2 – The Man at the Mall
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IT stands on an old movie, backlot, where hollywood legends once walked and banda raft reader hey was actually would IT was a place where famous directors created saloo ID dreams, think john forward igm bergmann and Billy wild there. And now it's a mall, a monument to commercial splendid that caters to the daily desires of anybody with a credit card. But as in days of old, the celebrities here still have their names up in lights.

It's just at the markey s names. Now, our north stream macias blooming dees IT was here at this one million, three hundred thousand square oot OpenAIr s hopping m eca i n t he c entury c ity a rea o f w orst L. A. That in february two thousand and three, twenty one year old Christie Johnson was approached by a man who seemingly materialized like a ghost from the malls backlog days, a talent cat on the prowl for a fresh face. I began with him portraying himself as some kind of entertainment producer involved in the N.

N. He's a man, and he's very, very good at IT.

He was a smooth docker. He probably told the Young woman he was pretty, said SHE ought to be in pictures. And then, of course, he told her he could make her show biz dreams come true.

Everybody thinks they could be a great actor. You know, we can all act. They want to believe. And if you want to believe, you're gonna fall for this, yeah, he looks good. He had a nice suit on and he was very well groomed, you know, attractive. In this episode, you're hear from a woman who will tell us about her close encounter with that man.

He said, we went casting all day, and you're the look we want. You're perfect.

You'll hear about her confrontation on the streets of west L.

A the guy will be shaking that mark was you, which your problem? How dare you do this to girls .

will take you inside the effort. Define Christ Johnson.

Drive and .

inside the manhunt for a potential predator who was hiding a plane sight like a face in the .

crowd rush, where I went to where you went, he's going to move from the corner, disappear again.

He wasn't anyone that that was a monster type. He was not in their faces. He didn't walk in front of them, stop their path. He presented himself as a professional.

I'm Keith Morrison, and this is murder in the hollywood hill, a podcast from date line. Episode two, the man at the mall. IT was a short article bury on page for the local section, but on this friday morning, the one person that los Angeles is who needed to see that article saw IT.

Her name was Susan morphy. Maybe IT was a smiling picture of Christie Johnson in a cotterby de that morning, or maybe IT was the headline that read, searched, underway from missing woman. But whatever IT was, Susan Murphy stopped ed, turning the pages of the los Angeles times and read, delete sentence. A twenty one year old sabat, a woman who may have been on her way to beverly hills to meet a photographer, has not been seen for five days, police said. We would say the last sentence in the article asked anyone with information to call a tip line number.

Susan Murphy IT mentions this beautiful Young lady who disappeared after going to me. The photographer and and and IT all says that reference .

to a photographer might have caused a few readers to stop and think. After all, over the years, there had been other articles about women who were raked, murdered by men pretending to be photographs. But for Susan, a hard time magician with some showbiz experience, that single reference to a photographer was like a splash of cold water.

That's because weeks earlier, Susan had been approached by a man at the century city mall. The man was tall and thin and wearing cocky pants in a ten jacket. He said he was a photographer. Susan's memory of that encounter saying he later learned about the man, we're still fresh in her mind.

I caught women's intuition. I just knew my heart dropped that I .

was the same guy.

I thought, what if IT is the same guy? I called that that very day, and I called animal like a police department. I just started my story and they said, can you hold on? And they immediately put me in touch with the little detective on the case, a detective, open shame.

And about four that afternoon, Susan walked into the old statistical police building, took the stairs to the second floor and meet with detective open chain, the target for close to an hour. Susan told the detective the same river ting story. He later told me IT was .

totally an ordinary day as as well, I thought, leaving work and a comme to friend for dinner. And just like any woman, I was there a little bit early and thought i'm going to go shopping. So I venture into the mass and start looking at some sweaters when this man .

approached me with her big Brown eyes, radiant smile and lustre st. Shoulder length Brown here, Susan Murphy has no doubt heard her share of pickup lines from strange men over the years.

and he looked Normal. You noral. He just said, I think you're very attractive. And I just wanted let you know that well, thank you very .

much and coming .

a little not to be no like that, very nice. So i'm not going to ruin my day.

Here's someone say that. sure.

But then he left he, if he had to walk more or away a little bit and then he .

came back and said.

my jorge, a photography and we're casting for the new James bond movie and he said, we went casting all day and you're the look we want. You're perfect and he's like and making me really excited to actually meet so what I think be great for this all i'd .

love to talk to more about IT. Susan knew I was a pickup line, but still he was intrigued.

Dad was in the FBI. And so a part of me has that kind of sense that this might not be on the up up. But I didn't even tell anything about myself like, oh, really.

I said that sounds really cool. So IT wasn't that you were bowled over the idea? No discovered in a drug or one no IT IT was. Here's a guy coming on to be using that. I'm see where this goes and which .

i've heard a million times, even in comedy magic. So I thought how dear? No, I feel like i've had, I had enough experience, ed, to know Better. This guy know, I just kind of to see what he's all about. So something .

just in the back, your mind won't if is true.

of course, is a cool. I be great. How fun with that feet of a all in girl. I think every girl has a dream about that.

The man said his name was Victor Victor Thomas, and suggested they grab a seat over by the foot. Talk bout me a .

snapple and then he started to tell me about the opportunity. And, you know, who is going to be a big come back with shot county and fierce Brown, which is kind of weird, because are they they bow James bonds, or how could they both be the same movie? And that's why I thought that's going out. And he just time me about it's a very small role you'll be in the very beginning and describing the billboard I would be on and I would be on the big board, the billboard, and like favorite small role, he said, make one hundred thousand dollars for the role and for such as, I remember sad and I know that that as a day player kind of part, and you are going to make that much money doing that so all my little bells muses, are we going off this something? This is not right.

Good to be true? Yes, probably. But somewhere in the back of Susan's mind, little voice seemed to whisper, what if it's true? What if this man is for real? Whether the opportunity is for real? For a few seconds, Susan was so lost in her own thoughts that SHE barely heard what the man was saying. Then his voice broke through the fog and he said.

I want you to meet me tomorrow for an income to addition. Everyone is going to be there. We going to bring you in there.

Very excited to see you because you're exactly what we're looking for. And I want to meet me on on this, on a street corner below sea Monica bullet ward. And I thought, okay, here's my portunus. Can you write that down for me? And so I had to use my pendent, my fata paper, yo town.

or to meet him. There was just one thing he told her. The producer and director had a very specific look in mind, very important, he said, for Susan to dress the part.

He said this very, very important that I wear toledo s black, toledo s as high as possible. And he mentioned a lot of designers that he would like me to the wear. And then he said, a black miniskirt fly, but any mini sky would be great.

Penny hose, penny holes is not islands, because niels just go to the thy penny holes. They go all the way up. A White man's shirt, her slip back, really tighten a pony tale and a man's tie. He said he would .

provide things, things.

I.

when Susan left them all that night, he had every intention of meeting the guy the next day for the audition. But on the drive home he had second thoughts. He decided to call the screen actors guild.

I called york in the la. Office is open twenty four hours. Problems that actors may have on the set says, anyone casting for a jane ban movie right now, no clue.

Next, he called the Angeles police department.

Hold, obviously a because IT wasn't .

like I .

didn't call nine one one. I just called the s kind of police .

department to feel like you're being put on, ignore, hoping you hanging up eventually.

I knew that IT sounds bizarre. I think the part of me was just tired, tired of women being victimized. A lot of my girlfriends, or models or actor says my, hear these stories all the time. When I was just caught a feeling, I out a little bit.

And so Susan hung up the phone, and he had an idea, a crazy idea, maybe, but this Victor creep, if Victor was even his real name, he needed to be taken down. And SHE Susan was just a woman to do IT. SHE would be the adventure. Of course, SHE knew you needed some extra muscle in case things got physical, so that night he asked her boyfriend to come with her to the audition. That was a good decision.

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IT was early afternoon when Susan Murphy's boyfriend, mark Wilson, parked his car about a block away from the intersection of Lucian of art and remain street. This was where a Victor Thomas had instructed Susan to wait for him to take her to the audition.

And the whole time is one. Susan, where are we doing this? He's like, you know, it's box and like, I know that is I just have to I want to go.

mark, gLance around looking for some sign of a film crew. But so none instead of wearing the black mini skirt and Stella, Susan had decided to wear a tariff cargo pants and ten is shoes. No way he was going to stand around in a street corner and that get up.

And I thought we're a mini skirt and high heels on a street corner that kind of a very vulnerable position. Who knows what people would think of me on dusty corner like that? So I thought my met with me.

On top of that, Susan had her boyfriend, a former london bobbi, to back .

her up second degree black belt member, the anti terrorist squad in london. You can take, and also please, offers in london. He was before .

slighting out of the passenger side. Susan reminded mark of the plan they had discussed. I saw.

I want you to see me standing. They are waiting for him. And I said, I know if I start to most walk towards that to get out of the car.

So you give you a signal.

kind of a signal, that know things weren't going right. Get the car immediately and help me out.

Susan walked to the designated corner and waited .

and waited up. I'm standing there literally out of nowhere. He just kind of appears, appears like magic proof, you know, there is.

And he's trust very, very nice. Maybe maybe he is real. He's trust very professionally. He asked me where my car was parked and I said, oh, just down the straight somewhere and he's what kind of car or do you have and I said, oh, I just lied about a car head. I didn't know.

I just now is asking some kind of other questions and like he goes, okay, well, we really teach that first. Unfair and happy you're not working the outfit. He's like this. All he's going to takes much time if you changed and everything else this I was unhappy .

with me was visibly.

I was visible, angry. But he just kind of said, i'm disapointment and we talked about this. You come on now. I was very specific about what I wanted you to wear and you're not wearing IT.

What did you say to that?

I said, I don't know what I said to IT I just think tough now tough no worry IT .

the man demanded to know if he d even had the outfit weather SHE said, yes he said, waving the back many skirt SHE had her hand.

I was time to go. He starts to like, kind, like touching me to push me somewhere. He said, we're going to go, go to drink first on that street corner he pointed to the building, go get a drink because so let's go get a drink and talk about the process a little bit more.

And I noticed that he was a band and building looks like to me, that look like there was any sort of activity or any kind of bar or restaurant and there. So okay, I said, well, first of all, i'm like going any word with you. I said, I need identification first.

I said that first and foremost. He said, oh, I don't. I don't have the identification. I said, you don't.

T I go? Where is that? He goes I looked on the set.

I go, you did on set. I said, oh, okay, all right. Well, i'm not going on with you. I'm sorry it's that he was, but you're going to make a hundred thousand dollars. I said my life is more important than that.

So at this point, you're just kind of cutting him off.

cutting him off, right?

I'm just that's IT. How did he react?

He was disappointed, very exposed. And you said, are you kidding me? Said, you know, you're perfect.

You're gona make all money. You're gona be famous. You're gonna on all the talk shows and I said I can go with you. You're a stranger. I just was incredulous, the fact that he thought I would actually go with them without identification or go some to some strange place. You got to be kidding me.

IT was then the Susan started motioning for her boyfriend to intervene. And that man he knew was Victor Thomas suddenly decided he no longer had bond. Girl potential was like.

you know what? You're not right for the party. I saw that I was motion somebody the part.

Anyway, just forget IT. And then he he goes, he starts to walk away, basically walk away. And so and i'm turning around this point to see more. And like, you come on, come on. And so the time I got there are the guy's gone .

like he appeared .

from nowhere and he's got, again.

smooth may. But by now, Susan and mark were like hounds on the scent. Mark, the former cop, was furious. They got back in the car, and they started circling the block over and over, looking down, allways peering in the store fronts.

And finally, we are driving by a driveway near that street corner, and we seem kind of dusting and himself off and walking down the driveway. And then mark parks the car. He gets out and he's a confrontation with him, just saying, and risking him too. He wants identity cation. He wants to know who yes, course, yes, he know of.

And I saw about them around and and and the guy, I mean, I was looking kind of scared too, because what's onna help me now? And he was, the guy will visibly shaking that mark was going, you what's your problem? I'm going drag your arcus into the police station. How are .

you do to girls? He did tear up a few times when mark failed to find any idea as pocket, he demanded to know who the man worked for. Disney radio was the answer. The mark wasn't done.

He was, give me your phone number. And so he takes a phone number down. I'm calling.

I'm a call right now, the x cop of the situation well in hand. Up to that point, IT was just one thing he'd left a cell phone he was going to use to verify the man's employment status in the car. Mark went back to the car to get IT, and Susan said that when Victorias made us get away.

decides to break free from the whole conversations are so kind of go through traffic and a mobile run away. I was he wasn't running .

like kind.

but he was getting the heck out there because he knew that he was caught. So back the car and just furious, he said, he said, thanks a lot, but we really involved in this. And like I knew that I said, there's something. What's up with this guy?

IT took Susan Murphy, but now to tell that story to detective urban chain. And once he was done, the detective said he had one request. Would you mind staying a bit longer to describe the man? SHE met at the mall to a police sketch artist. Susan, of course, said yes.

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They've been added for close to two hours. The witness in the artist tuck away in a small room off the detective bullpen, one active memory trying to convey a visual impression with words, while the other tried to translate those words back into a recognizable image with pencillings paper.

Sandy enzo of the los Angeles county share of office was the artist that day drawing and adJusting pencil lines, shading, where experiences told her the image should be molded. Susan Murphy was Sandy's eyes are only means of seeing and depicting the man. Detective urban chain desperately hope to find the work was slow, Susan said.

The eyes were little groupie of the corners. Is face long? Yes, like that? Is eyes kind of quinta? Well, Sandy worked done that sketch at the satoh, a police building. Misty Johnson's family and friends were doing all they could to generate media interest and public support for their efforts to bring Christe home. IT had been six days since Christi was last seen alive.

I'm hoping that they will apprehend the person that has taken Christie, and they will also find cristy.

that's Christy mom, speaking to a local T. V. reporter.

But now the .

rough outlines of the investigation .

were well known that Christie had met a man of the century city mall who invited her to a movie edition in the hollywood hills that SHE have been asked to wear a specific outfit that her phone at last paint the cell tower that afternoon in the Laural canyon area for Terry hall. IT all seems so unbelievable. How could her daughter have ever fAllen for such a ruse?

Christie was a very savy smart Young woman. And for her to have been convinced to go to situation, that is this, I thought myself, this must event, a very experienced predator.

On favorite one is second two thousand. Three Christy's parents took to the air and multiple interviews to mark their daughters twenty second birthday and plea for her safe return.

I love you so much. And if so many people that love you so much.

that's Terry. Again.

if you can get your phone call, anybody that you know of, just to say i'm OK just to give some sort of signal that you're all .

right cristie birthday and and SHE deserves a lot more than whether she's at now and that's kirk Johnson, british father, speaking on nbc today show from his old man michigan ai for Christy's return. And I just pray that this individual can watch the show, and I want thing to say, let her go. Just let my daughter go, let her go back to the family that loves her and do the right thing.

As one day blended into another with no word of Christie, kirk Johnson fluid, well a to pressure missing posters and wall help volunteers pass out leaflets to commuters with pictures of Christie, and are White miotto asking people to keep these other people. They see something IT was on a disable risi monday morning, nine days after Christmas, missing the the case got a second big break. Christie White mother been found in a parking gra shared by two hotels near the century city mall, the century city plaza and the same regions. The car had been sitting in a valley parky spot for more than a week since the day after Christie was also seen the parking attended, who had been on duty that sunday morning, told investigators that at about five forty five, he saw a man enter the driveway of the same regions and Parker weight musa metta in the valley area.

and the valley said, you can park there.

detective Virginia ia. Open chain.

The driver get out, throws them the keys and says, the new valley and walks away. The valley only saw him for a few brief seconds and really could not describe them very well other than a male White.

the mother me. Did you find any evidence the .

metta was completely wiped clean. There weren't even Christy's fingerprints in there.

What do you think when you .

saw that that was not a good indicator?

why?

If you have nothing to hide, then why hide?

The discovery of Christy's car landed like a gut punch to her family. Her older brother Derek, who was in the air force and preparing for another tour of duty in the middle, thought up until then that Christie would eventually turn up alive and well.

I thought was in a Christine like done something silly and fears really bad about IT that's Derek or she's just gone on the trip, ever got to talk people or like just, you know bring out for the guy, you know what to must to go for a week like I didn't think anything happened. But now, well after her car was found, even Derek had to admit things look bad. I started saying, and they like, there's something like really wrong here. IT was then that the family announced they were escalating their search efforts by opening the Christie Johnson recovery center. The center was to coordinate groups of searchers who we wanted to help look for.

Christine, what we will be doing is going through a whole training .

process with volunteers, have a lot of into eld.

After opening its doors, the Christie Johnson recovery is center at a team of volunteers in the field.

Go up the hill to wear sunset, bullet heart and palace drive beat. We know the genes. He was .

wearing a shopping bag.

yes, booming shopping .

bag for lunchers like iron. Chris Johnson s fate IT close to home, tell him, was about Christi's age.

So sad. He was so Young in her life is either over or missing. And if I didn't help, I would have felt worse than if I was just paying or sitting at home doing nothing.

Day eight of the Christie Johnson missing person's investigation on wet and jury across southern california IT had been ten days since anyone had seen Christmas but on this rainy tuesday, the sa. Monica police said something they wanted to say they call the press conference. And with a row of uniformed officers to his right and a composite sketch on an easier to his left, sa oic of chief of police James, but stepped to the microphone.

The sketch, of course, was the result of Susan Murphy collaboration with L. A sheriff department artist Sandy, the chief, was careful to not devote Susan's identity or details of what he had told the police, this witness said. The subject in this composite stated that he wished the photograph her in a photoshop related to a specific movie production.

This was the same movie production that miss chatz said he was going to addition for. The sketch depicted a long faced White man who look to be in his late thirties to early forties. IT will be dark care, his eyes wide set, maybe a little squinty full lips and a long straight nose.

As sketches go, IT wasn't bad, but IT was the best generic. Still, it's released by the sanoma tic. And police was news. The sketch was Carried on the local news that night and in the papers the next day.

Once we hear the sketch, we had a pro office, maria and arrius call us, and SHE asked her a facts of the sketch .

that's detective vironment change again.

As soon as we faked her the sketch, SHE called back and said, that happens to be one of my paroles.

Was the parole really the man depicted in the sketched? The man, Susan Murphy and her boyfriend had confronted on the streets of west. Or was he just one of thousands of men in southern california who might have met the description? Detective open an chain didn't know, but for the first time since Christ Johnson was reported missing, the detective had the name of a potential suspect, and that was a start.

Next time on murder and the hollywood heels.

I just felt I wanted to catch him doing. I don't know what.

but I wanted a corner room.

a little danger yeah ably. And I wouldn't .

recommend IT. Three hikers were up in the lookout mountain, and they thought a body.

what police don't say is just as important as what they do say. And this was one of those cases where they didn't say a whole lot. And I knew, actually, that said, a whole lot.

Murder in the hollywood hills is a production of deadline and nbc news. Tbm is a producer, ryan drew, kelya dean and martial house fell their audio editors cars and commons and kiani read or associate CER adam gordin is co executive producer, paul ryan is executive producer, and lisa al is senior executive producer. Reman be see news audio sound mixing by bob malaria, castine Anderson, Price and barns is head of audio production.

Hey, guys, really guys here, we're not going to check out the sunday sit down podcast on this weeks episode. I get together with the one and only hugh grant to talk about his chilling new film, heroic and a four decade run of unforgettable movies. You can find our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.