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A&E show spotlights murderer of five Cape women in the ‘70s, ‘80s
Don Call remembers Jan. 27, 1982, with utter clarity — recalling the moment when he heard his mother, 57-year-old Margie Call, had been found dead, a strangulation victim, in her home in the 1800 block of Brink Avenue in Cape Girardeau. She was discovered bound and gagged and also raped.
“It was the last thing you would think could happen to Mom or in Cape Girardeau. Things like that just didn’t happen,” Don Call told the producers of the A&E television program “Cold Case Files,” in a Sept. 17 (Season 2, Episode 5) show titled “The Heartland Killer,” that remains available for viewing on the Hulu streaming service.
“My mom never said a bad word about anybody, and no one ever said a bad word about her,” he added, noting his mother had worked 42 years for Woolworth’s as a bookkeeper.
Timothy Krajcir, now 76, was sentenced in April 2008 to 13 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for killing a total of nine women in four states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
The majority of Krajcir’s homicides occurred in Cape Girardeau. In addition to Call, Krajcir ultimately confessed to killing four other Cape Girardeau women between 1977 and 1982.
* Aug. 15, 1977: Mary Parsh, 58, and her daughter, Brenda Parsh, 27, of the 600 block of Koch Avenue. Both had been shot to death, had been sexually assaulted and discovered with their hands tied behind their backs.
* Nov. 17, 1977: Sheila Cole, 21, was found shot to death at a rest stop along Illinois Highway 3. A college student, Cole was abducted from a Walmart parking lot in Cape Girardeau, driven to Carbondale, Illinois, where she was sexually assaulted. Later, Krajcir drove the victim to McClure, Illinois, where Cole was found shot in the head in a ladies room.
* June 21, 1982: Mildred Wallace, 65, was found in her residence in the 1200 block of William Street. Wallace was shot to death and had been bound, blindfolded and sexually assaulted.
The cases went unsolved for more than two decades and the trail had gone quite cold.
“You kind of resign yourself to the idea that this (murder) is going to go unsolved unless some miracle happens,” Sharon Call, Margie Call’s daughter-in-law, told A&E.
The multiple homicide shook Missouri’s 16th largest city, recalled former Cape Girardeau police detective Jimmy Smith.
“Gun sales went up and people were extremely scared. Everybody was pretty much on edge regardless of what part of the City of Cape Girardeau they lived,” Smith told the cable network.
Forensic evidence key
“At the time of Margie and Mildred’s murders, DNA technology was still years away. The lab could only determine if the blood found at a crime scene was human and the blood type,” the program host said.
Movement in the collective Cape Girardeau cases began in mid-summer 2007 from 50 miles away in Carbondale.
Former Carbondale police Lt. Paul Echols had dropped off several crime scene items from the April 8, 1982, unsolved murder of 23-year-old Southern Illinois University student Deborah Sheppard at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab.
A tiny speck of semen was recovered from a purple shirt found on Sheppard’s bedroom floor, which Echols said revealed nine of the genetic codes needed to enter it properly into the DNA database.
“I had my fingers crossed and said a little prayer that we would finally learn who killed Sheppard,” he said.
The database came back with a positive match with Krajcir, a convicted rapist, who by then was in the Big Muddy Correctional Center, near Carbondale, for other crimes.
Conversations with Krajcir’s cellmate revealed the suspect was likely in Cape Girardeau during the 1977 to 1982 time frame.
“(Smith) told me they had DNA from the Margie Call and Mildred Wallace cases and a partial palm print from the window of Wallace’s home,” Echols said.
After the evidence was placed into the database, the DNA found at the Wallace residence matched Krajcir.
“When I got the news, the hair stood up on back of my neck and brought tears to my eyes,” Smith told the “Cold Case Files” producers.
Resolution
Confronted with the forensic tie to the Cape Girardeau murder of Wallace, Krajcir asked to speak to Echols and Smith — aware that while Illinois did not have capital punishment, Missouri did.
“We contacted family members (of the deceased) and informed them Krajcir was probably willing to confess if we would forgo the death penalty,” Smith said.
The families of the Cape Girardeau murder victims agreed if Krajcir would confess and give full disclosure.
“It was because of the DNA match in the Sheppard case that we were able to solve all these murders,” said Echols, who added Krajcir did not express remorse for the killings.
Krajcir remains incarcerated in the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Illinois and will never be eligible for parole.
Don Call, a 1966 Cape Girardeau Central graduate and former member of the school board at his alma mater, told A&E he remembers the day his mother’s case was solved.
“I was walking out of my golf club in Springfield, Missouri. My cellphone rang, and it was Jimmy Smith, who said, ‘We got him.’”
Don and Sharon Call returned to Cape Girardeau in 2009. Call’s younger brother, Gary, died in 2006 before knowing his mother’s murder had been solved.