Morbid - Episode 334: The Unsolved Murder of Blake Tyler Chappell
Episode Date: July 4, 2022Blake Tyler Chappell was a kind, promising and creative 17 year-old who went missing walking to a friend's house early in the morning on October 16, 2011 after a Homecoming dance. Two months ...later, he was found lying in a creek, dead from at least one single gunshot would to his head. He had been to a dance the night that he went missing and told his mother that it was one of the best nights of his life. After over a decade of no answers, we still don't know the identity of his killer. Listen to Voices For Justice for Sarah Turney's conversation with Blake's mother MelissaMore about Blake's bucket listA Google Maps image of the route believed to be taken by Blake that morningSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.
This episode is sponsored by the Audible Original Series,
Exposed, the Ashley Madison hack.
In the early 2000s, millions of people joined AshleyMadison.com,
a dating site for married people to have affairs.
But the promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015 when anonymous hackers published millions of cheating spouses information into a searchable database.
Presented by award-winning Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse, this new Audible original explores the aftermath of the Ashley Madison hack.
Dive into this real-world scandal to find out what happens when private affairs become public
domain. As you follow along the stories of those caught up in the hack, unearth societal concerns
around privacy in the digital age. Join Sophie Nelis for Exposed, the Ashley Madison hack.
Listen now on Audible. Wondery's new podcast, Blame It On The Fame,
dives into one of pop music's greatest controversies.
Milli Vanilli set the world on fire.
But when their adoring fans learned about the infamous lip syncing,
their downfall was swift and brutal.
Listen to Blame It On The Fame, Milli Vanilli,
on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna.
And this is Rainy Day Morbid. So you might hear the pitter-patter, pitter-patter of rain in the background.
Kind of soothing.
I think it is.
That's probably the only soothing thing that we're going to talk about, though.
Definitely is.
This is a frustrating episode.
It's a confounding episode.
Oh.
And it's an unsolved episode.
Girl.
I know.
I apologize.
But I would like to see the solved.
Well, same.
So.
I really, really want to see the solved.
Let's get it done.
So we are going to be talking about the unsolved murder of Blake Tyler Chappelle.
This was back in 2011.
But before we get to that, before we start the entire tale, I wanted to talk about some true crime news because it's something that you guys know is very important to me, very important to
me and Ash. Damian Echols from the West Memphis Three case, he took his case back to the court in Arkansas,
said, hey, there's this new MVAC evidence collection,
like vacuuming technology that's happening.
We want to use this to take evidence off of those ligatures
that you have in custody.
We think that it's going to show something, maybe some new DNA.
Maybe we're going to find who really killed these three eight-year-old boys.
Brought the case to the court.
The court said no.
They do not want to test to find out who really killed three eight-year-old boys.
Because one, they know.
And two, they don't want Damien,ason and jesse to ever be let off the
hook for this ever be proved innocent they don't want it in fact during this whole thing uh keith
crustman the prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of arkansas said and this is
wild they were like no if you do that, just if we get DNA off of those that
isn't Damien's, that still doesn't prove that he didn't do it. And it's like, honey, that's like
literally what DNA evidence is for. Right. Is to prove that someone did do something or didn't do
something. Right. And they also said that they would rather just like keep it as it is rather than preserving physical evidence.
They said this would be a one shot deal that forever alters it.
But if you are not planning to test that evidence ever, because that's what you're saying to me is that you don't want to alter that DNA evidence that's on that ligature.
You just want it to stay there and for no one to know what it is.
We just want to know that it is. We just want
to know that it's there possibly. Like why? And then just never test it. And we all know why.
And if you don't, so if you're planning on never altering this, you don't want to test it because
you don't want to destroy it. What? What? How does? It doesn't matter then. If I destroy the
evidence on there, it doesn't matter because you're never planning on testing it anyway.
Right.
So if they destroy it, which isn't necessarily the truth here, but if they alter it in some way with this MVAC technology, it doesn't matter because you were never planning on testing that anyway.
So all we're getting is some results.
It's unreal.
I'm just like, can they go to a different court and appeal that like is
there an appeal here well they are planning to appeal it luckily but who knows what's gonna
happen here they seem dead set on not finding out who actually killed three eight-year-olds
and just going to such great lengths to be like no we don't we actually don't want to know yeah
they just they don't want to know because they know.
Exactly.
Somebody knows here.
A group of people know here what happened.
And just to put it out there,
DNA was tested between December 2005 and September 2007 at one point,
and all that evidence failed to link Damien, Jason, or Jesse to these crimes.
Right. No, one shred of evidence and here's the
thing that um that whoever said like it's not going to prove that they were there and we were
like that's exactly what that does because on the same token had their dna been there they would
have sat there like the the judges and everything would have sat there and said well that shows that
they did it.
Exactly.
But then somebody else's DNA showing up is not showing that they were there?
No, of course not.
What?
And the evidence that they did have was a hair that was found in the bindings of Michael Moore.
The ligatures found on Michael Moore.
Right.
And they also found a hair on a tree stump nearby the bodies.
These hairs did not belong to damien jesse or jason
they belonged these hairs were consistent with the dna of terry hobbs which was stevie branch's
stepfather uh the this this hair in the ligature the one on the stump was consistent with dna
of terry hobbs' friend.
Now, what's even more interesting about that, I'm just putting this out there, by the way.
I'm just putting out this fact.
He was never considered a suspect, Hobbs.
Which is insane.
Which is wild.
Because three witnesses who were near their houses, they came forward. They filed affidavits in October 2009 with the Arkansas Supreme Court.
That said, they saw those three boys with Terry Hobbs.
They saw him before the bodies were found.
Now, Terry Hobbs told police that he was never with his stepson.
He was never with those three boys.
He totally lied about it.
And they contradict the statements given
from witnesses and then to find out so you get so that happens and then you find hair that is
consistent with that man and his friend right at the crime scene and you don't look into that but
no evidence to connect the three people you convicted of the crimes to the crime scene who spent close to 20 years in jail
who one of them was almost killed yeah in prison but we don't want to test that evidence we don't
want to consider him a suspect we don't want to we don't want to walk down that we don't want to
stroll down that avenue and i like we don't want to peek around the corner of that avenue right
i don't understand them not wanting to look bad like i'm not saying i understand that
but i'm just like i just what is why are you not doing this like either way you look bad the fact
that you're not testing this evidence is making you look incredibly bad and i know that you know
you're gonna look bad when it comes out that you sent three innocent men to prison but which one
like let's weigh our options here but here's the thing. Nothing's happening to them.
Who gives a shit?
But it's like, they look bad.
You look bad either way, though.
So it's like.
But look bad isn't their problem.
They don't give a shit.
No, I know.
They look like shit, but they don't care.
I'm just saying it from like a human point of view.
What's going to happen?
Nothing.
Such bullshit.
They got away with it.
They can just keep saying no.
They can just keep going, and just citing precedents.
It's such a stain. it truly is and i really don't want this to stop no i don't really don't want but we have to all make sure it
doesn't stop i mean i swear i want to be i wanted to be at this hearing so bad we actually talked
about how we could make it happen and unfortunately unfortunately, we just weren't able to.
But we wanted to be there.
If there's an appeal and people can show up,
because I know Damien was like saying like supporters come,
like be there to support us here.
Let's go.
If that's still the case with the next one,
we're going to be on the lookout.
I really want to find a way to be there.
Like I just need to do something in this case.
I feel like I'm going crazy. Well, in this case has like been so important to you. And then it's become so important to me through you. Yeah. For I mean, you've been so involved in this case, like from
the start of it. It's so frustrating. So I know a lot of people were telling us about this. And I
was following it. Everybody was following it. But this was not the outcome any of us wanted but it's the outcome
a lot of us were unfortunately expecting because of how it's all gone but it's not over we got to
keep fighting for it and we won't stop talking about it until it is until justice is served
damn it so that was something i just needed to talk about because it was making me absolutely bonkers here
um but with that said let's move on to one frustrating unsolved case to another okay yeah
so we're going to be talking about like i said the story of blake tyler chapelle um i just want
to point out because i saw that uh sarah tourney on voices for justice we love sarah our
girl friend of the pod friend uh i saw that she had when i was like looking up stuff i saw that
she had done an episode about this case as well and i believe it said in the description that she
spoke to his mother melissa so i urge you to go listen to that because i'm sure it is like i'm
going to listen to it now that i've researched the case. Yeah. Because you know you're going to get it right from his mother. Yeah. So after you listen to this definitely
if you're looking for more information and to hear from like his family and everything I really urge
you to go listen to it because Sarah's great. We'll link it. We'll link Sarah's episode in the
show notes. We definitely will but I'm going to give you the lowdown here so blake was born february 7th 1994
in clayton clayton county georgia he lived with his mother melissa she worked as a in a management
position in retail for a long time she was a really hard worker she did everything she could
to provide for her family his dad was his biological dad was really not in the picture. And that was just like, whatever.
But Melissa took over everything.
So Blake was a super creative kid.
He had a lot of dreams.
He had a lot of goals.
He was trying his hand at a lot of different things as he was growing up.
Cool.
And he was kind of excelling at them, actually.
He was really good at what he was doing.
He liked to draw.
He was a really good artist. He modeled a bit. Cool. Which he was adorable. If you look up a picture of him,
I mean, he has like blue-gray eyes that are like very kind, sweet eyes. I was just gonna say he
has kind eyes. Yeah, he does. And he has this wavy, beautiful hair. He has this sweet smile.
Like you just look at him and you're just like, oh, I just want to pinch your cheek. But he was kind of, he was like a bit of a ham as well.
Oh, yeah.
He, when he was a kid, he would perform full on rap performances for his whole family.
Amazing. teenage-dom he would continue to rap for his friends who were all like we told him like you're
doing great but like he was not doing great which i love that they were just like you're great we
love a supportive squad yeah uh and he loved it yeah and whatever it makes you happy uh he was
also into skateboarding he kind of looked like the cool skateboarder guy got the haircut yeah
like that ever you know everybody was like oh my god swoon i was swooning so hard
over that haircut back in the day right and he had that he will get into it but like he had the
cool piercings like he was just a cool kid i love it now everyone in his family especially his mother
say that he was just a wonderful child and everybody loved him um she said one story i
read in an article i'm gonna link some of these articles that uh she said when
he was little he had learned in school about like don't drink and drive yeah and he thought that
meant don't drink anything and drive so one day she had an iced tea from the convenience store
and she went to get in the car and he jumped out of the car and was like i can't let you drink and
drive and she was like it's an iced tea oh my god but he was like no i
learned it in school that is so sweet i was like what a like precious oh i love that killed me
oh my goodness guys i remember listening to podcasts way back in the day, like four years ago before we...
Academy is a new scripted podcast that follows Ava Richards,
played by HBO's Industries' Myhala Herald,
a brilliant scholarship student who has to quickly adapt
to her newfound eat-or-be-eaten world.
Ava's ambitions take hold and her small-town values break
in hopes of becoming the first scholarship student to make The List,
Bishop Gray's all-coveted
academic top 10, curated by the headmaster himself. But after realizing she has no chance
at The List on her own, she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a secret underground society
that pulls the strings on campus life and academic success. If she bends to their will,
she'll have everything she's ever dreamed of. But at what cost?
Academy takes you into the world of a cutthroat private school where power, money, and sex collide in a game of life and death.
Follow Academy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can binge all episodes of Academy early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. I even had one and I was hearing all about some kind of
magical thing and I was like, what is this all about? And it was all about Curology. And I was
like, I don't know, guys, I got doubts. I've tried a lot of skincare routines. I've tried a lot of
different products and I've never really seen much of a result until I actually gave Curology a chance, everybody.
All right, let me add a quick little bit of context, though, if you don't know what Curology
is.
Curology is game-changing custom skincare made for you by a dermatology provider.
This dermatology provider is going to create a custom prescription cream for your specific
goals.
Maybe your goals are tackling acne.
Maybe you got some clogged pores up on your face, you got skin texture you want to work on,
dark spots, fine lines, I don't know. You've got a lot going on. But what you're going to do is,
you're going to log on, you're going to take a short online quiz, you're going to upload some
pics of yourself, selfie time, baby. And if it's a good fit, they are going to ship that formula
right to your door. Custom formula. It even has your freaking name on the bottle I get my shipment every two months and I think it's
been close to two years at this point actually since I started using Curology no joke I would
not go back I get so stoked when my new bottle comes in the mail sometimes I'm not even done
with the last one and I'm like oh I just want to open this one so it's like the same thing I don't know why but when I started noticing my fine lines
and you know just like some dark areas I was like excuse me what what is this about but now I have
seen such a significant change spots I had on my face are not noticeable neither are the fine
the fine lines and I just didn't realize how easy this process was going to be. It's making a few simple changes that has made me feel so much more confident now. You can start your Curology journey
just like I did with a free 30-day trial at Curology.com slash morbid. Just pay five dollars
for shipping and handling. That's C-U-R-O-L-O-G-Y.com slash morbid to start your free 30-day trial.
Cancel anytime. Pres prescription is subject to consultation
um but she said he would have done anything for anyone he would give you the shirt off his back
even if it was his last shirt he was just that kid why is it always like it is like this and
this he really just seemed like a really cool guy. Like, and he would have become such a cool adult, I feel like.
In fact, according to an article in the Noonan Times Herald, he would also bring in stray animals and stray kids home.
Oh my goodness.
Melissa, his mom, said that he would want to feed animals.
Like, he would bring, he loved animals.
He would bring them into the house and be like, it's a stray.
We have to feed them.
We have to let them stay here and keep them warm. And she was like, okay. Like, she was like, he loved animals he would bring them into the house and be like it's a stray we have to feed them we have to let them stay here and keep them warm and she was like okay like she was like he
loved it so what a kind human and then he would also bring kids in and be like hey this kid got
locked out like because they got you know they were home late yeah and like their parents were
trying to teach him a lesson by just like locking the door oh man and they'd be like well you know
like can we give him some food and like can he stay here and melissa would just be like okay like sure we all had that stray
friend growing up i was the stray friend growing up you were the stray friend and my friend's family
always they always fed me there you go well in this blake's family like melissa they seem like
a family that didn't always have a ton of physical stuff to give because they were like struggling
but they always gave anyway like they didn't have it but they gave it anyway and it's like those are
like gems of people they are and i feel like those are the people that always have just like the
worst luck and the most unfortunate and don't deserve to go through this stuff no nobody does
now according to an article at 11alive.com, his friends agreed with family saying
he was just super lovable. His longtime childhood friend Max said, quote, he was hilarious. He was
one of the funniest people I knew. If you were down in a bad mood, he would make you laugh somehow.
He was always just right there. And a stroll through a couple of the Facebook pages associated
with Blake and his case, there's like an RIP Blake one. There's a justice
for Blake one. That will tell you everything you need to know about him. His friends and family
who comment on those and even those people who like knew him in passing really have nothing but
amazing things to say about him. They comment on pictures of him and say like he was such a goofball.
He really let it he he was the light up the room kind of guy.
He was someone who could bring people out of the deepest of funks.
Like, people will look at pictures on those pages and somebody will be like, I remember
that day I was in such a bad mood and he got me out of it.
Like, that smile right there.
It hurts my heart.
Yeah.
Getting to know him through the people who loved him really makes this case unique because
you can stroll through those and be like, wow, I feel like I know him. Now, Melissa, his mother was quoted as saying, quote,
he always looked at the best in people. He loved people. His friends were so very important to him.
I don't think he ever had an enemy in his life. Wow. Now, it was a devastating blow, though,
when she suffered, Melissa suffered a really bad medical diagnosis oh no and she had
to stop working due to complications so obviously she was supporting their family and this was
sometime around 2006 2007 i believe um and she was supporting their family so this was a really
tough financial blow they struggled a lot and blake definitely felt it as he grew up but he even wrote about it
for a school paper saying that he and his mother had nowhere to live for three months but they had
each other oh gosh and in the paper which he titled poverty and i think this is also a very
big testament to how his mother raised him absolutely because he talks about what they
went through but the and he says the things that he had taken for granted before, the things he sees people continue to take for granted now.
He talked about how he's so thankful for everything he does have and that everyone needs to take a step back and remember that it can always be worse.
It was like a really insightful paper that honestly is really relevant at all times to all people.
Yeah.
Like when you lose things you
suddenly become aware of how lucky you are to have them and it's better practice to just be
thankful for what you have which is what he was saying in this paper and i think that's kind of
a testament to how he was raised that even though they were struggling he was clearly taught like
you know what let's be thankful that we have each other and we're gonna get through this not what
we don't yeah now when things started to turn around a bit and some sense of stability returned
he was still in the mindset of making money and trying to be self-reliant of course yeah
because he had experienced yeah poverty exactly so he started a little side hustle business
where he would buy like big things of monster energy drinks and sell them to kids at school
for like a little bit higher of a price, thus making a profit.
I mean, a fucking smart businessman.
An entrepreneur mind at work.
People used to get in trouble for doing that at my school.
Which was like so annoying.
But it's like, that's just business minded.
That's all.
Honestly, like you're, I'm teaching people better thoughts than the school is.
Exactly.
Like by doing that.
I'm saying.
He was able to save up and get a Guitar Hero game, which was like huge back then.
Hell yeah, it was.
And he was like obsessed with it.
Guitar Hero was like his thing.
Who was not?
And his mother said he was so good at it.
And his friend said this, that he could turn his back to the screen and play the songs perfectly.
Oh my God.
And his favorite one to do was Carry On, Wayward Son.
Oh, great song
now hard not to sing right now it's really hard not to now he also collected tabs from monster
energy drink cans and he would have people that he sold these cans to give him the tabs back
because he could eventually trade them in to get a monster dirt bike oh shit like he got enough to
get a bike and he got it i did not know that
that was even a thing you could do he was like i got a goal i want a bike so i'm gonna get this
we have a little entrepreneur on our hands i'm saying and this is just setting goals no matter
what they are and he stuck to them yeah so he's obviously finding himself capable of that and he
got the bike yeah he got the bike and it was like his pride and joy. And he had like the potential to do something later in life. And it's a shame he wasn't given the chance because he had
that like mind. Business mindset. He had a business mind, but he also had this really like empathetic
mind, it seems. And he had a really like, he was able to look at both sides. He was able to say,
I need to be thankful. I've struggled, but now I'm here. Like he had a lot that he could have
carried with him
through life that I think would have served him really well. And it seems like he would have.
And it's like a real shame. Now, in fact, he may have become a lawyer later in life. That's what
he said he wanted to be. He had taken broadcasting classes in high school and he was toying with the
idea of becoming a television anchor. Oh, cool. But he was really interested in becoming an attorney and just helping people. Now, he was always concentrated on helping people and again,
very evidenced as to the fact that he would take in people and animals into his home. He was just
a caring guy. Now, there was a very dark event that happened before he went missing. And it's
something that's heavily discussed today without a ton of details now
blake was dating a girl somewhere around may 2011 he was living in a trailer park in clayton
county when this happened the girlfriend was 16 years old he was 17 years old so normal teenage
relationship she had run away from home though and she wanted to stay with blake no one is quite
sure the circumstances that led her to this or exactly what the plan was but her parents did
find out specifically her stepfather and they came looking for her now there is a may 28th 2011
clayton county police report that says police were called to the trailer park and when they arrived
they found blake had been violently assaulted oh no he reported he was hit in the face and the head thrown to the ground and
kicked at least twice more to the face while on the ground witnesses reported they saw the
girlfriend's stepfather and that he was walking around and that he had actually come right up to
people asked where blake was and then lifted his shirt to show a handgun tucked into his pants.
And he was with another adult man when he did this.
And he told the witness, tell him I'm looking for him.
What?
Yeah.
So the stepfather assaulted Blake.
And hopefully he's like still in prison for doing so.
What the fuck?
So witnesses, yeah. hopefully is like still in prison for doing so what the fuck so witnesses yeah so witnesses then
saw the stepfather grab blake's then girlfriend put her in the truck and leave now on july 2nd
2011 blake was the one put into can cleeton county jail for custodial interference because he was 17
and she was 16 she was a minor and he was considered an adult interfering with her
parents they put him in jail after he spent 16 days in jail after bit having been assaulted by
a grown man yeah and what happened to the man what happened to the stepdad well and he spent 16 days
in jail he had to wait to get bond he was raising money to get bond he wasn't
released until july 18th what no as far as i could tell i don't see what happened to the stepfather
are you not nothing was done now luckily the prosecution decided to drop this case because
the ex-girlfriend told everyone that blake had encouraged her to go home and she was the one
who decided to
run away it wasn't his fault he had done nothing wrong he's just giving her shelter and he was
literally like you need to go home like you can't like you can't stay here we can't make this happen
here like we got to figure this out she ran away from home like this should have been that and from
the sounds of it probably for good reason uh yeah so he was still set to be in court on October 24th of 2011, but this never happened.
Now, understandably, this entire event really shook him.
Yeah.
Like, in a big way.
He was really affected by it.
After all, he had been assaulted by grown men.
And then thrown in jail.
Thrown in jail for 16 days for doing absolutely nothing wrong and had actually suffered a concussion from the assault.
But he had refused to go to the hospital because he was worried it would cost too much.
Oh, my God.
America.
Seriously.
Seriously.
The fact that that was even his concern.
Now, he was closing off a bit after this.
And his mother said he was suffering from selective muteness where he would go completely silent if he was nervous or scared like he was all and he was also starting to dabble a little
bit into drugs but wasn't getting into like a ton of trouble or anything like he wasn't like
smoking pot yeah i think he was just like he might have been doing like i'm i don't even want to
point to anything because i don't know but he wasn't going like ham he wasn't getting like
arrested he wasn't getting in trouble. He wasn't getting like arrested.
He wasn't getting in trouble with cops or anything.
It just like was not a great time.
Yeah.
And it was clearly a time where he was suffering from some like PTSD type symptoms.
That sounds just like PTSD actually.
Very understandable.
I mean, that was a very big traumatic event.
Like a grown man just beat you up
and then you ended up in jail.
Yeah.
And you have a court date.
Even though the prosecution is saying they're going to drop it. That's scary. And you
don't know. Yeah. Now after this, the family moved away to Sonoya in Coweta County with Melissa's
boyfriend because they wanted to get, they wanted to get out of Clayton County because they were
worried about Blake's safety. And honestly, they were worried that the stepfather would look for
him again. Like that's how scared they were. They were so worried that they wouldn't let Blake have any contact
with friends in Clayton County because they didn't want it to get back to the ex-girlfriend's family.
Like where he even was.
Yeah. Now, the gun and threats and assault are certainly enough to make these fears very valid,
in my opinion. And to be clear, the police say they have cleared this man, the stepfather,
as a suspect in what would later happen to Blake. the police say they have cleared this man the stepfather as a suspect
in what would later happen to blake i'm sure they have i i would like to know exactly how but yeah
i'm sure they have okay that's all i'll say about it i haven't heard all the details so i will wait
to form an opinion until the end so blake was doing well in the new town and made a lot of
friends he started dating a girl.
I'm not going to say her name because she is listed in some things,
but in some things she's not.
So I don't know.
I'm just not going to.
So I'm just going to say he started dating a very nice girl.
A gal.
Very adorable.
They were adorable together.
She was quoted as later saying he was country.
He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he really was.
And she said his laugh
was the thing that she loved the most about him and a lot of his friends share this same sentiment
about him his sense of humor and laugh is often called out as being like very unique and very
special yeah i just feel like he's like that friend that you had like that you can point to
that one friend you know what i mean and you see like there's a lot of video of him and like pictures of him and you're like i know that kid yeah we like you know
what i mean like i love that kid yeah so it's just like oh his mom melissa said when they moved from
clayton county it was obviously tough on him but what made him so happy was he discovered they were
moving to a place with a fishing pond readily available to him oh cool she revealed that fishing was probably the thing that blake loved the most which is why his
girlfriend was like he wouldn't admit it but he was pretty country i love it i love fishing no he
started doing little things like like a little bit of rebellious things again he wasn't getting
into big trouble or anything no and you know his he just had to uproot his life a lot of course
he's gonna rebel a bit yeah he got a lip piercing the snake bite bottom lip do you remember when the cool kid got their
snake bites the boys who got the snake bites come on my brother-in-law has snake bites there you go
uh but everybody loves a snake bite tattoo it just worked for him he also got a playboy tattoo
on the left side of his chest.
Fucking icon.
Melissa was not happy with the tattoo.
No?
She said, you know, but teenagers are gonna teenager. But she said,
he did not tell me he was getting that tattoo. I happened to see it when he was changing his shirt once and she was not pleased.
The classic story.
Of course. But his girlfriend said later that he would actually do piercings for his friends as
well. And he was actually pretty good at it. Oh, sick oh sick again another thing he was excelling at so fun now according to
just flip the dog.com which by the way i recommend going to that site because that site i know it
sounds like like what they've got a ton of really in-depth articles and stories like true crime
stories all kinds of stuff they just do a really good job they did a great job covering this case um but sometime in the fall of 2011 blake actually
started a handwritten bucket list he had it had a hundred things he wanted to accomplish on it
and it was written in his own handwriting things that were on it were like hug my mom like i've
never hugged her before that tells that simple
thing on a bucket list tells you absolutely every last thing you need to know about him as right it
really does so precious another thing was prove to yourself you can do something you never thought
possible just i'm sorry i got chills saying that how old was he again he was 17 to have that
mindset like i can tell you for sure i did not have those ideas
at 17 years old i did not yeah everybody's an asshole at 17 not like yeah he's got these like
i'm like fuck this kid sounds so cool like it sounds like what a fucking shame like what a
shame because he sounded like like another one on there saved someone's life. Oh, my God.
Another one realized how good your life is.
Wow.
Like, what insightful?
Like, what the fuck?
Yeah.
He was deep.
I love it because mixed among these, like, holy shit things were, like, be in a movie.
Yeah, like everything.
Stay a night in a mansion.
Fuck yeah.
Then one that absolutely shattered my heart was become a grandfather.
I know. Doesn't that, like?'t that like it's different it really does it's just like man like and like people like that 17 year old boy is
thinking like you know what i want to become a grandpa one day i want to be a grandfather like
very few and far between i can tell you that much that one like broke my heart yeah but this brings
us i did that's just like you need to know blake you need to know his friends you need to know his family
to know how devastating this whole thing is so this brings us to the evening of october 15th 2011
this was only months after the assault that rocked his world he was beginning to form a new life with
new friends in a different county he was 17 years old the time, and he's now going to school at East Coetta High School.
This evening, there was a homecoming dance, and he was excited to be taking his new girlfriend to it.
Blake was wearing black dress pants, a white tank top, a brand new white Fruit of the Loom t-shirt over his tank top,
a black dress shirt over that, like super sleek.
Shop. t-shirt over his tank top a black dress shirt over that like super sleek shop he also had on black ralph lauren shoes with rl in white lettering on the sides of them he had stopped with his mom
at cole's before the dance because he decided he wanted a tie that matched his girlfriend's dress
oh my gosh and i think it was purple i'm pretty sure now so through texting pics of choices to
her like they've together picked the
one that matched like come on that's so so cute yeah so Melissa his mom dropped him off at his
girlfriend's house and his girlfriend's mom Shannon drove the two of them to have dinner
together at a sushi restaurant called Tokyo's cute he loved sushi by the way and I knew you
would love that I do in fact his mother said he loved sushi he by the way. Same. And I knew you would love that. I do. In fact, his mother said he loved sushi, he loved expensive steaks.
If you took them out, he was going to buy the most expensive thing on the menu.
What kind of guy?
Yeah.
Now, Shannon, the girlfriend's mom, then drove them to the dance after they were finished
with dinner around 7 p.m.
The dance, by all accounts, was great for everyone.
Yeah.
His girlfriend said they danced all night.
Blake ended up taking off his black dress shirt and tie because he was having so much fun and he was like sweating. accounts was great for everyone. Yeah. His girlfriend said they danced all night. Blake
ended up taking off his black dress shirt and tie because he was having so much fun and he was like
sweating. You know he tied that tie right around his head like all his boys did. You know he did.
But he said she said they were just like having a ton of fun the whole night.
There's pictures of this like everywhere like the night is well documented.
If you're listening to this podcast
then chances are good you are a fan of the strange dark and mysterious and if that's true then you're
in luck because once again mr ball and podcast strange dark and mysterious stories is available
everywhere you get your podcasts each week on the mr ball and podcast you'll hear new stories about
inexplicable encounters,
shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between.
Like our recent episode titled White Dust.
After a middle-aged couple failed to answer their daughter's messages and calls,
the daughter drives the few hours to her parents' house to check on them.
But after arriving and seeing both her parents' cars in the driveway,
the daughter gets an uneasy feeling and just can't stomach going inside.
To hear the rest of that story and hear hundreds more stories like it,
follow Mr. Ballin Podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
Prime members can listen early and add free on Amazon Music. most of you guys have probably heard me sing the praises of pros which is uh the world's most
personalized hair care and guys if you haven't i have to tell you please turn your listening ears
on silent coyote all of the above because i am getting wild results since I started using my customized, by the way, Proz products. I am obsessed with this
product. My hair has never looked shinier. Also, I do treat my hair a little bit like butt, at least
I used to. Now I don't. But I feel like Proz has made my hair so much stronger over the years that
I've been using it because Proz has been like an OG sponsor on Morbid. I've been using them a while.
that I've been using it because Proz has been like an OG sponsor on Morbid. I've been using them a while. So I know that Proz knows there's more to you than just your hair type. Proz has
given over 1 million consultations with their in-depth hair quiz, which is exactly how I got
started. It's super duper easy. They're just going to ask you questions about, I don't know,
like your zip code, your eating habits, what kind of hair you have. Is it super damaged? Is it
over-processed or is it virgin hair that you've never dyed that you've taken care of your whole life?
And then by analyzing over 85 personal factors, pros will determine a unique blend of ingredients
to treat your exact concerns. They also have a review and refine feature. So that's going to
let you tweak your formula for any reason, like change of address, hair color, your diet. Or if
you go on vacation and the water's
going to be different there, you should get ready for that ahead of time, let pros know, and they'll
give you a better formula, like a better suited formula for that area. As a carbon neutral
certified B Corp, by the way, pros is an industry leader in clean and responsible beauty. All their
ingredients are sustainably sourced, ethically gathered,
and cruelty-free. They are also the first custom beauty brand to go carbon neutral.
If you're not 100% positive Proz is the best hair care you've had, they will take the products back,
no questions asked. Proz is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your free in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today.
consultation and get 15% off your first order today. Go to pros.com slash morbid. That's pros.com slash morbid for your free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off.
Now, Shannon, the girlfriend's mom, picked them up around 10 30 p.m. and they went back to the
girlfriend's house. They watched a movie together.
Somewhere in the 1130 hour,
Shannon drove Blake to his friend Austin's house where he was planning to spend the night.
Now, I'm going to tell you a lot of like back and forth here
of where he went,
but I'm at the end going to kind of explain the route a little better
and I'm going to explain like how I think this route went
because a lot of it is unknown. Okay. I also have a picture of it on the on the monitor in front of Ash and I so
that she can also see it so we can have like a proper discussion about it. But just so you know
we're going to get into like the roads and everything a little more later. I love when you
do that because it helps. I love doing that. Yeah it is it makes it much easier. Now Melissa said
this was Blake's first time staying overnight
somewhere since the move from clayton county she was still nervous she was worried about him being
by himself overnight she was still like protecting him yeah and you know it's homecoming like of
course you're gonna be nervous like you don't know what's going on yeah and she said like you know
he had stayed places when we were in clayton county but that was before that assault happened
yeah that was before this man had done something to him I'm worried something else is gonna happen
to him yeah that will rock you so when he got to Austin's after the dance and after his girlfriend's
house he called his mom Melissa immediately when he got there he told her what an amazing time they
had it was such a fun time we danced all night told her all about it. She was like, he seemed very happy.
Like he had had a great time.
Nothing had gone wrong.
So she told him, you can stay at Austin's house tonight,
but I want you to stay there and not leave.
So the last thing he said to her was, mama, I love you.
I'll call you tomorrow.
Now Austin says they just hung out texting friends.
I think they had gone to
um a convenience store at one point to try to like buy cigarettes or something but they were
they couldn't so they came back home and he said they were just like texting friends hanging out
and he said around 2 a.m blake texted his girlfriend telling her he was going to come
back over her house and just like so romantic and she was like sure whatever
and she went back to sleep because she was like okay whatever yeah like sure now austin recalls
sometime between the 2 and 3 a.m hour he was told he told him he was going to his girlfriend's house
like came in the room was like i'm going austin says he gave him a jacket because it was freezing
outside which like adorable uh in house skis because he was like you can't like knock on
the door you know they're just coming yeah and he was wearing the same black dress pants and white
t-shirt that he had on at the end of the dance so it was close to 5 a.m when blake crawled through
his girlfriend's window she said they just hung out and they talked about the dance they just like
laid on her bed and like cuddled and talked about what a good time they had now she said he was wearing a white hoodie from arapostle with the lettering in brown down i think
one arm when she saw him and not a jacket maybe the friend had just said like that was a jacket
later austin said that was not the jacket he had given him huh weird um just a little note that
that was not the jacket he had given him now that was a sweatshirt that
blake had brought with him to austin's in a backpack okay so i don't know if he just switched
them out or what just an interesting little tidbit maybe the jacket was uncomfy and he just
wanted that instead but then her grandmother walked in her bedroom oh no and i guess she just
walked in and was like she probably knew what was well and i think she
was like i'm gonna tell your mom and then just walked out like she was just like i'm just giving
you a heads up i'm gonna let your mom know what's grandma so i guess blake was like oh i gotta go
so he goes and climbs out the window out the in you know immediately shannon comes in the room
and is not pleased because of course we've all been well i would not be pleased either and blake
knew that so did the girlfriend so immediately blake starts texting his girlfriend and shannon
his girlfriend's mom saying sorry just apologizing profusely oh my god to the point shannon said she
ended up telling him blake everything's okay like everything's gonna be okay because she said he was
so apologetic and she was like i knew he was a good kid like right
so i she just told him like it's cool man like i i love you it's good like we're good but he was
like very remorseful like he was like oh my god please don't hate me it sounds like he like
respected yeah it seems like he was a respectful kid you know so he's walking back to austin's
house now this was about a three mile walk i think it was 3.2 miles walking back to austin's house now this was about a three mile walk i think it was 3.2 miles
walking back to austin's house around 5 30 a.m he texted his girlfriend saying he was quote
getting pulled over by a cop which is weird because he was walking yeah he told her he was
walking near a bridge at this point then a few minutes later he said the cop talked to him
asked him where he was headed checked checked his ID, and then left.
Okay.
Which is whatever.
A little strange, but like, okay.
But I could also see a cop seeing a young guy walking and being like, hey, where are you going?
Like, you good?
Yeah.
It's just like, I guess that makes sense.
But the weird thing about this, I suppose, is there's no record of this.
suppose is there's no record of this no officer has ever said that they stopped him and there is no report of anything of this kind i and i guess i understand why there wouldn't be a report like
they would have to though oh if you stop someone and you check their id you have to you would have
to make some kind of note of it okay and even if there was no report which like that would be bad
somebody well that's what one of you did i don't get that whole part and it's like this is a very
big case you would think that officer would come forward and be like hi that was me yeah i mean
you know his name at this point we don't even know where he was right and he could come forward
and say this is where he was this is where he was going this is how he looked right this is you know
this is how he seemed to me no one has come forward no one will say that they did it they've
no record of it that's probably because they didn't make a report of stopping him so like they
it would lead to like a tailspin and that's really shitty that they're not willing to do so see i
don't even think that's it because that's not that big a deal no like if they came forward and said
oh yeah we didn't make a report of it because we just looked at his id and left no one's gonna fault them for that who gives a shit
to not come but that that's not enough to not come forward no i don't get it so so he then texted
his girlfriend something like it's like it's really freezing out here and then and this was
around 5 30 as well and that was the last communication now his girlfriend and his and
his girlfriend's mom kept trying to get him to respond but they were getting nothing and they
were like huh maybe his phone died like i don't know so around 9 a.m they call austin and they're
like hey like he's back there right we haven't been able to get in contact with him and austin
gets up and is like yeah he's not here he never came back so they're like what
the fuck so shannon and his girlfriend picked up austin they went to like so the mom and the
girlfriend picked austin up and they all went searching immediately they called shannon's
husband matt he also helped in the search but they found nothing it was around 11 a.m that they
happened to see a police car driving by and they stopped
this police car and were like, here's the story. And they told them Blake is missing. Now, Melissa,
his mom was informed around 1130 a.m. that she was basically informed you have to file a missing
person's report. And she was like, what the fuck are you talking about? So she spoke to Austin
and she said, what do you mean he's missing? He was at your house. she said what do you mean he's missing he was at your house
like what do you mean he's missing did he get was he stolen out of your house like what happened
because she has no idea and she and austin was like he went he went to see his girlfriend in
the middle of the night and he had never come back so unfortunately it was immediately looked
at by police that blake had voluntarily run away now they, they said, yeah. How often do people really run away?
I know.
Oh, my God.
And again, like, overdo.
Right.
Do too much.
I'll never be mad at you for doing too much and expending too much resources.
Nobody's ever going to be mad.
I will always be mad at you for not expending enough.
So it's like, just do too much.
Look into it.
Overreact.
Right.
It's fine.
I will turn the other way if it doesn't work out. Because that's the frustrating thing, and I always say that whenever it's like just just do too much look into overreact right it's fine i will i will turn the other way if it doesn't work that's the frustrating thing and i always say that whenever it's brought up
but it's like you don't know these people yeah their parents know them their parents know like
at least most of them would know if their kid was about to run away or not you know and it's like
again just treat it like it's not yeah there's There's no harm in that. No. There's much harm in the other way, but there's no harm in over-treating it.
It's frustrating.
Now, they cited his issues in the court case, even though it was being dropped, for reason
for him wanting to run away.
So as weeks go by with absolutely no citing of him and no, nothing, like nothing is coming
forward, his family was like, this is not the case.
He did not run away. And he wouldn't just leave his family. And his girlfriend was like this is not the case he did not run away
and he wouldn't just leave his family and his girlfriend was like he wouldn't just leave me
like out of nowhere no they never believed he would just leave without telling anyone he was
just not that type of kid he loved his family as evidenced by his bucket list by the way he was
like and even just like his last text to his girlfriend like he would just never talk to her
again and just say the last thing is really freezing out here like no that would not be no and eventually even his
girlfriend though was starting to kind of believe like did he just leave like did he just like she
was like devastated she was like did he just like bail on me yeah well maybe she was thinking like
maybe that's the reason he came over and spent time with me that morning exactly and even though
she couldn't understand why,
and again, it didn't fit into their time together
that night or that morning.
She was like, I just don't see it.
She was honestly probably just in like self-preservation mode
at that and just like had to believe
that he voluntarily left
instead of thinking something awful happened to him.
But she said they had talked about the court case before
and that she was actually going to go with
him like support him and she said he was rightfully nervous of course but she was like he knows he
didn't do anything wrong like we would have got through it together he has like support system
here and they were going to drop it anyway yeah and she was like even if like something went awry
like we were all here for him yeah like i think he knew that now she was so confused why he would
bail it just wasn't who he was and she was quoted as saying he always kept his word like he was
always someone who kept his word it wouldn't have been that so things are still quiet then five
weeks after blake went missing melissa his mom got a phone call this person said nothing on the phone
what the fuck she could hear a little bit of noise happening in the background somewhere she just listened at first then she was like is this blake and then she was
like do you have blake and she started begging them please speak to me is this blake please tell
me if you have blake nothing they hung on for minutes and then hung the phone up who does that
to somebody like who the fuck does no matter what that was what the fuck i i have like chill
bumps from that like because it's like first of all that's a fucked up prank and if you hear that
mother saying is this blake because it's the person that has blake you what the fuck is wrong
with you who are you to sit on the phone and listen to a pleading mother and it's like as a
prank if it was a prank or yeah either way who are you to do that to
somebody it's that but it was still strange and it was near thanksgiving that she said so she said
that happened then thanksgiving came or it was coming and she said suddenly it was like her hope
just deflated and she said she got this sudden wash over her that said he's not alive anymore. Oh.
And she's a mom.
Yeah, moms know.
Like she knows.
And to me, because as we'll see, we do not have a timeline for Blake.
We don't know when he died.
It is possible he could have been kept somewhere.
He could have been kept somewhere.
Maybe she knew the second it happened.
Maybe.
She's a mom.
I fully believe that shit, like, how close they were.
Yeah.
That's just, which, like, kills me because I'm like, I can't imagine her feeling that.
Like, ugh.
So December 19th, 2011, two months after Blake went missing, Blake's family and friends received the worst news possible.
when missing blake's family and friends received the worst news possible a body was found face down in a creek under a bridge on the summer grove parkway in east noonan the creek ran along the
summer grove golf club and it was also right along the route that he would have taken between the two
homes okay so by december 22nd only a couple later, it was announced via a press release that based on his tattoo and jewelry, they identified the body as that of Blake Chappelle, who was 17 years old at the time.
He had been found wearing a white t-shirt and underwear, and he was face down in the water.
Nothing else.
He wasn't wearing his pants, his shoes, his sweatshirt that he was wearing when he left his girlfriend's house.
But the cause
of death was a gunshot wound to the head oh my goodness now the autopsy was not released
and no one has said when he was actually killed there were circling reports that he was possibly
in the creek for three days but where he was before that for literal months right and how decomposed he was we don't know
right no one will say how long he was dead before his body was placed in that water
no one will say how long he was in the water no one we have no timeline here he could have been
in that water for a day and is there did they give a reason for why they won't release the autopsy
they did he's a minor no it's because he's technically not a minor.
He's an adult.
Okay.
So they did come out later and say it's one of those things
where only the person who did this knows certain things
and we want to keep that stuff to the chest
because we don't want somebody else.
But there's a lot of things that I'm like,
I don't know, you got to give us something here.
Like the times of death and stuff, I'm like,
I understand to a point, but like I don't know. You got to give us something here. Like the times of death and stuff. I'm like, I understand to a point, but like, I want more information.
Well, no, so like it's been 11 years, so maybe we could get a little extra.
At this point, I think we can maybe trickle out a few more pieces of information. And also like
his family deserves it. Like his mom really wants to know what the fuck happened here.
And she's got nothing. Like she's not getting anything.
And there are times where family solve
cases yeah it's because they know the person they know more about it you know and what's crazy too
is his clothing was never found yeah that's weird his pants his his shoes his sweatshirt um and
no wallet no phone which were on him when he left his girlfriends he was texting with that phone the night he went missing and no keys to austin's house nothing and there's no way to like ping any of his movements afterwards
well we'll get into that okay so now we're going to come to the let's take a look at the route he
would have taken okay because i was curious just to see this. I have never been to Georgia. I do not have any knowledge of Georgia.
It's hard for me to picture.
So off to Google Maps and Google Earth I go.
So here we are.
I'm bringing it up for you so you can see it.
Thank you.
This is our beginning spot.
Okay.
So the route from his girlfriend's home around the Avondale Circle area of Noonan, Georgia,
to Austin's previous residence, which
was along the Highwoods Parkway, which is west of Summer Grove Park, is like I said before,
about 3.2 miles. If he took the suggested route and possibly the easiest to travel route. But
from what I looked at, it seems like there was a slightly better route than what they will suggest.
But from what I looked at, it seems like there was a slightly better route than what they will suggest.
Okay.
They suggest you take this route.
You should go from Avondale Circle, take a left onto Vanderbilt Parkway. From there, you would likely take a left on Mary Freeman Road.
And then you have it where you would kind of stay or bear left onto Lower Fayetteville Road.
Yep. You would do this for a long time until it meets up with Highwoods Parkway. Okay. But judging from where he was found
and where he was texting his girlfriend about a bridge, I think that he went a ways up on
Fayetteville Road, like right here. Yep. So I think he went a ways up there. And then he actually took a left at Summer Grove Parkway.
Okay.
And that's because...
Because that's a bit of a shortcut.
It is.
It looks like it was probably a bit shorter, or at least it seems like if you take that
straight, it dumps you right off at the Highwoods Parkway.
Right.
So it's going to dump you right there.
But he was found in a creek under a bridge
along the Summer Grove Parkway next to the golf club.
This road that I just described to you that I would have taken,
this road leads, it actually crosses over a creek,
which is White Oak Creek,
which runs directly under the Summer Grove Parkway
in a spot that is next to the Summer Grove Golf Club.
I see it. Okay.
So I've looked and I haven't found it confirmed that he was found in this creek,
but that's the creek that runs next to the golf club.
It's connecting to Highwoods Parkway.
There's a bridge.
I don't see where else he would have been found.
And everything I saw says that he was found in a creek next to the
Summer Grove Golf Club, which is exactly where this was. And it's along that parkway. So it has
to be that. That's right there. There's nowhere else. So what I want to know is, did someone bring
him back there two months later along the same route? Yeah, that's the weird thing about this. And it's
like, why? Right. And again, we don't even know how long he was outside in the elements. We don't
know how long he was in the water. We don't even know how long he was dead for. He could have been
dead for, he could have been deceased for a week and we don't know it. So why is he still along the
same route he likely would have taken because again he's a missing person
we know what where he was going he was going from his girlfriend's house to austin's house
they've definitely searched that route well that's my question i was gonna say he couldn't
have been there had they searched that creek before or could you not find out there's no
to me that i didn't find out that they specifically did there's no way they didn't though right that
is the route like they know there's no way they didn't, though. Right. That is the route.
Like, there's no way they would have just, like, ignored that body of water.
Right.
For a missing person.
So to me, that says he wasn't in that creek before there.
And had to have been being held somewhere.
That's the thing. And again, why was he along the same route he would have taken?
Did someone follow him?
I feel like it would have been weird for it to be
a random thing that somebody just came across him while he was walking home yeah like how would they
even know he was there though unless they were following him that whole night and then they
somehow they dumped him there as like a like a something the thought of that is so terrifying
to think that he may have been followed that entire night. And then from and also what I saw was along this route, and I have to see if I can bring it up here somewhere. Along this route, there is like a hiking trail.
Can confirm. We just paused so that Elena could show me how to follow the trail and where this hiking trail came out and i have a fucking theory it's right there
so it's a hiking trail um it's before the lower fayetteville parkway turns into the summer grove
parkway it's right before that bend there's a connector trail and it's a hiking area it's a
big wooded area it's on the way was someone waiting there did they take him in there
well my question is too like i think it kind of comes off of what you're saying.
Somebody could have spotted him walking along that route, knew that they would get there faster through the connector trail to, like, I guess they knew where he was going.
And then went through the trail and got there before he did or right at the same time that he got onto summer summer grove parkway yeah
and that's and that begs the question are we talking about someone random or are we talking
about someone who is waiting for him right and it's like i just don't get this random thing i
don't i don't know i mean it happens obviously i think the thing that makes the random thing hard to believe is the fact that
we don't really know where he was for two months. And he, from the sounds of it, definitely wasn't
in that creek. I don't know where he was. I don't know if he was kept alive. I don't know what
happened here. Well, and that's the thing we did. Like, yeah, you don't know because the autopsy
wasn't released. So we don't know what state he was in when he was found we have no idea we don't know how long he was in the water even and that's what's
killing me and you had mentioned phone records like today could they ping some shit well the
phone records indicated that the last texts he sent were the ones apologizing to shannon and his
girlfriend and the ones where he told his girlfriend he was freezing um and that he had been pulled
over and released by a cop i hate that at the end of his life he was so told his girlfriend he was freezing and that he had been pulled over and released by a cop.
I hate that at the end of his life he was so stressed out.
I know. He was just like, I just got to get somewhere.
Now, Melissa, his mom, begged the police to track or triangulate his phone on that night
to try to find his movements, but she isn't sure they ever did.
Why would they not?
When 11 Alive reporter Savannah Levins asked Lieutenant Robinson, who is like the new person on this case, he's the one who's like currently on the case.
Sure.
She asked him about it and he said, quote, they've pulled some phone records, not necessarily triangulated, but we pulled some phone records.
But the area is pretty broad on that.
What?
Sir, what?
It wouldn't be broad if you triangulated.
Why are we not seeing where this phone is pinging off of?
I mean, it's 2011.
We know that he was sitting on his phone texting as he's walking back the whole time.
He's walking past all of these cell phone towers.
And it's just like you're not sure?
It's like, yeah, we pulled some phone records.
Like, not necessarily.
Did you or didn't you?
Like, what exactly are you doing?
Not necessarily is not an answer.
Nope.
Man.
Say no.
Say no, we did not.
Yes?
Yes or no?
Like, just say it.
Oh. say it. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, host of Wondery's podcast, American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, corruption in sports,
corporate fraud. In our newest series, we go to Baltimore, where in the spring of 2017,
a police corruption scandal shocked the
city. At the heart of it was an elite plainclothes unit called the Gun Trace Task Force. It was
supposed to be the Baltimore Police Department's best of the best, a group of highly decorated
detectives who excelled at getting drugs and guns off the streets. But they operated with
little oversight, creating an environment where criminal cops could flourish by falsifying
evidence and robbing suspects. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get
your podcasts. You can binge American Scandal, Police Corruption in Baltimore early and ad-free
right now on Wondery Plus. Hello! With HelloFresh, you get farm-fresh pre-portioned ingredients and
seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. Guys i don't know why you're still going to the grocery store count on hello fresh
to make home cooking easy fun and affordable and absolutely exquisite that's exactly why it's
america's number one meal kit so elena and i we've started actually getting the same hello fresh
meals i don't it's just like a thing that happened i don't know how it started i thought you were gonna say yeah um yes thank you and the other night keep that
microphone in front of you don't put it away because the other night we got one pan black
bean and poblano quesadillas with by the way a lime crema to drizzle on top or if you're me
to literally take multiple tablespoons and douse on top. Guys, holy. This is a meal. Out of
this galaxy. When I was done and there were not anymore because like we went to town, I was so
upset. They're really filling too. They are. Really filling. I would have overfilled myself. In a great
way. Oh my god, they are so, so good. You guys will love them, but that's not the only good meal that HelloFresh has. You can choose from 55, over 55 weekly options.
There's pre-portioned high quality ingredients and they're all picked up peak ripeness, which
is awesome.
HelloFresh delivers fresh quality produce from the farm to your door in less than a
week.
So you can savor summer flavors right at home.
And if you like have people over, honestly, if you're like trying to plan ahead, you can choose like the different quantities of meals. So you can get a meal for
like four people if you're having a little double date night and you can really impress your guests
with the quality of food. And by the way, HelloFresh is 72% cheaper than dining at a restaurant
and it's even cheaper than going grocery shopping. So not only is it putting money back in your pocket, it is making your stomach the happiest stomach on planet earth. I'm telling you,
go to hellofresh.com slash morbid16 and use code morbid16 for up to 16 free meals and three free
gifts and delicious, delicious life. I don't know. Again, that's HelloFresh.com slash Morbid16 and use code
Morbid16 for up to 16 free meals and three free gifts and like I just told you, delicious life.
In that interaction, he texted his girlfriend about the whole, like we said before, the cop
pulling him over. That one, I could not. I'm like, what? That's just like, I don't, that one stuck
with me. They can't find, again, any record of that event or anyone saying that they did it. And when they
asked Lieutenant Robinson about it, he said, quote, we're still kind of hazy as to what that
interaction is. But it didn't appear that our agency had contact with him. Is this detective's
middle name vague? Like hazy? You're hazy on whether one of your... You're an investigator.
And then he says, it doesn't appear our agency had contact with him.
It doesn't appear or they did or did not.
So who the fuck was that that pulled him over?
And I've seen it posited that this was a real police officer
and also that this was someone posing as a police officer.
Well, that was my question.
Something I thought of when you mentioned the police officer. I was like, was that a real police officer. Well, that was my question. Something I thought
of when you mentioned the police officer. I was like, was that a real police officer? Yeah,
like, was that real? And it's like, well, if he thought a cop was pulling him over, I'm like,
I wonder if they were in a marked car or not. Well, that's perfectly into what I was thinking,
because I don't know how he would have known that this person was a police officer if it
was someone posing, though. Because think about about it this person would probably need sirens or something because blake was walking if a car pulled up beside or behind him
he would probably not initially think an unmarked car was a police car right but he said to his
girlfriend that a cop was pulling him over so this and he said he was like in the process of pulling
him over so this person identified themselves as a
police officer somehow i'm not saying people don't do that like don't pose as a cop yeah we've seen
that happen but did they have a badge or a siren or a uniform i wonder to make him say for sure to
his girlfriend a cop is pulling me over potentially and not just some creep is following me i don't
know if it's a cop yeah like he was very clear in that message
a cop is pulling me over think about the hillside stranglers and that's why i'm like so this person
had to have something that identified them as a cop definitely at the very least though honestly
it could have been like a black like ford you know what i mean because if a black ford is behind me
i'm pulling over like i think yeah so it could have been that and then somebody dressed in like a police uniform really could have been enough and a siren
yeah any i mean it's true and it's like was that him saying was that even him saying that the cops
released well that's the other thing and then just to say it's freezing yeah it's freezing out here
no context or anything and was it someone else texting from his phone?
Like I've seen some people he knew question this saying he didn't really text that way, like the way that it was said.
Really?
So they said it didn't really seem like him, but they didn't know if they were just like looking at it too hard or if they were just like confused by it.
But they were like, I don't know.
A lot of people said like him saying a cop's pulling me over didn't make a lot of sense to them because they were like i don't know him a lot of people said like him saying a cop's
pulling me over didn't make a lot of sense to them because they were like he was walking i don't think
he would have said that he wouldn't have said pulling me over yeah i mean maybe in like the
stress of the moment maybe i guess just to play doubles on well another weird thing he left a
backpack at austin's house when he left for his, this backpack was confirmed to be there by Austin, but now he says it's lost.
What?
They were moving, apparently, and somehow it got lost in the move.
Okay.
But why wasn't it turned over to police immediately?
I'm just curious.
Like, why didn't the police ask for it?
Why didn't the police come get it?
That's what I mean.
Like, why wasn't this part of the whole, like, what? And his mother said that when he took it with him that night,
the backpack initially had the white hoodie he was wearing
when he got to his girlfriend's house.
It had, and obviously that isn't in there anymore,
so where the fuck is that?
He had had his phone charger, cologne, deodorant, and a knife,
which he kept on him always, but didn't have on him at the time
because he wasn't going to bring
a knife to a school dance right but he put it in his bag okay so that all should have been there
and it's gone and i'm interested to know if he had that knife with him when he went for the walk
if that was a knife that's what i'm wondering i'm assuming it was for some kind of protection
especially after what he had gone exactly so it's like was that still in the backpack was that on him if so it's not we don't
know where it is yeah and if so we still aren't even being told if he had knife wounds well that's
another thing that i was gonna ask we're not even sure if he had any kind of we don't even know
other than that gunshot wound exactly we don't even know if he had several gunshot wounds all
we know is that his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.
Right.
We don't know anything else about the condition of Blake's body.
Was his mother ever allowed to view his body?
They were allowed to view the body and they were like, they viewed him at the memorial. They said their goodbye. He was cremated.
Okay.
But I don't know what else, like nothing else is released about the can like what else what
other injuries could have been inflicted here right and if he had that knife with him did he
have knife wounds like i don't know but the investigation went into overdrive immediately
after this like they they really went for it i'm like did it uh they offered a twenty thousand
dollar cash reward for any
information leading to anything about this this was the highest award ever offered at the time
wow and actually police said the money didn't even seem to be a factor in the leads that they
were receiving people were calling and not giving a shit about the money they just wanted the killer
cop yeah it's a 17 year old boy that was yeah and they just wanted justice for blake which is like again a testament to blake now december 29th 2011 was his memorial service
like i said he was cremated but his family was able to say goodbye to him first
they played blake's favorite song carry on my wayward son stop yep melissa said quote my only
wish is that whoever did this, they ask God's forgiveness and
repent. That's what Blake would have wanted. And I have to try and forgive these people and move on.
But it's so hard. Sometimes I just feel like my life is over. To which I'm like, I just want to
hug Melissa. I do too. Because I'm like, oh, it's no one should ever have to go through this.
There has been very little to no movement in this case, which is so frustrating.
The police department, again, like we said, is holding a lot of this stuff close to the chest.
We don't know a lot about his death, nothing. I guess we can only hope that that's for the best.
Yeah, I mean, Lieutenant Chris Robinson said, and he took the case over in 2019,
so very recently, he said, quote, as suspects are developed, a lot of details
would only be known by those people, so we can't really release too much. Everything we received
has been run down and vetted and ruled out at this point. Without community support and people
who know something coming forward, it just makes it near impossible to get anywhere right now.
Now, there is still a $ twenty thousand dollar reward for information leading
to an arrest in blake's case uh callers can leave a tip for the newman noonan police at
770-254-2355 or crime stoppers of greater atlanta um you can remain anonymous you don't have to give
your name i'm going to put that information in the show notes so you have it again awesome um but this case like needs movement they need to figure out who did
this they need to find out what happened because there's so many just missing pieces there is so
many questions that need answers that's the thing and everybody deserves justice and yeah bleak
specifically deserves justice i just want to i want to see it for his family i want to see
it for him and his friends it's like and it's like his family has already gone through so much
and losing him and then they just they have no answers as to yeah how they lost him it's been
too long and i something needs to give here i don't know what but something needs to give here
and i want to like figure out a way to move this forward somehow because it like
really, it like irked me reading this. I was just like, come on. That's the thing. I feel like
sometimes it can feel so helpless. Yeah, it can. But the stuff that can be done,
whatever updates I have that I can give you, like things we can do, like anything,
I will make sure to let you know on the next episode or whatever episode we can find stuff on.
And if you have any information, like if you're from this area and you've been too scared to come forward or something like that, it's the right thing to do.
You can remain anonymous.
Remain anonymous.
Just call.
Say, I don't want anyone to know who I am.
Here's the information I have.
Because his family and he deserve it.
Yeah.
It's like, come on.
Come on.
It's been 11 years at this point and he deserve it. Yeah. It's like, come on. Come on. It's been
11 years at this point. Let's go. Right. But that is the case of Blake Chappelle. Like I said,
Sarah Turney interviewed his mom, Melissa. I urge you to go listen. I'm going to go listen to it now.
We're going to link it in the show notes. Yeah. So I'm going to link it in the show notes. I'm
sure she did amazing. She always does. Oh, and you know you can get to know blake and
his family more because melissa seems like a great mom and like i'm just really sad for her i want to
give her a hug so yeah let's hope that somehow some way it can be moved forward yeah everybody
let's manifest let's figure it out guys let's do it and in the meantime we hope that you keep
listening and we hope you keep it
weird but not so weird that if you don't have any hold on i messed up but not so weird that
if you have any information about this case you don't come forward with it yes i feel like
somebody knows something somebody knows something and you can remain anonymous just do it I'm sorry. Thank you.