KY KY/IN - Days Inn Murders, I-65, Mary Gill, Jean Gilbert, Vicki Heath, 1989

[legalmomma]

FBI, Indiana State Police to make major announcement on 'I-65 Killer' cold cases Multiple agencies will provide an update on the cold case investigations involving multiple murdered women in Kentucky and Indiana in the '80s and '90s.
I-65 Killer, Days Inn Killer cold case gets update from police | wthr.com

 

[legalmomma]

I couldn’t cut and paste but the announcement is April 5th 11am EST

 

[legalmomma]

I-65 Killer, Days Inn Killer cold case gets update from police | wthr.com

For more than 30 years, investigators have been working to find the man responsible. Now, Indiana State Police, Elizabethtown Police and the FBI have announced that they have a big update on the case.
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On February 21, 1987, Vicki Heath was sexually assaulted and shot twice in the head. Police found her body behind the dumpsters at the Super 8 Motel off of I-65 in Hardin County.

Elizabethtown Police Chief at the time, Ruben Gardner, worked the case as a detective when it happened and said even then he thought this murderer was someone traveling I-65 and this was a crime of opportunity.

"We did all the routine things that you do, compared it to every crime we could find around that had any similarities at all," Gardner told WHAS11 in 2013. But without any significant leads, the case went cold until 2008 when Detective Clinton Turner submitted DNA from well-preserved evidence.

"I say there's an 80% chance we could find him," said Turner.
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Elizabethtown Police matched the DNA in Heath's case to at least four other cases in several states. In each case, the women were all motel clerks, they were all sexually assaulted and robbed and they all worked along I-65.

Police said these incidents were the trail of a traveling serial killer.

The DNA also linked the murderer to two women who were sexually assaulted and killed in Indiana in 1989.

One year later, in 1990, a woman in Columbus, Indiana was sexually assaulted and stabbed but survived. That was the first time police were able to get a description of the killer. She described the assailant as a man with green eyes and a lazy right eye.

In 1991, a woman in Minnesota who was also sexually assaulted and stabbed gave police a similar description of her attacker. The victim described the suspect as a white male, 6'- 6'2'', with green eyes, the right eye was described as a lazy eye, and he had grayish-brown hair. He was wearing a flannel shirt and blue jeans.

"That was why is was so difficult because most of our murders are local or have some type of domestic tie or something. Whereas this is a random murder and there are 16 million people that travel up and down 65 in a year's time," Elizabethtown Police Detective Clinton Turner told WHAS11 in 2013.

After 35 years, could detectives have an answer? The announcement is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5, at 11:00 a.m. ET in Indianapolis.

 

[Kecharaeq2]

Grey Hughs Investigates covered the I-65 Killer this evening.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Authorities to provide update on serial murderer known as the 'I-65 Killer'

INDIANAPOLIS (WDRB) -- Indiana State Police, along with the FBI and police from Elizabethtown and Kentucky, are providing an update Tuesday on a serial killer investigation that has remained unsolved for more than 35 years.


Tuesday's press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. and will be streamed live on WDRB at this link.

 

[Nina Michigan]

Spoiler - the killer is Harry G....... and he's got a long, ugly criminal record

JMO, YMMV

 

[meanmaryjean]

Doug Carter of the ISP is an absolute gem of a man.

 

[Kecharaeq2]

Gray Hughes Investigates caught the press conference and yep American Crime Journal/Damion Moore had it right.

 

[FrankieFalzon]

The murderer has been identified as Harry Edward Greenwell.

FBI, Indiana State Police identify ‘I-65 Killer’ as Harry Edward Greenwell

Investigations are ongoing to verify if Greenwell is tied to additional homicides.

 

[LadyL]

Police identify the "I-65 killer" suspected of raping and murdering 3 motel clerks in the 1980s - CBS News

 

[dotr]

I-65 killer identified (fox59.com)

DAYS INN MURDERS CRIMINAL HISTORY
After more than 30 years, Indiana State Police have identified the so-called I-65 killer. ISP says investigative genealogy was used to name Harry Edward Greenwell as the man that killed at least three women along the I-65 corridor in the late 1980s. Now we are getting a look at his criminal history.

I-65 Serial Killer Identified in Cold Case Investigation - YouTube

 

[dub]

Greenwell also looks VERY similar to one of the sketches of the I-70 killer, and has a decent resemblance to another sketch. The latter sketch even looks like it could have a lazy eye (although that is not noted in a description that I’m aware of).

What’s weird though is despite that, it seems very unlikely that he was responsible for the I-70 series, because the height difference is so extreme that it’s outside the realm of reasonable human error. The I-70 killer was estimated to be 5-7”-5’9”, but this guy is around 6’5”.

Seems like a super bizarre coincidence!

 

[Falling Down]

I think a lot of us sleuthers could let our minds run wild with this one.

Long career with CP working in "safety". How much of his job involved travel? He would have stayed in hotels as part of his job, I'd imagine, at least one of his jobs with the RR throughout his career.

Did he have access to a company vehicle on all of these trips? Any vehicle descriptions in unsolved cases that could be related? Which personal vehicles did he drive over the years?

 

[Kecharaeq2]

Greenwell also looks VERY similar to one of the sketches of the I-70 killer, and has a decent resemblance to another sketch. The latter sketch even looks like it could have a lazy eye (although that is not noted in a description that I’m aware of).

What’s weird though is despite that, it seems very unlikely that he was responsible for the I-70 series, because the height difference is so extreme that it’s outside the realm of reasonable human error. The I-70 killer was estimated to be 5-7”-5’9”, but this guy is around 6’5”.

Seems like a super bizarre coincidence!

Hmm, there are some similarities I think, with the sketch on the right in the picture of the I-70 Killer… general facial shape and length and the lazy eye. Just need to get past all the facial hair and hat.

 

[MajorHoople]

'I-65 killer' is unmasked as dead Iowa man who was liked to killings of three female motel clerks | Daily Mail Online

"Police have used DNA data to unmask the so-called 'I-65 killer' who murdered three female motel clerks and sexually assaulted another in the late 1980s.

Harry Edward Greenwell, 68, of Iowa, is responsible for the series of slayings that occurred at motels near Interstate 65 in Indiana and Kentucky from 1987 through 1990, Indiana state police revealed during a press conference Tuesday.

Police used a new DNA analysis process called forensic genealogy to link Greenwell to the killings of Vicki Heath, Margaret 'Peggy' Gill and Jeanne Gilbert, as well as the assault of an unnamed victim."

 

[Becky Starkey]

I-65 killer: Could he be the I-70 serial killer? (kmov.com)

 

[Falling Down]

I-65 killer: Could he be the I-70 serial killer? (kmov.com)

Yet the firearm used in the I-70 murders is rather rare and distinctive, and the MO is much different IMO.

 

[Hockeyfan158]

When looking at this case and Harry Edward Greenwell record I’m surprised non of the true crime shows particularly Unsolved Mysteries or Americas Most Wanted never featured this case i doubt it but maybe someone in Harry family or friends would’ve recognized him had they shown it but who knows. I feel bad for everyone involved in this accept for Harry himself of course from his wife it does sound like when he was dying he wanted to get something off his chest but was too afraid to admit what it was. I feel bad for the victims and his family mostly his wife and granddaughter he was close to.