LBL’s Lost Creek Child Murders are one of, if not the, most high profile unsolved murder case in the State of Tennessee and throughout the Land Between the Lakes region. Murder in Land Between the Lakes, when it comes to these unsolved murders, is cloaked in mystery. The date of September 17, is a pivotal date in the unsolved Land Between the Lakes Lost Creek Child Murders. On September 17, 1980, sisters Carla Atkins, 14, and Vickie Stout, 16, went missing. Their shotgunned bodies were found on Oct. 5, 1980. Both girls had died as the result of shotgun blasts to their heads.
The 1980 Lost Creek Child Murders of Land Between the Lakes remained unsolved to this day. No one has ever been charged or arrested.
It has come time for me to write more about the LBL’s Lost Creek Child Murders. For decades I have pursued leads, interviewed sources, talked on the record with cops, media outlets, ghost hunters, investigators, potential witnesses — you name it. I have published some things I know about the baffling case, but I think the time has come for me to write more. I will be taking my time in writing this narrative. Many of you already know the basic details. In my opinion this double murder of two children in LBL can be solved. Will it be solved? I am not so sure of that….. stay tuned!
Below are some of the items I have published previously about the murders of Carla Atkins, 14, and Vickie Stout, 16, in LBL’s Lost creek/Mint springs area.
Dover was wild little town when Carla and Vickie lived behind the Dairy Dip in 1980
By DAVID RUSSELL ROSS
Dover, Tennessee was one wild little town in 1980 when murder victims Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16, lived in a mobile home right behind the old Dairy Dip.
The town was so unruly during that era, the Dover Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to establish a city police department to get matters in check.
“It was so bad some people, especially the older folks, didn’t even want to come to town at night,” said longtime Dover Vice Mayor Paul “Bud” Berry.
“There was beer drinking and young people hanging out all over town, especially in front of the (Stewart County) courthouse,” Berry said. “And there was always something going on at The Dairy Dip.”
Folks driving through our scenic area now, or those who have moved here in the past two decades or so, probably can’t imagine just how lively our quiet, historic, beautiful little river town was in 1980.
Wild is putting it mildly, some say.
For two decades, some of the fastest cars in several surrounding counties in Tennessee and Kentucky could regularly be seen and heard “squealing out and laying rubber” after “Circling The Dip.” Sometimes those cars would head off toward the long asphalt stretches in Land Between the Lakes and Long Creek Road for drag races.
Throngs of teens and young adults – especially in the summers — would gather in groups in and around parked cars, motorcycles and trucks in “The Dip’” parking lot, watching the show unfold night after night.
Music would blare from the amped up car stereo systems and from the Dairy Dip’s powerful outdoor jukebox.
As 1980 rolled around, the muscle cars and hot rods “Flipping The Dip” had been joined by pickup trucks of all makes and colors.
Soon after Berry was first elected to the Dover City Council in 1982, town officials began discussing the need for a police department.
“Lots of things were going on in Dover then, I imagine, “ Berry said.
The summer of 1980 may have been the zenith of raucous behavior in Dover.
Along with the constant nighttime action at the Dairy Dip and in Dover, there were regular parties going on in the small wooded area around and at Carla and Vickie’s home, sources say.
Carla and Vickie’s home was hidden from those at the Dairy Dip because of the nearby woods and by the large wooden, two-story B&M Furniture Store building nearby, which was originally the Dover High School.
Some folks hanging around the Dairy Dip sometimes would walk into the woods behind the B&M Furniture Store and the B&M Dairy Freeze and join the activities going on in and around Carla and Vickie’s yard.
On occasions, a local singer/guitar player would entertain at the parties in the woods.
Sometimes Carla and Vickie were left without adult supervision, sources say.
At times, young people who were at the gatherings at Carla and Vickie’s house would walk up to the busy parking lot and invite people hanging out at the Dairy Dip to join the parties in the woods.
There was known alcohol consumption and illegal drug activity around the girls when they lived behind the old Dover Dairy Dip. The allegations of drug activity around these girls are grounded in a high-profile drug arrest of three individuals with connections to Carla Atkins and Vickie Stout. The events which led to a drug arrest of three males close to Carla and Vickie in another part of Stewart County, Tennessee originated in the county seat of Stewart County, in Dover, Tennessee. That events that led to that arrest of three males started out behind the old Dover Dairy Dip.
Carla and Vickie and their family had been moved from behind the old Dover Dairy Dip perhaps as little as six weeks before the girls were murdered, relatives say.
Around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1980, Carla and Vickie walked from their home on U.S. 79 West of Dover to the nearby Furnace Restaurant/Store. They had skipped school that day.
Carla and Vickie walked to The Furnace, purchased items and were reportedly walking back toward their home when they stopped to talk with a man in a blue truck.
Their bodies were found on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 5, 1980 by two hikers in the Stewart County portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes.
No one has ever been charged in the crimes.
A 35th anniversary memorial vigil and an acoustic musical celebration of life will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3 p.m. to 7:35 p.m. at the Stewart County Visitor’s Center for Carla and Vickie was held years ago.
The multi-award winning progressive Bluegrass Band “Yankee/Dixie” from Fairview/Dover performed.
The public was invited and encouraged to attend. Admission is free. No donations are being solicited.
Local and area musicians of all skill levels were invited to bring their acoustic instruments and join in the acoustic musical celebration of life jam session.
Special invited guests were speaking during the vigil.
This is the sixth in a series of stories on this unsolved double murder case published in The Standard prior to the Oct. 3 vigil.
| Initial media reports on Stout/Atkins LBL Murders contained false information By DAVID RUSSELL ROSS ~ LBLUS.com Initial media reports on the mysterious disappearance and unsolved murders of Stewart County half-sisters Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16, contained false and conflicting information. “They went up to The Furnace to buy cigarettes,” said Roger Stout, brother to Vickie and half-brother to Carla. “The newspapers never mentioned that.” The girls went missing on the afternoon of September 17, 1980. Their murdered bodies were found Oct. 5, 1980 in the Stewart County portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes. No one has ever been charged in the crime. Roger Stout was in the house with the girls when they left around 3:15 p.m. to walk up the steep hill in front of their home along U.S. 79 West of Dover to The Furnace, a combination restaurant/bait shop/grocery store. Roger Stout, who was 17 at the time, had been in the house all day with the girls. They had “played hooky” from school, Stout said. “The newspapers said Carla and Vickie bought snacks and candy. They went to buy cigarettes,” Stout said. The initial Stewart County Sheriff’s Department report on the missing girls filed at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, 1980, said the girls had left home around 3:15 p.m. on Sept. 17 “…going to the Furnace Restaurant for cigarettes.” Multiple newspapers in Middle and West Tennessee reported the girls purchased “candy and snacks” at The Furnace. None of the initial newspaper accounts mentioned the girls left home to buy cigarettes. One Middle Tennessee newspaper report published while the girls were missing and before their bodies were found said the girls had bought “snack crackers and gum.” Two days after the bodies were found in LBL, a prominent West Tennessee newspaper quoted law enforcement on Oct. 7, 1980 as saying, “…the girls had bought some crackers and gum and had started walking in the direction of their home.” Another West Tennessee newspaper quoted another spokesperson with law enforcement after the discovery of the bodies as saying Carla and Vickie had “stopped at The Furnace about 3:15 p.m. Sept. 17 to buy some candy or snacks.” Other local and regional newspapers also reported the girls had bought candy and snacks, but did not mention cigarettes. Seventeen years later, a Middle Tennessee newspaper quoted law enforcement as saying the girls had bought “cigarettes and snacks” at The Furnace. However, that 1997 article also quotes law enforcement as saying Carla and Vickie headed to The Furnace “after riding the school bus home.” Roger Stout said he had asked his mother that day why the girls had not gone to school on the day they went missing. “She didn’t say why they skipped school,” Stout said. “I don’t know why they weren’t in school that day. I wish I did.” The Sept. 18, 1980 Stewart County Sheriff’s Department report said “Youth Services Officer was called by Mary Emma Cherry and reported trouble at Margie Nell Atkins’ residence.” Longtime Stewart County teacher Mary Emma Cherry was the attendance and truancy supervisor for the Stewart County School system in 1980. Involvement of the school system’s attendance/truancy supervisor supports Stout’s claim the girls were absent from school on Sept. 17, 1980. Some say the conflicting information about what the girls bought at the store and whether they were or were not in school is inconsequential. Others say the 35-year-old unsolved double murder case started out on the wrong foot with misinformation and/or incomplete information to the public. Family members of the slain girls, and others, say the key to solving the baffling murder case could be to go back to the beginning and see if it can be determined where and why the investigation stalled and ceased to be successful. Many interested in the case say the plethora of reporters, newspapers and media interested in the case at the outset would have helped ferreted out information about the girls and who they had been associating with, had the public been told the children were buying cigarettes and had skipped school the day they went missing. “Wrong information is wrong information,” Stout said. “Girls getting off the school bus and buying candy and snacks is different than girls playing hooky and buying cigarettes. The public would have been looking at this case in a different way had they known these facts. The public knowing the truth could only have helped law enforcement.” Stout said he does not know why the public and media were denied the correct and complete information regarding his sisters. A memorial vigil and a musical celebration of life will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3-7:35 p.m. at the Stewart County Visitor’s Center for Carla and Vickie. The public is invited to attend. Any and all musicians are encouraged to bring their acoustic instruments. The acoustic musical celebration of life will be from 3-7 p.m. The memorial vigil ceremony will be from 7 to 7:35 p.m. to mark the 35th anniversary of the murders of Carla and Vickie. This is the second in a series of stories on this case that ran in The Stewart County Standard newspaper prior to the 35th anniversary vigil. It was written by David R. Ross |
Runaways?
LBL murder victims were initially listed as runaways
By DAVID RUSSELL ROSS
LBLUS.com Reporter
Family members of 1980 murder victims Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16, were initially told by authorities the girls were considered ‘runaways.’
“We knew they didn’t run away,” said Patricia Gordon, sister to the girls. “Carla had some medication she had to take daily and she hadn’t taken that with her.”
Gordon said the girls had taken nothing with them, like extra clothes or personal items.
Newspaper reports published at the time of the murders and years later said the girls were initially considered to be runaways.
“Mom kept insisting they did not run away,” Gordon said.
Within a few days of the girls being missing, Gordon said authorities told her and other family members the girls had been seen in Nashville in a “soup line.”
That information came as a surprise, and has never been mentioned again by authorities, Gordon said.
Gordon says she doesn’t know if her sisters were or were not seen in Nashville or who allegedly saw them.
“I wonder if there is a report on that,” she said.
Carla and Vickie left their home on U.S 79 West of Dover around 3 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1980 and walked up the steep hill along the highway to The Furnace Restaurant. They purchased items at the store and then were headed in the direction of their home, according to previously published newspaper reports.
The bodies of Carla and Vickie were found on the afternoon of Oct. 5, 1980 by two hikers in the Stewart County portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes.
No one has ever been charged in the crimes.
Carla and Vickie were last seen talking with a man in a blue pickup truck alongside U.S. 79 West of Dover, after they had left The Furnace Restaurant.
A witness reportedly saw a blue pickup truck turn around on the highway and drive toward the girls.
No one reported seeing the girls get into the blue truck.
Authorities at the time said they did not know if the man in the blue truck was a suspect or a witness.
The pickup truck was described in one news article as being “medium blue” or “sky blue.”
A published description said the man in the blue truck was white, 25-30 years old, weighing about 165-170 pounds. He was said to have a dark complexion or suntan and dark brown hair.
The identity of the man in the blue pickup truck is unknown.
A 35th anniversary memorial vigil and a musical celebration of life will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3-7:35 p.m. at the Stewart County Visitor’s Center for Carla and Vickie. The
Disappearance wrapped in mystery
DAVID RUSSELL ROSS ~ LBLUS.com
September 17 marks the anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of murder victims Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16.
Sept. 17 also marks the beginning of the puzzling 18-day period between when the girls disappeared and when their murdered bodies were found in the Stewart County, Tenn., portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes.
No one knows when the girls died.
Autopsy reports say the girls were both shot in the heads with a shotgun and both died instantly.
The half-sisters went missing on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1980. They were reportedly last seen talking with a man in a blue pickup truck alongside U.S. 79 West of Dover as they were walking back toward their home after having purchased items at the nearby Furnace Restaurant/Store.
Their partially concealed bodies were found by two hikers walking along an old LBL logging road on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 5, 1980.
Tennessee Valley Authority Police were notified and responded to the crime scene along with the Stewart County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation has been in the hands of the TBI and the sheriff’s department from the outset.
In 1980, LBL was under the jurisdiction of the federal government’s TVA. The United States Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service now controls LBL.
Autopsy reports for both girls are blank on the line where the date and time of death are noted.
Certificate of Death for Carla lists the date of death as “unknown.”
Certificate of Death for Vickie lists the date of death as “unknown.”
No one has ever been charged with the crimes.
Law enforcement was quoted in an Oct. 7, 1980 West Tennessee newspaper article as saying, “…the girls had probably been dead almost as long as they had been missing,” and that “…they were killed within several days or a week after they disappeared.”
Other newspaper reports from 1980 quote law enforcement as saying the girls were likely murdered very soon after they went missing.
Family members say they were initially told by law enforcement the girls were believed to be runaways.
Family members say soon after the girls went missing and before their bodies were found, authorities told them Carla and Vickie had been seen in a “food line” in Nashville.
One citizen reports having seen Carla and Vickie on the afternoon of Sept. 17, 1980 with a young male in a vehicle other than a blue pickup truck.
The citizen says this information was reported immediately to law enforcement once it became public Carla and Vickie were missing.
That young male and vehicle do not fit the publicized description of the man in the blue truck
Shotgun blasts
LBL murder victims died from shotgun blasts to their heads, autopsy reports say.
By DAVID RUSSELL ROSS
LBLUS.com
Autopsy reports say 1980 murder victims Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16, died as the result of shotgun wounds to the head.
Two hikers found the bodies of the half-sisters on the afternoon of Oct. 5, 1980 in the Stewart County portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes.
No one has ever been charged in the murders.
Carla and Vickie were last seen on the afternoon of Sept. 17, 1980, talking with a man in a blue pickup truck alongside U.S. 79 West of Dover near their home.
They had walked from their home to the nearby Furnace Restaurant/Store where they reportedly had purchased items.
They were walking back down the hill to their home when they reportedly were seen talking with a man in a blue pickup truck.
The autopsy reports for Carla and Vickie are dated December 9, 1980 and are signed by Dr. James Spencer Bell, Tennessee Department of Public Health, Office of The Chief Medical Examiner, Memphis, Tenn.
The autopsies began on Oct 7, 1980.
The cover letter of the autopsy reports lists Dr. Robert H. Lee (Stewart) County Medical Examiner, Dover, Tenn., and W.B. Lockert, Jr., District Attorney General, Ashland City, Tenn.
The anatomical diagnosis of the autopsy report for Carla says, “Decomposed skeletonized human female; organo-autolysis; shotgun wound to the head.”
The anatomical diagnosis of the autopsy report for Vickie says, “Decomposed, partly skeletonized, young Caucasian female; organo-autolysis, insect infestation; shotgun wound to the head.
The Autopsy Protocol form of the autopsies from The City of Memphis Hospital lists Dr. J.T. Franciso, Dr. Bell, and Dr. (Charles) Harlan as pathologist(s).
Final Pathological Diagnosis for Carla says: Primary Series, shotgun wound to the head, entering the posterior head, occiput, and partially exiting right skull (parieto-temporal); multiple skull fractures; shotgun pellets recovered in hair and in side skull. Some pellets imbedded in left fronto-temporo-parietal inner table, “depressing” (inside to outside) the inner table; decomposed, partly skeletonized human female, organo-autolysis; Secondary Series: none.
Final Pathological Diagnosis for Vickie says: Primary Series; Decomposed, partly skeletonized white female, organo-autoalysis; shotgun wound to posterior head. Shotgun pellets imbedded in occipital outer table (right, posterior and left), path left to right, posterior to anterior; multiple skull fractures, hemorrhagic discoloration of inner table of calvarium; shotgun pellets/fragments recovered in calavarium and in hair. The body is identified as being that of Vicky (sic.) Lee Stout, white female, age 16; secondary series, none;
The autopsy had Vickie’s first name misspelled as ‘Vicky’ throughout the report. Early newspapers reports also had Vickie’s name misspelled as ‘Vicky.’
According to previously published newspaper reports, a witness reportedly saw a blue pickup truck turn around on the highway and drive toward the girls on the afternoon of Sept. 17, 1980.
No one reported seeing the girls get into the blue truck, a 1980 newspaper report said.
Authorities at the time said they did not know if the man in the blue truck was a suspect or a witness.
The pickup truck was described in one news article as being “medium blue” or “sky blue.”
A published description said the man in the blue truck was white, 25-30 years old, weighing about 165-170 pounds. He was said to have a dark complexion or suntan and dark brown hair.
The identity of the man in the blue pickup truck is unknown.
A 35th anniversary memorial vigil and a musical celebration of life will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3-7:35 p.m. at the Stewart County Visitor’s Center for Carla and Vickie. The public is invited to attend. Any and all musicians are encouraged to bring their acoustic instruments.
The acoustic musical celebration of life will be from 3-7 p.m. The memorial vigil ceremony will be from 7 to 7:35 p.m. to mark the 35th anniversary of the murders of Carla and Vickie.
This is the fourth in a series of stories on this case that will run in The local publication prior to the Oct. 3 vigil.
Dover was wild little town when Carla and Vickie lived behind the Dairy Dip in 1980
By DAVID RUSSELL ROSS
LBLUS.com
Dover, Tennessee was one wild little town in 1980 when murder victims Carla Sue Atkins, 14, and Vickie Lee Stout, 16, lived in a mobile home right behind the old Dairy Dip.
The town was so unruly during that era, the Dover Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to establish a city police department to get matters in check.
“It was so bad some people, especially the older folks, didn’t even want to come to town at night,” said longtime Dover Vice Mayor Paul “Bud” Berry.
“There was beer drinking and young people hanging out all over town, especially in front of the (Stewart County) courthouse,” Berry said. “And there was always something going on at The Dairy Dip.”
Folks driving through our scenic area now, or those who have moved here in the past two decades or so, probably can’t imagine just how lively our quiet, historic, beautiful little river town was in 1980.
Wild is putting it mildly, some say.
For two decades, some of the fastest cars in several surrounding counties in Tennessee and Kentucky could regularly be seen and heard “squealing out and laying rubber” after “Circling The Dip.” Sometimes those cars would head off toward the long asphalt stretches in Land Between the Lakes and Long Creek Road for drag races.
Throngs of teens and young adults – especially in the summers — would gather in groups in and around parked cars, motorcycles and trucks in “The Dip’” parking lot, watching the show unfold night after night.
Music would blare from the amped up car stereo systems and from the Dairy Dip’s powerful outdoor jukebox.
As 1980 rolled around, the muscle cars and hot rods “Flipping The Dip” had been joined by pickup trucks of all makes and colors.
Soon after Berry was first elected to the Dover City Council in 1982, town officials began discussing the need for a police department.
“Lots of things were going on in Dover then, I imagine, “ Berry said.
The summer of 1980 may have been the zenith of raucous behavior in Dover.
Along with the constant nighttime action at the Dairy Dip and in Dover, there were regular parties going on in the small wooded area around and at Carla and Vickie’s home, sources say.
Carla and Vickie’s home was hidden from those at the Dairy Dip because of the nearby woods and by the large wooden, two-story B&M Furniture Store building nearby, which was originally the Dover High School.
Some folks hanging around the Dairy Dip sometimes would walk into the woods behind the B&M Furniture Store and the B&M Dairy Freeze and join the activities going on in and around Carla and Vickie’s yard.
On occasions, a local singer/guitar player would entertain at the parties in the woods.
Sometimes Carla and Vickie were left without adult supervision, sources say.
At times, young people who were at the gatherings at Carla and Vickie’s house would walk up to the busy parking lot and invite people hanging out at the Dairy Dip to join the parties in the woods.
There was known alcohol consumption and illegal drug activity around the girls when they lived behind the old Dover Dairy Dip.
Carla and Vickie and their family had been moved from behind the old Dover Dairy Dip perhaps as little as six weeks before the girls were murdered, relatives say.
Around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1980, Carla and Vickie walked from their home on U.S. 79 West of Dover to the nearby Furnace Restaurant/Store. They had skipped school that day.
Carla and Vickie walked to The Furnace, purchased items and were reportedly walking back toward their home when they stopped to talk with a man in a blue truck.
Their bodies were found on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 5, 1980 by two hikers in the Stewart County portion of the federal government’s Land Between the Lakes.
No one has ever been charged in the crimes.
A 35th anniversary memorial vigil and an acoustic musical celebration of life will be held Saturday, Oct. 3 from 3 p.m. to 7:35 p.m. at the Stewart County Visitor’s Center for Carla and Vickie.
The multi-award winning progressive Bluegrass Band “Yankee/Dixie” from Fairview/Dover will perform from 5-7 p.m.
The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Admission is free. No donations are being solicited.
Local and area musicians of all skill levels are invited to bring their acoustic instruments and join in the acoustic musical celebration of life jam session from 3-5 p.m.
Original music and songs, especially from children and teens, are encouraged.
Special invited guests will be speaking during the vigil.
This is the sixth in a series of stories on this unsolved double murder case published in The Standard prior to the Oct. 3 vigil.
Identi kit
For some short time now I have known from a good source — a family member of the witness who gave the description to law enforcement of ‘The Man in the Blue Truck’ — that there was no forensic sketch artist who meticulously drew the highly-detailed original sketch. The sketch of ‘The Man in the Blue Truck’ was created with an early-1980s version of ‘Identi-Kit®.’ made by the ‘Identi-Kit® Company, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of American firearms manufacturer Smith&Wesson, of Springfield, Massachusetts.
My source said it was done on an ‘Etch-a-Sketch’ and I knew he did not mean that, but nevertheless, I got the clue. Now, for a while I have been asking anyone who would listen, “Who was the forensic sketch artist who drew the highly-detailed sketch of ‘The Man in the Blue Truck.” I was waiting for some type of response.
I sort of sprang that question on law enforcement in 2015, I think it was, when then-at-the-time TV new reporter Dennis Ferrier, who has covered the unsolved double murder case of Carla Atkins, 14, and Vickie Stout, 16, for many, many years. Ferrier, the new district attorney the Twenty-Third Judicial District, which covers Stewart County, TN., Patricia Gordon, the oldest sister of Carla and Vickie and I were at the Stewart County Visitors Center while Ferrier interviewed everyone but me. I had been cordially invited to observe Ferrier interview for his ‘package’ and at the wrapup of is interviews he asked me, “Do you have any questions?” I said, “Yes, are you going to give him a copy of the sketch?” I asked the da. Ferrier said. There’s a sketch. See, he did not know about the original sketch either. I, myself, had not seen a copy of the sketch — which had been published only in West Tennessee newspapers and not in Stewart County, Clarksville or other Middle Tennessee newspapers — soon after the murders. None of us on the east side of the Tennessee River/Ky lake knew of a sketch.
I saw it for the first time 17 years after the murders, even though I had repeatedly though the years personally and persistently asked Stewart County David Hicks and on a few occasions Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jack Charlton if there was any information, new or old, they could release to the public on the unsolved murders of these two Stewart County, TN. children. “No new information!” would be Charlton’s gruff response. “Talk to Jack,” Hicks would say. But on that day in 2015 General Crouch had some new information. “There are three sketches,” Crouch told Ferrier, Gordon and myself. “Three sketches!” I think I said aloud. “How long were you going to wait before you told us about those,” I thought to myself. (I am convinced that neither the original sketch of the two age progressed sketches of the original would have been produced to Ferrier and soon after released to all media — West, MIddle and East Tennessee, about the three sketches: 1980 version Identi-kit® ; the 2000 sketch and the 2014 sketch that does seem to have the artist’s name on it.
Now I started doing some research as of late on forensic sketches, etc., and in looking for a forensic ‘Etch-a-Sketch’ I came across the ‘Identi-Kit® and low and behold on the front cover of the Identi-Kit® Manual: System of Modern Visual Identification, Lesson Two — there was ‘The Man in the Blue Truck’ peering at me with his unmistakable helmet hair and sporting a large mustache, aka., a Magnum PIer. — Now if you look closely you will see the hair is the same in all sketches. The shading is the same. The front hair flip is the same. The hash marks at both ears of both sketches are the same. The numbers on the bottom are almost the same.
The ones at the top seem to be close and the writing in the left-hand corners are similar. Yes, the facial features are a bit different, but you tell me — who could see, remember and accurately describe this kind of detailed facial features days or weeks after having seen someone very briefly, perhaps as far as 100 yards away, and not knowing they were going to be called on the recall those details. — I won’t even go into the things I want to say about the ‘age-progression’ sketches of the original Identi-Sketch®. — Now, look at the sketches on the left that ran in the Paris Post Intelligencer fairly soon after the bodies of the girls were discovered. If you can, closely compare those newspaper sketches to the one on the right, which is the original released in 2015 to Ferrier. The newspaper sketch is a more scowling, sinister looking sketch that the one on the right, which has a bit more pleasant appearance. In ways it more closely resembles the ‘Man in the Magnum PI Mustache sketch.” — I have done a very little bit of research on ‘Identi-Kit® sketches and research tends to indicate that these sketches appear to prevent witnesses from more readily identifying potential suspects than it does in helping in identification. (My research is at its early stages, as there is scant info and research studies readily available on Identi-Kit® sketches.)
Is the Shelia Faye Bradford case related to the murders of Carla Atkins and Vickie Stout?
https://lblus.com/2021/05/15/murder-in-land-between-the-lakes-sketches-of-man-in-the-blue-truck-witness-or-suspect/
