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Nikki And Her Twin Killers · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Discretion is it by ten minute murders. When yor Mecca Yvonne Whitehead, who
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went by Nicki, was only eighteen years old, she gave birth to twin
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girls. She named them Jasmya Kanisha and Tasmaya Genisha Jazz and Taz for short.
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When Nicki was twenty five, she met Robert Head, a fifty five
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year old truck driver. Nicki and the girls moved in with him shortly after
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they started dating. It's unclear at what point Nicki lost her daughters, but
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they spent much of their younger years under the care of their great grandmother,
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Della Fraser. While living with Della, the girls were Honor Roll students and
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participated in Girl Scouts. Nicki was a bit sporadic and would randomly pop in
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to visit the girls, but she wasn't a consistent presence in their lives.
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All that changed in two thousand and seven. The twins were thirteen and Nicki
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wanted a chance to be their mom. She requested custody through the courts.
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Her request was granted, although it may not have been the best decision.
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Jazz and Taz complained that Nicki was too controlling and also a bit of a
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hypocrite, but are there any thirteen year olds that don't complain about their parents'
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rules? But their conflicts quickly escalated into physical altercations. The arguments resulted in
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court mandated counseling and juvenile court appearances. With all the hostility in the home,
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Della Fraser was able to petition the courts and regain custody. Unfortunately,
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the arrangement with Della was only temporary. Most of the time, the courts
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make every attempt to keep families together that are willing to put in the effort,
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and in January of twenty ten, they once again awarded Niki custody of
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the girls. Della protested the decision. Jazz and Taz protested the decision,
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but the courts stood by their decision for the girls to return to Nicki.
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However, this time they put a two week trial period in place. During
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that trial period, Nicki was murdered. On January thirteenth, twenty ten,
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A Rochdale County Sheriff's deputy happened to be driving through the Whitehead's neighborhood and Conyers,
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Georgia, where two distressed young women flagged him down as he was passing
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by. Jazz and Taz were extremely upset and stated that they'd come home from
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school and found their mother dead in the bathtub. When the officer entered the
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home, he was immediately hit by a strong smell of blood in the air
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that metallic copper iron smell. There were pools of blood all around the living
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room and kitchen, so much blood that it had quit soaking into the carpet.
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There were lines of blood where the body had been dragged around and into
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the bathtub. It was splattered on the walls, furniture, and ceiling.
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The officer said it was by far the worst crime scene he had ever walked
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into. He found Niki in that tub, right where the girls said she
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would be. Nicki had been stabbed fifty times. Her lungs were punctured,
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her jugular veins severed, and her spinal cord injured. She had also been
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bitten and punched. Jazz and Taz were visibly shaken during the interrogation. The
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detectives were comforting and tried to console the teen girls. The twins described the
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crime scene that they walked into like something they'd only seen on a TV show.
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Initially, the police believed them but as the crime scene was investigated,
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they couldn't find any signs of breaking and entering, leading them to believe that
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Nicky knew her attacker. The medical examiner even said that it looked like a
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crime of passion. That changed the direction of the investigation. They then decided
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to separate the girls who had been questioned together previously. Once separated, the
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detectives began to doubt their stories. Their stories started to develop inconsistencies, and
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the account of what happened started changing. It was easy to confirm that the
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girls had not been at school all day. The girls also had been wearing
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gloves. It was January and cold outside, but even in the interrogation room,
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Jazz and Taz left the gloves on. The detectives asked them to remove
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them, and it wasn't really a surprise to them to find scratches and bite
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marks covering their hands. But of course, the girls had an explanation for
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this. They the scratches probably came from them fighting with each other. They
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also claimed that they both dealt with being nervous and biting their hands brought some
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kind of calming relief. The explanations could have been true. The girls were
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known to physically fight, and some people do bite themselves or cut themselves to
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feel a sort of release. They couldn't say the girl's explanation was a lie
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or make them feel bad because of the reasons they gave, so they just
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continued their investigation through other sources. The girls were allowed to go with Della
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and continued to deny any involvement. Blood from the crime scene was collected and
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the DNA was tested. Nicki's boyfriend was cleared. His DNA did not match,
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although the DNA did produce matches three matches to be exact Nicki, Jazz,
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and Taz, implicating the twins. They were present at the time of
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their mother's murder. In May two, twenty ten, four months after Nikki's
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death, her sixteen year old twins, Jasmya Kanisha and Tasmaya Genisha, were
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arrested and charged as adults with voluntary manslaughter, making false statements, and being
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in possession of a knife during a crime. The detectives placed microphones in the
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police cars in the event that the girl said anything incriminating. After the arrest,
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the girls were angry, almost taunting the police. Jazz kept asking about
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the bite marks Taz questioned why she was being arrested if they had not found
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a murder weapon with her fingerprints on it, even challenging them to try to
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find it. In twenty fourteen, the twins finally quit denying any involvement and
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pleaded guilty, accepting a lesser charge. They were sentenced to thirty years in
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prison and sent to different prisons to serve their time. Now that the truth
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was out, they could give their account of what they say really happened on
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that cold and bloody Janus Day, and this is it. Jazz and Taz
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woke up late for school. They were fighting with Nicki about being late again.
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They said. Nicki complained that they didn't follow her rules and she was
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angry. They claimed that she grabbed a pot and tried to hit them with
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it. At some point, she grabbed a knife and threatened them with that
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as well. While yelling. Jazz said that Nicki lunged at her, so
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she grabbed the pot and hit her mom with it. Jazz said that when
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Nicki fell, she latched onto her chest and bit her. Then Jazz grabbed
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a vase and broke it over Nicky's head so she would quit biting Both girls
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started punching Niki, but she was fighting back, scratching them and trying to
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bite their hands. Taz grabbed the knife off of the counter and started to
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stab Niki. Eventually, Jazz grabbed the knife from her sister and stabbed Niki
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a few more times. They then drugged their mom's body into the master bedroom
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and put her in the tub. Nicki was still alive at that point.
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The girl said that she was yelling at them about how much she hated them
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and that they would go to jail for what they were doing to her.
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It's not documented how long she was in the tub before Jazz and Taz flagged
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down the officer that happened to be driving by. They could have called the
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police at any time, but it appears they wanted to make sure she was
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dead and could not be resuscitated or helped. Della Fraser continued to stand by
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her great granddaughters, describing them as loving girls, but Nicki's friends disagreed and
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said that they were not at all shocked by what the girls did. Could
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Jazz and Taz really have been that different depending on if they were living with
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Dela or Nicki did living with their mom? Really bring out the evil in
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them, or did their great grandmother just refuse to see it. We all
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have a breaking point, but that doesn't mean that we all are going to
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commit murder when we reach its side. Is fairly uncommon. The murder of
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a mother at the hands of her own children. Actually, less than one
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percent of all homicides are matricide related, and most of the time when they
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are, the mothers are killed by a son. So what caused two sixteen
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year old daughters to not only kill their mother but to do so in such
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a violent and brutal way. We may never know exactly what happened, only
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the story the twins tell. According to the American Society for Positive Care for
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Children, thirty six percent of women in the US prison system were abused as
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children, and the numbers for children psychologically or physically abused every year are staggering.
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Yet there is very little research on how many parents live in homes with
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abusive teenagers. We know it exists, and we know it sounds like the
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relationship between Nicki Whitehead and Jazz and Taz was violent, unhealthy, and chaotic.
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What we will really never know is who the real abuser was in this
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sad story that ended with such an uncommon murder. That is your ten minute
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Murder story for today or one of the stories for today if you planned to
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binge. I'm Joe the host, and thank you so much for taking the
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time out of your day to listen to ten Minute Murder. If you are
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family know about Ten Minute Murder. Now quickly, let's get to an email
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question from one of you that listens. Dear Joe, be honest with me.
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Do you already have your Christmas tree up? Becca in NYC? And
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Becca, Yeah, it's up. It's fully up. It's been up for
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a little while now. Now. I didn't put it up until after Thanksgiving.
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I normally will do it before Thanksgiving and that freaks everyone out for some
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reason. But if you're trying to catch me in a do I celebrate Christmas
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too early? Kind of a thing. Yeah I do. I've Christmas Vacation.
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National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is my favorite movie of all time period, not
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favorite Christmas movie or you know. It's my favorite movie of all time.
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I will watch it multiple times throughout the year when it's still warm outside.
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It can be one hundred in the South, and I'll be watching Christmas Vacation.
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It's a little strange. I get that, but it's my favorite movie,
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and Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I celebrate early. I get
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it going pretty quickly, and I started with Christmas music. I've been doing
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that since probably September. Now I do stop right at Christmas. I stop
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it all. I shut it all down right after Christmas is over, the
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trees away. There's no more Christmas music, and I don't get cranked back
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up until a little bit later on into the new year. But I'm a
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little bit weird about it. I understand that you thought you were gonna get
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me Becca, but then I turned the tables on you and I admitted it
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myself. So boom, if you've got an email question for me, Joe
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at ten Minute Murder dot com, thank you so much for listening to ten
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minute murder bye,