A class of high schoolers managed to solve the 35-year-old cold case of the Redhead Murders in Tennessee and surrounding states.
It started at Elizabethton High School in Tennessee, where teacher Alex Campbell was looking to engage and inspire the students through an unorthodox sociology assignment.
What started as an experiment on profiling—how can you build a picture about someone based only on known actions taken by them but with no other details—quickly turned into a true crime investigation, based partly on Campbell’s wife’s fascination with the subject which had rubbed off on the teacher.
Pulling out the old case files and looking at 6 of the 11 victims murdered between 1983 and 1985, the students started to use details of the case like the character of the victims, the places they were found, their age, and occupations to try and work out what would the murderer’s demographic details be like.
They determined he was likely a white, male, heterosexual with long hair, upwards of 30 or even in his 40s, and perhaps a truck driver.
The culmination of the students’ work was a press conference, attended by 60 people from law enforcement, local media, and community members, where they presented their findings.
Suddenly, police departments in the state began receiving a flood of tips from people who believed they might know the killer’s identity. Further investigations scored a real breakthrough, and soon DNA evidence found on a woman from a separate case was revisited, and it actually confirmed the killer’s identity. The students had done it.
Jerry Leon Johns, who died in prison in 2015 at the age of 67, was imprisoned for the attempted murder of Linda Schacke. Another six potential victims, of similar profile to the five confirmed ones, are associated with Johns’ murder spree which stretched from 1978 and 1992.
Schacke survived when the corner of her jacket got in between her neck and the piece of cloth from her t-shirt Johns was using to try and strangle her, which provided just enough space for blood flow to continue to her brain. Left on the roadside, she was found by a truck driver.
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The would-be victim told the police that her car had been stolen by the would-be murderer and that whoever was driving it was the one who nearly took her life. The police found and arrested Johns, but didn’t make the connection that he was involved in the other murders.
The team of students and their teacher presented their evidence before a grand jury in Tennessee to see if it would be enough to press charges against Jerry Johns, were he still alive. The jury ruled that, in such a scenario, the full power of the criminal justice system would have been brought down on Johns.
“The whole goal was to get as many people to see the case as possible,” Campbell told IndyStar during a phone interview back in 2019. “Investigators, they do need the help of the public to solve this.”
One of the students told the Times Radio years later that at their press conference, the police were somewhat “salty” with them—a tad jealous that they were being shown up by a bunch of teenagers.
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Relatives of the murdered women, who were mostly prostitutes, exotic dancers, or runaways, are reported to be extremely grateful to the class and their teacher for bringing a bit of closure to the tragedies they endured.
The next project will see the students tackling wrongful convictions in the hope that the same super-sleuthing they demonstrated in the Jerry Johns case could be leveraged to set innocent prisoners free.
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This is fascinating! Imagine if each high school involved students in a real life project? What would the world look like and what kind of life experience and contribution would those teens have under their belt before graduating?! <3
fantastic and a bit revealing about the ‘saltiness’ response they received from the police. that’s an ungodly institution that has to learn gratitude. i still believe that we can all get along.