Hi, crime junkies. I'm Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. Today, I am as baffled as I am consumed by this case It's one where two teens seemingly excelling in every way go out for a night of fun and then are brutally shot dead And what could almost seem a targeted ambush and I'm obsessed with this case Not only because it took place right here in Indiana But because some belief answers in this unsolved double murder may have been right under police's noses throughout their nearly 40 year quest for justice This is the story of the West Side Park murders It's around midnight on September 28, 1985 when officer Terry Winters of the Muncie Police Department is on patrol in West Side Park
Which literally as its name suggests is on the West Side of the town and it runs along the White River It's a Saturday night just before midnight and according to a book by Keith Royston and Douglas Walker a source will rely on Verily here for this episode Terry also has his canine partner Max with him now at some point this real-life Turner and Hooch hop in their squad card to leave And as they pull out the headlights catch on some tire tracks that lead to a Volkswagen hatchback idling in a little gravel area of the park Now one of Terry's responsibilities is to scope out any cars left in the park past closing which was about an hour earlier So this is literally the game and Terry gets out to investigate There doesn't appear to be any movement coming from inside the car But as he approaches and puts his flashlight through the open driver side window He gets the shock of his life. There are two teenagers a boy and a girl shot dead in the front seats in the book The West Side Park murders Muncie's most notorious cold case It says that both the front seats were reclined with like sleeping bags draped over them and the passenger side window was shattered The guy who's in the driver seat has been shot in the torso and the girl who's in the passenger seat was shot in the head
It's not long before the entire place is crawling with police and investigators take note of the fact that there are no signs of a struggle and No signs that point to this being motivated by a robbery Nothing appears to have been taken from the car as far as they can tell I mean like there's even literally a portable stereo still in the back and they see an open pocket knife just sitting on the dashboard But the murder weapon the gun that's nowhere to be found They just find a small empty gun holster under the young man's body like he was sitting on it Well, some accounts say sitting on it others just say under the body some say it was found in the car more broadly I think the important thing is that it seems unlikely that it would belong to one of the kids Which could mean that the killer left this thing behind and it seems they may have left behind something else too Prince on or in the car now some of those obviously though might belong to their victims who they learn are 16 year old Ethan Dixon and 15 year old Kimberly Dowell now They were able to ID them so quickly because while they were still on the scene processing this guy named Don showed up and
Don tells police that he'd been out driving looking for his stepdaughter Kimberly who just never came home that night I guess she had gone out with a guy that she just started dating Ethan He picked her up between nine and nine thirty and the plan was for them to go get some pizza take it over to West I park eat hang out But they just never came back and while they were concerned when the teenagers didn't return home I mean they hadn't called police or anything yet Which I understand like teenagers missing curfew or whatever is like kind of hard for the course But it becomes clear that this isn't par for the course that night when police let Don go with them to the car and according to the Star Press it's him who confirms the thing that he was most terrified of it is Kimberly and Ethan in the car The events of the night don't just shock Don and Nancy who is Kimberly's mom news of the shooting is spreading like wildfire And while publicly the victims aren't being named it didn't take long for local parents and teenagers to put two and two together Both teenagers were students at Northside High School and by all accounts like really stand out kids According to the Star Press Ethan was on the debate team He was the junior class president
Kimberly was a cheerleader recently named as part of the homecoming Court and a story in the Sun at the time quotes their principal describing them as very very fine people Basically saying that like they never caused any problems They were never difficult so for them to end up like this It's hard for anyone to fathom But that didn't mean that they were teenagers like who weren't dealing with teenager problems Because please discover that Ethan had been the victim of bullying now I don't know the full extent of it It doesn't seem like this is something police that are really fully Explore or or find the need to explore but Ethan's parents do say that at one point They had taken a knife away from him that he was keeping on him because of bullying So when I think about that that could be one of the reasons there was that pocket knife in the car Yeah But then why would it be on the dash and not in Ethan's hand like thinking he was maybe trying to protect himself or something If that's what it was and again I'm making all the assumptions But if that's what it was part of me wonders if he had the knife on him for like all the reasons We just talked about but then maybe him and Kimberly were like you know doing things teenagers do sometimes when they're in the park And like maybe he like pulled that out his pocket or something like put it on the dash to be more comfortable So I don't know like this is a weird fact that like I can't quite like put it in a box
But it's worth people knowing like it's something you'll read if you look into this story now There's nothing in the source material about police at the time finding anything in the way of evidence like blood or prints on the knife Or even the holster for that matter and going back to the knife though like it is important to say that I don't think like that was ever actually used so like nothing blood blood or whatever on that But speaking of the holster police never find any evidence that Ethan owned a gun So it's definitely seeming like the murder weapon belonged to the perp and then maybe this holster also belonged to the perp And the autopsy confirms that Kimberly was killed by a gunshot wound to the left side of her head Which most likely killed her within seconds Ethan died from massive blood loss caused by a gunshot wound to the left side of his chest and both of them were shot with a 38 caliber Which they for sure did not fire. I mean like obviously no gun at the scene I think that's you know speaks for itself But they do check for gun shot residue on their hands anyways And even though the results that came back later were positive that still didn't really change anything for police like because there could be explanations for that I think again, I think not finding the weapon there made it clear right at the homicide the gunshot residue there in a car
That's a pretty small enclosed place. They were shot right. That's a flakeable right? Oh, and the other thing I wanted to know about their autopsies neither of them showed any signs of drugs or Alcohol in their systems while even in Kimberly's exact time of death is unknown The Emmy estimates that it could be about 11 p.m. So roughly an hour and a half to two hours after they left Kimberly's place and about 50 minutes before officer Terry discovered their bodies Which was around 1150 p.m. Which speaking of Terry, how did he not hear the gunshots like he was in the park?
He was it's possible that he was just had a year shot though when the shooting happened Like I've never seen anything about his exact location at the time like at 11 o'clock if it's known But I know he's supposed to be on duty at the time according to the star press the park is like a little over 20 acres So if you look at it on Google Maps, it's like a very long skinny like strip So my thing is if he's like patrolling all of it, maybe he could be on the opposite side or at least a ways away But even though he doesn't appear to have heard anything there are others who did hear the shots Invested leaders talk to people who say that they were in the park when gunfire rang out I don't know who these people are who are at the park at 11 p.m. Or how police even found them But good job some of those witnesses say that they just booked it when they heard the bangs But others claimed to have been close enough to the parking lot to see three people around Kimberly and Ethan's car after the gunshots And through these witness accounts cops determined that there were between 10 and 12 other cars in the park that not including Ethan and Kimberly's car And investigators zero in specifically on two cars that were parked the closest to Kimberly and Ethan around the time of the shooting
But these cars weren't there when Terry showed up So there is a red one and then there is a black or some kind of dark colored one often described as a Monte Carlo And it was this black one I think that they're most interested in because it was specifically said to have left right after the shots rang out So these are either really good witnesses they have to find or suspects or suspects, right? And according to roison and walkers book within two days of the murders they actually might have found one of them Rosetta stone who have been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years just launched rosetta stone sapphire a new app that combines It's proven immersion method with the latest innovation technology to help you learn faster personalize your lessons and have more fun along the way The intuitive method helps you truly pick up a new language naturally no memorizing random vocab no feeling lost I love that sapphire helps you focus on what you actually want to talk about whether that's football travel family work or your favorite hobbies Your time matters. So you're learning should too if you want to take your language skills to the next level Don't wait to try rosetta stone sapphire crime tricky listeners can get 20% off their rosetta stone sapphire subscription when they sign up today
You'll get unlimited access to all 25 rosetta stone languages plus all the new sapphire learning tools visit rosetta stone calm Stocky 3D meor 20% off that's rosetta stone calm calm crime junky and start learning a language for real The school year isn't full swing and kids have found their footing I excel helps them build on what they've learned so far and stay confident heading deeper into fall I excel covers everything from pk to 12th grade plus it saves time and money one subscription covers every child in your household Studies show that students who use I excel perform better academically with proven results in all 50 states In fact one in four us students use I excel and it's used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the us One of the most proactive things I feel like I can do as a parent is help support the learning in the classroom Which tools at home and I excel is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do just that make an impact on your child's learning Get I excel now and crime junk you listeners can get an exclusive 20% off I excel membership when they sign up today at I excel calm Slash crime junky visit I excel calm slash crime junky to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price In the early hours of september 30th so just two days after the murders two ones
He police officers notice a car parked in west side park Nothing in the book about what this car looked like so I don't know if it's the description of the cars that they were previously looking for But considering what has recently gone down in this park They're like checking out everything and as they head towards this car It like starts up and drives at them Police were able to block the vehicle somehow and when they finally talked to the driver They can tell that he has definitely had too much to drink and when they ask him about it He says he's grieving grieving what sir they ask him exactly that like what are you grieving for and he replies you know what for Oh my god, my daughter answers like random questions like us all the time and it's frustrating then it's infuriatingly frustrating here But prepare to say frustrated because that's about all the info that this guy gives and this information about this guy is actually only in the book So it is super limited the authors don't even use his real name But we do know that this guy gets arrested for driving under the influence and he later tells police that he was just upset about the murders Yeah, we all are but most of us aren't melting down in this while they were found so like what's your story dude?
Who is this guy? I don't know much like like truly like I just know that he had a criminal record He had even served some time but it sounds like primarily for a minor burglary charge like in another state, California actually nothing violent like murder So maybe for that reason maybe because they didn't find anything to link into the killings Maybe something else this guy kind of just falls off the radar at least from the reporting perspective I don't know what category police put this guy in suspect person of interest or some bizarre encounter some weird thing Yeah, they don't know what to make of either way. We don't hear much more about him Instead police around this kind seem far more interested in someone close to Kimberly her stepfather dawn Because not only was it pretty convenient that he showed up at the park that night while they were still processing the scene But the star press reports that police also discovered that two witness accounts might lead back to dawn and the car that he was driving that night Possibly putting him at the park before the shooting So on october 4th They bring dawn in for a formal interview and they talked to him for about six hours and in that time dawn story is unchanging
He said that when Kimberly wasn't home by 11 p.m Her mother Nancy got worried and when she still wasn't home an hour and a half later dawn went out looking for her He's like driving around checking out local McDonald's whatever And then he was heading to the park where Nancy had thought that they might have gone And that's when he came across all the police activity and he was told what happened So the star press reports that police asked on if he will take a polygraph which he agrees to Braver than me dawn, but it actually plays out in his favor dawn passes it But that's not enough to close the book on him because while the answers he was giving were deemed to be truthful by a machine and some guy reading the machine Other answers that he was giving to deputy chief marvin cambal in follow-up questions were like kind of freaking weird Like for example when asked if he was in the park dawn replies quote Within my body. I wasn't there Okay, is that a no dad?
I think it's trying to be and I like you like deputy chief like we all find this kind of sus And in another statement during the interview dawn said quote If I did this you're going to have to tell me I did it and listen deputy chief cambal isn't gonna put words in his mouth But he doesn't believe him in like what he's saying and he doesn't believe the polygraph results either The hangup is dawn's alibi. I mean it's rock solid kimberley's mother Nancy said that dawn went to a football game earlier in the night But was home before the shootings even took place and that he only went back out around 12 30 am to look for kimberley And like that's great. I guess my biggest hangup about him as a possible suspect is why like what would his motive even be for killing kimberley anything That's the other problem. There isn't one So it's not quite adding up and listen We contacted muncp to ask like why they were so hot on dawn early on like there could be things on police's radar That they didn't make public maybe a motive were unaware of but as of this recording We haven't heard back from them Now it's no surprise that after this initial interview dawn lawyers up the star press reports that his lawyer tells police
He will not let dawn be interviewed again without a lawyer in the room So essentially dawn stops cooperating which then deputy chief Campbell like seems to suggest that dawn is now somehow hindering the investigation But the police have nothing that they can really make stick to dawn as their guy And I mean the thing is they can't make anything stick to anyone for a brief moment They looked at one of their own actually officer terry winters the police officer who discovered the bodies Which was like honestly my first crime I guess when I got into this case like maybe your first Nancy Drew gas It's like the amount of times that I've looked into real cases and it turned out to be the person patrolling who finds the bodies But not here this guy was asked to turn over his guns for analysis It's determined they were not used in the killings and as far as I can tell no one seems to place his police vehicle anywhere Near the shooting at the time of the shooting So by early October police are in a long way like circling back to the Monte Carlo tip Because you see they had gotten a tip from someone pointing at their neighbor This guy named James or he goes by Jimmy swingly and just an FYI the book is the only place that he has officially named and we couldn't corroborate this anywhere else But according to Royston Walker's book someone who lives down the street from Jimmy reports to police that his house was robbed
And he is convinced that Jimmy did it He is also confident that Jimmy knows about the murders of Ethan and Kimberly or was maybe involved in them Which are all like pretty bold allegations that this tipster happened to mention why he felt Jimmy was involved like he felt that's pretty strongly I know if he did I don't know like all I know is how that we get to him somehow or like that They make the suggestion And I do know that police look into this afterwards and maybe give it some way because on October 7 They release a description and a sketch of someone that they're looking for Who they also associate with the black or dark colored Monte Carlo so I said that kind of all comes full circle And while there's a mention of this publicly at the time deputy chief Campbell later indicates that this sketch looked a lot like our guy Jimmy white male about 24 years old 150 to 160 pounds slender bell brown hair parted down the middle Acme scarred face and this guy apparently wears gold wire glasses But on the other flip side of this this guy apparently looked a lot like other people too Yeah, like you just described a guy in Indiana Yeah, because when they like put this sketch out to the papers or whatever they get a lot of calls like somewhere between
100 and 200 calls about it Police take all these calls and they kind of narrow them down to get a list about a lot of like a dozen people And they do this by like seeing who was named the most but none of those actually lead to a huge breakthrough Not even the Jimmy stuff I guess because I don't see him come back up yet So they're starting to hit a wall early on which is maybe why police decide to cast a wider net Looking beyond just their crime even to other crimes that feel kind of similar or happen not too far away Like maybe if this is part of some larger pattern that will tell them something about their killer and where to find them And I know specifically they looked at two cases There was one that was local one that wasn't the first was an assault of a woman that took place in the summer at another park In nearby county and in that attack the suspect might have had or been in a Monte Carlo Then in the second case that one happened five years earlier a few states away in Kansas where two young people were shot while sitting in their car And on the surface both of those like that crime and this one have similar elements But ultimately police can't connect them in any way to one another same with the other one
So they're kind of at another dead end and investigators turn their focus to some more like experimental investigative tactics like hypnosis hypnosis that means they have someone to hypnotize like It's mostly those witnesses that were at the park that night to see if they can remember any more details about like the car I'm assuming car lights and plate whatever Here's the problem though Like the way they were doing this hypnosis viewers Like pretty far into unethical territory if you ask me because according to the star press before being hypnotized one of the witnesses Who was actually an off-duty officer who was in the park that night? Listen, I know I hear it like I have the same questions Um, but it sounds like this guy They vetted him because I have the same like oh like Terry things like obviously this before he's headed He has now by whatever. I mean alibi is always the part I think he was with someone else that night But anyways this guy was showing some pictures of cars including the one that Don was driving that night Which was Nancy's car and then he's shown a photo of Don before the hypnosis So he's kind of been fed info which is what it feels like it feels like they're being like here's some here's The chief is like very interested in your memory. Yeah, but even them doing this again
I said it's unethical, but even when they did it like nothing tying Don to the killings even comes from this Whatever they were trying didn't even work But I do think it gives a glimpse to where investigators heads were for deputy chief Campbell All roads were still leading back to Don and he at that point is tired of Don's perceived unwillingness to cooperate So he decides to try and put pressure on publicly When the holiday shopping season rolls around business owners are reminded of how rewarding and demanding it can be to run an online Store for anyone developing a business idea or looking to start selling products Now is the ideal time to launch before the holiday rush hits full speed That is where Shopify comes in shopify helps you launch a store and start selling in a few simple steps without needing to be an e-commerce expert Whether you're organizing product options or setting up your storefront sidekick Shopify's AI assistant can help with business tasks along the way Plus launching before Black Friday means you can take advantage of all the extra online traffic when millions of eager shoppers are already browsing and ready to buy We love using Shopify for our merch launches to handle everything from inventory to payment to customer service If you're ready to launch your business before Black Friday go to Shopify.com to start your free trial That's Shopify.com. Go to Shopify.com today to hear your first
The night sky may look endless, but its secrets could be closer than we think Because in this universe you're never truly alone I'm Yvette Gentile and I'm her sister, Rasha Pecarero. Every Friday on So Supernatural We investigate alien encounters, haunting tales of the unknown and cosmic mysteries that defy explanation Ready to discover what's out there? Listen to So Supernatural wherever you get your podcast In September 1986, deputy chief Campbell says publicly that a person related to the case refuses to come in for a second interview And though he didn't explicitly say Don's name everyone pretty much knows That's what he's talking about and when asked about a motive the chief says all they have are rumors and no real motive in this case Listen, I don't know what the rumors are that he's referring to like if they're even real like But again, nothing really happens in the case and a full year goes by and really even then nothing happens in the case itself That like full year. That's just when Kimberly's family is hit with yet another tragedy because on Christmas Eve 1987
Kimberly's mother. This is Don's wife Nancy unexpectedly dies of a heart attack The police at the time decide to have an autopsy done on Nancy to rule out any kind of foul play Which Don even agrees to like presumably to get these guys off his back and ultimately nothing is found It was a heart attack. So over the next few years Kimberly and Ethan's case just kind of stalls out There are rumors that swirl through Muncie about what could have happened to them But there doesn't seem to be anything like tangible police latch on to like what? Yeah, so I don't have examples about like if if the rumors that the chief was talking about were in relation to Don I don't know any rumors in relation to him But he ran the gamut really like I mean there was one that centered around the son of a politically connected family Then there was one about someone who showed about a party dressed as ramble on the night of the murders And then one of the wilder accusations a guy was convinced that a woman he knew might have committed the murders Like anything's this woman who I assume is like his girlfriend or something like someone who knows intimately Basically he assumes that she mistook Ethan for him in the car and like thought she caught him cheating and then committed the murders
Again, there's no real need to any of those stories So police continue to look high and low and wide and far and they do get at least one decently that they do follow in the early 90s Two investigators go to interview a man named Steve who's in prison on an armed robbery charge Unclear of Steve reached out to them or how his name might have come up But he tells investigators that the murders stemmed from a marijuana deal that had gone bad in the park He said the three men involved in a deal decided to mess with or take it out on a couple parked in a car Which feels like a promising tip knowing there was at least that one sighting early on of three people outside of the kid's car But it feels a little less promising when their told the couple was killed with a shotgun Which like we know isn't true, but still detectives are like, okay, listen We got we got at least like continue following this through like the this line of investigation might lead somewhere And the victim's family once that also so much so that Ethan Stanley pays for a trip to Virginia where a woman supposedly can corroborate Steve's story But unfortunately when the detectives get down there and interview her
She ends up admitting that the whole thing is a hoax and another inmate tells police that the whole thing was Steve's effort to Try and get some kind of deal or get like early release You know, we see this all the time and it's so incredibly heartless, right? Like yeah, you're messing about police wasting time But the most devastating part is giving Kimberly and Ethan's family is this like little tiny glimmering bit of hope and then it just gets ripped away Just like that Yeah, I don't I just don't I don't think criminals have the same code of ethics, right that you and I did like they're like they're like they're like a completely different field and like in their minds everyone is fair game Like I don't think they see a difference between like someone they know or something or jail or a victim's family Anything to save your own skin, right?
So I mean you get how it goes Same as in so many cool cases random tips and pointing fingers and a case file that gets dusted off just every so often for a fresh set of eyes to take a crack at it And that's where it was in 2012 when detective Nathan Sloan first starts working Kimberly and Ethan's case Now he spends about two weeks locked away with this case file and when detective Sloan emerges There is a familiar name on investigators radar again. So I got actually if you say it's dawn It's not dawn. It's someone else You see while the deputy chief all those years ago was paying so much attention to dawn More and more tips about Jimmy swing Lee kept coming in remember He's the one who'd been accused of robbing that guy's place and the guy accused him of also maybe being involved in the murders Well, here's what's interesting So the first tip about him came in like a week into the investigation and then a couple of months into the investigation They got another tip a more specific tip from someone said to have been close to Jimmy And this guy said that Jimmy had come to his house on the night of the murders And he told this guy that a drug deal went bad and the teenagers ended up dead
And there were two other men with Jimmy So three guys again And he said that one of them pulled the gun out and the holster came out with it and that's how it ended up in the car But is there any evidence that Ethan or Kimberly were involved in drugs or would be in the park to buy drugs? No, it doesn't sound like it and like more than just like from their parents right who like most of the time like I don't think so According to the book police also talked to other kids that need them to and none of them said that either of these two were involved in drugs So if this was some kind of drug deal gone bad It seems more likely that they were in the wrong place wrong time Like if you remember that like other rumor we heard it was like there was a drug deal gone bad and they took it out on two kids And maybe that's that's what really happened. Yeah, maybe someone approached them about drugs and an argument ensued. Oh, yeah, that's could be It could be a lot of situations. Yeah, whatever happened Jimmy's name wouldn't go away Detective Sloan sees several more instances where people point to Jimmy over the years Some say that Jimmy admitted to the killings or to knowing something about what happened that night And he also sees that at some point in 87 police had given Jimmy a lie detector test
Which he failed but they didn't have anything to hold you can't you know arrest them on a polygraph So like they end up letting him go. I mean they were probably still so focused on done 987 true Maybe and listen by 2012 Jimmy had been free to live a lot of life Lot that detective Sloan had to dig through and he finds that he apparently high-tailed it out of town shortly after the murders Which is interesting like within a couple of months There are records of him being arrested all the way down in Florida And he continues carrying out a lengthy criminal history over the next decade And there's this one blip in his record that stands out at least to me amongst others It didn't involve like a violent offense, but the circumstances were a little chilling So the West Side Park murders book notes that at one point Jimmy was pulled over for blowing a stop sign and apparently he didn't have his license or he refused To give it and when police ask him for his name the name that he gives But to me like a huge red flag so he tells police that his name is Kevin Dickson As in like Ethan's last name Dickson
I mean it's Ethan's last name I can't speak for Jimmy and why he picked that last name and there's nothing in the book about police like putting two and two together at the time But like it's just so odd that I felt like I had to mention it. I don't it's weird Is Jimmy still alive in 2012? Oh alive and kick in and detective Sloan knows right where to find him Prison, of course I told you he had a real run in Florida But his decade of criminal activity stopped in 1999 when he was convicted of murdering a man named Brian Inco Like violently Brian was found in his own apartment with his throat cut like nearly decapitated is how it's described And so Jimmy ends up getting sentenced to 65 years in prison for that where he's still hanging out in 2012 Now detective Sloan wants to be totally solid before he goes talking to him So he continues to try and run down old leads about Jimmy tries to run down new leads about Jimmy And the long and the short of it is a clearer and clearer picture starts to form around what could have happened It seems like there really were multiple people in the park and there was some kind of argument about Something and at some point Ethan pulled a knife which lines up with the pocket knife in the car on a dash
And then the theory went on that someone in this group of people that included Jimmy Bired the shots the group then took off in the car And whatever account he's pulling this from he has the car not being a Monte Carlo But one that maybe looks a lot like it or has some similarities it was a Chrysler Cordoba But how can they prove any of this? That's the thing they can't I mean they have nothing physical time Jimmy or anyone else to the crime But now that he like has heard enough that he feels solid on what happened detective Sloan is finally feeling That it's time that he can go straight to Jimmy now like maybe they can get something from him So he heads to the state prison where Jimmy is being held and let's just say doesn't go Well, Jimmy basically tells him to like if off there's gonna be no conversation Now that's kind of the end of the line for Jimmy But listen detective Sloan like isn't just gonna rest on this like being the one only answer I don't know Sloan, but I like the way this man works like if you can't prove one theory Go try and prove others like best case scenario you find out you were wrong and you do get in a rasp worst case like scenario You're like buttoning up your case even more like close all those doors that a future defense team might try to use when you finally do get your
Guy so the next door he wants to explore and hopefully close or prove or whatever was that whole grieving me on in the parking laughing Oh, I like detective Sloan too. Yeah, so he tracks that guy's ex-wife down She tells him that her husband was prone to drinking too much Often blacking out and he would even get out of bed in the middle of the night and leave the house Which he had done the night coolie found him in that park She also admits that she wondered if her husband could have had something to do with the murders But it sounds like ultimately she doesn't think like that he actually did I don't know if this guy is dead by this point or what but from what I can tell Sloan doesn't get a chance to talk to him Directly it might also be because he gets redirected with a new tip and those are a few far between in cold cases So like strike while the iron is hot, right?
When the holiday shopping season rolls around business owners are reminded of how rewarding and demanding it can be to run an online Store for anyone developing a business idea or looking to start selling products now is the ideal time to launch before the holiday rush It's full speed that is where Shopify comes in Shopify helps you launch a store and start selling in a few simple steps without needing to be an e-commerce expert Whether you're organizing product options or setting up your storefront sidekick Shopify's AI assistant can help with business tasks along the way Plus launching before Black Friday means you can take advantage of all the extra online traffic when millions of eager shoppers are already browsing and ready to buy We love using Shopify for our virtual lunches to handle everything from inventory to payment to customer service If you're ready to launch your business before Black Friday go to Shopify.com to start your free trial That's Shopify.com. Go to Shopify.com today to hear your first The night sky may look endless, but its secrets could be closer than we think because in this universe you're never truly alone I'm Eva Gentile and I'm her sister, russia pekarero every Friday on so supernatural we investigate alien encounters haunting tales of the unknown and cosmic mysteries that defy explanation
Ready to discover what's out there listen to so supernatural wherever you get your podcast In 2013 the name rafael resendes is suggested to detective slone as a possible suspect. Oh, he's the railroad killer Yeah, I was just about to say like we've talked about him before he is someone that gets brought up in a decent amount of cold cases from all over because of how Mobile this guy was throughout the night. He is a suspect of killing like 23 people and his mo is to hop on and off railway cars committing murders along the way in numerous States florida texas even as far away as california and while indiana is not on the list illinois is so he's like within shouting distance and where they're train tracks near the park there were Now according to the book it sounds like the earliest of resendes is known crimes happened in 1986 He murdered a couple in texas and at least one of those victims were shot to death with a 38 So the murder weapon lines up The majority of his known crimes though took place in the 90s and often involved him strangling or beating his victims to death And unfortunately detective slone is unable to speak to himself because he was executed by the state of texas in 2006
And maybe it doesn't matter because ultimately it sounds like detective slone doesn't think resendes is his guy He's able to like close that door So whether it's a local criminal like jimmy or a serial killer like resendes Nothing is sticking for slone and in light of closing all the doors There is one more that detective slone needs to look at probably more than anything else like to rule in or out once and for all and we're back to dawn We're back to dawn. You got it In april 2013 detective slone interviews can release step other dawn to see what he has to say after all these years dawn story is the same and slone presses him on some of the odd things that he said to police back in the 85 interviews But according to the book dawn tells detective slone that he was just tired then and the statements didn't actually mean anything And in this detective slone have the same hunch about dawn that police had back in 85 No, so according to the book he comes away from the interview ruling dawn out as a suspect He closes the door He also even returns to guns that police had seized from dawn at one point that turned out to have nothing to do with the murder that they had like all those years
And while he's you're talking to dawn and like talking to her family He circles back to ethan's family too and he talks to ethan's dad, but he doesn't learn anything new or anything earth shattering all these years later So much like back in 1986 nothing is really there to be gained from their families However in light of talking to families jimmy's family members offer investigators some new information that is very interesting Again, i'm gonna give you the tldr because spoiler alert everything they learned about jimmy feels super incriminating But it's all just hearsay that they can't actually use against him like he might have had a monty carlo He might have stolen a gun from a family member and maybe that gun was used in the murders Oh, and he might have killed two other people one of which was his brother jackie whose death was ruled undetermined And I think the whole brother story is really interesting So in early 2014 detective slone interviews jimmy's mother and she tells him that jackie's wife had jimmy's baby Some nine months after jackie died. Oh, that's an emotive She also claims that jimmy was in the room when jackie died back in 1981 and according to the book
She tells slone that she thought he was capable of committing the west side park murders And she had heard a rumor that he was arrested in connection to it Which obviously we know wasn't true But this is just like what everyone in the area is talking about at the time And it's like no matter where police look or what roads they go down It always keeps coming back to jimmy who has made it clear that he is not going to cooperate willingly But in what seems like the first lucky break they get the courts rule that his willingness is neither here nor there According to royzedon and walkers book on november 14 2018 a judge approves a warrant to get his dna So a few days later on the 20th detective slone and another colleague go to see jimmy and surprisingly this time he is Cooperative he like lets them do this watch again like they had to do and according to the book He sits for a 40-minute interview which he didn't have to do But in his interview jimmy denies any involvement in the murders in fact He points to the rumor a lot of people had heard over the years that it was kimberly's stepfather dawn You said dna what were they trying to match jimmy's dna too
So according to the book potential dna evidence on the holster got left behind that like i can't tell when but sometime between 85 and like when he's all these years later like looking into this cool case obviously they were able to like test old evidence But here's the thing whatever they have it doesn't match jimmy Now despite this detective slone still seems to think that he has his guy Remember i mean right like there's potentially multiple people but others like former deputy chief marvin kambal Who's one of the ojeez in this case like not so sure But without more evidence they'll never know does he still think it's dawn then like was dawn's dna tested Here's a problem. Unfortunately marvin kambal recently passed away So i can't ask him if he still thinks it's dawn or what he thinks about dawn And if others like dawn were compared to the dna or like that grieving guy or whatever like that's never been reported on In the book the dna evidence is described as being damaged and muddy So i assume that like any advanced testing like idg is out of the question I don't know that for a fact though And as far as things like remember they found like prince in the car like some sources claim like when i was found in the car on the car
Whatever like I just know none of those helped in the case either Chances are like the killer never even touched the car right? Oh and by the way like we did attempt to reach out to jimmy in prison But haven't gotten connected and same again I said this earlier but goes for the Muncie police now in january of 2020 detective slone became chief of police in muncie And according to the star press as late as 2022 he continues following up on leads in this case When he can't chief slone admits in that article that he hadn't assigned a new investigator to the case Like the time commitment and other investigators caseloads just hasn't allowed it But I did see like so that's the last official update from police in 2022 But I did see like something interesting on here's my disclaimer reddit cool But this was from 2023 and someone posted on a reddit for him that their neighbor confessed about a murder that sounds like what happened in west side park Now this person doesn't name names or even a name where this happened It sounds like west of park but they don't say that But the story that this neighbor told them goes a little something like this The neighbor had claimed to be involved with a girl at his high school that he very much liked One day he and his friend happened to be at the park where he saw this girl with another boy that he hated
So he went over to the car and shot the girl in the head and then shot the boy in the chest And he shot the boy in the chest because he wanted to watch him suffer Okay, that's all public information about like the crime scene It is even if he's talking about west side park like this could just be a troll It is and it's what some of the users in the forum wondered But like some other people felt strongly about this confession like so strongly that they contacted the police with this information Although like they never heard back from them And like there were other people who were like, you know, could this have been some kind of deathbed type confession from someone Now one big flag for me on this was like the whole like reddit of it all Is that the poster said the neighbor said he used a 22 caliber in the shooting Well, we know it was a 38 used to kill Kimberly and Ethan And the poster also said that he brought out a piece of evidence that he took from the car But he doesn't see what the evidence is and unless police are holding something bad The only thing that we know that they were looking for was the murder weapon Which they never found no one like talks about anything or being stolen or taken from them Yeah, so like it makes this whole confession a little one and you can write whatever you want on the internet
And eventually they did take this down from reddit So like it's you know if we got to talk to chief Sloan, this is what I would have loved to ask him if we ever get the chance It's what I would love to ask him about this ever got looked into I mean, I think it's interesting especially when you think about when the convention says like they hated the guy knowing that Ethan was being bullied I don't know. I feel like there could be something there Yeah, and what I keep coming back to is like Jimmy's DNA didn't match the holster like that's huge Right and again, it like was he there or knew something maybe but like there's someone else that we should we should be still looking for it Right and I think at this point It's important to point out that no one not Jimmy who is due to be released from prison in 2030 by the way And despite all the rumors not Kimberly stuff out of dawn or any of the other possible people Police looked into none of them have ever been charged in this case It remains unsolved, which means Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowl's families have never been given the closure They deserve so if you know anything about the murders of Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowlall on the night of September 28th 1985 in west side park Located in Muncie, Indiana, please contact the Muncie Police Department at 765-747-4867
You can also contact them anonymously through crime stoppers at 765-286-4050 We'll also have a link to send a tip online in our show notes You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com And you can follow us on instagram at crimejunkiepodcast We'll be back next week with a brand new episode but stick around we've got some good for you All right, Britt, you know what time it is?
You know I do Let's talk about some of the good that comes out of the crime junkie community what you got from our listeners This month we have a submission from Kayla My best friend and I are huge crime junkie fans We actually have tickets to see you in New York in May See you soon, see you soon But before I was a crime junkie myself, my best friend had stumbled upon one of your episodes at the end of the year In 2019 it had to do with domestic abuse. I can't remember the specific episode However, when this episode was released, I was the one in the abusive relationship I was still in denial at the time even with all the mental and physical signs I still acted like he was different and this wasn't abuse I remember one night after work, my best friend was giving me a ride home And she played that episode in her car on the drive home I only half listened as I felt like she was being dramatic and my boyfriend at the time would never go as far as murdering me However, there are a few things that stuck out to me And it was what you guys said at the end The statistics for how many times it takes before you truly leave your abusive partner is on average seven times And that time you're leaving is the most dangerous That stuck with me And a few months later, one of the times I was trying to leave, a gun was pulled on me
He ended up shooting it off in the wall and I was able to run for help At that time, everything had hit me like a ton of bricks Everything said in the episode, the reason my best friend played it All of it was flooding through my mind I decided I didn't want to be a victim anymore And I've since been able to get away, he is now in prison I have three Siberian Huskies that helped me get through and gave me a purpose And I am now an avid listener of your podcast I use the resources you guys share, listen to the advice given And hear the stories of the ones who weren't as lucky as me to make it out of life I want to be a voice for them and advocate for victims Your podcast, mixed with Walking My Dogs, literally got me through the toughest time of my life My best friend and I can't wait to see you guys in New York Thank you for sharing the stories and everything that you guys do I mean, it's like a reminder, like most people don't say in a relationship thinking it's going to end in murder Like you, right, that's not how people get there Like everyone thinks that they're the exception or everyone thinks it's not going to go that far Or that the person's going to change or not capable of like That's how people end up there is underestimating their abusive partner It does, it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of work
We'll put some resources in the show notes, I know those have been helpful for a lot of people It's amazing how many people have been helpful for it I love you guys and I love you guys loving each other Yeah Crime Junkie is an audio chuck production So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir And that can only mean one thing, full body chills is back The season, step inside, original pales, where every doorway leads somewhere darker Every stranger carries a secret and nothing is ever quite what it seems Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful You never know what might follow you home So gather around, listen close, and stream full body chills wherever you get your podcasts