Episode 4: “The Cave”

Summary

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Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders

Episode 4: “The Cave”
Host: M. William Phelps
Date: March 13, 2024

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Episode Overview

This episode continues the deep investigation into the 1989 murder of Dana Stidham in Bella Vista, Arkansas, focusing on disputed leads, the role of rumors, aggressive police tactics, and shifting suspects. Host M. William Phelps tracks how a confusing web of sources, local rumors, and police interviews led authorities to focus heavily—perhaps unfairly—on one suspect, Mike McMillan, and eventually introduces a new, disturbing person of interest as the investigation progresses. The episode is marked by tense interviews, credible family concerns, and a dramatic discovery that promises to turn the case in a new direction.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The "Mike" Lead and Hearsay in Small Town Murders

• Phelps revisits tips about a “Mike” seen with Dana at the dance on the night of her disappearance, exploring how rumors fueled suspicion.
• A primary anonymous source shares her unsettling experiences around "Mike," including a chilling warning from a girl on "the hill"—a spot teens partied near Bella Vista.
  • Anonymous Source (03:58):

    “There was three guys and another girl ... I said, y' all know Dana Stidham? ... [the girl] says, ‘You better leave here right now, because if you don't, ... the same thing's gonna happen to you.’”

• Phelps explains that several people of interest named Mike were considered and examines how hearsay, although compelling, doesn’t equal evidence.

2. Danger, Small Town Politics, and The Girl on the Hill

• The “girl on the hill” is revealed to be both a friend of Dana’s and a potential witness—but she’s deceased and cannot be interviewed. Dana’s mother, Georgia Stidham, provides a deeply negative but revealing account of this girl, describing her as manipulative and involved in drugs.
  • Georgia Stidham (09:56):

    “I think the bitch had a lot to do with it. And that a bitch is exactly what she was. ... She was smart mouthed and she wanted to be a big person and doing things ... she couldn't quite carry it off.”

• Police reports and family interviews suggest the girl and her friends could have been involved in drug trafficking, opening up other investigative pathways and motives.

3. The Narrowing on Mike McMillan

• Much of the episode centers around Mike McMillan, the original focus of police suspicion:
  • Police fixation: Despite a lack of physical evidence, detectives repeatedly interrogated Mike, pressuring him for a confession, even resorting to deception and intimidation.
    • Detective Danny Varner (18:36):

      “Mike, we interview people all the time... You’re cool. You’ve learned to live with this, and it makes it easy.”

    • Phelps (19:55):

      “The BCSO did not have Mike's fingerprints inside Dana's car. They had no fingerprints, in fact. Lying, however, is totally within the boundaries when you're interviewing a suspect.”

  • Questionable evidence:
    • McMillan’s ex-wife describes being contacted and searched by law enforcement.
    • Hair found in Mike’s truck was tested; DNA excluded Dana as the donor (26:56).
  • Polygraph tests:
    • Mike passed the first, failed the second, but steadfastly denied involvement.
    • Mike McMillan (24:21):

      "Sometimes I think I did kill Dana, but I know I didn't."

  • Family suspicion:
    • Dana’s mother, Georgia, remains convinced Mike knows more than he says:
      • Georgia Stidham (13:47):

        “Yes. I still think he knew who it was, where they had her and everything else. And I probably always will.”

4. Investigative Challenges and Law Enforcement Dynamics

• The show highlights investigative shortcomings: lost or prematurely released evidence (Dana’s car), poor handling of suspects, and tunnel vision.
  • Christy Smith (cousin, 32:55):

    "The police didn't seem too worried still. It just seemed like there was a lot of things that should have been done that wasn't... Like, they only kept her car for a few days and then they gave it back to her parents."

• The former prosecutor Nathan Smith discusses how multiple viable suspects complicate the prosecution and create reasonable doubt.
  • Nathan Smith (27:55):

    “If you have one or two other pretty good suspects, that's almost by definition, reasonable doubt.”

5. The Introduction of a New Suspect: "Jack Linney"

• Shifting from McMillan, the story introduces a new suspect (pseudonym: Jack Linney), a well-educated but troubled man with a long history of sexual harassment and brain injury.
  • Brandon Howard (36:40):

    “Voracious appetite is the best ... It seems that no woman or job or building ... has not had a story of some unnerving incident of harassment or behavior.”

• Linney was in Bella Vista at the right time despite an alibi and his pattern matched many dangerous behaviors.
  • Brandon Howard (37:07):

    “It's frightening ... checks all the boxes for a sexual predator ... following them on the highway, trying to pull them over, in some cases, groping them.”

• Phelps reports that law enforcement considered Linney a viable suspect for Dana’s murder and possibly other area homicides.

6. A Break in the Case: Gruesome Discovery

• In late 1990, Linda and Randy Grohler discover skeletal remains in Anderson, Missouri, just north of the original crime scene, potentially changing the investigation’s direction.
  • Linda Grohler (41:02):

    “He says, ‘Linda, I see a skull.’ ... And then ... we could see the rest of the body on the ... lean to on the old house on a concrete slab.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Anonymous Source (05:53):

  “What I understand is that Dana went out to the man cave in Bella Vista that night. The men decided they were gonna trade off girlfriends and ... they ended up getting in a fight ... that Stidham girl got cut ... [named officer] told him to put her in his car or his truck, take her and bury her.”

• Georgia Stidham (12:47):

  “That he was a little chicken shit. ... He went down there and he took something from a little dead girl, and I didn't like the little thing. Anyway, I don't like Mike McMillan, and I can't stand his parents.”

• M. William Phelps (21:11):

  “This night, of course, had been years before. As the interview continues, they talk about how Mike's alibi fell apart ... Evidence that was all highly circumstantial at best.”

• M. William Phelps (26:56):

  “Dana Stidham can be eliminated as the donor of the head hair found inside Mike McMillan’s vehicle.”

• Nathan Smith (28:56):

  “Now, the real issue is ... was there DNA evidence preserved that can be tested today ... people [in 1989] didn’t think about doing that.”

• Brandon Howard (37:46):

  “I would argue no [he can’t be excluded]. The best exclusion probably would have been his alibi ... that was refuted by the evidence ...”

• Linda Grohler (41:02):

  “He says, ‘Linda, I see a skull.’ … we could see the rest of the body ... on the concrete slab.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 01:55–03:28: Anonymous source’s account of “Mike” and party at the hill
• 05:39–06:36: Detective emphasizes not discounting possible witness statements
• 09:50–11:06: Georgia Stidham on the “girl on the hill” and alleged drug running
• 12:26–13:47: Discussion of hair evidence and Georgia’s suspicion of Mike
• 16:17–17:38: Mike McMillan's ex-wife on repeated police interrogations
• 18:36–24:02: Marathon police interview with Mike; tactics, intimidation, and polygraph discussion
• 26:26–26:56: DNA test eliminates Dana as hair donor in Mike’s truck
• 27:55–28:38: Prosecutor Nathan Smith explains challenges with multiple suspects
• 32:55–33:35: Cousin Christy Smith on police missteps and evidence mishandling
• 34:42–39:08: Introduction and background of suspect "Jack Linney"
• 41:02–41:34: Linda Grohler and her husband discover skeletal remains

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Tone and Style

The episode carries a gritty, investigative tone, blending small-town suspicion, family grief, and relentless cold-case work. Phelps balances skepticism with empathy, giving voice to family members, frustrated law enforcement, and credible local journalists. The frank, sometimes coarse language of witnesses and family (e.g., Georgia Stidham) reflects the rawness and emotional toll of the case.

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Summary

Episode 4 of "Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders" peels back the complexity of small-town investigations, the dangers of tunnel vision, and the heartbreak of a family still searching for answers decades later. By exploring conflicting testimonies, the failure of forensic evidence to implicate the primary suspect, and the overdue attention to other dangerous individuals in the community, the podcast suggests that Dana’s case is far from solved—and hints at new developments on the horizon.

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Transcript

[M. William Phelps]

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[M. William Phelps]

At the end of the last episode, a source told us about a guy named Mike allegedly at a dance with Dana and a sinking feeling she had that Mike was going to do something very bad to Dana. And while you can't spend much time in the world of true crime without learning that, you should definitely listen to your gut. A sinking feeling is not evidence of wrongdoing, and it means nothing in the scope of Dana's murder investigation. At best, it's hearsay. If my source would have stopped there, however, we could write off the information as coming from an overexcited teenager wanting to be caught up in the drama of a local murder. But she didn't.

Who told you his name was Mike?

[Anonymous Source]

Just some other people that kind of knew her, that were a little bit younger than me, that were more of her age. They told me because I had been telling them to watch out for this guy, that something was wrong. And then I think it was a guy that knew Mike. He said that, yeah, she is missing. You know, some guy named Mike was with her that night. And then I, you know, asked, well, what did he look like? And then they told me, I said, yeah, that's the guy. I think he was going to Kill her. And then next thing I know. And I said, well, they found her. And they found her a few miles from that Wonderland cave in Bella Vista.

[M. William Phelps]

My source wound up talking to a few other friends from Bella Vista, voicing her concerns about Dana. And that night she supposedly saw her. And I need to point out there was more than one person of interest the BCSO looked at named Mike. And Mike McMillan told me I worked at the cave, but not until years after Dana went missing when I turned 21. No way I was there that night.

[Anonymous Source]

So they said, well, they hang out at the hill. What's that? And I said, it's up there at Bella Vista. They said, you go up there and you go past that grocery store about two or three miles, and then there'll be a little dirt road off to the left right before you go up a hill. So I drove out there and I seen this little road. It's like a Friday or Saturday night because that's where they said people her age and them kids from Gravett hung out. So I drove out there. I guess they partied out there. It was like an open field, and there were four people out there. There was three guys and another girl. And I get out of the car and it's that same guy, Mike again, this other guy that I knew that was a little younger than me, Dana's age, and then this kind of long headed, blondish girl. And I said, oh. I said, y' all know Dana Stidham? Didn't she go missing around here somewhere? Those guys didn't say nothing. They were drinking beer, you know, out of cans. She says, yeah, I tell you what, you better leave here right now, because if you don't, she says, the same thing's gonna happen to you.

[M. William Phelps]

I asked my source the name of the girl on the hill, as we'll call her. As it turns out, she's someone Dana knew very well and was seen by several witnesses with Dana that night she disappeared. Unfortunately, I can't interview her. She died some time ago.

After our conversation, I spoke to a detective and related this information. The detective knows this source, how she can ramble and how tempted I might be to write off what she says as hyperbolic nonsense. But the detective stressed to me, quote, don't discount what she tells you. Hmm. After that warning from the girl on the hill, my source became unsettled and.

[Anonymous Source]

I went and got in my car and left. I was like, I gotta get out of here because I don't know what they're gonna do, you know? And I Went and told a few more people about it. And they just said, well, the guy that was with Dana that night, he's friends with some dirty cops. So you don't want to get involved in it because they might do something to you. So about 15 years ago, I knew a guy with the sheriff's office that I talked to a little bit about it.

[M. William Phelps]

I verified that she had told others about this. What she relayed to me next is the most disturbing part of her account.

And you'll hear a name bleeped out. It's the name of a police officer.

[Anonymous Source]

What I understand is that Dana went out to the man cave in Bella Vista that night. The men decided they were gonna trade off girlfriends and they was gonna have a sex party. And that they ended up getting in a fight and a lover's quarrel broke out. And that that Stidham girl got cut.

And that told him to put her in his car or his truck, take her and bury her.

[M. William Phelps]

Previously on Paper Ghosts.

[Mike McMillan's Ex-Wife]

Yes, it was a young guy, close to his age, a policeman, and he really felt like he may have done it.

[M. William Phelps]

You don't have an intact body, but they found there was a nick on the collarbone that they felt like was from a knife. Now, whether she was stabbed, you know.

[Anonymous Source]

In the neck, Something in my mind told me that this guy is fixing to kill this girl. Oh, my God. This is some kind of a murder.

[M. William Phelps]

My name is M. William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and author of more than 40 true crime books. This is season four of Paper Ghosts. The Ozarks.

Cold case work for me has always been about gathering as much information as I can without judging it or allowing any bias to seep in. I collect the data, do some fact checking, and see what shakes out. And before I decide on a line of inquiry, I like to know as much about a case as possible, far beyond the public record.

So I kept calling people and reviewing all the documentation, which, let me tell you, amounts to a mountain of police interviews, witness statements, official reports, and various other documents associated with the case. Some 30 odd years old. All these sex party people. My source mentions that crowd Dana hung around. Well, for maybe obvious reasons, none of them wanted to speak to me about what they knew.

Make of that what you will. I asked Dana's mother, Georgia Stidham, about the now deceased girl on the hill. I've bleeped out her name, but that's who we're referring to in this exchange, and it's clear that Georgia remembers her very well. And did she ever mention or did you ever meet a.

[Georgia Stidham]

Yes. And you do not want me to tell you what I think of.

[M. William Phelps]

Tell me.

[Georgia Stidham]

I think the bitch had a lot to do with it. And that a bitch is exactly what she was. She came in and told me that she was only 19 and she was working with Dana down there at the store. And now she was still in school and everything, but she had one son that lived with her mom and dad, and she. She was lying all the way through. She was married and she had the one son. That was the only truth in it.

[M. William Phelps]

So what kind of person was she? Was she a drug addict?

[Georgia Stidham]

She was a bitch.

[M. William Phelps]

I got that she was a bitch.

[Georgia Stidham]

She was. She was smart mouthed and she wanted to be a big person and doing things, I guess, and she couldn't quite carry it off.

[M. William Phelps]

Was she into drugs? Dope, that sort of thing?

[Georgia Stidham]

Yes.

[M. William Phelps]

What kind of drugs?

[Georgia Stidham]

All kinds, from what I've understood.

[M. William Phelps]

Do you think she was dealing drugs, too?

[Georgia Stidham]

Yes, I know she was dealing. Dana had told me that the Girl.

[M. William Phelps]

On the Hill, along with two other girls Dana knew, were said to be muling drugs from Texas into Arkansas. Information I found in a police report and an interview with her. In my experience at this level of drug dealing, transporting quantities of dope over state lines, a federal offense which can get you decades in prison, the stakes become very high. Could Dana have seen something she wasn't supposed to?

[Georgia Stidham]

And she'd lie and lie and lie just to get Dana out. Dana was on her way to her house.

[M. William Phelps]

And you're talking about when?

[Georgia Stidham]

That night.

[M. William Phelps]

I ended up verifying this with three other sources.

Next, I needed to understand what Georgia thought about Mike McMillan. Detectives Danny Varner and Mike Sidoriak would not let go of Mike. Detective Sidoriak had told the reporter, quote, we want to show that our victim was in McMillan's vehicle, referring to that hair found in Mike's truck, which, along with one of Dana's hairs and George's DNA, had been submitted for testing.

If you recall, in a previous episode, the BCSO was focused on the idea that if Mike McMillan had stolen Dana's grave marker, then that behavior somehow spoke to his guilt. So when you heard about Mike McMillan taking the grave marker from your daughter's grave, what was your first thought?

[Georgia Stidham]

That he was a little chicken shit.

[M. William Phelps]

Why chicken shit?

[Georgia Stidham]

He went down there and he took something from a little dead girl, and I didn't like the little thing. Anyway, I don't like Mike McMillan, and I can't stand his parents.

[M. William Phelps]

Why do you think he did it?

[Georgia Stidham]

Because he's chicken shit. And that's just the truth of it. He thought it made him look big.

[M. William Phelps]

If Mike McMillan had been involved in Dana's murder, I think the last thing the guy would want to do is steal the marker from her grave. If he was feeling nostalgic or upset or as Georgia said, wanted to show off, well, that would make more sense to me. Law enforcement seemed to be taking advantage of this situation in order to keep someone in their crosshairs. And that person was Mike. Still, they weren't the only ones who thought Mike knew more than he was saying. Did you ever consider him a suspect?

[Georgia Stidham]

Yes. I still think he knew who it was, where they had her and everything else. And I probably always will.

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[M. William Phelps]

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[M. William Phelps]

When new information from a case comes in, I compare it to what I've learned up until that point. A new thread can pop out of nowhere and things can start to make sense. Or not. Sidoriak and Varner were dialed into Mike McMillan, but they also continued interviewing scores of other people. Mike eventually married and moved far away from Bella Vista. Here's his ex wife who we met in the last episode. And so when you guys, you know, as the time went on, did law enforcement ever contact him again?

[Mike McMillan's Ex-Wife]

Yes, they actually came and interviewed me first. They took him they had him for, like, six or eight hours, showed him pictures, you know, the whole graphic, how they do it. And he was pretty shaken up after that because it's not something you want to see. So little background. My stepdad was a chief of police in the town where we lived. So I grew up around law enforcement and all that. They showed up at my work, two detectives, and asked to speak to me. They asked me if Mike had any kind of personal possessions at the house that had, like, pictures of ex girlfriends and things like that. And I'm like, well, yeah. I mean, everybody kind of has something like that from high school that you kept your notes in or your little mementos. And they were like, oh, well, have you ever seen this purse and this? And I'm like, no.

And they asked if they could take it. And I was young and naive, and I told them yes. So they went to my house and got that box. They interviewed Mike shortly after that, and.

[M. William Phelps]

He was shaken up about them coming again.

[Mike McMillan's Ex-Wife]

Was just playing these pictures that they sent were Dana out in front of him. It would shake anybody up, but he's like, I didn't do it. I don't have to den it, you know?

[M. William Phelps]

I was able to obtain the recording of this marathon interview. Detective Danny Varner begins.

[Detective Danny Varner]

She sure the hell don't deserve ending up like she did. A little skeletal man. That's it. Her folks still don't know, but God does, doesn't he? Yeah, he does. That's what I'm counting on.

[M. William Phelps]

The audio in that previous clip has degraded over time, but Detective Varner says, little old skeletal remains, and that's it. Her folks still don't know, but God does, don't he? And Mike McMillan responds, yeah, he does. That's what I am counting on. Varner then used a carefully chosen tactic by trying to align Mike with the harshest criminals. Strategically, in my opinion, to scare him.

[Detective Danny Varner]

Mike, we interview people all the time. We've interviewed murderers, rapists, burglars, child molesters. And watching you here today, you've got the gestures in that seat, and you're cool. I'm gonna say one thing right now. You're cool. You've learned to live with this, and it's been your lifestyle, and it makes it easy. What's that? By the way you talk and by your way you deny.

[M. William Phelps]

You'Re our man. They accuse him. They put tremendous pressure on Mike to admit he killed Dana. But he continues to say what he has always said, even interrupting them at times to stand up for himself.

[Detective Danny Varner]

And you know we got you, Mike. It's going to look a lot better on you. You just say, listen, I didn't do it. I think you did. I didn't. If you put me in jail for it, you got the wrong guy and somebody got away.

[M. William Phelps]

Then Danny Varner does something we don't expect upstanding officers to do. He lies.

[Detective Danny Varner]

I don't think so.

I don't have somebody else to fingerprint in the car. Well, you got somebody else getting under.

[M. William Phelps]

The BCSO did not have Mike's fingerprints inside Dana's car. They had no fingerprints, in fact. Lying, however, is totally within the boundaries when you're interviewing a suspect. And I understand why detectives sometimes do it. This interview was conducted close to the time Mike willingly gave his blood and hair for DNA comparison. As I stated in an earlier episode, people like to put a face on evil. It helps them deal with the pain and loss. But as Mike McMillan told me, they decided that I had done this and that was it.

[Detective Danny Varner]

Don't both of you get stuck on me. There was somebody that did it. I agree with that. It's been done.

We had your old tell us that Mike McMillan did it to get it by himself.

[M. William Phelps]

Varner then gets into the grave marker Mike was arrested for stealing.

[Detective Danny Varner]

Tell us how long he was out there at the cemetery. I don't know. Could have been five minutes, could have been five hours. I don't know. What do you think? Why does it matter? It doesn't matter.

[M. William Phelps]

This night, of course, had been years before. As the interview continues, they talk about how Mike's alibi fell apart when they interviewed the girl he claimed to have been with that night. They talk about how the truck Mike drove was his dad's, and it fit the description they had of the person parked behind Dana that morning. Evidence that was all highly circumstantial at best. They then focused on a picture of Dana they found inside Mike's house.

[Detective Danny Varner]

Still there or not.

Sure is. I ain't taking it out. That's not a crime, either. Don't be good. What's that? Well, I know I screwed up by taking a little marker deal, but.

I don't get where all the rest of the shit comes from.

I mean, I understand it's just a little town and rumors get going and everything that.

I don't understand how even after I walk in and say, hey, look, I did it, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it, you know, I was stupid for doing it. That's basically what happened. Mike asked me whether or Not I knew who took the marker. And I said, yeah, I did.

And then he says, well, hold on. We need to redo your rights.

I remember that perfectly because that's important to me. I got arrested that day.

[M. William Phelps]

Throughout this entire interview, they kept ratcheting up the pressure on Mike. At one point, they raised the idea of capital felony murder charges, which brought in the possibility of the death penalty. This approach, which potentially crosses a line into intimidation, was specifically designed to scare Mike into a confession. But Mike kept insisting that he did not kill Dana.

[Detective Danny Varner]

So bringing prosecute in here wouldn't make no difference anyway. Not to get me to confess to something I didn't do. It isn't. Were you with her at all? At all that time you've been with her? Could you take her first?

[M. William Phelps]

Varner got into the polygraphs they had given to over a dozen people by then. Mike had taken one during the early days of the investigation and passed. Years later, he took a second one. During the second polygraph, he was asked if he was with Dana the day she disappeared, if at the time Dana was killed, he did anything to cause her death, and was he present when Dana's body was left in that creek bed. Mike answered no to each question.

In the official report, the polygraphist said the results created, quote, such a pattern as to indicate he was deceptive in answering all of the relevant questions. When asked about his responses and how he'd scored on the test, Mike said.

Sometimes I think I did kill Dana, but I know I didn't.

The polygraph examiner concluded that in his opinion, Mike was responsible for the death of Dana Stidham.

During his interview with Sidoriak and Varner, the two detectives brought up that failed polygraph.

[Detective Danny Varner]

How come they all passed and you can't?

Same questions, same time. That's me. I didn't have anything to do with Dana Stisum's death.

[M. William Phelps]

If you were to read press reports only about Mike McMillan, you'd walk away feeling that he was hiding something and possibly committed this crime. But listening to him in these interviews, how direct and sharp he is. Not one bit nervous. It's clear he is emphatically denying any involvement. This, mind you, as he is poked and prodded and accused of it over and over for years and years, he sticks to his story and never wavers.

They thought they could break me, Mike told me when I interviewed him. Throughout the police interview, Mike continues to repeat himself.

[Detective Danny Varner]

I didn't have anything to do with Daniel's death. Did you ever do anything together by yourself? Just two of you? No, not really. Did you ever ask him? No. Go to the Promise dance? Had dances? Trying to go to those dances at the gym or at the civic center? Yeah, I used to, every now and then. Did you ever dance with Heather?

[M. William Phelps]

Such benign questions, which have very little to do with evidence and everything to do with tunnel vision and closing a case.

I obtained the FBI report from the hair blood analysis, the only forensic evidence in Dana's case. The BCSO says it has, and here's a quote from the DNA sequences from the hair and specimen from Georgia Stidham are different. Therefore, Dana Stidham can be eliminated as the donor of the head hair found inside Mike McMillan's vehicle.

The BCSO had no forensics to back up what I would call a very weak circumstantial case against Mike McMillan. The case, including the second polygraph, which Mike allegedly failed, was sent to the district attorney. Mike McMillan has never been charged. But why, after trailing him and pressing him for years?

The simple answer is they had no evidence against him. Because no matter how much the BCSO believed that Mike McMillan had murdered Dana, they didn't have any tangible proof to support such an accusation or make it stick. Here's former Benton county prosecutor Nathan Smith, whom you've heard in previous episodes. Sometimes in cases, there's too many suspects and they all look good. Right.

[Nathan Smith]

Part of the problem with that is if you have one or two other pretty good suspects, that's almost by definition, reasonable doubt. And so when you have multiple suspects out there from a time where it was difficult to collect the kind of evidence we get today routinely, that can be a problem. I can't imagine the pressure in 1989, 1990, to make an arrest, to make the arrest. And I actually think, looking back, that the investigators who worked on it at the time probably should be commended for not making an arrest, simply because if the evidence isn't there, you don't want to start the process now just stepping.

[M. William Phelps]

Back a minute to the murder scene or where the body dump site. So.

Was there evidence there, any type of evidence that could lead to somebody? Like, is there something to test if, you know, you develop a good suspect?

[Nathan Smith]

Well, I guess at this point, I've got to be careful not to, you know, get out in front of the skis of the actual investigation. But certainly anything that we have today, it becomes easier and easier going forward to do those kinds of testings. Now, the real issue is if you're referencing DNA or whatever, and let's just say in a normal case is was there DNA evidence preserved that can be tested today. Because you gotta remember in 1989, that wasn't a thing people were doing right. They didn't think about doing that. So I think it's really gonna be just leaning into the facts more and trying to uncover any additional information.

[M. William Phelps]

Although Mike McMillan somewhat faded from the public picture as a suspect, the BCSO were still searching for a piece of evidence that could tie him to the murder, which they would never find. And yet, the entire time the BCSO was pursuing Mike McMillan, there was a different suspect they had their eye on, a guy unknown to the public, a much better suspect who was being looked at once again when all of a sudden, Dana's case took a remarkable turn.

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This is where mindset comes in.

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Pressure is coming down.

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This is Trainer Games.

[M. William Phelps]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

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[M. William Phelps]

It'S impossible to overestimate the depth of loss a family experiences when a young person is murdered, or the feelings associated with that loss as they manifest in increments over time. You see, grief is universal. It comes in five denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. With pangs of guilt being an unofficial sixth.

Dana was 18 years old. She missed out on so much life. But even more than that, she was missed. Time doesn't change that. And I think law enforcement especially must be careful when a case runs cold. What they do, what they say, what they don't say how they respond to suspects and undoubtedly to victims families.

Dana's cousin Christy Smith put it quite sincerely.

[Georgia Stidham]

To me, it was a lost a lot of family that was very sad and very worried and very confused. The police didn't seem too worried still. It just seemed like there was a lot of things that should have been done that wasn't. That I don't believe was handled correctly. Like they only kept her car for a few days and then they gave it back to her parents. I mean, if the last place she was known to have been was in her car, why would you not keep the car, you know, for future reference?

[M. William Phelps]

Right.

[Georgia Stidham]

I think it was just, you know, we weren't. I don't believe that our police departments at that time were handled to handle a case like this.

[M. William Phelps]

As investigators continued to reinterview co workers and employees at Philip's Grocery, a name emerged, a name that had been there all along. He's never been mentioned publicly in this case, so I'm going to call him Jack Linney. A local older guy with a reputation for not only hanging around Philip's Grocery daily, but but sexually harassing women throughout his entire adult life. And by reputation, I mean a documented trail of serial sexual harassment of the worst kind wherever this dude went.

By the time I met investigative journalist BRANDON Howard in 2023, he had done a lot of work on Jack Linney. And to be clear, this is not the same man from earlier in the podcast, the guy I refer to as the pervert who liked dirty magazines and lived up near Wellington Road close to where Dana's car was found.

[Brandon Howard]

Well, there was another suspect at the store who worked in the area and was sexually harassing some of the women. But beyond the harassment in the store, he was also following them on the highway. And he had a long history of picking up hitchhikers, harassment at other stores in the Bella Vista area, and vehicles that seemed to match more closely with what witnesses reported seeing behind Dana's vehicle the day she disappeared. That made me way more interested in him and how little he was fleshed out.

[M. William Phelps]

Brandon Means and I agree that this suspect was not pursued anywhere near as aggressively as Mike McMillan. Which raises the question, why the hell not? Let's talk about him for a minute. What's his background like?

[Brandon Howard]

This is a person who's well educated, has, I would say, a few degrees, but works way below their station, does lots of construction jobs, can't keep jobs very long, had actually been in the teaching profession. But potential harassment incidents also derailed that career. They were also the Victim of a major brain injury that seemed to unencumber their potency for sexual deviancy and self control.

[M. William Phelps]

So you're saying the suspect had a brain injury and ever since then has been out of control with sexual harassment and even sexual assault?

[Brandon Howard]

Sure.

[M. William Phelps]

I mean, you know, I'm looking at the timeline you created, and what just blows my mind is it's not 1, 2, 3 girls over a period of time. It's 5, 6, 7, 8 who don't know each other. Definitely telling the same story about this one guy.

[Brandon Howard]

Voracious appetite is the best. I mean, he's insatiable. It seems that no woman or job or building, as in a grocery store or outlet he frequents, has not had a story of some unnerving incident of harassment or behavior. We would consider stalking. I would consider stalking.

[M. William Phelps]

I mean, this isn't catcalling. This is behavior. Be way beyond that sort of thing.

[Brandon Howard]

It's frightening. It seems, you know, like someone.

It seems to check all the boxes for a sexual predator. Going into the store with a hood on their face, standing behind the women, ogling them, making circles around the store, sneaking up behind them, waiting for them in the parking lot after work, following them on the highway, trying to pull them over, in some cases, groping them.

[M. William Phelps]

You start looking into this guy, and one of the things that I do is I look to exclude people with this guy. Can you exclude him from Dana's case?

[Brandon Howard]

I would argue no. The best exclusion probably would have been his alibi, which initially was that he was not in the area and that he was at a family reunion. That's refuted by the evidence that they found that he worked the week of Dana's disappearance in Bella Vista. A full work week, I think, even some overtime. Now, the biggest detraction is that most of the sexual harassment, if not all the sexual harassment incidents at the store occurred in 1993, four years after Dana's murder.

But we know he was in the area.

[M. William Phelps]

In 1989, I began looking deeper into this dude's life, talking to my sources in Benton county and beyond about him. I also heard there were recorded interviews the BCSO had done with him about Dana's case, which I set out to find. Each source I spoke to, many of whom you'll soon hear in the podcast, knew Jack Linney very well, including no fewer than five in law enforcement. And every single one of them said the same thing. Lyney could most certainly be responsible for Dana's murder, but also additional homicides throughout the Ozarks.

And wouldn't you know, as Linny's name pops up on the BCSO's radar in late 1990, something happens, something incredible, something changing the entire dynamic of Dana's case.

It's December 2, 1990. An elderly couple, Linda and Randy Grohler, are walking along Oscar Talley Road just east of Indian Creek in Anderson, Missouri, only 20 minutes north of Bella Vista, where Dana's body was found the previous year. The main route near Oscar Talley Road is 59 or North Main Street. Oscar Talley is off that. The Grohlers live in a small house near the end of the road.

[Linda Grohler]

And we had came home, got her dinner and going in the oven and we went for a walk because I have back problems. So one of the deals is take a hike. And we went for a walk and we were picking up cans for the church to sell for our siding. Aluminum cans, you know, you do what you can. And on the way back, we were just within maybe a block and a half of the house. It was just around the curb up there. It was a deserted house.

[M. William Phelps]

That deserted house was on its last legs, just waiting for the right gust of wind to come along and flatten it.

[Linda Grohler]

Anyway, the grass had grown and the leaves, everything had been knocked down. And Randy told me, he says, let's look in this grass. Cause it's kind of wind blown and stuff. And maybe we can find some cans in here, here. And I said, okay. And then.

He was, all of a sudden he. He says, linda, I see a skull.

I says, surely not. But I went back there with him and we saw the skull. And then on further looking, we could see the rest of the body on the. The kind of a lean to on the old house on a concrete slab. We can see the rest of the body.

[M. William Phelps]

If you are enjoying Paper Ghosts, check out my weekly podcast Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps, wherever you get your favorite shows. Coming up next on Paper Ghosts, the.

[Detective Danny Varner]

Skull was detached from the body and the rib cage was detached from the body. You know, the only clothes that was on the body that we found was where the pelvis and legs were and tennis shoes. It had. She had tennis shoes on.

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He can validate there was a party. He can validate that the kids said.

[M. William Phelps]

There was a scream. I'm not tooting my horn here, but.

[Georgia Stidham]

I'm not apt to give up on it. And I have have reason to believe that it will be solved.

[M. William Phelps]

Paper Ghost Season 4 is written and executive produced by me, M. William Phelps and Kathryn Law. Script consulting Rose Bacci Audio editing and mixing by Brandon Dickert and sound design by Matt Russell. The Series theme number 442, is written and performed by Thomas Phelps and Tom Mo.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points.

You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000.

[M. William Phelps]

This is where mindset comes in.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. This is Trainer Games.

[M. William Phelps]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

[Georgia Stidham]

Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

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Nope.

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[Georgia Stidham]

What color was the hamster's cape and.

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[M. William Phelps]

Guaranteed human.