The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
Welcome back, everyone.
I just wanted to say thank you at the top.
This week we had an update on our podcast hosting website, but we were able to pull
international reviews for the first time.
And there are so many very kind reviews coming from all over the world that I was able to
read for the first time.
So thank you so much to everyone.
It was overwhelming.
Yeah, I really enjoyed listening to them.
Ali read them off to me.
And they just bring us so much joy to hear back from y'all, to know that you're listening,
and to know that you're just upholding what Cold and Missing is all about, which is getting
these cases out there and getting some name recognition around them.
So yeah, it's great to hear from y'all.
But I thought we would just go ahead and jump into this week's case.
We are on episode 121 this week, and we are on a cold case.
All right, let's do it.
So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does have mentions of sexual
assault.
Today, we are talking about the cold case of Terri Marie Howell.
And this takes place in July of 1980 in Knoxville, Kentucky.
But first, a little bit about Terri.
Terri is 24 years old in 1980.
She's a single mom to a young four-year-old boy, Kenny.
Terri and her young son live with her mother in Owensboro, Kentucky.
Growing up, Terri was the only girl with four brothers.
She was tough, but also the sweetest person you could ever meet, according to her family
and friends.
Those that knew her and loved her said that she was even-tempered and didn't want to
trouble anyone.
She was a really sweet woman and a wonderful mother.
And now, a timeline of events.
On Thursday, July 24, 1980, it's unclear exactly what Terri was getting up to throughout
the day.
But what we do know is in the evening hours, her and a girlfriend, Janice, decided to go
out dancing.
Thursday night turned into an early Friday morning, July 25.
Now there are some things that are kind of unclear in this case, and one of those things
is if Terri and Janice were bar hopping that evening or if they spent all night in one
location.
It sounds like to me that they were bar hopping, kind of going place to place, but the girls
did not have a car on this evening out.
Eventually, the two of them end up at the Hasty Tasty.
The Hasty Tasty was packed with activity.
This was a popular spot since it did have a 24-hour kitchen.
Several bars and nightclubs are in the area that kept the Hasty Tasty busy.
They also had their own dance floor so the good times could keep rolling.
So again, the girls could have spent all night here or they could have just ended up here.
To me, it does seem like this is the last spot that they wanted to go so that way they
could grab a bite to eat.
Another thing that I had trouble pinning down is the exact timing of events.
So back in 1980 when this was originally being reported, the next sequence of events was
said to happen between 2.30am and about 3am.
However, now when the story is reported, this time shifts to around 1am.
So this sequence of events is all the same, but there could be some discrepancy in the
timing.
For me personally and for the sake of the timeline today, I'm going to go back to what
was originally reported in the 1980s and use that timing, but just keep that in mind that
there could be some variation in these times, but the sequence of events appears to be correct.
So at around 2.45, Terri and her friend order food at the Hasty Tasty.
It's here that Terri starts talking to a man.
He's a white man in his late teens or early 20s, around 5 foot 10 with a slender build.
Terri and the man talk about people that they both know in Ohio County, Kentucky.
That's where Terri had gone to high school and these two seem to know some of the same
people, but it seems that Terri did not know this man before this night.
As 3am rolled around, Terri’s friend Janice gets up from the table to go use a payphone.
They were ready to head home, but neither one of them had a car.
They had been dropped off for their night out.
When Janice calls their ride, the phone line is busy.
She hangs up, waits a few minutes, and tries again.
She still gets the busy signal.
So she heads back to the table to tell Terri that their ride didn't pick up.
It's at this point that the man that Terri had been talking to offers them a ride home.
The two decide to take it.
Around 3am, Terri, Janice, and the man were seen getting into a light or pale blue two-door
Ford sedan, possibly a 1965 or 1966 model.
The girls got into the car and as soon as the doors were shut, the car sped out of the
parking lot.
To take the girls home, the car should have turned right out of the parking lot, but instead
he took a left.
The man eventually gets on US 60 and is heading out of town.
The two women try to let him know that he was going the wrong way.
When he ignores them, they start screaming at him.
He continues to ignore them and keeps driving the wrong way.
At the intersection of Kentucky 144 and Reed Road, Janice, who was sitting on the passenger
side, jumped out of the moving car.
There was another car right behind them that had to swerve to not hit her as she came out
of the vehicle.
The other car didn't stop and the car with Terri and the man didn't stop either.
Janice wasn't seriously hurt when she fell, but she was pretty banged up.
She had to walk about a mile to a payphone to call her sister to pick her up.
She goes to the hospital to get her cuts and scrapes cleaned, but Janice doesn't alert
anyone about Terri until later.
About 12 hours later, so it's still Friday, July 25th.
Around 4.30 in the afternoon, a volunteer firefighter notices smoke coming from an abandoned
farmhouse on the Cammie Nicks farm.
The farmhouse was just outside of Knoxville, Kentucky on Free Silver Road.
When firefighters arrive at the scene and put out the fire, they discover Terri’s
body had been badly burned inside.
The killer had brought Terri’s body into the abandoned farmhouse and placed her on
a mattress on the floor.
Pieces of paper and cardboard box were piled around her head and paper was placed near
her feet.
A match had been used to light the fire.
Police are called and they begin to process the scene.
Foul play is immediately suspected.
Police also pick up on a trail, a trail of discarded items of Terri’s starting with
her shirt that was about 100 feet from the farmhouse.
One of Terri’s shoes, her pants, some medicine, and her empty purse were all found along Kentucky
1389, which leads to Hawesville, Kentucky.
Her purse was the only item actually found in Hancock County.
All these items are processed, but police are not able to lift a fingerprint.
On Saturday, July 26th, Terri’s autopsy is conducted.
Ultimately, the medical examiner determines that Terri was already dead when the fire
was lit.
In addition, they're able to rule out most causes of death except for strangulation or
suffocation.
Police suspect she died of one of these too.
It's not revealed until years later, but the autopsy also confirms that Terri had been
sexually assaulted.
The medical examiner sends samples for testing to complete the report, but after the physical
autopsy is complete, Terri is buried that evening as a Jane Doe.
As her mother will say years later, quote, they didn't even wait three days, end quote.
That same night, Terri’s mother had been increasingly worried about her daughter.
She never came home after she went out on Thursday, which was very unlike her.
And she felt uneasy after she saw that a dead body was found in Knoxville.
After not being able to get a hold of her daughter, she calls the police to report her
missing.
As news spreads that Terri is missing, Janice comes forward to police to tell them what
happened to her.
Once police get Terri’s name, they use dental records to confirm that it was her body inside
the farmhouse.
They also ask her family and friends to confirm that the blouse that they found was hers as
well, which they do.
On Sunday, July 27th, police confirm that the body she saw in the news was in fact her
daughter's.
Her mother gets to work arranging a grave side service since Terri had already been laid
to rest.
On Tuesday, July 29th, police say that they do not have a suspect, but have interviewed
several people on the case.
Police do believe that Terri was killed not long after her friend jumped out of the car.
It is likely that the killer drove around with her body in his car looking for a place
to get rid of it.
On Thursday, July 31st, police hold a press conference.
They release a sketch of a man that gave Terri9 and her friend Janice a ride.
Police announce that they would like to talk to the man, and that while at this time he
hadn't done anything wrong, they need to clear him as part of their investigation.
Police are also asking that the person who was driving behind them when Janice jumped
out of the car to please call police.
They stress that the driver is not in trouble, that they just want to know what they saw.
Police believe that the man lives in Ohio County since he knew so many of the same people
as Terri from Ohio County.
They also scour Hancock County since this is where the trail of Terri’s belongings
was headed.
They believe that he tossed the items out of the car while he was driving east on Kentucky
1389.
Once police release the composite sketch, lots of tips come through, but nearly a week
later on Wednesday, August 6th, it's been 12 days since Terri’s murder and none of
the tips have led to anything.
Sheriff Harold Taylor says, quote, We've checked out 64 people, but silch, end quote.
Later in August, the lab results come back from Terri’s autopsy.
She had no drugs in her system and barely had any alcohol.
Police say that it was likely she had one beer several hours before her murder, but
that was it.
After this, Terri’s case appears to go cold.
The next update is in April of 1983, so it's been almost three years since Terri was murdered.
Terri’s mother believes that she had been killed due to revenge.
She says, quote, It had to be revenge, but for what?
I don't know.
That's the one that bothers me the most about the murder, end quote.
Police also say that Janice had been questioned thoroughly by police.
She had passed two polygraph tests, two psychological stress evaluations, and had been hypnotized.
Through all of this testing, police feel confident that she is telling the truth.
That's how we have so many details about that night.
In 2004, so it's been 24 years since Terri’s murder, and her son is grown and starting
his own family at this time.
His wife Penny also takes up Terri case.
Penny says, quote, We're still holding out hope.
We've talked and wonder if the whole story will come out.
We don't think it's just a random act.
We think there's more to it, end quote.
In 2009, so it's been 29 years, and police announced that they are reopening the case
in hopes of finally closing it.
With the evolution of DNA, police are now looking to see if they have any options to
test evidence that they have for DNA.
Police are hoping that if they are able to pull a DNA profile, that the suspect would
likely already be in the database from another crime.
Police also asked for the public's help.
A detective working the case says, quote, What we're hoping is anyone who may have
been around the hasty-tasty on July 24th and 25th, who may know anything about what happened
to Terri Howell.
We're hoping one person's information might be enough to bust this case wide open
for us.
We certainly like to have justice prevail, and for the family's sake also.
In 2015, it's been 35 years since Terris murder, and Terris mother still holds out
hopes for answers.
But she is forced to face the reality of her situation.
She says, quote, 40-year-old murders are solved, but I get the feeling this is not going to
be.
End quote.
Terri’s mother passed away in 2021 without knowing who killed her daughter and why.
Terri’s son, Kenny, and her daughter-in-law, Penny, have gotten a divorce, but Penny still
champions Terri’s case.
She wants to keep the case in the media for her children, Terri grandchildren, who
she never got to meet, but also for Terri’s mother, who had worked so hard on the case.
But that is all we know about the murder of Terri Howell.
So if you know anything about the murder of Terri Howell in July of 1980, please call
the Davis County Sheriff's Office at 270-685-8444.
So that is the case of Terri Marie Howell.
I loved hearing that Terri was so kind and sweet and caring and gentle as she was and
came from a family of four brothers.
I have a big family, so I understand the dynamic a little bit.
But I don't know, I love that she came from a big family of brothers.
Yeah, I thought that was a fun detail.
And I thought I told a lot about Terri , actually.
Anyone who has a lot of brothers but is the only girl kind of knows what it's like.
So I enjoyed that fact about her as well.
She was also a mother and a single mother.
I know people who are single parents and they are the hardest working people I know and
the most exhausted.
And they're incredible people.
And she sounded the same.
And I'm so sad that her son was robbed of a mother because he so deeply deserved that.
And everyone in her life, she should be here.
Yeah, I think something that broke my heart in a way that I didn't expect in this case
is that Terri was headed out for a girls night, it felt like, a night to have fun, to dance.
And I wonder if she had a lot of nights like that, like you said, a single mom.
This was likely a treat for her.
So the fact that it went as horrible as a night out can go, that's heartbreaking in
and of itself because this should have just been a fun, joyous, carefree night for her.
Yeah, all women deserve that when they go out at night.
All people deserve that.
But it's just extra heartbreaking because she probably didn't get the chance to go out
very often.
And since we're talking about her going out, the first thing I wrote down about the timeline
was just the actual time that they were out.
And it sounded so late to me.
And I feel, I know I'm not old, but I feel so old when I say that midnight is super late.
The times that they were out, I know those times to be that nothing good is happening.
You know, nothing good happens after 12am.
And as you started to share the timeline, unfortunately, I feel like I could sense where
it was heading.
Yeah, the timeline, again, is one of those tricky things.
In 1980, it's reported this was all kind of happening around 3am.
Today it said it happened around 1am.
So while two hours doesn't feel like a ton of time, at that hour, it does feel like a
lot.
Like 1am feels way different than 3am.
At the part of the timeline when the women have left the bar and it's around 2.45am,
could you circle back on what those details are?
Yeah, so Terri and Janice were seen in the parking lot.
This was happening in 1980.
It was reported around 3am, getting into a light or pale blue two door Ford sedan.
So it was Terri, Janice, and then the guy from inside the hasty-tasty.
Something I immediately thought when you were talking about the conversation that Terri
was having with this guy that she didn't know, but supposedly they had a lot of people in
common, I was very suspicious.
And I just assumed that he was probably lying to create a sense of safety between the two.
If he could echo her and say enough about, oh, do you know so and so, and he could improvise
a little bit, I think because of the time, it's late, you're tired, I know they weren't
drinking a ton, but still it's the middle of the night.
If he's saying he knows the people that she is saying that she knows, who is she to assume
that he's lying?
There's no Facebook, there's no cell phones.
I assumed that it was a tactic to create safety so he could eventually do what he did.
Yeah, I thought about that as well with the guy basically just echoing back whatever she
would say or just giving vague enough details that they could apply to anybody.
Because it seems like if they really did have people in common, at some point they should
have been able to find this guy in the hasty-tasty that gave them the ride.
It feels like they could have gone through her graduating class through that high school
and shown everybody the composite sketch, like, do you know this person?
Maybe that was done and it led nowhere, but it feels like if they really did have acquaintances
in common, somebody would have made a connection with the suspect, Terri , how they would all
know each other.
So that's kind of my thoughts on that.
What happens afterwards, after they have their conversation with him, is truly the stuff
of nightmares.
And it will never not shock me that people commit crimes like this.
I do have a question about Janice and this isn't to place any blame or point fingers.
I'm just curious if you knew why she waited.
I don't know why Janice waited to go to police.
I assume she was just in a state of shock and, you know, I try not to pass judgment
on folks who maybe were just coming out of a really terrifying situation.
But at the same time, I do recognize that it's like, why didn't she go?
I, you know, there's this anguish of like, oh, like, ugh.
But at the same time, I try to leave enough room in my head and heart that she had just
gone through something really crazy, too.
Yeah, ultimately, all anger can be, you know, funneled back to the person who committed
this crime, because it shouldn't have happened.
For sure, because it's like, how dare he even put these women in that position to begin
with?
I don't enjoy continuing to segue more into the mistreatment of women in this case, or
of Terri , but her being buried three days after her body was found, maybe it's because
I don't understand the laws at the time, but still that it feels even even if those
were the laws at the time, they shouldn't have been.
Yeah, it was actually less than three days.
So they found Terri’s If you know anything about the murder of Terri Howell in July of 1980, please call the Daviess County Sheriff’s office at 270-685-8444 body on a Friday, her autopsy was done Saturday morning and she
was buried Saturday evening.
So almost in the span of 24 hours of her body being found, she was laid to rest.
And yeah, that's one of those things.
I don't know exactly why that was done.
I don't know if it, like you said, it was the law at the time, but it seems almost callous
in how fast to not even give families the opportunity to maybe come forward and claim
her.
I don't, that was shocking.
In all of my research in these cases, I've never seen a burial happen that fast.
Something else that I also found surprising was the treatment of Janice afterwards.
And I understand that due diligence needs to happen, but from my understanding, you
know, she was covered in scrapes and bruises and had gone to the hospital and she told
them.
So I, I'm just kind of confused as to why she was what seemed like to me for a moment
pretty deeply investigated.
I just wanted to know your thoughts on that.
With Janice, I think that maybe police leaned into, you know, the fact that it took her,
you know, like a day to come forward with what happened to her.
And even maybe the fact that she was covered in cuts and scrapes made them think that maybe
she wasn't telling the truth about what happened that night.
Maybe she had been involved in some way.
I'm sure the thought crossed their mind.
But I feel like when she passed the two polygraph tests, she would have been in the clear.
I'm not exactly sure what the stress tests would have revealed or not revealed or what
that was telling police and why they did too.
But I also think that maybe once they got to hypnosis, they were just trying to maybe
pull out extra details from that night.
Or maybe, you know, it just seems like something out of a movie, you know, a horror movie that
they were like, this can't be the truth.
But here she is under hypnosis saying the same thing.
So, you know, I would be curious into their thought process for everything.
And, you know, when Janice turned from a suspect to a source of information and a witness.
The other thing that I thought that kept coming back to my mind on this case was the second
driver.
It seems to me and in my research that police never found the person who was driving behind
them that saw Janice and, you know, swerved to miss her.
To me, that is something that you would very much remember.
And it would be a noticeable event in your life even all these years later.
So, I really hope that this person does come forward eventually just to say what they know.
But it also makes me wonder maybe why they haven't come forward.
Were they involved in some way?
Like it really makes you wonder why somebody would not come forward to police in this situation.
But that's a detail I keep coming back to was that other driver and just why wouldn't
they come forward.
But in this case, I really hope that we're able to get Terri’s name out there and drum
up more interest in this case.
You know, her daughter-in-law is doing a wonderful job at that and has really taken charge of
the case and keeping it in the local media.
But hopefully police are able to continue to review the evidence, see if DNA can be
tested, if anything can be tested for DNA.
I even wonder those items that were thrown like, you know, touch DNA, like is that available
for these things?
And if not today, hopefully, you know, soon, six months, a year, five years, whatever it
takes, I hope we get answers in this case.
But if you know anything about the murder of Terri Howell in July of 1980, please call
the Davis County Sheriff's Office at 270-685-8444.
And we will have pictures of Terri and the suspect sketch up on our Instagram at Cold
and Missing.
If you're not following us, please follow us there.
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find the official transcripts there as well.
But that's all I have for you this week.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Allie.
And I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.