Charlotte Fimiano ////// Part 2

Summary

True Crime Garage: Charlotte Fimiano Part 2 – Detailed Summary

Release Date: January 13, 2025

In the second part of the "Charlotte Fimiano" episode, hosts Nick and the Captain delve deeper into the perplexing case of Charlotte Fimiano, exploring intricate details, potential connections to other unsolved murders, and scrutinizing the investigative processes undertaken by law enforcement.

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Introduction to the Case

Nick introduces listeners to the unresolved homicide of Charlotte Fimiano, a 40-year-old real estate agent who was found dead in a vacant home on September 11, 1997. The discussion begins by comparing Charlotte's case to that of Sherry L. Lewis, another real estate agent who was brutally murdered in Decatur, Illinois, in 1994.

Nick states, “Sherry L. Lewis, a realtor from Decatur, Illinois who was murdered on August 5, 1994...[she] was found deceased in a Macon county residence...”

Potential Connection Between Cases

The hosts explore the possibility of a connection between the two cases, noting similarities in the victims' professions and the nature of their deaths. However, they acknowledge the skepticism surrounding such links due to statistical improbabilities.

Nick remarks, “I think you're going to hear me say two things in this episode that you've never heard me say in almost 700 episodes of True Crime Garage...but...the number. Numbers don't pan out. It's almost never true.”

Despite initial impressions that the cases might be connected, further investigation by authorities found no direct links.

Analyzing the Evidence

The conversation shifts to the specifics of Charlotte’s case, particularly focusing on the phone calls that led to her meeting at the vacant home. The Captain speculates on the nature of these calls, considering whether they were part of a targeted attack or a crime of opportunity.

The Captain posits, “...there's a sexual component to them,” referring to the possibility of a sexually motivated crime.

Nick elaborates, “...a lot of killers have told us it is surprisingly difficult at times to strangle someone to death... and I think that's when the gun comes into play.”

Investigative Insights

The hosts discuss the challenges faced by investigators, especially concerning the tracing of phone calls made from payphones in 1997. They highlight the limitations of technology at the time and how it impacts the ability to locate perpetrators.

Nick points out, “...the payphone obviously is not a free call. Somebody... called from a residential location in that same area code where there was no long distance calling needed.”

The Role of the Husband

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Charlotte's husband, who was ruled out as a suspect due to his verified alibi. However, the hosts grapple with the implications of this ruling and its timing relative to the appointment that led to Charlotte's death.

Nick states, “If someone were to set up a hit and it were a husband to take out his wife, what time am I scheduling it for? When I'm at work? When I'm accounted for?”

Despite these musings, they acknowledge that there is no substantial evidence implicating the husband, and he maintained a cooperative stance with law enforcement.

Theories and Speculations

The hosts present multiple theories, ranging from the involvement of a complete stranger with possible criminal sophistication to the deeply unsettling possibility of a hit orchestrated by someone familiar to Charlotte.

The Captain suggests, “You going to hear me say two things in this episode that you've never heard me say in almost 700 episodes of True Crime Garage.”

Meanwhile, Nick contends, “I think that there's too many connecting factors. I think that the stranger would have to know too much.”

Open Questions and Unresolved Mysteries

As the episode progresses, Nick emphasizes the numerous unanswered questions that continue to shroud the case in mystery. He calls on listeners to contribute any new information that might shed light on the circumstances surrounding Charlotte's death.

Nick urges, “If anybody can, can send us a link to that, hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, or put it on our blog on truecrimegarage.com that's information that we need to know.”

Conclusion and Call to Action

In wrapping up, the hosts reiterate the complexities and the fragmented nature of the case, highlighting the ongoing search for answers and justice for Charlotte Fimiano. They also mention the availability of a reward for information, although it appears to be outdated.

Nick concludes, “This case is incredibly interesting. There's a lot of, a lot of problems and a lot of puzzle pieces missing from this case. We want to hear what you think and what your thoughts are.”

Listeners are encouraged to engage with the podcast's online platforms to provide information or seek further details about the case.

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Notable Quotes

• [04:56] Nick: “I think you're going to hear me say two things in this episode that you've never heard me say in almost 700 episodes of True Crime Garage.”

• [05:46] Nick: “The only reason why this rattled me a little bit...they look very similar.”

• [11:29] Nick: “I am very glad that you started to go down this road. What I wanted to point out here.”

• [16:01] Nick: “What do we know about the killer? We know only two things, in my opinion.”

• [29:50] The Captain: “All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Onward and upward. Cheers to you, Colonel.”

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Final Thoughts

The "Charlotte Fimiano Part 2" episode of True Crime Garage offers a compelling exploration of a cold case, highlighting the intricacies of criminal investigations and the profound impact of unresolved crimes on communities and families. Through thoughtful analysis and open-ended questioning, Nick and the Captain encourage listeners to engage critically with the case, fostering a collaborative search for truth and closure.

Transcript

[The Captain]

Sa.

[Nick]

Welcome to True crime garage wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host. Nick and the jerk store just called and they are running out of my co host. I give to you the Captain.

[The Captain]

Hey, thank you so much T Bone. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

Foreign ladies and germs. We still got some ice cold pilsners in the old garage fridge. We are drinking Lazy river pills by our friends over at New Trail Brewing. This is an updated version of a traditional German pilsner with German Munich malts for a highly crisp and refreshing, light and flavorful pilsner with with citra hops to add a bright orange citrus aroma. ABV 4.4% garage grade. 4 out of 5 bottle caps. And here's some cheers to our friends.

[The Captain]

First up we have Daniel from Fargo, North Dakota. Cheers mate.

[Nick]

And we also have Ashley and Kelly in Bakersville, North Carolina. Thank you to everyone for going to our website and helping out with this week's beer fund providing the funds for the old beer run.

[The Captain]

Yeah, BWR you N Beer Run. Make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com and sign up on the mailing list. And Colonel, that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right everybody gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Early on into the murder investigation creation of Charlotte Fimiano, the authorities were looking into another unsolved homicide. Now oddly enough Captain, this one took place three years prior and hundreds of miles away. This is the still unsolved murder of Sherry L. Lewis, a realtor from Decatur, Illinois who was murdered on August 5, 1994. And a brief overview of that case is as follows. On August 5, 1994, 30 year old Sherry L. Lewis of Decatur, Illinois, she's a realtor. She was found deceased in a Macon county residence that was for sale which she had an appointment to show this home. Sherry's case has been re examined and thoroughly investigated by Macon County Sheriff's office under former Macon County Sheriff Buffett assisted by special homicide investigator John Skaggs. This is from the justice for Sherry Lewis Facebook page. They say their full investigative report containing overwhelming evidence solving her brutal murder has been in the hands of Macon County State's Attorney's office since May of 2018. Former Macon County State's Attorney Jay Scott failed to bring justice for Sherry Lewis. This is they're trying to rally here and try to get support to finally take this thing to trial. If the evidence warrants that. So I'm bringing this up because it is all a part of the Charlotte Fimiano case. This is something that they reference and that police looked into. Now, I don't know who reached out to who. Right. I don't know if Decatur, Illinois, reached out to the state police in Pennsylvania or if the state police in Pennsylvania reached out to Macon county in Illinois. But we do know that they were talking and they were examining the details of both cases. What we would later be told after a few months, they're not saying that. They are ruling out the possibility that the two could be connected. What they do say is we didn't find any direct connections from one to the other. I think in this episode, Captain, and I'm reluctant to say this because I'm hesitant, because I hate to go down these roads.

[The Captain]

Say it. Come on, say it.

[Nick]

I think you're going to hear me say two things in this episode that you've never heard me say in almost 700 episodes of True Crime Garage.

[The Captain]

That you appreciate my work and my effort.

[Nick]

I say that all the time. You just. You just hit the stop button and erase it in the editing process. And the people think, I hate you. So. But here, what's weird to me, Captain, I never think that these cases, I. I think maybe in the Alphabet Murders case that we talked about, that might be the only other time that I was like, yeah, these two cases that are hundreds of miles away and years apart might be connected. I almost never say that because I never believe it. And guess what? It's because the number. Numbers don't pan out. It's almost never true.

[The Captain]

Yeah, statistically, it's. It's very low. But this. This case is strange because you were pointing something, you know, off mic before is if you Google search images of either one of these victims, they look very similar.

[Nick]

That's exactly right. And here. Here's the weird thing. Like, the only reason why this rattled me a little bit. I don't think that they're connected. I want to say that, but there's one stunning fact that. That is, of course, my opinion, but I can't get over it. When I was.

[The Captain]

Is it a fact or a opinion?

[Nick]

It's a opinionated fact. Damn it. The. The thing is, though, when I was first reviewing Charlotte Fimiano case, I saw a picture of Sherry L. Lewis, but it wasn't labeled. And I just made the assumption that it was a picture of her from maybe 10 or 12 years earlier prior to her murder. And then when I looked up Sherrielle Lewis just Google image, like you said. The first picture that came up, I thought, well, they got it wrong. That's just an old picture of Charlotte Fimiano. And sure enough, I click on a couple websites and very quickly realize, no, that is a picture of Sherry Lewis. To me, they look very similar.

[The Captain]

Yeah, Charlotte looks like she could be Sherry's mother.

[Nick]

So Sherry's 30 years old when she's killed, and Charlotte's 40 when she's killed. And again, I. I mean, not exactly spot on, but at first glance, it was enough for me to think that the Sherry Lewis picture was a picture of Charlotte when she was 28 or 30 years old. For me, it's got me a little rattled because I can't get over the fact that they were both working in the same line of work, the same title, job title. They look very similar. And that they were both showing a home, that they had an appointment. Now, Sherry was beaten and strangled. And then we know in Charlotte's case it was a gun in ligature strangulation. I don't know enough details of the Sherry Lewis case to 100% say that I think that they're connected. My gut tells me that they're not. But we do know that police looked at it. We do know that they did say they couldn't find any direct connection between the two. Now, if you go to that justice for Sherry Lewis Facebook page, you're also going to find at least one or two other realtors that were killed. There's one from 1984, oddly enough, September 11, 1984, which would be exactly 13 years before Charlotte Fimiano was killed. So just some very weird, strange things with this case. And I've got to tell you, Captain, on the surface, this case, to me, was very intriguing. But there's. This case is very fascinating, and I hate to say that, because there are people that are. Are related and loved Charlotte and were great friends with her. And I hate that they would hear or have to hear some schmuck in a garage.

[The Captain]

Yeah, pencil dick.

[Nick]

That's a beer and a half deep. Say, this case is fascinating, you know, but. But I feel okay to say it here in this case, because oddly enough, I was reviewing material and found a detective that was working on this case, and he said those exact words.

[The Captain]

All right, so two wrongs make a right.

[Nick]

That's really stuck with me in this case because I told you, I told you when I arrived at the garage today, I will be happy to be done with these episodes because this case is. Is really messed with me over the past three to four days. There's something very funny about this case that I can't quite put my finger on. And I feel like it's just one piece of the puzzle that's. That's just missing. That's. That would put this whole thing together. There's something very strange about this Charlotte Fimiano case that's, that's really got me shook.

[The Captain]

Can I say a thought that I had without you putting me and the old pervert roundup crew?

[Nick]

Sure.

[The Captain]

But the one. One of the things that kind of stuck out to me in this is because we don't know if she was targeted or if it was just this location was targeted. And I would.

[Nick]

Or. I hate to interrupt.

[The Captain]

Yeah, you hate that.

[Nick]

But keep in mind, we don't know if either were targeted. Right. But continue.

[The Captain]

I'm sorry, but we do know because of the call into the real estate company, we don't know if there was multiple calls that day from that number. I would think that's something that law enforcement would want to look up. Because what if this killer calls and a male answers the phone and then they talk for a little bit, but make no appointment and then call back? And what if there was evidence that they kept calling back until they got a female victim? Because what do we know about crimes and killers? A lot of the crimes are sexually motivated. So that would seem a little strange as far as, like, this whole realtor scenario. And this is where I don't want people going, wow, that captain, he's one pervert. But now I'm going to shift this a little bit. Pornography. There's a real estate agent category and pornography. So I just don't think it's that far of a stretch for, again, a sexually motivated crime for somebody to be watching this category and then developing a sicker fantasy. Does that, does that make any sense?

[Nick]

Yeah, I mean, obviously, here's the thing. I, I shouldn't say obviously. It makes total sense to me because what we've seen time and time again, especially with serial offenders, is that sex and violence is all wrapped up into one ugly package for them.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And a lot of them will use pornographic materials to kind of keep those urges at bay. And so, yes, it. To me, it makes complete and total sense. I am very glad that you started to go down this road. What I wanted to point out here.

[The Captain]

Is you love looking at porn.

[Nick]

The facts, okay? We're going to get into a lot of opinion stuff, a lot of theories, a lot of speculation here, and there's a lot of it in this case. And I think that is in part why the detective even states, this is such a fascinating case. But when you break it down in its simplest of forms, what do we know? What do we know about the killer? We know only two things, in my opinion. A, they were looking for a victim. They called and made an appointment and were looking for a victim. Now, you can throw in some variables there. Were they targeting Charlotte when they called?

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Or were they just hoping for, as you said, a female realtor victim? Then you go, okay, location. The location seems to be important. Well, it might not. This location itself could have been targeted or not targeted. We don't know because we don't know the details of that conversation between Charlotte and the person that she had on the phone.

[The Captain]

Well, let's just be clear on something, and maybe you can clear this up for me and the listening, the beautiful listeners. Like I like to say, a fictitious name was given.

[Nick]

Correct.

[The Captain]

I'm assuming that we know whether that was a male name that was given or a female name.

[Nick]

My guess is that it has to be a male name. From my understanding, the name's never been released. But what we do know is that Charlotte did tell at least one other person that she worked with that she had this appointment with, and it was a male caller. So for him to give a female name would seem to be a little bit of.

[The Captain]

That would be a.

[Nick]

Of an indicator of maybe I shouldn't go on this appointment or take this call seriously. But back to what do we know? We do know that regardless if she was targeted or not, we know that the killer was looking for a victim with that phone call, number one. And number two is it's a premeditated murder. A gun was used in this homicide and is not recovered at the scene. So it didn't come from the vacant home. He likely didn't pull it off of Charlotte in some kind of scuffle. This killer was looking for a victim and arrived on the scene prepared, ready to kill.

[The Captain]

Right. But I also just want to be clear. So just because we have a male caller doesn't necessarily mean that we have a male killer.

[Nick]

Correct? Correct. And that's why I. That's why I wanted to go down that road in the last episode, to point out very clearly that while it stands to reason that the most likely perpetrator of this homicide is that caller who arranged that meeting, it's not out of the realm of complete possibility that. That the person that called is not the person that killed.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Somebody could have set up this arrangement. And then she arrives and she's either ambushed or there's a sneak attack by somebody should she did not anticipate of seeing there at that home. And that person then killed her. And I think that's why in part this case is so fascinating because there's so much of the speculation that can lead you to very certain theories. But there, but everything's very open ended with this case. It leaves the possibilities very open in this case. Now I want to get into circle back to the phone calls because ring, ring, ring. Many sources tell us one thing and only one source that I could find tells us a further detail on that item.

[The Captain]

Right?

[Nick]

So we talked about this arrangement was made the day prior, the day before the murder. We would later learn police would eventually come off in, in the corner, eventually come off and narrow down that window of time in question for us. The time of death, which is so important and key to any investigation because that goes to means and opportunity, right? And we said during the trailer that means an opportunity. Are the, are the very best tools deciding factors to separate a good suspect from anybody else who actually was unaccounted for for during the time of death.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Now they narrowed down the time of death and later released it to be. First they were saying 1 to 4pm and that I think the police may have been forced to kind of show their hand on this one because what happened, Captain, was two weeks after the murder, she's murdered on a Thursday. On a Thursday, two weeks later, police set up a bunch of roadblocks in that neighborhood and surrounding that neighborhood. And they were stopping all passerbyers and asking them if they regularly travel in this area if, if they happen to be there two weeks prior between the hours of 1 and 4pm and so these people were later interviewed by news stations and they're like, yeah, you know, what the, what were the police asking you? Well here, you know, they're asking me this, that and the other thing, but they wanted to know if I was here two Thursdays ago between 1 and 4pm so that kind of shows you right away that they've already honed in on that, that time period, that three hour window, 1 to 4pm the police and then later the police come out and say the time of death, the suspected time of death is between 1 and 3pm so they got a two hour window. That killer had to get into that area and out of that area and she was killed sometime between 1 and 3. Now another thing that we would later learn, several sources Come out months later that say Charlotte went out to that appointment and then returned to the office and told several people that she worked with that she got stood up, that the mail caller that made the appointment never arrived and she got tired of waiting around and came back to the office.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

What happens then is once she's back at the office, phone rings.

[The Captain]

Wing. Wing.

[Nick]

She takes the call.

[The Captain]

Hello.

[Nick]

It's the person she had the appointment with saying, oh, I got, I got tied up, I couldn't make it to the appointment. I was running late. Could, could we still go and see the house?

[The Captain]

Well, again, though, this is also kind of a remote area. Is it possible that the killer went to find the house and just couldn't find the house?

[Nick]

Well, again, we don't know the details of that. And there are several people in their reports that have said over the years, well, she was a real go getter. She wouldn't turn down the opportunity to show a house and sell the house. Yeah, that's true. I get that. But let's take it a step further. She's been doing this for like 15, 16 years. I'm sure it's not the first time that somebody has called and said, I got tied up in a meeting, I got caught in traffic, I. My kids suck, and I couldn't leave the house. Um, you know, so she's probably had several times that somebody didn't show or was running late. And so this probably didn't, didn't set her off, didn't raise any flags for Charlotte. And she tells a couple people this at the office and then she goes out and meets. She goes to that, that appointment back at the house on Chelsea Lane. And we do know that she's killed there. Here's, here's some of the details that, that really set me off in this case, Captain. And I kept harping on this yesterday. The devil's in the details. The problem with these details is it said time and time again, she went for a 1 o'clock appointment and then she was killed. And we do know the time in question. The suspected time of Death is between 1 and 3pm what was the original arrangement? If, if he calls and says, I couldn't make it and could we, could we still go see the house? And the people at the office are saying, well, she left at 1:00 and she had a 1:00 appointment. What was the original arrangement? Was it for 11am or noon and he didn't make it, or was the appointment always for one and she actually came back and Then left after one o'clock which doesn't seem to stand a reason. Because if people saw her alive at 1:00 or 1:15 or 1:30, then your suspected time of death wouldn't be between 1 and 3.

[The Captain]

Exactly.

[Nick]

And the reason why I'm focusing in on this so much and why this pisses me off that we do not know this detail. And you know what? There are people out there that know this detail. Clarification please. Because her husband who would be ruled out as far as police say, because it's about three or four months into the investigation there's a newspaper headline comes out that the police have eliminated. Have ruled out husband in realtors death. They rule him out. Why did they rule him out? He has an alibi. Did some digging Christian's work schedule. He worked 10 hour days. He had a 20 to 30 minute commute to his job. His, his schedule was 1pm to 11pm Makes a lot of sense. And we know that there are other things backing up that information because what he gets home after, he gets home a little after 11:30, talks to his, his daughter, calls in that his wife is missing. The reason why that time period is so important to me and what the original appointment was for, what time it was for was because even though police say that they have moved on from the family, that they have ruled out the husband, they tell us they're ruling out the husband because they can confirm 100% that he was at work between 1pm and 11pm on that Thursday and had a 20 to 30 minute commute both ways. If someone, and I've, I never say this on True Crime Garage. If someone were to set up a hit and it were to be a husband to take out his wife, what time am I scheduling it for? When I'm at work? When I'm accounted for? When I'm going to have dozens of people tell you nope, I didn't kill my wife because they all saw me hanging out there. They all saw me working there. The reason why I think that this detail is so important is because if it was a, in fact a hit that was arranged by the husband, it would, it would fall in line with some of the details we do know about the case. Charlotte wouldn't may not recognize the voice of the person he hired, especially if she doesn't know who the person is that he he hired. But two, if the caller on Wednesday originally scheduled the appointment for one, it drives me mad to, to sit there and think that it's happenstance that this appointment is Scheduled for a time that this dude's also scheduled to be at work. I'm not saying that the two camp both have happened. I'm saying it, it leads me to believe, and I've never said on the show before that I think that there's a hit. I think that this case is a hit. I think that, I think the most two plausible things to me are either a, a complete freaking stranger killed this woman.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And I think if that's the case, they may never solve this case.

[The Captain]

Most likely not.

[Nick]

They have been so tight lipped about some things, I think that, that police think they have an idea of what actually happened here. And so let's take this a few steps further.

[The Captain]

One, there's, I'm not saying that it is concrete evidence, but sometimes that's why law enforcement is very tight lipped about things is because there are certain pieces of evidence that they know can't get out because it would basically crumble their whole case against a certain individual.

[Nick]

And if they're hoping to, let's say they wanted to follow the husband to see if he could lead them to the killer or if they wanted to tap his phone or surveil this guy. What better way to get him to act, to lead you to the killer than to publicly say, well, we ruled him out. We ruled him out because we confirmed 100% that he was at work that day during the time in question.

[The Captain]

Yeah. Because just because they rule you out to a public, you know, newspaper or whatever, or even tell him to his face, we ruled you out. The police are allowed to lie during an investigation.

[Nick]

Well, not only that, they're ruling him out as the killer. They're not ruling him out as being involved in the homicide. Exactly ruling him out as the actual killer.

[The Captain]

But also law enforcement is not the only tight lip organization, quote unquote, in, in this case, sometimes you have a case where, look at Delphi. Very tight lipped law enforcement, very vocal family trying to get the word out, trying to get information coming in this one, tight lipped law enforcement. And seems like the family was pretty tight lipped as well.

[Nick]

Yeah. And we need to be completely fair here because they could, the family, meaning her daughter and her husband, they could have been tight lipped and shy away from the cameras or the newspapers just out of pure devastation. Their world is completely turned upside down. They're completely heartbroken and that's why they didn't do so much talking to the media. And one thing that does make me doubt this husband being involved a little bit is the, the fact that we do know, and I had to do a good amount of digging to figure this out, that the husband was the one that actually called 911 the following morning and that led to her body being found. Now it also wouldn't be the first time that somebody would lead police to a body of somebody that they've killed.

[The Captain]

Well, because it'd be pretty suspicious. Your wife doesn't come home in the morning.

[Nick]

She didn't do nothing. Yeah.

[The Captain]

In the morning you're like, well, I. I guess she just didn't come home last night.

[Nick]

Yes. I don't have to make as much coffee in the morning.

[The Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Let's get back to the other possibility that I don't think we can rule out either is the complete stranger possibility.

[The Captain]

Stranger danger.

[Nick]

Somebody cold calls this realtor office looking for a victim and needs a secluded vacant ready to move into home to carry out their the dirty deed of homicide done dirt cheap. One thing that for me pointed away from a complete stranger is one the motive. Yes, it could be a thrill kill. But many of these thrill kills are sexually motivated. There's a sexual component to them. Now, one detail that has been released is that Charlotte was not only found fully clothed, but still wearing her coat, her jacket. So that may suggest to many that there was no sexual component to the case. But I'm going to throw a wrench into everything that most people believe about homicides when they try to look at a crime scene. And please allow me, Captain, to talk out of both sides of my face at the same time.

[The Captain]

They do.

[Nick]

But this comes from a very well respected detective and somebody that we've talked about on the show before, Joe Kennedy. He says be careful and do not assume there is a close personal relationship between the suspect and victim based on evidence of overkill, example excessive stab wounds, extensive blood force trauma, etc. At the crime scene. If ligatures and restraining devices are present, there was likely a sexual component to the murder. This should be considered before exploring other motives. Unless it is obvious another crime gone bad. Robbery, burglary, home invasion, or the victim was restrained so the primary crime could be completed. Okay, so that's, that's interesting to, to observe here because there is somewhat of overkill involved in this case. We mentioned ligature strangulation. We mentioned the gunshot. She was actually shot twice. Once in the back of the head and once in the face just below the left eye. What Kennedy is pointing out here is that just that act of strangulation, ligature strangulation, may even though our victims Found completely clothed. Could still have a sexual component to it. So with that. With that possible sexual component, I don't think that we can completely rule out the idea of a complete stranger, a complete pervert stranger, carrying out this homicide.

[The Captain]

All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Onward and upward. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

Cheers, Captain. It's getting hot here in the garage. Colonel's getting hot tub. Colonel's getting angry and worked up here. Now.

[The Captain]

Now this is a. It's. These are difficult because again, a setup job for who? For a hired killer or just, let's have a mail call. But who's waiting there for her? Her husband, I would think that he.

[Nick]

Couldn'T have been there. We know that to be fact. Right. We know 100% he was at work at the time that she was murdered. Right, right.

[The Captain]

But I was just trying to point out, like, I have a male caller and then a female real estate agent that has some kind of beef with her. I would think, because this is such a possibility, that there would be some rumors of possible infidelity in. In her relationship and Charlotte's relationship with her husband.

[Nick]

So I did catch some wind of those rumors, but none of that comes from any of the newspapers or any of what I would consider to be trusted sources. None of it ever comes from police. From my understanding that those rumors might have been office talk, office gossip. There. There are people that expand on that a little bit that say that he suspected her of having an affair, and she was adamant that she was not having an affair. There are other people that say that the office gossip was that she might have been romantically seeing a client or maybe another agent. I mean, if you were to have an affair, this would be a line of work that would. Would complement hiding that from your spouse. Right.

[The Captain]

We've all seen American Beauty.

[Nick]

You'd be doing it in every house all over the city.

[The Captain]

Maybe you would be pervert roundup, but here.

[Nick]

And who knows? Maybe there is some truth to those rumors, but maybe there's not. Again, I don't. I wouldn't say that any of those rumors are coming from trusted sources.

[The Captain]

A quick way to push somebody into having an affair has constantly accused them of having an affair when they're not having an affair.

[Nick]

Well, there's some weird. Again, there's a lot of weird stuff about this case, and I haven't got to the weirdest of it all. But the one weird thing too, is the. The couple, the Fimiano had just moved into what was kind of like a life goal for them. They had Moved into a new home six weeks or eight weeks before she's killed. They bought a piece of land and had a whole, a custom home built on that piece of land. And they had her daughter, his stepdaughter. Again, I want to be very clear about this. There's no indication that this guy was a bad husband or a bad stepfather. And I know that. I said, well, maybe he ordered a hit on his wife. Yeah, I get it. But everything that I've seen and reviewed. But listen for a second, I want. That's what I'm going out of my way to point this out, because I'm saying that there are details of the case that lead you to that theory time and time again. There's nothing in his personality that leads you to that theory. His personality. From my understanding, Captain, this man passed away in 2014 and maintained a very close relationship with his stepdaughter up until the day died. And not only close relationship, keep in mind, she and her. I believe it was even her fiance was living with the Fimianos at the time of Charlotte's death.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And I believe that his stepdaughter and fiance, then turned husband lived with him for several years after Charlotte was murdered.

[The Captain]

And look, this guy was a successful guy, so he's no dummy. And, but, and I say that because when your wife is murdered, of course law enforcement is going to look at you. You should expect that. I think it's the ones that fight that. And it doesn't seem like this individual fought that at all. It seems like at every turn that the family was cooperative with law enforcement. When law enforcement is tight lipped, you're going to get more rumors and more speculation. That just happens in these cases.

[Nick]

And everything that police said along the way is that the family was extremely cooperative with their investigation.

[The Captain]

And I believe he's the only individual, the husband is the only individual that they cleared publicly.

[Nick]

Correct. And now here's. Here's the weirdest and strangest of the details. And this is what circles back to what I was talking about earlier. The fact that we have several people come forward, very trusted sources, saying that Charlotte returned to the office, then received another phone call and then went back to the property. Now, to be clear, if she was running around on her husband, she may not have been at that property in the first place. And these calls could be. There could be a more mysterious element to them. Maybe she's lying about her whereabouts. Maybe she's lying about who she talked to, her comings and goings. Right. That would stand to Reason if she is having a secret affair. But let's push that completely aside and go down this road. There is a source out there that says, and I'm throwing out a buyer beware here on this, on this information. But I also don't have any. Even though I've not been able to confirm it, double triple check it. I don't really have any reason to doubt the information either, or the source. The information is that now we have two phone calls that police were going to be concerned about. The one setting up the appointment for the next day, which would be the day of the murder, and then the one that she receives when she returns saying, oh, that person stood me up, never showed up at the meeting. I came back. And then gets another phone call and goes back out. This source says that police attempted to locate where those calls came from and that they could not determine the source of the first call, but they did the second call. Now, this is going to be pretty simple when I lay it out for you. The second call, they traced it back to a pay phone at a local mall. And it's my understanding that in 1997, where this phone was, this pay phone, it was across the street within viewing distance of the real estate office that Charlotte worked at. Now, that's strange. Are going through all these other previous homicide cases that we've covered. We can, we can fill in some of the blanks for you here. If you've not listened to all 690 episodes of our wonderful garage coverage. We know that, that these are not cell phones. You know, nowadays we talk about DNA solving murder cases. Cell phones are solving just as many murder cases, if not more than DNA. That's because the phone can track you. They can track the victim, they can trace the victim, they can trace the communications with the victim, with the. In some cases, with the murderer. 1997, not so many cell phones out there. But what they can determine is we know that back then that they could easily find a location of a call if there was, if there was billing involved, if it was not going to be a free call. Well, the payphone obviously is not a free call. Somebody. Somebody dropped a quarter into the slot and called the real estate office, spoke to Charlotte and said, you know what? I was running late. And according to that source, it came from that payphone at that mall across the street from the real estate office. The first call, they couldn't track it. Why? Because it probably came from a residential location in that same area code where there was no long distance calling needed. So for Me, there is added problems with that, that situation.

[The Captain]

Learn how to speak, please.

[Nick]

Because when we look at these cases, don't we usually try to determine when we have an unknown perpetrator? We try to apply the evidence and the facts as they were to see and get, gather if we can get some insights into the killer and if they have any criminal sophistication. To me, this, at first, at first glance, I thought this is potentially showing some signs of criminal sophistication. However, I think, I think there's two sides to that coin. Captain, I think with this situation, you one could go, you know what? I don't know any better. I don't know if they can track that call yesterday to my house. But what I do know is there's probably, if they can, if they can track calls, make it. Let's not show up to the appointment and let's make a second call from somewhere else. And then that way if, at least, if they trace the first call to me, at the very least, that they're going to have another call with another appointment that moves them. They can't completely hone in on me because there's another call with another appointment. So it's a weird situation where it could be a default reaction to, oh, shit, I used my home phone number to call this lady. Or it could be, I know what I'm doing and let's make a, a second call. This case again is all screwy and, and all funny and fascinating and weird. You reference red light case. This is a bang my head against the desk case.

[The Captain]

Yeah, because on there's so many possibilities.

[Nick]

There's roads that lead you to a stranger. There's roads that lead you to a competitor that may have wanted to offer because she's so successful taking business from them. And then there's roads that lead you back to her husband. Or if she is having an affair, maybe to the person she's having an affair with.

[The Captain]

Yeah. Let's just go through this very slowly. A guy has a fantasy of killing a woman. He finds a remote location, he calls, he meets her out there, he kills her. Or there's a female, hey, she's having an affair with this lady's husband. She has a male call. The woman meets her out there, kills her, or hires a hit, the husband hires a hit and has the killer call. Or like you said, she's having an affair. And the guy, the phone call in general was a phony phone call and she knew it was a phony phone call. I mean, there's so many Possibilities, I think because of the strangulation and the shots. It's almost like the shots were like to make sure that she was dead.

[Nick]

Well, a couple of thoughts that I have on if it were. If she were targeted or not. Right. Because if it was a stranger, then you would believe that, that she's probably not targeted. If it were a perfect stranger, she's probably not targeted. But then again, how perfect could the stranger be? They weren't able to trace the first call, so that came within her area code. But, but here's the thing. If, if somebody wanted to target her but make it look like she wasn't targeted, somebody that knew her schedule or had a general feel for how that opera. That operation, the. The office operated, where they put people on the phones on a rotation to take these cold calls and to take the walk ins. Somebody may know that information, especially somebody she works with.

[The Captain]

I'd like to know too, especially her husband. I'd like to know if there was any male walk ins that day because.

[Nick]

What. Go ahead.

[The Captain]

I'm sorry, I was going to say because most of the time the killer has a vision of their victim. And so by the calls being traced back to a payphone that's really close to their office, it makes some sense. I'm just going to go in the office and see which girls are working today and. Okay, well, this one will do. Well, there's a payphone across the street. I'll go make the call and set up the appointment there. They're not going to assume that it's the same person. Why wouldn't I just made the appointment while I was there? Well, because I don't want that appointment traced back to me. So I wonder if there's any walk ins that day.

[Nick]

There's a couple things that I want to know and I think that the police probably know the answer to at least one of these questions. I do know that her husband for in 1997. I do know that he did own a cell phone, which is not common in 1997. Now, we do know that they traced the one call that came in via the pay phone or, or at least that source tells us that they did. I wonder, all of those calls on his cell phone would have been billed. Did they, did they do a background check on his call log for that cell phone?

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

That would be interesting. I don't care so much about the walk ins. I understand why you, you would want to know and other people would want to know. Here's what I want to know. We know that Two people were manning the phones that week. If you were to target Charlotte, Right. If I'm setting up a hit, here's what I need. I need my hitman to arrange a meeting with my target, with my hit. But I want to muddy the waters and. And not create a trail from the target to my hitman to me. Right? How could I do that? Well, if I have an understanding of how that office operates, that works, right away, the people that would have that knowledge would be people that work there or people close to people that work there and her husband. So if I know that my target is going to be one of two people manning the phones that week, is it as simple as having my hitman call and go? Because here's. Here's typically what happens, especially. Look, customer service ain't what it used to be, my friend. I don't care who you are, but. But. Or where you're from. It ain't what it used to be. But back in the day, 1997, I can G. I would wager Franklin, you love it when I wager Franklin's. I'm down like 900 Franklin now. Yeah, I wager a Franklin that 1997. 90% of the time, when somebody answers a call at that real estate office for these cold calls, when they're put on the desk that week, they go, thank you for calling True crime garage Real estate office. This is the crispy Colonel. How may I direct your call? This is the crispy Colonel. How can I help you? And guess what? If your target is Charlotte, all your hitman has to do if she doesn't pick up the phone is click, click. As soon as that other lady who's answering the phones or some guy that might have answered the phone that day, if it's a guy's voice, easy hang up. That's not your target. If someone picks up the phone, says, this is Sharon, how can I help you? Well, Sharon's not your target. Click, and you call back later, you got a 50, 50 shot of getting Charlotte on the phone if you know the operations of that office for that week. I cannot get past the fact that I. I don't know who hired the hit. I think this was absolutely a hit. I don't think it was a stranger crime. I think that there's too many connecting factors. I think that the stranger would have to know too much. And the reason why I think it's a hit is I think that Charlotte was too smart that I think she would have recognized, you know, how someone from her office calls, how do they disguise their voice? 50 people in that office. Yeah. You're not going to maybe know everyone's voice on the phone, but. But it, it seems unlikely. And here's why I say hit too. They say, and we hear this all the time in homicides, but here, especially in this, in this case, gunshot wounds, ligature strangulation, and oftentimes the coroner will tell us both could have caused the death. Well, both could have caused the death, but both didn't cause the death. One of them caused the death. And guess, guess what is the absolute weapon most of the time? A gun. The gun caused her death. I think this shows signs of a hit because I think that the guy showed up with the intention of going to a secluded place in a vacant house one on one, and when he confirmed that she was there by herself, he went in for the kill with the strangulation. And what do we know and what have we said a hundred times on the show? Killers have told us it is surprisingly difficult at times to strangle someone to death. She could have come to. And he decided, I don't care if this gets loud. I got to make sure that I do what I was sent here to do. And I think that that's when the gun come, came into play.

[The Captain]

Yeah, or even so, it's strangulation first and then like I said before, the gunshots are just to make sure that there's no chance that she's surviving the strangulation.

[Nick]

And sometimes we like to give a little homework out there. If anybody can find like a real, true, very good source that backs up the information that police. And we're talking, I want this from like a local newspaper, a statement coming from the police, the investigating agency, a detective or the state police saying, we traced that second call to a pay phone. Because if that information is incorrect, that changes. That's a game changer right there. So if anybody can, can send us a link to that, hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, or put it on our blog on true crimegarage.com that's information that we need to know. This case is incredibly interesting. There's a lot of, a lot of problems and a lot of puzzle pieces missing from this case. We want to hear what you think and what your thoughts are. We also want to remind you that there is still a reward for information in this case. Now, we talked about the real estate office offering up 100 grand back in the day, that from my understanding, that reward is no longer available. I mean, it was 26 years ago, but from what I could find here. Captain this is dated December 16, 2021. The Pennsylvania State Police continues their investigation into the homicide of 40 year old Charlotte Fimiano. Charlotte Fimiano, an agent with Weiker Realtors, failed to return home after showing a home to an unknown client on September 11, 1997. It was determined that her last destination was a vacant home for sale at 2147 Chelsea Lane, Heller Town, Lower Sockham Township. Northampton County Law enforcement discovered her body in the vacant home during the early morning hours of 9:12, 1997. Charlotte had been strangled and shot to death. Anyone with information on this case is asked to anonymously contact the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers toll free at 1-800-4PA tips. That's 1, 800-4PA 8477.

[The Captain]

I want to thank everybody so much for joining us here in the garage for everything True crime. Check out truecrimegarage.com Col. Do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week?

[Nick]

Captain we're going to recommend that everybody go out and listen and consume as many podcasts as they possibly can. It's fall time. For most of us. That means kids are back in school, football starting up, kids sports are starting up. Everybody's running around crazy busy. But you know what? Keep your earballs entertained with some podcast and we've been recommending several over the past week to two weeks. And just a quick reminder here off the record, that is brought to you by True Crime Garage every other week. And plus we have a bunch of extra episodes on there as well. If you've not checked it out yet, you can check it out now on Patreon. And for Apple listeners, you can subscribe on Apple Podcast and you can also get a little bit of a free trial on there if you just want to dip your toe in the waters. We've also recommended Mary and Bill, an Ohio cold case podcast. Check that one out. We've recommended the Prosecutor's podcast and if you want complete and total nonsense in your life, which we all need a little touch of that, we got two good ones for you. There's the Captain and Morgan podcast and there's also the Big Kid show podcast that you will find one of us and maybe sometimes both of us on those shows. So check all of those out. If you want something good to read, go to true crimegarage.com click on the recommended page and we got lots of book titles there for you.

[The Captain]

And until next week, be good, be.

[Nick]

Kind, and don't live sa.