Hunting the Killer

The Left-Handed Note That Ended a Nine-Year Fugitive Life A single left‑handed slanted note tucked into a school gate in June 2023 ended a nine‑year federal manhunt: it was signed "Frances," asked that a nine‑year‑old be excused from recital photos, and used Frances's real name on a school form - but why would a long‑term fugitive risk that slip? What unfolded between that Tuesday morning and a guilty plea in February 2024 changed everything. In this episode, we follow the timeline from the note left at Ridgeline Elementary to the case closure the night after Frances pleaded guilty in Arkansas, tracing how daily routines and one small act of care unraveled a carefully maintained life on the run. How did a woman who lived nine years without a phone or digital trace end up enrolled as a guardian under her true name? Person: Frances Fisher Event: Note tucked into Ridgeline Elementary maintenance gate Date: June 2023 (note); February 2024 (guilty plea and case closure) Location: Ridgeline Elementary, Fayetteville area / Corrigan, Missouri (residence activity) Case: Federal manhunt initiated August 2014 - Frances fled eight days after arraignment in August 2014 with $6,000 in a canvas tote. - She lived off cash, moved every ~18 months across five locations over nine years, and used no cell phone or credit cards. - The scheme diverted $412,000 from six elderly residents at Cedarwood Pines over approximately four years. - Two of the six victims died before trial; four survivors testified at sentencing. - Frances volunteered every Thursday evening for 3.5 years at a Baptist fellowship hall food pantry in Corrigan, Missouri.

Caught in Plain Sight: The Wildland Firefighter Who Vanished Among Crews A woman who had been wanted since May 11 showed up on a wildfire line less than 24 hours later, clocking in among crews and signing her name onto a roster in a different pen-then worked the fire she was accused of starting. How did Crystal Whitfield turn familiarity with procedure and borrowed gear into near-perfect invisibility, and who finally noticed the discrepancy? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the May 14 photograph that captured a lone figure facing the smoke to the U.S. Marshals' fugitive order and the calls that uncovered a forged roster entry. Listen to how routine paperwork, a telephoto image, and a federal deputy marshal's follow-up question turned a routine wildfire operation into a search for a fugitive. Person: Crystal Whitfield Date: May 14, 2019 Location: Calloway Range, Oregon Person: Ruth Schultz Event: Arrest warrant issued May 11, 2019 - Crystal used a prepaid card at 9:17 p.m. on May 7, 2019, at a gas station in Harmon Flats. - The arrest warrant for Crystal was issued on May 11, 2019, three days before the May 14 photo. - A photographer, Donald Bishop, took four frames of the ridge on May 14, 2019, then lowered his camera. - Incident Management Team roster showed fourteen names while labor placement records showed thirteen placements. - The roster had "C. Whitfield" added in a different handwriting with an entry date of May 12, 2019.

Carl Hutchins's hand. 14 minutes later: a fire. Two men dead Danger threads through the ordinary: a forty-eight-year-old claims adjuster with eleven years of perfect Thursday attendance vanishes after a warehouse fire kills two men - and his spiral chess notebook sits open, the score stopped mid-move. Who was Marvin Bailey really, why did he start making seven identical $200 ATM withdrawals over six weeks, and what single form closed a manhunt twenty-two days later? In this episode, we follow the facts investigators collected over twenty-two days: Bailey’s routines at work and the chess club, the timing of cash withdrawals after a drug distributor moved into town, the Greyhound ticket sold in Pittsburgh, and the medical record that ultimately ended the search. How did a life that looked so ordinary become the center of a fugitive case? Person: Marvin Bailey Age: 48 Occupation: Claims adjuster Event: Warehouse fire with two fatalities Investigator: James Jones, 26 years in fugitive work - Bailey attended the Copperton chess club every Thursday for eleven consecutive years. - He made seven cash withdrawals of $200 each over six weeks, always on a weekday between noon and 2 p.m, at different ATMs. - The last recorded chess game in his spiral notebook stopped after fourteen moves, mid-notation. - A Greyhound ticket agent in Pittsburgh sold the last ticket of the night to a large man with wire-rimmed glasses who paid cash; he first said Denver, then corrected to St. Louis. - The manhunt closed when a single medical form filled out in a Wyoming hospital waiting room linked to Bailey.

Cherry Lattice on Route 9: How a Pie Led to Arrest Cold details - a cherry lattice pie found still warm in twenty-two-degree snow, no footprints and no car within three-quarters of a mile - pulled a decade-long ledger crime into the open; what small, repeating gesture could tie a fugitive to a bakery ribbon and a federal warrant? What did a thumb-press pattern on a pie lattice reveal that cash and aliases could not? In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries that connected a missing bookkeeper to a series of fair ribbons and a federal fugitive warrant, tracing the clues from a grader operator’s early morning find to the pattern that became the case. How did a pastry’s asymmetrical finishing tell Deputy U.S. Marshal Frances Cooper where to look next? Person: Pamela Coleman Event: cherry lattice pie found on Route 9 at 6:20 AM on the third Tuesday of March Case: federal fugitive warrant for wire fraud involving $240,000 Location: Decatur, Indiana (employer) and fairs in Grant County and Tri-County events Investigator: Deputy U.S. Marshal Frances Cooper - The pie was found at 6:20 AM in twenty-two-degree weather in a snowdrift at the road shoulder with no nearby car or tracks. - The missing amount discovered in the audit was $240,000, noted two days before the Adams County Fair. - Pamela Coleman was 41 years old when the hunt began in October 2018. - Pamela took approximately $11,000 in cash and a dented recipe tin belonging to her grandmother, Vera Solt. - The lattice finishing showed three thumb presses on the right and two on the left on every Pamela pie, matched across at least three fair sign-in sheets under the name Karen Vogt.

Left Her Jacket, Not Her Secrets: The Four-Day Vanish of Julie Evans Cold evidence in the snow - a prepaid phone deliberately propped against a lodgepole pine with a forty-seven-second 911 call - dragged a state detective back into a case gone cold for nearly eleven months. Who placed that phone, why did Julie leave behind a new gray jacket bought six weeks earlier, and what did four days of disappearance hide? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the morning a phone was found on Kettle Ridge Road to the discovery of Julie's car 240 miles away at Merrith's long-term bus lot, and we lay out the clues that led investigators toward a woman who vanished after an overnight visit to a man named Dennis Haig. Did Julie leave voluntarily, and what role did the gray jacket and the cash-paid coffee at 11:14 AM play in where she went next? Person: Julie Evans Age: 53 Date: March 9 (evening disappearance) Location: Car found at Merrith long-term bus lot, 240 miles from Denton Falls Call duration: 47 seconds (911 call reporting a blue pickup at mile marker 11) - A prepaid disposable phone was found propped upright against a lodgepole pine on Kettle Ridge Road with a starburst crack in the upper left corner. - The phone traced within 48 hours to Aldine hardware, 22 miles south of Kettle Ridge Road, where a cash purchase was recorded on exterior camera. - The phone made exactly one call: a 911 call reporting a blue pickup truck, lasting 47 seconds, placed by a measured female voice. - Julie's car was found eight days after March 9 parked in Merrith's long-term bus lot, 240 miles from Denton Falls, with no keys inside and no identifying items in the vehicle. - A sandwich shop camera 19 miles south of Merrith recorded a woman in a gray jacket paying cash for coffee at 11:14 AM and leaving within 90 seconds; the same model jacket was bought by Julie six weeks earlier and the receipt was found on her work desk.

He Pinned His Own Wanted Poster - The Scar That Broke His Run A man nailed a wanted-style flyer to a utility pole at 7:15 PM on January 4, 2019, but the phone number printed routed to a prepaid device that was never activated - and the handwritten note "scar, left forearm, three inches, pale" matched a detail only the subject would know. Why would a man living openly under his real name build a paper trail that implied he’d been taken? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the flyer on Aldrich Road to the discovery that the man in the photograph had been absent from court for eleven years. We trace his routine life in Deering Falls, Ohio, the clues he left - from a P.O. box paid in cash to identical handwriting on garden labels - and ask what he intended the flyer to accomplish. Person: Michael Wagner Date: January 4, 2019 Location: Aldrich Road at Cutter, Deering Falls, Ohio Event: Flyer with photograph and handwritten note Period: Eleven years living under his legal name before disappearance - At 7:15 PM on January 4, 2019 a man in a dark coat nailed a sheet of paper to a utility pole. - The flyer listed height, weight, age and a photograph and included a handwritten note: "scar, left forearm, three inches, pale." - The phone number on the flyer connected to a prepaid phone that was never activated and showed no calls. - Michael Wagner had lived under his legal name in Deering Falls, Ohio for eleven years and worked as an estimator at Hollowell and Sons. - Wagner gave two-weeks notice on December 26, 2018 and listed a Kingsley P.O. box opened about three months earlier, paid in cash under the name Paul Griggs.

The Paper That Tilted: How Brenda Vanished With $940,000 A single crooked page from a copier, folded into a blazer pocket, marked the start of a $940,000 disappearance that took twenty-nine months of careful bookkeeping and a bus ticket to Cleveland. How did a mid-level accountant siphon nearly a million dollars in invisible entries and vanish with a hollowed-out notebook and a library book about Maine fishing communities? In this episode, we map the sequence of events that began with small $41 discrepancies and ended with a final transfer of $940,000 across eleven accounts, tracing Brenda Keller’s routines, the methods she used to hide the fraud, and the clues left behind: a legal pad note, a hollowed spiral notebook, and a napkin of numbers that guided the search. What did the investigators piece together from those artifacts? Person: Brenda Keller Age: 28 Employer: Hartwell Municipal Credit Union Total missing: $940,000 Duration of scheme: 29 months - First extraction occurred in spring 2017 for $41. - Final transfer executed on the third Tuesday of September 2019. - Money moved across eleven bank accounts during the final transfer. - Physical cash withdrawals totaled $46,000 in early summer 2019 in increments just under $3,000. - U.S. Marshal noted Brenda’s Wednesday 6:00 PM visits to her grandmother Loretta at Maplewood Gardens on a legal pad three weeks after her disappearance.

The Tote on the Bridge: Why She Left a Receipt That Lied Fear tightens the chest: a lone canvas tote on a bridge, folded handles, and a laminated document that kept a woman wanted by federal agents just out of reach - why would a careful billing manager leave a staged bag and a receipt that didn’t fit her flightless escape? What secret did that receipt hide that only a motel-map and a patient analyst could reveal? In this episode, we follow the timeline from a 6:47 a.m. discovery on the Hidalgo pedestrian bridge to the motel receipts and ATM withdrawals that sketched a route southwesterly across Texas, asking how a woman described as organized and disciplined planned a four-year fraud and then disappeared without taking a flight. Person: Connie Andrews Age: 54 Date: November 12, 2021 (bag found) and November 4, 2021 (motel receipt) Location: Hidalgo pedestrian bridge (American side); movements across southwest Texas Certified loss: $2,300,000 - Bag found upright nine feet from the turnstile at 6:47 a.m., handles folded inward. - Inside the tote: change of clothes, toiletry kit, 40 Mexican pesos, and a laminated document. - Connie Andrews worked 19 years at Verano Administrative Solutions and stole identities over four years. - Federal warrant in late September 2021 charged her with wire fraud, embezzlement, and aggravated identity theft. - Seven motel receipts paid in cash under different names were used to map her route; one receipt charged $62 on a stolen card with an $80 daily limit.

The Typos That Tripped a Fugitive: How a Collection Plate Crumbled a Runaway A mahogany-rimmed collection plate found leaning against a tree root and a hand-torn note with two mismatched numbers ended a four-month manhunt; how did eleven digits of handwritten arithmetic expose a fugitive who had destroyed his phone, emptied his accounts, and posed as a minister? What single mistake undid months of careful planning? In this episode, we follow the timeline from the bookkeeping error that funneled funds into a shell vendor to the discovery in a creek-side evidence bag, and ask how patterns in small transactions and one physical trace led investigators to a location they could not reach by phones or cameras. Person: Roger Sanders Date: October 10, 2022 Location: trail behind a small Indiana church Case: indictment filed June 9, 2022 with seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of aggravated theft Investigator: Megan Walker, U.S. Marshals Fugitive Apprehension Unit, Fort Worth - Sanders created a vendor named Pinnacle Grounsd Services LLC with one transposed letter and routed payments there. - Over fourteen months, the typographical error diverted between $80,000 and $90,000. - Sanders emptied accounts on May 27, 2022 through repeated $490 ATM withdrawals to stay under reporting thresholds. - The indictment was returned on June 9, 2022; Sanders had been gone eleven days with his phone last connected May 29, 2022. - A mahogany-rimmed collection plate and a hand-torn paper with two non-matching numbers were found on October 10, 2022 and placed in an evidence bag.

Left Shoe, Eleven Fake Bills: The Quiet Fugitive Found A fisherman found a left running shoe wedged against a trotline stake at dawn with eleven rubber-banded forty-dollar bills rolled inside - a denomination that does not exist and a face photocopied from a South Carolina driver's license. The bills pointed to a woman who had vanished seven years earlier after a federal indictment; who placed a shoe with her own image in a river, and why was she trying to be found? In this episode, we follow the discovery at Pelham River and the federal file that traced a seven-year disappearance to a woman living under a new name in Greer's Crossing; what the shoe, the fake bills, and a single footprint reveal about her disappearance is the question that drives the story. Person: Valerie Erin Mitchell Date: September 4, 2022 Location: Pelham River near Greer's Crossing, South Carolina Event: Recovery of left running shoe containing eleven forty-dollar bills Case: Federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft filed by March 2015 - A fisherman named Larry Turner found a left running shoe wedged against a trotline stake at dawn on September 4, 2022. - Inside the shoe were eleven bills, rolled tight and rubber-banded, each printed with the denomination "forty dollars," a value that does not exist. - The face on each bill matched Valerie Erin Mitchell’s photograph from a South Carolina driver's license, photocopied forty times. - Valerie Erin Mitchell was charged by federal investigators by March 2015 with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and posted bail using her mother's money. - Mitchell bought an Amtrak ticket to Charlotte under her own name on a Wednesday evening three days after her arraignment and then stopped using her real identity in documented transactions.