She was supposed to graduate that spring. The other just wanted to ride her bike home from school. Both girls ended up dead. Both were found miles apart, and years later—tied together by a shadow no one could quite catch.
In January 1992, 18-year-old Holly Ann Anderson was found stabbed and discarded in a ditch off Indiana’s State Road 63. She’d been missing for days, her light blue Ford Escort never recovered. No suspects. No motive. Just silence.
Nearly two years later, 15-year-old Jessica Roach vanished while riding her bicycle home from school in Georgetown, Illinois. Her body was found weeks later in a remote cornfield—just three miles from where Holly was discovered.
The connection was impossible to ignore.
Both girls were young.
Both were abducted near the Illinois-Indiana border.
Both were killed and dumped in rural, secluded areas.
Both cases showed signs of restraint and rage.
And both names eventually found their way onto the same page of an FBI file… under one heading:
Larry Dewayne Hall
Who is Larry Hall?
Larry Hall was a Civil War reenactor, cemetery groundskeeper, and historically soft-spoken loner from Wabash, Indiana. He also may be one of the most prolific uncaught serial killers in American history.
He was never convicted of murder.
But he was suspected in over 40 disappearances.
And he confessed to several killings—including Jessica’s—before recanting each one.
When the FBI finally searched his van, they found:
- Duct tape with fibers
- News clippings about missing girls
- Violent pornographic materials
- Maps marked with remote wooded areas
Still, none of it was enough for a murder conviction.
Hall’s only conviction? The kidnapping of Jessica Roach, not her murder. He’s serving a life sentence.
But every confession he’s ever made—including about Holly Ann Anderson—has either been ignored, withdrawn, or deemed incredible.
He Became Someone Else Out There.
In A Heavy Weight’s episode, we dive deep into both murders, following the girls’ last known movements and reconstructing the chilling proximity of their cases.
We examine Hall’s bizarre dual life: by day, reenacting battles in blue wool coats; by night, cruising Midwestern highways with rope in the back of his van and fantasy journals under his bed.
And most disturbing of all, we learn that Hall may have mapped every one of his potential victims—some on paper, some in memory.
By the Numbers
- 38 of 48 missing girl cases reviewed by a federal task force placed Hall within 50 miles of the disappearance
- Hall’s IQ was tested at 80, with multiple diagnoses including dissociative fantasy disorder
- He confessed to at least 21 murders during prison conversations with an undercover informant
- Only 1 conviction has ever stuck
“He tells you what you want to hear,” said one investigator.
“Then he tells you that you heard it wrong.”
Why This Still Matters
Because Holly’s case remains unsolved.
Because dozens of families still have no answers.
Because the man who may have killed them is still alive—serving time, writing letters, and sometimes, still confessing.
In the end, A Heavy Weight isn’t just about the girls we lost. It’s about the systems that let them disappear. The silences that let killers vanish. And the weight that never leaves when truth is buried.
Listen Now:
Episode 1: The Girl by the Road & Jessica’s Ride
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
Explore the source materials used in this episode:
