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Podcast Bringing Attention to Knox County Cold Case

Posted at 10:42 PM, Apr 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-25 22:42:40-04

KNOX COUNTY, KY (Lex 18) – An Indiana man is using his podcast to find answers in a 33-year-old cold case hundreds of miles away in Kentucky. 

In 1985, a small town in rural Knox County gave an unidentified woman a funeral after a killer dumped her body in a refrigerator in the woods. To this day, the woman remains unidentified and is known as the Redheaded Jane Doe.

On Wednesday, Shane Waters traveled eight hours from Indiana to learn about the case for his true crime podcast called "Out of the Shadows."

From a coffee shop in downtown Barbourville, Waters interviewed locals about their recollections of the case. He focused on why people cared so much about a woman no one knew.  

"The people from that area at that time knew that she was a person. No matter what her background or history was, she deserved to be remembered," Waters said. "So, although they couldn’t give her a name, they could give her a funeral and they could give her a tombstone." 

Waters visited that gravestone with the help of Scott Clouse. The two also traveled to the site where the woman’s body was found 33 years ago. 

"I think if it was a local, they wouldn’t have brought her here, knowing someone would find her," Waters said to Crouse at the site. 

Crouse was only ten when news of the murder shocked everyone in his town. He says people in the town still talk about the case to this day. 

"They want to see this solved and the only way to be able to do that is pass the memory of this case down," Crouse said. 

Waters has released three podcast episodes so far about six different cases known as "the redheaded murders." The podcaster believes a number of them could share the same killer. 

The latest episode focused on the case in Knox County. He’ll release another episode this weekend about the case. 

"She deserves a name and she deserves justice for her case," Waters said. 

While the Redheaded Jane Doe remains unnamed, a family in North Carolina believes she could be its mother. As previously reported by Lex 18, the family is awaiting the results of a DNA test done by Kentucky State Police in October.