Lewis Crockett, 39, was 14 when his 10-year-old sister, Brenda Fay Crockett, disappeared and was found dead a day later. One such suspect was the rookie police officers duo Edward Sullivan and Tommie Simmons. [5], On July 8, 1971, Johnson, 16, from Congress Heights was abducted while on route to her summer job at Oxon Hill Recreation Center. Yazoo City. Union. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister. With the cooperating inmate no longer speaking, this lead quickly wilted. "You never forget. Free-way Phantom!" They said they had arrest warrants for another 26 people. He didn't want to be left in the dust, but agreed to speak to investigators only if they kept his name out of it. The Freeway Phantom is a self imposed nickname for an unidentified serial killer who was active in Washington, D.C. from April 1971 through September 1972. The Freeway Phantom has been described as a loner motivated by rage that was focused on overall society. In the second case - Darlenia Johnson - her remains were too decomposed to tell how quickly she had been killed or disposed of. Modus Operandi Just one of eight children, Carol had an identical twin sister named Carolyn. During her time as a homicide detective, Jenkins mainly investigated the deaths of children and babies. Investigators would theorize that the phone calls made to Brenda's family were facilitated by the kidnapper, who wanted to feed false information to the police. Some leads were easily proven not to be viable, while others required substantial investigation. Read More: Are Green Vega Rapists Freeway Phantom? Ph: (781) 272-0050 While she remains hopeful the killings eventually will be solved, Jenkins believes the passage of time already has diminished the chances of closing the case. The body also had a coat on its chest, in the pockets of which was a note with a poem , this is tAntAmount to my If he was as young as investigators believe, he would now be entering his twilight years - of retirement age, at least, or quickly approaching it. Nothing seemed to link him to the six victims, and a comparison of the green fibers that had been found on 5 of the 6 victims' clothing didn't match anything that Askins owned. There, she was sexually assaulted and beaten, before being freed by her kidnapper. However, police struggled to come to grips with some other differences: such as the note found in Brenda's coat pocket - which seemed to taunt investigators - and the fact that Brenda was found still wearing her boots. Now, on the other side of town, another child found themselves walking along the side of the road as evening approached. [13], The Freeway Phantom case has seen a myriad of investigators and garnered much interest over the years. All suspects are charged with state drug offenses and were cited and released with future dates to appear in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Courts across the state. Remember when I told you that police had initially found semen on Diane Williams' clothing, and ruled it out as her boyfriend's? He seemed to be an amiable man, who was known for his propensity to use the word "tantamount" - seemingly at random - but a further look at Askins revealed a bit of a sketchy past. He replaced Joel Dabney Courtney, who portrayed Nathaniel Malick in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 43 Winn Street Burlington, MA 01803. There is no closure," Williams said. Are Green Vega Rapists Freeway Phantom? During his trial, it was revealed that he'd been a police informant, aiding law enforcement in the arrests of prostitutes. Immediately, the case showed some prominent similarities to that of Carol Spinks, another teenager that had been murdered a few months prior. Perhaps she knew her abductor, and wasn't too far away from her family's home at the time of the call. Unfortunately, their questions regarding her fate would be answered less than a week later. Despite being just seven years old at the time, she continues to describe the day she learned of Brenda's death as the "most devastating" day of her life. Regardless, both of these retired homicide detectives continue to stick to their guns. Holland, OH Leesburg, VA Ashburn, VA West Lafayette, IN Germantown, MD State College, PA. of Victims That ended up being 13 years later, in 1952, when he was re-indicted and convicted of the murder charges. The conversation carried on like this for a moment, with Brenda not seeming to have any real information to give. Court documents were found in a desk drawer in which a judge had used the word "tantamount," an uncommon word that had appeared in the note dictated by the killer of Brenda Woodward. However, in an unusual twist of fate, they were resting right next to her body, as if they had been gently placed there by the killer after he disposed of her body. In the cases of all the Freeway Phantom victims, the girls were stabbed or strangled, and in some cases had been sexually assaulted, according to police. Askins remains one of the most popular suspects in the media, and many of the original detectives heavily favored him as the Freeway Phantom. Hairs of two unknown males were found on the clothing of Brenda Woodward, hairs whose origin is unknown. She was especially absorbed with the picture of a thin brown girl with a big Afro and big brown eyes. Investigators had now followed up several leads at this point - including Robert Askins and the Green Vega's - but had little to show for it. Brenda then told her younger sister that she was in Virginia, before the call came to an abrupt end. She ended up managing the child abuse squad for several years, hoping to make life better for children around the D.C. region. On Saturday, May 1st, 1971 - six days after the disappearance of Carol Spinks - a group of kids were playing in a grassy area behind St. Elizabeths Hospital. In March, 1977, a 58-year-old computer technician, Robert Elwood Askins, was charged with abducting and raping a 24-year-old woman inside his Washington, D.C. home. They would be called back later on, but by that time, the case had grown stagnant. Less than three hours after her mysterious disappearance, the remains of Nenomoshia Yates would be found. A store clerk would later recognize the girl from photographs, and state she had purchased the items that evening, just after 7:00 PM. An aspiring model, she had just started her senior year at Ballou High School in Washington D.C. A short distance down the road, he was able to flag down a police officer, who reported the scene. But ours have been forgotten.". She was heading home from a friend's home late at-night, in the middle of the summer, and her body was discovered the following morning, out in Waldorf, Maryland. Were Edward Sullivan and Tommie Simmons Freeway Phantom? The search for Brenda Crockett was - thankfully - not a long way. This is the story of Washington D.C.'s first known serial killer, the Freeway Phantom. edward sullivan and tommie simmonsmark anthony ontario. "From that moment on, our lives were never the same," said Williams, 40, who is a police officer. Investigation Discoverys People Magazine Investigates: The Freeway Phantom chronicles the crimes of a serial murderer self-proclaimed as the Freeway Phantom. They were all African American females between the ages of 10 and 18 that lived along the Washington Beltway, who had been abducted while walking, and whose bodies had been dumped off of busy roads (such as interstates and freeways). So, Trainum took back the evidence, and submitted it to the FBI forensic database where the same thing happened. The investigations resulted in 53 individual charges of selling heroin, and 43 individual charges of selling crack cocaine, among other charges. The area that these crimes unfolded - primarily, Washington D.C. - held a predominant black population. There were a number of noticeable differences that set it apart. Carol obliged, and accepted the five dollars from her older sister. insensititivity [sic] to people This hints at some kind of urgency, such as the killer being rushed. Brenda got off to catch a transfer, and said goodbye to her classmate. On the evening of November 15th, 1971, Brenda met up with a male classmate of her's, and the two had dinner together at a D.C. staple named Ben's Chili Bowl. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 - and the subsequent riots, which caused extensive damage to the Washington D.C. region - the area had been left reeling. Why was this case never solved?, The Washington Post - Would the Freeway Phantom case already be solved if the victims werent black?, The Washington Post - The Freeway Phantom Revisited (Youtube video), Washington Examiner - DNA discovery could solve 1972 Freeway Phantom slaying, The Washington Post - Freeway Phantom Slayings Haunt Police, Families Six Young D.C. In December of 1938 - when Askins was a much younger man - he had poisoned a sex worker in Washington D.C with potassium cyanide. Bertha recalls Brenda stating: "A white man picked me up, and I'm heading home in a cab.". Like the first four victims, Woodard had been strangled but it appeared that her end had been a much more violent one. Join Facebook to connect with Edward Sullivan and others you may know. Tommy served on the USS INTREPID CVA-11 US Navy, four years MM3 At least, this is what the victim had claimed, and was reported in the Afro American at the time. Prosecutors at the time said there was no evidence linking the pair to the other slayings. Her body was found November 26, 1972, under a bridge in the 4000 block of Bladensburg Road NE. During their correspondence, Askins continued to deny having any part in the Freeway Phantom murders, stating that he did not have: " the depravity of mind required to commit any of the crimes.". REAL CRIMINAL Valerie, Carol's 24-year old sister that lived across the hall in the apartment building, asked the kids if any of them would walk down to a nearby store for her. To this day, many believe that police did not give the investigation the necessary resources or manpower. These family members banded together in 1973, to form the Freeway Phantom Organization - a grouping of loved ones, who wanted to support one another in the wake of this tragedy. Coroners would later note that the strangulation was excessive, with the girl's esophagus having been broken. Angela Denise Barnes was a 14-year old that disappeared on July 12th, 1971, just days after Darlenia Johnson had gone missing. "Signature details," they called them - intimate details that would be known only by the responsible parties and investigators. It had housed everyone from psychotic killers to returning Vietnam veterans suffering from undiagnosed PTSD. During this period, an election was being held in Maryland, and one of the candidates publicly announced to the press that a break had occurred in the Freeway Phantom investigation, and provided that an inmate at Lorton Prison had given the information. It's a story that continues to haunt her, more than two decades after her retirement. During this encounter, the man also told the victim that he had recently returned from Vietnam, was lonely, and was sick of no one understanding him. One of the cases often pointed to as an example of this very behavior is the disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon - two sisters that disappeared from the Washington D.C./Maryland region in 1975. Occupation Investigators hypothesized that the killer left her shoes because her name was inscribed on the pair. In the coming years, detectives would theorize that this implies some connection to the neighborhood Brenda Crockett lived in. James Groom was later arrested for the incident, and charged with both kidnapping and sexual assault. Post author: Post published: January 28, 2023 Post category: kennings for tree kennings for tree However, he traces the killer's origins to the neighborhood of Congress Heights, where, as Trainum states: "He felt safe there, he felt he could do his dirt and get away with it.". Former Washington police officers, Edward Sullivan and Tommie Simmons, were convicted of murdering Angela Denise Barnes, age 14. [9] As with the other cases, her shoes were missing and unidentified green fibers would also be found on her clothing. However, that changed in 1974, when Sellman and Simmons were arrested for the crime, and charged with murder. Likely, it had been dictated to her by the killer. The case files had been lost by DC police in the years since, and were nowhere to be found. As you can imagine, both of this leads led nowhere. james liston pressly; Tags . The cause, he said, was revenge: for him contracting a venereal disease from another sex worker earlier that year. Span of crimes Some time had passed since the end of the Freeway Phantom's crime spree, when an anonymous tip forwarded to police hinted at some kind of connection between the "Green Vega's" and the still-unsolved crime spree. 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