#20 Heather Uffelman l Music City Murder

Explicit content warning

06/15/21 • 22 min

This episode of Music City Murder begins in Nashville but ends in Marietta (Atlanta), GA. It still counts as a Nashville true crime case, however, and the unsolved mystery of Heather Uffelman's death will send chills down your spine.

Sources:

Show Notes:

In September 1992, in Nashville, a local music video company ran two ads in the classifieds trying to sell the central processing unit and monitor for an Apple Quadra 950.
- They put 22-year-old Jeremy Rolfs—a 22-year-old senior at Tennessee State University—in charge of the process.
- One of the ads read ULTIMATE Power (ultimate in all caps): Apple Quadra 950 + plus some other details...$24,000 obo.
- - I think this is the first mistake. Putting the price for such a huge and costly piece of equipment will draw criminals.
On October 7, 1992, a man calling himself “Tom Johnson” called about the ad and said he was a freelance computer programmer
Jeremy Rolfs even met up with this “Tom Johnson” to preview how the equipment worked.
- Unfortunately, there were no other witnesses to this event, and so it went completely unnoticed.
Since the destination was over 200 miles away, he decided to drive through the night, and his fiance, Heather Uffelman, joined him to keep him awake.
At 1:30 AM on October 24, Jeremy and Heather set off for Marietta.
- They arrived at the motel at 7:30 AM. Originally, they had been set up to meet at an industrial park.
- - But “Tom” said the directions were so complicated that it would be better to meet somewhere else.
  - Since Jeremy had spent plenty of time wandering through industrial parks looking for unmarked addresses, he thought it was reasonable.
- “Tom” said his business partner had the check and would be along in an hour, so the couple went to breakfast.
- When they came back a half-hour later, “Tom” said he’d spoken with the business partner and he was on the way.
- - Rolfs so trusted the guy that none of this struck him as odd, and so he just went along with it.
  - There were no clues that this guy was anything but what he said he was.
- At 8, he suggested that they load the computer into the car, so they did.
- They made small talk for about 20 minutes before Jeremy asked “Tom” where the president of the company was with the check so they could close the deal.
- Then, “Tom” pulled a gun on them and said, “I think we can close this deal right now.”
“Tom” had Jeremy and Heather lie down on the ground before rolling them up in a blanket.
- He had Jeremy turn away from Heather, and then he suddenly heard a loud buzzing in his ear, and the room began to spin, because he’d just struck Jeremy in the back of the head with a claw hammer.
- He then went over to Heather and hit her with the hammer, and Heather let out these horrible, bloodcurdling screams.
- When Jeremy said “stop screaming, and he’ll leave,” “Tom” hit Jeremy over the head several more times before returning to Heather Uffelman.
- Jeremy remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal and was able to see Tom dust the counter for fingerprints.
As soon as “Tom” left, Jeremy freed himself and crawled over to Heather to tell her he would get help for them and that they would be all right.
- What he saw would haunt him until his dying day.
to get help for himself and Heather.
They were rushed to the hospital, where Heather succumbed to her injuries around 12:30 PM that day.
- Jeremy was released from the hospital on Oct. 27.

Sources:

Show Notes:

In September 1992, in Nashville, a local music video company ran two ads in the classifieds trying to sell the central processing unit and monitor for an Apple Quadra 950.
- They put 22-year-old Jeremy Rolfs—a 22-year-old senior at Tennessee State University—in charge of the process.
- One of the ads read ULTIMATE Power (ultimate in all caps): Apple Quadra 950 + plus some other details...$24,000 obo.
- - I think this is the first mistake. Putting the price for such a huge and costly piece of equipment will draw criminals.
On October 7, 1992, a man calling himself “Tom Johnson” called about the ad and said he was a freelance computer programmer
Jeremy Rolfs even met up with this “Tom Johnson” to preview how the equipment worked.
- Unfortunately, there were no other witnesses to this event, and so it went completely unnoticed.
Since the destination was over 200 miles away, he decided to drive through the night, and his fiance, Heather Uffelman, joined him to keep him awake.
At 1:30 AM on October 24, Jeremy and Heather set off for Marietta.
- They arrived at the motel at 7:30 AM. Originally, they had been set up to meet at an industrial park.
- - But “Tom” said the directions were so complicated that it would be better to meet somewhere else.
  - Since Jeremy had spent plenty of time wandering through industrial parks looking for unmarked addresses, he thought it was reasonable.
- “Tom” said his business partner had the check and would be along in an hour, so the couple went to breakfast.
- When they came back a half-hour later, “Tom” said he’d spoken with the business partner and he was on the way.
- - Rolfs so trusted the guy that none of this struck him as odd, and so he just went along with it.
  - There were no clues that this guy was anything but what he said he was.
- At 8, he suggested that they load the computer into the car, so they did.
- They made small talk for about 20 minutes before Jeremy asked “Tom” where the president of the company was with the check so they could close the deal.
- Then, “Tom” pulled a gun on them and said, “I think we can close this deal right now.”
“Tom” had Jeremy and Heather lie down on the ground before rolling them up in a blanket.
- He had Jeremy turn away from Heather, and then he suddenly heard a loud buzzing in his ear, and the room began to spin, because he’d just struck Jeremy in the back of the head with a claw hammer.
- He then went over to Heather and hit her with the hammer, and Heather let out these horrible, bloodcurdling screams.
- When Jeremy said “stop screaming, and he’ll leave,” “Tom” hit Jeremy over the head several more times before returning to Heather Uffelman.
- Jeremy remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal and was able to see Tom dust the counter for fingerprints.
As soon as “Tom” left, Jeremy freed himself and crawled over to Heather to tell her he would get help for them and that they would be all right.
- What he saw would haunt him until his dying day.
to get help for himself and Heather.
They were rushed to the hospital, where Heather succumbed to her injuries around 12:30 PM that day.
- Jeremy was released from the hospital on Oct. 27.

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#019 Richard Ramirez l Patreon Preview

Note: this episode is a Patreon Preview and therefore will only be about 10 minutes long.

To hear the whole thing, go to https://patreon.com/musiccitymurder and sign up for the $1 tier!

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