.jpg)
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Jeffrey Gorton's Deadly Secret Part VII: The Hunt for a Flight Attendant's Killer
The murder of Northwest Airlines flight attendant Nancy Ludwig at Detroit's Airport Hilton sparked one of Michigan's most exhaustive investigations of the early 1990s. Detective Lieutenant Ken Krause masterfully organized the Romulus Police Department's response, creating sophisticated tracking systems for the 2,300 tips that would eventually flood their office.
What makes this case particularly fascinating is the stark contrast between meticulous police work and the unreliability of human perception. When a hotel desk clerk confidently claimed Ludwig had stayed at the hotel previously and received a mysterious phone call the night of her murder, investigators quickly disproved both statements. This perfectly illustrates why seasoned detectives approach eyewitness testimony with healthy skepticism, despite its powerful sway over juries.
The investigation's scope was breathtaking. Detectives compiled databases containing 8,000 hotel guests, 2,600 gold Monte Carlo owners, and countless flight crews, all while working double shifts and sometimes sleeping on the detective bureau floor. They pursued forensic evidence with equal vigor, identifying that the killer had blood type A and secreted a rare enzyme called PGM2-1+ found in less than 2% of males. This scientific clue led them to test 200 potential suspects, though all were ultimately cleared.
Even the smallest pieces of evidence received scrutiny that bordered on obsessive. A piece of two-ply nature jute twine used to bind Ludwig's wrists was traced through distributors to companies that might employ the killer. Composite sketches from multiple witnesses were distributed widely, with flight attendant Lin Nelms even placed under hypnosis to enhance her recall of the suspect.
As theories ranging from jilted lovers to elaborate terrorist plots were methodically investigated and dismissed, the case demonstrates how homicide detectives must balance scientific analysis with human intuition. When Detective Link Helton admitted to meeting a mysterious woman in a parking lot to receive potential evidence, noting "there was no length I wouldn't go to solve this case," he captured the relentless dedication that drives investigators even when confronted with seemingly endless dead ends.
Have you ever wondered what happens when thousands of leads all seem to lead nowhere? Follow this riveting account of detective work at its most persistent and discover how even the most challenging cases never truly go cold in the minds of the detectives who pursue them.
For the book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is part six of Jeffrey Gordon's Deadly Secret. Let's begin. Ken Krause had been a Michigan State Police officer since the 50s Now it's 19,. In 1981, he retired from the States. Now it's 1981, he retired from the state police and he started and hit up the detective bureau at the new Romulus Police Department. And he was enjoying his holiday. And 10 years later, 19 February 18, 1991, when he receives a call saying that there was a murder at the airport Hilton. He wasn't a micromanager. He knew Snyder and Melianak could handle things so he didn't rush to the scene.
Speaker 1:The next day Krause went in and took control. He told them that they would likely be swamped with tips and he would set up the tip file, get it organized and cross-referenced. The PD was computerized by then and they would keep a paper tip file and a computerized file. The computer file would make it easy to cross-reference tips and bits of information. Krauss, who always prided himself as a hands-on lieutenant who didn't mind getting out from behind his desk, told Snyder, malignac and the rest of the DB to work the Lewitt case. He would take care of other stuff that came up that they normally would attend to. He would also, if they needed him, interview witnesses, make phone calls, whatever, whatever they needed, and, according to Meliana, kim Krause pretty much held down the fort. Eventually, the line they set up would generate 2,300 tips. Each one would be addressed, some in a matter of seconds, some with a great deal of deliberation.
Speaker 1:While Krauss held down the fort, melianak and Snyder and a handful of others put in their long days of double shifts. Days of double shifts. Malinak and Snyder spent some nights on the floor in the detective bureau, too tired or pressed for time to bother driving home. The investigation spread out quickly from ground zero. They began with hotel employees and guests. Right away they hit upon one of the best leads they would get and, according to Snyder, they thought that they would crack it the first day. A Hilton shuttle bus driver had been fired a few days earlier for screaming at a Northwest flight attendant and he had vowed revenge when he was fired. Had vowed revenge when he was fired, but he had an alibi and he was clear quickly. So it was not him.
Speaker 1:The desk clerk who said she had checked Lewick in gave them a couple of hot leads. She said Lewick had been at the hotel several times previously, as recently as the week before. This might mean that she had had the opportunity to meet someone on previous trips, someone she had invited into her room. This time that seemed particularly credible because the clerk said that about 9.45 pm the night of the murder, a male had called the front desk and asked for Nancy Ludwig's room. The clerk had patched him into room 354. A friend from past trips about to pay a lethal visit, you wonder? Well, there was only one problem. Millionaire quickly found out that it was Louis' first trip to Detroit. She had not even known how to catch the shuttle to the hotel. The clerk had not seen her before. In fact, while the woman had been working the desk that night, it was a male clerk, david Bennett, who had checked in Ludwig and Nelms.
Speaker 1:And as for the call, malenek and Snyder quickly discounted that too. Art Ludwig had not called her. Michigan Bell had no record of a call coming into the hotel at that time. Hotel equipment couldn't confirm a call had been transferred and the timing made no sense. Confirm a call had been transferred and the timing made no sense, given that Arcia had seen the killer at 10.30, already done raping, torturing and murdering Ludwig, already done with his lengthy cleanup and already dressed and packing up the Monte Carlo. So this woman was wrong on every statement. And even Detective Snyder said, and quote if you believe a call was made to the room, it had to come from the killer. Given the evidence that Nancy was immediately attacked upon entering the room, there was no time or need for the killer to call. She made the whole thing up. Why, I have no idea. End quote. So so much for eyewitnesses. It's a law of police work. Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable. You might be an eyewitness but that doesn't mean you saw what you think you saw. Juries love eyewitnesses. Prosecutors rely on them. Defense attorneys and cops share one thing in common they hate them. Now things got weirder. The clerk who had claimed to have checked Nancy in Her boyfriend drove up Gold Monte Carlo and he had driven her to work the night. Lowe would die, the boyfriend briefly. A suspect was later cleared.
Speaker 1:One Romulus crew went out to the landfill nearby to see if they could find any clues in the garbage that had been carted off from the hotel before the body had been found. Literally wading through refuse, one of the cops found a piece of paper that had Nancy Ludwig written on it. It gave a momentary thrill, but it wasn't the murderer who had written it. It turned out to be something jotted down by a hotel employee. They got copies of room charges run up by all the guests at the Hilton the night of the murder, seeing who was accounted for in a restaurant or bar or getting room service during the time in question. They gathered the names of all 8,000 guests who had stayed at the 21 airport hotels and motels that weekend, from high-end places like the Hilton to $20-a-night motels with peeling paint and bedspreads stained with who-knew-what, and began entering them into a database looking for people convicted of crimes or wanted by police.
Speaker 1:They learned of a big party thrown over the weekend by a group known as the Tri-County Singles. Maybe some lonely single took out frustrations on a pretty flight attendant. They got a list of members and started tracking them down. They started calling all the pilots and flight attendants who had been at the Hilton. One flight attendant had stayed on the other side of the wall from Ludwig. Melianak was sure she must have heard something. The way Ludwig had fought back. It must have sounded like all hell breaking loose. Melianak reached her by phone. She sounded like she didn't want to be bothered. She said she hadn't heard anything. Melianak didn't believe her but was polite. A little while later the attendant's husband called him back hot as hell, screaming that Melianak had upset his wife, what was he calling her for, and so forth. And Melianak got hot himself and said hey, it could have been your wife.
Speaker 1:Phil Arcia made a return flight to Detroit from Boston on Wednesday. He got to the Hilton about 8 pm and asked the desk clerk if they had arrested anyone. The answer was no. Arcia went to his room and then suddenly it hit him the guy in the parking lot, the guy with the Monte Carlo. The next day he was checking out and asked again if anyone had been caught. Still no. And he told the desk clerk I think I saw something. I don't know if it would help. Is there anyone I can talk to? The hotel manager called Snyder.
Speaker 1:Snyder rushed to the hotel, northwest officials pulled Arcia off his flight out and then he told the story of the guy with the bad haircut and bad fashion sense stuffing Northwest luggage into the back of a gold Monte Carlo. He seemed remarkably sure of what he had seen, was very precise in his details. Snyder was sent for a state police sketch artist who came to the hotel. They put two composites together, both profiles, one with glasses, one without. If we need anything else we'll let you know. N handed Arcia his card and that was the last he heard from Snyder for 11 years. Two other composites would come out.
Speaker 1:The first week in March Lim Nels was put under hypnosis at the St Paul Minnesota Police Department and a drawing was made by police artist Paul Johnson while she was under. That shows someone about 40 with some wrinkles and while under. Nelms told the artist the suspect had what seemed to be acne scars, but they were left off the composite. They would have looked too pronounced in a drawing and might have caused people to look for someone more scarred than he really was. Johnson then met with Ann Johnson the composite made from her recollection, and she had seen the suspect face to face and brought that light, while Nelms had seen him in a dark van show a man with similar features but much younger, 28, 30 or so. Two versions of this composite were ultimately released, one with glasses, one without. Both Nelms and Johnson's versions showed the same hair as Arcia's, but the nose was shortened a bit. As Arcia's, but the nose was shortened a bit. Many years would pass before police, including Dan Snyder, who himself was trained to make composite drawings, would pronounce Ann Johnson's composite the most accurate stunningly accurate they have ever seen.
Speaker 1:We'll be right back. We'll be right back. The Romulus Police Department had a limited budget for travel With so many prospective witnesses spread around the country. The department turned to the FBI for help. Fbi agents agreed to help out, interviewing out-of-state residents who might not be coming back to Michigan soon.
Speaker 1:Friday, february 22, the police released the first composite drawing. Mystery man with luggage sought in attendance lane. That was the headline in Saturday's free press. The Saturday paper was traditionally very thin, without much of a news hole. The five-day-old story made page two. Deputy Chief Dave Early was quoted as saying the following we're not saying this is the killer or the main suspect. If he wants to come in and say hey, that was my luggage and I have a legitimate reason to be there, we'd sure love to hear from him. Unquote. He saw a guy putting luggage into a car at an airport hotel. How common was that? Still, it was the best thing they had come up with so far. The composite was generating tons of tips which would keep them busy and they had men at the airport, passing the composite out to employees and eyeballing passengers as they came out and or I should say, as they came and went.
Speaker 1:Now they turned to the Secretary of State in their search for late model Monte Carlos. They thought they might get in another 80 or 100 leads that way. Wrong. They got a list of more than 2,600 in this state of similar colors in the right range of model years. They started running the names through the Law Enforcement Intelligence Network, which is a computerized system, to see if anything turned up. The Monte Carlo was built on the same platform as other very similar-looking GM cars. What if it wasn't a Monte Carlo but one of its first cousins, another Chevy, pontiac or Buick? You could never run them all down. Arcee had said the car had white plates. Many of the leads in this case either went nowhere or too many places. That year 38 states and the province of Ontario had white or mostly white plates Before they were done. They have more than 20,000 names in their database Names of pilots, names of Romulus Hotel guests, names of flight attendants, names of Monte Carlo owners, names of singles, names of optive sheets. Eventually 200 of the names were deemed important enough to run lab tests on In 1991, running DNA profiles was very expensive and slow.
Speaker 1:The results would take up to six months or more. Snyder had a lab report from Helton that the perp was blood type A, which was very common, but secreted in his semen a rare enzyme called PGM2-1+, the PGM standing for phosphoglucomutase. It's basically a water-soluble molecule that is found in perspiration and in vaginal and seminal secretions. Less than 2% of the male population has that PGM grouping, which drastically narrowed down the field. They will start with a blood sample and a saliva sample. If the blood came back as type A and the saliva sample showed that he was a secretor, meaning blood type molecules were present in water-soluble fluids other than blood 80% of the population are secretors Then a follow-up blood test would determine if he was a PGM type of 2-1+ and if he was, then they would run a DNA profile. Of the 200 suspects they tested, only one was at PGM 2-1+ and his DNA cleared him.
Speaker 1:Snyder asked the Minneapolis police to videotape Nancy's funeral. Maybe the killer would get his kicks by showing up. One person caught their eyes. Someone hanging out at the fringe is snapping pictures, but he was just a freelance photographer. Hopes of an early capture faded as the long hours came and went, it was dead end, dead end, dead end. As the first week ended, hope faded for a solution. As the first week ended, hope faded for a solution. There was nothing surfacing. They kept plugging away. They compiled a list of all Fire Hilton employees and started looking them up. On March 8, they interviewed a cook who had been fired the previous March for smoking marijuana in a room with a maid. He had a record of arrest for indecent exposure. Saliva samples cleared him.
Speaker 1:Snyder was determined to track down every lead possible, the piece of twine at the scene that had been used to bind Ludwig's wrist. Where did that come from? Who saw such twine? Who made it? In April he and Milaniak visited a local distributor of rope and twine and showed them the piece of twine used to bind Ludwig's hands. It was something called in the twine trade a two-ply nature jute and it had only one distributor in Michigan and Ohio. The distributor sold large reels of it to four companies, large balls of it to four companies and small balls of it to seven companies. A solid lead came out of it, something to cross-reference.
Speaker 1:The particular twine the killer used was often used by landscapers. So they went back and checked to see if anyone they have talked to so far was a landscaper. Another dead end. Mostly they seemed to be compiling lists and files. They had 47 pages on the tri-county singles, 120 pages of Monte Carlos, 167 pages of airline passengers, 88 names of sex offenders, 5 pages of pilots who have been attending a Northwest seminar in Detroit the weekend of the murder, 10 pages of Hilton employees. All of the names and lists and pages had to be checked out. None of the information went anywhere. For weeks that became months. Millionaire seemed to see gold, monte Carlos everywhere At work out with his wife. In his sleep he just shut down the license number and hurried back to the station to run it through the computer Nothing. As Mike St Andre wandered the concourses of Metro Airport four days after Nancy Ludwig's murder, keeping an eye out for someone of the killer's description and interviewing airport employees, brenda Gorton was walking the concourses too, trying to contain herself.
Speaker 1:One of the suppliers for the family business Century Rain Aid organized yearly trips for people in the sprinkler trade. This year it was to Vegas. There were 146 making the trip at all and it included Jeff, brenda, his brother Greg and Greg's wife Sarah, because Buckler had done so much business with Century. The company was picking up the tab for a trip for two At Christmas. Jeff's dad, lawrence, had put each brother's name in a hat and pulled out to see who would get the trip. So Jeff won, and what could be better in midwinter and gloomy Michigan than a four-day trip to sunny Las Vegas at the Flamingo?
Speaker 1:If Brenda saw San Andre, it didn't register. She knew nothing about his mission or the death of the Northwest flight attendant. It had made the papers in Flint, though it wasn't big news or anything, nothing like it had been and still was in Detroit. But even if it had been big news she probably wouldn't have paid attention. Anyway. She didn't read the papers and she didn't watch much TV news Because she had this coming weekend off. She had had to work the previous weekend, pulling the second shift at Flint Osteopathic Hospital and working late both Saturday the 16th and the Sunday, the 17th.
Speaker 1:It was the second of four trips the Gortons would take out of Metropolitan Airport. They had gone to Cancun in 1989 before they were married. Later they'd taken a trip to Disney World with their two young kids and in January of 2001, they would have a particularly odd start to their trip to Costa Rica. On the airport grounds just short of the terminal a merging truck from Alvin Motor Fried sandwiched into Gordon's. 1993 Pontiac Police arrived and took a report. Gordon's car had to be towed away but miraculously Brenda, his brother Greg and Greg's wife still made barely the flight. They got the car out of the impound lot when they got back bent a fender enough, so the car was operable and were able to drive it back to Flint. Hard to imagine a more memorable airport experience, or maybe not the flight for Vegas in 1991 at 9 20 am on Continental Airlines.
Speaker 1:As Brenda anxiously awaited takeoff, she went over the itinerary. It was going to be a crazy jam-packed four days. There were a lot of decisions to be made too. They were due to arrive in Vegas at 10.20 am and due to depart on February 24th at 6.30 pm, a flight that would get them into Metro at 1.25 am on the 25th and back at their house in Flint by about 4 or so. The Atina Robbie had been arranged by Nevada Host Inc. Thursday and Friday were your on-your-own days.
Speaker 1:She and Jeff neither of them were much for gambling days. She and Jeff neither of them were much for gambling could take their choice of a tour to the Hoover Dam, an in-city tour of museums, stars, homes, the chocolate factory in Glitter Gulch or a tour to Red Rock Canyon and Old Nevada. The literature said they could take their choice of big acts like Tom Jones, who was at Bailey's, julio Iglesias was at Caesar's Palace, frank Sinatra Jr was at the Four Queens Hotel, siegfried and Roy were at the Mirage, polanca was at the Riviera and Wayne Newton was at the Hilton. One thing good and bad about Jeff was that he was so laid back he would be happy to do anything, but she would have to decide. Saturday morning they had a breakfast with other Century Rain aid trip winners and Saturday afternoon there was a bowl-a-thon at Arizona's Charlie's. Sunday they would have to check out by 11.15, but they would have the afternoon free.
Speaker 1:Since Brenda wasn't much for gambling, something else she could read on the flight might come in handy. Century Rain 8 had provided some basic tips on gambling. They told her to always split a pair of aces or eights and if she was playing blackjack, and to never split a pair of fives or ten count cards. That was easy enough. The other stuff, forget it. Who could remember all that? With ace-seven, double down if the dealer shows three through six, draw it. If it's up card is nine or tens, then if it shows two, seven, eight or eight, malarkey. They were there to have fun, not study.
Speaker 1:The day after Jeff and Brenda's flight left for Vegas, sanandria was back at the airport. This time he was armed with two composite drawings to pass out, done by the state police sketch artist and based on RCS description. They show a profile of a studious-looking young man with tussle-shortish hair. One version had been wearing big round glasses, the other had been without. Just after the Gortons returned from Vegas, brenda got good news she was pregnant with her second child and had been since January.
Speaker 1:After the first week's flurry of 16 and 18-hour days of tracking down witnesses near and far of work in the area hotels, melianek and others started putting in more time on the tips that were pouring in. One early tip seemed to corroborate fears by the FBI that the killing might somehow be related to Desert Storm, a plot by terrorists to steal a flight attendant's uniform, passport and Northwest ID, using rape and murder as a cover-up. With as many as a quarter of a million Arab Americans in southeastern Michigan, certainly some of them had ties to Saddam's regime and were angry enough about the war to take desperate measures. The tipster said that the murder had in fact been part of a terrorist plot and a passport from a slight, dark-haired woman was needed to carry out the assassination of a top US government official. Snyder discounted the tip but passed it on to the FBI. The tipster somehow got Ludwig's home number and called him. Ludwig, against Snyder's wishes, agreed to fly to Detroit and meet the tipster at the Big Boy restaurant across I-94 from Metro Airport. The men show up as scheduled carrying 28 pages of papers crawled with anti-Arab rhetoric. Two of Snyder's undercover cops watch from a nearby table as the men rant and rave at Ludwig about the Arabs. Ludwig got the man's name and the police later ran it without result. He was ultimately dismissed as a bigot and a nut and his so-called terrorist scheme as merely a fantasy. Ludwig's meeting with him was reminiscent of a weird rendezvous Link Helton had later on in the case.
Speaker 1:Only on TV shows do crime scene investigators take an active part in investigations. The work is done, collecting samples at the scene and analyzing them back at the lab. But Helton, who had been quoted at length on the case in various media outlets, got a call from a woman who has feared, fearful a close relative of hers might have been involved at the Ludwig's killing he had recently died and she wanted to for her her own peace of mind, to find out one way or another if he had done it. Helton agreed to meet with the woman in the parking lot of the state police headquarters in East Lansing. Helton talked to her outside her car in view of the guard booth, took an article of clothing from her that for some reason or another had been substantially bloodied by the man in question. As the woman pulled out, hilton scribbled down the license plate number. Snyder ran it, but nothing suspicious turned in or turned up, I should say. Hilton tested the clothing and it came up clean. And Hilton said, quote we were like spies exchanging clandestine information. I couldn't believe what I was doing and I wasn't sure I was safe. It almost smacks of the ridiculous, but it shows there was no length. I wouldn't go to solve this case. End. Quote.
Speaker 1:State Police Detective Dan Bonnet called in a hot tip. He had been working a case of a wife who suspected her husband of trying to murder her. He was a lawyer in a posh Detroit suburb Twice. His wife had been hospitalized violently ill. Both times before she got sick her husband had brought dinner home from McDonald's. His wife brought the state police book she had found at home on how to make poison. They got a warrant and paid him a visit at his office. Growing on his windowsill at work they found castor beans which can be very deadly if prepared properly.
Speaker 1:Police took tissue samples from the attorney and vanned them through US military labs, but the enzymes they were looking for broke down quickly and the samples tested negative. While Bonner was convinced the attorney was guilty, there wasn't enough to charge him. Of interest, though, was something the attorney's secretary told him, that one day in February she recalled about the time of the Ludwig murder. The attorney had come to work all scratched up and bruised. When she asked him what happened, he said he fell on his bike. February in Michigan being an unlikely time to ride a bike in Michigan being an unlikely time to ride a bike, bonnet called it in. The attorney was clear of Ludwig's murder. We'll be right back.
