True Crime Vault: Lock the Door Behind You

A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows.

“Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life.”

I'm Juju Chang, from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault, where each story is unforgettable.

The first body came out after midnight, but it was only the first.

When the murder started, for the most part, they were just another murder. Sonahawk, cutie Jean Balka, Deborah Slatter. Each one seen individually. Here's another homicide. Two murders in two days.

Two is African-American. Caroline Love, shell stances. Another victim to roll out. A lot of women are in fear. I just talked to her, and now she's dead.

The patterns of women being killed didn't really add up. Randy Henderson and nine other. She's 10 murders. The murder count possibly totalling 13. Why didn't police see it soon?

All victims of an unknown suspect. Whoever did this was a ghost. Dangerous disguises a friend.

His victims never saw him come.

One wanted to make someone see a partner. We feel bad that we did not know that soon. But it wasn't just police.

“Those of us in the media, I think the community.”

Yeah, it was right there. This young mother's killed in the same manner. All had been strangled. You looked at me and he said, we think we have a serial killer. You know, if you don't get him off the streets fast, he could do it again.

That was not gonna stop until I found out who did this. If we'd only had the little pieces. Shut up. Had we only known what we know now. She was one of the victims too.

So this was Shawn's first prom. Oh, man. I remember the day she found the dress. Purple was her favorite color. Shawna Hawke was a very beautiful young woman. She went to Central Piedmont Community College.

All I could tell you about Shawna is that incredibly human being. Raised by her mother, single mom, at the time. She was industrious and vicious, worked. She wanted to make something out of herself. She was the apple of her mother's eye.

Shawna was born on December 2nd, and I was all of 18 years old. I remember, and Shawna was crying. In the minute they laid her on my chest, our eyes locked. And she just calmed right down. She was younger than me, but, you know, bossy.

That's the right word, if it sounds like she was bossy. Every time now when I hear you're the sunshine in my life, I see if it takes me to hurt because remember one day I was talking about. How much we love that song? Shawna Hawke is working her way through college. She's serving fried chicken at Bojangles,

but she gets a better job at Taco Bell. The one reason I allowed her to even get the job was because it was the most money she had made.

And she always worked fast food, and she said, "Mom, I can do it."

Still, her mom's a little worried. She's worried about the long hours, and whether she's going to be able to keep up with her schoolwork. She actually talks with the Taco Bell manager, a guy named Henry Wallace. I went and met him once, and he said, "I'm nice to meet you, Miss Sumter.

“I've hired your daughter, and I think she's going to be great on our team."”

That year, February 19th, was on a Friday. Desumter refers to that day as horrible Friday, but it started out as just any other day at their home on Elon Street. She said, "Well, I'm gone. I love you." And I said, "I love you more."

And then she stuck her head back in the door and she said, "Mom, I love you." And I said, "Baby, I love you more." And then she took off. That afternoon, Dee gets a call at work. Her God sends mother call and said, "Mistate, have you heard from Shana?"

And I said, "No." She said, "Mistate, I'm not trying to say anything, but something's wrong. I don't know what, but something's not right." She noticed some unusual things around the house when she came home. Her daughter's car was not there.

And Shana's purse was in the house and her winter coat was in the house.

She's wondering what's going on. Where is she? I called her boyfriend and I said, "Darrow, get over to my house, please." Now, and he's just shaking his head, he said, "This is baffling." Something is definitely wrong. And they decided to call the police and report her is missing.

As they were waiting for the police to respond, Daryl decided to go looking through the house and just check. I hear his footsteps. He walks into the bathroom. He pulled back the shower curtains and found Shana in the bathtub and a small amount of water fully clothed and she was dead. The next sound I heard was him blood-curdling screen.

He runs back down the hall.

Misty, misty, down 911. She's in the bathtub.

“Plus, think I remember seeing them push her out on a gurney doing CPR.”

It was obviously too late at that point. Subsequently, we find out that she was raped and then strangled inside of her bathtub. And that was kind of unusual for us at the time. We did not have a lot of strangulations doing that time with the homicide investigations. Strangulation is rare.

It's more commonly seen in domestic cases or cases where people have a relationship. Murder?

I could hardly even spell the word, murder, before Shana was murdered.

We didn't have any damage to the doors. We didn't have any damage to the windows. So we believe that she allowed a sailor to come inside the resident. The killer was also meticulous in terms of going through the house, making sure he wiped down anything that he may have touched. So they had no DNA. They had no fingerprints.

In effect, whoever did this was a ghost. Who would want to kill this beautiful, innocent, sweet, kind, loving person. My best friend, my daughter. We didn't find anything significant that would draw us to point to any particular suspect at the time. She couldn't have had an enemy. She wasn't a kind of person.

So after she was found murdered at her home, the police tried to locate her car. It was not discovered for weeks. And when it was discovered, it was found in a parking lot at Central Piedmont Community College. The front seat was pushed back and Shana was short.

“So I think the only thing they took away from it is that it had to be somebody that was taller than Shana.”

In the course of their investigation, police actually are missing something rather important. Eight months earlier, a young woman by the name of Caroline Love, disappeared. And it turns out that Caroline and Shana were friends. It's not my right. They need to go back and look at what happened to Caroline. Because Caroline's missing and now here Shana is dead.

What's coming is a incredibly rude awakening. There's some big opposition on the body. For the sharp police department. What soon followed was a wave of death and grief unlike anything this town has ever seen. The best way to scratch out in the early days would be is that it was grown in extremely fast.

Charlotte was at the beginning of its banking boom. Johnson from 20.

“After the Charlotte Hornet's got here, I think that's when everyone started using the term world class city.”

The skyline seemed like it changed every three to four months. Charlotte was booming. A lot of steel and glass and a lot of looking upward. Maybe not enough looking down. Police are pointing out the drug dealers. And what was happening on the ground?

Drugs are a problem in every large city in America. In the neighborhoods. In communities. Police say that this is what they call a crackhouse. We were headed towards one of our highest murder rates in the city's history. On the legitimate side, banking was the growth industry.

On the criminal side, drugs was the growth industry.

It was a very, very violent period of time.

Dogs and their debris were seen. In fact, I would say it was the most violent period in Charlotte's history. Members of the Violet Mustang gang were arrested. In the 90s, we were not equipped to handle the murder rates. We had maybe eight homicide detectives.

But only six were actively working. It was almost like they were having to work homicides like car accident. It's the 90s in Charlotte, North Carolina. Skye's creepers are going up. But at the same time, a series of crimes are unfolding.

20 year old Shana Hawk has found strangled in her bathtub. And her friend and coworker, Caroline Love, has vanished. Caroline Love went missing in June of 1992. Caroline lived in East Charlotte. I lived in West Charlotte.

And we all were together with James. The love sisters, Kathy and Caroline worked at Bojangles with Henry Wallace, who was shot at Hawk's Boss at Taco Bell. She was a really fun person.

She always had a really cute boy for me.

She didn't show up for work. This doesn't sound like her. You know, something's definitely wrong.

“I know, my mom, I remember her calling like everybody.”

She called everybody and I feel like having seen an issue over here. It was like she just disappeared off the face of the earth. She was living with this young lady by the name of setting the night. Setting the night and her boyfriend, Henry Wallace, helped file the report for the missing person of Caroline Love.

Kathy, Henry and Sadie are the ones who went to the police station to file the police report. Charlotte had the news on as she said, Mommy, Caroline is missing. Something is wrong. It's not like her, just not to come to work. And not call me or call work or say something.

When Sean Hawk has murdered police don't immediately tie that to the disappearance of Caroline Love, but there is a connection. Before Taco Bell, Sean had worked at Bojangles with Caroline. She and Sean were close friends. They were in high school together. They worked together. They were buddies. They hung out together.

My mom was only. She was like, there's no way that within a year that Caroline's missing in the night when her good friends is dead.

They always remain hopeful that she would be found alive and okay.

I thought so many times that she was going to come back. So I remember even when searching for her, at these two old dresses.

“And I wore 'em because I wanted to look nice, you know?”

I wanted to look nice and she showed up. Four months after Sean Hawk was murdered another young lady, Audrey Spain, turns up murdered as well. I think this is one of my favorites. Audrey was a free spirit.

She lived life on her terms, spirit it. It ventures positive, a hard worker. Audrey Spain was another young attractive black female who also worked at Taco Bell. I do remember receiving a call from Audrey's manager, telling me that she had missed going to work that particular day,

and that he was concerned. So they actually sent the manager or the maintenance people to her apartment complex, and when they entered their apartment complex, they found her deceased on the bed. I don't know how much information they actually gave us at that time.

“I just remember that she had been murdered,”

she had been strangled, there was a rape also. It was devastating. It's just not something that you ever expect to have to deal with. Audrey was my younger sister, and we grew up together, so it was very difficult. What did I miss? How did this happen?

And you're totally blindsided. Yeah, totally. The interesting thing about that crime scene was that the thermostat had been, it was the summer months, had been turned way down. The crime scene text when they got there were shivering.

That's because the air conditioning had been cranked to slow down the decomposition process. Apparently, her body had been there for at least two days.

Shawna Hawke and Audrey Spain have been strangled to death.

“Before Shawna was murdered, a friend of hers, Caroline Love, had vanished,”

even so that detected, have no clue that these cases are connected. I just don't feel like they knew maybe she was random, maybe not.

These cases never came together because there were other detectives working in,

and not just one. And so we had very little information to go on at the time to try to link it with any other homicides. We just knew that we had another young black woman, who has found murdered. We have a possible serial killer working in the shadows.

But do we know that? We have no idea. In the months ahead, more Charlotte women will fall victim to strangulation and murder. But the killer will make a mistake giving police on glimpse as to who he is.

1993 is the year of living dangerously in Charlotte.

Caroline Love, Shawna Hawke, Audrey Spain. Peek murder rates, and somebody is killing young black women. It was earlier this afternoon when a family friend found the body of the woman. It was September '93. We were called out to a home where a woman's body had been found.

Police got to this apartment off of Marvin Road. They found two very frightened children.

“Michelle, yeah, I was there vividly remember Michelle Stinson.”

Here's a young woman who had been murdered inside of her own home with her children present.

Michelle Stinson was killed in front of her two children.

A friend brought spy to visit Michelle. She looked in the windows and saw one of her little boys playing and was banging on the window. Where's your mommy? Where is she? And they tell him, well, mommy's asleep on the floor. And he was getting ready to leave when the little boy opened the door and he went in.

He finds her dead on the kitchen floor. There were signs of strangulation, but her cause of death was four stab wounds. As Michelle Stinson's bloody body was taken away, those who knew her said goodbye with tears and tried to make sense of it all.

“My goodness, what person, what monster, could take the life of a mother in front of their children.”

Police say that there is no sign of forced entry. And that indicates that perhaps Michelle knew her killer and invited him in. Despite that, they failed to find any viable leads or suspects. Michelle Stinson's case, like Shawna Hawke and Audrey Spain, and the still missing Caroline Love, goes unsolved. You can't even stay at home and be safe anymore.

For some unknown reason, they just couldn't connect the dots. Desumptors are markable women. Yes, her heart broke, but her will didn't. Desumptor went on a public campaign to call attention to her daughter's death. It's better knowing. And she turned what was the worst possible situation into something extremely positive for this community when she, along with Shawna's godmother, Judy Williams,

started an organization called Mother's Immorted Hospital, which is still here. I just knew I had a daughter who was murdered, and it wasn't being investigated properly. I was opposed by that angered by it, and I was not going to stop until I found out who did this. They felt that the police department or the city didn't care enough because they were young black women. These subter who's daughter Shawna was on that list of victims.

Still wonders why did some of the faces were white instead. Every time another youngster was murdered, there was D calling the press, going after the police, saying, "What are you going to do to help us?" She was turning up the heat on the police. They particularly attacked the police each and every day about what we were doing and what we were not doing. Because they thought that we should be doing more.

And we were telling them that we couldn't do anymore than what we had. We were overworked and we were understaffed, but we were doing the best that we could.

She wrote a letter to the editor calling out the person who took her daughter's life.

Something in me said he's got to have some type of a heart. It might be a dark heart, but it's a heart. Please, please, please come forward and turn yourself into the authorities so justice can be served. And so you can get the help you need. And so forgiveness can be given.

For without this, you are eternally doomed. Can I have a moment? D-sumper's letter appears in the Charlotte Observer. And in a same day's paper, a brief article, a woman in Charlotte found dead in her apartment.

Here we go again, another victim.

In the mornings, when Vanessa Mack had to go to work, her babysitter would come here to her house to pick up a four-month-old daughter. A young lady by the name of Vanessa Little Mack was murdered in her home. I think.

“But no, I think get up, you know, like that.”

And then she didn't move and she didn't say anything. So I turned a bedroom light on. That's it, hold on. Vanessa Mack was killed in February of 1994, almost to the day that Shawna Hawk had been killed a year earlier.

The blue was on a bathe, and a towel was run on it.

Her baby daughter, just yards away, was okay. Police believed the infant was in the home when her mother was killed. Vanessa Mack was a hospital worker, just an honest, hardworking young lady doing the best that she can to provide for her family. I don't know why I really did. It felt she was a good girl, she didn't bother nobody.

Vanessa's little max cause of death was once again a literature strangulation. There is a link to previous killings, but police don't seem to notice it at the time. Vanessa Mack had a sister who worked at Taco Bell. So again, the correlation of another person working with somebody at a Taco Bell. We started looking for financial card records and discovered that a bank card was missing from the scene.

They got her banking history and found that her teller card had been used unsuccessfully. In her final moments, Vanessa Mack tricks her killer, giving him the wrong pin to her ATM card.

“She had made it up, it wasn't the correct password, so that's why he couldn't get into her account.”

She still fought back, she didn't give him everything he wanted. They're security cameras on the ATM. So we looked at security camera footage and we could possibly say that it was a male of dark skin complexion. But it wasn't a great picture. There wasn't a lot to go on.

The only thing you could see in the photograph was his ear. And we did see a earring in the figure of a cross at that time. A hoop cross earring. Only thing the photograph showed. But that killer wearing a gold cross earring is about to make another mistake revealing his identity.

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Terms apply on covered repairs. Like a beast, sitting waiting for a prey, just waiting to go and hurt someone. It's March 1994 in the city of Charlotte, and someone has gotten away with murdering four women any years time.

My God! What's one of the biggest? Shut up! Shut up! She was one of his victims too.

Shawna Hawke found strangled in her home last February, and then two weeks ago, but that's a little Mac, also strangled. All Black women in their 20s, all strangled to death in their own home. Something's not right here, you know? Something's not right.

I mean, as one question, I want to help with police department. Why didn't they show them a real interest in? And I really felt that we've been neglected. All of being investigated as seemingly unconnected, that is about to change.

In one single, deadly day, at the same apartment complex. They lake apartments, and I would refer to them as the infamous lake apartments, because if there is any location in this town, that's affiliated with these cases. That's the location.

The next victim is in March 9th of '94, 18-year-old Brandy Henderson, a young mom. She was funny, she loved to joke around,

“she sang off-key, but she thought that she could sing,”

and we just let her do it. Brandy lives with her boyfriend Lamar Woods, and their 10-month-old son, Tyrease. Brandy told me that when she had Tyrease, that she felt like her life was complete,

she felt like she had made a masterpiece. One night in March, Brandy calls her cousin George, asking him to come over and hang out. She was like, "Well, I've got some Chinese food that I ordered, and if we take out, why don't you just come over, come on over."

"You know, come see me." And I said, "Well, it's already 8 o'clock. I'm tired. I've been working out there. I got to get up early tomorrow. And she said, "I'll come on, come on, come on." They're talking on the phone.

Then there's the knock on the door. The phone call was interrupted, and she said, "Someone was at the door." And I heard her in the background saying, "Just make sure you lock the door behind you."

I didn't worry about who was there because she said lock the door behind you, so she'd trust you know. Late that night, Brandy's boyfriend comes home from work.

The first thing he notices is that sort of catches his eye

is that kind of like the lights are off, which is a little bit unusual because he knows Brandy is home. He turns on the light. The apartment's been trashed. His stereo is missing, the place has been robbed.

So he starts checking around, and he finds his kid. And notices the kid is not really breathing normally. So then he's like, "What's going on here?" Someone has tied a pair of shorts around

ten-month-old Tyrese's neck. This child is struggling to breathe. He runs to help him. He unties the things around his neck, and then finds Brandy.

Brandy was in the bedroom lying on the bed. A little literature around her neck. You're watching as this woman's body is being carried downstairs. Knowing her child has been injured,

The next morning, as soon as I turn the news on,

“we don't have a significant break anywhere in the case.”

We're still hoping that somebody may come forward with some information. They had a stretcher rolling across the sidewalk in front of her apartment. And I knew at that time that it was real, and I just lost it, because I just could not comprehend that I just talked to her and now she's dead.

The killer still not only the stereo, but a pringles can of coins that Brandy had been saving up. However, this suspect got in here. Apparently he was a dead end or had access to get in on his own. Now, many contemplations are yet to come.

Right at this moment, detective's get an urgent radio call. They're needed back at the lake apartments. Another woman is found strangled. I could not believe that the next day we're back at the same apartment complex

where another woman is found dead in her apartment. And this woman is Betty Jean-Bockeham. She's 24 years old.

“She has a three-year-old daughter, Betty Bawkeham,”

who lives somewhere in those same apartments. Worked at Bojangles.

Betty never did anything wrong.

That anybody's always trying to help people. I mean, it just really hit us hard here. The stuff hit the fan. It was crazy town. And everybody was over there.

It seemed like there was 10,000 police cops over there. I was interviewing people who are racing into the department complex. We came here to make sure that my girlfriend was seen because her husband is at work and her daughter's home alone.

Did this concern you when you heard this? Yes, it did. I mean, it's unbelievable. The fear that it stoked was just insane. I grew up in New York and I thought this was going to be like,

you know, a safe haven out here.

“And apparently there is no safe haven anymore.”

So now we have a major problem. Now we have two young ladies in the same apartment complex. Have been found murdered. And there's a lot of conversation. I was in court and saw one of the homicide detectors.

And I asked him, you know, what's going on?

And that was the first I heard.

He looked at me and he said, we think we have a serial killer. Police worry this could be a serial straggler. Betty Jean Bunkham's car has been stolen. We're looking for a vehicle now on the latest victim.

And we believe the suspect is probably flated. So during this time, you know, we have an APB out for Betty Bunkham's car. And we're looking citywide for the car. Police found the car in this parking lot.

And actually it's right across the street from the apartment complex where the women were found murdered. On the floor of Betty's car is a Pringle's can, stolen from Brandy Henderson. So that connects the two murders at the lake apartments,

who ever killed Betty and stole her car. Must have also killed Brandy and stole it her coins. Tonight, police aren't taking any chances at all. They're setting up parrometers all around the lake apartments. Investigators say they need more information.

Like, you know, if you don't get him off the streets fast, he could do it again. You use caution, be careful, and think before you open the door. The killer is out there somewhere, and they feel certain if given the chance he could strike again.

We're in tonight of a serial killer in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's the shock of recognition that comes when a community realizes there's been a killer in its midst. So now we have a major problem. Now we have two young ladies in the same apartment complex.

Having found murdered. The media has now been involved. Be careful, let them empty your house. If there's some bath, that all go nervous with the person. Maybe coming to your door.

Don't hesitate, call 911. Everybody is in an upload, everybody in the panning. The city was on edge, you know, just fear all over the whole city. It was scary. It was scary.

I can remember, call them some friends. I know on that side of town, I say, hey, be careful. Investigators say they need more information quickly. Young women were murdered in the same apartment complex, and their killer is still out there somewhere.

Minutes before Brandy Henderson was murdered at the Lake apartment.

She said, hold on, hold on.

Somebody's at the door.

“And I heard her in the background saying, just make sure you locked the door behind you.”

The day after the murder George says he stops over at a neighbor's apartment. As I walked in to my left, set Henry Wallace, watching the TV. I had seen Henry Wallace at Brandy and her boyfriend's house. I had met him one time. By daylight detectives were back at the Lake apartments with another murder on their hands.

The news came on. So we started watching the news, and it was about Brandy's murder. Investigators say whoever killed these women was cold bloodedly calmed, spending a lot of time in each of their apartments. I felt this on my shoulder.

I felt a pet. Like, I'm so sorry.

“And he was looking at the TV, watching Gernie go across the sidewalk with her body.”

And his eyes just glow, he was just glowing. Like, just, you know, like a maze like he was excited. And I could just see that in his eyes. Like, he was just fixed on the TV. Brandy Henderson's 10-month-old baby was also attacked and left for dead.

And he's like, I'm so sorry. What happened to your cousin.

And Henry said, she was always there with her baby by herself.

When somebody came in, she was they locked the door behind them. I had that flashback to when I was speaking to her. And she said, just make sure you locked the door behind you. And I knew at that moment that it was him. I said, oh my word, he killed her.

George says he immediately told a police officer about his suspicion. But he says the officer blew him off. But by then they knew that they had a serial killer on their hands. And they needed to find him quickly, but they didn't find him quickly enough. As they're processing all of this with Betty Jean and Brandy Henderson being murdered

at the Lake's apartments, one more person is found murdered about a mile away. And her name is Deborah Anne Slatter. She loved to laugh. She had a very contagious laugh. She also had a beautiful voice.

She and I both grew up singing and church together.

“I remember voice to men came on the radio, singing the end of the road.”

I just remember going to the end of a road. And I can't let go. That was the last time we sung together. Deborah Slatter lived in the Glen Hollow apartments, which were the same apartments that Audrey Spain lived in.

Henry Wallace had also lived at Glen Hollow at one time. And Deborah worked at the Bojangles, the same place for Henry Wallace worked. My mother did give us warnings. Her exact words is, you know, there's this serial killer in Charlotte and I need you to be careful. And I would say to Deborah all the time, you know, be careful.

I always told her to be careful.

Deborah was a tough person, and she just wasn't scared of anything. It was this last Thursday, the bodies of Brandy Henderson and Betty Jean Balkham were discovered. Two days later, Deborah Slatter was found just a mile away. At some point, after letting this man into her home, Deborah Slatter comes to a horrifying realization.

Once his attack was on, Deborah Slatter made the connection between the recent murders. At that point, she said, "You're him." So, Deborah did fight because Deborah knew that she was going to die. Deborah Slatter's case was much more violent than any of the other victims. And you could tell that there was a big struggle inside the home. She fought for her life.

Let me Slatter sees it every time she closes her eyes. Her daughter's body lying on the dining room floor of her apartment. When she knocked on the door, the door just kind of pushed open. And she walked in. And when I opened the door, and saw her later that floor.

Next thing I know, I look up and I see two firefighters bringing my mother down the stairs.

And...

“The first thing she said, Deborah's gone.”

She's gone.

You've got... Oh, this person was strangled here.

This person was strangled here. This person was strangled here. Huh. Tonight, police aren't taking any chance. Looking back. The killer is out there somewhere.

For myself, as a reporter, I keep thinking. Why didn't we start putting two and two together? Then you have the police who are trained to do these kind of things. Why didn't they do it? Look closely. Police say this is the face of a serial killer.

“Who is this man who has confessed to the murder?”

Last act touched.

So, it was out of my control.

It was out of my hand. So I couldn't stop. There was no work inside. We have a possible serial killer working in the shadows. And somebody is killing young black women.

All black women in their 20s. All strangled the death in their own home. It's some kind of a bold demon here. One like never before. He's hiding in plain sight.

And he's doing it very cleverly. If it was everybody, he portrayed himself as the big brother as a good friend. And I remember we had told him he was going to be okay. He's just going to come back. He had killed her.

So he kind of walked into their life knowing that at some point he's going to take their lives. I didn't want to, but something or somebody was taking over my body.

He writes a name, then a second name, then a third name, but he keeps going.

He was talking about killing women like you're in some sort of boring book club.

“The general tone in Charlotte was, why didn't you guys figure this out earlier?”

Saying that they didn't prioritize these murders because the victims will black women. You guys blew it. How could you miss this? It was this last Thursday, the bodies of Brandy Henderson and Betty Jean Balkham were discovered. Two days later, Deborah Slatter was found just a mile away. Investigators have now contacted the FBI trying to set up a profile of the killer.

Newsculthing, be careful. And think before we open the door, we don't have a significant break anywhere in the case. We're still hoping that somebody may come forward with some information. Charlotte police are desperate to find this killer. They do get something to work with from Brandy Henderson's boyfriend Lamar.

We ask him who would Brandy allow into the home without any problem. And he said, "Henry Wallace." Once the detective on Brandy Henderson's case got the names of who she would have led into the apartment, he went to see if any of them had any criminal history. Henry Wallace did. He had a misdemeanor larceny charge.

And there was a mugshot of Henry Wallace. That's when Detective James Stansbury, who's been investigating the Vanessa Matkase, walks into the room. He comes in and he sees the photograph of Henry Wallace in that mugshot. Henry Wallace is wearing a hoop cross earring in his ear. I looked at the photograph and something hit me.

The detective remembers that from the ATM on Vanessa Matkase. I saw the earring with the cross. And that symbol to the same earring that we saw on the picture of Henry Wallace, a rest photo. I say this and say, "We may have something here." Investigators hope this car stolen from Malcolm's spawns new leads.

Betty Hien's car is found across the street from the crime scene. Nissan Palsar and that was the biggest break that they've had today, which was inevitably what led them to their suspect. They hit a jackpot near the trunk area of that car, where they found a palm print.

Matkase came back to Henry Wallace.

“So now we're going to look for the person Henry Lewis Wallace.”

March 12, 1994 around two in the afternoon Deborah Slotters' body is found. Three hours later, police locate Henry Wallace and place him under arrest. And when the cops came in, he was hit back in Dorshik and the back in Dorshik. I didn't. Initially, he is not giving up the goods.

The police sent in literally teams of detectives trying to get him to talk. He was like, "I don't know what's talking about." They sent in two more. I don't know what you're talking about. Enter, detective, Tony Rice. Tony Rice goes into the room and started to talk to Henry.

And he said, "Henry, you mind if we just say a little prayer together?" And he actually held Henry's hand and said a prayer. After the prayer, then Tommy said, "Well, now can you tell me about what happened?" Henry said, "Give me a piece of paper." And he started writing down all the names of the women.

“He writes a name, then a second name, then a third name.”

And these are victims that police had already suspected him of murdering. But Henry Wallace keeps going. Another name, another name, another name, a total of 10 victims. Charlotte police are stunned.

That was the first police knew of the depth of how many people he had killed.

Henry, if you would, go ahead and just talk on board and stay here for a moment. And he knows what. The police decided to record his confessions. Charlotte, I really didn't have any intentions of doing what I did to Charlotte. I stopped by to see Charlotte one day and she gave me a hug.

And then she gave me a hug. I had a real close and that's it. I don't even have sense of it. She said, "You're joking, right? I have to know on that."

He gave a full confession. That's very unusual. Many of them denied to their dying day, so to speak. But Henry Wallace didn't. I told her to get dressed.

She went to the bathroom.

“That's why you need to put the choke hold on her.”

And she passed out and I put the bathtub with water and placed her in it. Coldest thing I've ever heard in my life. He was talking about killing women like you're in some sort of boring book club. Henry Wallace admits he raped each of his victims before killing them and usually rob them. But what's really unusual is that Henry Wallace knew his victims.

And they knew him. That's what's different. He knew them and he had to know them. He couldn't kill a stranger.

I would always hear the voices of the children.

I would always see them. I would always see a shot of them. I would always hear the voices. I would always hear them. Like laughter from them.

Shawna Hawks' mother de-sumptor says that Henry Wallace actually showed up at Shawna's wake. I think it is. It's some kind of a bold demon here. One like never before. I had the literal goal to show up at a service for someone that he knew.

He personally killed. The thing that makes my blood run cold in such shock shivers up and down. My spine is the fact that I saw him after Shawna was murdered. And he expressed his condolences. And he helped me to tell me how sorry he was.

And he knew he had killed her. But I wanted to tell her so bad. He actually was a daughter. But I was so scared. I was so scared.

I just couldn't do it. I mean to be hugged by your child's murderer. Showing up and sending his sympathies. That is some cold calculated stuff going on right there. We began to get a bit of a portrait of Henry Wallace emerging from the photo shown in court.

He had many strengths in growing up. People liked him and he was social. Henry was a great person, very nice guy. Got along well with everyone.

But he also had some obviously very lethal problems.

He would have had every opportunity in the world with any of us. He could have easily gotten any of us. But he didn't.

“An all-new season of the secret lives of Mormon wives is now streaming on”

Hulu and Luan Disney Plus. The mom talk has just been blowing up. Whitney and Jen are on dancing with the stars. Taylor is about to throw it. Saying that out loud is crazy.

That is huge. But all the cool opportunities could close apart. It's causing issues in everyone's marriage. My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos.

The watch to Hulu original series. The secret lives of Mormon wives. While streaming on Hulu and Hulu and Luan Disney Plus for bundle subscribers, turns apply. Welcome back, Grace.

You and your sister are here for a very exciting reason. These Friday. Hunters, you haven't told Dom to kill them both. Experience the most unhaired. I'm not playing!

20. Ooh! Diabolically Twisters. Movie of the Year. Some are weaving.

“Catherine Newton, Elijah Ward, and Sarah Michelle Giller.”

Back for round two. Yeah. But you're not to. Here I come. We do do.

Under 17 on a middle of that terrace. Only beaters Friday. 'Cause we're sad as faction in that point. I didn't want to. But something or somebody was taking over my body.

And I couldn't stop even when I tried to stop. Police say this is the face of a serial killer. A man who choked the life out of neighbors and coervers. His name is Henry Lewis Wallace. Henry Wallace was born in raise in Barnwell, South Carolina.

A small town about three hours south of Charlotte. Before he became a serial killer. Henry Wallace was a fast food manager who had served in the Navy. Had been married and then divorced. The news of his arrest shocked his hometown.

I still have a hard time believing now that it was me today. Our Henry. Former classmates and the high school yearbook seemed to portray a completely different image than that of a cold-blooded killer. Henry was a great person, very nice guy.

He was a good guy. He was fun. He had the biggest smile, the biggest personality. Always happy. You know, he was the first male cheerleader we ever had.

I would have never guessed in a million years

that Henry had any kind of issues where he would do what he's done. Never in a million years. He would be the person that he was responsible for more deaths and make a bird show a neck and bird than any other person that was came in contact with.

“I think the community was truly stopped.”

Those kinds of cases didn't happen here. Charlotte wasn't kind of place where we would have a serial killer. After Henry confessed to all of the murders that we believe he did in North Carolina, we began to formulate how are we going to tell the public. Information indicates that this person was responsible for the murder of 10 women in Charlotte.

When we made an announcement, the city ate us alive, the media ate us alive. I do remember the police coming out and saying, we have a serial killer but you know what, our officers did a great job. The investigators worked tremendously hard and did an excellent job on the investigation of all of these 10 cases.

We're sorry that we did not get him identified earlier. Had we done that, then we maybe could have saved the lives of some of these women. The general tone in Charlotte was, why didn't you guys figure this out earlier? The community became outraged. The police was well aware of this a long time ago.

There were some in the community who criticized the Charlotte police, saying that they didn't prioritize these murders because the victims were black women. I said and just cried in my heart and outside because I wanted that same energy and effort to be extended to my child. There was not a level of caring.

This is where the racial disparity comes in. We covered D, we covered her press conferences. One of the things that she made everyone think about and talk about was if these have been white women who were dying in South Charlotte, each killing would have been a huge story.

Racer's always a factor in criminal investigations.

Until America sees that it is not a factor. We have to mention it. Doing an interview, Racer's always going to be a factor.

There's nothing given short-triggered.

“One of the other stunning aspects of this case was”

how well Henry Wallace knew most of his victims. And it seems that fast food restaurants are the common thread that bind Wallace to most of his alleged victims. Everything was right here all along. It's been right here.

And they've done everything except look right here. Obviously, obviously, connections. There's that word again connecting the dots. And my humble opinion blatantly ignored it. It was like, you guys blew it.

How could you miss this? It's not that we missed this. Is this that we were overwhelmed with the cases? During that two-year period that he was killing people, there were approximately 300 people murdered.

All of those cases were on the deaths of six homicide detectors in the 90s. We didn't have the technology. We definitely didn't have the manpower.

“And we definitely didn't have the resources.”

When Henry Wallace confessed to police, he listed names of people that investigators didn't even know had been murdered. Well, there is one name in particular on that list that I am certain wasn't on their radar at all. And that is Valencia jumper.

Investigators say Valencia jumper died in a third floor apartment.

They say this also appears to be the unit where the fires started. Valencia jumper came to Charlotte. She was a student at Johnsonsey Smith University. Henry Wallace, new Valencia sister, that was their connection. She was found in a house that hit quite fire.

That didn't fit any patterns before or after. It was ruled that maybe she had was out drinking with a friend and had too much to drink, put a pot of beans on the stove to eat and the fire engulfed the apartment. Investigators say they suspect Valencia jumper was sleeping

when the fire in her third floor apartment broke out. They say a pot left on her stove started the fire.

“I went to the kitchen and I opened a key and I poured you into something”

and I put it in a pot. Put it on the stove and I turned the stove on high. He set the whole scene up that it looked like she fell asleep while she was cooking. And I went to her kitchen and I went to the bathroom

and I poured it down all over her body. He considered her to be his little sister. There were so many things in this case that were missed by various people. The only people who didn't miss the signs were her family. And her family fought to the nail to say this was not an accidental fire.

After Henry confessed the medical examiner started re-examining the facts in that case. And one of the things that stood out was there was no suit or ash or anything in her throat where she breathed in smoke.

It should have been ruled that she was dead before the fire started. This case haunts me probably the most because of mistakes that it remained. That had they not been made. Henry Wallace would have been charged then.

And she was victim number five. We wouldn't have had five more. Henry Wallace's confession leaves a veteran law enforcement shocked and almost caught off guard. But the next thing he does is remarkable.

He takes the police on a field trip. I knew this day was coming. I mean I knew and I wanted it to come. And there have been several times doing the actual crime that I was committing I wanted to die.

I ruined every day. Henry Lewis Wallace knew all of his victims and they felt comfortable with him because he portrayed himself as the big brother as the good friend. Always very polite. It's the only neighbor male neighbor that I would even let him

when my boyfriend was in that home. He was a friend. I trusted him. Henry was like the perfect human predator. So he kind of walked into that life knowing that at some point he was going to take their lives.

You never realized what Henry was all about.

And by the time you did, it was too late. If you would go ahead and start with a first name that you put on your list there.

Carolyn, where did you meet Carolyn?

Carolyn, I met her through the 1980s. And so we go to the board and we're looking for certain names and Carolyn, a love name, is not on the homicide board. So why is this name on the list? Carolyn Love was a woman that went missing in June of '92.

She was a friend of Wallace's girlfriend at the time.

“Remember Sean Hawke and Caroline Love were friends”

and they were co-workers. We talked to Henry and he was very forthcoming. And he gave us a lot of information. I got to a body on the left side near where he was ditched. Carolyn, they're probably probably back in the woods.

They think he could find it again, I know I'd hear it.

And so we decided to find Carolyn Love.

We put Henry in the back of the van and he directed us out to this remote area of the county to a field. Investigators were told exactly where to look for another victim and this was our case.

And it was a skeletal remains of Carolyn Love. That tells the cops that this guy is for real. He's a killer because he's the only person who's going to know this. We have to tell the public that this case was not a missing person is now a homicide.

Thank you for not crying all yesterday. You cried all this night. Caroline's family is even more devastated. This is the same man that went with Carolyn's sister, Kathy, to follow missing persons report.

Caroline's niece Sarah was only eight years old when her aunt went missing and who comforted her during that time and we Wallace.

“Then I remember being in her room with him”

and sitting on his lap and I remember being sad and crying. And I remember being telling me that's going to be okay. She's just going to go back. The same day that Henry is consoling Sarah, the police arrived to speak with Carolyn's family.

They have no idea the killers and their myths listening to every word. And in talking to him, he remembered us talking to Carolyn Love's family about her having an orange jump suit from Bojangles. He said after hearing that conversation,

he decided to go back and remove that orange jump suit from her because if we were looking for it would be easily seen by an aerial helicopter or somebody's walking by. He returned to her body disposal site, which was outside, numerous times.

Actually, that couple of times didn't spell out where it was. Caroline's family who had held out hope for so long about the fate of their loved one now have to face the cruel reality that her remains have been found. You can tell me she would come back.

It was you didn't tell me she would come back like that. We didn't have anything to go back to. Her body was bones. Back in the interrogation room, the tech just asked one final question.

“Everything else you can remember, Leonard.”

As a... Anybody else that you can think of in Charlotte, or in where else that anything like this has ever happened to you before. You lived in South Carolina with your mom, anything there that you remember.

For the first time, the child's father.

And it was a son, a son, a son, a son, a son of the fate in called a shan. Henry Wallace confesses to police that he killed 18-year-old to Shanda Bethe in 1990 in his hometown of Barnwell, South Carolina. It's believed that Shanda was his first victim.

She left home about five o'clock on the 19th, and they reported a missing on the 20th because she didn't return home. She would walk in one day. I picked her up and asked her to go to the barn out and guess the pipe. And I pulled up to the side of the road and sort of within the area.

To Shanda's body was found two weeks later, my people fishing in the local pond. The all-top sea results show that she was strangled. A few days later, Henry Wallace is brought in for questioning. He was a very strong suspect, but we had nothing on me.

He covered his alibis good. That was the question. I thought they could explain.

Henry Wallace moved to North Carolina where he would kill again,

and again, and again. He's absolutely devastated. You're sitting there thanking the worst, hoping for the best. And that's exactly what these relatives were doing.

And unfortunately, it was not a good ending. Henry Wallace, judged by some of the media as the Taco Bell Strangler, confesses to killing 11 women. But the question remains, why? Two of the FBI's most respected mind hunters

want to know what's inside Henry Wallace's mind.

They had some obviously very lethal problems.

They sit him down for interviews and put it all on video tape. It was out of my control. For years, the FBI has been developing behavioral profiling techniques. And there's a woman named Anne Berges, a professor and author from Boston College, who has helped them.

Until we understand what's going on in the mind of the criminal, we're going to have more and more victims. She was one of the few women in the FBI at the time. Doing that work, and I thought it was time to get her story out there. So after a little bit of convincing, she agreed to write this book,

a killer by design.

Wallace is featured in the book because he was a really interesting case.

Henry Wallace was not that we would call him a typical, but certainly very different from some of the others. People like him, and he was social. Berges was tapped by Henry Wallace's defense team to do an analysis on his mind. The jury was to decide whether he deserved death or whether he deserved life.

They just asked us to do a background and present what we thought. She and retired FBI agent Robert Ressler visited Wallace inside the jail and conducted interviews. All of it was put on video tape. The footage was provided exclusively to ABC News 2020.

Henry Wallace was quite open in what he talked about. He had many strengths in growing up, but he also had some obviously very lethal problems.

“Do you understand any of this any better that you had a chance to know?”

Reflect on it. Within this show, there are two people. One person being a... A community. He will adapt to anything, any environment, any situation.

And he's a fellow, a very well respected, very well-liked person. He almost lures the women and from the other person. So he had good Henry and bad Henry. Good Henry was a friendly person that made friends very easily, dated women very easily. But then he said the bad Henry would come out, the monster.

So to speak. He came out, he was angry, he was he had to kill him. Why he couldn't stay good Henry for a long time, we don't know, but he just couldn't. But what's the correct idea? Experiences in the past.

“One of the reasons that Wallace points to for committing his crimes, is he did a really tough upbringing?”

Henry tells them that when he was a child, he was molested. He also reveals that he and his mother, when he was growing up, had an extremely volatile relationship. Characters. Characters. Characters.

From... Change. Henry also described being constantly teased about being a cheerleader and other things. He was teased about his size, he was teased about his color. Wallace was trying to reshape this really terrible childhood that he had, by taking out his aggressions.

On people that he knew is that that was a replacement for the bad situations of his past. He married his high school sweetheart, this prom photo, capturing them in happier times. But the marriage didn't last long, and ended right before he moved to Charlotte. And all starts collapsing after the wife left him. I grew to her, to hate her very much, and there's still a lot of hatred inside women for her.

“And I think that had I lived in South Carolina, not Charlotte, unless you would probably be one of the victims.”

Wallace did think about killing his wife, but he was not able to actually go through with it.

...when the... ...the mirror then rafers was taking place. Who all seems her and not the victim? After his marriage dissolved, then Henry had to move back in with his mother. That really kind of was a straw.

It broke. It all down. And that's when he started into his murderous behavior.

“My mom's very violent, and I think more than that.”

Other than that makes any swimming, I was looking for a mother as well, or tricks of my mother. And...

Henry Wallace was danger disguised as a friend, and his victims never saw him coming.

They felt comfortable with him, because he portrayed himself as the big brother as a good friend. I think that was one of his motivations, and a lot of these killings, was they were women. He liked who didn't like him that way. That's a more classic kind of a type of motive. He will for a serial killer. One of the biggest questions for Burgess and Ressler was,

"How did Henry Wallace evade police for so long?" The only time that they... ...the police were concerned when the two murders occurred on the same day. That's not a... ...welcome and use the same day.

That's when all of a sudden they started seeing connections and things that had been 20 months.

You got to do the victimology first, because they would have realized that they knew each other in some capacity.

And that would have been a way to then zero in on Henry. Burgess testified for the defense, and she told the jury that Wallace, while he was committing these murders, was in an alternate mental state. I did feel that he was not in total control of its thoughts that he was being controlled, if he will, by the obsession.

Henry Wallace was convicted of the rape and murder of nine women.

“I think we all knew what the Burgess was going to take.”

Good. So the real question was, does he live? Does he die? The jury recommended that. And again, I didn't think anyone was terribly surprised. It's such a sad case.

It's not like you celebrate. I just want people to not forget, you know, what happened to these girls and Charlotte North Carolina. We don't want people to go around and hear the name Henry Wallace and not know who he is. You know, because, you know, he was a black serial killer that killed a lot of black women.

I want the world to know what happened and that these girls lives mattered.

Finally, there's justice, but there's one more victim of Henry Wallace's rampage.

The sole survivor is now all grown up.

“But what I want to say is that you don't want to get a lot of students.”

The semester is on the subject of the interview. So Master, I'm so sorry. You know, you can't say it. But you don't believe it. That's right, it's just a challenge.

It's just a challenge. And if you then do it, you'll be able to do it. That's right. It's just a challenge. Let's take a look at this challenge.

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Action, small prize, big joy. 18-year-old Brandy Henderson, strangled to death. Brandy Henderson's 10-month-old baby was a kid. One-month-old baby was also attacked and left for dead. Henry said he got mad and said, "You got to do something with this baby.

You got to shut this baby up." Kyle Reese was sitting right there beside her.

So he took a pair of shorts and tied around his neck.

Until he got quiet. I think about Brandy's child. Often, how do you go on with your life?

“How does any loved one go on with their life?”

When something this horrible happens? The picture that we took of him at the hospital. It's like I still see that pitching my mind every day. After he got out of the hospital, his father took him to Chicago. And when Harry's was five, his father passed away.

I'm still here. It wasn't me reading these stories. I would've thought that I had died. So I'm like reading some... Well, I know this baby died.

I know this. He survived. Are you freaking serious? He's a well-heather family. He's married.

He's doing something with his child. You know those pop-rock candies that's like him. That's exactly what I can describe him as. He's a ball of energy. I'm a father.

I'm a husband. I'm an entrepreneur. I try to be a great role model because I do have three sons. He's been through a lot of things. He's had it rough.

He realized he never grieved for his mother.

“And he grew up without his mother's love.”

I went to a whole green class. I wrote my mom my letter. I thought it was a man. That thought it was a angry. That thought it was a angry.

That thought it was a bad thing. I thought I was a Mr. I thought I was sorry I would. Because I know that I wasn't doing the right thing. When I heard about his mother inside I was crying outside.

I was strong. I'm finding out more and more about the situation with his mother every day. I went and searched for it. Just to know what type of woman she was and how it's instilled in him. She was such a great mother.

She would have done anything. Anything at all for him. Bernie told me that when she had Tariys that she felt like her life was complete. He told me that she was a great person. He said that she wanted the best for me.

They were like, "I was her masterpiece."

It was like, "I'm somebody masterpiece." Like, that's a huge compliment for me. I saw Tariys when he was nine years old. We went to Chicago and visited him. But since then since that time, I lost track.

I feel guilty about it. But I just could not stay in contact with him because I knew he would have all these questions. And I wasn't ready. After 20 years Brandy's cousin and close friend George Burrell is now reuniting with Brandy's son, Tariys. Woo!

What's not up? What's not up? What's not up? What's not up? What's not up?

It's not up. It's not up. It's not up. It's not up. It's not up.

Wow. Wow. Yes. And hello. Liz.

George. George. Finally. Men is good to see you. You too.

You get old. You got a great hair. You got a great beard. See that. The guilt.

You know, when she told me come over and see me that night and I didn't go in. Come on, huh? You came in cold. Come on, man. Come on.

Come on. Let's go. It's Brandy's son. Listen. Tell me out.

That's her son, my boy. You're not responsible for anything that happened.

“I also remember her life in the only life.”

It was also other victims. And it's other family members who feel the same. You're here, but you still got them scars. Look at my neck, darling. I remember that.

Looking at you through the hospital door to come shake it. Wow. That's how close. Look at that. That's how close she came.

Not being here. Oh, my word. Wow. Your lips are still ready from being strangled. Yeah.

And that was the main part of the night. That's why I say I'm the only survivor. That little baby right there. And that's you now. Yeah, that's me now.

Still it's here in the end, right? Yeah. At trial. Henry Wallace has found guilty of the assault on Tyrease. That is like why I did not die.

Truthfully. I don't want to die for a little term. As I started learning more than I'd be too selfish. She fought so hard to keep me alive. And that's why that's why I didn't die.

It's no time frame when grieving.

It can't miss somebody. But it's like I'm a survivor. Wallace was sentenced to death.

“But now he's asking a judge for a new trial.”

But him to be here. Plating for his life. Not fair. It's not justice. And I just believe it's time.

It's time for us to finally see that end.

It's 25 years this year that he was sentenced to death. And I'm ready for help to be executed. I think he got an appropriate sentence. But North Carolina has not executed anyone in a very long time. My goal now is to start a petition and let people sign that so that we can get an exit.

I think he got an appropriate sentence. But North Carolina has not executed anyone in a very long time. My goal now is to start a petition and let people sign that so that we can get an exit.

“So that we can get an execution date and finally get this resolved.”

I was determined that I wasn't going to hate him. You kind of have to let it go. Otherwise it will consume you.

I don't feel hate for him now.

I started journaling. And it really did help. I forgave Henry years ago for the madness so that he can't. I don't harbor the hate for him. But I do think that justice should be served.

Audrey is buried in South Carolina. My dad donated an acre of land for a new cemetery. And Audrey was the first one buried in that cemetery. She has a niece. Audrey Lynette Frankler.

Part of her legacy will definitely continue. So we're excited about that. She does have a son whose name is Eric Slaughter. He reminds me of Deborah a lot. I think she would be very proud of him.

And the progress that he has made in his life. I just wanted mothers to come together and join our forces and our hearts. Mama, mothers of murdered offspring. The whole point in mama being created was to make sure that son is memory lived on.

It should have never happened.

But it made us better detectives. And it made Charlotte police department a better homicide unit. In a statement to 2020 about the Wallace investigation, the Charlotte Mecklenburg police department says that a text is worked at cases as diligently as they would have any homicide case with the race of the victim being irrelevant.

In the aftermath of the murders, the department says it added staffing to the homicide unit and implemented a regular mandatory meetings to better identify related cases. You know, the guys in the homicide unit, I know them all from that time. It's just that they were put in a situation where you just couldn't win. Listen to the families, because they are the voices of the victims.

I fight for my own breath sometimes. I fight to be here if I had a dollar for every time. And I've been told me something. I know I'm gonna make it because you're making it. None of these young African-American ladies deserve to die. They were young ladies who deserve to have a bright future.

And so, you know, my hope and prayer is that even though it's tragic as this was something positive, we'll come out of it. We should put out tonight that 2020 did reach out to Henry Lewis Wallace for comment. He declined to be interviewed. D-sumter, who started the organization mothers of murdered offspring, has now retired,

but the group continues to help the families of victims. That's our program for tonight. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Newer from all of us here at 2020 in ABC News. Good night. And you can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020 Friday nights at nine on ABC. Where is Jared Offer?

I'm right here. Don't miss the return of Marvel television's dear devil born again. So what's nice?

“I believe we're right in. We're going to take this city back.”

In an all new season streaming March 24th, only on Disney Plus. They're having us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with them. This should be tons of fun. Marvel television's dear devil born again.

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