18 Wheels And A Highway | The Murder of Myra Danette Stalbosky | Part 1

A father’s worry, a 14.7-second call, and a grainy tape from a SuperAmerica lot set a true crime story in motion. We walk you through the final hours of 18-year-old reserve officer Myra Stalbosky—her truck trouble on I-65, a rest area encounter with a trucker, and a pickup left at Exit 22 with no sign of its driver. Then comes the sound that changes everything: a jake brake on I-71, a passing rig that looks just like the one on tape, and a radio call that turns instinct into a traffic stop.

We invited Sonny Boggs to unpack not only what happened, but how he knew where to look. His path from teenage firefighter to EMT to military police laid the groundwork for a quiet kind of readiness—calm, curiosity, and the habit of asking one more question. That background explains the decisive moves in this case: recognizing value in poor video, calling the chief early, looping in media, and seizing a fleeting chance on the interstate. When the driver is stopped, his answers—forgetfulness about yesterday, an admission to falsifying a logbook—become behavioral evidence that sharp listeners will hear for what it is: a story caving in.

This episode is a study in how real investigations advance without cinematic shortcuts. Small departments juggle robberies, missing persons, and scarce resources. Evidence is rarely clean; cameras are outdated, and witnesses are tired or scared. Yet people and choices still matter. A father shows grace. An officer trusts his training and his gut. A team moves fast, not reckless. If you’re drawn to cases where observation, timing, and human nature intersect, this is that story.

Stay with us for part one of a case that honors the victim, respects the family, and shows how intuition aligns with hard evidence on the road to justice. If this moved you or taught you something about real police work, hit follow, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find it.

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Transcript

Trailer: The Murder Of Myra

Sonny Boggs 0:01

Mr. Stelboski reports to me that uh he had received a series of phone calls from his daughter, uh Myra, uh, indicating uh that she got as far as south going toward Eddieville, Kentucky on I-65, uh, and and that she had started calling saying she was experiencing mechanical difficulties with her truck, did not think that she was going to be able to make it all the way uh to Eddyville, Kentucky. So she turned around and uh she uh started to come back home.

Speaker 0:40

18 Wheels and a Highway. The murder of Myra Dennett Stolboski only on the Murder Police Podcast. Part one.

Wendy 1:38

You know, it's it's incredibly interesting, horrifically sad. So thank you for being here.

David 1:45

Thank you both for having me. No, thank you again. And uh ever since you reached out and I started looking at the case, I'm fascinated by it because uh I think it's one of those cases I used to say the stars aligned. There's a lot to this that I think the audience is going to catch into what it looks like when you actually get things like physical evidence and much more than that in this case. Those are rare. So I think that people need to they'll be fascinated too with uh a little bit of intuition, uh some divine intervention. I think it more than once in this case that led uh ultimately to justice for a horrific case. So thank you again for coming and spending time with us. Again, I'm glad to be here with you guys.

Wendy 2:24

Well, with that, why don't we have Sonny, why don't you start with telling us how you got interested in law enforcement, a little bit about your background.

Sonny Boggs 2:32

Yeah, I will. Uh so to begin with, uh uh I was b I was uh raised in Southeast Kentucky, Laurel County, Kentucky. Um, and uh that's kind of where my uh interest in in public service started, you know. Uh growing up as a child, my uh uh heroes were not sports figures or rock and roll stars or country music stars. It was uh I I really enjoyed as a child watching the show Emergency with Get Gage in DeSoto. And I always thought that I would end up being a firefighter because I lived and breathed this show. I'll never forget it come on primetime TV, eight o'clock Saturday nights back in the mid-70s. And I'd never I would never miss it. Never missed an emphasis. No, I what I'd watch all of it, and I was just in intrigued by by that. And uh uh shortly thereafter, uh, you know, I I grew to about 15, 16 years old. Uh I joined the uh East Bernstead, East Bernstead, Kentucky fire department. Uh, and I have a brother that's a couple years younger than me, and they actually took him on too at the same time. He was 14, I was 16, and they took us both on. We didn't have nobody. They needed people to be firefighters, and they took us on at that young age, and that's 14 and 16. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can remember at 16 years old driving a fire truck. And my brother, who's 14 or maybe 15, uh uh would be in uh in the seat beside me and was responding to a you know call for service, fire or something like that.

David 3:59

The only thing make that better if you still had a learner's permit.

Speaker 1 4:02

I I actually had a driver's license. I was gonna say that would have made it more fun.

David 4:06

What an opportunity, man.

Speaker 1 4:08

You're you had to have stars in your eyes. I mean, oh I did. I mean, I was just I was happy, you know. I just that was just my thing. But I enjoyed that for a while and I decided that I wanted to do something more, and and uh I went to emergency medical technician school. I actually started that school when I was but 17 years old, but I couldn't certify until I was 18. Right. Uh I still remember my EMT certification number. It was 15660.

David 4:33

I can't remember mine. I'd have to dig through. I don't know why I don't have it because I wrote it so many times. But that's one thing, too, that uh early on is that I remember when I went to Eastern Kentucky University, I saw an EMT class, five credit hours. And I was always interested. I could have easily gone into paramedicine or medicine myself too. And I took it because I thought, oh, really like this? That'll be a five-hour A credit. You know, I would have got all those maxes. And when I got done, I actually ended up working on a truck in Louisville in a private service for a couple years. Uh let me ask you this. Do you think that helped you working with people like that and prepared you for your career in law enforcement? Absolutely, no doubt whatsoever.

Speaker 1 5:14

Absolutely helped me. Yes, it did. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, it did. It taught me how to deal with people who were in crisis. Right. Uh at a young age, you know, I was picking up on, you know, what I need to do, what I need to say, how to deal with folks that are in crisis, you know, take a whole lot of calm to the table. Take a lot of calm.

David 5:32

Especially I always tell people that I think what I learned from it, and it helped later, was uh you really learned how to define when an emergency was an emergency. And even then when somebody was pulse and pulse and apneic, right? Or in other words, their heart stopped and they weren't breathing, even then you knew you could do things to help. You but you're right, it took calm and measured responses, no flying off the cup. And I think that helped me years later.

EMT Lessons In Calm Under Crisis

Speaker 1 5:59

Absolutely, and I learned that early on. So after going to EMT school, uh I got a job with the uh Ambulance Incorporated of Laurel County. They're still in business today. And uh I went to work there and I worked there for a period of time, and uh we had uh some really old ambulances that we we drove in. One of them was a uh was a Hearst style ambulance, an old Oldsmobile. They still have the ambulance down there now. And we had a suburban, and then we had a couple of van type ambulances too. Uh so the ambulance service, their business and everything was uh uh the people that owned it. Uh the the the building was right behind their home. And we would go in there, we'd work 12-hour shifts, and we would stay there in that building behind their home and and respond to calls for service out of that out of that uh that building. And uh they had a son whose name was uh Tim, and Tim came home, he was in the military. I remember the day that he got off active duty military, he was walking up this driveway, and his parents greeted him very warmly, and you could tell they were very proud of him for being service in the military. I said, you know what? I kind of like that military. That might be an okay thing for me. And I decided that I wanted to join the military. So a few days after that, I walked into a military recruiting station on South Main Street in London, Kentucky, and walked in. I said, I think I'd like to join the Army. And they said, Well, what do you want to do? I said, Well, I I don't know. They said, We'll take this test, an ASFAB. Uh and uh I took this ASFAB test and they said to me, they said, Well, we think you qualify to be an MP. I said, What's that mean? Because I didn't know. They said, That's the military police. I said, Do you mean like a police officer uh out here on on you know in in in regular society? And they said, Yeah. So, okay, well, sign me up. Uh six months later, I was off to uh basic training and uh advanced individual training, which was MP School. That was in Fort McClellan, Alabama. Oh wow. Fort McClellan, Alabama, and that was 1986. Yeah, it was 1986.

Wendy 8:12

Far away from home, wasn't it?

Military Police To Investigator

Speaker 1 8:14

I I'd never flown on a plane. I'd never done anything. I went to the uh MEPS recruit uh MEPS station in Louisville. Okay, and uh and uh flew out of Louisville after uh, you know, I completed my in processing there, flew to Atlanta, got on a bus with a bunch of people never seen, didn't know who they were, and rode in the middle of the night on a bus to uh Fort McClellan, Alabama, got off and and uh completed my basic training in my military police school and uh and come out of there and got sent to uh my first duty state or only duty station was Fort Devons, Massachusetts. It's about uh well it's closed. The post has closed, been closed for at least 20, 25 years, I think now. Um it was uh west of uh Bolton, about 30 miles on Route 2. Um it was a uh the 10th Special Forces Group was there, 39th Engineers were there, the military intelligence uh uh electronic school was there, and then uh then us, and I was assigned to the Provost Marshal's office. Uh I worked as a as a gate guard on the gates coming into the facility. Uh, and then at the same time we would switch up, work the gates for one day, and next day you'd be patrol, uh, just like answer calls for service in a city or a municipality somewhere. And then after I did that, uh I was uh selected to uh go to SRT school. I was on the SRT there, and uh then I was kind of one of these guys as a as a young MP that when I would go and take a report on something that had a question mark, well, who did this work, you know, Isaac guy would just walk back and turn in, and I know you military folks will understand this, or MPs is 3975 DA form 3975 is a military police report. I didn't just want to throw it down and walk away, and I wanted to know what happened. I want to know, you know, if this theft occurred or this burglary occurred, who did it? You know, why did they do it? Where did it go? I was just one of those guys who wouldn't throw a report down. Well, that kind of stood out, and I got selected to be a military police investigator, uh, criminal investigator for the uh the MPs there, and I was assigned to the Fort Devons uh Military Police Off Post Operations, uh, and what we had responsibility for was the sixth state New England area. Uh I had uh myself and five other five other uh persons, and we worked in two-man teams, and we would travel the sixth-state New England area picking up A-Walls and deserters back in the 80s when it really meant something to be AWOL or a deserter. Oh, has that changed? I I don't think they they do much with it anymore, but that was back during the Cold War, and and you know, we I'd picked up, you know, young guys and and old guys too. I mean, I'd picked up some some folks that were had deserted from Vietnam. And they were they were still in, I know the police folks will understand this NCIC. They still had Morrison NCIC. Oh wow. And we would transport them to back to wherever they needed to be. And as a matter of fact, one of the last trips I did was uh we picked up two guys in New Hampshire and ended up taking them back to uh Fort Richardson, Alaska. Oh, that's a trip. That's as well. That was my last trip as a as an investigator delivering prisoners back there after we picked them up.

Wendy 11:27

How crazy. Well, what a background.

Speaker 1 11:31

Yeah, and then I I come I I decided, well, back up while I was uh while I was in, I my father had passed away unexpectedly, and I had entertained the idea of maybe staying in the military before it happened, but after my father passed away, uh I wanted to come home and be with my family. And uh so I ended my uh tour of military service. Uh I got out, I came home, and uh decided, well, hey, I gotta have, you know, I gotta work. So I didn't know what I was gonna do. I was out just a couple weeks out of the military, and my mom, my mother, uh, who's also deceased now, uh suggested, hey, why don't you go to Frankfurt and try to get you a state job? They like to hire, the state likes to hire prior military. I said, Well, I'll try that. So I go to Frankfurt and uh I go to the I don't know, someplace where you take tests, and I seen a posting for a police job for Kentucky State University, a police officer job. And I said, Well, this might work. So I'm here, Kentucky State University here in Frankfurt, I'll just go down there and talk to them and see what they have to say. So I I walk in uh to the Kentucky State University police. There was a dispatcher there, and I said, I understand you guys are hiring for police. I said, uh, I think I'd like to make application. They said, the guy, the dispatcher, said, Hold on a minute, we'll get somebody. So the chief came out and says, Come on back. So he sits down. I told him, you know, I was an MP and I'm looking for a job and this and that. And he says, Well, fill out this application. I fill out the application, give him a copy of my military discharge paper, DD 214. It indicates that I'd been through military police school and so on and so forth. And he looks at it and he says, Well, says, I'm gonna I'm gonna check your record if you if you don't have a record, says, I think I might hire you. I said, Well, I don't have a record. So evidently they went out. Uh they didn't even actually have an NCIC terminal there. They had to call the state police who we had a user agreement with, and they run, I didn't handle criminal history. So on the spot, the same day, within the same hour that I filled out the application, he said, I think I'm gonna hire you. Said I'd like if you get in that closet and pick you out some uniforms that will fit you. And here's your uh uh basket weave uh leather gear, uh, a Model 10 wheel gun 38, Smith and Wesson. And uh they took me upstairs to uh uh the regional uh their no their counsel at the time, um Reggie Thomas. That name sounds like he's uh he's a state uh representative in Lexton now. Okay, yeah, yeah. And uh they took me up to him and he swore me in and I went to work. As uh and he says, Well, I need you to be work Friday. This was like on a Wednesday, so I need you to work on Friday night.

Wendy 14:08

No police academy.

Speaker 1 14:09

I said, I said, sir. I said, I said, I've never been through the police academy. He says, You were an MP, weren't you? I said, Yes, sir. He said, Well, we'll get you to school later. In the meantime, I need you to be work Friday night. So I suited up and I came to work Friday night, come 10-8. That's police jargon again, uh, and went to work and started policing, and that would have been uh 1989. Yeah, gotcha.

David 14:31

What a wow. Wow. Yeah, the likelihood of that these days is pretty slim. Oh yeah, it's very different. Post certifications and things like that.

Returning Home And Early Policing

Wendy 14:39

Yes, that's crazy, Sonny. So you I guess you didn't know any of the codes or the signals or the tins, nothing.

Speaker 1 14:46

Well, I knew some of the tin codes and stuff, which we used a lot back then. They a lot of them under, you know, I understood go, you know, 1097, 1098, 1008. I understood that, but I know very little about Kentucky Revised Statute. There's the and I was kind of I was kind of operating, you know, huh. This is legal. Yeah. You know, I understood the uniform code of military justice and how I would apply that to certain subjects. That's a little different. It is different. And but with the Kentucky Revised Statute, you know, I didn't know nothing about it, but you know, I had to have a job, so somehow or another I made my way through. And uh they finally sent me to uh Eastern Kentucky University, the Department of Criminal Justice training. Uh that would have been 1991. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I was there the year after. Okay. Isn't that crazy? Yes. Mystery by a year. I lived in the uh the well, they kept us in the hotels there just off of 75.

David 15:39

Oh, that rat trap, that fire trap that we we did too. Uh we did our first 10 weeks there, and then we came back to Lexington. Yeah. And I've got to say that when you worked for Lexington, those rooms had to be immaculate and because they'd come and inspect them. Yeah. But I remember like trying to turn on a lamp and it arcing and smoking. And the the hotel is long gone, but it was it was a fire trap.

Speaker 1 16:01

I I I can't remember the old the name of the old The Night's Inn maybe? Yeah, I think something like that. I think it was Night's Inn or something like that. It was a it was an old hotel that we stayed in, and but I got through that. Went back uh I went back uh to Kentucky State University. Uh I was able to be promoted. I was promoted to sergeant, and then I ended up being an investigator or detective for them. And then uh I worked there for uh a couple years, and I decided, well, this is just not the place I want to police. And the first job came open was uh LaGrange, Kentucky Police Department.

David 16:34

Uh and where's LeGrange at in Kentucky? What's uh just to give people a feel for what big city it might be near.

Speaker 1 16:40

LeGrange, Kentucky is just north of uh Louisville on I-71, about uh approximately approximately 22 miles, uh 20 20, 22 miles north of Louisville on I-71. It's between Cincinnati and Louisville, so it's right on I-71. It's uh Oldham County is the county out there. It's a really nice community too. It's just a beautiful place. It's a horse farm community. And uh I applied out there and uh and got hired and uh went to work out there in 1920. Did they train you and stuff first?

Wendy 17:11

Uh well you mean he was an old vet by then.

Speaker 1 17:14

I I I I was very marketable, and that was back during a time when you know uh uh if you was certified uh been through DLC JT and you had a post, you had a clean background, you'd gonna get hired. And I and I got hired there. And uh I was very fortunate to to get that job. Uh I know that uh I made uh crazy small money back then.

Wendy 17:36

I was you about took the words out of my. I was gonna say, what was a police officer making back then?

Speaker 1 17:41

Oh, I'll I I'll I'll never forget it. I went from making like four dollars and maybe thirty, forty cents an hour at Kentucky State University to nine dollars and eleven cents an hour at LaGrange PD.

David 17:53

Oh, you were independently wealthy. I thought I was, yeah.

Small Town Departments And Limits

Wendy 17:57

Are you can four dollars for the first one and nine for the second?

Speaker 1 18:01

Yeah. Nine dollars and eleven cents an hour, and that included the dollar twenty an hour that the state pays you for the collect money. Yeah, exactly. I got a good memory. And my every other week paycheck was five hundred and twenty-six dollars and five cents. Wow.

David 18:19

Come a long way, baby. Finally, come a long way. I remember those days too. Yeah. Uh I remember those days too. Interesting. So how big was the Grange PD at the time when you were small, probably eight or nine people. Yeah, but you don't nationally, Sonny, that's the size of most PDs. It is. You know, we see movies and TV and you see big things like LA, Chicago, and everything, and uh and even Louisville for that fact. And that those are not normal. It's usually the smaller uh municipal police department or sheriff's office that's carrying the weight. So I just wanted to to to highlight how many people were there, how few people, because that has an impact on investigations and stuff. Oh, it does because our resources are very limited.

Speaker 1 19:00

Oh, go big time. Your resources are limited. So I worked uh at LaGrange PD uh for about six years, and then I went on to Louisville Division of Police because Louisville Metro was non-existence yet, and uh went down there as a lateral transfer officer and and worked there.

Wendy 19:16

Uh Did you get a pay raise?

Speaker 1 19:17

Uh yes, I got a little pay raise. And I don't remember what the salary was. I I think I was I was close to like fifty thousand dollars a year by the time I went to Louisville Division. And uh then uh uh I was in the Kentucky Army National Guard and uh got sent uh got deployed and sent to Iraq after 9-11 and and I come back and I was uh I think I thought I was ready to be done with policing. I thought I was, and I left Louisville and I moved out to Woodford County with my wife and we started a business. And that's that.

Shift To Louisville And Deployment

David 19:52

I th I love it when you go through so much detail because uh we'll get into the case. Sure. But I think it's neat for people to hear what motivates people to get into this job, and this case is going to express more of that with you. People are gonna really see what it takes, despite what they see in TV and movies, to do the job. And to to highlight a couple of things. One is you you started with the question mark, the curiosity. That in the policing business does it's a separator that uh the people that show that next level of interest usually do go into investigative. It doesn't mean that the people out there taking a report don't have any value. I never would say that. Because it it you you bring that what you want out of that job and it's fulfilling either way and it's important work, but that curiosity is usually where people, other people start looking and saying, hey, that sunny guy, he he follows through a little bit more. Uh and I don't know when we were in the unit and knew people were interested in coming in, we would talk a lot about do they have that on board? Do when they when names would come up, we'd be we were actually pretty judgmental about it. Like, do they follow through? So I think people hear that. But uh in the end, this is a calling. And just like you, uh despite what Wendy said about your wife running you out of the house, it still calls it it still called you. And I think that that's it too. So uh fantastic stuff. What a history and what a variety. Uh we were so close to almost getting electrocuted together in that hotel.

Speaker 1 21:19

Yeah, really.

David 21:20

We've probably been in service at some point in time.

Speaker 1 21:22

I have no doubt. I bet we have.

David 21:24

Yeah, I have no doubt. Um it's funny how the how small the world is. So well, I guess if if you can uh uh give us like a uh an elevator pitch as to what this case is about, uh who the victim was, and then we'll rock into it.

Case Overview: Who Was Myra

Timeline Begins: Calls And Turnaround

Speaker 1 21:42

So the case I want to talk about today is a case I worked at started back in uh it was it 1995, April of 1995. The victim in the case, uh uh her name was Myra Danette Stalboski. Myra Danette Stalboski was from Russellville, Ohio, and uh she was but eight. 18 years old. This is a case about a uh uh forcible rape and uh and uh intentional homicide. Uh and she was from Russellville, Ohio. Uh she was a uh reserve uh female police officer for the village of Peebles, Ohio. And uh she her father was a chief of police uh Fort Russellville, Ohio, where they lived. Oh wow. Yeah and this uh happened uh in in April of 1995. Uh and I'll kind of go into the timeline of this event. So uh in April 1995, uh I had uh well I'd been working for the Grange Police Department for three years, uh and I finally was able to move to day shift, and uh I was working on day shift uh on about uh April the 28th of 1995 when I reported for duty uh and the officer that had worked the night previous, who was working by himself at night there, uh uh I said, you know, we we transfer information at the beginning of the shift. And I said, Well, what went on last night? I said, Well, we had a robbery at the BP gas station on uh South Highway 53, uh, and then we have a missing persons report that I took last night uh from an individual whom I believe is still at the Waffle House uh there uh close to the intersection of 53 in New Moody. And uh he says, nobody's followed up on it. He says, I've been busy, I was kind of busy last night and couldn't do anything with it. Uh I said, well, uh okay, I'll I'll take this missing person thing because this guy's up there and I'll go up and talk to him. So I went to the Waffle House and I located the complaint on the uh the uh missing person. Uh this guy's name was Michael uh Stalbosky. Uh he was the father of the 18 uh year old person uh that was reported missing on uh the n on the night, late night of April 27th. And uh he explains to me that his daughter had left their home in Russellville, Ohio on the morning of April the 27th. She was uh taking her brother to his workplace in northern Kentucky, uh somewhere close to Covington or something like that, and she had dropped him off at work, and then she had left there and she started traveling to um Eddieville, Kentucky, and she was going there for the purpose of picking up her brother's girlfriend who lived in Edyville, Kentucky, and she was going to bring him back. Mr. Stelboski reports to me that uh he had received a series of phone calls from his daughter, uh Myra, uh, indicating uh that she got as far as south, going toward Eddieville, Kentucky on I-65, uh, and and that she had started calling saying she was experiencing mechanical difficulties with her truck, did not think that she was going to be able to make it all the way uh to Eddieville, Kentucky. So she turned around and uh she uh started to come back home. Uh he said uh the second phone call that he received from her uh that she had made it to a rest area somewhere on I-71, which we were able later to identify the rest area. It's near the uh uh Jefferson County, Alden County line on the northbound side of I-71. She had made it there and that uh her truck was having troubles in it. She had uh met a truck driver who looked at her truck and indicated that he thought it was, you know, something was wrong with it and that he was going to follow her to the next exit to get off, and so on and so forth. And then uh the last, the third and final phone call that he had received from her, and again, I will never forget this. The f the third and final phone call uh lasted for 14.7 seconds. And in that phone call, she communicated to him that uh I'm in LaGrange, Kentucky, exit 22. Can you please come get me? And he states that when he arrived there at exit 22, um uh and her truck was parked on the parking lot. Uh, I don't think there are Super Americas anymore. I maybe there's one here in Lexton. I I'm not sure, but this was a Super America that her truck was parked on. He said her truck was here, she was nowhere to be found. Don't know where she's at. This is, you know, I I I we just don't know. We don't know what happened to her. Um so you know, in in talking to Mr. Stalboski during that period of time and early early on, and he never initially identified to me that he was the chief of police or anything, very humble, uh you know, salted earth kind of guy. Uh and uh I said, well, you know, they've got a video camera over here on this parking lot where her truck is parked. Now, that's back during a time when you had very low quality video. So black and white, black and white VHS.

David 26:59

So I can I say something about that too, because it's we talk about people always like do they have video, and back then it was horrible. They usually re-recorded over the tapes. I mean, you had to to save money. And in commercial establishments, to keep in mind too that most of the video was there to deter employee theft. Sure. It it really wasn't based on some of it was, but it wasn't based on robbery. But I just remember the tapes you I would remember getting them from banks, and you'd be like, My God, this is a bank, and this is the best they can have. So rough stuff to work with.

Speaker 1 27:29

Rough stuff. It was. And uh, but I went over there and I asked the clerk on duty, I said, could we please did you have a recording of what took place here, Steve? And they said, Yeah, we did. So she backed the tape up and let me look at it. I seen the Stalboski vehicle pull on. It was uh uh old blue 1978 Ford F-250 four-wheel drive pickup truck that she pulled on the parking lot, and right after her pulling on there, a large tractor trailer uh uh pulling a uh what I called a chemical or dry bulk type heavy-duty trailer pulled on behind her, is stopped, and uh shortly thereafter I seen the truck exit the parking lot, come back in front of the camera and leave, and Miss Dolboski was not seen there anymore.

Wendy 28:20

And her truck still stays there.

Surveillance Tape And The Tractor Trailer

Speaker 1 28:22

Her truck is still there, but the tractor trailer is now gone. Can you recall if it still had keys in it? Personal effects? I don't there was no personal effects. Her the her purse uh and she had a uh a police ID and stuff like that that we we never you know we we searched for and never did find it, but we didn't find the the keys to the the truck, you know, either. And yeah, her personal effects were gone. So um I called my boss, our chief at the time, because that's the only boss we had. We had a chief, had you know, one chief and a bunch of uh Indians. Indians, that's it. And I called him and I said, boss, I said, uh, we I think there's some merit. There's something wrong with this this case here. I said, I think we need to put out some information uh to try to locate, you know, this this this girl. I said, I you know, I have some suspicions about this truck. Uh there's very little doubt in my mind that you know it was involved in you know her being gone or you know, where she's at. And he says, okay, so we actually had a uh public information officer guy designated, and he came up and we had called a bunch of the media from Louisville to come out, and as they were responding out there, uh uh Mr. Staboski and I and his son was standing on the north side of the parking lot of the Super America, they're near the intersection of 53 New Moody in Oldham County, and you can see I-71. You can see both lanes, a lane that went north, and then one that came back south.

Speaker 4 30:04

So I heard a jig brake.

Speaker 1 30:15

For those of you that may not understand it, it's a compression brake on a truck that helps a truck slow down. I heard the noise of a compression brake, jake brake, whatever you want to call it, and I looked down at I-71 and on the southbound lanes of I-71, at the same time I heard his jig brake, I looked directly at a truck that looked exactly like the truck that I had just seen on uh the video just a little while before that. And I paused and I thought, well, it's better long shot, but better than no shot at all. So I radioed ahead to a Oldham County police officer uh that I knew that was on duty working that day, and I said, you know, I said, Where are you? He says, I'm at the 17 mile marker on the southbound side of I-71. I said, You will be having a truck come through, and I gave him a description of the truck. I said, When that truck comes through, could you please pull it over and stop it? I'd like to talk to the guy that's driving a truck. The truck did come through. He found the truck, he pulled the truck over, he radioed to me that he had the truck on the side of the road, and he would have probably been somewhere around the 15 mile marker, uh 14-15 mile marker on the uh uh southbound side of S-71 there in Oldham County.

Wendy 31:39

So I have to ask, did you tell the dad? Hold on, I've got to call an officer. I think I saw something, or did you just politely excuse yourself?

Media Call And A Jake Brake

The Traffic Stop On I-71

Speaker 1 31:48

I didn't have time to tell. I I just grabbed my radio. I mean, I pause, I gave pause for maybe not even five seconds. I was like, uh, we gotta try, you know. So I called this other officer and he got this, he located this vehicle and got it stopped for me. Well, I had Mr. Stolboski and Myra Stolboski's brother with me there in the parking lot of that Super America, and I told him, I said, Come on, you you go with me. We're going down here. I think I want to talk this guy in his truck. I'm not gonna leave you standing here in his parking lot. So they got in the vehicle with me, Mr. Stolboski. He's sitting in the front seat and uh in the pastor seat, and the uh the brother is in in the back seat of my my police vehicle. It was a 92 Ford Crown Vic. Uh so we we get on I-71 and I'm traveling, you know, moving right along, getting on down to uh where this truck is pulled over, and I pull up behind the other county police officer's vehicle, and uh, and I get out and I walk up toward uh to the rear of the truck, and this other officer has the driver of the truck out on the side of the road, and I walk up and introduce myself. I said, Look, I said, brothers, thank you for you know helping us out here. I said, once you understand you're not under arrest, we're just working on a missing person case. And uh I said, I I I got some do you mind to talk to me? He said, No, I'll talk to you. I said, uh his name, you know, I got his identification, his name, and I'll go ahead and identify him now. His name was William Christopher Ballou, and uh he was from uh Paris, uh, Tennessee. And uh looked at his driver's eyes. I said, Your name is Chris. He said, Yes. Then he got me, he gave me some CB name and he everybody calls me this. I said, Well, I'm Sonny. He just called me Sonny, and I said, Let's talk for a minute. I said, Were you through here Yesterday? He says, Um, well, I really don't remember. I I can't recall. I don't I don't know if I was or not. Well, that's the first sign, you know. You're you're you know I said, Well, I said, I said, Chris, I said, you can't remember if you were through here yesterday? He said, No, I can't really remember. I said, You have a logbook. He said, Yeah, but I'll tell you right now, I lie and cheat on my logbook all the time. I wouldn't believe what's in there. I was like, you know, I was a young guy and inexperienced, but I knew that no reasonable person would sit and tell two uniformed police officers that you lie and cheat on your logbook in a commercial vehicle if you did not have something greater to conceal.

David 34:25

Yeah, because that's a for people who don't know, that's a huge deal where you make your living with that commercial vehicle license and it can get revoked over stuff like that. And uh uh real quick going back, before you called the chief, because you knew something was about this, I know you saw her truck and the tractor trailer. Was there an intuition starting to burn on you about that that spoke to you as well? Was there a feeling and emotion at starting to do that?

Speaker 1 34:48

Well, there there was, and I'll tell you, in talking to Mr. Stolboski, the father of the victim, the intuition was this is a this is a good salt of the earth family. And that that feeling that I had was not a brother police type thing because I did not know that he was a police officer at that time when when I made that call to our chief of police. This was a thing, hey, this is a good humble guy that's got a family and you know he's looking for his daughter and something's not right about this. It just felt wrong. It just it just it's just something felt wrong about it to me.

David 35:25

That's an important thing to know is that sometimes these things are guided by that something as simple as the way we feel. It's not everything. That's right. But man, I'll tell you what, I think it is the difference maker when you're triaging a case sometimes. So all these small little pieces start to develop that feeling. They do. So you take that and you you have that feeling, you want to advance it on. When you look through that that viewpoint down on I-71 and you hear the jake brakes, um, and then for that glimpse of that thing, did that speak again? Did because okay, it's a truck and it's got jake breaks, but did it did something talk to you again?

An Alibi Unravels At The Shoulder

Speaker 1 36:01

I don't know what talked to me. Something talked to me and says, get this truck stopped and take a look at this guy.

Wendy 36:09

Hey, you know there's more to the story, so go download the next episode like the true crime fan that you are.

David 36:15

The Murder Police Podcast is hosted by Wendy and David Lyons and was created to honor the lives of crime victims so their names are never forgotten. It is produced, recorded, and edited by David Lyons. The Murder Police Podcast can be found on your favorite Apple or Android podcast platform, as well as at MurderPolice Podcast.com, where you will find show notes, transcripts, information about our presenters, and a link to the official Murder Police Podcast merch store, where you can purchase a huge variety of Murder Police Podcast swag. We are also on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, which is closed caption for those that are hearing impaired. Just search for the Murder Police Podcast and you will find us. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe for more and give us five stars in a written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts. Make sure you set your play or automatically download new episodes so you get the new ones as soon as they drop. And please tell your friends. Lock it down, Judy.