Crime Junkie - 5 Years of Crime Junkie!

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

For our 5-year celebration episode, we take a look back at the impact Crime Junkie has made. From funding DNA testing to solving crimes, nothing would have been possible without the support of everyone who has tuned in every week for the last 5 years! To learn more about National Crime Junkie Day and the organizations we have supported over the years, visit www.nationaltoday.com/national-crime-junkie-day!If you want to donate directly to help solve cold cases, you can visit the website Season of Justice. Law enforcement, victims and families can also submit grant applications on the website for funding! Check out our full episodes for more information on the cases you have helped make a difference in: UNIDENTIFIED: Sumter County DoesHEADLINES: January 2022HEADLINES: June 2022UNIDENTIFIED: Flathead CountyUPDATE: Flathead County DoeMISSING: Alicia NavarroMYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Kaysera Stops Pretty Places MURDERED: Owachige OsceolaMURDERED: Reyna Marroquín // Michelle SchroaderWe still need your help, Crime Junkies! If you have any information about the death of Steven Lee Knox, you can call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department tip line at 425-388-3845.If you have any information about the death of Steven Gooch, you can call the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office at 406-758-5600, or submit a tip online at flathead.mt.gov.If you have any information about Alicia Navarro’s disappearance, contact the Glendale Police at 623-930-3000, or the Anti-Predator Project at 305-796-4859. Or you can email your tip to [e-mail] sign the Justice for Kaysera Stops Pretty Places petition, visit Change.org petition pageYou can find contact information for Big Horn County Sheriff Lawrence C. Big Hair here.If you have any information about the murder of Owachige Osceola you’re asked to call the Norman Police Department in Oklahoma at 405-366-5208.Please join us in writing a letter to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office calling for a formal independent review of the methodology used during Owachige Osceola’s autopsy. Below you will find a prompt you can use and the address to send the letter to.(WHERE TO SEND)Mr. John O'ConnorOklahoma Attorney General's Office313 NE 21st StreetOklahoma City, OK [e-mail]----To Whom It May Concern:I'm writing in regard to the criminal investigation related to the mysterious death of Ms. Owachige Osceola in September 2013, which is being conducted by the Norman Police Department.As you may be aware, Ms. Osceola's cause and manner of death were classified by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as "undetermined" despite credible evidence that she was intentionally strangled to death in the bedroom of her apartment.After hearing concerns expressed by Norman Police Department investigators working this case and closely listening to details about the criminal investigation into her death as reported by Audiochuck Podcast Network's "The Deck," I'm deeply troubled that the medical examiner's office has been unwilling to reconsider its original ruling — directly hindering further investigative efforts to pursue justice for Ms. Osceola and her loved ones.I implore the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office to reexamine evidence in this case and to insist that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner consider that Ms. Osceola's death was the result of a homicidal act. I also kindly request that this office publicly publish its conclusions in the matter.Respectfully,[YOUR FIRST & LAST NAME]----Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/bonus-5-years/

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and... And I'm Britt! Ah! Drum roll, please! Oh my goodness, you guys, I am so excited and so happy to be back. This is amazing.

And Britt, best episode ever for you to come back on, because this is the episode to celebrate our five-year anniversary. Can you even believe it? How, how? We just did this like yesterday, right? Like we just started. I tell you all the time, it feels like both.

Yesterday, we're like sitting down, being like, should we start a podcast? Maybe we should try it, but at the same time, I also say that podcast years are like dog years, so there is a part of it. It also feels like a completely different like lifetime. Yeah, I feel like I should be like easing into retirement. Hey, don't scare the people.

No, no, no, no, we're not going anywhere. Britt is back, you guys, not just for this episode. She's gonna be joining us for the episodes here on out. Britt, I am so happy you took the time to carry yourself, but I am so freaking glad that you're back. Oh, I cannot wait to get into these cases with you again. I am truly just so excited to be back, you guys. And again, this one is perfect.

Like I am so happy you're here, because this episode is talking about the impact of Crime Drunkie. We kind of want to look back on the last five years. We've had our hand in so many cases, and we wanna see truly what has come of that, because we always say we started this show to make a difference, and we have done that.

Like our word is our bond, and I wanna show you guys what we have done together. But before we dive in to the ridiculous amount of good that we've been able to do together, Britt and I have a super cool announcement to make. So December 18th, that is officially Crime Drunkie's birthday. We have actually gone through all the hoops and the red tape and made it an official holiday.

It is officially National Crime Drunkie Day. Which is so wild to me. It's literally, I cannot, I almost can't comprehend it, but I'm so excited. I think it's so cool. And it's more than just like, okay, first of all, it's more than us just saying it. Anyone can say it's National Crime Drunkie Day,

but it's a legit thing. But it's more than just saying like, oh, we love a show, we love a podcast. Britt, tell them what this is meant to be. Yeah, National Crime Drunkie Day is all about doing what our crime junkies do best and that's giving back. So this Sunday, we're encouraging all of our crime junkies to find a way to do some good out there,

whether it's giving your time to an organization in your own community or a donation to a nonprofit that could really use support. Yeah, and if you guys need a little inspiration of where to start, we actually wrote up a list of some of the organizations that we've supported over the past five years. You can find all of those and learn more

about National Crime Drunkie Day at nationaltoday.com slash national dash crime slash junkie slash day. I'll have it linked in the show notes. You don't have to remember that. And be sure to follow our Instagram at Crime Drunkie podcast and you can follow us on Twitter as well because we wanna hear how you're spending that day and making a difference.

You can use the hashtag National Crime Drunkie Day, but really we want this every year to be the day that you guys give back to the true crime community. I mean, I know all of you and you're doing that all year long, but this is really our day to focus on that. So if you went all year, if you had a busy year, this is your day to say, how can I give back?

For a year, I've been consuming true crime, interacting with true crime. Is it your time? Is it financial? Just do something. And no matter what you do, you're gonna make a difference you guys because we have made such a big difference together.

Yeah, I was gonna say, if you aren't inspired already, wait till we get through this episode. Yeah, when I put this list together, I'm like, okay, in five years, what have we like tangible? What have we really been able to do? I was blown away. Oh, me too. And it's not just us.

Like it's because you all have been tuning in and really making things happen for five years. Yeah, so before we even get started, just a massive thank you to all of our crime junkies, whether you've been with us from the beginning, whether you just found us, me, Britt, the whole audio check team, which speaking of good, the whole audio check team is now like 38 people.

You guys, we've been able to give 38 people their dream job in a place, first of all, in Indiana, working in media. And this is a place where they can come 100% as they are, 100% be themselves and thrive. And we don't take that lightly. We could just not be more grateful. And you guys, I heard this thing once

and I don't remember, I wish I could figure out where I had heard it, but someone saying like, some people have to go their whole lives and wonder if they made a difference. Kind of like, it's a wonderful life, George, whatever. You don't have to die to figure out. What I say is if you're a crime junkie,

you don't have to wonder. If you didn't know, this episode's gonna show you, but by listening to the ads even, the ads are what allow us to do the work we're doing. By being in the fan club, that allows us to do the work we're doing. By spreading these stories, by sharing these episodes, people are helping big and small.

And you guys don't have to wonder if you made a difference. So let's tell you exactly what you've been able to do. [♪ Music playing So we've kind of broken down crime junkies collective impact into a few categories. And the first thing that I wanna talk about, we're calling Doze Identified. These are all the John and Jane Doze

that we have been able to help get their names back through funding DNA testing. Now, sadly, there isn't enough research out there to tell you every single person's story in our typical crime junkie style, but we have picked a few of them to highlight to really show you just how big this impact has been. And listen, Fred, it's been a minute since you've been on the show.

I think people are dying to hear your voice again. So how about you kick off the first one? Sure. So the first story is actually a little bit of a throwback all the way back to July of 2019. And it was actually the very first unidentified episode we ever did, and they are the earliest Doze who are identified because of the funding we were able to provide.

So when I was thinking about which case to talk about first, it seemed like a complete no-brainer. Yeah, and, okay. Oh, God. Now, listen, I would normally say, okay, go back and listen, we covered this whole thing. There's a whole episode, and you can. It's still out there.

I would encourage you to. But that episode is so painful for me to listen to, and the reason I haven't taken it down is because it did so much good. But I want to claw my own eyes out when I hear it because all of my Midwest is showing. Okay, so it's the Sumter County Doze case. We'll get into it in a sec.

And they pronounced it like the French Jacques? Jacques. Jacques, so like Jacques Doe? But how is that spelled? Jacques? Jacques? And guess what? You said the entire episode.

The entire episode, Jacques Doe. So embarrassing. And I was telling someone earlier, like, the worst cringe about it is how earnest, how sincere you were about like Jacques. And I still am. Jacques. Jacques.

So embarrassing. If you're a bestie like me and want to see your bestie squirm just a little bit, go and listen to that episode for me. I, again, I, you can never, you can never question that I was passionate. But again, my Midwest was showing absolutely. I know no French. We still love you.

Thank you. So instead of going, if you don't want to go back and I'll tell you a little bit more about it. So this started back on August 9th, 1976, when a trucker named Martin was making his way along a secluded dirt road in Sumter County, South Carolina. It was about 6.20 in the morning and he decides to pull over to rest for a bit when he saw two people, a male and a female, lying off to the side of the road.

They're both still closed, but he could clearly see that they'd been shot multiple times. And from the looks of it, they were deceased. He got in contact with a guy who worked at a nearby store and that guy called the police. Once officers with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office arrived, they could immediately tell that these two had not been there for long. Well, and I remember seeing the photo of the victims back when we did this episode. And when you say they haven't been there for long, they could almost have been mistaken for sleeping, like they were both lying on their backs right on the edge of

the road and like you said, fully clothed. But again, I mean, like no decomposition. Right. Yeah. Right. And this was super promising to investigators because their features were still super clearly recognizable. The crime scene was fresh.

There was all the hope in the world that they would be identified within days and not just them as victims. The police were hopeful that they might be able to find their killer too, because according to a wire report for the state, a.357 Magnum pistol was later recovered. And this is important because law enforcement identified what type of gun the bullets retrieved from the bodies had come from. And it was a.357 Magnum. And wasn't there something like actually peculiar about where they were shot too?

Like it wasn't just like random gunfire, right? Right. Right. So both the man and the woman were shot three times in just about the same locations, the chest, back and throat. And at first police thought they might have been victims of like a carjacking or something, but the precise placement of those bullet wounds indicated that the killings were likely planned by someone that they knew and that someone really wanted them dead.

So they hoped that if they identified the two victims, they'd likely be able to find their killer. Well, and as we all know, that didn't happen. Exactly. The two didn't have any ID on them, but their autopsies did give them some pretty unique identifiers to work with. The man was about 6'1, 150 pounds with shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin. He had super thick eyebrows and he was originally estimated to only be like 18 to 22, but based

on his teeth, that age was up to about 27. And speaking of his teeth, he had had some extensive dental work done, including something called a fluted root canal, which was only performed by a super small amount of dentists in the US. He also had a few scars, including one from an appendectomy. The woman, on the other hand, didn't have that many identifiable features. She was 5'5, between 100 and 105 pounds, red, brown, medium length hair and blue, gray eyes.

She did have a few moles on both sides of her face that could have been used to identify her and she had that same olive skin tone as her male counterpart, but she was estimated to be younger than him between 18 and 25. And in addition to the autopsy results, investigators were able to track down some witnesses, including a guy who said he knew the man's name, Jacques. Not Jacques, but the police seemed to think that the witness was wrong and they referred to him as Jacques. Literally just a timeout.

I remember there was like this whole part of the episode where I'm like, I don't know why they changed it. Oh, I want to just die and disappear right now. She's literally melting into the floor of the recording studio right now, you guys. Okay, sorry. Go on. We actually became known as Jacques Doe. The witness said that Jacques and the woman stayed twice at the campground where he works

in South Carolina and while they were there, Jacques gave him a few clues about his identity that the man passed on to the police. First, he said that Jacques mentioned that his father was a doctor in Canada and a pretty prominent one at that, but he never gave a name or what specialty he worked in. And second, Jacques told him he didn't talk to his family anymore. They'd actually just owned him because he didn't want to pursue a career in the medical field. But despite having fingerprints, witnesses, dental work, even a first name, they came

up empty. And without identifying their victims, they obviously struggled to identify their killer as well. A few general theories emerged like they've been hitchhiking and their car was hijacked or something, but years went by without a conclusive answer. From time to time, there were new suspects, most notably this guy named Lonnie George Henry, who was arrested for drunk driving two counties away from where the two were discovered. And in his car, they found a gun with the serial number partially filed off.

And they did some ballistics testing and determined that it was likely the murder weapon. But for some reason, he was eventually cleared. Well, and didn't they look at Henry Lee Lucas at some point in his partner, Audis Tool? Yes. Henry had admitted to killing two people in Sumter County, but police eventually came to doubt his confession, because I think we all know by now he was known to be a rampant liar and would confess to crimes he had absolutely no involvement in. Anyway, in 2007, DNA was collected from both bodies, but nothing ever really happened with

it. Until 2019, when we got a really cool opportunity that all our crime junkies will probably remember. Yeah. So that's when I came across this nonprofit called DNA Doe Project, literally their whole mission is to give Doe's their name back through DNA testing. And I found out that they were going to be testing the Sumter County Doe's DNA, but they needed money to fund it all. This stuff is expensive.

So 2019, we didn't have the money to just hand them. So we decided we could all band together and help. We released this merch design with the phrase season of justice on it, which five-year throwback. Do you remember when we started, when we said that for the very first time? I vaguely remember it because we were getting all these genealogical reveals and just being floored by it. I think it was the April Tinsley, when April Tinsley's case was solved. I can remember, because I was at a family reunion.

I was at Justin's summer work. And I was like, we have to record right now, get your mic, this is huge. And we recorded this update, and I remember being like, this is just the beginning, season of justice. I remember even talking about the shirt design and being like, what if we made, I remember sending you like the emoji for a DNA strand. Well, I actually think at the beginning, we called it the summer of justice. Yes.

And then it kept going. Because it was like, bing, bing, bing, bing, solve, solve, solve. And then we're like, this is the season of justice. So we created a t-shirt with season of justice. This was long before the nonprofit that I founded, which I'll talk about later. But we sold those shirts to you guys. All of the proceeds went to the DNA DOE project for this specific case. We were able to raise over $17,000, and then we waited.

And waited some more until the news that we had been waiting for was finally announced. Yeah. So according to a statement from the DNA DOE project on January 21, 2021, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the DDP announced that they had solved at least part of this mystery. And these two victims finally had their names back. And through genetic genealogy, they were identified as 30-year-old James Paul Freund, which, just to know that is the same initials that were on his ring, they weren't wrong. And 25-year-old Pamela May Buckley.

Now, Pamela was from Minnesota, but eventually moved to Colorado and was actually reported missing from there in December, 1975, but James was never reported missing. Which again, if everything he told that guy at the campground was right, he had a falling out of his family, it's not surprising that he wasn't reported, but it is surprising that she was reported missing. And there is this picture literally of her and that the two never got connected. It's wild. Yeah.

Now, their identification was made possible by each and every one of you guys who bought something from our Season of Justice line, or even donated directly to the DNA DOE project. I mean, I remember getting the Google alerts that I had set for Sumter County DOES and just texting you all exclamation marks. This was the first time that it felt like really tangible, like the show even before this had done so much good helping our listeners, we had funded, we'll talk about that later, like other things we were able to fund personally or through crowdfunding. But this one was like, oh my God, this is a case that we talk about in our show.

And because of what we're doing, we made a difference. And that felt so encouraging. Well, yeah. And also just feeling so close to just how infinite the power of DNA can be in cases like this. Like if this could happen in general, and we could have some teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy part of it, what else is possible? Yeah.

And it did. It was this moment where all of a sudden, DNA was always amazing, but this was on a whole other level. And it felt like, okay, there's no longer a matter of if someone's going to get caught, if someone will get their name back. And now it just feels like a matter of when. Because okay, even if it doesn't work right now, the databases aren't big enough, their relatives aren't in the system.

Those systems are getting bigger and bigger every day. Right. Now, their killer is still unknown. But like you said, like it's only a matter of time before so many cases are solved like this. I mean, five years ago, I don't think any of us thought this would be possible. So who knows what technology might be available in the next five years. Now James and Pamela's remaining families at least have some closure when it comes to

what happened to their loved ones. And hopefully their killer will be brought to justice. And this is just the beginning because I have another story to tell you. So I'm going to take the lead on this next story too, because I originally covered the first part of the story in a headlines episode while Ashley, you were out on maternity leave. I was having a baby. So I doubt I wasn't like even in my right mind for the first half of the story. So for those of you who are in the fan club at the highest level, this story might be

familiar because we did cover it a while ago. But I know for me personally, this case has stuck with me ever since we covered it. And as it continued to play out over the course of several months. So we wanted to bring you the whole story in full so everyone can hear how big of an impact you all have made because these are real people and real stories that matter. So this started back on January 12 1981 when the owner of a dog in Houston, Texas noticed their pup had something in its mouth. So they took a closer look and I can only imagine what their reaction was because their

dog was carrying a human arm. I can't imagine. I truly don't know what I would do. I feel like the most like seasoned person I think I like in my mind. I'm like, oh, in theory, you'd be like the best person to handle. Yeah. I'm like, I'm going to be so calm, cool, collected. I'm going to like whip out my rubber gloves that I always carry with me in my pocket for

some reason in my head, like full on detective. Even though you actually do not do that. I have nothing. And I'm like, and I'll bag it as evidence and then I'll take photos so that way nothing's like compromised and I'll call the right people. But I really think that if all of a sudden he had an arm, I just be like, totally. So the owner calls the police. Don't know if they had like their little detective gloves on or not.

But the police searched the woods and came across two bodies, a man and a woman. And they definitely been out there for a little while based on the level of decomposition, but they could tell right away that both of them had been murdered. The man was bound and gagged and they couldn't tell his cause of death right away. But he looked like he'd been severely beaten. Now there's not much information about the woman's body, but Lisa Olson reported for the Houston Chronicle that an autopsy would later confirm that she'd been strangled and the man had in fact been beaten to death.

And just like James and Pamela, identifying them was difficult from the get go. Neither of them had IDs, although originally they were estimated to be like teenagers. So they may not have had ID cards to begin with. When you think that if they would have been teenagers or were teenagers, there was somebody looking for them. Like right, like at least in the last case, they were a little bit older, 18, 20s, whatever. But it's weird that they couldn't. Right.

They could be a missing persons report, but there weren't any in the area for anyone that matched their descriptions. So either they weren't from around there or they just hadn't been reported missing. And I mean, this is the 80s. So it's not like there was like a national database. They could just like type in and look them up. And the weird thing is their relationship to each other was also kind of up in the air. They kind of looked like each other, like they could be related, which was also the

thing in the last case too. And we didn't talk about it this time, but do you remember like there was a minute until they did some DNA testing? Because they both had like matching skin tones. Yeah. And they were like, oh, they might be brother and sister. And then the preliminary DNA tests were like, oh my God, they're not right. But they didn't have the technology in the 80s to even determine that right here.

Now, I also couldn't find if they were fully clothed or not. A lot of the information about their bodies and the state of the crime scene either just hasn't been released or was lost to time. The only information I could find out about the scene was that there was a pair of green gym shorts and a bloody towel nearby. Well, and from what I remember, they also couldn't tell if they'd been killed at that location where they were found or if they'd been killed somewhere else and like dumped in the woods, right?

Right. And that totally could have been the case because they'd been out there for a while. So any evidence from the scene had easily been contaminated by then. And I couldn't find much reporting about what happened directly after they were found either. I mean, as far as I can tell, things like autopsy reports have never been made public. And the two remained unidentified for decades. Even though investigators looked at their case from time to time, they never got anywhere.

But during all this time, DNA technology came a long way, and in July 2011, they exhumed their bodies to collect DNA samples, which was never done in the original investigation. Now, nothing much came of that back in 2011, but they were able to determine that the two were not related. But I mean, other than that, still no dice. Another decade passed until the case caught the attention from the fine folks over at Identifinders International. They performed genetic genealogy testing and they decided to contact the organization

in Houston that had the remains to ask for a sample. They were sent the remains, and this is where AudioCheck was able to step in and completely fund the testing to give these two their names back. And can we just take a second to shout out the incredible people at Identifinders International? Because no joke, within 10 days, 10 days, less than two weeks of uploading their results to Jedmatch, they had a match for John Doe, 10 days. And I know we've said it a million times before, but I'm always blown away by just how quickly these cases can actually be solved.

Like, yes, it takes the right people, the right testing, the availability of that testing. But once those things are lined up, I mean, you can have an answer that... In 10 days. Yeah, that... I'm sure their families have been asking for decades in, again, less than two weeks. It's wild. Seriously. So the man was identified as 21-year-old Harold Klaus.

And when investigators talked to Harold's family, they mentioned he had had a wife. And sure enough, they confirmed that the woman found with him was his wife, 17-year-old Tina. But they also mentioned something else, something that investigators never saw coming. If they know what happened to Harold and Tina, do they happen to know what happened to their one-year-old daughter, Holly? Britt, when I saw that, when I found out that they had a baby, I just about lost my mind. I know. So here's what investigators learned from their families.

Harold and Tina had moved from Florida to Houston for a job that Harold had lined up. The couple were hopeful that they could build a better life for themselves and their baby. And at first, everything seemed fine. Harold's mom said she got letters from them from time to time. They were making things work in their new city. But then in late 1980, the letters just stopped. And at first, no one was that worried. But as time went on, both families started to wonder, what happened to them?

Where were they? But they couldn't get in contact with them. So eventually, they were reported missing to the police. Where did that happen, though? Was that like in Texas? Or was it back where the families were in Florida? So I'm not 100% sure. Nothing I found mentions exactly where those missing persons reports were filed.

But what I do know is that the reports were not taken seriously at all, like even though Tina was technically still a minor. Apparently since she was married, the police said that she had the right to kind of go and do whatever she wanted. Because this isn't actually the first time Harold had disappeared. In the mid-70s, he'd run away and joined a cult for a little bit. So this is kind of when I had been following the story once it broke or whatever. And what I remember is that police really latched on to that detail pretty quickly.

And they were basically like, OK, that's cool. That's probably what happened again. Right, right. And since being married negated Tina, being a missing minor, and Harold having this history of kind of going off grid, they definitely were not at the top of police's priority list. In a few months after the two went missing, Harold's mom got this strange phone call that actually indicated that they had joined another cult. According to reporting by St. John Barnett Smith for the Houston Chronicle, she got a

call from some people who said they had Harold's car and they'd drive it to her for $1,000. It was super weird, but she agreed to pay them and then called the police to report the call. Although I'm sure we can all guess how that went over. So when these three women dressed in religious robes showed up at her house, I'm going to go out on a limb and say there was no police presence. Well, no, it probably just confirmed exactly what they already thought. Yeah, they're like, OK, cool.

Thanks. We told you. Yeah. So she asked these women about Harold, but they just told her that the family had joined their religious group and therefore they were cutting off their family. And I'm not quite sure what her reaction was, but over the years, both families continued looking for them. And when they were identified, though, there were still so many questions.

But I think the two most important were who killed them and where is Holly? Right. And again, this is kind of where I like picked up the story is when they had got identified, everyone's kind of trying to find Holly at this point. And I won't keep you guys in suspense. It didn't take long to find Holly, especially in comparison to how long it took to identify her parents. So what we found out is that she's alive, she's 42.

And although investigators haven't released all that much information about her, she was actually able to connect with her biological family. And what we found out was that she had been adopted after two women dressed in robes, same thing as the car, dropped her off at a church in Arizona in late 1980. And so even though the theory that Harold and Tina were murdered by a cult seemed a little off the wall at first, honestly, to me, that seems like what happened. You have these women in robes showing up at the car, women in robes showing up dropping off this child.

And just to be super clear, the people who raised her are not suspects. This had likely come as just as much of a surprise to them as it did to Holly herself. So where the case stands now is Tina and Harold have their names back. Holly is alive and well, but there are still so many questions about how and why they were killed. It seems like some sort of religious cult may have been involved, but which people, I don't know. But we do say it all the time, someone knows something.

And those two people still deserve justice after all of these years. Their families deserve to know what happened. Holly deserves to know what happened to her parents. So we'll still be hoping for more answers to come. But the first step to answers was finding out who they are. And so good on you guys. All right. The last story that we have is actually one we've never told before.

And even though it's a bit of a shorter one, I'm actually really excited to share it with you. I know this one. So I'm super excited to hear it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this story started on June 20th, 1980, when some boaters on the Snohomish River in

Washington found a body of a young man floating in the water. Oh, Washington. If there's one thing I've learned in the last five years, like lots of scary stuff happens everywhere. Don't get me wrong. But stay out of Washington. But there's something about Washington, you guys. I don't know.

Every time I meet a listener from Puyallup, I'm like, it's a miracle you're here today. God's being King County. No, no, no, no. So anyways, these boaters immediately contacted the police who sent the Snohomish County rescue unit to get this guy. But right away, it was clear that he had been dead for a while, like at least a few weeks possibly more. And according to a statement on the Snohomish County's website, he was fully clothed wearing

swim trunks, a short sleeved shirt, and coveralls, which are down around his legs. They hoped that his autopsy would give them something to go on. So it was performed a few days later, like after they found him. And the medical examiner estimated that he died somewhere between maybe like six weeks to two months ago. So again, big window. They know he'd been in the water for a while. Now his body didn't have any signs of trauma on it.

And his cause of death was ruled as drowning. But his manner of death was still up in the air because the medical examiner couldn't determine how he went into the water in the first place. So the manner of death was listed as undetermined. Did he just go in for a swim? He is in his swim trunks, but he has his coveralls, like did someone put him in the water or whatever. Now, at the time, he was thought to have been between 20 and 30 years old. He was like five, 11, maybe six feet tall and only had minor common dental work.

So there's like nothing that could help identify him there. He had no identifying scars, no tattoos, as far as I can tell. So figuring out his identity was going to be an uphill battle. Yeah. But I mean, had anyone matching his description been reported missing in the area? No, not that I'm aware of. I know police did try to compare him to other missing people, but we wouldn't be here if anyone matched that description and full disclosure, there isn't much information out there about

the early identification efforts. So while I definitely hope they did everything that they could to figure out who this guy was, I don't know what that was for sure. What I do know is that a copy of his dental report was kept so that investigators could compare it to missing people. But year after year, his identity remained a mystery and it wouldn't be until 2008 when efforts to figure out who he was would ramp up again. A detective with the sheriff's office named Jim Scharf teamed up with a retired judge

named Ken Couser to take another look at unsolved cases. And they really wanted to focus on using DNA. To your point earlier, like this is your easy slam dunk, right? There's untested DNA, sometimes it could take 10 minutes. So eventually they focus in on their John Doe that was found in the river all the way back in 1980. Now it took some time, but in 2016, so this is eight years after that, they entered the case in to NCIC and to NamUs.

Now unfortunately, they didn't get any hits there, but as DNA technology kept progressing, they didn't give up. And in late 2018, John Doe's remains were exhumed and the following January, his femur was processed for DNA. That sample was entered into CODIS. No luck there, because again, you're in CODIS if you committed a felony in your DNAs in there. It's not just like everyone.

Finally, in 2021, DNA was sent to the team over at AUTHORUM to build a genealogical profile. And this is where audio check again was able to step in and provide the funding for the testing. That profile was uploaded to GEDmatch and sure enough, once it was uploaded, they got a close match. So they started building out the family tree and in a post by Michael Vogan for DNA Solves, they had reportedly found a few people who were super close to John Doe. Like they had to be siblings, which is like, that's real freaking close.

So they reach out to two of these people who confirmed that they did have a 24-year-old brother who went missing back in 1980. So just to be sure, investigators compared the brother's dental records to their John Doe's and on July 15th, 2021, he was officially identified as Stephen Lee Knox. And I know you said that his siblings had had this missing brother, but like, did they have any idea what had happened to him? Not really, so Stephen grew up in this really big family and his sisters describe him as an adventurer and she knew that he went missing around the time that Mount St. Helens erupted

in 1980, but she couldn't really recall a specific date and I'm not sure if he was ever even reported missing officially. I do know he'd been in the Air Force for a bit and when he got out, he moved to Washington and then again, as far as his family knew, just kind of vanished. Now his brother did remember him mentioning some quote unquote bad people that were after him, but if he ever went into any kind of detail about who those bad people were, that has never been reported on. So is there any sort of theory about what happened to him other than these bad people

he mentioned? I mean, not really. So at this point, again, his manner of death is still technically undetermined. No one has ever reported on theories that law enforcement might have theories that the family might have. Okay, but whether it was foul play or just an accident, his family still deserves to know what happened to him and I for one have a really hard time believing that no one out there knows.

I mean, he was in the water for weeks. Well, I don't know. So someone knows what happened if there are really these bad guys, right, who did something to him, but in a scenario where he fell into the water, I mean, because this could still be an accident. It's not a hundred percent a homicide. So there is a world where maybe someone doesn't know. The thing that I keep coming back to is the coveralls around his legs.

Like if he did just go swimming on his own, you wouldn't have expected to find those, right? Just like his swim trunks. So there this is one of those cases, I think, where DNA can't help any farther. He was in the water for weeks. They're not going to be able to get anything additional off of him. It's one of those where if someone knows, they're going to have to come forward. And there's a world where maybe nobody knows because it was an accident.

But if anyone out there does have any information or anything that might point the sheriff's office in the right direction, you can call the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department tip line at 425-388-3845. Now Tina, Harold, Pamela, James and Stephen are just five of the people that we've been able to fund DNA testing for. But because of all of you that tune in each and every week, they aren't the only ones. But like we said before, many of our DOES who were able to identify, who have gotten their names back, there just isn't a ton of reporting out there.

But I want you to hear their names because even if we can't tell you their whole story, they all had a story and they had family and they had friends. So in addition, again, to Tina, Harold, Stephen, Pamela and James, AudioChuck has been able to identify and fund testing for Richard Wayne Guaro, Stacy Lynn Chahorsky, who I actually will tell you more about in a little bit, Alice Lou Williams, Blaine Has Tricks, Zachary Wells, and David John Millick. And just a quick note, you guys, so when I said, you know, all of these people, even if we don't know their stories, they all have people who they matter to and they have families.

I actually do want to read you an email that we got shortly after David John Millick was identified. I don't know if you ever saw this, Britt, but this is a great email. To Ashley Britt and all the amazing people at AudioChuck. I was late to the world of podcasts, but my co-workers recommended Crime Junkie a couple of years ago and I have been hooked ever since. I listen on my commute almost every day and hear about the great things you all do, including donating to organizations that help solve crimes.

Never in a million years did I think that my family would benefit from your kindness and generosity. My cousin walked away from our family in 2011 for personal reasons and we didn't understand. Our family isn't the best at communicating, especially about personal matters, but he was an adult and had every right to choose his own path. We all wished him well and hoped he was happy. Then about a month ago, my aunt and uncle got a knock on the door asking them to come down to the sheriff's department to collect DNA to match against unidentified skeletal

remains found in another state in 2014. Seven years. For seven years, the local law enforcement didn't give up. And because of wonderful people like you who donated to the organization that studied his genetic genealogy, my cousin has been found. I just wanted you to know that what you do every day matters. It doesn't have to be a high-profile case to make an impact. You helped find our missing piece and for that, I will be forever grateful.

Love you all, Kim. Hey, editors, give me a little, like, boop, boop, boop, breaking news. So you guys, I'm coming to you after Britt and I recorded that impact episode because between then and now, another case has broke because of audio check. And this is a big one. Like, if you are at all in the true crime community, you have heard of the case of the boy in the box. It's from Philadelphia.

It is their oldest dough case from 1957, when a young boy was found nude and wrapped in a blanket in a cardboard box. There was so much work put in over the decades trying to figure out who he was. I mean, they traced the box that he was found into all these different stores. They were testing footprints. They interviewed tons and tons of people. There were people that came forward that thought maybe he was related to them, but nothing was breaking.

So the police there partnered with Identifinders International. Again, we were lucky enough to have the chance to financially support that testing, all because of you guys. And this year, he got his name back. The four-year-old was Joseph Augustus Zarelli, who was four years old when he died. Now, there's still a lot of questions around what happened. Again, this is definitely a homicide. That young boy was beaten to death.

And again, so many years, a lot of his family is dead. They think they have ideas about what happened and who might be responsible, and they're going down the road to further investigate and hopefully make, you know, I don't know if it's going to be an arrest, but at least make an announcement and bring some closure to the case. I mean, this is wild. It's exciting. I remember being obsessed with this case long before I had a podcast.

And it is truly bizarre, such an unrealistic feeling that because of the show, because of you guys, because of us, we were able to bring closure to something that I've been following for quite literally decades. So that just shows you guys, things are still happening every single second, and it gets me even more excited for what we're going to do in the coming years. So again, thank you guys. You're all making a difference in the true crime community. But you guys, that's not all.

Because of you listening to the show, again, whether you're a paying member in the fan club, you listen to the ads in every episode, you are making it possible for us to do this advocacy work, which you guys know for years and years has included supporting nonprofits, helping family members, but we aren't just supporting NPOs, we're out there actually helping solve crimes as well, which includes not only giving people their names back, but also catching killers and violent predators. So on that note, we are going to take a quick ad break because it takes money to solve these cases.

And then we'll come back and tell you about not one, not two, but four homicides that you all helped solve. Because of your support, we have been able to fund DNA testing that has solved four murders all in 2022. That's incredible. Four murders. You guys, that is bananas. Now the first of those was accomplished by audio check giving directly to a lab, identifiers

international to pay for testing. So let me tell you about that story really quick. And it's a name again that I mentioned in the dose that I said I'll get back to. So this is a case that was actually one of the first to ever be solved where they identified both the victim and the perpetrator using genetic genealogy. So this story is about a young woman whose body was found off the side of the highway in Dade County, Georgia on December 16, 1988. She had been strangled and her time of death was estimated to be like a week prior.

They thought she was maybe like 20, 25. And other than the clothes she was wearing, which was jeans, a long sleeve shirt, boots and a single glove, investigators didn't have much to go on as far as identifying her. Now there isn't much of anything out there about the time after she was found and like what happened over the ensuing years. But I do know that in 2005 her DNA was collected and tested, but they still didn't get any matches. So, fast forward to 2015, that's when the case was reassigned to a cold case unit.

They had composites drawn, they had a forensic artist even make some clay renderings. Oh, they went like all out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just trying to figure out who this woman was. Still no luck. So again, fast forward a couple more years, 2019, that's the first year that they get a real break. But they got the break because her case was thrown into the spotlight after serial killer

Samuel Little confessed to killing two women from Dade County. Now, neither of them was the Jane Doe found by the highway, but investigators were hopeful that the increased publicity would help them identify her and or her killer. So the renewed interest combined with massive advancements in DNA technology resulted in the investigator sending some of the evidence over to Authram, who we've mentioned before. Authram was able to do their thing and in March of this year, she was finally identified as Stacy Lynn Chahorsky, who was just 19 when she was killed. According to a press release by Michael Vogan for dnasolves.com, Stacy was reported missing

on September 15, 1988. She was traveling around the country and when her mom didn't hear from her after a few months, she started to get worried. But as we know in all these cases, finding Stacy's identity was just half the mystery. Now they needed to find out who killed her. And fortunately, they were able to collect a sample of unknown male DNA from her body. So Authram went out and built another profile, and from there it didn't take long to identify her killer as Henry Frederick Wise.

Henry, who also went by Haas, would have been 34 at the time of Stacy's death. He was a truck driver as well as a stunt driver, and he actually was already deceased by the time he was identified. He had died in a car accident way back in 1999. So he isn't even around to actually face justice today. Now what's notable about him is he did have a criminal history, but as far as we know, he had never been connected to any other murders. So the theory is right now that Henry picked up Stacy from a truck stop as she was traveling,

killed her and then dumped her body on his usual route through Dade County. Now the first thing I thought is like, okay, this truck driver killed a woman, like, are there more? Sounds like an easy pattern. Yeah. As far as I know, he isn't a suspect in any other crimes. So Stacy might be his only victim, but of course there is always a possibility that he has harmed more young women before his death.

I don't know, I would assume they maybe put his DNA in CODIS. I don't actually know the legal proceedings there. Like if he did commit a murder, but he's dead, candy, I don't know. Either way, like I said, Stacy was one of the first in history where both the victim and the perpetrator were identified through genetic genealogy. But again, I think this is only the beginning, especially for older cold cases like this that occurred before DNA was widely known about. I mean, we've been saying since 2019, I'll keep saying it, it is the season of justice.

And DNA technology, as it continues to grow, there is no telling how many cold cases can be solved. And this was something that I was seeing over and over and over again as I was, you know, working not just with crime junkie, but some of the other investigative shows that I've done before, I worked directly with family and law enforcement. And over again, it was like, you know, we have semen, we have this, we have whatever. We don't have the money. Like these departments are often based on budgets that are made years and years ago.

When they were making the budget, nobody was like thinking of something that didn't exist. Uh-oh, there's going to be X amount of matters that we don't have any information about. We're going to need $17,000 to MVAC this evidence, hope there's DNA, create like a profile and a family tree. Like that's just not there. And especially in a time where there is a lot of defunding happening. And so I just kept thinking, well, how can I help? How can I, and you know, I don't want to just like hand money directly from like a media

company. There needed to be the right channels. So in 2020, that's when I founded season of justice. The whole goal of season of justice is to help with cases like this, where if funding is an issue for testing, we will pay the bill at the lab directly. If family members need help, they need awareness, billboards, whatever that is, we will help families. I'll just give a quick spiel, like if you guys go to seasonofjustice.org, you can fill

out grants directly there for law enforcement, for family members. And we have been behind the scenes, obviously audio check has been giving a lot of money to season of justice. And I don't know if you guys know this, but if you have ever shopped in our merch store since 2020, when season of justice was founded, a portion of every single sale goes directly to season of justice. And we've been trying to get donations from the public as well. And I mean, when I look at this number, I want to tell you, since 2020, season of justice

has been able to grant $868,309.78 to assist with 116 cases. That is incredible. It's incredible. It is massive. But again, that's a lot of money for 116 cases. You guys, this stuff is expensive. So again, you supporting us supports season of justice. But also as we roll into the end of the year, season of justice is a 501c3.

It is tax deductible as you're thinking about where to make your donations. If you consume any true crime content, I really believe it's why I started this. I believe we have a responsibility to give back to the community that we are taking from. And so whether it's a dollar, $5, something more, you can go directly to seasonofjustice.org. The link is in the show notes and there's a donate page right there. So let's tell you about the three murders season of justice has solved. Britt, you take away the first one. So the first one doesn't have nearly as much reporting as Stacy's does.

But this man's story is just as important. So on September 13, 1992, a man was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death in a patch of trees in Missoula County, Montana. Michael Moore reported for the Missoulean that police at the time believed he had been dead for two weeks. His clothes were pulled up over his head, which they felt indicated he had been dragged from wherever he was killed to that gravesite. And there were several pieces of bloody clothing found around his body.

I'm not sure how he was identified, but police determined within the first few days that his name was William Timothy Adams, who was experiencing homelessness at the time. An autopsy showed he'd been stabbed in the chest with the knife blade still there and his skull had been cracked, both of which were fatal. Now, despite knowing who he was and having the murder weapon, his homicide remained unsolved for decades. But in 2019, the case was one of several investigated by a new cold case unit created by the Missoula County Sheriff, T.J. McDermott.

With funding from Season of Justice, they were able to test that clothing found by his body and build out a DNA profile that in 2022 led them to the family of a man named Leonard D. Owen, who went by the nickname, Eightball. Now, Eightball is deceased, but with the cooperation of his family, he was identified as William's killer. And he had a long rap sheet and extensive criminal history. He was known as a violent man. And while I can't find that many details about his life or even his death for that matter,

we know he isn't around to hurt anyone else. And again, this case doesn't have that much reporting to pull from, but we are so happy and thankful that Season of Justice was able to put this case to rest once and for all. Yeah, and our next solved case is actually another short one. It began on January 19, 1989, when police in Dallas showed up to the home of 78-year-old Mary Hague Kelly after they were getting reports that she was deceased. And when they entered the home, they found her nude from the waist down. She'd been strangled and shoved underneath her bed.

There were several items missing from her home. And while I couldn't find any mention of whether she'd been sexually assaulted or not, there were no signs of forced entry. Now, initially, what I was able to piece together is there were several people of interest that came up in the original investigation. And as that continued, but one by one, every single person was ruled out using DNA. And eventually that case went cold. But again, I feel like we're on repeat.

There were advancements in technology, including genealogy. And that's when investigators decide to build out their killer's family tree. So Season of Justice provided a grant that funded the testing, and AUTHRUM was able to come up with several leads, which they handed over to the Dallas Police Department. And in July 2022, they landed on a name, David Rojas. David would have been 20 years old at the time of Mary's murder. But at least at this point, I can't find anything about a motive. It's not even clear if Mary and David knew each other or if this was completely random.

What's interesting is that I found out investigators used a six-pack of Bud Light that he'd just thrown away to confirm his DNA, like they must have done a trash grab. And that was enough to get a warrant. They compared his DNA, and he was arrested and charged with capital murder. As of now, at least as of this recording, he still hasn't entered a plea. But thankfully, this is one, again, I wish it could have come in 1989 and that her family wouldn't have had to gone years and years. I mean, he got to live almost a full life, but he is still alive.

He will have to face justice. People will have to know who he really was. And that is amazing that even after all of these years, that that was possible for her and her family. So the last solved case we have for you today is about a man named Javed Ahmed. He was a taxi driver in Anchorage, Alaska, who was shot in the early morning hours of May 28, 1985. And you know, just a quick note, even though this is the last homicide solve, this was

actually season of justice's first solve. Fun facts. So Javed was found inside his cab, which had been crashed into a fence at an intersection. Now there were people around who witnessed the crash and said they saw a man in a gray shirt and jeans running away from the scene, but no one really got a good look at his face or any identifiable features. According to reporting from both the Anchorage Daily News and the Daily Sit Good Sentinel, in police examined the cab, they found a piece of bloody clothing nearby and fingerprints

from an unknown person. I mean, the thing is, again, with this, like being a cab, it's like a hotel. Hundreds of fingerprints. Exactly. Like, honestly, more concerning if there are no fingerprints or just one set of fingerprints. Right. Right. So it was very hard to determine which were the killers and which were just other passengers

in the cab. Now, they know the number that this man called from and where he was picked up, but I'm not sure if they were ever able to do anything with that information. And from what I can tell, there were no security cameras and the man had never given his name. They were also drawing a blank on who would want to kill Javed. By all accounts, he was a good guy, very driven, ambitious, hardworking. He and his wife, Janie, had separated, but they weren't divorced and they still very much cared for each other.

There was no animosity there. But early on, Janie did say that if someone had tried to rob him, he would not have handed over any of his money, even over the threat of death. So investigators agreed with this robbery theory, but as time went on, they ran into dead end after dead end. It doesn't seem like any of the cash was missing from the cab and the evidence that they did have didn't really lead them anywhere. So Javed's case went cold, but not forgotten.

A sketch was made of the man seen running from the car, which was put together based on multiple witness testimonies, but no one came forward with any information. In 2009, they submitted that bloody piece of clothing and found both Javed's and an unknown man's blood on it, but that DNA didn't match anyone in their system. A cold case unit in Anchorage was established in 2020, and Javed's case got a fresh set of eyes, especially since DNA again had come such a long way. Season of Justice provided the funding to author him for genetic genealogy research, and through that research, investigators landed on 56-year-old Eric Jones.

Eric would have been just 19 when the murder took place, and although he had a criminal history, including an incident in 1992 where he shot at a vehicle with his girlfriend inside, he hadn't recently been arrested for anything. In fact, he hadn't shown up on police's radar at all during the first investigation. They tracked him down to Boise, Idaho, and waited for the right time to gather items with his DNA on it. According to an article for Anchorage Daily News by Tess Williams, they followed him to a restaurant and gathered items he'd touched and eaten with after he left, and when they

compared his DNA to the samples, it was a match. They brought him in for questioning, and initially, he denied killing Javed. However, he eventually admitted that he did kill him and tried to convince investigators that Javed had attacked him first. But of course, investigators were not buying it. So on January 3, 2022, he was charged with first and second degree murder, and as of the release of this episode, he has not entered a plea. Okay, the very last thing I want to talk about, the last case that Season of Justice helped

bring resolution to, is one that's taken place over the last few years. But it all came to a head last year, and Season of Justice was able to provide some funding that in part went to solving this case. I mean, we weren't the only ones, there were a ton of agencies involved. But it's very rare, we've given those their name back, we've solved cold cases. It's rare that we can bring a violent criminal to an arrest and have them taken up the streets like during like an active investigation. Exactly, yeah.

So cool. So last February, police in Lawrence, Indiana announced that they were looking for a suspect in a sexual assault case. A man in his 20s or 30s, apparently he had entered the home of an elderly woman saying that he needed to check her utilities. Daniel Bradley reported for WRTV that he was wearing a hard hat, goggles, face mask, and like this traffic safety vest so that he did look kind of legit. And when the woman opened the door, he forced his way inside and assaulted her.

Well, it turns out that woman wasn't the only one. They ended up finding DNA at that scene. And when they compared that DNA and the MO of this assault, there were other assaults in Lawrence and the Indianapolis area that they were able to definitively connect this guy to. And it was multiple assaults, all of elderly women. And once they made that connection, Indianapolis and Lawrence police made a statement warning people to keep an eye out for this guy, not open doors for anyone that they weren't expecting.

And they also asked everyone to, you know, ask for ID for anyone who's saying that they're working for a utility company. And they also clarified that that assault in February wasn't the first or the last that this guy had committed, but at the time they didn't give any other details. And I get that, I get not releasing any more information, but what a terrifying statement. Yeah. Well, what we know as now is behind the scenes, the investigation was in full swing. The earliest case that they could connect to this guy happened in August of 2020.

And by September of 2021, he had committed eight assaults against women ages 58 to 78, three of which occurred at the same time against three sisters who all lived together. Now, what's wonderful is all of them survived. But for some reason, the man killed their dog at some point during the attack. Which like why? Well, and again, I don't know if it was barking, it was drawing attention, the dog might have come after him. But I mean, I think what that also shows too, we see it all the time, there's there tends

to be this escalation of violence and if he was willing to kill an animal, again, all of his victims survived this time, but should he have been allowed to go on with that always have been the case? Right. And many of the survivors reported that he threatened to kill them and used weapons like a knife to force them to comply. Investigators were able to gather DNA evidence from each attack, but what ended up helping them find the right guy was actually a fingerprint he left on a fan during his last attack in

September. Yeah. He hadn't left anything other than his DNA at any of the other scenes. But from this fingerprint, they were able to match it to a man named Daryl Goodlow. Right. And that's what I was saying, like, but we helped with the funding, there were so many things involved, the DNA is going to help prove it. Right.

And linked all the cases. Right. But this fingerprint that he left was the thing that pointed directly to him. So once they had a name, they were able to get a warrant for a sample of his DNA. And according to reporting by Kyle Boyd for Wish TV, his DNA matched previous samples found at crime scenes. And so on September 17th of 2021, he was arrested. Daryl was charged with 22 counts of rape, 11 counts of criminal confinement, six counts

of burglary, four counts of battery, four counts of sexual battery, four counts of strangulation, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of intimidation, and one count of killing an animal. That is a grand total of 58 charges, 15 of those carry a sentence of 20 to 40 years each, meaning that he will likely be in prison for the rest of his life. And I'm not sure where his case currently stands. I know he's had a few hearings and at least one of those included a change of plea hearing. But regardless of whether he pleads guilty or not guilty and has a trial, he'll hopefully

be put away, like you said, for a very long time. Yeah. And you guys, identifying those, catching killers, taking rapists off the street, that is so tangible. And really that was the big goal when we joined the true crime community to put these people away to really see resolution in the cases that we're talking about. But there have been other ways that you all have helped along the way. And I don't want to ignore those because they are just as big and just as important.

So I know sometimes I hear from you guys who feel like, well, I don't have money to donate, so I'm not helping. First, not true. Not true at all. Yeah. Again, just listening to the ads on our show helps more than you could know. And I know it's tempting to hit the skip button, but those ads are what has helped so many families.

And listen, if you hate ads, but you have five extra bucks a month to spare, then you can listen ad-free in the fan club and still help families and victims that we talk about every week. But there is another way to help. There are action items that come from our episodes that don't involve money that you all have shown up for. So I want to give you some of those updates on cases where all of you crime junkies have been able to make an impact.

And the first case we want to talk about is Flathead County Doe. We covered this case in a mini episode back in the fan club in August 2020. But if it's been a minute for you, the brief rundown is that in 2020, we got an email from the Flathead County Montana Sheriff's Office requesting that we cover this case. It was about a man whose skeletal remains were found by a hunter in 2003, along with a few personal items that narrowed down the possible time of death. Which can I just stop you for a second? How cool is that?

Like, that's also one of the things that as our show has gotten bigger and bigger. It continually blows my mind that people are like, can you talk about this? You want us to? Really? I know. When the FBI reached out and were like, hey, we'd love to work with you on an episode. Hey, can you do this? Like, that is what is wild to me that we're able to lend our platform and support these

organizations, these law enforcement agencies, these families by doing this. Again, I always thought that we would be like begging people to work with us. And now, so for them to come to us is just like the coolest thing in the world. It really, really is. Yeah, yeah. So sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no. So the folks in Flathead County contacted us about this man whose skeletal remains were

found by a hunter back in 2003. And with the remains, there was a few personal items that kind of narrowed down a possible time of death. They only knew that he was a 21, the 36-year-old white male. And if you want all the details about the original investigation and how the case ended up going cold, you can go back and listen to the episode. And the important takeaway was that they asked us to ask our listeners, you guys, to submit their DNA for testing to see if they could get a match.

They were working with the DNA DOE project already, but their database was only able to produce like a super, super distant relatives. And all they needed was that one person that would lead them to their John Doe's identity. And you guys turned up, like so many people submitted their DNA to try to help solve this case. I don't know 100% if it was one of our listeners or just another member of the public, but in February 2022, they announced that they got a match. This man was identified as 29-year-old Steven Gooch, who had went missing back in 1995.

Now the cause or manner of his death is still up in the air, but his family at least has one of their questions answered. And the investigation into what happened to Steven can hopefully make some headway. And again, we don't know if it was one of our listeners, but you guys, this is exactly why we started crime drinking the first place, like we've been saying, like to make a real difference. At the end of the day, you guys stepped up and made things happen. With all that being said, again, there's still the mystery of Steven's death that needs

to be solved. So if you have any information, you can call the Flathead County Sheriff's Office at 406-758-5600 or submit a tip online at flathead.mt.gov. All right, next up, we have Alicia Navarro, who if you guys remember was a missing teenager from Glendale, Arizona, whose case we covered in July of 2021. She is believed to have left her home in the middle of the night less than a week before her 15th birthday. And when she left, that was 2019.

And they think that she left to meet someone that she met online, like through gaming. Now, Alicia has autism. And while it was difficult for her to make connections face to face, that's why she spent a lot of time playing online games that involved a chat feature. So both her family and police believe that she left to meet someone from those online games. But not many details have been released about the investigation itself. If there are a lot of details, again, the whole problem is these chat features are so

scary. It's so hard to figure out who the real person anonymous. Yeah, it's terrifying. Now at the time we released the episode, which we actually released in English and in Spanish, we asked all of you to call the Glendale Police Department if you had any information about Alicia's whereabouts. There is also a PI that's working on the case through the anti-predator project. We gave that information.

And what we found out is not long after that episode aired, we learned that the investigators had received a quote unquote significant tip that advanced the investigation. We don't know what that tip was, but that's why we do these calls to action at the end of the episodes. That's why we're putting this information out there because you never know who might be listening. It's also so important why you guys should share these stories. And that's one of the things we ask you to do.

And if you have nothing else, no resources, you think you can't do money, whatever, by sharing these stories, you are helping. Now her story still has not reached resolution, still needs as much publicity today as it did when we first released the episode. And her mom and stepdad are still waiting for her to come home. Alicia would be 18 today. So if you have any information about her disappearance, you can contact Glendale Police at 623-930-3000 or the Anti-Predator Project at 305-796-4859.

The next case that you guys all have directly impacted is Keisara Stops Pretty Places. We talked about her story in July 2021. She was just 18 when she went missing in 2019 in Bighorn County, Montana, and is part of the Crow Nation and the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Communities. Her body was found just a few days after she went missing, but her case was riddled with shady practices from police from the start. They didn't notify her family for weeks until after her body was found, and then convinced them to cremate her remains even though it went against their beliefs.

Overall, they just refuse to investigate anything, honestly, and it makes my blood boil when I think about this case. Because despite this young woman being found deceased, wrapped in plastic, no one in law enforcement seemed to think that anything fishy was going on. Or if they did, they certainly didn't want to uncover it. This was like, I mean, I got heated in this episode, and it still makes me so mad to think about you were behind a shed wrapped in plastic, and you're going to say, oh, TBD, how that happened?

Yeah, maybe it was the elements. Get out of here. Keisara's family started a change.org petition to demand that Bighorn County actually investigate her murder and that the FBI take responsibility for the investigation as well. And we encouraged all of you guys to sign that petition, and it turns out you guys were as mad as we were. Yeah, the number of signatures skyrocketed. It started at 6,700 signatures, and it went over 285,000 after the release of the episode,

which is incredible. But actually, I honestly think we can get it higher. So if you haven't signed that petition, you can go to our show notes right now and add your signature. And this was kind of my favorite part of this nightmare of a case. Since the release of the episode, an attorney in Bighorn County named Jay Harris put out a statement that her case is still under investigation. But I'm sorry, it's been three years since Keisara was killed.

There still hasn't been justice. It's still not okay. Well, and her story is just one of countless missing and murdered indigenous women who haven't gotten justice that they deserve from a system that doesn't seem to give a sh**. So if you can sign that petition, share her story, even write to the sheriff, let the folks in Bighorn County know that we haven't forgotten about Keisara. Just because the episode aired a while ago, her family is still waiting for answers.

And those in charge shouldn't forget about Keisara either. And I love when our reporting, our show can get responses from people, and that's actually what happened in this next case, which, again, was another infuriating case. So that was the one of Awachagi Asiola. This episode first came out on my other weekly show, The Deck, but then we released it on Crime Junkie in the feed in October of this year. Awachagi was a young seminal woman who was found murdered in her apartment in Norman, Oklahoma, in September 2013.

I say murdered, but we'll get to the problem here in a minute. She had called 911 twice on the day she was killed. The first time sounded like she was clearly struggling with someone, but the next call, which is a few minutes later, she claimed that the first call was an accident. Now, it was super suspicious, but the dispatcher never sent the calls through to police to at least do a welfare check. So long story short, a man named Rob Ross, who goes by cocaine Rob, quickly became the primary suspect.

He and Awachagi had talked on the phone the morning she was killed. He had her debit card. And although he denied killing her, investigators were almost positive that he was the one who took her life. Literally, he's on video where her phone was used and thrown away, where her debit card is used. Oh, his semen was found in her, but he said it was consensual. It's like a whole thing.

So investigators were ready to go arrest this guy. Here's the problem. Fast forward to the autopsy. The manner of death was ruled undetermined, despite clearly having met a violent end. Again, her door was kicked in. There were signs of a struggle. Yes. She was in her pillow, but because of this technicality, the investigators couldn't pursue

murder charges. Basically, the DA is like, it's undetermined. I'm not taking this to court. So go ahead and arrest him, but we're not going to charge him with what they got. So investigators never like totally gave up on this though. In 2017, it was reopened. In 2019, a federal medical examiner read the autopsy and determined that Awachagi most definitely had been murdered.

So they do the second one, manner of death homicide. But despite everyone literally being like, yes, she a hundred percent was killed. The Emmy in Norman, the original Emmy, still refused to change the ruling. The one who can actually do anything. Well, so here's the problem is from my understanding, we've got this new autopsy. But again, the DA is like, as long as the original one says undetermined, like that's giving a defense attorney too much to work with. I'm not unless the original one, you could technically go to court with this other one.

But there's this old one hanging out there that hasn't been like negated yet. Hmm. So when this episode originally aired, we asked listeners to contact the Oklahoma Attorney General's office and asked them to do a review of the methodology used during Awachagi's autopsy. Let me guess, they did. Yeah, I kid you not, within a week of airing the episode, the Attorney General's office reached out to the lead detective, requested the entire case file for review.

He said he got a ton of contacts and now it seems like the case could actually move forward. And that is a real tangible difference that our listeners made. How many times have we said it? The squeaky wheel gets the grease and it's unfortunate, but it's not always nefarious. So the Attorney General, whatever. A lot of these people are so high up, they have the power to make change, but they don't even know about the cases that need the change, that need the change. So that's why it is so important for us to be like out here screaming about the people

that need help because there are people in power, good people in power who want to help. We just need to let them know where to focus. I'm junkie listeners. Yeah. One hell of a squeaky wheel. Yes. It's so true. So listen, that's the last update we got.

Oh, also, I loved this. The detective emailed us, the lead detective, to tell us, you know, the update or whatever. And he was like, listen, I'm not going to lie. I was like real skeptical. Like I didn't think a 30 minute podcast was going to do anything, but you haven't met our listeners. That's what it is. And he's like, I have never seen a response like this.

I think what he said is I now believe in the power of podcasting and I was like, can I get that tattooed on myself? That is amazing. So we know that the attorney general is looking at it. Again, you guys keep the pressure on. Let them know that we're still thinking about her. They should be thinking about her. We're going to have some information in our show notes if you want to continue to write

to the attorney general and make sure that this case either gets changed or has moved forward or that the attorney general knows that we're all watching and a watchie needs justice. The last story you all have made a direct impact on is Michelle Schroeder. And actually, I don't know if you remember, I feel like even before the Sumter County does, this was I think really the first case where we did like crowdfunding to raise money. And where we were working, not the first case where we worked directly with family, but we did work really close with Michelle's daughter on this.

She provided us a ton of information. And this was the first time that I was like, you know, I think our listeners would like throw in a buck if they had a cause. So it's just, again, to end with the beginning. Yeah. Michelle was a victim of domestic abuse. And when she was murdered, every single sign pointed to her ex-Charles. He was proven to be a terribly abusive person, but frustratingly, he was found not guilty

of her homicide in court. And I feel like the worst part of this story was that's not where Michelle's torment ended, because Charles had purchased two burial plots right next to Michelle's grave. So he could be buried next to the woman he had horrifically abused for years. And it was just another sick way to control her, even in death. And sure enough, when he died, he was buried right next to her. And Michelle's daughter, Kara, who you mentioned earlier, reached out to us and asked us to tell her mom's story.

And she had also started a GoFundMe page to raise money to move Michelle's remains away from the man who made her life a living hell. And you guys stepped up. With the donations from our crime junkies, as well as a donation from AudioTrack, Michelle's remains were successfully moved. So hopefully she can fully, finally rest in peace. Yeah, and her family gets to go visit her and not have that haunting that I have to also visit the man who killed her.

I think that is so beautiful. And you guys, these are just a handful of them. You guys have helped in so many ways. And what I find so exciting is that, again, you can watch the trajectory of this. Michelle was our first one. In 2022, we're solving homicides. As the show has gotten bigger, as we have more resources, we are just able to do more and more good.

And I love that about this community that we've created. And again, these are like the really tangible things. We talk about crime, so I think that a lot of the times we want to, okay, what difference did we make in a crime, right? Was it solved? Were we able to move her? All of that. But I don't know what you were expecting five years ago when we started this.

Not this? Well, there's this intangible thing that has happened that I never expected and has been one of the most moving things for me. Like I said, AudioTrack is like 38 people now. And we have this Slack channel called The Good. And oh, my gosh, also known as like, do you want to cry it? Do you have your tissues? In the clock in the morning?

Yeah. And the Slack channel, I mean, I want you guys to know that every email you guys send, our team is reading every DM because we love you guys so much. Again, we said at the beginning, we have, we're under no impression that we would be here without you. Like you are the reason we're here. And we're so grateful for all the feedback you give us. And so in this channel, we want everyone to, it's not just the people who read the emails.

I want the editors to know that the episode that they edited had this impact. The writers, the researchers, the reporters, the production line. And there are, what I have found is that the friendship that people have built with the two of us has impacted them in a way I never saw coming. I don't know if you did. Cause I mean, and I listened to podcasts and I loved the podcasters I listened to. To be on the receiving end of that. To be so meaningful to people and for you guys to share that with us.

I don't want you to ever think that we take it lightly because those emails on days when it's hard, on days when it's like, when I think, you know, there are other true crime podcasts, there are other networks, there are like, the story could get told by someone else. Like maybe it doesn't have to be me. I mean, for me, for the past six, seven, eight months, like just being able to know that like what I was working and doing, like obviously so much of my life has been worked on and overhauled these past few months and like crime junkie is just a small part of

it. But knowing that not only was a community cheering me on one thing the best for me, but like I was going to be able to go back and like so much good comes from what we do. And you guys really are our third best friend. I cannot stress that enough. It's true. And I, when we meet people, everyone's so nice, they're like, Oh my God, you're exactly like you are in the show.

You're so genuine. And I'm like, this isn't because I, this is what it is. I will hug you the way I hug Brit when I see her because I love you guys. And she gives really good hugs to guys. Pretty good hugs. But now that I'm a mom, I feel like they've gotten even better. So I just want to say again, please keep those emails coming. You know, there's, there's a thousand one star reviews.

You know, those people will always have negative things to say. And here's what I will say is our listeners have done such a good job of being louder than those people who have been negative. And when I look at the work that we do, for whatever people want to say, if this show just isn't their cup of tea, whatever reason, someone always asked me like, how do you feel about the content you made? And like, you know, how do you know if you've gotten off skew? And I said, you know, we literally just today got an email from the sister of a victim who

we covered a while ago who came across the case and was like, I am so happy with your coverage. Thank you for all of these reasons. And I've always said, if we are good with the victims themselves, the survivors, if we are good in the books of the family members who we work with, if we are doing the good in the world, solving these cases and law enforcement doesn't feel like we're hindrance to investigations, we're doing the right thing. I feel like we're doing what we can sleep at night.

We can sleep well at night knowing that. And I, I would love again, this is more the impact the audio check team has had by putting hours and hours and hours and hours of work into each and every show that goes out every week, this last part, you know, this last hour and a half has been a love letter to our listeners, a little love letter to our team here. I'd love to read some of the emails that have come through. I know they're in the good channel. I know they've probably seen it, but I, I would love people to see what it's like to

work at audio check and the impact that we get to have all of them have such a big impact. So with the permission of the people who wrote these emails, I just want to read you a couple. If you are not prepared to cry in your car, this might be where you turn off the episode. Hi Ashley. I don't typically do this, but my heart told me I had to. My name is Kelsey and I am from Alberta, Canada. I've been listening to Crime Junkie since it came out. I remember being so excited when y'all hit the one year anniversary as if it were my

own podcast. You truly created an amazing community. I listened to Crime Junkie every single morning on my long commute to work. We lived on an acreage outside of town, so highway driving was a daily thing. In November of 2019, my husband Andre and I had our first child, a son named Rhett. I would often listen to your podcasts when I was up through the night with my fussy little man. On February 9th, 2020, coming home from my son's first meet and greet with our family,

someone crossed the center line on the highway, hitting us head on, causing a horrific accident. My husband Andre passed away on the scene and our three-month-old baby, six weeks later, in the hospital from complications. I was in the hospital for three months and broke every bone from my neck and my knees and somehow managed to survive an escape paralysis. After being released and after lots and lots of physio, I got myself to the point where I was able to start driving again. I had, slash have, quite a lot of anxiety, slash PTSD when it came to getting back behind

the wheel. And I tried a number of strategies and tools to calm myself down enough so I could drive on the road. And as strange as it is, what calmed me down and helped me get back on the road is your crime-junkie podcast. I mean, who isn't calmed down by serial killers and murderers? Haha, yes. My therapist got a kick out of it as well.

But in all honesty, there was a calmness and a comfort that you and Britt gave me, which let me gain back an independence that I had lost and had little hope of regaining. Crime-junkie reminded me of all those daily commutes I did safely, the late night cuddles and breastfeeding struggles I got with my son. But most importantly, it oddly let me feel like I wasn't alone when I was driving. I had Ashley and Britt and the whole crime-junkie community with me in my car. Now this message isn't for my pity, but my intention is to show you how much of a difference you make even in ways that you might not think you do.

You do amazing work, and your book, which I am currently on, page 117, is so good. Thank you for taking a chance on starting a podcast and creating this wonderful, weird-always-be-weird crime-junkie world. You truly are an angel, Kelsey. Hi, I hope it's not weird me contacting you like this. I want to thank you on so many levels, mainly, of course, for raising awareness about all these cases and for fundraising to try to get justice for the people you talk about. I lost my beloved husband to cancerous brain tumors in April this year.

Craig had fought the cancer since he was 13, having two major brain surgeries, the most amount of radiotherapy you can have, and four courses of chemotherapy. He had an incredible sense of humor, and he never let it stop him living, but in the last year he rapidly declined and succumbed two weeks after his 50th birthday. At 41, I became a widow, my world went up in flames, and as our family was us and our cat Mr. Cat, my world fell silent. The silence in my house is deafening, but then a few months ago I found your podcast and I've been working through all your episodes from the beginning.

I'm just finishing up with 2020. You have brought a sense of family back into my home. After just a few episodes, I started saying and thinking, and I'm Brit, alongside. I wish we had found your podcast when Craig was still alive. It's something we would have enjoyed listening to together, and seeing as I think a stranger is just a serial killer I haven't met yet, we would definitely have agreed with all your crime-junkie life roles. I believe Craig is still with me and like to think he's listening alongside.

I'm in England, so the majority of the cases you talk about are brand new to me. I think it's nice that the victims get their stories told around the world, and there are more people to remember them and hope for justice for them. Anyway, thank you so much for all the work you do and for giving me a lifeline. I think you are both incredible women. I have another one that says, I ran across your podcast August 2021 while sitting in the infusion department in the cancer treatment center with my daddy. We had just begun chemo in hopes it would kill the stage 4 stomach cancer he was diagnosed

with. We would sit in that room 8 and 9 hours every other Wednesday. I took daddy so my mom and sister didn't have to take off work, I'm a hairstylist and set my own hours. I sat and binged listened to your podcast during his 6 months of chemo. We ended up losing dad in January, but on our rides to and from the hospital, dad would say, what is she talking about today lol. Sometimes during chemo, he would wear one of my earpods so he could listen while he

was awake. Thank you for giving a father and daughter something to bond over during such a trying time. Any other time we would have been out working on a motor of some kind, I may have slipped a pair of headphones in his overall pocket before they closed the casket. You guys know these are sad ones and a lot of the ones that we get do bring me to tears but for such good reasons and what I find is that you guys take us with you through everything. We get to be with you through the good stuff, we get to be with you through the bad stuff

and I think that's why we're all so close. We really, you trust us to be the best friend with you. I'm grateful that you guys let us. I don't know, do we have a nice email we could read but that maybe we could end on a high note? Yeah. This is from a listener named Dan. Good afternoon.

I'm not sure who will see this message but I wanted to say thank you. Side note Dan, we see it. Yeah, we got you Dan. I'm a detective in a medium-sized town in Texas and I'm currently investigating a case where we appealed to Mrs. Flowers, an organization of season of justice for a grant to conduct analysis of evidence. I sent a letter to season of justice thanking them for the acceptance but also wanted to reach out to CrimeJunkie to say thanks.

Through that investigation, I found CrimeJunkie and have sincerely enjoyed the content and believe in the work y'all are doing. In June, I actually did a true crime presentation for the city library and it was exciting to tell the audience that season of justice was helping. Keep up the good work, Dan. That's amazing and I love it. To me it's like the highest compliment. I'm like if the people who are out there actually like doing the work and solving the cases

like think we're doing a good job, again, this is how I know we're on the right track. You guys, I could read you these emails forever, thank you for sending them. Please keep sending them because I kid you not, if all we got was silence and avoid for the last five years, I don't think we would be here. I love knowing how the content is affecting you. I love connecting with you guys. I want to keep giving you the show that you want to hear for five more years. Let's stick around, I'm going to give a few more shout outs.

So, this episode has been all about reflecting on the impact our crime junkie community has had. So, I think we should say hi to even more crime junkies who got us here. And since we have Brit back, we get to say hi to even more of you. So Whitney from Utah, hello, Juliana S. from Brazil, Anna from Chicago, Lee from DC, and Tori from Canadian, Texas. And now it's my turn to say hello. I love you.

Thank you so much to Ashley from Glen Falls, New York, Savannah from Orlando, Florida, Greta from Atlanta, Alexandra T. from Columbus, Ohio, and Maria and Summer from Snow Hill, North Carolina. I wish I could name all, I think it's like 10 million at this point, all 10 million of you. Because again, I know we say it over and over, I don't want it to lose its meaning, but I want you to hear me. All of this wouldn't be possible without each and every single one of you.

So be sure to listen every week because we aren't done celebrating this month just quite yet. And please, as the end of the year is coming to a close, please consider donating to Season of Justice, seasonofjustice.org, and we'll see you in a little bit for a new episode, right? Yeah. And Brit's back, baby. I'm back.

Crime Junkie is an audio check production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?