Trace Evidence

October 29th, 1982 -- Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Twenty year old Angela Gray Hamby had a big day planned with her mother. Together, the two women were set to head out on an all day shopping trip where they'd hit all the clothing stores, share lunch and just be together. Sadly, however, Angela never made it to the store that day.

At approximately 9:30am, Angela headed out to run some errands. She needed to fill her gas tank, drop off a payment on her car and deliver a message to her sister at work. All of this should have taken no longer than an hour so when Angela hadn't returned by 11am, her mother grew concerned. When noon hit, that concern transformed into panic and terror.

By evening, the Wilkes County Sheriff's Department, along with the Wilkesboro Police and the State Bureau of Investigation were out searching for the missing woman. More than fifteen hours after she had last been seen, detectives discovered her car, abandoned behind a local restaurant. Soon they found witnesses who had seen Angela throughout the day. One of them described an unknown male, seen behind the wheel of her car.

For nearly four decades the mystery of Angela's disappearance has haunted investigators, her family and the town of Wilkesboro. What became of the smart, driven, hardworking twenty year old who ran errands and never returned?

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In episode 200 of Trace Evidence we examine one of the most shocking, disturbing and haunting murders in Texas history -- The Shocking Murder of Betty Williams.

Odessa Texas, 1961. Seventeen year old Betty Williams goes missing from her bedroom sometime during the night. At first investigators don't believe there's any reason to worry, it's not uncommon for seventeen year old's to sneak out or run off for a few hours. As a matter of procedure, an investigator heads to Odessa High School to find out if anyone knew where Betty was.

They could have never imagined what happened next. John Mack Herring, a popular football player at the school, and Betty's ex-boyfriend, makes a shocking confession. He killed Betty the night before and hid her body beneath the muddy waters of a rural stock pond. When detectives ask why, Herring simply replies "Because she asked me to."

Herring explained that Betty had begged him to end her life, saying she was miserable and wanted to escape from this world. In Herring's own words, moments before firing the fatal shot, he asked for a kiss to remember her by, and Betty obliged. The media christened the crime "The Kiss and Kill Murder."

The town rallies behind the good looking and smart Mack Herring, a boy from the right side of the tracks from a good family while they demonize Betty, a harlot who seduced a tender teen into committing a hideous and violent act. Even in death, Betty Williams was blamed for the horrible crime committed against her.

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Episode 200 - Q&A Special. In this week's episode, as we prepare for the release of episode 200, host Steven Pacheco answers listener submitted questions covering everything you want to know from details about case, creation of the show and overall views of podcasting and true crime in general.

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February 11th, 1988 - twelve year old Jie Zhao Li walks out of her family's Honolulu home to sell tickets for a school fundraiser. She never makes it back home. Within hours she's reported missing and investigators begin massive searches trying to track down the little girl or anyone who may have seen her.

Soon witnesses come forward but their stories lead detectives in different directions. Some people saw Jie speaking to a man outside of the local 7-11 moments before her disappearance. Others claim to have seen her in the back of an old, yellow Chevy miles away and days after she went missing.

While detectives quickly determine that the twelve year old was likely the victim of an abduction, their race against time hits dead end after dead end leading many to wonder if Jie is still alive out there somewhere, or if perhaps, her abductor took her life within hours of her vanishing.

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This weeks episode takes a look at three major updates regarding cases previously covered on Trace Evidence. 

First we examine the details surrounding Annandale Jane Doe who, after twenty-five years, has positively been identified as Joyce Marilyn Meyer Sommers. Then we turn towards the release of new information and the announcement that investigators have narrowed their suspect pool down to one person in the 1982 abduction of Kelly Bergh Dove. Finally, we will discuss the results of the trial of Dawan Ferguson, charged with the murder of his nine year old son, Christian.

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On a cool spring morning in May of 1984, fourteen year old Laura Ann Parker went off to Lindenhurst High School and never came home. While her parents pressed the police, and even the FBI, to track down the missing teen, their concerns were written off as it was ruled that Laura had chosen to runaway.

For four long months James and Patricia Parker investigated for themselves. They gave out their home phone number, tracked down every lead from Manhattan to the eastern end of Long Island. Sadly, they never found a trace of their beloved daughter.

Then, in September, a group of teenage boys came upon a grisly scene. In a local hangout, in the middle of the woods, they discovered Laura's skeletal remains beneath an old rolled up carpet. A cause of death could not be determined, but evidence as the scene suggested this had likely been a homicide and that Laura had died the very day she was reported missing.

Now, urged to investigate the murder, the Suffolk County Police ran into a wall of silence from the community. No one wanted to talk, no one seemed to care. While some speculated that Laura had to have been killed by someone passing through town, investigators started to believe Laura may have known her assailant.

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Nineteen year old Barbara Jean "Bobbie" Barkley arrived for a normal day of work at the pipe furniture store in Pinellas Park, Florida on Friday, May 29th, 1981. Less than three hours later she had mysteriously vanished.

There were no signs of a struggle, no indications of where Bobbie may have gone. Left behind were her purse and her cigarettes; the only things missing were Bobbie and her 1973 Plymouth Fury. While, at first, her family thought there might be a reasonable explanation, investigators were immediately concerned.

Less than a year earlier, two other women had vanished under similar circumstances from within the same area. Police found one body, but the other remained missing. Soon it became a race against time to determine if Bobbie had been targeted by someone she knew or if she'd fallen victim to a yet unknown serial killer.

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On a warm, lazy Sunday afternoon, nineteen year old Pamela Tinsley decided to take a ride down to one of her favorite Oklahoma City spots -- Lake Overholser. She'd had a rough few weeks and really needed a break from the hectic rat race of life. She never could have imagined that she wouldn't make it back home.

According to friends at the Lake that day, Pam accepted an offer from a man she didn't know. He's drive her a ride around the lake on his motorcycle and then drop her right back off where he found her. Pam agreed, but neither was ever seen again.

For more than twenty years investigators believed that Pam had been abducted by this lone, unknown man until an anonymous caller changed everything. Quickly the view of detectives shifted from this stranger to the people who last saw Pam alive -- her so-called friends and roommates who may have had a reason to want to see her gone.

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On a cold winter morning in March of 1970, Rock Creek, Ohio Police Chief Robert Hamrick radioed in that he was involved in a high speed pursuit. He never called in again. Hours later a deputy moving through the area came upon the scene of a hideous accident.

Chief Hamrick was found lying across the front seat of his cruisers whose lights and engine were off. He had sustained massive head and chest injuries and was barely clinging to life. Despite being flown to Cleveland for emergency brain surgery, Chief Hamrick succumbed to his injuries just nine days later.

While the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Department ultimately ruled Chief Hamrick's death to be the result of a car accident, rumors and speculation suggested something more sinister. Many believed there had been a massive cover up to conceal the truth: that Chief Hamrick was lured to that isolated stretch of road, ambushed and viciously beaten.

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This week I'm crisscrossing the country, making my way to CrimeCon in Last Vegas. Taking a break from our usually scheduled episode releases, Trace Evidence brings to you an episode driven by you, the listener. Host Steven Pacheco answers questions submitted by listeners and also addresses the progress being made on Episode 195, set to release next week!


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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/


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