Hunting the I-70 Killer: A Conversation with Dead End Author Bob Cyphers

[00:00:00] BP added more than $70 billion to the U.S. economy in 2022 by making investments from coast to coast.

[00:00:08] Investments like building charging hubs for fleets of electric buses in California and starting up new infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

[00:00:18] It's and, not or.

[00:00:21] See what doing both means for energy nationwide at of killing. We've covered this case before. We did an extensive interview with Mike Crook, one of the key investigators on the case.

[00:01:44] We will link to those episodes in our show notes. Thanks. around the country at the various cities. And K-Mobile gave me in my last year the opportunity to spend time working on that, do it well. I think a lot of times for in this day and age for news websites, especially for TV stations or newspapers, they're just a rehash of the headlines of what they have

[00:04:20] on their newscasts or in their paper.

[00:04:22] And K-Mobile wanted to do, you know,

[00:04:25] some longer form magazine style stories, if you will, agent or a publisher and I said what's the problem here and they said well let me see Bob how many social media followers do you have? I said I'm a 65 year old man. I have none. We're not taking your book. Do you think we have people sitting around all day in rooms just reading books that we're paying and I kind of thought well I guess I thought you did. Maybe they did

[00:05:42] in the old days but I didn't fit the problems with journalism or reporters around the country, and it's not a knock, it's just it's almost like a minor league baseball team where if you're in the rookie league and do well, you move up to class A and then double A and then triple A, eventually the major leagues reporters and journalists are constantly moving around the country.

[00:07:00] And so they're not in one place for a knew the work I'd done. I've done other cold case stories. There was really nobody else in the market doing that. And I built up again, some friendships over time with people. And especially on this case, I was there the first day this case broke

[00:08:22] and in St. Charles. And so I followed this case on a story. So I grabbed the other photographer and I said, let's go. And we get out there and boy, there's a big parking lot packed with cars or shoppers going in and out of stores. Police have crime scene

[00:09:41] tape up and I, we faked it out. And back involved in the case. And I've been kind of watching it closely ever since.

[00:11:01] Let's get back to the very first confirmed killing,

[00:11:05] which of course was Robin Fulldauer and the friends and whatever, what struck me was how close that payload store, which is now a battery plus store, was to the Speedway gas station. I mean, it is just literally steps away. The walk didn't take me 10 seconds. And so you're realizing again, he's killing

[00:12:20] somebody in a public place in the middle of the day. Robin never answered for like an hour. So the manager of the Payless store eventually calls the Speedway store and Lucretia is working behind the counter that day and he says, hey, do you mind going next door? I'm trying to get a hold of my manager and she's not answering the phone call and I'm a little bit concerned and Lucretia goes next door

[00:13:41] and sure enough the store is empty. There's no, there's a hitchhiker or a truck driver, but there was no place where it's on my truck there's a neighborhood behind the palest store and I think right now if you go there and just say what's the most likely scenario that could have happened here He would have had to a park to get away car in that neighborhood

[00:15:03] walk

[00:15:04] You know for 10 minutes to the store if he didn't go and get gas embroiled in all matter of mysteries. It's like becoming the central figure in your own cozy mystery story. Seriously, download this game and enjoy. It's like a built-in work break and gives me a feeling of being decompressed and ready to tackle whatever is next. I'll play anywhere at any time. It's a fun activity to do before going to bed or even just after waking up.

[00:16:23] It's great to play while sitting aroundidal for a wedding store and a customer calls and says, Hey, I've got a wedding in Wichita at seven o'clock. I'm running a few minutes late. I got to get a comfort bond. I see your store closes at six. I can be there

[00:17:41] like 605 and you stay open just a few extra minutes for me and

[00:17:44] I'll get there. I promise. Patricia Smith and and Patricia an eyewitness. He sees the killer has a gun wrapped in a wedding gaitle that he obviously used to keep the noise down. And now the serial killer is confronted with a problem. Do I kill this guy? Do I let him go? He's seen me and the sad one. He's been with calls 9-1-1 about an hour later. Police rushed to the scene. Patricia Smith relies early, but she passes away. Had the Cumberbund man called police earlier and the ambulance got there earlier,

[00:20:22] Patricia Smith may have lived.

[00:20:24] She may have been the eyewitness.

[00:20:26] Murders may have stopped at that point. in two cities within a couple days, hundreds of miles apart. That is so sad about the Cumberland man's guilt that he's lived with as a result of this tragedy. Yeah. And again, no robbery at the scene, no sexual assault, but police departments weren't talking to each other, which is how I didn't know about the Indianapolis case.

[00:21:42] But you can see it's the women's, you know, craft store.

[00:23:01] And perhaps he just saw if he pulled off the highway and pulled in there, perhaps

[00:23:06] he sees the store name.

[00:24:01] I'm not going to come out and attack. It was nonthreatening.

[00:24:03] And women all went to the back room.

[00:24:06] In this case, there was no back room.

[00:24:07] There was no woman.

[00:24:09] And the killing happened quickly while Mick bent down to pick

[00:24:12] up an item to show the killer.

[00:24:14] He shoots him in the back of his head.

[00:24:16] The other interesting thing there, although again,

[00:24:18] no money taken.

[00:24:20] Mick McCown's wallet was taken or is missing.

[00:24:24] And police at first theorized, okay,

[00:24:26] the killer took the case. But, yeah, the Terrehote is different. But now he's committed three murders in what, a span of a week back and forth across the country.

[00:25:40] But still, police have not put any single killer attack on this.

[00:25:44] The police departments are not communicating.

[00:25:47] Wichita does not know about Terrehote. And St. Charles that said, Bobby better come out here. And I wasn't even sure what it was about, but I knew he had some story for me that day. So I'm in the car and going out there. And he closes the door. I'm in an office and he says, Nancy's killer. We believe is a serial killer. And I'm like, what?

[00:27:01] And he goes, the ballistics from our homicide scene match ballistics in

[00:28:04] But that's what it is. It was a gun called and they believed in Irma working

[00:28:11] They had two possible guns at that time an Irma work ear scorpion. They believed it to be the Irma working and

[00:28:14] He's like there's no way

[00:28:21] That this could possibly be happening. There's just no way no killer chooses this gun to kill somebody

[00:28:28] this gun probably never been used in a homicide anywhere in the police department and me representing, I guess, the only journalist that may have been involved. I thought they had to get this information out. I said, first of all, the public has a right to know. Secondly, it seems to be the key to solving the case. Somebody's going to recognize this gun and point to the guy.

[00:29:40] I mean, you've got to get this out.

[00:29:43] Police thought by getting it out, they announced they had the ballistics and they said the gun, the killing stopped, they just stopped immediately. And at first we thought like, I don't know, I can't speak for the

[00:31:00] police at first, I thought when they stopped, like we scared him, he knows

[00:31:05] they've got the ballistics.

[00:31:07] He knows the goofy gun.

[00:32:02] that case and about the witness Tim Hickman. Yeah, I really think it's the key to everything because of Tim.

[00:32:07] This is which this is um Indianapolis to Wichita to Terre Haute to St. Charles to Raytown.

[00:32:16] This is a strip mall.

[00:32:18] It's a much larger facility with a larger parking lot.

[00:32:21] It is an older strip mall.

[00:32:22] It's a little bit off in the store throughout the day. And Tim wonders if the guy knew the women were in there during the day and came back and then was almost surprised to see Tim pop his head out the window. And they stared at each other for, Tim says, you know, a good five or 10 seconds, just eyeball the eyeball.

[00:33:41] And Tim doesn't think anything about it. to the details. He's overwhelmed with grief. And he knows he saw the killer.

[00:35:02] He knows what happened.

[00:35:05] And he wishes every day for I said, you talked to police? Because I'd gone through the police files. There was nothing about another witness. And he says, no, I've always been too afraid.

[00:36:23] I said, it's been 30 years.

[00:36:24] He goes, I'm still afraid.

[00:36:27] And I said, will just found it odd who comes into the restaurant looking for a place to sit, you're by yourself and then you just walk out and leave. And then he says, he hears the next day about the killing. I hope he called the police department. I don't

[00:37:44] know. You know, you talk about police departments jury, obviously there's a shadow of doubt there. Absolutely. It's just it's just that old. I mean, but what you said about how this has affected Tim is just so it's so poignant. And you yourself have met and interviewed

[00:39:03] so many friends and family members of the victims in this case. And, you know, laughing and chatting and smiling. And I said to myself, something good happened here today, at least for those two, that maybe if they weren't spending as much time as they used to together, they at least were today. And they mentioned about how mixed father after the homicide, when his son was killed,

[00:40:21] the dad had a brand new fancy car.

[00:40:24] He put it in the garage and stopped driving it.

[00:41:25] them that they got to spend the day together and talk to each other and tell stories and stories and stories about the two patricians. And so again, out of something horrific, at

[00:41:33] least for some moment, something good took place.

[00:41:37] Yeah, it's absolutely tragic. And I just I feel for these families, and I hope they

[00:41:44] get answers through your book or through this, has nothing that they can pin on again. No robbery, no race, no, no nothing. He doesn't know these. There's just nothing there. And, and then you add in the gun, and then you add in the getaway

[00:43:01] car. And then you add in they checked them all. One of the people they called and checked was Kevin Costner.

[00:44:20] Oh my gosh. Elliott Ness himself. All deaths in the areas, nothing. There was just nothing for them to go on. And so for a profile, you know, in Wichita, the police detective who's handling this case, a man named Tim Ralph, this is not his first rodeo. He handled the BTK killer.

[00:45:40] This is his second serial killer.

[00:45:42] Jim caught the BTK killer.

[00:45:46] Jim was a little and mouse game. Well then one day the

[00:47:03] BTK killer, Dennis Rader, tells the police. He's put in the back seat of a cop car and guess who's driving under the police station? Tim Ralph. That's, that's an amazing story.

[00:48:21] You talk about, you talk about a ribbon on a box that has haunted Tim his whole life.

[00:49:22] talking, Vicki, Vicki, or Amy Beth.

[00:49:24] Same exact thing.

[00:49:28] In and out, gunshots at the head, no robbery, no written, nothing.

[00:49:31] Now again, communication wasn't the same.

[00:49:35] It took a while for stuff to get filtered back to the I-70.

[00:49:42] Well then the killer, if it is the same person, somebody goes down to Houston

[00:49:47] and goes into a store and the woman, I needed to find Vicki Webb. Now that's easier said than done. So I knew how old she was at the time. I knew 30 years of past. All I had was a name. I went through marriage records, divorce records, real estate records,

[00:51:01] any records I could find of anything.

[00:51:04] And I narrow it down to about 600 Vicki Webb's, I think in America.

[00:52:03] in Houston 30 years ago, I got through it. Wow.

[00:52:05] I had no expectation.

[00:52:06] And there was just silence on the other end of the phone.

[00:52:10] And I say, ma'am, are you there?

[00:52:13] And I hear this voice say, I'm here.

[00:52:18] And I pause.

[00:52:20] I'm wondering.

[00:52:21] I'm thinking, ma'am, are you the Vicki Webb

[00:52:24] that I'm looking for that was shot in Houston 30 years ago I'd like to talk to you. I'd like you to tell your story that you've never told. And we had to develop, it took time. It took friendship over texting. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday. How was your vacation? How was your daughter? And months went by.

[00:53:40] And have you read my stories?

[00:53:43] Yes, I did, blah, blah, blah.

[00:53:45] Finally, I get a text that portion of the book is such a testament to your journalism and the fact that it's kind of a Through-line in a way of your career of like stay in place build up trust Get the get the story which is as you said not always common in today's media environment where it's just go on the next thing That's getting clicks, right? And I just think that's great because it's allowed this woman to reclaim her own story

[00:56:06] Even though there's incredible security camera footage, as good as you're going to see, security camera behind the counter of a liquor store, the man working behind the counter is named

[00:56:11] Billy Brosman and Tara Hope.

[00:56:14] Nobody's in the store and then here comes a preppy looking guy that comes in the door.

[00:56:18] He walks to the back, he grabs a six pack of beer, he brings it out to the counter,

[00:56:24] and he brandishes a gun. They put the video on television around the clock for a week in Terre Haute in Indianapolis. Nobody comes forward. How can you not? How does nobody know him? Then we realize nobody came forward and nobody said they knew him because he's not from that area.

[00:57:42] He's another founder.

[00:57:44] Nobody's seen this guy before.

[00:58:43] you covered your pants like that and this guy in the video has got the same cut. Interesting again because that holds up in court in front of a jury but

[00:58:50] interesting. And then please come across another man from the original killing in

[00:58:59] Indianapolis of Robin Foldau. Right around the time of the killing just a

[00:59:05] few minutes afterwards there's a worker at a construction site that says a car thinking gee, what happened here? Did I just dodge something? And the construction worker then starts hearing all the police sirens going like crazy and they think they're looking for that guy. They're looking for that guy. No, they weren't. They were going to the Pala Shoe store where Robin Foldauer had just been murdered. So time goes by and this guy comes forward to the police.

[01:00:22] Hey, you know, that killing, I see this you that the police department have had more people come in in the last in the last year since the task

[01:01:40] force trying to ID the Billy Brocman person on the take. And

[01:01:46] I know I don't know that this has happened. But I do know that Kelly has one job and one job only every day. And that's to solve this case. So two weeks ago, I am in one of the homicide cities doing a media tour for the book. And who shows up there at one of the police departments? Holly Rose. Oh, by the way, Kelly's eight months pregnant.

[01:03:01] She ain't giving up on the case.

[01:03:04] She's working the case every day.

[01:03:06] So when people ask me, do you think it can be solved? an ambulance to come and get her. Pat McCarrick who's working in St. Charles, Missouri, not in Texas, has the audio tape of Amy at his house and his drawer that he can listen to, to remind him never to let this case go dry. Pat McCarrick has gone out and bought an able work gun on eBay for a thousand

[01:04:22] dollars where he can take it to gun shows and gun clubs and ask people,

[01:05:25] Texas cases are both I-70 or do you think one of them is or what are your opinions on that? Just my opinion I do not believe that Vicki Webb's case in

[01:05:30] Texas is the I-70 killer and Vicki doesn't know and police don't know. Mike

[01:05:35] Crook the original detective at Robert Foldauer case in Indianapolis has been to

[01:05:39] all the Texas Dean's and he says Bob these are the same. He's convinced they're

[01:05:44] the same. I don't think Vicki's is for the re- for one reason the killer was in with the identifications they had, they took it to the prosecuting attorney's office to go forward and charge someone with murder. Police department thought they had enough. The prosecuting attorney didn't. And this is a whole nother bag of worm. Prosecuting attorneys are elected by the public,

[01:07:00] they wanna keep their job,

[01:07:01] they don't wanna lose a high profile case.

[01:07:04] I've dealt with enough prosecuting attorneys

[01:07:06] to know that if it. But make no mistake are and what they do. The lead detective on this case in Tarahoe was a man, a detective named Brad Rumsey. A couple of months ago,

[01:09:45] Brad and I hooked up. We wanted to get together. We hadn't seen each other since the task for a 60-year-old homicide case where the suspect was in his 20th. So you're saying to yourself, is that a good means of taxpayer money? You know what? I think it is. I think it just sends the message, sends the message that no crime is ever forgotten.

[01:11:00] And you kill somebody, we're coming after you till the end of time.

[01:12:03] who has heard this and goes diving into this,

[01:12:06] wouldn't that be something? That would be something.

[01:12:07] That would be our probably proudest moment

[01:12:09] on the show, honestly.

[01:12:10] So let me ask the obvious question.

[01:12:11] If there is someone out there listening right now

[01:12:15] who has information, who should they get in contact with?

[01:12:19] They should call their local police department

[01:12:21] or any of these five cities that had an I-70 case.

[01:12:25] Indy, Carahode, St tremendous feeling for me. Bob, thank you so much for talking to us. We want to say it's an excellent book, but we're just also in awe of all the work you've

[01:13:41] done on this case.