When the System Fails, What’s Left?

Reflections on justice, grief, and the long shadow of the I-70 killer

True crime author Bob Cyphers doesn’t just write about unsolved cases—he’s lived through them. In this powerful essay, Bob reflects on what happens when the system fails to deliver justice and the weight it places on the families left behind.

Word had leaked out that after 32 years at KMOV-TV in St. Louis, I was planning on retirement. There was bad golf to play and grandchildren to chase around. And then the phone rang. The St. Charles Police Department was inviting me to come by. They had something for me. I figured it was likely a cake, a handshake, and best wishes after a long relationship.

It was not.

"You covered Nancy's murder, didn't you?" Captain Raymond Floyd asked me.

I nodded, wondering where this was going. Nancy Kitzmiller was murdered in St. Charles by a serial killer who tortured the country 30 years earlier. The case had been cold since.

"We're getting a task force together, and going after this guy one last time," Floyd said, staring at me. "Old cops, new cops, FBI, DNA folks. Everybody from every city. It's likely our last chance to ever catch this guy."

I looked at Floyd and wondered. What was I doing here?

"Retirement, huh?" Floyd smiled.

I thought of the golf and the grandkids.

"Yeah," I smiled. "It's time."

"You got one more in you?"

I looked at Floyd. Next to him were detectives Kelly Rhodes and Don Stepp. Both were smiling.

"One more?" I asked.

"We need somebody at our side," Floyd said. "Somebody to go inside the ropes with us, somebody to tell our story, somebody to keep it alive forever after the task force tries its best."

I paused and the room went quiet.

"You mea...."

"You will have complete access," Floyd said. "All the cops. All the experts. All the family members. We chase him. You write him. And someday, God willing, we catch him."

I thought back to the day I covered Nancy's murder. I thought of her parents Don and Carol, and the heartbreak they had suffered for 30 years. I thought of the murderous path that I remembered well: Indianapolis, Terre Haute, St. Charles, Kansas City, Wichita, Dallas, Houston.

"We're traveling?" I asked.

"Everywhere," Floyd said.

My mind was racing. Nancy, the task force, traveling, retirement. golf, grandkids. Life seemed so simpler 15 minutes ago.

"Surely there are other reporters..." I began.

Floyd stopped me.

"We know you Bob. And it was your Nancy."

I was on the scene that day. A beautiful spring afternoon at a jam-packed shopping center. A killer walked into her Boot Village store, shot her in the head, and walked out. He never touched her. He never bothered taking any money. And soon, we learned, he was doing the same thing up and down Interstate 70. I had kept in touch with the case over the years. It was as cold as ice.

The three of them looked at me. I smiled. They knew they had me.

"Where do we start?" I asked.

Bob Cyphers is the author of Dead End: The Hunt for the I-70 Serial Killer, available now from Genius Book Publishing.
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