CONTENT WARNING

This episode contains discussions of sexual assault.

Bloomington-Normal is a metro area of about 130,000 people in north-central Illinois. Located just two hours southwest of Chicago, Blo-No, as it is affectionally called, is one of those cities in America that’s known for being, well, normal. It’s flat, there’s not much to see, and it's surrounded by cornfields. One local real estate agent describes Bloomington-Normal as the town that “has everything you need and nothing that you don’t.” It's a town where people feel safe.

So, it was quite disconcerting when on the 4th of April in 2003, a twenty-five-year-old woman, who was sound asleep in her home in Bloomington-Normal, was suddenly and terrifyingly woken in the middle of the night by an intruder. This was the second rape in four months, and police noticed that the details of that case were terrifyingly similar. It was unusual for the town to have even one occurrence of stranger rape at all, let alone two. Something was horribly wrong. The police had the sickening suspicion that the town had its very first-ever serial rapist.

Join Cam and Jen as they discuss "The Secret Life Of Jeffrey Pelo"

Thank you to EJ Hammond for requesting this episode.
You can find her book, Ted Bundy: Memories of the Beast here

Research and writing by Lauretta Allen
Listener Discretion by OctoberpodVHS
Producer Music & Editing by Nico at We Talk of Dreams

Sources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1541002.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/illinois-police-sergeant-jeffrey-pelo-doubled-serial-rapist/story?id=11497530
https://www.wglt.org/show/wglts-sound-ideas/2018-01-10/bloomington-mom-shares-heroin-heartache-to-help-others
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75556460/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75850779/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75540537/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.amazon.com/From-Protector-to-Predator/dp/B091JG4FGL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23LHV8WP0NAGV&keywords=who+the+bleep+did+I+marry+Pelo&qid=1680189416&s=instant-video&sprefix=who+the+bleep+did+i+marry+pelo%2Cinstant-video%2C87&sr=1-1
http://395cjs.blogspot.com/2012/04/ex-bloomington-police-officer-found-to.html
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/es2_ys0U7P8?pli=1
https://www.hss.gov.nt.ca/en/newsroom/carfentanil-detected-hay-river#:~:text=Carfentanil%20is%20one%20of%20the,than%20one%20dose%20of%20naloxone.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75540537/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75540532/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75582918/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/340868552/?terms=Jeffrey%20Pelo%20rape&match=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YzFn8A4tZk
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75862982/?terms=Jonelle%20Galuska%20Pelo&match=1https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2008/08/13/ex-police-sergeant-sentenced-to/47620015007/
https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2010/10/07/appeals-court-upholds-ex-officer/42935830007/
https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2008/08/15/victim-in-pelo-case-challenges/46968768007/