WEBVTT - Catch Me If You Can [5] 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:03.760 You're listening to the Freeway Phanom, a production of iHeartRadio, 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:08.040 Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.600 expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.159 author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:19.880 represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.120 their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.720 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.920 Brenda Woodard, who was actually the fifth victim. You know, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:39.960 she was older. She was actually going to night school 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:42.680 and she was taking the bus home as she always 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.599 did when she disappeared. When she was found, she had 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.880 not only been strangled, but she had been stabbed through 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:54.000 her clothing. And it was apparent that she had been 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:58.200 undressed and sexually assaulted and then had been redressed because 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.720 her shirt or sweater or whatever she was wearing was 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.760 on inside out at the time and she was stabbed 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.840 through the sweater. Now, she was the one where he 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.280 left the note. What he actually did was he had 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.640 her write the note. It was in her handwriting, but 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.640 it was from him, and he basically was taunting the 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.880 police saying that this is tantamount to how I feel 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.080 about women. If you catch me, I will admit to 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:30.039 the others. And he signed it the Freeway Phantom. The 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:32.720 Freeway Phantom wasn't a name that the police gave him. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.399 That was a name that the press gave him after 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.520 his fourth victim, right before Brenda. So here he is. 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.440 He's taunting the police. He knows enough to know not 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.840 to write the note himself because he could potentially be 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.520 connected to it. And then our theory is is that 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.040 at that time she realized that, oh my god, you know, 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.320 I'm not going to get out of this, and she 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.920 probably fought him and that's why he had to resort 0:01:58.520 --> 0:01:59.400 so killing her. 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:11.000 The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases. 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.960 This child was laying on the side of the road 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.640 as wouldn't go no way, I. 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:17.600 Would call out my house. 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.640 Those first five murders should have been a huge warning 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:22.600 bell for the police. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.960 We just want to know what happened. This person must 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.040 have saw that they were thinking that maybe it's just 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.400 one person, and he says, oh, they need to know 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:31.720 this is me. 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.520 I thought that they would catch him. I thought it 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:36.760 was just a matter of time. 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:46.600 I'm Celeste Hedley and this is Freeway Phantom. On November fifteenth, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.520 nineteen seventy one, eighteen year old Brenda Woodard became the 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.160 fifth victim of the Freeway Phantom. It had been a 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.000 month and a half since the discovery of his fourth victim, 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.880 Ninomosha Yates, but the case of Brenda was different from 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.359 the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older, her life's 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.720 circumstances were divergent from the rest of the girls, and 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.960 the evidence that police found was unlike anything they'd seen before. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.000 Brenda Denise Woodard was born in nineteen fifty eight. Her 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.400 parents were Mary and Edward Woodard. She was the eldest 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.960 of six children. We know that Brenda enjoyed music and 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.000 spending time with her friends. She had several jobs in 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.919 high school, but she struggled in her classes and had 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.080 been held back two years. However, leading up to her death, 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:42.000 Brenda's life was somewhat tumultuous, and that fact would become 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.160 important later on in the case, so we'll go into 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:51.960 it here briefly. Until about three weeks before her murder, 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.440 Brenda was living with her family in Baltimore, Maryland, but 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.640 just before Halloween she moved out. The FBI interviewed her 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.080 father about the situation at home. Here's what the reports say, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:04.520 as read by a voice actor. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.920 Mister Woodard advised his daughter had been somewhat of a 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.160 disciplinary problem to him because he had been forced to 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.320 reprimand her several times because of the late hours she 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.960 had been keeping, and because of her reluctance to inform 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.640 him or her mother concerning where she was going when 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.239 she left the house or the name of the person 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.279 she planned to meet. He further recalled that approximately three 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.840 weeks ago, shortly before Halloween weekend, she had been asked 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.279 to help with the housework, particularly to wash dishes. She 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.520 failed to do this, and upon returning home from his 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.719 job with the Giant Food Company Beltsville, Maryland, he talked 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.160 to his daughter and asked her why she had failed 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.760 to do so. Miss Woodard had no real excuse, and 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.640 her father informed her at this time that she was 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.039 welcome to remain in the family residence until she could 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:02.000 find a job, but after she found gameful employment, he 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.200 would appreciate it if she found some other place to live. 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.560 Unless she was willing to obey her parents and respect 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:12.479 their wishes. He emphatically denied there had been any fight 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.320 between him and his daughter or that she had been 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.960 forced to leave home. He stated, however, that after the 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.599 incident related above, he and his wife left the family 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.760 residence to go shopping, and upon their return home found 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.080 miss Woodard had removed her clothing and moved next door 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.559 to the residence of Brenda Schumpert twenty one oh seven 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.960 Maryland Avenue, Northeast. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:41.159 But Brenda's problems didn't stop there. Brenda reportedly had difficulties 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.600 with relationships. One boyfriend named Walter Clark gave her them 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.760 most trouble. When interviewed by police, Walter told authorities that 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.919 Brenda was infatuated with him, and although the feelings weren't mutual, 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.479 he would regularly have sex with her. Brenda was also 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.920 said to have gotten incredibly jealous when Walter was around 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:05.080 other girls. In July of nineteen seventy one, Brenda was 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:09.440 admitted to a mental institution for hysteria. There, Brenda made 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.560 a friend named Pamela Taylor. Police would later interview Pamela, 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.360 who said that Brenda would sometimes climb into a car 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.120 with a stranger and have sex with them to get 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.680 back at Walter. This was important because Brenda's mother, Mary 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.920 described her as being shy, not the type of person 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.479 who would get in the car with a stranger. But 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.920 other friends of Brenda said the same thing as Pamela. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.040 Here's an interchange between a police officer and Brenda Shumpert, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.440 who was living with Brenda Woodard at the time. 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.800 Do you think Brenda would get into a car with 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:42.440 a stranger. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:44.000 I know she would. 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.040 I have seen her get out of a car driven 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:47.920 by a guy and I asked who he was. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:49.400 She said, I don't know. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:51.400 He offered me a ride and just picked up my 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.400 packages and put them in the car, so I went 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:53.760 with them. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.839 However, Brenda started to turn things around that fall. She 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.440 had started taking night classes at Cardozo High School. On 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.239 November fifteenth, the day she went missing, Brenda's father, Edward, 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.120 saw her for the last time. Here's part of his 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.720 statement to police given on November sixteenth, as read by 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:15.440 a voice actor. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.040 Yesterday, about five o'clock, she came home and she had 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.640 a record player with her. She knocked on the door, 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.760 and I went to the door, and she came in 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.200 the house. She started to unpack the record player because 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.720 she had just bought it, and I helped her unpack 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.840 it because she was having trouble opening it. I got 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.520 an album on and played it. Then I asked her 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.640 if she was going to school and she said yes, Daddy, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.440 but she didn't have to leave until six pm. Then 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.800 something stuck with me and I thought I should take 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.080 her to school. She sat there until about twelve minutes 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.040 after six, and then I took her to school. I 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:57.120 got there about five or ten minutes to seven. I said, Brenda, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.120 are you coming over tomorrow? And she said yeah, yes. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.400 When she got out of the car, I felt like 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.920 I wanted to kiss her, but I didn't. She said bye, Daddy, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.800 and I said bye. That's the last time I've seen her. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.680 After night classes, Brenda and a classmate named Sherman Mitchell 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.000 left school together. They decided they'd go to a well 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.080 known restaurant named Ben's Chili Bowl and then take the 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.480 bus home. Normally Mitchell would have driven, but his car 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.400 was in the shop that day. Mitchell gave this statement 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.760 to police, as read by a voice actor. 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.600 Brenda and I left school about nine to fifty five 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.000 pm November fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, and we walked down 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.960 twenty second Street northwest to U Street northwest and walked 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.120 up to Ben's Chili Bowl. We had two hot dogs, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.680 one half smoke, and two sodas. Brenda ordered another half smoke, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.800 and I bought one pack of cool filter king for Brenda. 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.520 I knew she had eight cents, and I'm not sure 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.719 if she gave me a nickel on the cigarettes or not. 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.280 We left the chili bowl after being there about twenty minutes. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.040 The walk from the school was leisurely and took about 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.240 fifteen minutes. We left the chili bowl and walked to 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.680 the bus stop at eleventh and U Streets Northwest. He 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.520 waited for about three minutes. We caught a bus Mark 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.680 Garfield and took the Garfrael bus up to eighth and 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.640 eighth Streets northeast to transfer. She could catch any bus 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:31.600 going out northeast. This was the last time I saw Brenda. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.200 Brenda had told Sherman to call her later so they 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.800 could keep talking. He said he called after midnight, but 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.120 was told that Brenda still wasn't home. Sherman told law 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:45.880 enforcement he was surprised by this since it was so late. Meanwhile, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.920 Brenda's parents were becoming concerned. Brenda's mother took the bus 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.320 home from work that night, and when she walked to 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.559 her bus stop, she saw a crime scene. There was 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.120 police tape and officers everywhere, but she couldn't figure out 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.360 what was going on. Still, it made her worried about Brenda. 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.120 Here again is the statement given by Brenda's father, Edward, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.360 to police, as read by a voice actor. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.840 When I got home today, my wife was crying. This 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.840 was about one o'clock. I asked her what she was 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.680 crying for, and she said, I'm scared. I kept asking 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.040 her and she didn't want to talk. She couldn't hardly talk. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.079 She was so nervous. She said she got off from work, 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.800 she works at Prince George's Hospital, and she couldn't catch 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.560 the bus because of all the police tape. She said 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.040 the traffic was blocked off and she had to walk 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.760 down the hill to catch the bus. She said she's 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.440 seen a wig. I don't know whether she was on 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.600 the bus or not, a brown wig. Then I asked 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.720 did she call the police, and she said no, she 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.920 was too nervous. She gave me the number and I 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.160 called the police. The girl my daughter was living with 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.199 called my wife and asked her had she seen Brenda 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.320 and she told her no. She told my wife that 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.600 she had not Brenda, and she said this boy called 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.040 her and told her that he and Brenda had got 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.040 off a bus at eighth and H Street northeast and 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.000 this was the last time he's seen her. He said, that's. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:18.880 It, Mary Wititdward was scared that maybe it was her 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:22.360 daughter found by the bus stop, and the next morning, 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:48.040 on November sixteenth, Mary's gut feeling would be confirmed. In 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.600 the early morning hours of November sixteenth, Officer David Norman 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.040 spotted what he thought was a man slumped over on 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.680 the side of the road not far from Prince George's 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.120 County Hospital. Officer Norman made a U turn across the 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.400 grass median of Hospital Road and parked with his headlight 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.959 shining directly on the body. He walked within two feet 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.920 of the body before he realized it was a black 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.880 woman lying face up with a coat draped over her. 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.000 He determined she was dead because she wasn't breathing, her 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.920 eyes were wide open, and her arms were above her 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:24.000 head with her hand partially erect. Officer Norman had found 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.480 the freeway Fantom's fifth and oldest victim. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.920 She had been strangled, and what was different with her 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.200 is she had also been stabbed, so it's very clear 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.240 that I'd like previous victims, she put up a serious 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.199 struggle with her a Sami. 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.959 This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co authored a book 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.839 on the Freeway Phantom with his daughter Victoria Hester. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.120 It's on a little grassy area on a curve of 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.520 the road. She was found laying face up with her 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.000 hands clasped over her hat. She died really of the 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:02.160 stab world, although there were some strangulation. She had a 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:06.720 broken bone in her neck, probably from squeezing of her throat, 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.840 but it was the stab wound that killed her. 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.040 In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.400 Woodard's crime scene. Believe me, none of the bodies were 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.160 easy to look at, but this one disturbed me in 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.080 a different way. Unlike the others, her body looked like 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.600 it had been thrown, as if the killer was in 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.080 a hurry to dispose of her. Her body was mangled 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.440 and her bloody clothes were still on the spot where 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.040 her body was placed is on a grassy slope just 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.160 beside the street, and you can see her feet angling 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.880 up towards the road. This crime scene felt violent, it 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:52.200 felt wrong. When we talked to Detective Jim Traynham, he 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.400 confirmed the dark suspicion that bubbled up in Brenda's mother 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:55.840 that night. 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.280 Brenda's body was found near the bus stop that her 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.240 mother actually took to go home. When she came out, 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.679 she saw all a police activity, not knowing that it 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.560 was her daughter who was lying there. So again that 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.080 raises several questions. Is it a possibility that he knew Brenda, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.000 he knew her mother, or he found out information about 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.120 her mother during the time he spent with Brenda. You know, 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.160 these things are all things that we have to consider. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.080 Trainan believes this murder tells us a lot about the 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.360 killer's m O and perhaps why he was so difficult 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:31.960 to capture. 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.120 And looking at how the victims, where they were picked 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.040 up and where they were their bodies were dump you know, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.440 the first two victims came from the very same neighborhood 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.880 and they were found at the very same location off 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.440 for two ninety five. One of the theories that's been 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.640 proposed is is that even though there was not a 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.320 lot of police activity, you know, surrounding these girls, at 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.560 that time, probably there was a lot of neighbor talk 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.240 and a lot of neighborhood interests, So the thought was 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.480 that he's either from that neighborhood, familiar with that neighborhood, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.480 seen a lot in that neighborhood, so that may have 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.520 caused him some concern, especially if he's like the neighborhood 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.240 weird guy or had some sort of similar incident where 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.360 people might be kind of like pointing at him. So 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.400 he decides to go outside the neighborhood, and so he's 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.760 now going to other sections of the city. DC is 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.880 a small city to begin with, but it has its 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.600 own select neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods can be very isolated. 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.840 People who live in one neighborhood down in southeast back 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.840 then wouldn't typically frequent with people in another neighborhood up 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.680 in northwest. It just wasn't as much traffic going back 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.160 and forth. So he goes to these other neighborhoods, and 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.560 then he starts going right across the DC line. He 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.440 doesn't go far, but just right across the DC line 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.560 to where he drops the body, so that there obviously 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.920 can be there in plane view off the major road. 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:08.640 But that is also causes confusion because police departments, you 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.640 think that they like to share information, that we're all 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.080 working together as a team and all that we don't 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.280 and there's a lot of rivalry going on, and so 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.080 anytime that you start putting bodies in different jurisdictions, they're 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.560 going to have a lot of infighting and stuff like 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.120 that and not sharing of information like you should have. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:34.080 So that probably confuses the investigation as well. 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.760 It didn't help that Brenda Woodard's crime scene was so 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.800 different from the previous victims. The only similarities were that 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.600 she was dumped near the freeway and that police found 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:48.200 green synthetic fibers on her coat, socks, skirt, and panties. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.920 But what was new was that Brenda had been stabbed 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.880 multiple times, which had not been the case for previous victims. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.360 There was a superficial stab wound to her head, a 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.680 stab wound her chest through her sweater, and two stab 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:07.480 wounds to her abdomen. She was also still fully clothed 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.600 and still had her shoes on, which were black boots, 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.160 and police found traces of hair from two different men, 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.520 a black man and a white man. Negroid head hairs 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.000 were found on her boot shirt, braw and coat, and 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.600 Caucasian headhairs were found on her coat and skirt. Some 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.320 investigators have stated they believe the Caucasian hairs originated from 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.440 law enforcement on the scene. Lastly, she had a number 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.600 of defensive wounds, suggesting she put up a struggle against 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:38.040 her killer. 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.000 Oh, yes, she put up a fight. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.840 This is retired MPD detective Romayne Jenkins. She says that 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.920 this particular murder brought up a lot of questions in. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.800 The case, Brenda put up a fight. That's why he 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:58.280 stabs her, he strangles her, he rapes her. She put 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.800 up a fight, and she does have defiled and wounds. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.240 But what made her suspicious? What made her go willingly 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:06.880 with him? Why? 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.280 Romayne says the case of Brenda Woodard was one of 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.639 the most difficult ones for her to hear about. 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.679 We live basically in the same neighborhood, I mean, the 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.280 same type of apartments, the same people. I didn't know 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.359 her because she was much younger than I, but it 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.800 was basically the same neighborhood. And I used to hang 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.280 out wish where she lived. I had friends up there, 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.480 you know, I had relatives who lived up there. In 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:34.840 the same apartments that as she lived in. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.320 Romayne. Like many other investigators, was also disturbed by one 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.879 major piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:49.280 handwritten note tucked inside Brenda's coat pocket. Here's what the 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:50.040 note said. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:56.800 This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women. 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:00.520 I will admit the others when you catch me if 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:05.400 you can, signed Freeway Phantom. 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.600 And the note was something that she had written. It 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.400 was her handwriting, but it was the killer's words. 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.480 This is writer Blaine Pardo again. 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.119 So the belief is that he may have had this 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.240 note pre written and said copy it because there's words 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.480 in this is she never would have used it said 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:30.400 this is tantamount to my insensitivity, which was misspelled to people, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:35.200 especially women. I will admit the others when you catch 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.920 me if you can. And it was signed the Freeway 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.480 Phantom where the freeway is hyphenated. The note on its 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:48.479 own is the scariest thing because it's the killer reaching 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.520 out to everybody out there, saying who he is and 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.679 what he's doing and why he's doing it. It's not 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.040 a very long note, but what's interesting is when you 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.000 look at it, you literally can see where he went 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.720 along and almost checked off each word to make sure 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.320 it was right. The phrase freeway fanom had been picked 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.680 up by the news media and was being used both 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.159 a newspaper and on TV and radio describing killer, so 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.879 he was admitting, I am the freeway fanom. This is 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.320 a victim of the freewaydea. We ended up going to 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:28.120 one of the investigators who pioneered forensic linguistics, who actually 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.280 caught the unibomber. We actually gave him a copy of 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.480 the note. Had said, help us see what you can 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.320 do with this, and he went over in great detail 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.760 and he said, there's a lot of interesting things in here. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.199 One of the things he pointed out to us was 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:47.160 my insensitivity to people, especially women. So has he been 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.080 killing young men too and we don't know it? And 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:55.840 he said the Hyphenetiana Freeway was very interesting. He literally 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.679 sent me the Library of Congress to go through newspapers, 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.200 thirty years worth of newspapers trying to find instances where 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:06.399 free way was hyphenated. And he believed it's a West 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.960 coast thing. I couldn't find anything on that, but he said, 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.800 I'm almost positive that's something to do with the West coast. Now, 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.760 the only reference I ever found to it was in 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:22.159 a psychological book from nineteen fifteen nineteen twenty something like 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.760 that about homosexuality, which is interesting because it's a kind 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:29.760 of book you might find in a mental institution. A 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:34.119 mental institution in Washington, DC area had a pretty distinct 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:36.760 tie to all of us. 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.639 If you remember, Brenda Woodard was briefly in a mental institution, 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.440 and later in the investigation, one of the prime suspects 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.560 would also have ties to a mental institution. More on 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:51.120 that in a later episode. 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:56.920 To me, that note is everything because it's the first 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.800 time and the only time that the killer reaches out 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:04.640 to the authorities. It was todping, catch me if you can't. Terrible, 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:06.560 just absolutely terrible. 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:10.639 And it makes you wonder too. Did she fight back 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:15.240 because she basically wrote her own killer's note. 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.639 This is author Victoria hester Blaine's daughter and co writer. 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.679 She's speaking to the question Romayne brought up earlier about 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.919 why Brenda put up a fight either before or after 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:28.840 she was forced to write the note. 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.680 I mean, we know it's her handwriting. She literally had 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.000 to sit there and write, either copy it or take 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.879 his word for word and write it down. And she 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.399 probably knew what was happening next probably put it all together, 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.679 which is probably why she fought so hard, because she 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.520 saw it coming, whereas the other girls were a lot 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.280 younger and may have not known. They may have not 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:55.440 understood or felt the same fear. But that's like new 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.320 level as having your victim write a note and then 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.879 putting it in the pocket on their body. That was 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.600 it's creepy to read, Like even just looking at the handwriting, 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:08.959 it's just creepy knowing that a killer wrote that. 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:12.520 And I don't think it was dictated. We spoke with 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.040 Remaine Jenkins and she was like, if it was dictated, 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:18.959 there would have been more misspellings, there would have been 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:23.240 more mistakes associated with it. This was something that was copied. 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:24.440 It was very specific. 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.600 There were also the peculiar language choices used by the 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:29.800 killer throughout the note. 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:35.480 The word tantamount. Think about this, Who uses that word? 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:40.359 Everything else? All the rest of the wording is almost 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:43.680 everyday type of thing, the word insensitivity. You'll hear people 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:46.600 use that. How often do you hear people use the 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:47.680 word tantamount? 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:52.040