The Telltale Bite (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] One summer day in 1978, a man came home from work to his house in a nice neighborhood in Illinois, and when he went inside the front door, he called out to his fiancé.

[3] But she didn't call back.

[4] The man stood there looking around the house, and immediately he was struck with annoyance because the house was a total mess, and his wife had actually stayed home.

[5] home from work that day because she said she was going to straighten up the house, and clearly she had not.

[6] But after searching the house, the man had not found his wife yet, and so he started to wonder if she was actually okay.

[7] The only place left to check for her was down in the basement.

[8] So the man opened the door and began walking down the stairs.

[9] When he got to the bottom, he would come face to face with a nightmare.

[10] But before we get into that story, I want to tell you about our brand new merch collection on shop, Mr. Ballin .com.

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[12] The shop is open right now, so go to shopmisterballin .com and have a wonderful holiday season.

[13] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[14] I'm Dan Tiberzky.

[15] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[16] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[17] What's the answer?

[18] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[19] Hysterical.

[20] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[21] Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[22] On the evening of June 20, 1978, rock and roll music blasted from inside a little White House on Acton Avenue in the suburb of Wood River, Illinois.

[23] Inside the house, 22 -year -old Carla Lou Brown, set four pizzas down on a pile of milk crates, that for that night served as her dining room table.

[24] The petite blonde woman was exhausted from hauling boxes and furniture all day, but she wanted to thank the friends who had helped move her and her fiancé into their new home, so she was hosting a house party.

[25] Carla's best friend, Debbie, raised her beer into the air and said that hopefully, this house would soon be filled with the pitter -patter of little feet running around.

[26] Carla, who was looking forward to getting pregnant, beamed and looked over at her fiancée, Mark Hart.

[27] Mark was laughing, but he had his hands up in front of his face as if to say, you know, slow down here.

[28] He joked that before they had kids, he'd just like to get their boxes unpacked first.

[29] Carla had been dating Mark, the 27 -year -old apprentice electrician, since he returned from the war in Vietnam.

[30] Carla was totally crazy about him, but their five -year courtship had been anything but smooth.

[31] Mark was one of the few men in Carla's life who had not immediately thrown himself at her feet and done whatever it took to make a her happy.

[32] At four foot 11 inches tall, Carla was shorter than most girls in Wood River, but that hadn't stopped her from becoming a varsity cheerleader in high school.

[33] She was kind and approachable, which made her popular with boys and girls alike, and she was curvy enough to attract wolf whistles from total strangers out on the street.

[34] But Mark was different.

[35] She had to chase him, because Mark was one of those guys who started sweating at the thought of commitment.

[36] He had broken things off with Carla more than once before, when the pressure to settle down just got to him.

[37] But he always came back.

[38] And now, finally, the couple was not only engaged to be married, but they also had just bought a house together.

[39] Carla sipped her beer and thought to herself how much she wished her father could see how far she had come.

[40] Ever since he died in an accident when she was just 11 years old, Carla had been looking for a real home.

[41] She and her mom had fought so much that Carla moved out as a teenager.

[42] She lived with her best friend Debbie and other friends, bouncing from place to place, until now.

[43] It was barely a thousand square feet of living space, but to Carla, this new home for her and Mark was a dream house.

[44] A loud knock on the front door suddenly brought Carla's focus back to the party.

[45] Carla got up and walked over to the door and she opened it up and standing outside was a shaggy -looking guy in his early 20s named Lee Barnes.

[46] Carla had seen Lee while she and Mark were moving in earlier that day.

[47] Lee had been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana with two other guys at the house next door.

[48] One of them had made a lewd remark about Carla's breasts, but then Lee called out to her by name and said they went to high school together, though she only vaguely remembered him.

[49] Carla mustered a good -natured hello, but quickly just went back to unpacking.

[50] And now that guy, Lee, was standing on her porch, asking to join the party along with his two buds, Paul Mainz and John Prant.

[51] Lee told Carla that they had marijuana they would share if they would share that pizza with him and his friends.

[52] He said, come on, it'll be fun.

[53] But Carla had no desire to invite this trio into her home.

[54] This was a special night for Carla, and she only wanted to share it with people closest to her.

[55] So she told Lee that she was tired, and they were about to wrap things up anyways, and so maybe they could hang out another time.

[56] Lee looked mildly annoyed at the rejection, but he took the hint and left with his pals trailing right behind him.

[57] Carla shut the front door and then put another Blondie album on the record player.

[58] soon all the girls were dancing and Carla was swaying right along with the beat and as she did she looked over at Mark and Mark gazed back at her as if she was the only woman in the world.

[59] The next day Carla took the day off from her job in customer service at an airplane parts company.

[60] She had way too much to do getting settled into her new home including cleaning up the trash from the party the night before.

[61] But so far on this kind of unexpected day off she'd spent most of the morning on the phone.

[62] At nine, she called her best friend Debbie, who was home with her baby, and then after she hung up with Debbie, Mark's mother called her, and she really liked to talk.

[63] Carla glanced at the clock.

[64] It was already 11 a .m., and Mark's mom showed no sign of slowing down.

[65] Carla was starting to feel guilty that she was getting so little done with this day off.

[66] While Mark was hard at work, Carla was supposed to be organizing their house.

[67] So eventually, Carla made up a lie that she had just heard someone knock at her front door and so she needed to go, and so Mark's mother took the hint, and they hung up.

[68] And so now that Carla was finally free, she just headed downstairs to the finished basement where the couple had left their unpacked boxes, and Carla got back to work.

[69] But minutes later, Carla was unpacking a 10 -gallon barrel labeled Mark that contained his clothes when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs to the basement.

[70] Figuring that Mark must have forgotten something before he left for work, Carla stopped what she was doing and she turned around with a big smile on her face, ready to greet her husband.

[71] A little after 5 o 'clock that evening, Carla's husband, Mark, pulled up to the house in a pickup truck driven by his friend Tom.

[72] They were hauling a large doghouse behind them.

[73] Mark knew how much Carla loved his parents' golden retriever dog, so he planned to get a dog for her as soon as they were settled in.

[74] Mark told Tom that he kind of secretly hoped that Carla would love this puppy so much that she might wait on having a kid right away.

[75] Once the pickup truck came to a stop, Mark slid out of the passenger seat and walked up the front path to his one -story clapboard house and went in the front door.

[76] He expected to find Carla, but didn't see her in the living room.

[77] And she didn't answer when he called her name.

[78] Mark picked up an empty beer can from the night before and took it into the kitchen.

[79] As he threw it into the trash can, he noticed that the back door was ajar.

[80] He felt annoyed with Carla for leaving it open because all sorts of insects could get in.

[81] He shut the door, then joined his friend Tom outside.

[82] They carried the doghouse to the backyard and set it down under the shade of an oak tree.

[83] Then Mark invited his friend inside for a tour of their new house.

[84] He showed Tom their bedroom and the spare room that Carla was already calling the baby's room.

[85] And then Mark asked Tom if he wanted to go downstairs and see his favorite part of the house.

[86] the basement.

[87] Tom said, yeah, let's do it.

[88] So Mark led the way down the steps to the basement where he had set up the TV and a sofa.

[89] No matter what was going on upstairs, he told Tom as they walked down, we can always watch football in peace down here.

[90] But when they actually got downstairs, Mark immediately noticed something strange.

[91] The sofa appeared to be soaking wet, and the TV tray in front of it was turned upside down.

[92] Beside the sofa were several dark red drops on the basement floor, and Mark wondered if maybe it was blood.

[93] And so in a second, his mood switched from being annoyed to being very anxious.

[94] Mark looked rapidly around the room for some explanation for what was going on, but everything else seemed totally normal.

[95] Then Mark turned toward these swinging doors that led to the laundry room, and in the gap between the bottom of the doors and the floor, he could see Carla's bare legs.

[96] Suddenly panicking, Mark screamed out Carla's name.

[97] But Carla didn't answer, and so Mark ran into the laundry room, and what he saw in there was worse than anything he saw in Vietnam.

[98] Carla was kneeling on the ground with her hands tied behind her back, and her head was submerged in a 10 -gallon barrel full of water.

[99] Carla was also naked from the waist down.

[100] Mark ran over to the barrel and saw bubbles in the water around Carla's head, and for just a second he thought maybe he could save her.

[101] But when he frantically pulled her head out of the water, he saw her complexion was already gray, and she had two long gashes across her forehead, as well as serious bruising under her chin.

[102] Also, two of Mark's socks were tied tightly around Carla's neck, digging into her skin.

[103] Mark checked her wrist for a pulse but couldn't find one.

[104] And so as Mark cradled his fiancé in his lap and began to cry, Tom raced upstairs and called 911.

[105] The first police officer arrived at the house just before 6 p .m. His name was Don Greer, and he was a 27 -year -old.

[106] from the Wood River Police.

[107] And he actually knew Mark.

[108] They were old friends who used to go out on double dates together.

[109] When Greer heard the 911 report of a deceased woman at Mark Hart's new address, his heart sank.

[110] He hoped it was a mistake.

[111] When Greer arrived at the house, he would find Mark sitting at the kitchen table, staring ahead with glassy eyes.

[112] Mark looked up and seemed to recognize his old friend, but all he could say was, she's down in the basement.

[113] Greer went directly down the stairs to where Mark and Tom had laid a red blanket over Carla, who was now face down on the floor.

[114] When Greer looked beneath the blanket, he was shocked by the brutality of the murder.

[115] It looked like Carla had been beaten as well as strangled and probably raped too.

[116] But he had been told that her head was underwater when she was found, so maybe she had drowned.

[117] But it certainly wasn't easy to determine just from looking at her what killed Carla.

[118] there were just too many possibilities.

[119] Wood River was just across the Mississippi River from the city of St. Louis, so big city crime did show up in this town periodically.

[120] But murders were rare, and usually they were just the result of a bar fight or some other physical altercation.

[121] Greer had never seen a homicide in Wood River that was this violent and perverse.

[122] In fact, no one in the Wood River Police Force had.

[123] And for Greer, this was not just any murder victim.

[124] It was his friend's fiancé.

[125] Greer could scarcely concentrate on sizing up the crime scene.

[126] He felt like he should run upstairs to comfort his friend after such a horrible loss, but Greer couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't come off phony.

[127] So Greer settled for going upstairs and laying his hand on Mark's shoulder before asking Mark and Tom to please tell him exactly what happened.

[128] Mark began talking about how excited he was to show Carla this new doghouse, but as he spoke, Greer could only think, about the nightmare in the basement.

[129] The Wood River Police were going to need help to solve this murder.

[130] A few hours later, at around 8 p .m., crime scene technician, All the Bush, of the Illinois State Police, pulled up to the house on Acton Ave. Greer didn't know him personally, but Bush was the first guy the chief had wanted to call when Greer told him they needed a high -level crime scene analyst.

[131] Bush, who was a Vietnam veteran and former narcotics officer, was built like a bear and was known to speak bluntly.

[132] But at only 30 years old, he was already the most perceptive and intuitive crime scene tech in the state.

[133] Bush walked into the kitchen and introduced himself to Mark, who was clutching a framed photograph of Carla.

[134] Bush looked closely at her smiling face, as Mark tearfully recounted how he had found his fiancé in the basement.

[135] Bush then headed to the basement with Greer, glad that he saw Carla in life before he saw her as a murder victim.

[136] Bush's first reaction when he reached the crime scene was irritation.

[137] Mark and Tom, in their desperation to save Carla, had moved her body to the floor and away from the barrel of water where they found it.

[138] It always made Bush's work harder when someone tampered with the crime scene before he arrived.

[139] Clues were almost always lost.

[140] Nonetheless, it quickly started forming a mental picture of the crime that had unfolded right here.

[141] Greer removed the blanket to show Carla's body to Bush.

[142] and it didn't take a genius to suspect sexual assault.

[143] Carla was nude from the waist down.

[144] Bush examined the wounds on Carla's face.

[145] The cuts ran parallel across her forehead, bloody but too shallow to be fatal.

[146] He wondered what would make a wound like that.

[147] The socks tied around Carla's neck, made it look like she had been strangled with them, but Bush thought the knots were too neat to have caused her death.

[148] A death struggle is messy business, and these socks looked more like a decorative scarf than a murder weapon.

[149] Bush told Greer that the killer very likely tied these socks around her neck after she was already dead.

[150] Bush also doubted that Carla had drowned.

[151] The water inside the 10 -gallon barrel, where Carla's head was submerged, had only the slightest tinge of red, even though Carla had fresh bleeding wounds on her face.

[152] That told Bush that she was most likely already dead when the killer dunked her head inside of the water.

[153] And the more Bush looked around, the more he became convinced that the killer must have deliberately rearranged the entire crime scene before they fled.

[154] The brightly colored wool sweater Carla was still wearing was just too neat.

[155] The single button near the neckline was still fastened, which seemed really unlikely to Bush, considering there must have been a life and death struggle.

[156] Also, it seemed unlikely that Carla would be wearing a sweater at all on a warm June day.

[157] And so Bush figured the killer must have dressed Carla in the sweater after they killed her.

[158] Likewise, Bush thought the cords wrapped around Carla's wrists were added for show as well.

[159] The bonds were so loose that there was just no way that could have kept Carla's hands bound, especially again in the middle of a life and death struggle.

[160] Bush concluded that the killer very likely assaulted Carla while she was on the couch and then bashed her in the head with something and then strangled her as she bled.

[161] Afterwards, the killer very likely tried to wash the blood off the couch, which is why the cushions looked soaked, and then very likely the killer dragged Carla's body to the laundry room where he dressed her in the sweater, tied the socks around her neck, and then stuck her head in the water to make it look like she had drowned.

[162] And then just before the killer left, they very likely took Carla's panties as some kind of sick trophy.

[163] But as Bush thought about this, he also thought to himself, you know, why would this killer have gone to all this trouble to stage the crime scene?

[164] I mean, that would require the killer to stick around the murder scene for a long period of time, making it more and more likely they would get caught.

[165] Bush could see that the killer clearly thought it was important to try to confuse the investigators, but Bush also wondered if maybe the murderer was also just trying to send some kind of chilling message.

[166] The murder scene reminded Bush of the work of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, who raped and murdered dozens of young women.

[167] But Bundy had been arrested a few months earlier, so it couldn't have been him.

[168] However, Bush wondered if maybe they had a new serial killer on their hands that might have been inspired by Ted Bundy.

[169] Police quickly determined that the last person to speak with Carla had been Mark's mother, and she would say they were on the phone right up until about 11 that morning.

[170] So using that as a frame of reference, police began going door to door asking neighbors about what they might have heard or seen that day between 11 a .m. when we know Carla was still alive and 5 p .m. when Mark came home and found Carla dead.

[171] Greer knocked on the door of the house next to Carla and Marks, where those three guys had been smoking pot and drinking beer and calling out lewd remarks to Carla before going over to Carla's house and trying to go to her party.

[172] And so the door opened, but there was a screen that separated Greer from a skinny 22 -year -old Paul Main who was standing inside.

[173] Greer asked Paul if he could come inside and speak with him, and Paul immediately looked super nervous and taken aback, and Greer had an idea why.

[174] he could smell the pot smoke from where he was standing.

[175] Greer promised Paul that he was not there to try to bust him for marijuana.

[176] It was fine.

[177] Paul nodded and opened the screen door.

[178] Greer stepped inside the house.

[179] The walls were totally bare other than a few rock posters, and the furniture looked really old and ragged.

[180] Greer sat down across from Paul at a card table and then asked him what he'd been up to until 5 p .m. that day.

[181] Paul said he was home for most of it.

[182] He said he was alone until noon when his friend John Prant came over to hang out until about three when Paul had to go run some errands.

[183] But Paul said he didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

[184] He said Carla and Mark had only moved in the day before, so he scarcely knew them.

[185] Paul said that his friend Lee knew Carla from high school, and they had gone over to greet the newcomers the night before, but Carla and her boyfriend did not seem very interested in socializing with them so they had left.

[186] And so that was the last time Paul said he saw Carla.

[187] As for Paul's friends, Lee and John, they were no more help when Greer tracked them down.

[188] Lee wasn't even in the neighborhood on the day of the murder, and John told Greer that he was in the neighborhood.

[189] He was at Paul's place twice that day, first early in the morning when he was out delivering job applications, and then from noon to about three, he was back at Paul's place when he was just hanging out.

[190] And just like Paul, John said he did not see anything out of the ordinary.

[191] And that's how it went with all the potential witnesses.

[192] Greer went door after door, but no one had heard or seen anything unusual on Act and Ave that day.

[193] Somehow, the killer had violently assaulted and killed Carla Brown without anybody noticing.

[194] Autopsy results the next day confirmed just how violent Carla's final moments had been.

[195] She had a broken jaw and deep bruises all over her neck in addition to the cuts on her forehead.

[196] She also had bits of skin underneath her fingernails, likely from scratching her assailant's face and back.

[197] But unfortunately, in the 1970s, DNA analysis was not an option.

[198] What the coroner did not find was significant water in Carla's lungs, which he would have expected with a drowning.

[199] Bush had been right.

[200] She did not drown at all.

[201] The coroner ruled that she had died from strangulation, likely by a cable or the killer's bare hands, before she was placed in that barrel of water.

[202] Now the investigators were sure the killer had staged the crime scene.

[203] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[204] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[205] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[206] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[207] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of disease, diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[208] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[209] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[210] Hey, all you fans of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[211] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.

[212] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[213] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[214] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[215] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[216] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[217] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely.

[218] stunning.

[219] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[220] Again, that's book .bollinstudios .com.

[221] All across Wood River that day, June 22nd, people woke up to front -page news about the shocking murder of Carla Brown, along with a picture of Carla from her senior yearbook.

[222] The article described the crime as being potentially a sexual murder, possibly tied to a recent string of incidents in the community.

[223] Over the past 15 months, a man had attacked 14 women in their homes and he was still at large.

[224] But Bush told the Wood River police that he didn't buy that theory.

[225] That serial rapist who was attacking women in their homes always broke in at night, but Carla was killed in the middle of the day, and the serial rapist did not kill his victims.

[226] But there were enough obvious similarities between those attacks and the attack on Carla that Bush knew he couldn't totally rule out the serial rapist theory.

[227] In fact, Bush and the Wood River police were having a hard time ruling out anyone as a suspect, from strangers to her fiancé.

[228] They believed that the murder was a sex crime, but they had very few clues as to who did it.

[229] Greer knew that the first suspect in all these kinds of cases is the domestic partner, but Greer felt like his old friend Mark was a very unlikely murderer.

[230] Not only was he clearly distraught at his fiance's death, but Mark's boss confirmed to Greer that he had been working at a job site all day.

[231] And so Greer told the chief that they should focus on other possibilities.

[232] Greer spent a big part of June 22nd talking to all 10 guests who had gone to Carla and Mark's house party, but most of them couldn't imagine who would want to hurt someone as nice as Carla.

[233] One guy told Greer that Carla was really good at saying the right thing when people felt down.

[234] This guy was very self -conscious about the fact that he was quite short, but Carla, who was several inches shorter than him, once told him that he was tall to her.

[235] Greer was starting to think that he was not going to get any useful information from these ten people, but when he sat down with the last person, Carla's best friend Debbie, she would identify two potential suspects that in theory could have wanted to do harm to Carla.

[236] The first suspect was an ex -boyfriend in Connecticut that Carla dated over a year ago during one of her breakups with Mark.

[237] The guy took it really hard when Carla broke it off to return to Mark, and he kept getting in touch with Carla for months.

[238] Debbie couldn't remember his name, though.

[239] Debbie also fingered Carla's stepfather, a heavy drinker with a temper.

[240] She said that when she and Carla were seniors in high school, Carla's stepfather tried to force himself on Carla.

[241] Afterwards, Carla excused his behavior, saying he was drunk, but drunk or not, Debbie called it attempted rape.

[242] Carla's mother eventually had the marriage annulled.

[243] Both of these suspects that Debbie brought up were intriguing possibilities, but Greer quickly got information that scratched both of them from his list of suspects.

[244] The ex -boyfriend was in New Jersey on business on the day of the murder, while Carla's stepfather said that he and Carla had remained close, and he had recently even given her money for dental work, and he also easily passed a lie detector test to prove he never assaulted Carla and had nothing to do with Carla's death.

[245] By the day of Carla's funeral, which was Saturday, June 24th, investigators were getting frustrated at their lack of progress.

[246] Three days after the crime, and they still had no strong suspect.

[247] At 1 p .m., Woodland Hill Cemetery filled up with residents from Wood River who gathered to say goodbye to Carla.

[248] So many of them had brought flowers that the local shop had to stop taking orders.

[249] Six pallbearers carried Carla's casket from the hearse to the gravesite.

[250] Mark had chosen all former boyfriends of Carla's who had remained friends with her.

[251] Greer watched the crowd, looking for anything unusual, but all he saw was a community in pain.

[252] He felt so much pressure to bring justice to these people and to bring it fast.

[253] But the investigation seemed to just be going backwards.

[254] In fact, the lab had just called to say that every fingerprint they had found in the basement was either Carla's or Marx, so the killer didn't even leave behind any prints.

[255] Greer watched as Carla's casket was lowered into the ground, and he thought to himself, this can't be the end of the story.

[256] Five days after the murder, the Illinois State Police sent a detective named Randy Rushing to take a fresh look at the evidence.

[257] The muscular former state trooper with the handlebar mustache had taught criminal law at the Police Academy before joining the Department of Criminal Investigations.

[258] Now, he was supposed to give the case a top -to -bottom review to see if there was something the local police had missed.

[259] And Rushing was interested in the potheads next door to Carla and Mark, noting that Paul and John had given slightly different accounts of where they'd been the day of the murder.

[260] John had said he had visited Paul around 8 .30 a .m. while Paul didn't remember seeing John until noon.

[261] Detective rushing wondered if they were hiding something.

[262] But once again, the theory went nowhere.

[263] John passed a polygraph test easily, and Paul, he did fail part of the test, but the test administrator thought that it might have to do with him being nervous, or maybe he was high or both.

[264] In fact, Paul was slurring his words during the test.

[265] And so rushing and the test administrator both agreed that the polygraph tests gave them very little to work with.

[266] But they planned to keep their eye on Paul Maines because technically he did fail the polygraph.

[267] For a brief moment in late July, so about a month after the killing, investigators got excited when Wood River Police arrested a 21 -year -old man named Tony Garza for breaking into a woman's house and trying to rape her.

[268] Garza actually confessed to the 14 break -ins and sexual assaults that had occurred in town over the previous 15 months.

[269] But Garza was adamant that he had nothing to do with Carla Brown's death, and he too passed a polygraph test.

[270] Detective rushing still had his suspicions about Garza.

[271] A violent assault could easily turn into a murder after all, but he had no evidence connecting the alleged rapist to Carla Brown.

[272] No fingerprints, no witnesses.

[273] So investigators kept Garza on their list of suspects, even though they knew it didn't mean much.

[274] They had no more evidence against Garza than they did for several other potential suspects, including that next -door neighbor, Paul Mainz, who failed a portion of his polygraph.

[275] Rushing, Greer, and the rest of the investigators knew they needed a break in the case, or no one would be held accountable for Carla's murder.

[276] And by the fall of 1978, with no main suspect in sight, state police finally pulled rushing off the case.

[277] Greer kept the case open, but as months and even years passed by with no new leads, he worried that Carla Brown's murder might never be solved.

[278] By June of 1980, so two years after the murder, the investigation was in the deep freeze, and Carla's fiancé, Mark, had given up hope that her killer would ever be brought to justice.

[279] Bush, the crime scene analyst, had worked on literally hundreds of other criminal cases since the murder of Carla Brown.

[280] But he never forgot Carla's smiling face in the photo that Mark was holding that day, or the terrible injuries she had suffered at the hands of her killer.

[281] And the idea that her killer was getting away with murder really gnawed at Bush.

[282] At the time, Bush was in New Mexico to testify at another trial when he attended a police seminar on a new investigative technique called computer image enhancement.

[283] He sat on the edge of his seat in a university lecture hall as a forensic dentist, Dr. Homer Campbell, explained how the computer could transform a two -dimensional photograph into a three -dimensional image, giving police new insights into crime scenes.

[284] Dr. Campbell demonstrated how this technique enabled investigators to scour a picture in a much deeper way, picking up details that were previously invisible.

[285] After the lecture ended, Bush walked right up to Campbell and said, hey, I have a case for you.

[286] He explained that Carla Brown's murder had baffled investigators, in part because the killer had completely rearranged the crime scene, making it hard for them to find real clues.

[287] He said investigators were particularly puzzled by two parallel cuts on Carla's forehead.

[288] Campbell was intrigued.

[289] So the next day, Bush sent over the crime scene photos from Carla's murder, and Dr. Campbell ran them through his computer enhancement process, and then afterwards he asked Bush if he could take a look at the TV tray that was found next to Carla's sofa that was visible in the pictures.

[290] When Campbell had zoomed in really tightly on the tray, he discovered a strand of Carla's blonde hair and some of her blood.

[291] Instantly, Campbell realized that whoever Carla's killer was had struck her with the TV tray.

[292] That's where those cuts had come from on Carla's head.

[293] Then Dr. Campbell asked Bush about the bite mark.

[294] Bush froze.

[295] He was not aware of any bite mark on Carla.

[296] He had focused on the heavy bruising around Carla's neck from the strangulation and ignored what looked like a relatively minor bruising around her collarbone.

[297] But studying the enhanced photograph, Dr. Campbell found the telltale marks left by a set of teeth.

[298] Bush initially blamed himself.

[299] How could he have missed a bite mark on the body?

[300] But Dr. Campbell assured him that without the enhancement, no one would have caught it.

[301] Now the question was, could this be used to identify the killer?

[302] Dr. Campbell believed that a bite mark was almost as good as a fingerprint.

[303] In fact, it was Dr. Campbell's testimony about a bite mark in the Ted Bundy murder trial two years earlier that helped convict Ted Bundy.

[304] With Campbell's big discovery, they could now compare suspect's teeth against the shape of the bite mark on Carla.

[305] Without a court order, it would not be easy to get suspects to agree to have molds made of their teeth, but Bush had a plan to get what they needed.

[306] And he called rushing the state police detective to help.

[307] Of all the people investigators had spoken to, Carla's next -door neighbor, Paul, the guy who had partially failed the polygraph, was still at the top of their list of suspects.

[308] And even without a mold of his teeth, they could tell that Campbell's bite -mark analysis suggested he could be their guy.

[309] Whoever killed Carla had crooked teeth, and just from looking at Paul, he also clearly had crooked teeth.

[310] But by this time, September of 1980, so two years and three months after Carla's murder, Paul no longer lived on Acton Avenue.

[311] But Wood River police officer Don Greer, who by this point had been promoted to Deputy Chief, tracked Paul down at a YMCA about 15 minutes away, and he gave him a call.

[312] Greer lied and told Paul that he was calling from an insurance company that had a check for him, money he was owed from an accident a few years back.

[313] Now, this was a deliberate deception, one that would likely be tossed out by a court as unethical today, but back in night.

[314] In 1978, it worked like a charm.

[315] Paul came right to the closed insurance company building that police were using as their front, and he presented himself at the front desk ready to receive his check, but very quickly, Paul realized he had walked into a trap.

[316] Paul looked even thinner than when Greer had questioned him two years earlier.

[317] Rushing noticed that Paul was trembling and thought there was a good chance he would crack and give a confession.

[318] But Paul stuck to his original story when he was asked.

[319] He said he had no idea who killed Carla.

[320] But Greer and Rushing did not believe him, and they made that very clear to him.

[321] They said there was only one way he could prove his innocence.

[322] Let them take an impression of his teeth to compare against the killer's teeth.

[323] And Paul agreed.

[324] They overnighted the impression of Paul's teeth to Dr. Campbell, and then all the investigators held their breath until they heard back the next day.

[325] Finally, 27 months after the crime, they hoped they were on the brink of justice.

[326] for Carla.

[327] But when Dr. Campbell called, he had disappointing news.

[328] The forensic dentist told them that the photographs, even with the computer enhancements, were not good enough to declare Paul's bite as a match.

[329] Paul could be the killer, but Campbell was not certain.

[330] Rushing, Greer, and Bush alike were crushed.

[331] The Carla Brown case was cold again.

[332] And it would stay that way for two more years, until one chilly day in March of 1982, when Detective Rushing met an FBI agent who would go on to help break the case wide open with absolutely stunning psychological insights into the mind of their killer.

[333] Rushing was at a conference in St. Louis when he attended a session led by Agent John Douglas, who was a pioneer in the art of profiling suspects so that police knew who to look for.

[334] Douglas' six -person team specialized in creating psychological profiles of serial killers.

[335] The tall, slender agent wearing a vest and tie, talked about traveling the country to speak with killers like Charles Manson and others less famous, but no less deadly, to understand how their minds worked.

[336] Rushing was totally mesmerized by Douglas' way of analyzing killer's motives and weaknesses, and so rushing couldn't help but wonder, you know, what kind of suspect would Douglas profile if he looked at the Carla Brown case.

[337] And so, after the talk was over, Rushing approached Douglas and asked for his help.

[338] And Douglas agreed.

[339] Six weeks later, Bush and Rushing piled into an unmarked police car to make the 800 -mile drive to FBI headquarters in Virginia to go over the case with John Douglas.

[340] Greer, who was now Wood River's chief of police, flew back from a vacation in Florida to join them on this trip.

[341] When the investigators arrived at the sprawling FBI campus, an agent from Douglas' behavioral science unit escorted them to a conference room.

[342] They spread pictures from the crime scene across the table.

[343] Then Douglas breezed into the room, shook hands, and started examining the photos.

[344] A few minutes later, he sat back in his chair, assembling the details he had just formed in his head, and then he launched into a highly specific description of the killer that was so precise it was like he actually knew him and was there in the basement four years earlier when the crime happened on June 20th, 1978.

[345] He said the crime scene looked disorderly, which made him think the killer was a shaggy -looking disorderly person, someone with low self -esteem who was awkward with women and had a history of rejection.

[346] Douglas then said the killer likely drove a beat -up old car, something like a red or orange Volkswagen.

[347] Now, to Bush rushing and Greer, it almost seemed like Douglas was just making things up as he went along.

[348] And so as Douglas spoke, they began exchanging doubtful looks and wondered if they drove all this way for nothing.

[349] But Douglas wasn't done.

[350] He said it was common for killers to keep something from their victims, and when he said this, Bush looked knowingly at Greer, because four years ago, they had discussed the fact that Carla's panties were missing from the crime scene, and maybe they had been taken as a trophy.

[351] Douglas then said that the Carla Brown murder scene had some of the trappings of a serial killer, especially the way the killer had moved things around to create the appearance that Carla had drowned in that 10 -gallon barrel.

[352] But Douglas said the killer had never killed anyone before Carla.

[353] And the killer probably did not come over to Carla's house to kill her.

[354] This surprised the investigators, and so Rushing asked Douglas how he could possibly know that.

[355] And Douglas just pointed to the photograph showing the soaking wet sofa, and he said, well, it looks like the perp tried to revive his victim by splashing water on her.

[356] That does not seem like a killer who just goes around killing people.

[357] This seems like maybe it happened by accident.

[358] Bush's jaw dropped.

[359] The wet sofa had perplexed him and all of his investigators for four years.

[360] Douglas said the strangulation and blows to the face indicated a personal confrontation.

[361] Maybe Carla rejected him sexually and he struck back.

[362] In cases like that, Douglas said, the killer usually faces the victim and attacks the face and neck.

[363] Douglas would go on and describe this case as what he called a neighborhood crime.

[364] meaning it was likely committed by someone living nearby or literally in the victim's household.

[365] Douglas looked at the three men and told them that very likely they had already interviewed the killer.

[366] Rushing piped up and said, well, what would happen if the killer took a polygraph?

[367] Douglas shook his head, uncertain.

[368] He felt the polygraph was not a reliable tool.

[369] He'd seen too many cases where the killer beat the test, but was convicted on other evidence.

[370] Greer wondered what that meant for their case.

[371] all of their potential suspects had passed their polygraph, except for Paul who had failed a portion of it.

[372] Then Douglas looked at the photograph of the blood droplets from the crime scene again, and he said the killer must have had blood on him, and so after Carla was dead, the killer must have gone somewhere nearby to try to clean himself up.

[373] And when Greer heard that, he thought, well, you know, if the killer was Paul, how much closer than next door can you get?

[374] Because Paul lived next door to Carla.

[375] Bush, Greer, and rushing were already blown away by Douglas's insights, but then the FBI agent leaned across the table and delivered the best news of all.

[376] Since their killer was almost certainly an amateur killer, he would easily crack under pressure.

[377] Douglas suggested that the police should mount a psychological warfare campaign in the media.

[378] He said that they should play up ways that emerging technology has helped them gather evidence, how the photo enhancement led to the discovery of the bite.

[379] mark and how psychological profiling enabled them to narrow down their suspect list.

[380] Basically, Douglas was telling them to use the media to try to trick the killer into thinking that their arrest was imminent.

[381] Then Bush brought up the idea of digging up Carla's body.

[382] Dr. Campbell had suggested that the casket, if it kept the water out as it was designed to, could preserve the body for some time.

[383] Whatever bruising occurred would still be present in the skin, they could get a better look at the bite mark on her neck and match it to suspect's teeth.

[384] Bush noted.

[385] Douglas said spreading the news that police were about to exhum Carla's body would be the perfect way to destabilize their target.

[386] The killer, Douglas believed, had visited Carla's grave many times to talk to her.

[387] She was likely the only person who knew his terrible secret.

[388] After four years, Douglas thought their killer must have gotten comfortable, believing that he'd gotten away with his crime.

[389] Digging up Carla's body would resurrect his fear of getting caught, and that could lead to a major mistake, if not a confession.

[390] Bush, rushing, and Greer left the meeting feeling totally floored.

[391] John Douglas looked at the case that had stumped them for years, and in a matter of minutes created a psychological profile for the man who had killed Carla and a roadmap that could lead police to him.

[392] As they drove back to Illinois, they went over their list of suspects and knew there were still several men who fit Douglas' description of the killer, including the serial rapist and Paul the next -door neighbor.

[393] The three investigators met with the district attorney as soon as they got back to Madison County, Illinois.

[394] And the DA immediately agreed to the FBI profiler's media strategy.

[395] Over the next two weeks, the district attorney held a series of press conferences doling out information about the re -energized Carla Brown investigation.

[396] He played up the fact that the guy who had helped NAB serial killer Ted Bundy was advising investigators.

[397] And soon, stories about the Carla Brown investigation became a regular feature in the regional newspaper for days and days.

[398] Amid the media frenzy, police received a call from a friend of Carla's next -door neighbor.

[399] Two days after the murder, this friend hosted a party that Paul attended.

[400] He said that Paul mentioned that police had been around his place asking questions and that he might have to leave town if the heat turned up on him.

[401] The friend explained that he had kept his mouth shut about what he overheard Paul saying for almost four years, but he was now finally moved to call the police after he had heard the district attorney talk about the bite mark on Carla's collarbone.

[402] The friend said that back when the murder first happened, Paul had actually talked about how the killer had bit Carla.

[403] Now this friend was starting to think that Paul might know more about the crime than he was admitting to.

[404] That got rushing's attention.

[405] No one knew about the bite mark until Dr. Campbell discovered it in a computer -enhanced photo two years after the murder.

[406] Well, no one knew about it prior to, to that, except for the killer.

[407] On June 1st, 1982, almost four years after the murder, reporters from all over the St. Louis region gathered around Carla Brown's grave at the Woodlawn Cemetery.

[408] They snapped pictures of her headstone, which read So Lovely, so loving, so loved.

[409] As the backhoe dug into the ground, Chief Greer stood shoulder to shoulder with rushing in bush, praying that this invasion of Carla's grave would lead them to her killer.

[410] The casket was lifted out of the ground and placed into a hearse and driven to the St. Louis Medical Examiner's office.

[411] Greer, Bush, and Rushing gathered around the casket as the coroner opened it up.

[412] The casket had been sealed well, leaving the body in very good condition.

[413] The skin had not deteriorated very much, and this time, Bush zeroed in with his camera on the bite mark.

[414] Using new high -resolution film, he snapped photograph after photograph.

[415] Now armed with much better images of this bite mark, investigators wanted to compare them with Paul's dental impression.

[416] Bush, rushing, and Greer flew out to New York to meet with a bite mark expert.

[417] He was going to match the teeth marks on Carla's collarbone against impressions taken from several men they had spoken to over the last several years, including Paul from next door and Carla's ex -stepfather.

[418] Now, none of these bite molds were labeled by name, so this expert had no idea whose teeth were which as he did the comparison.

[419] Sitting at his kitchen table on Long Island, New York, the bite -mark expert performed a blind comparison, and sure enough, he found a perfect match.

[420] Investigators now knew who killed Carla, and unbelievably, the real killer basically lined up perfectly with the profile of the killer they had gotten from Douglas.

[421] Based on all the forensic evidence and other evidence collected at the crime scene, here is what investigators believe happened to Carla on January 21, 197.

[422] Around 11 a .m. on that day, the killer parked his beat -up red Volkswagen vehicle at a laundromat about a block from Carla and Mark's house.

[423] As he walked from his car towards their house, he reached back and he touched his back pocket to make sure the coil of electrical cord was still there, and it was.

[424] The killer entered the house through the back door, which was unlocked.

[425] He then headed right downstairs to the basement to confront Carla.

[426] Carla recognized him and demanded to know what he was doing there.

[427] but the killer didn't explain himself.

[428] Instead, he just grabbed her and forced her onto the sofa.

[429] Carla fought back as hard as she could, but her killer was much stronger and twice her weight.

[430] The killer then kissed Carla on the face and the neck and then bit her along the collarbone.

[431] Then he pulled off Carla's shorts, pinned her to the couch, and unzipped his jeans.

[432] It was at this point that Carla apparently screamed and insult at him, and that's when the killer snapped.

[433] Years of rejection just overtook him, triggered by Carla's taunting.

[434] He grabbed the TV tray near him and swung it as hard as he could into Carla's face, breaking her jaw.

[435] Then the killer lifted that tray back into the air and brought it down again on Carla's face, leaving that parallel gash in Carlos' forehead.

[436] As Carla reeled from these blows, the killer pulled out that electrical cord from his back pocket and tied it tight around Carla's neck.

[437] And the killer pulled as tight as he could on that cord, constricting Carla's windpipe until her face turned beat red.

[438] The pressure closed off her carotid artery, depriving her brain of oxygen, and so in seconds, Carla lost consciousness.

[439] A few seconds later, the killer released the wire and sat up, and as he caught his breath, he looked around wildly wondering what was going on as if he'd just woken up from a nightmare.

[440] And then he looked at Carla, and he saw her lying lifeless on the sofa.

[441] suddenly realizing what he'd just done, he panicked.

[442] He pulled the wire completely off Carla's neck.

[443] He slapped her face a few times to try to revive her.

[444] But when that didn't work, he drew some water from the sink and poured it on Carla's face.

[445] And when that failed, the killer decided to just rearrange the entire crime scene, hoping to throw off the police.

[446] Inspired by recent accounts of Ted Bundy, the killer staged Carla's body to make it look like the work of a serial killer.

[447] Then the killer wiped down all the surfaces he touched, ran up the stairs, and slipped out the back door.

[448] Then he snuck over to the house right next door and washed Carla's blood off himself before anyone realized he was there.

[449] At 10 .30 p .m. on Tuesday, June 8, 1982, just days before the fourth anniversary of Carla's murder, Greer in rushing, arrested the killer at his parents' home.

[450] All these years, they had been so focused on Carla's neighbor, Paul, because he seemed suspicious.

[451] and he had failed his polygraph, when the whole time, the real murderer had been Paul's best friend, John Prant, one of the two men who had been with Paul when they had tried to join Carla's party on the day she moved in.

[452] The real killer, John, had been insulted by Carla's refusal to let them inside, and so he'd come back to teach her a lesson, although he claims he had not meant to kill her.

[453] In July of 1983, John was convicted of first -degree murder and sentenced to 75 years in prison.

[454] Despite repeated attempts to discredit the bite -mark evidence on appeal, he remained behind bars for 37 and a half years until 2019 when he was freed on parole.

[455] Since then, John has engaged the help of the Exoneration Project to try to discredit the bite -mark evidence and clear his name.

[456] To this day, John maintains his innocence.

[457] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[458] If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone -chilling content, be sure to check out the rest of our studios podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, and Run Full.

[459] Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts.

[460] If you want to watch hundreds more stories, just like the one you heard today, head to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin.

[461] So that's going to do it.

[462] I really appreciate your support.

[463] Until next time, see you.

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[468] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[469] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[470] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[471] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[472] She's like, I can't.

[473] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[474] It's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

[475] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the download.

[476] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[477] Well, you were holding something back.

[478] Intentionally.

[479] Yeah, well, yeah.

[480] No, it's hysteria.

[481] It's all in your head.

[482] It's not physical.

[483] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[484] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[485] Or is it something else entirely?

[486] Something's wrong here.

[487] Something's not right.

[488] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[489] A new limited series from Wondering, and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[490] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[491] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.