Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess [Mississippi] Stacie Pannell

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A Little Less Mess [Mississippi] Stacie Pannell · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

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Hey, everyone, welcome to bless This Mess of the truck Rum podcast.
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I'm Kara, Jess Kara, Welcome to a little Less Mess. It's our
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regular episodes minus all of the banter and opinions and everything. So normally our
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regular episodes, I record this with my husband Stewart, and we insert our
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opinions and kind of have some fun. But a lot of people do like
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these episodes where we just stick straight to the facts and nothing else. And
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I am a little behind on these, but I'm gonna trying to catch up,
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So I appreciate you guys being here. And we do have a couple
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of ways you can support the podcast. We have our Patreon dot com,
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we have our buy Me a Coffee, and you can check us on on
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Facebook, Instagram, you know, all the social media's, and then a
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rape review subscribe. But you can check all that out in the show notes.
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So let's go ahead and get into this week's episode. Stacy Diane Pannell
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was born September fifth, nineteen sixty seven, to Wickie and Judy in Mississippi.
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Stacy was the oldest of three, a sister who was three years younger
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than her, named Kim, and a brother who was ten years younger,
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named Bradley. Stacy was described as fun to be around. She made friends
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easily, in loved life. She was tender hearted and always wanted to help
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those less fortunate. Their family spent the summer's camping and being at the lake.
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Stacy's favorite song was Summer of sixty nine by Brian Adams. Stacy attended
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Ripley High School in Ripley, Mississippi, which is in the northern part of
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the state, almost at Tennessee. While in high school, Stacy was passionate
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about rifle drill team. This love of drill team would continue with her to
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college, where she was a member of the Tiger Marching Band at Northeast Mississippi
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Junior College in Booneville, Mississippi. She was able to seve an academic scholarship
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to attend school after graduating fourth in her class out of a hundred in high
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school. During high school, Stacy dated Ben Cox and they even became engaged
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her senior year. However, Stacy would break it off with him prior to
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starting college. She wanted the freedom to see where life took her. While
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while Stacy was excited about this new chapter of her life, she was not
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quite ready to move from her home. Stacy's father, Wickie, was battling
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brain cancer, and she in her time with him was limited. She wanted
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to commute to school so she could go be close to him, but since
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she was a band member, she had to live on campus. Stacy moved
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into Murphy Hall on campus with her new roommate, Amy Willard. In between
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classes and band practices, she made every effort to travel home to visit her
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father and family. On October seventh, nineteen eighty five, Stacy headed out
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to play a softball game. After the game, she met up with some
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friends at a restaurant called Pizza Factory just outside of Boomville. After eating at
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that pizza place, she rode with the friends where they stopped at the boys
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dormitory. She wanted to stop and talk to Tommy Osborne. Tommy and Stacy
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had recently started dating. She decides to stay for a bit, so her
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friends leave. Later that evening, Tommy drives Stacy back to her dormitory and
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drops her off. Around two thirty am. On October eighth, Amy,
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Stacy's roommate, knocked on the door of her neighbor, Stephanie Alexander asking her
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if she could let her in their room as she had locked herself out and
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Stacy was not answering when she knocked. The layout of the rooms was two
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beds on one side, with the bathroom connecting to a room with two more
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beds, so you could access the other room if the bathroom was unlocked.
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Stephanie agreed and Amy entered their dorm room. Stephanie and Amy just thought Stacy
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might have been partying and passed out and could not hear Amy's knox. They
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walked to the bathroom into Amy and Stacy's room and they noticed Stacy is lying
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abnormally on the bed. Amy joked about it, thinking she just passed out
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in a funny position. Her legs were hanging off the bed and her underwear
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was pulled down. Amy walked over to Stacy and was going to help position
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her better so she was not half out of the bed. She picks up
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her leg and is very heavy and cold. She is confused by this,
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but starts looking around and see's blood everywhere. Amy and Stephanie ran out of
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the dorm and went to her friend Belinda's dorm for help. Amy asked Belinda
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go check on Stacy, so Belinda headed to the dorm room again, entering
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through Stephanie's room. After seeing Stacy, Blinda ran to get the dorm mother
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Edna, who called campus security to unlock Stacy's dorm room. Upon finding Stacy,
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they called nine on one. Police arrived on the scene to find eighteen
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year old Stacy lying with her back on the bed. She had her left
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leg resting on the bed and right foot resting on the floor. She was
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partially covered with bed linens and was nude from the waist down. Rundwore weir
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pulled down around her lower left leg. A pillow had been placed over her
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head. There was blood near her head and on the headboard. There was
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blood spattered throughout the room, on the walls and ceiling, and as far
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away as nine feet from her body. Near her body, they found a
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white drill rifle. The rifle had blood on the handle that was smeared,
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and around the barrel was the towel. It looked like someone tried to wipe
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it clean but stopped in the process of cleaning it. Now, based on
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the initial scene, police believe she had been beaten to death with that drill
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rifle. They checked the dorm room and find that no belongings were taken.
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Her purse was still there with money in it, and it did not appear
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that the robbery was the motive. Based on the state of her clothing underwear
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down and shirt pulled up, they believe sexual assault was the motive. When
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looking around the sea where the attacker had entered, they find that a screen
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on the window near Stacy's bed had been cut. The screen had a hole
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about eight to ten inches long and eight to ten inches wide. The way
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Stacy died was very violent, and autopsy would later reveal that she had been
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bluting multiple times in the left side of her head with the butt of the
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rifle. There would have been a lot of rage behind this killing. The
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autopsy also revealed that Stacy had not been raped. Upon further review of the
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cut screen, they noticed the screen had been cut from the inside. Whoever
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killed Stacy was trying to mislead police. They had staged the rape and cut
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the screen to make it look like an intruder entered from outside. They now
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need to look at people living in the dorm as well as people close to
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Stacy that she might have let inside her dorm. Police first interview everyone in
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the dorm that night. No one recalls hearing any screams or any type of
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commotion. Stephanie, who lived in the dorm attached to Stacy's, said she
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had been doing homework, then went to sleep and did not hear anything until
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Amy knocked on her door. They began retracing her steps that day and find
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out she last spoke to a guy named Tommy. They visit Tommy at his
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dorm around seven thirty am the morning of Stacy's murder. Tommy tells police that
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he dropped Stacy off around eleven fifteen pm and returned to his dorm. Police
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began interviewing witnesses and they do tell them that Tommy was in the dorm the
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entire night. They continue to question Tommy as he was the last one to
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see her. They ask if he will take a polygraph test and if they
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could search his room. He agreed to both. Nothing suspicious was found in
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the dorm and he passed his polygraph. After this, they cleared him as
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a suspect. When talking to friends and family, they discovered the ex fiance,
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Ben Cox, learned that Ben was very upset about the ending of the
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relationship for ins He had come to Stacy's dorm room before, wanting to talk
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to her. Stephanie told police that at one point Stacy tried to give him
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back the ring, but he would not accept it. She said that Stacy
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told her that Ben would not take no for an answer and that Stacy seemed
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afraid of him. With this information, police set out to find Ben Cox.
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They bring Ben in and he denies any involvement. He told them the
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last time he had seen Stacy was about a week ago. He told him
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he was at home the whole time. His mother said that she saw him
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in bed around eleven PM when she got off work. Ben agreed to take
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a polygraph as there was no one to aliby his whereabouts during the hours of
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the murder. Ben had inconclusive results with the polygraph test, but there was
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no evidence at the crime scene to place him there. They were at a
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loss and release Ben, but would keep looking into him. A year would
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go by. Fifteen different investigators had worked this case and they had interviewed over
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four hundred people. With nothing to go on, they turned to a police
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chief out of East Hazelcrest, Illinois. His name was Stephen Rhodes. They
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found roads when one of the investigators had attended one of his lectures where he
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talked about special interrogation techniques. He called his technique neurolinguistic programming. Basically,
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it was a way to tell if someone was lying based on their body language
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rather than what they were saying. They bring back in the roommate Amy and
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she passes her interview. On September eighteenth, nineteen eighty six, they bring
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in Stephanie. Rhodes started to pick up some tells he felt she was lying.
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Now, after having her go through her story multiple times, she finally
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said she went back in the room. This is when they continue to question
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Stephanie and she confesses. Stephanie tells police that she was doing homework in her
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room and took three codeine tablets sometime between nine pm and ten thirty pm because
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of pain from an an ovary infection. She had been out earlier in the
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evening playing cards and visiting friends, including Tommy Osborne. She walked back to
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her dorm room alone to do homework. She dozed off after taking the codeine.
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She woke up around twelve third am when she heard Stacy and some other
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girls were turning home. In the adjacent room, the girls were helping Stacy
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get to her room because she had been drinking. She heard Stacy say Tommy
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is so fine, I could fuck his brains up. Stephanie asked them to
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be quiet, and the girls helping Stacy left. Stephanie couldn't go back to
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sleep, so she went back to Stacy's room to talk. She asked Stacy
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if she had fun that night, and Stacy said she didn't. They talked
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about Tommy, whom Stacy had been dating. They also talked about a boy
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Stephanie had been dating as well. They then talked about Tommy again. Now,
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Stacy asked Stephanie what she thought about Tommy, and Stephanie said she thought
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he was fine. Stacy told Stephanie you had better stay the hell away from
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him. I'm tired of you in your fucking room. Now, Stacy was
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standing in front of the mirror and pointing her finger in Stephanie's face. Stephanie
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mentioned Tommy again and Stacy slapped her. Now. Stephanie then called Stacy a
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bitch and slapped her back. Stacy told Stephanie, I'd better not see you
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hanging around him. Or I'll kill you. You hear me. Stacy slapped
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Stephanie again, and that's when Stacy put her hands around Stephanie's throat and Stephanie
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kicked her to get away now. Stacy then fell onto the bed and started
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to get up to go towards Stephanie will Stephanie had been trolling Stacy's drill rifle
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while they were talking and had laid it back down against Stacy's bed. This
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is when Stephanie picked the drill rifle back up and hit Stacy. Stacy fell
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back onto the bed, and that's when Stacy started to try to get up
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again and go towards Stephanie, calling her a fucking bitch. Stephanie then hit
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her again with the drill rifle. When Stacy fell back on the bed,
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this is when Stephanie hit her three more times with that rifle. Stephanie says
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she was out of it because of the codeine and didn't know what to do.
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The rifle fell out of Stephanie's hand and she locked the door to the
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hall, washed her hands in the sink, and put a pillow over Stacy's
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head. Stephanie got a stake knife that Stacy had borrowed from Stephanie out of
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a drawer and cut the screen so the scene would look like someone had come
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through the window. She pulled Stacy's underwear down that it would appear as a
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rape, and wiped off part of the drill rifle. Stephanie then took a
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bath and burned the screen that she had cut out and the shirts she had
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been wearing in the toilet of the bathroom adjoining the two rooms. Smoke was
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in the bathroom, so Stephanie sprayed some of Amy's perfume in the bathroom.
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Stephanie went back to bed and slept. Police were in shock of this confession.
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They had never even suspected Stephanie. They had spoken to her several times
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throughout the investigation, and she had always been helpful. Stephanie gave this same
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confession on three different occasions, once on September eighteenth, again on September nineteenth,
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and finally on September twenty first. On top of her three signed confessions,
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while in jail, Stephanie wrote an eleven page letter to Randy Price,
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a boy she had been dating for about a week, in which she confessed
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to the crime and described the circumstances surrounding the killing. Stephanie told Randy that
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she didn't mean to do it and it was an accident. She explained to
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Randy that she had been heavily sedated and had had a mental block about the
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killing. She wrote that she hadn't been able to remember killing Stacy four,
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but had had nightmares about the killing. Stephanie told Randy that she hadn't known
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what she was doing at the time. On September twenty second, nineteen eighty
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six, police announced that twenty one year old music major Stephanie Alexander had been
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arrested and charged with the murder of Stacy. Stephanie's bell was set at a
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hundred thousand dollars, which she posted. During this time, Stephanie began claiming
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her innocence. Stephanie contended that the confessions had been the product of hypnotic suggestion,
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and her lawyers argued that they were inadmissible. Stephanie claimed that the authorities
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had been desperate to solve the case and planted the story in her mind that
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she had killed Stacy. A hearing was held in June nineteen eighty seven to
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determine if the statements made by Stephanie to the investigators and in a letter to
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Randy, were voluntary or if they were made due to coergent threats or promise
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of leniency or hypnotic suggestion. During the suppression hearing, the court heard from
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everyone who was present when Stephanie confessed. The trial judge overruled Stephanie's motion to
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suppress the statements given to law enforcement officers and the letter written to Randy while
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she was in custody. The court found that beyond a reasonable doubt that Stephanie
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was at no time hypnotized during the sessions, that Stephanie was properly advised of
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her rights, that she was not under the influence of hypnosis at any time
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when she made confessional statements, that Stephanie acted voluntarily at all times pertinent to
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the confession. A change of venue was granted to Stephanie due to publicity,
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and the trial began on January fourth, nineteen eighty eight. The jury,
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consisting of five men and seven women, herd thirty two witnesses, and reviewed
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ninety pieces of evidence. On January twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight, the
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jury deliberated for about an hour and fifty minutes, and returned a verdict of
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guilty of manslaughter, which was a lesser charge than the prosecution requested. The
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jury had the option to find her innocent, guilty of capital murder or manslaughter.
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The judged in at Stephanie to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi
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Department of Corrections. Stephanie continued to claim her innocence and followed an appeal,
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but lost. Her lawyers argued that the ex fiance was the one who killed
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Stacy and that the police had used a dangerous man to get the confession out
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of Stephanie. They said Stephen Rhodes would use tricks and chicanery to obtain the
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confession. The paper's question while local investigators could not get a confession out of
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Stephanie in a year, but Rhodes came in and didn't in an hour.
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Stephanie would only serve ten years of her prison sentence, which was the minimum
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required before being eligible for parole. Stephanie, who is now Stephanie Loudon,
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has at least one son. She owned some sort of small business that deals
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with music, and she has been on two true crime shows professing her innocence.
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And that's our episode for this week. Thank you for listening and like
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I said, if he'd liked something with the Laura banter, some opinions,
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because we definitely have some. Check out our regular episodes that are in our
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the list of episodes, they're the numbered ones and those come out on Thursday,
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So we will see you next time. By everyone, you know,
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it's by life to be superstitious. My nothing else. It's working and my
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hand is really hurting and I'm sick. It's working. By my Cambridge