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Hell and Gone Murder Line: KK's Corner Part 3 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
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Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
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Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
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Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:28
Speaker 2: On July sixth, nineteen ninety seven, in Calcashu Parish, Louisiana,
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Speaker 2: Marty Lebeuf, Stacy Reeves, and Nicole Guildry were all shot
1:37
Speaker 2: execution style in the head. Their bodies were left in
1:40
Speaker 2: the cooler at kk's Corner. These at kk's Corner were shocking,
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Speaker 2: and soon people were talking about another death, one that
1:50
Speaker 2: some people in the community thought could be linked.
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Speaker 3: To the kk's Corner massacre.
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Speaker 2: On Saturday May seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven, not even three
1:59
Speaker 2: weeks before the triple homicide at kk's corner. Kevin Abel
2:04
Speaker 2: was fatally shot in the head at his home. Police
2:07
Speaker 2: ruled Kevin's death a suicide, but Stacy Reeves, who had
2:10
Speaker 2: been dating Kevin, believed that he had been murdered and
2:14
Speaker 2: that his murder could be tied to law enforcement and
2:17
Speaker 2: possibly to allege drug deals at Kk's corner. Stacy Reeves
2:22
Speaker 2: arrived at that crime scene at Kevin's with her young
2:25
Speaker 2: twin daughters only minutes after.
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Speaker 3: Police showed up there.
2:29
Speaker 2: Stacey told police she and Kevin were going on a
2:31
Speaker 2: date that night and that she had been planning to
2:34
Speaker 2: pick him up with her girls. And she said that
2:37
Speaker 2: Kevin owed a lot of money to drug dealers, who
2:40
Speaker 2: she said had been taking his truck as collateral. We
2:44
Speaker 2: talked to one of Stacy's friends, the former sheriff's deputy.
2:47
Speaker 2: We have her full name, but because of concerns about
2:51
Speaker 2: her safety, she has asked that we call her by
2:53
Speaker 2: her nickname Missy.
2:56
Speaker 4: She was coming to kick him up with her twins,
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Speaker 4: who are I think two at the time, they were
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Speaker 4: really young. For she insisted that she would never have
3:04
Speaker 4: permitted suicide, knowing that she had the Beady.
3:06
Speaker 2: Who's with him. What really happened to Kevin Abel? Did
3:11
Speaker 2: he kill himself or could there have been foul play involved?
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Speaker 2: Who were the drug dealers who he owed money to?
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Speaker 2: And did Kevin's death have anything to do with the
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Speaker 2: kk's Corner killings. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five
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Speaker 2: years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've
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Speaker 2: learned that there's no such thing as a small town
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Speaker 2: where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from
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Speaker 2: people all around the country asking for help with an
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Speaker 2: unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
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Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
3:45
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
3:47
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
3:50
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
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Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five, or you
3:59
Speaker 2: can send us a message on Instagram at Helen gonepod.
4:03
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. We got a copy
4:48
Speaker 2: of the incident report and some civil depositions, and between
4:52
Speaker 2: those and some interviews we've done, we have found out
4:55
Speaker 2: a lot of information about the night that Kevin Abel died. Now,
4:59
Speaker 2: before I go down this road, I just want to
5:02
Speaker 2: say that so far, none of the evidence that we
5:05
Speaker 2: have seen has indicated that Kevin Abel's death was anything
5:08
Speaker 2: other than a suicide. But a lot of people, including
5:12
Speaker 2: Stacy Reeves, believe that it was, and we want.
5:15
Speaker 3: To understand why.
5:17
Speaker 2: On the day he died, Kevin had a friend at
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Speaker 2: his house, a guy named Chad Reeves. Now Chad was
5:24
Speaker 2: a distant cousin of Stacy's, but according to what Chad
5:27
Speaker 2: told police, they were not close. Chad wasn't even sure
5:31
Speaker 2: exactly how they were related. When police asked him, Chad
5:35
Speaker 2: said that he had reconnected with Kevin the night before
5:38
Speaker 2: at a bar called Cheers. He had known Kevin when
5:41
Speaker 2: they were younger, but prior to that, he told investigators,
5:44
Speaker 2: they had not spoken in eight years. Lake Charles has
5:47
Speaker 2: a population of almost eighty thousand people, but I see
5:50
Speaker 2: a lot of the same names keep popping up, so
5:53
Speaker 2: parts of it seemed to have a distinctly small town vibe.
5:58
Speaker 2: Chad lived with his mother in Fairview Estates, the same
6:01
Speaker 2: trailer park as Kevin. He told police that he went
6:05
Speaker 2: over to Kevin's trailer that afternoon because Kevin was feeling down.
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Speaker 2: Chad said they were hanging out there watching TV and talking.
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Speaker 2: In a later deposition, Chad said that Kevin looked like
6:17
Speaker 2: shit that day. He also said Kevin had been smoking
6:20
Speaker 2: crack for days, which had turned his lips black. While
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Speaker 2: they were hanging out, Kevin got a phone call from someone.
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Speaker 2: Chad said that quote whoever it was must have had
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Speaker 2: Kevin's car, because Kevin got very mad with them over
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Speaker 2: the phone and asked them when they were going to
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Speaker 2: bring his car back.
6:39
Speaker 3: End quote.
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Speaker 2: Then Chad said after Kevin hung up, Kevin had asked
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Speaker 2: him how to spell the word quit. Chad said he
6:47
Speaker 2: spelled it out for him qu i t. After that,
6:51
Speaker 2: he said that a woman called Kevin, and Kevin told
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Speaker 2: the woman that he was depressed and to come pick
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Speaker 2: him up. I don't know for sure, but it seems
6:59
Speaker 2: likely that that woman was Stacy Reeves, since Stacy did
7:03
Speaker 2: show up there and she said that they were planning
7:04
Speaker 2: on having a date that night. After that, Kevin went
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Speaker 2: to the back of the trailer toward his bedroom.
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Speaker 3: Time went by, the movie.
7:12
Speaker 2: Ended, and Chad said that he yelled to Kevin that
7:15
Speaker 2: he was going back to his mother's trailer to get
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Speaker 2: something to eat. Chad was in the front doorway, putting
7:21
Speaker 2: his shoes on, getting ready to leave. When he heard
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Speaker 2: the gunshot, Chad ran into the bedroom. He said that
7:27
Speaker 2: he saw Kevin lying there and grabbed him to try
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Speaker 2: to check on him, but he said he could see
7:32
Speaker 2: that he was in a pool of blood and that
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Speaker 2: he was clearly dead. Chad said he ran back to
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Speaker 2: his mother's house and called nine one one. Police came
7:41
Speaker 2: to the scene, and they found Kevin in his bedroom
7:44
Speaker 2: with his head facing north and a fatal gunshot wound
7:47
Speaker 2: to his head. There was a three fifty seven magnum
7:50
Speaker 2: revolver lying about twelve inches from Kevin's left foot. There
7:54
Speaker 2: was a bullet hole in the wall and a TV
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Speaker 2: on top of Kevin's chest. Police believed that Kevin fired
8:01
Speaker 2: the fatal shot and then he fell back onto the
8:04
Speaker 2: TV stand. That's when they say he crashed to the
8:07
Speaker 2: ground and the television kind of toppled on top of him.
8:10
Speaker 2: Police found cocaine residue in a chrome pipe and gunpowder
8:14
Speaker 2: residue on Kevin's hands that police said indicated that the
8:18
Speaker 2: gun had been fired by him recently. They also found
8:21
Speaker 2: a suicide note nearby. We got a copy of that note.
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Speaker 2: It read in part quote, this is something I did
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Speaker 2: because I couldn't face the real world being a crackhead.
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Speaker 3: End quote.
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Speaker 2: In the note, Kevin apologized to people in his life
8:36
Speaker 2: for not being able to get off drugs. He mentioned
8:39
Speaker 2: former girlfriends and friends and people he felt that he
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Speaker 2: had let down. At the end, it says, PS, if
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Speaker 2: I have a funeral, play the dance he was talking about,
8:50
Speaker 2: the Garth Brooks country song. Police found that Kevin had
8:54
Speaker 2: a heavy crack addiction and then he owed money to
8:57
Speaker 2: two people, Irving and David Freeman. They're actually cousins, but
9:02
Speaker 2: people around town refer to them as the Freeman brothers.
9:05
Speaker 2: Irving told police that he sold crack to Kevin on
9:08
Speaker 2: a regular basis. He said that he would take Kevin's
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Speaker 2: truck as collateral to make sure that Kevin paid back
9:14
Speaker 2: the money that he owed. Irving told police that Kevin
9:18
Speaker 2: was pretty much his best customer. He said that Kevin
9:21
Speaker 2: would chain smoke rocks of crack like other people smoked cigarettes.
9:25
Speaker 2: He said that Kevin regularly owed him large amounts of money,
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Speaker 2: from around fifteen to seventeen hundred dollars at a time
9:32
Speaker 2: while Irving had the truck. David Irving's cousin told police
9:36
Speaker 2: that he would sometimes borrow the truck as well. He
9:39
Speaker 2: would just borrow it from Irving without getting Kevin's permission.
9:44
Speaker 2: Sometimes Stacy Reeves would pay Kevin's drug debts. Once she
9:49
Speaker 2: paid David five hundred dollars. Later, David told police about
9:53
Speaker 2: a strange incident that happened with Kevin's truck. He said
9:56
Speaker 2: that a police officer showed up at his house once
9:59
Speaker 2: while he was borrowing Kevin's truck, and that the police
10:02
Speaker 2: officer demanded that he give it back. Police talked to
10:06
Speaker 2: this officer, the one who showed up at David's house.
10:08
Speaker 2: It was a Lake Charles police officer. So this officer
10:12
Speaker 2: said he was friends with Jennifer Doyle, a woman who
10:15
Speaker 2: was also dating Kevin at the time. The officer said
10:19
Speaker 2: sometime in the beginning of April in nineteen ninety seven,
10:22
Speaker 2: he went to Jennifer Doyle's house and that Jennifer got
10:25
Speaker 2: a phone call from David. David was asking Jennifer for money.
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Speaker 3: Money.
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Speaker 2: He said that Kevin owed him, so the officer got
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Speaker 2: Jennifer to hand him the phone. When he identified himself
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Speaker 2: to David as a police officer, David hung up. The
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Speaker 2: officer said that when he was at work the next
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Speaker 2: day that Jennifer called him and asked if he would
10:44
Speaker 2: go with her to help get Kevin's truck back. So
10:48
Speaker 2: the officer said he went with Jennifer to David's place
10:51
Speaker 2: and knocked on David's door. A woman answered the door
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Speaker 2: and said David wasn't there, So the officer said they
10:57
Speaker 2: were there to get Kevin's truck. The woman said the
10:59
Speaker 2: keys were in it, so the officer said he got
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Speaker 2: into Jennifer's vehicle and drove it back to the police
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Speaker 2: station while Jennifer drove Kevin's truck. The officer said Jennifer
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Speaker 2: drove away in Kevin's truck and that he wasn't sure
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Speaker 2: what happened to the vehicle after that. To me, this
11:15
Speaker 2: illustrates a couple of things about how things work in
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Speaker 2: Lake Charles. The fact that a lot of these drug dealers,
11:21
Speaker 2: police and people connected to drug addicts were all intimately
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Speaker 2: connected number one, and number two, that sometimes police would
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Speaker 2: do things to settle disputes that weren't necessarily officially reported.
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Speaker 2: Because to my knowledge, there was never a stolen vehicle
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Speaker 2: report made on this truck. This all apparently happened off
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Speaker 2: the books, and the officer didn't tell anyone about this
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Speaker 2: truck incident until much.
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Speaker 3: Later after Kevin Abel's death.
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Speaker 2: But as we said last week, Stacey believed that Kevin
11:53
Speaker 2: had been murdered. Stacy Reeves was convinced that Kevin Abel
12:02
Speaker 2: had not committed suicide. Her friend Missy, talked to us
12:06
Speaker 2: about what Stacy told her about Kevin's death. Missy said
12:11
Speaker 2: that Stacy didn't think the suicide note was legitimate.
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Speaker 4: Stacey contacted me when Kevin quote unquote committed suicide. She
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Speaker 4: told me he didn't commit suicide. It was all a
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Speaker 4: lie because he hated country music and in the suicide
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Speaker 4: note it was referenced to country music. I think one
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Speaker 4: of Gurth books was songs. And also the note was
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Speaker 4: written in the opposite hand that she did not write it,
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Speaker 4: so she was emotionally just strawed or not.
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Speaker 2: In the weeks before her death, Stacy was talking to
12:48
Speaker 2: people about how she didn't think Kevin committed suicide, and
12:51
Speaker 2: also about drug deals that she said were going down
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Speaker 2: in Kk's corner. She said that Kevin owed people drug money,
12:59
Speaker 2: a lot of money. Stacy seemed to believe that Kevin's
13:04
Speaker 2: death might have been murdered and that it might have
13:07
Speaker 2: something to do with drug dealers who were operating inside
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Speaker 2: kk's corner, and Stacy had been talking to law enforcement
13:15
Speaker 2: about her suspicions. According to police documents, Stacy's friend, Sheila,
13:20
Speaker 2: told police that Stacy had recently met with two officers
13:23
Speaker 2: and talked to him about her fear that her involvement
13:26
Speaker 2: in Kevin's drug dealing could put her in danger. She
13:29
Speaker 2: was talking to them about drug deals going on inside
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Speaker 2: kk's corner. She told them she wanted to work for
13:35
Speaker 2: the Sheriff's department. One was an officer named Jerome Lestraps.
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Speaker 2: The other was an Officer Sweeney, but police said they
13:46
Speaker 2: were unable to locate anyone with that name, so we've
13:49
Speaker 2: started looking for officer Sweeney. After the kk's murders, Detective
13:55
Speaker 2: Deluge was looking into these rumors that Stacy could have
13:58
Speaker 2: been talking to people in law enforcement. Detective Deluge knew
14:01
Speaker 2: that Jerome less Straps worked narcotics for the calcashu Perras
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Speaker 2: Sheriff's Department, so he contacted the chief of detectives there,
14:09
Speaker 2: John Fryar. He asked if Stacy was a confidential informant
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Speaker 2: for anyone. John said, to his knowledge, Stacy never provided
14:17
Speaker 2: intel to any of his officers. But later, according to
14:20
Speaker 2: court documents, Jeromeless Straps said that he had talked to
14:24
Speaker 2: Stacy about working undercover with the Sheriff's office. He said
14:29
Speaker 2: when she told him about people dealing drugs and her
14:33
Speaker 2: suspicion that his death was not a homicide, jerome Le
14:36
Speaker 2: Strap said he advised Stacy that because she had two
14:40
Speaker 2: young daughters, this type of work might be dangerous for her.
14:43
Speaker 2: He said that he told her if she had information
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Speaker 2: about Kevin's death, that she should get in touch with
14:48
Speaker 2: a detective in charge of that investigation. We found out
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Speaker 2: something else, potentially more evidence that the men who came
14:57
Speaker 2: to the store that night, the ones who Virginia saw
14:59
Speaker 2: in the black car, may have been targeting Stacy, because
15:04
Speaker 2: there are things about Stacy's murder that were different from
15:07
Speaker 2: Marty and Nicole. Now, these differences might not mean anything.
15:11
Speaker 2: On the other hand, they could be important clues. Marty
15:14
Speaker 2: and Nicole were both shot in the back of the head.
15:17
Speaker 2: Stacy was shot in the face. She was also shot
15:21
Speaker 2: once in the back of the head, but that was
15:23
Speaker 2: only after her head was turned around from the first shot,
15:27
Speaker 2: so Stacy was the only one who faced her killer.
15:31
Speaker 2: We also learned more details about Virginia Johnson, the witness.
15:35
Speaker 2: She testified that the men she saw that night at
15:39
Speaker 2: Kk's were there for Stacy. Remember, Virginia went to care
15:44
Speaker 2: Corner on July fifth. She arrived there at about eleven
15:46
Speaker 2: forty five pm to get gas. She went in and
15:49
Speaker 2: bought ten dollars worth of gas from Marty. At that time,
15:52
Speaker 2: she said, Stacy was mopping up and closing the store.
15:55
Speaker 2: Nicole was sitting on the counter. While Virginia was in
15:58
Speaker 2: the store. A black car pulled up to the side entrance.
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Speaker 2: One man came into the store. He walked straight back
16:05
Speaker 2: toward the beer coolers. The other one bumped into Virginia
16:08
Speaker 2: as she was walking out to her car. That's the
16:11
Speaker 2: guy who she described for the first composite drawing, and
16:14
Speaker 2: later under hypnosis she remembered more details about the second man.
16:19
Speaker 2: She later identified Tomas Cisco in a lineup. So we
16:23
Speaker 2: know all that, But we got a transcript of the
16:26
Speaker 2: testimony that Virginia gave at Tomasisko's murder trial. She testified
16:31
Speaker 2: that as she was walking out of Kk's, she heard
16:34
Speaker 2: Marty and Nicole talking about the guys that came in.
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Speaker 2: She said she heard Marty say, well, they're here for her,
16:42
Speaker 2: meaning that the two two men were there for Stacy.
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Speaker 2: This would presumably mean that the two men were people
16:50
Speaker 2: who the employees knew and felt comfortable enough letting into
16:53
Speaker 2: the store after closing. So why were these two men
16:57
Speaker 2: there for Stacy? These murders happened within a small window
17:03
Speaker 2: of time. Marty Lebuff drove a green and tan nineteen
17:07
Speaker 2: eighty seven Ford Bronco. Stacy drove a brown nineteen eighty
17:11
Speaker 2: six Buick Skylark. Both of those vehicles were parked at
17:14
Speaker 2: kk's corner all night. Virginia said the car she saw
17:18
Speaker 2: pull up to Kk's while she was paying for gas
17:20
Speaker 2: was a sporty, black two door late eighties vehicle similar
17:24
Speaker 2: to a Chevrolet Spectrum. She said the truck that she
17:27
Speaker 2: saw was a red mid sized pickup truck. After leaving
17:31
Speaker 2: kk's corner, Virginia picked her boyfriend up at work. They
17:36
Speaker 2: both told investigators they drove back past kk's corner. The
17:39
Speaker 2: boyfriend remembers they were having a conversation about kk's. He
17:43
Speaker 2: said he glanced down at the clock in his truck.
17:46
Speaker 2: It said twelve forty two, but it was ten minutes fast,
17:49
Speaker 2: so it was actually twelve thirty two at that time.
17:52
Speaker 2: At twelve thirty two am, they saw that black car
17:56
Speaker 2: still there and a red truck with a passenger door open.
18:00
Speaker 2: The store was closed, but the lights inside the store
18:03
Speaker 2: were still on, which Virginia told police she believed was odd.
18:06
Speaker 2: She made a comment to her boyfriend that maybe someone
18:09
Speaker 2: could be robbing the store, but her boyfriend said, all right,
18:12
Speaker 2: girl whatever. From what she told police, it sounded like
18:16
Speaker 2: he wasn't taking her too seriously, and so they went home.
18:21
Speaker 2: Someone else saw the truck too, because a few minutes
18:24
Speaker 2: before that, another woman who later talked to police, said
18:28
Speaker 2: she drove through the kk's parking lot at around twelve
18:31
Speaker 2: fifteen am. She also noticed the red truck and the
18:34
Speaker 2: black car in the parking lot.
18:36
Speaker 3: There were a lot.
18:37
Speaker 2: Of people going into and out of this parking lot
18:40
Speaker 2: that night. This was a busy store in a busy area.
18:44
Speaker 2: Deputy Terry Gillery, who found the bodies in the cooler
18:47
Speaker 2: the next morning, was also on duty the night of
18:50
Speaker 2: July fifth.
18:51
Speaker 3: He said that he had driven through the parking lot.
18:53
Speaker 2: At around eleven PM, he said he saw Stacy behind
18:56
Speaker 2: the counter and waved at her. Later, at around one
18:59
Speaker 2: thirty am, the man who folded the morning papers was
19:03
Speaker 2: in the parking lot. By that time, the black car
19:06
Speaker 2: and the truck were gone. At two am, Terry Gillery
19:10
Speaker 2: passed by again he saw the guy who folded the
19:12
Speaker 2: morning papers in the parking lot. He noticed that Stacy
19:15
Speaker 2: and Marty's vehicles were still parked there. So whatever happened
19:19
Speaker 2: at Kk's Corner, it started after Virginia left the store
19:23
Speaker 2: and after Marty's dad called at midnight to tell him
19:27
Speaker 2: he had to plate a barbecue left out for him.
19:30
Speaker 2: Whatever happened happened fast, because at twelve oh six am, Sherwood,
19:34
Speaker 2: carpenter at the assistant manager, called the store.
19:37
Speaker 3: He said the phone kept ringing.
19:40
Speaker 2: Sherwood says that when no one answered, he figured the
19:42
Speaker 2: employees had already gone home. Stacey, Marty and Nicole were
19:47
Speaker 2: almost certainly dead in the cooler by then.
19:51
Speaker 3: So what happened during that crucial few minutes.
19:55
Speaker 2: We talked to Kenny Klin, the owner of Kk's Corner,
19:58
Speaker 2: who the initials are named for.
20:00
Speaker 5: He said, you know, I don't want you to touch anything.
20:02
Speaker 3: I just want you to tell me what you see.
20:04
Speaker 5: So then when I walked in the store, eventually, when
20:07
Speaker 5: I got to the back room where I saw that
20:10
Speaker 5: Stacey and Marty did their shift report, which is the
20:12
Speaker 5: paperwork that you do when the shift is over. As
20:14
Speaker 5: soon as I saw that they had done their shift report,
20:17
Speaker 5: I told Lucky Lush I said the store was closed.
20:21
Speaker 5: And he looked at me and he said, what do
20:22
Speaker 5: you mean. I said, because Stacey and Marty sometimes they
20:26
Speaker 5: might cheat a little bit. They were experienced a poison.
20:28
Speaker 5: They knew I would allow it. They may have, you know,
20:31
Speaker 5: let you say the store, the store closed at midnight.
20:34
Speaker 5: You know, maybe they might do their paperwork at ten
20:36
Speaker 5: minutes to midnight, maybe five minutes, just assuming not another
20:38
Speaker 5: customer will come in. And if another customer would come
20:41
Speaker 5: in and spend maybe three or four dollars, said they
20:42
Speaker 5: would just let the next based cash. You're ringing that up,
20:45
Speaker 5: just as they could get out of there in a
20:46
Speaker 5: timely manner. So, had they done exactly what they're supposed
20:49
Speaker 5: to do, which is closed at midnight, do their paperwork,
20:53
Speaker 5: you don't do the paperwork to You're almost certain that
20:55
Speaker 5: the stores closed. So when I saw that, I said, well,
20:58
Speaker 5: you know they had to let somebody in.
21:01
Speaker 2: One of the registers, register too, was closed out at
21:04
Speaker 2: eleven PM. The other register, register one was closed out
21:08
Speaker 2: at midnight after closing the store, and the Z tape
21:12
Speaker 2: was still attached to the register. So that was strange,
21:15
Speaker 2: Kenny said, because what was supposed to happen was that
21:18
Speaker 2: the employees would detach the Z tape from the register
21:21
Speaker 2: and then they would go into the office to finish
21:23
Speaker 2: completing their report.
21:25
Speaker 3: They would check to.
21:26
Speaker 2: See whether they came up short, whether everything was reconciled,
21:29
Speaker 2: whether the math worked, how.
21:31
Speaker 3: Much money was made, et cetera.
21:33
Speaker 2: Then the employee would finish up in the office, bring
21:36
Speaker 2: the clipboard back out, and put the Z tape under
21:39
Speaker 2: the clipboard. So is it was my understanding from reading
21:42
Speaker 2: that that what happened was the employee would they'd cash
21:45
Speaker 2: out the register and excuse me if I don't get
21:48
Speaker 2: the terminology right, But then the receipt would print out
21:50
Speaker 2: and they were supposed to take it to the back office,
21:52
Speaker 2: run the numbers, and then come back and put this
21:55
Speaker 2: put it back on a clipboard.
21:56
Speaker 3: Is that right? Oh, they would do that in the
21:58
Speaker 3: back room.
21:58
Speaker 5: That's what I'm saying. When I went to the back.
22:00
Speaker 3: A Z tape just closed out the day.
22:01
Speaker 5: God, we ran two we ran two ships, the day ship,
22:04
Speaker 5: and then at night when we closed, they would run
22:06
Speaker 5: a Z tape which clears.
22:07
Speaker 3: Everything out for that day. I see.
22:09
Speaker 5: And then what they would do is they would take
22:11
Speaker 5: that tape and let's just for an even amount of money.
22:13
Speaker 5: Let's just say they did a thousand dollars in sales.
22:15
Speaker 5: Then they would take everything out of their drawer and
22:18
Speaker 5: let's just say they start to shift for two hundred dollars,
22:20
Speaker 5: they would they would put the two hundred dollars back
22:22
Speaker 5: in the drawer, and then they should have one thousand dollars.
22:24
Speaker 5: It should balance and they would count one thousand dollars.
22:27
Speaker 5: They would put that in an envelope, put it down
22:29
Speaker 5: the safe. There were two slots in the safe. They
22:31
Speaker 5: would put that down the safe. Then they would take
22:34
Speaker 5: their Z tape. Then they would and there was a
22:35
Speaker 5: clipboard in the back, and they would write down there.
22:38
Speaker 5: I guess, for lack of a better word, to shift reconciliation.
22:42
Speaker 2: Kenny said, it appears as though Stacy was interrupted in
22:45
Speaker 2: the middle of this process. This made him believe the
22:48
Speaker 2: store had been closed, Stacey closed out the register, and then,
22:52
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, maybe because Stacey and Marty were comfortable
22:56
Speaker 2: with the people who came in after closing, they let
22:58
Speaker 2: them stay. It seems as though they were completing their
23:02
Speaker 2: routine task right before they were interrupted. The very last
23:06
Speaker 2: thing that employees were supposed to do after reconciling the
23:09
Speaker 2: registers and cleaning was to punch in their individual four
23:13
Speaker 2: digit code to set the alarm, and then manually locked
23:16
Speaker 2: the doors.
23:17
Speaker 3: As they leave.
23:18
Speaker 2: But as we've said before, that alarm was never set.
23:22
Speaker 2: There were a total of four phones in and around
23:24
Speaker 2: the store, Kenny Klein's personal phone in his private office,
23:28
Speaker 2: a store phone at the front desk, and two payphones outside.
23:32
Speaker 2: The lines to the two payphones in Kenny's private phone
23:35
Speaker 2: had all been cut, leaving only the counterphone untouched. So
23:40
Speaker 2: one natural question to ask, and one that it seems
23:43
Speaker 2: the police did ask, is if anyone had quit the
23:46
Speaker 2: store recently or had an issue with anyone at the store.
23:50
Speaker 2: There was someone who had quit a few weeks before
23:52
Speaker 2: the murders, Nathaniel Gobert, who stole money on credit cards.
23:57
Speaker 2: Nathaniel had called Stacy and asked her if he could
24:00
Speaker 2: come back in. She said that if he did come
24:02
Speaker 2: back in, they would have to call the sheriff's department.
24:05
Speaker 2: But police talked to Nathaniel and he had an alibi,
24:08
Speaker 2: And it turns out that someone else did quit very
24:11
Speaker 2: suddenly the day before the murders, Miles Addison. Now we
24:15
Speaker 2: had heard this name before. We had heard that Miles
24:18
Speaker 2: Addison called in sick and that that's why Marty was
24:21
Speaker 2: working that night.
24:22
Speaker 3: But it turns out Miles didn't just call in sick.
24:25
Speaker 3: He quit.
24:27
Speaker 2: Kenny Klein told law enforcement Miles had been working at
24:30
Speaker 2: kk's corner for between four and six weeks when he quit.
24:34
Speaker 2: Miles later told police that he called at two thirty
24:37
Speaker 2: pm on July fourth, thirty minutes before his shift started.
24:42
Speaker 2: He told an employee that he was tired of working
24:44
Speaker 2: till midnight and that if he kept having to work
24:46
Speaker 2: till midnight that he would quit. He said it was
24:48
Speaker 2: the fourth of July weekend and then he wanted to
24:51
Speaker 2: go out and party.
24:52
Speaker 3: Miles normally worked three pm to midnight.
24:55
Speaker 2: He was scheduled to work on Saturday, but after he quit,
24:59
Speaker 2: Marty took his shift at twelve oh six am on
25:03
Speaker 2: July sixth, Sherwood Carpenter, the manager of Kk's, called the
25:06
Speaker 2: store because the alarm had not been set. No one answered,
25:10
Speaker 2: so the killers probably came into Kk's corner right before
25:14
Speaker 2: midnight and a few minutes later everyone was dead. They
25:18
Speaker 2: cut the phone lines, kicked down the door to the office,
25:20
Speaker 2: and robbed the money out.
25:21
Speaker 3: Of the safe.
25:22
Speaker 2: They pulled the VHS tape out of the VCR that
25:24
Speaker 2: was recording the security camera footage, and they left. The
25:28
Speaker 2: store's owner, Kenny Klin, confirmed that the tapes in the
25:31
Speaker 2: store were labeled one through thirty one, one for each
25:35
Speaker 2: day of the month, and all of the other tapes
25:38
Speaker 2: were still on the shelf. Only the surveillance video from
25:41
Speaker 2: that night, tape number five, July fifth, was taken. And
25:46
Speaker 2: even though Deputy Deluge said that there was no physical
25:49
Speaker 2: evidence in this case, it turned out there were some
25:52
Speaker 2: things left behind. Police found eight nine millimeters shell casings
25:57
Speaker 2: and six bullets. They also found hairs on the bodies.
26:01
Speaker 2: These hares were tested and they did not match Tomas
26:05
Speaker 2: Cisco's hair, but according to court documents, police did not
26:09
Speaker 2: test any other suspects. The defense attorneys specifically asked about
26:13
Speaker 2: Miles Adison, Richard mclvin, and another man. Police admitted they
26:17
Speaker 2: didn't test any of these people. Police looked through the
26:21
Speaker 2: surveillance tapes they were trying to see if they could
26:23
Speaker 2: see anything suspicious. They only had thirty days worth of tapes.
26:27
Speaker 2: After thirty days they were recorded over and when they
26:31
Speaker 2: looked through the tapes, they found that even though it
26:33
Speaker 2: was store policy for the doors to be locked at
26:36
Speaker 2: twelve am, in practice that did not always happen. They
26:41
Speaker 2: hit another roadblock though, when they tried to figure out
26:43
Speaker 2: as someone had been casing the store of the day before,
26:46
Speaker 2: because the tape for July fourth was there, but it
26:50
Speaker 2: turned out it hadn't been updated. Another employee said on
26:54
Speaker 2: the day before the murders, because Miles Addison had quit
26:57
Speaker 2: so suddenly and she was scrambling to find a replacement
27:00
Speaker 2: for him, she forgot to put in the surveillance tape
27:03
Speaker 2: that day.
27:04
Speaker 3: But what about the other physical evidence?
27:07
Speaker 2: Police found a cigarette inside the cooler near Nicole's body.
27:12
Speaker 2: It was partially burned down, like it had been partially smoked.
27:17
Speaker 2: So what happened to that evidence? We still don't know
27:28
Speaker 2: what happened to some of the evidence that was found
27:30
Speaker 2: at the scene. We are still pouring through civil lawsuits
27:34
Speaker 2: and other Foyer request to try and figure out what
27:38
Speaker 2: happened to it. A lawsuit filed by Stacy Reeves's family
27:42
Speaker 2: alleged that Stacy's life life was in danger, that Stacy
27:45
Speaker 2: believed the death of Kevin Abel, who was described as
27:48
Speaker 2: her boyfriend, had been falsely ruled a suicide, and that
27:53
Speaker 2: Stacy had reported certain individuals who were involved with drug
27:56
Speaker 2: trafficking to the police. That because of that situation, her
28:01
Speaker 2: life was in danger, and that the police failed to
28:03
Speaker 2: protect her, and Stacy believed that Sheriff Wayne Mcalvin's son,
28:09
Speaker 2: Richard was involved. Remember Sheriff Wayne Mcalvin held a press
28:13
Speaker 2: conference and said he would hunt down anyone who spread
28:16
Speaker 2: untrue rumors about his son, Richard Mcalvin, who once again
28:20
Speaker 2: has been cleared by law enforcement. At that same press conference,
28:25
Speaker 2: Richard Mcalvin said he didn't know any of the victims,
28:28
Speaker 2: but Stacy's friend, Missy, said that Richard and Stacy definitely
28:32
Speaker 2: knew each other.
28:34
Speaker 4: This was years before all this drama happened, and she
28:38
Speaker 4: introduced me to Richard Mcalvin and Kevin Abel and they left,
28:44
Speaker 4: and she said you know who that was? And I
28:46
Speaker 4: said no. She goes, that was your boss's son, and
28:49
Speaker 4: I told I made a joke. I said, safety, I
28:51
Speaker 4: got a tone of bosses. What's the boss you're talking about.
28:54
Speaker 4: She said, oh, the main boss, Cheff mcklvin's son. And
28:58
Speaker 4: I said, oh, okay, And I kind of brushed it
29:01
Speaker 4: off because it didn't matter to me.
29:03
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of the reporting on kk's Corner
29:07
Speaker 2: has been focused on two people, Richard mcelvin and Thomas Cisco.
29:11
Speaker 2: But what if neither of them were involved? Was there
29:15
Speaker 2: anyone else who police were looking at early the investigation,
29:18
Speaker 2: anyone else who would have had a reason to hurt
29:21
Speaker 2: Stacy or to rob kk's Corner. There was someone else
29:25
Speaker 2: who police believed could have been the second gunman, A
29:28
Speaker 2: man named Chris, who had lived with Thomas Cisco at
29:31
Speaker 2: one point, was an early suspect.
29:34
Speaker 3: The former district.
29:35
Speaker 2: Attorney Rick Bryant said that, in his opinion, Chris looked
29:39
Speaker 2: like the composite drawing, but he said that Chris had
29:42
Speaker 2: an alibi. Police questioned the employee who quit kk's Corner,
29:47
Speaker 2: Miles Addison, several times. On July eighth, Miles Addison took
29:52
Speaker 2: a polygraph test and he failed it. Miles gave a
29:57
Speaker 2: videotape statement he completely denied having anything to do with
30:00
Speaker 2: or any knowledge of the killings at kk's corner. They
30:04
Speaker 2: talked to Miles Addison's mother, who told police at first
30:07
Speaker 2: that Miles had come home in the early morning hours
30:09
Speaker 2: of July six, but apparently later said she wasn't sure
30:13
Speaker 2: exactly when he came home that night, or if he
30:15
Speaker 2: came home at all. Later, when police talked to Miles,
30:18
Speaker 2: he told detectives he had talked to his mom about
30:20
Speaker 2: what she said. Apparently she was sleepy when she talked
30:24
Speaker 2: to the officers and she was wrong about him not
30:26
Speaker 2: coming home. Miles said that on Saturday, July fifth, he
30:30
Speaker 2: got up at around two pm. He went to visit
30:32
Speaker 2: some downstairs neighbors. They watched TV and smoke some pot.
30:35
Speaker 2: That went on until about nine pm.
30:37
Speaker 3: He said.
30:38
Speaker 2: Three friends of his showed up and they went riding
30:40
Speaker 2: around for a little while. Then they dropped him back
30:42
Speaker 2: at his apartment complex, and a few minutes later a
30:45
Speaker 2: friend of his name Mike, showed up with two women,
30:47
Speaker 2: Nicole and Sarah. He said the four of them went
30:51
Speaker 2: to eat at a place called Checkers. They were riding
30:53
Speaker 2: around smoking pot, stopped by a convenience.
30:55
Speaker 3: Story to get some cigarettes and candy.
30:57
Speaker 2: He said that they dropped him off back at his
31:00
Speaker 2: place at around eleven forty five pm.
31:02
Speaker 3: Detectives spoke to the other three people.
31:05
Speaker 2: They basically said the same thing that they showed up
31:07
Speaker 2: to pick Miles up, rode around in smoke Pot, made
31:10
Speaker 2: a couple of stops, and dropped him back at his
31:12
Speaker 2: place at around eleven forty five pm. The apartment complex
31:16
Speaker 2: where Miles lived was a little over two miles from
31:18
Speaker 2: kk's corner, according to Google Maps, about a five minute drive.
31:23
Speaker 2: There were also some conflicting stories from other people who
31:27
Speaker 2: police talked to about Miles's activities on July fifth. Shane
31:30
Speaker 2: Robinson said on July fifth, Miles came over and asked
31:34
Speaker 2: to borrow his truck. He said that Miles left at
31:38
Speaker 2: ten thirty pm and that he never saw him again
31:40
Speaker 2: that night. But the way the interviews worded it doesn't
31:44
Speaker 2: actually specify if Miles borrowed the truck and brought it
31:47
Speaker 2: back and then left without it, or if he left
31:50
Speaker 2: with it at ten thirty. It's very confusingly worded. Miles
31:54
Speaker 2: did admit he knew about drug dealing at Kk's Corner.
31:58
Speaker 2: He admitted to investigators during the time he worked there
32:00
Speaker 2: that he stole cigarettes and dealt drugs. He said he
32:03
Speaker 2: dealt LSD, pot and cocaine. He said Marty sometimes sold
32:07
Speaker 2: drugs out of the store as well. Miles also admitted
32:11
Speaker 2: he let his friends come in and steal merchandise from
32:13
Speaker 2: the store. He said he would also sometimes let them
32:16
Speaker 2: buy stuff but undercharge them for it. Miles Addison failed
32:21
Speaker 2: three different light detector tests. The questions that he failed,
32:24
Speaker 2: according to law enforcement documents, were whether he had knowledge
32:28
Speaker 2: of the events at kk's Corner, whether he knew who
32:31
Speaker 2: had committed the murders, and whether he was present at
32:34
Speaker 2: the time of the murders.
32:36
Speaker 3: Again, he denied.
32:38
Speaker 2: Yet anything to do with these murders or any knowledge
32:40
Speaker 2: of them, and he was never charged in connection with them.
32:44
Speaker 2: And honestly, I don't even know if police were being
32:47
Speaker 2: straight with him when they told him which questions he failed.
32:50
Speaker 3: We know they're allowed to lie to people.
32:53
Speaker 2: We have reached out to Miles Addison, but after some
32:56
Speaker 2: initial questions, he declined to answer any more and appeared
33:00
Speaker 2: to block our number. Next week in our final KKs
33:04
Speaker 2: Corner episode. We're going to take a look at the
33:06
Speaker 2: trial documents, specifically the closing arguments, and get details on
33:11
Speaker 2: which officers Stacy Reeves was meeting with regularly in the
33:14
Speaker 2: last weeks of her life. And we're going to try
33:17
Speaker 2: to find out what happened to that physical evidence, who
33:21
Speaker 2: was smoking that burnout cigarette in the cooler on the
33:24
Speaker 2: night three people were brutally murdered.
33:27
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
33:29
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
33:34
Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
33:37
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
33:40
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
33:43
Speaker 2: researchers sticks and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camer
33:47
Speaker 2: mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by
33:50
Speaker 2: Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C.
33:55
Speaker 3: Crowley.
33:56
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
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Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
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Speaker 2: are interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
34:05
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonepod.
34:09
Speaker 3: If you have a case you'd like me and my
34:11
Speaker 3: team to look into.
34:12
Speaker 2: You can reach out to us at our Helen Gone
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