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A Little Less Mess: [Arkansas] Murder in Dumas · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to Blessed This Mess of the True
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Crum podcast. I'm Kara, just Kara. This is a little
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Less Mess. This is our weekly episode that me and
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  Speaker 1: my husband do, minus all of the banter and silliness
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and occasional cussword and sidetracks. So I was doing these
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for a while a little while back, and everyone there
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: was a lot of people that really liked them. So basically,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we do our regular weekly episode and don't worry, those
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: are not going anywhere. And then I do just the case.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I read the case that I wrote, and so they're
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a lot shorter and they are straight to the point.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: So we call them a little less mess. So we
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: put both of them. We're putting both of them out weekly.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna try to get back to that. So
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  Speaker 1: this week we covered a case out of Dumas, Arkansas,
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  Speaker 1: and so if you want to listen to that one,
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  Speaker 1: that's me and my husband. We do that one. And
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  Speaker 1: those are the numbered episodes in the feed. These ones
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: we'll be called labeled a little less Mess. You can
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  Speaker 1: also check us out on Patreon. If you're a Patreon
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you get the regular weekly episodes twenty four hours early
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and they're ad free as well. As we try to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: do a weekly we call it Shoot the Pooh and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it's just me and my husband talking about our lives
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and usually covering some sort of true crime documentary and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: as always we appreciate rate review, subscribe wherever you get
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: your podcast, and then you can follow us on TikTok, Instagram,
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• 1:46
  Speaker 1: crime documentary recommendations almost daily, and then I also share
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  Speaker 1: So it's a little bit all overplaced plus books. All right, Well,
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  Speaker 1: in the spirit of a little less mess, we were
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  Speaker 1: going to get straight to the point and get to
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  Speaker 1: our case out of Arkansas. Casey Bess Crowder was born
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  Speaker 1: February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty nine, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas,
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  Speaker 1: to Marty and Melinda Crowder. She spent her entire life
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  Speaker 1: in Pine Bluff, attending elementary school all the way up
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  Speaker 1: through high school in the town. She was also a
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  Speaker 1: member of the First Christian Church and was very active
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  Speaker 1: in the choir. On top of her church activities, she
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  Speaker 1: also loved playing softball and played for her high school's team.
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  Speaker 1: On August twenty sixth two thousand and six. It was
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  Speaker 1: a Saturday evening and Casey was headed out to hang
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  Speaker 1: out with her friend Brian. Her parents weren't worried at all.
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  Speaker 1: Casey was a responsible teenager and they knew her friend Brian.
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  Speaker 1: They were just happy that she was hanging out with
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  Speaker 1: someone other than her boyfriend Adam, because she spent most
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  Speaker 1: of her time with him. Casey was gone overnight and
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  Speaker 1: the next morning her mom got up to get ready
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  Speaker 1: to go to church with her three younger brother and
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  Speaker 1: she was surprised to receive a call from Casey very
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  Speaker 1: early in the morning. It was around five thirty am.
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  Speaker 1: Casey told her mom that she had ran out of
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  Speaker 1: gas and her mom asked where she was and she
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  Speaker 1: said she was in Dumas, Arkansas. Casey described where she was.
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  Speaker 1: She was near a hospital and there was also a
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  Speaker 1: Exxon gas station not too far away. Her mom tried
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  Speaker 1: to get her to go to the hospital to get
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  Speaker 1: some help, but Casey said that she could just walk
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  Speaker 1: to the gas station. She had some cash on her
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  Speaker 1: and it wasn't too much further. Her mom did offer
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  Speaker 1: to come and help Casey, however, Casey insisted that she
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  Speaker 1: could handle it herself, so her mom hung up and
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  Speaker 1: headed to church with the three boys. Around nine o'clock
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  Speaker 1: that morning, she calls in to check with Casey, but
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  Speaker 1: Casey doesn't answer her phone, and she just thinks maybe
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: she's upset or ignoring her calls or something. She still
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  Speaker 1: isn't at this point too concerned about Casey, so later
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  Speaker 1: that day, after church is out, she called again and
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  Speaker 1: still can't get a hold of Casey, so she calls
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  Speaker 1: her friend Brianne, and she says that she hasn't seen Casey,
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  Speaker 1: which is strange because Katey's mom believed that she was
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  Speaker 1: spending the evening with her. It was now clear that
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  Speaker 1: that's not where Casey had been the night before. She
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  Speaker 1: also knew that where Casey ran out of gas wasn't
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  Speaker 1: too far from her boyfriend Adam's house, so she is
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  Speaker 1: putting it together that instead of Brianne, Casey went and
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  Speaker 1: spent a night with her boyfriend Adam. This is when
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  Speaker 1: her mom begins becoming very concerned. Casey's dad was working
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  Speaker 1: a shift and when he got home at midnight, that
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  Speaker 1: is when Casey's mom was in full panic mode and
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  Speaker 1: told her husband that she had not heard from Casey
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  Speaker 1: since five point thirty that morning and she still was
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  Speaker 1: not home. This is when Casey's mom and dad go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and hop in the car. It's about forty five
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  Speaker 1: minutes to Dumas and so they arrive around one am.
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  Speaker 1: They had to where Casey described her car running out
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  Speaker 1: of gas, and to their surprise, they actually do find
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  Speaker 1: the car. However, there is no sign of Casey. With
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  Speaker 1: this information, they are very concerned now because it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: appear that she was able to make it to get gas.
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  Speaker 1: They immediately call nine one one and police show up
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  Speaker 1: and get a rundown of what Casey's last movements were.
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  Speaker 1: They found out that she was going to walk to
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  Speaker 1: the Exton station, which was about a half a mile away,
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  Speaker 1: so they had that way to see if anybody has
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  Speaker 1: seen her. They interviewed the clerks and nobody remembers seeing
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  Speaker 1: her that morning. It would have been around five thirty am.
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  Speaker 1: They believe they are able to obtain the security footage,
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  Speaker 1: but they never see Casey arrive at the gas station.
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  Speaker 1: At this point, they call in an amber alert and
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  Speaker 1: Casey's mom decides to stay in Dumas, which is like
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  Speaker 1: I said, about forty five minutes from Pine Bluff to
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  Speaker 1: help with the search for her daughter. The next morning,
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  Speaker 1: they are able to get the state police and FBI
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  Speaker 1: involved and to quickly put together a search party to
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  Speaker 1: look for Casey. They're unable to find Casey or any
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  Speaker 1: clues as to her whereabouts during the search. With no
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  Speaker 1: sign of Casey, they turned to video surveillance in the area,
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  Speaker 1: so they start with the McDonald's to see if maybe
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  Speaker 1: she had gone in there and got breakfast because it
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  Speaker 1: was on the way to the gas station, but there
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  Speaker 1: was no footage of her there. They also looked at
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  Speaker 1: the hospital cameras that were facing the highway, but it
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  Speaker 1: was so dark and they just couldn't see anything or
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  Speaker 1: any indication that Casey had walked by heading to the
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  Speaker 1: gas station. With this information, they believe that Casey never
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  Speaker 1: actually left her vehicle, that she must have gotten into
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  Speaker 1: a vehicle with somebody else. Buzz was it someone she
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  Speaker 1: knew or a stranger. Their next step was to go
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  Speaker 1: and talk to the boyfriend Adam, who they believed she
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  Speaker 1: spent the night with instead of her friend Brian. They
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  Speaker 1: arrived at his home and he walked them through Saturday night.
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  Speaker 1: He said that Casey came over and that they went
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  Speaker 1: to Sonic and grab some food and hung out and
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  Speaker 1: she spent the night. As they continued talking to him,
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  Speaker 1: he admitted that they smoked pot. They asked him when
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  Speaker 1: she left, and he said around five am, and that
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  Speaker 1: he gave her some money for gas. They asked if
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  Speaker 1: anybody else was there, and he did say that his
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  Speaker 1: friend Jimmy had arrived about the time that Casey was
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  Speaker 1: leaving to see if Adam wanted to go fishing, but
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  Speaker 1: Adam declined. He said that his friend Jimmy was with
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  Speaker 1: another friend named Jay. With this new information about Jimmy
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  Speaker 1: and Jay, they go to track them down to interview
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  Speaker 1: them about seeing Casey that day. They first speak to
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  Speaker 1: Jimmy and he does tell them that they passed by
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  Speaker 1: Casey's vehicle around seven o'clock that morning, which was confirmed
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  Speaker 1: by some video footage from the Sonic that was pointed
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  Speaker 1: towards the road. There's a bit of confusion because Jimmy
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  Speaker 1: says that they didn't stop at Casey's vehicle. However, when
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  Speaker 1: they interviewed Jay, he tells the same story, except for
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  Speaker 1: he says that they went up to the gas station
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  Speaker 1: to see if they could find Casey and then went
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  Speaker 1: back and checked the vehicle, and when they couldn't find Casey,
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  Speaker 1: they headed to Adam's house and let him know that
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  Speaker 1: Casey's vehicle was on the side of the road. Adam
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  Speaker 1: called Casey, but it went straight to voicemail, so then
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  Speaker 1: they just proceeded to go fishing for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the day and did not look for Casey. Police have
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  Speaker 1: really nothing else to hold the men for, so they
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  Speaker 1: let them go to continue to investigate Casey's disappearance. They
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  Speaker 1: do find it odd that the boyfriend did not look
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  Speaker 1: for Casey. Days go by with no new leads, they
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  Speaker 1: continue to search for Casey. On September second, two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and six, a National Guardsman was searching the woods about
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  Speaker 1: four miles from where Casey's vehicle was located and he
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  Speaker 1: comes across a body. Investigators are called out to the
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  Speaker 1: scene as well as a crime scene unit, and it's
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  Speaker 1: clear that the manner of death was a zip tie
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  Speaker 1: around the victim's neck. The person was then disposed of
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  Speaker 1: in the woods. Based on the pictures they had of
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  Speaker 1: Casey and other identifying marks, they do know that this
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  Speaker 1: is Casey crowd that they found in the woods. During
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  Speaker 1: the autopsy, they were unable to determine whether she was
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  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted or not. Now that they know what has
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  Speaker 1: happened to Casey, they go back and review the little
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  Speaker 1: bit of camera footage they have, focusing mainly on that
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  Speaker 1: footage from the Sonic where the camera was angled where
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  Speaker 1: they could see cars passing by. They aren't able to
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  Speaker 1: tell what the vehicles are, but they do see that
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  Speaker 1: there is a truck with some sort of markings on
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  Speaker 1: the side that passes by about the time that they
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  Speaker 1: thought Casey would have been abducted, and then the truck
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  Speaker 1: passes back by three minutes later, going in the opposite
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  Speaker 1: direction towards where Casey would have been. So they focus
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  Speaker 1: in on this truck, and they need to start by
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  Speaker 1: determining what type of vehicle it is. So they go
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  Speaker 1: around town and show dealershi a picture of the vehicle
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  Speaker 1: from the security footage to see if they can tell
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  Speaker 1: them what type of vehicle it is. Well, when they
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the Chevrolet dealership, they recognized it as a
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  Speaker 1: two thousand model truck, so they at least have that
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  Speaker 1: to go off of. Now now that they have the
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  Speaker 1: type of vehicle, they continued to look at cameras around
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  Speaker 1: town and were able to spot the vehicle again passing
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  Speaker 1: by a Dollar General, headed towards where the body was located. Now,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: this was a common vehicle, so they didn't really have
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: anything else to go on, so they decide to set
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  Speaker 1: up a roadblock on Sunday. This would have been exactly
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  Speaker 1: one week after Casey's abduction. They were thinking possibly the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: person had a routine and traveled that road frequently, possibly
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: on a schedule. They couldn't believe their luck whenever, they
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  Speaker 1: did find a man with two kids in the car
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  Speaker 1: driving the vehicle that they saw on camera. His name
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  Speaker 1: was Kenneth Osborne, and he said that he drove that
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  Speaker 1: road every Sunday taking his daughter to the nursing home
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  Speaker 1: where she worked. He said he would have been driving
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  Speaker 1: that route last Sunday as well. They asked Kenneth to
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  Speaker 1: come in and talk to investigators. They found out he
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  Speaker 1: was an over the road truck driver and his wife
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  Speaker 1: was deceased, so he was raising his two children on
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: his own. He did have a charge in his history
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  Speaker 1: for sexual assault. They asked him about his actions that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: day and he tells them that he took his daughter
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  Speaker 1: to the nursing home and then headed home. After that,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: he never mentioned turning around or making a U turn
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  Speaker 1: and going back in the other direction, So when they
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: confronted him with this information, he changed his story and said, oh, yeah,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I forgot my cigarette, so I turned around and went
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  Speaker 1: to go get some and then headed home. Problem was,
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  Speaker 1: he only went He never turned back around, so he
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: only went one direction. After he made that U turn.
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  Speaker 1: He never would have headed back towards his home, so
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  Speaker 1: his story isn't adding up. They then saw him head
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the opposite direction of his home when he was passing
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  Speaker 1: by that Dollar general. All of this is circumstantial, so
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  Speaker 1: at this point they let him go and continue to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: look into his story. They were able to get his
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: cell phone records and he actually pinged near Casey's vehicle
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  Speaker 1: around seven am, and then thirteen minutes later he peinged
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: near where her body was found. He did not ping
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: near his home that morning. Now, as word got out
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: that Kenneth was a suspect, a coworker of his daughters
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  Speaker 1: comes forward saying that she saw Kenneth that morning and
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: waved to him in his truck as she passed him by.
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  Speaker 1: She said, normally he is very friendly and she would
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: have expected him to wave back at her, However he
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: did not. She also noted that there was a girl
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: slumped over on the passenger side of the truck. Now, initially,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: when she saw this, she thought it was his daughter. However,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: when she got to work, his daughter was already there.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: She is confused by this, but doesn't think any thing
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: of it until she finds out he is a suspect
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  Speaker 1: in Casey's murder. With this information, they were able to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: arrest Kenneth for the kidnapping and murder of Casey. He
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: is brought in for an interview and it would take
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: several hours, but he did eventually confess to killing Casey.
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  Speaker 1: He claims that he did not mean to kill her,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: that he put the zip tie on her neck to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: try to control her, but then she started to die. Now,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: he was convicted of murder and was sentenced to thirty
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  Speaker 1: years with an additional ten years for the kidnapping. Now,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: there is controversy around the interview that he went through
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and the interrogation techniques, and so he had initially won
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: an appeal, but eventually he did plead guilty and is
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: now serving his senate in prison and that's our case
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: for this week. Again, this was our kind of extra
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: episode we'll be doing hopefully weekly hump. Try to keep
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: up with it this time and then we also then
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: we'll always have our regular episode with me and my
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: husband Stu. So if you want to go check that out.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: We have a lot of opinions. There might be a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: few extra little tidbits in there and stuff. But yeah,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: so if you guys like this, please rate, review, subscribe,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: check out our Patreon. Bye everyone. Don't you know it's
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: bad to be superstious love nothing else is working. It's
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: really learning sack this word. Fine, Cam