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- [00:00]
Sponsor/Ad Reader
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- [00:52]
Mike Morford
Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
- [01:23]
Sponsor/Ad Reader
Foreign.
- [01:30]
Mike Ferguson
And welcome to episode 415 of the Criminology podcast.
- [01:34]
Mike Morford
I'm Mike Ferguson and this is Mike Morford.
- [01:37]
Mike Ferguson
Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?
- [01:39]
Mike Morford
Doing pretty good. Enjoying my summer. Going back and forth, the sports, hanging out with the kids at home on summer break and just relaxing a little bit. How you doing?
- [01:47]
Mike Ferguson
I'm doing great. I told Gibby we recorded last night and I said I think I'm still riding the high of the vacation. You know, the vacation high lasts for some period of time. Right. And it differs with every vacation. Eventually I'll come down from it, but I'm still feeling super refreshed from that vacation, man.
- [02:09]
Mike Morford
Well, I'm glad that you're back into the recording part of it because I know sometimes when you're on vacation you don't want to jump back into, into work. It's. It's kind of hard to get back into it. But it sounds like you're ready to go.
- [02:19]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, yeah, it can be sometimes. But let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had new support from Suzanne and Rose Pearls, so great new support. We really appreciate it.
- [02:29]
Mike Morford
Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much. For anyone else that would like to help support the show, head over to patreon.com criminology all right, buddy, it's time
- [02:37]
Mike Ferguson
to jump into this week's case and we're covering one that happened in the town of Hudson, Ohio, my home state. This is a town about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland with a population of about 20,000 people. So pretty far away from me. You Know, obviously Cleveland is in the northern part of Ohio. I am in the southern part of Ohio. So it's a good probably three and a half hours from where I'm at. But back in 1987, when the case that we're talking about happened, that population of Hudson was around 5,000 people. So it really was a small town. And you can imagine the fear when the shocking murder of a woman named Janice Christensen occurred there. It was a murder that would stump investigators and loom over the town for over three decades until it was finally solved. In fact, it was the only unsolved murder that town had for all those years.
- [03:37]
Mike Morford
On Monday, August 10, 1987, 31 year old Janice Christensen went for a run on the bike and hike trail in Hudson Township's Metro Park. She did this often and had multiple trails that she frequented. This is a popular place for running and biking enthusiasts, consisting of 34 miles of trail that ran along what used to be an old railway. This is a very scenic area with woods, wildlife, and some beautiful scenery. Janice may have been trying to hit all of her old favorites because she and her husband Ken were in the process of moving to Florida. The couple had lived in the town for seven years, and Janice worked at a local hospital. Soon Hudson would be just a memory for them. She may have been trying to revisit certain areas to say goodbye of sorts and make sure she would remember the moment properly. Running this trail should have provided some peace and relaxation for Janice. But unknown to her, she would cross paths with someone there and wouldn't survive the encounter.
- [04:33]
Mike Ferguson
We don't know exactly when she arrived on the trail or how far she was planning to run. What we do know is that she didn't make it to the lunch she had planned with her mom. So she couldn't have been planning anything super long due to these lunch plans. They were also supposed to go shopping that day. It was going to be a really nice visit, some good quality time before she left for Florida. But she didn't show up. When her husband Ken got home from work that day and Janice wasn't home and no one had heard from her, everyone knew that something was wrong. Just before 6 that evening, Ken reported Janice's disappearance to the Cuyahoga Falls police department. So what do we know so far?
- [05:16]
Mike Morford
Right.
- [05:16]
Mike Ferguson
Janice and her husband Ken are planning to move to Florida. They've lived in this town for seven years. She goes out jogging to this place that, you know, she apparently loved because she went there quite a bit. And then she doesn't make it to a lunch with her mom and. And she doesn't make it home. Morph. So many cases that we do, they kind of start out in a similar fashion. Right. A loved one is worried because their family member doesn't show up where they're supposed to, or they're not home when they're supposed to. The panic starts to set in, and at some point, that loved one calls the police department because they're so worried.
- [06:05]
Mike Morford
Yeah, it's got to be a frightening situation. They know her patterns. They know she's not supposed to just be out of sight or out of communication. Now, a lot of things might cross someone's mind. Did she break down someplace? Did she twist her ankle out on a trail someplace and she can't walk and she's stuck out there? Maybe for us, since we talk about these kinds of cases on a regular basis, maybe we're thinking the worst in that she ran into some psychopath out there and something happened to her. But I don't think, you know, from what we can gather, that Ken was thinking that kind of thing. He was just trying to figure out where his wife was and he was worried about her.
- [06:54]
Mike Ferguson
Well, there's two things that kind of cross my mind. The first is, by and large, I think most people have a pretty defined pattern. I know my wife and I do. You know, if it gets to a certain point at night and I haven't heard from my wife, I'm going to start to get really worried because her pattern is pretty set. You know, coming home from work, she usually calls me on the way home. Not always, but I. I would say 90% of the time. And she's normally home by a certain time. So that's an established pattern. Anything outside of that without some type of notification or call from her or a talk the day before. Right. Hey, don't forget, I'm going such and such. Well, I'm going to be worried. Now, the other thing here is that it is 1987. So cell phones were around, but they were not prevalent. I don't believe in 1987. I think that was still at the point where, you know, people who had some money had cell phones, but maybe even car phones or the big bag phones. I. I don't really remember. But obviously not everyone had one in 1987, that's for sure.
- [08:17]
Mike Morford
Yeah, and they certainly wouldn't have had things like find my friend, those kind of apps that you can help track someone if they're out of contact. You know, they didn't have any of
- [08:27]
Mike Ferguson
that or you know, some of these new Apple watches will somehow alert people if it detects a fall. I mean, that technology has really come a long way if you think about it.
- [08:39]
Mike Morford
Ken couldn't sleep all night. With Janice gone, he, he knew something was wrong. There was no other reason for Janice to not come home and definitely no reason for her not to meet up with her mom. Ken decided to go out and look for Janice. He grabbed the flashlight and headed out to search. He took their dog Wolf to help search for her. Around 6:30 the next morning, August 11, Ken ended up on the trail that he knew Janice had headed to. He decided to search the trail even though her car wasn't parked in the lot where it should have been, if she was still in the area. Wolf, with his keen sense of smell, was able to lead Ken right to Janice about 20ft off the trail. It was a gruesome discovery. Janice was dead and had obviously been murdered. She was only partially clothed, wearing only her T shirt, and she was covered in blood. When Ken reached out to touch her, she was cold to the touch. Horrified by the discovery, Ken took Wolf to the nearest residence and asked him to call 911.
- [09:36]
Mike Ferguson
And I can't even imagine, morph, what it would be like to find your significant other like this murdered. It must be such a horrifying situation. But to me, it's also, I think, one that probably doesn't happen all that often. I think people might find a murder victim in their home. We've talked about that quite a bit. But how many times does somebody report their loved one missing and then go out and find them themselves murdered? I think that's probably much rarer.
- [10:16]
Sponsor/Ad Reader
Yeah.
- [10:16]
Mike Morford
And I don't blame him at all for going out, not being able to sleep, wanting to search himself and look in the areas that he thought she might be. But part of me thinking ahead and thinking, you know, like the police might, in all these cases we've covered, it's. It sort of looks a little bit suspicious that he's the one that finds her out there. And I wonder if in the minds of police early on, he might be a potential suspect in his wife's murder.
- [10:44]
Mike Ferguson
Well, you know, the husband is always going to be, at the very least, a person of interest. I think this kind of would take it to the next level.
- [10:55]
Mike Morford
Right.
- [10:55]
Mike Ferguson
In their minds, not only are you the husband, you're also the person who found the victim. And it wasn't even at home. You went out and found her, you know, essentially out on the trail. Detectives descended on the trail to evaluate the crime scene and look for clues, investigators noted a set of footprints near her body, as well as a pair of shoelaces that were not from her shoes. Her keys were not at the scene and her car was gone. Her killer was long gone. He could have been anywhere at that point. But as we'll discuss, it turns out that he didn't go far. An autopsy would reveal that Janice had been stabbed in the chest five times. There was also evidence that she had been sexually assaulted. This was a brutal murder, and when word got out to residents in the area, they were frightened. This sort of crime just didn't happen there. People were shaken and on guard and were worried that the killer would strike again. And they hoped police would catch them before they did.
- [12:04]
Mike Morford
Nearly a week after the murder, Janice's car was found about 15 miles away, parked in the lot of Revco drugstore in Bedford, Ohio. Staff at the drugstore noted that the car had been parked there since Tuesday, the day Janice's body was found. It seemed that her killer had used her car to get out of the immediate area and then just walked away from it. So police now had Janice's car, but they didn't have her killer. And that didn't ease the minds of residents or Janice's husband, Ken. He wondered if Janice might be alive if she had taken their dog Wolf with her when she headed out that day. We obviously don't know that there would have been another outcome. But Janice often ran with Wolf. A 70 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback. This breed was originally known for its ability to keep up with and hunt lions, albeit in groups, not by themselves. By all appearances, Wolf would have been an intimidating presence and a potential deterrent for anyone who had been looking for an easy target. But the day Janus was killed came after days of rain and she was too busy to deal with Wolf being muddy and wet after what she wanted to be a quick and easy run. So unfortunately, Wolf, he wasn't with her that day.
- [13:13]
Mike Ferguson
And to me, more if there's no doubt that, you know, a 70 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback would be a deterrent, I think, to a lot of people who were looking to prey upon somebody. I mean, who wants to get bitten by a dog? You know, you see that in a lot of the body cam videos. Sometimes they don't even have a dog with them. And as they're running, they just tell the suspect, hey, you're gonna get bitten by the dog. And that scares the you know what out of people. And turns out they don't even have a dog.
- [13:49]
Mike Morford
And this is a little bit reminiscent of a case we covered some time ago and that was the murder of Katie Jenness. She was out walking her dog in a community, not really out in a secluded trail area either and she had her dog with her and they were both killed by their attacker. So I don't think there's any guarantee that having a dog would have helped her but certainly would be a deterrent to someone that just wanted an easy victim with no kind of pushback or defense.
- [14:25]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I would agree with that. Now if I'm walking my dogs or running with my dogs, nobody's going to be scared. I have two 8 pound Maltese that they'll bark ya till you're annoyed but they're not doing anything to you. But some of these dogs man you talk about like a cane corso or you know, some of these large breeds, it can be very scary. On Thursday, August 13, just three days after she was killed, Janice's friends, family, neighbors and co workers attended a service for her. They the following day, Friday the 14th, she was laid to rest at Northampton Cemetery. Ken Christensen tried to figure out how to move forward. Just days earlier he and Janus were thinking about their move to Florida. Now he had just buried his wife. Residents were still uneasy and police continued to work on catching Janus killer. But by the end of the year in the general area of akron, Ohio State, 15 miles south of Hudson, three more women would be killed and fears began to grow that the cases may be related to Janice's murder. No one knew who would be next.
- [15:41]
Mike Morford
On October 21st, 47 year old Joanne Bartholomew didn't make it home from Wednesday night church services in Akron. The next morning her car was found parked haphazardly in the rear parking lot of the Chapel Hill Mall. After a two day search, Joanne's body was found in a wooded area near Buchholzer Boulevard. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Her purse and the items inside of it were found dumped in the street a few blocks away. November seemed uneventful in terms of murders but what happened in December would make up for that lull and make the holiday season feel a lot heavier.
- [16:17]
Mike Ferguson
On the 14th of December, 36 year old Marsha K. Piotrs spent the evening with her parents playing bingo. She said her goodbyes and left the bingo hall at St. Martha's Church but didn't make it to her home in Akron where her husband Larry unexpectedly woke up alone. Later on the 15th her car was found parked in the backlot of an apartment Complex near North Pershing Avenue. Sadly, Marsha was inside, dead. She had clearly been attacked. Her body and the interior of the car were covered in blood. She had been stabbed to death. It seemed that Marsha had nearly made it home. The apartment building was just six blocks away from her house. The thought that something so violent could happen so close to home was chilling.
- [17:06]
Mike Morford
Just three days later, 17 year old Barbara Blatnick disappeared. On her way home from a friend's house. She called her parents to check in before she left, but she never made it home. Her body was found early the next morning in the woods near Blossom Music center in Cuyahoga Falls. She had been sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled. This was now a total of four women who had been brutally murdered in the same general area over a five month period. As a result, women stopped running their errands alone, hoping there would be safety in numbers. And there were many new self defense classes offered in the area.
- [17:41]
Mike Ferguson
And we see this often also, right when you have a series of crimes and especially murders happen in a general area in a short period of time, well, there's a sense of panic and I think rightfully so. So you see people changing patterns, you see people taking more precautions, safety classes, security alarms, those types of things. Gun sales normally are reported to have gone up around this time. People get scared.
- [18:18]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I think as a society we're very reactive. You know, when something like this happens, there's a big boost in security preparation. But then later on, as time passes, I think it seems like people may be back off of that a little bit or maybe feel a little bit more at ease. But then it always seems like there's another case that, you know, sort of reinvigorates that security consciousness.
- [18:46]
Mike Ferguson
The authorities didn't mess around and a multi county task force was created to investigate the four murders in case there was a connection. Summit county prosecutor Lynn Slaby, who created the task force, told the Akron Beacon Journal, which we must find a way to bring these individuals or the individual responsible for these terrible crimes to justice. Unfortunately, despite this task force, there was no real progress made in the cases. Although the general consensus by the task force was that there was not a single serial killer responsible for the murders. Despite trying very hard, no one could find anything actually linking the cases. Investigators felt that they were likely looking for four different perpetrators. The task force was disbanded and the cases grew cold.
- [19:38]
Mike Morford
And I want to give them credit because they seem to really take all these cases serious. They wanted to see if there were any links and maybe talk to each other. Communicate with each other and compare notes, compare clues and see if they could catch the person or persons responsible. And that's a pretty big thing because we know nowadays there's a lot of communication. There's centralized databases and communication. Back then, places didn't regularly communicate with each other about their cases. And sometimes there was a competition almost and people were too proud to ask for help. So I give them a lot of credit for trying to put that task force together and see if they could solve any of those cases.
- [20:28]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I do too. I mean, you. By and large, I think the police want to solve cases, but I think there's another element to it. I just wonder how much pressure right. Was on them at this time. And maybe that's why the task force was created as well, because they had to do something right. Four murders of women within a relatively short period of time. You got to show the public that you're doing something. You could be working like crazy behind the scenes, but the public doesn't always see that. So a task force is kind of front and center. Right. It might help ease the fear somewhat of residents. You know, changes in the seasons for me at least make a difference in how I dress. And it's not just cold versus warm, it's yeah, in the summer I want pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, but really I just want things that are easy to put together but keep me looking put together. And that's why I keep coming back to Quint's. Quint really focuses on high quality essentials that feel and look amazing. They have the well made basics, but without the luxury markup. Quint's European linen pants and shirts are the perfect warm weather upgrade to add to your rotation. So Starting at just $34, everything at quints is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman. So you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And a lot of people don't know, but Quint goes way beyond clothing. They have upholstered sofas, ceramic cookware, premium bedding. They have something for everyone. My personal favorite is their activewear flow knit line. Shorts, joggers. It's all amazing. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.comcriminology for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quincee.com criminology for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com criminology this episode is brought to
- [22:38]
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- [23:28]
Mike Morford
S time continued to pass with no progress in any of the cases. But DNA technology continued to advance as families continued to wait for answers and eventually that DNA technology would provide answers. Finally, in May of 2020, it seemed like there could be a breakthrough. 67 year old James E. Zastonik was arrested by the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department for the murder of Barbara Blatnick. Thanks to the Porch Light Project, new testing of DNA taken from underneath Barbara's fingernails and ended up leading investigators straight to Zastonik. The Hirchlite Project is a non profit organization that helps families of the missing and murdered by funding new DNA testing and genetic genealogy for Ohio cold cases.
- [24:14]
Mike Ferguson
Zastonik's DNA was not in any system or database, so the process of finding a familial DNA match and working to narrow it down to the right family member took a lot of time and a lot of money. The DNA was also a mixed sample containing not just his DNA but Barbara's. Genetic genealogists had to isolate the suspect's DNA to be able to do anything at all with the sample. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist with Identifinders International and a former guest on our show, explained the process to News 5 Cleveland saying, you have the mixture, you have the victim, you subtract them and you get the genetic genealogy data and obviously more. You know, we did a whole season on just genetic genealogy and cases being solved by that. Colleen Fitzpatrick has been huge in that area, the area of genetic genealogy. But I want to talk about this Porch Light project and I'm sure there are many other nonprofits like that. You know, one of the things that has stood out to me in researching as many cases as you and I do is just how many unsolved cases do have some evidence being stored, you know, somewhere that has yet to be tested. You know, I think the number is pretty huge. But, you know, there's a lot that goes into getting it tested. You know, time, money. It would be amazing if we could devote more resources to testing some of, you know, this evidence that's just sitting around. I think a lot more cases would be solved.
- [26:09]
Mike Morford
Yeah. And I think now there's a lot more organizations that do fundraise for testing like this. And then there's a lot of more agencies that do this kind of work of testing. And I think like with anything else, the more people that are out there, the more competition it is for to do that work, the more the prices come down. So, you know, maybe we'll get to a point where there's just so many people out there doing this work and more fundraisers that see these cases being solved at an even faster rate. That would be fantastic. James Astonic was apparently living a normal life after killing Barbara. He held steady employment working at Ferrotherm Corporation in Garfield Heights for more than three decades. He was either very good at hiding his criminal activity, or after Barbara's murder, he played it safe because he had no criminal history. It's unknown how the two crossed paths, but if they knew each other, according to Barbara's sister Donna Zanith, no one in the family could recall knowing him. Despite his arrest, Zastenik would not stand trial. He died at age 69 due to cancer just two months before the trial was set to begin. He was free on bond, living with a relative on hospice for the final months of his life. Barbara's sister Donna, disappointed by the fact that he was ever released from custody, told the Beacon Journal, my sister's still dead. And there he is in his brother's house, sipping coffee. One interesting but probably irrelevant detail about James Estenik is that in 2018, it appears that one of his siblings went missing on the 31st anniversary of Barbara's murder. Bentley Zastyk is still missing to this day.
- [27:52]
Mike Ferguson
With the identification of James Zastenik, it became clear that Janice's murder was not related to the murder of Barbara Blatnick. DNA proved it. Investigators were basically sent back to square one in Janice's case, so they decided to start there. Square1. In 2021, the investigation into Janice's murder was officially reopened. As we mentioned at the start of this episode, her case was the only open unsolved murder in the town's history. But investigators felt that they had a lot to work with, and they Were hopeful they would resolve the case. Lindsey muscle, the lead ohio bureau of criminal investigation agent assigned to the case, told News 5 Cleveland. I do believe there's good evidence in this case. Everyone was hopeful that the same technology and methods Used to track down barbara's killer could help close janice's case, too. And they were right. DNA testing finally revealed the name of janice's killer. Sadly, though, like in so many of these old cold cases, by the time investigators knew who they were looking for, the perpetrator was long deceased. There would be no accountability and no justice for janus loved ones.
- [29:15]
Mike Morford
Thomas Collier Jordan, whose DNA matched the sample taken from Janice's body, died in 2009 at the age of 83 due to respiratory failure. The answer came 13 years too late for any kind of justice or any more answers. News of the identification was bittersweet. People were happy to have a name and a face of janice's killer, but were upset he wouldn't be held accountable. By the point of his identification, Janice's case had gone unsolved for longer than she was alive. Authorities exhumed Jordan's body in April 2024 to verify the DNA match, and it confirmed what investigators already knew. He was janice's killer.
- [29:56]
Mike Ferguson
And morph you feel for the families in these cases. So many years went by without any answers, and then when they finally do get an identification, they find out that, you know, the killer is dead. They can't be held accountable. It's got to be a real bittersweet moment. Yeah, it's great, I would think, to finally know who murdered your loved one. But the fact that, you know, they're not going to be held accountable, that's got to be the tough part.
- [30:32]
Mike Morford
And that's one of the hard parts of these older cases. Sometimes you finally are able to track down the culprit, Only to find out that they've been dead for years and sort of that chance to get justice disappears. And then if you're a family member that's been waiting and hoping to see that person in court, Paying for what they did and going to prison, you, know, they're robbed of that a lot of times.
- [30:59]
Mike Ferguson
So police had found the person who killed janice, but they wanted to look into his background to see if he could have more victims. To no one's surprise, Jordan had committed violent crimes before he killed janice christensen, Though, as far as we know, she is the only person he ever killed. Just months before janice's murder, A young woman was attacked on a similar trail in a park in Cuyahoga Falls. On May 25, 1987, 17 year old Michelle Pewitt Howard was by herself on a walking trail in the Top of the World area of Hampton Hills Metro Park. Suddenly, a man grabbed her, put a knife against her throat and dragged her off of the path and into the woods. He used a pair of shoelaces to bind her wrists behind her back before he sexually assaulted her. At one point, he tied her ankles too. He assaulted her multiple times over what seemed like hours, walking away for an unknown period of time before coming back and starting all over again. The last time he came back, he urinated on her before leaving. To Michelle, this change signaled the end of the attack.
- [32:15]
Mike Morford
Michelle bravely got up and ran to the parking lot where amazingly, a police officer had parked next to her car. Shocked and in pain, she tried to relay details of the horrible attack she had just suffered. Meanwhile, her attacker fled the park, taking her underwear with him as well as her purse and keys. On his way out of the park, he dumped her purse and her car keys as well as the pair of shoelaces he had used to tie her ankles, which investigators later recovered. This is strikingly similar to what we know happened to Janice. Her car was taken from the scene and and Michelle's likely would have been if not for that officer parked next to her. Shoelaces were found near Janice's body. The suspect in both cases was armed with a knife.
- [32:58]
Mike Ferguson
DNA proved that Thomas Collyer Jordan was Michelle's attacker. In fact, Jordan was linked to Michelle's case by DNA first because all of the DNA in Janice's case had been used up in prior tests. There was a lot more to the process than just running the collected samples through a database. It took multiple tries to get a full DNA profile with the sample from Michelle's case. And even then, all it told investigators was that a male in Jordan's family line was their suspect. It took a lot more work and research to narrow it down to Thomas himself. Thankfully, he had no brothers and his father was already deceased during the attacks. So as Hudson Police Department Detective Travis Campbell explained to USA Today, really it boiled down to just being him. Once investigators were able to obtain his DNA, it confirmed that he was Michelle's attacker. Investigators were then able to compare the now known DNA sample from Michelle's case to the DNA profile in Janice's murder. They were a perfect match.
- [34:13]
Mike Morford
At the time of her assault, Michelle was able to help investigators create a very detailed composite sketch of her attacker. It's possible that this led to an escalation from using a knife to make his victims comply with his orders to using a knife to eliminate his victim in Janice's case, since she would be able to help identify him. Then again, maybe his intention had always been to kill Michelle, and she got away before he could. Maybe Janice just fought back too hard and he lost control of the situation. The shoelaces were near her body, not on her wrist. Maybe he didn't get a chance to tie her up and felt that he had to stab her to overpower her. She was active and fit and much younger than Jordan.
- [34:53]
Mike Ferguson
Michelle clearly had bravely fought back against her attacker and and was able to get away with her life. But in the confusion of the attack and the condition she was in, she mistakenly had told police that her attacker, Thomas Jordan, was white. It turns out that Jordan was black, though he had a very light complexion. With authorities looking for a white male, it's possible that Jordan felt safe enough to search for more victims before he ultimately crossed paths with Janice. Even Michelle wondered why she survived when Janice didn't. She asked the question in a USA Today interview, did he just not want to murder me? Why was he going to come back and murder me? So it sounds to me more of like maybe some survivor's guilt. You have that in a lot of these cases. And then obviously, there's the issue of Michelle telling police that this guy was white when he was really black. But I don't blame her. She went through a terrible ordeal. So it doesn't surprise me that she could maybe get some details wrong.
- [36:07]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I think there's no question that she was in shock, probably trying to replay things in her mind and in that confusion, know, maybe didn't give every detail right. But that's why the DNA was so important ultimately, because there was no, you know, mistaking that part of it. So that's such a important thing about DNA. It overrides the need for an exact description of an attacker.
- [36:37]
Mike Ferguson
Well, and I think the other thing that we see in quite a few cases is whether it's, you know, a perpetrator being identified by a previous victim and maybe spending some time in jail or. Or not going to jail, it doesn't matter what them ultimately making the decision that when they commit their next crime, they're not going to leave the person alive. They even had the chance to identify them. We actually see that quite often.
- [37:15]
Mike Morford
It's possible that Janice was Thomas Jordan's last victim, since he was obviously getting to the point that he couldn't keep control over his intended victims. But she and Michelle were not the only people he had harmed. In fact, his criminal history goes back to at least 1943, when he was 17. There aren't any details about what his arrest was for or if he faced any further punishment. But three years later, in 1946, he was arrested in Louisiana for trespassing. At the time, he was using the alias Robert Smith Jr. In April 1949, still using the alias, he was arrested in Lansing, Michigan for auto theft. Just two months later, he was arrested again, but there isn't any more detail about that crime. He served time at Jackson State prison in Jackson, Michigan, but was free by May of 1953 when he was arrested in Detroit, Michigan for failure to pay a fine given to him as a consequence for shoplifting.
- [38:11]
Mike Ferguson
By 1959, Jordan was living in Trumbull County, Ohio, where he continued his life of crime. That February, he was convicted of grand larceny for a string of thefts from cars parked in motel lots in multiple cities. He and his accomplice made off with $30,000 worth of stolen goods and cash. He spent one year behind bars before being paroled. The fact that Jordan was on parole didn? T seem to slow him down at all. He broke into multiple homes in the area, which was his alibi when he was questioned as a suspect in the stabbing of cecilia Farran, a 57 year old woman from East Cleveland. He wasn? T arrested in the stabbing, but but was arrested for the burglaries he admitted to. He spent nine more years behind bars before being paroled again and again he violated his parole. He spent another year in prison before again being granted parole. Unsurprisingly, he violated parole again and ended up finishing the remainder of the original sentence behind barbs.
- [39:21]
Mike Morford
After around a year of freedom, Jordan was arrested again, this time in Geauga County, Ohio for malicious entry. He was still up to his old tricks breaking into homes. He spent a little under three years in prison before being granted parole yet again. And once again he quickly violated that parole. In February 1976, just one year later, Jordan was convicted of burglary, rape and stabbing in Geauga County. Over a decade before Michelle and Janice were attacked, Jordan was already using a knife during his sexual attacks. For that 1976 conviction, he was sentenced to at least 16 years, but up to 82 years in prison, he served only nine years. Frustratingly, when Michelle Puett Howard was attacked, Jordan had been out of prison for just two years. All of this background on Thomas Jordan leads to the question we ask way too often on this show, why was this guy out on the street and. And not behind bars?
- [40:18]
Mike Ferguson
And it's frustrating, right? More if we do talk about it quite a bit, you have these individuals who just show an incredible pattern for doing the same things over and over and over, and yet continually they're caught, they spend a little time in jail or prison, and then they're paroled, only to go back and do it time and time again. You know, it's. I. I get it. It's easy to look back and, and see it in hindsight. But it seems like at a certain point, you know, when do you say enough is enough? This person is a habitual predator. We need to stop letting him out early.
- [41:03]
Mike Morford
So he was escalating from crimes in which he wasn't attacking someone, crimes related to property, getting into people's cars, that kind of stuff, and gradually moving on to going into people's homes, attacking women with knives. It was just an escalation that you could see here over an extended period of time. And I'm just surprised that at some point a judge someplace didn't just put this guy behind bars for a long
- [41:35]
Mike Ferguson
time or just make him finish out the whole sentence. Right. You know, this. Keep letting him out on parole time and time again. It's just frustrating, I guess, when you know that the person then almost immediately after being paroled, starts right back up in that life of crime. I do want to go back to, you know, something that we talked about just a minute ago, which was in 1959, he and an accomplice made off with $30,000 worth of stolen goods in cash. That is a boatload, especially in 1959.
- [42:17]
Mike Morford
And it didn't seem to hold him over because he continued his crimes trying to bring in more money from his heist.
- [42:25]
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- [42:50]
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- [43:19]
Mike Ferguson
walk, some bird watching. It's another easy Sunday. UnitedHealth Group makes these ordinary days possible. With partners like the University of Tennessee Health Sciences helping communities manage their health closer to home, 54% of participants have lowered their blood pressure, meaning fewer heart attacks and more Sundays at the park. This might feel like an ordinary day to UnitedHealth Group. It's the healthcare system working better for everyone. Learn more@unitedhealthgroup.com commitment Investigators believe there is at least one other victim Thomas Jordan Attacked before Michelle and Janice on April 24, 1987 the month before Michelle was attacked, there was a similar crime in Akron, Ohio. A man rang the doorbell over and over while 31 year old Vicky Farinacci was home with her three young children, ages 5, 3 and 6 months. Her husband was at work at the time. The man was holding some kind of bucket and claimed he needed access to her backyard to do some maintenance on her deck. She told him to hold on and closed the door. Luckily, Vicky had been on the phone when the man showed up. She told her friend about what was going on and left the phone on the kitchen counter. She went back to the front door to figure out what the man was talking about. The family had only recently moved into the home, which only added to her confusion. But by then it was too late. He was breaking in the back door. He was armed with a knife, so she did what he told her to. He tied her wrists with a plastic wire even though she was still holding her infant son.
- [45:00]
Mike Morford
Vicky's oldest child whispered into the phone what was going on. The friend instructed her to hang up so that the call would end and she could call the police. At the time, phones worked a little differently and if both people didn't hang up, the line would stay open. Vicky was still holding her six month old wrist bound around him, but the man locked her two other children in the closet. Then he tied her ankles with the same kind of wire. She tried to make conversation with the man. He answered her questions but never stopped his assault. When he was done, he he asked her for a wallet and left. She made her way outside where she found that the man had stolen her car. Finally, the police arrived. Unfortunately, there was a delay because the friend she was speaking to didn't know her exact address, which was right on the border of two different jurisdictions. Eventually they figured out her address and were able to get to her, but by then the man was long gone. Had they arrived a bit sooner, they might have caught the rapist making his escape Vicki's car was later found on Schiller Avenue in North Akron, but the attacker had escaped.
- [46:04]
Mike Ferguson
While Vicki's case is a bit different than the attacks on Janice and Michelle, since theirs happened on outdoor trails, and this happened in a home invasion, Jordan had a long history of breaking into homes, and it's likely that he passed Vicki's home because of its proximity to a wooded hiking trail, the kind of area in which we know he sought victims. Unfortunately, DNA can't help confirm that Jordan was Vicky's attacker, because in 1993, everything from her sexual assault evidence collection kit was destroyed. The statute of limitations had passed, and so this evidence was simply tossed out. Vicky did believe that a mugshot of Thomas Jordan from 1972 looked exactly like her attacker. That, plus the nearly identical MO Is perhaps what has led to detectives suspecting that Jordan was indeed Vicki's attacker. And morph, what a scary scenario. Anytime you think about a home invasion, being violated inside your home by a stranger, that's obviously very scary. But here she has three small children in the home with her. And I think that just tells you, you know, if Jordan was responsible for this attack, which I think many people believe he was, what type of monster this guy, you know, really was. He didn't care that she was holding her infant. He didn't care that she had two other, know, small children in the home. He was just out to satisfy whatever sick urge he had.
- [47:54]
Mike Morford
And Vicki had to be terrified because her child was bound to her during this attack, which is, you know, frightening to think about and just shocking, but it didn't deter him at all. And I feel like there's a little bit of luck on his side because, you know, due to the confusion about her exact address, it delayed police getting there just enough to let him get away. And, you know, had that not been the case, maybe they would have got there in time to catch him fleeing, and it might have taken him off the street sooner.
- [48:30]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I would agree with you. I would also say that, you know, I think some criminals, they have some luck, you know, on their side to help them get away with some of these crimes for as long as they do.
- [48:44]
Mike Morford
After killing Janice, Jordan made his way to Arizona. Investigators believe he may have moved to Yuma, just 10 miles north of the border between the United States and Mexico, to be able to flee the country at a moment's notice. But he didn't clean up his act. In 1992, he was arrested on an unknown charge. In 1998, he was arrested in El Centro, California. This Time it was completely unlike anything else on his rap sheet. He was charged with drug trafficking. Even while serving a sentence on this charge, he kept going. He was caught dealing marijuana to fellow prisoners and received an additional drug charge for that. In 2001, he was free once again, this time on supervised release. Just over a decade after being released, he died. He seemed to be completely alone in life. No one claimed his body and he was buried by the county in the indigent section of Pioneer Cemetery.
- [49:38]
Mike Ferguson
And I wonder more if he was completely alone because he was a terrible person that nobody wanted to be around. Just a thought.
- [49:48]
Mike Morford
It's hard to push back against that after all we know about him now.
- [49:52]
Mike Ferguson
As far as we know, Jordan never attacked anyone after his final release from prison. Maybe he just got too old to handle the physical part of the attacks. He was 75 when he was let out on supervised release. But we can't rule out that Thomas Jordan has other victims out there someplace over his decades long life of crime. And as we know, rape is a very under reported crime. The first known time Jordan actually physically harmed a woman was in 1976. But he had already been traveling the country using at least one alias and committing crimes for about 30 years by then. I think it's entirely possible that there are victims out there that never had their DNA collected in their cases because they happened before DNA was able to be used in criminal investigations. And, and depending on the age of the victim at the time of the attack, it's possible that they passed away before he was caught and never had the chance to come forward and say they recognized him. And I would just say this morv. With a guy like Thomas Jordan, it's hard for me to believe that he didn't commit many more crimes than what is known. I just. I have to believe that that's the case.
- [51:22]
Mike Morford
Yeah. And I would think, you know, if one day I hear that he's been connected to more crimes by old DNA samples that are finally tested and linked to him, I wouldn't be shocked one bit.
- [51:33]
Mike Ferguson
No, me neither. Absolutely not.
- [51:36]
Mike Morford
This case is so upsetting because somehow Thomas Jordan was released from custody time after time, even after it was clear that he was a violent offender. Multiple women would not have been victimized by him and at least one would still be alive if he had seen even the minimum of his 16 to 82 year sentence. The woman he sexually assaulted and stabbed in Geauga county may not have become his victim. If the multiple times he violated parole had been taken seriously. He should have at A minimum, served his sentences behind bars, not free to continue terrorizing people until he happened to get caught. At what point do you draw the line and stop giving out chance after chance after chance?
- [52:16]
Mike Ferguson
And I think for me, that that is the very frustrating part. Yeah, I get it. You know, you want to rehabilitate, you want to give people second chances. I understand all that. But at a certain point, when somebody continually demonstrates they're. They're not rehabilitated and they just keep, you know, reoffending, like you said, Morph, where do you draw the line? And it just seems like in the case of Thomas Jordan, no one ever really drew that line.
- [52:48]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I believe in second chances, but when you get to 10th chance, 11th chance, 12th chance, at some point you have to accept that the person is who they're telling you and showing you they are. You know that old saying, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. In this guy's case, they should have believed him. He was telling them who he was and he kept getting out and getting
- [53:11]
Mike Ferguson
back to the frightening possibility that Thomas Jordan has more victims out there. Akron Police Department Lt. Dave Whitten told the Beacon Journal. I would bet my salary he's done this way more than we know. Even though most people agree that there have to be other victims out there, Jordan's DNA did not match DNA from the murders of Joanne Bartholomew or Marsha K. Piotr. We don't know if their murders are connected, but we do know they had no link to Barbara or Janice's killer. Hopefully the day their cases are solved is just around the corner.
- [53:50]
Mike Morford
These kinds of cold case solves, decades old cases with DNA evidence are really a sign of good work over the years. So much evidence is destroyed after a certain period of time lost as the case grows cold or degrades over the years. Proper preservation and organization can go a very long way here and make these solves possible. As amazing as the work Colleen Fitzpatrick can do is she can't pull DNA from nothing. There has to be a sample she can use. And in cases from decades ago, many times DNA wasn't even collected yet alone. Stored so perfectly it can be used 30, 40 years later. As we saw with Vicki's case, even when a sample is collected and initially stored, it still has to manage to stick around to be useful. This all goes back to good and proper police work being done and evidence properly handled.
- [54:41]
Mike Ferguson
Thankfully, over time, the statute of limitations for sexual assault in the state of Ohio has been extended from what was just a mere six years, which is what led to Vicky's evidence being destroyed to 25 years. There are many people pushing to end the statute of limitations altogether because until an offender is caught or dies, the danger is pretty much always there. Teresa Stafford, CEO of the Hope and Healing Survivor Resource center in Akron, told USA Today. One of the things that is important to keep in the forefront is that sexual assault is a crime of opportunity and access. Most will continue to cause harm if they are not held accountable and more if. It's kind of maddening that at one point the statute of limitations for sexual assault was six years in Ohio. Now, I don't know what it is across the country in different states, but six years to me just shows you exactly how little emphasis was placed on those types of crimes. And we've seen it in the older cases that we've done.
- [55:56]
Mike Morford
And thankfully, that crime is being taken as seriously as it should be. And I think across the board, those short statute of limitations are being extended.
- [56:08]
Mike Ferguson
And I would be ecstatic if it was extended even more because I just don't think if someone is caught later on or determined through DNA to have done this, that there should be any way for them to not pay the price for what they did.
- [56:28]
Mike Morford
And it's not out of the question to think that if some of those rape kits that were thrown out over the years had still been around, they might tie to other cases or maybe even to more murders, and it might lead to more identification. So unfortunately, there were so many of them over the years that have been thrown out, we just don't know what they might have linked to.
- [56:49]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I just don't like the idea of people getting off on a technicality, like, you know, a statute of limitations or something like that when it comes to, like, a really serious offense. And you have to put sexual assault in that category.
- [57:06]
Mike Morford
Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. While we now know who is responsible for some of the cases we discussed in this episode, the loved ones of some of the victims we mentioned are still hoping for answers. If you have any information about the murders of Marsha K. Piotter and Joanne Bartholomew, you can call the Ohio Bureau of Criminal investigation, tipline at 855-224-6446.
- [57:31]
Mike Ferguson
So morph, as we wrap up this episode, there's no doubt in my mind that Thomas Jordan was a. A predator of a. A pretty high degree. I mean, he was a serious predator. And, you know, we know that he killed Janice Christensen, but I just have a hard time believing that there are not many more crimes that he was associated with that we'll just never know about. And he probably has many more victims.
- [58:09]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I think this is a guy that the more digging you do, the more connections you can make, the more things you're going to uncover, the more victims you're going to find. So as we talked about earlier, I think in the future, if I hear he's linked to more things via DNA, I won't be surprised at all.
- [58:26]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I'm right with you. I wouldn't be surprised either. But that's it for our episode on Janice Christensen. As always, if you love the show but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review a rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
- [58:46]
Mike Morford
If you want to find us on social media or on every major platform, just search for Criminology Podcast on your favorites. And for news, old episodes and more, head over to criminologypodcast.com and if you want to join a discussion group about the cases we cover or the show, head over to Facebook and search for Criminology podcast discussion and fans.
- [59:07]
Mike Ferguson
So that's it for another episode. But Morph and I will be back with all of you Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week.
- [59:17]
Mike Morford
Take care everyone.
- [59:49]
Sponsor/Ad Reader
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