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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Nina Ingram Part 2 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:46
  Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. I need
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: somebody over here on somebody's been killed.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Somebody's been killed.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where are you at the Law Quad apartments? She
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: hasn't showed up for work whatever, So we came over
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: to your apartment.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: She said, Okay, it looked like happened. I don't know
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: if she's got scratched rut her neck.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Just see somebody over here.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: What is her name, Nina?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: So you don't know what happened her. She just looks
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: like to have scratches. Is that all you can see?
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I mean her face is blue.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Shortly after ten pm on April twenty first, two thousand
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: and six, twenty one year old college student Nina Ingram
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: was brutally murdered inside her apartment, unit number one at
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: the Law Quad complex in Fayettville, Arkansas.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: This became big news at the time.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: It was one of only two unsolved murder cases in
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Fayetteful since the nineteen seventies, and police interviewed a lot
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: of people. They talked to Nina's neighbors, her boyfriend, her friends,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and her family, but they failed to identify a single suspect.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: This case was unusual.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Nina had been strangled, but not sexual assaulted, and her
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: front door was double locked. On the night of her murder,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Nina had finished her lost prevention job at Walmart at
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: nine pm. After that, she picked up some fast food
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: and then went to hang out with her boyfriend, Josh
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Stewart at his apartment. The police pulled surveillance cameras from
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: her apartment complex that showed that Nina returned home at
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: ten fourteen pm. She got out of her vehicle and
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: walked toward her apartment on the ground floor in the
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Law Quad apartment complex. But sometime shortly after that, probably
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: right after Nina unlocked her door and went inside her apartment,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: she was attacked.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: The attack was.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Brutal and sudden. The autopsy results showed Nina had no
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: defensive wounds. She did not have a chance to fight back.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Nina's brother found her body shortly after two pm on
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: April twenty second, which would have been approximately sixteen hours
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: after she was lasting alive on camera. Nina often left
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: her window open for her cats, just a crack, and
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: the front window was open but only a few inches
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: On the day that her brother found her body, Nina's
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: brother had to take off the window screen and open
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: it all the way to crawl inside. It is a
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: possibility that this is how Nina's killer got into and
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: out of the apartment, but either way, whether Nina's killer
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: locked the door behind themselves or whether they opened the window,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: crawled in, closed.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: It behind them, and then replaced the.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Screen, either way would have required more thought in planning
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: than someone randomly rushing her at her door, as police
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: suggested at the time. After six years, Nina's case went
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: cold until twenty twelve, when a twenty six year old
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: man named Rico Tavarius Cone of Springdale was arrested and
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: charged with Nina's murder. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: five years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I've learned that there is no such thing as a
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: messages from people all around the country asking for help
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: their communities. If you have a case you'd like me
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and my team to look into, you can reach out
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: seven eight seven four four six one four or five.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: or five, or you can send us a message on
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: In twenty twelve, six years after Nina Ingram's murder, a
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: new detective was put in charge of her case. This
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: detective's name was Scott Carlton, and within a very short
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: period of time he had results. Rico Cohne was arrested
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: in charge with Nina's murder. Fayetteful Police Chief Greg Tabor
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: said that Rico was being charged with capital murder. Initial
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: reports in the media stated that Rico had briefly been
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: a maintenance man at the law Couad apartments where Nina lived,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and that could have explained how he had a key
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: to her apartment and potentially how he could have gained entry.
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  Speaker 3: But at his arraignment in June of twenty twelve, Rico
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: pleaded not guilty. Rico's defense attorney had considered a mental
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: illness claim, but Rico completely denied that he killed Nina,
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  Speaker 3: and admitting guilt was a requirement for him to mount
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: that mental illness defense. Rico was examined by a psychiatrist,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: doctor Mark Peacock, who found Rico mentally fit to stand trial.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: According to media reports.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: An Arkansas State Hospital mental evaluation found that Rico quote
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: did not manifest any substantially impairing systems of a mental
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: disease or mental.
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  Speaker 2: Defect end quote.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: That report also found that he displayed a clear, rational
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: and factual understanding of the criminal proceedings against him. Not
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: only did Rico plead not guilty, Rico also refused a
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: plea deal.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: He said that he was.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Innocent and was willing to take his chances at trial,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: even though if he was found guilty of Nina's murder.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: He was facing a death penalty sentence. The case against
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Rico Khne rested on the testimony of one key witness,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: a woman named Randy Applewhite. Randy told police that she
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: had been romantically involved with Rico for a period of
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: time when she and her husband were having some problems
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: at home. The timeline of how she became the key
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: witness is a little bit confusing. At first, media reports
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: stated that, according to Randy Applewhite, Rico had been hanging
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: around with some friends at the apartment complex where Nina
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Ingram lived. This was over Easter weekend, about five days
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: before Nina's murder. While he was there, Allegedly, Rico said
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: something to Nina kind of hitting on her, and she
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: rebuffed him, blowing him off in front of his friends,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: and this enraged Rico. But it wasn't actually Randy Applewhite
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: who reported this tip to police. It was called in
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: by a woman named Brenda Case, who told police that
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: she was friends with Randy and that Randy had told
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: her the story about Rico, so then it was Brenda.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Brenda was the one.
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  Speaker 3: Who called the police tip line. This led to police
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: questioning Randy. This became an issue later because when police
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: went to get a search warrant, they said they had
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: three independent witnesses, Randy, Brenda, and someone else. But right
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: here we can see immediately Randy and Brenda were not
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: independent witnesses. One heard about it from the other one,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: so it was effectively hearsay. When Randy was first interviewed
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: in twenty twelve, court record stated that after she did
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: tell her story, it never changed, but later Rico's attorney
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: claimed in a lawsuit that Randy's story did change multiple times.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: We'll get more into that later. In Randy's interview, Randy
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: told detectives about a conversation that she allegedly had with Rico.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: She said that the conversation took place six years earlier,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: about six months after Nina Ingram's murder. Randy told police
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: she was afraid to tell them what she knew because
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: she was afraid of Rico. And also, she said, quote plus,
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  Speaker 3: I didn't know one hundred percent if it was true
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  Speaker 3: or not.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 3: He could just be bragging end quote. But during that
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: first interview, she also said, quote when he looked at
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: me and told me in the way he looked me
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: in my face, it felt real. End quote. This is
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: what Randy told the detective. Apparently, Rico felt that Nina
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: had been disrespectful. A few days later, Rico happened to
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: be back at that complex to buy some pot. He
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: saw Nina arrive at home, and then he made an
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  Speaker 3: impulse decision.
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  Speaker 2: He knocked on the door.
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  Speaker 3: She cracked it open, and he said he forced his
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  Speaker 3: way in, strangled Nina, and then wiped down the door
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  Speaker 3: and the doorknob and let the scene. Then he told
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  Speaker 3: Randy that he went over to a friend's house and
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: turned on the news to see if Nina was dead
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: or not. Randy said that Rico told her he strangled
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  Speaker 3: Nina to make a point, but ended up killing her.
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  Speaker 3: Police also talked to some other women who Rico had dated,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: and they told detectives that he had a violent temper
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  Speaker 3: and could be controlling and jealous. Randy confirmed that she
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: told police that in the past, Rico had grabbed her
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  Speaker 3: by the throat, choked her, put a gun in her face,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: and sabotaged her car. So the state started building its
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: case against Rico Cone and it was going to be
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: tough because not only did they really so far only
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: have one person who allegedly had this information. They had
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: zero physical evidence, and it turned out that those rumors
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: about Rico Cone being a maintenance man at the complex
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: probably weren't true because police later said they believed Rico
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: had lied about being a maintenance man in order to
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  Speaker 3: explain his DNA being there, but of course they never
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: found his DNA there. Since the case against Rico Cone
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: has been sealed, which is another longer story we're going
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to get into later, there are no details about what
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: actually came out in court, but police did say that
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: there was.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: DNA evidence in the apartment.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Police apparently believed that it had been cleaned by the killer,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: and police also never found the murder weapon what Nino
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: was actually strangled with. They tested a belt they found
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: in a trash can in the kitchen, and a cat
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: toy and her miniblinds, but they found nothing, so the
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: killer probably took the murder weapon with him. Behind the scenes,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: both the defense and the prosecution followed various motions and
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: the legal battle dragged on. Meanwhile, Rico Cone stayed behind
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: bars that whole time for over three years. Finally, in
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: twenty fifteen, the trial was getting ready to start, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: then there was another shocking twist in this case, the
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: state's key witness, Randy Applewhite, went into the hospital for
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: what was supposed to be a routine surgery, but something
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: went wrong and on Tuesday, March third, twenty fifteen, Randy
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  Speaker 3: Applewhite died. Shortly after that, on July first, prosecutors dropped
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: the charges against Rico Cone, They said due to lack
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: of evidence. After spending over eleven hundred days in the
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Washington County Detention Center, Rico was released a free man.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: He went back to Tennessee, where he was from, to
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: stay with family. Meanwhile, the prosecutor, Matt Durett, told local
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: news stations that they had a year to pursue additional
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: charges against Rico, but that didn't happen. After that years pasted,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: it seemed like the Nina Ingram murder case was in limbo.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: The Fayetteville the Lice.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Department said the case was still officially open, but reading
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: between the lines, it seemed as though police felt that
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: they did get their guy, but that after the accidental
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: death of that key witness, they no longer had enough
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: to take to trial. Meanwhile, Rico's attorney Tony Pirani told
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the news channel five News that his client had been
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: wrongfully accused since the beginning. He said, quote, we believe
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: an innocent man had been locked up for over three
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: years for something he did not do, and we do
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: not believe that this is justice for anybody.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Tony Pirani said that the case against his client was
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: non existent and that if they had gone to trial
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: that he firmly believed that Randy Applewhite would have changed
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: her story. He told five News, quote, we had every
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: reason to expect that her testimony was going to be
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: quite different from some of the things that have been
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: said in the past, and in fact, she has told
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: us in no uncertain term that she does not believe
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: that Rico committed this crime.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: Rico's attorney did not agree with the police's position that
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Rico was their best suspect. He had a message for
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Nina's mother, Judy. The message said quote, we also would
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: like to see justice for her, and justice is not
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: involved the wrong person being locked up for this crime.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: It involves finding the right person, and we do not
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: believe that is Rico Cone end quote. Rico also messaged
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: the news station on Facebook, writing quote please believe me.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: I am innocent and had nothing to do with this,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: and my heart, mind, and soul goes out to the
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Ingram family end quote. Rico's attorneys did their own investigation.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: They later filed a civil lawsuit against the detectives in
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: the case. In Rico's civil lawsuit, they referenced the fact
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: that the police department did identify several other people of interest.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: As we said last week.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: There were a lot of men in Nina's orbit, coworkers,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: male friends, her brothers, and their acquaintances. She was an
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: attractive young woman, and even though she had a boyfriend
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: and tried to avoid leading people on, men still hit
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: on her often. Some men made comments to police about
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: being close friends of Nina's and wanting to keep an
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: eye on her, which could be a good thing, but
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: in a police investigation, detectives are always, of course, looking
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: for anything that could be out of the ordinary. One
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: of Nina's friends was a guy named Freddie Hollingsworth. Freddie
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: had worked with Nina at Walmart. He stopped by her
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: apartment complex a couple of days after her murder, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: a couple of the female tenants at that building told
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: police that they thought that police should be aware of Freddie,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: they said. Freddie said that his name was Freddie, like
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Freddy Krueger.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: They said.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Freddie told them he was a very good friend of
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Nina's and was talking a lot about his theories on
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: who could have killed her and about his suppose inside
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: her knowledge of the case. Police talked to Freddy on
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: May first, two thousand and six. He told them that
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: he met Nina in two thousand and two when he
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: worked with her at the Walmart neighborhood market. He said
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: they became close friends. The detective said, when you say
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: good friends, so you mean like boyfriend. Freddie replied, quote, no,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: I wish, but she wasn't the type. So the detective
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: asked what he meant by the type. Freddie said Nina
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: was always clear about her priorities being work in school,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: and also said Nina had a boyfriend. He knew that
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: she had a relationship with Josh and that it was serious.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Freddie and Nina attended the same college, even though Freddie
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: was several years older. He was twenty nine, Nina was
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: twenty one. Both of them majored in business. Freddie said
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: that he thought of himself as kind of a big
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: brother figure to Nina. He told police that he loved
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: her but as a friend. But about eight months before
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Nina's murder, he said that kind of lost touch. That's
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: when Nina transferred to the Walmart supercenter on Sixth Street
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: to work in loss prevention. Freddie said after that they
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: saw each other only intermittently. He saw her when he
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: did his shopping at that Sixth Street store, and he
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: also worked in the same store as Nina's brother, Nelson,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: so he would chat to Nelson about how his sister
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: was doing and hear about her second hand.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Freddie said that.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: The last time he saw Nina was about a week
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: or two before she died. He went into the Walmart
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: supercenter to buy a digital camera. He said that the manager,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Danny Williams, was at the store at that time. He
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: said he didn't really get to talk to Nina as
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: much as he wanted to because Danny was talking to him.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Freddie said that they did chat for about ten minutes
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: about the camera he was buying, and about school and
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: work and life in general. He said they had a
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: really great conversation, but he said that was the last
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: time that he ever spoke to Nina. Freddie told police
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: something off. He said, quote, I really get mad at Nina.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: I would get mad at her a lot because of
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: the type of job she's doing, and I've got witnesses.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: I've tried to get her out of this job, this
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: loss prevention job.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So the officer interviewing Freddie asked, what do you mean
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: get mad.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: At her a lot?
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Freddie said, quote, well, I would get not mad at her.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: I would just get frustrated with her. I'm like, Nina,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: you need to stop doing this job. You don't have
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: a law enforcement background. I said, somebody's gonna hurt you.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: I know what kind of people shopping there. I said,
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: you're going to be busting somebody, and you're gonna get busted.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: You're gonna get hit, you're gonna get stabbed. And I
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: have another witness that heard me saying those things to her,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: and she just blew me off. She said, oh, Freddie,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: don't talk like that, and nothing's going to happen. And
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: that's what upset me so much when I found out
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: someone had killed her, because I suspect that's probably what happened.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Freddie went on to say he believed that his shoplifting
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: theory could have happened that someone whom Nina had busted
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: for shoplifting, maybe someone who was on parole or already
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: had a criminal record, someone who couldn't afford to catch
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: another charge, might have targeted her.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Freddy said that it was possible.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: That one of those disgruntled shoplifters got out of jail
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: and then started stalking Nina. He said, quote he either
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: come to the parking lot and watched her and figured
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: out what she drove, or he just happened to get
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: behind her to drive through or something and recognized her
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: and he followed her, figured out where she lived, started
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: watching timing everything. I mean see, she always left her
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: apartment Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday late around nine o'clock
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: because she picked Nelson up. She'd dropped Nelson off at
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: his house, and then she'd be back at her apartment
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: by herself. And I figure, maybe this is just a theory.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: Maybe he timed her down and got everything figured out.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: The detective asked Freddy to explain how he knew Nina's
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: schedule so well, including what time she was alone in
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: her apartment. Freddie Claire verified that although he knew Nina well,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: he actually never knew where Nina lived. But he said
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: on the Sunday after Nina's murder, he saw news report
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: about the murder and it showed pictures of the apartment complex.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: He said when he saw the complex on the news,
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: he recognized it and that's when he decided to go
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: over there.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: He said he did it because he.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Wanted, quote to see if there's something that maybe someone
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: could have done. I felt like I wanted to have
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: a connection. I wanted to do something, and I also
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: wanted to see if they were putting flowers on her doorstep,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: because I was going to buy some the next day
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: and drop them off on my way to school end quote.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: But Freddy said he couldn't find the crime scene tape.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: He wasn't able to figure out which apartment was Nina's,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: so after driving around the complex, he decided to park
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: and take a look around. Then, he said, after getting
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: out of the car, he saw some women standing there.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: He started talking to them, asking them if they lived there.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: He told them he was a friend of nina'snamed Freddie Hollingsworth.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: He said he wanted to see where she live. He
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: said he told them. Quote, I just want to see
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: what happened, you know, if there's something that I can
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: see that people can't end quote. One of those women
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: pointed out Nina's unit, Unit number one. Freddy said he
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: didn't actually go over to Nina's apartment. He said that
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: he and the two women stared at it and then
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: walked a few steps toward it across the grass, but
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: then he turned around and left.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: The detective questioning.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Freddy asked him what he meant by saying that he
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: wanted to see if he noticed something that other people
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have seen. Freddie said, quote, well, I notice things
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: a lot. I'm really good about things. I was hurting,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: i was upset, I was crying, and I just felt
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: like there was something. You know, It's like if someone
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: got killed in a car wreck, you go to where
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: they got killed, and you just want to feel like
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: you can do something for them, or you're with them
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: or something. And that's what I was seeking. I wanted
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: to just live a little bit of Nina. I just
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: wanted to feel some connection to Nina. I wanted to
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: see where she lived.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: End quote.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: So it would be natural for police to wonder at
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: this point was Freddie just a good friend who was
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: slothing to try to pick up clues, which, to be fair,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: I can completely relate to. And I am not, by
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: the way suggesting that he did anything wrong, because people
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: react to grief in all kinds of ways. But obviously
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: with any male friend of Nina's who showed up at
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: her apartment, it's natural to question him and find out
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: if he's trying to help or potentially to insert himself
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: into the case or misdirect an investigation. Freddie said that
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: he noticed something else about Nina's unit, that it was
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: what he called a bad apartment because it was on
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: the ground floor on the corner, and that there was
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: a stairwell right beside the apartment. Nina's light was above
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: her door, But Freddie said when he was there at
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Nina's complex on that Sunday that he noticed that Nina's
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: porch light was not working, but that everyone else's was.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Note later in this interview, Freddie clarified that he meant
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: that Nina's light wasn't on.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: He said he didn't know.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: If that was broken or if police had turned it
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: off or failed to turn it on when they started
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: their investigation. Freddie said that he began to think that
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: maybe Nina's killer disabled the light and then was hiding
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: behind the stairwell to wait for when she came home.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: That the killer quote had her timed because she worked
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: just like clockwork, and he just pushed himself in behind her.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: That's why the door wasn't broken. End quote. Freddie said
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: that he had known about the locked door before it
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: was reported in the newspapers, because he'd heard about it
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: from the gosspep going around Walmart. He said that he
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: learned about Nina's death on Saturday afternoon, after management called
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: a special meeting and told employees that Nina had been murdered.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Freddie said that when he was in.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Nina's apartment complex that he got an eerie feeling like
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: maybe he and the two women he was talking to
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: were being watched. He said, quote the these people that
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: live there, I told them. I said, I don't know
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: a lot about it, but I think you guys should
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: lock your doors and be careful because there may be
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: someone out here on the loose end quote. At some points,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Freddy's story did seem to shift slightly, like at one
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: point he said he was going to leave flowers, but
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: then later he clarified his plan had actually been to
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: go to Nina's and then later go back to the supercenter,
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: buy the flowers, and drop them off the next day,
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: but he said he noticed no one else had left
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: flowers and he didn't want to be the.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Only one doing that.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Freddy suggested that detective checked fast food places where Nina
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: had been to see if they had surveillance cameras, specifically
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: if there was someone stalking her, and if there were
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: easy Marts or any stores that have security cameras on
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: those gas pumps. He also said if he were police,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: he would check past tenants or anyone you had a key,
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: and of course, as he mentioned before, anyone who Nina
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: was involved in busting who may have been angry with her.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Freddie also suggested police check the trash cans in the
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: complex and underneath the stairwell to see if someone had
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: dropped cigarette butts while watching for Nina. There's also some
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: big trees down there in the complex, he told them,
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: where someone could have hid behind. Freddie voluntarily gave police
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: cheek swabs so that they could be compared for DNA.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: He offered to help out in any way that he
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: could As they were collecting the swabs, Freddy continued to
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: talk about his theory that someone had been following Nina
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: for quote payback or retribution. He said that's why he
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: recommended that police check the fast food places that she frequented.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: The detective asked Freddy if he ate fast food, and
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: he said, Taco Bell is the only one that I
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: eat at. Nina was at Taco Bell on the night
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: she died. Taco Bell fast food was her last meal.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Detectives asked Freddy where he was on the night Nina
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: was killed. He said that on April twenty first, he
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: worked his shift at Walmart, got off at nine pm,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: but stayed there till round nine thirty. Then he said
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: he was talking to a friend, and then he went
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: back to his mom's house. He said that on that night,
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: his mom was not at home. He did say that
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: he had a roommate who stayed there, but he said
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: the roommate did not get off work at Target until
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: two or three am, so at the time Freddy was
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: home alone.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: He said he got home.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: By eleven fifteen at the latest, and that after he
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: got home he went straight to bed. The detective noticed
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: something else at that point a cut on Freddy's hand.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: He asked Freddy where he got the cut. Freddie said
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: that there were two separate cuts. He said that one
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: happened on Friday, April twenty first, the day that Nina
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: was murdered. He said that he had been helping a
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: coworker get down cases of water. In the process of that,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: he scraped his hand on a ladder. He said it
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: was just a scratch, so he didn't say anything to anyone.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: Then he said on Sunday he was getting some bananas
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: and scraped the hand again on a cart. This, he said,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: the cut reopened and started bleeding, so he said he
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: went into the break room and got a band aid
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: from someone. The detective took some pictures of Freddie's hand,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: and before concluding the interview, the detective said, quote, well, Freddie,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: there's just some things that concern me. He asked again
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: how Freddy knew so much about Nina's schedule. The detective
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: also quizzed Freddie on why he went to the Taco
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: bell on Sixth Street to eat the.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Week Nina died.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: If he had a taco bell nearer to the neighborhood
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: market where he worked at the time. Freddie said that
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: he only ate fast food rarely and that he just
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: happened to go to Taco Bell that week. The detective
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: asked if it was possible that Freddie had been at
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Nina's apartment before Sunday. He asked if it was possible
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: that someone would pick Freddy out of a lineup.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Freddie was adamant.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: He said he would take a lie detector test right
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: then to prove he had never been a Nina's apartment
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: complex before that Sunday. Freddie acknowledged to detectives that it
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: might seem suspicious that he knew so much about Nina's whereabouts,
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: but he said that's just how his mind works. He's
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: an observant person and he just wanted to help figure
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: out who killed Nina. Along with Freddie, detectives also talked
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: to several men whom Nina had dated casually in the past,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: but none of them had any reason to be angry
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: with her, and all of them had alibis. A neighbor
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: of Nina's and a census taker told police they had
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: seen Nina with men in her apartment, but it's not
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: clear if these men were ever identified. One of them
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: was described as being medium billed with dark hair. Detectives
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: got a description from the census taker of the shirt
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: that this guy was wearing. They found a similar shirt
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: that she identified from a catalog. There is a photo
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: of that shirt in the case file. The man she
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: saw wearing a long sleeved white button up shirt with
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: a band collar. Those are the ones that button at
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: the top with a single button without having a fold
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: over collar. The shirt was white with a blue stripe,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: but that person was never conclusively identified. Police interviewed another
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: woman named Chantal, who lived in Nina's apartment complex. She
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: said she pulled into the parking lot on the night
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: of April first, at around nine to fifteen pm. She
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: said on that night she noticed a person she'd never
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: seen before. She said at first she wasn't positive if
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: it was a man or a woman, but she believed
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: that it was a woman, someone who had her hair
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: yelled back. The woman was sitting in the driver's seat
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: of a darker, older model car. Chantal described it as vintage.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: She said it was dark, so she wasn't sure if
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: it was blue or navy or black. She said she
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: saw a blond man walk out from the area, possibly
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: near apartment number one, and the couple drove away. They
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: also talked to another guy, Josh Donn, who said that
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: he had been set up on a date with Nina
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: a while back. They looked at Josh's hands too, and
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: found that there was a cut on his thumb, which
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Josh said was from a rake. Josh said there were
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: other marks on his hands from rock climbing. He also
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: expressed a desire to help catch Nina's killer and voluntarily
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: gave his DNA to police. After Rico Cone's release, his
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: attorney filed a lawsuit against several detectives involved in the case,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: suing them both personally and in their capacity as police officers.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Also listed in the court case where the city of
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Fayible and employees Arkansas.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: State Crime Lab.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Next week, we are going to look a lot deeper
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: at the case against Rico Cone. We are also going
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: to explore what his attorneys claim or viable leads, including
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: one person of interest who had a frame picture of
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Nina in his apartment and who allegedly choked his girlfriend
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: with the court of his athletic shorts. Rico's lawsuit alleges
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: that the police falsified information to get a search warrant
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: against him and violated his civil rights. We are going
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: to examine peace by piece the case against Rico Cone
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: because if the police are wrong and he wasn't the
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: only suspect, there are several people of interests still out there,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: and to our knowledge, the police are not investigating anyone
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: other than Rigo Cone. So who killed Nina Ingram? Did
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: this person stalk her beforehand? Was this person a stranger
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: or could it have been someone she knew and maybe
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: even let in? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Tubbs for her research assistance and to James Wheaton for
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: legal review. Noah Camera mixed and scored this episode. Our
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott,
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: free by subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Channel on Apple Podcasts.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: Helen Gonepod. If you have a case you'd like me
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: and my team to look into, you can reach out
• 33:15
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