Cold case

[tense music] For over seven decades, the Los Angeles Police Department has kept the Black Dahlia murder case open.

Each new detective assigned to this legendary cold case must first review the evidence.

Los Angeles, California, January 15th, 1947.

It's an uncharacteristically cool morning in Leimert Park.

Coming up, a Hollywood detective goes digging into his own past, and thinks he's finally solved the Black Dahlia murder.

Nominated as one of the best British true crime podcasts, Murder Mile is hailed as a masterpiece of compelling storytelling.

Research using the original police files, over 300 episodes, Murder Mile has covered hundreds of crimes you won't hear anywhere else, as well as solving cold cases, unearthing new evidence, and even discovering a serial killer no one even knew existed.

For a truly original podcast, subscribe to Murder Mile.

They never say case closed where they haven't arrested anybody.

So it becomes what we refer to as a cold case.

1974, 1978, 1985, every time a new lead came in, they jumped on it and they investigated it thoroughly.

It was one of those cases that detectives worked their whole careers on.

Jim, who was only 12 when the killing took place, never forgot and kept in touch with the detectives throughout the ensuing years, badgering them to look into what might have happened, keeping on at them.

Fort Worth PD had reopened the case at Jim Walker's urging.

He literally called up the cold case department and said, all right, I hear there's a new detective and I need y'all to start looking at it again.

Leah Wagner, cold case detective, received a call from Jim that was stern and pretty to the

Hi, Cold Case listeners.

I'm Marissa Penson, and if you're enjoying this show, I just wanna remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files, as well as the A&E classic podcasts I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential are all available ad free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year.

And now onto the show.

This program contains disturbing accounts of violence and sexual assault.

Listener discretion is advised.

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America.

Only 1% are ever solved.

This is one of those rare stories.

And we also have a Facebook fan page called Unsubs, and it was created by fans for fans of the consult, where listeners can discuss our episodes and other true crime topics.

Joining us again for part three of three of our analysis of the 1975 murder of 18 year old Debbie Sue Williamson, our cold case investigator, Jen Buchholz and investigative reporter George Jarrett.

They're part of the American Military Institute's cold case team.

And you can learn more about the work that they do and the other cases they're working on at BreakTheCase.org. And the mission of their organization is to provide collaboration between civilian investigators and law enforcement agencies to help solve these cold cases and bring justice to the victims as well as their families.

So welcome back, Jen and George.

Thank you so much for having us.

well two of the guys two of the guys were talking about specifically one was actually a groomsman in the wedding and another one was a pallbearer at her funeral so it was it's very striking that these two in particular seem to have no memory of her at all when even if you look in the police reports from 1975 they were interviewed numerous times and they had all these personal anecdotes of being around doug and debbie and everything and again i and i get what julia's saying about you know like i had friends you know back when i was you know in college that i barely honestly i hung out with but i barely know them now but i think it might be a little bit different though if i had a friend that was murdered you know what i mean like that would be a pinnacle moment in my life because most people don't have somebody in their family or friends that get murdered you know but i i don't know it just kind of stood out to us that these guys they it's like they just got amnesials and they can't remember anything and it's like okay

well one or both of them may be legitimate because they didn't both kill her and maybe neither killed her so it just it's hard to put a lot of weight into that

The day the notice hits local papers, the sheriff's phone starts ringing.

Retired detectives, officers, and police chiefs, everyone in the county it seems wants to be a cold case detective.

We were just amazed by the response.

I mean, we got, had tons of people call us.

Thomas Schultz worked in law enforcement for 23 years as an officer and then a polygraph examiner.

Al Olsen retired as the chief of police in Morro Bay and Pacifica, California.

These four men make up Douglas County's volunteer cold case squad.

Combined, they bring over 100 years of experience to the investigative table.