Good Evening everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our new motto is [You’re either someone’s last love of first murder]
I am your host Ky along with my co-host Rick.
Tonight we have a special treat for yall; a preview of a Patreon bonus episode. This case was the first in the US to use DNA as legal evidence. If you want 2 or more cases from us a week, subscribe to our Patreon using our summer sale to get ½ off. We’ll talk more about that later.
Our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.
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Here’s your weekly reminder to listen to our last episode, a case of Murder and Mayhem. A case where the law was just a suggestion. It’s episode 62 the case of Randy Gay. Also, in our Patreon, our last bonus episode we discussed a delusional kid who thought women owed him everything in the case of Elliot Rogers.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get on with the show…
In November 1987, a body was found partially nude with its hands tied together with tape, and legs spread apart. During the investigation, police found no evidence of sexual abuse; however, there was evidence to support that the body had been severely abused, including blunt strikes to the head. It was noted that these strikes happened before death and that strangulation as the cause of death. The body was identified as 23-year-old Shirley Anna Ellis who had left the Wilmington Hospital where she worked as a nurse helping AIDS patients. The last night she was seen, on November 29, 1987, she had reportedly caught a ride home.
After this body was found, three more came to light. All of them had been brutally beaten and horribly tortured.
So the second body was found at around 6:30am on June 28, 1988 by some construction workers, at their job site, where they were building the Fox Run apartment complex. The body was completely naked but, again, there was no evidence of sexual assault. This body, too, was killed by strangulation after receiving blows to the head. [Do you see the beginnings of a pattern here] This body was reportedly covered in blue fibers. This body was identified as 31-year-old Catherine DiMauro was spotted walking down Route 40 between the hours of 11pm and midnight.
The third body Margaret Lynn Finner was said to have disappeared on August 22, 1988. She was a sex worker and multiple witnesses claimed they saw her get into a blue Ford being driven by a white male. This occurred near Route 13. Three months later, her body was found near the Chesapeake-Delaware Cana. They needed to use dental records in order to identify her because the body was so badly decomposed. The cause of death couldn’t be determined, but there were clear signs of torture.
- Route 13 splits off in New Castle, which is where Route 40 begins.
The first two murders were obviously very similar, bringing police to a conclusion that there was a serial killer operating near Route 40. A special task force of more than 60 officers was formed, including Renee.
State and county police collaborated with the FBI to identify and hunt down their suspect, forming a task force of over 100 officers and spending about one million dollars. Through their knowledge and experience with other serial killers, the FBI was able to make an amazingly accurate psychological profile
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On September 14, 1988, an undercover police officer by the name of Renee Taschner was posing as a sex worker.
Renee noticed that a blue Ford had passed by about 7 times within the span of 20 minutes. She strategically moved to a more secluded area and the suspected vehicle pulled up next to her. The driver tried to convince her to get in his car but Renee used the excuse that she was too tired. While he was trying to solicit her, Renee pulled a piece of the BLUE carpet from out of his car and then took note of his license plate when he drove away. Running the license plate identified the owner as Steven Brian Pennell.
Steven Brian Pennell. He was born November 22, 1957. Not much is known about his early life but at the time we pick up our story, we know he was a 32-year-old electrician, married to a woman named Vera Katherine Pennell, and father of two children. He also had no criminal record.
One September 16th (two days after Renee’s encounter with Pennell), a local sex worker by the name of Michele Gordon disappeared. She frequented Route 40 as part of her sex working routine, and witnesses saw her entering a, YOU GUESSED IT, blue Ford. On September 20th, her body was found in the rocks of the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal. Cocaine was found in her system, and it caused her heart to stop. This implied that she was drugged but died before anything could be done to her.
Another victim, 26-year-old Kathleen Anne Meyer, disappeared on September 23rd. Police saw her entering Pennell’s car at 9:30pm on Route 40. Her body has never been found. The officer who witnessed this wrote down the license plate number, confirming it belonged to Pennell.
By this point, the task force was monitoring Pennell’s every move. Taschner even sat next to Pennell at a Moody Blues concert. She also recalls a heartbreaking encounter with his daughter, who approached the officer during a stakeout and asked for a donation to a school fundraiser. “She was a kid, and you never want any child to experience what was happening,” says Taschner.
Public Prosecutor Charles Obery approved a search warrant to investigate Pennell’s Ford. He was pulled over on a routine traffic violation and was immediately taken to court to pay his ticket which is a barely used legal method for police to detain a suspect.
They found prints that matched up with his victims. The same tape that was used on Shirley Anna Ellis and a “torture kit” were found. The torture kit included needles, knives, whips, pliers, and handcuffs. After months of around-the-clock surveillance, Steven Pennell was arrested on November 29, 1988, one year to the day after the first victim was found.
Pennell was charged with the murder of Ellis, DiMauro, and Gordon. On November 23, 1989, Pennell was convicted of murdering DiMauro and Ellis.
Still maintaining his innocence, he asked for the death penalty so that he could spare his family further agony.
Due to a lack of evidence, he was NOT convicted for the murder of Michele Gordon. Two life sentences were suggested by the jury. Pennell’s attorney tried to appeal the decision by claiming that the carpet sample from his car was obtained illegally.
Judge Richard Gebelein had to dismiss these allegations. He counteracted that the carpet was visible as soon as Pennell’s car door was opened and he engaged her. Judge Gebelein consulted numerous experts to help verify the results. It was because of this that they were also able to convict him of Gordon and Meyer’s murders.
Due to this turn of events, Pennell dismissed his lawyer. He decided to represent himself. The court approved of this decision, and then Pennell pleaded what, Ky?… NO! He pleaded for the DEATH penalty. He felt that once two witnesses were able to testify against him, he deserved death. He used two passages from the Hebrew bible as reasons why he was taking his position.
On October 31, 1991, Pennell was sentenced to death. A hearing was held with the Supreme Court on February 11, 1992 where Pennell demanded the death penalty. Pennell wouldn’t speak about the murders in 1st person; he spoke about the murders in 3rd person. He said that the murderer enjoyed the process of what happened, but not the murders themselves.
His execution was scheduled for March 14, 1992.
During the last two days before his scheduled execusion Kathy, made desperate efforts to obtain a stay, arguing that her husband’s outlook proved that he was mentally incompetent.
And, in another strange twist, Widener University law professor Lawrence Hamermesh, a member of the ACLU’s board, agreed to represent the Kathy. An expert in the corporate arena, Hamermesh had never handled a criminal case. “I think I did the best I could,” he says now. “I had no death-penalty experience, and the state had pulled out all the stops because of the severity of the crimes.”
Hamermesh challenged a Superior Court psychiatric evaluation that declared Pennell competent to understand the charges and to challenge them himself. The attorney alleged the review was neither thorough nor comprehensive, and that time was needed for a more complete evaluation.
But the judge said fuck that! Rot! and state and Federal courts turned her down. At 9 o’clock on March 15th, the United States Supreme Court issued the final rejection of her petition.
Pennell was executed by lethal injection at 9:49pm inside the prison’s trailer. The trailer was modified to be divided into a glass-enclosed death chamber and an adjoining room for witnesses. Steven was strapped down on a vinyl-covered gurney. When he was asked if he had any last words, he opened his eyes and shook his head no.
Technicians then began injecting him with lethal drugs. After a little while, they closed curtain to the death chamber portion of the trailer and, over an intercom, announced that Steven was dead.
Marlene Simm, the mother, Michelle Gordon, was among a crowd of 40 death-penalty supporters and opponents and she said she was pleased by the execution.
He was the first execution in Delaware in 46 years, and the 165th execution in the United States after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
So people are still wondering why a 31 year old married father of two just snapped and went on a killing spree. Why did he act all crazy in court saying he was innocent despite evidence, wanting to represent himself, and then requesting the death penalty.
“To this day, I want to know why All of us involved want to understand it better. Typically, there’s some horrifying event in the life of a serial killer that explains how they became sociopaths. But in the Pennell case, we couldn’t get at it. That’s the lingering mystery: Why?”
In 1991 a psychiatric evaluation that was submitted to the Delaware Supreme Court cleared Steven of depression, paranoia and psychosis. It also described him as “a pleasant, attractive, friendly man who related well to the examiner.”
Steven’s attorney said“His acts were unspeakable But it’s hard to [connect] the Steven Pennell I got to know with the person who committed these horrific crimes. The psychiatric evaluations never diagnosed him with any mental-health issues.”
Side note: If you haven’t figured it out yet, Steven Brian Pennel was the Route 40 Killer, aka the route 13 Killer, aka the Corridor killer.
You know how 476 is also referred to as the blue route? Maybe one of those highways was referred to as the corridor.
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