WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Dardeen Family Murders 0:00:46.480 --> 0:00:51.961 School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.361 case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite 0:00:55.401 --> 0:00:58.761 witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.961 be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights 0:01:03.001 --> 0:01:06.160 from family and community members, their statements should not be 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.961 considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts 0:01:10.041 --> 0:01:14.000 inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.160 presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 0:01:17.961 --> 0:01:20.840 Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply 0:01:21.041 --> 0:01:23.601 that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime 0:01:24.121 --> 0:01:27.121 is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. 0:01:30.561 --> 0:01:34.001 On November eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven, twenty nine year old 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.280 Russell Dardine, who went by his middle name Keith, did 0:01:37.281 --> 0:01:39.521 not show up to his seven am shift at a 0:01:39.561 --> 0:01:43.401 local water plant. This was very unlike Keith, who lived 0:01:43.441 --> 0:01:46.041 in a mon noble home in the tiny town of Anna, Illinois. 0:01:46.721 --> 0:01:49.561 The area back then had a population of just four 0:01:49.641 --> 0:01:53.121 hundred and sixty people. Keith lived with his family, thirty 0:01:53.201 --> 0:01:56.081 year old Ruby Elaine, who also went by her middle name, 0:01:56.481 --> 0:02:00.281 and their three year old son, Peter. Elaine was seven 0:02:00.281 --> 0:02:03.321 months pregnant. They were excited about the new baby, due 0:02:03.401 --> 0:02:07.321 January eleventh, and already had potential names picked out. If 0:02:07.321 --> 0:02:09.081 the baby was a girl, they were going to name 0:02:09.121 --> 0:02:11.561 her Casey. If it was a boy, he would be Ian. 0:02:12.761 --> 0:02:16.481 Keith worked for the Wrend Lake Conservancy District and Elaine 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.361 worked part time at an office supplies store in Mount Vernon. 0:02:19.841 --> 0:02:22.440 They were very active in their local Baptist church, where 0:02:22.481 --> 0:02:25.281 Elaine played the piano and Keith sang in the choir. 0:02:26.321 --> 0:02:29.801 Both Keith and Elaine were very reliable, so his family 0:02:29.921 --> 0:02:34.761 immediately knew that something was wrong. Keith's shift supervisor went 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.001 to the mobile home and knocked on the door, but 0:02:37.041 --> 0:02:41.201 no one answered, so then he called Keith's parents, Russell 0:02:41.321 --> 0:02:44.800 and Joanne Dardine, who were divorced but lived fairly near 0:02:44.841 --> 0:02:48.240 each other and had an amicable relationship. Neither of them 0:02:48.281 --> 0:02:50.721 had heard from Keith or anyone else in the family. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.401 Both Russell and Joanne spoke with the Jefferson County Sheriff's office, 0:02:55.921 --> 0:02:59.041 and the police agreed to do a welfare check. Joanne 0:02:59.081 --> 0:03:01.960 said that she remembered telling the officer where he could 0:03:02.001 --> 0:03:05.321 find Keith and Elaine's spare key, but in the end, 0:03:05.761 --> 0:03:10.001 they didn't need it. We called Joanne and she talked 0:03:10.001 --> 0:03:12.921 to us about what happened that evening when police came 0:03:13.001 --> 0:03:13.681 to that trailer. 0:03:14.521 --> 0:03:18.121 The state police officer came. He knocked on the front door, 0:03:18.521 --> 0:03:21.561 no offesser, So he went around to the back door 0:03:22.161 --> 0:03:25.041 and I had told him if the back door is locked, 0:03:25.081 --> 0:03:27.001 there's the key, and I told him where the key 0:03:27.121 --> 0:03:30.681 was dead. All he did was just turning the doorknob 0:03:30.761 --> 0:03:35.041 and the door open. So he shined his flashlight in 0:03:35.721 --> 0:03:39.841 because it was getting dark. The bedroom door was right there. 0:03:40.121 --> 0:03:44.561 He shined the flashlight into that bedroom and he'd seen 0:03:45.161 --> 0:03:46.081 people laying there. 0:03:47.241 --> 0:03:49.521 Keith and Elaine had been living in their mobile home 0:03:49.601 --> 0:03:52.281 by the train tracks for just over a year. It 0:03:52.321 --> 0:03:55.441 had formerly been used by the Illinois Central Railroad, and 0:03:55.481 --> 0:03:58.561 according to joe Anne, they had been planning on moving soon. 0:03:59.281 --> 0:04:01.601 Keith had told his parents that he wanted to move, 0:04:02.081 --> 0:04:05.001 partly because they wanted a bigger place for their growing family, 0:04:05.601 --> 0:04:08.801 and also because he said crime in the area had 0:04:08.801 --> 0:04:11.921 gotten bad. There had been a recent rape in the 0:04:11.961 --> 0:04:15.561 area near their trailer, and there had reportedly been fourteen 0:04:15.641 --> 0:04:19.241 bodies found in the two year period before in Jefferson County. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.081 With three confirmed murder cases. Many of those mysterious deaths 0:04:24.241 --> 0:04:28.640 were unsolved. There was a familicide committed in nineteen eighty 0:04:28.721 --> 0:04:31.801 five by eighteen year old Thomas Odele, who killed his 0:04:31.921 --> 0:04:34.921 parents and siblings one by one, stabbing them with a 0:04:34.961 --> 0:04:38.601 butcher knife, except for his younger brother, who he strangled, 0:04:39.681 --> 0:04:42.521 and it was also reported the local community had been 0:04:42.561 --> 0:04:45.640 in fear since July second, nineteen eighty seven, when the 0:04:45.721 --> 0:04:48.441 nude body of ten year old Amy Schultz was found 0:04:48.561 --> 0:04:52.840 in rural Jefferson County. Amy's clothes were found strown along 0:04:52.841 --> 0:04:56.041 the access road. It was later determined that she had 0:04:56.081 --> 0:04:59.721 been raped and murdered, Her throat had been slit, and 0:04:59.801 --> 0:05:04.561 her killer had stepped on her to exsanguinate her. Eventually, 0:05:04.681 --> 0:05:08.001 a local man named Cecil Sutherland was arrested, and in 0:05:08.081 --> 0:05:11.440 nineteen eighty nine he was tried and convicted for Amy's murder, 0:05:11.801 --> 0:05:14.401 but it took months for police to process evidence and 0:05:14.481 --> 0:05:17.961 make an arrest, and in the meantime, Amy's killer was 0:05:17.961 --> 0:05:21.841 still at large. The brutality of her murder terrified the 0:05:21.881 --> 0:05:26.681 community in Jefferson and in surrounding counties. Keith had been 0:05:26.721 --> 0:05:29.521 so worried by the news that one night, when a 0:05:29.561 --> 0:05:31.841 young woman showed up at the house asking if she 0:05:31.841 --> 0:05:37.001 could use Keith and Elaine's phone, Keith refused. When police 0:05:37.121 --> 0:05:40.001 entered the trailer, they found three dead bodies in the 0:05:40.041 --> 0:05:44.801 main bedroom, all in the same bed. There was blood everywhere. 0:05:45.761 --> 0:05:49.081 The victims had been beaten to death. It was Elaine 0:05:49.161 --> 0:05:53.280 and her son Peter, and police later said that during 0:05:53.321 --> 0:05:58.161 the prolonged attack, the killer beat Elaine so severely that 0:05:58.241 --> 0:06:01.041 she went into labor and gave birth to her daughter, 0:06:01.881 --> 0:06:05.841 and then the killer or killers beat the baby to death. 0:06:07.521 --> 0:06:11.521 Then they neatly wrapped Elaine, her baby, and Peter in 0:06:11.561 --> 0:06:15.640 the bedding and tucked them into their waterbed. Keith was 0:06:15.721 --> 0:06:19.921 nowhere to be found. Even now, thirty eight years later, 0:06:20.441 --> 0:06:23.121 people in the area of Ana, Illinois and law enforcement 0:06:23.121 --> 0:06:26.201 who worked this case are still describing it as the 0:06:26.201 --> 0:06:29.280 most horrific murder that anyone has ever seen. 0:06:31.601 --> 0:06:32.681 I'm Catherine Townsend. 0:06:33.121 --> 0:06:35.281 Over the past seven years of making my true crime 0:06:35.321 --> 0:06:38.601 podcast Helen Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing 0:06:38.721 --> 0:06:41.721 as a small town where murder never happens. I have 0:06:41.841 --> 0:06:44.760 received hundreds of messages from people all around the country 0:06:45.001 --> 0:06:47.561 asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, 0:06:47.761 --> 0:06:51.481 their families and their communities. If you have a case 0:06:51.481 --> 0:06:53.801 you'd like me and my team to look into, you 0:06:53.801 --> 0:06:55.801 can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder 0:06:55.801 --> 0:06:58.721 Line at six seven eight seven four four six one 0:06:58.761 --> 0:07:02.440 four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six 0:07:02.601 --> 0:07:05.721 one four five, or you can send us a message 0:07:05.761 --> 0:07:44.521 on Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. 0:07:54.961 --> 0:07:59.321 Police and Ana Illinois were processing a horrific and strange 0:07:59.361 --> 0:08:02.441 crime scene and they couldn't understand it because Keith and 0:08:02.481 --> 0:08:06.161 Elaine were very well liked in the community. Keith's friend 0:08:06.321 --> 0:08:08.721 Kevin Harris, who was the best man in the couple's wedding, 0:08:09.161 --> 0:08:13.521 told local news station KFBS twelve that Keith and Elaine 0:08:13.641 --> 0:08:16.521 were two of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. 0:08:17.201 --> 0:08:20.761 At first, police theorized that because Keith was the only 0:08:20.801 --> 0:08:22.961 one missing, he had killed his family. 0:08:24.201 --> 0:08:27.881 They were trying to locate Keith because they thought Keith 0:08:27.961 --> 0:08:31.840 had murdered them, and I said, no, no, no, no, 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.321 My son would not do that. He loved his family dearly. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:41.321 And they had me getting on the phone, falling his 0:08:41.560 --> 0:08:46.440 friends and whoever I could to see if Keith possessed 0:08:46.521 --> 0:08:50.960 their house, and of course they were all shocked. She said, no, 0:08:51.521 --> 0:08:56.841 Keith's not here, and so it just, you know, it 0:08:57.081 --> 0:08:59.881 just was really hard to bear. 0:09:01.121 --> 0:09:04.560 Joanne, Keith's mother, was still trying to process the shock 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.001 of learning that not only had her daughter in law 0:09:07.081 --> 0:09:11.281 and two grandchildren been brutally beaten to death, but that 0:09:11.361 --> 0:09:14.920 her son Keith was the main suspect and Keith was missing. 0:09:15.881 --> 0:09:18.961 Joanne said that the police stayed at her house and 0:09:19.041 --> 0:09:22.521 told her that this was for the family's protection because 0:09:22.561 --> 0:09:25.721 presumably they didn't know where Keith was and if he 0:09:25.921 --> 0:09:28.800 was the main suspect, who he could target next. 0:09:29.801 --> 0:09:34.321 After quite a long time, they said, well, you are 0:09:34.401 --> 0:09:37.481 not allowed to leave the house until we say so, 0:09:38.241 --> 0:09:42.961 and you'll have a bodyguard outside the house. So they 0:09:43.001 --> 0:09:47.521 had to be golf parked outside my home for our benefit, 0:09:47.961 --> 0:09:51.521 and they were looking for Keith. They were there all 0:09:51.641 --> 0:09:55.441 night long, which we tried to get some rest, which 0:09:55.521 --> 0:09:58.440 I didn't, and then I got a strange phone call 0:09:58.481 --> 0:10:01.721 in the middle of the night. It was somebody calling 0:10:02.001 --> 0:10:06.601 for somebody and I said, they don't live here. I 0:10:06.681 --> 0:10:09.361 don't know you are, I don't know who you're talking about. 0:10:10.321 --> 0:10:13.281 Joanne said that she told law enforcement about the strange 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.321 phone call, but then nothing more ever came. 0:10:16.121 --> 0:10:20.081 Of it, But already word was spreading. 0:10:19.601 --> 0:10:22.481 Through the small community about the horrific murders that happened 0:10:22.481 --> 0:10:26.201 at that trailer. The next day, Joanne was asked to 0:10:26.241 --> 0:10:29.561 go down to the police department. There she heard for 0:10:29.601 --> 0:10:33.601 the first time the brutal and horrific details of what 0:10:33.841 --> 0:10:36.680 really happened to her daughter in law and grandchildren. 0:10:37.481 --> 0:10:41.841 They took me into a room and they ended up 0:10:41.961 --> 0:10:46.841 telling me that Elaine delivered the baby during the feeding 0:10:48.121 --> 0:10:53.681 and the baby was born alive, and then they killed 0:10:53.681 --> 0:10:58.041 the baby. That was the first I had heard of it, 0:10:59.321 --> 0:11:05.441 and I was just totally shocked. But they didn't know 0:11:05.561 --> 0:11:08.561 the baby was there until their corner got there and 0:11:09.001 --> 0:11:13.441 they started to remove the bodies to the mortuary. The 0:11:13.521 --> 0:11:16.121 baby was laying between her and Peter. 0:11:20.521 --> 0:11:23.241 The police were still trying to track down Keith as 0:11:23.241 --> 0:11:27.920 their primary suspect, but the next day everything changed. At 0:11:27.961 --> 0:11:30.961 around five point fifty pm, two hunters were walking through 0:11:30.961 --> 0:11:34.161 a wheat field in Franklin County, the neighboring county, and 0:11:34.201 --> 0:11:38.961 they saw something horrifying. It was Keith's body and it 0:11:39.001 --> 0:11:56.241 had been mutilated. Keith's mother, Joanne, told us that the 0:11:56.401 --> 0:12:00.641 entire investigation into her daughter in law and grandchildren's deaths changed. 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.641 Law enforcement no longer believed that Keith killed his family 0:12:05.041 --> 0:12:07.201 because they had found Keith's body. 0:12:08.081 --> 0:12:11.681 My daughter she took me out to the hospital to 0:12:12.081 --> 0:12:15.721 get me something to help me relax and sleep. And 0:12:16.241 --> 0:12:20.361 while we was at the hospital, somebody was about ten 0:12:20.401 --> 0:12:22.681 feet away from us, and they were talking on the 0:12:22.721 --> 0:12:27.081 phone and they said, do you mean they found that 0:12:27.241 --> 0:12:31.401 Dardine man? And my daughter heard him and she walked 0:12:31.441 --> 0:12:34.201 over there and they told her that they had found Keith. 0:12:35.561 --> 0:12:39.081 Police found one of the Dardine family's cars parked near 0:12:39.081 --> 0:12:42.481 a police station Inventon, about eleven miles from anah A 0:12:42.641 --> 0:12:46.841 nineteen eighty one Red Plymouth. The car interior was covered 0:12:46.841 --> 0:12:50.561 in blood, and police later said that they believed that 0:12:50.641 --> 0:12:54.160 Keith was shot multiple times in the head. Inside the car, 0:12:54.921 --> 0:12:57.841 he was also shot in the chest. Then his killer 0:12:57.961 --> 0:13:00.841 or killers dragged him outside to that wheat field on 0:13:00.881 --> 0:13:03.641 the campus of Red Lake College, which was about a 0:13:03.681 --> 0:13:06.481 mile and a half from the Dardine's trailer. Then he 0:13:06.641 --> 0:13:11.601 was mutilated. His killers had severed his penis. The body 0:13:11.681 --> 0:13:13.881 seemed to have been left out in an area where 0:13:13.921 --> 0:13:17.561 people could pretty easily find it. And then it seemed 0:13:17.561 --> 0:13:20.081 as though the killer drove the car away from the 0:13:20.121 --> 0:13:22.961 site of where they shot Keith to the place where 0:13:22.961 --> 0:13:25.321 it was found abandoned near the police station. 0:13:26.361 --> 0:13:28.401 There was a road to the right that took you 0:13:28.481 --> 0:13:31.041 to the college, and then there was a road that 0:13:31.201 --> 0:13:35.280 slung around and went out to a lake and parks 0:13:35.321 --> 0:13:39.160 and stuff like that, And just as you turned that corner, 0:13:39.921 --> 0:13:44.481 they had drugged Keith's body out of the car into 0:13:44.561 --> 0:13:48.401 that field, and they pulled his clothes down in the cutting. 0:13:49.601 --> 0:13:52.401 They left him that way. 0:13:52.561 --> 0:13:55.800 Keith's exact time of death could not be calculated precisely. 0:13:56.361 --> 0:13:59.401 According to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, the coroner of 0:13:59.441 --> 0:14:02.401 Franklin County said that Keith had been dead for between 0:14:02.401 --> 0:14:05.481 twelve and forty eight hours, while other sources said he 0:14:05.521 --> 0:14:08.481 had been dead between twenty four and thirty six hours. 0:14:09.161 --> 0:14:12.321 So was Keith killed before his family at the same 0:14:12.401 --> 0:14:16.721 time or afterwards. Doctor Richard Garretson, the coroner, said that 0:14:16.801 --> 0:14:19.441 Keith had a completely different cause of death than that 0:14:19.521 --> 0:14:22.681 of the rest of his family. The coroner said Keith 0:14:22.761 --> 0:14:25.561 had not been beaten, but police were not saying much 0:14:25.601 --> 0:14:29.561 about this investigation, even though local rumors were already flying. 0:14:30.401 --> 0:14:33.601 Some people believed that Elaine's baby had been cut out 0:14:33.641 --> 0:14:36.881 of her womb, or that Keith's murder had been part 0:14:36.881 --> 0:14:42.561 of some kind of satanic ritual. Our foury request was denied. 0:14:43.201 --> 0:14:46.521 This is still open investigation, even though it's been almost 0:14:46.601 --> 0:14:52.001 forty years. Keith's body was found right across the county 0:14:52.001 --> 0:14:55.721 line from their trailer, so the investigation was initially handled 0:14:55.721 --> 0:14:59.641 by two different police departments. Separate inquiries were opened for 0:14:59.761 --> 0:15:04.041 Keith's and Elaine's deaths, and Elaine's family, according to Keith's mother, 0:15:04.481 --> 0:15:08.641 retained an attorney. Joanne said that the relationship between her 0:15:08.721 --> 0:15:12.161 family and her daughter in law's family began to deteriorate. 0:15:13.321 --> 0:15:17.681 They went on ahead and made arrangements for Elaine before 0:15:17.841 --> 0:15:22.601 we even found Keith's body, which her side. The family 0:15:23.041 --> 0:15:25.961 didn't want to agree to anything because they just knew 0:15:26.041 --> 0:15:31.081 Keith killed them, and when they actually found Keith's body, 0:15:31.681 --> 0:15:33.481 they realized Keith didn't do it. 0:15:34.521 --> 0:15:37.921 Joanne told us that even though police knew that Keith 0:15:38.081 --> 0:15:40.281 was a victim and that he did not harm his family, 0:15:41.081 --> 0:15:44.481 she felt as though they believed he was somehow responsible 0:15:44.561 --> 0:15:45.960 for what happened to them. 0:15:46.241 --> 0:15:49.361 They felt like it was his fault. They felt like 0:15:49.521 --> 0:15:53.521 even though they found Keith, they still felt like it 0:15:53.641 --> 0:15:55.601 was Keith's fault that it happened. 0:15:56.721 --> 0:15:58.961 We have reached out to Elaine's family. 0:15:59.441 --> 0:16:02.841 We spoke to one of her sisters, who indicated that 0:16:03.081 --> 0:16:05.881 neither she nor anyone else in the family wished to 0:16:05.961 --> 0:16:09.681 comment about this case. Joanne said, no one who talked 0:16:09.681 --> 0:16:12.881 to Keith's friends and family could find any reason why 0:16:12.921 --> 0:16:16.001 someone would have targeted him or why he would have 0:16:16.001 --> 0:16:17.001 wanted to hurt his family. 0:16:17.921 --> 0:16:20.921 The police told me that they had talked to over 0:16:21.081 --> 0:16:25.321 a thousand people, and they said that they never found 0:16:25.601 --> 0:16:30.561 not one person to say one bad word against Keith, 0:16:31.201 --> 0:16:33.881 not one. 0:16:33.921 --> 0:16:35.401 This case was complicated. 0:16:35.881 --> 0:16:39.441 There were two separate crime scenes, and the primary and 0:16:39.521 --> 0:16:42.681 secondary crime scenes were so different, at least from what 0:16:42.761 --> 0:16:45.241 we know now, that in my opinion, it seemed like 0:16:45.321 --> 0:16:47.441 the work of two different killers. 0:16:48.041 --> 0:16:51.881 I seemed to believe that whoever did it Keith was 0:16:51.921 --> 0:16:53.641 friendly with him Keith Newan. 0:16:59.441 --> 0:17:02.401 It was reported that Elaine, Peter, and the baby were 0:17:02.441 --> 0:17:05.880 beaten to death using a baseball bat. The bat was 0:17:05.921 --> 0:17:09.720 a present that Keith had given to his son, So 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.840 whoever killed Elaine, the baby and Peter did not bring 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.441 a weapon with them. We asked Joanne about the murder 0:17:17.481 --> 0:17:20.241 weapon that was used to kill Keith, and she said 0:17:20.281 --> 0:17:23.680 that Keith did own guns, but those were not the 0:17:23.721 --> 0:17:26.401 ones that were used to shoot him. She said one 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.680 of Keith's guns was found in a closet and his 0:17:28.761 --> 0:17:31.720 other one, a shotgun, had also not been used in 0:17:31.761 --> 0:17:34.561 the killings. So it seemed as though the killer shot 0:17:34.681 --> 0:17:37.160 Keith with a weapon that they brought with them. 0:17:37.561 --> 0:17:39.481 But what about the other physical evidence? 0:17:39.921 --> 0:17:43.481 Surely with two such brutal crime scenes, the killer left 0:17:43.521 --> 0:17:47.241 a trace of hair, skin, or other DNA. Back then, 0:17:47.360 --> 0:17:50.641 in nineteen eighty seven, DNA testing was in its infancy, 0:17:51.121 --> 0:17:53.801 But I still wonder what happened to the evidence, the 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.680 baseball back covered in blood, the bedding, the DNA from 0:17:56.721 --> 0:17:59.640 the bodies and from the field where Keith was found. 0:18:00.281 --> 0:18:04.401 Was there any usable DNA collected and if so, where 0:18:04.481 --> 0:18:06.921 is it now? And is there any way that it 0:18:06.961 --> 0:18:12.241 could be tested. Police were also struggling with motive because, 0:18:12.281 --> 0:18:15.561 according to media reports, nothing was taken from the trailer, 0:18:15.881 --> 0:18:20.161 no cash, not their BCR or their camera, Elaine's jewelry 0:18:20.281 --> 0:18:23.840 was also found there, untouched. Robbery did not appear to 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.080 be the motive. Also, the back door was open and 0:18:27.121 --> 0:18:30.920 there was no sign of forced entry. Police interviewed the 0:18:30.921 --> 0:18:33.441 family's friends, trying to figure out if there was another 0:18:33.521 --> 0:18:37.201 motive that wasn't immediately obvious. They asked if either Keith 0:18:37.321 --> 0:18:40.561 or Elaine had had affairs, but found no evidence that 0:18:40.641 --> 0:18:43.360 either of them had. They also checked to see if 0:18:43.361 --> 0:18:46.641 there could be a financial motive. At the home, there 0:18:46.801 --> 0:18:49.401 was a stack of papers with sports scores on them, 0:18:49.521 --> 0:18:52.441 and apparently this motivated police to ask if Keith had 0:18:52.601 --> 0:18:56.080 a problem with gambling or if he possibly had gambling debts. 0:18:56.881 --> 0:18:59.721 His mother told police that Keith was careful with money 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.041 and that that would have been very out of character 0:19:02.121 --> 0:19:06.920 for him. With no motive, police considered the possibility this 0:19:06.961 --> 0:19:09.840 could have been a random drifter, a serial killer, or, 0:19:09.961 --> 0:19:12.761 as some members of the community had wondered, some kind 0:19:12.801 --> 0:19:16.241 of satanic cult. The Post dispatched it a story on 0:19:16.281 --> 0:19:19.481 the case. They quoted a police expert on cults who 0:19:19.521 --> 0:19:22.761 told the paper that Satanists would mutilate bodies and leave 0:19:22.801 --> 0:19:26.120 satanic symbols at the crime scene, among other things, and 0:19:26.361 --> 0:19:29.960 the nineteen eighties was prime time for Satanic panic, a 0:19:30.001 --> 0:19:34.161 period marked by these sensationalized and false media stories about 0:19:34.201 --> 0:19:38.801 alleged Satanic cults and ritual abuse. But almost all of 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.241 these claims in the Dardian case were discredited. There was 0:19:42.361 --> 0:19:45.241 no evidence that the Dartian family murders were in any 0:19:45.241 --> 0:19:50.041 way connected to Satanism, so were the Dardenes killed by 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.961 a random drifter or by someone closer to home. The 0:19:54.041 --> 0:19:57.681 Franklin County Coroner, for one, did not believe the Dardans 0:19:57.721 --> 0:20:01.801 were random victims. He told the Post Dispatch, quote, I 0:20:01.881 --> 0:20:05.001 believe it was a very personal, deliberate thing, end quote. 0:20:05.561 --> 0:20:09.721 But the crime scene seemed to perplex even outside experts. 0:20:10.401 --> 0:20:13.600 At one point, two FBI profillowers were brought in, and 0:20:13.641 --> 0:20:16.721 they reportedly said the crime fell outside the scope of 0:20:16.761 --> 0:20:25.080 their usual analytic methods. Joanne Dardine never gave up talking 0:20:25.121 --> 0:20:28.001 to the media. She asked the Oprah Winfrey Show to 0:20:28.041 --> 0:20:30.721 cover the case, but they turned her down due to 0:20:30.761 --> 0:20:34.600 the violent content of the killings. America's Most Wanted agreed 0:20:34.601 --> 0:20:38.201 to cover the killings, but the show generated no real leeds. 0:20:39.401 --> 0:20:43.201 Keith and Elaine led a quiet, family oriented lifestyle, Friends 0:20:43.201 --> 0:20:46.161 and families that they didn't drink, party or do drugs. 0:20:46.881 --> 0:20:50.081 There was a small amount of marijuana found at the trailer, 0:20:50.641 --> 0:20:53.201 but police said they weren't sure whether this was the 0:20:53.281 --> 0:20:56.241 Dardine's pot or whether it could have been left there 0:20:56.241 --> 0:20:59.881 by the killer. The autopsies showed no trace of drugs 0:20:59.961 --> 0:21:03.281 or alcohol in anyone's system, and the small amount of 0:21:03.321 --> 0:21:10.920 marijuana found didn't raise any red flags about possible drug dealing. Eventually, 0:21:11.321 --> 0:21:15.001 the Illinois State Police joined in the investigation. It was 0:21:15.041 --> 0:21:19.120 reported that thirty detectives interviewed over one hundred people in all. 0:21:19.681 --> 0:21:23.801 One detective told Keith's mother, Joanne, they had interviewed over 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.880 one thousand people. They also publicly stated there were several 0:21:27.921 --> 0:21:31.120 binders full of information and leads about this case and 0:21:31.201 --> 0:21:35.921 yet no arrests. They talked to one of Keith's coworkers, 0:21:36.201 --> 0:21:38.841 someone he reportedly had some kind of a disagreement with, 0:21:39.401 --> 0:21:42.921 and another local man, but both of these people were 0:21:43.001 --> 0:21:49.281 quickly by law enforcement. The crime reverberated through the small community. 0:21:49.801 --> 0:21:54.521 The Franklin County Coroner described what people were experiencing as hysteria. 0:21:55.121 --> 0:21:58.961 People were scared. One man who lived nearby told local 0:21:59.001 --> 0:22:02.401 media he couldn't sleep at night and lost fourteen pounds. 0:22:02.601 --> 0:22:06.361 Because of the stress from these murders, people were driving 0:22:06.401 --> 0:22:09.681 around with guns in their gun racks and becoming suspicious 0:22:09.721 --> 0:22:12.881 of each other. Kids were told to come straight home 0:22:12.921 --> 0:22:16.681 from school. Then in March of two thousand, there was 0:22:16.721 --> 0:22:20.681 a big potential break in the case. A man confessed 0:22:20.721 --> 0:22:24.160 to the Dardine murders. It was the convicted serial killer 0:22:24.441 --> 0:22:36.400 Tommy Lynn Cells. Serial killer Tommy Lynn Cells grew up 0:22:36.401 --> 0:22:39.120 in Saint Louis, about ninety miles away from where the 0:22:39.201 --> 0:22:42.680 Dardines lived. He claimed that he committed his first murder 0:22:42.721 --> 0:22:46.281 when he was just fifteen years old. He was finally 0:22:46.321 --> 0:22:51.641 apprehended by police in two thousand days earlier. In Del Rio, Texas, 0:22:51.641 --> 0:22:54.680 on December thirty first, nineteen ninety nine, ten year old 0:22:54.761 --> 0:22:58.161 Crystal Searles and her friend, thirteen year old Kayleen Harris, 0:22:58.281 --> 0:23:01.880 were having a sleepover at Kayleen's trailer. Crystal woke up 0:23:01.921 --> 0:23:04.041 in the middle of the night to see a stranger 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:08.561 assaulting Kayleen. She watched with horror as he murdered her friend, 0:23:09.121 --> 0:23:12.241 and then he turned to her and slipped Crystal's throat, 0:23:13.161 --> 0:23:16.801 but Crystal survived. She managed to stay calm and escaped 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:19.961 to a neighbor's house. The neighbor called nine one one, 0:23:20.121 --> 0:23:24.041 and Crystal was rushed to the hospital. Even after that trauma, 0:23:24.561 --> 0:23:27.521 Cristel was able to help police. She gave them a 0:23:27.561 --> 0:23:31.321 description and they put out an APB. Tommy Lynne Sells 0:23:31.361 --> 0:23:34.721 was arrested the next day and quickly confessed not only 0:23:34.761 --> 0:23:38.601 to those killings, but to many more. He told police 0:23:38.641 --> 0:23:40.521 that he was a serial killer and that he had 0:23:40.521 --> 0:23:44.001 been killing people for over twenty years. He said that 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:47.201 during his years drifting around the United States, many of 0:23:47.241 --> 0:23:50.640 them working temporary jobs in carnivals, he killed up to 0:23:50.681 --> 0:23:54.440 seventy victims. He was eventually linked to over twenty murders. 0:23:55.521 --> 0:23:58.880 He was sentenced to death for Kayleen's murder and placed 0:23:58.881 --> 0:24:02.361 on death row in Texas, and that's where in March 0:24:02.401 --> 0:24:05.921 of two thousand, he confessed to the Dardane family murders. 0:24:06.561 --> 0:24:09.840 But did he really kill the Dardines or was he 0:24:09.961 --> 0:24:13.201 just confessing to as many killings as possible as some 0:24:13.281 --> 0:24:15.920 killers do in order to messed up, as it sounds, 0:24:16.161 --> 0:24:19.161 potentially gain respect and become a bigger deal in prison. 0:24:20.321 --> 0:24:23.880 There were definitely questions about the authenticity of his confessions 0:24:24.401 --> 0:24:28.081 because Tommy Lynn Sells told several different stories. He said 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:30.160 that he was living near Saint Louis, which would have 0:24:30.201 --> 0:24:32.281 been about ninety miles away from where Keith and o 0:24:32.321 --> 0:24:34.360 Lane were living at the time. He said that he 0:24:34.441 --> 0:24:36.761 was riding trains, jumping on and off of them to 0:24:36.801 --> 0:24:40.080 get around, and working odd jobs, mainly at various carnivals. 0:24:40.681 --> 0:24:43.401 He claimed to be familiar with the area near where 0:24:43.481 --> 0:24:46.761 Keith and Elaine lived. In one version of the confession, 0:24:46.961 --> 0:24:48.840 he said that he met Keith in a gas station 0:24:49.201 --> 0:24:51.601 that Keith propositioned him and asked him to come back 0:24:51.601 --> 0:24:54.201 to his house to have a three way sexual encounter 0:24:54.361 --> 0:24:57.001 with Elaine. But he claimed that once they were at 0:24:57.041 --> 0:25:00.960 the trailer, Keith made a homosexual proposition to him, and 0:25:01.001 --> 0:25:03.441 that he was offended by that and became very angry, 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:06.961 so he said he drove Keith at gunpoint to where 0:25:06.961 --> 0:25:10.041 he was found. He told police, quote, I was just 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:12.321 so pissed off that I took it to the maximum limit. 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:14.481 Rage don't have a stop button. 0:25:14.641 --> 0:25:15.120 End quote. 0:25:16.281 --> 0:25:19.241 In another version of the story, he told the authorities 0:25:19.241 --> 0:25:21.321 that he was on a freight train and jumped off 0:25:21.361 --> 0:25:24.401 near Aina that he saw for sale sign outside Keith 0:25:24.441 --> 0:25:28.120 and Elaine's trailer. That's when he said he decided he 0:25:28.201 --> 0:25:30.600 was going to kill them, so he said he knocked 0:25:30.601 --> 0:25:33.080 on the door. He claimed that he told Keith he 0:25:33.161 --> 0:25:35.801 was interested in buying the trailer, which led to him 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:40.400 drinking beers with Keith before overpowering him at gunpoint. This 0:25:40.481 --> 0:25:43.681 story completely left out any kind of a sexual mode. 0:25:43.840 --> 0:25:47.281 It again, he claimed that he forced Keith to drive 0:25:47.321 --> 0:25:50.521 to a nearby field, and then he said he sliced 0:25:50.601 --> 0:25:54.360 Keith's penis off. This time he added another detail. He 0:25:54.401 --> 0:25:57.001 said that during this attack, he told Keith that he 0:25:57.080 --> 0:26:00.081 was going to take his penis back to Elaine. Then 0:26:00.241 --> 0:26:03.321 he claimed he went back to the trailer, raved Elane 0:26:03.481 --> 0:26:07.600