Latest / Crime and Horror / This crime was SOLVED at the DMV - MrBallen

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This crime was SOLVED at the DMV - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On April twenty ninth, two thousand and two, in the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: small town of Patascula, Ohio, a social worker sat on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the floor with a two year old girl. This little
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: girl's mother had unfortunately been murdered in their kitchen just
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the night before, and police thought this little girl might
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: have actually witnessed the crime, and so now the social
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: worker was trying to get this little girl to see
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: if she could remember if anybody else was here the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: night before. And at first the little girl just clutched
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: her stuffed animal and didn't say anything. But eventually, after
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: some gentle prodding, the girl nodded and then she uttered
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a name that would turn her family's lives upside down.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
• 0:39
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• 0:42
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  Speaker 1: any of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: On the evening of April twenty eighth, two thousand and two,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: thirty eight year old Ronda Boggs sat on the couch
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of her mother in law's house in the quiet city
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of Patascla, Ohio, nervously watching the clock at her feet.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Her two and a half year old daughter, Amanda, was
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: playing with a stuffed animal. It was six thirty PM,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and Ronda's husband, Dave was supposed to call any minute.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Dave was currently being incarcerated at the County jail. Dave
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: had been sentenced to two weeks behind bars for failing
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to pay child support to one of his exes, and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: while Ronda was obviously not thrilled about this, she also
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: knew she should not be surprised. When Ronda had first
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: met Dave about twelve years earlier, it was his carefree
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: personality that she had really fallen in love with. He
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: was in a rock band, and she had loved going
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: to his shows and dancing in the front row. It
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: all felt glamorous and exciting and like they were going
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to stay young forever. But now they were both thirty eight,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: with a toddler to look after and Bill's to pay,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and Dave we really just kept on partying and playing
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: rock star while all their responsibilities sort of fell to Ronda.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: She had barely been to any of his shows since
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Amanda had been born, you know, in part because it
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't really the kind of scene you could bring a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: baby to. A lot of the guys Dave hung around
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: with were hard drinkers and drug addicts and ex cons,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and so now, after almost four years of marriage, Ronda
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: was finally starting to see Dave for what he was,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: which was not care free. Dave was really just kind
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of reckless. The phone rang and Ronda picked it up,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and as expected, it was Dave. And what Ronda really
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to say to him was that she was upset
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and seriously considering divorce, and that in fact, she'd already
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: taken his name off her retirement plan. But at the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: same time, she saw her mother in law standing in
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the doorway, clearly listening, and so instead of saying what
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: she really wanted to say, she just said, Hey, Dave,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: how are you doing. An hour later, back at her
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: own home, Ronda put a cast role into the oven,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and then she turned on cartoons for Amanda, and then
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: went outside to mow the lawn before it got too dark.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Ronda was used to doing almost everything around the house
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: herself since Dave was practically never home anyway, but now
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that he was in jail, she had to literally do everything,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: including you know, mowing the grass on a Sunday night.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So Ronda wheeled the lawnmower out of the garage and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: into the yard, and then she pulled the cord to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: start the engine. But like everything else in their little house,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the lawnmower was on the verge of breaking down, and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it kept shutting off. While Ronda struggled, she noticed her
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: neighbor coming out of the house across the street, and
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: he waved to Ronda as he came down his own driveway,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: sort of telling her like, hey, you know, turn off
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that lawnmower. And once she did, and once it was
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: quiet enough to actually hear each other, he shouted from
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: across the street and asked if she wanted to borrow
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: his lawnmower. That did work. Ronda found herself looking around
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the yard at all the tall grass and saw how
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: dark it was already getting and then she checked her
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: watch and saw that, you know, her cast role was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: going to be done in just a minute here, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: so she said to her neighbor that she really appreciated
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the offer, but it didn't really matter because, you know what,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: she doesn't have time to do this anyways. She has
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to go back inside. So Ronda said by to her
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: neighbor and then pushed her defective lawnmower back inside the garage.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And then she made a mental note to call Dave's cousin,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Nick the following day to see if maybe he could
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: come by and fix her lawnmower. Nick worked as a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: maintenance man at a big apartment complex, and even though
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he lived forty five minutes away, he'd been helping Ronda
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: around the house while Dave was behind bars. Just last week,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: he had fixed up her washing machine, and he called
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: all the time just to check in. Now, Ronda went
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: back inside the house into the kitchen and took the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: cast roll out of the oven. Just before the timer rang.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: She cut the cast role into two pieces and brought
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: those pieces into the dining room and set them on
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the table. Then she walked over and turned off the TV.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Scooped up her daughter and brought her over to the table.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: It was getting late, and all Ronda really wanted to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: do here was just eat quickly and go to bed.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But for every bite that made it into Amanda's mouth,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: another wound up on the floor. And so Ronda knew that,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you know, at the end of dinner, she would have
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to do another round of cleanup before she could finally
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: go to sleep. But Ronda knew, you know, Amanda couldn't
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: help it. She was a little kid, and so she
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: reached over and took her daughter's fork and began helping
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: her eat, you know, to not only minimize the mess,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: but also to help her kid out. And in reality,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Amanda was actually the thing preventing Ronda from just pulling
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the trigger on a divorce. She didn't know if she
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: could handle being a single mother. It was hard enough
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: having Dave gone for a few weeks, you know that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: she couldn't even imagine doing this all alone by herself forever.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: And since she already knew Dave was bad at paying
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: child support, as that is the reason he was in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: jail right now, she figured if she was a single mom,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: you know, even if he was ordered to pay her
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: she would likely have to rely on paying the bills herself.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: She would need to get a job and make money. Now.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Ronda did have a job now as an office assistant,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: but she wasn't sure if that would be enough to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: fully support herself and her daughter without any additional financial help.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: But just then, as Ronda was scooping up another bite
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of castrole for her daughter, she heard a noise outside
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that almost sounded like heavy footsteps. She turned around and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: through the curtains she could see the silhouette of a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: person clearly coming up her driveway. The next morning, Monday,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: April twenty ninth, Ronda's coworker, Gary Polowski, noticed that Ronda
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was running late for her shift in the office at
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Hamilton Home Products, which was a heating equipment company, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: this was strange because Ronda had actually never been late
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: before in the entire time that she had worked there.
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  Speaker 1: So Gary began asking around to see if anybody knew
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: where Ronda was, or if maybe she'd called in or something,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: But his coworkers all shrugged and said they hadn't heard
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: from her since she left the office on Friday night,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and so eventually Gary tried calling Ronda's landline at her
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: house to see if she was home, but after calling
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: several times, Ronda never picked up. He waited for a
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: while to see if maybe she would call back, but
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: when he still hadn't heard from her after an hour,
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  Speaker 1: he started to worry that, you know, she might have
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: run into car trouble, like maybe she was stranded somewhere
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: with her car. He knew it was about a fifteen
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: mile drive from her house in Patascla. To the office
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: here just outside of Columbus, and back in two thousand
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and two, not everyone had a cell phone, and he
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: didn't know if she did, so if her car had
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: broken down, you know, she might be stranded without a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: way to call for help. And so Gary decided he
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: would just get in his own car and drive the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: route from the office back to her house to literally
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: see if he could find Ronda on the side of
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the road. Gary drove all the way out to potask Luck,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: keeping his eyes peeled for Ronda's car on the side
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of the road, but there was no sign of it.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: It was not until he finally turned the corner onto
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Ronda's street that he saw her car, and her car
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was parked in the driveway of her white paneled, one
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: story house, and at this Gary's stomach kind of bawled
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: up into a knot because he realized that, you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Ronda had clearly not left for work at all, and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: he knew that if she had just stayed home this
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: whole time without calling in or calling anybody back, that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: something bad had to have happened. And so Gary pulled
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: up to her house and he got out of his
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: car and walked up to the front door and he knocked,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: but there was no answer. So after a minute, he
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: went around and knocked on the back door, and there
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: was still no answer back there either. So he walked
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: back around to the front of the house and he
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was about to leave when he saw the drapes rustling
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in one of the front windows. He squinted at the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: window and he saw, you know, what was causing the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: movement of the drapes was Rhonda's toddler daughter, Amanda, looking
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: out the window, and her face was red, like she'd
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: been crying for a long time. And so now Gary
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: started to panic, but he tried to keep his voice
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: calm as he ran over and shouted through the window
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and told Amanda he was a friend of her mother's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and convinced her to open the door so he could
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: help her. It took a minute for Amanda to figure
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: out what Gary was asking, but eventually she got it
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and she disappeared from the window, and a moment later,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the front door opened, and so Gary walked over and
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: he stepped through the front door, and the first thing
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: he saw were bloody footprints on the living room carpet.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Gary instinctively scooped Amanda up in his arms and he
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: ran across the street, banged on the neighbor's door and
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: told them to call the police. Not long after, the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Taskella police would arrive at Ronda's house and they would
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: search the n side and they would find Ronda, and
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: she was found stabbed to death in her own kitchen.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: This was the first homicide in Patascla in six years,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and there were only seventeen officers in the whole police department,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and the crime scene unit was run out of a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: refurbished ambulance. So Police Chief Chris foreshe didn't have a
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: ton of resources to throw at this case, but he
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: called in all available officers and sent them to the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: crime scene, and then he had it out there himself
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to make sure they did the job right. By the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: time Forese pulled up to the house, his officers had
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: already sealed off the perimeter. He ducked under the crime
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: scene tape, walked inside the house, and followed the sound
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: of footsteps and clicking cameras into the kitchen, where a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: woman was lying in a pool of blood on the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: tile floor. An officer told Foreshe that the victim had
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: been identified as Ronda Bogs and it was her coworker
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: who had come to check on her when she hadn't
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: shown up for work that morning that ultimately prompted a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: nine to one one call that led to the discovery
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: of the body. The officer also told she that Ronda's
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: toddler daughter had been found uninjured in the house with
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: her body, and so for She knelt down to examine
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the body, and right away he saw at least, you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: more than a dozen stab wounds on Ronda's head, her neck,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: her chest, and her shoulders. The sheer number of wounds
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and the blood all over the kitchen suggested there had
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: to have been a struggle, and that from the looks
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of it, Ronda had fought very hard with her attacker.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: The remnants of what appeared to be a cast role
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: were sitting on the stove, and Ronda was fully dressed,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: so for she figured the crime must have happened sometime
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: before she went to bed, so between dinner and bedtime.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And then for she wondered if her poor daughter had
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: been awake or maybe even in the room when this happened.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: After the scene had been photographed, for she gave the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: green light for the corner to actually physically lift Ronda's
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: body up off the ground onto a stretcher. And when
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the coroner's staff hoisted her up, for she noticed something
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: lying underneath her body. It was a steak knife with
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: blood all over the blade. For she looked around the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: kitchen and realized the black handle on that knife matched
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the set of knives on the countertop. It appeared that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Ronda had been killed with a knife from her own kitchen,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: which mentor killer did not show up to the house
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: with their murder weapon. This suggested that this murder was
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: likely a heat of the moment crime rather than something
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that had been planned out. While fores She's officers finished
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: collecting forensic evidence in the kitchen, for she himself walked
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: through the rest of the house. It looked like it
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: had been completely ransacked. The jewelry box in the bedroom
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was empty, and the dresser drawers were open, and piles
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: of Ronda's clothes were strewn all over the floor. And
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: then in the dining room they found a purse that
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: had been overturned with all of its contents spilled out,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and clearly it looked like somebody had been sifting through it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And so for she thought that, you know, between the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: sort of ransacked appearance of the house and also the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: weapon of opportunity, that it seemed like this could have
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: been a robbery gone wrong. However, there was one factor
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that did seem to complicate things, or at least make
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it seem like this could have been something else, and
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that was that there was no sign of forced entry.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Just then, for she heard a commotion near the front door,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and so he walked over and he saw there was
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: a woman trying to push her way into the house,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and her face was all red, and she was crying,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and she was shouting at the officers, demanding to know
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: what happened. For she took this woman outside and tried
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to calm her down, and she would eventually tell him
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that her name was Kim Davis and she was Ronda's sister.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Once she caught her breath, for she explained to her
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: what he already knew, which was that unfortunately, her sister, Ronda,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: had been found stabbed to death inside of her home,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and the running theory at this point, at least his theory,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: was this was a robbery gone wrong, and potentially, because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: there was no sign of forced entry, it could indicate
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that it was somebody that you know, Ronda potentially knew,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and who she would have, you know, let into the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: house if she saw them. Now, Kim was obviously extremely
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: upset by this, and so for a minute for she
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just consoled her. But he really needed to kind of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: press this investigation, and so once she had kind of
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: calmed down a little bit, he asked her if she
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: knew of anybody who might have wanted to hurt Ronda,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and Kim immediately said no, she couldn't imagine her sister
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: having any enemies. But after sitting with that question for
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a moment, Kim said that actually there was one person
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: who might have had a problem with Ronda, and that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: was her husband, Dave. Kim said that Ronda and Dave's
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: marriage had been on the rocks for a while, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: in fact, Ronda had told her recently that she was
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: thinking about getting a divorce. But Kim said, you know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Dave actually is currently in jail, so I don't see
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: how he could have done this. He was literally in
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: jail at the time this happened. Still, though, she thought
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it was possible that, you know, Dave could have been
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: involved one way or another. You know, he might have
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: paid somebody to come here and do this, or maybe
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: put one of his friends up to it. Before she
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: promised Kim he would look into this, but he would
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: already feeling pretty skeptical. I mean, if Dave couldn't even
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: pay child support, you know, what was the likelihood that
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he was able to afford a hitman. And also, the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: murder weapon appeared to come from Roonda's kitchen, and so
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: that didn't really suggest that the suspect had been planning
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to kill her when they got there, so again sort
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: of takes away from the idea that a hitman was
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: used in this murder. But at this point before she
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: thought their best chance to figure out what actually happened
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: to her was actually to speak to the only other
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: person who was at the scene of the crime that
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: they knew about, and that was Ronda's own two year
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: old daughter, Amanda. Later that day, a social worker from
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: child Services pulled up outside the house, and for she
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: walked out to greet her, and he said to her
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that before she took custody of Amanda, he was hoping that,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: you know, she could help him talk to this girl
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and see what she knew about the murder, because she
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was here, you know, when it happened, and there was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: nobody else who witnessed it but her. The social worker nodded,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and so for she took her across the street to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the neighbor's house where Amanda had been staying all morning. Now,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: for she didn't know if this little girl would be
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: able to tell them anything at all. I mean, of course,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: she could be in complete shock. She's also two. And
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: he also knew that even if she did tell them stuff,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't necessarily be reliable, because again she's two years
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: old and she very likely is in shock. But regardless,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: for she knew he had to try. So he stood
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: in the corner of the living room while the social
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: worker sat down on the floor with Amanda and asked
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: her what she had seen the night before. And before
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: she's surprise, the little girl looked up at the social
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: worker and she jerked her little hand toward her neck
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: in what looked very much like a stabbing motion, and then,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: in a quiet voice, she said her mother had fallen
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: down and gone to sleep. Then the social worker asked
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: her if anybody else had been there, and for she
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: felt himself holding his breath waiting for Amanda to answer,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: and there was a moment of silence before Amanda said
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: uncle Nick. A few hours later, chief, for she was
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: still at the crime scene when two officers pulled up
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: in a cruiser and took this grungy looking man out
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: of the back seat and escorted him into the house.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: This was not the Uncle Nick that Amanda had named.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: It was Amanda's own father, Dave Box, who had been
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in jail when his wife was murdered. Now, for she
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: was absolutely planning to speak to this Uncle Nick, but
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: first he wanted to gather as much information as possible
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: about him. During Amanda's conversation with the social worker, she
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: had said repeatedly that Uncle Nick had hurt mommy. But
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: even though this two year old girl seemed very definitive
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: about this, for she needed an adult perspective before he acted.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: A judge had let Dave Boggs out of jail early
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: because of his wife's murderer, and for she had ensured
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that Dave was escorted to the crime scene so for
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: she could speak to him before Dave got a chance
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to speak to anybody else. And so nowfore she met
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Dave and the officers at the door and then guided
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: them into the living room, where they sat Dave down
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: on the couch. They filled him in on what had
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: happened to his wife, but really before he could react
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to that, they also told him that they needed him
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to do a walk through of the house with them
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to try to identify what might have been stolen, which
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: could help them figure out who did this. But first,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: for she said he had a very important question. He
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: asked Dave, who is Uncle Nick? And at this Dave,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: who to this point had just looked completely shocked by
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: what he was being told, began to look more confused,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and he told for she that Uncle Nick was what
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: his daughter called his second cousin. He said his real
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: name was Richard Nicholas Robinson, and he had been helping
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Ronda out while Dave was in jail. Now, Dave said
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Nick had probably been at the house almost every day
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: fixing one thing or another. But he said he didn't
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: understand why for she was asking about him, because you know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: there's no way he would have hurt Ronda. I mean,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: he really looked out for her and also for Amanda.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But for now, for she was not going to answer
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that question. Dave's information was enough for him to go outside,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: get on his radio and broadcast a bulletin asking all
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: police departments in the area to be on the lookout
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: for Nick Robinson. Less than an hour later, a police
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: cruiser found Nick Robbinson's SUV on State Route thirty seven
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: just outside of Patascola, and they pulled him over and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: they ordered him out of the vehicle, and as soon
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: as he was out, they pushed him to the ground
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: with a gun to the back of his head and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: cuffed him. And as they did this, they noticed a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: dark spot on Nick's baseball cap that looked a lot
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: like blood. As they put Nick in the back of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the cruiser, he kept asking them what was going on,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: but they didn't tell him. Instead, they searched his suv
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and there was cardboard laid out in the back with
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: reddish brown smears all over it, which also appeared to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: be blood. And then when the officers got back into
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: their cruiser, Nick asked them, is this about Rohnda. By
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the time this arrest happened, Chief Forshey was at Nick
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Robinson's house questioning his wife, Debbie, so while he did that,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: he dispatched one of his best and only detectives, Bruce Brooks,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to go down to police headquarters to handle Nick's interrogation.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: When Detective Brooks walked into the interview room, immediately he
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: could see that Nick, who was resting his head in
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: his hands, looked very pale and nauseous. When he asked
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: him if he was okay, Nick said he was just
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: hung over from a long night of drinking. He said
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: he had been at a bar in Columbus until around
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: ten thirty pm, and then he had gone to another
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: bar in Lancaster, which was a town nearby where he lived,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and then he had finally come home around one thirty
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: am and passed out on his couch. Nick swore he
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: didn't know anything about what happened to Ronda, and only
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: found out she was dead when he saw it on
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the news. And as for the blood the police found
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: in his suv, he said it was just animal blood
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: from a hunting trip. But Brooks was not buying this
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: because he had heard Amanda, Ronda's daughter say, called Nick
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Hurt's mom, and while, of course, you know, you can't
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: take a two year old's testimony as absolutely reliable, but
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: when she had said it, she said it very definitively
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and even gestured at her neck like she was stabbing herself.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: And Ronda was found stabbed to death. So he asked Nick,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: you know, if his alibi essentially was that he was
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: too drunk to have committed this murder, well then how
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: could he be sure, you know, given he was too drunk,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that he hadn't killed Ronda in an alcohol fueled blackout,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: you know, if he can't remember, you know, it's just
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: as likely that he could have done it. But Nick
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: just shook his head and said no, and no seemed
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to be Nick's answer to just about every question Brooks
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: asked him, and eventually the detective got frustrated, you know,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: because basically everything he asked Nick he denied, and so
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: eventually he told Nick that Ronda's daughter had seen the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: whole thing, and he told him to imagine that little
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: girl on the witness stand having some defense lawyer poke
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and prod her about the most traumatic event she had
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: ever experienced of her own mother. And when he said that,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a crack seemed to appear in nixt sort of outward
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: demeanor of denial, like, clearly he saw how awful this
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: thing really was. And then finally, a little after midnight,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: so six hours into this interrogation, Nick just agreed to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: take a lie detector test, and when the results came back,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it showed very clearly that Nick had failed. He had lied.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: But instead of confessing at this point, Nick dug in
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and swore up and down that he really was innocent.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: So Brooks pulled out the last threat he could think of,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: which was that if Nick didn't confess now, he could
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: be looking at the death penalty. And at that point
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: it was very clear Nick cracked like that absolutely affected him.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: And so after a long silence following this this threat
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: of the death penalty, Nick said that, you know, maybe
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: he did have something to do with what happened, but
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: he just couldn't remember it. From there on, Brooks kept
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: on pushing and pushing until around five am, when Nick
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: finally completely broke down and confessed to the murder. He
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: said he had gone to Ronda's house in between the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: two bars that he had visited, and he tried to
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: kiss her. She pulled away and she grabbed a knife,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and when Nick tried to take the knife from her,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: he said he accidentally stabbed her. As the sun came up,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: officers drove Nick to the Licking County Jail and officially
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: booked him for Rhonda's murder. Later that morning, Chief for
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: She stood in front of a group of reporters outside
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the police station and praised his officers for catching Ronda
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Boggs's killer and getting a confession in less than twenty
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: four hours. But later that week, Detective Brooks was in
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: his office wrapping up paperwork when a secretary stuck her
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: head in the door and said there was somebody on
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the phone for him. Brooks picked it up, and the
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: man on the other end of the line introduced himself
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: as Bob Cisco, and he said he was the bandmate
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: of Ronda's husband, Dave Boggs, and he did not think
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Nick was guilty of this murder. Bob said, on the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: evening that Ronda was killed, another one of their former bandmates,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a guy named Chris Williams, had stopped by his house,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and Chris had seemed very nervous and sort of keyed up.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: He was pacing around and smoking cigarette after cigarette, and
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: it just seemed like he was very mentally preoccupied with something. Now,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Bob said, Chris had actually, in the past already robbed
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Ronda and Dave's house. He had stolen a bunch of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: band equipment and sold it for drug money. And so
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: when Bob Cisco saw on the news that Ronda was
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: dead and her house appeared to have been robbed, he
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't shake this feeling that Chris might have been involved.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It just seemed too similar to be a coincidence. Brooks
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: wrote all this down and thanked Bob for the information,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't sure how seriously to take this tip
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: since they already had a confession from their primary suspect.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: But he spoke to Forshey, and the Sheef decided to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: go ahead and reinterview Ronda's two year old daughter just
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to cover their bases. A few days later, so, about
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: two weeks after Randa's murder chief, for she waited by
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the phone in his office, anxiously watching the clock. He
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: knew that the social worker who had spoken to a
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: man of the first time, was in the process of
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: interviewing her a second time, and any minute now, this
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: social worker should be calling him with an update now,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: for she was hopeful that the little girl would just
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: repeat the same story that she had told on the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: day of her mother's murder. But when his phone finally
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: rang and four she picked it up, he learned that
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that is not what happened. The social worker said that
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: this time, when she asked Amanda who she saw on
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the night of the murder, she did not say anything
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: about Uncle Nick. Instead, she said Bob did it. When
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: for she heard this, he immediately got a pretty anxious feeling.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: He'd been afraid from the beginning that a toddler was
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: not a reliable eyewitness and she could just be throwing
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: out whatever names popped into her head. But he also
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: thought it was a very strange coincidence that, of all
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the people she could have named other than Uncle Nick,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: she said Bob, the same guy who had just called
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the station, trying to, you know, cast blame onto some
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: other guy the police had never even heard of. Something
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: just felt off. But as for she thought about it,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: he decided, you know, it didn't really change anything. Nick
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: had already confessed, like he said, he did this, so
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: they didn't really need Amanda as a witness to make
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the charges against Nick. Stick. Five days later, a grand
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: jury officially indicted Nick on murder charges, and to the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: huge surprise of investigators, Nick pled not guilty. So he
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: was now claiming he had given a false confession and
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: that he was not run to Boggs's killer. About seven
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: months later, in December of two thousand and two, a
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: man named Matt Sower stepped into a bar called Mary
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Melodies in Columbus, Ohio. He went up to the counter
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and pulled a Manila folder out of his messenger bag,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and he asked the bartender if he recognized the man
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: in the photograph inside. The bartender looked down at the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: photo for a second and then looked back up at
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Sour and nodded and said, yes, that's Nick Robinson. He
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: was here eight months ago on the night of the murder,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: and I've been waiting for you guys to come here
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and talk to me about it because I know he
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: was here on the night of the murder. Sour was
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: kind of caught off guard by how sure the bartender was,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: and so he asked them, like, how can you be
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: so sure it was him? And how do you know
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: he was here on the night of the murder? How
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: can you remember that? But the bartender had a quick answer.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: He said, the reason he remembered Nick is he had
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: been wearing this very unique, unforgettable T shirt that night
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: with this obscene joke on it about women's bodies, so
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: he just remembered it. Bartender said Nick had stayed there
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: on the night of the murder until ten fifteen or
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: maybe ten thirty. The bartender was absolutely certain, and so
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: again the bartender said to Sour, like, I'm just pretty
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: surprised it took this long for you all to come
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: here and confirm his whereabouts, like I've known this. Sower
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: closed his folder and thanked the bartender and then just
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: set his business card down on the counter, And when
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the bartender picked it up, he looked surprised because Matt
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Sower was not actually a police officer. He was a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: private investigator, and he'd been hired by Nick Robinson to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: clear his name sour knew this was going to be
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: a tough job because Nick had already confessed to Ronda
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Boggs's murder, but Sower was hoping that this interview with
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the bartender would help him poke a massive hole in
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the case against him. And so now that Sower had
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: gotten this testimony from the bartender that did appear to
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: poke this hole in the case, Sower left the bar,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: got in his car and drove to the second bar
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Nick had claimed to be at on the night of
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Ronda's murder. It was called the Fairview Inn in Lancaster,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: and when he got there, he showed that staff the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: same photo, and just like the first tender, they all
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: remembered Nick as well. They said he was there on
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the night of April twenty eighth, the night of the murder,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and they remembered because of his distinctive T shirt. And
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: so now sour knew he was onto something because the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: prosecution's case said that Nick had left Mary Melody's bar,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that first bar sour had gone to, driven to Ronda's
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: house and killed her, and then went to this bar,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the fair View in But the staff at both bars
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: said Nick was wearing this same distinctive T shirt, and
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Sower knew that if Nick had stabbed Ronda to death
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in between these two bars, wouldn't that shirt have been
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: covered in blood? And wouldn't you know, the fair View
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: In staff have not just remembered that it was this
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: distinctive shirt, but the distinctive shirt that had blood all
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: over it like that would also be a detail they
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: would recall, but they didn't. They just said he had
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: that shirt on nothing else. A few days later, Sower
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: drove back to Mary Melody's bar, but this time he
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: didn't go inside. Instead, he just pulled his car into
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: their parking lot and started his stopwatch, And then once
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: it was going, he pulled out of the parking lot,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: turned down the street, and drove all the way to
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Fairview In. And when he reached their parking lot, he
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: checked his stopwatch and the drive had taken, you know,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: about forty five minutes. The prosecution's case against Nick had
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: him leaving Mary Melody's bar, murdering Ronda, and driving all
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the way to the Fairview all within thirty to forty
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: five minutes. But Sowers's experiment here with his stopwatch proved
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: there was simply no way for Nick to have driven
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: all the way to Ronda's house, committed the murder, and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: then made it back to the Fairview in in that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: same window of time. It just wasn't possible, which meant
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Nick's alibi was airtight and he could not have been
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the killer. Now Sower just had to figure out who
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: actually was Matt. Sower showed the evidence he had found
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to NeXT's defense attorney, who then brought that evidence to
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the job in the case, and they also asked the
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: judge for an order to test a key piece of
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: evidence that the potascal of police had never even sent
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to the crime lab. The murder webon, and so the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: judge agreed to test the knife, and a month later,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in January of two thousand and three, the evidence came
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: back from the lab and they discovered there was DNA
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: on the knife from someone other than Ronda. Investigators were
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: not sure who the DNA belonged to, because back in
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three, it isn't like you had this
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: huge bank to test it against. You basically had to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: test DNA one to one. But they were able to
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: do that with Nick's DNA and were able to confirm
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: that it was not his DNA on the murder weapon,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and so this cast serious doubt on Nick as a suspect,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't enough to clear his name, not until
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Sour could figure out who that other set of DNA
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: belonged to. And so Sour dug through the police files
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: on the case, and he realized there were a lot
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: of potential suspects the police had never even bothered to
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: look at closely or at all. There was Ronda's soon
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: to be ex husband, Dave, who'd been flagged by Ronda's
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: sister on day one. You know, Dave obviously could not
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: have committed the murder himself because he was in jail,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: but you know, like the sister suggested, it's possible he
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: could have recruited somebody else to do it. And so
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: all of Dave's friends, his acquaintances, the people he met
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: in jail, potentially were suspects too. There was also Chris Williams,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the former bandmate who had previously robbed Dave and Ronda's
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: house once before and sold Dave's guitars for drug money.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: And of course there was Bob Cisco, the man who
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: had actually called in the tip about Chris, and at
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: one point Ronda's own daughter had said Bob had been
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: in the house during the murder, and so maybe that
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: was Bob Cisco. Any of those people could have been
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Ronda's killer, but since there was so little investigation done,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Sower was essentially starting over from square one, almost nine
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: months after the crime. The killer could even be somebody
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: who the police never even knew about, because they had
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: never really even bothered to focus on anybody but Nick,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and so with little concrete to go off of, Sower
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: decided that before he began investigating eighty seven different people,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: he would start with the sort of one concrete thing
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: he had, which is they knew what items had been
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: taken from Ronda's house during the murder, and so what
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: he decided he would do is try to track down
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: those items and hopefully they would lead him to the
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: actual killer. A few days later, Sower stepped into a
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: pawn shop in Columbus and walked slowly down the aisle,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: scanning the shelves for some of the items that he
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: knew had been taken from Ronda and Dave's house. But
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: like all the other pawn shops he had been to
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that day, he hadn't found anything, and when he got
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: to the end of this aisle, he knew this pawn
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: shop as well, did not have any of these missing items. Now,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: it was entirely possible that the items that had been
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: stolen had not been pawned off yet, or maybe they
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: had been pawned off in some other part of the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: country or something, but it just seemed kind of likely
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: that if they had been pawned they might be sort
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: of roughly in the area. But so far he had
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: not found anything promising, and so after leaving this pawn
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: shop and going to another and then another, and still
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: not finding any of the stolen items, Sower finally decided
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: to call it a day and head back home. However,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: on his ride back home, Sower found himself stopped at
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a stoplight, and as he was idling there, he just
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: happened to look out the window, and on the other
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: side of the road he saw a Bureau of Motor
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Vehicles a DMV. And when he saw the DMV, it
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: was like something kind of rattled loose in his mind.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: He remembered that one of the persons of interest on
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: his list had been arrested for car theft about a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: week after Rhonda's murder. But according to the police files,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: that suspect owned a car of their own, a blue Cadillac,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: wh they need to steal another car if they already
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: owned one, And so on a whim, Sour pulled into
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the parking lot of this DMV. He went inside and
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: he went up to one of the clerks and he
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: asked them to look into this particular blue Cadillac. He
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: gave the clerk the license plate number, and he quickly
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: found out that on April thirtieth, two thousand and two,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: so one day after Ronda's body had been found, that
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: blue Cadillac had been sold to a woman in Columbus
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: whose name was Letitia Gordon. And so Soyer left the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: DMV and drove straight to Letitia's house, and he knocked
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: on the door, and the woman who opened it looked
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: a bit scared when he introduced himself as an investigator,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: but she also did not seem surprised. Latitia told Sour
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that she knew why he was there. It was because
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: of the blue Cadillac that she had bought. She said
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: that she had bought that car off a stranger right
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: off the street who had offered to sell it to her.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: For just three hundred dollars, something she couldn't pass up. However,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: when she got home with this new car, she looked
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: inside of it and she found there was all the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: stuff piled up in the back of the car, which
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: included clothes, jewelry, and a purse with somebody's photo ID
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: inside and the name on that ID was Ronda Box.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: And so, with his suspicions now confirmed, Sour was finally
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: able to reconstruct what really happened to Ronda Boggs on
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the night of April twenty eighth, two thousand and two.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: On that night, while Ronda Boggs was finishing up dinner
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: with her two year old daughter, her killer was parking
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: their blue Cadillac just down the block. They eventually got
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: out and stormed over to Ronda's house in a total fury,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: with their heart pounding and their heads swimming, and they
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: stomped up her driveway and they rang the doorbell, and
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: when Ronda opened up the door, she looked confused and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: a bit scared to see this person. She asked them
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: what they were doing there, but the call just brushed
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: past her and stormed into her house, into the kitchen
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and began digging through her purse right on the counter.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Ronda tried to stop them, but when she put her
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: hands on them, the killer, without any hesitation, grabbed a
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: nearby steak knife and stabbed Ronda in the chest. Ronda
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: she fell to the ground and tried to stand back
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: up and tried to defend herself, but the killer was
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: on top of her, stabbing her over and over and
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: over again until Ronda was no longer moving. The killer
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: at that point stood up and backed away from Ronda's body,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: which was now lying there in a pool of blood
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: on the kitchen tile. And then they just proceeded to
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: ransack the house and stole whatever money and valuables they
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: could find. And then as they were about to leave,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: they saw a toddler just standing in the hallway watching them.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: The killer paid the child no mind and just hurried
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: right past them out of the house, got back into
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: their blue Cadillac, and spent the rest of the night
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: on a massive drug bench. And then the next morning
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: they sold that blue Cadillac to a woman in Columbus
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: on the street, accidentally leaving Ronda's stolen purse, her id
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and jewelry in the back of that car. And nearly
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: a year later, those items would lead investigators to the killer.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: The killer was Chris Williams, Dave Boggs's former bandmate, who
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: had robbed him and Ronda once before. On the night
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: of the murder, he was high on crack and needed
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: money for his next hit, and Ronda unfortunately got in
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the way. Chris was charged with Ronda's murder, and on
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: March twenty eight, two thousand and five, he was found
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to twenty years
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to life for Ronda's murder and a total of twenty
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: eight years for aggravated robbery, burglary, and escaping from a
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: halfway house. After Chris Williams was charged, all the charges
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: against Nick Robinson were dropped. And for Nick Robinson this
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: completely changed his life, not just because now he was free,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: but once he came back home, he stopped drinking, and
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: he returned to work, and he sued the city of
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: task a Love for three million dollars in damages. Thank
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments, and remember we
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: you to binge right now, so click here and give
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see ya,