Episode 3: The Anonymous Letter

[00:00:00] Who Killed Beth-Ellen, Episode 3 The Anonymous Letter

[00:00:06] Last episode we concluded with what we currently know about Beth-Ellen's last night.

[00:00:14] She was at the NC State apartment with Ricky.

[00:00:20] Ricky's roommates, his older brother Brian and his buddy Walt were not at the apartment

[00:00:27] around 2am when the escort service called.

[00:00:33] 1994 was a couple years before everybody had cell phones and Beth-Ellen didn't have one that night,

[00:00:41] which is noteworthy for multiple reasons.

[00:00:45] Since she didn't have a cell phone, the escort service would have called Ricky's apartment landline phone

[00:00:51] so even if she wanted to, she couldn't have played it off

[00:00:55] like taking the call in the bathroom and then telling Ricky she had a family emergency in Goldsboro

[00:01:01] and split for the night.

[00:01:08] No, Ricky would have answered the apartment phone

[00:01:12] and the escort service would have asked for Beth-Ellen.

[00:01:25] He watched her get ready and he knew where she was going that night.

[00:01:30] The Innkeeper Motel

[00:01:34] It was located at 3401 Capital Boulevard.

[00:01:38] There's still a motel there today actually.

[00:01:41] Now it's called America's Best Value Inn, but back then it was the Innkeeper.

[00:01:50] And where Beth-Ellen was headed that night.

[00:01:53] From Ricky and the guy's apartment right by NC State campus,

[00:01:58] the drive to the Innkeeper was 9 miles, pretty much through the heart of Raleigh,

[00:02:03] up Capital Boulevard.

[00:02:05] This is where not having a cell phone comes into play again.

[00:02:11] That 9-mile drive.

[00:02:16] If only this all happened a few years later.

[00:02:21] Beth-Ellen would have likely been on her cell phone with Kelly or one of her other friends.

[00:02:28] She would have told them what or who caused her to pull her car off onto that service road.

[00:02:39] But it was 1994 and she didn't have a cell phone.

[00:02:45] Beth-Ellen's car was found 7 miles up from Ricky's apartment

[00:02:50] and 2 miles down from the Innkeeper, right off that main thoroughfare in between Capital Boulevard.

[00:03:01] There are a few significant events that happened in the days and weeks after Beth-Ellen's car was found

[00:03:07] and we'll circle back to cover those.

[00:03:09] But on May 28th of 1995, the case took a bizarre turn.

[00:03:18] An article was published in the Sunday edition of Goalsboro's newspaper, The News Argus.

[00:03:25] The article was titled Mystery Letter.

[00:03:28] Anonymous writer claims insight into teen's death.

[00:03:33] This is being read from that article.

[00:03:36] It's been 9 months since Beth-Ellen Benson's body was found, stabbed in a manufacturing district in Raleigh.

[00:03:42] 9 months that would have been her senior year at Southern Wayne High School.

[00:03:46] Her killer has not been found and her parents, Bill and Penny Benson of the Grantham community, want the case closed.

[00:03:54] They want justice and they want to know how and why their only daughter, a beauty queen and talented dancer was killed.

[00:04:02] Someone who claims to know something about her death wrote an anonymous letter to the news Argus.

[00:04:07] Parts of it ring true. Parts are allegations of a sensational nature, not only about Beth-Ellen, but also about high officials in the Raleigh area.

[00:04:16] The news Argus suspects that it might have been a prank and did not publish it.

[00:04:21] On the off chance that the letter might have been factual however, the newspaper gave it to Raleigh police who are investigating the murder

[00:04:29] and gave a copy to the state attorney general's office.

[00:04:32] It later shared the letter with Mr. and Mrs. Benson.

[00:04:35] The letter arrived in October.

[00:04:47] Now with the case dragging on, the newspaper is making the letter public.

[00:04:52] Mr. and Mrs. Benson, desperate for a break in the investigation, consented to the publication.

[00:04:58] They hope that anyone with information will come forward.

[00:05:02] The letter follows with typing and grammatical errors as they appeared in the original.

[00:05:08] So, what you're about to hear is the actual letter sent to the Gullsboro newspaper from the mystery writer.

[00:05:22] This is in regard to the murder of Beth-Ellen Benson.

[00:05:25] Her parents should not be shown the full content of this letter. They have suffered enough.

[00:05:30] Beth-Ellen worked for a very exclusive escort service that catered to clients with unique tastes.

[00:05:36] The rich and powerful who can have anything or anyone they want, and they can have anyone or anything eliminated much the same way.

[00:05:47] I'm taking a risk in typing this letter because the same thing can and will happen to me that happened to Beth-Ellen.

[00:05:55] But someone should speak up even though nothing will be done.

[00:06:00] Unique tastes, bondage, sadism, whips, chains.

[00:06:04] There are people who would rather flog a woman with a bull whip than have sex.

[00:06:11] And as long as she is being paid for it, they didn't feel like it was wrong.

[00:06:15] Beth-Ellen showed me the welts, whip marks and bruises on her back, buttocks and legs.

[00:06:22] She said that she made around $300 to $500 a night with no sex involved.

[00:06:27] How anyone could get any pleasure out of this was something she could not understand.

[00:06:32] I asked her why she got into it, she said for the money, of course, and curiosity.

[00:06:37] Since you see and hear so much about it, SNM is so wonderful and hurts so good, she decided to go for it.

[00:06:45] That was at least part of what led her to check it, SNM out.

[00:06:49] After a while she got sick of the pain but still wanted the money.

[00:06:52] The solution?

[00:06:53] Blackmail.

[00:07:07] She told me that they would pay her very well for her silence, since their lives would be ruined if any of this was revealed.

[00:07:14] The names I don't remember, though I was told.

[00:07:17] I do remember where some of her former clients worked, and that is why Beth-Ellen's murder will never be solved.

[00:07:25] Also, her autopsy will never be fully disclosed.

[00:07:29] The welts, whip marks and bruises were not shown on the report that was made public.

[00:07:34] And it took a full month to reveal that she was stabbed to death.

[00:07:37] A little strange?

[00:07:39] You bet.

[00:07:40] A classic case of the fox in the henhouse.

[00:07:45] You hear how truly bizarre this anonymous letter is?

[00:07:48] Outlandish.

[00:07:52] It continues.

[00:07:56] There is a group in Raleigh called the Power Exchange of the Triangle, I think, and pain is their key to happiness.

[00:08:03] The Power Exchange of the Triangle.

[00:08:07] Beth-Ellen said that they're big and getting bigger all the time.

[00:08:11] Their membership includes executives, lawyers, physicians, and highly placed public officials.

[00:08:17] How highly placed?

[00:08:19] The Governor's Office.

[00:08:21] Though not the Governor himself.

[00:08:23] That I would have remembered, but some very powerful people who worked there.

[00:08:28] And the Raleigh Police Department, the Wake County Sheriff's Department and the SBI.

[00:08:33] These were all higher ups, as Beth-Ellen referred to them.

[00:08:37] Wouldn't the taxpayer just love to know about them?

[00:08:42] I asked her if she was scared that something might happen to her.

[00:08:45] She said, No, I've got a list of names hidden.

[00:08:48] And if anything happens to me, I've got a friend 70 some miles down the road that'll send that list to the Argus.

[00:08:56] I only recently found out that Beth-Ellen meant the Goldsboro paper and that they are very conservative, unlike others.

[00:09:03] The night that Beth-Ellen disappeared, she said that she was going out to collect.

[00:09:09] The hitman that was hired may be caught.

[00:09:14] But those responsible will never be brought to justice.

[00:09:17] I guess that list of names was never released, or maybe it will be released around election time.

[00:09:24] Either way, it won't bring Beth-Ellen back.

[00:09:27] But maybe it will save someone from a similar fate.

[00:09:31] I think Beth-Ellen would have wanted me to send this letter, but I won't reveal who I am.

[00:09:39] I'm going to dump this junk typewriter in the nearest dumpster, photocopy this letter and mail it.

[00:09:48] You probably won't do anything with this letter because you'd be putting yourself at risk.

[00:09:53] Can't blame you for that, but at least I tried to do the right thing.

[00:10:01] Hope you sleep well tonight.

[00:10:03] I will.

[00:10:09] And that's how the letter closed.

[00:10:15] Also published in this edition of the Goldsboro paper was Beth-Ellen's parents' response to the anonymous letter,

[00:10:23] titled, Parents to Author, Come Fourth.

[00:10:31] This is from William and Penny Vinson's statement.

[00:10:35] Being read by Lisa, a friend of the family.

[00:10:41] It seems only yesterday that a sweet loving happy little girl was tap dancing on our kitchen floor,

[00:10:47] running through our homes spreading joy and laughter everywhere.

[00:10:56] Now, the news artist is asking us if we would like to comment on a letter about a 17-year-old girl

[00:11:02] who was murdered in August of 1994.

[00:11:05] We believe that letter is a cruel and amateuristic attempt at sensationalism, with absolutely no basis in fact.

[00:11:14] A substantial reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of a suspect.

[00:11:20] So we challenge the author to step forward through the proper channels with facts to support his or her allegations.

[00:11:28] As the letter stands, however, we believe it is merely a collection of appalling distortions of the truth,

[00:11:38] if not wild fabrications that border on slander.

[00:11:45] Our daughter was 17 years old, naive and vulnerable with a lifelong dream of going to New York and becoming a dancer.

[00:11:54] It was this innocence and vulnerability that made her an easy victim of exploitation.

[00:12:01] The people referred to in this letter are adults with responsibilities and positions.

[00:12:07] They are leaders in business with responsibilities of serving as examples for the public.

[00:12:13] They are the ones we taught our children to trust and respect.

[00:12:17] Should there be a cover-up, we pray that this letter will be instrumental in uncovering it and bringing these people to justice.

[00:12:27] Regarding her job with the escort service, that has been confirmed and we believe that she was innocent enough to believe

[00:12:34] that there would be no sex and no danger since an adult had told her this.

[00:12:40] The police assured us early on that sex was not an issue in this case.

[00:12:45] They confirmed that Bethelin only took jobs where no sex was involved.

[00:12:51] However, we have known for the past nine months that a company run by adults listed in the Goldsboro phone book Hires Children,

[00:13:00] sight unseen with no proof of age, then sends them to motel runs to dance for or to entertain adult men.

[00:13:09] In some cases it has involved sex. To us, this is a form of child abuse.

[00:13:16] It certainly is child pornography and child exploitation.

[00:13:20] The fact that a murder remains unsolved is frustrating.

[00:13:28] Yet we are enraged at the fact that a business associated with such intolerable acts is allowed to operate.

[00:13:36] Bethelin worked hard. She lived a good life, she loved at the dance, her students, her friends, her family and she loved God.

[00:13:56] She was a beautiful caring person who would not wish harm on anyone.

[00:14:01] She would not even eat meat because a living thing had to be killed.

[00:14:07] She was willing to suffer pain in order to reach her goal.

[00:14:12] She once danced an entire dance with a tack stuck in the ball of her foot.

[00:14:19] She was willing to make any sacrifice to reach her goal.

[00:14:23] This does not make her a bad person, it makes her very vulnerable.

[00:14:29] She is guilty only of loving and trusting everyone, even the wrong people.

[00:14:38] By publishing this letter, Wayne County may only remember her by the last six weeks of her life.

[00:14:45] That's a chance we must take.

[00:14:49] Because if it brings justice to those who really deserve it, stops the soliciting of minors or by the grace of God exposes her murderer, then it will be worth it.

[00:15:07] Her father and I will publicly say thank you to the news artist for a job well done.

[00:15:13] Our daughter's reputation is a small price to pay for justice and we will remember and treasure the first 17 and a half years of her wonderful, positive, productive life.

[00:15:44] Daddy and Mama, love and miss you baby girl.

[00:15:48] That is our response to this letter.

[00:15:51] William and Penny Vinson.

[00:15:58] It's been 30 years and the mystery writer has never come forward and is still unknown.

[00:16:07] That letter is intriguing on many levels.

[00:16:11] We'll circle back and dig into some of the anomalies in that letter that may give some clues as to the writer.

[00:16:19] Beth Ellen's friends haven't read about that anonymous letter since shortly after her murder, but back then, Duranda remembers thinking...

[00:16:27] You know, as a young adult you see something like that come out and you're like, well yeah, this is why they haven't been able to solve the case.

[00:16:35] You know, because people in powerful situations with money can make anything disappear.

[00:16:44] Other friends came away from that letter feeling another way.

[00:16:47] This is Erica, not the one who knew Joe in Seven Springs.

[00:16:51] Beth Ellen had two friends named Erica.

[00:16:53] This is the Erica that was one of Beth Ellen's oldest friends.

[00:16:57] They lived on the same street growing up.

[00:16:59] This is what Erica thought about the anonymous letter.

[00:17:02] It sounded like they were trying to steer the investigation somewhere was it where it probably wasn't going.

[00:17:14] It sounded like someone was trying to cover up something to me.

[00:17:24] I just feel like they were trying to make it sound like that she was murdered somehow through the escort business.

[00:17:32] From what this letter was saying, you know, she was trying to potentially blackmail the group.

[00:17:38] After a while she got sick of the pain but still wanted the money.

[00:17:41] The solution? Blackmail.

[00:17:43] Does that whole thing ring true? I mean does Beth Ellen seem like, you know, kind of a Gallant Seven that would come up with a blackmail scene?

[00:17:52] No. No, I can't see her doing that.

[00:17:56] It just sounded to me like it was trying to put the investigation somewhere else.

[00:18:02] Off of someone else.

[00:18:04] But you think that that would have come from maybe someone connected to the killer?

[00:18:10] Yeah.

[00:18:11] That was kind of.

[00:18:12] Yeah, I do.

[00:18:20] Karen.

[00:18:21] The weird thing about that too, like if I'm completely honest about, you know, oh there were these politicians and Beth Ellen had a list and all this kind of stuff.

[00:18:31] But there's no one had no idea who a politician was.

[00:18:35] You know, I can't imagine that she would have known who anyone was, especially at 17 years old but also in Raleigh.

[00:18:47] You know, I just, none of that really, it was almost like it was trying to point fingers in the direction of the escort service or someone else and take the finger away from someone else.

[00:19:01] It's like I was literally not ready in years but I just remember there being a line about, I mean, a chunk of this old typewriter in the nearest.

[00:19:11] I'm going to dump this junk typewriter in the nearest dumpster.

[00:19:14] Photo copy this letter and mail it.

[00:19:16] First of all, why are you typing on a typewriter?

[00:19:20] Yeah, Karen picked up on something interesting there.

[00:19:23] Back in 1994, old typewriters were practically obsolete.

[00:19:28] It's all very strange. There's so many layers.

[00:19:33] And here's another.

[00:19:35] Kelly even says specifically...

[00:19:38] You'll remember Kelly was Beth Ellen's best friend at the time of her murder and Ricky was her step-uncle.

[00:19:46] Kelly even says specifically I was a 15 year old all tied up in politicians and scandals and covering for Ricky.

[00:20:03] And so I'm like, did she think, did she know things about politicians and scandals?

[00:20:10] Or is that, was that something that Ricky said happened and that wasn't true?

[00:20:24] So now what did she say exactly?

[00:20:28] She says I was a 15 year old all tied up in politicians and scandals and covering for Ricky.

[00:20:36] But when did she say that?

[00:20:39] This was back in 2020 where she was saying like, you know, 15, she didn't know how to handle all of it.

[00:20:48] Right. So she knew something was way off back then but she was 15.

[00:20:53] She couldn't figure out what to do with it.

[00:20:56] She just was like, yeah, like, Ellen, she was going along with I guess whatever Ricky was saying.

[00:21:03] That that politician stuff was maybe coming from Ricky.

[00:21:07] The letter said something about that Beth Ellen had a list.

[00:21:11] I've got a list of names hidden and if anything happens to me,

[00:21:14] I've got a friend 70 some miles down the road that'll send that list to the Argus.

[00:21:19] I've always wondered, you know, who was Beth Ellen sending letters to and talking to while she was in Raleigh?

[00:21:27] Because that wasn't me. You know, I wasn't her best friend.

[00:21:30] I was just a friend and, you know, did they know anything else?

[00:21:35] And I feel like Kelly gave all of her letters and pictures and your books and stuff to the detective.

[00:21:43] So she doesn't even have any of those old letters either, huh?

[00:21:48] I don't think so. I think she gave them everything because she thought she was going to help them solve it.

[00:21:54] You know, she really thought that she was going to whatever she could give them was going to help fix it.

[00:22:01] Kelly was only 16 when the article about the letter was published.

[00:22:07] I just remember what they're being told about this, like, like high power group or whatever in Raleigh that it was saying she got involved in.

[00:22:21] I've never heard her say anything along those lines.

[00:22:27] And did you ever get the idea from her that it could have been something more than just meeting one person as opposed to there was like a group or something?

[00:22:39] No. I mean, I don't, I think it was just more of like a one person kind of deal.

[00:22:45] So the letter said that Beth Ellen worked for people with unique case including bondage, sadism, whips and chains.

[00:22:52] Beth Ellen showed the writer of the letter her welts, whip marks and bruises on her back, buttocks and legs.

[00:23:01] Now did you ever hear anything about Beth Ellen having any kind of marks like?

[00:23:06] No.

[00:23:08] You never heard anything about Ricky saying she had welts or anything on her?

[00:23:14] No.

[00:23:18] Then did you ever hear Portia or Ricky or anybody else talking about the letter?

[00:23:24] I don't, I don't know.

[00:23:26] I mean maybe as a 15 year old girl that's not the same thing that adults were talking about.

[00:23:31] You know what I mean?

[00:23:33] Part of the anonymous letter said that the reason that Beth Ellen, this group might have wanted her gone, she was planning this black male scheme.

[00:23:45] Does that sound like something that Beth Ellen would even think about?

[00:23:50] No. I mean it all sounds crazy to me.

[00:23:54] I mean would she even know what black male was and even...

[00:23:57] I wouldn't think so.

[00:24:00] I don't see any of that being true.

[00:24:03] Totally, I feel like that was made up.

[00:24:08] Was there even this group?

[00:24:11] Let's start there.

[00:24:13] That is a good place to start.

[00:24:15] After the Goalsboro paper ran the article with the anonymous letter, the following day this was in an article in the Raleigh paper.

[00:24:23] Apparently they had the same question as Kelly.

[00:24:26] The letter called the group Power Exchange of the Triangle.

[00:24:30] A group called Triangle Area Power Exchange has advertised in a Triangle Weekly newspaper and was mentioned in a News & Observer feature in July.

[00:24:39] The News & Observer is the Raleigh paper and they quickly realized they had written about a group who went by a very similar sounding name.

[00:24:49] They featured the group in a Sunday edition of their paper just a month before Beth Ellen's murder.

[00:24:55] Efforts to reach members of that group Sunday night were unsuccessful.

[00:25:00] So let's go through the timeline of these events again because it can get confusing.

[00:25:05] Let's work backwards.

[00:25:08] May 29th of 1995, Raleigh's paper wrote an article following up on Goalsboro's article the previous day on May 28th, 1995.

[00:25:22] Seven months earlier in October of 1994, that's when Goalsboro's paper received the anonymous letter that referenced this group it called the Power Exchange of the Triangle.

[00:25:38] Two months earlier, August of 1994, Beth Ellen's murder occurred.

[00:25:44] And one month before that in July of 1994, the Raleigh paper had written an article about a group called the Triangle Area Power Exchange.

[00:25:55] This is being read from that article.

[00:26:00] Most days, Sue spends her time doing what most homemakers do. She cooks, she takes care of her child, she cleans her Raleigh home, she walks the dog.

[00:26:09] Sundays, she goes to her Baptist church. But every other week, Sue takes time out to play her secret game.

[00:26:17] She hires a babysitter, climbs into her car and meets her lover at his place.

[00:26:23] She likes to be tied up and spanked. She gets an erotic kick out of having clamps attached to various parts of her body.

[00:26:31] It hurts, she says, but in a good way.

[00:26:34] It's something I like, says Sue, who is 27.

[00:26:38] The names of these group members are pseudonyms.

[00:26:42] Until recently, the only person Sue could talk to about her sexual taste was her husband,

[00:26:47] an engineer who shares her kinky inclinations and penchant for multiple partners.

[00:26:52] But one day about eight months ago, as Sue was scanning the back page of the Weekly Independent newspaper,

[00:26:59] the Independent paper now called the ND is a progressive publication out of Durham, North Carolina,

[00:27:05] and it would seem to be somewhat referenced in the anonymous letter.

[00:27:10] I only recently found out that Beth Ellen meant the Goldsboro paper and that they are very conservative, unlike others.

[00:27:17] So in the back of the Independent,

[00:27:19] she spotted a small ad between one for psychic readings by Rebecca and another for massage training.

[00:27:26] It read, TAPE, BND, SNM, DNS Support Group 5715680

[00:27:36] It would be interesting to know who was attached to that number.

[00:27:39] Sue recognized most of the initials, bondage and discipline, sadism and masochism, dominance and submission.

[00:27:47] She and her husband went to a meeting.

[00:27:50] TAPE they learned stood for Triangle Area Power Exchange.

[00:27:55] There is a group in Raleigh called the Power Exchange of the Triangle, I think.

[00:28:00] The mystery writer was certainly alluding to this group who went by TAPE, T-A-P-E Triangle Area Power Exchange.

[00:28:12] Power Exchange is a term in the BDSM community that describes dominance and submission relationships.

[00:28:21] In the Triangle, the SNM community draws on TAPE to meet all kinds of needs.

[00:28:28] Members, mostly white, mostly male, mostly highly educated, meetings are held at a local church.

[00:28:36] A couple times a month, TAPE throws play parties at members' homes where whips and chains replace the usual party fair of beer and wine.

[00:28:46] They also have their own newsletter and their own personal columns, variations in the Independent.

[00:28:52] The Durham Library Archives has these old editions of the Independent.

[00:28:57] It went through each weekly publication from 1994.

[00:29:00] In the back of each, there's a classified section with personal ads.

[00:29:05] In addition to your more typical dating personal ads, there was a category called variations.

[00:29:10] This is where people in the BDSM community would connect with ads like Dominant Single White Female, 25, UNC Professional Student,

[00:29:21] in search of very submissive single white male, send photo and phone number.

[00:29:27] Then there's a PO box to write to.

[00:29:30] More on the ads in the back of the Independent momentarily.

[00:29:34] I came across something else quite compelling.

[00:29:38] A year ago, there wasn't squat in this area, says Anne, an environmental consultant who helped found TAPE in August.

[00:29:46] So TAPE was founded one year prior to Beth Ellen's murder.

[00:29:50] Anne, 24, regularly looks for play partners through personal ads.

[00:29:54] In the two years since she began practicing SNM, she estimates she had about 20 partners.

[00:30:00] She's bisexual.

[00:30:01] Everywhere Anne goes, she carts the tools of her tastes.

[00:30:05] She keeps them in her car in a large plastic trunk.

[00:30:08] Inside are half a dozen leather weps, industrial chains, handcuffs, a couple of long wooden paddles,

[00:30:14] including an authentic Carolina fraternity paddle.

[00:30:19] Eve Kosofsi Sedgwick, a Duke University English professor who writes about sexuality,

[00:30:25] says in the end SNM points at something most people do not acknowledge,

[00:30:30] the connection between sex and power.

[00:30:37] You can see it in the punk culture, in Madonna's videos and in her book Sex,

[00:30:43] in the movies like Rising Sun or the more recent Better Moon.

[00:30:51] This is not something you bring up in front of normal people, says Mike,

[00:30:55] a 26-year-old engineering major at NC State University.

[00:31:04] North Carolina laws do not specifically ban SNM,

[00:31:08] but no one from TAPE is eager to be a test case.

[00:31:13] I could lose my job, says one 40-year-old lawyer who is so afraid of exposure

[00:31:18] that he resigned from TAPE's board of directors shortly after granting an interview for this story.

[00:31:24] So TAPE had some structure.

[00:31:30] There was a board of directors.

[00:31:32] Mike, who is heterosexual.

[00:31:34] Mike is the 26-year-old NC State student.

[00:31:37] He won't forget his first TAPE play party

[00:31:40] when he walked into a North Raleigh apartment complex

[00:31:43] to find a woman shackled to the living room wall.

[00:31:48] The 15 people there took advantage of the nearby whip at a dollar a whack.

[00:31:54] She made good money, Mike says.

[00:31:57] She must have been there for an hour and a half.

[00:32:03] Raleigh clinical psychologist Diane Occhetti

[00:32:06] listens to stories like these all the time.

[00:32:09] Lots of people have fantasies of bondage, Occhetti says.

[00:32:13] It's not an unusual fantasy,

[00:32:16] but there's a difference between a fantasy and an act.

[00:32:19] The point at which I have difficulty is when there's physical hurt.

[00:32:23] If one has been beaten for an hour and a half,

[00:32:26] there are going to be marks on their body.

[00:32:31] A provocative article for Raleigh's paper,

[00:32:33] especially back in the 90s.

[00:32:35] I spoke to the author of this article

[00:32:38] to see if she could provide any additional insight into TAPE.

[00:32:41] She connected with the TAPE members for her article

[00:32:44] by contacting them through those personal ads

[00:32:47] in the back of the independent.

[00:32:49] She couldn't remember anyone's real name anymore.

[00:32:52] She told me they wouldn't let her go to any of those TAPE play parties.

[00:32:56] Although she tried, they would only tell her about them.

[00:33:00] The members that would talk to her were your average citizens,

[00:33:04] like you heard in the article.

[00:33:06] Houseswives, students, people with average jobs.

[00:33:10] But she did tell me

[00:33:12] she got a sense that high-powered people were a part of TAPE

[00:33:16] and members were paranoid to talk about it.

[00:33:20] They would not say who the other members were.

[00:33:23] It was a secretive group.

[00:33:26] Now, here's the real curious part about my research

[00:33:30] into the ads for TAPE

[00:33:33] in the back of the independent publication.

[00:33:38] The first ad for TAPE shows up at the end of April 1994,

[00:33:42] so about four months before Beth Ellen's murder.

[00:33:45] The ads always say the same thing.

[00:33:48] TAPE, TAPE, B&D, S&M,

[00:33:54] D&S support group.

[00:33:57] 571-5680.

[00:34:01] And so starting in April, the TAPE ads ran pretty consistently

[00:34:05] through that summer. Out of 15 weekly publications,

[00:34:08] they ran an ad in 11 of those issues.

[00:34:12] But interestingly, the last issue they ran an ad in

[00:34:16] was August 9th,

[00:34:19] a week before Beth Ellen's murder.

[00:34:23] And they never ran another ad.

[00:34:32] That timing is awfully curious.

[00:34:39] So to answer Kelly's question,

[00:34:42] was there even this group?

[00:34:45] The group was real,

[00:34:47] but were the other contents of the letter real?

[00:34:53] Let's find out.

[00:34:56] Over the years, very few people put much stock in that

[00:35:00] anonymous letter.

[00:35:04] Most people, including Beth Ellen's family and law

[00:35:07] enforcement, thought it was bogus.

[00:35:10] But that doesn't mean the letter is insignificant.

[00:35:13] Considering the lack of physical evidence,

[00:35:16] this letter might just be the piece of evidence

[00:35:19] that can crack the case.

[00:35:23] Because if it can be determined,

[00:35:26] who wrote that letter?

[00:35:29] That could lead to the killer.

[00:35:33] You see, the writer of the letter did have a valid

[00:35:36] piece of information.

[00:35:38] That was not made public at the time

[00:35:41] the letter was written.

[00:35:45] The writer knew Beth Ellen was working for an Escort service.

[00:36:01] And that information was not made public

[00:36:04] until that Goalsboro article.

[00:36:07] Some seven months after the letter was written,

[00:36:10] so the writer did have knowledge of that detail.

[00:36:13] And to my knowledge,

[00:36:15] there are really only a handful of people

[00:36:18] that knew about the Escort service that early on.

[00:36:26] So it seems unlikely that the writer was

[00:36:29] just a wacko sitting in their basement somewhere,

[00:36:32] spinning a yarn for no apparent reason.

[00:36:36] It makes more sense to me,

[00:36:39] like Erica said.

[00:36:42] It's not like someone was trying to cover up something.

[00:36:45] Trying to steer the investigation somewhere

[00:36:49] was it where it probably wasn't going.

[00:36:55] And that's why it's important to dissect and extract

[00:36:59] as much information as possible from this letter.

[00:37:03] I'll just go through the anomalies that jump out at me.

[00:37:08] The little thing that the right person might just hear

[00:37:11] that strikes a chord could change the course of the investigation.

[00:37:17] Starting with spelling, two words are misspelled in this letter.

[00:37:23] The word powerful is misspelled three times.

[00:37:27] It's spelled with two L's on the end as opposed to one,

[00:37:30] so it's spelled powerful, f-u-l-l.

[00:37:35] And buttocks is misspelled instead of b-u-t-t,

[00:37:39] it's spelled b-o-t-t, o-c-k-s.

[00:37:44] The use of buttocks is also interesting.

[00:37:47] You would think most people would just say but.

[00:37:54] The punctuation is more riddled with errors.

[00:38:00] Throughout the letter, quite often there are no spaces after the periods.

[00:38:04] The same goes for commas, and there are a lot of run-on sentences

[00:38:08] with too many commas, and some sentences are missing periods altogether.

[00:38:14] So far as elaborate as this letter is,

[00:38:18] there is either no regard for proper punctuation

[00:38:22] or the writer meant to have it sloppy.

[00:38:26] Additionally, the writer asks questions

[00:38:30] and then answers them themselves like

[00:38:34] Unique tastes, bondage, sadism, whips, chains.

[00:38:39] After a while she got sick of the pain but still wanted the money.

[00:38:43] The solution? Blackmail.

[00:38:45] A little strange? You bet.

[00:38:48] A classic case of the fox in the henhouse.

[00:38:52] A fox in the henhouse.

[00:38:54] Beth Ellen said that they're big and getting bigger all the time.

[00:38:59] How highly placed? The governor's office.

[00:39:03] And that brings us to the next area of focus.

[00:39:07] The writer's identity.

[00:39:10] So the writer of this letter places themself in Raleigh.

[00:39:15] The letter reads,

[00:39:17] I've got a friend 70-some miles down the road

[00:39:19] that'll send that list to the Argus.

[00:39:22] So if they're supposedly having that conversation

[00:39:25] and Beth Ellen said she's got a friend 70 miles down the road,

[00:39:29] that would be the Goldsboro area.

[00:39:32] Which would also mean they were having that conversation

[00:39:35] 70 miles up the road from Goldsboro.

[00:39:39] And Raleigh's 70 miles up the road.

[00:39:43] So either knowingly or unknowingly,

[00:39:47] the writer of this letter puts themselves in Raleigh.

[00:39:51] The writer would also seem to be older than Beth Ellen.

[00:39:54] Or at least present themselves that way.

[00:39:57] Writing about...

[00:39:58] Wouldn't the taxpayer just love to know about them?

[00:40:01] And...

[00:40:02] I guess that list of names was never released,

[00:40:05] or maybe it will be released around election time.

[00:40:08] And the Raleigh Police Department,

[00:40:10] the Wake County Sheriff's Department, and the SBI.

[00:40:12] Also...

[00:40:13] I'm going to dump this junk typewriter in the nearest dumpster.

[00:40:17] Writing about taxpayers, elections.

[00:40:19] The SBI, the State Bureau of Investigation.

[00:40:22] And supposedly writing all that on an old typewriter.

[00:40:27] Doesn't really feel like it's being written by a high schooler.

[00:40:32] Seems a little older.

[00:40:35] Moving on to the claims in the letter,

[00:40:38] the writer claims to be very close to Beth Ellen.

[00:40:41] Close enough for Beth Ellen to show them

[00:40:43] the welts, whip marks and bruises

[00:40:46] on her back, buttocks and legs.

[00:40:49] Also close enough for Beth Ellen to confide to the writer

[00:40:52] a list of names in the group

[00:40:54] and where they worked.

[00:40:56] But if Beth Ellen didn't show or share any of that

[00:40:59] with her best friend Kelly...

[00:41:01] I've never heard her say anything along those lines.

[00:41:06] I don't see any of that being true.

[00:41:09] Totally, I feel like that was made up.

[00:41:12] It seems pretty certain that's just straight up lies.

[00:41:18] The writer also claims...

[00:41:20] After a while she got sick of the pain,

[00:41:22] but still wanted the money.

[00:41:24] The solution?

[00:41:25] Blackmail.

[00:41:27] The night that Beth Ellen disappeared

[00:41:29] she said that she was going out to collect.

[00:41:34] Well clearly that's not true.

[00:41:36] Because according to Ricky,

[00:41:38] which apparently was confirmed by the police

[00:41:40] phone records, Beth Ellen was at the apartment

[00:41:42] until she got that phone call around 2 a.m.

[00:41:44] for the escort job of the innkeeper.

[00:41:48] She was going to do a dance

[00:41:50] for a client of the escort service,

[00:41:52] not collect blackmail money.

[00:41:59] And let's talk out this blackmail scheme.

[00:42:02] In order to blackmail someone

[00:42:04] you would have to let them know that you're blackmailing them.

[00:42:07] Beth Ellen would have needed a way to contact them.

[00:42:09] She couldn't have just been waiting by the phone

[00:42:12] for the escort service to call, hoping

[00:42:14] she gets assigned to the client

[00:42:16] she was trying to blackmail.

[00:42:20] When was she calling this guy from Ricky

[00:42:22] and the guy's apartment landline phone?

[00:42:25] Trying to sweat him down for cash.

[00:42:29] If that was actually the case

[00:42:31] the police would have spotted that miscellaneous number

[00:42:34] on Ricky's phone records

[00:42:36] and investigated it.

[00:42:38] At least at this point in my investigation

[00:42:41] logically this blackmail narrative

[00:42:44] doesn't hold water.

[00:42:47] And continuing with the claims in the letter

[00:42:50] next

[00:42:52] the mystery writer takes a big leap of logic.

[00:42:58] The hit man that was hired may be caught.

[00:43:00] How could this writer

[00:43:02] supposedly Beth Ellen's bestie, her confidant

[00:43:05] possibly know she was killed by a hit man?

[00:43:08] What's to say the high powered client

[00:43:10] she was supposedly collecting blackmail money from

[00:43:13] didn't kill her himself.

[00:43:16] According to the mystery writer

[00:43:18] those responsible will never be brought to justice.

[00:43:21] They wouldn't be brought to justice anyway.

[00:43:24] Why complicate things with a hit man

[00:43:26] and what kind of hit man

[00:43:29] stabs his victim 28 times?

[00:43:35] The claims in this letter are pretty ludicrous

[00:43:38] but again they did have knowledge that Beth Ellen was an escort

[00:43:41] before it was made public

[00:43:44] and they had another obscure but valid detail

[00:43:47] they knew about this BDSM group.

[00:43:52] There is a group in Raleigh called the Power Exchange of the Triangle

[00:43:56] and the newspapers that said Raleigh PD interviewed

[00:43:59] the escort service client and officials

[00:44:02] so I can only assume the police never found any connection

[00:44:05] to the escort service or Beth Ellen's escort clients to tape.

[00:44:10] Had they found a connection

[00:44:12] police would have taken this anonymous letter more seriously

[00:44:15] and they did not.

[00:44:20] Additionally, the innkeeper was a pretty crappy motel

[00:44:24] it's hard to imagine that's where rich and powerful clients

[00:44:28] powerful of two L's would choose BDSM escort calls

[00:44:33] but again the mystery writer did know about that group

[00:44:37] so how?

[00:44:39] Two possible ways come to mind

[00:44:41] either the mystery writer was a part of tape

[00:44:43] and they would go to these quote play parties

[00:44:47] but given the secrecy of this group

[00:44:49] that seems unlikely

[00:44:51] why draw attention to a secretive group

[00:44:54] if you were a part of it

[00:44:56] seems more likely the mystery writer

[00:44:59] simply read the July article in the Raleigh newspaper

[00:45:03] interestingly the NC State students account of his first quote play party

[00:45:08] sounds pretty similar as to what the mystery writer

[00:45:12] was trying to allude that Beth Ellen was involved in

[00:45:16] He won't forget his first tape play party

[00:45:19] when he walked into a North Raleigh apartment complex

[00:45:22] to find a woman shackled to the living room wall

[00:45:25] the 15 people there took advantage of the nearby whip

[00:45:28] at a dollar a whack

[00:45:30] she made good money, Mike says

[00:45:32] she must have been there for an hour and a half

[00:45:35] seems like the mystery writer could have just lifted that part of the story

[00:45:39] and made it a part of their fictitious narrative

[00:45:42] if so they were reading the Raleigh paper

[00:45:45] another reason that makes me think the writer was located in Raleigh

[00:45:51] and here's something else to consider

[00:45:54] if the writer of the letter did have legitimate information

[00:45:58] and was truly trying to help the investigation

[00:46:02] they would have written the letter to the police

[00:46:06] not the newspaper

[00:46:08] writing to the newspaper

[00:46:10] and hoping it's published

[00:46:12] sounds like the mystery writer

[00:46:14] was more interested in changing the public's opinion about the case

[00:46:18] and not actually helping the investigation

[00:46:29] so who was in Raleigh?

[00:46:32] a little older than Beth Ellen

[00:46:35] knew she was in the escort service

[00:46:39] and would want to change the public's opinion

[00:46:42] the only rumor I heard was that

[00:46:46] a lot of people thought it was Rick

[00:46:49] and I will tell you this

[00:46:51] and I don't know why this came about

[00:46:54] because a lot of people were hearing this

[00:46:56] for some reason he called me

[00:46:59] I don't know why he called me

[00:47:01] this is Beth Ellen's dance teacher

[00:47:04] but he called me one day and told me that he was Rick

[00:47:07] and that he had heard that I had thought that he killed Beth Ellen

[00:47:13] and he was calling me to let me know that he did not

[00:47:17] he was not involved

[00:47:20] and I don't know why of all people that he would call me

[00:47:27] that was really strange

[00:47:30] and I was perturbed at the phone call

[00:47:32] and I'll be honest with you

[00:47:34] I told him I said I said Rick I don't know who you are

[00:47:36] but if I even thought you did it

[00:47:38] you had already met me by now

[00:47:40] I was just really upset what he called

[00:47:42] and I thought how dare you

[00:47:46] this man called me and said

[00:47:48] I heard you think I killed Beth Ellen

[00:47:50] and I was like really dude

[00:47:52] so I don't know why he reached out to me

[00:47:55] and even had my home number

[00:47:57] of course that was back during landlines were popular

[00:48:00] I was probably listed

[00:48:01] I was very careful about how aggressive I got with him

[00:48:03] because I didn't know what he was capable of

[00:48:05] if he was the perpetrator

[00:48:07] but I never forgot that

[00:48:09] and then whenever we went to the funeral

[00:48:12] he stood across

[00:48:14] like across from everybody

[00:48:16] that gathered you know how we were all gathered

[00:48:18] by the cemetery and everything

[00:48:20] and I remember he was standing by his car

[00:48:22] across the road and just staring at us

[00:48:24] and he had this look on his face

[00:48:27] like a zombie

[00:48:29] he had no expression, no motion

[00:48:31] just staring out and I thought that's strange

[00:48:35] I just remember how creepy it made everyone feel

[00:48:38] looking at him across the street

[00:48:40] and he wasn't even

[00:48:42] and maybe he did that because everybody thought it was him

[00:48:44] and he was afraid to come close

[00:48:46] I don't know

[00:48:50] you know if everybody thought it was him

[00:48:52] and it was still so fresh

[00:48:54] I could understand

[00:48:56] him wanting to be there

[00:48:58] but not wanting to be amongst the people that thought he did it

[00:49:01] but there's a lot more to the story

[00:49:04] my name is Jerry Falk

[00:49:06] and I'm a retired detective

[00:49:08] with Raleigh Police Department

[00:49:10] I worked on the Beth Ellen Vincent case

[00:49:14] from 2008

[00:49:16] and was involved in it until I retired

[00:49:19] last year, 2023

[00:49:22] during the time I investigated the case

[00:49:25] the investigation

[00:49:27] kind of led me away from

[00:49:29] decline at the hotel

[00:49:31] and the boyfriend

[00:49:33] focused more on people who lived

[00:49:36] in that apartment complex

[00:49:39] where Beth Ellen lived

[00:50:03] North Carolina

[00:50:05] is share the picture of the letter

[00:50:07] on your social media

[00:50:09] the mystery writer couldn't have imagined

[00:50:12] that the letter they wrote 30 years ago

[00:50:15] was going to come back under scrutiny in 2024

[00:50:19] and it could be the piece of evidence

[00:50:21] that helps solve this case

[00:50:24] someone wrote it

[00:50:26] and I'd figure somebody out there

[00:50:28] knows who wrote it

[00:50:33] if you have any information about this letter

[00:50:35] or know someone who might

[00:50:37] call 1-866-TIPS-4-BE

[00:50:41] that's 866-847-7423

[00:50:46] or email us at whokilledbethellenatgmail.com

[00:50:52] if you're in the North Carolina area

[00:50:54] and want to help, email us

[00:50:56] for more information on the case

[00:50:58] and to see pictures

[00:51:00] check out our website

[00:51:02] bethellenpodcast.com

[00:51:04] and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[00:51:11] 2024

[00:51:13] the year for closure for our family

[00:51:15] and justice for Beth Ellen

[00:51:21] thank you for listening

[00:51:23] and stay tuned

[00:51:32] you