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- [00:01]
A
A PSA from Instacart. It's Sunday, 5pm you had a non stop weekend. You're running on empty and so is your fridge. You're in the trenches of the Sunday scaries. You don't have it in you to go to the store, but this is your reminder. You don't have to. You can get everything you need delivered through Instacart so that you can get what you really need. More time to do whatever you want. Instacart for one less Sunday. Scary. We're here.
- [00:28]
B
Did you know you can opt out of winter with VRBO? Save up to $1,500 for booking a month long stay with thousands of sunny homes. Why subject yourself to the cold? Just filter your search by monthly stays and save up to fifteen hundred dollars. Book now at vrbo.com Criminology is a.
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C
True crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is. Foreign.
- [01:20]
D
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 374 of the Criminology podcast.
- [01:25]
C
This is Mike Ferguson and this is Mike Morford.
- [01:29]
D
Morph, how you doing this week, buddy?
- [01:30]
C
I'm doing pretty good. How you doing?
- [01:33]
D
I'm doing great. My family and I, we actually, we bought a Wave Runner. I traded in my bass boat because I wasn't using it. I wasn't going out fishing and got a Wave Runner and we all took it to the lake this past weekend and just had a ton of fun. Man. I've never actually even ridden or driven a Waverunner and people were giggling, shouting, laughing. They're a lot of fun, but they're a lot faster than you think they are. They take, they shoot out like a rocket.
- [02:06]
C
You better be careful because you're not as young as used to be. So you can pull some, some hips and things. Probably riding those too rough.
- [02:14]
D
Man, a true thing. You have never said I'm not as young as I used to be. All right, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Crystal Forewrights as a new Patreon, so that's some great new support. We really appreciate it.
- [02:30]
C
Thank you so much, Crystal. That really helps us out. For anyone else that would like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com criminology to get started.
- [02:38]
D
So before we get started, we just wanted to remind everyone one last time that we'll be on podcast row at Crimecon Denver next weekend, September 5th through the 7th. Well, at least Morph will be. Unfortunately, like I've said, I won't be able to attend. Gibby will be there as well.
- [02:58]
C
Yeah, if you're at CrimeCon, please stop by and say hi. And like Mike just said, he won't be there unfortunately. But I'll be hanging out next to everybody's favorite Gibby. So you know, he's obviously the co host from TCAT and we'll be having our annual joint criminology TCAT meetup Saturday night, September 6th at 9pm that's in the Mountain Pass Sports Bar. So I hope to see a lot of you there.
- [03:19]
D
All right, Morph, so we have all of that out of the way. Let's get into this week's case. You know, over the past two episodes we did a deep dive on the case of Amy Bradley who vanished in 1998 and her case has gotten a bunch of publicity thanks to the new Netflix documentary. This week we're covering the case of a 17 year old named Martha Leanne Green who vanished in 1987. By contrast, her case got very little attention, but it's every bit as mysterious.
- [03:54]
C
On April 15, 1987, 17 year old Martha Leanne Greene, who usually went by Leann, vanished from White Bluff, Tennessee. At the time, she and her twin brother Lawson were both juniors at Dixon County High School and they were looking forward to attending the promotion as twins. They were both the babies of the family and they were very close. They had two older sisters, Lisa and Lori. Like many teenagers at the time, Leann had an after school job to have some extra spending money. She was working part time as a hostess of the restaurant inside the Holiday Inn off of Highway 46 near Interstate 40 in Dixon.
- [04:32]
D
Just after 9pm on the night of Wednesday, April 15, Leann's brother Lawson picked her up after her shift ended. He was driving their cousin's gray 1979 Monte Carlo, which he had just borrowed so that he could drive them all to their prom the next night. Just like a last minute dress rehearsal, this would be a little preview of what they could expect as they drove to their prom. It was a quick trip too, about 20 minutes each way. But after driving north up Highway 46 for just under a mile, Lawson had to pull the car over because they had run out of gas. They were stopped at the corner of Highway 46 and Fabric Road, near the railroad tracks and a store called the Barn. It was raining pretty heavily at the time. Luckily, they weren't the only ones on the highway that night. The Puckett family were headed home from church when they saw Leann and Lawson stopped with their hazard lights flashing and and stop to offer them some help. And right off the bat, more of the first thing that jumped out at me was the Monte Carlo. You know, back in the day, it was kind of a sought after vehicle, I think, especially if you were a teenager. It was a pretty cool Chevrolet car. Obviously they had different models when you get into, like the ss, but, you know, a lot of people, you know, like the Monte Carlo, they like to soup them up.
- [06:03]
C
Yeah, I remember those being pretty sporty, and I know they had like an SS version and, and some, you know, really sharp looking ones. And a couple friends of mine had them and, you know, we always thought they were pretty cool looking, and I wouldn't mind driving one of them back in the 80s, if I was. I had a beater Chevy Impala that cost me like $200 to buy, so this probably would have been a step up for me.
- [06:27]
D
Well, I remember, you know, being like 16, 17 years old. Your first car was obviously a huge thing, but you always had like, car envy because other people, maybe your friends or you just saw cars, right? And you're like, well, I'm driving this kind of crappy car, for the lack of a better word. I'd love to have that. Mine back in the day was a Chevy Irock camaro, like an 80. This is in the 80s. That's what I really wanted. Of course, I never had one because I had no money.
- [07:06]
C
But you want to talk about the running out of gas part, too, because I remember a couple times being on E, crossing my fingers that I could make it the couple miles to the gas station and, and just throwing a couple of gallons just to keep me going. And knock on wood, I never ran out of gas, but I had friends that were constantly running out of gas. And every time I rode with them, I'd look over their gas gates just to see if they had gas in there, because, you know, it seemed like time and time again they were running out of gas.
- [07:36]
D
Yeah, I mean, it's a scary scenario. Nobody wants to run out of gas. But when you're that young and you have very little money, you know, like you said a lot of times you were putting a couple of dollars worth of gas back then because that's all you had.
- [07:54]
C
Yeah, And I remember gas was like 69 cents for a gallon of regular back when I was that age. So, you know, a couple gallons would actually get you driving for a little while. According to more recent interviews with investigators, and as mentioned on WKRN.com, one of the last things Leanne ever said to her brother Lawson was, I'm scared. She didn't say what of, and Lawson didn't ask. Instead, he told her to come with him and the Puckett family to get gas. But for whatever reason, she decided to stay behind. She just wanted the keys so that she could listen to the radio while she waited for him to get back. The family drove Lawson to the Shell gas station that was just about a half mile down the road. While Leann waited with the car, the Puckett family was nice enough to drive him back to the car. So since it was dark, instead of him walking or trying to find another ride, most reports say Lawson was away from his sister in the car for just 10 minutes, with some reports saying it was as few as eight, while others said it was up to 15. Whatever the case, it wasn't very long, eight to 15 minutes. But by the time Lawson returned with a gas can, Leanne was gone.
- [09:02]
D
So, obviously this is where the mystery begins. But, you know, the thing that stood out to me more was Leanne telling her brother she's scared. But then making the decision to stay with the car rather than go with him and the Puckett family, it just seemed at odds with the. With what she was saying, wanting to kind of be out there by herself. Now. Maybe she just wanted to stay with the car, I don't know.
- [09:31]
C
Yeah. Unfortunately, she didn't elaborate on what. What she was afraid of. And Lawson probably being on her to get gas, didn't ask. And maybe she meant she was afraid of going with a family full of strangers. Maybe it was something else. But, you know, maybe if we had that answer, it would help us understand this case a little bit better.
- [09:50]
D
When Lawson first got back to the car, he didn't immediately notice that Leanne was gone because the windows on the Monte Carlo had dark tint. After the Puckets dropped him off, he put the few gallons from the gas can into the tank and then walked to the driver's door to get in, completely not expecting to find the car unoccupied. The driver's side door was locked, so Lawson knocked. But when Leanne didn't open the door for him, he walked around to her side of the car, the passenger side, and opened it. And there was no sign of his sister. Although Leann was not in the car, her purse and the keys to the car were still inside, sitting neatly on the front seat. But otherwise there was no sign of Leanne and no sign of a struggle.
- [10:39]
C
At around 10pm, Leann was officially reported missing. At the time, her brother Last saw her, Leanne was wearing faded blue jeans, a white long sleeve sweatshirt, and a pair of white tennis shoes. Early on, Leanne's disappearance was suspected to involve foul Play. In a 2021 news segment by WKRN, Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove said that by Monday, less than a week after Leanne vanished, the media was really generating it. We're really putting it out there because we know something's wrong. She has not just walked off there by herself. We're pretty sure it's a stranger abduction. Backing their theory up was the fact that Leanne was so excited about going to the prom the next day. Leanne had her pink prom dress and matching shoes laid out on her bed, waiting for her to look at it and try it on one more time before prom night. While some people think that Leann may have vanished voluntarily and left the prom dress out as part of a misdirection, others pushed back on that theory, asking, how would Leann know the car would run out of gas at that spot and then put some kind of plan into motion? During the very short time her brother was gone, Leann had to save up for the prom dress and the shoes with her own money. And she was very proud of the outfit and excited to wear it at prom. If she was going to run off and try to start a new life, she could have used that money for that instead of the new outfit for an event she knew she would never make it to. Not to mention her purse was left behind.
- [12:04]
D
And this is something that comes up in every disappearance case. Did the person leave voluntarily? And I think every case is different. You have to look at the circumstances and. But in a lot of them, and I would include Leanne's case here as well. You know, there are things that point to the fact that it just doesn't make sense that the person vanished on their own. Right. In this case, Leanne has this prom that she's looking forward to. She saved up money to buy the dress. And I think you made a really good point, morph, which was, you know, how would she know that the car was going to run out of gas? How could she have planned for that? The only other argument someone could make is that she used that event, that happening to then put a plan in motion. But that would be very spur of the moment. Doesn't seem likely.
- [13:10]
C
Yeah. There's also no history of her running away or threatening to run away. By all accounts, from her friends, she was in good spirits. And as we talked about, she's excited about that prom has her dress ready to go. Not the type of scene where someone's going to take off when they've got so much they're happy about going on.
- [13:31]
D
Yeah, I know you have to at least entertain the idea, but in most cases it doesn't seem logical, and I think you'd have to put it in that category in this case as well. Searching the area around the car, investigators found a white sweater and a pair of jeans in a nearby field. But it was determined that they were items of men's clothing and did not belong to Leann. They were deemed irrelevant to her disappearance. Unfortunately, early on, the crime scene and the car were never locked down. Friends, family and residents in the area trying to find a clue trampled over any potential evidence on the ground in smudged prints as they looked through the Monte Carlo. On top of that, the car wasn't officially impounded or analyzed for evidence until the next day, after investigators had already instructed Leann's father to drive it home.
- [14:33]
C
Yeah, I think this is a case where this is maybe a small town police department not used to dealing with this kind of stuff and allowing people to search that car, get in and out of it. I'm sure these people just wanted to help, but in the process, this cart probably should have been preserved, taped off and not let anyone get in it. And here these people are in it, checking it out. Dad's driving at home and, you know, the police shouldn't have let that happen.
- [15:03]
D
Well, you know, Obviously hindsight is 20 20. I just wonder in some of these instances, did the police look at it and think that, well, this is not a crime scene, like that's not the first thing that's going through their head. She just walked off. We're going to find her pretty quickly, but obviously later on, it's pretty easy to pick this one apart, right, and say, well, this should have happened, that should have happened, and if it had, then maybe clues or evidence could have been garnered.
- [15:41]
C
19 year old police officer Jeff Bledsoe had been the first to arrive and inspect the Monte Carlo. He told WSMV.com I couldn't see any transfer of any touch where someone had touched the side of the car, the windows, doors or anything. The rain that night had left the car wet, but there were no areas that looked different than other parts of the car. It kind of looked like Leanne had just gotten out of the car and maybe walked off. But there were no footprints or any other clues to signal which direction she may have gone in. Bledsoe added I could see no obvious signs of a struggle, and her belongings left in the car had me thinking she was expecting a return back to the car.
- [16:20]
D
So this guy was 19 years old. Obviously pretty new to the force at 19 years of age. Maybe that had something to do with, you know, how things went as well. But all of this has led to the question, if Leann did get out of the car, why? She had mentioned she was going to stay in the car and listen to the radio until her brother got back. She had also mentioned being scared about something. So if she was scared, the car seems as if it would have provided her more safety or peace of mind. And due to the rain that night, walking probably wouldn't have been ideal. Some people theorize that while waiting there, someone that Leann knew happened to come along and she decided to leave with them. But would she just leave the car unattended with the keys in her purse inside, and not wait for her brother? Or maybe even leave a note? All of this kind of seems unlikely.
- [17:21]
C
One possibility is that someone dangerous passed the car and abducted Leeann. According to former Cheatham County Sheriff Mike breedlove, there were three suspected serial murders or rapists driving on Highway 46 the night that Leanne disappeared. Exactly how he knows that details and that precise of a number isn't clear, but if it's true, it's pretty disturbing. There were 25,000 county residents at the time Leanne vanished. So to know that a combination of three rapists or serial killers were on the streets in that area in one night is frightening.
- [17:54]
D
One man who is suspected of several attacks on women that was confirmed to have been on Highway 46 that night was Robert McKinley Richards, who was 22 at the time Leann vanished. Richards was kicked out of the training program for the Shelby County Sheriff's Emergency Services team almost exactly one month after Leann's disappearance. He hadn't taken the required examinations to graduate and become an actual member while he was training. And after he was kicked out of the program, the girl he was dating at the time was under the impression that he was a lieutenant employed by the Sheriff's Department. She recalled that he had an entire uniform, including a hat and jacket that both had the Sheriff's department logo on them.
- [18:45]
C
One of Richard's ex girlfriends, Angie Moss, had some information that could potentially point to his involvement in Leanne's disappearance, if it's true. According to an article posted on Websleuths, Angie recalled that sometime In May or June 1987, they were driving on Highway 46. Less than a mile away from where Lawson and Leanne's car ran out of gas. And Richards started telling her about one of the greatest sexual experiences he ever had. He claimed that he had killed a 16 year old girl with brown hair and brown eyes by stabbing her seven times during the act. While Leann had green eyes, she often wore brown contacts, so she could still fit the description of the girl Richards claimed he stabbed to death, even though the age is one year off, with Leanne being 17 when she went missing. If Richards was telling the truth, maybe he simply guessed at Leann's age.
- [19:37]
D
Such a strange thing, Morph number one, to talk about what you're calling one of the greatest sexual experiences of your life to your girlfriend, that right off the bat seems strange. And then obviously even more strange and disturbing is saying that it involved stabbing a 16 year old girl and that.
- [20:05]
C
That'S a situation where your significant other starts telling you that you have to say to yourself, wait a minute, is this person joking? Why are they saying this? I don't know what Angie was thinking, but it's pretty disturbing what he was telling her. So if she wasn't creeped out by it, maybe she should have been.
- [20:23]
D
Well, Angie had more troubling things to say about Richards. According to her, he always had a pair of handcuffs with him, as well as a pistol and a long serrated knife. The handcuffs would certainly add to the appearance that Richards was a member of law enforcement. And the pistol could definitely scare someone into complying without leaving any sign of a struggle. Richards had a specific ruse he would use to get to his victims. He used a blue light similar to the lights on a police vehicle. One of his ex girlfriends recalled being with him when he used the light to pull over. Two teenage boys driving at night using.
- [21:03]
C
The ruse of being a police officer might certainly get Leanne out of the car and talking to someone she didn't know. If someone pretending to be an officer looked the part, perhaps he may have convinced Leanne to get into his car. But even in this police ruse scenario, the question still needs to be asked. Why leave her purse behind? Is it possible that someone using that ruse said they just wanted to check her to see if she had any drugs or alcohol on her, and she complied and got out of the vehicle expecting to be searched and instead was abducted? It seems feasible, but unfortunately there's just no clear evidence that points to that scenario.
- [21:38]
D
On June 1, 1987, Richards was pulled over in Germantown near Memphis after a young woman reported him to police for following her at the time, he had a loaded 20 gauge shotgun and a Shelby County Sheriff's badge and hat. He received a misdemeanor citation for impersonating an officer with reckless driving and possession of a deadly weapon. Just one week later, a 23 year old nurse was attacked in her home. A man that she later identified as Richards broke into her home around 4 in the morning, handcuffed her and sexually assaulted her. He was arrested the next day and charged with aggravated rape, but was released from custody after he posted Bond.
- [22:25]
C
On July 22, 1987, just three months after Leanne's disappearance, Richards pulled over 37 year old Marsha Ehret, a nurse who was driving on Highway 18 near Bolivar, about an hour east of Memphis. She was stopped by someone claiming to be a Shelby County Sheriff's deputy. The man handcuffed her and held her at gunpoint for at least 20 minutes. One week later, she identified Richards in a photo lineup. He was arrested three days later and charged with aggravated assault.
- [22:54]
D
Just one day after his arrest, another woman came forward to report an assault by Richards. The woman from Memphis told authorities that he had attacked her about a week before his arrest when they met at a nightclub. He had been wearing a pilot's uniform and offered to drive her home safely. Instead, he handcuffed her, drove her to a cabin in a remote area of Forest park in Memphis and sexually assaulted her multiple times and more. What jumped out to me immediately was that this guy was caught. He was caught impersonating an officer. He was caught with a 20 gauge shotgun, and then he was identified as the man who broke into this nurse's home, handcuffed her and sexually assaulted her. But then he's let out, right? He's allowed to post bond and he goes on to assault multiple other women.
- [23:59]
C
Yeah, it's pretty disturbing. It's clearly a pattern, and these are coming in rather quick succession, and it's a troubling pattern. He just seems to be getting more and more aggressive and even being arrested isn't stopping him. So certainly no question that he's a danger to other people, especially women on the road that he might try and target. Richards was known to travel in where he committed or attempted crimes in at least five counties in Tennessee that we know of. These are just the crimes that he got caught for and the locations that have been connected to him. A childhood friend of Richard's lived in Lyles, just five miles from Dixon, close to where Leann vanished from. In the spring and summer 1987, Richards traveled there to visit this friend multiple times. In the fall of 1987, Richards actually confessed to murdering Leeann. But investigators could not tell whether he was telling the truth. He was known to make up stories. He just kept changing the location where he supposedly left Leanne's body. They took him around from place to place. Something that must have really broken up the monotony of being behind bars. As soon as he told them the truth, the field trips would stop. He really had more incentive not to help them, even if he knew where she was.
- [25:12]
D
One thing that makes some people believe Richards is that while under hypnosis, he apparently described a piece of Leann's jewelry that was somewhat unique. This was one of two things Richards reportedly said that only someone involved in her disappearance would know. Richards also claimed that Leann was on her period when she disappeared. Apparently, investigators believe this to be accurate. Perhaps they could have gathered this information using a journal or calendar of Leanne's. If she kept track of her cycle, her friends may have known. Or there could have been rappers for feminine hygiene products in her trash.
- [25:51]
C
Richards also confessed to killing 26 year old Teresa Ann Butler. Teresa was last seen in Memphis at around 9:15pm on November 10, 1986, as she left work at St. Francis Hospital where she was a student nurse. Her car, a brand new Honda Civic, was found on the side of Monterey Road, which is in the rural area of southeastern Shelby County. The car was still running with the lights and radio still on and the windshield wipers were going. Most notably, the driver's door had been left open. Richards helped search for Teresa as a volunteer civilian searcher. As we know, many killers involve themselves in the investigation, whether it's to try and steer authorities away from them or just out of some kind of morbid curiosity or fascination with their victim. Her family believes that Richards blue light ruse would have worked on Teresa. Her sister Pam Danger told the Tennessean, I'm sure Theresa would have stopped if she thought it was a police officer. Just as sure as I am that Richards took Teresa and killed her.
- [26:51]
D
So the one thing that you would have to say is that this Richard's guy is a tantalizing suspect. I mean, you know, first off, he was identified by multiple women in some sexual assaults, and now he's confessed to killing two women, one of them being Leigh Ann. And the other thing that I wanted to touch on was, you know, Pam, Teresa's sister, talking about the fact that she was sure Theresa would have stopped if she thought someone was a police officer. And I think Morph, that's why the police officer ruse is so dangerous. You know, we're taught from a young age that you're supposed to obey police officers. So if you see a blue light behind you, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to stop. But if that person isn't really a police officer and is intent on doing you harm, well, that becomes then a very dangerous situation.
- [27:59]
C
And I think that police officer ruse would probably work even better on a younger person maybe, that respects authority, was taught, if you're ever in that situation, make sure you listen to them, obey their orders. Whereas maybe an adult, an older, more experienced person might say, is this guy really a cop? Something looks off. He's not driving what we normally see police driving or maybe doesn't have a full uniform on. So I think it's likely that a younger person might be more susceptible to it. And I also just wanted to touch on, too. He got charged with a misdemeanor for impersonating a police officer. And I think in some jurisdictions, that's a very serious crime. I think it's a felony in some jurisdictions. So it's likely that in other areas, he would have been facing some hard time for this, as opposed to facing a misdemeanor in this case.
- [28:54]
D
Well, and we can't discount the time frame, right? The 1980s, chances are, if you would fast forward to today, all of these things we're talking about would be dealt with with, you know, much harsher sentences. We know, you know, 70s, 80s crimes against women weren't dealt with with the same severity that they are today. And, and it's very unfortunate because I do think this guy was able to then go on and, and hurt multiple people when he should have been really locked up.
- [29:35]
C
And also, one thing we really haven't discussed is that the time frame, this is before surveillance cameras all over, before cell phone tracking and apps, things of that nature. So someone like this guy would have used all that stuff to his advantage because it would have been harder to pinpoint where he was and if he was involved in some of these things that he did.
- [29:56]
D
By 1989, Richards had changed his tune and claimed that he did not kill Leann and even denied it when her parents visited him in prison to try to get some answers. According to Eric Price, his cellmate at the time, when he got back from the visit with Leann's parents, he admitted with a smile on his face that he did kill her. According to Price, in an article on websleuths, Richards actually said that he was relieved because he Thought he had convinced them that he didn't kill her, which he claimed he did because he thought it would put them at peace. Fellow Lake County Regional Corrections center inmate Donnie Dean heard a story similar to the one that Angie Moss recalls Richards telling her. But there are some important differences. According to Dean, Richards stabbed Leeann because she wouldn't stop screaming, and he got scared and panicked. He also said that Richards was afraid to face trial for Leann's murder because he was afraid to receive the death penalty and be executed by the electric chair. So Richards was convicted. Right. He was put in prison. The research seems to show that it was for the assault on Marsha Ehrett, although some of the reporting is a little muddy, I think. Again, for me, what is also confusing is all get out, you know, are these multiple confessions to murder, although as far as I could tell, he was. He was never charged or tried for murder.
- [31:34]
C
And it doesn't seem like some of these other crimes that he was accused of or admitted to either, that he was charged for. So maybe it's only Marsha Ehart's case that he was in prison for. And Richards may have wanted to avoid the electric chair, but he wasn't able to avoid a violent death. Richards was killed by his cellmate in 1991. Apparently, it was Richards himself who actually talked his cellmate, Eric Price, into killing him. When you hear that someone in prison was killed, it's usually due to a gang thing, their charges coming to light, or personal beef between inmates. But Richards and his cellmate were on pretty good terms. He had just managed to convince Price that he worked for the CIA and kept telling Price that if he didn't take him out first, then Price would be killed. It was only a few hours later that Price strangled Richards to death using an electrical cable. There are a few reports that say he was stabbed to death in prison, but these are incorrect. Had Richards lived, he might have eventually revealed the location of Leann's body. Then again, if he had nothing to do with her death, he would have had nothing of value to offer.
- [32:41]
D
So I think it's certainly possible that Richards had some involvement in Leann's death. You know, he did confess to the murder. He then took it back. Was it because, you know, he wanted to avoid Old Sparky? I think a lot of people did, you know, back in the day, let's face it, who really wanted to be executed. And very few people want to be killed in general. But this is such a strange ending for Richards not to be killed in prison. People get killed in prison all the time. But to be killed from asking your cellmate to murder you or to kill you, that's a really strange thing. And then obviously, you have this whole story about him being in the CIA, and I don't know, it's just really far out there.
- [33:35]
C
Yeah, he's afraid of being put to death, executed. But then he asked this cellmate to do the job. So very strange, and just a very dangerous guy, it seems, with these women that were just coming forward at a rapid pace, just saying, he did this to me, he did that to me. And thankfully, he was in prison for that stretch that he was doing at the time he died. Or there might have been other victims. And even if he didn't kill anyone and he wasn't responsible for any murders, he seems like the kind of person that could have escalated to becoming a murderer. So I think one way or another, for him to be off the streets was a good thing.
- [34:17]
D
Yeah. I don't think there's any doubt this was not a good guy. Some people think there's a possibility that Leigh Ann was the victim of a killer known as the Bible Belt Strangler. Because many of the cases attributed to this killer are still unsolved, it's not confirmed that there is a single Bible Belt Strangler, and it's unclear which cases are truly connected to each other. The Bible Belt Strangler murders overlap with what are called the redhead murders. Some of the victims were found clothed, some totally naked. Some of them had potentially been sexually assaulted, while others had not been. Additionally, some of the victims were bound while others were not. After hearing that, the police know that at least three serial rapists or murderers were on the same road on the same night. It wouldn't be shocking if most of the murders discussed together in these groups are completely unrelated and the work of different predators overlapping. While many of the Bible Belt Strangler murders did take place in the right area and during the right time frame, many of the victims did not match Leann's situation when she vanished. Many of the Bible Belt Strangler victims were hitchhiking or performing sex work. These women were vulnerable and often not reported missing.
- [35:44]
C
Another man whose name was thrown out as a potential suspect in Leanne's case was truck driver Henry Harris Jr. He had two flyers about Leanne's disappearance in his truck when he was found deceased in 1999. There was also a handwritten note where he mentioned he wanted a girl of his own, as well as a photo of a girl that looked A lot like Leanne, it ended up being one of Harris's relatives. As creepy as it may seem that he had Leanne's missing persons flyers in his truck, it may have been that he picked flyers up that he's seen while on the road. Many times truckers are called upon to keep their eyes open for runaways or missing people.
- [36:21]
D
But what does that mean, Morv, that he mentioned he wanted the girl of his own? I mean, I think you could take that statement a number of different ways. He wanted a girlfriend or he wanted something else.
- [36:36]
C
Yeah, I could see how some people would take that in a bad way. And then you have the flyers there in his truck, and they'll just automatically put two and two together and say, okay, this, this guy may be some kind of predator or predator wannabe. In the end, there's just not a lot of information here and we don't really know what his motives were. Maybe he was planning on looking for her and maybe his intentions were good. We just don't know.
- [37:04]
D
Despite some interesting potential suspects in Leanne's case, there's no solid evidence connecting anyone to her disappearance. And 38 years later, police may not be any closer to finding out what happened. But they haven't given up on the case. People in that area of Tennessee still talk about Leanne's case to this day. Tom Wall, who was a detective in 1987 when Leann disappeared and eventually made his way up to being sheriff, told the Tennessean that nothing like that had ever happened here in Dixon County. And he said that people just couldn't comprehend that a 17 year old girl could be abducted there.
- [37:45]
C
While Leanne's case hasn't gotten major attention, people on sites like Reddit and websleuths have pored over the case, trying to see if they can figure out what happened. A lot of people on the sites ask questions about parts of the case, wondering if there could be some kind of inside job or setup going on here. One of the biggest questions was, how did they run out of gas? Most of the time this question is asked with a bit of suspicion toward Leann's brother Lawson, saying, isn't it a little convenient to run out of gas and to have to leave Leanne behind and then have an entire family? Be able to verify your alibi at the time she went missing.
- [38:21]
D
But in reality, the answer to the car running out of gas isn't as mysterious as it seems. Police verified that the car's gas gauge was broken and not properly working. Since it wasn't Lawson's car and he had borrowed it. He had no idea that when he set off to pick Leann up from work that night that the gas gauge was wrong and he didn't know that there wouldn't be enough gas to make it home. It was only about a 20 minute drive. He was going to pick her up so that she could make it home safely at night. And even if the Puckett family didn't see Leann inside the car when Lawson got out, Leann had just checked out of work and had been seen there. There's no missing time between her leaving work and the Puckett family coming upon them stranded on the side of the highway. It's just not possible that something violent happened between the two siblings in the window of time that we're talking about here.
- [39:19]
C
As for Lawson, he blamed himself for his twin sister Leann's disappearance, feeling that he was responsible for what happened because he had left her alone in the car. It was going to be a very quick trip. The car was safely off the road and she had the keys. What could he have possibly expected to happen to her in 10 to 20 minutes inside of a locked car? How many people would really even pass the car at that time, let alone get close enough to notice Leanne through tinted windows and and then decide to harm her? In 1997, Leanne's mother, Marjorie, passed away at the age of 57 after a battle with cancer. Her father, George, lived to 91, dying in 2023. They never found out what happened to their daughter. Leann was declared legally dead in 1999. Her family had filed for this status four years earlier.
- [40:08]
D
It wasn't until that attempted 1995 filing to have Leanne declared dead that a potential piece of evidence was disclosed. Despite earlier reports that there was nothing on or in the car that could help indicate what happened, there was apparently a mark on the passenger door that could have been made if someone had kicked the door closed during a struggle. Unfortunately, while that clue opens up some possibilities, it's not enough to this point to provide any answers.
- [40:41]
C
In 2018, there was a lot of hope that there was going to be some major movement in the case. When human remains were found in an open cistern in Dixon County. They ended up belonging to an adult male, not Leanne. Still, the discovery had Leanne on people's minds once again and wondering if she could still be out there alive. Perhaps. Sheriff Breedlove told wkrn, the probability of her being alive is still to me, very small. Very, very small. He added, it's just one of those where if it goes unresolved, I'm just hoping someone somewhere will find her remains.
- [41:16]
D
This case has clearly stayed with investigators, dixon County Sheriff's Office Captain Randy Starkey said in a 2022 interview with the Tennessean. I think about Leanne and her family every day. Her photo still hangs in my office as a constant reminder to never give up, former Cheatham County Sheriff Mike Breedlove told wkrn. It hit me emotionally the night of my daughter's prom. He even asked Leanne's mother if she would come back after she passed away and leave him a clue so that he could finally solve this case. I said, Ms. Greene, would you do something for me? Would you please come back to me? I don't care if you haunt me in the middle of the night, just something I can go on so I can find her remains.
- [42:06]
C
Despite the back and forth, the confessing and the recanting, many of the people who worked on the case over the years feel that Richards is the best suspect in Leann's case. In a WebSleuths article, former Shelby county detective W.J. woods said, Richards looked me square in the eyes, raised his right hand and said, I swear on my mother's life that I killed Leanne Greene. Unfortunately, if Richards knew anything about Leann's death or played a role in her disappearance, he took those secrets to the grave.
- [42:36]
D
There aren't many updates about Lawson or the rest of the Greene family, But as of 2023, when Leann's father passed away, Leann's brother Lawson and her sisters Lori and Lisa were all still alive and living in Tennessee. From photos on Google Maps Street View, it looks like the store called the Barn near where Lawson stopped the car and left Leanne is still standing today. The Holiday Inn in Dixon where leeann worked has been gone for many years.
- [43:10]
C
If you have information about the disappearance of Martha Leanne Greene, you can contact the Dixon County Sheriff's Office by calling 615. You can also send a tip to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation by emailing tips to TBI Gov.
- [43:28]
D
So morph, as we wrap this case up, I do think you have to look at this Richard's guy. As you know, probably the most likely suspect, at least of the people that we know about. I mean, number one, he did confess to her murder. Now he recanted. If you believe some of the people that he was in jail or in prison with, he told them, yeah, I did it. But like you said, you know, unfortunately with his death went the possibility of learning anything more about Leanne from him directly.
- [44:09]
C
Yeah, there's no question that he was a bad guy, had done multiple attacks, which you could say parallel Leanne's vehicles involved, maybe a police officer ruse, that kind of thing. And I think I mentioned before, if he hadn't murdered anyone, it wouldn't be a leap to expect him to eventually do that because he just showed a pattern. But one thing I really find interesting is just that small window in which Richards or some other person may have come along in that small time frame to strike and take Leanne away, leaving no sign, really, of what happened. You know, how likely is it for you to. For your brother to go away, get gas, and come back 8, 10, 12, 15 minutes later, whatever the time frame is, and she's gone. It just doesn't seem like your chances of running into somebody with something nefarious on their mind would happen in such a small window. But this kind of case is proof that it. It can.
- [45:16]
D
Yeah, I don't think, you know, Leanne left voluntarily. I don't think she started a new life. My thought is someone did come along with bad intentions and carried them out. But you know, who that is. It's still up for debate. I still think Richards is probably the most likely person. But one thing I want to touch on is Lawson. Always tough to handle the death of a loved one, a sibling, but I'm sure even more so when that sibling is a twin. And you have the type of scenario that we have in this case, I mean, he's going to feel guilty. There's no way around it. Even though, most likely from everything we know, he did nothing wrong.
- [46:12]
C
Yeah. Despite doing nothing wrong, I think there was a clear indication that he did feel some guilt over leaving his sister there and maybe not insisting that. That she come with him, or maybe not asking why she was scared. He's probably played that moment back a lot of times in his life. And that's one of the most mysterious things to me about the case is, you know, her saying she was scared, but not elaborating him not asking. Maybe something had happened earlier in the day, maybe a customer had come into her work that just made her nervous. Any number of things could be extrapolated by that statement. I'm scared. And maybe if he added more time, he wasn't headed off to get gas, he might have talked her a little bit about that. Maybe that would provide more clues. But for now, it's just a. Interesting thing that she said, that we have no answers for well.
- [47:08]
D
And I go back to my comment early on, which is if she was scared, she verbalized that why stay in the car alone by herself? Why not go with Lawson and the family to get gas again? Another question that we don't have an answer for.
- [47:29]
C
I think it may take her remains being found one day that reveal clues that may finally provide some answers and hopefully that day comes.
- [47:39]
D
Yeah, I agree with you. But that's it for our episode on Martha Leanne Green. As always, if you love the show but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a rating a review. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really.
- [47:56]
C
Helps us out if you want to find us on social media. We're on every major platform. Just search for Criminology Podcast. You can also check out our website criminologypodcast.com and join our Facebook discussion group Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
- [48:11]
D
So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morf and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week.
- [48:22]
C
Take care everyone. Sam.