Joseph Crouch, the karaoke enthusiast from Memphis wanted for the 2001 murder of his wife, Betsy, has been spotted. Just as police suspected, he has been seen singing karaoke and playing golf along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Louisiana. He has also been gambling in the Gulf Coast casinos. According to Crouch’s daughter, Teresa Wampler, police have received 50 tips in the past two weeks, thanks in large part to an article about Crouch that ran in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and two consecutive segments aired on America’s Most Wanted.
Most of the reports are of one-time sightings, but Wampler is absolutely certain that many, if not all, of these people saw her father.
“He asked one woman for a date,” Wampler said. “He met her in the karaoke club. He told her that he was a big gambler and wanted to know if she would go to the casino with him sometime. But the big thing, the thing that lets me know it was my father, is this: She said the man introduced himself as Leroy. Leroy is my father’s middle name.” Neither the Times-Picayune story nor America’s Most Wanted divulged Crouch’s middle name.
According to Wampler, one karaoke deejay has also turned in a convincing description of her father. The man allegedly filled out 15 slips of paper with his name, the name of the song he wanted to perform, and the disc number. Then he told the deejay to hold on to the slips because he would be coming back to sing more in the future.
“He always did this,” Wampler said of her father’s karaoke habits. “He always liked to sing the same songs, and he didn’t want to have to fill out the slips of paper more than once.”
“He’s keeping all of his habits,” Wampler continued. “He’s singing karaoke, playing golf, watching sports on TV, and going to casinos and telling people he’s a big-shot gambler. Apparently, he doesn’t feel any remorse.”
