MURDERED: Malvina Krutz
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High crime junkies, I am ashly flowers and i'm bread. And the story I have for you today is one that I actually found in our own backyard, like actually steps away from where we're recording right now. I had never heard of IT, but I do not know how, because it's one of the weird twist ous bizarre cases that I have come across, one with questions that still people will have. But there is no family around to ask the questions anymore. So it's up as crime junkies to ask who killed melvina cruz.

It's a brisk wednesday afternoon on january twenty nine, nine, nine, fifty eight, when Charles cruz pulls up to his home in the murders. And k neighbors od, in indian apple is right around five P M. After a typical day of work.

And when he pulls up, he's a little taken a back because his wife's one thousand and fifteen beit isn't around so he walks into his house and sees his ten year old son Charles, sitting on the couch watching television. And he says, pay buddy. Charles goes by body, by the way.

He says, buddy wears your mom and but he says, I think she's out delivering newspapers. I came home from school today for a lunch and he told me that he was going, na, take care of my route. And I don't think that's like a Normal thing for her to offer to do or even of getting to go home on your lunch is a Normal thing.

Like wasn't when I asked again fifty eight though, buddy makes IT sound like their lunchtime combo was routine, except there was thing weird about IT. He tells his dad that the entire conversation that they had about this paper around, even his mom telling him, you know, eat the sandwich that I made you sitting on the kitchen table, all with that is through the bathroom door, like, he never actually laid the eyes on his mom. And then he adds, I don't like the looks of the bedroom.

What bedroom is talking about?

He's not entirely sure, but this is like a tiny, tiny house. So he goes to where the two bedrooms are. I've got a map of this, like on the website.

It's like a bathroom in the middle of on each side. And some of the seven dimension is like in buddies room. Some of IT is in Charles and malvo s room. But I think there is like toys and stuff in buddies room.

I know there is a pillow or pillow and a blanket on the floor again, I think in his room, maybe in the other one, but it's basically not how buddy would typically leave his real well. I guys said he's looking at the room. He's probably not even in IT.

And if you're a standing in between the two rooms, you're looking at the bathroom and there's something about the shower curtain that catches Charles eye. It's closed and they never leave IT closed. So he grabbed one end, and he begins to pull back the curtain.

And right away he sees her. His wife, melva, is lying on her side, submerged in water. IT looks like SHE almost been twisted to fit in the top, like her knees are bent, her head is by the forest.

And though her top is on and she's wearing both of her shoes, her pants are missing and her underwear is rolled down to her knees. So Charles immediately called the police, and when investigators arrived, they find forty one year old melvina crus SHE is still warm. So is the bathwater is like luke warm, and he doesn't appear to be in rigorous to.

So they are thinking, SHE couldn't have been dead for that long. Now they can see what look like small cuts on her forehead, in her scalp. And they think that there was probably a struggle in the bathroom because the tower holder on the walls, like, broken off.

So hold up. How long has buddy been home for? I mean, did he like just come in before his dad got there?

no. So buddy came home .

after .

lunch, then he left to go back to school, sometimes shortly after that. And then he comes back home after school. I think he got there around three thirty. And when he got back that second time, I think he just thought his mom was at home there.

Yes.

if he just SAT down on the couch, started watching T, V, and that's where he spent the act like our, and a half of his dad got home. Five fish, and he is like a ten year old boy. So you probably tried to find his mom, called out for her, didn't see her.

Maybe he popped into his room. Note that there's like weird stuff in his room, but he's like, not in watch T V. I know. Like.

I don't know if, I mean, the boy is just like ten year old kid, right? Like, kind of still oblivious to the world.

Their kids, yeah. So anyways, when the police are there, according to the indian athlete star detectives, take a look at body's room, or maybe the parents are in, depending on which. So I read whether weird stuff is, and they say that it's more than just in disarray, because in addition to the toys like being out of place, i'd mentioned others also two pillows in the room.

So one is on the floor between the bed and the wall, the other is on the floor near the front of the bed. And both of these pillows have blood spots and muki stains on them. According to the indian athletes news, there's a senior bedspread laid out on the floor, which looks like IT was used as a pilot to like lay down on I sume and then there's also a pair of wet hands that they're pretty sure belonged marva.

They're torn and like toast on the floor and I can confirm, but I don't know if Charles saw her wet hands when he was looking around the house like Charles, her husband or even body. To me that's more than just like this red. That's a weird, but that's not all they find.

So detectives also find a yellow, red pencil that is branded White county R E M C, monocle o inDiana. And there are a few hair on this pencil that are attached like near the point of IT. And it's not clear exactly where they find this other hair, but apparently there is another hair found on a bed in the crutches home. There's so much studies between like what's embodying the room, what's in the parents room if anything, it's its super supremacy. But I kind of go back to like I know it's even a ten year old, but like blood on the pillows, weapons but if you're like not expecting .

your mom to be home, he said he was going to be gone this afternoon, right? SHE is like doing your paper out. Maybe she's doing IT because he's running irons.

Like is that also weird that like kick him of how you like, don't go to the bathroom like I don't know or maybe no.

Like he's ten, he made a sandwich. Everything's taking care of.

Like it's one time on time with .

home from school, I don't know. Like I think they like him to these things. He's like, okay, looks literally in .

the room around him.

He's his room are mess, but his mom's not home to see IT so he doesn't have until SHE asked him and like, i'll just do whatever I want until SHE forces need to clean IT up whatever OK IT doesn't seem that bers do we know are these hairs on the pencil marva like that feels like we can decide that.

right? They're not sure at this point. I think though, that this pencil becomes important because jeos tiny scratches on her scalp and her forehead. So they're thinking that maybe the pencilings would cause that.

And then like the hair, hair stuck to IT s being like a struggle with the talk or whatever.

right? So what they end up theorizing is, eric, okay, if she's attacked by someone, maybe this person had this pencil in the front pocket and then I fell out. So they're thinking, it's her hair. But like going to tell a now when they remove melvin's body from the tub, they realized that there are a couple of shag rugs underneath her that apparently belonged in body's room.

like someone may be used the rugs to drag her the bathroom get into the top.

So that kind of what they're thinking at first, but here's what's wild. So her autopsy ends of showing that marva was alive when he was put in the top right yeah, they don't list her cause of death, but the corner does say that he had water in her lungs and it's his belief that he was hit in the face and and put in the tub while he was unconscious, but still alive.

So he drowned .

theoretically, like I can find a place that specifically says her out, right? But a lot of reporting does say that he apparently drowned. I just like, can't attribute to anyways.

Now I do know that the autopsy says he had blunt force trauma above her left eye. So to the corner, IT doesn't look like SHE just slipped and fell like again, you ve got the pencil. You ve got the pants in the other room like they're calling in a murder.

Yeah, I would say the rugs underneath her like why they there?

If this was an accident, I and I go back to the pants. Like one of the big questions was the motivation here that was SHE sexually. Did you have her underwear that's down by her knees?

So and a soul is kind of the only motive that makes sense, considering the scene and considering that what I haven't told you is everything else is accounted for with the exception of her car, right? So like her there valuables SHE had like allegedly two hundred and sixty dollars in cash in her. Dr, that's still there too.

But here's the problem with the theory about her being assaulted. We can like really dive into this later, but it's a little hard for me to wrap my head around the order of things because, right, he comes home. He is locked in the bathroom. We know SHE drowns, but her pants are wet in body's room.

How did they get wet if they aren't the .

bathroom with her? Or if he was assaulted in body's room, then she's assaulted .

after he goes in the tub.

SHE drowns with her, right? Actual assault is the mode of that they are looking at. But I think there's things that may be point away from that because their physical exam actually and not conclusively showing sexual aslant, they do some kind of test, I believe, but that's going to take a while to come back for now.

They just are still gathering things at the scene. So they've looked at the rooms. They've gathered what? They came there. Theyve looked at the bathroom. So next they moved to the kitchen dining area, which is right next to the primary bedroom, and behind the kitchen door that goes to the basement, into the backyard, they discover a towel that has some blood on IT. Now, I don't know how much, I don't know if it's something much like a lot of blood cleaned up blood, a bloody e nose I cut that someone like tried to clean up. And again, if you're getting a little mixed up on like where things are, we found this hand drawn layout published in the indian apple star that will help you kind of, I told you the house small, you can even describe IT for people are in a Better way that I well and like.

I guess, great. We found this toe with what on IT. But IT goes back to exactly what we are just talking about, right? Like, when is this happening? How is this happening?

What all is ending? right? Like, I. If body comes home at noon, I imagine she's in the bathroom because the guys like with her that's I think I can think why SHE wouldn't come out of the bathroom right, is because somebody he's there with her and he's trying .

to like protect her cent like, do you know let me go here.

I can get him away after a lions, right? But then SHE comes back out. I don't even feel like this is right. I guess maybe the pants are already there and wet. I don't know .

how the parents to .

get wet and then throw part, but anyways, they collectives howel. They go through the house, their checking for fingerprints, especially in the bathroom and the bedroom on the door, and they are actually able to grab a few promising ones that they hope they can compare to anyone who's been in and out of that house, which is the next step. They got to find out who was coming in and out of that house.

And the best person to talk to is the last person who saw her alive, buddy. When they bring buddy in for questioning, he tells detective the same story. He told his dad and officers at the scene that when he first got home for lunch that day at noon, he didn't actually see his mom.

All of their communication was through the bathroom door, and he stayed in there the whole time he was home. But he says that his mom was still in there when he finished his lunch, which would have been around twelve thirty, though he is not exactly sure on time, but he went back to school, and then he says that he got back home at around three thirty pm. He saw that the room looks strange and messy.

His mom is at home. So again, he just like to down and watched T. V. home. But of events is actually backed up by a delivery man who showed up at the house a little afternoon, like he did every week on wednesday, is to deliver milk. But he says this time, instead of melvina answering the door, but he answered IT.

And when detectives go and talk to this delivery man, he says he knows on the door, like twelve, ten bud answers. And since he was at marva, he's like, okay, what type of does your mom one and buddy like? Okay, let me go check. But but he doesn't walk out of sight again. If you go look at the map of this house, it's like just a little rectangle and he walks back and he looks like buddy is talking to his mom through the door and he comes back, gives the guy his moms order delivery guy leaves and there's like, you know, nothing important except for the fact that when this delivery guy was leaving, or when body's talking his mom, he makes note that melvin's car is in the which we know was missing by the time Charles comes home.

right? So could the delivery driver here elvina like through the door? Was that that close? I don't .

think he actually heard I think he just hears body like, hey.

one right OK. But I don't .

think we have to question was, you know even alive them because there is someone else who did hear about the invoice after twelve thirty when body would have gone back to school. So detectives find two of melvin's friends, military and FLorence, who say that they came by the house after the milkman. And they have this super weird counter with someone like it's super strength.

So here's the cup, apparently, and just for contact. So the crows had caught fire a month before, unlike mid december. So there have been a lot of repairs going on, and melvina had been bugging her friends to come by and see the updates.

Well, today is the day that they want to, that except they call ahead, like polite women of society would doing in one hundred fifty eight. And it's like twelve forty five when one of them brings her. But instead of melting, the answering, is this mean on the other end of the line, who SHE doesn't recognize? And immediately, when I first thought, I was like, oh, no, like I would be all the red legs would be up. But he just thought I was a repair because I guess that IT had happened before, because there was people coming in .

and out for all the up, which is going to make narrow ing down those fingerprints even even more difficult .

or so milder says when this guy picked up, SHE asked to speak to melvina, but he just kind of like started a little bit and SHE said he could hear melvina's voice in the background asking the to tell mildred something. But there is conflicting reporting on what that something was. So one news source reports that SHE heard something like, tell her not to pick me up today. And then I saw another place that melvin a says, tell me is warning that I have to take body to school and I will pick up at one thirty.

which are very different statements in anywhere around. Like also not helpful.

Yeah but I think that we're missing you that even bigger peace because like there wasn't talk of picking her up. Everything I read was about .

her coming just .

to see novation. And if i'm not missing anything, if I missing context, part of me wonders if he was trying to say something code yeah, that was just like, what is you talking about? That's not always to happen.

But like, should I come there? I don't know. Anyway, I don't think either FLorence or mildred were suspicious or anything but they are pushy because they're like, okay, well, SHE invited us.

I know your home so we're just talking to come over um I don't know if they said that out loud or just like thought that, but I know that they get in the car and they make their way over two melvin's house and they get there an hour later. So we're talking like one forty one forty five fish and here's what's while as they come up on the house they see ml car like backing out of the driveway. I an they literally have to stop to let the car back out. But when they take a closer look, IT isn't alvin a driving IT is a man. And after watching the car leave, the two women like that, they pull in, they go to the back door, which was left slightly open, and they just like, wait inside for moving a.

okay, they just watched her car. They let her car out of the driveway with someone else driving. They go around the back where the door already, and like, plop down and I like, okay, where is he?

I need you to be a Better crime ky friend to me if her happens .

like they weren't .

looking for her. So I don't know if they thought that maybe he was in the car like they don't say anything.

but they know she's not at the house.

I don't know like I know that I think, like, I don't know. They thought he was gonna put right back. If he was in the car, you would think you would have seen her, or maybe someone was borrowing her car again.

To me, that makes no sense. I'm trying to make sense of something that does not make something here. But here they are sitting in the house and they wait for like twenty minutes, oh my god, sitting in like the kitchen for twenty minutes.

And after twenty minutes they finally get tired of waiting. They write her this note. They put a coat on a chair of this coat that they wanted to give to body, and then they left.

So okay, is a theory that he was in the car, like leaving when they pulled up, or that she's already dead in the bathtub?

Think anyone knows, even to this day. But I think the assumption based on the timeline is that they're thinking he was likely dead in the bathtub feet away from them.

But she's not cold at five like hours later.

I don't know how hot the water was. I mean, you think about the bathwater, if they put hot water in there, I would keep her warm. And the water is look warm by the timely side, like a reverse S Q.

So would would be like three hours, right? Like IT is a decent amount of time. But we're not talking noon when body's home and we're talking one forty five and they get there.

I do they wait for twenty years?

I don't know, I don't know, but we do have this like we're time now, right? Or you got buddy leaving. We've got this call that comes in from her friends where we know she's alive and talking in the back crown.

And then we ve got like an hour before they actually come and they're just seeing the man leaps. So what happens in that hour? specifically?

Detectives want to know that and they actually get a good lead the next day, which is january thirty th, after someone calls in, that her car has been found. Her book has been abandoned. Ed, just a little over a mile from her house, according to an indian apple star article.

Her keys are nowhere to be found. But inside the car, they do find a rag that is smear with yellow paint. They think IT was used to wipe the windshield. I don't know why they come to that conclusion or if there's like Marks or billow paint of that's relevant, but something that I read and I know you know that now there are some early reports that claim her car had been parked in this area the day before her murder, but that's quickly disproved. And based on their conversations with the milk delivery person and melvin's friends.

I know you said the rag is like question question, injured wiper thing, but the yellow paint is their yellow paint in the house.

Great question. Initially I couldn't find anything about yellow paint, but I was going through the source material, trying to track down the importance of the right. I ve found a single article that mentioned cruxes kitchen walls were painted gray, but that the trim was yellow. So maybe, I don't know.

it's the same yet. Maybe one tiny part of house be but I know also, maybe he could have put IT there is her rag like I could be .

nothing possibly yeah I mean.

I could be her that .

he s on her or on somebody who put her car there.

I and did they take any of the suffering like the blood on the pillows, the milk stains, the the hairs on the pencil.

I couldn't find anything about the blood or mucus ever being tested. The hair was using like a vector PH test. And the only thing I found was that the hairs, or human, they likely came from a woman, but they can't tell if they belong to melvina.

And then to me, more important than the hairs is like the pencil itself yeah but they're never able to determine where are not weird didn't comparably who IT came from? I mean, assume it's the killers because Charles says it's not his mildred's laim that the pencil SHE used to write that note to mova was her own SHE puts IT back in her purse. I don't know if they asked body or not, but his uncle, who would have been like Charles s, his brother, says that body could have picked after a trip to win a mac, which is like two hours north of india.

So maybe he did. I mean, like every person that they talk to when they actually narrow went on this pencil, that kind of becomes the middle in a hay stack because detectives actually talk to the manager of the monocle o rmc. That's what's written on the pencil.

And in reporting by united Price, the manager says that there were, like, over a thousand of these pencils handed out like the last year alone. So this isn't onna. Be there a novel by any means.

And what is monocle? O rmc is just .

an electric company up in monocle o inDiana. This is like an our and a half north of india. So again, I don't you know I for from here, but I don't.

I don't know where buddy was, but I think like up in that direction. So the pencil is a dead end, the hair is a dead end. And those chemical tests done on melvina end up being a dead end to those come back.

And there is apparently no indication that melvina was sexually assaulted, though what all says that doesn't her attacker didn't try. And the thing I I don't know specifically what tests were done and how would hot water affect that? Yeah, I don't know.

But with no leads coming from the musical evidence, detectives are trying to hone in on the way here. They look at several avenges. They look into anyone who enough themselves are suspicious, like sex offenders in the area, because just like no forensic evidence of the detectives, can't shake the feeling that her murder was motivated by sex in some way.

But even when they go down this road, there are no suspects that turned up, so they also talk to neighbors. According to the inDianapolis star, there are a few nearby that have a good view of MeLinda's house, but the four closest neighbors that they interview tell detectives that they didn't hear or see a thing that day, except for one neighbor. They said that they remember seen two women, mild and FLorence.

They saw them stop in. But then that's IT. So I did didn't actually see anything. people. And then there were two dogs that live nearby that apparently would bark at people in melvin's yard. But on wednesday, those dogs were silent.

But we know that the house to work done, there are people. And now all the time they could be like getting used to that maybe.

But like this has only been going on when you think about IT since the middle of december was the fire. So like a month, theyve been having renovations. I will tell you this, we have this same woman who walks her two dogs up and down our street every day.

I ve lived in out for four years. Charly loses his gd mind every time they walk by. So maybe these dogs are there.

I don't know. Like i'm taking a and like we have like to his friends who come over like at least once a week and like since we've had and like she's still like.

wait, who who are you and why are you in my home? So to me, that's a little bit telling. I don't know if maybe the dog just weren't. Oh, what I don't know is like again, it's all where these dogs outside up. So there are always out where people just not around to hear them.

but there else on litter.

I don't know it's dragged me. But if there was someone that they were getting a custom to, you would think you would maybe be one of the workers like you are saying. But they're questioning every one of those, every guy who's been in out the house in especially the week of Marvin's murder.

I don't know there are fingerprinted or not, but detectives are questioning them, even holding them, sometimes giving them lie detector test if they agree, because those are pretty much gold back in the day. And they say that they clear a lot of people just based on their holograph results. But for every past, Polly, and little to no evidence to go off of each man is eventually release.

They have fingerprints, right? Like they don't need to go off witness statements and polygraph. That's what i'm saying .

that I don't know if they are testing the prints first and then the polio are doing the Polly, if you pass that, they don't think about testing. I don't know what water this is going in. I know that they are testing some people.

You also can't just like put IT into a system, right? Like matches aren't just popping up and if they're gonna do manual comparison, if you do the polar, you collect them. This is what I think if I had to like make a complete guys, which says is that they get someone to set down, they do a Polly, they take their prince, and then they would have to go and compare them.

But if someone passed their police, like put to the back of the line, manual comparisons are going to take a lot of time. I would in, but they do eventually put a face to A N print though reporting by international news service says that it's the print on the bedroom door that they matched to someone, but that person is not just getting cleared, right? IT detectives at a time don't specify who IT was, but they do confirm that some of the prince don't belong to melvin, a police or her family.

But that's like all they say, like no hits. We have this one that we matched to someone. Do I yeah don't know about that. I again, I am.

What I imagine is that he also, like past the poli has .

an l by something.

You'll get there. Okay.

now there is an alleged hith ker that ends up on policies rather he's around thirty years old. He had convictions back in albion.

Do we know for what?

Um i'm not sure, but here's a thing. So this is the one thousand in india. This was a black man. So there was a lot of profiling happening. And melanie friends who saw her car initially said when they were pulling out that he was a black me on driving but later they admitted they couldn't actually tell what the person's raised was. But IT feels like maybe they're just like zero .

ing in on that detail. And everyone's first instinct right now is .

to the black son. And I mean to add some extra context to the the time period, this is all literally happening three years after emit till. So while a lot of finger's pointing is happening, I think there is a little bit of like a repudiation yeah like nobody wants to put themselves near the false accusation. So they're also again, using the polis, sending people on their way.

okay. So obviously, we've talked a lot about like looking outside people who come in, but does anyone look at Charles, maybe even body for that matter, like IT all like just to make sure everybody's versions are lining up.

So yes, to Charles, okay, nobody. I think they're probably like not even hearing that idea yeah and their mind like a tender al kid and to their mom, we might think differently about things today. But in fifty eight bodies off the hook, dad, not so much that actually starts looking a little fishy to investigators. I don't know this happens right away because I I know all the others that was happening, but I think it's when they like drill in on where he was, when he was because they start getting suspicious of Charles when they realized that there was a few hours in the middle of the day but the day his wife is murdered that are unaccounted for at work so it's around midday same time frame that we know she's attacked and murder and they bring Charles in to ask him where he was, what what are you doing if you're not at work and he's like all I was out .

taking care of something so perfect. Okay, you're guy also taking care of things.

care of things. In an article from the indian apple star, Charles claims that he left work at around noon to go grab ism lunch at mike bar. Then he got a shoe shine, but he could not remember exactly where he got the show shine.

And then he went to visit a friend a little bit before two P. M. What friend I was going to tell you. So, twenty eight year old Charles flag. So Charles lives over on the e side in this rooming ing house, which is basically like a shared home where people rent their own room, but they like a really explain .

romains .

you when did rate of anyways? I found a source that claims that Charles of flexion lady can corbies ate this. SHE says that he left his friend's house just before three.

He apparently got back to work at three thirty P. M. And then he's at work to like some time after full when .

he leads to go home. Charles just takes us three hour lunch.

Don't you love the fifties comes back for an hour, not even .

like a half. I like I think i've gone gh going ahead. Him exhausted .

yeah so he's like he's a manager for he was called the southern transportation company. So I don't know he's like making his own schedule.

I know when you are a manager.

like he is long of people, you are a manager, you're working. You can just like hang out for three and a half hours. But IT doesn't seem like a very productive work day to me. Now the thing that detective s. Max is like, okay, what doing with your body?

Charles flag, in middle .

of the day, hang out at is shared brille house. But he doesn't elaborate. He just says that they're hanging out for an hour. But he gets home at around five, went in the back door, took off his watching jewellery before then looking for his wife.

But the officer who took Charles is statement, the evening that melvina was discovered because we're getting the statement later says that that's not entirely truthful. That officer says that Charles told him that he walked into the house through the front door, not the back door. And to that officer, he said IT looked like Charles had changed into fresh cloth, that he didn't look like his close lived in all day OK.

I got out of like the start one thousand nine hundred fifty eight. So what like the january, but they didn't look live in IT. And then here is where if you're not already like raising your eyebrows, you will. They learned that malvina had actually filed for divorce from Charles on january thirteen.

And her reasoning for filing for divorce was that Charles was, quote, guilty of marital misconduct and growth and wanted negligence of conical duties far more than ten years and quote, A A K of the whole time like body is in life yeah and the one thing i'll say the first time I heard congal duties unlike okay yeah prison lingo, but apparently that actually has a broader meeting. I got like deep in reit, where people are like IT. IT does not just mean conical in the way that we know contact. You're not getting support you need. I like that there .

is like a lack of connection and intimacy. Yes, across the relationship in many .

facts maybe yes OK. So I don't feel that there's an elephant, the room name.

Charles flag mean.

but there's nothing but there's like this is just worth mentioning because if you go online and look at up, it's not that i'm ignoring yet. There's just nothing .

to prove that there's really, truly support the idea.

Anything he might come out with this body in the middle of the work day shine and shoes, I don't know but him means why things were knocked .

that what you should .

yeah take away and IT doesn't talk there. So in a filing published in an article by the indian athlete news, IT also says that he was worried about bd safety if Charles continued living in their house. So he had a restraining order hearing that was scheduled for january seventeen.

Apparently, neither Charles or her showed up for that hearing. I guess they say he was because they were in the middle of reconciling. But IT wasn't the first time that this has happens.

Sometime in the early fifties, melvina had filed for divorce, like this is the second time, but they also reconciled, and he never followed through with that. So early fifties happens. IT seems like nobody's born early fit. Is this happens fast for this happening again? But this time when they missed IT, IT actually got a scheduled this hearing that they were supposed to go to.

even if they were reconcile. They would have to like, go and and be like, okay, never mind, just kidding.

It's not risk I do to get. Yes, okay. But in this one source that I found melina and Charles received in order to appear in court, wait for IT on january thirty, f.

This is the day after she's murder. Yeah, she's urdur on the twenty nine. For me, it's a the special things are happening .

on the time when you think about .

their house caught fire in december. I don't know how bad that living in the home, they needed renovations. Then we have this restraining order, talks of divorce, this final court that .

SHE doesn't make because .

she's killed in her home moil there. At the very least, Charles be completely ruled out. So what they do is they turned to their trusty poligrafia.

They have Charles crutch, A N Charles flag. Take a polygraph, which they both passed. But in the midst of chard's crosses test, he tells detective something interesting.

Charles says that since melvin's death, he has gotten a handful of strange calls at night. Apparently, this woman with a slight southern accent has called Charles three different nights. But every call had come at around nine P.

M. And every time he said, is this mr. cruz? And he says, yes, the woman would just hang up.

And now IT seems like way too little to actually like, go off over or do anything with detectives to feel like these calls are their answer to things. Because Charles passed his polygraph, he must be all good, right? He says someone's calling, maybe someone's involved.

Now there is an interesting tidbit about this, but also it's not a secret tidbit on pressure. Charles would have known this already, but mildred, when he had originally called about coming over SHE, said that the SHE spoke wih also had a southern accent. So this leads detectives to be like, oh, well, this must be connected.

Two people with a similar accent, okay.

yeah. And like, listen, it's fifty eight. I have a hard time getting hold of phone records for like cases that happened in the eighties and nineteen. I don't know if they checked that or would have, but I would like to see them back up before.

I just like Charles must have gotten this cause, and I know they try because the daily reporter says that they started to quote systematic probe of the phone calls. And then not that much time later, the indian apple police literally come out and say that they think Charles is mystery woman is in danger, because SHE might know the identity of the man who answered the phone, but that only I mention one time. So I I don't know.

They like, prove the calls happened. I don't know why they would think you would know other than that she's a southern accent like, where are missing a law or like, really reaching anyway, zero comes after this, and they don't seem to go back to Charles by early february. Detectives have two doing theories, and one is much more likely than the other. So there's the murder angle, and then there's a tragic accident angle. Hold.

how did we get to accident?

I don't know, but police are saying there is a possibility that melvina actually fell.

Know the coroner R. T.

Ruled that out. He did. But in another article by the daily reporter, one of now dias friends apparently went to detectives and told them that he had dislocated A D in her back or not, or something that could put her out of commission at times.

And SHE says, at one time in front of this woman, melvina had IT flare up, and he actually fell straight onto the floor. So I don't know. I think it's something that they're throwing out because like I don't know.

they don't have anything on the murder angle.

So yeah and then if you go to the murder angle, I think there other theory there is that melvina was attacked in her son's bedroom, became unconscious at some point that was dragged to the bathroom, either using those rugs that were found a need, or they were just actually grab when someone like scooped her up and picked her up like put in the time.

which to me seems way more likely because if her back was acting up and SHE fell into the back, like how do the ruggs get there? IT doesn't get explained in an accident.

Yeah like the rugs from his room specifically. Like, right there's a movie. There's like a ROM calm. I can't think of IT where someone like hurts their back and they're like naked and they had to like cover themselves with the rock. Do you know i'm talking about h someone listening will know what I am talking about, but I like what I was picturing. But that doesn't .

make sense if we're talking .

about rugs from a bedroom, unless something happened in body's room and then she's embarras like SHE can have her son comes home. I SHE would asked her for help. Like doesn't make nothing .

about that's why he is in the thin.

not coming out. But if someone like pulled her with the rug, SHE goes into the bathroom unconscious, like, why is he talking to study through the door? right? I don't understand this one, but the rudd is just a theory. It's all a theory.

And I think they really start at least getting away from the accident theory by the end of february, because that's when three witnesses come forward who say that they saw a man with melvin a eight days before her murder. They say they know this guy. He was a thirty seven year old in Robert smith, who was a paper hanger, basically someone who did wallpaper back in the day got IT. And he was someone who had been working on the renovations like in their home.

but didn't clear everybody who was working at the house.

Yes, again, they say that.

but don't know or when or who those people are. They just kind of blanket say that .

and IT does change. The unclear thing is I don't know exactly when that flips because they say at multiple times that they clear people. But at some point, that does change because robber turned out to be one of two guys that investigators have on their radar again, the second being someone in a panic.

He's 4 year old painter also， who worked at the house now to go to robot. He was initially questioned on january twenty night, the day that they found her, but he was one of the ones that they released pretty quickly. Now he's back on the radar.

He's being held without bond. Because now we have witness saying that they saw robber and malvina in her car with Robert driving. And then they find two other people that say they saw them at a business together, likely picking out wallpaper.

But eight days before. I mean, that means nothing.

I agree. Like, again, I don't know this is a product at the time. I don't know if this is a product of just being so desperate. I mean, literally the only thing I saw two days .

before should .

look at now in more reporting for the indian apple star. Robert denies being in melvina's car ever, and he says he wasn't even working at her house on the day of her murder because he was working at a different location. But detectives say that they have, quote, absolute evidence that proves otherwise.

What's this absolute evidence?

They would be too easy if they .

told us that's it's called absolute.

absolute IT. But they never disclose IT. We're just left to have to trust them. And now they also say his alibi is full of holes. They don't share what kind of holes, don't even ask now and they do haven't take a polygraph if he had already before that person cleared to me. But he passes with the exception of one question, it's a question about him being in ml car with her a few days before her murder. He says he wasn't and I answer is inconclusive but he passes the overall test and like, listen, if that's what he's passing maybe may be dig o pick out all paper eight days before like i'd be terrified in that position is like, yeah, I was a White woman's car who now murdered and like.

also inconclusive is not wrong. Inconclusive is just .

i'm nervous and he .

worked at .

the house like, right? And at least they drop the charges based. So he ultimately passes. The preliminary charges are drop.

He's released from custody, which is the upside of polygraphs in fifteen at least like IT goes bible both ways. So up next is leo. I panic. So he is initially picked up on january thirty first and questioned and then released. But I think the text have had a Better reason for picking him up.

At the time, they had gotten a call from a tavern owner who said that this may and walked into his business on the day of Marvin's murder and said he just, quote, slapped to grow around and let fingerprints all over the place. Leery allegedly asked the owner if he would vouch for him if the topic ever came up with police. And he asked him to say that he had been painting the tower in that day.

They like friends or something.

No, because I absolutely no. And he calls the police to tell them the whole story. So detectors brought him in like that very day.

This is again, early on, he is looked at whatever, but something must have changed because detectives leave li and noted his house, telling him that they wanted talk to him again. Maybe they are just circling back, I don't know, but he comes in totally, voluntarily, gives two polygraphs, and then poof. On february twenty second, they bring a preliminary murder charge against him, because those two polygraphs show deception.

Now, he claimed that he had been drinking the night before, like the night before taking those test. So that was what attributed to the field polygraph. But they don't care polygraph or bible. So after charging him, they get him on the books for a third polygraph, which, surprise, surprise, he feels as well. And in each of the polygraphs, he has what detectives call a strong emotional reaction to any question about melvina and her house and the crime scene. Now li might have had a reaction to the questions, but he wasn't too upset about fAiling the polygram because he tells detectives that he has been arrested eighteen times and he, those light detector tests don't .

hold up in court, okay, ahead of his time .

and talking about IT. So while he's waiting for his preliminary hearing, he undergoes a mental evaluation because he had gotten a head injury when he was serving in world war two. He suffered from disease spells, but the results come back.

He is deemed fit for trial, and while he's been in custody, detectives also take him to his home so they can surge any additional evidence that could tie him to the scene. I mean, specifically, they're looking for any yellow paint similar to what found on that rag in a her car. You ve got IT.

Now they don't find a kind of yellow paint that could match, but they do find some clothing that has yellow paint on IT. And they send an offer analysis pretty quickly. Results come back and it's inconclusive.

But there was also another result that came back. But detectives have been waiting twenty one days for that ranged m hair, the one that they found on one of the beds in the crotched home. And the results claim m that they can apparently tell that the hair came from a .

black person that seems convincing ing. Convenient.

I know, and i'm like, charted took twenty one days. Like if that happens, right as they have this person in custody. And convenient, I think, is the right word. But that doesn't really matter because they can't conclusively connect that hair too late. They can contact anything to.

And according to the indian apply record in the state of inDiana, a person can't be kept for a longer than seven days on a, so they have to end up letting him goes, since there isn't enough evidence to do a definitive charge. I didn't know there's a difference recharge, but currently there is ool. Again, I don't fit still round or not, but I learnt something new today.

So on february twenty eight, literally is free to go. And so with their second promising suspect released, detectives are back at square one now a few months go by. And honestly, I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes.

But a break in the case comes on june twelve. That's when indian apple, as police, pick up a twenty six year old man named James David Rogers, and they pick up on warrants for grain larsen y and issuing fragile ent checks. And while he's in custody, he tells officers something unexpected.

James says that he is the one who killed melvina. He says they met in a cafe on january twenty nine thousand fifty eight, and he ended up going home with her. He claimed that he was at the house when her son came home for a lunch, and basically he had left the bedroom in her robe, made his lunch and then come back when the boy went back to school.

And then he says he stayed the house until, like three in the afternoon, when apparently he had gotten mad at her, he said a punched in the side of the head. SHE passed out, he said he got scared, tried bring her into the bedroom, but he wasn't able to. So he dragged her to the bathroom, put her in the tub, turned on the cold water to wake car. And then when he didn't wake up, he left in her car. So like inconsistently?

yes. Yeah, I was like every sentence you like OK, he's the guy and then you would say something .

like coming out in the road to make nothing about the bathroom .

talking the world saw are living like those are not small.

I think are huge. Describe, I know so at first police were like, oh my gosh, this is the real deal. And I feeding them a false story, because then he says, after he left at three, he gotten the car, drove off and then he left the car. But like the place that he says, he left the car, all that been shared publicly.

he, in providing any like .

the killer information, according to the indian apple star, he goes on to say that before he left, he wiped the steering weel off with a paint rag and any other places that he could have had left his prince, and then he locked the car, toss the rag, toss the keys and a gutted down the road. And like they wanted to keep talking because they're accessing out this story.

And the big piece, like the pieces that they are like having a problem with, is like there is no motive, there's no reasoning, there's nothing. And so I am sure you can guess, just a couple of days later, he ends up ending his entire confession. And he's like, I didn't do IT, but I do know who did. That's why I like king ford.

I'll tell you tomorrow, of course, we can't believe.

oh, this guys well and that's what IT ends of being so like he starts naming other people once one has ruled out he like this guy and the forth accused detective are pretty damn listening to what this guy has to say. And they really just kind of chock at all up to personal struggles that he's facing. And once again, detectives have nothing.

The indian atlas star puts out a five thousand dollar reward in April for anyone with information that could lead to an arrest. And by doing this, they start getting more tips. On july fifteen, the a serious letter is sent to the newspaper that is seemly spurred from the reward. And the letter seems to have some merit because detectives publicly plea for the letter writer to give more information, or specifically about a man wearing .

great covers. I S I, what s in this letter?

So I don't have details. They just says that they got this letter, they make this plea for the guy, but then they do actually have another letter that pops up in december of one thousand nine sixty. And the timing of its so weird because I guess that when this one pops, that they ve been like sitting on the second letter for the entire tune a half years like I got sent around the same time as that one letter we don't know about but when detectives find IT now either someone new look in the case or however IT gets to them the second time, they realized that this second letter was likely never looked into and they do actually publish this one something to have you actually read this one.

okay. The letter says R E melva rs. The same afternoon on the day of this murder, I was in my car at forty nine th immediate heading west, waiting for a light to change when a little very dark completion and with mustache was knocking car north of median on west side of street, he ran like a speed rather south oMegan, just as light was changing.

While crossing street, he made a movement toward his cap, but seems to toss something toward the west. Some days later, making the same trip, I drove slowly west on fourteen as two small boys picked something out of the street on south side of forty nine th, western radiant. I heard once say, someone has lost their car keys. I remember another car was parked on west side marinier about third house down.

So the key is, in this whole thing are so missing, by the way, OK like they have never been found, which would make sense if some kids down them.

like not long after they were toss out.

like and put them in their playhouse and like the them away eventually. yeah. And I don't get super caught up on the massah because according to the indian apple star officer described lros as, quote, the playboy type with a thin stash so are helpful information. But like not much detectives can do with that at the moment. And I don't know if there's like if the first letter has something to do with seeing the same person in, like we were had great overall or some saw one and Green up like the connection between letter one.

letter two is like I say, are they the same letter, right? Like there are so many questions, are the same letter writer? Are they just two letters that like back each other up.

but weirdly connected in something just the way they talk about them? But anyways, they put this out there. Nothing comes of IT.

And a couple more years ago by but in one thousand nine hundred and sixty two, melvin's case heats back up because mister lei panic is arrested for murdering his partner, Carol gene Martin, in their shared apartment and Carols. Autopsy says, I actually have seen this before. He says he died from a strangulation on blood, from many cuts. And Bruce on the head, and you had a cerebral edema.

where little good.

That's what I hung in until I don't know. They never get to like if they're .

like tiny little cuts.

Or during their interrogation about this, about his partner's murder, leery, fr, says that his partner was drunk, falling over all over the place. That's why her entire body was covered in bruises. No, I know.

And then he eventually admits to hitting her with an open palm after SHE started cutting at him. And he also said he did drop her down a flight of stairs, but he just decided not to get her help. And then he brought up the stairs, but then apparently he fell again.

And then like he went Better, he went, it's like unclear and then he just goes on like everything is Normal until one of his friends comes over and his friend is immediately alarmed and I don't know who calls the police are conflicting information, but either hamor, his friend call the police either way, doesn't look good for him. And that is when he is arrested. So at the end of April of sixty two, library is indeed of her first degree murder.

His trial starts in january of sixty three. He takes the stand, defends where history changes, like in court as it's happening. He says that he just found Carol dying, and like whoever attacker must have left the scene before he got there.

So is even trying to stick to the story.

He told the no, when it's I am like it's not even believable, right? So the jury is are finding him guilty of second degree murder in carle's case, which gives him an automatic life sentence, and he is sentenced like by early february. And that is actually the last thing I could find about, literally, in the news.

During his trial and sentencing, he was clear that he was a prominent suspect in malvine in his case that he was mentioned over and over, but there is just never been enough evidence to actually charge him with that. So without a confession from him, detectives cannot determine if he was responsible or not, but I don't think there are suspicions of him ever really go away. This is only mentioned in one place. But in an article by the indian apple lus news, shortly after his sentencing, we find out that IT was leerie fingerprints that were found all over her house, which yeah like eyes wide open, but like he also was a painter actively working inside their house. So like that's not even something that they could .

use to charge him because he had a reason to be there. And so walley .

rose in prison. Movs case goes cold. And sixty six years later, that is how IT remains today unsolved. Now there was a short blip where IT kindly got brought up again in one thousand nine hundred seventy seven when there was like this interesting connection that was made around the stances of Marvin's death and the death of a twenty three old first grade school teacher named linder mic Daniel SHE. I don't if you remember this.

So we covered this like way back in the day because i'm obsessed with lind's case and there's almost no information about IT. So like we did this like mini episodes fan club, but Linda was found in her own home. SHE was neild over with half her upper body emerged.

In water, in the tub, no signs of a struggle. Accept some bruising on her arms. Nothing was taken from her apartment.

He was only in her underwear, but no signs of sexual assault. So there are like some iri similarities, especially with how far apart they happened. But those similarities are where the connections. And so like when lda dies, like every like, oh, remember .

vina Linda .

is one two. Now, many of the people in this case are no longer alive, including movin as husband who passed away at seventy in one thousand hundred and eighty. Her son, buddy died actually just in two thousand and seventeen when he was sixty nine.

And really, for his family, I felt like tragedy was just kind of stuck to them for a while. So in september, I talk about all the things that happen, right, of the fire you have, like movie is death. And then in september of fifty eight, so this is eight months after he was murdered, Charles buddy and Charles mom, Fanny, they were in a pretty serious car accident.

Like Fanny was actually killed in the crash. Charles was in critical condition for a while. Seems like body made IT out a broken armand leg. But I was like, IT was weird where like somebody like they were driving on the highway, someone like saw them sword, but nobody knows what happened. I don't know.

Like I can't shake the feel like ark around .

and it's like a family just couldn't catch a break. This is obviously an old case, but if you have any information that could be detectives down new paths or help CoOperate previous series, you can reach out to crime stoppers of central inDiana on their APP, or by calling three, one, seven, two, six, two tips, you want to talk directly to the indian ec police. You can call their cold case hot line at one eight hundred four, five, three, four, seven, five, six. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crime junky podcast dot com.

And you can follow us on instagram .

at crank dcs and you he'll be back next week for another of so.

Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?