You can listen to episode fourteen of “Aren’t You the Girl?” podcast here:
A series of brutal sexual assaults occurred to sex workers who were brought to Wright County in the 1990s. The same timeframe and area where two bodies of sex workers were found.
In this episode of “Aren’t You the Girl?” I’ll be covering a series of sexual assaults of sex workers in Wright County and Minneapolis that are similar to the homicides that also occurred in these areas.
Along with the homicide of Wendy Bozeman that may link to homicide victims Martha Bacon and Victoria Morris.
December 10th, 1992:
A 30 year old woman was found partially clothed, beaten and raped in Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. She was found in a wooded area. A motorist had gotten stuck nearby and when the victim heard the tow truck and voices, she began screaming.
It appeared that she had been dragged to the scene. A car was seen in the area after midnight suggesting she may have been outside for as long as eight hours.
She was beaten brutally. If she hadn’t been found, she would have died. If it had been below zero temps over the night she would have died.
She was severely beaten in the face, head and upper body. Her feet were frostbit.
My previous episode titled “The Four Whose Death Connects” was centered around multiple women who were found in or around the area this victim was found in. Only they didn’t survive.
You don’t need to listen to that episode to understand this one but I feel it’s an important listen that adds a very haunting effect on the already horrifying assaults I’ll be covering in this episode.
Every victim in the previous episode was found before every victim here.
Every couple of years, new sets of victims with different sets of predators appear.
Some clusters are solved but far more are left unsolved.
I am keeping a lot of details vague and a lot of the sexual acts out of this episode. Some cases are compiled from different files and the desolate areas the women were found in included Wright County.
This episode will be a very tough listen but I feel it’s important to not let what has been done in the dark. The women are supported and justice is still being sought in its own way.
Their cases could possibly bring answers to Martha Bacon and Victoria Morris homicides here in Wright County.
The about page for “Aren’t You the Girl?” ends with –
“Please join me as I uncover and advocate for the missing girls, the dead girls, and the silenced.”
This episode is for all the women silenced.
December 13th, 1992:
Only two days after the attack, another woman was working in the area of Broadway and Dupont Ave. N Minneapolis as a sex worker just after midnight.
A big white 4 door truck that looked brand new, with a red crushed velvet material on the seats, pulled up to her.
The shift was on the steering column, and he was drinking a Dr. Pepper.
He was a lone white male. 28 to 32 years old. 5’6 – 5’7. 145 pounds.
He had a lower voice, blonde long straight hair, mustache and a mole on the side of his face.
He had dried blood on his hands and was wearing a flannel plaid black, blue and white shirt and jeans.
He identified himself as “Scott” and agreed to give her $40 for oral sex.
He said they were driving to Ridgedale but once they reached Ridgedale, he kept driving.
Scott told the victim,
“I’ve got a plan for you.”
He told her to get into the back of the truck.
He brutally sexually assaults her, beats her and leaves her for dead in a desolate area.
February 5th, 1993:
Less than two months later this same man picked up another sex worker in the area of Broadway and Aldrich Ave. and sexually assaulted her. He pretended to be a police officer while picking this sex worker up.
He was arrested and had an extensive criminal history although nothing for criminal sexual conduct.
Nothing went forward when it came to justice for those survivors.
August 12th, 1993:
A woman while working on the street was picked up by a lone man in a van around 2am. She was standing near Lake St. and 4th Ave. S.
From the start, he started assaulting her in the van near the lakes and then they drove to 84th and Lyndale where he sexually assaulted her with a knife.
The woman ran to a business near Minneapolis-St. Paul airport around 4:30pm and summoned police.
She gave a complete description of this man though that description wasn’t released.
September 6th, 1994:
A woman was working on Broadway and Bryant when a man picked her up.
They didn’t give each other names and only talked about money.
They park on a nearby street and they both go in the back of his van. As they begin, she feels something wrap around her neck.
He wrapped an orange extension cord snug around her neck.
He told her she was going to die like the rest of them.
If she did everything that he wanted he would let her go.
Her hair ribbons were left in his van from him pulling her hair.
As they fought, her nails came off and she bit his arm.
The man is drunk and brutally assaults her.
She begged for him to stop and that he didn’t have to do this to her.
He continued his attack.
He wanted to go to another location by a river for another 15 minutes, he said. And if she followed his directions she would live.
He had a syringe filled with an unknown substance he took from his toolbox and when he tried to inject her with it, she kicked it out of his hands and it squirted out.
He let her get dressed and sit back in the passenger seat while they drove to the second location.
He took his $40 back from her and said don’t expect me to pay for pussy when she was only getting what she deserved.
As they drove, the woman took a chance and kicked open the passenger door and fled while the car was moving.
She ran to 18th and Bryant and hid in the bushes.
He was chasing her and she eventually ran right into the cops.
The whole event took about 45 minutes.
It was this man’s intention to inflict extreme sexual harm.
He would choke her and laugh when she would get light headed.
Tell her things like – that the only reason he would marry a woman is to do this to her and it’s okay because it would be legal.
July 29th, 1995:
A woman met a man while on the corner of Lake Street and Clinton in South Minneapolis around 1am.
They walked together talking about grabbing a rock and having sex together.
They stopped and stood alongside a garage and he asked her to step inside the garage. She didn’t feel comfortable stepping inside the garage but stood by the door and looked inside. It was dark and she didn’t know what was in there.
He asked her if she had a light.
As she looked down at her purse, he punched her in the face, spun her around and held a knife up to her throat.
He made her take off all of her clothes and lay down outside by the garage.
He assaults her multiple times while on the cement.
People walked by during the attack but no one did anything.
He brings her into the house.
As he walked her through the house, his children were in the living room. Two of them looked at her and one made a gun gesture and went,
“Pop, pop.”
As his dad had a knife against her back walking her into the basement.
He ties her up to the bed by her hands and feet.
He said he would be right back and that if she screamed, she would be dead.
He returns and starts to sexually assault her before pulling the knife out again and telling her that it is her time to die.
That his purpose is to “kill all prostitutes on crack.”
She pleaded with him. That she had children and she was all they had.
She eventually acted like she was interested in him and liked what he was doing.
He responded well to that and said they could be partners. She could get the prostitutes who were the bad ones and bring them to him to kill.
They both fell asleep eventually. He kept the knife in one hand and she was tied up the entire time.
Once he felt she really liked him, he untied her and embraced her.
He said just help me and I’ll take care of the rest.
Eventually he let her get up and told her to pick up her children and bring them back there.
She didn’t get out of the home until 12:30pm the next day.
He was a white man. 5’7 or 5’8. Medium build with dishwater blonde hair. Wearing jeans and a grey t-shirt.
He looked like he may have been in his 40s and had a tattoo.
He held a butcher knife with a large blade.
After he first punched her, he said he was going to kill her because she was a crack prostitute and it was his mission.
He did tell her he was responsible for killing another sex worker and cutting them up.
And hasn’t she heard about it?
July 18th, 1993:
A suspicious vehicle was stopped on Broadway Ave W and Penn Ave. N.
This vehicle was obviously cruising, looking for a sex worker.
This officer had already stopped this man and sent him away twice this July.
After the incident, the officer spoke with two well known sex workers in the area about this “John”.
The officer did so because of the hours he would see him driving along Broadway Ave, his address in Buffalo, Wright County and the fact that he is 250 pounds and 6 ‘3.
They stated they know him but avoid him because he is very violent with his dates.
They also said he frequently picked up Martha Bacon.
This is two months before Martha’s dismembered body parts began appearing here in Wright County.
May 31st, 2001:
A woman walking her dog in Theodore Wirth Park discovered a severed human arm.
The area was cordoned off and searched which led to the discovery of another arm, two legs and a head.
These remains were identified as those of 39-year-old Wendy Bozeman.
Wendy Bozeman grew up in the Southside of Chicago. She was raised by protective parents and was shielded by outside influences within the city.
When Wendy had her first child, she left the city.
She had a steady job as a receptionist for the Chicago Repertory Theatre and moved to near North Minneapolis in 1987.
Wendy didn’t know anybody here. She was pregnant with her second child.
Star Tribune printed in 1989 that Wendy declared with clear eyed conviction her priorities,
“I had to do it for my children. I wanted a better environment for them. I wanted them to develop in safety and freedom.
No one suffers more than a child in a dangerous neighborhood.”
Wendy had begun her freshman year at the University of Minnesota and plans to work in criminal justice with a focus on troubled adolescents.
“No child is inherently bad. Every child needs someone to talk to about anything. I want to be that person.”
Her children are in daily care at the Northside Child Development Center. The center focuses on children raised by working or student parents.
Wendy had noticed positive progress in both of her kids. Her kids were happy, so Wendy was happy.
Wendy had convinced a friend to also put her children in this Center so she could also go back to school.
They are determined to become self efficient while their children get safe, reliable care.
In November of 2000, Wendy had fallen on hard times and asked if her son could move in with his father. When he found out Wendy also didn’t have a place to stay, she was welcome to stay with her son’s father too.
Wendy had lived with him on and off between November and May.
She was last seen in the early morning hours by her son’s father when she told him “she was going around the corner” and that she would be back.
He took that as she was going to a nearby drug house to get drugs. Wendy struggled with a crack cocaine addiction and would often go to sex work in order to supply her addiction.
She never returned.
Her remains were found the next day.
Video tape from a surveillance camera at Theodore Wirth Park linked Marcus Keith Miller to the remains found.
He extensively cleaned his warehouse apartment including retiling his bathroom floor to hide evidence that he had beaten, strangled, stabbed and dismembered Wendy.
He used a heavy bleach to scrub down the bathroom.
Blood and human tissue was still found on the wall.
The investigating officers testified that the floor of his shower stall appeared to have been damaged by a sharp tool.
In parts of the shower these markings had been melted and reshaped in what the officer hypothesized was an attempt to cover up evidence that the shower had been damaged.
A list of his sexual partners was also found. Among the names on the list there were nine entries where the sexual partners were referred to as prostitutes.
There was also evidence that he had masturbated to the newspaper photo of Wendy while in his jail cell.
42 year old Marcus Miller acted as his own lawyer at the end of his trial and gave his own closing statement, protesting his innocence.
He quoted the O.J Simpson trial and said,
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
He was found guilty on all charges.
Marcus Miller’s older twin brothers also served time for a 1985 rape and a 1989 slaying of a social worker among other crimes.
In episode 3, I examined what I know of Timothy Crosby as a possible suspect in Martha’s case. He also brought sex workers to desolate areas in Wright County.
In episode 11, continuing Martha’s story, I began to explain that an ex of hers would beat her severely and threatened to cut her up into little pieces.
In today’s episode, Martha is a central theme within violent sexual predators. Men either known to have been violent towards her or men would take credit for her murder.
You could make a pretty compelling case against a couple of men. The reality is you can raise doubt with anyone and find guilt in anyone.
Marcus Keith Miller, Wendy Bozeman’s killer, is listed as a possible suspect within the case files of Wright County victim Victoria Morris.
It’s all connected in some way.
When I first began my journey, I thought it was unbelievable how Timothy Crosby was allowed to roam the streets here.
Bringing sex workers to Wright County to hold captive and assault, possibly kill.
Unfortunately, I am realizing we had and still have men like that here.
A lot of the identities of the men in today’s episode are known but they never were charged.
The women were too afraid to continue or other factors led into the decision to not really do anything. No blame on the victims of course.
We had two young, beautiful women found here in Wright County during the early 1990s.
But the men who could be responsible, very well could be here. Our neighbors.
I always wondered why Martha was killed in 1993 and Victoria in 1994 before it stopped.
Because the women before and after them survived once being left for dead or escaped into the hands of safety.
And nothing happened to the men.
Words cannot describe the horrors of what these women went through.
I wish you all nothing but healing and peace.
I support you.
In the next episode of “Aren’t You the Girl?” I’ll be covering a case that’s close to the heart – the 1996 homicide of Cassandra Willis.
Thank you for listening, stay safe everyone.
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