Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Honey Malone: Sweet and ‘bubbly’ high school girl murdered at friend’s house and dragged into closet, family desperately needs answers

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Honey Malone: Sweet and ‘bubbly’ high school girl murdered at friend’s house and dragged into closet, family desperately needs answers · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: If you have heard about the murder of Jessica Chambers,
0:03
Speaker 1: do not miss the new docuseries on Oxygen. It's the
0:06
Speaker 1: true story of a teen girl, a cheerleader in Mississippi
0:10
Speaker 1: who is burned alive and the story of the man
0:15
Speaker 1: accused of this heinous crime. Is that the right guy
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Speaker 1: on trial? Who is he? And who is Jessica Chambers?
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Speaker 1: And how does such a horrific crime occur? With more
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Speaker 1: questions than answers, this is the case that has captured
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Speaker 1: national headlines, taken over social media, and leaves a small
0:37
Speaker 1: town divided. This is a must see TV event. It
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Speaker 1: features exclusive interviews that take you inside the investigation as
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Speaker 1: a search for answers and justice goes on Unspeakable Crime,
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Speaker 1: The Killing of Jessica Chambers, Saturdays at seven six Central
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Speaker 1: on Oxygen, the new network for Crime. Five Christmases have
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Speaker 1: gone by and Flora Malone hasn't celebrated one of them.
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Speaker 1: I don't celebrate at all. I don't go by gifts,
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Speaker 1: I don't put up a tree. Flora can't bring herself
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Speaker 1: to enjoy the holidays because her joy was stolen when
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Speaker 1: someone murdered her daughter Vanessa. Who wants I don'tlive their children. Vanessa,
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Speaker 1: who everyone affectionately called Honey, was shot to death in
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Speaker 1: two thousand twelve. De Cab police say the eighteen year
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Speaker 1: old walked in on an armed robbery at a Stone
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Speaker 1: Mountain apartment complex. Detectives believe she interrupted three to six
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Speaker 1: armed robbers who had tied up two people staying there.
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime Stories. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us. When I hear the story of Honey Malone,
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Speaker 1: which has haunted me now for years, it sends a
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Speaker 1: chill down my arms. And I'll tell you why. This
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Speaker 1: beautiful young girl is so beloved by her family, by
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Speaker 1: her mother Flora, her sister Cassandra, and so many others,
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Speaker 1: And she reminds me of my little girl Lucy. That day,
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Speaker 1: Honey's mom, Flora, picked her up, her teen girl from work. Yes,
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Speaker 1: she was working. She lived with her mom, of course,
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Speaker 1: in Stone Mountain, Georgia at the time. They headed home,
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Speaker 1: and then, like so many other teens do, she wanted
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Speaker 1: to go out with her friends. Well that was fine,
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Speaker 1: everything was fine. So she's going to go out for
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Speaker 1: just a little while with her teen girl friends. But
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Speaker 1: she never comes home again, joining me right now is
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Speaker 1: Honey's mother, Flora Malone and her sister Cassandra also with me,
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Speaker 1: veteran prosecutor out of the California jurisdiction, Wendy Patrick l
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Speaker 1: a psychoanalyst renowned in her field. Dr Bethany Marshall, director
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Speaker 1: of the Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl McCullum, and Crime
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Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter Lee Egan. First to you,
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Speaker 1: Miss Malone, I want to thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 1: And I know how much telling Honey's story dredges up
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Speaker 1: a lot of pain. Why are you doing it? Nancy?
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Speaker 1: Thank you for having us because opinion, the more we
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Speaker 1: can to her name and thanks the story out there,
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Speaker 1: the better chances of we have of having somebody comes
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Speaker 1: forward finally and saying what they know on her face
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Speaker 1: because it's just the story that they told is so
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Speaker 1: bizarre to it can't be true. Well, I thought it
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Speaker 1: was bizzarre to Miss Malone. We are talking about Flora
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Speaker 1: Malone's be beutiful girl. I wish you could see a
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Speaker 1: picture of her that I'm looking at right now, Beautiful
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Speaker 1: curls cascading down her uh down below her shoulders, framing
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Speaker 1: her face just really classic, beautiful features. Vanessa Malone nicknamed
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Speaker 1: Honey gorgeous and gone flora. That evening when you let
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Speaker 1: Honey go out with her teen friends, he thought nothing
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Speaker 1: of it, correct effect, was tired and wouldn't be gone
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Speaker 1: very long at all. What happened that evening after she
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Speaker 1: walked out the door, what happened next? Well, there is
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Speaker 1: she came right back in like two minutes later, and
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Speaker 1: she came all the way around to my room and said, Mom,
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Speaker 1: I really love you. Man, I love you too. She said,
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Speaker 1: I'll be right back. And then who also with me?
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Speaker 1: Is Vanessa Malone? No this Honey, Cassandra Kennedy, her sister, Cassandra.
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Speaker 1: What do you recall of that evening? Um? Well, I
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Speaker 1: was at work all day that day. Um, when I
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Speaker 1: got back home, I took my shower as normal, was
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Speaker 1: about to get in bed, and I get a hysterical
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Speaker 1: phone call from my mom. Um, I mean totally hysterical.
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Speaker 1: I'm like, Mom, was wrong? Was wrong? Was wrong? She's like,
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Speaker 1: I think my worst nightmare has happen. And I'm like,
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Speaker 1: what do you mean? Like what do you mean? What
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Speaker 1: do you mean? And she's like, um, Honey got shot?
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Speaker 1: And I said, what do you mean she got shot? Mom,
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Speaker 1: tell me, like what happened, when happened, But she was
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Speaker 1: crying so hard that all I could do was just say, okay,
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Speaker 1: my mom, on my way. At the time, I lived
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Speaker 1: thirty five minutes thirty to thirty five minutes away from her,
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Speaker 1: and I up in the car. I sped straight over there,
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Speaker 1: praying like, please, guy, don't let it be honeyed. Please
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Speaker 1: don't let it Vanessa, Please don't let it be Vanessa.
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Speaker 1: And I get there. Um, we walked through to where
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Speaker 1: she was, well the apartments where she was, and it's
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Speaker 1: taped off, and we're just sitting there waiting. Mom said
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Speaker 1: that the police hadn't told her anything, hadn't said that
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Speaker 1: it was her anything yet, so we're just kind of
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Speaker 1: standing there waiting. I probably arrived. Maybe uh, maybe we'll
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Speaker 1: just say midnight. I got there and somewhere between even
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Speaker 1: five and midnight, and we sat there on the curb
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Speaker 1: like praying it wasn't Vanessa, and unfortunately kind of praying
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Speaker 1: that it would just be a look alike. I know
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Speaker 1: that sucks to other families, but we were just hoping
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Speaker 1: that it wasn't her, and we um, we sat on
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Speaker 1: the curb, like thinking like if it is her, what
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Speaker 1: are we going to do? Like it was just really
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Speaker 1: really sad and we just were just sitting there, so
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Speaker 1: we didn't get a confirmation. Hold on, just a moment,
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Speaker 1: hold on, just a moment. That night started off so
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Speaker 1: innocently joining me, Cheryl McCallum, Director of the Cold Case
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Speaker 1: Research Institute. Honey comes home from work. She's a teen girl,
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Speaker 1: but she has a job, and her mom said that
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Speaker 1: even though she was tired, it was very odd that
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, having gone from very tired, she
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Speaker 1: wanted to go out with her her friends and is
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Speaker 1: firmly convinced that someone texted or called and lured Honey
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Speaker 1: Malone Vanessa out of their home. CHERRYL. McCullum, you have
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Speaker 1: been on the case from the get go. Tell me
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Speaker 1: from the beginning your analysis. Nacy is exactly what you
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Speaker 1: just said. She was tired, she was going to hang out.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly she got some message or a phone call someone
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Speaker 1: and changed her mind and wanted to go over to
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Speaker 1: this apartment where her friends work. And the thing that
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Speaker 1: sticks out for me is that the family knows so
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Speaker 1: little and some of the basic information that you would
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Speaker 1: give Nancy. Both you and I will tell people we
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Speaker 1: started our careers really as victim advocate. That's what we've
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Speaker 1: been fighting for from the beginning. And you've got a
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Speaker 1: family here that doesn't know the caliber of the weapon,
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Speaker 1: whether or not police have the weapons. They've never seen
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Speaker 1: crime scene photographs, they don't have an autopsy report. They
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Speaker 1: know so little, it believed me. Well, Cheryl, I don't
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Speaker 1: understand how there cannot be an autopsy report. Well, I
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Speaker 1: didn't say there wasn't an We were told we couldn't
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Speaker 1: get it. Why they said that we had to wait
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Speaker 1: until the case was songs. We can't even hear a
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Speaker 1: nine one one com We have asked several people. We
8:55
Speaker 1: have even requested it through the name on one official
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Speaker 1: forms in the everything, and they said sure until they
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Speaker 1: saw the name, and then they said not in her case.
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Speaker 1: And my question, did you hear nine one one calls
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Speaker 1: all the time? Yeah, don't have to be You're you're
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Speaker 1: absolutely right. Well, there are many theories out there as
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Speaker 1: to why the family is not able to get even
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Speaker 1: the most elementary information about Vanessa's murderer. Listen to this.
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Speaker 1: Cops believe Honey was killed when she unwittingly walked in
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Speaker 1: on an armed robbery of a suspected drug den. But
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Speaker 1: Honey's family wonders, is there something more? Why not kill
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Speaker 1: all the witnesses? What's the difference? If you've got one
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Speaker 1: body on you, you might as well just take them
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Speaker 1: while out. Flora and Honey's sister Cassandra believe Honey was
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Speaker 1: lured to the apartment to silence her. Why don't you
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Speaker 1: believe that she walked into a robbery? I believe that
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Speaker 1: they thought she knew something or saw some then and
10:00
Speaker 1: was worried that she was gonna tell. She wouldn't just
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Speaker 1: walk into a kicked in door to see what happened.
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Speaker 1: That's not her From my friends that crime watch Daily
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Speaker 1: Murder of Young Girls. Another young teen girl, Jessica Chambers.
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Speaker 1: If you have heard about her horrific death, you do
10:18
Speaker 1: not want to miss the new docuseries on Oxygen, The
10:22
Speaker 1: true story of a teen girl, a cheerleader in Mississippi,
10:26
Speaker 1: burned alive. The story of the man now accused of
10:29
Speaker 1: the crime. Is he the right man? Is the right
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Speaker 1: guy on trial? Who is he? And who is Jessica Chambers?
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Speaker 1: How does such a horrific crime even occur with more
10:41
Speaker 1: questions than answers. It is a case that has captured
10:43
Speaker 1: national headlines, taken over social media, and still leaves a
10:47
Speaker 1: small town divided. I must see TV event Unspeakable Crime,
10:53
Speaker 1: the killing of Jessica Chambers Saturday's seven sixth Central on
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Speaker 1: Oxygen the new network for crying because I'm the big
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Speaker 1: sister and I just felt like I was supposed to
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Speaker 1: always be able to protect her honey. Sister Cassandra Kennedy
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Speaker 1: is also heartbroken and feels a sense of guilt, even
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Speaker 1: though she knows there was nothing she could do that
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Speaker 1: was my baby sister. With each holiday season that passes,
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Speaker 1: the family can't help but mourn and pray for closure.
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Speaker 1: Mom hasn't been able to celebrate any holiday because of this.
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Speaker 1: This family says they lost their ability to be happy
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Speaker 1: the moment they were robbed of their loved one. We
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Speaker 1: just wanted justice. We just want to know who did
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Speaker 1: it and why they did it. The pain of losing
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Speaker 1: someone you love so much changes your life forever, but
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Speaker 1: now that pain is topped off with the questions the
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Speaker 1: wonder who did this to my little girl? Who did
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Speaker 1: this to my sister? And getting no answers. I am
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Speaker 1: talking about the murder of a beautiful young teen girl,
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Speaker 1: Vanessa Malone Honey mal Own, her mother, Flora, and sister
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Speaker 1: Cassandra with us today to Wendy Patrick, veteran California prosecutor. Wendy,
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Speaker 1: I understand how some evidence is withheld from the public
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Speaker 1: but not from the family. Wendy, Yeah, you know, Nancy.
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Speaker 1: First of all, my prayers are with you, the two
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Speaker 1: family members we have on the phone. I mean, God
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Speaker 1: bless you and your resilience. UM, it's so frustrating in
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Speaker 1: so many cases that more evidence isn't shared. We've got
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Speaker 1: to believe there's some reason for that, but again, it
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Speaker 1: would be nice to know what that reason is, to
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Speaker 1: be able to understand perhaps the risks of compromising the
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Speaker 1: integrity of an ongoing investigation. That's often the explanation. Because
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Speaker 1: one of the things that maybe it's heartening in all
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Speaker 1: of this is cold cases are solved more and more
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Speaker 1: every year because while memories do not improve with age,
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Speaker 1: technology does. Forensics does. And I know we've got a
12:53
Speaker 1: panel of experts on the line with us that can
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Speaker 1: attest to this fact. So it's too bad that it's
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Speaker 1: not more of a collapse wort of effort in terms
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Speaker 1: of sharing at least with the two of you and
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Speaker 1: with other family members. But I really hope that the
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Speaker 1: reason for that, whatever it is, is in search of
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Speaker 1: and in pursuit of finding justice sooner rather than later,
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Speaker 1: to get these answers to the very important questions that
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Speaker 1: you have voiced. But when I find it very odd
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Speaker 1: that the police and prosecutors are not sharing the information
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Speaker 1: with the family, I understand not making it public, but
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Speaker 1: why not let the family come to the police station
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Speaker 1: and give them the information. I don't understand that, Wendy. Yeah, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: that's It's a question that I've heard from victims all
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Speaker 1: over the country, and the answers are different in different jurisdictions,
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Speaker 1: And I wish I knew what the answer was in
13:43
Speaker 1: this particular case. You know, we want to We hope
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Speaker 1: there's a good reason for it, But not knowing what
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Speaker 1: that reason is, I understand, can be heartbreaking. Nancy. I'm
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Speaker 1: with people, what could a possible reason be. The biggest
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Speaker 1: possible reason would be something having to do with not
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Speaker 1: wanting information to get into the public realm, even through
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Speaker 1: a leak, in order to make sure that they're able
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Speaker 1: to get the bad guys to pursue leads they have.
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Speaker 1: You know, tips come in on times like this continuously
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Speaker 1: and on an ongoing basis, and one of the things
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Speaker 1: they always want to do is surprised the perpetrators enabled
14:14
Speaker 1: to another way. Surprised. All right, because it happened in
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Speaker 1: the two thousand and twelve, everybody will be surprised. Let
14:21
Speaker 1: me just put that tip line out there. Four zero
14:24
Speaker 1: four or five seven seven eight four seven seven, Repeat
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Speaker 1: for zero four five seven seven eight four seven seven.
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Speaker 1: I want to talk very quickly about her cell phone,
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Speaker 1: because shortly after Vanessa left the home, her mom says,
14:43
Speaker 1: she hears what she thought were fireworks nearby. They live
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Speaker 1: in apartment complex, and she picks up the phone and
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Speaker 1: she tries Honey's cell phone. You know, just a natural
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Speaker 1: instinct when I hear an ambulance, I know it's crazy.
14:59
Speaker 1: I meant they call people I know, make sure they're okay. Well,
15:03
Speaker 1: Flora called her daughter Vanessa. No answer. Now, at first
15:06
Speaker 1: she didn't think anything of it because it sounded like
15:10
Speaker 1: the cell phone was turned off, But then she saw
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Speaker 1: emergency vehicles and she called again. Honey still didn't pick
15:17
Speaker 1: up and this time, Mom, deep inside knew something was wrong.
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Speaker 1: But listen, one troubling question. Why was Honey's cell phone
15:27
Speaker 1: found far away from the murder scene. We tracked her
15:31
Speaker 1: cell phone after the murder um to a location about
15:36
Speaker 1: a half mile away, where it stayed there until it died.
15:39
Speaker 1: So how did Honey's cell phone end up half a
15:42
Speaker 1: mile away during the incident? Why would they take her
15:46
Speaker 1: cell phone? They've already killed her. What do they need
15:48
Speaker 1: her cell phone for? Thinking that maybe she could call
15:51
Speaker 1: for help. No, they're just easy to resell on the street.
15:55
Speaker 1: That's where our friends that crime watched daily. But her
15:57
Speaker 1: phone was not resold on the street, so that was
16:02
Speaker 1: not the motive for taking her cell phone. Joining us now,
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Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Lee Eagan Lee, where
16:12
Speaker 1: was the cell phone found? What can you tell me
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Speaker 1: about the cell phone? Well, Antia was found in a
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Speaker 1: wooded area not too far away from where Honey was
16:21
Speaker 1: found in the apartment. And you're right, it was never resold.
16:24
Speaker 1: The police found it. I don't think the family ever
16:28
Speaker 1: got the phone back, and there's been no explanation as
16:32
Speaker 1: to why it was found there, aside from the officer
16:34
Speaker 1: saying that it was probably going to be resold and
16:37
Speaker 1: something happened and maybe somebody got win of the crime
16:40
Speaker 1: and just ditched it. But other than that, there's there's
16:44
Speaker 1: no explanation. You know what's interesting to miss Malone, this
16:48
Speaker 1: is Honey's mother. How long after she left the home
16:53
Speaker 1: did you hear those fireworks as you thought they were.
16:58
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly. I'm from think that it was
17:01
Speaker 1: like wow, okay for me. For me, that's quite the coincidence.
17:09
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, Director Cold Case Research Institute, That is quite
17:13
Speaker 1: the coincidence. She leaves home and within twenty minutes gunfire occurs,
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Speaker 1: she's dead immediately. Then her phone is found nearly a
17:23
Speaker 1: mile away. Nathee Lee Egan and I have walked that scene.
17:27
Speaker 1: So we started at the condominium where Honey lived, and
17:30
Speaker 1: we walked the track that she would have taken to
17:33
Speaker 1: this apartment. Ten minutes is about right, maybe if she
17:36
Speaker 1: stopped to seek to one other person. But this happened
17:39
Speaker 1: very very quickly. And again for me, what's troubling is
17:44
Speaker 1: the cell phone obviously was not so lynn. It was
17:47
Speaker 1: thrown out of the car to get rid of it
17:48
Speaker 1: so they wouldn't be found with it, and again the
17:51
Speaker 1: family doesn't know. They haven't been shown. Is the take
17:55
Speaker 1: message these to the calls? Y'all know these people. They
17:58
Speaker 1: haven't been able to cross checks and when one call
18:00
Speaker 1: to say hey we know that guy, he doesn't even
18:03
Speaker 1: sound upset or nervous or you know, asking for help,
18:06
Speaker 1: they would be able to fill in some gaps here. Well,
18:09
Speaker 1: my question is was the phone mind for information? Do
18:13
Speaker 1: we know about that? We don't know. The family knows nothing.
18:17
Speaker 1: Nothing has been shared with them. They know the phone
18:20
Speaker 1: was found approximately half a mile away. They don't know
18:23
Speaker 1: what's in the phone. And let me just say this,
18:26
Speaker 1: I agree with the prosecutor. The integrity of the case
18:29
Speaker 1: is paramount. My concern is the only term that Flora
18:35
Speaker 1: and Cassandra have been able to see a crime scene
18:37
Speaker 1: photograph is on PROBA Watch Daily because it was shared
18:41
Speaker 1: with them on TV, the only time that they have
18:44
Speaker 1: seen crime scene photos. And I find it very curious, indeed,
18:50
Speaker 1: that TV producers can get crime scene photos but the
18:54
Speaker 1: family cannot do. Dr Bethany Marshall, renowned l a psychoanalyst,
19:00
Speaker 1: what does that kind of doubt the not knowing due
19:05
Speaker 1: to the human psyche not knowing ambiguity is one of
19:08
Speaker 1: the worst things that you can expose a human being to,
19:12
Speaker 1: especially if that person is anxious, because when we're faced
19:16
Speaker 1: with an ambiguous situation, we fill in the worst. We
19:19
Speaker 1: always fill in the blanks with the worst. So Flora
19:24
Speaker 1: and Cassandra have nothing to hang their thoughts on. They
19:30
Speaker 1: have no way to think about this, They have no
19:32
Speaker 1: way to know what happened to Honey in her final moments.
19:36
Speaker 1: And I think it's so sad because that cell phone
19:39
Speaker 1: is a treasure trove of information, and Cassandra and Flora
19:43
Speaker 1: could help the police. They could possibly identify the perpetrator.
19:47
Speaker 1: They perhaps even know who lured Honey over there. But
19:52
Speaker 1: they're not being brought into the loops so they can
19:55
Speaker 1: help with the case. And you know, they want to
19:59
Speaker 1: know what happened to Honey in her final moments. Um
20:02
Speaker 1: like the panel's been talking about, she came home from work,
20:06
Speaker 1: she was tired, she was going to stay in. A
20:10
Speaker 1: phone call came through. She wanted to go out. That's
20:13
Speaker 1: very suspicious. Ten to fifteen minutes later, her mother hears
20:17
Speaker 1: sounds that sounds like popping, sounds like fireworks. Flora wants
20:22
Speaker 1: to know what happened to her daughter? Wouldn't you want
20:25
Speaker 1: to know? I mean, this is to me, this is
20:28
Speaker 1: unconscionable from the from the standpoint that the investigation I
20:32
Speaker 1: think is slowed down by not having information from the family,
20:36
Speaker 1: and also that Flora and Cassandra are now re victimized
20:41
Speaker 1: by this ambiguity. Cops believe Honey was killed when she
20:45
Speaker 1: unwittingly walked in on an armed robbery of a suspected
20:49
Speaker 1: drug den, but Honey's family wonders, is there something more?
20:56
Speaker 1: Why not kill all the witnesses? What's the difference? If
21:00
Speaker 1: you've got one body on you, you might as well
21:02
Speaker 1: just take them while out. Flora and honey sister Cassandra
21:07
Speaker 1: believe Honey was lured to the apartment to silence her.
21:11
Speaker 1: Why don't you believe that she walked into a robbery?
21:15
Speaker 1: I believe that they thought she knew something or saw
21:18
Speaker 1: something and was worried that she was gonna tell. She
21:22
Speaker 1: wouldn't just walk into a kicked in door to see
21:25
Speaker 1: what happened. That's not her Our friends that crime watch daily.
21:29
Speaker 1: What happened to Vanessa Honey Malone with me, her mother,
21:33
Speaker 1: Flora and sister Cassandra along with Wendy Patrick, Dr. Bethany Marshall,
21:37
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCullum, and Lee Egan from Crime online dot Com
21:41
Speaker 1: tipline four zero four five seven seven eight four seven
21:45
Speaker 1: seven to Flora Honey's mother that evening okay. They finally,
21:52
Speaker 1: around two fifteen in the morning officially identify the victim
21:57
Speaker 1: to be Vanessa Malone. Detected us from Decab County were
22:02
Speaker 1: assigned to investigate. They start interviewing friends and family and
22:07
Speaker 1: during that time, two of Honey's friends, who were renting
22:11
Speaker 1: the apartment where Honey was killed, tell police they were
22:16
Speaker 1: victims of a home invasion. Now, according to police, the
22:22
Speaker 1: couple claimed that three to six men dressed in black
22:26
Speaker 1: yielding guns, kicked down the door, tie them up and
22:31
Speaker 1: forced them into the bathroom and while they're ran second
22:34
Speaker 1: the house. Police say their theory is Honey stumbled in
22:39
Speaker 1: on the armed robbery, she tried to run, and she
22:43
Speaker 1: was shot for the first time. The pair in the
22:45
Speaker 1: bathroom said they heard screaming, then the sound of a
22:49
Speaker 1: gun shot. Now, according to what we have learned through
22:53
Speaker 1: the Decab County Public Information Officer, Honey was shot once
22:57
Speaker 1: in the back, then brought to a back bedroom and
23:01
Speaker 1: put in a closet, where she was shot for a
23:05
Speaker 1: second time in the chest. Now, her so called friends
23:10
Speaker 1: go on to tell police they hear the mask instruders leave,
23:14
Speaker 1: that they waited a few moments and untied each other
23:18
Speaker 1: and got free. Hump robbery gone wrong theory, you know,
23:24
Speaker 1: Sheryl mcclemb But I don't understand is what's their motivation
23:29
Speaker 1: to kill Vanessa alone but leave the other two people
23:33
Speaker 1: tied up in the bathroom so loosely they could untie
23:37
Speaker 1: each other. Explain why her and not them? That's a
23:42
Speaker 1: million dollar question, nas, because she was the least threatening
23:45
Speaker 1: person in that room. She was the only person rob
23:49
Speaker 1: her phone was the only thing taken. And for me,
23:53
Speaker 1: when you get to that apartment and you have a
23:55
Speaker 1: gun shot, the number of people that could have heard
23:59
Speaker 1: that are twenty fifty. I mean you're talking about you know,
24:05
Speaker 1: apartments in front and on each side and in the back.
24:08
Speaker 1: But they don't run immediately after shooting her the first time.
24:12
Speaker 1: They drag her through the living room, into the master bedroom,
24:15
Speaker 1: into the closet. They shoot her a second time. Then
24:19
Speaker 1: they rifle through her pockets to make sure they have
24:22
Speaker 1: her cell phone and again, why she Yeah, I don't
24:28
Speaker 1: I don't get it the significance of she's the only
24:32
Speaker 1: one rob It appears to me she was targeted. Well,
24:35
Speaker 1: I agree to Wendy Patrick, California veteran felony prosecutor. What
24:41
Speaker 1: is the significance, What is the motive to shoot her
24:44
Speaker 1: not once, but twice and hide her in the closet
24:46
Speaker 1: when the other people in the home, who were ostensibly
24:51
Speaker 1: the home invasion targets, they don't get robbed. If anybody
24:56
Speaker 1: saw the purpose face Uh, those two man to live.
25:00
Speaker 1: They were tied up so loosely they could untie each other.
25:04
Speaker 1: Why did they live? They were not robbed? And she
25:08
Speaker 1: was called over to the apartment, she was killed and
25:11
Speaker 1: somebody took her cell phone. Yeah, I think the instincts
25:14
Speaker 1: that I'm hearing voiced by some of my colleagues on
25:16
Speaker 1: the panel are right on the money that it almost
25:18
Speaker 1: looks like there at least was this belief that she
25:21
Speaker 1: knew something. You know, when you look at somebody being targeted,
25:24
Speaker 1: like you say, over others who may have witnessed the
25:27
Speaker 1: same set of facts. Couple that with the taking of
25:29
Speaker 1: the cell phone mistakenly or truthfully, there was some fact
25:33
Speaker 1: or circumstance that perhaps incriminated somebody else that they thought
25:36
Speaker 1: she knew. You know, you worry, what was it? Mistaken identity?
25:40
Speaker 1: Was it maybe somebody thought it was Honey that knew something,
25:42
Speaker 1: when actually it was somebody else. These are the kinds
25:45
Speaker 1: of answers that normally good, oh, good old fashioned questioning
25:49
Speaker 1: of witnesses on earth. And you know, we don't know
25:52
Speaker 1: that that's not still taking place, or that somebody won't
25:55
Speaker 1: come forward even though I know it's been a number
25:57
Speaker 1: of years and reveal that information. Because you're right, it
26:01
Speaker 1: certainly does seem like above other witnesses that were left
26:04
Speaker 1: alive easily able to untie each other, that Heiney seems
26:07
Speaker 1: to have been targeted over the others. You know, Dr
26:10
Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall, Have you ever ever heard me deliver a
26:15
Speaker 1: quote such as poetry ever? Have you ever? Yes? No? Yes, no?
26:23
Speaker 1: Actually when did you hear me say a piece of poetry?
26:26
Speaker 1: Because I never have on air? Really, I'm going to
26:30
Speaker 1: I'm going to refer the question not a poem. Not
26:33
Speaker 1: a poem? Okay, okay, Now I want to tell you something.
26:38
Speaker 1: Shortly after my fiance was murdered, I was trying to.
26:44
Speaker 1: I dropped out of school, as you know, and my
26:47
Speaker 1: life as I knew it ended, But I had to
26:50
Speaker 1: go back and finish because I decided to go to
26:53
Speaker 1: law school to be a prosecutor, and as part of
26:57
Speaker 1: me finishing up, I didn't have far to go. I
27:00
Speaker 1: had to finish up one English literature to class and
27:03
Speaker 1: I very rarely, if ever, reopen my literature books because
27:08
Speaker 1: it's just a part of my life. I had to
27:09
Speaker 1: give up, and it hurts me. Actually, it makes me
27:12
Speaker 1: sad to go back and look at it. But I
27:14
Speaker 1: remember this one poem has stuck with me all these years,
27:19
Speaker 1: and it was called hap like Happenstance, and it was
27:22
Speaker 1: by Thomas Hardy. When I read this poem in school,
27:27
Speaker 1: I had to get up and leave the classroom. It's
27:30
Speaker 1: very short and it goes if some vengeful God would
27:33
Speaker 1: call to me from the sky and laugh and say,
27:36
Speaker 1: thou suffering thing, your sorrow is my ecstasy, Your love's
27:41
Speaker 1: loss is my profiting, then I would bear it. I
27:45
Speaker 1: would clench myself and die still by the sense of
27:50
Speaker 1: anger and merited, eased that a God stronger than me
27:54
Speaker 1: had willed me. The tears I shed but not so
27:58
Speaker 1: how it arrives. It's joy Lie slain Um blooms the
28:04
Speaker 1: best hope ever sown. Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
28:09
Speaker 1: and what it says is that there's no rhyme or reason,
28:15
Speaker 1: that things just happen for no reason, for a happenstance,
28:21
Speaker 1: and that threw me over the edge that my life
28:27
Speaker 1: was ruined. Keith was murdered, His family's life was ruined.
28:31
Speaker 1: On her deathbed twenty years later, his mother was having
28:35
Speaker 1: memories of him for what no rhyme happenstance. And I
28:41
Speaker 1: want to ask you in this case, the family is
28:45
Speaker 1: saying this wasn't just random. We don't accept that. Are
28:51
Speaker 1: they wrong because I don't think they're wrong? Or are
28:54
Speaker 1: they just searching for some reason to make sense of
28:57
Speaker 1: it because they don't think they're wrong, because this does
29:00
Speaker 1: not make sense. I don't think this has happened stance.
29:05
Speaker 1: I think the fact that she was tired, that her
29:08
Speaker 1: phone rang, she went straight to the apartment. Ten to
29:11
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes later, she's dead. She was lured there. And
29:17
Speaker 1: the senseless part is I imagine these five or six
29:21
Speaker 1: men dressed in black, dramatic, seemingly allegedly ramsacking this apartment,
29:30
Speaker 1: tying up two other victims, who who unleashed themselves so
29:37
Speaker 1: easily tells me that they wanted Honey over there. They
29:41
Speaker 1: wanted to kill her. Her life meant nothing to them.
29:46
Speaker 1: But what does an eighteen year old girl really know?
29:49
Speaker 1: That's what's so sad. I can't imagine that whatever they
29:53
Speaker 1: think she knew that she really knew at all. She's
29:56
Speaker 1: a child, she was working, she was living with her mother.
29:59
Speaker 1: She was beautiful. Nancy, did you see the photos of her?
30:02
Speaker 1: I mean I was looking at they break my heart.
30:08
Speaker 1: You know, earlier, when I was asking you about trying
30:11
Speaker 1: to make sense a violent crime, I think I heard
30:15
Speaker 1: either Cassandra or Flora saying something, ladies, which one of
30:19
Speaker 1: you were talking that m jump hand here. I know
30:24
Speaker 1: somebody had to have opened the door to let her in.
30:28
Speaker 1: So if they were really being robbed, why would a
30:31
Speaker 1: robber let them let her in? That doesn't make sense.
30:35
Speaker 1: Eighteen year old Vanessa Malone, called Honey by family and friends,
30:39
Speaker 1: was shot several times after police say she interrupted an
30:43
Speaker 1: armed robbery at this apartment complex. This homicide is our
30:46
Speaker 1: top priority in the office right now. We're working at
30:48
Speaker 1: every different angle possible. We really need help from the community.
30:52
Speaker 1: Detective Lynn Schuller says, Honey Malone walked in on four
30:56
Speaker 1: to six men who tied up three people inside it,
31:00
Speaker 1: and we're armed with semi automatic weapons. And the three
31:03
Speaker 1: victims that we had tied up in the bathroom all
31:05
Speaker 1: heard her come in and then they heard the shots.
31:08
Speaker 1: So it appears that she was just at the wrong
31:10
Speaker 1: place at the wrong time. Oh man, how many times
31:13
Speaker 1: have I heard wrong place, wrong time? You're hearing that
31:16
Speaker 1: from Fox five Atlanta reporter Julia Reynolds trying to get
31:20
Speaker 1: to the bottom of this. To Lee Egan, joining me
31:23
Speaker 1: Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter, give me a recap
31:26
Speaker 1: for those just joining us. Well, Honey Malone, eighteen year
31:29
Speaker 1: old teen girl goes over to a friend's house in
31:31
Speaker 1: October two thousand and twelve, and as soon as she
31:35
Speaker 1: walks in the door, she shot and the I think
31:37
Speaker 1: it was the back and then they pull her into
31:40
Speaker 1: the closet of the master bedroom shoot her again in
31:43
Speaker 1: the chest, killing her and leave it. Just you know, Cheryl,
31:47
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop saying over and over it doesn't make sense,
31:51
Speaker 1: because you know, I can say it a million times.
31:53
Speaker 1: It's not going to change anything. I used to say
31:55
Speaker 1: to defense large, you know, you say it over and
31:58
Speaker 1: over again, like that's going to change something. It's not.
32:01
Speaker 1: But I'll say one last time. It doesn't make sense.
32:05
Speaker 1: And I think it was Flora, Vanessa's mother just said,
32:10
Speaker 1: why with the robbers open the door for her? I mean,
32:15
Speaker 1: in that configuration, I'm pretty sure that there was a
32:19
Speaker 1: back door. Why would they open the door for a
32:21
Speaker 1: witness if there were a home invasion, Why didn't they
32:24
Speaker 1: steal anything other than Vanessa's cell phone? The entire story
32:30
Speaker 1: does not make sense, and I'd be very curious. Curious, indeed,
32:34
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum is to where these so called friends are
32:37
Speaker 1: now exactly, Nancy. One other thing that is really pertinent
32:41
Speaker 1: about that scene. It appears that one of the perpetrators
32:44
Speaker 1: was also hit with a bullet and one of the
32:49
Speaker 1: witnesses saw one of the perpetrators helping another one down
32:53
Speaker 1: the steps and into a car. There's blood, there's blood
32:58
Speaker 1: evidence outside that cab. County collected it came back not matching. Honey,
33:05
Speaker 1: that means we have their DNA, So we get what
33:09
Speaker 1: we are begging for is has that been put into
33:13
Speaker 1: coded Could we our saild hey for FATO type to
33:18
Speaker 1: get a look at who this person is. Wendy Patrick,
33:20
Speaker 1: California Prosecutor, please explain what codus is. Well, we have
33:24
Speaker 1: a system, thankfully, it's getting better every year where you
33:26
Speaker 1: can actually input DNA to see if you get what
33:29
Speaker 1: we call hits matches with other cases with other suspects.
33:33
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons, as my colleagues on the
33:36
Speaker 1: panel no that and you know as well, Nancy, that
33:38
Speaker 1: we take DNA from people when they're arrested. So it's
33:41
Speaker 1: one of those systems that it is excellent for tying suspects,
33:45
Speaker 1: particularly unknown suspects, to other cases and for identifying suspects.
33:51
Speaker 1: So you're right, anytime you have a case where there's
33:53
Speaker 1: DNA collected, that's the first thing you want to know. Now,
33:56
Speaker 1: of course you hope that there are samples from other
33:59
Speaker 1: case is to compare them with If they're not, then unfortunately,
34:03
Speaker 1: it's far more difficult to use that DNA to actually
34:06
Speaker 1: come up with a profile. Many people, even within the
34:09
Speaker 1: police force, believe this was a home invasion robbery, but
34:13
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense to me because nothing was robbed
34:17
Speaker 1: that we know of other than the victim's cell phone.
34:21
Speaker 1: She didn't even live there too. Cassandra Kennedy, this is
34:25
Speaker 1: Vanessa's sister, Cassandra. Do you believe that the people that
34:29
Speaker 1: lived in that apartment that someone may have had drugs? Yes,
34:34
Speaker 1: I'm not understanding why they would drag her body through
34:38
Speaker 1: the apartment. And the reason why we know that she
34:41
Speaker 1: was a drug is because I've met up with the
34:44
Speaker 1: gentleman that they rent at the apartment too, and left
34:48
Speaker 1: her blood there in the carpet. Two you, Cheryl I
34:52
Speaker 1: was talking about illegal drugs. Do you believe that somebody
34:57
Speaker 1: had stashed drugs there? Do you believe that they were
35:01
Speaker 1: robbed the owners of the apartment, but it was of drugs,
35:06
Speaker 1: and so they never told police what was taken, So
35:08
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what you know they're trying to portray.
35:12
Speaker 1: The issue is again, the only person harm is Honey,
35:18
Speaker 1: who didn't live there, who didn't stash drugs there, who
35:21
Speaker 1: wasn't a drug dealer. The only person that had any
35:24
Speaker 1: think stolen from them was honey, so again was not
35:28
Speaker 1: a drug dealer who didn't live in that apartment. Hold on,
35:32
Speaker 1: just a moment, just a moment. It is pertnent to me,
35:35
Speaker 1: I don't tell you why because unless something was stolen
35:39
Speaker 1: that the residents are not telling us about, that means
35:45
Speaker 1: nothing was stolen. If nothing was stolen, then the residents,
35:51
Speaker 1: in my mind, should be questioned again. Now, a lot
35:54
Speaker 1: of times, as you know um out to you to
35:59
Speaker 1: Dr Bethany Marshall, people will let's just say flunk polygraph.
36:04
Speaker 1: They may not be lying about, let's just say the murder.
36:08
Speaker 1: They may be lying because at the time of the
36:10
Speaker 1: murder they had a out of plot in their pocket.
36:14
Speaker 1: They don't want to get in trouble, or they might
36:16
Speaker 1: have been high, or they might have been driving drunk,
36:18
Speaker 1: and they're lying about that, and that throws off the
36:21
Speaker 1: line detective tests. What I am saying is if there
36:24
Speaker 1: were some contraband, if the residents there had stolen something,
36:29
Speaker 1: or it could be anything, and they're lying about it,
36:34
Speaker 1: and I have I am sleuthing right now. I don't
36:37
Speaker 1: have a shred of evidence to support that, but I'm
36:40
Speaker 1: trying to make sense of this. If they didn't have
36:44
Speaker 1: something stolen from that apartment, then the whole story is
36:48
Speaker 1: a lie. So my question is, was some contraband stolen
36:53
Speaker 1: that they don't want to tell cops about. Well, I
36:55
Speaker 1: think it's an excellent question because what it tells me
36:58
Speaker 1: is if there was controversy m they did not want
37:00
Speaker 1: to tell the police about, then they are not going
37:03
Speaker 1: to be completely forthcoming and tell all of the relevant
37:07
Speaker 1: information needed to solve this crime. And then Honey becomes
37:11
Speaker 1: a sacrificial lamb. And that that word sacrificial lamb keeps
37:16
Speaker 1: coming to my mind as we're talking about this case,
37:19
Speaker 1: because I do believe Honey was sacrificed in some way.
37:22
Speaker 1: I do believe, according to one report, the door was
37:25
Speaker 1: kicked down. Is that right? The the two residents are
37:30
Speaker 1: tied up, but so loosely they can get away. Nothing
37:33
Speaker 1: ostensibly is stolen from the apart the apartment. That would
37:37
Speaker 1: be like money, cash, jewelry, something like that could have
37:41
Speaker 1: been contraband, as you're saying, But for some reason, the
37:44
Speaker 1: residents believe it's necessary to call Honey over there. I
37:50
Speaker 1: feel like they're trying to distract the men who invaded
37:55
Speaker 1: the apartment by having Honey over there, in order to
38:00
Speaker 1: pin the perpetrator's anxiety on Honey, as if she knows something,
38:06
Speaker 1: as if they get rid of her, they're going to
38:08
Speaker 1: be safe and that the residents were kind of saving
38:11
Speaker 1: their own skin. I know this kind of a loose theory,
38:14
Speaker 1: but that that's what makes sense to me. Well, we
38:18
Speaker 1: do have one development in the last months. It was
38:21
Speaker 1: a handgun seized that could leave to the killer of
38:26
Speaker 1: Vanessa Malone. Sheryl McCollum, what can you tell me about
38:29
Speaker 1: this seized handgun we are just hearing about. Well, one
38:32
Speaker 1: of the people that was involved in this overall crime
38:36
Speaker 1: of Honey being shot was arrested and he had a
38:39
Speaker 1: gun on him at the time, and he's a convicted felon.
38:42
Speaker 1: So they're hoping that that gun, which was a nine
38:45
Speaker 1: millimeter is going to match up with the nine millimeter
38:48
Speaker 1: case things that were found at Honey thing. Well, what
38:50
Speaker 1: do you mean he was connected? He was I believe
38:53
Speaker 1: one of the people that were fired up. Well, you
38:55
Speaker 1: know what, that leads me to a whole uh plethora
38:59
Speaker 1: of questions because when I keep when you hear home invasion,
39:04
Speaker 1: you think of violence and threats and beatings. But from
39:07
Speaker 1: what I've learned, the people living there claim guys dressed
39:12
Speaker 1: all in black with masks on. I mean, come on,
39:15
Speaker 1: the straight out of a fifth grade murder mystery novel. Please.
39:19
Speaker 1: They claimed they were tied up with a belt and
39:22
Speaker 1: the cord of an electric razor and put in the
39:24
Speaker 1: shower an electrical cord? Really, and you couldn't get away
39:31
Speaker 1: that that? That doesn't sound true to me, how to
39:34
Speaker 1: Flora alone, Honey's mother. That sounds like a lie? Is
39:38
Speaker 1: that for real? None of them has ever agreed to
39:41
Speaker 1: talk to We have asked them several times and I
39:45
Speaker 1: try to read that different family members and none of
39:51
Speaker 1: them everything. I find that very odd, right there, Flora,
39:56
Speaker 1: because why wouldn't they agree to talk to you? What?
39:59
Speaker 1: What do they That's that's my theory too, because why
40:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't you? I mean, the girl that was there, she
40:05
Speaker 1: didn't even say I'm sorry she's dead, Matt, Sorry, did
40:09
Speaker 1: I did it any things? But I just don't understand
40:12
Speaker 1: how they could just remain silent if they didn't have
40:16
Speaker 1: anything to do with it, because it doesn't make sense.
40:20
Speaker 1: I mean, the the whole robbery story doesn't make sense
40:23
Speaker 1: to me. The guy that was there said that his
40:25
Speaker 1: phone his while it was stolen. The girl that was there,
40:29
Speaker 1: she said her cell phone was stolen, but the police
40:31
Speaker 1: gave her cell phone back to her the whole phone
40:33
Speaker 1: wasn't sing at all, and why would you do a
40:35
Speaker 1: whole home invasion dressed in ninja black with masks on
40:39
Speaker 1: to get a cell phone? And one of them said
40:42
Speaker 1: three people. And one of them said, there's a big
40:45
Speaker 1: difference if they would have said five or six. I mean,
40:47
Speaker 1: it's one said five or one six six. I can
40:49
Speaker 1: understand it, but one said three. So there's a big
40:53
Speaker 1: difference between three and six. You don't know how many
40:56
Speaker 1: people rabbed you. No one has been charged in connection
40:59
Speaker 1: with Vanessa Malone's murder. If you have information, please call
41:04
Speaker 1: four zero four five seven seven eight four seven seven
41:08
Speaker 1: repeat four zero four five seven seven eight four seven seven.
41:13
Speaker 1: We are investigating the case. Go to crime online dot
41:17
Speaker 1: com for all breaking crime and justice news, including the
41:21
Speaker 1: investigation into the murder of Vanessa Honey Malone. Nancy Grace
41:27
Speaker 1: Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,