472 - Give Me All My Words

Summary

Episode Summary: My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark – Episode 472: "Give Me All My Words"

In Episode 472 of My Favorite Murder, hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark delve into the chilling true crime story of the Beauty Queen Killer, a serial and spree killer whose horrifying crimes spanned multiple states in the mid-1980s. This detailed recounting not only highlights the sinister actions of Christopher Wilder but also underscores the resilience of his victims and the pivotal role of community members in bringing him to justice.

1. Introduction to the Beauty Queen Killer

The episode opens with Karen introducing the case of Christopher Wilder, a serial killer whose modus operandi involved posing as a legitimate modeling scout to lure young women and aspiring models into his trap. Karen sets the stage by emphasizing the rarity and brutality of Wilder's crimes, stating:

"This story should be as notorious as Ted Bundy's horrific crime spree." (08:15)

2. The Beginnings of Wilder's Reign of Terror

Christopher Wilder's sinister activities began in early 1984 in Miami, Florida—a hub for the bustling modeling scene. He capitalized on the era's mall-centric social life to approach young women, presenting himself as a professional photographer with connections to the Miss Florida USA pageant. Karen narrates the initial abductions:

"He approached Dawn at the South Lake Mall, making his intentions seem legitimate with his role as a photographer hired by the Miss Florida USA pageant." (10:35)

3. The Trail of Disappearances

Wilder's spree saw the disappearance of several young women, including Rosario Gonzalez and Beth Kenyon. Despite mounting evidence, police were slow to connect the dots, partly due to the fragmented communication methods of the time. Georgia reflects on the societal context:

"There was a drug war raging in Miami, which diverted the police's attention away from the missing models." (16:52)

4. The Critical Turn: Survivor's Courage

The narrative takes a pivotal turn with the survival of Linda Grover, a 19-year-old student at Florida State University. After being abducted and enduring severe torture and assault, Linda's extraordinary will to survive led her to escape. She managed to alert authorities, providing crucial details that reignited the investigation:

"She broke free by locking herself in a motel bathroom and screaming for help, leading to her rescue and critical information about Wilder." (30:18)

Linda's survival underscores the human spirit's resilience amidst unimaginable horror.

5. The Nationwide Manhunt and Wilder's Downfall

As Wilder continued his spree across states—from Georgia to Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and ultimately California—agencies struggled to track him due to fragmented interstate communication. Karen highlights Wilder's audacity:

"Despite the nationwide manhunt, Wilder was always one step ahead, manipulating situations to evade capture until his inevitable downfall." (34:52)

Wilder's reign concluded when he was cornered by state troopers in New Hampshire. Rather than face prosecution, Christopher Wilder chose to end his life, thereby escaping legal retribution:

"He shot himself during a confrontation with troopers, bringing an end to his terrifying journey across the country." (74:53)

6. The Role of Shirley Landreth and the Secret Witness Tip Line

A significant aspect of this case was the involvement of Shirley Landreth, the operator of Shasta County's Secret Witness Tip Line. Her unwavering dedication provided a lifeline that ultimately linked Wilder to his crimes. Karen commends Shirley's meticulous efforts:

"Shirley trusted her instincts and kept Wilder talking, which was instrumental in piecing together his pattern and leading to his arrest." (81:10)

Shirley managed to capture Wilder's voice, correlating it with Bob Mori's, a prime suspect, thereby solidifying the case against him.

7. Reflections on Victim Blaming and Societal Pressures

Throughout the episode, the hosts poignantly address the issue of victim blaming. They emphasize that survivors like Tina Rizzico and Dawn Berryhill should never be held accountable for the crimes inflicted upon them. Georgia passionately asserts:

"Don't punish yourself for being trustful of people who tell you to trust them. That's part of growing up a woman in our culture." (38:28)

Karen echoes this sentiment, highlighting the societal pressures that often silence and stigmatize victims rather than hold perpetrators accountable.

8. Impact and Legacy

The tragedy of Wilder's actions left deep scars on the victims and their families. The episode concludes by honoring the bravery of those who survived and the relentless pursuit of justice by individuals like Shirley. Georgia notes the enduring legacy of these efforts:

"Shirley Landreth's commitment not only helped stop a serial killer but also fostered a community of support and vigilance." (88:33)

9. Closing with Hoorays: A Beacon of Positivity

In keeping with their signature style, Karen and Georgia end the episode on a positive note through their "Hoorays" segment. They encourage listeners to share their own moments of joy and resilience, fostering a sense of community and support despite the episode's grim subject matter.

"Send us your hoorays and stay sexy and don't get murdered." (89:38)

Notable Quotes

• Karen Kilgariff (08:15): "This story should be as notorious as Ted Bundy's horrific crime spree."
• Georgia Hardstark (16:52): "There was a drug war raging in Miami, which diverted the police's attention away from the missing models."
• Karen Kilgariff (30:18): "She broke free by locking herself in a motel bathroom and screaming for help, leading to her rescue and critical information about Wilder."
• Georgia Hardstark (38:28): "Don't punish yourself for being trustful of people who tell you to trust them. That's part of growing up a woman in our culture."

Conclusion

Episode 472 of My Favorite Murder offers a harrowing yet essential exploration of the Beauty Queen Killer's spree, highlighting the intersections of societal neglect, the bravery of survivors, and the pivotal role of dedicated community members in combating true crime. Through their compassionate storytelling and critical reflections, Karen and Georgia not only illuminate a dark chapter in true crime history but also advocate for a more empathetic and supportive approach towards victims.

Transcript

[Georgia Hardstark]

This is exactly right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Growing up, Melissa had the perfect life until she discovered her father's dark secret. He was the notorious Happy Face killer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

Now, when Melissa's father confesses to a new murder, she must choose between protecting her secret and risking everything to uncover the truth. Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid star in.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Happy Face new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hello and welcome to my favorite murder.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That is Georgia Hardstart.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That is Karen Kilgariff. So we just got back from south by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Texas. Thank you to iHeart for bringing us out there for the festivities and the iheart Awards, which was so much frickin fun and awesome to see all these. Like, when do you see other podcasters? Never. We're always in tiny rooms alone.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We got to hang out extensively with Payne. Lindsay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Always a pleasure.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Just one of the greats. Such a cool, fun friend.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes. And Sabrina as well, of course. They're so fun to hang out with.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And Sabrina's from Two Girls, One Ghost, right? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Which is so fun. Yeah, yeah. That was awesome.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It was very nice. And you may have heard already we actually won an award, which I've told Georgia this and many people since it happened. We were genuinely so shocked that we were not prepared.

[Karen Kilgariff]

None.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And every time people say that when they accept an award, I'm always so grossed out at like, of course you thought of something to say.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No. And normally we do, like, okay, real quick. If we're going to win, we're going to say, think this, think this, person, think that, person, blah, blah, blah. Great. And then Joe Mangianiello was up there for the first award, and it's our category, and I was like, oh, no, what if we. And then he announces our name. And I. I just didn't know what to do.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I had no idea what to do. Georgia leans over to me and goes, you have to talk like that. And then grabs my hand and pulls me. Cause I was still looking at the thing. Like, wait, what? Like, it was just genuinely surprising.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So real and surprising.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Not sure what I said.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You did great. I just stood there in a daze and I'm so embarrassed and horrified by it. And me too. Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, this is podcasting. This is being perceived in podcasting, for sure.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But it was a very, very lovely experience and we met so many Murderinos all across Austin. Yeah, it was really lovely to be kind of out and about and get to talk to listeners.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, it really was like I feel like it doesn't happen as much anymore in la. Cause so LA and everyone's kind of over. Over it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Sure. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like, over running into people they like, kind of know. But Austin, man, you guys are here for it, and we appreciate you. Callan stopped us and said, like, the most, like, the thing that makes me feel so good about, like, the message I send and, like, legacy about this podcast. She goes, because of you guys. You inspired me to get Botox and a nice husband. And I was like, well, fucking shit, I'm done.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Your work is done here.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's all I wanted.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. And then we went to Chicken Shit Bingo at the Seaboy Bar, which is one of the coolest experiences and one of the best live bands I've genuinely ever seen.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That was a random 4:00, like, banger. That was, like, the most fun I've had in a long time. Chicken Shit Bingo. I keep saying, it's exactly what it sounds like. And then people are like, I don't know what it sounds like, but it's really just a bingo board and a chicken. And whatever number the chicken shits on your raffle ticket, if it matches, you win the money, you win the pot.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Of however much people paid for tickets that time. You gotta love it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's brilliant. It's brilliant.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And we met Kelly there.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And Kelly hung out with us a little bit, and we got to talk to. And at one point, this made me laugh the hardest. She was telling us, like, when she lived in New York and she used to listen in New York.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. She was a listener.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Her life. And then she goes. And then I kind of had to stop listening. Anyway, now I live here. And it was so hilarious because she wasn't saying it like, it wasn't. She was not lodging a complaint in any way. It was kind of like, I don't need to listen to that anymore. And we were like, good.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It helped me. I moved on.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes. Okay. It's been a while. Yeah. You can do that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Nine years.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. You're invited back in and back out anytime you want.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Absolutely.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. So thanks, you guys, for coming up and saying hi and being nice to us. It's really a lovely experience.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. So good.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Did I ever get to tell you, and I'm sorry to take up extra time.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No, no.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Did you know that I met Kyle MacLachlan the night of the awards at that after party?

[Karen Kilgariff]

No.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, I'll do this as fast as I can.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, my God.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We get to the after party.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Kind of have to Fight to get in. Which was hilarious. Yes, I did yell the words, but we won at the doorman, which is kind of embarrass in retrospect, humiliating. But we got it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And lovely. Amazing party. But everybody in our group basically went and got in line for the bathroom. Because everyone had to go to the bathroom. Except for old KK took care of it before. So I was standing there and I was like, I need to put my coat and my purse down. We had been at this location before, so I'm like, oh, I'm gonna hide it behind that couch. So I went over to this couch, and there was a woman sitting there with long blonde hair. And I shoved my stuff basically behind where she was sitting on the couch. And I looked her, I said, do not ste anything out of my purse. I'll know it was you. And she starts laughing and talking to me. I go, you can steal the coat. Cause I bought it off TikTok and I shouldn't have even bought it in the first place. We start talking about stuff like that and not. And basically not over consuming. Come to find out, she's the producer of Kyle McLaughlin's podcast.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, my God.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I introduced myself, and then she was like, I know. And I suck. Congratulations. Whatever. And then she says that I'm like, oh, my God. Georgia was so excited to meet him last year and let me take a selfie. Yes. And she goes, well, wait here. He's gonna be right back. He would love to meet you guys. So I was like, checking down that hallway to see who was coming out of the bathroom. And I'm like, I'm gonna stand here until you guys come back so that we can hang out with Kyle McLaughlin. He walks up immediately, just starts, hey, Hi. How are you? Did you win? Blah, blah, blah. Cause he was there, and I got to talk to him, and I got to tell Kyle McLaughlin that my friend who helped me, my brilliant friend, stylist Okara Banks, who is the best, help me find my, like, dress for that night. And I told Kyle McLaughlin that. I told her my style icon is Audrey Horne.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I see it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

From Twin Peaks.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I totally. As soon as you started to say that, I was like, oh, yeah, I see it. I got to tell him that it's insane.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And it was like, that man is the greatest.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, he's such a lovely man. I'm honestly so glad you didn't find me because I had some drinks.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Would you have. Would you have maybe snuggled up into his neck a little bit?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes, I would have definitely liked, like, Held him like a baby. A little bit.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Kind of a plus weekend.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That we got to have.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally. Well, all right, back to work. Should we do this? Let's get back to work. Hey, we have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Right Media. And hey, here are some highlights.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay. As you might have heard, but if you haven't, you need to know. Last week we sat down with Hannah Smith and Patia Eaton, who are the hosts of our newest true crime podcast, the Knife. The Knife premieres next Thursday, March 27, but you can follow them right now on Instagram and BL Blue sky at the Knife Podcast. Of course, please go over to the Knife on Apple podcasts or the iHeartRadio app, wherever you listen. And go follow them and get ready, because on March 27, you're gonna hear a brand new incredible podcast from the makers and old host of the Opportunist. It's one of my favorites.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's huge. I'm so excited about this.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And then on Ghosted, Roz welcomes permanently stoned comedian Doug Benson, your old friend, to discuss all things paranormal. And hey, guess what? If you miss last week, I, me, Georgia Hardstark, was the guest on the episode of Ghosted. So please, you know, go back and listen to that if you feel like it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, please do. This week on that's Messed Up, Lisa and Cara breakdown, SVU Season 6, Episode 15, which was entitled Hooked, and they dig into the mysterious murder of actor Bob Crane.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Ooh, that's a good one.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Also, we know you guys love trasiar, and we found some gems in the Exactly Right warehouse. We have got. Here's the thing, Koozies. We've got Murderino sweatshirts. We have sweatshirts that tell you not only to stay out of the forest, but also to keep going. We are bossy, and we want you to get your merch while you can. Go to the exactlyrightstore.com and finally, we.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Have some really exciting news. If you're a listener of this podcast, we're going to officially invite you to become a watcher of this podcast, because my favorite murder is now officially on YouTube.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes, the Exactly Right Network has its own YouTube channel. So you can watch full episodes of my favorite murder. You can watch full episodes of I Said no Gifts, Ghosted with Roz Hernandez, all the Nick Terry MFM animated episodes. There's all kinds of stuff over there, so head on over.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And they're treasures. And once the knife premieres on March 27, they'll be putting out video episodes too. So it'll be like a big watch party with all of your. Exactly right. Friends. We're so excited about this channel. We've been working on it for a while. And here she comes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, it's the future of podcasting.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So go to YouTube.com exactly right. Please, please, please like and subscribe. It really helps us out. We're just starting out and we need all the help we can get.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. Support us.

[Karen Kilgariff]

All right. So I am first and I have a heavy hitter that I personally didn't really know about that everyone should know about this case. It's fucking wild. It should be as notorious as Ted Bundy's horrific crime spree. And in fact, this story also takes place in Florida around the time that Ted Bundy was active. This is the story of a truly horrific serial killer slash spree killer. It's kind of debated on what to call him. He targeted models and young girls under the guise of scouting them for modeling work, which we've heard of before. He ultimately led the FBI on a nationwide manhunt that lasted nine days and whose victim count is still being debated today. This is the story of the Beauty Queen Killer. You know what I'm talking about?

[Georgia Hardstark]

I don't think so.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is so wild. So I was watching this documentary. It's called the Beauty Queen nine Days of Terror. And the documentary is basically an interview with a survivor, a couple survivors of this killer and the story of it and it just unfolds and it's unbelievable.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Wow. Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And the other main sources for the story are reporting from the Miami Herald and the Oklahoman. And the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So it's April 11, 1984, and we're at the South Lake Mall in Maryville, Indiana. A 16 year old girl named dawn is filling out an application in a store for a job and she's approached by a girl, a teenage girl who's around her same age. This blonde haired, blue eyed teen asked dawn if she would like to model in an upcoming fashion show at the mall. And I think a big thing to know and understand, especially for our younger listeners, is how central the mall was to our lives back then.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like there was no. Like TV was live. If you didn't watch it or you weren't rich and had a fucking vcr, you didn't see it. Yes, you went to the mall and that's where you socialized. That's where you got a job. That's where you shop. That's where you spent all of Your free time with your friends.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's right. And also just 1984. It's such a weird thing, but in the San Francisco area, the brand Esprit would put out catalogs and use local girls as models. And that was like, this big thing that everyone knew about. This was a very strange time in America where, like, you were, as a young girl, supposed to try to be a model, no matter how tall you were, what you looked like, what your background was, what your body type was.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And you scouted, you know, like, it actually could happen that you can be in local fashion shows, be like, a model. These things did happen back then, and kind of it was an opportunity for a lot of young women.

[Georgia Hardstark]

An opportunity and kind of like the ultimate compliment as opposed to, like, one of many things you could be.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Things weren't really. That wasn't the messaging. So it's like. It was like someone coming up and saying, I deem you a Disney princess.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, you're the most beautiful. You must. Yeah. It is a very time and place kind of a thing.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So while dawn is talking to this teenager who approached her, a man walks up to both the girls, and it seems like he and this girl who approached dawn seem to know each other. They're friendly. The man introduces himself as a photographer who knows about the upcoming fashion show. So it sounds kind of legit. And there were a lot of fashion shows in malls at the time that were sponsored by whatever big, you know, Macy's or whatever their store was there. Or sometimes, like, you know, fashion lines and magazines would actually have mall fashion shows, and local girls would walk in them.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So he says that he'd like to shoot some photos of dawn now if she's available. He says they just need to go to a nearby warehouse to get clothes for the shoot. And so Don is like, this is legit. This, like, other girls with him making it seem real. This guy does seem legit. He does seem on the level. So the three of them head to the parking lot. They go to Dawn's car, and dawn and the photographer get in the car, and the other girl who had approached her gets in their old car and starts following them. But once they reach the car, the photographer pulls out a gun and points it at Don immediately. He makes her get in the car and give him the keys, while the other girl who had approached her gets into a different car and follows them. Dawn has just been abducted by a man who was wanted in multiple murders and abductions already across the country, who has come to be Known by the media as the beauty queen killer. So that was in April of 84. We're gonna go back to February 26th of 1984 and we're in Miami. Miami is the center of this very busy modeling scene at the time with lots of girls with big hair and hik cut bikinis. They're shooting local commercials, print ads like it is happening for a lot of these women. And among the legions of very young and beautiful women who call Miami home, there is 20 year old former Miss Florida contestant, Rosario Gonzalez. Rosario had been born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States as a child with her family. And on February 26, Rosario has a gig as a spokesmodel at the Miami Grand Prix. Her job is to hand out samples of aspirin to people attending the race on behalf of a pharmaceutical company. And like, those are paid modeling gigs. These are the kind of gigs that these girls are trying to get. You know, it is legit in some way, right? She's been picking up as many jobs as she can because she's engaged. And she and her fiance are saving up for furniture for the house they're gonna move into. But Rosario still lives at home at the time. And her parents expect her back sometime around 5pm she always calls if she's going to be late. And so when the evening wears on and they don't hear from her, the Gonzalez family knows something is wrong. Shortly after they report her missing, Rosario's car is found near the racetrack, presumably where she parked it, having gone to the racetrack that day. On March 3, after Rosario has been missing for about a week, police release a composite sketch of a man that multiple witnesses say they saw walking with Rosario after the race. He's about 5 foot 8, he's white, in his 30s, he has a mustache. And then about a week after Rosario goes missing on March 5, another aspiring model, a woman named Beth Kenyon, also disappears. So Beth is 23 years old, and by all accounts, she's this amazing young woman. She works at Coral Gables High School as a special ed teacher and she coaches the cheerleading team. She's beloved by her family and friends and everyone. The Kenyon family is immediately worried when Beth doesn't show up, as she's a reliable person. And they quickly become frustrated with the police when they don't seem particularly motivated to find Beth, despite the fact that this is the second young model to disappear in Miami in a very short time span. But it doesn't seem like the two are linked in the minds of the police. And let's not forget that there's like a drug war going on in Miami at the time. And the police are more concerned with that than a missing young beautiful woman.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right? Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And there's also not a lot of communication between jurisdictions. There's like fax machines and that and phone calls and that's it. So it's just kind of a shitty time and place. So the Kenyon family hire a private investigator named Ken Whitaker within a day or so of Beth disappearing. They had the means to do that and they immediately did. And here's the part that's going to make you angry and make us all want to rip our hair out. By day three, this private investigator has figured out who took Beth. He knows. He talks to her roommate and her co workers. He finds out that Beth's car had been acting up and they all knew where she planned to take it to get serviced. So the private investigator goes to the service station. The people there say that Beth had been there that day, the day she disappeared, and that she had been with a man. And the private investigator, Ken, brings a photo album of Beth's to the service station, asks everyone to look through it. And everyone zeroes in on a guy in a photograph in her photo album. That was the guy she was with the day she disappeared. It's a picture of Beth at a racetrack. And they point to the man standing next to her in the picture and remember the racetrack thing?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So this man is 39 year old Christopher Wilder. And the private investigator is alarmed when he finds an extensive criminal record of violent sexual assaults dating back many years.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I'm just already getting mad and assuming that I'm just gonna like demand you tell me the things you're about to tell me, but you're gonna tell me anyway.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So I' I mean, there isn't a. Well, you'll see. Let's talk a little bit about this awful man, Christopher Wilder. He's born on March 13, 1945 in Sydney, Australia. He's the oldest child of an American naval officer and an Australian native. He grew up in Australia. From his teenage years on, I kind of can't tell exactly what's going on. But he has. Sometimes he has an Australian accent, sometimes he doesn't. It kind of seems like he can turn it on and off. I mean, this is just, it's classic. In his early adolescence, he begins peeking through windows. And then by the age of 17, he's arrested for the rape of a girl on a Sydney beach. He pleads guilty to the offense and receives a Year of probation with counseling and electroshock therapy. In 1969, now in his 20s, Christopher Wilder left Australia and heads to Florida after avoiding some charges for sexual deviance accusations. So he splits.

[Georgia Hardstark]

He's just fleeing his record, essentially.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Exactly. So he gets to Florida and he. You know, this is the late 60s, early 70s. He works as a contractor, also an amateur photographer and a race car driver as well. So he's not particularly handsome, but he dresses really well. Maybe that Australian accent comes into play sometimes and gives him an air of. Of respectability that maybe he didn't deserve. But he looks like a typical 80s dude, like someone my mom would have dated back then, for sure.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And he hangs out with the right crowd. That lends him legitimacy. That actually tricks these women into trusting him as a modeling scout. Because he does have access to the modeling world because of his photography. Yes. And he had been hired by the Miss Florida USA pageant to take photos of the models. So when he comes up to them after the photo shoot and is like, here's my card, I could really, like. I would love to take photos of you. I could make you famous. I could be your manager. There's no reason for them to. It's not some rando. It's this guy who has been hired.

[Georgia Hardstark]

To do this by basically a, like, modeling machine. A beauty pageant. And they don't vet those photographers. No, they don't. God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So when I decided to do this, Alejandra and Ali, my researcher, let me know that some of these stories sound really similar to the one that I told in our book. That happened to me, where I was like 18 or 19 and trusted a regular at the cafe I worked at and got in his car and went with him to take. He said he was a photographer. He was a photographer. He showed me his work. It was gorgeous. He took me to a secluded location and I realized that I needed to do what he told me at the time. And so, you know, I complied with what he demanded. And so I just wanna make sure we're making it clear that this is so common and this is so. I don't know what to say, but just that I understand.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes. And it's kind of a setup. It's a setup in a way where what you're being asked as a young woman is, can you please meet these cultural requirements of beau? And then people are going to come around you and be like, hey, I officially deem that you did that, and therefore, let's capture that and show it to other people. And since that is a Drive that depending on, you know, how you were raised or what you were around, like, that's a huge accomplishment, especially in Southern California, where it's just like, yeah, you made it. Like, this is. This is really something. Nobody's sitting there going, hold on. I need to figure out why I'm not going to do this.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You're going, oh, my God, my dream's coming true. I get the ultimate, like, reward here.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And it's not weird, like, my sister's a photographer, and she took photos of me all through high school. It wasn't weird to me to be like, I'll model for you. And then suddenly you find yourself in a situation that you realize you made a big mistake and you don't know how to get out of. And I honestly think that this person who took me out to take photographs of me at the time had nefarious intentions and somehow I was able to get away.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You know, not unscathed. But so I just. I get it. I get this in a weird way. And it, like, does trigger some old things of, like, the shame. But then when I read about these girls, I don't blame them in any fucking way whatsoever. So why should I feel shame about it as well? You know, it's like something you did when you were young and not well.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Also, don't punish yourself for being trustful of people who tell you to trust them.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's that kind of thing of, like, we all have to learn lessons like that as we grow up, and everyone learns them the hard way, and it's at best, disappointing. And that kind of risk, that's just growing up a woman in our culture. And all other women understand that. And I think there was a time where it was used against us, or our own shame was kind of, like, weaponized. We would use it against each other.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Well, yeah, wait until the end of the story, because it fucking comes into play. And I just have the hardest time. I have the hardest time with the ending of the story because it's just so ugly.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So he's gotten his papers from the Miss Florida beauty contest. Hey, you can trust this guy. Don't worry about this official photographer.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Exactly. And he's very suave. He's manipulative. He owns a Porsche and a speedboat and a nice house where he hosts fancy parties where everyone goes to them. You know, it's like that false sense of, I know you. You're part of my pack, and you're safe.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's just luring, and it's just grooming. It's what predators do.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Also, if you have money, I think there was for a long time the belief of like, if you had money and a good job, that meant you would never do something like that. Which is insane.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally. Later, many women will come forward with stories of photo shoots that became non consensual and led to sexual assault. And in fact, after one sexual assault charge by a teenage girl, a psychiatrist said that Wilder should be forced to undergo supervised treatment. But the Florida jury acquitted him in that case. It's maddening. There are multiple opportunities to punish this person and to. For this to have gone a different way.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But God forbid that his career be affected. Right? Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right. He's a man of fucking the community. Yeah. So back to this private investigator. When he tells Beth's family about this man, they already know him. Cause it turns out Beth had met him when she competed at that Miss Florida USA pageant two years prior. And they had. It's hard to tell. They kind of started dating or maybe he was more interested than she was. So at the same time as this is going on, as Beth is missing, her family hears a news report about another missing model, Rosario Gonzalez, from earlier, who also had competed in that same pageant as Beth two years earlier. And they're like, this is too coincidental that two models from the area are missing. And the private investigator speaks to Christopher Wilder twice. Once at his home and once at work. And so the private investigator gives Christopher Wilder's name to the Miami police at some point. It's unclear exactly how long the police wait to go to Christopher's house to question him. But by the time they do, it seems a little like they dragged their feet on it. By the time they do, the story of the two missing models becomes linked in the media. And Christopher's name is eventually brought into the story. And so it seems like he realized the jig was up and fled, knowing that they were after him.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I also wonder, sorry, just to make this side comment that if the first missing woman was Cuban.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Then there's obviously a racist issue.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Rosario Gonzalez, she's not looked for. And the news isn't as.

[Georgia Hardstark]

They're not gonna be as reactive as white model.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right. The media cares less. Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And so this alerting him to the fact that they're all onto him. His realization that he's going to get caught seems to set him off on an absolutely horrific spree that. I don't know how we haven't heard of. This nine day spree that's going to blow your fucking Mind and I try to get ahold of my mom to talk about it cause comes all the.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Way to la, oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But I don't know if she knows anything about it anyways. So surprisingly, in like maybe showing how cocky he was that he wouldn't get caught, Wilder stays in Florida. At first he doesn't leave the state, even though he knows the authorities are after him. On March 15, three days after Ken, the private investigator, last makes contact with Christopher, he ends up in Daytona, Florida. And we know that a 15 year old girl named Colleen Osborne disappears at Daytona beach that same day. Christopher has never been officially linked to Colleen's disappearance, but friends who were with her say a man at the beach offered her $100 to photograph her. And Colleen's body is found about three weeks later. Three days later, on March 18, Christopher abducts a 21 year old woman named Teresa Ferguson, who goes by Terry, from a mall on Merritt island, which is just south of Daytona. So he actually backtracks closer to Miami. Like this guy has no fear. While Colleen's murder is only suspected to be linked to Christopher Wilder as well, investigators are sure that he's responsible for Teresa's murder. Her body is found five days later in a swamp not too far from Tampa, on the opposite coast from where she was abducted. And her body is found with a rope tied to her neck and feet. But before her body was found, Christopher Wilder abducts another young woman. This is on March 20th, two days after Theresa's abduction. And it's in Tallahassee, the capital city and where Florida State University is. So this young woman is named Linda grover. She's a 19 year old student at Florida State. And we know everything that happens to her and what she goes through because Linda survives. Linda is in a department store shopping for an anniversary gift for her boyfriend when Wilder approaches her multiple times and is like bugging her and doing his normal spiel of like, you should be a model, let me take photographs of you. I have connections. He's wearing a suit, like a three piece suit. He's well groomed. He has a gold watch and a diamond pinky ring which is kind of his signature. He has his camera on him, you know, which is like so creepy that you're like, look, I'm a photographer. Walking around, anyone could put a fucking camera on. It's like DJ headphones. It's like that doesn't mean you're a fucking dj, right?

[Georgia Hardstark]

And well, but it's just such an innocent time, like you keep, it's Just like that is only a professional photographer would be walking around with such a nice camera.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right. And this is also the time and place where like Adam Walsh as a five year old was kicked out of a mall for loitering and got kidnapped and disappeared. Like that's just what happened then.

[Georgia Hardstark]

People did not know what was. It was the beginning of this, of this era of awareness.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You'd still hope that Ted Bundy had at least. Cause I think in 79 is when his spree in Tallahassee. Right. Happened. So you'd think that they would be a little more on edge and aware that these young college girls are going missing and are being found murdered.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, but I mean like again, like you're saying that means people would have to be connected, communicating.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right. So. But Linda Grover is like, nah, dude. She politely declines his offer a couple times and they part ways. She's not interested. Then at about 3:30 that afternoon, she's out walking to her car and she realizes that Christopher's following her out. It turns out he'd parked right next to her because he had watched her enter the mall from the parking lot. So he was orchestrating this from the beginning. He asked her one more time to look at some covers that he shot, kind of to show that he's legitimate. He opens his trunk, takes out a briefcase, and then when he opens the briefcase, Linda sees an Australian passport. And then suddenly Christopher punches her multiple times and throws her in the backseat of the car.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know. He gags her. He covers her eyes, ties her up and puts her in the trunk. He then drives about four or five hours to a motel in Bainbridge, Georgia, which is close to the state line, essentially. I'm not going to get too into the details, but if you watch the documentary, they tell you more. He tortures and sexually assaults her, and at one point he even attempted to super glue her eyes shut. But she was able to keep her eyes open and it didn't work. And then this fucking badass breaks away from him, runs into the motel bathroom in the same room, locks herself in and starts banging on the walls and screaming to get the attention from the people who were in the motel room next door, which is just brilliant. Like you're panicked, you're being tortured and you have the wherewithal to do such a thing is incredible. And this scares Christopher enough to flee. And so Linda is able to run to the front desk and the police are called. And she's able to give the police a detailed description. And by this point authorities Realize they're looking for this one man. Cause she's able to describe him. That pinky ring, the photographer, the mall, all of that stuff. The passport, the passport, the Australian passport. She's able to give them enough information that now the FBI are called in.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Thank God. Well, not yet, okay, but amazing job, Linda.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Amazing job, Linda. She also identifies him from a photo like, wow. The FBI are finally called in and a nationwide manhunt for Christopher Wilder is on. But unfortunately, they're just following in his footsteps. They are trying to track him down and he's one step ahead of them the whole way. Christopher drives along the Gulf coast all the way to Beaumont, Texas. And on March 21, just one day after abducting Linda, just one day later, he approaches a 23 year old mother and nurse, nursing student at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas named Terry Walden about modeling. She turns him down, but Christopher stalks her and abducts her two days later like he fucking stalks her from where he had tried to get her to come with him. And so that's on March 23rd. Terry's body is found three days later. She had been raped and stabbed to death. And that same day, March 23, is when the FBI publicly announces that they have mounted a Manhattan for Christopher. But over the next few days, this news appears mostly in Florida newspapers, not nationwide. So Chris steals Terry's car and drives to Oklahoma City. And there he abducts a 21 year old named Suzanne Logan. On March 25, just two days after Terry's abduction, this guy is on a berserker spree.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, it's the long slow build to.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Now this is the end and he knows it. So Suzanne's husband and parents report her missing to the police. But the police tell them she's probably just decided to take off, despite the fact that there's really no reason to think this. And the FBI is already engaged in an active manhunt for this man. And Suzanne has also disappeared from a shopping mall. So it's unclear if the police in Oklahoma City are unaware of all of this, which is totally likely for the time, or if they just failed to make the connection. But by this point, the story is in the newspapers all around the country, so who knows why. So Wilder drives Suzanne almost 200 miles away to Newton, Kansas, keeps her alive overnight in a motel room and into part of the next day. They eat breakfast in a restaurant together. And this is how like cunning he is that he's able to take these women into public places and still control them. Yeah, I mean, he must have been terrifying, horrifying person. Exactly, yeah. Christopher then drives her 90 miles farther north into an area near Junction City City, Kansas. And there he stabs her to death. And her body is found about 10 days later. So then on March 29, Christopher abducts an 18 year old named Cheryl Bonaventura from a mall near Grand Junction, Colorado. Over the next two days, the two are seen multiple times together. It looks like they're on this crazy drive. And then Christopher checks into a motel in Page, Arizona. And Christopher kills Cheryl around March 31, and her body is found near the Arizona Utah border in May. So then Christopher heads to Las Vegas. I mean this guy's going across the fucking country.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, which also if I'm very curious now how those timelines overlap because that is what Ted Bundy did in the other direction. And I wonder if he knew that of just like, just keep crossing those state lines and they won't be able to track you as well.

[Karen Kilgariff]

He definitely later they realized, studied some serial killers for sure. So possibly improbably. And so he heads to Las Vegas and unbelievably, despite the manhunt being wildly reported. Okay, okay, fucking wait for this. He attends a modeling contest at a mall being held by Seventeen magazine. As a photographer, as a model photographer. And that's on April 1st. It's a competition and he targets a 17 year old named Michelle Korfman and ultimately kills her. And her body is found on May 11 at a highway rest area in Southern California. But she's not identified until about a month later. But there's a photo of him at the mall watching the models. It's him. He's not disguised. Maybe he has a thicker beard or something.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But like, I wonder if that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The gall.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's the. But it's also that kind of thing of like they think it's a manhunt where they're like we need to check the motels on the highway type of thing. What idiot would go to exactly the place where everyone would think he would be?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Absolutely. Okay, so now the next abduction leads the spree in a whole different direction. And this is a direction that will baffle the media and the public, who of course at the time had no issues with victim blaming and had it in their heads how a perfect victim would and should act. And when the victim doesn't, they go for her. So on April 4, three days after Michelle's abduction in Las Vegas and almost a month before her body was discovered, a popular, friendly teenager, 16 year old Tina Rizzico from Torrance, California, is at a local mall called the Del Amo Fashion Center. So Tina's filling out a job application at the Hickory Farm store when Christopher approaches her with the same story he's given all the other girls. And Tina is. Is beautiful, too. So it's not out of the question that she'd be approached near Los Angeles to model. He says he's a photographer and that he thinks she has potential to be a model and that he'd like to photograph her to show to his contacts at a modeling agency, that she recognizes the name of the modeling agency as well. He doesn't have to fucking be with them. He can even make cards that say that he's from that modeling agency, you know?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And he's like, we could do the shoot right now. So Tina, pretty blonde, who is mature for her age. She's 16, but kind of world wary after having had a chaotic childhood. She's flattered, but she feels a little uneasy. But she pushes down that uneasy feeling, and they walk out of the mall together and get in Christopher's car. And this is the person who is most centrally interviewed in the documentary the Beauty Queen Killer. Yeah. And it's just. It's so moving. I highly recommend it because she's just this survivor that had to do what she had to do and is still coming to terms with it in a way that we can feel empathy for her in a way that I don't think she could feel for herself in some ways. And it's really heartbreaking. Tina says later, quote, this is the one point that I regret every second of my life. Every day I got in the car with this perfect stranger when all the bells and whistles were going off in my head. Why didn't I listen to my instincts? Why didn't I listen to the voice in my head? Don't get in a car with a stranger.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Because we are taught as women to constantly question ourselves and doubt ourselves. And how dare you stand up for yourself. And that's ugly.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And don't be rude.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Don't be rude and be pretty and feminine and quiet and do what men want you to do. That's what you're. That's what. How we're all raised to this fucking day. Especially back then.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. And then it says, tina notices that the car smells weird. And in our book I wrote about getting in his car and suddenly going, oh, fuck. Because there was a rip in the ceiling of the car. It was messy and nasty. And I suddenly was like, oh, I don't know this person at all. And immediately as we're driving away from the cafe, just all my alarm bells were going off, and I was like, you have to. To get through this. You fucked up.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You know, you didn't fuck up, though. No, I didn't. You're right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You didn't.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay. You're right. Yeah. And that's. That's so important, I think, is that, like, it was a time and place then, but it happened to me as well. Not that long ago, 20 years ago, I guess. So. She is uneasy, but she still pushes through that feeling. He drives her up into the mountains, into a wooded area, like, same Santa Monica fucking mountain is where he took me. He starts photographing Tina and posing her in different ways. And he has her turn her back to him to kind of pose. And when she turns back around, he's pointing a gun at her. In the moment, Tina wonders if she should run or scream, but she doesn't think anyone would hear her. So she decides that her best shot is to go along with everything he makes her do. He makes her take her clothes off and takes more photographs. He then rapes her and then has her get back in his car. And when they get back in the car, Christopher tapes her eyes shut and puts sunglasses over the tape. He starts driving Tina across the country, stopping at motels along the way. At each motel, Christopher, he basically takes the cord from the lamp and peels it apart and uses it to give her electric shocks.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, thank God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So he tortures her and rapes her at various motels. He threatens her with a knife. He has a gun, as I said, as well. And he has her sleep handcuffed. And they actually go into restaurants. And she says the entire time she's sitting next to him, he has a gun under his coat pointing at her. And he is like, I will shoot you if you try to do anything. The entire time they're in the car driving, he has his hand on the gun pointed at her, like there's no escape.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And we all. That's like. Part of it is like, why didn't you jump and roll? And why didn't she start screaming? And it's like, who knows how much this guy told her about what he's already done? Probably at least enough to scare her to know that he will do anything and he's capable of anything. You know what I mean?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Also, the coercion part of this is the. Is what everyone should be talking about.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Not why. Why didn't you do this and that. Why Are men allowed over and over again to do things like this and get probation, to get off, to get acquitted, to all these. The questions are the wrong fucking question total. They're the easiest questions to ask. And it's questions that have answers that no one's listening to when the answers come. And they're the wrong questions.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Absolutely. So Tina says that throughout this ordeal, when they're together, she maintains an affectless demeanor. She doesn't react, she doesn't show any emotion. Even when he's hurting her, she complies. So by April 10, Christopher and Tina are in Maryville, Indiana, near Gary, Indiana. And this is where the story started when the teenager approached the pretty girl at the mall, Remember?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yep.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And at this point, Christopher has had Tina at gunpoint and torturing and raping her for a week, so she's under his command. And this is a 16 year old girl at the mall in Maryville. Christopher and Tina go in together. He points out Don and tells Tina what to say. Tina says that she tries to think of some way to warn dawn, but she is so scared and broken down at this point that she can't even figure out a way without getting killed. She thinks the moment she starts screaming or says anything, he's going to shoot her. Of course, and he probably would when you hear the rest of the story. Okay, okay. So dawn agrees to go with them. Dawn gets into her car with Chris driving it, and Tina, the girl who'd been abducted, gets into the other car. And even then she doesn't try to escape.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Right.

[Karen Kilgariff]

She knows that he's a race car driver, remember that? And she thinks that if she tries to get away from him, he will be able to stop her, run her off the road, he'll shoot her. She doesn't think she can get away. I mean, she is, she's a child. She's brainwashed at this point.

[Georgia Hardstark]

She's a brainwashed, tortured child and victim entirely.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's awful and it's terrible and I feel so much for dawn, the other victim, and she's interviewed in this documentary as well. To this day, she still understandably, like, can't wrap her head around it. And it seems like can't forgive and I totally understand that, but it's just, it's bigger than anything that we can wrap our heads around ever, because we've never been through it, we probably never will. Fucking knock on wood. So we can't judge, you know?

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, I mean. Well, and also the idea that somehow the point is supposed to be forgiveness among the victims.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, yeah, you don't have to.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Everyone is on their own trajectory. They have to get to the place they need to be however they want to. And again, let's focus on animals that need to be in cages and walk around the planet while everyone else makes excuses.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. So eventually the three of them, they ditch one of the cars and they end up at a motel that evening. And both of the girls are raped and tortured with the electric shocks. It's monstrous. The next day, Christopher turns on the TV in the motel and he sees himself on the news. And the two kidnapped teenagers see as well that people are looking for them. And it seems like this freaks him out. And this is a turning point in his spree. Like, he has no control at this point. He fucking knows. It's kind of. Yeah. So he gets everyone into the car and he drives the teenage victims to western New York into a remote area. He's just all over the country. There's like no rhyme or reason to it. Which is probably why it was so hard to fucking track him. Because meanwhile, the. In Torrance, in Southern California, everyone thinks he's still in Southern California. They're looking for him there. Those FBI bulletins, he's on the FBI most wanted list at this point. Those are all happening in Southern California. Meanwhile, he's in like upstate New York. Yeah, okay. And this is just horrific. So he drives him to a remote area in western New York. He leaves Tina From Torrance, a 16 year old, in the car. He takes the keys and he takes Don into the woods, off the road. So Tina's alone in the car. This is the point where people are like, why didn't you take off? Why didn't you run? Why didn't you? Yeah, exactly.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Just stop asking fucking questions like that. Where it's like, unless you have been tortured for two weeks straight as a 16 year old, why are you pretending.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is a normal situation and it's a remote area? Where would she fucking run to? She was like, there's no coverage. There's nowhere I can go. So he takes dawn off into the woods and he tries to kill her by suffocating her. But Don fights back. And so he stabs her twice in the chest and then flees back to the car. And he and Tina drive away. Tina later says in this documentary that she is sure that he had just killed Don and that his demeanor had changed. He was clearly, like, freaking out. And she's like, I'm next. This is about to end. He's going to kill me. Just like he had just killed Dawn. Dawn is alive. Dawn survives the stabbing. She's laying there, having been stabbed twice. She thinks about her family and tells herself she just needs to at least try to get to safety for them. She ties her jeans around the stab wounds on her chest and somehow is able to make it to a road and flags down a passing truck driver. The driver takes dawn to the hospital. She's seriously injured. She had been stabbed in the lungs. He had tried to stab her in the heart, but stabbed her in the lungs. And she was still able to like, get herself up and go get help for herself. Which is crazy because Christopher tries to come back around. He was worried she wasn't dead. He comes back to try to kill her 20 minutes later. So if she hadn't gotten herself up and moving, he would have come back and killed her.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Jesus Christ.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know, I know. So Don is able to give the FBI a lot of critical information. They know all these cases are linked. They know that's the same man that's they've been looking for. But as I said, they'd been still focusing their search around Southern California. And so now they know he had crossed the country. She tells them that Tina from Torrance is still alive and that he's using her to get other victims. And she tells them that he said he's heading for Canada, so now they kind of have it like an area of where he might be. So Christopher hears on the radio that Don has survived and the FBI are closing in on him. And this ultimately precipitates his next and final murder. It's just so heartbreaking. So it's April 12th. Christopher abducts a 33 year old woman named Beth Dodge in the parking lot of a mall. We're still in western New York at this point. He's like frantic and has given up up the modeling pretense. He simply needs a car, a new car, because he knows they're looking for him. Beth had a gold Pontiac Firebird, which is crazy that he picked such a, like, distinctive car. Dude, like pick a fucking Corolla.

[Georgia Hardstark]

He's out of his mind, right?

[Karen Kilgariff]

He approaches Beth, he pulls out his gun and makes her get into the car and drives it away with Tina following. And it's like, why couldn't he have just left her there and taken the car? This guy is a monster. That's why. He takes Beth to a remote area again with Tina following in the car. And as she's watching, Tina's watching from the other car. He has Beth get out of the car and shoots Beth in the back, killing her. And Beth leaves behind her husband and a four year old daughter who as an adult is interviewed in this documentary as well. Oh, God. All right, what next? This is just inexplicable. Christopher then drives Tina, who he had kidnapped from Torrance and raped and tortured across the country. He drives her to Logan International Airport in Boston. He walks her up to the ticket counter, buys her a ticket to Los Angeles, gives her like $1,000 in cash and then leaves her at the airport. Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So the idea in his mind is now you can go home and I'll pay for it. And then just what?

[Karen Kilgariff]

And here's some extra cash for the. I don't even think he said anything like that. He was just like, here's some extra cash for the ride.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And did he think she would continue to be kind of under his spell the way she'd been?

[Karen Kilgariff]

I feel like her compliance for survival must have told him something else about her, you know, like that. Yeah, she would have been complicit. I guess you have to imagine where her brain is because she's like, this is a trick. This isn't gonna happen. She's sure he's about to come back. She gets on the plane, she takes the overnight flight, sleeps on the plane, there's multiple stops. She doesn't say anything to anyone. She gets off the plane in LA in the morning and gets into a cab. And she also was saying at the time, like, I didn't think they were really looking for me. I wasn't totally sure. Her mom was unstable. She was like. Like she might not have even like, said I was missing.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And she's been in a living hell. So all of normal life is gone for her and she's just adapting to this weird hellish world.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The morning before, she saw him shoot an innocent woman in the back, point blank in the back. Like, the disassociation going on there is fucking real and it's a powerful tool and it was working for her and she kept going with it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And also she just like, get home, just get on the plane, get home, stay within yourself.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, yeah. And the next thing that she does is totally scrutinized by the media. And I'll never be able to explain it because I'll never be in a situation exactly like this. She is in the cab in LA and she's like, I haven't changed my clothes in over a week. So she asked the cab driver to take her to a lingerie store so she can buy new underwear. And Change. We have to assume that this girl is going on fumes. She's not thinking this through.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Or if you had been through something that horrible and raped repeatedly, you would want those underwear off of you. And you're not going to a lingerie store.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You are not making that choice. You're saying, new underwear are there, and I need to go get them. The end.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So she.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The framework of that is disgusting.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's so creepy, too, because she goes there, and it seems like she tells the store clerks who she is. And because everyone was looking for her at that point, like, she was a missing person. It was, like, all over the news. They recognized her. And there's, like, footage from that time in the documentary where they're like, yeah, she was here, and then she took off. And I think it's an important thing to point out and for us to know about Tina is that she did not have a very stable home life. In fact, as I said, it was chaotic. She had experienced childhood sexual abuse. Her mother had been a drug user. She had seen her mother overdose. Her mother hung out with bad motorcycle crowd all through her childhood. And so she will later say that she basically learned how to survive horrific things as a child, and she thinks this is what ultimately kept her alive. Because Chris's MO Is that he likes scaring women and having them beg for their lives. And when Tina didn't do that because she already knew kind of how to disassociate and comply, he must have seen her differently than other victims somehow.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So her trauma saved her. Saved her in a really twisted way and informed how to react to these situations, which is so sad.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But also it's as sad as it is hopeful, I think.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Because the things that happen to you, no one wants bad things to happen, but there are skills and coping mechanisms that come from those bad things that absolutely benefit your life later on. Yeah, they really do.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. So after the lingerie store, Tina then goes to her boyfriend's house, and. Which is really telling that she doesn't go to her home because her boyfriend's family were kind of more of a steady presence in her life than her own family were at the time. They know who she's kidnapped by. They think she's dead. She gets out of the cab, and they're all like, what? They're shocked and, of course, elated to see her. And she takes a shower, and then they convince her to go to the police. I think she's just, like, going forward in her mind, and they're like, okay, Here we go. So in the weeks following Tina's return and when her story and Dawn's survival story becomes known, Tina will sometimes be referred to as an accomplice. And the media really wants to pin this on her and make it seem like she was complicit in the whole thing. And she, she was a willing accomplice. A 16 year old girl.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The patriarchy was super strong back then.

[Karen Kilgariff]

They were doing it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And once again, just that idea of like, of that whole story. Yeah, that's who I'm talking about.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The lead character in the story is not her.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's him.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And that's what happens every time.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. And through this whole ordeal, what the media and the public put her through is so ugly. Hopefully it wouldn't happen today. Her full name is made public. There's all sorts of speculation over her behavior before and after the kidnapping. It's all scrutinized on the news. Reporters are hounding her and her family. But the 16 year old girl who has been held captive and abused repeatedly for 10 days, thankfully the Torrance police, and this is unexpected and kudos for them, they make a hard stand that Tina is a victim and nothing more. And they have press conferences saying she is a victim, that is, you know, she has nothing. They were really on her side. And I honestly am like, was amazed by that. And I shouldn't be moved that they're on her side, but I was not.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It wasn't common at all. It certainly isn't expected from a police force. Totally like that's pretty mind blowing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. Back to the same day Tina had come home on April 13, after Christopher dropped her off at the airport. He makes his way all the way up to a town called Colebrook, N.H. a small town. It's about a 15 minute drive from the Canadian border where he's headed. He stops at a gas station to ask directions to the border. And just so happens that two state troopers are driving by the gas station at the moment. And he has a fucking gold Thunderbird, remember? And everyone's looking for him at this point, of course, the troopers see him, they see the car and they get out and confront him. There's a brief struggle and Christopher lunges into the car for his gun and there he uses it to shoot himself. The bullet also injures one of the troopers and Chris is able to shoot himself one more time and he dies by suicide. The trooper ultimately recovers and in the weeks and years following Christopher Wilder's death, he is linked as a suspect to multiple other disappearances. And many other women come forward saying he sexually assaulted them. And I, of course, went to our Gmail, my favorite murder Gmail, and looked up his name and everything. And there are just pages of murderinos telling their own story about having met him or been approached by him. Murderinos telling their mom's story, their grandma's story. Like multiple emails.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Whoa.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I couldn't even pick one. Cause they were all the same. It's kind of a thing.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And I have never.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I think when you started talking about Tina's story and the part that was happening in Southern California.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I was remembering like maybe a forensic file.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But it told it in this kind of opposite way.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally. It's like a vague. Like, I know some of the circumstances, but the spree, like, I don't remember hearing that at all.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay. And here, this is a part that, of course, that I'm fascinated by. Cause it's about a cold case. It comes out that right before this spree happened, Wilder had gone back to Australia to visit his parents. And while there, he had abducted two teenage girls from a beach by telling them he was a modeling scout. And then he had sexually assaulted them and forced them to take photos with their clothes off. They went to the police, he was arrested, but he was bailed out by his parents. And it was like a $350,000 bail. So clearly they were putting the money up for him. And he was allowed to return to Florida to wait for his trial, which was repeatedly postponed. Now, if that case sounds familiar, it's because it's eerily similar to the infamous Australian Wanda beach murders, which I just mentioned recently, in which two 15 year old Sydney girls were killed in 1965. And there are reports that they were last seen with a teenage boy, which would have lined up with Christopher's age and his time in Sydney. And it's never been solved. And it's one of the most notorious cases in Australia. It's the first episode of the podcast Case File. So, like, it's a big deal. The remains of Rosario Gonzalez and Beth Kenyon, the first two women to be reported missing in South Florida, have never been found. And that is the story of the beauty Queen Killer. The women whose lives he cut short and the women who survived him.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Unbelievable.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I mean, it blew my mind researching the story.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I was just.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I can't believe it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Wow. Great job.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Thank you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Amazing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Thank you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And amazing honesty. I know that was probably very hard and very triggering. As you read this yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Thank you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, it's important for other people to hear that, you know, and, like, know that everyone, especially when you're a teenager, makes the kinds of mistakes that you thoroughly regret in all kinds of ways. And if you've already gone through pain about the mistake itself, torturing ourself about making a mistake is what my therapist likes to call the second arrow. And it is. That's the kind of thing you have to watch out for because you already suffered. You already suffer. You don't need to suffer more because you're a human being. It's not fair.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. Thank you. I tried looking up this photographer, like, while I was doing it, because somewhere out there, there's unconsenting topless photos of me, and he's out there somewhere, and I couldn't find anything. It's just. It's chilling. Get me ripping all my nail polish off.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I know.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's what I do when I'm stressed out.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I've literally twisted this paperclip into this.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I'm feeling gel nail polish off. Like, that is. That's not.

[Georgia Hardstark]

This was intense, unbelievably, but also, really good job, Jordan.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Thank you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Growing up, Melissa had what looked like a perfect life. Loving family, great friends.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Until the day it all came crashing down when she discovered her father's dark secret. He was the notorious Happy face killer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

On March 20, Paramount presents the thrilling new original series Happy Face. Inspired by a true life story.

[Karen Kilgariff]

After years without contact, Melissa's father reaches out to confess another murder.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But there's a twist. Another man is already on death row for the same crime.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Now Melissa must choose between keeping her secret and protecting her perfect life or unraveling an unsolved mystery to save an innocent man and decide how far she'll go to uncover the trail. Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid star in.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount plus. All right, well, it's gonna be tough to follow that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sorry.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, I mean, that's huge. But the theme of this episode is moniker killers.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And I think when we learned we were gonna do this theme, we were like, oh, how are there any that we don't know? And we both learned that there are, and this one Maren found. And again, it happened in Northern California. So I'm like, what kind of job am I doing as a supposed true crime enthusiast if I don't know this story? So it Begins in the mid-80s in Redding, California, a town in central northern California about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco. And 120 miles south of the Oregon border. Have you been to Redding?

[Karen Kilgariff]

No.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Redding is like, far away. Sacramento. It's like if you're in Sacramento, you drive three, maybe four hours up the 5ish.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's rural.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's way up there and out there.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, so. But a lovely little kind of community.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, probably. You hate it if you're a teenager, but you love it later.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You would move back later. Yeah. So It's May of 1985, and a 48 year old woman named Avril Whedon.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hmm. My husband's last name.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's your husband's last name.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's weird.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Avril's reported missing by her mother, Eula. Eula desperately tries to track her daughter down, but weeks pass. No one hears from Avril. This is completely out of character for her and, of course, very concerning for her family and her friends. Then, three months later, on August 8, a woman named Shirley Landreth is fielding calls for Shasta County's secret witness program, which is a local tip line where people can call in anonymously and report information they might have on active investigations. Kind of like the local reading version of Crime Stoppers.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's cool.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. So Shirley Landreth is a single mom in her 50s who has run this answering service for this tip line for 12 years. It's a job that means a lot to her. Shirley suffered the tragic loss of her child in a house fire, so she began to channel her grief into doing what she could to better her community. So beautiful. So for 12 years, Shirley's been answering calls to the Shasta county secret witness tip line. But on this August day, when the phone rings and she picks it up, something is off. The caller tells Shirley that he knows where Avril Whedon is. But before he's willing to share those details, he wants to know more about the secret witness's reward for that information. But for Shirley, there's something very unsettling about this exchange, because she's certain she's heard this man's voice before when he is called in with a different tip, also about Avril's case. And so what begins as a missing person's investigation is about to unravel into something much darker. And this tip line will be at the very center of it all. This is the heroic story of tip line operator Shirley Landreth and the hunt for a Northern California serial killer. The main source used today is a legal filing from the Supreme Court of California. And the rest of the sources are in our show notes. As I said, the theme of the show is Moniker Killers, but I'm holding it because of the story.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Got it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So it's August 8th, 1985, my sister's 17th birthday. Holy shit. And Shirley Landreth is on the phone with a man she believes has called into the secret witness tip line before. Phone records will later reveal that this man, who we'll refer to now as the tipster, did reach out to the tip line two months prior. On June 19th, my mother's birthday.

[Karen Kilgariff]

What?

[Georgia Hardstark]

How fucking weird is that?

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's so creepy.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And in the beginning, they were like, and this all begins in May. So I was like, it's your birthday. It's May 11th.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But it wasn't.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So it isn't just the caller's voice or the rushed way he speaks that's familiar to Shirley. Cause in that first call, he also asked about the amount of money he would be receiving for information, on average, Avril's case. Only when that dollar amount was confirmed, which was $250, did he give what he claimed were directions to Averill's body. Shirley passed that information along to the police, but it didn't result in anything. They didn't find anything when they followed those directions. So the tipster did not get a reward. So now on the second call, he is not holding back. The tipster wants to make one thing clear to Shirley up front. He knows for a fact that Avril's dead, but he says he is not responsible. He then gives Shirley exact directions to the location of Avril's body. And Shirley makes a particular note that the man gives these directions in meters, not feet.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Interesting.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So then, before he signs off, the tipster tells Shirley that he's willing to give more information about Averill's case, as well as as six other unsolved murder cases in Shasta County.

[Karen Kilgariff]

What?

[Georgia Hardstark]

As long as the tip line comes through with his reward money quickly. Then he hangs up. Shirley is unsettled by this call. She immediately reports the tip to police. But this time, when investigators follow the tipster's directions, they do lead directly to Avra Wheadon's body, exactly where the tipster stands said she would be. An autopsy will later reveal that Avril had been beaten and strangled to death. And because this information did lead officers to finding her body, Shirley arranges for a prompt and discreet drop off of the tipster's $250.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Can we do a little investigation first, please?

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, this is how it worked, where it's like, you're not going to get anonymous Tips on active cases. If you start, you know, turning it back on people.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sure, but.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, so police have been investigating Avril's missing case for months. And her mother Eula reported that since she had gone missing on May 23, Eula had called Averill's house several times, hoping to find her daughter there. But every time, the only person that was home was a 27 year old man named Robert Maury, who goes by Bob. And Morrie was Averill's tenant who had been renting one of her spare rooms. He had recently been dishonorably discharged from the army for smoking pot. And now he worked sometimes as a landscaper and sometimes as a flower arranger. He also became increasingly annoyed at Eula every time she called. Completely bizarre and inappropriate, at one point telling her quote, how the hell am I supposed to know where Avery is? Is. So when Eula reported her daughter missing to the police, a detective named Dave Mundy was put on the case. So Mundy began interviewing everyone close to Avril, including a male friend that last saw her on the back of Bob's motorcycle. So Bob seems to corroborate this. He can't remember the exact date of this motorcycle ride, but he tells detectives that he dropped Avril off at a local telephone booth while he drove to a different location to buy weed. Bob claims he didn't want Avril to come to a drug deal with him, but he says that after he made that deal, he went back to the phone booth, picked her up, and they went home. And that's the last time he saw her. So now it's August 12th, just days after police recovered Avril's body at the secret witness tip line. The phone rings again. When Shirley answers, she hears the same voice. It's the tipster. He tells Shirley that he's ready to share more information on Averill's case in exchange for more reward money. When Shirley tells the tipster that he could speak directly with Detective Dave Mundy, he refuses. Instead, he announces that he'll call Shirley back and answer the detectives questions through her. Playing detective is far beyond the scope of Shirley's job, but she agrees to this arrangement. She just wants to keep him talking.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So the two settle on a reward amount for the tipster's participation. And the call ends. Shirley immediately calls Detective Mundy and tells him what is happening. Three days later, on August 15, the tipster calls back into the tip line as promised, and Shirley asks him questions on behalf of Detective Mundy. And in response to these questions, the tipster basically tells Shirley that Averill had been murdered over a drug related dispute. He claims she was killed with a nylon clothesline before being dragged into the woods, where her killer then hit her with a rock to make sure she was dead. Before ending the call, the tipster gives Shirley specific directions, once again using meters where police can find the rock that was used to strike Averill. He also shares that he has even more information, but he's only going to call back after he receives the reward money for this newest tip. Shirley sends this new tip over to the police and once again arranges for the tipster to pick up his reward at a designated drop off point. So meanwhile, Detective Monday is zeroing in on Bob Mory. He's the prime suspect in this homicide. But Mundy doesn't have much physical evidence to go on. Bob is admittedly the last person to see Avril alive, and he's also acting very, very strangely. And then three months later, in November of 1985, this is six months after Avril first went missing. Maury calls the Reading Police Department and hints that he knows more than he's letting on. But he's not willing to share his information unless he gets something in exchange. Specifically, Bob tells an officer that he wants legal protections, not just in this murder case, but in an unrelated investigation involving stolen property. So without promising anything, the officer tells Maury that he'll see what he can do. And then, of course, the next day, Detective Mundy follows up on that. He calls Bob back and Bob tells the detective that a friend of Avril's, coincidentally, the same man who had last seen Avril on Bob's motorcycle, is the one who strangled her to death with the rope.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, God.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Bob claims that he actually witnessed this friend carrying out the attack and that he'd been forced to help dispose of Avril's body at gunpoint. So a month later. And so that all makes sense of like the anonymous tipster aspect of it is because the people who know real details and real crimes can be associated, right? So a month later, on December 10, Bob and Detective Mundy have another conversation. This time, Bob tweaks a few key details. He now adds that Avril's friend had forced him to hit Avril with the rock, suggesting Bob himself dealt the fatal blow in her murder, but under duress. But as Bob speaks with Mundy, the detective notices something odd. Bob always relays the distances in meters, not feet. So they're basically putting together that this is the same person the tipster And Bob Mundy. So now it's the fall of 1986. More than a year has passed, said, since Avril's body was first discovered. The detectives are no closer to bringing charges against anyone in connection with this murder. There is no evidence against Bob Mori. Everything is not coincidental.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Circumstantial.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Thank you. Circumstantial. But they are chasing leads they've gotten from statements the people in Avril's life have given, like her parents, neighbors, and Bob Mori himself. And while police are convinced Bob is withholding information and might even be involved, they simply don't have the evidence needed to secure a conviction. Then, on September 11, 1986, the phone at the Secret Witness tip line begins to ring. Shirley answers once again, and she immediately recognizes the voice on the other end. It's the tipster. Shirley hasn't heard from him in about a year, but his voice is unmistakable. And this time, the tipster's focus is not a murder. Instead, he claims to have information about a local burglary. Shirley processes the tip and the caller hangs up. But a couple weeks later, the tipster calls back. And this time he tells Shirley that he wants immunity in Avril's case. It's unclear what he thinks Shirley can do here. We don't know exactly how Shirley responds to him on the phone, but the call ends and months pass with no new correspondence. So now It's August of 1987. Two years have passed since the tipster first called into the tip line, and a year has passed since Shirley last heard from him. Meanwhile, the police are still trying to figure out who killed avril. Then, on August 8th, so to the day my sister's birthday, the tipster calls into Secret Witness once again. This time, he tells Shirley that he can reveal the location of a missing woman that he identifies as Gretchen Olson. But before he does, he wants to know how much the reward money will be. Shirley wants to keep him talking, so she reassures him that he will get money as long as his information helps investigators solve an active case. The phone call ends. And then days later, on August 17, the tipster calls back. This time, he shares much more information. He says Gretchen was killed over a month ago, and then he gives the exact directions to her body. During this call, the tipster makes it clear that he wants his reward money handed over before an autopsy is conducted.

[Karen Kilgariff]

What?

[Georgia Hardstark]

He also tells Shirley that once he picks up his reward, he will leave an envelope behind for investigators. And inside it, he will leave a piece of paper with Gretchen's killer's. Identity written on it. So almost every call with the tipster so far has unsettled Shirley. He speaks in a very pushy, specific kind of harsh tone. He's like, very rushed, sounds very panicked. She knows his voice, of course, you know, like the back of her hand at this point.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But because his information has always proven to be valuable, Shirley is becoming convinced she's talking to someone who's directly involved in these murders, and she wants to keep him talking. She does something that she would normally never do as the operator of an anonymous tip line. She decides she needs to record a few seconds of her next phone call with the tipster in case it's needed in a future trial, essentially.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Very smart.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Very smart. And Shirley doesn't have to wait long, because within hours of their conversation about Gretchen Olston, the tipster calls back, asking whether. Whether the police have found her body yet. As Shirley explains, they haven't found anything yet. She manages to get a couple of sentences of this conversation recorded. And now the tipster's voice is captured for the record. And as we were just saying during your story, but in a much smaller, dumber way, recording a phone call in the mid-80s is difficult, to say the least. Like, what are you using one of these guys from school like a. It's separate machines, completely holding up the. This to do this. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Everything is manual. Everything is.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Clunky.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Not easy to do, but she did it. What Shirley didn't know was while she was capturing this man's voice on the phone that same day, based on the tipster's information, officers do find a woman's body, and it's clear that she has been murdered. What is not clear is her identity. Detectives soon conclude that the name the tipster gave Gretchen Olston is a fake name. An autopsy will later reveal that this unidentified woman was sexually assaulted before being bludgeoned to death. And as promised, the $500 reward is placed in an envelope and left at a designated spot for the tipster to anonymously pick up. And as he promised, the tipster picks up the reward and leaves his own envelope behind for police. But when the police take that envelope and open it up, they find that it is empty. There is no reveal from the tipster, but the envelope is kept and collected as evidence. So it's around this time that a woman comes forward to report that two months earlier, in June of that year, she had been raped. And she names Bob Mori as her rapist. The woman says Bob picked her up on his motorcycle under the pretense that he was taking her to a party, but then he pulled into a remote wooded area and sexually assaulted her as he tried to strangle her.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus.

[Georgia Hardstark]

She was so sure that Bob was going to kill her, but then he didn't. He just took her home. She was so terrified, she didn't immediately report the attack. When telling investigators about the location of her assault, the woman describes the exact same area where police found the body of basically Jane Doe. Not Gretchen Olston, but the Jane Doe that they found. Based on the tipster's information, here's an infuriating sentence. It is unclear why, but Bob Mori is not taken into custody after the survivor of his violent sexual assaults comes forward and names him.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus Christ.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So now it's September. I mean, this is just kind of. We'll just. The theme, the theme is time and place. The time and place is the 80s. Yeah, not a pretty time. So now it's September 15th, 1987. Shirley's still at work at the tip line. The phone rings. She picks it up. Once again, it's the tipster. This time he asks about reward money in the case of a missing 20 year old local woman named Dawn Berryhill. Dawn was last seen on June 22, 1987 on the back of an unidentified man's motorcycle. Multiple people, including Don's mother, saw her with this man, but they don't know who he is. Is. Police learned that Don had told a neighbor she was going to buy some pot with a guy named Bob.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I mean.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So Shirley confirms that the reward amount for this case is $500. But the tipster now tries to play hardball over that amount. He hangs up. He calls back repeatedly. He's trying to negotiate with her. Shirley has real reason to believe the tipster will have information that will lead to to police finding yet another body. So to keep him talking, she actually gets secret witnesses permission. Like the association that put this tip line together. She gets permission to bump up the reward to $1,250.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And with that, the tipster starts talking. He tells Shirley where they'll find Dawn's body, again relaying distances and meters. Then he denies any involvement in her death. At one point, the tipster seems paranoid, so Shirley calmly reaffirms to him that the line is anonymous and that, quote, she could not recognize a person's voice since she talked to so many people every day.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Good for her.

[Georgia Hardstark]

End quote. And then I just wrote, you're allowed to lie to liars. That's the rule. Total and murderers.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So Using the tipster's information, police are able to locate the remains of Dawn Berryhill. She's found in the same area where both the body of the Jane Doe was recovered and where the survivor of Bob Mori's sexual assaults reported being attacked. Investigators are now convinced that Bob Mori is responsible for the murders of at least three women, Avril Whedon, Dawn Berryhill and their Jane Doe, as well as the rape of one survivor. But before they charge him with any of these crimes, they want to confirm their suspicion that Bob Mori is the tipster. So for this, detectives turn to Shirley Landreth, who has just set up yet another discreet drop off for the tipster's reward money. But she's very ethical. As the operator of an anonymous tip line, she very much believes in the importance of the integrity of it. Okay, so she doesn't try to find his name, but someone at the secret witness tip line, we don't know who, shares the drop off point for the tipster's latest reward.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Nice.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You get him on a, on a, what's that called? Technicality. Technicality. Thank you. Can you give me all my words on this episode, please? Soon. Detective Mundy, who is already actively tailing Bob Mori, watches as Bob arrives at and then eggs the designated building where the reward money's been left for the tipster.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sure.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And with that, it's confirmed that Bob Mori is the tipster. But when officers confront him about picking up the tip money, he admits to knowing, quote, all kinds of girls, end quote, who have gone missing, but denies ever murdering anyone.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Can you imagine? Yeah, I know. All kinds. What are you fucking talking about, dude?

[Georgia Hardstark]

What are you talking about, Bob? Two weeks later, on October 14, 1987, Shirley receives a call at the secret witness tip line. Once again, it's the tipster. But this time he's pissed. He would like to speak with the tip line's higher ups to complain about this breach of anonymity.

[Karen Kilgariff]

He wants to talk to the manager.

[Georgia Hardstark]

He would like to karen it up with the manager about how he's been.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Treated poorly as reporting all these murdered.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Women, being paid for the information that only he knows about murdered women.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I hate him.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. He even threatens to print 10,000 flyers shaming secret witness for failing to protect his identity.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I think everyone would be fine with that.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, flyer it up, fool.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Shirley tells him that she'll see what she can do.

[Karen Kilgariff]

She knows she's playing the game.

[Georgia Hardstark]

She knows exactly how to play this man. Then she contacts her colleagues at the tip line and the police and they all together come up with a plan. They're going to pull in another secret witness employee who will meet Bob Mory to hear out his concerns while trying to get more information out of him. Their ultimate goal being getting him to help them identify their Jane Doe. At this meeting, Bob can't seem to help himself. After some light questioning, he reveals that he knows where to find the Jane Doe's purse, but that he wants money for that information.

[Karen Kilgariff]

He thinks he's smarter than everyone else. Right?

[Georgia Hardstark]

They always do.

[Karen Kilgariff]

They really do.

[Georgia Hardstark]

They always do. And in this way where it's just like you think, you basically figured out a way to get paid for your drugs or whatever else it is you're doing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But also it's that part of. I don't know if it's always psychopaths or. But that they have to talk to police. Like it's part of the. It's part of the.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, yes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That they want to be known. They want people to talk to them about it. It's what makes them special.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Totally.

[Georgia Hardstark]

He wants money for the information about where Jane Doe's purse is. He also wants help getting a few traffic tickets. Taken care of. Of dude. When the secret witness staffer tells Bob everything he wants to hear, Bob shares exact directions to the location of Jane Doe's purse. And police immediately find that purse and the driver's license inside, which identifies the Jane Doe as 30 year old Belinda Joe Stark. She was last seen in June around the same time dawn was reported missing. And when the survivor of Bob's sexual assault reported being attacked.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Incredibly, Bob Mari, no longer an anonymous tipster and probably a serial rapist and killer, collects the reward for his information about the purse.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Stop it. Stop. Okay.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You think you there's a plan you don't get the only frustrating story about how fucked things are and were and continue to be.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Fair enough.

[Georgia Hardstark]

By this point, police have collected some solid evidence. It's mostly thanks to Bob himself, who's arguably maybe the dumbest person on the planet. But now the investigators have Bob's fingerprints that are all over Belinda Jo's purse as well as all over the envelope left by the tipster at the drop off location. Right. They also show a blanket recovered near Belinda Jo's body to two of Bob's former roommates who confirmed that it looks identical to one he used to have at his home.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is giving me like, like. Remember the movie River's Edge?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's like giving me like vibes of that, you know?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yes. Kind of like Scumbag that's doing stuff around town and people kind of, he's.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Stupid, but be aware he's getting away with it because it's the 80s.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's the 80s. On November 6, 1987, investigators arrest Bob Mari and charge him with the murders of Avril Whedon, Belinda Joe Stark and Don Berry Hill. He is also charged with rape. When this case goes to trial, witnesses testify to seeing Bob with these women before they disappeared. And some even tell the court that Bob admitted to murdering women.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus.

[Georgia Hardstark]

A former coworker testifies that Bob Mory once told her, quote, listen, I have killed before, and you'll be just one more. I'm going to snuff you out.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh my God.

[Georgia Hardstark]

End quote. So it's nice because these days you could turn around and report that as a co worker of this person. But the key witness in this case is Shirley Landreth. Over the past three or so years, Shirley has spoken on the phone with the tipster somewhere around 20 times.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And she has processed his disturbing, ultra specific tips that successfully lead to the recovery of three bodies and repeated reward payouts. By this point, Shirley has revealed her recording of the tipster's voice to investigators. They've listened to it, compared it with Bob's own voice, and determined it is the same man. It fits into the prosecution's narrative that Bob carried out these murders himself, which is how he had these tips in the first place. When Shirley takes the stand, she tells the court that she believes the tipster is Bob Maury, pointing out the similarities in their words, like meters instead of feet. And the tone of voice, she says, quote, the speed of the speech, the pushiness of it, the way certain words are grouped together, the abruptness of the way he terminates conversations.

[Karen Kilgariff]

How scary that the whole time, though, she, like, goes home from work and he could know who she is. You know what I mean?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Like, yeah, it's not a big place.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I wouldn't sleep at night if I were her. I'd be so scared.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It would be really scary.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Bob Maury never admits to any of the crimes he's charged with, with. And he brags that no jury would dare convict him. But if there's one thing we know about Bob Mory, he's dumb. He is found guilty of rape and murder and to this day remains on death row at San Quentin. Now known as the Tipster Killer, he is thought to be responsible for other unsolved murders in Shasta County.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Definitely.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Because Bob has never confessed, we do not know his motive. But it has been theorized that he like playing games with the police through those tips. Reports vary on how much Bob Mory collected from the secret witness tip line, but we do know it was somewhere around a few thousand dollars, which would be around $8,000 in today's money. He used it to buy, among other things, a new motorcycle. But thanks to Shirley Landreth and her work at the secret witness tip line, she trusted her gut, but she kept him talking. And she did that right up until his arrest. A few years after the trial, a reading newspaper features a story about Shirley Landreth and her deep commitment to the community via her involvement in Bob Mory's case. But it also talks about her participation in local food drives, screening programs for sick children, and more. In the article, she's quoted as simply saying, I like to help people.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, my God.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Shirley Landreth passes away in 1994 at the age of 62. She had cancer. Today, the secret witness tip line of Shasta county still exists. And just like Shirley Landreth, its current operators are committed to keeping callers anonymous. It takes very special circumstances, like a suspected serial killer repeatedly calling in for months for that to change. As Detective Mundy once told reporters, quote, quote, it's secret witness, not secret suspect.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Damn.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And that's the story of a serial killer known as the tipster killer. And Shirley Landreth, the tip line operator who helped take him down.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I mean, can we get a made for TV movie immediately?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's incredible.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Isn't that good?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. I had never heard of that.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I hadn't either.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's just so sad. I mean, and then he was getting money from it, which just feels so dirty.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Ugh.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Wow.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And this is exactly why we've decided to bring fucking hooray back. Because we want to end this on a cheery note, not just here. So we're doing fucking hoorays again. You guys just send us what your fucking hooray is like, the good thing happening for you this week, this month, this year, this life. The thing that you're excited about, looking forward to or have had happen to you or happen to other people or just things you're happy about. About. And you can comment on our social media or email it to us or do whatever the fuck, you know, yell it into the sky. You can hashtag it. Fucking hooray. The end. That was so much information. Jesus, that was a lot. Okay, you have one. Want me to go?

[Georgia Hardstark]

I do. Go ahead.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay. This one's called Hoorays Are we still doing these?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hey, podcasters, I'm not sure if we're still doing hoorays, but maybe this is just for myself to have a record to look back on. Bad days days. I turned 30 in five days and although I dread the big three zero, my high school self and even my 25 year old self would be so proud of the person I have become and how far I've come from where I was and where I could have been, which I hear you from. Growing up surrounded by drugs, suss ass people, and not always loving home, I am making it in this world day after day. And looking back only a little other than the fond memory memories, I've beaten the statistics of a poverty stricken, drug using, jailbird shell of a person like the people I grew up around. And for that I say hooray, stay sexy and listen to Joe Dirt when he says keep on keeping on and life's a garden. Dig it, because that mullet wearing dude is right. Kelsey. Yeah. Shout out to someone that means a lot to me that I grew up with and went through the same crazy. Kelsey. We beat the statistics and grabbed life by the balls. Two Kelsey's, but I, E and E, Y.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Are you serious?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes. Swear.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, they're best friends for life.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, Kelsey, I love it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I'm so proud of you guys. And I, I heard this like, you know one of those quotes on social media, it's like no one is cheering for you harder than your childhood self who's watching you from the sidelines now going, that's great. Hell yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You're doing it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hell yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You're doing it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hell yeah. Okay.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Amazing. Kelsey, Congratulations. All right, here's this one. It says, hey, howdy. Hey ladies with a Z. After owning our house for not even a full year, our basement flooded during a 24 hour long power outage caused by a tornado.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Picture me home alone with a bowl from the kitchen bailing water out of the basement like it was a sinking boat. Sadly, it was all in vain and we ended up with a foot of flood water in our basement for roughly 18 hours. Everything was trashed. How is this a fucking hooray you may ask? Because after fighting like hell against the water and having our basement look like an absolute war zone for four months, we finally got our drywall replaced. The carpet and pad were a total loss. But it feels good to finally be taking our basement back. Fucking hooray for home ownership, even the really shitty parts. Stay sexy and for the love of God, get a sump pump with a battery backup. Ashley with an eye.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, my God. Like I need to listen to that because our basement has flooded multiple fucking times.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Go get that. I'm gonna.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's good advice.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So scary. So surviving that, getting through it and.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Still having a fucking hooray even though it's like, yeah, that's. That's the way to live your life.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And being grateful for what you have. Yeah. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Send us your fucking hoorays. And stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye, Elvis. Do you want a cookie?

[Georgia Hardstark]

This has been an exactly right production.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Our Researchers are Maren McGlashan and Ali Elkin.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Email your hometowns to my favorite murdermail.com.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Follow the show on Instagram at my favorite murder.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And now you can watch us on exactly right's YouTube page while you're there, please like and subscribe. Goodbye.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Growing up, Melissa had the perfect life until she discovered her father's dark secret. He was the notorious Happy Face Killer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Experience a thrilling new Paramount plus original series inspired by a true life story.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Now, when Melissa's father confesses to a new murder, she must choose between protecting her secret and risking everything to uncover the truth. Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid star in.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Happy Face new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount plus.