Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. We haven't messed up yet. Don't say that interesting.
Hold on, I'm going to position here. I wasn't hypsing to pop. Oh, the hip, don't lie. Okay, it looks crack.
Not live, but it's crack. Oh, the hip, it's do crack. Greetings friends. Hello.
It's been a hot minute and by hot minute, I mean one week. We're back. Have you missed us? Probably not.
All right. But here we are anyway. Nonetheless, we have come back. We are ready to give it to you.
Oh, and for free. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It is. Yes, it is. I'm still wrapped in a blanket this week.
I know you brought it down again. Again, I'm just keep cooking. I just keep drinking. So, I know I'm getting just kind of, you think I would have remembered socks this time, but I didn't.
All right. I apologize. It's fine. It's the need to breathe.
I need to be freezing. You need to have cold feet. Cold feet is good. My mother always used to say cold feet warm heart.
Cold hands warm heart. I feel like that means you like you just have poor circulation. I actually think she does. It's very sad.
Oh, poorly. Anyway, and I acted like she was dead. My mother's just still living with it. Yeah.
She was like, I'm sorry. I'm gonna have dinner with her tomorrow night. So I hope she's still alive because, you know, she's pain. So, all right, y'all, are you ready for the story?
I don't know. That's really not the answer. I'm nervous because you said it was kind of dark. Oh, yeah.
But it's not as dark as many of the stories I've been. Okay. All right. So we're headed to May of 1987.
The number one song was With or Without You by You Two. I love that song. I was gonna say you should know that. I do.
On May 19th of that year, Betty White. I'm still mourning her. And Johnny Carson were awarded the first ever American Comedy Award. Greatly deserved.
The number one movie at the box office was Beverly Hills Cop 2, which is actually a funny movie. While the number one television series was The Cosby Show, which, you know, when I was kidding, we watched The Cosby Show. It was great. It's just, you know, negative connotations.
Yeah. Anyway, all right. But we are starting off our story in Sackett's Harbor, New York. And I know what you're gonna say.
Like, wait a minute, is this really long Appalachia? Hang on with me because we get there. But we're starting the story here. So Sackett's Harbor is about five hours from New York City.
This borders Ottawa, Canada. Oh, and it's part of a port town where, you know, Navy boats dock and it's the area where Fort Drum is. So we'll find a lot of Navy men there. Patsy Vineyard had just turned 20 years old and was living with her husband Michael in New York.
This is where he was stationed in the Navy. Patsy was born and raised a southerner. And guess where she was around, Haley? Where?
Knoxville. Of course. One of our favorite places to go. She was from Knoxville, Tennessee.
She was actually the first and only member of her family to leave the area. But she was really excited about the prospects of her future, excited to be in a different place. So really, she had her whole life ahead of her. In early May of 87, Patsy's husband Michael was required to complete a two-week tour of duty, basically.
And you know, he was a little worried about leaving her. You know, they hadn't been married that long. They were living in a new place. It wasn't like she had family close by.
So, you know, he was like, be okay. And she's like, oh, I'm gonna be fine. Just sure to him. Not a problem.
You know, I will see you when you get back. And he said, okay, great. So when Michael returned home on May 21st, he couldn't find Patsy. So he called friends and no one had seen her.
Yeah. All of her things were still in the house. So didn't pinpoint like, okay, she didn't just up and leave me or decide she was gonna run away with someone. She would have taken her things.
So he seemed very suspicious. So he immediately went to the police and filed a missing person's report. He also had the horrible task of telling her family back home. Hey, she's missing.
Oh, no. Yeah. Patsy's family, which included her parents and four siblings, described her as the most loving person anyone would ever want to meet, which also just speaks to like, sounds like she was very kind. And you know, was her kindness misconstrued for something else?
Or was she hurt because of that? So the real question, what happened to Patsy? Yeah. From all accounts, she appeared happy in her marriage and her husband had an alibi.
He was on a fleet with 100 other Navy crew members. Right. So he wasn't responsible. Right.
Did someone know though that Patsy was gonna be alone? Yeah. I decided to kidnap her. So this had to have been someone then that would have known her.
Maybe she was trusting of that person. Okay. Patsy had last been seen at a local bar in town. She had been seen talking to a person dressed in a Navy uniform.
Over 150 men working in the Navy were questioned about her disappearance. Yeah, that's a lot. It is like, I mean, that's through. Very, very.
But no real leads were found. And this has you wondering then, was it someone impersonating? Right. A Navy uniform.
Yeah. Exactly. It was like, well, maybe this will be a way to, you know, get her talking to me or talk to him. Several days later, a body matching Patsy's description was found on the shore of Lake Ontario, not far from her home.
The body had washed down into Lake Ontario via the Black River. It was confirmed to be the body of Patsy vineyard. And autopsy concluded that Patsy had been strangled to death. It also appeared that she had been sexually assaulted, but being in the water, a lot of evidence had washed away.
New York police put all their efforts into finding Patsy's killer, but they weren't able to make any solid links. So I'm gonna leave it there with Patsy in New York for right now. And let's jump a little bit forward in time to August of 1989. So we're going, you know, a little over two years into the future.
And this time we're moving down south. Okay. We're moving down to Traveler's Rest, South Carolina. I know it well.
Absolutely. So this area is really close to the border of North and South Carolina. Pretty quick to get to from, you know, for us, we've been there quite a bit. Yeah.
Good start to take a break. Good. Traveler's Rest. That's why they call it a Traveler's Rest.
Exactly. So it's here where we find 42 year old Velma Fay Gray. And I love that that rhymes. So Velma was reported missing.
Her car had been found on the side of the road and it appeared that it had been wrecked, but there was no Velma in sight. So on August 27, the few days after she disappeared, her body was found by two fishermen in Lake Bowen, which was not terribly close to where her car had been wrecked. So clearly someone had taken her, her, her dumpter body. Her hands had been tied behind her back and it appeared she had been extixiated.
Oh, good. Yeah. No. Again, no real leads into her case could be found.
But police initially offered a $1,000 reward and a $3,000 and eventually a $5,000 reward for anyone who had information leading to an arrest in the case. Nothing had happened at that point. Like no one had come forward. No, no solid information had been found.
Nine months later, in May of 1990, another lady goes missing this time in Asheville, North Carolina, about an hour north of Traveler's Rest. Her name was Jamie Denise Hurley. She was 39 years old. Jamie worked as a counselor for a juvenile evaluation center and had run home for troubled teens.
Oh, I like something you would do. Probably. Yeah, you love troubled teens. I do.
One suspect was looked into and found to have known Jamie for a long time. This person was actually living at the home for troubled teens when Jamie was over it several years prior and he had recently met up with her again. So of course, please question him. Jamie's purse was found in the man's van.
I don't like that either. The man was arrested on larceny because that's what they could get him for for stealing the purse. I love when they do that. Yeah, like it's something so small.
Like let's just get him in here and see what happens. Exactly. So he's arrested for stealing the purse along with having no title and car registration. No, it gets the best of us.
My insurance payment's coming up soon. It's a whole bunch of money and I'm really not looking forward to it. Let me tell you, when I bought my new car and it came up, I was like, oh my lord. Yeah, tax tag, all of that.
Just really and insurance on a new car is ridiculous. And I do that every six months. Me too. So it hits you hard.
It hits you very hard. That's coming up in July. Yeah. Me too.
What the heck? Yeah. So my friend's kind of in our car insurance lines up. Our period's don't sink but our car insurance makes it safe.
No, we've actually never talked about our when we're menstruating together. No. And now we're talking to you about it. You're welcome.
Merry Christmas. You're welcome. Yeah. Anyway, and anyway, all right, back to this.
So he's arrested the man claimed that yes, he had stolen the stuff from Jamie. He this way, he had her purse. He took basically the stuff of value, what he wanted, and then he just dumped the rest on the side of the road. Gotcha.
Yeah. So there really wasn't any evidence to directly tie this man to Jamie's disappearance. Yeah, he had her purse, but he could have just stolen it at another time. You know, maybe she hadn't reported it.
You know, who's to say? So the man got bail, basically his grandfather posted the bail on June six. So, you know, a couple of weeks later and he was released, like they just, they didn't have enough to hold him over. So flash forward again, two months after this.
Okay. So he's released from jail. And two months later, 21 year old Catherine Noel Johnson was visiting her family in High Point North Carolina. Hey, this is about two and a half, three hours from Asheville.
Really pretty. Very pretty. Catherine disappears and is later found in the trunk of her own car in a hotel car. Oh, no.
She had been strangled. There's something about that that just really bothers me, like her own car. Yeah. Like, I'm really bothering me.
Car, period. I don't want to be car. No. Maybe a ditch.
I had to pick. I mean, I want to be fat to choose. Like, I mean, it's out of somebody would find you pretty quickly. I mean, you wouldn't be just, you know, well, maybe, but if it's like, you know, you have to ditch, but if it's like really wooded or something, it may take long.
I'm like, I'm like, I'm inside of the road ditch, just kind of where I'm at. Just like trash. It's so hard to care to please don't kill me. But, you know, this troubles.
I just want to find out. I like to be found if I'm, you know, in that pretty good. Here's mine. And we've said it before, and I'll say it again, rose from Titanic.
I want to die in my bed. I would throw the diamond in the ocean. Die in my bed is an old lady and and meet Leonardo DiCaprio in heaven. I mean, this is the plan for me.
That also would be a good one. Yeah. So. Better than ditch.
I don't want to be murdered and thrown in a ditch or a trunk. I want to die an old lady in my bed of natural causes. That is the dream. When to live?
Yeah. I mean, I'm all for like, instant art attack. Yeah, you said that. Drop dead.
Drop dead. No, don't see it coming. Yeah. Just take me out.
Now she wants to have that goodbye. I'm good. Y'all know how good that's. Sure.
Not really. You don't know how I feel about you? No. She should write it out in words, darling.
So I'll put it in writing and then send it to you. Do it for the quill with a carrier pigeon. Anyway, that is not a pigeon. That's a chicken.
What the hell? Send it with a chicken. Anyway, back to this. Sorry, I'm really uncomfortable.
Okay. So found her in her own car in the trunk in a hotel parking lot. She had been strangled and it appeared she had been sexually assaulted. Oh, I know.
So all four of these women had something in common. They were all white females. They were all between the ages of 20 and 42. They were all very attractive and seemingly pretty vulnerable.
Yeah. All of these women for the most part have been sexually assaulted, strangled and or beaten to death. This, you know, this fixing. You know, throwing this out here, but it takes at least four minutes of heavy pressure on the neck to choke someone to death.
That's a long time. A lot of continued pressure. And like, if that is, I mean, you have a lot of time to think. Yes.
And that, like that, you don't just accidentally strangle. When I tell people to say that, like, I was an accident. I'm like, no, that you had four whole minutes or more to change your mind. And, you know, of someone passing out, like getting to the point where they pass out, like wouldn't that do something to you?
Like, Oh, God, you know, like, kind of weak you up a little bit. I don't know. And how personal that is because you have to look at them for the most part. Yeah.
I just think that that's a very personal crime. It is really personal and it's very, it's usually sexual. Right. Like, there's usually like a sexual component to it.
It seems like, but yeah, that's just, I mean, you're literally feeling someone stop breathing. Like that just pull up. Trying blue. Yeah.
Well, and that is part of a lot of people's sexual fetish is, is like choking someone out. And to me, that is terrifying. It's your own, it's your own thing. Consentually.
Right. Exactly. Consentually. Like, that's you and your partner's thing.
You want to say word? Please be safe. Exactly. But that's fine.
Do your thing with consenting adults. That's all they ask. It's all they ask. At least thing is a ditch.
No, I don't have to be an attention only think about it. To me, spiders and ducks. I can't do that. You are the same woman who said that you wanted to have a Viking funeral and be like, you know, taught out there.
Yeah, but there's other things that could be okay. It's fine. I don't care about that. This literally makes no sense.
Listen, I'm, this is my funeral. I guess I decide. Why are you not gone? It's my death.
Why do you have this? I, that sounds like a song. Yeah. Let me have my death.
Would you like some special time? No. Just to think, unpack. No.
Okay. All right. So the person linked to these crimes clearly had a type. Yes.
Right. And almost seemed, this seems stock-er-ish. It does in a way. But we know that he knew the lady from Asheville and had the connection to her somehow some way.
So this brings me to the man who police arrested after receiving a tip from the man's own mother. Oh, so betrayed by mama. But trade by mama. Yeah.
But two things I think about, you know, as a parent, like that's a lot to turn in your child. You know what I mean? Because the love that you have for your kid is like so immense. But at the same time, her moral obligation, you know, it is.
So mom calls the police and claim that he was responsible for killing Jamie in Asheville, that he had admitted that to her. And in fact, either showed her or told her where the body was. Yeah. She also believed that he was tied to the murder of Patsy vineyard back in New York because he has spent some time in the Navy, in New York during that time period.
Yeah. Police discovered the man at a motel near High Point and quickly arrested him. This man was 22-year-old Leslie Eugene Warren, a former truck driver. That's younger than me.
Yeah. Just think of all that, you know, he accomplished in that short amount of time. I'm trying to think about what a disaster I was at 22. And he's not here.
I mean murdering people. He had big plans. You know, big honking ones. I didn't, you know, I was a college graduate at 22.
I was just, yeah, I was just, wanted to make a living. I was a teacher, so I didn't make a big living. I was working with you when I was 22. Yes.
It's kind of a wreck, a little bit. Well, it was a very tough job. Very tough times. I was sorry.
I had a master's degree. I was doing the thing. I was very impressed by you. Oh, it's nice.
I was wondering inside. No, I was presented well. No, I know. I was super impressed by you.
All of our colleagues were very impressed by you. So no, no. No, we're all just surviving. I think it's true.
You fake it till you make it so much. Just to get by. But yeah, he was so young. That's crazy.
And here's the thing is I'm planning on. So this is part one. It's going to be a series because like I said, I have stolen from Halley. So in our part two, I'm going to give you the history of this guy.
So a little bit more on his psychology and part of his motive for doing this and also what was going on in his personal life, his family life. And of course, you know, what happened that got mom willing to call the law on you. Yeah, it's all crazy. Yeah.
And not just that, but when they get him in, he says that they're actually more. Yeah. Well, I've never heard this. Yeah, I had actually never heard this guy.
I had never heard this. That's like Eugene Warren. Yeah. So anyway, I am tempting you with a part two that will be next week.
Yeah. So please don't miss that. Yeah. And if you guys have any feedback or you want to tell us how excited you are for part two, feel free and do so by how they do so, Halley.
Yeah. So you can find us on Facebook, Mountain Mystery Sales, Dr. Appalachia. You can send us an email at mountain mysteries dot Appalachian at dreaml.com.
You can find us on Instagram, mountain mysteries dot Appalachia. And find us on Patreon at patreon.com slash my mysteries. Get about that, Patreon. It's a good time over there.
It's a good time. It's Holly and Haley After Dark. And it is a great way, great, great way to get bonus content. Yeah.
So if you're like, I ran into episodes, I don't know what to do. I know. I do too. For $5 a month.
And is it true that they can go back and listen to past episodes? Sure. Okay. So yeah, so you can binge all of that.
So if you want to hear much more from us, check out that Patreon. Check it out. Yeah. So this is a little bit of a shorter episode.
But yeah, if you did both parts of one, it would be like, it'll be way too long for normal. Because we try to keep stuff around like 30 minutes to 45 minutes just to kind of keep it, you know, like a nice little drive to work or drive back or nice. I love a good long podcast, but sometimes within it takes me like, you know, three times driving to and from work till it's until like an hour and a half long. And then you forget.
I know. I like we're short and we're short and simple over here. Well, we're simple. Yeah, we are actually very tall.
Oh, no. We do so little. Yeah. On average.
I'm very tall. Five five. Seven. Okay.
Well, you must get your height from your father. I do. Can I believe your mom's shorter than me? I don't know why I'm working.
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. All right.
Also, we want to give a quick shout out to Atlanta, Georgia. Hey Atlanta. You have been some of our highest listening population. Yeah.
So thank you so much. We love you guys in hotlanta over there. Yes. Just like even hotter now.
I know. Oh my goodness. Oh, Haley, can we call it a week? I think we should.
We'll see y'all next time. All right. Hold on to your horses because next week is a crazy part two. Okay.
Wait. Bye. Bye.