Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Man and Fiancé Murdered in Their Sleep

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Man and Fiancé Murdered in Their Sleep · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why are so many dead
0:14
Speaker 1: bodies piling up in one small town Pike t In Today?
0:22
Speaker 1: Two people deeply in love planning a life together go
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Speaker 1: to sleep just before Christmas. They never wake up, shot
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Speaker 1: dead in the night. Why is there no resolution? Crime
0:48
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Curtis Frances and Jennifer burget made
0:56
Speaker 1: plans for a future together. They were engaged and then
0:59
Speaker 1: talked about having children. That was something friends say Francis
1:02
Speaker 1: was excited about starting a family of his own. Francis
1:05
Speaker 1: was also an avidaue doorsman. He loved to hunt and
1:08
Speaker 1: fish and was close to and protective of his family.
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Speaker 1: That family welcomed Jennifer Burgett with open arms. Francis's mother
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Speaker 1: described her daughter in law as being just like a daughter.
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Speaker 1: One night in December, someone came into the couple's home
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Speaker 1: and shot them as they slept. But why why gunned
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Speaker 1: down a couple unarmed in their sleep at home, in
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Speaker 1: their own bets and why is the case cold? Again?
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Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories
1:35
Speaker 1: with me an all star panel to make sense of
1:37
Speaker 1: it all. First of all, Ken Belkin, we're now a
1:40
Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney joining us out of New York at
1:42
Speaker 1: Belkan Law dot com. Doctor Jory Crawsen, psychologist, faculty Saint
1:49
Speaker 1: Leo University, consultant with Blue Wall Institute and author of
1:53
Speaker 1: Operation s O S Also with me. Forensics expert Joseph
1:58
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood
2:03
Speaker 1: Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star of a brand
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Speaker 1: new hit series, The Piketon Massacre, a whole other set
2:12
Speaker 1: of murders in Piketon. He's now a star on iHeartRadio.
2:16
Speaker 1: But first I want to go to Jodi Barr. Also
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Speaker 1: joining me right now, two very special guests, Judy Conley,
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Speaker 1: that's Curtis France's mom found dead in their own bed.
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Speaker 1: Also Angela Montgomery, one of the Frances cousins and family representative,
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Speaker 1: and a victim's advocate. Ladies, thank you for being with us.
2:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to first go to Jodi Barr, chief investigative
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Speaker 1: reporter Fox forty six and you can find him on Facebook.
2:52
Speaker 1: Jodi Barr, Jody, I don't understand why this case is cold.
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Speaker 1: There had to be forensic evinants left high such as fingerprints,
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Speaker 1: cartridges to get some type of an etching on it
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Speaker 1: astriation mark to match back in the database. There's a
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Speaker 1: slew of investigative techniques. I'm not sure why the case
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Speaker 1: has gone cold, but let's just start at the beginning.
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Speaker 1: Tell me what happened the night December nine, Kurt Francis
3:22
Speaker 1: and Jennifer bird get were laying in their beds, and
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Speaker 1: Curtis had just left a neighboring house about seven minutes away.
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Speaker 1: They were having get together there and Curtis came home
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Speaker 1: and at some point in the night, while those two
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Speaker 1: lay in their beds, someone or some people came into
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Speaker 1: that home and shot them multiple times. With me, Jodi Barr,
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Speaker 1: Chief investigative reporter, Fox forty six, You say laying in
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Speaker 1: their beds, correct? Were they asleep? Because that makes a difference. Well,
3:55
Speaker 1: some of the evidence we have found in the autopsy
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Speaker 1: reports would indicate at least one was a sleep. The
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Speaker 1: autopsy would indicate that Jennifer Burgett at some point may
4:05
Speaker 1: have raised up in bed. Okay, so probably asleep and
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Speaker 1: then awakened by the sound of gunfire or someone breaking in.
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Speaker 1: And I, of course did not perform the autopsy. I'm
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Speaker 1: a j D, not an MD, but it's got to
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Speaker 1: be because of the trajectory path of the bullets. If
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Speaker 1: she raised up in bed when she heard something, the
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Speaker 1: gunshot wound would have come in at a different angle.
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Speaker 1: Or she may have a defensive wound, such as holding
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Speaker 1: your hand up and being shot in the hand or
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Speaker 1: the arm. But that movement of her sitting up indicates
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Speaker 1: to me she was asleep at the get go and
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Speaker 1: then woke up during the shooting. Something woke her up,
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Speaker 1: and that's why the bullet path would be different for her.
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Speaker 1: Jodi Barr again, Fox forty six, tell me about the area.
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Speaker 1: What can you tell me about not only Pike in Ohio,
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Speaker 1: but this particular spot where they were living. I understand
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Speaker 1: it's a very low crime rate. Yeah, it's very low. Well,
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Speaker 1: because it's very rural. This is about two hours east
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Speaker 1: of Cincinnati and the foothills of the Appalachia Mountains, and
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Speaker 1: you know that's where hey, wait a minute, whoa, whoa,
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Speaker 1: who whoa, Jodi Barr, you'd be surprised about how much
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Speaker 1: meth is getting cooked up in rural areas. Okay, So
5:24
Speaker 1: other than that, and there's no connection between these two
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Speaker 1: and any sort of an operation like that. But The
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Speaker 1: reason I'm bringing it up is you'd be very surprised
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Speaker 1: at where crime rears its ugly head. But from what
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Speaker 1: I understand, Jodie, you're right that this was a very
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Speaker 1: low crime rate. It's rural. It's not like you're a
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Speaker 1: big city and somebody walks by and sees your door
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Speaker 1: open so they break in. Yeah. Well, that's part of
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Speaker 1: the problem with it beating rule is the fact that
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Speaker 1: the law enforcement forced and the capabilities and experience of
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Speaker 1: investigators within those law enforced and agencies in that area
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Speaker 1: makes you know, a crime like this even more difficult
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Speaker 1: to solve if they keep this in the house. So
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Speaker 1: that to answer your original question, that could be another
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Speaker 1: reason why this case is still nearly fifteen years later
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Speaker 1: unsolved and we don't know who killed these two people.
6:17
Speaker 1: It's because it was rural and you know it's um
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Speaker 1: but with it being rural people, the people a person
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Speaker 1: who did this likely knew the victims and vice versus,
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Speaker 1: so you know, it's still This is why still today,
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Speaker 1: even with what has been uncovered in this case, is
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Speaker 1: you wonder why we're here, Jenny Barr. I know you're
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Speaker 1: in the chief investigative Report at Fox forty six. But
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Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a news flash. Murders in
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Speaker 1: rural areas get solved every day. I mean, I'm just
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Speaker 1: thinking right now about Molly Tibbots. Molly Tibbots, remember her
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Speaker 1: running along on rural road, went missing. It took a minute,
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Speaker 1: but the perp, Christian Rivera was caught. I mean that's
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Speaker 1: just off the top of my head. Then you've got
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Speaker 1: Karinea Atronto who was running along a deserted area on
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Speaker 1: Lone Island. Her case was solved. I mean, I can
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Speaker 1: go on and on and on about cases in rural
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Speaker 1: areas that are solved. There's something more to this why
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Speaker 1: it's not solved other than it's a rural area. That's
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Speaker 1: no reason for it not to be solved. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, that should make it more easily solved, Jody,
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Speaker 1: because as you pointed out, without a lot of strangers
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Speaker 1: coming through, you would expect the killer to be someone
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Speaker 1: from that area, someone they know. And speaking of the
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Speaker 1: area that you so accurately brought up, Jodi Barr, let
7:41
Speaker 1: me go now to Joe Scott Morgan, who is currently
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Speaker 1: the star of the Piketon massacre and has spent a
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Speaker 1: lot of time in Piked And what can you tell
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Speaker 1: me about the area, Joe Scott, And don't tell me
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Speaker 1: the case hasn't been solved because it's rural. I'm not
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Speaker 1: gonna tell you that. What I'll tell you what I'll
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Speaker 1: tell you. It's a beautiful area. It's you know, Jody mentioned,
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Speaker 1: it's in the Appalachian Foothills. It's secluded, winding roads that
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Speaker 1: you know. I've driven. I've driven through quite a bit
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Speaker 1: of it, and some of it actually reminds me of
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Speaker 1: trips I made to Ireland. Beautiful, green and lush. But
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Speaker 1: it is isolated, Nancy, these people live in an isolated environment.
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Speaker 1: I just jump in with something you said before I
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Speaker 1: lose the foothills. You know, as the crow flies, something
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Speaker 1: may be two miles away, but when you have to
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Speaker 1: go up one side of a mountain and down the
8:30
Speaker 1: other side of the mountain to get to it, it
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Speaker 1: can be an hour drive. So when you say this
8:36
Speaker 1: is in the foothills, let me tell you that it's
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Speaker 1: an impediment to people coming in and out of the area. Okay,
8:42
Speaker 1: go ahead, just yeah. Throw that in also kind of
8:45
Speaker 1: dovetelling what you're saying there. It also goes to this
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Speaker 1: idea that people that are involved in crimes there that
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Speaker 1: are locals, they're gonna know where to go, what to avoid,
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Speaker 1: They're gonna know every little hymn and holler that's in
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Speaker 1: this area. You know, you've got switchback curves, You've got
9:05
Speaker 1: you know the old saying about when you go around
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Speaker 1: a curve you can actually meet your rear end when
9:09
Speaker 1: you're going around it. It's narrow, you know. I've been
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Speaker 1: in a car up there and knowing that you have
9:15
Speaker 1: to pull over on side of the road to give
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Speaker 1: somebody else passage in order to get through there. So
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Speaker 1: it's very isolated. The people all know one another, and
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Speaker 1: many times the people like to keep their mouth shut.
9:27
Speaker 1: They don't talk about other people's business many times, and
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Speaker 1: sometimes it's tough to crack that nut. Time stories with
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace joining me right now is one of the
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Speaker 1: victim's mother, Judy Conley. This is Curtis Francis as a mother.
10:00
Speaker 1: Also with me of France's cousin, Angela Montgomery. And the
10:04
Speaker 1: only way I found out about this case is because
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Speaker 1: of Angela Montgomery. She contacted me via our Facebook wasn't
10:13
Speaker 1: it Facebook? Angela? Where I found it. I believe I
10:17
Speaker 1: got you through Facebook, Instagram, email, I tried everything. Well,
10:21
Speaker 1: that's how we connected. You wrote the Nancy Gray's Facebook
10:26
Speaker 1: And if I hadn't seen that, I would never have
10:29
Speaker 1: known that these beautiful people, and it hurts me. I mean,
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Speaker 1: Jennifer's just thirty, kurtis thirty four, and they're they're settling
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Speaker 1: down together. They're at the point of life where they
10:43
Speaker 1: want a family. That's about when it hit me too
10:46
Speaker 1: that I knew somehow, and I didn't know how it
10:49
Speaker 1: was going to happen, that I wanted a family, somebody love.
10:56
Speaker 1: And I think about them, They're they're getting married, They're
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Speaker 1: gonna immediately start a family, and here they are in
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Speaker 1: their own bed at night and get gunned down. I mean, Judy, yeah,
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Speaker 1: Miss Connolly, you think when you go to bed at night,
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Speaker 1: you're safe. Yeah, And I'm thinking about how mine of
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Speaker 1: my husband's bedroom is about what would you say, Jackie,
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Speaker 1: ten feet maybe fifteen feet most from my children's and
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Speaker 1: I sleep with all the doors open so I can hear.
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Speaker 1: But when I go to bed at night, I knock on.
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Speaker 1: Would really believe we're all safe? And I know that's
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Speaker 1: what your son thought. When he went to sleep that night.
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Speaker 1: Tell me how you found out about the shootings. My
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Speaker 1: son had been at my house the night before about
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Speaker 1: ten thirty at nine, and I told him when he
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Speaker 1: got home to call me, and I talked to him
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Speaker 1: about eleven o'clock. I tell him, I said, don't you
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Speaker 1: go back out of the house. Stayed there. Oh, Judy,
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Speaker 1: you sound like you sound just like my mother to
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Speaker 1: this day, call me when you get there. Don't be
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Speaker 1: out and about don't do this when I go on
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Speaker 1: an investigation. Sometimes I hate to even tell her, Judy,
12:21
Speaker 1: because it gets for so upset. So I'm just imagining
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Speaker 1: you telling Curtis France's age thirty four, don't go back
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Speaker 1: out of the house. He was my baby. And just
12:31
Speaker 1: hear you say this, baby. Oh you know what, can
12:34
Speaker 1: I tell you something which is totally irrelevant. My son
12:38
Speaker 1: is thirteen, you know, I have boy girl twins. He's
12:41
Speaker 1: six four, but he's my baby. I still make him
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Speaker 1: sit in my lap. They will always figure. I can
12:46
Speaker 1: just hear you right now saying don't go back out
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Speaker 1: of that house. I did. I told you, I said,
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Speaker 1: don't go back out because I don't know what it
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Speaker 1: was I did I wanted to know, like you said,
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Speaker 1: that he's safe in bed. That way I can sleep,
13:03
Speaker 1: you know. So the next day he had been at
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Speaker 1: my house and wanted my other son Paul to come
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Speaker 1: and fix a dry events and wanted him to go
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Speaker 1: with him, and I said, no, he can't go with you.
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Speaker 1: You go home. They will come over tomorrow, my husband
13:21
Speaker 1: and Paul and fix your draw events. When they went
13:25
Speaker 1: over there, it was all taped off. The sheriff and
13:29
Speaker 1: everybody was there and they had a crime scene taped off.
13:35
Speaker 1: So when my husband got home, I was in the
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Speaker 1: bathroom cleaning. He said, you need to come in here.
13:42
Speaker 1: I had just lost my daughter six months before that.
13:47
Speaker 1: She committed suicide. She was bipolar, so I was still
13:51
Speaker 1: dealing with that. When I walked in there, I said,
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Speaker 1: Curtis is dead. Any He said, who's been here? I
13:58
Speaker 1: said nobody. I just know it. I said, Jenny gis too,
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Speaker 1: ain't you. I don't know. It's this and the instinct.
14:04
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was to this day, but
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Speaker 1: something I felt. But and he said, somebody has talked
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Speaker 1: to us, And know nobody has talked to him. I
14:13
Speaker 1: haven't seen anybody, So that's hell. Miss Conley, I gotta
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Speaker 1: tell you something, Miss Conley. With me is Judy Colly.
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Speaker 1: This is Curtis's mom aunt, Angela Montgomery, France's cousin Judy.
14:29
Speaker 1: I remember when I got the call about my fiancee
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Speaker 1: and his Keith sister said where are you? And I said,
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Speaker 1: I'm at school. Is Keith gone? I mean somehow I knew,
14:43
Speaker 1: I know he was dead, and I was in a
14:46
Speaker 1: completely different city. And I've had so many victims' family
14:51
Speaker 1: tell me that, so okay, Then what happens? I hit
14:56
Speaker 1: the poor or worse than my son Paul. He grabbed
14:59
Speaker 1: me and I asked him to pray. I said, I
15:04
Speaker 1: pray with me. He said, I don't know if I
15:07
Speaker 1: know how. Mom. I said, yes, you do know how.
15:12
Speaker 1: And after we did that, it was like something come
15:15
Speaker 1: over me and I got up. I was fine. I
15:19
Speaker 1: handled everything, the people, I handled everything until it was
15:25
Speaker 1: all over, and then I fell apart. And I've been
15:29
Speaker 1: falling apart ever since because I need that closure. I
15:36
Speaker 1: need to know who killed my baby. Angela my Gomery
15:41
Speaker 1: join in. What are your recollections? Sorry? Got chocked up
15:46
Speaker 1: a little bit, and I just remember that my dad
15:54
Speaker 1: had told me I just didn't believe it and they
16:00
Speaker 1: didn't understand it, and it didn't make sense. Just kind
16:09
Speaker 1: of like you're in like numb in shock, I guess.
16:15
Speaker 1: And we went to the funeral, their funerals, and after
16:21
Speaker 1: everything was all over, that's when it kind of hits you,
16:24
Speaker 1: like who did this? What happened? You get angry. You know,
16:33
Speaker 1: I want something done about this, and you have hope
16:38
Speaker 1: that you know, you have law enforcement telling you we're
16:42
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna get these people. When and here we
16:46
Speaker 1: are fifteen years later, almost and nothing the same. We're
16:50
Speaker 1: in the same spot we were the day it happened.
16:53
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know about you, Angela, but when
16:57
Speaker 1: you were saying you were choked up, I felt the
17:01
Speaker 1: same way. But I feel choked up and like it
17:04
Speaker 1: makes me want to cry, And at the same time,
17:06
Speaker 1: I'm angry that nothing has been done. I don't understand it.
17:11
Speaker 1: I mean, just got Morgan. I don't understand what the
17:15
Speaker 1: hey is going on. Why don't we have any answers? Well,
17:18
Speaker 1: I think one of the problems, Nancy, is that they've
17:20
Speaker 1: got limited resources in this area, and that's a that's
17:25
Speaker 1: a hollow excuse, and it's it's it's it's sad that
17:28
Speaker 1: you have to tell the family that. But I think
17:31
Speaker 1: that because it's so insulated from the rest of the
17:34
Speaker 1: world that I think that they really wasted time getting
17:39
Speaker 1: people like the State ag involved in this case. It
17:43
Speaker 1: just kind of went on and on and on until
17:46
Speaker 1: it wound up getting back Bernard with a lot of
17:50
Speaker 1: other cases that occur up there, Nancy, and not to mention,
17:54
Speaker 1: I got to be perfectly frank with you, they've got
17:57
Speaker 1: a certain level of corruption up there as well. You know,
18:00
Speaker 1: you look at the sheriff sheriff reader form share who's
18:05
Speaker 1: now doing time as a result of mouthfeasance in office.
18:09
Speaker 1: I think that there's a deep seated route that flows
18:13
Speaker 1: through all of this where people are not put first
18:17
Speaker 1: in this area, the residents, they're kind of forgotten, and
18:21
Speaker 1: it's it really rears its ugly head in cases like
18:25
Speaker 1: this where people's lives have just been completely destroyed. Well,
18:28
Speaker 1: before we get off on corruption and ulterior motives, can
18:36
Speaker 1: we talk about the forensics in this case, What if
18:39
Speaker 1: anything do you know? Well, this is what I do know.
18:41
Speaker 1: I know that that at the scene they were unable
18:47
Speaker 1: to actually recover a weapon that may have been used
18:53
Speaker 1: in the commission of this crime. And you know for us,
18:55
Speaker 1: you know, you were talking about the attitude of the bodies,
19:00
Speaker 1: you know, in the position the trajectory of these rounds. Well,
19:03
Speaker 1: what do you know about the position of the body
19:05
Speaker 1: or the trajectory. Well, I think the most striking thing, Nancy,
19:09
Speaker 1: is the fact that both of these poor souls were
19:12
Speaker 1: in bed, they had no awareness. That gives me an
19:15
Speaker 1: indication that this was probably not just a single person
19:18
Speaker 1: that came in and did this. They probably came in
19:21
Speaker 1: and issued control over these individuals. It's probably a pair
19:26
Speaker 1: of people that came into this environment and ended their
19:29
Speaker 1: lives in their bed as they slept. Okay, why do
19:34
Speaker 1: you believe there was more than one part? Well, because
19:36
Speaker 1: I think that when you show up at a home
19:39
Speaker 1: in order to do this kind of violence, this kind
19:43
Speaker 1: of violence, I think that you're prepared with more than
19:48
Speaker 1: one person in order to manhandle people. And there's also
19:51
Speaker 1: an indication that there's more than one weapon that's associated
19:54
Speaker 1: with this case by virtue of what they found later
19:57
Speaker 1: on Sequestered Away Prime Stories with Nancy Grace. He just
20:15
Speaker 1: heard Joe Scott Morgan, Professor forensics, mentioned that evidence had
20:19
Speaker 1: been quote sequestered away. What he's trying to say in
20:24
Speaker 1: plain English is evidence hidden. Take a listen to our
20:28
Speaker 1: cut five. This is Jodi Barr Fox nineteen. Well it's
20:33
Speaker 1: covered up that d go for two days, two to
20:36
Speaker 1: three days pretty well around the club. Last summer, Paul
20:40
Speaker 1: Francis was knocking out a plumbing job for a friend
20:43
Speaker 1: here on wind Road. It's the last place his brother
20:47
Speaker 1: was before he was murdered in two thousand and six.
20:50
Speaker 1: Paul's waited ever since for investigators to solve this case.
20:55
Speaker 1: Never did he think he might be the one to
20:58
Speaker 1: break it wide open. And it was very I don't
21:01
Speaker 1: read like four foot of rocks and its being hid.
21:05
Speaker 1: Everybody knew the whale was there till we found him.
21:08
Speaker 1: So as an accident you found it. Yeah, somebody wanted
21:12
Speaker 1: the little town. It was one to s find it.
21:14
Speaker 1: I reckon with found it and listen to more. Here's
21:17
Speaker 1: Fox nineteen. Our cut six. The Francis family called the
21:20
Speaker 1: sheriff's office last July to report finding the well. The
21:24
Speaker 1: Pie County Sheriff's Office taped it off, then hired a
21:27
Speaker 1: plumber to run a camera down it. Investigators Frances says,
21:31
Speaker 1: showed him the pictures of what they found down there.
21:35
Speaker 1: I seen it pictures later me and my mom. I
21:39
Speaker 1: called a sadot gun. I never action a key shot
21:43
Speaker 1: thirty off six. That's why my brothers killed Willis and
21:46
Speaker 1: his wife fiance and a pistols that well. Right now
21:53
Speaker 1: we focus about say nothing about that, but I think
21:56
Speaker 1: something it's timeful to be said. Out of the blue.
22:00
Speaker 1: When working on a project, a well hidden is uncovered,
22:06
Speaker 1: and in that well, between feet of dirt and rocks
22:11
Speaker 1: the murder weapon straight out to Angela Montgomery, a Francis cousin,
22:17
Speaker 1: what can you tell me about that? Paul, which is
22:19
Speaker 1: Curtis's brother. He was doing a job, like he said,
22:23
Speaker 1: a plumbing job. He found the well and he thought, Okay,
22:28
Speaker 1: nobody knew this well was here when Curtis and Jimmy
22:32
Speaker 1: got murdered. Maybe I should call the cops and let
22:37
Speaker 1: him know because the place where he was working at
22:39
Speaker 1: is the last place Curtis was seen alive. Okay, that's
22:43
Speaker 1: not just a coincidence. It can't be. Now take a
22:46
Speaker 1: listen to our cutoc. This is our friend Tyler Hunt
22:49
Speaker 1: at crime Online. As work progresses, Francis finds a waterline
22:53
Speaker 1: and exposed wires that are not supposed to be where
22:55
Speaker 1: they are. Francis starts following the wires as they were
22:57
Speaker 1: pulled out from under the grass through the front yard
23:00
Speaker 1: to a pile of rubble. Fifty yards away. Under four
23:02
Speaker 1: feet of rubble is a well, and in the well,
23:05
Speaker 1: possibly a break in the depths of his brother and
23:07
Speaker 1: future sister in law. This wind Rode home was the
23:09
Speaker 1: last place his brother was the night he was murdered.
23:12
Speaker 1: Straight back out to Judy Connelly. This is Curtis, Francis's mother,
23:15
Speaker 1: So Paul is also your son, Curtis's brother, Tell me
23:20
Speaker 1: what happened. He went over there to do some work,
23:26
Speaker 1: plumbing work for a guy that lived there. And he
23:29
Speaker 1: comes home and he says, Mom, we found a well,
23:34
Speaker 1: said I pulled on the wars, said they have County water,
23:38
Speaker 1: but this is a drill well and it's covered debt.
23:42
Speaker 1: So do you want to call the law I said yes,
23:45
Speaker 1: So I called him. He worked in the rain for
23:48
Speaker 1: three days digging that out, and when they got to it,
23:54
Speaker 1: they ran the camera down there, which men him both
23:58
Speaker 1: The sheriff reader showed us the picture and it was
24:03
Speaker 1: a two guns, a pistol, and the ruffle. The pistol
24:07
Speaker 1: was Curtis's. It was missing. Not saying they were killed
24:12
Speaker 1: with that gun, but someone stole it out of his
24:16
Speaker 1: host because I have his hoster. So that's where it started.
24:23
Speaker 1: And then they brought the fire department and my son
24:27
Speaker 1: telling them, don't do that, you'll blow the bottom of
24:30
Speaker 1: the well out. They did. They blowed eighty foot at
24:34
Speaker 1: the bottom of the well out and the guns are lost.
24:37
Speaker 1: We don't have the guns. No, the sheriff's departments filled
24:44
Speaker 1: the well straight out to veteran criminal defense attorney Ken
24:47
Speaker 1: Belkin at belcan Law dot com joining us out of
24:50
Speaker 1: New York, Ken, you have tried a lot of cases.
24:56
Speaker 1: How rare is it that like this literally just falls
25:02
Speaker 1: in your lap. Here is the victim, one of the
25:05
Speaker 1: two shooting. Victim's brother working on a plumbing issue, sees
25:11
Speaker 1: a wire that is not supposed to be there, follows
25:14
Speaker 1: the wire and it leads to a hidden well. They
25:20
Speaker 1: run a camera down, they see the guns and they're
25:25
Speaker 1: the same caliber guns used in the double murder, and
25:30
Speaker 1: then they blow out the well and lose the evidence.
25:34
Speaker 1: I mean, this is unbelievable. If your law enforcement investigating
25:38
Speaker 1: a double murder, one of your top priorities, aside from
25:41
Speaker 1: catching the actual murderer or murderers, is to get that
25:45
Speaker 1: murder weapon because it's probably going to be one of
25:48
Speaker 1: the biggest pieces of evidence that ties you to the
25:51
Speaker 1: person who committed these crimes. Okay, we've lost the evidence,
25:56
Speaker 1: but from what you could tell, Judy Connelly, what type
25:59
Speaker 1: of weapons we're down the well, it was a rifle
26:02
Speaker 1: and a pistol. I don't know much about guns, but
26:05
Speaker 1: my son said it was that the rifle was the
26:10
Speaker 1: one that Curtis owned or had had. So Jess got Morgan,
26:16
Speaker 1: you're a ballistics expert, what can you tell me? Well,
26:19
Speaker 1: from what we understand the brother when he saw these weapons,
26:23
Speaker 1: he referred to the rifle as a saddle gun. And
26:27
Speaker 1: if folks will just think about watching old Western movies
26:31
Speaker 1: where they have lever action weapons, lever action rifles, this
26:36
Speaker 1: is something that would go into the scabbard on the
26:39
Speaker 1: side of a horse, like in an old cowboy movie.
26:42
Speaker 1: And he actually said that he believed that it was
26:44
Speaker 1: a thirty odd six, which is a kind of a
26:46
Speaker 1: robust round. It's a it's a hunting round that's used
26:51
Speaker 1: in this weapon, and he said specifically that it holds
26:55
Speaker 1: eighteen rounds, which you know, in order to actuate it,
26:59
Speaker 1: you have to work the work, the action work the lever.
27:02
Speaker 1: It ejects one and seats a new fresh round after
27:06
Speaker 1: you fire it. So it's a very specific weapon and
27:08
Speaker 1: it's not something you commonly see used in a crime
27:12
Speaker 1: like this, So it's very unique to the ownership. It
27:16
Speaker 1: would give me an indication that someone had to know
27:20
Speaker 1: that he possessed these weapons. And again, Nancy, just I
27:25
Speaker 1: got to say, who in the world would know that
27:28
Speaker 1: that well was back there? This opening to this thing
27:31
Speaker 1: is only six inches in diameter. Nancy, this isn't like
27:34
Speaker 1: some kind of wishing well you know that you think
27:37
Speaker 1: about in a fairytale story. This is a very narrow opening.
27:41
Speaker 1: You have to have intimate knowledge of this environment to
27:44
Speaker 1: know that this thing even exists back there. So for
27:47
Speaker 1: me as an investigator, for me as an investigator, Nancy,
27:51
Speaker 1: this tells me that whoever did this had intimate knowledge
27:54
Speaker 1: of the geography and the people that occupied this location.
27:57
Speaker 1: Then is there a break? Take a listen to our
28:02
Speaker 1: cut eight. This is our Friend Jodie Barr Fox nineteen
28:05
Speaker 1: A few months ago, we uncovered ten year old witness
28:08
Speaker 1: statements in a separate Pike County murder case, statements that
28:13
Speaker 1: appeared to tell the whole story about what happened here
28:16
Speaker 1: on Hopper Road in December two thousand and six. These
28:20
Speaker 1: are the six people whose name show up in the statements.
28:23
Speaker 1: We found. Robin Howes owned the house with the well.
28:27
Speaker 1: She shared that home with her boyfriend Kevin Hoskins Prator
28:30
Speaker 1: and her son James Howes. Corey Howes is Robin's youngest son.
28:35
Speaker 1: Corey and his girlfriend at the time, Eden Canterbury, gave
28:38
Speaker 1: investigators statements in a separate murder case. Eden wrote Robin
28:42
Speaker 1: Howes ordered the hit that killed Kurt Francis and Jenny Burgett.
28:47
Speaker 1: Corey and Eden's statements went on to say his brother,
28:50
Speaker 1: James Howes and a family friend, Eric Horne, took a
28:53
Speaker 1: rifle out of the home and came back later with
28:56
Speaker 1: bloody clothes, ordered a hit, bloody clothes take to listen
29:01
Speaker 1: to our cut nine. There's more now. Those same statements
29:04
Speaker 1: showed that Robin Howes ordered James Howes and Eric Horn
29:07
Speaker 1: into the shower while Kevin Hoskins Prator burned their bloody
29:11
Speaker 1: clothes and buried them somewhere in their yard. We tried
29:15
Speaker 1: to track the people down who gave those statements. Corey
29:19
Speaker 1: Howses in prison, so was his brother James Howes. Neither
29:23
Speaker 1: agreed to interviews. We could not track Eden Canterbury down,
29:27
Speaker 1: and after several trips to Pike County, we found the
29:32
Speaker 1: new home Robin Howes and Kevin Hoskins, prator share in
29:36
Speaker 1: Pike Ten. Robin Howse's son, Corey House's girlfriend told investigators
29:41
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, Robin Howes ordered the hit
29:45
Speaker 1: against Kurt Francis. Corey Howes told investigators Jenny Burgette wasn't
29:50
Speaker 1: supposed to be home to EGD Conley. This is Curtis
29:53
Speaker 1: Francis's mother joining us. What do you make of it?
29:57
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it's crazy and wow. Do you
30:06
Speaker 1: know any of these names? Yes? Yes I do. How
30:09
Speaker 1: do you know them? They lived up the broad from
30:13
Speaker 1: one of my rental houses, So they knew your son, yes,
30:18
Speaker 1: if they knew him. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace ken Belcan,
30:38
Speaker 1: veteran trial lawyer at Belkan Law dot com. Kim, you
30:43
Speaker 1: know the phrase familiarity breeds contempt right. Very often homicides
30:49
Speaker 1: are committed by people that know each other, be it neighbors,
30:53
Speaker 1: a family member, an ex boyfriend, a husband. Very often
30:59
Speaker 1: the purp will know the victim. In fact, it's rare
31:02
Speaker 1: that a murder goes down where the perp doesn't know
31:06
Speaker 1: the victim in some fashion. Would you agree with that?
31:09
Speaker 1: I would totally agree with that. I mean, to hate
31:12
Speaker 1: someone enough to kill them, you must really know them.
31:15
Speaker 1: And another thing, Ken Belkin, what we're talking about is
31:21
Speaker 1: a jail house informant. When you get people behind bars
31:28
Speaker 1: they say, hey, I know about this, that or the
31:30
Speaker 1: other thing, you have a credibility problem because it's going
31:33
Speaker 1: to be argued that the only reason they're talking is
31:37
Speaker 1: because they want leniency. In another case, absolutely, but it
31:41
Speaker 1: appears that Eric Horne, you know, he's already serving a
31:45
Speaker 1: life sentence for a murder that he pled guilty two
31:48
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, that I'll show up the
31:50
Speaker 1: third and he's already in jail. He really, he's already
31:54
Speaker 1: been given the life sentence at this point. He doesn't
31:57
Speaker 1: really have any motive to fabricate any thing. In fact,
32:01
Speaker 1: you could argue that he had significant motive not to
32:04
Speaker 1: come forward because he was afraid that him or his
32:07
Speaker 1: family who are not in jail, could have been retaliated
32:10
Speaker 1: against by the perpetrator. Let me go to our psychologist
32:12
Speaker 1: joining us today. He's a steamed psychologist, faculty Saint Leo
32:17
Speaker 1: consultant author doctor Jorry crossin Doctor Jury. I've used jail
32:23
Speaker 1: house informance before. I've used witnesses from behind bars, and
32:27
Speaker 1: the first thing I do in an opening statement is
32:29
Speaker 1: tell the jury he's an inmate. But even an inmate
32:34
Speaker 1: has information. Even somebody with a conviction can tell the truth.
32:38
Speaker 1: You be the judge, see if it fits the evidence.
32:42
Speaker 1: So inmates can tell the truth. They don't always want leniency. Yeah,
32:47
Speaker 1: the main thing you want to do with that information
32:50
Speaker 1: or the statement is to collaborate it, and you know,
32:53
Speaker 1: either through other sources connecting it to evidence. That's the
32:58
Speaker 1: investigative method to to use on that. But inmates they
33:02
Speaker 1: do tell the truth. I mean, you know, the motivation
33:05
Speaker 1: can be leniency, like we've already said, it can be
33:08
Speaker 1: just wanting to clear their conscious. Is there any chance
33:11
Speaker 1: of another witness? Take listen to our cut twelve Fox nineteen,
33:15
Speaker 1: we tracked down a man who claims to be a
33:17
Speaker 1: witness in the Hopper Road case. We found him at
33:20
Speaker 1: a state prison in Pickaway County. The question has to
33:23
Speaker 1: be asked, did you have anything to do with this
33:26
Speaker 1: double homicide? Eric Horne is one of the people accused
33:29
Speaker 1: in the Hopper Road statements. Horn serving a life sentence
33:33
Speaker 1: in a separate murder case. He claims he was at
33:36
Speaker 1: the How's Wind Road home the night of the murders,
33:40
Speaker 1: but left before Kurt Francis left and was later murdered.
33:44
Speaker 1: Did you ever see Kurt Francis again? Back to Judy Conley,
33:49
Speaker 1: this is Curtis's mother. Do you believe he's telling the truth? Yes, yes,
33:56
Speaker 1: I did. What do you think happened the night your
33:58
Speaker 1: son was murdered? I think he went home, went to sleep,
34:06
Speaker 1: and they come in and killed him. Do you believe
34:10
Speaker 1: this guy, Eric Horne is telling the truth. Yes, I do.
34:16
Speaker 1: Why I don't know why, I just do. He's got
34:20
Speaker 1: nothing to lose. They the next morning after my son
34:26
Speaker 1: died house came to my house trying to accuse him
34:31
Speaker 1: of killing my son. They were the first people there.
34:36
Speaker 1: I mean, there was this something about on my I
34:40
Speaker 1: told Paul my son, I said, don't go around them.
34:43
Speaker 1: That's the last place your brother was. I said, I said,
34:47
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but I just have
34:49
Speaker 1: a feeling, and I did. To you, Angela Montgomery, does
34:55
Speaker 1: the story that this inmate, Eric Horne is telling makes
34:58
Speaker 1: sense to you. I've did a lot of research on
35:03
Speaker 1: this case, and I've noticed that Eric likes to make
35:06
Speaker 1: sure he excludes hisself out of anything to do with
35:10
Speaker 1: that night. I found some proper letters that he was
35:14
Speaker 1: making in a in the Paul shopecase between the prosecutor
35:20
Speaker 1: and Eric's lawyer, and it does say that Eric would
35:24
Speaker 1: give up information that he had driven Jans to curtain
35:29
Speaker 1: Jenny's house that night, but he had no idea that
35:33
Speaker 1: James was going to murder them. So he says one
35:37
Speaker 1: thing then another. I think personally that they were both
35:42
Speaker 1: there and they both know what happened. But do you
35:46
Speaker 1: believe what he's saying about the murders themselves, whether he
35:50
Speaker 1: was the getaway driver or not. Yes, I do. Take
35:55
Speaker 1: a listen to our cut thirteen Fox nineteen. In September
35:58
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, nearly a year following the Hopper
36:01
Speaker 1: Road murders, Eric Horne was inside the Pike County Courthouse
36:05
Speaker 1: about to take a plea deal in a separate murder case,
36:09
Speaker 1: State prosecutors Horn's case file shows were negotiating a deal
36:14
Speaker 1: with Horn for information on the Hopper Road case. Horn
36:18
Speaker 1: says he wrote a statement then claiming Robin Howes ordered
36:22
Speaker 1: the hit against Kurt Francis and Kevin Hoskins, prator, and
36:26
Speaker 1: James Howes carried it out. Horne says James Howes admitted
36:30
Speaker 1: that to him a few months after the Hopper Road murders.
36:35
Speaker 1: What did James tell you? James shopping firewood and broke
36:42
Speaker 1: down and said, Kevin done it? Kevin done it as
36:49
Speaker 1: it Kevin did Look, he broke down, started crime. It
36:51
Speaker 1: was Robin's doing. She's the one that basically made him
36:56
Speaker 1: do it. Then a mystery letter emerged. Listen to our
37:00
Speaker 1: cut for it. Eric Horne says, days after giving prosecutors
37:04
Speaker 1: the information on the Hopper Road murders, he wrote this
37:08
Speaker 1: letter and sent it home to his mother for safekeeping.
37:11
Speaker 1: In it, he described what he told investigators. Why did
37:15
Speaker 1: you decide to write this letter and include these details
37:19
Speaker 1: in and send that home because if anything were to
37:23
Speaker 1: happen to me, there would be that there would at
37:26
Speaker 1: least be some type of brickering so that justice, justice
37:30
Speaker 1: could be Horne says he told investigators about a lever
37:33
Speaker 1: action rifle that was hanging in the house home, a
37:37
Speaker 1: rifle similar to the one Paul Francis says he saw
37:40
Speaker 1: in the pictures from inside this well. Now a decade later,
37:45
Speaker 1: Horne says, this well's proven what he told investigators nearly
37:50
Speaker 1: ten years ago. You gave investigators this information almost a
37:56
Speaker 1: decade ago now, and there have been no arrest. This
37:59
Speaker 1: case still considered a cold case by the Ohio Attorney
38:02
Speaker 1: General's office because they did not want to listen to me.
38:06
Speaker 1: They did not want to hear what Anna say. Judy Connley,
38:09
Speaker 1: this is Curtis Francis' mother. How does it make you
38:14
Speaker 1: feel to know they've been sitting on this evidence for
38:17
Speaker 1: ten years? It makes me sick because there's no reason
38:22
Speaker 1: for it. I told him once before, I said, this
38:25
Speaker 1: case is too simple. My son had a circle he
38:29
Speaker 1: went in. He had one circle of friends and that
38:33
Speaker 1: was it. And that's just too simple. I feel like
38:38
Speaker 1: I know who divid who was in bobbed in it.
38:41
Speaker 1: The working theory is that Curtis Francis was the intended victim.
38:46
Speaker 1: And Jennifer Brigett, his fiancee was collateral damage that she
38:51
Speaker 1: had to be murdered because she saw who murdered Curtis Francis.
38:56
Speaker 1: You know, Joe Scott Morgan, you have been working in
38:58
Speaker 1: Piketon for quite some time now on your special investigation.
39:04
Speaker 1: I don't understand what the hold up is on the
39:06
Speaker 1: Hopper Road murders. I don't. Yeah, I don't either. I'd
39:11
Speaker 1: have to agree with miss Connelly. You know you've got
39:15
Speaker 1: a brutal double homicide here. If you you know, if
39:19
Speaker 1: that's not motivation enough in order to move forward and
39:23
Speaker 1: get get these cases satisfied, get them solved. I can't
39:29
Speaker 1: figure out what what would be because look the fact
39:34
Speaker 1: that these two innocent people were gunned down in their
39:39
Speaker 1: home where you're supposed to be safe. Somebody came into
39:42
Speaker 1: that home and literally executed them in their beds. I
39:47
Speaker 1: don't understand what the hold up to get this issue resolved.
39:50
Speaker 1: I mean, listen to these poor family members, Nancy. You
39:53
Speaker 1: know the fact that they're having to suffer after all
39:56
Speaker 1: of this time, and there's so much information that they
39:58
Speaker 1: could move forward with, it just baffles mind. Miss kinlay
40:02
Speaker 1: foul a word from you. What is your message today?
40:05
Speaker 1: I want to know who killed my baby. I want
40:09
Speaker 1: to know and I think that they can find out
40:12
Speaker 1: if they will get up and do it. How has
40:14
Speaker 1: this affected your life? I mean, my life has been
40:19
Speaker 1: a mess and it just kept getting worse. Because Paul
40:24
Speaker 1: was a twin. He lost his twin brother and a
40:27
Speaker 1: swimming accident when he was eleven years old. My daughter,
40:32
Speaker 1: she was a nurse, she was BiPOL or. She stuck
40:35
Speaker 1: a down her mouth six months before Curtis was murdered.
40:40
Speaker 1: I've lost my husband three years ago. You know, I'm
40:44
Speaker 1: just I don't know. I need something out of this.
40:49
Speaker 1: You need justice. I needed If anyone has information or
40:56
Speaker 1: thinks they have information, please dial seven zero nine seven
41:01
Speaker 1: seven seven seven two five. Do you know how many
41:05
Speaker 1: times I've given out tiplines? Thousands? I am begging you,
41:10
Speaker 1: on behalf of this mother to please put her mind
41:14
Speaker 1: at rest in the murder of her son Curtis seven
41:19
Speaker 1: four zero nine seven seven seven seven two five. Nancy
41:25
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Story signing off Goodbye friend,