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WHO would KILL a vacuum salesman_ · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: One afternoon in February of two thousand and seven, a
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Speaker 1: very nervous man walked across an icy parking lot towards
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Speaker 1: the front door of a police station in Meryllville, Indiana.
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Speaker 2: This man had just.
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Speaker 1: Been arrested and he was being brought here to be processed.
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Speaker 3: But he actually believed, or at least hoped, that he'd
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Speaker 3: be allowed to leave really quickly, basically right away, because
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Speaker 3: he actually had critical information about a four year old murder.
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Speaker 1: Case that he wanted to trade for his freedom. And
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Speaker 1: even though he did feel nervous that it might not work,
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Speaker 1: deep down he knew it would because this was not
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Speaker 1: just a small tip, This was a bombshell. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into today's story, for anybody checking, today is
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the afternoon of April seventeenth,
1:50
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, thirty three year old John Parker
1:53
Speaker 1: Junior sat at his desk in his office at Jay
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Speaker 1: and J. Parker Industries in Merrillville, Indiana. He was looking
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Speaker 1: over some PaperWorks and hoping he would get at least
2:01
Speaker 1: a few minutes without any interruptions to finish reading it,
2:05
Speaker 1: because in John's world, a few minutes were hard to find.
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Speaker 2: John was the owner of.
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Speaker 1: J and Jay, which was a consulting company dedicated to
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Speaker 1: training people to sell high end vacuums. Now, vacuums were
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Speaker 1: not glamorous, but his company was really successful and running.
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Speaker 2: It was a lot of work. He was on his
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Speaker 2: feet all day managing about twenty five.
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Speaker 1: Employees and solving constant problems, and he usually did not
2:30
Speaker 1: get much quiet time to do things like paperwork. And
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Speaker 1: even though John did complain about this, the truth was
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Speaker 1: he actually loved being busy. He'd always been a very
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Speaker 1: hard worker. He'd started in the vacuum business as a
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Speaker 1: door to door salesman, and even though everyone told him
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Speaker 1: there was no money in vacuums, he'd proved them wrong.
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Speaker 1: He was so good at sales that he made his
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Speaker 1: first million dollars by the time he was just thirty
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Speaker 1: years old. And now he had a whole company that
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Speaker 1: taught other people how to be great at it too.
2:58
Speaker 1: But now, as John tried to get through the paperwork,
3:01
Speaker 1: his desk phone rang. He sighed, and he picked it up,
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Speaker 1: and it was his wife, Judy. She told him that
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Speaker 1: their daughter had left her homework in his office when
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Speaker 1: she was there just the other day, and she asked
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Speaker 1: him if he could bring it home with him. Now
3:13
Speaker 1: John was about to tell his wife that this was
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Speaker 1: now the second time she had reminded him about this homework,
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Speaker 1: but he stopped himself because right now things were pretty good,
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Speaker 1: you know, things between them were solid, and so he
3:24
Speaker 1: tried to remind himself that it was not worth messing
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Speaker 1: that up. So John and Judy had been married for
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Speaker 1: ten years and she was his partner in life and
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Speaker 1: in business. They had raised four kids together, and Judy
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Speaker 1: was actually the second Jay in Jay and J Parker Industries.
3:43
Speaker 2: John knew that to everyone else.
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Speaker 1: They looked like a happy, successful power couple, but the
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Speaker 1: truth was much more complicated because about a year ago,
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Speaker 1: Judy had an affair and this had devastated John at
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Speaker 1: the time, but he really wanted to give their marriage
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Speaker 1: another shot. They'd been living in Michigan at the time,
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Speaker 1: and they agreed that moving the business to Maryville, Indiana,
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Speaker 1: where John was from, would be a good way to
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Speaker 1: start fresh, and so far they both felt like it
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Speaker 1: had been the right call. The business was doing really well,
4:10
Speaker 1: things were looking up, and most importantly, John and Judy
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Speaker 1: were actually getting along. So now, instead of getting annoyed
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Speaker 1: at his wife or repeatedly asking him about the homework,
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Speaker 1: he just said sure and that he would see her
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Speaker 1: later for their date night. As soon as John hung
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Speaker 1: up with Judy, he heard a knock on the door,
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Speaker 1: and his office manager, Barry Jones, charged in, holding more
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Speaker 1: files Barry dropped them on John's desk and said, sorry,
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Speaker 1: but he needed a signature. It was for the final
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Speaker 1: termination paperwork for an employee John fired, whose name was
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Speaker 1: Derek Hall. So a week earlier, John had made the
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Speaker 1: very difficult decision to.
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Speaker 2: Let Derek go. It wasn't personal, Derek just wasn't a
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Speaker 2: good fit.
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Speaker 1: He couldn't keep up with the sales quota, and John
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Speaker 1: had really high standards for his employees, that's how he
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Speaker 1: became a millionaire in the first place. But Derek somehow
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Speaker 1: thought his firing was John's fault, and he'd actually showed
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Speaker 1: up at Jay and Jay and made a scene in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot, saying that John had shorted him hundreds
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Speaker 1: of dollars on his last paycheck, and when John tried
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Speaker 1: to diffuse things, Derek had physically attacked him.
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Speaker 2: The police had to be.
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Speaker 1: Called and they separated John and Derek before it got
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Speaker 1: too ugly, and John had ended up paying Derek what
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Speaker 1: he wanted, since he just wanted the whole thing to
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Speaker 1: be over, which was also why now he was immediately
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Speaker 1: scribbling his signature on the termination paperwork and handing it
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Speaker 1: back to Barry, because hopefully now he would just never
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Speaker 1: have to see or speak to Derek ever again. After work,
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Speaker 1: around six pm, John drove home, which was about fifteen
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Speaker 1: minutes away from the office, and when he got inside
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Speaker 1: his house, he heard Judy call down from upstairs that
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Speaker 1: she'd be ready soon, so he yelled back that there
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Speaker 1: was no rush, and he meant it. And this was
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Speaker 1: because just over an hour earlier, his older brother David
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Speaker 1: had met him at the office and they had.
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Speaker 2: Gone to a buffet together.
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Speaker 1: John really wasn't hungry at all anymore, but dinner with
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Speaker 1: Judy was definitely more about spending time together than actually eating,
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Speaker 1: so he wasn't going to say anything about the late lunch.
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Speaker 1: John made his way into the living room, whereas four
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Speaker 1: kids were watching TV. It was his seventeen year old
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Speaker 1: daughter Christina, her fifteen year old brother Daniel, and their
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Speaker 1: two younger sisters. The older kids were going to babysit
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Speaker 1: the younger ones tonight so that he and Judy could
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Speaker 1: go out, but when John tried to make conversation with them,
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Speaker 1: Christina and Daniel gave him the cold shoulder. Now to
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Speaker 1: any other parent this could be interpreted, perhaps as just
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Speaker 1: typical teenage behavior, but to John it was more.
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Speaker 2: Loaded than that. So Christina and Daniel were.
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Speaker 1: Actually his step kids. John had been in their life
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Speaker 1: since they were really little, and he considered himself to
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Speaker 1: be their dad, and John had always tried to be
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Speaker 1: very involved in things like coaching Daniel and baseball and
6:51
Speaker 1: going to school concerts and parent teacher conferences, but his
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Speaker 1: relationship with these kids had changed lately, and frankly, both
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Speaker 1: of the kids had really begun acting out. Christina repeatedly
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Speaker 1: threw parties at their house whenever he and Judy were gone,
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Speaker 1: while Daniel was combative and hung out with a group
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Speaker 1: of friends who were seemingly always in trouble with the law,
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Speaker 1: and this had created a lot of conflicts between them
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Speaker 1: and John because he was the one who tried to
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Speaker 1: discipline them, while Judy sort of always played the good cop.
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Speaker 1: But John knew better than to try and force them
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Speaker 1: to talk to him, so when he went in there,
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Speaker 1: he just kept quiet and they all watched the TV
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Speaker 1: until Judy came downstairs and said she was ready to go.
7:35
Speaker 1: Hours later, just before ten pm, John and Judy left
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Speaker 1: their dinner, got in the car, and drove back to
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Speaker 1: John's office at J and J. Parker Industries, which was
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Speaker 1: in an office park in a secluded area, and the
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Speaker 1: two of them had had a really nice dinner. However,
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Speaker 1: during their meal, Christina had called and wanted to know
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Speaker 1: where that homework was that John was supposed to bring home,
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Speaker 1: and John very embarrassingly suddenly realized that despite all those
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Speaker 1: reminders from Judy that he was getting so annoyed by,
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Speaker 1: he had forgotten the homework at the office. So that's
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Speaker 1: why they were here now to pick up the homework.
8:07
Speaker 1: On their way home, John parked the car in the
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Speaker 1: lot and both of them hopped out. When they got
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Speaker 1: inside the building, they found that the office manager, Barry,
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Speaker 1: was still there working, which John expected. I mean, things
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Speaker 1: had been busy lately with planning seminars and finding a
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Speaker 1: new hire to replace Derek, and Barry was in charge
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Speaker 1: of keeping it all organized. And John really didn't feel
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Speaker 1: too bad that Barry was putting in so many hours.
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Speaker 1: I mean, this was his job and the company relied
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Speaker 1: on him to ensure nothing major slipped through the cracks.
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Speaker 1: So when Barry mentioned to John when he went inside
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Speaker 1: that he actually might be heading home soon, John said no.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, John saw his wife grabbed the
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Speaker 1: homework from his desk and then hustle out to the car,
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Speaker 1: and as she disappeared, John told Barry that he was sorry,
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Speaker 1: but Barry needed to stay and finish what he was doing.
8:55
Speaker 1: But then to make up for delivering this bad news,
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Speaker 1: John offered Barry his leftovers from dinner. He had basically
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Speaker 1: a full meal since he had not been hungry. Barry
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Speaker 1: sort of grumbled about it, but said he would take
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Speaker 1: the food if he was offering, and so John nodded
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Speaker 1: and went outside to grab it. Moments later, John arrived
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Speaker 1: at the car where Judy was waiting in the passenger seat.
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Speaker 1: He opened up the back door and he picked up
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Speaker 1: the styrofoam to gobox. When Judy looked back at him,
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Speaker 1: he told her he was going back to give the
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Speaker 1: food to Bury, and she just shrugged and said fine,
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Speaker 1: then turned back around. But right at that same moment,
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Speaker 1: John heard the sound of footsteps in the concrete right
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Speaker 1: behind him, But before he could turn around, he heard
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Speaker 1: a deafening bang. Judy heard the bang too, which was
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Speaker 1: followed quickly by a second one, and she instinctively ducked
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Speaker 1: down in her seat and then looked back at John
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Speaker 1: just in time to see him fall hard to the ground,
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Speaker 1: and before she could do or say anything, she saw
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Speaker 1: a masked person in dark clothes crouch over John for
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Speaker 1: just a few seconds, and then they sprinted away from
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Speaker 1: the car towards the main road. Judy leaped out of
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Speaker 1: the car and ran to John, yelling his na but
10:01
Speaker 1: he just lay there on the pavement, not moving, and
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Speaker 1: then she saw this huge pool of blood forming right
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Speaker 1: underneath his head. With her heart racing, Judy ran to
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Speaker 1: the office door and screamed at Barry to call the police.
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Speaker 1: By about ten thirty that night, the parking lot at
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Speaker 1: J and J. Parker Industries was overrun with officers and
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Speaker 1: crime scene technicians. Among them was Detective Donald Toth, who
10:32
Speaker 1: had been with the Marriville Police Department for the last
10:34
Speaker 1: twenty one years. When he first got the call, dispatch
10:38
Speaker 1: had only known that there was a shooting, but when
10:40
Speaker 1: he arrived on the scene, a first responder told him
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Speaker 1: that there had actually been a fatality, thirty three year
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Speaker 1: old John Parker Junior, who had been identified by two
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Speaker 1: witnesses at the scene. The first responder also explained that
10:53
Speaker 1: when they got there before they spoke to the witnesses.
10:56
Speaker 1: They had looked for John's wallet to identify him, but
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Speaker 1: the wallet had not been in his pockets or in
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Speaker 1: the car, and when Tod heard that, his first thought
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Speaker 1: was that maybe this was a robbery, But as soon
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Speaker 1: as he walked over and got a look at John,
11:09
Speaker 1: he immediately revised that theory. John was on his back
11:13
Speaker 1: behind a parked car, and the first thing Tot noticed
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Speaker 1: was that he had a lot of nice jewelry on
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Speaker 1: gold and diamond rings, a bracelet, and an expensive looking
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Speaker 1: Rolex watch. Also, this office park was not close to anything,
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Speaker 1: and it just didn't feel like the kind of place
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Speaker 1: a random mugger would go looking for victims.
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Speaker 2: Tath wondered if the killer took the wallet.
11:34
Speaker 1: Just to make police believe this could be a robbery,
11:37
Speaker 1: because the longer he looked at John's body, the more
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Speaker 1: signs he saw that this was likely an efficient, planned execution.
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Speaker 1: John didn't have any visible defensive wounds, and when Toth
11:48
Speaker 1: used a gloved hand to move John's head to the side,
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Speaker 1: he saw a gunshot wound right behind his ear. Toth
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Speaker 1: had actually been a paramedic before becoming a detective, so
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Speaker 1: he knew that shot had likely killed John instantly. It
12:01
Speaker 1: also meant John had his back turned to the shooter
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Speaker 1: when he died. There was an open styrofoam to go
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Speaker 1: container of food and some car keys on the ground
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Speaker 1: right next to John's body, and their placement made it
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Speaker 1: feel like John might have been holding them when he fell.
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Speaker 1: If John had an altercation, like with a thief or
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Speaker 1: somebody who killed him in the heat of the moment,
12:19
Speaker 1: the scene would be way messier. As far as Toth
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Speaker 1: could tell, the killer had just walked up to John
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Speaker 1: while he was busy with something at his car, aimed
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Speaker 1: the gun, pulled the trigger, and then after he died,
12:29
Speaker 1: grabbed John's wallet, and then left, which also meant the
12:32
Speaker 1: killer very likely had not been at the scene long
12:35
Speaker 1: enough to leave behind much evidence. All Toss saw were
12:38
Speaker 1: just two shellcasings, and he doubted there would be footprints
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Speaker 1: or DNA, And when Tos spoke to some of the
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Speaker 1: other officers at the scene, he learned they'd already done
12:47
Speaker 1: a sweep of the office park and they looked at
12:49
Speaker 1: dumpsters and bushes and on the roofs of all the buildings,
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Speaker 1: but they hadn't found anything, and they didn't see any
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Speaker 1: cameras or surveillance in the area. So as Tos stood
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the parking lot and watched his
13:00
Speaker 1: officers continue to search the scene, he realized he was
13:03
Speaker 1: the lead on a case with virtually no forensic evidence,
13:06
Speaker 1: which might have been daunting, but he did have at
13:09
Speaker 1: least two witnesses. About an hour later, Toss sat down
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Speaker 1: across a table from John Parker's wife, Judy, inside of
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Speaker 1: an interrogation room inside the Marrible police station. He'd learned
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Speaker 1: a few things about Judy already. She'd been the one
13:25
Speaker 1: who told Barry to call the police.
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Speaker 2: And she was with John when he was shot.
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Speaker 1: He also knew that as the spouse of the murder victim,
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Speaker 1: she was his best suspect. Now, Toss didn't really think
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Speaker 1: Judy was the actual shooter, but considering how pristine the
13:40
Speaker 1: crime scene was, he knew it was possible this was
13:43
Speaker 1: a hit done by a professional, and Judy maybe could
13:47
Speaker 1: have hired them. But as Tos spoke to Judy, he
13:51
Speaker 1: started to waver on that theory. She couldn't stop crying,
13:54
Speaker 1: which made it hard for her to get her words out,
13:57
Speaker 1: and when she did speak, it was slow, like it
13:59
Speaker 1: was taking her a lot of effort to say anything
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Speaker 1: at all, she did manage to give toat the timeline
14:05
Speaker 1: how she and John had gone out to dinner for
14:07
Speaker 1: their date and then stopped over at the office after
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Speaker 1: since one of their daughters had left some homework there.
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Speaker 1: She said the office manager, Barry, had been there, and
14:15
Speaker 1: that when she had gone back to the car, she
14:17
Speaker 1: knew that Barry and John were speaking. And then at
14:19
Speaker 1: some point John he left the building and came out
14:22
Speaker 1: to get his dinner leftovers, and at that time she
14:24
Speaker 1: had turned away from him, and then she heard these
14:27
Speaker 1: two loud shots, and then when she turned back around,
14:30
Speaker 1: she saw John fall and then also there was this
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Speaker 1: figure in dark clothes who was sort of bending down
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Speaker 1: on top of John, and then they ran away. However,
14:38
Speaker 1: when Judy finished telling her story about what had happened
14:41
Speaker 1: that night, you know, all the events that led up
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Speaker 1: to the shooting, something changed in her demeanor. You know,
14:46
Speaker 1: the shakiness in her voice, and all the grief that
14:49
Speaker 1: was sort of pouring out of her to this point,
14:51
Speaker 1: it vanished, and in its place, Judy became very hardened,
14:55
Speaker 1: and she looked right at Tath and she said, you
14:58
Speaker 1: better find the person who did this, and bring them
15:01
Speaker 1: to justice. And when Tos saw this, you know, he
15:04
Speaker 1: almost got goosebumps from it because it was such a
15:06
Speaker 1: quick departure from what had been going on, and he
15:09
Speaker 1: thought to himself, you know, either she is a great
15:12
Speaker 1: actress and this is all a big facade and she
15:15
Speaker 1: did it, or she was involved, or this is genuine.
15:18
Speaker 1: She's a grieving widow who doesn't know what to make
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Speaker 1: of the fact that her husband has just been killed.
15:23
Speaker 1: At some point, Tot asked Judy if she could think
15:26
Speaker 1: of anybody who might have wanted to hurt John, and
15:29
Speaker 1: Judy appeared to think for a second, but eventually she
15:32
Speaker 1: just said no. She said that John was an incredible
15:35
Speaker 1: husband and father, and they had a great marriage that
15:37
Speaker 1: they had really worked hard on, and everybody at work
15:40
Speaker 1: respected him. But then something clearly occurred to Judy because
15:43
Speaker 1: she frowned and said, actually, there was someone from work
15:48
Speaker 1: who didn't like John. His name was Derek, and John
15:50
Speaker 1: had fired him recently, and after the firing, Derek had
15:54
Speaker 1: come back to Jay and Jay and started a physical
15:57
Speaker 1: fight with John in the parking lot. When Toad heard that,
16:00
Speaker 1: he perked up. I mean, a disgruntled employee was definitely
16:03
Speaker 1: somebody that he should be speaking to, and Toth was
16:06
Speaker 1: speaking to the office manager, Barry Jones right after this,
16:09
Speaker 1: and so we figured he could ask him about that
16:11
Speaker 1: incident too. Now, Toth wasn't ready to rule Judy out
16:14
Speaker 1: as a suspect, since he still needed to check her
16:17
Speaker 1: finances and talk to her friends and family about her marriage.
16:21
Speaker 1: But for now he didn't see a reason to hold her.
16:23
Speaker 1: So he told Judy that for now she was welcome
16:26
Speaker 1: to go home and be with her kids and you
16:29
Speaker 1: grieve and they would be in touch. Then Toth got
16:32
Speaker 1: up and he left to go to another interrogation room
16:36
Speaker 1: where Barry was waiting. The following morning, Toth walked up
16:40
Speaker 1: a flight of porch steps. He was at the home
16:43
Speaker 1: of Derek Hall, the ex employee of Jay and J.
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Speaker 1: Parker Industries that John Parker had recently fired. Last night,
16:50
Speaker 1: Toth had spoken to John's office manager, Barry Jones, who
16:53
Speaker 1: had confirmed what John's wife, Judy had said about Derek
16:57
Speaker 1: that after he was fired, there had been this huge,
16:59
Speaker 1: ugly fight at the office between Derek and John, and
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Speaker 1: Derek was the instigator. It was the only useful information
17:07
Speaker 1: Barry had given him since he said, you know, during
17:09
Speaker 1: the shooting, he had actually been in the bathroom and
17:12
Speaker 1: so he hadn't heard or seen anything until he heard
17:14
Speaker 1: Judy screaming for him. But the lead on Derek was enough,
17:18
Speaker 1: and the other thing was Barry and Judy were not
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Speaker 1: the only ones who thought Derek might have killed John.
17:23
Speaker 1: Just before this, Toth also spoke to John's brother David,
17:27
Speaker 1: who was incredibly devastated and furious about his brother's death,
17:31
Speaker 1: and David had also pointed the finger at Derek, so
17:35
Speaker 1: Toth was very eager to meet Derek, a man three
17:38
Speaker 1: people claimed could be a killer.
17:40
Speaker 2: Toth got to the top of the.
17:41
Speaker 1: Steps and knocked on the front door, and when Derek answered,
17:45
Speaker 1: Tot introduced himself and explained why he was there. Derek
17:48
Speaker 1: seemed stunned, but he immediately let Toth inside. Moments later,
17:52
Speaker 1: Toth was sitting across from Derek in the living room,
17:55
Speaker 1: and even though Derek seemed very uncomfortable and nervous, he
17:58
Speaker 1: told Toth he was actually glad the detective was there
18:01
Speaker 1: because he really wanted to give his side of the story.
18:05
Speaker 1: Derek said that when he started working at Jay and Jay,
18:07
Speaker 1: he was given way more work than he'd expected, and
18:10
Speaker 1: when he couldn't keep up with it, he was fired.
18:13
Speaker 1: And then, you know, John shorted him four hundred dollars
18:16
Speaker 1: on his final paycheck, so he had gone to Jay
18:19
Speaker 1: and Ja to get the money he was owed. Now,
18:21
Speaker 1: he admitted that it did lead to a physical fight,
18:25
Speaker 1: but he said they'd only pushed each other and it
18:27
Speaker 1: ended up getting resolved, like it wasn't that big of
18:29
Speaker 1: a deal. But beyond that, Derek insisted he could not
18:32
Speaker 1: have killed John because he'd actually spent the whole evening
18:36
Speaker 1: last night at a friend's house playing video games. He
18:39
Speaker 1: gave Toath the friend's number and said, go ahead, call him,
18:41
Speaker 1: he'll confirm it. Toth tried not to look too disappointed
18:44
Speaker 1: as he took down this number. But if the alibi
18:47
Speaker 1: checked out, he could rule Derek out as a suspect. Now,
18:51
Speaker 1: it was possible that Derek had, you know, actually taken
18:53
Speaker 1: a hit out on John, but to Toth that seemed unlikely.
18:58
Speaker 1: If Derek was that upset over four hundred dollars, it
19:01
Speaker 1: didn't seem likely that he would have the excess cash
19:04
Speaker 1: to pay anybody to go commit a murder. But as
19:07
Speaker 1: Toth left Derek's house, and got back in his car.
19:10
Speaker 1: He decided the interview was not a total bust after all,
19:13
Speaker 1: because talking to Derek made him realize he needed to
19:16
Speaker 1: focus more on John's business life. According to John's brother David,
19:21
Speaker 1: John got rich young and built his company very quickly,
19:25
Speaker 1: and in Toth's experience, those kinds of people often stepped
19:29
Speaker 1: on others to get to the top. The next day,
19:32
Speaker 1: Toth walked down a hallway at the precinct towards an
19:35
Speaker 1: interrogation room. He had confirmed Derek's alibi with his friend,
19:39
Speaker 1: so he had to move on to other suspects for now,
19:42
Speaker 1: which was fine with Toth because he was about to
19:44
Speaker 1: sit down with his new prime suspect, who happened to
19:47
Speaker 1: be one of his former witnesses. It was John's office manager,
19:51
Speaker 1: Barry Jones. Yesterday, Toth had gone to the J and J.
19:55
Speaker 1: Parker Industry's office and made it a point to speak
19:58
Speaker 1: to every single employee.
20:00
Speaker 2: About John, and he found out that John was a great.
20:03
Speaker 1: Boss who pushed his employees, but.
20:05
Speaker 2: He worked hard himself.
20:07
Speaker 1: The employees also said that Judy was an essential part
20:10
Speaker 1: of the company, and the Parkers as a duo were
20:13
Speaker 1: well respected in the world of vacuum sales. But office
20:17
Speaker 1: gossip also said their marriage was not exactly happy, and
20:21
Speaker 1: it was sort of common knowledge that Judy was having
20:24
Speaker 1: an affair with Barry Jones. A few employees had even
20:28
Speaker 1: caught them having sex at the office. Now, neither Barry
20:32
Speaker 1: nor Judy had mentioned this the first time Tot had
20:34
Speaker 1: spoken to them, So now Tot had no idea if
20:37
Speaker 1: anything they had said to him was true. Barry could
20:40
Speaker 1: have been lying about being in the bathroom and was actually,
20:42
Speaker 1: you know, the shooter, or he and Judy were maybe
20:46
Speaker 1: working together and they were both lying. Toth was leaning
20:49
Speaker 1: towards the second option because he had also found out
20:52
Speaker 1: that Judy was going to get a big payday from
20:54
Speaker 1: the death of her husband. She was the beneficiary of
20:57
Speaker 1: a one million dollar life insurance policy, and aside from that,
21:01
Speaker 1: John's general estate was worth around two million dollars.
21:05
Speaker 2: Maybe he thought, you know, she and.
21:07
Speaker 1: Barry wanted to take John's money and run off together.
21:11
Speaker 1: So when Toth went into the interrogation room, he intended
21:14
Speaker 1: on essentially saying that the investigation was over. They'd caught
21:18
Speaker 1: Barry in a lie and they knew what he did.
21:20
Speaker 1: But when Toth sat down and confronted him. Barry did
21:24
Speaker 1: not act like somebody who was guilty and cornered. He
21:27
Speaker 1: was charismatic and confident, and he said the affair was
21:30
Speaker 1: total office gossip. He was just good friends with Judy
21:33
Speaker 1: and they worked together closely. Barry said he and Judy
21:37
Speaker 1: and John were like family. In fact, he said he
21:40
Speaker 1: was living with one of Judy's cousins from Texas. Now,
21:43
Speaker 1: Toth didn't really believe what Barry was saying, but even
21:46
Speaker 1: though he kept pressing him, Barry stuck to his story,
21:49
Speaker 1: and eventually Toth just had to let him go because
21:52
Speaker 1: without any evidence, it was just Barry and Judy's word
21:55
Speaker 1: against the employees, and even if they were having an affair,
21:59
Speaker 1: that was not enough to prove they also conspired to
22:02
Speaker 1: murder John. On Monday, April twenty first, so four days
22:09
Speaker 1: after John's murder, Toth was at his desk rereading the
22:13
Speaker 1: notes from Barry and Judy's interviews for what felt like
22:15
Speaker 1: the millionth time. He was still trying to find a
22:18
Speaker 1: concrete way to link Judy and Barry to John's murder
22:21
Speaker 1: before approaching Judy about it. But so far, other than
22:25
Speaker 1: the office rumors, he hadn't found anything, and he didn't
22:28
Speaker 1: really have any other leads aside from learning that the
22:31
Speaker 1: shellcasings found on the scene were from a twenty five
22:34
Speaker 1: caliber gun, which was useful to know, but it wasn't
22:37
Speaker 1: going to help him with the suspect list.
22:39
Speaker 2: Tath leaned back.
22:40
Speaker 1: In his chair and rubbed his eyes. He'd been full
22:42
Speaker 1: speed ahead on this case since Thursday night, and he
22:45
Speaker 1: was exhausted. He was starting to consider maybe going home
22:48
Speaker 1: and getting some rest when he heard a light knock
22:51
Speaker 1: on his door. An officer poked his head in and
22:54
Speaker 1: told Toth there was somebody online three with a tip,
22:57
Speaker 1: and it sounded like a good one.
22:58
Speaker 2: Tot picked up his.
22:59
Speaker 1: Phone and the person on the other end of the
23:02
Speaker 1: line explained they were a police officer as well, from
23:04
Speaker 1: a nearby town, and they said that they had heard
23:07
Speaker 1: about John Parker's murder on the news and realized they
23:10
Speaker 1: had some information. So about six months earlier, this officer
23:15
Speaker 1: had been called to a local juvenile detention facility to
23:18
Speaker 1: take a report. The staff there had done a random
23:20
Speaker 1: search on their kids and found that two of them
23:23
Speaker 1: had a lot of cash, over two hundred dollars. Having
23:26
Speaker 1: cash was against the rules, and when the kids were
23:28
Speaker 1: asked where they got it, they said it was payment
23:31
Speaker 1: for a hit on John Parker.
23:33
Speaker 2: Now that stunned Toth.
23:35
Speaker 1: But not nearly as much as what the officer said next.
23:39
Speaker 1: These two kids said the person who had arranged this
23:42
Speaker 1: hit was a former high school classmate of theirs named
23:45
Speaker 1: Daniel Hicks, and Toth couldn't believe what he was hearing
23:49
Speaker 1: because Daniel Hicks was John's own fifteen year old step son.
23:53
Speaker 1: Toth had really begun to think that this murder could
23:56
Speaker 1: be a professional hit, but it did not occur to
23:58
Speaker 1: him that this hit could be linked to family and
24:02
Speaker 1: also a child. Now, the officer on the phone explained
24:06
Speaker 1: that they really hadn't taken this very seriously at the time,
24:09
Speaker 1: so no one had notified John's family or spoken to
24:12
Speaker 1: Daniel about it, which you know, Toth did not have
24:15
Speaker 1: to point out here. But this was a huge screw up.
24:18
Speaker 1: But he wasn't focused on, you know, the right and
24:21
Speaker 1: wrong a bit. He was just focused on figuring out
24:23
Speaker 1: what happened. And so Toth got the names of these
24:25
Speaker 1: two kids with the cash from the officer, and when
24:28
Speaker 1: he hung up, he immediately sent some of his own
24:31
Speaker 1: officers to track these kids down. Then Toth put in
24:34
Speaker 1: a call to Judy. He needed to bring her son
24:37
Speaker 1: Daniel in for an interview, and since he was a minor,
24:40
Speaker 1: Judy was going to have to come to Late that
24:44
Speaker 1: same night, actually after midnight, Toth was once again inside
24:48
Speaker 1: of an interrogation room with Judy, but this time, instead
24:52
Speaker 1: of answering questions herself, Judy was sitting at the back
24:54
Speaker 1: of the room watching while her son Daniel sat at
24:57
Speaker 1: the table with Toth and a few other detectives. Tat
25:01
Speaker 1: had spoken to Judy right before this, and she had
25:04
Speaker 1: seemed genuinely shocked to hear that her child apparently asked
25:07
Speaker 1: somebody to kill John. She told Tat there had to
25:11
Speaker 1: be a mistake here, and she was happy for police
25:13
Speaker 1: to speak to Daniel directly because that would allow them
25:16
Speaker 1: to clear this all up. Tat had decided not to
25:18
Speaker 1: ask Judy about the affair with Barry at that moment
25:21
Speaker 1: because she was being very cooperative letting them speak to
25:23
Speaker 1: her son, and he also just didn't want to upset
25:26
Speaker 1: her and have her change her mind. They also had
25:28
Speaker 1: not been able to find those two kids that Daniel
25:31
Speaker 1: supposedly hired, and so right now Daniel was the only
25:34
Speaker 1: one he could speak to, and so now watching Daniel,
25:38
Speaker 1: Toat could see he was acting like a typical young
25:40
Speaker 1: person who was in trouble. He seemed nervous, and he
25:43
Speaker 1: was blinking a lot, and he kept rearranging his hands
25:46
Speaker 1: like he wasn't really sure what to do with them,
25:48
Speaker 1: And so Tat decided his best approach was just to
25:51
Speaker 1: be direct. Maybe he could scare the truth out of Daniel.
25:54
Speaker 1: So right off the bat, he told Daniel he knew
25:57
Speaker 1: about the murder for hire, and he told him to
25:59
Speaker 1: explain himself, and to Toth's surprise, Daniel took a big
26:04
Speaker 1: breath and then said it was true. He had actually
26:08
Speaker 1: paid two friends some money he had saved from his
26:10
Speaker 1: allowance because he hated his stepdad. John was always on
26:14
Speaker 1: his case and yelling at him, and Daniel just wanted
26:18
Speaker 1: it to stop. But Daniel said he didn't want John
26:20
Speaker 1: to die. He was adamant that he had just asked
26:23
Speaker 1: his friends to teach.
26:24
Speaker 2: John a lesson and beat him up. Toad thought about this.
26:28
Speaker 1: It was possible that Daniel was telling the truth here,
26:30
Speaker 1: and the two kids in the detention center either lied
26:34
Speaker 1: or had decided on their own to kill John, but
26:36
Speaker 1: that felt a little far fetched, because why would these
26:39
Speaker 1: kids lie to get themselves in more trouble. Tat thought
26:43
Speaker 1: it was much more likely that Daniel was the one
26:45
Speaker 1: who was lying, and Toth was not about to let
26:48
Speaker 1: Daniel go anywhere until he found out for sure.
26:51
Speaker 2: So he told.
26:52
Speaker 1: Daniel and Judy that he was sorry, but they were
26:55
Speaker 1: going to have to take Daniel into custody. Then Toth
26:58
Speaker 1: called some officers in to make the arrest, and as
27:00
Speaker 1: he left the room, he could hear Judy and Daniel
27:03
Speaker 1: sounding completely shocked behind him. Now at this point, even
27:07
Speaker 1: though Toth had been up all night and he was
27:09
Speaker 1: totally exhausted, at the same time, he actually felt far
27:12
Speaker 1: more alert than he did even in a couple days before,
27:16
Speaker 1: because now it felt like they really were, you know,
27:18
Speaker 1: making movement on this case. And so instead of trying
27:21
Speaker 1: to get some rest back at his house, he went
27:23
Speaker 1: back to his office, pored some coffee, and kept on working.
27:34
Speaker 1: On May fifteenth, two thousand and three, so almost a
27:37
Speaker 1: month after John Parker's murder, Detective Don Toth sat at
27:41
Speaker 1: his desk reading some copy for a flyer and making
27:44
Speaker 1: some last minute changes to it.
27:46
Speaker 2: So far.
27:46
Speaker 1: It said that police were looking for information about John
27:49
Speaker 1: Parker's murder in Maryville, and it offered a reward to
27:53
Speaker 1: anybody who came forward. Toth planned to pass these flyers
27:56
Speaker 1: out all over town tomorrow to see if the public
27:58
Speaker 1: could maybe give him a new lead. It was sort
28:01
Speaker 1: of an act of desperation because while this case had
28:04
Speaker 1: seemed close a couple times to being wrapped up, you know,
28:07
Speaker 1: just a few weeks ago, now it was pretty much dead.
28:12
Speaker 1: It had taken police a while, but they had finally
28:14
Speaker 1: found both of those kids from the detention center that
28:18
Speaker 1: Daniel apparently hired to you know, rough up his dad,
28:20
Speaker 1: who ultimately apparently killed him, and the kids admitted to
28:24
Speaker 1: meeting with Daniel and accepting the money. But it turned
28:27
Speaker 1: out there was just no way they were actually the murderers.
28:31
Speaker 1: One of them had been thousands of miles away in
28:33
Speaker 1: Las Vegas when John was killed, and the other had
28:37
Speaker 1: been in detention at a juvenile facility. And so since
28:40
Speaker 1: Toth could not prove the assassin's Daniel hired had actually
28:43
Speaker 1: killed anyone, he'd had to let Daniel go. But that
28:47
Speaker 1: didn't mean Daniel was innocent. Here those two kids had
28:50
Speaker 1: said that Daniel did ask for John to be killed,
28:53
Speaker 1: not just beat up. So Daniel was lying about that,
28:57
Speaker 1: and Toth didn't think someone who wanted to kill his
28:59
Speaker 1: father had just stopped wanting to kill his dad all
29:02
Speaker 1: of a sudden.
29:03
Speaker 2: But since Tat.
29:04
Speaker 1: Knew Daniel was at home babysitting his younger siblings during
29:07
Speaker 1: the time of John's murderer, Toad figured he'd likely gotten
29:10
Speaker 1: somebody else to do it. But Toth couldn't just keep
29:14
Speaker 1: talking to Daniel because Judy had gotten a lawyer and
29:18
Speaker 1: they were now not letting Toth question the family members
29:20
Speaker 1: at all anymore, which was very frustrating, since Toth wasn't
29:23
Speaker 1: done with Judy either. Out of everyone, I mean, she
29:27
Speaker 1: benefited the most from John's death because she was a
29:29
Speaker 1: beneficiary on his life insurance, and she was very likely
29:33
Speaker 1: having an affair with his office manager, Barry, and so
29:36
Speaker 1: maybe part of her motive could have been just to
29:38
Speaker 1: hide the affair from him. And then also Barry, I mean,
29:41
Speaker 1: he's potentially having this affair with Judy, John's wife, I
29:44
Speaker 1: mean he might have a motive as well to get
29:47
Speaker 1: rid of John, to just keep this thing a secret. Also,
29:50
Speaker 1: he definitely seemed to think that John was a pretty
29:53
Speaker 1: tough boss, and so maybe he just had had enough
29:55
Speaker 1: and he was complicit or actively involved in getting rid
29:59
Speaker 1: of John. He was also so at the scene of
30:00
Speaker 1: the crime right when it happened, and since there weren't
30:03
Speaker 1: any cameras, Toth couldn't actually confirm Barry's version of events.
30:08
Speaker 1: But at this point, Tot didn't have the evidence he
30:11
Speaker 1: needed to prove any of these suspects actually killed John
30:15
Speaker 1: or hired somebody to do it, and he also didn't
30:18
Speaker 1: have enough evidence to eliminate them and narrow down his
30:20
Speaker 1: pool further. Instead, Toth had just kept adding to it
30:24
Speaker 1: because as of this week, he was also considering John's
30:27
Speaker 1: brother David as a person of interest. A few days ago,
30:31
Speaker 1: some officers had been called to Judy's house because John's
30:34
Speaker 1: brother David had stopped by her house and gotten into
30:37
Speaker 1: a verbal fight with the family. And this was not
30:40
Speaker 1: the first time this had happened. Apparently David had gone
30:43
Speaker 1: over there and threatened the family before, one time he
30:47
Speaker 1: had even damaged their car. This kind of behavior could
30:50
Speaker 1: mean David was just lashing out because he was grieving,
30:53
Speaker 1: but it also could mean he was erratic and potentially violent. Plus,
30:57
Speaker 1: he had been with John on the afternoon of the
30:59
Speaker 1: murder that buffet, and he knew that John was going
31:02
Speaker 1: to have dinner with his wife later, so he could
31:05
Speaker 1: have guessed that John would check in at the office
31:07
Speaker 1: after they were done eating. Since he was a famously
31:10
Speaker 1: hard worker, Toth sighed and took a break from looking
31:13
Speaker 1: at this flyer. His brain was fried, but he felt
31:16
Speaker 1: hopeful these flyers would give him the tip he desperately
31:20
Speaker 1: needed to break this case, and so the next day
31:23
Speaker 1: Toth and some other officers passed these flyers out. But
31:27
Speaker 1: then weeks went by with no tips, and even though
31:30
Speaker 1: Toth did eventually get a few responses to the flyers,
31:34
Speaker 1: none of them gave him any actual evidence. So over
31:37
Speaker 1: the next few months, Tot spent his days in his
31:40
Speaker 1: office pouring over files for something he missed, or maybe
31:43
Speaker 1: a witnessed they did an interview, or evidence they'd maybe overlooked.
31:47
Speaker 1: But there was just nothing, and as the months turned
31:50
Speaker 1: into years, Toth had to turn to other projects, and
31:54
Speaker 1: eventually the John Parker murder case went cold. Four years
32:04
Speaker 1: after John's murder, On an afternoon in February of two
32:07
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, Toth arrived at work for the day
32:10
Speaker 1: and headed to his office. Now he had not forgotten
32:13
Speaker 1: about the John Parker case, but he was not actively
32:16
Speaker 1: investigating it at this point. In fact, all his cases
32:19
Speaker 1: had been winding down because he was planning to retire
32:22
Speaker 1: in just a few months. But right before he actually
32:26
Speaker 1: got to his office, Dore, a narcotics officer, caught up
32:29
Speaker 1: to him and asked for a word. The officer explained
32:32
Speaker 1: that he knew Toth wasn't on their narcotics team, but
32:35
Speaker 1: they had a warrant out for a man involved in
32:37
Speaker 1: one of their drug investigations, and they had realized this
32:41
Speaker 1: man had some crossover with one of Tot's homicides from
32:44
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, the John Parker case. Tot stopped
32:47
Speaker 1: in his tracks and immediately told this officer to go
32:50
Speaker 1: get him an interview. And sure enough, later that day,
32:54
Speaker 1: Tot sat down with this man who was very chatty
32:57
Speaker 1: and seemed extremely eager to talk. And the first thing
33:00
Speaker 1: this man did was explained that the person he lived
33:03
Speaker 1: with knew John Parker and they had admitted to him
33:07
Speaker 1: that they were directly involved in his death. And when
33:10
Speaker 1: this man told Toth the name of this person tot
33:14
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. He leaned back in his chair, feeling
33:17
Speaker 1: both relieved and also disturbed. He was relieved because he
33:21
Speaker 1: finally knew who John Parker's killer was, and he was
33:25
Speaker 1: disturbed because this case was now way more twisted than
33:29
Speaker 1: he had ever imagined. Based on the police investigation and
33:38
Speaker 1: multiple confessions, here is a reconstruction of what investigators believe
33:42
Speaker 1: happened to John Parker on the night of April seventeenth,
33:45
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, at around ten pm, the killer
33:56
Speaker 1: crept slowly through the shadowy parking lot at J and J.
33:59
Speaker 2: Parker Industry.
34:00
Speaker 1: They were wearing a mask and dark clothes, and they
34:03
Speaker 1: were carrying a twenty five caliber gun. They could see
34:06
Speaker 1: John's car by the office entrance with Judy sitting inside
34:09
Speaker 1: of it, but she was not the killer's target.
34:12
Speaker 2: John was.
34:13
Speaker 1: And John was also near the car, he was not
34:16
Speaker 1: inside of it. He was standing right outside one of
34:18
Speaker 1: the back car doors. It was open, and he was
34:21
Speaker 1: rifling around, you know, inside the car, looking for something.
34:24
Speaker 1: And as the killer stared at John thinking about what
34:26
Speaker 1: they were going to do next, they thought about John,
34:29
Speaker 1: who this man was, and how controlling and selfish he
34:32
Speaker 1: was he had made the killer's life a living hell,
34:36
Speaker 1: and now the killer was going to get retribution. So,
34:40
Speaker 1: while John continued to have his back turned, the killer
34:43
Speaker 1: silently walked up right behind him. They raised their gun,
34:47
Speaker 1: aimed at the back of his head, and they fired,
34:50
Speaker 1: and it was a direct hit that hit him right
34:52
Speaker 1: behind the ear, and John fell so fast that when
34:56
Speaker 1: the killer fired a second time, they just missed. Now,
34:59
Speaker 1: the killer had never murdered anyone before, so they were
35:02
Speaker 1: shocked by what they had just done, but they were
35:05
Speaker 1: kind of jostled back into reality when they heard John's wife, Judy,
35:08
Speaker 1: yelling out and screaming, and so quick as can be,
35:11
Speaker 1: the killer grabbed John's wallet so the police would.
35:14
Speaker 2: Think this was maybe a robbery.
35:15
Speaker 1: Gone wrong, and then they turned and sprinted off into
35:19
Speaker 1: the night. Much later that night, the killer waited at
35:22
Speaker 1: home until the person who had masterminded this whole thing arrived,
35:26
Speaker 1: and they gave them a hug and said they had
35:28
Speaker 1: done a good job.
35:29
Speaker 2: The mastermind then.
35:30
Speaker 1: Took the gun, John's wallet and the clothes the killer
35:33
Speaker 1: wore during the murder and told the killer they were
35:36
Speaker 1: disposing of them, and the killer just listened, feeling very relieved.
35:40
Speaker 2: He trusted the Mastermind.
35:41
Speaker 1: More than anybody else in the whole world, because, after all,
35:46
Speaker 1: she was his mother. It would turn out Judy had
35:50
Speaker 1: convinced her own fifteen year old son Daniel, to murder
35:54
Speaker 1: his stepfather, her husband.
35:56
Speaker 2: Judy wanted to get.
35:57
Speaker 1: Out of her marriage with John, but she knew if
35:59
Speaker 1: she did him, she would have only gotten half of
36:02
Speaker 1: his estate and their business, and so with his death
36:06
Speaker 1: she could get the whole thing now. She had actually
36:08
Speaker 1: already tried to kill John, just unsuccessfully. First, she had
36:12
Speaker 1: tried to poison him, but when that didn't work, she
36:15
Speaker 1: had hired a hitman herself, but that also failed, so
36:18
Speaker 1: finally she asked Daniel to help by promising that he
36:21
Speaker 1: would get some of the money, and she had also
36:23
Speaker 1: enlisted her daughter, Christina, who was the one who found
36:26
Speaker 1: the gun to kill John with Daniel actually tried to
36:29
Speaker 1: hire somebody else for the job, but then ultimately just
36:32
Speaker 1: did it himself and used his younger siblings for an alibi,
36:35
Speaker 1: saying he was at home babysitting.
36:37
Speaker 2: And the man who.
36:38
Speaker 1: Told all this to the police was Christina's husband, who
36:41
Speaker 1: she married two years after John's death, and once her
36:45
Speaker 1: husband gave authorities the whole story. Police interrogated both Christina
36:49
Speaker 1: and Daniel, who eventually confessed. Judy was convicted of murder
36:53
Speaker 1: and sentenced to thirty three years in prison, while Daniel
36:57
Speaker 1: got twenty three years in prison and Christina received five
37:00
Speaker 1: years for her part in the murder as well. Christina
37:02
Speaker 1: would die in twenty thirteen from a drug overdose. Daniel
37:06
Speaker 1: was released in twenty seventeen, and Judy was released in
37:09
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Thank you so much for watching. Let
37:16
Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
37:19
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
37:21
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now, so click
37:24
Speaker 1: here and give them a watch.
37:26
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,