Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / ZONE 7: Stevie Bates Made It Back to New York, Then She Vanished

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ZONE 7: Stevie Bates Made It Back to New York, Then She Vanished · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:07
Speaker 1: Stevie Bates was reported missing in April of twenty twelve. Now, y'all,
0:14
Speaker 1: she disappeared after going on a cross country trip with friends.
0:18
Speaker 1: She was only nineteen years old. Now, the people in
0:23
Speaker 1: the group say they were trying to go to California
0:26
Speaker 1: and something happened that made him turn around, and Stevie
0:30
Speaker 1: got on a bus in Arkansas and then went back
0:35
Speaker 1: to New York City. So she got as far as Arkansas,
0:39
Speaker 1: turned around, was headed home. Now, on April twenty seven,
0:44
Speaker 1: Stevie borroed somebody's cell phone, called her mama, Vivian Jones,
0:48
Speaker 1: and said, Hey, I'm on a Greyhound bus. I've got
0:51
Speaker 1: a layover in Pittsburgh, but I'm headed home. I'm going
0:55
Speaker 1: to come and see you, but I'm going to stop
0:57
Speaker 1: by my boyfriend's house first. The good news is the
1:01
Speaker 1: New York Poort Authority, the bus terminal, their security cameras
1:06
Speaker 1: picked her up. We know she made it, and that's
1:11
Speaker 1: where things kind of start to take a turn, y'all.
1:14
Speaker 1: We are so lucky tonight that we have her cousin
1:19
Speaker 1: with us. And y'all know, when you're trying to put
1:23
Speaker 1: together a victimology, it's really important to talk to somebody
1:28
Speaker 1: that knew the victim, not just somebody that took a
1:32
Speaker 1: report or remembered her maybe twenty years ago. This is
1:36
Speaker 1: somebody that grew up with her. Iris, Janeer, Iris, thank
1:42
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us and to talk to
1:45
Speaker 1: us about Stevie.
1:46
Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, it's a pleasure to be here.
1:49
Speaker 1: Well, you and I have gotten to talk a couple
1:51
Speaker 1: of times, and I just want the audience to know,
1:54
Speaker 1: first of all, y'all, Iris is my kind of girl.
1:57
Speaker 1: She's funny, she's fearless, she's loyal to her family, and
2:02
Speaker 1: when she and I have had conversations outside of the podcast,
2:07
Speaker 1: she's been very clear. She's been clear about exactly who
2:11
Speaker 1: Stevie was, exactly what occurred, and we're going to get
2:15
Speaker 1: into all of that. But again, Iris, I just appreciate
2:19
Speaker 1: you being here so that we can get the victimology
2:22
Speaker 1: that we need to really look into this cold case.
2:25
Speaker 1: So why don't you tell us a little bit just
2:28
Speaker 1: overall about Stevie.
2:32
Speaker 3: Stevie was a very bright, talented, creative nineteen year old.
2:42
Speaker 3: She had attended one of the most prestigious schools in
2:49
Speaker 3: the New York City public school system, Bronce High School
2:52
Speaker 3: of Science. She graduated amongst the top of her class.
2:58
Speaker 3: Every college that Stevie had applied to her senior year,
3:04
Speaker 3: she was granted full rides to much like her her
3:10
Speaker 3: two older sisters, who are also high achievers and.
3:14
Speaker 2: In school and academics.
3:16
Speaker 3: And that's really owe to my aunt Vivian, who's you know,
3:20
Speaker 3: Stevie's mother. Obviously, she worked and I believe she continues
3:24
Speaker 3: to work to this day as a as a school teacher.
3:28
Speaker 2: So you know, Stevie really did have.
3:32
Speaker 3: A really well rounded upbringing, you know, with her family
3:36
Speaker 3: and in our family and and her sisters. But she
3:40
Speaker 3: she was an excellent student and a really good friend,
3:46
Speaker 3: and certainly very precocious for you know, her age and
3:51
Speaker 3: the kinds of pursuits that she wanted to explore as
3:55
Speaker 3: she was getting older, you know, after she graduated from
4:01
Speaker 3: high school, she I remember she and my mom, my
4:05
Speaker 3: mother and I had run into Stevie at a at
4:08
Speaker 3: a family barbecue, and Stevie was with a friend of
4:11
Speaker 3: hers and she was explaining to my mother that she
4:13
Speaker 3: was just going to leave the venue for a bit
4:15
Speaker 3: and come right back. But she and my mother, you know,
4:19
Speaker 3: decided to catch up and my mother was asking her
4:21
Speaker 3: about school and her plans, and Stevie was just like, yeah,
4:24
Speaker 3: you know, I got a full ride you know, to
4:26
Speaker 3: you know, every school. She was thinking about Arizona State,
4:29
Speaker 3: I believe when the school she got a full ride to.
4:32
Speaker 3: And she was just explaining to my mother that she
4:35
Speaker 3: had decided, you know, basically at the last minute, that
4:38
Speaker 3: she wanted to not go to school right away. She
4:42
Speaker 3: wanted to take a gap year, explore the world, maybe travel,
4:45
Speaker 3: you know, whether it was locally or whatever, just you know,
4:48
Speaker 3: make good use of the year between high school and college,
4:52
Speaker 3: and then apply herself fully to school. And that's what
4:55
Speaker 3: she did, so she took her gap year. During her
4:58
Speaker 3: gap year, she of course reap you don't reapply to college.
5:02
Speaker 3: She was accepted into Hunter College. I believe she was
5:05
Speaker 3: a studio arts major there or studying some sort of
5:11
Speaker 3: architectural art there. And while she was there, she became
5:18
Speaker 3: very much involved in the emerging Occupy Wall Street movement
5:23
Speaker 3: taking place in New York City, and you know, began
5:28
Speaker 3: to do that, was very involved in that.
5:31
Speaker 1: So this is a smart active you know, I'm in
5:35
Speaker 1: touch with the community. I know what I like, what
5:37
Speaker 1: I don't like I want to be a part of it. Okay.
5:40
Speaker 1: So she's obviously bright. I mean you mentioned her high school,
5:43
Speaker 1: which again is accelerated at minimum, and you know she's
5:51
Speaker 1: got all of it. She's beautiful, she's smart, she's ready
5:55
Speaker 1: to take on the world. Okay, And I think that's
5:58
Speaker 1: really critical because again, she's not somebody that doesn't have
6:04
Speaker 1: a plan. She's not somebody that doesn't see future goals
6:09
Speaker 1: and how to meet them. She knows how to do that.
6:13
Speaker 1: So when she says I'm in New York, I'm going
6:17
Speaker 1: to head to Brooklyn to see Brandon, which at the
6:19
Speaker 1: time was her boyfriend, she supposedly never made it to
6:23
Speaker 1: his house and she's never seen again. So she never
6:26
Speaker 1: makes it to visit her mama the next day after
6:30
Speaker 1: visiting with Brandon. Yes, okay, now, this, y'all is where
6:36
Speaker 1: I mean it's already tragic, but this, to me is
6:39
Speaker 1: one of those gut wrenching things. Eight years go by, y'all.
6:44
Speaker 1: Eight years and on September the eighteenth, twenty twenty, skeletal
6:50
Speaker 1: remains were found wrapped in a blanket when they were
6:54
Speaker 1: excavating this abandoned house area in Glendale, New York. On
7:00
Speaker 1: Cyprus having it, and those skeletal remains turned out to
7:04
Speaker 1: be Stevie Stevie Bates. So eight years of a homicide
7:09
Speaker 1: investigation are lost, eight years of potential evidence and witnesses
7:14
Speaker 1: and et cetera gone. So at this point, I says,
7:20
Speaker 1: what is the family doing and what are y'all thinking?
7:23
Speaker 1: How are y'all regrouping now that she's not a missing person,
7:28
Speaker 1: she's a homicide victim.
7:30
Speaker 3: It's really difficult to unpack that question because you know,
7:34
Speaker 3: for a lot of us, we already knew years before
7:40
Speaker 3: her remains were discovered that she had to have been
7:44
Speaker 3: a victim of foul play. It just wasn't like you'll
7:47
Speaker 3: hear with money homicide victims from their families and loved ones.
7:52
Speaker 3: It's just it wasn't in her character, I mean to disappear.
7:56
Speaker 3: And anybody that knew Stevie knew that you know she
8:00
Speaker 3: was you know, she was close to anyone who was
8:02
Speaker 3: with her mother.
8:03
Speaker 2: She and my aunt Vivian's book every day.
8:05
Speaker 3: They were extremely close for a mother and daughter, and
8:10
Speaker 3: they had they enjoyed an extremely healthy relationship.
8:13
Speaker 1: I says, I preach on this podcast patterns Patterns, Patterns
8:18
Speaker 1: good and bad but this is a good one. She
8:21
Speaker 1: talked to her mama every day. She certainly isn't going
8:24
Speaker 1: to go eight years. That doesn't even make any sense
8:27
Speaker 1: to anybody exactly. And this is not a kid. And
8:31
Speaker 1: I say nineteen, I mean she was a young woman,
8:33
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean to me, she's a kid.
8:36
Speaker 1: And you know she's got that relationship that is solid.
8:40
Speaker 1: Her mama supports her, she knows where she's at, and
8:42
Speaker 1: didn't like she ran off every six months. So when
8:46
Speaker 1: you're talking to law enforcement and they just don't have
8:50
Speaker 1: anything more to go on, she just vanished. But I
8:53
Speaker 1: agree with you, y'all knew. You knew she wouldn't be gone.
8:58
Speaker 1: She wouldn't ditch all of you. She wouldn't, did your mama.
9:02
Speaker 1: But she lord ain't gonna ditch all of y'all. So
9:04
Speaker 1: I think that's a valid point. And I like the
9:07
Speaker 1: way you said it's hard to unpack that question because
9:11
Speaker 1: in your gut you knew, but you didn't have proof
9:14
Speaker 1: of it.
9:15
Speaker 2: Even still you know it's yeah, we have her remains.
9:18
Speaker 3: Her remains confirmed that she's you know, deceased, and that
9:21
Speaker 3: she was of course the victim of foul play. But Unfortunately,
9:24
Speaker 3: like as you put it so eloquently, eight years was
9:29
Speaker 3: missing to really get ahead of things and you know,
9:32
Speaker 3: examine what was you know, the clime scene before it
9:36
Speaker 3: was you know, before it became a demolition site, you know,
9:39
Speaker 3: all of that evidence and just the passage of time,
9:42
Speaker 3: you know, her body, you know, succumbing to the you know,
9:47
Speaker 3: the natural order of things and things like that.
9:50
Speaker 2: You know, with that you lose absolutely crucial evidence that
9:56
Speaker 2: could have transpired.
9:57
Speaker 3: And so you know, it's just it's just been very
10:00
Speaker 3: difficult because you know, as we all know, yes, you
10:03
Speaker 3: know she was certainly she's certainly a homicide victim. But
10:08
Speaker 3: you know it's in that with that, it's there's an
10:11
Speaker 3: emotional side of things too, where it's like it's very
10:14
Speaker 3: difficult for me to talk about it with you know,
10:17
Speaker 3: Stevie's older to older sisters or her mom my aunt,
10:23
Speaker 3: because you know, they were closest to her, and although
10:27
Speaker 3: I know that they do feel that way, it's you know,
10:30
Speaker 3: it's it's just still very much short subject. You know,
10:35
Speaker 3: So as far as like speaking to for instance, like
10:38
Speaker 3: Stevie's dad, who's my uncle, you know, you know, he
10:43
Speaker 3: and I discussed this and you know, he's you know,
10:46
Speaker 3: like any father you would imagine who loses their daughter
10:49
Speaker 3: all too soon. You know, he just expresses his you know,
10:54
Speaker 3: deepest anger and dissatisfaction with this whole situation, and just
10:59
Speaker 3: you know, like any father would expresses like, you know,
11:01
Speaker 3: a want for revenge, you know, on this person who
11:04
Speaker 3: you know took his daughter away from him.
11:06
Speaker 2: And so that's really the painful part.
11:08
Speaker 3: And also like this feeling of helplessness you know, from
11:11
Speaker 3: the local police department, because you know, for them, it
11:14
Speaker 3: just seems like it's a close case for them.
11:18
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, like she may as well.
11:21
Speaker 3: I think I remember once they found the remains something
11:25
Speaker 3: being floated by the police department, the MYPD. I'm saying
11:29
Speaker 3: that they suggested that she died of a drug overdose,
11:33
Speaker 3: and I'm just kind of like, I don't know a
11:34
Speaker 3: person who wraps themselves in a blanket and an abandoned
11:38
Speaker 3: building and dies of a drug overdose.
11:41
Speaker 1: So because of the state of decomp they don't know
11:45
Speaker 1: how she died. They don't know if she was strangled
11:47
Speaker 1: or stabbed, they don't have that. So this theory that
11:53
Speaker 1: she was in another location and had a drug overdose,
11:57
Speaker 1: she was still moved by one to that place. Because
12:03
Speaker 1: let's talk about you know, the boyfriend a little more.
12:06
Speaker 1: Brandon had addiction issues, and I'm assuming that's where this
12:10
Speaker 1: theory came from. Yes, Okay, So if she got off
12:14
Speaker 1: the bus and made it to his house and they
12:16
Speaker 1: were partying, and he gave her something and she odeed,
12:20
Speaker 1: he had that moment where I got to get her
12:23
Speaker 1: out of here because they're gonna blame me.
12:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
12:25
Speaker 3: And you know, the interesting thing is, just to mention
12:29
Speaker 3: about Stevie very quickly, she had never been involved with drugs,
12:34
Speaker 3: and in fact, it was a major point of contention
12:37
Speaker 3: for a lot of the people who were around her
12:40
Speaker 3: and cared about her deeply at the time, was the
12:43
Speaker 3: fact that she had gotten into a relationship with Brandon
12:45
Speaker 3: Klausterman to begin with. I mean, he was significantly older
12:49
Speaker 3: than her, and he did have a very visible, obvious
12:53
Speaker 3: drug substance use problem, which something that you know, Stevie
12:58
Speaker 3: had never been exposed to. But Stevie, being the caring, attentive,
13:02
Speaker 3: kind person that she was, Stevie had just lost a
13:07
Speaker 3: friend of hers from childhood due to drug use, you know,
13:13
Speaker 3: and so it it had been suggested that Stevie had
13:17
Speaker 3: perhaps engaged in this relationship with Brandon, maybe as a
13:23
Speaker 3: as a part of her grief journey over after having
13:26
Speaker 3: lost her friend.
13:26
Speaker 2: But you know, Stevie had never been involved in drugs.
13:29
Speaker 3: If anything, there are a lot of Brandon's friends who
13:33
Speaker 3: were recovering addicts. Brandon, however, was not a recovering act.
13:38
Speaker 3: He was actively into his addiction. But Brandon did have
13:41
Speaker 3: friends who were recovering addicts who had met Stevie through him,
13:45
Speaker 3: and they would all often always report that Stevie had
13:49
Speaker 3: never engaged in drugs with him. If anything, they would
13:51
Speaker 3: see Stevie a company Brandon to the methadone clinic to
13:56
Speaker 3: make sure that he was being staying accountable to getting
14:00
Speaker 3: weaned off of his his substance use problems. So if anything,
14:04
Speaker 3: she was she was his anchor. She was the one
14:07
Speaker 3: trying to ensure that he could recover from his addiction.
14:13
Speaker 3: And Stevie had not engaged in any drugs. I mean,
14:15
Speaker 3: she was not to say, I mean, functioning addicts are
14:18
Speaker 3: absolutely a thing, for sure, don't get me wrong. But
14:20
Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the day, we have
14:22
Speaker 3: to look at the hard, cold facts. I mean Stevie
14:24
Speaker 3: was nineteen, she was a freshman in college, top of
14:28
Speaker 3: her class. And again it's not to you know, take
14:32
Speaker 3: anything away from people who There are people every day
14:35
Speaker 3: who you know, are actively in addiction, but they pay
14:39
Speaker 3: their bills, they get to work on time, and they
14:41
Speaker 3: do what they need to do.
14:42
Speaker 2: But this just isn't the case with Stevie. I mean, again,
14:45
Speaker 2: this is a teenager.
14:46
Speaker 3: She's a teenager who you know, is actively in school
14:50
Speaker 3: and she's actively engaged in a political socio political movement.
14:55
Speaker 3: She's finding times to stay actively engaged in extra extracurricular
14:59
Speaker 3: activities her friends in and outside of school. So that's
15:02
Speaker 3: just not that there's no time really for her or
15:06
Speaker 3: no incentive for her to become engaged in drugs. And
15:09
Speaker 3: truth be told, the relationship that she had with Brandon
15:13
Speaker 3: Classman was somewhat short lived. It was really only a
15:16
Speaker 3: few months and it was like it really wrapped up
15:19
Speaker 3: around the time that she, you know, left the Occupy
15:22
Speaker 3: Wall Street movement, or rather that the movement was dismantled
15:24
Speaker 3: by the city. And that's what leads us to her murder, right,
15:29
Speaker 3: because when she had left on her cross country trip
15:33
Speaker 3: with her friends, she had actually already broken things off with.
15:36
Speaker 2: Brandon, and she had to.
15:40
Speaker 3: Her objective was when she came back from the trip,
15:43
Speaker 3: like she said to my aunt Vivia and her mother,
15:46
Speaker 3: she said that she was going to stop at Brandon
15:48
Speaker 3: to gather some of her things from his apartment and
15:52
Speaker 3: then go to back home with where she was. She
15:56
Speaker 3: would stay occasionally between her sister Sharina's house in Brooklyn
16:01
Speaker 3: and her mother's house in Yonkers with her stepfather. So
16:06
Speaker 3: she really lived between those two places because it was
16:08
Speaker 3: convenient for her to get to campus at Hunter College
16:11
Speaker 3: in the city. But on occasion, like you would if
16:14
Speaker 3: you have a relations maybe you spend a night or
16:15
Speaker 3: two at your boyfriend's house, and that was the relationship
16:18
Speaker 3: she had with him. So she was really going back
16:20
Speaker 3: to get the last of her things. And so that's
16:22
Speaker 3: why the theory has always been that when she contacted
16:26
Speaker 3: Randon to coordinate getting her things after she as soon
16:29
Speaker 3: as she got back from her trip, something must have
16:33
Speaker 3: went wrong, maybe an argument, maybe he didn't like that
16:36
Speaker 3: the finality of her leaving, or that she was serious,
16:39
Speaker 3: and he snapped and you know.
16:41
Speaker 2: Murdered her.
16:42
Speaker 3: That's it's really the only plausible working you know scenario there.
16:47
Speaker 1: Well, Brandon had a criminal record. Now it was petty crimes,
16:52
Speaker 1: but still he was not unknown to law enforcement. And
16:57
Speaker 1: one of the things that bothers me the most is
17:01
Speaker 1: he not only was a drug user and older than her,
17:04
Speaker 1: but my understanding is he was squatting at that apartment.
17:09
Speaker 2: He was at okay, a squatter.
17:11
Speaker 1: Yes, So when you look at these two people, they
17:15
Speaker 1: are living completely opposite lives, absolutely okay. And this is
17:21
Speaker 1: the part where flags start just going like a parade
17:25
Speaker 1: for me. After police came to him and said, hey,
17:29
Speaker 1: you know, she hadn't shown up at her mom's and
17:31
Speaker 1: he goes, you know, I hadn't seen her. That's his
17:34
Speaker 1: first statement. I hadn't seen her at all. But he
17:37
Speaker 1: deleted the entire Facebook chat thread between the two of them. Now,
17:43
Speaker 1: why would you do that? I sais if your ex
17:47
Speaker 1: girlfriend and I mean X by a few hours, a
17:50
Speaker 1: couple of days, that you probably still care about on
17:53
Speaker 1: some level, because I can tell you from what I
17:57
Speaker 1: understand about Stevie, she cared about him on some legl
18:00
Speaker 1: Steele wanted to be sure he was okay, wanted to
18:02
Speaker 1: be sure I'm gonna go see him et cetera. Why
18:07
Speaker 1: would you get rid of the last communication you had
18:09
Speaker 1: with her exactly because he doesn't have a phone, you know.
18:15
Speaker 1: So this is how he was talking to her, like, Yeah,
18:17
Speaker 1: come see me. I'm at this address, Steele, I'll see it.
18:21
Speaker 1: Nine o'clock or whatever the time was. She was supposed
18:24
Speaker 1: to be there, but you know that's gone now.
18:27
Speaker 3: And that in addition to the fact that before the
18:30
Speaker 3: police encounter Brandon and performed a sort of curse cursory
18:36
Speaker 3: investigation with him, my aunt Vivian had actually taken up
18:41
Speaker 3: her own sort of uh, you know, impromptu investigation herself,
18:47
Speaker 3: just looking for Stevie in places that she knew Stevie
18:50
Speaker 3: would often frequent, particularly with Brandon, and you know the
18:54
Speaker 3: community that he and she would hang hang around or
18:59
Speaker 3: you know, socialized within. And one of the places was
19:03
Speaker 3: fourteenth Street Union Square. So my aunt Vivien had gone
19:06
Speaker 3: down to the park over there in that area, and
19:09
Speaker 3: she had actually come across Brandon. This is before the
19:12
Speaker 3: police had you know, contacted him and asked him to
19:15
Speaker 3: come in for an investigation or a you know, a
19:20
Speaker 3: talk down at the precinct. And you know, my aunt
19:25
Speaker 3: has always said, has always maintained that, you know, that
19:30
Speaker 3: moment that she came across Brandon, that he looked visibly
19:35
Speaker 3: spooked and was just quick to shoot down anything like
19:39
Speaker 3: before my aunt could even ask him anything about Stevie.
19:43
Speaker 3: It was like he automatically knew all of the his
19:46
Speaker 3: body language, just the way he you know, kind of
19:49
Speaker 3: shriveled up and you know, froze and just immediately went
19:54
Speaker 3: on the defense before my aunt could really say anything
19:57
Speaker 3: to him, and just spoke to my aunt in a
19:59
Speaker 3: way that was just apart from that totally uncharacteristic, right, right.
20:03
Speaker 1: He ain't out looking for let's just say it. He's
20:06
Speaker 1: not like, oh my gosh, Vivian, I'm gonna get all
20:09
Speaker 1: our friends, we're gonna go out, We're gonna look at
20:11
Speaker 1: all the normal places she would be.
20:13
Speaker 2: No.
20:14
Speaker 3: No, he was literally, you know, just you know, very
20:18
Speaker 3: curt and short, and you know, like putting distance between
20:23
Speaker 3: he and Stevie, like almost as if like, like, what
20:25
Speaker 3: are you talking about? Was basically the tone of the conversation.
20:33
Speaker 1: So let me ask you, what is the distance, if
20:35
Speaker 1: you know, from his apartment to that construction site.
20:40
Speaker 3: So it's interesting as far as what I know, it
20:46
Speaker 3: seems I what I was, uh, the impression that I
20:52
Speaker 3: was under was that Stevie's remains were actually found at
20:56
Speaker 3: the building where Brandon had been squatting.
21:00
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, that's what I'm getting at. Okay, that's what
21:03
Speaker 1: I'm getting at. So that was in Queens, but her
21:06
Speaker 1: mama lived in Yonkers. And for those of y'all that
21:10
Speaker 1: maybe have never been to New York City, let me
21:13
Speaker 1: tell you something. That's a trip between those two places.
21:18
Speaker 1: It's not like it's a mile and a half, so
21:22
Speaker 1: they're nowhere near each other, and it would take a
21:24
Speaker 1: good amount of time. So not only do we have hey,
21:29
Speaker 1: he's right there. When he finds out where her body is, again,
21:34
Speaker 1: he's not freaking out saying, you're telling me she was
21:37
Speaker 1: right at my house and I didn't know it. Then
21:40
Speaker 1: who could have possibly done this? If he lives in
21:43
Speaker 1: that neighborhood and he's an active drug user and he's
21:47
Speaker 1: a squatter, that means there are other people that know
21:52
Speaker 1: the principal players. You know who the pimps are, you
21:55
Speaker 1: know who the drug dealers are, you know who the
21:57
Speaker 1: hookers are. So why is he not given law enforcement
22:01
Speaker 1: a possible suspect?
22:03
Speaker 2: Yeah?
22:04
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, and I think that's the million dollar question.
22:10
Speaker 3: I It just it, it is always felt very apparent that,
22:15
Speaker 3: you know, something transpired between he and Stevie when she
22:19
Speaker 3: came to gather the last of her things from where
22:23
Speaker 3: he had been squatting. And yeah, like just according to
22:28
Speaker 3: everyone who knew Stevie at the time, she was, you know,
22:31
Speaker 3: very staunch in her decision to and things with Brandon.
22:36
Speaker 3: It was it seemed like it was amicable, but just
22:38
Speaker 3: more so like she you know, she had given what
22:41
Speaker 3: she could and it had really only been a few.
22:43
Speaker 2: Months that they had been dating anyway.
22:45
Speaker 3: And again, you know, Stevie being the studious person that
22:49
Speaker 3: she was, you know, just you know, she's actively involved
22:52
Speaker 3: in her studies. And I'm sure at some point, you know,
22:55
Speaker 3: for a nineteen year older, even if you were a
22:57
Speaker 3: thirty year old dealing with someone who a partner who
23:00
Speaker 3: struggles with substance abuse, it just gets to a point where,
23:02
Speaker 3: you know, you know, everyone has their limitations, but I
23:05
Speaker 3: would only imagine that to be even.
23:07
Speaker 2: More so the case for a teenager like herself.
23:09
Speaker 3: So you know, she found herself in a very mature
23:12
Speaker 3: situation and she was trying to take the equally mature
23:15
Speaker 3: steps to navigate herself out of that and unfortunately him
23:21
Speaker 3: just being farm or older and you know, impulsive and
23:28
Speaker 3: you know not as you know, not unfortunately not mature
23:33
Speaker 3: or anywhere you know near you know, Stevie as far
23:38
Speaker 3: as you know, being compassionate and just you know, having
23:42
Speaker 3: the ability to you know, say to each other as
23:45
Speaker 3: to adults, Hey, where you know this isn't working, let's
23:48
Speaker 3: walk away.
23:49
Speaker 1: Well, I said, you and I are grown, and I'll
23:52
Speaker 1: tell you as cev eight the first woman that thought
23:54
Speaker 1: she could love a man through some issue he was having,
23:58
Speaker 1: and you know, unfortunate again something bad happen within walking
24:05
Speaker 1: distance of the apartment he was squatting at. And that's
24:08
Speaker 1: the issue I have. The other issue I have seems
24:11
Speaker 1: to be a common thread lately with some of the
24:13
Speaker 1: cold cases that I've worked on, and that is law
24:16
Speaker 1: enforcement didn't want to take a report. They didn't think
24:19
Speaker 1: she was missing. They just thought, oh, this kid's gone off,
24:23
Speaker 1: she'll show up. You know, she had this senior picture. Well,
24:27
Speaker 1: now she's got blonde dreadlock. So they made an assumption
24:32
Speaker 1: about her. And a fashion choice does not indicate anything
24:38
Speaker 1: about you. You could have a mohawk. That doesn't mean
24:41
Speaker 1: you love punk rock music. Both things can be true,
24:45
Speaker 1: you know, And I just think, you know, when you're
24:48
Speaker 1: talking about again that pattern of constant communication, Vivian could
24:53
Speaker 1: show them her phone. Look where she calls me every day,
24:57
Speaker 1: sometimes multiple times. And you know when you hear the
25:01
Speaker 1: construction workers talk about how she was in that embankment
25:05
Speaker 1: and five feet down and the excavator actually is what
25:09
Speaker 1: pulled her up. I mean, this was you have Okay,
25:12
Speaker 1: let me just say it this way, y'all because my mind,
25:15
Speaker 1: you know, it works almost like a movie reel. But
25:18
Speaker 1: there's three crime scenes here. There's where she died. There's
25:22
Speaker 1: the transport however that happened, over somebody's shoulder being dragged
25:27
Speaker 1: in a wheelbar, in a grocery card however that happened,
25:30
Speaker 1: and then the body disposal site. That's at least three
25:35
Speaker 1: and they only looked at one, and so a lot
25:38
Speaker 1: of evidence was lost, a lot of time was lost.
25:42
Speaker 1: I mean not just trace evidence, but again, witnesses. There
25:46
Speaker 1: are people that were in that lifestyle. Somebody somewhere was
25:51
Speaker 1: shooting up and they know what happened. Someone knows, and
25:55
Speaker 1: that's the reason this is important. And it's important that
25:59
Speaker 1: you're coming now and you're saying, hey, we're not going
26:01
Speaker 1: to forget her. You know, they lost all these years
26:04
Speaker 1: the first time, let's not lose twenty more.
26:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
26:12
Speaker 1: So once Vivian got the police to take the case,
26:14
Speaker 1: and once they started looking at it, it didn't really
26:17
Speaker 1: go anywhere. But then she got a new detective that
26:20
Speaker 1: she thought, hey, this might you know, be the answer.
26:22
Speaker 1: They're going to actually run with this thing and maybe
26:26
Speaker 1: get some things done. But yet they're not getting a
26:30
Speaker 1: lot of cooperation with people.
26:32
Speaker 2: So here's I.
26:33
Speaker 1: Think what we need to focus on. We need to
26:35
Speaker 1: focus on somebody at the time that is maybe clean now,
26:41
Speaker 1: some of those people from the clinics, some of those
26:43
Speaker 1: people in their world, some of the people that were
26:46
Speaker 1: sober that knew Stevie then and said, yeah, she came here,
26:50
Speaker 1: she hung around, Or did Brandon make any statements after?
26:56
Speaker 1: How did he talk to these people about why he's
27:00
Speaker 1: not looking for her? What happened?
27:04
Speaker 2: You know?
27:05
Speaker 1: The idea to me that somebody's coming to see you
27:11
Speaker 1: and they die within four feet of your house and
27:16
Speaker 1: somebody rolls them up in a rug and puts them
27:18
Speaker 1: in a construction site and you don't know what for years.
27:23
Speaker 1: Seems like you'd be more involved with making sure that
27:26
Speaker 1: person goes to jail.
27:29
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And he wasn't at the funeral either, was the isis.
27:33
Speaker 2: No, he was not. He was not there.
27:35
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I may be very clear. That does not
27:39
Speaker 1: make you guilty of anything, but it sure puts you
27:42
Speaker 1: on my suspect list. Baby.
27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
27:45
Speaker 3: And just the fact that, you know, right after the
27:48
Speaker 3: police had interrogated him, which was only days after my
27:54
Speaker 3: aunt Vivian had sound stumbled upon him in you know,
27:58
Speaker 3: fourteenth Street Unions, where he had, you know, taken off
28:02
Speaker 3: New York City to never be seen again. There's like
28:06
Speaker 3: no reports or sightings of him in New York. I
28:09
Speaker 3: believe I remember hearing, you know, briefly, maybe several years ago,
28:15
Speaker 3: back when I was a kid myself, that he may
28:18
Speaker 3: have been in Ohio for some time. But yeah, he
28:22
Speaker 3: took off right after, like the same week that uh,
28:25
Speaker 3: you know, Stevie had not been seen or heard from.
28:30
Speaker 1: We need a timeline, and we need a confirmed alibi
28:35
Speaker 1: where he was, who he was with, and what he
28:37
Speaker 1: was doing. And we need an explanation about the Facebook page.
28:41
Speaker 1: We need an explanation about why you bounced. We need
28:44
Speaker 1: all of that. So we got some work to do.
28:49
Speaker 1: But I sais, this won't be the last time we talked.
28:51
Speaker 1: This is just the first string, and we will go
28:57
Speaker 1: forward and we will talk to law enforcement, We'll talk
29:01
Speaker 1: to some other folks, and maybe this podcast, maybe your
29:04
Speaker 1: voice will assure that somebody calls and say, hey, you
29:09
Speaker 1: know I was in that life. I was in that neighborhood,
29:11
Speaker 1: I hung out at that very apartment. I knew Stevie,
29:14
Speaker 1: and this is what I heard on the street. This
29:17
Speaker 1: is what Brandon said. Pre and post behavior matters. I mean,
29:24
Speaker 1: if not Brandon, then who who outside of his apartment? Again,
29:30
Speaker 1: living in that community, he should know who are the
29:34
Speaker 1: violent people? Who's somebody that would snatch her and hurt her?
29:38
Speaker 1: Who also had a rug and blanket with them? You know.
29:43
Speaker 1: So II again, I appreciate you. I'm so sorry for
29:47
Speaker 1: all of this, and you know we're going to continue
29:50
Speaker 1: to keep up with you and let's go to work.
29:55
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Cheryl.
29:56
Speaker 1: As always, y'all, I'm going to end Zone seventh the
29:59
Speaker 1: way that I always do with a quote. Still I've
30:04
Speaker 1: heard it said that all love stories are basically love stories,
30:08
Speaker 1: and mine it's no exception. This is a love story too,
30:13
Speaker 1: and like a lot of love stories, it doesn't have
30:16
Speaker 1: a happy ending. O. J. Simpson. I'm Cheryl McCollum and
30:23
Speaker 1: this is Zone seven.