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According to reporting by the Courier Journal and Lexington Herald Leader, on The evening of January 7, 1992, a 24 year old woman named Greta Henson was found dead in her Bell county mobile home after failing to show up at her Job in Pineville. Concerned family members had discovered Greta in her living room with her hands bound behind her back with plastic ties. She'd been strangled and shot multiple times, execution style in the head and back. Right away, the Kentucky state police launched an investigation into the homicide, and some of the same detectives who'd been assigned to Jennifer Bailey's case came on board to look into Greta's. But even after interviewing some 40 to 50 people, leads in Greta's case were few and far between. The only strong clue in Greta's case was that her personal.38 caliber firearm was missing from her home, and investigators suspected it very well could have been the murder weapon. A solid witness account authorities had to work with was a description of a pickup truck that had been seen parked in front of Greta's home between 12 and 1pm on Jan. 7. That vehicle was described as an off white or beige early model 1980s pickup with a white plywood dog box in the back with moon shaped entrances on the top of it. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't appear that the truck was ever identified or linked to a specific person. By all accounts, Greta was described as a friendly, kind, and trusting young woman with no known enemies. She worked as a receptionist at a local car dealership and enjoyed baking peanut butter fudge in her free time, as well as playing guitar. She'd reportedly purchased a new television set prior to her murder and had told one of her co workers the day before she was killed that she planned to have cable service hooked up to the device so she could use it. She'd even mentioned to this co worker that she might potentially show up late to work on January 7th because she planned to stop by a service provider's office that morning. But when employees at that business were interviewed by police after the crime, they claimed Greta had never shown up. Aside from the brutality of her murder, what was especially frightening to the public was that her untimely death came nearly 17 months after Jennifer Bailey was killed. Even more bizarre was that, according to reporting in the Clinton County News, the two women were cousins by marriage. They'd also attended Bell county high school at the same time. And I read in some coverage that Greta had a habit of shopping at a Walmart in Middlesboro, which was a Walmart branch that Jennifer had worked at about a year and a half prior to her murder. So naturally, because of these overlaps in the young women's lives, I imagine people wondered if perhaps their killer or killers were one and the same. But the state police were quick to dispel that theory. There were some dissimilarities between the two crimes that one couldn't ignore. For example, Jennifer had been attacked in Pine Mountain State Resort park while jogging, and Greta had been killed in her own home. Jennifer's crime scene was about 20 minutes north of where Greta lived and in an entirely different environment. Not to mention, Jennifer had been found mostly nude, but Greta had been discovered clothed in a white sweatshirt. Greta's family also said that her mobile home had been broken into two days before she was killed. At that time, though, she hadn't reported that incident to police. She'd just gotten her dad to come over and fix her door. Before departing, her dad cautioned her to keep a chair pushed against it to prevent an intruder from getting in. However, there were seemingly no incidents like this in Jennifer's life leading up to her murder, which foreshadowed a risk to her safety. Still, the fact that both women had been killed in such violent ways shook up a lot of people in Bell county, particularly women. Pawn shops reported increased sales in mace and firearms, and even Elbert Bailey, Jennifer's father, told the press he'd purchased a gun after his daughter was killed. Unfortunately, within a year of Greta's murder, her case went cold, just like Jennifer's. And by December 1993, Commonwealth's Attorney William Hayes, who'd tried relentlessly to help the state police bring the investigations to resolution, was set to leave his position. Before he departed, though, he publicly criticized the state police for not investigating several credible leads in the cases, leads that he felt law enforcement should have paid closer attention to. At a news conference on one of his last days in office, Hayes told the press, quote, it is my firm conviction that both these cases could have been solved within a few months of their occurrence if the state police had been willing to commit the human resources to effectively running the leads down, which they had. We have known for several years what the people involved looked like, but we are still looking at people that do not resemble the eyewitness testimony, end quote. A sergeant with the state police rejected that characterization of his agency's actions, though he maintained that both women's cases were being regularly and thoroughly investigated in accordance with state police policy. And it seemed that Jennifer Bailey's family agreed with that statement. Janice Bailey told the press, quote, I feel that the detectives are doing the best they can do. I can't say anything against them in no way. I don't know why it came out in this press conference like this, but I am very satisfied with the way they have handled our case. My Husband and I both. End quote. According to the source news, the tension that had developed between William Hayes and members of the state police, particularly with regard to Jennifer's case, stemmed from the fact that Hayes office and law enforcement had received a tip very early on that indicated one specific man was responsible for the crime. Yet years had passed and no one had been charged or taken into custody. It was reported that in the fall of 1990, so just a few months after Jennifer was killed, staff from a jail in a nearby county had informed investigators in Bell county that an inmate at their facility claimed to know detailed information about Jennifer's death. This tip resulted in authorities conducting a number of closed door interviews with several prisoners between 1991 and 1993. And each of them claimed that a guy they'd been housed with back in the fall of 1990 had confessed to Jennifer's murder and provided specifics about the crime that only the true killer would have known. Who the alleged killer was, though, was never revealed publicly, and it's not in the available source material I could get my hands on. Over the next few years, Jennifer and Greta's cases grew colder and colder with seemingly no end in sight. A new commonwealth's attorney who'd taken office assured the press and Jennifer's family that the case was being diligently worked, but no updates were provided. Officials maintained that the case was personal to many of the detectives who'd worked on it, and solving it by would always be a top priority. Around the fifth anniversary of Jennifer's murder, her mother described life without her to Lexington Herald Leader reporter Gail Gibson. Like this, it's been like a living hell, really. It's like you went to bed and had a bad dream and you think you'll wake up and it'll be over, but then reality comes back and you wake up and it's still there. It's awful. It's just really awful. End quote. Perhaps a small comfort, though, was the fact that a few years after Jennifer was buried, her grave was relocated to a family cemetery plot in the side yard of her parents home where they could visit her anytime they wanted. Janice and Elbert told reporter Gail Gibson that they wholeheartedly believed whoever had taken Jennifer's life likely knew her or at least recognized the 1987 Mercury Cougar she was driving on the day she disappeared. At the time, Jennifer wasn't dating anyone and didn't have any exes who gave her problems. So the all consuming questions everyone wanted answers to were who had murdered her and why? For that same article, By Gail Gibson, A KSP detective who'd been assigned to the case since the beginning, said that in his opinion, the key to Jennifer's case lay in the identity of the person near the dark pickup truck who'd been seen talking with, or as it's described in some of the source material, Arguing with Jennifer in the trailhead parking lot on the morning she vanished, the detective stated, quote, whoever killed that little girl is going to be tied to a black truck one way or the other. They either own it or they borrowed it or their father owned it or their cousin, end quote. Periodically, a handful of random tipsters claiming to have potentially valuable information had contacted the state police over the years, but no one had actually come forward to spill what they knew. Several folks who phoned in had briefly spoken with investigators, but then gotten spooked or didn't want to provide their names and information. In April 1999, during National Crime Victims Week, Greta Henson's mother, Josephine, attended a victim's remembrance ceremony at the Bell county circuit courthouse, and she grieved with other families who'd lost loved ones to violent crime. She told the room, quote, I thank God for having a daughter like her for 24 years and I would like to see justice for her. I believe even the dead wants justice. End quote. The following year, so 2000, a KSP detective who'd been recently assigned to her case told Daily News reporter Jay Compton that solving Greta's murder was as important as ever. He pleaded with the public to contact the state police if they knew anything that could help investigators solve the case. Decades passed, though, with no further updates, and despite a glimmer of Hope arriving in 2016 thanks to advances in technology, to this day, Greta's case remains unsolved. By 2018, Jennifer's mother had seemingly lost hope that answers in her daughter's case would ever materialize either. Back in 2008, her husband Elbert had died and Janice was getting older as well. But as hopeless as things looked, the case took a welcome turn in 2020 when KSP officials made an announcement. According to coverage by WYMT and the Source news, authorities released never before known information about the items of clothing and personal belongings that Jennifer had on her when she went jogging. These items were all things that law enforcement believed her killer had stolen from her during the crime. The missing belongings included a Timex watch. That's band was made of brown faux alligator skin, pastel colored jogging shorts, A white tank top, a black and tan velcro belt, a small black GE AM FM portable Cassette player and yellow gold diamond earrings. Law enforcement's hope was that someone who'd perhaps received one or some of these items after the crime as possibly a present or who'd purchased them from a pawn shop would recognize their description and provide additional information to authorities. A KSP detective in 2020 put it this these items are significant to us because somebody in the 90s could have got these as a gift from someone. Somebody could have sold these items. Somebody could have found these items and remember this and remember where these items were located. A house the items were in, end quote. But it's unclear if any new leads came from that announcement because Jennifer's case was unsolved, and Kentucky state police couldn't say much about what was happening behind the scenes. What investigators did reveal, though, was that at least seven or eight different detectives had worked on the case throughout the years. In 2024, Jennifer's mother did another interview with WYMT News in which she shared her ongoing grief over her daughter's unsolved case. She stated, quote, she was my baby girl. She went to work every morning. She'd say, bye, mom. I love you. See you at 5, end quote. Janice expressed frustration over the fact that Jennifer's killer or killers had never been caught that same year. So 2024, WRIL reporter Brian O' Brien wrote an article in which he claimed he'd received copies of the actual audio cassette recordings that former commonwealth's attorney William Hayes and his team had captured with those jail inmates in the early 90s. If you remember, those were guys who claimed they knew who'd committed Jennifer's murder. Hayes, who was still around in 2024, verified the authenticity of the recordings and doubled down on his previous comments that he felt the KSB back in the 90s had not investigated this lead thoroughly enough. But since the case had surpassed 34 years with no progress, Hayes told the Middlesboro news that he was optimistic new investigators would breathe fresh life into it. He wrote in a statement in part, I tried repeatedly to get the authorities to prosecute this case. They declined, but that was the old guard. There is a new state police commissioner who, upon the request of sheriff Mitchell Williams and myself, reassigned this case some months ago. With thanks to him, we are very hopeful, end quote. Today, Jennifer's case remains unsolved after 35 long and agonizing years for her family. Greta Henson's murder is also unsolved. To date, the cases have never been formally connected by law enforcement, but it's certainly devastating to know that two bright young women were slain in such horrific ways, and their murderers have seemingly gotten away with the crimes. If you know anything about these cases or have been holding onto information that you finally feel ready to let go of and report to authorities, please contact the Kentucky State Police. You can reach them via email at kyunsolved or by calling the tip line at 1-877-735-2648. If you have specific information about Greta Henson's homicide, call 606-573-3131. KSP also has a confidential online tip portal where you can submit information. Links and phone numbers for all of those resources are listed in the show Notes and blog post for this episode. Park Park Predators is an Audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website parkpredators.com and you can also follow park predators on Instagram arcpredators. I think Chuck would approve.
