Rotten Mango - #48: The "Best Friends Forever" Murder (Case: Christine Paolilla & Vera Jo Reigle)

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

They met in High School and became popular and inseparable. One of them was even voted “Miss Irresistible.”  Best friends forever & ever they said - but when four of them are found brutally murdered you have to wonder if someone close to them was involved… Secrets between friends are sometimes the darkest ones. One of them is a Pretty Little Liar. Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Badwing Badboob.

You did so much awesome today! Welcome to this week's podcast. I actually wanted to film it yesterday and here's what happened. Okay, no one likes a little front story but I'm giving you one today. I got excited I got pumped I was really really angry at the people involved in this case And I'm like listen fiance. We're gonna film this right now and he said I'm kind of tired And I said you are the leak wink and we just sat there and he was like all right It's time for bed for both of us. You gotta go. There is no leak wink in this house except for you So it's time to hit the hay. We're back today. Now, today's case is really infuriating because if you guys remember that I covered the Coca-Cola murder, um, the Sylvia Likens case, and that one was just so-

people call it like the American Junco case, because there's just a lot going on. I mean, you have this crazy family that's abusing people, you have this group of abusers. There's gotta be so many people who know that this person's being abused and you've got the police doing absolutely nothing We're gonna be talking about the case of Vera Joe Raigle and I don't know if I'm saying her last name right and this one is just Going to gut you from the inside and you're gonna be really really sad. It all starts March 27th of 2011 at around 2 a.m. So there's this giant train that goes through Ohio. It's like one of those where they do shipments,

so it's not necessarily like an amp track. There's not a bunch of people in there like just enjoying their little ride across the town. But this train operator, he's driving across the train tracks two in the morning, and he sees something laying in between the train tracks. So it's not across the train tracks like you would normally expect a human to be,

maybe if someone had disposed a body, it would be kind of across the train tracks, but it was something lying in between the rails. And so he didn't get a good look, because it's the middle of the night, but he thought maybe it's a baby deer. Maybe it's a baby deer who wanted to just like, take an app there, right?

So he tries to stomp his brakes as immediately as possible but he runs over it and eight cars go over this figure on the train track. Eight joints. Eight of the yeah, eight joints and so finally once the train has stopped he gets out to take a look and he thinks okay maybe it's a baby deer. Maybe it'll be okay. Maybe he can reach under and be like come here baby deer like let me help you. But once he walks closer and closer he realizes it's not a baby deer. It's not even a full grown deer It's a human It's a naked female laying on the tracks and she appears to be dead

She appears to be stabbed strangled and beaten to death But why would somebody leave it on the track that they wanted her to be found? But why would somebody leave it on the track that they wanted her to be found? Well, there's a very specific reason. I thought so too, and the reason behind it is even more sinister and scary than I originally thought. So, when's the police get called? They immediately are able to identify the body as Vera Jo Raigle, and she was born in finley Ohio, so I'm gonna give you a little bit about her childhood.

I couldn't find too much. There's a really good documentary on this called Good Night Sugar Babe. And this one's very interesting because a lot of the people who are accused of murdering her per take in the documentary, they're interviewed. And they've got no shame. I mean, it's absolutely nuts. Vera Joe Regal, she was born in finley Ohio. And an interesting fact about finley Ohio, it was called the Flagstay. So apparently they made a lot of flags in Ohio or maybe They put up a lot of flags the flag city that's what they called it and she had an incredibly Incredibly rough childhood so she was sexually assaulted by her own dad Willard and he's actually serving a 20 year prison sentence for rape and for

harassment and all of these things she was estranged from her own mother So she wasn't really close with her mom. She just didn't have this great home life. She had a couple of siblings and she really really needed some strong parental figures that could take care of her because she was diagnosed with ADHD and her IQ was borderline mentally impaired. So she really needed someone to take care of her and there was nobody and that's just pretty much how she was brought up. Now this did not stop Vera at all, she was still outgoing, she loved to dance, she loved country music. That was like her jam.

And her teachers would even get interviewed and they said, you know, the thing with Vera is that she would do anything to help people without question. It was just like to a point where it's just too much, like sometimes they wish that she could have stood up for herself a little bit more. They saw this in their classrooms between Vera and other teachers, but also Vera and other students. She just wanted to be accepted and she just wanted people to be like, oh my god, like you're so nice. So in Vera's 19 years old, she starts dating Zachary Brooks, who's 13. Now this is where it's kind of confusing because technically if you didn't know anything about the story, you would think, okay, well Vera is obviously the predator of this situation, right? But because she has the mental capacity of an eighth grader, it seems like mentally they were on the same development level.

But eventually, as a relationship grows, Zachary would get older and he would get smarter. Whereas in Verra's situation, she would cognitively stay at the eighth grade level. So there's just a lot of weird imbalances going on. I'm not going to make an opinion about this because I really don't know how it works, like legally speaking even. So Zachary's mom, her name is Sherry Brooks, and she's really important to the story. She is actually known as Sugar Babe, and the documentary's name is Good Night Sugar Babe.

So you're thinking, okay, she's got to be pertinent to all of this, right? What is Sugar Babe? Sugar Babe was just her nickname like a sugar baby I guess like a sugar baby yeah but her name Sherry Brooks and this is Zachary's mom and you would think that maybe maybe she'd be a little hesitant to this she'd be like oh well I don't know like let me meet her first but immediately right off the bat she was like I love this relationship not only do I love it but I want her to move in with us while he's 13 while he's 13 she was like, I love this relationship. Not only do I love it, but I want her to move in with us. While he's 13. While he's 13, she was like, I want your girlfriend to move in with us and live with us full

time. Now, when was this? This is 2011? Well, she passed away in 2011, about three years after she started dating Zachary. So it's 2008? Yeah, very, very recently. This was even the middle ages where things move fast and you start getting married in your teenage years.

I mean, it's insane. So Sherry Brooks, a little bit about her, which makes this even crazier, is that Sherry had four children that were taken away for her. So the CPS came and they took four of her kids away for sexual abuse allegations. And she was the abuser? Well, that's where it gets really, really iffy. Yes came and they took four of her kids away for sexual abuse allegations.

And she was the abuser? Well, that's where it gets really, really iffy. So, I mean, not all of them were for sexual abuse. So, for instance, one incident, a kid was slapped in the face by the dad, cursed, and then thrown down on the couch because he was crying. So one of Sherry's kids wouldn't stop crying. The dad beat the kid up and now Sherry's trying to cover up the abuse and didn't tell the police didn't protect her kid. Just was like, shut up about it. Don't tell nobody. Now word got out, CPS came, took that one child away. She had so many

kids in that house, but they were like, we're just going to take that one kid away. Then another incident, one of their family friends walked in on Sherry, sexually assaulting her infant son in the bathtub. So CPS comes and they just take that one baby away. How many kids do she have? She has a ton. I mean, eventually I think total probably close to like six, seven, nine.

There's like so many that were taken away. There's so many that left and like ran away and then there's a lot that like stayed with her briefly and then eventually went out. So it's kind of all over the place, right? And it's crazy because this isn't really the most pop and thing in true crime. Like, it's not that well known of a case. This case?

Yeah, so you have this one documentary on it. I mean, this girl doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, which bothers me. I mean, I don't really think Wikipedia is the end all be all, but really? So why would Sherry want another person in our house when she's getting kids taken left and right? What's going on? Now, the first theory that comes around

is that Vera wasn't talking to her mom at the time. So her and Vera's mom are estranged and Vera gets disability checks. So if Sherry is the one that's taking care of Vera, she gets those checks, she's trying to get paid. So the thing that kind of enforces this theory is that Sherry herself was on disability. And most of the kids that were living under her roof

at the time, which was about, I believe, four or five sons in and out. So like, there was a kid named Punky, he would kind of like leave and then not stay there and then he would come back. So like I would say give her, take like four or five kids, right? Now most of them were on disability. So they were each receiving $700 a month.

And Sherry does not work. She just cashes in everyone's checks. All of the kids, all their checks go to Sherry Brooks. So Vera moves in with the family. And this is a huge family and a very, very small house. There's tons of people. And they also had a pig that lived in the house. A full grown pig and they just let a poop anywhere. So I can't even imagine this smell's going on

inside of that house. Now Vera, she was just excited. I mean think about it like her, she had this really shitty relationship with her parents the whole time and finally, finally she not only found a boyfriend but she found you know know, such an accepting mother figure So she's like, of course I want to move in like this is amazing once she gets into the Brooks house The abuse goes rampant. They take away various phone immediately They did not allow her to have contact with any of her siblings her sister that she was really close with even her mom They were like you can't talk to any of your family because they're evil. Kind of like a cult. So she was forced to give her phone to Zachary who gave it to Sherry Brooks.

She wasn't even allowed to talk unless Sherry gave her the go ahead. Like inside the house. So if like they're sitting at the living room table, they didn't have a living room table. If they were sitting on the couch, you know, and she wanted to say, hey, I have a great idea of Sherry. Be like, oh, did I allow you to speak? Is that not insane? She wasn't even allowed to leave the house. They would bring her around town so that she couldn't

like escape. So every time that they would go out, typically, it would be to the soup kitchen or a salvation army, which is kind of like a goodwill situation, right? And so they would take her. And she would see her family members because it's like a small town, you know? And so she would see some uncles and cousins. every time they saw Vera they'd be like oh Vera

And she would smile at them and then she would quickly put on her hoodie and say can't talk can't talk can't talk Because if she talked to them she would go home with the Brooks and she would get physically abused There is an entire job at this house was to rub Sherry's feet. Listen, I don't care if you guys are on those foot websites. I don't care how much you love feet. If you see this woman, you don't want to see her feet. I don't want to see her feet. I can't imagine rubbing her feet

and I don't know if it's because I'm biased and I hate Sherry so much, but she is just an evil woman. So her feet had to be rubbed like multiple hours every single day. You know, she was like, every single day, you know? She was like my feet hurt. You got a rubbum. So she would hit Vera with a stick on the head if she didn't rub it the way that Sherry wanted it to be rubbed and Vera would constantly just keep saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Now Sherry herself even confirms this story, except she just conveniently omits the whole hitting with a stick on the head part. So she would tell people well, Vera would rub my feet and I would tell her she wouldn't have to but she kept doing it and she would rub my feet and rub my feet and then all of a sudden she would be like, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And Sherry set it up as if Vera is just this poor girl who just feels like she's always doing something wrong. And Sherry claimed that she would ask Vera, what are you sorry about?

You didn't do anything wrong, stop apologizing. But the rest of the Brooks family, they remember, she got bonked on the head with a stick. That's where she's apologizing. What's wrong with you, Sherry? Now, Sherry even forced her to sleep with a pig, and the pig was not like a cute mini pig. I'm sure some of you guys are like picturing

like one of those cute little pets. No, it was like a full grown pig, and it was just pooping everywhere. and she was forced to sleep in the closet most of the time with the pig What is she doing? What are they doing with the pig? I don't know why they even have a pig I don't know like I looked up the address of this place and it's like it's not a Place with the backyard like there's no massive backyard. It's like not on a field. It's not on a farm. I don't know why they have a pig.

Maybe Sherry just thought it was cute. Is she seems like the type that like, it's like, oh, that's so cute. Like one of those accident. Did you just accidentally come home with a pig? No, you buy a mini pig and then you tell me that you're a big pig. Yes.

It's all a scam when they're like, it's a teacup pig. And you've never lived life unless you've had an accidental pet pig That's just what it is. That's just the thesis So they kind of treated her like a maid and all of the brick siblings were in on it like even her boyfriend Zachary They just nobody would do anything around the house except for Vera So she was forced to do all of the housework and she was not allowed to make eye contact with people What is that not insane? So she would just hang her head and she wouldn't talk she would not make eye contact with people now from the get go

Police were getting calls to this house Constantly 911 calls and that was Vera. She would try to find a phone. She would get a landline She would steal someone's cell phone or even her own phone and she would call 911 and say I'm being held against my will Like please help me and she would get a landline, she would steal someone's cell phone or even her own phone. And she would call 911 and say, I'm being held against my will, like please help me. And she would get the address. She is looking for help. Yeah, she's looking for help. So when the police get there, I mean, she's got cuts, she's got bruises all over the place.

She's bloodied up sometimes. And they would ask her, hey, what happened? And suddenly she would change her tune because she area standing right next to her. And she would say, oh, I just got into a fight with someone over something stupid, you know I'm fine. I'm really really happy here and Then police live leave. Yeah, they would just leave so the police would be like okay, like have a good Tuesday The forks. What's the problem here? So I think I mean obviously there's a lot of fault on the police because they should have immediately separated her from the rest of the family when they ask her about what actually happened. But I just think, you know, yeah,

I mean, honestly, they're to blame. I don't think there's anything else I can say. And the police station even called her a frequent flyer. Like, you know, on an airplane, but she was such a frequent caller that immediately if she just said one word, they knew it was Vera, they knew which house to to go to and they know what typically the problem was she's being held hostage She'd probably have some injuries, but once she gets there no one would cooperate. Are you kidding me? Yeah, and I'm just like okay. There's a name for it Yeah, they called her a frequent flyer So when people when police say it's a frequent flyer meaning meaning like, they think this person just bullshitting. No, or just like they probably have an inkling.

So it's kind of set in a way that the police knew that they were being abused, but there was nothing they could do because she would always come up with this massive lie that usually the Brooks told her to tell. Now, I think it's the police's fault that they didn't get her checked out. They didn't factor in the fact

that she has a mental disability. They also didn't try to get her separated from the Brooks family to actually question her. Imagine your abusers just standing right next to you. What are you going to do? Are you really going to say, oh, yeah, they're beating the shit out of me? No, you're going to be like, I'm fine. I fell down the stairs.

So bizarre. Yeah. So I'm thinking to myself, okay, there's like no way. There's no way that this entire family is willing to go with like willing to risk going to jail for kidnapping, holding someone hostage, for abusing someone maybe even torture right for $700 a month. Like it just doesn't make sense to me. And that's when you find out about Sherry's real motive. So Sherry Brooks, you know, the mom, she has an obsession with babies. I mean, she constantly wanted to be surrounded

by little children and particularly a little baby girl. She did not like baby boys, she did not like kids, she didn't like toddlers, she just liked infants like newborns, you know maybe three years old max, but she didn't like them when they grew up to be children. So most of her kids you know they're in their teenagers, she didn't give a fork about them. When they're like 12, she's like, I don't fork in care about you, she just wanted a newborn baby girl. Is this some really sick? It's like sick in a weird way. I know you're thinking sick in the sexually abusive way, but I think sick in a even worse way. So share, well, maybe not worse. So Sherry, she was abused by her own father when she was really young. He's actually the one that nicknamed her sugar

babe. So, she would be constantly called sugar babe and then she would get assaulted by her own dad and eventually she was put into foster care because people found out her mom did nothing to stop this so that like we can't, we can't trust you guys as parents. So, we're gonna take Sherry away and she was placed in foster care. Now, when Sherry is 16 years old, she's been in foster care this entire time. She comes home to her mom and said, Mom, I had a baby. And the foster care system won't let me have my baby.

They just took my baby from it. So Sherry's mom is pissed. She's like, you're telling me that you just had our first grand kid and now the foster care system won't even let you have your kid. I mean, did they just snatch a baby from you? No, no, no, no, no. I'm taking you. We're walking our asses down to the foster care system and we're demanding. They give me my baby back. So Sherry's like, yeah, thank you, mom. So they walked to the foster care system and it turns out it wasn't Sherry's

baby. It was actually just another baby girl that was placed into foster care system and it turns out it wasn't Sherry's baby. It was actually just another baby girl that was placed into foster care recently so she's an infant. And so the foster care people are like can we talk to you about your daughter Sherry and so Sherry's mom is like fine what is the whole deal? So they sit her down and they say hey your daughter Sherry is a complete pathological liar like it's insane. She has this own little fantasy world that she does and she will tell you completely something so completely farfetched Very convincing and you're just gonna believe her. So she told everyone that she birthed this this baby So many people believed her even though we have the record that she didn't birth this baby

But also like we got this baby not from her so like what's going on? So that was kind of like the first inkling that Sherry had this infatuation with babies. What do you think is the biggest scandal that has happened at the local grocery store? The one that you shop at, maybe you're thinking there was a shopping cart scandal. Maybe someone stole a shopping cart. Well, I'm gonna tell you about my local grocery store's dirty little secret, and I'm positive that this happens in most grocery stores, even the one that you probably shop at so every single year billions of pounds of food just go to waste often because it doesn't live up to the strict

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order, go to Imperfect Foods.com and use rotten to sign up. That's 20% off plus free shipping at imperfectfoods.com, offer code rotten for the people in the back. So she has got this infatuation with babies. She grows up and she starts having babies of her own. Now she has a lot of sons and most of the sons either were taken away from her or hid by their dads and she didn't really give a fork, or she even sexually assaulted one of her sons, but finally she has her first daughter by the name of Maria.

Now every other baby, she had abused that baby, whether it's physically sexually or let someone else abuse that baby, everyone claims that she did right by her. And I quote, did right by her. She kept her for a whole year. So all of Sherry's family were super proud of Sherry. Sherry's parents were proud of her. They were like, finally, you can keep a kid for more than a year before they get turned into CPS, which I'm like,

let's not really. That's not, that doesn't make me feel good. So that was the whole situation with Maria. Now one day Maria, she's having some problems. They take her to the hospital and the hospital finds out that she has been raped. She was only one years old. So I mean, no one knows what happened.

Sherry claims that she has no idea who did this, why they would do this to her, but either way, CPS took that baby away. Now I still have no idea why CPS didn't go and take the rest of her kids away, or like, never let her have kids. I mean, I guess that's illegal. So who's could have assaulted the child? Maybe a dad, maybe a family friend. You know you never really know right? I don't know who Sherry was letting have contact with her child. And so they take the baby away. Now Sherry was

heartbroken and in the same house. So in the same apartment building that was turned, lives like a house turned into apartment unit. There was another baby that was around the same apartment building, that was turned, it was like a house turned into apartment unit. There was another baby that was around the same age as Maria, and her name was Vera. And Sherry tried to kidnap her on multiple occasions. Now thankfully, she was never successful, but it's the same Vera. What? Yes. This was years and years ago. Twenty-four years ago.

They lived in the same apartment and Sherry, after getting her first daughter taken away from her, tried to kidnap her neighbor's daughter on multiple occasions. And her neighbor's daughter was Vera. Now, what makes it even worse is that 24 years later, she will take the baby of the baby she tried to steal. Does that make sense?

That was confusing at all. Who's baby? So 24 years later, after she tried to kidnap Vera, now she will kidnap Vera's baby. So she unsuccessfully, you know, could not kidnap Vera, and now she's going to try to take Vera's baby. She had this obsession with just baby girls. That was it. So she kept popping out babies. And most of them were sons. And she was just really pissed off by this so much so that she kind of gave up on the whole process. Now, I do think that Sherry had a ton of medical issues

and medical conditions that she couldn't probably have anymore kids. And maybe that's why she stopped having children. But Sherry constantly encouraged her sons to have kids. She wanted all of her sons to have at least one kid by the time that they're 16 or 17 years old. And this is like in the 2000s, like this isn't in the middle ages, you know? This is crazy. Now everyone that gets pregnant with their sons baby, Sherry would constantly say, I hope you have a girl. I can't wait. I hope you have a girl with

my son. Now Gina was a girl that fell in love with Sherry's second oldest son. So one of Sherry's son gets a girlfriend named Gina and as soon as Gina got pregnant, that's when things got weird. So Gina claims that the minute that they found out that she was pregnant, they kept stalking her. Sherry would send all of the sons, like four or five sons at a time, to go stalk her to make sure that all she did was work home school. That was it.

They didn't want her to do anything dangerous just in case she had a baby girl in her stomach and they were just putting a ton of stress on to Gina. Now Gina ended up miscarrying and this would be a very dramatic moment because Sherry suddenly flipped a switch. She didn't give a fork about Gina anymore. She was just like, okay, then bye. You don't have to be here. And so Gina ended up moving to her mom in Kentucky and got the shit out of town. She was like, bye, like this Brooks family is insane. So finally, March of 2009,

she convinces Vera to get pregnant. So Vera is 22 years old at this point. And Zachary is 16 and Sherry kept telling Zach, now that your girlfriend's pregnant, if that baby is a girl, you have to sign over all the parental rights to me. Do you understand? Okay. And he was like totally chill with it. So Sherry would go around and say, that's my baby and they're like literally pointing at their stomach while she's pregnant and saying, that's my baby in there, but like not in a cute grandma way. Like in a truly predatory, like, I'm going to steal this child away from you and give you no rights as a parent type of way. Now she goes through with her pregnancy, there wasn't any trouble, there wasn't any medical issues. Now she's about one month away from giving birth

and Sherry's birthday is in November. Her birthday is November 3rd. Now there is due date is December 3rd but Sherry really wanted to have the same birthday as the baby. That was like her dream. She was like imagine if me The mom that's what she said the mama The mama has the same birthday as the baby, which it's like you're not even the mom you're the grandma But whatever right she was like that would be amazing So she started giving there at Castor oil and orange juice now castor oil if you look it up It says that it's kind of like one of those old midwives tails where if you're

This is only for when you're like past due like your baby should have been out like two weeks ago Your baby is just taking out free rent right now like come on get out of there you little sucker, right? That is around the time that maybe maybe if you want you take two tablespoons to induce labor castor oil, right? I don't know how medically sound this is But it's kind of like one of those old midwives things. But because Vera was a month away from giving birth, they forced her to drink three bottles of castor oil. Because they want the baby to be a month early, so that she could be birthed on the same day of Sherry's birthday. When do they know if it's a girl? Yeah. It is a girl. And that's why Sherry's birthday. When, do they know if it's a girl?

Yeah. It is a girl. And that's why Sherry was obsessed. Wow. So she is originally due date was December 6th, but she was born November 1th. Fourth. Oh, the baby did come out. The day after Sherry's birthday.

And Sherry would actually brag to all of her friends and even the documentary and she said, not on my birthday, but we got it close. That's what she would say. Wow. Okay. Now she omitted the part where the baby had to stay in the hospital for her issues because the baby was premature. So great.

When Sherry was asked, like, what do you think that the baby decided to come out a month early? It hasn't, does it have anything to do with the cast oil that all of your kids are telling, you know, people that you forced decided to come out a month early. It hasn't, to sit on anything to do with the cast oil, that all of your kids are telling, you know, people that you forced her to drink, and she said, no, the baby came out early to have pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes with mama on Thanksgiving. That's what she said. So Willadine is what they chose for the name of the baby girl.

And once Willadine was born, it got a lot worse for Vera. For the next two years, they would constantly make Vera feel like she can't even love her own baby. If Vera even touched her own baby, Zachary would beat her up. If the baby kept trying to go near Vera, because I don't know if maybe like babies can tell that you're the mom, right? But the baby would constantly try to latch on to Vera or like try to hold Vera or try to hug Vera.

Vera would have to ignore the baby or like gently push it away because she knew that she would get beat. If she even showed her own baby love, like this was so traumatic. Now once Willadine gets older, they would constantly tell Willadine that her mom is Sherry, the one who birthed her is Sherry and not Vera. So even Willadine started calling Sherry mom. So weird. So strange, right?

Yeah. Now, six months before the murder, their sister calls the police department. She's like, listen, I'm telling you, my sister is being held hostage by the Brooke family. Like, what are you doing? She's being tortured. She's being beat up.

Like, come on. After five years. After like two years, yeah. And the police were like, okay, well, what's her name? How old is she? And they never filed an official report from their sister because she was over the age. They're like, she's an adult and it's fine.

Like she can walk out if she wants to. Which kind of mind boggles me because adults get held hostage all the time. Like, what do you mean? You can get kidnapped when you're not a kid. So I don't know why they didn't even like. They're just like frequent flyers. You frequent flyers and also you're not a kid, so I don't know why they didn't even like I just like frequent flyers. You frequent flyers and also you're reporting it, but what a co-inketing.

Yeah, so her cognitive level was around the eighth grade. Now all of her teachers were really upset by this when they found out later, right? And they said, it doesn't make sense. Would you trust an eighth grader to tell you if they feel safe in their home? No, you wouldn't. You would take them out. You would do examinations. So why would you just let Vera stay there? It does make sense. Just because legally her age is an adult like that. It does make sense. So now at this point,

Zachary, he becomes even more abusive. Zachary didn't like being a dad. He just like wasn't into it. You know, he was sick of it. He felt like I'm being tied down by this baby. I'm being tied down by this girl that my family took hostage and that we torture on a daily basis and we cash her disability checks. But like I want to see other girls, you know, I want to, I want to go explore what's out there. Now Vera, she was jealous. I mean, she genuinely thought that Zachary loved her up until this point. She was like, this is, this is the father of my child, even though it's not my child, you know.

This is, you know, the man on my dreams, like she just really, really loved him. So Zachary, he would go and cheat on her. He would go and see other girls. She would find out about it. And if she ever got sad, if Vera ever got sad that he was cheating on her, he would physically get so violent,

so angry and he would viciously beat her. Now, if you ask Sherry, Zachary's mom, like, hey, you saw that happen, didn't you? That's what everyone says, that you watched Zachary beat Vera, and you're okay with that, like as a mom, and she said, I raised my kids to not hit a girl, but if they're gonna put themselves in a man's place,

then yeah, do it. I'm sorry, what? She called it a man's place? Yeah, I guess like demanding loyalty and being monogamous is a man's place. I'm so confused. So, the only person at this point that has ever tried to stick up for Vera was one of the brothers named Punky. That was his nickname, Punky Brooks. Now the thing with Punky is that there's no evidence that he was in on the abuse of Vera, but Punky was really busy.

Punky was part of that Crips gang and he was busy. He was like a in his little organization of his local Crips gang. He was like a top leader. Oh, actually the actual gang. the actual gang. The actual gang, yeah. I mean, I don't think they're like an LLC incorporated. Are they? But like, he was, you know, he was kind of high up in like the local organization.

So he was really, really busy. And the only son that Sherry would ever be scared of was Punky. The whole family was terrified of Punky. He just kind of had this like air about him. He was you know heavy on this gang activity. He was heavy about you know doing the right thing in his own kind of weird gang way right. And so there would be times where he would stop the abuse on Vera, but most of the time he wasn't even home. So if anyone could

have saved Vera at this point, it's freaking punky. Now one day punky is walking down a rural highway with his girlfriend Heather and it was super dark there's no street lights I mean it's a rural highway. Now a lot of people said that they were headed to go see fireworks in the nearby town but when you interview the family and the documentary they all said yeah heroin. He was gonna go by heroin that's what's going on. Like there was no fireworks are you fucking kidding me it's not the fourth of July it was heroin and so he was walking with his girlfriend and he was hit by a car And he died What yeah, that makes zero sense. Yeah, I mean, but like when you think I don't know if you've been on a roll highway

I have neither but it's like just just like one lane usually Still I know that's on how suspicious Especially when he's like part of a gang. Yeah, yeah. You want like, come on, roll highway. Like you can see a car coming. Yeah, it's a little weird. You could have totally walked away. Yeah, you could see a car coming.

You could see your car coming. Yeah, exactly. Are you kidding me? Yeah, so Sherry was heartbroken by this. And she too didn't believe it was an accident. What about girlfriend was there? Yeah, and she was fine. So that's why Sherry was like uh-uh is the girlfriend Heather pushed

Punky so that he would die She just didn't want to be a part of this relationship anymore instead of being the you know Full-grown woman that she should have been and broken up with punky She pushed punky in front of the car and he freaking died So Sherry goes around telling all of her family members this and she asked of her sons to do her a favor, which is to viciously beat up Heather. So they brought her out into the street, they beat her up and they almost curbed stomped her. What's up? Which okay so from my, this is my knowledge when I was in high school, I heard her to her about it. I don't know if the

definition has changed or maybe it's different. But you force someone you know what I'm gonna Google it because what if it's not right? And then I just seem like a psychopath. Oh, no, I'm right So it's oh god those pictures. It's when you put someone's head on a sidewalk curb and you start stomping on their head And there's like a ridge so everything gets broken The version that I knew about in high school and I don't want to dig deeper on Google because will the FBI but also the pictures are graphic. They would make you bite the curb and they would kick you on the back so that you're jaw and your teeth would shatter. Oh that's too much. Yeah so they were like let's curb stomp her but eventually she didn't end up

getting curbs stomped thankfully but her nose was broken, her entire face was, you know, bloodied up and she just kept screaming, sorry, sorry, and Sherry told her that will teach you to never mess with my family ever again. And then just like left. Now, you would think that maybe Sherry has like a moment where she's like, okay, like I'm grieving, I'm like, you know, facing this death that in my family and my son died. Maybe I can be a better mom to the other sons that are here, right? Well, no, the abuse towards Vera actually got worse. So they had punkies ashes in one of the rooms and right next to his ashes, they had a bunch

of like snacks, like kick-kart, kick-cat bars because that was like his favorite thing. And they would lock Vera in that room for days and told her that she couldn't leave so she was starving and now the kick-cat bar it's not like tied up in a bow it's not inside of you know his urn I guess is what you call it right and so she saw the chocolate bar I thought it was just a random kick-cat bar laying around and she ate it and she got viciously beat up by the entire family. Now this is when Zachary decides you know what I'm gonna Amp this shit up like I got to beat her up more because I want to join the crypts now I want to take my punky brothers place and be on the top of the local organization of crypts So he starts deciding that in order to prove his

cryptness that in order to prove his... ...cryptness... ...cryptness, I don't know. Okay, that he would just start beating up Vera on a daily basis. He would even call and text his friends and punkies like... ...baby mamas, I don't know how to say that mother of their children, like mother of punkies kids. He would call a ball of them and ask if they want to come over and beat a Vera and they would just come and they would beat her up. And I don't know why.

Like maybe he had lied about something that Vera had done that was really, really bad towards punky or they just thought it was like so tough. Like yeah, let's beat up a defenseless kidnap disabled girl because we're bad bitches. Like I don't really know. I don't know, but they would beat her up. So six months before the murder, we had Vera's sister pleading with the police that her sister is being held hostage, right? We had a couple more domestic calls afterwards, and then two months before Vera's murder,

we have another situation where the police get involved. So what actually happened was Willadine got hurt, so the baby got hurt. And Sherry didn't know what happened. I don't know what happened to the baby, right? But it was like a small scratch on the head and Sherry lied and told the entire family that Vera knowingly and purposely bonked the baby's head on the edge of the coffee table. So Zachary, being the amazing father that he is, he got so mad that he went over to Vera and started punching her in the face and he kept saying, why did you hurt my baby? Why did you hurt my baby? Now Vera doesn't have any answer because she didn't even know the baby was hurt, she shocked,

she's confused, she's hurt, she's scared. And so Zachary is like, oh, you don't want to talk to me, bitch, fine, I'll go get someone else. So he gets his aunt. Now her name is Samantha and she's not that important. But she comes over and she's like, all right Vera, why'd you hurt your baby? Why'd you hurt Willa Dean?

What was the issue? Was she crying or something? And again, Vera is not answering because she's like, what's going on? I don't even know what's happening. And so Samantha keeps punching her in the face as well. So like this entire family is forked up and they all deserve prison time. Now at this point a neighbor calls for a domestic violence call. They heard all of this or like some shits going down in that house again. So call the police. Now when the police arrive arrive again She came outside and she said I trip down the stairs like I hurt myself and I trip down the stairs It was my fault and that's how I got hurt

But this time the police don't believe it because she had a broken nose She had a concussion and she was bleeding a lot Believe it. We can pretend that we don't see this right guys because if we can we will but I don't think we can like the little too obvious I know we got a skip lunch for this one guys but are we I mean this is our job right Maybe it's not I don't know so they're like okay. Well, we need to talk to you Can we talk to you about what's going on and Vera look said Sherry and Sherry says yeah, you can talk to them And so the police at this point you're thinking okay and Vera looks at Sherry and Sherry says, yeah, you can talk to them. And so the police at this point, you're thinking,

okay, well, they're gonna separate those two because it seems like Sherry's the one that's in charge, right? But Sherry says, no, you can't talk to Vera without me because Vera, Vera, she's scared of people. She only will talk to you if I'm there. You know, I'm like her guardian. Now, it's insane that the police still didn't separate them, but yeah, they did not separate them.

She was taken to the hospital, Sherry was there. They said that it doesn't make sense that you fell down the stairs and that's when Sherry told the police, yeah, it doesn't make sense because she lied to you. She was a little liar. What really happened was that her boyfriend, do you know what Demetrius Jones, so he's this black guy and Verdating this black guy who lives in the town over and his name is to me Trius Jones and not only is he super abusive, but he is also a ghost. This guy doesn't exist Okay, sometimes he's called to me Trius Jones Sometimes he's Desmond Thompson, but he's always a black guy who just comes over who's dating Vera allegedly and just comes over Punches are in the face and just like magically disappears.

And to thin air. And the police were like, oh, so your boyfriend hit you and she's like, yeah. So Vera's going along with it and she's like, yeah, his name is, wait, what was his name? Is it Demetrius this time or is it Desmond? And she's like Demetrius Jones. And they're police like, no suspicion. No suspicion job done doesn't make sense at all But you know why we will hand it over to the next jurisdiction where Dimitris Jones allegedly resides

Okay, yeah sounds about racist to me, okay, so the police just believe it and they just move on I Could talk about this for 25 hours, but I won't because I don't want to bore you to death. Did you guys know, fun fact, that 80% of the immune system is influenced by your gut, and the same goes for your pets. Supporting the immune system through proper diet and digestive health enables your pets to better fight environmental allergies. Trust me, I have two French Bulldogs. I know all about environmental allergies for pets.

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Now this happened years before Vera even moved into the Brooks house, but when Travis was 16 years old, he got kicked out of his house. So he comes and lives with Sherry, his aunt, and he's like, okay, well I'm just gonna hang out with my cousin, the Brooks Brooks brothers because they're so cool Right and they started I know the company. I was thinking about that too Just now I was like am I gonna get sued maybe so they start skateboarding and he tells the Brooks brothers that he's gonna do something so

Frickin gnarly he's gonna jump the local train tracks as the train comes He's done it before so don't get freaked out, right? That's what he told the Brooks brothers. Now, as he's jumping, so it's like, you jump right before the train hits you. So you jump across, you like leap across like a little deer. Okay, you're so badass. Yeah, I don't understand the purpose of this, although then like, I guess badass brownie points, but in my world, there would be stupid ass brownie points and you would get no brownies. You would, you'd probably be dead, I guess. he jumped he slipped and I'm gonna use Sherry's words quote off came his head and quote so he was decapitated by the oncoming train in front of the Brooks brothers he legit wanted to do that yeah he slipped now he's 16 so I can't really shit on him too much.

And what makes it even worse is Sherry's great words. So after he became decapitated by the oncoming train, he was, and I quote, smashed up like hamburger meat. That's what Sherry said about her own nephew that died. He got smashed up like hamburger meat. You think he chose to do that? I'm not sure. That's like all up in the air. Was he forced? Was he peer pressured? That's why I can't really shit on him because he's 16 and he's young. Yeah, but why is yeah, anyway, yeah, when I was 16, I

I get some dumb stuff, but this is so weird. I mean, even her son, the death of her son, and then this, there's so many people just dying. This whole family is really, I think the only word is just kind of depraved. Like, I can't even say evil, because for some reason, evil makes me feel like there's some master manipulation going on, but this family is just flat out, like, kind of depraved. I mean, there is incest that we'll get into later, and she sexually assault her children so it gets even worse. Now keep that in mind because it's gonna become important. Now everything starts getting more and more tense in the house. For whatever reason I think punky's death just kind of sprung everything into just everything's on Vera. Every every part of every

reason that everything sucks is various fault. So one day Sherry asks Vera to come outside to help clean the rabbit cage like they just had a rabbit cage outside of every reason that everything sucks is various fault. So one day, Sherry asks Verra to come outside to help clean the rabbit cage, like they just had a rabbit cage outside with a bunch of rabbits in there, and they had a tarp on top of the rabbit cage, and it would have four bricks on each corner so that the tarp wouldn't fly away in the wind, right?

Now Sherry claims that Verra took off one of these bricks in through them, at Sherry's feet, Sherry's beloved feet that needs to be massaged multiple times a day. Now, we can probably assume that Vera did not do this if anything may be the tarp had flipped the brick over and it landed on Sherry's feet, but that was kind of when the plan of murdering Vera started. She was really, really upset.

Sherry's feet is like, you would think it's like her moneymaker. It's not, but I mean, these are like her most coveted possession, her feet. She's like, how dare you? She likes feet and daughter. I mean, I guess like the whole feet thing is like they're just always in pain. So she thought that maybe Vera wanted her to be in more pain. So she's like you little sick person, I guess, and she told the rest of her family that Vera is trying to injure her, trying to kill her, trying to take away her feet. She's, oh my god, I gotta get and she told the rest of her family that Vera is trying to injure her,

trying to kill her, trying to take away her feet. She's, oh my god, I gotta get my foot amputated. She was just like kind of doing the most. She did not need to get her foot amputated, but whatever. Now, at this point, they start talking about murdering Vera in front of Vera. While she's just sitting there and they would say, you know what the best way to be? Is if we let her get run over by the train because that means there's no fingerprints. That means there's no evidence because she would become and I quote hamburger meat. So while they're talking about the future murder of Vera in front of Vera, they have a new visitor knock knock on their door in comes Danny Bixler. Now Danny Bixler is Sherry's cousin's son.

So I guess it's like for simplicity reasons, we'll just call Danny Bixler like the Brooks Brothers cousin, right? So he's the cousin and he had recently just gotten out of prison for serving a three year prison term for just like a bunch of shit, okay? Like he just went wild. He's also part of the Crips gang.

He actually has a tear drop tattoo on his face Meaning that he murdered someone now. I couldn't find any record that he did murder someone if he got off on like manslaughter charges But um he had a tear drop on his face, right? It's crazy. It's crazy It's crazy. Like I thought it was just a thing amongst rappers like tear drops on their face Mainly a little way. Okay. I always tired, post-mellon. But I never really thought that people in real life just like walked around with tear dropped tattoos, I guess they do. So he had a girlfriend that was waiting for him and they had only been dating for like a week.

They had maybe exchanged some letters while they were in prison and they were like, yeah, we're going to get out and we're going to do it, we're going to fork. So his girlfriend was Nicole Peters and they decided that they were going to go to the local park and they were just going were gonna go to the local park and they were just gonna like ride on the swing set super romantic. We love full-grown gangsters just hanging out at the park where I want to raise my kids for sure right and so he decides that Nicole wants to get on a swing set but there's already another teenager sitting there so he says hey teenager get the fork off the swing set. And the teenager being a teenager is like, no, like do you have a kid? Then no, I mean why? We're just all a bunch of adults hanging out at park.

Why do you get rain over the swing set, right? I get it if you had a kid, but no. And all of a sudden Danny Bixler just yeets him off the swing set and starts violently bashing his head against the floor. So witnesses, they call the police, they get a good look at the couple, and they hear police sirens. I mean, they knew that this was going to be an assault charge, it was going to be a lengthy battle in court, they were going to do some serious time, right? So they fled that town and went to the neighboring town and started staying at the Brooks House.

Now, Danny and his family and Cherie's family are really complex. It's really intense. So Danny's dad is Cherie's cousin, like I said, and they were nicknamed in their family as the kissing cousins. Are they used to kiss? Yeah, and Cherie's first child was actually with him,

with her cousin. Oh my God. Yeah, big Danny, Danny Bixler's dad. He wasn't in the picture anymore. The kissing cousin was Sherry. He wasn't in the picture anymore because he stabbed his wife's lover. And then he drove an 18 ton truck on a high speed chase with the police on a highway, putting a ton of people in danger.

So he's locked up for a really long time. Forever. So I'm just, that was like a little side note for how strange this entire family is. So when Danny and Nicole come to live with the Brooks family, they were so excited because, you know, Danny Bixler, he's part of the crypts and he's like, man, where's my man, punky? I'm so excited, the crypts are reunited. And that is when Sherry tells Danny that punky has died because Vera murdered punky Vera? Vera Murdered a gang member now Danny being you know the hardcore crypt that he is

He's like we got to do something about this. There's a code. There's a code in this brotherhood You know, we can't just we can't just let her get away with it So he started doing most of the abuse on Vera. He would get these metal locker You know when you go to like school there's little dialogs. Yeah, yeah, when he would lock it attached to a belt on one side and he would just swing the belt around and hit Vera all over. He grabbed a paddle that had like, they was called paddle number three. He would beat her with the paddle and it seemed like Danny and Nicole his girlfriend had a little sadistic thing about it. Every time they would beat Vera together they would just like rush over and start

making out. While she's like crying in pain on the floor, and then it started escalating. So after beating her really badly, they would run up to the room that they were staying in, and then just loudly have sex for the whole family to hear. Nobody cared, everyone thought it was kind of comical. And then Sherry started instigating more abuse because she kept saying, you know, Danny, I didn't want to tell you this because you were so upset that Vera murdered Ponky, but you know, Vera slept with every single one of my sons and that crazy and she told me in private that she can't wait to sleep with you.

And he was like, I would never, first of all, I got a girlfriend and second of all, you know, Crips, I don't know, like he was just so pissed off. I don't know why he got so triggered and so pissed off by this, but the beating got so bad that he broke every bone in her face. And it seemed like they weren't the only ones getting off on it because Sherry would go around and constantly tell her sons,

doesn't Vera look so cute with those black eyes. She looks like a cute little squirrel. So after all of this abuse, after every bone in her face was broken, they took her to a soup kitchen and the volunteers were shook. They gave her soup and they constantly talked in the back about how, did you see that one girl? It looked like she went through the windshield of a car. But for some reason, nothing happened from that. I don't know if they didn't report it or I don't know if the police didn't really give a fork What does windshield of a car me like she went like she got into a car accident and flew out from the front glass like that's how badly

bruised, you know just bloody just really bad, right and then Danny started stabbing Vera So he would slowly torture her grab a kitchen knife and start stabbing her in the legs and Chery would walk over and she would say, Oh my God, did he just stab you? And she would say, let's see if this is a really bad stab pretty much and she would stick her finger in the hole of the stab And she claimed that one time it went down all the way to her knuckles and she said this in the documentary Like Danny stabbed her and so I yeah, I went down to her knuckles and she said this in the documentary. Like, Danny stabbed her and so I, yeah, I went down to my knuckles. I'm like, what?

The family would force Farah to pick up and eat dog poop. When she was on her menstrual cycle, they would assault her with a toothbrush and then force her to brush her teeth with it after. They satamized her with a plunger. And this is where the cover story part takes place. So because Vera is practically too injured and too badly abused to even rub Sherry's feet, one of the sons had to take over foot duty.

And he was pissed. You know, he's like, why do I got a rub mama's feet, right? So he went and he rubbed Sherry's feet and Sherry kept telling him, oh man, I really hope nobody kills Vera. But if someone does, what should we tell the police? So that's when a lot of the sons testified that, you know, that's when Sherry just kind of started

this whole cover-up story. Well, they didn't testify. They came forward and said it, but the police didn't really care. So the day of the murder, the police came in on the afternoon and Sherry was like busy trying to stuff her into a closet because at this point if they saw Vera I mean she had every like I said the abuse was really really really bad. They would have taken her away. Oh It just police your show off in no reason. Neighbors had called, but they weren't there for Vera. They were were actually there for Danny Bixler the cousin and his girlfriend and Zachary because this whole trio had gotten into a fight with the kids down the street

And they had pulled out a knife so the kids down the street had called the police on them They went on the run. I mean all of them had warrants out for them at this point So they went to stare but stay at a nearby on-towel So I believe it was on Samantha or whatever. And they come back home and once they do the police have gone but there's like a shit show happening in the Brooks house. All the doors are open, all the windows are open and it seems like someone had released a mace container, like a pepper spray container. So the Brooks family was kind of freaking out like oh my god there's so much pepper spray inside the house. Now for whatever reason Danny Bixler's girlfriend Nicole she decides to tell one of the other Brooks brothers wives.

So her name Shannon she's married to one of the Brooks brothers right. So Nicole tells Shannon hey remember you said that you were pregnant well you know Vera sprayed all this pepper spray in the house which by the way that has never been confirmed if it was Vera who calls this pepper spray in the house, which by the way, that has never been confirmed if it was Vera who caused the pepper spray to grow off or who set off the pepper spray, right? I just hope it doesn't cause a miscarriage. Now Shannon, I don't know if she was actually pregnant, I don't know if she had a miscarriage that day or she had a miscarriage that hour, whatever it may be, she claimed that she ended up miscarrying because of the pepper spray and the whole family blamed it on Vera.

And Sherry even was pissed because what if Shannon was carrying a girl and now she just miscarried because of the pepper spray? So the whole day, they just started getting angrier and angrier. And then finally at 9 p.m. they all gathered in Zachary's room and they started talking about, okay, we're going to bring her to the train tracks now. And then finally at 9 p.m. they all gathered in Zachary's room and they started talking about okay We're gonna bring her to the train tracks now So they grabbed Vera and they tell her put on your shoes and it seems like she knew what was gonna happen I mean she was nervous. She she was scared. She just kept screaming why and they said get on your shoes or else

Now Vera asked everyone for help. She asked Shannon for help and she refused She just sat on the couch like on her phone Everyone for help, she asked Shannon for help and she refused, she just sat on the couch like on her phone, just didn't even look at her. So she asked one of the other brothers for help, his name is Scotty and he seems like he was dragged into all of this but maybe he wasn't the main abuser. I'm not saying he's innocent

but he seemed like maybe a little bit safer than everyone else. And he said, oh yeah, like let me just go get my shoes from upstairs. Now he claims once he went upstairs to get his shoes, he wasn't allowed to come back down by Zachary. So they take Vera, so it's Danny Bixler, Nicole, and Zachary, her boyfriend.

They take her and she's crying the whole time. They take her to the train tracks and they grabbed the kitchen knife that they had brought and they cut her from ear to ear, from ear to ear on her neck. And after they did that, because it was a really dull knife, they forced her to strip all of her clothes and they just threw her clothes into the nearby bushes. It didn't even look like they were trying to hide the clothes.

Now why would you do that? Like is this one final act of humiliation like what's wrong with you, right? Well, they said it's because the knife was so dull, when they had slit her throat, they realized, oh, like this isn't going to kill her immediately. And it probably wouldn't even go through the clothes. And I'm only mentioning that because imagine the pain. Like, you're not, it's not a fast death we're talking about, right? And so they made her stripper clothes and they stabbed her in the legs so she couldn't run away. They tried to decapitate her, but the knife was too dull so they couldn't get through the bone.

So after all of that, they just decided to leave while she was fully alive. She was naked, cold, and bleeding out, and left on the train tracks. They tried to decapitate her while she was alive? Yeah. And they left. They were like, the train's gonna come,

she's gonna get hit and we're gonna be gone. Now, this was like her last act where Vera, she wasn't left in between the train tracks. It seems like she was left maybe over one rail or over both, but Vera had this tendency where she always slept in a fetal position, completely crawled up in like a ball. I don't know if this is a defense mechanism that she learned,

or if maybe it was comfortable for her, but she in her naked cold bleeding out state crawled up into a tiny ball. And she was one inch away from getting hit by the train. So the train did go over her and there was damage. But if she hadn't crawled up there might have been so much damage that they wouldn't be able to find her cause of death. This really really helps the investigators later. Now the trio, they go out to a party. After they commit this murder, they start drinking,

they start going to sherry, they're all laughing together, Nicole was super excited the girlfriend, Danny Biggsler's girlfriend is so excited because she's ready to get her first tear drop. She's gonna get a tattoo? Yeah, she was like, I can't believe I earned it. Yay! She already hugged her, they all changed clothes, and they decided to go to Danny Bixler's sister's house to go to a party. Now it seems that Zachary was pretty haunted by this because he kept drinking and kept drinking, and he just kept saying that he wanted to get rid of all these images

Now Zach once he's at the party. He started being like that tough boy He started like banging his head on the wall and just acting like he was just going through some shit So Danny's sister Desta is like hey Zach like what's going on? Are you okay and Danny is like hey? Don't worry about him He's just a little stressed because I slit that bitches throat and left her at the train tracks. And that's just like, what? Now, Desta, Danny's sister did not really believe him because he's strong, he's probably on some drugs,

he's kind of known to like inflate stories, right? So maybe it wasn't that bad. And then finally, around three in the morning, they ran out of cigarettes, so they decided to walk to the local gas station to buy cigarettes. Now, while they were on their way, they passed the of cigarettes, so they decided to walk to the local gas station to buy cigarettes. Now while they were on their way, they passed the train who had been fully stopped now. In the middle of the tracks, which this isn't like a train stop, why is the train stopped,

right? Desta remembered seeing that, and once she gets to the gas station, she asks the gas station clerk like, hey what did the train stop? Like is there an engine problem? And the clerk said, they found a body. And she looked over and the trio was like completely frozen. So that's when she was like holy shit, they're not lying. And the gas station clerk didn't notice? No. So the detectives once they find the body,

they do not tell the public for 35 hours, which has been highly controversial because typically when you have murderers on the loose for such a vicious murder, you want to warn the public. Or maybe you get tips and usually there's literally a show called the first 48 hours where it's the most important time to catch the murders. The police don't even notify Various Family. Share you with the one who I did the body. And then Desta went to the police. I guess she was like the only redeeming person in this entire family and she told them everything that they told her So immediately a bunch of people get arrested Danny gets arrested

He immediately tells the police that he threw the murder weapon in the river It was a kitchen knife and he was labeled by the press as like this out of control ex-convict now Nicole Peters She implicated herself when she was being interrogated, but overall she remained pretty quiet and And everyone called her this bloodthirsty, just like thrill-seeking, just nasty-ass girl friends. And she claimed that it would all happen because Vera pepper sprayed the house, and it caused Shannon to miscarry. That's why they had a killer. That's what she claims.

Now, the rest of the family, they were arrested for lying to the police. Zachary, Sherry, Shannon, Michael, and one underage Brooks brother were all arrested for lying. The biggest frustration with all of this is that everyone believes that Sherry was the mastermind. I mean, Sherry was essentially the killer. It's like a cult leader telling someone to go kill someone. They have to be arrested for murder. No. And people always said if Sherry said something something it always went down like she was a leader but it didn't matter because the courts did not care so when Zachary Brooks went to trial he was sentenced to four years in a state prison he had a previous theft charge and obstruction of justice so he

only got four years and he kept his parental rights to Willadine. Michael Brooks, another brother, and Shannon Brooks, his wife, they were sentenced to about 30 to 39 days in prison. What? Yeah. I feel like shopping has completely changed to the past year and a half. I mean, any store that I walk into right now with my mask on, I still can't try on clothes, and I don't really feel the need to go through all of that because I have found Stitch Fix. Listen, online shopping can be daunting especially during a time where you can't actually try on the clothes in the store. You never know if things are gonna fit and returns are always

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So get started today at StitchFix.com slash rotten and you'll get 25% off when you keep everything in your fix. That StitchFix.com slash rotten for 25% off when you keep everything in your fix. StitchFix.com slash rotten for the people in the back. And then Sherry Brooks, she was only sentenced for hindering an investigation and got a 30 day jail term. But they also said, maybe you don't have to serve at all because you have medical conditions. So eventually, no prison term was recommended, but she did get probation. So in 2014, she broke her probation with inappropriate contact with an unrelated minor.

Now I don't know the specifics of this, but inappropriate contact with an unrelated minor seems like a lot, but she was only sentenced to 10 days in prison. What is going on? I know. In 2015, she was sentenced for another three and a half years because she broke her probation by selling drugs. And now, she's a free woman. And she just goes around posting random nasty things.

Like, she'll literally post pictures on Facebook of her son handcuffed Like her full grown son handcuffed and duct taped and it'll be captioned disobedience from mama, but she would say maw maw Now Nicole Peters who is 17 at the time the girlfriend She was tried as an adult and was sentenced to 23 years and Danny Brooks Danny Bixler, he got life with a possibility of parole in 40 years, which is in 2051. No one was charged for the torture and abuse of their. Why is that? I guess they just didn't care. This is like

one of those annoying cases where so many people were a part of this, so many people saw what happened happened and there is no justice. Sylvia Lyckin's case, there was barely any justice there, right? So they have an organization that was called Voices Rivera, which is an activist group, and they were dedicated to bringing the people of this group to justice. So they hung purple bows all over Ohio, and they just didn't understand how like, all these people are involved, and only two people are charged for murder nobody's charged for the torture the abuse that she

endured like what? Inside of Vera's purse there was a note found and it was for her daughter and it said I love you Willa Dean you are a good little baby girl to us I'm glad to be your mommy and I'm glad that I had you on November 4th 416 am 6 pounds ounces, 19 inches long. Mommy loves you. Now the court decided that Willadine would be put up for adoption. And, you know, the Brooks family, they're not just going to let that happen, so they try to appeal the entire thing.

So the court says, okay, we're going to have two supervised visits with Zachary Brooks, and we're going to see if he's fit to be a parent. So the first visit that Zach goes to to see his daughter, Willadine is hysterically crying. Just when not stop crying. And Zach refused to come to the second visit because he was but hurt. That Willadine wouldn't stop crying the first time. So the state took custody of Willadine and she was adopted.

And a lot of people say that little Willadine stood up for her mommy Because I can't imagine if she was left with the Brooks. Yeah, okay, like I was gonna end the podcast there, but um I was gonna save this for a minute. You said really I Feel like I need to do it. This is gonna be on my mind for the next couple of nights unless I film it right now So that's essentially what happened to Vera and I I feel like I can't really dwell on it longer. I don't know what to say because obviously we all know that justice wasn't served. There's so many issues with the entire story. I also think it's insane that not a lot of people talk about it. And I think maybe

my inkling has to do with the fact that the Brooks family, when you look at them all, it's just, I don't know, I don't know, there's just something weird there. I don't think they're like masterminds and they're like hiding from the press, right? But I do think maybe they don't care because this is a story of like the, just a very bad area, a very bad neighborhood, a very bad family, lots of gang activity.

Maybe it's just not the most press-friendly case, right? Which is insane. Yeah. I mean, it's insane. So this one did get a lot of press. And I don't know why suddenly, this entire podcast had turned into a Houston's lander podcast, but it's another Houston case. And I do have some words about this case. So it's the case of Christine Palila. Now this has been actually requested by my Frenché. I don't know where you got this case, but it's the case of Christine Palila. Now this has been actually requested by my French eye. I don't know where you got this case but he was like, Hey, one day can you talk about this case? Where did you find this case? You were like, this was, I read somewhere, I think it was on like a Chinese website under age murder or something. Really gruesome.

Okay. Is that what it was? Interesting. Kind kind of so it's otherwise known as the clear lake murders Which is a suburb of Houston, Texas and in order to understand this is kind of like what people describe as the best friend murders You know a bunch of best friends and their lives get torn apart because some of them get murdered and there are some weird twist in this entire story There's some there's some weird shit that goes down and And in order to understand, we got to understand Christine's life because she was kind of the glue of the friendship later on. She was like the person that brought the friends even closer together, right?

So her mom's name is Laurie, who is a stay-at-home mom. And her dad was Charles, who happened to be a construction worker. And they were actually in Long Island, New York. So they weren't in Houston yet. And she had a very cute little upbringing. Like she was really outspoken. She was just really outgoing. She was called the apple of her dad's eye. So she was really close with her dad. Now when

Christine turns two, she starts hitting the fan. Her dad, a construction worker, went to New York City to just work on like a high-rise building. And he was killed by falling bricks during construction. This is like my biggest fear. Anytime I see a construction, I just get a little creeped out. And so a few months later, it gets even worse because her grandparents passed away, and Christine's trying to get confused.

Like, what is going on? I love these people, and they just keep disappearing. Why do they leave? Like, what's happening? She did not understand the concept of death yet. She's like three. And so her mom tried to kind of explain like it. No, they still love you And they're still with you and she's like no, they're not So it was like this whole thing now her mom she started to slip away too because she just lost her husband to

You know all of this she lost you know the grandparents She started getting into drugs and she lost temporary custody of Christine. So now Christine's really like what the fork, like I'm literally losing everyone. She would constantly call her mom while she was being taken care of by her grandparents, her other grandparents and say like, why can't I just come home? Like why? I don't understand, you know, they don't understand. And so there was multiple huge life events in Christine's life. And a lot

of it was devastating. I mean, all of this made her feel abandoned. It made her hard for a kid to not feel rejected. When in reality, it's just really, really shitty circumstances, right? And then it gets worse. One day, Christine wakes up and she looks at her pillow and she starts screaming, there's just clumps of her hair in the pillow, just clumps. And she looks at her pillow and she starts screaming. There's just clumps of her hair in the pillow. Just clumps. And she was diagnosed really young with alopecia, which is just irreversible hair loss condition. And it's completely devastating.

So I believe typically there's not pain associated with it, but there is a lot of a lot of mental and traumatic, because you lose not just your hair. And it doesn't come out cleanly, like it's not like you just have like a shaving head or a bald head, it's like, they come out in clumps, so you've got these massive bald spots,

you eventually will lose your eyebrow hair, all of your eyelashes, you'll have no body hair, like it's just really, really devastating, especially for young girls who get it, because it's so strongly associated with femininity and just looking pretty is to have hair, long hair, styled hair, all of these things. I hate when people say it's just hair because it kind of implies that you're like this narcissist and you don't have big problems in your life and you're just like crying about

your hair. But I feel like hair is just one of those things. It's just your shield. It's like my shield. I like to shield crying about your hair. But I feel like hair is just, it's like one of those things. It's just your shield. It's like my shield. I like to shield myself with my hair. And these days my butt, because I haven't gotten a haircut in like two years. So I got some really long ass hair going on right now.

Your hair is covering your butt. Yeah. You got to clarify, because that sounded really weird. I've got a hairy butt. And not only that, but Christine had really, really bad eyesight. So she wore these, just they call them coke colobottle glasses. I've never heard that.

But it like really intense. We call it beer bottle. Beer bottle. What does that mean? Just really thick lenses? The bottom of the beer or coke is just really thick, you know, you get that weird like fish eye effect. Yeah, so they would, all the kids at school would make fun of her.

And then once she had alopecia, it got worse because she started buying these wigs. Now they don't really come from a well-off family. So they would go to like Halloween stores to buy wigs. Because wigs are expensive. I'm telling you, good quality wigs can be thousands of dollars like to look realistic, right? And so she would buy these Halloween style wigs. And I'm sure most of them didn't fit right or they

were too big she would draw on eyebrows and I think back then maybe there was no such thing as setting spray but also she's like a kid so even if she sweat a little bit her eyebrows would just like run down her face and so all of these kids would just make fun of her. Now on top of that to make things worse, she was diagnosed with ADD. So it's like even if she focused on school work instead of the bullying, which I don't know how you can do

when you're bullied at this extent, right? But she was having difficulty with even just the schoolwork because she has ADD. So she's wearing these wigs and these kids would make fun of her fur glasses. They would run up behind her in school and pull off her wig and throw it across the hallway. So she just became super withdrawn.

And I think, I mean, that's the only way you can be when you're bullied at this level, right? And every day she would wake up, scared about schools, scared about the kind of bullying that she has to endure that day, and it just was really bad. So finally, her mom gets custody back of Christine and gets remarried. And I will say Kudos to the stepdad, he seems like a pretty chill dude, like a really nice dude. So they moved to Houston, Texas to be with the stepdad. And the suburb of Clear Lake City. Now she starts going to high school at this point and she goes to Clear Lake High School, which

I mean, okay, I've heard of this place. I think it came up on Reddit somewhere, but I looked into a deeper when I was researching this Christine case and they they were Infamous for like a fake suicide pact that had happened in like the 90s So apparently 16-agers who had gone to clearly high school had taken their lives all within like a couple of months of each other And so it caused this like mass hysteria each other. And so it caused this like mass hysteria, just nationally, that these kids signed a suicide pact because they all knew each other to a certain degree. You say it was a fake? Well, they all did take their lives, but I don't know if there was a suicide pact, but it

caused mass to mass hysteria. And that's what clearly high school was just known on the news for, that they had a suicide pact thing going on. So she goes there and things finally start looking up for Christine. She was bullied the whole time. She's still wearing like the same quality wigs and people in high school, a clearly high school. They all called her clown. So she would do her eyelids very white. So she would literally put on just white eyeshadow on her eyelids, which I've never seen look good on anyone. And she would kind of do her eyebrows a little bit differently. Like she would do makeup a little bit clown-like is what everyone implied. And then with the wig, she would always get these to try to disguise from the fact that

these are cheap quality wigs. She would get the most intense wig so that it's kind of like, oh, don't call me out on my wig. Like, I know it's fake. Like, I'm not trying to make you feel like it's real, right? So, yeah. So all of it led to, you know, people saying that she was very calm like, right? But Tiffany Raoowell and Rachel Calortis, they came around and they be

friended her. Now, here's the thing with Tiffany and Rachel. They were a year older and they were both the popular kids. They're popular? So popular. Oh no. But not in the mean girl way. What does that mean?

They were popular but really down to earth. They were popular in the sense that not just because they're pretty, but because they were really nice. Like they were popular amongst most groups in high school. Like it wasn't just like, oh they're popular with like the football team, you know, it was like, no everyone really loved that, right? So Rachel, she was beautiful. She was always known to look out for the underdog like that was her thing She always liked if she hated when people sat alone at lunch like she's the type that's like comes up with me Like don't sit alone, right? And because Christine had alopecia and she saw these people just bullying her

She was like, this is disgusting, right? So she gets, you know, she's like come sit with us. Now Tiffany, she had a sweetheart too. Her entire dream in life was to become a social worker. I didn't know kids like that in high school okay? They were just like listen, we're gonna give you a makeover. They took her to a wig shop, they got her a new wig, taught her how to style it, that was much more modern. They started teaching her how to wear makeup, they got her contacts, and it was literally one of those like movies, like those Disney movies of the transformation, and Christine even felt comfortable enough to fully go wigless in front of them,

which she never did with anyone. And she just trusted them. She, and I quote said, they like the type of people that would never stab you in the back. And her family noticed a change in Christine. She suddenly became so confident and just so like, she was herself now, you know, prior to all of us, she was alopecia, she was ADD, she was, you know, these thick glasses, but

now she was finally showing her true colors and she just was so outgoing and thought everything was funny and just so confident and in 2003 she was voted mis-irresistible by her graduating class. You know how you have the superlatives like most likely to be famous? She was voted mis-irresistible. Meaning people really like her. Really loved her. She said, listen, the fact that you have all of these conditions but you're so outgoing

thanks to the help of Rachel and Tiffany, because it's one of those things, like once the popular kids like someone or something, everyone suddenly is like, oh, right. So she was voted mis-irresistible, and they were constantly called, like, this trio thing. Now, there were some people in the high school that speculated that something sexual was going on between them, because of how often they were with each other, but I don't really think it was like that, right? What? So Tiffany had lost a parent and Rachel was there for Tiffany when her mom had passed, I believe,

and then they took in Christine, and so it just became like they were with each other during the hardest times of their lives. It's just like this bond. They would also write papers to each other, so Christine had wrote on a paper, Christine plus Rachel plus Tiffany equals BFFE. Do you know what that stands for? Best friends forever existed. Best friend forever eternally. Eaterally. It's just best friends forever ever. You're like, that's so lame. Best friends forever. Yeah. Or some people say best friends forever and ever. Yeah.

So she wrote, I love you guys. And then Tiffany would write back, Christine, I love you. You have been there for me when I needed you. And I really appreciate how nice you are. So I mean, just a whole semester friendship. And then they started going to parties. And Christine met a guy. Now. This is after high school? Yeah. Okay. some ass friendship and then they started going to parties and Christine met a guy now.

This is after high school? Yeah. So she meets a guy by the name of well she's one year younger so they had graduated but I believe Christine was still in class. So she meets a guy by the name of Chris Snyder and not a good guy. He's like two years older and her parents hated him. He experiments with drugs all the time He was hit a criminal record for armed robbery not just robbery, but freaking armed

He wore body piercings bike tear chains from his jeans, which I mean I'm like I disagree with But you know this was in 2003 So they were like this is crazy who wears stuff like that, right? And they started dating when Christine was just like 16 years old. And Christine's whole thing was that she just feels so bad for him. Nobody wants to be his friend because he's got this criminal record and he dressed as a little differently. But I want to help him, you know?

She was having one of those moments where she was like, I can change him, I can fix him. Yeah, I can make sure he doesn't do drugs again and he doesn't go to prison. Now, Chris is childhood is interesting because he didn't come from like a broken family at all It seemed like his um was dad had passed or he never knew his dad But his mom and his siblings they were really tight-knit and they didn't have drugs in the house

They really just were your regular American family But one day when Chris was young he was playing football when he was 12 years old out in the street in front of his house So like a residential street and a truck was just turning around the corner and struck Chris head on. He went flying in the air and fell over. So his sister starts running to him and she said that his eyes were just rolling back into his head and since that point everyone says that he's just been different. I don't know. Do you believe stuff like this? I feel like there's got to be evidence. I mean I believe it. Yeah it's like the bunk on the like there's gotta be evidence. I mean, I believe it.

Yeah, it's like the bunk on the head by this wind. Yeah. Yeah. When he's 12. And so, you know, ever since then, the family said that he has a look of confusion in his eyes, but everyone else sees it as a look of evil. So I don't really know if you can see it in your eyes

or if it's hindsight in everyone's like, oh yeah, I saw the devil. Now, Christine, she starts having issues at home with her parents. She starts having issues with her friends because of Chris. You know, her mom and her stepdad disapprove of him. Her friends hate him. Like, they're just like, why? Like, you can do so much better than him.

He's not even funny. He's not even good-looking. Like, he treats you shitty. So, Christine starts doing drugs with him. And it starts isolating her even more because her friends were like, uh, really? You're seriously doing drugs with him? And it's just, the couple was entirely toxic. So Chris, he would come to school that he doesn't go to

and he would snatch her wig off to embarrass her in front of everyone if she ever pissed him off. But also, Christine was intense. She was super jealous. So one time, he had just looked at a girl, like a passerby on the street. And she refused to, she followed street and she refused to leave his house Slept on the front lawn all night trying to break into his house

All of Chris's family called Christine an absolute cancer and they called her the psycho anytime she was around They were just like oh the psychos back Do you have friends? Nope goes back. Do you have friends? Nope. I'm gonna give you a big wake up call. Friends do not let friends live with anything less than amazing hair. And that's just the tea. So think of me as your friend and I want you to be happy and I want you to try to have amazing hair. And here's the way that I did it. I use Function of Beauty. I've been using this brand for like years now and it's the world leader and

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Go to functionabuty.com slash rotten to let them know that we sent you and get 20% off your order. Functionabuty.com slash rotten for the people in the back. She also demanded violent rough sex from him. Everyone said it was almost like she wanted him to punish her and it was always anal sex for some reason. I mean, she's under it. She's not. It's a whole thing that I can't even get into because there's so much more.

And if he even looked at a girl, she would freak out. One time, she randomly was yelling at him about something and everyone was there. Like his whole family was there witnessing her and she's just yelling, yelling, yelling at him about something and everyone was there like his whole family was there witnessing her And she's just yelling yelling yelling at Chris and then she stopped stared at him Licked his face from the bottom of his chin all the way to his forehead stared at him Spat on the ground right next to his feet and then just like walked away and

The whole family was like I'm telling you like that girl kuku, like what, what the fork's going on. So she graduates and she's even more isolated. Now a lot of psychologists think that there's a link between losing a father figure early on and putting a lot of importance on a man who comes later on. So maybe you think because I lost my dad, like your quintessential and I quote and I hate it, daddy issues. So she she's like I gotta fix this dude right so you might think that they're worth fixing you might feel like you have to fix them or like this has to work so that they don't leave you but that might not be the case like it's probably just another shitty dude so everyone starts pulling away from her her friends start pulling away so they had to hate it being around Chris they just don't like him

but they don't like that he comes to the gatherings if they ever invite Christine. You know Rachel and Tiffany are like, hey Christine wanna come over? She always brings Chris and they're like, we don't like this anymore. Meanwhile Tiffany had a boyfriend of her own by the name of Marcus. Now this is where a lot of names are gonna come in but just bear with me. So we've got Christine who's dating Chris Snyder and then we've got her best friends Rachel and Tiffany who have been best friends before they even like Christine into their group. Now Tiffany is dating Marcus, her boyfriend and they're also hanging out with Marcus' cousin who had recently moved here and his name is Adelebert but he's not I guess that pertinent to the story. So Adelebert had moved about a week ago and he wanted to actually get away from violence in his hometown.

So, he was like, you know what, Clear Lake is one of those suburban neighborhoods where all the houses look the same and everyone's just like family friendly. I'm gonna go there, turn my life around. And so, he started hanging out with Marcus, and Tiffany, and Rachel. Now, July of 2003, they decided to have a gathering

at Tiffany's house. And this is the Clear Lake murders. So, July of 2003, they decided to have a gathering at Tiffany's house and this is the clear lake murders. So July of 2003 they decided to have a house party at night but they were all hanging out, the four of them. So Rachel, Tiffany, Tiffany's boyfriend, Tiffany's boyfriend's cousin. So they're all hanging out and they said okay let's text all of our friends to come around 6.30 p.m. but prior to that maybe we can order some pizza, we can watch some movies, we can just hang out by ourselves, right? So they're all texting their friends, like, okay, you guys are going to come at 6, right? We're just hanging out.

And it was around 3 p.m. that one of Tiffany's friends called Tiffany to confirm the whole plan. She was like, okay, like, what time is it again? No, Tiffany happened to be in the bathroom, so her boyfriend picked up. And the friend was like, oh, I'll just call back later, because I think it was one of those situations where the friend was probably going to be asking about, well, what's the dress code? Who's going to be there?

You know, she didn't want to talk to the boyfriend. She was like, what do you know? Nothing. And she hung up. Now, 4 p.m. comes around. And she calls again. No answer. So she's like, OK, that's a little bit weird.

Why isn't she answering? But maybe she's busy prepping for the party tonight. So then about an hour passes. And she decides to go to the house since it was on her way home and she just wanted to check up on Tiffany like something seems weird. So when she gets there, there was a couple of people standing outside the front door knocking already, but there was no answer, which was strange, you know, because they're all supposed to be home.

Their cars are in the driveway, all of the friends, and they also can hear through the window in the door that the TV is on. So are they playing a prank, you know, what's going on? They also try to look through the windows, they don't see anything, I mean it was just all weird. So they decide to try to open the door and see if it's unlocked. So they open up the door and it seemed like the friend had walked in first, Tiffany's friend, and she saw the eerie scene ever. So the TV is on and two of her friends are covered in blood sitting on the couch with their legs reclined almost as if they're still watching TV. Adelebert, the cousin, he was covered in blood on the floor

in front of the TV and she couldn't find Rachel anywhere. So she runs out of the house. She's like, call the police and everyone outside was like, why, what's the problem? They walk in and all of them come running out. Like, call the police. A neighbor happened to be walking by so they immediately dialed 911. So they saw three people in there.

Yeah. Now, once the police arrived, they'll find Rachel too. So she was actually behind the couch and she had a phone in her hand, so it looked like she was trying to call 911. And this crime scene is insane. There was blood and bullet holes everywhere. They said it was a bit of a blood bath.

About 40 rounds were fired. 17 to 20 hit the actual victims. So these four people, they were shot multiple times. The police were actually shocked at the accuracy of the rounds being shot. And nobody heard the gunshot? So the neighbors later testified, one of them said that they heard the gunshots, but they thought it was construction work. Because it was the middle of the day. It was like 3 p.m.

And they're like, there's no way. I mean, this is literally the suburbs. Imagine you live in the suburbs. I guess maybe they just spent that blessed life. They never heard a gunshot before so they're like Yeah, maybe also maybe it's just so rapid. Yeah, maybe maybe it sounds like Jack can no I can't imagine it sounds like Jack hammering. We've been to like shooting ranges. We know what gunshots on like I can't I don't know but also maybe if it's muffled between houses I don't know what that sounds like. Just a little bit weird. So Tiffany and Marcus, they were the ones sitting on the couch. So Tiffany and her boyfriend, their feet are still up as if they're watching TV. Adele Bert, he's the one on the floor

and from the TV. And Rachel was behind the sofa with an entire blood trail behind her. So it looked like she was trying to get help because there was a phone near her. Now when they look at the phone, this is the devastating part. She was able to dial 9 and a 1. Wow. So they have the bodies on top seed. And the cause of death for Tiffany, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend's cousin were gunshot wounds. And Rachel, she didn't instantly die.

Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. She was shot six times and then she was beat on the head. Her skull was bashed in by what the police believe probably to be like the um, part of a gun. So I mean, these all seem really passionate. What makes it even worse is that Tiffany and Rachel, they had gunshot wounds in their general areas, whereas the boys, they didn't. So does this kind of seems like some sort of sexual jealousy?

I mean, it's just a very strange thing to do. Why were their gunshot wounds on their general areas? whereas the boys they didn't. So this kind of seems like some sort of sexual jealousy. I mean, it's just a very strange thing to do. Why were there gunshot wounds on their general areas? Now, because there's no signs of forced entry, they couldn't indicate if something was stolen. The police were stumped. They just told the press, there's no signs of forced entry, which AK means the police don't know what happened.

Now, the police are trying to solve the murders ASAP because the entire community, they're freaking shook. I mean, this is a residential area. Everyone was heartbroken, especially because they're young. They're not bad kids. Their families are in shock. They're well known in the community. And Christine took it especially hard.

I mean, she was freaking devastated. She went into a state of full-on depression. She only, it only made things worse because the police found Christine's picture in Rachel's wallet. So Rachel had kept a picture of Christine her friend in her wallet. And so Christine finds that out and is like, oh my god, like I, I let my friendship die for a boy. And now my friends are dead. And my friends always cared about me even when we were drifting apart because of this boy like what? So she was so upset she couldn't even attend the funerals and the police they're ramping up their investigation during all of this and a couple of neighbors come forward.

So one of them said that they heard bangin' around 3.30 p.m. but because it's middle of the day they were like maybe it's construction work. Now another neighbor witnessed two people dressed in all black clothing walk into Tiffany's house around the same time that they heard what seemed to be gunshot wounds. They didn't know it at the time. And they thought, oh, well, that's not that strange. They're probably Tiffany's friends. They weren't wearing ski masks or anything.

They weren't like holding up guns or anything. So it just seemed like, oh, they're having friends over. So the police kept asking, do you remember anything about these people? So they had her do a composite sketch, and they were really, really bad. I'm just going to be honest. Like, they look weird. They look like sims characters, you know, and you're like, even I can make a better sims character than that.

So they do this composite sketch, and the police released it everywhere. They put it all over the place, all over the news. And everyone's like, um, what? So they got some tips and leads, but not really anything. So the police were like, we gotta go back to some old school work. We gotta find, do these kids have enemies? Like, what's going on? So Marcus, Tiffany's boyfriend actually became the center of the whole investigation because he was a waiter, but he also sold drugs on the side.

Now, maybe it was a drug deal gone wrong. They also looked into Marcus's cousin who is new to town and he was connected to a Mexican gang. So they were like, is he out here in Clear Lake because he pissed off the Mexican mafia and now they're looking for him? Like what's going on? That could be a motive,

but they couldn't find any evidence between any of that connection so they were like okay we're gonna go with the whole drug deal gone wrong theory because that sounds the most accurate but they start looking for people who are buying drugs from Marcus and they couldn't find anyone and I'm sure it's because no one's gonna go into the police station and say you know what I actually was buying drugs from Marcus the day he was murdered. And I too have an illegal weapon in my trunk right now. Funny, you know?

No one's gonna do that. So they couldn't find anyone. So the case starts going cold and Rachel's dad, he was like the number one advocate on all of this and he just doesn't understand how that's possible. How do four young kids, they were like 18 to 21, how do they just die in the middle of the day, in the suburbs and the police are like, we don't really know what's going on. So he raised a bunch of money, the higher his own PIs to find the killers to put out a reward, they eventually raised over a hundred thousand dollars and he put out a hundred thousand dollar reward on anyone who

knew any information, right? So meanwhile, everyone's trying to move on with their lives. Christine, she's super depressed, but she's trying to make it work. So she's trying to work at this wall green, she's working at the makeup counter. And in 2004, her relationship with Chris ended. Because Chris, he got extra-dited to Kentucky because he stole cars in Kentucky before. So you got to do some jail time. And now he was looking at some serious jail time. They were like, you like third strike, you're out, bro. So in Kentucky, he was gonna be there for a hot minute

and she was losing it. She had recently gotten on two new medications for bipolar disorder and she just kept demanding her parents drive her to Kentucky so that she could see Chris Snyder. And her mom and her stepdaughter like, oh, no. So when they refused, she ran into the kitchen, got a kitchen knife and held it up to her wrist,

and then pointed it at her parents. So she still loves him? Yeah, so it seems like, I mean, it just seems like she was falling apart. Okay. You know, with everything going on, like she lost her friends, she lost her boyfriend,

and so she was sent to a psychiatric ward with a court ordered rehab. Now, at this rehabilitation center, it's just gonna go downhill from here. It's okay, Otik. So she meets a guy by the name of Stanley Justin Rot in rehab. And he was there for heroin addiction. And within weeks of meeting each other, they were like, let's get married. It's not really the best thing to do.

You know, he was much older. They're super new in their relationship, but also their sobriety just feels dangerous. It just feels like a recipe for disaster. So they officially get married in 2005. And at this time, Christine had turned 18. So she inherited $360,000 of her dad's life insurance that was saved in a trust fund until she turned 18. So now she's got close to $400,000. She's 18. Okay. If I have any money to give my

kids, it's never going to be 18. Your ass is 35 when you get a dollar from me. I mean, when I'm dead, it's what I'm saying, right? It's just too young, no? And so, you know, she uses that money and they're talking to themselves about, okay, now that we're married, we've got this money, should we get a down payment on a house? Like, what should we do?

Should we buy a condo? It seemed like they're just trying to get their shit together. So at one point, they do buy a condo. Which is both gone out? Yeah, yeah. And they get married and they got the inheritance and they buy a condo. Now, around this time, Rachel's dad is still freaking out

Because she's like how is everyone just moving on with their lives? This is not okay So on the second anniversary of the murders he put out a hundred thousand dollar reward with crime stoppers for anyone who has any leads And he put billboards all over this area all over Houston all over Texas and it was all over this area, all over Houston, all over Texas, and it was all over the news again, because the story of a dad who is relentless in finding the killers is something that the news wants to talk about. And Christine sees these sketches,

and she gets traumatized all over again, and she's sitting there with her mouth wide open in front of the TV, and she calls for her husband to come into the room and she's pacing She's screaming. Oh my god. Oh my god There has been like what's wrong? What's wrong? Oh, is it about your friends who died and she just kept saying oh my god Oh my god, and then she asks him does that look like me? So he's like what?

Why would that look like you? What do you mean? Now that's when Justin has a bit of a flashback and he knew something was up. So when he was eating dinner with Christine's family once, right, this was like months ago. They were talking about how hard the holidays must be for all the victims of the clear like murders. Christine's friends.

And Christine's mom said the killers deserve the needle, which is a really intense opinion about the death penalty saying that they deserve capital punishment and Christine's eyes We're just bulging out of her head like they were she was just kind of like frantically looking around the dinner table Like did y'all hear that and she had these like buggy ass frog eyes and her husband just thought okay Like maybe she just has a really intense emotion towards the death penalty and didn't think anything of it But now with that and her asking if she looks like the composite sketch, I mean he's a little bit concerned. He's like, do you have something to tell me? And she's like, no, no.

So for the next couple of months, she starts telling him bits and pieces of what happened on the day of the clear like murders. Hmm. She's coming clean to him. A little bit. And around this time, she also relapses So they end up selling the condo and they start living out of a Quinta in Motel in San Antonio because they had a drug dealer in San Antonio and they start for the next eight months

Christine never left that motel room for even one day. They were spending close to $500 a day on drugs. They were just one day. They were spending close to $500 a day on drugs. They were just draining the entire inheritance. So meanwhile they're just hiding out in San Antonio in a motel room and Christine's dealing with some cigarettes, like she's telling her husband, there was a lot of tips coming into the police department, the Houston Police Department. One of the main tips was a female who called in and said, I met Chris Snyder when he was super drunk. Like it was not not like a bar and his name was Chris Snyder and he kept telling me that his girlfriend's best friend was raped by two guys and then he killed them all.

It was just weird. So I was like, okay, so you just like killed the guys and then he was like, yeah, I killed the guys and then my girlfriend killed the two females. And so she calls this into the, and the police were confused, because it didn't fit their motive at all. They were like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not looking for a rape case, we're not looking for a motive

that has anything to do with sexual assault. We're looking, we're looking for a drug deal gone wrong. This doesn't fit our whole vibe, right? Like why would he, why would they even kill the girls? If the girls have been raped, why would they kill the girls? And also around this time, Hurricane Katrina had hit. So after Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Police Department were dealing with something that they called

the Katrina murders, because after the hurricane, the murder rate in the city skyrocketed nearly 27%. I don't know, there must be some sort of logical reason behind why that happens, but maybe it has to do with an economic downtime. Usually is an increase in crime, but I'm not entirely sure what that could have been. So all the tips about the Cleo Lake murders, which has been a cold case for years now, is just kind of written in a notebook, and they're like, we're just going to get into it later. Now eventually, it starts getting more serious because they get another tip from a male who calls in.

And it's an anonymous tip from crime stoppers. And he said that while he was in rehab, he met a woman at the rehab center. And she just told him this really in-depth story about how she was a participant in the clear Lake City murders that she was, you know, on drugs. And, oh my God, like this sketch really looks like her. So they were like, huh. Yeah. And she told me that they ran out of bullets. So she had to hit one of them to kill them. So they were like, huh? Who is this person? And he was like, well, I think her name is Christine

Palila. And she was like 20 years old when I met her. So they look her up. And she kind of looks like the sketch, but they need to track her down. So she's married. She's got this condo. They go to the condo, looks like it's been sold, looks like it's been, you know, abandoned. So eventually they track her down to the San Antonio Motel and they burst through the door and they find Christine. Now when they find her it's, it's disgusting. There were over a hundred heroin needles just laying all over this little motel room. There was blood everywhere. It didn't seem like crime scene blood. It seemed like there was blood from all the injections. There was really nasty, just molded food.

They had soiled bedsheets, soiled foods. They had a dog that was just in there and just pooping all over the place and they did not pick up the poop ever. They had been hiding in there for the past eight months. Christine did not leave that motel room not even once. They were draining her entire inheritance. They were spending $250 a day on heroin, $250 a day on cocaine. And their entire diet for eight months. They didn't even have Chinese take out once. They

only ate cheese oats, Reese's peanut butter cups, and soda for eight months. And they never left the room. They didn't let housekeeping in. There was dog poop everywhere. They also had a laptop in the room, which kind of gets important later because Rachel's dad had source tracking done on his website. So we had websites set up for, you know, Rachel's killer. And there was this company that he had hired that could track down all of the IP addresses that even Enter his website that even check out the website and without fail every single day There was one person who would come every single day Constantly checking out the website every single day

Tracking down we can then track it down until the police confirmed it was Christine from the motel. Every single day she would get high and look up the murders. So they both get arrested and I'm just sure on possession charges alone, it was a lot. They had 70 miles of heroin just like laying around in the motel room. What about the other boyfriend, Chris? So Chris is gone. We'll find him later. Okay. They decided to get Christine first.

So Christine, she immediately is like, I want to lawyer. Meanwhile, Justin, he was like waiting for this moment and he just starts telling them everything. Now I don't know why I maybe it was his conscious. Maybe he didn't want to get caught for a murder that he didn't commit and like be deemed in a complex. I don't know. So he just tells them everything.

He was like, yeah, so Christine told me that her and her ex-boyfriend, Chris Snyder committed these murders. And they were going there to steal drugs from the four friends because they had no money. And they were just going to rob them. And they were let in by the friends. So Rachel had opened the door to Tiffany's house.

And they were about to make this drug deal. But then Chris pulled out a gun. Then Christine pulled out a gun. And demanded they give them all the drugs and the money that they have So Rachel's trying to calm them down and it's like hey, you don't have to do this like whatever you want We can give it to you now Chris held the three friends so Tiffany Tiffany's boyfriend and Tiffany's boyfriend's cousin at gunpoint And told them to like stay still don't move right?

Meanwhile Christine made Rachel walk around Tiffany's house like trying to find drugs and money Which I'm sure wasn't productive because this isn't even Rachel's house. So now we're looking at armed robbery. But then Chris said oh well these are your friends so they're just gonna like rat us out to the police. I mean they know where we live they know what we look like. Come on this crazy. So he allegedly fired the first shot and that's when Christine allegedly went blind and just started rapid firing shooting all over the place in rage and anger but also because Chris told her that he would kill her if she didn't do this. I don't really believe this and either do the police for a lot of reasons. The first being that out of the 40 rounds that were fired, I mean most of them were accurate.

If you're shooting in a blind rage there's four four people being shot at, like you're not going to have such clean, almost execution style shots administered. So then the whole plan was for Chris and Christine to skip town. But they were worried. They were like, wait, what if one of them's alive? So they were in their car leaving, but they drove back, got back out of their car, and they went into the house again, and that's when they saw Rachel making noise behind the couch and she had dialed nine and she had dialed one. So that's when Christine walks over fires another shot at Rachel and then another one but there's no more bullets. So Rachel's still alive so she started beating her to death. You think they went in there to kill them? How do you have weapons and damn any bullets? That's the whole speculation because it doesn't make sense.

How do you commit a home invasion on people you know? They know your voice, they know who you are, they weren't even like masked up. Yeah, so you already know what's going to happen. So I don't think it was like an armed robbery gone wrong. I think like they wanted to kill the friends What yeah, okay, so then they drive to Christine's house they wash up They get rid of the body bloody clothes and Christine gets dropped off at work at Walgreens to work a full shift at the makeup counter So either way, you know Christine's trying to put all the blame on Chris saying Chris threatened my life

If I didn't shoot my friends. Chris did this. Chris is scary. Chris manipulated me into doing this. Chris is the one that fired the fatal shots. She was arrested in 2006. And now they started hunting for Chris Snyder. Now they started investigating Chris's family members and they were, um,

I mean, I don't know if I would do this for a family more probably not, but they told him that they were the police were looking for him, the Houston Police Department. So at this point he's living in South Carolina with a woman that he met online and he gets a call from his aunt and she's like you better go on the run because the Houston police, they've got a warrant out for you for murder. So he just starts running running running. I mean he full on freaks out that he runs into the woods with soda and a bunch of prescription pills and he overdoses and takes his life in the woods. Now, eventually when the police find him, they are able to match him to Chris Snyder. He

did take his life and inside of Chris's house, they found two guns that match with the murder weapons of the clear lake murders. And one of the guns had both of the DNA of Christine and Chris. So it's kind of like okay, like this is what's happening. Now especially with Chris Snyder dead, Christine started putting more of the blame on him, she's like definitely not, like he's the one that manipulated me, I'm so terrified of Chris Snyder, he is just so abusive. Now the trial starts and it becomes incredibly controversial. So Christine's's husband is the main star testimony, because he's like, no, that's not what Christine told me. Christine told me this. And I think the main reason that he was the star testimony is because when Christine was talking to the police and interrogated and admitted to certain things,

she was experiencing heroin withdrawal. She actually had to be taken to the hospital like three times during her interrogation. So, you could call that under-deress, right? You wouldn't necessarily call that a, oh, I was totally capable-minded and I made this confession. So he goes up on the stand and he claims that he still loves Christine and always did, but he just had to speak the truth. Now the defense, they bring in a bunch of people, and it was a lot of Christine's husband's ex-girlfriends, and they said that he has a habit of meeting girls at recovery meetings stealing things from them going back to recovery meetings meeting other girls and one time He proposed to someone with a stolen ring from a girl he robbed after meeting her at a recovery meeting

And he lied about his mom dying to gain sympathy from these girls So it was just a really controversial testimony. Now he claims that that was just that was just a really dark time in his life where he was just ruled by his addiction which I can kind of feel for him but also it just became super controversial right. So the trial was relatively um straight forward, she was found guilty September 2008 and convicted of murder and she got no death penalty because she was 17 when the murders happened but she was sentenced to 40 years to life. She is currently trying to actively appeal the sentence because she claims, you know, I was going through her and withdrawal so you can't use my testimony or my confession.

She will be eligible for parole in 2046 when she's like 60 years old. So, motive, right? Yes. This is where I was confused too. And then I started looking into it. I, oh God, what is the book called? Never see them again by Mary, by N Phillips.

Really good, but they went into the motives and the first one that they believe is maybe she was upset that the girls kind of pitted her. Just a thing. Some people think maybe she's upset, you know, pity is a shitty feeling. Sometimes I see pity makes people do weird things. Some people have this really, really strong reverse feeling for being pitted, I guess. So that was kind of a speculation. Another speculation is that maybe Christine was so jealous of the girls, because they just never really had to work hard to be accepted by people. They

just were always well-liked. They were always pretty. They were always popular, and she was just pissed off. Now, the thing that kind of confirms the series is that everyone that knew Christine and her relationship with Chris Snyder, specifically Chris Snyder's sister, said that she was just a super jealous girl. Like intensely jealous. I mean, there must be something between her and the girls. And then when Chris's sister was shown a picture of Rachel, that's when she said she had a gut feeling. Like she just knew, because Rachel is very beautiful. Now what makes this whole Rachel theory even crazier, police found a photo and they

miss marked it. Now I don't know what the four happened with the police here, but it's a photo of two girls. Now Rachel is in the picture for sure, she's leaning back and another girl is pulling Rachel's G string from out of her pants. So like the side of her thong is getting pulled up out of her pants and the other girl is pulling Rachel's G string from out of her pants. So like the side of her thong is getting pulled up out of her pants and the other girl is putting it in between her teeth. As if she's like, you know, biting her undies off through her pants, I guess. But the police believed that the second girl was Tiffany.

So they marked it in evidence as Rachel and Tiffany, the two victims. Later they find out that the girl with the Andes in the mouth was Christine. So maybe Christine liked Rachel. I mean, I don't know if this is maybe just a goofy high school picture, or maybe Christine was emotionally attached to Rachel and felt betrayed, or felt jealous because Rachel was like moving on and didn't really care about her as much because of the whole Chris thing. I just don't know. Maybe as a mixture of both, also with the gunshot wounds to the genitals could explain. Now there's also the Bonnie and Clyde theory. So Chris's family said that there was constantly talks about committing crimes together

so that they could be connected forever, that they could never leave each other. So they kind of went on a crime spree before the murders. They shoplifted from Walmart. They also stole thousands of dollars of ecstasy from a local drug dealer and they kept calling themselves Bonnie and Clyde. So maybe this was like the ultimate secret that they could share. That sounds like a motive, yeah. So she's sitting her ass in prison and we still don't really know what happened. She won't talk. She won't talk

She's blaming everything on Chris Snyder still and still trying to appeal. I mean, I think it's crazy because How do you how do you do that to your friends that did nothing but good things for you? Yeah They literally gave her a makeover made her feel more confident and loved and accepted and then she Killed them. I think about these crazy, these are some crazy cases today guys. I'm sorry for this long one. I was gonna save that for a minute but I got really riled up and I was like I gotta do it when I'm in the heat of the passion. The heat of the passion. Sounds like. Alright, let me know. What are your thoughts on this one? I

mean, I have no words. I guess I have no words for the police in various situations and then I have no words for Christine. She's a shit human. I get it, life was tough, but shitty shitty. And I hope you guys enjoyed. Let me know and I'll see you guys this weekend for the mini-suit. Bye! Bye!