Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and this week on Pushing Up Lilies, we’re diving into a chilling cold case that haunted Tennessee for over three decades. Back in 1992, the dismembered body of Tony Bledsoe, a devoted father of three, was found discarded in a remote Putnam County ravine. For years, his murder remained unsolved, the pieces of the puzzle left scattered in the shadows. But now, all these years later, Thomas has finally been arrested in connection with Tony’s brutal killing. In this episode, we’ll talk about the original investigation, why it went cold, and what finally led authorities to the man they believe is responsible. It’s a story of tragedy, resilience, and long-overdue justice. Plus, I’ve got a few extra short stories to share today - strange and surprising cases that have crossed my desk lately. So grab your coffee and settle in… it’s going to be a wild ride. * Listener discretion is advised.
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00:06
Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I'm your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
00:24
Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey, you guys. I wish I could say that this week has been hectic and busy, but it hasn't. It's been kind of nice taking a little bit of a break from school because of a cruise that I'm going on.
00:43
I will be starting back to school about the end of July, middle or end of July. So, the break is kind of nice. You don't realize how hard you're working until you cut back. And then it's like, Oh, I just needed a little break.
00:59
It's kind of stressing me out. I'm getting close to time to do my clinical. And I know that it's going to be difficult to balance that with two jobs. So, I'm kind of trying to figure out in my head the best way to do that.
01:15
It's been a little bit of a challenge, but I have enjoyed this break a lot. Super glad that while I'm on vacation, I'm not going to have to worry about doing homework. I'm sure a lot of you know how that is.
01:30
Have a little bit of exciting news. So, this year, Pushing Up Lilies is going to be a sponsor at North Texas Overdose Awareness Day. And this is going to be on Sunday, August 31st. It's at 6 30 p.m. on the lawn of the Denton courthouse on the square.
01:50
The address is 110 West Hickory Street. And that's here in Denton. You can come to this event. It's a free family event and it just helped educate the community about substance use disorder and overdose prevention.
02:07
There'll be some speakers there. There'll be a lot of resource tables so that you can get information. There'll be food, music, giveaways, and they will have a memorial ceremony. So, if you want to be a part of that, I highly encourage it.
02:23
It's going to be an amazing day. I love educating the public because in our job, we do have overdoses every day. Some of them, probably most of them accidental, to be completely honest, but it's a nationwide problem.
02:43
You can look them up on Facebook, North Texas Overdose Awareness Day. It's a nonprofit organization. And as we've kind of discussed in the heart. I haven't lost a family member because of Overdose, but I have a lot of friends who have.
03:03
I mean, again, I see it every day, so I'm super excited to be a part of this event. We'll be, like I said, a sponsor, so our logo will be on their T-shirts, and then I'm going to also have a table at the event and be handing out some stuff for the podcast.
03:20
So exciting. Also excited to say that my Patreon memberships are moving on up, which is fun. And there are several different levels on Patreon that you can join. You don't have to give a huge pledge monthly.
03:36
If you want to just do five dollars, buy me a cup of coffee so I can stay awake and keep recording. That is much appreciated. Again, Pushing Up Lilies is having our first annual murder mystery dinner on October 11th this year before Halloween.
03:55
I didn't want to do it too close to Halloween, but I wanted to do it in October because it is a murder mystery, and I just thought it would be fun. It's going to be at the Prairie House restaurant in Crossroads.
04:09
A fun fact, I used to work there when I was in nursing school 30 years ago, so it's been around for a long time. I absolutely love the food. It's delicious. We're going to do beef and chicken fajita buffet.
04:23
It's going to be so much fun. I'm super excited about the number of people who have reached out already to say that they're interested in tickets. The subscription box is selling quickly. So, if you do want to be a part of that, I encourage you to go ahead and go online at PushingUpLilies.com and order yours because they are running low and I don't want you to miss out.
04:47
I'd love for you to be a part of the first box and to get your input. I'm excited about future boxes. I'm already looking into the next one. It's kind of fun for me. I get to shop, and I don't know. That's my jam, I think.
05:03
My favorite place is TJ Maxx and Home Goods, and I always tell my husband when I'm upset about something like, I just need to go in there and look around. Even if I don't buy anything, I totally just like to look around.
05:15
And I usually find some random something that I don't need, but I think I buy more for other people than I do for myself. So, it's fine. It doesn't hurt a thing, right? It keeps you happy. Keep doing it.
05:28
That's what I say. So a lot of really exciting things. Last week, I had to pull someone out of a bathtub, and so I had to get into a bathtub. Again, we've talked about how this job is not always glamorous, but I had to get into the bathtub with someone who was not grist and help the funeral home pull him out.
05:55
Sometimes it's just whoever can get into the space is the best. We don't always have a lot of room to move. I feel like people commit suicide in closets all the time. And then people die in their bathroom and, you know, sometimes the door opens in and not out and it's just really hard for a lot of people to get into the room that we need to get into sometimes to actually move the body.
06:20
It becomes a bit of a challenge. You have to be kind of a contortionist to get into the places you want to get into. But we make it happen. We're a team, so we all figure it out. And I always appreciate when the police officers step in to help because they don't have to and of course they're risking injuring themselves, which is something I hate because I don't want to see anybody get hurt.
06:44
But I always love when they step up to help. And it's always funny when the seasoned officers ask their rookies to help because the look on their face is like, oh my God, is this part of my job? I did not sign up for this.
06:59
It's kind of fun. And some of them don't care. Of course, some of them come from different police departments and they've done this before, it's not their first rodeo and it doesn't bother them at all.
07:09
But some of them are highly freaked out by it. I know at our office in the past, we've hired a couple of retired officers, and they just don't want to be that close to the dead body. They try to stay as far away as they can.
07:23
They definitely don't want to touch it. And we do. We look in the eyes and remove the jewelry. And again, it's, I mean, I want to say the word fun, but if you love your job, I mean, it's basically fun.
07:37
So, we enjoy it. I actually have a quiche in the oven for my coworkers that I'm going to take in this morning and again, me and my coworker, Bob, we take turns stopping at Sonic to get drinks for one another.
07:54
So yesterday. It was his day. Today's my day. So, I'm like, you know what? I got this quiche. I'm going to pop in the oven. I did not make it. I bought it. I wish I was a cook, but I'm just not. I could be if I had the time.
08:07
My mom was not a cook during the holidays. She opened cans of gravy. We didn't make gravy. I'm not a very good cook. Maybe someday, someday when I can sit and relax, I can get a good recipe and actually make something.
08:23
But not today. Anyway, I have a couple of kind of funny stories to tell y'all today and then one really sad story. So first, I'm going to start with the sad. We have a local funeral home here called Golden Gate Funeral Home.
08:38
They're very well known and they're fairly respected, but they have had some issues in the past and have been under investigation. But apparently on May 28th, and so this is not that long ago. In Shreveport, Louisiana, the body of a stillborn infant was found, mixed in with laundry, at a uniform cleaning facility.
09:03
Employees at Alsco uniforms in Shreveport discovered the body early Wednesday morning among linens that were shipped from Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. Now little Kendall DeWayne Xavier Malone died on May 3rd, and he was scheduled for cremation.
09:21
Family wanted to have him cremated, but instead he ends up in a laundry basket basically mixed in with laundry at this cleaning facility. The infant appeared to be embalmed, they said, and the Texas Funeral Service Commission has been notified.
09:42
Now the owner of Golden Gate, John Beckwith, declined to comment, but the funeral home was already apparently being investigated for other issues. But could you imagine if you were this parent, if you were this parent and you thought your child had been cremated, I'm just curious if they already had been given the quote-unquote cremains and been told that that was their child and then their child somehow got mixed up with the linen.
10:11
You would think that if you had been under investigation multiple times that you would be super careful to fly under the radar, but that's not happening. Anyway, kind of an interesting story, so stay tuned for the details there.
10:27
I don't know what they do in that case. I mean, I can imagine that the family will probably sue Golden Gate. I know I would. I don't think that I would be okay with that, especially like, why is the baby embalmed?
10:40
It's supposed to be cremated. Why hadn't it been cremated? It's been a month, it's been four weeks, and then all of a sudden it turns up in Louisiana mixed in with linens. It's just, it's sad. I say that to say do your research when you choose a funeral home and I know that price is usually an issue because many times we're caught off guard and we have an unexpected death that we're trying to plan a funeral or a cremation for but I encourage you and our office of course is not allowed to recommend specific funeral homes so when people ask me which one I would use I'm not allowed to say and I'm not saying don't use Golden Gate by any means but do your research.
11:27
Be sure that you have looked online, talked to family members or friends to see who they've used in your area. I know it's difficult when we have family that's out of town and they have to choose a local funeral home, it's really hard for them.
11:41
They always want to know what we recommend and again we can't recommend it's not something we think about every day we don't sit there. laying awake in bed at night going, hey, if my family member dies, I think I'm gonna use this funeral home.
11:54
It's just not something you think about. You don't want to think about it. But then it gets to the point where you have to and then you kind of get stuck. Okay, a couple are kind of funny. So, to me, this is funny.
12:07
Y'all might not think it's funny. But my husband told me about this story. There was a man from Turkey. His name was Behan Mulu, who was 50. So, he was drinking with friends when he wandered off into a nearby forest.
12:22
Your friends are gonna get worried when you disappear, don't come back. Friends alerted authorities who set up a search and rescue mission to help find him. So, he was drinking heavily and kind of wandered, I guess, away from the crowd.
12:37
Well, the people in the search party were calling out his name for hours. When a man in the group spoke up and said, who are we looking for? I am here. So apparently, it's unclear how his friends didn't realize that he was actually right under their nose the whole time.
12:57
He was looking for himself. Okay, so I tell my coworker yesterday because he loves to make fun of me and tell me I'm blonde and laugh at my jokes, which many times I say things just for the shock factor.
13:11
You know, a lot of us do that. But nonetheless, this guy, obviously drunk had no idea that he was a part of his own search party. So, he finally heard someone call his name and then realized that he was the one they were looking for.
13:28
The funny thing is this has happened before. Back in 2012, not the same guy, but back in 2012, an Asian tourist went missing in Iceland and was found in her own search party after she failed to recognize her own description.
13:45
Kind of a weird story with her. She participated in an intense search for herself after she broke away from the group and changed clothes. And when she came back in different clothing, the group didn't recognize her description because she had on different clothes, and she was helping in the search.
14:07
I don't know why she changed too. That's kind of odd. I don't know if like her clothes got wet or whatever. There was no real explanation, but she changed clothes, came back, had on something different.
14:17
So, they were saying, hey, we're looking for this girl wearing this. And she was helped looking for that girl and didn't realize that that's what she had on before she changed. And she was a part of this intense search for herself.
14:30
I think that's kind of, I mean, it's funny. It's probably something that would happen to me. Like, who are y'all looking for? The first guy, I mean, being drunk. Like, I guess I kind of understand that, but I guess he sobered up enough when he heard his name that he realized he was the one that everyone was searching for.
14:49
So anyway, I thought that was a little bit entertaining. I can't help it. I just had to share those stories with you because I think it's funny. Again, it's probably something that I would do given the right time and moment.
15:01
Anyway, something else that happened recently. Indiana State Police and Hamilton County officials. This is in obviously Indiana announced the arrest of Thomas Anderson. Now, Thomas was arrested for the decades old grisly killing of Tony Bledsoe, who was a father three and his dismembered body was found in a Putnam County ravine back in 1992.
15:33
Bledsoe was only 24 when he went missing on March 16th of 1992, and his remains were discovered weeks later. Without a head, hands or feet. He remained unidentified until a DNA match in 2018 reopened the investigation.
15:56
Anderson, who is now 53, now faces a murder charge. So, this case in Indiana has actually given renewed hope for other cult cases nationwide. It's kind of cool how DNA has come back around and actually helped.
16:14
Now on April 3rd, 1992, the remains minus a head, hands and feet were found in the ravine. The body had been stabbed multiple times and was covered in a black substance. Initially, he was unidentified.
16:31
Many times, we'll bring in a body unidentified and we'll think there is no way they're going to identify this person. We see that it might be hard to get fingerprints and we're just kind of like, it's going to be difficult.
16:44
And in this case, he was brought in as unidentified. Even in cases where we know, and I think we've talked about this before, but we know who it is. They're in a locked and secure residence that is their residence.
16:59
They're not answering their phone, and they didn't show up for work and we have this body that looks kind of like them, but we just don't know. We err on the side of caution and actually bring them in as an unidentified people.
17:12
Just to be safe, there have been cases in the past, not in our office, but in other offices where two people died in an accident and were mixed up. And again, I think I've told y'all the story where I had two women that each had five IDs in their purses after a car accident and none of the IDs belonged to either one of the women.
17:32
They all looked similar. So had I just assumed that the women were random people whose driver's license I found in their purses, I would have been wrong. That would be horrifying to go notify the wrong family.
17:48
that their loved one was deceased when really, it's just a stolen driver's license. That's why we're super, super careful. This guy was originally unidentified, and Bledsoe's mother provided a DNA sample that actually helped to positively identify him.
18:08
Now in March 2018, the case again was reopened after a witness told police that Thomas Anderson claimed knowledge of the killing. He's talking smack, talking to his friends, trying to be a tough guy, proud of what he did and leaks it to the wrong person.
18:28
Anderson's nephew told police about his uncle's account of the incident. Anderson said that the killing followed an argument involving a stolen stereo, which happened at the home of Anderson's friend, Andy Emmert, where Bledsoe was shot, stabbed, and dismembered.
18:47
Now Anderson said that he witnessed Emmert shoot Bledsoe before stabbing him and striking him with a bat. Anderson then dismembered him and placed parts in a bucket of concrete, disposing of them in this ravine.
19:03
Obviously, there was no head, I mean the head was there but not attached to the body. So in those cases, I mean it's kind of weird to think but if we have somebody who is dismembered like this, we know that head belongs to that body.
19:19
I mean we know but we still have to fingerprint the person because who knows there could be some serial killer going around cutting people's heads off and mixing them up just to confuse everybody. I mean a lot of times people will cut hands off so that people can't be fingerprinted and so probably didn't intend on them finding the parts but there's always DNA.
19:43
After he disposed of all of this in the ravine, he then spray painted the body. that was again to just further impede identification. He didn't want anybody to ID him. There was a kitchen knife found during a search of Emmert's home in October of last year, so 2024, years later, met the description of one of the murder weapons.
20:08
Emmert, whose house this occurred at, was a utility superintendent and building commissioner and he was tied to the crime scene, but he actually hasn't been charged yet. His office was searched and there was just not enough information or nothing to really, besides what Anderson said, nothing to really arrest him for.
20:30
Anderson's next court date is July 9th so it's coming up. Officials are still reviewing evidence and they're encouraging anyone with information to contact the Indiana State Police. Tony Bledsoe was originally reported missing by his wife.
20:46
Again, He was 24 years old, father of three. He lived in Arcadia, and he left his home that day in his gray 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass and was never seen again. I had a cutlass when I was a kid. It was the longest car I've ever seen, and it was the ugliest green.
21:09
It's kind of in style now, that color. I mean, you won't see it on a car, but I don't know. It's kind of a cool color now when I think back, but yeah, it was, my friends called it the green bean because it was super, it was just a long car.
21:22
But reportedly Anderson and Emmert stole a vehicle from Wisconsin, and they actually gave Bledsoe the stereo in exchange for car parts. And then when Bledsoe found out that the car was stolen, he told Emmert he wanted his car parts back.
21:38
Obviously, that did not go over well. So, Anderson is being held without bond. And again, he will actually go back to court on July 9th. I will be interested to see what happens with him. I think it's so cool that DNA has led to a lot of arrests of people that have committed crimes years ago.
22:02
People thought they were getting away with basically murder and they're not anymore. I always hate though, when I find out that someone's been in jail for years and their life's been taken from them for a crime they didn't commit, that's always disheartening.
22:18
But I think for the most part, I don't know. I think this guy has been free forever. I mean, just think about it. This happened back in 92 and it's 2024. I mean, he's been living with this forever. And obviously Brad there made comments to friends and family members.
22:41
And then that's how he got caught. I'm glad, good for his nephew for stepping up and telling the police that he was talking about it, because a lot of family members would just keep that to themselves, especially since it had been so long ago Anyway, I'm so laughing about the story the people that are looking for themselves.
22:59
I think that's hilarious It's probably happens, you know even more, and I can't say anything I mean, I've been looking for my phone when I have it to my ear. So I am Blonde for sure sometimes and it's just funny how my co-worker makes fun of me because it doesn't hurt my feelings You know, some people get really butthurt and they're just like don't talk about me and get you know Get all upset.
23:21
I am pretty tough skinned after years of working around the police and you know How firefighters and police make fun of each other and joke around with each other. Well, we're also a part of that You got to be kind of thick skinned if you're a female in this career field.
23:39
So that's me It just doesn't bother me. I'm shown up on a scene before with heels on I mean they're not like stripper heels or anything but just really small you know I guess they call them kitten heels and someone has made a comment or made fun of me and I'm like dude I can run laps around you in these heels. Like, ready set go… we are… it's on, don't even challenge me because literally to me heels are more comfortable than tennis shoes. So don't get me started. But yeah, they love making fun of us and we just have to be ready for it. We just have to be ready for it. Anyway I am going to sign off because I am going to go to work this morning. I've got to get the quiche out of the oven and take it to my co-workers and then stop at sonic. I hope you all have a great day and don't forget… please, please, please, log on to my Patreon become a member, any amount helps, any amount is great! And sign up for that subscription box that thing is going fast and I don't want you to miss out we're only doing 30 the first time and so I'm super excited to roll it out, and I'm really looking forward to it! Take care, bye y'all!
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