Latest / The conspiracy / Murder Cases That Are Still Unfolding..
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Sometimes the most disturbing stories aren't the ones long buried
- 0:04Speaker 1: in the past. They're the ones still unfolding, where the
- 0:07Speaker 1: ending hasn't been written and justice hangs in the balance.
- 0:11Speaker 1: A house full of students, a night that ends in silence,
- 0:15Speaker 1: a body in the snow, a suspect who says she's
- 0:19Speaker 1: being framed, three little girls and a missing father, and
- 0:23Speaker 1: a question no one ever wants to ask why. Today
- 0:27Speaker 1: we dive into three current true crime cases that have
- 0:31Speaker 1: gripped communities, split public opinion, and test to the limits
- 0:35Speaker 1: of what we think we know about guilt, motive, and truth.
- 0:40Speaker 1: These aren't just stories, they're warnings, their wounds that are
- 0:44Speaker 1: still open. Crime, conspiracy, guilts, serial killers, and murder all
- 0:49Speaker 1: things that I love to consume and I know you
- 0:51Speaker 1: do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded freak.
- 0:55Speaker 2: And today we got Rupee back.
- 0:56Speaker 1: We have Detective Rupee on the case.
- 0:59Speaker 2: Say hello to everybody. He's really sleepy back there, little bean.
- 1:02Speaker 2: He ran around a lot today.
- 1:04Speaker 1: But yeah, we're going to be talking about some very
- 1:07Speaker 1: recent cases, some are still ongoing, So let me know
- 1:11Speaker 1: what you think down below. When the video's done, but
- 1:13Speaker 1: without further ado let's unbuckle our seapbouts, go mock five
- 1:16Speaker 1: down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust to
- 1:19Speaker 1: this windshield. Into these three recent true crime cases together.
- 1:42Speaker 1: Christopher Coberger was a twenty eight year old criminology PhD
- 1:46Speaker 1: student at Washington State University when a horrific crime shook
- 1:50Speaker 1: a neighboring community across the state line. In the small
- 1:54Speaker 1: college town of Moscow, Idaho, four University Idaho students were
- 1:58Speaker 1: found brutally to death in their off campus home on
- 2:02Speaker 1: November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, and the victims were Madison Mogan,
- 2:07Speaker 1: Kaylee Goncalves, Zena Kernadle, and Ethan Chapin, and they were
- 2:11Speaker 1: close knit friends and roommates. So Mogan, Goncalves, and Kernadal
- 2:16Speaker 1: lived together in a rental house on King Road with
- 2:19Speaker 1: two other female roommates, and Chapin was Kernadl's boyfriend who
- 2:23Speaker 1: had been sleeping over that night. And the peaceful college
- 2:26Speaker 1: community of Moscow, which has a population of twenty five
- 2:29Speaker 1: thousand people, had not seen a murder in years, so
- 2:32Speaker 1: the slaying of four young students one night left the
- 2:36Speaker 1: town in utter shock and grief. So Coberger himself was
- 2:40Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania and had no known personal connection to the victims.
- 2:44Speaker 1: He himself was studying criminal justice and criminology, which was
- 2:49Speaker 1: horribly ironic given the nature of the crime.
- 2:51Speaker 2: And those who knew.
- 2:52Speaker 1: Coberger later described him as an awkward but academically driven
- 2:56Speaker 1: person who struggled to fit in, and nothing in his
- 2:59Speaker 1: background hint at violence. However, faculty members at Washington State
- 3:03Speaker 1: University had met with him just less than two weeks
- 3:07Speaker 1: prior to the murders to talk with him about some
- 3:09Speaker 1: growing concerns regarding the way he had been behaving. So
- 3:13Speaker 1: in the hours before the murders, the four friends spent
- 3:16Speaker 1: a typical Saturday night enjoying campus life, and on the
- 3:20Speaker 1: evening of November twelfth, twenty twenty two, Ethan Chapmin and
- 3:24Speaker 1: zan Nainodel attended a party at a fraternity house, while
- 3:28Speaker 1: Madison Mogan and Kaylee Goncalves went to a popular sports
- 3:32Speaker 1: bar downtown. At around one thirty am, Mogan and gun
- 3:35Speaker 1: Calves were seen on a live stream at a local
- 3:38Speaker 1: food truck and they were just chatting and getting a
- 3:40Speaker 1: late night snack before a ride service would pick them
- 3:43Speaker 1: up at around two am. So by roughly two am,
- 3:47Speaker 1: all four victims had returned to the girl's rental house
- 3:50Speaker 1: and were presumably settling in for the night, but unbeknownst
- 3:54Speaker 1: to them, an assailant was likely already approaching, and investigators
- 3:58Speaker 1: would later allege that Brian Hoburger's cell phone data placed
- 4:02Speaker 1: him in the vicinity of the victim's neighborhood on a
- 4:05Speaker 1: dozen occasions in the weeks prior to the murders, so
- 4:09Speaker 1: it appeared the crime was not random and the killer
- 4:11Speaker 1: might have stalked the home in advance. So in the
- 4:13Speaker 1: early morning hours of November thirteenth, the household fell silent,
- 4:18Speaker 1: and two other young women roommates who lived on the
- 4:20Speaker 1: ground floor initially had allegedly slept through the night unaware
- 4:24Speaker 1: of the horrors that were unfolding upstairs, because sometime between
- 4:28Speaker 1: four am and four twenty five am on November thirteenth,
- 4:33Speaker 1: the killer would strike armed with a very large knife.
- 4:37Speaker 1: The intruder entered the six bedroom house in complete darkness,
- 4:41Speaker 1: and the attacker moved from room to room, ambushing the
- 4:44Speaker 1: four students, and autopsy findings later indicated that all four
- 4:48Speaker 1: victims were likely asleep at the time of the attacks,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and some would obviously wake up during the attacks and
- 4:55Speaker 1: would put up a fight, and we know this because
- 4:58Speaker 1: they had defensive wounds, but each which was stacked multiple
- 5:01Speaker 1: times in a frenzy of violence. The brutality of the
- 5:05Speaker 1: crime was staggering, and the evidence at the scene suggested
- 5:09Speaker 1: the killer was merciless and efficient, so it was extremely
- 5:13Speaker 1: planned out, and one of the surviving roommates on the
- 5:16Speaker 1: ground floor woke up during the attack sensing that something
- 5:19Speaker 1: was terribly wrong, and according to a police affidavit, this
- 5:23Speaker 1: roommate walked out of her door and glimpsed a masked
- 5:26Speaker 1: man dressed in black inside of the house, and she
- 5:29Speaker 1: noted that he had bushy eyebrows peeking out from his
- 5:32Speaker 1: mask as he passed her by, but in a state
- 5:35Speaker 1: of shock and fear, she locked her door instead of
- 5:39Speaker 1: calling nine one one, so the intruder fled into the night,
- 5:42Speaker 1: and it wasn't until just before noon that same day,
- 5:45Speaker 1: nearly eight hours later, that nine one one was called
- 5:48Speaker 1: and finally alerted the police to an unconscious person at
- 5:51Speaker 1: the king Wrote house. So responding officers walked into a
- 5:56Speaker 1: nightmare because before her college friends were found dead in
- 5:59Speaker 1: their bedroom and the scene was black, soaked and chaotic,
- 6:03Speaker 1: and investigators also discovered a crucial clue the killer left behind,
- 6:07Speaker 1: which was a leather knife sheath lying on the bed
- 6:10Speaker 1: next to one of the victims, and that sheath stamped
- 6:13Speaker 1: with K barr and it had DNA traces that would
- 6:17Speaker 1: later prove pivotal. So the college community was horrified as
- 6:20Speaker 1: the news broke of a quadruple homicide, and rumors and
- 6:24Speaker 1: fears spread fast because an apparent killer was on the
- 6:28Speaker 1: loose and for weeks there seemed to be no suspect
- 6:31Speaker 1: or motive, and memorial visuals were held for Madison, Kaylee,
- 6:35Speaker 1: Zana and Ethan even as police worked quietly behind the
- 6:39Speaker 1: scenes to catch the person who was responsible. So the
- 6:42Speaker 1: investigation into the University of Idaho murders became one of
- 6:45Speaker 1: the most intense and scrutinized in recent memory, and Moscow police,
- 6:49Speaker 1: assisted by state troopers and FBI agents, sifted through thousands
- 6:53Speaker 1: of tips and pieces of evidence, and early on surveillance
- 6:57Speaker 1: videos from the neighborhood provided a lead. A white Hyundai
- 7:01Speaker 1: Elantra was seen driving repeatedly near the crime scene around
- 7:05Speaker 1: the time of the murders, so detectives traced registrations for
- 7:09Speaker 1: that model car and discovered that Brian Coburger owned a
- 7:13Speaker 1: white Hyundai Elantra and drove it cross country to his
- 7:17Speaker 1: parents' house in Pennsylvania shortly after the killings spuspicious. And meanwhile,
- 7:22Speaker 1: forensic testing on that knife sheath found at the house
- 7:26Speaker 1: revealed DNA on the snap closure. So investigators would covertly
- 7:30Speaker 1: collect garbage from the Coburger family home in Pennsylvania and
- 7:34Speaker 1: they would obtain a DNA sample which closely matched the
- 7:37Speaker 1: sheath DNA indicating the sheath likely belonged to Brian Coburger.
- 7:42Speaker 1: And they also surveyed Coburger often wearing surgical gloves and
- 7:46Speaker 1: putting trash in plastic baggies and placing it in neighbors
- 7:50Speaker 1: trash cans.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Suspicious.
- 7:53Speaker 1: Kh couldn't be more suspicious, and he also reportedly cleaned
- 7:57Speaker 1: thoroughly the inside and outside of his car during this
- 8:00Speaker 1: period suspicious. So this DNA and surveillance evidence gave police
- 8:05Speaker 1: the break that they desperately needed, and on December thirtieth,
- 8:09Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, six weeks after the murders, a swat
- 8:13Speaker 1: team would move in and arrest the piece of shit
- 8:15Speaker 1: Bryan at his parents' home, and he was taken into
- 8:18Speaker 1: custody on an active arrest warrant for four counts of
- 8:21Speaker 1: first degree murder and a felony burglary charge, accused of
- 8:25Speaker 1: breaking into a student's home with the intent.
- 8:27Speaker 2: To commit murder.
- 8:29Speaker 1: So Coberger was extradited swiftly back to Idaho in early
- 8:32Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty three to face his charges, and
- 8:36Speaker 1: as the public learned of the suspect's identity, the story
- 8:39Speaker 1: pulled them in because it was a criminology student suspected
- 8:43Speaker 1: of committing this horrible crime, and law enforcement officials confirmed
- 8:47Speaker 1: that the cell phone pings from Coburger's phone showed that
- 8:50Speaker 1: it was turned off during the time of the murders,
- 8:53Speaker 1: which was we assume an attempt to evade tracking because
- 8:56Speaker 1: he had planned obviously a lot at this point, so
- 8:58Speaker 1: that would be like the bear minimum. But it pinged
- 9:01Speaker 1: in Moscow later on and had been near the victim's
- 9:04Speaker 1: residence multiple times in prior.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Months, so he's a free idiot.
- 9:09Speaker 1: In addition, Coburger's campus apartments and office at WSU were
- 9:13Speaker 1: searched and his white Alantra was seized for evidence and
- 9:17Speaker 1: the wealth of digital, genetic and video evidenced gathered by
- 9:21Speaker 1: investigators painted a damning picture connecting Coburger to the crime.
- 9:25Speaker 1: So Brian's case was now moving through the justice system
- 9:29Speaker 1: with many still closely watching, including my mother. She's the
- 9:32Speaker 1: one who suggested I do this case. Shout out to mom.
- 9:35Speaker 1: She's the one that got me so interested in true crime.
- 9:37Speaker 1: Shout out, Mammacollins. And in May of twenty twenty three,
- 9:40Speaker 1: a grand jury indicted Coburger on four counts of first
- 9:43Speaker 1: degree murder, one for each victim, and one count of burglary.
- 9:47Speaker 1: So at his arrangment, Coburger chose to stand silent, meaning
- 9:51Speaker 1: he did not enter a plea himself, and consequently the
- 9:55Speaker 1: judge entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
- 9:58Speaker 1: So prosecutors announced that they will seek the death penalty
- 10:01Speaker 1: if Coburger is convicted, given the gruesome nature of his crime,
- 10:05Speaker 1: because Idaho is one of the twenty seven states that
- 10:08Speaker 1: permit capital punishment and this case certainly qualifies for that
- 10:12Speaker 1: in the state's view. And the pre trial proceedings have
- 10:15Speaker 1: been extensive, and Coburger's defense team has filed numerous motions,
- 10:19Speaker 1: including efforts to challenge evidence, notably They argue to exclude
- 10:24Speaker 1: testimony about the eyewitness roommate's description of the intruder's bushy eyebrows,
- 10:30Speaker 1: claiming that that detail might unfairly prejudice the jury.
- 10:35Speaker 2: She's just saying what.
- 10:37Speaker 1: She saw, and she saw bushy fucking eyebrows on this evil.
- 10:41Speaker 2: I gotta step, I gotta come, dow.
- 10:43Speaker 1: He's not guilty yet, but he is, you know, I
- 10:46Speaker 1: don't know, he's not technically, you know, allegedly, he's guilty, allegedly.
- 10:51Speaker 2: Innocent until proven guilty, though I gotta care for.
- 10:54Speaker 1: Prosecutors responded that such description is factual and should be
- 10:58Speaker 1: allowed in the juries consideration, which I agree with. The prosecutors,
- 11:02Speaker 1: for their part, have revealed additional evidence they plan to use,
- 11:06Speaker 1: such as Coburger's own online activity, and court filings indicate
- 11:10Speaker 1: Coberger had purchased a k Bar knife and sheath on
- 11:14Speaker 1: Amazon about eight months before the murders, and that he
- 11:17Speaker 1: oddly searched online for k Bar knives in the days.
- 11:21Speaker 2: After these things.
- 11:24Speaker 1: So he was getting a new knife because he forgot
- 11:27Speaker 1: his fucking sheath at the house.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Like this, This couldn't. This case is just puzzling together
- 11:31Speaker 2: so perfectly.
- 11:32Speaker 1: It's insane, and I even say that Coburger snapped a
- 11:35Speaker 1: selfie photo on his phone at ten thirty one am
- 11:39Speaker 1: on November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, just hours after killing,
- 11:43Speaker 1: in which he is smiling.
- 11:50Speaker 2: In disgusting and this.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Photo shows his face and eyebrows clearly that morning and
- 11:55Speaker 1: might be shown to the jurors to compare with the
- 11:57Speaker 1: roommate's account. And due to the hence pre trial publicity
- 12:01Speaker 1: and community impact, the judge granted a change of venue
- 12:05Speaker 1: and the trial moved out of a small college town
- 12:07Speaker 1: of Moscow to a state capital of Boise, Idaho, in
- 12:10Speaker 1: hopes of finding an impartial jury, and a sweeping gag
- 12:14Speaker 1: order was imposed barring attorneys and law enforcement from speaking
- 12:17Speaker 1: about the case publicly. Doesn't involve me, though I'm here
- 12:21Speaker 1: to say I think it's a piece of shit, and
- 12:23Speaker 1: I think he might be allegedly guilty, but we don't
- 12:27Speaker 1: know yet, so I can't say anything for legal reasons.
- 12:32Speaker 1: And also cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom
- 12:35Speaker 1: during the trial, and as of mid twenty twenty five,
- 12:38Speaker 1: the trial has not yet begun. In fact, it has
- 12:41Speaker 1: been scheduled to start with jury selection in late July
- 12:44Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, with opening statements expected by August eleventh,
- 12:48Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. You bet your ass, I'll keep us
- 12:50Speaker 1: up to date, okay. Coburger, now thirty years old, remains
- 12:54Speaker 1: jailed awaiting his day in court, and he maintains his
- 12:56Speaker 1: innocence through his attorneys and the families of the four
- 13:00Speaker 1: slain students, who have endured repeated delays anxiously await justice
- 13:05Speaker 1: as they deserve. And one of the fathers would say,
- 13:08Speaker 1: one step forward, two steps back, are we ever.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Going to get there? Which, like, I don't like.
- 13:14Speaker 1: I can't even imagine having to wait this long for
- 13:18Speaker 1: any sort of justice to come. But it will likely
- 13:20Speaker 1: be many more months before a jury hears the full
- 13:23Speaker 1: case against Brian Coburger and determines his fate. So, like
- 13:27Speaker 1: I said, I will keep you updated. If you want
- 13:29Speaker 1: to be updated, let me know down below. Let me
- 13:32Speaker 1: know also what you think down below you know allegedly.
- 13:36Speaker 2: But with that, let's move on to the next case.
- 13:43Speaker 1: On a snowy winter morning in twenty twenty two, a
- 13:46Speaker 1: Boston area police officer was found fatally injured outside a home,
- 13:50Speaker 1: sparking a mystery that remains unresolved years later.
- 13:54Speaker 2: John J.
- 13:55Speaker 1: O'Keefe the third was forty six years old and was
- 13:58Speaker 1: a sixteen year veteran of Boston Police Department, and by
- 14:01Speaker 1: all accounts, he was a dedicated officer and a caring man,
- 14:06Speaker 1: and after his sister and brother in law died some
- 14:08Speaker 1: years earlier, John had even taken his young niece and
- 14:11Speaker 1: nephew to raise them as his own.
- 14:14Speaker 2: Just an angel of a man.
- 14:15Speaker 1: And at the time of his death, John O'Keefe had
- 14:17Speaker 1: been in an on and off relationship.
- 14:20Speaker 2: With Karen A.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Reid, who was a forty one year old finance professional.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Now Karen Reid held an MBA and worked as a
- 14:27Speaker 1: financial analyst and a junket professor, and she had no
- 14:31Speaker 1: criminal history, and the two had dated briefly back in
- 14:34Speaker 1: two thousand and four and reconnected in twenty twenty during
- 14:37Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen pandemic, just rekindling their relationship. So by
- 14:42Speaker 1: January twenty twenty two they were a couple, and Karen
- 14:45Speaker 1: was familiar with John's friends and John's family. So what
- 14:49Speaker 1: happened to John and who killed John? So it began
- 14:54Speaker 1: as a night out amongst friends that turned into a
- 14:56Speaker 1: baffling tragedy and the events an investigationations that followed would
- 15:01Speaker 1: divide opinions and generate intense public interest in Massachusetts. So Friday,
- 15:06Speaker 1: January twenty eighth, twenty twenty two was supposed to be
- 15:09Speaker 1: a fun night for Karen and John, and that evening,
- 15:12Speaker 1: the couple went out for drinks in Caton, Massachusetts, which
- 15:16Speaker 1: is a suburb of Boston, meeting up with some of
- 15:18Speaker 1: John's police colleagues and friends despite an approaching blizzard, and
- 15:22Speaker 1: they started at C. F. McCarthy's Pub at around nine
- 15:25Speaker 1: pm and then moved across the street to Waterfall Bar
- 15:28Speaker 1: and Grill before last call. And included in this group
- 15:32Speaker 1: were Brian Albert, who was a fellow Boston police officer
- 15:35Speaker 1: and his wife Nicole Albert, and his sister in law,
- 15:39Speaker 1: Jennifer mccabb and her husband Matthew, as well as Brian Higgins,
- 15:44Speaker 1: a Federal ATF agent. So as midnight approached, Brian Albert
- 15:48Speaker 1: invited the group back to his house at thirty four
- 15:51Speaker 1: Fairview Road for an after party, and John O'Keefe and
- 15:54Speaker 1: Karen Reid drove together in her black Lexus SUV to
- 15:58Speaker 1: the Albert residents around twelve twenty four am, and Karen
- 16:02Speaker 1: was unfamiliar with that neighborhood and later said she felt
- 16:05Speaker 1: uncomfortable joining the gathering inside, and according to Karen's account,
- 16:09Speaker 1: John told her he would quickly go in to make
- 16:11Speaker 1: sure they were welcome, and then he walked towards the
- 16:14Speaker 1: house around twelve thirty am, and Karen says she waited
- 16:18Speaker 1: in the car for a while, but John would not return, so,
- 16:21Speaker 1: feeling slighted and growing impatient, perhaps suspecting that John wanted
- 16:26Speaker 1: to stay and party without her, Karen decided to leave,
- 16:29Speaker 1: so she drove off alone and headed back toward John's
- 16:32Speaker 1: home where she had been staying that night, and phone
- 16:35Speaker 1: records would later show that Karen's phone connected to John's
- 16:38Speaker 1: home Wi Fi at twelve thirty six am, indicating she
- 16:42Speaker 1: was back at his house around that time. But throughout
- 16:44Speaker 1: the early morning hours, Karen tried to reach John repeatedly,
- 16:48Speaker 1: and she called him and texted him multiple times, growing
- 16:52Speaker 1: increasingly angry and worried when he didn't answer. In fact,
- 16:55Speaker 1: Karen left eight voicemails on John's phone roughly between twelve
- 17:00Speaker 1: thirty six am and one eighteen am, and their content
- 17:04Speaker 1: revealed her emotional state. In one message, she yelled John,
- 17:08Speaker 1: I hate you, and in another she angrily accused him
- 17:11Speaker 1: of abandoning her to go party or cheat on her.
- 17:14Speaker 1: And in these voicemails later played in court, Karen's language
- 17:18Speaker 1: was explicit and furious, showing she was intoxicated, upset, and
- 17:24Speaker 1: just felt betrayed. And eventually, around one thirty am, Karen
- 17:27Speaker 1: fell asleep at John's house and next to his fourteen
- 17:30Speaker 1: year old niece, who was in Karen's care that night.
- 17:33Speaker 1: And when Karen woke up around four thirty am and
- 17:36Speaker 1: realized that John had never come home, panic started to
- 17:39Speaker 1: set in, so she tried calling John again but still
- 17:43Speaker 1: got no response, and by four point fifty three am,
- 17:46Speaker 1: a worried Karen reached out to Jennifer mccabb asking if
- 17:49Speaker 1: John was still at the Albert's house or if anyone
- 17:52Speaker 1: had seen him at all, but no dice, so Karen
- 17:55Speaker 1: would then phone another friend, Carrie Roberts, for help, and
- 17:58Speaker 1: at around five am, Carrie pi up Karen and Jennifer
- 18:01Speaker 1: and together they drove through the snowy streets back to
- 18:04Speaker 1: thirty four Fairview Road, retracing the last place John was
- 18:07Speaker 1: last seen. So at approximately six a m. On January
- 18:10Speaker 1: twenty ninth to twenty twenty two, the search party's worst
- 18:14Speaker 1: fears were realized, and that is that they would discover
- 18:17Speaker 1: John O'Keeffe lying in the snow on the front lawn
- 18:20Speaker 1: of the Albert's house at thirty four Fairview Road, and
- 18:23Speaker 1: John would be unconscious, covered in snow and had obvious injuries.
- 18:28Speaker 1: So first responders would take John O'Keefe to Good Samaritan
- 18:31Speaker 1: Medical Center, but sadly, it was too late and he
- 18:35Speaker 1: would be pronounced dead in the emergency room around eight
- 18:37Speaker 1: a m. That morning. In an autopsy later revealed that
- 18:40Speaker 1: John had suffered severe head trauma and a large laceration
- 18:45Speaker 1: on the back of his head, multiple skull fractures, bruises
- 18:48Speaker 1: to his eyes and nose, and a cut above one eye,
- 18:51Speaker 1: and a scratched knee, and these injuries were consistent with
- 18:55Speaker 1: significant blunt force impact. However, the manner of death was
- 18:59Speaker 1: left on determined by the medical examiner. In other words,
- 19:02Speaker 1: they knew what killed him, which was a head injury
- 19:05Speaker 1: in hypothermia, but not how exactly those injuries occurred. So
- 19:10Speaker 1: investigators at the scene in daylight noticed some curious clues
- 19:15Speaker 1: in that area where John had been lying. Police discovered
- 19:17Speaker 1: shards of a vehicle's taillight on the ground nearby, and
- 19:21Speaker 1: when police checked Karen Reid's Lexus SUV, they saw that
- 19:24Speaker 1: one of the rear tail light assemblies was shattered and
- 19:27Speaker 1: the broken pieces matched the vehicle suspicious so those immediately
- 19:34Speaker 1: raised alarm bells that John may have been struck by
- 19:38Speaker 1: Karen's SUV, and it was theorized that Karen may have
- 19:41Speaker 1: accidentally hit John while backing up her car when leaving
- 19:44Speaker 1: the party, injuring him and leaving him outside in the cold,
- 19:48Speaker 1: and within two days this theory solidified into criminal charges,
- 19:52Speaker 1: and on February first, twenty twenty two, police arrested Karen
- 19:56Speaker 1: Reid and accused her of hitting John O'Keeffe with her
- 19:59Speaker 1: SUV and then left the scene so basically like a
- 20:02Speaker 1: hit and run, not basically like a hit and run,
- 20:05Speaker 1: and by doing this, allegedly it later killed him, so
- 20:07Speaker 1: she was initially charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of
- 20:11Speaker 1: an accident causing death, and motor vehicle homicide. Prosecutors alleged
- 20:15Speaker 1: that Karen was intoxicated and angry as we know, and
- 20:19Speaker 1: that she drove away that night, and she struck John,
- 20:22Speaker 1: either not seeing him or in a moment of rage,
- 20:25Speaker 1: and failed to call for help, effectively leaving him to
- 20:28Speaker 1: die in the snow. So the narrative casts the incident
- 20:31Speaker 1: as a tragic duy accident and abandonment. However, Karen Reid
- 20:36Speaker 1: has always maintained her innocence, insisting she did not hit
- 20:40Speaker 1: John and that something else happened to him after she left.
- 20:43Speaker 1: So right from the start, Karen's arrest and the circumstances
- 20:47Speaker 1: of John's death raised difficult questions, and Karen Reid pleaded
- 20:51Speaker 1: not guilty and was released on an eighty thousand dollars bail.
- 20:55Speaker 1: As the investigation continued and the prosecution built its case
- 20:58Speaker 1: around the physical evidence, Karen's broken tail light, John's injuries,
- 21:03Speaker 1: and even Karen's own words, and Campton police officer attested
- 21:07Speaker 1: that at the scene, a distraught Karen said.
- 21:10Speaker 2: I hit him. Oh, that's not good, and Karen.
- 21:15Speaker 1: Later claimed she didn't say and only may have asked,
- 21:18Speaker 1: could I have hit him? Still incriminating a little bit,
- 21:22Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, alleging that these were not admissions
- 21:25Speaker 1: of guilt but expressions of shock and confusion, and investigators
- 21:29Speaker 1: also looked at Karen's cell phone data, which showed that
- 21:32Speaker 1: angry voicemails and her frantic calls in the early morning
- 21:36Speaker 1: possibly indicated she genuinely didn't know where John was. However,
- 21:40Speaker 1: as time went on, Karen Read's defense team developed a
- 21:43Speaker 1: very different theory of the case. In their theory, Carrie
- 21:46Speaker 1: was not the one who killed John O'Keeffe at all,
- 21:49Speaker 1: and in April of twenty twenty three, her attorneys publicly
- 21:52Speaker 1: suggested that John fell victim to an altercation or accident
- 21:57Speaker 1: at the house, indicating people who were inside the Albert
- 22:00Speaker 1: residents that night. So, the defense pointed out several facts
- 22:04Speaker 1: that they found spuspicious, and that was that Brian Elbert,
- 22:07Speaker 1: the homeowner and fellow officer, sold his house and even
- 22:11Speaker 1: got rid of his dog shortly after the incident. So
- 22:15Speaker 1: it could it be that John made it inside the
- 22:17Speaker 1: house and got into a fight, perhaps with the dog
- 22:21Speaker 1: or with another person. Because John had injuries like multiple
- 22:24Speaker 1: head wounds and cuts, the defense would argue that that
- 22:27Speaker 1: didn't really match up to a simple low speed car hit,
- 22:31Speaker 1: and it would be maybe more consistent with a dog
- 22:34Speaker 1: attack or someone attacking him. Moreover, the weather was frigid
- 22:38Speaker 1: and a blizzard was raging, which was a scenario in
- 22:41Speaker 1: which leaving someone outside for minutes could be lethal. And
- 22:45Speaker 1: most notably, the defense zeroed in on Jennifer mccabbs's phone activity,
- 22:50Speaker 1: and Karen's lawyers obtained phone records showing that Jennifer's phone
- 22:54Speaker 1: performed a Google search for hassick long to die in
- 22:59Speaker 1: cold also suppospicious, and this was at two twenty seven
- 23:04Speaker 1: am on January twenty ninth, so this was over three
- 23:07Speaker 1: hours before John's body was found, implying that someone might
- 23:12Speaker 1: have known John was lying in the cold before the
- 23:15Speaker 1: official discovery. A lot of shady shake going on, so
- 23:18Speaker 1: Jennifer maccabb would deny any wrongdoing, and she told the
- 23:21Speaker 1: police that the timing was a misunderstanding and that she
- 23:25Speaker 1: actually searched the phrase later around six thirty am, after
- 23:30Speaker 1: they found John. But the defense argues that at two
- 23:33Speaker 1: twenty seven am the timestamp was accurate and extremely incriminating.
- 23:38Speaker 1: So in their theory, some of the people at the house,
- 23:41Speaker 1: possibly Brian Albert and Jennifer maccabb, caused his injuries and
- 23:45Speaker 1: then cooperated in a cover up to.
- 23:48Speaker 2: Pin the blame on Karen Reid.
- 23:50Speaker 1: So as this battle of theories played out, the case
- 23:53Speaker 1: became something of a local scandal, but it would reach
- 23:57Speaker 1: to Canada, where my mother is, and she also suggested
- 23:59Speaker 1: this game. She's on it, And in June of twenty
- 24:02Speaker 1: twenty two, a grand jury formally indicted Karen on an
- 24:05Speaker 1: upgraded charge of second degree murder along with the other charges,
- 24:10Speaker 1: moving the case to superior court, but the prosecution stuck
- 24:14Speaker 1: to its narrative Karen struck John with her car, well
- 24:17Speaker 1: drunk and angry and then left him and the defense, however,
- 24:21Speaker 1: was given some leeway by the judge to pursue an
- 24:24Speaker 1: alternative culprit theory at the trial if they could back
- 24:27Speaker 1: it up with evidence, and there were also whispers of
- 24:30Speaker 1: a conflict interest, which was some pointed out that the
- 24:33Speaker 1: multiple people at the house that night had law enforcement
- 24:37Speaker 1: ties because Brian Albert was a cop and another guest
- 24:41Speaker 1: was an agent, just fueling speculation of a police cover
- 24:44Speaker 1: up to protect one of their own.
- 24:46Speaker 2: So faced with these.
- 24:47Speaker 1: Dueling narratives, authorities still proceeded against Karen and she was
- 24:51Speaker 1: put on trial in twenty twenty four, and the case
- 24:54Speaker 1: garnered huge media attention in Massachusetts and in a small
- 24:58Speaker 1: town in Canada with true crime yzias picking apart every
- 25:01Speaker 1: detail on social media. Was Karen a cold hearted killer
- 25:05Speaker 1: who hit her boyfriend and didn't look back? Or was
- 25:08Speaker 1: she an innocent woman being framed to hide someone else's
- 25:11Speaker 1: guilt and the truth remained uncertain. So Karen Reid's first
- 25:15Speaker 1: trial for John O'Keeffe's death began in April of twenty
- 25:18Speaker 1: twenty four and lasted several weeks long, and prosecutors would
- 25:22Speaker 1: present evidence like the tail light fragments, a hair matching
- 25:26Speaker 1: O'Keefe's that was found in Reed's car, which I mean
- 25:29Speaker 1: was he's already been in that car, so that's not
- 25:31Speaker 1: even evidence basically, and a testimony highlighting arguments and tension
- 25:35Speaker 1: in their relationship. But the defense in turn highlighted the
- 25:39Speaker 1: alleged cover up and conflict of interest between Michael Proctor,
- 25:43Speaker 1: which was the lead investigator, and the Albert family and
- 25:46Speaker 1: the possibility that John's injuries like the skull fracture, could
- 25:50Speaker 1: have come from an assance and that Reid's tail light
- 25:53Speaker 1: was intact at the Albert's residence, and the courtroom saw
- 25:57Speaker 1: technical experts debating injury patterns and friends of John and
- 26:01Speaker 1: Karen's testifying to the character and events that happened.
- 26:04Speaker 2: So it was just a.
- 26:05Speaker 1: Dramatic trial filled with scientific evidence and emotional testimony.
- 26:10Speaker 2: Yet when the.
- 26:10Speaker 1: Jury deliberated, they could not reach a unanimous verdict, and
- 26:14Speaker 1: in July of twenty twenty four, Judge Beverly Cannon declared
- 26:18Speaker 1: a mistrial due to a hung jury and the jurors
- 26:21Speaker 1: were starkly divided, unable to agree on Karen's guilt or innocence.
- 26:26Speaker 1: In fact, some jurors later revealed that they had unanimously
- 26:29Speaker 1: leaded not guilty on at least two of the charges,
- 26:33Speaker 1: so this uncommon post trial disclosure added more controversy, with
- 26:38Speaker 1: Karen's team briefly appealing on grounds of double jeopardy, arguing
- 26:42Speaker 1: she shouldn't be retried for charges some jurors acquitted her on,
- 26:45Speaker 1: but those appeals would not prevent a retrial, and the
- 26:48Speaker 1: Norfolk County District Attorney's office immediately vowed to retry the case,
- 26:53Speaker 1: and Karen Reid once again faced the possibility of conviction.
- 26:57Speaker 1: So Karen's second trial began in April of twenty two,
- 27:00Speaker 1: twenty five, and by now the case had been in
- 27:02Speaker 1: headlines for three years and the public had become familiar
- 27:05Speaker 1: with its twists and turns, so the ratrial went forward
- 27:09Speaker 1: with larger the same evidence, though both sides adjusted their
- 27:12Speaker 1: strategies based on lessons from the first trial, and interest
- 27:15Speaker 1: was so high that local news live streamed the trial
- 27:18Speaker 1: each day and during this period. In March of twenty
- 27:21Speaker 1: twenty five, news broke that Michael Proctor had been fired
- 27:25Speaker 1: for misconduct related to this case, which was a fact
- 27:28Speaker 1: that the defense would use to further attack the investigation's credibility,
- 27:33Speaker 1: So the judge continued to limit how directly the defense
- 27:36Speaker 1: could accuse third parties without any heart proof, but the
- 27:39Speaker 1: narrative of a possible cover up was certainly on the
- 27:42Speaker 1: minds of the observers. So as of June eighteenth, twenty
- 27:46Speaker 1: twenty five, Karen Reid's second trial came to a close
- 27:50Speaker 1: and the case went to the jury, and after deliberating
- 27:52Speaker 1: for four days, they acquitted Karen Reid of second degree murder,
- 27:57Speaker 1: manslaughter while operating under the influence, and even the scene
- 28:00Speaker 1: of an accident resulting in death. But she was however,
- 28:03Speaker 1: convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, which she
- 28:06Speaker 1: will serve one year of probation for so the jurors
- 28:09Speaker 1: must weigh two very different explanations for John O'Keefe's death,
- 28:14Speaker 1: and the story prompted broader discussions of how police handle
- 28:17Speaker 1: cases involving their own and how evidence should be scrutinized
- 28:21Speaker 1: to avoid miscarriages of justice. And Karen Reid insist she
- 28:25Speaker 1: loved John and would never have harmed him, while John's
- 28:29Speaker 1: family and prosecutors remain equally adamant that she is responsible
- 28:36Speaker 1: and they would call the verdict a devastating miscarriage of justice.
- 28:41Speaker 1: Massachusetts State Police issued a statement that they continued to
- 28:44Speaker 1: work to improve their oversight and accountability after the events
- 28:48Speaker 1: that took place in the Karen Reid case. So, as
- 28:51Speaker 1: of right now, she's acquitted, she's innocent. Do what that
- 28:55Speaker 1: which you will. I'd love to hear what.
- 28:56Speaker 2: You guys think down below. It's a tough one.
- 29:00Speaker 1: There's evidence there, there's a lot of weird the cop
- 29:03Speaker 1: stuff going on. I can't say, I legally can't say.
- 29:06Speaker 1: You guys can say in the comments, So I'll be
- 29:08Speaker 1: in the comments. But again, I mean, like, the true
- 29:11Speaker 1: victim in this case is John O'Keefe. So my heart
- 29:14Speaker 1: goes out to him and to his family, and you know,
- 29:18Speaker 1: I hope that they feel some sort of justice or
- 29:20Speaker 1: they get that justice. But alas we move on to
- 29:23Speaker 1: our last case. So this third case is a heartbreakingly
- 29:32Speaker 1: recent tragedy and it does have to do with children,
- 29:35Speaker 1: so fair warning. So Travis Caleb Decker, who's thirty two
- 29:38Speaker 1: years old, is an Army veteran and father from Washington
- 29:41Speaker 1: State who stands accused of the unthinkable and that is
- 29:45Speaker 1: murdering his three little girls. So Travis and his ex wife,
- 29:49Speaker 1: Whitney Decker, had three daughters, Peyton Decker who is nine
- 29:53Speaker 1: years old, Evelyn Decker who was eight years old, and
- 29:56Speaker 1: Olivia Decker who was five years old. And by May
- 29:59Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, Travis and Whitney had been divorced
- 30:02Speaker 1: for a couple years and Whitney had full custody of
- 30:05Speaker 1: the children while Travis had limited visitation rights. And Travis
- 30:09Speaker 1: Decker's background is marked by honorable service and personal challenges,
- 30:14Speaker 1: and he would serve as an infantryman in the US
- 30:17Speaker 1: Army from twenty thirteen until twenty twenty one, even deploying
- 30:21Speaker 1: to Afghanistan in twenty fourteen. And those who knew him
- 30:24Speaker 1: said he was a devoted dad. He was an active
- 30:28Speaker 1: dad who went to his kids' dance recitals and soccer
- 30:31Speaker 1: games and school plays. However, Travis returned from military life
- 30:35Speaker 1: with post traumatic stress disorder PTSD and was later diagnosed
- 30:40Speaker 1: with borderline personality disorder. So after leaving active duty and
- 30:44Speaker 1: the reserves, by twenty twenty three, his mental health worsened
- 30:47Speaker 1: a lot, and he had trouble adjusting to civilian life,
- 30:51Speaker 1: and he reportedly suffered nightmares and insomnia from his PTSD,
- 30:56Speaker 1: and he grew seemingly very depressed after the breakup of
- 30:59Speaker 1: his marriage, and according to Whitney, Decker's attorney, Travis carried
- 31:02Speaker 1: his trauma with him and it eventually spiraled out of control,
- 31:07Speaker 1: and by late twenty twenty four, Whitney became concerned enough
- 31:10Speaker 1: about Travis's mental health and stability that she asked a
- 31:13Speaker 1: court to restrict his parenting time. So a judge would
- 31:16Speaker 1: set a strict visitation schedule and Travis could only spend
- 31:20Speaker 1: a few hours with the girls on Fridays and eight
- 31:22Speaker 1: hours every other weekend, but only during the day, and
- 31:26Speaker 1: he had to remain in the local area with them.
- 31:29Speaker 1: So this plan was meant to keep the children safe
- 31:31Speaker 1: while still allowing them to have a relationship with their father.
- 31:35Speaker 1: So leading up to May twenty twenty five, Travis had
- 31:37Speaker 1: been complying with these visitation roles and there were no
- 31:41Speaker 1: obvious red flags of violence at this point. He was, however,
- 31:45Speaker 1: in a very fragile state. He had recently lost his housing,
- 31:49Speaker 1: becoming effectively homeless and staying in motels and at campgrounds,
- 31:54Speaker 1: and he talked about having financial troubles as well, like
- 31:57Speaker 1: wage garnishments for child support, and in conversations with his
- 32:01Speaker 1: ex wife, Travis expressed despair, saying he had nothing except
- 32:06Speaker 1: for you and the girls in his life, and Whitney
- 32:09Speaker 1: knew he was depressed, but he had never been violent
- 32:12Speaker 1: towards her or the kids, and she still cared about
- 32:15Speaker 1: his well being even as they led separate lives. So tragically,
- 32:19Speaker 1: no one around Travis anticipated the storm that was brewing
- 32:23Speaker 1: inside him.
- 32:24Speaker 2: So Memorial Day.
- 32:25Speaker 1: Weekend of twenty twenty five was the appointed time for
- 32:28Speaker 1: one of Travis's longer visits with his daughters, and on
- 32:32Speaker 1: Friday of May thirtieth, twenty twenty five, Travis was scheduled
- 32:36Speaker 1: to have the girls for a few hours in the evening,
- 32:39Speaker 1: and according to Whitney's attorney, Travis picked up Peyton, Evelyn,
- 32:42Speaker 1: and Olivia from their mother at around five pm that
- 32:45Speaker 1: day and everything seemed routine. Travis chatted with Whitney for
- 32:49Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes during the handoff and he promised, I
- 32:53Speaker 1: will see you at eight pm, indicating he'd bring the
- 32:55Speaker 1: kids back at eight pm that night. So there were
- 32:58Speaker 1: no heated words, no obvious vis signs of distress beyond
- 33:02Speaker 1: Travis just being a bit quieter than usual, and the
- 33:05Speaker 1: girls were just excited to see their dad and to
- 33:07Speaker 1: spend time with him. So when eight pm came and
- 33:09Speaker 1: went with no sign of Travis or the children, Whitney
- 33:13Speaker 1: grew very concerned because this was entirely unlike him. Whatever
- 33:17Speaker 1: his struggles, he had never failed to return the girls
- 33:20Speaker 1: on time, and by later that night, Whitney Decker reported
- 33:23Speaker 1: her daughters in Travis missing to the police, thus beginning
- 33:27Speaker 1: a massive search effort that would extend through the weekend,
- 33:30Speaker 1: and law enforcements issued alerts and started tracing Travis's steps,
- 33:34Speaker 1: and given Travis's military background and survival training, the police
- 33:38Speaker 1: realized he might attempt to hide in the vast wilderness
- 33:42Speaker 1: in Washington's forests, and they also knew he was emotionally
- 33:46Speaker 1: very unstable, so a sense of dread hung over everyone
- 33:50Speaker 1: as the search continued day and night, and Whitney and
- 33:53Speaker 1: her family were distraught but still hoping that Travis had
- 33:56Speaker 1: maybe just taken the girls camping or on some impulsive adventure.
- 34:01Speaker 1: So there was fate hope that the situation just might
- 34:04Speaker 1: resolve safely. But unfortunately that hope would be shattered on Monday,
- 34:08Speaker 1: because on Monday, June second, twenty twenty five, after a
- 34:13Speaker 1: three day intensive search, authorities made a grim discovery and
- 34:17Speaker 1: at around three forty five pm, sheriff deputies found Travis
- 34:21Speaker 1: Decker's vehicle abandoned near the remote Rock Island campground in
- 34:25Speaker 1: Chilean County in the Okanagan Wenachi National Forest of central Washington,
- 34:30Speaker 1: and inside the truck were the girls, car seats, blankets, food,
- 34:34Speaker 1: and Travis's wallet, and disturbingly, deputies also noticed what appeared
- 34:39Speaker 1: to be too black and prints on the tailgate of
- 34:42Speaker 1: the pickup truck, and nearby there were signs of a
- 34:45Speaker 1: recent campsite hidden off trail, so as they searched the
- 34:48Speaker 1: surrounding area about one hundred yards from the truck down
- 34:52Speaker 1: a small embankment. Officers would find the bees of Peyton,
- 34:57Speaker 1: Evelyn and Olivia and the three sisters lying together on
- 35:01Speaker 1: the forest floor, and later that week autopsies confirmed the
- 35:04Speaker 1: cause of death of all three girls was sesgean and
- 35:08Speaker 1: the manner of.
- 35:09Speaker 2: Death was high.
- 35:10Speaker 1: So these innocent children had been killed and the prime
- 35:13Speaker 1: suspect was their own father. So it's hard to fathom
- 35:17Speaker 1: the horror and betrayal these kids must have experienced.
- 35:21Speaker 2: It's just heart wrenching.
- 35:23Speaker 1: However, at the site, one crucial thing was missing, and
- 35:27Speaker 1: that was that Travis Decker was nowhere to be found.
- 35:31Speaker 1: So the discovery of the bodies triggered a massive manhunt
- 35:35Speaker 1: for Travis, who allegedly fled into the wilderness on foot.
- 35:39Speaker 1: And adding a bizarre wrinkle, authorities did find Travis's pet
- 35:42Speaker 1: dog alive in that area on June's tewid and the
- 35:45Speaker 1: dog was recovered safely and handed over to the Humane Society,
- 35:49Speaker 1: so it seemed Travis let his dog go before disappearing.
- 35:53Speaker 1: And they also found blood evidence. At least one sample
- 35:55Speaker 1: of blood at the campsite belonged to a male which
- 35:58Speaker 1: was likely Travis, and another blood sample was determined not
- 36:02Speaker 1: to be human blood, and that non human blood might
- 36:05Speaker 1: have come from the dog or another animal, indicating Travis
- 36:09Speaker 1: could have injured himself or an animal out there in
- 36:11Speaker 1: the wilderness. In any case, the forensic clues left little
- 36:15Speaker 1: doubt that Travis had planned and carried out of his
- 36:18Speaker 1: children in that forest, and the most of Peyton, Evelyn,
- 36:21Speaker 1: and Olivia just sent shock waves far beyond Washington State,
- 36:26Speaker 1: and the public struggled to comprehend how a father could
- 36:29Speaker 1: commit such an atrocity to his own children, and those
- 36:32Speaker 1: who knew Travis were equally as stunned. Apparently, and his
- 36:36Speaker 1: ex wife's attorney later reflected, he was a loving man,
- 36:40Speaker 1: but something broke, and whatever monster came out of him,
- 36:43Speaker 1: it's something that he was trained to do in the military.
- 36:46Speaker 1: So the attorney emphasized that Travis had serious, untreated mental
- 36:50Speaker 1: health issues and that Whitney felt the system really.
- 36:53Speaker 2: Let Travis down.
- 36:55Speaker 1: If somebody would have provided Travis with the help that
- 36:57Speaker 1: he needed, those girls would be live, she would say.
- 37:01Speaker 1: And it's just a sober reminder that mental illness, when
- 37:04Speaker 1: left uncheck, can have a truly devastating consequence. But even
- 37:08Speaker 1: with that context, nothing can justify or erase the horror
- 37:12Speaker 1: of what happened to those three innocent children. So, with
- 37:15Speaker 1: Travis Decker on the run after killing his own daughter's,
- 37:19Speaker 1: law enforcement agencies launched one of the largest man hunts
- 37:23Speaker 1: in Washington's recent history, and local police, county deputies, state troopers,
- 37:27Speaker 1: federal agents, helicopters all marshalled defined the fugitive father. Given
- 37:32Speaker 1: Travis's army background, authorities warned that he was well versed
- 37:36Speaker 1: in wilderness survival and capable of hiding out for an
- 37:39Speaker 1: extended time in very rough country, and they also considered
- 37:42Speaker 1: him very dangerous. So the Governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson,
- 37:46Speaker 1: even authorized emergency funds and called up the National Guard
- 37:50Speaker 1: units to assist in the search, providing helicopters and personnel
- 37:54Speaker 1: to comb through vast forests and mountains for signs of Travis,
- 37:57Speaker 1: and the US Marshal Service joined the hunt as well,
- 38:00Speaker 1: adopting the case due to the egregious nature of the
- 38:03Speaker 1: crime and the interstate flight risk, and the Marshals would
- 38:06Speaker 1: offer a twenty thousand dollars reward for information leading to
- 38:09Speaker 1: Travis's arrest, and wanted posters with Travis Decker's face went
- 38:13Speaker 1: out nationwide, and the police urged the public in several
- 38:16Speaker 1: counties to be on high alert, and people living near
- 38:20Speaker 1: wilders areas were told to lock their doors and leave
- 38:23Speaker 1: outdoor lights on and check security cameras because Travis might
- 38:27Speaker 1: try to break into the cabin or home for shelter,
- 38:30Speaker 1: saying please secure your homes and vehicles, stay alert, and
- 38:34Speaker 1: report any suspicious activity to nine one one. So fear
- 38:37Speaker 1: just rippled through many rural communities in Washington as the
- 38:41Speaker 1: manhunt stretched from days into weeks, and despite the dense terrain,
- 38:46Speaker 1: there were promising leads. On June tenth, twenty twenty five,
- 38:50Speaker 1: about a week into the search, officials said that they
- 38:52Speaker 1: had tracked a person they believed to be Travis moving
- 38:55Speaker 1: on foot near Blouette Pass, not far from where the
- 38:59Speaker 1: truck was found, and search teams would find items of
- 39:01Speaker 1: interest belonging to Travis in that area, indicating he may
- 39:05Speaker 1: have been trying to hike out and circle around the
- 39:07Speaker 1: backcountry trails, and Chilean County sheriff stated confidently, quote, we
- 39:13Speaker 1: believe we are closing in on his trail, and he
- 39:15Speaker 1: noted he is surrounded. Eventually he's going to tire and
- 39:20Speaker 1: he's going to make a mistake. And indeed, officers were
- 39:23Speaker 1: stationed at strategic points anticipating Travis's moves. As the sheriff
- 39:28Speaker 1: put quote, there is nowhere that he's going to be
- 39:31Speaker 1: able to go to that we don't have units waiting
- 39:33Speaker 1: for him. And these strong words underscored how determined law
- 39:37Speaker 1: enforcement was to capture Travis and prevent any further harm.
- 39:41Speaker 1: So the search area expanded into neighboring counties as time
- 39:44Speaker 1: went on, and with coordination among multiple sheriff's offices in
- 39:48Speaker 1: case Travis tried to traverse county lines through the national
- 39:52Speaker 1: forests to the public horrified by the crime, flooded authorities
- 39:56Speaker 1: with over five hundred tips by mid June. Specialized tracking
- 40:01Speaker 1: units analyzed every single clue, footprints, campsite embers, even how
- 40:06Speaker 1: he might source water or food, and the man hunt
- 40:09Speaker 1: was exhaustive and dangerous, and searchers had to be cautious
- 40:12Speaker 1: as Travis could potentially ambush anyone who found him. But
- 40:16Speaker 1: as of June eighteenth, twenty twenty five, Travis Decker has
- 40:20Speaker 1: not been captured, and the manhunt is in its third
- 40:23Speaker 1: week and ongoing, and police remain on high alert and
- 40:27Speaker 1: the search continues in the rugged wilderness of Washington because
- 40:31Speaker 1: with his military training, Travis has managed to elude capture
- 40:35Speaker 1: so far, but authorities believe it's only a matter of time,
- 40:39Speaker 1: and they are effectively trying to starve him out or
- 40:42Speaker 1: catch him when he inevitably makes a mistake or grows.
- 40:44Speaker 2: Too weak to continue.
- 40:46Speaker 1: So each passing day raises tension because we don't know
- 40:49Speaker 1: if Travis will be found alive to face justice, or
- 40:53Speaker 1: if he'll be dead. But for now, the community can
- 40:55Speaker 1: only remain vigilant and pray for a swift, safe resolution.
- 41:00Speaker 1: And Whitney, despite her own unimaginable loss, has expressed surprising sentiment,
- 41:05Speaker 1: saying a lot of love and empathy for Travis and
- 41:08Speaker 1: who he is at his core, And her attorney said
- 41:11Speaker 1: that even as she grapples with his monstrous actions, it's
- 41:15Speaker 1: a testament to the complex emotions at play. She just
- 41:18Speaker 1: wants him to be found, but she mourns the man
- 41:21Speaker 1: she thought she knew. And legally, the case against Travis
- 41:24Speaker 1: Decker is already underweigh even as he remains a fugitive,
- 41:28Speaker 1: and authorities in Chulainne County swiftly charged Travis with multiple
- 41:32Speaker 1: counts of first degree murder for the Peyton, Evelyn and Olivia,
- 41:36Speaker 1: and as well as the charges of kidnapping. So an
- 41:39Speaker 1: arrest warrant has been issued, and if and when Travis
- 41:42Speaker 1: is caught, he will be arrested and brought before a
- 41:45Speaker 1: court in Washington to face these charges. So given the severity,
- 41:49Speaker 1: this could qualify as an extraordinary case for a life
- 41:52Speaker 1: without parole. But for now these questions are hypothetical and
- 41:56Speaker 1: the priority is to capture Travis alive. Is apprehended, his
- 42:01Speaker 1: mental health will likely become a central issue in legal proceedings,
- 42:05Speaker 1: and his defense might argue insanity or diminished capacity, pointing
- 42:09Speaker 1: to PTSD and psychological breakdown, and in the public statements,
- 42:12Speaker 1: Whitney Decker's side has already suggested that the mental health
- 42:16Speaker 1: system failed Travis, implying that his actions, while heinous, were
- 42:21Speaker 1: the results of untreated illness, and such arguments might influence
- 42:25Speaker 1: sentencing if there's conviction, but it does not erase his responsibility.
- 42:30Speaker 1: Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, have made it clear that despite
- 42:33Speaker 1: Travis's background.
- 42:35Speaker 2: The brutal murder.
- 42:36Speaker 1: Of three innocent children is an unforgivable crime quote unquote.
- 42:41Speaker 1: As a parent, my heart goes out to Peyton, Evelyn,
- 42:44Speaker 1: and Olivia's mom. The brutal murder of these young children
- 42:48Speaker 1: shocked our state, said Governor Ferguson when activating resources for
- 42:53Speaker 1: the manhunt. And until Travis Decker is found, the legal
- 42:56Speaker 1: process cannot fully move forward. He is effectively a fugitive
- 43:00Speaker 1: from justice, and I implore you to be vigilant, if
- 43:05Speaker 1: you're in the Washington area or any of those surrounding states,
- 43:08Speaker 1: to look at this space, remember it, and if you
- 43:11Speaker 1: see it, use extreme caution and call authorities. So I'm
- 43:15Speaker 1: praying that he is caught and is brought to justice,
- 43:19Speaker 1: and my heart goes out to Whitney and to.
- 43:22Speaker 2: Obviously those girls who passed away.
- 43:24Speaker 1: I think these newer cases are important, especially in this
- 43:30Speaker 1: case because I personally didn't even know about this case
- 43:34Speaker 1: until my mom pointed it out, So I don't know.
- 43:37Speaker 1: Maybe somebody will see him from this video and he'll
- 43:41Speaker 1: be brought to justice, but even if he's not, I
- 43:43Speaker 1: think this is still important. So with that, I'm going
- 43:47Speaker 1: to stock getting emotional, and I will see you in
- 43:49Speaker 1: the next video.
- 43:50Speaker 2: Okay, Bye,