The True Crime Story Behind “When a Stranger Calls” 20:25

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So I'm sure many of you have seen the movie When a Stranger Calls. There's an older version of this movie and then there's a much newer one. Personally, I've seen the older one. If you haven't seen the movie, I'll give you a quick rundown. Basically, there's a babysitter at this house and while she's babysitting, she keeps getting calls from a stranger and they keep saying, - Have you checked the children? Have you checked the children? - Hello?

It's me. And I won't give away what happens in the movie, but it's very scary. But today I'm going to tell you the true story behind When a Stranger Calls. However, I will let you know that it is quite different. Oftentimes when movies are based on a true story, they are often dramatized a lot. And that is definitely the case here. It really is not that similar to the movie, but it is a very interesting case. And I think you guys will have a lot of thoughts and opinions on this one. So...

Let's get into it. So this is Janet Christman. She was born on March 21st, 1936 in Boonville, Missouri. She was the oldest daughter of Charles and Luna Christman. And she had a younger sister named Rita Christman Smith and also a newborn sister named Cheryl Christman.

The family lived in Boonville for a while, but eventually they moved to Columbia, Missouri. They were known as a really nice family, really good people. And they were known in their community for owning a restaurant, which was called Ernie's Cafe and Steakhouse. And they lived in the upper floor of that building.

So at the time that all of this happens, Janet is 13 years old and in eighth grade, just at the age where someone may start to babysit or maybe do mom's helping. Like I said, Janet was a very nice, well-liked person. She was very good in school and she was also highly involved in her church. She was even in the church choir and she had a great singing voice. She was also very smart. And in her spare time, she liked to play the piano. So just mellow, nice girl.

Janet was also known to be a very hard worker because growing up her family sometimes struggled and that really taught her to work hard in life and to earn the things that she wanted. So Janet was a normal teenager living a normal life up until March 1950.

So it was a Saturday evening, March 18th. And that night her school had like a dance party for the students. I guess just a dance. Janet was originally planning to go to this, but she got an offer to babysit and she couldn't turn down a babysitting job. And she really liked to babysit as well.

She actually only babysat for these two families. Her parents were very protective of her, so they only let her babysit for people that they trusted and knew. And the two families are the Romacks and the Muellers. And on this evening, she was going to be babysitting for the Romack family and for their three-year-old son named Gregory. The parents' names were Ed and Ann, and they were really fond of Janet. They really trusted her as well and really liked her.

And like I said, Janet was excited to babysit because she liked kids, but also because she wanted to make some money. She was actually saving up for this burgundy suit that she wanted to wear on Easter. So Janet showed up at their house around 7:30 PM ready to babysit. And their family lived in a really rural area, very isolated. Their address is 1015 Stuart Road, which is directly on the outskirts of Columbia. So as you can imagine, this house is very dark and would be a bit scary to babysit at.

I think. I was always freaking myself out when I was babysitting. It didn't really matter where I was, honestly. At the time, this family only had one kid, Gregory, but Anne was pregnant with their second, and so they really wanted to have some me time before she had the baby, and so they were very excited to go out on this date night. And when Janet arrived, they showed her how their son really liked to fall asleep to the radio at night. I actually always did this as a kid. Radio Disney, super annoying. And I wonder why I have to fall asleep with the TV on to this day.

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And then Ed showed Janet how to use his shotgun, how to unload it, load it, how to use it, everything. Pretty much gave her a quick gun lesson and then put it by the front door just in case anything happened. As they were leaving, they told her to make sure the door was locked, obviously not to let anyone in if anyone came to the door, to turn on the porch light. And then they left and went on their date. So the weather was already bad that night, but throughout the evening, it started to get a lot warmer.

The temperature was in the mid-20s and there were storms, sleet, hail. So it's quite a spooky night to be babysitting at such a young age out in this isolated house. So then at 10:35 that night, a frantic call came into the police department of a woman who was just screaming in sheer panic and she was saying, "Come quick.

officer that had answered the call was named ray mccowan and unfortunately there was nothing he could do in this situation because back then they did not have any sort of way to trace the call easily it's kind of wild thinking about how much things have changed it definitely makes you feel very grateful for modern technology in these situations but back then it was a very complicated process to trace a phone number and get an address it could take

hours. And what was crazy is they didn't even have a switchboard to trace this phone call back at the police station. The switchboard was somewhere else and there was no one working the switchboard that night. So there was nothing anyone could do because the call was cut short before he could even ask for an address. So imagine being this guy, you just got this frantic call. Clearly someone's in horrific trouble and you can't do anything to help

them. You don't even know where they are. That night, Ann and Ed had actually gone out with the other family that Janet would babysit for, the Mueller family. So they were all together and they were at the Moon Valley Villa. And she decided to call back to the house and check on Janet, see how everything's going. I mean, her son's pretty young. The babysitter's pretty young. Just wants to make sure everything's going good. But no one picked up the phone.

which initially freaked Anne out, but she thought maybe it's possible that it was off the hook. She assured herself that everything was probably fine and went back to join the group. And then they ended up spending a few more hours out thinking everything was fine. And they actually stayed out until about 1.15. They finally headed home and got back to the house at 1.35. Now, when they got home, they immediately noticed that the porch light was on, which

which they had left off and told Janet to only turn it on if someone came to the door, which automatically concerned them. They also noticed that all the front window blinds are open and that seems kind of strange to them. So they start heading to the front door and they're fiddling around looking for their keys when all of a sudden they realize the door's already unlocked.

And this concerned them as well because they told Janet to keep the door locked. And maybe you're not thinking the worst at that point. You know, maybe they're thinking that she had a boy over to the house or invited a friend over or something like that. But then they walked in and...

and saw a horrific scene. Janet was laying right there when you open the door on the living room floor on the shag carpet in a pool of blood covered in bruises, clearly not alive. Not only had she been murdered, she had also been sexually assaulted. She was found with her legs spread apart

with one slipper on her foot. She had a really serious head injury. She had clearly been hit with some type of blunt object. Not only that, she had multiple puncture wounds, but from a mechanical pencil. I have

never heard of that in a case. There was also a cord that was cut from an electric iron that was tightly wrapped around her neck. So she had clearly been strangled and their landline phone was found off the hook, laying on the floor, just a few feet away from her. So she had clearly made that call to the dispatch right before she was attacked.

So of course, as soon as they saw Janet and runs upstairs to check on her son and luckily Gregory was found completely unharmed, actually still fast asleep. So of course they immediately call the police. And this was a pretty crazy case for back then. So there were multiple detectives there and bloodhounds were there as well. And inside the home, there were clear signs that Janet had tried to fight off her attacker. There were blood smears and fingerprints found in the walls of the living room and also near their back

door, which had been left open. Actually, the bloodhounds were able to pick up a scent of the attacker and they were actually able to track it all the way up the street about a mile before they lost it. So they think this person was on foot. And then they also found footprints near the back

window of the house, which had been shattered. And it was shattered with a garden hoe that was normally kept inside of the house, which is very odd. So one thing that really complicates this case is that the house was located in an area that had police departments from two jurisdictions overseeing it. So departments from two different jurisdictions showed up and they had completely different opinions on what happened at

the crime scene. The main thing that they disagreed about was how the killer got into the house. One jurisdiction thought that Janet let them into the house because she may have known this person. Maybe it was someone that she was friendly with, someone she trusts. This theory is backed up by the fact that Ed had told her specifically to turn on the porch light if someone came to the door. So it makes you think that someone came through the door, but that doesn't explain the window.

They also don't think Janet would have opened the door for someone she didn't know. Also, that shotgun was completely untouched. And if Janet was really scared and a stranger came to the door, she probably would have picked it up. So chances are it was someone she knew and they attacked her in a surprise way. The cord that she was strangled with was cut from an iron that, that,

that is normally stored in the sewing room. And that's also where the pair of scissors were taken from. Police thought that this was strange, that the person knew exactly where to get the items that they need within the house and made them think that maybe they were familiar with the house and maybe someone that the family knew.

But the problem with this theory is there was a piano right underneath that window and it had just been shined and waxed. It was in really good condition and it didn't look like anybody had walked on it. There weren't any smudges, there weren't any dents, there weren't any fingerprints. I mean nothing. The piano seemed kind of untouched and you would have to get on the piano in order to get out of that window. Some people think that that window was actually smashed on purpose to make it look like someone had entered in through that window and that they even put a garden home next to the window to like

the scene. And this could have been done to throw the police off, maybe deter them from collecting evidence from the front door area. I mean, it's a possibility that this was staged, but some people think that the killer did enter through the window. So you'll have to let me know what you guys think on that one. But because these two jurisdictions could not agree on what had happened, this really messed up the investigation. Okay, round two. Name something that's not boring. A laundry? Ooh, a book club.

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So obviously a case like this back in the 1950s really shook the community. They were freaked out hearing that an eighth grade babysitter was murdered, raped, and that the person was still on the loose. Everyone was really freaked out. So law enforcement ended up working around the clock trying to solve this case. They even performed searches in the surrounding areas hoping to find clues

talked to as many people as they could. They really reached out to the public and asked locals to call if they knew anything that could help them solve this case or had any information or if they knew anyone that was acting a bit suspicious. And they also interviewed Janet's friends, family, anyone who was in her life and tried to paint the best picture they could of her and see if they maybe knew anything or had a good lead.

And during this process, they formed a list of potential suspects. Their strategy was just bring as many people as they could in, talk to them and question them. And hopefully one of them will be the person who did it. However, it became very clear, very quick that this police department had a serious racial bias because pretty much all of the men that they brought in were black. And they didn't even have a good reason for bringing most of these people in. For most of them, it was just because they were black.

So this whole process was pretty fucked up and it didn't really lead anywhere. So for the most part, nothing like this had really happened in this town. Nothing this bad, except for four years earlier, there was another girl who was murdered and raped pretty much the same way that Janet was. Her name was Mary Lou Jenkins. She was also home alone and she was only a

mile away from the house that Janet was babysitting at. And it was pretty much the same situation. Her mother came home, opened the door and found her daughter sprawled out on the living room floor dead. And she was also strangled with an extension cord.

And it was around this time that a man named Floyd Cochran, who was a 35 year old trash man, was arrested for savagely murdering his wife. Once police found out about what he did to his wife, they took him into custody and he willingly admitted that he did it. And given the timeline, the Boone County investigators figured that there was a good chance that he killed Mary Lou as well. So they interrogated him for over 10 hours and they claim that he made incriminating statements that

or essentially almost confessions that he killed her as well. It was definitely kind of a sketchy confession and there was no actual evidence connecting him to the crime, but he was sentenced to die on September 26, 1947 for killing his wife and Mary Lou. But a few hours before he was executed, he took back his entire confession about Mary Lou.

They found out that he had clearly been coerced into giving a false confession, but at that point the case had already been solved for years. So they started thinking that maybe the person who killed Janet also killed Mary Lou and maybe they're still out there. So as the police continued to talk to the family and to friends of the family and people that knew Janet, one name kept popping up and he eventually became their prime suspect.

And his name was Robert Mueller. Robert Mueller was 27 years old at the time, and he was very good friends with Ed Romack. They went all the way back to high school. So he would definitely be someone that is familiar with their house. Robert had served in World War II as an army air corps captain, and he later returned to Columbia, Missouri and looked after his father's restaurant, the Mueller Virginia Cafe. And one thing that pretty much everyone they talked to said about Robert is he was known for carrying around mechanical pencils.

But when they talked to Ed and Anne, they both said that Robert was a bit of a creep. Ed said that Robert had mentioned to him several times some creepy sexual stuff, including the fact that he wanted to have sex with a virgin. And obviously Janet knew Robert as well because she babysat for the Mueller family. And Ed said that Robert had actually made comments to him, very inappropriate comments about Janet's body. Keep in mind, Janet was 13 or younger when he made those comments.

Also, Anne had told Ed several times that she just felt uncomfortable around Robert, that he was creepy. And if that doesn't make you feel weird enough about him, he was also a part-time tailor. So it's kind of interesting that the killer used an ironing cord

and scissors from the sewing room. And then Anne told police that the day before Janet was killed, Robert had come over to her house to help her fit a dress. And she was very, very uncomfortable after this because she reported him lightly touching her breasts and kind of grazing over her and fondling her essentially, but trying to not be obvious about it. Anne even said to police that she described Robert as a man who used his hands, not his words.

And on the morning of Janet's death, Robert had actually called her and asked her to babysit his kids that night, but she declined because she was babysitting for the Romack family already, but he knew that she was going to be at the house. But you're probably wondering how could this be possible? Because Robert was with the Romack family. They were at a party. So there were plenty of people around

And it really wouldn't be that obvious if he just slipped away. And then they found out that hours into the party, he did slip away for two hours. And he told some people that he was going to go talk to a doctor that was going to tend to his son in the middle of the night. So they went to the dude's doctor and they found out that he did not meet up with him that night.

So this is making Robert look pretty sus, but he managed to make himself look even more suspicious because the morning after Janet was murdered, he called Ed and asked if he could come over to the house and help him clean up any of the blood.

or the crime scene, which might seem like a nice friendly thing to do. But here is the problem. He was not even told that Janet was murdered. Nobody was. The only people that knew about it so far at that time were the Romacks and the police. Ed thought this was very strange. And so he decided to talk to him further about it.

And get this shit. Robert started telling them his theories as well. He said that it's very unlikely that someone came in through the window. He thinks it was someone that Janet knew, someone that she was friendly with and trusted, and that she probably let them in herself. He specifically said that the easiest way for someone to get in that house would be to come to the door and say, Hey,

Ed sent me over here to get some poker chips. And if it was someone that Janet knew or thought that the Romacks knew, that she would just let them in. So all this circumstantial evidence is pretty overwhelming. It seems very obvious that Robert did it. So in May of 1950, they compiled all the evidence they had against him and went to his house. But rather take him into custody for a proper interrogation, they decided to take him out to a local barn.

It was way out of city limits where no one could hear. And they interrogated him all night after talking to him, they were still very suspicious of him and he agreed to take a polygraph test. So he was transported to the state Capitol where he took the polygraph test.

And he did pass. But here's the thing. Lie detector tests are not reliable completely. They can work, but also sometimes they just don't work. And there's ways to trick them, especially back in 1950. Polygraph tests have improved a lot since then. And it's quite possible that he was able to just mislead the machine. But because he passed the lie detector test, the police decided they had to let him go.

But they ended up bringing all the evidence to a judge. And after the judge looked over it, they arranged a grand jury to investigate his case. However, because the two jurisdictions had completely different ideas of what had happened that night, the jury was presented both theories and essentially they couldn't decide. And because of this, Robert Mueller was never charged. And not only that, he sued the police.

He lost, but still. Afterwards, he relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and in 2006, he passed away at 83 years old, and he never served any time for Janet's death, even though it's pretty obvious it was him. Unfortunately, in the 80s, Ann passed away, and Ed got remarried, but he also passed away in 2016. Luckily, Gregory was unharmed that night, and he grew up to be a successful person, and he

The Chrisman family was devastated, not only that they lost Janet in such a horrific way, but that there was never justice for her. And now it's been over 70 years and we still have no justice for Janet. Pretty much everyone in the situation believes that it was Robert Mueller, including the Romack family and Janet's family, but they will probably never get that justice and will never get the answers as to what really happened that night.

It's very, very sad and it makes me wonder if they could just have come to an agreement on what could have happened in that house and presented one solid theory, would they be able to get Robert behind bars even if the theory ended up being slightly off? I mean, it's a complicated situation. I understand it's hard and both theories are possible, but it's just so sad that because one couldn't be agreed upon that justice was never served. It kind of blows my mind.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.

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