Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Kevin Showalter Pt. One

Transcript

Kevin Showalter Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

0:29
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathway Chili.
0:31
Speaker 2: I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and I'm Ashley. Let's dive right
0:35
Speaker 2: into this week's case.
0:38
Speaker 3: Christmas Eve nineteen seventy three, New London, Connecticut, while changing
0:43
Speaker 3: a tire, twenty year old Kevin Showalter is struck by
0:46
Speaker 3: a passing vehicle and killed in a hit and run.
0:50
Speaker 3: When police make no effort to solve the case, Kevin's
0:53
Speaker 3: mother is forced to fight for answers on her own.
0:56
Speaker 3: Years later, a grand jury investigation is finally held, naming
1:00
Speaker 3: the town's former mayor as a probable driver of the vehicle. However,
1:04
Speaker 3: further complications ensue when another man comes forward to confess
1:08
Speaker 3: to the crime, creating much debate about who was actually
1:12
Speaker 3: responsible for Kevin Showalter's death.
1:14
Speaker 1: After that, the path went chilly. So the Christmas Holidays
1:18
Speaker 1: are nearly upon us, So to commemorate the occasion, we're
1:21
Speaker 1: going to be covering a case which took place on
1:23
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, the unsolved nineteen seventy three hit and run
1:27
Speaker 1: death of Kevin Showalter. I first became familiar with this
1:31
Speaker 1: story ten years ago when I included in an article
1:34
Speaker 1: I published for listfvers dot Com about unsolved Christmas Time mysteries,
1:38
Speaker 1: But until I covered it on the Trail Went Cold
1:40
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, I did not realize just how deep
1:43
Speaker 1: a rabbit hole it really was. Cold cases involving hit
1:47
Speaker 1: and run deaths are often very difficult to solve because
1:50
Speaker 1: unless someone actually witnessed the event, there's usually very little
1:53
Speaker 1: evidence to work with. But the death of Kevin Showalter
1:57
Speaker 1: wound up ballooning into one of the most extensive hit
1:59
Speaker 1: and run in investigations in the history of the United States.
2:03
Speaker 1: The local police initially did such a terrible job that
2:06
Speaker 1: Kevin's mother had to become his sole advocate. The case
2:09
Speaker 1: eventually wound up in the hands of the Connecticut State Police,
2:12
Speaker 1: who would spend over one million dollars on the investigation
2:15
Speaker 1: and garner national press coverage for the story. In spite
2:19
Speaker 1: of this, the case is not particularly well known today, though,
2:22
Speaker 1: but often garnered coverage in the local media, and new
2:25
Speaker 1: developments were still taking place in the investigation. Up until
2:28
Speaker 1: the mid two thousands. We have one person who has
2:31
Speaker 1: been publicly named as the most likely perpetrator, but since
2:34
Speaker 1: there have been a number of unexpected twists and turns.
2:37
Speaker 1: A lot of ambiguity still surrounds what actually happened here.
2:41
Speaker 2: Oh, this is so sad. You have a twenty year
2:44
Speaker 2: old young man who's killed in a hit and run
2:48
Speaker 2: and a mother who is really saddled with this task.
2:52
Speaker 2: It's unthinkable you need to do an investigation into your
2:58
Speaker 2: son's death if you want any kind of answers or
3:01
Speaker 2: justice at all. I can't imagine the weight that that
3:04
Speaker 2: places on her, and not only her, but the rest
3:07
Speaker 2: of her family as well, because she can't turn to
3:10
Speaker 2: local law enforcement to say, carry that burden for me,
3:13
Speaker 2: and so it becomes an additional burden on top of
3:15
Speaker 2: the death of her son. So my heart is absolutely
3:19
Speaker 2: broken for this poor woman who dedicates her life to
3:22
Speaker 2: justice for her son. And when you talk about the
3:25
Speaker 2: idea that the only named individual has been the mayor
3:30
Speaker 2: of the town, it adds that layer of potential mix
3:33
Speaker 2: of politics and the lack of justice because of that,
3:38
Speaker 2: Like did the local law enforcement not investigate because of
3:41
Speaker 2: the political pressure and weight of the mayor being potentially involved.
3:46
Speaker 2: I can't wait to hear more, but my heart is
3:49
Speaker 2: absolutely broken for this poor mother. And it shows what
3:51
Speaker 2: strength and incredible determination these survivors have in these moments
3:55
Speaker 2: when they say, if you won't do it, I'll do
3:58
Speaker 2: it myself.
3:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. We have covered a lot of cases on
4:01
Speaker 1: the podcast like this where the police does a terrible
4:04
Speaker 1: job and the victims' family members has to be their
4:06
Speaker 1: advocate and pretty much do all the work, and they
4:09
Speaker 1: are pretty much the only reason that the case remains
4:12
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. It is still remembered after so many years.
4:14
Speaker 1: And here we're probably we're going to be profiling one
4:17
Speaker 1: of the worst police investigations I've seen for a cold case.
4:20
Speaker 1: But when you hear the twist about the town mayor
4:22
Speaker 1: possibly being the perpetrator, you can understand why there have
4:25
Speaker 1: been allegations of potential cover up and rumors that the
4:29
Speaker 1: investigation was botched intentionally.
4:33
Speaker 3: Our story begins in New London, Connecticut, in nineteen seventy three.
4:37
Speaker 3: Our central figure is twenty year old Kevin Showalter, who's
4:40
Speaker 3: currently a student at Mitchell College. Kevin's parents are divorced,
4:44
Speaker 3: but he still remains close to his mother, Lucille's Showalter,
4:48
Speaker 3: and his two brothers. On Christmas Eve, Kevin was working
4:51
Speaker 3: his job at a discotheque in Waterford, which is located
4:54
Speaker 3: just three miles outside New London. He became friendly with
4:58
Speaker 3: a young female patron named Debrah Emilita and invited her
5:02
Speaker 3: to attend a Christmas party with him. After Kevin's shift ended,
5:06
Speaker 3: he left his own car behind to the discothech so
5:08
Speaker 3: he and Deborah could use her Ford Pinto to drive
5:11
Speaker 3: to his apartment in New London. They spent the next
5:14
Speaker 3: few hours hanging out together and decided that they would
5:17
Speaker 3: not attend the Christmas party after all, so Kevin asked
5:20
Speaker 3: Deborah to drive him back to the discothech so he
5:22
Speaker 3: could pick up his own car. On their way there,
5:25
Speaker 3: Deborah's Pinto suddenly sustained a flat tire on Pequot Avenue,
5:29
Speaker 3: a residential street located less than two blocks from where
5:32
Speaker 3: Kevin's mother lived. Deborah pulled over, and after discovering that
5:36
Speaker 3: the front driver's side tire was flat, Kevin pulled out
5:39
Speaker 3: a jack and crouched down beside the Pinto to change
5:41
Speaker 3: the tire. He recommended the Deborah switch off the vehicle's
5:45
Speaker 3: parking lights in order to conserve the battery, but tragedy
5:48
Speaker 3: would soon occur. At around eleven eleven PM, Kevin was
5:52
Speaker 3: attempting to change the tire when he was suddenly struck
5:55
Speaker 3: by a passing vehicle, which propelled his body fifty feet
5:59
Speaker 3: onto the sideway. The driver of the vehicle did not
6:02
Speaker 3: bother to stop and just kept on going. At the time,
6:06
Speaker 3: Deborah was sitting on top of a stone wall six
6:08
Speaker 3: feet away from the pinto and remembered hearing a thud.
6:11
Speaker 3: Well she was able to catch a glimpse of a
6:13
Speaker 3: tail light driving away in the distance, she did not
6:16
Speaker 3: actually see the vehicle. In fact, even though numerous witnesses
6:19
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood would recall hearing noises from their homes
6:23
Speaker 3: and catching a glimpse of the tail lights to the
6:24
Speaker 3: vehicle which struck Kevin, none of them got a clear
6:28
Speaker 3: enough look at it to provide a description.
6:31
Speaker 2: Here's what's so difficult about this is that you have
6:34
Speaker 2: Kevin and Deborah. They're, you know, hanging out, they're on
6:37
Speaker 2: a date, and they make this decision that they're not
6:40
Speaker 2: going to go to the Christmas party. So Kevin says,
6:42
Speaker 2: take me back to my car, and he's literally right
6:45
Speaker 2: near his mother's home, so about two blocks. Thinking, like,
6:50
Speaker 2: you know, had he walked back home, had he asked
6:53
Speaker 2: his mom to you know, drive them to get his
6:55
Speaker 2: other car, things like that this might have actually not
6:59
Speaker 2: even a cur So this crazy moment where he's getting
7:02
Speaker 2: out just to fix his friend's tire or girlfriend's tire
7:06
Speaker 2: turns into him losing his life. It's the unthinkable, which
7:10
Speaker 2: is why when you have Deborah sitting up on that
7:12
Speaker 2: wall and she hears a thud, it almost on the
7:16
Speaker 2: surface seems impossible that she wouldn't see the car. But
7:20
Speaker 2: when she hears that thud, the last thing going through
7:22
Speaker 2: her mind is most likely that Kevin had been hit.
7:25
Speaker 2: It would be that catching up in your mind and
7:28
Speaker 2: your conscience to say, wait a minute, what just happened.
7:30
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Kevin's hurt. And by the time you
7:33
Speaker 2: realize that and you look up, all you can see
7:35
Speaker 2: are those tail lights. And so my heart is absolutely
7:39
Speaker 2: broken for Deborah. This young kid who's just being a
7:43
Speaker 2: gentleman and kind and helping get this car fixed loses
7:48
Speaker 2: his life and the person doesn't even stop. It makes
7:52
Speaker 2: you think were they drinking, were they under the influence
7:54
Speaker 2: of something, Because yes, you would be scared if you
7:58
Speaker 2: hit something you didn't know what you would hit, But
8:01
Speaker 2: you would think that most people would pull over if
8:04
Speaker 2: they were innocent and they accidentally hit somebody who was
8:07
Speaker 2: changing a tire in the dark. Remember, he had turned
8:10
Speaker 2: the car off, so there'd be justification of saying I
8:13
Speaker 2: didn't see the poor kid. But they kept going, which
8:17
Speaker 2: makes me think there was a reason they could not stop.
8:20
Speaker 3: I was thinking that they must have been intoxicated, because
8:23
Speaker 3: for Deborah not to see the vehicle after hearing that thud,
8:27
Speaker 3: even if it's going fairly fast, for her eyes not
8:29
Speaker 3: to be on the road seemed strange. But Robin, I've
8:33
Speaker 3: got a question for you. Do you know how well
8:36
Speaker 3: lit that area was?
8:39
Speaker 1: It does not sound like it was particularly well lit.
8:41
Speaker 1: And I think that's the most senseless thing about this
8:43
Speaker 1: whole tragedy is that it probably was legitimately an accident,
8:47
Speaker 1: and that if the driver, as long as they weren't
8:49
Speaker 1: drunk and they just pulled over, I'd admitted to what
8:52
Speaker 1: they did, they may not have received any jail time.
8:54
Speaker 1: Because there's Kevin approached by a vehicle like changing a
8:58
Speaker 1: tire on the car which has turned the light, So
9:00
Speaker 1: you can't really you can kind of understand why this
9:03
Speaker 1: motorists might have hit him by accident, but the fact
9:05
Speaker 1: that they didn't even bother to stop and just took
9:07
Speaker 1: off in a panic. Just pretty much caused this whole
9:10
Speaker 1: thing to spiral out of control because they didn't fess
9:12
Speaker 1: up to it. And that's why people are still talking
9:15
Speaker 1: about this case fifty years later.
9:17
Speaker 2: And see that's why I think the driver had to
9:19
Speaker 2: be intoxicated because or under the influence of something, because
9:24
Speaker 2: or they had some materials in their car. There was
9:27
Speaker 2: something going on that once they hit him, they didn't
9:31
Speaker 2: pull over. Yes, the kids could have been drinking and
9:33
Speaker 2: maybe Kevin was being incredibly responsible asking Deborah to drive
9:36
Speaker 2: him and so he didn't drive his car. But I
9:39
Speaker 2: think the driver of the vehicle that struck him had
9:42
Speaker 2: to have a legal reason they didn't stop.
9:45
Speaker 3: Well, look at Chap equittic like the whole thing with
9:48
Speaker 3: what was it Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Ted Kennedy. Sorry,
9:52
Speaker 3: I don't want to get the Kennedy's mixed up, but
9:53
Speaker 3: he basically like left the scene, went in processed this
9:56
Speaker 3: for this good chunk of time before you realize he's
9:59
Speaker 3: going to be tied to this, He's going to have
10:01
Speaker 3: to cop to what happened. So I think when you are,
10:04
Speaker 3: I mean he was part of a political dynasty, and
10:06
Speaker 3: if we're looking at this through the lens that this
10:08
Speaker 3: could have been the mayor allegedly, then it's very possible
10:13
Speaker 3: that just the status of being the mayor would be
10:16
Speaker 3: enough that it would be like, oh my god, my
10:18
Speaker 3: career could be over, my life could be over. Because
10:21
Speaker 3: people think worst case scenario in that situation. But I
10:25
Speaker 3: do agree. I think there's probably a strong likelihood that
10:28
Speaker 3: if it was indeed the mayor or somebody else, they
10:30
Speaker 3: were likely intoxicated because to keep going and not even
10:34
Speaker 3: to pause for a minute, it just seems so strange.
10:39
Speaker 1: That night, Kevin's mother, Lucille Showalter, had been attending Christmas
10:43
Speaker 1: Eve services at her church before she returned home and
10:46
Speaker 1: went to bed. She would be woken up during the
10:48
Speaker 1: early morning hours of Christmas Day when officers from the
10:51
Speaker 1: New London Police Department arrived at the front door and
10:54
Speaker 1: informed her that her son had been hurt in an accident.
10:57
Speaker 1: Lucille went to the hospital where Kevin had been taken,
11:00
Speaker 1: but when she arrived, she learned the horrifying news that
11:03
Speaker 1: Kevin was dead. The police informed Lucille that Kevin was
11:06
Speaker 1: the victim of a hit and run, and she assumed
11:08
Speaker 1: that they would be investigating the crime and doing their
11:11
Speaker 1: best to find the driver who was responsible. However, Lucille
11:15
Speaker 1: started a sense that something was wrong when she showed
11:17
Speaker 1: up at the New London police station a few weeks
11:19
Speaker 1: later to retrieve Kevin's personal effects. To her astonishment, the
11:24
Speaker 1: police claimed that his personal effects have been lost and
11:26
Speaker 1: flat out told Lucille that the case would probably never
11:29
Speaker 1: be solved. So this motivated Lucille to launch her own
11:33
Speaker 1: independent investigation. She got her hands on an FBI lab
11:37
Speaker 1: report which stated that dark green paint particles had been
11:40
Speaker 1: found on Kevin's clothing, which were consistent with the same
11:43
Speaker 1: shade of green which was often used on nineteen sixty
11:46
Speaker 1: eight Krysler vehicles. Lucille then did some exhaustive leg work,
11:50
Speaker 1: searching throughout the area for dark green vehicles which had
11:53
Speaker 1: any signs of damage on them. She asked local auto
11:56
Speaker 1: dealers and garages if they had repaired any damaged vehicle
12:00
Speaker 1: shortly after Christmas Eve, and learned that most of them
12:02
Speaker 1: had never even received any inquiries from the police. Lucille
12:06
Speaker 1: also interviewed a number of people, including witnesses from Kevin's accident,
12:10
Speaker 1: seen and reached the conclusion that the driver hit him
12:13
Speaker 1: was likely from the area, given that Pequat Avenue as
12:16
Speaker 1: a residential street not known for getting much traffic.
12:20
Speaker 2: So not only does Mom have to do this investigation
12:24
Speaker 2: by herself, but she also goes to the police department
12:29
Speaker 2: and is shut down that basically good luck finding who
12:33
Speaker 2: killed him, right, that this is likely not going to
12:35
Speaker 2: have a resolution. But they also lost his personal effects,
12:38
Speaker 2: which is absolutely devastating. Even if there wasn't much on him,
12:43
Speaker 2: that's all she had left. She was going to get
12:46
Speaker 2: his things back and bring them back into her possession
12:49
Speaker 2: so that she could do what she wanted to, and
12:53
Speaker 2: they lost them like he didn't matter, right, that there
12:56
Speaker 2: wasn't a mother out there that wanted his belongings. That's hurtful.
13:01
Speaker 2: The fact that they say good luck, there's not going
13:02
Speaker 2: to be a resolution, the fact that they're not doing
13:05
Speaker 2: any work because she's doing work and finding out that
13:08
Speaker 2: the police have never spoken to these repair shops and
13:12
Speaker 2: things of that nature, which would be the first thing
13:14
Speaker 2: you would think police would do. But I do have
13:17
Speaker 2: a question when you get down to the idea that
13:20
Speaker 2: it's on this back residential street. Mom had to be
13:25
Speaker 2: thinking this is someone I go to the grocery store with.
13:27
Speaker 2: This is someone I'm in church with, This is someone
13:30
Speaker 2: who I could have gone to school with, my son
13:32
Speaker 2: could have gone to school with. That makes it even
13:35
Speaker 2: more devastating that you could easily be standing next to
13:39
Speaker 2: someone you know and are familiar with and they hit
13:42
Speaker 2: your son and kept going.
13:45
Speaker 1: That is true because it does seem certain that this
13:48
Speaker 1: was not an outsider lived away from New London, that
13:50
Speaker 1: it was someone who lived in the area and had
13:52
Speaker 1: probably cross paths with Lucille and her family on numerous occasions.
13:56
Speaker 1: And as we're about to talk about momentarily, the person
13:59
Speaker 1: who would later be come the prime suspect acted so
14:02
Speaker 1: nice to Lucille and offered her so much comfort afterwards,
14:06
Speaker 1: and then it turns out that maybe they might have
14:07
Speaker 1: been doing this to cover their own ass.
14:10
Speaker 3: Lucille kept a written record of all her findings and
14:13
Speaker 3: attempted to turn it over to the police, but they
14:16
Speaker 3: only became angry about her investigation and accused her of
14:19
Speaker 3: withholding evidence. In spite of this, Lucille continued to actively
14:24
Speaker 3: campaign for answers and even convinced the state of Connecticut
14:27
Speaker 3: to offer a two thousand dollars reward for information. One
14:31
Speaker 3: prominent citizen who offered Lucille his full support, who had
14:35
Speaker 3: previously served two terms as mayor of New London and
14:38
Speaker 3: was now a wealthy, well respected jewelry merchant. He told
14:42
Speaker 3: Lucille that he had actually driven past Kevin's accident, seen
14:45
Speaker 3: at around eleven twelve pm on Christmas Eve, only about
14:48
Speaker 3: a minute after Kevin had been struck. Mala remembered seeing
14:52
Speaker 3: a dark green car parked at an angle in front
14:54
Speaker 3: of the Pinto and saw a middle aged, clean shaven
14:57
Speaker 3: man talking to a younger woman nearby. Malave claimed that
15:01
Speaker 3: he initially thought the guy might be a policeman, since
15:03
Speaker 3: city police were known for driving unmarked dark green vehicles. However,
15:08
Speaker 3: records showed that the earliest help arrived at the scene
15:11
Speaker 3: that night was eleven fifteen.
15:13
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, Okay, so the former mayor's saying that
15:16
Speaker 2: not only did he see a dark green car part,
15:20
Speaker 2: but he also saw a middle aged, clean shaven man
15:23
Speaker 2: talking to a younger woman. If that had happened, Deborah
15:26
Speaker 2: would have seen that and known that, and she may
15:29
Speaker 2: have even been that younger woman. So how does he
15:31
Speaker 2: explain that?
15:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's The issue, as we're going to find
15:35
Speaker 1: out as we go along, is that he tells this
15:37
Speaker 1: story to Lucille, seemingly offering her these leads, and then
15:41
Speaker 1: she'll later speak to Deborah and all the other witnesses,
15:43
Speaker 1: and no one else reports seeing the same thing. And
15:47
Speaker 1: you could think that, well, maybe that young woman was Deborah,
15:49
Speaker 1: but Kevin had a beard. He was not a middle aged,
15:52
Speaker 1: clean shaven man. So here thinking is he really confused
15:56
Speaker 1: or could he be completely fabricating this guy out of
15:59
Speaker 1: thin air in order to send Lucille in the wrong direction. Anyway,
16:03
Speaker 1: The next few years would be an exercise and frustration
16:06
Speaker 1: for Lucille, as she constantly wrote numerous people in authority,
16:09
Speaker 1: such as the new London police chief, a local superior
16:12
Speaker 1: court judge, and the state's attorney, to demand a proper
16:15
Speaker 1: investigation into her son's death, but she was often completely ignored.
16:20
Speaker 1: But Lucille's persistence eventually paid off when she wrote a
16:23
Speaker 1: letter to Connecticut Governor La t. Grosso only a few
16:27
Speaker 1: days before Christmas in nineteen seventy six. A one man
16:30
Speaker 1: grand jury was created to investigate the case, and a
16:33
Speaker 1: Superior court judge named Joseph Donaghy would be appointed to
16:37
Speaker 1: the position. This launched a one year investigation from the
16:40
Speaker 1: Connecticut State Police, which involved re examining the evidence and
16:44
Speaker 1: re interviewing witnesses by the state. In total, they spent
16:48
Speaker 1: over one million dollars, the largest amount ever spent on
16:51
Speaker 1: a hit and run case at that time. The whole
16:54
Speaker 1: situation exposed just how badly the New London Police Department
16:57
Speaker 1: had bungled the original investigation, as in addition to showing
17:01
Speaker 1: a lack of initiative to solve the case, they had
17:03
Speaker 1: also apparently lost some key pieces of evidence. The tow
17:06
Speaker 1: truck driver who arrived at the accident scene remembered finding
17:10
Speaker 1: green automobile body putty and turning it over to the
17:13
Speaker 1: police before it inexplicably disappeared. Some amber plastic, which may
17:18
Speaker 1: have been part of a signal light on the vehicle
17:20
Speaker 1: which struck Kevin, was also found at the scene but
17:22
Speaker 1: subsequently went missing. The new London PD found some glass
17:27
Speaker 1: and did turn it over to the FBI for testing,
17:29
Speaker 1: and they determined that it likely belonged to a general
17:32
Speaker 1: electric headlight before sending it back. However, when the State
17:35
Speaker 1: police requested to analyze this glass years later, the new
17:39
Speaker 1: London PD turnover a box containing what appeared to be
17:42
Speaker 1: glass fragments from multiple vehicles. An engineer from General Electric
17:47
Speaker 1: would determine that at least one of these glass fragments
17:49
Speaker 1: could not have been dislodged by a vehicle heading a pedestrian,
17:53
Speaker 1: and that it was likely removed from a headlamp socket
17:55
Speaker 1: by force. In other words, this glass fragment did not
17:58
Speaker 1: belong to the car which struck Kevin. The State police
18:02
Speaker 1: also concluded that the dark green paint particles found on
18:05
Speaker 1: Kevin's clothing probably did not originate from the vehicle that
18:08
Speaker 1: struck him.
18:10
Speaker 2: I'm assuming they did more advanced testing. I mean, there
18:12
Speaker 2: are different paint components that are and I don't know,
18:17
Speaker 2: molecules and things like that that make up different types
18:20
Speaker 2: of paint automobile paint versus craft paint versus home paint.
18:25
Speaker 2: So did they do end depth analysis of it to
18:28
Speaker 2: conclusively say that it didn't come from a vehicle.
18:32
Speaker 1: I think so it's kind of murky what kind of
18:34
Speaker 1: testing they did. But I remember how I said earlier
18:36
Speaker 1: that they thought this was the type of paint used
18:39
Speaker 1: on a green dark Green nineteen sixty eight Chrysler, and
18:42
Speaker 1: they were able to determine that it did not match
18:44
Speaker 1: the type of paint used on that vehicle, and I'm
18:46
Speaker 1: guessing they did extensive testing to realize that, no, this
18:50
Speaker 1: doesn't belong to a vehicle. Kevin probably got it from
18:52
Speaker 1: something completely unrelated.
18:55
Speaker 3: In total, the grand jury investigation contained five months worth
18:59
Speaker 3: of hearing, featuring testimony from one hundred and seven witnesses.
19:03
Speaker 3: One of the most prominent witnesses was a police informant
19:06
Speaker 3: named Katherine Krause, who claimed that sometime in nineteen seventy five,
19:11
Speaker 3: two women at a party told her about a father
19:13
Speaker 3: and son duo named Walter Spring Junior and Walter Spring
19:16
Speaker 3: the third who'd allegedly done repairs on the vehicle which
19:20
Speaker 3: struck Heaven. The Springs had operated an auto repair shop
19:23
Speaker 3: in New London in nineteen seventy three before moving to
19:27
Speaker 3: New Jersey. Kraus came forward and shared this information with
19:30
Speaker 3: the state police in February of nineteen seventy seven, but
19:34
Speaker 3: claimed that once the Springs found out about it, they
19:37
Speaker 3: took her to Florida and held her in a motel
19:39
Speaker 3: for a month in order to prevent her from testifying.
19:42
Speaker 3: For months. The Springs were very uncooperative with the grand
19:45
Speaker 3: jury investigation and would not show up to testify until
19:49
Speaker 3: they received a court order. While Krous passed a lie
19:52
Speaker 3: detect or test about her story, the Springs refused to
19:55
Speaker 3: take one. A state trooper also testified that the Springs
19:58
Speaker 3: had allegedly threatened to rub out anyone who talked about
20:02
Speaker 3: their repair work of the hit and run vehicle.
20:05
Speaker 2: And these two guys are not considered main suspects.
20:09
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think that they were involved in the
20:11
Speaker 1: actual hit and run, but it does seem clear that
20:14
Speaker 1: something shady was going on with them, and that there's
20:17
Speaker 1: a good chance that whoever did hit Kevin probably went
20:19
Speaker 1: to them to get their vehicle repaired.
20:22
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, this idea of obstructing justice, right, and being
20:25
Speaker 2: two people that would have information they know who owned
20:29
Speaker 2: that car, So if they repaired that car, they're basically
20:33
Speaker 2: protecting a killer. Somebody who might have on accident hit
20:37
Speaker 2: him but then didn't stop, didn't pull over to see
20:41
Speaker 2: if he could help, didn't have any compassion for Kevin. So,
20:47
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know, how do you sit there
20:49
Speaker 2: with that kind of information and say, yeah, we'll fix
20:52
Speaker 2: your car and we're totally fine. Knowing that this car
20:55
Speaker 2: killed a kid and his family has no justice.
20:58
Speaker 3: And if that's the case, you see just this escalation
21:01
Speaker 3: where they're trying to hide what they've done. If we're
21:04
Speaker 3: to believe what Catherine Cross is saying, because to hold
21:07
Speaker 3: somebody in a hotel room for an entire month against
21:11
Speaker 3: their will, that sounds really intense if it's true.
21:15
Speaker 1: I mean, and the whole thing was based on hearsay rumors.
21:18
Speaker 1: So if it turned out the rumors weren't true, all
21:21
Speaker 1: the Springs would have to do is just testify and
21:23
Speaker 1: grand in front of the grand jury and says, Nope,
21:25
Speaker 1: these are all lies. We had nothing to do with this.
21:27
Speaker 1: We never repaired any vehicle. But the fact that they
21:30
Speaker 1: kept dodging it and would not and would refuse to
21:32
Speaker 1: testify and refuse to take a lie detector test indicates
21:35
Speaker 1: that they do have something to hide. After the grand
21:39
Speaker 1: jury investigation concluded and Judge Danahey looked at all the evidence,
21:43
Speaker 1: he finally issued a thirty seven page report in February
21:46
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy eight. He concluded that quote it is
21:49
Speaker 1: more probable than not that Harvey Malav was the operator
21:52
Speaker 1: of the offending vehicle, As recall, Malav had told Lucille
21:57
Speaker 1: that he drove past Heaven's accident scene right after the
22:00
Speaker 1: hit and run took place, but Judge dan He concluded
22:03
Speaker 1: that Malif's story contradicted the account shared by every other
22:06
Speaker 1: person who was at the scene that night. Malif claimed
22:09
Speaker 1: that he had been driving a yellow nineteen seventy Lincoln Continental,
22:13
Speaker 1: but seven witnesses, including Deborah Andmalita, testified that they never
22:17
Speaker 1: saw a vehicle like that in the neighborhood. After Kevin
22:21
Speaker 1: was hit, one of the neighbors called the fire department,
22:23
Speaker 1: and Deborah claimed that no other vehicles drove past the
22:26
Speaker 1: scene until a fire rescue ambulance and the fire chief's
22:30
Speaker 1: car arrived at eleven fifteen pm. In addition, every witness
22:34
Speaker 1: contradicted Malov's original story about seeing a dark green car
22:38
Speaker 1: parked in front of Deborah's Ford Pinto. As you recall,
22:42
Speaker 1: Malif claimed that he saw a middle aged man speaking
22:44
Speaker 1: to a young woman, and the respeculation that Malub might
22:47
Speaker 1: have actually seen Kevin speaking to Debra and was just
22:50
Speaker 1: confused about the time because he drove through the neighborhood
22:53
Speaker 1: before Kevin was hit. However, Maliv specifically described seeing a
22:57
Speaker 1: clean shaven man, and Kevin had a beard at that time.
23:00
Speaker 1: Maliv's Lincoln Continental was examined by the State Police in
23:03
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven and there were signs of damage to
23:06
Speaker 1: the right fender area, along with some turquoise green body putty.
23:11
Speaker 1: Malif could not recall how the vehicle sustained this damage,
23:14
Speaker 1: but given how much time had passed, there was no
23:17
Speaker 1: way to conclusively prove that the damage had been caused
23:19
Speaker 1: by hitting Kevin. In nineteen seventy four, the Chief State's
23:23
Speaker 1: Attorney's office had inquired about whether the New London PD
23:27
Speaker 1: inspected any of Malov's vehicles for damage. The police responded
23:31
Speaker 1: that they'd inspected six vehicles owned by Maliv and found nothing,
23:35
Speaker 1: but the Grand Jury investigation discovered that this was a
23:38
Speaker 1: complete lie. There was also a tentative connection between Malav
23:42
Speaker 1: and the Spring family. Malif had been a member of
23:45
Speaker 1: the New London Redevelopment Corporation in nineteen seventy three and
23:49
Speaker 1: loaned the Springs three thousand dollars only one month before
23:52
Speaker 1: Kevin's death, So could Maliv have called in a favor
23:55
Speaker 1: and asked them to repair the damage to his vehicle.
23:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely he could. But even more concerning is why the
24:02
Speaker 2: heck would the police lie to the state's attorney's office
24:06
Speaker 2: and say, oh, yeah, we actually investigated all of his vehicles,
24:10
Speaker 2: and then they uncover that that was a lie.
24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. Like even though in a lot of
24:16
Speaker 1: cases involving police conspiracies and cover ups, it does seem
24:20
Speaker 1: like a little over the top. You start thinking like
24:22
Speaker 1: how many people could keep a secret, But when you're
24:24
Speaker 1: dealing with such a prominent, well respected citizen like Harvey Malov,
24:28
Speaker 1: who was the town's former mayor, you could see law
24:31
Speaker 1: enforcement officers be willing to go to bat for him
24:33
Speaker 1: because maybe in their eyes, he's thinking, oh, it's just
24:36
Speaker 1: it was just a complete accident. He made a mistake.
24:38
Speaker 1: Let's not let this entire mistake ruin his life, And
24:41
Speaker 1: that way, they were willing to sweep evidence under the rug.
24:44
Speaker 3: All that being said, since the New London PD had
24:47
Speaker 3: lost most of their evidence from the accident, there was
24:50
Speaker 3: nothing which could conclusively link Malob to the crime, so
24:54
Speaker 3: Judge Danny he did not recommend criminal prosecution. Needless to say,
24:59
Speaker 3: Malub denied these his allegations, and many of his supporters
25:02
Speaker 3: were not too happy with the fact that danahe would
25:05
Speaker 3: publicly name him as the hit and run driver when
25:08
Speaker 3: there wasn't even enough evidence to file criminal charges. Malave
25:13
Speaker 3: pointed out that he previously passed a lie detector test
25:15
Speaker 3: when questioned about the accident in nineteen seventy five, and
25:19
Speaker 3: following the release of Judge Danihe's report, he immediately hired
25:23
Speaker 3: his own private investigator. Malov hoped that evidence would be
25:27
Speaker 3: uncovered to help clear his name, but when the investigator
25:30
Speaker 3: did not deliver his promise, the two men had a
25:33
Speaker 3: falling out. By this point, the case had already garnered
25:36
Speaker 3: a ton of national publicity, including an article in People magazine.
25:41
Speaker 3: The popular TV series Lew Grant even did an episode
25:44
Speaker 3: which was loosely based on this story about a young
25:47
Speaker 3: man who's killed in a hit and run accident by
25:50
Speaker 3: a prominent judge while his mother seeks justice. It was
25:53
Speaker 3: essentially one of those law and order style ripped from
25:56
Speaker 3: the headline stories inspired by real life crimes, but Lucille's
26:00
Speaker 3: showalter did not like the episode, mainly because the fictional
26:04
Speaker 3: mother character based on her was portrayed as a very rude,
26:07
Speaker 3: demanding person. Anyway, following the grand jury investigation, the reward
26:13
Speaker 3: for information leading to an arrest was raised to twenty
26:16
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. But unfortunately, since Kevin's death was ruled to
26:20
Speaker 3: be a case of negligent homicide rather than murder, there
26:23
Speaker 3: was a five year statute of limitations on the crime,
26:26
Speaker 3: and it officially ended on Christmas Day in nineteen seventy eight. However,
26:31
Speaker 3: this would not be the end of the story.
26:34
Speaker 2: Isn't there a potential for them to actually change that
26:39
Speaker 2: cause of death or rule it differently and change it
26:42
Speaker 2: from negligent homicide to murder, and then there isn't a
26:46
Speaker 2: statute of limitations. Let's say someone said, hey, listen, this
26:50
Speaker 2: man confessed to me, he said that he killed this
26:53
Speaker 2: kid in nineteen seventy three. Couldn't they go back and
26:56
Speaker 2: change it, or since it possibly could have just been
26:59
Speaker 2: an act accident that resulted in his death, would it
27:02
Speaker 2: stay a negligent Homicid'd probably stay a negligent homicide.
27:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure what the laws were, especially back
27:08
Speaker 1: in nineteen seven, in the nineteen seventies, because it would
27:11
Speaker 1: be very hard to prove murder. I mean, I'm sure
27:14
Speaker 1: it was an accidental death. But if you speed away
27:16
Speaker 1: from the scene. Then that I guess qualifies as negligent homicide.
27:20
Speaker 1: But I really don't like the president it sets because
27:22
Speaker 1: you're thinking, well, we can run over a guy from
27:24
Speaker 1: a car and splee the scene, and as long as
27:27
Speaker 1: we wait out five years and let the clock run out,
27:29
Speaker 1: then we'll get away with it. But I guess they
27:31
Speaker 1: would need to find more evidence I guess to point
27:34
Speaker 1: towards murder homicide before they'd be able to change it.
27:38
Speaker 1: In September of nineteen seventy nine, Paul Hanson, a twenty
27:42
Speaker 1: nine year old resident of the nearby town of East Lyne,
27:45
Speaker 1: came forward and claimed that he was the driver of
27:47
Speaker 1: the hit run vehicle which struck Kevin Showalter. Hanson claimed
27:51
Speaker 1: that after doing some heavy Christmas Eve drinking, he was
27:54
Speaker 1: driving home on Peaquat Avenue when he recalled feeling an
27:57
Speaker 1: impact of some sort, though he said he did not
28:00
Speaker 1: notice hitting anyone. When Hanson woke up on Christmas morning,
28:04
Speaker 1: he had no memory of the previous night, but heard
28:06
Speaker 1: a news report about a young man being fatally struck
28:09
Speaker 1: by a vehicle on that street. After Hanson checked his
28:13
Speaker 1: car and noticed there was some damage, he grew horrified
28:16
Speaker 1: and became convinced that he was responsible for Kevin's death.
28:20
Speaker 1: Of course, by the time Hanson came forward, the statute
28:23
Speaker 1: of limitations had expired, so no criminal charges could be
28:26
Speaker 1: filed against him. However, it was still necessary to conduct
28:29
Speaker 1: a thorough investigation because Lucille had tentatively filed a six
28:33
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars civil lawsuit against the person who killed
28:37
Speaker 1: her son, and since no one had ever been charged
28:39
Speaker 1: with any crime, she had yet to fill in the
28:42
Speaker 1: name of the actual defendant when questioned. Hanson wound up
28:45
Speaker 1: failing a polygraph test, and there would be another one
28:48
Speaker 1: man grand jury investigation, headed by Judge Danihe. In August
28:52
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty one, Dannyhe ruled that there was no
28:55
Speaker 1: evidence to support Hanson's claims that he was responsible for
28:58
Speaker 1: Kevin's death. He also wrote, quote, it will be difficult
29:02
Speaker 1: for some to agree with the end of this investigative inquiry. Psychologically,
29:07
Speaker 1: certain individuals cannot now and probably never will be able
29:10
Speaker 1: to accept that the case of Kevin B. Showalter will
29:13
Speaker 1: not be prosecuted at this time end quote. And that
29:16
Speaker 1: pretty much brought an end to the investigation for a
29:18
Speaker 1: long time. And Lucille's civil suit never went to court.
29:23
Speaker 2: It's really sad. I mean it's sad for obviously Kevin
29:26
Speaker 2: and his mother and family, but it's also sad for
29:29
Speaker 2: Hanson in some ways that he is seemingly haunted right
29:35
Speaker 2: by this idea of Hey, I remember this thud. I
29:39
Speaker 2: was drinking. I don't recall that evening very clearly, but
29:43
Speaker 2: once I read about it, I became horrified that I
29:45
Speaker 2: might have done this. Yes, he waits till after the
29:48
Speaker 2: statue of limitations expires. Like you said, Robin, that sets
29:52
Speaker 2: up a really bad precedent. But he does come forward
29:56
Speaker 2: and he says, listen, I don't remember anything. I remember
29:59
Speaker 2: a thud, and that's it could have been anything, a
30:03
Speaker 2: pothole of you know, things like that. He says, I
30:05
Speaker 2: don't recall seeing a body. So he's not even confident
30:10
Speaker 2: that he's the one who did it. Could he be absolute?
30:13
Speaker 2: That's a description. I'm drinking and driving, I heard a thud,
30:17
Speaker 2: I drove home and didn't stop. I had some damage
30:19
Speaker 2: to my car. You should be pretty horrified the next
30:22
Speaker 2: morning when you wake up and there's a deceased body
30:24
Speaker 2: because of a hit and run. Can you be confident
30:28
Speaker 2: that you're the one who killed Kevin, not unless you
30:30
Speaker 2: had gotten your car inspected and they had done a
30:34
Speaker 2: forensic exam of the car and those types of things.
30:37
Speaker 2: So it's a difficult situation where you have another person
30:41
Speaker 2: who just made some bad decisions that night who says
30:44
Speaker 2: I think I could have been the one who hit him.
30:47
Speaker 2: So without him even being confident and knowing, and without
30:50
Speaker 2: the investigation being done that evening or shortly after on
30:55
Speaker 2: his car, there'd be no way to prove that.
30:58
Speaker 3: It's wild that he came forward after all those years.
31:01
Speaker 3: I really wonder what he was thinking to himself during
31:04
Speaker 3: that time period, if he was overwhelmed and shouldering like
31:08
Speaker 3: a lot of guilt and regret over this situation, that
31:12
Speaker 3: he might have done it. He might have contributed to
31:16
Speaker 3: the end of Kevin's life, because yes, he can't be
31:20
Speaker 3: pursued in criminal court, but he can still be pursued civilly.
31:24
Speaker 3: So I think that it's not that there isn't a
31:27
Speaker 3: risk to him financially if it is indeed true, and
31:32
Speaker 3: he opens himself up to that as soon as he
31:34
Speaker 3: comes forward.
31:36
Speaker 1: Because it just seems weird that he would intentionally lie
31:39
Speaker 1: to fabricate a hoax unless he legitimately believed that he
31:43
Speaker 1: did something wrong, regardless of whether or not that's actually happened,
31:47
Speaker 1: and who knows, it could have been a contributing factory
31:49
Speaker 1: if he was following the coverage with Harvey Mallup. I've
31:51
Speaker 1: never seen anything to indicate that Paul Hanson or Harvey
31:54
Speaker 1: malub knew each other. But maybe that's what caused his
31:57
Speaker 1: guilt to crack because he saw what he pursued to
32:00
Speaker 1: be an innocent man, a well respected citizen, get publicly
32:03
Speaker 1: named is the real hit and run driver, and have
32:06
Speaker 1: his reputation tainted. So maybe Hanson just thought to himself, Okay,
32:09
Speaker 1: I want to clear this man's name, and now I'm
32:11
Speaker 1: going to come forward and confess to what I did
32:13
Speaker 1: because it's at a point now where I can't be
32:15
Speaker 1: criminally prosecuted.
32:17
Speaker 3: And I think there's also a real possibility, like we
32:20
Speaker 3: talked about earlier, and Ashley had mentioned that the driver
32:23
Speaker 3: may have been intoxicated. He may have been very intoxicated.
32:26
Speaker 3: It was Christmas Eve, so the likelihood he was at
32:29
Speaker 3: some type of party. And I think it's really easy
32:32
Speaker 3: if say you're blackout drunk and you don't really remember.
32:35
Speaker 3: I think one could very easily convince himself that they
32:38
Speaker 3: could be the culprit, even if it isn't true.
32:41
Speaker 1: It is true, Like maybe part of that story is
32:43
Speaker 1: the facts, Like maybe he really did get drunk on
32:45
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve in nineteen seventy three, went on Pequod Avenue
32:49
Speaker 1: in that same region, and then because he got blackout drunk,
32:52
Speaker 1: he hears about to hit and run in that same
32:54
Speaker 1: area and then convinces himself that he was responsible.
32:58
Speaker 3: On June twenty ninth, nineteen eight, just one day's shy
33:02
Speaker 3: of his sixty second birthday, Harvey Mallub died of cancer,
33:06
Speaker 3: but he had never stopped attempting to clear his name. Sadly,
33:09
Speaker 3: Lucille Showalter would also succumb to cancer in May of
33:12
Speaker 3: two thousand and She never wound up receiving justice for
33:16
Speaker 3: what happened to her son, but believe it or not,
33:19
Speaker 3: this would still not be the end of the story.
33:21
Speaker 3: In January of two thousand and five, the case returned
33:24
Speaker 3: to the spotlight again after Paul Hansen completed suicide and
33:28
Speaker 3: left behind a letter in which he continued to claim
33:31
Speaker 3: responsibility for Kevin's death. This compelled police to reopen the case,
33:35
Speaker 3: and the new London based newspaper The Day decided to
33:38
Speaker 3: conduct a new investigation. For years, Lucille Showalter had requested
33:43
Speaker 3: copies of the transcripts from the original grand jury proceedings,
33:47
Speaker 3: but was told that they could not be released to
33:49
Speaker 3: the public. When The Day attempted to request copies of
33:52
Speaker 3: the transcripts, they were denied by a Superior Court judge.
33:55
Speaker 3: But after pressing the issue further, guess what they found
33:58
Speaker 3: out Even though the truscripts for twelve volumes and over
34:02
Speaker 3: three thousand pages long, they had mysteriously gone missing from
34:06
Speaker 3: the files at New London Superior Court without explanation, and incredibly,
34:11
Speaker 3: there also didn't seem to be any copies of these
34:13
Speaker 3: transcripts anywhere. So this pretty much brought all attempts at
34:17
Speaker 3: a new investigation to dead halt, and unfortunately, there was
34:21
Speaker 3: still no conclusive answers about who was actually responsible for
34:25
Speaker 3: the hit and run which killed Kevin Showalter.
34:28
Speaker 1: So I guess you could say the path went chili.
34:32
Speaker 2: Okay, this might be an unpopular opinion, but my heart
34:35
Speaker 2: really hurts for Paul Hansen. Also, right, you have a kid,
34:40
Speaker 2: He's a young twenty year old the evening that poor
34:44
Speaker 2: Kevin is also killed, right, but he's a young kid
34:47
Speaker 2: as well. And so just like it's possible Deborah and
34:51
Speaker 2: Kevin were out having a good time on Christmas Eve
34:54
Speaker 2: and Christmas Day, you have this other kid who's out,
34:58
Speaker 2: probably at a party. He he's drinking and getting behind
35:01
Speaker 2: a wheel, which is the dumbest thing you can do.
35:04
Speaker 2: But okay, so he's he makes that decision, and because
35:08
Speaker 2: of this just ignorant decision, he's plagued with this idea
35:13
Speaker 2: that I could have taken somebody's life, and clearly right,
35:17
Speaker 2: it bothers him at twenty nine enough to come forward,
35:20
Speaker 2: and then you see that he actually takes his life,
35:24
Speaker 2: and it's such a big deal in his life and
35:27
Speaker 2: has been four decades that he writes about poor Kevin's
35:32
Speaker 2: death in his suicide letter as well. So it's it's
35:36
Speaker 2: pitiful that man's also carrying around this guilt and trauma
35:40
Speaker 2: of like what would have happened if I hadn't drink,
35:42
Speaker 2: you know, I hadn't been drinking and driving. What would
35:44
Speaker 2: have happened had I pulled over? What would have happened if?
35:47
Speaker 2: And then also did I even do it? But it
35:51
Speaker 2: was such a heavy burden on him that he takes
35:54
Speaker 2: his own life. And that is part of it, because
35:56
Speaker 2: it's in the letter, right like that's your last moment
35:59
Speaker 2: to say something to people, and he included Kevin in that.
36:03
Speaker 2: It's sad to me. It's sad that poor Kevin's mother
36:06
Speaker 2: passed away after being his champion without answers. It's frustrating
36:11
Speaker 2: when you look at the idea that even when there's
36:13
Speaker 2: groups that have interest in helping this poor family get
36:17
Speaker 2: justice and answers, there's missing information. There's stuff that's been
36:22
Speaker 2: quote lost, there's things that were never investigated in the
36:25
Speaker 2: first place. This whole case is just pitiful. Kevin was young,
36:30
Speaker 2: he was focused on his future. He was out just
36:32
Speaker 2: having a evening out right during the holidays, and he
36:37
Speaker 2: lost his life. And most likely what was a complete accident,
36:42
Speaker 2: maybe because somebody made a poor decision and got behind
36:45
Speaker 2: the wheel of a car for they had been drinking.
36:48
Speaker 2: But imagine what would have happened had the person who
36:51
Speaker 2: was responsible pulled over realized that they had accidentally hit
36:56
Speaker 2: a poor kid who was in the dark changing attire.
37:00
Speaker 2: Would have been a completely horrific accident and tragedy. Look
37:06
Speaker 2: the kid couldn't be seen. He was in the dark.
37:08
Speaker 2: He had turned the car off so that the tail
37:10
Speaker 2: lights weren't even illuminating him on the side of the road.
37:13
Speaker 2: So would it have really been perceived as this murder?
37:17
Speaker 2: And probably not, But now we don't have any answers,
37:22
Speaker 2: And so this idea of there's not gonna be you know,
37:24
Speaker 2: any justice for him is so sad. Someone else took
37:29
Speaker 2: their own life partly because they thought they might be
37:33
Speaker 2: responsible for it, and his poor mama passed away without
37:36
Speaker 2: any answers.
37:38
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Like, provided that Paul Anson is completely innocent.
37:40
Speaker 1: I do feel bad for him because he first came
37:43
Speaker 1: forward in nineteen seventy nine and here he is taking
37:46
Speaker 1: his own life twenty six years later. And the fact
37:49
Speaker 1: that he mentioned Kevin's death and his letter shows that
37:51
Speaker 1: he had been grappling with this all this time and
37:53
Speaker 1: still wasn't entirely sure if he was responsible. I mean,
37:57
Speaker 1: I don't know much about Hanson's background. It's possible that
37:59
Speaker 1: he had other mental health issues as well that played
38:02
Speaker 1: a role in his suicide. But it's just like you said,
38:05
Speaker 1: if the person and who had done this had just
38:07
Speaker 1: pulled over admitted what they did, this would have been
38:09
Speaker 1: over and long forgotten. But now we have like people
38:12
Speaker 1: dying by suicide and doing new investigations and losing evidence
38:16
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, which is thirty two years
38:19
Speaker 1: after the fact, which just shows that what a big
38:21
Speaker 1: mess this whole thing became because the person who responsible
38:24
Speaker 1: didn't fess up to the whole thing. So I think
38:27
Speaker 1: this would be a good time to bring an end
38:29
Speaker 1: to Part one. Join us next week as we present
38:31
Speaker 1: part two of our series about the death of Kevin Showalter.
38:35
Speaker 3: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
38:36
Speaker 3: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon.
38:39
Speaker 1: Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
38:41
Speaker 1: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
38:45
Speaker 1: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
38:48
Speaker 1: and signed thank you cards to anyone who signs up
38:51
Speaker 1: with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollars
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Speaker 1: tier Tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in
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Speaker 1: which I talk about Kate, which are not featured on
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Speaker 1: the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon.
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Speaker 1: And if you join our highest tier tier three, the
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Speaker 1: ten dollars tier, one of the features we offer is
39:10
Speaker 1: a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries,
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Speaker 1: where you can download an audio file and then boot
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Speaker 1: up the original Unsaved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
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Speaker 1: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
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Speaker 1: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
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Speaker 1: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
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Speaker 1: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
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Speaker 1: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
39:37
Speaker 1: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
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Speaker 1: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
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Speaker 1: Tier three.
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Speaker 4: So I want to let you know a little bit
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Speaker 4: about the Jeweles and Ashy Patreons. So there's early ad
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Speaker 4: free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
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Speaker 4: Path Went Chili mini's, which are always over an hour,
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Speaker 4: so they're not very mini, but they're just too short
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Speaker 4: to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those.
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Speaker 4: So we hope you'll check out those patreons will link
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Speaker 4: them in the show notes.
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Speaker 1: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
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Speaker 1: any chance you have to share us on social media
40:08
Speaker 1: with a friend or to rate and review is greatly appreciated.
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Speaker 1: You can email us at the Pathwentchili at gmail dot com.
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Speaker 1: You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwink. So
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Speaker 1: until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold
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Speaker 1: trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
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Speaker 3: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy