How Dawn Birnbaum’s Murder Exposed a Trucker’s Trail of Blood
In 1992, the body of 17-year-old Dawn Marie Birnbaum—a runaway from Florida—was discovered dumped beside a rural Pennsylvania road, brutally beaten and strangled. Though she was an outsider, the small community mourned her as one of their own, demanding justice. What began as a local homicide investigation soon spiraled into a chilling revelation: Dawn’s killer, James Robert Cruz Jr., a long-haul trucker, was linked to a decade-long spree of murders along highways in Ohio and Pennsylvania—with hundreds of women found dead under similar circumstances.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.
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In 1992, the body of 17-year-old Dawn Marie Birnbaum—a runaway from Florida—was discovered dumped beside a rural Pennsylvania road, brutally beaten and strangled. Though she was an outsider, the small community mourned her as one of their own, demanding justice. What began as a local homicide investigation soon spiraled into a chilling revelation: Dawn’s killer, James Robert Cruz Jr., a long-haul trucker, was linked to a decade-long spree of murders along highways in Ohio and Pennsylvania—with h...