Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / 90. [Texas] Shelley Sikes

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90. [Texas] Shelley Sikes · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

0:21
Everyone. Welcome to BLUs this mess in the podcast. I'm car here with
0:24
Stusa. Heystu, Hey, all right, so we're back. We are
0:27
going to Texas this week. Stu, you don't look too confident that I
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did. I am confident. I was thinking about Arkansas. But we just
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went to Arkansas. We did. We just got back from our week long
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vacation. Because if you listen to the episode right before this one, we
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were going to Arkansas. We went to the Crescent Hotel. We went to
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a couple of different places, but the episode we did was the Crescent Hotel.
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And anyways, it was fun. I got to hold the meter.
0:56
Stu stayed in the room with the children. I went to bed early.
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I went up to the hotel bar, had some drinks, made some poor
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decisions. No I'm kidding, Um, No I didn't. I was back
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in at the room by nine thirty and I went to bed early. I
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was already sleeping. Yeah, Stu was already passed out. The toddler was
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not. She was she was still up in at him. And I had
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to go. Yeah, I had to go in there and take her a
1:21
little dropped a hammer on and dropped a little take a little iPad away because
1:25
Stuke gave her the electronic babysitter so he could go to sleep. I did
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the baby. He's like a sleeper though, both of them are sleepers.
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Once they're asleep, it's they're down for the count. They'll sleep till like
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eight thirty nine o'clock in the morning. I know, don't hate us anyways,
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but we had a lot of fun. I got to hold the meter,
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which was fun. There was a part where they said it was a
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bunch of children, so he had to get down on the ground and it
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the meter went off. But I'm not real so sure about that one.
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So I meant to bring our two year old down there and see if she
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could see any of the ghosts, but I forgot too that morning. In
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anyways, but yeah, we had a lot of fun, so you can.
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And we're still married after we're a week on the road together. Yeah,
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we still, like some of you have been around, we know,
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you know, we like to travel, so we did. We have continued
2:10
to travel with children, like we did a ten day trip to New England
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that was and I always I always like, I always going these things.
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I'm like, okay, I need to just plan I feel like going and
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traveling with small children is like planning to have children in the first place.
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If you think about it too much, you're always just going to back out.
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You know. If you're planning to have we should wait till times are
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better. Well, what are you talking about, planning to have children or
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going on a trip? Oh yeah, yeah, you're always gonna if you
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if you have small children, just go on the trip. Trust me.
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We've now we've done. We've been to a Florida for a week. I
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was pregnant at the time. We went to Disney World and everything for a
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day. And then I always plan these trips. I still planned them like
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we were single or not single. We're just like just too adults and stuff.
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Yes, I traveled. I play in these trips. We go because
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I'm like, well, we're already there, Well we need to go to
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We could just go spend a week in Vermont and I'm like, well no,
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but we're so close to New Hampshire, so we should go to New
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Hampshire too. But I'm like, well, I want to go to Bar
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Harbors. So then we're like next time, you know, stud's having to
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move things five times. So like we went to New England. We started
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in Vermont and went to New Hampshire, then Maine and then Massachusetts. So
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I might post some of that stuff later this fall, because I never posted
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any of that stuff really. But yeah, so if you're if you have
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small children, don't listen to all the negative nellies out there. They're like,
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oh no, don't go on the trip. They'll never remember it,
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don't. I don't really give funk if the kids remember it. You know
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who remembers it? Me? Okay, Ryan, I wanted to go build
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a broom in Salem, Massachusetts. You know what we did. We went
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and bought stuff to build a broom in Salem. Is my two year old
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going to remember this? No, but I don't really care. It's about
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me. Well, she about to leave us and say let me go her
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own life. Yes, yes, to quit the family actually Salem. Yes,
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I was about to quit the family. But anyways, if you have
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small children, just go take the trip. Don't worry about it is it's
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there gonna be stressful times. When we went to Arkansas this week, it
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was pretty I think it went pretty well, but um, yeah, it's
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you figure it out and it's worth it. But anyways, that's just my
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rant on. Every time I hear. Every time I mention I'm going to
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travel with small children, people like, oh, don't do that. That's
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a waste of a trip. It's not a waste of a trip. It
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really isn't like go have fun, like still live your life. We can't.
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I can't go on hold until these these heathens start acting behaving properly.
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You've seen the two year old. She's she's chaos. Yes, she's gonna
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be a chaos till she's she's trouble. The baby, he's great, But
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the two year old she's hell on wheels. So anyway, so, yeah,
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we had fun, but um, yeah we're going to Texas. Stu,
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do you wanna? So let me get to the stuff now that we've
4:57
talked about the Crescent trip and people have already fasted forward, but Steve's fast
5:01
forward through this conversation. Instagram, Facebook, like us, follow us all
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And then Stu, you want to call out some of our patreons? Why
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Yes, thank you, versus one of our active social media. Yeah,
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5:42
Okay, we don't need your negativity in our life. Well, if it's
5:46
gonna be a one star, better make you better make it good. Yeah,
5:48
it's got to be good. I don't want to be like, oh,
5:50
these people suck. I'm like, no, yeah, we already got
5:53
that one. Yeah. So anyways, but all right, without further ado,
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because I hate when I say that. Without waiting any longer, let's
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get into this week's episode. Out of Texas. Shelley Kathleen Sikes was born
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September two, in nineteen sixty six to Edward and Aaron Sucks. She grew
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up in Texas in the Galveston area. She was a very petite girl,
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standing only five foot zero inches and weighing around ninety pounds. I know,
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I think one of my legs weighs that much. Didn't you have a grandmother
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that was super short like that she was like four foot eleven and a half.
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Oh yeah, so she was, I mean not much. So,
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Shelley was petite, petite. In high school, she excelled at dance.
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She was on the drill team and was the flag captain. And that's a
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big deal, STU, if you're the flag captain and drill team. Did
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you know that? I did not know that. Yes, it was a
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very big deal when I was in high school. I wasn't on I played
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softball in high school. Ribbon in my hair anyways, and someone's canceling us
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right now. Anyway, but the drill team was like a big deal to
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be a captain of the drill team and stuff she got to wear. So
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the high school I went to, they all were like purple the drill team,
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but the captain got to wear the white and gold outfit. In the
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white and gold like cowboy has. This was Texas. Anyways, it was
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a whole big thing if you were captain of the drill team. Real.
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Yeah. So she was very popular and outgoing and she was voted best personality,
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most talented, and most school spirit. In high school. Shelley I
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was voted most likely to skip class. No, I wasn't, but I
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wasn't there enough to be voted stee. We would never if we met in
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high school, we would have never dated. I can guarante damn tee you
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that so anyway, So, Shelley was also an excellent seamstress. She would
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often make her own clothes. She dreamed of owning her own dance studio one
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day, and she had, like I said, she had these big dreams,
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the dance studio, making clothes, just being creative, things like that.
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Shelley graduated high school and worked at a restaurant in Galveston, Texas called
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I think it was pronounced guidos g A. I d o, it's still
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there. I believe I looked it up. It's still still around. She
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had a boyfriend named Mark that was very much in love with her, and
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they planned on marrying one day. They were high school sweethearts, soul in
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nine yards. They were young, happy in love, and had their whole
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lives ahead of them. Sounds like when we started together, no young,
8:26
happy in love. I was young. I guess we were happy, and
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I'm kidding. We were great. Everything, everything was great. I don't
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know what down hill anyway. On May twenty fourth, nineteen eighty six.
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It was Memorial Day weekend and Shelley was working a shift at Guidos and Galveston.
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We did not even plan this. I didn't even realize it because it's
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fixed. No, you didn't do anything start And what's so funny is May
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twenty fourth is the day that it is going to be released. Wait what
8:58
is today? Yeah? May twenty fourth is going to be released on Patreon,
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So that's crazy. I didn't even plan this. Absolute madness. This
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is just madness, right, yeah, okay, go on, you sure,
9:11
Yeah, you don't want to I just needed people to know that it
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wasn't planned. It just happened, Okay. Now, She was scheduled to
9:20
work until eleven PM. Then she planned on meeting up with Mark in Texas
9:24
City after her shift. She had just told Mark that she didn't want to
9:28
go out that evening, that she just wanted to hang around the house and
9:30
watch some movies, just like me homebody, yep. Mark called and spoke
9:35
to Shelley at around ten PM, and she told him that she was finishing
9:39
up her shift and that she would be heading his way very soon. Shelly
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punched out a little bit before eleven PM and headed out to her car.
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Yeah, and this is nineteen eighty six. Like, you gotta call the
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restaurant. You got to call landline. There's no cell phones. He's you
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know, it's olden days. Oh the big ones in the car bricks,
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the file minute ones. Yeah. Now, it was only a twenty minute
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drive to Mark's up forty five across the Galveston Bridge, so it shouldn't have
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taken her that long to get there once you left. Now, around midnight,
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Mark became concerned Shelley still had not arrived at his home. He decides
10:16
to call the restaurant, and one of her co workers lets him know that
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Shelley had left about an hour ago. Mark he's talking to the guy at
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the restaurant and he expressed his concerns, and the man responded saying, quote,
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there's a lot of crazies out there tonight, because, like we said,
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it was Memorial Day weekend, and Guidos was right on the strip that
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runs right in front of If you've ever been about Galveston, there's a bunch
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of restaurants and hotels and stuff that runs right So there's the roadway right there,
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that's strip right there, and then right acrosses the beach. So my
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favorite restaurant down there is the Spot I love to go. It's called the
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Spot if you ever go it. It's a couple of restaurants in between it,
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but there's I like the one with the Spot where you go and have
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the burgner and you go upstairs. You can sit on the balcony and overlook
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the water that you definitely don't want to get into because it's gals. There's
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usually there's usually some sort of like sea mite or whatever they call them.
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Last time, no, not last time we went, but the time before,
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I don't. We don't go that often, but it was I grew
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up in Lufgas. That was the closest beach that you could go to,
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and it is fun to go and just be nearer the beach, But it's
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not your Florida where you're gonna go in the water. You're just gonna look
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at the water at the Cajun Riviera either, what the Cajun Riviera down on
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Holly Beach. I don't think that's nice either, STU. Is it that's
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not nice is when a hurricane rips it apart and makes it look kind of
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clean for a short period of time. Anyways, last time, not last
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time, Like I said, they were scraping the beach because there was these
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sea mites or something. It was the equivalent of what mites that you would
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get on a dog, I guess, But in the ocean. Shit like
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that happens down in Galveston alone. So Galveston all the time. But point
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go nice town, fun town. Don't get in the water. And now
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the best part of that whole story that she couldn't see is Kara was pointing
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and giving directions like, oh, yeah, I'm telling you how to where
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to go, or the strip is, where the spot is, the old
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hotels and anyways, but yeah, go have fun in Galston. So,
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like I said, there was a lot of people in Galaston going on vacation,
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drinking. It was a busy time, just like this weekend's gonna be
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Galveston's probably gonna be crazy next weekend. So anyway, So after hanging up,
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Mark is, like I said, very concerned. The drive would not
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have taken Shelley that long. Like said, She's been gone an hour and
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she had no plans to go anywhere else that evening. He knew her car
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had been having mechanical issues in the past, so he starts to think,
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like, Okay, her car's broken down, she's out there alone, it's
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a eleven PM at night, midnight, you know, she's probably not in
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a good situation. As his worry grows, he decides to jump in his
12:58
car and go look for well. He goes to tell his dad, because
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remember, these are kids. These are eighteen nineteen twenty year old kids living
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at home and stuff. He tells his dad, who sees how upset Mark
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was, and he offers to drive him to go look for her, because
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he's like, I don't want you to get in the car doing this by
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yourself while you're going to look at her. So Dad and Mark head out.
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Marking his dad are heading down I forty five towards Galveston, and they're
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looking everywhere on the side of the road or Mark is looking to see if
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he can see any signs of Shelley's car. As he's looking off out into
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the dark, he sees a faint light. As his dad pulls closer,
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Mark can see that this is Shelley's car, so he jumps out and he
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goes to the vehicle. He's thinking he's gonna find Shelley that she's been in
13:41
an accident or something, that she's in the car. Yeah, because it's
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pulled off on the side of the road, so it's either broken down or
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like I said, she's had just a minor accident and everything's good helpefully.
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Yeah. Now, immediately upon reaching the car, he sees blood everywhere and
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the window, the driver's side windows busted out, but there's no sign of
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Shelley. They look around where they look around the car, the accident scene,
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or whatever's happening there, but they still cannot find Shelley. They're thinking
14:11
that she must have had a car wreck and that someone got her out of
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the vehicle and possibly took her to the hospitals. What they're hoping, Yeah,
14:18
I mean, at this point, no one. I mean, as
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much as we cover a true crime and murder, it's not the most likely
14:26
thing that happened to you. If they find a car on the side of
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the road with blood, it's not the most likely thing that something nefarious happened.
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Most of the time, it is something as simple as oh, they
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had a crash and a good Samaritan Saul to crash and they hauled Shelley out
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and she's at a hospital somewhere. Well, Mark and his dad head to
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the nearest hospital to ask about Shelley, but no luck. They continue their
14:48
search, driving to different hospitals in the area, but Shelley has nowhere to
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be found. So then they call police and an officer does arrive at the
14:56
scene. He pulls his flashlight out to get a better look the car.
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Mark notices one of Shelley's shoes is on the floorboard, as well as one
15:05
of her barefoot prints in the ground. Now he points the scene. He's
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pointing out clues that the officer officer, what is the dumb officer on Mayberry
15:15
Marnie five here on the scene? Now he points this out to the officer,
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but the officer is not convinced that anything bad happen. He thinks that
15:24
Shelley was in a wreck and is just at a hospital, or that someone
15:28
picked her up. The police officer asked Mark Mark if he wants to take
15:31
the vehicle with him. Yep, Old Marnie five. Now, I'm not
15:35
sure what Mark's thinking, but Mark's dad's there and he's like, no,
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don't do that. He said that something happened to Shelley and that they are
15:43
not moving that car. They're not going to get in there and destroy evidence
15:46
or leave there. He's seen whatever the equivalent of he's a he's an equivalent
15:50
of whatever dateline was back in the eighties. He's been watching that Unsolved Mysteries.
15:56
Was that the eighties? Was this too or was it the nineties.
16:03
It's definitely been in the I mean they have it on now. They found
16:06
that girl. I think they found that little girl that would have been missing
16:11
some girl. When I say what girl? You want me to have the
16:14
name the No, I don't know it's no, but it was don't don't
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do the finger at me, the wrap it up, wrap it up girl.
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No, they found one of the girls was on Unsolved Mysteries. It
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was one of the parents had taken her several years ago when someone recognized her
16:30
and they found her. Anyways, go on, I don't want to go
16:36
on. Are you done? Okay? Around two thirty am, more police
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arrived at the scene and Shelley's parents were contacted. A search party for Shelley
16:45
began, with no sign of her. They investigate the scene and find there
16:48
as blood on both the inside and outside of the car. It is dark
16:52
though, so they will need to wait until daylight to just get a better
16:56
ideal with the crime scene is and what's going on. The cars to the
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Galveston Police Department where it is processed for evidence. When processing in the vehicle,
17:04
they find the driver's side window had been smashed in, causing glass to
17:07
go inside the car. They find blood on the outside of the driver's door,
17:11
as well as blood on the steering wheel and on the driver's side seat.
17:15
They know that the car did not receive this damage from a wreck.
17:18
They know its foul play immediately. Someone had busted in Shelley's driver's side window
17:22
and taken Shelly inside the car. They also find all of Shelley's personal belongings.
17:26
She had worked that night and so she had cash tips in her purse.
17:30
She had left that behind, as well as her driver's license, and
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like we said, that single shoe because we the boyfriend had seen the footprint
17:37
outside where obviously she was barefoot, and then her one shoe inside the car.
17:44
The next morning, investigators are out at the scene where Shelley's car was
17:47
found and they start processing that scene for evidence. They can see where Shelley's
17:51
vehicle slid off the side of the road and it had ended up getting stuck.
17:56
You can see where she had tried to drive out of the mud,
17:57
but she was unable to. To the police, that looked like she had
18:00
somehow ended up on the side of the road and then she was desperately trying
18:06
to get out of there as somebody approached the car. Yeah, based on
18:08
the evidence of the window being broken, and then the tire marks were real
18:12
deep, like she's just gunning in before Michael Myers gets to my car.
18:18
Now, investigators obtained samples of the blood that was found in the car and
18:22
they sent that off for testing. They found that none of the blood in
18:26
the car Matt Shelley. And this is when they knew without a doubt that
18:30
somebody had attacked Shelley and that whoever had broken that window had bled all over
18:34
the car. Yeah, they just busted in the windows, ripped their arm
18:38
up, bled everywhere. Didn't seem to give about Yeah, I mean,
18:42
you're starting to wonder if someone does something like that, or they on something
18:47
or something like that to be able to bust through a window and just might
18:49
not be phased. Yeah. So police begin their investigations by talking to other
18:55
employees at Guido's restaurant. No, no one saw anything that night. No
18:59
customers were rassing Shelley. And she didn't have any enemies at the restaurant.
19:03
Like I said, she was real popular in high school, real popular with
19:06
everybody. Everyone seemed to really just love her. Now, without any additional
19:10
leads, they turned to the boyfriend. Of course, of course, yes,
19:14
they questioned him about their relationship. Did they fight, what were their
19:18
issues, what was going on? And Mark tells them they were happy.
19:22
He would have never hurt Shelley. He loved Shelley. They had planned to
19:26
get married. I mean, he's the one out there looking for her,
19:29
was worried about her. He took a polygraph test, which he passed,
19:33
and he gave an airtight alibi said he was at with his parents and then
19:37
they were the ones out driving around looking for Shelley. And he'd also called
19:41
the restaurant from his home phone, like we said, at ten pm.
19:45
So there's just no way that he could have done this. So police,
19:48
between the polygraph and the alibi, they're satisfied and they cleared him as a
19:52
suspect. So investigator's turn to the public for help and they start receiving tips.
19:56
Immediately, several people called in and say they had witness Shelley being abducted,
20:02
but they did nothing and never called police. This is so distracting.
20:06
It really is. When you go to when we walked through this whole thing
20:08
about people, and this is back in the eighties. We expected I mean,
20:11
today you expect these people to be assholes, but back then, I
20:17
feel like somebody, yeah, should have helped. It's it's gonna be similar
20:21
to I mean, not one hundred percent. Remember that documentary they did about
20:23
the woman that was killed in New York City and it was something ridiculous.
20:27
Oh, she was being raped and murdered on the steps and like thirty four
20:32
people heard heard it and it said, oh yeah, we saw it,
20:34
and nobody did anything. So this is not to that extreme. But yeah,
20:40
I think that's the one that caused them to create the nine one one
20:42
line because of that case. Oh there wasn't a nine one one line at
20:48
the time. Oh okay, well there was definitely nine one one at this
20:51
time. These fuckers didn't call. Nobody cared ye or if they did not
20:56
enough to get involved. Now, the witnesses described a blue and white forward
21:00
pickup truck driving behind Shelley's car and running her off the road. They saw
21:04
her get out of the truck or they saw her get stuck, and then
21:08
the truck pull up and a white male getting out. The man approached the
21:12
car and began punching the driver's window. Once the window was broken, the
21:17
man was able to open the door and drag Shelley out of the car.
21:19
He then takes her to his vehicle and shoves her on the passenger side.
21:22
And these are all There's multiple witnesses that came forward and said that they saw
21:26
this is this is I forty four. This is a busy interstate through there.
21:32
Yeah. Now, one witness said there was another person in the truck,
21:36
but they could not see well enough to get a description of that person.
21:40
When witness said, they did confront the man that took Shelley and he
21:44
told him that it was a family issue. So the witness just left.
21:48
Never call in police. Yeah, what kind of fucking family issue is involves
21:51
you running someone off the road, punching in the window and dragging them into
21:55
the car truck and thrown in there. I don't care what if it is
21:57
a family issue, you should don't call the police. Yeah, this isn't
22:02
a family i'd like to be a part of. Now now I'm trying to
22:03
get away from this fan. Yeah. So with all the eyewitnesses, they
22:07
were able to put together a sketch and send that out to the public.
22:11
Now police frantically look for Shelley, but without any more leads, they're just
22:15
at a loss. Shelley's family was not giving up though. Her father,
22:18
along with volunteers, distributed more than three hundred thousand missing person flyers in over
22:22
forty states. He goes fans out, he's taken these everywhere. He's not
22:29
just he's afraid that they've taken her over state lines. You know. He
22:32
wants to cover all of his bases with this. So he's hard at work
22:36
getting these three hundred thousand flyers out with all these volunteers. Which is the
22:38
only thing you do. I mean, now, you can create a Facebook
22:41
page, you can pump that on on social media, but back then it
22:44
was you got to do the legwork to get well. Also, when you're
22:47
doing the lead work you're doing, you're staying busy. You're not sitting at
22:48
the house going start Craig. Yeah, I mean just taking ten minutes to
22:52
create a Facebook page. Then what Yeah, then you're got to sit there
22:55
and just wait for a drive yourself crazy. Yeah. They went on TV.
23:00
They bought billboards, offered rewards, anything to find Shelley. The tips
23:03
came in, but none led to anything solid. They had one promising lead.
23:07
A man arrested on a drug bust had been bragging about killing Shelley.
23:11
Well, he was questioned, but it turns out he was just using this
23:14
story to scare the people he's in the drug deal with. He was like,
23:17
yeah, I killed this bitch and da da da da dah. Yeah.
23:22
Anyway, so he kids in all of a sudden, he's scared shitless.
23:25
He's like, oh god, the police actually heard me. You know,
23:26
someone turned me in for saying that. And so then he actually had
23:30
an airtight alibi that checked out. And yes, so he still got arrested,
23:36
but for a different thing else. And he's just a basic shitthead.
23:38
But back to square one, no sign of Shelley, no promising leads.
23:45
On the one year anniversary of Shelley's disappearance, the family made another big push
23:48
to get Shelley's name and picture out to the public. Now was a huge
23:52
media blitz and Shelley's face was everywhere. Even with all this, still nothing
23:57
came in as far as tips. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing all
24:02
these witnesses that they had originally and that's as far as I mean, that's
24:06
crazy to me, all these witnesses that they had, and this is as
24:08
far as they've gotten. Again, the girl on the side of the road,
24:12
and that's the last time anybody's seen her, Yeah, nobody anything.
24:15
So yeah, I can't believe that nobody saw a white forward driving off down
24:18
the road at a high rate of speed or anything. Yeah, because they
24:22
had they had the sketch from the witness eyewitnesses, they had the description of
24:26
the vehicle. You would think if someone punched in a vehicle window with that
24:30
type of rage, and just obviously, I mean, I'm you would,
24:36
like I said, we probably need to be on drugs to do something like
24:38
this. They're not going to be driving like the little speed limit like the
24:41
Grandmall or whatever. I mean, They're probably gonna be driving pretty fast down
24:45
I forty five at midnight or whatever time, trying to get away from the
24:48
crimea yeah. Yeah, so they're no closure to finding Shelley at all or
24:55
anything about what had happened to her. Now, Shelley's sister Dana had postponed
25:00
her wedding hoping that Shelley would be found, and after a long wait,
25:03
they finally decided to go through with the wedding without Shelley in her place the
25:08
two lead detectives so that they would attend the wedding. However, on the
25:12
day that they of the wedding, the two detectives were no shows, and
25:17
the family thought this was odd. Yeah, because these two detectives had been
25:21
a big part of their lives for the last year. These were not These
25:25
two detectives were very passionate about finding Shelley and they had become very close to
25:29
the families of them not to show up at the wedding, They're like,
25:32
what's going on here? To say, Yeah, these these weren't the patrolmen
25:34
that was there the night, doesn't Barney Fife being like, oh, she's
25:37
fine, take the car. It's midnight. We got a shift change coming
25:41
up. I don't really want to do any paperwork. Want to do any
25:44
paperwork? Yeah, you guys, just look for in the hospital tomorrow.
25:48
Now, as Dana prepared to go on her honeymoon. The investigators arrived to
25:53
let them know that they had finally found a suspect. So yeah, so
25:57
the missing and the wedding was actually a really good sign. So in El
26:02
Paso, Texas, all the way over in Paso, Texas. So there's
26:06
Galveston, which is South Texas, south of anybody who's not familiar with the
26:11
landscape of Texas and the geography, Galveston's all the way down at the bottom
26:17
below Houston on the beach. South Texas actually not even wouldn't be South Texas.
26:22
South Texas is more coast. Yeah, we'll say south what southeast coast
26:32
down there, and El Paso is all the way out of the west,
26:38
you know, as far as you can go. It's pretty much the last
26:41
terrain of Texas out there. Anybody that has ever driven from the Louisiana border
26:47
to El Paso on I tan, Yeah, that it just never ends,
26:52
it doesn't. I drive. I drive a lot for work, and I'll
26:56
go out to West Texas and stuff like that, out towards Midland, and
27:00
it's a long drive on I twenty from and then from the border all the
27:06
way to Midland. But then to see the amount of miles, it's still
27:10
to go to El Paso, which is like just Texas. Ever, d
27:12
I don't think so. Way yeah, so way out there in El Paso,
27:18
police responded to an apartment after a suicide attempt had failed. The man
27:22
who had attempted to kill himself was named John King. They begin isn't that
27:27
a news reporter John King on CNN? So they begin investigating the incident,
27:33
and King starts telling them that he knew about an abduction of a young woman
27:37
way out back in Galveston, Texas. He told the police that he and
27:41
another man named Gerald Sworst Swarst z W A r Nst had kidnapped Shelley,
27:48
assaulted her, and then later beat her to death with a shovel. King
27:52
had still been living in the Galveston area, but when that one year anniversary
27:56
of the disappearance came around and Shelley was back all over the news her friend,
28:00
you know, like I said, they did this big media blitz.
28:02
They were hoping someone that had visited the year before all Memorial Day would recognize
28:07
Shelley again, and you know, she's all over the place again. He
28:12
made him very nervous and he decided to leave town. He ended up in
28:17
El Paso, where he attempted that suicide. Now, the Opasso police contacted
28:22
the Galveston Police Department, and the investigators flew out to a Passo immediately.
28:26
King had left a suicide note outlining everything, so they knew King was telling
28:32
the truth. He all the nitty gritty details were in this suicide note that
28:36
he had left because this. I don't want to say guilt because he's a
28:38
piece of shit, but the not guilt, the prospect of being caught got
28:47
to him. That's why he wanted to commit suicide. Even though he might
28:49
say guilt, but I don't believe he had any guilt. I think he's
28:52
a piece of shit. Police interviewed King and he tells police that him and
28:56
the Worst had been drinking that night and had smoking marijuana laced with PCP.
29:03
They passed Shelley and King waved at her and she flipped him off. Evidently,
29:07
this enraged Worst, so he began chasing Shelley and forced her off the
29:11
road. The Worst got out of the truck, went over to Shelley's car
29:17
and began banging on the window until the window finally broke. He then drugged
29:21
Shelley from the car and put her on the floorboard of the truck. King
29:25
says that he was in a daze or possessed or in shock and he didn't
29:29
do anything. Those were his words. He was like, I was possessed.
29:33
What the fuck you possessed with? He's on PC and marijuana, been
29:37
drinking all that. I'm an anti drug person, so I don't know what
29:42
any of those things would do to you. And I'm not being King,
29:48
yes, obviously. Now, he told police he never had intercourse with Shelley
29:52
or hurt her. He said, so he placed all the blame one d
29:55
worst convenient Yeah, that might be true. Police question King about the scars
30:00
he had on his hand, and he said that those did not happen that
30:04
night. Yeah, because anybody who did this would have had severe injuries to
30:10
their arm to the point where it would have caused some scarring. Yeah,
30:14
And like I said, this is a year later, so those would have
30:17
held up, but you would have still been able to see some evidence of
30:19
them breaking the window in Now police are not sure if they believe King fully
30:26
about him not being involved in it, but yeah, they're questioning is but
30:30
they know that they're pretty confident with everything. He's telling them that him AND's
30:37
worst were involved. Yeah, if they think they've got their people, they're
30:41
just not sure what who did what in this whole situation. King's coming off
30:45
a little too innocent and then he's got those scars on his arm. It's
30:48
like, yeah, something's not checking out now he does. King does agree
30:52
to wear a wire to try and gets Worst to confess on tape to what
30:56
happened at night. So King he's transported to clear Lake, the clear Lake
31:02
area, which is an area between Houston and Galveston, and this is where
31:06
or was living at the time. So King tried to get zorced to talk
31:10
about the abduction, but he wasn't biding. He's just kept telling King,
31:14
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about.
31:17
He's like, yeah, yeah, we need to do this. I
31:19
remember when we you know, murdered that girl. And he's like, I
31:22
don't know what you're talking about. So unsuccessful, King leaves, but police
31:26
continue to watch sports just to see what he might do. After this whole
31:30
interaction with King, because this is coming a year after well, soon after
31:33
King leaves, they see Zors heading out with a suitcase, very suspicious,
31:40
and they follow him and pull him over as he is trying to leave town,
31:45
and they ask him to come in for some questioning and he agrees.
31:49
So. While the while he couldn't get Zors to confess on the wire on
31:55
tape, he at least got him to act suspicious and the police something to
32:00
go on? What is there to go on? You're living town with a
32:04
suitcase. You're going on? Steward, Shut the fuck up? Are you
32:06
kidding me? Right now? I'm so annoyed with you. You're so freaking
32:10
annoyed. Just going to Cancoon for the weekend. He's not going to Cancoon
32:15
for the weekend, Stewart, Oh my god, you're so annoyed now the
32:22
worst I've calmed back down. No, not really, I'm just gonna I'm
32:27
going to pretend to be calmed. His worst initially denies involvement, but he
32:31
slips up when he tells detectives that he remembers Shelley flipping them off. After
32:37
that, he starts to tell his story. The story is the same as
32:40
what King said, except King was the driver and the one that abducted Shelley
32:45
and that he was in the passenger seat. He tells police that they drove
32:49
to Spillway Park where King raped Shelley in the back of the truck. He
32:53
said that he could hear her crying, and after they left the park,
32:57
he said he could not remember anything else that happened. He said he never
33:00
saw Shelley after that. His worst was arrested and detectives now needed to figure
33:06
out which one of them had killed Shelley. Yeah, because they both have
33:08
the same exact story except for blaming the other one. Yeah, either way,
33:13
I mean, they're both terrible human beings. So I mean, if
33:15
the one guy heard him raping her in the back of her crying and he
33:20
didn't step in or something like that, I mean, it doesn't matter which
33:23
one. They're both terrible. So they tested the blood found at the scene
33:27
and it actually matched King's blood type, So this is backing up his warst
33:30
story that he's the one that was driving, got angry, went out and
33:34
punched the window in King also matched the sketch from the witnesses, and he
33:38
had those scars on his hands, so police were certain that he's the one
33:43
that actually pulled out or ran Shelley. Off the road, attacked her,
33:47
pulled her out, and actually abducted her. They decided to bring both men
33:52
into the interrogation room at the same time to kind of as a way to
33:57
get them to have to confront each other and see if finally admit to who
34:00
actually killed Shelley and more importantly, where was her body now. The men
34:06
argued, but still neither of them would admit to killing Shelley. After more
34:09
attempts at a confession, King finally did crack. He told police that he
34:14
had beat her with a shovel, and then both men brought her to another
34:16
location to bury her. Now, as they were throwing dirt on her,
34:21
they saw the area move and he beat the ground until she stopped moving,
34:23
so they buried her. According to what he said, they buried her alive
34:29
pretty much and then had to finish the job after she was already in the
34:32
ground. King agreed to take them to the site of the burial, but
34:37
on the way he changed his mind and he asked for a lawyer. So
34:39
they're doing all this stuff without a lawyer. They try to find Shelley's body
34:43
without King, but they just didn't have any luck. I mean, he
34:45
didn't He never gave any specifics to where it was. He just said I'll
34:49
take you. And so they were in the car. He's like turn here,
34:51
turn here, and stuff with that, but he stopped midway. Now
34:54
without a body, police could not charge them with murder, so the next
35:00
option was aggravated kidnapping, which means you kidnapped someone and they were not released
35:05
alive. I didn't know that. I didn't I did not know that the
35:09
two were like the learning channel we are. The two men went on trial
35:16
and were found guilty. They were both sentenced to life in prison, and
35:21
after their conviction can kill What I was I trying to say, I don't
35:24
know, I don't know? It was convictions, convictions. After their convictions,
35:29
Zworst told police where he last remembered being with King and Shelley. They
35:34
searched that area and they found what they believed was Shelley's blouse, but nobody.
35:38
Investigators do believe that Zworst does not know where Shelley is. They believed
35:44
that King buried her himself. Shelley's family has worked hard to keep King and
35:49
Zworfst in prison. After twenty years, they were eligible for parole, and
35:52
the family made sure to show up at the parole hearings. Now in Texas,
35:57
at the time, a life sentence maxed at forty years. I don't
36:00
think that should be either, because you could kill someone at twenty and your
36:04
max and out at sixty. That's not life. Life should be seventy five.
36:08
If you're going to do an average, do seventy five years. That'll
36:14
guarantee someone's in there. Well, I'm sure they've changed it by now,
36:16
have they. We up? We don't know. Why don't you look that
36:20
up? I'm sure someone No, you look it up? Zing, Okay,
36:27
thankfully we don't have to worry about these two idiots. Well, they
36:30
could be out in twenty twenty six, but they're not Stewart, and they
36:32
would be in their sixties, but they're not. Oh, both men passed
36:37
away in press. I thought you wrote this one, stud It was a
36:39
cliffhanger King and twenty fifteen. Only cliffhanger is if you can actually read properly,
36:45
Hans worst in twenty twenty. So they're both dead, So they're not
36:50
gonna be looking for us. Yes, they're not gonna be looking for us,
36:53
which is good because they seem like scary men. But yeah, so
36:59
that's our case out of Texas, and yeah, you got anything to adds
37:06
do this. I mean, I'm just thankful that they both died because that
37:07
would have been I mean, I can't even believe that they would have after
37:10
doing this to her. They could have, which is a bunch of bullshit,
37:14
because they I mean, I understand they hinch. I do and don't
37:16
understand. You can't charge without a body. But just because someone hit it,
37:21
well, shouldn't get you out of a murder charge, you know,
37:24
why not if you ain't got a body. I mean, they confessed with
37:27
the kidnapping in the murder. Well I was reading some things about it.
37:30
They can build a case around it, but it is all circumstantial without a
37:34
body. I mean, you just can't. You don't have that hard evidence.
37:37
I mean, even with life insurance or anything. That someone has to
37:40
be missing for seven years, yeah, yeah, before you can claim that
37:45
they're dead. So but thankfully these two assholes are I think, well they
37:51
got the right person. Oh yeah, they got the right guys for sure,
37:54
and thankfully they both died so they're not a menace on society. Hopefully
38:00
it was painful. Yes, anyways, all right, So that's our case
38:04
out of Texas this week. Um, we don't have a y'all need Jesus.
38:08
Well we do have. I thought we were doing my y'all need Jesus.
38:13
Oh Jesus. Okay, now Jesus take the wheel before this y'all need
38:21
Jesus because probably a lot of you are going to hang up on us,
38:23
but maybe three people will listen to this. We built a great following of
38:29
everyone to say bye stews. Is that true? That's our people that listen,
38:37
ride or dies listen. Yes, well, I'm about to break that
38:43
street. So before I do that, follow us on the Instagrams, the
38:46
facebooks, Patreon, dot com, slash Bless this Mess podcast we really really
38:51
appres before you follow us? Yes, and then, um, what huh?
38:57
I don't know that any makes sense? Rate reviews, up scribe,
39:00
And now we're gonna go into Kara's version of y'all need Jesus because I can't.
39:07
I have to talk about this because I don't have anybody else to talk
39:08
to about this. There's like podcast dedicade with this. I know that,
39:14
I know that, but I just have to get some feelings off of my
39:17
chest. And still you can just listen you don't know anything about any of
39:22
these people, even though you've casually watched. Because I've been on in the
39:24
back room, I have to have some thoughts about the y'all need Jesus our
39:30
our, Tom Sandival and Raquel hashtag or Raquel? Uh what it's the bunny
39:39
Ears thing? Quote quotation Rachel Levis, So this is vander Pump rolls,
39:45
guys, I can't. I'm just I'm in scandival. I'm in hashtag scandival
39:50
hard. Okay, I've been rewatching old season. So I'm just gonna get
39:52
a few feelings off my chest. So Stu, let me just I try
39:55
to explain this to Stu last night, this whole the whole thing. But
39:59
I was like, I'm gonna know whiteboard, I'm in a knee dryer,
40:01
race markers, basically no student care. But he know what you did?
40:07
Listen. You're like, oh my god, that's why wasn't listening you You
40:10
said all the right words. You're like, oh my god, that's not
40:13
good. Oh wow, how could he do that? So anyway, so
40:15
Tom Sandoval was Tom Sandoval when they first started Vanderpump Rules. Stuart, I
40:22
swear to fucking God, turn that off. He's got his phone on.
40:25
I'm getting about to get pissed. I listen to your dumbass y'all need Jesus
40:29
all the time, so you can take five minutes to listen to me.
40:32
So anyway, so he thinks it's so funny, just pay attention. Anyway.
40:37
So Tom Santoval was dating Kristen Dody all the way back in like twenty
40:44
two ten or something when they started Vanderpump Rules. So at the time he
40:49
cheated on Kristen with Arianomatox, which he said that he just made out with
40:54
her in a in a hot tub in Vegas. They were drunk. But
40:58
does anybody believe that Stewart stop anyways, does anybody believe that? No,
41:05
So Kristen, I mean they were this was before they Tom Sandoval and Kristin
41:09
were having all the problems. This was apparently three years earlier, so they
41:14
were still good. So it was not good. I don't believe that Arianna
41:16
and Tom only made out at the time and then they were really good friends
41:20
afterwards. So no, I'm pretty sure they were both cheating, that they
41:23
were hooking up all this time. So Kristen was no angel herself. She
41:28
cheated, she cheated with Jack's blah blah blah, all the stuff. Anyways,
41:31
fast forward, so then Arianna and Tom and Sandoval end up together.
41:37
Fast forward to current days, and I just have to get this off my
41:40
chase. Arianna, if you I was watching old seasons, if you watch
41:45
her, she don't. I did feel sorry for it, which I do
41:50
somewhat, but I looking back at her Miami Girl, we just found out
41:53
that she actually So Miami Girl was the girl that they said Kristen said that
42:00
Tom Sandoval cheated on Arianna with out in Miami. Her name was Anna Marie.
42:05
I think they bring this girl in and they all call her a liar
42:07
to her face. Come to find out, we just found out last week,
42:10
Stuart, that Arianna knew that Tom actually cheated with this girl. I
42:15
know that actually cheated with this girl, and they all just gas lit this
42:22
girl and said that she was crazy and that she was making it all up
42:25
and all this stuff. So they freaking Miami girl an apology because yeah,
42:30
anyways, so that was a bunch of bullshit because Ariana apparently knew the whole
42:34
time, but they had some sort of pack that they were never going to
42:36
humiliate each other on the show or anything like that. But I'm watching only
42:38
for reunions, like Tom Santoval's telling Shena, oh well you need you just
42:44
pretend all your relationships perfect and stuff. Well, they were doing this whole
42:46
this with Tom and Arianna were doing this the whole entire time with theirs shot
42:51
lying about anyways. So I don't feel as bad for Arionna anymore because the
42:55
fact that she did this to the Miami girl, the fact that she cheated
42:59
with Tom in the first place, because like I said, you'll lose him
43:01
how you got him, Stu, That's what I said, and I stand
43:06
by it. I mean, like she had this coming. And so that's
43:10
my opinion on this, Stewart is Arianna had it coming. Go watch Go
43:15
watch old seasons, Go watch freaking just the reunions. If you got the
43:20
Peacock app or whatever, go watch those and you can just see the way
43:25
that Arionna treats all these girls and all these people saying that Tom was a
43:30
cheater way back then, and she just dismisses him, and the whole time
43:32
we find out she was covering up for him. That is unbelievable. I
43:37
know, so anyways, and then don't get me started on the fact that
43:39
they're going around on these she did a freaking okay, shut up, okay,
43:44
no listen to this. So just recently, I think, like yesterday
43:49
the day before, she posted thing she's carrying out boxes from. So they
43:52
have this house that they purchased together or whatever, and they've both been living
43:55
there this whole time. I'm starting to think that some of this might be
43:59
made up, like Stu thinks it is, because she's going all these publicity
44:04
tours, like going out on the View and all these things, doing interviews
44:07
about this. Now she's made she's making like commerce, she made a sofi
44:13
So anyway, So there she's moving out of this house, or it appears
44:15
that she's moved. I will use that appear Soberody's cover and saying, oh,
44:19
Arianna finally moved out of tom of their house, their shared house together,
44:23
because she's got like a moving van, she's carrying some boxes, she's
44:27
got some friends. She posts on her instrum she's like, um uh dipping
44:31
dipping out finally or something like that. Soberody' is like, oh, she's
44:36
moving and stuff. Well, I noticed that she had like a Sofi logo
44:39
on her sweater, which is weird because Sofi is a is a financial institution.
44:46
So she's wearing a Sofi sweater, which this is really weird because she
44:51
doesn't wear stuff like that. So she's carrying these boxes that have finances written
44:55
off on the front. So she's got these bankers boxes and they say finances.
45:00
She got the Sofi logo on her shirt. Come to find out,
45:05
she's not actually moving out. This was all a publicity stunt for so Far
45:08
to get their name out there because she's wearing the sweater, she's doing the
45:14
finance thing and it's talking about like finances, I think, but she didn't
45:17
actually move out. They just made that shit up or made it appear that
45:22
way, and Sofi probably paid her a shit ton of money to do this,
45:25
that it's all made up. Yes, I'm starting to think, like
45:29
I don't understand why she's going around doing these publicity tours. I mean,
45:31
I understand going on like Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live and doing some stuff,
45:36
but doing these big things. She's already got a new boyfriend already.
45:40
I mean, I'm not trying to defend freaking Tom santovald in right and Rachel
45:46
over here there. I mean the fact that on the finale they were active.
45:52
I told you, I said, what makes this so bad is he
45:55
didn't just sleep with somebody else and it was just a he didn't just still
46:00
look so so over this. No, so we talked about this. He
46:05
didn't just sleep with another girl. He's actually in a relationship with her,
46:08
which makes it worse. So on the finale it shows them being all cuddly
46:12
and him saying well, I love you, and da da da da da.
46:15
I mean, it's really messed up. The new rumors are those that
46:19
Raquel is pregnant. She's been m I A at a mental health institution,
46:24
which I used the bunny ears on that because I don't think that's where she's
46:30
at, because I don't think I mean. To have a mental health issue,
46:35
you need a brain and Rachel does not have one, so I know,
46:38
right step anyway, So if you've already if you liked the interfimt rules,
46:43
those are my thoughts so far. I have a lot of thoughts on
46:45
it. But if you like this podcast, we won't do this again.
46:49
No, this was a one time. This is a one time thing I
46:52
would like, Well, I don't know. The reunion is tomorrow, the
46:55
first part, so this is this is okay. This is the only thing.
47:00
I could do a whole episode with notes and everything on this, but
47:02
I know there's fifty million podcast on this, so I'm not going to put
47:06
anything through. This was just my y'all need Jesus. So you know who
47:07
needs Jesus. The vander pump Pool's crew, Arianna, Tom Rachel. They
47:13
all need Jesus. So all right, do you have anything else dance to?
47:17
I just want to get it be all right. Well, on that
47:21
note, I guess we will see you next time. By everyone, say
47:24
bye Stu, by ste don't you know it's bye? To be supersticious?
47:35
By else is working? By carriage