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Company and affiliates Northbrook, Illinois. The

1:02

Gone Cold podcast may contain violent

1:04

or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion

1:06

is advised. Nearly

1:10

a year after the brutal killing

1:12

of Bridget Lynn Gearon, investigators for

1:14

the Galveston County Sheriff's Office remained

1:16

frustrated at the lack of solid

1:19

leads. Within a

1:21

couple weeks of the 28-year-old legal

1:23

secretary's body being found at the

1:25

water's edge of Crystal Beach, Texas,

1:28

around only 100 yards

1:30

from where she was last

1:32

seen alive, the department announced

1:34

a huge development. Someone

1:37

had come forward with

1:39

information. The night of the

1:41

terrible crime, at around midnight on

1:43

July 15, 2007,

1:45

a group of witnesses sitting

1:48

waterside at a small bonfire noticed

1:50

a woman walking close by. A

1:53

small or medium-sized dark-colored SUV

1:55

pulled up next to her,

1:57

blocking the witness's view. Between

2:01

the sand and the vehicle's undercarriage,

2:03

they could see feet and legs,

2:05

and whatever was happening appeared to

2:07

be some sort of confrontation. The

2:10

woman walked away, moving toward the beach,

2:12

and when she got about fifty feet

2:15

from it, the SUV again pulled up

2:17

beside her. Witnesses

2:20

heard a woman's scream, and

2:22

again saw something happening behind

2:25

the dark-colored vehicle. Like before,

2:27

they could make out legs and shadows

2:29

moving around on the other side, but

2:31

that's it. The

2:33

SUV sped off, and the woman was

2:35

gone. Later,

2:37

these witnesses saw the same vehicle

2:40

speeding back past them from the

2:42

direction in which it had originally

2:44

driven off. Before

2:46

news came out about Bridget Geren's

2:49

violent sexual assault and murder, the

2:51

witnesses didn't think what they saw

2:53

was anything more than some sort

2:55

of domestic squabble, perhaps an

2:57

alcohol-fueled fight that had gotten out of

3:00

hand. After all,

3:02

they couldn't see if the woman ended

3:04

up getting into the dark-colored SUV of

3:06

her own free will, or if she

3:08

was forced. It

3:10

was obvious to Sheriff's Lieutenant

3:12

Tommy Hanson that the woman,

3:14

Bridget, was abducted. Either

3:17

way, she was found on the beach

3:19

the next morning, dead. The

3:22

savage and egregious violence used in

3:24

the perpetration of the act had

3:26

many of the department's most experienced

3:28

investigators waking up in the middle

3:30

of the night in a cold

3:33

sweat. But a

3:35

year later, after countless sleepless nights,

3:37

the case's lead investigator was still

3:40

struggling to find the missing pieces.

3:43

Bridget's case haunted Lieutenant

3:45

Hanson. The

3:47

thirty-year Sheriff's Office veteran called the

3:50

murder the most brutal and horrific

3:52

he'd ever worked, and he

3:54

was keeping it extremely active. Hanson

3:57

was ready to put an end to the case,

3:59

he said. Just

4:01

as a solid lead looked like

4:04

it was in the cards, however,

4:06

Mother Nature dealt a devastating and

4:08

merciless hand. In

4:19

the year following the murder

4:21

of 28-year-old Bridget Geren, Galveston

4:24

and Southeast Texas newspapers reflected

4:26

the investigation's slow movement as

4:28

far as breakthroughs by the

4:30

lack of coverage. Bridget's

4:33

name was seldom found outside

4:35

of reward advertisements, letters to

4:37

the Galveston Daily News Editor

4:40

about installing surveillance cameras on

4:42

the beaches and articles detailing

4:44

the many teenage girls and

4:46

women who were missing or

4:48

murdered in the area over

4:50

several decades. The

4:52

Interstate 45 murders, also

4:54

known as the Texas Killing Fields,

4:58

Galveston County investigators did not

5:00

believe Bridget's case was connected

5:02

to that series of crimes,

5:04

most of which are likely

5:06

not connected to one another

5:08

themselves. As

5:10

he managed other homicides, namely

5:12

the discovery of the badly

5:14

decomposed body of a child

5:16

authorities named Baby Grace in

5:18

a storage bin in Galveston

5:21

Bay, Lieutenant Tommy Hanson's attention

5:23

was diverted from Bridget's case,

5:26

though never taken away. Baby

5:29

Grace was identified within two weeks

5:31

as two-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, who

5:33

had been beaten to death by

5:35

her mother and stepfather months earlier.

5:39

They were fortunately brought to justice

5:41

almost as soon as little Riley

5:43

Ann was identified. In

5:46

Bridget Gearing's case, the investigation

5:48

of the dark-colored SUV and

5:50

what witnesses had seen transpire

5:52

had allowed the cops to

5:54

eliminate many folks as suspects.

5:58

It also led to persons of interest. interest, most

6:00

who were cleared of involvement in no

6:02

time by way of alibi. Some

6:05

of them had been identified as

6:08

the result of tips, Bridget's violent

6:10

sexual assault and brutal death. They'd

6:13

identified a couple hundred of these persons

6:15

of interest at the one-year mark, so

6:17

there was still plenty of work to

6:19

be done. Pictures

6:22

and videos taken the weekend of

6:24

the murder and shared with the

6:26

department by beach-goers hadn't helped the

6:29

investigation. At least not much.

6:32

They continued to ask the public for

6:34

more. The fact

6:36

that the witnesses were potentially vacationers

6:38

made the task difficult and daunting.

6:42

The investigation, logistically speaking,

6:44

had been a nightmare.

6:47

But as they whittled down

6:49

the significant list of potential

6:51

suspects, devastation struck and

6:54

the investigation hit even more

6:56

roadblocks. On

6:59

Wednesday, September 10, 2008,

7:02

mandatory evacuation orders were given

7:04

for several counties in southeast

7:06

Texas along and around the

7:08

coastline, including Galveston,

7:11

Jefferson, Orange, and Chambers

7:13

counties. Hurricane

7:15

Ike was to make landfall

7:18

soon. Those

7:20

who stayed behind in particular

7:22

parts of southeast Texas and

7:25

southwest Louisiana, the National Weather

7:27

Service advised, faced certain death.

7:31

But as more than a million folks

7:33

left the area ahead of the torrential

7:35

storm, more than 140,000 remained. As

7:41

the 425-mile diameter Ike approached the

7:44

shores of Texas, it had been

7:46

strengthened by the warm waters of

7:48

the Gulf of Mexico, and

7:51

as its eye made landfall in the

7:53

early morning hours of September 13, 2008,

7:55

the Category 2 hurricane's 110-mile-per-hour hour

8:00

winds shredded whatever stood in

8:02

its path. Homes

8:05

and businesses were leveled in

8:07

the coastline counties and beyond.

8:10

The Boulevard Peninsula was submerged

8:12

by the tides Hurricane Ike

8:14

brought. Crystal Beach

8:17

was decimated. The

8:19

Galveston County Sheriff's decision not to

8:21

evacuate the jails 1000 inmates

8:24

and 300 guards resulted in

8:27

long controversy. A majority

8:30

of those inmates had yet to

8:32

be convicted of any crime and

8:34

those who had for the most

8:37

part had only committed minor offenses

8:39

making the decision even more steeped

8:41

in outrage. Unfortunately

8:44

no one at the jail was

8:46

killed during the storm. 74 Texans,

8:48

however, weren't so

8:51

lucky. When everything

8:53

settled the toll on human

8:56

life within Texas and beyond

8:58

was disastrous. Although

9:00

around 300 people were reported

9:02

missing by major media outlets

9:04

the Government Accountability Project suggested

9:06

the number was closer to

9:08

683. Some were never recovered

9:13

although exactly how many is

9:15

a difficult number to identify.

9:19

Ecosystems in Texas also

9:21

saw near irreparable damage

9:24

including oyster reefs at sea

9:26

and salt marshes landward. The

9:30

priceless ecosystem and human loss along

9:32

with the estimated 29 billion

9:34

dollars in property damage were not

9:37

the only costs of Hurricane Ike

9:39

for Texas. It

9:41

also took a huge toll on

9:43

the investigation of the murder of

9:45

Bridget Geren. Since

9:49

there was overwhelming rebuilding to

9:51

be done along Texas' coast

9:53

in the wake of one

9:55

of the state's costliest and

9:57

deadliest storms on record several

10:00

other effects remained unreported.

10:03

Though it isn't clear if he

10:05

knew the totality of what was

10:08

lost in Hurricane Ike, Galveston County

10:10

Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Tommy Hanson would

10:12

later comment that potential evidence in

10:14

Bridget Giren's case might have washed

10:17

away, forever lost to

10:19

the elements. Since

10:21

the department was playing their cards

10:24

close to the chest, it's impossible

10:26

at this time to know if

10:28

the investigator was speaking of something

10:30

specific, or if he meant evidence

10:32

they didn't yet have. Nearly

10:35

the entirety of Crystal Beach

10:38

was completely destroyed, so

10:40

it's certainly possible the undiscovered

10:42

clues had been as well.

10:45

It was as if Mother Nature had

10:47

been working against the investigation from the

10:50

get-go. On the morning

10:52

Bridget's body was found, a heavy rainstorm

10:54

that came through likely also

10:56

washed evidence away. But

11:00

because of the evacuation of a majority

11:02

of the area residents, because many folks

11:04

had no home to come back to,

11:07

Lieutenant Hanson's main concern was

11:09

this, the scattering

11:12

of witnesses and potential suspects

11:14

across Texas and even the

11:16

United States. Regardless,

11:19

after two years had passed

11:21

since the murder of Bridget

11:23

Giren, Hanson announced a big

11:25

lead. The

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Galveston County Sheriff's Office contradicted

13:20

what Major Ray Tuttle-Amando had

13:22

been recently sang. According

13:26

to the lead investigator, a line

13:28

of inquiry they'd been quietly working

13:30

for eight months had led them

13:32

to at least two suspects. Later

13:35

the Lieutenant would refer to the

13:38

group of suspects as several. All

13:40

men, he said. Hanson

13:43

said they may have been at the right

13:45

place at the right time to make a

13:48

connection to Bridget's murder. He

13:50

hadn't interviewed them yet, but Lieutenant

13:52

Hanson did say investigators had been

13:55

out of state talking to sources

13:57

and holding interviews. Evidence

14:00

was gathered and sent to the

14:02

Texas Department of Public Safety Crime

14:04

Lab not long after the crime

14:06

took place, but two years

14:08

in there were no results. Exactly

14:11

what evidence was never expounded upon,

14:14

but Hanson remained hopeful it would

14:16

give them answers and said it

14:18

could possibly break the case wide

14:20

open. Again

14:22

suggesting there were more than two they

14:24

believed were involved, the lawman said all

14:26

but one of the suspects were from

14:28

out of state. They

14:31

didn't know Bridget and they all took

14:33

part in the horrific crime in some

14:35

way, he suggested. The

14:38

out of stators possibly hooked up

14:40

with a person from the Crystal

14:42

Beach area, a person who had

14:44

left town during Hurricane Ike, but

14:47

who they also had kept tabs

14:49

on in his new living place.

14:52

Eventually it became clear that

14:54

the Galveston County Sheriff's Office

14:56

was looking for four men

14:58

total, perhaps giving insight into

15:00

how and why Bridget's rape

15:03

and murder had been so

15:05

violent and brutal. Lieutenant

15:08

Tommy Hanson refused to retire until

15:10

the men who killed her were

15:12

brought to justice and he

15:14

felt good about the current lead he

15:16

and his investigators were pursuing. It

15:19

was the strongest yet. Still

15:22

did Hanson know he'd be following

15:24

that lead for the next fifteen years.

15:27

The news of this big lead fizzled

15:29

out. Lieutenant

15:33

Hanson did retire in 2010, though

15:35

he stayed on at the Sheriff's

15:37

Office to investigate cold cases, including

15:40

Bridget Gerens, but also several others,

15:43

most of which he'd have a

15:45

heavy hand in eventually solving. After

15:49

three long years had passed

15:51

since Bridget's murder, Texas State

15:53

Representative Craig Eland of Galveston

15:55

contacted the Department of Public

15:57

Safety in August of 2015.

16:00

at the request of the Guerin family.

16:04

Earlier that year, Galveston County sent

16:06

more evidence from the Bridget Guerin

16:09

case to add to evidence they'd

16:11

sent the year before and also

16:13

evidence they had submitted three years

16:16

before. Lieutenant

16:18

Hanson needed that evidence to go through

16:20

before he could proceed. News

16:23

reports faded into obscurity and whether

16:25

or not the evidence led to

16:28

anything substantive or if it

16:30

was ever even tested at all is

16:32

something of a mystery. It

16:35

would be three more years still until

16:37

an update in the case came. In

16:40

July of 2013, Lieutenant

16:43

Tommy Hanson announced that the

16:45

suspect in Bridget Guerin's case,

16:47

the one from the area,

16:49

had been arrested on unrelated

16:51

charges. For years,

16:54

investigators had been keeping tabs

16:56

on the dark-colored SUV they

16:58

believed was used in the

17:00

28-year-old mother's abduction. The

17:03

four men involved had also

17:05

been watched closely, Lieutenant Hanson

17:07

added, and now there were

17:09

only three to surveil. All

17:12

four men were in their twenties at the

17:14

time. The Galveston

17:16

County Sheriff's Office was coming for

17:18

them, the Lieutenant told a Houston

17:21

Chronicle reporter, and they knew it.

17:24

It was only a matter of time. The

17:26

suspect being held in connection with

17:29

another case wasn't going anywhere anytime

17:31

soon. Bridget's

17:33

family was relieved at least one

17:35

of the men was behind bars

17:37

where investigators could visit anytime they

17:40

wanted and most of all

17:42

where he couldn't hurt anyone else. The

17:45

father, Bridget's child, Brandon, told a

17:48

Channel 12 news reporter they needed

17:50

to be punished to the fullest

17:52

extent of the law. They'd

17:55

been raising their daughter Kyra, and

17:57

though she often expressed her sadness

17:59

madness over her mother's death,

18:01

Brandon said Kyra was doing good.

18:04

But it didn't

18:06

change the fact that their lives

18:08

had been forever altered by this

18:10

heinous, unforgivable act. He'd

18:12

feel much better, Brandon said, when

18:15

the trial was over. Another

18:18

year passed. In

18:21

April of 2014, Lieutenant Hanson once

18:23

again said they were very close

18:25

to bringing charges against all four

18:27

of the men. The

18:29

lawman had been building the case

18:32

carefully and meticulously, he said, and

18:34

had gotten several breaks over the

18:36

last year in the form of

18:38

interviews and other unnamed evidence. The

18:41

lieutenant was almost ready to bring it

18:43

to the Galveston County District Attorney's Office.

18:47

By 2015, the frustration expressed

18:49

by Bridget Giren's loved ones

18:51

in news reports was palpable.

18:55

Somebody needs to pay for this, her mother

18:57

Pamela said. Somebody is getting

18:59

away with murder. And

19:02

that somebody would for another three

19:04

years. In

19:07

2018, 11 years after

19:09

Bridget Giren's murder, Lieutenant Tommy Hanson

19:11

was still on the case, still

19:14

refusing to fully retire until the

19:16

killers were brought to justice. He'd

19:19

written thousands of pages of reports,

19:22

he said, developed hundreds of leads

19:24

and traveled across the

19:26

country. The amount

19:28

of work that's gone into the

19:31

investigation was beyond anything he'd ever

19:33

conceived or worked, the lieutenant added.

19:36

In May of 2018, Hanson explained

19:39

to a reporter that he'd recently

19:41

turned over new evidence to the

19:43

Galveston County District Attorney. It

19:46

was the best shot, the lawman

19:48

commented, at making an arrest. On

19:52

the 11th anniversary in July, Lieutenant

19:54

Hanson told the Port Arthur News

19:56

that of his four suspects, one was

19:58

still in the case. still in

20:00

prison, one had since died,

20:02

and as far as the other

20:04

two, there were new developments pending

20:06

at the time. They were

20:09

still working on it. Hanson

20:11

scattered hints about those new developments

20:14

in his comments to the reporter.

20:16

In a cold case, unless the

20:19

key witness dies, he remarked, time

20:21

is on the investigator's side. They

20:24

soften as they get older and

20:27

have children, and then grandkids, Hanson

20:29

suggested. He'd been

20:31

told to go to hell while

20:34

questioning someone in the past, only

20:36

to have a productive conversation with

20:38

that person later on. Even

20:41

as Lieutenant Hanson's determination and

20:44

positivity hadn't wavered, Bridget Garen's

20:46

mother, Pamela, said she'd lost

20:49

hope. Having

20:51

been strung along for several years,

20:53

Pamela had little faith the Galveston

20:55

County Sheriff's Office would ever make

20:57

an arrest in her daughter's case.

21:00

She hadn't spoken much to the

21:02

media since Bridget's death. Understandably,

21:05

the pain was simply too

21:07

acute. But

21:09

she was beginning to come around, and

21:12

the story she told a reporter, somehow

21:14

still obscure and rarely

21:16

referenced since, was shocking.

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22:54

to know well. And she'd

22:56

been told many times in the 11

22:58

years since her daughter's torturous and cold-blooded

23:01

murder. The story

23:03

goes something like this. A

23:06

woman was among a group of people partying

23:08

around a bonfire on the beach the night

23:10

of Saturday, July 14th, 2007 and into the

23:13

15th. There

23:17

were quite a few people there,

23:19

a subjective or perhaps relative statement

23:22

that unfortunately doesn't provide much context

23:24

in this case. Suddenly

23:27

the woman heard screaming. She

23:29

turned her head toward the commotion and saw

23:31

a dark colored SUV. The

23:34

woman's boyfriend, according to this

23:36

story, was driving. But

23:38

he wasn't the only person involved. She

23:41

saw two other men who she

23:44

also recognized and knew. The

23:47

woman apparently knew them all, or

23:50

at least three out of the

23:52

four individuals the cops believe were

23:54

responsible for sexually assaulting and killing

23:57

Bridget. The vehicle

23:59

sped off. and after it did,

24:01

this woman walked over to where it had

24:03

been. She saw Bridget's

24:05

body, bloodied and beaten.

24:09

After realizing the men who killed

24:11

Bridget Geren knew she had seen

24:13

them, this woman said she quickly

24:16

left the state. Which

24:18

was related in the article

24:20

in a confusing way, left

24:22

more questions than potential answers.

24:25

Since Bridget's body was found about a

24:28

hundred yards from where she was last

24:30

seen alive, it's important to keep in

24:32

mind that this bonfire would have to

24:34

be a different one than the bonfire

24:37

near the witnesses who had seen the

24:39

apparent abduction. Unless investigators

24:42

had been purposefully disseminating false

24:44

information for more than a

24:46

decade. Perhaps it's

24:49

a true account, or perhaps

24:51

it's an amalgamation of the

24:53

story the abduction witnesses told

24:55

and something else entirely. Later

24:58

the article says the woman

25:00

was arrested on unrelated charges

25:02

and later still after kicking

25:04

a drug habit, she changed

25:06

her story. Whether

25:09

that means she recanted seeing

25:11

anything altogether, we don't know.

25:16

Five years after Lieutenant Tommy

25:18

Hanson submitted new evidence to

25:20

the district attorney and 16

25:22

years after Bridget Geren's murder, the

25:24

lawman described the case as an

25:26

old case, not a cold case.

25:30

In a May 2023 KFDM

25:32

TV report, after serving nearly

25:34

50 years with the Galveston

25:37

County Sheriff's Office and after

25:39

being semi-retired for 13, Hanson

25:41

still refused to give up

25:43

on bringing Bridget's killers to

25:45

justice. He'd successfully

25:47

brought a number of the

25:50

other cases that haunted him

25:52

to a close. In 1991

25:54

a man named Luis Mejano

25:57

Calderon slashed Diane Sanchez's throat.

25:59

route, and left her for dead

26:01

among the tall weeds along Interstate 45. He'd

26:04

been on the run

26:06

ever since. Lieutenant

26:09

Hanson tracked Calderon to El

26:11

Salvador, where he had long

26:13

established roots and a family.

26:16

The 56-year-old man was extradited

26:18

back to Galveston County and

26:21

charged after nearly thirty years.

26:24

In 2012, after exhuming

26:26

the body of Ellen Ray Beeson

26:28

for the second time, Lieutenant Tommy

26:31

Hanson and FBI Special Agent Richard

26:33

Rennison were able to get her

26:35

cause of death changed to homicide.

26:39

The following year, they arrested

26:41

Clyde Edwin Hedrick, a now

26:43

infamous killer connected to the

26:45

Texas Killing Fields. He

26:48

was eventually convicted of manslaughter in Ellen

26:50

Beeson's case because in 1984 it was

26:53

investigated as an accident and

26:55

not a murder, and evidence

26:57

to prove such was insufficient.

27:01

For all of Lieutenant Hanson's

27:03

successes, resolution to Bridget Garen's

27:05

case continued to elude him.

27:08

He called Galveston County

27:10

Houston's Playground, a

27:12

place where folks from out of

27:14

town are always around, whether they're

27:16

in the area for temporary oil

27:18

work or as a tourist. They

27:22

come here doing whatever it is

27:24

they do, Hanson said, then

27:26

they leave. It's the

27:28

reason Bridget's case had been so tough

27:30

to crack, second only to

27:33

the elements washing away evidence. In

27:37

2023, Bridget's Aunt Lisa told a

27:39

reporter that she worried about her

27:42

killer or killers being left out

27:44

on the streets, free to harm

27:46

or murder other women. After

27:49

all, it had been more than one and

27:51

a half decades. Her

27:53

Loving, quirky, and beautiful niece, Lisa

27:55

Said, would likely have her own

27:57

law firm now, sixteen years later.

28:00

Later at she lived. Lieutenant.

28:03

Hansen had what he called a

28:05

dynamic development. Did it come about

28:08

in the prior eight months? He

28:10

said. But. The ebbs and

28:12

flows in hope the family

28:14

had experienced over the years

28:16

were exhausting. It. Was

28:18

hard for them to believe anything was

28:20

gonna happen. Another

28:23

year past. Then.

28:25

At the beginning of April, Twenty

28:27

Twenty Four another new story appeared

28:29

out of nowhere, announcing again that

28:32

new evidence would lead to an

28:34

arrest. Merge loved ones

28:36

were not holding their breath. Brandon.

28:40

The father of Bridge it's child,

28:42

Kira, said he was tired of

28:44

hearing and arrest was imminent only

28:46

for another year to go by

28:48

with nothing happening at all. It

28:51

had been going on every year since

28:53

two thousand and thirteen. In.

28:56

Two thousand and Eleven. When Kira was

28:58

only six years old, she said she

29:00

missed her mother very much and ask

29:02

for someone who knew something to tell

29:04

police so the bad guys could be

29:07

punished. She. Missed her mom

29:09

as love Kira added. Bridget's.

29:12

Mother Pamela, who mostly kept to

29:14

her house after her daughter's brutal

29:16

murder, wants to know why her

29:19

baby's life had to be taken.

29:22

Though. Their hopes have been continually

29:24

dashed. It's likely that some

29:27

remains very deep beneath the

29:29

grease. It's.

29:31

Publicly unknown what evidence to Galveston

29:33

County Sheriff's Office has collected over

29:36

the years, but each time something

29:38

new was uncovered which has happened

29:40

repeatedly for more than a decade

29:43

now. He was reported as evidence

29:45

that was supposed to break the

29:47

case. But it hasn't yet.

29:51

if you have any information about

29:53

the two thousand and seven murder

29:55

of bridget lin gear and please

29:57

contact the galveston county sheriff's office

30:00

at 409-766-2300 or 866-248-8477. If

30:10

you like Gone Cold's mission

30:12

to renew the public's interest

30:15

in cold cases, you can

30:17

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30:19

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30:21

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30:41

You can find Gone Cold

30:43

online at gonecold.com or

30:46

on nearly all the social media

30:48

platforms by searching at Gone Cold

30:50

Podcast. You can also

30:52

find a link and bio in the

30:54

episode's description. Thanks

30:56

for listening y'all. I'm

31:21

Dino Colombo.