Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Tip from 8-y-o boy cracks mystery surrounding disappearance of gorgeous young mom

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Tip from 8-y-o boy cracks mystery surrounding disappearance of gorgeous young mom · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace is the mystery surrounding the
0:11
Speaker 1: disappearance of a beautiful woman cracked wide open by a
0:16
Speaker 1: single tip from an eight year old boy on August fourth.
0:29
Speaker 1: The New Albany Police Department's Control Division wasn't learned too
0:36
Speaker 1: miss Hoover's disappearance. This information was relayed to the New
0:42
Speaker 1: Albany Police Department by Miss Hoover's family, particularly her mother.
0:50
Speaker 1: Officers from New Albany Police responded to the residents and
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Speaker 1: missus Hoover was not located at that time. Fast foreign
1:00
Speaker 1: to August twenty seventh. Are criminal investigators of whom many
1:05
Speaker 1: are in the room here today we're alerted that Miss
1:10
Speaker 1: Hoover's disappearance may very well have been criminal in nature
1:16
Speaker 1: based on that information. Are criminal investigators who high here.
1:22
Speaker 1: It's spent countless hours uncovering the facts of this case.
1:26
Speaker 1: You were hearing Chief Todd of Bailey with the New
1:28
Speaker 1: Albany Police, and you're hearing him talk about somehow trying
1:33
Speaker 1: to explain how she's reported missing by her mother on
1:37
Speaker 1: August the fourth, Okay, so August twenty seventh, and they
1:43
Speaker 1: think maybe her disappearance could be criminal in nature. August
1:50
Speaker 1: fourth to August twenty seven. It took him that long
1:54
Speaker 1: to figure out, Hey, you know what, I think something's wrong. Well,
1:58
Speaker 1: I'm calling BS on that right at the get go again.
2:02
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nations
2:04
Speaker 1: series Sex one eleven. Let me introduce to you our
2:07
Speaker 1: all star panel joining me. Venu Varghese, criminal defense attorney,
2:13
Speaker 1: former prosecutor at Varges and associates at vark East Law
2:17
Speaker 1: dot com. Doctor Angela Arnold, renowned psychiachas, joining me from
2:21
Speaker 1: the Atlanta jurisdiction at Angela Arnold MD dot com. Chris Buyers,
2:27
Speaker 1: the former police chief John's Creek, Georgia, twenty five years
2:31
Speaker 1: as the cop, now private investigator and polygrapher, he said,
2:35
Speaker 1: Chris Buyer's Investigations and polygraph dot com. Professor Forensics, Jacksonville
2:40
Speaker 1: State University. Author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
2:44
Speaker 1: now the star of a new series Poisonous Liaisons on
2:47
Speaker 1: the True Crime Network. Joseph Scott Morgan, Sierra Gillespie with
2:51
Speaker 1: me Crimoline dot com investigative reporter. You know, let me
2:55
Speaker 1: just throw this at you first. Let me pick on you.
2:59
Speaker 1: Chris By. Here's you're the former chief police in John's Creek,
3:04
Speaker 1: twenty three days? Why is it? Why, Chief, when a
3:12
Speaker 1: woman goes missing, everybody just assumes she shacked up with
3:15
Speaker 1: some boyfriend in a hotel. Why why does it take
3:18
Speaker 1: twenty three days to figure out, Hey, this could be
3:22
Speaker 1: criminal in nature. Yeah, that is there's no excuse for that.
3:25
Speaker 1: That is a huge mistake in this case. Precious, precious
3:29
Speaker 1: evidence is missed within hours after someone going missing like this.
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Speaker 1: And yes, I'll just have to own that on behalf
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Speaker 1: of law enforcement. That too often we go into these
3:41
Speaker 1: things and downplay what's going on and miss the criminal nature. Yeah,
3:45
Speaker 1: there's no excuse for that in this case. I mean
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Speaker 1: venus var Geese, your former prosecutor, take off your defense
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Speaker 1: attorney hat. How many times have you seen, just for instance,
3:56
Speaker 1: a teen girl goes missing and they say, oh, it's
3:58
Speaker 1: a runaway. No, she's been kidnapped and she's now being
4:02
Speaker 1: pimped out by some thug or a woman. Why is it?
4:07
Speaker 1: Over and over and over? And I know you've used
4:09
Speaker 1: this as a defense before. She's just off with her boyfriend. Hey,
4:14
Speaker 1: do you remember Drew Peterson, He's still saying that about
4:18
Speaker 1: his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson convicted on the murder of
4:21
Speaker 1: his third wife, Kathleen Savio. He's still to this day,
4:25
Speaker 1: has been what twenty years. Yeah, she left with her boyfriend.
4:30
Speaker 1: Really well, I think you know, back in the day
4:34
Speaker 1: when I was working at the DA's office in Brooklyn,
4:38
Speaker 1: you know, I would go to crime scenes investigate homicides,
4:42
Speaker 1: and you know, in this thing, at this part of
4:44
Speaker 1: the juncture, prosecutors aren't involved, right because it's just an investigation.
4:48
Speaker 1: But normal police, you know, policing from you know, all
4:53
Speaker 1: my experience and everything I've seen means you go and
4:55
Speaker 1: investigate everything. You know, Vinnie Vergeese, I hear you, but
5:00
Speaker 1: I specifically ask you to take off your defense hat,
5:03
Speaker 1: and you did not do it. The point is, Joseph
5:06
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan. While everybody twiddles their thumbs and seventy two
5:11
Speaker 1: hours passed, the stats are after seventy two hours, the
5:15
Speaker 1: victim is dead, statistically speaking, And while we sit around
5:18
Speaker 1: and imagine her bumped up in a hotel with her
5:21
Speaker 1: boyfriend having hot, crazy sex, which is very rarely the case,
5:26
Speaker 1: she's dying. Yeah, she is Nancy, and it's a horrible
5:31
Speaker 1: way to die. Hey, seventy two hours that's that's critical
5:35
Speaker 1: because every moment, just like a chief virus had mentioned,
5:38
Speaker 1: just a moment ago. You know, for every second that
5:41
Speaker 1: ticks off of that clock. From an investigative standpoint, we're
5:45
Speaker 1: losing precious time relative to her life. We're losing precious
5:49
Speaker 1: time relative to even things like Tracey evidence. Things are
5:51
Speaker 1: getting you know, pulled away from the case. They're getting
5:56
Speaker 1: a rained on, or maybe they're getting disactivity that's going on.
5:59
Speaker 1: Maybe he's going in to try to clean things up
6:02
Speaker 1: with us. The friend the missing mom Rebecca Hover, Chris character, Chris,
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Speaker 1: what kind of mom was she? She would with them
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Speaker 1: every day all the time. She would call us in
6:15
Speaker 1: that and she'd be out in the pool, sohere, I'm
6:17
Speaker 1: with the kids in that her ear was going to
6:18
Speaker 1: be gone off to work some other place and other
6:21
Speaker 1: state for god knows how long or whatever. And she
6:24
Speaker 1: was a sole provider for the kids, caregiver for the kids,
6:29
Speaker 1: and she she would not be comfortable going twice hours
6:35
Speaker 1: without seeing her kids. She had to come back here
6:38
Speaker 1: and only a couple of times for friends with the family,
6:43
Speaker 1: funerals or something like that. And she would only tell
6:46
Speaker 1: them for one to two days and she would have
6:47
Speaker 1: to go right back because she's just going to take
6:50
Speaker 1: the air from her kids. No too, renowned psychiatrists joining
6:53
Speaker 1: me Doctor Angela Arnold at angela Arnold md dot com.
6:58
Speaker 1: I remember on the set of aheln I would be
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Speaker 1: so worried about the twins being with me working at night.
7:08
Speaker 1: They finally installed the nannycam in the top of the desk.
7:14
Speaker 1: Like the desk looks smooth if you were looking at me,
7:18
Speaker 1: but I could look down at the desk and watch
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Speaker 1: the nannycam to know the twins are okay, so I
7:24
Speaker 1: could focus on the crime at issue and the investigation
7:29
Speaker 1: and hopefully get answers. Because I knew that the twins
7:32
Speaker 1: are okay. I find it really hard to believe this
7:35
Speaker 1: mom would just take off well. And also, Nancy, when
7:38
Speaker 1: people around you know what kind of a mother you are.
7:43
Speaker 1: People people look at mothers and how they treat their children,
7:46
Speaker 1: and who spends time with their children and who doesn't
7:49
Speaker 1: spend time with their children, And when people know about
7:53
Speaker 1: the mother's habits are those are very true things that
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Speaker 1: are being said, and those habits don't change, and you
8:01
Speaker 1: can't hide that from people. Her actions in the past
8:07
Speaker 1: are definite, are definite predictors of her actions in the future.
8:12
Speaker 1: And no, she would not leave these children for this
8:15
Speaker 1: amount of time. As I always say, doctor Angela, when
8:17
Speaker 1: you don't know a horse, look at her track record.
8:20
Speaker 1: She had never once left them unannounced, which is what
8:23
Speaker 1: has been claimed here, and I am not buying it.
8:27
Speaker 1: For one minute, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we
8:44
Speaker 1: are talking about the case of Rebecca. Is the mystery
8:50
Speaker 1: surrounding the disappearance of this beautiful young mom cracked wide
8:55
Speaker 1: open by a single tip from an eight year old
9:00
Speaker 1: boy out to longtime friend of Rebecca Hoovers, Chris character
9:05
Speaker 1: way In. I knew Beccy probably close to thirty years.
9:12
Speaker 1: I mean over over twenty close thirty. She was really outgoing,
9:18
Speaker 1: very outspoken. She loves socialized, share lots of friends. She
9:30
Speaker 1: she would do anything for anybody, and I know that
9:33
Speaker 1: she absolutely loved her kids. You know, I'm curious. We
9:37
Speaker 1: have the welfare check, the nine one one call placed
9:42
Speaker 1: by her mother, Sierra Gillespie. What do we know about
9:46
Speaker 1: the last time the mom spoke to Rebecca. So the
9:50
Speaker 1: last time Rebecca and her mother spoke was on Saturday,
9:54
Speaker 1: August two. They were on the phone it was late
9:57
Speaker 1: at night, you know, just a normal call, nothing out
10:00
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. But Rebecca's husband, Judson, had come home.
10:05
Speaker 1: She saw him in the driveway and said to her
10:07
Speaker 1: mom like, hey, he wants to talk. Let me just
10:10
Speaker 1: call you later and we'll talk again later. Nothing out
10:14
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. Ever, So nothing out of the ordinary
10:18
Speaker 1: at all. To Chris, character friend of Rebecca's, Well, what
10:23
Speaker 1: can you tell me about their relationship? I believe the
10:26
Speaker 1: first I would say a couple of years were probably
10:28
Speaker 1: pretty good, like a romance type stage where he got
10:31
Speaker 1: her and kind of roped her. And I guess you'd say,
10:35
Speaker 1: because if she experienced anything severely negative, I'll put it
10:42
Speaker 1: that way with him, I would say in the first
10:46
Speaker 1: year or two, Yeah, they wouldn't to stay together. For
10:48
Speaker 1: her to stay with him, she definitely had to appear
10:53
Speaker 1: to be a decent person right off the bat. Straight
10:55
Speaker 1: out to Chris Buyer's former police ship John's Creek, Georgia, Chris,
11:00
Speaker 1: in a case like this, what's the first thing police
11:04
Speaker 1: should be doing? Certainly not waiting twenty three days before
11:07
Speaker 1: they figure out something could be wrong, but what should
11:10
Speaker 1: they be doing? Yeah? Absolutely, first thing you should be
11:13
Speaker 1: looking into any type of history from that address with
11:17
Speaker 1: any of you know, the people involved in it. First
11:21
Speaker 1: of all, they got to do a welfare check. So
11:24
Speaker 1: when you're going through a house like that, police often
11:27
Speaker 1: make the mistake of just looking for a person. You
11:29
Speaker 1: should be looking for everything, any type of evidence that
11:32
Speaker 1: might be there that, as we stated earlier, could be
11:35
Speaker 1: gone once you leave. But you start looking at credit
11:38
Speaker 1: card receipts, you start looking at bank activity, you start
11:41
Speaker 1: looking at social media, you start looking again what history
11:44
Speaker 1: do you have there in the family, and you start
11:47
Speaker 1: piecing all of that together. You do not wait for that.
11:50
Speaker 1: You have to start that from the very beginning, because
11:53
Speaker 1: again we've said time is ticking away and that's things
11:57
Speaker 1: that you can lose and not get back. So they
11:59
Speaker 1: should have been jumping on that to determine then is
12:02
Speaker 1: this a criminal activity or again, as we discussed, is
12:06
Speaker 1: it just someone who's gone missing. To you, Jess Scott Morgan,
12:09
Speaker 1: why is it that seventy two hours the first seventy
12:13
Speaker 1: two If you're talking about things from a forensic standpoint,
12:16
Speaker 1: like fragile evidence, those things can be lost very very quickly.
12:21
Speaker 1: So from my perspective as a forensic scientist, you have
12:24
Speaker 1: to get in there and assess the situation. And I'm
12:29
Speaker 1: thinking about things, Nancy, like blood evidence, for instance. Let's
12:32
Speaker 1: just put it out there on the table. If you
12:35
Speaker 1: have this, it can be stepped on, it can be removed,
12:38
Speaker 1: it can be wiped up. So you have to get
12:40
Speaker 1: in there. And that's so critical, Like Chris was mentioning
12:44
Speaker 1: just a second ago about police actually going in and
12:46
Speaker 1: looking not just for a person, but looking for any
12:50
Speaker 1: kind of evidence of fourth centuries struggle. You're talking about
12:53
Speaker 1: a mama here, Nancy. This is not somebody that's just
12:56
Speaker 1: going to pick up and vanish into the air. So
12:59
Speaker 1: you have to take a real long, critical look at
13:01
Speaker 1: every aspect in this case. You know what you're making
13:04
Speaker 1: me think of. Joe Scott Morgan is the Vanessa Gean
13:07
Speaker 1: case in Fort Hood where she was called in on
13:09
Speaker 1: her day off to the armory to work. She was
13:12
Speaker 1: private first class who had wanted to go career Army.
13:16
Speaker 1: Fort Hood said they did a thorough search of the armory.
13:19
Speaker 1: It wasn't until weeks later when her body was found
13:23
Speaker 1: burned dismembered cement poured onto her flesh, that we learned
13:30
Speaker 1: she was bludgeoned dead in the armory bottom line. Yeah,
13:37
Speaker 1: you've got all of this fragile blood evidence is there
13:40
Speaker 1: and it's sitting there for weeks. Nancy. In this case,
13:43
Speaker 1: we have to learn a lesson from the life lost
13:46
Speaker 1: of Vanessa Gean, You know, we really do. And I
13:49
Speaker 1: want to look at the area, joining me, Sirah Gillespie,
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Speaker 1: crimal line dot Com investigative reporter. It's in New Albany. Now,
13:57
Speaker 1: there's Albany, New York, which eyes to capital there, and
14:01
Speaker 1: there is Albany, Georgia. Where is New Albany. New Albany
14:06
Speaker 1: is technically in Indiana, So this is like the southernmost
14:10
Speaker 1: point of Indiana, right on the border of Kentucky. So honestly,
14:15
Speaker 1: even though it's in Indiana, it's almost a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky.
14:19
Speaker 1: You're like ten to fifteen minutes away from Louisville. And
14:23
Speaker 1: that is beautiful rolling country where the horses are bread.
14:29
Speaker 1: Isn't that right? I recall Kentucky derby horses being bred
14:34
Speaker 1: in that area. Louisville is beautiful. What's the population and
14:38
Speaker 1: I have a reason for this, Sire Gillespie. Yeah, so
14:40
Speaker 1: the population of New Albany, it's about thirty six thousand people,
14:45
Speaker 1: and compared to Louisville that's six hundred and two thousand people,
14:49
Speaker 1: so it's much smaller. You know, that changes things, Chief
14:54
Speaker 1: Chris Buyers, because when you have a really rural area
14:57
Speaker 1: like where I grew up, that really reduces the suspect pool.
15:03
Speaker 1: Although Chief Buyers, I don't know if you remember the
15:07
Speaker 1: case of Shasta and Dylan grown knee that occurred in
15:12
Speaker 1: Cord Delane, which is if you look an aerial view
15:16
Speaker 1: as nothing but green, and the purp in that case
15:21
Speaker 1: happened to be driving by on the interstate, looked off
15:26
Speaker 1: and he saw Shasta and Dylan, a little boy and
15:30
Speaker 1: his sister Shasta in there above ground pool, and right
15:35
Speaker 1: then he laser locked on them and decided he was
15:39
Speaker 1: going to get them to molest them. Goes in, wipes
15:43
Speaker 1: out the whole family to get the two children. Then
15:48
Speaker 1: he keeps them in captivity, and we learned that he would,
15:52
Speaker 1: I mean raped both of them over and over and over,
15:54
Speaker 1: the boy and the girl. But he would strangle the
15:57
Speaker 1: little boy until he would almost die and then let
16:01
Speaker 1: him come back to life over and over and over
16:05
Speaker 1: and rape him while the sisters there they were only
16:09
Speaker 1: safe when somebody in the mini mart saw Shasta grownee
16:14
Speaker 1: following along behind him at like a gas station and
16:17
Speaker 1: recognized her. My point is that was out an extremely
16:22
Speaker 1: rural area in core Delay in Idaho, so that interstate
16:28
Speaker 1: led to the crime. But generally speaking, Chief, when you
16:32
Speaker 1: have a very rural area, it's not like you're in
16:36
Speaker 1: New York City where you run into strangers every day
16:39
Speaker 1: that could do you harm. Chief, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, so
16:45
Speaker 1: much different than the urban areas where it's different crimes
16:48
Speaker 1: of opportunity. When you're dealing in the rural areas, the
16:52
Speaker 1: suspect pool narrows tremendously. You are looking for someone who
16:56
Speaker 1: knows the victim, who's acquainted with them on a daily basis,
17:00
Speaker 1: So it does change that considerable crime stories with Nancy Grace, guys,
17:18
Speaker 1: we are talking about the sudden disappearance of Rebecca Hoover,
17:23
Speaker 1: a beautiful young mom. Did the whole investigation get cracked
17:28
Speaker 1: wide open based on a single tip from an eight
17:33
Speaker 1: year old boy? Listen to this. Rebecca Hoover was last
17:36
Speaker 1: seen on August second. Chris character has known Rebecca and
17:40
Speaker 1: her family for decades. He said this last month has
17:43
Speaker 1: been hard on everyone who knew her, wondering reading, asking
17:47
Speaker 1: people questions, trying if I know if anyone who second
17:51
Speaker 1: of the couple has three children, all under the age
17:54
Speaker 1: of thirteen, three children all under the age of thirteen.
17:58
Speaker 1: Again with me, Vina Vargas, renowned a criminal defense attorney,
18:02
Speaker 1: former prosecutor at Varhis Law dot com, doctor Angela Arnold,
18:08
Speaker 1: psychiatrist joining me out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Chris Buyer's
18:11
Speaker 1: former police chief, John's Creek, Joseph Scott Morgan death investigator,
18:15
Speaker 1: and Sierra Gillespie crime online dot com investigative reporter. I've
18:19
Speaker 1: mentioned to you, did the case get cracked wide open
18:22
Speaker 1: by an eight year old boy? To Chris character friend
18:25
Speaker 1: Auvrey Becca's was there a search going on for her
18:30
Speaker 1: at the beginning? I am aware at first, I don't
18:36
Speaker 1: think so. I think the real criminal likes investigation took
18:44
Speaker 1: place once her son made the statement of the teacher.
18:49
Speaker 1: I think at that point is when they really kicked
18:52
Speaker 1: it into high gerad. They're like, Okay, this isn't just
18:55
Speaker 1: a christ Off wife that took off scilly from her
18:58
Speaker 1: husband or something like that. Absolutely think they finally realized, Okay,
19:03
Speaker 1: there's something bad has happened. Why did it take a
19:07
Speaker 1: tip from an eight year old boy to get law
19:10
Speaker 1: enforcement off its rear end and investigate this case? Take
19:14
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends. W A v. E. Three
19:16
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Pace an unimaginable death at the hands of her husband.
19:21
Speaker 1: Police believe Rebecca Hoover was last seen on August second.
19:24
Speaker 1: After further investigation, police believe that's the day her husband,
19:28
Speaker 1: Judson Hoover, killed Rebecca inside their home in front of
19:32
Speaker 1: their eight year old son. Her longtime friend, Chris Character,
19:35
Speaker 1: told me the couple had a history of an abusive relationship.
19:39
Speaker 1: According to the probable cause affidavit, Hoover's son told his
19:42
Speaker 1: elementary school counselor that his dad killed his mom in
19:46
Speaker 1: the basement. He said he saw his dad stomp on
19:49
Speaker 1: his mom repeatedly and stab her in the stomach until
19:52
Speaker 1: she was unconscious. Hoover confessed to strangling his wife in
19:56
Speaker 1: court Thursday. No cameras were allowed inside. The fifty year
20:00
Speaker 1: old told the judge he put her body in a
20:02
Speaker 1: container at a New Albany storage unit about five minutes
20:04
Speaker 1: from their home. We found a similar container behind his
20:07
Speaker 1: house Thursday after police questioned Hoover about Rebecca's disappearance. He
20:12
Speaker 1: moved her body to a different storage unit in Louisville.
20:15
Speaker 1: That's where police found her on August thirty. First, let
20:19
Speaker 1: me understand this, Sierra Gillespie, Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
20:24
Speaker 1: They don't know what happened until the eight year old
20:28
Speaker 1: son tells the teacher he saw daddy stopping on mommy
20:35
Speaker 1: on the stairway and then stabbing her. They waited till
20:40
Speaker 1: a little boy cracks the case open for them. Is
20:43
Speaker 1: that what happened? Sierra? Essentially, he is the biggest tip
20:47
Speaker 1: that kind of moves the case forward. Police did discuss
20:51
Speaker 1: with Judson Hoover and ask him questions initially after Rebecca
20:55
Speaker 1: had first been reported missing, and that's when he moved
20:59
Speaker 1: the body from the original storage unit in Indiana to
21:03
Speaker 1: one in Kentucky in Louisville. But really things didn't get
21:07
Speaker 1: going until her eight year old son came forward to
21:10
Speaker 1: his elementary school guidance counselor. Now, let me understand, Sierah Gillespie.
21:15
Speaker 1: He murders her in the family home. Correct, Yes, in
21:20
Speaker 1: the family home, in the basement. I find it really
21:23
Speaker 1: hard to believe Joe Scott Morgan really hard to believe.
21:28
Speaker 1: The cops come to the home and she has been
21:32
Speaker 1: stomped twenty times in the head at least and stabbed,
21:39
Speaker 1: and there's no blood evidence for them to find nothing. Well,
21:42
Speaker 1: from my understanding, Nancy, they did find what appears to
21:44
Speaker 1: be some blood evidence at the base of the staircase.
21:47
Speaker 1: But this goes to a bigger issue that we've mentioned
21:50
Speaker 1: a couple of times thus far. You've got so much
21:53
Speaker 1: time that has lapsed off the clock. There's plenty of
21:57
Speaker 1: time to go back and clean up, Nancy. And this
22:00
Speaker 1: goes to the horrific nature of this that this guy
22:03
Speaker 1: could do this in front of an eight year old
22:05
Speaker 1: and then he transfers the body into not just a container, Nancy,
22:09
Speaker 1: a fifty five gallon oil drum, okay, and he stores
22:13
Speaker 1: her body and then moves it around. He's had a
22:17
Speaker 1: lot of time to think about this, to prep to
22:20
Speaker 1: destroy evidence, to wipe up evidence, and to complete a
22:23
Speaker 1: complete a completely different scenario than what actually happen. Jess Scott,
22:27
Speaker 1: when did they see When the cops see the blood,
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, I think that it was subsequent to a
22:32
Speaker 1: follow up, a follow up search of the residence at
22:35
Speaker 1: that point in time, So that gives us an indication
22:37
Speaker 1: that maybe, just maybe something could have been done. You know,
22:42
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make sense of what you just said.
22:44
Speaker 1: Let's talk, regular people talk. Did he did police see
22:49
Speaker 1: the blood before or after they found her body? And
22:57
Speaker 1: I guess you would say a ben at a storage unit?
23:02
Speaker 1: When did they see the blood on the stairs. It's
23:04
Speaker 1: my understanding they saw the blood after they had discovered
23:07
Speaker 1: the body. Okay, so let me circle back with you,
23:10
Speaker 1: Joe Scott on my original question. My original question, much
23:14
Speaker 1: like with Vanessa again, is it's really hard for me
23:18
Speaker 1: to believe she's reported missing by her mother. Police come
23:22
Speaker 1: to the house and they don't see any blood. They
23:27
Speaker 1: see nothing. How can you not see the blood on
23:32
Speaker 1: the stairway. How can you not talk to the children.
23:35
Speaker 1: The blood is right there. Even after they find her body.
23:38
Speaker 1: Twenty three days later they find her body, the blood
23:42
Speaker 1: is still there. That means they didn't look, Joe Scott
23:46
Speaker 1: and again the coast, Why am I having to I'm
23:50
Speaker 1: a JD, not a DDS. I don't know how to
23:53
Speaker 1: pull teeth. They didn't even look, Joe Scott. No, they didn't,
23:58
Speaker 1: and they should have at that point in tom because
24:00
Speaker 1: that would have given them some indication of something terrible
24:03
Speaker 1: has happened. They didn't thoroughly go through this, Nancy. This
24:06
Speaker 1: is not this is not just some random person that's
24:09
Speaker 1: disappeared off the face of the planet. This is a mama, Nancy.
24:13
Speaker 1: This is a mama that's got small children. And you've
24:16
Speaker 1: already got this here. You know, how can you're in
24:18
Speaker 1: a rural area. How can you not know as a
24:20
Speaker 1: police officer that there's been domestic problems in this house?
24:23
Speaker 1: I mean, we've heard the term violence thrown around prior
24:26
Speaker 1: to her death, So how can you not be in
24:28
Speaker 1: tuned to that? Is what I'm saying. That is you
24:31
Speaker 1: have to have all of the information when you show
24:33
Speaker 1: up in the police. At police in this rural area,
24:36
Speaker 1: they know what's going on at any how many times
24:39
Speaker 1: have they been called out there before? That That gives
24:41
Speaker 1: me pause. I want to know what has happened at
24:43
Speaker 1: this location previously. So if you're aware of it, you're
24:47
Speaker 1: gonna know, hey, look that address comes up. You know,
24:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to be really tuned in to what's happening here.
24:53
Speaker 1: Obviously they weren't, And to you then a Vargeese criminal
24:57
Speaker 1: defense attorney at Vargeese and yet so you can find
25:00
Speaker 1: him at Vargeese Law dot com venu. The reality is
25:04
Speaker 1: is her mother reports her missing, not the husband. That
25:08
Speaker 1: always is a red flag to me. But she's reported
25:11
Speaker 1: missing on August two. He files for divorce on August three.
25:17
Speaker 1: I mean, don't you think you ought to tell your
25:19
Speaker 1: clients not to do, not to pull a move like that.
25:22
Speaker 1: This reminds me of Dave Chappelle in his last Netflix
25:26
Speaker 1: special when he's talking about R Kelly and having a
25:30
Speaker 1: video where R Kelly says he's having sex with fourteen
25:33
Speaker 1: year old girls. Chappelle says, you gotta leave you lawyers
25:36
Speaker 1: something to work with. And in this situation, this guy telegraphed,
25:41
Speaker 1: he's it almost like you wanted to get caught. You know,
25:44
Speaker 1: he's putting her with his video cameras. I mean, they
25:48
Speaker 1: have this thing called you Adore It. They had signed
25:50
Speaker 1: there you adore it, we store it. I mean, like,
25:54
Speaker 1: you can't get any worse than this than this case.
25:58
Speaker 1: And then look, I mean divorcing a dead woman. That's
26:00
Speaker 1: I mean talk quite an uncontested divorce. I mean, and guys,
26:05
Speaker 1: I know that you just heard viny of our geese laugh.
26:09
Speaker 1: Can I tell you something, don't hold that against him,
26:12
Speaker 1: because when you deal with murder and child molestation every day,
26:20
Speaker 1: we're talking about how this guy basically took out a
26:25
Speaker 1: billboard on Madison Avenue. I did it, and about his
26:29
Speaker 1: own stupidity. Like r Kelly and the Chappelle special. We
26:33
Speaker 1: are not in any way making light of the disappearance
26:39
Speaker 1: of this woman. But you know, any of our geese,
26:45
Speaker 1: you know, I've seen it. In all the years that
26:47
Speaker 1: I prosecuted, you kind of develop a dark humor where
26:52
Speaker 1: it's actually easier to laugh at the defendants moves than
26:57
Speaker 1: to face the fact that he murdered the mom in
27:00
Speaker 1: front of the eight year old little boy. I don't
27:02
Speaker 1: like to think about it, and you know I'm thinking
27:07
Speaker 1: about it, Doctor Angela Arnold. Yes, ma'am, I want to
27:11
Speaker 1: tell you something. We haven't brought up the little boy,
27:15
Speaker 1: the eight year old, to crack the case open. He
27:19
Speaker 1: was there and call nine one one, ran next door
27:23
Speaker 1: and call nine one one on a previous event where
27:28
Speaker 1: the husband beat Rebecca fifteen to twenty times in the face,
27:32
Speaker 1: neck and head, and the little boy. I just hate
27:37
Speaker 1: it so bad. The little boy ran next door to
27:41
Speaker 1: call nine one one to save his mother's life, and
27:45
Speaker 1: he's going to probably have survivor guilt the rest of
27:48
Speaker 1: It's worse. It's actually worse than that, Nancy. There is
27:52
Speaker 1: a lot of there's a lot of research that shows
27:55
Speaker 1: that children who witness the abuse of their mother have
28:01
Speaker 1: a much more difficult time than if they were actually
28:04
Speaker 1: being abused themselves. It is more abusive to a child
28:08
Speaker 1: to witness the abuse of their mother than it is
28:11
Speaker 1: that the abuse were being keaped on them. I wonder
28:13
Speaker 1: why that is. I think that you know, with my children,
28:18
Speaker 1: I'm the first thing they see in the morning, the
28:20
Speaker 1: last thing they see at night. And I know how
28:24
Speaker 1: I am with my mother who lives with us. Now
28:28
Speaker 1: that's the strongest relationship they have in their life, and
28:32
Speaker 1: they'll probably go the rest of their life wondering what
28:34
Speaker 1: could alternate about this, even though there was nothing they
28:37
Speaker 1: could have done exactly, I mean, well, and it makes
28:41
Speaker 1: them feel so helpless at a certain point in their development,
28:44
Speaker 1: doesn't it. And their left with their mother, their primary careacter,
28:48
Speaker 1: the woman they loved with all their hearts, the woman
28:50
Speaker 1: that is supposed to be there for them. First of all,
28:53
Speaker 1: they're watching her be bludgeoned by their father, so they
28:57
Speaker 1: have no safety net at their four anymore, and they
29:01
Speaker 1: can't do anything to help. They're they're just senseless about
29:06
Speaker 1: doing anything to help trail. This guy left a mile
29:21
Speaker 1: telling the teacher lands counselor that daddy murderd Mommy take
29:26
Speaker 1: listen to our friend. Gilbert Corsi, a w d Rbanies.
29:30
Speaker 1: Police say Rebecca Hoover was last seen August second. Her
29:33
Speaker 1: husband filed for divorce the very next day. More warning
29:37
Speaker 1: signs on social media. One of her last Facebook posts
29:41
Speaker 1: says Judson left with their kids and dog. Another days
29:45
Speaker 1: earlier says I've been tracked, hacked and spied on. Rebecca
29:49
Speaker 1: Hoover saying she felt shattered and needed a hug or
29:53
Speaker 1: a friend. Character says it's the last time they communicated.
29:57
Speaker 1: For her to put up with this as long as
29:59
Speaker 1: she did with him is really shocking to me. The
30:02
Speaker 1: Corner's Office in Louisville confirmed that Rebecca Hoover's body was
30:05
Speaker 1: found in a unit here at this public storage off
30:08
Speaker 1: Strawberry Lane on Monday. They confirmed it was her, with
30:12
Speaker 1: a tattoo on her back. Authorities would not release the
30:15
Speaker 1: cause of death, police only saying they have strong evidence
30:20
Speaker 1: that Hoover is responsible for her death. To Chris Character,
30:23
Speaker 1: a longtime friend of Rebecca Hoover, what do you think happened?
30:28
Speaker 1: I believe that earthly that took place was. Oh, I know,
30:32
Speaker 1: it was all premeditated. He intended on killing her. He
30:35
Speaker 1: knew that he was going to kill her, and she
30:42
Speaker 1: she basically just told her he was going to kill her.
30:47
Speaker 1: And I believe after his fiftieth birthday, I believe it
30:50
Speaker 1: was he posted online and he made a comment on
30:54
Speaker 1: there and it's still better to today and it said
30:58
Speaker 1: it was something to her arts too. Thank you everybody
31:02
Speaker 1: for all the happy fiftieth birthday wishes and for making
31:05
Speaker 1: it a great day, and for the one that ruined it.
31:08
Speaker 1: Your day is your days are numbered dot dot dot
31:11
Speaker 1: that now from the day he posted that, sure the
31:17
Speaker 1: day he actually killed her, I believe was. I think.
31:20
Speaker 1: And all those clues were there on Facebook when she
31:24
Speaker 1: was reported missing. All the clues were sitting there, and
31:28
Speaker 1: it took place twenty three days and an eight year
31:30
Speaker 1: old eyewitness coming forward off his own volition was never
31:34
Speaker 1: questioned at the time to crack the case. So what's
31:39
Speaker 1: your theory, Chris Karecre I believe it was all set up.
31:41
Speaker 1: I believe because he had already had the storage units,
31:45
Speaker 1: he had already had the barrel at the house. He
31:51
Speaker 1: rented a hotel room the day the day he killed her,
31:55
Speaker 1: or the day before, and he rinted it for a
32:00
Speaker 1: couple of days. But then he came back to the house. Well,
32:05
Speaker 1: if you were leaving and you were going to come
32:07
Speaker 1: back to the house, and you knew you weren't going
32:08
Speaker 1: to come back here, you were in this hotel for
32:10
Speaker 1: a few days, let's come back. Because he wanted to
32:14
Speaker 1: use the hotel as an alibiy the no I left,
32:19
Speaker 1: I've been gone. We were staying at the hotel. I
32:21
Speaker 1: haven't been back there, And he used that time as
32:25
Speaker 1: when he went back there. She was on the phone
32:27
Speaker 1: with her mom, talking to her mom or whatnot, and
32:30
Speaker 1: then she told her mom a raider and that was
32:32
Speaker 1: the last time anyone ever spoke to her. Shortly after
32:34
Speaker 1: that is when he killed her. To Chris Buyer's former
32:37
Speaker 1: police chief John's Creek, Georgia and now you can find
32:40
Speaker 1: him at Chris Buyer's investigations in polygraph dot com. Chief
32:46
Speaker 1: I hate to come down on cops because they were
32:49
Speaker 1: my star witnesses in so many cases for so many years.
32:53
Speaker 1: But to wait on an eight year old boy too
32:57
Speaker 1: of his own volition go to a guidance counselor daddy
33:02
Speaker 1: there on Facebook is still there today, her saying I've
33:07
Speaker 1: been trailed, I've been hacked, I've been mistreated. I want
33:12
Speaker 1: to hug that. That breaks my heart. And all the
33:15
Speaker 1: signs were there. Chief, absolutely, there's no excuse for it. Again,
33:19
Speaker 1: you go back to the very first day that the
33:23
Speaker 1: Uniform Patrol Division, I believe the chief said, went to
33:25
Speaker 1: the house to do the welfare check. If you'll take
33:28
Speaker 1: your eyes off of just looking for the person and
33:31
Speaker 1: would drop down and look at the evidence that was
33:34
Speaker 1: on the stairs, the blood evidence. You have to be
33:37
Speaker 1: looking for those things from the beginning. You have to
33:39
Speaker 1: go into every call that you're looking for a criminal
33:43
Speaker 1: activity that did not happen in this case. If you
33:46
Speaker 1: would look at the call history, the fact that there
33:49
Speaker 1: was an abusive history, all of the different things played
33:52
Speaker 1: into that. Look at the credit cards. You have to
33:54
Speaker 1: use credit cards to rent. I believe I even read
33:57
Speaker 1: somewhere that he had rented a van days before you've
34:01
Speaker 1: got the barrels that are there, you've got all of
34:04
Speaker 1: the evidence that was there that should have been followed
34:06
Speaker 1: up on from the time you walked into that house.
34:09
Speaker 1: You know, back in twenty eleven here just outside of
34:12
Speaker 1: Metro Atlanta, we had a case of little girl, Jorellis Riviera,
34:16
Speaker 1: who went mistigan an apartment complex and police searched vacant
34:20
Speaker 1: apartments and she was found three days later. And when
34:23
Speaker 1: they went back into one of the ones that was searched,
34:26
Speaker 1: that's where she was killed. There was blood evidence there.
34:29
Speaker 1: Nobody spoke up because they weren't looking for it. They
34:32
Speaker 1: weren't going into it looking for a crime. And that's
34:35
Speaker 1: what happened here. It's just they dropped their guard. It's
34:39
Speaker 1: just not the way you go into these cases. It's
34:43
Speaker 1: not the way you investigate this. And and yeah, if
34:45
Speaker 1: they'd have found that blood the day they walked in there,
34:49
Speaker 1: I believe it would have changed the entire you know,
34:51
Speaker 1: at least outcome. At least wouldn't have taken this long
34:53
Speaker 1: to figure out what was going At least it wouldn't
34:55
Speaker 1: take the little boy for the rest of his life.
34:58
Speaker 1: Remembering he went and told a teach and that's how
35:00
Speaker 1: they found mommy. And it's not just that there is
35:03
Speaker 1: video surveillance showing the husband moving a fifty five gallon
35:07
Speaker 1: drum from a storage unit after police search his home. Absolutely,
35:11
Speaker 1: and if they would have looked at credit card receipts
35:14
Speaker 1: or found that he had rented, if they would have
35:16
Speaker 1: gotten that quicker and seen that video. But because they
35:20
Speaker 1: didn't do those initial things. You know, you should always
35:22
Speaker 1: go into these cases with a baseline. You should have
35:25
Speaker 1: a missing person checklist. You go in and at least
35:28
Speaker 1: do the minimum, and then you look at the history,
35:31
Speaker 1: you look at all that surrounds this individual case, and
35:35
Speaker 1: you move up from there. You let the facts drive
35:37
Speaker 1: the case. And clearly that did not happen in this
35:39
Speaker 1: Tame Sierra Gillespie. This guy, the killer, Judson Hoover, pled guilty.
35:46
Speaker 1: He said he wanted to spare his children from having
35:49
Speaker 1: to testify. That's bs he played guilty because he caught
35:53
Speaker 1: dad to rights. And there's the death penalty in this
35:56
Speaker 1: jurisdiction in Indiana. What will his sentence be so him
36:00
Speaker 1: right now, it's still kind of up in the air
36:02
Speaker 1: what the official sentence will be, but he is slated
36:06
Speaker 1: to be sentenced in October of this year. I understand
36:09
Speaker 1: that the only sentence has got to be life, and
36:13
Speaker 1: if you know, I think they should have taken this
36:14
Speaker 1: case to trial and sought the death penalty for what
36:18
Speaker 1: he did, not just to his wife, Rebecca Hoover, but
36:21
Speaker 1: to the children that saw him kill Mommy. We wait
36:26
Speaker 1: as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace Crime Story, signing off goodbye friend,