Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness. Invite
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On June tenth, two thousand and six, twenty one year
Speaker 2: old Deirdre Harm was headed to a night out with friends.
Speaker 3: She had a four month old daughter.
Speaker 2: Named Vegas and had hired a babysitter to watch her.
Speaker 2: She and her friends went out downtown in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: They stopped at a couple of bars, including The Finish
Speaker 2: Line and the Body Shop. What happened toward the end
Speaker 2: of the night is unclear. Witnesses said Deirdre was talking
Speaker 2: with a man whom none of her friends knew. It's
Speaker 2: also not clear which bar Deirdra was at last, but
Speaker 2: the bartender at the finish line said she saw Dedra leave.
Speaker 2: The bartender also said she saw a man leave shortly
Speaker 2: after Deirdre did, and then Deirdre never came home. She
Speaker 2: never called her babysitter. She simply disappeared. The bartender helped
Speaker 2: the Wood County Sheriff's department make a composite sketch of
Speaker 2: the stranger. He was described as having shaggy, dark hair,
Speaker 2: being clean shaven, and having a large tribal tattoo.
Speaker 3: On his left forearm.
Speaker 2: For months, Deirdra's friends and family looked for her. They
Speaker 2: shared her missing poster all around town, but they found
Speaker 2: no trace of Dedra. Five months later, hunters were walking
Speaker 2: through the town of Seneca, a wooded area around five
Speaker 2: miles away from downtown Wisconsin Rapids. They found part of
Speaker 2: a human skeleton, including a skull, and on November twenty second,
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, dental records confirmed these remains were Dedra.
Speaker 2: Harm There had been a lot of deterioration, too much
Speaker 2: for the medical examiners to determine a cause of death.
Speaker 2: Dedra's skeleton had injuries and trauma, but they couldn't tell
Speaker 2: if the damage to her remains happened as a result
Speaker 2: of her murder or if it happened afterward. Since this
Speaker 2: was in a wooded area with animal activity and the
Speaker 2: animals could have been responsible for the bone scattering.
Speaker 3: Police seemed to hit a dead end very quickly.
Speaker 2: They had no suspects, and they didn't even know whether
Speaker 2: Deirdra had been attacked and killed near the bar where
Speaker 2: she was last seen, or if the killer kidnapped her
Speaker 2: and killed her at another location and then dumped the
Speaker 2: body where it was eventually found. The trail went cold
Speaker 2: and Deirdre's murder was unsolved. And then in two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven, another woman was leaving a bar late at night,
Speaker 2: thousands of miles away from where Deirdre vanished, and she
Speaker 2: also disappeared. Police eventually began to believe that they were
Speaker 2: on the trail of a serial killer. This investigation spanned
Speaker 2: nineteen years and several states and focused on a man
Speaker 2: living a double life, a man who police believe is
Speaker 2: responsible for at least three murders and there could be other.
Speaker 3: Victims out there. I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Telling Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
Speaker 2: a small town where murder never happens.
Speaker 3: I have received hundreds of messages from.
Speaker 2: People all around the country asking for help with an
Speaker 2: unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five, or you
Speaker 2: can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Less than a year
Speaker 2: after Deirdre Harm went missing, another woman also vanished. This
Speaker 2: time the woman vanished about seven hundred miles away in Missouri.
Speaker 2: Thirty six year old Renee Williams was a server at
Speaker 2: the Eagles Lodge bar in Ava, Missouri, and on March thirteenth,
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, she was closing up for the night.
Speaker 2: According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Department, Renee was last
Speaker 2: seen at around one thirty am. The night had started
Speaker 2: out as completely ordinary. Renee lived with her boyfriend Tim
Speaker 2: in Mansfield. They had been together for twelve years and
Speaker 2: had three children together, and Tim told police that before
Speaker 2: leaving the lodge that night, Renee had called him to
Speaker 2: say she was on her way home. He said she
Speaker 2: sounded calm, there was no sign of distress. Everything seemed
Speaker 2: completely normal, But then Renee never came home. Tim knew
Speaker 2: immediately something was wrong, especially after he drove by the
Speaker 2: lodge and saw Renee's red Chevy Lumina still parked outside.
Speaker 2: But again there was no sign of Renee, so Tim
Speaker 2: reported her missing to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Police
Speaker 2: released information stating that they were treating Renee's disappearance as
Speaker 2: a stranger abduction. Renee was white, with blonde hair and
Speaker 2: blue eyes, five feet two inches tall, weighing around one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty pounds. She also had some distinctive tattoos,
Speaker 2: two feathers on her right arm, a unicorn head on
Speaker 2: her right ankle, and the letters KSA on her left fingers.
Speaker 2: Police quickly came to the conclusion that the evidence did
Speaker 2: not support Renee leaving the bar on her own. First
Speaker 2: of all, she had called her boyfriend and specifically said
Speaker 2: she was headed home. It seemed as though she had
Speaker 2: closed up normally.
Speaker 3: The doors to the bar were closed.
Speaker 2: And locked, and the receipts from the night sales had
Speaker 2: been locked in the safe. Also, nothing seemed to have
Speaker 2: been taken from inside the bar, and her car was
Speaker 2: left there in the parking lot.
Speaker 3: The only thing.
Speaker 2: Missing was Renee's purse, and Renee was just gone. According
Speaker 2: to an incident report from the Douglas County Sheriff's office,
Speaker 2: there was some blood found on the sidewalk near Rene's car.
Speaker 2: They sent the evidence in for DNA testing. A volunteer
Speaker 2: search party showed up with trained dogs who alerted on
Speaker 2: a dirt road behind the bar. The canines followed the trail,
Speaker 2: which ended about a mile away from the Eagle's Lodge
Speaker 2: on some private property, but there was no trace of Renee,
Speaker 2: any of her belongings, or any other DNA. Rene's family
Speaker 2: and friends made public pleas for information, but they got
Speaker 2: no credible leads. They described her as a devoted mother
Speaker 2: who would never have left her children, and as the
Speaker 2: weeks and months dragged on, they lost even more hope.
Speaker 2: Because Renee never appeared again. No one heard from her,
Speaker 2: records showed. Her phone was never used again, and her
Speaker 2: bank accounts and credit cards were never touched. There was
Speaker 2: no sign anywhere that she was alive after she closed
Speaker 2: up the bar that night, So what happened to Renee Williams.
Speaker 2: One name that came up early in the investigation into
Speaker 2: Renee's disappearance was Christopher Revak. His name apparently got mentioned
Speaker 2: when police were investigating the regulars at the Eagle's Lodge.
Speaker 2: Christopher was someone who occasionally stopped by.
Speaker 3: The bar at the time.
Speaker 2: Christopher Reevak was a thirty five year old EMT who
Speaker 2: lived in Ava, Missouri. He worked in Forsyth, which was
Speaker 2: about a sixty minute commute down a two lane country highway.
Speaker 2: This area is rural. Ava had a population of around
Speaker 2: twenty nine hundred people in two thousand and seven, and
Speaker 2: it's the only incorporated town in that county. Along that highway,
Speaker 2: there are several even less populated communities. But there was
Speaker 2: no evidence, at least from what police could figure out
Speaker 2: early on, that Christopher knew Renee or had ever even
Speaker 2: talked to her. Police had nothing concrete to Lincoln, so
Speaker 2: it seems.
Speaker 3: That they dropped that lead.
Speaker 2: Police scoured a huge area looking for Rene's body eighty
Speaker 2: acres in total, but this was an area with a
Speaker 2: lot of rough terrain, so it was very hard to search.
Speaker 2: Police suspected that her body could have been dumped in
Speaker 2: a wooded area nearby. There are a lot of places
Speaker 2: where a person could hide a body and it would
Speaker 2: be difficult to search the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Several other bodies have been.
Speaker 2: Found in or near the Mark Twain National Forest. They
Speaker 2: have included some cases that made national news, including the
Speaker 2: two thousand and three murder of nineteen year old Becky Sutton.
Speaker 2: Her remains were found in that forest. Eventually, her killer,
Speaker 2: Philip Dodd, was caught and claimed that he strangled Becky
Speaker 2: after she refused his sexual advances. In twenty sixteen, the
Speaker 2: area made news again. John McLachlan murdered and dismembered his
Speaker 2: wife Linda McLaughlin and dumped her body in the forest.
Speaker 2: Police have found other bodies there that did not make
Speaker 2: national news, and many others have gone missing in that
Speaker 2: neck of the woods. As police investigated Renee's murder and
Speaker 2: focused more on Christopher Reeback, a lot more came out
Speaker 2: about his history, though there's not a ton of information about.
Speaker 3: His early life out there. We do know he's from Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: In high school, he met his future wife, Jennifer, and
Speaker 2: around the year two thousand, they moved together to Missouri.
Speaker 2: Was a volunteer firefighter in Strafford from two thousand and
Speaker 2: one to two thousand and three, and then he became
Speaker 2: a paramedic. He worked as an EMT for the Teiney
Speaker 2: County Ambulance District for six years. Eventually, Jennifer and Christopher
Speaker 2: divorced and he met another woman named Joanna, who was
Speaker 2: also from Wisconsin Rapids. Joanna and Christopher got married in
Speaker 2: December of two thousand and six. According to media reports,
Speaker 2: She also worked as an EMT. The ambulance director, Jeff Hawkins,
Speaker 2: who worked with Christopher, told reporters he was shocked by
Speaker 2: the investigation into Christopher. He said Christopher was a good
Speaker 2: worker and that he had no idea that his employee
Speaker 2: could be hiding any kind of dark secrets. Jeff said, quote,
Speaker 2: he never gave us any indication there were any problems.
Speaker 2: He was reliable and we didn't have any problems with him.
Speaker 2: This was a big surprise end quote. And Christopher Reevak
Speaker 2: wasn't just from Wisconsin. He was from one Washington Rapids,
Speaker 2: the same area where Deirdre harm was murdered, and when
Speaker 2: police got the DNA test back from the blood found
Speaker 2: at Renee Williams crime scene, they found that it was
Speaker 2: a match to Christopher Reevack, So they started reinterviewing some
Speaker 2: people they had talked to in the initial stages of
Speaker 2: the investigation into.
Speaker 3: Renee Williams murder.
Speaker 2: They had already searched Christopher Reevack's house in two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven and reportedly found blood that was a match
Speaker 2: to Renee Williams on Christopher's vehicle, as well as on
Speaker 2: a pair of pants taken from Christopher's home. At the time,
Speaker 2: Douglas County deputies felt like they needed more evidence, so
Speaker 2: they talked to Christopher's wife, Joanna, and she had some
Speaker 2: shocking information to give them. When they confronted her with
Speaker 2: the DNA evidence, Joanna told them quote, I did not
Speaker 2: kill or help kill Renee Williams end quote. But she
Speaker 2: did submit a twenty six page handwritten letter to the police.
Speaker 2: In that letter, she admitted she had seen Renee's body
Speaker 2: and that she had helped get rid of crucial evidence.
Speaker 2: She said in the letter that Christopher got home at
Speaker 2: around three forty five am on Tuesday, March thirteenth, two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven, and that when he came home that
Speaker 2: night he had an injury.
Speaker 3: His finger was bleeding.
Speaker 2: She wrote that Christopher told her that he'd slammed his
Speaker 2: finger in the door of his truck, so she helped
Speaker 2: put a bandage on it. Joanna told police that Christopher
Speaker 2: admitted to hurting Renee A few days later. She said
Speaker 2: Christopher told her that after the bar closed, he met
Speaker 2: up with Renee outside. He claimed they were talking about
Speaker 2: having sex. Christopher said he suggested taking Renee home to
Speaker 2: meet Joanna, possibly to have a threesome. Now, at that point,
Speaker 2: he said, Renee got very angry at him and started
Speaker 2: hitting him and screaming and threatening to get him fired.
Speaker 2: Christopher claimed at this point he was just trying to
Speaker 2: calm her down and restrain her, so he said he
Speaker 2: put Renee in a choke hold until she passed out.
Speaker 2: Christopher claimed this was all an accident. He said he
Speaker 2: checked Renee's pulse and tried to give her CPR, but
Speaker 2: that it.
Speaker 3: Was too late she was already dead.
Speaker 2: He claimed he then panicked and instead of calling the police.
Speaker 2: He decided to get rid of the body, so Christopher
Speaker 2: put Renee's body into the bed of his truck and
Speaker 2: started driving home along that route. He said he threw
Speaker 2: her things out of the truck's window. When Christopher got
Speaker 2: home and told Joanna what he claimed happened, she said
Speaker 2: Christopher asked her for help. Christopher told her to drive
Speaker 2: their other car, a Jeep two, in nearby area and
Speaker 2: turn the headlights off, so Joanna said she did that.
Speaker 2: She said she waited for Christopher there and that when
Speaker 2: he arrived, he forced her to help him get rid
Speaker 2: of Renee's body. Joanna wrote in the letter quote, I
Speaker 2: knew that if I said no, he was going to
Speaker 2: hurt me or possibly do to me what he did
Speaker 2: to that girl. I was terrified. I agreed to do
Speaker 2: as he said.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: Joanna also described what Renee was wearing. She said that
Speaker 2: the body was face down with only light colored underwear
Speaker 2: or tights on. This is purely my opinion, but this
Speaker 2: detail jumps out to me a little bit because it
Speaker 2: seems to defy logic. If this whole thing had been
Speaker 2: some kind of an accident, as Christopher claimed, when and
Speaker 2: how exactly did Renee become undressed. However, it's important to
Speaker 2: note here Joanna has never been arrested or charged in
Speaker 2: connection with Renee William's death or in connection with any
Speaker 2: of Christopher Reevac's crimes. Joanna said when she saw the body,
Speaker 2: she was horrified, but she said she did help Christopher
Speaker 2: put Renee's body into the back of their jeep. After that,
Speaker 2: Christopher covered Renee with a tarp and Joanna went home.
Speaker 2: She wrote in her letter that she wanted to tell
Speaker 2: police what she knew, but she felt that she couldn't
Speaker 2: because she was in fear of her life. Joanna wrote
Speaker 2: in the letter quote, I held Sergeant Wieman's card in
Speaker 2: my hand and told myself I have to call, but
Speaker 2: I couldn't. My whole world was crashing in on me.
Speaker 2: I was terrified that Sergeant Widman wouldn't believe me that
Speaker 2: I had absolutely nothing to do with her death, especially
Speaker 2: after helping him get her in the car. I couldn't
Speaker 2: bring myself to call him. I was terrified. End quote.
Speaker 2: Joanna also confessed to having helped Christopher after the fact.
Speaker 2: She said she drove towards Springfield and dumped some evidence
Speaker 2: tarps and a piece of carpeting from the jeep in
Speaker 2: two two separate dumpsters. According to media reports, authorities did
Speaker 2: act on this information that Joanna gave them and searched
Speaker 2: in the area.
Speaker 3: She described.
Speaker 2: They even rented a back hod to dig up the ground,
Speaker 2: but they never found any evidence of Rene's remains.
Speaker 3: Would the County Sheriff's.
Speaker 2: Department Detective Lieutenant Scott Goldberg told Channel seven News that
Speaker 2: police are open to the possibility there may be more
Speaker 2: victims out there. He said he believes it's possible that
Speaker 2: Christopher killed other women, but also he believes there could
Speaker 2: be other victims out there who Christopher attacked who may
Speaker 2: still be alive. If there are, he said he hopes
Speaker 2: to be able to find them. Lieutenant Goldberg also told
Speaker 2: the news channel the information obtained from Joanna made the
Speaker 2: authorities believe there was a quote sexual element to Christopher's
Speaker 2: crimes end quote. On July twenty fifth, two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: Christopher Reevac was arrested at his home and charged with
Speaker 2: Renee Williams's murder. Police tried to question him, but he
Speaker 2: reportedly stayed very calm and quiet and asked for his lawyer.
Speaker 2: But then there was another shocking development in the case
Speaker 2: when the very next day, July twenty six, two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine, Christopher for Revac hanged himself from his prison
Speaker 2: uniform in his cell. Christopher Revac was dead on July
Speaker 2: twenty sixth, two thousand and nine, a few days after
Speaker 2: he'd been charged with Renee Williams murder. Christopher Revac died
Speaker 2: by suicide after hanging himself in his cell. Police believed
Speaker 2: they had enough evidence to convict him, but now he
Speaker 2: never had to face justice, and Renee's family didn't get
Speaker 2: any of their questions answered. But in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: a new sheriff took over in Douglas County.
Speaker 3: His name was CHRISTA. Gase.
Speaker 2: Even though the Renee Williams case was closed, he began
Speaker 2: looking into similar cases that he believed Christopher Revac may
Speaker 2: have been involved with.
Speaker 3: Christa.
Speaker 2: Gase told a local news station that he took what
Speaker 2: he did described as an unconventional approach by doing a
Speaker 2: ton of research on his own. Chris To Gase discovered
Speaker 2: three unsolved killings in two different states, killings that he
Speaker 2: believed were strikingly similar to the one in Ava.
Speaker 3: So CHRISTA.
Speaker 2: Gase got in touch with law enforcement in both states.
Speaker 2: An found connections between Christopher Reevak's known movements and the
Speaker 2: dates when the victims disappeared. One of the cases that
Speaker 2: Christa Gase looked at was Dedre harm. That case, as
Speaker 2: we said, seemed to have hit a complete dead end
Speaker 2: in Wisconsin. Wood County Sheriff Shaan Becker told New Channel
Speaker 2: seven in November of twenty twenty four that back in
Speaker 2: the day, police considered several suspects, including someone who Didre
Speaker 2: had bought drugs from, but he admitted the leeds had
Speaker 2: basically dried up when they got that call from Chris
Speaker 2: to Gase, and Christa Gase was able to establish that
Speaker 2: not only was Christopher Reevac from that area in Wisconsin,
Speaker 2: but Christopher Revac had been in the same bar as
Speaker 2: Deirdre on the night she disappeared. Christa Gase wrote on
Speaker 2: Facebook quote, as I was working on the Renee Williams homicide,
Speaker 2: I did not believe this was the first time Christopher
Speaker 2: Revac had committed a murder. After obtaining Revac's history and
Speaker 2: places he had lived, I began Google searching women abducted
Speaker 2: from bars. That Google search for women abducted from bars
Speaker 2: in Wisconsin Rapids resulted in an article about Dedra Harm's
Speaker 2: abduction with a composite drawing of the last person she
Speaker 2: was seen with. There was no doubt in my mind
Speaker 2: that it was Christopher Revac. I contacted the Wood County
Speaker 2: Sheriff's office and was Conson Rapids PD and provided.
Speaker 3: Them with the suspects.
Speaker 2: I was able to obtain records from Revac's work that
Speaker 2: placed him in was conson Rapids at the time of
Speaker 2: Deedra's abduction. Now nineteen years after her murder, Revac has
Speaker 2: been identified as her killer. Quote. In addition to these
Speaker 2: circumstances surrounding the disappearances, we should also note that the
Speaker 2: Renee Williams composite sketch looked almost identical to Christopher Reevack.
Speaker 2: Christopher's wife, Joanna, was also able to fill in some
Speaker 2: of the gaps around the Dedra Harm investigation. Joanna had
Speaker 2: told police she and Christopher had traveled back to Wisconsin,
Speaker 2: where they were both from several times, and she was
Speaker 2: also able to confirm some dates and confirmed a police
Speaker 2: that they were on a trip back to Washington Rapids
Speaker 2: with their daughter during the dates.
Speaker 3: When Deirdre Harm disappeared from the bar.
Speaker 2: Joanna told investigators her husband had gone out by himself
Speaker 2: one night during that trip. She said he left around
Speaker 2: sunset and didn't come home until around five am, and
Speaker 2: when he did finally come home, Joanna said, Christopher was
Speaker 2: covered in mud. He told her his truck got stuck
Speaker 2: in the mud and he had to dig it out.
Speaker 2: Joanna said that his truck and his clothing were both
Speaker 2: so filthy that he washed them twice, and there was
Speaker 2: something else she said that was weirdly memorable. Joanna said
Speaker 2: there was a family party during that visit and that
Speaker 2: after the party, Christopher insisted Joanna cut his hair short
Speaker 2: so he had a totally different look, and then he
Speaker 2: dressed up in the same clothes they'd been out at
Speaker 2: the party and made all of their relatives retake all
Speaker 2: of the photos with his new haircut, and she said he.
Speaker 3: Made them delete the originals.
Speaker 2: Joanna said Christopher had anger issues and that when he drank,
Speaker 2: he got aggressive. Police also talked to one of Christopher's
Speaker 2: friends from high school, who said that Chris was triggered
Speaker 2: when women rejected him and that he could become very angry.
Speaker 2: Could that have happened in the case of Dedra harm
Speaker 2: The area where Deirdre's body was found may also provide
Speaker 2: some clues. News Channel seven did an interview with Sheriff Beck,
Speaker 2: who told them that the remote area where Dedra's body
Speaker 2: was found was a party spot for teens and a
Speaker 2: place for hanging out, but also for dumping trash.
Speaker 3: He said that it was also.
Speaker 2: An area where people regularly ride ATVs. Apparently Christopher had
Speaker 2: partied there in the past and also had an ATV
Speaker 2: that he liked to borrow from his brother. News Channel
Speaker 2: seven reported that the ATV had, according to the sheriff,
Speaker 2: been seen around town on the night Deedre disappeared. Chris
Speaker 2: de Gay says he believes there is a very high
Speaker 2: probability that Christopher Reeback was involved in even more murders
Speaker 2: than the ones he's already found.
Speaker 3: He can't say exactly how many.
Speaker 2: Or give details because a lot of them are still
Speaker 2: ongoing investigations, but we do have some details for at
Speaker 2: least one, a nineteen ninety five murder in Mason City, Iowa.
Speaker 2: The disappearance of twenty seven year old Jodi Housenttrute had
Speaker 2: been a mystery for decades. Jody was a local news anchor.
Speaker 2: She anchored the six am news, so her day started early.
Speaker 2: On June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five, she didn't show
Speaker 2: up at her usual start time three am, so Jody's producer,
Speaker 2: Amy called her to wake her up.
Speaker 3: This was at around four am.
Speaker 2: Apparently Jody did sometimes oversleep, so this part wasn't totally
Speaker 2: out of the ordinary. But what was out of the
Speaker 2: ordinary was when Jody didn't answer her phone at all,
Speaker 2: when Amy made a second phone call, and when she
Speaker 2: didn't arrive for work. Jody's apartment was only five minutes away,
Speaker 2: so Amy knew something was very wrong.
Speaker 3: Sometimes Jody would be a little.
Speaker 2: Bit late, but she was always there with her act
Speaker 2: together by the time she was on the air at
Speaker 2: six am. At first, police didn't immediately suspect foul play.
Speaker 3: They reportedly believed that maybe she had.
Speaker 2: Gone somewhere on her own, but when police arrived on
Speaker 2: the scene at Jody's apartment complex, they found on signs
Speaker 2: of a potential struggle.
Speaker 3: Next to her red Miata. They found Jody's.
Speaker 2: Shoes, a blow dryer, and her car key, which was bent.
Speaker 2: They treated Jody's case as a kidnapping, and they searched
Speaker 2: for her everywhere. Jody was beautiful and friendly and had
Speaker 2: a public facing job, so a lot of people knew
Speaker 2: who she was. That meant police were dealing with a
Speaker 2: large pool of potential suspects. Police were trying to figure
Speaker 2: out if Jody's abductor had been someone she knew or
Speaker 2: a stranger, But despite a lot of tips and police
Speaker 2: investigating several leads, including a friend of hers who was
Speaker 2: hanging out with her the night before she disappeared, nothing
Speaker 2: ever panned out. No sign of Jody was ever found.
Speaker 2: For three decades, the case was still unsolved, but then
Speaker 2: Chris Degas in his investigation, showed that Christopher Reevak had
Speaker 2: ties to Mason City. Chris de Gaze told KYFE three
Speaker 2: news that Christopher had previously been a person of interest
Speaker 2: in Jody's disappearance. He said at that time Christopher had
Speaker 2: a girlfriend, someone who lived very close to Jody, and
Speaker 2: that after his investigation, he believed it's highly likely, based
Speaker 2: on just Christopher's proximity to her.
Speaker 3: That he killed Jody.
Speaker 2: In December of last year, Sergeant Terrence Perchaska, the lead
Speaker 2: investigator on the Jody Housen truth case, traveled to Wisconsin
Speaker 2: to meet with investigators overseeing the dedre harm case and
Speaker 2: to compare notes on Christopher Revack. The most compelling thread
Speaker 2: that tied Christopher Reevac to Jody Housen truth is the
Speaker 2: fact that Christopher's first wife, then his girlfriend, Jennifer, was
Speaker 2: living in Mason City in nineteen ninety five when Jody disappeared.
Speaker 2: Jennifer and Chris, as we said before, got married and
Speaker 2: eventually moved down to Missouri, but Jennifer didn't stay there
Speaker 2: the whole time. At one point, according to what Christopher's
Speaker 2: his brother said, Jennifer lived in Mason City, the same
Speaker 2: town as Jody, and Jennifer apparently lived in the same
Speaker 2: duplex as Jody's close friend John, the last known person
Speaker 2: to see Jody alive. According to Sergeant Prechaska, Jennifer moved
Speaker 2: out of John's building three months before Jody disappeared, and
Speaker 2: Jennifer also told police Christopher never visited her during that time.
Speaker 2: So there's no definitive proof that Christopher Reevac was in
Speaker 2: Mason City, but investigators have said they believe Christopher may
Speaker 2: have traveled there to look for Jennifer.
Speaker 3: At that time.
Speaker 2: Apparently they had split up, and they believe he may
Speaker 2: have been looking for her at that address, maybe because
Speaker 2: he didn't know she had already moved out. Investigators believe
Speaker 2: if Christopher was hanging around that apartment complex, there's a
Speaker 2: possibility that he could have run into Jody at some
Speaker 2: point and started stalking her. It would not have been
Speaker 2: hard to figure out Jody's work schedule, she was on
Speaker 2: a very regular routine. Christa Gase, the investigator, said that
Speaker 2: he didn't believe in coincidence.
Speaker 3: Christopher was a suspected serial.
Speaker 2: Killer and he had a connection to the address next door,
Speaker 2: So just based on that, Christa Gase thought there was
Speaker 2: a high probability that Jody.
Speaker 3: Was another one of Christopher Revac's victims.
Speaker 2: The only thing that's an outlier in Jody's case was
Speaker 2: the time of day. She wasn't abducted late at night
Speaker 2: after closing time in a bar. She was abducted at
Speaker 2: the crack of dawn. But presumably her killer knew that
Speaker 2: the parking lot would be fairly deserted in the early
Speaker 2: morning hours of June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five. So
Speaker 2: what's next with these investigations?
Speaker 3: What's next with.
Speaker 2: These Investigations instigator CHRISTA Gase said that he is following
Speaker 2: police protocol to move toward the Renee Williams case being
Speaker 2: officially closed. I think that this investigation is a great
Speaker 2: example of how a police officer, CHRISTA Gase went.
Speaker 3: Above and beyond.
Speaker 2: His case was already officially closed, but he went that
Speaker 2: extra step to try to bring justice and closure to
Speaker 2: family members desperately in need of answers, which I'm sure
Speaker 2: they will never forget. Deirdre Harm's case is also on
Speaker 2: its way to being officially closed. On Monday, October twentieth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, the Wood County Sheriff's office posted a
Speaker 2: letter on Facebook from the local district attorney, Jonathan Barnett.
Speaker 2: He wrote, quote, I consider this case closed. I believe
Speaker 2: I had enough to charge and if mister Reevak was
Speaker 2: still alive to win at trial.
Speaker 3: End quote. CHRISTA.
Speaker 2: Gase also talked to reporters about his insights into Christopher Reeback.
Speaker 2: He said he was interested in the way that Christopher
Speaker 2: had covered things up and the extent he went to
Speaker 2: hide things. He said quote, it was obvious he was
Speaker 2: leading a double second life end quote. Christa Gase told
Speaker 2: the news channel KY three. Quote, We're dealing with what's
Speaker 2: possibly a serial killer. During his day, he's doing his
Speaker 2: deed to society and helping people and saving people. But
Speaker 2: there was a dark side to Christopher Revac end quote.
Speaker 3: Douglas County Sheriff CHRISTA.
Speaker 2: Gaze has said he is happy that they have been
Speaker 2: able to identify some of Christopher Reevack's victims so far
Speaker 2: and hopefully to bring closure to their families. He wrote
Speaker 2: on social media, quote, this is why I do this job.
Speaker 2: I am happy that I could be a small part
Speaker 2: of this investigation to bring justice and hopefully some closure.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: But the investigation into Christopher Reevac is still continuing. Investigators
Speaker 2: still don't have concrete proof about when or if he
Speaker 2: was in Mason City around the time when Jody disappeared
Speaker 2: on June twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five. It has been
Speaker 2: reported that they do have evidence indicating he was in
Speaker 2: Wisconsin on June seventeenth and on July ninth, nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 2: but there are a lot of dates missing in between
Speaker 2: that police just aren't sure about. So Jody's investigation is
Speaker 2: still open. Finally, could there be more victims? Out there.
Speaker 2: Police and social media sleuths have been going through past
Speaker 2: cases looking for similarities. Two of Chris's victims were last
Speaker 2: seen either in or outside bars at closing time. Renee
Speaker 2: was an employee of the bar, Deirdre was a customer.
Speaker 2: As we said before, Jody was the only outlier. She
Speaker 2: was leaving for work, but it was once again in
Speaker 2: a deserted parking lot. Some online commenters have pointed to
Speaker 2: another case, a twenty year old woman named Crystal Ehrensdorff,
Speaker 2: who went missing after a night out with friends at
Speaker 2: a bar in downtown Dubuque, Iowa. They were watching fireworks
Speaker 2: because it was July fourth, two thousand and one, and
Speaker 2: then she never came home. Police questioned Cristel's boyfriend and
Speaker 2: some of her friends, and apparently they were all cleared.
Speaker 2: Christopher Reevac would have been twenty eight years old at
Speaker 2: the time. The news channel KCRG reported on the similarities
Speaker 2: between Crystal's disappearance and Christopher's other victims and stated in
Speaker 2: an article that they had contacted the Dubukee Police Department
Speaker 2: with the information they compiled. There's a lot we still
Speaker 2: don't know about Christopher Reevac's life and a lot of
Speaker 2: missing years. The Wood County Sheriff's Department has publicly stated
Speaker 2: that they would like any victims of Christopher's or anyone
Speaker 2: who encountered him to come forward, and Sheriff CHRISTA. Gase
Speaker 2: told The Columbia, Missouri that Christopher Revac could be tied
Speaker 2: to as many as four other cases in several different states.
Speaker 2: There could be more dead bodies still out there. I'm
Speaker 2: Katherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone
Speaker 2: Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend
Speaker 2: and produced by Etaly's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tubbs
Speaker 2: for her research assistance and James Wheaton.
Speaker 3: For legal review.
Speaker 2: Noah Camera mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
Speaker 2: is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
Speaker 2: and ELC.
Speaker 3: Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: are interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into. You can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
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