Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Two Sides to Every Suspect

Transcript

Two Sides to Every Suspect · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. We're ever going to get the right person.
0:17
Speaker 1: Knowing where everyone was is getting to be really important,
0:19
Speaker 1: That's what I would say. So we have several issues
0:22
Speaker 1: we need to clear up with Casey's timeline. Exactly when
0:25
Speaker 1: did he leave work on Monday, how did he get home,
0:29
Speaker 1: and did he go home on Tuesday to change before work,
0:32
Speaker 1: and if he did, how did he miss the mess
0:35
Speaker 1: of the crime scene. If we're going to get to
0:37
Speaker 1: the bottom of this, we need to find some of
0:39
Speaker 1: the people who were working at Sonic on the Monday
0:42
Speaker 1: Rebecca disappeared. Taylor has been texting one of our local
0:46
Speaker 1: contacts who was working at the Sonic around the time
0:48
Speaker 1: Rebecca was killed. They mentioned a story we have also
0:52
Speaker 1: heard from multiple people that Casey had gone home between
0:56
Speaker 1: leaving work on Monday and returning to work on Tuesday.
1:00
Speaker 1: This person claims to be in communication with a couple
1:02
Speaker 1: of other people who allegedly spoke to Casey about this.
1:06
Speaker 1: If we could find a way to absolutely verify this information,
1:09
Speaker 1: it could be a game changer. His story was consistent
1:13
Speaker 1: in the beginning that he did not go home right,
1:15
Speaker 1: So if we can even if he did, even if
1:18
Speaker 1: we get him to admit, yeah, I went home to
1:19
Speaker 1: change shirts, or we find someone who can absolutely verify
1:22
Speaker 1: that he said that, that he mentioned going home to
1:24
Speaker 1: change shirts, or that the timeline was a little weird.
1:26
Speaker 1: That right there is enough to reopen the investigation because
1:29
Speaker 1: he was, by Charlie's own words, suspect number one. Charlie
1:34
Speaker 1: was the first officer on the scene. He was the
1:36
Speaker 1: one who found the blood in Casey's house, and the
1:39
Speaker 1: reason they ruled him out was because of his airtight alibi.
1:42
Speaker 1: If we could quite poke a hole in that, then
1:45
Speaker 1: they've got it. They got to take another look. They
1:46
Speaker 1: have to, like, I really just want to talk to
1:48
Speaker 1: these people who were working at Sonic. I just want
1:51
Speaker 1: to know how he got home, when he went home,
1:54
Speaker 1: and if he actually did go home. In September of
2:03
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, two year old Rebecca Gould was
2:07
Speaker 1: brutally murdered in a remote area of the Arkansas Ozarks.
2:11
Speaker 1: Fourteen years later, her killer is still out there. I've
2:16
Speaker 1: come back to Mountain View with one mission to get
2:19
Speaker 1: justice for Rebecca. I'm Catherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone.
2:32
Speaker 1: We're over two months into our investigation and Taylor and
2:36
Speaker 1: I stepped back to look at the whole murder board.
2:38
Speaker 1: So far, so many threads, so many dead ends, so
2:43
Speaker 1: many post it notes. As I trace the line spider
2:47
Speaker 1: webbing from picture to picture, I see many of the rumors, accusations,
2:52
Speaker 1: and same questions that the town won't let go of.
2:56
Speaker 1: We've followed a lot of leads and investigated a lot
2:59
Speaker 1: of the rumors that we've heard in town, and by
3:01
Speaker 1: following the evidence, we've eliminated a lot of them as
3:05
Speaker 1: likely sos JB, Chris, Jennifer, the group theory, hundreds of
3:12
Speaker 1: other names we've heard, but we're having a harder time
3:16
Speaker 1: with Casey. Ironically enough, the first and only person that
3:20
Speaker 1: the police have cleared. Like I said in the beginning,
3:24
Speaker 1: everyone in this case has at least two sides. Is
3:27
Speaker 1: Casey the sweet, caring boyfriend who is head over heels
3:31
Speaker 1: for Rebecca that his friends describe, or the care bear
3:34
Speaker 1: psycho that Danielle talked about. I get a call from
3:38
Speaker 1: someone who has been following the case and the podcast.
3:42
Speaker 1: He dated Rebecca shortly before her murder and had an
3:45
Speaker 1: interaction with Casey that he can't get out of his head.
3:48
Speaker 1: An ex boyfriend could have an ax to grind, so
3:51
Speaker 1: we have to check his story carefully, but a quick
3:54
Speaker 1: call with Danielle, Rebecca's sister, confirmed that he did date
3:58
Speaker 1: Rebecca and also confirmed a lot of the details. He mentions, well,
4:02
Speaker 1: and at a club, it's no longer open and fathful,
4:06
Speaker 1: and a girlfriend of mine introduced me and are together.
4:09
Speaker 1: We dated for I guess it was like three or
4:11
Speaker 1: four weeks. Probably it was like a month or two
4:14
Speaker 1: before she got killed. I thank our first date was
4:18
Speaker 1: pretty much like I went to we were going to
4:20
Speaker 1: go lix store, have a few trains, and you know,
4:23
Speaker 1: it was just hanging out and it was me and
4:25
Speaker 1: her and her sister and her sister at their house. Well,
4:28
Speaker 1: we left and we went to one liquor store and
4:31
Speaker 1: it was sposed, so we went to the other one
4:32
Speaker 1: and it was both. So we ended up just drinking
4:35
Speaker 1: what we had. I mean, because that's the others today. Back,
4:37
Speaker 1: I was like my backgrounds and drank beer. Like most
4:40
Speaker 1: of the men in Rebecca's life, he was smitten, but
4:43
Speaker 1: it didn't take him long to realize their relationship could
4:46
Speaker 1: not go further because there was someone causing drama in
4:49
Speaker 1: Rebecca's life, and that someone was Casey Casey was not
4:54
Speaker 1: like he was just apparently she had like slipped him
4:57
Speaker 1: one time and he just was like blisk and she
5:00
Speaker 1: just wanted to be friends. Well he had like showed
5:03
Speaker 1: up there just out of the blue, but he I
5:07
Speaker 1: ended up being like civil whipping and stuff. And at
5:10
Speaker 1: the end of the night we were all getting ready
5:12
Speaker 1: to like to go to bed and stuff, well he
5:16
Speaker 1: was just standing like he would not leave, just not leave.
5:19
Speaker 1: It was like very uncomfortable, and like they like went
5:22
Speaker 1: outside and talked for a second. Like he was just
5:24
Speaker 1: falling and crying and just like emotionally just straw over everything.
5:29
Speaker 1: Like I was fixing on leave. I was just like,
5:31
Speaker 1: screw this, I'm going back home. I ain't got time
5:33
Speaker 1: to deal with this trauma. And I was like, your
5:35
Speaker 1: boy out there is fixing the freak out and if
5:37
Speaker 1: he comes in there starting anything, then on the handle.
5:38
Speaker 1: And he's like, no, I'll take care of it. If
5:41
Speaker 1: he does, he'll be fine. I was like, here he is,
5:43
Speaker 1: you know, acting the pool. I'm like, look, man, I'm
5:46
Speaker 1: just gonna shut you down right now. Like if you
5:47
Speaker 1: can want to go, we can go. Otherwise you need
5:49
Speaker 1: to keep your mouth shut because you don't found me, Like,
5:51
Speaker 1: I mean, she was like all the time, he was
5:53
Speaker 1: like constantly showing up where she was, wanting to know
5:56
Speaker 1: where she was, Like I just wanted to know where
5:59
Speaker 1: she was at twenty four seven, just controlling, and I
6:02
Speaker 1: guess he had done that to a couple other people
6:05
Speaker 1: and they didn't really want to like put up with
6:07
Speaker 1: it or deal with it, so they just kind of
6:08
Speaker 1: like backed off. But every time we was together, he
6:10
Speaker 1: was constantly pulling her phone up, like messaging her like
6:13
Speaker 1: where are you at, what are you doing? Who you with?
6:16
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just it was just not very
6:19
Speaker 1: overly possessive of her for them just being friends, which
6:23
Speaker 1: I know she stayed with him on and off, but
6:27
Speaker 1: she would say there because it was close to where
6:29
Speaker 1: she worked and she didn't have to drive all the
6:30
Speaker 1: way backs nowt but there, I mean, he was just emotional,
6:33
Speaker 1: like just I mean he falled and cried like he
6:35
Speaker 1: or three times, you know that, not like once whenever
6:39
Speaker 1: he had got there and like found out that me
6:41
Speaker 1: and her was actually going out, you know, somewhere and
6:43
Speaker 1: doing something. And then at the end of the night,
6:46
Speaker 1: like when they went out by it was just he
6:47
Speaker 1: was just like falling in crime and just I mean
6:49
Speaker 1: I just kind of let it go and I was
6:51
Speaker 1: just like, Okay, you know, it was nice meeting you
6:53
Speaker 1: out talking with you. Things don't work out. A holler
6:55
Speaker 1: at me, and I just kind of left at the back.
6:57
Speaker 1: I was like a month or two later, you know,
7:00
Speaker 1: everybody had work knew that I me and her were
7:02
Speaker 1: somewhat dating. That was like, hey, you know her boyfriend
7:06
Speaker 1: and like her boyfriend like she was with Casey. I
7:09
Speaker 1: was like, that's our boyfriend. And she's like, well she's missing,
7:11
Speaker 1: and I'm like what. Just his demeanor and everything, like
7:14
Speaker 1: he's controlling. You can tell he's just really that sheid
7:19
Speaker 1: when she looked up to the way her dad was
7:21
Speaker 1: and like what he had and what he had accomplished,
7:23
Speaker 1: and like, you know, she's like, I want to be
7:25
Speaker 1: successful in my life. I want to do this, I
7:27
Speaker 1: want to do that. Like she had so much schedules
7:29
Speaker 1: and dreams and ambition. She was just stuck between that
7:32
Speaker 1: babe of like growing up and you know, actually accomplishing
7:36
Speaker 1: things and doing things that she wanted to do, and
7:39
Speaker 1: then being stuck into you know, being young dom and
7:43
Speaker 1: you know, having fun. As he talks about a relationship
7:46
Speaker 1: with Rebecca, a picture of what she was going through
7:49
Speaker 1: at the time of her murder begins to emerge. Rebecca
7:53
Speaker 1: was trying to play down her relationship with Casey. She
7:56
Speaker 1: thought of Casey as a friend with a crush. He
7:59
Speaker 1: was her past, not her future. He's also like very
8:03
Speaker 1: shy and timid, right, you know, like his personality, like
8:07
Speaker 1: I mean he's going to be loud about something like
8:10
Speaker 1: he was that night, and then once I shut him down,
8:13
Speaker 1: he was just like, Okay, I don't want to cross
8:15
Speaker 1: them lines because you know, I don't think he's in
8:18
Speaker 1: enough fire or anything whve either. And I mean I
8:22
Speaker 1: wasn't too worried about him because he was very you know,
8:25
Speaker 1: shining timid. You know, I deal with the ex strama
8:27
Speaker 1: before with you know, other people that I tell you,
8:29
Speaker 1: and I just wasn't really wanted to deal with that.
8:33
Speaker 1: I even think I went up to sing It one
8:35
Speaker 1: time after we started dating to talk to him, and
8:39
Speaker 1: he wouldn't come out and talk to me because the
8:41
Speaker 1: guys from Mark would go up there and eat and stuff.
8:43
Speaker 1: And I guess he had been up there running his
8:46
Speaker 1: mouth about me, saying he's going to beat my at
8:48
Speaker 1: and just done this and he was gonna have at
8:50
Speaker 1: and one day after work, I just went up there
8:51
Speaker 1: and I was like, hey, you in, we got a problem.
8:53
Speaker 1: He's like no, and he's just running right back inside.
8:56
Speaker 1: I mean, I just want to see something that I
8:58
Speaker 1: can't believe it's just gotten. I mean, it just kind
9:00
Speaker 1: of got very like you heard a lot about it
9:03
Speaker 1: when it first happened, like she was missing, everybody find her.
9:05
Speaker 1: And then once they found her, it's like everything just
9:09
Speaker 1: kind of went hush hush, like they didn't release no information.
9:12
Speaker 1: They didn't. Really. The only thing that I remember them
9:15
Speaker 1: releasing was that Casey had been clear. That's the only
9:18
Speaker 1: thing that's absensive as he was, is she left like
9:22
Speaker 1: he's supposed like they say he's supposedly she's supposedly left
9:25
Speaker 1: and went to college and he didn't hear from her,
9:29
Speaker 1: and he would be flipping out that night. He wouldn't
9:31
Speaker 1: be out partying and drinking. I' tell you that right now,
9:34
Speaker 1: just from his demeanor. He's not going to be out
9:37
Speaker 1: partying drinking and be like, oh you know, I mean
9:39
Speaker 1: because obviously he went home the next day, you know whatever.
9:43
Speaker 1: I mean, it's me, it's just don't it don't make sense.
9:48
Speaker 1: Wish you the best and just you know, I mean,
9:50
Speaker 1: just be careful of the people that you're around up there.
9:54
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a bunch. I mean, it's such
9:56
Speaker 1: a small town. I really wish I could get Casey
10:03
Speaker 1: to talk. We have two questions that need answering. One
10:08
Speaker 1: did Casey go home at any point between the murder
10:11
Speaker 1: and work the next day? And two, how did Casey
10:14
Speaker 1: get to his friend's house after work? We need to
10:17
Speaker 1: lock in what Casey was doing on the day Rebecca
10:19
Speaker 1: was murdered, because we're hearing conflicting stories about his timeline
10:24
Speaker 1: and his relationship with Rebecca. But one of his co
10:27
Speaker 1: workers must know something, so we focus on tracking down
10:31
Speaker 1: one of Casey's friends who also worked at Sonic, the
10:34
Speaker 1: same friend he was out all Monday night with Laren.
10:39
Speaker 1: He was pretty easy to find because it's not like
10:42
Speaker 1: Laren is a common name in the area. He suggests
10:45
Speaker 1: meeting at a Starbucks and Little Rock near where he lives.
10:49
Speaker 1: I didn't talked to him a couple of years. When
10:51
Speaker 1: my mom's always like, I saw Casey at the Dollar Story,
10:54
Speaker 1: and when I'm doing well, he's yeah, he's married now, Yeah,
10:59
Speaker 1: Laren is huge, six foot nine. When he smiles, he
11:05
Speaker 1: looks like the kind of guy I would want to
11:06
Speaker 1: have a beer with. But he's also very physically intimidating.
11:10
Speaker 1: And then once we started working together, me and Casey
11:12
Speaker 1: got real close. There's history there with basketball, and then
11:18
Speaker 1: music was what me and Casey were, you know, we
11:21
Speaker 1: really connected about right, he was what he was, but
11:25
Speaker 1: he was a great musician, and I love music, and
11:27
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't so inclined at the time. But
11:31
Speaker 1: what we're Rebecca in Casey like was a couple of
11:34
Speaker 1: I'm a very lovely dovey, I'm very just sickening, you know,
11:41
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, like if you did yeah, yeah,
11:45
Speaker 1: and gosh they and it was, like we said, we
11:51
Speaker 1: were like be guarded because he seemed more in her
11:53
Speaker 1: than she wasn't him just being honest, you know, But
11:56
Speaker 1: she also seemed like she was just trying to start fresh,
11:59
Speaker 1: like she was trying to get away from all that shit,
12:01
Speaker 1: and she really was that they as a couple, they
12:04
Speaker 1: were just doinggether. I mean, I can't even that's what
12:07
Speaker 1: I sink. Trying thing yesterday too, Like my mind's been
12:10
Speaker 1: racing for the last twenty four hours trying to remember
12:12
Speaker 1: like little stuff, and you know, I can't. I couldn't
12:17
Speaker 1: remember how long they've been together when that happened. I
12:19
Speaker 1: can't remember. I can't remember when I was told that
12:22
Speaker 1: she had been murdered, like where I was or what
12:24
Speaker 1: we was doing. I remember the investigators and then I remember,
12:29
Speaker 1: you know, of course, you know, us trying to you know,
12:33
Speaker 1: minute by minute break down the day the day before.
12:37
Speaker 1: What did the investigators asked, Bess, you know, like, what
12:42
Speaker 1: what did you guys do? They were more interested and
12:45
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure having all of us sit down and
12:48
Speaker 1: went that night and telling them the story or make
12:50
Speaker 1: sure it wasn't something that we were blowing smoke or whatever,
12:53
Speaker 1: you know, because it took them a little while to
12:54
Speaker 1: get the camera and the receipts and all that stuff.
12:58
Speaker 1: They were more about the night, you know, wanting to
13:00
Speaker 1: know where case he was, did he ever leave at anytime?
13:03
Speaker 1: You know, did stuff like that? You know, and you know,
13:06
Speaker 1: obviously we all slept that night eventually, so I mean
13:09
Speaker 1: that was another thing. It's that I like, is it
13:11
Speaker 1: possible that I could have got up in the middle
13:13
Speaker 1: of the night, left my house and then come back
13:15
Speaker 1: in the amount of time that we were asleep, and
13:18
Speaker 1: I just don't think it was possible. All of us
13:23
Speaker 1: had pretty loud vehicles, and at my place, we'd like
13:26
Speaker 1: to be able to hear people coming and going. We
13:28
Speaker 1: were always praying touch and that's another thing. They were like,
13:31
Speaker 1: you do. They're like, look, we're like, just be transparent.
13:34
Speaker 1: We don't give a shit about weed. We're not trying
13:36
Speaker 1: to bunch a bunch of teenagers mo weed, like you know,
13:38
Speaker 1: obviously we're trying to you know. Yeah, we uh, we
13:43
Speaker 1: all had a good time together. But it was God.
13:47
Speaker 1: So I just one more time. That was so the
13:49
Speaker 1: day of the day was not happened Monday, So you
13:52
Speaker 1: guys left work that was on Monday. When we got home,
13:57
Speaker 1: we would have watch wrestling Man, so we would have
13:58
Speaker 1: probably been up a little later. See, wasn't with you guys?
14:01
Speaker 1: Then you wrote with Philip, I think so, I think
14:04
Speaker 1: because I don't think the car at the time. I know,
14:07
Speaker 1: I know, for whatever reason, he was without vehicle. Where
14:11
Speaker 1: was Casey's truck? And if Rebecca drove him to work,
14:15
Speaker 1: how was he planning on getting home? I remember specifically
14:18
Speaker 1: didn't have vehicle because when we got back home and
14:20
Speaker 1: he started saying like, man, I can't get ahold of Rebeck.
14:22
Speaker 1: I'm kind of worried about it. We were all like, dude,
14:23
Speaker 1: let's just go to bed. She's fine, because we would
14:25
Speaker 1: have had to taste, which we probably should have, or
14:28
Speaker 1: maybe we would have walked in and got murdering on it.
14:31
Speaker 1: Do you remember what time y'all went to bed that night?
14:34
Speaker 1: It seemed like we watched a normal like seven o'clock movie,
14:39
Speaker 1: came back when we probably did our things. We uh,
14:45
Speaker 1: probably midnight one. I mean, it's a normal night. I'd
14:48
Speaker 1: have to just guess on a normal night, because I
14:50
Speaker 1: you know, I was he like, he seemed totally normal
14:54
Speaker 1: that night or no, I don't think like because, like
14:57
Speaker 1: I said, it seemed like, see, this is the part
15:03
Speaker 1: where it's like I don't I'm just trying to remember
15:05
Speaker 1: it that way or if that's the way it was.
15:07
Speaker 1: But it seemed like there was like an understanding that
15:10
Speaker 1: she was about to have a confrontation that was gonna
15:15
Speaker 1: be something that she was that He was like, I
15:19
Speaker 1: hope it goes well. Something like that kind of looming, Like,
15:23
Speaker 1: you know, she had some things she had to take
15:25
Speaker 1: care of, that's why she had the truck, and she
15:26
Speaker 1: was gonna try to I don't know that, and I
15:30
Speaker 1: don't want to say that, and then that be you know,
15:32
Speaker 1: the off. But I feel like that's what I remember.
15:34
Speaker 1: Laren doesn't remember a whole lot. And to be fair,
15:37
Speaker 1: it has been fourteen years. In my experience as an investigator,
15:42
Speaker 1: people tend to remember specific detail around crucial events in
15:45
Speaker 1: their lives. But Monday started out. It's just an average day.
15:49
Speaker 1: There's no way I could say intelligently who worked No
15:52
Speaker 1: fair enough, I mean, is there any way like if
15:55
Speaker 1: one y'all wanted to take time off during the day,
15:57
Speaker 1: you could have I mean all the time, like hey
16:01
Speaker 1: I need to go run do something. I'm sure we
16:03
Speaker 1: were all really close. So if it was like I
16:04
Speaker 1: need to go do something, sure whatever. You know what
16:07
Speaker 1: time did Casey finish? Usually at some point he went
16:13
Speaker 1: to just days, like he didn't want to work nights anymore.
16:17
Speaker 1: But that was the nature of the store. Was like
16:19
Speaker 1: you sometimes like your schedule could look like this Monday,
16:23
Speaker 1: you could open at seven and get off at one
16:25
Speaker 1: or two. You could come in Tuesday eleven to four.
16:28
Speaker 1: You could go four to close on Wednesday, you could
16:30
Speaker 1: come back in six to sixty ten on. It was
16:34
Speaker 1: just always but Casey eventually got to where he just
16:37
Speaker 1: just worked days, you know, and he was you know,
16:39
Speaker 1: he was as far as Goods and Sonic go, and
16:42
Speaker 1: he was one of them. He was one of the
16:43
Speaker 1: best we had, you know, so we always had him
16:45
Speaker 1: in the prime times. Once we left the store, I
16:48
Speaker 1: know for a fact that he was never anywhere but
16:50
Speaker 1: with us, right and the moments leading up to that,
16:53
Speaker 1: which I'm pretty sure she dropped him off, but if she,
16:57
Speaker 1: if he worked that morning, she would have dropped him
16:58
Speaker 1: off that morning, yes, with his truck, and then he
17:01
Speaker 1: would have worked, and then he would have waited for
17:04
Speaker 1: one of us to go off work to roll out
17:06
Speaker 1: to my place, and then we would have went out.
17:08
Speaker 1: But I can't remember how he got to our house.
17:12
Speaker 1: And also I don't remember why we went back to
17:14
Speaker 1: my house, because we could have just left and went
17:15
Speaker 1: to walk, had hit to baseball. But it may have
17:17
Speaker 1: been a change small tunes. But I do know that
17:21
Speaker 1: for a fact we was wound up back at my place,
17:23
Speaker 1: then back to Batesville, and then back to my place,
17:26
Speaker 1: and he was with us, you know, the whole time.
17:30
Speaker 1: And then we slept and he got up the next
17:32
Speaker 1: morning and left. But uh, I don't want to say, Philip,
17:36
Speaker 1: I don't think I worked that morning. The next morning.
17:40
Speaker 1: For some reason, I seem to recall like watching him
17:45
Speaker 1: and leave. You know, I was excited when you called
17:49
Speaker 1: because I want to get, you know, closer to this.
17:51
Speaker 1: But that's how it's gonna happen, is now going back
17:53
Speaker 1: piece of things together, things that you didn't think were important,
17:56
Speaker 1: because when it happens, you know, you can't focus on
17:58
Speaker 1: I don't know, I watched too many shows. You've seen
18:01
Speaker 1: me a few people. It's a tough one. Yeah. And
18:05
Speaker 1: then when you allow yourself to be objective, like you know, moving,
18:10
Speaker 1: you know, going forward to remove myself from you know,
18:13
Speaker 1: Casey being one of my best friends ever, you start
18:15
Speaker 1: to think like wow, you know, and I mean that's
18:18
Speaker 1: it too. Is you got to know where that is
18:20
Speaker 1: to get to it. Have you ever been there? Yeah,
18:22
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have. I mean, just driven Bob, and
18:24
Speaker 1: it's that was another thing that got me and I
18:26
Speaker 1: know we're chasing rabbits. I've got I've got all the
18:29
Speaker 1: time in the world. See. That was another thing was
18:31
Speaker 1: if you look at like if you know that area
18:33
Speaker 1: well enough, if you're if you're from Mountain View, why
18:41
Speaker 1: I go back through Melbourne to where they found your body?
18:45
Speaker 1: You know, Like I mean maybe like if they see
18:48
Speaker 1: me going through Mountaine they're gonna fuck with me because
18:50
Speaker 1: they always do. You know, maybe I'd rather go through
18:53
Speaker 1: Melbourne or you know, or is it because you know,
18:59
Speaker 1: like did they go through Mountain View and then come
19:00
Speaker 1: all the way back around because they're like, well, that's
19:03
Speaker 1: an obvious place. Honestly, like you said, have more, that's
19:06
Speaker 1: an obvious place to dump a body. The two towns
19:09
Speaker 1: Laren is referring to are Melbourne and Mountain View. What
19:13
Speaker 1: he is explaining is in order to dump the body,
19:15
Speaker 1: if the killer was from Mountain View, he or she
19:17
Speaker 1: was going out of their way. You never know. There's
19:20
Speaker 1: so many places out there that I can think of
19:23
Speaker 1: three or four different places that we partied on Highway nine,
19:26
Speaker 1: you know, just places that you wouldn't know unless you knew,
19:28
Speaker 1: you know, like old cabins off in the middle of
19:29
Speaker 1: nowhere then you know, but they so you think it
19:32
Speaker 1: wasn't a good spot to it. No, But I mean
19:36
Speaker 1: I'm from that area, said that's always like probing every
19:38
Speaker 1: gonna kill somebody. I've got them in the sharp mind
19:40
Speaker 1: of God. You know, I'm just saying, like there's there's more,
19:43
Speaker 1: says the River. Yeah they but that just I just
19:47
Speaker 1: I don't know. I find that weird that because I've
19:50
Speaker 1: always felt and had the belief that it was somebody
19:53
Speaker 1: from Mountainew, somebody from that old click. But yeah, but
19:55
Speaker 1: why I go back through Melbourne? You know? I mean,
19:58
Speaker 1: was you trying to get to that spot? I mean,
20:00
Speaker 1: if so, that's probably the quickest way. But if you're
20:02
Speaker 1: from Mountainew, everybody goes back to Mountain View through God,
20:05
Speaker 1: if you're on the Gune Road, yeah, it's quicker, it's
20:08
Speaker 1: more secluded. You know. I've just always looked at that
20:10
Speaker 1: and thought there might be something there, Like why go
20:12
Speaker 1: through Melbourne? Did they or you or anybody ever? Like
20:16
Speaker 1: party at Casey's house? No, actually see his dad I
20:20
Speaker 1: think was driving a truck or something. Yeah, Like I
20:24
Speaker 1: really didn't even know where he lived for like the
20:26
Speaker 1: longest time. So because he just didn't live, there was
20:29
Speaker 1: his dad's place, you know, so he would stay with
20:32
Speaker 1: Patrick or you know whoever. You know, And even to
20:36
Speaker 1: this day, I think I've been in that place one time,
20:38
Speaker 1: and it was the time that I met his dad,
20:40
Speaker 1: and I want to say that was before all that.
20:42
Speaker 1: Laren claims to have been one of Casey's best friends
20:45
Speaker 1: at the time and he didn't even know exactly where
20:47
Speaker 1: Casey lived at the same time. Like I said, it
20:50
Speaker 1: was kind of a rare thing for us to get
20:51
Speaker 1: him away, like like because he was so involved, you know.
20:54
Speaker 1: So I remember thinking like, all right, Casey's going out,
20:57
Speaker 1: you know, you know, now your own party. Since it was,
21:01
Speaker 1: you know, such a rare thing. Was it planned to
21:04
Speaker 1: be that way? You know, it's pretty shit think about
21:05
Speaker 1: it when start watching these shows, you know, yeah, so yeah,
21:08
Speaker 1: it's pretty clear he went through me, and that's pretty
21:10
Speaker 1: It's just the mystery is, like, who in the world
21:11
Speaker 1: would do that at someone else's house and then clean up?
21:15
Speaker 1: That's the really weird That's that's one of the weirdest
21:17
Speaker 1: things about it. Case they cleaned up, so I was
21:21
Speaker 1: left the miss and that's how they found out. Like
21:23
Speaker 1: if I'm telling this story to somebody, a friend of mine, now,
21:26
Speaker 1: I say she was murdered and they had a piano
21:33
Speaker 1: leg miss and I said that what we heard was
21:35
Speaker 1: that she was for the longest time is that she
21:37
Speaker 1: was beat to death so bad that there was enough
21:39
Speaker 1: blood that went through the mattresses, through the floorboards into
21:42
Speaker 1: the underpinning of the trailer, and that there was a
21:44
Speaker 1: piano leg missing and you could tell where somebody had
21:46
Speaker 1: drug a body out the door. And then later we
21:50
Speaker 1: heard that it was a gunshot that killed her out
21:52
Speaker 1: Oddly enough, this is actually the first I'm hearing of
21:55
Speaker 1: a gunshot. So like that's I was like, I don't know,
21:58
Speaker 1: that's what I tell my friends. I don't really know how,
22:03
Speaker 1: you know, how it all went down, but I said
22:05
Speaker 1: it was brutal whatever happened, you know. I mean, did
22:08
Speaker 1: case you ever talk to you about who you thought
22:09
Speaker 1: did it? I'm sure, like I'm trying to think, like,
22:18
Speaker 1: at some point it becomes something that we just didn't
22:19
Speaker 1: bring up because it was like it and it's not
22:23
Speaker 1: to be mean, but at some point it was like
22:26
Speaker 1: and you don't want to say, like, ghet over, but
22:28
Speaker 1: at some point, you know, you just get to be like,
22:31
Speaker 1: look and why bring it up if it's just going
22:32
Speaker 1: to be this thing, you know, this thing you know,
22:36
Speaker 1: And so it became this thing that nobody talked about,
22:38
Speaker 1: you know, because we just wanted Casey to feel you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: to feel better, like you know, we want him so
22:42
Speaker 1: bad for him to that's like why why Whenever you
22:45
Speaker 1: know he meant, we were like thank god, yeah, you know.
22:49
Speaker 1: But then now I'm glad he's with you. Yeah, that's good,
22:54
Speaker 1: that's great, it's great. It's just crazy how you can
22:57
Speaker 1: feel so passionately, but when someone's taken from me, it's different.
23:00
Speaker 1: But you can feel so passionately about somebody and then
23:03
Speaker 1: it just wind up not doing right. You know. Listen,
23:06
Speaker 1: thank you, no, no, please you. If you think of something,
23:11
Speaker 1: I want to run it by me and make me
23:12
Speaker 1: think it's more helpy. I find it odd the various
23:20
Speaker 1: ways Rebecca in Casey's relationship has been portrayed. I hear
23:24
Speaker 1: from her sister that she wanted to break up. I
23:27
Speaker 1: hear from his close friends they were inseparable. And I
23:29
Speaker 1: hear from a relatively neutral party that he was obsessed
23:33
Speaker 1: and couldn't leave her alone. You're listening to Helen Gone,
23:39
Speaker 1: We'll be right back talking with Laren. I find he's
23:47
Speaker 1: frustrated with how significantly the fourteen years has fogged his memory.
23:51
Speaker 1: But we keep talking shockingly, Laren tells me that he
23:56
Speaker 1: was never brought back in for questioning after Rebecca's body
23:59
Speaker 1: was found. It's also incredibly frustrating that in a case
24:02
Speaker 1: where everything hinges on an alibi, so many details of
24:06
Speaker 1: the timeline were vague. Since this interview, we've received the
24:11
Speaker 1: official police statements from some of Casey's friends who were
24:14
Speaker 1: with him on the day Rebecca was murdered, and since
24:16
Speaker 1: Laren was one of them, his statement helps us clear
24:19
Speaker 1: up some questions we have about the timeline. Casey's truck
24:22
Speaker 1: was parked in Batesville and they all drove Casey to
24:25
Speaker 1: pick it up, so we can reasonably believe that Casey
24:28
Speaker 1: had his truck on Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
24:32
Speaker 1: Laren also says that they left Sonic at around four pm.
24:36
Speaker 1: We know that Rebecca dropped Casey off that morning, and
24:39
Speaker 1: we had always heard that Casey told police she was
24:42
Speaker 1: planning on going back to school. That's why he went
24:45
Speaker 1: out with his friends that night and stayed out all night.
24:49
Speaker 1: But if that's the case, why was he telling his
24:52
Speaker 1: friends that Rebecca was supposed to pick him up and
24:54
Speaker 1: never showed. I also can't get the last sentence of
24:58
Speaker 1: Laren's statement, out of my head, it said, when we
25:02
Speaker 1: returned from Batesville, Casey used my phone. After he hung up,
25:07
Speaker 1: he stated that Rebecca was missing. That's when it really
25:10
Speaker 1: seemed odd that he didn't head straight out the door
25:13
Speaker 1: to find her. Taylor and I have both been working
25:17
Speaker 1: day and night to try to contact every single person
25:20
Speaker 1: who may have been at Sonic that day. Okay, So
25:23
Speaker 1: I just talked to Bruce and he confirmed that he
25:27
Speaker 1: was working at Sonic that day and Casey was a cook.
25:32
Speaker 1: And he said the cooks went on their shift between
25:35
Speaker 1: eight and nine am, and he remembered Rebecca dropping Casey
25:38
Speaker 1: off at work because he knew her. He said, he
25:41
Speaker 1: the last thing that happened, he dropped, she dropped, pulled in,
25:43
Speaker 1: Casey gets out, she drops him off. He said. She
25:46
Speaker 1: waved at him, and that's the last time I ever
25:48
Speaker 1: saw her. She drove off. And he said that Casey's
25:52
Speaker 1: shift would have ended at about one between one and two,
25:55
Speaker 1: but that means he could have left as early as one.
25:58
Speaker 1: Casey was on the early shift that Monday, which meant
26:01
Speaker 1: that his shift would have ended between one and two pm.
26:04
Speaker 1: But Larrence said that the group didn't leave Sonic until
26:07
Speaker 1: later at around four. Now, Bruce did say, you know,
26:12
Speaker 1: the cops came around, and he said, if he left,
26:16
Speaker 1: you would have had to clock out because you know
26:18
Speaker 1: where you clock in and out's right next to my desk.
26:20
Speaker 1: But then he went on to say, when I was
26:22
Speaker 1: asking how Casey got a ride home because he said Rebecca,
26:25
Speaker 1: he confirmed Rebecca dropped him off that day, and he's like, well,
26:27
Speaker 1: you know that town, everybody's friends, everybody gives everybody lifts.
26:30
Speaker 1: Like so if it's that easy to get in and
26:33
Speaker 1: out and you know, drive around, then yeah, I mean,
26:37
Speaker 1: it would have been so easy for him to get
26:38
Speaker 1: a lift from anybody. I asked him the important questions
26:41
Speaker 1: about Casey. He didn't volunteer a huge amount. He did
26:45
Speaker 1: answer them. He didn't volunteer a huge amount. I know,
26:47
Speaker 1: they're really good friends, he said that. I mean, I'm
26:51
Speaker 1: sure now, I'm sure this is going to get back
26:52
Speaker 1: to Casey. He will now he'll know that we're asking
26:55
Speaker 1: when he clocked in when he clocked out. According to police,
26:59
Speaker 1: Casey's alibi was air tight, but our investigation has poked
27:02
Speaker 1: some holes in that alibi. First, the timelines and the
27:06
Speaker 1: statements that Casey's friends gave to police were vague, so
27:10
Speaker 1: there could have potentially been missing time in the afternoon. Secondly,
27:14
Speaker 1: Bruce told me that he would have seen Casey if
27:17
Speaker 1: he clocked out, but Laren, Teresa, and other Sonic employees
27:21
Speaker 1: have all told me that Bruce went in and out
27:23
Speaker 1: all the time. Finally, Casey lived just a few miles
27:27
Speaker 1: away from Sonic, just a ten minute ride down the
27:30
Speaker 1: dirt road cutthrow we took, and Laren said that it
27:33
Speaker 1: was not uncommon for the employees to unofficially clock out
27:36
Speaker 1: to run errands. This means that there could potentially have
27:39
Speaker 1: been time unaccounted for in the morning. Well, I'm still
27:42
Speaker 1: kind of confused as to why she had to have
27:45
Speaker 1: been murdered around like ten am. Time of death. I'm
27:49
Speaker 1: not a pathologist, but just from like reading a lot
27:51
Speaker 1: of autopsies and the pathologists I talked to, I know
27:54
Speaker 1: time of death is very difficult to determine, even under
27:57
Speaker 1: the best circumstances when the body's found right away, and
27:59
Speaker 1: it's partly based on when the person was seen lest anyway,
28:03
Speaker 1: according to the auto occurring to the physical evidence, I
28:07
Speaker 1: just cannot believe he would have literally had to be.
28:11
Speaker 1: In order for him to be ruled out in this killing,
28:13
Speaker 1: he would have had to have every single moment of
28:15
Speaker 1: his day documented on camera from Monday morning and through
28:20
Speaker 1: to the next day. We've now talked to Teresa, a
28:23
Speaker 1: car hop who not only was a friend of Rebecca's,
28:26
Speaker 1: she knew Jennifer and Casey. We've talked to Bruce, the
28:30
Speaker 1: manager on duty that day, and Philip Laren's roommate. We're
28:34
Speaker 1: starting to get their individual stories and piece together the
28:38
Speaker 1: details from that day. As we do, we hear something
28:41
Speaker 1: we've never heard before. Someone mentions that they heard Casey
28:45
Speaker 1: dropped his truck off at Sonic on Sunday evening and
28:48
Speaker 1: drove home with Rebecca. This detail floors me. How the
28:52
Speaker 1: hell did his car get to Batesville and how did
28:55
Speaker 1: he get back? So, according to the official statements, Casey's
28:59
Speaker 1: friends drove him to pick up his car in Batesville
29:02
Speaker 1: on Monday afternoon. So if Casey's truck was at Sonic
29:05
Speaker 1: Monday morning, how did it get to Batesville by that afternoon.
29:10
Speaker 1: According to the police statements, Casey told his friends that
29:13
Speaker 1: his father drove his truck to Batesville. But we had
29:16
Speaker 1: always heard that his father, who was a trucker, was
29:19
Speaker 1: on the road that day. The mystery of the truck
29:21
Speaker 1: has like bothered all of us so much since the
29:23
Speaker 1: beginning because at the end of the day, even the
29:26
Speaker 1: question about where it was for the next few days
29:30
Speaker 1: has bothered me. Because Charlie said that Casey didn't have
29:34
Speaker 1: his truck at Sonic the next day. The whole reason
29:37
Speaker 1: he was ruled out is because he was supposedly had
29:40
Speaker 1: no transportation and was there all day. So the minute
29:44
Speaker 1: you start saying, okay, he wasn't there all day, and
29:46
Speaker 1: actually he did have transportation, and his transportation mysteriously, you know,
29:50
Speaker 1: was in Batesville by that afternoon unless someone drove his truck.
29:54
Speaker 1: This is a huge piece of the puzzle. According to
29:57
Speaker 1: the police, Casey was the prime suspect at the beginning
30:00
Speaker 1: of the case. He was only ruled out due to
30:04
Speaker 1: his air tight alibi. That alibi hinged on two factors,
30:08
Speaker 1: that he was at work all day and that he
30:11
Speaker 1: did not have transportation. If Casey had his truck at work,
30:15
Speaker 1: that changes everything. The more we dig into Casey's timeline,
30:20
Speaker 1: the more questions we have, and unfortunately Casey won't answer them.
30:27
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. I'm shopping in Walmart, one of
30:40
Speaker 1: the few places in town with cell phone reception. When
30:43
Speaker 1: I get a text message. It's a potential witness. I'm
30:47
Speaker 1: looking at Turkey decoys and guns and people in camouflage
30:50
Speaker 1: gearing up for hunting season, and my hands are shaking
30:53
Speaker 1: as I read it. He says he knows Casey and
30:57
Speaker 1: has something he needs to tell me. When I get
31:00
Speaker 1: back to the car, I call him. Because he knows Casey,
31:04
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to be identified, so we've disguised his voice. Well,
31:16
Speaker 1: oh hi, I just got your textess, Catherine. Yeah, no,
31:19
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, our whole I mean, we
31:21
Speaker 1: just want to find the person who did it. We're
31:23
Speaker 1: not you know what I mean. We're not. We don't
31:25
Speaker 1: care about anything else. This manam me and Casey and
31:29
Speaker 1: a Ghani probably tell you the same story. And I
31:33
Speaker 1: can be in prison right now. But and on like
31:39
Speaker 1: four different occasions were good. I mean I know four
31:44
Speaker 1: for sure. We were Casey were drinking too thanne and
31:50
Speaker 1: just bopen I mean not, I mean, not ligerant drunk,
31:53
Speaker 1: just crime blurderent. He he said that he killed her
32:02
Speaker 1: and and y'all didn't find the weapon. Fact, Well, the
32:08
Speaker 1: police haven't shared any information with me, but we've found
32:12
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, we've gotten a lot of information.
32:16
Speaker 1: Did he say where the weapon was? He said, he
32:19
Speaker 1: proved in the river on the way to the Highway
32:22
Speaker 1: nine from dying. And this happened like like I said,
32:26
Speaker 1: four times I can remember. And then one day he
32:30
Speaker 1: was just something that been wrong for three or four
32:34
Speaker 1: day yere and he just put in hisself and when
32:37
Speaker 1: he wasn't drunk this night and he said the same
32:40
Speaker 1: thing he said that his story was. And I didn't
32:45
Speaker 1: really think much about it until I heard. I didn't
32:47
Speaker 1: know that she's gonna it was a blunt ob check,
32:51
Speaker 1: like it was. I never knew any things. And she
32:54
Speaker 1: he said that pretty much that she was telling him
32:57
Speaker 1: that this would be the last time that he saw her,
33:00
Speaker 1: or she'd be last last time to see him. Look go,
33:03
Speaker 1: they were, I guess coming to him and I didn't
33:06
Speaker 1: know he didn't know her personally, but they got into
33:10
Speaker 1: it and she said some offensive thanks time. The way
33:14
Speaker 1: he said it, he just lost it and he said,
33:17
Speaker 1: next thing he knows, he's cleaning stuff up. And he
33:21
Speaker 1: said they almost had him, but they couldn't because they
33:25
Speaker 1: thought the timeline was different because he was supposedly at
33:28
Speaker 1: work when that happened. But he said they had the
33:31
Speaker 1: timeline mixed up on him. Did he say he went
33:35
Speaker 1: home from worker? He didn't know, man, he did not
33:38
Speaker 1: say that. I just didn't know if he was just
33:42
Speaker 1: blowing smoke. But it bothered me for a long time.
33:47
Speaker 1: But here the last few weeks because I saw that
33:49
Speaker 1: think something on Facebook, Thames who's killed her back and
33:53
Speaker 1: you come on the radio and it just kind of
33:56
Speaker 1: sitting back to him there. Well, listen, I mean, I
34:00
Speaker 1: so appreciate you doing it, and I know, I mean,
34:03
Speaker 1: I'm just been thinking about their in the mind. I'd
34:06
Speaker 1: probably want, you know, closure, and I know that he's
34:09
Speaker 1: your friend, and I know that it's got to be hard,
34:11
Speaker 1: and I really really appreciate it. I mean, if we
34:14
Speaker 1: do have to go to the police with us, would
34:16
Speaker 1: you be willing to come with us? I've got a
34:24
Speaker 1: bad history of the police here. I probably could in No,
34:30
Speaker 1: I mean, my dad is a really good guy and
34:32
Speaker 1: he's a deputy sheriff, and then there's the Arkansas stateful
34:35
Speaker 1: and you know, just so you don't have to go
34:37
Speaker 1: in in Melbourne, if they come down there and I
34:40
Speaker 1: had to. I mean, the thing that really got me
34:43
Speaker 1: was because I never knew. I didn't know how they
34:45
Speaker 1: killed it. I had no clue. Sure. And then somebody
34:50
Speaker 1: I was at my new job and they were talking
34:52
Speaker 1: about and they said if the cop said it was
34:54
Speaker 1: on an object, because I always thought case case, he
34:56
Speaker 1: was just bullshiting me. Never I thought he's you know,
35:00
Speaker 1: he's just just blowing smoke. And now when he said
35:04
Speaker 1: he hit her with it's a wooden object. I know
35:07
Speaker 1: that much. And it would or like a baseball bath,
35:10
Speaker 1: not not a baseball bath, but you know, stay logistics.
35:15
Speaker 1: He on his way, he stopped on the guying bridge
35:17
Speaker 1: and threw it out. Wow, I don't know how you
35:23
Speaker 1: prove it. I mean, I mean, I'm just saying. He
35:27
Speaker 1: said that more than once to this and like I said,
35:30
Speaker 1: it's bothered me for a while. Well now I'm gonna
35:34
Speaker 1: have to go to the police with it, just because
35:38
Speaker 1: I have to. I mean what I mean, I would
35:40
Speaker 1: really love it if we could go together. So that's
35:43
Speaker 1: why I mean I want to. I know he's your
35:45
Speaker 1: friend and know it's hard, but like I want to
35:47
Speaker 1: get you know, this person caught this man. All right,
35:51
Speaker 1: well listen, thank you so much. As investigators, we can't
35:56
Speaker 1: draw conclusions from a single witness. So this may not
36:00
Speaker 1: be the evidence that's needed to finally close this case,
36:04
Speaker 1: but it might be the evidence that blows it wide open.
36:09
Speaker 1: I'm Katherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone. Helen Gone
36:30
Speaker 1: is a joint production between How Stuff Works and School
36:33
Speaker 1: of Humans. It is written and recorded by me, Catherine Townsend.
36:38
Speaker 1: Taylor Church is our producer and story editor. Audio editing
36:42
Speaker 1: and designed by Jonathan Sleeve, mix engineer Glenn Mattulo, audio
36:47
Speaker 1: mixing and love by Tunewelders. Executive producers Brandon Barr and
36:51
Speaker 1: Else Crowley for School of Humans and Connell Byrne and
36:55
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant for How Stuff Works. Our field producer is
36:58
Speaker 1: James Morrison. Our researcher is Sandy Klosterman. Them and original
37:03
Speaker 1: score by Ben Solee available wherever you get your music.
37:10
Speaker 1: To dig into the investigation, please visit hellangonepodcast dot com
37:15
Speaker 1: or follow us on social media. School of Humans