People Magazine Investigates Recap for The I-70 Killer
People Magazine Investigates Recap for The I-70 Killer
-This week’s People Magazine Investigates talks about the I-70 Killer case.
-Mark Magers remembers his wife Trish, including how they met, their courtship and their overall love story. It was love at first sight for them.
-After they got married, they opened a bridal shop. They hired several people to help, including Patricia Smith.
-Patricia’s older brother Bill was close to her and remembers her as hardworking and loving, especially toward her nephew.
-On April 11, 1992, the ladies were working to prepare for the wedding and prom season. Mark initially wanted to help, but Trish told him to stay home. He instead made her a special dinner, not knowing that she would never come home to enjoy her meal.
-Mark could not get in touch with her throughout the day, so he went to look for her at the store. He discovered it surrounded by police and went to investigate. He was taken to the station as the investigation into what happened continued.
-Detectives didn’t see signs of a break in or any unusual activity. Further investigation showed the bodies of Trish and Patricia. Trish was dead as Patricia clung to life.
-Mark was agitated and demanded information from authorities. He was told what happened and wanted nothing more than to see his wife and help.
-Patricia died at the hospital. Her family gets the news and are left confused and devastated.
-Shell casings were found at the scene of the crime and an official investigation begins.
-The 911 caller was contacted to give a statement. He says that he saw a white man with a gun coming out of the back of the darkened store. He was confused as to what was going on but was able to get a detailed description of the suspect.
-They were able to get a sketch of the suspect, which is quickly circulated around the area.
-The investigation intensifies and it is discovered to have eerie similarities to another case at a gas station just a few days before.
-On April 8th, 1992, a Payless Shoe Store employee named Robin Fuldauer was killed after what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong.
-Nobody could figure out who could have killed Robin or why. The investigation began and it was soon inferred that the two cases could be connected in some way.
-On April 27th, 1992, Mike ‘Mick’ McKown was working at his mother’s shop when he was also murdered. This time, shoe prints were found. It also appeared to be a robbery gone wrong, but there were no signs of a struggle.
-Another investigation began but it was hard to find any witnesses aside from the customer who found Mick’s body because of the store’s location.
-The shell casings were tested for ballistics and connected Mick’s death to the deaths of Patricia, Trish and Robin. Police knew they had a serial killer on the loose.
-There were two other cases in the area that were connected to the others. Both Nancy Kitzmiller and Sarah Blessing were killed in similar ways.
-A witness in Sarah’s murder claims to have seen a man in a sports coat acting cagey….and later hearing a gunshot. He went to investigate and saw the same man running away. He checked on Sarah, only to find her dead body.
-Authorities try to figure out a motive in each case since none of the stores were the kind that were the target for robberies. Five of the victims were women and it is inferred that he thought he can control them, whereas Mick’s murder was a straight up shooting. They tried to figure out where the murderer lived and the kind of job he had so that they can identify him. They dubbed him the I-70 Killer due to the location of the murders.
-Each casing had an unusual mixture on it, which could have been used to prevent the gun from jamming. The weapon was an Erma Werke ET22. It is an unusual murder weapon, making it slightly easier to determine who could have owned it.
-The victims’ families all got involved to try and catch the killer.
-On January 15th, 1994, another shooting took place in Houston, Texas. She was found by a man and his girlfriend. Her name is Vicki Webb and she is the only survivor of the I-70 serial killer. She had been at work when the killer came in under the guise of wanting to buy a picture frame. After she was shot, she played dead until he left. Her life was saved by the nice couple who walked in.
-It isn’t long that her attempted murder was connected to the other murders. She is brought in for questioning and asked to see if she can identify him. Sadly, she only knew his voice, but could not pick him out of a lineup of photos.
-The case went cold until Robert Craig Cox was rumored to be a part of the murders. He was in jail for similar murders and in the area at the time of the I-70 killings. He was questioned, but he refused to cooperate with authorities.
-Despite the rumors, they had no confession and the MO was different in the I-70 murders than his previous murders.
-In 1996, Alden Baker became a suspect. He was also in prison for robbery, gun and sexual assault cases. He was in the area at the time of the murders and had a similar MO in his previous cases. He even robbed a store close to where Nancy was murdered.
-Alden is questioned and confessed to two of the crimes. However, his confession was not accurate to what actually happened. He had been looking to get the death penalty and ended up committing suicide in prison.
-In 2001, another shooting happened, leading authorities to believe the I-70 killer struck again. A man was killed in a liquor store in a similar fashion as the previous victims.
-Billy Brossman was the victim in this murder and was a well-loved husband and father. While the store was empty at the time, a video camera captured the murder.
-The video was able to identify the weapon used, but still could not find enough DNA to identify him. However, a screen shot from the video was able to help identify him as a man in St. Charles, Missouri. However, they did not have enough to charge him,
-The case goes cold once again. Despite the original task force disbanding, there are still people trying to solve the case. The families of the victims still hold on to hope that the killer will eventually be found and brought to justice.
-In 2021, new police officers began to look into the case and bring together a task case with both new and old investigators. A $25,000 reward is promised in exchange for finding the killer.
-A 30-year-old tip soon comes back to their attention. A foreman claimed that a man came to a construction site looking for a job. He claimed that he was going to give him an application and that when they got to the location, he noticed a woman was in the car with him and gave the driver a gun. The foreman escaped and despite being pursued, was able to get away.
-The foreman tried to report it, but police did not respond in time. Little did he know that this was when Robin was being killed. He called in the tip again in 2021, giving details of the driver, the car and the weapon.
-The investigation continued to take a deep dive, finally leading to a strong suspect. His DNA has been taken and filed, but his identity has yet to be revealed.
-They released an age progressed sketch in hopes of someone being able to identify him.
-The case remains unsolved. Authorities and the victims’ families will stop at nothing to make sure the killer is brought to justice.
