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A Murder so Cold ////// 767
00:54:36
A Murder so Cold ////// 767 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com On Friday, January 21st 1994 Evelyn Fleck’s nude body was found in her backyard by a neighbor who saw the 37 year old’s foot protruding from beneath an old refrigerator. The murder investigation that followed was conducted by the Kentucky State Police Ashland Post. Now over 30 years later, the case remains unsolved. Police have suspects. This homicide is solvable. Detectives are seeking and pursuing new information and leads. Any of the investigating officers can be contacted by calling the Ashland Post at (606) 928-6421 Beer of the Week - Revenge of the Muffin Man by Susquehanna Brewing Company Garage Grade - 3 and a quarter bottle caps Follow True Crime Garage on X @TrueCrimeGarage / Follow Nic on X @TCGNIC / Follow The Captain on X @TCGCaptain Listen to True Crime Garage Off The Record where TCG breaks all of the rules and sometimes gets NASTY!!! Now available on Apple Podcast Subscriptions and to everyone eve...
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- [00:00]
Captain
Sa.
- [00:40]
Nick
Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick and with me as always, yes, he's the pirate pilot of this ship. Here is the captain R Mateys.
- [00:52]
Captain
It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [01:01]
Nick
Today we are featuring and sipping on a fantastic beer called Revenge of the Muffin man from the good folks at Susquehanna Brewing Company. This is a mighty ale brewed with blueberries. This beer is sweet and strong, an absolute brilliant and beautiful color. So pour a little out for your homies and very cool can art as well. ABV 8.5% garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and praise to our friends that helped fill up the old garage fridge for this week's show. First up, a shout out to Christy Hiller in Irwin, Pennsylvania.
- [01:37]
Captain
And a big we like to chip to Molly Nichols and Rockton, Illinois.
- [01:41]
Nick
And last but certainly not least, we have beth in Versailles, Kentucky. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass and donated to this week's beer fund. And for that, well, we thank you.
- [01:52]
Captain
Yeah, bww you in Beer run. If you need more True Crime Garage for your earballs, make sure you follow us on Patreon and an apple subscription. And Colonel, that's enough of the business.
- [02:04]
Nick
All right everybody, gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. January 1994. The small town of South Shore, Kentucky and the immediate surrounding areas had only experienced a total of four homicides in the previous five years. Not a bad run for the sleepy communities in Greenup County. The town of South Shore is one of the very northernmost points in the state of Kentucky. But the name is far from strange. In fact, it is spot on considering the town sits on the south shore of the great Ohio River. Back In January of 94, the small town had a population of about 1300 people and as stated, only four homicides in the five years and this included surrounding areas. But In January of 1994, South Shore PD would catch two more. The first was that of 20 year old Michelle Craddock. Her boyfriend, Robert Scott Robinson drove the unconscious Michelle Craddock to the hospital saying that there had been an accident there. Vigilant hospital workers notified police. Their suspicion was that the young woman had been beaten nearly to death. Police quickly pieced together that she had in fact been attacked by the boyfriend at their home. That they had shared together for just four months. Sadly, Michelle passed away at King's Daughters medical center just days later. Robinson was later convicted for the murder and sentenced by a jury of his peers. But then, just days after Robinson drove his girlfriend to the hospital and several months before his conviction, A body was discovered. This time it was a body that someone left in the snow. This is a murder so cold. The unsolved murder of Evelyn Fleck. And this is true crime garage. We are going back to 1994. We have a true crime story for you this week that depending on who you speak with, this homicide case is varying degrees of cold. Some might tell you that it's frigid, Others telling us that it's active and they are just one step away from finally making an arrest. But it starts with a body that is discovered outside in the cold. This is during a time when northern Kentucky was hit with blizzard like conditions. We're going to the morning of January 21, 1994, when a man is out walking his dog and notices that a neighbor's door to their home is left wide open. So this neighbor decides to investigate. Upon further review, this person finds a body in the backyard of this neighboring property. Now, it may seem strange to some for a neighbor to investigate just seeing a door left open. We've all left doors open to carry in items or maybe by mistake. But in this situation we have frigid temperatures. So this area is just coming out of blizzard like conditions. For about a week's time, this area of the country experienced snow, ice and sub zero temperatures. In fact, nine people had died during the course of this week. So what we have here is a concerned neighbor sees that a door is left open in a situation where people are passing because of the weather conditions and looking to just check in and be neighborly and finds a body in the backyard of his neighbor's home.
- [06:29]
Captain
Well, and also locals reported that this neighbor was really fond of of the phrase, what were you born in a barn?
- [06:38]
Nick
The south shore Kentucky police department and emergency services gets the call. Now, initially when they get the call, the call comes in. They're kind of under the assumption that the person that they will be responding to had likely froze to death. However, shortly after arriving on the scene, it's quickly determined that this is in fact a homicide that they're responding to. That is because the person that they find is out in the snow. But this poor woman is found in the backyard with a refrigerator on top of her. This is from the Lexington Herald. A south shore woman was found dead Beneath a refrigerator in her backyard, Marking the second violent death in south shore area in a week. A neighbor found the nude body of Evelyn Louise Fleck at her main street house. Greenup county coroner Robert Green said he had not yet determined the cause of death. We should also note here, captain, that Fleck also had a lawn chair on top of her as well. This is stated by the police, this situation. She's found nude. And unfortunately, we have multiple sources that are telling us some vaguely different information. So some of the information we get states that she was actually found on the back porch of the home, and other sources saying she was in the backyard. Either way, we've narrowed down the general location of where she was found. The refrigerator that was found on top of her is always referred to as an old refrigerator. So this was just an old junk refrigerator that I'm guessing whoever perpetrated this homicide didn't need to move that refrigerator very far. It may have already been on the back porch of that home waiting to be disposed of. And the perp tossed this onto her, hoping to possibly conceal the body.
- [08:43]
Captain
Well, that's the question, right? You have a dead body, you have a refrigerator on top of. You have a lawn chair on top. Is this to hide the body, conceal the body, or is this just to destroy the victim?
- [08:59]
Nick
Yes, a maniac who's just furthering the. The damage done. Yeah, she's going to be covered in snow, too. We talked about the weather conditions in this area, but we've also reviewed some cases where somebody tried to conceal a body in the trunk of a vehicle, and that vehicle sat outside for an extended period of time. Now, while trying to conceal the body, what, in fact they did was protect physical evidence. So when we sit here today and review a case that, again, varying degrees of cold, depending on who you talk to, is now 30 years old. And we live in the golden age of solving crimes via DNA and physical evidence. I'm hoping that if this person thought that they could conceal the body by tossing this refrigerator, pushing it over on top of this poor woman, that I hope it protected some of the physical evidence from the elements that evening. And we'll go back in time to create a timeline here on when we think the actual homicide took place.
- [10:13]
Captain
Well, I think you have a good point there. Could these items protect some of the DNA left on the victim? Or was there DNA left on these items when they were being thrown onto the victim?
- [10:25]
Nick
And with the victim being found nude under the refrigerator, you have to then wonder if a sexual assault took place and if it did. That is where we might be able to solve this case all these years later.
- [10:38]
Captain
I like your definition of this perpetrator, of the murderer, a maniac. It's a word that we probably don't use enough in true crime.
- [10:47]
Nick
South Shore is a smaller community. About 1300 people in the early 90s populated the town. So if you're police and you're responding to a call and it's a homicide, the protocol is going to be to call in Kentucky State Police, ksp. South Shore Police Chief Jerry Cassidy notifies ksp and they are on the scene rather quickly. This is the Ashland Post that's responding. They are the Post, which covers Boyd, Carter, Greenup and Lawrence counties in the great state of Kentucky. The Ashland Post was one of the highest solve rates of any of the KSP detachments. Thanks to the good work of numerous outstanding detectives who have been assigned to the Post over the years. So a high clearance rate for homicides by this post. So if you have somebody investigating, you want experienced investigators. South Shore PD does not have that. KSP does and they're on the scene for this case. Captain, we get Detective Runyon will be in charge in the lead investigator early on in this investigation. The victim is 37 year old Evelyn Louise Fleck. That is her married name. And Evelyn is in fact the homeowner. So she is found in the backyard of her property of her home. The detective determined that some type of weapon was used in the attack. I'm guessing that it was not found at the scene as the police report that we have does not define what type of weapon was used. So therefore it's suggestive that they did not locate this weapon. The Greenup county coroner within a couple days ruled this a homicide. The information that we get is Evelyn Fleck was strangled either in the evening or during the night of January 20, 1994 while she was in bed.
- [12:55]
Captain
Do they know if she was strangled with an object or was she strangled by this murderer's hands?
- [13:02]
Nick
I'm guessing hands here. So the autopsy was requested for our putting this show together, but that request was denied. So the only information we get about injuries to our victim come from the limited information that they discussed openly to the papers back then. So she's found in the morning of the 21st. We have the coroner who's saying that she was strangled in bed. Again, Captain brings up a good point here because we know that other injuries suggest that she was beaten as well. The police report says that a weapon was used in this attack. Was it for the Strangulation or was it for the attack on the woman, the physical attack before the strangulation? The reason why I say that I think that we are dealing with someone using their hands in the strangulation here, Captain, is because it was not obvious to the detective at the scene. He had to rely on the coroner's report a couple days later to make that determination. So time of death here is somewhat uncertain. It's a little ambiguous. Interestingly enough, the detective notes on the police report that the incident occurred between the hours of 20 o' clock on Thursday, January 20, to 10:15am Friday, January 21. I'm guessing here, though, Captain, as the info on this was and has been kept sealed with a very tight lid for. For now, anyway. But someone must be able to account for Evelyn at 8pm the night before, and then she is found at 10:15am the next morning. So that is our window to deal with.
- [15:00]
Captain
Well, and the problem with that window is. It's a large window.
- [15:03]
Nick
It's a large window. She went by the name Evie Lou, by the way. Now, we can't be 100% certain here, but I think we can squeeze the window on that time a little bit if we try. We found a source that says someone spoke with Evie Lou via her home phone. And they don't have a certain. They're not 100% certain about the time that they spoke on the phone. But at that time, she's alive and well. She's not in trouble. She doesn't say anything's wrong or that she's in fear. But this person says that she believes that this phone call took place somewhere maybe between 7 and 8pm the night before she was found. During that conversation, Evie says to this person that she was going to be watching a movie that night, and in fact, the movie was coming on and she needed to get off of the phone and that they could continue their conversation after the movie. Evie Lou doesn't call back, does not call this person back after the movie. So it would seem likely that she doesn't call back because she is already in trouble by this point, either having already been killed or she is unable to make this phone call.
- [16:24]
Captain
Well, I think this is fascinating. Right? 1994. So it's a TV movie. Do we. Do we know what the movie was?
- [16:33]
Nick
Well, it's. It's. It would have been a movie. It was a movie that was in movie theaters. But of course, she's watching it on TV that night. So Evie Lou tells the person on the phone that she will be watching a Coal Miner's Daughter that night. So this is 1994. That movie came out in 1980. And I went back and I was able to find the TV listings for that night and what time this movie would have been on. So it was on TBS, Channel 7 in that area. It came on at 8pm and it ended at 10.30pm so this would make a lot of sense, right, because we have her friend, this person on the phone that says, yeah, I can't pinpoint exactly what time we had our call, but I believe it was seven o', clock, maybe even 8pm the night before she was found. And she did say, oh, I'm going to watch this movie. In fact, I got to get off the phone because it's getting ready to come on. So she's probably on the phone with this person 7:45, close to 8 o'. Clock. And then two and a half hours later when the movie ended, she does not call back as promised. That doesn't mean 100% that something happened to evil before 10:30. But I believe it to be suggestive that whatever happened to her or she was in a state for whatever reason, that she could not call back when that Movie ended at 10:30pm Shout out to Sissy Spacek for winning the Oscar for A Coal Miner's Daughter.
- [18:05]
Captain
Well, it's definitely a logical possibility. It's very interesting though, too, because a lot of these cases were able to talk to people close to the case. And so other than the strangulation, do we have any known injuries to the victim?
- [18:21]
Nick
Yes, and again, the reports vary, but they're very similar. So I feel like there's a lot of accuracy here. Some sources say that she sustained three, possibly three blows to the head and face area, while other reports say that she had injuries to her neck and shoulders. And again, this would have been a physical attack. This she had been beaten. But where you get some optimism here, right? You got to look for, when you, when you're investigating this case, you got to look for what's, where's our potential evidence hiding? What is the victim telling us? What are the injuries telling us? Well, even from afar, when we see that there was an actual physical attack before the strangulation took place, you hope and pray that Evilu had a chance to fight back and that she fought back like a wildcat. And maybe she scratched this person. Maybe she, maybe she grabbed at his face or grabbed at his arms, forearms, trying to get those hands off of her neck. And again, that gives us some hope that we could have that Physical scientific evidence that will point to directly to our perpetrator or perpetrators. Interestingly enough, though, we have the coroner and the investigator. While they're not willing to give up a whole lot of details and information that they know about the crime, they do openly say that the attack took place. It's either started and, or ended in that bed. So they must have blood evidence to suggest that this is where the attack took place. There's no other blood evidence around that house, on the inside of that house to suggest that there was an altercation anywhere else. And again, the being found in the nude could be mean multiple scenarios. Either she was just simply sleeping in the nude when the attack took place, or there was a sexual assault, or this was a way for the perpetrator to further humiliate the victim once she would be found. Whoever did this knew 100% that this woman would be found eventually. She's literally feet from the inside of her home.
- [20:47]
Captain
This person is a maniac. It doesn't make a lot of sense. You have this attack that took place in the bedroom, on the bed, victim's dead, why move the victim? And then when you go to move the victim, did they change plans? Did they think, well, if I put them outside, that this will just look like an accident? I mean, none of this really makes a lot of sense to me.
- [21:14]
Nick
And you know why I think it doesn't make any sense is I think our perpetrator or perpetrators panicked. I think they panicked. I think that, that this was an act that was mostly rage filled and that they panicked after the fact. So the other injuries, there were some bruising on the shoulders and thighs and then there were, there was a lot of scrapes on the feet. And when I hear the statement from the coroner that the attack started and or ended in the bed, and then you get the description of scrapes and cuts on the feet, that tells me that I think we're looking at one person. I think that, that he killed her in the bed. And I think you're getting the scrapes on the feet because he did his damnedest to try to drag her outside so he could move that body and place it far away from that house. But something happened when he opened up that door. And instead he left her laying there right by that back door.
- [22:42]
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- [23:13]
Captain
All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Cheers to the people in the front, tall cans in the air. And just a quick reminder that Nick and the captain, me, the captain will be sailing our dinghy all the way over to the UK for CrimeCon UK 2024 in London. So please join us. Cheers to you, Colonel.
- [23:38]
Nick
That will be in September and we are very much looking forward to it. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to everyone out there. This case, again, varying degrees of cold. The Kentucky State Police are rather adamant that they have a case here, that they've collected a lot of evidence over the years. And this is coming from a lot of this stemming from early interviews that were conducted and possible witnesses, not necessarily witnesses to the murder. We're not talking eyewitnesses here or ear witnesses. We're talking about persons that just have some information about our victim and about potential suspects. That really starts to close the gap in on persons that we should be looking at. So let's talk about the victim here. So Evie Lou, as we said, she was the homeowner and I, and I'm really kind of underlining that for the listeners with purpose because she had been married twice by the time of her murder. Her first husband had moved away and they had a daughter together, just one child. He had moved to another state and this man was a long haul trucker and the daughter went with him. Now the daughter would come back to visit mom on occasion, I would imagine probably holidays and summertime. So they still maintained a good relationship together. And from my understanding, Captain, the divorce took place when the daughter was roughly 10, 11 and the murder took place when the daughter was about 16. So we have a considerable amount of time that Evie Lou and her first husband had been separated.
- [25:32]
Captain
Well, no indication that they were having issues with co parenting or no issues as far as child custody was concerned
- [25:41]
Nick
to 99% of the people out there, that is correct. The person that would say otherwise would be evil second husband. Their separation is confusing to me, it's confusing to law enforcement and it's confusing to her relatives. Okay, so they're depending on who you talk to or what source you get your information from. Some sources even say that she was legally divorced from her second husband. Most sources say no, that's not true. So we have sources that say, look, they were, they had been on the outs for months. The official report states that they had been separated for five days.
- [26:26]
Captain
Five days, Not a lot of time.
- [26:29]
Nick
No. My guess here is that a lot of this information can all be true with the exception of the Divorce. I think these two had been on the outs for several weeks, if not months. But it was only five days or six days prior that Evie Lou told her second husband to leave the house. You can no longer stay here. And that's the cause for the discrepancy where some people are citing the he's outdoors. Well, they're no longer together. Her second husband at the time was staying at his mother's house, which would be roughly about a 10 minute drive or so from Evie Lou's house.
- [27:12]
Captain
Well, when we have a crime like this, when we have a murder victim, obviously law enforcement is going to start asking people, is there somebody out there that would want to harm her? Is there somebody out there that would want to harm this victim? But I do find it a little strange when people start pointing the finger at, in multiple directions right away. It's almost indicative of, hey, don't look at me. I'm the good guy. You might want to look at maybe her first husband or you might want to look at the neighbor. You might want to look anywhere but me.
- [27:51]
Nick
And for my understanding here, Captain, we have the current husband. His name is Jerry Fleck. So Evelyn Louise Fleck, that's her married name. She was born Evelyn Louise Fleck Pack. She was married to a Mr. Nichols. That's who she had her daughter with. And daughter was living with Mr. Nichols in another state at the time of the murder. I've been told by multiple sources that the there was a confirmed alibi for her first husband, that he was out of state, he wasn't even in the state of Kentucky, that they had verified that he was in another state at the time of murder. Her second husband, Jerry Fleck, as we said, living or staying, however you want to describe it, at his mother's place, about a 10 minute drive away from where Evie Lou was staying. And again, she was the homeowner. And we know that because after she was killed, that home stayed in the family, her family. And in fact, it was offered to, it was offered to somebody in the family. And the family member said, I don't want to move in there where a loved one was murdered inside that house.
- [29:04]
Captain
So what was Jerry, Jerry Dingleberry's alibi for the night?
- [29:08]
Nick
His alibi was that he had last seen evie Lou at 3pm the day before. And remember, we know that she was alive and well when that phone call took place, sometime between 7 and 8pm that night. The problem here is at some point, Jerry's story will change.
- [29:26]
Captain
Oh, how convenient.
- [29:29]
Nick
And he will later say that he was last at the house at 8pm the night before. The problem here with honing in immediately on Jerry Fleck is that we have two other characters that are all tied into this story. So two persons, two men gave Evilu a ride to her home the day before she was found.
- [29:57]
Captain
So were they friends of hers, family members of hers, maybe co workers?
- [30:01]
Nick
I don't know who these people were in relationship to Evilu, but I do know this. She was not working at the time. She was collecting a. I believe it was a disability check at this time. These two men, what we do know. So police are aware of these two individuals, and we know that they gave her a ride to her home, which was located at 276 Main street there in South Shore. And the way that the police have worded this is that the last evening that Evil was alive acquainted her with three suspects. Two of them being the men that gave her a ride to her home and the third being her estranged husband, who, as we already pointed out, has a shaky alibi. So his alibi, his story for the 20th changes the men that gave her a ride. I'm unclear as to what their story is. That information has never, to my knowledge, been released to the public of what their statements are, their movements, when they last saw her, why they were with her that evening. But we do know that it's confirmed that they gave her a ride, that they, they admit to, that people had witnessed them give her a ride. She did have a vehicle. She had a small Pinto at the time.
- [31:28]
Captain
Classic.
- [31:29]
Nick
Classic. That's right, Jerry. We should point out her estranged husband was driving a black truck at the time. His statements were that he was working on a vehicle, helping somebody in their garage, working on a vehicle. The time, the timing of it seems very strange. It would be a little late at night, in my opinion, to be working on a vehicle. But if he had to work all day that day, maybe that was the only opportunity that he had to help out a friend. And then he says, well, then afterward, I went home to my mom's house and went to bed.
- [32:04]
Captain
Well, first off, like I've always said, if the person is very close to you and they're your alibi, don't buy it. Not going to believe it. Show me some other proof. I mean, I'm going to put it into account. I'm going to hear them out. But I don't think it's that strange as far as the time of day, because like you said, did he work during the day and he couldn't go over to his buddy to help him out till a certain time. And also, did they run into some kind of snag and a job that they thought would take maybe an hour, took a few hours, or did they have a couple too many to drink and they just decided to sit around and bullshit? We don't know. But I don't think Jerry. Jerry Dingleberry has a solid alibi, in my opinion.
- [32:55]
Nick
No, not at all. And one thing that you got working in favor of your investigation is our timeline. So Jerry is being interviewed by police. She's found at 10am that morning. They're interviewing him minutes or within an hour or two later. So when I'm sitting across from a guy and he tells me one story of all, the last time I saw it was. Or last time I was at the house was 3pm yesterday. And then that changes to 8pm yesterday. I'm going, wait a second. You've not even had enough time to really forget yesterday's events. Why are they so. Why do you need to change your story? And there I start to wonder, did. Was something said to him by police that made him have to change his story, or did somebody see his truck at the house at an hour when he said he wasn't there?
- [33:50]
Captain
Well, that's a great point, because like you said, we don't have any eyewitnesses or ear witnesses that we know of to this crime. But in a neighborhood like this, neighbors would maybe go, well, I didn't hear anything. I didn't see anything that was abnormal. But I do know her husband. That, yeah, they could be separated or whatever. But I do know the husband's vehicle was there and it was dark out or whatever.
- [34:20]
Nick
This would be a situation where if her car's already there and these guys that give her a ride. So you assume there's a second vehicle there, or Jerry coming and going from the house. There would be a second vehicle there at times the day before.
- [34:34]
Captain
But here's where I'm confused, and maybe you can clear this up. I know I'm not the smartest guy on the block, but if he's telling the cops, hey, I was at my friend's house helping him fix a vehicle. But then he then changes his story and says, well, I was actually at my house or my former house with my wife at 8pm see where I'm confused?
- [35:02]
Nick
No, I see why you're confused. I'm confused by the timeline too, because while we have this information that these two guys gave her a ride, we don't have a Time for that.
- [35:10]
Captain
Right.
- [35:11]
Nick
The only thing, the only real true time marker we have is that movie that she discussed, what movie she was planning to watch. We know what time the movie started. We know what time it ended. We know that she did not have that phone call after the movie was over. So that's really the only great markers we get on our timeline. The problem I have with Jerry's story is his 8pm marker is lining up real nice with the 8pm marker of that movie starting and after the phone call took place.
- [35:41]
Captain
And we have nobody saying that they made contact with her after that movie started.
- [35:46]
Nick
Correct. It would seem that all everyone's stories are lining up with the last known contact that she had with someone would have been that 8pm marker. Where we do end up with a witness is after the fact that. So Jerry calls Evilu's house three times the morning that she was found dead under the refrigerator. On one of these calls, on the third and final call, the paramedic that was responding to the emergency call picks up the phone and informs Jerry Fleck that his wife has been killed.
- [36:28]
Captain
Question for you. Do you think that these calls were legitimate calls, or is this a way to pretend you don't know what happened?
- [36:38]
Nick
It's really too difficult to say. I lean toward the. You know me, Captain. I think everybody's guilty. I lean toward the idea that this is trying to create that alibi to further that alibi of. I was just trying to get a hold of her. I was just trying to talk. I needed to call her about this, that or the other thing. And, oh, my God, she's dead.
- [36:58]
Captain
Right.
- [36:58]
Nick
That's where. That's where my mind goes to. Now, I've had several people tell me that where his mother's home was situated, you could. From. From most windows in that. The front of that house, you could view the highway. And that that highway would be necessary for police and paramedics to take that route to get to Evie Lou's house. So the assumption that several people, several local people have made is that if Jerry did this, maybe he's nervous. He can't go back to the house. He can't. He can't return to that home. Somebody else has to find this body. But did he sit at the window and watch and wait till he saw police cars, an ambulance traveling down that road to get to her home? And then. Then knowing. Then all of a sudden, the phone calls are happening from his mother's house to Evie Lou's house again? If. That. If he's responsible and it played out that way. He sees the cars. Now he's going, oh, I'm the, I'm the smartest cat in the room and I'm going to make some phone calls and they're going to know that I'm just as shocked as they are. I couldn't have done it. It was a total surprise to me. I was expecting her to pick up the phone.
- [38:27]
Captain
Okay, let me see if you can pick up what I'm putting down. If I'm an investigator, and I'm not saying that this is definitive evidence, but you were talking about maybe this murderer. The crime takes place in the bedroom, there's some kind of panic, goes to move the body because of the panic, just leaves her on the porch, decides to try to cover up. Is it a cover up with the items being thrown onto her or is it a continuation of the attack? A continuation to try to destroy this victim. But where my head leans towards is we go, well, we got these two guys that dropped her off. And when there's some confusion and things that don't make sense at the crime scene. Well, if there was two attackers, that could make the confusion.
- [39:22]
Nick
It could certainly make the confusion. And one thing, look, we say drop her off or gave her a ride to her home. It's very likely that both of those individuals went into the home with her. So another thing that complicates the case is that there's no sign of forced entry into the home. And again, I don't know what police's thoughts, what the police's thoughts are on these three individuals other than they have openly said that her movements of that last evening alive acquainted her with three suspects. And they, they don't name them. They simply say the two men that gave her a ride to her home and her estranged husband, they've been very tight lipped about this case because my conversation with them is this case is very solvable. We got to keep this information close to the vest. So when they do release information like this, where they are openly, they're openly naming suspects without naming suspects. Right, right. You describe the person. We, we know who the husband is so that we can put a name to that. That's Jerry Fleck. The two men that gave her a ride, I don't know their names other than I've been told one of them's last name is Blankenship. So these three people are all known to the police and their investigation has led them to believe, believe within this group of three that we have your, your perpetrator.
- [40:53]
Captain
Well, it's interesting because I think law enforcement strategy here is, hey, well, we'll tell you, we're looking at these three individuals and by telling the public that maybe somebody will come forward and go, well, I heard these two guys talking about this time they drove this woman home and attacked her or whatever. Or I know these two guys that took her home and they're not good guys and I can prove that. But what's difficult here is with these three possible suspects, you go, well, Jerry, Jerry Dingleberry. If there's no break in to the house, well, that's not a big deal because he was just living there five days ago. So it's reasonable to believe that he still has access to come and go as he pleases to the property, maybe without her knowing that he still has access to enter and exit at his will. It's also reasonable to believe that these two individuals that were given her a ride home, that maybe she let them in the house or maybe they forced their way into the house, but there was no sign of break in.
- [41:58]
Nick
Yeah, I believe that they, if they would have forced their way into the home, likely we'd have something that's suggestive of that. Again, we, you review these cases and it's like you can't say everybody locks their doors, everybody locks their windows. And some homes are certainly more easy to get to access than others.
- [42:17]
Captain
Right.
- [42:17]
Nick
So that gets a little wonky. But what, what we have here, Captain, I paint a picture the way that, that if I were to Bob Ross this thing out and paint a picture of how I think this whole thing went down. There were a couple people that have told me very close, without naming names, very close to the case, very close to the victim, said that they not only heard rumors that Jerry, the estranged husband, was keeping an eye on his wife, watching her, watching the house. At least one says that they have proof that he was doing this.
- [42:53]
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Right.
- [42:54]
Nick
And one bit of evidence that we have that we haven't gone through yet is they found in an ashtray inside the home, they found three different brands of cigarettes. And we talked about this before on the show. And people that are smokers, especially long term smokers, will know a lot of people are pretty loyal to their brand. They find some, they find a brand that they like and they, they will regularly smoke that kind of cigarette. There were three different brands found in the ashtray within her home. That to me is suggestive that she invited these two guys into the home and that the three of them were inside this house together for a period of Time long enough to smoke some cigarettes. Evil was a smoker. So we can go ahead and say that one of those brands found was Evil. Yeah, we could deduce it's very likely with two other brands being there, that we had two other persons inside that home at one point on the 20th,
- [43:59]
Captain
but it's possible that they dropped her off, had a cigarette with her and they left. Because we do have this phone call. And to me, that phone call suggests that she was by herself, but could be wrong.
- [44:12]
Nick
According to. Yes, according to the information available. She doesn't reference that anybody else is there with her at that time. That doesn't mean that the house is empty. But then going back to the whole. No sign of forced entry. We do know, based on the information available, that Jerry Fleck went to the hardware store days before the murder and had a second key made for that house. Now, mind you, he's not staying there at that time, but for some reason, he needs to have a second key made. Where that key goes, who it's supposed to go to, if it's going to be his key, I cannot say that. What I can say is multiple people said this man had a key made at the hardware store for the house that that woman was murdered in.
- [44:59]
Captain
Yeah, but a clever cat, right? Hey, I'm going to go get a second key made and then I'm going to go to my wife. Hey, I know we're splitting up. I'm going to go stay at my mom's. And oh, by the way, I'm returning my key to you without her knowledge that he has a second key made. And I'm not saying that's definitive evidence, but to me, that is evidence of something, Right? That's evidence that he wanted access to this house whenever he wanted to and he didn't essentially want her to know, but because she is dead, we don't know if he had these keys made and she knew about it.
- [45:37]
Nick
Well, according to his, again, shaky alibi, that's the words used by investigators who would know far better than us. But they are stating that in one story, he says that he left the home about 3pm on the 20th. This after shoveling snow and dropping off groceries to the house. If he's dropping off groceries, if he's helping to still maintain the property in the house, would make sense that he has a key. Did he, did he give that information to police? That's something I would want to know. Because if he tried to withhold that information from police and investigators, well, that makes it look all that more shady. But the picture that I would paint here, if we were talking back to Bob Ross, if we were talking crime fiction. Right. We're working on a crime fiction story, a novel. Crime novel. We could paint the picture of one person is responsible for this murder. Evie Lou was a smaller woman, a petite woman. If the two men that say they drop her off, they go into the home with her, and we. Again, we have the cigarette evidence that says maybe they went into the house and maybe they openly told police. Yeah, we went into the house for an hour or two, had a couple drinks or whatever. But for her to have those, I. When I hear scrapes and cuts on the. On the feet, that, to me, is suggestive that someone had to drag her from that bed and attempted to get her outside. I think I'll just throw it out there. If he wants to come at me, he can come at me. I think that. That Jerry was watching the house, was watching his wife, saw her with these two men at some point, saw the two men go into the home. They're in there for a period of time. And he was too. He was too chicken to confront her in the moment when those men were there. And then he waited until they weren't there anymore. And maybe she had gone to bed. Using his second key that he had made, he went into that home, he killed her in that bed. He tried to get rid of the body, but guess what? It was blizzard conditions. And he drug her from the bed to the kitchen door, which led to the backyard, and attempted to get her outside and probably into the bed of his truck, where he would drive that body and dump it somewhere or conceal it somewhere or maybe bury it for good. But we got frozen ground out there. I think something stopped him, prevented him from carrying out that plan and that he panicked in the moment, found the old refrigerator, pushed it over on top of her, threw another item on her, and then he left. He fled the scene. Maybe. Maybe it was just as simple as he was worried that somebody would see his truck there now that he had killed somebody. But I think that he attempted to hide the body, was unsuccessful, panicked, and then sat. Went home, sat by the window and watched and waited for emergency personnel to respond to the scene and try to further his alibi by making phone calls to the home while they were there.
- [48:58]
Captain
Well, I think everything you're saying is reasonable, but we don't have the autopsy. We don't have these photos. So we don't. When we hear this, these terms, scrapes and cuts, where my mind goes to is, was she trying to defend herself and when she was on the bed, was she trying to use her feet at some point and that's how she got these cuts and scrapes.
- [49:24]
Nick
There is some other information out there, and this is. This I want to throw out there. And be perfectly honest, this is something that we could not back up. I'm going to put it out there because it was told to us, but we cannot 100% confirm this information. I would. I would wager Franklin on it that police know if this is true or not.
- [49:49]
Captain
How much money do you owe people?
- [49:51]
Nick
Well, I keep winning, so it doesn't. It's not. You don't have to have a whole lot of money if you. If you just keep recycling that same Franklin and doubling.
- [49:58]
Captain
Doubling up on double or nothing. Okay, then.
- [50:01]
Nick
So no forced entry into the home, but there is information out there that says that anywhere from 500 to possibly up to $800 cash was missing from the home as well. And what's interesting about that little bit of information is again, we don't know 100% sure that this is true, but I would bet you the police know if that's fact or fiction. But we also don't have anything else that's ever named in the papers or any report out there that some the items were missing from the home. And the reason why I bring that up is. It's cash, man. It's cash. Cash comes and goes without. Without a whole lot of checks and balances and a whole lot of recordkeeping. Right. When this case broke, what did the estranged husband do? He pointed to the first husband. Would there be anybody that would want to harm. Do you know anybody that would want to harm Evilu. Oh, yeah. Her. Her first husband. You want to take a look at that guy, you might want to give him a call. Who are they going to talk to to figure out if anything is missing from this home? Nobody lives there but Evie Lou and her estranged husband, who's been outdoors now for five, six days. Depending on who you talk to, he might be the one that's going through the home and saying, oh, by the way, officers, we had X amount of cash in the house. Or I know she had X amount of cash in the house. And now it's gone again, pointing out the possibility, planting the seed in the detective's mind that, well, maybe this was a robbery. Maybe somebody was after that money and that's why she got killed.
- [52:06]
Captain
If you saw something, say something. If you know something, something, say something. It's possible that one of these three suspects has told somebody something about this crime. If you know anything, please contact law enforcement.
- [52:22]
Nick
I agree 100% here, Captain. I believe that the Kentucky State Police are fully under the idea that whoever is responsible for this has said something to someone in the last 30 years. And if that someone is you, you can help. KSP is strongly encouraging anyone who has information that could help solve this cold case to contact officers who are investigating this case. All information will be kept in the strictest of confidence and diligently pursued by the investigators. Any of the investigating officers may be contacted by calling the Kentucky State Police, Ashland Post at 606-928-6421.
- [53:11]
Captain
Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week. Can't thank you enough, Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
- [53:20]
Nick
This week we are recommending the Day My Mother Never Came Home by Reginald L. Reed, Jr. In this book, this fantastic book, Reed invites you into his journey of healing and the pursuit of justice. With raw vulnerability, he delves into the depths of his trauma, offering glimpses into the psychological impact on his life while also offering a powerful message of hope and resilience. This is not just another true crime tale. This is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the importance of shedding light on the truth. Check out the Day My Mother Never Came Home. I was lucky enough to have a discussion with author Reginald Reed a while back on our other show, off the Record, so check that out as well. You can find this wonderful recommendation as well as many more on our recommended page at our website, truecrimegarage.com and until
- [54:14]
Captain
next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
- [54:54]
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