Show Notes
A killer who confessed to eleven murders. A sixteen-year-old runaway with a modelling dream. And a sister who never stopped fighting to bring her home.
Tammy Jo Alexander left Florida looking for a brighter life. She was found shot dead in a cornfield 1,200 miles away — stripped of everything that could identify her, buried under a headstone that read only Jane Doe. Her serial killer counted on her staying that way. He didn't count on Pamela.
This episode begins with a bombshell confession buried for forty years: a death-row prisoner who claims Christopher Wilder admitted to killing eleven women — before his rampage across America had even begun. Following that thread, Catching Evil has uncovered links between Wilder and Tammy Jo that lay hidden for four decades: a red racing jacket, a man in a roadside diner, a car for sale in the classifieds, and a sixteen-year-old's dream of being a model — the exact bait he used again and again.
And at the heart of it, a sister. Pamela gave her DNA, gave Tammy Jo her name back, and is still asking the only question that matters: who did this to her little sister — and why?
This is the episode that hits closest to home.
We need your help with this investigation. Email us if you knew Shari Lynne or had an encounter with Christopher Wilder yourself. Or you have information about him or any of his crimes: [email protected]
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Credits:
Hosts Andy Byrne Mark Llewellyn
Audio Production Sam Blacker - The Podcast Butler
Resources The Pretty Girl Killer by Andrew Byrne - courtesy of Penguin Random House
Thanks to Pro Podcast Studios, Sydney Get in Touch If you knew Wilder or one of his victims, contact us in confidence: [email protected]
Record a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/catchingevil
Join us and support these not-for-profits: US Survivors of Homicide Inc - https://www.survivorsofhomicide.com/ Yesterday Today Tomorrow Women Inc - https://www.yttwomen.org/ Aus Mary’s House 1800 002 111 https://www.maryshouse.org.au/about/
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More from Catching Evil
No one should be in a grave without a name. This is the finale — and it is full of breaking news. A listener tip connects Wilder to the Tyre Murders: dozens of young women lured from car parks across five states, years before anyone was counting. We name five new victims. We reveal the pattern hidden in 3,500 classified ads — every gap, a girl. And Ellery Jane Doe, murdered and nameless for decades, may be about to get her name back. The official count said nine. The evidence now says Bundy territory — and beyond. We end the only way we could: with every victim, name by name. Every one of them was a person. Every one of them was loved. Follow the show — because this isn't over. It's unfinished business.
Mindy was four when her mother was taken. She still can't remember her voice. This is the episode we promised at the beginning: every one of Christopher Wilder's victims, finally heard. A reckoning. New evidence. New witnesses. Cold cases live again, police forces are now working leads we uncovered.
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A serial killer who confessed to 11 murders. A body that lay nameless in a swamp for 30 years. And a chilling new discovery.
Before she died, she scribbled a note. Her killer stripped away everything that could identify her — but missed that scrap of paper in her pocket.