the newspaper, that he came to me and said he did know Annette and he gave her a business card. Now Jeff also claimed that he had picked up Annette one day while she was out hitchhiking, and that's how she ended up with his business card. He said that due to him starting his own business in the area, he gave his business cards to everyone he came across as a sort of grassroots marketing strategy,

and he adamantly denied killing her or even speaking to Annette after that interaction. But as you can tell, investigators were clearly very suspicious of him. Hart County Sheriff Robert Harrison believed that Jeff, knowing the two victims was no coincidence, saying the fact that two victims would both be associated or known by one individual. Well, it makes the investigation tend to focus on Jeff Oberholzer as the primary suspect. And sadly, after this, the case went cold, and no one had any idea who killed Annette Schnee and Bobby Joe Oberholzer. There were still flyers all over town that read, Who Murdered These Girls? Now, nearly nine years.

years later in December of 1990, police were finally able to identify and speak with Jeff's alibi, the man who Jeff claimed was at his house on the day of the murders. His recollection of the events that night didn't quite match up with the details that Jeff had given. And as a result, the authorities could not determine if Jeff had actually been with him on the night of the murders. But keep in mind, this is nine years after it happened. I might not be very accurate either, but Jeff continued to maintain his innocence from day one. And in an interview with unsolved mysteries, he said, quote, As far as the finger being pointed at me, I'm still very, very angry about that.

If different agencies had pursued different avenues and not concentrated so much on trying to find me guilty, we may have found who did this to these girls. The behavioral science unit of the FBI wrote a psychological profile of the suspect, saying, quote, The killer isn't sure he committed the crime because it appears as a dream to him. It is believed that this suspect does not feel good about what he has done. Although the suspect carries this heavy emotional burden, investigators know he'll feel very relieved when he admits to the crime. End quote.

The FBI also released similarities between the two women, which were quite shocking. Both were around 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 100 pounds. Both women got around by hitchhiking to and from the Breckenridge area, both had long blonde hair, were fully clothed when found, and both had suffered from gunshot wounds to the back. It was clear that both of these women had been murdered by the same. same man and that their killer had a type. Investigators also looked at a few other suspects, including a cab driver named Thomas Edward

Luther. According to a report, Thomas had been arrested for raping and beating up a female hitchhiker in Breckenridge in February 1982 at around the exact same time of the murders. In addition, Thomas's girlfriend at the time told police that Thomas never came home on the night of the murders, and it was also determined that he had lied to police about his whereabouts on the night in question. and apparently, while he had been in jail for the assault of the female hitchhiker, he had bragged about being responsible for the murders of Bobby and Annette. Another man named Tracy Petruchelli, who had murdered his fiancé in 1981 in Seattle, Washington, and had then set out on a multi-state killing spree,

was found to have stayed at the same holiday inn in Frisco where Annette worked during his killing spree. According to reports, Tracy would pick up male hitchhikers and use them as accomplices during his spree. Another interesting tip was received by Summit County Sheriff's Investigator Tom Flores in 1983 that indicated that serial killer Henry Lee Lucas had confessed to murdering multiple women in Colorado in 1982. But even though this seemed like a solid lead, Henry Lee Lucas was later convicted of a murder in Texas and would eventually recant the statements he made about committing other murders in other states. But even though all of these tips seemed like they could have led somewhere, they never did. In the meantime, though, grasping for straws, the authorities later,

hard on Thomas Luther, the cab driver who had allegedly confessed to the killings. While in custody, Thomas was given two lie detector tests that he ultimately failed. According to Charlie McCormick, we were sure it was Luther, but there wasn't enough evidence to take the case to trial. No physical evidence tied him to the murder scenes, and when investigators interviewed him, he denied involvement. Interestingly enough, though, about a decade later in 1993, Thomas Edward Luther was indeed charged with the murder of a woman, a woman named Cher Elder. According to the police, Thomas had shot her in the head and dumped her body in a snowbank. He had also cut off her ring finger and her lips because, according to Thomas, she was going

to expose his legal sports card ring. After being charged with this murder, he was also charged with the rape of a 30-year-old woman in West Virginia. In his trial, the prosecutor stated that Thomas attacked women who looked like his mother, who had abused him when he was a child. Now, after learning all of this, investigators Charlie McCormick and Richard Eaton, who were still working the double homicide in Breckenridge, boarded a plane and flew to Charleston, West Virginia. They went there to interview Thomas, who at the time was serving time in prison for

rape. However, when they asked him about the murders of Annette and Bobby Joe that he admitted to committing years prior, Thomas told them, quote, those aren't my girls, which is a statement that Charlie said he would never forget. And at this point, the authorities were still at a dead end. They barely had any evidence and all of the suspect leads were running dry. The only real piece of evidence they had was that DNA found on Bobby Joe's wool glove and on the tissues that were found near her backpack. But back at this time, we were not nearly as advanced in DNA and there was nothing really they could do with it. It wouldn't be until 1998, over 16 years after the murders, when investigators were finally able to test the DNA for a potential match.

After they tested it, it was determined that the DNA belonged to an unidentified male subject. But when they searched the criminal database, there were no matches. The results, however, did clear Bobby Joe's husband, Jeff. It wasn't a match to him. And finally, he could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that all the eyes weren't on him. After collecting some samples, cab driver and killer Thomas Edward Luther was also ruled out as a potential suspect. Tracy Petruchelli, the spree killer who had murdered his fiance in Seattle, was also ruled out as a suspect as the DNA evidence didn't match. So following this, the trail once again went cold. It has now been over two decades since the murders of Annette and Bobby Joe.

and Bobby's husband Jeff spent the entire time committed to finding the man who had murdered his wife and Annette Schnee. In 2006, willing to try anything, Jeff and investigators turned to two psychic mediums who they believed could possibly help solve the mystery as to what happened. Their findings were recorded for a television program called Sensing Murder and featured lead psychics Pam Coronado and Lori Campbell. The two women reviewed evidence and they weren't able to come up with much, but they didn't have something, a description of the killer's car. The psychics told Jeff that they believed the killer drove a Ford Ranchero-style vehicle. Now, obviously, there is some skepticism with psychics so they weren't completely convinced. But at least they had something new. Following this, investigators started looking for people in the area who owned similar cars in the early 1980s.

But sadly, this didn't give them any answers. Now, over the years, there had been many investigators that had eyes on this case. one being a private investigator named Charlie McCormick. Charlie was actually a retired homicide detective at the time, and he figured his time working murder cases were over. But in 1988, Detective Richard Eaton approached him and placed two huge three-ring binders on his desk. They were the case files of Annette and Bobby Joe's murder.

And after looking through all of the evidence, Charlie decided to come out of retirement and dedicate his life to figuring out what happened to them. He would later say, quote, It just kind of lit my fire and I've been on it ever since. End quote. Annette Schnee's family even tried to hire him, but he only charged them $1 for every year he worked the case. However, Charlie had no idea that Annette and Bobby Joe's case would go unsolved for nearly four days.

decades. He worked hard to try and bring their family's answers, but there was only so much he could do with the evidence he had. In decade after decade, everyone was beginning to think that this case might not ever get solved. At the turn of the century, murder cases around the world were getting solved with advancements and DNA testing. So in a last-ditch effort, Charlie reached out to a former prosecutor named Mitch Morrissey, who is the co-founder of a forensic genealogy company called United Data Collect. He sent all of the evidence in Annette and Bobby Joe's murder cases, and Mitch said he was, quote, struck by the photos of these women lying in the snow after being shot in the darkness, by themselves, dying, basically freezing to death, end quote.

Now, as a little background on Mitch's company, it essentially runs DNA profiles through all of the publicly available genealogical databases to help catch murderers and rapists. And the suspect's own DNA doesn't even have to be in the database to catch them. They could even have a distant relative that sent in their DNA to, let's say, ancestry.com. And through that familial DNA, they can narrow down their suspect. So in 2020, the DNA from Bobby Joe's crime scene was retested. They ran it through the databases. And what do you know? They found a family tree of about 12,000 people who potentially matched the DNA profile

of Bobby's killer. Now, that is still a lot of people to go through, but this is the closest they've gotten in nearly 40 years. So from here, they started contacting people within this family tree. and on January 9th, 2021, they finally got a potential match. Well, two matches. The killer's DNA was either from 69-year-old Alan Lee Phillips or his older brother, Bruce.

And now all they had to do was figure out which brother was responsible. An investigator in this case named Wendy Kippel ended up calling Bruce, and he told her that he is estranged from his brother, Alan and that he never lived in Colorado, so it was pretty clear that he was not their suspect. And now they start looking into Allen. And as it turns out, Alan had a pretty violent past. When looking into Alan Lee Phillips, Wendy found a case file from 1973, about 10 years before the murders of Annette and Bobby Joe. And in it was a signed confession from Alan Lee Phillips admitting to an assault. The confession read, this afternoon while driving home to

fairplay from Breckenridge. I saw a girl hitchhiking on the south edge of Breckenridge. I gave the girl a ride. She said she was going to, blank. I told her I would take her to fairplay. We talked about her old job at the blank and my present job at the London mine. Little was also said until we got to Alma. I stopped once to zip up my window as it was getting chilly, then went on at the north entrance to Valley of the Sun. I suddenly said I had to drop off a toolbox and did she want out? She said no, she would keep the ride. The toolbox was actually my own. I stopped in an empty cabin, said no one was home, and took the tools out of the Jeep. I then turned and pulled the girl from the Jeep, throwing her to her knees.

She fought, and I began to hit her with my hands. She ran behind the Jeep, or I threw her down again. She began to scream. I knew there were people living in the area, and I panicked. I picked up a rock, and I hit her several times. When I realized that she was hurt and bleeding, I pulled her back beside the Jeep, took a hammer from the toolbox, and led her to the cabin. I took the girl inside where I started to clean her head.

I tried to explain that I did not know why I heard her. We left the cabin and drove back to the highway. I offered to drive her home. She said she wanted me to take her home. When we got to Fairplay at the intersection of 285 and Highway 9, she suddenly said she wanted out here. I let her out at the intersection and drove home. I took a bath and showered, and then the marshal came to my house.

I was so upset over what I did, and my wife told him I was not home. After I calmed down and explained to my wife what had happened, I sent her out to find the marshal again. When she found him and came home, I called him on the phone. After talking for a few minutes, I met him at his friend's house and wrote this statement. Then went to the hospital to see the doctor and let the girl identify me. She could not see me then because of medication. I will say I had not been drinking at all or had I been using any form of drugs, signed Alan Phillips.

In this case is eerily similar to the stories of Annette and Bobby Joe. I mean, he picked up a girl hitchhiking, stopped at an isolated cabin. forced her out of the vehicle and then assaulted her. But luckily that woman made it out alive. And armed with this information, everyone was sure that Alan Lee Phillips was indeed responsible for their murders. And now they just needed solid proof. So for two full months,

investigators carefully watched him from afar. By now, he was living in Dumont, Colorado, a town less than 20 miles from where the bodies were discovered, almost 40 years earlier. At the time, he was working as an auto mechanic. He had also been married three times throughout his life, with two step-sons and one daughter of his own. Throughout their surveillance of Allen, investigators tried their best to get trash from him

that would have his DNA on it, like cups or the crust of a pizza. but as simple as it sounds, it wasn't easy. According to Wendy Kibble, Alan never threw anything away, including his own trash that he kept inside of his house. In fact, it was baffling to them because they actually had no idea where he even put his garbage.

It practically vanished into thin air, which is interesting because with all of these killers getting caught through DNA these days, He was probably very nervous that one day his crimes would catch up to him, so he never left his trash out on the street. Investigators also said that Alan barely even left his house. But in late January of 2021, after five weeks of surveillance, Alan would drive to a local Sonic drive-in to grab some lunch.

And once he was finished, he drove to a post office near his house and discarded his trash. This must have been how he got rid of everything, driving to other trash cans and the area. Alan thought he was being smart. But once he left that post office parking lot, investigators quickly retrieved his trash, and they found a napkin inside with his saliva on it.

The napkin was immediately sent in for testing, and once they got the results back, they found that he was a perfect match for the DNA, found at Bobby Joe's crime scene. So finally, after 40 years, they had found their killer. On February 24, 2021, Alan Lee Phillips pulled up to a traffic stop near his home in Dumont, when officers surrounded his vehicle and placed him under arrest on two counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and assault. And as they placed the handcuffs on his wrist, he acted shocked and immediately denied any involvement in the murders. When Bobby Joe's husband, Jeff Oberholzer,

found out about the arrest. He was elated. For the past 40 years, he had prayed every single day that they would find Bobby's killer, and that his arrest would, finally, after all these decades, bring closure and peace to this hideous nightmare. Nearly 40 years after the murders of two women near Breckinridge, investigators make an arrest in this cold case. Here are the investigators at the press conference following his arrest. These two vibrant women with their lives ahead of them were last seen outside of Breckonridge in January of 1982. While they were not together at the time of their disappearance, they are forever connected through the suspect who allegedly took their lives and through the exhaustive work by investigators who never

faded in their determination to solve these cases. Before I announce the rest, I want to focus on the most important part of this case, and that is Bobby Joe and Annette and their families. I cannot begin to understand the pain and sufferings their families have had to face for nearly four decades. With each year that has passed, they have remained vigilant in their unwavering commitment to seek justice for Bobby Joe and Annette. I'm here to tell them that their journey, their journey for justice, has a much clearer path. While the families did not want to speak today, understandably so, I have statements I like to read on their behalf. I pray that the rest of Alan Phillips for the murder of my wife, Bobby Joe and Annette Schnee, will finally, after all these decades,

bring closure and peace to this hideous, hideous nightmare for myself, along with all the lives he has horribly affected by his actions. I cannot thank enough all who never gave up the search for the truth. They are, without doubt, extremely dedicated and extraordinary individuals. Phillips is finally in the hands of the judicial system. May justice be served. This is from Jeff, better known as Obie, Oberholzer, the husband for Bobby Joe. And here's Mitch Morrissey with United Data Collect,

who worked with Charlie McCormick to get this case solved. And the real reason we wanted to work on this. case is that if you read the facts of this case and you think about these two young beautiful women that you've seen pictures of lying in the snow after being shot in the darkness by themselves dying basically freezing to death it would make you not give up like Charlie didn't and it'd make you want to answer the question of who would do such a horrible thing to somebody. So it's been our honor at United Data Connect to be part of this case. I know it's got a long way to go.

The whole court proceedings have to take place. But we're glad that we are part of getting us to where we are today. Thank you. And believe it or not, in 2005, an anonymous caller actually left. left a tip with crime stoppers that mentioned Alan's connection to the murders. The tip was investigated, but it couldn't be verified, so nothing happened with it. But now he would finally face the consequences. And that Schnee's mother, Eileen Franklin, now 88 years old, said,

I just thought before I leave this earth, I would like to see some closure. It's been a rough 40 years. And I'm just so thankful that she was able to get that closure while she was here, because there are so many families out there that never get answers. And I think everyone in this case kind of came to the conclusion that they never would. In fact, one of Annette's sisters, Karen Reeson, said, Truthfully, I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime. But now, Annette and Bobby Joe were finally going to get the justice they deserved.

During Alan Lee Phillips' preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented a key piece of evidence that linked the two murders, that one orange sock. It's believed that when Annette was kidnapped, her sock was left on the floorboard of Allen's vehicle. And then hours later, when Bobby Joe was kidnapped and she got out of the car, she accidentally knocked the sock onto the ground. and thank God she did, because that is the reason they were able to connect the two murders. Through DNA testing, they determined that Annette's DNA had been found inside of the sock,

and Bobby's DNA had been found on the outside of the sock. And that was a huge piece of evidence in connecting the murders. Prosecutors also presented evidence on how each woman had died. Bobby had fought her attacker and broken free, leaving one single zip tie on her left wrist, and had then been shot in the chest while she tried to escape, eventually collapsing into a snowbank and dying from her wound. Similarly, Annette had been found a few miles away in a creek with a single gunshot wound to her back. And in a strange twist of fate, the lead investigator on the case at the Park County Sheriff's Department

brought up a long forgotten story about the night of the murders. As it turns out, first responders encountered Alan Lee Phillips on the night of January 6, 1982, when his truck got stuck in a snowdrift at the top of Gwinella Pass. At the time, Alan claimed he was on his way home, driving through a nasty snowstorm, when he suddenly got trapped in the snow, thinking quickly and trying not to panic. Alan got out of his truck and decided to walk to the nearby Geneva Basin ski area.

He said he trekked nearly 600 feet before he decided it was too dangerous to continue. So he turned back and retreated to his truck. As a lifelong resident of the area, Alan was equipped with an emergency blanket and warm clothing, but without tire chains, he knew he would never be able to make it out of the drift. So that's when he decided to signal the SOS to the airplane flying overhead.

In an article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch that was written after the rescue, Alan said, You find out how lonely it is really quick. I thought about walking to a search. ski area nearby and went about 200 yards and thought, no way, it was too cold. When first responders finally arrived to help him, he appeared to be visibly intoxicated. He also had a large cut on the side of his face. But other than that, he looked to be in near-perfect health.

Authorities questioned him as to why he had tried to drive through the dangerous Guinella Pass at night, when he knew the area was extremely dangerous in the winter. Then he told them that he had been heavily intoxicated and was just trying to get home. When asked about the cut, Alan said that when he got out of his truck to your A large drift of snow had hit him in the head, a blow which caused him to trip and smash the side of his face on the corner of his truck. First responders weren't sure what to make of Allen's story and dismissed his confusing answers due to his intoxication. At the time, the story of his rescue quickly spread around the Breckenridge area, and people were calling him the luckiest man alive. One newspaper reported on the incident titled Embarrassed but Safe.

The article read, quote, The ordeal is over now, and Al Phillips is a little embarrassed, but at 9 p.m. Wednesday, January 6th, the 30-year-old Henderson Minor was anything but embarrassed. He was cold. He was also thankful for two passing airplanes. Many people in Breckenridge read this story, and everyone agreed that if he wouldn't have been helped,

Alan Phillips likely would have died out there, in that snowstorm. As it turns out, Alan wasn't inebriated that night. His behavior was abnormal because he had just got stuck in a snowstorm, just as he was trying to flee his crime scene that he had left behind, which is eerie to think about. Clear Creek County investigators were saving the man who they would be looking for for the next 40 years, and he was right there all along. The first responder that saved him that night told 48 hours, quote, If I would have known then what I know now, I probably would have left him, end quote. At his preliminary hearings, DNA evidence was also presented, which directly tied him to Bobby

Joe's murder. However, the judge said that his involvement in Annette's murder seemed more tenuous based on circumstantial evidence. Allen's public defender, Daniel Zettler, argued that the orange sock that tied the two murders together seemed like an inconclusive piece of evidence. due to where the stock was found and how it disappeared while in police custody for nearly nine years. And the Clear Creek County investigators admitted that there was some contamination of evidence, but at the end of the day, it was Allen Bloods on Bobby Joe's glove and the tissue.

The glove proved that it was a one in 17 quadrillion chance that it was Allen, which is pretty indisputable. The defense also argued that Allen's DNA was not found on Bobby's body, nor was it found in the general vicinity of the crime scene. Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA analyst Yvonne Woods also argued in Allen's defense, suggesting that the DNA collected from Bobby's clothing couldn't conclusively be determined as belonging to her. Now throughout the trial, public defender Daniel Zettler did everything he could to try and cast the blame on Bobby's husband, Jeff, because his business card had been found in a net Schnee's backpack at the crime scene.

Jeff had to take the stand at trial and the defense absolutely tore into him, which is horrible because he too was a victim in the story. and had already lived through decades of accusations. The defense also tried to claim that Jeff had a motive to kill his wife because a few days before her murder, she had brought home cold pizza for dinner, which allegedly had sent Jeff into a rage, which is ludicrous. In a later interview, Wendy Kippel said, I kind of found that little bit ludicrous.

I couldn't fathom Jeff killing Bobby Joe over a piece of cold pizza. And until the very end, Alan and his attorneys did everything in their power to try and convince the jury that he was being accused of a crime he did not commit. He maintains his innocence, and he maintains that the wrong man is being sentenced. Daniel Zettler also argued that Alan wouldn't have had enough time to commit the two murders and then get his truck stuck at the Guanola Pass. However, Judge Stephen Groom cited with the prosecution and determined that the two murders were linked due to the location and manner of death.

He also denied the defense attorney's request to release Alan on bond. and before the trial he was held in jail on first-degree murder charges. Allen's trial would begin on August 29, 2022, in Park County District Court, and on September 15, 2022, to determine that Alan Lee Phillips was guilty on all counts. Two first-degree murder charges for each victim, two counts of felony murder, and two counts of second-degree kidnapping. District Attorney Linda Stanley said, quote, Bobby Joe was a fighter and is a hero. She fought back. And because of that, we were able to get DNA evidence to convict Annette and Bobby Joe's killer after all this time.

The conviction also brought closure and justice to the surviving family members, her daughter, who was 11 years old at the time of the murder, and Annette's mother and two sisters, all of whom were beginning to think that their loved one would never get the justice they deserve. Deputy D.A. Stephanie Miller said, quote, this is not only closure for Jeff Oberholzer, Bobby Joe's husband, to know what happened to his wife, but also a relief for him to have his name cleared after being named the main suspect for so long.

End quote. In early November 2022, Alan Lee Phillips was sentenced to two concessions. life sentences for the murders of Annette Schnee and Bobby Joe Oberholzer. During Alan's sentencing and throughout the entire trial, he showed absolutely no emotion, no signs of remorse for what he did. The prosecutor's read statements from the victim's family members, including a statement from Jeff Oberholzer who said, Alan Lee Phillips is a despicable and evil being. I pray that the lives he has so terribly

affected can find their own personal solace enclosure. The prosecutor also read a statement from Annette's mother, Eileen. On that night, Alan Lee Phillips took my precious gift from God away from me. He shot her in the back as she was running away from him, and he left her in the cold snow on a remote, dark road alone, afraid and bleeding to death. He went on to say,

Annette was so beautiful, so loving, and everybody loved being around her. I miss my daughter. I was never able to see her grow into a woman, start a career, or have a family. But I can finally be at peace knowing that the man who took all that away will be going away to a place he deserves to be. I'm 89 years old and I've waited 40 years for this day to come. Deputy District Attorney Mark Holber said that this case is a great

example of why investigators never give up, even if the case has gone cold, saying, quote, this absolutely gives hope to people. This case being so old, this shows that there's no case that can't be solved. End quote. Now, Alan Leaf, Phillips declined to speak to the court during his trial and sentencing. However, his daughter, Andrea Shelton, addressed the court to speak for her father. She expressed sympathy for the victims and their families, but said that her father deserved forgiveness and redemption for his crimes. Growing up, she said she knew him to be a good man and a good father, saying that he taught her honesty and ethics. She said, quote, he is a good man and I thought someone should say something, end quote.

Now, to me, he doesn't deserve redemption. He got to live the majority of his life a free man. He got to have kids get married, grow old. While Annette and Bobby Joe were selfishly taken from this world, forever frozen in age. Where was their mercy? Bobby's daughter, Jackie, also read her impact statement to the court during the sentencing phase of Allen's trial. Although she was only 11 years old and living with her father during the time of the murder, she said that she had always maintained a close relationship with

her mother. She said that her mother's death had caused her to battle anxiety and depression throughout most of her childhood, an affliction that she nicknamed the monster. She claimed that she would often break down in tears and that other children didn't know how to interact with her because of it. Her emotional outbursts caused her to feel like a loner and an outcast. She also stated that many friends and family members thought she looked like her mother, which at times caused them to become sad when they talked to her. And ultimately, she began to believe that she was causing people to be unhappy, simply by being alive. Today, Jackie has a daughter of her own, which gives her life a whole new perspective. She said that she can often see her mom through her daughter's eyes and has

learned how to handle her own emotions. Following the sentencing, Annette Schnee's family went to where Bobby Joe's body was found, and they went there to pay their respects. Without her, Annette's case may have never been solved, but Bobby Joe fought back. And whether it was on purpose or not, she knocked Annette's sock out of Allen's vehicle, and because of that, both of their cases were solved. After paying their respects to Bobby Joe, they went to Annette's grave to let her know that her killer was finally caught. But sadly, our case. story doesn't end there. On February 27, 23, just six months after his conviction, Alan Lee Phillips died at the Arkansas Correctional Facility where he was serving his two

consecutive life sentences. An autopsy later confirmed that his manner of death was suicide. He went his whole life a free man living under the radar and then instead of facing the consequences and spending the remainder of his life in jail, he decided to end it all. But after everything, many people still had one lingering question. Did Alan Lee Phillips have other victims? Are there more women out there that haven't been discovered? After all, he murdered two women within hours of each other. We also know he assaulted a woman 10 years prior to the murders, so clearly he was a troubled man. And it makes you wonder if there are others out there, women whose bodies were never found. Investigators that worked this case believe other murder victims in and around Breckenridge

could have also been his victims. But unfortunately, there isn't enough evidence to prove it. And now that he's dead, we might never get those answers. But this case also makes you think about all of the other unsolved murders in our country and how their killers got to walk free. But every year, with advancements and technology, these monsters are being exposed. In 2018, the Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested

after he was identified through forensic genealogy, the same way Alan Lee Phillips was caught. And then just recently, the Gilgo Beach killer was arrested after investigators retrieved his pizza crust from a trash can in Manhattan. Every year we hear more and more stories about these monsters being exposed, many of whom thought that they'd go to their graves with their dark secret.

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when you visit Nutraful.com and enter promo code M-I-A. That's NutraFol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com promo code M-I-A. Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you again for tuning in for this week's episode of Murder in America. This is a really wild story, and I'm just so glad that there's finally some closure in this case have for so many years and it really makes me wonder just how many cases are going to be solved in the next decade with this new technology that's evolving and improving every day, week, and month. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of old cold cases that are solved.

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