My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 52

Episode Date: January 8, 2018

Karen and Georgia read your hometown stories including finding a dead body in the woods, a surprising break in a murder case, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome. To... My favorite murder. Hometown mini-so... Edition. 2018. Right. Where we read you back your stories from your hometowns or whatever, something like that.

At this point, it's just all over the place. It's branched off into so many, like the, like the branches of a mighty oak, it's gone in every direction. You can send us, you could send us a home time about how you stick your razor blades into an old fashioned mirror thing in your bathroom and they go into a wall. And we might read it. Because we're interested in that. As well as hidden rooms.

And as well as your cousin's best friend who was murdered. We want to know about the fucked up shit in your life to a degree. Are you ready for this one? I'm ready. Because that subject line is, you're right. If you walk your dog in the woods, you'll come across a dead body. No. Hello, ladies.

Parentheses and Steven. First of all, I have to say that I'm a huge fan of both of you. I knew it would happen to me the instant I moved to a small town and got a big dog. She gets right into it or he, hell, it's the beginning of every law and order episode ever. That's right. My husband and I started taking my 120 pound dog. That's more than I weigh.

Just kidding. That's not true. Why, that's more than I weigh. The dog's name is Groucho Barks, by the way. Amazing. Love it. That's what I made for Georgia on Lovely Walks in the Woods. The day it happened, it was a beautiful snowy New Year's Day.

We decided to take the pup on a walk, pup on a walk up a back wooded trail. You lost Karen. What? You lost Karen already. That is, unless it's a Newfoundland, I wonder if it is, that leads to a local park. I'm just saying it's not a puppy. It's clearly a humongous. Right.

Kind of dog is it? I need to know. This wooded trail runs parallel to the Missouri River and is beautiful and scenic and right next to a scary ass shack that we dubbed the Murder Shack. How come everyone else gets shacks and we don't get them here in California? I think that the second there's a shack, someone throws in some linoleum and they're like, hey, rents $1,815. Get three roommates, move into this shack.

Okay. We start off the walk as always. Then after a fashion, we let the dog off the leash to stretch his dog legs. Wouldn't you know, old boy instantly leaves the path and runs on over to the Murder Shack. Being a couple of fools, we decide to follow him and embark on our own little Scooby-Doo adventure style adventure. I round the corner to find my dog rooting around the remnants of a campfire. Instantly the idea hits me that we might actually come upon a hungover homeless person

who would be pretty pissed of us for tramping through his stuff. I grab the dog leash, get him back up in the hell out of there when I see it. About six feet from me was a body of a man, face down in the freshly fallen snow, arms by his side, feet twisted around some roots. I calmly asked my husband who was looking into the window of the shack behind me if he has his phone on him and could he please call the cops because that's a fucking body. It should be noted that at some point in my panic I actually called out to the body in a shaky voice, hello, sir, hello, I'm not exactly sure what I had meant to accomplish.

I guess in my mind I really wanted to make sure he was dead and not just sleeping in the snow. I don't know, I'd never come across a dead body before and wasn't exactly sure what to do. I figured I'd try the polite route, he didn't answer. When we make our way back down the trail I call the non-emergency police line, a sweet lady answered the phone and made me repeat myself a few times. A body?

Yes, ma'am, a body. Did you say a body? Before she asked me my information, we only had to wait a few minutes before he slightly out of shape cop showed up and was visibly annoyed at having to walk through the woods in the snow. He sighed loudly as he asked, well, how far is it? After the affair, he took down our information and on, I shit knew you not, the back of a media comm envelope, ah, small towns, that must be like direct TV or something.

We never actually heard what happened to him because it was never in the local paper. About a month later, a dude in a bar with a police scanner had heard the whole ordeal. I love it, grass roots. Apparently the poor man was a known drug user, was in and out of rehab, in and out of jail, and oh, that's it, they have since plowed down the murder shack. Stay sexy, don't get murdered, keep your dog on a leash, and if you walk the dog in the woods you will find a body. Thanks for the fantastic podcast, Jamie.

Oh my god, that's so scary. That's, I mean, even if he tripped and fell and died in the snow, it's horrifying. It's horrifying. I mean, the thing of like, for people like us and were like, I'm gonna go in the woods, I bet I'll find a body and then it actually happens. Totally different story. Has to be so jarring and like surreal and. And frightening.

Yeah. I feel like very quickly after I realized that's what was happening, I would be convinced that the killer was behind me. Yeah, standing behind me. That's why I was like non-emergency line. I'd be like, fuck, and like running. Massive emergency line. He's still there.

Yeah. I know. Holy shit. I know. Okay. Well, this one, I just want to read this really quick. You gotta hear this. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So this, this is from a woman who wrote to us, she's saying of course not, she's leaving out any identifying details, redacting names in specific locations and making certain she's not saying anything that isn't at least partially available as a public record regarding the decedent. This is a great start. Uh-huh.

Okay. So this one is a Chicago slash Chicago land homicide investigator. Oh hell yes. You ready for this? I am. Ladies, here we go. Seven years ago in the Chicago land area, an adult female was found deceased underneath a fire escape in a private alley several miles from her home covered loosely by a tarp anchored

down at the corners with unspecified weighted objects. The deceased had no clothing from the waist down, no identification of personal effects on her person or at the scene showed evidence of recent sexual assault compounded with evidence of chronic sexual abuse and multiple gunshot wounds to the head, torso, hands and feet. Jesus Christ. The reporting party denied any disruption at this, of the scene advising he, she had become aware of the deceased from approximately 15 feet away as a wind lifted the edge of the tarp and uh, back and then called 911 fingerprints and DNA, um, fingerprints and

DNA samples were volunteered and obtained from the, the, the, the, the, the, okay. Okay. That person's in the clear. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So then she goes on to say, uh, now to be less clinical, the woman I described was this bomb ass chick and a close friend of mine for many years prior to the murder.

She was soft spoken and straight edge, which is probably how she ended up involved with a man who had no qualms about taking advantage of her at every goddamn pass. He would rack up her credit cards, totaled her car twice and the like worst of all though, if a disclaimer that this isn't proven, I'm certain that he beat and abused her. She would never admit it was true, but all the warning signs were there, especially to someone trying to see them when I got the news that she had been found murdered. I hadn't seen her in almost six months and everything in me knew he had finally done it.

Fast forward a few years, I transferred to the homicide unit in the city where she had both lived and died. I was young and female with something to prove, which usually meant crazy late nights slamming red bulls at my desk. When my caseload was light, I'd sometimes take a little time to sift through old open files with fresh eyes. I could only resist pulling her jacket for so long, so one night I pulled it out and immediately found myself pouring over every detail, reading and rereading each statement

and letting every hideous photo sear itself into my memory, confident that I could break through the pain and the horror. I might just be able to see something that would make the difference. By all accounts, it was a bang up, it was bang up police works with no stone left unturned that I could see. The investigators clearly honed in quickly on the boyfriend, but no physical evidence was uncovered that tied him to it. Fast forward again now and working in my office late into the evening, your shows are playing

to fill the silence and I'm re-listening to episode number 58 specifically. Given my line of work, I have a fair share of ghosts that have taken up residence in my head and sometimes my mind drifts back to my old cases when I'm not expecting it. It started while listening to Karen's Ericsson twins story, bringing up the memory of two women I used to run on, I used to run on all the time as a street paramedic who undoubtedly had some some of that folly adieu weirdness going on and my memory gates accidentally clicked open. At the end of that straight up banana stories, there's a long exchange between you ladies

that I'm calling phase two of this process. This is cool. Yeah. We're in it. Okay. Long and short of it, Georgia asks, where is she now? I'm scared. And Karen references how the detectives theories didn't line up then offers up that she thinks

she should have done more, more backend research, but that she got caught up in the most fascinating parts because the mind just can't comprehend the craziness of the whole story. That resonated with me and started me down the line of thinking about this murder again. I've kept tabs on the boyfriend for years, but still no new answers. Have they gotten so caught up in this case that I'm missing the details? I need, uh, I need to nail this bitch to the wall. It's all too convoluted at this point. Okay.

The episode continues to Georgia story about Mel Ignotu, who sounds like a human garbage with such vicious malignant narcissism. He never thought anyone'd be smart enough to figure him out. The similarities to her boyfriend were uncanny. This ignited my dormant white hot rage that the case was never settled. And I bargained with myself that I could take a few minutes to settle the fuck down. Um, blah, blah, blah, blah. So okay.

Basically, she says she included that Mel goes. So this is the guy who killed his ex-girlfriend. Um, but they couldn't, but, uh, okay. She includes that Mel goes on to sell the house after he was acquitted, hires a carpet layer to replace the flooring only to find a floor vent with a plastic bag filled with jewelry and undeveloped film tape inside in the fucking ventilation system. So, um, so that was when he, he, he got acquitted of killing his girlfriend after that happened. They found her jewelry and photos of her being murdered inside the house in the ventilation

system. Oh, right. Right. Over that one. Yeah. Okay. I had read the search reports from her house and his house probably 500 times and they were incredibly thorough, floors were torn up, thermal imaging cameras, uh, inside the walls

and ceiling, search hounds, even cracked sections of the driveway were evacuated to ensure that there weren't, um, disturbed and resealed, squeaky clean. The furnace and water heaters were searched, but I didn't remember reading that the ducks were searched throughout the house. I was absolutely bristling. The boyfriend lived there until he was incarcerated for credit card fraud and identity theft and the bank foreclosed on his house. They, the new people gave consent to search the house, acknowledging that they planted

demolition of the structure, uh, got, we got approval from the powers that be, uh, scheduled technicians to be there the next morning and made copies of the schematics at 7 30 a.m. The team arrived at the house and started re-canvassing the house. This is the house of the ex-boyfriend, right? Yeah. Um, with radio silence for hours on end, I was deflated and started to feel embarrassed that I had wasted everyone's time on a hunch after the first two hours, which only got worse.

I reached the point of mentally drafting my apology letters and resignation when they called for the field supervisor after 5.5 hours. Sure enough, they found a metal box attached to the ventilation system at an unspecified location in the house. It was photograph processed and when examined had contents that had never been recovered that directly tied the suspect to the homicide. The investigation base, the investigation was revitalized and I can't say any further how this is playing out and going to continue to unfold within the legal system, but I

can't offer my personal opinion. That's a big fucking win. Thank you so much, ladies. This one goes out to you guys, Karen. Your storytelling is essentially verbal portraiture and you're insightful, relatable commentary on the minds of inability to see the forest through the trees when it's overwhelmed offered a new found clarity that laid the rock solid foundation. This case needed for its closure, Georgia, your research on the specific details you

chose to include coupled with your capacity to pull a person connection into your narrative of the lives of strangers bridged the gap between these two unrelated cases. As a professional, I'm so appreciative for your help. As a person and as her grieving friend, I'm forever grateful from the bottom of my heart that she can rest now, yours in cold case justice, A, B. Holy shit. Are you fucking kidding me? And this was a little while ago, so I want to follow up and be like, did you hear anything?

Wow. What a fucking amazing thing to hear. Isn't that crazy? And then, oh my God, it's incredible. What a great story. I know. There was something there. I know.

And there was all this shit that I was like, I can take that out, but then I like had to it somehow. That was amazing. Yeah. I love the detail of that story. Okay. Oh my God, that's so great. Yeah.

That was cool. Yeah. I mean, oh my God. A, B, thank you so much for writing that. If you could give us a follow up, only if it's good news. Yeah. When you're legally allowed to, but still, God, that's so satisfying. I know, right?

Incredible. Yeah. So, so essentially what you're saying is me not entirely researching the story of the Erics and Twins where Adrian, my friend, was like, yeah, did you see that art? Did you see that interview that they did when I was like, wait, what? And she was like, oh, I immediately looked up. Oh my God. There's videos of them, or at least one of them, I think on YouTube, she was telling

me about it. Plenty. Plenty. I like to leave the door open so that you can then get involved in researching my story. It's a choose your own adventure. Exactly right. Looking for a better cooking routine? Meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled, Hello Fresh has you covered.

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slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom. School police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry.

As the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. This is unsolved murder in my hometown. Hi Karen in Georgia. I live in a large town in North Carolina called Kernersville. There haven't been any murders here and this is the only unsolved one. Okay, so there, there have been some.

So the murder of Kathy Goff Kennedy happened in October of 1994. Kathy, her husband and her two kids had been living in this apartment for only three weeks. Her husband went on a fishing trip the night of and Kathy was left home alone with her daughters, 11 month old and three year old for the night. Someone knocked on the door and strangled and stabbed Kathy with a knife from her own apartment. Thankfully, the kids were unharmed and still in the apartment, her grandmother found Kathy the next morning.

Oh, that's so terrible. The murder still hasn't been found a $22,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of Kathy Goff Kennedy's murder. The creepy thing about this case is that 22 years after her death on New Year's Eve, her house burned down, the only thing that was untouched by the fire was a picture of Kathy and her wedding dress. Thanks so much for an amazing podcast. I listen to it almost every day.

I have made my dad listen to it also. He always comments on how much you guys say fuck. Every parent hates us for that reason. Parentheses don't worry. He loves me. Love Kim. Oh my God. It's so creepy, did the husband do it?

I mean, when I ever hear of a thing like that where it's like they moved in three weeks ago, I'm like, oh, like the person came back from who they thought still lived there. Oh, you know what I mean? Yeah. And also then if it's 22 years later and it's an apartment and it burns down, what was the husband still living? He couldn't have lived in the apartment where his wife was brutally murdered. Well, he must have, unless her picture just happens to fucking be there.

Or somebody lit it on fire and then threw that picture on the top of it because it was unburned. No. Untouched by the fire. No. That's what it said. Yeah. But I think he lived there then.

Really? I would never. Yeah. That makes me think it's mistaken identity when it's like that close to when they moved in. You know what I mean? Yeah. But then again, they knew that the husband wasn't there.

It's just coincidence. Yeah, because they just moved in. It's so horrible. Yeah. We'll send your stories, you guys. Yeah. We love to hear your hometowns. My favorite murder, Gmail.

Oh, please let us know if we help you solving major homicide in a large American city. We want full credit for that. We would love, anytime you want to give us credit for you doing your job great, we would love to have it. Yeah. We want full credit for some fucking last minute research we did. Yeah. Compared to like some people really dig in and read books and stuff.

No. We don't do that. As I like to say it, we're not trying to be 48 hours. We just want to retell you a 48 hours we saw that we liked. Exactly. That's really, oh, speaking of which, just really quick, I was, there was a nice revived marathon that I started watching even though I've seen every single one of them and I know every single one of them and here comes our friend, Jennifer Mori, telling hers.

And I don't, it's so stupid how proud I am to have met her. Yeah. Did you start crying? A little bit because she tells that story so good. Yeah. Like that's part of why it's so compelling is there's some people where you're like, you shouldn't have been on this show. Yeah.

Like it's too, it's too new for you or too close. But she just tells it so like amazing. Oh my God. Yeah. So good. Anyway, send us your stories. We love it. We love it.

Gmail. We love it. Thank you guys for listening. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye. Elvis. One cookie.

Good boy. That's a yes.