Ep. 4 Victoria Morris & Crimes of Timothy Crosby

You can listen to episode four here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Posted is the transcript for the episode for those who would like to read the story instead.

Sources and music used in this episode are listed at the end of this post.

The son of a St. Paul police officer is a seasoned violent sexual offender by the age of 18. The deal he got after his first caught offense in 1974 solidified his freedom to roam the streets off and on from then to 2009. Leaving three suspected murdered or missing victims in Wright County alone. 

In this episode of Aren’t You the Girl? I highlight what I know of the 1994 cold case of Victoria Morris and the life and verified crimes of Timothy Joseph Crosby.

In 2009, a search warrant officially revealed the crimes of Timothy Crosby. He is considered the suspect in three different cold cases in Wright County.

Those cases are Belinda Vanlith, Martha Bacon and Victoria Morris. 

Though I’m not covering Belinda’s case – she is the reason I started looking into other crimes of Timothy Crosby when I was in high school. 

She is believed to be his first victim when he was 18 years old. 

Belinda is the most documented and is featured on a national database online and remembered through other podcasts. 

I found his other possible victims do not have that. 

It’s my hope to bring more of the same attention to his other possible victims that Belinda has online. The ones who fell through the cracks and need to be shared to put the pieces together. 

Victoria Morris is sadly, the case I know the absolute least about. I’ve compiled as much research as I could. I hope this is a case I can learn more about in the future. 

Victoria was 25 years old when she went missing in late June or early July 1994, shortly after she was released from jail. 

Victoria struggled with drug addiction and was working as a sex worker. 

Her remains were found Oct. 8, 1994 in Wright County, Minnesota. She was strangled with an object. 

Tim’s DNA was compared to a male DNA profile found on an object left at the scene. It did not hit on Tim Crosby but that did not eliminate him as a suspect as of 2009. 

If this DNA has ever been checked again in recent years with more advanced technology – I’m not sure. 

Victoria is the only victim other than Belinda to be named publicly connected to Timothy Joseph Crosby. Martha Bacon gets completely left out of the public narrative even though she is listed in Tim’s 2009 search warrant with them.

Martha’s remains were found where Belinda went missing from. Victoria’s remains were found off of highway 94’ on the route Tim would’ve taken to travel from St. Paul to the cabin in Wright County.

A known road he traveled on close to Martha’s dumping site also leads directly to the location of Victoria’s body.  

I will point out that during my research into Victoria Morris – I found the Southside Strangler Gregory Clepper from Martha’s episode was also questioned in Victoria’s murder.

I’d love to know more information on the possible connections.

Unfortunately, that is all I know about Victoria Morris. 

So, who was Tim Crosby and what exactly did he do?

Tim was adopted by parents Glenn and Annette Crosby in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1955. He had a brother and sister. 

Glenn was a police sgt and was also in charge of the St. Paul police department’s gun range. Some of the men he worked with described him as a “stickler.”

One neighborhood girl said his mother was very controlling and watched over Tim and the other kids real close. They were not allowed to wander very deep into the lake or she would yell at them.

Tim went to Murray High School in St. Paul and that’s important to remember for a future case I break down. 

He kept to himself and was very quiet. A friend said Tim had gone on one date in high school and it wasn’t a very good one. Tim asked this friend after the date an “odd” question, 

“Have you ever been on a bad date?”

For some reason, his demeanor was unsettling to this friend and he didn’t know how to respond. 

During the final months of his senior year of high school he became even more distanced from the few people he communicated with. He received invitations from them to go out but Tim declined. Eventually, the group quit offering. 

When Tim graduated in 1974, he was 18 years old, stood at 5’11 and weighed 205 pounds. He had brown hair and wore glasses. 

He was on the wrestling team in high school and had a very heavy build. He was also very strong. 

The Crosby family had a cabin located about 40 miles west of the Twin Cities in a small, quaint neighborhood on Little Eagle Lake in Wright County. 

Tim would spend as long as a week by himself at the cabin at a time – doing absolutely whatever he wanted. 

The Summer of 1974, Tim was acting very strangely. 

Tim had a habit of peeping into the homes of Eagle Lake.

One of the girls who was 13 at the time said you could see the lights reflecting off of his glasses through the window. Her mom would simply shut the blinds when they saw him. 

Sometimes, the girls reported, he used binoculars to see into their home. 

It was known around the neighborhood that he peeped. 

Unknown to everyone around them, for at least two years, Tim has been holding up girl hitchhikers at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them. 

Tim masterbates daily thinking about these events, slowly escalating from peeping and sexually assaulting to a more dangerous game. 

That Summer in 1974, 100 yards from the Crosby cabin he was alone for the week in, seventeen year old Belinda Vanlith disappeared never to be seen again. 

Tim is documented in her police report to be the last known person to see her. 

Police initially list her as a runaway. 

Dec. 31st, 1974, Tim picked up a young woman who was hitching a ride in St. Paul around noon. It was later learned she was a former classmate. Tim picked her up in his gold Chrysler Newport saying he’ll drive her a few minutes away to her desired location. 

Tim drove in circles and when she turned to get out of his car, she realized the inside door handle was removed and she had no way of getting out. She turned to face Tim holding a gun to her side. 

He drove her to the cabin on Eagle Lake where he sexually assaulted her and took polaroid pictures. He chose this location to be isolated.

  As they left and drove, Tim indicated to the victim that she was kidnapped as revenge for other girls making fun of him square dancing in high school. 

They teased him and she was going to pay. 

He was organized and she knew for a fact that he was going to kill her. She was absolutely terrified for her life. 

Tim drove her to a few different locations within Wright County and assaulted her, including a church parking lot. 

Close to midnight, he finally made his way back to St. Paul – telling her that he would finally drop her off. 

She didn’t believe him and absolutely believed he was going to kill her – he was only looking for a location to do it. 

She saw a police car and moved her foot to slam on Tim’s gas pedal causing him to swerve and catch their attention. 

He pushes her out of the vehicle and tries to get away. 

Thankfully, he is caught in St. Paul and his first documented offense is recorded. 

A few hours after Tim was initially arrested – Wright County police arrive at the cabin where the victim said the assault took place. 

They were met with Glenn Crosby who said he had been sleeping at the cabin since 10pm

He consented to a search of the cabin and even assisted with it. 

The search conducted in 1975 at the Crosby cabin found a packet on different ways to dispose of a body including burying a body in a manure pile. It’s confirmed in police reports he was stuck in a manure pile the night Belinda Vanlith went missing that Summer in 1974.

They also found a box from the attic that contained polaroid photos of his victim.

A search was also conducted in his bedroom at his parents home in St. Paul and a large stack of detective magazines they felt were relevant were found but St. Paul firmly refused to allow Wright County to take as evidence as they weren’t on the warrant. 

A diary starting the month after Belinda’s disappearance was also taken. 

It is to be noted that several Wright County detectives when interviewed in 2008 about Timothy and the searches done in early 1975 – that they each felt St. Paul was very overprotective of the scene. 

Tim’s father Glenn, the policeman, could have honestly cared less about what his son was doing. His only concern was protecting his family name.

Glenn even went as far as calling residents around Eagle Lake after Tim was arrested and said, 

“Tim picked up some tramp off the street and they were trying to pin attempted rape on him.”

By this point, Wright County detectives knew Belinda Vanlinth didn’t run away. 

But it is months too late. 

Tim was already very organized and dangerous at age 18. Playing cat and mouse with his victim – implying he has killed before – and she believed him. 

He also had what would today be considered a kill kit in his vehicle. With the passenger door handles removed. 

Tim served time in prison and was later sent to St. Peter hospital for treatment. 

In the court files for this crime Tim repeatedly stated under oath that the victim could have fought back but didn’t. He wasn’t being forceful or mean – she could have fought back. 

Tim took little to no accountability for this assault and it will be a common theme with each crime as we go on. 

The gun used to scare this woman was a gun he stole from the St. Paul police station. The same station where his father Glenn is in charge of the guns. 

Tim had this gun for reportedly over a year. He also used his father’s handcuffs on victims. 

Tim lied under oath saying he never harmed anyone else with it but he eventually admitted to using a gun to sexually assault victims and let them go. 

Wright County had to give these items back to Glenn Crosby in 1977 because “they belonged to him.” 

These are little ways his father was able to keep control of evidence that should have belonged in Wright County’s custody. 

While in St. Peter – Tim wrote the underage teenage girl he’d peep on from the cabin from the treatment. Of course, her mother contacted the hospital immediately demanding to know why he is allowed to contact her underage daughter?

Tim stayed in treatment centers with occasionally getting time to do supervised things. 

One fact I want to highlight – in 1981, Tim was released to his family and they spent 3 days at the cabin at Eagle Lake. Tim reportedly couldn’t keep himself on only their property. 

Multiple residents, obviously, were very upset by this. Wright County pd were also very upset but it was under the discretion of the hospital. 

Again, Wright County had no choice what Tim Crosby and his family wanted to do. 

In January 1982 Tim was released to the public. 

But his fantasies of rape aren’t gone from his mind.

He starts collecting violent pornography and magazines. Walks around at night carrying a knife, watching woman in bars fantasizing raping them. 

In April of 1983, Tim assembled a kit consisting of rope, gag and blindfold and took off in his two-door 74 Gold duster. 

Tim approached a woman walking and offered her a ride. She accepted and got in his vehicle. He attempted to kidnap her but she fought back. 

He started poking her with a knife and tore at her shirt. She fought with him and managed to escape out of the vehicle and run away. 

She also got his license plate and went straight to the police. 

Tim stated his plan with the victim was to hang her from her hands from the ceiling to act out his sexual fantasies. 

It was then stated in Tim’s file that, 

“As long as Crosby was in St. Peter hospital, they would not issue any charges.”

Crosby’s file is then cleared by arrest and he’s sent back to St. Peter. 

He did 5 more years but did get passes to shop in St. Peter and the Twin Cities area at times.  He was released again in February, 1987. 

Only five months later in July of 1987, Tim picks up a woman and brings her to his apartment for a drink. Once she tried to get up and leave, he came up from behind and choked her and bound her. 

He spent the next 16 hours assaulting her. 

She was tied to the bed and the door was locked. She managed to free herself by breaking a window in which Tim had nailed shut, jumping out and screaming for help. She was naked and bloody. 

Neighbors of the apartment building called the police and ran to her aid.

Once his apartment was searched they found another set of items that is qualified as a kill kit. 

Tim spent two years in the custody of Department of Corrections for this sexual assault. While incarcerated, he refused treatment for sexual offenders. 

He then served some time in Stillwater Correctional Facility. 

Timothy Crosby at this time is not currently under any mandatory supervision nor is he a registered sex offender because his conviction predated the sex offender registration requirement. 

On May 13th, 1991, Tim was released to his parents. 

By 1992, Tim is working at Builders Square and has three confirmed sexual assaults that lead to the woman escaping after he threatened their lives. 

At age 38 he ends up meeting and dating a 17 year old girl who eventually became his wife in 1996. They did have children and would remain together until 2009. I’m choosing to keep this part of his life as private as I can due to respect for his family. 

They have absolutely nothing to do with the cases I’m presenting. They deserve their privacy and respect. 

Tim kept a low profile until 2000 when he was caught printing and viewing erotic stories on the computer of his work. He was working as a janitor at the University of Minnesota. When the computer was viewed some of the searches were – 

Torture, rape, incest, snuff, more torture, and animal sexual searches. 

He was fired from his job and continued to keep a low profile.

In Oct. of 2006, a new owner took over the Crosby cabin property on Little Eagle Lake in Wright County. The new owner has been open with detectives and allowed them to view and search his property many times since then. 

In April of 2009, Timothy takes two young girls – ages 24 and 17 to a hotel room where he wants them to “put on a show for him.”

He continues this behavior over a course of time. After the mother of the 17 year old saw on the news about Timothy’s past and search warrant, she reports to police that her daughter has been spending time with him.

Authorities execute a search warrant and find they found several trunks containing a hacksaw blade and an array of newspaper articles about violent sexual assaults, including rapes, kidnappings, murders, and serial killings. They also found hundreds of pornographic videotapes, magazines, and books depicting circumstances and conduct resembling Crosby’s past violent sex crimes.

They also found hundreds of files featuring torture, rape, death and child porn. 

On his questioning about his most current sexual offense – his answer was, 

“Any straight guy would do it.”

A neighbor of Tim Crosby’s St. Paul home who also went to school with Tim, gave a lot of insight into Tim’s behavior at home and socially to investigators. 

Tim was always messing around with the door handles of his Blue Hyundai.

Tim would also sit in his truck for hours simply reading the newspaper. And he is up at all hours of the night and he can hear him fiddling around with the doors to his vehicle in the early morning hours. 

Weird and off-beat. Didn’t like to be in large groups of people. 

He received a large family inheritance and also inherited a few of his fathers guns and rifles after his passing. 

The garage seemed to be packed with junk and garbage and smells very bad. 

Multiple other people confirm that his St. Paul home was crammed full of junk and filthy. The only clean place was his basement that smelled overwhelmingly like bleach. A padlock keeps everyone but Tim away. 

A reported hidden room with a desk, mattress, box spring, cameras and recording equipment. 

A chain with several keys on it was found. A key labeled “warehouse” is seen. 

Tim went to the Lamplighter Bar frequently. He would “bump” into victims as they were doing daily routines even though it was an area he normally wouldn’t be. 

Told victims he’d take them “up north” however the up north location was never discovered.

He also said statements like, 

“Do you know how lucky you are that I can control myself now” and “Don’t try to get me in trouble or it will backfire on you?”

His attorney argued that he had lived a very clean life the previous 20 years. 

A search of his garbage uncovered a thin strap t-shirt with an angel logo, a long length of brown braided hair that had been cut off, and a pink and black bra that had been cut between the cups. 

According to the warrant, 

“These items recovered could indicate that Crosby may still be involved in criminal sexual activities or may be destroying evidence from previous crimes.”

He received a two year prison sentence for this sexual offense. 

Minnesota then decided to have Tim committed as a sexually dangerous person. 

From my understanding and hope – Tim still resides in Moose lake treatment center today.

I grew up believing nothing bad happened in Wright County. I consume true crime like most others do – watching Ted Bundy or BTK Killer documentaries believing men like them exist elsewhere.  

I didn’t expect to find similar crimes to the men I’ve watched on the screen to match the crimes in or near my hometown. 

I first heard of Timothy Crosby when I was 17 years old – the age of some of his victims. I was shocked that this man lived nearly in my backyard at times.

As I grew older and gained more knowledge on Tim, his known victims, suspected victims and the location of each crime – it’s become more difficult to stay silent on what I’ve learned. 

I’m compelled to do this series for his victims. I know he has many still living. The cases I’ve found through the past 10 years of investigating absolutely deserve to be brought to the light.

Most cases I’ve investigated have absolutely zero digital presence while still being unsolved even with families still searching for answers today. 

Timothy preyed on young women desperate for money or in difficult situations. He would threaten the young women that he would tell authorities about their drug addiction. He enjoyed having power over them. 

Timothy’s actions over the course of 4 decades helped ignite and keep Minnesota dangerous sexual predator laws in place. 

The man the public knows so little about – yet so many families demand the chance to speak with him or simply know more about him. 

Tim seems to have had more protection than his victims and their families and it’s my mission to educate the community who need to hear these stories and remember the countless young girls. 

This series is for the people that Tim may have caused pain to and who are yearning to know more about his life and crimes.

I ask that everyone stays respectful of Timothy and his family as they have absolutely nothing to do with his behavior and I believe they are collateral victims of his as well. 

This is to paint together the information I’ve been sitting on for 10 years and to hopefully help ignite every case I’m presenting into the digital world. I’m not trying to convince anyone to come to any conclusion, I only want to present the information I have. 

I hope someone else out there has the missing piece for any of these girls’ cases. 

These cases deserve to be brought to the light – no matter how hard Glenn Crosby has tried to keep them hidden. That’s one of the saddest parts of this story to me. A policeman who couldn’t even protect the public from his own son and never held him responsible for the pain he’s caused so many. 

And the pain continues on today…

If anyone has any information on the murder of Victoria Morris please contact the Wright County Police Department or Minnesota Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222- 8477.

Thank you for listening, stay safe everyone. 

Sources for today’s episode:

• Wright County Police reports
• Court transcripts
• Detective interviews. 
• Star Tribune and the St. Cloud Times.

Music by: 

• Ashot Danielyan – Pixabay