Morbid - Episode 335: Solving The Decades Old Murder of Loretta Jones

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Loretta Jones was brutally murdered in her own Utah home back in 1970, all while her four year old daughter, Heidi was in the next room. Heidi knew all along who had killed her mother, she would try to tell the police herself and her grandmother would try to reiterate Heidi’s message as well but the police in the original investigation never considered Heidi a witness. Because of that and a lack of urgency, they were never able to get Tom put away for murder. Heidi never gave up on seeking out justice for her mother and 46 years later, because of Heidi and some great detective work, Loretta Jones murder would be solved.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey, weirdos. I'm Alena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. It is indeed my friend. It is. We're going to get right into the story today. It's an ash tail today, but before we do, it's an ash centric tail today, excuse me, but

before we do, we just wanted to mention that there's a lot of shit going on right now in the world and it's pretty rough and it's got everybody feeling some type of way, including us. And we just wanted to say that we stand with the rights of people with uteruses and anyone else who is infected, infected, affected by this entire thing. One hundred percent. It feels like we've all been infected with like hatred. So that's happened. I think the whole country has.

Yeah, I think we're definitely going to do something. We're going to take some kind of action. We're going to let you guys know when we have gathered up what we're going to do. But we really just wanted to say that, you know, like everybody deserves the right to their own body. And that's how we feel. If you don't feel that way, that's your business, but that's how we feel. So we just wanted to say that. And you know, just everybody, can everybody be fucking nice to each other? Like guys say this all the time.

Yeah, just getting worse and worse out there. And I keep seeing, you know, it's been, I will say like my TikTok especially is like just this flood of creators that are just supporting each other and like supporting People with uteruses and people who are affected with this and it's been a very nice thing to see But I hate that we have to do it and it's but you know what that's what we're gonna say about that Yeah, and keep your eye out because we're gonna be announcing something that we want to do to like Help in any way that we possibly can. Just to take action.

Because it feels very helpless and hopeless to just sit here and say, well, this sucks. Well, and with people with uterus, the two of us want to do something. Of course. It feels like we should. It feels like we have to. And obviously, we've been very open about being a very LGBTQIA plus positive podcast.

And we want to make sure that this doesn't trickle out any further. So. Yeah, because that's getting a little scary as I'm planning my wedding. Exactly. So we just wanted to put that out there. We're going to work hard to do what we can. And I'm sure everybody else is too.

We're all in this together. High five's to all of us. Like let's be warriors together. And outside of that, we're gonna get right into the episode. We are. We are going to Price Utah today, Elena. We sure are. Let's go.

We are starting off in Price Utah in 1970. All right. So what do you always say get in your way back machine? Get in the way back machine. There you go. Buckle up. To the time when Ash should have been alive. Oh, God.

Maybe not like here, but yeah. But at the 70s. The 70s for sure, I wish, but here we are. And here we are in a place. All right, well, Price, let's talk about Price Utah. Back then, it was a pretty safe place to live, and it was a great place as far as Loretta Jones was concerned to raise her four-year-old daughter Heidi.

Loretta was a single young mom at just 23 years old. She had so much on her plate. She was taking accounting classes. She was being a full-time mom, but guess what? She was getting the fucking job done, and her daughter Heidi, who again was four years old, absolutely adored her mother.

They had this close bond to the two of them. Now she remembered being with her mom, following her around the house, as Loretta would do ironing her cooking, household chores, and she remembered getting ice cream with her mom, and how much Loretta loved to listen to music, like she put on the radio and just dance all around the house. I love that core memories. Yes, like beautiful core memories and all of Heidi's memories of her mother up until the morning of July 21st, excuse me, 31st, 1970, their precious memories that every kid should have

with their mom. Like memories that they can just reminisce on later in life and just like have a good time being like, oh my gosh, mom, do you remember when we used to do this? Yeah. But unfortunately, that was not the case for Heidi or Loretta. They were robbed of that opportunity. When Heidi woke up at four years old on July 31st, 1970. She remembered that she was scared. And she wasn't so sure what exactly she was scared of, but there was just this feeling

in the air that freaked her out. And she was so apprehensive that she actually peaked out of the keyhole of her bedroom door before venturing out into the living room. That's wild. That four she already had that like, that intuitive sense. Our bodies do. Yeah. They totally do. We just don't listen to them as adults.

That's the kids do. And that's, well, that's my kids are way more subject to like paranormal activity and things like that. Because they're just open. They are. So Heidi looks through the keyhole of her room. And so she's like in her room looking out into the living room. And when she peeks through, she sees that somebody's lying

on the floor in blood. And when she peeks through, she sees that somebody's lying on the floor in blood. And when she opens up that door to inspect a bit closer, she realizes that the someone lying on the floor was her mother, 23 year old loretta. My God. And she was four, four years old. So she ran outside to see if she could get any help. And that's when she saw one of her neighbors out in his front yard. He was like a little kid. And in every source, it says that he was looking for bugs and critters just to use his bait to go fishing later that day. And I just feel like that is such a good example of how you can just be so totally oblivious to like what other people might be going through. And like, you know, you might just be having a perfectly great day and this is what's going on in the store.

You have no idea what's happening. The perfect example of, again, why we should always treat others with kindness. So when Heidi ran up to the boy, she told him, I think my mommy is dead. Oh my God. Which ruined me reading that. Oh, so the boy runs over to her house with her

and they peek into the doorway and he's like, I think you're right. So he runs, he tells his parents, they take Heidi in and they call the police. And when the police arrived, there was no doubt that Loretta Jones had died. She had been murdered. She was lying in a pool of her own blood

on her own living room floor. My God. So immediately the police wondered, if this case had anything to do with an incident that they'd actually been called to the night before, just a couple blocks away from Loretta and Heidi's home. So, a few blocks away, a 10-year-old girl named Lori Kula was outside playing with her brother and his friend.

And the brother and his friend were out on the front yard playing, and she was in the same area, but she was kind of riding her bike, I think out in the street, it doesn't sound like it was very busy. It was like later at night. She's doing little loops on her bike. And apparently the two boys didn't realize that she was still outside when they went back inside. And it actually took Lori a few minutes

to realize that she was outside alone. And she was like, oh, like it's dark out. I got to get inside. So she starts to head in for the night, but as she's doing so, she sees a man out of the corner of her eye. And she just thinks for a second, like, registers that. And she immediately noticed his hat.

It was a bright yellow hat, and it had some kind of bold floral print all over it. Now, before she knew it, this man came rushing toward her, grabbed her from behind. She was struggling to get away with him, from him, because the way that he grabbed her made it so that both of her arms were behind her back. Oh my God. And he had a hand over her mouth. Now, luckily, she was able to actually get her hand away from her mouth for like a split second.

And I read in a couple sources that it was because she was chewing bubble gum and she pushed the bubble gum out of her mouth as she was screaming. Oh my God. So he must have like taken his hand to look at what it was. Yeah, like not knowing what it was. So as he let his hand away for a split second, she let out a blood curling scream and the man leko of her instantly and started running away from it. Good. Just as Lori's brother and his friend were coming outside to see why the heck she was

screaming. So she quickly tells them she points in the direction. She's like, this man tried to grab me so the boys run off after him, but it's too late. But something they noticed too was this man's yellow hat because it had fallen off as he was running away and he actually even took a second to pick it up and like grab it up as he was running away.

Which is wild that he chose to wear that hat. To do these horrible things that he definitely did. Yeah, it is. So this man managed to get away that night, but this man would end up serving time for the attempted abduction. And eventually they would get him on murder charges. Oh.

Same man. It might just take 46 years to do the latter. Holy shit. 46 years take 46 years to do the latter. Holy shit, 46 years. 46 years. So back at Loretta in Heidi's home, which obviously by now had become a crime scene, the investigators are trying to piece some kind of sequence of events together.

So they're looking around the home and they see that there's no sign of forced entry. So right off the bat, they're like, we're pretty sure Loretta must have known the person who had done this to her. Like it seems like somebody must have knocked on the door that night, been invited in or made their way in once the door was opened for her. Yeah. So they're like, maybe she knew this person enough to open the door for them, but you don't know anybody can knock on your door. And in the 70s, I'm sure like people aren't like they are now. Your door just opened in doors for people. I know. I mean, who knows

the door might have even been locked. Yeah. Now, you would know, you'd be like, oh yeah, no. Like that one answers the door now. Me and Drew look at each other and we're like, no. Yeah, no, it's not happening. Because now, not at 10 times, it's the solar panel people. Oh, waste.

And I'm like, they don't let you go. No, they don't, you know. But anyways, you know. So in asking around town, they were able to find out that Loretta had been casually dating this man named Thomas Eglie. Now apparently he and Loretta had been set up on a blind date. They went on to see each other for about two months, and Tom had been to Loretta's house during this time, and he'd met Heidi, meaning Heidi obviously would have recognized him

if she saw him. But the thing, the dating thing didn't work out between them, and they broke up. Now, Tom was a little bit of a drifter, and at the time that he was connected to Loretta, he was known to be living at a local hotel called the Newhouse in Helper, Utah. What if you were trafficked into a cult over shot nine times or fell in love with a vampire or went into a minor surgery and woke up one week later, paralyzed. What would you do? I'm Whit Missaldine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondry that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. From a young man that dooms his entire future with one choice,

to a woman who survived a notorious serial killer. You'll hear their first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Each episode is an exploration of the human spirit and personal discovery. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening. Follow this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen to ad free on the Amazon Music or Lundery app.

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Thomas, it raised the eyebrows a little bit. Because Heidi told the police the day they stepped on the scene, that a man named Tom had done this to her mother. What? Yep. Holy shit. So after she had to move out, obviously, she moved in with her grandparents. She would tell her grandmother that Tom was responsible. Oh my God. There's a man in our house that there was a man in our house the night that mommy died. And she said before she found him, the man was telling her out of he was going to kill her. Oh my God, and this poor little girl heard this.

She must have heard it. And she swore the man was Tom. I'm thinking that must have been why she was so scared when she woke up the next morning. Yeah. Or it might have been just a combination of that and like the energy and the air from what had happened to her. Yeah, I'm sure have been just a combination of that and like the energy in the air from what it happened Yeah, I'm sure it was just everything but she was definitely feeling it from that

I mean cheese at four years old. Yeah, my goodness So Heidi tells her grandma their her grandmother this information on a few different occasions and her account was always the same And it was so convincing to her grandmother that she called the police and told them what Heidi had been saying Yeah, so now Heidi has said this to them and then the grandmother has called and said she's still saying that it's always Tom, it's always the same thing. So the police are obviously interested in this. And then on top of that, going just beyond a four year olds word, they also received an anonymous phone call from somebody saying that a man named Tom Eglie who lived

at the new house hotel should be looked into. Yeah. Okay. What's like a Tom? So I was wanting to know who the hell this Tom character is. And what he's capable of, they make their way over to new house hotel and they're like, hey Tom, they track him down. They're like, you want to come down to the station with us and answer a couple of questions?

He agrees. He goes with them. But he was not interested in telling them pretty much anything. He said, I was in price that day, like, yep, I was there, the day she was killed, but I had a couple drinks. I went window shopping and I ate a hamburger. Okay. But other than that, he was like, I'm one lawyer if you're going to ask me anything else, which I literally wrote, oh, like, I I know, like that's smart, you're supposed to do that, but like, ugh.

I know. And that's the thing, like you wanna get mad at me, like, well obviously you're gonna do that. But you're supposed to do that. But there's been so many cases where we've been like, they need a lawyer, like oh my god, they're innocent. Yeah. The first thing I think of is the beauty queen murder,

Nona. Yes. And how her boyfriend there, like it was like, oh my god, get him a lawyer, like he's Yes. And how her boyfriend there, like, it was like, oh my god, get him a lawyer like he's innocent. Someone get him a freaking lawyer, like it was like, right now, it's so ironic though to look at you feelings about it. It's an internal bias that you don't even realize you have

until you utilize it on both sides, definitely. So they were able to question him a few more times, but he just would not budge about Loretta. And thinking back to the attempt and the attempt and the attempt of little Lori Kulo, the investigators still wondered if the two attacks were connected. So they had Tom come stand in a lineup

and they brought Lori and her brother and to see if he could be identified. So both Lori and her brother identified Tom Eglie as the man who had tried to grab her and take her away. There was not a single doubt in their minds. What a piece of shit, a piece of actual shit. Oh, a man who just rushes out a little girl to just pluck her out of a yard.

Like, like, what? You're a fucking monster. It'll get even creepier later, don't you? Oh god, I'm worried. Oh, I'm worried. Like, I was gonna say, do you know? I was like, I'm still gonna worry. You were like, why would you say that?

I'm gonna continue to worry. But luckily, Tom is promptly arrested and booked on assault charges on August 6th. And while the police had him squared away in jail, they continued to try to link him to La Reddys murder with some kind of affinity. They're like, they had a feeling, but they were like, we have to like,

something to do this. We need some kind of evidence. That's why I'm here. So they spoke to a woman who worked at a local bar, the Highway Ron Davy Club. I would love to go there. Of course you went. Highway Ron Davy, like let's go.

Oh thank you. This woman, yeah, I need that. I'm going to set that one out. I didn't even ask you to come. I was like, I know she won't. You won't come. So the woman said, the bartender said, that she had not only seen Tom at the bar that night,

but she also noticed the shirt that he was wearing. It was covered in reddish-pinkish dots. Okay. Yeah. Something else that she was sure to share with the police was that he was very eager to get a ride home from somebody that night, which was weird because the hotel that she knew he lived at was only about three blocks away. So she was like, why aren't you just walking there? Like you always do. Yeah. But he was so adamant. And eventually he did find somebody to bum a ride from.

And the bartender said that he and the person left around midnight. Now I couldn't find anything to say that the investigators were able to track down the person who drove Tom home that night, but the helpful information does not end there. The thought about that yellow hat came back helpful information does not end there. The thought about that yellow hat came back up in the investigators' minds, the one that Tom had been clearly

wearing when he was trying to abduct Laurie. So a witness came to the police and told them, Tom had that hat hanging up on a hook right next to his door where he lived at the hotel. Are you shitting me? And I told you it was going to get creepier. Laurie's brother told the police that he had actually seen Tom not only wearing that yellow hat as he was running away from them, but he realized that he'd actually seen Tom before Laurie was even attacked. Creepyest fucking thing. He was sitting across the street under a street light, watching them play all while eating a hamburger. Are you fucking kidding me? Now, like, I know a lot of people eat hamburgers,

like I'm fully willing to admit that, but he said he offered up that information. He offered up that information, and that hat is unique. I don't know why the fuck he chose that hat, but I'm glad he's an idiot. Seriously, I'm glad he's stupid. A bright yellow hat with flowers for a little print.

And it's not just like a, later on, we're gonna find out that it's a welder's cap. Okay, so it's like a very, because it has like that little flap on them, that very distinct. It's a very distinct hat, even if it didn't have that print. Somebody might remember it, you know? That's wild.

The fact that he's just sitting across the street under a street light, eating a fucking hamburger, watching you guys play. Oh my God, I would like throttle that guy if I saw him staring at my kids in the old. And the thing is, it's like, we don't know. He's like staring like he might just like looked over and it's like, but he's standing under a street.

And no man should be standing across from kids doing anything. No, walk away. No, but think of that as like a little kid like you're playing there and you just see some guy like sitting eating a hamburger. You'd be like, think too much of it. No kid would think that's what I mean. That's what I mean.

That's what I mean. Oh god. It turns out to be the guy that like later on tries to abduct the little girl. Like right. Oh, so crazy. So Tom was officially arrested on August 31st, just 25 days after he was booked

on the assault charges. By Tom Firmirter. Hell yeah. Firmirter. But the unfortunate thing, obviously, is that DNA testing was still so new. So pretty much all of the evidence against him was circumstance. Yeah. They weren't able to get any telling DNA off of the clothes that he provided them with. And there was no way to determine whether the semen that had been found on Laura's body was a match to him or not, but they did find semen on her body. Oh, what a fucking pig. So during his arrangement, it was determined that he was indigent. So like, meaning he didn't have any money to be a foreign attorney.

So an attorney was appointed for him. Now this man turned out to be Thoret Hatch, who actually had been a defense counsel for the Utah House of Representatives. Damn. Yeah, so like he knows what he's doing a little bit. What a name, too. Oh, yeah, Thoret Hatch. You have to be a defense attorney.

I don't know what else you could be. The unfortunate thing, though, is that he played a pivotal role in Tom getting out of prison. Because you see. So he was really good at his job. He was saying good at his job, yeah. But you see, the day that the preliminary hearing was set to commence on October 8th the prosecutor Dan Keller asked the judge Tom play this I believe say you say it

Could we please postpone this because the prosecution had just tracked down some people in Kansas who knew Loretta and Tom So obviously they want to talk to them and get a statement from them. Yeah, it might be a Key piece of information in the trial. For sure. No. In addition to that, the chief of police wasn't going to be able to testify because he was taking some kind of class in New York, like some kind of law enforcement class. I would think that you would want the chief of police there.

You would think. And lastly, some of the FBI reports that they felt could be crucial to the case weren't finished up yet. possibly some of the FBI reports that they felt could be crucial to the case weren't finished up yet. So the defense attorney hatch, he said, no, you're violating Tom's civil rights. He's been in jail so long and we haven't even reached a preliminary hearing yet. Like you're infringing on his rights to like a speedy trial. A speedy trial, exactly.

So he told the judge that the prosecution had plenty of time to make their case against Tom and said, if the state has not prepared its case by now, my client should be released. Shut up. That's what I said is that's what you say in court. That's what the judge said. He said shut up. Shut up.

Like, has it totally shut up you. Shut up for it. Well, actually, pretty much the judge let the prosecution have some more time. He was like, I write for it. I call it. So he was like, shut up for it. Yeah, actually pretty much the judge let the prosecution have some more time. He's like, ah, right, Thorid, I cool. So he's like, shut up, Thorid. Yeah, he was. And he rescheduled this hearing to November 5th, meaning that they would have about a month to get their shit together. Like, come on. The law enforcement class would be over by that. And the chief of police could testify. Hopefully, the FBI can finish their reports then. And a month is plenty of time to go out to Kansas and talk to some people. Time to light a fire under everyone's bootays

and get them moving. One would think. Yeah. So Tom was kept in jail until then, and then November 5th rolls around, and the prosecution provides their evidence. I don't know how much more they had a bit. Oh man.

They didn't really do a stellar job in the original investigation. No, bang up job here. Yeah. But that's a good one. That's a good job, right? Bang up job? Yeah. Oh yeah. I said they didn't do a thing. Yeah, I was job here. Yeah. But that's a good one. And that's a good job, right? A bang up job? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I said they didn't do a bang up job. Yeah, they didn't. I was like, no, I said it right. I know you did. I wanted to make sure I had it right, because I always get that confused. And I was like, you did a bang up job.

I think I've been saying it wrong. All you have to do is remember in Scream 2, when Sydney says to Mrs. Luna, she was a good boy. You did a bang up job, Mrs. Lumis. Ah. She's being sarcastic. Got it. I think that Mrs. Lumis he was a good boy. You did a bang up job, Mrs. Luna. She's being sarcastic. Got it.

I think that Mrs. Luna's did not, in fact, do a bang up job with Billy Luna. I think Sydney might have confused me from the time I was a child. She's being sarcastic. I guess I didn't understand sarcasm. No. Well, no, you're fluent in it.

100%. I'm your my actual sister. Please, no. So like, hi. Anyway, so they provide their evidence They're like they did not do a bang up job like you just say and they're like give us a formal charge like let's proceed with this Murder charge let's go and the judge said no You don't have enough evidence at all to go for the murder trial. You would be wasting everybody's time

No, Lynn. We're releasing Tom from jail today. You've had plenty of time. trial, you would be wasting everybody's time. No, Lynn, we're releasing Tom from jail today. You've had plenty of time. Oh man. So Tom spent just 90 days in jail for that assault on Lori Quirrell. Are you kidding me? Just walked away from the courthouse, having avoided an entire fucking murder charge.

So he just walked away after trying to kidnap a little girl Yeah, spent after learing in jail for how long? Spent three months in jail for a little girl. Yeah. After learing, for how long? Mm-hmm. Spent three months in jail for that. Yeah. Wow. And he probably wouldn't even have even spent that long in jail. He just got extra time because the prosecution

was trying to fix the time. He needed extra time. Wow, what a system. Yeah, we love it. Yeah, it's really killing it. It's so great from the start. Yeah. So I know this might shock you, but Tom pretty much skipped town

after spending a very short amount of time in Helper, Utah. You don't say. Yeah, he sent some time in Helper with his girlfriend who now lived with him at the hotel and who did live with him at the hotel originally, too. What are you doing? Who knows?

Well, at this point, she was expecting her first child with Tom. Oh, no. So she didn't have, I don't think she was expecting her first child with Tom. Oh, no. So she didn't, I don't think she had a place to go. Oh, no. And, you know, like, she probably didn't believe it right away, like, she's probably like, no, it couldn't be him.

No, those are always, it's always a very, it's a, it's always a different situation. Yeah. You can't really speak for her. Yes. But, fuck. What a situation. So, you'll be happy to hear that things would

actually not work out between the two of them. I'm happy for her. I'm very happy for her and that child. Yes, me too. But Tom would actually have the opportunity to go on to have more failed relationships, more children, and you know, make more memories with the family. That's great. But I'm sure they weren't great ones because he was a piece of shite.

But it's just the fact that he got to go and live out the rest of his life, however he fucking wanted to, while he had clearly taken somebody else's life and affected so many people's lives around him who had loved or known Loretta. And traumatized this little girl that he tried to literally aggressively and violently kidnap in the fucking middle of the, ah, yeah, it just makes me so,

and then he gets to go on and be an asshole to his family that he gets to create. And his own children. Cool. I hope he treated them well. I couldn't find anything to say he had or had not. He's a piece of shit. Either way, he sucks.

So Loretta's parents and Heidi, of course, were obviously affected the most. Loretta's parents had to become a safe space for Heidi. They took her in and they actually eventually ended up adopting her. And Heidi has said that all of her aunts and uncles became like siblings to her. Oh. And it was so weird hearing this because like you guys are going to get siblings.

When my grandparents took me in and she said her grandmother always introduced her and she would say, this is my youngest. Oh my God, and that's what Maddo does. That's exactly what Maddo does for me. And I was like, obviously very different situations. Yeah. But I was like, I relate to you on that. Oh, and I'm really glad that she had that too.

Me too. Unfortunately, though, her grandfather passed away from a heart attack just four years after Loretta had been killed. And the doctor said it was from stress, like the stress of the whole situation. Yeah, I'm sure. I don't know how you get through that.

Yeah, I don't either. And Heidi said things changed when her grandfather died. She said, once my grandpa died, it was too much for my grandma to even pursue. She was mourning the loss of her daughter, then her husband. It was easier to tuck those memories away in her head.

Yeah, or excuse me, in her heart. I get it. It was like she really wanted to find justice, but it was like, she's just torn apart. Well, and that's compounded grief. It's like, yeah. That's really hard to break out of sometimes. And it's like nobody's responsibility

to have to break out of it. No, that must be unbelievably hard. And not only is that like compounded grief, I've never heard of that. That's a beautiful way to put that. Thank you. You're welcome. But it's like two of the people you love the most,

but you know, like that's your husband, your partner, and your child. And your child. Those are the two people that you love the most in your life. That's your husband, your partner, and your child. And your child. Those are the two people that you love the most. That's it. That's all it is. That's like some people's world. Oh, absolutely. I can't imagine. So, but as Heidi grew up, she became more and more determined to keep her mom's memory alive. But at the same time, she was suffering from like horrible night terrors.

Of course she was. Which was clearly a direct result from all the trauma she'd seen at such a young age. But she was strong and she was resilient. And over the years, she put together her own little case file. Any newspaper that she could get her hands on that featured her mom's case, she'd cut up and she would put it alongside the other ones that she'd found. Wow. She would go to the authorities with any clues or things that she'd realized through her own

investigative work. And over the years, she tried to get the case reopened. She would just say, like, I found out this or try to get any information. And she just kept hitting dead ends. Damn, but good for her for just like continuing to do it. Yeah, and as a young woman, like, and somebody who went through that,

it's like, you have every right in the world to just shut down. That's a lot. Yeah, that as a young woman, like, and somebody who went through that, it's like, you have every right in the world to just shut down. That's a lot, yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I think we mentioned, it's funny, I don't know why, but they're like back-to-back episodes. I think we've mentioned Sarah Turnie, but it just makes me think of Sarah Turnie.

Yeah, it does. Like you go through all that trauma and then you end up turning around and using it like that, like it's always amazing to me when people can do that. And it speaks to who those people are. And Heather Bish inside of their souls have a head. Heather Bish and her parents,

it makes me think of these, I'm like, and talking to her, we were like, you're a fucking hero. Like this is insane that you're able to take this kind of grief and this kind of trauma and try to work that hard to get justice as wild. That's a strong, strong person right there. Yeah.

Snaps to those people. Now eventually Heidi was ready to go off to college, she'd grown up at this point, and she did go off to college. She studied business and accounting just like Loretta had wanted to do. Hell yeah, I'm sure that was in her mother's memory. Yeah.

She then moved out to San Jose in 1986, and she actually ended up also getting a real estate license and she spent most of the next 20 years in California kind of doing her thing, you know? But the nightmares never stopped. The flashbacks never went away and it was too much. So toward the end of that 20 years that she spent in California,

the nightmares and the flashbacks were getting worse and worse and they were occurring more frequently. And to me, she didn't like come out and say this, but to me, it almost felt like it was like someone calling to her. Like she might, she like, I feel like she felt that way. Yeah. So, unfortunately, there come back also coincided with Heidi's grandmother becoming more ill. And so one day she said, I need to move back to Utah. She not only wanted to be close to her family and specifically her grandmother, but she also told her friends as she was leaving California that it was finally time for her to be the one

to solve her mother's murder. All those murders later. And with that, she moved back to Utah. Hell yeah, Heidi. Hey there, fellow podcast listener, it's Elena. And Ash, and we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa.

You know, when you would come home from high school, and it was only a few hours until that TV show, everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee-high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the Wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse.

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That is betterh-el-p.com slash morbid. So once she was back on Utah soil, it became her absolute mission, obviously, to take care of her grandmother, but also to get to work identifying her mother's killer once and for all, getting justice to be served. So when she first got back, she was scrolling through Facebook one day, and she realized actually that one of her friends from high school, David Brewer, was now working for the carbon-county sheriff's office. Oh, damn, that's a nice little connection.

That's a great little connection. So they reconnected when they both ended up at the same arts festival. I think she ended up there on purpose. Good for her, man. Heidi said that's when she, quote, unquote, spilled her guts to him. She told him everything that he would need

to know about Loretta's murder, who she was as a person, what had happened to her, the aftermath of the whole ordeal, everything. And she said, I needed to convince him that this case was worth reopening, and she promised him that not only would she be forever grateful to him if he was able to solve this now 39-year-old murder. But that she would also get a tattoo of his favorite sports team if he was able to get justice served. I'm obsessed with that. I love that. I'm so obsessed with that.

I love it. Heidi has Boston energy. I watched on the case with Paul Azon, like this, that episode on this case, in addition to like reading so many things. But I saw her and I was like, you have Boston energy. Yeah. You are, like, you're my friend's mom. I know this.

I was going to say, I just like feel like I'm like, yeah, I get you. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, your energy is just like, let's go. It's a New England energy. It is. So guess what? David Brewer agreed.

And with that, he started investigating his first cold case. Hell yeah. The first cold case he ever worked on. I also, in the episode, they point out that Heidi went through Loretta's jewelry box, and I think it was like a little leprechaun necklace, and she gave it to him and said to David, and she said, like, look at this,

and have this serve as your reminder of my mom while you're working on the case. This whole thing is giving me chills. By the way, he still has it, or at least still had it up until the point where I saw it on the case, but I have chills. Yeah, same chills.

Now, the problem was, though, it was incredibly hard in the beginning because everything had been lost from the original case file. That's the tough part. There was literally nothing except for an autopsy report and a very chilling crime scene photograph with Heidi standing in a doorway right in front of where her mother had been discovered. Like just standing in front of the outline of her mother's body that had been like chopped on the floor. Jesus. Yep.

That photo was actually tucked in, that wasn't like a law enforcement photograph. That was like a photograph that the family had. And it was tucked into an old photo album that Heidi had at her grandparents' house. And she asked her grandma one day to take it out of the album. She was like, it kind of makes me sad. Yeah. And luckily her grandmother, like, took it out but was able to find it when Detective Brewer needed it. It was an odd photo to save the least but it would become a crucial piece of evidence down the road. So remember that. I'm gonna remember it. The autopsy that they also had, which is like the only official thing that they had.

The picture was the family's picture. They were like, as a record-keeping thing here, like big failure. Yeah, not a bang-up job. No, thank you. No, not. So the autopsy report showed that Loretta had been stabbed more than 17 times.

Oh my God. Her throat had been cut and trigger warning, she had been raped. Oh, all while her four-year-old daughter was sleeping in her bedroom. In the next room. Like, I'm from the looks of it. This was a one-story home. My God.

Now, there was a vaginal swab done, and it, like I said, did come back with semen present, but like any other evidence in this case, that vaginal swab was also lost. Oh, come on. Which is incredibly frustrating for everybody involved. Like, we could have just taken that. That's it, right there.

Boom, you know. And it was incredibly frustrating for Heidi because she said over the years she felt like her mom's case had been looked past or barely paid attention to. Yeah. Because of the fact that Loretta was a young single mother in a very conservative community that looked down on her for being unmarried

and having a child. And that's bullshit. And it's like, you don't know her situation. She's a human being. Yeah, it doesn't matter. So luckily now it was 2009 and people, like Detective Brewer was not somebody that was gonna overlook a case

because it involved an unwed single. Yeah. Detective Brewer is on the case. Yes, motherfucker. So like I said, because he didn't have much to go off of, he just really tried to track down people who had somehow been connected to LaRetta or the case. He even actually put an ad in the local paper

asking that if anybody have information on the case to contact him. Now that turned out to be pretty difficult because a lot of the people had died by this point. Or they were older, they were aging, and they were kind of not willing to talk because they were like, I don't wanna remember some kind of important detail the wrong way.

Well, that's the thing, because we always say it, we've said it before, like you're always like, how do you not remember what you were doing on that day that that was happening? But then I think about it, I'm like, I don't remember what I did Monday. Like, I'm like, I don't even know what day it is today. Thank you.

I was literally just gonna say like, you could tell me it was like, zoo day today and I'd be like, yeah, that's like, I don't know. It's like, so I couldn't tell you. No, only I'm worried. Have to write every last thing. Literally.

Literally, at this point in our lives, we become geriatric. Oh yeah, we have scheduled out every last second of our day because otherwise, I just have no idea what's going on. And we get in like five different like five different places, it feels like I like put it on my door as a walker note. Yeah, so I get it. That like people, especially like a 40 years plus, you know,

cast a case, you're like, yeah, I can't see for sure what I was doing on that day or what I saw or how I saw it. Like I can understand that. There also like, brother, it was the 70s. You think my memory outstood that? I was on a space level. Smoking into it. So, I was like, I can understand that. They're also like, brother, it was the 70s. You think my memory outstood that? I was on a space level. Smoking into a game.

On a space level. If you don't get that, you don't get it. If you know, you know. That I always read that as ick-yick. If you know, you know. If you do too, actually, every time that I see it, I'm per second, I was like, what? Then I was like, yep.

Awesome. All right, back to the story. So nobody really wanted to say too much because they were like, we don't remember. It's been so long. Or they died. Tom attorneys. Tom's attorney, excuse me, Hatch had passed away. And so had the prosecuting attorney Keller. So both of the lawyers involved in this and so now deceased. It's tough. But person that Brewer was able to get in touch with was that girlfriend of Tom, who was pregnant and living with him at the new house hotel, right as the murder had happened. Oh, damn.

Now at first, she really didn't want to talk too much. She said she really didn't remember much from the night and just like everybody else, she really didn't want to remember something incorrectly. But with a little pressing, she did start to become more and more willing. I think Detective Brewer sensed that she knew something. Yeah.

Yeah, willing to kind of push a little bit. Makes sense. And it worked. She ended up having a pretty helpful memory of the night. She said that the night that Loretta had been killed, Tom actually came home very late. Technically the morning after, because it was somewhere between three and four when he returned. Oh, wow. Which is weird, because remember, he left that bar around midnight.

Yep, strange. So where was he? I don't know. Now, he immediately took off all of his clothing, but not before his girlfriend noticed that there was red and pink spots all over his shirt. He bagged all of it up, tossed it by the front door and told his girlfriend that if she needed any laundry to be done, gather it up and leave it by the door because I'm gonna be heading to the laundry mat later today.

Well, what a nice guy. Well, no. She said that is something that he literally never offered to do. I'm pretty sure she was like, he knows how to do laundry, like that's crazy. Now, once he bagged up his clothing, he got straight into the bathtub and soaked in there for a bit. Some sources will tell you that he got into the bath with all of his clothes on and then

bagged them up later to take them to the laundry mat, just to share both points of you. I did see it more often that he bagged his clothes up before taking a bath, which makes more sense. Yeah, but you know, just giving you all a few points. Well, and also nothing he does make sense. Exactly. It would be, yeah, he probably did get in the bath with all his clothes on. Yeah. Well, either way, who knows, but he did go to the laundromat later that morning, and he was actually spotted

by somebody who worked across the street at another business. The person who saw him said that he was standing next to a smoking trash barrel. Oh, and I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that when he got home later that day, his girlfriend said he was missing some of the clothing items that he had gone to the laundromat with. Oh, weird. And when she said, hey, why are you missing that clothing

that you went to the laundromat with, he said, oh, I threw it out because there were some holes in it. Yeah. It got holes in it on the way to the laundromat. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That happens.

Now, something that might be striking you right now is that earlier, I told you Tom handed some clothes over to the police so that they asked them. He said, these are the clothes I was wearing that night. Here you go. Yeah. No, if what his girlfriend and the person who had seen him seemingly burning his clothes

next to the laundromat said was true, then that clothing that he gave to police probably didn't have anything on it. Probably, excuse me, definitely wasn't even the clothing that he was wearing that night. So, of course. Not shocking that there was nothing found on it. It wasn't what he was wearing. Yeah, of course. So irritating.

Now, a huge, huge massive break in the case came when Detective Brewer was not only able to track down one of the court reporters on the original case, but also one of the responding officers who was on scene the day that Loretta was discovered. Detective Brewer, getting shit done. Like him and Heidi, dream team. DRAXUAL Dream team. So the court reporter first thought that she actually didn't have any of the transcripts left from the original

case, but she did say that she remembered it because it was the first case that she had reported on. Oh wow. So later she ended up finding the transcripts tucked away, but like she saved them because it was a special case to her, but it took her years to find them. Oh

wow. Now all while this was all while Detective Brewer was chasing down other leads. And he was just sitting in his office one day and this co-worker of his poked his head in. And was like, hey, like some lady just dropped some stuff off for you. And at that point, he's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. He's like, OK.

But it was a freaking jackpot because obviously it ended up being the court transcripts. And he was able to look through them once he got them. And he noticed right away that there were certain pieces of information that had been looked over in the original investigation. That's so frustrating.

And one of the main things that he thought was strange was that Heidi was never considered a witness. Because she was so young, like obviously she was very young, but she found the body and was there the night that her mother had been killed and remembered things that she had heard. It was freely talking about it. Yeah, exactly. You would think they'd at least take some of that down and be like, all right. Now, something to note is that the original investigators actually asked around town, he hearing if anybody heard screams that night, and they asked

Heidi too. They said, like, did you hear your mom yelling or screaming or saying anything? Nobody had heard anything, not even Heidi. So they believed that Loretta was trying to say as quiet as she could so that Heidi wouldn't come running out into harm's way. Oh, that hurts my heart even more. Mom, dude, like that is a mom to keep her safe. As she's, I mean, she was stabbed 17 times

and her throat was slashed, and unfortunately, she was also raped, like, to stay quiet enough through all of that that her daughter didn't hear anything except for Tom saying he was gonna kill her. She was trying to save her daughter's life. Like, I want her to stay in a room. I don't want this monster to find her. Seriously.

Oh, seriously. Oh my God, that's like chilling. It is. Now, Detective Brewer going through these transcripts was also able to determine that the attempted abduction of Lori Kulow happened sometime around 9 p.m. and found out that the murder actually occurred sometime around 10.

So since the Kulow's lived like mere blocks away from the Joneses, the timeline worked out. But the weirdest thing to me though is like, okay, like if the murder happened around 10, that makes sense, because Tom was a couple blocks away. Why didn't he return home until three or four that morning? Mm, he left that highway rendezvous bar around 12. He must have gone somewhere else.

That was just don't know. Where did he go? I don't know. Now, the biggest discovery, though, of all, came when Detective Brewer was finally able to speak to that first responding officer, Barry Breiner. Barry Breiner told Brewer that he and at least one other person noticed that Loretta's hand was lying in a pool of her own blood. And that right next to that pool of blood, they could make out the letters T and O,

written in blood, like she was trying to spell out the name of her attacker after he had left. Oh my God. So they blow this photo up, the one that I mentioned where Heidi's standing in front of the crime scene. It was undeniable.

You can, and I've sought with my own eyes, you can see I was gonna say, grab your phone. Yeah. You can see that she clearly had written T and O. Oh my God. Like, oh my God. As she's laying there bleeding out, she had the wherewithal to spell out her attacker's name. That's unbelievable, too.

And it was missed in the original investigation. How did they miss that? Come on. I have no idea. And it's also a note that in some sources, it will say that a woman who lived with Heidi and her How did they miss that? Come on. I have no idea. And it's also a note that in some sources, it will say that a woman who lived with Heidi and Loretta, like during that time knew that she had spelled out Tom's name, it's like written in some sources,

but the whole story doesn't make a lot of sense. So in my opinion, it was that Brewer got this information from Breiner. And I think it's all a little bit mixed up over the years. So, but if you read more about this case, I do wanna let you to know to look out for that. I'm not sure how true that is. Yeah, this explanation makes a lot more sense.

I'm just like a stout. Do you see the photo? No, I haven't found the photo yet. If I can't find the actual photo of you, I'll show you the clip where they show it on the case. It's insane. That's wild. Like, how do you miss that?

How? How? So it was now time to track down Mr. Tom Eglie. Yeah, let's go ahead and see that. So they weren't able to find him. He was living out in Rocky Ford Colorado. Now in his late 70s, by the way. Oh, let's fuck his world up. Let's go.

Oh, honey. I'm ready. Oh, honey, you got a big stone. Yeah, you do. He is a big fucking storm. So Detective Brewer goes out to Rocky Ford Colorado to talk to him. And it is clear that Tom is nervous as fuck, but trying to remain nonchalant.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Nonchalant as he can. Now when Detective Brewer got there, he said, he goes, do you remember all those years ago, a woman you dated ended up murdered? And Tom said, yeah, I remember that I was like dating a woman who got murdered.

I don't, what was her name though? Oh my gosh. You don't know her fucking name. You're in actual pieces, dude. And he said, you know, I really can't recall what she was name though? Oh my gosh. You don't know her fucking name. You're an actual piece of shit dude. And he said, I really can't recall too many details about that case, but I do know, yeah, I did date a woman

who was brutally murdered. Yeah, it's tough to remember people you date who get murdered. Yeah, so yeah, I could see why that would slip your mind. Totally, he says that and he doesn't remember too much about that. But he did say, I do know the day she was killed, I did go window shopping and have a couple drinks

and I also ate a hamburger. Oh, you do remember that, okay, cool. Or you can't remember this woman's name, but you recall everything else about a day that is now nearing over 40 years later. You remember you went window shopping? You remember my guy, you're fucking alibi. Yeah, exactly.

I was thinking you remember because it's been repeated my guy, your fucking alibi. Yeah, exactly. I remember because it's been repeated in your head now for 40 years. Exactly. You fucking piece of shit. Wow. So Detective Brewer asks a couple more questions, just trying to get this guy to fucking tick.

So he said, you know what I'm like, what do you think should happen? If we're getting pretty close to finding this guy, what do you think we should do with him when we find him? And Tom said, it kind of depends. Like, it depends on if that guy is killed anybody else. Oh. Okay.

What? Yeah. Like, you get a pass with one. One free murder. Yeah, just one free murder. Are you kidding me right now? Are you shitting me? If he hasn't killed anyone else, then you know why me?

Whoa! What do we, what do we split in the airs about here? It's like, are you kidding me? For real. Why dude? The answer was telling. Yeah. So with that, Detective Brewer reiterated how determined

he and Loretta's daughter Heidi were to get this case solved and they were getting close. And he said, bye Tom. Have a good day. So apparently, Brewer's visit shook Tom up so badly. Good. Later that same day, or that week, he was sitting with his neighbor, Lisa Carter,

and he said, would you be able to take care of my dogs if I have to go away for a while? Oh my God. Tom, stop, fucking Tom. Stop it. So back in Utah, Detective Brewer was actually heading to this big conference, a conference or a summit,

where he was gonna be presenting Laura as case and kind of just seeing like what other detectives suggested the next steps could be. Just getting more eyes on it. Yeah. And at the conference, a couple people suggested it might be smart as awful as it could be to have her body exhumed and see if you can test for any kind of lingering evidence. Yeah.

I mean, it seems like when you're hitting all these stethans, that really is unfortunately kind of the wanting door to go through. So this thought absolutely horrified Loretta's mother, and she was like, absolutely not. Like, I do not want that to happen. That goes against my wishes. Okay. And so they put it off for a while,

and unfortunately, Loretta's mother died in May of 2015. Oh. Now, about a year later in July of 2016, Brewer kind of floated the idea past Heidi again and said like, you know, like I think it could help if we exhumed the body. Her response was, get me a shovel, I'll help dig. Oh my god, Heidi, I love Heidi. She literally said she was like, I'm willing to do, I don't care what I have to do, I'm

finding out who did this. Like they respected the mother. Yeah. And that was, that was a good thing to do. And it's like now it's up to Heidi. Now it's up to Heidi, definitely. And I said to find the guy who did this, they know who did this to get this mother up on jail.

Yeah. So before exhuming the body, they had the idea to make the exhumation incredibly public. So that word would make its way over to an already nervous tall, my God, yeah, they publicized the shit out of this. They made sure that it would hopefully get him to confess. But unfortunately when Loretta's body was exhumed, they weren't able to get any DNA because there was water damage to our coffin. Oh, that basically destroyed any of us.

They could have gotten. There probably was evidence there, but water damage. It didn't matter, though, because Tom Eglie was sinking his own ship some 500 miles away. Of course he was. Yeah. Detective Brewer had visited him twice, but at this point, wants to ask those few questions that we just talked about, and a second time to let him know that there were plans to exume the body, like, just letting you know, I know you dated her. Just letting you know. So just letting an old friend in on some investigative work.

Of course. Now after Tom heard that Loretta's body was going to be exhumed, he went over to his neighbor Lisa again, making sure that she'd be able to take care of his dogs if he again had to go away for a while. But this time, he had another question for her. He said, how long do you think that DNA lasts on a body? And she was like, I don't really know Tom, like why are you asking me that? She's like, wow, I was just gonna ask you like,

what the weather report is for tomorrow morning, because I want to go fishing. What's going on? What are your plans? What are your plans? Right, Jesus. And not only did he say like, how long do you think DNA can last on a body? He specifically inquired how long Seaman would stay present. Like you are not being innocuous, Tom. What kind of fucking neighbor is this? Like if my neighbor started asking me like, how long do you think Seaman can last on a dead body? I'd be like, I'm moving.

Like I'd be like, I need to leave. Like, whoa, well like I'm calling someone. That's Lisa did call somebody. Good job Lisa, because I feel like I'm calling someone immediate. I don't know who I'm calling, but I'm calling someone Lisa did call somebody. Good job, Lisa, because I feel like I'm calling someone immediate. I don't know who I'm calling, but I'm calling someone. The authorities, Lisa called them. She said hello, authority.

Holy shit. I'm pretty sure you have your guy. Like who just asks that? Things no one's gonna think that's weird as fuck. Like, that's the thing. I'm like, Tom, what? I guess he really trusted Lisa. They look like really good friends because this does happen, like kind of frequently, I guess he really trusted Lisa. They look like really good friends.

Because this does happen, like kind of frequently I guess. Yeah, that's real weird. It's weird. I think it's Lisa though for calling the authorities. Fuck yeah, Lisa, don't sit on that shit. She did not. She said 911. I have hello.

And she even offered to record their next conversation. She was like, fucking Lisa. She was like, he's coming over here a lot soon. Weird shit. You want me to get some of this on tape? Look at these badass women here. I know. Heidi is killing it.

Lisa's like, I'll go under a wire if you want. Like, fuck yeah. Like, maybe I picked this case for you. It's like, this is like so, I'm like, hell yeah. I want them all to win this. Yeah, because Loretta was such a fucking badass. Yeah, she was. You know?

And like, we got, we got Brewer here. Yeah, we got the band. We got a fucking bad attitude. Yeah, she was, you know? That's the thing. And like, we got brewer here, we got lip balms. We got a good man here, I love it. We have a lucky Lappurcan as well. Like, Irish is fuck, I love it. I love all of it. This is gonna end well, I feel it. Maybe, I feel it, I hope.

Please give it to me. So the investigators agree, they say that would be highly beneficial to the investigation because at this point, we know he's our guy, but it's not looking like we're gonna get anything definitive to prove it like yeah here like we're definitely not and we don't know what to do but we fucking know that this is our guy oh absolutely so they were like okay if you're willing to do that what we'd like to do is we'd like to prepare a script of questions to

kind of guide Tom into this conversation about Loretta about about the murder, what happened? Oh man, this would be scary. I know. I know. So one day Tom comes over and Lisa has already, like she knows he's coming over. So she has her cell phone set up on the voice memo thing. I'm pretty sure, like she recorded it on her cell phone. Yeah. And conspicuously, I'm sure. Yeah. And they got to talking.

And the scriptive question, she would, oh my god, sorry, I was swallowing at the same time that I said that. The scriptive questions was evidently very helpful because Tom cracked like a fucking sunny side up egg and he just made a full confession to Lisa and said, I don't remember stabbing her, but I did cut her throat. Holy shit. You just like, and imagine Lisa, I don't know how long she had lived next to Tom or however long they lived in the neighborhood near each other.

A murderer has been hanging out with you for the past God knows how long the shit. And you're sitting in your safe space home right now. And this man just says, I don't remember stabbing her, but I did cut her throat. Like how do you react? How do you not react? Like how do you not be like, huh? I'd be like, oh my God. I'd be like standing in front of any possible weapon that he could get access to. That's so horrifying.

That'll be so scary. He also, he went on. There was more for him to tell her. He said to Lisa that he didn't rape Loretta that they had consensual sex. I don't believe you. That story would later change. Yeah, I was gonna say I don't believe you. You fucking monster. Piece of shit. He said that after he killed Loretta with his pocket knife, by the way, that was the weapon that he quickly left and he tossed the knife into the price river nearby. And then he went to have a bite to eat. Why do they always do that? You just took somebody's mother, took somebody's daughter, took somebody's sister, and that made you hungry.

That gave you an appetite. You hear about this way too often that after these horrible things, and then I just went and had something to eat at a fast food place. And it's like, yeah. What? It's like the Brenda Sue Schaefer case

that he went to, so. Yeah. Some restaurants that everybody loves. It's like a chili place. and it's like, yeah. What? It's like the Brenda Sue Schaefer case that he went to. So yeah, some restaurants that like everybody loves. It's like a chili place. Oh, this several. It's like, what? Yeah. What? I can't.

I hate it. Now down the road, he would later say that the reason he killed the Reda and I'm sure you already know was because she refused to have sex with him, not me. Yeah. Yeah, because she has a right to have sex with whoever the fuck she wants to and has a right to not have sex with who she doesn't want to.

Fuck it. But you don't think she does. So when she said no, she got up to do something in the kitchen, probably being extremely uncomfortable and kind of trying to give a message like, yeah, this night's over. And that left Tom sitting on the living room couch, obviously stewing.

And when she came back, he attacked her and said that he then, quote unquote, had sex with her. Which you raped her. You raped her. You raped her. He's a shit. But he wasn't sure whether she was dead or not. He said.

He literally said that. Ah, I have no words. Yeah. So Tom Eglie was arrested by US marshals on August 18th, 2016. 46 days, excuse me, 46 years and 20 days after he had killed the Reda Jones. I can't believe he got away with it for that long.

He got to live his life. He got to make memories with his children, maybe if he was present in their lives. He just, he got to make his own fucking memories for 46 years and 20 days. While this family had to sit there knowing full well that this guy did this. Oh yeah. But not being able to get any kind of justice. And while LaRetta is laying in a box

in the ground. Yeah. And Heidi is having to spend her entire life dedicated to this. Yeah, exactly. So he was arrested, thank goodness. And he was extradited back to Carbon County on August 26th. And that that November he was convicted on charges of unfortunately second degree murder, and he unfortunately also took a plea deal that took the rape charge off the table. Oh! Which, this is going to infuriate you.

He was ultimately sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. 10 years to life. Like luckily there's a life part of it all, but I'm like, and luckily he's old as fuck. Why are we even doing the 10 year thing? That would come on. It's just, he brutally raped and murdered a young mother in her home.

Exactly, so I can answer why that was the charge. It was because they had to go by what the laws were back in 1970 when this turned into this. Oh, I didn't think of that. I didn't actually realize that you had to do that. Wow. I don't think we've covered a case where that's happened that we knew of.

That's wild. I didn't know that was a thing. I honestly didn't either. You could go by today's standards. That's really wild. It is. And I mean, that you tried to abduct a little girl right before this.

What would he have done to that little girl? One, what did he do for the rest of his life that we just don't know about? Yeah, it's like there's no way this guy's just stopped and lived a normal, like, wholesome existence. No, it's not what happened. And that's the thing, because what were you gonna do to this little girl?

No, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the red out, what were you gonna do to a little girl? Like, he, I am horrified to think about what his plans were for that little girl. Yeah, for Lori. And it's like, I, for us not to even take that into account, right, even the first time around,

right, is insane to me. Like the fact that he just got out of there in like three months. It's it's after like, it's like, you guys literally don't know what his plans were. He probably had this horrific, she wasn't gonna get out of that. It's just like, it's like you guys literally don't know what his plans were. He probably had this horrific, she wasn't gonna get out of that. It's just like, it's very similar to like attempt to murder. It's just like you didn't get away with it.

You failed. You still be charged as though you were going to murder someone. Exactly. That was your plan. It just didn't work. It just somehow didn't work. Thankfully. But if you'd gone the way you wanted it to, what'd it work? Right. That's what your mind was thinking,

so that's what the charge should be. It makes me very happy. But obviously, like, we can't prove what's going to be my mind. Right. That's what your mind was thinking, so that's what the charge should be. It makes me very happy. But obviously, we can't prove what's going to be in my mind with thinking. It's just really fucking irritating. And what else is really irritating too, is that he got the chance to address the judge,

which I feel like they shouldn't even be able to do in cases like this. Because no one cares what you fucking have to say. No one cares about your apologies, no one cares about your excuses, no one cares about any of it. I don't want to tell you how you feel about it. I don't want to hear anything coming out of your face.

And nothing you say is going to bring my loved one back, so shut your fucking pipe here. Yeah. Is that pipe hole? Peel? Pile hole. Peel, peel hole. Wow.

Gosh. Anyways, oh gosh. So he got to address the judge, Judge George Harmond, and he said, I don't understand why they're going back to something that happened in 1970. Oh my god. 46 years ago. Oh my god. Probably because the something you're referring to was a brutal crime that not only took a woman's life But took a mother away from her young child a daughter and sister away from her family And you just got to live out the rest of your fucking life like nothing ever happened

Tom you killed a woman like You don't understand why we're going back to the murder that you completed 46 years ago? You raped and murdered a woman. And I wanna know, Tom, I wanna know if somebody raped and murdered somebody in your family, if you would like them to get away with it. Because why are we going back? Because why are we going back?

I wonder if you would feel that same way if the rules were reversed. You piece of fucking cow dung. Like what? I can't. I can't. I can't. And then to insult to injury, he fucking told the judge

that he was not satisfied with having to serve his time in Utah and thought that he actually deserved to be held in a facility closer to his home so that he could see visitors easily and more frequently. Get fucked, Tom. Like, yeah, dude, how does it feel being taken away from your family, too? You don't like that so much, Tom.

I'm sure your family doesn't want to see your dumb ass anyway. So, like, get out of here. It's not fair. It's not fair. No one gives a shit. Yeah. No one gives a shit. It's not fair. It's not fair, no one gives a shit. Yeah, no one gives a shit. It's not fair that you did what you did to an entire group of people. It's like, you know what, Tom, die mad.

Okay, for real. Bye. For real. Now, obviously like we were just saying, 10 years does not seem like a very long time for a fucking murder sentence, but luckily almost everybody involved in this case is pretty sure that he's gonna die

and spend his last days in jail because he was 76 years old when he was convicted. Damn. So here's to hoping. Yeah. Now Heidi was able to make a victim impact statement and she stared Tom Eglie down in this courtroom. He wouldn't even look at her. He wouldn't even raise his head to look at her, coward.

Which I think they should be made to. Yeah. She said to him, my mom was my hero that terrible night. She never screamed nor made a sound. She did everything she had to prevent me from coming out of my room. How does that make you feel, Tom Eglie,

knowing that you left a four-year-old little girl all alone in the next room to find her mother's bloody and lifeless body? Wouldn't even fucking look at her. Piece of shit. And she said that if he is ever up for parole, she will be there. She specifically said, if Tom is ever eligible for parole,

I will be at the parole hearing to make sure he never walks as a free man again. I want to be in his face as much as possible to remind him of what he did to my mom and why he's sitting where he's sitting. It's to remind him. I was a four year old little girl when he did what he did to my mom.

My mom was a human being. Yes, which I got. Oh my God. Such a huge chill bump, reading that hidey's a badass. And you know what, if this fucker ever gets up for parole, I'll be there. I was gonna say I wanna be there.

I will be there. I will be there. I will be there. I will start a damn petition to make sure that guy stays in jail. He deserves to rot. I will be your started damn petition to make sure that guy stays in jail He deserves to rot. I will be right behind Yeah, that happens absolutely now on a lighter note luckily now that Tom is away and present by Heidi did end up getting that tattoo That she promised her old my god, dr. Brewer. Yes. She ended up getting like something on her leg to represent the Oakland Raiders

She ended up getting something on her leg to represent the Oakland Raiders. It's over my spasit. What a bad ass she is. And obviously having Tom behind bars and knowing that Justice has finally been served is absolutely everything to Heidi. Yeah. She said it's like a dream come true.

After 46 years and telling my story over and over and over again, finally. Not only is he caught, he confesses. I've known it all my life. I've always known it. My story has never changed. No. And she still visits LaRetta's grave

in Elmo, Utah quite frequently. Oh. But at the time that detective Brewer took on LaRetta's case, it was the longest running cold case in Utah State history. Holy shit, I believe it. Yeah.

And like I think I mentioned before, it was his first cold case. I know, that's any solved it. Like what a case to work on. And obviously we know a very small percentage of cold cases end up getting solved. Yeah, but this one just goes to prove one of Heidi's most important motto is the entire way through.

As long as there's hope, there's a chance. Yep, there's never a case where it's, this is never gonna be solved. No, I don't think this is ever going to be solved. Look at that. As long as there's hope, there's a chance. And I think it's so beautiful. Like just a good motto for everything. Yeah, if not just true crime and getting justice served, but everything. Yeah, and it's like with these cases, you just it's true. It doesn't matter that things have deteriorated or evidence has been lost. There's always a fucking thread to pull.

There is somewhere. You just gotta find the right people to pull the right threads and to not give up on it. Exactly. And this is a perfect example of it. It really is. Wow, what a case. That is the case of Loretta Jones

and her absolute rock star of a daughter. Yeah, absolutely. Like, damn. Wow. Get Heidi yours. Just about us. I, this case like moved me. And I hope you're thriving.

She, I, you know, she's Heidi. Yeah. And I think, did I already say that Detective Bruce still has that leprechaun? Oh, yeah. Which was like what Heidi gave him in the beginning. I love it. That's so cool.

Wow. It's crazy. Such a wild case from start to finish. That was a truly harrowing case. It was. And with that, guys, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it. We're not so worth it.

You go on the run for 46 years and then when you finally got caught, you say, I don't even understand why I'm here. Why should I have to serve justice for a woman's life that I took? Fuck you, Tom. You piece of shit. Die mad, Tom. Bye. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by

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