The Story Behind DC’s “Freeway Phantom” Serial Killer

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The Story Behind DC’s “Freeway Phantom” Serial Killer
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DC’s unsolved “Freeway Phantom” murders of 1971 and 1972 are the subject of a new podcast. The first two episodes dropped last week. Here’s an inside look:

In 1971 and 1972, Southeast DC was terrorized by a string of brutal murders. Six Black girls, ages 10 to 18, were kidnapped, killed, and left on the side of I-295, the Anacostia Freeway. They soon became known as the “Freeway Phantom” murders. The emotional toll on victims’ families was devastating enough.

Anytime you cover this kind of violence, especially with children, that’s always tough. And my hat’s off to the people who do this all the time, because it’s necessary work. But it’s tough. And it’s heartbreaking. Then take it a step further and start doing research into the psychology of a serial killer, and that takes you down an even darker place.

Can you speak to the collective memory of those neighborhoods regarding the Freeway Phantom? Did people’s faces change when you mentioned it to them? The lack of trust between these neighborhoods and law enforcement has to have hindered the investigation. We spoke with an officer with the Metropolitan Police who’s in charge of the unit that looks for missing children, and he was saying how important it is to get tips from the community. And if you’re not getting those, how are you gonna find anything? We know people saw something, one of those girls was snatched right out in front of a grocery store.

The first two episodes cover some blatant malfeasance by the MPD. As the series continues what can listeners expect? Will it get worse? Is there any silver lining to this?

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