Shownotes Transcript
♪♪♪
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. Hope you're having a great day. Thank you so much for tuning in to Going West. I'm feeling very grateful today. I was reading some of our recent reviews on Apple. Sometimes I just, you know, peek around and look in there. And we've gotten some really nice reviews lately. So thank you, everybody who has written something nice and everybody who just loves the show and listens to it. It means so much to Heath and I, and it just...
It always makes us smile. So thank you. Yeah, thank you guys so much. We really appreciate that. But back to business. We have recently covered two cases where we briefly discussed the Route 29 stalker, you guys might remember. And since then, we've gotten some emails from a few of you asking that we cover the whole case. So thank you so much to Megan, Jolie, and John for emailing us. Yeah, I mean, putting this case together, we realized just how many cases that we've covered that connect
to the idea of the Route 29 Stalker
and how many of them happened in this vicinity, which was pretty crazy, to be honest. Yeah. And there are even more that we're going to be discussing today, so put on your true crime caps. Let's get down to business. I don't know why I just said that. I'm an idiot. Anyway, all right, guys, this is episode 438 of Going West, so let's get into it. ♪
you
Most weight loss plans are one size fits all, not taking into account each person's individual needs. Noom is here to change that. Noom Weight uses psychology. That's why they say, "Losing weight starts with your brain, but it also takes into account your unique biological factors, which also affect weight loss success."
The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings. Everyone's journey is different, so your daily lessons are personalized to you and your goals. One of the great things about Noom is that it's nourishing instead of restrictive. They focus on progress instead of perfection.
You don't have to give up carbs, or anything for that matter. Have cravings? Food FOMO? Noom can help you lose weight while still enjoying your favorite foods. To date, Noom has helped more than 5.2 million people lose weight. Stay focused on what's important to you. With Noom's psychology and biology-based approach, sign up for your trial today at Noom.com.
That's N-O-O-M dot com. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. But these aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized. Marketing team, did you get those social media posts scheduled for the seal migration? Aye, aye, Captain. We even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live.
They use Monday.com to keep their teamwork sharp, their communication clear, and their goals in sight. Monday.com. For whatever you run, even orcas. Go to Monday.com to dive deeper.
In 1996, a woman vanished along Route 29 in Virginia, and dozens of others came forward to say that they had been followed in their cars by a man in a dark-colored truck, always telling them that there was something wrong with their vehicles and that they needed to pull over. Possibly active as recently as 2014, the list of his potential victims grew long.
Some of them were eventually proven to be linked to unrelated culprits, but his identity remains unknown. So who is this mysterious highway phantom? And how many victims does he truly have? This is the story of the Route 29 Stalker. ♪♪♪
The culpability of the Route 29 stalker in the cases of the many deaths to which his name has been connected is debatable. But the woman who is widely believed to be his first and maybe only murder victim, and also the most well-known, is Alicia Showalter Reynolds.
Alicia was a 25-year-old four-year doctoral student at John Hopkins University and lived in Baltimore, Maryland with her new husband, Mark Reynolds, back in the mid-90s. At the time of her disappearance, she was working hard on a groundbreaking vaccine for a parasitic infection, which was work that was very important to her.
Alicia hailed from a tightly knit and deeply religious family and grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which is about two hours west of Washington, D.C. She had a sister named Barbara and a twin brother named Patrick, who was also in the medical field and was pursuing his doctorate at the time as well. Patrick described his sister as a, quote, "'hardworking, loving sister who nobody ever had an unkind word to say about.'"
On Saturday, March 2nd, 1996, Alicia planned to meet her mom in Charlottesville, Virginia to shop for Patrick's upcoming wedding. So her twin brother is getting married and she's going to do some shopping for it.
Now, the drive of just over 150 miles or 240 kilometers should have taken her about three hours. So not a terribly long travel journey, but also, you know, this is a little bit of a trip. Far enough. Yeah, definitely. A three hour drive is not nothing to sneeze at. Yeah, pretty substantial. Nothing to sneeze at.
I don't know why I said that either. Idiot. I was making a thing. So that morning around 7.30 a.m., she said goodbye to her husband, Mark, and headed southwest to her home state of Virginia, planning on meeting her mom at 10.30 a.m. But 10.30 came and went, and her mom, Sadie Showalter, was left waiting for her daughter's arrival.
According to her mom, Sadie, it was not like her punctual and responsible daughter to be late. So she called Mark to alert him. And he agreed that it was pretty weird that she hadn't gotten in yet. You know, wondering if maybe the foggy weather and the rain that morning had slowed her down. You know, it's still winter. We're on the East Coast. Because he was able to confirm that she did leave hours earlier. So they're kind of exchanging notes here. Right. Right.
But as the minutes ticked by, Alicia's parents and husband grew increasingly convinced that something had gone wrong. Mark called both the Baltimore police and the Virginia State Police to report his wife missing. And that evening around 6 p.m., a Virginia State trooper found Alicia's car 50 miles or 80 kilometers northeast of her destination. So about an hour away.
Her white 1993 Mercury Tracer was found parked along the side of Route 29, about two miles or 3.2 kilometers south of the town of Culpeper.
And by the way, Route 29 is pretty long. It stretches from Washington, D.C. all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama. It's over a thousand miles long. Yeah, so it's interesting that we talk about the Route 29 stalker because I'm sure there was a few of them over the decades because it's...
really just such a long highway. Yeah, which we will discuss because, yeah, it's long. It crosses multiple states. So yeah, yeah. It's not like it's just, you know, one highway in one particular area. It stretches over
Over many, many states, as you said. Sorry for repeating you. No, but that's why it's interesting, actually, because a lot, actually most of, if not all, I think all of the cases that we're going to talk about today take place in Virginia. Right, yeah. So we don't go all the way down it. We just talk about mostly the ones in Virginia because there are so many cases along Route 29 in Virginia.
Now, Alicia had been cruising down the portion that bisected Virginia, like we're saying, where a man in a pickup truck began terrorizing female motorists. A napkin was found placed under the windshield wiper of Alicia's car, indicating car trouble, and her credit card was also found discarded in Culpeper.
But there was no sign of Alicia anywhere. So police launched a commendable investigation scouring the wooded area surrounding where her car was found but couldn't find any sign of her. So it's as if she had car trouble while driving down Route 29 to go meet her mom.
She pulled over on the southbound shoulder, put a napkin on her car, and then likely went looking for help in this very quaint, by the way, little city of Culpeper, which at the time only hosted about 9,000 people. Or at least, so it initially seems that this is what happened. But some witness sightings will put this into question. Yeah, absolutely. Because that's really not actually what people believe happened.
So, since they couldn't find any sign of her in the area, they definitely thought that something could have happened. So, police established a traffic stop near where her car was found to ask for further information from anybody who had been, you know, passing through this area at that time of day. Because, hopefully, someone saw her.
Now, within days, they compiled multiple eyewitness accounts from people traveling on Route 29 that Saturday and claimed to have seen Alicia and even her potential abductor. Three different people came forward to say that they had spotted someone matching the description of Alicia and her car along the side of the road and that it appeared as if she had been having car trouble.
The man with her was said to be a white man driving a dark-colored pickup truck who was described as "clean cut."
One motorist named Robert McLeod Sr. drove by Alicia between 10.30 and 10.45 a.m. that Saturday morning and said that he saw a black Nissan pickup truck parked along the shoulder about 10 feet in front of Alicia's car. And remember, 10.30 is the time that she is supposed to arrive to her mom's, and she's still an hour away. Exactly. So we can kind of imagine that she was maybe sitting there for a minute. Right.
Right. And when Robert McCloud Sr. saw Alicia and her car, her car hood was up and they appeared to be inspecting it, her and this unknown man.
And as Robert passed by them, he watched as the man and the woman appeared to be getting into the man's truck together. And he didn't spy a struggle here. So maybe this guy pretended to want to help and use the opportunity to get her into his car, you know, acting like he was going to take her into town or something. Yeah, that pretty much seems like it's spot on.
So, this is an important witness sighting for sure, because the witness also said that Alicia seemed to climb into the passenger seat willingly, and that the man, who Robert described as wearing dark colored work clothes, hopped into the driver's seat and then they were off. Now, obviously the witness at the time did not know that Alicia was going to disappear, so he didn't keep watching.
So, after hearing this, the police hoped to hear about more sightings. So this witness testimony was released to the media and discussed on the news. And with that, about 20 women came forward who also had been stopped, or at least targeted by this mysterious Good Samaritan.
The man in the dark pickup truck would descend on their cars and honk, tailgate, and wave at them until they pulled over to the shoulder, when he would then approach their vehicle and tell them that there was something wrong with their car, and that for some reason he was concerned that their car would catch fire.
A preliminary examination would confirm that the woman shouldn't be driving the car, even just to get off of the highway, and he would then offer them a ride to the nearest mechanic, gas station, or payphone. Which is so messed up, we can assume that a lot of these women maybe didn't know about cars and he's acting like this man.
You know, oh, I know that your car isn't in working condition and you can't even drive it off the highway, so let me help you because I know more than you. And it's just a lie. Yeah, it's an absolute lie. And the crazy thing about this is that each of these women later discovered that there had been nothing wrong with their vehicles. Obviously, we know that this was just a big ruse.
In some cases, the man was charming, soft-spoken, and seemed trustworthy, and he would warn them about their car and drive them to safety, where he would drop them off without incident. But on other occasions, when the women refused to pull over, he grew agitated, erratic, and even seemed violent, driving aggressively and yelling profanities at them.
Yeah, in one instance, the young woman he pulled over got into his car willingly, you know, thinking again that there was something wrong with her car when there wasn't. And the two made small talk as he drove her to a drop-off location.
But as they kept driving, he pulled over three times, alleging that bright headlights and fog were making it hard to see. And I imagine that this is just another part of his ruse. Absolutely, because the third time he pulled over, he attacked.
this young woman, but she managed to shove him off and climb out of the car. But she did break her ankle in the fall, you know, getting out of it as his car sped off. You know, he knew he wasn't going to be able to catch her, so he just drove off trying to get away with it instead. You know, so luckily she did survive to give police her account.
And just seven days after this happened, again in March of 1996, 25-year-old Alicia Reynolds would disappear. So it's pretty obvious to both you and I that these two cases have to be connected, right? Yeah, that this guy is driving around trying to prey on women with this, like you said, ruse.
Now, all of the women gave a similar description of the man, which helps connect it even further. It's not a very unique description. I feel like it's always like a brunette Caucasian man, you know? Yeah, yeah. Like that means nothing. So many people look like that. But they did all say that he appeared to be between the ages of 35 and 45, about six feet tall with an average build and with cleavage.
kind of reddish brown hair. And again, he was Caucasian. So not a very unique description, but at least they did have a description. Yeah, I feel like the only kind of distinctive thing here is that he had kind of reddish hair. Yeah. You know, it wasn't brown. It wasn't blonde. You know, so maybe that was...
One of the only identifying factors that we can really go off of here. Well, the other thing that a lot of them said was that he kept his hair longer on top, which is also a pretty common hairstyle, but that he did have a habit of pushing it back frequently with his left hand.
Almost like a tick, a lot of them said. He would just constantly do that. And then one woman described him as nervous and fidgety. Yeah, I bet he was because this piece of shit was getting ready to attack these women. Yeah, exactly. So from these descriptions, a police sketch artist was able to form a composite...
Which we will post on our socials for you guys to see. And there is one name that is connected to this man that pulled over all these women. Or at least a lot of them came forward and said that he introduced himself as Larry Breeden. But it does seem like that is a pseudonym.
but it's worth noting for sure. Police have never been able to actually link a man named Larry Breeden to this case. Yeah. But a lot of them said that he gave that name. Yeah. It's very interesting. I mean, obviously if he had plans to attack them, um,
And he already, you know, as you mentioned, one of his victims already got away. He's probably not going to start introducing himself as his real name. He's going to go by Larry Breeden. But I do think it's interesting that we have that. And I just wonder where the connection is to that name. I know. That's why it's important to mention because if it is a family's name, you know, maybe his wife's.
uncle's last name and his best friend's first name. You know what I mean? I don't know. Yeah. So it could, it could be something, it could be nothing, but that is the name that this man gave multiple different women. So with all of these tips and potential leads, Virginia state police search for Alicia for two long months with no sign of her.
The community gathered to volunteer alongside her family and police, and detectives fielded thousands of tips. But finally, on Tuesday, May 7th, 1996, two months after Alicia's disappearance, a passerby spotted what looked like decomposing remains in some brush about 15 miles or 24 kilometers southeast of Culpeper, Virginia, which was near where her car was found.
A man who worked in the area noticed buzzards circling overhead for a few days in a row, and he finally decided to go investigate it further when he made this discovery. Now, due to the amount of decomposition, an autopsy would need to be performed, but the items found with her body were consistent with the clothing and the jewelry that Alicia was wearing that day, so they immediately thought it was her.
To this day, police have declined to announce her cause of death in hopes that it will one day help them link her killer to the crime. But they were at least able to confirm that the manner of death was homicide. So they did say that she was murdered. They just won't tell us how. And this is really smart because obviously this is decades ago, you know, at this point.
and they're still not releasing that cause of death. And I think that's very important. I think it's a great thing that they're doing, keeping that close to the chest just in case
They kind of, you know, somebody slips up. Yeah, they don't want any false confessions. And that's the one thing that they can keep hidden. So her brother Patrick remembers that the loss was terrible for the family. And at a time that was supposed to be so joyful, you know, both he and his sister were finishing up their doctorate program soon. Alicia had recently gotten married. She was working on this important vaccine.
And Patrick was also set to be married, as we discussed, the month after her body was found. But to the frustration of her family, her case would go cold fairly quickly and would produce way more rumors than it ever produced evidence. And soon, other women would be added to the toll being kept of the Route 29 stalkers' potential victims.
And this next story is just, it's incredibly sad to me, but... So Anne Carolyn McDaniel was a 20-year-old Virginia woman who had just moved away from her parents for the very first time. Anne was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and a slight speech impediment as a child, and her parents questioned whether she was ready to live on her own without their care by the age of 20.
But Anne felt like she was ready to live on her own, and she was really excited to do so. She moved into the President Madison Inn, which is an assisted living facility in Orange, Virginia, where she would be able to maintain her independence, but could also seek help if she needed it. So it kind of felt like, you know, the best of both worlds here. She's able to kind of live on her own, but people are also there to support her if she needed it.
Well, Ann was last seen leaving the group home on September 18th, 1996, so six months after Alicia went missing. After she told fellow residents that she had a date that she was very, very excited about. But when she didn't return home that night, officials at the home reported her missing the very next day.
However, according to some eyewitness accounts, she was spotted as late as 9:00 PM on Friday, September 20th. So two days after she left for this date. But then just two days after this on Sunday, September 22nd, 1996, her remains were discovered around 10:00 AM by a few sportsmen training their dogs.
Unlike with Alicia's body, some information has been released regarding Anne's because we know that she had been left in the woods and then set on fire. Like Alicia, Anne had been placed about 100 feet from the road. So it was as though someone had pulled off and just walked into the woods with her body for a quick disposal.
She was recovered just 10 miles or 16 kilometers from where Alicia was found and about 25 miles or 40 kilometers from the President Madison Inn where she lived. Three days later on that Wednesday, the autopsy confirmed via dental records that the remains did belong to Anne. And the medical examiner concluded that she had been strangled and then set on fire, likely to destroy any evidence left behind on her.
Now, Anne visited her parents at home almost every weekend, and, you know, this weekend that she disappeared was not supposed to be any exception. And she actually spoke with them that afternoon that she disappeared, and made plans to be picked up that Friday evening.
Her dad, Gary, remembered that there was nothing out of the ordinary about their conversation. However, the owner of a gas station less than a block away from the assisted living facility remembered seeing Anne more frequently as of late, recalling that she would walk to the gas station multiple times a day to use the payphone to call her boyfriend, who she said lived in Culpeper. So now we have another connection to Culpeper.
And the last time they spoke, she apparently did not seem very happy. It even looked as though she had been crying. Her mom surely said sadly, quote,
Now, Anne also was known to hitchhike, so it's possible that she had tried that night and was picked up by the Route 29 stalker, or that she was dating the Route 29 stalker. But without clear answers as to who she was dating or what she was doing leading up to her murder, it's really hard to say for sure. And we say this a lot, but...
You know, if you are a part of somebody's life, if you were talking to somebody right before they went missing and you don't come forward, like what are, of course, her boyfriend is going to hear about her disappearance. So yeah, obviously the fact that he never came forward to the police and said, oh yeah, we had a date that night and this is what we did. And then I didn't see her again.
it kind of makes you feel like she might have been dating the Route 29 stalker or at least the person that killed her. Right, the suspicions kind of fall on that person because they never said anything. Yeah. Well, police have not confirmed whether or not they believe there's a link between the murders of Alicia and Anne, but with the information available that we have, they believe that it's very likely. Because to this day, just like Alicia's case, Anne's murder remains unsolved.
But years later, another rash of disappearances and murders reinvigorated the investigation, as well as the fear that a serial killer was stalking the area and remained at large.
As you guys know, Heath and I personally love to put on our sleuthing caps. And we know you do too. Yeah, you guys are true crime listeners and you love a good mystery. Especially when they have a ton of twists and turns. That is why you guys are going to love June's Journey. Step into the role of June Parker and search for hidden clues to uncover the mystery of her sister's murder.
Engage your observation skills to quickly uncover key pieces of information that lead to chapters of mystery, danger, and romance. I mean, it really has it all, and that's why Heath and I love to play After a Long Day, where we can just do something fun and solve a fictional mystery. One of my favorite parts is that I get to
customize my own luxurious estate island. Just let your imagination run wild when you're decorating it. Also, you can chat and play or against other players by joining a detective club. How cool is that? June needs your help, detective. Download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android.
What is going on true crime fans? There's a new podcast that we think you guys are gonna love called Fear Thy Neighbor. On Fear Thy Neighbor from i-D, hear true stories about the victims of deadly neighborhood disputes. As you guys know, most violent crimes that capture the public's imagination are about serial killers or crimes of passion. But what happens when the person you fear the most is living right next door?
Each episode focuses on a different town where neighbors fall out over what should be minor and resolvable issues. So you get to hear these true stories told by the victims.
their families, and their neighbors, featuring real 911 calls and surveillance archives. And this is genuinely one of the most interesting tropes to me because I've had so many neighbors that I kind of look at sideways. You know, we've all had that weird neighbor, and it's scary to think that something could actually happen. Absolutely. As true crime fans, you guys know exactly what we're talking about.
We've covered a lot of cases where people are killed by their neighbors. So listen to Fear Thy Neighbor wherever you get your podcasts.
Me and Heath's favorite season by far is fall. I know you love summer, but fall is really the best. You know, we have football games, we got pumpkin spice lattes, and we got cozy, chilly weather. So what are you going to need for that? A comfy sweater from Quince. Yeah, and Quince is actually known for their Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50. All Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands.
which is why, like Keith said, you can find cashmere sweaters for $50. I mean, that also includes beautiful leather jackets, cotton cardigans, soft denim, and so much more. So you're probably wondering how they're able to do that. Well, they partner directly with top factories and cut out the cost of the middleman, which passes the savings on to us. And the really cool thing is that Quint's
only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices. Love that. And of course, premium fabrics and finishes for that luxury feel in every piece. We just got some amazing new sweaters, jackets, and pants from Quince. I mean, they seriously have all the staples.
And not only are they high quality and affordable, but they're super stylish. Get cozy in Quince's high quality wardrobe essentials. Go to quince.com slash going west for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash going west to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash going west.
♪♪♪
The Route 29 stalker has also been suspected in a few more murders and disappearances, some cases that have closed with other culprits to blame, and some that remain unsolved, though these occurred much later. In 2009, so 13 years after the unsolved murders of Alicia and Ann, the R-29 stalker was found
20-year-old college student Morgan Harrington vanished from the area after attending a concert. And we actually discussed her case years ago in our episode on Alexis Murphy. That was episode 134. But just to recap, Morgan was attending college at Virginia Tech where she was a sophomore. And in October of 2009, she and three of her friends posted
piled into the car and made the two-hour drive to Charlottesville, where Metallica was playing at the John Paul Jones Arena, which is located right along Route 29. On Saturday, October 17th, 2009, Morgan and her friends headed to the arena for the show, but before the headliner came on, you know, before Metallica took the stage, Morgan excused herself to the bathroom.
When she was taking an unusually long time, her friends called her worrying that she was going to miss too much of the show. And Morgan said that she had ducked out of the arena to have a cigarette and that the arena unfortunately had a no re-entry policy. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty common. If you leave...
A lot of the time, you can't come back in, but it just depends on the venue. Yeah, I feel like that's a safety concern. Like, if you're going to come in and bring a weapon or, I don't know, or bring in alcohol, or they don't want you going out to your car and drinking if you're underage or whatever. So there's a bunch of reasons for that. But that was the case this evening, and it's really sad that this was the situation because...
I believe that that is the reason that she was murdered. Yeah, absolutely. And it didn't really appear that Morgan was really phased by this situation of not being able to get back in. Yeah. Interestingly, she kind of just told her friends to enjoy the concert and said that she would find a ride back to where they were staying and catch up with them later. So she's saying, have fun. I can't get back in. It's okay. I'll see you guys back at the house.
So the last sighting of her was on a bridge near the venue where Morgan looked as if she was trying to hitch a ride right on Route 29. Her friends didn't see her again that night, and the next day she failed to show up to meet her parents who lived in the area. And they wanted to see her before she headed back to school, so they had this plan to get together, and she never showed up. So her parents were the ones to report her missing.
That same day, her purse, wallet, and phone, which was dead and missing its battery, were recovered from a nearby field. And a few weeks after that, the t-shirt that she had been wearing that night was found in front of an apartment building about a mile and a half or two kilometers from the concert venue.
But despite these discoveries, Morgan remained missing for months, leaving police to wonder if the Route 29 stalker was still in the area trying to abduct and harm women. Because Charlottesville to Culpeper, by the way, is about an hour's drive on Route 29.
But then, on January 26, 2010, Morgan's body was discovered by a farmer on his own private farm called The Anchorage in Albemarle County. She was found 10 miles or 16 kilometers from the John Paul Jones Arena, raped and brutally beaten to death.
Crime Stoppers put up a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and Metallica themselves actually offered $50,000. So now there is a $150,000 total being offered for information, which is really amazing.
Well, another young woman that we discussed back in the Alexis Murphy case was Hannah Graham, who was an 18-year-old Reading, England resident who was attending college at the University of Virginia, which is, again, right along Route 29. I don't know if I said that before, but we keep saying that these places are along Route 29. Just like the concert venue. And we are going to say it a lot because obviously it's relevant, but get ready to hear that a lot. Yes.
Well, Hannah disappeared around 1.30 a.m. on September 13, 2014, so four years after Morgan, while walking in Charlottesville, Virginia at the Downtown Mall, which is a massive and beautifully quaint outdoor strip of shops, bars, and restaurants in the area.
She texted her friends at 1:20 a.m. that she was lost, and then she was last seen leaving with an unknown man. Now, a witness noticed that this man did not look friendly,
and that he had his arm around Hannah, and that he was leading her to his Chrysler Sebring, which Hannah absolutely did not want. She apparently said, quote, Yeah, and even though there were witnesses to this, nobody tried to help her. Maybe it was all happening too fast, and people didn't know the situation, and they didn't want to intervene. But yeah, I mean, she was put into this car, and off they went.
Well, sadly, a month later, on October 18th, 2014, Hannah's remains were found in a hayfield by an abandoned property just off of Route 29 in Albemarle County, Virginia. Now, police were able to identify her killer, and we are kind of rushing this segment a bit because Morgan and Hannah's killer were determined to be a man named Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., who
who was just 32 years old in 2014, and he's actually a black man. So the man believed to be behind Alicia's murder, since there was at least one witness to see her pulled over with him on the side of the highway, was thought to be around 35 to 45 in 1996, making him at least 53 in 2014, and he was white with a medium build and medium brown hair. So obviously not the same people.
Yeah, so although, you know, Morgan and Hannah's murders did seem to be potentially connected initially to the original Route 29 stalker cases of at least Alicia Reynolds and then potentially even Anne McDaniel, you know, because they occurred along Route 29, police ultimately determined that their cases were not related and Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. was found guilty of their murders and sentenced to life in prison.
I mean, in a lot of ways, Jesse kind of was like also a Route 29 stalker, just not the same one from 1996. Exactly. Well, another Route 29 stalker is a man named Randy Taylor, also not believed to be connected to Alicia or Anne's cases, but a killer and a creep who...
who was in the area and essentially working, if you will, along Route 29. And he is believed to be connected to the disappearance and believed murder of 19-year-old Samantha Clark, who went missing around 1.30 a.m. on September 13, 2010. So four years to the day before Hannah Graham.
Yeah, Randy Taylor was just one of many Route 29 pieces of shit. Exactly. So there's more he did as well. We're going to get into it. But because this happened along Route 29, we just wanted to touch on it, even though it is separate. Now, Samantha Clark was living with her mom and her younger brother in Orange, Virginia, which is right where Anne McDaniel lived.
And she left in the late night hours while her mom was at work, leaving her 12-year-old brother home alone. Remember, she was 19 years old.
So she didn't have a car and her mom didn't originally know that she was going anywhere. She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know how she was getting out of the house, like who was coming to pick her up or if she was going to take a walk. Yeah. And also because, you know, public transit is not going to be flowing at this time of night. Yeah. And in this very small town of Orange. Yeah.
So to this day, Samantha still has not been found. But the last six phone calls made to the house were from a man named Randy Taylor, who was 45 years old at that time. No reason for Randy Taylor to be calling a 19 year old girl.
So Randy was questioned, of course, then in connection with her disappearance and even admitted to seeing Samantha that night, the night she went missing. But he has continued to deny any involvement in her case.
Her mother, Barbara, later said in frustration, quote, Yeah, that's kind of a crazy thing.
The fact that you are this 45-year-old man and you're talking to a 19-year-old and you probably picked her up and then you said, yeah, I was the last person to see her, but I had nothing to do with it. Come on, man. Like,
And then also with what we're going to talk about here in a minute, it's like... Yeah, I mean, without a body, Samantha's case does remain open. And Randy does remain a person of interest. But yeah, like you're saying, he does very much seem to be involved. And because police weren't able to connect him to her disappearance, he had the chance to strike again. Because three years after Samantha went missing in 2013, another teenage girl vanished from the area.
Now we're going to say her name again. We did an episode on 17-year-old Alexis Murphy back in 2021 in episode 134, who was last seen with an older man in Lovingston, Virginia, just a few minutes away from her home in Shipman and smack dab right on Route 29.
She was later reported missing by her family and three days later, her car was found in the parking lot of a movie theater in Albemarle County, which is where Hannah Graham was found murdered. When police circulated the photo of the man and his vehicle to the community that they had found on surveillance footage,
He was recognized actually by a local pornography shop as Randy Taylor because he visited this pornography shop that same evening that she went missing. When police searched Randy's home in Lovingston, they recovered a single black hair and a fingernail, both of which were a forensic match for Alexis Murphy.
They also found a t-shirt that belonged to Randy that contained Alexis's blood, as well as fake eyelashes and a single earring that were believed to belong to Alexis as well. And on top of all of that...
her phone was actually found discarded near his home. Yeah, I mean, this man is guilty. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to two life sentences. So, again, since he was 45 in 2010 when Samantha Clark went missing...
This would make him around 31 when Alicia and Anne were murdered. So it's definitely possible that he was connected. And the fact that Samantha went missing from Orange and Anne McDaniel lived there as well. You know, that doesn't automatically mean that they were killed by the same person, of course, but it is certainly interesting. And for those wondering, Randy Taylor is a Caucasian man with short brown hair. You know, like I said earlier, that is a very interesting
It's not a very unique description, but it does match what we know about Alicia Reynolds' killer. So is it the same Route 29 stalker or are there really multiple of them?
Also, there are no public reports of Randy Taylor living in Culpeper, where Alicia was taken from and where Anne's alleged boyfriend was from or was living. That's about an hour and a half north of where Randy lived in Lovingston, taking Route 29 the whole way, by the way, as both towns are right along it.
Now, we also discussed the Route 29 stalker pretty briefly in episode 425, just about two months ago during the Shenandoah National Park murders. So, the devastating murders of Lolly Winans and Julie Williams. Because, again, these murders took place just off of Route 29 as well.
And then three episodes before that, episode 422 on the Spotsylvania killer. We talked about the huge piece of shit, Richard Ivonitz, who was believed to be the Route 29 stalker because he would actually flag down women who were driving along this highway in Virginia. I think this is record...
piece of shit comments from you today. Oh, yeah. I think that was number three. Well, there's just too many of them. There are. There's too many to talk about in this episode. It's a good one to really, really pump that, pump that phrase up. Yeah, like, you get a piece of shit, you get a piece of shit, you get a piece of shit. Now, Richard is a Caucasian man who was 33 when Alicia Reynolds and Anne McDaniel were killed. And,
and he was actually suspected as murdering both of them by the police. Because not only was he living in Virginia at the time, but police found handwritten directions to the spot where Alicia was buried in a footlocker in Richard's apartment. That's wild.
I mean, that's way too close. You know what I mean? But for some reason, evidence in both Alicia and Anne's cases has apparently never been compared to Richard's DNA, even though police have thought of him as a person of interest in both of their cases.
So let's get that going, please. Like, we really need that DNA to be tested. Yeah, because it could definitely be him. But it does appear that there are multiple men that could terrifyingly be considered the Route 29 stalker. But as far as the original Route 29 stalker goes, his identity remains officially unknown.
Though the mysterious Route 29 stalker has only one confirmed victim, again, that's Alicia Reynolds.
Most of the women connected to his case are still waiting for answers. Because again, the original Route 29 stalker, the reason he's called the stalker is because he was known to frequent this stretch of Route 29, try to pull women over, get them to pull over on the shoulder, telling them that there's something wrong with their car so that he can take them back.
God knows where. And it seems that this is exactly what he did to Alicia Reynolds. And it truly is amazing how many women actually did survive this guy. Whether he just decided that it wasn't the right opportunity to kill them, a lot of these women were able to get away and confirm his
Very true. Or at least witness his identity. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And thankfully so. So if you have any tips or information about the murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds or any of the Route 29 stalkers possible victims, please call the Virginia State Police at 804-674-2000. ♪♪♪
Bye.
Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Hopefully that DNA is going to be tested against Richard Ivonitz because a lot of people really do believe that he was the original Route 29 stalker. How many more times can we say Route 29 stalker? Yeah, take a shot every time we say Route 29 and you'll be in the hospital. Absolutely. It was a lot today. But thank you guys so much for showing interest in us covering this whole episode
story because like Heath said in the very beginning in the intro of this episode, we really have covered so many cases around this area, which is very eerie, you know, that there are a lot of cases in this area. So thank you guys. There are a ton of photos associated with this episode as well, which you can find on our socials, Instagram,
at going with podcast to what am I saying? Facebook, Facebook. I always want to say Twitter, but we're not on there anymore. Um, Facebook, we have two groups. We have a private discussion group and then a public page. You can find the photos all over those. Yeah. And let us know what you think about this case, because really to me, it feels like this guy is a phantom. You know, it,
It feels like the movie The Hitcher in some ways to me. Yeah, it does. And it's crazy knowing that this guy was out there. So many women saw him. He was in a vehicle that had a license plate and still he has not been found. Like, where is this guy? Yeah, it's crazy to me. So many eyewitnesses. Well, anyways, thank you guys so much again for listening and we will see you guys on Friday.
So, for every... Oh, gosh. I always mess this up. Every time at the end, you're like, what is it again? All right, guys. You got this. So, for everybody out there in the world... Don't be a stranger. ♪♪♪
so
If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally. But don't sweat it. Grainger has you covered. Grainger offers over a million industrial-grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.