KY KY - Redhead Murders, 70's-90's

[Dylansmom08]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Someone in another group I am in suggested Donna Michelle Barnhill she was last seen in Lexington, North Carolina walking to a friends house she never made it to her friend and hasn't been seen since. Her last known location is roughly 5 hours, 310 miles away from where the unidentified was found.
Namus gives a 1 year PMI for the UID but NCMU gives a 1-4 year PMI so I don't see that she could be ruled out as a possibility. However, the distance from where she went missing to where this one was found is a bit on the longer side of the normal I would think but anything is possible.

Have you seen this child? Jane Doe1985

 

[MajorHoople]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Someone in another group I am in suggested Donna Michelle Barnhill she was last seen in Lexington, North Carolina walking to a friends house she never made it to her friend and hasn't been seen since. Her last known location is roughly 5 hours, 310 miles away from where the unidentified was found.
Namus gives a 1 year PMI for the UID but NCMU gives a 1-4 year PMI so I don't see that she could be ruled out as a possibility. However, the distance from where she went missing to where this one was found is a bit on the longer side of the normal I would think but anything is possible.

Have you seen this child? Jane Doe1985

Thanks for the link. I think this is her:

NC - NC - Donna Barnhill, 13, Lexington, 18 March 1981

 

[Earth]

Could these cases be connected? The killer (if there is only one killer behind this, sans Tina Farmer's murderer) may have carried on after 1985.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Amanda Rae Carroll – The Charley Project

Roszan Jean Payne – The Charley Project

Ginger May Hudson – The Charley Project

Patricia Ann Schmidt – The Charley Project

Robin Lynn Jobson – The Charley Project

Joyce Irene Walcott – The Charley Project

Paige Summer Moore – The Charley Project

Sampson County Jane Doe (1999)

 

[kid_kat0103]

Please let me know if anyone knows anything about these cases, or if they've been solved, or if there is already a thread. I have never heard of this case before, I can only find one piece of info out there on it - does anyone know anything on the status of the "redhead murders"?:

The Redhead Murders - Cold Case Investigations

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
February 6, 1986
Edition: FINAL
Section: CITY/STATE
Page: B2

TRUCK DRIVER NOT SUSPECTED IN EIGHT 'REDHEAD MURDERS'

Author: Bill Estep Herald-Leader staff writer

Article Text:
A Pennsylvania truck driver questioned in connection with the "redhead murders" has been cleared as a suspect in the string of eight unsolved killings.
"At this point, our agency does not consider Thomas Lee Elkins as a suspect in our . . . unsolved murder cases," said Steve Watson, the deputy director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Elkins, 32, a long-distance trucker, was arrested Monday on U.S. 51 near Newbern, Tenn., 80 miles north of Memphis, and was charged with kidnapping and raping a young redheaded woman.
The 20-year-old Boston, Mass., woman, who told police she was kidnapped in Indiana or Illinois, was later able to escape while Elkins was sleeping and called police from a farmhouse, said Jim Porter, a Dyer County sheriff's investigator.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has served as an information clearinghouse for investigators in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi looking into the unsolved deaths of eight women since late 1983.
The murders were dubbed the "redhead murders" because three of the eight victims had red or reddish-brown hair. All were young, slightly built white women, and most were strangled and dumped near major interstates.
Kentucky joined the list of states April 1, 1985, when the nude body of a young, unidentified woman with red hair who had been strangled was found in a dump in the Gray community near Corbin, a few miles from Interstate 75.
Only one of the eight women has been identified. Similarities in the eight murders led investigators to consider them as possibly having been linked.
TBI officials were notified about Elkins' arrest "as a matter of routine," Watson said.
"Because of our investigation of the . . . unsolved cases, we routinely talk to people involved in these types of crimes," he said.
However, a TBI agent concluded after questioning Elkins yesterday that the truck driver should not be considered a suspect in any of the eight unsolved murders, Watson said.
Elkins remains jailed without bond in Dyer County on the kidnapping and rape charges, Porter said.

Copyright (c) 1986 Lexington Herald-Leader
Record Number: 8601050807

I am looking into these as well. Have you seen the recent identification of Susan Lund who went missing from Clarksville, TN (1992) and her remains were found in 1993, but were not identified until 03/11/2022. She is a red headed woman matching the profile for all of the other victims and her remains were found in a state park in IL.

 

[kid_kat0103]

Could these cases be connected? The killer (if there is only one killer behind this, sans Tina Farmer's murderer) may have carried on after 1985.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Amanda Rae Carroll – The Charley Project

Roszan Jean Payne – The Charley Project

Ginger May Hudson – The Charley Project

Patricia Ann Schmidt – The Charley Project

Robin Lynn Jobson – The Charley Project

Joyce Irene Walcott – The Charley Project

Paige Summer Moore – The Charley Project

Sampson County Jane Doe (1999)

03/11/2022- SUSAN LUND MISSING IN CLARKSVILLE IN 12/1992 FOUND DEAD IN ILLINOIS WAYNE FITZGERRELL STATE PARK 1993

WENT MISSING WALKING TO THE GROCERY STORE HUSAND STATED HIS WIFE HAS BEEN SPOTTED ON I-65 NEAR LOUISVILLE. HE BELIEVED HIS WIFE HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED. SHE WAS PREGNANT.

CAUSE OF DEATH HAS NOT BEEN REALEASED AT THIS TIME. (REMAINS APPEARED DECAPITATED)

 

[Earth]

I do not think that this possibility has been suggested before, so I will now. Could be be entirely possible that the Cheatham County Jane Doe and the Campbell County Jane Doe are mother and daughter? It would explain why it has been so hard to identify them, as we were looking for missing individuals instead of two who disappeared together.

 

[Earth]

The girl found at Big Wheel gap has been identified as Tracy Sue Walker of Lafayette, Indiana.

 

[dotr]

The girl found at Big Wheel gap has been identified as Tracy Sue Walker of Lafayette, Indiana.

Identified! - TN - Jellico, Big Wheel Gap Rd, WhtFem 9-15, 482UFTN, button necklace, bracelet, shoes, Apr'85 Tracy Sue Walker

Thirty-seven years ago, the skeletal remains of a child were found in the Big Wheel Gap area of Elk Valley in Campbell County. Now, nearly four decades later, the child has been identified and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is hoping to find out what happened to her. The family...

www.websleuths.com

 

[bflocket]

03/11/2022- SUSAN LUND MISSING IN CLARKSVILLE IN 12/1992 FOUND DEAD IN ILLINOIS WAYNE FITZGERRELL STATE PARK 1993

WENT MISSING WALKING TO THE GROCERY STORE HUSAND STATED HIS WIFE HAS BEEN SPOTTED ON I-65 NEAR LOUISVILLE. HE BELIEVED HIS WIFE HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED. SHE WAS PREGNANT.

CAUSE OF DEATH HAS NOT BEEN REALEASED AT THIS TIME. (REMAINS APPEARED DECAPITATED)

View attachment 337256

I misread your post to mean that she went missing from Clarksville, Indiana. That is literally on one side of the Ohio River from Louisville (and I-65 is the way you'd get to Clarksville from Louisville). Clarksville, TN is just across the KY border near Fort Campbell.

Either way, I-24 goes to I-57 (which goes to where she was found) and I-65 isn't far from Clarksville, TN. It meets I-64 (also very close to where she was found) in Louisville. It's so weird that there are two Clarksville's just across the border from Kentucky, it's northern one and the southern one.

Susan Lund identfied

Clipping found in The Belleville News-Democrat published in Belleville, Illinois on 3/17/2022. Susan Lund identfied

www.newspapers.com

 

[bflocket]

This is a story about Lund that says she possibly went to Hopkinsville (near I-24 between Clarksville and I-57)

Susan Lund disappearance - Newspapers.com

Clipping found in The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tennessee on Jan 8, 1993. Susan Lund disappearance

www.newspapers.com

 

[bflocket]

I've been going through the thread to see which "possible" victims have been mentioned. They may have been mentioned and I overlooked them (that is more than likely the case) but here is a UID fits the series. Found not far from major roads in the St Louis area. Forgive me if they've already been noted...

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP14919
Female, 25-35, 5'5", White / Caucasian
Jarvis Township, Troy, Illinois
7/20/1990

42UFIL - Unidentified Female​

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Elizabethton students in Alex Campbell’s sociology class began reviewing a series of unsolved murders in the spring of 2018, referred to as the Redhead Murders because the victims were young women with red hair. The murders had taken place around Tennessee from the late ’70s until the 1990s. Prior to the work of the students, there had never been any consensus by law enforcement that the murders were related.

This week, two students, Marlee Mathena and Reiley Whitson, joined with Campbell to present the culmination of five years of investigation into the Redhead Murders. Local media outlets, as well as media outlets and law enforcement officers from the areas where the murders had been committed were invited to attend the research presentation.

Mathena and Whitson have been conducting their research this year as an extracurricular activity led by Campbell. The students heard about the previous work done by Campbell’s sociology students. Mathena and Whitson expressed a desire to begin a criminal psychology course. However, that could not take place until the following academic year.

Still, they decided they wanted to research the latest developments in the cold cases since the previous class’ work. They met with Campbell before school in the morning to share information. The students did the work on their own time, and they met weekly to discuss the progress.

2 Tennessee high school students review cold case killings

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — In addition to the usual English, math and science classes...

www.manisteenews.com

 

[Caring1]

April 26, 2023
WKRN News 2

CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — New information has been discovered in a decades-old murder case known as the “Redhead Murders.”

An Elizabethton High School teacher and his students could be on to a major break in the case.

The bodies of multiple women with red or reddish-brown hair were found discarded along interstates in the mid-1980s.

Back in February, we first told you about the student’s findings in the Redhead Murders case.

Redhead Murders: Students help identify more victims in decades old case
“They’re definitely potential victims of a ‘Redhead Murder.’ Are they 100%? I don’t know,” said Alex Campbell, an Elizabethton High School teacher.

Now, their teacher, Alex Campbell, has identified three more victims potentially linked to the crimes of the “Bible Belt Strangler.”

‘Redhead Murders’: TN high school teacher, students identify 3 new potential victims - NewsBreak

New information has been discovered in a decades-old murder case known as the "Redhead Murders."

www.newsbreakapp.com

 

[Earth]

Does anyone else think that Patricia Schmidt should be looked into regarding a probable connection to this case? The deceased that were recovered in April 1985 were found only shortly before she disappeared. If some of them were connected, the killer may have decided to go elsewhere and went to Virginia, where Patricia went missing.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The murders, which were dubbed the "Redhead Murders" because all of the victims had reddish hair, began in the late 70s. The victims, most of whom were unidentified, were found dumped along major highways in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia.

From left, Michelle Inman, Elizabeth Lamotte, Tina McKenney-Farmer, Tracy Sue Walker

It was believed that the killer was probably a trucker and picked up the women at truck stops and disposed of their remains in nearby states but despite investigative efforts in mid '80s, the murders remained unsolved.

The Elizabethton High School students' work on the case, which began in the spring of 2018 as part of a sociology class, is now featured in a 10-episode podcast called Murder 101.

Teacher Alex Campbell says he brought the case to the attention of his students because he likes "projects that get the students interested, projects where we can apply what we're learning in our classes,” he tells PEOPLE. “I had never heard about the murders even though I've lived here my entire life. They had these murders, but nobody had ever come to a consensus whether there was a person responsible for more than one of them, was there a serial killer active?"

How a Group of High School Students Helped Crack the 'Redhead Murders' Cold Case Decades Later

The victims, most of whom were unidentified, were found dumped along major highways in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia

people.com