Latest / Crime and Horror / Small town police officer never came home - MrBallen

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Small town police officer never came home - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One night in March of 1997, a man sat inside
0:03
Speaker 1: of his car outside of the Higginson, Arkansas police station,
0:06
Speaker 1: staring down at this muddy black plastic case. So a
0:10
Speaker 1: few days earlier, a local police officer had been murdered here.
0:14
Speaker 1: And so far, no one could figure out who did it.
0:16
Speaker 1: The police were asking all around town for information, but
0:19
Speaker 1: it was one dead end after another.
0:21
Speaker 2: But now, this man who had.
0:23
Speaker 1: Recently come into possession of this case, he knew that
0:27
Speaker 1: what was inside of this thing would solve the murder.
0:30
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:32
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0:56
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:20
Speaker 1: Early in the morning on March 14, 1997, a 39-year-old
1:24
Speaker 1: man named Danny Longstreet woke up to his alarm clock
1:27
Speaker 1: in the town of Higginson, Arkansas. Danny reached over and
1:30
Speaker 1: turned the alarm off before it woke his wife Mary up,
1:33
Speaker 1: who was sleeping right next to him.
1:34
Speaker 2: And then, as quietly as he.
1:35
Speaker 1: Could, he got out of bed and walked over to
1:37
Speaker 1: his closet, and he got dressed in his uniform, which
1:39
Speaker 1: was a police uniform. So Danny was one of just
1:43
Speaker 1: two full-time police officers in Higginson, which was tiny.
1:46
Speaker 2: It had a population of just barely over 300.
1:49
Speaker 1: He joined the force less than a year ago after
1:52
Speaker 1: spending 20 years in the army.
1:54
Speaker 2: And so far, he loved it.
1:55
Speaker 1: Danny really cared about his community and felt good about
1:58
Speaker 1: keeping people safe. Now, there wasn't a lot of crime
2:01
Speaker 1: in Higginson, so his shifts were usually pretty slow, especially
2:05
Speaker 1: this early in the morning. And then when anything did happen,
2:08
Speaker 1: it almost always was pretty minor and tended to involve
2:10
Speaker 1: the same few people every time. And so after getting dressed,
2:14
Speaker 1: Danny left his room and he headed towards the kitchen,
2:16
Speaker 1: being careful to be quiet as he made his way
2:18
Speaker 1: through the house so he didn't wake up his three daughters.
2:21
Speaker 1: Once he got there, he ate a quick breakfast, and
2:23
Speaker 1: then when the clock hit 3.20 a.m., he cleaned his dishes,
2:28
Speaker 1: grabbed his jacket, and he headed out the door to
2:30
Speaker 1: start the day. A little over an hour later, around 4.30 a.m.,
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Speaker 1: Danny drove his patrol car down Highway 11, which was
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Speaker 1: the main road that ran through town. It was still dark,
2:41
Speaker 1: and just like always, his shift so far had been
2:43
Speaker 1: very quiet. He'd driven around a bit and run registration
2:47
Speaker 1: checks on a few cars. The only vaguely exciting thing
2:50
Speaker 1: was that one of the plates he'd checked wasn't actually
2:53
Speaker 1: registered to the car it was on. But the car
2:55
Speaker 1: was gone by the time he had the information. So
2:58
Speaker 1: he'd just written down the plate number to look into
3:00
Speaker 1: it later. Now, up ahead, he could see that some
3:02
Speaker 1: lights were on in this roadside cafe. And he knew
3:05
Speaker 1: it was his friend Hazel Riley, who always worked the
3:08
Speaker 1: morning shift at this cafe. And so when Danny passed by,
3:11
Speaker 1: he slowed down and he flashed his lights as a greeting.
3:14
Speaker 1: And through the window, he could see Hazel look up
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Speaker 1: and wave hello. After that, Danny drove a few blocks
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Speaker 1: further down the road, and he stopped at the corner
3:22
Speaker 1: of Highway 11 and Baker Street. There was a local
3:25
Speaker 1: school bus stop there, and lately there had been reports
3:27
Speaker 1: of people passing the bus illegally. So Danny wanted to
3:31
Speaker 1: wait there and see if that happened. And so Danny
3:33
Speaker 1: pulled off the road, and he parked in a vacant
3:35
Speaker 1: lot right by the intersection, and then he cut the engine.
3:39
Speaker 1: And he was still sitting there almost an hour later
3:42
Speaker 1: when around 5.20 a.m., Out of the corner of his eye,
3:46
Speaker 1: he noticed something move outside the passenger window. He turned
3:50
Speaker 1: and he saw a figure standing in the darkness right
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Speaker 1: next to his car. And they suddenly raised a handgun.
3:58
Speaker 1: Seconds later, that cafe worker, Hazel Riley, was startled by
4:02
Speaker 1: the sound of three loud popping noises coming from somewhere
4:05
Speaker 1: off in the distance. She wasn't sure if it was
4:08
Speaker 1: a car backfiring or if they were gunshots. So she
4:11
Speaker 1: went outside to see what was going on. And when
4:14
Speaker 1: she squinted down the dark road, she could just barely
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Speaker 1: make out Danny's patrol car sitting at an intersection a
4:20
Speaker 1: few blocks away. And Hazel was relieved because now she
4:23
Speaker 1: could go tell Danny what she heard in case that
4:25
Speaker 1: was gunfire.
4:26
Speaker 2: You know, she would want Danny to go investigate.
4:29
Speaker 1: However, when Hazel left her cafe and actually reached Danny's
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Speaker 1: car and saw what was inside, she just started screaming.
4:41
Speaker 1: A couple hours later, around 7.30 a.m., Sergeant J.R. Howard
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Speaker 1: of the Arkansas State Police pulled into the lot at
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Speaker 1: the corner of Highway 11 and Baker Street. The Higginson
4:50
Speaker 1: Police Department only had two full-time officers, and one of them,
4:55
Speaker 1: Officer Danny Longstreet, had just been found shot to death
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Speaker 1: in his patrol car. So the County Sheriff's Department and
5:01
Speaker 1: State Police had naturally joined the case, and now Sergeant
5:05
Speaker 1: Howard had been named as the lead investigator. Howard had
5:08
Speaker 1: been surprised when he got the call. He lived in
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Speaker 1: the next town over, and he knew that this town, Higginson,
5:13
Speaker 1: did not have a lot of crime.
5:15
Speaker 2: So the idea that.
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Speaker 1: A police officer would be shot to death, I mean,
5:18
Speaker 1: that was huge news. And Howard knew that because of that,
5:22
Speaker 1: he was going to be under a lot of pressure
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Speaker 1: to solve this case and quick. Now, as Howard got
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Speaker 1: out of his car, the sun was just starting to
5:29
Speaker 1: come up, so it was still pretty dark. By this point,
5:32
Speaker 1: most of the lot was roped off with police tape,
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Speaker 1: and a forensics team was already moving around Danny's patrol car,
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Speaker 1: taking photos. Over by the tape perimeter, Howard saw there
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Speaker 1: was a single uniformed officer trying their best to hold
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Speaker 1: back a crowd of locals that had gathered there to
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Speaker 1: see what was going on. Howard walked over to that
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Speaker 1: officer and pulled him aside to get an update. And
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Speaker 1: the officer told him that there were a few witnesses
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Speaker 1: who had heard three gunshots, or what they thought were gunshots,
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Speaker 1: at 520 that morning.
5:59
Speaker 2: But no one had seen who had fired them.
6:01
Speaker 1: A local woman had eventually found Danny in his parked
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Speaker 1: patrol car, and by the time paramedics had arrived, he
6:07
Speaker 1: was already dead. Howard thanked the officer, who went back
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Speaker 1: to crowd control, and Howard himself walked over to the
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Speaker 1: patrol car and he shined his flashlight through the passenger
6:16
Speaker 1: side window, which was totally shattered, presumably from the gunshots.
6:20
Speaker 1: Inside the car, Danny was slumped over in the driver's
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Speaker 1: seat and his chest was completely.
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Speaker 2: Soaked in blood. There was glass all over the passenger seat.
6:28
Speaker 1: Which made it seem like the window had exploded inwards,
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Speaker 1: which meant that very likely Danny had been shot from
6:34
Speaker 1: someone standing outside the car.
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Speaker 2: And to Howard, I mean, this was pretty disappointing.
6:38
Speaker 1: Because if the killer had been standing outside and fired
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Speaker 1: the gun, well, it was unlikely they'd left fingerprints or.
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Speaker 2: DNA anywhere on the vehicle.
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Speaker 1: But this also gave Howard a theory, that this murder
6:50
Speaker 1: almost certainly had something to do with the fact that
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Speaker 1: Danny was a police officer, since obviously he was ambushed
6:56
Speaker 1: while he was just sitting here in his patrol car. Now,
6:59
Speaker 1: the violent crime rate in Higginson was basically zero, so
7:03
Speaker 1: it was unlikely that Danny... as a cop here, had
7:06
Speaker 1: ever interacted with a serious criminal. But this was a
7:10
Speaker 1: very insular community where about half of all households own firearms,
7:15
Speaker 1: so personal disputes could potentially get out of hand really quickly.
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Speaker 1: Danny could have arrested someone or even just given them
7:22
Speaker 1: a ticket, and they might have come back for revenge.
7:25
Speaker 1: As Howard continued looking around the inside of the car
7:28
Speaker 1: with his flashlight, the beam eventually hit something shiny and
7:31
Speaker 1: metallic on the floor of the passenger side. So he
7:35
Speaker 1: opened up the door and he took a closer look
7:37
Speaker 1: and he saw it was a shell casing. Howard asked
7:40
Speaker 1: a nearby technician to photograph and collect the casing. And
7:43
Speaker 1: then he went around to the driver's side door and
7:45
Speaker 1: he opened it up to get a better look at Danny.
7:48
Speaker 1: And what he could see was that Danny had been
7:50
Speaker 1: shot in the chest and also the arm. And when
7:53
Speaker 1: he examined Danny's arm wound, he noticed something written on
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Speaker 1: Danny's palm. And so Howard opened up Danny's hand and
8:00
Speaker 1: he shined the light on it to get a better look.
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Speaker 1: and he saw there were a whole bunch of numbers
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Speaker 1: and letters written on Danny's skin. And as he looked
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Speaker 1: at it, Howard realized it was a license plate number.
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9:39
Speaker 1: Around 10.30 a.m. on March 14, 1997, so about five
9:43
Speaker 1: hours after police officer Danny Longstreet was killed, Sergeant J.R.
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Speaker 1: Howard parked his cruiser in front of a house not
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Speaker 1: far away from the crime scene. One of Howard's officers
9:52
Speaker 1: had run a check on the license plate number that
9:54
Speaker 1: was written on Danny's hand, and it was registered to
9:57
Speaker 1: this address, which was the home of a man named
10:00
Speaker 1: Dale Miller. So, while the other investigators were canvassing the
10:04
Speaker 1: neighborhood and speaking to Danny's family and coworkers, Howard was
10:08
Speaker 1: here to speak to Dale. Howard didn't know yet if
10:11
Speaker 1: Dale and Danny even knew each other, but the fact
10:14
Speaker 1: that Dale's license plate was on a murdered man's hand
10:17
Speaker 1: immediately made Dale their primary suspect. Now, as Howard got
10:20
Speaker 1: out and began to approach the house, he could see
10:23
Speaker 1: there weren't any cars in Dale's driveway. However, his garage
10:26
Speaker 1: was closed, so he couldn't be sure if maybe the
10:29
Speaker 1: car he was looking for was in the garage or not.
10:32
Speaker 1: But he went up and he knocked on the front door,
10:35
Speaker 1: and a few seconds later, a man answered, looking very
10:38
Speaker 1: confused to see a state police officer on his front steps.
10:41
Speaker 1: Howard asked the man if he was Dale Miller, and
10:43
Speaker 1: when the man said yes, Howard explained that Officer Danny
10:47
Speaker 1: Longstreet had been murdered that morning and they'd found a
10:50
Speaker 1: license plate number written on his hand that was registered
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Speaker 1: to Dale. And Dale, when he heard this, just looked
10:57
Speaker 1: completely shocked. Howard proceeded to read the plate number out loud,
11:01
Speaker 1: just sort of to confirm that this was in fact
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Speaker 1: Dale's plate. And after Dale heard it, he said that, yes,
11:07
Speaker 1: that was the plate number for his old truck. But
11:10
Speaker 1: he said he didn't even drive that truck anymore. It
11:12
Speaker 1: was broken down and had been sitting at his sister's
11:15
Speaker 1: house for months. But then Dale's eyes narrowed as if
11:18
Speaker 1: something had just occurred to him. And he said now
11:20
Speaker 1: that he thought about it, he had caught his sister's friend,
11:23
Speaker 1: this guy Justin Swain, removing the plates from his old
11:27
Speaker 1: truck a few weeks ago. Dale said he'd confronted Justin
11:30
Speaker 1: about it, but Justin had said he just needed to
11:32
Speaker 1: borrow the plates so he could do an errand. Because
11:35
Speaker 1: apparently his tags were expired and he'd already gotten so
11:38
Speaker 1: many tickets he couldn't afford another. Dale said he had
11:41
Speaker 1: told Justin not to take the plates, but Justin did anyway.
11:45
Speaker 1: And as far as Dale knew, Justin very likely still
11:48
Speaker 1: had them. Now, Howard knew it was possible that this
11:51
Speaker 1: was all a big lie and that Dale was just
11:53
Speaker 1: trying to point the finger at somebody else here.
11:56
Speaker 2: But Howard wasn't sure yet. So he followed up.
11:58
Speaker 1: By asking Dale where he was at 5.20 that morning
12:01
Speaker 1: when Danny was shot. And Dale immediately said he was
12:04
Speaker 1: home asleep and that his wife, who wasn't home at
12:07
Speaker 1: the moment, she could confirm it. Howard thanked him and
12:10
Speaker 1: made a note to follow up with Dale's wife at
12:12
Speaker 1: some point. But more than anything at this point, what
12:15
Speaker 1: Howard wanted to do was follow up on Dale's story
12:18
Speaker 1: about Justin Swain and the borrowed license plates. Just before
12:23
Speaker 1: dawn the next morning, Sergeant Howard pulled up outside of
12:26
Speaker 1: Justin Swain's house and two other police cars parked right
12:29
Speaker 1: behind him. So Howard, the day before, after speaking with
12:32
Speaker 1: Dale and learning about Justin, well, he'd spent the entire
12:36
Speaker 1: afternoon looking into Justin. And he'd found out that Justin
12:39
Speaker 1: had a long history with Danny Longstreet. Danny had cited
12:43
Speaker 1: him several times for having an expired registration and for
12:46
Speaker 1: using fake tags. And during one of those stops a
12:49
Speaker 1: couple of months ago, Danny had actually arrested Justin on
12:53
Speaker 1: an outstanding warrant and took Justin to the county jail
12:55
Speaker 1: for the night.
12:56
Speaker 2: Howard had talked to the Higginson.
12:58
Speaker 1: Police chief, who had immediately recognized Justin Swain's name, and
13:01
Speaker 1: thought it was definitely possible that Justin could have had
13:04
Speaker 1: a vendetta against Danny. So Justin seemed like a really
13:08
Speaker 1: solid suspect, which for Howard was a relief because... He
13:12
Speaker 1: was also their only suspect. Dale's wife had confirmed his alibi,
13:16
Speaker 1: and Howard couldn't find any motive or personal connection between
13:20
Speaker 1: him and Danny, so he was ruled out. Howard had
13:23
Speaker 1: also looked into Danny's wife very briefly, since generally speaking,
13:27
Speaker 1: spouses are usually one of the first suspects in.
13:30
Speaker 2: A murder case.
13:31
Speaker 1: But she had an alibi that Howard had confirmed, so
13:34
Speaker 1: she too had been ruled out. And beyond that, Howard
13:37
Speaker 1: had not been able to find anyone else who had
13:40
Speaker 1: any problems with Danny, He seemed to be very well-liked
13:43
Speaker 1: in his community, and aside from his encounters with Justin,
13:46
Speaker 1: his police logs hadn't revealed anything significant. Howard was still
13:50
Speaker 1: waiting for forensics to come back on that shell casing
13:53
Speaker 1: that he had found in Danny's car, but there were
13:55
Speaker 1: a ton of gun owners in Arkansas, and there was
13:58
Speaker 1: no firearm registry, so Howard doubted that the results from
14:02
Speaker 1: the forensics team would give him much to work with. So,
14:05
Speaker 1: with Justin Swain as their best and only lead, Howard
14:10
Speaker 1: was at his property with a group of officers to
14:13
Speaker 1: not just speak to Justin, but also search his property
14:15
Speaker 1: for evidence. Now, as Howard got out of his car
14:18
Speaker 1: and walked up the driveway, he saw a truck parked
14:21
Speaker 1: outside the house. And the license plates didn't match the
14:25
Speaker 1: ones that had supposedly been stolen from Dale.
14:27
Speaker 2: But that didn't really tell him much.
14:29
Speaker 1: Dale could have been lying about Justin taking the plates,
14:32
Speaker 1: or Justin could have already switched them back out for
14:35
Speaker 1: different ones. But just then, A man came out of
14:38
Speaker 1: the house and immediately told the officers to get off
14:41
Speaker 1: his property. But Howard completely ignored this and just asked
14:44
Speaker 1: the man if he was Justin Swain. And the man,
14:47
Speaker 1: who clearly was agitated but didn't really know what he
14:49
Speaker 1: was going to do here, he just nodded and stared
14:52
Speaker 1: at Howard. And then Howard explained that, well, we're here
14:55
Speaker 1: because we're investigating Danny Longstreet's murder. And at that, Justin
14:59
Speaker 1: seemed to get really upset. And he said he had
15:02
Speaker 1: heard about the murder and he knew the police were
15:04
Speaker 1: going to come here and try to pin it on him. Now,
15:07
Speaker 1: Howard could see clearly Justin is very mad. He's mad
15:11
Speaker 1: people are here. He's mad he's getting blamed. And so
15:14
Speaker 1: Howard didn't want the situation to escalate. You know, Justin
15:17
Speaker 1: got too worked up. He might not want to talk here.
15:20
Speaker 1: So Howard told Justin that he was not here to
15:23
Speaker 1: pin anything on him. All he wanted was just a conversation.
15:27
Speaker 1: And eventually, with a little bit more coaxing, Justin agreed
15:30
Speaker 1: to go sit in Howard's car away from the other
15:33
Speaker 1: officers so they could just have a true one-on-one conversation.
15:37
Speaker 1: And once they were in the car, Howard started by
15:39
Speaker 1: asking Justin about his history with Danny. And Justin, he
15:43
Speaker 1: immediately got red in the face as he explained that
15:46
Speaker 1: Danny was constantly targeting him and pulling him over. And
15:49
Speaker 1: so Howard just listened for a second as Justin ranted.
15:52
Speaker 1: And then eventually when he was done, Howard told Justin
15:56
Speaker 1: about the license plate number they had found and what
15:59
Speaker 1: Dale had said about it, that basically Justin had stolen,
16:03
Speaker 1: borrowed these plates, and that at this point they believed
16:06
Speaker 1: Justin had these plates. And at this, Justin went from
16:10
Speaker 1: being defensive and angry to suddenly seeming really nervous.
16:14
Speaker 2: He admitted he had taken Dale's license plates. That was true.
16:18
Speaker 1: But he said he had put them back on that
16:20
Speaker 1: old truck at Dale's sister's house three days ago, which
16:23
Speaker 1: was two days before Danny was killed. He swore he
16:26
Speaker 1: had not even seen Danny all week, and he had
16:29
Speaker 1: no idea why that plate number would be written on
16:32
Speaker 1: Danny's hand.
16:33
Speaker 2: But Howard just didn't believe Justin.
16:37
Speaker 1: It was pretty clear that Justin really did not like Danny,
16:40
Speaker 1: and the more they spoke, the guiltier Justin seemed. So
16:44
Speaker 1: he asked Justin if there was anyone else he could
16:47
Speaker 1: talk to that could confirm any of Justin's story. A
16:51
Speaker 1: few minutes later, Howard was inside of Justin's house, sitting
16:54
Speaker 1: at his kitchen table with Justin's girlfriend, Amanda. Justin was
16:58
Speaker 1: waiting outside while Sergeant Howard spoke to his girlfriend, who
17:02
Speaker 1: Justin said would verify his story. And his girlfriend, Amanda,
17:06
Speaker 1: she seemed really calm, but she also was watching Howard
17:10
Speaker 1: really carefully. Howard asked Amanda if she could account for
17:13
Speaker 1: Justin's whereabouts at 5.20 a.m. on March 14th. And after
17:18
Speaker 1: a few seconds of hesitation, Amanda said, No. She said
17:23
Speaker 1: that the night before the murder, she and Justin had
17:25
Speaker 1: gotten into a big fight. She said they had gone
17:27
Speaker 1: to bed around midnight, and when Amanda woke up around
17:30
Speaker 1: 5 the next morning, Justin was gone, and he hadn't
17:34
Speaker 1: come home until 7.30 a.m. Howard tried to keep his
17:37
Speaker 1: expression neutral when he heard this, but, I mean, inside,
17:41
Speaker 1: he's thinking, this does not look good for Justin. Not
17:44
Speaker 1: only did he have a motive to kill Danny, I mean,
17:46
Speaker 1: clearly he did not like the guy and they were
17:48
Speaker 1: like feuding almost, it was also now clear he had
17:52
Speaker 1: more than enough time to actually commit the crime. Two
17:56
Speaker 1: days later, on the morning of March 17th, Sergeant Howard
18:00
Speaker 1: stood with some other officers at the same intersection where
18:02
Speaker 1: Danny had been killed while looking down the empty street.
18:05
Speaker 1: The police had set up a checkpoint here and were
18:07
Speaker 1: stopping every driver that came through to just ask them
18:11
Speaker 1: if they knew anything that might be.
18:12
Speaker 2: Helpful to the investigation.
18:14
Speaker 1: But so far, that morning had been really slow, just
18:18
Speaker 1: like the last two whole days of this investigation. Howard
18:22
Speaker 1: had been hoping to find more proof that Justin was
18:25
Speaker 1: involved in Danny's murder, but it turned out he did
18:29
Speaker 1: have an alibi after all. One of his friends had
18:31
Speaker 1: confirmed that he'd been at her house from around 4
18:34
Speaker 1: to 7 a.m. on the morning Danny was killed. And
18:38
Speaker 1: the stolen license plates, or borrowed license plates, had been
18:42
Speaker 1: put back on the old truck at Dale's sister's house,
18:44
Speaker 1: just as Justin had said. So it was a total
18:47
Speaker 1: mystery why Danny had written that plate number on his
18:49
Speaker 1: hand on the morning he was killed. I mean, the
18:51
Speaker 1: whole thing was so weird, and Justin seemed like he
18:55
Speaker 1: was going to be the guy, but Justin's alibi now
18:58
Speaker 1: meant that Howard really had to move on and cast
19:01
Speaker 1: a wider net for suspects, hence why they were out
19:03
Speaker 1: here asking random people if they had information. But that said,
19:08
Speaker 1: Howard knew that in a small town like this one,
19:11
Speaker 1: often the best source of information was the rumor mill.
19:14
Speaker 1: If Danny had any potential enemies or if anyone saw
19:18
Speaker 1: anything the night he was killed, someone in this town
19:21
Speaker 1: would know about it. And so that's what they were
19:23
Speaker 1: gambling on with this checkpoint. I mean, it was a
19:25
Speaker 1: long shot and they so far hadn't gotten any helpful
19:28
Speaker 1: information from it yet. But with no other good leads
19:31
Speaker 1: and very little evidence, Howard was sort of desperate. And
19:35
Speaker 1: so here he was out here hoping for the best.
19:37
Speaker 1: Just then, another car was coming down the road, and
19:40
Speaker 1: as one of the other officers flagged them down to
19:42
Speaker 1: speak to them, Howard was holding on to hope that
19:45
Speaker 1: maybe this car would be different.
19:47
Speaker 2: Maybe these people would know something.
19:49
Speaker 1: The car came to a stop in front of the officers,
19:51
Speaker 1: and the man in the driver's seat rolled down the window.
19:54
Speaker 1: Howard watched the other officer explain to this man that
19:56
Speaker 1: they were simply looking for information in Danny Longstreet's murder.
20:00
Speaker 1: And Howard, he looked at the driver as this officer
20:03
Speaker 1: was explaining this, and he could see the driver seemed
20:06
Speaker 1: really nervous. And so Howard was glad when the other
20:09
Speaker 1: officer picked up on it and pressed the guy a bit.
20:13
Speaker 1: And he asked the driver, like, hey, do you know
20:15
Speaker 1: anyone that had a problem with Danny? Do you know
20:17
Speaker 1: anything about this? And after a few seconds of pretty
20:20
Speaker 1: obvious hesitation, the driver took a deep breath and then
20:24
Speaker 1: said that actually he did know something. There was one
20:27
Speaker 1: person who very well could have had a grudge against Danny.
20:31
Speaker 2: It was a man named Tim Askins.
20:34
Speaker 1: The driver said that a few weeks ago, Tim Askins
20:36
Speaker 1: had been driving drunk And while doing that, he crashed
20:40
Speaker 1: his Jeep into a street sign. But then he had
20:42
Speaker 1: fled the scene and later reported his Jeep stolen to
20:46
Speaker 1: the insurance company. But what Tim Askins didn't realize was
20:50
Speaker 1: that Danny had been on patrol that night and he
20:53
Speaker 1: had seen the crash happen. And he recognized Tim when
20:57
Speaker 1: he got out of the car. And so this driver,
20:59
Speaker 1: the one Howard and his officers have stopped, he said
21:02
Speaker 1: that Danny had filed a report on that incident. And
21:05
Speaker 1: now Tim was facing felony charges for insurance fraud, and
21:09
Speaker 1: if found guilty, he could go to prison. And the
21:11
Speaker 1: driver said Danny was supposed to testify at his upcoming trial.
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22:22
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of March 17, 1997, so three days
22:26
Speaker 1: after Danny Longstreet was killed, Sergeant J.R. Howard walked up
22:30
Speaker 1: to the front door of the house of his new
22:31
Speaker 1: primary suspect, Tim Askins. Inside the house, Howard could hear
22:36
Speaker 1: music playing really loud and multiple people talking and laughing inside.
22:40
Speaker 2: So now, Howard knocked on the door, and a few
22:43
Speaker 2: seconds later, a young man answered.
22:46
Speaker 1: And as soon as the young man saw Howard's uniform,
22:49
Speaker 1: he visibly frowned, like he reacted very negatively to seeing
22:52
Speaker 1: a cop.
22:53
Speaker 2: Howard asked him if he was Tim Askins.
22:56
Speaker 1: And the man nodded and then stepped outside and closed
22:59
Speaker 1: the door behind him. Tim seemed really annoyed, and he
23:01
Speaker 1: quickly said that, you know, he had some family over,
23:04
Speaker 1: and they didn't need some cop coming over here interrupting
23:07
Speaker 1: their gathering. Howard was completely unfazed and just got right
23:10
Speaker 1: to business, and he asked Tim if he knew anything
23:13
Speaker 1: about Danny Longstreet's murder. And Tim immediately shook his head.
23:17
Speaker 1: He said he'd heard about it and admitted that he
23:19
Speaker 1: definitely did not like Danny. He could even be going
23:21
Speaker 1: to prison because of Danny, in fact. But he insisted
23:25
Speaker 1: he had nothing to do with Danny's death. But when
23:27
Speaker 1: Howard asked him for an alibi, Tim, who had already
23:30
Speaker 1: been a little cagey out here, suddenly got very defensive.
23:35
Speaker 1: He said he'd been at work from 8 p.m.
23:37
Speaker 2: To 8 a.m.
23:37
Speaker 1: At this factory in the next town over, so he
23:39
Speaker 1: couldn't possibly have had anything to do with Danny's death.
23:42
Speaker 2: Even if he wanted to, he couldn't have.
23:44
Speaker 1: Howard was just staring at Tim as he was saying
23:46
Speaker 1: all this, and Tim seemed very on guard. And so far,
23:51
Speaker 1: Tim was the only suspect who actually had anything tangible
23:55
Speaker 1: to gain from Danny's death. I mean, if it was
23:57
Speaker 1: true he was going to testify against him, that's a
23:59
Speaker 1: big deal.
24:00
Speaker 2: So if he dies, he doesn't testify.
24:02
Speaker 1: But Howard kept his opinions to himself, and instead he
24:05
Speaker 1: just asked Tim for his boss's contact information because he
24:09
Speaker 1: would have to reach out to them and confirm Tim's alibi.
24:13
Speaker 1: Tim very hesitantly gave the information, and after Howard got it,
24:17
Speaker 1: he just turned and went back to his car. Later
24:20
Speaker 1: that night, around 6.30 p.m., Howard hung up the phone
24:23
Speaker 1: in his office and just leaned back in his chair.
24:25
Speaker 1: He'd just gotten off the phone with Tim Askin's boss,
24:29
Speaker 1: and his work records had confirmed that Tim was at
24:32
Speaker 1: the factory the whole morning and didn't even clock out
24:35
Speaker 1: for any breaks. So, Tim could not have killed Danny Longstreet.
24:39
Speaker 1: And because of this, I mean, Howard was very frustrated.
24:42
Speaker 1: This was the second time he'd found what seemed like
24:45
Speaker 1: a great suspect who ended up having an alibi. Justin
24:49
Speaker 1: Swain and Tim Askins both had criminal records and a
24:53
Speaker 1: motivation to hurt Danny. But the alibis were a big roadblock,
24:57
Speaker 1: and Howard hadn't found any other evidence to link either
25:00
Speaker 1: of them to the crime. And after spending all day
25:03
Speaker 1: canvassing drivers and speaking to what felt like everyone in
25:07
Speaker 1: the town of Higginson, the investigators had only gotten one
25:11
Speaker 1: other tip. One resident had said that he had overheard
25:14
Speaker 1: someone at a pool hall in town saying that if
25:18
Speaker 1: Danny hadn't slept with another man's wife, he'd still be alive. Now,
25:23
Speaker 1: this could have just been gossip or speculation, but it
25:27
Speaker 1: at least opened up the possibility that Danny was maybe
25:30
Speaker 1: having an affair, which gave Howard something else to look into.
25:33
Speaker 1: But Howard was also thinking about a totally different possibility here,
25:38
Speaker 1: that maybe Danny wasn't the actual target. All of the
25:42
Speaker 1: Higginson patrol cars looked the same, and it was still
25:44
Speaker 1: dark when he was killed, so maybe the killer could
25:47
Speaker 1: have mistaken him for another officer on the force. But
25:51
Speaker 1: Howard had looked into this, and, you know, there was
25:53
Speaker 1: only one other police officer in addition to a couple
25:56
Speaker 1: other people that worked for the force, and none of
25:59
Speaker 1: them had any obvious enemies either, so it wasn't like
26:02
Speaker 1: there was some other obvious target here. And so at
26:04
Speaker 1: this point, Howard felt like he was just throwing ideas
26:07
Speaker 1: at the wall and hoping that something would stick. He
26:11
Speaker 1: really desperately needed at least one piece of hard evidence
26:14
Speaker 1: to point him in the right direction here. And just then,
26:17
Speaker 1: there was a knock on Howard's door, and the man
26:20
Speaker 1: he didn't recognize stepped inside. And this man just immediately
26:24
Speaker 1: walked over to his desk, and he set down this
26:26
Speaker 1: muddy black plastic case on Howard's desk, and.
26:30
Speaker 2: Then he opened it up, revealing a gun.
26:32
Speaker 1: And he told Howard that this gun was the actual
26:35
Speaker 1: weapon that was used to kill Danny Longstreet. Based on
26:41
Speaker 1: forensic evidence and witness interviews, this is what police believe
26:45
Speaker 1: happened to Danny Longstreet on the morning of March 14, 1997.
26:56
Speaker 2: A little before 5.20 a.m.
26:58
Speaker 1: On the day that Danny was killed, the killer was
27:00
Speaker 1: sitting in the backseat of a car as it drove
27:02
Speaker 1: down Highway 11.
27:04
Speaker 2: The killer's two.
27:04
Speaker 1: Accomplices were in the front of the car, and a
27:07
Speaker 1: black plastic gun case was on the floor by the
27:09
Speaker 1: killer's feet. The killer knew Danny's patrol route, so they
27:13
Speaker 1: knew exactly where he'd be at that hour. And so
27:15
Speaker 1: after they drove past that cafe on Highway 11 and
27:18
Speaker 1: they approached Baker Street, the killer told their accomplices to
27:21
Speaker 1: go ahead and pull over. At this point, the killer
27:24
Speaker 1: put on some gloves, they opened up that black plastic case,
27:28
Speaker 1: and they.
27:28
Speaker 2: Pulled out a gun.
27:29
Speaker 1: They got out of the car, and as they walked
27:31
Speaker 1: towards the corner where Danny's patrol car was parked, their
27:34
Speaker 1: heart raced with anticipation. The killer made sure to approach
27:38
Speaker 1: the patrol car from behind to sort of stay in
27:41
Speaker 1: Danny's blind spot, and then slowly the killer crept up
27:45
Speaker 1: to the passenger side window. There, they raised their gun,
27:49
Speaker 1: they aimed it at Danny, and they fired three times. Danny,
27:53
Speaker 1: he slumped over, bleeding profusely, at which point the killer
27:56
Speaker 1: turned and ran back to their car and jumped in
27:59
Speaker 1: the back seat. The driver immediately hit the gas, and
28:02
Speaker 1: the three of them, the killer and their two accomplices,
28:05
Speaker 1: sped off down the road to this dump that was
28:07
Speaker 1: north of town. And when they got there, they got
28:09
Speaker 1: out and they dug a hole and they buried the
28:11
Speaker 1: gun to get rid of the evidence. And after that,
28:14
Speaker 1: the killer simply went back to work, hoping that no
28:17
Speaker 1: one had noticed he was ever gone.
28:20
Speaker 2: The killer was.
28:20
Speaker 1: Indeed Tim Askins, the young man that Danny had seen
28:24
Speaker 1: crash his Jeep drunk and who was now facing insurance
28:27
Speaker 1: fraud charges. Even though Tim's work records did initially confirm
28:31
Speaker 1: his alibi, none of his co-workers actually remembered seeing him.
28:35
Speaker 2: At work around the time of Danny's murder.
28:37
Speaker 1: It would turn out Tim had recruited his 18-year-old sister,
28:40
Speaker 1: Christy Fulgham, and her 17-year-old husband, Jess Fulgham, to both
28:45
Speaker 1: drive him to the scene and then pick him up after,
28:48
Speaker 1: drive him away, and then to help him bury the
28:50
Speaker 1: gun after the murder. But the gun that was used
28:53
Speaker 1: in the murder, it didn't belong to them. Jess and
28:56
Speaker 1: Christy had borrowed it from a friend a few weeks earlier,
28:59
Speaker 1: and pretty soon the friend had come around asking for
29:02
Speaker 1: it back.
29:03
Speaker 2: And so Jess went and dug up the gun and
29:06
Speaker 2: gave it back to the friend.
29:07
Speaker 1: Noticed that there were three bullets missing. And since the
29:11
Speaker 1: police were literally stopping every person in town to both
29:15
Speaker 1: tell them about Danny's murder, that it was a cop,
29:17
Speaker 1: he was murdered right here, he was shot three times,
29:20
Speaker 1: and also to ask people to give up any information
29:22
Speaker 1: they had about Danny's murder, it didn't take long for
29:26
Speaker 1: this friend to put it all together and think, wait
29:29
Speaker 1: a minute, what were they using my gun for? And
29:32
Speaker 1: so in fear that he was holding onto a potential
29:36
Speaker 1: murder weapon, He took that borrowed gun with the missing
29:39
Speaker 1: bullets to the police, and then the police figured it out.
29:43
Speaker 1: Tim Askins was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to
29:46
Speaker 1: life in prison without parole. His brother-in-law, Jess, was also
29:49
Speaker 1: convicted of murder and sentenced to life, and Christy got
29:53
Speaker 1: six years for hindering the apprehension of a suspect. Thank
30:02
Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
30:04
Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we
30:07
Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
30:10
Speaker 1: you to binge right now.
30:11
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
30:14
Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.