The Deck - Rachel Anthony (5 of Spades, Minnesota)

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Our card this week is Rachel Anthony, the 5 of Spades from Minnesota.In 2001, 50-year-old Rachel was going about her nightly routine, closing the small-town liquor store, when she suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving behind no clues. A gruesome discovery 6 weeks later would answer some of the questions she left behind, but not the most pressing: who did it and why?If you know anything about the murder of Rachel Anthony in February of 2001 — or if you were that last customer in Ultimate Liquors at 9:57 p.m. — please come forward. You can reach the Cass County Sheriff’s Office at [phone] or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. You could be eligible for a $50,000 reward.To learn more about The Deck, visit www.thedeckpodcast.com. To apply for the Cold Case Playing Cards grant through Season of Justice, visit www.seasonofjustice.org Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF

Our card this week is Rachel Anthony, the five of spades from Minnesota. In 2001, 50-year-old Rachel was going about her nightly routine, closing the small-town liquor store, when she suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving behind no clues. A gruesome discovery six weeks later would answer some of the questions left behind, but not the most pressing. Who did this to Rachel and why? I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Death. The Arctic Minnesota Winter was particularly unforgiving in the wee hours of the morning on February 28, 2001. The temperature in Pine River was hovering at a crisp minus 10, as snow dusted the top of black ice coating the rural roadways.

But the harsh conditions were nothing out of the ordinary for officer Sean Bennett, and it did little to deter him as he patrolled the sleepy streets. What was out of the ordinary, though, was what caught Bennett's eye along the downtown road just before 1 a.m. Right in front of ultimate liquors, sat a S-scort idling in the cold. Which that in and of itself was noteworthy because Pine River at the time had less than a thousand residents

and all the businesses downtown, except maybe a gas station were long closed. So it was odd. But for Officer Bennett, the needle moved past odd and was teetering on alarming because that was the exact car he'd seen idling in front of the liquor store when he was making his rounds about three hours ago. And it literally hadn't moved an inch. Here's investigate a Ryan Fisher with the Cass County Sheriff's office

describing what planet found that night as he began looking around. He goes up, checks the front door. The front door still locked. It goes around the back. began looking around. When they stepped inside, they found a baffling scene. Even though Minnesota law requires liquor stores to close by 10pm, which would have been hours ago at this point, the store lights and radio were still on. Walking through the store, nothing looked amiss. There was no sign of a struggle and everything appeared to be in order. But they noticed that on the front counter, sat a set of house keys, a purse, a pack of cigarettes, and a woman's coat.

In that moment, they knew they were dealing with something sinister. Again, it's below zero outside. No one in their right mind and of their own accord is going to leave anywhere without their coat. At that time, they called for assistance, they called for investigators, and the investigators started from there. The front door was locked. The focus was really on that back alley area and I was one of the first things that officers were looking for. It was just that, you know,

tiger tracks because obviously we know that I'm snowy night. You know, those things can disappear quickly. Even though the snow had piled decently high at this point, There were no tracks. The chief of police at the time told the brainer dispatch, quote, "'You could literally get on your hands and knees and look across that ice, and you couldn't see anything. It was just glare ice.'" But investigators didn't feel too down on their luck yet, because they noticed that the store was equipped

with surveillance cameras. All they had to do was get a hold of the store owner, Kim Terhar, and gain access to the footage. But when they got in touch, she let them know that the surveillance cameras didn't work. Now, why they were out of service, I don't know, but they're like a half an hour in and they're already facing a second huge blow to the investigation right out of the gate. Kim did tell the police that the scheduled closer was 50-year-old Rachel Anthony, who'd worked there for over a year and had proven herself a reliable employee. She wouldn't just up and leave like that without properly closing the store. And again, especially not without her code.

It was straight up freezing even for the most seasoned Minnesota. After they got off the phone, Kim rushed to the scene to check the store and register and she confirmed that nothing had been stolen. She also noted Rachel's closing routine, which officers determined must have been interrupted. Yzion cold nights, when the clock struck 10, Rachel would go out to the front door to start her car so it would be warm by the time she left. Then she'd come back inside through the front door, lock it, take the garbage through the back door, lock the back door behind her, finish closing, then leave for the final time out the front. Since the front door was found locked and the back door ajar, the thought was that Rachel was interrupted while taking out the trash. As police continued scouring the store looking for any semblance of a clue, Kim phoned

Rachel's oldest daughter Jessica and her husband Rodney. Rachel lived with them about 10 miles away in Piquat Lakes, so if there was any chance she was okay, and this was just a misunderstanding, maybe she was with them. We weren't able to get an interview with Jessica for this episode, but she told unsolved mysteries that once she learned her mom's cigarettes were left behind, she knew something was terribly wrong. She said, quote, Mom was a smoker, and she would never go anywhere without her cigarettes.

Now, Jessica never suspected anything was wrong until she got that call from police. Because even though her mom was usually due back at 10, 20 after her shift, she had an idea of where she might be. As it turned out, the liquor store was in the process of moving. When Rachel didn't come home that night, that was actually one of her first thoughts

was, well, maybe she's helping me be on her liquor store with the move more possibly with friends. As Jessica made her way to the store, a handful of agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were arriving on scene to assist with the investigation. Really, all signs are going to an abduction, so this starts quite a massive, for a large scale, canvas of the city of Pine River. Officers canvass the area with a sense of urgency. As the Pine River police chief told the brainer Dispatch,

quote, we beat on every door for several blocks around, getting people out of bed, seeing if they'd seen anything at all. No one had. Police continued investigating throughout the night and according to the star Tribune, as the sun rose, they were joined by dozens of officers from the Sheriff's Office

and local firefighters. Some scoured the area on foot, others traveled by car looking for fresh tracks in the snow. Authorities even ordered helicopter searches and a bloodhound trail. Whenever something like this happens, I mean, you want to accept any help that you can get, and I mean, people want to walk the road dishes and see if there's any evidence to take to locate. I mean, it's brutally cold, and we have people out there wanting to help. Whatever they possibly can do. While searches were underway, investigators were going door to door at businesses downtown requesting access to their surveillance footage, and their sales receipts from that night,

crossing their fingers that had given them at least a starting point. You know, knowing who was out and about downtown around the time of Rachel's alleged abduction. Believe it or not, police were able to identify all of the vehicles and people that were out that night as well as every purchase made at Ultimate Lickers. Except, one, there was a single purchase that was made at the store at 9.57pm, exactly three minutes before closing. That person paid in cash, and investigators figured that given the time of the purchase and the fact that it was paid in cash, this could be their person. Now, certain suspect or great-witness police didn't know for sure because they were proving difficult, if not impossible, to track down.

Soon enough, Rachel's disappearance hit the local news with law enforcement, making it clear they suspected foul play. But still, there was no clear motive. Jessica told the star Tribune, quote, she had no enemies that we know of. She never mentioned anyone bothering her or antagonizing her or whatever. We just don't understand it at all." A disappearance like Rachel's was nearly unheard of for Pine River. So naturally, everyone in the community wanted to help however they could. Within a few days, more than 200 people had called in with theories or tips, ranging from

possible sightings of Rachel to tips about a quote-unquote, weird guy at work. Some even proposing spots that they should search that were good for hiding bodies. One thing that investigators kept hearing, over and over, was speculation about Rachel's ex-husband. And that's natural. We all know in cases like this, everyone is quick to point the finger at a former or current significant other. But right away, that theory wasn't totally adding up for investigators. Rachel and her ex had divorced almost a decade before, and he lived 100 miles away. But police weren't going to leave any stone unturned.

He was one of the first people that were talked to. They had been divorced for like 10 years, and there was nothing. They still had a good relationship, good working relationship, nothing, you know, financial, anything like that. He was ruled out relatively quick. Two more people close to Rachel Police ruled out quickly were Jessica and Rodney due to alibis and a complete lack of motive. But the two did note something odd that had been happening to them that made investigators ears perk up. They had some strange phone calls from numbers that didn't recognize.

The calls were just weird static on the other line. They didn't hear anyone talking, but it was enough to sound some alarms for investigators. At this time, again, this is an abduction. This could be if anybody's looking to get ransom and anything like that. Long-first, it would put a trap and trace on their phone, just in case anybody called. But they were never able to find the culprit or track down the number that called. So it was another disappointing dead end.

As the days dragged on, police continued to receive tips from the public, particularly from friends and acquaintances wanting to comment on Rachel's character. People that knew her for a period of time strongly believed that there would be nobody out there that would have a motive to harm her. She was a fine-upstanding woman that didn't have any enemies. She could handle herself. You know, she could be a third of what she needed to, especially working alone in liquor store at night.

My person would probably have to have a little bit of a backbone to be able to kick people out of the store or what have you. But she was just spoken of as being a very nice-carrying individual. She just struck investigators as the type of person that didn't have skeletons. A lot of times, you do enough digging, especially to computer and things like that. You might start to find some questionable behaviors

and that just never really came up in this case. With no motive to speak of and no physical evidence at their fingertips, things began to slow down fast. So Pine River Police managed to scrape together a $10,000 reward for information leading them to Rachel's abductor. But even with the promise of a cash reward, they didn't get any closer to finding her. Jessica and her siblings, Trisha and Robert Robert were left wondering if they would ever learn what happened to their mother and

Jessica couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt wash over her if things would have happened just a bit differently She thought maybe she could have prevented everything You see every Tuesday Jessica spent the evening at the bowling alley right across the street from Ultimate Licker. Usually bowling wrapped up at around 9.15 or 9.30 so she'd go over to the liquor store and hang out as Rachel closed up shop. But that particular Tuesday night, the chill of the February air, kept her from paying her mom a visit, and instead she just went home, where she thought she'd see her mom in

about an hour. Now she feared her mom would never come walking through her door again. As winter melted into spring, Jessica's fears were proven true. Six weeks after Rachel's disappearance in April, 14th who were horseback riding across a tiny, mile-long rural Minnesota road made a horrifying discovery. One of them just happens to look in the ditch, kind of a steep ditch, kind of almost a redeem, and sees what E-thinks at first as a mannican. But it's never a mannican. And as they got closer and the object came into focus,

they realized that what they were looking at was the decomposing body of a woman. So they ran to a local residence and called 911 from there and law enforcement responds, identifies human remains. Although they couldn't be 100% sure without proper identification, they were pretty sure that the woman they were looking at was Rachel.

The location was just 10 miles from where she disappeared, and the woman matched Rachel's general description. Right down to the clothing she was last seen in, a dark blue shirt over a dark blue turtle neck, blue jeans, and white sneakers. The following day, their suspicions were confirmed. They were actually able to identify her through dental records. The confirmation brought with it mixed feelings.

Of course, this wasn't how anyone wanted the search for Rachel to end, but investigators were relieved to finally have some physical, tangible evidence to work with. So then, the act of duty becomes really important. We want to be able to recover any forensic evidence that we possibly can. And again, just to being out in the elements,

the body was a lot of times we missed that opportunity for a lot of that forensic evidence. However, in this case, we were able to recover some forensic evidence that was useful in this case, we were able to recover some forensic evidence that was useful in this case. Even today, investigators don't want to disclose what that evidence was. But in that unsolved mysteries episode that I mentioned earlier, a former investigator on Rachel's case said, and I quote, there is DNA on the body.

To be clear, our reporting team asked the sheriff's office directly about DNA, but they wouldn't confirm or deny anything. I'd like to assume that they do have DNA, but how much and whether it was a partial or full profile we just don't know. The medical examiner found Rachel's cause of death to be asphyxia due to homicidal violence, which really could mean any number of asphyxial methods like ligature strangulation or even suffocation. Perhaps she was too decomposed to determine which of those it was, I don't really know

why it's so general. But I do know that the state of decomposition definitely affected other aspects of the autopsy, like whether or not she'd been sexually assaulted. We don't have any reason to believe that she was. You know, and again, with the decont, it was tough to tell. She was fully clothed. There's no evidence to make us believe that she was.

And that makes me wonder, if there was DNA, what on earth could that be? Maybe skin cells, they recovered from fingernail scrapings. Perhaps saliva or foreign hair found somewhere on her body. Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, with the autopsy under their belts, the investigation was full steam ahead.

The location where Rachel's body was found confirmed for investigators that the killer was from the area or at least familiar with it. Because like I said, this was a tiny, mile-long road, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and they were convinced only locals would know about it. There were some really good suspects at that time. Investigator Fisher didn't want to elaborate on any of the suspects, who they are, why they

were suspects. But he said both the evidence found at the scene and the specific brand of items purchased by the last customer were useful when it came to elimination. Now at the time this was all unfolding, they weren't releasing what those brands were. That was something they wanted to hold back to use in scenarios just like this, as a preliminary way to rule people in or out of suspicion. And all of those folks were slowly ruled out just through forensic evidence. Over the coming weeks and months, there were a few rabbit holes investigators went down, like a possible connection to a 1984, unsolved double homicide.

A father and daughter, Clarence and Marjorie Paulson, went missing from their farmhouse in rural Cass County. Just like Rachel, they simply vanished without a trace. And then six years later, in 1990, the mystery of their disappearance was solved when their remains were discovered near Pine River. They both been murdered, and their official cause of death was listed as homicidal violence. Because of the proximity, many theorized that the Paulson case was connected to Rachel's, and at first the ideas seemed promising. Investigators looked into suspects in that case that could have had a connection with Rachel,

and there were a few. But a BCA agent told the brainer Dispatch they, quote, weren't able to make a strong connection either way. By the way, the Paulson case is still unsolved to this day. They're actually featured on a Minnesota playing card as well. By the time that lead eventually fizzled, so did the whole investigation. And soon enough, the case was as ice cold as the winter night Rachel was taken. The next big push in the case didn't come until very recently. Fast forward to 2022, and that's when authorities decided to release to the public for the first time, the brand of liquor and cigarettes Rachel's last customer bought that evening.

Those brands were Mickey's malt liquor and cool cigarettes. They hoped that the brands were obscure enough that someone would recognize them as the signature brand of a local or something. And while they've gotten some tips from that push, they're still quite a ways off from solving it. But investigator Fisher is hopeful and maybe even confident that that day will come soon. I think this is absolutely a solvable case.

And I have regular phone calls and meetings with the other investigators working this case. I think we both feel incredibly optimistic that this case will be solved. The next steps are just, we keep putting one foot in front of the other. We just want to continue to keep Rachel's story in the public.

She's always on our minds. As time dictates and as our case file, our case loads dictate, we put as much time into her cases we possibly can. You definitely feel connected to these cases, especially this one. Investigator Fisher was in college when Rachel went missing,

but he remembers her disappearance well. So my dad was actually the sheriff at that time of Cass Coney. I don't know for a fact. It took a toll on him. The investigator that initially had this case, my essentially replaced him as he retired. And I know to this day, this case really bothers him. I still remember going into his office

and this case was sitting on his desk. At all times, it didn't matter, you know, six years later, you know, 10 years later, 12 years, whatever, it was always on his desk, it was always on his mind. I know it, it affected, or it had a tremendous impact on everybody that was close to this case. And that's just within our chair's office, I know the Bureau of Crime Law Prevention folks, you know, it was the same. Everybody was incredibly invested in this case. Every time investigator Fisher flips through the pages and pages of reports in Rachel's case file,

he can't help but wonder how different things would be if she went missing today. The biggest challenge for me that I've noted is just the lack of what I would consider technological evidence. You know, and then if Rachel Anthony were to go missing today, I have utmost confidence that we would be able to get far more surveillance video, far more technological data such as geofence location warrants, any cell phone. I think we would have had way more location type data that we could have utilized. Being in a small town, the investigators really had to rely on boots in the ground type

investigation, the neighborhood canvases, things like that, which are all phenomenal ways to get information. But I think, again, if Rachel and I knew what missing today, we would have had way more information right at the outset that we could have utilized. More often than not in a case like this, you have kind of a clear mode of, and there just never was anything with Rachel.

I mean, going back, I think the investigators did a phenomenal job just kind of digging into her personal life and just trying to find some meaning behind it and there wasn't. I mean, she just literally banished that night. I think that's like part of the biggest hurdle. The strategy is sad. As far as theories go, Fisher agrees with what investigators back in 2001 thought. It had to have been a local. And one of his main reasons for believing that is because of the surveillance cameras at the liquor store. And that's one of the many aspects of this case that would make me tend to believe that possibly somebody from the area somebody

that would have maybe first-hand knowledge of some of these things. Like first-hand knowledge that the cameras weren't working? Yeah, that's just always seems suspicious. I feel like it was a crime of opportunity. A crime of opportunity committed by somebody within that general vicinity would have had first-hand knowledge whether casing the place and realizing that maybe those cameras weren't working, maybe they heard something and again given where her body was located, there's no real way to account for why they would have taken that road other than somebody taking the back roads to get somewhere where they wanted to be.

So that's my theory is that it had to be a crime of opportunity committed by a local. For the past 22 years, Jessica, Trisha, and Robert have made sure to keep their mother's beautiful memory alive. They remember her fondly as a talented powerhouse of a woman who brightened the world in many ways, but her favorite way was with poetry and a hell of a poet she was. One of her poems was about life on a farm through the eyes of her cat, Beast. She even won a national award in the 80s for it. And according to the St. Cloud Times, she went on to write a children's book

inspired by the poem. Here's an excerpt from the book. One day while chasing a mouse snack, Beast came upon Mr. Pig, lollying by his shack. They eyed each other and struck quite a pose, as they stretched through the fence to touch nose to nose. Robert shares his mother's knack for writing, which is how he expressed his pain after her passing. He wrote, quote, Terrible, terrible pain, terrible, terrible grief. I cannot let go of it. I can't make it diminish. Every passing year that the anniversary comes and goes, that whole is open wide and salt is poured in.

All the rage I cannot express, all the hate I cannot let go. When does it end? When will there be peace? When will the culprit be revealed and justice served? We just continue to encourage a way. If there's anything, no matter how insignificant you seem to think it is, but all means call. If you know anything about the murder of Rachel Anthony in February of 2001, or if you were that last customer in Ultimate Lickers at 957, please come forward. You can reach the Cass County Sheriff's Office at 218-547-1424 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

You could be eligible for a $50,000 reward. The Deck is an audio-check production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit the DeckPodcast.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?