WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Alexander Murders 0:00:46.480 --> 0:00:51.960 School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.360 case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.760 witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.960 be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.160 from family and community members, their statements should not be 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.960 considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts 0:01:10.040 --> 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. 0:01:17.960 --> 0:01:20.840 Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.600 that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.120 is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.200 On the morning of April eighth, nineteen eighty one, forty 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.920 seven year old Weldon Alexander finished his overnight shift at 0:01:37.960 --> 0:01:43.040 Cooper Tire in Texarkana, Arkansas. Weldon worked the graveyard shift 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.840 from eleven one pm to seven am. He told police 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.960 that he clocked out that morning at seven o'clock sharp, 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.760 just like he always did, and he took his usual route, 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.040 driving down Tennessee Street toward his house, which was just 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.400 a few minutes drive away at five oh one Baden Street. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.680 Weldon had to stop and wait for a train, which 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.880 added about five minutes to his commute, but he still 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.640 arrived home in around fifteen minutes. When he got to 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.080 the house, the first thing he noticed was the door. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.320 He saw that the door to the small frame house, 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.440 the last house on the left, was open. Weldon said 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.920 that normally his fourteen year old daughter, Karen, would already 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.880 be awake. The house had a wooden door and a 0:02:26.920 --> 0:02:30.080 screen door. Weldon told police that both of those doors 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.360 were normally unlocked, and the routine was that Karen would 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.000 usually get up around six, she would start getting ready 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.840 for school, and by about six thirty she would open 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:40.800 the door so that her dad could get back in 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.400 when he came home from work. Karen slept on a 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.920 bed in the living room. Gordon, her thirteen year old brother, 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.800 usually slept in the back room, but that morning, Weldon 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.320 said the door was already open. Inside the house, Karen 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.640 was on her bed in the living room. She was 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.760 on her back facing up, Her feet were hanging over 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:06.640 the edge. She had been stabbed in the head and throat. 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.360 There was a kitchen knife lodged in her eye area. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.200 Someone had attacked her and stabbed her in a frenzy 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.320 and the forest of the attack had fractured her skull 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.400 and broken her jaw, but she was still alive. Weldon 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.760 told police it sounded like Karen was mumbling something, but 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.400 he couldn't make out what it was, so he raced 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.760 to the landline phone to call nine one one, but 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.160 the phone was off the hook. When Weldon looked down, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.920 he saw his son, Gordon, on the kitchen floor near 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.560 the phone. Gordon had broken his hip a few months 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.640 earlier and been in a wheelchair since then. Whoever attacked 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.720 Gordon had thrown him out of the chair and stabbed 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:54.480 him fifteen times in the neck, throat, and hands. Police 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.920 later said they believe Gordon rolled into the living room 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.160 in his wheelchair in a heroic attempt to fight off 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.640 Karen's attacker. Gordon tried to grab the phone and call 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.640 for help, and even managed to pick up the receiver, 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.600 but the killer got him first. Gordon's throat had been 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:17.400 cut with a dull knife. The news that two children 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.520 had been viciously attacked, one dead and one barely clinging 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.960 to life inside their own home that morning would throw 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:30.200 this small town, Arkansas neighborhood into a panic. This case 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:35.880 would involve psychics, polygraphs, false confessions, hundreds of tips, and 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:39.000 a case file that would send police going in circles. 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.880 For over forty years, I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.200 years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've 0:04:47.280 --> 0:04:49.920 learned that there's no such thing as a small town 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.680 where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.280 from people all around the country asking for help with 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.480 an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:02.800 If you have a case you'd like me and my 0:05:02.840 --> 0:05:05.120 team to look into, you can reach out to us 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.640 at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.280 seven four four six one four five. That's six seven 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.120 eight seven four four six one four five, or you 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.720 can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:06:08.840 This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Police raced to the 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.520 Alexander home to figure out what happened inside that little 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.080 house on Baden Street in the College Hill area of Texarkana. 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:21.680 When officers arrived at seven twenty four am, Weldon Alexander 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.880 showed them the bloody knife that had been stuck in 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:29.040 Karen's head. In his Panic, he explained he had pulled 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.640 the knife out and set it on a nearby bookshelf. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.280 Now, Welden had told police he believed. 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.680 That Karen might still be alive, and he was right. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.280 Gordon Alexander was dead on arrival that Karen Alexander was 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.400 still breathing. Karen was rushed to Saint Michael's Hospital and 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.320 placed in intensive care. Police guarded her room around the 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.600 clock because at that moment they believed there was a 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.240 chance she might wake up and that she might be 0:06:56.280 --> 0:07:00.360 able to identify the killer. While Karen was in that 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.600 hospital bed, unable to communicate, officers from the Texarkana Police 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.960 Department were already hitting the streets. Police interviewed several of 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.920 the Alexander's neighbors, who said that the Alexanders mostly kept 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.480 to themselves. The neighbors said they saw the kids riding 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.080 bikes occasionally, but they noted they did not see a 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.200 lot of visitors coming and going, and it turned out 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.360 the Alexander family was pretty complicated. Gordon and Karen's mother, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.600 thirty four year old Vera Alexander, had not been home 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.160 at the time of the attack. Four days earlier, Weldon 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.040 said he had taken her to Wady Hospital Weldon explained 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.000 that Vera was suffering from depression and that he decided 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.520 to take her for inpatient treatment after giving her medicine 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.120 at home and seeing her black out. So Vera had 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.720 been there in the hospital since Sunday night. Weldon told 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.280 police that his wife had brain damage and that this 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.800 had been confirmed by her doctors. Police later confirmed Vera 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.400 was in the hospital during that crucial window of time, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.520 which removed her as a physical suspect in the murders, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.680 but she remained a person who investigators wanted to understand 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.640 because the file shows that Vera had made reports to 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.840 police before. There were complaints and calls connected to the 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.280 Alexander house, calls about dogs running loose, a prowler, a 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:26.560 suspicious person, reports of battery, and allegations from Vera involving 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:31.800 sexual assault. According to police records, on April seventh, nineteen eighty, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.720 about a year before Karen and Gordon were attacked, Vera 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.400 had made a rape allegation against a man named Ralph. 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.240 Another man, Randy, was also mentioned in the police file 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.440 in connection with allegations involving Vera. I'm using only first 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.800 names here because neither man was ever charged in connection 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.080 with what happened to Karen and Gordon, and there is 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.680 no evidence in the file that I've seen that either 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.720 man was involved in what happened to the children. According 0:08:59.920 --> 0:09:03.800 to the case file, after Vera accused these men of 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.640 being involved in alleged sexual assault, both of these men 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.600 were later released on bail. So, just to be clear, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.320 these men were never convicted in connection with the alleged rate. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.880 The case notes suggest that after Gordon and Karen were attacked, 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.360 police were trying to explore every possible avenue and that 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.920 included the history around the family and the possibility that 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.960 something from Vera's life had come back to the Alexander home. 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.080 Weldon also told police there had been another allegation years 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.840 earlier of Vera being sexually assaulted, and that this allegation 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.640 involved a family member, but he said there had been 0:09:40.680 --> 0:09:44.240 no proof. So from the beginning, when and best instigators 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.480 walked into this home on Baden Street, they didn't see 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.480 a clean case with one obvious suspect in one obvious motive. 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.400 They saw a house with two children attacked in this 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.840 unbelievably violent way with a butter knife from the kitchen, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.720 which a police officer later described as a weapon of opportunity. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.240 They also had a mother who was in the hospital, 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.640 a dad who was at work on the graveyard shift, 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.600 and a family history that gave them several possible directions. 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.600 Gordon Alexander, Weldon's son, was thirteen. He had spent his 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.480 entire life dealing with medical problems that would have overwhelmed 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.240 a lot of adults. According to the reporting in the 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.760 case file, Gordon was born with a congenital heart defect 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.240 and had open heart surgery as an infant. Later, he 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.320 had a stroke that affected his left arm and left leg, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.800 and then just a few weeks before the murders, he 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.200 fell and broke his hip. The accident had put Gordon 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.760 in a wheelchair, and Weldon told police that since the accident, 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.080 Gordon had not been going to school. But despite all that, 0:10:52.560 --> 0:10:55.200 people who knew Gordon said that he didn't let his 0:10:55.280 --> 0:11:00.120 physical limitations define him. People described him as outgoing, gregarious, 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.000 the kind of kid who never met a stranger. He 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.040 was popular at school and in his physical therapy program. 0:11:06.680 --> 0:11:10.400 His father told police that Gordon dreamed about becoming a 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:15.640 field goal kicker when he grew up. Karen Alexander was fourteenth. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:18.640 She was an eighth grader at College Hill. Her date 0:11:18.680 --> 0:11:22.240 of birth was September twenty eighth, nineteen sixty six. Now, 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.400 Karen was described very differently from her brother. Unlike her brother, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.120 Weldon said that Karen had never been sick a day 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.880 in her life. Karen was described as shy and soft spoken. 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:38.000 One school official reportedly described her as quiet as a mouse. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.880 Karen loved reading and spelling, and she had recently been 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.560 in a spelling beat. Weldon hold a local reporter that 0:11:45.680 --> 0:11:47.600 Karen wanted to be a nurse when she grew up, 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.560 and following her brother's brutal murder, Karen was the only 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.760 living witness. While she was being guarded by police. Investigators 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.880 began canvassing the neighborhood, and of course, the police talked 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:07.200 to Weldon Alexander right away. Weldon was distraught. He told 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.320 them he had worked at Cooper Tire for more than 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.360 sixteen years, and he had worked that same graveyard shift 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.800 for about six years. Weldon had a regular routine, like clockwork. 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:18.880 He went to work at the same time and came 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.760 home at the same time, with no diversions that morning 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.720 except for a few minutes he spent waiting for that train. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.600 Weldon said he last talked to his children around midnight. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:30.720 He said he had called the house to check on them. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.120 He said that he spoke with Karen, asked whether she 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.520 and Gordon were in bed, and asked if everything was okay. 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.600 According to Weldon, Karen said they were fine. He told 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.040 police while he was on the road that morning, he 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.480 didn't notice any unusual people or vehicles on that normal route, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.160 but Weldon did say he had heard people in the 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.080 neighborhood talking about a truck that someone had seen in 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.120 the yard. Weldon said that when he looked in the yard, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.400 he saw tire tracks there. This detail would become one 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.600 of the most crucial ones in the case. There was 0:13:02.680 --> 0:13:05.960 no sign of forest entry, but that wasn't super helpful 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.760 in this case since neither the wooden door nor the 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.720 screen door had been locked, so the killer could have 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.080 walked straight in through the unlocked door, or the kids 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.400 could have opened the door to someone they knew, among 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.880 other possibilities. When she was found on the bed, Karen 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.960 was wearing yellow shorts, a blouse, and a bra. Investigators 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.880 were trying to build a timeline, and one of the 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.240 things they were trying to figure out was Were the 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.440 children already awakened dressed for school when they were attacked? 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.040 Had they gone to bed in those clothes? At first, 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.800 police were working on the theory that the attack on 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.800 Karen and Gordon's time of death were sometime around six 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.680 forty five am. Police believed that Karen was the original 0:13:48.680 --> 0:13:51.000 target of the attack and that her brother was killed 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.160 after he came out of the back room to defend her. 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.080 So they asked Weldon about Karen's friends and her boyfriend. 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.040 Was she dating anyone? Did she have any boyfriends? Had 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.280 she ever been raped or assaulted? Weldon told investigators that 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.000 to his knowledge, Karen was not dating anyone. He said 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.280 she had never been raped or assaulted, and that as 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:14.040 far as he knew, his daughter was a virgin. Now 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.640 police didn't say this at the time, but Karen's autops 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.880 he had shown that she was vaginally penetrated two to 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.560 three days prior to her death. They also asked Weldon 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.680 about Gordon. He said Gordon had no problems with anyone 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.040 at school or anywhere else. Weldon also talked about the 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.560 family history. He told investigators that when Karen was three 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.600 and Gordon was about eighteen months old, Vera had whipped 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:40.760 Karen with a belt and left bruises on her face. 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.160 According to Weldon, Vera had been a y rested for 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.760 assault and battery inside the house. Police were building the 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.640 sequence of events from the physical evidence. Gordon was found 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.680 on the floor near the telephone. He had been stabbed 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.400 many times. He had wounds to his neck, throat, and hands. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.080 The file indicates that when his throat was cut with 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.760 that butter knife, that the fatal injury was that massive 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:11.840 wound to his throat. Investigators believed that Gordon heard the 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.080 commotion in the living room and rolled his wheelchair out 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.840 there and tried to get to the phone because the 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.800 receiver of the phone was lifted, but before he could 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.960 make that call, the attacker got to him at some point. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.400 This attack was so violent Gordon was pulled from the 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.440 chair or knocked out of it. Police also believed that 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.400 while he was being beaten and stabbed that he might 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.200 have suffered a heart attack. This was a brutal death. 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.520 Karen's was as well. She had also been stabbed multiple 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.400 times in the head, with additional cuts to the throat area. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.560 As we said before, police had very quickly found their 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.400 murder weapon a butter knife from a kitchen drawer in 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.760 the Alexander home. The knife had blood on it and 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.200 the killer had stabbed the children so hard that it 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:03.160 was bent again. Because Weldon told police that in his 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.080 panic and shock, he pulled the knife out of Karen 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:07.440 and put it on shelf. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:09.240 Any fingerprint that. 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.800 Police got off the knife handle might have been compromised, 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:17.280 but they had another potential witness, Karen. She was still 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.880 in the hospital fighting for her life. On April tenth, 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.560 doctors performed a brain scan on Karen. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:24.920 It was flat. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.600 Three days after she was taken to the hospital. Her 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.400 life support was removed and Karen Alexander died. The case 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:48.600 became a double homicide in the immediate aftermath of a 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.640 double homicide that killed two young teenagers. This neighborhood in 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:57.160 Texarcana was terrified. The newspapers called the attacker a throat 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:01.800 slashing assailant. People were leaving porch lights on, parents were afraid. 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.160 Everyone tried to help. Weldon's co workers put up one 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:10.040 thousand dollars reward. Volunteers put posters everywhere around town. Even 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.000 Gordon's classmates joined in to try to look for clues. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.720 A neighbor of the Alexanders, Miss Hopkins, said she saw 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.640 a light blue pickup truck parked in front of the 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.880 Alexander house at around three o'clock in the morning. She 0:17:24.120 --> 0:17:27.760 told police that at that time, the Alexander's porch light 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.800 was on, but the house was dark. Another report placed 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.680 a white and powder blue pickup backing out of the 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.640 driveway of the Alexander home at around six forty five am. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.560 Now this would appear to be crucial because investigators initially 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.080 believed that this could have been close to the time 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.680 of the attack, so this truck became a main focus 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:53.120 of the investigation. Police described it as an early nineteen 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.800 seventies Chevrolet pickup with a long wheelbase, no tail light, 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.720 and a gunrack in the rear window. There was also 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:02.160 reportedly some kind of a sticker on the back window 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.880 that referenced cowboys. They wanted to talk to the man 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.560 driving it. He was described as clean shaven, wearing a 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.880 brown western hat and a black and white snakeskin style 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.840 cowboy boots. So that image the blue pickup the man 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.560 wearing the cowboy hat and boots kind of took on 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.800 a life of its own. Suddenly everyone in Miller County 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.720 was looking for this truck. Police got printouts of all 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.920 pickup trucks in the county, which I imagine in an Arkansas 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.480 county must have been a big job. This included Forde 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.320 Chevrolets and GMCs. They even sent teams out at night 0:18:37.360 --> 0:18:40.120 to track vehicles and compare them to the witness description. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.480 They looked for anything that could be a match. But 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.920 it turned out that there was a problem with that 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.280 truck sighting because, according to the case file, an officer 0:18:50.360 --> 0:18:53.280 went to Miss hopkins house, the neighbor who said she 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.680 had seen the blue pickup truck in the Alexander's driveway. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.680 This officer stood where Miss Hopkins said she had been 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.720 standing when she saw the truck. The officer noted in 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.680 his report that he was about four inches taller than 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.600 she was, and he wrote, even from that angle the 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.960 Alexander driveway was partially blocked, it would have been very 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.680 hard to see a truck backing out from that angle. 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.880 Was the truck really connected to the murders or was 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.960 the witness mistaken about what she saw? Was the truck 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.920 the killer or could it have been just someone randomly 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.480 turning around in a driveway and the truck was not 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.840 the only possible lead. Several days before the murders, Karen 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.160 had reportedly been seen talking to a man near a 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.280 washeteria around East and Hay Street. Another version in the 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.600 case file places a similar sighting new the Pigly Wiggly 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.600 on East Street. A woman named Lisa came to the 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.680 police department and helped create a composite drawing. The man 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.320 who Lisa saw Karen talking to was described as white, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.320 between six foot and six foot three, clean shaven, very slender, 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.480 with shoulder length brown hair and a prominent nose. Police 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.720 said he may have worn a hat with a feather 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.600 and boots that were described as black and white or 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.840 snakeskin style. Now, the boot description here sounds similar to 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.120 the man in the white pickup truck. Was this someone 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.320 different or could this have been the same man. Could 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.920 the man talking to Karen at the Piggly Wiggily be 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:23.200 the same one who was driving. 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:23.600 The blue truck. 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.680 Police distributed the drawing and they got hundreds of calls. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:30.840 One tip said a man matching the composite had been 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.800 seen in a blue work style shirt embroidered with the 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:38.760 name ron or Ronnie. So investigators contacted uniform supply companies. 0:20:39.120 --> 0:20:43.000 They tried to get lists of men named Ron or Ronnie. Meanwhile, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.600 they also looked into a relative of Ralph's, the man 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.880 whom Vera had claimed allegedly raped her, because this person 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.600 had reportedly been at the Pigley Wiggly before the murder. 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.040 I don't know how much judgment was baked into the 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.600 way that police viewed Vera. This was nineteen eighty one, 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.560 and Vera was a woman with documented mental health issues 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.400 prior sexual assault allegations and relationships are encounters with men 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.640 that investigators were trying to figure out, So it would 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:15.360 be naive to pretend that none of. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:16.920 That affected how people saw her. 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.160 But from an investigative standpoint reading the case file, it 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.320 seems as though Vera's involvement with men did increase the 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.680 suspect pool because police had to ask who knew Vera, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.600 who knew the house, who might have known Weldon's schedule, 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.440 and who might have had access to Karen and Gordon. 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.120 While they were looking at men connected to Vera, they 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.280 talked to a guy named Ronnie. Now, this man had 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.040 been a coworker of Weldon's at Cooper Tire. Ronnie told 0:21:46.120 --> 0:21:48.600 police he had met Vera a few years earlier when 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.520 she walked over to Cooper Tire. Ronnie said he ended 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:53.960 up giving Vera a ride home. He said while they 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.000 were in the car, Vera propositioned him and they ended 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.280 up having sex four or five times after that. However, 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:02.800 he said he only had sex with Vera at the 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:05.360 Baden Street home once, and then he hadn't seen her 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.280 at all in about two years, he said. On the 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.840 morning of the murder, he was home in Atlanta, Texas. 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.480 His police cleared Ronnie after speaking to his wife, and 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:18.200 in the end, none of those leads produced an arrest. 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.160 The physical evidence pointed investigators toward another idea that the 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:27.600 killer might have worked around heavy machinery. Police found fibers 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:31.280 on the children's clothing and material under their fingernails. They 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.520 could see some of the evidence looked like it came 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.960 from a laborer or someone around machines, so they started 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.840 looking at people who worked in places like alternator shops, 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.640 tire shops, cable companies, small engine repair environments, and other 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.920 jobs where a person might pick up fibers. 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:47.400 Or metal shavings. 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:50.840 I have to say this police file shows a very 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:55.240 active investigation. Seven detectives reportedly worked twenty four hours a 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:58.560 day for a long time. They interviewed persons of interest, 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.880 They gave polygraphs. They looked at men with sexual assault histories. 0:23:02.120 --> 0:23:05.880 They talked to people connected to Vera's earlier allegations. They 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.080 also looked into a suspect who drove a cable company truck, 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.640 someone who had reportedly exposed himself near an Arkansas high school. 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:14.640 After they heard that rumor, they. 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.360 Actually checked every single employee of this cable company. They 0:23:18.360 --> 0:23:20.800 interviewed them and stated in the report that they were 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:24.440 all cleared. They chased a lot of false leads too. 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:29.480 Police even noted that in one situation, they believed that 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.480 a man's own family might have been trying to set 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.040 him up for this murder to collect the reward offered 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:41.840 by Weldon's employer, Cooper Tire. Vera remained in the mental 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.640 health ward of the hospital for a period of time. 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.960 I'm not exactly sure how long, but it was for 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:50.600 quite a while, and police were trying to talk to her. 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:55.640 The newspapers later reported that investigators believed Vera might have 0:23:55.720 --> 0:24:00.600 known something The Texarcana Police Captain James Coward was quoted 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:03.880 in reports as saying police spent hours and hours trying 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:07.080 to talk to Vera, but they couldn't get any information 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.480 they could use, and her mental health made those interviews 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.480 very challenging. Vera did give them some names, including the 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.800 name of a man who went by Pinky. Investigators found 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:20.880 out this person's real name. They spent a ton of 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:23.760 time tracking him down, only to find that he had 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:26.920 not hung out with Vera in years. According to what 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:29.560 was written in the case file, Vera sometimes seemed to 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:32.600 get the past and the present confused. This man and 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:37.640 others she mentioned were quickly cleared. This is one of 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:40.240 the places where the file kind of becomes heartbreaking in 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:44.080 a different way, because Vera may have been a victim herself, 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:46.360 and from what's got in the case while it does 0:24:46.360 --> 0:24:49.720 seem like investigators were communicating with her and she seemed 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:52.680 to be wanting to tell them something, but in the end, 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:57.120 whatever was inside her never became a clean investigative lead. 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:03.960 Then the case started attracting stranger information, including tips from 0:25:04.000 --> 0:25:20.240 self described psychics. In December of nineteen eighty one, investigators 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:22.760 spoke with a woman named Sue Vazkez along with her 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:26.000 eleven year old daughter, after they said that this child 0:25:26.040 --> 0:25:30.160