0:08

School of Humans.

0:11

Last week and the week before last,

0:14

we talked about the murder of Billy Jean Phillips.

0:17

Billy Jean was.

0:18

Brutally beaten to death at her home

0:20

in Madison County, Arkansas, in September

0:22

of nineteen ninety four. Clint

0:24

Phillips, who was just seventeen years old

0:27

when Billy Jean was murdered, was eventually

0:29

charged with and tried for her

0:31

murder. But in

0:34

September of two thousand and three,

0:36

Clint Phillips was acquitted of Billy Jean's

0:38

murder. He walked out of court a

0:40

freeman, and as we

0:42

also said last week, the community was

0:45

divided over whether police

0:47

had gotten the right guy in the first place, whether

0:49

they were prosecuting the right man. Clint

0:52

Phillips has always denied any

0:54

involvement in Billy Jean phillips murder.

0:57

He's always maintained his innocence,

1:00

but no one else was ever arrested

1:02

or charged with this murder.

1:05

Jean's killer is still out there.

1:09

Clint Phillips continued to live in the

1:11

area around Huntsville.

1:13

He's now forty seven years old,

1:16

and the name Clint Phillips came up again

1:18

in a very strange way almost

1:20

thirty years later, when I was looking

1:22

into the disappearance of a forty one year

1:25

old man named Jason Lyrell in

1:27

January of twenty twenty two. Jason

1:30

Lyrell was visiting friends in Madison County,

1:32

Arkansas, when he vanished without

1:34

a trace. Jason

1:37

was last seen in Madison County, Arkansas.

1:40

His abandoned car was found in the parking

1:42

lot of a mall in Fayettville, Arkansas.

1:45

His car, keys, motorcycle.

1:47

And some other belongings were found in several

1:49

different places spread out

1:51

across Arkansas and Missouri, but

1:54

to this day, no trace

1:56

of Jason Lyrell has ever been found.

1:59

On February thirteenth, twenty twenty

2:01

two, a few weeks after Jason disappeared,

2:04

a deputy was transporting an inmate

2:06

to the Barry County Jail. This

2:08

person had been arrested for shoplifting

2:11

charges, and according to the arrest report,

2:14

the suspect had blood on his hands and

2:16

all over his clothing. The

2:18

man said that he'd had a seizure and needed

2:20

medical treatment. After he got

2:22

it and was brought back to the jail and was being processed,

2:25

he shocked the police officer on duty

2:28

when he said that he had information

2:30

about Jason Lerell's disappearance

2:33

and that Madison County would want to talk

2:35

to him about a capital murder.

2:37

I'm Catherine Townsend.

2:39

If you have a case you'd like me and my team

2:41

to look into, you can reach out to

2:43

us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six

2:46

seven eight seven four four six

2:48

' one four or five. That six

2:50

seven eight seven four four six

2:53

' one four or five. This

2:56

is Helen Gone Murder line.

3:33

When the deputy asked the man his name,

3:36

the man said that his name was Clint

3:38

Phillips. But then there's a crazy

3:40

twist in this case, because it

3:43

didn't take long for police to figure out

3:45

that his mugshot did not match Clint

3:47

phillips photos or description, and

3:49

that the real Clint Phillips, the one who was arrested,

3:52

tried, and eventually acquitted of

3:54

Billy Jean's murder almost thirty

3:56

years ago, was currently incarcerated

3:59

somewhere else in the Cummings Unit on a completely

4:01

unrelated charge. So this

4:03

guy with the blood on his clothes could not

4:05

have been Clint Phillips. The

4:08

man in the cell with the bloody clothes on

4:10

was Jimmy Evans. He was also

4:13

a graduate along with Clint Phillips,

4:15

Jason Lyrell, and several other people who

4:17

will come up later of Huntsville High

4:20

School. Jimmy Evans knew Clint

4:22

Phillips, and he also had

4:24

known Jason Lerell when he was a kid.

4:27

But why did Jimmy say that he was

4:29

Clint Phillips.

4:31

We're going to come back to Jimmy Evans his

4:33

strange story into this fateful night

4:35

in February of twenty twenty two, but

4:38

first let's go back to Jason Lyrell

4:40

and dive into what was going on when

4:43

he went missing. Jason

4:47

Lyrell grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio,

4:49

before moving to the area around Clifty, Arkansas.

4:52

His sister, Sarah said that their childhood

4:54

was pretty rough and that she was

4:56

one of the closest people in the world to her

4:58

brother. She described Jason

5:01

as kind, gentle, and someone with

5:03

a great sense of humor, someone who had

5:05

issues in his life, but someone who was loved.

5:07

By a lot of people.

5:09

You know, he definitely was

5:11

somebody who very depressed

5:14

on like things from his own

5:16

situation, but he was just

5:18

always wanting to cheer

5:20

other people up and make other people laugh,

5:23

and just a really incredible

5:26

person, a real honest person

5:29

with his feelings and very

5:31

loving.

5:33

Sarah said that she and Jason struggled growing

5:35

up.

5:36

Our mother left us in

5:38

Ohio, had a very abusive

5:41

biological father. So my

5:43

biological father had beaten

5:45

my brother Bobby to the point where he

5:47

was taken into foster care, and

5:51

my sister and Jason

5:54

and I all were removed from the home

5:56

and brought to my grandmother's in Arkansas,

6:00

where my grandmother sort

6:03

of farmed my sister

6:05

out to the pastor of

6:07

our church because she wasn't

6:09

able to handle a teenager. And

6:12

so eventually our

6:14

mom came and got the

6:16

only ones that were left on us, Jason

6:19

and I, and we moved back to Ohio

6:21

for several years, and then because

6:24

of a bad situation

6:26

with the person that Jason and I then called

6:28

our dad, and we ended up having

6:31

to come back down to Arkansas,

6:33

and so that's where Jason

6:35

and I finished school, graduated,

6:37

and just kind of made our lives.

6:40

She described Jason as her best friend,

6:42

someone who always had her back, so

6:45

they had a super tight bond. Sarah

6:47

said they were always there for each other over

6:52

the years, Jason struggled

6:54

with different issues, including addictions

6:57

to drugs and alcohol. He tried

6:59

to maintain his sobriety, and it seems like

7:01

he was able to at least sometimes.

7:05

Twenty twenty one, Jason

7:07

had a very rough year. Back

7:10

in twenty ten, Jason married

7:12

his wife, Jamaica. They had a son

7:14

together, and Jason also helped raise

7:16

Jamaica's young son, who was apparently

7:18

just four years old when they met. This

7:21

information, by the way, is according to Jamaica's

7:23

social media postings. But

7:25

their marriage started to have problems. Whatever

7:28

was going on. He was having some

7:30

emotional issues, and according

7:33

to things that Jamaica has put on social media,

7:35

this is also a time when he apparently

7:38

got back into drugs. Whatever

7:41

was going on, Jason Lirell was clearly

7:43

in distress. His marriage

7:45

to Jamaica was breaking up, and he was worried

7:47

about the divorce and about what it

7:49

would mean for his future. Jason

7:52

and Jamaica officially separated in May

7:54

of twenty twenty one. That's

7:56

when Sarah says Jason moved in with her

7:58

to an apartment in Fayetteville, which is about

8:00

thirty miles away from where

8:02

he'd been living in Madison County.

8:05

Sometime during all this, Jason

8:08

also got into a car accident. Sarah

8:11

helped him get access to a car so

8:13

that he would have a vehicle to drive

8:15

to work and to ride around in. She

8:17

was basically doing everything that she could

8:19

to help Jason get his life together. Jason

8:23

and Jamaica's divorce case was playing out

8:25

over the summer of twenty twenty one. Jamaica

8:28

filed for custody of their son. Jason

8:31

won a joint custody and for

8:33

a while, according to Sarah, it seemed like

8:35

Jason's life was getting back to some type

8:38

of normality.

8:39

In that time frame of being

8:41

in that apartment. We ended up getting him

8:43

a job at the university. We hired

8:46

one of the best attorneys in Fantel

8:48

to be his divorce attorney. You know,

8:50

he started getting visitation

8:53

with his son. He was using

8:55

a device that was recommended

8:57

through his attorney to monitor alcohol

9:00

use, you know, to show that he wasn't

9:02

using alcohol. I mean things

9:05

were pretty normal. I mean he would

9:07

pick up his son, had his son

9:09

over for you know, like every other weekend.

9:12

I don't know, we just had a lot of fun together.

9:16

Sarah said that December twenty twenty

9:18

one was a happy time for Jason. He

9:20

and the family had a good holiday. He

9:23

saw his ex wife with his son on Christmas.

9:25

Even Christmas Day he spent time

9:28

with Sarah and their brother and the children.

9:30

From what Sarah said, it was a very happy time.

9:33

Jason said he was looking forward to the future. But

9:37

then things started to change for

9:39

Jason.

9:40

You know, December came, he

9:43

was gone quite a bit more than

9:45

January. I just noticed that

9:48

I didn't think that he was even working at the university

9:50

anymore. I don't know exactly

9:55

what happened at different points

9:57

in January. I don't know all

10:00

of the people that he was hanging around

10:02

with. I just know that he was gone quite

10:04

a bit.

10:07

Sarah said she's not exactly sure

10:09

what caused Jason to go down a

10:11

darker path, but at some point,

10:14

maybe on New Year's Eve, Sarah said,

10:16

Jason was at a bar and ran into

10:18

some people who Sarah described as

10:20

people who had been old friends from

10:22

back in the day, people he used to hang out with,

10:25

people who she said, perhaps were not the

10:27

best influences. It

10:29

seems that around this time Jason

10:32

made the choice to start doing drugs again. Then

10:36

came this accidental text message.

10:38

According to court records, Jason

10:41

sent a text about getting some rocket fuel,

10:44

referring to drugs, probably to meth.

10:46

Apparently he accidentally sent that

10:49

text about getting drugs to his

10:51

young son.

10:52

I know Jason definitely wasn't very

10:55

tech savvy. I don't know how you make a mistake

10:57

like he did, But yeah, I

11:00

mean, shouldn't have Number one

11:02

shouldn't have been sent to his son. But number two

11:05

just showed it was that he was already

11:07

going down a really bad.

11:08

Path at that point.

11:10

This made the divorce case take a

11:12

darker turn. On January

11:15

eighteenth, twenty twenty two, Jason

11:17

and his estranged wife had a zoom mediation

11:20

conference. She later said

11:22

this was the last time that she ever saw Jason.

11:25

After that, Jamaica and her attorney filed

11:27

court papers requiring Jason to take

11:29

a drug test on January nineteenth.

11:32

Jason was supposed to show up by five

11:34

pm that day for the hair follicle test, but

11:37

he didn't make that appointment. Jason

11:39

was apparently in the process of rescheduling

11:41

for another date. He spoke to his

11:43

lawyer on January twenty fourth. After

11:46

that, Jason's lawyer never heard

11:48

back from him again. I

11:51

just want to say that as you go through

11:53

these social media posts, it

11:55

becomes clear that Jamaica and Sarah

11:58

and the rest of the family kind of appeared

12:00

to have a united front at first, but over

12:02

time they seem to have some different views

12:05

of what exactly Jason was doing

12:07

at the time of his disappearance, and

12:09

potentially how much of that information

12:12

should be shared and who it should be shared

12:14

with. This is super common,

12:17

and I'm bringing it up because I know when someone

12:19

goes missing it's incredibly hard on

12:21

families. Everyone has

12:23

their own version of what

12:25

the victim was like, what they would

12:27

have wanted out there and Jamaica

12:30

later talked to a reporter from the Madison

12:32

County Register. This was after Jason went

12:34

missing. She said Jason

12:37

was not living with Sarah, his sister, but

12:39

had been staying with different friends, kind

12:41

of CouchSurfing in Madison County. She

12:44

said, quote, we have to get the truth

12:46

out there if we're going to find Jason, if

12:48

we're going to figure out what's happened and

12:50

what's occurred with him.

12:51

End quote. The reporter asked

12:54

her about her theories.

12:55

Jamaica said she hoped that maybe Jason

12:58

just needed a break. At first, she

13:00

said that she had hope that he would be found

13:02

safe. Jamaica said,

13:04

quote, maybe he's

13:06

taken off because of his involvement with certain people.

13:09

We're not exactly sure, but I hope that they

13:11

find him and that he's safe.

13:13

End quote.

13:15

I cannot imagine how hard this must be,

13:17

both for Jason's sister and other

13:19

family members and for his estranged wife.

13:22

And I can really see both sides of this

13:24

because Sarah is very clear

13:26

Jason was living with her. On

13:28

the other hand, I also understand

13:31

why potentially his

13:33

estranged wife would want to get information out

13:35

there about the people he's hanging around with, because

13:37

that is very important. You have to know everything

13:40

good and bad about a victim, even

13:42

if they're not particularly flattering, if we're going to

13:44

try.

13:45

To find him.

13:46

I would say that both things

13:48

can also be true. He may have been

13:50

staying with friends for a couple of days, but that does

13:52

not mean that he wasn't living with his sister.

13:56

So let's get back to Jason and his timeline.

14:00

The last time that Sarah was in touch with her

14:03

brother was on Monday, January twenty

14:05

fourthenty twenty two. Sarah

14:07

has a job that involves a lot of travel. The

14:10

plan was that Jason was going to stay

14:12

in their apartment in Fayetteville and dog sit

14:14

for her dog Witty while she was away.

14:18

Sarah believes the last time

14:20

that her brother texted her was on January

14:22

twenty fourth, and that the text messages

14:25

she received from Jason's phone on January

14:27

twenty fifth may have been someone else,

14:30

someone who wanted to affect the timeline,

14:32

someone who wanted to make everyone believe

14:35

that Jason was still around and still texting.

14:38

You know, I didn't obviously

14:40

think about it in the moment, because

14:42

it's like, you don't think those

14:44

things. I mean to me, I'm talking to my brother,

14:47

so you know, if the text messages

14:50

were strange, you know, I'm talking

14:52

to my brother, so I don't know.

14:54

It wasn't until.

14:54

Afterwards, you know, when that date kind of

14:57

got thrown out there as the day

14:59

that he potentially was last seen, and

15:01

I look back at these messages, I'm just like, wow,

15:04

Yeah, this does don't look like Jason

15:06

at all talking to me, you know, even though

15:08

it's Jason's phone number. It's

15:10

just the messages don't

15:13

sound like Jason.

15:16

On Monday, January twenty fourth, at one

15:18

fifty five pm, Sarah

15:20

wrote, hey, brother, will you be

15:22

home this week?

15:23

Or should I get a pet sitter?

15:25

She got a message from Jason's phone a

15:27

reply saying he would be there tomorrow,

15:30

meaning on January twenty fifth. She

15:32

texted Jason back, awesome,

15:34

thank you. If you can't be there at any point, let me

15:37

know so I can find someone.

15:38

Love you.

15:39

She got a reply from Jason's phone

15:41

love you to sister, I will see you tomorrow.

15:45

Sarah believes that this was the last text

15:47

that her brother sent. The

15:50

next day, on Tuesday, January twenty

15:52

fifth, at four oh four pm, she

15:54

got a message from Jason's phone.

15:57

It read hey, what up?

15:59

She responded, asking what was up with him

16:02

giving him the door code to their home. Their

16:04

locks had recently being changed the apartment

16:06

complex changed them from having keys to

16:09

having a door code, and she needed to make.

16:10

Sure that he could use it. I mean he could get in.

16:13

She said that the replies that

16:15

she got did not sound like they came

16:17

from her brother. For one

16:20

thing, the text were misspelled, which

16:22

she said, even when Jason was

16:25

drunk, She said, he would never misspell.

16:27

Texts like for instance, you know when

16:30

he first came to stay with me, like he was very

16:32

intoxicated, but he was

16:34

a misspelling thing.

16:36

Then Sarah texted, are you in the

16:38

house? He said, no, I'm

16:41

in Hinesville. Hinesville

16:43

is a tiny little town in

16:46

Arkansas with a population of less

16:48

than one hundred. It's in Madison County.

16:51

Sarah got a response from Jason's phone.

16:54

It just said okay with a thumbs

16:56

up emoji. This was the

16:58

last text that she ever got from

17:00

her brother's phone.

17:04

Sarah put off her work trip and stayed close

17:06

to home with her dog. She still

17:08

had no idea where Jason was. She

17:11

was concerned, but at first she hoped that he

17:13

was just somewhere with friends. On the

17:15

twenty seventh, she sent Jason's phone

17:17

another text.

17:18

It read where's Woody.

17:21

Sarah sent that text to see what

17:23

Jason would say. She knew he wasn't

17:25

at her apartment because she was there, but

17:27

she wanted to try to get him to give her

17:29

a response. By the way, that

17:31

text message wears Woody on the twenty

17:33

seventh was the first one that Sarah

17:36

sent that was green, not blue.

17:39

This could mean Jason was somewhere with poor

17:41

reception or no WiFi, or

17:43

it could mean that for some reason his

17:46

phone was switched off. Detectives

17:49

later told Sarah that that last

17:51

text that she sent on January twenty seventh,

17:54

on that day, her brother's

17:56

phone last pinged in Carroll County,

17:59

in an area right where it intersects

18:01

with both.

18:01

Madison and Benton Counties.

18:04

This is near Hinesville, near where

18:06

Jason had said he was hanging out the previous

18:08

day. Sarah

18:11

also described this area, by the way, as being

18:13

basically like the Bermuda Triangle. It's

18:16

a spot where exactly three counties

18:18

intersect. There's also a

18:20

large lake right in the middle of that area.

18:23

She wrote on social media, quote Jason

18:26

disappeared on or around January twenty

18:28

fifth, twenty twenty two from either

18:31

two four or five five zero Caps Ranches

18:34

Road in Rogers, Arkansas, or

18:37

four thirty five Madison one to one

18:39

zero one in Huntsville, Arkansas,

18:41

or another number of other places end

18:44

quote. And that's what she was referring

18:46

to when she wrote that those are some of the last addresses

18:49

he was known to be at, which we're going to get into in a

18:51

minute. But just the confusion about

18:53

where he was last seen. It's really

18:55

hard in this case even to verify the most

18:57

basic information.

19:00

For those of you who are not from Arkansas.

19:02

Fayetteville, where Sarah lives, it's kind of like

19:04

the Austin, Texas of Arkansas, or

19:07

like Athens, Georgia.

19:08

It's a cool college town.

19:10

It's where the University of Arkansas is located,

19:12

and it's a very affluent area in northwest

19:14

Arkansas. Whereas Madison

19:17

County is very much a

19:19

part of the Ozarks, the

19:21

area where Jason was staying, near

19:23

Hinesville in Clifty is only

19:25

about thirty to forty miles away, but it's

19:28

a totally different world. It is

19:30

very much a rural area, very much

19:32

in the backwoods. I mentioned this because

19:34

this case spreads out over several counties,

19:36

as we've said, and from the start

19:39

there appeared to be some confusion about jurisdiction.

19:42

So let's go back to a few

19:45

days after Jason went missing January

19:48

early February of twenty twenty two.

19:50

It's been a few days and Sarah has

19:53

been sitting in her apartment. She has not heard from her

19:55

brother. Several

19:57

days after she last heard from Jason. A

19:59

friend of Jason's where he had been staying

20:01

called Sarah to let her know that Jason

20:04

had not been back to pick up his motorcycle.

20:08

He loved his motorcycle. It was

20:10

his prize possession. So now

20:12

after hearing that Jason did

20:14

not have his motorcycle with him he never

20:17

came back to get it, and after

20:19

calling Jason's ex wife finding out

20:22

they haven't heard from him, he didn't show up for his son's

20:24

birthday. Now Sarah

20:26

has gone from being worried to being scared

20:28

something bad could have happened to her brother. She

20:32

reported Jason as a missing person to

20:34

the Washington County Sheriff's Department. That's

20:36

in Fayetteville, where Jason and Sarah

20:38

were living. Then apparently

20:40

Madison County took over since that's

20:42

where Jason was last seen and where he

20:45

had been staying with friends. After

20:47

reporting him missing, Sarah started

20:49

putting up missing posters, doing everything

20:51

that she could to spread the word, including

20:54

creating the Facebook group Jason

20:56

Lirel Missing Person. Jason

20:59

was described as having blonde hair and blue

21:02

eyes. He has two tattoos

21:04

on his right arm, one word that

21:06

says cross and the numbers one eleven,

21:08

twelve referring to his son's birthday. There's

21:11

also another tattoo of an iron cross

21:13

on his bicap.

21:16

When I first started speaking with

21:18

the investigator who was initially on it,

21:21

really phenomenal

21:23

investigator. I mean, I feel like if

21:26

he had been able to stay on this, I feel

21:28

like Jay would have been found by now.

21:30

Very tenacious went right and interviewing

21:33

people and trying to get information,

21:35

and then I just begged him,

21:37

like along and along. I just I was

21:40

like, I feel like this is going to end up

21:42

getting turned over into the

21:44

hands of Madison County, and I'm scared to

21:46

death about that because I don't think my brother would

21:48

be found.

21:50

Over the next several weeks, Jason

21:53

never came home, but

21:56

his stuff started showing up in some strange

21:58

places. The

22:07

first thing that showed up after Jason vanished,

22:10

as we mentioned before, was his car.

22:13

This was about a week after he disappeared.

22:15

It was found parked outside the Northwest

22:17

Arkansas Mall in Fayettevielle, which

22:20

by the way, was just a short distance

22:22

from his sister, Sarah's apartment complex.

22:25

The car was left.

22:26

Running and had run out of gas. Sarah

22:29

was trying to figure out anything that she could about

22:31

where her brother had been spending time. She was trying

22:33

to figure out his timeline.

22:36

She learned that Jason had spent

22:38

some time at a casino with a friend of his. After

22:41

that, he went over to the house of

22:43

some other friends of his named Randall and Rachel.

22:46

He stayed for a couple of days at Randall

22:48

and Rachel's house. He left there on

22:51

January twenty first. On that

22:53

day, Jason showed up at the home of

22:55

a woman named Miriam. Now, the exact

22:58

nature of the relationship that was going

23:00

on between Miriam and Jason, I'm

23:02

not exactly sure of. I

23:04

believe that it was some type of

23:07

friendship or intimate relationship.

23:09

As with some of his other friends, this was someone

23:11

Jason was reconnecting with.

23:13

He had not seen her in a long time, but

23:15

they appeared to kind of like each other.

23:18

Miriam lives on a huge property that's

23:20

owned by her family, spanning over

23:22

two hundred acres.

23:24

Now, Miriam has.

23:25

Posted a detailed timeline on

23:27

social media of who was at her

23:29

house and what, to her knowledge, they

23:31

were doing. This is a timeline

23:34

that she said she posted to

23:36

help the investigation. She claimed

23:38

that it covered the period from the twenty

23:40

first through the twenty fifth of January

23:42

twenty twenty two. Miriam

23:45

also did a Facebook live. I

23:48

know that I'm throwing a lot of names at

23:50

you, but the good news about

23:52

it is if there were a lot of people on

23:54

that property, potentially there are a lot

23:56

of people who have some information who

23:59

might have little pieces of this puzzle. By

24:02

the way, I'm getting a lot of this information

24:04

directly from Miriam from what she's posted

24:06

on social media. I also have a

24:08

very close source to the case who I'll talk about

24:11

a bit later, plus official

24:13

police documents, including arrest

24:15

reports and things

24:17

we've been able to access through freedom of information

24:19

request. But I am totally

24:22

aware there may be incorrect information

24:24

in here. So if you hear something

24:26

that you know is wrong, I really

24:28

hope that you'll reach out. This is a developing

24:31

story. We're trying to figure out what's going on

24:33

with no access to a case file. There

24:36

were several people on Miriam's

24:38

property, and I believe that someone

24:40

there knows something that could

24:42

potentially crack this case. A

24:46

journalist named Nicole Castile made

24:48

a podcast a while back called Hell in the Highlands.

24:51

She interviewed Miriam as part of that podcast.

24:54

So let's go back to Miriam's timeline.

24:57

Miriam told Nicole that before January

24:59

twenty first, the day Jason showed up on

25:02

her property, she had not seen Jason

25:04

in around ten years. She said

25:07

that Randall, Jason's friend, came

25:09

to her house on the twenty first. Apparently

25:12

Randall had to pay Miriam for a trailer

25:14

she had sold him. When he showed up at

25:16

the house, he randomly had Jason with him,

25:18

probably because Jason had been staying at Randall's

25:21

place. A little while later, another

25:23

friend named Don showed up at the house. She

25:26

also said she had two friends of hers named

25:29

Charity and Troy staying at her property

25:31

in a different part of the property. She said

25:33

they were also home during this time. So

25:36

at some point Jason and Randall left.

25:39

Later, Miriam said that she called Jason

25:41

and asked him to come back over and hang out. Jason

25:44

didn't want to drive his motorcycle to her place,

25:46

so he left it parked at Randall's house. Now,

25:49

remember this is Arkansas in the woods

25:51

and the dead of winter in the twenties.

25:54

The road out to Miriam's.

25:55

Had a lot of dirt roads, so I can totally

25:58

understand Jason not wanting to ride

26:00

his very nice bike out there. According

26:03

to Miriam, Don went to pickt ure Jason up.

26:06

Don and Jason showed up back at Miriam's

26:08

at around ten pm that night.

26:10

Charity and Troy were still there.

26:12

At this point, Miriam said

26:14

she and Don and Jason started

26:16

smoking meth again. According to

26:18

Miriam, Jason wanted to try heroin,

26:21

though he normally did not shoot up.

26:27

A little while later, someone else, a

26:30

man named Aaron, showed up sometime

26:33

in the early morning hours of January twenty

26:35

second. Miriam said they were injecting

26:38

heroin mixed with methamphetamine. Now,

26:40

apparently Jason never injected

26:42

himself. He had someone else do

26:44

it for him. Now, this immediately

26:47

makes me think of something that could be

26:49

very dangerous, because someone injecting

26:51

someone else with a drug makes me think of giving

26:54

people hot shots, in other words,

26:56

giving them a lethal overdose. But

26:58

when I talk to people who know a lot

27:00

about injecting drugs and have done it themselves,

27:03

they tell me that it's not uncommon for

27:05

someone who is not in

27:08

the habit of injecting themselves with drugs

27:10

to have someone else do it for them. Miriam

27:13

said that even though Jason apparently did not

27:15

have a habit of using heroin and injecting

27:17

himself.

27:18

He didn't seem to be super

27:21

affected by the drugs.

27:22

In other words, she said he was acting normal,

27:25

at least normal for someone who was doing

27:27

drugs and having a good time. What

27:29

happened on Miriam's property and

27:31

who exactly was there is something that I'm

27:33

still working out, and we're going to follow

27:36

up with in a lot more detail on next

27:38

week's episode. But for

27:40

the moment, I just want to point out a couple

27:42

of things that supposedly occurred during

27:44

this time that I think should

27:46

be investigated further. Now,

27:49

at some point over the next couple

27:51

of days, Jimmy Evans came

27:53

over to the house. Now you'll remember Jimmy

27:55

Evans was the guy we mentioned in the beginning of the

27:57

episode, the one who was arrested

28:00

weeks later with blood on his clothes, the

28:02

one who claimed to be Clint Phillips. Now,

28:06

according to Sarah, Jason knew

28:08

Jimmy. In fact, Jimmy and his

28:10

sister were very close to Sarah

28:12

and Jason in childhood.

28:15

Miriam said she gave Jimmy

28:17

a check.

28:18

He was supposed to cash it for her use

28:20

some of it to buy drugs and some of it to buy groceries.

28:24

But apparently Jimmy didn't come back with the

28:26

check. Miriam said, Don and Jason

28:28

ended up getting some money together. They went

28:31

to the nearby town of Eureka Springs

28:33

to get groceries. Miriam

28:35

claimed this was no big deal, that she had

28:37

just canceled the check, But this was

28:39

a lot of money, around six hundred dollars

28:41

apparently, and I do wonder

28:43

if she was more upset about

28:46

that at.

28:46

The time than she's letting on.

28:49

I have a lot more questions about Jimmy and exactly

28:51

what he was doing there, how long he stayed

28:53

there, what exactly went down. That's

28:56

something Sarah says she's also trying

28:58

to figure out, and that's something we're going to be focusing

29:00

on in next week's episode. For

29:02

now, we'll say, over the next couple days,

29:04

there were people coming in and out of the house, people

29:07

were partying for a couple of days. During

29:09

that time, there were a couple more disturbing

29:12

incidents. But for

29:14

now, I want to go back to Miriam's

29:16

timeline. I want to focus on the last

29:18

and most crucial day, January

29:21

twenty fourth, that's the

29:23

day when Jason last spoke to his lawyer,

29:25

and also the day when he last texted

29:27

his sister. Text that she feels confident

29:29

came from him. Miriam

29:32

later told people that she went to bed

29:35

that night. She said that she saw

29:37

Jason there, that he had wrapped himself

29:39

in a blanket on the bed, lying

29:42

above the covers, kind of rolling himself

29:44

in one of her blankets like a sleeping bag.

29:47

The next morning, on the twenty fifth, she

29:50

said she wasn't sure if Jason was

29:52

in bed with her or not. She said,

29:54

on that morning, Don woke her up

29:56

and told her if she wanted to get to town, where

29:58

she apparently needed to run some errands, she

30:00

needed to get up right now to get a ride

30:02

there with one of her friends.

30:05

She said, that's what she did.

30:07

Yeah, she said, you know, because she's gone

30:09

back and forth with her story quite a bit,

30:12

and you know, at

30:14

a certain point she finally said, you

30:16

know, now that she's thinking about it, she

30:19

thinks that he was

30:21

next to her in the bed, motionless.

30:24

So there's that story, and then there

30:26

is another person in the house saying that she

30:30

actually spoke to my brother that morning. He's

30:33

making a cup of coffee. She said she was

30:35

going to the store. Did he need

30:37

anything. He got some money out of his wallet,

30:40

gave it to her, said that he needed a pack of cigarettes.

30:43

All these things like just in

30:45

my mind, you know, the car being

30:48

left at the mall.

30:49

His wallet was.

30:50

In the car, completely cleaned out.

30:53

So there's just so many strange

30:55

things to all of this.

30:58

Now.

30:58

The other woman who was staying at the property

31:01

told Sarah that there

31:03

wasn't some big rush that morning, that she had had

31:05

a cup of coffee with Jason that morning, that

31:07

she'd actually seen him up and moving

31:10

around on the morning of the twenty fifth, And

31:12

the other woman told Sarah that

31:15

Jason gave her money out of

31:17

his wallet that morning for groceries. Remember,

31:20

Jason's car was found about a week

31:22

after he disappeared. Sarah

31:24

gave me more details about what happened

31:26

when that car was found.

31:28

The crime scene investigator who

31:31

was there, who was you know, processing

31:33

things from in the car. She

31:36

went to get in the car and couldn't,

31:39

and you know, right away was like, well, hey, you

31:41

know, you said your brother is

31:44

around my height, maybe like

31:46

an inch shorter. She said, the

31:48

seat the way that she initially

31:50

asked me. She said, did your brother sit

31:53

up close.

31:54

To the wheel?

31:54

And I was not thinking, like.

31:58

Have his seat pushed forward?

32:01

I hadn't even looked much

32:03

at the seats until she brought it to our

32:06

attention, and it was just like she said

32:08

that the seat was pushed so far forward,

32:11

you know that she couldn't even squeeze herself

32:13

into the car, So you

32:15

know, she was just like, it

32:17

seems to me that the person who

32:19

was driving it must have been very short.

32:22

The passenger side seat was lean

32:25

basically all the way back, and the seat

32:28

itself was pushed all the way back,

32:30

which you know, just in my

32:32

mind, I'm like, well, seems like a really

32:34

tall person.

32:37

So was that Jason

32:40

driving the car or did

32:42

someone else, maybe the same person

32:44

who took cash out of his wallet, park that

32:46

car in the mall parking lot to stage it. I

32:50

have a lot of questions about this timeline and

32:52

these stories, because I

32:54

do believe there's some grains of truth contained

32:57

in it. A lot of people tend to keep their

32:59

lives close to the truth and include elements

33:01

of the truth and their story because a complete

33:03

lie is harder to remember and keeps. That's right, This

33:07

is also complicated by the fact that,

33:09

even if people are telling the truth, they

33:12

by their own admission, were on drugs at this

33:15

point, So keeping

33:17

dates and facts clear can be very

33:19

challenging. Whatever

33:22

really happened that morning, whether Jason was

33:24

up and around, or whether this other house guest

33:26

got those dates confused, Miriam

33:29

was clear. She said she never saw Jason

33:32

again after the morning of the twenty

33:34

fifth. The last person

33:36

to see Jason alive, according to the official

33:38

timeline, was Don. Don

33:41

told Sarah he was with Jason

33:43

later that day on the twenty fifth. He

33:45

says they went out to a property in Hinesville

33:48

where Don lives.

33:50

Now this would appear to match.

33:52

The last phone ping because

33:55

Don lives in the same area where that cell

33:57

phone tower pinged on the twenty seventh.

33:59

Don said that he jumped in the shower.

34:02

While he did, He said Jason went out for a

34:04

walk in the woods at around nine thirty pm

34:07

and never came back. But apparently

34:10

Don told someone else that Jason

34:12

had left the house much later, at around

34:14

two thirty am the next morning. I'm still

34:16

trying to investigate that potential contradiction.

34:20

This story is weird for a couple of reasons. First

34:22

of all, the reports of the last thing that

34:24

Jason was seen in that he was wearing are

34:27

jeans, boots, a flannel and a white

34:29

T shirt. He had no gloves,

34:31

no hat, no heavy coat, and

34:33

the nighttime temperature in those nights

34:36

was down in the twenties. Some

34:38

people have brought up the possibility that

34:40

Jason could have wandered off and succumbed

34:42

to hypothermia. But if that happened,

34:45

then where is he? Where's the body?

34:49

As we said before, police searched

34:51

Jason's car. They eventually found his

34:53

car, keys, his motorcycle, and some

34:55

of his other belongings, but they

34:57

never found his cell phone and they never found

34:59

his motorcycle keys. Police

35:03

did a search of Miriam's property and Madison

35:05

County. By the way, Miriam

35:08

has pointed out this entire time that she has been extremely

35:10

cooperative. She volunteered to let

35:13

people search, She's told people

35:15

everything she knows, both police and

35:17

people asking on social media, and

35:20

says that she feels that she's been unfairly

35:22

targeted as a result of this. Apparently,

35:26

they didn't find anything, No

35:28

items were seized. There

35:31

was also a search in the area around where

35:33

Don lived in Hinesville

35:36

and nothing was found there either. But there are a lot

35:38

of woods back there. There are underground

35:40

caves and sinkholes, and this is an extensive

35:43

area that spans several counties. Miriam

35:47

has also shared some screenshots

35:49

from her phone, including one

35:51

that was very interesting. Remember

35:54

Don told Sarah that

35:57

Jason was with her on January

35:59

twenty fifth at his property near Hinesville.

36:03

Miriam told Sarah a similar story.

36:06

Miriam said she texted Don

36:08

on January twenty fifth, and when

36:10

she did, she said, Don said Jason

36:13

was with him near Hinesville. At

36:16

five twenty two pm on January

36:18

twenty fifth, Miriam got a text

36:20

from Jason's phone. It said you

36:22

busy, but there's something

36:24

else. Right afterwards, there's an image with

36:26

that text. It looks like the bottom

36:29

of legs in jeans with brown

36:31

boots standing next to a tree in the

36:33

woods. Of course, we don't

36:36

know for sure, but to me, it looks like the

36:38

person who was texting accidentally

36:41

took a picture of their bottom half and

36:43

hit send. I also

36:46

say that because the lens is partially covered

36:48

up with a finger and it's kind of blurry. It's

36:50

something that I've done many times.

36:52

Accidentally taking a picture while sending a text.

36:55

I asked Sarah if she believed

36:58

that that bottom half of that person standing

37:00

there was her brother, if she recognized

37:02

the boots not at all?

37:04

You know, the boot that just

37:07

surprised me because you know, at that

37:09

point, a lot of times I was putting

37:11

his laundry away, like I organized

37:13

his closet, that sort of thing, So you

37:16

know, I never saw him have a pair of boots

37:18

like this. So you know, right

37:20

away, I'm just like, you know,

37:22

I'm like, well, maybe he got a new pair

37:24

of boots. And then I you know, when I

37:27

sort of you

37:29

know, make the picture bigger, I'm like, well, these

37:31

look very worn, which you know,

37:33

it's it's still possible. I guess it's

37:35

still possible. It's just I

37:38

never saw him in anything like this. And when I asked

37:40

his ex the same thing, she

37:42

said, no, that he hated boots

37:44

that had like like laced up boots,

37:47

like he always wore just pull on boots.

37:50

So was that mystery person Jason?

37:53

And if it wasn't Jason, was

37:56

it someone else texting from Jason's

37:58

phone. There's

38:05

so much more to this story, and we're going to continue

38:07

it next week. But first let's

38:10

go back to February

38:12

thirteenth of twenty twenty two. After

38:15

Jimmy was arrested. By

38:17

the way, there's no information about

38:19

what happened next. Did they interview him

38:22

about Jason Lerel? Did

38:24

they take his bloody clothes? Did

38:26

they send them to the crime lab? Was that his

38:29

blood or someone else's blood on his clothes?

38:32

As with so many other things in this case, we

38:34

don't know for sure, but we

38:37

do know that something else critical

38:39

happened in February of twenty twenty

38:41

two, around

38:44

the same timeframe that Jimmy was at

38:46

the police station blurting out that he had

38:48

information about Jason Lerell's case. Police

38:51

went to Aaron's house. Remember

38:54

Aaron was the friend who briefly came

38:56

by Miriam's house. Aaron

38:58

also has a history of arrest for drug

39:01

charges. Police

39:03

were at Aaron's house following up

39:05

on a report that Aaron's mother had made.

39:08

She reported her van stolen, but

39:10

the van was returned to Aarin on January

39:13

twenty fifth. According to police documents,

39:16

When they got to Aaron's house, sitting

39:18

out on his porch, police found a

39:20

pile of bloody clothes, clothes

39:23

that one of Jason's family members identified

39:26

as belonging to Jason Lyrell. Sarah

39:29

sent me a photo of the clothes, she

39:32

said. Miriam identified the blanket

39:34

on the porch as being the blanket that

39:36

came off her bed, the

39:38

one that Jason was wrapped up in when

39:41

he was lying motionless. What

39:43

were Jason Lyrel's bloody clothes

39:46

doing on that porch and who

39:48

put them there?

39:50

I'm Catherine Townsend.

39:51

This is Helen Gone Murder Line.

39:58

Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School

40:00

of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's

40:02

written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend

40:04

and produced by Gabby Watts.

40:06

Music contributed by Ben.

40:08

Sale, Executive producers

40:10

of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,

40:12

and Elsie Crowley. If you have

40:14

a case you'd like me and my team to look into,

40:16

you can reach out to us at our Hellingonge Murder

40:19

Line at six seven eight seven

40:21

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40:26

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