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Ohio Mom of 4 Predicts Her Own Murder · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I want you to just imagine for a second
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: looking down at your phone and seeing a text message
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: from your sister's boyfriend's mother.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Right, which is already kind of a removed connection.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And the message itself is really vague, but
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: it's just absolutely chilling. It simply says, no Amanda in
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the cabin and I hope she's okay.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Wow. Just out of nowhere.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Completely out of nowhere. And that is the exact text
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: message that Shannon Dean received on July 11th. And I mean,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: if you.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Receive a text like that, your heart just drops.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: The clock instantly starts ticking.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Right. Because usually when someone vanishes, time is the ultimate enemy.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: You always hear about the golden 48 hours, you know,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the frantic search, racing against the element.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the standard narrative for a missing persons case.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But in this case, like, time wasn't the biggest
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: enemy at all. The most insurmountable wall this family faced
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: was actually the system itself.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the very people who were literally sworn to protect
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the victim.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Spot on. So today, for our deep dive into the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: source material, we are focusing on 36-year-old Amanda Dean. She
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: was a mother of four from a really rural, isolated
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: pocket of Ohio.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: And we are pulling from a massive stack of sources
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: for this one.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. We've got journalistic accounts, direct testimony from her family,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: trial transcripts, and these really highly detailed investigative reports.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And they all outline this just agonizing six year ordeal.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough one. But our mission today is
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: really to deconstruct how a local justice system completely failed
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a missing woman.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And, you know, how the sheer willpower of a family
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: paired with a specialized missing persons unit eventually brought a
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: cold blooded killer to justice.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Right. So, OK, let's unpack this, because like I said,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: usually time is the enemy. But here the enemy was
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the people running the investigation.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we really have to examine this not just as
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a true crime narrative, but as like a clinical study
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in profound systemic failure.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, how does a victim just get erased from
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a missing person's database while they are in mortal danger?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We need to dissect those administrative protocols. You know,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: look at the specific assumptions authority figures make when they
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: evaluate domestic situations.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and how geographical vulnerability gets exploited by abusers.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Right. We're looking at the mechanics of a local system
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that effectively insulated a killer. So welcome to this deep
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: dive into the case of Amanda Dean.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: We really need to start with Amanda herself. Her family
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: is so adamant in all the sources that she cannot
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: just be reduced to a victim on a page.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they really want her identity to shine through. Right.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: She was 36. She was a mother to four boys.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: In fact, her oldest son, Joshua, had just graduated high
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: school right around the time she vanished.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: That would have been the summer of 2017. Exactly.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And when you read the transcripts of her mother, Caroline,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: describing her, the picture that comes out is just, it's
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: full of immense vitality.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she calls Amanda a songbird and a spitfire.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, those exact words. She was beautiful, a fun, wild
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: spirit who was always just there to help people.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And that psychological profile from the family is actually really
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: crucial here.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Why is that?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Because it establishes a behavioral baseline.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Which becomes super important later when we start evaluating the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: claims made by law enforcement.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see, because they describe a woman who constantly
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: tried to inject humor into difficult situations.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Right, taking her kids on adventures, no matter how tight
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: money was, always showing up for her community.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And her son Josh even said that because they only
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: had each other during his early years, she was basically
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: his best friend, not just a mom.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And that deep, entrenched attachment to her children is a
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: behavioral anchor.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Meaning she wouldn't just up and leave them.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It dictates that voluntary abandonment is completely outside the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: realm of possibility for her.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Which really makes the physical reality of where she was
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: living so jarring. We kind of have to juxtapose that
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: vibrant spirit with the geography of her day-to-day life.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Right, she lived in Collins, Ohio.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Collins is the absolute definition of a small, remote,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Midwestern town.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: From a sociological standpoint, it's as categorized as highly safe. Like,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: it literally gets an A rating for safety in demographic databases.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, an A rating? It's uncongested. Crime is statistically almost non-existent.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it operates on that classic idea where everyone supposedly
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: knows their neighbors.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But inside this totally statistically safe zip code, Amanda was
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: trapped in an environment that was structurally designed to strip
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: away her autonomy.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: The built environment is a massive factor when you try
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: to understand coercive control.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so she was living with her 34-year-old boyfriend, Frederick Rear,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: who went by Fred.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: But they were not living in a standard single-family home, right?
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: No, not at all. They were living in this dilapidated,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: tiny shack. The reports often call it a makeshift cabin
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: or a camper.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: And it was located directly in the yard of Fred
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Shays' parents' property.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Right. His parents, Linda and Fred Sr., occupied the main house.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: But Fred and Amanda were relegated to this rudimentary structure
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: out back.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And the physical conditions described in the reports are.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Just Bleak is almost an understatement. There was absolutely no
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: indoor plumbing in this cabin.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: None.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: None. It just had a refrigerator, a tiny living space,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and a small eating area. That's it.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: So if Amanda needed to use the restroom, or just
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: get running water, what did she do?
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: She couldn't just walk down a hallway. She had to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: physically exit her shelter, walk across the yard, and enter
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the primary residence owned by her boyfriend's parents.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, that is essentially a modernized form of a
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: feudal arrangement.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: It really is. She was entirely dependent on the infrastructure
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: controlled by the very people who were aligned with her abuser.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: And that kind of living situation operates as a mechanism
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: of extreme isolation.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: How so? Exactly.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Well, when a person lacks access to basic sanitation or
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: running water without traversing someone else's territory... Their whole world shrinks.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see. It creates this physical tether to the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: abuser's microenvironment.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Every basic human need, like using the bathroom or
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: getting a glass of water, becomes a monitored event.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That is terrifying.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: In domestic violence pathology, this kind of infrastructural dependency is
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: utilized to sever the victim's external lifelines. They are constantly
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: navigating the territorial boundaries set by the abuser's family.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Which perfectly sets the stage for July 11, 2017. Right.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: The day Shannon gets that ominous text from Fred's mother
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: about Amanda missing from the cabin.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: And because of that behavioral baseline we discussed, Amanda's absolute
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: devotion to her four sons, the family's internal alarm system
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: goes off immediately.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: They know categorically that Amanda would never leave her boys,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: especially with the younger ones still in junior high and
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: high school.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: So Shannon actually contacts the Huron County Sheriff's Office that
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: very same day to report her missing.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: And the initial response from the sheriff's deputies basically sets
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: off this massive chain reaction. of investigative negligence.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so frustrating. The deputies do dispatch to the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Collins property, but when they find out Fred isn't there,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the momentum just completely stalls.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: There is no scene preservation, right? No canvassing of the area.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Nothing. No immediate canvassing of that huge rural acreage.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So faced with this bureaucratic inertia, the family experiences that
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: terrifying realization that help is not actually coming.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Right. So by the very next day, July 12th, they
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: mobilize themselves. They form a makeshift search party of maybe
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: six to 10 friends and family members, and they drive
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: out to the property.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: But when they arrive at the perimeter of the property
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: where Amanda lived, they hit a literal and legal wall.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The property line is heavily demarcated with these really
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: aggressive signs.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: What do they say?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: They read, quote, no trespassing. Violators will be shot.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And this isn't just a polite request to stay
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: off the grass. In rural America, that sign carries the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: implicit threat of lethal force.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. It is backed by a cultural and legal tradition
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: of property rights.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: So the family, who are just terrified for Amanda's life,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: they contact the authorities again. They are hoping law enforcement
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: will bypass these signs and conduct a thorough search.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: But instead, the sheriff's response is essentially an instruction to
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: stand down.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they tell them to respect the property boundaries of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the primary person of interest.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is a stunning deferral of duty. law
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: enforcement has legal mechanisms for this.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Right, like exigent circumstances.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exigent circumstances allow them to bypass private property protections
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: if there is a reasonable belief that a person's life
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: is in immediate danger.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And an ominous text message from the property owner, plus
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a frantic family, that certainly provides the foundation to argue exigency, right?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Or at least to secure a rapid search warrant. Yet,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: The local authorities chose to prioritize the sanctity of the
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: abuser's property over the safety of the victim.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for you, the listener? Well,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it's the equivalent of a fire department arriving at a
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: house billowing smoke, seeing a do not disturb sign on
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the front door and telling the neighbors, well, we have
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to respect their privacy. Let's pack up the hoses.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: That is a perfect analogy.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: You have this massive, dangerous red flag and the police
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: use a piece of cardboard on a fence post as
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: an excuse to halt an investigation into a missing woman.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: You are hitting on exactly how rural isolation is actively weaponized.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: How does that compare to urban environments, though?
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Well, in urban areas, domestic abuse is often overheard. Neighbors
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: hear shouting through shared walls, or people notice a sudden
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: absence in a crowded apartment building.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Right, there are eyes and ears everywhere.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: But in remote areas, the physical distance between homes acts
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: as an acoustic and visual shield. Those no trespassing signs
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: serve a dual purpose.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Physically deterring people.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, physically deterring family and community intervention. But psychologically, they
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: reinforce the abuser's absolute dominion over that specific parcel of land.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So when local law enforcement accepts those signs
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: as a legitimate barrier, they are basically validating him.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: They are effectively deputizing the abuser, validating his control over
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the environment and everyone in it.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: So the family is just trapped in this horrific holding pattern.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: They are physically barred from the location where she was
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: last seen.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: And they are relying on a sheriff's department that seems
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: wholly uninterested in breaching that property line.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: But then, shortly after, the dynamic abruptly shifts. The Huron
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office contacts the family and requests they come
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: down to the station.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: They claim to have definitive information regarding Amanda.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: And we really have to view this through the lens
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: of Amanda's mother, Caroline. She details that 20 minute drive
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: from Collins to the sheriff's department in the sources.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: That drive must have felt agonizing.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: She describes the temporal distortion of that drive. It literally
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: felt like an eternity because they were mentally preparing to
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: identify a body.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: The psychological weight in that vehicle would be crushing. They
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: are basically bracing for a death notification. Yeah. The human
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: brain in those moments of extreme acute stress attempts to
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: prepare for the worst possible outcome. just to mitigate the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: impending trauma. They walked into that office in a state
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: of anticipatory grief.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: But the sheriff flips the script entirely. Instead of delivering
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a tragic conclusion, he delivers what sounds like absolute salvation.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: What does he tell them?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: He looks at this terrified family and states, as a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: matter of verified fact, that Amanda has been located. He
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: claims she is currently residing in a safe house and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that she is being well taken care of by professionals.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, the emotional whiplash there is profound.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Caroline describes a wave of absolute relief. In that
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: specific second, the details didn't even matter. Right.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: The primary objective, her daughter's biological survival, had seemingly been
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: confirmed by the highest local authority.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: But that relief was instantly poisoned by the caveat the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: sheriff delivered next.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, no. What was the caveat?
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: The sheriff tells the family that while Amanda is in
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a safe house, she specifically does not want to make
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: contact with them. Wait, really? Yeah. He frames it entirely
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: around adult autonomy. He says she's a grown woman, she
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: has removed herself from the situation, and the burden of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: future communication rests entirely on her shoulders.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: That is just deeply disturbing.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And here is where the administrative gears grind to a
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: halt in a way that just defies all logic. Based
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: exclusively on this narrative, the sheriff's department cancels the BALO.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: The Be On The Lookout broadcast.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly. They access the missing person's database, they remove Amanda
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Dean's name, and they close the active case file.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: So it's like that.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Done.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Boom.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: It's over. The investigation is officially terminated.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: We really must critically examine the mechanics of what just
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: happened because it represents a catastrophic breakdown of standard operating procedure.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: It totally does. Imagine someone stealing your car and you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: call the police and they just shrug and say, well,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the car told us it wanted a new owner.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When a law enforcement agency enters a missing person
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: into the National Crime Information Center, the NCIC, it broadcasts
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: that vulnerability To thousands of agencies.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: To remove someone from the NCIC, especially an adult who
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: was reported missing under suspicious circumstances, protocols heavily dictate that
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: visual verification is absolutely required.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Because, like the car analogy, the physical asset must be verified.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Yes. A law enforcement agency cannot simply accept third-hand information
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: or some mysterious phone call from an unverified source as
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: proof of life for a mother of four.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: An officer has to physically lay eyes on the individual.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: They must lay eyes on them, separate them from any
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: potential coercer, and confirm they are acting of their own
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: free will.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And this visual verification protocol exists specifically to prevent abusers
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: or traffickers from just impersonating the victim over the phone.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Precisely. Or sending a text message to call off the police.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: By accepting an unverified narrative, the Sheriff's Department bypassed the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: most fundamental safeguard in missing persons investigations.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: So the obvious question for you listening is, why did
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the family accept this? Why didn't they demand to see
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: her or demand the sheriff produce a photograph?
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: But when you dig into the psychology of blind trust
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: and authority, it makes perfect sense why they didn't. Right.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Because from a very young age, society conditions us to
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: defer to the uniform.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When an elected sheriff, standing in his own precinct,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: looks a grieving mother in the eye and definitively states
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: she's in a safe house, the average citizen does not
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: assume the officer is lying.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: You assume the administrative apparatus has done its due diligence.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: It's a textbook example of that compliance we exhibit toward
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: institutional authority. And the family explicitly acknowledges this in their interviews.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: They describe themselves as optimistic, trusting people who believe the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: system functioned as advertised.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: They rationalized the bizarre behavior. They thought, well, perhaps Amanda
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: had suffered a breakdown. Maybe she needed intensive psychiatric help
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: at this facility.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: And that she would eventually resurface when she was healthy.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: They clung to the sheriff's narrative because the alternative that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the sheriff was wrong and Amanda was in mortal danger
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: was just too horrific to process.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: But the reality is that the sheriff's administrative action functioned
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: like a digital lobotomy on the entire case.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Wow. A digital lobotomy.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Yes. By officially removing her from the missing persons database,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: they guaranteed that no other jurisdiction, no state trooper, no
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: neighboring county would ever look for her.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Because if a patrol car passed a vehicle with Amanda inside,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: running the plates wouldn't even trigger an alert anymore.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Right. She was legally erased, locked in a bureaucratic void
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: where she neither existed as a citizen requiring protection nor
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: as a victim requiring justice.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: And that void persisted for five and a half years.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Just unbelievable.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: From the summer of 2017 until late 2022, the Dean
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: family was forced to inhabit this psychological purgatory.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: The clinical term for this is ambiguous loss. It's a
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: state where a loved one is physically absent but psychologically present,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: which totally prevents the natural grieving process.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: But the Dean family's ambiguous loss was uniquely toxic.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Because it was compounded by the state's official decree that
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Amanda had actively chosen to inflict this pain upon them.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: The transcripts detail the agonizing reality of those lost years.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: The family is operating on this threadbare hope. They're physically
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: calling women's shelters and domestic violence safe houses across the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: entire region.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Desperately asking if anyone has seen a woman matching Amanda's description.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the cognitive dissonance just becomes unbearable as the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: years stack up. I mean, her sons are aging. Joshua
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: is navigating his early 20s.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: The younger boys are going through all the milestones of
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: junior high and high school without her.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Amanda is missing every birthday, every Thanksgiving, every single Christmas.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And the family knows at their core... that a safe
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: house stay does not last for half a decade without
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: a single phone call to her children.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: So that transition from passive waiting to active defiance, it's
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a slow burn.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they begin to push back against the local system.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: They attempt to use the sheriff's office as a conduit,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: dropping off birthday and Christmas cards at the precinct.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Hoping the deputies will forward them to this supposed safe house.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Operating under the desperate assumption that the sheriff actually
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: knew where she was. But when that yields absolutely nothing,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: they pivot to private sector solutions. Right.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: They pooled their resources and hired a private investigator in 2020.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: But the private investigator hits the exact same brick wall.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Because the local authorities have officially closed the file, there
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: is no active police cooperation.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: No subpoena power, no leverage to compel interviews from Fred
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: or his family. It just goes nowhere.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: So Shannon, recognizing the complete failure of this local apparatus,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: drafts a formal demand for proof of life letter.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And she sends it directly to Sheriff Corbin, right? Yes.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: She legally demands that the department either produce evidence that
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Amanda is breathing or immediately reopen the criminal investigation.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: What was his response?
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Total stonewalling. He completely refuses to talk to her or
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: engage with the letter at all.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Which is just maddening. So while battling this institutional silence,
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: the family is forced to conduct their own retrospective analysis
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: of Amanda's relationship with Fred.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And as they pull the thread... the severity of the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: coercion and abuse becomes chillingly clear.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Because the initial 2017 investigation just totally ignored blatant documented
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: historical data regarding domestic violence.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: The deep dive reveals a literal smoking gun of domestic violence.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Fred had previously given Amanda a severe black eye.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And Shannon was actually the one who contacted law enforcement
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: to report that assault, right?
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because Amanda was too paralyzed by the potential fallout
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to do it herself.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: That reluctance to engage the legal system in cases of
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: severe intimate partner violence is entirely predictable.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? It's common?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Very. It's a survival strategy within the framework of trauma bonding.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: The victim understands that involving law enforcement often triggers a
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: catastrophic escalation in the abuser's violence.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Especially if the legal system fails to securely incarcerate the abuser.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They attempt to manage the threat level by appeasing
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: the perpetrator. which includes refusing to press charges.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: But Amanda executed this brilliant, albeit tragic, countermeasure. She refused
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to press formal charges, but she sent a very specific
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: text message to Shannon.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: What did the text say?
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: She wrote, quote, you made the situation a little bit
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: worse by calling the police, but at least they know
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: what he's doing to me.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, here's where it gets really interesting, in a tragic way.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: That wasn't just a sisterly complaint. She was leaving breadcrumbs.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: She was acting like a hostage tapping out Morse code
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: on a pipe. Exactly.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: She was deliberately creating a digital time stamped record of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: her own victimization. That text about the black guy wasn't
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: just a message. It was an insurance policy.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Because she intrinsically understood that the system wasn't protecting her.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: She wanted the threat on the record.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: She was archiving the escalating danger. And the sources detail
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: this incredible digital hostage situation. Fred relentlessly attacked her ability
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: to maintain those records.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Right. He engaged in a systematic campaign of property destruction,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: specifically targeting her cell phones.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: He constantly destroyed her phones. It wasn't merely a temper tantrum.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: It was a calculated severing of her communication infrastructure.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: It's the modern equivalent of locking someone in a tower
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: and pulling up the drawbridge.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Shannon describes this really intense, high-stakes communication dynamic. Amanda had
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to wait for specific windows of time, usually when Fred
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: had passed out or was deeply asleep, just to send
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: a fragmented text.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: And she would send messages instructing Shannon to immediately erase
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: the text or warning her not to reply so she
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: wouldn't get caught.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Because the screen lighting up could trigger a violent episode
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: if Fred woke up.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: This specific dynamic perfectly illustrates why the question, well, why
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: didn't she just leave, is entirely flawed.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Right, because the sources indicate Amanda did attempt to leave
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: multiple times.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: But the gravitational pull of the abuse cycle, enforced through
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: physical violence, infrastructural isolation, and the dismantling of her support network,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: always dragged her back.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So when a victim is navigating a daily minefield where
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: receiving a text message from a sibling could result in
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: severe bodily harm, leaving safely requires a massive external intervention.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: And law enforcement had a golden opportunity to intervene when
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: that black guy was reported. Failing to arrest him then
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: didn't just maintain the status quo.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: What did it do?
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: It affirmatively signaled to Fred that his violence would carry
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: zero legal consequences in that jurisdiction. It was a fatal
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: missed opportunity.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: He was effectively granted a license to operate with impunity,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and he used that license for over five years.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: But five years of institutional stonewalling eventually breeds a different
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: kind of desperation.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. By December of 2022, the family's desperation hits a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: breaking point. They fundamentally change their strategy.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: They recognize that appealing to the local sheriff is a
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: totally futile exercise.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: The local system is just a closed loop designed to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: protect itself. So they go outside the geographical boundaries of
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Huron County. They make contact with an organization called Cleveland Missing.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: And this is the critical inflection point of the entire saga.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: This shifts the narrative from a story of victimization to
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: one of relentless action.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Right. Cleveland Missing is an advocacy group for families of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: missing loved ones. Sylvia Colon and the organization's president meet
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: with Shannon and Caroline.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: In advocacy groups of this caliber, they possess the institutional
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: knowledge and media leverage that local families just lack.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: They don't just offer condurances. They offer a tactical blueprint.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: They immediately organize a highly publicized press conference.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: He blows the case wide open.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Yes. They take this horrific, quiet nightmare that has been
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: suppressed for half a decade, and they drag it into
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the glaring light of regional media.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: And that generates massive attention and public pressure, which acts
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: as a beacon, attracting allies who actually possess the authority
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: to intervene.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: The most vital ally they attract is Chief John Majoy
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of the Newburgh Heights Police Department. He steps in as
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: an official law enforcement liaison for the family.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: And Chief Marjoy immediately diagnoses the systemic failure. He recognizes
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that a local sheriff's department cannot investigate its own five-year
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: dereliction of duty.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: So he brings in the big guns.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, he escalates the matter vertically, bringing in the Ohio
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Bureau of Criminal Investigation, commonly known as BCI.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: The emotional release the family experiences in the sources when
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: they learn BCI is taking jurisdiction is just profound.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: They describe breaking down in tears, right?
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just knowing someone is finally listening. Not because Amanda
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: had been recovered, but simply because the gaslighting had ended.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: After five and a half years of an elected official
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: telling them their daughter abandoned her children, a highly trained
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: state apparatus was finally acknowledging the reality of the threat.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: However, BCI inherits an absolute forensic nightmare. I mean, they
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: have to climb a massive hill, a five-and-a-half-year-old cold case.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Right. Investigating a cold case where the primary jurisdiction actively
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: dismantled the initial inquiry is a monumental task.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: All right. There was zero initial evidence preservation. And the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: absurdity of the situation is really highlighted by BCI's very
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: first task.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Which is what?
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Because the Huron County Sheriff had deleted Amanda from the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: NCIC database... BCI literally cannot begin a standard investigation without
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: first legally declaring her missing again.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. They had to literally start at step one.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Step one. They had to make physical missing person flyers
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: aided by Cleveland Missing to plaster across the region.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Because legally, she wasn't even considered missing anymore. A state
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: bureau is forced to use the tactics of a lost
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: pet search. because the digital infrastructure was corrupted by local authorities.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: It is a devastating indictment of that 2017 response. But
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: once the administrative hurdles are cleared, BCI pivots to the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: physical investigation.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: And they immediately target the glaring blind spot of the
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: original local inquiry, which is the physical footprint of the
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: real property. Right.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: So in November 2023, BCI executes a full, massive search
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: warrant on the property in Collins.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: The logistics of this search and the reports are staggering.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, completely. They mobilize heavy excavation equipment, teams armed with
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: hand tools for delicate sifting, and highly specialized canine units.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: They're essentially conducting a forensic archaeological dig across an expansive
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: rural property.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Looking for a needle in a thousand haystacks, basically. Microscopic
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: traces of a crime committed years prior.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the specific mechanics of this involve analyzing soil stratification.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: looking for anomalies in the ground that indicated disturbance from
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: six years ago.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And they deploy human remains detection dogs, right? Exactly. HRD
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: dogs are trained to identify the specific chemical off-gassing of decomposition,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: even when those markers have seeped deep into the soil
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: over years of weather cycles. Wow, that is incredible. They're
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: looking for fragments of bones, synthetic fibers from clothing, or
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: trace blood evidence that might have somehow survived the elements.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: And while the physical excavation is happening... the investigative interviews
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: yield a massive breakthrough from a really unlikely source.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Right. Investigators sit down with Fred's brother, Pauly, who still
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: resides on the property.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And the sources note that Pauly is autistic and communicates
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: almost entirely non-verbally.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But when the detectives gently ask him about what happened
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to Amanda inside that small cabin, Pauly utilizes behavioral and
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: physical testimony.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: And analyzing the immense difficulty of investigating a cold scene
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: after nearly six years, The utilization of behavioral evidence here
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: is fascinating.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Because he couldn't speak to them.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Right. While Pauly lacks the verbal capacity to articulate a
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: chronological narrative, his physical memory of the trauma he witnessed
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: is entirely intact.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: So through mimicking and visualizing, he cantamimes what happened. He
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: demonstrates the specific physical acts Fred inflicted upon Amanda within
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the confined space of that shack. You know, it's the
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: ultimate irony of this entire tragedy. You have a local
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: sheriff with all the resources in the world, a budget,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: a badge, an entire department who ignores the case and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: manufactures a lie about a safe house. And it ends
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: up being a nonverbal witness and a dedicated family who
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: actually get the truth to the surface. It's like the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: truth was screaming to be heard, even without words.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: It's poetic in a very dark way. That physical testimony
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: acts as a catalyst. As BCI's presence on the property
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: becomes highly visible... The psychological grip Fred held over the
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: community begins to fracture.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Because the intense state intervention signals to everyone that the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: local sheriff is no longer shielding the situation.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And people finally begin to speak. Witnesses who were
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: silent or ignored during the initial 2017 search finally start
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: detailing the horrifying events of July 11th.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: The witness testimony that BCI uncovers paints a picture of
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: absolute carnage. One individual, Witness 1, comes forward and states
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: they visited Fred's cabin in July 2017.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Precisely the window when Amanda vanished.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Right. And they recount walking into a scene out of
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a horror film. They testify to seeing blood everywhere, coating
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the interior of the cabin.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: And witnessing Fred actively scrubbing the bloody mess with rags.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: This is immediately corroborated and escalated by witness two. who
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: shifts the BCI theory from a fatal assault to an
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: elaborate concealment operation.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Because Witness 2 provides detailed testimony regarding a massive sustained
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: fire on the rear property.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: The specific details are stomach-churning. Witness 2 testified that Fred
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: had a burn pile going for four continuous days and nights.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Four days.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this witness explicitly states that Fred chopped Amanda up,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: dismembered her body, put her remains in a bucket, and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: there were mentions of a blue barrel, and took her
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to the creek.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: So by synthesizing the nonverbal testimony of the assault, the
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: eyewitness account of the blood cleanup, and the detailed narrative
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: of the four-day fire, police pieced together a concrete theory
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: of the crime.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: They deduced that Fred killed Amanda in the shack, spent
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: hours mechanically cleaning the scene, burned the mattress she died on,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: dismembered her body, and burned it for days to hide
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the evidence.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: The physics of destroying a human body in an open-air
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: fire pit are incredibly complex. A commercial crematorium operates at
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: like 14 to 1800 degrees for several hours.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Right, in a highly controlled environment.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: And even then, bone fragments remain, which must be mechanically pulverized.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Fred was attempting to replicate this in a yard, which
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: is why the fire required four continuous days of fueling.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: But BCI's coherent theory slams right into the most formidable
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: barrier in criminal law.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: The doctrine of corpus delecti, the body of the crime.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Right, because BCI has compelling eyewitness testimony, they have a
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: clear timeline, and they have the motive of historical abuse.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: But what they completely lack is the biological proof of death.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Taking a nobody homicide case to a jury trial is
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: notoriously difficult.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Because without a body, the state can't use a medical
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: examiner to definitively establish the mechanism of death, right? If
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: you find a body with a bullet hole, the manner
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: of death is clear.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But if you just have a story about a fire...
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: The defense attorney has a massive canvas to paint reasonable doubt.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: So in a jury trial, the defense doesn't have to
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: prove Fred is innocent. They just introduce a plausible alternative. Right.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: They could argue the state cannot definitively prove she didn't
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: simply walk away or that she died of a tragic
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: accidental drug overdose and Fred just panicked and disposed of
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: the body.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Wow. Without the forensic data a body provides, proving malice
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: a forethought, the intent to kill is extraordinarily difficult.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: But the state decides the circumstantial weight is overwhelming enough
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: to force the issue.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so roughly a year and a half after BCI
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: resurrects the cold case, they return to the Collins property
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: to arrest Frederick.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: And the audio transcripts of this arrest capture his terrifying demeanor.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: It is a masterclass in the psychology of a predator.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: His physiological and verbal responses... are chillingly devoid of normal
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: human panic.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: When law enforcement announces an arrest warrant for a major felony,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: the baseline response is fear or aggressive denial. Fred exhibits
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: a state of extreme, almost lethargic calm.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: The detective says they have a warrant, and Fred casually
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: turns to his mom, Linda, and just asks for shoes
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and clothes. He is processing a massive state intervention like
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: it's a parking violation.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: And when the investigator asks, why do you think I
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: have a warrant for your arrest, Fred just deflects.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: He boasts to the investigators. He literally mocks the veteran investigators, saying, quote,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: how long you been in it? 36 years. Why the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: hell don't you retire? I'm still having fun.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: He is smiling. He is completely unbothered, actively taunting the
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: apparatus of the state.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: It is this massive toxic ego. He truly believed that
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: because he destroyed her body, he had outsmarted the entire universe.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: That is the God complex often observed in perpetrators of
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: nobody homicides. He has lived unencumbered for over five years.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: validated by a local sheriff.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And he knows he executed a grueling four-day physical labor
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: process to eradicate the evidence.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: His whole framework is, I got away with this, prove it.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: He believes his thermal destruction of the body has rendered
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: him legally untouchable.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: But the state calls his bluff, and Fred is formally indicted. However,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the prosecution is acutely aware of the corpus delicti problem.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: They are staring down a trial where a single skeptical
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: juror could result in an acquittal.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Which would allow a murderer to walk free simply because
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: he was thorough in his destruction of the victim.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: So with the killer caught but physical evidence lacking, the
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: justice system has to make a painful compromise with the
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: devil to secure a conviction.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: To avoid a risky trial, the prosecution offers Fred what
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: is known as a proffer agreement.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Let's break down the mechanics of a proffer because it's important.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Basically, the state offers him a safe harbor. They tell him,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: you tell us exactly what you did and we won't
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: use those specific verbal admissions against you in trial.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: It is a profound gamble. But the primary currency of
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: a proffer in a nobody case is geography. They are
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: trading legal protection for GPS coordinates. They want him to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: tell them exactly where he put her remains.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: And Fred accepts the term, sitting in that room, insulated
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: by the proffer. The arrogance drops and he delivers the confession.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: He admits he killed her. He confirms he dismembered her
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: and burned her for three to four days.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: And then he reveals the most macabre detail. He tells
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: them that when he realized the bones wouldn't disintegrate after
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: days of intense heat, he put them in a bucket.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: And he drove to a specific bridge and dumped them
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: off into a local creek.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Armed with his confession, BCI demands he prove it. He
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: takes investigators to the exact location on the creek.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: The Dean family is brought to the site, hoping to
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: finally bring Amanda home.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: But the physical reality crushes them. Six years of water
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: currents and environmental degradation had scoured the creek bed.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: The investigators have to tell the family the tragic reality.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: They will never have a single piece of Amanda to
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: properly bury. The biological material is just gone.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: This devastating failure to recover the remains alters the whole
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: legal trajectory. The prosecution has a confession they can't use
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: in trial, and they fail to find the physical evidence.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: So they present the family with a painful choice. proceed
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: to a highly risky trial based on circumstantial evidence, or
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: accept a negotiated plea agreement.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: And you have to wonder why the family would accept
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: a plea deal when they know what he did. But
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: a trial is a roll of the dice.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: If they lose, double jeopardy attaches, and he walks free forever. Plus,
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: a trial requires the family to endure weeks of visceral
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: traumatic testimony and aggressive cross-examination.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And even if they win, it triggers a decades-long appellate process.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: So with the family's support to avoid all that trauma,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the prosecution offers a plea.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: They were forced to choose between perfect justice and concrete finality.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: So the deal is struck. The murder charge is dropped.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Fred pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter, which is a first-degree felony.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: And two counts of tampering with evidence and gross abuse
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: of a corpse.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: This culminates in a highly emotional sentencing hearing in January 2024.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: The courtroom scene provides a profound look at the collision
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: between bureaucratic justice and raw human grief. It is standing
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: room only.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Every single person in the gallery held up a picture
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of Amanda, specifically so her face would be the last
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: thing Fred saw before prison.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: A stunning visual repudiation of his attempt to erase her.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: And the prosecution plays a video of Amanda joyfully celebrating
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: her sister Stephanie's new baby, proving how full of life
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: she was.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: Then comes the victim impact statements. Amanda's mother, Caroline, speaks,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: and her son, Josh.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Josh had actually prepared a written statement, but he ditched
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the script completely at the podium.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Confronted with a man who dismembered his mother, the formality
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: just evaporates.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: He unleashes on Fred, laying into him for acting like
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: a soulless monster who wouldn't even look at them.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: And when Fred is given the chance to speak, he
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: gives a wildly insincere apology. Investigators rated it a negative
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: 50 on a scale of 1 to 100.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: So the prosecution asks for eight years, but the judge
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: exercises discretion and gives him 14 years with the sentences
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to run consecutively.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Nine years for manslaughter, two for each tampering count, and
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: one year for abuse of a corpse.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: 14 years. He gets 14 years for dismembering a mother
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: of four. It feels like the justice system is handing
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: out a parking ticket for a collapsed building.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: It perfectly delineates the chasm between closure and justice. It
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: wasn't perfect justice. but it was a definitive legal admission
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: of guilt.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: But the final insult happens right after the sentencing. Fred
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: immediately asks his attorney if he can have a contact visit,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: a hug, with his mother, Linda.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: The profound cruelty of this is just staggering.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, Amanda's mother will never hug her daughter again,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and his first instinct is to ask for a hug
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: from his mom.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: He is flaunting his capacity for human connection right in
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: front of the woman he robbed of that experience.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: But Fred goes away, and the ripple effects of this
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: case continue to spread. Because the very next day after sentencing,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: investigators from Pinellas County, Florida, arrive at the prison to
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: question Fred.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Literally within 24 hours. Yeah.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: OK, so wait. He gets sentenced in Ohio and immediately
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Florida detectives are waiting at the door.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Yes. He is a person of interest in two cold
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: cases down there. A 2018 missing person and the 2020
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: death of a former business partner.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: This proves that ignoring a domestic abuser in a small
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: town can literally unleash a serial threat across state lines
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: if the sheriff had just arrested him for the black eye.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Perpetrators of this level of violence rarely stop at
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: one crime. The family's perseverance didn't just solve Amanda's murder.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: It potentially stopped a multi-state predator.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: And the family refuses to stop fighting. Because Ohio law
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: only allows a maximum of one year for gross abuse
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: of a corpse, They are working with state reps to
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: pass Amanda Dean's law.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: They want to increase the penalty to up to eight years.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: They know it won't act time to Fred's sentence, but
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: they want to protect the next family. And their ultimate
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: goal is to use Amanda's tragic story to raise domestic
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: violence awareness.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: They want to tell others in these situations that there
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: is a way out.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And that brings us back to you, the listener.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: If you ever feel like something is wrong with a
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: loved one and the authorities tell you to stand down, don't.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: The Dean family proved that a mother's and sister's intuition—
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: is far more accurate than a rubber-stamped police report.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Do not respect the no trespassing signs of the system.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: And I want to leave you with a chilling question
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: to mull over.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: If it was this administratively simple for one small-town sheriff's
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: department to simply declare a murdered woman safe and erase
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: her from the missing persons database, how many other cold
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: cases in America aren't actually cold but were just closed
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: by a single unverified assumption?
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: How many families are holding a text message completely unaware
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: that the system officially decided they don't matter? Until you
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: see them breathing with your own eyes, you never stop searching.