July 13, 2025
The Disappearance of Lori Ann Auker
When a 19-year-old single mother vanished from a mall parking lot in 1989, all that remained was her abandoned car—and several grainy photos from an ATM camera. No witnesses. No break-in. Just questions.
But with help from NASA and a cat’s hair, investigators built a chilling case against someone with a supposed alibi. Join Olivia Cornu and John Conner as they dive deep into the dark to discuss the disappearance of Lori Ann Auker. Will this case be enough to make you check the locks?
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This episode of Check the Locks is dedicated, with love, to the memory of our friend Mathew Scott Halliday.
Sources:
Com. v. Auker :: 1996 :: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Decisions.
Lori Ann Auker: New CSI Breakthrough Catches a Killer
Forensic Files - Season 6, Episode 27 - Cats, Flies & Snapshots - Full Episode
Lori Ann Auker disappears from a parking lot
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: Warning, check the locks podcast as a true crime podcast and may contain graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, and more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Check the locks podcast is not appropriate for all listeners.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Listener discretion is strongly advised.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to Check the Lockspotcasts.
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[SPEAKER_03]: As always, I'm John Connor.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Olivia Cordou.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Same.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for joining us this week as we dive into yet another truly terrifying true crime case.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Before we get started, as always, my friend, my partner and crime, the smurf known as Sneasy.
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[SPEAKER_03]: What is going on?
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[SPEAKER_03]: How are you doing?
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[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know anymore.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I just don't know.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I woke up, beat up, sound like this.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I know my glory.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So just bear with me listeners or skip this episode either ways up to you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I will say don't skip this one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: This is a really good one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I'm very happy that I found this one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Don't skip it.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Luckily for y'all, I don't have to do much talking.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But are you?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Y'all just got back from Chicago?
01:31.971 --> 01:41.756
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess we did and I will talk about that, but just so the listeners know, we started this podcast we jumped on the zoom call and Olivia's camera was like strangely off and it never happens.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, hey, is everything okay?
01:42.976 --> 01:45.598
[SPEAKER_03]: She's like, yes, I have two Kleenex shoved up by doserite.
01:47.659 --> 01:49.059
[SPEAKER_03]: That's how this podcast started.
01:49.680 --> 01:51.721
[SPEAKER_03]: We're also starting like nine, forty five.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So we got that late night energy going as well.
01:53.702 --> 01:58.404
[SPEAKER_03]: So it should be a good one between all the allergy medicine and late night stuff should be a good time.
01:58.834 --> 02:00.395
[SPEAKER_04]: The bed of drill has been swallowed.
02:00.635 --> 02:02.316
[SPEAKER_04]: It is ready to kick it.
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[SPEAKER_04]: That was ready to that way.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I would be able to go to sleep when I got that here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this case is really interesting.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Just over here.
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[SPEAKER_04]: It's like Brady on hand.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man, I was just talking to a millie about, hey, Arnold, that showed us some of the older episodes.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, it's great.
02:21.830 --> 02:24.172
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's such a, they don't make cartoons like that anymore.
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[SPEAKER_04]: No, not anymore.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Go on at all.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but yeah, we did just get back from Chicago.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I landed today and then immediately started working on the case for this episode, but we had a great time.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Cara was at a conference.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So it was mostly like a lot during the day, just me and Millie.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I took her to the children museum.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.
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[SPEAKER_04]: She saw a dinosaur.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She did.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She put her head in the dinosaurs mouth.
02:48.838 --> 02:53.521
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think the thing that she ended up really loving the best is just that it was a city.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So we went see the bean.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But in the park where the bean is, we're walking and there were these two giant towers as a splash pad.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But there were two giant towers with these LED faces on them and the faces would change.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And every couple of minutes, it would be almost like they were blowing a kiss or something and water would shoot out of the side of these towers.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So she just had fun like running around the splash pads and she was like, yeah, you know, like, I like it here.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to leave.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Can we move here?
03:26.043 --> 03:32.087
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I started getting on Zilla when looking at some of the like prices and I was like, we probably couldn't move here.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Like, got those great.
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[SPEAKER_04]: My friends just moved there.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I like Chicago.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's a really cool city.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think I would have too much.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I like the idea like watching her play.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We went right outside of Navy Pier, which I did conquer fear of mine.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I did the affairs wheel.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, got together because I couldn't like sis out.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I gotta go.
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[SPEAKER_03]: uh... but right across the navy peers just this huge splash bat it's just like fountains issued up and i was just watching her run around with all these kids from different backgrounds and ethnicities and
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, just in the middle of the city and she was having a blast and there's part of me that's just like, oh, you would thrive here because, you know, not that I don't like living where I live, but in the south, you're just not exposed to that same kind of diversity I've found.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, especially being someone from the Midwest, being from Michigan, I just feel like I grew up with a very diverse group of people around me and you don't really get that here.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, uh, there was just some about watching her and seeing her like taking the city life for the first time that I was like, oh, man, this is awesome.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, but we took her to the zoo.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She got her face painted.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We had like, forty snow cones.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was a, it was a really good time.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We could trip to Chicago.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was really a lot of fun.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I'll tell you what the band, those ubers, you know, I don't take a much here just because, you know, again, living in the south and in the suburbs, you don't really have to.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Everywhere we went, it was like, twenty four dollars, twenty five and we went a lot of places.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's just like.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Boobers have just really gone up in the last couple years because even here they're like that and I used to Uber everywhere for like six bucks, six bucks here, six bucks.
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[SPEAKER_04]: They're at the cross town, six dollars and now they're so overpriced.
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[SPEAKER_04]: It's ridiculous.
05:23.618 --> 05:31.161
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's kind of crazy like I went one mile and it was something like fifteen dollars to go one mile.
05:31.361 --> 05:32.382
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, dang, dude.
05:32.722 --> 05:38.284
[SPEAKER_03]: But then you get in that Chicago traffic and it's like, yeah, to be super aggressive to drive there.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just kind of like, well, it's worth it not having to like rent a car and deal with the traffic around here and, you know, people will hit you there and be like, yeah, we should trade.
05:48.189 --> 05:49.189
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we did.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So we did.
05:51.070 --> 05:55.313
[SPEAKER_03]: We did take the train, which was fun, because Amelia never been on one.
05:55.353 --> 06:01.216
[SPEAKER_03]: So we got off, we got on at the closest station, and then we rode to Millennium Park to see the being and everything like that.
06:01.896 --> 06:05.278
[SPEAKER_03]: And on the way back, we got off like two stops before the hotel.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So we could actually like walk and show her like the parks and stuff through the city.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And she had a really great time, but she was just like, my legs are so bad.
06:12.943 --> 06:14.664
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to, we carry people.
06:14.684 --> 06:15.644
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to keep walking.
06:17.011 --> 06:18.992
[SPEAKER_03]: She had Chicago deep dish for the first time.
06:19.052 --> 06:20.872
[SPEAKER_03]: She was like, this is the best pizza I've ever had.
06:20.972 --> 06:22.413
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, that is blasphemy.
06:23.533 --> 06:24.794
[SPEAKER_04]: It's hardly called pizza.
06:24.894 --> 06:27.935
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like sauce and cheese and some veggies on a little bit of crust.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And don't get me wrong.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's really good.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's delicious.
06:31.236 --> 06:33.537
[SPEAKER_04]: But I like a nice flat New York salad pizza.
06:33.557 --> 06:35.757
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I want that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
06:35.777 --> 06:36.558
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to fold it.
06:36.938 --> 06:38.118
[SPEAKER_03]: That's that's where it's at.
06:38.138 --> 06:41.239
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, my whole thing is VIP pizza with a fork and knife.
06:41.299 --> 06:42.400
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not really pizza.
06:43.562 --> 06:44.683
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I can agree with that.
06:44.923 --> 06:45.143
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But all in all, we had a great time.
06:47.104 --> 06:50.305
[SPEAKER_03]: And then when Cara dig it to hang out with us, we had a lot of fun.
06:50.345 --> 06:52.506
[SPEAKER_03]: Like she left the work conference.
06:52.546 --> 06:55.848
[SPEAKER_03]: And we went to Navy Peer and went on the Ferris wheel together.
06:55.928 --> 06:58.349
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, we had a lot of good family time.
06:58.369 --> 07:03.071
[SPEAKER_03]: But it was really cool just getting that time to kind of explore with Millie and get that like father daughter.
07:03.831 --> 07:05.012
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, oh, this is something I'm doing.
07:05.112 --> 07:06.252
[SPEAKER_03]: I took her to the butterfly house.
07:06.312 --> 07:06.992
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't tell you this.
07:07.053 --> 07:10.154
[SPEAKER_03]: But did you see pictures?
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[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know that I saw those pictures like a real butterflies.
07:13.800 --> 07:14.901
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, this is a butterfly house.
07:14.981 --> 07:17.703
[SPEAKER_03]: It's right across from Navy Pier, they're open every summer.
07:18.844 --> 07:22.807
[SPEAKER_03]: But you go and they give you like a little stick that you can dip in the sugar water.
07:23.287 --> 07:28.191
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you go up to a butterfly that's like sitting on a leaf or something, it's just like a big netted house.
07:28.731 --> 07:30.632
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's like five hundred butterflies in there.
07:31.113 --> 07:37.658
[SPEAKER_03]: But if you, yeah, if you take your stick and you put it under like the legs, they'll hop on the stick and start
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[SPEAKER_03]: drink in the sugar water.
07:39.959 --> 07:41.360
[SPEAKER_03]: And then they just land on you.
07:41.400 --> 07:45.582
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm really had one like just like sitting on our leg, you know, land on a shoulder.
07:46.062 --> 07:47.283
[SPEAKER_03]: And afterwards, she got done.
07:47.303 --> 07:50.865
[SPEAKER_03]: She literally just said, Dad, you made one of my dreams come true.
07:51.285 --> 07:53.666
[SPEAKER_04]: We gonna make me a butterfly garden.
07:54.527 --> 07:55.707
[SPEAKER_03]: It melted my heart.
07:55.768 --> 07:58.269
[SPEAKER_03]: She goes, I love butterflies.
07:58.829 --> 08:00.050
[SPEAKER_03]: And this was a dream.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And you made my dream come true, Dad.
08:02.451 --> 08:05.073
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, oh, thank you, dude.
08:07.309 --> 08:08.230
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was a good time.
08:08.630 --> 08:10.071
[SPEAKER_03]: We had a whole lot of fun.
08:10.131 --> 08:13.654
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're definitely going to go back as we only were in like the South Loop area.
08:13.854 --> 08:16.296
[SPEAKER_03]: So next time we go, we're going to do like Rigglyville.
08:16.417 --> 08:25.424
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I said, if you're looking, I mean, there's some up and coming neighborhoods in Chicago, then I was like, whoa, five bedrooms, three bathrooms.
08:25.584 --> 08:29.507
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I would get like a two bedroom house here for that.
08:29.627 --> 08:32.310
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, all right, I might be moving Chicago.
08:32.410 --> 08:33.811
[SPEAKER_03]: It's only four hours from my family.
08:33.871 --> 08:35.192
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's too bad.
08:37.357 --> 08:43.319
[SPEAKER_02]: Just kidding, my mother-in-law listens to this and she's like, don't take my baby, don't take my grand baby from me.
08:43.639 --> 08:45.760
[SPEAKER_03]: So don't want her to think I'm serious.
08:47.461 --> 08:49.582
[SPEAKER_03]: The silence right now is Olivia blowing her nose.
08:53.063 --> 08:54.324
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'm miserable.
08:54.544 --> 08:55.824
[SPEAKER_03]: I know, I know you're not feeling good.
08:55.844 --> 08:56.444
[SPEAKER_03]: So what do you say?
08:56.464 --> 08:57.805
[SPEAKER_03]: We just jump into this week.
08:57.865 --> 09:00.986
[SPEAKER_03]: I could Gabby Gabby about this trip all night.
09:01.026 --> 09:02.627
[SPEAKER_03]: So she would just jump into this week's case.
09:03.432 --> 09:04.133
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's do it.
09:04.153 --> 09:04.813
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, let's do it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: This week, we're headed to the United States in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Lori Ann Ocker was a bright, nineteen-year-old girl with a whole world ahead of her.
09:16.281 --> 09:21.484
[SPEAKER_03]: She grew up in the Sasquahana Valley, a quiet farming community in Central Pennsylvania.
09:22.325 --> 09:30.711
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori had recently graduated from high school and soon after she married Robert Ocker, a warehouse worker, ten years older than the teenager.
09:31.772 --> 09:39.797
[SPEAKER_03]: Shortly after the marriage, Laurie and Robert had a son, Matthew, and to make extra money, Laurie took a job at a pet store in the local mall.
09:40.938 --> 09:46.042
[SPEAKER_03]: She loved animals and had dreams of becoming a veterinarian, making this the perfect fit for.
09:46.602 --> 09:53.407
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus, Laurie got to share her love of animals with her son, bringing him to the shop on his day off to spend time with the kittens.
09:54.364 --> 09:59.747
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, both Laurie and Robert love their son very much, but their relationship was falling apart.
10:00.507 --> 10:03.569
[SPEAKER_03]: They would argue constantly, and Robert was controlling.
10:04.450 --> 10:13.775
[SPEAKER_03]: Laurie also disagreed with the way that he would physically discipline Matthew, and after only eighteen months of marriage, the couple would separate in October of nineteen eighty-eight.
10:14.535 --> 10:21.259
[SPEAKER_03]: With Laurie and Matthew moving back in with her parents and Robert doing the same, but keeping visitation rights to the baby.
10:22.397 --> 10:29.562
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori kept her job at the pet shop, and on May, twenty-fourth, nineteen eighty-nine, she began getting ready for work like any other day.
10:30.343 --> 10:34.486
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, during this week, Robert had visitation and actually had Matthew.
10:35.127 --> 10:39.570
[SPEAKER_03]: So Lori made a snack before heading out the door for her usual four to nine shift.
10:40.391 --> 10:48.336
[SPEAKER_03]: She left her parents home, got into her nineteen seventy-six Pontiac Le Mans, and headed off to work, but she never arrived.
10:49.286 --> 10:53.328
[SPEAKER_03]: when Lori failed to come in for her shift, a supervisor called her parents home.
10:54.089 --> 10:58.632
[SPEAKER_03]: Her mother, Ruth Omen, had seen Lori leave at three thirty that afternoon.
10:59.292 --> 11:02.754
[SPEAKER_03]: And both of her parents thought that she probably had car trouble on the way in.
11:03.415 --> 11:07.977
[SPEAKER_03]: So they decided to drive the route their daughter would normally take to see if they could find her.
11:08.558 --> 11:11.940
[SPEAKER_03]: But there was no sign of Lori anywhere on that normal route.
11:12.640 --> 11:15.062
[SPEAKER_03]: So they continued on to the mall to keep looking.
11:16.035 --> 11:22.243
[SPEAKER_03]: Once they arrived, they found Lori's car in the area where she normally parked, but there was no sign of their daughter.
11:22.924 --> 11:26.528
[SPEAKER_03]: So the almonds contacted the state police to report Lori missing.
11:27.463 --> 11:34.569
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, investigators canvas the area, they interviewed employees and shoppers at the mall that day, but no one saw a thing.
11:35.310 --> 11:42.456
[SPEAKER_03]: Investigators immediately suspected Lori's estranged husband Robert, especially since Lori had shared that she was scared of him.
11:43.176 --> 11:47.420
[SPEAKER_03]: According to a supervisor, Lori was afraid that Robert would hurt her physically.
11:47.900 --> 11:55.126
[SPEAKER_03]: And on several occasions, he would randomly show up to the pet shop, and when this happened, Lori would run to the back of the store to hide.
11:55.887 --> 12:04.490
[SPEAKER_03]: And according to her mother, Lori kept a shotgun under her bed, explaining that she would need it to protect herself if Robert ever came for her or Matthew.
12:05.450 --> 12:08.732
[SPEAKER_03]: However, when Robert was interviewed, he had a solid alibi.
12:09.472 --> 12:15.434
[SPEAKER_03]: He told police that he had been watching their son Matthew that day, and he also shared that he had gone to two separate appointments.
12:16.134 --> 12:20.176
[SPEAKER_03]: One was to get a disability claims form and the other was to drop it off.
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[SPEAKER_03]: After that, he claimed that he had gone to a sear store to price a dishwasher for his mother.
12:26.500 --> 12:29.641
[SPEAKER_03]: Because of this, police had no choice but to move on.
12:30.681 --> 12:38.363
[SPEAKER_03]: For three weeks, authorities, members of the community, family and friends searched for Lori, but they all turned up nothing.
12:39.464 --> 12:46.286
[SPEAKER_03]: Then, on June, twelve, in the United States, a young woman was walking down a dirt road near the home of her grandparents.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She noticed a foul smell and the woman decided to investigate.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There, off the road, was a badly decomposed body, dressed in a jacket, jeans, and sneakers.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Police arrived on the scene and the remains were transported to the morgue for forensic testing.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Investigators hoped that they could determine both the identity of the victim and the cause of death.
13:10.277 --> 13:14.418
[SPEAKER_03]: While examining the remains, pathologists determined that the victim had been stabbed to death.
13:15.219 --> 13:23.982
[SPEAKER_03]: Holes in the jacket that continued through the sweater suggested that the victim had been stabbed seven to ten times, believing that the wounds may have impacted vital organs.
13:24.702 --> 13:30.086
[SPEAKER_03]: They were also able to determine that the remains found were those of a female due to the size of the skull.
13:30.646 --> 13:33.168
[SPEAKER_03]: But they still needed an estimated date of death.
13:33.628 --> 13:36.630
[SPEAKER_03]: So to do this, an entomological expert was called in.
13:37.310 --> 13:41.733
[SPEAKER_03]: They reviewed samples of various insects found on and within the remains.
13:42.213 --> 13:48.578
[SPEAKER_03]: And based on these tests, it was determined that the body had been decaying for anywhere between nineteen and twenty-five days.
13:49.480 --> 13:52.870
[SPEAKER_03]: Finally, dental records were used to try to identify the victim.
13:53.431 --> 13:57.201
[SPEAKER_03]: And sadly, it was determined that the remains were those of Lori Hawker.
14:13.727 --> 14:20.833
[SPEAKER_03]: Police now knew who the victim was and when she died, but they still needed to know who would want to kill the young mother.
14:21.574 --> 14:23.595
[SPEAKER_03]: Luckily, they were about to catch a break.
14:24.416 --> 14:28.740
[SPEAKER_03]: Police learned that there was an ATM in the area that was equipped with a surveillance camera.
14:29.320 --> 14:32.863
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this particular camera would take a photograph every ten seconds.
14:33.444 --> 14:37.927
[SPEAKER_03]: Most importantly, the camera was pointed in the direct location of Lori's car.
14:38.833 --> 14:42.137
[SPEAKER_03]: When investigators reviewed the footage, it didn't seem promising.
14:42.798 --> 14:49.106
[SPEAKER_03]: It showed a man standing at the ATM completing a transaction, but when they look closer, they notice something.
14:49.847 --> 14:56.996
[SPEAKER_03]: In the back and blurry, they saw a car had pulled up next to lorries, and a man appeared to be standing outside the vehicle.
14:57.777 --> 15:01.758
[SPEAKER_03]: But the photos were still too blurry to see exactly what was happening.
15:02.298 --> 15:09.681
[SPEAKER_03]: So investigators asked the state police in the FBI for help, but neither could do anything to improve the quality of the images.
15:10.381 --> 15:15.883
[SPEAKER_03]: And a strange twist, the FBI actually suggested that detectives contact NASA for help.
15:16.883 --> 15:22.265
[SPEAKER_03]: At this time, they have been using a new technology to improve the quality of photos taken from space.
15:23.106 --> 15:29.052
[SPEAKER_03]: This was the same technology that was used to determine the cause of the Challenger explosion in nineteen eighty six.
15:30.213 --> 15:34.237
[SPEAKER_03]: Using this digital enhancement, NASA texts were able to clean up photos.
15:34.738 --> 15:38.902
[SPEAKER_03]: And this time, Lori was able to be seen outside of her car.
15:39.683 --> 15:45.869
[SPEAKER_03]: The next image was taken ten seconds later, showed another vehicle parked diagonally in front of Lori.
15:46.778 --> 15:51.260
[SPEAKER_03]: This vehicle had the passenger side door open, and Lori was bent overlooking inside.
15:51.940 --> 15:55.781
[SPEAKER_03]: The final picture showed the unknown vehicle leaving the parking lot.
15:56.442 --> 16:03.384
[SPEAKER_03]: Police now believe that they had clear images of Lori Hawker's abduction, but they needed to identify the mysterious vehicle.
16:04.064 --> 16:10.147
[SPEAKER_03]: So they turned to an automobile expert who was able to determine that the car was in fact a Chevrolet celebrity.
16:11.087 --> 16:12.648
[SPEAKER_03]: This struck a chord with police.
16:13.128 --> 16:18.371
[SPEAKER_03]: They remembered that while Robert Ocker didn't own a celebrity, his parents did.
16:19.252 --> 16:21.473
[SPEAKER_03]: So Olivia, before we go any further, what are you thinking?
16:21.613 --> 16:22.153
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's your head at?
16:22.914 --> 16:27.816
[SPEAKER_04]: This is a wild case, but I like how we're getting our evidence obtained.
16:27.876 --> 16:35.861
[SPEAKER_04]: That's pretty cool that they could contact NASA to get the pictures that they needed to crack this case or start to.
16:37.299 --> 16:40.842
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, what's crazy to me is like, this is in the United States, right?
16:40.922 --> 16:44.305
[SPEAKER_03]: So they had to contact NASA to be like, can you make this picture less blurry?
16:44.805 --> 16:51.551
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is something that we can all now do like on Photoshop from our phone in a coffee shop, right?
16:51.611 --> 16:54.773
[SPEAKER_04]: But when you said there was an ATM, I was like, that ATM's back then.
16:55.254 --> 16:55.494
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
16:56.034 --> 16:56.174
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
16:56.234 --> 16:59.937
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was the security footage was like one picture every ten seconds.
17:00.098 --> 17:05.882
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just, you know, when you think about the technology and the time, you're just kind of like, wow, that's crazy.
17:06.823 --> 17:09.065
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, we can transfer money from our phones.
17:09.085 --> 17:10.005
[SPEAKER_03]: We can clean up pictures.
17:10.025 --> 17:11.106
[SPEAKER_03]: I can go into a picture now.
17:11.146 --> 17:12.007
[SPEAKER_03]: Just erase anything.
17:12.027 --> 17:14.489
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't like make something the focus.
17:14.529 --> 17:16.250
[SPEAKER_03]: So it is really crazy.
17:16.350 --> 17:24.176
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, you know, I don't think we've ever done a case before where we've had to contact NASA to get any kind of evidence or anything like that.
17:26.253 --> 17:26.693
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
17:26.833 --> 17:28.834
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought this one was pretty interesting.
17:28.854 --> 17:30.235
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought that you would like it.
17:30.255 --> 17:32.676
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you're going to like it even more as we go through.
17:33.276 --> 17:35.837
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, should we just keep going with it?
17:35.857 --> 17:36.258
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think?
17:36.458 --> 17:37.318
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's finish up.
17:37.338 --> 17:37.978
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
17:37.998 --> 17:38.359
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's do it.
17:39.159 --> 17:45.362
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, when questioned by police, Walker's parents said that their son did borrow the car on the day that Lori went missing.
17:46.122 --> 17:50.524
[SPEAKER_03]: According to his mother, Robert arrived home between five and five thirty that evening.
17:51.364 --> 17:59.487
[SPEAKER_03]: A neighbor was questioned by the police and testified that they saw Robert vacuuming the passenger side and vacuuming and scrubbing the trunk the following day.
18:00.368 --> 18:08.491
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, on May twenty seven, nineteen eighty nine, Richards father traded this celebrity to a local car salesman in exchange for a truck.
18:09.500 --> 18:13.806
[SPEAKER_03]: That salesman would eventually sell the vehicle to a retired state police officer.
18:14.507 --> 18:16.951
[SPEAKER_03]: However, police were able to track the car down.
18:17.592 --> 18:21.738
[SPEAKER_03]: And the officer had bought the vehicle for his daughter, but she wasn't old enough to drive yet.
18:22.178 --> 18:25.663
[SPEAKER_03]: So the car had just been sitting in a garage, maintaining its integrity.
18:26.598 --> 18:31.761
[SPEAKER_03]: When search, forensic scientists were able to find hairs located on the front passenger side.
18:32.362 --> 18:39.246
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, these hairs were similar to Lori Hawkers, but it was what was found in the trunk that really surprised detectives.
18:40.227 --> 18:44.810
[SPEAKER_03]: A strange hair was located and when tested, it was found not to be human.
18:45.690 --> 18:49.453
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, it would later be determined that the hair belonged to a cat.
18:50.395 --> 18:56.160
[SPEAKER_03]: Now neither Robert Auger or his parents owned a cat, but Laurie's parents did.
18:56.841 --> 18:59.963
[SPEAKER_03]: And when the two hairs were compared, it was a match.
19:00.824 --> 19:06.128
[SPEAKER_03]: Because of this, police now believe that Laurie had been kept in the trunk of the celebrity.
19:06.809 --> 19:10.112
[SPEAKER_03]: And Robert Auger was arrested for the murder of his estranged wife.
19:11.837 --> 19:17.001
[SPEAKER_03]: The prosecution knew that they would have to prove that it was Ocker's car in the parking lot of the mall.
19:17.882 --> 19:28.010
[SPEAKER_03]: So before the trial, they parked the vehicle in the same spot, and they took pictures from the same location as the ATM, but this time with the background in focus.
19:28.730 --> 19:30.732
[SPEAKER_03]: The sets of photos were identical.
19:31.572 --> 19:34.295
[SPEAKER_03]: They also discovered possible motives for the murder.
19:35.320 --> 19:43.068
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert had taken out an additional life insurance policy on both Lori and Matthew, but this was done after the couple it separated.
19:43.588 --> 19:47.052
[SPEAKER_03]: And with Lori dead, Robert would stand and make a significant amount of money.
19:47.853 --> 19:54.640
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori and Robert had also been involved in a custody battle over their son, which left another reason for Robert wanting Lori dead.
19:55.813 --> 20:05.958
[SPEAKER_03]: The trial would begin on October twenty six nineteen ninety five during which the prosecution would argue that on the day of Lori's disappearance Robert was in the parking lot waiting.
20:06.978 --> 20:13.921
[SPEAKER_03]: They believe that he used some type of ruse to lure into the car and once Lori entered the vehicle her fate was sealed.
20:14.622 --> 20:17.463
[SPEAKER_03]: She would be stabbed to death and dumped on the side of the road.
20:19.043 --> 20:24.447
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert Hawker would be found guilty of first-degree murder in kidnapping, and he was sentenced to death.
20:25.107 --> 20:32.012
[SPEAKER_03]: However, he would file an appeal in nineteen ninety-six, and his sentence would be downgraded to life in prison without parole.
20:32.973 --> 20:34.574
[SPEAKER_03]: So Olivia, that's this week's case.
20:35.394 --> 20:42.699
[SPEAKER_03]: I definitely think it's kind of interesting that, you know, this woman just loved animals and eventually to catch her killer.
20:43.040 --> 20:45.381
[SPEAKER_03]: It was the hair of an animal that really sealed the deal.
20:45.881 --> 20:46.582
[SPEAKER_03]: But what do your thoughts?
20:46.622 --> 20:47.242
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's your head at?
20:47.282 --> 20:47.943
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think about it?
20:48.548 --> 20:49.509
[SPEAKER_04]: This is a great case.
20:49.529 --> 21:01.117
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope our listeners didn't skip it like I told them to because of my voice, but I love one of the NASA thing and then to the cat, solving the murder, like way to go cat.
21:02.456 --> 21:03.036
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for sure.
21:03.076 --> 21:16.983
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many cool elements in this like, you know, having the the scientists come in who looked at the insects that were found on the body and being like, yeah, because this fly is this bigger, these larvae this far along.
21:17.584 --> 21:24.647
[SPEAKER_03]: She's been dead X amount of weeks and then now we got to call NASA and, you know, oh, it's a cat here, but it's just as a cat.
21:25.267 --> 21:25.547
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
21:25.627 --> 21:26.468
[SPEAKER_04]: Who doesn't match?
21:27.293 --> 21:46.034
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so many of these cases that we do, it's like the blood was found in the trunk or whatever, and this one, there were so many different things, you know, it's kind of crazy to think that I think it just goes to show like they kind of work that's actually put into these cases by good detectives and investigators to the fact that you're like,
21:46.695 --> 21:49.116
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to reach out to NASA to see if I can solve this one.
21:49.156 --> 21:50.457
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it means pretty interesting.
21:50.477 --> 21:50.897
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.
21:51.157 --> 21:52.798
[SPEAKER_04]: I like that aspect of the case.
21:54.179 --> 22:03.323
[SPEAKER_04]: I think morally Robert is just a terrible human to want to kill the mother of your child's over money.
22:03.563 --> 22:05.004
[SPEAKER_04]: I just don't get, I don't get it.
22:05.384 --> 22:10.687
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we all have life insurance works at me, but everyone has life insurance.
22:13.818 --> 22:14.478
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, anyways.
22:14.939 --> 22:22.381
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I just don't think that there should be motive that shouldn't be the motive to kill your wife and the mother of your child separated or not.
22:22.501 --> 22:23.861
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I just don't like that.
22:23.961 --> 22:25.422
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd stand with my word.
22:25.542 --> 22:27.823
[SPEAKER_04]: Just leave them and start a new life.
22:28.023 --> 22:28.623
[SPEAKER_04]: It'll be fine.
22:29.497 --> 22:35.118
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I mean, we've done a couple of cases where it's been a custody battle or like a separation.
22:35.138 --> 22:36.159
[SPEAKER_03]: There's something going on.
22:36.879 --> 22:39.700
[SPEAKER_03]: And like somebody's willing to kill their spouse over that.
22:39.740 --> 22:53.083
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just, you know, I mean, like again, now this poor kid has been robbed of both parents, you know, and in the research, it very much felt like
22:54.265 --> 22:57.206
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert knew that his parents were going to be getting rid of the car.
22:58.027 --> 23:03.869
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, at the time that he took it, there was no insurance on his dad was mad that he was driving around because there wasn't any insurance.
23:04.570 --> 23:06.751
[SPEAKER_03]: So Robert was like, I can take this car.
23:06.871 --> 23:09.152
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be traded or sold for something else.
23:09.652 --> 23:10.952
[SPEAKER_03]: And the next couple of days.
23:11.553 --> 23:12.613
[SPEAKER_03]: So like, it's perfect.
23:12.753 --> 23:14.094
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll, you know, get rid of her.
23:14.694 --> 23:15.734
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll get rid of the car.
23:15.895 --> 23:20.276
[SPEAKER_03]: And it just happened to be bought by a state trooper that just left it in a garage.
23:20.397 --> 23:20.917
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so
23:21.697 --> 23:37.949
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of crazy to think that the piece is kind of fell into place the way that this feels like a case where everything just kind of had to be right for it to be solved and it just happened to fall into place like that.
23:38.752 --> 23:55.261
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think at all, all the pieces lined up the way that they needed to be because any other person that car could have been shipped across the state and never seen again, or, you know, vacuumed and used for the last couple months while instead of just sitting there.
23:55.361 --> 24:00.103
[SPEAKER_04]: So everything worked out the way that it was supposed to and just how everything lined up was really fascinating.
24:00.864 --> 24:06.667
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, a hundred and ten percent, but if we're talking debble tests on something like this, where does, you know, a case like this fall for you?
24:07.400 --> 24:08.582
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't put it about a five.
24:09.062 --> 24:11.545
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I don't like when this bounces kill one another.
24:11.565 --> 24:24.322
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I like the interesting, you know, facts that we've talked about and how everything paned out, but as far as like the murder goes, like, you know, to just another has been killing another wife.
24:25.505 --> 24:38.188
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I definitely agree like, you know, this is unfortunately we've done a lot of cases like this, you know, take out the the cat hair, take out, you know, the NASA scientists take out the state trooper, right?
24:38.248 --> 24:47.710
[SPEAKER_03]: We do a lot of cases where it's a divorce or there's something wrong in the marriage and instead of just backing out and taking the hell, you know, somebody's like, I'm going to kill somebody else.
24:48.190 --> 24:49.150
[SPEAKER_03]: So like from a
24:51.036 --> 24:54.178
[SPEAKER_03]: Like from a like checking the locks, you know, I'm a married man.
24:54.198 --> 25:00.061
[SPEAKER_03]: I do think there is something scary about the person that you go to sleep with or the person that you've had a child with.
25:00.903 --> 25:06.286
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, when they even when things get bad, you're still like, okay, even if it's with the kid, we're still partners, right?
25:06.306 --> 25:08.947
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we're co-parenting, we're gonna figure this out.
25:09.327 --> 25:17.050
[SPEAKER_03]: There is something really scary about thinking that the other person's like, no, we're not like, there's one place that you're going in and I'm in control of that.
25:17.531 --> 25:22.993
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think for me, I would probably put this at a six, just because of that element, but I'm the interesting scale.
25:23.774 --> 25:25.915
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, this would be an eleven for sure for me.
25:26.995 --> 25:36.499
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that is where we fall in the Deadpool test for this week's case, but as always, we want to hear from you, the listeners, the locksmiths, where does the murder of Lory and the Hawker fall on your Deadpool test?
25:36.940 --> 25:46.584
[SPEAKER_03]: You can let us know, reach out to us on Instagram, a check-all-ox pod, you can find us on Twitter, check the locks, and if you're not in our Facebook group with that guy, you're doing coming out with us, we'd love to get the opportunity to spend some time with you.
25:47.064 --> 25:47.784
[SPEAKER_03]: Get to know ya.
25:48.165 --> 25:50.506
[SPEAKER_03]: I just have you be part of our amazing community.
25:50.546 --> 25:53.127
[SPEAKER_03]: We've said it a million times, but it's the best place on the internet.
25:53.667 --> 25:56.509
[SPEAKER_03]: And Olivia, you know, we love hearing from our listeners.
25:56.569 --> 25:57.910
[SPEAKER_03]: We love getting emails.
25:57.930 --> 26:01.693
[SPEAKER_03]: You can email us at contact at checkthelockspod.com.
26:02.293 --> 26:03.894
[SPEAKER_03]: You can also leave us Spotify comments.
26:04.254 --> 26:06.716
[SPEAKER_03]: But what really helps us are five star reviews.
26:06.736 --> 26:08.457
[SPEAKER_03]: They help new listeners find the show.
26:08.477 --> 26:11.839
[SPEAKER_03]: It gets us into other shows, recommendations, things of that nature.
26:12.200 --> 26:13.460
[SPEAKER_03]: So they really do help us a lot.
26:13.781 --> 26:18.464
[SPEAKER_03]: Olivia, if somebody wanted to leave us a five star review, what is the best way to do that?
26:19.152 --> 26:25.009
[SPEAKER_04]: They need to go to the Apple Podcast app, go to our show's homepage, scroll down, and receive all five of the stars.
26:25.530 --> 26:27.135
[SPEAKER_04]: Click them all and tell us what you think.
26:27.620 --> 26:27.960
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.
26:27.980 --> 26:30.822
[SPEAKER_03]: And Olivia always says it best so I don't have to do that's Apple Podcast.
26:30.842 --> 26:32.603
[SPEAKER_03]: Look, those stars leave those reviews.
26:32.943 --> 26:37.165
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you need a cheat code, there is a link in the description of the episode that you're listening to now.
26:38.005 --> 26:39.686
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, they just help us out tremendously.
26:39.746 --> 26:43.068
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you've already left us a review, just know that we appreciate you so much.
26:43.128 --> 26:44.329
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you're listening, you haven't.
26:44.829 --> 26:47.030
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, if you got Apple go over there, drop that review.
26:47.070 --> 26:48.791
[SPEAKER_03]: We would really, really appreciate it.
26:49.517 --> 26:58.000
[SPEAKER_03]: And as always, if you like to show you want to help financially support the buycast, you can do so by becoming a patron head over to patreon.com for slash check the locks get signed up today.
26:58.280 --> 26:59.240
[SPEAKER_03]: We got a lot of great tears.
26:59.260 --> 27:04.222
[SPEAKER_03]: It's lucid benefits, stickers, coffee, mug stuff like that, but you also get the episodes commercial for you.
27:04.242 --> 27:08.263
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you love check the locks, but you hate those ads, patron is the way to go.
27:08.323 --> 27:15.025
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27:15.605 --> 27:23.788
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you can't find an interesting support to show, we definitely understand just listening and hanging out with us, sharing what we do with your friends and family means just as much if not more.
27:24.168 --> 27:32.331
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, it's all about that grassroots growth and anytime you share this podcast with somebody that's exactly what it does, it just helps us to grow our community and our family.
27:32.371 --> 27:37.833
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you were sharing the show in any way, shape or form, just know that we truly appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts.
27:38.394 --> 27:45.278
[SPEAKER_03]: That is all that we have for this week's case, but please make sure that you're subscribed to check the locks on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.
27:45.699 --> 27:51.402
[SPEAKER_03]: We will see you again next week with another truly terrifying true crime case, but until then, don't forget to check the locks.
27:52.163 --> 27:52.663
[SPEAKER_03]: See you next week.
00:00.732 --> 00:08.746
[SPEAKER_00]: Warning, check the locks podcast as a true crime podcast and may contain graphic descriptions of violence, murder, sexual assault, and more.
00:09.167 --> 00:12.052
[SPEAKER_00]: Check the locks podcast is not appropriate for all listeners.
00:12.432 --> 00:14.336
[SPEAKER_00]: Listener discretion is strongly advised.
00:45.232 --> 00:47.374
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to Check the Lockspotcasts.
00:47.414 --> 00:48.756
[SPEAKER_03]: As always, I'm John Connor.
00:49.477 --> 00:50.518
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Olivia Cordou.
00:50.718 --> 00:50.938
[SPEAKER_03]: Same.
00:50.958 --> 00:55.223
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for joining us this week as we dive into yet another truly terrifying true crime case.
00:55.603 --> 01:01.329
[SPEAKER_03]: Before we get started, as always, my friend, my partner and crime, the smurf known as Sneasy.
01:01.690 --> 01:02.611
[SPEAKER_03]: What is going on?
01:02.731 --> 01:03.552
[SPEAKER_03]: How are you doing?
01:04.376 --> 01:05.936
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know anymore.
01:05.956 --> 01:07.937
[SPEAKER_04]: I just don't know.
01:10.158 --> 01:13.378
[SPEAKER_04]: I woke up, beat up, sound like this.
01:13.398 --> 01:14.959
[SPEAKER_04]: I know my glory.
01:15.099 --> 01:20.060
[SPEAKER_04]: So just bear with me listeners or skip this episode either ways up to you.
01:20.080 --> 01:21.680
[SPEAKER_03]: I will say don't skip this one.
01:21.720 --> 01:22.741
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a really good one.
01:22.801 --> 01:24.601
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm very happy that I found this one.
01:24.621 --> 01:25.261
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't skip it.
01:25.361 --> 01:27.882
[SPEAKER_04]: Luckily for y'all, I don't have to do much talking.
01:28.302 --> 01:29.903
[SPEAKER_03]: But are you?
01:29.943 --> 01:31.383
[SPEAKER_04]: Y'all just got back from Chicago?
01:31.971 --> 01:41.756
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess we did and I will talk about that, but just so the listeners know, we started this podcast we jumped on the zoom call and Olivia's camera was like strangely off and it never happens.
01:41.816 --> 01:42.956
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, hey, is everything okay?
01:42.976 --> 01:45.598
[SPEAKER_03]: She's like, yes, I have two Kleenex shoved up by doserite.
01:47.659 --> 01:49.059
[SPEAKER_03]: That's how this podcast started.
01:49.680 --> 01:51.721
[SPEAKER_03]: We're also starting like nine, forty five.
01:51.741 --> 01:53.662
[SPEAKER_03]: So we got that late night energy going as well.
01:53.702 --> 01:58.404
[SPEAKER_03]: So it should be a good one between all the allergy medicine and late night stuff should be a good time.
01:58.834 --> 02:00.395
[SPEAKER_04]: The bed of drill has been swallowed.
02:00.635 --> 02:02.316
[SPEAKER_04]: It is ready to kick it.
02:02.336 --> 02:03.637
[SPEAKER_04]: That was ready to that way.
02:03.697 --> 02:06.018
[SPEAKER_04]: I would be able to go to sleep when I got that here.
02:06.038 --> 02:08.239
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this case is really interesting.
02:09.260 --> 02:10.421
[SPEAKER_03]: Just over here.
02:10.501 --> 02:11.862
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like Brady on hand.
02:15.765 --> 02:20.929
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man, I was just talking to a millie about, hey, Arnold, that showed us some of the older episodes.
02:21.149 --> 02:21.690
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, it's great.
02:21.830 --> 02:24.172
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's such a, they don't make cartoons like that anymore.
02:24.232 --> 02:25.473
[SPEAKER_04]: No, not anymore.
02:25.573 --> 02:26.053
[SPEAKER_04]: Go on at all.
02:26.274 --> 02:28.535
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but yeah, we did just get back from Chicago.
02:29.076 --> 02:33.560
[SPEAKER_03]: I landed today and then immediately started working on the case for this episode, but we had a great time.
02:34.440 --> 02:35.841
[SPEAKER_03]: Cara was at a conference.
02:35.861 --> 02:38.444
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was mostly like a lot during the day, just me and Millie.
02:39.144 --> 02:40.968
[SPEAKER_03]: And I took her to the children museum.
02:41.008 --> 02:42.632
[SPEAKER_03]: We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.
02:42.933 --> 02:44.376
[SPEAKER_04]: She saw a dinosaur.
02:44.436 --> 02:44.857
[SPEAKER_03]: She did.
02:44.897 --> 02:46.901
[SPEAKER_03]: She put her head in the dinosaurs mouth.
02:48.838 --> 02:53.521
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think the thing that she ended up really loving the best is just that it was a city.
02:53.681 --> 02:56.003
[SPEAKER_03]: So we went see the bean.
02:56.643 --> 03:04.308
[SPEAKER_03]: But in the park where the bean is, we're walking and there were these two giant towers as a splash pad.
03:04.748 --> 03:09.051
[SPEAKER_03]: But there were two giant towers with these LED faces on them and the faces would change.
03:09.531 --> 03:16.715
[SPEAKER_03]: And every couple of minutes, it would be almost like they were blowing a kiss or something and water would shoot out of the side of these towers.
03:17.636 --> 03:24.421
[SPEAKER_03]: So she just had fun like running around the splash pads and she was like, yeah, you know, like, I like it here.
03:24.461 --> 03:25.142
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to leave.
03:25.182 --> 03:26.023
[SPEAKER_03]: Can we move here?
03:26.043 --> 03:32.087
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I started getting on Zilla when looking at some of the like prices and I was like, we probably couldn't move here.
03:32.107 --> 03:33.768
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, got those great.
03:33.808 --> 03:34.969
[SPEAKER_04]: My friends just moved there.
03:35.049 --> 03:35.970
[SPEAKER_04]: I like Chicago.
03:35.990 --> 03:36.070
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
03:38.633 --> 03:39.754
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a really cool city.
03:39.934 --> 03:41.336
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I would have too much.
03:42.137 --> 03:44.340
[SPEAKER_03]: I like the idea like watching her play.
03:44.420 --> 03:48.665
[SPEAKER_03]: We went right outside of Navy Pier, which I did conquer fear of mine.
03:48.685 --> 03:51.048
[SPEAKER_03]: I did the affairs wheel.
03:51.208 --> 03:51.468
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
03:51.609 --> 03:54.612
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, got together because I couldn't like sis out.
03:54.632 --> 03:54.913
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
03:54.933 --> 03:55.634
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I gotta go.
03:57.176 --> 04:07.937
[SPEAKER_03]: uh... but right across the navy peers just this huge splash bat it's just like fountains issued up and i was just watching her run around with all these kids from different backgrounds and ethnicities and
04:08.812 --> 04:21.055
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, just in the middle of the city and she was having a blast and there's part of me that's just like, oh, you would thrive here because, you know, not that I don't like living where I live, but in the south, you're just not exposed to that same kind of diversity I've found.
04:22.195 --> 04:32.618
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, especially being someone from the Midwest, being from Michigan, I just feel like I grew up with a very diverse group of people around me and you don't really get that here.
04:32.818 --> 04:33.358
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
04:34.982 --> 04:42.467
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, uh, there was just some about watching her and seeing her like taking the city life for the first time that I was like, oh, man, this is awesome.
04:42.687 --> 04:43.988
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, but we took her to the zoo.
04:44.028 --> 04:45.069
[SPEAKER_03]: She got her face painted.
04:45.169 --> 04:47.470
[SPEAKER_03]: We had like, forty snow cones.
04:48.111 --> 04:50.292
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a, it was a really good time.
04:50.352 --> 04:51.653
[SPEAKER_04]: We could trip to Chicago.
04:52.013 --> 04:52.194
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
04:52.354 --> 04:53.254
[SPEAKER_03]: It was really a lot of fun.
04:53.274 --> 05:00.939
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll tell you what the band, those ubers, you know, I don't take a much here just because, you know, again, living in the south and in the suburbs, you don't really have to.
05:02.200 --> 05:06.164
[SPEAKER_03]: Everywhere we went, it was like, twenty four dollars, twenty five and we went a lot of places.
05:06.685 --> 05:07.365
[SPEAKER_03]: That's just like.
05:08.867 --> 05:18.297
[SPEAKER_04]: Boobers have just really gone up in the last couple years because even here they're like that and I used to Uber everywhere for like six bucks, six bucks here, six bucks.
05:18.317 --> 05:22.421
[SPEAKER_04]: They're at the cross town, six dollars and now they're so overpriced.
05:22.481 --> 05:23.122
[SPEAKER_04]: It's ridiculous.
05:23.618 --> 05:31.161
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's kind of crazy like I went one mile and it was something like fifteen dollars to go one mile.
05:31.361 --> 05:32.382
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, dang, dude.
05:32.722 --> 05:38.284
[SPEAKER_03]: But then you get in that Chicago traffic and it's like, yeah, to be super aggressive to drive there.
05:38.304 --> 05:47.669
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just kind of like, well, it's worth it not having to like rent a car and deal with the traffic around here and, you know, people will hit you there and be like, yeah, we should trade.
05:48.189 --> 05:49.189
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we did.
05:49.369 --> 05:49.910
[SPEAKER_03]: So we did.
05:51.070 --> 05:55.313
[SPEAKER_03]: We did take the train, which was fun, because Amelia never been on one.
05:55.353 --> 06:01.216
[SPEAKER_03]: So we got off, we got on at the closest station, and then we rode to Millennium Park to see the being and everything like that.
06:01.896 --> 06:05.278
[SPEAKER_03]: And on the way back, we got off like two stops before the hotel.
06:05.819 --> 06:09.341
[SPEAKER_03]: So we could actually like walk and show her like the parks and stuff through the city.
06:09.841 --> 06:12.923
[SPEAKER_03]: And she had a really great time, but she was just like, my legs are so bad.
06:12.943 --> 06:14.664
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to, we carry people.
06:14.684 --> 06:15.644
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to keep walking.
06:17.011 --> 06:18.992
[SPEAKER_03]: She had Chicago deep dish for the first time.
06:19.052 --> 06:20.872
[SPEAKER_03]: She was like, this is the best pizza I've ever had.
06:20.972 --> 06:22.413
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, that is blasphemy.
06:23.533 --> 06:24.794
[SPEAKER_04]: It's hardly called pizza.
06:24.894 --> 06:27.935
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like sauce and cheese and some veggies on a little bit of crust.
06:28.295 --> 06:28.915
[SPEAKER_03]: And don't get me wrong.
06:29.055 --> 06:29.935
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really good.
06:30.176 --> 06:30.956
[SPEAKER_03]: It's delicious.
06:31.236 --> 06:33.537
[SPEAKER_04]: But I like a nice flat New York salad pizza.
06:33.557 --> 06:35.757
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I want that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
06:35.777 --> 06:36.558
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to fold it.
06:36.938 --> 06:38.118
[SPEAKER_03]: That's that's where it's at.
06:38.138 --> 06:41.239
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, my whole thing is VIP pizza with a fork and knife.
06:41.299 --> 06:42.400
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not really pizza.
06:43.562 --> 06:44.683
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I can agree with that.
06:44.923 --> 06:45.143
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
06:45.363 --> 06:47.084
[SPEAKER_03]: But all in all, we had a great time.
06:47.104 --> 06:50.305
[SPEAKER_03]: And then when Cara dig it to hang out with us, we had a lot of fun.
06:50.345 --> 06:52.506
[SPEAKER_03]: Like she left the work conference.
06:52.546 --> 06:55.848
[SPEAKER_03]: And we went to Navy Peer and went on the Ferris wheel together.
06:55.928 --> 06:58.349
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, we had a lot of good family time.
06:58.369 --> 07:03.071
[SPEAKER_03]: But it was really cool just getting that time to kind of explore with Millie and get that like father daughter.
07:03.831 --> 07:05.012
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, oh, this is something I'm doing.
07:05.112 --> 07:06.252
[SPEAKER_03]: I took her to the butterfly house.
07:06.312 --> 07:06.992
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't tell you this.
07:07.053 --> 07:10.154
[SPEAKER_03]: But did you see pictures?
07:10.778 --> 07:13.620
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know that I saw those pictures like a real butterflies.
07:13.800 --> 07:14.901
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, this is a butterfly house.
07:14.981 --> 07:17.703
[SPEAKER_03]: It's right across from Navy Pier, they're open every summer.
07:18.844 --> 07:22.807
[SPEAKER_03]: But you go and they give you like a little stick that you can dip in the sugar water.
07:23.287 --> 07:28.191
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you go up to a butterfly that's like sitting on a leaf or something, it's just like a big netted house.
07:28.731 --> 07:30.632
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's like five hundred butterflies in there.
07:31.113 --> 07:37.658
[SPEAKER_03]: But if you, yeah, if you take your stick and you put it under like the legs, they'll hop on the stick and start
07:38.318 --> 07:39.319
[SPEAKER_03]: drink in the sugar water.
07:39.959 --> 07:41.360
[SPEAKER_03]: And then they just land on you.
07:41.400 --> 07:45.582
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm really had one like just like sitting on our leg, you know, land on a shoulder.
07:46.062 --> 07:47.283
[SPEAKER_03]: And afterwards, she got done.
07:47.303 --> 07:50.865
[SPEAKER_03]: She literally just said, Dad, you made one of my dreams come true.
07:51.285 --> 07:53.666
[SPEAKER_04]: We gonna make me a butterfly garden.
07:54.527 --> 07:55.707
[SPEAKER_03]: It melted my heart.
07:55.768 --> 07:58.269
[SPEAKER_03]: She goes, I love butterflies.
07:58.829 --> 08:00.050
[SPEAKER_03]: And this was a dream.
08:00.230 --> 08:02.311
[SPEAKER_03]: And you made my dream come true, Dad.
08:02.451 --> 08:05.073
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, oh, thank you, dude.
08:07.309 --> 08:08.230
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was a good time.
08:08.630 --> 08:10.071
[SPEAKER_03]: We had a whole lot of fun.
08:10.131 --> 08:13.654
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're definitely going to go back as we only were in like the South Loop area.
08:13.854 --> 08:16.296
[SPEAKER_03]: So next time we go, we're going to do like Rigglyville.
08:16.417 --> 08:25.424
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I said, if you're looking, I mean, there's some up and coming neighborhoods in Chicago, then I was like, whoa, five bedrooms, three bathrooms.
08:25.584 --> 08:29.507
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I would get like a two bedroom house here for that.
08:29.627 --> 08:32.310
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, all right, I might be moving Chicago.
08:32.410 --> 08:33.811
[SPEAKER_03]: It's only four hours from my family.
08:33.871 --> 08:35.192
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's too bad.
08:37.357 --> 08:43.319
[SPEAKER_02]: Just kidding, my mother-in-law listens to this and she's like, don't take my baby, don't take my grand baby from me.
08:43.639 --> 08:45.760
[SPEAKER_03]: So don't want her to think I'm serious.
08:47.461 --> 08:49.582
[SPEAKER_03]: The silence right now is Olivia blowing her nose.
08:53.063 --> 08:54.324
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'm miserable.
08:54.544 --> 08:55.824
[SPEAKER_03]: I know, I know you're not feeling good.
08:55.844 --> 08:56.444
[SPEAKER_03]: So what do you say?
08:56.464 --> 08:57.805
[SPEAKER_03]: We just jump into this week.
08:57.865 --> 09:00.986
[SPEAKER_03]: I could Gabby Gabby about this trip all night.
09:01.026 --> 09:02.627
[SPEAKER_03]: So she would just jump into this week's case.
09:03.432 --> 09:04.133
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's do it.
09:04.153 --> 09:04.813
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, let's do it.
09:05.373 --> 09:10.257
[SPEAKER_03]: This week, we're headed to the United States in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
09:11.217 --> 09:15.400
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori Ann Ocker was a bright, nineteen-year-old girl with a whole world ahead of her.
09:16.281 --> 09:21.484
[SPEAKER_03]: She grew up in the Sasquahana Valley, a quiet farming community in Central Pennsylvania.
09:22.325 --> 09:30.711
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori had recently graduated from high school and soon after she married Robert Ocker, a warehouse worker, ten years older than the teenager.
09:31.772 --> 09:39.797
[SPEAKER_03]: Shortly after the marriage, Laurie and Robert had a son, Matthew, and to make extra money, Laurie took a job at a pet store in the local mall.
09:40.938 --> 09:46.042
[SPEAKER_03]: She loved animals and had dreams of becoming a veterinarian, making this the perfect fit for.
09:46.602 --> 09:53.407
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus, Laurie got to share her love of animals with her son, bringing him to the shop on his day off to spend time with the kittens.
09:54.364 --> 09:59.747
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, both Laurie and Robert love their son very much, but their relationship was falling apart.
10:00.507 --> 10:03.569
[SPEAKER_03]: They would argue constantly, and Robert was controlling.
10:04.450 --> 10:13.775
[SPEAKER_03]: Laurie also disagreed with the way that he would physically discipline Matthew, and after only eighteen months of marriage, the couple would separate in October of nineteen eighty-eight.
10:14.535 --> 10:21.259
[SPEAKER_03]: With Laurie and Matthew moving back in with her parents and Robert doing the same, but keeping visitation rights to the baby.
10:22.397 --> 10:29.562
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori kept her job at the pet shop, and on May, twenty-fourth, nineteen eighty-nine, she began getting ready for work like any other day.
10:30.343 --> 10:34.486
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, during this week, Robert had visitation and actually had Matthew.
10:35.127 --> 10:39.570
[SPEAKER_03]: So Lori made a snack before heading out the door for her usual four to nine shift.
10:40.391 --> 10:48.336
[SPEAKER_03]: She left her parents home, got into her nineteen seventy-six Pontiac Le Mans, and headed off to work, but she never arrived.
10:49.286 --> 10:53.328
[SPEAKER_03]: when Lori failed to come in for her shift, a supervisor called her parents home.
10:54.089 --> 10:58.632
[SPEAKER_03]: Her mother, Ruth Omen, had seen Lori leave at three thirty that afternoon.
10:59.292 --> 11:02.754
[SPEAKER_03]: And both of her parents thought that she probably had car trouble on the way in.
11:03.415 --> 11:07.977
[SPEAKER_03]: So they decided to drive the route their daughter would normally take to see if they could find her.
11:08.558 --> 11:11.940
[SPEAKER_03]: But there was no sign of Lori anywhere on that normal route.
11:12.640 --> 11:15.062
[SPEAKER_03]: So they continued on to the mall to keep looking.
11:16.035 --> 11:22.243
[SPEAKER_03]: Once they arrived, they found Lori's car in the area where she normally parked, but there was no sign of their daughter.
11:22.924 --> 11:26.528
[SPEAKER_03]: So the almonds contacted the state police to report Lori missing.
11:27.463 --> 11:34.569
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, investigators canvas the area, they interviewed employees and shoppers at the mall that day, but no one saw a thing.
11:35.310 --> 11:42.456
[SPEAKER_03]: Investigators immediately suspected Lori's estranged husband Robert, especially since Lori had shared that she was scared of him.
11:43.176 --> 11:47.420
[SPEAKER_03]: According to a supervisor, Lori was afraid that Robert would hurt her physically.
11:47.900 --> 11:55.126
[SPEAKER_03]: And on several occasions, he would randomly show up to the pet shop, and when this happened, Lori would run to the back of the store to hide.
11:55.887 --> 12:04.490
[SPEAKER_03]: And according to her mother, Lori kept a shotgun under her bed, explaining that she would need it to protect herself if Robert ever came for her or Matthew.
12:05.450 --> 12:08.732
[SPEAKER_03]: However, when Robert was interviewed, he had a solid alibi.
12:09.472 --> 12:15.434
[SPEAKER_03]: He told police that he had been watching their son Matthew that day, and he also shared that he had gone to two separate appointments.
12:16.134 --> 12:20.176
[SPEAKER_03]: One was to get a disability claims form and the other was to drop it off.
12:21.098 --> 12:25.659
[SPEAKER_03]: After that, he claimed that he had gone to a sear store to price a dishwasher for his mother.
12:26.500 --> 12:29.641
[SPEAKER_03]: Because of this, police had no choice but to move on.
12:30.681 --> 12:38.363
[SPEAKER_03]: For three weeks, authorities, members of the community, family and friends searched for Lori, but they all turned up nothing.
12:39.464 --> 12:46.286
[SPEAKER_03]: Then, on June, twelve, in the United States, a young woman was walking down a dirt road near the home of her grandparents.
12:47.126 --> 12:50.607
[SPEAKER_03]: She noticed a foul smell and the woman decided to investigate.
12:51.607 --> 12:58.229
[SPEAKER_03]: There, off the road, was a badly decomposed body, dressed in a jacket, jeans, and sneakers.
12:59.250 --> 13:03.731
[SPEAKER_03]: Police arrived on the scene and the remains were transported to the morgue for forensic testing.
13:04.551 --> 13:09.293
[SPEAKER_03]: Investigators hoped that they could determine both the identity of the victim and the cause of death.
13:10.277 --> 13:14.418
[SPEAKER_03]: While examining the remains, pathologists determined that the victim had been stabbed to death.
13:15.219 --> 13:23.982
[SPEAKER_03]: Holes in the jacket that continued through the sweater suggested that the victim had been stabbed seven to ten times, believing that the wounds may have impacted vital organs.
13:24.702 --> 13:30.086
[SPEAKER_03]: They were also able to determine that the remains found were those of a female due to the size of the skull.
13:30.646 --> 13:33.168
[SPEAKER_03]: But they still needed an estimated date of death.
13:33.628 --> 13:36.630
[SPEAKER_03]: So to do this, an entomological expert was called in.
13:37.310 --> 13:41.733
[SPEAKER_03]: They reviewed samples of various insects found on and within the remains.
13:42.213 --> 13:48.578
[SPEAKER_03]: And based on these tests, it was determined that the body had been decaying for anywhere between nineteen and twenty-five days.
13:49.480 --> 13:52.870
[SPEAKER_03]: Finally, dental records were used to try to identify the victim.
13:53.431 --> 13:57.201
[SPEAKER_03]: And sadly, it was determined that the remains were those of Lori Hawker.
14:13.727 --> 14:20.833
[SPEAKER_03]: Police now knew who the victim was and when she died, but they still needed to know who would want to kill the young mother.
14:21.574 --> 14:23.595
[SPEAKER_03]: Luckily, they were about to catch a break.
14:24.416 --> 14:28.740
[SPEAKER_03]: Police learned that there was an ATM in the area that was equipped with a surveillance camera.
14:29.320 --> 14:32.863
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this particular camera would take a photograph every ten seconds.
14:33.444 --> 14:37.927
[SPEAKER_03]: Most importantly, the camera was pointed in the direct location of Lori's car.
14:38.833 --> 14:42.137
[SPEAKER_03]: When investigators reviewed the footage, it didn't seem promising.
14:42.798 --> 14:49.106
[SPEAKER_03]: It showed a man standing at the ATM completing a transaction, but when they look closer, they notice something.
14:49.847 --> 14:56.996
[SPEAKER_03]: In the back and blurry, they saw a car had pulled up next to lorries, and a man appeared to be standing outside the vehicle.
14:57.777 --> 15:01.758
[SPEAKER_03]: But the photos were still too blurry to see exactly what was happening.
15:02.298 --> 15:09.681
[SPEAKER_03]: So investigators asked the state police in the FBI for help, but neither could do anything to improve the quality of the images.
15:10.381 --> 15:15.883
[SPEAKER_03]: And a strange twist, the FBI actually suggested that detectives contact NASA for help.
15:16.883 --> 15:22.265
[SPEAKER_03]: At this time, they have been using a new technology to improve the quality of photos taken from space.
15:23.106 --> 15:29.052
[SPEAKER_03]: This was the same technology that was used to determine the cause of the Challenger explosion in nineteen eighty six.
15:30.213 --> 15:34.237
[SPEAKER_03]: Using this digital enhancement, NASA texts were able to clean up photos.
15:34.738 --> 15:38.902
[SPEAKER_03]: And this time, Lori was able to be seen outside of her car.
15:39.683 --> 15:45.869
[SPEAKER_03]: The next image was taken ten seconds later, showed another vehicle parked diagonally in front of Lori.
15:46.778 --> 15:51.260
[SPEAKER_03]: This vehicle had the passenger side door open, and Lori was bent overlooking inside.
15:51.940 --> 15:55.781
[SPEAKER_03]: The final picture showed the unknown vehicle leaving the parking lot.
15:56.442 --> 16:03.384
[SPEAKER_03]: Police now believe that they had clear images of Lori Hawker's abduction, but they needed to identify the mysterious vehicle.
16:04.064 --> 16:10.147
[SPEAKER_03]: So they turned to an automobile expert who was able to determine that the car was in fact a Chevrolet celebrity.
16:11.087 --> 16:12.648
[SPEAKER_03]: This struck a chord with police.
16:13.128 --> 16:18.371
[SPEAKER_03]: They remembered that while Robert Ocker didn't own a celebrity, his parents did.
16:19.252 --> 16:21.473
[SPEAKER_03]: So Olivia, before we go any further, what are you thinking?
16:21.613 --> 16:22.153
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's your head at?
16:22.914 --> 16:27.816
[SPEAKER_04]: This is a wild case, but I like how we're getting our evidence obtained.
16:27.876 --> 16:35.861
[SPEAKER_04]: That's pretty cool that they could contact NASA to get the pictures that they needed to crack this case or start to.
16:37.299 --> 16:40.842
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, what's crazy to me is like, this is in the United States, right?
16:40.922 --> 16:44.305
[SPEAKER_03]: So they had to contact NASA to be like, can you make this picture less blurry?
16:44.805 --> 16:51.551
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is something that we can all now do like on Photoshop from our phone in a coffee shop, right?
16:51.611 --> 16:54.773
[SPEAKER_04]: But when you said there was an ATM, I was like, that ATM's back then.
16:55.254 --> 16:55.494
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
16:56.034 --> 16:56.174
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
16:56.234 --> 16:59.937
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was the security footage was like one picture every ten seconds.
17:00.098 --> 17:05.882
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just, you know, when you think about the technology and the time, you're just kind of like, wow, that's crazy.
17:06.823 --> 17:09.065
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, we can transfer money from our phones.
17:09.085 --> 17:10.005
[SPEAKER_03]: We can clean up pictures.
17:10.025 --> 17:11.106
[SPEAKER_03]: I can go into a picture now.
17:11.146 --> 17:12.007
[SPEAKER_03]: Just erase anything.
17:12.027 --> 17:14.489
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't like make something the focus.
17:14.529 --> 17:16.250
[SPEAKER_03]: So it is really crazy.
17:16.350 --> 17:24.176
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, you know, I don't think we've ever done a case before where we've had to contact NASA to get any kind of evidence or anything like that.
17:26.253 --> 17:26.693
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
17:26.833 --> 17:28.834
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought this one was pretty interesting.
17:28.854 --> 17:30.235
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought that you would like it.
17:30.255 --> 17:32.676
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you're going to like it even more as we go through.
17:33.276 --> 17:35.837
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, should we just keep going with it?
17:35.857 --> 17:36.258
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think?
17:36.458 --> 17:37.318
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's finish up.
17:37.338 --> 17:37.978
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
17:37.998 --> 17:38.359
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's do it.
17:39.159 --> 17:45.362
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, when questioned by police, Walker's parents said that their son did borrow the car on the day that Lori went missing.
17:46.122 --> 17:50.524
[SPEAKER_03]: According to his mother, Robert arrived home between five and five thirty that evening.
17:51.364 --> 17:59.487
[SPEAKER_03]: A neighbor was questioned by the police and testified that they saw Robert vacuuming the passenger side and vacuuming and scrubbing the trunk the following day.
18:00.368 --> 18:08.491
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, on May twenty seven, nineteen eighty nine, Richards father traded this celebrity to a local car salesman in exchange for a truck.
18:09.500 --> 18:13.806
[SPEAKER_03]: That salesman would eventually sell the vehicle to a retired state police officer.
18:14.507 --> 18:16.951
[SPEAKER_03]: However, police were able to track the car down.
18:17.592 --> 18:21.738
[SPEAKER_03]: And the officer had bought the vehicle for his daughter, but she wasn't old enough to drive yet.
18:22.178 --> 18:25.663
[SPEAKER_03]: So the car had just been sitting in a garage, maintaining its integrity.
18:26.598 --> 18:31.761
[SPEAKER_03]: When search, forensic scientists were able to find hairs located on the front passenger side.
18:32.362 --> 18:39.246
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, these hairs were similar to Lori Hawkers, but it was what was found in the trunk that really surprised detectives.
18:40.227 --> 18:44.810
[SPEAKER_03]: A strange hair was located and when tested, it was found not to be human.
18:45.690 --> 18:49.453
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, it would later be determined that the hair belonged to a cat.
18:50.395 --> 18:56.160
[SPEAKER_03]: Now neither Robert Auger or his parents owned a cat, but Laurie's parents did.
18:56.841 --> 18:59.963
[SPEAKER_03]: And when the two hairs were compared, it was a match.
19:00.824 --> 19:06.128
[SPEAKER_03]: Because of this, police now believe that Laurie had been kept in the trunk of the celebrity.
19:06.809 --> 19:10.112
[SPEAKER_03]: And Robert Auger was arrested for the murder of his estranged wife.
19:11.837 --> 19:17.001
[SPEAKER_03]: The prosecution knew that they would have to prove that it was Ocker's car in the parking lot of the mall.
19:17.882 --> 19:28.010
[SPEAKER_03]: So before the trial, they parked the vehicle in the same spot, and they took pictures from the same location as the ATM, but this time with the background in focus.
19:28.730 --> 19:30.732
[SPEAKER_03]: The sets of photos were identical.
19:31.572 --> 19:34.295
[SPEAKER_03]: They also discovered possible motives for the murder.
19:35.320 --> 19:43.068
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert had taken out an additional life insurance policy on both Lori and Matthew, but this was done after the couple it separated.
19:43.588 --> 19:47.052
[SPEAKER_03]: And with Lori dead, Robert would stand and make a significant amount of money.
19:47.853 --> 19:54.640
[SPEAKER_03]: Lori and Robert had also been involved in a custody battle over their son, which left another reason for Robert wanting Lori dead.
19:55.813 --> 20:05.958
[SPEAKER_03]: The trial would begin on October twenty six nineteen ninety five during which the prosecution would argue that on the day of Lori's disappearance Robert was in the parking lot waiting.
20:06.978 --> 20:13.921
[SPEAKER_03]: They believe that he used some type of ruse to lure into the car and once Lori entered the vehicle her fate was sealed.
20:14.622 --> 20:17.463
[SPEAKER_03]: She would be stabbed to death and dumped on the side of the road.
20:19.043 --> 20:24.447
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert Hawker would be found guilty of first-degree murder in kidnapping, and he was sentenced to death.
20:25.107 --> 20:32.012
[SPEAKER_03]: However, he would file an appeal in nineteen ninety-six, and his sentence would be downgraded to life in prison without parole.
20:32.973 --> 20:34.574
[SPEAKER_03]: So Olivia, that's this week's case.
20:35.394 --> 20:42.699
[SPEAKER_03]: I definitely think it's kind of interesting that, you know, this woman just loved animals and eventually to catch her killer.
20:43.040 --> 20:45.381
[SPEAKER_03]: It was the hair of an animal that really sealed the deal.
20:45.881 --> 20:46.582
[SPEAKER_03]: But what do your thoughts?
20:46.622 --> 20:47.242
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's your head at?
20:47.282 --> 20:47.943
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think about it?
20:48.548 --> 20:49.509
[SPEAKER_04]: This is a great case.
20:49.529 --> 21:01.117
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope our listeners didn't skip it like I told them to because of my voice, but I love one of the NASA thing and then to the cat, solving the murder, like way to go cat.
21:02.456 --> 21:03.036
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for sure.
21:03.076 --> 21:16.983
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many cool elements in this like, you know, having the the scientists come in who looked at the insects that were found on the body and being like, yeah, because this fly is this bigger, these larvae this far along.
21:17.584 --> 21:24.647
[SPEAKER_03]: She's been dead X amount of weeks and then now we got to call NASA and, you know, oh, it's a cat here, but it's just as a cat.
21:25.267 --> 21:25.547
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
21:25.627 --> 21:26.468
[SPEAKER_04]: Who doesn't match?
21:27.293 --> 21:46.034
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so many of these cases that we do, it's like the blood was found in the trunk or whatever, and this one, there were so many different things, you know, it's kind of crazy to think that I think it just goes to show like they kind of work that's actually put into these cases by good detectives and investigators to the fact that you're like,
21:46.695 --> 21:49.116
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to reach out to NASA to see if I can solve this one.
21:49.156 --> 21:50.457
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it means pretty interesting.
21:50.477 --> 21:50.897
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.
21:51.157 --> 21:52.798
[SPEAKER_04]: I like that aspect of the case.
21:54.179 --> 22:03.323
[SPEAKER_04]: I think morally Robert is just a terrible human to want to kill the mother of your child's over money.
22:03.563 --> 22:05.004
[SPEAKER_04]: I just don't get, I don't get it.
22:05.384 --> 22:10.687
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we all have life insurance works at me, but everyone has life insurance.
22:13.818 --> 22:14.478
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, anyways.
22:14.939 --> 22:22.381
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I just don't think that there should be motive that shouldn't be the motive to kill your wife and the mother of your child separated or not.
22:22.501 --> 22:23.861
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I just don't like that.
22:23.961 --> 22:25.422
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd stand with my word.
22:25.542 --> 22:27.823
[SPEAKER_04]: Just leave them and start a new life.
22:28.023 --> 22:28.623
[SPEAKER_04]: It'll be fine.
22:29.497 --> 22:35.118
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I mean, we've done a couple of cases where it's been a custody battle or like a separation.
22:35.138 --> 22:36.159
[SPEAKER_03]: There's something going on.
22:36.879 --> 22:39.700
[SPEAKER_03]: And like somebody's willing to kill their spouse over that.
22:39.740 --> 22:53.083
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just, you know, I mean, like again, now this poor kid has been robbed of both parents, you know, and in the research, it very much felt like
22:54.265 --> 22:57.206
[SPEAKER_03]: Robert knew that his parents were going to be getting rid of the car.
22:58.027 --> 23:03.869
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, at the time that he took it, there was no insurance on his dad was mad that he was driving around because there wasn't any insurance.
23:04.570 --> 23:06.751
[SPEAKER_03]: So Robert was like, I can take this car.
23:06.871 --> 23:09.152
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be traded or sold for something else.
23:09.652 --> 23:10.952
[SPEAKER_03]: And the next couple of days.
23:11.553 --> 23:12.613
[SPEAKER_03]: So like, it's perfect.
23:12.753 --> 23:14.094
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll, you know, get rid of her.
23:14.694 --> 23:15.734
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll get rid of the car.
23:15.895 --> 23:20.276
[SPEAKER_03]: And it just happened to be bought by a state trooper that just left it in a garage.
23:20.397 --> 23:20.917
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so
23:21.697 --> 23:37.949
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of crazy to think that the piece is kind of fell into place the way that this feels like a case where everything just kind of had to be right for it to be solved and it just happened to fall into place like that.
23:38.752 --> 23:55.261
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think at all, all the pieces lined up the way that they needed to be because any other person that car could have been shipped across the state and never seen again, or, you know, vacuumed and used for the last couple months while instead of just sitting there.
23:55.361 --> 24:00.103
[SPEAKER_04]: So everything worked out the way that it was supposed to and just how everything lined up was really fascinating.
24:00.864 --> 24:06.667
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, a hundred and ten percent, but if we're talking debble tests on something like this, where does, you know, a case like this fall for you?
24:07.400 --> 24:08.582
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't put it about a five.
24:09.062 --> 24:11.545
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I don't like when this bounces kill one another.
24:11.565 --> 24:24.322
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I like the interesting, you know, facts that we've talked about and how everything paned out, but as far as like the murder goes, like, you know, to just another has been killing another wife.
24:25.505 --> 24:38.188
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I definitely agree like, you know, this is unfortunately we've done a lot of cases like this, you know, take out the the cat hair, take out, you know, the NASA scientists take out the state trooper, right?
24:38.248 --> 24:47.710
[SPEAKER_03]: We do a lot of cases where it's a divorce or there's something wrong in the marriage and instead of just backing out and taking the hell, you know, somebody's like, I'm going to kill somebody else.
24:48.190 --> 24:49.150
[SPEAKER_03]: So like from a
24:51.036 --> 24:54.178
[SPEAKER_03]: Like from a like checking the locks, you know, I'm a married man.
24:54.198 --> 25:00.061
[SPEAKER_03]: I do think there is something scary about the person that you go to sleep with or the person that you've had a child with.
25:00.903 --> 25:06.286
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, when they even when things get bad, you're still like, okay, even if it's with the kid, we're still partners, right?
25:06.306 --> 25:08.947
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we're co-parenting, we're gonna figure this out.
25:09.327 --> 25:17.050
[SPEAKER_03]: There is something really scary about thinking that the other person's like, no, we're not like, there's one place that you're going in and I'm in control of that.
25:17.531 --> 25:22.993
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think for me, I would probably put this at a six, just because of that element, but I'm the interesting scale.
25:23.774 --> 25:25.915
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, this would be an eleven for sure for me.
25:26.995 --> 25:36.499
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that is where we fall in the Deadpool test for this week's case, but as always, we want to hear from you, the listeners, the locksmiths, where does the murder of Lory and the Hawker fall on your Deadpool test?
25:36.940 --> 25:46.584
[SPEAKER_03]: You can let us know, reach out to us on Instagram, a check-all-ox pod, you can find us on Twitter, check the locks, and if you're not in our Facebook group with that guy, you're doing coming out with us, we'd love to get the opportunity to spend some time with you.
25:47.064 --> 25:47.784
[SPEAKER_03]: Get to know ya.
25:48.165 --> 25:50.506
[SPEAKER_03]: I just have you be part of our amazing community.
25:50.546 --> 25:53.127
[SPEAKER_03]: We've said it a million times, but it's the best place on the internet.
25:53.667 --> 25:56.509
[SPEAKER_03]: And Olivia, you know, we love hearing from our listeners.
25:56.569 --> 25:57.910
[SPEAKER_03]: We love getting emails.
25:57.930 --> 26:01.693
[SPEAKER_03]: You can email us at contact at checkthelockspod.com.
26:02.293 --> 26:03.894
[SPEAKER_03]: You can also leave us Spotify comments.
26:04.254 --> 26:06.716
[SPEAKER_03]: But what really helps us are five star reviews.
26:06.736 --> 26:08.457
[SPEAKER_03]: They help new listeners find the show.
26:08.477 --> 26:11.839
[SPEAKER_03]: It gets us into other shows, recommendations, things of that nature.
26:12.200 --> 26:13.460
[SPEAKER_03]: So they really do help us a lot.
26:13.781 --> 26:18.464
[SPEAKER_03]: Olivia, if somebody wanted to leave us a five star review, what is the best way to do that?
26:19.152 --> 26:25.009
[SPEAKER_04]: They need to go to the Apple Podcast app, go to our show's homepage, scroll down, and receive all five of the stars.
26:25.530 --> 26:27.135
[SPEAKER_04]: Click them all and tell us what you think.
26:27.620 --> 26:27.960
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.
26:27.980 --> 26:30.822
[SPEAKER_03]: And Olivia always says it best so I don't have to do that's Apple Podcast.
26:30.842 --> 26:32.603
[SPEAKER_03]: Look, those stars leave those reviews.
26:32.943 --> 26:37.165
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you need a cheat code, there is a link in the description of the episode that you're listening to now.
26:38.005 --> 26:39.686
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, they just help us out tremendously.
26:39.746 --> 26:43.068
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you've already left us a review, just know that we appreciate you so much.
26:43.128 --> 26:44.329
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you're listening, you haven't.
26:44.829 --> 26:47.030
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, if you got Apple go over there, drop that review.
26:47.070 --> 26:48.791
[SPEAKER_03]: We would really, really appreciate it.
26:49.517 --> 26:58.000
[SPEAKER_03]: And as always, if you like to show you want to help financially support the buycast, you can do so by becoming a patron head over to patreon.com for slash check the locks get signed up today.
26:58.280 --> 26:59.240
[SPEAKER_03]: We got a lot of great tears.
26:59.260 --> 27:04.222
[SPEAKER_03]: It's lucid benefits, stickers, coffee, mug stuff like that, but you also get the episodes commercial for you.
27:04.242 --> 27:08.263
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27:08.323 --> 27:15.025
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27:15.605 --> 27:23.788
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27:24.168 --> 27:32.331
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27:32.371 --> 27:37.833
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27:38.394 --> 27:45.278
[SPEAKER_03]: That is all that we have for this week's case, but please make sure that you're subscribed to check the locks on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.
27:45.699 --> 27:51.402
[SPEAKER_03]: We will see you again next week with another truly terrifying true crime case, but until then, don't forget to check the locks.
27:52.163 --> 27:52.663
[SPEAKER_03]: See you next week.
