Welcome back to the Path with Chili. I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and
I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case. March fifteenth, nineteen
eighty nine, Frederick, Maryland, Seventeen year old Tracy Kirkpatrick spends the evening
working alone at a shopping center clothing store. Nearly two hours after the store
was supposed to have been closed. A security guard discovers Tracy's body in the
storage room and she's been stabbed seven times. Three months later, a man
calling himself Dawn phones a national confession's hotline and claims that he's responsible for Tracy's
murder. Police track down a promising suspect and are unable to link him to
the crime, but as the years go on, rumors start circulating about another
suspect being the killer and to cover up was orchestrated to protect him. After
that, the Path went chilly. So on this episode, we're going to
be covering a crime which was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, the nineteen eighty nine
murder of Tracy Kirkpatrick. This is the horrific story of a well liked seventeen
year old high school senior who was brutally stabbed at death during her shift at
her place of employment. A very unexpected development would take place in the investigation
when a man calling himself Dawn voted a national confession hot line in the months
following Tracy's murder and left a message of himself admitting to the crime. The
actual recording of this man's call is easily available online, and we'll be sharing
a word for word description of what he said later on in this episode,
police did track down an individual who seemed to have a major obsession with the
case and ultimately ruled them out as a suspect, but it's not entirely clear
if he was the same person who made the phone call and confessed. If
the caller wasn't the killer, an alternate possibility is that they were attempting to
lead the investigation towards the real perpetrator. This is a complicated case because it
seems like a lot of people in the community believe they have a pretty good
idea about who the killer is. If you do any research online, you'll
find a lot of rumors and hearsay about the perpetrator's identity and allegations that a
cover up took place to protect them regardless of whether or not these rumors are
true. We have just passed the thirty four year anniversary of Tracy's murder and
it is still a cold case, though there are some who believe it should
have been solved a long time ago. Well, this case is wild.
So we're talking about Tracy being seventeen years old, she's working alone at this
shopping center, and its found stabbed to death seven times. So for me,
the first thing I think about is that this is very personal and there's
some kind of rage or anger inflicted in it. That's always where my mind
goes when I see a stabbing, especially multiple stabbings, stab wounds, and
so I'm thinking in my head, a seventeen year old little girl who has
such a need for a personal killing like that. It's very, very confusing
because it sounds like there's going to be a lot of complicating factors that go
into this and not something like let's say a lust kind of killing or a
young teenage lover who you know wants to be with her. And Tracy says,
no, tell me this. What do you guys think about the idea
that so many people quote know the identity but no arrest has been made,
because I get really stressed when I listen to these stories or I watch a
documentary and for an hour they'll fixate on this one name of a suspect,
and then you know, two hours later you learned they had nothing to do
with the crime. I wonder what their life is like when their name is
plastered everywhere. Now, in this case, I don't know, maybe they
are the one who did it. But does that ever bother you guys when
you're listening to a true crime story and you go, oh, god,
wait, he had nothing to do with it, and I've painted him as
a horrible human for an hour. Oh yeah, Like that sort of thing
happens all the time, where some people become fixated as potential suspects just because
they might be weird or they display bizarre behavior, but there really isn't any
evidence like pointing them towards the crime. And then later they use DNA or
something to prove who the real perpetrator was. But this person, even though
they've been exonerated and proven innocent, they've still had their reputation destroyed and no
one looks at them the same way again. And with the Tracy Kirkpatrick case,
like this person that a lot of people believe is the killer, Like
he has never been named as a suspect or person of interest from law enforcement,
and he's never spoken to the media or anything. So for all we
know, maybe this guy has been the brunt of false accusations just because people
like to gossip on fortunately about crimes, and sometimes innocent people get caught in
the crossfire. And Joels, what do you think about what do you think
about the stabbing aspect of this case. I always think of stabbing is really
intimate, regardless of if there is any sexual elements to the crime, like
if she's been raped or sexually assaulted in any capacity. I always think there's
something so intimate about that, and it can be like, you know,
if somebody has a rectile dysfunction or something, they may choose stabbing, but
I think it often indicates that you know the person in some capacity. There's
a familiarity there. And then to answer your other question that you asked earlier
about cases where somebody is basically within a community thought to have been the perpetrator,
whether they've been charged or not, I always think of I can't remember
the guy's name but there's that Texas Killing Fields documentary and they go into him
in great detail, and I think he used to work for Nassau. He
was incredibly brilliant and accentual, and he had some strange things in his home
when it was searched. But he was basically debunked as being the guy who
had committed all of these murders. But he ended up taking his own life.
His life was changed for the worst. The stigma followed him everywhere.
Even one of the fathers who would originally believe that he had murdered his daughter
had changed his tune and feels a great deal of regret, and so did
the sheriff. I think it was the sheriff or the detective who was in
charge of the case, who's incredibly old. Now he looks back and there's
a lot of regret there, and you can tell that he feels very emotional
about the case, because so many lives are destroyed when these murders occur.
And then when fingers are pointed at somebody just because they're strange or they're odd,
we see that in so many cases. Our story begins in Maryland in
nineteen eighty nine. Our central figure is seventeen year old Tracy Lynn Kirkpatrick,
who lives in a small community of Point of Rocks with her parents, Billy
and Dianne Kirkpatrick, and has two sisters and a brother. Tracy is a
senior at Brunswick High School who also happens to be an honor student and is
very passionate about poetry. In fact, a poem she wrote had recently been
published in the New American Poetry Anthology. Tracy is hoping to attend Mount Saint
Mary's University in the fall in order to study accounting, and once she gets
a job in that field, she plans to save up enough money to attend
law school. She currently holds down two part time jobs at the Westbridge Square
shopping center in the town of Frederick, which is about a twenty minute drive
from Point of Rocks. One of the jobs is at a shoe store,
while the other is at an adjacent clothing store called Eileen Ladies Sportswear, where
Tracy works as a sales clerk. Even though Tracy's parents told her it was
not necessary for her to work, she insisted on taking his jobs to help
pay her own way through college and avoid burdening her family. On the evening
of March fifteenth, Tracy was assigned to work the closing shift at Eileen Ladies
Sportswear, and it would mark the first time she ever closed the store alone.
That night, Diane visited Tracy at the store in order to bring her
some food, and that around eight PM, the store manager also stopped by
to check up on her. The last time anyone recalled seeing Tracy alive was
at around eight forty five, fifteen minutes before closing time. She was scheduled
to come straight home immediately after her shift ended, but when eleven PM rolled
around, Tracy had not shown up. Her parents became concerned, as Tracy
had told them that if she did not return by that time, they should
assume something was wrong and come get her. So Billie and Diane drove to
the shopping center, but when they arrived, they were horrified to discover that
the police were there. When Diane approached them, she immediately cried out,
quote, tell me nothing happened, Tell me there's nothing wrong with her.
But unfortunately, the police told her that Tracy's body had been discovered inside the
backstorage room of the clothing store. She had stabbed at at a total of
seven times in both their back and chest. This news caused Diane to go
into shock and she had to be treated at the hospital. I cannot even
imagine what Diane and her husband were going through. So at first I was
thinking, Okay, Tracy, is this really responsible kid? She's going to
get these jobs to help her parents, and who's letting a seventeen year old
close a store at night? And then I thought, well, I mean,
you're an employee, and it sounds like she's incredibly mature, and it
also sounds like her mom and the store manager are very kind of leary as
well, of like, should a seventeen year old be closing late at night?
I don't know, So they're all checking on her, and there's this
what fifteen minute gap before closing where we I mean, maybe it happened after
this nine o'clock time, but there's only fifteen minutes before closing that we don't
know what happened to Tracy. And the next thing we know, her parents
are pulling up and they see the police the lights and are begging for or
their worst nightmare not to be true. And it is so correct me you
says she was stabbed seven times in the chest and the back. So at
some point either they rolled her over or she rolled over still alive, trying
to defend herself. Correct possibly, Yeah, it's never really been specified,
but that would make sense to me that maybe she fell down on one side
and then rolled over and then they stabbed her more times on the other side.
But like we've said many times already, it seems like this was some
sort of crime of passion where you wonder, why would someone have so much
hatred towards a seventeen year old girl to stab her that many times at her
place of work, and which makes it even more brazen. Could you see
the scenario being that this person somehow got behind her, stabbed her in the
back those couple times, and as she fell to the ground, then kind
of straddled her around the front and then continue to stab her in the chest.
That would make sense, and for all we know, like maybe they
stabbed her in the back in the store, and then she crawled to the
storage room and that's when they followed her there and stabbed her the other times.
Because a lot of times employees are not going to bring like outside people
into the storage room or the place of employment. They're generally not allowed to
do that. But if she went there to try to escape or attacker,
then that would explain why she was found there. Were she found on her
back or on her front. They never really specified that the discovery of Tracy's
body had been made by the shopping center security guard. He claimed that he'd
passed by the store at around nine pm and noticed the lights were on,
but just assumed Tracy was inside totaling the receipts and finishing her shift. However,
the guard would pass by the store again at around ten forty five and
was surprised to see that the lights were still on since the front door was
unlocked. The guard went inside and called out for Tracy, but he received
no response. He then proceeded to walk into the storage room and found Tracy's
body before he contacted the police. There were no signs of forced entry or
signs of a struggle, and Tracy did not have any defensive wounds, which
seemed to indicate that the killer might have been someone she knew. The murder
weapon was to be found, but there was a ladsmere on the store's rear
door, as well as a partial print, and blood drops were discovered in
a rear hallway, which led to the loading dock. So, Tracy,
I really do feel like when you talk about a stabbing case, it often
is someone that the victim knows here. What's really disturbing is that unless there
were scissors or something else in the store that we're used, the killer walked
in with a knife with the intent to harm and or kill Tracy or whoever
was there. And so in this case, when you talk about no defensive
wounds, my original idea maybe she rolled over and was fighting for her wife.
Maybe Jewels, you're right, maybe this person stabs her in the back
when she falls to the floor, stabs on the front. But it's terrifying
to think the murder weapon's not there. It's likely not a pair of scissors
or something from the store. So this person had a clear intent to do
something incredibly intimate and violent. And then there's these blood drops that lead to
the loading. Is it Tracy's blood or is it the perpetrator's blood? Didn't
Recci specified that. I'm assuming it's Tracy's, but I have to assume though,
that if they found blood that belonged to the perpetrator, then they may
have matched it to someone already and would have announced that publicly, so at
the outset. The police were left completely baffled by the crime, as there
didn't seem to be any apparent motive. Tracy was not sexually assaulted, and
nothing had been robbed from the store. The cash register, which recorded its
last sale at around eight pm, still had sixty dollars in it, and
there was even money lying on the counter, which Tracy had presumably been counting
right before she was killed. But Tracy's car, keys, store keys,
and purse which contained very little money, we're missing. At the approximate time
the shopping center closed. A man had been waiting on the front parking lot
for his girlfriend, but told police he did not see or hear anything unusual.
Since Tracy was an incredibly well liked person and didn't have any known enemies,
the crime had a devastating impact on her family in the community. Five
thousand dollar reward would be offered for information leading to an arrest. When she
was buried, Tracy's tombson would be inscribed with one of her favorite poems,
Remember, written by the famous Victorian poet Christina Rosetti. This is so bizarre
that there's money left in the in the till and there's also money line on
the counter, so clearly robbery was not the motive here. Again, this
person comes in with a knife, which is such a unique choice of weapon.
Right, what it requires the perpetrator to do to their victim, how
close they have to be to her, and so the money's there, yet
you take her wallet and her keys, perhaps to remove some of her identity,
make it harder for police know who she is. Very confusing that you
would take that and not actual valuable things if you're going to take anything at
all. Yeah, that part of the case is always confused me that they
decided to steal their car keys, store keys, and purse and they've never
been found. So did they just want to keep those as mementos or something?
Because it's weird, Like you said that they would leave the money behind
but take those other items. Three months after the murder, there'd be a
surprising development when the Frederick Police Department were contacted by an attorney who represented a
nationwide television confession hotline in Las Vegas. The hotline was set up to charge
callers to record confessions of their deepest secrets for strangers who would call and pay
to listen to them, but they were taken aback when they received a call
from a man who confessed to murder. The full audio of this recording was
played on Unsolved Mysteries and is available online, but here's an exact word for
word transcript of what the caller said. Hello, my name is Dawn and
I'm calling from Frederick, Maryland. I know this is going to sound surprising,
but three months ago I stabbed a girl to death. And you might
think that by making this tape, I'm setting myself up to be caught,
But there are a lot of guys named Don and Frederick. The girl I
killed was working in the Ladies sportswear store. I often came by and talked
to her while she was working alone, and one night, while she was
in the storeroom and we were talking, our conversation turned into an argument,
and so I took out a night that I have with me at all times,
and I killed her. And a few days later I realized I created
a lot of sadness, and I've thought about turning myself into the police,
but whatever they do to me, they won't bring Tracy back. So I've
decided by better keep free because we have the death penalty in Maryland. Thanks
for listening. I'm sorry about what I did, but nothing can change it.
Bye, love the sarcastic voice. Yeah wow, okay, so clear
this up for me. Is this a law enforcement confessions line or is it
something like the apology line? Have y'all heard that podcast where people would just
call in and say things that they were remorseful for or confess things that they
were hiding and then like just ta get it off their chest? Was it
that? Or is this a lie for motivated No, it sounds like it's
a confession line that's used exclusively for entertainment, like kind of a lightweight thing
where they expect people to leave recording saying that, oh, one time I
got drunk on a party and got naked or something light weight like that.
But this one they were just taken by prize when a guy literally confessed or
murder and they said, no, we better turn this over to law enforcement
because they're specifically referencing a cold case which took place here in Maryland only a
few months earlier. There's also a confession one I know because she's a fellow
podcaster and she's like my friend's list is called in Bed with Nikki, where
people like confess they're you know, deepest, darkest sexual things that they've done
and things that they've never told anybody else. So people like confessions thing.
I guess We've got two podcasts for them, in Bed with Nikki and what
is it? The apology podcast. Okay, so the apology line is fascinating.
I'm just I'm a true crime fan as well as a criminologist, but
the apology line is basically this guy who became mister Apology and he just for
fun was like I'm gonna set up my answering machine and have people call and
say I'm sorry to people or like you know, kind of reveal these things
they're remorseful for, and it takes him down to like a really dangerous path
when he be friends one of the people who may or may not be criminals.
So it's fascinating, but his was really for entertainment purposes, and then
he started to get these darker, heavier apologies that it's kind of like what
do you do with that information? Like when does it not become entertainment and
it becomes dangerous in unburdening all of them he's getting burdened with all of this
information and it's like dark, insidious presence in his life. I am so
checking that out. It's so good. Okay, Now let me ask you
this. Have you guys seen have you seen Blackbird on Apple TV? With
Larry the serial killer who's befriended in prison and they try to get him to
confess to his crimes. Oh, Larry Dwayne Hall. We talked about him
on previous episodes. Yes, okay, So when you listen to this guy's
call and he's talking about how, oh, I used to visit her a
lot, like we were really friendly. One night we were talking and it
wasn't friendly anymore. Reminded me of some of the things that he would say
in real life. But talking about these thirteen fourteen year old girls and how
they would be so nice to him and then all of a sudden they weren't.
It almost sounds like this man is saying, listen, I'm this older
man, I'm having this inappropriate kind of intrigue with this seventeen year old girl.
And she entertains it because she's at work and she's a kind naive,
sweet kid who's talking to this grown man and then when it crosses the line
and she says, I don't like this. You make me uncomfortable, Please
stop back away. Once that child puts up a resistance and these adults who
are infatuated with him turn into this rage and anger because of the rejection,
Like do you think it could be something like that? Oh? Yeah,
that would make sense to me because you mentioned earlier that the idea that she
was stabbed and there was no murder weapon means that the killer brought the knife
into the store with them. But the way this guy on the confession says
that, it says, well, he just happens to carry this knife on
him at all times, and he wasn't intending on killing Tracy. But because
add an argument and thinks escalated out of control, that's when he took out
the knife and stabbed her. Don't you remember being that age, ash and
like inappropriate uncomfortable situations that you would get into with adult males, where like
you're conditioned when you're younger, especially like we're both older millennials. We were
conditioned to be nice, always being nice, and now I think younger girls
are being conditioned to be rude when you need to be you don't need to
be kind to these adult creepy men who are crossing boundaries and making you feel
pressured in some situation to like flirt with them or be nice to them.
And so I can totally imagine a situation that you set up ash where this
guy's being an effing creep and he probably has been there a few times and
tried to, like in his own mind, lay the groundwork to some potential
relationship, and when she kind of thwarts his efforts by being like, hey,
no, this isn't going to happen, he then gets angry, like
that's really the only plausible scenario that seems to make sense in my own mind
unless there was some kind of like thrill kill element. But I just I
just don't really think that's the case here. No, I think it was
more rejection motivated or some kind of like I stood up for myself and you
didn't like it. And what's really freaky is that it doesn't stop with like
when we're older women. Like today in my store, I had a man
walk in who was very intoxicated and wouldn't stop with inappropriate comments, and I
told him like, hey, I mean my personal space, Please back up,
and then he said, I just want to hug you. I just
want to touch you because you're so nice. And I had called rebel the
moment he walked in, because he gave me really uncomfortable vibes and just left
it kind of on speaker phone so he could hear. But it took me
a good thirty minutes and he got a more aggressive the more I asked him
to please back away. And so it's like this idea of when you don't
comply and when you put up a boundary someone who has that kind of anger
insecurity, I don't know mental health issue. I really do think it causes
them to become very motivated to get you to be quiet and to stop being
mean and ugly. And do you find that as you've gotten older, Like
my husband and I were discussing this the other day, and I think when
young women who are like seventeen years old haven't yet learned to do this,
But I think as I think it happens to all women. But like my
husband will always notice when you know we're out in public, He's like,
everybody stares at you, and I'm like, he's like, but you don't
even clock it. You don't even notice. And I'm like, it's something
over the years that I've personally conditioned myself to just block out because I'm somebody
that feels very uncomfortable with too much attention, and so it makes me just
want to like hide in a ball and never go outside if I actually pay
attention. But I don't think when you're a teenager you've built that armor.
Is that your experience as oh, for sure? And even as an adult,
I think it's hard because we are so ingrained to be kind and I'm
a people pleaser and I'm an entertainer and I'm a you know, especially at
my store that's my domain. So people come for a little piece of me
out of a loving way, I hope often, do you know what I
mean? But I also think they'll take whatever they want out of you.
Two. So yes, I think it's it's very uncomfortable. I actually had
Rebel come picked me up at work three hours early because I just I went,
I feel gross, do you know what I mean? Like I don't
like it? And so but yes, as a kid, I can remember
like being you know, fifteen and having someone who worked with me who is
twenty eight or thirty five, like at that age, that big of an
age gap, not appropriate doing things, and me always going like can I
stand up for myself like they're a superior of minor. I don't want to
get in trouble at my little summer camp job, you know what I mean,
and being scared to stand up for myself. And even now it's hard
to say you've crossed a boundary. I'm uncomfortable because it makes people angry to
be called out on that. I just listened to a while ago High Low
with em Rata and she had Bella Thorne on her podcast, and it just
stuck with me because Bella was saying when she was thirteen years old, she
was doing an audition and the director accused her of flirting with him, and
it's like, she's a child. The fact that you, as a grown
man, would see something sexual in the way that she was playing this role
or smiling or anything sexualizing a child like that is just so uncomfortable, and
it feels like there's a very real possibility that in this case, somebody was
doing that to Tracy. That's literally where my gut feels right this second.
They thought there was something that wasn't there. She eventually said I'm uncomfortable and
that wasn't okay. So since the caller never mentioned Tracy's name, it seemed
obvious he was referring to her. Investigators became convinced that the confession side is
genuine and that the man calling himself down really was Tracy's killer. They were
able to trace the call to a payphone outside a supermarket in the town of
Walkersville, located only eight miles outside of Frederick. In response, the police
decided to publish a letter in the local newspaper, the Frederick News Post,
on October the tenth, nineteen eighty nine, urging don to come forward a
during him that they were available if if you needed someone to talk to.
The Frederick County State's attorney also publicly announced that the state would not seek the
death penalty if an arrest was made. However, the police never received any
response from Dawn. So I'm thinking one of two things, This truly is
the killer who's making this phone call, because they are so centrally located to
this area, right like they're only a couple of miles away from where she
was murdered. Or is it all the coverage and all of the attention makes
this person want to be a part of the case, and therefore they assert
themselves into like we've seen many times before, into the case, so that
they are somebody, or they have some link or get some kind of energy
going in the community. So I think it could be either holy cow,
he's eight miles away from the city making this call on a pay phone,
it's him, or it's again some creep who just wants to be a part
of it. What's your gut tell you, Robin. I'm curious because you
know this case better than both Ashley and I. I want to know what
you think. Well, back when I watched this segment back on Unsolved Mysteries
during the early nineteen nineties, I was inclined to think that the caller was
the killer. That when you hear the audio, it just sounds too genuine.
It does not sound like your standard hoax prank call. But as we're
going to talk about later on, it seems like as the years have gone
on, police have said that we do not believe that the person who made
the call who is the real killer. They seem to have other people in
mind. So, but just some of the ways the phrases that he uses
in the call, Like he says that, well, I want to turn
myself in, but I better not because we have the death penalty. Like
that almost sounds like he's justifying himself where he wants to confess and get something
off his tech chest, but he doesn't want to face any actual consequences,
so he's coming up with this rationale saying that, well, if I turned
myself in, I'll be executed, so I better keep free. It's sort
of like the is that the Axe Man of New Orleans or Jack the Ripper
or you know BTK, all these people that or Zodiac, all these people
that communicate with law enforcement, but this is different because it's not rectly with
law enforcement. I just think it's so bizarre that people would pay to call
a hot line to confess. You'd think that, like, if other people
are going to be listening to this, they're paying to listen, so to
confess it should be for free. Yeah, it's so weird. I guess
that's the only option they have back then in the pre pre podcast days,
where if you wanted to make a public confession, you would have to call
these hotlines. Either that or you go sneak into a Catholic church and go
into confession. I oh yeah, yeah, that's a much better chance that
the priest will not turn you in. Which case was it that we covered
where it was like somebody was going to do a confession and then they were
like ended their own life. Yeah, the William L. Toomey case where
he was the unidentified Ja Joe who was waiting for confession and then he jested
Sinai before it could happen. But two weeks after going public about Don's phone
call, the Frederick PD was contacted by Martha Woodworth, a self proclaimed psychic
from Massachusetts. Woodworth claim she'd repeatedly been contacted by a man calling himself Sean,
who seemed to have an obsession with Tracy Kirkpatrick's murder and catching the person
who killed her. When Woodworth asked for more information about the case, Sean
sent her an envelope filled with newspaper clippings. However, she said that Shahn's
handwriting gave her a bad feeling and made her believe that he was more involved
in the crime than he led on. When Woodworth contacted the police, they
played her a recording of Don's confession. She said that she recognized his voice
and was convinced that Dawn and Sean were one and the same. The envelope
Sean sent to Woodworth also happened to have a return address in Walkersville, the
same town where Don's phone call originated from. Police checked into the address and
found out there was a young man living there, and even though his name
was never released publicly, it was not Don or Sean. Now that would
not be crazy. Do you guys remember the guys who had the boat and
claimed that they had crashed this boat for an insurance claim, and it was
like their real name was Don Johnson. So they said, like, I'm
Johnson Dawn or yeah, yes, yes, just like completely, like hey,
let's say my same name, so like I'm you know, Smashley,
not Ashley. But it's like, you know, they did John Russell and
Russell Johnson, like yes, So I mean that that would make sense.
And I do find it really interesting that you have not just a psychic saying
hey, I've seen this person in my mind, but she actually had interactions
with this guy who's saying like, I'm basically this super fan of the case,
and I'm this couch sleuth who's trying to help catch somebody does make it
a little bit kind of uncomfortable where you're going. Okay, but why why
are you so fascinated with this? Um? Do you find it ironic that
she said their voices sounded the same. Yeah, like you listen to the
voice, it's not the best quality. But and I've never actually heard Sean's
voice, so I can't say that one certainty that he's the same person who
made the call. But she seemed to think though, that they were the
same person. But I mean, if being as to the case, it's
like they could come for you, Robin, on all these unfold bases,
if that qualifies you as being somebody who is a likely perpetrator, like we
are all in trouble. Yeah. They always say that, never let the
FBI seize our computers and see our Google searches, because they'll think really bad
things about us. Man. I used to really worry when I and I
did a lot of research on homicide and sexual assault. I would type in
the most horrific descriptions, do images and all kinds of things, and I'd
go, oh, shoot, I need to really be on the radar because
it's such inappropriate stuff. That I'm searching all relevant, but man, my
Google search used to be quite disturbing. Oh, I'm sure you're on a
watch list. We probably all are, totally so. In March the fifteenth,
nineteen ninety, the one year anniversary of the crime, four local radio
stations agreed to simultaneously air the recording of Don's confession and hopes that someone listening
might recognize his voice and come forward. Well, sure enough, three people
soon called in, who all said that they recognized Dawn as the aforementioned a
young man from Walkersville who called himself Sewan. This prompted a police to question
him and get a warrant to search his home. Samples of the young man's
blood and hair were taken for analysis, but ultimately failed to link him to
the crime. As it turned out the only blood found at the murder scene
belonged to Tracy. While a search of this man's residence turned up a lot
of newspaper clippings and material to suggest he had an obsession with the case,
there was no direct evidence to implicate him in the crime and no indication that
he even knew Tracy personally. He decided to plead the Fifth Amendment and refused
to answer any questions. It's not entirely clear how or when they came to
this conclusion, but police would eventually rule out the young man from Walkersville as
a suspect. The case would be featured on Unsolved Mysteries in January of nineteen
ninety one, as well as an episode of a Current Affair, but the
investigation eventually came to a standstill, so the police completely ruled him out.
They said, this is not our guy, pretty much like I don't know
if they could say with one percent certainty that he couldn't have been the guy,
but their gut instinct told them that he's probably just a guy who's obsessed
with the case and not the actual killer. For me, when I was
when I was listening and he said, you know, he pled the fifth
the fifth, so he doesn't have to incriminate himself. I totally understand where
people come from. But immediately people go see it told you he's guilty,
and it comes to a point like my husband and I talk all the time
where we say, listen, you pull me into a police interrogation room,
you come in to search my property. I'm quiet till I have an attorney,
and I'm not guilty of anything. So I often like once you find
yourself in that hot seat and you go, oh, shoot, this is
serious, right, Like my newspaper clippings have turned into a legit, like
I must suspect. I don't blame him for saying I'm not going to say
anything to you, your husband. I love that for you. It's the
first time I've heard you refer to rebel like that, and I love it.
Yeah, you know, we do top seeker things like go get married
in our favorite date spot and things like that. A Frederick police detective named
Bob Serviceeck took over the case, and, by all accounts, it completely
consumed his life until he became convinced he figured out who the killer was.
While the evidence against the suspect was circumstantial, Serviceick decided to submit it to
a grand jury in June of nineteen ninety four. While the suspect's name was
never made public, Serviceeck said that he was in his mid to late twenties,
lived in the Frederick area at the time of the murder, and was
an acquaintance of Tracy through a mutual circle of friends. Serviceick believed that the
crime was driven by jealousy, anger, and revenge, theorizing that the killer
had feelings for Tracy and could not handle it when Tracy told him that she
only wanted to be friends. After examining all the evidence, two thirds of
the grand jury voted to indict the suspect, but the Deputy States Attorney's office
ultimately decided not to move forward with an arrest in prosecution, as they feared
there was still not enough evidence to bring him to trial and secure a conviction
with a jury. According to Billy Kirkpatrick, the Deputy state Attorney told her,
quote, I can get indictments on both of them with the information we
have. I can get an indictment on each of them, but it would
end for each of them the same way. If it went to trial,
a defense attorney will say, well, the other guy is there and you
can't prove he did it. End quote. This decision left service Check so
frustrated that it helped influence his decision to retire from the police force the following
year. Okay, so I am in total agreement here with a murder case.
One of the biggest things and one of kind of the scariest things at
that moment when you say do we make an arrest, do we actually indict
a suspect or not? Because we know in America, good luck. You
get one shot to make an arrest, indict somebody with a crime, take
them to trial, and hope that you get a conviction, right, and
then reveal the truth. If you miss, you don't get to do it
again. Right, even if after they walk out of the courtroom they say
they right, if you miss, you don't get a second shot. So
I've worked so many cold cases with law enforcement where we're sitting there going it
is so obvious, this is so obvious that it's this person, but we
cannot take it to a trial. I don't care what anyone else says,
Right, we don't have that silver bullet, that kind of key piece of
evidence that is going to ziplock and completely make sure this case results in a
guilty verdict. And because I'm so confident that this person is actually dangerous,
I don't want to miss our shot. I always think of law abiding citizen,
doesn't you say something like, it's not what you know, it's what
you can prove in court. And I always think about that because there's so
many cases where you absolutely think this is the person. There seems to be
like nobody who's debating that. But yet there just isn't enough to indict them
for the murder and to have that case fall apart, because if you take
a shot, you best not miss. You only get one bite of that
apple. And I can understand why prosecutors do that for multiple reasons, because
you know their position will depend upon how many successful prosecutions they have. And
then number two, you want to be able to secure that conviction and get
this potential killer off the street. And if you're a case that falls apart,
it looks bad on so many different levels. You can't get justice for
the family. And then you know your record of nine percent convictions falls apart
as well, and so your averages go down, and those things do matter.
And judify those comments from the Deputy States Attorney. It's hounds like that
they had another potential suspect in mind, which maybe had an equal amount of
evidence or even more evidence than the suspect that Servicheck was trying to indict,
and pretty much said that we don't know if this other person did it,
but his presence alone generates reasonable doubt that if we take servicheck suspect to trial,
then they can just point to this other person and say this is the
person who really did it, and it could lead to an acquittal. So
I can see why they would be reluctant to bring either of these people to
trial without more damning evidence. Do you think it could have been the security
guard as a second suspect. Possibly. We're going to talk more about the
security guard later on in the episode, but a lot of gossip is around
that the person who found Tracy's body could have been the person who killed her,
but it's never been specified if the security guard was the guy that Servicheck
had in mind, or if he adds someone else in that he thought was
the killer. In two thousand and nine, the Frederick News Post published a
series of articles about the twentieth anniversary of Tracy's murder, and Bob Servicheck gave
a very outspoken interview in which he outlined his frustration, stating, quote,
this case was solved in nineteen ninety four. As far as I was concerned,
what derailed the process was politics and personal agendas. Certain individuals did not
do their jobs and derailed the case end quote. Around the same time,
period. The commander of the Frederick Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division confirmed that two
promising suspects had developed over the years, and DNA samples were taken from both
of them, but he just lacked the final piece of the puzzle to conclusively
determine if either of them committed the crime. Well, DNA testing was performed
on evidence found at the crime scene. The size of the DNA samples proved
insufficient enough to develop a genetic profile of the killer, while TOUCH samples were
submitted to a private contractor for the Maryland State Police in two thousand and nine.
It doesn't sound like this lead anywhere. So after thirty four years,
the murder of Tracy Kirkpatrick continues to remain unsolved. So I guess you could
say the path went chilly. Well. I have not done any research into
this case, of course, But when you're talking to me about the fact
that online there's a name that often gets circulated, is that the individual that
he's referring to. He's never specified that, But as we're going to talk
about, this individual is from a family that might has connections in the area.
So I kind of if you rebuilt between the lines, think that he
might be referring to them, and that when he mentions politics and personal agendas,
he feels that either the deputy States Attorney was too scared to indict this
guy because he had a lot of power, or maybe his family was stepping
in and ensuring that there was a cover up and that he wouldn't be charged
with the murder. He's one of these people that Servicheck is one of these
people that I love. I mean, we've had many prosecutors, law enforcement
officials, investigators where we always talk about, you know, hey, somebody
dropped the ball, that's why this case isn't solved. But then there's these
heroes and say like, listen, I keep fighting, I keep telling you
what you know, what I think I know, and I need to get
justice in this case. I love when we have people in our cases where
they're really driven and emotionally charged to capture whoever did the crime. So it
makes me smile when I hear how passionate he is about this case. Oh
yeah, especially the fact that he said that it pretty much consumed his whole
life when he was investigating it, and from what I can tell from the
Kirkpatrick family loved him saying that if you want a family member's murdered to be
solved, this is the guy that you want on the investigation. But unfortunately
it was out of his hand because he presented all the evidence he had to
the grand jury, but it just wasn't enough to indict. You gotta feel
like the game is rigged at some points, especially when if he's correct,
and if there is politics and you know, cover ups because of an influential
family, you feel like you do all this work and because you presented the
wrong suspect from the right family, I guess that nothing is going to go
forward and that is influencing the outcome. Like I had to be so frustrating,
and like, how old was he? Do you know when he retired?
I'm not entirely sure. I think he was regular retirement age, but
I think he probably, under normal circumstances, would have wanted to work for
a couple more years. But he just found the whole situation frustrated that he
pretty much said, I'm done now before we go any further, I'm going
to have to address the elephant in the room with this case, and that's
the fact that the security guard who discovered Tracy's body just happened to be named
Don. His full name is Don Barnes Junior, and at the time he
was a deputy for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office and doing some moonlighting as a
security guard. Numerous media outlets have published his name since he is the person
who found Tracy, But even though he's never been publicly named as a suspect
or person of interest by law enforcement, there are a lot of unsubstantiated rumors
online that Dawn was Tracy's killer. It's also worth noting that Don's father,
Don Barnes Senior, was a very prominent law enforcement official in the area.
He had served two terms as Frederick County Sheriff, though he was out of
office by the time this crime took place and passed away in twenty ten.
So bizarre. I wonder if a caller who was calling to confess would actually
use their own name, though, because once he says, hey, this
is Dawn, you think, okay, listen, you found her body,
right, the guy named Don found her body. So would it be that
blatant you think on the phone call itself to say, this is my real
name. I'm going to call eight miles from where she was killed, Like,
doesn't that just seem like a come get me? Although we have seen
that with other killers in the past, where they are foolish enough to provide
information and to taunt the police in a way that is pretty wild. But
the thing with this guy is that he was a sheriff's deputy. So if
he was the one who made the call and left that recorded confession, you'd
think that someone would be able to recognize his voice and solve this case.
But the fact that this hasn't happened leads me to believe that Don Barnes Junior
was not the person who made the call, But also make you wonder is
there a reason that the callers selected the name Don, Like, did he
have some idea that Don Barnes Junior might be the killer and this was his
way of putting his name out there, or or was some of the media
coverage did it say, you know, security officer Don Barnes Junior located the
young victim, and you know, and then because they were someone who was
following the case, they were able to pick that name, which seems quite
at the heart of the case. That's only possible because they did publish his
name as the security guard who found Tracy's body. So and like you said,
this guy Sean who had the obsession with the case, he had a
ton of newspaper clippings, so he probably would have read on Barnes his name,
and maybe while he's making the call, he's thinking to myself, Okay,
what name should I use? Don? We'll go with Don. I
think that's a high possibility. What if it was the real killer and they
were trying to use misdirection, knowing that Don was the security guard, trying
to point the finger and be like, hey, over there, over there,
Dawn is my name. Oh yeah, that would make sense as well,
that it's the ultimate misdirection. And it almost seems to have worked because
a lot of online SLUSA pointed out it's the same name as the security guard,
So maybe the security guard was the killer. I just don't think you'd
use your same name, Like he's like, oh, there's lots of Dawns
in the city, so no one's going to know that it's me. Well
hello, Like, it just doesn't seem like a smart bet. You would
just pick another common name like Brad or Bob or Steve or something. You're
not going to choose Dawn. It just feels a little too intentional. So
the Unsolved Mystery segments primary focus was a confession from the caller named Don and
the young man from Walkersville who called himself Sean. But it's possible that this
entire lead was nothing more than a red herring. Don Barnes Junior's name was
not mentioned at all during the segment, as they simply present a re enactment
of a security guard discovering Tracy's body and treat him as a complete afterthought,
so there's no indication that he was ever considered a suspect. But even if
you watch the segment without any knowledge of who Don Barnes Junior is, there
still seems to be something off about the security guard's version of events. The
store but Tracy was working closed at nine pm, and she was last seen
at eight forty five. Yet even though the store's lights never went off,
he did not go inside until around ten forty five PM. If the guard's
job was to patrol the shopping center, it is a bit odd that two
hours would pass before he noticed something was wrong. We may be overthinking things
here, but since there always been a number of rumors surrounding Don Barnes.
We'll revisit this angle later on. Now, is Don only patrolling this area
or was he kind of hired to patrol the like the shopping center or the
vicinity of that neighborhood, like, was it multiple spots he needed a patrol?
Or are we literally saying he sat and watched this store for an hour
and forty five minutes before saying, Hey, I should probably go check on
her. I don't think I've read anything about him patrolling an entire area.
It's just this one shopping center, and it's not like a mall or anything.
It sounds like it's more like a strip mall where a bunch of stores
are out in this parking lot. So if that was his entire job to
patrol just this one area, that, yes, it is pretty odd that
it would take him two hours to circle around and come back to Tracy's shop
and notice the lights are on and go inside. But I've never seen any
confirmation that his responsibilities required him to like drive elsewhere, which could account for
this two hour gap. Do we know how old he was? He would
have been I think in his twenties at that time, and like Servi check
said. He said that the person he believed was the most primary suspect was
in his twenties. So when you see some of the comments that serve check
mate, then Don Barnes Junior being the killer would fit, would fit the
scenario. It's also this is morbid, but it's also possible that if you
waited an hour and forty five minutes, you knew for a fact she was
dead. Like, yes, you stabbed her seven times, but if you
waited and at ten forty five, like, you would know for a fact
she was no longer going to be breathing at that point. And there might
have been an element of panic and wanting to dispose of the murder weapon as
well. Oh yeah, like and it's also been speculated that if he got
blood on his uniform, then he may have needed some time to like clean
himself up or change his clothing or something before he discovered Tracy's body. Then
that time window completely makes sense. My first job was in a mall.
I don't know, Robin, did you have this store? Like? I
don't think they exist anymore, but when I was a teenager, they were
called San Francisco and they sold like gag gifts and stuff like a spencer.
Yes, yeah, like you know, like the like fake fart smelling like
liquid stuff and like woby cushions, like stupid stuff like that. But I
remember when I was sixteen, I would close the store alone, and if
you were the last person there, you would be sticking out like a sore
thumb because everybody else lights would be off, And I would think that even
if you were like a half hour overclosing time, the mall security guard would
have noticed and come to check on you. Like that's just my experience,
but that time frame just seems a bit off to me, unless it's like
the biggest mall ever where they've got, you know, five hundred stores or
something, and so he's walking around on foot and may not get to her
by that time, or maybe took time to have a cigarette and a meal
or something, you know, talk to a friend on his phone. I
don't know. It just seems like a huge amount of time to go if
this was a regular size shopping area. Yeah, and this is Frederick,
Maryland. It's not a particularly large town, so I don't think they're going
to have one of the largest shopping malls ever. So yeah, Yeah,
definitely seems unusual. I was just thinking like West Demonton mall size, you
know, like it used to be like one of the biggest malls in Canada.
I don't know if it is anymore, but I remember going as a
kid and being like totally overwhelmed two sides of the mall, and like it
would take you all day to walk around it. It was like a city
unto itself. Yeah, I've always heard about that mall, but I've never
actually gone there. I nearly died when I was about trapped under a very
large individual in the wave pool and I could not get out, and I
remember when I came out, I was like shaking. I thought I was
going to die. Joel, that's another podcast episode, certainly is so.
I think that about brings an end to Part one. Join us next week
as we present part two of our series on the Unsolved Murder of Tracy Kirkpatrick.
Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail
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Cold Callers Comedy