Tina Milford (9 of Hearts, South Carolina)

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Speaker 1 Our card this week is Tina Milford, the nine of hearts from South Carolina.

Speaker 1 The stories we cover on this show have made me more aware than ever how even the smallest of choices and chance encounters can change the course of a person's life.

Speaker 1 A last-minute decision or even a shift in schedule can have a positive impact or result in dire consequences.

Speaker 1 And in the Wee Morning Hours on June 24th, 1983, something out of Tina Milford's control placed the young mother on the same path as a predator.

Speaker 1 I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck.

Speaker 1 It was close to 3 a.m. when Levis Smith Jr.
pulled into the parking lot of Lil Cricket Convenience Store for a cup of Joe.

Speaker 1 The store sat right by the on-ramp of I-85 North in Anderson, South Carolina, but it wasn't too busy at this hour.

Speaker 1 In fact, his was the only other car in the parking lot aside from the one lone station wagon, probably belonging to the overnight employee.

Speaker 1 Except when he stepped inside, no one was up front ready to serve him some much needed caffeine.

Speaker 1 Now he probably figured the soul attendant had just gone to the back or something, so I imagine he called out listening for someone in the shadows of the storage room.

Speaker 1 Maybe a shout in return, the shuffle of feet. But there was still nothing, just eerie silence.
His spidey senses began to tingle, or should I say his deputy senses?

Speaker 1 Because though he was retired now, Levis used to be a sheriff's deputy. So he scanned the store, lights on, door unlocked, register secured, no signs of a struggle.

Speaker 1 But still, the unnerving silence swayed Levis to pick up the phone and call police anyway. Better safe than sorry.

Speaker 1 Deputies with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office arrived on scene within a few minutes and searched the store and surrounding area for any sign that something was actually wrong here.

Speaker 1 They too quickly came to the same conclusion as the retired retired deputy.

Speaker 1 There definitely was no cashier left in the building, but it was clear she must have been working earlier that evening because at the store they found a pair of women's shoes, socks, a flannel shirt, and a pocketbook.

Speaker 1 It seemed most likely that robbery would have been their first thought if what they were dealing with was some kind of foul play, but that was soon set aside.

Speaker 1 The cash register was locked, the top door of the safe was unlocked but closed, and even then it still contained over $2,000. Plus that pocketbook that they'd found still had cash inside.

Speaker 1 But where was the cashier? Officers were able to get in touch with a woman named Tammy, who was the second shift clerk at that store to see if she could clue them in on what was going on here.

Speaker 1 Now we couldn't find anything specifically noted in the case files about whether or not investigators found an ID inside that purse or if Tammy was the one who told them who had been working at the store overnight.

Speaker 1 But either way, by this point, it was clear, their missing cashier was Tina Milford. Here's Anderson County Sergeant Kendall Cash reading from Tammy's statement.

Speaker 4 It says she stayed with Tina until approximately 1.10 a.m. and that no one was in the store when she left.
However, she had left enough money in the register to open up on.

Speaker 1 Tammy physically came to the store to help confirm that nothing appeared stolen or amiss, besides her missing coworker, of course.

Speaker 1 Now, Tammy was somehow able to pinpoint that she thought there was approximately $78.82 missing from the cash register.

Speaker 1 They didn't know what that meant, but it sure didn't seem like enough money to be a motive here.

Speaker 1 As deputies had been looking in and around the store, they noticed two things outside. A broom in front of the building and a man sleeping nearby.

Speaker 1 They came to learn that man's name was Benjamin, and he was able to provide them with a little more information about the time leading up to Levis's arrival.

Speaker 1 We couldn't find any mention in the investigative reports that Benjamin had seen Tina outside using the broom, but admittedly, and as witnessed by deputies, he'd been sleeping.

Speaker 1 So she very well could have been outside at some point. But he did say that he saw her inside at around 1:30 in the morning when he'd gone in to buy a drink.

Speaker 1 When he left, he said he noticed two white men still inside the store chatting with her. And before you ask, two white men is as detailed as the report gets on their description.

Speaker 1 At that point, officers contacted Tina's parents, Janie and Leon Hunter, to let them know that their adult daughter wasn't at work as she should have been.

Speaker 1 I think they were hoping maybe her mom and dad could offer some kind of insight. Like, was it possible she could have just taken off? But they didn't have a good answer for detectives.

Speaker 1 They just knew that there was no way that she would have just abandoned post. I mean, forget the fact that her car, purse, and her shoes were right there.
And the shoe thing wasn't odd.

Speaker 1 She was known to work barefoot. But if she had left on her own, she surely would have put her shoes back on.

Speaker 1 Anyways, they knew how responsible their daughter was. They knew she couldn't afford to lose that job.

Speaker 1 And Jamie had just been talking to Tina a few hours before and she hadn't indicated anything about leaving.

Speaker 1 She told police that while they were on the phone, they'd just been casually chatting, probably just checking in with one another until sometime around 1.30 in the morning when Tina had to cut the call short because a customer walked up.

Speaker 1 It seems like that was all detectives needed to hear. They were now working under the assumption that Tina had been kidnapped.
So Ebola was put out for a 23-year-old white female with long brown hair.

Speaker 1 Now, the motive for this crime was still puzzling. Tina was clearly the target, but was this a crime of opportunity?

Speaker 1 Someone who just took advantage of the vulnerable position Tina was in alone in the wee hours of the morning? I mean, it actually wouldn't have been the first time.

Speaker 1 It had happened earlier that same year at another location, the spot Tina used to work at. It was actually the reason she had moved to what was called the Liberty Highway store in the first place.

Speaker 1 Here is Anne Hollingsworth, Tina's older sister.

Speaker 4 I went to see her when she worked at the Little Cricket on 28 Bypies and noticed she had a black eye and said that she had gotten robbed there at the store and she's getting to move to the other store.

Speaker 4 There was a robbery. And I don't think that one was ever solved either.
There's a quote in the case file that says she had been beat up. She requested a change of shift and of location.

Speaker 1 Tina only moved to the Liberty Highway location on I-85 about a week before.

Speaker 1 She had still been working the overnight shift, but her manager was actively searching for a replacement so that Tina could switch to a shift where she felt safer. And here's the catch.

Speaker 1 On June 24th, she wasn't originally scheduled to work at all, but she offered to pick up a co-worker shift for extra cash.

Speaker 1 So if this wasn't a roaming predator who just happened to be at the right place at the right time to take her, then it had to be someone close to her, someone who knew that she would be there, knew that she moved stores, knew that she picked up that shift.

Speaker 1 And that pool of people was small.

Speaker 1 When our reporter Madison spoke to Tina's longtime family friend, Susan Holly over the phone, She said that she didn't even know Tina had moved stores, much less picked up an extra shift.

Speaker 5 My husband at the time friend came over and needed a ride to his mom's. And we left out of the driveway.
And he said, Did you hear about the girl missing? I said, No, what girl missing?

Speaker 5 He said, From the little cricket.

Speaker 5 And I was like, what little cricket?

Speaker 5 And he said, one up on 85.

Speaker 5 And the only thing I could think of to say was, thank God.

Speaker 5 Thank God. Because I knew that's not where she worked.
She worked out on Pilmanderry Road. So I knew that it had to be somebody totally different until that evening when I heard that she was missing.

Speaker 1 Tina wouldn't be missing for long. Around 11.30 a.m., the very next day on June 25th, Dispatch received a call that a body had been found at the edge of the woods off Frontage Road.

Speaker 1 It was an area near the Highway 86 exit off I-85.

Speaker 1 This area was known to be a bit of a lover's lane, and it was about 14 miles away from the store that Tina was at.

Speaker 1 When investigators arrived on scene, they knew right away this was the woman they had been looking for for the past 24 hours. Here's Coroner Greg Shore.

Speaker 1 Since around 2009, he's taken it upon himself to dive into Tina's case files during his spare time, since Anderson County doesn't have a designated cold case unit yet.

Speaker 4 She was found lying on her back, supine. Her blue jeans, her breeches were off, and she had a t-shirt on.

Speaker 4 And And this is in the summertime, so she was already starting to show changes in the body condition, just being exposed to the sun and to the temperature there. Coroner Mackey responded.

Speaker 4 He got the call at 2.20 p.m. and arrived on the scene at 2.55 p.m.

Speaker 4 He photographed the victim and he worked with the investigators as they collected the evidence there at the scene. processed that scene.
They did note that she had a gunshot wound to the head.

Speaker 1 A.25 caliber cartridge case from the bullet was found near her body. A bullet itself would later be found still lodged in her brain.

Speaker 1 Tina still had on the same distinct Harley-Davidson t-shirt that she'd been wearing at work the night she was abducted. And on her hand was a ring that she was known to always wear.

Speaker 1 About 30 to 40 feet away, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigators found her blue jeans, her bra, and a used tampon that we can assume had been removed from her body.

Speaker 1 Later, autopsy results would state that there was no sign of sexual assault. But that doesn't necessarily rule out a sexual assault nor a sexual motive for the crime.

Speaker 1 And that is what investigators kept coming back to over and over: motive. If detectives wanted to figure out who, they needed to find out why.

Speaker 1 So they started by trying to track Tina's movements from the day before she was taken from her workplace. Maybe that would bring them more insight.

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Speaker 1 investigators learned that during the day on june 23rd before she went into work Tina had bought drugs from a guy named Jimmy Golden, a known dealer in Anderson.

Speaker 1 According to her friends, since meeting her husband Tony, it seemed like Tina had started hanging out with a rough crowd and had maybe gotten involved in drugs, at least off and on.

Speaker 4 We've got Jimmy Golden, who is associated in the drug scene there.

Speaker 4 And there was a witness that told me that Jimmy was holding Tony's motorcycle because of a drug debt. So that was a debt that was out there from Tony.

Speaker 4 Tony owed Jimmy money, so he was holding his Harley-Davison.

Speaker 1 Due to this drama, there were a few witnesses who said Tina was actually purchasing meth for Tony, not herself, since Tony probably would have wanted to steer clear of Golden.

Speaker 1 But in Golden's statement to police, he claimed both Tina and Tony had showed up together to buy the drugs. Now, neither scenario made perfect sense.

Speaker 1 If Golden's story was true, why would Tony be there if he owed Golden money? You'd think he'd be too scared to show his face.

Speaker 1 But what stands out to me even more so is why would Tina help Tony buy drugs if they were in the midst of a nasty divorce battle?

Speaker 4 She was married to Tony Milford. At the time of the abduction, their relationship had gone south.
She had applied for a divorce, and that divorce was to come final the morning that she disappeared.

Speaker 1 It seemed like pretty convenient timing for Tina to disappear. At least very convenient timing for her husband, Tony.

Speaker 1 Speaking with her family and friends, officers learned Tina and Tony shared an 18-month-old baby girl named Crystal.

Speaker 1 By all accounts, Tina had been hustling to save up enough money to care for her daughter as a soon-to-be single mom. Thus, likely why she picked up that extra shift.

Speaker 1 Tina's best friend Susan told us that her and Tina began drifting apart starting in high school, mostly just because they hung out with different people, but she still remained close with Tina's family, the Hunters.

Speaker 1 She was actually at Tina's parents' house often because Mrs. Hunter would watch her son while she was at work.

Speaker 5 I knew that something wasn't right the first time I seen her, either with a black eye or bruises on her arm. I remember one time at her mom's, she had on dark sunglasses.

Speaker 5 And when we were leaving, I said, Why do you have sunglasses on in the house? And she said, It's okay. I said, No, it's not okay.
It's not okay.

Speaker 5 Because I know when someone is hitting you that's not all they're doing to you i had heard rumors about her hiding under a car from him when she was pregnant to get away from him in the abuse i heard that but to know that she was being physically burned with cigarettes i had no idea that he burned her with cigarettes.

Speaker 5 I had no idea.

Speaker 1 There was, in fact, at least one official report that may have indicated Tina was being abused at the hands of her husband.

Speaker 1 But it's unclear if investigators even knew about this during the early days of the investigation. There doesn't seem to be any record that any of this alleged abuse was ever reported to authorities.

Speaker 4 After my father died in 2001, I got the paperwork that he had a folder of Tina's. And I read through it, and that's when I found out that he had beat her and she had went to hospital.

Speaker 1 Tina's older sister Ann gave Madison access to all that paperwork when they met up for an interview down in South Carolina.

Speaker 1 Amongst all the things that the family saved was a hospital bill totaling over $1,000, a lot of money in the early 80s. Tina's discharge date is listed as October 9th, 1981.

Speaker 1 But outside of this, it doesn't include any other significant information like what her injuries were or what her treatments may have been.

Speaker 1 But according to Ann, Tina's hospital stay was the direct result of a beating from Tony.

Speaker 1 But when detectives went and actually spoke to Tony, there was no mention of marital turmoil or abuse. Instead, he said that he and Tina were still living together.

Speaker 1 He claimed that they were going to try to stay a couple and they'd been working on reconciling their relationship. He said he did have contact with her that morning before she left for work.

Speaker 1 but it was just about transportation and child care.

Speaker 1 He said about an hour before Tina's shift was set to start, she called Tony and told him that she'd been having car trouble and she was worried that it was going to make her late to work.

Speaker 1 He told her to take their daughter to his mom's house and then Tina could borrow her mother-in-law's station wagon. So that explained the car that was left in the parking lot at the store that night.

Speaker 1 And it also spelled out something else investigators found pretty interesting. Tony was likely well aware that Tina was going to be working overnight.

Speaker 1 That made him an obvious target for investigators to zero in on.

Speaker 1 But it was far from the only thing.

Speaker 4 There's just so much going on in Tony's life, a divorce, a financial situation, drug addiction. He certainly was the prime person that they were looking at.

Speaker 1 As they pressed him, Tony was quick to spit out an alibi. He'd been with his girlfriend, Kelly, at her place.
And yeah, you heard that right, girlfriend.

Speaker 1 Even though he was still maintaining his marriage with Tina was on the mend.

Speaker 1 Our reporting team obtained written evidence that shows Tina found out about at least one of Tony's affairs some time before she died.

Speaker 1 In Tina's case file, there was something we thought was worth sharing. It's a letter from Tina to Tony.

Speaker 1 It's not dated, and we can't be sure she's specifically referring to Kelly, the girlfriend he'd been with that night.

Speaker 1 But it had to have been fairly recent, like before her murder, within the last 18 months or so, because Tina mentioned Tony being a father to their baby girl.

Speaker 1 We're going to have a voice actor read a portion of the letter.

Speaker 1 Tony, I really don't know why I'm writing. I just have to tell you how I feel.
Although, you probably won't even read this.

Speaker 1 I wanted to tell you that I think you're the sorriest son of a b ⁇ I have ever met.

Speaker 1 Last night I found out about your girlfriend, as you probably know now, and I started asking people if they knew, and guess what? Every d person I asked knew about her.

Speaker 1 But no one could tell me until after I found out for myself.

Speaker 1 The saying is absolutely true. The wife is the last to know.

Speaker 1 When investigators spoke to Tony's girlfriend, Kelly, she seemed to verify his alibi for the early morning hours when Tina was likely taken from the store.

Speaker 1 According to the two of them, they had been at her place. Between 4 and 4.30 in the morning, Tony left to go see some guy named Russell about 20 minutes away in Belton.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Kelly confirmed that he made his way back home sometime between 5 and 6 in the morning. But there was really no way to corroborate his whereabouts for the entire time period.

Speaker 1 However, back in 1983, the next best thing to proof was, you guessed it, a good old lie detector test.

Speaker 1 Now, at first, Tony agreed to taking one, but then he changed his mind after speaking to an attorney. But they got Kelly to move forward with hers.

Speaker 1 And the results, as well as subsequent interviews with people who knew Kelly, were very telling.

Speaker 4 We already know Tony lied about his timeframe. Kelly failed the polygraph test about his time frame.
She admitted to other people that she lied about the timeframe. He didn't get home to five or six.

Speaker 4 He's covered in blood.

Speaker 1 Although a lot of this was really just he said, she said, one thing police certainly had on their side was opportune timing.

Speaker 1 I mean, the idea that Tony stood to lose everything at the final divorce hearing the very day Tina went missing is hard to ignore. Sticking out to Susan was another glaring warning.

Speaker 1 Something Tina said to her, she thinks probably within the last year or so before she was killed.

Speaker 5 I remember being on Serene Street with her and her telling me, she said, Susan, if anything ever happens to me, you know who did it. And I do.
I know who did it. I know what she was talking about.

Speaker 5 But, you know, people who abuse people, they don't stop at just that abuse. They don't.
They don't.

Speaker 1 Since Kelly wouldn't ever admit to the police that she saw Tony with blood on him, investigators started running with a theory that they thought was more plausible.

Speaker 1 The idea that maybe Tony didn't actually pull the trigger, but instead got two other men to do the dirty work for him.

Speaker 1 A witness who we're going to call Dean came forward with a story about encountering two men that night who in hindsight, he thinks may have had something to do with Tina's murder.

Speaker 4 Another interesting witness that came forward early on and then has followed up with that was someone that had encountered two men in a station wagon up at exit 27 looking for the little cricket.

Speaker 4 And when he heard about the abduction, he contacted the sheriff's department. And these two guys, he remembered what one of them at least looked like, but he didn't know who he was.

Speaker 5 If there was two other people involved, I know Tony didn't pay them. He probably had no dime to his name.

Speaker 5 So I know he probably didn't pay them, but he probably knew something on them that it was like, okay,

Speaker 5 either he's going to tell or we're going to do this.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 5 that's how we're going to get out of our problem.

Speaker 1 Now, Tony was broke. That's one of the reasons why detectives think he was so concerned about that divorce hearing set to happen the same day that Tina disappeared.

Speaker 1 Worried about possibly losing their place and having to pay child support if Tina got custody of Crystal.

Speaker 1 So if this wasn't a paid murder for hire plot, what could Tony have had on someone that would have convinced them to kill?

Speaker 1 We know there was that known drug dealer, Jimmy Golden, but it seemed like he and Tony were more enemies than friends, at least around that time.

Speaker 1 So it wouldn't really make sense for Jimmy to help Tony in any way. When detectives actually went and spoke to Jimmy, he claimed that he was good friends with Tina.

Speaker 1 But by the time they were talking with him, he couldn't provide an alibi, couldn't recall where he was, what he was doing, or who he was with that night.

Speaker 1 But even if someone else was responsible for pulling the trigger, investigators still had a hunch that Tony at least had some type of involvement. But at best, all they had still was hearsay.

Speaker 1 However, the witness statements they had that were piling up made him look pretty bad.

Speaker 1 Someone told investigators that while Tina was missing, Tony and two of his buddies were out riding around looking for Tina.

Speaker 1 when Tony suddenly stopped at a payphone, made a phone call, came back, jumped into the truck and said, they found Tina, and then drove straight to the scene.

Speaker 4 I work in Anderson County, and even years later, if you told me as a law enforcement officer where to go find her, I would not know where to go.

Speaker 4 I could take you there and find it eventually, but to go straight there and just have been told that your ex-wife has now been murdered or found, it's not a coincidence.

Speaker 1 Continuing to put the pressure on his girlfriend, Kelly, seemed like a promising way to try and get to the truth of what Tony had really been up to that night.

Speaker 1 Maybe time or a breakup would encourage her. But just a few years after Tina's murder, asking Kelly any more questions would become impossible.

Speaker 4 We would never know because Kelly passed away a couple of years, maybe after that. I think there was a mention of that she had overdosed.

Speaker 1 Let's get into that. Weren't there a couple exes of Tony's who died in interesting ways?

Speaker 4 We know of three that have passed that had a relationship with Tony.

Speaker 4 And all from overdoses or suicide or do you i think the ones that i can recall are overdoses i'm not saying he's a suspect i'm not saying he had anything to do with it but i don't think that that's a coincidence funny your lifestyle lends itself to that type of negative consequence but tony's life just seems to be full of things that just cannot be coincidence this case chalk full of all these convenient coincidences was at a standstill.

Speaker 1 While new detectives would sporadically pick up the files here and there to give the case a fresh look, there was nothing substantial enough to bring any charges against Tony.

Speaker 1 At least, not related to Tina. In 2002, he would end up behind bars on a separate, unrelated charge.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for trafficking crack cocaine.

Speaker 1 And I'm guessing he got that much time because he already had a record that included things like simple assault and battery.

Speaker 1 But down the line, this case would receive a burst of energy from a rather unexpected source. Someone outside of law enforcement.

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Speaker 1 In 2009, an impromptu partnership between a coroner and a constable was born.

Speaker 4 I had a lot of interest in it, mainly because the family had reached out to me and had talked to me. So it intrigued me.
And by chance, I ran into Martin Elrod.

Speaker 4 Martin was the police chief up at West Pelzer. He had just retired from that, but he switched over to become a state constable.
And he and I were chatting one day. And I asked him about that.

Speaker 4 And he said, you know, let's look at it. So we started looking at the case and we just started talking to people that were listed in the case file.
And an interesting associate of Tony's was

Speaker 4 from Honeyapath.

Speaker 4 And we talked to him on July the 29th of 2009.

Speaker 4 And we asked if he would talk with us about Tina Milford. And he agreed, but he didn't want to do it on record due to his concerns for his life.

Speaker 4 states that Tony Milford and Broadus Baldwin were involved in that case. He stated that Broadus always carried a.25 caliber automatic gun in his pocket.
It was white-handled and chrome-plated.

Speaker 4 After Tina's death, he traded that gun to Chick for drugs, and Chick sold it to Maxie.

Speaker 1 At this point, Maxie had passed away. But this anonymous witness told Coroner Shore that he assumed Maxie's wife may still have that gun.
But when Shore tracked her down, she said she didn't.

Speaker 1 Here's Coroner Shore continuing to read directly from this witness's statement.

Speaker 4 Brawlis always came by my house every day before Tina's death and would get money to go get drugs for me and he would share them with me.

Speaker 4 I was not getting out during that time due to the law looking for me, but I had money and Broadus was working as a brickmason. He quit coming around the day after Tina's death.
We talked to Brautus.

Speaker 4 He was asked, do you think Tony Milford would be capable of killing his wife like that? Brawlus, yes, sir. He's a very wild person.

Speaker 4 Do you know of any problems that he and his wife might have had at the time? Brought us. No, they were divorced from the time, I think, that, like I said, I quit associating with him.

Speaker 4 He was pretty wild back then. So I just, I'm not a violent person and I wouldn't be around people like that.
That's about all I know.

Speaker 4 But the interesting thing about it is that we talked to another witness, Jed,

Speaker 4 who states that a couple of days, a day or so after Tina was missing, he was over at Broadus' house and he got in the backseat of the car. They were going to go somewhere.

Speaker 4 And in the floorboard was a picker stick, something that's used in the mill. And Jed said that he picked it up and it had blood and long reddish-brown hair, just like Tina's, on that picker stick.

Speaker 1 This is in Broadus' truck.

Speaker 4 Broadus' station wagon.

Speaker 1 Did you catch that? Broadus's station wagon. Presumably, it was similar to the one that Dean had described running into the night Tina went missing.

Speaker 1 You know, the one with the two guys who were trying to find their way to the Little Cricket store. Now, we've said it before, Tina was shot.

Speaker 1 But something I haven't told you yet is that Tina's autopsy did find a crack on her skull. So it's possible that she could have been hit with this picker stick or something like it.

Speaker 4 If she got in the front seat of that car at the little cricket and someone was sitting in the back seat, they could have hit her as she's being abducted and then drive up the interstate, get off the next exit.

Speaker 4 We kind of wondered how they would have known that area. And looking into it, one of Tony's friends worked at a maintenance company on that frontage road.

Speaker 4 So that area might have been known to, you know, Tony and his associates.

Speaker 1 The.25 caliber gun that Broadus was known to carry was the same caliber of the cartridge casing that was found near Tina's body.

Speaker 1 Although ballistics testing seemed to show that it wouldn't have matched the bullet that actually killed her, the one retrieved from her brain.

Speaker 1 But that doesn't discount him as a person of interest since we're working under the assumption that there may have been two perpetrators here.

Speaker 1 Or an even easier answer, Broadus could have simply just used a different gun.

Speaker 1 Supposedly, before it was even public information that Tina had been taken from her job, someone had observed Broadus in public, practically announcing that Tina had been kidnapped.

Speaker 1 But when face to face with detectives more than 25 years later, Broadus denied it all.

Speaker 4 Mr. Baldwin was asked, you know, we do a standard three questions on these polygraph tests.
Did you shoot Tina Milford? Response is no. Did you shoot Tina Milford with a.25 caliber weapon?

Speaker 4 Response is no. Were you there? And he says no.
He did not exhibit indicators of telling a lie.

Speaker 1 Once again, it was all hearsay and no hard evidence. So investigators pushed forward trying to get that physical proof that they so desperately needed.

Speaker 1 Armed with an affidavit detailing all of the circumstantial evidence we've talked about in this episode so far, a motion was filed for the court to compel Tony Milford, Jimmy Golden, and Brodus Baldwin to submit DNA samples.

Speaker 1 Although at the time, it doesn't seem like investigators had anything of interest in mind that they hoped to compare it to. I'm assuming they were just operating with a just-in-case mentality.

Speaker 1 Now they filed this motion, but according to Sergeant Cash, it seems like the court only found enough reason to grant the motion for Tony Milford to provide DNA. And so he did.

Speaker 1 He thinks at least Broadus was probably asked to voluntarily give a sample at some point, but it doesn't appear that he ever did.

Speaker 1 Now, a year later, in 2011, one of the case's original witnesses came back into play.

Speaker 1 That guy, Dean, the one who said he came across two men who were looking for the little cricket the night that Tina went missing.

Speaker 1 Well, now he came forward again with some more details about what went down. And to be clear, he had already told a deputy about this early on, like right after he heard about the kidnapping.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure if it was a news segment or what that prompted Dean to contact authorities again close to 30 years later, but He did say that whoever talked to him back in 1983 hadn't seemed too interested in his story and he didn't write anything down when they spoke.

Speaker 4 And basically in a nutshell, what this guy's saying is in 1983, this person was a fuel attendant in Anderson at another place.

Speaker 4 There was a small car and this person called it a Vega that pulled into the parking lot.

Speaker 4 There were two white males in it and he remembers the way that they both looked and the car had some speakers hanging in the back.

Speaker 4 He specifically remembered the car mate because he had one that he was trying to fix and get running. The driver was a white male, appeared to be in his late 20s.

Speaker 4 He had long scraggly hair with tattoos up and down both arms. The passenger is a white male who also looked to be in his late 20s.

Speaker 4 He had shoulder length blonde hair and I think he also had a couple of tattoos on his arms. They were asking where Little Cricket was, and they both had come inside the store to ask that question.

Speaker 4 And I guess he told them where it was, but he felt kind of weird about it. And he said that one of them said, what was you looking for in the store?

Speaker 4 And he said he was looking for the girl that worked there. And he said something about he was going to beat that girl's ass if she did not have his stuff.

Speaker 1 Now, in case hearing that the car being a Vega threw you off, like it did me, let me explain. Apparently, you could get into this car like a station wagon and had a body kind of like a station wagon.

Speaker 1 So although Dean refers to this car specifically as a Vega in this statement, we believe he's talking about the same type of car that keeps popping up in this episode, that suspicious station wagon.

Speaker 1 Now, Dean said he recognized the one man.

Speaker 1 He said it was a guy with the nickname Onion, but that the other person with him, he had no idea who that guy was until about a year after Tina's murder when he recognized this person out in public.

Speaker 4 So like a year later, this same person that calls this in is at a rock concert in Greenville and sees these two guys. And then the person that he's with, he says, do you know that person?

Speaker 4 Because you're kind of looking at them kind of like you know them. And she said, well, that guy right there with the long, cracked blonde hair with some tattoos on his arms, that's Tony Milford.

Speaker 4 And he said, that's the same guy.

Speaker 4 That was one of the guys that was with me at the gas station that night asking where a little cricket was because I'm going to, quote, need to beat that girl's ass if she don't have my stuff.

Speaker 4 Tony was in the drug game. Everybody said he was in the drug game.
He owed some money. The only question I would have about that is, why are you asking where it's at? You're from Anderson County.

Speaker 4 You know where your ex-wife works. You just supposedly live with her.
She's borrowed a car from a family member. to go to work.
Why would you need to ask?

Speaker 1 This tip was interesting. Yeah.
And there was nothing to indicate Dean would have any reason to lie, but there was really nothing they could do with this to follow up on it.

Speaker 1 I mean, it was so long after the fact.

Speaker 1 So it would take almost another 10 years for another chance event to put them on the right path forward.

Speaker 1 One day in early 2020, Coroner Greg Shore was working with an investigator, randomly pulling evidence boxes from Tina's case, checking out the contents inside to see what all was left, when all of a sudden, sudden, they spotted it, a suspicious stain on Tina's blue jeans.

Speaker 4 Major Tribble spotted that and said, hey, this looks like something we might want to analyze.

Speaker 4 I mean, it was exciting because, you know, we thought we might be able to do something because DNA was opening up a lot of cases across the country and we thought that we may have a good shot at that.

Speaker 4 If we could get a DNA and match it to somebody, then the case could be solved.

Speaker 1 Now, here is where things get a little bit frustrating.

Speaker 1 Our reporting team actually found lab records from SLED in Tina's case file that did in fact determine semen was found on the genes back in 2010.

Speaker 1 It's not really clear how these results appear to have either been missed or maybe just put on the back burner, but somehow it seems like this stain was just now being rediscovered.

Speaker 1 But what once could have been a promising lead all these years later, wasn't.

Speaker 4 It came back, but it was degraded. There was just, I guess, so many years.
It had caused it to break down.

Speaker 1 Sled also tested Tina's fingernail clippings, her pantyhose, pubic hair, headhair, and the tampon. They even tested the cigarette butts that were found near the scene.

Speaker 1 But it seems like nothing significant came from any of that. That spark of hope they initially had soon turned to regret.
had they re-stumbled upon this stain decades too late.

Speaker 1 Maybe not too late for the cutting-edge technology at Othrum Labs in Texas. So in March of 2020, just as COVID-19 cases were rapidly developing, they sent the piece of denim there.

Speaker 1 And not too long after, the results came back.

Speaker 4 Basically, the conclusion, interpretation, conclusion is a rejection from Orthrum, is that an insufficient quantity of DNA was obtained from item one, which was the gene cutting and DNA extractions.

Speaker 4 to proceed with forensic grade genome sequencing.

Speaker 4 It's not enough. There's an insufficient quantity of DNA from the genes.
There's not enough, as weird as, there's not enough semen. That does not rule out Tony Milford.

Speaker 4 It does not make him the suspect or rule him out. It just said it's not enough.

Speaker 1 With the way forensic testing is advancing these days, Sergeant Cash says that in the future, they might be able to develop a male profile from the small amount of evidence left behind on those blue genes.

Speaker 1 And with a little luck, that could lead them to the person responsible. And listen, DNA is great when you got it.

Speaker 1 But there is something to be said for good old-fashioned detective work, for rolling up your sleeves, pounding the pavement, and going back to the beginning, talking to the people who might not have been talked to in nearly 15 years.

Speaker 1 When's the last time someone's tried to talk to Tony?

Speaker 4 I've never interviewed Tony.

Speaker 1 Should we try today? You want me to knock on his door?

Speaker 1 I found his address. Yeah.

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Speaker 7 What about toys?

Speaker 1 Do they have brands kids have been wanting all year?

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Speaker 3 Do you mean they have all the brands I adore?

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Speaker 3 What a bad. So the Who answered questions from friends till they were blue.
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Speaker 1 Then the destination is on your right.

Speaker 3 Okay, looks like we're coming up on the street.

Speaker 1 Mr. Milford?

Speaker 3 What are you, Tony?

Speaker 3 Hi.

Speaker 1 My name is Madison Tavalkiri. This is coroner Greg Shore.

Speaker 1 We're doing a story about a cold case about Tina Milford, who we know you were married to her back then.

Speaker 1 So we wanted to see if you wouldn't mind just asking you a few questions.

Speaker 1 At this point, Tony asked us not to do any recording. So for the rest of this, we're going to do our best to sum up how this conversation went.

Speaker 1 While Tony sat there on a makeshift bed in a small shed behind his mother's house, Madison and Coroner Shore stood in the doorway and talked with him for about 45 minutes or so, a sign reading, only God shall judge thee on the wall above him.

Speaker 1 Tony started out seemingly transparent, openly admitting to the fact that he was not a good guy back then.

Speaker 1 He spoke about his substance use, the rough relationship he had with Tina, and his criminal life, all of which he thought were contributing factors to why law enforcement went in on him so hard for Tina's murder.

Speaker 1 He admitted to the cheating, even fighting, but claimed there was never any physical abuse. He rejected the notion that Tina ever had to go to the hospital as a result of a beating from him.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm just gonna ask you straight up, did you kill Tina Milford? Tony said, no. But what about the timing of it all? What did he have to say about that?

Speaker 1 While he admitted it made him look bad, he insisted he didn't actually even know about the divorce hearing that was set for the day Tina went missing.

Speaker 1 He said he was pretty sure he only found out about it the day that Tina's body was found. That's when he was apparently served official papers.

Speaker 1 If he was innocent, we probed, then who did he think was responsible for his wife's murder? Tony brought up two of their former friends as possibilities.

Speaker 1 David Ridgway and Tony Hawk, who he said were both now deceased, by the way.

Speaker 1 And he never really made it clear what their motives would have been, just that both he and Tina were struggling with substance use, so maybe something to do with that.

Speaker 1 And then that's when he made mention of also being suspicious of Jimmy Golden. But when asked, he said he didn't think Brodus Baldwin was capable of killing Tina.

Speaker 1 Tony also claimed that he thought Tina may have been fooling around with both Jimmy and Broadus, seeming to hint that maybe that could have had something to do with what happened to her.

Speaker 1 Madison and Coroner Shore asked Tony if he'd be willing to come to the Anderson County Sheriff's Office for a formal sit-down interview with a real detective and if he would volunteer to take a polygraph.

Speaker 1 But he expressed frustration with the fact that he is still being considered a suspect and he claimed that there wasn't anything he could do now to change anyone's mind about him.

Speaker 1 Tony says he prays and hopes his high school sweetheart's case will one day be solved.

Speaker 1 Towards the end of the interview, he said, quote, if there's a God in heaven, if there's a God in heaven, and I done it, I know who done it, I had it done, or was connected in any kind of way, I hope I fall off this couch dead as a doornail right now.

Speaker 1 Tina's friend Susan holds on to the hope of justice, even if it's beyond the grave, just like Tony suggested.

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah, that's something somebody said a long time ago to me. You know, Susan,

Speaker 5 you may never see the judgment here, but he's going to see the judgment there. They said, you know, heaven on earth sometimes is not here.

Speaker 6 Honey, it's there.

Speaker 1 If you have any information about the murder of Tina Hunter Milford in 1983, please call the Anderson County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina at 864-260-4400.

Speaker 1 Or you can speak to Sergeant Kendall Cash directly at 864-209-0582.

Speaker 1 You can also always remain anonymous via Anderson County Crime Stoppers.

Speaker 1 We'll have all the ways you can get in touch with law enforcement and Crime Stoppers in the show notes and on the blog post for this episode.

Speaker 1 And if you are a victim of domestic violence, know that help is out there. You can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text the word START to 88-788.

Speaker 1 The Deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com.

Speaker 1 So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Speaker 9 20th Century Studios presents the upcoming comedy, Ella McKay, from Academy Award-winning writer-director James L. Brooks.

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Speaker 9 Featuring an all-star cast, including Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Loudon, Kumale Ninjani, Iowa Deborey, Julie Kavner, with Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson. Ella McKay.

Speaker 9 In theaters December 12th.

Speaker 3 The Who's Down and Who Newville were making their list, but some didn't know. Walmart has the best brands for their gifts.

Speaker 7 What about toys?

Speaker 1 Do they have brands kids have been wanting all year?

Speaker 8 Yup, Barbie, Tony's, and Lego. Gifts that will make them all cheer.

Speaker 3 Do you mean they have all the brands I adore?

Speaker 7 They have Nintendo, Espresso, Apple, and more.

Speaker 3 What about So the Who answered questions from friends till they were blue? Each one listened and shouted, From Walmart? Who knew?

Speaker 3 Shop gifts from top brands for everyone on your list in the Walmart app.