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Transcript

A Little Less Mess: The Halloween Murder of Rebekah Gay [Michigan] · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the True
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Crime Podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm Cara, just Cara. Welcome to A Little Less Mess.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: These are our weekly mini episodes where we travel outside
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the South and to visit a little chaos somewhere else
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: besides these old southern states. Now today we're heading up
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: to central Michigan for a case that began on Halloween
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: morning in 2012 when a young woman didn't arrive at
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: work and a co-worker went to her home to check
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: on her. But before we get into this week's episode,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: let's go over our weekly schedule. So on Mondays or
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: sometimes Tuesdays, I put out these mini episodes. And then
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on Thursdays is for our regular full-length cases right here
• 0:58
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• 1:00
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• 1:04
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  Speaker 2: as well as weekly true crime documentary recommendations. And as always,
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• 1:30
  Speaker 2: wherever you're listening. Alright, that's enough of that now. Let's
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: go ahead and get into today's episode. Rebecca Gay grew
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: up in Midland, Michigan and graduated from Bullock Creek High
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: School in 2007. After high school, she attended a cosmetology
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: school and then went on to work at a hair salon.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: She later took a job at the Goodwill store in
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  Speaker 2: Mount Pleasant, where she had recently been promoted to management. Now,
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  Speaker 2: by October 2012, Rebecca was 24 and living with her
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  Speaker 2: three-year-old son, Conway, in a mobile home community in Broomfield Township,
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  Speaker 2: about 11 miles west of Mount Pleasant. Conway's father was
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  Speaker 2: involved in his life, and Rebecca had help with child
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  Speaker 2: care from someone close to the family. His name was
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  Speaker 2: John Douglas White, and he lived nearby and was engaged
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to her mother. He regularly watched Conway while Rebecca worked
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and helped take him to meet his dad. White was
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  Speaker 2: 55 and the pastor of Christ Community Fellowship, a small
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  Speaker 2: church in nearby Deerfield Township. Between his relationship with Rebecca's
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  Speaker 2: mother and his role looking after Conway, he was a
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: familiar presence around their home. Rebecca also had a boyfriend.
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  Speaker 2: His name was Aaron Quinn. For Halloween, they planned to
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  Speaker 2: take Conway trick-or-treating together. She had decorated her home and
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Conway had his costume all ready to go. But before
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  Speaker 2: those evening plans, Rebecca was expected at work. On the
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: morning of October 31st, she didn't arrive at Goodwill. A
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: co-worker went to her home to check on her, but
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  Speaker 2: Rebecca couldn't be found. As her mother and friends learned
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: what was happening, they began trying to figure out where
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  Speaker 2: she had gone. Conway was safe. White had dressed him
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: in his Halloween costume that morning and taken him to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a store where his father picked him up. With Rebecca
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  Speaker 2: still unaccounted for, police began investigating her disappearance. White was
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: among the people talking about it around the mobile home community.
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  Speaker 2: He spoke with a neighbor named Matt Brown and told
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: him Rebecca was missing. He also said her car had
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: been found outside a bar. During the conversation, Brown noticed
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: scratches on White's face. They looked to him like marks
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  Speaker 2: from a struggle, although he did not know what had
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  Speaker 2: caused them. John White also contacted Donna Houghton, an elder
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  Speaker 2: at his church. Christ Community Fellowship had roughly 14 members,
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  Speaker 2: and Houghton had helped bring him in as a pastor
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  Speaker 2: about three years earlier. He asked her to contact the
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  Speaker 2: other church members so they could pray for Rebecca's safe return.
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  Speaker 2: He sounded shaken and told her police were giving him
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  Speaker 2: a hard time. Houghton believed he was innocent. From her perspective,
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  Speaker 2: someone connected to his family was missing, and investigators were
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  Speaker 2: questioning him while everyone was worried about where she could be.
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  Speaker 2: Police continued speaking with John White. By November 1st, the
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: day after Rebecca disappeared, he admitted that he had killed her.
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  Speaker 2: He then led investigators to her body, about half a
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  Speaker 2: mile from her home. His confession explained what had happened
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  Speaker 2: before Conway was picked up that Halloween morning. White said
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  Speaker 2: he had been thinking about killing Rebecca for almost two weeks.
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  Speaker 2: He described a sexual fantasy involving having sex with her
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  Speaker 2: body after she was dead. During the early hours of
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  Speaker 2: October 31st, he drank about four to five beers. At
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  Speaker 2: approximately 2 a.m., he went to her trailer. Conway was
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  Speaker 2: asleep in the next room. White attacked Rebecca with a mallet,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: striking her repeatedly in the head. He then strangled her
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  Speaker 2: with a zip tie. Afterward, he removed her clothing. He
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  Speaker 2: admitted what he had intended to do, but claimed he
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  Speaker 2: could not remember whether he carried out the sexual act.
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  Speaker 2: He attributed his fantasies to pornography he had watched. White
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  Speaker 2: used his pickup truck to move Rebecca's body. He also
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  Speaker 2: removed the mallet and bloody towels from her home. After
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  Speaker 2: leaving her body nearby, he returned to the trailer. A
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  Speaker 2: few hours later, he got Conway dressed in his costume
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  Speaker 2: and took him to meet his father. White already knew
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  Speaker 2: what had happened when he spoke with neighbors about Rebecca
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  Speaker 2: being missing and asked his congregation to pray for her.
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  Speaker 2: On November 1st, he was charged with first-degree murder and
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  Speaker 2: held without bond. When Houghton learned that he had confessed,
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  Speaker 2: she stopped defending him. She and the other church members
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  Speaker 2: had trusted him, but they had not believed he was
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  Speaker 2: a man without a past. They knew he had been
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: in prison. They thought he had changed. His criminal history
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  Speaker 2: included earlier violence against women. In 1981, he received probation
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  Speaker 2: for choking and stabbing a 17-year-old girl in Battle Creek.
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  Speaker 2: Years later, he was convicted of manslaughter in the death
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  Speaker 2: of 26-year-old Vicki Wall in Kalamazoo County. He spent nearly
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  Speaker 2: 12 years in prison before his release in 2007. After
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  Speaker 2: leaving prison, he became involved with Christ Community Fellowship. Houghton
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  Speaker 2: believed he was remorseful and that his faith had helped
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  Speaker 2: him turn his life around. He had helped members with
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: work around their homes. Shortly before Rebecca's death, he had
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: cleaned Houghton's gutters and used the job as the basis
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: for a sermon about examining what people allowed to grow
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  Speaker 2: inside themselves. Those were the kind of interactions she had
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  Speaker 2: before his arrest. White's case moved through Isabella County's court
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: system over the following months. In January 2013, he waived
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: his preliminary hearing, allowing the case to move forward without it.
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  Speaker 2: On March 28th, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder rather
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  Speaker 2: than going to trial on the original first-degree murder charge.
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  Speaker 2: He also admitted his status as a habitual third offender
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  Speaker 2: because of his previous conviction. The plea agreement established a
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  Speaker 2: minimum sentencing threshold of 45.8 years. The judge could impose
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  Speaker 2: a longer minimum, and White would have to serve that
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  Speaker 2: minimum before he could be considered for parole. At his
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  Speaker 2: sentencing on April 18th, Judge Paul Chamberlain considered both Rebecca's
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  Speaker 2: murder and White's history of attacking women. He sentenced White
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  Speaker 2: to 675 months. That's 56 years and 3 months to
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  Speaker 2: a maximum of 85 years in prison. White received credit
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  Speaker 2: for 169 days he had already spent in custody. He
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: served only a few months after sentencing. On August 28th, 2013,
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  Speaker 2: White died by suicide in his cell at the Michigan
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  Speaker 2: Reformatory in Ionia. He was 56. Attempts to resuscitate him
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  Speaker 2: were unsuccessful. And that's this week's case for A Little
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Less Mess. Don't forget to check out our regular episodes
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: on Thursdays with Stu and me. And check out our
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Patreon so you can listen to our fun Friday episodes, sitting, sipping,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: and bullshitting. where we just chit-chat and we talk about
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: a true crime documentary usually. Sometimes we have funny stories.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It's just, it's exactly what it sounds like.
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  Speaker 1: It's bullshitting.
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  Speaker 2: Until next time, stay safe. Lock your doors and keep
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  Speaker 2: that porch light on. Bye, everyone.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you know it's bad luck to be superstitious? But
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: nothing else is working and my head is really hurting.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sick of all this worrying about things I can't control.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: These things I can't control.