Some crimes are so horrific they linger with you long after you’ve heard the story. This is one of those for two reasons. The first, Casey called her mother for help. She was scared. But her mother refused to drive the 20 minutes to come help her. She told her to walk to the nearby hospital and ask a stranger for help. That got her daughter killed. The second, her killer put a zip tie around her neck and watched her die. It was a gruesome death and extremely calculating, meaning there are probably many more murders he’s committed that we don’t know about.
On August 26, 2006, 17 year old Casey Crowder left home at 8 pm to go out with her girlfriends. She really went to the nearby town of Dumas to see her boyfriend Adam. In the morning, she ran out of gas before reaching the gas station and was stuck on the freeway. She made several phone calls, trying to get someone to come help her. Her boyfriend Adam didn’t come. Her mother didn’t come. So a killer stopped and offered her a ride to the gas station and to loan her his gas can. She accepted. He drove her straight to the woods, killed her, and as she was dying, raped her repeatedly. He was the father of two, including a daughter her age.
Her mother didn’t report Casey missing until 17 hours after she told her mom she was stuck on the side of the freeway in Dumas afraid. Police immediately call in the FBI who go through CCTV footage of the businesses in the area. They question her boyfriend Adam who put no effort into looking for her or helping her when she ran out of gas. He went fishing with his two friends, even after those two friends told him she was stalled on the side of the road.
On September 2 Casey’s body is found in the woods outside of Dumas with a zip tie tied tightly around her throat.
The FBI gets Casey’s phone records. From 5:53 am to 6:39 am on Aug 27, she made four calls to Jimmy, Adam’s friend and fishing buddy. At 7:04 am she tried calling Adam from where she was killed. They question them why they didn’t go and help her. They claim they drove by and her car was empty so they went fishing. :0
They view the CCTV footage again and find something disturbing. At 6:42 am, a distinctive pickup drives by Casey’s car and slows then comes back at 6:45 am speeding away at fast speed. They take the photo of the pickup to a car dealership who identify it as a Chevy Silverado.
Here’s where the FBI did something unusual that worked. They put up a roadblock on the freeway section where her car stalled, hoping to find witnesses. And her killer drove up in his pickup, the very pickup they’re looking for. His name is Kenneth Osburn. He drives that route every Sunday. He also has scratches all over his arms.
Police question Osburn at the police station. The story he tells them does not match CCTV. They also have his phone pinging at her car at the time she was abducted and again at the body dump site at the same time she tried calling Adam. There are no pings near his house where he claims he was.
News of Osburn’s questioning prompts a friend of his daughter’s to contact police. He claimed he was dropping his daughter off at the time Casey disappeared. She passed him that morning and there was a young girl slumped over in his passenger seat. He didn’t wave like he usually did and he didn’t even acknowledge her, very unusual. She thought the girl was his daughter. But when she got to work a few minutes later, her daughter was already there. Now she believes the girl was Casey.
Police arrest Osburn. He confesses to murder, not rape. He admits he put a zip tie around her neck. She was only 5’1″ and 105 lbs. But she put up a fight as he was covered in scratches.
Kenneth Osburn is sentenced to 40 years. Not nearly long enough. Police are sure he has killed many times before. It was cold, calculating, quick. He didn’t hesitate.
Bibliography
See No Evil, S3E10: Breakdown at Daylight, air date: Apr 18, 2017.
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