Full Transcript for Unsolved Midwest - Episode 12 - The Disappearance of Rachel Mellon Skemp and The Chicago Strangler

as helpful as we would like to give them as much credit as we tried to give them. So, but there were other things that Vincent was doing that had the poly. Police suspicious. Now the timeline. The morning Rachel was home sick from school. And again, the other only person in home was her stepfather Vincent. That later that morning, Rachel made a phone call to her grandparents. And I tried to find her grandparents' names, and these are her paternal grandparents. So these are her dad, this is Jeff's parents. her grandparents. Grandmother's name was Lucy's Skimp. That's the only name I couldn't find. I couldn't find her grandfather's name. And she was calling them to thank them for Christmas gifts. And during the call, she suddenly became quiet. And when asked if someone else was in the room, she said yes. before the call ended shortly after that. At 2 30 p.m., Vincent claims he played video games with Rachel until this time. And that's when she goes to her room to take a nap. And then from 2 30 to 3 PM, Vincent tells police he leaves the home for about roughly and I keep seeing different accounts, about thirty minutes to an hour to walk the family's dog. And he briefly s the dog slips from its leash and he does not lock the front door after leaving. 3 p.m. Vincent returns home but does not check on Rachel. And then at 5 p.m., Rachel's sister and mother return home from school and work, discovering Rachel's gone. And then that evening, the family contacts the Bolingbrook Police Department, Rachel's biological father, and to notify that she is missing. Now theories. And this is just I believe to be a logical theory because this is the last person to see or confirm that they saw Rachel. So the Bulletbrook police police did publicly state that they believed Vincent was the person of interest, but that they lacked physical evidence to charge him. And that's again because Vincent was the last person to see Rachel alive. He claimed they played video games before she took a nap and that she was gone after he returned after walking the family dog. So those, yes, it is an you know stating what you're doing, but it's not giving a clear, credible alibi of where you were. Now there's other supporting evidence of why Vince has constantly come up as a person of interest. And that's because there are some diary entries that were discovered. years after Rachel vanished, investigators discovered Rachel's diary hidden under her bed, and the entries was revealed dark family secrets, and they detailed accounts of Vincent touching and kissing her inappropriately, and obviously this is going to establish a strong motive for foul play. And then there was technically no physical evidence, but some detectives did note scratches on Vincent's body shortly after Rachel went missing. And again, the polygraph, then they keep going back to that. And then the missing bedding. That's another questionable thing. So while Rachel left behind all vital items, like her purse, money, winter coat, and you have to think it was super frigid that day. Why would she leave without her coat or her shoes? Specifically boots, because they said she left her boots. And her favorite blue blanket and two pillows were the only thing missing. So reasonably so, investigators deduced that this may have been what she was wrapped in to Transport her body. Now because Rachel's body has never been found. Researchers and true crime investigators have evaluated how her remains might have been concealed on such a cold day because you think the ground's frozen. There's no way that you could, you know, dig up the ground and bury her. So Rachel's biological father, Jeff, believes police missed an early opportunity to find Rachel. He noticed that on the night she disappeared, authorities failed to search a non-running car kept on the property. A prominent sub-theory suggests Vincent may have hidden her body inside the trunk of the car of his own vehicle until the frozen ground thawed enough for a burial. Again, and I know I keep stating this, but the severe weather, it was a blizzard and it was cold, and there's just no way that he could have buried her. Now the runaway theory, and this was eventually dismissed. So when Rachel first vanished, authorities initially classified her as a runaway. And to support that, in the spring of 1995, about a year before she vanished, 12-year-old Rachel ran away after fearing she would be blamed for something her younger siblings had broken. She left a note, slept outside a friend's house that night, and called her step-grandparents the next morning, and they safely returned her home. So That theory was eventually dismissed. And Rachel was really sick. Like they're saying when I originally thought sore throat, like a scratchy throat, I'm trying to like ditch school. No, they're saying she was severely sick that day. Like she didn't want to move or do anything. And with it being below freezing outside and no shoes and no winter coat, I just don't think she would have had like the strength if she's as ill is is being reported in multiple resources. Now there was a grand jury investigation into the disappearance, and it was convened in January of 2000 and for nine hours in Will County, Illinois, but it concluded without any indication in indictments or criminal charges being returned. So what they did was there was DNA collection. So They did collect Vincent's DNA. blood, saliva, and hair samples. And both Vince and Rachel's mother, Amy, were subpoenaed to testify. And their hope was for doing this is that there had been some technological advances. And they're hoping by collecting all of these things they might get some resolution for the case. And during his questioning before the grand jury, Vince repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right. against self-discriminations or s incrimination apologies. So because of the lack of physical evidence or a body, the grand jury ended its without handing down any indictments,

unfortunately. Now for background and context, then I'm not excusing any actions by Rachel's mother, Amy, but I would like to add that Rachel was second generation Filipina and her mother was first generation. And I'm sure there was some fear that caused her relux reluctance and her lack of cooperation. And the only reason why I add this is because in a lot of this true crime forums like Reddit and other places. Users frequently notice A or they just keep bringing up Amy's behavior. And how it contrasted with Jeff, Rachel's father. So while Jeff aggressively advocated for justice, Amy repeatedly refused to cooperate with police and dispose of Rachel's belongings. However, Amy has publicly stated in past interviews she believes Rachel is still alive and was taken by an unknown person. But with the documented history of domestic violence, I would just like to provide some statistics about maybe where Amy. Might be coming from or things that Amy is dealing with. So according to and this is a 2022 study, so this is a little old, but the National Demographic and Health Survey conducted that Philippine statistics authorities or by the Philippine Statistics Authorities, 17.5 to 18 percent of Filipino women ages 15 to 49 have experience. Some form of physical, sexual, or emotional violence from an intimate partner. Now, while these were showing that it was on a gradual decline. What I would like to say is also in reading statistics that we might not be provided with actual evidence or actual proof of true numbers because there's a lot of underreporting due to shame and stigma and that you don't discuss things that are going on in your home. Also Officials statistics are heavily underrepresented by the actual scope of abuse, just again to the systemic barriers and cultural stigma. because more than twenty-five percent of Filipino women are are experiencing abuse. And divorce within the Philippines is generally illegal and not available for civil marriages, like I said, within the Philippines. And I'm not saying that Amy couldn't divorce Vince now, but just thinking if Vince is the person that she's depending on and she's already gone through one divorce and she has two additional children with him, I can definitely sympathize with the fear or hesitation of what is the appropriate action to take when you're dealing with a situation like that. And if Lord forbid he did have something to do with Rachel's disappearance, what is he what what else is he willing to do? So I just wanted to throw that out there. Now there were a couple secrets that Rachel was keeping, and there was a hidden weapon. So investigators found a stake knife hidden under Rachel's another one of Rachel's pillows, indicating that she was terrified and attempting to protect herself from someone. And incess literature, so authorities also found an out-of-print book under her mattress titled Kiss Daddy Goodnight: a clinical study focused on father, daughter, incess. Now today and currently what's going on with her family, what's going on with the case. Again, they moved away. Vince and Amy, they moved to Tennessee several years ago. And they do not cooperate. They do not there's little in readily available information about what they're up to. But again out of all of the theories of what could have happened, this definitely has my interest piqued because you have to think of all the things, the lack of things that Rachel took with her, the diary entries, the book that really flagged my interests, like what's going on there and why hasn't there been an arrest yet? And poor Rachel's biological father, Jeff Skimp, he has spent, like I said, 30 years searching for his daughter. And he eventually moves from Dallas to Bolingbrook to be closer to the search effort. And he is always publicly making statements. And he is of the belief that Vince was involved. And to this day, he maintains the exact same phone number. in hope that Rachel might one day try to call or contact him if she is still out there. Now I'm going to play audio at the end of the episode so you can just hear Jeff give one of his Interviews and I'm going to then move on to the next story. So if it just seems odd that there's a jump from one thing to the next, that is why. But if you have any information regarding Rachel's disappearance, you are urged to contact the Bowling Brook Police Department at 630-226-8600. And her case number is 96-2670, or you can contact the Cook County Sheriff's Office. And when Rachel went missing, she was described as having black hair. Which was cut short at the time of her disappearance, but More so than not, she wears her hair shoulder length. She has hazel eyes, she has a mole on the upper left side of her lip, pierced ears. She was five foot five inches when she disappeared and 75 pounds. And she'd be 44 years old today as of the 13th of this month. So again, if you know anything, please come forward because you could have the smallest little bit of information that you don't think that it's a big deal, but it opens things up. Right up because that's how cases get solved all the time. And Rachel was important and she mattered and her dad is doing everything he can in his power to try to find his baby. So let's let's help him. And again, if you know anything, please go to the show notes and call any of those numbers. Jeff Skimp is the father of Rachel Mellon. I've accepted The fact that this problem for our next case is going to be the Chicago Strangler. And this is a series of unsolved homicides from 2001, technically till 2018, but some people still think that there's an offender out there, and there's at least 51 to 75 women who were strangled or smothered across Chicago's south and west side, ranging from ages 18 to 54. And this formed what researchers called one of the most significant clusters of unsolved homicides in the United States. And This investigation highlights severe systemic challenges and forensic tracking, community

trust, and law enforcement responses. Now, I am going to provide an opinion on this, and I think the facts also support that opinion. While I think there is definitely one main bad actor in a lot of these cases, I think there's also a lot of outliers within this cluster of women that may. it even more confusing and difficult to track down who this bad actor is because those outliers are almost in a way padding the padding the search that the officers are trying to narrow down who the suspect could be. And again like a lot of killers they pick a marginalized group of people that may not or not may not will not receive the same investigative efforts versus someone who maybe didn't live on the wrong side of the tracks or l have a certain lifestyle if that's the correct terminology I want to use. But The victims were predominantly young African American women and most of them were sex workers and often had criminal records and nearly all were strangled and they were partially or fully stripped and then left in abandoned build buildings alleys. garbage bins and parks or snowdrifts. 25 additional cases were closed by police resulting in the arrest of 13 men. So this is the outlier part that I'm talking about. Several of these strangulations were committed in just three police districts located on the south and west sides of Chicago areas, with histories of violent crime and drug use, such as Washington Park and Garfield Park, have been common locations for these murders to occur. This pattern was recognized in 2018 through the Murder Accountability Project that also goes by the acronym MAP, which It reviewed 51 unsolved strangulations and asphycians cases draft dating back as far as 2001. The algorithm used by MAP sorts unsolved homicide by-location, victim, and killing method in order to identify clusters associated with low homicide clearance rates. And according to MAP, these factors could be indicative of an active serial killer. This pattern closely aligns with the Chicago Transit Authority Green Line, or also known as CTA, elevated train track routing across the near south and far south sides. So The debate over whether there's a single serial killer or multiple serial offenders are responsible, remains a point of contention between independent researchers and law enforcement. So again, there is l some back and forth and disagreement as far as if this is a single person or if are multiple offenders, but this is the views from the group. So MAP they assert the data strongly points to two or three active serial killers targeting vulnerable women due to the highly localized and specific methodology. The Chicago Police Department maintains there's no definitive evidence linking all cases to a single serial killer. However, pressure from community activists And MAP led the Chicago Police Department and the FBI to form a dedicated investigative task force in 2019. Now, forensic DNA evidence out of roughly 50 core cases reviewed, only 21 yielded viable

DNA profile, none of which matched one another or any offender profile within the national FBI database. The low recovery rates imply forensically aware killers or severe degradation due to the outdoor elements. And then this just the systemic barriers. Progress has been historically crippled by severe Illinois forensic lab backlogs, transient victim lifestyle, systemic police misconduct, and chronic underfunding. Now the victims, they go by the they've been coined as the unforgotten 51. And community advocates emphasize that saying their names prevent these women from being treated as mere statistics. So I am going to say all of their names. And if you it just are like, I don't need to hear this, then please fast forward or please come back for another episode. But I'm going to say all of their names because they matter. Charlene Miller. Latoya Banks, Shannon Williams, Vanessa Vržovic, LaFonda Wilson, Quanda Krider, Angela Prophet, Pamela Wilson, Velma Howard, Diamond Turner, Catherine Satterfield Buchanan, Valerie Jackson, Laura Harbin, Nicole Ridge, Rio Holyfield. Angela Ford. Charlotte Day, Winifred Shines, Brenda Crawford Cowart, apologies, Elaine Bonita, Sadia Banks, Bessie Scott, Gwendolyn Williams, Jody Grissom, Lorraine Harris, Deli Jones, Celeste Jackson, Nancy Walker, Linda Green, Tariq Jones, Rosinda Barrosio. Latonia Keeler, Latrice Hall, Lisette Thomas, Ethel Amerson, Michelle Davenport, Tamala Edwards, Mika Love Malikave Williams, Precious Smith, Denise Torres, When Wanda Hale, Yavette Mason, Saniqua Williams, Margaret Gomez, Antoinette Simmons, Kelly Sharf, Veronica Frasier, Marianne, Salasque, Teresa Bunn, Hazel Lewis, Genevieve Mellis. Now there was a conviction in an outlying case. So in 2020, a man named Arthur Hillard was charged with the murder of 21-year-old Diamond Turner because his DNA was linked to the crime. And he was convicted of her homicide in December of 2025. And he is actually currently awaiting sentencing. And he's also convicted of concealing a body in an unrelated 2018 case. And is this suspected in yet another murder in which he has yet to be charged? charge. Now media awareness, and I know I get into this every time, but it is super frustrating because just the overall systemic neglect surrounding these cases It's sparked some national media attention aimed at holding city officials accountable. And there are some docuseries if you want to go deeper and dive into the information. So I'm gonna provide a couple of those. So The Hunt for the Chicago Stranglers, the three-part series on Discovery Plus. And it gets deeper into the timeline of the murders and it exam examines the police department's resistance to declare that there's a serial killer, like why that they won't do it. And then groups like the West Side Health Authority, they launched the Stop Taking Our Girls campaign to combat human trafficking, domestic violence, and systemic ap apathy toward missing or murdered black women in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. And as far as today, again, there is still a back and forth of if there is a single killer or if there are multiple killers. But either way, there's an issue and it's a huge systemic problem because there is no way that 50 women should be murdered in the same way. And we don't have more answers. time, resources, all those things, there there's just to the point that there just should be no excuse. And if someone you know has information regarding any of these unsolved homicides, and if you want to go back down the list and if a name tickles like your memory at all. Please. And you could submit it anonymously to the Chicago Crime Stoppers at 1-800-535-Stop or directly to the Chicago Police Department at 312-746-6000. Now I want to get into our peak of the week. After such horrible stories, and let's get into what is going on. Or I'm actually remix the peak of the week. So November is right around the corner, and while we should always care for others, I feel like November is a special time where we are prompt to remind ourselves of what we're thankful for and how we can help others. So I wanted to bring attention to a couple of places. where your time or if you want to donate you could to these organizations to help and just make the world a better place. So kindness begins with me. It is located at 6740 Loftboro Avenue. And this group connects refugees and immigrant families to the St. Louis community through classes, support, and culture events. And you can learn more about that. I will add a link. Everybody for kindness, a local nonprofit that hosts community events, youth fashion shows, holiday family adoption for foster children, and school supply drives. And I will also be linking them for donation and for volunteer opportunities. And Premier Charter School runs the Chain Reaction of Kindness Initiative where students build growing visual paper chain by nominating peers for daily acts for sharing respect and compassion. So I just thought that was just a neat little tidbit to add on of ways that people are helping and doing kind things for another. So If you get to November, just remember, or not if you get to November, when we get to November, just remember that there are so many ways to give back to the community and help others. And I personally would like to get out and help, either doing or giving out blankets because it's gonna start getting cold soon and I don't want the homeless out there freezing or helping give meals, but I'm definitely going to sign up for something. So if I think of something, I will get back to you guys and let you know. And for today's episode, I would like to credit CBS News, NBC 5, Chicago, ABC San Francisco, Chicago Tribune, Philippine Commission on Women, WWTW News, PBS, Fox, and 30 or sorry, Fox 32 Chicago. Apologies. And that is all I've gotten for today's episode. And Sunday's episode will be a spooky drop. And I can't wait to see you guys then. And thank you so much for your support. If this is your first time here, thank you for giving me a try. And if you come back, I really appreciate it. And please like and subscribe. And I will see you later. Bye.