School of Humans. I'm in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas, trying to investigate the case of nine year old Christina Pipkin, who went missing from her home on Doty Street in May of nineteen ninety one. I'm with Amy Tubbs, whose father in law was a suspect in the case, Denise who's a friend of the families, who's been investigating this case for several years, and Denise's friend. We've been driving around town for a while now, and the whole town seems to be talking about this case. Hickory Ridge is pretty small right now. The population is between one and two hundred people. Needless to say, the entire town has been talking about the Christina Pipkin case. Our investigation has even made the local radio.

School of Humans. I'm in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas, trying to investigate the case of nine year old Christina Pipkin, who went missing from her home on Doty Street in May of nineteen ninety one. I'm with Amy Tubbs, whose father in law was a suspect in the case, Denise who's a friend of the families, who's been investigating this case for several years, and Denise's friend. We've been driving around town for a while now, and the whole town seems to be talking about this case. Hickory Ridge is pretty small right now. The population is between one and two hundred people. Needless to say, the entire town has been talking about the Christina Pipkin case. Our investigation has even made the local radio.

Catherine Townsend, host of the Hell and Gone podcast, is investigating the nineteen ninety one kidnapping and murderer of nine year old Christina Pipkin and Hickory Ridge Pipkin with kidnapped and kill.

Catherine Townsend, host of the Hell and Gone podcast, is investigating the nineteen ninety one kidnapping and murderer of nine year old Christina Pipkin and Hickory Ridge Pipkin with kidnapped and kill.

Christina was selling jewelry door to door for a school fundraiser on May fourth, nineteen ninety one, when she disappeared without a trace. Three days later, Christina's body was found in Cow Lake ditch, a body of water about three point five miles from her home. Police suspected foul play, but they haven't commented on the manner of death, and when Amy and I got the case file from the Arkansas State Police after our foury requests were granted, the autopsy was not included. Over thirty years later, this case is still unsolved. There's very little hard evidence in this case. With a lot of witnesses dead or missing, it can sometimes feel like we're chasing ghosts. We'll pull up to buildings and find vacant lots, we knock on a lot of wrong doors, and we've run into a lot of dead ends, but we are making progress. In our last episode, we track down the last place where Christina Pipkin was seen alive, the bear Cat Grocery Store on the main drag of Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. It shares a parking lot with a Cross County bank. In a case where rumors have been flying for three decades, it's hard to separate fact from fiction, but we do have two things that we know for sure. One that Christina was last seen by multiple witnesses in the area of the Bearcat Convenience Store in the bank and two the location where her body was dumped. We need to go to that site. We need to go to col Lake Ditch, so we head out Route forty two toward Bedeville to the spot where Christina's body was found in the water. I'm Catherine Townsend. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four four, six one four or five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. In our last episode, we tracked down the cashier who worked at the Bearcat grocery store on May fourth, nineteen ninety one, the night when Christina Pipkin went missing. Police did talk to the other three employees who on the job that day, but according to the case file, either they didn't see the stranger or they were gone by the time he came in the store. Even though they don't think they saw anything, I'm really hoping they we'll get in touch with us, because, as we've said many times before, the interviews that the police did were very brief. One tiny detail can be the thing that makes this case change course. We're looking for all of those missing pieces. The cashier who we talked to gave us the composite drawing the ones she did with the Arkansas State Police. It's been in her safe for over thirty years. She described a brown car that the stranger who came in the Bearcat that day was driving. The image that we saw in the composite photo looked very similar to photos of Robbie Tubbs back in the day. But I want to be clear, his being there, even if it's confirmed have been him, does not mean that Robbie Tubbs did anything wrong. There were several other people in the Bearcat's store that night. Based on what we're seeing, it seems like half the town passed through there that day. We need more information. One of the other cashiers who's working at the bear Cat that night has called me back. This person did not want me to use her name, but she said she was working at the register between around six and seven pm on May fourth. She vividly remembers Christina Pipkin coming into the store that night, and I think that the information she has could be crucial. Here's what she said.

Christina was selling jewelry door to door for a school fundraiser on May fourth, nineteen ninety one, when she disappeared without a trace. Three days later, Christina's body was found in Cow Lake ditch, a body of water about three point five miles from her home. Police suspected foul play, but they haven't commented on the manner of death, and when Amy and I got the case file from the Arkansas State Police after our foury requests were granted, the autopsy was not included. Over thirty years later, this case is still unsolved. There's very little hard evidence in this case. With a lot of witnesses dead or missing, it can sometimes feel like we're chasing ghosts. We'll pull up to buildings and find vacant lots, we knock on a lot of wrong doors, and we've run into a lot of dead ends, but we are making progress. In our last episode, we track down the last place where Christina Pipkin was seen alive, the bear Cat Grocery Store on the main drag of Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. It shares a parking lot with a Cross County bank. In a case where rumors have been flying for three decades, it's hard to separate fact from fiction, but we do have two things that we know for sure. One that Christina was last seen by multiple witnesses in the area of the Bearcat Convenience Store in the bank and two the location where her body was dumped. We need to go to that site. We need to go to col Lake Ditch, so we head out Route forty two toward Bedeville to the spot where Christina's body was found in the water. I'm Catherine Townsend. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four four, six one four or five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. In our last episode, we tracked down the cashier who worked at the Bearcat grocery store on May fourth, nineteen ninety one, the night when Christina Pipkin went missing. Police did talk to the other three employees who on the job that day, but according to the case file, either they didn't see the stranger or they were gone by the time he came in the store. Even though they don't think they saw anything, I'm really hoping they we'll get in touch with us, because, as we've said many times before, the interviews that the police did were very brief. One tiny detail can be the thing that makes this case change course. We're looking for all of those missing pieces. The cashier who we talked to gave us the composite drawing the ones she did with the Arkansas State Police. It's been in her safe for over thirty years. She described a brown car that the stranger who came in the Bearcat that day was driving. The image that we saw in the composite photo looked very similar to photos of Robbie Tubbs back in the day. But I want to be clear, his being there, even if it's confirmed have been him, does not mean that Robbie Tubbs did anything wrong. There were several other people in the Bearcat's store that night. Based on what we're seeing, it seems like half the town passed through there that day. We need more information. One of the other cashiers who's working at the bear Cat that night has called me back. This person did not want me to use her name, but she said she was working at the register between around six and seven pm on May fourth. She vividly remembers Christina Pipkin coming into the store that night, and I think that the information she has could be crucial. Here's what she said.

I was at one of the registers, and I'm not sure if I was fagging for someone, if I was actually running the register at scene. I was running the register and Christina walked in, and nevertheless the carpet or the mat the stores have, but she just walked at the door and stood there and we said, hey, Christina, goes up. I do not remember any kind of paper or pencil in her hands. As I remember, it was odd. You know, normally kids just like are not scared of my something, and they would have talked. I feel like she would have been selling jewelry at that point. She would have asked us, But that's beside the point. At the time I saw her, I did not know she was selling jewelry. That was later, but she, you know, was hey, what's up? And she just kind of shrugged. And the reason I don't think anything was in her hands because I can remember the expression on her face so clearly, and she just kind of shrugged. And you know how little girls are those shrugs in her hands in the air, you know, just like she didn't have a look of fear. I can see her expression in my mind when I shut my eyes. It was a fear. It was more like, how no, why I stepped in? It was just I mean, she smiled and just turned around and walked out.

I was at one of the registers, and I'm not sure if I was fagging for someone, if I was actually running the register at scene. I was running the register and Christina walked in, and nevertheless the carpet or the mat the stores have, but she just walked at the door and stood there and we said, hey, Christina, goes up. I do not remember any kind of paper or pencil in her hands. As I remember, it was odd. You know, normally kids just like are not scared of my something, and they would have talked. I feel like she would have been selling jewelry at that point. She would have asked us, But that's beside the point. At the time I saw her, I did not know she was selling jewelry. That was later, but she, you know, was hey, what's up? And she just kind of shrugged. And the reason I don't think anything was in her hands because I can remember the expression on her face so clearly, and she just kind of shrugged. And you know how little girls are those shrugs in her hands in the air, you know, just like she didn't have a look of fear. I can see her expression in my mind when I shut my eyes. It was a fear. It was more like, how no, why I stepped in? It was just I mean, she smiled and just turned around and walked out.

I would still love to talk to anyone else, employees or people who were in the Bearcat store that night. So in the meantime, let's go forward in time to May seventh, the day when Christina's body was found in cal Lake Ditch.

I would still love to talk to anyone else, employees or people who were in the Bearcat store that night. So in the meantime, let's go forward in time to May seventh, the day when Christina's body was found in cal Lake Ditch.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's actually a good body dump place, but not a good swimming place, you know what I mean? Yeah, because they say it. One time it was they thought it was a swimming hold or something. Well, they said that. People have We've looked at this location a lot on Google Maps, but sometimes you have to go to the source. You have to go to the site. But yeah, if you look at that value on the map and two figure runs to yeah, and when those fields are blooded like it. Jane is Amy, Denise and I took a ride out to Calake Ditch. We were trying to figure out where Christina's body had been dumped and to see if the location could tell us anything about what happened to her. It's like down here, there's water down here. Yeah, I mean it has come up. As you can hear. Its windy and clear and cold. Right now. It's a sunny day. The ditch is low and the water is flowing pretty slowly, but we discussed the fact that if there had been rained recently, the current could get super strong, like it was on the day Christina's body was found. Yeah, this is the melon nowhere. Man, there's just I was. You know, when you hear about it, you're like, oh, maybe it's like a local swimming hall, you know what I mean. But this is l huh huh. As we said in the last episode, we did not get any access to the autopsy report as part of the case file, but we did get documents followed by Robbie Tubbs's defense lawyer, and in those documents he refers to forensic testing that was done on Christina's body. It showed that the water and mud in her lungs matched the water from cal Lake Ditch. We also got a few more details from the case file that came from the autopsy report. Doctor Fammi Malik, the metal examiner at the time, indicated that there was obvious decomposition. He believed that Christina had been in the water for about three days, meaning that she was not kidnapped and kept somewhere else. For example, she was almost certainly dumped there or fell in there on the day she went missing. Doctor Malick also said there were no signs of strangulation. He said he'd X rayed the body from outside and inside. He found no stab wounds, no obvious cuts or bruises. He also told investigators Christina's body had a blood alcohol level of point zero three percent, but he attributed that to the decomposition of the body. Blood alcohol level can rise as a side effect of the decomposition process. Other than that, the toxicology report. We're not quite sure what tests they performed in that talk screening, but according to what doctor Malick said in the case file, the results of those tests seemed normal. There was much found Christina's stomach. There were also pickles and carrots found. Investigators asked doctor Malick if he could figure out what had happened to Christina. Doctor Mallick quote was emphatic he could find no other cause of death other than drowning end quote. But when they asked him about the possibility, for example, that she could have been smothered or choked to the point of unconsciousness, doctor Malick said he didn't have enough information to know how to answer that for sure. The report reads quote when given the supposition that one could smother an individual to the point of unconscious and then throw that person into the river. Doctor Malleck could make no comment regarding this, but said that this was a possibility end quote. I know it's frustrating not to have access to the autopsy report, but again, we're like Sherlock Holmes here, we're trying to rule out the impossible and see what possibilities were left with. So we have ruled out the possibility that Christina drowned somewhere else. Whatever happened to Christina Pipkin happened out here in this ditch. So what we know is this cause of death drowning, manner of death undetermined. Christina's body was found about a mile and a half west of the Jackson and Cross County lines on State Highway forty two. Okay, Amy, Denise and I pull up to the address we have for a man named mister White. Where are you all going? We're just gonna walk up to the tour and hopefully he was the person who was out with his son when they found Christina's body on May seventh. Yes, you didn't leave him a business card?

It's actually a good body dump place, but not a good swimming place, you know what I mean? Yeah, because they say it. One time it was they thought it was a swimming hold or something. Well, they said that. People have We've looked at this location a lot on Google Maps, but sometimes you have to go to the source. You have to go to the site. But yeah, if you look at that value on the map and two figure runs to yeah, and when those fields are blooded like it. Jane is Amy, Denise and I took a ride out to Calake Ditch. We were trying to figure out where Christina's body had been dumped and to see if the location could tell us anything about what happened to her. It's like down here, there's water down here. Yeah, I mean it has come up. As you can hear. Its windy and clear and cold. Right now. It's a sunny day. The ditch is low and the water is flowing pretty slowly, but we discussed the fact that if there had been rained recently, the current could get super strong, like it was on the day Christina's body was found. Yeah, this is the melon nowhere. Man, there's just I was. You know, when you hear about it, you're like, oh, maybe it's like a local swimming hall, you know what I mean. But this is l huh huh. As we said in the last episode, we did not get any access to the autopsy report as part of the case file, but we did get documents followed by Robbie Tubbs's defense lawyer, and in those documents he refers to forensic testing that was done on Christina's body. It showed that the water and mud in her lungs matched the water from cal Lake Ditch. We also got a few more details from the case file that came from the autopsy report. Doctor Fammi Malik, the metal examiner at the time, indicated that there was obvious decomposition. He believed that Christina had been in the water for about three days, meaning that she was not kidnapped and kept somewhere else. For example, she was almost certainly dumped there or fell in there on the day she went missing. Doctor Malick also said there were no signs of strangulation. He said he'd X rayed the body from outside and inside. He found no stab wounds, no obvious cuts or bruises. He also told investigators Christina's body had a blood alcohol level of point zero three percent, but he attributed that to the decomposition of the body. Blood alcohol level can rise as a side effect of the decomposition process. Other than that, the toxicology report. We're not quite sure what tests they performed in that talk screening, but according to what doctor Malick said in the case file, the results of those tests seemed normal. There was much found Christina's stomach. There were also pickles and carrots found. Investigators asked doctor Malick if he could figure out what had happened to Christina. Doctor Mallick quote was emphatic he could find no other cause of death other than drowning end quote. But when they asked him about the possibility, for example, that she could have been smothered or choked to the point of unconsciousness, doctor Malick said he didn't have enough information to know how to answer that for sure. The report reads quote when given the supposition that one could smother an individual to the point of unconscious and then throw that person into the river. Doctor Malleck could make no comment regarding this, but said that this was a possibility end quote. I know it's frustrating not to have access to the autopsy report, but again, we're like Sherlock Holmes here, we're trying to rule out the impossible and see what possibilities were left with. So we have ruled out the possibility that Christina drowned somewhere else. Whatever happened to Christina Pipkin happened out here in this ditch. So what we know is this cause of death drowning, manner of death undetermined. Christina's body was found about a mile and a half west of the Jackson and Cross County lines on State Highway forty two. Okay, Amy, Denise and I pull up to the address we have for a man named mister White. Where are you all going? We're just gonna walk up to the tour and hopefully he was the person who was out with his son when they found Christina's body on May seventh. Yes, you didn't leave him a business card?

No?

No?

Because I think we need to kind of I feel like if they see it. Sometimes like it'll be like, oh, it's intimidating to call. But if you if we're really could come up, we're just like two nights agirls that you're just yeah. If we don't make contact at all, I will even note like explaining what it is, but I just think it's better to in this case, better if he sees us. One thing that seemed weird to me was that if Christina was dumped out here, this is a very rural area, if someone drove her here, I wondered, wouldn't that car have been seen by someone, maybe a neighbor. And it turns out, according to the case file, there were people at cal Lake Ditch on the evening of May fourth, nineteen ninety one. A man named Morgan Davis and some of his friends, Ricky has and Ricky's wife were out frog gigging. Now, for those of you who aren't from Arkansas, and even those who are, I'm from South Arkansas and I had no idea what frog gigging is. A lot of people know that frog legs are a delicacy in places like France, but some people don't know they're also a popular menu item in Arkansas, so people go bullfrog hunting, which they call gigging. The best and indeed the only time to go frog gigging is really at night. On May fourth, Morgan Davis launched his boat at a around nine to fifteen to nine thirty pm off Calai Ditch. I asked my dad about frog gigging, and he told me how it worked. To hunt frogs, you shine a flashlight around the water, and the idea is that you can see the frog's eyes reflect back at you. My dad tells me, by the way, if you see eyes reflecting red back at you and not white, you should run because it's probably an alligator. You also have to avoid a lot of other pitfalls at night, like water moccasins and tree branches and other hazards. There are apparently two types of frog traps, the ones that simply entrap the frog in a net and the kind that kind of look like a trident. People use that to basically stab and scoop the bullfrogs into the boat. Morgan, Ricky, and Ricky's wife stayed out all night. They came in when dawn was breaking on the morning of May fifth. During that time, they said they never saw any stranger or any strange car. Everything seemed completely normal, and they were in that area where Christina's body was found. Also answered a question about the weather. A lot of people talked about how the area had been flooded and wondered if there had been rain the day Christina went missing. But he answered that question. He said, there was a big storm, but it happened on Sunday morning, the day after Christina went missing. On Saturday night, it was warm and dry. He said that the current was moving slowly. He said, quote, the current was not real strong at that time. I know that ditch and the current won't be real swift until the bio starts dropping. We got out of the ditch before the storm hit us that Sunday morning. I did not see any vehicles parked around the river bridge or ditch bridge at that time. End quote. None of them saw Christina Pipkin that night. None of them saw a strange car, and none of them heard any struggle or any screams for help. So the fact that Ricky and his boat, his party did not see anyone that night kind of makes me lean toward one of two possibilities. Either Christina was dumped some somewhere else, loaded down to where they were and got stuck in that tree branch or. She was dumped much earlier, perhaps before nine pm, before dark when they launched their boat. So now we need to go back again. What can we learn from the case fall about who was where at that time in Hickory Ridge between around six thirty and nine pm that night. We're looking for any inconsistencies in their stories that we can find, or anyone we can talk to who could help filling these gaps. We talked about Charles Cotton in our last episode. He was one of many people of interest at the time who were interviewed by law enforcement. He was interviewed by investigator Steve Doser on May fifth, the day after Christina went missing. At the time, Charles told detectives he spent May fourth fishing at Burdeye at a place called the Bay Ditch near Cherry Valley between one thirty and five thirty pm. He said he was out there with a guy he knew named Edward Hoague. He told police that Edward Hoague had a criminal record of some kind. Charles said he believed Edward was, as he put it, wanted either in when or for a city at some point, presumably after they finished fishing, at around five thirty. Charles said that he remembered heading home, but he told police a friend of his had reminded him that he saw Charles that day at the Bearcat store, which would have put him at the convenience store at around the same time Christina was there, around five thirty to six pm. Charles's wife, Rebecca confirmed investigators that yes, she and Charles were in the grocery store that afternoon. Charles said that later that evening, presumably after they left the store, he and his family, including his twenty one year old wife Rebecca, who was pregnant at the time, were home watching TV. Then, he said, at around ten thirty or eleven, his friend Nea Long came over and told him Christina Pipkin was missing.

Because I think we need to kind of I feel like if they see it. Sometimes like it'll be like, oh, it's intimidating to call. But if you if we're really could come up, we're just like two nights agirls that you're just yeah. If we don't make contact at all, I will even note like explaining what it is, but I just think it's better to in this case, better if he sees us. One thing that seemed weird to me was that if Christina was dumped out here, this is a very rural area, if someone drove her here, I wondered, wouldn't that car have been seen by someone, maybe a neighbor. And it turns out, according to the case file, there were people at cal Lake Ditch on the evening of May fourth, nineteen ninety one. A man named Morgan Davis and some of his friends, Ricky has and Ricky's wife were out frog gigging. Now, for those of you who aren't from Arkansas, and even those who are, I'm from South Arkansas and I had no idea what frog gigging is. A lot of people know that frog legs are a delicacy in places like France, but some people don't know they're also a popular menu item in Arkansas, so people go bullfrog hunting, which they call gigging. The best and indeed the only time to go frog gigging is really at night. On May fourth, Morgan Davis launched his boat at a around nine to fifteen to nine thirty pm off Calai Ditch. I asked my dad about frog gigging, and he told me how it worked. To hunt frogs, you shine a flashlight around the water, and the idea is that you can see the frog's eyes reflect back at you. My dad tells me, by the way, if you see eyes reflecting red back at you and not white, you should run because it's probably an alligator. You also have to avoid a lot of other pitfalls at night, like water moccasins and tree branches and other hazards. There are apparently two types of frog traps, the ones that simply entrap the frog in a net and the kind that kind of look like a trident. People use that to basically stab and scoop the bullfrogs into the boat. Morgan, Ricky, and Ricky's wife stayed out all night. They came in when dawn was breaking on the morning of May fifth. During that time, they said they never saw any stranger or any strange car. Everything seemed completely normal, and they were in that area where Christina's body was found. Also answered a question about the weather. A lot of people talked about how the area had been flooded and wondered if there had been rain the day Christina went missing. But he answered that question. He said, there was a big storm, but it happened on Sunday morning, the day after Christina went missing. On Saturday night, it was warm and dry. He said that the current was moving slowly. He said, quote, the current was not real strong at that time. I know that ditch and the current won't be real swift until the bio starts dropping. We got out of the ditch before the storm hit us that Sunday morning. I did not see any vehicles parked around the river bridge or ditch bridge at that time. End quote. None of them saw Christina Pipkin that night. None of them saw a strange car, and none of them heard any struggle or any screams for help. So the fact that Ricky and his boat, his party did not see anyone that night kind of makes me lean toward one of two possibilities. Either Christina was dumped some somewhere else, loaded down to where they were and got stuck in that tree branch or. She was dumped much earlier, perhaps before nine pm, before dark when they launched their boat. So now we need to go back again. What can we learn from the case fall about who was where at that time in Hickory Ridge between around six thirty and nine pm that night. We're looking for any inconsistencies in their stories that we can find, or anyone we can talk to who could help filling these gaps. We talked about Charles Cotton in our last episode. He was one of many people of interest at the time who were interviewed by law enforcement. He was interviewed by investigator Steve Doser on May fifth, the day after Christina went missing. At the time, Charles told detectives he spent May fourth fishing at Burdeye at a place called the Bay Ditch near Cherry Valley between one thirty and five thirty pm. He said he was out there with a guy he knew named Edward Hoague. He told police that Edward Hoague had a criminal record of some kind. Charles said he believed Edward was, as he put it, wanted either in when or for a city at some point, presumably after they finished fishing, at around five thirty. Charles said that he remembered heading home, but he told police a friend of his had reminded him that he saw Charles that day at the Bearcat store, which would have put him at the convenience store at around the same time Christina was there, around five thirty to six pm. Charles's wife, Rebecca confirmed investigators that yes, she and Charles were in the grocery store that afternoon. Charles said that later that evening, presumably after they left the store, he and his family, including his twenty one year old wife Rebecca, who was pregnant at the time, were home watching TV. Then, he said, at around ten thirty or eleven, his friend Nea Long came over and told him Christina Pipkin was missing.

Now.

Now.

At that point, he said, he borrowed a three wheel from another friend of his, and he and Rebecca volunteered to help with the search. Again, I just want to flag a couple of things up in Charles Cotton's statement, because it seemed like he was very invested in the search. Again, this could be completely innocuous. It could be because it was the biggest thing to happen around Hickory Ridge in a long time. He was trying to be a good neighbor whatever, But it does raise a couple of red flags for me. Because the Pipkins had only lived in Hickory Ridge for four months, how well could Charles Cotton know these people. Later, Charles Cotton told police that Pat Moore, who remember was the Pipkins neighbor who introduced James Pipkin to Charles, told Charles that another guy had been dreaming about a place on Highway forty two West. So Charles told police that he and a couple of his friends went out there to take a look at this place that this guy had seen in a dream. He said it was a shed and it was near a baby cemetery. He said they saw what looked like drag marks on the dirt inside the shed. Supposedly Charles called the police, but he said law enforcement never came out to look in that shed. Around this time, there were all kinds of rumors flying around about what could have happened to Christina Pipkin. This was before her body was found. There were psychics calling the police. Police were inundated with people trying to talk to them, and police were out conducting tons of interviews, So this was a time when lots of rumors were flying around. It's very strange that Charles would say he was going out to a location because of something someone saw in a dream. Maybe it's because he again was just trying to follow any lead, or maybe it's because someone was trying to misdirect this investigation. Investigators questioned Charles again about the money that Charles had borrowed from James Pipkin. Remember, he borrowed two hundred and twenty five dollars from James Pipkin because he said he hadn't been able to pay some fines related to bad checks because he had been so busy searching for Christina. Just another weird story in this case. In the case file, it said that Charles admitted he had borrowed the two hundred and twenty five dollars from James Pipkin. He produced a receipt that showed Charles did make a payment on bad checks to the police department. But the thing about that receipt was that the receipt was dated May tenth, nineteen ninety one, and the interview was done on May fifth, So I'm not sure what happened here. Did Charles produce that receipt a few days later and the officer just did not note that in his report, or was the receipt post dated to May tenth? I don't know. But again, this is just one of those confusing disrepancies in the police report that I have no answers to. There was another woman who said she saw something strange the night Christina went missing. She said she saw something odd happen with Charles's wife, Rebecca Cotton. This woman's name is Donna King. There's just one problem with this police report. I talked to Donna King and she said she never told police the story that they noted in this report. I've also talked to Donna's friend, the friend who was with her on the night Christina Pipkin went missing, and Donna's friend confirmed her story now again according to the case file. According to this report from nineteen ninety one, Donna told investigators that she and her husband had gone to Memphis from Hickory Ridge on the day when Christina went missing. Donna said in the report that they were on their way back into town at around nine thirty pm that night when she saw a woman quote walking the street between the Bearcat and that post office end quote. Donna told me that part of the report was correct because she was in Memphis that day and she was driving back to Hickory Ridge with her husband. But she said that after she got back to town, she met up with this friend of hers. She said they went riding around to help look for Christina. At nine thirty pm, Donna was with her friend and she said they did not see any woman walking along the side of the road. In the police statement from nineteen ninety one, the police said that Donna had recognized the woman she saw on the side of the road as Rebecca Cotton, Charles Cotton's wife. In the report, police quote Donna as saying she seemed very sure that this was Rebecca, and that Rebecca seemed upset and was crying. Then police said Donna told them that she saw Charles Cotton drive up to Rebecca on a three wheeler, Rebecca refused to get on the three wheeler, and then Charles Cotton come back and pick her up in a car. This was a very detailed story, and the whole thing supposedly took place several minutes before the search party started to look for Christina, but Donna told me none of that ever happened. In fact, she said she didn't know Rebecca Cotton at all by sight. Now, remember Charles said he didn't go out on that three wheel er until after ten thirty, so that would be after the search started. Also, Rebecca told police that it was not her out walking on that road. She said she had never been upset that night. She was home watching TV with her family. Rebecca Cotton did tell police that she had a pregnant sister at the time who kind of looked like her. She suggested it could have been her sister who was out there, but police apparently never talked to Rebecca Cotton's sister, or if they did, it's not part of the case file. I thought this was just another inconsistency that was never resolved. But when I talked to Donna King, she was adamant she never said this. She never said she saw Rebecca Cotton. She believes that police may have mixed their notes up or confused her with someone else. Donna also said there was another statement that she did give police, and she said it was very detailed about a brown car she saw. It does not appear to be anywhere in the case file, and we will have details of what she says about that in next week's episode. For now, though I don't know what to think, this actually really shocks me. I've seen cases where police reports had details wrong, and I've seen instances where people didn't remember a lot of what they said thirty years ago. But this seems like police may have actually mixed people up or combined their stories, which I didn't even really know was possible. And it also begs the question if Donna King didn't tell police about seeing Rebecca Cotton on the side of the road, who did and is that person still out there? Okay, let's go back to May fourth, nineteen ninety one. Michael Long, the next door neighbor, saw Christina at the Bearcat store at around five thirty. Christina's math teacher saw a few minutes later, just after six pm. The cashier we talked to from the Bearcats store also saw Christina around the store that day at around five point thirty. She showed us the composite drawing that looked very similar to Robbie Tubbs, and she described a car that was brown at the time. Robbie Tubbs drove a nineteen eighty one brown cream colored four wheel drive AMC Eagle sedan. But then a lot of other people mentioned blue cars, and I'm trying to figure out who the first person was who mentioned this suspicious blue car. Was the blue car actually something that was seen with Christina or did it just become part of everyone's collective imagination. Over the next few days, one person who police wanted to talk to was Janetta, Robbie Tubbs's girlfriend. Remember, Robbie had a bit of an unconventional private life at the time. He was married to his wife, Sandra, but he had a girlfriend, Janetta. Investigators talked to Janetta and she gave more details about who Robbie was hanging out with at the time. Janetta stated that at the time when Christina went missing, she lived in Amagon, a nearby town, with her brother named Larry Gill. She mentioned Linda, the friend of rob that he sold his car to later, and she said that Robbie had another friend named Jackie. She didn't know Jackie's last name, but she said they would often go shelling together. I write in my notebook Jackie question mark, because we need to figure out who this mysterious friend is as we said in the last episode, Robbie claimed that Janetta and one of her children and a young woman who he believed could be Christina had all sat in his car at a nearby park. But Janetta refuted Robbi's alibi. She said she never went to the nearby park with Robbie Tubbs, her son, was never in the car with Robbie, and she had ridden in Robbie's car before, but never driven it. There are a couple of other sightings of Christina Pipkin that happened later after seven pm, but they're not confirmed. There was a boy his name is redacted, but he was a student at Hickory Ridge Elementary School. He was someone who went to school with Christina. He told police that on Saturday night, at around seven thirty or eight pm, he saw three parked cars at Burl's gas station in wien Or, Arkansas. He said he saw a girl standing by a blue car. He thought it was Christina. He couldn't remember what the little girl was wearing or really any other information, according to the case file. I find this very frustrating because, again I'm not trying to criticize what investigators were doing. I know it's a small police force, but there is a part of me that wants to jump back in time and ask more questions. I feel like if the investigator had spent a little more time talking to this kid, maybe he might have been able to get more information out of him, at least enough to look into it further to figure out who this girl might be. If it wasn't Christina, we could rule it out and get a more accurate timeline. Other than Christina's friend who said she saw Christina talking to someone in a blue car, which may have happened after seven pm, the last person who was sure about what time she saw Christina Pipkin was her math teacher, Sally Lamb. Miss Lamb said she was at the bear Cat between six thirty and six thirty five pm. She said Christina stopped her on the sidewalk and asked what they were going to be doing in school that Monday. Miss Lamb said, why our math of course. Then she saw Christina was carrying her jewelry order catalog. She said Christina was barefoot, which, honestly, which as we said last time, could explain why Christina's sandals were never found. Miss Lamb remembered that she said because she was thinking Christina wasn't really dressed appropriately for selling jewelry, and she didn't think she was going to make a lot of sales that day. Miss Lamb saw Christina talking to Don Payne on Second Street. She saw Don drive away, and she saw Christina continuing to walk south on Second Street. We tried to track down Don Payne, unfortunately he's passed away. Since we now have access to Robbie's wife, Sandra's statement as part of the case file, I want to take a closer look at that. Remember, Sandra Tubbs was murdered two years after Christina died, so we can't go back and talk to her. But her interview is one of the only ones in the entire case file that's actually transcribed pretty much word for word. So even though this evidence is circumstantial, I think it's really important to analyze it. Some of what Sandra told police is seriously disturbing. In October of nineteen ninety one, Sandra Tubbs told police that around the time when Christina went missing, Robbie Tubbs had made some disturbing statements. She said she'd been too afraid to come to them. In the past, and that's why she had waited several months. Sandra said, quote, my husband, Robbie Tubbs, he came home and was talking about what it would be like to drown because, you know, me being under that water all the time. He says, it makes me wonder what it's like for somebody to drown, you know, whether they struggle or what's their last thought and stuff when somebody is drowning. End quote. Sandra said that later, after Christina went missing, Robbie made another comment, this time when a news story came on about Christina. Sandra said, Robbie told her, quote, they'll never find her. There's too many rice stitches and stuff around here for somebody to drown in. She's dead. End quote. At that point, Sandra said she got a very bad gut feeling that something was very wrong. Robbie, like everyone else, had theories about the case. He told Sandra that police had already figured out someone in Christina's family had committed this crime, that they had found some jewelry she was wearing. At one point, he had another theory. He told Sandra he believed the Bruce Boys did it. As a side note, this was when Sandra found out that her husband knew the killer siblings, known as the Bruce Brothers. The Bruce brothers were brutal killers and arsonists. They're notorious in their hometown of Camden, Tennessee. Like Robbie Tubbs, the Bruce brothers were musselshellers. Apparently they hung out with Robbie Tubbs. At the time when Robbie knew them, the Bruce brothers had already committed multiple murders. On January sixteenth, nineteen ninety one, Gary, Robert and Jerry Bruce set fire to the home of Danny Vine, a musselsheller they knew who kept a lot of cash in his property. His girlfriend, Della Thornton, also lived there. Both Danny and Della were shot execution style with a thirty eight caliber gun. The killers stole their money, which police estimated and around thirty thousand dollars. This case was really notorious and reminded me of some of the cases I've seen in Arkansas because police talked to the boys and they also talked to their mother, Kathleen Bruce, and their mother not only protected her sons, but a lot of people believe was involved in these murders. All of the Bruce boys, Gary, Robert Jerry, and their brother j C had violent criminal records. Jay C was actually convicted of raping and strangling a fifteen year old girl in nineteen seventy five, but inexplicably he got pardoned by the governor of Tennessee at the time. Later, a former girlfriend of jay C's went to the police. She wanted to tell them what she knew, but she was terrified and she wanted protection. Eventually, though, the girlfriend disappeared and she has never been seen since. All the boys provided alibis for each other. They all covered up each other's crimes. In the end, Robert, Jerry, Lee, and Gary were all arrested and convicted. They got life sentences, and their mom, Kathleen Bruce, got eight years in prison for her role in covering up the crimes. Sheila Bradford, j C's former girlfriend, who tried to help the police, is still gone and her disappearance remains unsolved.

At that point, he said, he borrowed a three wheel from another friend of his, and he and Rebecca volunteered to help with the search. Again, I just want to flag a couple of things up in Charles Cotton's statement, because it seemed like he was very invested in the search. Again, this could be completely innocuous. It could be because it was the biggest thing to happen around Hickory Ridge in a long time. He was trying to be a good neighbor whatever, But it does raise a couple of red flags for me. Because the Pipkins had only lived in Hickory Ridge for four months, how well could Charles Cotton know these people. Later, Charles Cotton told police that Pat Moore, who remember was the Pipkins neighbor who introduced James Pipkin to Charles, told Charles that another guy had been dreaming about a place on Highway forty two West. So Charles told police that he and a couple of his friends went out there to take a look at this place that this guy had seen in a dream. He said it was a shed and it was near a baby cemetery. He said they saw what looked like drag marks on the dirt inside the shed. Supposedly Charles called the police, but he said law enforcement never came out to look in that shed. Around this time, there were all kinds of rumors flying around about what could have happened to Christina Pipkin. This was before her body was found. There were psychics calling the police. Police were inundated with people trying to talk to them, and police were out conducting tons of interviews, So this was a time when lots of rumors were flying around. It's very strange that Charles would say he was going out to a location because of something someone saw in a dream. Maybe it's because he again was just trying to follow any lead, or maybe it's because someone was trying to misdirect this investigation. Investigators questioned Charles again about the money that Charles had borrowed from James Pipkin. Remember, he borrowed two hundred and twenty five dollars from James Pipkin because he said he hadn't been able to pay some fines related to bad checks because he had been so busy searching for Christina. Just another weird story in this case. In the case file, it said that Charles admitted he had borrowed the two hundred and twenty five dollars from James Pipkin. He produced a receipt that showed Charles did make a payment on bad checks to the police department. But the thing about that receipt was that the receipt was dated May tenth, nineteen ninety one, and the interview was done on May fifth, So I'm not sure what happened here. Did Charles produce that receipt a few days later and the officer just did not note that in his report, or was the receipt post dated to May tenth? I don't know. But again, this is just one of those confusing disrepancies in the police report that I have no answers to. There was another woman who said she saw something strange the night Christina went missing. She said she saw something odd happen with Charles's wife, Rebecca Cotton. This woman's name is Donna King. There's just one problem with this police report. I talked to Donna King and she said she never told police the story that they noted in this report. I've also talked to Donna's friend, the friend who was with her on the night Christina Pipkin went missing, and Donna's friend confirmed her story now again according to the case file. According to this report from nineteen ninety one, Donna told investigators that she and her husband had gone to Memphis from Hickory Ridge on the day when Christina went missing. Donna said in the report that they were on their way back into town at around nine thirty pm that night when she saw a woman quote walking the street between the Bearcat and that post office end quote. Donna told me that part of the report was correct because she was in Memphis that day and she was driving back to Hickory Ridge with her husband. But she said that after she got back to town, she met up with this friend of hers. She said they went riding around to help look for Christina. At nine thirty pm, Donna was with her friend and she said they did not see any woman walking along the side of the road. In the police statement from nineteen ninety one, the police said that Donna had recognized the woman she saw on the side of the road as Rebecca Cotton, Charles Cotton's wife. In the report, police quote Donna as saying she seemed very sure that this was Rebecca, and that Rebecca seemed upset and was crying. Then police said Donna told them that she saw Charles Cotton drive up to Rebecca on a three wheeler, Rebecca refused to get on the three wheeler, and then Charles Cotton come back and pick her up in a car. This was a very detailed story, and the whole thing supposedly took place several minutes before the search party started to look for Christina, but Donna told me none of that ever happened. In fact, she said she didn't know Rebecca Cotton at all by sight. Now, remember Charles said he didn't go out on that three wheel er until after ten thirty, so that would be after the search started. Also, Rebecca told police that it was not her out walking on that road. She said she had never been upset that night. She was home watching TV with her family. Rebecca Cotton did tell police that she had a pregnant sister at the time who kind of looked like her. She suggested it could have been her sister who was out there, but police apparently never talked to Rebecca Cotton's sister, or if they did, it's not part of the case file. I thought this was just another inconsistency that was never resolved. But when I talked to Donna King, she was adamant she never said this. She never said she saw Rebecca Cotton. She believes that police may have mixed their notes up or confused her with someone else. Donna also said there was another statement that she did give police, and she said it was very detailed about a brown car she saw. It does not appear to be anywhere in the case file, and we will have details of what she says about that in next week's episode. For now, though I don't know what to think, this actually really shocks me. I've seen cases where police reports had details wrong, and I've seen instances where people didn't remember a lot of what they said thirty years ago. But this seems like police may have actually mixed people up or combined their stories, which I didn't even really know was possible. And it also begs the question if Donna King didn't tell police about seeing Rebecca Cotton on the side of the road, who did and is that person still out there? Okay, let's go back to May fourth, nineteen ninety one. Michael Long, the next door neighbor, saw Christina at the Bearcat store at around five thirty. Christina's math teacher saw a few minutes later, just after six pm. The cashier we talked to from the Bearcats store also saw Christina around the store that day at around five point thirty. She showed us the composite drawing that looked very similar to Robbie Tubbs, and she described a car that was brown at the time. Robbie Tubbs drove a nineteen eighty one brown cream colored four wheel drive AMC Eagle sedan. But then a lot of other people mentioned blue cars, and I'm trying to figure out who the first person was who mentioned this suspicious blue car. Was the blue car actually something that was seen with Christina or did it just become part of everyone's collective imagination. Over the next few days, one person who police wanted to talk to was Janetta, Robbie Tubbs's girlfriend. Remember, Robbie had a bit of an unconventional private life at the time. He was married to his wife, Sandra, but he had a girlfriend, Janetta. Investigators talked to Janetta and she gave more details about who Robbie was hanging out with at the time. Janetta stated that at the time when Christina went missing, she lived in Amagon, a nearby town, with her brother named Larry Gill. She mentioned Linda, the friend of rob that he sold his car to later, and she said that Robbie had another friend named Jackie. She didn't know Jackie's last name, but she said they would often go shelling together. I write in my notebook Jackie question mark, because we need to figure out who this mysterious friend is as we said in the last episode, Robbie claimed that Janetta and one of her children and a young woman who he believed could be Christina had all sat in his car at a nearby park. But Janetta refuted Robbi's alibi. She said she never went to the nearby park with Robbie Tubbs, her son, was never in the car with Robbie, and she had ridden in Robbie's car before, but never driven it. There are a couple of other sightings of Christina Pipkin that happened later after seven pm, but they're not confirmed. There was a boy his name is redacted, but he was a student at Hickory Ridge Elementary School. He was someone who went to school with Christina. He told police that on Saturday night, at around seven thirty or eight pm, he saw three parked cars at Burl's gas station in wien Or, Arkansas. He said he saw a girl standing by a blue car. He thought it was Christina. He couldn't remember what the little girl was wearing or really any other information, according to the case file. I find this very frustrating because, again I'm not trying to criticize what investigators were doing. I know it's a small police force, but there is a part of me that wants to jump back in time and ask more questions. I feel like if the investigator had spent a little more time talking to this kid, maybe he might have been able to get more information out of him, at least enough to look into it further to figure out who this girl might be. If it wasn't Christina, we could rule it out and get a more accurate timeline. Other than Christina's friend who said she saw Christina talking to someone in a blue car, which may have happened after seven pm, the last person who was sure about what time she saw Christina Pipkin was her math teacher, Sally Lamb. Miss Lamb said she was at the bear Cat between six thirty and six thirty five pm. She said Christina stopped her on the sidewalk and asked what they were going to be doing in school that Monday. Miss Lamb said, why our math of course. Then she saw Christina was carrying her jewelry order catalog. She said Christina was barefoot, which, honestly, which as we said last time, could explain why Christina's sandals were never found. Miss Lamb remembered that she said because she was thinking Christina wasn't really dressed appropriately for selling jewelry, and she didn't think she was going to make a lot of sales that day. Miss Lamb saw Christina talking to Don Payne on Second Street. She saw Don drive away, and she saw Christina continuing to walk south on Second Street. We tried to track down Don Payne, unfortunately he's passed away. Since we now have access to Robbie's wife, Sandra's statement as part of the case file, I want to take a closer look at that. Remember, Sandra Tubbs was murdered two years after Christina died, so we can't go back and talk to her. But her interview is one of the only ones in the entire case file that's actually transcribed pretty much word for word. So even though this evidence is circumstantial, I think it's really important to analyze it. Some of what Sandra told police is seriously disturbing. In October of nineteen ninety one, Sandra Tubbs told police that around the time when Christina went missing, Robbie Tubbs had made some disturbing statements. She said she'd been too afraid to come to them. In the past, and that's why she had waited several months. Sandra said, quote, my husband, Robbie Tubbs, he came home and was talking about what it would be like to drown because, you know, me being under that water all the time. He says, it makes me wonder what it's like for somebody to drown, you know, whether they struggle or what's their last thought and stuff when somebody is drowning. End quote. Sandra said that later, after Christina went missing, Robbie made another comment, this time when a news story came on about Christina. Sandra said, Robbie told her, quote, they'll never find her. There's too many rice stitches and stuff around here for somebody to drown in. She's dead. End quote. At that point, Sandra said she got a very bad gut feeling that something was very wrong. Robbie, like everyone else, had theories about the case. He told Sandra that police had already figured out someone in Christina's family had committed this crime, that they had found some jewelry she was wearing. At one point, he had another theory. He told Sandra he believed the Bruce Boys did it. As a side note, this was when Sandra found out that her husband knew the killer siblings, known as the Bruce Brothers. The Bruce brothers were brutal killers and arsonists. They're notorious in their hometown of Camden, Tennessee. Like Robbie Tubbs, the Bruce brothers were musselshellers. Apparently they hung out with Robbie Tubbs. At the time when Robbie knew them, the Bruce brothers had already committed multiple murders. On January sixteenth, nineteen ninety one, Gary, Robert and Jerry Bruce set fire to the home of Danny Vine, a musselsheller they knew who kept a lot of cash in his property. His girlfriend, Della Thornton, also lived there. Both Danny and Della were shot execution style with a thirty eight caliber gun. The killers stole their money, which police estimated and around thirty thousand dollars. This case was really notorious and reminded me of some of the cases I've seen in Arkansas because police talked to the boys and they also talked to their mother, Kathleen Bruce, and their mother not only protected her sons, but a lot of people believe was involved in these murders. All of the Bruce boys, Gary, Robert Jerry, and their brother j C had violent criminal records. Jay C was actually convicted of raping and strangling a fifteen year old girl in nineteen seventy five, but inexplicably he got pardoned by the governor of Tennessee at the time. Later, a former girlfriend of jay C's went to the police. She wanted to tell them what she knew, but she was terrified and she wanted protection. Eventually, though, the girlfriend disappeared and she has never been seen since. All the boys provided alibis for each other. They all covered up each other's crimes. In the end, Robert, Jerry, Lee, and Gary were all arrested and convicted. They got life sentences, and their mom, Kathleen Bruce, got eight years in prison for her role in covering up the crimes. Sheila Bradford, j C's former girlfriend, who tried to help the police, is still gone and her disappearance remains unsolved.

J C.

J C.

Bruce was never charged with the murders or with the disappearance of his former girlfriend. The stuff that Robbie told Sandra was odd because to my knowledge, no one else has ever mentioned the Bruce brothers in connection with this case. There's also no indication they were in Arkansas at that time. We're following that lead, but to me, it looks like Robbie kind of like the way he mentioned Christina's family and the jelry being found, either was misinformed or just making an innocent comment about what he thought, or possibly was trying to misdirect the investigation. I keep going back to another name, Robbie's friend Jackie Jackie question Mark, because Sandra mentioned him too as someone who Robbie went shelling with. Sandra said, whenever Robbie shelled in that area, he went with Jackie. They always stopped in Hickory Ridge so he could let Jackie out near Waldenburg, a nearby town. The cashiers said that the man who came into the store the night Christina Pipkin went missing was alone, But what if Jackie was dropped off earlier? Could Jackie have been around that night somewhere? And this quote from Sandra really stays with me. She said, he, meaning Robbie, told me he wasn't the only one that liked the little girls, that Jackie liked the little girls too. She goes on to talk of more and more about Robbie Tubb's disturbing history of picking up young girls. She talked about an incident where she saw an eleven year old girl sit on Robbie's lap then run crying from the room, super upset. She said when she asked Robbie about it, he said, oh, she got picked on by some girls at school. He said he was just trying to make her feel better. But Sandra said that little girl was always hugging Robbie and sitting in his lap. She said it made her feel very uncomfortable. She thought something was going on. Sandra said these incidents happened starting in nineteen eighty one, and that they took place in Lagrange, Texas, and later in Sulfur Springs. Later, Sandra said, quote, there was this little girl teasing him and showing him her body. He would talk about it like it was some big joke or something, and then I went and told her daddy, and nothing ever happened about it because her daddy didn't believe it. End quote. These admissions are so disturbing to me, by the way, I want to add. Robbie Tubbs and his statement to police completely denied all of this. He said he'd never been attracted to young teenagers. He denied all of that, but it really is shocking to me for a number of reasons. One, these girls were potentially being abused and no one was doing anything to help them. And two the sheer number of potentially sexual abusive people who were around at the time, and the potential number of victims who could still be out there. Then Sandra talked about what happened in nineteen eighty three. This was the incident she talked about in depth of police She said Robbie picked up a young woman who she described as twelve or thirteen years old and her boyfriend and offered them a lift to Hot Springs. Sandra said at some point during this ride she got upset, and she said, even though she was seven months pregnant, Robbie kicked her out of the car and left with these two young teens. Then, she said, a few days later she showed up again. She went out to where they dropped the kids off what Robbie and the young woman were gone, and the young boy apparently told Sandra that at some point they went to a park and went to sleep. When he woke up, he said he saw Robbie and that young girl doing something sexual and after that, he said, Robbie kicked him out of the car and made him walk. After that, Sandra said, she got back together with Robbie, which I really try not to judge of victims because I never know what anyone has been through and what their history is. But I do find it shocking. I can't help it. She said. Quote. I said, Robbie, don't you know you could get in bad trouble for that. You could go to prison for them, And he said, who the hell cares? The only one who could do anything about it was her mama. He said, her mama didn't care that she gave us a blanket end quote. Sandra said that Robbie became physically abusive and violent and had beaten her when she mentioned what he had said about Christina Pipkin. She said, after she threatened to tell police what she knew, he told her that she was crazy. He quote told me that I was crazy and they would never believe me, and it really made him mad, and he gagged me and choked me. This is all very disturbing, both the violence and the fact that, according to Sandra in her police statement, Robbie had a history of asking very young girls to ride with him in his vehicle, and then she claims sexually assaulting them or propositioning them. Robbie said that yes, he was driving a brown AMC Eagle at the time, but he said his car had torn up in the fall of nineteen ninety We know, though, that he didn't get rid of that car until the spring of nineteen ninety one. By the way, in his police statement, Robbie admitted, yes, he had had sex with a girl on the way to Hot Springs in the incident Sandra described, but he said the girl told him she was eighteen. It turned out he said she was only fourteen or fifteen years old at the time. Another odd thing about this case file. There are polygraph examinations of several people, all of whom passed their polygraphs, but there is not a polygraph of Robbie Tubbs. It would appear that he failed based on what investigators said, but we have no idea what happened to that polygraph. I wonder why it's not part of the case file. The man who discovered Christina's body with his young son told us something else that the sheriff believed Christina had been dumped further upstream and then floated down toward where she was eventually found. The sheriff at the time told this man that if Christina didn't get hung up on one of those branches, she would have floated out to the bayou and eventually to the Saint Francis River. Like we said earlier, it seems to go on forever. I haven't been able to make contact with the sheriff at the time, Sheriff Huey, though I have found out where he drinks coffee most mornings, so that's a start. But if this theory about Christina being dumped further upstream is right, that would explain While Morgan Davis and his friends didn't see any sign of her or of any other stranger that night, they also didn't hear anyone screaming for help. It is possible if this was some kind of accident, maybe Christina fell in and drowned quickly. We know she couldn't swim, and drownings can happen fast. But I believe the evidence points to Christina being driven out to that ditch. I agree with the police here. I believe that it's very possible that she was thrown in that water while she was either unconscious or dying. If that happened, it was dark that night, So I'm asking myself, is it possible that Christina could have floated right past them in their boat? And I'm thinking about something else the sheriff said when he said, if she didn't get caught, if she wasn't entangled on that branch, she would have floated right out to the river with no one knowing about it. The next question that naturally follows is are there more bodies of missing children that floated out to the river and were never found. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Music contributed by Ben Solee, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Health and Gone Murder Line six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five. Please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts, School of Humans

Bruce was never charged with the murders or with the disappearance of his former girlfriend. The stuff that Robbie told Sandra was odd because to my knowledge, no one else has ever mentioned the Bruce brothers in connection with this case. There's also no indication they were in Arkansas at that time. We're following that lead, but to me, it looks like Robbie kind of like the way he mentioned Christina's family and the jelry being found, either was misinformed or just making an innocent comment about what he thought, or possibly was trying to misdirect the investigation. I keep going back to another name, Robbie's friend Jackie Jackie question Mark, because Sandra mentioned him too as someone who Robbie went shelling with. Sandra said, whenever Robbie shelled in that area, he went with Jackie. They always stopped in Hickory Ridge so he could let Jackie out near Waldenburg, a nearby town. The cashiers said that the man who came into the store the night Christina Pipkin went missing was alone, But what if Jackie was dropped off earlier? Could Jackie have been around that night somewhere? And this quote from Sandra really stays with me. She said, he, meaning Robbie, told me he wasn't the only one that liked the little girls, that Jackie liked the little girls too. She goes on to talk of more and more about Robbie Tubb's disturbing history of picking up young girls. She talked about an incident where she saw an eleven year old girl sit on Robbie's lap then run crying from the room, super upset. She said when she asked Robbie about it, he said, oh, she got picked on by some girls at school. He said he was just trying to make her feel better. But Sandra said that little girl was always hugging Robbie and sitting in his lap. She said it made her feel very uncomfortable. She thought something was going on. Sandra said these incidents happened starting in nineteen eighty one, and that they took place in Lagrange, Texas, and later in Sulfur Springs. Later, Sandra said, quote, there was this little girl teasing him and showing him her body. He would talk about it like it was some big joke or something, and then I went and told her daddy, and nothing ever happened about it because her daddy didn't believe it. End quote. These admissions are so disturbing to me, by the way, I want to add. Robbie Tubbs and his statement to police completely denied all of this. He said he'd never been attracted to young teenagers. He denied all of that, but it really is shocking to me for a number of reasons. One, these girls were potentially being abused and no one was doing anything to help them. And two the sheer number of potentially sexual abusive people who were around at the time, and the potential number of victims who could still be out there. Then Sandra talked about what happened in nineteen eighty three. This was the incident she talked about in depth of police She said Robbie picked up a young woman who she described as twelve or thirteen years old and her boyfriend and offered them a lift to Hot Springs. Sandra said at some point during this ride she got upset, and she said, even though she was seven months pregnant, Robbie kicked her out of the car and left with these two young teens. Then, she said, a few days later she showed up again. She went out to where they dropped the kids off what Robbie and the young woman were gone, and the young boy apparently told Sandra that at some point they went to a park and went to sleep. When he woke up, he said he saw Robbie and that young girl doing something sexual and after that, he said, Robbie kicked him out of the car and made him walk. After that, Sandra said, she got back together with Robbie, which I really try not to judge of victims because I never know what anyone has been through and what their history is. But I do find it shocking. I can't help it. She said. Quote. I said, Robbie, don't you know you could get in bad trouble for that. You could go to prison for them, And he said, who the hell cares? The only one who could do anything about it was her mama. He said, her mama didn't care that she gave us a blanket end quote. Sandra said that Robbie became physically abusive and violent and had beaten her when she mentioned what he had said about Christina Pipkin. She said, after she threatened to tell police what she knew, he told her that she was crazy. He quote told me that I was crazy and they would never believe me, and it really made him mad, and he gagged me and choked me. This is all very disturbing, both the violence and the fact that, according to Sandra in her police statement, Robbie had a history of asking very young girls to ride with him in his vehicle, and then she claims sexually assaulting them or propositioning them. Robbie said that yes, he was driving a brown AMC Eagle at the time, but he said his car had torn up in the fall of nineteen ninety We know, though, that he didn't get rid of that car until the spring of nineteen ninety one. By the way, in his police statement, Robbie admitted, yes, he had had sex with a girl on the way to Hot Springs in the incident Sandra described, but he said the girl told him she was eighteen. It turned out he said she was only fourteen or fifteen years old at the time. Another odd thing about this case file. There are polygraph examinations of several people, all of whom passed their polygraphs, but there is not a polygraph of Robbie Tubbs. It would appear that he failed based on what investigators said, but we have no idea what happened to that polygraph. I wonder why it's not part of the case file. The man who discovered Christina's body with his young son told us something else that the sheriff believed Christina had been dumped further upstream and then floated down toward where she was eventually found. The sheriff at the time told this man that if Christina didn't get hung up on one of those branches, she would have floated out to the bayou and eventually to the Saint Francis River. Like we said earlier, it seems to go on forever. I haven't been able to make contact with the sheriff at the time, Sheriff Huey, though I have found out where he drinks coffee most mornings, so that's a start. But if this theory about Christina being dumped further upstream is right, that would explain While Morgan Davis and his friends didn't see any sign of her or of any other stranger that night, they also didn't hear anyone screaming for help. It is possible if this was some kind of accident, maybe Christina fell in and drowned quickly. We know she couldn't swim, and drownings can happen fast. But I believe the evidence points to Christina being driven out to that ditch. I agree with the police here. I believe that it's very possible that she was thrown in that water while she was either unconscious or dying. If that happened, it was dark that night, So I'm asking myself, is it possible that Christina could have floated right past them in their boat? And I'm thinking about something else the sheriff said when he said, if she didn't get caught, if she wasn't entangled on that branch, she would have floated right out to the river with no one knowing about it. The next question that naturally follows is are there more bodies of missing children that floated out to the river and were never found. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Music contributed by Ben Solee, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Health and Gone Murder Line six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five. Please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts, School of Humans