'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Buried in the Backyard's upcoming episode, titled A Vanishing Professor, will revisit the murder case of Reno professor Dr. Judith Calder on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at 7 pm ET, exclusively on Oxygen.
The official synopsis of the episode, as per Rotten Tomatoes, reads:
"A weekend getaway at a Reno resort becomes the center of a mystery when a respected college professor disappears; police learn that the answers may lie buried beneath desert sands hundreds of miles away."
On the weekend of her death, Calder had been staying at the Golden Nugget Casino in Reno, where she had been invited for a complimentary stay by a friend. The professor had mysteriously disappeared from the casino at around 10:30 am the next day, and her body had been found almost 10 days after the initial disappearance, almost 500 miles away from the Casino in Jackpot, Nevada.
The seemingly random murder of Judith Calder baffled the police, as they were unable to find a motive for weeks. Upon interviews and interrogations of coworkers and students at her place of employment, everyone described and reassured the police that the professor was always kind to everyone and was one of the oldest and most respected teachers on staff, and therefore had no ongoing conflicts.
However, it was Judith's husband, Jim Calder, who suggested that the police investigate Judith's friend Rickey Barge, the owner of a printing shop who'd met her through her work at the university and was the one person who knew all about her plans. Due to the persistent efforts of the police, they were able to track down Barge, who'd suspiciously flown to Mexico amidst the murder investigation, and were able to get him to confess to the murder.
Who was Judith Calder and how did she die?
Dr. Judith Calder was a professor of humanities at the University of Nevada who had dedicated a large part of her life to studying Reno's less desirable aspects, such as domestic abuse and drug usage, in an effort to make the surroundings around her a better place. She, her husband, and her three daughters lived near Lake Tahoe, which was a 60-mile commute from the university, forcing Calder to often rent a room at the local hotel nearby on the days she'd been working late.
It was one of these days of late-night research work that Calder decided to stay at the Golden Nugget Casino nearby, where she'd been invited by a coworker. Judith's husband, Jim, had already made plans to meet her that night there; however, due to some problems with the water heater back home, the couple decided to postpone their plans for the next day. When Jim Calder tried to make contact with Judith Calder the next day by calling her, she did not pick up.
When Jim arrived at the Golden Nugget, he noticed that all of his wife's possessions, including her diabetes medicine, were in the hotel room, but she was nowhere to be found. It was then that Jim finally contacted the local authorities and reported Judith missing. Upon investigating Judith Calder's whereabouts, the police found surveillance footage from the same day.
The footage showed Judith at the casino at around 10:30 am, when she was last spotted getting in her car and driving away by herself. It wasn't long before officers discovered her car at 5th and Evans, an undesirable neighborhood of Reno that looked strange for the professor to be in, according to detectives. Closer inspection revealed that someone had attempted to wipe their fingerprints from the car door handles using a wet cloth, which the detectives narrowed down as a deliberate attempt to conceal evidence.
Desperately in search of concrete evidence and baffled as to who'd have wanted to hurt Judith, the police called upon her daughter Kim, who shockingly revealed that her mother had been violently ambushed a year before by an unknown man who'd approached her in their garage and covered her mouth. However, Calder had been able to fight off her assailant.
In addition, Jim revealed in his questioning that the only person who knew about Judith's plans about staying at the Casino other than him was Rickey Barge, an associate of their family. Being an obvious suspect in the case, the police questioned Barge about any potential leads, to which he had no answer; however, he did mention another coworker of his from the warehouse, Carlos Filomeno, who apparently also had knowledge of Judith's plan as both of them had been friends.
Mysteriously, Filomeno had disappeared amidst the murder investigation.
10 days after her mysterious disappearance, Judith Calder's body was found by antelope hunters in the desert of Jackpot, Nevada, almost 500 miles from where she'd last been seen. The postmortem examination of her body revealed that she'd been stabbed in the heart numerous times and had been dead since the day of her disappearance.
Judith Calder Murder Case: Who was convicted of the crime?
With the persistent efforts of the police, Carlos Filomeno was finally found and arrested. In his eventual interrogation, Filomeno made a revelation that no one at the time had expected. The warehouse worker revealed that he had witnessed Rickey Barge stabbing Judith Calder.
He went on to explain that Barge owed Judith Calder a large sum of money and was unable to repay her. He said that Barge had informed him of the plan and instructed him to buy the murder weapon at Walmart, a fact that was later confirmed by CCTV footage. He accused him of luring Judith into the warehouse with the pretext of repaying the loan and then murdering her and placing her body in a plastic-lined box. He later placed the very same box in his van and drove to Jackpot, Nevada.
Filomeno's confession was backed up by not only DNA evidence but also CCTV footage captured at various locations that the van had passed through. The only thing left for the detectives to do was arrest Rickey Barge; however, he reportedly skipped town. Despite his attempts to flee to Canada, Barge was finally caught.
Upon digging into Barge's history for the eventual legal proceedings, the police found out that Rickey Barge had actually been a homeless man in the state of Texas, whose identity had been stolen by Mohamed Kamaludeen who'd been using it for several years. Kamaludeen had numerous robbery charges against him and also had an arrest warrant out for him in Canada where he was convicted of committing a gruesome murder.
In light of the abundant evidence and confessions from both, Filomino and Kamaludeen were eventually made to go through several legal trials. While Filomeno cut a deal with the authorities in exchange for his confession and testimony against Kamaludeen, the latter, on the other hand, was sentenced to life in prison.
Watch Buried in the Backyard on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at 7 pm ET, exclusively on Oxygen.
