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The Cabin in the Woods · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of humans. These it's not just the victim and
0:32
Speaker 1: the victim's family. It's the worst for them, but there's
0:34
Speaker 1: also the people who are accused, and it's never cleared
0:37
Speaker 1: one way or the other, really, and so they get
0:39
Speaker 1: whispered about in town and just the crazy rumors hurt
0:43
Speaker 1: a lot of people. When there's no justice done, it
0:45
Speaker 1: hurts a lot of people. It hurts the whole town.
0:48
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these people. Their children may
0:49
Speaker 1: be getting to that age, their kids might be sixteen
0:52
Speaker 1: or even older, and so that's got to be hard
0:55
Speaker 1: if you saw something like that at a party and
0:57
Speaker 1: you never told anyone. And it's interesting because I could
0:59
Speaker 1: completely understand being sixteen years old. You're terrified, you're terrified
1:04
Speaker 1: of getting in trouble for drinking and you know whatever.
1:08
Speaker 1: But that's very different from thirty years later. You've got
1:11
Speaker 1: kids who are older, like you know. It's just interesting.
1:16
Speaker 1: It's the end of winter and icicles are frozen on
1:19
Speaker 1: the gutters of my dad's house in Mountain View. I'm
1:23
Speaker 1: on the top floor in the war room, and in
1:25
Speaker 1: front of me are two boxes. There's a small brown
1:28
Speaker 1: one that looks like an oversized briefcase and a huge
1:31
Speaker 1: plastic blue one. These hopefully hold the clues to what
1:36
Speaker 1: happened to Janie Ward on September ninth, nineteen eighty nine.
1:41
Speaker 1: Everything in these boxes was collected by Janie's dad, Ron.
1:45
Speaker 1: He died last summer, but I feel like I've been
1:48
Speaker 1: talking to him every single day. Weird how things will
1:51
Speaker 1: hit you emotionally. You're really you know, you're okay for
1:54
Speaker 1: a long time, and then you see something. The autopsy
1:56
Speaker 1: photos I saw were war horrific, something that no family,
1:59
Speaker 1: you know, father should ever have to see. And then
2:02
Speaker 1: you'd see things like all of Ron's correspondence with his attorney,
2:05
Speaker 1: me and with the state. And Ron had obviously googled
2:09
Speaker 1: how to write a business letter and what to do,
2:13
Speaker 1: how to get a notary, how to get a notarized statement.
2:15
Speaker 1: I mean he really every single thing in there was
2:18
Speaker 1: documented by him, and you could just see how meticulous
2:21
Speaker 1: he was and how hard he worked, and right up
2:23
Speaker 1: until the end, he had his to do list. Like
2:25
Speaker 1: we did with Rebecca's case, In order to figure out
2:28
Speaker 1: what really happened to Jane, we need to focus on victimology.
2:32
Speaker 1: We have to try to reconstruct what was going on
2:34
Speaker 1: in her life. And the days and the hours leading
2:36
Speaker 1: up to her death, what really happened at that party?
2:41
Speaker 1: And thirty years later, why don't we know the truth
2:45
Speaker 1: about how Janie died. I'm Catherine Townsend and this is
2:48
Speaker 1: Helen Gone. So yeah, I'm keeping him in the order
3:25
Speaker 1: Ron had them in, But then I'm also separable going
3:27
Speaker 1: back to the week leading up to the party on Saturday,
3:30
Speaker 1: September ninth, nineteen eighty nine. I'm keeping him the same
3:33
Speaker 1: folders that Ron had them in, and he was very methodical,
3:36
Speaker 1: so I don't want to mess that up, and I've
3:38
Speaker 1: put a few aside I think we need to be
3:39
Speaker 1: to deal with first that are contradictory. But anyway, we're
3:41
Speaker 1: using witness statements from the Arkansas State Police case file.
3:45
Speaker 1: The ASP took charge of Jane's case at the request
3:48
Speaker 1: of Sircy County Sheriff Kent Griggs. The sheriff had a
3:52
Speaker 1: history with Ron and he wanted to avoid any suggestion
3:55
Speaker 1: of impropriety. Arkansas State Police investigator Bill Beach got the call,
4:00
Speaker 1: he drove to Marshall and started his investigation. And there
4:03
Speaker 1: are also contradictory things about out where Janie was. They
4:08
Speaker 1: call her Olivia in a lot of the statements because
4:10
Speaker 1: her name's Olivia Jane, But I mean most of these
4:12
Speaker 1: witness statements spend more time talking about the kegs and
4:18
Speaker 1: who collected money at school during the party and who
4:21
Speaker 1: was playing the party. By that Wednesday, everyone in the
4:24
Speaker 1: junior class at Marshall High School is buzzing about a party.
4:27
Speaker 1: It's being thrown by one of Janie's cousins, Jamie Ward.
4:31
Speaker 1: Since their names are so similar, will refer to him
4:34
Speaker 1: as Jay from this point on. Jay lived at a
4:37
Speaker 1: cabin in the woods off of unpaved Zach Road. The
4:41
Speaker 1: cabin was owned by Jay's father, Steve Ward. Even though
4:45
Speaker 1: Jay is only sixteen, his parents let him live in
4:48
Speaker 1: the cabin by himself so he could keep going to
4:50
Speaker 1: Marshall High School. Jane's family lived pretty far away from
4:54
Speaker 1: downtown Marshall. Janie's mom, Mona, told Bill Beach that it
4:58
Speaker 1: was not unusual for Janie to spend the night with
5:00
Speaker 1: friends on the weekend. On most Fridays, Jane rode the
5:04
Speaker 1: school bus home and then a friend would pick her
5:07
Speaker 1: up to go back to downtown Marshall. Ron told Bill
5:11
Speaker 1: Beach that the last time he saw his daughter was
5:13
Speaker 1: the morning of Friday, September eighth, a day before the party.
5:18
Speaker 1: He told Beach that she left home wearing a pin
5:20
Speaker 1: striped shirt and stonewashed jeans. We know that Janie was
5:24
Speaker 1: excited about the party from an interview her friend Leslie
5:27
Speaker 1: did with Bill Beach. It's been an interview of Leslie,
5:29
Speaker 1: student died in tenth grade approximately four twenty FM. Leslie
5:34
Speaker 1: says Janie spent the night with her on the Friday
5:36
Speaker 1: night before the party. Where was last night time? The
5:41
Speaker 1: last time Leslie saw Janie was at around four thirty
5:44
Speaker 1: pm on Saturday, finish fir on linked she said shirt.
5:52
Speaker 1: Leslie just said that Jane borrowed a shirt from her.
5:55
Speaker 1: When did you find out which one she bought? Say?
5:59
Speaker 1: After it happened. She tells Beach that she discovered her
6:04
Speaker 1: missing shirt day after Janie died when she went through
6:07
Speaker 1: her drawer to see which one of her shirts was missing.
6:11
Speaker 1: It was her deaf leopard one. So we know where
6:14
Speaker 1: the shirt came from, but we still don't know how
6:17
Speaker 1: she could have been wearing one shirt at the funeral
6:19
Speaker 1: home in Marshall and then a different one at the
6:22
Speaker 1: crime lab in Little Rock. Leslie also says Janie told
6:26
Speaker 1: her she was going to stash her clothes at the
6:27
Speaker 1: pool hall so that she could pick them up after
6:29
Speaker 1: the party. Was there anything in the time that she's
6:34
Speaker 1: fad with you last year it was saying to be
6:38
Speaker 1: bothering her INtime that she's concerned bat Nothing as far
6:45
Speaker 1: as well she's trying to glory kiss I ran her
6:48
Speaker 1: financial tumble. Yes, she get into the air. While Jane's
6:55
Speaker 1: at Leslie's house fixing her hair, Jay is at his
6:58
Speaker 1: house getting ready for the party. He's setting up kegs
7:01
Speaker 1: on the front porch. He's also preparing the PGA pine bunch,
7:06
Speaker 1: which stands for pure grain alcohol. He'd taken up money
7:09
Speaker 1: at school and he collected around one hundred and fifty dollars.
7:12
Speaker 1: Follow will be a swarm statement of Jamie Ward. Why
7:17
Speaker 1: am I oil seventeen? Is that right? When was the
7:22
Speaker 1: alcohol purchase for the party? In my hum? I don't know.
7:28
Speaker 1: I ain't got it, Jamie. I'd I say that, Well,
7:34
Speaker 1: you're under oath, you're not a suspect. Jay is reluctant
7:37
Speaker 1: to share who bought the alcohol for the kids at
7:39
Speaker 1: the party, but Beach has already discovered it was twenty
7:43
Speaker 1: two year old Gary Don, did you go with Gary
7:46
Speaker 1: Shnod's Big Flat? Gary Don is a graduate of Marshall
7:49
Speaker 1: High School, and it's still friendly with the students there.
7:52
Speaker 1: I told you when we started that I talked to
7:54
Speaker 1: a lot of people since I talked to you the
7:55
Speaker 1: first time. I told you when we started, and I
7:59
Speaker 1: tell you you're again in front of your mother, that
8:01
Speaker 1: we're not your point fingers, and we're not gonna say
8:05
Speaker 1: to somebody specificly college Jane's dead, but that we do
8:09
Speaker 1: have to have the trivia because these are unanswered questions
8:13
Speaker 1: if we can't leave unanswered to close out this investigation.
8:17
Speaker 1: Circe is a dry county, so to get the booze,
8:20
Speaker 1: Jay drives with Gary donn the thirty minutes to the
8:23
Speaker 1: Junction liquor store in Big Flat, which sits right on
8:27
Speaker 1: the border of Circe and wet Baxter County. Ever Clear,
8:32
Speaker 1: which is what the kids at the party Jane attended
8:34
Speaker 1: were drinking, is one hundred and ninety proof. That's ninety
8:38
Speaker 1: five percent alcohol content, making it one of the purest
8:42
Speaker 1: and most potent alcoholic beverages available, and Jay tells police
8:47
Speaker 1: that along with the punch, he added fruit pieces soaked
8:50
Speaker 1: in rubbing alcohol to make it extra strong. I remember
8:54
Speaker 1: my high school chemistry teacher lecturing about the dangers of
8:57
Speaker 1: grain alcohol. He took a styrofoam cup. This is what
9:02
Speaker 1: grain alcohol does to your stomach, he would tell us,
9:05
Speaker 1: And when he poured the alcohol into the cup, the
9:08
Speaker 1: styrofoam bottom melted instantly. I can't remember what chemical reaction
9:13
Speaker 1: caused the cup to melt, but I can remember that,
9:16
Speaker 1: far from being deterred by the potential danger, the kids
9:19
Speaker 1: in my class had the opposite reaction. Strong plus cheap
9:23
Speaker 1: equals a maximum buzz for minimum cost. Shortly after saying
9:37
Speaker 1: goodbye to her friend Leslie, Jane heads to the town square.
9:41
Speaker 1: They're in the Daisy Queen were the main spots where
9:44
Speaker 1: teens would hang around on the weekends. Janie's friend Ron
9:48
Speaker 1: Rose is driving around the town square in his truck.
9:52
Speaker 1: He's with Kim, another friend. Jane asked them for a
9:56
Speaker 1: ride to the party. Should be a swarm statement of
9:59
Speaker 1: Ron Dale Rose, twenty years old. This is Ron Rose,
10:04
Speaker 1: not to be confused with Janie's died Ron Ward. How
10:07
Speaker 1: did how did Olivia act when he first talked her
10:12
Speaker 1: out there on the square? Did that she's doing a
10:14
Speaker 1: pretty good movie. When she was talking being really happy,
10:19
Speaker 1: do you remember anything in particular if she talked about
10:22
Speaker 1: what you got to the bar? I really I just
10:26
Speaker 1: wondered who all was going to be down there and
10:28
Speaker 1: what was doing on? Okay, so you and Olivia and
10:32
Speaker 1: Kim went to the party together. Ron says the three
10:35
Speaker 1: of them got to the party around five point thirty
10:38
Speaker 1: or six pm. Soon after that, more people start arriving.
10:42
Speaker 1: Here's Gary Donn, the twenty two year old who bought
10:45
Speaker 1: the alcohol, and we in associated with a few people,
10:48
Speaker 1: and I seen Jane, and there's more. There's more people
10:53
Speaker 1: and went on into the house, went there and there
10:56
Speaker 1: was people doing different things. There's people who listened to
10:59
Speaker 1: this ORYA. Only there's people in the kitchen, and there's
11:02
Speaker 1: some people out there that had ferried out there as
11:05
Speaker 1: messing with the There's more people out in the backyard.
11:07
Speaker 1: And I'm or less walked on through one housesosiated with
11:10
Speaker 1: a few more than people. Multiple witnesses see Janey at
11:14
Speaker 1: the party. Some people say they saw Jane drinking the
11:17
Speaker 1: PGA punch, chewing on a few pieces of fruit, the
11:21
Speaker 1: one soaked and rubbing alcohol. But no one at the
11:24
Speaker 1: party is paying close attention to what Janie is doing.
11:28
Speaker 1: A lot of partygoers said they talked with Jane, but
11:30
Speaker 1: they don't remember what they talked about. People say she
11:34
Speaker 1: was sitting on Ron Roses truck's tailgate, or on a
11:37
Speaker 1: couch on the front porch, she was leaning against a post,
11:40
Speaker 1: or sitting on the rail of the porch. No one
11:43
Speaker 1: knows for sure. According to the National Weather Service, sunset
11:47
Speaker 1: on September ninth, nineteen eighty nine was at seven twenty
11:51
Speaker 1: seven pm, and that's around the time that all hell
11:55
Speaker 1: breaks loose. Depending on who you ask, two things happen
12:00
Speaker 1: simultaneously or one after the other. Janie falls and someone
12:05
Speaker 1: shout that the party is about to get busted by
12:07
Speaker 1: the cops. Even though it didn't have electricity, the cabin
12:12
Speaker 1: had a phone. It's called a party line, and it
12:15
Speaker 1: was a common sight in rural Arkansas during the eighties.
12:20
Speaker 1: A party line is a phone line where you're able
12:22
Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and listen in on conversations
12:25
Speaker 1: happening nearby. If you want to use the phone to
12:28
Speaker 1: call out, you usually have to wait for another person
12:31
Speaker 1: to hang up and someone at the party. No one
12:34
Speaker 1: is sure who heard a neighbor calling the cop on duty,
12:38
Speaker 1: Joey Pruett, and telling him a bunch of kids were
12:40
Speaker 1: having a party with alcohol. The neighbor also complained that
12:43
Speaker 1: the party goers ran her off the road as they
12:46
Speaker 1: zoomed up to the cabin. Of all the people at
12:50
Speaker 1: the party, only three say they actually saw Janie fall.
12:55
Speaker 1: Garyed on a cheerleader named Sarah and Billy, the high
12:59
Speaker 1: school quarterback. Sarah said that she was on the porch
13:03
Speaker 1: when Janey sort of twisted sideway then just fell on back.
13:07
Speaker 1: In Billy's statement, he says, she just came straight back
13:11
Speaker 1: like a tree. Gary Donn was socializing on the porch,
13:15
Speaker 1: so I looked away, and then I was more or
13:19
Speaker 1: less glass back in this in fly. I mean I
13:21
Speaker 1: called her in flight, is what I'm saying. I mean
13:25
Speaker 1: she was falling when I looked, and I mean just
13:27
Speaker 1: happened that quick. This, I mean, all that right there
13:32
Speaker 1: we've been talking about happened more or less in just
13:36
Speaker 1: a little wat. I mean she fell. I mean somebody hollered.
13:40
Speaker 1: Joy Prut was coming, That's what I heard. Joey Prutt
13:43
Speaker 1: was the police officer supposedly coming to bust the party.
13:46
Speaker 1: But and then people started scattering running by her. And
13:48
Speaker 1: that's more or less whenever I really started paying attention
13:51
Speaker 1: to her, because I mean, I couldn't get nobody to
13:54
Speaker 1: help me. I didn't know if she was knocked out
13:56
Speaker 1: or what or really hurt or anything. I knew when
13:59
Speaker 1: I got down there and turned her head over, safety
14:02
Speaker 1: busted her head over. That's the first thing I did.
14:05
Speaker 1: I mean, I try and save our head was much
14:08
Speaker 1: the over good. I thought her, she might knock yourself out.
14:11
Speaker 1: It's me and somebody lift her up on the porch
14:13
Speaker 1: j in the light, because the porch just kind of
14:15
Speaker 1: had her face shaving and stuff. It had her shaved
14:17
Speaker 1: a little bit, and we raised her up in the
14:20
Speaker 1: light where we could really see her, pay attention to her.
14:22
Speaker 1: And basically from that, this payple is going wild. The
14:27
Speaker 1: thing no one can agree on is how long Janie
14:30
Speaker 1: was laying on the ground. Gary don makes it seem
14:33
Speaker 1: like it was less than a minute, but Billy said
14:36
Speaker 1: it was more like fifteen to twenty minutes before anyone
14:38
Speaker 1: moved her. So this is the Billy Harris statement. Yeah,
14:43
Speaker 1: this is brutal. Kim Weddie went over to Janie and
14:46
Speaker 1: said she had passed out. I never saw anybody else
14:48
Speaker 1: go over to her. I went back in the house
14:50
Speaker 1: and talked with Jason, Matthew Brian. She probably laid there
14:53
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes before anybody moved her. Me, Jamie, Gail,
14:57
Speaker 1: and Gary Donn moved her to the back of Ron's truck.
15:00
Speaker 1: I don't think she was ever moved onto the porch.
15:02
Speaker 1: Jamie and Gil said she needed to go to a doctor.
15:05
Speaker 1: I noticed that's when I came back outside, that she
15:06
Speaker 1: had a bowel movement. I could see that her pants
15:08
Speaker 1: were wet and she was having a hard time breathing.
15:11
Speaker 1: Rose and Kim were in the cab of his truck,
15:13
Speaker 1: and Rose said there was no room for Janie except
15:16
Speaker 1: in the back. I offered to ride with her in
15:18
Speaker 1: the back, but Rose said no, he didn't want any
15:20
Speaker 1: trouble with the wall. I offered to get a blanket,
15:22
Speaker 1: and he said no, she'd be all right. I believe
15:24
Speaker 1: she moved her arm across her chest and we'd put
15:26
Speaker 1: her in the truck. She never said anything else that
15:28
Speaker 1: I heard. Janie was on the ground fifteen to twenty
15:31
Speaker 1: minutes before someone said the police was coming. Everyone just
15:34
Speaker 1: thought she was drunk and and passed out. Once everyone
15:40
Speaker 1: found out the cops were coming, people started panicking. Gary
15:44
Speaker 1: Dahn said, everyone was running around like maniacs. They see
15:49
Speaker 1: Janie soil herself. At this point, they know she's in
15:53
Speaker 1: serious trouble, maybe dying. The decision was made to put
15:58
Speaker 1: Janie into the back of Ron Rose's truck. Ron, Kim,
16:05
Speaker 1: and Sherry, another friend, got in the front. They started
16:09
Speaker 1: the three mile drive on rural roads to marshall'stown Square.
16:14
Speaker 1: At first, no one is sitting in the back of
16:17
Speaker 1: the truck with Jane during the rocky ride back to town,
16:20
Speaker 1: until Kim opens the window of the truck cab and
16:24
Speaker 1: climbs into the back to check on Jane. As Ron
16:28
Speaker 1: zoomed down Highway sixty five, he passed another friend, Carla Brightwell.
16:34
Speaker 1: She flashed her lights at his truck and when he
16:36
Speaker 1: didn't slow down, she thought something must be wrong, so
16:39
Speaker 1: she followed him. They ended up at the bank parking lot.
16:44
Speaker 1: At this point, Carla said, Ron and the girls were
16:47
Speaker 1: arguing about whether Jane was just passed out and whether
16:51
Speaker 1: or not they should take her home. I heard somebody
16:54
Speaker 1: say she's called, you know, and Dennie Wynn got a
16:57
Speaker 1: jacket at somebody's car and put over Jane and someone
17:04
Speaker 1: said she hadn't I already seen her move, that she
17:08
Speaker 1: fell off the porch, and I kind of thought, right then,
17:12
Speaker 1: though she fell off, of course she hadn't moved, you know,
17:15
Speaker 1: like all these end runs in my head. So Pam
17:19
Speaker 1: and I went over to her, and we were trying
17:21
Speaker 1: to feel her pulse, you know, because you know from
17:24
Speaker 1: when I said of like, you know, fell off of
17:25
Speaker 1: what I thought, maybe she's look for her, that's what
17:28
Speaker 1: you bag what I thought. Carla took control. She told
17:31
Speaker 1: Beach that she felt for a pulse and thought she
17:34
Speaker 1: might have found one, but she since decided that what
17:38
Speaker 1: she felt was her own pulse. She picked up Janie's arm.
17:42
Speaker 1: It felt cold. I knew enough to know to go
17:46
Speaker 1: get somebody that might know what to do, but they
17:51
Speaker 1: don't train. You didn't know what to do to pull
17:53
Speaker 1: up in a bag of the truck and there's a
17:54
Speaker 1: girl lay in there and you don't have a certainty.
17:56
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't know what to do, true, and
17:59
Speaker 1: I need to get help somebody that didn't know what
18:01
Speaker 1: they were doing. So Carla had run across the street
18:05
Speaker 1: the ambulance service to alert them of Jane's condition. J D.
18:09
Speaker 1: Beeson was the ambulance driver and manager of the ambulance
18:12
Speaker 1: service at the time. He and his wife, Kathy, a
18:16
Speaker 1: licensed LPN, arrived on the scene and would later testify
18:20
Speaker 1: that Jane was lying on her right side. In a statement,
18:23
Speaker 1: Cathy said, we checked and rechecked for needle marks at
18:27
Speaker 1: the request of the sheriff. Coarse sand, dry leaves, and
18:31
Speaker 1: small twigs were found at the blouse neck and the
18:34
Speaker 1: LEVI waste. Coarse sand was found on the abdomen under
18:38
Speaker 1: the bra Cathy said this immediately led her to conclude
18:43
Speaker 1: this was a suspicious death, not an accidental death. Another
18:47
Speaker 1: employee of the ambulance service stepped in. He stated that
18:51
Speaker 1: he noticed something else, a strong odor of alcohol on Jane.
18:56
Speaker 1: That's odd because it doesn't match witness statements at the
18:59
Speaker 1: party who said that she wasn't drinking heavily. One of
19:02
Speaker 1: the paramedics who examined Janie remembers seeing a black back
19:05
Speaker 1: def leopard T shirt over a white pinstriped shirt. She
19:10
Speaker 1: remembers having to unbutton and roll up the shirt in
19:12
Speaker 1: order to get to Janie's body. Meanwhile, many of the
19:17
Speaker 1: kids who had left the party congregated at the Daisy Queen.
19:22
Speaker 1: All of them were talking about what happened to Jane.
19:25
Speaker 1: A lot of them came to the Bank parking lot,
19:28
Speaker 1: where a huge crowd gathered around Jane's lifeless body. By
19:32
Speaker 1: this point, half the town is there. It even makes
19:36
Speaker 1: the evening news, but her parents Ron and Mona still
19:40
Speaker 1: have no idea what has happened to their daughter. Jane
19:44
Speaker 1: is pronounced dead at eight forty five pm. We'll be
19:49
Speaker 1: right back on the night Jane he died. Bill Beach
20:07
Speaker 1: interviews four of the people at the party, Gary Dawn,
20:10
Speaker 1: Kim Jay, and Ron Rose. He then asked the sheriff
20:15
Speaker 1: to send everyone home. Over the next few days, the
20:21
Speaker 1: sheriff collects statements from the kids at school. Beach then
20:25
Speaker 1: interviews thirty people. Over the next few months, he reinterviews
20:29
Speaker 1: some of the key witnesses. As I read through his interviews,
20:32
Speaker 1: several things start to bug me. A lot of the
20:36
Speaker 1: statements collected from people at the party are incredibly short
20:40
Speaker 1: and don't provide much detail, and they spend half the
20:43
Speaker 1: time talking about who provided the booze for the party.
20:47
Speaker 1: And over the months people's answers change. The cheerleader Sarah
20:53
Speaker 1: changes her answers of who she was at the party with,
20:56
Speaker 1: and also adds a story about Janie, calling her a snob.
21:01
Speaker 1: Gary Don initially said he saw Janie fall, but later
21:05
Speaker 1: in a reenactment video done by the Arkansas State Police,
21:08
Speaker 1: he demonstrated how Janey was likely to have fallen. It's strange.
21:14
Speaker 1: A couple of other partygoers also said they heard a
21:17
Speaker 1: thud when Jane fell, and then a statement from a
21:22
Speaker 1: police dispatcher named Harold Young throws everything off. Ron, Rose, Kim,
21:28
Speaker 1: and Sherry all said they drove from the cabin to
21:30
Speaker 1: the parking lot without stopping, but the dispatcher at the
21:34
Speaker 1: police station that night said Ron came by the sheriff's
21:37
Speaker 1: department at six thirty pm to tell him there was
21:40
Speaker 1: an injured girl in the back of his truck. The
21:43
Speaker 1: dispatcher's statement was notarized, and he confirmed what he said
21:47
Speaker 1: years later during another investigation into Janie's death. So, depending
21:51
Speaker 1: on how you read the witness statements and who you believe,
21:55
Speaker 1: the time between Janie falling and being in the Bank
21:57
Speaker 1: parking lot could either have been half an hour or
22:01
Speaker 1: more than ninety minutes. The order of events and how
22:05
Speaker 1: much time passed between them becomes one of the most
22:08
Speaker 1: hot button issues throughout the last thirty years of investigations.
22:12
Speaker 1: We thought having all of these statements available to us
22:15
Speaker 1: would be an advantage in figuring out this case, but
22:18
Speaker 1: it's leading me to even more questions what could have
22:22
Speaker 1: happened in those ninety missing minutes. This is one of
22:26
Speaker 1: the recurring questions that the journalists Mike Masterson asks in
22:30
Speaker 1: his columns about Jane. After Jane died, the Ward family
22:35
Speaker 1: heard plenty of troubling stories about what could have happened
22:38
Speaker 1: during that missing time. Well, and that's why Jamie and
22:41
Speaker 1: the Brose boy after they've directed to go to the
22:44
Speaker 1: macparking lots so Janey could be discovered there. That's why
22:48
Speaker 1: they were sitting there debating on whether to take Jennie's
22:51
Speaker 1: body to us so Ronnie could take it from there
22:54
Speaker 1: instead of them going along with their cover up. So
22:57
Speaker 1: they didn't know what to do. Well, they also took
22:59
Speaker 1: her to the Mac parking lot because there is a
23:01
Speaker 1: car wash there and that's where they redwashed her body
23:05
Speaker 1: and marsh they were directed to take hersh her off
23:09
Speaker 1: and wait at the bank parking lot until they could
23:11
Speaker 1: come and discover her. Did they ever explained why she
23:14
Speaker 1: was wet and where her hair was wet and where
23:16
Speaker 1: there was sand in her clothes? I mean no, no, no,
23:22
Speaker 1: that was never addressed. Yeah, I just rumors and witnesses
23:27
Speaker 1: claiming that they washed her now with the water hose
23:29
Speaker 1: at the car lot or the car wash in the
23:32
Speaker 1: bank parking lot. And when you say witnesses, was it
23:35
Speaker 1: people in the official report? Who so it was? This
23:38
Speaker 1: is like people talking beyond these missing minutes. What confuses
23:42
Speaker 1: me the most is the statements from the ambulance service
23:45
Speaker 1: attendants JD and Kathy. First of all, it took Bill
23:50
Speaker 1: Beach more than three months to interview them, and that
23:53
Speaker 1: was after they requested he talk to them. They were
23:57
Speaker 1: so concerned they even compiled their own statements to deliver
24:00
Speaker 1: to him. Talked to hit This is an interview you
24:05
Speaker 1: that Ron Ward did with j D and Kathy. As
24:09
Speaker 1: Beach does his investigation, Ron has started his own would
24:13
Speaker 1: you like my opinion? And this is just speculation? Okay?
24:15
Speaker 1: I thank somebody throwing the damn river and picked her up.
24:18
Speaker 1: Work took to a carb wars and holder or something,
24:21
Speaker 1: But the investigators haven't him talked to Cat and I yet,
24:23
Speaker 1: and I asked him. I asked Carold Young the other night,
24:28
Speaker 1: those investigators question Cat and I. We were the first
24:31
Speaker 1: ones on the scene. Jad and Kathy confirmed some of
24:34
Speaker 1: the things Ron saw when he saw Janie's body at
24:37
Speaker 1: the Morgan Marshall, like the sand and twigs. They said
24:41
Speaker 1: they hadn't noticed bruising, but in their notarized statement to
24:45
Speaker 1: Bill Beach, they did remark on swelling on Janie's neck
24:48
Speaker 1: and shoulder. They also said she was wet except for
24:52
Speaker 1: her genital area, which doesn't make any sense because multiple
24:56
Speaker 1: witnesses at the party specifically said Janie wet herself. The
25:01
Speaker 1: paramedics also noted that Jane had a foamy substance coming
25:05
Speaker 1: out of her I bet there was one hundred kids
25:07
Speaker 1: over there, and the first thing I did had John Childers.
25:10
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know him or not. I
25:11
Speaker 1: hadn't chase everybody away from the truck. You know, they're
25:14
Speaker 1: twenty five feet back. That's the first thing to do.
25:16
Speaker 1: While she was checking them. You I feel funny talking
25:19
Speaker 1: about this, and funny Ron, I'm sorry. Quick, So then
25:25
Speaker 1: Kathy check her he had no radio pulse, she had
25:28
Speaker 1: no karate pulse. Her eyes were dialing really large. I
25:32
Speaker 1: think we told you about that. And she had no
25:35
Speaker 1: visible bruises whatsoever on her body from the way stuff
25:38
Speaker 1: the other thing we found on herbs and twigs and
25:40
Speaker 1: leaves and sandy gravel, you know, like we told you.
25:44
Speaker 1: Stuff down here and the back of the riches here
25:49
Speaker 1: and there was poor fans all and she was wet
25:53
Speaker 1: as is, like somebody dropped in a river or something
25:55
Speaker 1: and picked it back up. As we saw in Rebecca's case,
25:59
Speaker 1: memory can be unreliable, and like Rebecca's, Janie's case quickly
26:04
Speaker 1: began to become a question of who remembered what people forget,
26:09
Speaker 1: and the more time that has passed since an incident,
26:11
Speaker 1: the more likely it is for people to incorporate rumor
26:14
Speaker 1: into what they remember. This is a phone call between
26:22
Speaker 1: Ron Ward and Bill Beach. It was included in the
26:25
Speaker 1: original police case file. Cool Roy, Bill Beach. So you're
26:31
Speaker 1: doing just fine there you okay, my lieutenant, Come and
26:35
Speaker 1: tell me that you had some more names. Oh, yes,
26:40
Speaker 1: I do, okay. Ron is providing names for Beach to
26:44
Speaker 1: follow up on. This phone call is fifteen minutes long. Well,
26:48
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, though, Ronn, is do you have all
26:50
Speaker 1: this documentary? Is it? Would it be offered for me
26:53
Speaker 1: to get copies though, so I can compare them. I
26:56
Speaker 1: can go through and check the names and compare it
26:58
Speaker 1: to what they have told me, you know, And I'd say,
27:01
Speaker 1: if there's people that I haven't talked to, that haven't
27:03
Speaker 1: been interviewed, and I can go back and I can
27:06
Speaker 1: do that, or if it's people that have been interviewed
27:09
Speaker 1: that have given contrary and information that I can reinterview
27:12
Speaker 1: from what we can tell this call that was included
27:15
Speaker 1: in the official police file was very soft. And have
27:17
Speaker 1: you got tape conversations with manage people? What I don't.
27:20
Speaker 1: I don't expect you'd given the original takes, But it
27:22
Speaker 1: would it be possible for some one time to desicateto
27:26
Speaker 1: and let me get copies of the duskis ron also
27:29
Speaker 1: recorded some calls with Arkansas State Police officers where he
27:33
Speaker 1: starts venting his frustration about what he feels to be
27:36
Speaker 1: Beach's lack of progress on the case. Ron how are
27:40
Speaker 1: you okay? I've been up here all day and I
27:43
Speaker 1: talked to Philip Christy and I told him must coming
27:45
Speaker 1: and I've been working on some mothers things. He said
27:48
Speaker 1: you had take for him. You know what he's talking about.
27:54
Speaker 1: Did he beend the merchant who he's worked with me?
27:59
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know, you know, but then
28:05
Speaker 1: feel come over information money now, okaymation you bet, And
28:10
Speaker 1: that's that's the only way I will do Okay. I mean,
28:14
Speaker 1: he's the investigator. He's wanted to see, he is, He's
28:18
Speaker 1: going first to investigate it, and I'm the father. Ron
28:22
Speaker 1: is suggesting a trade with the police. He will hand
28:25
Speaker 1: his interviews over to them if they will give him
28:28
Speaker 1: more access to the information that they've collected. Tensions continue
28:33
Speaker 1: to grow when Ron hears about Beach's interview with Gary Donn.
28:37
Speaker 1: In it, Gary Donn complains about Ron. Ronnie calls my
28:41
Speaker 1: mother all that is not called at one o'clock and
28:43
Speaker 1: more than ask her where I was and if I
28:46
Speaker 1: was all right? He calls me that already at a
28:49
Speaker 1: million becomes old with not has. He says that Ron
28:52
Speaker 1: is calling his mother at one in the morning, is
28:54
Speaker 1: calling him and has come by his house. Beach even
28:58
Speaker 1: says that Gary don can file charges against Ron. Ron
29:01
Speaker 1: gets wind of this interview, and has also heard that
29:04
Speaker 1: Beach has been asking about him and other witness interviews.
29:09
Speaker 1: Ron calls the Arkansas State Police, I understand it. You're
29:13
Speaker 1: see ID agent Bill Beats is running around town here
29:18
Speaker 1: and get an information and trying to say that I'm
29:23
Speaker 1: the one to beat my daughter up. That's the information
29:26
Speaker 1: I have a chieve today. I do not appreciate that
29:32
Speaker 1: one bit. What's this got to do with my daughter dying?
29:37
Speaker 1: And they said I'm beating her up? You know, I
29:40
Speaker 1: can't understand this. I really can't. Over all things I
29:46
Speaker 1: can understand. You know, this is affecting my family life.
29:52
Speaker 1: It's affect of my mind. It works on the people
29:59
Speaker 1: in the whole county, the whole state. Everybody's undertune, everybody.
30:06
Speaker 1: I'm wondering just what the hell this happened this time?
30:09
Speaker 1: You know, mister Beechers, like I go before, said almost
30:14
Speaker 1: the lucrous person. I'm not at all real luckily be
30:20
Speaker 1: to handle this at all. It's been one hundred and
30:23
Speaker 1: eighteen days to day, it's been one hundred and eighteen days,
30:28
Speaker 1: he says, and no answers. You'll be right back. After
30:50
Speaker 1: looking at Janie's case file, I'm left with plenty of questions.
30:56
Speaker 1: Why didn't they put Janie in the front of the truck,
30:59
Speaker 1: and if she was in the back, why did no
31:01
Speaker 1: one ride with her the entire way and hold her
31:03
Speaker 1: hand If she had an in was it made worse
31:07
Speaker 1: by riding in the back of that truck? Also? Why
31:11
Speaker 1: was she left lying on the ground for so long?
31:14
Speaker 1: One sixteen year old kid was insistent and said that
31:17
Speaker 1: he needed to speak to investigators the night Janie died.
31:21
Speaker 1: He said that Jannie was lying on the ground at
31:23
Speaker 1: the party for much longer than a few minutes without
31:26
Speaker 1: anyone getting help for her, and that they were focused
31:29
Speaker 1: on cleaning up the beer. I get that they were scared,
31:34
Speaker 1: but why didn't anyone help her? And why did some
31:37
Speaker 1: people hear a thud when she fell? Also why was
31:42
Speaker 1: she so wet? One statement said that someone threw beer
31:46
Speaker 1: on her to try to revive her. That could account
31:49
Speaker 1: for the strong odor of alcohol that paramedics said they
31:51
Speaker 1: saw on her. But one witness who was in the
31:54
Speaker 1: bank parking lot said they were called water gushing from
31:56
Speaker 1: the back of ron Rose's truck. What was the root
32:00
Speaker 1: of the truck from the party to the bank parking
32:02
Speaker 1: lot In his statement, ron Rose said they decided to
32:06
Speaker 1: take Jane there because they thought it would be faster
32:08
Speaker 1: than calling for help, and the bank parking lot was
32:12
Speaker 1: close to the ambulance service. But why didn't they just
32:15
Speaker 1: go directly to the ambulance service? And if we take
32:18
Speaker 1: the police dispatcher at his word, could they have taken
32:21
Speaker 1: an alternative route? Did they make additional stops? Obviously there's
32:27
Speaker 1: a lot we still need to figure out. But what
32:30
Speaker 1: we do know is that in the months after Janie's death,
32:34
Speaker 1: an environment of hostility is brewing in Marshall. The Wards
32:39
Speaker 1: and a growing number of residents are starting to believe
32:42
Speaker 1: that no one in the police department is telling the truth.
32:46
Speaker 1: Fingers are getting pointed, and any remaining trust between citizens
32:51
Speaker 1: and authorities is deteriorating. On December seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine,
32:58
Speaker 1: a little over three months after Jane died, the Arkansas
33:01
Speaker 1: Gazette runs a story with the headline teenagers death remains
33:06
Speaker 1: a mystery. Parents call investigation a cover up. Rumors are flying,
33:14
Speaker 1: So we need to take a step back and turn
33:16
Speaker 1: to the one piece of evidence that Mike give us
33:19
Speaker 1: some more reliable answers. We need to go back to
33:22
Speaker 1: the case file and take a hard look at Jane's
33:25
Speaker 1: autopsy and find out what happened at the Arkansas Crime Lab.
33:31
Speaker 1: I'm Katherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone. Helen Gone
33:42
Speaker 1: is a joint production between School of Humans and iHeartRadio.
33:46
Speaker 1: It is written and recorded by me. Catherine Townsend. Taylor
33:50
Speaker 1: Church and Gabby Watts are our producers and story editors.
33:54
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Brandon Barr, Brian Lavin, and Elsie Crowley
33:58
Speaker 1: for School of Humans and Connell Byrne and Chuck Bryant
34:02
Speaker 1: for iHeart Our. Field producer is Miranda Hawkins. Theme and
34:06
Speaker 1: original score are by Ben Sale, available wherever you get
34:10
Speaker 1: your music. Please visit us at helengone podcast dot com
34:15
Speaker 1: or follow us on social media. School of Humans