Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess [Texas] Shelley Sikes

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A Little Less Mess [Texas] Shelley Sikes · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

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Hey, very well, welcome to bless Us Mess of the True Rum podcast.
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I'm karaj Kara. Welcome to a little Less Mess. It's our regular
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episodes without all of the banter and the humor and the opinions, opinions and
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all of the inappropriateness that we do on the regular episode. So the regular
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episode is me and my husband's STU and we go through the case everything you're
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about to here tonight, but we make jokes, we do things that upset
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some people, but you know, that's half the fun. So anyways,
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if you would like to check that out you those are our numbered episodes in
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our feed. You can go listen to those and if you like us,
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we can rate, review, subscribe. But really appreciate that. And then
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appreciate everyone who has supported us so far on there. And then also check
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picks a book each month and we read it. I do recipes, I
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do all sorts of things, our family, whatever comes up, all posted
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on there, So yeah, go check that out. And with that,
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let's get into this week's episode Out of Mississippi. Stacy Diane Panel was born
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September fifth, nineteen sixty seven, to Wiki and Judy in Mississippi. Stacy
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was the oldest of three a sister who was three years younger than her named
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Kim, and a brother who was ten years younger named Bradley. Stacy was
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described as fun to be around. She made friends very easily and just love
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life. She was tenderhearted and always wanted to help those less fortunate. Their
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family spent the summer's camping and being at the lake. Stacy's favorite song was
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Summer of sixty nine by Brian Adams. Stacy attended Ripley High School in Ripley,
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Mississippi, which is in the northern part of the state, almost into
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Tennessee. While in high school, Stacy was passionate about rifle drill team.
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This love of drill team would continue with her to college, where she was
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a member of the Tiger Marching band at Northeast Mississippi Junior College in Booneville,
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Mississippi. She was able to receive an academic scholarship to attend school after graduating
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fourth in her class of one hundred in high school. During high school,
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Stacy dated Ben Cox and they even became engaged her senior year. However,
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Stacy would break it off with him prior to starting college. She wanted the
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freedom to see where life took her. While Stacy was excited about this new
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chapter in her life, she was not quite ready to move from her home.
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Stacy's father, Wickie, was battling brain cancer, and she knew her
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time with him was limited. She wanted to commute to school so she could
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be close to him, but since she was a band member, she had
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to live on campus. Stacy moved into Murphy Hall on campus with her new
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roommate, Amy Willer. In between classes and band practices, she made her
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every effort to travel home to visit her father and family. On October seventh,
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nineteen eighty five, Stacy headed out to play a softball game. After
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the game, she met up with friends at a restaurant called Pizza Factory just
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outside of Booneville. After eating at that pizza place, she rode to friends
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where they stopped at the boys dormitory. She wanted to stop and talk to
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Tommy Osborne Tommy and Stacy had recently started dating. She decides to stay for
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a bit of her friends leave Later that evening, Tommy drives Stacy back to
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her dormitory and drops her off. Around two thirty am on October eighth,
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Amy, Stacy's roommate, knocked on the door of her neighbor, Stephanie Alexander,
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asking her if she could let her in their room, as she had
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locked herself out and Stacy was not answering when she knocked. The layout of
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the rooms was two beds on one side, with the bathroom connecting to a
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room with two more beds so that you could access the other room if the
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bathroom was unlocked. Stephanie agreed, and Amy entered their dorm room. Stephanie
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and Amy just thought Stacy might have been partying and passed out and could not
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hear Amy's knox. They walked through the bathroom into Amy and Stacy's room,
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and they noticed Stacy is lying abnormally on the bed. Amy joked about it,
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thinking she just passed out in a funny position. Her legs were hanging
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off the bed and her underwear was pulled down. Amy walked over to Stacy
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and was going to help position her better so she was not half out of
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the bed. She picks up her leg and it is very heavy and cold.
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She is confused by this, but starts looking around and sees blood everywhere.
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Amy and Stephanie ran out of the dorm and went to her friend Belinda's
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dorm for help. Amy asked Belinda to go check on Stacy, so Belinda
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headed to the dorm room again, entering through Stephanie's room. After seeing Stacy,
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Blinda ran to get the dormmother Edna, who called campus security to unlock
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Stacy's dorm room. Upon finding Stacy, they called nine one one police arrive
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on the scene to find eighteen year old Stacy lying with her back on the
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bed. She had her left leg resting on the bed and the right foot
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resting on the floor. She was partially covered with the bed linens and was
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nude from the waist down. Her underwear were pulled down around her lower left
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leg. A pillow had been placed over her head. There was blood near
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her head and on the headboard. Stacy had severe injuries to the left side
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of her head, and there was a large amount of blood on her head
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and on the pillow. Next to her head. There was blood spatter throughout
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the room, on the walls and the ceiling, and as far as way
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as nine feet from her body. Near her body, they found a white
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drill rifle. On the butt of the rifle was smeared blood, and around
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the barrel there was a towel wrapped It looked like someone was trying to wipe
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it but stopped in the process of cleaning it. Based on the initial scene,
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please believe that she had been beaten to death with that drill rifle.
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They checked the dorm room and find that no belongings were taken. Her purse
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was still there with money in it. It did not appear that robbery was
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the motive. Based on the state of her clothing underward down and shirt pulled
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up, they believed sexual assault was the motive. When looking round to see
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where the attacker had entered, they find that a screen on the window near
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Stacy's bed had been cut. The screen had a hole about eight eight to
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ten inches long and eight to ten inches wide. The way Stacy died was
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very violent, and autopsy would later reveal that she had been bludgeoned multiple times
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in the left side of the head. With the butt of the rifle that
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there would have been a lot of rage behind this killing. The autopsy also
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revealed that Stacy had not been raped. Upon further review of the cut screen,
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they noticed the screen had been cut from the inside. Whoever killed Stacy
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was trying to mislead police. They had staged the rape and cut the screen
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to make it look like an intruder entered from the outside. They now needed
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to look at people living in the dorm, as well as people close to
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Stacy that she might have let inside of her dorm. They first start by
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interviewing everyone in the dorm that night. No one recalls hearing any screams or
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any type of commotion. Stephanie, who lived in the dorm, attached to
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Stacy's that she had been doing homework, then went to sleep and did not
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hear anything until Amy knocked on her door. They began retracing Stacy's steps that
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day and find out she had last spoken to a guy named Tommy. They
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visit Tommy at his dorm around seven thirty a m. The morning of Stacy's
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murder. Tommy tells police that he dropped Stacy off around eleven fifteen p m.
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And returned to his dorm. Police interview witnesses and they tell police that
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Tommy was in the dorm the entire night. They continued to question Tommy as
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he was the last one to see her. They ask if he will take
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a polygraph test and if they could search his room. He agreed to both.
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Nothing suspicious was found in the dorm and he passed his polygraph test.
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After this, they cleared him as a suspect. When questioning family and friends,
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they found out that Stacy had an ex fiance named Ben Cox. Police
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learned that Ben was very upset about the end of the relationship. Friends say
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he had come to Stacy's dorm room before wanting to talk to her. Stephanie
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told police that at one point Stacy tried to give back the ring and he
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would not accept it. She said that Stacy told her that Ben would not
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take no for an answer and that Stacy seemed afraid of him. With this
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information, police set out to find Ben Cox. They bring Ben in and
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he denies any involvement. He told them the last time he had seen Stacy
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was about a week ago. He told them that he was at home the
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entire time. His mother said that she saw him in bed around eleven PM
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when she got off of work. Ben agreed to take a polygraph as there
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was no one to aliby his whereabouts during the hours of the murder. Ben
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had inconclusive results with the polygraph test, but there was no evidence at the
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crime scene to place him there. They were at a loss and release Ben,
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but would keep looking into him. A year went by, fifteen different
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investigators had worked this case and they had interviewed over four hundred people. With
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nothing to go on, they turned to a police chief out of East Hazel
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Crest, Illinois named Stephen Rhodes. They found Stephen Rhodes when one of the
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investigators had attended one of his lectures where he talked about a special interrogation technique.
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He called this technique neuro linguistic programming. Basically, it was a way
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to tell if someone was lying based on their body language rather than what they
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were saying. They bring back in the roommate Amy and she passes her interview
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with Rhodes. On September eighteenth, nineteen eighty six, they bring in Stephanie
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and Rhodes started picking up on some tell signs that she was lying. After
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having her go through her story multiple times. She finally said that she went
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back in the room, and this is when they continued to question Stephanie and
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she confesses. Stephanie tells police that she was doing homework in her room and
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took three codeine tablets sometime between nine pm and ten thirty him because of pain
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from an ovary infection. She had been out earlier in the evening, playing
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cards and visiting friends, including Tommy Osborne. She walked back to her dorm
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room alone to do homework. She dozed off after taking the codeine. She
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woke up around twelve thirty am when she heard Stacy and some other girls returning
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home. In the adjacent room. The girls were helping Stacy get to her
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room because she had been drinking. She heard Stacy say Tommy is so fine,
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I could fuck his brains out. Stephanie asked them to be quiet,
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and the girls helping Stacy left. Stacy couldn't go back to sleep, so
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she went back to Stacy's room to talk. She asked Stacy if she had
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fun that night. Stacy said she did. They talked about Tommy, whom
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Stacy had been dating. They talked about a boy Stephanie had been dating as
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well. They then talked about Tommy again. Stacy asked Stephanie what she thought
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about Tommy, and Stephanie said that she thought he was fine. Now,
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Stacy told Stephanie you had better stay the hell away from him. I'm tired
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of you in your fucking room. Stacy was standing in front of the mirror
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and pointed her finger in Stephanie's face. Stephanie then mentioned Tommy again and Stacy
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slapped her. Stephanie then called Stacy a bitch and slapped her back. Stacy
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told Stephanie I better not see you hanging around him. I'll kill you,
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do you hear me? Stacy slapped Stephanie again. Stacy then put her hands
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around Stephanie's throat and Stephanie kicked her to get away from her. Stacy fell
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into the bed and started to get up to go towards Stephanie. Stephanie had
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been twirling Stacy's drill rifle while they were talking and had laid it back down
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against Stacy's bed. Stephanie picked up the drill rifle and hit Stacy. Stacy
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fell back onto the bed. Stacy got up and started towards Stephanie again and
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called her a fucking bitch. Stephanie then hit her again with the drill rifle.
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When Stacy fell back on the bed, Stephanie hit her three more times
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with the drill rifle. Stephanie says that she was out of it because of
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the codeine and didn't know what to do. The rifle fell out of Stephanie's
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hands and she locked the door to the hall, washed her hands in the
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sink, and put a pillow over Stacy's head. Stephanie got a steak knife
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that Stacy had barred from Stephanie out of a drawer and cut the screen so
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the scene would look like someone had come through the window. She pulled Stacy's
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underwear down so that it would appear as a rape, and wiped off part
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of the drill rifle. Stephanie then took a bath and burned the screen that
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she had cut out and this shirt she had been wearing in the toilet of
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the bathroom adjoining the two rooms. Smoke was in the bathroom, so Stephanie
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sprayed some of Amy's perfume in the bathroom to cover it up. Stephanie went
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back to bed and slept. Police were in complete shock. They never suspected
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Stephanie. They had spoken to her several times throughout the investigation and she had
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been very helpful the whole time. Stephanie gave this same confession on three different
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occasions, once on September eighteenth, again on September nineteenth, and finally on
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September twenty first, on top of her three son fashions. While in jail,
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Stephanie wrote an eleven page letter to Randy Price, a boy she had
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been dating for about a week, in which she confessed to the crime and
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described the circumstances surrounding the killing. Stephanie told Randy that she didn't mean to
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do it and that it was an accident. She explained to Randy that she
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had been heavily sedated and had a mental block about the killing. She wrote
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that she hadn't been able to remember killing Stacy before, but had had nightmares
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about the killing. Stephanie told Randy that she hadn't known what she was doing
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at the time. On September twenty second, nineteen eighty six, police announced
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that twenty one year old music major Stephanie Alexander had been arrested and charged with
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the murder of Stacy. Stephanie's bell was set at a hundred thousand dollars,
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which was posted. During this time, Stephanie began claiming her innocence. Stephanie
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contended that the confessions had been the product of hypnotic suggestion, and her lawyers
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argued that they were inadmissible. Stephanie claimed that the authorities had been desperate to
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the case and planted the story in her mind that she killed Stacy. A
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hearing was held in June of nineteen eighty seven to determine if the statements made
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by Stephanie but to the investigators and in a letter to Randy were voluntary or
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if they had were made due to coercion, threats, or promises of leniency
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or hypnotic suggestion. During the suppression hearing, the court heard from everyone who
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was present when Stephanie confessed. The trial judge overruled Stephanie's motion to suppress the
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statements given to law enforcement officers and the letter written to Randy while she was
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in custody. The court found beyond a reasonable doubt that Stephanie was at no
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time hypnotized during the sessions, that Stephanie was properly advised of her rights,
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that she was not under the influence of hypnosis at any time when she made
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confessional statements, that Stephanie acted voluntarily at all times pertinent to the confession.
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A change of venue was granted to Stephanie due to publicity, and the trial
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began on January fourth, nineteen eighty eight. The jury, consisting of five
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men and seven women, her thirty two witnesses and reviewed ninety pieces of evidence.
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On January twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight, the jury deliberated for about
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an hour and fifty minutes and returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, which
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was a lesser charge than the prosecution requested. The jury had the option to
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find her innocent, guilty of capital murder or manslaughter. The judge sent a
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Stephanie to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Stephanie
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continued to claim her innocence and filed an appill but lost. Her lawyers argued
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that the ex fiance was the one who killed Stacy, and that the police
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had used a dangerous man that's their quote, to get the confession out of
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Stephanie. They said, Stephen Rhodes used tricks and chicanery to obtain the confession.
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The papers questioned why local investigators could not get a confession out of Stephanie
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in a year, but Rhodes came in and did in about an hour.
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Sephanie would only serve ten years of her prison sentence, which was the minimum
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required before being eligible for Pearl. Stephanie, who is now Stephanie Loudon,
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has at least one son and she owns a music business of some sort.
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She has been on two true crime shows professing her innocence. And that is
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our case out of Mississippi this week. And if you enjoyed this, go
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check out some of the older episodes. If you'd like to know our opinions
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on this, check out a regular episode with me and my husband and yeah,
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so I guess we will see you next time. Bye Rowin. Do
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you know it's bye to be Superstancious