DC DC - Freeway Phantom Haunts police

[marble]

I also don't think the victim wrote that letter. I would think the writing would betray more shakiness and fear. Looks way too clean for it to have been written by that poor girl.

Since the articles state that it was written on a piece of paper from her notebook, it's *highly* likely that the note was written in the same handwriting as the other items in her notebook and that's how the detectives knew she'd been dictated to.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Unsolved murders of six black girls in the '70s still haunts families, retired detectives

Unsolved murders of six black girls in the '70s still haunts families, retired detectives

Retired D.C. police detective Romaine Jenkins doesn't remember many of the cases she handled during her four years in homicide. It was the late 1960s and early '70s, and the unit was overwhelmed with murders. She was in her 20s then, and the first woman to make it to homicide. She'd been sent there by the department's top brass to investigate baby deaths, including abortions, which were illegal at the time. Some of the male detectives, particularly those who were fathers, didn't particularly like investigating the deaths of children. Such cases hit too close to home. But Jenkins, then single and childless, didn't mind.

 

[Nillystar]

Here is an opinion piece about the Freeway Phantom that I also found useful. I think one of us needs to call the Prince George's County Police Department and beg someone to search through the evidence and see if they can find anything for test for DNA, now that DNA testing is so advance.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d678ec08c2f_story.html?utm_term=.48deee0f762a

 

[Richard]

The Freeway Phantom has never been identified.

 

[GreyClay]

The latest episode of Casefile (Episode 121) covers the case of the Freeway Phantom. Hopefully the high profile of this podcast brings some much needed attention to this case.

The Casefile team have produced these six maps showing the last known movements of the six known victims, and the places where their remains were found:

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[GreyClay]

The latest episode of Casefile (Episode 121) covers the case of the Freeway Phantom.

Having now listened to it twice, I have to say it is an excellent episode. The thing that stood out the most was how the Casefile team insisted that the Green Vega suspect didn't provide a single detail that wasn't already publicly known.

This is very different from what is stated in the Wikipedia article:

During these interviews, one gang member initially implicated another gang member, who he said told him he was involved and gave information as to one of the beltway homicides. This particular inmate was also serving a sentence at Lorton Prison for the Green Vega convictions. The inmate being interviewed stipulated that he would provide the information only if he could remain unidentified, which was agreed upon. He identified the man who gave him the information, the date and location of the crime, and signature detail which was not provided to the public, but which was known only to the perpetrator, and to detectives.

Freeway Phantom - Wikipedia


I wonder which version of the story is correct? If the inmate in question provided an unknown 'signature detail' to the Green Vega member, then he was likely the killer, or well acquainted with the killer.

If however, he did NOT provide any unknown he could have just been lying, or seeking attention/notoriety or a reduced jail sentence...

 

[nohopehere]

I've read somewhere serial killers tend to kill people of their own race.
If this is true there's a good chance the murderer was a black male.

 

[Moonwalker9]

I've read somewhere serial killers tend to kill people of their own race.
If this is true there's a good chance the murderer was a black male.

This theory is correct and was further proven on the latest season of Mind Hunter about the Atlanta Child Murders.

A white man abducting young black girls at a predominately black neighbourhood at broad daylight and some of them willingly entering his car aswell is highly unlikely. There would also have been more witnesses.

I think the suspect in this case was most likley a black man working or living close by. A Shame most of the evidence is lost. There was DNA that went missing without being tested aswell as clothing and a hair samples. I didn't quite get wether the hair is still available though.

 

[Moonwalker9]

What puzzled police is that Brenda Crockett stated that she was picked up by a white man after she called home from captivity, she stated she was in Virginia and she asked wether her mother had seen her? probably this was an instruction from the suspect to mislead authorities and to make sure that he had not been seen in company with her daugher because he probably lived in the neighbourhood and knew her mother. (this explenation was given in the Casefile episode) .

The FBI profile of the Phantom Killer stated that the killer would likely:

- Be employed

- Have at least a high school education, with either "average or above-average intelligence"

- Be a charming young man, who often struggled to maintain healthy relationships

- Likely lived alone or with an older woman (creating some kind of resentment towards females)

- Having known the neighborhood that he committed his crimes in

If the killer fit this profile, and was in his 20's or 30's, it is possible that he is still alive. 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.

 

[Fede]

Here are a couple of recent articles on the Freeway Phantom:
Unsolved Case of ‘Freeway Phantom’ Haunts Families Decades After Slain Girls Were Found in D.C. Area
Inside the Hunt for a Serial Killer Who Dumped 6 Girls' Bodies Along Roads Around Washington, D.C.

 

[lifeitself]

Made an account just to post here, but I'm not sure how much new information I even really have... now feels as good a time as any to share what I've been mulling over the past few years though. Hopefully some of you guys are still active and looking into it. I've always been fascinated by this case- I spent a lot of time in southeast DC as a kid, and my mom was actually in Girl Scouts with the first victim's twin sister. It feels weirdly personal. Mostly it just baffles me that this has never come anywhere close to being solved. Because someone HAS to know something... right? The people that grew up here are still here, and somebody just has to know what happened to these little girls.

My entire family is from this area of southeast DC: I won't go into all the details, but I'll narrow the down neighborhood to Congress Heights. In 1971, my grandparents, mom and her 3 older brothers (who are all white) lived in the group of houses around the intersection of Malcolm X and 295, essentially right next to the location where Carol (victim 1) and Darlenia (victim 2) were discovered, and just north of Diane (victim 6). There's a huge tree line, and in the fall/winter, you can see the freeway from 2nd St straight through and down a fairly big hill. (Marion Barry actually lived on the same street for awhile, in the mid-2000s long after his last term as mayor.)

@Omori back in 2013 pointed out that in this part of DC in 1971, white people would have really stood out. "White flight" took off halfway through the last decade, and ramped way up after the King riots in 1968. I confirmed this with my mom, and she agreed that there weren't many then at all- considering her family were pretty much the only white folks still around. Which makes it interesting to me that Brenda (victim 3) would mention in her calls that the man who had her was white. Not to mention that Virginia is only minutes away via 295, so for a 10 year old who walked everywhere it'd have been very easy for her to get confused. No way to really know the truth, but it's fair to keep theorizing about it with the lack of anything else.

I'm gonna pick up a copy of Tantamount for some more insight on the geographic profiling thing as well... I could have sworn an article from a few years ago included a map that narrowed down the killer's neighborhood TO Congress Heights, though I can't find it for the life of me. But I've never been convinced on Atkins- mostly because I've never thought of St. Elizabeth's as the Biggest and Baddest mental hospital considering some of my family members spent their early years there too... you might as well hold a candle to everyone who went in/out of there in the 60s and 70s if that's the pin holding it all together.

This got very long, but please share your thoughts/info. I'm already in a deep enough rabbit hole as it is: my grandfather died at that house in April '72, and my uncles would stick around to get into their own brands of trouble as the years went on...

 

[lifeitself]

Haven't seen this article linked yet!

KILLINGS UNSOLVED 25 YEARS LATER

"Police investigators initially linked a total of seven slayings, including that of Barnes, to the same killer. Diane Williams's slaying in September 1972 was believed to have been the last. But Jenkins, who said she reopened the case in 1987 after it had sat dormant for years, also linked the killing of Teara Ann Bryant, 18, to the Freeway Phantom case. Bryant, of Maryland, was the only victim not from the District. Her body was found November 26, 1972, under a bridge in the 4000 block of Bladensburg Road NE."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...s-later/4c921bb7-5d9d-4752-99f2-0bd00d6ca0df/

 

[wendybtn]

I could not find Askins in the North Carolina Inmate Locator. Does anyone know if he is still living?

Deceased 4/30/2010, age 91.

 

[Richard]

The Victims: click on image to enlarge.

LINK:
The Freeway Phantom Murders – Varomni

 

[Richard]

Made an account just to post here, but I'm not sure how much new information I even really have... ...

Welcome to Websleuths, and thank you for your posts. Please continue to post more on this case and others.

This is indeed an old and perplexing case. One has to wonder why the particular little girls were chosen and why the "breaks" or time separations between his kills.

Very likely that he was incarcerated or out of the area during those periods.

DC does have a cold case office which works very hard to solve some of these old cases. Suggest that you contact them with anything you have to offer - no matter how insignificant it might seem to you. They will listen.

 

[Tommy2step]

Tantamount was a good book and I recommend it highly...I agree with other posters here, a Caucasian male in that area will stand out like a fat guy at a health food store.... people gonna take notice.

 

[IWILLNOTBOW]

The Victims: click on image to enlarge.

LINK:
The Freeway Phantom Murders – Varomni

Hi I'm new here, just heard about this site today. I'm attempting to look into this case and was wondering if you were as well? I emailed the PD but have yet to receive a reply and I don't even know if they will reply..have you ever had any luck looking into a case with the help of the local PD?

 

[Richard]

Hi I'm new here, just heard about this site today. I'm attempting to look into this case and was wondering if you were as well? I emailed the PD but have yet to receive a reply and I don't even know if they will reply..have you ever had any luck looking into a case with the help of the local PD?

Yes, the Washington DC Metropolitan police have an active cold case unit and they are always glad to hear from anyone with information or questions. Here is some info on this case from their website:

"Freeway Phantom" Victims (1971-1972)


Victims (from left to right): Carol Spinks, Darlenia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia Yates, Brenda Woodard

“Freeway Phantom” Homicide Victims

Saturday, September 30, 1972
From April 1971 to September 1972 six young African-American girls were abducted from their neighborhoods in Washington, DC and murdered. Their bodies were found in both the District of Columbia and in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The suspect in these murders has been called “The Freeway Phantom” by the media. The Major Case/Cold Case Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department, in conjunction with the Prince George’s County, Maryland Police Homicide Unit is seeking the public’s help in solving these cases.

Victims:

• Carol Spinks - Abducted April 21, 1971
• Darlenia Johnson - Abducted July 8, 1971
• Brenda Crockett - Abducted July 27, 1971
• Nenomoshia Yates - Abducted Oct. 1, 1971
• Brenda Woodard - Abducted Nov. 15, 1971

Contact:
Metropolitan Police, Washington D.C.
300 Indiana Avenue, NW, Room 5059, Washington , DC 20001
Phone: (202) 727-9099
Fax: (202) 727-4106
TTY: 711
Email: mpd@dc.gov

 

[Richard]

Diane Williams

Also a victim of the Freeway Phantom. Websleuths will only allow 5 images per post.

 

[IWILLNOTBOW]

Yea I know all of their available info already, but thank you very much! I've been waiting about a week now for an email back from PD. I actually don't believe that Brenda Woodward was technically part of the "group". I'm not a betting person, but I'd bet that her case was a different killer.