Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
Speaker 1: those of the authors and participants and do not necessarily
Speaker 1: represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
Speaker 1: This series contains discussions of violence and sexual violence. Listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. Previously on Algorithm, police in haim In,
Speaker 1: Indiana investigated Africa Hardy's murder. What time do you think
Speaker 1: you got the hotel? Police learned Africa had last spoken
Speaker 1: with her friend Shamika at five thirteen. Africa told her
Speaker 1: a client had just arrived at her motel room. What
Speaker 1: number did you call her from? Number? Police worked through
Speaker 1: the night and use cell phone records and surveillance footage
Speaker 1: to track down the vehicle the suspect had driven. They
Speaker 1: learned that the jeep and cell phone were both registered
Speaker 1: to a woman named Regina Beard. Two officers drove out
Speaker 1: to her home and Gary, Indiana, and in front of
Speaker 1: the house was the blue jeep they were looking for.
Speaker 1: From my Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, this is Algorithm,
Speaker 1: I'm ben key Brick. The lead detective on the case,
Speaker 1: Sean Ford, and his supervisor, Captain Zeke Kinajosa, also traveled
Speaker 1: out to the suspects home. Together, the officers went up
Speaker 1: to the house and knocked on the door. A young
Speaker 1: woman answered. They told her that they had a warrant
Speaker 1: to search the home, and she let them in. Inside,
Speaker 1: Kinahosa saw a bald man in his mid forties that
Speaker 1: resembled the man that they'd seen on the motel's surveillance footage,
Speaker 1: and they saw a puffy jacket hanging on a chair
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, similar to the one the suspect had
Speaker 1: been wearing. Kinajosa instructed the bald man to come into
Speaker 1: the living room, but the man stood his ground. Again.
Speaker 1: Hinahosa demanded that the man surrender himself to police, and
Speaker 1: again the man didn't comply. Two officers rushed him, threw
Speaker 1: him to the ground, and handcuffed him. Police then secured
Speaker 1: the building. Detective Ford brought the young woman who'd answered
Speaker 1: the door into a side room. He asked her if
Speaker 1: anyone had been driving the blue jeep. She said yes,
Speaker 1: the man they had handcuffed had driven it. He was
Speaker 1: her uncle, Darren Vaughan, and he'd been looking after her
Speaker 1: while her mother was on vacation. Detective Ford returned to
Speaker 1: the kitchen and helped the suspect Darren Von up from
Speaker 1: the ground. Ford asked Vaughan if he knew why they
Speaker 1: were there. Vaughn told them that he did know, and
Speaker 1: said that he'd messed up by leaving Gary. Vaughn said
Speaker 1: he was surprised by how quickly police had located him.
Speaker 1: He said that Gary police don't work on weekends. Detective
Speaker 1: Ford noticed a button was missing from Vaughn's shirt, and
Speaker 1: he remembered that they'd found a button in the motel
Speaker 1: room where Africa had been killed. When they further searched
Speaker 1: the house, they found Africa Hardias missing cell phone on
Speaker 1: top of a cabinet in the kitchen. Beside it was
Speaker 1: an extension cord with its ends cut off. Police informed
Speaker 1: Vaughan that he was under arrest and they put him
Speaker 1: in the back of a squad car. According to a
Speaker 1: police report, Vond told the officers in the car to
Speaker 1: bring a prosecutor down to the station. He said that
Speaker 1: the district attorney would want to hear what he had
Speaker 1: to say. At the station, he asked the booking officers
Speaker 1: for toilet paper and started to cry. He said that
Speaker 1: he was tired and just wanted to get this all
Speaker 1: over and done with. At eight thirty pm on Saturday
Speaker 1: oct Detective Forward and Captain Hinojosa brought Vaughan into a
Speaker 1: small room. It was the exact same room that Shamika
Speaker 1: had sat in the night before. You want some and
Speaker 1: what you're about to hear has never before been made public.
Speaker 1: That's Vawn. They're asking if police had done the two
Speaker 1: things that he asked them to do. It's a strange interview.
Speaker 1: Vaughn is trying to cut himself some kind of a
Speaker 1: deal and the detectives want him to talk, but they
Speaker 1: also need to follow procedure and we're not going to
Speaker 1: pressure you. Everything today is kind of your own free
Speaker 1: willy right here? All right, that's Detective Sean Ford. Like
Speaker 1: I said before, if you understand each of these, I
Speaker 1: want you to put your initials next to him because
Speaker 1: it shows we went over the phone together. He has
Speaker 1: Vaughn read through his Miranda rights. Is there anything that
Speaker 1: you need to explain? No, And that's Captain Kinejosa. We
Speaker 1: got me all nervous. I feel like I mean and
Speaker 1: evaluate today with my bossing around here, I don't like
Speaker 1: to try to play themerga scientists around trying to play
Speaker 1: some camp, mouse games or something like that. Can come
Speaker 1: here kind of tell a something anyway? All right, I
Speaker 1: knew y'all come about me the fake on purpose? Okay?
Speaker 1: What in your own words? What would you say has
Speaker 1: brought you here today inside of this room with us?
Speaker 1: Why do you think you were arrested? Especial? I'm like Hamley,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say a MURDERKA say murder, A murder of who?
Speaker 1: I can't really give her night because I don't know
Speaker 1: her night? Okay, that occurred where I don't really know?
Speaker 1: Y'all road saying a multa which one see mot y'all sex?
Speaker 1: All right? Remember the rule number? Just not talking from
Speaker 1: putney deal a good? Right? Okay, Well here's here's what
Speaker 1: are your concerns? What are you looking for it? Because
Speaker 1: here's our thing. We can't necessarily play take a deal
Speaker 1: anyone legally? Is you ready? We can't promise you anything,
Speaker 1: but just why to say? Folk? So well, let me
Speaker 1: let me just what are you trying to get out
Speaker 1: of this? How a my and put the death before
Speaker 1: my next birthday? The deal that Bond wants is to
Speaker 1: be put to death before his next birthday. I want
Speaker 1: to put the death before my next birthday. Okay, that
Speaker 1: that would almost be five. You got death ros your
Speaker 1: multiple murders, I give you. I can get death. But
Speaker 1: listen real quick here. They don't have to say out
Speaker 1: that quick thought. Wait. Wait, I noticed for faith, because
Speaker 1: if I wave on my rights, I give you three
Speaker 1: or four murders. I had a right you put to death,
Speaker 1: and I'm willing to give you the body and a location.
Speaker 1: I think they will give him my death row. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you that are they all locally? And then yeah,
Speaker 1: I can give you anything. I could give some out
Speaker 1: of inn but had then I would have. We don't
Speaker 1: need a better deal with y'all. You can just talk
Speaker 1: about it now. I have to go to deal because
Speaker 1: I have to make sure I get death row. Then
Speaker 1: Von tells them that he doesn't want to go through
Speaker 1: a trial in the whole legal process. Instead, he wants
Speaker 1: to sign a plea bargain guaranteeing him the death penalty
Speaker 1: in exchange for confessing to other murders. Y'all got one.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get y'all areas, But that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor doesn't really look into things until we complete
Speaker 1: our investigation. I'm trying to give them death. Then give
Speaker 1: y'all the bodies. So for the one we have, imple
Speaker 1: did that purpose, so y'all't even have to do a
Speaker 1: DNA out of Well, let's listen, if we can do this,
Speaker 1: want to get through it and have the conversation and
Speaker 1: match it up with the evidence we already have, and
Speaker 1: we we can establish your credibility that you're legit, because say,
Speaker 1: you could be crazy. You could be sitting here and
Speaker 1: talking some man Crady on five eight Motail six, Room one,
Speaker 1: five eight. That's all there for you. Room was the
Speaker 1: motel room where Africa's body was found. Information that Vaughan
Speaker 1: would have no reason to know unless he was involved
Speaker 1: in the murder. That is right. Now, are do you
Speaker 1: believe that you're here to be questioned about it or
Speaker 1: are you saying that you did it? I'm here to
Speaker 1: be question about the coach. I'm not sure that's why
Speaker 1: you dollar agrests the game. Well, of course that's part
Speaker 1: of all of completing and that's fairly recent, right, this
Speaker 1: is Friday. So going back to the question, and you
Speaker 1: know you're saying that you know you're not wanting to
Speaker 1: contest the issue, but this one makes rigue out. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I understand what I'm gonna do what
Speaker 1: you won't at your room one five mates, I only
Speaker 1: reason I know that I knew it. I can even
Speaker 1: tell you where you found the body? Where do we
Speaker 1: find the body in a shower with the water running?
Speaker 1: What happened that part? I'm not really sure about. I
Speaker 1: know where I put it after but during my act rays,
Speaker 1: I really don't remember a lot of stuff. So you
Speaker 1: get enjoy it. Act always always Okay, okay, how how
Speaker 1: did you get connected with this person in this room?
Speaker 1: How did you get connected? She had a head? We're
Speaker 1: right crazy? Okay, do you remember anything about that? And
Speaker 1: specifically you've got a picture in it where she has
Speaker 1: curly hair. That's a long enough, that's a picture I
Speaker 1: caught mine. Bond said that in the ad Africa went
Speaker 1: by the name Octavia, which lined up with what Shamika
Speaker 1: had told police. As a warning, this next section gets
Speaker 1: very graphic, but I think it's important to acknowledge the
Speaker 1: reality of Vaughan's crimes. I'm also compete her earlier baby sitting.
Speaker 1: She called me back, I sure was higg and I
Speaker 1: went what was she by herself in the room. Did
Speaker 1: you have to have any drinks or anything like that
Speaker 1: in there? Try not to drink makes your worst? Did
Speaker 1: you pay her the money right away as soon as
Speaker 1: you walked in? Yeah, I thought I had little bath room.
Speaker 1: Went to the bathroom. She got undressed from the bottom down.
Speaker 1: I got undressed. Really be we kinda said, she saunds
Speaker 1: too rough. Factually I'm really rough. And I didn't really
Speaker 1: give her a time though. You just right to get adjusted, right,
Speaker 1: And then she started like crying. She started crying, right,
Speaker 1: you let me keep going for man, I guess when
Speaker 1: I didn't slow down and you get mad and hit me,
Speaker 1: and she's trying to say, you mean to hit anybody?
Speaker 1: It was too late. I started choking her. And after
Speaker 1: that is anybody's ball game? What were you choking her?
Speaker 1: Was at first with my hand. Is this that anger
Speaker 1: we're trying to controller, not a thought anger because she
Speaker 1: struck me? Is your choking or did she continue this trouble? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: this shooms consciousness. Have your same person choked? Yeah? Where
Speaker 1: they're they're not unconscious, but they're not I don't know
Speaker 1: how to say it. They're defenseless. Yeah, they're defenseless. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do your best words to say defense us, Like I
Speaker 1: told you, get funnic. I know I hit her and
Speaker 1: I threw off the bed. I remember that, I remember
Speaker 1: showing it. I don't know any talents like he. I
Speaker 1: know I hit her close best. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know if our karality character because I remember my
Speaker 1: hand going up coming down. I remember a knee And
Speaker 1: now I just know I choked her. I couldn't even
Speaker 1: say I just choked her. You ever get so made
Speaker 1: like and then when you realize what you did, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I made like a big mistake. I know
Speaker 1: she was dead when she hit the floor. When she
Speaker 1: one day, it definitely made me reached for the horde.
Speaker 1: I was like, I gotta finished this. When I first
Speaker 1: heard this part of the confession, my heart dropped. Bon
Speaker 1: said is that when Africa hit him, he went into
Speaker 1: a blind rage and started choking her. When he calmed
Speaker 1: down and gained awareness about what had happened, Von thought
Speaker 1: that he had killed Africa and panicked, but he hadn't
Speaker 1: actually killed her. She started stirring, and now outside of
Speaker 1: his rage, Von made the conscious decision to strangle her
Speaker 1: to death already almost killed her, like I'm out of whale, finished,
Speaker 1: And I was like, it's kind of like a pang,
Speaker 1: because that wasn't the purpose of me going here. Okay,
Speaker 1: there wasn't a purpose, but in your mind you had
Speaker 1: almost killed her pride, And I was like you You're
Speaker 1: got have stopped, right. I couldn't, yeah, because but you didn't.
Speaker 1: I did. If you would have stopped and just left.
Speaker 1: What did you feel when a pet I'm the very prisoner,
Speaker 1: he said. I had to kill her with all of
Speaker 1: like instincts I always reached for in the year's weapon
Speaker 1: was record tell she NiFe? Always weapon? In this particular
Speaker 1: resident STI cord centric cork. Where was that a carr
Speaker 1: An e cure guy anymore? The detectives are confused about this.
Speaker 1: If he wasn't intending to kill Africa, why did he
Speaker 1: bring gloves and a weapon with him to the motel.
Speaker 1: His response was that he always carries these things with him.
Speaker 1: The weapon, I can imagine maybe for self defense. The
Speaker 1: gloves though, just in case he needs to dispose of
Speaker 1: a body. If a snap always carry up her gloves?
Speaker 1: What kind of gloves? I know? We could have been
Speaker 1: a row one he could have been a white ones
Speaker 1: are Swiss gloves or Swiss clothes? I swish so much
Speaker 1: stuff have been joined this for years now? What's the
Speaker 1: purpose of wearing the gloves? May surely your favorite print.
Speaker 1: I can't decide if I believe him that Africa's murder
Speaker 1: wasn't premeditated, or if he's just lying for some reason,
Speaker 1: trying to justify the murder through twisted logic. Obviously he's
Speaker 1: not trying to escape a conviction. He willingly admits he's
Speaker 1: guilty of murdering her, But maybe this is the way
Speaker 1: that he tries to justify the murder to himself. We're
Speaker 1: faced with a problem here, one that we're often faced
Speaker 1: with in cases like this. Only Vaughan knows many of
Speaker 1: the details of what he did, and only he knows
Speaker 1: why he did it. But when someone cares so little
Speaker 1: about others that they're willing to murder a stranger in
Speaker 1: cold blood, I don't think they're going to lose any
Speaker 1: sleep about lying. How did you get her to the
Speaker 1: bathroom drug not to wear a shower? I'm there, I'll
Speaker 1: fighting stuff moment. Reasons for doing that. I hadn't always
Speaker 1: moved victims do you always put the victims in the
Speaker 1: same place. No, never wait, are you see Jill and
Speaker 1: I can't bring you over an away and you could
Speaker 1: that bring another during this Eventually you'll be able to know. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to. You don't want you right because
Speaker 1: I want my dad grow and I can't have more
Speaker 1: than one stay fighting. That's only that would prolong the process.
Speaker 1: All right, Talent can get you out of stuff that's recent.
Speaker 1: How many people are you responsible for killing? Said this lifetime.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even too and Indiana, I said, I couldn't
Speaker 1: even tell you. I could tell you the ones I
Speaker 1: want to give you, I can't tell you the ones
Speaker 1: that would incriminating somebody else. Okay, the ones that you
Speaker 1: want to give us. Are they all males or females?
Speaker 1: I'm going to give your female a female the male
Speaker 1: if I can't give you because I was paid to
Speaker 1: do them, okay, and that would put somebody else. What's
Speaker 1: you're concerned about? That? My me going on? But we've
Speaker 1: always had to code. We don't never put nobody else
Speaker 1: the females. How are these females skilled? All strang like? Well,
Speaker 1: trying to think har one knife? Oh my gun? They
Speaker 1: will kill the female, would have done not in Indiana.
Speaker 1: Never killed a female with a gun in Indiana. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think it's a knife line in Indiana. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do between Primes and India. They were all strangled.
Speaker 1: The one I'm gonna give you all the strangled. That's
Speaker 1: the best way I could say it. Okay, are there
Speaker 1: any other big ones in Hammond? In Hammon? Not that
Speaker 1: I asked here? One was the other victims from Anna.
Speaker 1: In so many years, I'm done a crime. I'm in
Speaker 1: heaven in so many years. How can you remember? There
Speaker 1: was a There was a girl a long time ago
Speaker 1: whose body was on the railroad tracks. Most of the
Speaker 1: victims that Hargrave's algorithm had identified were found in the
Speaker 1: city of Gary, but one victim, Yvonne Wallace, was actually
Speaker 1: found in Hammond, strangled near some train tracks in the
Speaker 1: summer of ninety six, eighteen years earlier. There's one girl
Speaker 1: had it. There's one girl in him, and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I have claimed the body, so I wouldn't know where
Speaker 1: she's at. I said, haven't joined this for years. I'm
Speaker 1: on trying to get one as close because I remember
Speaker 1: what about any that the bodies I never found. That's
Speaker 1: trying to give you not probably give you two four?
Speaker 1: Can we can we start with with this real quick
Speaker 1: like obviously this incident Hanton on Friday. What is freshest
Speaker 1: in your mind from there? That the one murder just
Speaker 1: previous to the Motel State Ranky, the one before the
Speaker 1: Motio State State. Here, Darren Vaughan says he can't give
Speaker 1: detectives information about the murderer he committed just before Africa Hardy,
Speaker 1: because it took place out of state and he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to involve other jurisdictions. I want to point this
Speaker 1: out because they'll soon change his story. We can't always
Speaker 1: know when Vaughn is telling the truth, but we can
Speaker 1: catch him in lies when he contradicts himself. We can
Speaker 1: learn something important from these lies about the extent and
Speaker 1: the nature of his crimes. Ranky, the one before the
Speaker 1: Motio State State, the one before him. It's somebody I
Speaker 1: knew changing well that obviously, that would be an easy
Speaker 1: one to start with if you know her well. I
Speaker 1: don't know where nor like I know where from the streets.
Speaker 1: Her nickname on the streets was cast where she was
Speaker 1: a prostitute. She's a Caucasian, but the real big here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as you said, some people say bev w she's thirty two.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put it not older because she is.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think so, yes, I don't know this blonde
Speaker 1: or brown? My color blind. So where'd you kill hern? Oh?
Speaker 1: So you're gonna tell you that the coach in the
Speaker 1: house I killed her? And Gary all even Gary, I'm
Speaker 1: giving you so gaspers bodies inside of a an abandoned house.
Speaker 1: Yeahs her inside of things. And I believe that that
Speaker 1: you kind of want to put it into this, But
Speaker 1: would you be willing to to take us and I
Speaker 1: mean almost, I mean I don't always you call it
Speaker 1: like a field trip and just show us your word produence.
Speaker 1: I don't really call it work. I call even my
Speaker 1: mistakes because they didn't really they did something that trigger
Speaker 1: my hanger where I was already angered, but they really
Speaker 1: like cass or cast for with my friends eyes being
Speaker 1: to kill her, what are we going to recover her body?
Speaker 1: I would do a cash for the part because she
Speaker 1: was my friend, she was a good person. We could
Speaker 1: take that right. What we're probably gonna do is we'll
Speaker 1: probably put you in some legs shadows, because this is
Speaker 1: not something we do every day. You take this to
Speaker 1: cash for this Friday, and I'll if I was goin
Speaker 1: to cash the prosecutors, right, I will give you other
Speaker 1: fire someone you promised me they're gonna give me there
Speaker 1: pro al Right, go ahead and stand up where hand
Speaker 1: cups back on your right. If it isn't already clear
Speaker 1: at this point, this isn't if you've done it. Where
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out who killed Africa Hardy Darren
Speaker 1: Vaughan killed Africa instead. This is a story exploring how
Speaker 1: the police and Gary ignored the signs that there was
Speaker 1: a killer on the loose targeting women in the area.
Speaker 1: They ignored hargrooves warnings when he sent them the letter
Speaker 1: about the algorithm, and they ignored other more obvious clues
Speaker 1: as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. On October
Speaker 1: at eleven PM, Vaughn told police he'd take them to
Speaker 1: one of the recent murders he'd committed in Indiana. He
Speaker 1: told them he couldn't take them to the most recent
Speaker 1: murder before Africa, whereas he knew her Octavia, because he
Speaker 1: said that murder took place out of state and he
Speaker 1: didn't want to involve other jurisdictions. Instead, he offered to
Speaker 1: take them to the body of a woman that he
Speaker 1: knew as Casper. But before they were even out the
Speaker 1: door of the interrogation room, Vaughan changed his mind. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they found her, and I I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if chars we see wish book, I'll take you
Speaker 1: to her body. Before I was there for this racing. Now,
Speaker 1: Vaughan was saying that he could take them to the
Speaker 1: murder directly before Africa, and he was saying that it
Speaker 1: wasn't out of state. In fact, the murder had occurred
Speaker 1: in northwest Indiana and the body was in Gary. Investigators
Speaker 1: didn't call him out about the discrepancy. I'm not sure why,
Speaker 1: but I wonder if that's because they weren't sure if
Speaker 1: any of what he was saying was true. But he
Speaker 1: promised them a body and they wanted to investigate. With
Speaker 1: Vaughan in handcuffs that linked to the front of his
Speaker 1: belt and shackles around his feet, Ford walked him out
Speaker 1: to a squad car, where they met Officer Kelly Mickey.
Speaker 1: What made you decide to get done? I was tired,
Speaker 1: she wrote in a police report that as she talked
Speaker 1: to On, she tried to mirror his emotions, a technique
Speaker 1: cops used to keep suspects talking, but she struggled to
Speaker 1: mirror him because he was so relaxed and casual while
Speaker 1: he described horrific events and scenes. How long does it take?
Speaker 1: Is it always the same? What do you mean to
Speaker 1: kill a person? Yeah? What you kill them with? Like you?
Speaker 1: Your thing seems to be strangulation? One thing now with strangleletion,
Speaker 1: because I'm not what we would have gone. So do
Speaker 1: they ever plead for their life? They? Like? Do they
Speaker 1: beg you? That's not like I'm not going to I'm
Speaker 1: not going to. Oh they're trying to just get away
Speaker 1: now when you're actually strangling them? Do they no? But
Speaker 1: I mean do they like as anything? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what I want to ask you?
Speaker 1: You want to ask? No, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: how I'm there are I've never killed a human. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never killed a cup. You never shot? No, No,
Speaker 1: I've been bust I've been busted that way sixteen years.
Speaker 1: So I almost shot a couple of people, but God's intervened.
Speaker 1: Did not let the hand the streets. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: just became a detective. Okay, well, yeah, I worked the
Speaker 1: streets for sixteen years. You've been shot at. I know
Speaker 1: you've been shot at. Yeah, I didn't shot at somebody
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago and hand. Yeah, police called the right
Speaker 1: m In fact, they almost arrested me with the office
Speaker 1: shooting me down. When he's shaking me down, he made
Speaker 1: the gun fall to the ground. So I just kicking
Speaker 1: the ground while you're searching. Some cops are stupid, ain't they.
Speaker 1: It's like, we don't pay attention. He couldn't have seen it, yeah,
Speaker 1: but they just don't pay attention. It was too dark.
Speaker 1: I made sure it's the dark while I stopped to
Speaker 1: walk day and I walked off and walk back and
Speaker 1: got the gun its folds. Vond told them the body
Speaker 1: wasn't an abandoned home, but he couldn't give them exact
Speaker 1: directions to the building because he had always walked there,
Speaker 1: taking shortcuts through abandoned lots. Eventually they made it out
Speaker 1: to the four hundred block of East Avenue in Gary.
Speaker 1: It was a thin suburban road, and like many parts
Speaker 1: of Gary, it's riddled with abandoned homes. Sections of the
Speaker 1: street shift abruptly. A string of houses will be well
Speaker 1: maintained with manicured blonds, only for the next three houses
Speaker 1: to be boarded up and so overgrown with weeds that
Speaker 1: you can't even see the sidewalk. The home where Von
Speaker 1: guided them was completely dark. It looked as if it
Speaker 1: had been recently abandoned. It was isolated from nearby houses
Speaker 1: by overgrown shrubs at the edges of the yard. Bond
Speaker 1: told them that the body wasn't inside this home, but
Speaker 1: in a smaller, more decrepit brick building behind the house.
Speaker 1: He told them to drive around the corner to a
Speaker 1: gravel alleyway that ran behind the buildings. Police still weren't
Speaker 1: sure if Vaughn was telling them the truth or leading
Speaker 1: them on a wild goose chase. They asked him where
Speaker 1: exactly they'd find the body. In her police report, Detective
Speaker 1: Mickey remembered Vaughan's voice taking on a creepy tone. Vaughn
Speaker 1: told them to enter the back of the building. He
Speaker 1: said that there was a door that went down into
Speaker 1: a seller like basement. He told them to be careful
Speaker 1: because the basement was pitch black and they need to
Speaker 1: watch out for large rats or wild dogs, and he
Speaker 1: told them that somewhere deep back in the basement, they'd
Speaker 1: find a room where the victim would be buried under
Speaker 1: a pile of dolls. Mickey remembers telling him, could you
Speaker 1: make this sound any scarier? George Geleapolis was working that
Speaker 1: night at the coroner's office. He was also called out
Speaker 1: to the scene. Got to the area. Most of the
Speaker 1: homes are abandoned. I see a scrub car out there.
Speaker 1: The house was taped, and of course it was abandoned.
Speaker 1: It was dark. Is that scary? I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: the idea of like going into an abandoned building with
Speaker 1: a flashlight to like look for a dead body, you know,
Speaker 1: I think most people would be terrified. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you just get used to that. No, it was scary. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. It was scary because we would
Speaker 1: only be maybe floor of us in the house, and
Speaker 1: we don't know who's in the house or who's in
Speaker 1: the area, and if they, like police officers, were not
Speaker 1: you know, we first take pictures of the home, and
Speaker 1: then we take pictures of where we're going. I obtained
Speaker 1: these fitters from the Hammond Police Department through my Fayre request.
Speaker 1: The first few photos show the home from the outside.
Speaker 1: It's a nondescript brick building with white siding. Then comes
Speaker 1: a shot of a wood floored entrance way, a sort
Speaker 1: of walden porch with stairs going down into a basement.
Speaker 1: There's a detail on this photograph that I miss until
Speaker 1: I go onto the next picture, which is a close
Speaker 1: up shot of the corner of the staircase. There's a
Speaker 1: dark stain there a liquid trail that's dripping down the stairs.
Speaker 1: The next picture shows that at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: stairwell there was a mound of garbage, bottles, boxes, trash bags,
Speaker 1: and the photos continue past that pile of junk. The
Speaker 1: basement was still a mess, but at least you could
Speaker 1: see the floor. Geleopolis and his team continued through what
Speaker 1: looked like it was once a den into a concrete
Speaker 1: floored room that was also strewn with trash. Diliopolis says
Speaker 1: that the whole building smelled bad, but as they entered
Speaker 1: this room, he started to smell a familiar odor. That's
Speaker 1: one thing that you will never forget, that's for sure,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you I can't explain. It's something rotten,
Speaker 1: rotten fruit, maybe really bad. Garbage stays on your clothes.
Speaker 1: If you breathe a little heavy and it goes into
Speaker 1: your throat, it stays in your throat. If you move
Speaker 1: your hair with your hand, you'll smell it. From there,
Speaker 1: they turned the corner to a third, smaller room. This
Speaker 1: room was much cleaner, but the smell grew more intense.
Speaker 1: There were some wooden boards and a garden hose on
Speaker 1: the floor, and in one corner there was a pile
Speaker 1: of objects that looked as if it had been deliberately placed.
Speaker 1: A big, large truckt or trailer tire and a couple
Speaker 1: of stuffed animals, big plush stuffed animals, like the ones
Speaker 1: that you might win at a carnival. As they approached
Speaker 1: this pile in the corner, the smell became overwhelming, and
Speaker 1: through the center of one of the tires they saw
Speaker 1: what appeared to be socked feet. Sticking out of the
Speaker 1: other end of the pile was the dark fuzz of
Speaker 1: human hair. It was the corpse of a woman. She
Speaker 1: looked as if she had been killed recently, and you
Speaker 1: could tell that she'd been strangled because of a groove
Speaker 1: running across her neck, a damp wound on her dark
Speaker 1: skin covered by a line of white maggots. Darren Vaughan
Speaker 1: wasn't taking them in a wild goose chase. He'd led
Speaker 1: them straight to a body, the body of a thirty
Speaker 1: five year old woman named Anne Jones, and the night
Speaker 1: was still young. What later became known as the death
Speaker 1: Mark had just begun. Next time on algorithm. Has there
Speaker 1: been any indication all how many victims may be out there?
Speaker 1: At this point we are unsure of the number. As
Speaker 1: of last night, he was continuing to lead police to
Speaker 1: the bodies of victims. Something I think about sometimes is
Speaker 1: was there something I could have done better? Because they
Speaker 1: weren't even looking. I at least knew that there was
Speaker 1: a serial killer active in Gary. The adults would leave
Speaker 1: at five o'clock and at night they would be left
Speaker 1: with the counselors who were and they would go down
Speaker 1: in his hell whole, the basement, and they would have
Speaker 1: gladiator games where they would have the kids square off
Speaker 1: and have to fight each other. If you're own book,
Speaker 1: you're not really a liver. You're just did you kill
Speaker 1: somebody specific to get left in? I'm who they told
Speaker 1: me to kill. This episode was written and produced by
Speaker 1: me ben Keebrick Algorithm is executive produced by Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Donald Albright. Production assistance by Eric Quintana.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Christina Dana, Trevor Young, Miranda Hawkins, Josh Thane,
Speaker 1: and Jamie Albright for their notes on this series. Music
Speaker 1: is by Makeup and Vanity Set and Blue Dot Sessions.
Speaker 1: If you like where you're hearing, please follow and leave
Speaker 1: us a review on Apple Podcasts