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Amanda Logue _ Jason Andrews_ What the Tapes Revealed · Luke's English Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Pasco County nine one one one of the address of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: your urgency.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I'm in Pasco County, Florida. I'm standing beside Detective William
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Lindsay at the scene of a twenty ten murder, just
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: a short drive from the Sheriff's office. The case I'm
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: here for was committed by a couple, something that's incredibly rare.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Criminologists estimate well under one percent of homicides are carried
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: out by a couple acting as a team. It requires
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: a rare and volatile mix shared motive, shared opportunity, and
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: a shared willingness to cross a line most people never approach.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: But that's why I'm in Florida because in this case,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the Sheriff's office has two tapes that I want a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: confession from each half of the couple, recorded separately in
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: different states within days.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Of the murder. This is twenty twenty ten. It is
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: ten oh six in the morning.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: I am with Jason Andrews at the Hamilton County Jail
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: in Chattanoogauth, Tennessee. It is May twenty six, twenty ten,
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: at fourteen forty six hours. This is gonna be a
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: non custodial interview, which is a homicide.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: What's fascinating is that by hearing the account separately without
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the other in the room, you get a clear picture
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: of why they murdered together.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: Are you inside, okay?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Are you inside, sir?
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: No, ma'am.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: I left a resident. I'm a fear of my life
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: right now.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I'm James Bunny Tay and this is unmarkable. On May sixteenth,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: twenty ten, the body of Dennis Abramson was found inside
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: his home in Newport Richie, Florida, a coastal city north
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: of Tampa. The victim's house is a nondescript bungalow in
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: what looks like a quiet suburb. The murder took place
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: in the front room. It's the same room I can
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: see from the driveway. I'm standing in the exact spot.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: The nine to one to one call was.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Made Pasco County nine one one.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: What is the address of your emergency?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: The caller was a friend of the victim. He hadn't
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: heard from Dennis in a few days and came to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: check in inside. The scene made it clear that whoever
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: did this didn't take much time covering their tracks. Murder
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: weapons were left in a laundry basket near the body.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Along with some of the killer's clothing. DNA matched a
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Marine Corps veteran named Jason Andrews, and a witness saw
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a woman inside the house on the night.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Of the murder.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: She also was quickly identified as a Manda Logue. For weeks,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: this couple had been traveling around Florida using a variety
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of aliases before killing Dennis in the front room of
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: his house. I reached out to both of them in prison,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: but only Amanda replied, in fact, I have her letter
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: right here. It reads in full, to whom it may concern,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not interested in doing any productions. They are used
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to hurt me and others like me a dead end.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: But in this case, the Sheriff's office has what I'm
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: looking for, not just one confession, but two. Two tapes
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: recorded separately, revealing the dynamic between Amanda and Jason and
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the pressure points that eventually destroyed them. The first is
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: an interview with Jason recorded by Detective William Lindsay, who's
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: escorting him from Tennessee to Florida during his extradition. So
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: you have to imagine that when it's recorded, Jason is
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: in custody, he's shackled and wearing prison scrubs.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Warning I am with is at the Hamilton County Jail
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: in Chattanoogau, Tennessee. I am conducting an interview with him
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: regards to the murder of Dennis Abrahamson.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: The second tape is also recorded by Detective Lindsay, but
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: it's an interview with Amanda in her living room in Georgia.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: It is May twenty six, twenty ten, at fourteen forty
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: six hours. The interview is going to be taking place
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: at the residence of Amanda Love.
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: Okay, so everything's going to be recorded, yes, okay.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Amanda is sitting on her coach, her husband is nearby,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: and at the time of the recording, she's yet to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: be charged.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: Question.
• 4:41
  Speaker 7: If I'm just the witness and I fully cooperate with you,
• 4:46
  Speaker 7: guys will at face jail time.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: There is no criminal charges in being filed in this
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: case for you being a witness.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Amanda's question is why I want to hear these tapes
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: because because they're the most remarkable real world example of
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: something called the prisoner's dilemma. Imagine you've committed a crime
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: with somebody else, someone you trust, a husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: and you're caught, Detectives will separate you instantly, so there's
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: no communication with your partner. Now you're just two suspects
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: in two different rooms, each facing the same three choices.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: The first choice is to trust your partner. If you
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: both keep quiet, the evidence might not be strong enough
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to convict either of you. It's your best shot at
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: walking away, but it only works if you completely trust
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: your partner. Choice two betray. If you confess and double
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: cross your partner, you probably get the better deal and
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: your partner, the loyal one, takes the full weight of
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the charges. But then there's door number three. You both
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: betray each other. In this instance, you both might lose,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: but you also may limit the damage if your partner
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: betrays you. So the dilemma becomes simple and devastating. Do
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: you trust the person you committed the crime with or
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: do you try and save yourself. Most people claim they'd
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: stay loyal, But once those doors close and the clock
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: starts ticking and detectives apply pressure, the choice you make
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: reveals exactly who you are, and as you'll hear, Amanda
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: and Jason make very different choices. The best place to
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: begin is two thousand and eight, when Amanda and Jason
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: meet for the first time. Their relationship will last just
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: two years, but in that short time, the choices they
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: make will alter multiple lives forever. Amanda Loge is twenty
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: six a Southern girl from Leesburg, Georgia. Born Amanda Bailey,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: She's a former cheerleader who lost her mother at nineteen,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: finding solace and drugs and alcohol. She's small, five foot six,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: a natural brunette turned platinum blonde. She's raising a seven
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: year old daughter from her high school boyfriend, a relationship
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: that ends in abuse.
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: Because I've been an abuse for this ship, not with
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: my husband, but with my little girl's dad.
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: I used to get my ass feat all the time.
• 7:18
  Speaker 7: I'm twenty eight. I don't take shit off of anybody.
• 7:22
  Speaker 7: If you're gonna whoop my ass, fine, but I'm going
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: to let you know. You're gonna know I was there.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: When she meets Jason. Amanda is married to a former
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: police officer named Lamon log. Amanda is the breadwinner in
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the family, earning money through modeling that turns into exotic dancing,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: than private fetish work, bonded shoots and films. She often
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: works in Chicago and New York. Advertising on Craigslist for
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: a quote massage appointment, Right?
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: Did I do a lot of massages down there when.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: I was there?
• 7:54
  Speaker 7: And I also did a lot of modeling gigs.
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: The day is just but y'all knows.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: So this is when Amanda adopts the stage name Sunny Day,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: appearing in a handful of amateur and fetish productions, and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: she doesn't achieve any major fame. She's just another transient
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: performer in the lower tiers of what is a very
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: difficult industry. It's on one of these shoots in New
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: York that she meets Jason Andrews for the first time.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Jason was born on a military base in Germany. He
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: served in the Marines himself. He's athletic, dark haired, handsome.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: After leaving the military as a corporal, he has a
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: contentious divorce and settles in Chicago, trying to rebuild. He
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: takes the stage name DJ Veritas in the club scene
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: and Addison in the adult industry. According to people who
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: knew him, Jason loved to talk. He'd ramble about his
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: military service, about his former life, most of it made up.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: In fact, many outlets still report that he was British,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: but he wasn't at the time he met Amanda. He
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: used a fake accent to create another.
• 9:12
  Speaker 7: Version of him because I've heard so many lives bumming
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: about him being.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: The lawyer and.
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: Him being in the mafia, in the Jewish mafia, is
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: what he said, and that he could kill somebody with
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: his fingers, bare fingers, blah blah blah blah, because he
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: was in special Forces. He was a sniper in the Moraines.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: When Amanda and Jason meet, Jason is twenty seven, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: despite his flaws, they hit it off. Within a few months,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: they're traveling together, working together, sleeping together, and in twenty ten,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Amanda's husband, Laman confronts the couple in a dramatic confrontation
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: that ends with Jason pulling a gun and being arrested. Afterwards,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: he's banned from the Georgia County entirely, and Amanda leaves
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: her family with no goodbye. Jason and Amanda land in
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: New York working for a studio called Forbidden Jim. The
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: studio is long since gone, but the movie they make
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: is a parody of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, in
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: which Amanda and Jason play the titular couple on a
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: killing spree. Now, I don't know if that planted the
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: seed for what comes next, because at some point after
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: filming that movie, Amanda and Jason relocate to Florida, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: six weeks later they commit a murder together.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Myself and miss Lowe had discussed having a victim, having
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: her see someone in regards to like a massage, appointment,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: what have you, and then killing and robbing that said person.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: It's Amanda Logue who finds their target, Dennis Scooter Abramson.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: He's a big guy, dark hair and a goatee. He
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: owns a tattoo shop and a rebo business. He's connected
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: to local motorcycle clubs and well known to the Sheriff's department,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: which is a short drive from his home, with past
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: reports involving domestic violence. Amanda explains how she and Scooter
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: first connected.
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: But we met on Christlist or I found him on
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: Christlist for a massage.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: It was one hundred dollars to come give him massage
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: for an hour.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Been to the house several times, correct.
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: Two to three times. I'm not exactly sure.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Did Jason go with you? Each time she calls, involve
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: or texted him? I can't remember.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Exactly, I'm sure it's on the phone records, and suggests
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to go she came over.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: According to Amanda, when she goes to Scooter's house, Jason
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: comes along as a sort of bodyguard.
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: He went with me to all my little gigs that
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: I did because it's not safe, especially Christlessness.
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: Crazy has been place with us killing people.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: At this part of Amanda's tape is very telling. Quote
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: crazies have been killing people on Craigslist. It's a Freudian
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: slip and it reveals her position in the prisoner's dilemma. Remember,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: she has only three choices. Lie and trust that Jason lies,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to confess, trusting Jason to stay silent, or tell the
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: truth and hope for the best. Amanda chooses option two.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: She shifts the blame towards Jason, betting that he'll stay loyal.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: But Jason he chooses option three. He confesses and hopes
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: the truth will save him from just a pure game
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: theory perspective. Amanda makes the smart choice, but as you'll see,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: it backfires because at the time her interview is recorded,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: police already have the couple's text messages, hundreds of them.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: In the days leading up to the murder. The couple
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: text about their excitement, their plans, their details, when, how
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: and where to strike. So when Amanda sits down for
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: her interview, investigators know the whole story, but they let
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: her talk. On May fifteenth, twenty ten, the fantasy finally
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: crosses into reality. Amanda arranges to meet Scooter for what
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: looks like another massage appointment. She arrives around midnight and
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Jason is hiding in the backseat of her white Ford Explorer,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: wearing Mechanics gloves pulled over latex gloves. His intentions are obvious.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And I was laying down basically on the floorboards the
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: backseat all the vehicle.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: They know the layout, they know the routine, They know
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: exactly what needs to happen. What they don't know is
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: how much evidence they're about to leave behind.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I then crossed the front of the house to the friend,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: which was still logged. I texted Miss Nervous information and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: then went and waited at the corner of the house.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Inside the house, Amanda has Scooter her face down on
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: a massage table that he keeps in the front room.
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: After the massage, he fell asleep like he should, like
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: I told you he did.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: On the massage table.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: At three twenty seven, am Amanda texts Jason, knowing he's
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: waiting outside. I can't read the messages verbatim. They're way
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: too graphic, but to paraphrase this one, she says she's
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: excited that she can't wait and suggests they have sex afterwards.
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: And we were texting back and forth. You know, I
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: don't know what all we were texting. I'm sure y'all
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: have the phone records. I've done my best to try
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: to just block it all out.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And this is where her story shifts on the tape.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: In her interview, Amanda positions herself as being in the
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: wrong place at the wrong time. She reiterates the Jason
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: was only there as security and that she was surprised
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: when he suddenly entered the house.
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: I believe he got out of the vehicle because he
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: hurt us in the back.
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: You know, Gigglin had his fun. I didn't know what
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: the hell he was going to do.
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: I mean, when he came in the door, I was like, Okay,
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: maybe he's just robbing or something.
• 15:18
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: This is the lie that takes Amanda down. She pushes
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: her gambit just a little too far. Trusting that Jason
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: will protect her story, but Jason doesn't. Jason's tape shows
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: that he doesn't trust her at all.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Did Amanda Logue know that you were coming in the
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: residence to commit murder?
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: Was she an active, willing participant in the murder of
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Dannis Ranson Yes.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: And Jason's version is backed up by their text messages.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: At four point thirty, am Amanda texts Jason saying that
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: she's about to hit Scooter with a bottle and render
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: him unconscious. She tells Jason to wait now, this doesn't happen,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: but three minutes later Amanda texts quote, come in, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: then minutes later she texts quote it's open, referring to
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: the front door.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: At the point where you're giving a massage or after
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: you're done with the massage. Did you send Jason a
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: text telling him that the door was unlocked?
• 16:23
  Speaker 7: Well, he asked mans the door was unlocked, and I'm
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: told him Manster door was unlocked.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Listening to Amanda's tape, this is where she begins to
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: cast herself as a passenger in Jason's plot, but it's
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: clear she's the one setting the timing, guiding the moment
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: and messaging him the next steps.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: So was Jason's intention to rob him?
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: I believe, though I don't believe. All right, I'm good
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: at to this way.
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: He went from being just the nicest guy to well,
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: let's just give rob somebody.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Amanda's entire interview is an negotiation with herself. It's a
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: performance designed to soften her role, to distance herself from
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: the violence, and to frame Jason as the unstable one.
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: He is a very jealous person and he never hit me,
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: but he would grab me and he was really mentally abusive.
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: It was like he was trying to brainwash me and
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: to leave him in my family and just running away
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: and becoming a ghost.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: But the problem for Amanda is that the evidence doesn't
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: just contradict her, it reveals exactly how she thinks, not
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: as an accomplice swept along by someone else's choices, but
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: as a partner who believed she could control the story. Afterwards,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Jason trusted the truth to save him, and Amanda trusted
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: the lie.
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: Jason came in the front door.
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: And he saw Scooter, you know, going out alone, because
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: he was laying on the table like this, and you
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: know how vich the table was okay, it was barely
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: big enough for him.
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: I'm masagining like this, you know, massage in his head,
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: and it's bag.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Immediately after entering the home, I could see a straight
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: shot back to the living room where mister Abrahamson was
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: faced on, and she was their massaging hander.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: She may die contact with me.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I subsequently removed my shoes and left them by the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: front door.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: It's four thirty am. In this moment, with Amanda looking
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: directly at him, Jason retrieves the first of two murder weapons,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: a sledgehammer and a knife, both found inside the house.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: From the handheld sledgehammer. I really just can't remember which
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: sure it.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Was on her tape. Amanda described this moment as well,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: but I want you to listen to the way she
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: frames it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: And the next thing I remember is Jason he had
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: something in his hand. He's left handed, and it was
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: like a big hammer thing.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like much, But as she continues, as
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: she keeps describing the sledge hammer, Amanda keeps repeating one
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: specific detail. Jason is left handed.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: He's left handed, and now he's got something in his hand.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: You said in his left hand.
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: He's left handed.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: If you've listened to our other episodes, you might recognize this.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: It's a verbal anchor, a repeated rehearse detail designed to
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: shape the narrative. Suspects use verbal anchors to appear consistent,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: to sound truthful, and to subtly nudge investigators toward a
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: version of events that benefits them. By emphasizing Jason's left hand,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Amanda is trying to paint a picture Jason entered violently,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: weapon already in hand, acting on impulse, while she is
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: the bystander caught in the blast radius. All she can
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: do is relate the specifics of what she saw. But
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: the problem is timing, because when Jason enters the house,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Amanda doesn't stop her massage. Amanda doesn't react.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: She was still massaging the victim, and I waited what
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: for what seemed like an eternity, couldn't have been more
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: than thirty seconds, probably before I was struck.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: In Jason's version is clinical, this is what we did,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: this is what happened. Well, Amanda's version of this moment
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: is violent, chaotic, traumatic, and it purposely distances her from
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: the attack.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: Im back to way.
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: I didn't know what was going to happen, and he
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: started just bashing him in.
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: The back of it hid and I turned around. I
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: freaked out.
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: I almost threw up, and he told me to suck
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: it up. You see the bitch, you can handle this.
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: And then you grab it by the back of my
• 21:08
  Speaker 7: hair and made me see when he had done One.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Of these accounts is a confession. One is a performance.
• 21:19
  Speaker 7: He made me watch him do this, and he said
• 21:23
  Speaker 7: that he had done it before, and that he had
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: become a ghost plenty of times to where he could
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: just disappear, and he would do that for me.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: But the evidence shows us which is.
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: Which I struck mister Abrahamson the first time, very very hard.
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: Could feel a physical crushing of the back.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Of his skull. The first blow I dealt.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Him very well, could have killed an earth.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: It obviously knocked him completely un.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: The autopsy confirms what Jason says. Dennis Abramson was struck
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: fifteen to twenty times with the sledgehammer, and when police
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: enter the home days later, the body is exactly where
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Jason left it, face down on the massage table.
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: After I was done striking this, Darya Rats, I just
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: stood there and listened to the sounds of the blood
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: dripping on the floor. I just couldn't stop looking for
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: It was at least five minutes, if not ten, that
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: I stood there.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: And the autopsy reveals something else. Post mortem stab wounds
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: three at the base of the neck, one in the
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: right rib cage, two more down the back. This is
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: the second weapon, a second moment of violence.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I'm told that there was apparently a second knife. I
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: never saw this knife.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I never held it. I never saw Amanda either.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Apparently there are multiple additional stab wins that I'm that
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I was not personally aware of.
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: I don't know where the KNY came from. I don't
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: know where any of these things come from that he found.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: This is remarkable. Two people who planned a murder together,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: one trying to minimize their role, the other taking responsibility.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Both now denying the same piece of evidence. But they're
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: not just denying the knife. They're denying the intimacy of
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: the violence, the close range, the deliberateness, the quiet decisions
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: made after the chaos of the hammer blooks. It's the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: part of the crime neither one of them can rationalize,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: the part neither one can fit into their version of events,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: The part that exposes what they actually became on that night,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Jason denies what doesn't fit his narrative, Amanda denies what
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: doesn't fit hers, and the stab wound become the space
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: between them, the one part of the murder that neither
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: are able to claim because neither wants to face the
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: full truth of who they were in that room.
• 24:12
  Speaker 7: And I was like, dude, can we please get the
• 24:14
  Speaker 7: hell out of here? I'm freaking out, And I just
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: went out to the truck.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: By this point in their tapes, Amanda and Jason's accounts
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: fracture even further, and each one is now trying to
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: shape a version of events that leaves them with the
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: smallest possible piece of responsibility.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: Had there been any discussion between you and Jason about
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: stealing anything from Scooger, any money, anything like that, any
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: conversation prior to.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: You going there or while you were there.
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: Yes, the twenty was a bad idea.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: She left at that point to go grab the truck,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: pull it up to the front door, mattered twenty five
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to thirty feet. I loaded the two baskets that contain
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: uter camera's miscellaneous garbage, which I stocked on to one
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of the other baskets.
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: Scooter's house was a disaster, that there wasn't anything in
• 25:11
  Speaker 7: there that you know, was worth any I mean, I'm
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: sure there's stuff in there that was worth something, but
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: nothing that we could use or anything.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: By five am, the items are loaded and they leave
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the house and head to a nearby gas station, where
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Jason says they dump key pieces of evidence.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Surely after that, Amanda stated to me that she was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: certain that she had left in a basket on the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: kitchen floor her hoodie and the two murder weapons.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: At this point, Jason knows it's only a matter of
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: time until they're arrested, they still make a half hearted
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: attempt to cover their tracks. Less than twenty four hours
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: after the murder, Amanda posts on Twitter referencing Jason's handle
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: here Veritas. She writes, quote taking it easy with here Veritas,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: laying around eating popcorn and watching movies. At five twenty
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: pm that same day, Andrews tweets quote the real sunny
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: day and I want to go watch a movie tonight.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Any suggestion In reality, Amanda and Jason take all the
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: valuables they've stolen from Scooter's house and do something else entirely.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: And we immediately took that money and spent almost all
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: of it on liquor and drugs, you know, get high,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: good day or not even. Forty eight hours after that,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Whennanda was in a shower, I was watching the news
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: quite avidly, checking the internet.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: When Jason realizes authorities are describing his murder scene, the
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: couple panics and takeoff. They avoid main highways, dumping more evidence.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Along the way, and then we packed everything into black
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: trash bags and it started just touring the area and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: dumping stuff at different places.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: On May eighteenth, just three days after the murder, Amanda
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: and Jason are flat broke and they're arrested for stealing
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: sixty seven dollars and ninety seven cents worth of clothing
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: from Beale's department store. They're booked into the county jail
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: for shoplifting, but at this point neither one has been
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: identified as a suspect in the homicide, so Amanda's explorer
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: is impounded, but they're able to post bail and walk up.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: But it's this arrest that proves to be their downfall
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: because inside Amanda's truck, police find both her and Jason's blackberries,
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: and they're able to retrieve their text messages in their entirety.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Jason is quickly located working as a manager at a
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: high end billiards and cigar lounge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Amanda she is back home living in Georgia with her
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: husband and nine year old daughter, as if nothing has happened.
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: I did not murder this man. I had no intentions
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: of this man ever getting murdered. I made money off
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: of this guy. He was a moneymaker for me.
• 28:16
  Speaker 7: If he was still alive, I would still be there
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: making money off of him. And yes, Jason was more
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: than likely there to row him.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Both are indicted by a grand jury for first degree murder.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Jason pleads guilty and is sentenced to life without parole.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Amanda accepts a plea deal, pleading to second degree murder
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: and receives a forty year sentence. In the end, the
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: tapes of Amanda log and Jason Andrews remain one of
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: the clearest rawst examples I've ever seen of a killer
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: couple confronted with the prisoner's dilemma. Two people who planned
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: a murder together, carried it out together and tried to
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: escape together, But the moment they're separated, everything changes. Jason
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: chose confession, Amanda chose denial. Both choose the version of
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: the truth they thought would save them. These interviews aren't
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: just statements, they're psychological x rays. You can hear trust
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: evaporating in real time. You can hear the fear, the calculation,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: the self preservation. You can hear two people rewiring their
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: story to survive. And that's what the prisoner's dilemma ultimately
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: teaches us. Even when two people are bound by intimacy,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: by secrecy, by shared violence, loyalty lasts only until the
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: cost becomes too high. When the door closes, when the
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: tape starts rolling and the stakes turn life and death,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: the partnership fractures, and each person retreats to the version
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: of themselves that they can live with. Amanda and Jason
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: entered the crime as a pair, but they faced the
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: consequences alone.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: Anything else, Nope, I'm going to stop to tea.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: If you go to our social media channels YouTube, TikTok, Facebook,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: and Instagram, you'll see additional content about this episode, more
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: phone calls, insights, interviews, and we'll be posting daily from
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: the last decade of our true crime reporting. This season
• 30:34
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• 30:39
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• 30:43
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• 30:52
  Speaker 2: episode of Unmarked is produced by John de Dooe and
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: edited by Miranda White. Our additional producers are Jesse demurray
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: and Steve McClellan.