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"Woman in the Wall" found dead after neighbors call cops about "horrendous smell" · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Today on Crime Stories, we head to southern California. Rich
0:10
Speaker 1: Lopez received a phone call from an informant who said
0:13
Speaker 1: that she had information that there was a body hidden
0:16
Speaker 1: in the wall. Joining Nancy Grace. Darryl Cohen, former Assistant
0:19
Speaker 1: District Attorney Fulton County, Georgia, now famed defense attorney. James
0:23
Speaker 1: shell Nutt twenty seven years Atlanta Metro Major Case Detectives
0:27
Speaker 1: as WAT officer, now retired. Doctor Katherine Maloney, Deputy Chief
0:31
Speaker 1: Medical Examiner for Erie County, New York. Doctor Carlo Manley,
0:34
Speaker 1: clinical psychologist and author of Aging Joyfully and Joy From Fear.
0:38
Speaker 1: And from Heavy dot Com reporter Jennifer Zikowski Crime Stories
0:53
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. We're in Little Media. We're at Palace
0:57
Speaker 1: for today's Drive and Western. This is an apartment complex
0:59
Speaker 1: with about a hundred units by my count here and
1:02
Speaker 1: just beyond that crime scene tape in the second farthest
1:07
Speaker 1: unit on the first floor, we have seen homicide investigators
1:10
Speaker 1: come in and out. Neighbors tell us that the resident
1:15
Speaker 1: noticed a smell, reported it, and discovered a body within
1:21
Speaker 1: the wall. We also don't understand the nature of this.
1:25
Speaker 1: I mean, these are typical apartment walls. We're talking maybe
1:28
Speaker 1: about four to five inches thick, So there is a
1:31
Speaker 1: possibility is this an adult body, is an infant or
1:36
Speaker 1: a child. At this point, we do not know. We're
1:38
Speaker 1: just going by what neighbors are speaking about here this morning,
1:42
Speaker 1: at this complex. As they wake up and get this
1:43
Speaker 1: very shocking news that the Sheriff's department is here investigating
1:47
Speaker 1: potentially a body found within the walls of this apartment complex.
1:52
Speaker 1: Neighbors alert police to a horrible smell. The next thing
1:57
Speaker 1: you know, they are on the same with canines. I mean, see, Grace,
2:02
Speaker 1: this is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
2:06
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. This really seems like the
2:09
Speaker 1: plot out of a horror movie. The woman in the Wall.
2:13
Speaker 1: LA County cadaver dogs have alerted to possible human remains
2:17
Speaker 1: found inside of an apartment here at Harbor Hills. LA
2:20
Speaker 1: County homicide detectives are conducting a joint investigation with the
2:24
Speaker 1: Coroner's Office. Corners officials have actually done some excavating inside
2:29
Speaker 1: the residence and they have removed what appears to be
2:32
Speaker 1: human remains. In terms of identity, sex, race, possible cause
2:38
Speaker 1: of death, it's something that's gonna have to be determined.
2:41
Speaker 1: In the days that follow Apparently the Sheriff's Department received
2:44
Speaker 1: a tip from a confidential source. Detectives are not releasing
2:48
Speaker 1: many details, but according to rumblings among neighbors, the body
2:52
Speaker 1: had been stuffed into an open space behind a staircase
2:56
Speaker 1: inside of a storage closet. Then quite possibly the culprit
3:00
Speaker 1: or perpetrators sealed it up with drywall. You were hearing
3:04
Speaker 1: our friends at KTLA five. That was Chris Wolf and
3:08
Speaker 1: Chris Burrus. How does that happen? A woman in a wall?
3:14
Speaker 1: Sounds like straight out of a horror film? With me
3:16
Speaker 1: an all star panel, renowned defense attorney, former prosecutor Darryl
3:21
Speaker 1: Cohen out of the Atlanta Jurisdiction and landa Metro major
3:24
Speaker 1: case detective SWAT officer retired now lawyer James Shellnutt, doctor
3:30
Speaker 1: Katherine Maloney, Forensics Deputy Chief Medical Examiner at Erie County
3:36
Speaker 1: Medical Examiner's Office, Nickel City Forensics and joining me a
3:40
Speaker 1: reporter with Heavy dot Com, Jennifer Zikowski. Straight to you, Jennifer,
3:45
Speaker 1: what first alerted neighbors? How did they not know something
3:49
Speaker 1: was wrong for this period of time? Well, you know
3:53
Speaker 1: this story, Nancy begins in June of two thousand and nine,
3:57
Speaker 1: when family members reported thirty one year old Raven Joy
4:01
Speaker 1: Campbell missing from Lameda, California, that's located about eighteen miles
4:05
Speaker 1: outside of Los Angeles, and also the mother of a
4:08
Speaker 1: seven year old son. Lived with a roommate by the
4:11
Speaker 1: name of Randolph Garbutt, who is now forty seven years old. Raven,
4:17
Speaker 1: who was described by family as innocent, loving and kind,
4:20
Speaker 1: had moved into the complex in two thousand and eight
4:23
Speaker 1: after having lived at a group home. The Atlanta Journal
4:26
Speaker 1: Constitution reported a friend from high school, Nicole Nelson, asked
4:31
Speaker 1: her if she wanted to move into the apartment along
4:34
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend and as I said before, Randolph Garbutt,
4:38
Speaker 1: in order to save money. An officer later said the
4:41
Speaker 1: roommates all became friends even from the get go. Raven
4:45
Speaker 1: Campbell's family became suspicious of their lovedoings disappearance, and one
4:49
Speaker 1: of her sisters said she would have never left home
4:52
Speaker 1: without her persontee, not many women do. She never went
4:56
Speaker 1: anywhere without her purse, trap to her body, and also
5:00
Speaker 1: phone calls to family and friends also ceased, which wasn't
5:04
Speaker 1: like her. So how that went on for so long.
5:10
Speaker 1: People are you know, family members are sort of bleeding
5:14
Speaker 1: authorities seeing why wasn't this this location looked into further
5:19
Speaker 1: at the time when she went missing in two thousand
5:22
Speaker 1: and nine. Well, I've got to agree straight out to
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Speaker 1: James shell Nutt SWAT officer now lawyer, James, I don't
5:28
Speaker 1: get it. This is where she lived. This was her
5:32
Speaker 1: new roommate, him and his girlfriend. That would be the
5:36
Speaker 1: first place you look. How can you miss a body
5:39
Speaker 1: in the wall unless it was moved. Yeah, that's certainly
5:42
Speaker 1: possible that it was. You know, it's also possible that
5:45
Speaker 1: when they looked, the body had not gone into full composition.
5:48
Speaker 1: You know, bodies don't immediately start emitting an odor and
5:51
Speaker 1: when they start breaking down and going through that process,
5:54
Speaker 1: if it was shortly afterwards, maybe they didn't. Of course,
5:56
Speaker 1: you're right, it could have been moved back there and
5:59
Speaker 1: put there. You know, obviously, you know from the reports
6:02
Speaker 1: that says that they try to conceal it with some drywall.
6:04
Speaker 1: It's possible they could have put the drywall up and
6:06
Speaker 1: concealed it. It is not the normal place to find
6:10
Speaker 1: the body behind drywall, and maybe they just didn't put
6:14
Speaker 1: enough effort into really searching it. Darryl Cohen, former prosecutor
6:18
Speaker 1: in the Fullton County District Attorney's Office, now defense attorney.
6:22
Speaker 1: You can find him at Daryl Cohen dot TV. Daryl,
6:25
Speaker 1: I mean you prosecuted and defended a lot of homicides.
6:30
Speaker 1: In fact, you and I would cross paths in the
6:32
Speaker 1: hallway in the District Attorney's office. I never had a
6:36
Speaker 1: case where the body had a lot of concealed bodies
6:39
Speaker 1: a lot. Never had one behind drywall? Did you not
6:43
Speaker 1: ever in my career have I even heard of it
6:46
Speaker 1: before this? It's interesting in many many ways. Darn. Yeah,
6:51
Speaker 1: well maybe now. And it's interesting in many ways because
6:54
Speaker 1: it has to be a very thin body or very
6:56
Speaker 1: sick drywall. I mean, how do you do this? And
7:00
Speaker 1: why would you do well? Now, wait a minute, Jennifer Zikowski,
7:02
Speaker 1: Heavy dot Com reporter. Now, didn't they say there was
7:05
Speaker 1: a space It was like behind a closet, and then
7:09
Speaker 1: there was a space and then they just covered it
7:11
Speaker 1: up with drywall. It's not like they, Daryl, At first,
7:14
Speaker 1: I thought the same thing, because let's just say you
7:17
Speaker 1: walk through a door and on one side of the door,
7:20
Speaker 1: where your right hand is is drywall on the other
7:23
Speaker 1: side of the door, there's some more drywall. There's a
7:26
Speaker 1: little space in between, I think there is anyway, and yes,
7:30
Speaker 1: that's way too thin. But Jennifer Zikowski, how did I
7:34
Speaker 1: don't quite understand the manner in which she was hidden
7:40
Speaker 1: behind drywall? Okay, so there is a little bit more
7:44
Speaker 1: to that. I detective in the case said, Okay, so,
7:47
Speaker 1: typically when you picture a hole in the wall, what
7:50
Speaker 1: most of us picture would be a hole in the
7:52
Speaker 1: wall with a floor directly at the face of the wall,
7:56
Speaker 1: if you can kind of paint a picture of that,
7:59
Speaker 1: he said, that is not the case here. It was
8:02
Speaker 1: a configuration where the hole in the wall inside of
8:05
Speaker 1: the closet area actually dropped down several feet to a
8:09
Speaker 1: dirt floor. And on top of that, the one reason,
8:14
Speaker 1: you know, going back to how did they not you know,
8:16
Speaker 1: smell this this body, even if it was initial stages
8:21
Speaker 1: of decomposition. While they are saying that it was concealed,
8:26
Speaker 1: the odor of the body was concealed with the use
8:29
Speaker 1: of laboratory air fresheners. Several laboratory air fresheners. Can that
8:36
Speaker 1: really conceal the smell? That's what the that's what they
8:38
Speaker 1: said I find that really hard to believe. Take a
8:41
Speaker 1: listen to our friend Ted Chin at NBC four Shares.
8:46
Speaker 1: Investigators say it will have to be a corner to
8:49
Speaker 1: determine exactly who this person was. The family came up
8:52
Speaker 1: to us and say they believe they are certain who
8:55
Speaker 1: this was. It was their sister who is missing, who
8:58
Speaker 1: has been missing since two thousand and found behind the
9:01
Speaker 1: wall of her own apartment complex, now Raven Joy Campbell.
9:05
Speaker 1: She was thirty one year years old at the time.
9:07
Speaker 1: Her family says she has a thirteen year old son.
9:09
Speaker 1: Elie County Chriff's investigators say they got a tip yesterday
9:11
Speaker 1: about possible human remains. They used cadaver dogs to discover
9:15
Speaker 1: the body. They say they've found the body behind the
9:18
Speaker 1: wall of an apartment. The family of Raven Joy Campbell
9:21
Speaker 1: says people had been complaining about the smell and suspected
9:25
Speaker 1: it might be her, but they were told she could
9:27
Speaker 1: not be found. He've been no one for six years
9:30
Speaker 1: that she's been missing. So finally today they're gonna say, oh, well,
9:33
Speaker 1: we'll get back to you. So we joy out here
9:35
Speaker 1: ourselves because you all put it on news that our
9:37
Speaker 1: body had been found. This is where we told you
9:40
Speaker 1: she was, and that the body has to be her.
9:41
Speaker 1: There's no question again. Sheriff's investigators say it will take
9:44
Speaker 1: some time to confirm the identity of the human remains
9:47
Speaker 1: the body that was found. They say they will not
9:50
Speaker 1: be making any further statements today, but we will keep
9:52
Speaker 1: pressing and asking if they believe this could be possibly
9:56
Speaker 1: Raven Joy Campbell, missing now for six years. Crime Stories
10:08
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace that police opened up a wall near
10:12
Speaker 1: the staircase in this unit and found the remains. My
10:16
Speaker 1: feeling is that this is Raven. Is her cousin, Raven Kimball,
10:21
Speaker 1: who mysteriously disappeared six years ago while living here at
10:25
Speaker 1: Harbor Hills. Today, human remains were found stuffed in a
10:29
Speaker 1: wall inside unit five or seven at Harbor Hills, same
10:33
Speaker 1: apartment ravenhead in two thousand and nine. In terms of identity, sex, race,
10:40
Speaker 1: possible cause of death, it's something that's gonna have to
10:43
Speaker 1: be determined in the days that follow. But Raven's family
10:46
Speaker 1: members say, odds are it's their girl. She went missing
10:49
Speaker 1: from that location. That location was never thoroughly searched, and
10:53
Speaker 1: now we get a call and they find human remains.
10:57
Speaker 1: The chances that have being someone else. It's pretty pretty new.
11:00
Speaker 1: You are hearing our friends at KTLA that was Rick Chambers.
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Speaker 1: Oh my stars. Can you imagine the anger of that
11:09
Speaker 1: family reporting with heavy dot com Jennifer Zikowski, no wonder
11:14
Speaker 1: they're angry. It was even the same apartment where she
11:16
Speaker 1: lived six years ago, exactly. That's that's what's so disturbing
11:21
Speaker 1: about this all. How did it take so long? You know?
11:25
Speaker 1: Tenants they apparently it had complained of a foul odor
11:30
Speaker 1: emitting from the apartment previously and it got pretty pretty bad,
11:38
Speaker 1: and that's when they called called investigators up and they
11:42
Speaker 1: got involved acting on that kid. The detectives went to
11:46
Speaker 1: the home and the next day they received permission to
11:49
Speaker 1: enter the premises from a new tenant who lived there.
11:52
Speaker 1: Of course, you know this was over six years later,
11:55
Speaker 1: someone else lived there. They proceeded to enter the home
11:59
Speaker 1: along with Kana, and those canines watched their hearts send
12:03
Speaker 1: something inside of a closet beneath a staircase in the apartment.
12:07
Speaker 1: Investigators were then given permission to knock it down after
12:11
Speaker 1: finding a hole that had been obviously catched up, and
12:16
Speaker 1: that's when they knew something was off. In the next
12:19
Speaker 1: week is when Raven Campbell's remains were removed from where
12:24
Speaker 1: Offers officers had taken down that wall, which was an
12:28
Speaker 1: empty area up beneath the steps as we had previously spaded.
12:32
Speaker 1: And you know, she had moved in in order to
12:35
Speaker 1: save money, but ultimately saving money for this young mother
12:39
Speaker 1: would also ultimately cost her her life. Guys, we are
12:43
Speaker 1: talking about a lovely young woman that goes missing six
12:48
Speaker 1: years ago at the time with a seven year old child,
12:52
Speaker 1: her pocketboot that she always carried strapped across her front,
12:56
Speaker 1: wearing it, you know, across her shoulder, and herself on
12:59
Speaker 1: stiff in the apartment. Everybody knew that didn't make sense.
13:03
Speaker 1: Joining me from Nickel City Forensics the Deputy Chief Medical
13:07
Speaker 1: Examiner at Erie County and Buffalo doctor Catherine Maloney, Dodgor
13:13
Speaker 1: Maloney again, thank you for being with us and taking
13:15
Speaker 1: time out of your very busy schedule to be with us.
13:18
Speaker 1: Dodger Maloney. Hey, if any of you listening have a
13:21
Speaker 1: weak stomach, you know what turned down the volume for
13:23
Speaker 1: just a moment, Doctor Maloney. I gotta figure this thing out.
13:27
Speaker 1: I did. I would not have believed that a body
13:30
Speaker 1: would still have a stinch a decomposing body six years later,
13:35
Speaker 1: I would have thought by that time it would have
13:36
Speaker 1: been more mummified. Well, it really depends on the conditions
13:39
Speaker 1: of the body. It sounds like he had wrapped the
13:42
Speaker 1: body in a blanket and a sheet of plastic, and
13:44
Speaker 1: so that probably would have made it difficult for things
13:49
Speaker 1: like flies and other animals to sort of break the
13:52
Speaker 1: body down and kind of would have trapped all the
13:55
Speaker 1: smell inside. So I wonder if something started happening where
13:58
Speaker 1: maybe the plastics started to give way, and that's why
14:00
Speaker 1: the order became much worse after six years of her
14:03
Speaker 1: being down there. Okay, you know what, I hear you talking,
14:08
Speaker 1: But it's still not making sense to me why after
14:12
Speaker 1: six years her body was to the point that there
14:17
Speaker 1: was a stanch, because comin sense dictates to me that
14:21
Speaker 1: it would have been mummified. Why again, are you telling
14:24
Speaker 1: me neighbors could smell it. So with mummification, what you
14:28
Speaker 1: really need is a very cool, dry environment, and so
14:31
Speaker 1: with the body being wrapped in plastic, that probably perended
14:35
Speaker 1: it from drying out. And so if the body can't
14:37
Speaker 1: dry out, then it can't really mummified, and instead it
14:40
Speaker 1: kind of gets sort of slimy and gooey. So that's
14:45
Speaker 1: probably what happened to her body. And then at some
14:47
Speaker 1: point maybe the plastic broke down or something happened and
14:50
Speaker 1: the smell became more apparent. Now that makes sense to me.
14:54
Speaker 1: With the body being encased in plastic, it didn't have
14:58
Speaker 1: a chance to quote I out there was also a comforter,
15:03
Speaker 1: just to add that in over the plastic to make
15:07
Speaker 1: it even more concealed, and maybe that also added a
15:11
Speaker 1: layer to that concealing that smell. Oh, that's that's a
15:14
Speaker 1: good point. Jennifer'skowsky with me heavy dot com because apparently
15:18
Speaker 1: her body I'm talking about the body of a thirty
15:21
Speaker 1: two year old mom, Raving Campbell, was found wrapped in
15:25
Speaker 1: a blanket or, as Jennifer is telling me, a comforter,
15:28
Speaker 1: which is even more I guess fluffy and would hold
15:31
Speaker 1: in more heat. About wrapped in a comforter and then
15:36
Speaker 1: a sheet of plastic. You know what's what's confusing to me?
15:41
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, defense attorney out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. If
15:45
Speaker 1: the neighbors were complaining of this stinch, what about the
15:48
Speaker 1: people that lived there? Well, do you remember the other day,
15:53
Speaker 1: we were speaking with a doctor. It was a medical examiner,
15:57
Speaker 1: a male medical examina. His name is going to come
15:59
Speaker 1: to mind in a moment, and I asked him, how
16:02
Speaker 1: do you perform him one autopsy after the next and
16:06
Speaker 1: keep breathing with a smell of dcom He goes, Oh,
16:09
Speaker 1: my kid brother pushed me in the nose when I
16:12
Speaker 1: was little. I have no sense of smell. I'm like, okay,
16:15
Speaker 1: I guess that's a plus in your line of business.
16:18
Speaker 1: But Daryl Cohen, how could the residents not know something
16:21
Speaker 1: was horribly wrong? Why did it take neighbors to call police? Nancy,
16:25
Speaker 1: I am baffled. But perhaps it goes back to the
16:28
Speaker 1: old days when women would have their hair permed, and
16:32
Speaker 1: you could go to a department store. Those of us
16:35
Speaker 1: who didn't work there heard a smell, a terrible odor.
16:40
Speaker 1: Those people that worked there just didn't smell it. They
16:43
Speaker 1: became oblivious to it. Perhaps the neighbors the residents thought, well,
16:49
Speaker 1: this is normal. I don't understand how they would think
16:52
Speaker 1: it's normal. But there are some things that we just
16:55
Speaker 1: cannot explain. This is one I think that's not explainable.
16:59
Speaker 1: I just don't understand. In house six years pass and
17:01
Speaker 1: cops knew nothing. What do we know about the body?
17:06
Speaker 1: To you, Jennifer Skowski, what was the cood or could
17:09
Speaker 1: they even tell? Well? Yes, So what they determined was
17:13
Speaker 1: that Raven Campbell was eaten to death with a hammer.
17:16
Speaker 1: She was blushing to death, an absolutely horrifying way to go,
17:20
Speaker 1: and they determined that she died of blunt force trauma.
17:24
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Lieutenant Steve Yak with the La
17:28
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department. Ultimately, the case went cold, and fortunately
17:32
Speaker 1: in June of two thousand and fifteen, homicide detective Rich
17:36
Speaker 1: Lopez received a phone call from an informant who said
17:39
Speaker 1: that she had information that there was a body hidden
17:42
Speaker 1: in the wall of the residence in Lomita where Raven
17:46
Speaker 1: Campbell went missing from in two thousand and nine. Detectives
17:48
Speaker 1: responded to that residence that day, there was no one
17:50
Speaker 1: at home. Ultimately, that weekend, detectives used a cadaver dog
17:55
Speaker 1: who showed interest in a certain portion of the residence.
17:58
Speaker 1: It was a portion of a clause it and there
18:00
Speaker 1: appeared to be a patchwork hole a hole had been
18:02
Speaker 1: patched over in the closet. Detectives removed the actual piece
18:06
Speaker 1: of paneling that was used to patch it up, and
18:08
Speaker 1: there appeared to be something suspicious behind this wall on
18:11
Speaker 1: the floor, a floor a good distance down in this
18:14
Speaker 1: closet area of the residence. Ultimately, the following week, the
18:17
Speaker 1: sort team from the Corner's office and homicide detectives responded
18:21
Speaker 1: and human remains were exhoomed and recovered from the residence
18:25
Speaker 1: in the hole in the area behind the hole in
18:27
Speaker 1: the closet. Corners Office did their work and ultimately the
18:31
Speaker 1: human remains were verified to be that of Raving Campbell.
18:46
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Jitnibert Szikowski. I just still
18:54
Speaker 1: concerned that it took cops this long to find the body, because,
19:00
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, when she goes missing, her purse
19:04
Speaker 1: and her phone were still there. That was where she lived.
19:06
Speaker 1: And now we have a tipster, a CI confidential informant
19:10
Speaker 1: appear out of nowhere all these years later to not
19:14
Speaker 1: only say, hey, there's something that smells really foul coming
19:18
Speaker 1: out of this apartment, but act she knew there was
19:21
Speaker 1: a body in the wall. My ancious Smith is the
19:25
Speaker 1: girlfriend of Garbet, and she was guaranteed immunity by officials
19:29
Speaker 1: in order to speak out against him. Shares a child
19:35
Speaker 1: with him, and she testified that he revealed her that
19:40
Speaker 1: he killed Raven by sound in her head with a hammer,
19:44
Speaker 1: bludgeoned her to death. And in fact, her her quote
19:48
Speaker 1: is he hit her one time and she kind of
19:51
Speaker 1: fought for her life, and he hit her again end quote,
19:55
Speaker 1: and then again she said she said God wanted her.
20:00
Speaker 1: That is why she is saying took her life. I mean,
20:04
Speaker 1: when you narrow down the suspects. As a matter of fact,
20:07
Speaker 1: take a listen to Lieutenant Steve Yak. A woman by
20:10
Speaker 1: the name of Raven Campbell's thirty seven years old. She
20:13
Speaker 1: went missing in July of two thousand and nine from
20:16
Speaker 1: a residence on Western Avenue in Lomita. Homicide Detectives Missing
20:20
Speaker 1: Persons Detail did some work early on as part of
20:23
Speaker 1: that missing person investigation. Interviews were conducted, bank records were checked,
20:27
Speaker 1: phone records were checked. Ultimately, the case went cold. At
20:30
Speaker 1: the time that Raven Campbell resided at that residence in
20:33
Speaker 1: Western Avenue, she was one of four people living there.
20:36
Speaker 1: There was a friend of several years and I'm gonna
20:39
Speaker 1: identify her as Nicole. She resided there with her boyfriend
20:42
Speaker 1: and our detectives wanted to speak with whoever the residence
20:47
Speaker 1: of record were. It was Nicole and her boyfriend, and
20:50
Speaker 1: they indicated the detectives that they were friends of hers,
20:53
Speaker 1: especially Nicole had been friends for years. They brought her
20:55
Speaker 1: to live at the residence so she could save some money,
20:57
Speaker 1: and ultimately they found out that during this six months
21:00
Speaker 1: that Nicole was out of their prior to her disappearance,
21:03
Speaker 1: Randolph Garbatt was also staying there as a friend. You
21:06
Speaker 1: were just hearing whiching at Steve Yacht with the La
21:09
Speaker 1: County Shares Department Homicide Division. I mean, you know, common sense,
21:13
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, that's where she's living. It took him six
21:15
Speaker 1: years to figure that out. And they keep saying the
21:18
Speaker 1: case went cold. I don't think the case went cold.
21:21
Speaker 1: I think they didn't follow through with the search for
21:24
Speaker 1: Raven Campbell. I don't understand why they'd never executed a
21:27
Speaker 1: search warrant. I understand that it was an odor. You
21:31
Speaker 1: execute a search warrant, you use your Gondavi dogs, And yeah,
21:36
Speaker 1: they did exactly the right thing many years later. So
21:41
Speaker 1: why did this go cold? What happened? Question? I don't understand,
21:47
Speaker 1: but I do understand why there's immunity to a certain
21:51
Speaker 1: CEI take a listen to our friend, reporter Rick Chambers
21:54
Speaker 1: a KTLA. Nicole Nathan was Raven's roommate at the time
21:58
Speaker 1: of the disappearance. She and her boyfriend Raymond Pardue may
22:02
Speaker 1: be the last two people to see Raven alive. This
22:05
Speaker 1: past May, Nicole posted on Facebook that she missed Raven,
22:09
Speaker 1: but Raven's family tonight is suspicious. I absolutely think that
22:14
Speaker 1: Nicole is responsible for her disappearance and or death. Detectives, though,
22:21
Speaker 1: tell the family that Miss Nathan is cooperating with them
22:24
Speaker 1: as for positive ID on the remains. Dental records should help.
22:29
Speaker 1: Raven had a gap in her front teeth and that
22:31
Speaker 1: could make identification a bit easier. And Raven Campbell's family
22:35
Speaker 1: is upset tonight with the La County Sheriff's Department. They
22:38
Speaker 1: asked that Unit five h seven be searched six years
22:41
Speaker 1: ago when Raven disappeared, but detectives apparently never followed up
22:45
Speaker 1: on it. You are hearing our friends there at Katiela.
22:48
Speaker 1: That was reporter Chambers. I guess they are upset, even
22:53
Speaker 1: neighbors calling police. Now, take a listen to Chris Wolf
22:56
Speaker 1: at Katla. This is the story circulating among neighbors is
23:00
Speaker 1: like Jose Luna, I don't know what's beyond this wall,
23:03
Speaker 1: you know, in the theme, I guess they found her
23:05
Speaker 1: did down here in this closet. Like, Yeah, I'm really shocked.
23:10
Speaker 1: I think everybody's really shocked. You know, I've talked to
23:12
Speaker 1: my friends and you know, it's shocked to hear that
23:16
Speaker 1: there's a you know, a body behind the walls. Authorities
23:20
Speaker 1: had to relocate the family currently living in the apartment
23:23
Speaker 1: now under investigation. Well, they're you know, they're trying to
23:26
Speaker 1: figure out who lived there at the time. According to reports,
23:31
Speaker 1: thirty two year old Raven Joy Campbell lived at the
23:34
Speaker 1: apartment in two thousand and nine when she disappeared. Family
23:39
Speaker 1: members now fear the worst and believe part of the
23:42
Speaker 1: mystery of their loved ones disappearance may have been solved. Yeah,
23:46
Speaker 1: the missing person case involving Raven Joy Campbell went cold
23:50
Speaker 1: during the last six years until this recent tip that
23:53
Speaker 1: her body was behind a wall here at Harbor Hills Apartments. Again,
23:57
Speaker 1: nothing is confirmed other than the fact that La County
24:01
Speaker 1: Corners Office is examining possible human remains. So by to
24:05
Speaker 1: you Jennifer Sikowski joining me from heavy dot com. You've
24:09
Speaker 1: got Raven. She has a seven year old child living
24:13
Speaker 1: with Randolph Garbett, who is the boyfriend of Nicole, and
24:17
Speaker 1: I hear Raven's family blaming Nicole, and isn't it true
24:23
Speaker 1: when CoP's approach Randolph Garbett, he actually blames Nicole as well.
24:29
Speaker 1: It's my understanding that he says Nicole is the one
24:34
Speaker 1: who murdered Raven, but then he took the fall for it.
24:39
Speaker 1: That sounds pretty hard to believe for me. Yeah, and
24:42
Speaker 1: that's exactly what transpired, and in what he did place
24:47
Speaker 1: the blame on his ex girlfriend. His attorney argued that
24:52
Speaker 1: it wasn't true and that he didn't his client did
24:55
Speaker 1: not kill Raving Campbell, and that Maisha was the one
25:00
Speaker 1: who killed her, saying he confessed only so that their
25:04
Speaker 1: child would still have a mother. Officials didn't buy that,
25:08
Speaker 1: and it really isn't clear why authorities didn't connect Smiths
25:12
Speaker 1: with the crime, as she was receiving mail and government
25:16
Speaker 1: issued checks in the victim's name. Hold on, hold on,
25:21
Speaker 1: right there. James shell Nutt, twenty seven years of the
25:24
Speaker 1: Atlanta Metro Major Case Detective squat officer. Now, lawyer, there
25:30
Speaker 1: you go right there, getting her checks, getting her income.
25:35
Speaker 1: I wonder how long this woman, Nicole allegedly cast the
25:41
Speaker 1: victims checks that were coming in the mail. Yeah, you know,
25:43
Speaker 1: that'd be really interesting to know. You know, a lot
25:46
Speaker 1: of homicides are solved after the fact by people being greedy,
25:50
Speaker 1: by people pushing it too far. You know, it's not
25:53
Speaker 1: enough that they killed this woman and stuffed or in
25:55
Speaker 1: a wall. Now she's going to maximize the crime even
25:58
Speaker 1: further by taking this woman's check, taking her money. She
26:02
Speaker 1: even had possession of this lady's ID card, using her identity.
26:06
Speaker 1: And I think that greed, I think that boldness. Those
26:10
Speaker 1: are two of the things that got her caught in
26:11
Speaker 1: this situation, or at least led to an arrest in
26:14
Speaker 1: this situation. You know, I look at this and I think,
26:17
Speaker 1: why did this lady get immunity when I first started
26:19
Speaker 1: looking at this story. But you know, there is a
26:22
Speaker 1: real chance, a real chance that this lady was the killer.
26:28
Speaker 1: And I think that prosecutors probably looked at that. I
26:31
Speaker 1: think that, you know, it's not necessarily what the prosecutor believes,
26:35
Speaker 1: it's what the prosecutor thinks. A jury may believe, and
26:38
Speaker 1: I can understand how they grant immunity, and I can
26:42
Speaker 1: understand how the situation I folded the way that it did.
26:44
Speaker 1: When you say you understand how they granted immunity to
26:47
Speaker 1: the girlfriend, what's there to understand? Why can't they both
26:50
Speaker 1: be tried and let them stew in the same pot together? Absolutely,
26:54
Speaker 1: I agree with you one hundred percent. I think that
26:56
Speaker 1: I think that they needed a witness in this case.
26:59
Speaker 1: I think that they needed someone to point the finger,
27:02
Speaker 1: and I think that they will possibly and I'm trying
27:04
Speaker 1: to read the mind of somebody hindsight, but I think
27:07
Speaker 1: that they were possibly concerned that a jury may not
27:09
Speaker 1: be able to make a determination as to which one
27:12
Speaker 1: actually did it. Well, you know, he's got a point
27:14
Speaker 1: to doctor Catherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County
27:17
Speaker 1: Medical Examiner's Office, Nickel City Forensics, Doctor Maloney, what forensic
27:23
Speaker 1: evidence do you believe could be gleaned from her body
27:27
Speaker 1: six years later? And that's where the stinch comes in
27:31
Speaker 1: as far as probit of evidence. If the body is
27:34
Speaker 1: mummified versus a stinch, what does that tell you about
27:39
Speaker 1: what evidence can be obtained? So, if the body smells
27:42
Speaker 1: really bad. It's probably very decomposed, the skin has probably
27:46
Speaker 1: mostly come off, it's going to be really soft, it's
27:48
Speaker 1: going to be mushy. It's going to be very difficult
27:52
Speaker 1: to get any evidence off the body at all in
27:54
Speaker 1: terms of trying to connect this to someone else. I
27:57
Speaker 1: think in any case, or in this case, you definitely
27:59
Speaker 1: be better trying to get evidence off of maybe the
28:02
Speaker 1: blankets or the sheet, because the body itself probably isn't
28:06
Speaker 1: going to give you very much. Doctor Katherine Maloney in
28:09
Speaker 1: with the body in that state of de comp I
28:12
Speaker 1: think it would be very difficult to get even touch DNA,
28:16
Speaker 1: any DNA at all. Why from the body itself, definitely not.
28:20
Speaker 1: I mean the DNA probably would have decomposed itself by
28:23
Speaker 1: this point, and then the bacteria that are breaking down
28:26
Speaker 1: the body would have also gone after that DNA. I mean,
28:29
Speaker 1: I think you would definitely not be getting any touch
28:31
Speaker 1: DNA off the body itself. You'd really have to hope
28:33
Speaker 1: you'd be able to get something off those blankets or
28:35
Speaker 1: that plastic Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Jennifer Sakowski, Heavy
28:49
Speaker 1: dot Com Wan garb It Randolph E. Garbett forty three
28:55
Speaker 1: was approached about the time that Raven Campbell lived in
28:58
Speaker 1: the apartment and her But what does he story about
29:02
Speaker 1: raising Campbell returning home after a night of bingo with
29:05
Speaker 1: friends and said that she had fallen down and hit
29:09
Speaker 1: her head. He then said he was afraid that he
29:13
Speaker 1: was going to be blamed for these injuries and subsequently
29:18
Speaker 1: suffocated or using a plastic bag so he wouldn't get
29:21
Speaker 1: the blame for her being hurt. Masha Smith, the girlfriend,
29:27
Speaker 1: now she had a different story. Doing testimonies. She said
29:31
Speaker 1: that she had fallen asleep. She was actually the one
29:33
Speaker 1: who had been out playing bingo, and she was startled
29:37
Speaker 1: awake after she heard a wall being drilled into and
29:41
Speaker 1: that's when she discovered Garbutt inside the closet beneath the staircase,
29:46
Speaker 1: and she said he was drilling a hole. And that's
29:49
Speaker 1: also when she witnessed a body being wrapped up and
29:52
Speaker 1: covered by the floral comforter. Smith said Garbutt simply pushed
29:58
Speaker 1: pushed the body into the wall, and she also testified
30:03
Speaker 1: to having moved a body herself about two inches and
30:07
Speaker 1: kept to look out for anyone who might have witnessed
30:09
Speaker 1: what was going on. That's instructed by Garbet detectives that
30:14
Speaker 1: Garbet try to conceal the odor of the body, which
30:17
Speaker 1: we went through with the use of, you know, several
30:20
Speaker 1: laboratory air fresheners. Well, this is what I don't understand
30:26
Speaker 1: right there too, Daryl Cohen, renowned defense attorney out of Atlanta.
30:32
Speaker 1: How do you wake up and you see your roommate
30:36
Speaker 1: stuffing a body into the wall, and then you don't
30:40
Speaker 1: run out call nine one one, You actually help and
30:43
Speaker 1: push it in about two more inches? How does that work,
30:45
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen? Because that soundsn't It sounds an awful lot.
30:50
Speaker 1: And maybe they helped because they were fearful if they
30:54
Speaker 1: didn't that they would be a co defendant. So better
30:57
Speaker 1: to help and hide it, even though you can't conceal
31:00
Speaker 1: it and certainly can't hide the smell. But it's a
31:03
Speaker 1: codefendant from the moment it wakes up to the moment
31:07
Speaker 1: there's a conviction. This is another thing. Jennifer Sagowski Heavy
31:12
Speaker 1: dot Com. We've got the woman you refer to, Masha Smith.
31:16
Speaker 1: You have Randolph Garbutt, but you also have the Nicole person. Now,
31:22
Speaker 1: who are these three people in relation to each other?
31:26
Speaker 1: And Nicole lived with her boyfriend along with the other
31:32
Speaker 1: two garbut was not romantically involved with anyone there. But
31:38
Speaker 1: all four of the people, including the victim, were roommates. Well,
31:46
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems to me to Daryl Cowen, defense attorney,
31:51
Speaker 1: if he gave a statement that she the victim, Raven Campbell,
31:56
Speaker 1: came in with bruises and injuries from a night at
31:59
Speaker 1: being go yeah, I guess, I guess pretty crazy at
32:02
Speaker 1: the Bingo hall, and he was afraid he would be
32:05
Speaker 1: blamed for her bruises, so then he suffocated her. Daryl Cohen,
32:09
Speaker 1: why do we need a witness? Why do we need
32:11
Speaker 1: to get immunity to anybody is belies belief and belies logic.
32:18
Speaker 1: When he says that this is what happened, there is
32:22
Speaker 1: no immunity. There is nothing but a double prosecution. But
32:26
Speaker 1: there's something here that we don't know about, and there's
32:28
Speaker 1: something that we need to find out. I don't know
32:31
Speaker 1: what it is, but with all due respect, it doesn't
32:34
Speaker 1: smell right. And then an arrest Raven Campbell. We've now
32:40
Speaker 1: known by police that the suspect they've arrested in her
32:42
Speaker 1: murder was one of her former roommates, a forty three
32:45
Speaker 1: year old man with narcotic convictions now behind bars, charged
32:49
Speaker 1: with her murders. Take a look at some of the
32:50
Speaker 1: video from the scene. I'm back in July. Campbell's body
32:53
Speaker 1: was discovered there in July at the Harbor Hills Housing
32:56
Speaker 1: projects after she was reported missing for six years. Tips
33:00
Speaker 1: led police to the apartment where they found her body
33:02
Speaker 1: stuffed in a wall of the apartment that she shared
33:05
Speaker 1: with those roommates. The cause of death, according to police,
33:07
Speaker 1: blunt force trauma. Her family had suspected all along some
33:11
Speaker 1: of her old roommates might be involved in her disappearance.
33:14
Speaker 1: Police said the suspect, forty three year old Randolph Garbutt,
33:16
Speaker 1: definitely was involved. Our suspect, mister Garbutt was also living
33:22
Speaker 1: there at the time that we verified that Raven was
33:24
Speaker 1: living there, And what we know right now is that
33:26
Speaker 1: all four we're friends. That police do say the other
33:28
Speaker 1: two roommates have been cooperative with police, but so far
33:31
Speaker 1: have not been arrested. They stress the investigation is ongoing.
33:35
Speaker 1: Police will not elaborate at this point the motive for
33:38
Speaker 1: the murder. That's NBC four reporter Makishio Medina to Jennifer
33:43
Speaker 1: Sigowski that victim's family is furious about a sweet sentence
33:49
Speaker 1: of just eleven years plus credit for time served, which
33:53
Speaker 1: was four years. So he's basically going to do the
33:57
Speaker 1: amount of time that she was behind the wall did
34:00
Speaker 1: exactly how Raving Campbell's sister, Cynthia Campbell what she stated
34:05
Speaker 1: in court that the quote just it's chilling. It hit me.
34:09
Speaker 1: She said. The irony is this man will probably only
34:13
Speaker 1: do about as much time as she was while she
34:17
Speaker 1: was in the wall. The punishment is not just, but
34:21
Speaker 1: we're just going to have to accept it. How sad
34:23
Speaker 1: is that? How sad is it that she had this
34:26
Speaker 1: at the time when she went missing seven year old son,
34:30
Speaker 1: who I believe is on the verge or just turned eighteen,
34:34
Speaker 1: and family members said that he was really holding on
34:37
Speaker 1: to the belief that she was still alive. So if
34:42
Speaker 1: you can imagine infuriated, that is heartbreaking. I mean, Daryl Cohen,
34:47
Speaker 1: can you think of any reason why they would get
34:49
Speaker 1: such a light sentence. I cannot, Nancy, I am just befuddled.
34:54
Speaker 1: I'm unable to well, I can't think of one. Go
34:56
Speaker 1: ahead because maybe they thought, maybe prosecutors thought they couldn't
35:01
Speaker 1: prove the case and so they would take whatever they
35:03
Speaker 1: could get I agree, but a confession alone does not
35:08
Speaker 1: a case make. As a matter of fact, the law
35:10
Speaker 1: is that a case cannot be prosecuted on a confession alone. Uh,
35:16
Speaker 1: then you've got a confidential informant. But if they're going
35:18
Speaker 1: to stay confidential, that may mean you can't get them
35:20
Speaker 1: to testify. I just I agree with you, Darryl. Of course,
35:25
Speaker 1: it's a ridiculous sentence. I'm just trying to think of
35:28
Speaker 1: any justification as for the short sentence. Cashing those chats, Sorry,
35:34
Speaker 1: but that's a that's just something I think is so
35:37
Speaker 1: important in this A huge component. She was out cashing
35:40
Speaker 1: these checks. Why why was she granted community right away?
35:44
Speaker 1: Why is why was that not looked into further? And
35:50
Speaker 1: if that part of why it was which I was
35:52
Speaker 1: cashing checks? Jennifer Mysia Smith the garbage girlfriend, Okay in
35:58
Speaker 1: my mind, James shell Nutt between the Macia Smith and
36:03
Speaker 1: girlfriends still cashing checks. A statement from Randolph Garbutt that
36:08
Speaker 1: he strangled her, asphyxiated her, and then hid the body.
36:13
Speaker 1: I mean and frankly hiding the body alone. Why would
36:16
Speaker 1: you hide the body if there was not something nefarious involved.
36:21
Speaker 1: I don't know why they plant it out so cheap.
36:23
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know why they got such a
36:25
Speaker 1: light sentence. Yeah, it's bothersome. And I agree Michael made
36:29
Speaker 1: some good points a month ago when I agree with
36:30
Speaker 1: a lot of the points, and he said, as well,
36:32
Speaker 1: as you made some good points that I think the
36:33
Speaker 1: prosecutors were concerned about this, you know, And again it's
36:37
Speaker 1: always tough to get back and reread their mind, but
36:40
Speaker 1: you have to think that the thought process was looked.
36:43
Speaker 1: She could have verywell been involved. The prosecutors could have believed, hey,
36:48
Speaker 1: this lady may be more involved than what she's telling us.
36:50
Speaker 1: And I think maybe they picked their poison in this
36:53
Speaker 1: case and said, look, if she is involved, we can't
36:57
Speaker 1: necessarily prove it in the actual murder itself. We need
37:02
Speaker 1: a witness. We know that he's involved. Yeah, let's just
37:05
Speaker 1: pick our poison. Let's make sure we prove a case
37:08
Speaker 1: against at least one of them and go from bear.
37:10
Speaker 1: And that's sad to think that it works that way,
37:13
Speaker 1: but sometimes you do pick the poison. And another point,
37:16
Speaker 1: another point following up on what you're saying, James shell Nutt,
37:19
Speaker 1: is when the prosecution they find the body six years later,
37:23
Speaker 1: when the prosecution gets the case. They didn't have anything
37:26
Speaker 1: to do with cops not finding the body first go around.
37:29
Speaker 1: They're stuck with the case six years old, and they've
37:33
Speaker 1: got to make silk out of a sal's ear. So
37:36
Speaker 1: absolutely they may have done just that, pick the lesser
37:40
Speaker 1: of two evils. I, however, think they should have tried
37:43
Speaker 1: them all together and let a jury come up with
37:47
Speaker 1: the verdict on all three of them together. Our prayers
37:51
Speaker 1: and sympathy to the family of Raving Campbell, especially for
37:55
Speaker 1: a little boy growing up without mommy. Nancy Gray's crime
37:58
Speaker 1: Story signing off goodbye to d