Joseph County Sheriff's Department, the Three Rivers Police Department, and more agencies united their efforts for the case. Nonetheless, the search for the dark hatchback expanded as neighboring counties were notified and more people stepped in to help. His chilling answer was, “a girl.”Īt this point, investigators didn’t know if Linda was missing or dead. Under hypnosis, Todd was asked what he saw the man dragging. “There was nobody else.”Īuthorities decided to hypnotize Todd to see if that could stir memories useful for the case. “We had to do everything we could to find out what he knew,” Cares added. He was critical to this case,” said Robert Cares, former prosecuting attorney for St. Officials knew that Todd “was probably our only witness at that point. An alert on the car was distributed to local and state police. Todd had told police that the man he’d seen was driving a dark-colored hatchback. Hollow point shell casings, commonly used by law enforcement, were also found at the scene. It was collected for analysis to determine if it was animal or human blood. Officers turned up blood at the location. It was an intersection that was on Linda’s daily walking route. Investigators asked Todd to bring them to the spot where he saw the vehicle and the deer. He thought it may have been a deer, but officials noted that it wasn’t hunting season.

The young witness told police that he’d seen a man dragging something out of a ditch and putting something in the trunk of his car. Officials learned that a local resident, 10-year-old Todd Terrell had heard gunshots the day Linda went missing. RELATED: 3 Family Members Behind the Brutal Double Murder of Elderly Missouri Farm Couple A 10-Year-Old Witness Comes Forward “Linda led an exemplary life,” said Jeff Middleton, former chief assistant prosecutor for St. The devoted mother’s disappearance immediately sent up red flags. On March 26, Linda left home for her routine daily walk while her parents temporarily looked after her children. The disturbing finding was made about six weeks after Linda, 26, a self-employed divorced mother of two working hard to make a life for herself and her daughters, went missing. “The body was exhumed and we took it to Lansing for an autopsy.” Mother Linda Van Buskirk Goes Missing “We could tell she had been shot three times,” investigators told Buried in the Backyard, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. Watch Buried in the Backyard on Oxygen Saturdays at 8/7c and stream on Peacock.

Mom sample obituary for mother