John Doe 23

By Jack Cullpepper

An accident on I-69 leaves one in the hospital and another burning to death in the car, causing a backup in traffic on the north-south lanes. Identifying the individual in the hospital proves challenging, for his face is bandaged because of numerous severe facial lacerations. The driver's body is burned beyond recognition. Determining their identities is made even more difficult as many leads to their identities dissipate as many of the itineraries of those who were to travel with him that day were not confirmed ...so nobody is sure who it may be. Another ray of doubt is cast when it is told that he picked up a hitchhiker. That's not all. The financial world is sent into a tailspin with the death announcement, with the charged person shocking everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890614537

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

About the Author

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John Doe 23

Jack Cullpepper

Copyright © 2024 Jack Cullpepper

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89061-452-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89061-453-7 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

The operator said, 911. Then asked, How may I help you?

The caller, distracted by all she was experiencing, told her that an ambulance and the fire department were needed. The operator asked where the caller was calling from, and the caller said, We are at I-69 where there has been a bad accident.

The operator asked her where on I-69, and when the caller looked across the interstate and saw a mile marker, she gave the number to the operator. The operator told her they were on their way and also asked her to please stay on the line so that she could get more information. The operator then asked the caller to tell her what happened, but first she asked her to state her name. The caller gave the operator her name and said they needed to hurry, or he would burn to death. Meanwhile, there was a loud explosion, and the other 911 call center phones started going off. As the other 911 operators answered their phones, they received more calls about the same accident.

The first operator came back on the line to ask if she was still there. The first caller returned to the line to tell the 911 operator, It is bad. You will need to send more ambulances. The 911 operator asked the caller to describe what happened. The caller began by saying there was an accident followed by an explosion. It was hard for the operator to understand because the caller, shocked and horrified, was crying as she spoke, almost sobbing. The operator tried to console the caller. She finally calmed the caller down, then asked her name again to confirm it. She called her by name and told her to get a hold of herself and settle down because she really needed her to tell her everything she saw, then the operator asked her to take a deep breath.

The caller did as the operator asked; still crying, she started to tell the operator what happened. She said that a black Mercedes was hit by a green car. The green car ran the red light, hitting the Mercedes and causing it to tumble over the guard rail and into the ravine. The operator asked which car had tumbled into the ravine, and the caller said it was the Mercedes and that it caught fire. She told her that a gas tanker going east on the county road tried to stop but rolled off the road and into the ravine, landing on top of the Mercedes and spilling gas all over it. The Mercedes caught fire, causing the tanker to explode. The explosion sent the tanker into the air, and it landed crosswise on the county road.

There was a man thrown from the Mercedes, and these men were trying to get him to safety when the explosion happened. But when they finally got him, the tanker truck rolled over, trapping the driver. There were also others who were trying to get him. She stopped talking and then cried out, Oh my god! She continued, They cannot get to him because the fire is too hot. She began screaming, He's going to burn to death! Sobbing, she exclaimed how awful it was and added that she couldn't watch any more.

The operator asked, Coreinne, are you still there?

By that time, they both could hear the ambulance, fire truck, and police sirens. The 911 operator told the caller that she could hang up now to talk with the police.

The caller said, I need to take care of my children, who are watching all of this.

They both said goodbye and hung up. The caller took her children from her sister and held them close. The two kids were crying inconsolably because they had gone over to the edge and seen the man burning in the car.

One of the children, the little girl, broke loose and started to run back toward the scene. She was grabbed by one of the men who picked her up, held her close, and said, Don't cry. But the little girl yelled out, He is burning! He is burning! Her mother came, took her from the man's arms, and tried to console her, but she was inconsolable. Even the men who had gone down the ravine returned with tears in their eyes. Many shook their heads, saying they just couldn't get to the trapped man.

As the police entered the area, the first to arrive was the Allen County deputy sheriff Essie Reen Williams. She made a general assessment of the situation and started to direct traffic. Shortly after, deputy sheriff Anthony Ellerson, the supervisor, arrived on the scene. He looked around to assess the situation and assigned Deputy Williams as lead, reassigning her from traffic detail to start the interviews. The third deputy, Ben Wheaten, along with the fourth deputy, Samuel King, was tasked with redirecting traffic until the city police arrived. Before she started the interviews, Deputy Williams requested the third deputy on the scene to call the county road service to set up barricades and establish detour routes.

When the fourth arrived, she asked if he could take charge of the east side of the accident scene and conduct interviews on the east side of the overpass when the police relieved him. As she moved to start her interviews, she saw the state police entering the scene up the medians of I-69, some from the north and some from the south. Supervisor Ellerson, seeing them, walked over to the lead state trooper, spoke with him for a few minutes, then moved into the crowd on the west side of I-69 as she asked for Coreinne, who was the first caller to the 911 call center.

She stepped up to answer, and Deputy Sheriff Williams introduced herself and asked her how she was doing.

Coreinne took both hands to cup her forehead, rubbed the back of her head with tears streaming down her face, and said, It was just awful. Seeing that man thrown from that car and thinking it would fall on him was unimaginable. Then the car rolling down the ravine, the explosion, and him burning were just too much to see. She said again, It was awful!

Deputy Williams put her arm around her shoulder, asked her if she needed to sit down while moving her toward the hood of the cruiser, then went to her cruiser to get a bottle of water along with two bears. She gave the water to Coreinne and the bears to each of the kids. She talked to the kids to console them and moved back to Coreinne as she told her to take a minute.

While she was drinking the water, Deputy Williams rubbed her back, and as she calmed down, she started by saying, This would not be so bad had it not been for the fact they were trailing the black Mercedes since it was driving down from Bloomington.

Coreinne told her that he picked up a hitchhiker near Indianapolis whom he seemed to know.

Deputy Williams asked, Why do you say that?

She told her how they shook hands and hugged each other like they were friends or family. She added the fact that he helped him put his stuff in the car. She said, They both kind of looked alike, they dressed alike, almost like twins, and it seemed he was waiting for him.

She also said that when he pulled into a station in Indianapolis where he picked him up, the driver got out, went into the station, shopped for a few things, then drove to here. She said that they went in to get some things and talked a little, then her family got in their car. After, he got back into his car and drove off. She said, That's why this is so hard. Coreinne took a deep breath and slowly released it as she started to say, "We started out behind him and followed him as far as here, where we all stopped to gas up.

He pulled into the outer island as we pulled to a pump near the front. We went in to pay for the gas, and by the time we returned, a big panel truck had pulled in between us. So we pulled up just a bit to see when he left. He came out, filled up, then started off, turned west, and we started out behind him but had to wait for the traffic. So we were pulling out to straighten up when we saw a green car that came from the north exit and hit the Mercedes. We saw part of it as it pushed the Mercedes onto the guardrail, but as it jumped the curb, it went up onto the rail. Then it rolled over the rail, and the passenger fell out as it rolled. She told her that when it made it to the bottom of the ravine, the tanker truck that was going east on the overpass jackknifed when trying to stop; and the tanker broke loose, then rolled over the ravine and on top of the Mercedes.

Deputy Williams stopped her for a question as she told her it was for clarification, Are you saying the tanker was coming from the east at the time of the accident and jackknifed because it was too close to stop, causing the tanker to roll over the rail onto the Mercedes?

She told her, Yes, that is it exactly. Well, the tanker hit a big rock that put a big hole in it, and the gas spilled out onto the car. Then, as the men went to bring that man off the ground and over the rail to keep him safe, there was an explosion that blew the tanker into the air, which fell crosswise onto the county road. The tanker falling onto the county road caused the cement to break and crumble, and the pieces fell onto cars on I-69, causing the pileup accidents.

Deputy Sheriff Williams asked, Can you describe the car that hit the Mercedes?

She answered, The car was green and midsize or bigger, and that's all I can tell because we were too far away. We only saw it briefly as it sped off onto the south entrance to I-69, but we saw the Mercedes roll over.

So is it possible you didn't see the driver? the deputy asked her.

She answered no.

Deputy Williams took her information and told her someone would contact her later, then she moved on to the other men who were standing by.

When she looked up, she saw three minivans coming from the west toward the scene, noticing it was the three news stations in town. After parking their vans, they came running up to the scene. While the reporters started talking to the people, the cameramen were shooting footage of the scene. Supervising Deputy Ellerson came over to ask that they stay back and wait until they had interviewed the witnesses. They were a little upset but were pushed back by the deputy, and they went to talk to people who were further away. The deputy returned to talk to the men who helped rescue the man who was thrown from the car, and they all told him the same thing: that it happened so fast. They all told him they were so far away and that they were busy but only looked up because they heard the crash, at which time the green car had gone onto I-69 south.

Meanwhile, the fire department was looking over the accident scene. They saw the burning car and the pool of gas that had spilled from the tank, and they decided to allow the fire to burn itself out. They sprayed the area around the burning car to keep the fire from spreading. The chief of the fire department decided to move the other firemen to the accidents on I-69 but left one fireman to watch the fire. When they got to the scene on I-69, they saw a fifteen-car pileup on the northbound road and a ten-car pileup on the southbound road. A few people needed to be removed from their car by the Jaws of Life, but most had been moved by others who had stopped farther back before the scene. There were two fires that started just as they were finishing assessing the scene, causing an explosion on the north- and southbound roads, and one truck moved to the northbound fire while the other went over to the southbound fire. The people in those burning cars had been removed from the cars by other drivers who had time to stop when they saw the accidents.

Back atop the county road's overpass, the paramedics were finishing up with the passenger thrown from the Mercedes, who had been moved from the outer side of the guardrail. When the paramedics arrived, he was unconscious with lacerations to his face; so they bandaged his face, started an IV, and, after stabilizing him, were ready to transport him to the hospital. However, because they could not find identification, he was given the name John Doe 23. As they left, the other ambulance was ready to transport the driver of the gas tanker truck, who was identified as William Calliuer. Because the accident scene was so involved, ambulances were called in from surrounding areas, and doctors as well as nurses who were traveling came to the scene to offer their help.

Those watching the car burning were shattered and broken by what they were seeing, with the greatest impact being on the kids who saw the burning man. They were crying and screaming. They could not understand why no one went to rescue him, and it was hard for their parents to explain that there was nothing that could be done. It took a while for the scene to be cleared out on the county road as well as on I-69, and for the people who had to be taken to the hospital, many needed transportation to a place to reside until they could make arrangements.

The people who lived in the area, as well as some churches, came to offer rides to the stranded motorists, as well as places to stay. This was hard for many who had to try to find out which hospital their relatives were admitted to and how they were doing and secure a place to stay. This day, for many, was a disaster; and for others, their lives changed forever all because of a hit-and-run accident.

After the firemen returned to the overpass, the fire had diminished enough that the chief decided to use foam to smother the fire around the car. They used water to cool down the car so they could approach it but aimed not to disturb the ashes of the driver. After pronouncing ten people dead on I-69, the coroner came to where the Mercedes was to prepare to remove the ashes of the driver of the car. While at the scene on I-69, the coroner called for students studying to be medical examiners and crime scene investigators to come and search the surrounding areas for any stray body parts. They were now arriving. He gave the students instructions, waited for the okay to get near the car, and when given, collected the remains. In lieu of identification, he named him John Doe 24.

After interviewing all the witnesses on the west side of the county road, Deputy Williams went to inform the other deputies that she was going to the Lutheran Hospital to check on those who were transported to that hospital. She was told that one of the other deputies had interviewed the witnesses on the east side of the county road, while another had been diagramming the accident and had called to have the county road service put up barriers. Deputy Ellerson allowed the reporters to talk to the people but told the reporters that he had no comments at the time. After which, he started out for the Parkview Regional Medical Center but was troubled that there was no good identification of the alleged vehicle that struck the Mercedes. While he was on his way to the hospital, one of the other deputies interviewed both of the closest service stations' attendants to check their videos. They were told theirs were in off-site storage and needed a warrant to look at them. They had to be filed with the home office because the system they had didn't allow you to look immediately to see past events. The attendants gave them the information to contact their home offices.

At the Lutheran Hospital, Deputy Williams went in to speak with the doctors treating the different victims from the accident. She found out there were thirty-five victims, and they had to be taken to all the hospitals in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ten were brought to the Lutheran Hospital, along with John Doe 23, five of whom had died from injuries sustained in the accident. Twelve of the people were taken to the Parkview Regional Medical Center, where two died while in the emergency room; and twelve went to Saint Joseph Hospital, where three of them died. Talking to John Doe 23's doctor, Deputy Williams learned that he was unconscious with face lacerations and no internal injuries, but he did sustain a concussion. She was told that she could not talk with him because he was still in a coma, so she decided to return to the accident scene.

On her arrival, she found that the scene was now clear, so she could get a good look at what might have happened. While she was there, an old man walked up to her and started to speak to her, commenting on how bad the accident was. He told her that he saw it all.

Deputy Williams asked him, Can you tell me what happened?

He said, Yes, I saw everything from where I was standing, and I waited to be interviewed. But they just walked past me, thinking I'm just a crazy old man.

She looked him in the eye and said, I want to hear what you have to say.

He started by stating, I'll tell you about the first accident. He provided her with basically the same story as the other witnesses but added a better description of the car. He also described how the car waited on the southbound exit that took the traffic off I-69 before it drove into the Mercedes and then sped onto the I-69 south on-ramp. He also mentioned that he had seen the car before and that young people were driving it. When he finished discussing the first accident, he asked if she wanted him to tell her about the pile-ups on I-69. She said yes, and he asked to go with him to the east side of the overpass. They went over to where he had been standing, and he started to recount the events while she diagrammed what he described. When he finished, she thanked him and took down his information, assuring him someone would contact him later. As they said their goodbyes, she stopped and asked if he would like to have a cup of coffee.

He turned, looking as though he got struck by lightning, and said, Coffee with me? A pretty lady like you?

She said, Yes, you have helped me so much.

They walked over to the little diner on the east side of the overpass and had coffee. After they finished their coffee, she took a minute to review what he had told her, examined the area again, then left for the sheriff's department office.

On arrival at the office, she planned to meet with the three other deputies who worked the scenes, including their supervisor, Deputy Sheriff Tim Ellerson. Deputy Williams moved to a whiteboard where they displayed all the evidence they had collected. Deputy Wheaten had already started drawing and writing. He drew two squares at the top left of the board. Under the first, he wrote, John Doe 23, and beneath that, he wrote, Passenger/Hitchhiker, followed by Lutheran Hospital. Under the next square, he wrote, John Doe 24, and below that, Driver/Owner?/ Deceased. He drew a third square and wrote Tanker Truck Driver, then under it, Hospitalized. There was a fourth label titled Alleged Vehicle, and under that, the word green was written. Over in two columns on the right side of the board, one was labeled Deceased, where he had written the names given to them so far of the identified individuals. The other column was titled Hospitalized, with the names of three hospitals and the names of the people hospitalized at each. Deputy Williams looked at it, told him he did a good job, and asked Supervisor Ellerson if she could have thirty to forty-five minutes to go over her notes. He told her to take her time; he needed to talk with the sheriff and update him on what they knew so far.

Deputy Ellerson started down the hall toward the sheriff's office. The sheriff was leaving the reception area and he told him he wanted to update him on what they knew so far. They stopped and began talking there. Ellerson informed the sheriff that he was waiting for Essie to compile her notes and that they'd have a briefing in forty-five minutes, but he'd share their current findings now. The sheriff asked him to wait because he wanted to be in the meeting. He further mentioned that he had put Deputy Williams in charge of the investigation, and the sheriff told him that she was a good choice.

The sheriff said, You know she has strange way of looking at things, and 99 percent of the time, she gets it right. Let her run with it. She will get it done.

They were talking about Essie Reen Williams, the first Black woman in the sheriff's department. She had been a deputy sheriff for fifteen years, had a good success rate, and was one who had earned the respect of her peers. She started out with a private detective and security agency where she was a security guard working under Supervisor Ellerson's uncle, who suggested she apply for the city police department. She served fifteen years, then Supervisor Ellerson's father, a captain, recommended her to the sheriff's department. The rest was a success. She was married to Kevin Williams, and they had two children. She was respected by all her peers because she earned it, putting herself in danger to save the life of a fellow deputy whom she pulled to safety. One night, when one of the deputies was injured in a shootout, she was the first on the scene and chased the suspect through a cornfield along a river and apprehended the shooter, who was hiding under the banks of the river. She cuffed him, found the gun he had thrown away, and walked him back to the scene just as the other backup was arriving. She earned the reputation of getting her man, and when backup was called for, most deputies would ask for Essie first.

The meeting began as Deputy Ellerson announced, again, to all who would be involved in the investigation and those who were not at the scene that Deputy Williams had been placed in charge of the investigation as lead. The fourth deputy who worked the scene, named Samuel King, spoke to say that he ran the plates of the car and the car's identification number and found the car was registered to Michael David Allen, who resided in Bloomington, Indiana. He told them he owned a programming company based here and in Indianapolis. He also added that they wrote games, programmed for companies, and created programs to automate manufacturing. He gave Deputy Ellerson a picture he had printed from the DMV photo, and he placed it on the board, in the square next to the name John Doe 24. Then Deputy Williams entered the room, walked up to the board, and handed Supervisor Ellerson a picture of the tanker truck driver. He put it in the square for the driver.

Deputy Ellerson started comparing notes of the other deputies that Deputy Wheaten had already added to the board. All basically had the same information. Supervisor Ellerson turned the briefing over to Deputy Williams. Looking around the room and acknowledging the sheriff, she made reference to the statements on the board. She told them that she had gone back to the scene after it was cleared, where an old man approached to tell what he saw. She added that he detailed what happened. Deputy King interrupted to tell them that he had seen him when he was interviewing the witnesses but that he stood far off as if he didn't want to talk, so he never approached him.

She told him that it was not a problem because he said that people thought he was a whack-a-doo, but he was smarter than they assumed. If he had said something to you and one of the people yelled out their opinion, it could quite possibly distort the way you would look at the man's statement. She went on to say that he basically gave the same information as the other witnesses but was able to identify the make and model of the alleged vehicle and offer more details. She said, He told me the car was an old-model green Lincoln Continental but that he was too far away to see who was driving. He also stated that the car seemed to have been lying in wait for the Mercedes to pull out from the station, then accelerated to hit the Mercedes. She added that from the way he spoke of the Continental going back and forth, it seemed the driver was stalking the victim.

Supervisor Ellerson then said, With that in mind, it seems we have an intentional crash rather than an accident. The guy driving might have had it in for the Mercedes driver. The sheriff stood up and said, You all have done a good job, but while our hearts go out to all the people affected by the accident, we must remember we are to only concern ourselves with the one killed and the one injured on the county road. I-69 is the responsibility of the state. I am waiting for a call from the state police to find out who they have assigned to work with us, and I will have him contact you, Essie. He informed them that they were keeping track of the fatalities and identifying next of kin for notification, but that task would mostly be done by the state police.

Then one of the other deputies commented on how glad he was for that, because to have to notify twenty families that their loved ones were dead and how senseless their deaths were would be hard.

The supervisor said, Yeah, I know what you mean.

The sheriff added that there were others in the department working to match the identification of those who were injured or dead from I-69 with the paperwork from the cars in the accident. But he emphasized that their concentration should be on confirming the identity of John Doe 24, whose ashes were at the medical examiner's office, as well as the hitchhiker known as John Doe 23. He added that once they were identified, they could notify their families. But for now, their focus was on solving this murder. He concluded by asking to see Supervisor Ellerson and Deputy Williams in his office, then thanked everyone for what they had done today and left.

They both headed for the sheriff's office, and as they entered, he offered them a seat. After opening the door to a small cabinet, he removed an expensive bottle of rum. He placed three glasses on his desk and started to pour.

Supervisor Ellerson said, You're pouring the good stuff.

The sheriff responded, Yes, you both need and deserve this for what you have been through today.

Essie said, Only a sip for me. I'm still on duty.

The sheriff said, No, you are done for the day. Take paid leave for the rest of the evening and work from home.

She said, I do have two things yet to do, finish my plan and go over to the medical examiner's office to see if any of the body fragments are viable for a DNA test to confirm the driver's identity. Oh, I forgot. I need to make arrangements for someone to pick up my husband from the airport in forty-five minutes.

The sheriff told her not to worry about that. He called Deputy Wheaten in and asked if he would pick up Kevin at the airport, to which he said he would be happy to.

She asked, Can you pick up the kids from my mother's first and tell Kevin I will be home soon but that he shouldn't worry about cooking as I will pick something up?

The sheriff said, No, we've got this, and instructed Ben to tell the receptionist to give him twenty dollars and to stop to pick up something.

Essie said, Just get some KFC.

Ben asked if he and his wife, Kelli, could set everything up as well as look after the kids until Sunday. She agreed, and Ben left.

The sheriff said, That is good. Now you can take today and tomorrow to come up with your plan for solving this.

She replied by telling them what she had planned so far: she would have the DMV search for a green Lincoln Continental, check DNA results at the medical examiner's, and investigate Michael David Allen's life. If this is an intentional crash, then we need to find out why someone would want to kill him.

The sheriff said that it was a good plan and added that Mr. Allen had been very supportive of the community programs the sheriff's department sponsors. He told her that everyone would be watching this closely, and if it was indeed Mr. Allen, the case would attract both state and national attention. He then told her that he believed she could handle it because she had proven herself capable.

He told them of the press conference he was planning to hold on Monday to announce her as the lead investigator, suggesting that she should have enough time to get her ducks in order. He then asked Supervisor Ellerson if he had anything to say. Ellerson declined, and the sheriff said, Thank you, but I need to get home to the missus. They both got up and left.

At her desk, Essie organized her papers and worked on her plan for another thirty minutes. Before leaving, she asked through computer technology about processing the DMV request and then headed for the medical examiner's office.

Meanwhile, at Martha Allen's home, she and her chef, who was also her close