Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Hell and Gone Murder Line_ Clea Hall [From the Archives]
Transcript
- 0:46Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
- 0:52Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
- 0:55Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
- 0:58Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
- 1:03Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
- 1:06Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
- 1:10Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
- 1:14Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
- 1:21Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
- 1:24Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
- 1:28Speaker 2: Back in twenty nineteen, I got a Facebook message from
- 1:31Speaker 2: Larel Hall, whose daughter Kleschnder Hall, disappeared in nineteen ninety
- 1:36Speaker 2: four when she was just eighteen years old. It read quote, Hi, Catherine,
- 1:41Speaker 2: my daughter disappeared from her after school job on nineteen
- 1:44Speaker 2: ninety four without a trace. One of my Facebook friends
- 1:47Speaker 2: listens to your podcasts and thought you could help me,
- 1:50Speaker 2: will you? Thanks Laurel.
- 1:53Speaker 1: Quote.
- 1:55Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety four, Cleshender Hall, known to everyone as Clia,
- 2:00Speaker 2: was living in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Actually Clia grew up
- 2:03Speaker 2: very near where I grew up. We lived just a
- 2:06Speaker 2: couple of miles from each other. Clia was a senior
- 2:09Speaker 2: at Watson Chapel High School. She had big dreams and
- 2:12Speaker 2: she was making them happen. May of nineteen ninety four
- 2:16Speaker 2: was a super busy month for Clea. She was getting
- 2:19Speaker 2: ready for a big speech at graduation. She was valedictorian
- 2:22Speaker 2: of her class. After graduation, Clia was leaving town. She
- 2:28Speaker 2: was supposed to start a summer internship that she had
- 2:30Speaker 2: all lined up at a doctor's office in Boston, and
- 2:33Speaker 2: then in the fall she would start college at Tennessee
- 2:36Speaker 2: State University, where she had been accepted to the pre
- 2:38Speaker 2: med program. Clia dreamed of a career in medicine. She
- 2:43Speaker 2: woned to be a pediatrician. But on May ninth, just
- 2:47Speaker 2: a few weeks before leaving town to start her new life,
- 2:50Speaker 2: the one she had worked so hard for, Clea Hall
- 2:53Speaker 2: disappeared without a trace. Over the past five years making
- 2:59Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there
- 3:02Speaker 2: is no such thing as a small town where murder
- 3:05Speaker 2: never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people
- 3:09Speaker 2: all around the country asking for help with an unsolved
- 3:12Speaker 2: murder that's affected them, their families and their communities, and
- 3:17Speaker 2: now they have a new way to reach out. I'm
- 3:20Speaker 2: Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. If you
- 3:26Speaker 2: have a case you'd like me and my team to
- 3:28Speaker 2: look into, you can reach out to us at six
- 3:31Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's
- 3:35Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
- 4:27Speaker 2: Cleshendra Denise Hall was born on March thirtieth, nineteen seventy six,
- 4:30Speaker 2: in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her dad, Willie and her mom,
- 4:34Speaker 2: Laurel Hall had four children. They had three sons and
- 4:38Speaker 2: Clia was their only daughter. They were a very close
- 4:42Speaker 2: family and was a serious student and although she went
- 4:46Speaker 2: out just like all teens do and enjoyed social activities,
- 4:50Speaker 2: she was extremely responsible. She even had an after school
- 4:53Speaker 2: job to help pay for college. She worked for doctor
- 4:56Speaker 2: Larry Amos, PhD. And not a medical doctor. What he
- 5:01Speaker 2: did was that he ran a nonprofit organization out of
- 5:04Speaker 2: his home office at fifty three oh nine Fawcett Road,
- 5:06Speaker 2: just a few blocks from Clea's house. Larry owned two
- 5:10Speaker 2: houses that were right next to each other. Over the years,
- 5:13Speaker 2: he did a lot of construction work on that property.
- 5:17Speaker 2: The house where Clea worked was a big English tutor
- 5:19Speaker 2: home and had a separate area that was a home
- 5:22Speaker 2: office with its own dedicated landline. Clia's job was to
- 5:26Speaker 2: help with bookkeeping. She got Larry to sign checks and
- 5:30Speaker 2: help keep things organized. Now, it's been reported that Larry
- 5:35Speaker 2: wrote grants where he would allocate resources for childcare facilities.
- 5:40Speaker 2: But I've discovered that, like in so many cold cases,
- 5:43Speaker 2: there are a lot of basic facts about this case,
- 5:46Speaker 2: even though it has been reported on many times over
- 5:48Speaker 2: the years, that are just flat out wrong, because the
- 5:51Speaker 2: truth was that Larry Amos was involved in some very
- 5:55Speaker 2: shady financial dealings, which we will come back to, but
- 5:59Speaker 2: first let's go back to Clia and that day in
- 6:01Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four. I don't really like phrases like troubled
- 6:06Speaker 2: teen because to me, everyone deserves justice and to have
- 6:09Speaker 2: their case investigated. But just for clarity, because we are
- 6:13Speaker 2: looking at someone's pattern of life. Clia came from a
- 6:16Speaker 2: loving home. She had no issues with mental health, She
- 6:21Speaker 2: had a steady job, she was very organized, she was
- 6:24Speaker 2: planning for her future. She had no disputes with her
- 6:27Speaker 2: parents or anyone else, and she was not known to
- 6:31Speaker 2: party or to disappear for days. Clia's schedule had been
- 6:35Speaker 2: set for several weeks. She had just gone to her
- 6:38Speaker 2: senior prom, then on Saturday night, she went to a
- 6:40Speaker 2: sorority ball. Sunday was Mother's Day, which Clia celebrated with
- 6:44Speaker 2: her family. On Monday, May ninth, nineteen ninety four, Clia
- 6:49Speaker 2: woke up, had breakfast with her brothers and her mom, Laurel,
- 6:52Speaker 2: and then went to school. Laurel picked her up at
- 6:55Speaker 2: around two thirty that afternoon. Clea was allowed to leave
- 6:59Speaker 2: school a little early because of her after school job.
- 7:02Speaker 2: They went straight to Larry's house, but there was no
- 7:05Speaker 2: one home. Later, Larry's wife, Patricia, apologized to Laurel for this. Apparently, Patricia,
- 7:11Speaker 2: Larry's wife, had a job she worked for the school,
- 7:14Speaker 2: and when Clia arrived for work that day, she hadn't
- 7:17Speaker 2: gotten home yet. After realizing no one was home, Laurel
- 7:21Speaker 2: and Clia drove back to their house. Clia was tired,
- 7:24Speaker 2: so she kind of crashed out on the couch. They
- 7:27Speaker 2: waited to hear from Larry Amos or his wife. Laurel
- 7:31Speaker 2: said that Larry called their house at four forty five pm.
- 7:35Speaker 2: He said he was home and he was ready for
- 7:36Speaker 2: Clelia to come into work. So Clia basically jumped up
- 7:40Speaker 2: off the couch and got into the car and Laurel
- 7:43Speaker 2: drove her back to Larry Amos's house. Laurel watched as
- 7:47Speaker 2: Clea walked up to that house. She was wearing a
- 7:49Speaker 2: blue and white Polkadot printed shirt and short set white
- 7:53Speaker 2: tennis shoes and white socks. Clea had short hair, but
- 7:56Speaker 2: she had gotten hair extensions for the prom, so she
- 7:59Speaker 2: had her hair up in a ponytail with a pink ribbon.
- 8:02Speaker 2: Laurel watched her daughter walk across the lawn and into
- 8:06Speaker 2: that house. That was the last time she ever saw
- 8:09Speaker 2: Clia alive. Of course, as we know with all these cases,
- 8:13Speaker 2: everything becomes much more clear only in hindsight, and that's
- 8:17Speaker 2: when these tiny details become so crucial. Laurel, when she
- 8:21Speaker 2: was recalling what happened that afternoon, told reporters that Clia
- 8:25Speaker 2: had been a little bit dazed after she got the
- 8:27Speaker 2: call from Larry Amos because she was asleep on the couch.
- 8:31Speaker 2: They jumped straight into the car and drove over to
- 8:33Speaker 2: the Amos house. And because of that, because they were
- 8:36Speaker 2: kind of rushed Clia forgot to grab her purse, which
- 8:40Speaker 2: had her ID in it. So Cleah went to work
- 8:43Speaker 2: that day with nos and no ID. Now, normally this
- 8:46Speaker 2: would not have been a big deal since she was
- 8:48Speaker 2: only supposed to be gone for a couple of hours,
- 8:50Speaker 2: but later this would become very significant. Just to clarify,
- 8:54Speaker 2: Clia did have a driver's license, but she didn't have
- 8:57Speaker 2: her own car. And remember this was the pre cell
- 9:00Speaker 2: phone era. There were cell phones out there. We had
- 9:03Speaker 2: gone from the big brick cell phones you see in
- 9:05Speaker 2: eighties movies to the plastic flip phones, but they were
- 9:08Speaker 2: super expensive and back then teens did not really have
- 9:11Speaker 2: cell phones. So Clia and her mom had a routine.
- 9:15Speaker 2: Clea would always call her mother from Larry Amos's landline
- 9:18Speaker 2: when she was ready to be picked up from work.
- 9:20Speaker 2: They did this every day. Normally, Clea would finish work
- 9:24Speaker 2: at around eight thirty, Clio would look out the window
- 9:27Speaker 2: and wait for her mom. Laurel would pull the car up,
- 9:30Speaker 2: but generally would not honk the horn because she didn't
- 9:33Speaker 2: want to wake people up. So then to get out
- 9:35Speaker 2: of the garage, Clia would push the button the automatic
- 9:38Speaker 2: door would open, and then Clia would push it again.
- 9:40Speaker 2: She knew exactly how to duck under that closing garage
- 9:43Speaker 2: door without causing it to open back up. That night,
- 9:47Speaker 2: the phone rang at the Hall house at eight pm.
- 9:50Speaker 2: Laurel picked up the phone and it was Clea. Clia's
- 9:53Speaker 2: brother also picked up the phone in the other room.
- 9:57Speaker 2: Clia asked if anyone had called for her at home.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Laurel said no, there were no messages. Clia said she
- 10:02Speaker 2: wasn't quite finished at work, but she would be done soon.
- 10:05Speaker 2: She said she would call back in around thirty minutes
- 10:07Speaker 2: to get picked up. Laurel was reading on the couch.
- 10:11Speaker 2: She drifted off to sleep with her book resting on
- 10:13Speaker 2: her chest. Laurel was right next to the phone, but
- 10:17Speaker 2: that phone never rang. Later police confirmed that because Clia's
- 10:21Speaker 2: brothers were home too, no one heard the phone ring,
- 10:24Speaker 2: so it's not like Laurella just slept through it. There
- 10:27Speaker 2: were no other calls that night. Just before one am,
- 10:31Speaker 2: Clia's dad, Willie, came into the house. He found his
- 10:34Speaker 2: wife on the sofa and he woke her up. He
- 10:36Speaker 2: asked where Clia was, and that's when Laurel realized she'd
- 10:40Speaker 2: never gotten that call from Clia. She would later tell reporters.
- 10:44Speaker 2: Immediately she felt sick. Laurel called Larry Amos's house and
- 10:48Speaker 2: he picked up on the first ring. She told him
- 10:51Speaker 2: Cleia hadn't come home that night and asked what time
- 10:54Speaker 2: she left. Larry told Laurel he thought Clia left the
- 10:57Speaker 2: house at around eight thirty, just like she normally did.
- 11:00Speaker 2: He told her, hang on, I'll go check the time sheet.
- 11:04Speaker 2: Then he said he had checked it and confirmed that, yes,
- 11:06Speaker 2: Clia had signed out at eight thirty. He said that
- 11:10Speaker 2: he assumed Clia had gotten into a car, but that
- 11:13Speaker 2: he had not actually seen Clea leave the house. Larry
- 11:17Speaker 2: said he heard the garage door open and close and
- 11:19Speaker 2: just assumed that Clia left as usual and that Laurel
- 11:22Speaker 2: had picked her up. Larry told Laurel that Clia didn't
- 11:26Speaker 2: tell him or his wife that she was leaving that night,
- 11:28Speaker 2: which he did say was unlike her. Laurel Hall did
- 11:32Speaker 2: not sleep that night. One part of her brain was
- 11:35Speaker 2: probably trying to tell herself. Maybe Clia did meet a friend,
- 11:39Speaker 2: maybe she made a plan and didn't want to tell
- 11:40Speaker 2: her mom about it. But in her heart, she knew
- 11:44Speaker 2: something was very wrong, and because Clia was eighteen years old.
- 11:49Speaker 2: Back then, police told her she had to wait twenty
- 11:51Speaker 2: four hours to report her daughter missing. The next morning,
- 11:55Speaker 2: Laurel told Clia's little brother to look for her at
- 11:58Speaker 2: the high school they had band together, and her brother
- 12:01Speaker 2: didn't see her there, but he told his mom later
- 12:04Speaker 2: that the seniors had gone to the elementary school that
- 12:06Speaker 2: day for some kind of school trip, so he held out
- 12:09Speaker 2: hope that maybe she was there. But by that afternoon,
- 12:14Speaker 2: Clia's brother realized she was not in school, and he
- 12:16Speaker 2: called his mother and told her she had never shown up.
- 12:20Speaker 2: At that point, Laurel knew something bad had happened. Again,
- 12:24Speaker 2: this was totally out of character for Clia. She and
- 12:28Speaker 2: her husband Willie reported Clelia missing that afternoon at the
- 12:31Speaker 2: Pine Bluff police department. As we have seen in so
- 12:36Speaker 2: many of these cases, at first, it seemed like the
- 12:39Speaker 2: police were just not taking Clia's disappearance very seriously. According
- 12:43Speaker 2: to the Hall family, the police seemed to treat Clea
- 12:46Speaker 2: as a runaway. In fact, Laurel later told reporters that
- 12:50Speaker 2: police suggested Clia could have run away, possibly due to
- 12:54Speaker 2: her hiding a secret from her parents. Maybe even they
- 12:57Speaker 2: suggested the fact that Clea was pregnant. Laurel told police
- 13:01Speaker 2: bluntly that Clea was on birth control. She actually was
- 13:04Speaker 2: on an implanable contraceptive that was in her arm, and
- 13:08Speaker 2: this kind of birth control has a very low failure rate. Plus,
- 13:12Speaker 2: Cleia didn't have a boyfriend. And even if she was dating,
- 13:15Speaker 2: Clea was a young woman who was looking to the future.
- 13:18Speaker 2: This girl was not trying to get tied down in
- 13:21Speaker 2: her hometown. Literally everything in her life suggested the opposite.
- 13:26Speaker 2: She had everything to look forward to, graduation, her summer job,
- 13:29Speaker 2: her full scholarship in Tennessee. Clea was happy. She was
- 13:33Speaker 2: in a great mood in the days before her disappearance.
- 13:36Speaker 2: If we're looking at victimology, there was literally nothing in
- 13:39Speaker 2: her background or her profile that would suggest that she
- 13:41Speaker 2: would run away for any reason. And finally, there were
- 13:45Speaker 2: the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Let's say that she was
- 13:50Speaker 2: inexplicably going to run away from home. Why would she
- 13:53Speaker 2: choose that day? Why would she leave the one day
- 13:56Speaker 2: she forgot her purse that had her money and her
- 13:58Speaker 2: ID in it. Detectives looked through CLA's diary. They saund
- 14:03Speaker 2: nothing about boyfriends or problems or plans to leave town suddenly.
- 14:07Speaker 2: In fact, the main thing Clia had in that diary
- 14:09Speaker 2: was her work schedule. It was filled out months in advance.
- 14:14Speaker 2: They were finally understanding Clea was not the type of
- 14:17Speaker 2: person to skip worker school, and they began to believe
- 14:21Speaker 2: that there had been foul play. Even early on in
- 14:27Speaker 2: the investigation, Laurel and Willie started to feel suspicious about
- 14:31Speaker 2: Clia's boss, Larry Amos. First of all, it struck Laurel
- 14:35Speaker 2: as odd that on that first night when Clea was missing,
- 14:39Speaker 2: when Laurel called the Amos house, she thought it was
- 14:42Speaker 2: weird that Larry Amos answered on the first ring. Now,
- 14:46Speaker 2: he later told her that he was up in the
- 14:48Speaker 2: next room watching TV. But if that was true, number one,
- 14:53Speaker 2: why would he be up that late? And number two,
- 14:56Speaker 2: why would he immediately pick up the phone on the
- 14:58Speaker 2: work line? Why would he be sitting right next to
- 15:00Speaker 2: the phone like that? And later she started to pick
- 15:03Speaker 2: up what she believed were discrepancies in Larry Amos's description
- 15:07Speaker 2: of what happened when Clea left the house. She thought
- 15:10Speaker 2: it was a little off the fact that Larry said
- 15:12Speaker 2: that he hadn't seen Clea leave because She said, Larry
- 15:15Speaker 2: Amos always knew exactly who was coming and going at
- 15:19Speaker 2: that property. Larry Amos was the last person to see
- 15:22Speaker 2: Cleo live, but he wasn't being super cooperative with police.
- 15:27Speaker 2: Police asked Larry if they could drop by so they
- 15:29Speaker 2: could get a statement, but he said he was going
- 15:31Speaker 2: out of town on a business trip to Dallas. He
- 15:34Speaker 2: said he would be gone for three days, so police
- 15:36Speaker 2: would have to take his statement when he got back
- 15:38Speaker 2: in town. He emphasized that he wanted to be there
- 15:41Speaker 2: in person when police came to his house. Larry claimed
- 15:45Speaker 2: he was buying tanning beds for a business idea he had,
- 15:48Speaker 2: but it was later reported that he never bought those
- 15:51Speaker 2: beds and he never opened any kind of tanning bed business,
- 15:55Speaker 2: so a lot of people wondered did he have a
- 15:57Speaker 2: different reason for going to Texas. Police asked Larry Amos
- 16:01Speaker 2: to take a lot of detector test, Laurel said Larry
- 16:04Speaker 2: claimed he was busy, and then later said police would
- 16:07Speaker 2: have to talk to his attorneys if they wanted him
- 16:09Speaker 2: to take a lot of detector test. By the way,
- 16:12Speaker 2: I completely get this after what I've experienced with cases
- 16:16Speaker 2: in Arkansas and elsewhere. I know that light detectors are
- 16:19Speaker 2: completely dependent on the skill of the person giving the examination,
- 16:23Speaker 2: and to be honest, I've seen several cases where people
- 16:27Speaker 2: have taken light detector tests and the results have come
- 16:30Speaker 2: back inconclusive or that they failed it, and later that
- 16:34Speaker 2: person was proven to be completely innocent. So I get
- 16:37Speaker 2: Larry Amos's reluctance to take a lot of detector test.
- 16:40Speaker 2: What I don't get is that Larry Amos seemed totally
- 16:43Speaker 2: concerned about Clia being missing and about being one of
- 16:46Speaker 2: the last people to see her, and there were some
- 16:49Speaker 2: other odd things that were happening that Laurel said did
- 16:53Speaker 2: not seem to add up. For example, before Larry Amos
- 16:56Speaker 2: left town, police did very briefly stop by his house,
- 17:00Speaker 2: and when they did, apparently detectives went into that home office.
- 17:03Speaker 2: They picked up the phone and hit redial on the phone.
- 17:07Speaker 2: They wrote down the last number dialed on a scrap
- 17:09Speaker 2: of paper and said it was someone named Smith. The
- 17:14Speaker 2: police asked Larry Amos about that phone number if he
- 17:17Speaker 2: recognized it, because they were thinking maybe Clia had made
- 17:19Speaker 2: a call from that home office landline and that might
- 17:22Speaker 2: help explain who saw her last. Larry said he had
- 17:26Speaker 2: no idea who that person was, but later it turned
- 17:29Speaker 2: out that Smith this phone number was the phone number
- 17:32Speaker 2: for Larry Amos's kids babysitter. So then Laurel started wondering
- 17:36Speaker 2: why would he claim not to know the phone number
- 17:39Speaker 2: of someone that he and or his wife presumably called often.
- 17:43Speaker 2: And also, if the babysitter was the last person called
- 17:46Speaker 2: and he was sitting up late in that office, why
- 17:49Speaker 2: would Larry or anyone else need to call up a
- 17:51Speaker 2: babysitter after midnight. Laurel and Willie did not wait for
- 17:56Speaker 2: the detectives to start searching for their daughter. They called
- 17:59Speaker 2: Clia's friends and posted flowers everywhere around town, which they
- 18:02Speaker 2: printed up themselves. Across the street from the Amos house
- 18:06Speaker 2: there are some woods. The volunteers searched there and also
- 18:10Speaker 2: in the wooded area behind the house, and they did
- 18:12Speaker 2: what police should have done in the first place. They
- 18:15Speaker 2: knocked on doors and pounded pavement. Finally, several days after
- 18:19Speaker 2: Clia went missing, detectives started searching too very quickly. It
- 18:25Speaker 2: seemed like there were a few possibilities being talked about here.
- 18:28Speaker 2: The first possibility was that Clia left with someone in
- 18:31Speaker 2: a car. This seemed extremely unlikely because Cleah had a
- 18:36Speaker 2: plan for her mom to pick her up, and she
- 18:38Speaker 2: had a regular routine. This was a Monday night, it
- 18:41Speaker 2: was a school night, and even if she was going
- 18:42Speaker 2: to leave with someone else, she would have called her mom.
- 18:45Speaker 2: She knew her mom would be waiting for her. Remember,
- 18:48Speaker 2: Clia had already called her mom to tell her she
- 18:50Speaker 2: would be done at work soon, so it would make
- 18:52Speaker 2: no sense that she wouldn't call back and let her
- 18:54Speaker 2: know that she was going to do something else. The
- 18:57Speaker 2: second possibility was that Cleah walked home alone. In a
- 19:00Speaker 2: documentary that later aired about the case on Oxygen, the
- 19:04Speaker 2: journalist interviewed a friend of Clia's, another young woman who
- 19:07Speaker 2: used to work for Larry Amos. The friend said that
- 19:10Speaker 2: she was there the night when Clia went missing. She
- 19:12Speaker 2: said she had offered Clia a ride home and Clia said, no,
- 19:15Speaker 2: don't worry about it, that she was going to walk home. Now,
- 19:18Speaker 2: this was a strange piece of information. I would love
- 19:21Speaker 2: to find this young woman, this second person who said
- 19:24Speaker 2: that they were there that night, because Laurel claims that
- 19:28Speaker 2: she later clarified this girl was not in the house
- 19:30Speaker 2: that night, that in fact, that young woman had not
- 19:33Speaker 2: been working in the office for several months by the
- 19:36Speaker 2: time Clia went missing, and she thinks that after this
- 19:39Speaker 2: many years, the young woman just got confused in her memory.
- 19:42Speaker 2: She thinks she was thinking about a different night. Laurel
- 19:45Speaker 2: insists that the only people that she knows of who
- 19:47Speaker 2: were in the house that night were doctor Larry Amos,
- 19:50Speaker 2: his wife, and their small children. I just want to
- 19:54Speaker 2: talk for a minute about the theory that Clea would
- 19:57Speaker 2: have walked home alone. This would have been shortly after
- 20:00Speaker 2: eight thirty at night, so it would have been dusk,
- 20:02Speaker 2: not full dark, but getting dark. And I just want
- 20:04Speaker 2: to explain a little about Pine Bluff. As someone who
- 20:07Speaker 2: grew up there, I can tell you it has a
- 20:09Speaker 2: history of violent crime and it continues to be a
- 20:11Speaker 2: dangerous place to live. Back in the nineties, it's really
- 20:15Speaker 2: not an exaggeration to say that parts of Pine Bluff
- 20:18Speaker 2: and other parts of South Arkansas were like war zones.
- 20:21Speaker 2: There was even a series back in the nineties called
- 20:23Speaker 2: Banging in Little Rock about the Crips and the Bloods
- 20:25Speaker 2: and other gangs that were active in Little Rock in
- 20:27Speaker 2: South Arkansas. In the nineties, the population of Pine Bluff
- 20:31Speaker 2: was around sixty thousand, but per capita, it regularly ranks
- 20:35Speaker 2: and the five most dangerous small towns in the United States.
- 20:39Speaker 2: Everyone knows, and everyone knew back then, you do not
- 20:42Speaker 2: go out walking in I'm left Arkansas after dark, and
- 20:46Speaker 2: Laurel was very protective of Clia. She insisted her daughter
- 20:50Speaker 2: would never walk home alone. She said she had only
- 20:52Speaker 2: walked home alone once from Larry Amos's house, and on
- 20:56Speaker 2: that instance, Clia's brother walked home with her, so Clia
- 21:00Speaker 2: randomly deciding to walk home alone near dark is a
- 21:03Speaker 2: remote possibility at best. Later, from Laurell's interviews, it's clear
- 21:08Speaker 2: that Laurel becomes more suspicious of Larry Amos as a person.
- 21:13Speaker 2: She talks about discussing Larry Amos with Clia, and Clia
- 21:19Speaker 2: would talk about Larry Amos's business. Laurel said Clia had
- 21:23Speaker 2: made comments to her about the fact that when she
- 21:26Speaker 2: would get Larry Amos to sign the checks, a lot
- 21:28Speaker 2: of them did not seem to be related to the nonprofit,
- 21:32Speaker 2: and Clia sort of remarked that was a little weird,
- 21:35Speaker 2: maybe a little shady, And she would talk about how
- 21:37Speaker 2: Larry Amos was cheap, but never said anything about him
- 21:41Speaker 2: being dangerous or violent in any way. Laurel started to
- 21:45Speaker 2: become more suspicious as time went on, because when Larry
- 21:48Speaker 2: Amos did talk to police after he got back from
- 21:50Speaker 2: his Texas trip and gave them a formal statement, she
- 21:54Speaker 2: said certain details of the story he told started to
- 21:57Speaker 2: change from what he told her originally. In his third statement,
- 22:01Speaker 2: he said that when Clia left, she had a can
- 22:04Speaker 2: of peach pop meaning peach soda in her hand that
- 22:06Speaker 2: his wife had given her. He said he saw Clea
- 22:09Speaker 2: looking out the garage window. Yet when he talked to
- 22:12Speaker 2: Laurel that first time, Larry Amos said he was nowhere
- 22:14Speaker 2: near the garage. He had said, specifically that he'd just
- 22:18Speaker 2: heard the door open and close. Now again, these details
- 22:21Speaker 2: seemed to be tiny, but they could be hugely important.
- 22:26Speaker 2: Two weeks after Clea disappeared, police finally went in to
- 22:29Speaker 2: search the Amos house, and they made a major mistake
- 22:32Speaker 2: here in my opinion, because they didn't get a search warrant.
- 22:36Speaker 2: So when Larry Amos told them after a little while
- 22:38Speaker 2: they had to stop the search, they had no legal
- 22:40Speaker 2: right to stay there. They had to leave the house.
- 22:43Speaker 2: So afterwards, when police said they found no signs of
- 22:47Speaker 2: foul play. Laurel remained suspicious because it was obvious to
- 22:51Speaker 2: her that even if something was in the house, the
- 22:54Speaker 2: police didn't stay long enough to do a thorough enough
- 22:56Speaker 2: search to find it. And also, Larry Amos had had
- 23:00Speaker 2: a lot of time. He had a couple weeks at
- 23:01Speaker 2: that point. He could have cleaned up anything with two
- 23:04Speaker 2: whole weeks to do it. And then another bizarre thing
- 23:08Speaker 2: started to happen. Several people, including Laurel's husband Willie, saw
- 23:14Speaker 2: Larry Amos tearing down Clia's missing posters. Laurel and Willie
- 23:19Speaker 2: did a little bit of their own detective work on
- 23:21Speaker 2: Larry Amos. They reached out to his ex wife, Christine,
- 23:27Speaker 2: and this is a strange story. They arranged to meet
- 23:30Speaker 2: up with Christine in person. They noticed that Christine seemed
- 23:34Speaker 2: to be very nervous, and there was a man across
- 23:37Speaker 2: the street who was taking pictures of them while they're
- 23:39Speaker 2: talking to her. Now, Christine told Laurel and Willie she
- 23:43Speaker 2: knew she seem kind of paranoid, but she said she
- 23:45Speaker 2: was afraid of Larry Amos. She said he'd been physically
- 23:48Speaker 2: and emotionally abusive to her in the marriage. She said
- 23:51Speaker 2: they were in the middle of an ugly court battle.
- 23:53Speaker 2: She said she was suing him for child support. Things
- 23:56Speaker 2: between them had gotten really bad, she said. When she
- 23:59Speaker 2: left him, they got into a physical fight that ended
- 24:02Speaker 2: when she threw boiling water over him. When Laurel and
- 24:06Speaker 2: Willie reached out to her, Christine said she was actually
- 24:09Speaker 2: worried this could have been orchestrated by Larry. He might
- 24:11Speaker 2: have been planning to do something to her. So now
- 24:14Speaker 2: Laurel and Willie are alarmed, and they told the police
- 24:17Speaker 2: about this violent streak that Larry Amos reportedly had, but
- 24:20Speaker 2: they say the Pine Bluff Police Department basically blew them off.
- 24:24Speaker 2: They said Christine was just basically a bitter ex wife.
- 24:28Speaker 2: Then Laurel and Willie tried to reach out to Larry
- 24:31Speaker 2: Amos's second wife, Patricia, the one who was home the
- 24:34Speaker 2: night Clea disappeared, but they were never really able to
- 24:37Speaker 2: talk to her or to Larry Amos again. In fact,
- 24:41Speaker 2: Laurel has told people that Larry Aims has not been
- 24:44Speaker 2: in contact with her family since the first week after
- 24:47Speaker 2: Clea disappeared. The only thing on the record that I
- 24:51Speaker 2: can find from Larry Amos's wife, Patricia came from a
- 24:55Speaker 2: transcript of an interview that was quoted in a Fox
- 24:58Speaker 2: News report online. In that report, she said, quote it
- 25:03Speaker 2: was odd that she left without telling either of us
- 25:06Speaker 2: end quote. So in essence, she seemed to back up
- 25:09Speaker 2: her husband's story. Now I should say now that Larry
- 25:12Speaker 2: Amos has always completely denied any knowledge of or involvement
- 25:17Speaker 2: with Cleia's disappearance, and later Larry Amos kind of seemed
- 25:22Speaker 2: to turn the attention back onto Kleia's family. Obviously, when
- 25:26Speaker 2: a teenager goes missing, police have to look at the family.
- 25:30Speaker 2: Larry Amos said that he was being unfairly targeted by police.
- 25:33Speaker 2: In fact, he filed a complaint against one of the
- 25:36Speaker 2: detectives who was investigating him. He is not really commented
- 25:40Speaker 2: on this case at all over the years when the
- 25:43Speaker 2: Arkansas demic, because that newspaper reached out to them, he said, quote. Strangely,
- 25:48Speaker 2: those that have been calling have not wanted to read
- 25:50Speaker 2: the report. Not only was a report filed, a complaint
- 25:53Speaker 2: was filed against one of the detectives. There are very
- 25:55Speaker 2: detailed questions that should have been answered about the family
- 25:58Speaker 2: and other things. It's amazing that people who really want
- 26:01Speaker 2: to find out, wouldn't begin to read the report. End quote. Now,
- 26:05Speaker 2: I will say I would be very happy to read
- 26:08Speaker 2: that report, and normally, in my understanding of Arkansas freedom
- 26:11Speaker 2: of information law, complaints filed against officers are public information.
- 26:16Speaker 2: I have made a freedom of information request for that report,
- 26:20Speaker 2: But if an investigation is still technically open, normally any
- 26:24Speaker 2: part of the case file, including a complaint that would
- 26:27Speaker 2: normally be public record, will be sealed. Larry Amos's statement
- 26:32Speaker 2: was bizarre because in this case, there's absolutely zero suggestion
- 26:36Speaker 2: that Clia had any problems at home. Now, some people
- 26:40Speaker 2: have suggested maybe Larry Amos just was tearing down these
- 26:44Speaker 2: posters and behaving a little bit strangely because he didn't
- 26:47Speaker 2: want people linking him with a young woman's disappearance. But
- 26:50Speaker 2: in my opinion, Larry should have been way more concerned
- 26:53Speaker 2: about Cleia in the fact she was missing, than about
- 26:56Speaker 2: his reputation at that point. The fact that he seemed
- 26:59Speaker 2: to try to impede the investigation and be uncooperative, that
- 27:02Speaker 2: to me is a huge red flag. Over the years,
- 27:07Speaker 2: like I said, the Halls have reached out to Larry
- 27:09Speaker 2: Amos once they brought a canine dogged with the property,
- 27:12Speaker 2: but Laurel said Larry refused to let them search there.
- 27:15Speaker 2: According to Laurel, when Larry Amos came to the door,
- 27:19Speaker 2: he made a strange statement when she asked to come
- 27:21Speaker 2: on his property about not trusting psychics. Laurel later told
- 27:25Speaker 2: a reporter that one of the women she was with
- 27:28Speaker 2: had the letters ESP as part of her license plate number,
- 27:32Speaker 2: and Larry's comment seemed to be a bizarre reference to that.
- 27:35Speaker 2: Whether he genuinely thought he saw some kind of pattern
- 27:38Speaker 2: there or whether he was just making up a reason
- 27:40Speaker 2: to not let them search. Either way, the Hall started
- 27:44Speaker 2: to get more and more suspicious that there was something
- 27:47Speaker 2: not right about doctor Larry Amos. After Clia had been
- 27:51Speaker 2: missing for a few days, detectives talked to other potential
- 27:54Speaker 2: people of interest. Of course, they had asked her family
- 27:58Speaker 2: and her friends about potential boyfriends, and again Laurel told
- 28:01Speaker 2: police Clia didn't have a steady boyfriend. But Laurel said
- 28:05Speaker 2: Clia did have a male friend, a slightly older guy
- 28:09Speaker 2: who she liked. This person was a twenty three year
- 28:12Speaker 2: old Army reservist, and he went to Clia's church. This
- 28:15Speaker 2: guy was cooperative. He talked to police and agreed to
- 28:18Speaker 2: take a polygraph test, but the results were inconclusive. And again,
- 28:23Speaker 2: I don't put a lot of faith in polygraph tests
- 28:25Speaker 2: in my opinion. There's a reason why they aren't amissible
- 28:28Speaker 2: in court, and there are a lot of reasons why
- 28:30Speaker 2: tests can be ruled in conclusive. I'm mentioning this because
- 28:33Speaker 2: this guy was completely cooperative. He gave police permission to
- 28:37Speaker 2: search his vehicle. They didn't find anything connecting him to
- 28:40Speaker 2: Clia's disappearance, but when they talked to this guy, he
- 28:44Speaker 2: did tell investigators he had had a strange encounter with
- 28:47Speaker 2: Larry Amos himself. He said that he had given Cla
- 28:50Speaker 2: a ride to work a couple of weeks before she disappeared.
- 28:53Speaker 2: He said that when he dropped her off at Larry
- 28:55Speaker 2: Amos's house, Larry said he needed to leave because courting
- 28:59Speaker 2: was not allowed on his property, which is a strange
- 29:02Speaker 2: comment to make to a high school girl. Clea explained
- 29:06Speaker 2: to Larry, this guy was nothing more than a friend,
- 29:08Speaker 2: but two of them were not going out, which again,
- 29:10Speaker 2: why would that matter? That was none of Larry's business.
- 29:14Speaker 2: Laurel said that Clia's friend remained cooperative with law enforcement
- 29:18Speaker 2: over the years, Eventually he left the area married and
- 29:21Speaker 2: had a family of his own. Over the years, other
- 29:25Speaker 2: theories have come up. Some people have mentioned that Cleah
- 29:28Speaker 2: could have been kidnapped by a serial killer. A very
- 29:31Speaker 2: infamous serial killer, Samuel Lytle, confessed to killing a twenty
- 29:34Speaker 2: six year old woman named Jolanda Jones and Pine Bluff
- 29:37Speaker 2: just a few months before Clea disappeared. In my opinion,
- 29:41Speaker 2: this does not seem to be a credible theory, but
- 29:43Speaker 2: his first. Of all, Jalanda's murder was considered to have
- 29:46Speaker 2: been related to drugs. Clia's disappearance did not fit Samuel
- 29:50Speaker 2: Little's m O at all. Secondly, I have a hard
- 29:54Speaker 2: time buying the idea that before dark someone would grab
- 29:57Speaker 2: her off the street and have no one see a
- 29:59Speaker 2: thing for me. In Clia's case, all roads lead back
- 30:04Speaker 2: to the Amos house. I think something happened there that night,
- 30:08Speaker 2: and a lot of online commenters seemed to feel that way.
- 30:12Speaker 2: I've talked to a lot of people in Pine Bluff
- 30:13Speaker 2: and they all look at that house with a lot
- 30:16Speaker 2: of suspicion. One of the comments I read online reads quote.
- 30:20Speaker 2: Growing up, it was common for people to nonchalantly say
- 30:23Speaker 2: that doctor Amos killed Cleshendra and hid her in his
- 30:26Speaker 2: concrete walls. His neighbors say they didn't see anyone come
- 30:29Speaker 2: and pick her up. He was also seen sneaking around
- 30:32Speaker 2: removing her missing flyers. The man is a creep, the
- 30:36Speaker 2: kind of person you just feel uncomfortable being around. Laurel
- 30:42Speaker 2: stopped relying on the Pine Bluff Police apartment and over
- 30:45Speaker 2: the years the case went cold. Her family kept going
- 30:49Speaker 2: to the media and every year they would do an
- 30:52Speaker 2: awareness event on Kleia's birthday. Over the years, they went
- 30:56Speaker 2: through even more heartache because a DJ raised money for
- 30:59Speaker 2: Clia's reward fund and then kept the money in left
- 31:03Speaker 2: town and sadly, the whole family was victimized again. Their
- 31:08Speaker 2: funds were gone, and the DJ eventually passed away. I
- 31:11Speaker 2: just want to say, as a side note here, I've
- 31:13Speaker 2: seen this happen so often in cold cases. People will
- 31:16Speaker 2: give money, they have good hearts, they want to help
- 31:19Speaker 2: a family, and it will turn out that this money
- 31:21Speaker 2: that was supposed to be for a scholarship or an
- 31:23Speaker 2: event will get stolen. So please, when you are giving
- 31:26Speaker 2: money to a victim or a family, please make sure
- 31:30Speaker 2: you know exactly where it's going. Do not allow these
- 31:34Speaker 2: families to be victimized again by scammers. In twenty twelve,
- 31:39Speaker 2: after years of nothing happening, there seemed to be a
- 31:43Speaker 2: potentially huge break in this case. Oxygen had a TV
- 31:47Speaker 2: series called Find Our Missing, and they ran Clea's story.
- 31:50Speaker 2: Two witnesses came forward and they talked to the TV program.
- 31:53Speaker 2: One was a construction worker and he said he'd worked
- 31:56Speaker 2: on Larry Ames's house during the late nineteen nineties after
- 32:00Speaker 2: Clia went missing. This worker said he went to the
- 32:03Speaker 2: police and he told them that he had been installing
- 32:06Speaker 2: a fireplace in Larry Amos's house. He was taking out
- 32:09Speaker 2: sheet rock and he saw what he believed was blood
- 32:12Speaker 2: splattered on some drywall. Another worker had a similar story.
- 32:17Speaker 2: He said he was working in the backyard and he
- 32:19Speaker 2: was filling a hole with some cement. The worker said
- 32:22Speaker 2: he smelled something horrible. The documentary said, quote when the
- 32:26Speaker 2: wind would blow, he could smell an odor unlike anything
- 32:29Speaker 2: he's ever smelled before. End quote. The worker also said
- 32:33Speaker 2: there were flies buzzing all around that backyard. So in
- 32:37Speaker 2: twenty twelve, after the series aired, police finally got a
- 32:40Speaker 2: search warrant. They went back to Larry Amos's English tutor house,
- 32:44Speaker 2: the last place where Clia was seen alive. The search
- 32:48Speaker 2: warrant affidavit red quote sworn statements indicate the observance of
- 32:52Speaker 2: a false wall inside the residence containing blood on the insulation. Also,
- 32:57Speaker 2: statements indicate the body was buried on the property at
- 32:59Speaker 2: fifty three oh nine Fawcet Road in a hole where
- 33:02Speaker 2: bricks and rocks and powdered concrete was used to cover
- 33:05Speaker 2: up something end quote. They went back to Larry Amos's
- 33:08Speaker 2: oversized English tutor house, the last place where Clelia was
- 33:12Speaker 2: seen alive. This aired on the news. You could see
- 33:15Speaker 2: crime scene tape up everywhere. Police spent hours there. Larry
- 33:19Speaker 2: was wearing a green work shirt and a tie and
- 33:21Speaker 2: he was on a cell phone outside watching these detectives
- 33:24Speaker 2: go in and out of his house. Police used sniffer
- 33:27Speaker 2: dogs and ground radar penetrating devices, but they did not
- 33:32Speaker 2: dig up anything in the backyard. They did go inside
- 33:35Speaker 2: and police took out little pieces of that dry wall insulation.
- 33:40Speaker 2: In all, they filled several huge bags full of evidence.
- 33:45Speaker 2: So Laurel and Willie waited. A month later, they talked
- 33:50Speaker 2: to police and were told that the Arkansas State crime
- 33:54Speaker 2: lab had not sent back the evidence yet, but they
- 33:58Speaker 2: were horrified to learn that this wasn't true, that actually
- 34:02Speaker 2: the evidence was still sitting at the police station. It
- 34:04Speaker 2: had not even been forwarded to the crime lab. After
- 34:08Speaker 2: the delay, the evidence was sent to the crime lab
- 34:10Speaker 2: and several weeks after that the results came back. There
- 34:14Speaker 2: were no traces of blood on any of the evidence
- 34:16Speaker 2: they had tested. This was just another devastating blow for
- 34:20Speaker 2: Clia's family. They were outraged first of all at the delay,
- 34:24Speaker 2: and they really believed that the police department was hindering
- 34:28Speaker 2: the investigation. Even after all this time, they still had
- 34:31Speaker 2: waited so long to send that evidence to the crime lab.
- 34:35Speaker 2: A spokesperson for the Pine Blood Police department eventually said
- 34:38Speaker 2: that the state crime lab bound no blood evidence and
- 34:41Speaker 2: said that delay did not affect the evidence, but the
- 34:44Speaker 2: Halls were not buying it. They still have questions about
- 34:47Speaker 2: whether that evidence was tested accurately. In fact, later Laurel said,
- 34:52Speaker 2: the whole thing was so strange and there were so
- 34:55Speaker 2: many things that they believed were in competent mistakes. They
- 34:58Speaker 2: started to suspect it could be a cover up, and
- 35:00Speaker 2: it was about to get much worse because later Laurel
- 35:04Speaker 2: Hall learned that when that evidence was taken out of
- 35:09Speaker 2: the amo's house, one of the detectives put the bags
- 35:13Speaker 2: of evidence into the trunk of his car and then
- 35:16Speaker 2: drove it home and let it sit there all night
- 35:18Speaker 2: before giving it to the crime scene text Later, the
- 35:23Speaker 2: officer said they did that because there was a lot
- 35:25Speaker 2: of media there. They didn't want to have to drag
- 35:27Speaker 2: all these bags of evidence past the cameras. But that
- 35:29Speaker 2: made no sense because the media had been there all day.
- 35:32Speaker 2: You could see this whole thing unfolding. Even if that
- 35:35Speaker 2: were true, they just wanted to get the evidence out
- 35:37Speaker 2: of there quickly. They still could have taken it straight
- 35:39Speaker 2: to the crime lab, but they didn't. This person went
- 35:42Speaker 2: home and let that evidence sit they are all night
- 35:44Speaker 2: in the trunk of that car. So the truth is,
- 35:47Speaker 2: from my understanding, even if the evidence revealed anything crucial,
- 35:51Speaker 2: the evidence could have been challenged in court, and that
- 35:54Speaker 2: officer potentially ruined the chain of custody. A good defense
- 35:59Speaker 2: attorney could tear that apart at trial. It was later
- 36:03Speaker 2: reported that as a result of all this, a crime
- 36:06Speaker 2: scene lab technician ended up being suspended. No further action
- 36:09Speaker 2: was taken by the Palmbluff Police Department, and to this day,
- 36:13Speaker 2: I am still trying to find out if, after they
- 36:15Speaker 2: supposedly tested evidence and found no blood, any additional DNA
- 36:20Speaker 2: testing was or could be done. A few people have
- 36:25Speaker 2: reached out to Larry Amos over the years. Record show
- 36:28Speaker 2: he still lives in that same neighborhood, in that same
- 36:31Speaker 2: English tutor house. It's still owned by him and his family.
- 36:36Speaker 2: And again I should say, obviously Larry Amos has always
- 36:39Speaker 2: completely denied any involvement in Kleist's appearance. He said that
- 36:44Speaker 2: the business trip was pre planned. He said people claiming
- 36:47Speaker 2: that he was skipping town or running away were just
- 36:49Speaker 2: spreading wild rumors. So what happened to Clea Hall? Again,
- 36:56Speaker 2: for reasons we've discussed before, I don't think it's likely
- 36:59Speaker 2: at all she got into a car with someone else.
- 37:02Speaker 2: Police have never been able to find any evidence that
- 37:05Speaker 2: there was another car at the Amos residence that night.
- 37:08Speaker 2: No neighbors saw her leave, no one saw her along
- 37:10Speaker 2: the route, either walking or another vehicle they didn't recognize.
- 37:14Speaker 2: And for this reason, I also think it's unlikely a
- 37:17Speaker 2: stranger grabbed her in the very short distance between Larry
- 37:20Speaker 2: Amos's house and hers with no one seeing her. So
- 37:24Speaker 2: I keep coming back to that third possibility, a theory
- 37:27Speaker 2: that I believe is far more likely, that Clia never
- 37:30Speaker 2: left the Amos house that night, and that something happened
- 37:33Speaker 2: inside that house, some kind of altercation that we still
- 37:36Speaker 2: don't know about. Obviously, the case file is still sealed,
- 37:40Speaker 2: so there is very limited information out there available to
- 37:44Speaker 2: the public. But I did do a deep dive into
- 37:47Speaker 2: the blueprints and construction history of the Amos house. Over
- 37:50Speaker 2: the past eighteen years, that house has had nine major renovations.
- 37:55Speaker 2: I'm always looking for patterns in these cases, and I
- 37:58Speaker 2: do see quite a few similarities, at least on the surface,
- 38:02Speaker 2: between Clia's case and the case of Kristen Smarts. Kristen's
- 38:06Speaker 2: case was finally solved after over twenty years. Kristin was
- 38:09Speaker 2: nineteen years old when she vanished in nineteen ninety six,
- 38:12Speaker 2: and over the years there was a person of interest,
- 38:15Speaker 2: a guy named Paul Flores. A lot of people believed
- 38:18Speaker 2: that he had assaulted Kristin and killed her, and that
- 38:21Speaker 2: her remains may be in his father's house, but no
- 38:25Speaker 2: one could prove it. But over the years, a lot
- 38:27Speaker 2: of people looked at that house as a place of interest,
- 38:31Speaker 2: and like in Clea's case, police did go in in
- 38:35Speaker 2: the year two thousand. They executed a search warrant, and
- 38:38Speaker 2: just like in Clia's case, they used ground penetrating radar,
- 38:41Speaker 2: but they didn't dig up the backyard and they didn't
- 38:44Speaker 2: find anything. Then years later, in twenty twenty one, detectives
- 38:48Speaker 2: went back to the house again and this time they
- 38:51Speaker 2: did dig up the backyard. They found evidence linked to
- 38:54Speaker 2: Kristen Smart buried under the deck. I only mention this
- 38:59Speaker 2: because a lot of people over the years have said, well,
- 39:01Speaker 2: they've searched there, They've used ground penetrating radar, they didn't
- 39:06Speaker 2: find anything. So we can't rule out the possibility that
- 39:10Speaker 2: there could be secrets buried in that backyard or somewhere
- 39:13Speaker 2: else in that house. So if something did happen to
- 39:17Speaker 2: Cleia in the house that night, why would Larry Amos
- 39:20Speaker 2: or someone in his family want to hurt her. Well,
- 39:24Speaker 2: one potential motive could be something related to money, because,
- 39:27Speaker 2: as some of you may know, in my other podcast,
- 39:29Speaker 2: Red Collar, I talk a lot about financial fraud and
- 39:31Speaker 2: how financial fraud can lead to murder, and there are
- 39:35Speaker 2: a lot of red flags in Larry Amos's background related
- 39:38Speaker 2: to fraud. He has filed for multiple bankruptcies and in
- 39:42Speaker 2: two thousand and eight he was run another organization called
- 39:45Speaker 2: Progressive Southeast Arkansas. It was supposed to be a housing
- 39:49Speaker 2: development corporation where he would build houses with this federal
- 39:53Speaker 2: grant money he got, but actually what he did was
- 39:57Speaker 2: just scam the government because the only houses that he
- 40:01Speaker 2: sold he ended up selling a house to his own
- 40:05Speaker 2: daughter at a huge discount. And according to these court papers,
- 40:09Speaker 2: a lot of the other homes that he built were
- 40:12Speaker 2: badly constructed or never built at all. And these court
- 40:15Speaker 2: papers alleged that he took the money and just kind
- 40:17Speaker 2: of ran and left people without homes. So, if Clia
- 40:21Speaker 2: was the person handling the books, could she have seen
- 40:24Speaker 2: something she wasn't supposed to see. Could she have seen
- 40:26Speaker 2: some shady stuff she didn't like? Could they have gotten
- 40:29Speaker 2: into an argument, or could Cliah have gotten into conflict
- 40:33Speaker 2: with someone else inside the house that night, someone who
- 40:37Speaker 2: was never mentioned in the original police documents, because remember
- 40:41Speaker 2: we don't have access to the case fall, we don't
- 40:43Speaker 2: have a confirmed list of who was there, and Larry
- 40:46Speaker 2: Amos over the years has not been forthcoming. One person
- 40:50Speaker 2: who has been mentioned over the years, though he was
- 40:53Speaker 2: never officially a person of interest, was Larry Amos's older son, Omar.
- 40:58Speaker 2: Omar Amos was in his twenties at the time when
- 41:00Speaker 2: Clea went missing. He didn't live with Larry and his
- 41:03Speaker 2: wife Patricia, but he did live in a house close by,
- 41:06Speaker 2: so he was over there a lot. Omar has his
- 41:09Speaker 2: own dark past. He later was arrested for assaulting a
- 41:12Speaker 2: female victim. So I do wonder could Larry Amos or
- 41:17Speaker 2: his son, or someone else, maybe someone hanging out with
- 41:19Speaker 2: his son or with another family member, have made some
- 41:22Speaker 2: kind of a move on Cleia and she refused their
- 41:24Speaker 2: sexual advances. Or did one of Larry's relatives do something
- 41:29Speaker 2: to Clia, something that their father may have helped them
- 41:32Speaker 2: clean up. Sadly, we can't ask Omar. In July of
- 41:36Speaker 2: twenty twenty, Omar was beaten to death in his own
- 41:39Speaker 2: home in Pine Bluff, just five miles away from his
- 41:42Speaker 2: dad's house on Bossett Road. Over the years, Laurel has
- 41:49Speaker 2: told people that she has a recurring dream about Clia.
- 41:53Speaker 2: In that dream, Clia is sitting in Larry Amos's bathtub,
- 41:58Speaker 2: her hands are tied, She's screaming for her mom to
- 42:01Speaker 2: help her. Laurel knows it's just a dream, but it
- 42:05Speaker 2: seems like her subconscious is screaming that there is something
- 42:09Speaker 2: bothering her about Larry Amos and about that house. Laurel
- 42:13Speaker 2: has confessed that she feels guilty. She of course asked
- 42:15Speaker 2: herself why that night, Why did she fall asleep, even
- 42:19Speaker 2: though there was no way she could have known what
- 42:21Speaker 2: was going on. And to me, the fact that Clia
- 42:24Speaker 2: did not call her mother back means that whatever happened
- 42:27Speaker 2: to her probably happened between eight and around eight thirty pm.
- 42:31Speaker 2: So we have to answer the question what happened inside
- 42:34Speaker 2: that house. I believe this case is solvable. I believe
- 42:39Speaker 2: someone knows something. Every year, Laurel, Willie and the rest
- 42:42Speaker 2: of the family released balloons in pink, Clia's favorite color,
- 42:46Speaker 2: on her birthday, March thirtieth. They do the same thing
- 42:50Speaker 2: on May ninth, the day she went missing. Laurel said quote,
- 42:55Speaker 2: she was just somebody that had a light that meant something.
- 42:58Speaker 2: She had goals and she had dreams just like everybody else.
- 43:02Speaker 2: And our family had dreams and goals for her too,
- 43:05Speaker 2: And so somewhere we're missing out on seeing what our
- 43:08Speaker 2: life could have been end quote. I'm Catherine Townsend. This
- 43:14Speaker 2: is Helen Gone. Murder Line. Helen Gone is a production
- 43:24Speaker 2: of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
- 43:27Speaker 2: narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
- 43:32Speaker 2: Music is by Ben so Lee and this episode was
- 43:35Speaker 2: scored by Miranda Hawkins. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
- 43:40Speaker 2: and Elsie Crowley. If you have a case you'd like
- 43:48Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
- 43:50Speaker 2: out to us at six seven eight seven four four
- 43:54Speaker 2: six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four
- 43:58Speaker 2: four six one four five.
- 44:04Speaker 1: School of Humans