Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / 160. [Florida] The Murder of Christine Franke

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160. [Florida] The Murder of Christine Franke · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

0:20
Speaker 1: Heyyone, welcome BLUs this messive the True Grand Podcast. I
0:23
Speaker 1: don't care who is to taste to. All right, this
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Speaker 1: week we are back and we are going to.
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Speaker 2: Florida, Da.
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Speaker 1: Yes, Stuart, you're so cool.
0:31
Speaker 2: I am.
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Speaker 1: The kids always somebody getting murdered up in Florida, you know,
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Speaker 1: which is probably right now, it's probably happening. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's just, uh, I have to actually work hard to
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Speaker 1: not make all of our episodes out of Florida because
0:44
Speaker 1: it's just going to to a Florida podcast.
0:47
Speaker 2: Because they're in Florida.
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Speaker 1: But it's because that Florida is well, Texas is big too.
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Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of murders in Texas too,
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Speaker 1: but there really seems to be a lot in Florida.
1:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure California is probably the same. If we were to.
1:02
Speaker 2: Do if we were to look at California, yeah.
1:05
Speaker 1: It was part of our Earth, if it was part
1:07
Speaker 1: of our southern states, we might be getting a lot
1:11
Speaker 1: of California's California. Well, that's not part of the southern
1:15
Speaker 1: United States, Stewart. And they will come at you if
1:18
Speaker 1: you try to say that they're southern. Sure anyways, all right,
1:24
Speaker 1: so thank you we got a couple of new patrons.
1:27
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. So if you're a patron, you
1:29
Speaker 1: get the episodes twenty four hours early and ad free.
1:32
Speaker 1: And then we also do we try to do weekly
1:34
Speaker 1: Shoot the Pooh, which is us just updating on our lives,
1:38
Speaker 1: but also we usually cover something like a documentary. So
1:43
Speaker 1: this week we have the big news of them catching
1:47
Speaker 1: the yogurt shop murders back from nineteen ninety one.
1:51
Speaker 2: Damnfamous Frog episode.
1:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I forgot. Stu was like, we were talking about
1:55
Speaker 1: re releasing that one or whatever, and then he was like, yeah,
1:58
Speaker 1: that's the Frog episode. I'm like, maybe not, maybe not.
2:02
Speaker 1: It was an earlier episode. It was rough, you know,
2:04
Speaker 1: we could read. We could redo that one though. No,
2:10
Speaker 1: but they could go back and listen to that, but
2:12
Speaker 1: the audio is not that great.
2:14
Speaker 2: Now. We were on our couch because the air conditioner
2:15
Speaker 2: was out.
2:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, the air conditioner was broken anyway, so we might
2:20
Speaker 1: revisit that one now that they know who did it. Anyways,
2:23
Speaker 1: they did catch the through genealogical DNA. It was a
2:28
Speaker 1: serial killer named his name.
2:31
Speaker 2: Was It'll be in the Shoot to Poo.
2:34
Speaker 1: No, they we can just tell them Jesus christ why
2:37
Speaker 1: I think they can google it. We're going to talk
2:40
Speaker 1: about the serial killers crimes. His name was Edward Brashers,
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Speaker 1: I believe, anyway, so he was We're going to kind
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Speaker 1: of go through his story and his other crimes. Robert
2:56
Speaker 1: Why where did I get Edward from?
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Speaker 2: I don't know, Okay, Bobby Eugene Bray Brashers, Robert Eugene.
3:03
Speaker 1: Robert Eugene anyways, Robert Eugene Brashers. He was connected to
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Speaker 1: three other murders in the South in twenty eighteen through
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Speaker 1: Oh I just read about the three in twenty eighteen. Anyways,
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Speaker 1: he was a serial killer. He did commit suicide eight
3:24
Speaker 1: years after the yogurt shot murder, so most of his crimes, though,
3:26
Speaker 1: were discovered later on after the fact, after he's dead,
3:30
Speaker 1: through this genealogical DNA, which will also come into play
3:34
Speaker 1: for our crime that we're going to talk about today
3:36
Speaker 1: out of Florida. So we are going to kind of
3:39
Speaker 1: deep dive into him on Shoot the Poop. But yeah,
3:42
Speaker 1: check it out if you're Patreon. We'll be doing that
3:44
Speaker 1: later this week, and then we are going on vacation
3:47
Speaker 1: to Louisiana, so we may not have a Shoot the
3:49
Speaker 1: poo or we may have to record on our phones.
3:52
Speaker 2: We'll let you know, but you're all used to terrible
3:54
Speaker 2: audio on it.
3:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys, if you're on Patreon, you're you're accepting
3:57
Speaker 1: of us, even at our worst. So then we have TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.
4:03
Speaker 1: I do a lot of recommendations on documentaries, things like that,
4:07
Speaker 1: and I've been failing this week because I've just been
4:10
Speaker 1: kind of off anyways, And then buy us a coffee
4:14
Speaker 1: and then rate review, subscribe five stars only, and I
4:18
Speaker 1: think that's it. We can go ahead and get.
4:21
Speaker 3: Into this week's case too if you so desire.
4:23
Speaker 1: All right, well, this week's case out of Florida. So
4:26
Speaker 1: on October twenty first, twenty first, whoa we starting out?
4:30
Speaker 1: I can't even talk. On October twenty first, two thousand
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Speaker 1: and one, in Orlando, Florida, please receive a phone call
4:36
Speaker 1: from a woman who said that she was Christine Frankie's neighbor.
4:40
Speaker 3: Now.
4:40
Speaker 1: She said that a friend of Christine's had contacted her
4:43
Speaker 1: saying she could not get a hold of Christine that
4:45
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon. So she called that neighbor and asked her
4:49
Speaker 1: if she could go over and check on the apartment. Well,
4:52
Speaker 1: the neighbor knocks on the door and no one answers,
4:56
Speaker 1: and so she kind of like turns the door along.
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Speaker 1: I'm guessing she's a neighbor. That's a friend. You know,
5:00
Speaker 1: you're not just gonna walk up into somebody's well.
5:03
Speaker 2: I'm guessing if the friend had the neighbor's number, that
5:05
Speaker 2: was the contact that you'd given her. So yeah, good
5:07
Speaker 2: enough friend.
5:08
Speaker 1: Close enough that she was. She was willing to try
5:10
Speaker 1: to open the door and see if it was un locked.
5:12
Speaker 1: So she she tries it. It is unlocked. So she
5:15
Speaker 1: opens the door and immediately upon entering, sees twenty five
5:19
Speaker 1: year old Christine lying face down on the floor. She
5:23
Speaker 1: bends down to check on Christine and she sees this
5:26
Speaker 1: large pool of blood on the floor, and then she
5:29
Speaker 1: goes and she tries to lift her up and move her. Well,
5:32
Speaker 1: Christine is stiff, and this is when she knows like
5:35
Speaker 1: Christine's no longer with this, so she calls nine one one.
5:40
Speaker 2: Investigators arrive on the scene and they start processing it
5:43
Speaker 2: for evidence. They found Christine lying face down, her shirt
5:47
Speaker 2: was pulled up. She appeared to have been killed by
5:49
Speaker 2: a gunshot wounded the head. They found a shell casing
5:52
Speaker 2: of a twenty five caliber gun in the apartment. They
5:55
Speaker 2: did notice that she had lacerations on her face and
5:58
Speaker 2: contusions consistent with her fighting off her attacker. They did
6:02
Speaker 2: believe that the attacker hit her with the firearm, and
6:06
Speaker 2: when looking around the apartment, they did know that she
6:09
Speaker 2: was a waitress and that she had worked the night
6:11
Speaker 2: before because they found her tip money, which would have
6:15
Speaker 2: been about three hundred dollars, was missing. Her purse was
6:18
Speaker 2: dumped out near her and it looked like it had
6:21
Speaker 2: been rifled through, and indicating that robbery was a potential
6:25
Speaker 2: motive for her murder. They did also note that she
6:29
Speaker 2: was still wearing her clothing from the restaurant, This indication
6:33
Speaker 2: to the police that they believed that she had gotten
6:35
Speaker 2: killed right after she had gotten home. For the most part,
6:40
Speaker 2: Christine did have a roommate, however, and that roommate was
6:43
Speaker 2: out of town that evening.
6:45
Speaker 1: Yes, which is why she she was working a double
6:48
Speaker 1: that day. And that's why because her roommate was out
6:50
Speaker 1: of town. So she's like, I might as well.
6:52
Speaker 3: Just keep on working, you know, keep on truck.
6:55
Speaker 1: Ain't got nobody to hang out with. I've been there
6:57
Speaker 1: all right, investigators began trying to to build a picture
7:01
Speaker 1: of Christine's life to determine who might want to harm her. Now,
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Speaker 1: Christine was described as a free spirit, fun loving and
7:07
Speaker 1: adventurous girl. She loved children and was studying at UCF
7:11
Speaker 1: to obtain her degree in early childhood Education. Now, it
7:15
Speaker 1: was clear that she did not have any enemies or
7:17
Speaker 1: anybody who would want to do her harm. She was
7:19
Speaker 1: a hard worker, and like I said, just that day
7:22
Speaker 1: she had picked up a double shift at the restaurant
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Speaker 1: where she worked at called Cigars with a Z student
7:28
Speaker 1: with Z yes. Not sure if it's still open or not.
7:30
Speaker 1: I didn't look that up. She was just too much
7:33
Speaker 1: shy of graduation. Now, an autopsy would reveal a little
7:36
Speaker 1: more into how the gunshot wound entered Christine. Now, they
7:39
Speaker 1: said she was most likely struggling with the assailant, which
7:42
Speaker 1: was indicative of those contusions, and she had like a
7:47
Speaker 1: pretty deep laceration on her head which they believe the
7:50
Speaker 1: assailant was hitting her with the butt of that firearm. Well,
7:55
Speaker 1: they based on where the gunshot wound entered, which was
7:58
Speaker 1: below her lip and then went up into the back
8:01
Speaker 1: of into her head. They said there was like where
8:04
Speaker 1: it was shot, there was no way she would have
8:06
Speaker 1: survived because it basically went right through the middle of
8:08
Speaker 1: her her head. They believe that either the assailant was
8:12
Speaker 1: had her in a bear hug and like in the
8:15
Speaker 1: middle of the struggle, had the gun like pointing up
8:17
Speaker 1: at her.
8:18
Speaker 2: He was behind her with the gun up under her
8:19
Speaker 2: chin and then fired it up.
8:21
Speaker 1: Well, or in the struggles just trying to get his
8:23
Speaker 1: hand on the trigger to shoot her and then or
8:27
Speaker 1: they were lying on the ground. She's, you know, trying
8:29
Speaker 1: to get away from him and he's lying on top
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Speaker 1: of her and shoots her from below. But either way
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Speaker 1: they know based on the gunshot when it wasn't it
8:38
Speaker 1: was not an easy thing for this person to do
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Speaker 1: because she was fighting back. Now, they could not determine
8:45
Speaker 1: that she was sexually assaulted based on injuries, but they
8:49
Speaker 1: did recover bodily fluids indicating if there was a sexual
8:53
Speaker 1: component to the crime. So they do at least have
8:55
Speaker 1: a DNA profile that they can work with if they.
8:59
Speaker 3: Have a match in the code of yes.
9:01
Speaker 1: So we've got we've got some good things going for us,
9:04
Speaker 1: at least in those terms of evidence. At the crime scene,
9:07
Speaker 1: so they take the ballistics from that bullet because they said,
9:10
Speaker 1: a twenty five caliber is a weird gun. Would you say.
9:14
Speaker 2: That it's a it's not weird, but it's not commonly not.
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Speaker 1: Weird, They said, it's not as common as some of
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Speaker 1: your other ones.
9:23
Speaker 2: No, people usually go from like a twenty two to
9:25
Speaker 2: a thirty eight or three eighty. Okay, soup and off
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Speaker 2: of it, twenty.
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Speaker 1: Five is they said, it narrowed it down to the
9:32
Speaker 1: types of gun or the people that would own these guns.
9:34
Speaker 1: Based on that, and as they put it in the
9:36
Speaker 1: national database no hits. They also entered that DNA into
9:40
Speaker 1: the CODA system and no hits, so they have it
9:45
Speaker 1: on hand for whenever they can find somebody. But at
9:47
Speaker 1: this point they're going to have to do old fashioned
9:49
Speaker 1: police work to try to actually find a person to
9:51
Speaker 1: gather that DNA, because whoever did this was not in
9:54
Speaker 1: the system having done a violent crime before.
9:59
Speaker 2: Now when police they're looking at her evening leading up
10:02
Speaker 2: to the murder, they found that she had left the
10:04
Speaker 2: restaurant at about three point fifty am. She did leave
10:07
Speaker 2: the restaurant alone in her vehicle, and they did have
10:10
Speaker 2: surveillance video of her leaving the parking garage, they noticed
10:14
Speaker 2: a white sedan leaving shortly after her. However, they could
10:18
Speaker 2: not get any plates or the make or model or
10:21
Speaker 2: identify the driver.
10:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, all they knew was that it was a single
10:24
Speaker 1: person in that white sedan, uh, leaving after her. Again,
10:29
Speaker 1: it's not that they were the person was directly following her.
10:32
Speaker 1: They just left right after her. So they're wondering if.
10:34
Speaker 2: Somebody, if they could talk to if he saw something,
10:36
Speaker 2: or that person saw something. There were no cameras around
10:40
Speaker 2: her apartment, so they didn't have any footage of her
10:43
Speaker 2: entering the apartment.
10:44
Speaker 1: Because this was two thousand and ones. This was even
10:46
Speaker 1: a part I mean apartment complex. Today all of them have.
10:49
Speaker 1: I would assume I was kind of looking at that
10:51
Speaker 1: on her. We went on my walk the other morning,
10:53
Speaker 1: and I was kind of looking at all the houses
10:55
Speaker 1: around them, like does every one of them have a
10:57
Speaker 1: security But one.
10:58
Speaker 3: Of them didn't. Yeah, but just about all of them.
11:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, They're like, oh, well, we'll just rely on the neighbors.
11:02
Speaker 2: On everybody down the road. We're not going to spend money.
11:07
Speaker 2: Police spoke to the other residents at the apartment, and
11:10
Speaker 2: only one recalls hearing anything odd that night. They said
11:13
Speaker 2: that around four to twenty am, which would be about
11:16
Speaker 2: the time that Christine arrived home and was going into
11:19
Speaker 2: an apartment the neighborhood, a loud noise like breaking glass, but
11:23
Speaker 2: did not identify it as a gunshot. This is backed
11:26
Speaker 2: up by the police's theory that she was killed soon
11:29
Speaker 2: after arriving home.
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Speaker 1: All right, with little to go on, they just their
11:34
Speaker 1: next stop is to get Christine's name and face out
11:37
Speaker 1: to the media to see if they can garner any
11:41
Speaker 1: solid leads, tips, or anything from the public. And they
11:45
Speaker 1: also so. And then another step to that was they
11:48
Speaker 1: began looking at arrest records of people around that area,
11:52
Speaker 1: which Orlando, you're probably going to have quite a bit.
11:54
Speaker 1: So they were looking more in the immediate area of
11:56
Speaker 1: the apartment complex as they thought maybe it was someone
11:59
Speaker 1: who who was in the area.
12:01
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of criminals in the area. That's the
12:04
Speaker 2: happiest place on earth.
12:06
Speaker 1: Yes, I think there's nothing.
12:07
Speaker 2: But criminals lurking.
12:09
Speaker 1: Yes, or all the children are yes.
12:12
Speaker 2: Trying to take advantage of tourists and children.
12:14
Speaker 1: Yes. So they're mainly looking because they're thinking it's somebody
12:17
Speaker 1: who was maybe familiar with the area, maybe saw Christine
12:21
Speaker 1: coming home, what happened to be in the area, saw
12:23
Speaker 1: Christine coming home by herself, and then that's when they
12:26
Speaker 1: the person decided to attack. So they went through a
12:29
Speaker 1: couple of suspects, one being a peeping Tom who was
12:32
Speaker 1: caught looking at a fourteen year old girl in the window.
12:36
Speaker 2: Now, was there a guy named Tom that got caught
12:38
Speaker 2: peeping and they just named it Peeping Tom after that?
12:41
Speaker 1: I don't know, or was Tom just the most common name,
12:43
Speaker 1: And if it was today'd be like Peeping.
12:46
Speaker 2: Aiden, Yeah, Aiden or Jaden.
12:48
Speaker 1: Peeping Grayson or peeping I don't know. So anyway, so
12:54
Speaker 1: this peeping Tom, he's looking at a fourteen year old
12:57
Speaker 1: girl's window and it was at the same apartment complex
13:00
Speaker 1: as Christine. So they had picked this person up, but
13:03
Speaker 1: they were able to get that that person actually handed
13:05
Speaker 1: over their DNA and they did not come back as
13:08
Speaker 1: a match. So thankfully they do have this DNA, because
13:10
Speaker 1: otherwise they'd just be we might have Peeping Tom and
13:14
Speaker 1: he's a bad well he's a bad person, but he
13:17
Speaker 1: may not have done this. Another person that they looked
13:20
Speaker 1: into was a mentally unstable man who went into a
13:24
Speaker 1: store think of like a Walmart or Kmart maybe back.
13:28
Speaker 2: Then a large retail box store.
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Speaker 1: Yes, he's got a knife in his hand. He's screaming,
13:33
Speaker 1: I know who killed that woman down the road. I
13:36
Speaker 1: know who killed him. He's gonna kill again. Blah blah
13:38
Speaker 1: blah blah. So he gets picked up by the police
13:42
Speaker 1: and it's questioned in Christine's murder. He really doesn't after
13:47
Speaker 1: he made them statements yelling in the store. He didn't
13:50
Speaker 1: really talk to police afterwards. But they did find out
13:53
Speaker 1: that he lived in a halfway house not too far
13:56
Speaker 1: from where Christine lived. They were able through a swab
14:03
Speaker 1: swab through a subpoena. Subpoena, Yes, a subpoena. I should
14:08
Speaker 1: know this. I was on a jury jury, yes.
14:11
Speaker 2: Or or were you? Nobody's gonna believe now.
14:14
Speaker 1: That you were on a subpoena. They were able to
14:17
Speaker 1: get that DNA swab because he wasn't giving him and
14:19
Speaker 1: his lawyer were not giving. Like he lawyered up right
14:22
Speaker 1: away and he was not going to hand over this
14:24
Speaker 1: d example.
14:26
Speaker 2: I was like, Hi, I was just hig as a
14:28
Speaker 2: motherfucker when I was in the store yelling crazy stuff.
14:30
Speaker 1: Well, it wasn't high.
14:31
Speaker 2: He was well I get that.
14:33
Speaker 1: Okay, Well you don't get it.
14:34
Speaker 2: I'm saying that's what his defense is.
14:36
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's cloaked in innocence.
14:38
Speaker 2: He's cloaked in innocence. I'm not giving you anything.
14:41
Speaker 1: So they take that DNA swab.
14:42
Speaker 2: And it is not a match negatory.
14:46
Speaker 1: Now, the case would quickly go cold after these first
14:48
Speaker 1: few suspects. They got other tips in, but nothing really solid,
14:53
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't have anything new to go on until
14:55
Speaker 1: about two thousand and six. So they during this time,
14:57
Speaker 1: obviously there's new detectives come on a sign to the case.
15:01
Speaker 1: So this is another detective that's sign he's looking back
15:04
Speaker 1: through it. Well, they looked at a tip that they
15:06
Speaker 1: got from a coworker way back in two thousand and one,
15:09
Speaker 1: saying that there was a man at the restaurant that
15:11
Speaker 1: used to hit on Christine ask her out. She would
15:15
Speaker 1: decline his advances. He was never aggressive with he or
15:19
Speaker 1: anything like that, but he was bothersome.
15:22
Speaker 3: They said.
15:23
Speaker 1: He would not let it get out. Yes, so no
15:28
Speaker 1: one really followed up on that lead back in two
15:30
Speaker 1: thousand and one. Well, this new detective, he's like, hey,
15:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to go check this one out. So they
15:35
Speaker 1: go and they talked to the coworkers. Again, they're able
15:38
Speaker 1: to get a description of the man, and they determined
15:41
Speaker 1: that he worked at a nearby restaurant. I think it
15:44
Speaker 1: was called Nascar Cafe.
15:46
Speaker 3: Possibly, I think that's what I recall him.
15:48
Speaker 1: Yes, So based on the roster of people that worked
15:51
Speaker 1: there in two thousand and one and the way their descriptions,
15:54
Speaker 1: they were able to narrow down to one man. He
15:57
Speaker 1: did drive a white the Dan at the times. He
16:02
Speaker 1: did have a history of violence against women. He did
16:06
Speaker 1: get fired shortly after Christine was murdered. So things are
16:10
Speaker 1: not looking good for this person. So they tracked the
16:12
Speaker 1: man down. It took him a little while, but they
16:14
Speaker 1: were able to Uh. They tried talking to him and
16:18
Speaker 1: he denies any involvement everything. It took him. They couldn't
16:21
Speaker 1: get a subpoene. They didn't have enough on him to
16:24
Speaker 1: get a warrant for the DNA. Yeah, so then they
16:29
Speaker 1: had to go and like fall around, get the get
16:35
Speaker 1: the you know, the old cigarette but yes, and so
16:39
Speaker 1: then they finally got one. They tested the DNA. It's
16:41
Speaker 1: not a match, but they were really like they were like,
16:43
Speaker 1: I feel like this is the guy, you know, he
16:45
Speaker 1: matched it, he'd had the interactions with Christine, he had
16:48
Speaker 1: the white car, he was had a violent Why is
16:51
Speaker 1: he out though? I don't know every time they named
16:55
Speaker 1: these people, Why was the mentally unstable man with the
16:57
Speaker 1: knife in the store? Why is he out in about.
17:01
Speaker 2: A tempted first degree murder get a twelve year sentence
17:04
Speaker 2: and only do three.
17:06
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't understand why I let all
17:09
Speaker 1: the people out on drug offenses out. If you're running
17:11
Speaker 1: out of room, keep the violent criminals in, Okay, That's
17:14
Speaker 1: what I'm worried about.
17:16
Speaker 2: Let all the tax fraud people out.
17:19
Speaker 1: Well, they well, yeah, I mean, if you're running out
17:22
Speaker 1: of room, yes, most definitely, I'll let the guy that
17:25
Speaker 1: stole some money from the government out before the one
17:27
Speaker 1: that like raped a bunch of women, like one hundred percent. Yeah,
17:31
Speaker 1: I feel like there should be definitely be an order
17:32
Speaker 1: to this.
17:33
Speaker 3: Whenever we start.
17:33
Speaker 2: The government gets a little serious when you.
17:36
Speaker 1: I know, well, they're like, who cares about you murdering
17:39
Speaker 1: raping people, Let's just worry about a few stole money
17:41
Speaker 1: from the government bastards now.
17:44
Speaker 2: And it wouldn't be until twenty thirteen when a new
17:47
Speaker 2: detective took over the case that any new leads would
17:49
Speaker 2: be generated, the new detective decided to look at the
17:53
Speaker 2: DNA again in terms of the genealogical DNA. Now, this
17:57
Speaker 2: is relatively new in twenty thirteen, and of course nowadays,
18:03
Speaker 2: that's how we I mean, basically, if you were following
18:06
Speaker 2: the Golden State killer, that was the that was.
18:08
Speaker 1: The I think that was the first really big one,
18:10
Speaker 1: right that broke things wide open. And then now the
18:14
Speaker 1: yogurt shot murders. That's how this guy was caught, along
18:16
Speaker 1: with his other crimes, is how it was caught.
18:18
Speaker 2: And a lot of people are getting caught this way
18:20
Speaker 2: here lately. I'll read a headline just about two or
18:22
Speaker 2: three times a month.
18:23
Speaker 1: About how some so you can't get away with shit,
18:25
Speaker 1: to stop hurting people. Okay, yeah, if you're thinking about it,
18:28
Speaker 1: they will catch you.
18:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. People are getting caught from twenty thirty, forty years ago.
18:31
Speaker 2: Now are they're being identified at least if they're already deceased.
18:35
Speaker 1: What if in fifty year, one hundred years they're like,
18:37
Speaker 1: can't you believe they throw all those people in jail
18:39
Speaker 1: based on DNA evidence And it's not even it doesn't
18:42
Speaker 1: even work it's like it'll be like eyewitnesses. You know that.
18:46
Speaker 2: I think DNA is pretty accurate. Yeah, where were we? Oh,
18:51
Speaker 2: he worked with an independent lab to run it against
18:55
Speaker 2: public records, and it would take him months and months
18:58
Speaker 2: and months to build out a fit family tree, row
19:01
Speaker 2: down the suspects might be.
19:03
Speaker 1: Okay, let me add in some more context to this,
19:06
Speaker 1: because I didn't write it all down, but I did
19:08
Speaker 1: read a couple of news articles about this. So the
19:11
Speaker 1: reason it took a long time. It took like five
19:14
Speaker 1: years I think for them to find this guy with
19:16
Speaker 1: this because again it was new when they first ran it.
19:21
Speaker 1: It gave up fifteen hundred possible family members. Fifteen hundred,
19:26
Speaker 1: so it took them a year.
19:29
Speaker 2: Lived down in Louisiana.
19:30
Speaker 1: No, So anyways, they put it in the jed Tech,
19:32
Speaker 1: which is the one that Golden State Killer did. Whenever
19:36
Speaker 1: he said there was the detective said there was a
19:38
Speaker 1: large family. Because it came back with fifteen hundred people
19:42
Speaker 1: that had to we had to like narrow it down
19:45
Speaker 1: to get to our suspects. And so then he had
19:48
Speaker 1: to go out and get additional DNA from people that
19:53
Speaker 1: he thought might be related to try to get it
19:55
Speaker 1: bring it down, So it took years and years to
19:57
Speaker 1: do this.
19:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you get like because the suspect himself was
20:02
Speaker 2: not in there. No, it was so I was all
20:04
Speaker 2: the familiar DNA, so there was only a they only
20:08
Speaker 2: got they could only use part of the DNA. Yes,
20:11
Speaker 2: and he's all the all these family members matched that
20:14
Speaker 2: section of the DNA, and they had to narrow it
20:16
Speaker 2: down from.
20:16
Speaker 1: H yes, he said, and he said that the fan,
20:19
Speaker 1: he said, I wasn't building a family tree. He said,
20:21
Speaker 1: this family was so large. I was building a forest.
20:23
Speaker 1: Like that's how how far and wide it stretched. So
20:28
Speaker 1: whenever you're talking about the additional DNA, that was where
20:32
Speaker 1: his mom after the fact that he got caught. So
20:37
Speaker 1: at the time, he the detective, I'm just gonna summarize this, Steward,
20:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to summarize my paragram because I didn't realize
20:43
Speaker 1: you're going to read this portion, and I kind of
20:45
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense a lot unless you read the
20:47
Speaker 1: article anyway. So the mom was upset because at the
20:52
Speaker 1: time the detectives were going around and getting the they
20:57
Speaker 1: had narrowed it down. So then they went and got
20:58
Speaker 1: like the ants and the ants DNA and they use
21:02
Speaker 1: the same story they're telling them. They didn't go up
21:04
Speaker 1: there and say, hey, we think you're relative. Your relative
21:08
Speaker 1: is a murderer. We said they were going around saying
21:12
Speaker 1: that they had an unidentified uh uh like dead dead
21:16
Speaker 1: person and they were trying to determine the identity. Well
21:19
Speaker 1: this is it got a big family. So they're like, okay,
21:21
Speaker 1: maybe if I can help out. So the aunt gave
21:24
Speaker 1: the DNA sample. Well, once the aunt gave it narrowed out,
21:27
Speaker 1: it took out her children. So then they had to
21:30
Speaker 1: go there. They're just moving along. So then they finally
21:33
Speaker 1: get to the next one. Well, the mom of the killer,
21:38
Speaker 1: she had talked to her sister, the killer's aunt, and
21:41
Speaker 1: she told her the same story. She said, yeah, they're
21:43
Speaker 1: trying to find out who this you know, unidentified dead
21:48
Speaker 1: person is. And so the mom so they confronted her
21:51
Speaker 1: in her driveway in Stu, I got this part for
21:54
Speaker 1: you though yours now, Yeah, you're good Valdosta Valdosta. I
21:59
Speaker 1: thought that was it was val Yeah, Stut. We got
22:02
Speaker 1: a hateful review. Well, we got numerous we got numeramorous
22:08
Speaker 1: corrections about how STU was saying it. It's Valdosta Georgia.
22:12
Speaker 1: I think it's Valdosta is or is it Valdosta? Is
22:15
Speaker 1: it Valdosta? It's Levossa, not Leviosa. Anyway, So she's in
22:22
Speaker 1: her driveway in Valdosta. They're heading out to go somewhere Valdosta.
22:27
Speaker 3: What Stuart, you're going to get? Okay?
22:29
Speaker 1: Whatever. Anyways, they're heading out and some police officers from
22:33
Speaker 1: Orlando they confront them. They say, we are looking for
22:36
Speaker 1: this unidentified person. We're trying to identify them, and so
22:40
Speaker 1: they she remembered the story that her sister told and
22:42
Speaker 1: so she's like okay, and so she handed over. Wasn't
22:45
Speaker 1: until a couple of days later that her son calls
22:46
Speaker 1: her and be like, hey, Mom, I just got arrested
22:48
Speaker 1: for murder. That she realized what they had done, that
22:50
Speaker 1: they lied, and so now it's like a questionable thing
22:53
Speaker 1: like should they be allowed to lie?
22:55
Speaker 2: Should they be allowed to use this evidence since they
22:58
Speaker 2: lied to get it?
22:59
Speaker 1: Yes, I'll give you a thing of surprise, they are
23:05
Speaker 1: allowed to use it. But they're saying, what is the
23:08
Speaker 1: ethical boundary there of lying to someone and what's.
23:13
Speaker 2: The ethical boundary of murdering and riping someone?
23:15
Speaker 1: Well, I know, I don't feel sorry for this person.
23:17
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, but they're saying, what is ethical? But
23:20
Speaker 1: the police are allowed to lie to you.
23:21
Speaker 2: Yes, you can't lie to them, but they can lie
23:23
Speaker 2: to you. Yes, it's the law.
23:26
Speaker 1: So anyway, so that's why it took so long. It
23:28
Speaker 1: took five years for them to determine this. So this
23:33
Speaker 1: was not an easy, like quick little thing. That's probably
23:36
Speaker 1: I don't even know how long it took them to
23:38
Speaker 1: catch the Golden State killer. I guess it would depend
23:40
Speaker 1: on how many they started with, of people they had
23:43
Speaker 1: to come, so.
23:44
Speaker 2: They narrowed it down to his branch of the tree. Yeah,
23:49
Speaker 2: Now one of the children of this woman, So she
23:52
Speaker 2: had two she had two children.
23:53
Speaker 1: So the summary of all that is, they get it down,
23:57
Speaker 1: they find this woman, They're like, okay, it's one of
23:58
Speaker 1: her two children. She has two sons, and so that's
24:02
Speaker 1: what they've got it down to. They've got their last
24:03
Speaker 1: two suspects. Now they just got to figure it out.
24:05
Speaker 2: Which one is which. Flip a coin. One of them
24:08
Speaker 2: had a criminal history that was somewhat extensive and the
24:12
Speaker 2: other didn't. So they decided to test the one with
24:15
Speaker 2: the criminal history first. As one might expect, they surveyed
24:20
Speaker 2: the one brother and were able to obtain a gatorade
24:23
Speaker 2: bottle from a construction site he was working. They ran
24:26
Speaker 2: the DNA and it was not a match. This meant
24:30
Speaker 2: that the other brother was their killer. This surprise police
24:34
Speaker 2: because he didn't have a violent criminal history.
24:37
Speaker 1: He didn't really have a criminal history at all. He
24:40
Speaker 1: was they said, he was just like your standard typical
24:43
Speaker 1: American working just he would have never even thought.
24:47
Speaker 2: The man's name was Benjamin Holmes. He was a manager
24:50
Speaker 2: at a fast food restaurant, and he didn't really have
24:52
Speaker 2: anything that stuck out as him being violent criminal, anything
24:57
Speaker 2: that would There was no red flags on this. Basically,
25:01
Speaker 2: they did run his address at the time of the
25:03
Speaker 2: murder and he did live near Christine. That began watching
25:07
Speaker 2: him and they were able to pick up a cigarette
25:09
Speaker 2: but that he had smoked and they tested it against
25:12
Speaker 2: their DNA sample that they had recovered from the crime
25:14
Speaker 2: scene and it was a match.
25:17
Speaker 1: Kara, Yes, So all this hard work that this investigator
25:22
Speaker 1: put in, he finally has his that's.
25:25
Speaker 2: Kind of been rewarding you. Yes, you put all that
25:29
Speaker 2: time in. It's like, God, don't let this turn up
25:31
Speaker 2: to be nothing.
25:32
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because after all that work, you get it
25:34
Speaker 1: down to two people and then your one doesn't hit
25:35
Speaker 1: and you're like, okay, this is my last.
25:38
Speaker 2: Be that's gotta be this guy. The DNA says it
25:40
Speaker 2: is all right.
25:42
Speaker 1: So this in total, this is seventeen years after Christine's
25:45
Speaker 1: murder and several investigators to get to this point, and
25:49
Speaker 1: they finally have the man who committed the crime. So
25:51
Speaker 1: they bring in Benjamin Holmes to confront him about Christine's murder. Well,
25:55
Speaker 1: he vehemently denies any involvement with the crime, and when
25:58
Speaker 1: confronted with the DNA evidence, he said that maybe the
26:02
Speaker 1: science was wrong and that it was maybe it was
26:05
Speaker 1: planted and someone got somehow got his semen, I guess
26:09
Speaker 1: and planted it.
26:10
Speaker 2: I know if mine has ever found out of crime
26:11
Speaker 2: saying it was planted.
26:13
Speaker 1: Okay, you're just getting that out of the hair and
26:15
Speaker 1: ahead of time anyway. So in the end, Benjamin never
26:20
Speaker 1: confessed to the crime. However, he was arrested for first
26:23
Speaker 1: degree murder with a firearm. He was offered a plea
26:26
Speaker 1: deal and if he would just come in. But the
26:29
Speaker 1: part of the stipulations which some people are mad about
26:31
Speaker 1: the whole No, some people are mad about the whole
26:37
Speaker 1: Idaho for the coburger that he wasn't required as part
26:41
Speaker 1: of his plea, and then people said that that's not
26:43
Speaker 1: always a requirement, but apparently it can be.
26:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can make it, well, because we did.
26:48
Speaker 1: Cover that one where they made it. But then somebody
26:50
Speaker 1: could lie too, So yeah, I mean, I guess if
26:52
Speaker 1: you're a if you've been around for a long time
26:54
Speaker 1: as a prosecutor, you're probably thinking, do I even want
26:58
Speaker 1: this part of the plea do because they could just
26:59
Speaker 1: come and lie, you know, like, what is the point?
27:03
Speaker 1: They might not even be telling us the truth, and
27:06
Speaker 1: then that's just going to do more damage to the families.
27:09
Speaker 1: Why are you looking at me like that?
27:11
Speaker 2: I'm just I mean, they got to know something going on, though,
27:14
Speaker 2: But I mean they can be like, no, this is crap,
27:15
Speaker 2: we're not taking this. You're lying to us.
27:17
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I don't know. They knew that one
27:19
Speaker 1: guy that we did that he did the plea deal
27:21
Speaker 1: and he lied. They flat out knew that. But the
27:23
Speaker 1: one where he said that he pushed her and she
27:25
Speaker 1: hit her head on the window cilin and he stuck
27:27
Speaker 1: her in the trash compactor. Yeah, they one hundred percent
27:30
Speaker 1: knew he was lying, but that's what he said happened,
27:32
Speaker 1: and so they had to just it was part of
27:33
Speaker 1: the plea deal, and they they all knew he was
27:36
Speaker 1: lying and they went forward. So, I mean, I don't
27:40
Speaker 1: know what the rules are for that. Either way, he
27:43
Speaker 1: completely denies having any involvement with this. He's going with
27:46
Speaker 1: that his DNA was planted, and so he refused the
27:49
Speaker 1: plea deal. So now this case is going to trial.
27:52
Speaker 2: During the trial, the prosecutor painted a picture of Benjamin
27:55
Speaker 2: seeing Christine alone and vulnerable and then having the intention
27:59
Speaker 2: of rape in her. This is when he followed her home,
28:02
Speaker 2: entered the apartment right behind her, and attacked her. When
28:05
Speaker 2: she fought back, things didn't go as planned, and that's
28:08
Speaker 2: when he ended up robbing her and leaving. The defense
28:11
Speaker 2: argument was that the DNA evidence was planted by somebody else,
28:15
Speaker 2: but the prosecutors argued it would be very difficult to
28:18
Speaker 2: get the bodily fluids containing his DNA to plant at
28:21
Speaker 2: the crime scene.
28:22
Speaker 1: And also during that trial, the defense never explained how
28:27
Speaker 1: this could possibly happen. They just said this is what happened,
28:31
Speaker 1: but they never actually said, oh, well, this is how
28:34
Speaker 1: someone would have got his fluids and planted it. They
28:37
Speaker 1: never followed through with the how. They just said, oh,
28:40
Speaker 1: this is what happened.
28:40
Speaker 2: It was planted. Yeah. Not they went up to him,
28:44
Speaker 2: they did this to him to get these fluids, put
28:46
Speaker 2: him in this container, took it over here, and this
28:49
Speaker 2: is how they Yes, well, there.
28:50
Speaker 1: Was no opportunity laid out where someone would be able
28:52
Speaker 1: to do this to him to frame him.
28:55
Speaker 2: In the end, Benjamin Holmes was found guilty and in
28:58
Speaker 2: March of twenty twenty three, he was sent to life
29:00
Speaker 2: in prison. He still maintains his innocence and insists that
29:04
Speaker 2: someone planted his DNA evidence at the scene of the
29:07
Speaker 2: crime in an effort to hide the real killer.
29:11
Speaker 1: Yes, he believes that it's someone that knew Christine that
29:15
Speaker 1: did this.
29:15
Speaker 3: To her, and that's what he believed.
29:18
Speaker 1: Somehow, somehow des picked him out of all the people
29:22
Speaker 1: in the world to frame. So it's just this, it's
29:26
Speaker 1: just she was two months shy of graduating, you know,
29:30
Speaker 1: and she was like this fun, happy person, hard worker,
29:33
Speaker 1: and then you got this piece of shit that's been
29:36
Speaker 1: a free all these years, living his.
29:38
Speaker 2: Life seventeen years. Wow, I mean, he ain't gonna it's
29:43
Speaker 2: going to be a long hard time after that.
29:46
Speaker 1: So I don't know how old he was at the time,
29:47
Speaker 1: but he was young, so he still got a lot
29:50
Speaker 1: of years to spend in prison with probably never getting
29:54
Speaker 1: out because it is Florida. I don't think he'll be
29:56
Speaker 1: I don't know. They probably are overcrowded.
29:57
Speaker 2: Too, so they're like, oh, two years.
30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, So hopefully he's in there for a long time
30:02
Speaker 1: because he sounds like a terrible person. I don't understand
30:06
Speaker 1: how he never did any of this type of behavior
30:09
Speaker 1: again though, that's in the seventeen years, yeah, or that
30:14
Speaker 1: they know of.
30:14
Speaker 3: I guess.
30:15
Speaker 2: I guess they know of. I guess they're going to
30:17
Speaker 2: have to find his DNA and the system. Now he's
30:19
Speaker 2: in Codis now, he's.
30:21
Speaker 1: In Codis now. All right, Well, that is our story
30:25
Speaker 1: out of Florida for this week. Stue, do you have
30:28
Speaker 1: a y'all need Jesus?
30:29
Speaker 2: Why? Of course I do. Coming to us from the
30:32
Speaker 2: Cleveland Scene dot Com Carara by Alena Newtaile, July one,
30:37
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen. I guess I already told you where it's
30:40
Speaker 2: going to be. Not Florida.
30:42
Speaker 1: I would have to be. I would have to be
30:43
Speaker 1: from Florida to guess that it was in Florida after
30:45
Speaker 1: you read that headline.
30:47
Speaker 2: Damn, just insulted all our Florida listeners.
30:51
Speaker 1: Just the Florida mande. I think that's Alabama.
30:55
Speaker 2: Let's get the Alabama folks while we're out of Let's
30:57
Speaker 2: insult them too, Okay. I thought you could only be
31:00
Speaker 2: arrested for burglary at night? Is the headline? Oh?
31:05
Speaker 3: Really?
31:05
Speaker 1: Wow?
31:06
Speaker 2: A Willoughby man who believed he could only be charged
31:09
Speaker 2: with burglary if he committed the crime at night has
31:13
Speaker 2: pleaded guilty. On June twenty six, James Blankenship eight.
31:17
Speaker 1: No, not everybody should be allowed to vote, Okay, I'm just.
31:19
Speaker 2: Saying, should be a Civics test or something.
31:26
Speaker 1: We're at a different level right there.
31:28
Speaker 2: On June twenty six, James Blankenship, age twenty two, pleaded
31:31
Speaker 2: guilty to a reduced charge of breaking and entering into
31:35
Speaker 2: his mother's home against her will. According to police, Blankenship's
31:40
Speaker 2: mother found her son attempting to break into her home
31:43
Speaker 2: through a first floor window earlier in the month of
31:47
Speaker 2: whatever year and month we're talking about. The young man
31:51
Speaker 2: had not been welcome in his mother's home for approximately
31:54
Speaker 2: three months, nor did he have any possessions on the premise,
31:57
Speaker 2: police seid. Upon being discovered by his mother, the accused
32:01
Speaker 2: fled the scene. A neighbor alerted the police that he
32:03
Speaker 2: had witnessed a man running behind a nearby home. Blankenship
32:08
Speaker 2: was discovered hiding into cross base not far from his
32:11
Speaker 2: mother's house. At the time of the crime. The accused
32:14
Speaker 2: told officers he didn't think he could be arrested for
32:17
Speaker 2: burglary because it was not nighttime during Despite this misconception,
32:23
Speaker 2: Blankenship soon realized that people can, in fact be arrested
32:27
Speaker 2: during the daytime for burglary.
32:29
Speaker 1: I'm surprised he didn't say I didn't know he could
32:31
Speaker 1: arrested for breaking into your mother's.
32:33
Speaker 3: House, Like, yeah, that's what iry That would have been more.
32:35
Speaker 1: Of something that you might I mean you shouldn't be,
32:39
Speaker 1: but yeah, be a little more confusing than daytime versus nighttime.
32:43
Speaker 1: And then what is nighttime when sunsets still.
32:46
Speaker 2: Well, it's a daytime burglary called then.
32:48
Speaker 1: Is four am daytime?
32:50
Speaker 2: Like just daytime borrowing? So it's fine.
32:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:54
Speaker 2: He was fined one hundred dollars and sentenced to one
32:56
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty days in prison, with a total of
32:58
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty of those day suspended correction Blankenship, Oh,
33:06
Speaker 2: we've got a correction here. At the end of the story, nobody.
33:08
Speaker 1: Ever reads the corrections except for Blessed.
33:11
Speaker 2: He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of breaking and
33:14
Speaker 2: entering into his mother's home against her will. The original
33:16
Speaker 2: statement said blanket Ship pleaded guilty to the charge of
33:19
Speaker 2: breaking and entering.
33:22
Speaker 1: Well, I think instead of him going to jail, they
33:26
Speaker 1: should have made him have to pass a certain test
33:29
Speaker 1: to get out, Like once you pass this test, you
33:32
Speaker 1: can get out of prison. Color whatever day, how many
33:35
Speaker 1: of our days that is in alphabet? Yes, So anyways,
33:40
Speaker 1: all right, well that is our case for the week,
33:43
Speaker 1: and again we are going on vacations. We're going to
33:46
Speaker 1: try to get everything out. But you know, we're only
33:49
Speaker 1: two people. You know, we have no help.
33:52
Speaker 3: We're just we have help.
33:54
Speaker 1: These children don't help, No, they don't.
33:57
Speaker 2: They're actually going they're actually tugging in the other direction
34:00
Speaker 2: most of the time.
34:01
Speaker 1: What do you mean tugging in the other not.
34:03
Speaker 2: Helping, the opposite of help.
34:04
Speaker 1: Oh well, yeah, they're the things that we need help with,
34:06
Speaker 1: so we can do more of the podcasting stuff, but
34:09
Speaker 1: we don't have any of that, so we're out here
34:11
Speaker 1: isolated in West Texas, all alone, all alone. That's all
34:17
Speaker 1: the other reason it takes us so long to get
34:18
Speaker 1: Louisiana we have. It takes us two days to get
34:20
Speaker 1: there because we it's a it's.
34:22
Speaker 2: About eleven twelve hours.
34:25
Speaker 1: Whenever I drove it by myself for work, it was
34:28
Speaker 1: eleven hours, and so it's a ten hour drive, but
34:30
Speaker 1: you get another hour just factoring in stops for gas,
34:34
Speaker 1: like and that's me going in like a quick restroom break,
34:36
Speaker 1: grabbing food and getting back in the car like those
34:39
Speaker 1: types of things, and until took me eleven hours every time.
34:41
Speaker 1: There is absolutely no way these children can and not
34:44
Speaker 1: to mention, eleven hours would turn into like a sixteen
34:46
Speaker 1: hour trip if we try to do it all in
34:48
Speaker 1: one because they need to actually get out.
34:50
Speaker 2: At least a half hour, sometimes an hour. Yeah, so
34:54
Speaker 2: every two to three.
34:55
Speaker 1: Hours, yes, every two to three hours, someone needs to
34:59
Speaker 1: get out, so it would just take us forever. So anyways,
35:03
Speaker 1: it takes us two days to get there, but we
35:04
Speaker 1: are going to the pep at the pig park on
35:07
Speaker 1: the way back, So no, thank god, I made the
35:10
Speaker 1: mistake of telling our four year old debt like a
35:12
Speaker 1: month ago, and so every day it's like, when are
35:16
Speaker 1: we going to the pep at the pig Park?
35:19
Speaker 2: I said it was a farm, so.
35:20
Speaker 1: They don't even like I know he's talking to his parents.
35:23
Speaker 1: He's He's like, yeah, we're going to the Pep of
35:25
Speaker 1: the Pep of the Pig farm. And I'm like, it's
35:26
Speaker 1: not the farm. We're not going there to kill Pepa
35:28
Speaker 1: and eat bacon anyways, But.
35:31
Speaker 2: It was more interesting for me if we were.
35:33
Speaker 1: Well, we're also going up to Denton because it's supposed
35:35
Speaker 1: to be Halloween town. It's supposed to be decorated for Halloweens.
35:38
Speaker 1: We're going to do all that stuff. But I forgot
35:42
Speaker 1: what I was going to say. They don't even watch
35:44
Speaker 1: Peper the Pig.
35:45
Speaker 2: I don't.
35:46
Speaker 1: I've tried to get him to watch Peppa Pig.
35:47
Speaker 2: I don't even know why we're going. This is for you,
35:49
Speaker 2: because no, it's not.
35:50
Speaker 1: Why would it be for me?
35:51
Speaker 3: Are there? Still?
35:52
Speaker 1: It's because it's it's one of the only, like you know,
35:56
Speaker 1: most most like theme parks and stuff for for older
35:59
Speaker 1: kids and adults. This is one of the few ones
36:02
Speaker 1: that's made specifically for all the rides are for our
36:06
Speaker 1: age children, so they can go and do pretty much
36:08
Speaker 1: everything there, as opposed to normal theme park like even
36:10
Speaker 1: Disney stuff. Most of the stuff is for older kids
36:13
Speaker 1: and so this isn't specifically for them, so it's a
36:15
Speaker 1: lot less crowded.
36:16
Speaker 3: I believe. But we'll see, we shall.
36:20
Speaker 1: Yep, So that is it all right, Well we will
36:22
Speaker 1: see you next time. Buy everyone say bye Steve, Bye Steve.
36:26
Speaker 2: Don't you know it's bad to be super stonios by
36:34
Speaker 2: nothing else is working. It's pretty learning. Say this word
36:44
Speaker 2: by Cam