0:00

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast

0:02

are solely those of the authors and participants

0:05

and do not necessarily represent those

0:07

of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or

0:09

their employees. This series contains

0:11

discussions of violence and sexual violence.

0:14

Listener discretion is advised. Previously

0:19

an algorithm, we dug into Darren

0:21

Bond's past crimes, like how he terrorized

0:24

his ex girlfriend in two thousand four the

0:27

Girl Fire, Beat on Fire and go

0:29

to Building of All It. After

0:33

serving time and Gary, Von moved back

0:35

to Austin where he's sexually assaulted

0:37

and almost killed a young woman Papa.

0:45

But prosecutors in Austin say they

0:47

were unaware of Von's violent past and

0:49

labeled him as a low risk offender. Von

0:52

pled guilty and served five years in prison,

0:55

and after his release he went straight

0:57

back to Indiana. This

1:00

episode what happened when women

1:02

started disappearing in Gary? But

1:04

I really thought we caught longs

1:06

half ago the first personal right

1:09

in here. I don't want to say how I

1:11

am no now

1:16

states where

1:18

this is everything from

1:22

my Heart Media and Tenderfoot TV. This

1:24

is algorithm and I'm ben

1:26

Keye Brick. After

1:29

Vaughan was released from prison in Austin he

1:31

needed somewhere to stay. Von ended

1:34

up going straight back to Gary and moving

1:36

in with his brother, Reginald Beard. It's

1:39

unclear exactly when Von started

1:41

killing after he returned to Indiana, but

1:43

Von's confirmed murders, the ones where

1:45

he took police to the bodies, those

1:48

appeared to have started six months after

1:50

Vaughan was released from prison, when

1:52

on Januen,

1:55

Tierra Batty disappeared. She

1:59

was kind

2:01

person. Either if she

2:03

can't help a person right then and this she would

2:05

find a way to make something that happens

2:08

for you know. She was like putting a

2:10

smile on a person's face. My

2:13

name is Marvin Clinton and

2:16

gl was fiance. And

2:19

how did you guys first meet? I'm

2:22

in her on a cold winter night

2:25

in the winter of two thousand and eight. I

2:28

was dripping down the street and it

2:30

was snow on the ground, and I just

2:32

seen the person walking that the

2:35

election was stressed to be outside in the wintertime

2:38

instead of having on the winter coach on like

2:40

a thin jacket. So I

2:42

pulled up and acts she needed

2:45

ris somewhere and she said yeah, but

2:47

I in mind. We shaid and

2:49

talked for a minute, then we exchanged from

2:51

my birth and then it took

2:54

off from there. Marvin

2:56

liked how kind Tier was and

2:58

they had more in common, and then he would have guessed

3:01

her thing was football. My thing

3:04

was basketball. But it was fun,

3:06

you know, because she talked the way to get

3:08

me interested in it and last

3:11

a verse with me. Susan kind

3:13

of like you could teach her about basketball,

3:15

and she would teach him about football exactly.

3:19

Tira and Marvin continued to date

3:21

over the next four years, and in January

3:25

they had a son together, tray Von. You'll

3:28

actually hear him some in the background of this

3:30

phone call. Tira

3:32

and Marvin lived separately, and

3:34

their sons stayed with Marvin, but if

3:36

Tira wasn't around, she would always

3:39

call. She made it a

3:41

habit to talk to him three

3:43

times a day. She had talked to

3:45

him before he go to school, she had talked to him

3:47

when he come home from school, and

3:50

then she had talked to him before I put him in a bid

3:52

and that was assisted with her. She

3:55

never was a minute earlier. She never was a

3:57

minute make On January

4:00

thirteentheen, Tira

4:02

disappeared. She was only twenty

4:05

eight years old. We got

4:07

up that morning we went around.

4:09

We did a lit shopping, and I think

4:11

around noon we went in Peppy

4:14

Tacos's, just like a little

4:16

local Mexican place. Yeahs

4:19

complaining heavy tacos with Margarita's.

4:22

I had a burrito squeeze and she hid

4:25

full tacos two crush

4:27

intoksal and then

4:29

we just hung out for the rest of the

4:31

day, watch TV,

4:35

and I left and went to my house.

4:39

She told him she's gonna call me later and

4:42

wait on a call. It never happened. This

4:46

wasn't normal for Tierra. She

4:48

never missed her checking calls with her son, no

4:51

matter what was going on. She

4:53

went calls. I went on and

4:56

I wait the world. Maybe

4:59

she looked up out. I

5:02

thought she probably fell asleep or so and

5:06

round good night. The one in

5:08

the morning, I tried to give him her a call,

5:11

but I couldn't get an answer. And

5:13

then I know, I texted her a couple of times,

5:15

still no answer. I didn't

5:17

think too much of it, you know, but

5:20

then the next morning she didn't call. Then

5:22

she didn't call that afternoon after

5:25

you bout in school, and

5:27

then she didn't call that night. You

5:31

know, were by a house. Let myself in she

5:33

want nowhere in the house. The

5:37

second day not here from

5:39

a contacted police

5:41

and they said, well, you have to wait StEB

5:45

me two hours to report the person missing

5:47

to Marvin waited another day and

5:49

then went back to the police, but he

5:52

still couldn't convince them that something was

5:54

wrong. They what they were

5:56

telling enough that she probably want to be bothered

5:58

with nobody. But we knew it that wasn't

6:00

the case. But you n the

6:02

work off with it because she

6:05

called every day at

6:07

the same time on the die. So

6:11

a week and a half went by still having

6:13

heard from him, Seeing that nobody talked

6:15

to us, she had called anybody

6:17

phone. We kept pounding

6:19

them about the miss a person thing, and

6:22

about two weeks and two that's when

6:25

they finally came out and did a report.

6:27

Marvin had been calling to his cell phone

6:29

over and over. He says, her phone

6:32

would ring and then get a voicemail, and

6:34

he left her message after message until

6:36

the mailbox was full, and

6:38

then he started noticing something unusual.

6:42

Sometimes voicemail before

6:45

and then sometimes it was like somebody

6:47

was going in that empty in the voicemail

6:50

to the point where you can leave messages.

7:05

In January, Marvin

7:07

Clinton's fiancee, Tierra Batty,

7:10

disappeared. Marvin called

7:12

her repeatedly and never got through,

7:14

but he noticed something strange. Sometimes

7:17

it would tell him the voicemail was full, but

7:19

other times there would be room to leave a

7:21

message. What did you think was going

7:24

on with the voicemails? I'm

7:26

thinking somebody had not

7:28

a pass code, or maybe

7:30

she had gave him her pass called because she would

7:32

let people use her phone, or

7:35

maybe she lost the phone, or somebody

7:37

just stole the phone. Whatever

7:40

was going on, Marvin realized that

7:42

the phone was a clue. If

7:44

Tira still had it, maybe they could use

7:46

the phone to locate her, and if she

7:49

didn't, whoever was using it would be able

7:51

to tell him something about how they'd gotten

7:53

the phone. Marvin went

7:55

to the police and asked them to investigate

7:57

it. They were like, well, you know, we gotta

7:59

get the warn we got this that

8:01

it's gonna take time. So I said,

8:04

okay, I'm gonna cut out the little man. So

8:06

Marvin went to the Boost Mobile store, where

8:08

he and Tira both had phone subscriptions.

8:11

I knew the guy at the full store, he

8:14

knew both of us, and he knew I would

8:16

come in and pay both phone bills. So

8:18

I talked to him I tone was going on. He

8:21

gave me the print out of phone

8:24

records. The phone records showed

8:26

that Tira's phone was being used to make

8:28

outgoing calls, but they weren't to

8:30

any numbers that Marvin was familiar with.

8:33

It was numbers with different area

8:36

codes like Chicago,

8:39

the suburbs of Chicago that

8:42

was at least an hour hour and half away

8:44

from where we were staying. So I

8:47

said, well let me start. It's best gating

8:49

myself. I started

8:51

callings from the numbers, and a lot of numbers

8:53

had became connected, but

8:56

there was maybe five numbers

8:58

that someone asked the phone and

9:01

will always be a female that

9:03

would ask them the phone. So

9:07

I would say, hey, I'm calling and see

9:09

if you know this person. Then they'd be like, well, how did

9:11

you give my number? I said, well, this

9:13

person is missing and it showed

9:16

that her phone called your

9:18

number, so I want to know

9:20

if you know her or have you seen

9:23

her? And then when I tell them

9:25

it's a female, they

9:27

respond to me, is that out

9:30

on associate with females? M

9:33

hm? So I said, well, do you remember

9:35

who would call you from this number?

9:37

And I would give them the number. They

9:40

all would say that it will be a guy call

9:42

it m hmm. It

9:44

became clear that some man was

9:47

using tirast phone, but Marvin

9:49

had no idea who it was. One

9:52

of the women Marvin spoke to seemed

9:54

sympathetic to a story and offered

9:56

to help man her got more

9:58

into talking about

10:00

what was going on, and

10:03

she told me. She said, well, I don't associate

10:05

with women. And I say,

10:08

so, what do you mean? So she

10:10

asked me, what do you need me to spell

10:12

it out for you. I said, no, I understand what you're

10:14

talking about. Nowt for me

10:16

that she

10:19

was more of a working woman to prostitute.

10:23

And we talked a couple of times,

10:25

and then it got to the point where she actually

10:27

tried to help me find out who had

10:30

the phone. She said, well, I know

10:32

I talked to the guy a couple of times from

10:34

that number and he was trying

10:36

to pick me up, you know, he was

10:38

trying to go out on a date with me. And

10:41

I said, well when I called, no

10:43

one answer. So she said,

10:46

okay, well let me see

10:48

what I could do. So she told me she was going to call

10:50

it not before me, and see

10:52

if she could get anybody answer, So we

10:54

were the sworman since he had been calling

10:58

her that if she called

11:00

the number back, you know, he would

11:03

ask them because she has spoke

11:05

to him on that nomber before. But

11:08

then she finally called me back and said,

11:10

well, I'm not getting the answer.

11:13

So that was the end of that. And

11:16

so at that time, what were you thinking,

11:19

like might have happened to her? I

11:22

just knew something one right. I didn't

11:24

have an idea what may have happened.

11:27

I just knew something wasn't right. Marvin

11:30

didn't know exactly what was going on, but

11:33

he felt like he was onto something. So

11:35

he went back to the police and told them

11:37

that a man had been using Tira's phone to

11:39

call prostitutes. I

11:43

gave the detective a

11:45

copy of the phone records. You

11:47

seemed like he was interested in it, and he didn't

11:50

tell me thanks. But from

11:52

that point on what he did with

11:54

the record, I have no idea. And

11:57

do you remember around when that would have been.

12:00

That would have been in mid February.

12:04

Marvin says that after he'd given the Gary

12:06

police hear his Foon records, he would

12:08

regularly call to check in on their

12:10

investigation. I was calling

12:13

in maybe twice a week every

12:15

week. If I would talk to him on Monday,

12:18

I'll make my attentions to call him

12:20

by Friday. Let's see what happened

12:23

between Monday and Friday. Because

12:25

it felt like nothing was being

12:27

done. That's always we actively

12:30

looking for. We're trying to gather what

12:32

information we could gather, same

12:34

old thing every week. And

12:36

were you trying to like hold him accountable,

12:38

like let him know, like, hey, I'm I'm gonna

12:41

keep on you until you do something.

12:44

Well he kind of figured that out. He

12:46

mentioned to me, you do call a

12:49

lot, and I'm like, yeah,

12:51

I do. But my thing is

12:53

I'm trying to get answers. Yeah,

12:56

so you're going to hear from me until

12:59

we do get asses. Unsatisfied

13:03

with the lack of progress that police seemed to

13:05

be making, Marvin continued

13:07

investigating Tira's disappearance on

13:09

his own. I would go to different

13:12

nightclubs, different bars and stuff. Actually,

13:15

hey, have you seen this person in here? I will

13:18

leave a picture with information

13:20

on the back of it. If you see her,

13:23

here's my phone novel or calmed now

13:25

one one because she's been reported missing.

13:28

And then around March, somewhere between

13:30

March April. I started in romas

13:33

a woman who went by the name China was

13:36

saying that she knew where Tira was.

13:38

China was going around telling people

13:41

that she's in a band of building

13:43

on the west side of the town, and

13:46

then she was the

13:48

scene. So did you hear

13:50

it straight from China or someone

13:53

told you that she had been going

13:55

around saying that I heard

13:57

it from different people that this

13:59

was China was saying. So,

14:01

I mean, if it would have just been one person, I could

14:04

have just kind of brushed it on. But

14:06

when you're here from multiple people, different

14:09

people, you know, then

14:11

it starts to sink again. In

14:29

the spring of Marvin

14:31

Clinton went to the detective working

14:33

on terrabetes missing person case.

14:36

So I told him, I said, this is what I'm hearing

14:38

on the streets. So he

14:41

actually went and picked China up.

14:44

He picked up on another charge, and

14:48

he helped her in jail for

14:51

three or four days. And

14:53

he said he's been with a couple of times

14:55

trying to get information out on for

14:58

but she would used talk to him.

15:01

So that made me start thinking,

15:05

what she a part of this? That

15:07

she helped with this, you

15:10

know, because a person only

15:12

knows so much unless they there,

15:15

and for her to say

15:17

that she's dead on the

15:20

west side of town, that's

15:22

knowing an awful lot. Yeah, do

15:26

your China's real name? No?

15:29

And have you ever ever met her? I've

15:32

seen her a couple time of physically

15:34

met her. See

15:36

you've never like asked her for

15:38

more information. Are

15:41

you curious about that? Like how she found

15:43

that out? I've been I've been curious

15:45

about that from day one when I

15:47

first started hitting it, you

15:50

know. But then the

15:52

detective was telling me, you know, he said,

15:54

well, hey, let me do my job.

15:57

This is my job. You know, you gave me the information,

16:00

Now let me do my job. And

16:02

I was like, okay, fine, you know, do

16:04

you know did the police look into

16:06

that? Did anyone search for the body? Yeah?

16:09

He said they did those some active searches

16:12

and some buildings on the west

16:14

side and the east side of the town. But

16:17

the buildings that they searched, they all

16:20

came up empty. But

16:22

remember Gary's population had

16:24

been shrinking for decades, so the city

16:26

was riddled with abandoned buildings. They're

16:28

about seven thousand. Marvin

16:32

knew from talking to the police that there

16:34

was no way that they've done Thorist search,

16:37

so he and some of Tira's friends decided

16:39

to start searching through abandoned buildings themselves.

16:44

The first building I went in to it

16:46

was black of singing from a horror

16:49

movie gang

16:51

side stuff on the wall and old

16:55

ragged couch that was sitting in a little

16:57

wrong that had with

17:00

the bottles, beer camp not

17:02

cart it baggies, um

17:05

use needles and stuff like that. And

17:09

as I moved through the house,

17:12

it was kind of scary because

17:14

I didn't know what I would finding there. Were

17:17

you worried about like running

17:19

into someone, like someone who is like

17:21

squatting or or something like that.

17:25

No, not really, I was more

17:27

worried about running into or

17:31

being in there. That

17:34

was the scariest part about it. You

17:37

know. Then I stumbled

17:39

in the house that I be

17:41

had her in the house. Yeah,

17:44

you're trying to find her, but

17:46

at the same time, you almost don't want to find

17:48

her exactly exactly,

17:52

you know, because then you have that immature

17:56

how you found her. Yeah,

17:59

and and you don't know what

18:03

you would look like. When's the founder

18:06

if if somebody you're recognize,

18:08

somebody won't recognize. So

18:11

in a way, I always said to myself, Okay,

18:13

I'm glad I didn't find because

18:16

I want to be the one to find a

18:18

person that way anyway,

18:20

But I felt, you know, it

18:23

was something I

18:25

had to do because I felt that

18:27

game police department one't doing enough.

18:31

Marvin says that when he told police he

18:33

was investigating abandoned buildings himself,

18:36

they told him to stop. And

18:38

I was like, okay,

18:41

why you should want

18:44

all the help you can't search you. And

18:47

this explanation for me not doing

18:49

it was because he said,

18:51

I hate for you to be and when

18:53

the houses, I know what you're

18:56

not looking for. You know what you're not looking

18:58

for. But just say another

19:01

police drive up and see you coming

19:03

out of his house, he gonna

19:05

want to know what you're doing in there. So

19:09

he said, I would hate to have to come and get

19:11

you out of jail for being

19:13

an these abandoned builders.

19:16

And then he said, also, it's

19:18

not really safe to do it because

19:20

you don't know what the condition of the buildings

19:23

before you go in now hm.

19:27

So I kind of backed off of doing

19:29

that, but I continue to go around

19:31

with the pictures and things like that. You

19:34

know, you wanted the more, but your

19:36

hands really tied as

19:39

far as what you can do. So

19:42

the angle part come in because you felt

19:44

like when none being done, you

19:47

know, when none being done. And

19:50

as the case went on, the more

19:52

angry you got, because

19:56

now it's turned from one

19:58

month to months, six

20:01

months and

20:04

nothing that's being done. Do

20:08

you remember where you were when

20:11

you learned that Tira

20:14

had died? Yeah?

20:17

I would. Actually I was at

20:19

home watching CNN and

20:23

the story about Afric

20:26

hardy Head came on, and

20:28

they put up four of

20:30

the seven names that they had identified.

20:35

One person they had on there. They

20:38

didn't have her name, but they heard

20:40

what she was wearing, blue

20:42

jeans, a blue hoodie

20:45

under brownish colored coat, and

20:50

right then I knew it

20:52

well, because that's

20:55

exactly what she had on left

20:57

day. I seen her, and

21:04

I picked up the phone and I called

21:07

the Corners office and I said, I

21:09

know who that person is. So

21:12

I gave them the name of the dinners

21:14

that I took it too, and

21:16

they typed up a warning. They went

21:19

to the dinnerst office and poor

21:21

to Dentner records. The

21:23

first couple of hours was really anxious

21:25

because they they had called me right

21:28

back. But you know, after three

21:30

hours went by, I kind

21:32

of relaxed because I like, well, maybe

21:35

it wasn't her. Somebody

21:37

just said on the same clothes she had on.

21:40

And then my phone from the

21:42

corner office and he told

21:45

me he just wanted to confront that

21:48

the dental records matched

21:50

up and it was her. Now

21:55

the hard part about it where

21:58

her body was found. It's

22:00

only like about nine

22:03

blocks from where I stayed,

22:07

So she was basically around

22:09

the corner from where I lived. And

22:12

what strikes me about it. Once everything

22:15

came to a head, I

22:17

got curious about the information

22:20

China was putting out there, because

22:23

everything she was saying was correct

22:26

except for one detail. She

22:30

was to see she was something in banded

22:32

building, But China was

22:34

saying she was in a banded building on the west

22:36

side of town, But she was actually in a

22:39

banded building on the east side of town.

22:41

And see that brings back the point

22:44

I was making earlier. You

22:46

know, how would China know she

22:48

did she in the band and building,

22:52

But there any difference is what

22:54

side of town she was found on. Yeah,

22:57

see, what what do you think it's going on there? Like do you

22:59

think the body got moved or do you

23:01

think she was the

23:04

body didn't get moved, she was

23:06

killed where she was found. Mhm.

23:10

You know, I had a

23:12

scenario where I thought, well, maybe

23:15

trying to hurt it from

23:18

somebody else, and

23:20

then she was just freading, you

23:23

know, with with her. A lot of

23:25

things came to mind that could

23:28

have been this, could have been that. How you

23:30

know because she's been involved

23:32

or did you know who did it? We

23:35

don't know, and and still today we don't

23:37

know because she stopped talking to

23:39

the police. Now

23:42

it's possible that she

23:44

could have knew Damn Van herself

23:47

because as things came out,

23:50

China New Tierra and

23:52

they hung out in the same area together

23:56

and come and find out vand

23:58

head frequency at area.

24:01

He was the regular around that area.

24:04

Because once this picture came out,

24:07

a lot of people in that area came

24:09

up and say, hey, they have seen him

24:11

in that area before. I

24:14

think I read somewhere that um one

24:17

of the other victims, maybe Tracy Martin

24:20

also New Tierra. Yeah,

24:23

who's that kind of like that same group

24:26

or that same area where China

24:28

was or yeah, let's

24:30

say areas same group. It wasn't

24:33

just Martin was

24:36

full out of sea. Well, they

24:39

knew each other. This

24:41

is another place I'd like to reach out to the

24:43

listeners. If you knew China or

24:45

Tierra or we're part of the same group,

24:47

please do you reach out. I'd love to talk

24:49

to you. Contact information

24:51

is in the show notes and at the end of the episode.

24:55

Gary is a pretty big place, right,

24:57

So so that's kind of surprising

25:00

that four of them would have known

25:02

each other. No, it's not that

25:04

big area together, you know. I

25:06

mean they all

25:08

heard their own different habits that they had,

25:12

so it wouldn't

25:14

be strange for them

25:16

to know each other because Gary is

25:18

not that be What

25:21

do you mean when you say they all had their habits.

25:25

They all had their own problems that they

25:27

was going through. They

25:30

all had their different drug habits

25:32

that they were trying to kick. Somen

25:35

was able to kick it, song wasn't you

25:38

know. So I just

25:40

used the word habits, you know, because

25:43

when some people get ideas

25:46

of what other people do, a

25:48

lot of people like the stereotypele I

25:51

think they're a bad person. You

25:54

know, they're not a bad person

25:56

at all. You know, it's

25:59

just someone was fighting their demons.

26:01

Someone was able to kick us on what and

26:06

van thing was because

26:08

they had these habits, they

26:11

wasn't worth living mm

26:14

hmm. Because accring

26:16

him. They didn't mean nothing to nobody becoming

26:18

the things that they do, what the

26:21

things that they did, you

26:23

know, yeah, I mean I hear that,

26:25

and I think that's probably the twisted

26:28

way that he tried to justify

26:30

it to himself, you know, right,

26:34

So you know, it was one girl. She

26:37

stayed out north in the

26:40

suburbs of Chicago. She

26:43

was one of the very very first

26:45

person that ever weighing into him.

26:47

But she happened to get away from

26:49

him. She talked to the detective,

26:53

but because of her line of work, they

26:55

didn't have time for her. Next

27:05

time on algorithm

27:07

usually, you know, he brought a cheep back to the

27:09

house and they got he's

27:12

asking about your car, who knows you're there?

27:15

And he took your cell phone. So

27:17

you're saying that these are all science like you

27:19

were probably wind up dead. They

27:22

say what they heard was somebody

27:24

in this dress and they

27:26

look and they seen the woman taed

27:28

up in the backroom of the car. Of

27:31

sexual assaults in particular, the

27:33

departments are under resource, they're not followed

27:36

up on, and this is what happens

27:38

when you don't follow up on them.

27:40

Sexual offenders continue to offend this

27:48

episode was written and produced by me Ben

27:50

Key Brick. Algorithm is executive

27:52

produced by Alex Williams, Donald Albright,

27:55

and Matt Frederick. Production assistance

27:58

in mixing by Eric Quintana. The

28:00

music is by Makeup and Vanity Set

28:03

in Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks

28:05

to Christina Dana, Miranda Hawkins,

28:08

Jamie Albright, Rema l k

28:10

Ali, Trevor Young, and Josh

28:12

Thane for their help and notes. Hey,

28:16

thanks for continuing to listen to Algorithm. If

28:18

you're enjoying the show, please do you leave a rating

28:21

and review on Apple Podcasts. We've

28:23

gotten some great messages from you guys already

28:25

and we're going to do a Q and A episode soon.

28:28

So if you have any questions you want me to address,

28:30

or if there are parts of the story that I brushed

28:32

over and you want more details, or

28:35

especially if you have any tips, please

28:37

reach out. You can call and leave

28:39

a voicemail at eight five

28:41

zero one three three zero nine.

28:44

That's five zero one three

28:47

zero nine, where you can reach out to me

28:49

on Twitter. I'm at ben Underscore

28:52

Key Brick. That's B E N Underscore

28:55

KU E B R I C H

28:58

and you can find all of that information in

29:00

the show notes, thanks,