Loading summary
Transcript37 lines
- [00:02]
Carolyn Osorio
Lemonade. Have you ever come across a story that just won't let you go? Hi, I'm Carolyn Osorio, and I'd like to tell you about my new podcast, Stolen Voices of Dole Valley. I started investigating after I heard the incredible account of a woman who survived a kidnapping by a serial killer, a predator I'd never heard of before diving into this case. Her courage to share her experience left a deep mark on me. When I learned the police didn't believe her story, I got angry. My anger turned to outrage when I learned more young women were killed after her escape because police not only dismissed her, but didn't investigate. Years later, other missing and murdered young women would be attributed to this same killer. Stolen Voices of Dole Valley is dedicated to telling their stories, shining a light on the injustice they faced, and following the ongoing fight to secure the justice they deserve. I invite you to listen to this powerful clip from our very first episode. Welcome to Stolen Voices of Dole Valley. This series contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence. Throughout, listener discretion is advised.
- [01:50]
Starr
Rope.
- [01:52]
Carolyn Osorio
To look at it, it's what something so simp that we probably hardly ever think about it in our daily lives. Strands of plant fiber braided together into a thicker, stronger string. But really, it's so much more. Now you might be thinking, why in a podcast series about a Washington state serial killer am I discussing rope? Because when that predator decided to bind 15 year old Norma Jean Countryman, he failed to realize that one young girl's will to live was stronger than the individual fibers that made up his bindings. It was July of 1974, and teenage Norma was faced with a situation few among us will ever have to contend with. She had been abducted by a killer, tightly bound in an impossible web of coarse rope wrapped around her ankles and wrists. And she'd been strung up between two trees. And the question was then, before her, what was she willing to do to survive? Norma's day before she was faced with this question had started out just like any other summer day. It was the afternoon and she'd been killing time, smoking a cigarette on the side of the road in Ridgefield, a rural town north of Portland just over the Washington border. You might be wondering why Norma was sitting on the side of the road smoking alone. Well, the truth is, she didn't have many friends. She was lonely and vulnerable. It was a little after five in the afternoon that day as Norma smoked and watched cars whiz past without even a hint towards acknowledging her existence. But then everything changed in an instant, with brake lights A blue van made a U turn and doubled back and passed her. Driving slowly. The young man behind the wheel gave her a look that caused Norma's heart to beat faster. Especially as he made another U turn in his sky blue 1973 Ford Econoline van and rolled up right next to Norma. The stranger was handsome. He had light brown, shoulder length hair and a mustache. He offered her a ride home. At first Norma refused. But when he asked again in a split second decision, she accepted his offer and climbed up into the killer's van. But he never took her home. He kept driving, then pulled over, saying he had to go to the bathroom. When he returned to the van, he pulled a knife on Norma, then tightly bound her wrists and ankles with rope. He cut off her bra and shoved it in her mouth as a gag and wrapped rope across her mouth to muffle her screams. Then he carried her deep into the woods of southern Washington State. State. Once arrived at his preferred location, he strung her between two trees in the wilderness like a human hammock. Here's 15 year old Norma describing her abduction.
- [06:07]
Norma Jean Countryman
And he tied it around another tree and pulled it tight so I could hardly breathe. Then he. He hit me real hard where I almost blacked out. And he told me that he was going to wait out there and I didn't know how long he was going to wait. And if I made any fuss but he'd come back from what he just gave me was a sample was being mild compared to what I would get.
- [06:28]
Carolyn Osorio
And then after threatening her not to move or make any noise, the man disappeared and left Norma dangling. And the question became, what was she willing to do to survive? What could she do? Here's Norma today describing what she had to do at 15 to get free of her bindings, pushing with my heels.
- [07:00]
Norma Jean Countryman
To get closer to the tree and I could get close enough that I could turn my head and I would use my front teeth to saw on the rope in my mouth. And in doing it, I was scraping my face on the bark and I was chewing and sawing.
- [07:20]
Carolyn Osorio
She managed to chew through the rope which was so tight against her skin that she had to chew through part of her own lip.
- [07:29]
Norma Jean Countryman
And when it broke, I rolled down from the tree, my head rolled down onto the ground and I lay there for a few seconds. And the thing that went through my head was, if he comes back and finds me like this, he really will kill me.
- [07:43]
Carolyn Osorio
She would escape her bonds and the serial killer that day, just barely. But Norma's nightmare was just beginning. Because when she went to police and told them what had happened to her. They didn't believe her story. As a result, she would forever be bound psychologically to this stranger because in her mind, it got twisted somehow. It was her fault that she wasn't believed. It felt like her fault when the stranger went on killing.
- [08:20]
Norma Jean Countryman
And so that's what I lived my life with, was that guilt that I couldn't make him believe me. And so two women were dead and the other woman was a wreck. If only I had been able to make him believe me. Until I find out that he didn't even bother. He didn't even bother to do any kind of investigating after that.
- [08:44]
Carolyn Osorio
The pain and suffering caused by this serial killer is deep and relentless. And 50 years later, the killer has yet to be held fully accountable. There are still so many unanswered questions, so many threads that still need pulling. In part because the evidence proving the man who abducted Norma was a serial killer has only recently come to light. Unbelievably, even with the passage of so much time, there is hope in this case yet. I began the series talking about rope. How alone each of these fibers were weak and breakable. Thankfully, that's what allowed Norma to painstakingly gnaw through each individual strand. Conversely, natural rope, when braided together, forms something powerful. And so it is with this case. At the time these crimes were happening, there was Norma who wasn't believed, witnesses who weren't properly interviewed, and evidence that was lost or misplaced. In many ways, this is a bizarre and unbelievable story. But when you weave together the individual strands, stories of the victims, families, survivors and witnesses, the strength of these stories becomes undeniable. Retired Clark County Sheriff's office detective Doug Mass.
- [10:34]
Doug Mass
I love the strands on the rope story. I don't think we'd be here if you hadn't been doing this. I don't know whether just harping on the prosecutor and sheriff, we would have been enough. Everyone's feeling like this is the big deal that we say it is and it coming at them from multiple directions. So hang in there with us.
- [10:52]
Carolyn Osorio
Trust me, we're not going anywhere. I'm your host, Carolyn Osorio. You're listening to Stolen Voices of Dole Valley, Episode one, the Ties that Bind. I'm a Seattle journalist, and when I heard about Norma Jean's incredible story of survival, how she'd narrowly escaped a killer and yet was not believed, I got angry. And that prompted me to dig deeper. As I started to peel back the layers of Norma's story, it revealed victim after victim Multiple young women and their ties to one man, a serial predator who made Dole Valley his hunting ground. As I kept digging through boxes of police files and court records, I kept getting angrier. These women and girls were not only discarded, but in many cases, forgotten. The police investigations bungled in some instances. If not for the work of dedicated women, a sister, a survivor and an investigator, these files would still be collecting dust. Because of their actions and others who would join them, a cold case unit is active again. I would learn that this story doesn't begin with Norma Jean. Countrymen, trust me, we'll get to Norma later in the series. But to truly understand the weight of this story, we have to start at the beginning with a girl named Jamie Grissom. 16 year old Jamie disappeared three years before Norma was abducted.
- [12:57]
Starr
My first name is Starr with two Rs. My last name Laura L A R A Jamie was my sister. Jamie Griffin.
- [13:08]
Carolyn Osorio
Starr and her older sister Jamie were essentially Irish twins, 13 months apart. Starr was three and Jamie was four when they became wards of the state. Their father was in prison, their mother in the throes of mental illness.
- [13:26]
Starr
They found us living in a car with her and she had said that she was waiting for the FBI because there was a gang after her and she had schizophrenia was what it was.
- [13:39]
Carolyn Osorio
Over the years, the girls would move from foster home to foster home. There were some kindnesses punctuated by Dickensian style abuse.
- [13:51]
Starr
She primarily wanted us there for free labor.
- [13:55]
Carolyn Osorio
When they became eligible for adoption at the ages of 8 and 9, they made an oath to each other to stay together no matter what. But that wasn't in their control.
- [14:09]
Starr
And Jamie and I had a pact, you know, we would never be adopted separately. And they had sent us to one home and they decided girls cried too much was what they said. So we went to two different homes.
- [14:26]
Carolyn Osorio
In the summer of 1971, after being separated for a year, Star and Jamie went to live with a woman named Grace at her farmhouse in Minnehaha, a rural neighborhood outside of Vancouver, Washington. The girls had lived with Grace twice before, but those had been temporary placements. Grace was older and had a weak heart. Even though Grace was a little gruff, she welcomed the girls into her home.
- [14:56]
Starr
She cooked fried chicken, mashed potatoes. Every night we would have cornbread with dinner.
- [15:04]
Carolyn Osorio
Grace's farmhouse was about two and a half miles from town, surrounded by nearby cattle and sheep farms. The girls loved walking to Oscar's convenience store to buy penny candy.
- [15:16]
Starr
We'd walk down to the little store and they had like these. We called Them moondrops, they were chocolate. Inside, they'd be different colors, like one would be pink.
- [15:25]
Carolyn Osorio
The sisters began to feel hopeful. At long last, with Grace, they were together and they dared to envision a bright future. They had no way of knowing that a predator was lurking nearby. When you found that out, how far away or how close was he to Grace's house?
- [15:51]
Starr
Less than two miles. And when you think of how remote it was, that's pretty close. You know, back then, two miles was nothing, you know, just like Jamie walked to school and that was like two and a half miles. And we walked past that a lot, you know, that home.
- [16:13]
Carolyn Osorio
On December 7, 1971, the girls awoke to a winter wonderland. A late autumn storm had left a blanket of snow covering the countryside. But this snow was the beginning of a brutally cold winter that dug in and held fast. Frigid temperatures and a historic level of snowfall. That morning, Jamie and her sister Star had woken up early to wrap Christmas presents before school while their foster mother Grace was still in bed.
- [16:48]
Starr
You know, it was around Christmas time, so we'd been wrapping presents that morning and she did the whole purling of the ribbons and stuff and we were sitting there talking and I remember what she was wearing.
- [17:04]
Carolyn Osorio
16 year old Jamie wore blue jeans, a red and white striped blouse with puffy sleeves, and white canvas tennis shoes with the words peace and love she'd written on the sides.
- [17:17]
Starr
I remember sitting across from her and yeah, you know, it comes to mind her beautiful eyes. You know, she had the most beautiful brown eyes.
- [17:30]
Carolyn Osorio
Starr was still in junior high, but Jamie was a freshman at Fort Vancouver High School, which meant she had to leave for school first. But right after she left, she came back.
- [17:43]
Starr
It was a very cold day. You know how when you breathe out you can see your breath was in the 20s. And after a few minutes she comes back in and, and I said, why are you back in? She said, well, it's so cold out there. And she said, I came to check on Grace. And she had a bad heart. So she went in and checked her.
- [18:02]
Carolyn Osorio
As she left again, Jamie told Star to remind their foster mother she'd be home from school early.
- [18:09]
Starr
She says, star, be sure until Grace and I'm walking her from school. I'll be home between 1 and 1:30.
- [18:17]
Carolyn Osorio
Jamie made it to school that morning, but she never made it back home. When Star got back to the house and saw that Jamie wasn't there, she was immediately concerned. It wasn't like her sister not to come home, especially when she made an extra point for her to tell Grace that she'd be there at around 1 o'. Clock.
- [18:42]
Starr
I got back between 3:30 and 4 from junior high and I noticed Jamie wasn't there and I said, where's Jamie? She told me she'd be home between 1 and 1:30. She wanted me to be sure and tell you I said something's not right.
- [19:01]
Carolyn Osorio
That day, Star sat glued to a chair in front of Grace's bed. Big picture window with a direct view of the road, watching, waiting for Jamie to come down. She tried to ignore her thumping heart and the knots twisting in her stomach. Children who've experienced trauma know real trouble when it comes because they haven't had the luxury to be shielded from it. So Star knew down to the marrow of her body bones that something horrible had happened or was happening to her sister right then, the person that she loved most in the world. Star didn't believe Grace when she told her it was going to be okay. She waited by the window staring out at the growing snow. As the sun set. That night at 10:45pm p.m. jamie and Star's social worker went to the Clark County Sheriff's Office to report Jamie missing. That night the deputy on duty filed a quote, complaint report. Under the nature of the complaint he typed, quote, signed runaway. According to Starr, the social worker was told that evening Jamie couldn't be officially reported as a missing person until she'd been gone for 30 days and that the social worker was very angry, insisting that Jamie was in danger, that she had not run away. I wrote an email to retired Clark County Detective Doug Mass. I asked him what the policy was back then when it came to reporting a missing person. Doug wrote back that the 30 day law relates to the waiting period before entering the person as officially missing into the national and state missing person system. He said there was no law that specified a waiting period for the local agency to take and file the report locally. Bottom line, no one from law enforcement went looking for Jamie that night or in the days or months following her disappearance. Star told police that her sister would never abandon her. She tried to tell them their theory that Jamie was a runaway didn't even make sense. Jamie had worked all summer to put $80 in her bank account, equivalent to more than $600 today. If she were running away, wouldn't she have withdrawn the money first? But Star couldn't get them to listen. Thanks for listening to this clip from Episode one. If you look up Stolen Voices of Dol Valley on your podcast app, you will find the rest of the episode and another full episode you can listen to right now. Follow Stolen Voices of Dole Valley now so you won't miss an episode.