True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: Teen Found DEAD in Trunk - Her Car Sat in PLAIN SIGHT for 5 Days!

Episode Date: October 5, 2025

In this episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha unravels the heartbreaking disappearance of 18-year-old Hannah Hill in Akron, Ohio. Just days before her 19th birthday and with a bright future ahead, Hannah suddenly vanished—leaving behind worried family and a shaken community. What began as a desperate search soon exposed troubling police missteps and unsettling secrets from Hannah’s personal life. When her abandoned car became the key focus, shocking truths came to light. Join True Crime with Kimbyr as we dive deep into Hannah’s story, exploring the unanswered questions and haunting details behind her tragic fate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cain Road. It was just an ordinary dead-end street in Akron, Ohio. Nothing ever really happened there, except maybe neighbors mowing their grass on Saturdays and kids riding their bikes until the streetlights came on. Maybe that's why. For five long days, no one noticed a car that sat parked on that street. Morning after morning, night after night, it didn't move until finally a resident called in, worried. It had been there way too long. An officer showed up, peered inside, and noticed that the keys were still dangling in the ignition. And instead of raising the alarm, he wrote a parking ticket and drove away. That was it.

The car stayed. And inside that trunk, just feet away from people walking their dogs, checking their mail, carrying their groceries in and out, was the body of an 18-year-old girl, someone's daughter, someone's best friend. For nearly a week, her family had begged for answers. Her face had flashed across nightly news. And all that time, she was right there on a neighborhood street hidden in plain sight. Hi, everyone, welcome back to my channel. And if you've never been here before, I am Kimberlea. It's nice to finally meet you. So let's go back to Kane Road in Akron, Ohio. It was Wednesday morning, May 26, 1999. Just after 7.308,

and for nearly a week, a gold 1996 geoprism had been parked along the curb. The keys still dangling in the ignition, its windows fogging overnight, and catching the morning sun. And finally, neighbors started to frankly get annoyed. They even complained. One called the police days earlier, but instead of investigating, an officer merely slapped a parking ticket on the windshield, and he left. This morning, though, things were different. Now officers were there with a new purpose to open the trunk. And inside was the body of an 18-year-old girl.

She wasn't just placed. She was posed. Her shirt and bra were pulled up, her legs positioned unnaturally, and her arms were out to her sides. It was like someone had arranged her there. And across her skin, there were deep bruises, contusions that hinted at a struggle and a bite mark etched into one of her arms. Now, detectives would later say this wasn't just a murder.

This was a display. It was a message. And what made it worst and almost unbearable was thinking back and knowing now that she had been there the entire time that her family was searching while her photo was on the news, while neighbors walked past this car over and over again for five days. She was right there, hidden in plain sight, waiting. to be discovered, waiting to be brought home to her loved ones. And part of this, which was impossible to shake,

was that the longer that car sat there, the more chances slipped away. The chance her family could have had these answers much sooner, that chance investigators could have preserved evidence before it degraded. But before we get lost in all the failures, and before we dive into the suspects and the trial, we need to take a step back.

Because this is not just a body in a trunk of a car. This is a daughter. a sister, a best friend, and a girl that had her whole future in front of her. And she had a name, Hannah. Hannah Hill. So I want to tell you everything that I found out about her. And of course, if you've watched my videos before, I'm definitely going to come back to the discovery in the trunk. We're going to go into the autopsy results and all of those details. All that's going to come later. This was just a preview of this horrific murder.

but what I think is really important is to learn about Hannah. She's the most important part of this entire story because it's her story. It's why we're here today. Hannah Christine Hill was born on May 30th of 1980 in Akron, Ohio, to her mother Kimberly and her father, Elza Hill, who went by Ed. And the first thing I thought when I saw his name was, I had never heard the name Elsa before.

Not Elsa, Elsa, Elsa, with a Z. Now, Elsa, who goes by Ed, and his son, wife Kimberly were 18 years apart and Hannah wasn't their only child but she was their only daughter. Hannah also had three brothers, Justin, David, and Philip. And I really wanted to tell you a little bit about this family. Now I already told you that Ed was a lot older than his wife. He was born in 1939 and when he was growing up, this part of Akron, Ohio was famous for, and I mean it's still famous for, rubber making. And when I say that, think tires. Think big companies like Goodyear, Firestone, B.F. Goodrich, multi-billion dollar global enterprises. And with Akron, Ohio being the world's

capital for rubber making, that meant this area needed the energy and the powerful industrial machinery to keep up with the demand. And those machines had to be run by tradesmen, specifically boilmakers. And I always learned something new in these cases. And to maintain these large pressure vessels, boilers, and all their components, Hannah's father Ed was one of those. boilers. It was a union job. His was the local lodge 744 and he was proud of it. And it was also the business he taught his sons, specifically Justin. Justin was the closest brother to Hannah, only three years apart. He was following in his father's footsteps while Kimberly stayed at home to nurture her children and the hills were a blue-collar Ohio family hardworking and dedicated to

their family and their community. Before Hannah Hill's name was splashed across evening news, before police ever opened that trunk on Cane Road. She was simply Hannah to those that loved her, and so much more than that. From the very beginning, Hannah was one of those girls' people gravitated towards. You would notice her, and you know the type, bubbly warm, bright, big smile, and she had this way of noticing when someone felt left out or they were sad,

and she would just pull them into her. She leaned into everything girly. It was her way of expressing herself, her joy and her personality. Hannah loved dressing up. She signed her notes with pink little hearts and plastered her walls with Spice Girls posters. Like so many girls did in the 90s, she wanted to be Baby Spice one day,

sporty Spice the next. She was really into 90s fashion, the corduory pants, the overalls, and the updews. I don't know about you. I grew up in the same time frame. I was born in 1982, so I remember how popular updus were. I mean, at that time, if you were going anywhere special,

you would make an appointment at your local salon, and you would have your hair put up into an updew with the little curls cascading down. That was Hannah. Hannah loved to dance, not competitively, but for fun, but she took it really seriously. She would choreograph entire routines for her friends, and she would put so much seriousness into her own little tour. It was just in someone's living room, but to her, it wasn't just entertaining. It was also there to comfort people around her,

because she had this radar for pain. If she knew you were upset, she wasn't going to ignore that. She was going to be there to make you laugh. She was the friend who would sit with you in the bathroom during the school dance, and she would kneel down to wipe your mascara stained cheeks as you cried and tell you, it was going to be okay. And that is what people loved about Hannah. Especially her best friend Tara Ferguson.

They were practically inseparable. Now before Tara, there was Jennifer Edwards. They were also very, very close friends growing up, and they were still really good friends by the time Hannah made it to high school. But she was growing closer to Tara as her personality evolved. But those were the two friends she trusted the most, the ones she would stay up late telling all of her secrets to and her dreams about the future. But mostly they would talk about boys.

And I mean, if we were all being honest, we could probably remember those days when we had crushes on someone and we couldn't wait to tell our friends. And the biggest news was that someone liked us or we talked to someone or they sent us a note in class and of course there were also the disappointing times when maybe someone didn't feel the same way and that is when you needed your friends the most. Hannah started high school at Coventry

where her principal David Hout described her as the kind of student that he wished he had a thousand more of, not necessarily because she was in the top of her class but because she was respectful, dependable, and the type of kid who didn't get caught up in the chaos in the hallways. But it wasn't just her teachers, her principal, and her best friends that adored her. In 1998, the student body actually crowned her winter queen. This is similar to the homecoming queen, but it's for the winter ball. And let's be real.

It's not something that you win if people don't genuinely like you. And I did forget to mention something. People also found Hannah to be absolutely gorgeous, but she was very humble. She did not let that get to her head. But she definitely turned heads. She had tantal. She had tantal skin, long golden brown hair, and these deep, dark brown eyes. But as a person, Hannah wasn't perfect. Nobody's perfect. She was a teenager. She could be a little bit stubborn. She could dig her heels in when she had her mind set to something, but isn't that most people at 18? Still finding yourself, testing the boundaries, maybe even being the villain in someone's story, especially when it came to relationships. We already talked a little bit about her friendships, but like many teenagers,

she would spend the nights at Tara's and Jennifer's house, and they would be on the computer together, sitting in bed, and talking about whatever was going on in their lives. And what was going on in Hannah's life was romance. Well, more like a dream of romance, because she wanted to find her prince charming. And she maybe had to kiss a bunch of frogs to do so. It might have started to seep into her schoolwork, though,

because at the time, she would spend more time obsessing over crushes and talking about boys than studying and getting ahead. Now, I can't be 100% sure, but the fact is, she transferred from Coventry High School after her sophomore year, and she enrolled at Portage Lakes Career Center. Now, that is a trade school, and it's nothing like traditional high school. It almost seemed very out of character for someone like Hannah,

especially if you look at their website. I don't know how they used to promote it back then when Hannah was there, but it's almost like taking away her tiara and her sash and replacing it with a yellow safety vest and a hard hat. I looked on their website, and it says through hands-on training, cutting-edge labs, and real-world learning, we equip high school and adult learners with the tools to lead in today's workforce and thrive in college.

From health care to welding, digital design to criminal justice, our programs are designed with industry in mind, offering credentials, certifications, and confidence. So maybe she, too, decided to follow in her father's footsteps, at least when it came to learning skills that could get her a steady job. By 1998, she had completed her studies and she was ready to step out into the world, ready to land that job and earn income and hopefully become independent. Her dream was to go to college to become a nutritionist, but for now,

she was hopeful to get a job and save some money. She was practical, and to get her foot in the door, Hannah decided to use a staffing agency called Superior Staffing. That would assist people in finding temporary and full-time jobs in many different industries and Hannah was eventually placed as a temp at Debold Incorporated an ATM company whose headquarters are in Canton, Ohio. Their satellite office that Hannah would be working at was just 15 minutes away from where she lived. It was perfect. She started as a secretary and she worked hard to prove herself hoping that she would eventually get promoted to a full-time

employee. Her father promised her that he would help her get her own car if she got a job and she could commit to putting a portion of her first few paychecks towards the price of a used but reliable vehicle. And it wasn't long before she was able to get her own car with Ed's help. It was a used 1996 gold geoprism. And for an 18 year old, this was freedom. It was a huge milestone because she didn't have to wait for rides from her parents or her brother Justin, no more waiting for someone else's schedule to open up. That car meant she could decide for herself when and where she went. I remember that feeling. The first car that might not have been fancy, but it was yours. That's how she felt. This also meant the freedom to hang out with Tara even more. They practically

lived at each other's houses, but they also started branching out. Their friend group was expanding, and so was Hannah's romantic life. She met a guy. It was at a friend's house. It was a party one night, and his name was Bradley O'Born. He took one look at Hannah, and he couldn't take his eyes off of her and Hannah felt the exact same way. They were just drawn to one another. They talked all night, and they ended up wanting to continue to see each other. But here's some facts about Brad. He was 19, so not too much older than her. He was a high school dropout, and at the time, he was a small-time dealer of party favors. I think you know what I mean, which is why he would frequent parties like that one to make sure everyone had what they needed to have a good time.

But Hannah was not one of those people, and neither was Tara or their friend group. So of course, Hannah's friends were just a little bit concerned about her getting close to a guy like Brad. He was also not really the commitment type. Let's put it that way. He was known to be a player. And Hannah was the opposite. When she cared about someone, she was so loyal, almost to a fault. But the thing about Hannah was if her parents didn't think a boyfriend was good for her, she didn't pull away.

she would double down. Remember I told you she was a little bit stubborn, right? But that's what love feels like when you're younger for some people. It's the whole, okay, parents don't understand type of thing, but you know what? We do so much that we're usually trying to protect you. And another person was trying to protect Hannah, her brother Justin. Growing up close in age, he was always there to protect her. They had the type of relationship where they could be rolling their eyes at one another one minute, teasing one another, and then defending each other fiercely the next. Justin could make fun of his sister endlessly, but nobody else was allowed to mess with her. So, of course, even though Hannah was smitten with Brad, not everyone thought that he was good for her.

There were red flags everywhere, and it was like everyone else saw them, except for Hannah, which isn't uncommon, but it's really hard to tell your loved one or maybe even your best friend that their partner isn't right for them. You don't always feel like it's your place to say that. But it was getting more and more obvious, especially to Tara, because Tara was the one going out with Hannah and Brad. And she was witnessing things that she did not agree with. For example, there was one night when Brad would instigate Hannah to drink way more than she wanted to, almost like pure pressure. You shouldn't be doing that to your partner or to anybody. And Tara really didn't like the fact that Hannah would say, no, I'm good. I don't want anymore. And Brad would almost force feed her a bottle of beer. And then she

would just laugh and she thought it was cute and funny and he was just kidding around. But Tara saw things much differently. Red flag. Brad also took up a lot of Hannah's time. So much so, she hardly had time to hang out with Tara or any of her friends or even her family anymore. And people started to notice she became more distant. So much so, Hannah actually moved out of her parents' house and moved in with Brad at his apartment. But that didn't last. And that's because they would constantly argue.

So being under the same roof and together all the time, those arguments got more and more intense to the point where it was better for Hannah to go back and live with her parents. And so her and Brad did stay together, but they just weren't living together anymore. And you're probably thinking this. same thing, but her friends wondered, what do you see in this guy? He didn't offer her stability, and they thought she deserved much better. But on the other hand, he was the bad boy type,

and you know what? Sometimes women fall for the bad boy. He was good looking in her perspective. He was popular. And you could say powerful, but just among party kids. And the thing about Hannah was, she was very trusting. She saw the best in everyone. She gave people second chances. And And she thought that eventually Brad would change. And she thought they did want the same things in life. Except one thing, Hannah didn't want him to see other women. And eventually, it started to look like he was lying and cheating on her. There were a lot of signs that this was going on.

But instead of Brad admitting it, because guess what? It was true. He was cheating. He would gaslight her. He would make her think that she was crazy. And they would get into these really intense shouting matches. and Hannah realized part of the problem was Brad's drinking. He was almost always intoxicated.

She didn't like that version of him. She wanted the one that she had first met, the funny one, the charming one, the one that didn't drink this much. And she did not like his friends. She did not like his lifestyle. And their relationship got more and more toxic. Hannah's dad tried, but failed,

to get her to break up with Brad. But now I want to jump to May. of 1999. This was an exciting month for Hannah. Not only was she about to turn 19 at the end of the month, but she just got the news that she was offered a full-time position at DeBold. And this was something that she'd been working so hard on for the past year in her dreams were finally coming true. This meant a salary increase, more hours, stable income, in a really great and growing corporation. She could not have been happier. Her first official day in her new position would be on Thursday, at that noon. That's when she would be getting all of her new hire paperwork to go from the staffing

agency to a full-time employee. And that is when she would be trained and introduced to the team. It was something she was really looking forward to. She couldn't stop talking about it. But now we need to jump to the night before. It was Wednesday, May 19th. And the next morning at 6 a.m., Hannah had plans to pick up Brad. They were going to hang out for a little while, maybe have breakfast together, before he had to go to work, and then she would go back home and change and then go to her first official day of full-time employment.

That Wednesday, she had actually been let go a little bit earlier than usual, so she had ample time to prepare for the next day. And she was fully taking advantage of it. She was having an evening of relaxation. She changed out of her work clothes and into comfy pajamas, and she was just lounging in the bedroom

talking on the phone to Jennifer and having a bite to eat before she went to bed. But then, Around 10.30 p.m., Hannah seemed to change her mind. She was no longer having a night in relaxing. She changed out of her pajamas into an outfit. And she just casually walked out the door, telling her mom she was just going to be out for a bit,

maybe grab a cappuccino, something from the gas station, which wasn't unusual at all. And just putting it in perspective, this was a girl who's almost 19. She has her own car, has a job, lived away from home in the past, pretty much does as she pleases, and is very independent, so there wasn't anything unusual about this.

It wasn't uncommon for her to decide to even go over Brad's and spend the night, or go over a friend's house, or even go to a party, even in the middle of the week, even if she had to work the next day. And remember, she wasn't going into work until noon, so none of that was out of the ordinary. It wasn't until the next day that things seemed off. And it all started with a call from Hannah's boss. Her mother, Kimberly, answered the phone, and she was surprised

to hear that her daughter had not shown up for her first day in her new position, something that she knew that Hannah was looking forward to. It was entirely out of character for her. Next, it was actually Jennifer, who had been speaking with Hannah the night before and hadn't heard from her. That next day, she hadn't got any calls from her after paging her over and over again. Now, this was the day and age of pagers or beepers, and I'm sure a lot of you know what they are,

but a lot of people tell me that sometimes they don't, and they feel bad because I'm like, if you know, you know, well, this was, you know, a pretty long time ago. Pagers were a one-way form of communication. If a friend of yours had a pager, you could call their pager number from your phone, and you could leave them either a voice message, or you could call their voicemail and you could leave them a code, which you would just dial on your keypad. And you could only use numbers. And that's why if you ever look at any of those 90s beeper codes, you're going to see, one, four, three means I love you. means there is an emergency and you would have your own code. I remember mine was six seven because my birthday is June 7th and I would always put six seven nine

one one and that would tell my friends I me Kimber is in trouble and to immediately call me back. We had all kinds of codes and stuff like that back then because we didn't have phones but you did have to go to an actual phone whether that was a landline or a pay phone in order to call your friends back or listen to your voice messages. Well Hannah was supposed to tell Jennifer everything about her day that first day on the job, and she was supposed to call her back that same night, but she never did. There was just no word from her at all, and she was paging her over and over again with no response,

and that's what prompted Jennifer to call the house phone to see what in the world was going on. And if you're wondering, why didn't Jennifer just call the house phone to begin with? Well, back then, we really didn't want to call and talk to our friend's parents. So we would bypass them by paging our friend first. If they were available, they would call us back from their phone. But now, Kimberly and Jennifer are both looking for Hannah. And Jennifer, of course, decides to call Brad, because if anyone would know where Hannah was,

it would be her boyfriend, someone she spends a lot of time with. And it wasn't uncommon, like I said, for her to go over his house and even spend the night. But when Jennifer asked Brad if he'd heard from Hannah, he said no. And he said he had this really weird, feeling that something was wrong and she's like, what do you mean? He said, I've been paging her nonstop. And just so you know, Hannah was the type to always drop whatever she was doing and get back to you. She was kind of a people pleaser just to even let you know that she was busy. And if that

ever happened, she would just tell you that she'd call you later. But she wasn't the type to ignore someone's page. And Brad said, I've been paging her nonstop. And when she didn't show up in my house this morning, I knew something was wrong because she always calls me back. Now, he said she wasn't at his house that morning, and she wasn't there the night before, and he hadn't talked to her since the night before either. The last he knew she was getting ready for bed and that he was going to see her the next morning. And that's also what Jennifer thought. But remember, her mom was the only person that knew that she got dressed and she went out that night.

When her dad comes home from work, he hears that his daughter has essentially been ignoring everyone, doesn't show up to work. And the first thing he thinks of is she's with Brad. He's never liked Brad. He's always been a bad influence on Hannah. And Ed is convinced that Brad knows more than he's saying about his daughter. So Kimberly and Ed decide they're going to reach out to the local police department in Akron. And that's what they do.

It's 9 o'clock that night. Hours have gone by. No one has heard from Hannah. But I'm sure you can guess in 1999 what these officers told them. They said she's an adult. She's allowed to disappear. She walked out of that house willingly. Maybe she needed a break from this so-called controlling boyfriend

because, of course, her parents were explaining the relationship how toxic it was, the fighting, how it was back and forth, on and off, and that they didn't trust Brad. But to police, she's not a missing child, even though maybe we consider 18 years old pretty young. She is a legal adult. She doesn't have to tell her parents where she's going. But nevertheless, Kimberly was

distraught. She insisted that an officer, please, please come to her house and make an official missing person's report. Eventually, they do send an officer over. They get all the details that they can about Hannah. She's 5'5 foot 5, about 120 pounds. She's Caucasian. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. And she was last seen wearing a brown and white checkered, but not like big checkers. These were like tiny squares, if you will, silk short sleeve shirt and brown corduroy pants and black boots. Her car, a 1996 tan-colored four-door geoprism. They also got the license plate number and the registration information. But that was it. At this point, there wasn't an investigation going on. It was more of shuffling paperwork to appease her family. Because as I stated,

she's 18. She's an adult. Now, Brad was the most obvious suspect. And honestly, I can't blame people if we're looking at him, we already know the red flags and there were more, and we'll get there. However, he took it upon himself the very next day on Friday, May 21st to go down to the Akron Police Department himself. He was demanding that they find his girlfriend. He was yelling at them saying, you're not doing anything. She's missing. This isn't like her. And he was agitated. He was causing a complete scene. An officer Washington Lacey was sitting at the front desk, just watching all this play out and also taking notice of Brad. His demeanor, his appearance, and that's when he noticed what looked like fingernail scratches across Brad's neck.

Now that's suspicious. Enough to peek Officer Lacey's interest. So he begins speaking with Brad while he's also alerting Sergeant Jerry Hughes, who's been briefed on the missing person's case. And eventually, they take Brad into an interview room. And he tells them everything. everything that I've already told you. He hasn't spoken to her since the night before. He feels like they're not doing enough to find her.

And then these investigators just cut to the chase. They're like, what about those scratches on your neck? He's like, these have nothing to do with my girlfriend being missing. But they don't believe him. They ask if they can document the scratches by taking photos. And he tells them, go right ahead. And as a matter of fact, They photographed his entire body, his clothing, his chest, his abdomen without his shirt on,

and he allowed them to fingerprint him and Brad never once asked for a lawyer. Never demanded his rights. He just gave them whatever they wanted. He was completely willing to cooperate with them. And he finally explained why he had those scratches too. But the detectives thought this explanation only looked like more of a red flag. Because he's sitting there admitting in a police station that he was controlled. He admitted that him and Hannah were back and forth all the time.

Their relationship was volatile. He said he wasn't a good boyfriend. He didn't treat her well. They get into fights because he lies. He cheats. And those scratches were from a couple days before when he was confronted by Hannah about seeing another girl. And he admitted for the first time that she was right,

that it was true. And in response, according to Brad, Hannah scratched his neck. And it wasn't the first time their arguments got physical. Brad said he had shoved her in the past. He'd put hands on her before. But he told them, I am not responsible for her going missing. But I'm sure that you're rolling her eyes and going,

okay, yeah, right. And detectives couldn't ignore what was right in front of them. A rocky relationship, fresh scratches, and a young woman who vanished hours before she was supposed to be with him. It felt textbook, but they needed more. They can't just hold someone on suspicion alone. But I have to say, this did jumpstart an actual investigation. Now Sergeant Hughes wanted to get a clearer picture of what might have happened in Hannah's life or what was going on

that could have caused her to disappear. So he had the police collect items from Hannah's bedroom, including her diary, her address book, and they were going through them carefully scanning each page for every name, and phone number that Hannah had jotted down. And all of a sudden, Hughes sees another guy's name, Ray Briggs. Who was he? Well, Hughes asked Hannah's family and friends for more information and her dad immediately let him know that Ray worried him,

another guy he really didn't like. Ray had made it very clear that he wanted Hannah to be his girlfriend. This wasn't just a crush whispered about in the back of math class. He was pursuing her heavily. And in a small community where everyone knows who's hanging out with who, this kind of interest caused friction, especially with Brad. Hannah's dad was aware that the two young men definitely butted heads, and now here's where things get weird.

The very morning that Hannah disappeared, Ray Briggs left town. He just packed up and he headed to North Carolina. Same day, same window of time, and they wondered, is this a coincidence? And by the way, law enforcement doesn't usually believe in coincidences. so now they're thinking, could it be a cover-up? Detectives had to take it seriously, so they do pay a little visit to Ray's father's house

where he'd been living. And when investigators knock on his door, he doesn't downplay his son's interest in Hannah. He admits it. He's like Ray had really intense feelings for Hannah. In fact, his dad had hoped that his son would end up with Hannah because, as he put it, she was a good girl.

But it didn't end there. This father added another layer of speculation. He told detectives, maybe Hannah had gone with Ray, just left with him for North Carolina, leaving Brad behind. But let's pause here. Imagine being Hannah's family and hearing that, that your daughter has vanished. And there's this grown man who's also a father and says, oh, she's missing. Wow. She was such a great girl.

I wish my son would have gotten to date her. And you know what? Maybe she's with him right now. It doesn't matter if he meant all this as a compliment. It had alarm bells ringing in Sergeant Hughes's mind. Because when a young woman goes missing, one of the most dangerous assumptions people can make is that, oh, she just ran off with someone.

She left by choice. We've seen it in countless cases. Police hesitate because of that narrative. And hours and sometimes days are just lost. Her dad said, no way. She would not run off without telling her family or her loved ones. That wasn't Hannah.

So detectives have to. track Ray down. In North Carolina, they come and question him about Hannah, and he denies having anything to do with her disappearance. He said, he hadn't seen her since the fight he got into with Brad. Brad had made it crystal clear to him to stay far away from his girl. Brad had threatened Ray, told him he better keep his distance or else. And there it was again. It was Brad. Brad's name coming up and when investigators tried to follow Ray's trail, it would loop right back to the boyfriend. And that circle of suspicion coming back around again didn't look good. For Ray, the timing also seemed a bit tight. It did look suspicious on the surface. He left the very same day

that she vanished, but he was in another state before she was even reported missing. However, that could look like hours unaccounted for, or it could look like hours of distance between them. There just wasn't enough to make Ray a suspect. But to be fair, Brad wasn't either. They were just persons of interest. But Brad was interviewed again. They had two young men close to Hannah giving conflicting stories and no trace of her or her car. This time with Brad feeling more pressure being put on him, he was angry. He was insisting that they give him a polygraph test because, again, he's willing to do whatever he can to clear himself so they can go find whoever has his girlfriend. He insists he has nothing to do with her going missing. And guess what? He does

take a polygraph. And the person who's administering this test to him told the detectives, you don't need to worry about this guy. There is literally zero deception. Even with blatant questions like, did you harm her? Do you know where she is? Have you had anything to do with her going missing? No. So now the investigation is at a standstill. That's when Sergeant Hughes turned to the media. It's Tuesday, May 25th. and news stations are starting to share Hannah's story. Headlines read, Teenager vanishes leaving few clues.

And Sergeant Hughes was quoted saying, we've chased down a gazillion leads. We've just hit a stone wall. We don't know anything more than we did the morning after she disappeared. When adults go missing by choice, there's always someone who knows something. But this time, we've talked to the family, friends, or boyfriend, and we've got nothing."

End quote. They were pleading to the public for information. They provided Hannah's description, what she was wearing last, and what kind of car she was driving. And here's the thing. People had already seen her car. Several had reported it, and one person called it in right after seeing the news. And you know what they were told? Call back the next day. All of these people were pretty much disregarded and ignored, and that should upset you. It should upset many people, and it did. There was a man named Jerome Raymond. He lived on Kane Road and he noticed the car right away because when you live on

this quiet dead end street, you know which cars belong and which don't. And if you are following the case of the singer David and Celeste Revis Hernandez that I did a members video about, you'll know the same thing happened in that case. You know when a car doesn't belong. And at first, neighbors just took a mental note and so did Jerome. But by Friday, May 21st, There was just this feeling in his gut that he couldn't ignore. The car hadn't moved an inch. And when he walked past it, he looked inside, and there was just this detail that stuck with him, the keys.

There was something not right. So the officer does come out. He walks around, he takes a look inside, and he just treats it as a nuisance. And he writes a $10 parking ticket, and he just leaves. What the officer didn't do was connect the dots. Kimberly Hill had reported her daughter missing the night before. And somehow that never reached this officer, even though Hannah's name was on two parts of this car.

It was on a sticker on the upper back windshield. It just said Hannah. And then her name was around her license plate on the cover. And not only that, those keys left in the car and also the pictures of Hannah and Brad literally propped up on the dashboard. It's kind of like it's sticking out of where the glove compartment opens and closes. It has graphics on it with hearts and it says sweetheart. I mean, if that's not obvious that something is wrong here, young girls' photos, her keys are in the car, her names on the car, why was there such a disconnect between this missing person report and the car?

But that's not even the end of it. Four other neighbors called in about this abandoned vehicle four. So five in total. In days past, five days, which is a long time in a campaign. like this long enough for evidence to degrade, long enough for a family's hope to turn into dread, and long enough for an entire neighborhood to build a routine that includes walking past a car or around a car that didn't belong and wondering, why isn't anyone doing anything? Now on Tuesday evening, May 25th, after the city finally tried to help the public connect the dots with the newscasts,

that was when Jerome saw Hannah's picture and a detail that made his stomach. drop, the license plate number of the missing car. He looks out his window and everything falls into place. It was Hannah's car. He calls the police again, and that is when they tell him to call back, even though he explains, I'm looking at the same gold geoprism that's on the news. It's sitting outside my house.

It has since Thursday morning with the keys inside, already reported it once. He expected urgency. and he got instructions to call back in the morning. That should make anyone angry. Now, it might be hard to imagine what it was like for Jerome in that position, how he was feeling. He was definitely frustrated because he felt like no one was taking him seriously. And finally on Wednesday, May 26th,

just after 7.30 in the morning, officers finally returned to Kane Road. And they did what they should have done the first time, actually investigate. That's when they opened up the job. trunk. And you hear cops say this sometimes that the atmosphere shifted, that it shifts when death is revealed. When they saw what was inside, that shift happened. They found Hannah's lifeless body just 18 years old, but of course, she had not been officially identified at that point. For now, she was just a lifeless body. And I actually had the horror of seeing pictures of her remains in that trunk. It's something that I

would never show here. And there was blood everywhere. There was blood between her legs on her knees, her elbows, her arms, her neck on the back bumper of the car and even inside the trunk. She was unclothed from the waist down, still wearing her shirt and bra, but both of them were pulled up exposing her chest. Her feet were together and her legs were spread wide open. Her knees were all the way apart. It was very explicit and intentional. A humiliating position for her to be left in like the killer was leaving a message. And next, they took inventory of what was inside the car and in the trunk and they noticed the rest of Hannah's clothing was not found anywhere, not in the car, not around it. So at this point, they believe this is a secondary crime scene, that this is a dump site. This is where the killer got

rid of her body and put her there that she would be found later on. But wherever she was actually killed, that would be the primary crime scene. So they had to figure out where that would be. First, Hannah needed it to be transported to the medical examiner's office and the car needed to be towed to the crime lab. This once very small, quiet street was now full of law enforcement vehicles, full of officers walking around, interviewing people, news crews, yellow crime scene tape, and tons of people standing around wanting answers. And then, of course, there was Hannah's loved ones. When her friend Jennifer was listening to the news and she heard that they found a body inside the trunk of Hannah's car, Hannah's car was confirmed, but they hadn't confirmed. It was

actually Hannah. Jennifer was like, who else would it be? Why would somebody else be dead in the trunk of her car? like obviously it's her and she just broke down at that point in tears hysterical and there were some neighbors who were really concerned with the fact that that car had been sitting there for a week and you know what they thought they thought maybe she would have still been alive i don't think that's a possibility because wouldn't she have tried to get out if if she was alive and even the position she was in it seemed to confirm unfortunately she had been deceased before she was put in that car. And now they were just waiting for the autopsy results.

But the public was outraged. It's a terrible thing to realize that you've been walking your dog, checking your mail, carrying your groceries, right where someone's child was laying in a trunk, just feed away. It makes you question everything. It makes you question your instincts, your judgment, your trust in people that are sworn to protect you,

the timing of every phone call and every decision not to investigate all that time. How did a parking ticket get ridden before the trunk was opened. These are questions that can tell you whether or not evidence is found fresh or spoiled, and whether a family gets answers in days or has to wait years, and whether a killer

would get a head start. And they couldn't ignore this. The police deputy chief, Paul Callahan, had to explain, and he tried to. First, with timing, he said that the officer who initially went out there wouldn't have known anything about Hannah, because unless a report is expedited,

it takes at least 24 hours to get logged into their system. And in this case, Hannah's report would not have been expedited because she left home voluntarily. But as for why that same officer supposedly told Jerome that the car would be towed if it was still there over the weekend, but it never was. That, according to the chief, was being investigated. So it really seemed like they dropped the ball. Big time. And I think the worst part about this wasn't just that somebody had been deceased in the trunk of a car. it's the trail of the killer.

We know that the first 24 to 48 hours are so important to get that ball rolling into finding out what happened to a person. But now an entire week is going by. That's a lot of time and evidence degradation. So I think you could have guessed that the officers are feeling the heat. But I want to go back and talk about some of their assumptions. They did believe from what they found that this was sexual in nature. And of course, they needed to do an entire examination

and do an autopsy to find out if any bodily fluids have been left behind by a male perpetrator. So I think this is the best time to talk about the autopsy. It happened the very same night that Hannah's body was found. Summit County Medical Examiner Dr. Marvin S. Platt, a forensic pathologist, performed the examination. Now, I already told you that I saw blood on her. But I wasn't sure where it had come from.

It was kind of smeared. It had tiny droplets. It's dried, of course, but it turned out there were a number of lacerations all over her face. I think they said 10. One was between her eyes. Another one was on her nose. She even had a black eye under her right eye. There was just this big, big purple bruise.

And bruises all over her back? Clearly, this showed she had been in a fight. There was also a bite mark on her elbow. Someone had struck this poor girl in the face a number of times and was either, kicking or punching her in the back over and over again. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, and the cause of death was manual compression of the neck, or as we know it, strangulation.

Dr. Platt saw signs that indicated Hannah's gold necklace had been pulled tightly around her neck, which led him to believe that this is how our killer cut off her airway and possibly had his knee in her back at the same time he was pulling against her necklace, until she was no longer breathing. And possibly kicking her as she attempted to get away. All of this is very, very sad.

And he had to collect things like hair, fibers, blood, and DNA from Hannah's body. And he also noted a very peculiar white residue that was found on her cheeks and her lips, which he could not immediately explain. In addition to all of this, they also found seminal fluid inside of her body. However, it had degraded to the point where it was no longer able to be tested for DNA, and that was one horrible issue that came from her body not being discovered for a week. That could have been conclusive evidence as to who was with her the night before, who had intercourse with her, whether it was forced and possibly who killed her.

Because all signs pointed to that being the reason she was attacked. But who would have done that? Who would Hannah have run into or been in contact with? after she left her house that night. And thus, Gators thought maybe her phone records would tell that story. So they requested them. Now, that would take some time. And all of this absolutely shattered Hannah's family.

Her 21-year-old brother, Justin, was hit so hard by grief, he said that he blacked out. His only sister, his little sister, was gone. She had been brutally beaten and left alone to die. And he wanted justice. Everybody did. When Sergeant Hughes came to Hannah's parents' door and said they found her, they already knew she was dead, just by the look in his face. It was heartbreaking.

Her dad was like, that's my only daughter. He didn't understand how this could happen. And for detectives, the pressure to solve this case mounted instantly. Hannah was laid to rest back in Kentucky where her family had a burial plot, and it was the day after what would have been her 19th birthday. for her family, just the timing of that was unbearable. Because what should have been a celebration of her future was now a final goodbye.

It's just heartbreaking to think how young she was. Now, back in Akron, crime scene investigators inventoried Hannah's car. All the details matter. What was missing, what was present, what looked stage, what looked rushed, Hannah's car keys and her pager were left inside. And this car wasn't messy.

Aside from the blood in the trunk, the rest of the car was normal. And this further cemented the assumption that Hannah had simply been placed in the trunk after she was deceased, but they needed to find that initial crime scene. They dusted the car for prints, they swab the interior for DNA, they took a number of photos, and all of this was sent to the crime lab.

By now, Hannah's phone records were back. And here is when they get their next lead. Hannah made five calls that night, One to Jennifer, two to her boyfriend Brad, and two more to another young man. And his name was Denny Ross. That was one of the last calls she made. And that was significant because who was Denny? This was a new name.

And it seemed like right after that phone call, Hannah got dressed out of her pajamas into clothes and left the house. But why? And of course, investigators are going to get in touch with this Denny person, but they also talked to Jennifer and Brad again. And when they asked Jennifer if she knew anything about Hannah hanging out with someone named Denny and who Denny was, Jennifer's like, yeah, he's not a stranger. He's one of our friends. She was like, I already talked to Denny. He was one of the first people I called when I couldn't find Hannah. And he said he hadn't seen her that night and he hadn't heard from her. Now, Brad had actually lived over at Denny's house in the past. It was an apartment. He lived in this like run down three bedroom apartment and really shady part of town right next door.

to an adult video store. I don't know if you remember those from back in the day. So not the best crowd coming around that area. And this was a known party spot, drugs, drinking, you name it. It was the place where underage people could come and hang out, a place where you could go pretty much any time of the day or night and people would be hanging out. And this is where Brad would bring Hannah and her friends.

And eventually, Hannah would go over there without Brad and just hang out with her and her friends. and Denny's friends. He was a 20-year-old guy, immature, living in the moment, focused on fun with not a care about the future, mostly because he apparently came from a wealthy family and his dad financed his lifestyle until he figured out what he wanted to do with his life, but for now he was just party, party, party. Oh, but he was also currently on probation because of a drug charge. So just a few months earlier in February of 1999, Denny had landed on the radar. of law enforcement because he sold $525 worth of the white stuff to a police informant.

And that deal ended up in a controlled bust. And that case was still fresh when Hannah went missing. In fact, just two days before her disappearance, Denny was in court. And he pleaded guilty to that charge. And rather than jail, though, he was sentenced to two years of probation. So now you kind of have the rundown on the surface level of who Denny is. Now, Jennifer, let the detectives know that they were all. friends but Hannah had warned her about Denny. He was good-looking, he was kind of a bad boy type,

but she told Jennifer he's aggressive. He's the kind of guy that always gets his way, he always wants to be right, and overall, she didn't feel like she could trust him. Hannah had said that while Denny could come off as charming and friendly, there was just something about him that made her uneasy. He wasn't someone that she could fully relax around. Think about that. Hannah explained that Denny just had this way about him. If he wanted something, he wouldn't let it go. He would keep pushing and pushing until he got it, no matter how uncomfortable, it made the other person feel. The detectives also talked to Tara, who was Hannah's best friend, who went to a lot of Denny's parties. They were there all the time. She had made it clear that her and Hannah weren't into that scene, but since it was one of

the only places to go without parents around, they would frequently go over there with a bunch of their friends. There was always people around. A lot of people that they didn't know were coming and going in and out of his apartment all the time. Now among their friends, Denny had a reputation as someone with a quick wit, silly sense of humor, and smooth talking charm. He was also known as a ladies man, the type who thrived on attention and rarely thought about the consequences. So none of this is sounding very good, but how does he stack up against Brad? They both have a lot of red flags. And when Brad was questioned about Denny, he immediately got furious, knowing that Hannah had called Denny a couple times at night. He made an admission. He said that in the past, he had read Hannah's diary. And he

already knew that you would sometimes go over Denny's without him. Still, she always brought a friend. So it would be very, very uncommon for her to go to Denny's place alone. And now Brad thinks that Denny could have done something to her. And detectives think so too. So they run his name in the system, and according to police reports, Denny was born in Michigan, before his family eventually relocated to Ohio,

and on paper, he listed himself as self-employed. Well, we know what kind of jobs he was doing. And despite that recent substance charge, he had no prior criminal record. So Sergeant Hughes decided they needed to pay Denny a little visit. He heads out there by himself, heads over to his apartment on Canton Road, and right away Hughes noticed something very interesting.

Hannah's car was found only about a mile and a half away from this apartment, and it was almost 10 miles away from Hannah's house. So closer to where he lived, only a four-minute drive. Huh. Interesting.