NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Nearly 30 years ago, the so-called “Fast Food Murders” shook the communities of Hermitage, Donelson and Clarksville, claiming seven lives, leaving families heartbroken and raising fears throughout the community.
In February 1997, a lone gunman shot and killed two employees at Donelson Captain D’s. The bodies of 16-year-old Sarah Jackson and 25-year-old Steve Hampton were found in the restaurant’s refrigerator.
“It’s a robbery-murder case where you have two victims and a bad guy comes in and kills them and puts them in a refrigerator. It’s a very unusual case. These types of crimes don’t happen every day,” said former Metro homicide detective Pat Postiglione.
A month later, another horrific crime scene occurred, this time at a McDonald’s in Hermitage, where three people were shot to death: Andrea Brown (17), Ronald Santiago (27), and Robert Sewell Jr. (23). A fourth employee, Jose Gonzalez, was stabbed 17 times but miraculously survived.
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A month later, a gunman abducted two young women from a Baskin-Robbins in Clarksville, and the bodies of 16-year-old Michelle Mace and 21-year-old Angela Holmes were found in Dunbar Cave State Park.
Seven brutal murders in 67 days.
In 1997, Postiglione was the lead detective in the Metropolitan Homicide Division working on the Captain D murder case. Mike Breedlove was the TBI agent working on the Baskin-Robbins double homicide case.
“We knew there was a serial killer or a killer on the run hanging out at those fast food restaurants,” now-retired TBI agent Breedlove told News 2.
The investigation intensified, evidence was uncovered, every lead was followed, and finally the mass murderer was brought to justice.
Who is Paul Dennis Reed?
If you lived in Nashville in 1997, the name Paul Dennis Reed would send chills down your spine.
The ex-con from Texas reportedly came to Nashville to seek fame and fortune as a country singer, but in just 67 days he committed three fast-food robberies and killed seven people.
In June 1997, a smiling, waving Reed tried to kidnap former Shoneys manager Mitch Roberts.
“He was trying to get me handcuffed, he was trying to handcuff me in the car,” Roberts said.
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However, the crime was thwarted and Reed was arrested.
Then on June 25, Reed faced the bright lights of the media for the first time in a nighttime courtroom, standing alongside police officers who had been searching for him day and night.
“I did not commit a violent crime. I did not commit murder,” Reed said in court.
Over the next few days, investigators shared tips and crime scene investigators thoroughly searched Reed’s East Nashville home.
“The physical evidence, the forensic evidence, was very important. Paul Dennis Reed studied crime scenes and crime while he was in prison in Texas. But he didn’t realize that there was microscopic evidence that he left behind, and that’s what we were looking for,” Breedlove said.
Reed was convicted of all seven murders and sentenced to death, but was never executed. He died of natural causes in prison on November 1, 2013, 11 days before his 56th birthday.
The cause of death was complications from pneumonia, heart failure and upper respiratory tract disease.
Reed died while always maintaining his innocence.
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To this day, police officers say they maintain contact with the victims’ families, and in Postiglione’s case, he still keeps in contact with the sole survivor, Jose Gonzalez, who now has a family and lives in Atlanta.
Prior to the Captain D murder in January 1997, there had been another murder at a restaurant, this time at Shoney’s on Dickerson Road, where night manager Charles Thoet Jr. was shot to death. That case remains unsolved.
Postiglione said he believes Reed is the culprit, but there has never been any evidence linking him to this eighth murder.
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