Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie
"I've never seen a case marked by less sympathy for a murder victim than this one." — Detective investigating Vicki Lynn Harrell's case.
"You see, I know that she took my cancer from me. If the type of thing my Cali alley would do, she's pulled me out of the deepest depressions of my life. She's pulled me up 10,000 foot mountains in the snow because she knew I needed to get outside. She's worn me of coyotes and moose and bear and made sure I never left the house alone. She is the protector I didn't know I needed. And now I get to be hers. Her last act is to save me from something I didn't even know I had lurking within me. And she's doing a great job." — Sydney, listener sharing story about her dog, Cali.
"The only other real piece of evidence found in or around the car itself were a few partial fingerprints that they collected and sent off for testing." — Brett discussing evidence at Pamela Milum's crime scene.
The episode begins by introducing the podcast's mission to revive forgotten cold cases, leading into the story of Pamela Milum, a sophomore at Indiana State University, who disappeared on September 15, 1972. Her car was found days later with her purse emptied and her body discovered in the trunk. The initial investigation, hampered by limited forensic capabilities of the era, focused on clues found in and around the car, including a decorating box used to bind her and partial fingerprints. The autopsy revealed strangulation as the cause of death and indicated potential struggle, though injuries to her face were initially misattributed.
A potential connection is explored with the murder of Vicki Lynn Harrell, who was found strangled a month prior in a different location, with carvings on her chest. The contrast in media coverage and public sympathy between the two victims is highlighted, with Pamela's case receiving extensive attention due to her perceived "all-American" image, while Vicki's received less, potentially due to societal stigma. Despite initial similarities, law enforcement found no definitive link between the two cases, leading to separate investigations.
The narrative then shifts to the long and arduous process of reinvestigating Pamela's case decades later. Advances in DNA technology provided new hope. In 2001, testing of a stain on Pamela's blouse yielded a DNA profile, but it did not match the initial suspect, Robert Wayne Austin, who was convicted of unrelated assaults. Subsequent reinvestigations in 2008 and 2017 utilized further advancements, including touch DNA and genetic phenotyping, to develop a composite sketch of the suspect.
The breakthrough came in 2018 when the remaining DNA sample was sent to Parabon NanoLabs. Utilizing forensic genealogy, they identified a distant relative, which eventually led investigators to Jeffrey Lynn Hand. Hand had a violent criminal history, including a murder conviction in 1973, for which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and later released. DNA analysis of his sons confirmed a 99.9% probability that Jeffrey Lynn Hand was Pamela Milum's killer. The episode concludes by noting that Jeffrey Hand died in a police shooting in 1978, and the case for Vicki Lynn Harrell remains unsolved, with a plea for information.