Speaker 1: School of Humans. On Tuesday, July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: eighteen year old Dana Stidham went home to do some laundry.
Speaker 1: She drove from where she was living in Centerton to
Speaker 1: where her parents, Lawrence and Georgia, lived in Highwassee, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: After she put her clothes in the wash cycle, she
Speaker 1: headed out to run an errand for her dad. His
Speaker 1: stomach was upset and he needed some medicine. She went
Speaker 1: to the Phillips food store, which, by the way, is
Speaker 1: now a Harp's grocery store, the one in Bella Vista.
Speaker 1: She checked out at three seventeen PM. We know this
Speaker 1: because the receipt was later found in her car, and
Speaker 1: because the cashier and a lot of other people working
Speaker 1: in the store confirmed that Dana was there that day.
Speaker 1: Dana knew everyone because she had worked there for three
Speaker 1: years in high school. We're going to talk about Dana's case,
Speaker 1: a lot of the contradictory clues that have been explored
Speaker 1: over the years, and we're also going to talk about
Speaker 1: other unsolved murders in the Ozarks. I'm noticing as I
Speaker 1: compile these cases that there are a lot of unsolved
Speaker 1: murders that happened along Arkansas Highway seventy one. We're also
Speaker 1: going to explore all the theories that have come up
Speaker 1: over the years and try to answer the question, was
Speaker 1: this someone Dana knew or a stranger? Could it have
Speaker 1: been a serial killer? I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
Speaker 1: five years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
Speaker 1: I have learned that there is no such thing as
Speaker 1: a small town where murder never happens. I have received
Speaker 1: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking
Speaker 1: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
Speaker 1: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like
Speaker 1: me and my team to look into, you can reach
Speaker 1: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
Speaker 1: six seven eight seven four four six one four five
Speaker 1: At six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 1: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. So let's go back
Speaker 1: to what we know. Back to the timeline. According to
Speaker 1: the police report, which we got a copy of from
Speaker 1: the Benton County Sheriff's Office, Dana left home at around
Speaker 1: two forty five pm. She went to the Phillips food
Speaker 1: store in Bella Vista. This would have taken her about
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. When she left her parents' house that day,
Speaker 1: she was wearing white shorts, a white top with red lettering,
Speaker 1: and red sox with white tennis shoes. Dana got out
Speaker 1: at the Phillips store and did her shopping. Now remember
Speaker 1: this store was where she had had a high school job,
Speaker 1: so people knew her there. Several people remembered talking to
Speaker 1: her that day. She bought her dad's medicine, Alka Seltzer,
Speaker 1: as well as some dishwashing soap and sugar. She checked
Speaker 1: out at three seventeen PM, according to the timestamped receipt.
Speaker 1: After that she walked out into the parking lot. She
Speaker 1: talked to an older guy, who, by the way, has
Speaker 1: not been identified publicly. Then a landscaper reportedly saw Dana
Speaker 1: drive out of the parking lot, but told police they
Speaker 1: did not know which way she turned. Dana never came
Speaker 1: home that afternoon. Her brother Larry called the police at
Speaker 1: nine to fifteen pm to report her missing. A bolow
Speaker 1: was put out right afterward. The next morning, July twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: at around six thirty am, a sergeant from the Benton
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office saw a parked car on the side
Speaker 1: of US Highway seventy one. We talked about this last week.
Speaker 1: It turned out this was Dana's nineteen eighty four gray
Speaker 1: Dodge Omney. The car was found near Wellington Road. The
Speaker 1: keys were stealing the ignition. The driver's side window was
Speaker 1: halfway down and the left rear tire was flat. Now
Speaker 1: a lot of people have pointed to that half down
Speaker 1: window as potential evidence that Dana could have pulled over
Speaker 1: and rolled down her window to talk to somebody, But
Speaker 1: the tire was not totally flat, and Dana was only
Speaker 1: four miles from home, which is why I find it
Speaker 1: less likely that she would have pulled over for someone
Speaker 1: she didn't know or caught a ride with a stranger,
Speaker 1: because she could have driven on a half flat tire.
Speaker 1: Or she could have turned around and gone back to
Speaker 1: the Phillips parking lot. She knew a ton of people there.
Speaker 1: She could have gotten a lot of people's help changing
Speaker 1: that tire. There was no obvious sign of a struggle
Speaker 1: inside the car, but the driver's seat was pushed back.
Speaker 1: Dana was petitue only five foot two, but the seat
Speaker 1: was adjusted for a much taller person. Dana's Denham purse
Speaker 1: was missing. As we said before, there was a receipt
Speaker 1: found inside the car for her groceries, but the groceries
Speaker 1: themselves were gone. Days later, some of her clothing was
Speaker 1: found scattered near the road. Then, on August fifth, searchers
Speaker 1: discovered more of Dana's items, including her bank checks, her
Speaker 1: driver's license, and several other items, a few miles north
Speaker 1: of where the car was found. Then someone's pet dog
Speaker 1: came home with Dana's wallet between its teeth. So the
Speaker 1: first obvious question is where was the actual crime scene?
Speaker 1: Because you have several potential areas where it could have been.
Speaker 1: You have the area where the car was parked on
Speaker 1: the southbound side of US highly seventy one. You have
Speaker 1: the place where the bank checks and license were found,
Speaker 1: and where the clothes were scattered. Was Dana abducted from
Speaker 1: where her car was parked, or was the real crime
Speaker 1: scene somewhere else. We're going to look at both of
Speaker 1: these possibilities. Let's consider the possibility that she could have
Speaker 1: been abducted. I did some digging and I found out
Speaker 1: a couple more details about Dana's autopsy and her remains.
Speaker 1: We mentioned that her remains were found in a creek bed.
Speaker 1: There were some bones missing. The skeleton was only about
Speaker 1: ninety percent complete, and the missing bones included a very
Speaker 1: important bone, Dana's sternum. That sternum was never found, and
Speaker 1: without that bone, according to the medical examiner's report, authorities
Speaker 1: could not figure out whether the nick that was on
Speaker 1: her left shoulder blade was the fatal wound. The theory
Speaker 1: that detectives had was that Dana had been stabbed in
Speaker 1: the neck, but without the sternum, they said they could
Speaker 1: not be sure. There was an article in the Springfield
Speaker 1: Newsleader from February eighteenth to nineteen ninety one. The Springfield
Speaker 1: Newsleader did a lot of research into unsolved killings in
Speaker 1: the Ozarks, and they asked if some of these killings
Speaker 1: could have been linked. The paper pointed out that if
Speaker 1: there were links between some of these killings, especially back then,
Speaker 1: these police departments might not have figured that out because,
Speaker 1: as you may know from listening to this podcast and others,
Speaker 1: agencies often don't share information. Even though the killings were
Speaker 1: happening in the Ozarks region, different agencies had jurisdiction. Bodies
Speaker 1: were found in different counties, some in Missouri, some in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: so the newspaper did its own investigation into these unsolved deaths.
Speaker 1: It found similarities in four cases. Side note this still
Speaker 1: happens even today, with all the technology we have, you
Speaker 1: still see so many cases where a body is found
Speaker 1: in one county, but the person has gone missing in
Speaker 1: another one, and there is such a lack of communication
Speaker 1: even today. Back to Dana, the Springfield Leader mentions the
Speaker 1: April nineteen eighty seven disappearance of a thirty one year
Speaker 1: old woman named Deborah c Lewis. Deborah went missing from
Speaker 1: her car near Springfield. Her body was found eight months
Speaker 1: later in Newton County. Then in June of nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: there was another abduction a twenty four year old woman
Speaker 1: named Kelly Anne Workman. She disappeared from a church parking
Speaker 1: lot in Douglas County where she had been mowing the lawn.
Speaker 1: Then in nineteen ninety there was a killing of a
Speaker 1: woman who was known for many years as Jane Doe.
Speaker 1: Her body was found in December of nineteen ninety one
Speaker 1: in McDonald County. The fourth victim the newspaper mentioned was
Speaker 1: Dana Stidham. The paper pointed out that all of the
Speaker 1: victims had at least on the surface some similar injuries.
Speaker 1: Detectives suspected that all these women had been strangled or
Speaker 1: their throats had been cut. Police found evidence that some
Speaker 1: of the victims were tied with some sort of twine.
Speaker 1: Three of them were found near US Highway seventy one. Again,
Speaker 1: there could have been a serial killer working US Highway
Speaker 1: seventy one, and authorities might not have linked the cases
Speaker 1: back then. The Springfield Leader pointed out that even though
Speaker 1: Danis Didham's case and Debbie Lewis's case were only forty
Speaker 1: five miles apart, the agencies who investigated may not have
Speaker 1: compared notes because they were in different states. Now there
Speaker 1: have been some suspects and leads in some of these cases.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a closer look at them. Debbie
Speaker 1: Sue Lewis vanished on April twenty seventh, nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: Debbie had two jobs. She worked as a nurse for
Speaker 1: the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners. She also had
Speaker 1: a second job at the Ozark Mountain Concessions. Debbie was
Speaker 1: working the night she went missing at Ozark Concessions. She
Speaker 1: clocked out at eleven oh five pm. Her yellow Volkswagen
Speaker 1: convertible was found a few miles north of the Springfield
Speaker 1: Branson National Airport. The lights were on, the motor was running,
Speaker 1: and all of her stuff was inside the car, including
Speaker 1: her money in her keys, but she was gone, and
Speaker 1: the way the car was left it looked like someone
Speaker 1: had just grabbed her. But again detectives had no real leads.
Speaker 1: Eight months later, a family looking for a Christmas tree
Speaker 1: was out in rural Newton County when they found Debbie's body.
Speaker 1: There were some clues. Like in Dana's case, there was
Speaker 1: very little soft tissue and investigators had trouble determining the
Speaker 1: cause of death. Also, you may remember from last week
Speaker 1: that in Dana's case, investigators found some twine near the
Speaker 1: body with some knots in it. It was the same store.
Speaker 1: In Debbie's case, investigators found a knotted cord near the
Speaker 1: bones of her hands. So the Springfield Newsleader the newspaper,
Speaker 1: did another story in twenty fifteen. They interviewed the former prosecutor,
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor stated they believed Debbie had been kidnapped,
Speaker 1: bound and murdered. That was the exact phrase they use.
Speaker 1: But again, like deja vus with Dana's case, because of
Speaker 1: the lack of tissue found with the body, they could
Speaker 1: not figure out how she died. Both cause and manner
Speaker 1: of death were undetermined, but they did have a potential
Speaker 1: person of interest in Debbie's case, a guy named Gerald
Speaker 1: Carnahan who apparently dated her at one point. Now, Gerald
Speaker 1: Carnahan was from a wealthy family. He was a local businessman,
Speaker 1: but he had a history of disturbing behavior. Police suspected him,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute, so the
Speaker 1: case went cold. Both of Debbie's parents passed away, never
Speaker 1: knowing what really happened to her. Then, in twenty ten,
Speaker 1: the name Gerald Carnahan came up again. He was convicted
Speaker 1: of another rape and murder that happened two years before
Speaker 1: Debbie disappeared. Jackie John's, a twenty year old former beauty
Speaker 1: queen from Nixa, Arkansas, who worked in a local cafe,
Speaker 1: went to seven eleven one night and then disappeared without
Speaker 1: a trace on June eighteenth, nineteen eighty five, in Nixa, Arkansas,
Speaker 1: about sixty five miles from where Danis Sidham's body was found,
Speaker 1: also by the way along US Highway seventy one, Jackie
Speaker 1: left work she stopped at a local seven eleven at
Speaker 1: approximately eleven PM. After that, she disappeared. The next day,
Speaker 1: a delivery driver saw her vehicle. It was very distinctive.
Speaker 1: It was a black Camaro with personalized license plates that
Speaker 1: had Jackie's name on them. They found the car on
Speaker 1: the side of the road off of US one sixty.
Speaker 1: The car looked like it had been abandoned. Similar to
Speaker 1: Dana's case and to Debbie's, the door or was open.
Speaker 1: Her purse and her clothes and her things were all there.
Speaker 1: But there was one difference because this time there was
Speaker 1: a sign of a struggle. There was blood in that car,
Speaker 1: and unlike in Debbian Dana's cases, Jackie's remains were found quickly.
Speaker 1: Her body was dumped in Lake Springfield. Two local fishermen
Speaker 1: found the body four days after Jackie disappeared. So because
Speaker 1: of that, investigators were able to find more information about
Speaker 1: what might have killed Jackie. Forensic testing showed she had
Speaker 1: blunt forest trauma. She had been hitting the head multiple times.
Speaker 1: This time there was proof Jackie had been sexually assaulted.
Speaker 1: Investigators found traces of seamen and they had a good lead.
Speaker 1: Someone had spotted another very distinctive car near the seven
Speaker 1: eleven at around the time Jackie was there a nineteen
Speaker 1: sixties white and blue Chevrolet truck. Now this was a
Speaker 1: small town, so everyone knew that vehicle. The guy who
Speaker 1: who owned it was Gerald Carnahan. Gerald Carnahan said he
Speaker 1: had an alibi, but law enforcement very quickly found some
Speaker 1: holes in it. Gerald said he had dinner with his
Speaker 1: stepdaughter and got home at around ten forty five PM,
Speaker 1: but Jackie was killed later than that, so the alibi
Speaker 1: was always a little bit shaky. Police continued to be
Speaker 1: very suspicious of Gerald Carnahan. There was an Oxygen show
Speaker 1: called in Ice Cold Blood about this case. According to
Speaker 1: that program, police figured out early on there were connections
Speaker 1: between Gerald and Jackie. She had done some work for
Speaker 1: Gerald in the past and told a friend that he
Speaker 1: made her uncomfortable. She thought he was a creep. Law
Speaker 1: enforcement had their suspicions, but they couldn't make a case,
Speaker 1: so nothing happened. Also, it did not help that Gerald's
Speaker 1: family had money, so he was able to hire good lawyers,
Speaker 1: so he wasn't arrested. He went out of town. He
Speaker 1: lived his life and apparently kept assaulting women. In nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, Gerald Carnahan struck again. He tried to kidnap
Speaker 1: a woman from a road in Springfield. She escaped and
Speaker 1: he was arrested. This time he got caught pretty much
Speaker 1: red handed, but he only got two years in prison
Speaker 1: for that attempt at kidnapping. Side note, he burned down
Speaker 1: a building, so he ended up getting convicted of arson
Speaker 1: also in nineteen ninety three, and for the arson charge
Speaker 1: he got four years, but for the attempted kidnapping he
Speaker 1: got two years. That absolutely blows my mind. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, investigators took another look at Jackie's case.
Speaker 1: They looked at the seamen sample because by now there
Speaker 1: was some new technology that didn't exist when she was murdered.
Speaker 1: They were able to determine that the seaman was a
Speaker 1: match to Gerald Carnahan. An undercover state trooper followed him
Speaker 1: and apparently got his DNA off a cup of coffee
Speaker 1: that Gerald threw into the trash while he was visiting
Speaker 1: an auto dealership. Arrested and convicted in twenty ten, he
Speaker 1: was sentenced to life in prison without parole. So could
Speaker 1: Gerald have been around when Dana disappeared. It's possible that
Speaker 1: Dana Stidham was abducted from her car that day. But
Speaker 1: I want to back up, what if she wasn't abducted.
Speaker 1: I want to take a look at some other scenarios
Speaker 1: because so far, a lot of the theories have focused
Speaker 1: on someone following her out, someone forcing her to pull
Speaker 1: off the road, or somehow disabling her tire. So I
Speaker 1: would like to look at some alternative scenarios, because if
Speaker 1: we're looking at comparable cases, this assumes Dana's abandoned car
Speaker 1: was the primary crime scene. We're assuming she pulled over
Speaker 1: there to park, whether because she felt that her tire
Speaker 1: was low, or because someone maybe signaled her or pulled
Speaker 1: her over as a ruse. Let's come back to what
Speaker 1: we know about the car. Remember, Dana was only five
Speaker 1: foot two, very petite, around one hundred pounds. When instigators
Speaker 1: got to the car, they found no signs of foul play.
Speaker 1: But and this is the clue that really throws me off,
Speaker 1: they were able to push the seat back really far back,
Speaker 1: like a much taller person was driving. So if that's
Speaker 1: the case, that leads me to believe someone else drove
Speaker 1: the car there and parked it and chose to park
Speaker 1: it in that spot, which means the crime scene was staged.
Speaker 1: That's not the real crime scene. The more I look
Speaker 1: at this case, the more I think that's a distinct
Speaker 1: possibility because again, I know there was an abandoned car,
Speaker 1: but all of these other cases that involved abandoned cars, kidnapping,
Speaker 1: and abductions, they all happened at night. Dana's was in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day. It's of course possible that
Speaker 1: she was kidnapped, but in my mind this makes it
Speaker 1: much more unlikely. So if Dana didn't park there, if
Speaker 1: her killer parked the car there, we have to figure
Speaker 1: out where the real crime scene was. The one thing
Speaker 1: that we have is the exact time when she went
Speaker 1: to the Phillips food store. That's why keep bringing it
Speaker 1: up over and over. She talked to people there. I
Speaker 1: also found out more about what Dana's plans were after
Speaker 1: she did her laundry. It turns out after buying the
Speaker 1: medicine for her father, Dana Stidham had a date that night.
Speaker 1: Police spoke to the guy she was supposed to go
Speaker 1: out with. He and his family both said she never
Speaker 1: showed up that night. He was very cooperative with investigators,
Speaker 1: so to me, even though we have seen some reports
Speaker 1: that Dana was spotted out at a local party spot
Speaker 1: that night. I find those hard to believe. It's reasonable
Speaker 1: to assume she would have wanted to get home, give
Speaker 1: her dad his medicine which he needed, get her laundry,
Speaker 1: and get ready for her date. But what if she
Speaker 1: drove somewhere else after she left that parking lot. What
Speaker 1: if she made another stop? What if she went to
Speaker 1: visit someone who no one knows about. Which brings me
Speaker 1: back to people's alibis not to say that any of
Speaker 1: these people did anything wrong, but as an investigator with
Speaker 1: an unsolved case, we always have to go back to
Speaker 1: the timeline. One of the biggest things we do is
Speaker 1: look at everyone's alibi and try to find any potential
Speaker 1: areas where we can explore further where was everyone on
Speaker 1: the day and at the time when Danny went missing.
Speaker 1: Police interviewed Danny Daney's ex boyfriend, who lived in Bentonville.
Speaker 1: According to the police report, he had a job, but
Speaker 1: on that day he called in sick. Then he drove
Speaker 1: to his girlfriend's house in Bella Vista and stayed there
Speaker 1: until round five pm. He had a brother who also
Speaker 1: lived in Bella Vista. He told police that he drove
Speaker 1: to his brother's house next, but Danny's brother apparently wasn't home,
Speaker 1: So at that point, Danny said he drove to another
Speaker 1: friend's house, but that friend was also not home. Then
Speaker 1: Danny said he drove back to his own house in Bentonville.
Speaker 1: A friend of Danny's, according to the police report, visited
Speaker 1: him in Bentonville at around ten pm that night. So
Speaker 1: what that means, if that's all true, is that from
Speaker 1: around five pm to ten pm, there could potentially be
Speaker 1: some missing time. We talked about another man, someone Dana
Speaker 1: knew from high school, Mike McMillan. We know that, according
Speaker 1: to Dana's family, Mike had a crush on Dana, but
Speaker 1: his feelings for Dana were apparently not reciprocated. We know
Speaker 1: that Dana was supposedly avoiding him. His parents owned a
Speaker 1: convenience store in Haiwassee that was closer to Dana's house
Speaker 1: than the ones she shopped at the day she disappeared,
Speaker 1: but her parents told police that because Dana wanted to
Speaker 1: avoid Mike, she drove a few extra miles to the
Speaker 1: Phillip store. Police were definitely suspicious of Mike. There was
Speaker 1: an article in two thousand and seven talking about the case.
Speaker 1: The newspaper interviewed Detective Sidareac, one of the lead detectives
Speaker 1: on the case. He said police basically knew who did it.
Speaker 1: The paper described a spurned suitor who Dana declined today
Speaker 1: clearly they were talking about Mike, and it seems as
Speaker 1: though reading between the lines, police were suspicious of Mike,
Speaker 1: largely because of Mike's weird behavior, the fact that Mike
Speaker 1: joined the Navy after he supposedly delayed for months right
Speaker 1: after Dana died. Then he came back. He missed her funeral,
Speaker 1: and then he came back to town, and according to
Speaker 1: a girlfriend he had at the time, would go to
Speaker 1: Dana's grave and talk to her late at night. He
Speaker 1: was also seen driving around Bella Vista in the early
Speaker 1: morning hours on the day of Dana's disappearance. Police believe
Speaker 1: that Dana's car was moved in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: So again we have a person who doesn't have a
Speaker 1: rock solid alibi. Investigators followed other leads. They got all
Speaker 1: kinds of tips. A lot of people were talking about
Speaker 1: Newborn Lane near Highways three forty ninety, where a lot
Speaker 1: of people would get together to party, but again. Dana
Speaker 1: was getting medicine for her dad. Her family said she
Speaker 1: planned to go right back home, so her showing up
Speaker 1: at a park without dropping off her dad's Alga Seltzer
Speaker 1: really doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Police
Speaker 1: remained focused on Mike McMillan. Apparently, Mike told investigators he
Speaker 1: was with a girl at the time when Dana went missing,
Speaker 1: but then detectives talked to the woman. She said she
Speaker 1: hadn't seen him that day, so reportedly he gave them
Speaker 1: another name. Then that woman said she was with him,
Speaker 1: but then later apparently told detectives she wasn't actually with him.
Speaker 1: Police questioned the guys whom Mike had served with in
Speaker 1: the Navy. They talked to his family, they talked his friends,
Speaker 1: but they didn't come up with anything. Mainly, they seemed
Speaker 1: suspicious because of circumstantial reasons. Mike had this fixation on Dana.
Speaker 1: Then he left town, then came back and stole her
Speaker 1: gravestone marker. Detectives were unable to prove Dana had been
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted, so it's very unlikely there's any usable DNA
Speaker 1: in her case that could help lead to her killer.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, there was another newspaper article, another
Speaker 1: interview of detective Mike Sedoriak, another interview where he talked
Speaker 1: about the case. He said he had a rock that
Speaker 1: he had taken from Danis Didam's grave. He had it
Speaker 1: on his desk. It was very clear he still felt
Speaker 1: super strongly about solving the case. He seemed very frustrated
Speaker 1: with the lack of progress. In that same article, the
Speaker 1: paper talked about more unsolved murders in the area. Sometimes
Speaker 1: when police hit a wall, they do look at other
Speaker 1: murders in the area to see if they fall with pattern.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have wondered could Dana have been
Speaker 1: the victim of a serial killer? The paper pointed out
Speaker 1: there were seven murders that were unsolved in that area,
Speaker 1: including one from February of nineteen ninety seven, nicknamed the
Speaker 1: Suitcase murder. Authorities found the body of a woman named
Speaker 1: Sakoro Moran in a suitcase near p Ridge. Sometimes after
Speaker 1: so much time has passed, it can seem hopeless. It
Speaker 1: seems like detectives and everyone out there in the true
Speaker 1: crime world are kind of just beating their heads against
Speaker 1: a wall. But I just want to remind everyone that
Speaker 1: cases are solved all the time by tips that one
Speaker 1: person out there who knows something and hears something that
Speaker 1: makes them come forward. Remember when I talked about the
Speaker 1: murder of Kelly Ann Workman, the twenty four year old
Speaker 1: woman who was reported missing on June thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: She was mowing the lawn at Dogwood Cemetery in the
Speaker 1: back of Pleasant Southern Baptist Church in Douglas County. In
Speaker 1: February of twenty twenty four, police solved that case. Kelly
Speaker 1: normally mowed the grass at night. When they found her
Speaker 1: car at six fifteen PM, a lot of grass was
Speaker 1: still uncut. The keys were in the ignition. Her body
Speaker 1: was found eight days later in Christian County. She was
Speaker 1: decomposed and authorities were unable to figure out her cause
Speaker 1: of death. There was something else here that I found
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Kelly was fully clothed, so investigators formulated
Speaker 1: the theory that rape had been the motive, but they
Speaker 1: thought that Kelly, who was six foot one, might have
Speaker 1: fought back against her attackers. Investigators believed she had been strangled.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how they determined she was not sexually assaulted.
Speaker 1: There seemed to be a lot of cases where law
Speaker 1: enforcement determined that someone was not sexually assaulted just because
Speaker 1: they were fully clothed. I don't know all the details here,
Speaker 1: but when these men go to trial, I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: we'll get more information about this case. So now, in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, after all this time, police have made
Speaker 1: three arrests. Two brothers, Bobby Banks and Leonard Banks, and
Speaker 1: another accomplice named Wily Belt, have all been charged with
Speaker 1: first degree murder, kidnapping, and rape. According to CNN, the prosecutor,
Speaker 1: Matt Weatherman said, quote, there was a person that came
Speaker 1: forward after almost thirty years of holding this inside and
Speaker 1: finally told us the last piece we needed to slide
Speaker 1: it all together. End quote. Steve Pokin, a journalist for
Speaker 1: the Springfield Daily Citizen, wrote about the case over the years.
Speaker 1: He did a great story about how this witness ended
Speaker 1: up coming forward. So the interesting thing is that two
Speaker 1: of these guys, Leonard Banks and Wily Belt, have talked
Speaker 1: to the media a lot over the years, and they've
Speaker 1: sort of talked about how they were innocent, but also,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, if you read between the lines, taunted
Speaker 1: the media a little bit. They admitted that they saw
Speaker 1: Kelly near the time she went missing. Leonard Banks told
Speaker 1: a reporter from the Springfield News Leader that he said
Speaker 1: he had killed Kelly, but that he was just kidding.
Speaker 1: He made some kind of comment along the lines of,
Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing here, but if I said that, I must
Speaker 1: have been wasted. So he seemed to be kind of
Speaker 1: hinting he had something to do with it, but not
Speaker 1: admitting it. We will have to see how this plays out.
Speaker 1: But again, there's always someone out there who knows something.
Speaker 1: I believe that Danis Didham's murder is solvable. If you
Speaker 1: look at the mugshots of the three men who were
Speaker 1: arrested in Kelly's case, they're all in their sixties. Their
Speaker 1: mugshots look like someone's grandpa. But as I've said before,
Speaker 1: investigating murders is the closest I'll ever get to time travel.
Speaker 1: For the victim's family and for the entire community, they
Speaker 1: are still reliving July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty nine, the
Speaker 1: day when Danis Didham disappeared. Over and over. Dana's killer
Speaker 1: may be still out there, but so is potentially the
Speaker 1: person who has the information that could solve this case.
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen
Speaker 1: Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans
Speaker 1: and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine
Speaker 1: Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts and Miranda Hawkins. Music
Speaker 1: contributed by Ben Salek. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for
Speaker 1: her research assistance. Noah camer mixed and scored this episode.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Else Crowley.
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Speaker 1: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. You can
Speaker 1: follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gone pod. If
Speaker 1: you have a case you'd like me and my team
Speaker 1: to look into, you can reach out to us at
Speaker 1: our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven
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Speaker 1: seven four four six one four five. School of Humans