Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / S1 UPDATE: Victim Statement

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S1 UPDATE: Victim Statement · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. That's what he said today, and he
0:19
Speaker 1: said he didn't strangle her. Yeah, I don't understand, and
0:24
Speaker 1: I mean, look again, glad justice was served, but I
0:26
Speaker 1: don't understand why they can't get some of these contradictions.
0:30
Speaker 2: This case sitting here right now, we know less about
0:33
Speaker 2: what happened to Repbecker's you two and afters.
0:35
Speaker 1: Ago, after the news broke that Billy Miller was convicted
0:44
Speaker 1: of Rebecca Gould's murder, I had some mixed feelings. It
0:48
Speaker 1: would have been so much easier for me to believe
0:51
Speaker 1: that justice had been done and to celebrate. After consuming
0:54
Speaker 1: my life for so many years, as it has so
0:57
Speaker 1: many other people, this case would finally be over. And
1:01
Speaker 1: I am happy about Billy Miller's arrest and conviction. Given
1:05
Speaker 1: the fact that Billy Miller is a dangerous sexual predator
1:08
Speaker 1: who I absolutely believe participated in Rebecca's murder, I definitely
1:12
Speaker 1: consider this a good thing. I also want to give
1:15
Speaker 1: credit to the Arkansas State Police. I am thrilled that
1:19
Speaker 1: Mike McNeil took over the case because for me, this
1:23
Speaker 1: was never about being right or wrong. Remember, I had
1:26
Speaker 1: no access to the police case file, so what I
1:29
Speaker 1: was trying to do with Helengn was to go out
1:31
Speaker 1: and talk to anyone I could, anyone who I believed
1:34
Speaker 1: could have information to share. My hope was that after
1:38
Speaker 1: the podcast aired, Dennis Simons would someday be off the
1:42
Speaker 1: case and someone knew a fresh pair of eyes would
1:45
Speaker 1: be put on the case. And that's exactly what happened.
1:48
Speaker 1: I think that Mike McNeil has done excellent police work
1:51
Speaker 1: and has been much more open minded than his predecessors.
1:55
Speaker 1: But as with so many things in this case, it
1:58
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like it's over yet. It feels like that
2:01
Speaker 1: moment in the horror movie where you think it's all
2:04
Speaker 1: done and everyone is starting to feel relieved, and then
2:07
Speaker 1: the monster lunges out for that one last scare. I'm
2:12
Speaker 1: Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone. In Billy Miller's confession,
2:53
Speaker 1: he called himself a monster. This was during his interview
2:57
Speaker 1: when detectives were asking him why he did it, why
3:00
Speaker 1: he killed Rebecca. He said that there was no sexual motivation.
3:04
Speaker 1: But I find that very hard to believe. I talked
3:07
Speaker 1: investigator Jennifer Buckle about her impression of Billy. How do
3:11
Speaker 1: you feel about William Miller? I mean his history.
3:15
Speaker 3: You know, a monster, she's a predator. We know he
3:20
Speaker 3: you know, sexually assaulted other women. We know he had
3:22
Speaker 3: a pattern of getting women overly drunk at bars and
3:24
Speaker 3: taking them home to have sex with them, I eat,
3:27
Speaker 3: rape them. He would take photos of them when they
3:30
Speaker 3: were unconscious. We joke about killing prostitutes. You know, was
3:34
Speaker 3: the suspect and a sexual assault in two thousand and two,
3:36
Speaker 3: according to Mike. So, I mean, he obviously has a
3:40
Speaker 3: pattern in a history. And like George and I talked
3:42
Speaker 3: about this the other day, but George is like, what
3:45
Speaker 3: do you think the chances are that this is Williams
3:47
Speaker 3: filmy murder? And I'm like, I think the chance is
3:50
Speaker 3: pretty low. But clearly he has these sexual compulsions or whatever.
3:55
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't like the word normal and abnormal,
3:57
Speaker 3: but like his sexual preferences are abnormal, and knowing this
4:01
Speaker 3: other stuff about his history, I just don't see. Unfortunately, Rebeca,
4:05
Speaker 3: it's probably not his only murder victim.
4:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's hard to find information because he was
4:10
Speaker 1: in the Philippines for so long exactly who knows what
4:13
Speaker 1: one on them.
4:14
Speaker 3: You're never yep, you're never going to be able to
4:16
Speaker 3: find the victims over there, and that sucks.
4:31
Speaker 1: I went to see Rebecca's dad, doctor Larry Gould again
4:34
Speaker 1: near Mountain Home. It's been over two years since I've
4:38
Speaker 1: last seen Larry, since the podcast happened, and then the
4:40
Speaker 1: arrest and then COVID made travel so hard it was emotional.
4:46
Speaker 1: I gave him a big hug before I went into
4:48
Speaker 1: the house. Larry has had some changes in his life.
4:52
Speaker 1: His two younger daughters have grown up into young women.
4:56
Speaker 1: His oldest is getting ready to start college. I gave
4:59
Speaker 1: them both hugs too. The last time I was in
5:04
Speaker 1: this kitchen where were poring over autopsy diagrams and countless
5:08
Speaker 1: piles of letters to the prosecutor, to the district attorney,
5:11
Speaker 1: to the police, Larry was basically begging for help in
5:15
Speaker 1: finding his daughter's killer. This time, the mood is different.
5:20
Speaker 1: We're happier because obviously Rebecca's killer has been caught and
5:24
Speaker 1: will be sent to prison for what amounts to the
5:26
Speaker 1: rest of his natural life. So in some sense it's
5:29
Speaker 1: a celebration. Larry finally has some answers about what happened
5:33
Speaker 1: to his daughter. Larry first saw Billy Miller in August
5:43
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two at the Suppression hearing where Billy's confession
5:47
Speaker 1: video was played.
5:50
Speaker 4: As a man and as a father, I really wanted
5:54
Speaker 4: to size up this guy. I wanted to see what
5:58
Speaker 4: type of person could do this to my daughter.
6:02
Speaker 1: At that hearing, Larry sat right behind Billy and he
6:06
Speaker 1: spent the hours of confession watching Billy, hearing the graphic
6:10
Speaker 1: details of the man he would confess to brutally murdering
6:14
Speaker 1: his daughter, watching her die, cleaning up her blood, and
6:17
Speaker 1: throwing her body off the side of the road like
6:20
Speaker 1: a bag of trash. And through it all he maintained
6:23
Speaker 1: his composure because he said of a promise that he
6:27
Speaker 1: made to Rebecca that someday he would find her killer.
6:32
Speaker 4: I found that his body language was his entire demeanor
6:38
Speaker 4: was highly offensive. He's a very unattractive man. And that's
6:43
Speaker 4: a loaded statement because a lot of what you learn
6:48
Speaker 4: about William Miller is that a good portion of his
6:52
Speaker 4: life was predicated on some forms of perversion and things
6:56
Speaker 4: that just were not what you would consider normal behavior. First,
7:00
Speaker 4: he didn't have to be there, he wasn't subpoenaed, and
7:04
Speaker 4: they told him many times you could get up and
7:06
Speaker 4: leave any time he wanted to. By the end of
7:09
Speaker 4: the day, your thought on who William Miller was, by
7:12
Speaker 4: his own statements, was this is an arrogant, pompous, egotistical
7:17
Speaker 4: man who drew pleasure out of making people feel foolish.
7:25
Speaker 4: And those were his exact words many times in the film,
7:29
Speaker 4: was that he had made fools out of all of
7:31
Speaker 4: these people, and he took a lot of pride in
7:33
Speaker 4: that that in itself is a sickness. The man is sick,
7:38
Speaker 4: and the man has a lot of problems and his
7:40
Speaker 4: own egos what defeated him. He reminded me of what
7:44
Speaker 4: you typically associate with people that are arsenists. They light
7:49
Speaker 4: a fire and they want to go back and watch
7:51
Speaker 4: it burn.
8:01
Speaker 1: When we were still preparing for Billy Miller's trial to
8:04
Speaker 1: begin on October thirty first, Larry learned on October fourteenth,
8:08
Speaker 1: the very last day that the defense had to present
8:11
Speaker 1: a plea deal. He learned from prosecutor Eric Hants that
8:14
Speaker 1: a deal was in the works. From there, things moved
8:18
Speaker 1: very fast over that weekend. On Monday night, Larry texted
8:22
Speaker 1: me to say the hearing would be the very next
8:24
Speaker 1: morning at eight am. The plea deal had been accepted,
8:28
Speaker 1: so it would be quick Larry was there with his
8:31
Speaker 1: two younger daughters, Rebecca's half sisters, Katie and Macy. He
8:35
Speaker 1: wanted to show them how the criminal justice system worked
8:39
Speaker 1: and for them to finally see their half sister get justice.
8:43
Speaker 1: It was an emotional day and Larry only had the
8:47
Speaker 1: night before to prepare his victim statement.
8:50
Speaker 4: That evening, I had an hour one hour to write
8:53
Speaker 4: my victim statement. So you know, when you watch these programs,
8:57
Speaker 4: you see people up there and they're spewing off for
8:59
Speaker 4: hours about different things and stuff. They told me I
9:02
Speaker 4: could only submit two type three pages. So I made
9:07
Speaker 4: notes and then I got panicky. I thought, geez, I'm
9:11
Speaker 4: not going to have this ready. And so I sat
9:13
Speaker 4: in bed at ten o'clock at night and I wrote
9:16
Speaker 4: it out and typed it and was I knew I
9:20
Speaker 4: had to get some sleep because the next day was
9:21
Speaker 4: the hearing. So it took me an hour and I
9:23
Speaker 4: wrote it out and that was that's it. And then
9:26
Speaker 4: I read it in court, and so I'd be happy
9:28
Speaker 4: to read.
9:29
Speaker 3: It to you.
9:29
Speaker 4: I'd love you did that in an hour? Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah,
9:35
Speaker 4: it's you don't know what to do. You know, you
9:38
Speaker 4: sit there and you've got eighteen years to think about
9:40
Speaker 4: your daughter and all the different things that has happened.
9:44
Speaker 4: So you go, do you what do I write? So
9:49
Speaker 4: Dot read it?
9:49
Speaker 3: Yeah?
9:50
Speaker 1: Please Larry read me. It's the witness statement that he
9:55
Speaker 1: read in court, his final goodbye to his daughter Rebecca.
9:59
Speaker 1: This sentencing hearing, liked the hearings before, it took place
10:03
Speaker 1: in a tiny court room and no cameras or recording
10:05
Speaker 1: devices were allowed, so only a few people were there
10:09
Speaker 1: to hear Larry's words. So it's really important to me
10:13
Speaker 1: to play this witness statement in its entirety because I
10:17
Speaker 1: want everyone who has been following this case to hear it.
10:22
Speaker 4: Eighteen years ago, my life changed forever. Eighteen years ago,
10:27
Speaker 4: many lives were changed forever. My precious daughter, Rebecca Christian
10:32
Speaker 4: Gould was taken from us. She was taken from family,
10:36
Speaker 4: her friends, and taken from her own future, her dreams,
10:40
Speaker 4: her desires, her wants, her hopes, and all the possibilities
10:44
Speaker 4: that life at age twenty two presents to a young lady.
10:48
Speaker 4: No marriage, no children, no graduation from college, no career,
10:53
Speaker 4: no good times and bad You took away a chance
10:57
Speaker 4: for a young, tenacious and blossoming girl to dream of
11:00
Speaker 4: her possibilities in life. You took away from me my
11:04
Speaker 4: opportunity to watch those things happen. William Miller Eighteen years ago,
11:10
Speaker 4: I was working in my office seeing patients when I
11:12
Speaker 4: received a frantic call that Rebecca was missing. Little did
11:17
Speaker 4: I know then that my own world would shortly changed forever,
11:22
Speaker 4: and soon a living hell would find its way into
11:25
Speaker 4: my life. A hell you created, and now a hell
11:29
Speaker 4: you must face. No rest, little sleep, searching early morning
11:35
Speaker 4: until late at night to try to find Rebecca. Hope
11:38
Speaker 4: diminishes daily, but never went away until the day she
11:42
Speaker 4: was found, and reality set in. My daughter was dumped
11:47
Speaker 4: like trash left for the animal, left for the animals
11:57
Speaker 4: and the maggots to devour slowly each night. You were
12:01
Speaker 4: long gone. You have had eighteen years of life, family, children, money,
12:06
Speaker 4: a career, and had you not been a truly sick
12:09
Speaker 4: person at such a young age, you probably would have
12:12
Speaker 4: had a nice life. Today that ends, and today I grieve.
12:17
Speaker 4: I had no time to grieve then, because I could
12:20
Speaker 4: not rest a funeral to plan, and my child to bury.
12:25
Speaker 4: What you didn't know was at that burial site. I
12:28
Speaker 4: took my kids aside and made a pledge that nothing
12:31
Speaker 4: would ever stop us from finding the person who murdered Rebecca.
12:35
Speaker 4: And today, today I looked to heaven and simply whisper
12:40
Speaker 4: promise made, promise kept. The eighteen years of hell you
12:45
Speaker 4: put me through has cost me dearly. It cost me family,
12:49
Speaker 4: loved ones, my enjoyment of life, hundreds and hundreds of
12:54
Speaker 4: thousands of dollars, precious time. Basically everything I had hoped
12:58
Speaker 4: for in my own life was placed on hold forever.
13:03
Speaker 4: Simply avoid or hold in my heart that could never
13:06
Speaker 4: be repaired or patched back to a healthy state until now. See,
13:11
Speaker 4: my glass is always going to be half full and
13:13
Speaker 4: never half empty. I teach my children to never give up,
13:19
Speaker 4: fight and never quit, to salute our precious American flag,
13:22
Speaker 4: to salute law enforcement above all the men and women
13:25
Speaker 4: who serve this great country. As I did. Rebecca represented
13:30
Speaker 4: that combination of beliefs. She would fight for the underdog,
13:35
Speaker 4: and at one hundred pounds of her ringing wet was
13:38
Speaker 4: the courage of a hero. You took away the life
13:42
Speaker 4: of someone I believed could have become anything she wanted,
13:46
Speaker 4: The taking of my daughter's life in such a brutal
13:49
Speaker 4: and self serving manner, And then to treat her in
13:52
Speaker 4: the most undignified way tells me everything I need to
13:55
Speaker 4: know about you. This court judges you and has sentenced you.
14:00
Speaker 4: You still have two more courts to face, the prison
14:04
Speaker 4: system itself and the ultimate judgment by God himself. My
14:09
Speaker 4: pain will never go away, but it will diminish my
14:11
Speaker 4: Lord and Savior. As stated in the poem Footprints in
14:14
Speaker 4: the Sand, never let me fall. Gave me courage and
14:17
Speaker 4: carried me through these eighteen years, only to set me
14:21
Speaker 4: down as a stronger, more faithful, more loving, more compassionate,
14:24
Speaker 4: and truly better human being. We are all victims from you.
14:29
Speaker 4: In your confession, you boastfully stated how you made fools
14:34
Speaker 4: out of everybody. I am here to tell you that
14:37
Speaker 4: that arrogance and your obvious pathology of needing to watch
14:42
Speaker 4: the fire burn you set is what special Agent Mike
14:45
Speaker 4: McNeil brilliantly used against you. In closing, I cannot describe
14:50
Speaker 4: the amount of emotional trauma you have created in so
14:53
Speaker 4: many lives. I can speak for hours regarding why you
14:57
Speaker 4: should never be allowed out of the prison. I will
15:00
Speaker 4: leave you with this one statement. Rebecca lives in all
15:03
Speaker 4: of us. She will never die. She is sitting at
15:06
Speaker 4: the right hand of the father, looking down a place
15:09
Speaker 4: you will probably never see, but that is not my
15:12
Speaker 4: place to judge. Rebecca inspires us all to better our
15:17
Speaker 4: lives and to know that love and grace are words
15:20
Speaker 4: I will always remember her by.
15:38
Speaker 3: It's rasonal, It's so beautiful.
15:42
Speaker 4: Thank you that one came from heart.
15:48
Speaker 1: I got really emotional when he read that, and you
15:50
Speaker 1: can probably hear it. As much as I try to
15:53
Speaker 1: remain impartial and detached because I want to be able
15:56
Speaker 1: to help the victims and not burden them with my pain,
15:58
Speaker 1: and also I want to be able to see things
16:00
Speaker 1: with an objective eye. At the end of the day,
16:03
Speaker 1: we're all human. I've gone their challenges and losses of
16:06
Speaker 1: my own over the past few years, and one of
16:09
Speaker 1: the many things that I admire about Larry is his
16:12
Speaker 1: ability to stay positive in the face of darkness. Over
16:15
Speaker 1: the years, he sent me several supportive texts, even when
16:18
Speaker 1: a lesser man would have been drowning in his own pain.
16:21
Speaker 1: I admire him and I consider him a close friend,
16:24
Speaker 1: and my friendships with George and Jennifer have been life
16:27
Speaker 1: changing as well. Rebecca's death caused so many people pain,
16:31
Speaker 1: but in her short life, she inspired so many people,
16:34
Speaker 1: and that is something that I'm grateful for every single day.
16:46
Speaker 1: But then Larry said he got a shock. After the
16:49
Speaker 1: sentencing was passed, Billy indicated that he would be willing
16:53
Speaker 1: to talk to Larry privately, and the judge said that
16:56
Speaker 1: he would allow that to take place. Larry and Rebecca's
16:59
Speaker 1: older sister, Tiffany went to a small back room where
17:02
Speaker 1: Billy was seated behind a glass barrier.
17:04
Speaker 4: I was still to size him up and understand this man.
17:10
Speaker 4: I interjected a few questions to him right off the bat,
17:15
Speaker 4: and I gave him an opportunity to tell the truth
17:19
Speaker 4: that I wanted to know exactly what happened. You know,
17:23
Speaker 4: he's already convicted, he's already in there. This is a
17:26
Speaker 4: good chance to get it all out. So what I
17:29
Speaker 4: found in this face to face approach with him was
17:35
Speaker 4: a man that was not so much wanting to talk
17:39
Speaker 4: as he felt compelled to talk, and he was willing
17:44
Speaker 4: to answer questions. But as he began to talk about
17:49
Speaker 4: what actually happened, everything changed. He sat up a little straighter,
17:56
Speaker 4: his chest came out a little bit more, his voice
17:59
Speaker 4: elevated a little bit, and he began to take control
18:03
Speaker 4: of the room. So it all changed. And I think
18:07
Speaker 4: it changed because had he been sincere, he would have
18:10
Speaker 4: wanted want of me and Tiffany was there. He would
18:13
Speaker 4: have wanted us to feel that he was apologetic, to
18:19
Speaker 4: feel that he was remorseful. He was placating. He was
18:23
Speaker 4: trying to make everything appear not a way that was acceptable,
18:29
Speaker 4: but a way that did not make him appear like he's,
18:34
Speaker 4: like I said, monster like minimizing completely. So the part
18:40
Speaker 4: that change was okay. He enters a trailer. He I
18:44
Speaker 4: think he had originally said that he wanted to use
18:47
Speaker 4: the phone. Rebecca goes back, which would have been I guess,
18:50
Speaker 4: to the bedroom. He's pacing back and forth, and the
18:55
Speaker 4: words he used there was all of a sudden, it
18:59
Speaker 4: just was building in him, and then the switch went
19:03
Speaker 4: off and then he went in and he grabbed a
19:07
Speaker 4: piano leg. He went in and he struck her twice. Now,
19:11
Speaker 4: in the actual confession he says that he strangled her
19:15
Speaker 4: with a necktie and that she was lifeless. Now he's
19:20
Speaker 4: saying that he didn't strangle her, that he actually started
19:23
Speaker 4: to perform CPR, and that every time he would pump
19:26
Speaker 4: on her the blood would go all over. So now
19:29
Speaker 4: he's making it look like he's a rescuer. And then
19:32
Speaker 4: it gets to where in his testimony basically he took
19:35
Speaker 4: her like a sack of whatever and threw over the fence,
19:38
Speaker 4: threw into the truck, threw off the truck. Now it's
19:42
Speaker 4: I gingerly put her over the fence. I eased her
19:46
Speaker 4: into the truck. It's all this appeasement. He wasn't doing
19:51
Speaker 4: it for us, he was doing it for himself. And
19:56
Speaker 4: I had had enough, so I got up and I
19:58
Speaker 4: left after that.
20:03
Speaker 1: So I agree with Larry's interpretation that there are parts
20:06
Speaker 1: of the confession where it seems that Billy Miller is
20:09
Speaker 1: trying to make himself seem more compassionate than he was,
20:12
Speaker 1: Like when Billy says he was trying to give Rebecca
20:15
Speaker 1: CPR or crying. I believe that this is his way
20:19
Speaker 1: of explaining why investigators could potentially find his DNA on
20:23
Speaker 1: Rebecca's shirt or in her facial area. And I don't
20:26
Speaker 1: believe for one second that that DNA came from attempts
20:29
Speaker 1: to save Rebecca's life or from Billy's tears. If any
20:33
Speaker 1: trace of Billy's bodily fluids are there. I believe that
20:36
Speaker 1: they would be there because he was attacking Rebecca, and
20:40
Speaker 1: Billy using words like placed her body instead of through
20:43
Speaker 1: her body. I would put that in the same category. Again,
20:46
Speaker 1: he's trying to minimize his actions. We always have to
20:49
Speaker 1: remember that every single thing that Billy Miller says has
20:52
Speaker 1: a purpose, and that purpose is serving his own self interest.
20:56
Speaker 1: He's trying to mislead and he's doing things for his
20:58
Speaker 1: own reasons, which is why I Ann, Jennifer and George
21:02
Speaker 1: and others are surprised by the fact that the ASP
21:05
Speaker 1: have relied so heavily on Billy's own words and on
21:08
Speaker 1: his confession. Because after being one of the only people
21:11
Speaker 1: so far to view the crime scene photos, I have
21:14
Speaker 1: to say, so far parts of that confession do not
21:18
Speaker 1: seem to match up with the physical evidence. Let's look
21:21
Speaker 1: at some of the other major differences in the confession. First,
21:25
Speaker 1: Billy said that he strangled Rebecca with a necktie, but
21:28
Speaker 1: he later told Larry that he didn't. What does the
21:31
Speaker 1: evidence say? In that pre trial hearing on October third,
21:35
Speaker 1: I was also able to finally hear what the medical
21:38
Speaker 1: examiner had to say about Rebecca's body Charles Cocus was
21:42
Speaker 1: the medical examiner on the Rebecca Gould case. Doctor Cocus
21:46
Speaker 1: confirmed that Rebecca's hyoid bone was intact. It was not broken.
21:50
Speaker 1: Rebecca's thyroid bone was also intact. These are the two
21:55
Speaker 1: organs that are often damaged when someone is strangled. Now,
21:59
Speaker 1: it is possible for those bones to not be broken
22:02
Speaker 1: in a case involving strangulation, especially since Rebecca would have
22:06
Speaker 1: been hitting the head multiple times and be very weak,
22:09
Speaker 1: so it wouldn't have taken much force to strangle her.
22:12
Speaker 1: While this isn't definitive, it does make it less likely
22:16
Speaker 1: that she was strangled. What's interesting to me is that
22:19
Speaker 1: Billy Miller seemed to modify his story after he saw
22:23
Speaker 1: the crime scene photos and the autopsy photos in court.
22:27
Speaker 1: I know through George and Jennifer that Billy was active
22:31
Speaker 1: on their social media community Unsolved Murder of Rebecca Gould,
22:35
Speaker 1: and that the strangulation theory was one that a lot
22:38
Speaker 1: of people talked about on that page. In fact, George
22:42
Speaker 1: and Jennifer and I are noticing that a lot of
22:44
Speaker 1: the terminology that Billy used in his confession was almost
22:48
Speaker 1: word for word what had been written on that social
22:51
Speaker 1: media site in Billy's original confession, he said that he
22:56
Speaker 1: attacked and beat Rebecca while she was lying down in
22:59
Speaker 1: bed in the bedroom. But remember in Helen Gone season one,
23:03
Speaker 1: we talked to a witness, someone who told us that
23:06
Speaker 1: Casey had hit Rebecca while she was standing up outside
23:09
Speaker 1: the bedroom arguing with him. Now, in the crime scene
23:12
Speaker 1: photos that I saw in the courtroom, there appeared to
23:15
Speaker 1: be a large amount of blood on the brown carpeting
23:18
Speaker 1: outside the bedroom and in the kitchen area. Billy says
23:22
Speaker 1: that he did all of this alone. So if that's true,
23:26
Speaker 1: why would he lie about where it happened. There are
23:29
Speaker 1: a lot of other contradictions. For example, Billy said that
23:33
Speaker 1: there were folded clothes on the bed, which presumably belonged
23:36
Speaker 1: to Rebecca. This matched what we had always read in
23:39
Speaker 1: newspaper articles about the case. But after seeing the crime
23:42
Speaker 1: scene photos, there were no folded clothes on the bed.
23:46
Speaker 1: There was nothing on the bed. Billy said that he
23:48
Speaker 1: struck Rebecca with a piano leg and then it shattered.
23:51
Speaker 1: So where are the wood fragments? And if he was
23:54
Speaker 1: working alone and panicking to clean up that crime scene,
23:58
Speaker 1: why were there brand new cleaning products out on the counter.
24:01
Speaker 1: Did he go buy cleaning products and bring them back.
24:04
Speaker 1: And if he did start cleaning up and took the
24:06
Speaker 1: time to put bloody clothes on a wash cycle, why
24:09
Speaker 1: would he not deal with the blood soaked carpet? Was
24:12
Speaker 1: he planning to come back? Wouldn't he worry that the
24:15
Speaker 1: stuff would be visible to Casey and others who came
24:18
Speaker 1: into that trailer.
24:24
Speaker 4: This man definitely did it, but the gray area was
24:28
Speaker 4: not answered. And the gray area is was there somebody
24:31
Speaker 4: else there?
24:33
Speaker 1: Yeah?
24:34
Speaker 4: Is there somebody else help help with this? He was
24:38
Speaker 4: He wasn't going to tell you to tell the truth
24:41
Speaker 4: and so and that's that became really obvious real fast,
24:44
Speaker 4: And that's what I was hoping for. I thought, you know,
24:47
Speaker 4: give the guy a chance. Let's see if he'll, if
24:49
Speaker 4: he will break down and really detail exactly what happened
24:53
Speaker 4: and didn't happen.
24:59
Speaker 1: So, if Billy is not telling the truth about how
25:03
Speaker 1: Rebecca died, I wonder or could he be hiding something else?
25:08
Speaker 1: I talked to George Jarrett and Jennifer Buckles about these
25:11
Speaker 1: two different confessions, and he said he placed her and
25:15
Speaker 1: he said he didn't strangle her.
25:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I noticed that.
25:20
Speaker 6: So when he went before the judge, and the Judge's like,
25:23
Speaker 6: you know, this is we're being charguate. This is what
25:24
Speaker 6: you're pleading to Okay, now explain to the court why
25:28
Speaker 6: for what you did that meets this charge. And he said, well,
25:32
Speaker 6: on September twentieth, two thousand and four, I hit Rebecca.
25:39
Speaker 6: I can't remember if you said her last name or not,
25:41
Speaker 6: but I hit Rebecca twice and then I dumped her
25:43
Speaker 6: body off Highway nine.
25:44
Speaker 3: That's literally what he said.
25:46
Speaker 6: And I immediately noticed, like, wait a minute, what happened
25:48
Speaker 6: to the strangulation. But then when doctor Gould came out
25:52
Speaker 6: from talking to him, he's like, well, he told me
25:54
Speaker 6: he did not strangle her and instead try to perform CPR,
25:58
Speaker 6: which is why there was blood all over the house.
26:02
Speaker 5: And can't What I think happened is he found out
26:06
Speaker 5: that they didn't find the necktie and the necktie thing
26:10
Speaker 5: is for whatever reason, and it jumped out to me
26:15
Speaker 5: it just seems like a more heinous crime because he
26:17
Speaker 5: hit her in the head, she was probably gonna.
26:19
Speaker 2: Die, and then he takes the necktie and strangles her,
26:21
Speaker 2: and a lot of people see it that way. And
26:24
Speaker 2: he also told doctor Gould that he wasn't sure if
26:27
Speaker 2: she was dead when he left her on the side
26:29
Speaker 2: of the road. And so what he's doing is he's saying, Hey,
26:32
Speaker 2: I did hurt her, and she was hurt when I
26:35
Speaker 2: left her, but maybe she didn't die because of that.
26:38
Speaker 2: Why is it a TBR.
26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's minimizing. He's just trying to minimize what he did.
26:44
Speaker 3: Probably, Yeah, it.
26:45
Speaker 6: Was to alleviate his own guilt, is what he did.
26:48
Speaker 6: And then you're revictimizing these family members again.
26:53
Speaker 1: Oh of course because then because then they're thinking about
26:55
Speaker 1: her land on the side of the road.
26:58
Speaker 6: Yeah, And it's too totally two totally different, basically totally
27:02
Speaker 6: different confessions. So it's like, well, what are we supposed
27:04
Speaker 6: to believe?
27:08
Speaker 1: As anyone who listens to Helen God knows, I am
27:11
Speaker 1: much more interested in victimology, in understanding the victims and
27:15
Speaker 1: getting into their world, than I am into delving into
27:18
Speaker 1: the mind of a killer. I guess that could be
27:21
Speaker 1: because I don't see anything special about killers. But I
27:24
Speaker 1: made a promise to myself and to Rebecca Gould back
27:27
Speaker 1: in the very beginning that I would talk to anyone
27:30
Speaker 1: who could provide more information that would help lead to
27:32
Speaker 1: answers as to what really happened to her, and that
27:36
Speaker 1: includes Billy Miller. I'm writing a letter to Billy Miller.
27:44
Speaker 1: It reads, Billy, this is a strange letter to write,
27:49
Speaker 1: because even though we are strangers, I feel like, in
27:51
Speaker 1: a very weird way, we have been part of each
27:54
Speaker 1: other's lives for the past several years. When I started
27:57
Speaker 1: Helen Gone, I wanted two things. To find out the
28:00
Speaker 1: truth about what really happened to Rebecca Gould and to
28:03
Speaker 1: bring her killer to justice. I assumed that if the
28:06
Speaker 1: second one happened, the first one would two. But after
28:10
Speaker 1: everything that has gone down, I and our audience, which
28:13
Speaker 1: at this point, as I'm sure you know, is tens
28:15
Speaker 1: of millions of people all around the world, still have
28:19
Speaker 1: so many unanswered questions. They and I want to know
28:22
Speaker 1: who you are so that they can understand why you
28:25
Speaker 1: did what you did. All anyone is seen of you
28:28
Speaker 1: so far is the guy in the confession video who
28:31
Speaker 1: called himself a monster. Just so you'll know where I'm
28:34
Speaker 1: coming from, I don't believe life is that simple. I
28:37
Speaker 1: don't believe that anyone is all good or all evil.
28:41
Speaker 1: I don't believe in heaven or hell, or that there
28:43
Speaker 1: is a higher power with a plan who intervenes in
28:45
Speaker 1: our lives. A lot of people, myself included, have violent urges,
28:50
Speaker 1: which I'm sure is part of the reason why true
28:52
Speaker 1: crime and horror movies are so popular. I do care
28:56
Speaker 1: passionately about justice and finding answers, but I have to
29:00
Speaker 1: admit there is also a part of me that is
29:02
Speaker 1: drawn to that darkness in all of us, and that's
29:05
Speaker 1: probably the reason why I do this job. But you
29:09
Speaker 1: actually went to the next level and acted on your urges.
29:12
Speaker 1: I would like to know why, Why do you think
29:15
Speaker 1: you feel these things, and what makes you make the
29:17
Speaker 1: decision to act on them. Would you be interested in
29:20
Speaker 1: doing an interview with me, either over the phone or
29:22
Speaker 1: in person. If you agree to talk to me, I
29:25
Speaker 1: can promise you that I will put your story, your
29:27
Speaker 1: words out there in a fair way. A lot of
29:31
Speaker 1: people have tried to talk me out of contacting you,
29:34
Speaker 1: but I'm reaching out anyway because there is still a
29:37
Speaker 1: big piece missing of what actually happened to Rebecca that day,
29:40
Speaker 1: and there are answers that only you can provide. I
29:43
Speaker 1: have zero agenda beyond getting to the truth. If you
29:47
Speaker 1: acted alone, this is your chance to explain the discrepancies
29:50
Speaker 1: in the story in a way that could really help
29:52
Speaker 1: the rest of your family escape suspicion. I would also
29:55
Speaker 1: like to understand why you did what you did. I'm
29:58
Speaker 1: hoping that through that understanding, maybe someone who is having
30:02
Speaker 1: the types of feelings and urges that you were describing
30:04
Speaker 1: might be able to get help or channel them in
30:06
Speaker 1: another way. You may not be able to control what
30:10
Speaker 1: happened in the past, but you can control whether the
30:13
Speaker 1: last thing your children read about you as they grow
30:15
Speaker 1: up is that you were a monster who brutally murdered someone.
30:19
Speaker 1: You can choose what to do next. It's your call.
30:27
Speaker 1: We'll see if he gets back to me. I'm Catherine Townsend.
30:32
Speaker 1: This is Helen Gone. Helen Gone is a production of
30:49
Speaker 1: School of Humans and iHeartMedia. Our producer is Gabby Watts.
30:53
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
30:58
Speaker 1: Music is by Ben Sale Special thanks to season one
31:02
Speaker 1: producers Taylor Church and James Morrison m H. School of Humans.
31:23
Speaker 1: School of Humans