Hide Article Text (OCR)
Staff and AP Report NASHVILLE — Kentucky State Police Det. Melvin Anderson, of the Harlant, will join law en forcement agents from four other states today hoping to gain an in sight into the murders of six jaded women who may have been the victims of a single killer. On Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation added the body of a woman found on U.S. 25E to its current list of women found along interstate highways. The six women — found in Ken tucky, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Kansas and Tennessee — were either strangled or suffocated and so far are all unidentified. ‘“‘We are going to sit down and talk about these homicides that each jurisdiction has had and try to figure out how to proceed,” said TBI Deputy Director Steve Watson. A all-day meeting is planned to be held at TBI’s headquarters. ‘Anytime you have anything like this at all it is good to sit down and compare notes,” said Billy Riley, ESP public information officer in Harlan. ‘‘That’s one of the ways you solve these things.’’ Officials say all of the victims were young and died either in strangulation or were suffocated. The TBI’s list includes bodies found near Shoreville, Ark., last Sept. 16; Comru Township, Pa., last Dec. 23; Jellico, Tenn., on Jan. 1; Hernando, Miss., on Jan. 24; Ashland City, Tenn., on March 31; and Corbin on April 1. A local woman was apparently discovered within six hours of her death, officials said, but there are still no suspects in the case. In hopes that someone might recognize the woman, officials have kept the body in a holding vault at the Barbourville City Cemetery. A spokesman for Hampton Funeral Home, which held funeral services for the woman earlier this month, said the body will be buried at 11 a.m. today in the Smith Cemetery at Bimble. On March 6, truck driver Jerry Leon Johns of Cleveland, Tenn., was arrested by Knox County authorities and charged with aggravated kid napping and felonious assault in connection with the attempted strangulation of an auburn-haired Knoxville women. Linda Schacke, who survived having her torn shirt tied around her neck and being thrown into a culvert alongs Interstate 40 in March, identified Johns as her attacker, authorities said. Johns has been questioned about the other murders but faces no charges in connection with them, authorities said. In past weeks, as many as 11 murder victims have been included in the probe as investigators studied evidence that might link the killings in a serial murder involving women of similar appearances. Although the case has gained notoriety as “the redhead mur ders,” only four of the victims in volved in the TBI’s investigation were true redheads, Watson said. Four women killed between September 1984 and February 1985 in the Fort Worth, Texas, area were dropped from the list after in vestigators discounted the evidence that originally linked the cases. And Watson said there doesn’t appear to be sufficient evidence to link a murder victim found April 24, 1981, four miles from Interstate 75 near Dayton, Ohio, with the mur ders. Another murder victim who has been considered in the investigation include a woman found April 14 alongside Interstate 81 near Greeneville, Tenn. Watson said the victim could be added to the investigation at a later date but that at present there was not ‘‘sufficient information” to link the murder to the probe.
Newspaper Details
Corbin Times Tribune
Corbin, Kentucky, US
Wed, Apr 24, 1985
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Amanda L.
USA 21 Jul 2026
Other Publications Near Corbin, Kentucky
Corbin Times
Corbin Sunday Times
Corbin Daily Tribune
Corbin Times Tribune
