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Jocelyn Peters and the Notebook · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, so I want you to picture a room, not
0:02
just any room, but one of those completely sterile, deeply
0:08
uncomfortable interrogation rooms at the Saint Louis Police Department.
0:11
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the ones at the bare walls, and that
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really harsh fluorescent lighting exactly.
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Speaker 1: The kind of lighting that just strips the color out
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of absolutely everything. And there's a single camera mounted up
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in the corner, quietly capturing every single frame. Right. So,
0:25
sitting at this metallic table is a man who has
0:27
been left entirely alone, and just moments prior, an investigator
0:32
uttered the word homicide before stepping out into the hallway, which.
0:35
Speaker 2: Is a heavy word to just drop and leave the room.
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Speaker 1: It really is. And if you watch the footage, you
0:41
see this man let out this heavy, almost anxious sigh.
0:45
He reaches into his back pocket and he pulls out
0:47
a small, spiral bound notebook. Okay, he flips through the
0:50
pages and his fingers are moving with this like frantic
0:53
kind of precision. He's searching for something specific, and he
0:56
finds it. He violently tears out two sheets of paper. Wow,
1:01
and right there, staring directly into the lens of the
1:03
recording camera, he shoves those pages into his mouth.
1:06
Speaker 2: He literally eats them, he choos.
1:08
Speaker 1: Them, he forces himself to swallow them.
1:10
Speaker 2: I mean, it remains a genuinely astonishing piece of footage
1:13
to watch, because when a suspect physically consumes evidence like that,
1:18
they are operating purely on this primal analog survival instinct.
1:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, like an animal backed into a corner exactly.
1:25
Speaker 2: They're calculating that if the physical paper ceases to exist,
1:29
then the connection to the crime ceases to exist. It's
1:32
a completely desperate, visceral act.
1:35
Speaker 1: But the thing is, when a man eats paper to
1:37
hide a crime, he's relying on instincts that simply do
1:41
not work in a modern world, not anymore. No, So
1:43
today we are taking a massive stack of sources. We're
1:47
talking court records, comprehensive investigative reporting, family interviews, and that
1:52
CBS forty eight hours investigation titled Jocelyn Peters and the Notebook.
1:56
And our mission is to dissect exactly why those analog
1:59
instincts failed.
2:00
Speaker 2: Right, we are doing a real deep dive into this one.
2:03
Speaker 1: We really are. We are going to examine the mechanics
2:06
of a case that absolutely shook the city of Saint
2:09
Louis will map out the hidden architecture of domestic manipulation,
2:13
the vulnerabilities within our community institutions, and really terrifying precision
2:20
of modern digital forensics.
2:22
Speaker 2: Because it's fascinating how an analog crime gets completely dismantled
2:26
by a digital world. It really is, and you know,
2:29
the who and the how and this narrative are critical. Naturally,
2:32
we will get into the specific mechanics of makeshift weaponry
2:35
and financial forensics later, but the why requires us to
2:38
examine the concept of the dark triad personality traits.
2:42
Speaker 1: The dark triad, which is what exacts.
2:44
Speaker 2: So that's narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy, and we really need
2:48
to look at how those traits can seamlessly camouflage themselves
2:52
behind community awards and professional titles.
2:54
Speaker 1: That's the scariest part. Yeah, So I want you to
2:56
imagine your own boss for a second, the person who
2:58
hired you, who signs off on your performance reviews. Now,
3:03
imagine trying to navigate a romantic relationship with them.
3:05
Speaker 2: Oh that's a nightmare scenario.
3:07
Speaker 1: Right, Imagine trying to untangle your personal future from your
3:11
professional survival. Because we often carry this preconceived notion of
3:14
what a monster looks like. We picture someone looking in
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the shadows, you know, an obvious threat.
3:19
Speaker 2: Like a stranger in a dark alley.
3:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this deep dive will challenge how you perceive
3:25
the pillars of your community. It's going to force you
3:28
to look at the hidden, invisible power imbalances that exist
3:32
in seemingly normal, respectable relationships and how easily that power
3:36
can be weaponized.
3:37
Speaker 2: Because the threat here did not arrive from a stranger.
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It just stated in a place of immense authority. It
3:43
emerged from a place of supposed safety, mentorship, and trust. Yeah,
3:47
and to understand the collapse of that trust, we first
3:50
have to establish the baseline of the life that was interrupted.
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Speaker 1: We do so, let's talk about Jocelyn Peters. She was
3:57
thirty years old. She was their third grade teacher at
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Horseman Elementary School in Saint.
4:01
Speaker 2: Louis, A really beloved teacher by all.
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Speaker 1: Accounts, oh incredibly beloved her family. Her aunt Deborah in particular,
4:08
described her as a vibrant, bright light meant to educate
4:11
and inspire. And she actually won the Pettis Excellence Award
4:14
in twenty fourteen, which is a big deal. It is
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a massive deal that is not a participation trophy. Winning
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that requires demonstrable empirical success in the classroom. It requires
4:25
your peers looking at your work and validating.
4:27
Speaker 2: It and the sources detail and educator who operated way
4:31
beyond just the basic curriculum. Jocelyn advocated fiercely for arts
4:35
programming and under resourced.
4:37
Speaker 1: Schools, which is so needed.
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Speaker 2: It is. She recognized that a standardized test score does
4:42
not measure a child's complete capacity, right, so she spent
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her own time in her own resources building engaging multidisciplinary lessons.
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She was building these foundational relationships with eight and nine
4:53
year olds that extended way past the academic year.
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Speaker 1: Think about the mechanics of being a truly great teacher.
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It requires immense emotiontional intelligence, patience, and this deep seated
5:02
belief in the potential of other people.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to really care, you do.
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Speaker 1: And Jocelyn possessed those traits in abundance. Her dream was
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incredibly straightforward. She just wanted to teach and she wanted
5:13
to build a family. Her entire psychological profile, based on
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all the source material we have, is oriented around nurturing.
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Speaker 2: Which is beautiful, but it creates a profound vulnerability when
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she encounters a personality oriented around control, right, and that
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brings us to Cornelius M. Green.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, Cornelius Green. He was the principal Karline Visual and
5:33
Performing Arts Middle School. He was an award winning educator himself,
5:37
very prominent in the community, very prominent, a well known
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fraternity member. He presented as this upstanding, vital member of
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the Saint Louis Public School system.
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Speaker 2: He was also the man who orchestrated Jocelyn's murder.
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Speaker 1: Yes, he was. Let's analyze the architecture of their relationship
5:52
because it's important. They met five years prior to the murder,
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and he was not just her romantic partner, he was
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her profession.
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Speaker 2: That's the key right there.
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Speaker 1: He actively recommended Jocelyn for her teaching position at Man Elementary.
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He literally helped launch her career.
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Speaker 2: And from a sociological standpoint, the inherent power dynamic established
6:13
there is incredibly dangerous. Right from the inception of the relationship.
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Green is positioned as the benefactor, he is the mentor,
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he's the superior within the very same school district.
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Speaker 1: So there's this weird overlap of personal and professional life.
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Speaker 2: Exactly when a romantic relationship is built on a foundation
6:30
of professional dependency, establishing any kind of equal footing becomes
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almost impossible. There is this subtle, unspoken debt of gratitude
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that gets intertwined with your actual career survival.
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Speaker 1: Because if the relationship goes bad, does your job go bad?
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Speaker 2: Right? The subordinate partner is implicitly discouraged from making demands
6:50
or setting boundaries because the romantic partner holds the keys
6:54
to their professional livelihood.
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Speaker 1: But it looks perfect from the outside. The sources mentioned
6:59
that he showered her with gar he sent her flowers
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all the time, they actively looked at houses together.
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Speaker 2: Sure it mirrors the classic trajectory of a successful professional
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couple moving toward a shared commitment.
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Speaker 1: Right, But we need to look closer at that.
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Speaker 2: We do because we need to talk about the concept
7:15
of future faking.
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Speaker 1: Future faking break that down for me.
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Speaker 2: So, future faking is a manipulative tactic where a person
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talks in great detail about a shared future, buying a house,
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getting married, having children to extract current compliance or affection,
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but they have absolutely no intention of ever following through.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, See, Green was legally separated from his wife, Stephanie,
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with whom he shared a daughter. Jocelyn was aware of
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the marriage, obviously, but she operated under the explicit belief
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that Green was finalizing a divorce and moving toward a
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legitimate future with her.
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Speaker 1: But wait, I need to push back on that a
7:51
little bit. If they are physically walking through houses and
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looking at real estate together, how is that just a fake?
7:57
Speaker 2: It sounds real, doesn't it?
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Speaker 1: It does? And why us? Her friend Terras Tucker telling
8:02
investigators that Joscelyn was growing incredibly frustrated if things were
8:05
moving forward.
8:06
Speaker 2: Because the timeline betrays the intention. Months turn into years,
8:10
five years to be exact. The house hunting and the
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gifts they function as a stalling mechanism.
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Speaker 1: I see.
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Speaker 2: It provides just enough forward momentum to keep the victim invested.
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Psychologists refer to this as intermittent reinforcement. Green maintains his
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status quo, his marriage, his career, his public image while
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keeping Joscelyn locked in this perpetual holding pattern.
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Speaker 1: So he's just stringing her along exactly.
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Speaker 2: The frustration that her friend Tiris observed was the cognitive
8:38
dissonance Joscelyn was experiencing. The words promised a future, but
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the actions delivered a perpetual delay.
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Speaker 1: But that holding pattern violently shattered when Jocelyn became pregnant.
8:50
She was seven months pregnant with a baby girl that
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she planned to name Micah Lee.
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Speaker 2: And the medical history here is vital context. Joscelyn had
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previously miscarried. Furthermore, according to federal prosecutors, she had terminated
9:02
a pregnancy at Greene's explicit urging.
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Speaker 1: In the past, he pressured her into it.
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Speaker 2: Yes, he had successfully exerted his control over her reproductive
9:09
choices before, but this time Joscelyn refused. She was resolute
9:12
she was carrying this child to term.
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Speaker 1: And the contrast in their reactions to this pregnancy is staggering.
9:19
Joscelyn is preparing for life. Her mother, Lacy Peters, recounted
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how Jocelyn was saving every single extra dollar she had.
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She was transforming her old bedroom into a nursery. She
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was buying baby clothes.
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Speaker 2: Just fully embracing it totally.
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Speaker 1: On the dining table in her apartment, investigators actually found
9:38
unfinished invitations for an Alice in Wonderland themed baby shower.
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Speaker 2: Oh that's just heartbreaking, it really is.
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Speaker 1: She is literally sitting there writing out the invitations to
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celebrate this new life.
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Speaker 2: While Green is actively researching ways to extinguish it.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at his digital footprint during this specific window,
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because it completely destroys the facade of the respectable principle.
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Speaker 2: It really does.
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Speaker 1: Green begins searching the internet for way to mask the
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taste of abortion pills. He searches for information on fetal
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heartbeat detection. I mean, explain the jump from wanting to
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hide a pregnancy to researching fetal heartbeats.
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Speaker 2: Well, it tracks the escalation of premeditation. A person operating
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defensively might search for legal advice on custody or child support,
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but Green's searches are offensive. Yeah, they're aggressive, very Searching
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for how to mask the taste of abortion pills reveals
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an intent to bypass Joscelyn's consent entirely. He is trying
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to engineer a pharmacological intervention without her knowledge. He wants to.
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Speaker 1: Drug her, which is horrifying.
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Speaker 2: And the searches regarding fetal heartbeat detection that suggests he
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is trying to understand the timeline of viability. He's perhaps
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trying to calculate the window in which a miscarriage would
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appear natural versus suspicious.
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Speaker 1: But how does a highly educated principle assume he can
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just google how to drug my pregnant girlfriend without leaving
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a permanent record like did he think nobody would ever?
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Speaker 2: It is a phenomenon known as the mask of sanity.
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Individuals with high narcissistic traits often believe their own intelligence
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acts as a sort of invisibility cloak. They assume that
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because they hold a position of respect, the rules of
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digital forensics just don't apply to them.
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Speaker 1: They think they're above it.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, they compartmentalize. In Green's mind, the computer screen in
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his private office was completely disconnected from the public persona
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he walked around in. He failed to realize that web
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browsers cash every query, and internet service providers log every
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single packet of data.
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Speaker 1: You can't just erase that stuff.
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Speaker 2: No, you can't. And when his covert attempts to end
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the pregnancy failed, his desperation required an external.
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Speaker 1: Solution, which brings us to Philip J. Cutler, an old
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childhood friend of Green's from Saint Louis who is currently
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living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Cutler is financially destitute. He's
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down on his luck, desperate for cash.
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Speaker 2: It is the ultimate transactional relationship. Green zess is the
12:00
financial resources and a problem that needs eliminating. Cutler possesses
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the willingness to commit violence in exchange for economic relief.
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And the geography matters too, right absolutely, the geographic distance
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is a key factor. Green likely calculated that bringing in
12:14
an outsider from Oklahoma would sever any obvious local connections
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to the Saint Louis criminal underworld.
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Speaker 1: But murder requires capital. A hip man does not work
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on credit.
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Speaker 2: No, they don't.
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Speaker 1: And this is where Green's actions cross from domestic manipulation
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into systemic institutional abuse. Because in early March twenty sixteen,
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Green needs money to pay Cutler, so he steals twenty
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seven hundred dollars.
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Speaker 2: In cash, and where he gets it is just he steals.
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Speaker 1: It from a fundraiser for the Karlane Middle School dance team.
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Speaker 2: The audacity of this specific act cannot be overstated. We
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are looking at a principle, a man entrusted with the
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educational and moral development of middle school students and he
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physically intercepts cash raised by children for their extracurricular act activities.
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Speaker 1: It's sickening, but it implies a massive systemic failure at
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the school district level. I mean, how does a principle
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just walk away with nearly three grand in cash without
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setting off massive alarms everywhere?
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Speaker 2: Well, school activity funds are notoriously vulnerable to internal theft.
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Unlike major district budgets that go through rigorous municipal auditing.
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Activity funds like car washes, bake sales, dance team fundraisers,
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they often involve loose cash handled by multiple people before
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it ever reaches a centralized bank account.
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Speaker 1: Right, it's just a lock box and a desk somewhere exactly.
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Speaker 2: Internal controls are frequently weak. Green leveraged his ultimate authority
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over the building to bypass whatever rudimentary sign off procedures were.
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Speaker 1: In place, so nobody could really question him.
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Speaker 2: Right. A colleague actually witnessed him in proximity to the funds,
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right before they vanished. Former principal Nicole Conaway later called
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the act disgusting. I mean, he financed the execution of
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a teacher using the labor of children.
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Speaker 1: So he has stolen cash. Now, we have to look
13:59
at the logistics of the plot, and the communication between
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the principle and the hit man is terrifyingly casual.
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Speaker 2: It reads like they're making weekend plans it does.
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Speaker 1: Investigators recover the text messages. Green invites Cutler to Saint
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Louis for spring break, specifying the dates of March eighteenth
14:15
through the twenty second.
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Speaker 2: And Cutler's response is the lynchpin of the conspiracy charge.
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He replies, don't forget to send the package.
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Speaker 1: The package, So, around March twentyeth to twenty first, Green
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utilizes the United Parcel Service. He sends a UPS overnight
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envelope from his location in Saint Louis directly to Cutler's
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address in Oklahoma. Inside is twenty five hundred dollars of
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the stolen.
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Speaker 2: Cash, and Cutler signs for the delivery.
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Speaker 1: Yes, he does.
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Speaker 2: See, when you utilize a commercial carrier like UPS, you
14:42
are generating an indestructible chain of custody. Every time that
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barcode is scanned at the dropoff facility, at the regional
14:49
sorting hub, on the delivery truck, and finally, when the
14:52
recipient signs that little electronic pad, a timestamped, geolocated data
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point is permanently logged in a corporate server.
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Speaker 1: He left a paper trail a mile long.
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Speaker 2: Green essentially requested a receipt for funding a murder.
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Speaker 1: So Color receives the capital, he purchases a ticket on
15:08
a Greyhound bus. He travels from Oklahoma to Saint Louis,
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arriving around March twenty first. Green then provides Cutler with
15:16
the final necessary tool, which is transportation. Green loans Cutler
15:20
his own personal vehicle, a white Kia Optima.
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Speaker 2: So the killer is now in position. He's funded, and
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he's mobile utilizing the mastermind's own vehicle.
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Speaker 1: Let's examine the timeline immediately preceding the murder. On March
15:33
twenty third, the day before Jocelyn is killed, Green and
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Joscelyn go grocery shopping together at an Aldi supermarket, and
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the RACEII shows they purchased a ten pound bag of
15:42
rusted potatoes.
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Speaker 2: And context is everything in forensic analysis. Here, Jocelyn was
15:47
adhering to a strict healthy pregnancy diet. She explicitly avoided
15:52
starchy carbohydrates like potatoes.
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Speaker 1: Right, she wasn't eating them.
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Speaker 2: There was absolutely no dietary justification for that purchase. The
15:59
potatoatoes were not meant for consumption.
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Speaker 1: Okay, break down the physics for me here, because we
16:04
are talking about a potato silencer, I always assume this
16:07
was purely a Hollywood myth, like something out of an
16:10
old spy movie. Does jamming a vegetable onto the barrel
16:14
of a gun actually suppress the sound of a gunshot?
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Speaker 2: It actually does, and the mechanics of it are fascinating.
16:19
Really Yeah, When a firearm is discharged, the loud bang
16:23
you hear is primarily the muzzle blast. It is the
16:27
sound of rapidly expanding superheated gases escaping the barrel at
16:30
supersonic speeds and violently colliding with the surrounding atmosphere right
16:34
the displacement of air exactly now. A commercial suppressor works
16:38
by forcing those expanding gases through a series of internal baffles,
16:42
slowing them down and allowing them to cool before the exit,
16:45
which significantly mitigates that acoustic shockwave.
16:48
Speaker 1: So how does arrusset potato replicate a series of engineered
16:52
metal baffles.
16:53
Speaker 2: Well, a potato is essentially a dense matrix of starch
16:56
and water. When you force the barrel of a point
16:59
three eight caliber pistol into a potato and fire, the
17:03
bullet travels through the flesh of the vegetable easily.
17:05
Speaker 1: It just punches right through.
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Speaker 2: Right, But the expanding gases behind the bullet are temporarily
17:11
trapped within that dense, wet environment. The potato's mass absorbs
17:15
a significant portion of the kinetic and acoustic energy. The
17:18
gases are slowed down.
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Speaker 1: So it actually dampens the sound.
17:21
Speaker 2: Yes, it is a crude single use of pressor. The
17:24
potato will inevitably blow apart from the pressure, but it
17:27
effectively muffles the initial defining crack of the gunshot, which.
17:31
Speaker 1: Is exactly what happened here. Let's look at the early
17:33
hours of March twenty fourth. Cutler, driving Green's white Kia Optima,
17:37
arrives in the central West End neighborhood where Joscelyn lives. Okay,
17:41
He's placed on her street from two point five nine
17:43
am to three point four eight am.
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Speaker 2: That forty nine minute window is the totality of the
17:47
physical crime.
17:48
Speaker 1: Joscelyn was asleep in her bed. Cutler enters the apartment,
17:52
he shoots her one time in the back of the head.
17:54
The bullet exits through her eye. Investigators find a single
17:58
point three eight zero caliber shit casing near the nightstand.
18:01
Speaker 2: And what else do they find?
18:03
Speaker 1: They find potato fragments, starchy white fragments splattered across the
18:06
wooden headboard embedded in her pillow and scattered across her body.
18:11
The weaponized potato detonated exactly as you.
18:14
Speaker 2: Described, and it achieved its primary objective because in a
18:17
dense apartment building in the central West End, not a
18:20
single neighbor reported hearing a gunshot.
18:22
Speaker 1: Wow, So the acoustic suppression really worked.
18:24
Speaker 2: It worked perfectly, but the physical evidence left behind the
18:27
potato fragments would become the most damning signature of premeditation.
18:32
Speaker 1: Now Here is the variable that changes everything for the
18:34
responding detectives. When police arrived to process the scene, they
18:38
look at the door. There are absolutely no signs of
18:41
force entry.
18:42
Speaker 2: And this is a critical heuristic for homicide investigators. Jocelyn's
18:45
apartment utilized a specialized lock mechanism. Landlords frequently used systems
18:50
like Medeco locks, which utilized non duplicatable keyways.
18:54
Speaker 1: Meaning you can't just run to the hardware store and
18:56
make a copy exactly.
18:57
Speaker 2: You cannot simply go copy the key. And the door
19:00
was not kicked in, the lock was not picked or drilled,
19:03
the windows were intact. There was no ransacking of the apartment.
19:07
Valuables were left entirely untouched.
19:10
Speaker 1: So if the door isn't broken, the killer had a key.
19:13
The killer was either allowed inside by Jocelyn, which is
19:16
highly unlikely at three am while she was sleeping, or
19:19
the killer possessed a key provided by someone Jocelyn deeply trusted.
19:23
Speaker 2: Right and immediately, the circle of suspects instantly shrinks from
19:26
the entire population of Saint Louis down to a handful
19:29
of people.
19:29
Speaker 1: But while the physical crime is executed, Green is executing
19:33
his alibi, and his strategy requires him to be geographically
19:37
removed from the violence. This classic he takes an Amtrak
19:40
train to Chicago. He establishes a documented presence in another state.
19:44
On the day of the murder. Surveillance footage captures him
19:47
returning to the Saint Louis train station at two five
19:50
seven PM.
19:51
Speaker 2: Now observe the staggering arrogance of the logistics here who
19:54
picks Green up from the train station the.
19:57
Speaker 1: Hitman, Philip Cutler, driving the white Kiah Optima.
20:01
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. Green utilizes the man who just executed his
20:05
partner as his chauffeur. He returns to Saint Louis, gets
20:08
into the vehicle used in the murder, and proceeds directly
20:12
to the crime scene.
20:13
Speaker 1: Green arrives at Jocelyn's apartment around three nineteen pm. He
20:17
makes a phone call to her cell phone, and he
20:20
knows it will go straight to voicemail because Cutler stole
20:22
the phone from the apartment.
20:24
Speaker 2: He's setting the stage he is.
20:26
Speaker 1: Green then calls nine to one one. He initiates the performance.
20:29
He claims he just unlocked the door and discovered her
20:31
lifeless body.
20:33
Speaker 2: He is attempting to control the narrative from the moment
20:35
of discovery. He places himself at the center of the tragedy,
20:39
playing the role of the devastated.
20:41
Speaker 1: Partner, which is designed to deflect the initial wave of
20:44
police suspicion exactly, and the performance extends to the family.
20:48
Green physically dials Lacy Peters, the mother of the woman
20:52
he just had murdered. Lacy later described the call to reporters.
20:57
She just started screaming, unable to process the cruel of
21:00
the reality.
21:00
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine.
21:02
Speaker 1: He calls Jocelyn's aunt, Dedra. While she is driving. She
21:05
has to pull her vehicle over to the side of
21:07
the road because the grief completely incapacitates her.
21:11
Speaker 2: This is a form of emotional sadism. He is listening
21:14
to the devastation he engineered, using their genuine grief to
21:18
validate his fabricated innocence.
21:20
Speaker 1: It's truly evil, but an alibi.
21:22
Speaker 2: Constructed on performance crumbles under forensic scrutiny.
21:25
Speaker 1: Which brings us to lead investigator, Detective Mark Beyondolino. She
21:29
arrives at the apartment. He surveys the scene. He sees
21:32
the lack of forced entry, He sees a targeted execution,
21:36
He sees no signs of a robbery, and he looks
21:38
at Green right and Green attempts to appear cooperative. He
21:42
answers basic questions, but when Beyondolino asks for consent to
21:46
search Green's vehicle, the white Kia Optima parked right outside,
21:50
Green flatly refuses.
21:52
Speaker 2: Okay, let me stop you there. Sure, because if you
21:54
are innocent and your pregnant partner has just been murdered,
21:57
wouldn't you offer the police your DNA, your car, your phone,
22:00
anything they need to catch the killer.
22:03
Speaker 1: You would hand them the keys without hesitating.
22:05
Speaker 2: Precisely, a genuinely grieving partner operates with complete transparency. Refusing
22:11
a vehicle search in that context is a massive behavioral
22:14
red flag.
22:15
Speaker 1: But Green compounds the error. He needs the car removed
22:18
from the scene before police can secure a warrant, so
22:21
he makes a phone call to coordinate the removal right
22:23
in front of the cops. Yeah, he involves a woman
22:25
named Stephanie and the sources indicate this is likely his
22:29
strange wife to assist in getting the car away from
22:32
the police, and who actually comes to drive the car away,
22:35
Philip Cutler.
22:36
Speaker 2: He calls the hitman back to the active crime scene
22:39
to retrieve the getaway vehicle right in front of the
22:42
lead detective. It is an astonishing display of hubris, it
22:46
really is. But it is the hubris of a man
22:47
who believes he's the smartest person in the room, and
22:50
that hubris leads directly to cognitive overload.
22:53
Speaker 1: Cognitive overload, Yes.
22:55
Speaker 2: Planning and executing a murder, managing an alibi, and lying
22:58
to federal investigators requires massive amounts of executive function. The
23:02
brain is processing too many variables, mistakes become inevitable.
23:06
Speaker 1: Which brings us to the most baffling misstep in the
23:09
entire timeline. Five days after the murder, Green voluntarily goes
23:14
to the police station to provide a formal statement and
23:16
surrender his phone right during this interview, totally unprompted, Green
23:21
casually inserts a detail into the conversation. He tells the
23:25
detectives that he and Jocelyn had baked potatoes together on
23:28
March twentieth.
23:29
Speaker 2: This is the cognitive overload in action. Green knows the
23:33
potato fragments are all over the crime scene. He knows
23:36
the forensic team collected them.
23:38
Speaker 1: He saw them taking evidence exactly.
23:40
Speaker 2: He is terrified of that specific piece of physical evidence
23:44
linking back to the Aldi receipt, So he tries to
23:46
proactively engineer an innocent explanation for why potato DNA might
23:50
be present in her bedroom.
23:51
Speaker 1: But no one asked him about potato exactly.
23:54
Speaker 2: By offering an unprompted explanation for a bizarre piece of
23:57
evidence the police hadn't even publicized, he essentially ties his
24:01
own noose.
24:02
Speaker 1: Wow.
24:02
Speaker 2: He thought he was planting a seed of reasonable doubt. Instead,
24:06
he handed Beyondolino the exact thread needed to unravel the
24:09
entire conspiracy, which.
24:11
Speaker 1: Brings us back to the interrogation room, back to the
24:14
paper eating. The detectives bring Cutler in for questioning. They
24:17
leave him alone and Beyond Delino later noted whatever was
24:21
on those two sheets of paper he immediately wanted to
24:25
get rid of.
24:25
Speaker 2: Because Cutler feels the pressure, he realizes the alibi is failing.
24:29
His analog brain looks for a physical solution.
24:32
Speaker 1: So he destroys the notebook pages, and at trial he
24:35
would later offer this almost insultingly absurd defense, claiming he
24:39
ate the pages because they contained the contact information for
24:43
a local marijuana dealer.
24:44
Speaker 2: No jury is going to believe you ate paper in
24:47
a homicide interrogation room over a misdemeanor weed contact.
24:51
Speaker 1: Not a chance. But the irony is that Cutler's panic
24:55
was entirely misplaced. He successfully destroyed the physical paper, But
24:59
we live in an air where paper trails are irrelevant.
25:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. Imagine walking into a pristine room filled entirely with
25:04
invisible wet paint. You walk across the room, you look back,
25:08
and you see absolutely nothing. You think you've left no trace,
25:11
But anyone equipped with the right specialized light can see
25:14
every single bright red footprint you left behind. That is
25:20
modern digital forensics.
25:22
Speaker 1: Let's explicitly break down the digital web the investigators pulled
25:25
from that invisible paint. The detective subpoened the phone records,
25:30
they didn't need the notebook because the telecom servers provided
25:32
a comprehensive map of the conspiracy.
25:35
Speaker 2: They established months of continuous contact between Green and Cutler.
25:39
Speaker 1: They retrieved the deleted text message regarding the package.
25:42
Speaker 2: They executed search warrants on the commercial carriers. They obtained
25:46
the UPS shipping receipt complete with Cutler's signature, proving the
25:49
interstate transfer of funds.
25:51
Speaker 1: They acquired the Greyhound bus manifests documenting colors travel from
25:55
Oklahoma to Missouri.
25:56
Speaker 2: And they audited the Carlane Middle School activity funds, tracking
26:00
the stolen two seven hundred dollars in cash directly to
26:03
the twenty five hundred dollars overnighted envelope.
26:05
Speaker 1: But the most devastating piece of evidence, the invisible footprints,
26:09
came from Google Location Services. This data acted as an
26:13
electronic eyewitness break down. How this technology works for us
26:16
because it's not just basic GPS, right correct.
26:19
Speaker 2: When we talk about cell phone tracking, there are two
26:22
primary methods. The first is cell Site Location information or CSLI.
26:27
This is generated by the telecom provider. Okay, so like
26:30
Verizon or AT and T, exactly every time your phone
26:33
receives a text, makes a call, or simply updates its
26:36
background data. It pings the nearest cell towers. By measuring
26:40
the signal strength and the time delay from multiple towers,
26:43
engineers can triangulate your general location.
26:46
Speaker 1: But Google location data is much more precise than that.
26:49
Speaker 2: Exponentially more precise Google Location services relies on a combination
26:53
of GPS, satellite data and Wi Fi SSID mapping.
26:57
Speaker 1: SSID mapping.
26:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, even if you are not going to a
27:00
Wi Fi network, your phone is constantly scanning for the
27:03
unique identifiers of nearby routers. Google maintains a massive global
27:08
database of exactly where those routers are physically located.
27:10
Speaker 1: Ohow, so it's mapping the routers around you.
27:12
Speaker 2: Right By analyzing which routers your phone can see at
27:15
any given second, Google can pinpoint your location down to
27:18
a radius of a few meters.
27:20
Speaker 1: And that precise data placed Cutler's phone right outside Jocelyn's
27:24
apartment building in the Central West End during the exact
27:27
forty nine minute window of the murder.
27:29
Speaker 2: It maps movements with terrifying accuracy. Furthermore, it tracked his
27:33
phone after the murder to North Riverfront Park in Saint Louis.
27:37
Why there, that is the specific geographic location where investigators
27:41
confidently believe Cutler disposed of the point three a zero
27:45
caliber pistol and Joscelyn's stolen cell phone.
27:48
Speaker 1: And the surveillance cameras in the central West End captured
27:51
Green's white Kia Optima driving through the neighborhood, perfectly corroborating
27:55
the Google location data. The digital net was absolute, it
28:00
really was. The payment was documented, the communication was recovered,
28:04
the location was triangulated, the physical link to the Aldi
28:07
Potatoes was established.
28:08
Speaker 2: The conspiracy was fully illuminated by the data.
28:11
Speaker 1: So in August of twenty sixteen, Green faces his first consequence.
28:15
He is arrested for the theft of the school funds
28:18
and officially removed from his position as principal.
28:20
Speaker 2: Long overdue.
28:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, And two months later, in October of twenty sixteen,
28:26
both Green and Cutler are charged with murder, but the
28:29
legal strategy shifts dramatically here. The case is moved out
28:33
of state jurisdiction and into federal court. Explained why the
28:37
federal government cares about a local homicide.
28:40
Speaker 2: It comes down to the constitutional authority of the federal government,
28:43
specifically the interstate Commerce Clause. The federal government has jurisdiction
28:47
over activities that cross state lines or utilize instrumentalities of
28:51
interstate commerce.
28:52
Speaker 1: So using ups and Greyhound made it a federal case.
28:55
Speaker 2: Exactly, Cutler traveled from Oklahoma to Missouri, that is interstate
29:00
with the intent to commit a crime. More importantly, Green
29:03
used a commercial carrier, the United Parcel Service, to mail
29:07
the payment for the hit across state lines.
29:09
Speaker 1: That triggers federal law.
29:10
Speaker 2: Right under Title eighteen of the United States Code, Section
29:13
nineteen fifty eight, the use of mail or any facility
29:16
of interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be
29:18
committed constitutes a federal murder for higher conspiracy.
29:21
Speaker 1: But why do prosecutors prefer federal court in a case
29:24
like this?
29:25
Speaker 2: Why not just keep it local resources and leverage the
29:28
federal system possesses overwhelming investigative resources. The evidentiary rules are
29:33
often more streamlined, and crucially, federal sentencing guidelines are notoriously
29:38
rigid and severe.
29:39
Speaker 1: No parole in the federal system right exactly.
29:41
Speaker 2: By taking it, federal prosecutors ensured they could bring the
29:44
absolute maximum weight of the law down on both men.
29:47
Speaker 1: The digital evidence provided the undeniably clear how and who,
29:52
But the judicial system does not operate at the speed
29:55
of an Internet search, the legal process ground to a crawl.
29:59
Jocelyn's family. He waited for nearly eight years for a resolution.
30:02
Speaker 2: Eight years, which is just agonizing for a family, it is,
30:05
but federal capital cases or cases involving life sentences, involve
30:09
monumental amounts of discovery. Defense attorneys file endless motions to
30:13
suppress evidence. They attempt to throw out the Google location data.
30:16
They challenge the search warrants, They dispute the timeline. It
30:19
is an exhausting war of attrition.
30:21
Speaker 1: But eventually Cutler went to trial and was convicted by
30:24
a jury. Green, the mastermind, fought the charges for years.
30:28
He dragged the family through endless hearings until finally, on
30:31
February twenty eight, twenty twenty four, the sheer weight of
30:34
the digital evidence crushed his defense. He pleaded guilty to
30:39
the federal charges.
30:40
Speaker 2: He finally admitted it.
30:41
Speaker 1: He did, and on June twenty five, twenty twenty four,
30:44
US District Judge Ronnie L. White delivered the final consequence.
30:48
Both Cornelius Green and Philip Cutler were sentenced to two
30:51
consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. They will
30:55
die in federal penitentiaries.
30:57
Speaker 2: And the corresponding state charges were dismissed as unnecessary.
31:00
Speaker 1: Right justice was served, but as Jocelyn's and Dedra noted,
31:04
it was deeply bittersweet. A decade of waiting does immense
31:07
psychological damage to a family. Lacy Peters, Jocelyn's mother, told
31:11
reporters she was happy at the sentencing, but she couldn't
31:14
even repeat on television the words she held for Green.
31:17
Speaker 2: The anger must be unfathomable.
31:19
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely. Jocelyn's friend Tiras Tucker summarized the betrayal perfectly.
31:23
He called Green the worst kind of monster, concisely because
31:27
he weaponized a respectable facade. Yeah.
31:29
Speaker 2: Prosecutor Tiffany Becker highlighted the tragic reality of the final
31:33
days too, the escalating tension, the future faking, the frustration.
31:38
Jocelyn was finally realizing that the marriage, the life she
31:41
was promised was an illusion. She was figuring out she
31:46
was and the impact of this crime shattered the horace
31:48
Man Elementary community, who lost a visionary teacher, and it
31:52
deeply traumatized the Karlaine Middle School community, who had to
31:55
grapple with the horrifying reality that their principles stole from
31:59
children to fund an execution.
32:01
Speaker 1: It fundamentally alters your perception of institutional trust. But Lacy
32:06
and Dadra Peters have refused to let Cornelius Green dictate
32:09
Jocelyn's legacy. They continue to actively advocate for her memory.
32:14
That's wonderful it is Colleagues still share stories of the
32:16
permanent impact she made in her classroom, and Michael Lee,
32:19
the daughter Jocelyn wanted so desperately to raise, is remembered
32:22
constantly in their family conversations.
32:25
Speaker 2: It is a testament to the endurance of memory over manipulation.
32:28
The notebook pages Cutlers swallowed are gone. They were digested
32:32
and destroyed, but the truth they contained was indestructible.
32:35
Speaker 1: The digital footprints.
32:36
Speaker 2: Were forever exactly the cell tower pings, the ups barcodes,
32:41
the financial audits, and the methodical, relentless work of detectives
32:45
like Mark Biondolino reassembled the puzzle. Two men surrendered their
32:50
freedom forever because they fundamentally misunderstood the world they lived in.
32:54
Their analog arrogance was no match for the digital reality.
32:58
Speaker 1: Joscelyn Peters taught her third graders to read to analyze
33:02
the world, and most importantly to stand up for what
33:05
is right. Her story provides us with a much darker
33:08
but undeniably vital lesson. Monsters do not announce themselves. They
33:13
don't always lurk in the shadows.
33:15
Speaker 2: Sometimes they're right and clean sight.
33:17
Speaker 1: Sometimes they wear sharply tailored suits. They hold the master
33:19
keys to our schools, They smile for the cameras, they
33:22
win community awards, and they use their authority to mask
33:25
their cruelty. Despite all of Greene's meticulous calculations, his stolen funds,
33:30
and his constructed alibis, it was a bag of ald
33:33
ol potatoes and an invisible trail of electronic footprints that
33:36
dismantled his life.
33:37
Speaker 2: It proves that true character is never defined by the
33:39
titles we hold. It is defined by the choices we
33:42
make when we believe the cameras are turned off.
33:45
Speaker 1: Which leaves you with this final thought to examine. We
33:47
rely entirely on our institutions. We rely on our schools,
33:51
our community leaders, and our educators to act as our
33:53
moral compasses. We hand them our children and trust them
33:56
to guide the future. But when the very individuals and
33:59
trust with that profound responsibility are capable of such calculated,
34:03
devastating deception. Well, how do you ever truly distinguish genuine
34:07
character from a masterfully curated public performance. It is a
34:11
question without a comfortable answer, but it is one this
34:14
story demand that you ask. Thank you so much for
34:17
joining us on this deep dive. Take care of yourselves,
34:19
and we will see you next time.