A group of high school students might have solved a cold case that has baffled investigators for four decades, all thanks to a sociology class project.
In 2018, students at Elizabethton High School in Tennessee began examining a case known as the ‘Redhead Murders’ at the suggestion of their sociology and history teacher, Alex Campbell.
Campbell initially doubted his students would succeed where law enforcement had failed, thinking they would encounter similar difficulties in cracking the case.
Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this year, he mentioned that he prefers “projects that get the students interested, projects where we can apply what we’re learning in our classes,” adding that he had “never heard about the murders even though I’ve lived here my entire life.”
Campbell elaborated: “They had these murders, but nobody had ever come to a consensus whether there was a person responsible for more than one of them, was there a serial killer active?”
The ‘Redhead Murders’ involve a series of victims who were found along major highways in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Originally unidentified, the victims have since been identified as Lisa Nichols, Michelle Inman, Tina McKenney-Farmer, Elizabeth Lamotte, and Tracy Walker, with one victim from DeSoto County still remaining unidentified.
What made the case particularly unusual was that all victims were young women with reddish hair.
The murders are believed to have occurred between 1978 and 1992, with some of the women possibly being prostitutes.
To assist in their investigation, Campbell brought in a former FBI agent to teach the students how to profile a case.
Using their new skills to identify patterns, the students concluded that six of the victims could be linked to one potential suspect, whom they dubbed the ‘Bible Belt Strangler.’
They also suggested Jerry Johns as a potential suspect, as his DNA was connected to McKenney-Farmer in 2018.
Johns died in prison in 2015 after being convicted of strangling a prostitute in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1985.
The students even interviewed a survivor of the ‘Bible Belt Strangler’ on their podcast, Murder 101, where they shared their findings.
Although Campbell believes there is “plenty of evidence” supporting his students’ theory, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson told PEOPLE that there is “no evidence to indicate that Jerry Johns is responsible for the deaths of Elizabeth Lamotte or Tracy Walker,” adding: “Michelle Inman was just recently identified, so at this stage, agents are still pursuing new leads and gathering information about who she may have had contact with before her death.”
The spokesperson confirmed that the investigation into Inman, Lamotte, and Walker “remains active and ongoing.”