Latest / Crime and Horror / They made a gruesome discovery in a Target parking lot - MrBallen

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They made a gruesome discovery in a Target parking lot - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In June of 2005, a customer at a gas station
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in Derry, New Hampshire carried a prepaid cell phone to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the counter. They paid for it in cash, and then
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: afterwards they went out to their car and cut open
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the packaging. Then once they had the phone, they dialed
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a number to activate it. But when the customer service
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: rep asked for their name, the customer hesitated because the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: whole reason they'd bought this prepaid phone in the first
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: place was specifically so nobody could trace the calls back
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to their real identity. But before we get into today's story,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: If you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
• 0:31
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• 0:34
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• 0:37
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• 0:40
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• 0:43
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• 0:45
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• 0:48
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• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: On an afternoon in June of 2005, a 57-year-old truck
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: driver named Jack Reed took a sip of his margarita
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: at a barbecue in a park in Derry, New Hampshire. Now,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: he usually didn't drink, but today he was celebrating. It
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was his daughter Megan's high school graduation party. And this
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was a big deal for Jack. He'd grown up in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the foster care system with nothing, and he'd worked really
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: hard to ensure that his kids were set up for
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a better life than he had. So he was just
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: really proud of Megan for making the right choices and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: finishing school. Now, he looked over and he saw Megan
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sitting at a picnic table with her brother, Jack Jr.,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and also their mother, Virginia. Even though he and Virginia
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: were not together anymore, they were still on good terms,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and he was glad the whole family could.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Be there for this special occasion.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But then, Jack tensed up as he spotted somebody else
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: who was walking across the grass toward them, Megan's boyfriend, Walter. So,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Megan and Walter had moved in together recently, and Jack
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was definitely not thrilled about it. He didn't have anything
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: against Walter in particular, but His daughter was just 18
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: years old, and he thought that she was definitely too
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: young to be living with a boyfriend. But Jack didn't
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: want to pick a fight about it on a day
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: like this.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So instead, he.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Actually got up and walked over to Walter and gave
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: him a big friendly hug and said he was glad
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to see him. Then they both sat down at the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: table and joined the family's conversation. And as Jack took
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: another sip of his margarita, he actually felt himself relax.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: That evening, after the party was over.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Jack drove his car home and stopped at a gas
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: station along the way. He parked at the pump, he
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: went inside, and then passed the cashier a few bills
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: for a tank of gas and also a lottery ticket.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Jack was a regular lottery player. And even though he'd
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: never won anything particularly big, he was always hoping that
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: one day he.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Would hit the jackpot and strike it rich.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So he put the ticket in his pocket and then
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: went back outside and filled up his car. Then he
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: got in his car and he drove a few more
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: blocks to his home. which was a trailer parked behind
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a warehouse on the edge of town. And one big
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: reason Jack chose to live here was because there was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: plenty of room to park all of his work vehicles,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: including a large red and black dump truck. After years
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: of working as a truck driver, Jack had built his
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: own trucking business from the ground up. He did garbage
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: removal and moving and other odd jobs.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And he was making a decent living.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But he still lived frugally in his rented trailer so
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: he could save up for retirement. His goal was to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: save enough so that in a couple of years, once
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Jack Jr. was done with school, he could leave the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: cold New Hampshire winters behind and.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Move to sunny, beautiful Las Vegas.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: He'd gotten the idea a couple of years ago when
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: he'd done a moving job for a local self-made millionaire
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: who was moving from New Hampshire to Vegas. He saw
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the millionaire as a huge success story, and he believed
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: that if he worked hard enough, or maybe got lucky enough,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: he could follow in this same path. Now, Jack got
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: out of his car and he walked over to his trailer...
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: He opened up the door and he went inside. He
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: turned on the lights and he was just about to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: sit down to take off his shoes when he heard
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: a noise outside.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Immediately, he went to the window and pulled back the.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Curtains and he looked outside into the woods behind the property,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: but he didn't see anything.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Still, he felt his heart racing and he actually had
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: So almost two years ago, there'd been an incident where
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Jack heard someone creeping around outside his trailer. He grabbed
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: his gun and went out to confront them. and he'd
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: seen a man standing at the edge of the woods.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: The man had stared right at him, and actually called
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: out his name.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Jack had actually fired.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: His gun at this man, who then ran away into
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the woods and never came back. But Jack had never
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: figured out what the encounter was about. As far as
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: he knew, he didn't have any enemies, so it really
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: just didn't make any sense. But again, since this strange
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: guy was never caught, Jack was still very on edge
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: whenever he heard strange noises outside and around his trailer. Now,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: as he looked out the window and He felt sure
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: that there was nobody there. Jack closed the curtains and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: took the lottery ticket out of his pocket. He sat
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: down at the table and he started scratching off the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: silver foil with a coin. And he was not a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: winner this time. But it didn't dampen his mood. Next time,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: he knew might be his lucky break. A couple of
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: weeks later, on the morning of Monday, June 27th, Jack
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: climbed up into his dump truck and rolled down the windows.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: It was already pretty hot outside.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And he was on his way to the only job
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: he had lined up for that day, a trash disposal
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: gig that would likely only take a few hours. So
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: he started the truck, and as he pulled out onto
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the road, his cell phone rang. He answered it, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a man spoke, and said his name was Charlie, and
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: that he had heard Jack did some work hauling stuff away,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and that he had this new barn that really needed
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to be cleaned out, and could Jack do it? Jack
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: said sure, he could actually do it that afternoon. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: then he grabbed his logbook off the passenger seat, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: he flipped to a blank page, and he scribbled down
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Charlie's name and address, which was in Deerfield, almost 30
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: miles away. Jack told Charlie he would let him know
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: as soon as he was on the way, and then
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the two men hung up. Around 3 p.m. that afternoon,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Jack drove down a very secluded two-lane road in Deerfield.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: It was sweltering outside, and he was already.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Exhausted and dripping with sweat from his trash disposal gig
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: that morning. He had no idea what to expect going
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: into this barn cleaning job with this guy Charlie. but
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: he was hoping it wouldn't take too long. Jack slowed
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: down as the trees to his right parted, and a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: gravel driveway appeared. He turned onto the driveway, and a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: few seconds later, he pulled up right outside of a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: white two-story house with a big barn out back. Jack
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: parked his dump truck and walked right.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Up to the front door.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: He rang the doorbell, and a moment later, the door opened.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Two days later, on the afternoon of June 29th, Jack's daughter, Megan,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and her boyfriend, Walter, walked up to the front door
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of Jack's trailer. Megan noticed that Jack's dump truck was
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: not parked outside, which seemed wrong, and so she immediately
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: felt this knot in her stomach. About an hour earlier,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Megan had gotten a call from her mother, Virginia, saying
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that Jack had not shown up to a job that
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: morning and he was not answering his phone. This was
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: unlike him, so Megan had said that she and Walter
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: would just go over to his trailer and make sure
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: he was okay. Now, initially, Megan had assumed her dad
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: had just overslept or maybe forgot about the job. But
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: now it looked like he'd actually left for work because
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the dump truck wasn't there, but never actually made it
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to the job. But nonetheless, Megan knocked on the trailer
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: door just to be sure her dad really wasn't home.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And there was no answer. And so at this point,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Megan called her mom to tell her what she had
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: seen and, you know, the fact that her dad wasn't here.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And she also told her mom that she was starting
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: to feel pretty worried. And then a few minutes later,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Virginia pulled up in her car. Megan, Walter, and Virginia
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: all just stayed there right at the trailer all afternoon,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: hoping that maybe Jack would just show up at some point.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: And the whole time they're calling him over and over again,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: but it just kept going straight to voicemail. And then finally,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: around 6.30 p.m., when still they had not seen or
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: heard from Jack, they decided it was time to call
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the police. On Tuesday, July 5th, so six days after
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Jack was reported missing by his family, Derry police detective
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Mike Houle pulled into the parking lot of a Target
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: store about an hour's drive south in Saugus, Massachusetts.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Houle slowed down and began a sort of.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Slow roll through the rows of cars, keeping an eye
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: out for one particular vehicle. Houle was in charge of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Jack's missing persons case, which had not really been going
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: anywhere so far. According to his family, the last time
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: anybody had seen or heard from Jack was actually on
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: June 27th, so two days before He was reported missing
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to the police. But his family could not think of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: anywhere Jack might have gone or anybody who might want.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: To hurt him.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So initially, Houle had figured that Jack must have just
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: driven off for some time.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Alone and that he would just come home sooner or later.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But that morning, he'd gotten another call from Jack's daughter, Megan.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: She said the family had put up all these missing
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: posters around town for Jack. And somebody had called her
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and said they actually saw Jack's dump truck at this
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: particular target in Saugus, more than 40 miles away from Derry. Now,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: this tip was unique enough that Houle decided he would
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: just drive out and take.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: A look for himself.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And now, as he slowly made his way towards the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: back of this parking lot, he saw it. A red
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and black dump truck parked near the back corner. So,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Houle stopped his car and he walked over to look
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: at this truck. And right away, he saw the license
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: plate confirmed this truck was definitely Jack's. When Houle peeked
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: in the driver's side window, though, he didn't see anybody inside.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: But there were flies buzzing around the back of the truck,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: basically the open section of the dump truck. There was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: something in there the flies were attracted to. And there
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was also very clearly a rotten, awful smell wafting out
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of the back of this truck. And so Houle put
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: on some gloves and he climbed up the side of
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the dump truck. Now, the actual bed of this dump
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: truck was covered by a tarp. And so Houle grabbed
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the tarp and he pulled it back, but he still
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: did not have an unobstructed view because whatever was in
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the bed was also wrapped in plastic and.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Quite a bit of it.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Pulled out a knife, and began cutting through the plastic.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Less than an hour later, Detective Houle stood by as
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: workers from the medical examiner's office loaded Jack's body into
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: their van, and he was still wrapped up in plastic.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Houle really wanted to get a look at Jack's body
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: to figure out how he died, but that would require
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: cutting through all the plastic that he was wrapped in,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and Houle knew he needed to leave all that intact
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: for evidentiary purposes, so he'd just have to wait until
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the autopsy to find out the cause of death here.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: But from the way Jack's body had been disposed of,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: hidden in a parking lot 40 miles from his house,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Houle was already guessing that this was one, a murder,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and two, it was carefully planned, probably by somebody that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Jack knew. Houle had already found out from the family
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that Jack had five children with two different women.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: And so he figured there could.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Be some hidden tensions between any of them. But he
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: also thought the murder could be tied to Jack's business. Now,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: as far as Jack's family knew, everything Jack did with
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: his business was above board. But it's entirely possible that
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: he might have gotten involved with sketchy people or maybe
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: done something that made a client angry that the family
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: didn't know about.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Also, I mean, leaving Jack's dead.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Body in the back of his own dump truck definitely
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: seemed like a way to send a message. So once
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the forensics team had taken photos and swabbed the truck
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: for DNA and fingerprints, Poole pulled on a pair of
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: latex gloves and opened up the driver's side door. There
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: was no blood inside the cabin of the truck, no
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: sign of a weapon, and really nothing that.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Struck him as unusual or helpful.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: That is, until he saw the logbook that was tucked
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: into a pocket on the passenger side door. He reached
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: for it, pulled it out, and began to flip through it,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and he saw there was a list of all of
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Jack's appointments, along with the names, addresses, and phone numbers
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: of the clients who had hired him. The last job
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that was recorded in this book was on the morning
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: of June.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: 27th, back in Derry, where Jack lived.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Now, there were no other jobs noted down for that day,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: but a couple of pages later, on an otherwise blank page,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Houle found an entry that Jack seemed to have scribbled
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: down in a rush. It was just an address, 145
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: North Road, no town listed, and the name was just
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Charlie for the client. Houle placed the logbook inside of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: an evidence bag and he sealed it. And then, as
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: he sort of looked around the area, he noticed all
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the security cameras on light posts all over the parking lot.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: And there happened to be one that was pointing directly
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: at Jack's truck. Did you know that the average employer
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: has to sort through roughly 250 resumes per job opening?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, talk about time consuming. Well, if you're hiring,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: here's some good news.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You can now review all of these resumes and applications
• 13:02
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• 13:06
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• 13:12
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• 13:17
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• 13:21
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• 13:23
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• 13:26
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• 13:29
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• 13:32
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• 13:35
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• 13:43
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• 13:57
  Speaker 1: The next day, so Wednesday, July 6th, Houle was back
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: at the precinct in Derry, reading over an autopsy report
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that had just been sent over from the Massachusetts Medical Examiner.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: The description in the report said that Jack had been
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: severely beaten. He had broken ribs, skull fractures, and a
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: softball-sized hole in the side of his head. His face
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: had been so mangled that they'd actually had to pull
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Jack's dental records to confirm that it was actually him.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Houle thought this level of violence definitely made this murder
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: feel really personal. And it only made him more confident
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that Jack's killer or killers was somebody who knew him.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Just then, Houle heard a knock at his door. And
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: he looked up as an officer peeked his head into
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Houle's office and asked him to come take a look
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: at something. So Houle stood up from his desk and...
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And he followed the officer down the hallway to another
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: room where a team of investigators were pouring over that
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: security footage from the Target parking lot. Houle watched over
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: their shoulders as the investigators pulled up a specific clip.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And he could see from the timestamp in the corner
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of the screen that this footage was from around 5.30 p.m.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: on June 27th, which was the day of the last
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: job written in Jack's logbook. Once it was up on
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the screen, Houle nodded for the investigators to press play.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: And then he watched as the footage played on screen.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And it showed Jack's dump truck pulling into the parking lot,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: followed closely by a white minivan. After Jack's truck parked,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: two people got out of the truck. And unfortunately, it
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: was impossible to identify really anything about these people.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: They couldn't tell if they were men or women or
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: man and woman. It was just totally unclear.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: However, there was one thing that was definitely true about
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: these people. And it was what they were actually doing.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: They were clearly dumping Jack's body. One of them went
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: around to the back of the dump truck and checked
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to make sure that tarp was secure. And then they
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: both walked over to the white minivan, got in and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: drove away. And so Hull's mind was racing now because
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: it looked like there were at least three people involved
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in Jack's murder. There were the two people that were
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: just out and about sort of dealing with the truck
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: and then whoever was driving the white minivan. But another
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: unfortunate reality was this footage was so fuzzy that they
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't even pull the license plate for that minivan. And
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Houle was naturally pretty frustrated by that. But then the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: investigator said there was actually one more thing he wanted
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to show him, and he pulled up another portion of
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: security video. This one was from the evening of July 4th,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: which was seven days after Jack's dump truck was left
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: abandoned in the parking lot, and one day before police, i.e.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Houle, found the truck parked in that lot.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: The investigator told Houle that this footage he was about
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: to see.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Was from a different security camera.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Which was positioned on the other side of the parking
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: lot from where the dump truck was parked. And then
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: when he hit play, he directed Houle's attention to one
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: particular car pulling into the parking lot. Now, the angle
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: on this car was much closer, so there was a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: lot more detail visible than in the first video. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: as Houle watched, he saw what clearly was a young
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: woman get out of the passenger seat and walk toward
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the store.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Houle leaned in close and squinted, and he realized he
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: knew this woman. because it was Jack's own daughter, Megan.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Later that day, Houle walked into an interrogation room in
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the Derry police station, where Megan was waiting for him.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: When Houle walked in, he made.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: A point to shake her hand and smile, acting as
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: friendly and sympathetic as possible. He did not want to
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: let on that he was looking at her as a suspect,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: so he didn't mention that they had video of her
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: in the same parking lot where Jack's body was found,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: just a day before they found it. But as they
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: started talking, Megan actually brought it up herself that she
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: happened to have been in the exact same lot that
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: her father was ultimately found in. She said she had
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: been shocked when she found out, one, that her father
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: was dead, of course, but also that he was dumped
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: in that Target lot.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: She had been there recently. She said her boyfriend Walter's
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: sister lived in Saugus and they had visited her for
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the 4th of July in an attempt to get their
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: mind off their father's disappearance because at the time, you know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: he had not been found yet.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Megan said they had unexpectedly decided to spend the night there,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: so they had driven to the nearest Target to get
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a contacts case. And when she said that, she just
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: shook her head and said she couldn't believe her dad
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: had basically been right there.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: She was so close to him.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Hull had to admit, this story did not sound totally crazy.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: After all, in the security video.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Megan didn't go anywhere near the actual part of the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: lot where Jack's truck was parked. Still, he had a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: hard time believing that this was just one big coincidence.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Especially because when he was reviewing what Megan had told
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the police when she had first reported her father missing,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: he realized that she had said she last saw her
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: dad on the night of Monday, June 27th, when she
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and her boyfriend Walter had gone to his place to
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: pick up an air conditioner. But now, Hull knew that
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: was impossible because the security video showed that Jack was
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: already dead in the parking lot on the night of
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: June 27th.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So during this interview with.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Megan, Hull asked Megan again, when was the last time
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you saw your father? And once again, without missing a beat,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: she said it was the night of June 27th. Hull
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: asked her if she was positive about the date, and
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: she said, yes, absolutely. So without tipping his hand that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: he felt like for sure Megan was lying here, Hull
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: let her go and immediately called in her boyfriend, Walter,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: who had been waiting in the hallway. According to Megan,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Walter was the one who actually drove her to that
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Target in Saugus. Hull wanted to question the couple separately
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: so he could see if there were any contradictions in
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: their stories.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: But when he spoke to.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Walter, Walter repeated the exact same things Megan had said
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: about why they were in the area and why they
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: went to that Target to get a contacts case. Walter
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: also included the detail about the last time they saw
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Jack being the night of the 27th. So basically, Walter
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and Megan's stories are the same. But to Hull, the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: only thing he thought when he heard this consistency is
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: that clearly what's happened here is Megan and Walter have
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: rehearsed this story because it is their alibi. But they
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: don't realize there was time-stamped security footage that would contradict it.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: The following afternoon.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Houle sat at his desk, combing through a copy of
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Jack's phone records. He'd sent officers out that morning to
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: interview all of Megan's family and friends to see if
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: they knew anything that could really help them pin the
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: blame on Megan.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: And they quickly learned.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: That Megan and Walter had moved in together recently, and
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Jack did not approve. So, Houle began to wonder, you know,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: maybe the young couple might have killed Jack so he
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: would stay out of their way. Now, Megan, at some
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: point here, found out from her friends who were being
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: spoken to that clearly Megan was being investigated. And Megan
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: had already called Houle to revise her testimony. She was
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: now claiming that actually the last time she saw her
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: dad was on the night of the 26th, not the 27th.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: But Houle didn't buy that she and Walter had both
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: made the same mistake about the date. They both seemed
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: really confident when they said 27th. And so Houle was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: hoping that if he could just retrace Jack's steps on
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the day of his death, he'd find some proof that
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Megan and Walter were somehow involved. Houle had already called
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: around to check on the last scheduled job in Jack's logbook,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: which was on the morning of June 27th. And that
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: client had confirmed that Jack was definitely there, and security
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: footage from the local dump had shown Jack dropping off
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the trash afterwards around 2 p.m.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: But that left about a three-hour.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Gap on the afternoon of June 27th where Jack's whereabouts
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: were unaccounted for. And really, Jack had to have been
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: killed sometime in that window.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: So now Houle hoped.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: That Jack's phone records might help him figure out where
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Jack went after leaving the dump that afternoon. Houle had
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: been able to match most of the phone numbers that
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Jack dialed or received calls from to contacts in Jack's logbook,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: except for one. On the morning of June 27th, he
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: had gotten a call from a number that wasn't anywhere
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in his contacts list. And at 2.07 that afternoon, while
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Jack was finishing up at the dump and just a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: few hours before his dead body was left in a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Target parking lot, he'd gotten a second call from that
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: same number. And so now, Houle called that number, but
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: it went straight to voicemail. So he called the cell
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: provider and asked them to look up who this number
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: belonged to. And he found out it was registered to
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: a man named Charlie Woz.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: And suddenly, something clicked in Houle's mind.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And so he reached over and he grabbed Jack's logbook
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and he flipped to the page where Jack had scribbled
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: down that address, 145 North Road, and also the name Charlie.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: This Charlie.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: may be the same Charlie who called from that unknown number.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: And also, this Charlie may have been the last person
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: to see Jack alive. Or maybe Charlie was the one
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: who killed him. The cell provider employee also told Houle
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that that number came from a prepaid phone, the kind
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you can buy at a convenience store and load minutes
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: onto without signing up for a long-term contract, and that
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: it had been activated on June 19th, just eight days
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: before Jack's murder. Hull asked the worker to send over
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a full copy of the prepaid phone call's records, and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: then they hung up. Then Hull logged onto the police
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: database and looked up the name Charlie Waz.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: But he didn't find anything.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: No criminal records or driver's licenses or car registrations. And
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: so Hull had a feeling that this had to be
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: a fake name, that there was no Charlie Waz. And
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: what seemed to confirm that even further was when he
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: looked up that address, the 145 North Road that was
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: in the book next to the word Charlie, There was
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: no Charlie affiliated with that property at all. The owner
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of 145 North Road was somebody called Michael Connors, but
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: that name didn't mean anything to Houle, and it certainly
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't Charlie.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: So, Houle stood up from his desk and he grabbed
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: his car keys.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: It was time to go talk with whoever actually lived
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: at 145 North Road. Did you know that Fast Growing
• 23:58
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• 24:02
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• 24:34
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• 24:43
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• 24:46
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• 24:51
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• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Terms and conditions may apply. Less than an hour later,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Detective Houle pulled onto a gravel driveway at 145 North Road,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the address of the secluded farm scribbled in Jack Reed's logbook.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: He parked his car, and he walked up to the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: big white house, and he rang the doorbell. And the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: middle-aged man who answered the door seemed very calm and composed,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: until Houle showed him his badge. Then the man started
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: acting really jumpy. As they stood in the doorway, Houle
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: asked the man if he was Michael Connors, and the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: man nodded and said yes. Houle asked if he knew
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a man named Jack Reed, and Michael quickly said no.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: And when Houle asked why his address was in Jack
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Reed's logbook, Michael stammered out that he didn't know. It
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: seemed fairly obvious to Houle already that Michael clearly knew
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: more than he was admitting to. And so he asked
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Michael where he'd been on the afternoon of June 27th.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: And Michael, very nervously and very quickly, said that he
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: had spent all day doing repair work at a friend's
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: lake house 30 miles away, and he didn't get home
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: until late that night. And then he gave Houle the
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: names of a few other contractors who were also working
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: on these repairs who could verify his alibi. So Houle,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: without giving off how suspicious he felt of this guy,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: wrote down the contractors' names and contact information. And then,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: as calm as could be, he asked Michael if he
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: could take a look around, both inside his house and outside.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Michael, who looked pretty resigned.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: At this point, nodded and said yes, and then he
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: stepped aside. And so Houle walked into the house and
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: began walking from room to room. but he didn't see
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: any blood or anything really obviously suspicious. But then he
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: went outside, and he found this muddy path that led
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: over to the barn, which was only a short distance
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: from the main house. And when he reached the barn,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: he opened up the heavy wooden door, and sunlight flooded in.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Houle stepped inside, and right away he was struck by
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: how neat it was in here. He began looking behind
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the hay bales, and he shined his flashlights in the corners,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and he bent down to examine the dirt and the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: straw on the ground, but it was like the barn
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: was spotless, almost like the barn had recently been cleaned
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: really thoroughly. When Houle was done in the barn, he
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: went outside and walked back towards the main house. And
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: as he did, he saw Michael standing by the back door,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: staring right at him, like he had been really watching
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: him closely as he was over at the barn. And
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: so Houle walked over to Michael and very calmly, he
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: asked him one last question. Did he know anyone named
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Megan Reed?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: And Michael said, no.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: But the way he said it was noticeably less anxious,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: as if for really the first time he was telling
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the truth here. After that, as Houle walked back to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: his car to leave, he thought that even though he
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: hadn't found any hard evidence at this farm, Michael's weird
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: behavior seemed to be saying a lot. Later that day,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Houle hung up the phone in his office, feeling very frustrated.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: He called every single one of those contractors who Michael
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: had given him, and they.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Had all confirmed his alibi.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Michael had been doing repairs at his friend's house, you know,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: 30 miles away at the time of Jack's death. So,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Houle figured that, you know, Michael couldn't have been directly
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: involved in the murder, but based on his very suspicious behavior,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: it seemed like he probably knew something had happened on
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: his property, maybe while he was away. And this gave
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Houle something to work with, because it could mean that
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: at least one of Jack's three or more killers was
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: close enough with Michael that Michael was willing to lie
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: to protect them.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: But that was about all he had to work with.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: There was no.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Obvious link between Michael Connors and Jack's daughter Megan and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend Walter, who were still really his only real suspects.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: And so he was starting to think that maybe he'd
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: been looking in the wrong direction, and that Megan and.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Walter maybe weren't involved after all.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: It was still only a few days into the investigation,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and there were plenty of other potential suspects to dig into,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: like Jack's ex-partners and his adult children from his first relationship,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: and all the other clients in his logbook. But just then,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Houle's fax machine whirred to life. The cell provider was
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: finally sending over the call records from Charlie's prepaid phone.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Once it was done printing, Houle ripped the sheet out
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of the machine and began looking over the call log.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: The phone had only been activated a week before Jack's murder,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and it hadn't been used at all since the evening
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Jack was killed. And every single call that had been
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: made or received on that phone was to Jack's number,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: except for one. And when Houle looked into the owner
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: of that one other number, everything about the case began
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to fall into place. Based on those phone records, as
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: well as interviews with the various suspects, this is what
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: police believe happened to Jack Reed on June 27, 2005.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: That afternoon, while Jack's dump truck was pulling into the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: gravel driveway at 145 North Road, two of Jack's killers
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: were inside of that house waiting for him. One of
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: them was sitting on the couch, nervously tapping their feet.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: And then that killer looked up and saw their accomplice
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: staring right at them, looking very annoyed, like, stop tapping
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: your feet.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: And so they did. But just then, the doorbell rang.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: The calmer of the two killers walked over to answer it,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: while the more nervous one stayed on the couch. And
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the nervous one, they listened as the door opened, and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: they could hear the sound of their accomplice greeting Jack.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: And then a few seconds later, Jack walked into the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: living room. And the nervous killer, when they saw Jack,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: they kind of jumped to their feet and tried to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: act natural, but very likely they were acting incredibly nervous.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: But after a sort of awkward conversation between all three
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: of them, they left the main house and they walked
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: down that.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Dirt path towards the barn.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: As they walked, the killer, who'd been very nervous, sort
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of hung back, walking a few steps behind Jack. And
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: then as they got close to the barn, their heart
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: began to pound. I mean, they'd rehearsed this a dozen
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: times and they knew exactly what they had to do,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: But actually doing it was going to be the hard part.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Then the doors to the barn opened up.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And inside, Jack would have seen there were two more
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: people waiting for him. But before Jack could react, the
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: nervous killer leapt forward and tackled Jack to the ground.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: And then a second later, the nervous killer heard a
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: loud thump and looked up to see one of their
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: accomplices standing above them holding a hammer that was now
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: dripping with blood. The nervous killer climbed to their feet
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and looked down at Jack. who was now lying on
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the floor of the barn with a gaping hole in
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the side of his skull. It was so gruesome that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the nervous killer had to go outside and vomit.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: And then when they came back inside, the.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Other three had unrolled this big piece of plastic on
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the floor of the barn, and they were placing Jack's
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: body in the center of it. Blood was still pouring
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: out of his head, pooling into this big red puddle
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: on the plastic.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was so awful. Then one of the
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: killers grabbed the bloody hammer.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and said that if they could just stop Jack's heart,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: it would stop the bleeding. And so they raised the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: hammer and began pounding on Jack's chest. And after that,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the bleeding did slow down, and the four killers worked
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: together to wrap Jack's body in the plastic. Then, once
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: he was all wrapped up, they carried him outside and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: loaded his body into the back of his own dump truck.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: The killer who had first answered the door, the calmer
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of the killers, got in the driver's seat of the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: dump truck. And the nervous killer, the one who had
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: been tapping their foot, the one who had initially tackled
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Jack to the ground, they climbed into the passenger seat.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: The other two, the ones who had been waiting in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the barn, climbed into a minivan, and they followed behind
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: them as they drove all the way across state lines
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: to Saugus, Massachusetts, more than an hour away. When they
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: finally got to Saugus, they pulled into the first major
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: parking lot they came across, a Target store. They parked
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: the dump truck near the back of the lot, and
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: then when they got out, the nervous killer double-checked the
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: tarp to make sure it was secure... And then they,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: along with their calmer accomplice, walked across the lot to
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: the white minivan and they climbed inside. After that, all
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: four killers drove all the way back to New Hampshire
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to clean up the barn. Because the farm's owner, Michael Connors,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: expected it to be left in perfect condition. Now, Michael Connors,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the owner of the barn, was not directly involved.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: In the murder scheme.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: However, he did know that the mastermind of the murder
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: was going to be using his property while he was gone. However,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: he would testify that he did not know what they
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: were doing and just asked that they keep it clean
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: when he got back. Ultimately, the reason he allowed his
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: property to be used at all is because he was
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: doing a favor to the mastermind of the murder, who
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: was his longtime friend and business partner, and also the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: very same self-made Las Vegas millionaire that Jack Reed himself
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: had viewed as this big success story whose path in
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: life Jack was hoping to emulate. The millionaire's name was
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: John Brooks, and he believed that when Jack had helped
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: him move, it was a job he had done for
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: him a few years back, that Jack, during that move,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: had stolen some of his motorcycles and jewelry. Now, there
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: was no evidence to actually back this up, but John
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Brooks was convinced, and he held a grudge. So in retaliation,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: a few months after the move, Brooks had sent his
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: son Jesse to Jack's home to scare him.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: That's who Jack had spotted.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the night on his property almost
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: two years ago, the strange prowler who had literally called
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: out to Jack by name. But when Jack came outside
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: to confront him and literally fired a gun at Jesse,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Jesse and his dad did not stop what they were doing.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Instead, Brooks only got angrier and he vowed to get revenge.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: So he'd sent four people out to New Hampshire to
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: kill Jack.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: It was his son Jesse, Jesse's friend Michael Benton, who
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: was not the same as the Michael who owned the farm,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and the two other men who were named Joseph Vrooman
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: and Robin Knight. All five men were eventually convicted of
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: taking part in the murder. John Brooks was sentenced to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robin Knight
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: was also sentenced to life. Michael Benton, not Michael Connors,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the owner of the barn, so Michael Benton.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Got 33 years to life.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Joseph Vrooman was sentenced to between 17 and 35 years,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: and Jesse Brooks was sentenced to 15.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: To 30 years.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: He was released on parole in 2023.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.