Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jason Lierl Part 1

Transcript

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jason Lierl Part 1 · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans.
0:11
Speaker 2: Last week and the week before last, we talked about
0:14
Speaker 2: the murder of Billy Jean Phillips.
0:17
Speaker 1: Billy Jean was.
0:18
Speaker 2: Brutally beaten to death at her home in Madison County, Arkansas,
0:22
Speaker 2: in September of nineteen ninety four. Clint Phillips, who was
0:25
Speaker 2: just seventeen years old when Billy Jean was murdered, was
0:28
Speaker 2: eventually charged with and tried for her murder. But in
0:34
Speaker 2: September of two thousand and three, Clint Phillips was acquitted
0:37
Speaker 2: of Billy Jean's murder. He walked out of court a freeman,
0:42
Speaker 2: and as we also said last week, the community was
0:45
Speaker 2: divided over whether police had gotten the right guy in
0:48
Speaker 2: the first place, whether they were prosecuting the right man.
0:52
Speaker 2: Clint Phillips has always denied any involvement in Billy Jean
0:56
Speaker 2: phillips murder. He's always maintained his innocence, but no one
1:01
Speaker 2: else was ever arrested or charged with this murder.
1:05
Speaker 1: Jean's killer is still out there.
1:09
Speaker 2: Clint Phillips continued to live in the area around Huntsville.
1:13
Speaker 2: He's now forty seven years old, and the name Clint
1:17
Speaker 2: Phillips came up again in a very strange way almost
1:20
Speaker 2: thirty years later, when I was looking into the disappearance
1:24
Speaker 2: of a forty one year old man named Jason Lyrell
1:27
Speaker 2: in January of twenty twenty two. Jason Lyrell was visiting
1:31
Speaker 2: friends in Madison County, Arkansas, when he vanished without a trace.
1:36
Speaker 2: Jason was last seen in Madison County, Arkansas. His abandoned
1:40
Speaker 2: car was found in the parking lot of a mall
1:43
Speaker 2: in Fayettville, Arkansas.
1:45
Speaker 1: His car, keys, motorcycle.
1:47
Speaker 2: And some other belongings were found in several different places
1:51
Speaker 2: spread out across Arkansas and Missouri, but to this day,
1:55
Speaker 2: no trace of Jason Lyrell has ever been found. On
1:59
Speaker 2: February thirteenth, twenty twenty two, a few weeks after Jason disappeared,
2:04
Speaker 2: a deputy was transporting an inmate to the Barry County Jail.
2:08
Speaker 2: This person had been arrested for shoplifting charges, and according
2:12
Speaker 2: to the arrest report, the suspect had blood on his
2:15
Speaker 2: hands and all over his clothing. The man said that
2:19
Speaker 2: he'd had a seizure and needed medical treatment. After he
2:22
Speaker 2: got it and was brought back to the jail and
2:24
Speaker 2: was being processed, he shocked the police officer on duty
2:28
Speaker 2: when he said that he had information about Jason Lerell's
2:31
Speaker 2: disappearance and that Madison County would want to talk to
2:35
Speaker 2: him about a capital murder.
2:37
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend.
2:39
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
2:41
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
2:44
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
2:46
Speaker 2: seven four four six ' one four or five. That
2:50
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six ' one four
2:54
Speaker 2: or five. This is Helen Gone Murder line. When the
3:33
Speaker 2: deputy asked the man his name, the man said that
3:37
Speaker 2: his name was Clint Phillips. But then there's a crazy
3:40
Speaker 2: twist in this case, because it didn't take long for
3:44
Speaker 2: police to figure out that his mugshot did not match
3:47
Speaker 2: Clint phillips photos or description, and that the real Clint Phillips,
3:50
Speaker 2: the one who was arrested, tried, and eventually acquitted of
3:54
Speaker 2: Billy Jean's murder almost thirty years ago, was currently incarcerated
3:59
Speaker 2: somewhere else in the Cummings Unit on a completely unrelated charge.
4:03
Speaker 2: So this guy with the blood on his clothes could
4:05
Speaker 2: not have been Clint Phillips. The man in the cell
4:09
Speaker 2: with the bloody clothes on was Jimmy Evans. He was
4:12
Speaker 2: also a graduate along with Clint Phillips, Jason Lyrell, and
4:16
Speaker 2: several other people who will come up later of Huntsville
4:19
Speaker 2: High School. Jimmy Evans knew Clint Phillips, and he also
4:24
Speaker 2: had known Jason Lerell when he was a kid.
4:27
Speaker 1: But why did Jimmy say that he was Clint Phillips.
4:31
Speaker 2: We're going to come back to Jimmy Evans his strange
4:34
Speaker 2: story into this fateful night in February of twenty twenty two,
4:38
Speaker 2: but first let's go back to Jason Lyrell and dive
4:41
Speaker 2: into what was going on when he went missing. Jason
4:47
Speaker 2: Lyrell grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving to the
4:50
Speaker 2: area around Clifty, Arkansas. His sister, Sarah said that their
4:54
Speaker 2: childhood was pretty rough and that she was one of
4:57
Speaker 2: the closest people in the world to her brother. She
5:00
Speaker 2: described Jason as kind, gentle, and someone with a great
5:03
Speaker 2: sense of humor, someone who had issues in his life,
5:06
Speaker 2: but someone who was loved.
5:07
Speaker 1: By a lot of people.
5:09
Speaker 3: You know, he definitely was somebody who very depressed on
5:14
Speaker 3: like things from his own situation, but he was just
5:18
Speaker 3: always wanting to cheer other people up and make other
5:22
Speaker 3: people laugh, and just a really incredible person, a real
5:27
Speaker 3: honest person with his feelings and very loving.
5:33
Speaker 1: Sarah said that she and Jason struggled growing up.
5:36
Speaker 3: Our mother left us in Ohio, had a very abusive
5:41
Speaker 3: biological father. So my biological father had beaten my brother
5:46
Speaker 3: Bobby to the point where he was taken into foster care,
5:50
Speaker 3: and my sister and Jason and I all were removed
5:55
Speaker 3: from the home and brought to my grandmother's in Arkansas,
6:00
Speaker 3: where my grandmother sort of farmed my sister out to
6:06
Speaker 3: the pastor of our church because she wasn't able to
6:10
Speaker 3: handle a teenager. And so eventually our mom came and
6:15
Speaker 3: got the only ones that were left on us, Jason
6:19
Speaker 3: and I, and we moved back to Ohio for several years,
6:22
Speaker 3: and then because of a bad situation with the person
6:27
Speaker 3: that Jason and I then called our dad, and we
6:30
Speaker 3: ended up having to come back down to Arkansas, and
6:33
Speaker 3: so that's where Jason and I finished school, graduated, and
6:38
Speaker 3: just kind of made our lives.
6:40
Speaker 2: She described Jason as her best friend, someone who always
6:43
Speaker 2: had her back, so they had a super tight bond.
6:47
Speaker 2: Sarah said they were always there for each other over
6:52
Speaker 2: the years, Jason struggled with different issues, including addictions to
6:57
Speaker 2: drugs and alcohol. He tried to maintain his sobriety, and
7:01
Speaker 2: it seems like he was able to at least sometimes.
7:05
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty one, Jason had a very rough year. Back
7:10
Speaker 2: in twenty ten, Jason married his wife, Jamaica. They had
7:13
Speaker 2: a son together, and Jason also helped raise Jamaica's young son,
7:17
Speaker 2: who was apparently just four years old when they met.
7:21
Speaker 2: This information, by the way, is according to Jamaica's social
7:24
Speaker 2: media postings. But their marriage started to have problems. Whatever
7:28
Speaker 2: was going on. He was having some emotional issues, and
7:32
Speaker 2: according to things that Jamaica has put on social media,
7:35
Speaker 2: this is also a time when he apparently got back
7:38
Speaker 2: into drugs. Whatever was going on, Jason Lirell was clearly
7:43
Speaker 2: in distress. His marriage to Jamaica was breaking up, and
7:47
Speaker 2: he was worried about the divorce and about what it
7:49
Speaker 2: would mean for his future. Jason and Jamaica officially separated
7:53
Speaker 2: in May of twenty twenty one. That's when Sarah says
7:57
Speaker 2: Jason moved in with her to an apartment in Fayetteville,
8:00
Speaker 2: which is about thirty miles away from where he'd been
8:03
Speaker 2: living in Madison County. Sometime during all this, Jason also
8:08
Speaker 2: got into a car accident. Sarah helped him get access
8:12
Speaker 2: to a car so that he would have a vehicle
8:14
Speaker 2: to drive to work and to ride around in. She
8:17
Speaker 2: was basically doing everything that she could to help Jason
8:20
Speaker 2: get his life together. Jason and Jamaica's divorce case was
8:25
Speaker 2: playing out over the summer of twenty twenty one. Jamaica
8:28
Speaker 2: filed for custody of their son. Jason won a joint
8:31
Speaker 2: custody and for a while, according to Sarah, it seemed
8:35
Speaker 2: like Jason's life was getting back to some type of normality.
8:39
Speaker 3: In that time frame of being in that apartment. We
8:42
Speaker 3: ended up getting him a job at the university. We
8:45
Speaker 3: hired one of the best attorneys in Fantel to be
8:48
Speaker 3: his divorce attorney. You know, he started getting visitation with
8:53
Speaker 3: his son. He was using a device that was recommended
8:57
Speaker 3: through his attorney to monitor alcohol use, you know, to
9:01
Speaker 3: show that he wasn't using alcohol. I mean things were
9:05
Speaker 3: pretty normal. I mean he would pick up his son,
9:09
Speaker 3: had his son over for you know, like every other weekend.
9:12
Speaker 3: I don't know, we just had a lot of fun together.
9:16
Speaker 2: Sarah said that December twenty twenty one was a happy
9:19
Speaker 2: time for Jason. He and the family had a good holiday.
9:23
Speaker 2: He saw his ex wife with his son on Christmas.
9:25
Speaker 2: Even Christmas Day he spent time with Sarah and their
9:28
Speaker 2: brother and the children. From what Sarah said, it was
9:31
Speaker 2: a very happy time. Jason said he was looking forward
9:34
Speaker 2: to the future. But then things started to change for Jason.
9:40
Speaker 3: You know, December came, he was gone quite a bit
9:44
Speaker 3: more than January. I just noticed that I didn't think
9:48
Speaker 3: that he was even working at the university anymore. I
9:52
Speaker 3: don't know exactly what happened at different points in January.
9:58
Speaker 3: I don't know all of the people that he was
10:01
Speaker 3: hanging around with. I just know that he was gone
10:04
Speaker 3: quite a bit.
10:07
Speaker 2: Sarah said she's not exactly sure what caused Jason to
10:10
Speaker 2: go down a darker path, but at some point, maybe
10:14
Speaker 2: on New Year's Eve, Sarah said, Jason was at a
10:16
Speaker 2: bar and ran into some people who Sarah described as
10:20
Speaker 2: people who had been old friends from back in the day,
10:23
Speaker 2: people he used to hang out with, people who she said,
10:26
Speaker 2: perhaps were not the best influences. It seems that around
10:30
Speaker 2: this time Jason made the choice to start doing drugs again.
10:35
Speaker 2: Then came this accidental text message. According to court records,
10:40
Speaker 2: Jason sent a text about getting some rocket fuel, referring
10:44
Speaker 2: to drugs, probably to meth. Apparently he accidentally sent that
10:49
Speaker 2: text about getting drugs to his young son.
10:52
Speaker 3: I know Jason definitely wasn't very tech savvy. I don't
10:56
Speaker 3: know how you make a mistake like he did, But yeah,
11:00
Speaker 3: I mean, shouldn't have Number one shouldn't have been sent
11:03
Speaker 3: to his son. But number two just showed it was
11:05
Speaker 3: that he was already going down a really bad.
11:08
Speaker 1: Path at that point.
11:10
Speaker 2: This made the divorce case take a darker turn. On
11:14
Speaker 2: January eighteenth, twenty twenty two, Jason and his estranged wife
11:18
Speaker 2: had a zoom mediation conference. She later said this was
11:22
Speaker 2: the last time that she ever saw Jason. After that,
11:25
Speaker 2: Jamaica and her attorney filed court papers requiring Jason to
11:29
Speaker 2: take a drug test on January nineteenth. Jason was supposed
11:33
Speaker 2: to show up by five pm that day for the
11:35
Speaker 2: hair follicle test, but he didn't make that appointment. Jason
11:39
Speaker 2: was apparently in the process of rescheduling for another date.
11:42
Speaker 2: He spoke to his lawyer on January twenty fourth. After that,
11:46
Speaker 2: Jason's lawyer never heard back from him again. I just
11:51
Speaker 2: want to say that as you go through these social
11:54
Speaker 2: media posts, it becomes clear that Jamaica and Sarah and
11:58
Speaker 2: the rest of the family kind of appeared to have
12:00
Speaker 2: a united front at first, but over time they seem
12:03
Speaker 2: to have some different views of what exactly Jason was
12:07
Speaker 2: doing at the time of his disappearance, and potentially how
12:10
Speaker 2: much of that information should be shared and who it
12:13
Speaker 2: should be shared with. This is super common, and I'm
12:17
Speaker 2: bringing it up because I know when someone goes missing
12:19
Speaker 2: it's incredibly hard on families. Everyone has their own version
12:24
Speaker 2: of what the victim was like, what they would have
12:27
Speaker 2: wanted out there and Jamaica later talked to a reporter
12:32
Speaker 2: from the Madison County Register. This was after Jason went missing.
12:35
Speaker 2: She said Jason was not living with Sarah, his sister,
12:39
Speaker 2: but had been staying with different friends, kind of CouchSurfing
12:42
Speaker 2: in Madison County. She said, quote, we have to get
12:45
Speaker 2: the truth out there if we're going to find Jason,
12:48
Speaker 2: if we're going to figure out what's happened and what's
12:50
Speaker 2: occurred with him.
12:51
Speaker 1: End quote. The reporter asked her about her theories.
12:55
Speaker 2: Jamaica said she hoped that maybe Jason just needed a break.
12:58
Speaker 2: At first, she said that she had hope that he
13:01
Speaker 2: would be found safe. Jamaica said, quote, maybe he's taken
13:07
Speaker 2: off because of his involvement with certain people. We're not
13:10
Speaker 2: exactly sure, but I hope that they find him and
13:12
Speaker 2: that he's safe.
13:13
Speaker 1: End quote.
13:15
Speaker 2: I cannot imagine how hard this must be, both for
13:17
Speaker 2: Jason's sister and other family members and for his estranged wife.
13:22
Speaker 2: And I can really see both sides of this because
13:25
Speaker 2: Sarah is very clear Jason was living with her. On
13:28
Speaker 2: the other hand, I also understand why potentially his estranged
13:33
Speaker 2: wife would want to get information out there about the
13:36
Speaker 2: people he's hanging around with, because that is very important.
13:39
Speaker 2: You have to know everything good and bad about a victim,
13:42
Speaker 2: even if they're not particularly flattering, if we're going to try.
13:45
Speaker 1: To find him.
13:46
Speaker 2: I would say that both things can also be true.
13:50
Speaker 2: He may have been staying with friends for a couple
13:51
Speaker 2: of days, but that does not mean that he wasn't
13:54
Speaker 2: living with his sister.
13:56
Speaker 1: So let's get back to Jason and his timeline.
14:00
Speaker 2: The last time that Sarah was in touch with her
14:03
Speaker 2: brother was on Monday, January twenty fourthenty twenty two. Sarah
14:07
Speaker 2: has a job that involves a lot of travel. The
14:10
Speaker 2: plan was that Jason was going to stay in their
14:12
Speaker 2: apartment in Fayetteville and dog sit for her dog Witty
14:15
Speaker 2: while she was away. Sarah believes the last time that
14:20
Speaker 2: her brother texted her was on January twenty fourth, and
14:23
Speaker 2: that the text messages she received from Jason's phone on
14:27
Speaker 2: January twenty fifth may have been someone else, someone who
14:30
Speaker 2: wanted to affect the timeline, someone who wanted to make
14:34
Speaker 2: everyone believe that Jason was still around and still texting.
14:38
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't obviously think about it in the moment,
14:42
Speaker 3: because it's like, you don't think those things. I mean
14:45
Speaker 3: to me, I'm talking to my brother, so you know,
14:48
Speaker 3: if the text messages were strange, you know, I'm talking
14:52
Speaker 3: to my brother, so I don't know.
14:54
Speaker 1: It wasn't until.
14:54
Speaker 3: Afterwards, you know, when that date kind of got thrown
14:57
Speaker 3: out there as the day that he potentially was last seen,
15:01
Speaker 3: and I look back at these messages, I'm just like, wow, Yeah,
15:05
Speaker 3: this does don't look like Jason at all talking to me,
15:07
Speaker 3: you know, even though it's Jason's phone number. It's just
15:11
Speaker 3: the messages don't sound like Jason.
15:16
Speaker 2: On Monday, January twenty fourth, at one fifty five pm,
15:20
Speaker 2: Sarah wrote, hey, brother, will you be home this week?
15:23
Speaker 1: Or should I get a pet sitter?
15:25
Speaker 2: She got a message from Jason's phone a reply saying
15:28
Speaker 2: he would be there tomorrow, meaning on January twenty fifth.
15:32
Speaker 2: She texted Jason back, awesome, thank you. If you can't
15:35
Speaker 2: be there at any point, let me know so I
15:37
Speaker 2: can find someone.
15:38
Speaker 1: Love you.
15:39
Speaker 2: She got a reply from Jason's phone love you to sister,
15:43
Speaker 2: I will see you tomorrow. Sarah believes that this was
15:46
Speaker 2: the last text that her brother sent. The next day,
15:50
Speaker 2: on Tuesday, January twenty fifth, at four oh four pm,
15:54
Speaker 2: she got a message from Jason's phone.
15:57
Speaker 1: It read hey, what up?
15:59
Speaker 2: She responded, asking what was up with him giving him
16:02
Speaker 2: the door code to their home. Their locks had recently
16:05
Speaker 2: being changed the apartment complex changed them from having keys
16:08
Speaker 2: to having a door code, and she needed to make.
16:10
Speaker 1: Sure that he could use it. I mean he could
16:12
Speaker 1: get in.
16:13
Speaker 2: She said that the replies that she got did not
16:16
Speaker 2: sound like they came from her brother. For one thing,
16:20
Speaker 2: the text were misspelled, which she said, even when Jason
16:24
Speaker 2: was drunk, She said, he would never misspell.
16:27
Speaker 3: Texts like for instance, you know when he first came
16:30
Speaker 3: to stay with me, like he was very intoxicated, but
16:33
Speaker 3: he was a misspelling thing.
16:36
Speaker 2: Then Sarah texted, are you in the house? He said, no,
16:40
Speaker 2: I'm in Hinesville. Hinesville is a tiny little town in
16:46
Speaker 2: Arkansas with a population of less than one hundred. It's
16:49
Speaker 2: in Madison County. Sarah got a response from Jason's phone.
16:54
Speaker 2: It just said okay with a thumbs up emoji. This
16:58
Speaker 2: was the last text that she ever got from her
17:00
Speaker 2: brother's phone. Sarah put off her work trip and stayed
17:06
Speaker 2: close to home with her dog. She still had no
17:09
Speaker 2: idea where Jason was. She was concerned, but at first
17:12
Speaker 2: she hoped that he was just somewhere with friends. On
17:14
Speaker 2: the twenty seventh, she sent Jason's phone another text.
17:18
Speaker 1: It read where's Woody.
17:21
Speaker 2: Sarah sent that text to see what Jason would say.
17:24
Speaker 2: She knew he wasn't at her apartment because she was there,
17:27
Speaker 2: but she wanted to try to get him to give
17:29
Speaker 2: her a response. By the way, that text message wears
17:32
Speaker 2: Woody on the twenty seventh was the first one that
17:35
Speaker 2: Sarah sent that was green, not blue. This could mean
17:39
Speaker 2: Jason was somewhere with poor reception or no WiFi, or
17:43
Speaker 2: it could mean that for some reason his phone was
17:46
Speaker 2: switched off. Detectives later told Sarah that that last text
17:51
Speaker 2: that she sent on January twenty seventh, on that day,
17:55
Speaker 2: her brother's phone last pinged in Carroll County, in an
17:59
Speaker 2: area right where it intersects with both.
18:01
Speaker 1: Madison and Benton Counties.
18:04
Speaker 2: This is near Hinesville, near where Jason had said he
18:07
Speaker 2: was hanging out the previous day. Sarah also described this area,
18:12
Speaker 2: by the way, as being basically like the Bermuda Triangle.
18:15
Speaker 2: It's a spot where exactly three counties intersect. There's also
18:20
Speaker 2: a large lake right in the middle of that area.
18:23
Speaker 2: She wrote on social media, quote Jason disappeared on or
18:27
Speaker 2: around January twenty fifth, twenty twenty two from either two
18:32
Speaker 2: four or five five zero Caps Ranches Road in Rogers, Arkansas,
18:36
Speaker 2: or four thirty five Madison one to one zero one
18:40
Speaker 2: in Huntsville, Arkansas, or another number of other places end quote.
18:45
Speaker 2: And that's what she was referring to when she wrote
18:47
Speaker 2: that those are some of the last addresses he was
18:49
Speaker 2: known to be at, which we're going to get into
18:50
Speaker 2: in a minute. But just the confusion about where he
18:54
Speaker 2: was last seen. It's really hard in this case even
18:56
Speaker 2: to verify the most basic information.
19:00
Speaker 1: For those of you who are not from Arkansas.
19:02
Speaker 2: Fayetteville, where Sarah lives, it's kind of like the Austin,
19:05
Speaker 2: Texas of Arkansas, or like Athens, Georgia.
19:08
Speaker 1: It's a cool college town.
19:10
Speaker 2: It's where the University of Arkansas is located, and it's
19:12
Speaker 2: a very affluent area in northwest Arkansas. Whereas Madison County
19:18
Speaker 2: is very much a part of the Ozarks, the area
19:21
Speaker 2: where Jason was staying, near Hinesville in Clifty is only
19:25
Speaker 2: about thirty to forty miles away, but it's a totally
19:28
Speaker 2: different world. It is very much a rural area, very
19:32
Speaker 2: much in the backwoods. I mentioned this because this case
19:35
Speaker 2: spreads out over several counties, as we've said, and from
19:38
Speaker 2: the start there appeared to be some confusion about jurisdiction.
19:42
Speaker 2: So let's go back to a few days after Jason
19:46
Speaker 2: went missing January early February of twenty twenty two. It's
19:51
Speaker 2: been a few days and Sarah has been sitting in
19:53
Speaker 2: her apartment. She has not heard from her brother. Several
19:57
Speaker 2: days after she last heard from Jason. A friend of
19:59
Speaker 2: Jason's where he had been staying called Sarah to let
20:02
Speaker 2: her know that Jason had not been back to pick
20:05
Speaker 2: up his motorcycle. He loved his motorcycle. It was his
20:10
Speaker 2: prize possession. So now after hearing that Jason did not
20:15
Speaker 2: have his motorcycle with him he never came back to
20:17
Speaker 2: get it, and after calling Jason's ex wife finding out
20:22
Speaker 2: they haven't heard from him, he didn't show up for
20:23
Speaker 2: his son's birthday. Now Sarah has gone from being worried
20:27
Speaker 2: to being scared something bad could have happened to her brother.
20:31
Speaker 2: She reported Jason as a missing person to the Washington
20:34
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Department. That's in Fayetteville, where Jason and Sarah
20:38
Speaker 2: were living. Then apparently Madison County took over since that's
20:42
Speaker 2: where Jason was last seen and where he had been
20:45
Speaker 2: staying with friends. After reporting him missing, Sarah started putting
20:49
Speaker 2: up missing posters, doing everything that she could to spread
20:52
Speaker 2: the word, including creating the Facebook group Jason Lirel Missing Person.
20:59
Speaker 2: Jason was described as having blonde hair and blue eyes.
21:02
Speaker 2: He has two tattoos on his right arm, one word
21:06
Speaker 2: that says cross and the numbers one eleven, twelve referring
21:09
Speaker 2: to his son's birthday. There's also another tattoo of an
21:12
Speaker 2: iron cross on his bicap.
21:16
Speaker 3: When I first started speaking with the investigator who was
21:19
Speaker 3: initially on it, really phenomenal investigator. I mean, I feel
21:25
Speaker 3: like if he had been able to stay on this,
21:27
Speaker 3: I feel like Jay would have been found by now.
21:30
Speaker 3: Very tenacious went right and interviewing people and trying to
21:34
Speaker 3: get information, and then I just begged him, like along
21:38
Speaker 3: and along. I just I was like, I feel like
21:40
Speaker 3: this is going to end up getting turned over into
21:44
Speaker 3: the hands of Madison County, and I'm scared to death
21:46
Speaker 3: about that because I don't think my brother would be found.
21:50
Speaker 2: Over the next several weeks, Jason never came home, but
21:56
Speaker 2: his stuff started showing up in some strange places. The
22:07
Speaker 2: first thing that showed up after Jason vanished, as we
22:10
Speaker 2: mentioned before, was his car.
22:13
Speaker 1: This was about a week after he disappeared.
22:15
Speaker 2: It was found parked outside the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayettevielle,
22:19
Speaker 2: which by the way, was just a short distance from
22:22
Speaker 2: his sister, Sarah's apartment complex.
22:25
Speaker 1: The car was left.
22:26
Speaker 2: Running and had run out of gas. Sarah was trying
22:30
Speaker 2: to figure out anything that she could about where her
22:32
Speaker 2: brother had been spending time. She was trying to figure
22:34
Speaker 2: out his timeline. She learned that Jason had spent some
22:38
Speaker 2: time at a casino with a friend of his. After that,
22:41
Speaker 2: he went over to the house of some other friends
22:44
Speaker 2: of his named Randall and Rachel. He stayed for a
22:47
Speaker 2: couple of days at Randall and Rachel's house. He left
22:50
Speaker 2: there on January twenty first. On that day, Jason showed
22:54
Speaker 2: up at the home of a woman named Miriam. Now,
22:57
Speaker 2: the exact nature of the relationship that was going on
23:00
Speaker 2: between Miriam and Jason, I'm not exactly sure of. I
23:04
Speaker 2: believe that it was some type of friendship or intimate relationship.
23:09
Speaker 2: As with some of his other friends, this was someone
23:11
Speaker 2: Jason was reconnecting with.
23:13
Speaker 1: He had not seen her in a long time, but
23:15
Speaker 1: they appeared to kind of like each other.
23:18
Speaker 2: Miriam lives on a huge property that's owned by her family,
23:21
Speaker 2: spanning over two hundred acres.
23:24
Speaker 1: Now, Miriam has.
23:25
Speaker 2: Posted a detailed timeline on social media of who was
23:29
Speaker 2: at her house and what, to her knowledge, they were doing.
23:33
Speaker 2: This is a timeline that she said she posted to
23:36
Speaker 2: help the investigation. She claimed that it covered the period
23:40
Speaker 2: from the twenty first through the twenty fifth of January
23:42
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Miriam also did a Facebook live. I
23:48
Speaker 2: know that I'm throwing a lot of names at you,
23:51
Speaker 2: but the good news about it is if there were
23:53
Speaker 2: a lot of people on that property, potentially there are
23:56
Speaker 2: a lot of people who have some information who might
23:59
Speaker 2: have little pieces of this puzzle. By the way, I'm
24:02
Speaker 2: getting a lot of this information directly from Miriam from
24:05
Speaker 2: what she's posted on social media. I also have a
24:08
Speaker 2: very close source to the case who I'll talk about
24:11
Speaker 2: a bit later, plus official police documents, including arrest reports
24:16
Speaker 2: and things we've been able to access through freedom of
24:19
Speaker 2: information request. But I am totally aware there may be
24:23
Speaker 2: incorrect information in here. So if you hear something that
24:26
Speaker 2: you know is wrong, I really hope that you'll reach out.
24:30
Speaker 2: This is a developing story. We're trying to figure out
24:32
Speaker 2: what's going on with no access to a case file.
24:35
Speaker 2: There were several people on Miriam's property, and I believe
24:39
Speaker 2: that someone there knows something that could potentially crack this case.
24:45
Speaker 2: A journalist named Nicole Castile made a podcast a while
24:49
Speaker 2: back called Hell in the Highlands.
24:51
Speaker 1: She interviewed Miriam as part of that podcast.
24:54
Speaker 2: So let's go back to Miriam's timeline. Miriam told Nicole
24:58
Speaker 2: that before January twenty first, the day Jason showed up
25:01
Speaker 2: on her property, she had not seen Jason in around
25:04
Speaker 2: ten years. She said that Randall, Jason's friend, came to
25:09
Speaker 2: her house on the twenty first. Apparently Randall had to
25:12
Speaker 2: pay Miriam for a trailer she had sold him. When
25:15
Speaker 2: he showed up at the house, he randomly had Jason
25:18
Speaker 2: with him, probably because Jason had been staying at Randall's place.
25:22
Speaker 2: A little while later, another friend named Don showed up
25:24
Speaker 2: at the house. She also said she had two friends
25:28
Speaker 2: of hers named Charity and Troy staying at her property
25:31
Speaker 2: in a different part of the property. She said they
25:33
Speaker 2: were also home during this time. So at some point
25:37
Speaker 2: Jason and Randall left. Later, Miriam said that she called
25:41
Speaker 2: Jason and asked him to come back over and hang out.
25:44
Speaker 2: Jason didn't want to drive his motorcycle to her place,
25:46
Speaker 2: so he left it parked at Randall's house. Now, remember
25:49
Speaker 2: this is Arkansas in the woods and the dead of
25:52
Speaker 2: winter in the twenties.
25:54
Speaker 1: The road out to Miriam's.
25:55
Speaker 2: Had a lot of dirt roads, so I can totally
25:58
Speaker 2: understand Jason not wanting to ride his very nice bike
26:01
Speaker 2: out there. According to Miriam, Don went to pickt ure
26:05
Speaker 2: Jason up. Don and Jason showed up back at Miriam's
26:08
Speaker 2: at around ten pm that night.
26:10
Speaker 1: Charity and Troy were still there.
26:12
Speaker 2: At this point, Miriam said she and Don and Jason
26:16
Speaker 2: started smoking meth again. According to Miriam, Jason wanted to
26:20
Speaker 2: try heroin, though he normally did not shoot up. A
26:28
Speaker 2: little while later, someone else, a man named Aaron, showed
26:31
Speaker 2: up sometime in the early morning hours of January twenty second.
26:36
Speaker 2: Miriam said they were injecting heroin mixed with methamphetamine. Now,
26:40
Speaker 2: apparently Jason never injected himself. He had someone else do
26:44
Speaker 2: it for him. Now, this immediately makes me think of
26:48
Speaker 2: something that could be very dangerous, because someone injecting someone
26:52
Speaker 2: else with a drug makes me think of giving people
26:54
Speaker 2: hot shots, in other words, giving them a lethal overdose.
26:58
Speaker 2: But when I talk to people who know a lot
27:00
Speaker 2: about injecting drugs and have done it themselves, they tell
27:04
Speaker 2: me that it's not uncommon for someone who is not
27:08
Speaker 2: in the habit of injecting themselves with drugs to have
27:10
Speaker 2: someone else do it for them. Miriam said that even
27:14
Speaker 2: though Jason apparently did not have a habit of using
27:16
Speaker 2: heroin and injecting himself.
27:18
Speaker 1: He didn't seem to be super affected by the drugs.
27:22
Speaker 2: In other words, she said he was acting normal, at
27:25
Speaker 2: least normal for someone who was doing drugs and having
27:28
Speaker 2: a good time. What happened on Miriam's property and who
27:32
Speaker 2: exactly was there is something that I'm still working out,
27:35
Speaker 2: and we're going to follow up with in a lot
27:37
Speaker 2: more detail on next week's episode. But for the moment,
27:40
Speaker 2: I just want to point out a couple of things
27:42
Speaker 2: that supposedly occurred during this time that I think should
27:46
Speaker 2: be investigated further. Now, at some point over the next
27:51
Speaker 2: couple of days, Jimmy Evans came over to the house.
27:54
Speaker 2: Now you'll remember Jimmy Evans was the guy we mentioned
27:57
Speaker 2: in the beginning of the episode, the one who was
27:59
Speaker 2: arrested weeks later with blood on his clothes, the one
28:02
Speaker 2: who claimed to be Clint Phillips. Now, according to Sarah,
28:07
Speaker 2: Jason knew Jimmy. In fact, Jimmy and his sister were
28:11
Speaker 2: very close to Sarah and Jason in childhood.
28:15
Speaker 1: Miriam said she gave Jimmy a check.
28:18
Speaker 2: He was supposed to cash it for her use some
28:20
Speaker 2: of it to buy drugs and some of it to
28:22
Speaker 2: buy groceries. But apparently Jimmy didn't come back with the check.
28:27
Speaker 2: Miriam said, Don and Jason ended up getting some money together.
28:30
Speaker 2: They went to the nearby town of Eureka Springs to
28:33
Speaker 2: get groceries. Miriam claimed this was no big deal, that
28:37
Speaker 2: she had just canceled the check, But this was a
28:39
Speaker 2: lot of money, around six hundred dollars apparently, and I
28:43
Speaker 2: do wonder if she was more upset about that at.
28:46
Speaker 1: The time than she's letting on.
28:49
Speaker 2: I have a lot more questions about Jimmy and exactly
28:51
Speaker 2: what he was doing there, how long he stayed there,
28:54
Speaker 2: what exactly went down. That's something Sarah says she's also
28:57
Speaker 2: trying to figure out, and that's something we're going to
28:59
Speaker 2: be focusing on in next week's episode. For now, we'll say,
29:03
Speaker 2: over the next couple days, there were people coming in
29:06
Speaker 2: and out of the house, people were partying for a
29:08
Speaker 2: couple of days. During that time, there were a couple
29:11
Speaker 2: more disturbing incidents. But for now, I want to go
29:15
Speaker 2: back to Miriam's timeline. I want to focus on the
29:18
Speaker 2: last and most crucial day, January twenty fourth, that's the
29:23
Speaker 2: day when Jason last spoke to his lawyer, and also
29:26
Speaker 2: the day when he last texted his sister. Text that
29:28
Speaker 2: she feels confident came from him. Miriam later told people
29:34
Speaker 2: that she went to bed that night. She said that
29:37
Speaker 2: she saw Jason there, that he had wrapped himself in
29:40
Speaker 2: a blanket on the bed, lying above the covers, kind
29:43
Speaker 2: of rolling himself in one of her blankets like a
29:45
Speaker 2: sleeping bag. The next morning, on the twenty fifth, she
29:50
Speaker 2: said she wasn't sure if Jason was in bed with
29:52
Speaker 2: her or not. She said, on that morning, Don woke
29:55
Speaker 2: her up and told her if she wanted to get
29:57
Speaker 2: to town, where she apparently needed to run some errands,
30:00
Speaker 2: she needed to get up right now to get a
30:02
Speaker 2: ride there with one of her friends.
30:05
Speaker 1: She said, that's what she did.
30:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, she said, you know, because she's gone back and
30:10
Speaker 3: forth with her story quite a bit, and you know,
30:14
Speaker 3: at a certain point she finally said, you know, now
30:16
Speaker 3: that she's thinking about it, she thinks that he was
30:21
Speaker 3: next to her in the bed, motionless. So there's that story,
30:26
Speaker 3: and then there is another person in the house saying
30:28
Speaker 3: that she actually spoke to my brother that morning. He's
30:33
Speaker 3: making a cup of coffee. She said she was going
30:35
Speaker 3: to the store. Did he need anything. He got some
30:38
Speaker 3: money out of his wallet, gave it to her, said
30:41
Speaker 3: that he needed a pack of cigarettes. All these things
30:44
Speaker 3: like just in my mind, you know, the car being
30:48
Speaker 3: left at the mall.
30:49
Speaker 1: His wallet was.
30:50
Speaker 3: In the car, completely cleaned out. So there's just so
30:54
Speaker 3: many strange things to all of this.
30:58
Speaker 1: Now.
30:58
Speaker 2: The other woman who was staying at the property told
31:01
Speaker 2: Sarah that there wasn't some big rush that morning, that
31:05
Speaker 2: she had had a cup of coffee with Jason that morning,
31:07
Speaker 2: that she'd actually seen him up and moving around on
31:10
Speaker 2: the morning of the twenty fifth, And the other woman
31:13
Speaker 2: told Sarah that Jason gave her money out of his
31:17
Speaker 2: wallet that morning for groceries. Remember, Jason's car was found
31:22
Speaker 2: about a week after he disappeared. Sarah gave me more
31:25
Speaker 2: details about what happened when that car was found.
31:28
Speaker 3: The crime scene investigator who was there, who was you know,
31:32
Speaker 3: processing things from in the car. She went to get
31:36
Speaker 3: in the car and couldn't, and you know, right away
31:40
Speaker 3: was like, well, hey, you know, you said your brother
31:43
Speaker 3: is around my height, maybe like an inch shorter. She said,
31:48
Speaker 3: the seat the way that she initially asked me. She said,
31:51
Speaker 3: did your brother sit up close.
31:54
Speaker 1: To the wheel?
31:54
Speaker 3: And I was not thinking, like.
31:58
Speaker 1: Have his seat pushed forward?
32:01
Speaker 3: I hadn't even looked much at the seats until she
32:04
Speaker 3: brought it to our attention, and it was just like
32:07
Speaker 3: she said that the seat was pushed so far forward,
32:11
Speaker 3: you know that she couldn't even squeeze herself into the car,
32:14
Speaker 3: So you know, she was just like, it seems to
32:18
Speaker 3: me that the person who was driving it must have
32:20
Speaker 3: been very short. The passenger side seat was lean basically
32:26
Speaker 3: all the way back, and the seat itself was pushed
32:29
Speaker 3: all the way back, which you know, just in my mind,
32:32
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, seems like a really tall person.
32:37
Speaker 2: So was that Jason driving the car or did someone else,
32:43
Speaker 2: maybe the same person who took cash out of his wallet,
32:46
Speaker 2: park that car in the mall parking lot to stage it.
32:50
Speaker 2: I have a lot of questions about this timeline and
32:52
Speaker 2: these stories, because I do believe there's some grains of
32:56
Speaker 2: truth contained in it. A lot of people tend to
32:58
Speaker 2: keep their lives close to the truth and include elements
33:01
Speaker 2: of the truth and their story because a complete lie
33:04
Speaker 2: is harder to remember and keeps. That's right, This is
33:07
Speaker 2: also complicated by the fact that, even if people are
33:10
Speaker 2: telling the truth, they by their own admission, were on
33:14
Speaker 2: drugs at this point, So keeping dates and facts clear
33:18
Speaker 2: can be very challenging. Whatever really happened that morning, whether
33:23
Speaker 2: Jason was up and around, or whether this other house
33:26
Speaker 2: guest got those dates confused, Miriam was clear. She said
33:30
Speaker 2: she never saw Jason again after the morning of the
33:33
Speaker 2: twenty fifth. The last person to see Jason alive, according
33:38
Speaker 2: to the official timeline, was Don. Don told Sarah he
33:42
Speaker 2: was with Jason later that day on the twenty fifth.
33:45
Speaker 2: He says they went out to a property in Hinesville
33:48
Speaker 2: where Don lives.
33:50
Speaker 1: Now this would appear to match.
33:52
Speaker 2: The last phone ping because Don lives in the same
33:56
Speaker 2: area where that cell phone tower pinged on the twenty seventh.
33:59
Speaker 1: Don said that he jumped in the shower.
34:02
Speaker 2: While he did, He said Jason went out for a
34:04
Speaker 2: walk in the woods at around nine thirty pm and
34:07
Speaker 2: never came back. But apparently Don told someone else that
34:12
Speaker 2: Jason had left the house much later, at around two
34:14
Speaker 2: thirty am the next morning. I'm still trying to investigate
34:17
Speaker 2: that potential contradiction. This story is weird for a couple
34:21
Speaker 2: of reasons. First of all, the reports of the last
34:24
Speaker 2: thing that Jason was seen in that he was wearing
34:27
Speaker 2: are jeans, boots, a flannel and a white T shirt.
34:30
Speaker 2: He had no gloves, no hat, no heavy coat, and
34:33
Speaker 2: the nighttime temperature in those nights was down in the twenties.
34:38
Speaker 2: Some people have brought up the possibility that Jason could
34:40
Speaker 2: have wandered off and succumbed to hypothermia. But if that happened,
34:45
Speaker 2: then where is he? Where's the body? As we said before,
34:50
Speaker 2: police searched Jason's car. They eventually found his car, keys,
34:54
Speaker 2: his motorcycle, and some of his other belongings, but they
34:57
Speaker 2: never found his cell phone and they never found his
35:00
Speaker 2: motorcycle keys. Police did a search of Miriam's property and
35:05
Speaker 2: Madison County. By the way, Miriam has pointed out this
35:09
Speaker 2: entire time that she has been extremely cooperative. She volunteered
35:12
Speaker 2: to let people search, She's told people everything she knows,
35:16
Speaker 2: both police and people asking on social media, and says
35:20
Speaker 2: that she feels that she's been unfairly targeted as a
35:23
Speaker 2: result of this. Apparently, they didn't find anything, No items
35:29
Speaker 2: were seized. There was also a search in the area
35:33
Speaker 2: around where Don lived in Hinesville and nothing was found
35:37
Speaker 2: there either. But there are a lot of woods back there.
35:39
Speaker 2: There are underground caves and sinkholes, and this is an
35:42
Speaker 2: extensive area that spans several counties. Miriam has also shared
35:48
Speaker 2: some screenshots from her phone, including one that was very interesting.
35:54
Speaker 2: Remember Don told Sarah that Jason was with her on
35:59
Speaker 2: January twenty fifth at his property near Hinesville.
36:03
Speaker 1: Miriam told Sarah a similar story.
36:06
Speaker 2: Miriam said she texted Don on January twenty fifth, and
36:10
Speaker 2: when she did, she said, Don said Jason was with
36:13
Speaker 2: him near Hinesville. At five twenty two pm on January
36:18
Speaker 2: twenty fifth, Miriam got a text from Jason's phone. It
36:21
Speaker 2: said you busy, but there's something else. Right afterwards, there's
36:26
Speaker 2: an image with that text. It looks like the bottom
36:29
Speaker 2: of legs in jeans with brown boots standing next to
36:33
Speaker 2: a tree in the woods. Of course, we don't know
36:36
Speaker 2: for sure, but to me, it looks like the person
36:38
Speaker 2: who was texting accidentally took a picture of their bottom
36:42
Speaker 2: half and hit send. I also say that because the
36:46
Speaker 2: lens is partially covered up with a finger and it's
36:49
Speaker 2: kind of blurry. It's something that I've done many times.
36:52
Speaker 2: Accidentally taking a picture while sending a text. I asked
36:56
Speaker 2: Sarah if she believed that that bottom half of that
36:59
Speaker 2: person standing there was her brother, if she recognized the
37:03
Speaker 2: boots not at all?
37:04
Speaker 3: You know, the boot that just surprised me because you know,
37:09
Speaker 3: at that point, a lot of times I was putting
37:11
Speaker 3: his laundry away, like I organized his closet, that sort
37:14
Speaker 3: of thing, So you know, I never saw him have
37:17
Speaker 3: a pair of boots like this. So you know, right away,
37:20
Speaker 3: I'm just like, you know, I'm like, well, maybe he
37:24
Speaker 3: got a new pair of boots. And then I you know,
37:26
Speaker 3: when I sort of you know, make the picture bigger,
37:30
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, these look very worn, which you know,
37:33
Speaker 3: it's it's still possible. I guess it's still possible. It's
37:37
Speaker 3: just I never saw him in anything like this. And
37:40
Speaker 3: when I asked his ex the same thing, she said, no,
37:43
Speaker 3: that he hated boots that had like like laced up boots,
37:47
Speaker 3: like he always wore just pull on boots.
37:50
Speaker 1: So was that mystery person Jason?
37:53
Speaker 2: And if it wasn't Jason, was it someone else texting
37:57
Speaker 2: from Jason's phone. There's so much more to this story,
38:06
Speaker 2: and we're going to continue it next week. But first
38:10
Speaker 2: let's go back to February thirteenth of twenty twenty two.
38:14
Speaker 2: After Jimmy was arrested. By the way, there's no information
38:19
Speaker 2: about what happened next. Did they interview him about Jason Lerel?
38:24
Speaker 2: Did they take his bloody clothes? Did they send them
38:27
Speaker 2: to the crime lab? Was that his blood or someone
38:30
Speaker 2: else's blood on his clothes? As with so many other
38:33
Speaker 2: things in this case, we don't know for sure, but
38:37
Speaker 2: we do know that something else critical happened in February
38:40
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty two, around the same timeframe that Jimmy
38:46
Speaker 2: was at the police station blurting out that he had
38:48
Speaker 2: information about Jason Lerell's case. Police went to Aaron's house.
38:53
Speaker 2: Remember Aaron was the friend who briefly came by Miriam's house.
38:58
Speaker 2: Aaron also has a history of arrest for drug charges.
39:02
Speaker 2: Police were at Aaron's house following up on a report
39:06
Speaker 2: that Aaron's mother had made. She reported her van stolen,
39:10
Speaker 2: but the van was returned to Aarin on January twenty fifth.
39:13
Speaker 2: According to police documents, When they got to Aaron's house,
39:18
Speaker 2: sitting out on his porch, police found a pile of
39:21
Speaker 2: bloody clothes, clothes that one of Jason's family members identified
39:26
Speaker 2: as belonging to Jason Lyrell. Sarah sent me a photo
39:30
Speaker 2: of the clothes, she said. Miriam identified the blanket on
39:34
Speaker 2: the porch as being the blanket that came off her bed,
39:38
Speaker 2: the one that Jason was wrapped up in when he
39:41
Speaker 2: was lying motionless. What were Jason Lyrel's bloody clothes doing
39:46
Speaker 2: on that porch and who put them there?
39:50
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend.
39:51
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
39:59
Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
40:02
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
40:05
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts.
40:06
Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben.
40:08
Speaker 2: Sale, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley.
40:13
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
40:15
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
40:17
Speaker 2: at our Hellingonge Murder Line at six seven eight seven
40:21
Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
40:25
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five.
40:40
Speaker 3: School of Humans