WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Christina Pipkin Part 2 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:16.005 School of Humans. On May fourth, nineteen ninety one, nine 0:00:16.085 --> 0:00:19.045 year old Christina Pipkin was selling jewelry door to door 0:00:19.285 --> 0:00:22.805 for a school fundraiser in her hometown of Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. 0:00:23.445 --> 0:00:26.485 Christina was supposed to be home before dark, but she 0:00:26.605 --> 0:00:30.685 never made it back. Her parents, Freda and James frantically 0:00:30.685 --> 0:00:33.885 looked for her. They called friends and volunteers and scoured 0:00:33.885 --> 0:00:37.885 the area, but found no signs of Christina. This little 0:00:37.885 --> 0:00:41.725 girl seemed to have vanished into thin air. They got 0:00:41.725 --> 0:00:44.245 an answer, but it wasn't the answer they were hoping for. 0:00:45.045 --> 0:00:49.405 Three days later, on May seventh, nineteen ninety one, Christina 0:00:49.445 --> 0:00:53.685 Pipkins's body was found floating in cow Lake Ditch. Almost 0:00:53.765 --> 0:00:59.205 twenty three years later, this case is still unsolved. I'm 0:00:59.285 --> 0:01:02.685 Catherine Townsend. If you have a case you'd like me 0:01:02.725 --> 0:01:05.085 and my team to look into, you can reach out 0:01:05.085 --> 0:01:07.525 to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six 0:01:07.565 --> 0:01:13.885 seven eight seven four four six one four five. This 0:01:14.085 --> 0:02:06.805 is Helen Gone Murder Line. By the way. As you 0:02:06.845 --> 0:02:08.965 can tell, I've been talking to a lot of people 0:02:09.005 --> 0:02:11.165 this week, so I've lost my voice a little bit. 0:02:11.285 --> 0:02:15.805 Please excuse me. I'm in Hickory Ridge, for a meeting 0:02:15.805 --> 0:02:19.085 with Amy Tubbs, who, as I mentioned in the last episode, 0:02:19.125 --> 0:02:22.165 is married to Robbie Tubbs Junior. She's the daughter in 0:02:22.245 --> 0:02:24.805 law of Robbie Tubbs Senior, who is a suspect in 0:02:24.885 --> 0:02:29.165 Christina's murder. Back in the nineties, Robbie was arrested and 0:02:29.205 --> 0:02:32.605 he was charged with Christina Pipkins's murder, but as we 0:02:32.645 --> 0:02:35.885 said in the last episode, he was released after there 0:02:35.925 --> 0:02:39.765 was a mistake with the DNA testing. The prosecutor, Fletcher Long, 0:02:40.325 --> 0:02:43.525 admitted that instead of testing hair from a vehicle once 0:02:43.565 --> 0:02:47.365 owned by Robbie Tubbs, law enforcement tested the wrong hair, 0:02:48.525 --> 0:02:51.365 and then when they tried to correct that error, they 0:02:51.405 --> 0:02:53.845 said that there wasn't enough DNA on the hair that 0:02:53.925 --> 0:02:57.805 was inside Robbie Tubb's car to test. I still wonder 0:02:58.765 --> 0:03:03.125 is that hair still around and with today's technology, could 0:03:03.125 --> 0:03:06.485 it be retested that. It's just one of the many 0:03:06.605 --> 0:03:09.525 questions we're going to be asking as we investigate this case. 0:03:11.645 --> 0:03:15.285 Amy said that since she started dating her husband, they've 0:03:15.325 --> 0:03:18.885 never really had contact with his father, Robbie Senor. She 0:03:19.005 --> 0:03:22.045 said she's heard that Robbie Senior has a criminal background 0:03:22.605 --> 0:03:25.405 and that he's in her words, and not a great guy, 0:03:26.085 --> 0:03:28.965 but as she pointed out, that's quite a different thing 0:03:29.005 --> 0:03:32.365 from being a child killer. Amy wanted to know if 0:03:32.485 --> 0:03:36.485 Robbie Senor was capable of committing this horrific crime. She 0:03:36.805 --> 0:03:39.485 is clear, if he is the right person, he needs 0:03:39.525 --> 0:03:42.125 to be charged, and if it's someone else, we need 0:03:42.165 --> 0:03:44.165 to figure out who they are and where they are. 0:03:45.205 --> 0:03:49.285 Either way, charging a suspect and then having those charges 0:03:49.325 --> 0:03:53.725 fall apart and seeing the person you believe is guilty released. 0:03:54.285 --> 0:03:56.645 As I've said for a long time, this should not 0:03:56.725 --> 0:03:59.645 be a stopping point for law enforcement. Either you need 0:03:59.685 --> 0:04:03.085 to get more evidence on your suspect, or you need 0:04:03.125 --> 0:04:09.405 to find the right person to charge. Amy and our 0:04:09.485 --> 0:04:12.485 meeting in Hickory Ridge in the morning. There's really only 0:04:12.565 --> 0:04:15.605 one place in town, the only coffee shop for miles, 0:04:15.885 --> 0:04:18.925 Cafe forty nine. How do you get around the not 0:04:19.005 --> 0:04:23.525 being an Arkansas resident? Jazz so Amy and I are 0:04:23.565 --> 0:04:26.725 catching up. We've had some exciting developments. Both of our 0:04:26.805 --> 0:04:30.005 Foyer requests were granted, so we now have access to 0:04:30.045 --> 0:04:33.685 the entire Christina Pipkin case file, all two hundred pages 0:04:33.725 --> 0:04:37.165 of it. That's the good news. The bad news is 0:04:37.165 --> 0:04:40.325 that there is no audio of the original interviews, and 0:04:40.485 --> 0:04:44.005 there are no photos. The Arkansas State Police have also 0:04:44.125 --> 0:04:46.845 not released the autopsy report. It's not part of the 0:04:46.885 --> 0:04:52.565 case file. There are also almost no transcripts, so all 0:04:52.605 --> 0:04:56.525 we have of the police interviews are these short type pages. 0:04:57.005 --> 0:05:01.565 Presumably they were taken from notes and then transcribed. Since 0:05:01.605 --> 0:05:04.125 I have a lot of experience with case files, I 0:05:04.205 --> 0:05:07.285 want to verify every thing ourselves. I want to get 0:05:07.285 --> 0:05:10.205 in touch with everyone we can who isn't dead and 0:05:10.365 --> 0:05:13.765 is willing to talk. We've come here to East Arkansas 0:05:13.805 --> 0:05:15.845 to see if there was anyone around who was there 0:05:15.845 --> 0:05:18.725 on the day Christina went missing. This could be our 0:05:18.765 --> 0:05:23.445 only hope for getting new information. Would I'll take one more. 0:05:25.325 --> 0:05:29.045 Amy brought Denise, who describes herself as an amateur sleuth 0:05:29.045 --> 0:05:30.925 who's been working on the case for a long time. 0:05:31.685 --> 0:05:33.765 Denise has also brought a friend who says she just 0:05:33.845 --> 0:05:36.405 wants to be in the background. She spends her time 0:05:36.485 --> 0:05:40.085 as Denise's sidekick, helping her find addresses and get into 0:05:40.085 --> 0:05:43.325 contact with people. After we get our coffee, we start 0:05:43.405 --> 0:05:45.685 talking to some other people in the cafe. Was that 0:05:45.685 --> 0:05:48.805 the little girl? She's found it in a ditch right 0:05:48.845 --> 0:05:51.565 out here? Yeah? Yeah, I think I wat. I mean 0:05:51.685 --> 0:05:53.805 this was this happened before I was born, And now 0:05:53.885 --> 0:05:57.325 what I heard was that her stepdad had drowned her. 0:05:57.325 --> 0:06:01.245 And now she said that she heard Christina's stepdad had 0:06:01.285 --> 0:06:03.685 drowned her. That was one of the rumors We've been 0:06:03.685 --> 0:06:06.605 hearing a lot, that someone in Christstina's family did this 0:06:06.605 --> 0:06:09.325 to her and then there was a cover up. Some 0:06:09.365 --> 0:06:12.685 people have blamed Christina's mom, others her dad. Some people 0:06:12.685 --> 0:06:15.685 have even mentioned a step dad, even though that would 0:06:15.685 --> 0:06:19.165 be impossible since Christina didn't even have a stepfather. But 0:06:21.445 --> 0:06:24.085 I've heard that story. I've heard that story too. Yeah, 0:06:24.125 --> 0:06:25.765 I heard that story too, But no, she didn't have 0:06:25.805 --> 0:06:29.765 a step bead. This is just one of many versions 0:06:29.885 --> 0:06:32.445 of rumors that have been flying around town since Christina 0:06:32.485 --> 0:06:36.685 went missing. The woman we talked to brought her mom over, 0:06:36.885 --> 0:06:38.885 and her mom knew a lot. She said she was 0:06:38.925 --> 0:06:40.565 in high school at the time and was part of 0:06:40.605 --> 0:06:45.045 the search party. I just I remember searching the town. 0:06:46.445 --> 0:06:48.005 It's heard that she didn't just go on door to 0:06:48.085 --> 0:06:52.805 door selling something for school. Just we searched for days 0:06:52.805 --> 0:06:55.885 and days and days and days. She mentioned another rumor 0:06:55.885 --> 0:06:57.965 that I've heard a lot of that the reason she 0:06:58.085 --> 0:07:01.765 believed someone in Christina's family did. This was because apparently 0:07:02.285 --> 0:07:04.885 no water from the ditch where Christina's body was found 0:07:04.925 --> 0:07:07.565 was found in her lungs. He had chlorinated, so it 0:07:07.605 --> 0:07:09.885 had to have come from a bathtub or something there 0:07:09.925 --> 0:07:12.685 about this led them to believe she had been drowned 0:07:12.725 --> 0:07:14.925 in a bathtub and then taken out there and dumped. 0:07:18.485 --> 0:07:20.685 This is one of those rumors we can shut down 0:07:20.805 --> 0:07:23.725 right now because even though we didn't get the actual 0:07:23.765 --> 0:07:26.525 autopsy report as part of the case file, we did 0:07:26.565 --> 0:07:28.925 get some documents that refer to interviews with a medical 0:07:28.965 --> 0:07:32.405 examiner and to forensic testing that was done on Christina's body. 0:07:33.165 --> 0:07:36.205 The results of those tests showed that the water and 0:07:36.325 --> 0:07:39.725 mud in Christina Pipkins's lungs matched the water from Cow 0:07:39.845 --> 0:07:42.405 Lake Ditch, the body of water where she was found. 0:07:43.485 --> 0:07:46.085 We also learned from the case file that Fammi Malick 0:07:46.125 --> 0:07:49.365 did the autopsy because one of the investigators put a 0:07:49.405 --> 0:07:51.925 report in the case file. He talked about meeting with 0:07:52.005 --> 0:07:55.885 doctor Malick to discuss some of his conclusions. I've talked 0:07:55.925 --> 0:07:59.725 a lot about doctor Malick's controversial history on previous podcasts. 0:08:00.445 --> 0:08:03.205 He was the medical examiner in Arkansas who was found 0:08:03.285 --> 0:08:05.925 to have botched hundreds of autopsies back in the eighties 0:08:05.965 --> 0:08:10.165 and nineties. In fact, the time period when he did 0:08:10.245 --> 0:08:14.325 Christina's autopsy was not long before he was forced into retirement. 0:08:16.285 --> 0:08:19.525 But for the moment, until we're proven otherwise, we're going 0:08:19.605 --> 0:08:21.965 to take the information that we get about the autopsy 0:08:22.125 --> 0:08:27.125 at face value. Doctor Malik indicated there was obvious decomposition. 0:08:27.845 --> 0:08:30.005 We knew she had been in the water for three days. 0:08:30.645 --> 0:08:33.845 He also said there were no signs of strangulation. He 0:08:33.885 --> 0:08:36.565 said he had X rayed Christina's body from the outside 0:08:36.605 --> 0:08:39.365 and from the inside. He said he could find no 0:08:39.485 --> 0:08:44.125 stab wounds, no obvious cuts of bruises, and there was 0:08:44.245 --> 0:08:47.765 water and mud found in Christina's stomach, water that matched 0:08:47.925 --> 0:08:52.205 the water from the ditch. Doctor Malik also found pickles 0:08:52.245 --> 0:08:55.805 and carrots and Christina's stomach. We know that Christina ate 0:08:55.845 --> 0:08:58.645 pot pie for lunch that day. We also know that 0:08:58.685 --> 0:09:01.805 Elsie Lyles, her next door neighbor and sometimes a babysitter, 0:09:02.325 --> 0:09:05.205 gave her a pickle as a snack at around four pm. 0:09:06.005 --> 0:09:09.845 The report reads, quote Doctor Malik was emphatic he could 0:09:09.845 --> 0:09:13.005 find no other cause of death other than drowning. End quote. 0:09:14.165 --> 0:09:17.605 But it also says when given the supposition that one 0:09:17.605 --> 0:09:20.845 could smother an individual to the point of unconscious and 0:09:20.885 --> 0:09:24.245 then throw that person into the river, Doctor Mallet could 0:09:24.245 --> 0:09:27.205 make no comment regarding this, but said that this was 0:09:27.245 --> 0:09:30.765 a possibility. In other words, we can't tell from the 0:09:30.805 --> 0:09:33.965 limited information we have whether Christina fell into the water 0:09:34.045 --> 0:09:37.125 on her own or was thrown in there, or whether 0:09:37.165 --> 0:09:40.925 she was conscious at the time, but we can rule 0:09:40.925 --> 0:09:43.325 out the rumor that Christina was drowned at home and 0:09:43.365 --> 0:09:45.245 then taken out to that site where she was dumped 0:09:46.485 --> 0:09:49.685 by the way. Christina's father, James, and everyone else in 0:09:49.725 --> 0:09:54.365 her family cooperated completely with investigators. James Pipkin took and 0:09:54.525 --> 0:09:57.325 passed a light detector test that's part of the case file, 0:09:57.405 --> 0:10:01.445 and he was cleared by law enforcement. I cannot imagine 0:10:01.445 --> 0:10:04.405 the pain of losing a child and then after that 0:10:04.885 --> 0:10:07.325 having people in town either think that you were involved 0:10:07.325 --> 0:10:12.165 somehow or that you were hiding something. Plus James had 0:10:12.165 --> 0:10:14.085 to go through the pain of being asked about his 0:10:14.165 --> 0:10:17.885 marital problems issues he had had previously with his wife Frieda. 0:10:18.445 --> 0:10:23.125 That must have also been a nightmare. But unfortunately, when 0:10:23.205 --> 0:10:26.325 law enforcement is looking through someone's pattern of life, they 0:10:26.405 --> 0:10:28.925 have to know the history of the family members. It's 0:10:28.965 --> 0:10:32.205 all part of solving the puzzle. There have been some 0:10:32.245 --> 0:10:35.085 other rumors in this town that refuse to die, so 0:10:35.125 --> 0:10:36.845 we need to check them out so we can figure 0:10:36.885 --> 0:10:39.725 out what to investigate further and what else to rule out. 0:10:40.765 --> 0:10:43.005 We went to the place where Christina and her family 0:10:43.045 --> 0:10:46.325 lived on Doughty Street. Okay, so this was the Bearcat 0:10:46.405 --> 0:10:49.325 right where apparently everyone in town went that day. There's 0:10:49.365 --> 0:10:52.685 the bank. The alle still runs behind the bank, so 0:10:52.725 --> 0:10:55.165 this whole thing is tiny. Yeah. And there's the tracks 0:10:55.245 --> 0:10:58.445 right there. Yeah. And then there's the little park school. 0:10:58.685 --> 0:11:04.365 All that is back there. This house, no, that house, 0:11:04.405 --> 0:11:07.965 this lot, this lot where there is no more house. 0:11:08.685 --> 0:11:11.965 There's no house there now, just a vacant, overgrown lot 0:11:12.085 --> 0:11:14.765 with a home next door. We have a couple of 0:11:14.805 --> 0:11:17.285 goals here today. First of all, we want to take 0:11:17.285 --> 0:11:19.525 a look at the place where Christina's house was on 0:11:19.605 --> 0:11:22.365 Doty Street and the place where she was last seen, 0:11:22.925 --> 0:11:26.805 the Bearcat grocery store. It's not there anymore now, it's 0:11:26.845 --> 0:11:30.565 a tire shop. Denise is talking me through the streets 0:11:30.565 --> 0:11:33.205 in Christina's neighborhood. So that was her house, and then 0:11:33.365 --> 0:11:35.205 the house they were saying that the backed up on 0:11:35.405 --> 0:11:37.725 her yard would have been that one over there. Maybe, well, 0:11:37.765 --> 0:11:40.405 I think that's something different or is it destroyed now? Maybe? 0:11:40.325 --> 0:11:44.285 Ye see how that's what I'm thinking, and those houses 0:11:44.365 --> 0:11:46.645 might have been the same. But we see from the 0:11:46.645 --> 0:11:49.485 case file that police talked to Christina's mom Frida and 0:11:49.525 --> 0:11:52.925 father James. They discussed what they did on the day 0:11:53.005 --> 0:11:55.965 Christina disappeared in a lot more detail than I've ever seen. 0:11:57.965 --> 0:12:01.005 On Saturday, May fourth, Frida said it started out as 0:12:01.005 --> 0:12:04.125 an ordinary Saturday. Frida went to the post office that 0:12:04.205 --> 0:12:07.245 morning between nine thirty and ten. When she got home, 0:12:07.605 --> 0:12:11.485 Christina and her brother Adam were watching cartoons. Frida said 0:12:11.485 --> 0:12:14.325 she had some coffee with her neighbor Pat Moore. Then 0:12:14.525 --> 0:12:17.725 Pat left. After a few minutes, Frida started cleaning and 0:12:17.765 --> 0:12:21.045 doing laundry because Saturday was wash day. At around eleven 0:12:21.125 --> 0:12:24.365 thirty or twelve, Freda warmed up some pop pies. They 0:12:24.525 --> 0:12:26.485 ate the pop pies, and they had iced tea to drink. 0:12:27.565 --> 0:12:30.205 After lunch, she was hanging clothes out on the line 0:12:30.725 --> 0:12:33.685 when James came out and showed her a picture of 0:12:33.725 --> 0:12:35.365 a used car he had been looking out in the 0:12:35.405 --> 0:12:39.005 local magazine She and James took Christina and Adam and 0:12:39.045 --> 0:12:41.605 they went to Walmart and went They bought a few 0:12:41.605 --> 0:12:45.565 things there for the house. Then they went to Cherry Valley, 0:12:45.885 --> 0:12:49.085 a town about fifteen miles east of Hickory Ridge. They 0:12:49.125 --> 0:12:51.565 looked at the car, a blue Mustang that was parked 0:12:51.565 --> 0:12:54.045 out in the seller's yard. They took a quick look 0:12:54.085 --> 0:12:56.645 at the car, asked about the price, and left there 0:12:56.725 --> 0:13:00.405 around one pm. At some point they stopped at Gaskin's 0:13:00.405 --> 0:13:03.565 grocery store in vandal They bought some pork rines, and 0:13:03.645 --> 0:13:06.485 apparently Christina had a few of the porkskins on the 0:13:06.565 --> 0:13:09.405 ride home, but she didn't really eat a lot of 0:13:09.405 --> 0:13:11.645 them because apparently they were a little bit pink and 0:13:11.765 --> 0:13:15.165 she didn't love the taste. The family got back home, 0:13:15.765 --> 0:13:19.605 Adam and James were hanging out watching TV. Christina played 0:13:19.645 --> 0:13:21.725 with one of Frida's old makeup compacts that she had 0:13:21.725 --> 0:13:25.445 found lying around. James was programming the VCR to tape 0:13:25.485 --> 0:13:27.885 the movie The Hunt for Red October that was airing 0:13:27.885 --> 0:13:31.845 that night. At some point, Christina asked her parents if 0:13:31.845 --> 0:13:33.965 she could go door to door to sell her jewelry. 0:13:34.565 --> 0:13:38.805 She headed out at around four thirty or five PM. 0:13:39.245 --> 0:13:41.365 Now I should say that what's in the case file 0:13:41.485 --> 0:13:44.125 differs from what we've read in the newspapers, because in 0:13:44.165 --> 0:13:46.845 the newspapers it said she asked her dad, James, if 0:13:46.885 --> 0:13:49.165 she could go out. He said no at first, then 0:13:49.205 --> 0:13:51.245 said okay, but you have to be home before dark. 0:13:51.885 --> 0:13:55.365 But in the case file, James said he believed that 0:13:55.485 --> 0:13:58.045 Christina had asked her mother if she could go sell jewelry, 0:13:58.965 --> 0:14:01.685 though he does mention the kids knew not to cross 0:14:01.725 --> 0:14:04.845 over to the other side of the railroad tracks. At 0:14:04.885 --> 0:14:08.365 around seven or seven thirty pm, Frieda realized she still 0:14:08.405 --> 0:14:10.925 needed a few things from the store. She ran up 0:14:10.965 --> 0:14:13.845 to the Bearcat Grocery, a couple of blocks from their house. 0:14:14.805 --> 0:14:17.045 The bear Cat was next to the only bank in town, 0:14:17.205 --> 0:14:20.685 Cross County Bank. The two businesses shared a parking lot. 0:14:21.685 --> 0:14:24.845 At the store, Frida bought onions and gravy and potatoes 0:14:24.885 --> 0:14:27.525 and mushrooms. She said she was only in there for 0:14:27.565 --> 0:14:29.805 around five minutes and then she went right back home. 0:14:30.405 --> 0:14:33.685 She started to make dinner to fry potatoes. At some 0:14:33.805 --> 0:14:37.125 point it started to get dark, and that's when Christina's 0:14:37.165 --> 0:14:40.965 parents realized that she hadn't made it home. Frida sent 0:14:41.005 --> 0:14:44.045 Adam out to look for his sister. Pretty quickly, he 0:14:44.085 --> 0:14:46.845 came back and said he couldn't find her. That's when 0:14:46.885 --> 0:14:50.045 Frida said, quote, I had a gut feeling something was 0:14:50.085 --> 0:14:53.485 not right. This is a mother's concern. I sent Adam 0:14:53.525 --> 0:14:56.245 out to find Christina. When he came back and said 0:14:56.245 --> 0:14:59.125 he couldn't find her, I knew something was wrong with 0:14:59.125 --> 0:15:02.925 my baby girl. End quote. James and Frieda went around 0:15:02.925 --> 0:15:05.965 the neighborhood. They went to some apartments near by where 0:15:06.045 --> 0:15:08.565 Christina had been selling her jewelry in the days before 0:15:08.565 --> 0:15:11.685 she went missing. They went to the Bearcat store, and 0:15:11.725 --> 0:15:14.405 then they went back home in case Christina came back. 0:15:15.525 --> 0:15:18.005 They called the police to report her missing, and the 0:15:18.045 --> 0:15:23.005 search started. James said in his statement quote after the 0:15:23.045 --> 0:15:25.765 police came, we started a house to house search. I 0:15:25.805 --> 0:15:28.005 went to several houses and went back home to see 0:15:28.005 --> 0:15:30.205 if anyone had found her. After my brother in law 0:15:30.245 --> 0:15:32.885 got to the house, we went out searching. I kept 0:15:32.925 --> 0:15:35.485 hoping she would show up. I did not believe this 0:15:35.605 --> 0:15:38.485 was happening. I wondered what happened to her? Where could 0:15:38.525 --> 0:15:40.965 she be? As we drove around looking for her, I 0:15:41.085 --> 0:15:43.485 was hoping to see her walking. I thought if she 0:15:43.525 --> 0:15:45.605 could just get away. I might see her on the road. 0:15:46.325 --> 0:15:48.805 On Sunday we went searching some more. I didn't eat 0:15:48.845 --> 0:15:51.685 because I couldn't eat, not knowing if my baby girl 0:15:51.685 --> 0:15:54.245 had had anything to eat. I was wondering how she 0:15:54.325 --> 0:15:57.205 was being treated. Was she cold? Was she hungry? I 0:15:57.285 --> 0:15:59.325 kept hoping that whoever took her would let her go. 0:15:59.965 --> 0:16:02.285 I kept looking up the street, hoping that I would 0:16:02.325 --> 0:16:04.525 see her. I kept believing we would find her alive, 0:16:05.205 --> 0:16:07.125 even if she was hurt. We could get help for that. 0:16:08.125 --> 0:16:10.125 But when they told me they had found her and 0:16:10.165 --> 0:16:13.125 she was dead, how do you describe how do you 0:16:13.165 --> 0:16:17.285 feel when you find out your daughter is dead? Angry, hurt, confused? 0:16:17.765 --> 0:16:21.925 I don't know how to describe it. End quote. I 0:16:21.965 --> 0:16:23.805 don't know how many of you have ever seen the 0:16:23.805 --> 0:16:26.325 movie rasham On, but it's something I think about a 0:16:26.365 --> 0:16:29.325 lot when I'm doing an investigation. Now. In that movie, 0:16:29.365 --> 0:16:31.845 there are three different people, and they're telling the story 0:16:31.885 --> 0:16:34.565 of an assault and a murder. Each of them witnessed 0:16:34.605 --> 0:16:38.405 this from their point of view. Everyone saw exactly the 0:16:38.405 --> 0:16:42.365 same thing, but each person gives you a different piece 0:16:42.365 --> 0:16:46.205 of the story. Each person has another piece of the puzzle. 0:16:46.645 --> 0:16:49.125 It's the same thing with a murder investigation. We have 0:16:49.245 --> 0:16:52.365 all these people who are present at the Bearcat convenience 0:16:52.405 --> 0:16:55.285 store and the bank that afternoon. Each of them saw 0:16:55.285 --> 0:16:58.365 a small slice of Christina's day, and we really need 0:16:58.405 --> 0:17:02.485 to put all those multiple versions together. Now. Admittedly there's 0:17:02.485 --> 0:17:05.725 a separate problem, which is that memory itself changed just 0:17:05.725 --> 0:17:09.045 ever time, even if you have great recall, But we'll 0:17:09.045 --> 0:17:11.005 get to that later. First, we need to get as 0:17:11.045 --> 0:17:13.405 many points of view as possible to try and fill 0:17:13.405 --> 0:17:17.445 in some of these holes on the timeline. So let's 0:17:17.525 --> 0:17:21.765 go back to May fourth, nineteen ninety one, Christina is missing. 0:17:22.165 --> 0:17:25.445 Over the next few days, police started talking to people, and, 0:17:25.645 --> 0:17:28.965 as happens often in small towns, a few names got 0:17:28.965 --> 0:17:32.605 thrown around. We noticed something else in the case file 0:17:33.165 --> 0:17:36.285 that during this time, quite a few people also mentioned 0:17:36.285 --> 0:17:38.645 they had seen a blue car with a man driving it, 0:17:39.245 --> 0:17:41.405 one that was in the bank parking lot and hanging 0:17:41.405 --> 0:17:44.525 around town in general around the time when Christina went missing. 0:17:45.165 --> 0:17:47.365 That what we were about to find out was that 0:17:47.405 --> 0:17:51.045 people had a lot of different descriptions of exactly what 0:17:51.165 --> 0:17:55.965 that man and that vehicle looked like. We measured the 0:17:56.005 --> 0:17:58.485 distance from where Christina was last seen to where she 0:17:58.605 --> 0:18:01.165 was found. It was around three and a half miles 0:18:01.525 --> 0:18:04.205 so I think police were right. She was almost certainly 0:18:04.285 --> 0:18:08.565 driven to that location. So who drove her there? In 0:18:08.605 --> 0:18:12.085 a town this small, it seems like somebody would have 0:18:12.165 --> 0:18:15.405 to have seen something. We need to find that car. 0:18:18.485 --> 0:18:21.245 We need to explore all of those suspects, figure out 0:18:21.285 --> 0:18:24.485 exactly where everyone was on the day Christina went missing, 0:18:24.925 --> 0:18:27.445 and also find out where this rumor about a blue 0:18:27.445 --> 0:18:30.925 car started. One person the police talked to was the 0:18:30.965 --> 0:18:34.005 Long family. They live right by Christina's house at two 0:18:34.125 --> 0:18:37.565 eighty nine Doty Street. Michael Long, who was twenty six 0:18:37.605 --> 0:18:39.925 at the time, said that he was home that Saturday 0:18:39.925 --> 0:18:43.445 afternoon at around five pm. He said Christina stopped by 0:18:43.445 --> 0:18:45.725 the house looking for his little sister, who was ten 0:18:45.965 --> 0:18:49.605 Christina's age, presumably to go door to door jewelry selling 0:18:49.645 --> 0:18:53.445 with her. His sister wasn't home, so Christina left. Michael 0:18:53.485 --> 0:18:56.765 said he next saw Christina walking back south down Third Street. 0:18:57.325 --> 0:19:00.045 Then he saw her turn west on Laurel Street toward 0:19:00.125 --> 0:19:04.165 the Bearcat's door and the bank. Michael told police that 0:19:04.245 --> 0:19:07.445 about five minutes after Ristina left, he went outside to 0:19:07.525 --> 0:19:10.285 check a ditch for snakes. Then he said he walked 0:19:10.285 --> 0:19:13.325 to the bear Cat for some cigarettes. When he came out, 0:19:13.725 --> 0:19:17.085 he saw Christina walking behind the alley at Cross County Bank. 0:19:17.885 --> 0:19:20.685 At that point, Michael said she was headed north. This 0:19:20.725 --> 0:19:23.845 would have been at around five thirty pm. After that, 0:19:23.965 --> 0:19:27.485 Michael said he didn't see her again. Another family that 0:19:27.525 --> 0:19:30.885 lived next to the Pipkins were the Moors, Pat and Connie. 0:19:31.445 --> 0:19:34.085 They had a blue car registered to them, a nineteen 0:19:34.165 --> 0:19:37.805 seventy three Ford Maverick. On the day Christina went missing, 0:19:37.925 --> 0:19:40.965 two friends of Theirs, Ricky Dawson and James the Sheers, 0:19:41.205 --> 0:19:43.645 who were eighteen and twenty at the time, came by 0:19:43.645 --> 0:19:46.605 the house at around four thirty. They were there to 0:19:46.605 --> 0:19:50.285 pick up Ricky's girlfriend, Jenna Algood and her friend April Jones, 0:19:50.525 --> 0:19:53.725 who were hanging out at the moorhouse. Ricky, James, and 0:19:53.765 --> 0:19:55.885 the two young women left for a night out on 0:19:55.925 --> 0:19:59.605 the town and Win, but before they left, Ricky said 0:19:59.685 --> 0:20:02.645 he remembered seeing Christina outside on her porch. Next door. 0:20:03.765 --> 0:20:06.765 Ricky Dawson was driving yet an other blue car, his 0:20:06.845 --> 0:20:10.405 mom's blue Camaro with rust on the side. He said 0:20:10.445 --> 0:20:12.645 that he, James, and the two girls went to Win 0:20:12.725 --> 0:20:15.325 between five thirty and six thirty. He said they didn't 0:20:15.365 --> 0:20:19.165 come back until around midnight. By that time, Christina was 0:20:19.165 --> 0:20:21.325 missing and a bunch of people were already out looking 0:20:21.365 --> 0:20:25.805 for her. So at that point, obviously things got pretty chaotic. 0:20:26.085 --> 0:20:29.645 It was Saturday night. People were having barbecues, making plans, 0:20:29.685 --> 0:20:32.365 going on dates, the sun was going down, and the 0:20:32.445 --> 0:20:34.725 night was just starting. But I want to go back 0:20:34.765 --> 0:20:37.085 to the timeline and mention a couple of other people 0:20:37.085 --> 0:20:39.645 who told police they noticed things that were slightly out 0:20:39.685 --> 0:20:43.605 of the ordinary, because obviously any event can have huge 0:20:43.605 --> 0:20:49.445 significance when someone goes missing. On May seventh, police went 0:20:49.485 --> 0:20:52.765 to the Hickory Ridge Elementary School and they interviewed several children. 0:20:53.605 --> 0:20:56.285 They asked about a stranger that the kids had seen 0:20:56.685 --> 0:21:00.485 around the time when Christina disappeared, but their descriptions were 0:21:00.525 --> 0:21:05.565 completely inconsistent. The police report said there were numerous in 0:21:05.565 --> 0:21:08.085 consistencies in the kid's stories, and so because of that, 0:21:08.165 --> 0:21:11.605 the officer could not follow through on completing a composite drawing. 0:21:12.405 --> 0:21:14.685 This doesn't surprise me because by the time those kids 0:21:14.725 --> 0:21:17.885 were interviewed, it had been several days, and unfortunately, in 0:21:17.925 --> 0:21:20.965 my opinion, what happened probably was that the kids talked 0:21:21.005 --> 0:21:23.965 to each other over the weekend, so their stories took 0:21:24.005 --> 0:21:27.725 on elements of each other's. This is not uncommon. So 0:21:28.445 --> 0:21:30.805 seventy two hours have passed, the whole town's talking about 0:21:30.805 --> 0:21:34.725 a kidnapping, and suddenly the mysterious stranger had gone from 0:21:34.765 --> 0:21:37.965 a white man with tanned skin to a Native American 0:21:38.045 --> 0:21:43.405 and quote Indian lookalike with high cheekbones and black hair. Now, 0:21:43.725 --> 0:21:46.725 because Christina lived in Cross County but her body was 0:21:46.725 --> 0:21:50.125 found across the county line in Jackson County, law enforcement 0:21:50.205 --> 0:21:53.485 met and decided that Jackson County would assist, but that 0:21:53.525 --> 0:21:57.165 the jurisdiction would stay in Cross County. Jackson County did 0:21:57.285 --> 0:22:00.405 question some people, mainly guys who were arrested for other 0:22:00.445 --> 0:22:04.285 things like dwi's, but police really seemed to have pretty 0:22:04.325 --> 0:22:08.685 much zero leads and not much to go on. There 0:22:08.885 --> 0:22:12.045 was another family, the Earls. They lived on Fourth Street, 0:22:12.285 --> 0:22:16.245 close to Christina's house. Kim Earles said that on Saturday night, 0:22:16.405 --> 0:22:19.045 just after midnight, she saw a young man in a 0:22:19.045 --> 0:22:21.925 blue car, which she described as a late model Transam 0:22:22.045 --> 0:22:25.205 or Camaro. She said it had one of those novelty 0:22:25.325 --> 0:22:28.805 brake lights that glow neon around the license plate when 0:22:28.805 --> 0:22:31.605 you put on the brakes. She said she saw that car, 0:22:31.725 --> 0:22:33.685 which seems like it would be pretty memorable at a 0:22:33.805 --> 0:22:36.685 McDonald's and win. She said the guy driving it was 0:22:36.765 --> 0:22:40.405 dark complexion with tan skin, medium bill, dark eyebrows, and 0:22:40.445 --> 0:22:43.965 that that person was around six foot two. Other people 0:22:44.005 --> 0:22:46.045 said there was a guy named James Hannah who had 0:22:46.085 --> 0:22:49.045 a car like that, but when police showed a picture 0:22:49.085 --> 0:22:50.925 of James Hannah to the girls, they said they knew 0:22:51.005 --> 0:22:53.445 James Hannah and this was not him driving the car. 0:22:54.565 --> 0:22:57.525 They described the driver as dirty looking and said that 0:22:57.525 --> 0:23:00.765 that person was a stranger to them. Kim said that 0:23:00.845 --> 0:23:03.125 she had seen that same man, the one driving the 0:23:03.125 --> 0:23:06.005 blue car with the light up brakes, around on Town 0:23:06.085 --> 0:23:08.925 for the past few months. She said that this mystery 0:23:08.925 --> 0:23:12.365