Kim Medlin // 391
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host Heath. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. I hope you're doing well this late March day. Big thank you to Sarah for recommending today's case.

This one is so devastating and frustrating, but there's so many like punchy moments of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like when they're landing all these details, when the detectives are getting everything right. Oh, absolutely. It's so satisfying. Yeah. And this is one of those, another one of those cases where it's

It's like you don't expect who the culprit is. Like you really just don't expect it. It catches you completely off guard. It is truly a devastating story and our hearts really go out to the family. But yeah, I don't want to spill any more beans. So let's just dive in today. Let's do it. All right, guys, this is episode 391 of Going West. So let's get into it.

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In March of 1997, a 26-year-old woman disappeared in the middle of the night while driving home from her job as a cocktail waitress in North Carolina. First, her Jeep was found on the side of the road, still idling. Then, her body was discovered, and a shocking suspect revealed themselves. ♪♪

This is the story of Kim Medlin. ♪♪♪

Kimberly Jo Millen, who went by Kim, was born on December 1st, 1970 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her mom, Sharon, described her as a warm, gregarious, and happy girl.

Kim grew up spending a ton of time outside and was known for being very outdoorsy and a lover of nature and animals. So to piggyback on both of these things, her greatest passion was riding horses, which later developed into a career. She aspired to one day own and operate a horse farm. But first...

Kim worked as a cocktail waitress for a high-end bar, putting away as much money as she could for her dream business. And it was there at that bar that she met a man named Bridger Medlund, who worked as a DJ and MC. And although the two started out as friends, feelings developed as they started to spend more time together. And when they started dating...

Kim opened up about her desires to own a horse farm, and actually the couple decided to forge ahead with the endeavor together. Like it was something that they could both enjoy, which was a really exciting prospect. A few months into their relationship, Bridger proposed, Kim happily accepted, and on September 17th, 1994, the two were married.

After their wedding, Kim and Bridger settled into Monroe, North Carolina, which is where Bridger actually grew up. And Monroe is a small city, which at the time was home to just around 20,000 people, situated about 30 miles or 48 kilometers southeast of North Carolina's largest city of Charlotte.

So Kim and Bridger adapted to a little bit of a slower pace of life as they worked to save money for their dream. But they both did work in the city of Charlotte. So, you know, Bridger continued to take gigs as a DJ, a lot of them being in the city, while Kim worked multiple jobs as an auctioneer for local livestock auctions and also as a cocktail waitress at the Men's Club, which is an adult entertainment venue in Charlotte.

With their combined income, the couple bought a plot of land and began settling in where they amassed a few horses and even built a barn for them. So they were making good progress. They hoped to eventually build a home on the property from the ground up and have children together to fill the house with. But to work up to that, they had a few years of saving ahead of them and they were doing it.

On the evening of Saturday, March 29th, 1997, Kim headed into the city to work a shift at the men's club, and Bridger took a gig as a DJ for a prom. Now, on evenings when Kim worked late and drove into the city, she would call Bridger when she left work, and would sometimes even call a second time on her way home, just to kind of let him know that she was heading home. Totally something we would do and so many other people do. Absolutely. This night was no exception.

So she headed out of the club around 2 a.m. on the morning of March 30th, 1997, calling her husband Bridger at 2.15 a.m. to let him know that she was en route. Then around 2.45 a.m., so about 30 minutes later, Bridger arrived home after wrapping up his own night at the school dance and found that Kim still hadn't made it back to the farm.

So he called her again to check her ETA. And Kim informed him that she was getting close and would be home soon. Because, by the way, the drive from her work to the farm would have been around about 40 minutes. So not terribly far, but, you know, it's a decent ways.

So according to Bridger, he fell asleep while waiting for her to get home. And the next thing he knew, it was nearly 4:00 a.m. and he awoke abruptly still alone in their house. There was absolutely no sign of Kim or her car. So at 3:59 a.m., Bridger placed a call to Kim to check her location once again. You know, just completely confused as to how she wasn't home by now. Like something had to have happened here.

But instead of Kim answering the phone, Bridger was shocked to hear a man pick up the phone.

Meanwhile, minutes prior to this phone call, the police had gotten a report of a suspicious vehicle on the shoulder near the intersection of Rocky River Road and Old Charlotte Highway, about 10 minutes outside of Monroe. It's hard to know what this intersection consisted of at the time, but there's a family restaurant that we're going to talk about in a little bit called Ron's that has been open for at least 70 years. And there's a couple auto parts and like auto care shops and similar businesses like

train tracks, fields, so not a populated area, especially in the middle of the night. Yeah, I mean, there are a few businesses, but these businesses don't seem to be

you know, late at night. Yeah, it's not a poppin' area. Yeah, it is a rural area. So over an hour after Kim was last heard from, at 3.45 a.m., Monroe police arrived to find a running car left abandoned on the side of the road. You know, this is a very eerie sight because there's this car on the shoulder of the road and it's still running. And there is nobody in or around the car. Exactly. Exactly.

So the red Jeep Wrangler was unlocked with the front driver's side door and window left open, the lights still beaming into the black of the early morning, and the engine still idling. On the front passenger's seat was a purse, cell phone, and wallet with cash and cards.

The only thing that seemed to be missing from the wallet was the driver's license. But, you know, it didn't take very long to identify the car based on the other items that were left behind. The Jeep Wrangler belonged to 26-year-old Kim Medlin. As the responding officer surveyed the very strange scene in front of them, the cell phone on the passenger seat began to ring.

So one of the officers answered the call hearing Bridger on the other side panicked at the realization that his wife had never made it home and now that this man, an actual police officer, is answering it. So Bridger explained to the officer that they had last spoken on the phone around 2.45 a.m. like Heath told us and that she had told him that she was nearly home.

He had fallen asleep waiting up for her, and when he awoke over an hour later to an empty house, he knew that there was something wrong. And that's why he immediately called Kim, and thus this conversation is taking place. When Monroe police explained the situation, Bridger raced up the road to the scene to assist in the search for her, alerting her mom and stepdad along the way.

Hours later, Easter Sunday dawned and there was still no sign of Kim.

Volunteers came out in droves to search alongside Kim's friends, family, and husband, as well as investigators. But as the search efforts radiated farther and farther from her abandoned car, investigators remained stumped. There was no sign of Kim, nor anything that she had been wearing that night. Hours of searching gave way to evening, and soon she had been missing for over 12 hours, with no word from her or clues leading to her whereabouts.

Then that evening around 6.30 p.m., two men volunteering for the search were canvassing in a wooded area about two miles or 3.2 kilometers from where Kim's Jeep was found, and they came upon a disturbance in the ground.

Upon further inspection, they realized that there was a woman's body laying there, clothed and recently deceased, covered hastily with a wooden pallet and roofing shingles, as well as leaves and brush from the forest. So somebody had clearly done a shoddy job at trying to cover her body up with whatever was nearby. Yeah, I'm sure that this was just material that was found, you know, thrown about in the woods and they

Well, although law enforcement needed to confirm that the body belonged to Kim, they felt certain that they had found their missing driver.

Kim's bra and sweatshirt were pulled up and her sweatshirt was inside out, like twisted around her arms as if she had been struggling to squirm out of it. She was covered with lacerations and abrasions, which were clear signs of both foul play and a struggle. So now the small town police force were left with questions. Who did this to her and why?

Well, Kim was brought in for an autopsy, which revealed, although she had been found nearly topless, that she had not been sexually assaulted. But regardless of the absence of assault, her attack had been brutal. Kim's wrists had been bound, though they were bare of their restraints, meaning that they had likely been removed after her death.

Now, based on the damage that the restraints had done to her wrists, police believed that it was likely that she had been wearing handcuffs. Now, remember that. She sustained cuts on her knees and long scratches running the length of her body, leading investigators to believe that she had been dragged through the woods. She received hemorrhages in her eyes, blunt force trauma to the back of her head, and worst of all, her neck was broken.

There was even a footprint on her back, indicating that she had been stomped on by her attacker. The medical examiner determined that Kim had been struck from behind multiple times, likely as she attempted to flee her attacker, and her death appeared to be the result of strangulation.

Streaks of blood were found in the brush on the ground, pointing to Kim having been dragged to where she was found. Detectives also believe that she had been transported from the scene of the discovery of her car to where her body was found based on the distance, and that the blood was leading them from where she was attacked to where she was later found.

Meanwhile, Kim's mom and stepdad remember that they collapsed under the weight of their grief. Her mom, Sharon, remembers withdrawing completely, pulling the shades, unplugging the phone, unable to talk to anyone or leave the house for days after they found Kim. They held a memorial for their beloved daughter, which drew over a thousand mourners. And remember, this is only a town of about 20,000 people.

But at the forefront of all of their minds was getting justice for Kim and finding out who viciously took her life. Law enforcement ruled out the possibility of a robbery because remember, her purse was still sitting on the driver's side seat with her wallet, credit cards, and cash inside. So it didn't appear that robbery was a motive here. And also on her body, they recovered multiple pieces of jewelry, including her wedding ring.

Now the wooded area where Kim was found was cordoned off and scoured for clues as to who could have been responsible for the heinous act against such a gentle, beloved woman in their community.

And I just want to go back real quick to the crime because this crime feels very, very vicious. I mean, it feels personal. It does. So then it makes you wonder, did this person know Kim? Did they have anything against her? Or on the contrary, did they want anything to do with her and she didn't want anything to do with them? Well, I think the fact that all of her stuff, like her purse and her wallet and stuff that was left behind in her car, kind of gives us insight into the fact that

just about how personal this crime really feels. Yeah, like the reason for this attack was about Kim and not her stuff. Exactly. Well, as they often do when someone with a romantic partner is murdered, suspicions fell on her husband, Bridger.

Police brought him in for questioning and quickly turned on him, but Bridger repeated the same story that he had told them on the morning that Kim disappeared, complete with timestamps. And I know we've heard this multiple times now, but he said they had spoken on the phone around 2.15 a.m. when Kim left work, and again around 2.45 when Bridger returned home himself from DJing at that prom.

Kim had told him on their last call at 2:45 that she would be home soon. Then Bridger fell asleep waiting for her and the next thing he knew, he was speaking on the phone with police about her disappearance. But Monroe police had doubts about this account, namely because one officer claimed to have seen Bridger driving his truck in the vicinity of where Kim disappeared from at the same time that he alleged he was still at home asleep.

This officer who was out patrolling for the evening claimed that he spotted Bridger driving his black pickup truck through an intersection just down the street from where Kim's Jeep was found at 2.30 a.m. This was both shortly before Kim disappeared and also around the time that Bridger claimed that he arrived home and spoke to Kim on the phone. So if this was found to be true, Bridger would be caught in a massive lie.

But frustrated, Bridger protested that he had nothing to do with the brutal murder of his wife. But police weren't convinced, though they had no ability to detain him. So they were forced to release him, despite the fact that the officer who claimed to witness his late night drive seemed convinced of his involvement.

It wasn't until police reviewed security footage from a local bank along the route between the Medlins' home and where Kim's car was found that they were able to verify that the truck the officer had spotted did not, in fact, belong to Bridger. Which, luckily, they were able to do. The fact that that showed up on the cameras is great. Now they're kind of looking away from Bridger. Exactly. Now they can finally clear Bridger of involvement.

But he remained active in the investigation and proved to be very valuable, being their closest link to Kim and those in her life who may have had a desire to hurt her. Well, Bridger suspected that he may know who did this. Because, get this guys, so just two weeks before her murder, Kim had been involved in a road rage incident wherein two men attempted to run her off the road.

Apparently, Kim had been driving home late from work at the men's club, traveling the same road, and in almost the exact same spot that she was murdered.

Well, thankfully, there was a record of this, as well as a description of the car that had allegedly been terrorizing Kim, because she had been so rattled by that, that she had filed a police report. So, police tracked down the car that she claimed was tailgating her and driving aggressively, and they spoke with the two men who had been inside.

Now, these two guys insisted that the confrontation had been a misunderstanding, and they felt that Kim had actually been the aggressor on the road that night, accusing her of flashing her lights at them excessively. But regardless of who was at fault, Kim had been disturbed by the incident, and knowing that she would have many more late nights alone on the road, she requested that the local police keep an eye out for her on weekend evenings when she was headed home from work.

So both men involved in this road rage incident were questioned, and both of them had alibis for the evening of the murder. So with three suspects now cleared, police were just basically at a loss once again. That is, until they looked further into one piece of the crime scene. ♪

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When the possibility of both Bridger and the two men involved in the road rage incident were ruled out, investigators were back at square one and forced to hunt down other possibilities. And Bridger himself hatched a popular theory.

He claimed that Kim would not have pulled over for anyone late at night unless perhaps it had been a police officer. The wheels are turning now. Yes, they are. And he's the one kind of bringing this idea into fruition because he's thinking, you know, Kim's window had been rolled down. Her driver's license was suspiciously absent from her wallet. So he brought this up and realized,

With that, both Bridger and the detectives alike began to wonder if perhaps she had fallen prey to someone impersonating a police officer. So with this in mind, they scrutinized every detail of the discovery of Kim's remains for clues that they had missed, which brought them back to the shoe print found on her back.

Now, upon further inspection, they found that it left the imprint of a V on the heel and appeared to be a men's boot in the size eight and a half. But what was more curious was that it matched the standard issue boots required to be worn by police officers.

Detectives employed a print analysis expert named Ricky Navarro to examine the footprint on her back, and Ricky determined that the shoe print was made by a brand of boot called Thorogood, which is a standard work boot. So now, police wondered if they were in fact looking not for someone impersonating an officer, but for one of their own.

Monroe police were forced to turn on themselves and decide if someone on the inside was capable of abusing their power to commit such a heinous act.

And with over 100 officers on the force at the time, this would prove to be a pretty challenging feat. But still, detectives began their internal investigation by surmising who was on duty that night. You know, that's the first thing that we're doing, knowing this person would have then been in uniform, right? If they're wearing the shoes.

So the only other incident of note that had been tended to by law enforcement that evening was a minor car accident, which 23-year-old officer Josh Griffin had responded to.

According to Josh, he didn't hear anything suspicious go out on the radio that night. So this is the guy that would have been in the area and he's saying, yeah, I didn't see or hear anything regarding Kim that night. Well, the crazy thing here is that Josh had been aware of Kim before her murder as his father, fellow officer Roger Griffin, had been the one to take the report that Kim made about the road rage incident.

And Josh and his fellow officers had been briefed of the situation and advised to keep an eye out for her when she made her way home from the bar late at night. Remember, you know, she asked the officers if they could keep an eye out for her when she was driving home late at night on the weekends. And they took that seriously. There was a whole talk about it that the officers would do so. Yes. Yes, they did. So when Josh was questioned, he claimed that he hadn't seen her pass through on her route home.

That Saturday evening, he had been working security at a mall until about 10:30 p.m. and had driven around in his squad car afterward. Now, police officers were permitted to use their vehicles even while they were off the clock, as well as make off-duty traffic stops. So that night, Josh did just that, apparently pulling over two women described as white females in their early 30s. But he declined having seen or spoken to Kim.

Early that Sunday morning when Kim was murdered, Josh claimed that he had pulled into the parking lot of Ron's restaurant, which like Daphne said, is situated on the corner of Old Charlotte Highway and Rocky River Road, near where Kim's car was found. Claiming he was simply not ready to head home just yet, he said that he sat in his car reading for about an hour.

According to Josh's supervisor, he had called in the nearby collision at 2 a.m. and decided to stay out afterward, though he had not alerted his colleagues of this decision, nor had he received permission to do so. So he's just out there at like 2 a.m. chilling in his squad car, apparently reading. While parked in the restaurant parking lot, Josh was approached by a civilian whose car had broken down and called a tow truck using his personal cell phone.

He said that he went home shortly after, which is a claim confirmed by his brother Jeremy. When questioned, Rogers said his son seemed happy and normal in the days following Kim's murder, remembering, quote, Then, a witness came forward offering the most valuable piece of evidence thus far.

A local motorist remembered driving past Kim's very recognizable red Jeep Wrangler as it was pulled over by a police officer, though he remarked that he didn't believe that she had done anything wrong. And this witness was even able to pluck the car from a lineup.

Meanwhile, detectives were continuing to trace the shoe print back to its owner. Now, the shoe, which again was a men's size 8 1⁄2, would fit only three men on Monroe police staff. And this is the beginning of all those really satisfying, like, punchy moments of them really uncovering this. So one of the three men was away from Monroe at the time, so he was out, and this alibi was confirmed by multiple sources.

The other two men were Officer Roger Griffin and his son, Josh Griffin. Josh, who had been, you know, sitting out there in his patrol car at Ron's restaurant, which is right near where Kim's car had been pulled over.

Roger had been stationed at the firehouse that night and he hadn't left, so they know that Roger's not involved. But Josh was unaccounted for between 2.30 and 3 a.m., which is exactly when Kim went missing.

Though both Josh and Josh's brother Jeremy told officers that he had gone home and gone to bed after leaving Ron's restaurant, his brother later recanted his statement, saying that he had actually been asleep at the time and that Josh had asked him to lie. So with suspicions mounting against Josh Griffin, he was suspended from the force and stripped of his car and gun.

The following day, Josh's patrol car was searched, but officers found it to be suspiciously clean. Strangely, Josh was jokingly known for his messy tendencies and unkempt squad car, yet suddenly, his car is spotless. They said it looked as if it had been professionally detailed. His home was also searched, and detectives noted that his work boots were nowhere to be found.

When he was asked to produce them, he explained that they had been damaged and he'd been forced to throw them away.

This is all really just adding up, isn't it? So while officers were still working to officially link him to the crime, it seemed obvious that Josh was involved. Oh, beyond obvious. So according to police speculation, though Josh had yet to confess to any sort of involvement, he had likely heard the radio call that she had been spotted on the road that evening and decided to track her down.

According to his co-workers, he had spoken frequently of Kim and even expressed his interest in her despite knowing that she was married. Josh's fellow officers even proposed the idea that he may have potentially been tracking her movements and whereabouts through town after she had asked the police to keep an eye out for her. So, obviously he was taking this request way too far.

Multiple co-workers of Josh's came forward to say that he had made comments about her and how pretty he found her to be.

The Monroe Police Captain later noted that he disciplined the men who allowed this behavior to persist without reporting it. And although circumstantial, detectives felt that they had enough evidence to prove Josh's involvement. So on May 30th, 1997, 23-year-old Josh Griffin was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping of 26-year-old Kim Medlin.

His father, Roger, immediately reported to the jail where Josh was being held, crying and telling the guards, quote,

According to police records, Josh had a track record of pulling women over for no reason other than to just talk to them. And they believed that had even been the case with the two young women that he pulled over earlier on the evening of Kim's murder. Though Josh continued to act innocent, detectives maintained that he had seen an opportunity to corner Kim while she was driving home alone.

they decided that he likely pulled her over under false pretenses, asking her to step out of the car and biding his time while he made advances on her. But because she hadn't done anything illegal, he had no real reason to detain her. And when things went sideways, it's likely she was afraid and tried to run from him, which spooked Josh, as he knew the consequences that would come from abusing his position of power in order to pick up women.

Not only would he lose his job and face disgrace in his small community, but he would have his father, a veteran Monroe officer, to answer to as well. So panicked, Josh likely handcuffed Kim and put her in the back of his squad car.

Yeah, it's like he was trying to buy time. So when he eventually pulled over in the wooded area where she was later found, investigators believe that she had made a run for it and he hunted her down, kicking her in the back, incapacitating her and strangling her with what they believed was his flashlight, just based on the damage that it had done to her neck.

Even more damning, multiple other local women came forward following Josh's arrest to claim that they had been harassed by him. So scarily, it seemed that he had this pattern of abusing his position as an officer to gain trust and maintain access to women that he normally would not cross paths with. This is just, it makes me so sick to think that

There's these officers out there, and, you know, we've covered cases like this in the past where officers will pull women over and abuse their power for whatever desire they want, you know, like whether it be sexual or otherwise.

Yeah, that is not what your job is about. So still, Josh and his newly acquired attorneys maintained his position of innocence. In the court documents, his defense attorney stated flatly, quote, quote,

Now, initially, prosecutors were determined to seek the death penalty because everybody was just so shocked at the sudden, unprovoked, and just brutal nature of the crime, especially at the hands of law enforcement. So the community was very outraged, and they wanted to see Josh pay for what he had done.

Court proceedings began the following year in February of 1998 with all signs pointing to a guilty verdict. Jurors sobbed alongside Kim's friends and family after hearing the story of the brutal killing and seeing pictures of Kim's remains.

But it was his father, Roger Griffin, who made the most convincing apology.

Through sobs, he offered his sincerest condolences to Kim's husband and family, and promised his law enforcement colleagues that he never could have imagined that his son was guilty. Roger maintained that he would have done the right thing, and turned his son in if he believed that he had been involved. Ultimately, though, the court believed Josh to be responsible. The jury did not feel that the crime warranted the death penalty, and Josh escaped with a life sentence.

One juror even reflected, quote, Three years after Kim's murder, Josh Griffin finally confessed to the brutal and senseless murder of Kim Medlin. He also filled in the blanks about the aftermath of the crime and his attempt to cover it up.

He said that after covering her body haphazardly, he had disposed of his shoes in a retail trash bin nearby. He dismantled his flashlight and cut up Kim's license, flushing it down the toilet. He then thoroughly cleaned his car in an attempt to rid it of any signs of a struggle or any DNA that Kim may have left behind.

When asked for his side of the story, Josh explained that he was in trouble with some local drug dealers and that Kim had simply been collateral damage.

So, get this. According to Josh, he owed them money for steroids that he had purchased and was told that they would accept Kim's life in place of the money. That feels like a lie. I mean, come on. This guy has already been caught in the past pulling women over for no reason because he wants to talk to them. And now, all of a sudden, there's these drug dealers who... It's like...

Why would Kim be collateral for his mess up in the situation? Like, does it make any sense? He is really trying to come up with whatever story he can so that he is not the villain here. And it's just so stupid because you already admitted to killing her. So why not just tell the full truth? Like, it's not going to do any good for you to continue to lie. But Josh explained that he had been forced at gunpoint to kill Kim. Yeah, right.

However, when he was asked for details about the supposed drug dealers, including a description of them, he was unable to do so. So this story does not appear to be true. Yeah, it seems like this was Josh's way of removing any blame that he could from himself.

Well, the Union County District Attorney at the time, Ken Honeycutt, remarked, quote, That's not the way police officers are trained to describe people.

Josh's legal team had attempted to appeal his conviction so many times that his opportunities were exhausted. And because he was already in the midst of a life sentence, his confession did nothing to help Kim's loved ones see justice for her, and Josh remained incarcerated in North Carolina.

Kim's husband Bridger remarked sadly, quote,

There will be no doubt now. After Kim's untimely death, Bridger carried on his and Kim's dream of owning horses and began operating a horse carriage tour company, owning and caring for 15 horses on his farm in Kim's honor. ♪♪♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening. And if you want to see photos from this episode and all the other episodes that we've covered thus far, go to our socials.

We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. And you can also find us on Facebook. We have a Going West true crime page and we also have a discussion page. Yeah, this case, I mean, I really think if that shoe print or that boot print had not been left and maybe like her window had been rolled up that they, I mean, I think that they still could have thought, oh, I wonder if a police officer did this, but without that boot print,

to prove that it was a police officer-issued boot, I don't know if this case would have gotten solved. Yeah, I mean, that boot print really, really helped solve this case and solved it really quickly. I'm sure that at some point they would have probably found DNA and could have tested it later, but I'm really glad that this was solved as soon as it was discovered.

And again, our hearts go out to Bridger and the rest of Kim's family. Yes, and big thanks again to Sarah for recommending this case to us. And to all of you for listening. Yes, thank you guys so much for being here. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪♪♪

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