Redhead murders
Redhead murders | |||||||
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Details | |||||||
Victims | 6–11 | ||||||
Span of crimes | 1978–1992 | ||||||
State(s) | Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia | ||||||
Date apprehended | Not apprehended |
The Redhead murders refers to a series of unsolved homicides of redheaded females in the United States between October 1978 and 1992, believed to have been committed by an unidentified male serial killer. The murders believed to be related have occurred in states including Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.[1][2][3] The murders may have continued until 1992.[4][5][6] The victims, many remaining unidentified for years, were usually women with reddish hair, whose bodies were abandoned along major highways in the United States. Officials believe that the women were likely hitchhiking or may have engaged in sex work.[3][7]
Authorities are unsure how many people were responsible for these murders, if they were all performed by the same perpetrator(s), and how many victims there have been.[8] It is believed that there may have been a total of six to eleven victims.[3][9][10] Of the presumed victims, four were identified by November 2018.[11][8][12][13] The suspect was informally called the "Bible Belt Strangler" in 2018, because of the territory where the bodies were found.
Victims[]
Lisa Nichols[]
On September 16, 1984, the body of a woman later identified as 28-year-old Lisa Nichols, who also used the last name of Jarvis, was found along Interstate 40 near West Memphis, Arkansas. She was wearing only a sweater. She was found to have been a resident of West Virginia. Authorities were not able to identify and contact her family members for some time, indicating that Nichols was estranged from them. She was not identified until June 1985, nine months after she was strangled. She was identified through fingerprints.[14]
Nichols is believed to have been a victim in what is known as the Redhead Murders. Common characteristics are her hair color, reddish or strawberry-blond, and being found along a highway. She was identified by a couple from Florida, who had allowed her to stay with them for a period of time. Nichols may have been murdered after leaving a truck stop along the highway and may have attempted to hitchhike.[8]
Tina Farmer[]
On January 1, 1985, the bound body of a woman was found near Jellico, Tennessee, in Campbell County, down an embankment off the southbound side of Interstate 75. The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, as she was killed approximately 72 hours before. The victim was killed by strangulation.[15] She was Caucasian, and had shoulder-length curly red hair. Her age was estimated to be between 17 and 25, but possibly as old as 30.[15] The victim was found clothed, in a tan pullover, a shirt, and jeans. Additionally, she had been wrapped in a blanket, which was later found to have seminal fluid on it.[16] Her eyes were green. The young woman had freckles over her body and various scars (including a burn mark on one arm); she was 10 to 12 weeks pregnant when she died. She had a partial upper denture holding two false teeth.[17] It is believed that she was between five feet one and five feet four inches (163 cm) when she died and was approximately 110 to 115 pounds (50 to 52 kg).[15][17][18]
On September 6, 2018, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office announced that the victim had been identified by fingerprint as Tina Marie McKenney Farmer of Indiana. She was 21 or 22 at the time of her death and was last seen in Indianapolis, Indiana, accompanied by a trucker said to be headed to Kentucky.[11][19] Farmer had one daughter prior to disappearing in 1984. She was reported missing by her family at the time, yet authorities in Indiana did not enter her into national databases. The state did not have a law, common to many other states, requiring law enforcement to enter unidentified victims into this database.[20]
In 2019, DNA evidence identified convicted kidnapper Jerry Leon Johns as the man that killed Tina Marie McKenney Farmer in December 1984. Johns died in prison in 2015. He was previously convicted in 1987 of aggravated kidnapping, assault, and other crimes in the attack on a woman, Linda Schacke, that he had picked up in Knox County, Tennessee, two months after Farmer's disappearance and death. Schacke survived the attack, after she was bound, strangled, and dumped along I-40. Her testimony assisted in putting Johns behind bars. Like Farmer, Schacke had been choked with a piece of cloth ripped from her T-shirt, bound, and left for dead inside a storm drain under I-40, near Watt Road. Like Farmer, and the other potential victims of the "Redhead Murders," Schacke also had red hair.[21]
On December 18, 2019, a grand jury in Campbell County, Tennessee, ruled that Johns would have been indicted for murder in Farmer's death if he were still alive.[22]
Campbell County, Tennessee victim[]
On April 3, 1985, the skeletonized partial remains of a young girl were discovered about 200 yards off Big Wheel Gap Road, four miles southwest of Jellico, Tennessee in Campbell County near a strip mine. She was believed to have been dead between one and four years. Her age was estimated between 9 and 15. She was found by a passerby.[23]
The cause of death is undetermined, which does not rule out homicide. Thirty-two bones, including her skull, were recovered from the scene. Her skull was complete enough to permit a facial reconstruction attempt. A necklace and bracelet made of plastic buttons were found nearby, as well as a pair of size 5 boots and a few scraps of clothing. These items may or may not belong to her.[24] Her hair and eye color are unknown. Her age range is below the median for the other victims, but the circumstances of her death may connect her to them.[25]
Other similarities exist between this case and that of Tina Farmer's and survivor Linda Schacke's. The knot in the cloth found in a piece of material found tied around the neck of the Campbell County victim was very similar to the knot in a piece of material found tied around Linda Schacke's neck two months following the Campbell County victim.[21]
Recent forensic analysis of the victim's remains indicated she was not native to the area where she was discovered. The tests showed she was likely born in Florida or central Texas and had later lived in the Midwest, Rocky Mountain states, the Southwest, or the Pacific Coast.[23]
Cheatham County, Tennessee victim[]
On March 31, 1985, the skeletonized body of a red-haired female was found in Pleasant View, Cheatham County, Tennessee. She was believed to have died between three and five months previously, due to an unknown cause. However, her case is possibly linked to the redhead murders because her remains were found at the side of Interstate 24 between mile markers 29 and 30.[26][3][27]
Unlike some of the other victims, she was wearing clothing: a shirt, sweater, pants and underwear. She was white, between five feet and five feet two inches (157 cm) tall. Her weight could not be determined. An examination of her teeth showed that the victim had some evidence of crowding and overlapping in her mouth.[27] This woman was believed to be between the ages of thirty-one and forty at the time of her death.[28]
Espy Pilgrim[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Gray_Kentucky_Redhead_Jane_192UFKY_001d.jpg/220px-Gray_Kentucky_Redhead_Jane_192UFKY_001d.jpg)
On April 1, 1985, the body of a woman was found in a large white Admiral refrigerator in Gray, Knox County, Kentucky, alongside Route 25. Her death was by suffocation.[3][5] The victim had been dead for a few days and was nude except for two distinctive necklace pendants, one of a heart and the other of a gold-colored eagle, and two pairs of socks; one white, and the other white with green and yellow stripes.[5][29] There were reports that the victim may have been soliciting a ride to North Carolina over CB radio.[30] Five hundred people attended the Jane Doe victim's funeral, which was televised. The case was a local sensation in Gray, as the town was a "quiet" and "sleepy" place where little out of the ordinary usually happened.[5]
The refrigerator had a decal of the words "Super Woman" on the front.[30] Distinguishing features of the body included a number of moles (on the right side of her neck, near one ankle, and below each breast), a yellow-stained upper incisor, and a scar and other marks on her abdomen, indicating that she had borne a child. Her eyes were light brown and her hair was red and nearly a foot long, which fit the pattern of the Redhead murders. After the autopsy, this victim was determined to be between 24 and 35 years old, and approximately 4 feet 9 to 4 feet 11 inches tall.[30] It is also possible that she owned the pair of boots found near the refrigerator. Several missing persons have been eliminated as possible matches for the victim.[29]
After the case was publicized in January 2013, the police received some tips, but it is unknown if they became solid leads.[5][31]
On October 1, 2018, the Knox County Sheriff's Office announced this woman had been positively identified as Espy Regina (Black) Pilgrim, of western North Carolina.[12] A DNA match was made between her and her grown daughter, who said her mother disappeared when the girl was six weeks old. Pilgrim also had four older children.[32]
Suspected victims[]
Wetzel County, West Virginia victim[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Redhead_victim2.jpg)
On February 13, 1983, the naked body of a white female was found alongside Route 250 near Littleton, in Wetzel County, West Virginia. A pair of senior citizens reported the body, which they originally had thought was a display mannequin. The body had been placed at the area recently, as snow was on the ground but not on the body. Police said that tire tracks and footprints nearby indicated that she was likely transported to this site after death from another location. Their examination concluded she had died about two days previously and was not a victim of sexual assault. Her cause of death was undetermined. Her hair was auburn; by 1985, she was linked possibly to other redheaded women found as homicide victims whose deaths seemed to be related.[33]
With an estimated age between 35 and 45, this victim appeared to have been older than the median for the other women grouped as victims of the serial killer. Her height was estimated at five feet six inches (168 cm) and weight as 135 pounds (61 kg). Her eyes were presumed to be brown, although postmortem changes may have affected eye color. She had two scars, one typical of a Caesarean section, and another on one index finger. The woman's legs and underarms were shaven, indicating attention to grooming not characteristic of a transient or hitchhiker. Witnesses described seeing a middle-aged white male about five feet ten inches (178 cm) and weighing 185 to 200 pounds (84 to 91 kg) near the area where the body was found. The victim may have been seen alive in Wheeling, West Virginia as an employee or customer at a bar. West Virginia authorities are skeptical of whether this victim is related to other victims in the Redhead Murders.[34]
Elizabeth Lamotte[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Lamotte_elizabeth.jpg)
On April 14, 1985, the body of a young white female was found in Greeneville, Greene County, Tennessee.[35][36] She was determined to have been killed, between three and six weeks previously, by severe blunt-force trauma and possibly a stab wound; her body was in an advanced state of decomposition.[37] Police were able to obtain her fingerprints, as well as DNA and dental information. She had been approximately six to eight weeks pregnant shortly before she died, but had miscarried before death.[36]
She was estimated to be 14 to 20 years old (possibly as old as 25). She was approximately five feet four inches to five feet six inches (168 cm) tall, with a weight of 130 to 140 pounds (59 to 64 kg).[38] She had a slight overbite and had some fillings in her teeth, showing that she had dental care in life. Her fingernails had pink polish. Because she had light brown to blond hair with red highlights, her case was thought to be possibly related to the Redhead murders.
Authorities hoped in late April 1985 that they would identify her body through fingerprints but were unsuccessful.[3][39] Six missing women were ruled out as possible identities of the victim.[39][40][41]
She was not identified until November 2018, when officials announced that the victim was New Hampshire native Elizabeth Lamotte. She was 17 at the time of her death.[13] Lamotte had disappeared on April 6, 1984.[42][43] She was identified through a DNA match after a DNA profile was obtained from Lamotte's family by New Hampshire police in 2017.[44] She had been staying at a group home in Manchester, New Hampshire and never returned to her family after gaining furlough.[45] Lamotte's family was initially asked for a DNA profile to compare to the adult woman victim of the Bear Brook murders. An unidentified girlfriend of the suspect — who went by the alias of Robert Evans — was known by the same first name of Elizabeth. "Robert Evans" was later revealed to be a serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen.[46]
Investigation[]
It is believed that most of the victims remain unidentified due to being estranged or not close to existing family members. They also may not have been native to the states in which they were found. In 1985, not long after the Greene County victim was found, the states of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation for assistance with the cases. There were inconsistencies among some of the victims and characteristics of the crime scenes, as some were found with or without clothing, and some had a sexual encounter before their murders.[35] During the conference, it was stated that four victims found in Texas and a victim found in 1981 in Ohio, nicknamed "Buckskin Girl” (later identified as Marcia King), were ruled out in 1985 as possible victims in the Redhead murders.[35]
A possible suspect emerged circa 1985, when a 37-year-old trucker, Jerry Leon Johns, attacked and attempted to strangle a woman with reddish hair. He left the victim lying near a highway, presuming she was dead. He was later dismissed in the Redhead murders case but was convicted of the woman's kidnapping in 1987.[3] Despite his exclusion from the case, it was announced that DNA from Johns was matched to Tina Farmer via CODIS in 2016. He died in prison in 2015 at the age of 67. A grand jury decided he would have been indicted for the slaying, had he been alive.[47] Johns was a trucker who resided in Cleveland, Tennessee before his arrest.[16] It has not been specified whether he is considered a suspect in other victims of the Redhead murders.
Another suspect was a 32-year-old trucker in Pennsylvania, who was questioned after kidnapping and raping a young woman in the state of Indiana. She managed to escape before more injury. This suspect was also dismissed from this investigation, after being questioned by Tennessee police.[4]
See also[]
- List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
- List of serial killers in the United States
- List of solved missing person cases
References[]
- ^ Robinson, Grant (June 26, 2018). "Potential daughter of redheaded Jane Doe visits town where body was found". 10 News NBC. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ Bass, William; Jefferson, Jon (October 5, 2004). Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales. New York, New York: Berkley Trade. p. 149. ISBN 0425198324.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Five states join probe of 'redhead murders'". Gadsden Times. April 25, 1985. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ a b "Trucker not a suspect in 'Redhead Murders'". The Evening Times. Sayre, Pennsylvania. February 6, 1986. p. 18. Retrieved January 19, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e Breslow, Josh (January 24, 2013). "The Redhead Murders". 18 News. NBC. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ Newton, Michael (September 2009). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (Second ed.). New York, New York: Infobase Publishing. p. 316. ISBN 978-0816078196.
- ^ Strand, Ginger (February 14, 2014). Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate. University of Texas Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0292757523.
- ^ a b c "Police Identify 1 Readhead Murder Victim". Daily News. June 27, 1985. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ "Lawmen from 5-States Probe Redhead Murders". Schenectady Gazette. April 25, 1985. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
- ^ "'Redhead' murders probed". The Galveston Daily News. April 25, 1985. p. 6. Retrieved January 19, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "'Redhead Murder' victim in Campbell County identified after 33 years". Knoxville News Sentinel. September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
- ^ a b ""Knox County Jane Doe" positively identified 33 years later - ABC 36 News". ABC 36 News. October 1, 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
- ^ a b Shelton, Caitlyn (November 14, 2018). "1985 Tennessee homicide victim identified as New Hampshire missing 17-year-old". WZTV. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ Townsend, Catherine (May 16, 2018). "WHO IS THE "BIBLE BELT STRANGLER"? HIGH SCHOOL SOCIOLOGY CLASS IDS POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLER". Crime Feed. Investigation Discovery. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
- ^ a b c "NamUs UP # 1579". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. April 11, 2008. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ a b "TBI identifies suspect in 1985 "redhead murders" case as Cleveland, Tenn. man". WTVC. ABC. December 19, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
- ^ a b "Case File 910UFTN". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. December 8, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ "Jane Doe 1985". missingkids.org. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ "Agents ID body found in Tennessee in '80s as Indy woman, ask public to help solve murder". FOX59. September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
- ^ Turner, Angela (September 12, 2018). "Body found 33 years ago has been identified". The Times-Tribune.com.
- ^ a b "TBI identifies suspect in nearly 35-year-old Campbell County cold case slaying".
- ^ "Solved: Grand jury decides who killed Tina Marie Farmer in 1984".
- ^ a b "Jane Doe 1985". missingkids.org. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
- ^ "Case File 482UFTN". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. June 23, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ "NamUs UP # 1577". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. April 11, 2008. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
- ^ Jaglois, Jessica (September 13, 2018). "Identification provides new hope in 'Redhead Murders'". WKRN. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ a b "Case File: 911UFTN". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ "NamUs UP # 1578". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
- ^ a b "NamUs UP # 82". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. June 30, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Case File: 192UFKY". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. January 14, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ Nesbitt, Jim (April 21, 1985). "Serial Killer Likely Preying On Redheads". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ Hunter, Brad (October 6, 2018). "CRIME HUNTER: Giving names and justice to the Jane and John Does | Toronto Sun". Toronto Sun. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
- ^ "Dead Woman May Be Linked to 5-State Redhead Murders". Observer-Reporter. April 26, 1985. p. 11. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ "Case File: 56UFWV". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ a b c Aldrich, Marta W. (April 25, 1985). "OFFICIALS PUZZLE OVER STRING OF REDHEAD MURDERS". Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ a b "Jane Doe 1985". missingkids.org. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ "Case File 264UFTN". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ "Unidentified Person Notice". txdps.state.tx.us. Texas Department of Public Safety. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ a b "NamUs UP # 1576". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. April 11, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ Haman, Ansley (May 20, 2007). "Law enforcement agencies face startling numbers and staggering odds to identify young Jane Does Unclaimed UNNAMED". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ "11th Red-Haired Victim Found in Series of Baffling Homicides". Daily News. April 17, 1985. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
- ^ "Elizabeth Lamotte". missingkids.org. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ Good, Meaghan. "Elizabeth Lamotte". The Charley Project. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ Gill, Joey (November 14, 2018). "Body found in East Tennessee three decades ago identified as missing New Hampshire woman". WSMV Nashville. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ "Remains of missing Manchester woman last seen in 1984 identified, possible link to string of homicides". Manchester Ink Link. November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- ^ Augustine, Seth (November 15, 2018). "New Hampshire's Most Infamous Cold Case Leads to Unrelated 1985 Tenn. Homicide". Retrieved November 23, 2018.
- ^ "Tennessee special agents identify suspect in Indiana woman's 1985 murder". FOX59. Fox News. December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
External links[]
- Wetzel County victim at The Doe Network
- Cheatham County victim at The Doe Network
- Cheatham County victim at NamUs
- Campbell County victim at The Doe Network
- Campbell County victim at NamUs
- Campbell County victim at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
- 1978 murders in the United States
- American serial killers
- Crimes against sex workers in the United States
- Female murder victims
- Formerly missing people
- People murdered in Arkansas
- People murdered in Kentucky
- People murdered in Mississippi
- People murdered in Pennsylvania
- People murdered in Tennessee
- Serial murders in the United States
- Unidentified American children
- Unidentified murder victims in Arkansas
- Unidentified murder victims in Kentucky
- Unidentified murder victims in Mississippi
- Unidentified murder victims in Pennsylvania
- Unidentified murder victims in Tennessee
- Unidentified murder victims in the United States
- Unidentified serial killers
- Unsolved murders in the United States
- Violence against women in the United States
- Suspected serial killers