A woman says she has spent nearly six decades haunted by a horrifying childhood memory: seeing her father rape a woman, cut her throat and bury her body in the backyard of their family home.
Jodie Tedder says she was forced to stay silent about the alleged killing for most of her life, only finding the strength to contact investigators after her father made what she describes as a deathbed confession in 2010.
More than 10 years after she first came forward, Tedder, now 61, says the woman’s remains are still buried somewhere in Washington state — and she believes she can identify the victim.
Tedder has repeatedly told authorities she was just three years old when the alleged crime occurred and that she believes the body belongs to Madeline “Lyn” Babcock, a 35-year-old woman who disappeared from California around the same period.
So far, however, officials have not agreed to excavate the area Tedder says is the burial site.
“She is still in our garden. The guilt of having her there is unbearable. You can’t live with it,” Tedder, who is now married and has children of her own, said.
According to Tedder, the alleged events began on June 8, 1968, after her father, James Steele, then 30, and a friend she knew only as Craig met the woman at a bar and took her back to a hotel room in Vancouver, Washington.
“I was sitting in a chair and I remember this woman walking up to me,” Tedder recalled. “I could see that they had been partying; there were lots of booze bottles on the table.
Jodie Tedder, now 62, claims she saw her father, James Steele, attack and murder 35-year-old Madeline ‘Lyn’ Babcock in a Washington state hotel room back in 1968
Tedder once tried to excavate the yard where she says the woman is buried, but had to abort the process, leading her to believe the body is still there
‘I was sitting up against the wall and at one point she came over and let me look through her purse.’
Soon after, Tedder recalled her father flying into a rage and pinning the woman to the bed – all while his baby-faced daughter was still in the room.
‘He was holding her with his right hand and pushed up her skirt,’ she said.
‘I remember her screaming; I had never seen a girl scream like that before. The next thing I remember was Craig standing on her left. He was holding her; she was still screaming.
‘Dad had a knife in his belt; he took it out and slit her throat.’
Then, Tedder claims her dad handed her the knife to hold as he went about cleaning up the mess.
Her father and his friend apparently wrapped the woman in a bed sheet and drove 30 minutes to dump her body in the backyard.
‘The guilt of that night has been with me my whole life,’ Tedder said, adding that she only fully comprehended what she witnessed that night when she started going to therapy in her 30s.
Lyn Babcock was last seen in Venice, California days before Tedder says her father killed a woman. Tedder said she recognized Babcock as the woman in the hotel room
Lyn Babcock, pictured with her mother, was reported missing by her family in the summer of 1968. Her loved ones said her Venice apartment appeared to have been cleared out and cops weren’t interested in investigating at the time
A news article from 1987 documented the years-long search Babcock’s sister, Pat Foy, launched in the wake of her disappearance. Foy died in 2016 never finding proof of whether Lyn was alive
‘Working through this with my therapist, with him putting the knife in my hand… my dad made me feel as guilty as he was.’
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In the wake of that night, Tedder said she opted to stay quiet out of fear.
She claimed, too, that her father became abusive towards her in the aftermath – subjecting her to a childhood of sexual abuse and assault.
‘My father was abusive in every way. In that home, I remember being raped. My sister remembers walking in and seeing dad rape me,’ she alleged.
‘It went on my entire life until I left the family home at 18 when I got married.
‘It was awful. That’s why you don’t tell your story to anybody. My father, any time you moved out of line, he was physically abusive to us. We were whipped by a belt, we were teenagers, and he would whip us.
‘He was very aggressive with all of us beyond the sexual abuse. He ran a very tight ship,’ she continued.
‘He was a brute of a man.’
In December 2010, Tedder said her father, who was 72 by then, finally addressed the depravity of that night in the hotel, as well as the years of abuse, as he was lying on his death bed.
‘I spoke to my dad while he was dying. He apologized to me and he said he was sorry for what I experienced,’ she said.
‘My dad said he was sorry that I carried around this guilt my whole life.’
‘After my dad’s confession, I went to the police,’ she continued. ‘They told me that they needed the confession from my dad, otherwise there was nothing they could do.
‘They said they believed me but it wasn’t good enough.’
Tedder trawled through missing person photos before she landed on Babcock, who, if still alive, would now be 93. She was last seen in Venice just days before the apparent murder. She suffered from hydrocephalus, a build up of brain fluid, and needed spinal punctures to control the condition
Tedder insists Babcock, a twice-married barmaid who also worked on an assembly line, is the woman from the hotel room.
Tedder was just three years old when she claims to have witnessed the murder. She said she only fully comprehended what she saw that night when she started going to therapy in her 30s
Tedder, pictured with her husband, has vowed not to give up – insisting that the woman buried in her yard ‘needs to be back with her family’
A year after her father’s death, Tedder said she attempted to excavate the land herself without permission but had to stop before destroying a driveway.
Since then, she has been pressuring the Vancouver Police Department to do so.
A police spokesperson, however, said there wasn’t enough evidence to carry out a search warrant.
‘Ms Tedder was going to do her own excavation at that location and was advised if any evidence was located to stop immediately and call the police,’ a spokesperson said.
The property where the remains are said to be buried is currently owned by Tedder’s sister.
Tedder claimed her mother did a ‘boundary exception’ before selling off a portion of the property.
‘My mum did not want to sell that property with the body on it,’ Tedder said, the land is ‘still in my family.’
Tedder, who admitted she no longer has contact with her relatives, has vowed not to give up.
‘The guilt of that night has been with me my whole life and made me want to get justice for her,’ she said.
‘Her body is in that back garden and nobody is doing anything about it,’ Tedder continued.
‘When my dad died, there was nobody to arrest; I believe that is why nothing is being done about it.
‘This lady needs to be back with her family; she needs to be buried. Her loved ones need to mourn her.’
