Episode 5: “Grace Doe: Shauna Garber”

Summary

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Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders

Episode 5: “Grace Doe: Shauna Garber”

Date: March 20, 2024
Host: M. William Phelps
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode dives into the haunting case of "Grace Doe," whose murdered remains were discovered near Anderson, Missouri in 1990. M. William Phelps and Ozarks-area detectives revisit the scene, explore the decades-long quest for her identity, and link potential suspects—including a notorious serial killer and a troubling new lead. The episode also illustrates the transformative impact of forensic genealogy, which finally gave Grace Doe her true name: Shauna Garber. Through interviews, case details, and personal accounts, the episode highlights the human impact of unsolved murders and the tireless dedication of those who work to restore victims’ voices.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Discovery of the Remains and Crime Scene Details

• Eyewitness account: Randy and Linda Grohler describe stumbling upon a skull and remains near their home after their dog dragged home bones (03:10).

  "The Skull was detached from the body... She had tennis shoes on. There was glass cable around her neck. But her hands... the hands were tied to the rope. Looked like clothesline rope." – Randy Grohler (03:16)

• The emotional toll on the Grohlers, especially Linda, was significant; she required medication and doctor support to sleep after the discovery (03:56).
• The remains exhibited elaborate, multi-material bindings—clothesline rope, binder twine, electrical cord, paracord—prompting theories of signature elements and possible links to serial predation (16:53).

Early Investigative Challenges and Dead Ends

• Despite the body’s extensive dental work, identification efforts stalled for over 30 years. The case’s only hope seemed to be “by the grace of God”—inspiring the nickname “Grace Doe” (38:23).
• For years, Detective Laurie Howard could not even locate basic evidence or reports, reflecting the common struggles with unclaimed remains cases (39:45).

Revisiting the Crime Scene & Local Theories

• Phelps joins Detectives Laurie Howard and Rhonda Wise at the original location in 2023.
  • They validate the site’s isolation and note its proximity to local homes and a nearby park, suggesting both opportunity and risk for the perpetrator (07:04–10:01).
  • Speculation arises about a local truck driver—rumored in the community but seen as unlikely by the current detectives (10:41).

The Critical Halloween Night Scream

• A new witness emerges during the taping, confirming persistent rumors: multiple teens at a Halloween night party in 1993 heard a woman's terrified scream and a loud departing truck, previously dismissed as folklore (14:29–16:53).

  "So it was a terrifying scream. Yeah. It wasn't... like they're playing volleyball or something. It was a shriek." – M. William Phelps (16:30)

Binding Materials and the BTK (Dennis Rader) Link

• The peculiar multi-layered bindings echo BTK’s “bind, torture, kill” signature, prompting the Osage County sheriff’s interest in linking Dennis Rader to the case (18:58–20:53).

  "Early on, I would have been remiss if I had not said I have to see Dennis Rader, AKA BTK, because of the bindings. They're massive. It's overkill." – Detective Rhonda Wise (20:53)

• After personal interviews, detectives doubt BTK’s involvement, citing the lack of Rader’s usual meticulous organization and his dismissive response to photos of the scene (25:32).

  "He literally almost had a look of disgust on his face. And it was. What he said was, that's overkill. I don't know why anybody would do that." – Detective Laurie Howard (25:38)

Emerging Suspect: "Jack Linney"

• Focus shifts to a new suspect, Jack Linney, with military background, history of harassment, and access to paracord—a rare item at the time (25:55–28:16, 31:38).

  "He would come into Phillips there, where Dana worked and other females that worked there and make those comments to them." – Lieutenant Hunter Petrae (28:45)

• Linney’s ex-wife provided chilling details about his behavior, recalling him thoroughly cleaning a blood-stained car and failing a polygraph regarding another connection (35:21–36:11).

Challenges in Identification and Forensic Breakthroughs

• With no missing persons report or familial DNA, the case languished until the involvement of cutting-edge forensic genealogy.
• Detective Howard’s relentless efforts included extracting a molar for DNA and orchestrating a clandestine hospital scan for facial reconstruction, enlisting a Canadian forensics artist for free (44:15–47:37).

  "I want to bring a skull and mandible into you of a deceased person, a homicide victim, and I'm asking you to take MRI photos... and give me some images for free." – Detective Rhonda Wise, recounting her request to a local hospital (45:55)

• The reconstruction, when complete, provided a breakthrough:

  "One day I cut in... and it says, 'Lori, meet Grace.' And there she was, there's her face." – Detective Rhonda Wise (48:23)

Grace Doe Named: Shauna Garber

• In 2020–2021, DNA processed by Othram led to a definitive match: Grace Doe was Shauna Garber.
• Yet, her disappearance from public record as a young teen generated new questions and investigative challenges (49:06–50:35).

Shauna’s Tragic Background Revealed

• The episode closes with haunting details about Shauna’s life in foster care and a horrific act of abuse by her mother (51:05–51:18).

  "Our mother poured lighting fluid on her... And lit a match." – Family member (51:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On encountering the remains:

  "I tell you what it looked like if somebody had set a skull off a museum shelf on the ground. It was just as shiny as could be. Just as bleached out." – Randy Grohler (02:58)

• On the emotional impact:

  "The part that bothered me for years was why somebody didn't report her missing." – Randy Grohler (04:30)

• On overcoming decades of obstacles:

  "Couldn't find her. I couldn't find the evidence. I couldn't find skeletal remains. I didn't have a report. So essentially, I still just had a story years later, driving people absolutely crazy." – Detective Laurie Howard (39:45)

• On BTK’s reaction and exclusion:

  "He literally almost had a look of disgust on his face. And it was. What he said was, that's overkill. I don't know why anybody would do that." – Detective Laurie Howard (25:38)

• On identifying Shauna Garber:

  "By January 2021, Othram called the McDonald County Sheriff's Office. They had a match. Grace Doe is Shauna Garber." – M. William Phelps (49:06)

• On Shauna's tragic childhood:

  "Our mother poured lighting fluid on her... And lit a match." – Family member (51:05)

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

• 02:34: Grohlers discover remains and describe the scene
• 10:41: Community suspicions about a local trucker
• 14:29–16:53: New witness confirms Halloween night scream
• 16:53–18:58: Discussion of crime scene bindings and initial BTK connection
• 20:53–25:32: Investigators interview BTK; his reaction to Jane Doe’s bindings
• 25:55–36:11: Emerging focus on suspect Jack Linney; ex-wife’s testimony
• 39:45–42:00: Detective Howard recounts challenges in even finding evidence or remains
• 44:15–48:23: Facial reconstruction process; pivotal “meet Grace” moment
• 49:06–50:35: DNA breakthrough—Grace Doe is Shauna Garber
• 51:05–51:18: Shauna’s shocking childhood abuse revealed

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Tone & Approach

The episode balances procedural detail with deep empathy for victims and their families. Phelps and detectives speak candidly and respectfully, blending determination, frustration, and raw humanity. The tone is serious, investigative, and emotionally resonant throughout.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode offers a comprehensive, emotionally charged narrative about the investigation into a woman's murder, the decades-long search for her identity, and the relentless efforts of law enforcement and forensic experts. It provides crucial context for understanding not just Shauna Garber’s tragic life and death, but also the evolving landscape of cold case investigation.

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Transcript

[Detective Laurie Howard]

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[Randy Grohler]

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[M. William Phelps]

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[Detective Laurie Howard]

Pressure is coming down.

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[M. William Phelps]

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[M. William Phelps]

Human beings are not conditioned to react to a gruesome homicide scene. Those who come across bodies during the normal course of life display a wide range range of emotion. Shock, disbelief, confusion, horror, fear. And of course, guilt.

When I began to focus my career on missing people long ago, what unnerved me most was that a loved one had vanished and family members were left to wonder, to wait, to suffer, not knowing what happened or where they were. You would think, as I used to, that the discovery of a body resolves a small part of the emotional puzzle surrounding a missing person. But that's not always the reality.

So you come upon the skull. You and your husband. Your husband sees the skull, you walk over to it. What is your first thought? What are you thinking?

[Randy Grohler]

We didn't know really what to think.

[M. William Phelps]

If you recall at the end of the previous episode, Randy and Linda Grohler happened upon the skull and remains of a young woman just up the road from their Anderson, Missouri home.

[Randy Grohler]

I tell you what it looked like if somebody had set a skull off a museum shelf on the ground. It was just as shiny as could be. Just as bleached out. Or is it all could be?

[M. William Phelps]

And were there any clothes or were there any ligatures around the neck or head or body?

[Randy Grohler]

Oh, the 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. Intense shoes. It had. She had tennis shoes on it. There was glass cable around her neck. But her hands. We didn't move anything until after the coroner got there. But the hands were tied to the rope. Looked like clothesline rope.

[M. William Phelps]

And how did this make the both of you feel when you. It settled into you that you had found a body?

[Randy Grohler]

Well, it was disturbing to me. But, you know, I. I had been in the mortuary business before, so I wasn't too upset. My wife Linda, she got real upset about it. Matter of fact, she had to. She had to go to the doctor and get medication to help her sleep at night.

[M. William Phelps]

Tell me about that, Linda, what was troubling you?

[Randy Grohler]

They thought that she was dumped there and we couldn't help her.

[M. William Phelps]

That here is somebody's daughter, sister, mother, and nobody knows she's there. She's missing.

[Randy Grohler]

And the part that bothered me for years was why somebody didn't report her missing. You know, if you got a child and you send them.

[M. William Phelps]

As I listened to the Grohlers describe their experience, the bindings they mentioned jumped out at me. Although it was a point of contention among law enforcement, one could argue that bindings could have been part of the Dana Stidham crime scene.

[Randy Grohler]

It was kind of like clothesline rope and stuff like that. It was different times.

[M. William Phelps]

Finding the skull and remains of a young woman so close to their home had jogged a memory for the growlers.

[Randy Grohler]

And then we got to thinking this bones in our front yard. This is the part that really bothers me. Our dog, a Siberian husky, had brought part of her home with him. We thought it was deer bones. We didn't look at it closely, but I think it was. What part of her vertebrae and backbone between the ribs and the bottom.

[M. William Phelps]

Is there anything else that you remember.

[Randy Grohler]

When the sheriff and the coroner were up there? The coroner happened to be Gail Duncan at the time. I remember Gail telling me that, you know, this is not going to be a problem identifying the body because of the extensive dental work.

[M. William Phelps]

That plausible offhand comment about Jane Doe's teeth and her eventual identity would turn out to be the understatement of this case and send law enforcement on a 30 year quest to identify her.

Previously on Paper Ghosts.

[Randy Grohler]

He went down there and he took.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Something from a little dead girl.

[Randy Grohler]

And I didn't like it.

[M. William Phelps]

It seems to check all the boxes for a sexual Predator going into the.

[Randy Grohler]

Store with a hood on their face.

[M. William Phelps]

Standing behind the women, sneaking up behind.

[Randy Grohler]

Them, in some cases groping them. But I went back there with him and we saw the skull. And then on further looking, we could see the rest of the. Of the body.

[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 Pay for Ghosts. The Ozarks.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

This road here that we just turned off of would have been U.S. 71 highway. So this road here would have been so much busier.

[M. William Phelps]

Okay. It would have been just as Oscar Talley Road in Anderson, Missouri. Was a bit confusing for this New Englander trudging through the ozarks in early 2023, searching for answers in two decades old cold cases. I met Detective Laurie Howard and her partner, Detective Rhonda wise, from the McDonald County Sheriff's Office out at the crime scene.

[Randy Grohler]

Hi, how are you?

[M. William Phelps]

Detective Laurie Howard. How's it going?

[Detective Laurie Howard]

You know, I might not be the best person to ask. I have no idea.

[M. William Phelps]

You've been busy, huh?

[Detective Laurie Howard]

I have been so busy. So busy and the worst.

[M. William Phelps]

Lori Howard is one of the most dedicated investigators I have ever had the privilege of calling a friend. She's disciplined, resolute, and laser focused on making sure murder victims have a voice. Detective Howard picked up the Oscar Talley Road Jane doe case about 15 years ago. Do you think there's a possibility it can be solved?

[Detective Laurie Howard]

I know it will. I'm not tooting my horn here, but I'm not apt to give up on it. And I have reason to believe that it will be solved.

[M. William Phelps]

Oscar Tally is what I would call a backcountry road. There are a lot of these throughout the Ozarks. Unpaved, named streets surrounded by vast forests, thickly settled on both sides.

Laurie Howard and Rhonda Wise work under current McDonald County, Missouri elected sheriff Rob Evenson. The grit and persistence they display to work a case and stick with it despite barriers is a skill not all law enforcement possesses.

As the years passed after Jane Doe was found, the course of events surrounding this case can only be described as bizarre.

After I pulled up to where Jane Doe's remains were found by the Grohlers, Detective Howard jumped in my vehicle and put me right into the mindset of the killer she is hunting.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

All right, so the working theory is more than likely they would have come from this direction, the direction that we came off of the main highway.

[M. William Phelps]

It was far off the main highway.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Oh, yeah.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

The whole road looked essentially really, really Narrow. It's been widened since then. If you go with my theory, he would have come from that side and come up this way and gone out this way. Either way, whether you're a neighbor here.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Or whether you're a neighbor here, this.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Sits in an area that's echoey because there's a park with some water down here. So this truck would have been loud at the time.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

I mean, you hear birds. So a really loud mufflered truck would be heard by all of these people.

[M. William Phelps]

There's that mention of a truck again, which figures so prominently in Dana Stidham's case. As we chatted, a man came walking out of the woods toward us. Lori knew exactly who he was, a guy whose name I have to bleep out. She shouted, calling him by his name, making his way to the vehicle. He couldn't hear as we continued talking.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

So this guy hates to have people come out here.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

And look, we've been out here a.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Lot of times, and he's just not crazy about it.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

We have people that think he did it.

[M. William Phelps]

There was a Mack truck without a trailer parked nearby.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

I'm not one of them, but, you know, but there's people that can say.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

That he's had something to do with.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

It because he's a little hinky.

[M. William Phelps]

He's a trucker. Truckers are the largest number of serial killers in the country.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

They are, but I'm not. I'm not sold.

[M. William Phelps]

The man was just a few yards from my vehicle.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

He's getting ready to probably show you. There was an old abandoned house, creepy as hell, and that's where they would play. But more importantly, what I'm going to show you is going to be this concrete pad which was in front of that garage, which is where she was lying.

[M. William Phelps]

He stood now at the window on Lori's side and demanded to know what we were doing.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Well, I'm Detective Howard, so it's nice to meet you.

[M. William Phelps]

I'm Matthew.

[Randy Grohler]

Matthew, okay.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

So I explained to him that we were just.

[M. William Phelps]

The guy was cautious and preoccupied with why we were out there. But he also mentioned he might have some information. He said he knew Randy and Linda Grohler very well, that couple up the road who found Jane Doe.

We stepped out of the vehicle and stood together as Laurie and the guy started to discuss people in the area they both knew. I gave them the space to speak privately and pulled Detective Rhonda Wise aside for a little chat. What's it about the cold casework that attracts you to it?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I've been saying This a lot in the last couple of days. It doesn't matter who solves the cold.

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[Detective Rhonda Wise]

So that that family can have that closure.

[M. William Phelps]

Perfect.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

You know.

[M. William Phelps]

As Rhonda and I talked, Lori walked over with a surprised look on her face. The curious dude she was speaking to apparently had something. Lori, we good here, you think?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I want you to talk to this man.

[M. William Phelps]

Okay?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I had no idea that he had something to offer. But he was here the night that he heard the scream. He was down the road where the party was taking place. He can validate there was a party. He can validate that the kid said there was a scream. He can validate what happened.

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[M. William Phelps]

This is where mindset comes in.

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Someone will be eliminated.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Pressure is coming down.

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[M. William Phelps]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

[Randy Grohler]

Shh. You won't believe what my new friend.

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[M. William Phelps]

Back in 1993, kids reported that they heard a female scream on Halloween night. And that's not exactly evidence of a murder. Which was why law enforcement back then had not given much weight to the statements. But this new witness, who had just appeared as I was at the Jane Doe crime scene with detectives Lori Howard and Rhonda Wise, seemed to corroborate the information.

I walked over to the man and asked him to start at the beginning. I won't use your name.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Okay?

[M. William Phelps]

Okay. So it's Halloween night and what happens?

[Randy Grohler]

A bunch of us kids are just having a party at a house there. And one of the couples left and came, started up the hill, heard a scream, came back down, told us a couple guys walked up here. We didn't hear nothing after that.

[M. William Phelps]

And did anybody hear a truck just.

[Randy Grohler]

To see what was going on?

[M. William Phelps]

Okay. Okay. And nobody saw a vehicle leave anything like that.

[Randy Grohler]

It had been several minutes, so the truck was probably had already been gone. They heard a scream and it freaked them out and they went back down because it's dark up here.

[M. William Phelps]

A 10 year old boy who lived on Oscar Talley roadhead reported coming across Jane Doe's body on November 3, about a month before she was found. Closer to that Halloween night date, he told his parents, but they wrote it off as a Halloween prank. Then those three additional young witnesses, two boys and a girl at a Halloween party nearby, reported hearing a truck drive down Oscar Talley and stop before hearing a woman scream and the truck then taking off in a hurry. For Laurie Howard, it all now made sense.

So it was a terrifying screen. Yeah. It wasn't some.

[Randy Grohler]

Right.

[M. William Phelps]

Like they're playing volleyball or something. It was a. It was a shriek. So that's the second person that has.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I didn't know existed. And we know that it was around Halloween, which we suppositioned, but he can tell us for sure that there was a Halloween party going on.

[M. William Phelps]

According to the official report written on December 2, 1990, Jane Doe was found in high grass 20ft off Oscar Talley Road near an old run down barn. Binder, twine, electrical cord, nylon rope and paracord were used to restrain her. She wore blue jeans and a denim jacket. She was thought to be between 20 and 30 years old. Her upper rib cage was found near the porch of the barn, dragged there, likely by wild animals. Those bindings were significant and appeared to be important to Jane Doe's killer, maybe even his signature.

Here's former sheriff Don Slesman who investigated the case in the years after Jane Doe's body was discovered.

[Randy Grohler]

See, they had a towel wrapped around her head and they had it attached that with electrical wire.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

Single strand electrical wire with the insulation on it.

[Randy Grohler]

That don't make sense. Paracord. Just a bunch of stuff. Crazy.

[M. William Phelps]

And was she hog tied, hands and feet, a towel around her head?

[Randy Grohler]

Yeah, they dropped a towel around her head.

[M. William Phelps]

Around her face as well or just her head?

[Randy Grohler]

Her face. So she couldn't barely see.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Yeah.

[M. William Phelps]

That's interesting. With, with electrical cord. The bendable electrical core with the copper in it. Right?

[Randy Grohler]

Yeah, it's Solid copper center. And then it had the. I think it's black insulation, you know, like you'd wear a house with. But looked like they just grabbed whatever they could and tied her up with it.

Four or five different things. And the paracord. You know, back in those days, paracord was something not everybody had.

[M. William Phelps]

Unless you were in the military.

[Randy Grohler]

Yeah.

[M. William Phelps]

For investigators in the case, those very particular bindings at the Jane Doe crime scene brought to mind one particular serial killer of record. Dennis Rader. Self proclaimed to bind, torture, kill his victims. You might also know him as BTK.

In early 2023, Detective Laurie Howard went out to speak with Raider. The first of many visits specifically about Jane Doe. In fact, the night before I met with Rhonda and Laurie at Jane Doe's crime scene, they brought BTK's daughter, Kerry Rawson and interviewed him again. The sheriff's office in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, had created a task force looking into the 47 year old cold case murder of Cynthia Dawn Kinney and additional cold cases, including detective Howard's Jane Doe. The sheriff was kind of stuck on linking BTK to Laurie's Oscar tally. Jane Doe. I sense some frustration from Lori and Rhonda, not to mention disagreement with where sheriff Eddie Verdon of Osage county was with BTK and Jane Doe. Rhonda and Laurie saw no evidence connecting BTK directly with to their Jane Doe. And the more they spoke to Rader about it, the more they felt Osage county was only interested in closing cases, not solving murders. And BTK seemed like as good a scapegoat as any. Still, it didn't mean that detective Howard wasn't looking at Raider as a serious suspect in Jane Doe's case.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Early on, I would have been remiss if I had not said I have to see Dennis Rader, AKA btk, because of the bindings. They're massive. It's overkill. It's obviously something that's important to the crime.

[M. William Phelps]

How many different bindings are we talking about? How many different types of twine wire?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

6 and 8. And essentially you're gonna have coax cable, you're gonna have parachute cord, nylon cord, which is like a camping type of cord, a braided rope. We call this yellow cord that we're looking at here. That would be like a tree trimmer type of cord. You also have what we refer to as baleen twine. It's a type of sisal twine that you might see in hay bales.

[M. William Phelps]

All of that was used on her.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

All of it was used on both her wrists and her feet and then tied together with a shoelace.

[M. William Phelps]

Well, that's pretty significant.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I think it is significant, and btk thought it was significant. He's meticulous.

[M. William Phelps]

That is not meticulous.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

That is not meticulous.

[M. William Phelps]

That's very unorganized.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

This would be indicative of somebody who. Tighter lefter came back. Tighter lefter came back. Possibly for quite a while.

[M. William Phelps]

I wondered what BTK thought about all this new attention directed at him.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

He was very anxious to see his name plastered all over the media again. He said, I don't have very much longer to live. And he said, I can see the headlines now. Btk gives last confession and all of this kind of thing.

[M. William Phelps]

Wow. So what I heard was btk could not yet be ruled out of Oscar tally Jane Doe's murder.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

What I would say about that is I do believe wholeheartedly that there are other victims in Kansas and more than likely parts of Oklahoma, you know, that are close to Kansas. But really, that was his stomping grounds. I can put him in Missouri. I can put him in southwest Missouri. But what I. I don't think he was ever alone there. I. I believe that every time he came to southwest Missouri, he was with his family, and it was as a fishing trip.

[M. William Phelps]

I had heard BTK was very ill, so I asked Lori about it.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

I mean, he was animated. And the person that I saw when they wheeled him in, because he's now in a wheelchair, he has scoliosis, he's doubled over, he doesn't walk well.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

He.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

He has cellulitis in both legs. He's got kind of an ashen appearance. And by his own account, he said, I probably won't live that much longer.

[M. William Phelps]

The Oscar Talley Jane Doe murder felt somewhat disorganized, not to mention outside BTK's comfort zone of a confined space such as a house. Plus, if we're comparing Jane Doe's murder with Dana stidham's as potentially being linked to btk could mostly be excluded from Dana's case based on how she went missing, the multiple sightings of her after, and where she was found. So what did BTK have to say about Jane Doe's case specifically?

[Detective Laurie Howard]

And so when I would put his work in front of him, let's say it was a code, and I was asking him about his own code, he would become very animated and excited, and he would, oh, look at that. That's mine. You know, we'd go over what the code meant and what he wrote and how he wrote it, and you know, how the codes were written out. He was very forthcoming on all of his work. And then when we would, I would slide over some of his journal entries that had projects, his different projects and things.

[M. William Phelps]

BTK was known to use the word project for his murders.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

And I would say, you know, hey, what about this? And he'd tell me about it. He had no problems talking about the 10 that he'd already killed. And even some of the journal entries that weren't victims that we know of, he would explain them. So every time I would put a piece of paper in front of him, he was, you know, overjoyed that I had his work. And. And I had one project in particular that I had mentioned to him, and his, you know, he was just a totally different person. And he said, nobody's ever asked me about that. And he was very excited about it, which leads me to believe that's probably a potential victim.

[M. William Phelps]

Lori then showed BTK a photo of the bindings used on Jane Doe.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

No animation, nothing. He literally almost had a look of disgust on his face. And it was. What he said was, that's overkill. I don't know why anybody would do that. So it was almost like he had a lack of respect for the work that he was looking at.

[M. William Phelps]

I cannot undersell the incredible amount of bindings found at this crime scene, but it's the paracord and ropes that most interested me. Paracord at that time would have been very hard to find and purchase if you were not in the military. Jack Lenny, the new suspect in Dana's case I mentioned in the last episode, had done a long stint in the military. He also lived in between Bella Vista, Arkansas, and Anderson, Missouri, and was known to come up into Anderson at times. And he drove a truck.

With the discovery of Jane Doe not found far from the Dana Stidham crime scene in Bella Vista, the BCSO took notice. By then, the BCSO had latched onto the guy I'm calling Jack Linney. Here's Lieutenant Hunter Petrae, who begins by explaining why the BCSO's case against their chief suspect, Mike McMillan, went stagnant, and the focus turned to Linney.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Part of the problem is physical evidence, DNA, witnesses. You know, you have to realize in law enforcement that sometimes you can arrest people and you think your case looks good, but you have to also think about the prosecutor's office. They have to be able to get a jury to convict somebody. So you don't just want to arrest somebody if you don't think the case is good and you don't think that the case is going to make it through prosecution. You know, from everything, there's just not enough at this point in time to make an arrest. And it's complicated because.

There are other people associated with this case that are good for it as well. Like as far. When I say good for it, I mean as far as their history and their sexually harassing people.

[M. William Phelps]

And I bleeped it out. But Hunter Petrae mentioned Linney by his real name and also made a valid point that regarding Linny's behaviors around women, let's call him the suspect, because I'm not going to name him. I'm going to knock on his door Friday, but I'm not going to name him unless he talks to me. Okay, but geez, that looks like.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

I mean, you know, we talked early on about a little bit of victimology, but, you know, you also have to think about suspectology. Going back and looking at his history. Man, he just made comments at Walmart, at other places of employment to females. I'm talking sexual advances and sexual harassment. And he would come into Phillips there, where Dana worked and other females that worked there and make those comments to them.

[M. William Phelps]

This type of misogynistic criminal treatment of women was common and sadly normalized back in the 80s and 90s. Sexual harassment, catcalling, demoralizing and abusive as it was, was barely frowned upon back then. But what Hunter Petrae tells me next proves the sexual harassment Linnie had been allowed to get away with was next level.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

There was also a female in Bentonville, and she was actually driving to work, and he got in behind her and almost ran her off the road and followed her all the way up to the parking lot there at Phillips, where she ran inside and she pretty much pinned it as that was, you know, he made comments when he was interviewed as far as. Was it possible that he may have stopped Dana? Well, maybe, you know, she had a flat tire or something like that, which again, circumstantial, but we know that Dana had a low tire. He also made comments of somebody had a seatbelt or something that was hanging out the door or something. He would just stop people. And not that he just would, but that he had in the past stopped people for things. He's one of those guys that, you know, by his own admission, would talk to anybody. He kind of played it off as far as comments that they were harmless, like just, you know, I think he made one comment to a girl, had she ever been eight, which has sexual, you know, innuendos there. But he Referred to it as well. She just took it wrong. I was talking about her age, you know, comments like that.

[M. William Phelps]

Another thing we weren't aware of or knew much about in the 80s was gaslighting. Didn't he show up at a store once in a ski mask?

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

He showed up outside and made a comment, but he was wearing like a ski mask. And they asked him about that. He says, yeah, you know, if it's cold outside, sometimes I wear a ski mask. But it's not like I was trying to rob anybody or anything like that.

[M. William Phelps]

Let's talk about what he drove at the time. He drove a station wagon and a truck, right.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Few different vehicles, you know. And he was kind of looked at initially because he worked for.

[M. William Phelps]

The company Lieutenant Petrae mentions here. Conducted work all over Bella Vista and up toward the Missouri border where Jane Doe was discovered. Linney, in his 40s, then living alone, traveled all over those areas. And I should note this was at a time when Dana Stidham worked at Phillips. You see, Linnie knew her from going into that store for breakfast and lunch nearly every day.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

They did find some maps in his vehicle. But yeah, he would have known the area like good. Cause he worked there.

[M. William Phelps]

Those maps, I might add, were marked with a pen in areas where Dana was seen during the time she was missing. And he was an army guy too, right? Military guy?

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

He's in the military, yeah. And in fact, I think even when he was doing some stuff, he would still do some weekend stuff with the military.

[M. William Phelps]

Sheriff Don told me the other day, he said, yeah, he went down. Went down to Panama.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Yeah, that's right.

[M. William Phelps]

That Panama allegation included Lenny beating a sex worker. Do you think Dana's case is connected to Doe's case?

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Well, I can't rule it out. And here's why I say that is. So you have Dana. In summer of 89, we had another case that we call a Bone Woman, which we've now identified.

[M. William Phelps]

Oh, you have?

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Yeah, that was in February of 90. There was another individual, first part of 90, that was just a couple of miles away from where Dana was found, off that same road. And then of course you had the one just across the line there in McDonald County. All of this stuff within a year. Like four homicides within a one year period. Now, Bone Woman we've been able to identify and we pretty much.

We'Ve closed it out. We have a suspect, but the suspect's dead. We're pretty sure that he did it. So we've closed that case out. And we don't Think it's connected to the others. But when you get that many homicides in that short of a period and also within that condensed area, you can't rule it out.

[M. William Phelps]

I asked about any similarities the BCSO found in Dana's and Jane Doe's cases and if they considered the bindings and important within that scope.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Yeah, she was bound for certain for sure. We can't say that Dana was. We've got some red twine. That's all we got. Possibly, maybe, but you know, the crime lab, the Emmy's office, couldn't get any connection that that stuff had been used as any type of ligature or anything. So maybe, I don't know. You know, when you start talking about Dana's case and when you start looking at victimology, you know, Dana, you look at low, moderate, high risk. To me, when I look at this case and put everything together, Dana is.

[Randy Grohler]

Or was.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

High, low to moderate risk. And I say that just because of the lifestyle. But the lifestyle was that of a teenager that runs around. Yeah, they party at times, you know, they drink at times. But by no means was her risk what I would consider high risk. When you start talking about high risk, you start talking about prostitutes. So when you look at Dana, I don't see that same similarity.

[M. William Phelps]

Remember Brandon Howard, the journalist you've heard in previous episodes? He had gotten a hold of some information about one of Lenny's ex wives and eventually wound up speaking to her.

[Randy Grohler]

I remember her bringing up the fact they never found Dana's purse. That was brought up unprompted.

[M. William Phelps]

Which stood out to me because a year or so later she mentions that.

[Randy Grohler]

This suspect might have had female purses at his mother's house.

[M. William Phelps]

His ex wife insinuated that he had a fetish for purses and he collected them. If you recall, although the contents of Dana's purse were found, her large unique denim bag was not.

[Randy Grohler]

She also mentions that they met hitchhiking in the early 80s and that they.

[M. William Phelps]

Struck up a relationship. That's pretty much it.

[Randy Grohler]

That she tells Benton County. Well, not only did they meet hitchhiking, but he made sexual advances fairly quickly in the vehicle.

[M. William Phelps]

Linney's ex wife went on to say she knows her ex husband killed Dana, but doesn't think there is any way for law enforcement to prove it. She mentioned finding blood in a station wagon they owned and remembered him cleaning it and throwing his clothes away afterward. The way she put it, he covered his ass when it came to Dana. But get this, she was also there on the day Linney flunked a polygraph.

And when he came out of the room, quote, he had a look on his face like he knew he was caught.

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[M. William Phelps]

This is where mindset comes in.

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Someone will be eliminated.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Pressure is coming down.

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This is Trainer Games.

[M. William Phelps]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

[Randy Grohler]

Shh. You won't believe what my new friend.

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[M. William Phelps]

The Oscar Tylee Jane Doe took on a different name not long after her remains were discovered. It was clear early on that identifying Jane Doe was going to take time and technology, if it was even possible. So clear. In fact, a detective said in passing one day only by the grace of God will you identify her.

From that moment on, she became Grace Doe, which is an important moment. In this case, the name Jane Doe is such a common reference that it fails to conjure emotion or personalize an unidentified murder victim. Jane Doe suggests a more societal need to help. But place another name in front of join and suddenly there's an emotional connection.

Based on the state of decomposition, the only option to identify her was to send dental X rays in for comparison. Considering there were several missing girls in the area fitting her general description, in particular, 21 year old Patricia Ann Smith from Glencoe, Oklahoma, and 34 year old Treva Ann Castile from Springfield, Missouri. Within two weeks, both tests came back negative. No match. Not knowing the identity of Greystow made finding her killer that much more difficult. And as Detective Laurie Howard explains, when she came aboard in 2007. She started literally from scratch without a body.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Couldn't find her. I couldn't find the evidence. I couldn't find skeletal remains. I didn't have a report. So essentially, I still just had a story years later, driving people absolutely crazy. I called the Emmys office. I called Columbia. I made various trips to North Carolina. I went all over the place. And then one day I got a phone call from the MU's office in Columbia, and she said, okay, I found her. So I immediately made a trip back up to Columbia. Mary and I retrieved her skeletal remains.

[M. William Phelps]

The first goal was to get a facial reconstruction done so they had some idea of what she might have looked like. This would also allow the sheriff's department to reach out publicly.

While I was in Missouri, I met with Sheriff Rob evenson from the McDonald County Sheriff's Office. Grace Doe's murder is Evenson's case.

And when she's found, what happens? What was the most difficult thing about it?

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

The most difficult thing about it? This goes on for nearly 30 years, was to get an identification of who the remains belong or who she was.

[M. William Phelps]

So you have a young woman, her exact age, a guess, found off the side of a secluded backcountry road with houses and farms spread sporadically all over the place. Nobody knows who she is. There are no missing person reports linked to her, and she had been out in the elements for about two months.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

And so she went nearly 30 years without having a name to go with those remains.

[M. William Phelps]

So it's hard to work a case if you're an investigator when you don't have an id.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

And my previous employment, I'd been a detective for about nine years. So I've worked a fair number of homicides. And of course, that is the first thing besides your immediate crime scene, that's the first thing that you need to do, is get your victim identified. Your victimology usually leads you to your suspects, and it leads you to the solution of the case.

[M. William Phelps]

Okay, so her case goes cold because they can't identify her. So there's really nothing you can do. Right? I mean, you can send DNA out, but at the time, DNA is in its infancy.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

That's correct. Of course, technology has changed so much over the most recent few years. So new opportunities, new tools. Every year, things get better and better with DNA technology. Of course, Lori. Lori worked on this in her off time, in her downtime, when she wasn't working on something else, and just kept trying and kept trying and kept trying, and eventually she was able to. To get with somebody with A laboratory that was able to extract that DNA.

[M. William Phelps]

Extracting DNA from advanced decomposed remains is not as simple as taking a hair or tissue sample and sending it off to the lab for a profile. It's a complicated scientific process with many different variables involved. Chief among them, the funding to get the DNA to a place where. Where it's scientifically possible to even create a profile. Here's Laurie Howard again.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I needed to get DNA in the system, and that was actually harder than it sounds. What I had was a fingernail. I had some hair. So I was talking to North Texas Health and Human Sciences in Texas, and I was pretty much begging them to take a fingernail. They said, you know, I don't think. I don't. I don't think it's gonna work. It doesn't mean our protocol, so to speak, they're funded. And how they're funded sometimes requires them to have a particular way of receiving evidence. But they eventually said, okay, let's. Let's just see if we can get some mitochondrial DNA. And I sent them part of a fingernail. The mitochondrial DNA went into the system, but wasn't very helpful, of course.

[M. William Phelps]

McDonald County's goal was to submit Grace Doe's DNA to all the ancestry, genealogical, forensic databases with the hope that someone with a connection to Grace was in one of those databases.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I kept saying, can you please go back and look and see if you have a Jane Doe? And they just repeatedly said, no, I don't think we have anything that meets what you're giving us. It was a matter of figuring out what my best source of DNA might be. And ultimately, I took her mandible and I sat one evening and extracted her teeth because I knew the molars would probably be my best source.

[M. William Phelps]

Now, she had really good teeth, right?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

She did. She did.

[M. William Phelps]

And what did that tell you?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

I spoke to the forensic orthodontist, and he basically said this woman was well cared for. But that was kind of a dichotomy for people that aren't in the system are not reported as a missing person. So I had a hard time figuring out she was either loved and had a good life and was well taken care of, versus she's not in the system. Nobody's reported her missing. Is she a runaway? So it tells you a lot about the care, generally speaking.

But in her case, that wasn't the case because she actually grew up in foster care.

[M. William Phelps]

Another major hurdle. Grace Doe had been bounced from home to home. None of these families would have a blood DNA connection to her that other Possibility of an expensive facial reconstruction gnawed at Laurie. She needed to know what this woman might have looked like. Even more importantly, getting that image out onto social media and the Internet to see if anyone recognized her.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

So ultimately, what happened is I. I asked Victoria Livewood, forensic reconstructionist out of Canada, to help me. And I was very up front and said, I can't pay you. I'm asking you for a lot, and I really need it. And Victoria was gracious and the best person to work with, and she said, I'll do it. But then the problem became you can't just ship skeletal remains over the border. So I ran up against an island. Okay, how am I going to do this? And so I called, called our local hospital in Neosho, Missouri, and I spoke with somebody on the board and I said, I'm about to ask you something, and I don't want you to tell me no. And he said, oh, dear. And he said, okay. And I said, I really want to bring a skull and mandible into you of a deceased person, a homicide victim, and I'm asking you to take mri, MRI photos, you know, of the skull and mandible, and give me some images for free.

And he said, oh, okay, I see. And I said, please, I have no funds. I'm working with very limited funds, but I have to do this. And so he said, if you will bring her in in the middle of the night, you know, midnight to 1 o' clock in a box, covered. I don't want any and anybody to touch this. I don't want to know you're here. Essentially, just do what you have to do and I'll set it up. And he did. And so what I didn't know at the time was that's never been done before.

[M. William Phelps]

They wound up choosing over 300 images out of what were hundreds of thousands.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

And then I sent them, of course, digitally to Canada. And she had never worked that way either. So it took a long time. She said, what do you think? The color of the eyes, the hair? We went back and forth for a really long time.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Clothing.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

And to Victoria's credit, she said, this was the 80s. Tell me what this jean jacket looked like. She searched and found the identical clothing for the most part, that she was wearing. And for, I want to say, probably two years, we went back and forth with this process. And true to form, one day I cut in and I open up and I'm looking at my emails and it says, lori, meet Grace. And there she was, there's her face.

[M. William Phelps]

And so what did she look like.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

To you when you saw that image?

[Randy Grohler]

Who was she?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

She looked exactly like I thought she would look like. I didn't know her, but yet I knew her. And she looked exactly like what I thought she would look like. And I just knew this is really who she is. And I was so comfortable with it that I immediately started calling media and said, hey, I want her everywhere.

[M. William Phelps]

The reconstruction by Victoria Linwood, which is available online with a quick Google search, depicts a woman with brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. She appears to be in her late 20s, early 30s. Now, when does she get identified?

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

The answer to that is forensic genealogy.

[M. William Phelps]

Submitting Grace's DNA into the forensic genealogy databases and thus paying for it fell on Sheriff Rob Evenson's office.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

Well, we have to give credit to Mike Hall. Mike was the former sheriff, and he was sheriff until the end of 2020. And while he was in office, he did keep Grace's case alive. And he was able to get hooked up with a lab.

Where he was able to submit her DNA profile. And this lab was able to do some of this forensic genealogy and came up with a possible familial match.

[M. William Phelps]

The company involved, Othram, was able to extract DNA from Grace Doe's remains and more significantly, create a profile. That was September 2020. By January 2021, Othram called the McDonald County Sheriff's Office. They had a match. Grace Doe is Shawna Garber. And yet identifying Shawna produced an entire new set of difficulties because though they had a name when. When Shawna was in her early teens, she disappeared from any public record. She simply had no history.

What's more, the life Shawna ran from and the one she ran toward turned out to complicate Detective Lori Howard's murder investigation even further.

[Randy Grohler]

I think it was KU Med Center. @ first, she was in the hospital near Topeka, or I think it was Topeka. And then she was transferred to the KU Med.

[M. William Phelps]

Center. Was she.

[Randy Grohler]

Sick? No, she was.

[M. William Phelps]

Burned. How was she.

[Randy Grohler]

Burned? Our mother poured lighting fluid on her.

And lit a.

[M. William Phelps]

Match.

If you're in enjoying Paper Ghosts, check out my other podcasts, Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps and White Eagle. Wherever you get your favorite shows. Coming up next on Paper.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

Ghosts. Well, first he chose his own moniker. Find them, torture them, Kill.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Them.

[Randy Grohler]

Btk. She was removed from several foster homes because our mother would interfere. Fear to the.

[Sheriff Rob Evenson]

Point. She even threatened to kill one foster family's.

[Randy Grohler]

Kids. Our mother was an evil, vindictive spawn of.

[M. William Phelps]

Hell. I just remember being in the.

[Lieutenant Hunter Petrae]

Basement of this individual's house and there had to been like over a hundred spools of different.

[M. William Phelps]

Cords. It just was pretty ominous. Paper Ghost Season 4 is written and executive produced by me me and William Phelps, script consulting by Rose Bacci, sound design by Matt Russell, executive production by Kathryn Law, and audio editing and mixing by Brandon Dickard, Takaboom productions. The series theme 442 is written and performed by Thomas Phelps and Tom.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

Mo.

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 worth.

[M. William Phelps]

$250,000. This is where mindset comes.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

In. Someone will be.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Eliminated. Pressure is coming.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

Down. This is Trainer.

[M. William Phelps]

Games. Watch it on prime video starting January.

[Detective Rhonda Wise]

8Th. Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to.

[Randy Grohler]

The bottom of the.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

Ocean. Where did that story come from? Book Dream? Nope. It came from a conversation. Meet Miko Mini plus, the AI companion that co creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time. What color was the hamster's cape and what did he pack for lunch? Unlock your child's imagination. Discover Miko Mini plus and the magic of AI Exclusively at Costco. Come for the Black Friday seasonal savings stay for the award winning Reporting for a limited time access to the Washington Post is just 99 cents. That's unlimited access to all of the posts for only 99 cents every four weeks. That's a great deal for the first year. After that it'll cost $12 every four weeks. You can cancel anytime. But don't wait. This Black Friday seasonal offer won't be here for long. Go to washingtonpost.com iheart and grab this deal before it's gone. That's washingtonpost.com iheart this is an iheart.

[Detective Laurie Howard]

Podcast. Guaranteed human.