Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Zone 7: Jabez Spann - Nine Years Later, Parents are Still Fighting for the Families of Missing People

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Zone 7: Jabez Spann - Nine Years Later, Parents are Still Fighting for the Families of Missing People · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Y'all, this show today is a call of action. There
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: are people in Sarasota, Florida that know what happened to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Jabez Spann, and I am begging for them to come forward.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: There are some folks that nine years ago might have
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: been 14, 15. Y'all are in your 20s now. You
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: possibly have children of your own. His mama deserves the truth.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: She deserves to know what happened to her child And
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: who did it? Today, I am welcoming back Tawana Spann
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to Zone 7. Tawana, how are you, honey?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I'm doing pretty good. How are you?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Well, I know that's a lie. Y'all, listen. Today is
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a horrific weekend.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It is Labor Day weekend for Tawana. That's the weekend
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that Jabez went missing. And it took two years to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: recover his remains. Two years.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Two years.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: She didn't know where he was. What happened to him?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, the horrific news that he was murdered.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But she ain't been sitting around for nine years crying.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: She had every right to. She had every right not
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to ever get out of bed again. If there was
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: ever an excuse for her to be self-absorbed and just
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: wallow in her grief and feel horrible, nobody could blame her.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Her husband Joe's with her, supporting her. Our other children
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: are super aware of what today means for their entire family.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: But here she is again. What can I do for
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: other people? And we're going to talk about that because
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: she has been doing some incredible things in the last
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: nine years. She's written books. She's done interviews. She's done documentaries.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And y'all, she's doing something that I had never heard
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: of till just a few weeks ago when she and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I were talking. Didn't even know it was a thing.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But I want to make everybody aware of it. especially
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: if there's somebody with a loved one that is missing
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: or has been murdered that would like to utilize this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: new venture that she's on. So, Tawana, let's just talk
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: just real open for a second about you being in
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the same community where every day you may run across
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: somebody that's got information that just ain't telling it.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: When I talk to people, several people this weekend. And
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: before I even got to the interviews, I had to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: ask myself, because of course, for nine years, we want answers,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: but I wanted to know what was it that I really, really,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: really wanted, right? If I had a choice to tell anybody,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: like what I'm looking for is that very, it's a
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: very small part that I'm looking for out of the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: whole situation. I'm looking for what made the decision, what
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: did Jabez do or cause to make the decision where
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: it was deemed so necessary that his life had to
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: be taken? You know, we look at the, you know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: when we're working with these families and stuff like that,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and they're in the court system and things like that, Sheryl,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: it seems as though they're going through a judicial system
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: which means justice in some type of way. But to
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: be honest and very transparent, none of the families that
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: we work with, including mine, the justice doesn't come for
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: us like that because justice means you'll give me something
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: that justifies what you took away from me, right? And
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: there's never... There's never gonna be that. So I do
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: want accountability and I do just want the story of
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: the truth of whatever that night held, the players that
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: were involved, of what made it so necessary that at
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: one point, a 14-year-old child, you could just take the
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: life out of that child. I mean, that... That's probably
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: my biggest gripe right now in my life. I just
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: don't want to carry that for the rest of my life,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: not knowing that.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Tawana, you just said the realest thing you could ever say.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: There ain't no such thing as an eye for an
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: eye when it comes to your child. You couldn't give
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: me enough money, enough houses, enough swimming pools, enough cars,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: enough airplanes, enough boats. There's nothing you could compensate me with.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: for my child. That's it. And justice ain't coming. It
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter who goes to prison. You can't get justice
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: for him the way you deserve it, the way he
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: deserves it. And I appreciate you saying it that way
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people think, well, you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you're fighting for justice. No, you're fighting for answers.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's the only thing at this moment. You know,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I have to, and I keep referring to the families
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: and you know, sure, because you work with a lot
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: of these families as well. It becomes a prison that
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you're locked in when you don't have answers. It's almost
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: like you're the one doing the time that somebody else
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: did a crime for. But it's just a different type
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: of prison. You know, we are now actively trying to
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: work with families because a lot a lot of these
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: families especially these moms that have kids and stuff you
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: know it's hard to carry that grief and get up
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: every morning and want to and want to take care
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: of children and make sure everybody else is okay when
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: you're literally drowning within yourself of what to do with
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: all these emotions that you don't know you've never dealt
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: with before, right? Because when losing a child, nobody has
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: signed you up for this before they don't teach this somewhere.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: So now you have to kind of navigate through life
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: on top of everything else on in life. So we
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: were the best fan foundation where we're working with some
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: people right now. Um, I wrote a book called the
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: weirdo and that, that book addressed PTSD. Um, And my husband,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: matter of fact, he kind of pointed it out to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: me as well because he was like, I used to
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: be this really lively girl that when I entered the rooms,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, everybody. And now I'm the girl that
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I have to sometimes when I'm at an event, I
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: have to step out the whole room because my anxiety
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: will literally shut me down. It will literally shut me down.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So it's not even just. They make the weight that
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: you carry along with with losing your child. It's like
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: that's why I told the interviewers this this weekend. I'm like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I just want. I want this. I want to just
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: get this off my plate. It's just so hard to carry.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: And, you know, Tawana, I worked with Tupac Shakur's mom
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on his case. And she said something to me that
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: no mama. of a missing or murdered child had ever
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: said to me. She said, I'm not as interested in
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the who as the why. She could not wrap her
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: mind around that they had actually killed him. You know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: there was the Machiavelli thing. There was, you know, people,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the threats. There was the East Coast, West Coast. I mean,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: she was aware, you know, I mean, he had Thug
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Life tattooed on him. She was aware. but never thought
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: it would happen. He was, you know, larger than life,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: not just for her, but for so many people. And
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that was the hardest part for her. And when I
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: think of you, you had these waves of shock. The
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: first shock is he's missing and you're thinking, well, you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: he'll show up, but you still had that initial sickening feeling. Well,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: then he, is missing, straight up. I mean, he doesn't
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: come home for days and days. Well, then you find
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: out he's a witness to a murder, possibly. And then
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you find out, nope, that was a straight-up homicide that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Jabez clearly could have seen, could have witnessed. And then
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you find out he was a homicide victim. And now
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the case is cold. It's just wave after wave after wave.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: But again... Among that, you have done some amazing work.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And y'all, we already have a Zone 7 on Jabez's case,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: so we're not going to rehash the entire case for you.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: What we want to do today is highlight the last
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: nine years and what all has happened. The writing of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the books is just one thing Twan has been doing.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: But I want to talk a little bit about how
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: you started the foundation, what it is y'all do, and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: specifically in your community because Jabez, shockingly, was the first
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: child to ever go missing in Sarasota, Florida that wasn't
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: found pretty quick.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: The reason behind, and I always tell people the founder
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: of the Jabez Spann Foundation, they say it's, you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: it's me and my husband, but it's really Jabez. Jabez
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: is the reason for all of this happening. And what
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Even though when we did find out he was murdered,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I just still had this very, very longing, um, feeling
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: for the people that go through missing their, their loved ones,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: because that's a different type of torture. Like that's a,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: that's a different type of torture. Um, I understand that
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: finding out that your loved one is deceased, that's one thing,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: but it's almost like a quick, you know what I'm saying?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Like you're gonna, it's a blow and then you gotta
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: just adjust to it. But when they're missing, you're every
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: single day, you're like in a loop, just a loop
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: over and over, almost like you're just reliving the same
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: day before, the same day before, the same. So the
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: missing part was very important to me due to the
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: fact that I just don't think that people realize the
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: extent that these families go through that have to deal
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: with that particular part. So the Jabez Fan Foundation actually
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: gives resources for missing persons. We highlight missing persons on
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the website. We have resources for support groups. We have
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: where we have the podcast on there. So it provides resources.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the things for missing persons, but also homicide victims as
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: we've added now. But the main source was missing persons
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: that we really wanted to kind of highlight in that.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: And we're working on some other things to revamp and
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: make sure that we're in more of the modern times
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: of the things that we are working on. Like I said,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: we do have the podcast. The podcast came from I
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: used to do all the interviews and I literally like,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: it was only like two things that ended up making
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: it out of, out of like, I had been talking
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: to those people for like 40 minutes and I'm like, okay,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that was only a little bit of what I said.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: And it kind of never got the story out the
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: way that I wanted to, or the way that I
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: needed it to. So with missing our voices, the podcast
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: came because I, I was a parent that we're talking
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to other parents and I, other individuals that are in
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: this arena. And it made it more of a casual
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: conversation and more of them like feeling a little bit
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: more at ease because they were talking to somebody that
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: could understand almost everything that they were going through. Not
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: all of it because everybody's a little bit different, but
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: it gave them an outlet to also I don't think
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: people realize like during the course of, of an unsolved,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you feel like your child is just forgotten. So giving
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: that platform to them to let them know, listen, the
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: world might've went on, but over here at the best
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: man foundation, we haven't went on. We want to let
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: you know that we still think about your baby. We
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: want you to talk about your baby. We want you
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: to put, put your kids out there and, and not
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: just because you, Even if it's an unsolved, even if
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it's a solved case, I just did one on betrayal.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't about the case got solved. The people
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: went to jail. But I also wanted to bring light
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to being aware of the people that are around you.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And it could be people that are close to you
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that actually can cause this damage in your life. So
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: we kind of we kind of cover a multitude of
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: things that that come into play with it.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Joe is Tawana's husband. And again, this is voice only,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but he's sitting right next to her. And he's doing
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: that because, again, this weekend is difficult. And this can
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: be extremely emotional for Tawana to be talking this weekend.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: So he's sitting right there holding her hand, y'all, which
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I appreciate as her friend. But, you know, he's living
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: this too. And he's living it, you know, in a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: different way than the mama. But I think it's so
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: important that not only is he there, but he's here
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: today for us, you know, to tell us exactly what
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: all is going on and what these kits are about
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and how maybe we can even help. So, Joe, again,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it so much.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Not a problem, Cheryl. We're just really here for the
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: families because this is a trying situation. We I tell
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: my wife actively. our job is to make sure that
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: we can refuse as many memberships to this club as possible,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: because this is the club no parent wants to be in.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: So I told her we're going to do everything in
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: our power to not allow a person into this club.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: And just being prepared in those first, you know, those
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: first initial hours is very important because there's a lot
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: of misinformation and there's a lot of, things that people
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: don't understand. You know, they think your child has to
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: be missing 24 hours before you can contact the authorities
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: because of television and things like that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: And I tell them, no, you call right now.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: And Cheryl, one of the wonderful things that we're working
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: on at the foundation right now is a rapid response
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: readiness kit. Um, As Tawana said, there is no rules
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: to this. So when a child goes missing or a
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: person goes missing, there's a thousand questions that runs through
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: that parent's head and nobody has the answers. That's why
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: we're trying to create a centralized place that when you're
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: in these situations, one simple text message, or if you've
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: already had it downloaded to your phone, that it will
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: have all of the resources that you need to go to,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: all of the scripts that you need to tell the police,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: things to get ready, just to answer those questions and
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: just to know your basic rights as a parent when
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you're missing your child.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing, you know, Jabez was such a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: fun kid. Like everybody knew him, neighbors, kids, teachers, everybody,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: everybody liked him. So when he first went missing, I mean,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: there was an attitude that, oh, he's probably somewhere playing
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: video games, right? He's with friends. It's a holiday. They've
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: all been running around. Everybody saw him throughout the day.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: But one thing that Twana said to me that just
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: hit me was when she said he would have been
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: home to eat. He wasn't going to miss grandma's food.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: But you know your child. And you know whether or
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: not he's caught up watching a movie or whether he's
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: caught up playing a video game and lost.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Track of time. This ain't it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Because no matter what, he's going to get hungry. He's
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: going to keep his routine. And I think back, even
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: when Tawana first described to me those first hours, those
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: first days, man, what if you had had this kit?
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Right. And another thing that a lot of people don't
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: realize is I'm going to give grace to law enforcement.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: When missing persons cases come out, what those cases are
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: given to is detectives. There's really not missing persons division
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: like that. So what happens is sometimes the police officers
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: don't end up not wanting to work on your case,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: but if it's given to detectives, you have to realize
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: detectives have kidnappings, murders, assaults, all sorts of stuff. So
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: it spreads them very thin. So with the kit, it
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: helps to get organized and it's a 72 hour response.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: So within the first 72 hours is the most critical.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: So it helps to gather all this information. And so
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: it doesn't have to be all on the police officers
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: as well. You can be proactive in getting everything together
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: as well. Does that make sense?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: It does.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: But, you know, that's the thing that there's just so
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: much that is in my heart. And I think the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: main thing that I want people to focus on today
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: is what you've done with your grief. which I think
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: is extraordinary. And one thing I want you to talk
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: about is something that I had no idea was even
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a thing. And I will openly tell y'all, when it
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: comes to technology, I am 112 years old. I don't
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: know the difference in the internet and Wi-Fi. To me,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: it's the same thing. I don't know a lot when
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: it comes to AI or apps or any of that
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: sort of stuff. But what you are doing, so why
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: don't you tell everybody Part of the Jabez Foundation is
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: If We Could Speak. Tell us what that is.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: At one point, I was looking at all these missing
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: persons posters where I literally I'm from the milk carton era.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So basically, we used to see it on the milk
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: carton and you just kind of bypass it. It was like,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: you know, you don't pay attention. Now people have all
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: these great flyers that they do. But in the course
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: of the day, people kind of just Stroll past them.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: So what we put together, it's called If We Could Speak.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: We take the avatar, we make an avatar of the person,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: of the victim, of them telling their own story. It's
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: harder to just stroll past something that's basic. telling you
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: what happened to me, what kind of person I was.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: We make sure that we work with the families very closely.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: We do not put any avatars out unless the family
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: is notified. They have to give us permission. We do
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: not do any avatars. I've been approached with people saying, hey,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: can you do this person? If I can't talk to
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: the parent or a loved one, that gives me consent.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: We don't do the avatars. So basically, we're using technology
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: to give a different twist on to bringing these stories
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: alive and not just the parents telling it, not just
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the siblings or us telling it. It's basically, we give
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: them their own voice to tell their own stories. Like
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I just told you, I just did one with the, um,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: about betrayal and it start, it started off with his
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: ex-girlfriend and we started that. We started him off where
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: he was basically saying, Hey, I was in this situation.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And I can't believe this happened to me. Um, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: we also, when we do do the avatars, we actually,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: we ask the, um, the parents or whomever it is,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: where the location was, and we create the whole location
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: of where they passed away at. So they're standing in
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: their particular spot of where, um, what happened to them.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: It's not too grim, but it's, it's where they were
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: at that particular moment. Like we're working on a young
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: lady right now. She's in a beautiful bedroom. Her boyfriend
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: came and killed her in her bedroom while her family
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: was in there. So we put her in a beautiful bedroom.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: We made sure that we brought her to life the
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: way her mother and her family seen her. So we
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: try to make sure that they're as close as possible
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: to looking Exactly like that person.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: What we discovered, Cheryl, is that the older generation that
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: typically looks at the flyers and things of that nature,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: this is not the generation that's really out and about.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: They don't know what's going on.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: We're in the house.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: However, with these digital avatars, we're able to capture that
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: attention span of the TikTok user. of somebody that only
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: wants to watch 10, 15 seconds to grab their attention.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: And these are the people that may know what's going on.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: These are the ones that know how to make things
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: go viral, share it out, make sure the word gets out.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: So we're trying to grab that younger mind who has
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: that connection.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Who knows what's going on with these digital avatars.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: But Joe, you and Tawana did something so vital here
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Because Jabez, on his, he talks about the life he
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: should have lived. How incredible is that? You want to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: talk about raw and real? That's it? That child is
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: telling you, this is what you took from me. And
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I think that was, it was knockout good.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just different for them to, it's almost like
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: they're seeing them if they would have continued their life,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: you know? And that's kind of what we're putting them
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: in perspective. Like, this is not a picture of us
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: showing you somebody. This is a very real human being
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: that you took away from their family. And they're telling you,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: look what you did to me. Look how my life
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: has ended up. I don't have any future. I don't have...
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: because some of these people won't get to have kids.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: And if they do have kids, they have very young
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: ones left behind. I know some that their children are
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: graduating and those kids have to live with that as well.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: So we want it to be as real as possible
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: when we bring the stories to the forefront.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Tell everybody how they can get in contact with you
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: or how they can support the foundation.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So we have the jabezfanfoundation.com. We have if you could speak,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: if we could speak dot com. And then we also
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: have the podcast where we tell the stories of the
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: families and that's missing our voices. And you can find
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: that on Apple, Amazon, Red Circle. So, yeah.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Joe, what do you want to say to the folks
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in Sarasota that have information?
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Well, we all know there's people that have information. And
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: the main thing is. Just let it come out. Let
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: it go. When I look.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Back, it's really mind boggling how you can have information
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: on something like this of a child. And it doesn't
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: pull your heartstrings in some form or fashion just to
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: do the right thing.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Nothing more, nothing less. Just do the right thing.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: Because if you have a person that's willing to do
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: something so horrific one time and get away with it
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: with impunity, of course, what's stopping them from doing it again?
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: This is the menace. This is the scary part. So
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: if you know something, just say something.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: There's still a reward out that brings light and information
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: to this.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: I would say to them, just do the right thing.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Enough is enough. Just do the right thing.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Tawana, how often when you go to the grocery store,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: stop to get gasoline or just walking around the neighborhood
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: talking to people, how often does it cross your mind
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: this person may know something? It's steady talking to you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in your face, but it's keeping that secret.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Cheryl, I have talked to people that I know that
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: have information and they don't even know that I know
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: that they have information. And I never say anything. I
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: just keep my mouth shut because I know that at
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: one point it's gonna all have to come out, but
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: those are things that they're gonna have to carry. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: their generations to come is gonna carry you too because
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: you can't spill blood like that and it not spill
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: over to some of the same things that's in your lifeline.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: So there's not a day that really goes by that
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: you don't really, run into something that comes in contact
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: with it some way, some fashion.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: You know, Cheryl, my wife by far is the strongest
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: person that I know.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: And I let her know this all the time because
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: of the way that she has been able to handle
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: this situation, by the way that she has been able
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: to take this and convert it to the energy to
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: make sure this doesn't happen to other families, at least
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: without a clue of how to respond. Out of all
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: your listeners that hear this story, if they think about
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: something like this that happens to them, they have a
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: first mindset and a first reaction. And for most people,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: their lives would be forfeit if something has happened to
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: their child and they have an ability to do something
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: My wife, with her belief in God, took the high
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: road and knew that he would take care of this.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: And we still have that faith to this day. But
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: this is not an easy path at all. And it
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: would destroy most people. But for her, she took that
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: energy and converted it into passion to help other people.
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: And it's one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: And I will always say she is the absolute strongest
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: person I've ever met.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Well, Joe, I personally don't care for the high road.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I like to travel a little closer to the gutter.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: And I'm just telling you, Tawana is a better mama
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: than me. She's a better woman than me because I
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: just don't know that I could talk to somebody knowing
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: they had information about my baby and who killed them
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and me take the high road. But again, that's one
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: reason I love her. That's one reason I respect her.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: And I think if we just keep putting this information out,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: And let me say this to anybody listening. If you
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: don't want to go to law enforcement, contact me. I
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: have zero power in Sarasota, Florida. But I will take
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: your information. And if you want to give it to me,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: I will give it to the detective.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Call me.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Call somebody. Tell somebody.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: A preacher.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: An old teacher that you trust. Somebody. Because I'm going
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to say again, whoever killed Jabez Spant, Don't care a
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: lick about you. They would do nothing to help you.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: They would do nothing to keep you out of prison.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: That I know. That I know for sure. So whoever
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: you are protecting, you're doing it in a single lane.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, the high road is a lonely place.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: And Tawana, if you ever want to get down here
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: on my level, we might can handle some things in Sarasota.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: But you know, I often also think about your mama.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: And I know that she was just a beautiful, graceful woman.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that probably kept a lid on you a little bit.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, you know, what's really crazy
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: is she talked to me. This was constant on her.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Like this was constant on my mother. Like she bared
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: that burden. And she told me she was like, I
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: just can't wait. She got that country accent real heavy.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: She was like, I just can't wait to be in
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: that front. And I'm going to look them straight in
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: the eyes. And I had told her and I think
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I told you before, I was like, I don't even
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: want to be in the courtroom like that. I just
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: want to be there for sentencing. But because she was
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: not because she had to carry that to her grave
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: with her. If there's any type of court. Court situation,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be there every day just on her
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: behalf because that's something she really, really, really, really wanted
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: to before. And I don't know if she would have
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: been able to carry it, but she wanted that so
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: bad to be able to look them in their face
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and have that for her grandson. And since she's gone,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: you know. It's a different kind of because she helped
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: me grieve, like because she knew the pain of it really,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: really deeply. And she helped me grieve. So it's been
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: a it's been very different these past couple of years
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: going through the Labor Days and the birthdays because she's
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: not there to call and be like, we share that
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: moment together. Isn't like, yeah, it's one of those days.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: So it's a very different road with her not being here.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: But she also kept you in a place where you
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: didn't burn that town down. I mean, that was not
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: an easy task for her at hand either. But, you know,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: she reminded you, hey, this ain't how we're going to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: handle it.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: My wife stopped me from burning the town down.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Come on, Detroit.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: What happened?
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: I was ready.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: What?
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, when I look back at that, that
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: particular time, you know, My wife had.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: Went down ahead.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: We were in a business meeting and she was like, no,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: I said, you want me to go with you? She said, no,
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: he's just probably at somebody's house.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: I'm going to just go on down here.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: And I said, all right, I did the meeting. And
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: afterwards it was that night. And she said, she hasn't
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: found them. And, you know, I'm, you know, she took
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: the high road and I'm from Detroit. I'm we in Florida.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: I just came from the gun show.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: So I was ready to.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Put on another show.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I got your car.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: And my wife was like, no, you keep that up
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: there and we're going to do this the right way.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: And and I'm glad she did, because, you know, it
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: saved my life. maybe some other people lives as well,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: because who knows what would have happened when you start
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: moving out of just, you know, pure anger, but what,
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, let's be real. What parent doesn't in that
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: type of situation, the first thing they want to do is.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Hurt that person. Yeah.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: You got to attack where, you know, where Tawana was
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: blessed with that, insight to say, hey, we're going to
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: do this the right.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: I was blessed with the mama. That's what I was
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: blessed with.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Amen. I hear you.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: Tawana was transparently Tawana was on fire. She wanted everybody's
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: head at first. It was not I didn't even know
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: if anybody certain people had something to do with it.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: If the name was mentioned, let's go. And she was
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: just like, you know, she she was that voice of reason.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: And because of that, also because of Lucille Tillery, amen
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: to her. Um, there's a lot of lives that have
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: been touched behind that decision that my mother made and,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: and stuck to it. She, she didn't waver. She had
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: her faith in God and, and she knew she's seen
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: a bigger situation than I, I did at the beginning
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: as well. And she was just like, no, just pour
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: yourself into this, pour yourself into this. And And it
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: was because of her decision that a lot of these
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: families and a lot of the things that we work
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: with has actually came to fruition because of her.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Well, again, Lucille was an incredible human being who helped
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: raise Jabez. I mean, that's all there is to it.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And fortunately, because of her grace and her love for humanity,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: which is what it is, me, you and Joe, we're
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: not in jail right now. So anyway, listen, I love
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: you both. I appreciate what y'all are doing. I appreciate
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: what y'all are doing for so many families. When again,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you didn't have to. So it's been nine years. We're
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: going to continue the call of action. If you know something,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: contact law enforcement. If you don't want to talk to
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: law enforcement, talk to Jabez's family.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Call me.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Call a preacher. Call your ex-teacher, your old neighbor, somebody
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: you trust, and tell them the truth. And let's get
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: a killer off the street. I'm going to end Zone
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: 7 the way that I always do, with a quote.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: They can give me the truth, however that comes. Give
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: me the truth. Tawana Spann. I'm Cheryl McCollum, and this
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: is Zone 7.