B (4:07)

That makes sense to me.

A (4:09)

Absolutely. But I could be wrong. I could be very wrong. But it's the. The murder of Linda Rutledge. So let's get into it. My name is Anya Cain. I'm a journalist.

B (4:18)

And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.

A (4:20)

And this is the Murder Sheet.

B (4:22)

We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're the Murder Sheet.

A (4:30)

And this is the murder of Linda Rutledge.

B (4:33)

SA Lexington, we should say, is the second largest city in Kentucky, has about 320,000 people. It's actually a nice community. I have family there. I've been there often. It's. It's. It's a nice town. But what we're about to talk about is something that happened there that is obviously far from nice.

A (5:39)

Absolutely. Yeah. And Kentucky, to give you a sense, is sort of in the. I guess. I don't know. Would you say it's more on. It's kind of in the middle, but maybe a little bit more on the eastern side of the state?

B (5:50)

Yeah.

A (5:51)

Yeah. And it's kind of. It's maybe a little bit further towards the north than the south, but it's kind of in the middle and it's in, it's in Fayette County, Kentucky. That's, it's, it's actually also the county seat of that. So this occurred in 1998. And I'll kind of just take you through what happened. So the early morning hours of Saturday, November 7, 1998, a passing motorist on Malibu Drive in Lexington spots a building on fire, spots a fire. And this is maybe around 7am or 7:30am and the fire is at a building, kind of a, almost a strip mall looking area, I think. And the, the business on fire is Nixon Hearing Aid center And that's at 121 Malibu Drive, number eight. And the Lexington Fire Department arrives to put out the fire and firefighters said about putting out the blaze. Police are also responding. And near the back of the structure that's on fire, fired and fighters make a really horrifying discovery. And that is the body of a woman. And pretty early on I think this starts to look like a homicide because while the initial cause of death is unclear and police do not initially say, what gets out in the media pretty quickly is that the injuries are not just from the fire. Initially they can't say if she's been stabbed, shot or beaten. But they think that the fire alone did not kill this person. They also have to figure out who this person is. And around the that same time it becomes apparent that the person who was supposed to open the store that Saturday morning is missing. And that person is 43 year old Linda Rutledge. She had last been seen at 9pm Eastern on Friday, November 6, the night before the murder or the night before this fire is discovered. So that's Friday, November 6, 1998. And she was at Mr. B's Bar and Restaurant on Lane Allen Road. So let's, let's talk a bit about Linda Marie Nixon Rutledge. She had a very close familial connection to the store where she worked. She was not just an employee there. Her parents, George and Velma M. Nixon of Winchester, Kentucky owned the place and she worked there as a hearing aid specialist. So this was a classic family business and she's working there. She's supposed to open it up that morning and said she's found dead there. Some more about Ms. Rutledge. She was a native of Kentucky's Clark County. She lived in Lexington, Kentucky and she was divorced with one son. She had two siblings as well and was a member of the Church of the Living God. And so she's found murdered there. And now this is interesting because I don't know why they think this or why they previously thought this, but what media reports say that she, around 9:30pm was believed to have gone into her parents business and that she was killed the night before she was supposed to open the business rather than ambushed in the morning and killed then. So I don't, I don't know why they think that. What do you think about that?

B (9:02)

Yeah, that's very interesting. I wonder. Yeah. I'm curious about what sort of evidence they might have that would lead them to that conclusion.

A (9:12)

You might. If, if it was, if this evidence wasn't destroyed in the buyer, maybe the clothing she was wearing matched the clothing that she would have been wearing the night before at Mr. B's versus, you know, something that she would be wearing to open up the store in the morning to start business.

B (9:28)

Yeah. I'm also curious that they have, they seem to have an idea of the time.

A (9:34)

Yeah. And this is of course 1998. So this is before sort of surveillance footage is necessarily everywhere. So we don't really know the level of evidence they have.

B (9:43)

And her car was found to have been abandoned elsewhere and it was reported stolen the time she was found to be missing, is that correct?

A (9:52)

Yes, around the time she's found to be missing. It is stolen, but that. The day of the Saturday. Right. The day they find her dead. The date of the fire. And at 10pm that night it's found abandoned in the rear of an apartment building at 137 Malibu Drive. So it's not found too far away. Ultimately it's, it's pretty much right there, but, but it's in the back. So when I look on Google Maps at those two addresses again, the city may have changed quite a bit since this occurred. It's been many years, but it's pretty close by. I mean it's like right there actually. I mean, so, I mean I, whoever took the car didn't, didn't go far if, if she didn't park there herself.

B (10:41)

Yeah. And if we're speculating now, trying to figure out why they think she was there at around 9:30, it's obvious they know she wasn't in her car after it was discovered at 10.

A (10:52)

Yeah, yeah, 10pm 10pm the following day.

B (10:57)

Yeah. Oh, 10. Oh, it was the next day.

A (10:59)

Yeah.

B (11:00)

Okay. I, I miss, I apologize for misspeak.

A (11:02)

No, you're fine, you're fine. No, it's hard to figure out because you're trying.

B (11:04)

We're just learning about this case today.

A (11:06)

You'Re trying to, well, you're trying to piece together all the different clues and what it means. But I mean, one thing, if she's dressed to go out then, you know, and they find those garment remnants in the fire, then that would be something. Or perhaps there's witness sightings that we don't know about. There could be any number of things that put her there. Because again, like, it almost makes more sense for some reason for me, where it's like someone goes in the morning and they get like pushed in by a robber and something happens versus like why, why is she going back to her workplace late at night after a night out?

B (11:38)

Well, again, if, if we're speculating, she's last seen at this bar around 9pm for all we know, she may have made a comment to someone, oh, I'm going to go to work to do this or that. Maybe I, maybe I left something or maybe I need to get something.

A (11:55)

That's very true. And you know, but of course, in the, in, in the interim, they couldn't initially tell that it was Linda, so they needed to get an autopsy. Oh, and just, just for everyone's information, her car was a black 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. So that's what they were looking for. So the coroner, they're able to ensure that it is Linda Rutledge. And the Fayette County Coroner's office gets to work. Some media outlets describe her body as bullet riddled. And the coroner finds that she did not die in the fire. She died of multiple gunshot wounds. And then after that the fire started. So that's basically the fire is almost a cover up of the crime versus like an accident where someone dies of smoke inhalation. And in a November 12, 1998 edition of the Lexington Harold Ledger, that newspaper called this the city's 20th homicide of the year and the only unsolved case so far. So detectives immediately begin bringing in a long list of people to be interviewed. And what they're doing is they're seeking out people who may have been in the parking lot at 121 Malibu Drive at 7am right before the fire was discovered. That's what they're looking for. I don't know whether the implication of that could be that they think the fire was started well after she was killed or whatnot, or, you know, they think they're hoping someone might have seen something. They really said a robbery had been reported at the business a few years back, but it was likely unrelated because obviously it's one thing for someone to come in and steal money or even harm people, but something where someone's shot multiple times and the whole place is set on fire, I mean, that's a pretty violent act. And in a Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1998 advertisement that ran in the newspaper, a thousand dollar cash reward was offered, but it went unsolved. So I'm wondering maybe to start out with, we can kind of check in about what we think in terms of some of the possible similarities here.

B (14:05)

Well, there's a female victim at a place of business that is set on fire after she is killed.

A (14:13)

After she's killed by gunshot wounds. Multiple gunshot wounds, yes. So that, to me, that's why I think this is what they may be talking about. And I could be wrong. And listen, if I'm wrong, then I'm glad we're covering this because this is a heinous crime and I really hope they solve it. This is a case where it was recently profiled on some of the local TV news stations earlier in September. Actually, these, these ran around September 17th. So they're looking, you know, there was kind of that initial. There's, there's kind of been a bit of a little bit of a media push recently for whatever reason, but it's gone completely unsolved. And I just, I feel horrible for her family, for her son. I mean, just, it's, it's terrible. But there's not a lot of details about what happened. I mean, and, and I mean, that's probably in part because it hasn't been prosecuted. Like with the Austin case, there were trials of men who were wrongfully convicted. But like, we, we, you know, the public was able to learn some of the horrible details. It was all kind of out there with this. We learned some of the horrible details, but there is an element. We know she was found in the back of the store, which is also similar, I think, to yogurt shop.

B (15:31)

And obviously police, when they are investigating a crime, their job is not to tell us all the details of what they're doing. Their job is to find the perpetrator. And oftentimes there are instances where if they say too much to the public, it may tip off the perpetrator. And so investigators tend to keep quiet about some of the details until, as you say, there is a trial, at which point everything has to come out. Of course, in the Delphi case, it wasn't mentioned, for instance, that there was a bullet recovered from the crime scene, because if there was a bullet recovered from the crime scene and the killer knows it then maybe he gets rid of his gun. So for all we know, there are more details in this case. They're just being held back for investigative purposes.

A (16:27)

Yeah, I mean, and I mean in this case, again, I could be wrong. But Robert Eugene Brashers is dead. So I'm not. I made an editorial decision that we can cover this because I'm not worried about, you know, if we're wrong, we're wrong. But if not, then, you know, there's not going to be, there's not going.

B (16:45)

To be a trial.

A (16:46)

There's not going to be a trial and there's also not going to be an opportunity for that guy to hide any evidence. So we all love true crime. That means getting to know a ton about some scary stories and situations. We are all aware of the danger, but that means we can prepare for the worst and possibly protect ourselves and those we love.

B (17:06)

That's why we use Simplisafe. We've used and trusted them for years to protect us as well as our dog and executive producer Lani. Right now, murder sheet listeners can save 50% on a SimpliSafe home security system. Just go to simplisafe.commsheet Bad things happen, but you can take action. Just join us in 4 million Americans who also trust Simplisafe with their home security.

A (17:34)

I love that Simplisafe doesn't force you into long term contracts. Plus they have a 60 day money back guarantee so you can try it out without committing right away. They provide you with agents that monitor your home. These agents can detect possible prowlers and intervene before the break in even happens. The agents can just hop on a two way audio system to confront the intruder and set off the sirens and spotlights. They're not reactive, they're proactive, keeping your family and property safe from all harm.

B (18:04)

Try out Simplisafe. We have and we love their proactive approach to home security.

A (18:11)

Right now My listeners can save 50% on a SimpliSafe home security system at simplisafe.com msheet that's simplisafe.com msheet there's no safe like Simplisafe. Yeah. And also what we, what we learned is that whatever the Kentucky case is, they have ballistics evidence that ties to yogurt shops. So I think they've got that in hand. But yeah. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention with this case or talk about?

B (18:42)

Well, one thing that I think would be interesting, Anya, is we know he committed this crime in Kentucky. I'm curious. Let's go back and remind ourselves where else we know for a fact he committed crimes. And maybe that can also give us some insights.

A (19:03)

That's a great idea because with serial killers, you know, there's different modus operandi, and there's also different modes of hunting almost for victims. And you do see serial killers like Dennis Rader, who of course was btk bind, torture, kill, serial killer in sort of the Wichita City, the Wichita, Park City, Kansas area. He was going to places in Wichita and Park City. You know, he lived around there, so he was familiar with that location. But then we've also seen different serial killers who are mobile and they're going around doing different things. The one that comes to mind that we covered pretty extensively were the donut chop killers. That was a family, and they were going all around to Florida, to Texas, where they were from, to California to Utah. They were traveling and attacking people in retail establishments for the most part, and then often abducting and raping women that they came across in those robberies. So he strikes me as more of that. So let's, let's, let's do like a quick timeline of some of the cases that we're aware of.

B (20:12)

I think that would be useful.

A (20:14)

Yeah, that's a good idea. So the first one that occurred, he was arrested for. That we know about. Of course, there could be other ones that we don't know about, but Robert Eugene Brashers was on, on November 22, 1985, attacked Michelle Wilkerson. He basically lured her out to an Orange Grove in St. Lucie County. And after she sexually rejected him, he beat her brutally and then shot her multiple times in the head and neck. But she survived. And he got a very lenient 12 years that he then barely served because this was an 85 and he was out by 89. So how disgusting is that? A lot of these people would still be alive if, you know, they, you know, if we'd taken male violence against a woman seriously there. Because it's like, that's not a situation where you, like, are robbing someone and the gun accidentally goes off. I mean, he was trying to kill her anyways. So then the next one we know about after that is April 4, 1990. Genevieve Zatricky is attacked in her Greenville, South Carolina apartment. This is the case that changed everything. I'll go over that in a minute. But she's found beaten and strangled in her bathtub. She was attacked while she slept and bludgeoned and killed in the bedroom and then dragged to the bathroom. So it's a brutal case. The DNA from the attack there is what connected the YSTR profile found in the yogurt shop murders to Robert Eugene Brasher's. So the South Carolina forensic lab uploading that was what got a match.

B (22:00)

Right.

A (22:01)

Then in Cobb County, Georgia, February 18, 1992, we know that he's arrested with a stolen pistol, a stolen vehicle, a scanner, a police jacket and what's described as burglary tools. Also a fake Tennessee license. And so he served some time until February of 1997. In March, March 11, 1987, he breaks into a house in Memphis, Tennessee. This came up at the yogurt shop press conference that we just watched. And he seemingly controls four people and ties them up and sexually assaults a 14 year old girl. But he does not kill anyone in that one. On March 28, 1998, he shoots and murders Sherry Scherer and her 12 year old daughter Megan. And they were bound and Megan was sexually assaulted. So that was in Portageville, Missouri. And March 28, that same exact day, he tries to break into a home in Dyersburg, Tennessee. He asks for directions at this place and the only people at home are a small child and that child's 25 year old mother. But the mother resists and gets shot in the arm, but survives. And the bullet removed from her arm matches that of the share, the weapon used to kill the sharers. So he's going from Missouri to Tennessee in one day to try to kill somebody else.

B (23:33)

So he's very mobile. He's committing a lot of crimes against women in southern states. Tell us.

A (23:40)

Well, there's more.

B (23:42)

Oh, go ahead.

A (23:43)

I also want to note this. Kentucky is the, on, you know, the northern border of Tennessee. Right. That they border each other. So he's, he, we have him in Tennessee doing stuff and then it just, Kentucky's right above that. So I mean it's, it's not that unusual to me that he would like go up there. So April 12, 1998, he's arrested while trying to break into a woman's home. I don't know where exactly that occurred, but he was armed, he's taken into custody and once again released. Then January 13, 1999, this is what I'm gonna say.

B (24:17)

This is where his story ends. Yes. And this is just a few months after what happens in Kentucky in the Rutledge case.

A (24:26)

Yes, that's exactly right. So the Rutledge case happened November of 1998, and then this happens January of 1999. He get, basically this is what happens Just for. To fill people in. He was 40 years old at this point, and he was linked to a car with stolen plates. And he was tracked down to a Super 8 motel. He took those in the room with him hostage that was his family, and then let them go hours later and. And was. And killed himself with a.380 caliber gun that was linked to the Yogurt Chop murders. And that gun has since been lost, unfortunately. But that gun was also linked to a 1998 Kentucky unsolved homicide that had similar signatures. So Daniel Jackson made a whole slide, or I don't know who made the slide, but Austin police had a whole slide at the press conference on Yogurt Chop where they outlined his M.O. and they were. They stressed that they wanted the media to put that information out there again and again so that people can maybe examine other cases that might have a similar modus operandi. So let's go over this quickly. One, Robert Eugene Brashers was known to carry multiple weapons. So there might be a case where multiple weapons are used, but that doesn't necessarily mean multiple perpetrators. And we'll talk more about that in a minute. But he's someone who's armed to the teeth. He's got all kinds of weapons and backup weapons and whatnot. But he's, he's, you know, he's one guy. Two, he tied up his victims sometimes with their own clothing. So you have the use of ligatures or bondage and different types of crimes. Sometimes the perpetrator is going to bring their own supplies. They're going to bring duct tape or rope or some handcuffs, something. Other times they're going to be opportunistic about what's there at the scene. And in this case, he's known to do that with the clothing of the victims. He would often sexually assault his young female victims. So if there's a group of people, he's possibly going to be going after the youngest person. And he would often shoot his victims in the head. Again, not every case follows this exact M.O. you know, an M.O. can develop over time. Also, things can happen where a killer loses control in the, you know, initially and then gains control as they go on. And what Jackson said about the Kentucky murder was, same gun, similar details. And then as for, you know, the possibility of. Because people have a hard time believing in some of these cases, how could he overpower so many people? Well, we have survivors who survived some of these attacks, and they said he was alone, he did not have an accomplice, and he was in this Memphis case able to control four women.

B (27:23)

And, you know, and certainly we're aware of other cases where one perpetrator is able to control multiple people. I think it's easy to imagine a version of yourself. Oh, if you. I was with two or three people and someone had a gun, I definitely fight back. There's no way he would control me. It's very easy to say that. But in the moment when you are terrified and you feel your life depends on keeping a person calm, or perhaps the lives of the people you're with depend on that, it's easy to be intimidated and let yourself be controlled.

A (28:07)

I'm just gonna say this. A lot of the things that people assume about true crime are just coping mechanisms to deal with the horror, and they're not actually facts. So I. I sometimes. I mean, I hate to say this, sometimes I see so many people saying, oh, it had to be more than one person. I want to bang my head against the wall. Because it's like, no, it doesn't. It doesn't. You're saying, I understand why people are saying that, because it's like, oh, okay, I would have to be attacked by two people or this wouldn't happen, because I'd run away or fight back if it was one guy. And you know what? That's. That's great to say right now, but the second you got a gun in your face, you're gonna have a different reaction. Presumably, some people, you know, might be trained to deal with that or deal with the fear or react in a way that's gonna be most proactive. But a lot of us haven't received any training or have not, you know, had that experience. And some. Some people might fight. That would be their prime primary reaction. Others might try to cooperate with the person because they think, I'm going to make this worse. Fighting back. And if you're in a situation, I mean, to go back to Dennis Raider, he would tell his victims, I'm just here to rob you. I'm not like, I. I'm wanted in California. I've got warrants out. I need to just take your car. I'm just going to tie you up. It's no big deal. And then he would strangle them to death. Because he was not there to rob them. He was there to kill them. Kill them. And because he got off on it. So, like, you know, there's things like that where someone can use lies or coercion or threatening one member of the group as a hostage, and you could force people to. And as you Said like, if you, if you're around people that you love, you don't want to get them killed by doing something stupid or being a hero. So some people do freeze. It's, it's. I'm gonna do like a, I'm gonna do an episode that's just like a case of like one killer controlling multiple large groups of people. Because it's really not that, it's not that uncommon. It's not that surprising. And I think it's just a safe story that some people tell themselves that that, you know, has to indicate more than one person. It doesn't. And I get it. Like my, my mind would have automatically gone to more than one person because there were multiple weapons involved in yogurt shop. But if you have a killer who's known to do that, then we have to go with where the evidence is. I think.

B (30:31)

I agree completely.

A (30:32)

Now this was the remaining information on Daniel Jackson's slides about the yogurt shop and about this Kentucky case that isn't, you know, we don't know for sure what it is yet. The Kentucky cold case homicide was from 1998. And he said the actual city will not be named, indicating that it's a city case versus a county case. And they said that In July of 2025, Austin Police Department cold case and Attorney General cold case investigators went to Kentucky to kind of compare cases. They found the murder share a similar MO and that preliminary NIBIN results indicate a presumptive positive correlation between the two case innings, indicating the same gun was used. Just as a reminder, NIBIN stands for the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. It's from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and that or the atf. And it's basically a database for kind of a system for ballistics evidence so you can look at similarities and it's, it's basically CODIS for gun evidence. CODIS being combined DNA Index system. So that's where offenders DNA is uploaded. So you can say, okay, this guy did all these different crimes based on DNA evidence. And so. So the NIBIN results match. The yogurt shop 380 casing was brought to the Kentucky State Police so that toolmark examiners could do a one to one definitive comparison. And at this time, as of Monday, September 29, 2025, Detective Jackson said that official results are still pending and that aside from the modus operandi and the NIBIN hit, no obvious links were found between yogurt shop and the Kentucky murder. So it's not like a situation where they're closely bound beyond that. And the hit came in on July 2, 2025. Regardless of what this Kentucky case is, the hit that the NIBIN results garnered is what set things in motion here for a conclusion in the Austin yogurt shop murders. So that's pretty remarkable.

B (32:49)

It is pretty remarkable. And as you also indicated, whether this case you found proves to be the case that they were looking at or if it's just another case, I'm just glad we covered it because it is a case that I'd never heard of and obviously these cases deserve attention.

A (33:09)

Every case deserves some attention. So yeah, if it's wrong, then I regret the assumption. But I don't regret covering it because Linda Rutledge also deserves justice. And I have some sources for this. So my sources were newspapers.com and specifically on there, the Lexington Herald Ledger, the Winchester sun and the Owensboro Messenger, Inquirer, Inquirer. And then I also have some more modern day sources because there was sort of a almost like some recent flurry of coverage. And that's LEX18, FOX56 News, WKYT and the Lexington, Kentucky government website that lists it as a cold case. So yeah, well that kind of sums it up for the case of Linda Rutledge. I guess we'll see what happens going forward, but hopefully this one can get solved too.

B (34:07)

Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us@murdersheetmail.com if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

A (34:28)

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B (34:51)

Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web@kevintg.com if you're looking to talk with.

A (35:02)

Other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.