Podchaser Logo
Home
A Vile Plan

A Vile Plan

Released Friday, 21st June 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
A Vile Plan

A Vile Plan

A Vile Plan

A Vile Plan

Friday, 21st June 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

Thanks for coming with me to Meyer. Absolutely. Ooh,

0:02

I'll take one of these. During the Meyer $7 for $7 sale, mix

0:05

or match hundreds of items and pay

0:07

just $1 each when you pick any

0:09

seven or more. We need bell peppers,

0:11

echric meat franks to grill, powerade sports

0:13

drinks for warm days, chobani Greek yogurt,

0:15

and Meyer essential paper towels. On it

0:18

and an extra cart. What? Why? Well, it's only

0:20

$1 each. We're getting way more than seven. Shop

0:22

the $7 for $7 sale at Meyer and

0:25

pay just $1 each when you mix or match

0:27

any seven or more. Exclusions apply. See all deals

0:29

in the Meyer app. But

0:41

here's where Aura steps in. Aura

0:43

scans the dark web for your

0:45

sensitive information and sends real-time alerts.

0:47

Aura also actively requests that your

0:49

information be removed from data broker

0:51

sites, putting you back in control.

0:53

Aura provides you with a complete online

0:55

safety toolkit, credit and

0:57

transaction monitoring, a secure password

1:00

manager, a privacy-enhancing VPN,

1:02

and more. Try

1:05

Aura risk-free with

1:08

a 14-day trial

1:11

at aura.com/safety. That's

1:13

aura.com/safety. Rest

1:15

easy with Aura. Visit

1:18

aura.com/safety today.

1:26

Hey, small-town fam. It's Yardley. How

1:28

are you guys? I'm so glad

1:30

you're here. So one of our

1:32

newer guests, Detective Jamie, returns today

1:34

with a case about an attempted

1:36

kidnapping that takes law enforcement down

1:38

a rabbit hole of depravity and

1:42

premeditation, the likes of which Hollywood horror films are

1:46

made. I personally can't watch movies like

1:48

that. Oh, no. Whether

1:51

they're sci-fi or Silence of the Lambs, I'm

1:54

much too squeamish. And maybe I even cling

1:56

to it. to

2:00

the hope that Hollywood is exaggerating

2:02

about what's happening in the shadows. Although

2:04

I have to say, after 14 seasons

2:06

of Small Town Dicks, I

2:08

know better. And I know that

2:11

sometimes, monsters are real.

2:14

Such as the offender in this

2:16

episode, where the evidence

2:18

police uncover is so disturbing

2:20

and abundant that even

2:22

the detectives are taken aback. The

2:26

silver lining is that the other

2:28

stunning part of this investigation comes

2:30

from two good Samaritans who saw

2:32

something that didn't sit right with

2:34

them. And instead of shrugging it

2:36

off, called police immediately.

2:39

The ripple effect was huge. Here

2:42

is a vile plan.

2:48

Hi there, I'm Yardley. I'm Dan.

2:50

I'm Dave. And I'm Paul. And

2:52

this is Small Town Dicks. Dave

2:54

and I are identical twins and

2:56

retired detectives from Small Town USA.

2:58

And I'm a veteran cold case

3:00

investigator who helped catch the Golden

3:02

State Killer using a revolutionary DNA

3:04

tool. Between the three of us,

3:06

we've investigated thousands of crimes from

3:08

petty theft to sexual assault, child

3:10

abuse to murder. Each case

3:12

we cover is told by the detective who

3:14

investigated it, offering a rare personal account of

3:17

how they solved the crime. Names,

3:19

places, and certain details have been changed to

3:21

protect the privacy of victims and their families. And

3:23

although we're aware that some of our listeners may

3:26

be familiar with these cases, we ask you to

3:28

please join us in continuing to protect the true

3:30

identities of those involved out of respect for what

3:32

they've been through. Thank you. Today

3:42

on Small Town Dicks, I

3:44

wonder if I should even say it. What if

3:46

I don't even say the usual suspects? How

3:49

about I just go, hi, today

3:51

on Small Town Dicks, I have

3:53

Detective Dan. Hello, everyone.

3:58

High energy. High energy. I

4:00

have Paul Holes. Hi. I've

4:06

really, really upended the boat here. And

4:09

I have the one and only Detective Dave. Hey,

4:11

hey. Hey. Hey. Oh,

4:17

it's like that shell game when you

4:19

don't know what cup the little pebble

4:21

is under. They're all scrambled. And,

4:25

small town fam, we are

4:27

so pleased to welcome back

4:29

Detective Jamie. Hello. Hello. It's

4:31

great to see you again. Thank you so much for

4:33

joining us. Yeah, I'm happy to

4:35

be back. And for our listeners, you'll

4:37

remember, or if you're a first time

4:39

listener, I'm happy to inform you, that Jamie

4:42

gave us a case earlier this season

4:44

that we called duped. It's

4:46

a great one. And Jamie and

4:48

I were actually, briefly, partners at the

4:51

same agency before I retired. So, Jamie,

4:53

it's great to have you back. Thank

4:55

you. So, Jamie, tell us how

4:57

this case came to you. All

4:59

right. So, this was in June 2022. It

5:03

was a typical Monday at like

5:05

4.15 in the afternoon. So, I

5:07

am just watching the clock, waiting to

5:09

go home. It's a nice day. It's in the summertime.

5:12

There is a radio that we keep

5:14

back in our detective office. So,

5:16

we can just kind of keep an eye

5:18

on what's being dispatched and what our officers

5:20

are doing. And my

5:23

ears perked up because I heard

5:25

dispatch broadcast a call about these

5:27

callers chasing someone who tried to

5:29

kidnap a child. So, that's what

5:32

I heard. That was the only information

5:34

that came out. I remember a second

5:36

call to 911 was made about two

5:38

vehicles chasing each other and running stop

5:40

signs. And I remember

5:42

we kind of made this joke about

5:45

what are the odds of this actually

5:47

being real versus like a

5:49

road rage type situation and someone is just

5:51

prank calling us basically. We don't get these

5:53

calls in our small city very often. Someone

5:55

trying to take a child and vehicles chasing

5:57

each other. That's just not something you hear

5:59

every day. Okay. The original callers

6:02

to 911 was a married couple

6:04

in their fifties named John and

6:06

Susan. They called 911 and

6:09

continued to provide dispatch with updates

6:11

on their location and the suspect

6:13

vehicle that they were chasing. And

6:16

they were headed east, like out of

6:18

our town towards more of a back

6:20

roads country area. We're

6:22

still listening to the radio like, is this

6:24

real? And then finally, Susan is on

6:27

911 saying, we watched this guy

6:29

try to grab a small child. And

6:32

then he jumped back in his vehicle and

6:34

we're chasing him. Susan is providing

6:36

updates about chasing this suspect

6:38

vehicle all over our

6:41

town. I later learned

6:43

that John and Susan had their two small

6:45

dogs in the backseat that they were just

6:47

getting thrown around in the backseat as they're

6:50

trying to keep up with this

6:52

guy because they know that they just witnessed an

6:54

attempted abduction and he cannot get away. They

6:57

had bad tires, their tires were very

6:59

bald. They're spinning out on gravel as

7:01

the suspect vehicle is like crossing the

7:03

center lane trying to get away. So

7:05

of course, as all of this

7:07

is happening, dispatch is broadcasting to

7:09

every single agency in the state

7:11

probably about what just happened. And

7:13

so every officer in the area

7:15

from our state police to our

7:17

deputy sheriffs are responding. As

7:20

this is happening and more information is coming

7:22

out from the 911 callers,

7:25

Lieutenant George and I look at each other and we're like, this is 100%

7:28

happening. Like there's no doubt now that this

7:30

is real. And no one had

7:32

located this little girl yet. Nobody knows where she

7:34

actually is because all of the officers

7:37

are busy trying to like catch up

7:39

to this mini citizen pursuit. And

7:42

Jamie, just to be clear, this is an

7:44

attempted abduction, correct? Yes. Susan was

7:46

able to confirm that he didn't actually grab

7:48

that little girl. So she is not in

7:51

the vehicle with this suspect. And

7:53

do you think that the abduction

7:55

is thwarted because John and Susan are

7:57

rolled up on the guy trying to...

8:00

matched the girl and he realized he

8:02

had witnesses. A thousand

8:04

percent, yes, yes, absolutely. So

8:07

I cannot emphasize enough how much of

8:09

a team effort this was between every

8:11

single agency coming into town and

8:14

trying to find this suspect vehicle. There

8:16

was an off-duty neighboring agency

8:18

lieutenant who lived in our

8:21

city. And when he heard

8:23

all of my agency's officers, he knew

8:25

that he was the closest one to

8:27

where this was last seen. So he's

8:29

taking off lights and sirens trying to

8:32

find it. We've got troopers coming

8:34

in. It's just flooding with law enforcement.

8:37

After what felt like hours, it was like

8:39

10 minutes of searching all of these back

8:41

roads. The suspect vehicle was finally spotted and

8:44

a short pursuit ensues. Police

8:46

officers are lights and sirens

8:48

behind him. There's absolutely

8:50

nowhere for this person to go.

8:53

It's flooded with law enforcement. The

8:55

suspect slammed on his brakes so hard and

8:57

just comes to an immediate stop in the

9:00

middle of the road. And the

9:02

officers behind, they had to slam on their brakes.

9:04

They had to try to avoid hitting each other,

9:06

hitting the suspect vehicle. It just was so abrupt

9:09

that it just ended. So

9:11

officers, troopers, deputies,

9:14

everyone's there trying to coordinate, getting

9:16

into position for this high-risk felony

9:18

traffic stop. And

9:21

commands are being yelled at to the suspect,

9:23

but they're not getting a response from inside

9:25

the vehicle. There's no movement from inside the

9:27

vehicle. So after several

9:29

minutes of trying to figure out tactically

9:32

how to approach this car, you know,

9:34

they're putting spike strips up ahead just

9:36

in case the suspect decides to flee

9:38

again in his car. They're angling other

9:40

cars. So eventually they

9:42

approach the vehicle and they find

9:45

the driver deceased. He has a

9:47

self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

9:50

It probably happened immediately when he anchored

9:52

the car and came to a stop.

9:55

My assumption is, like, during the chaos of, like,

9:57

the other officers slamming on their brakes, trying to

9:59

avoid it. each other, the adrenaline, the chaos,

10:01

like everyone on the radio, they probably didn't

10:03

hear the gunshot. You got sirens going

10:05

on. I mean, there's just so much and

10:08

it's inside of a vehicle. So you're probably

10:10

not going to hear the gunshot. And

10:13

what's our suspect's name? Our suspect's

10:15

name is Joseph. How old

10:17

is Joseph-ish? He was late 20s.

10:19

I think he was 29. So

10:21

everything is happening so fast that I got

10:24

in my car and I decided I'm going

10:26

to go to where this originally happened, see

10:28

if we can find this little girl. So

10:30

that's my job. You know, I'm the child

10:32

abuse detective. I've done forensic interviewing

10:34

training, like I need to go find this girl.

10:37

But as I'm driving out there is when

10:40

all of this is taking place and they're airing

10:42

over the radio that, oh, they found the suspect

10:44

and he's deceased. And now, I

10:46

mean, there wasn't really doubt in my mind that this

10:48

was true before, but I'm like, this guy just got

10:50

in a pursuit, anchored it and

10:52

shot himself. Normal people don't

10:55

do that. He was doing

10:57

something very, very bad. So

10:59

we were able to find this little girl's

11:02

house. Her name is Nicole. She

11:05

was downstairs in her bedroom watching TV

11:07

just another Monday, like nothing had happened.

11:10

Her mom was okay with me going down there and

11:12

chatting with her and just getting some initial details. I

11:14

didn't want to traumatize her further, but you know, it'd

11:16

be nice to have just like a little bit of

11:18

backstory of what we can get at that moment. So

11:22

Nicole told me that she was walking

11:24

from her house down the street to

11:26

her friend's house and her friend was not

11:28

home. So Nicole started walking

11:30

back home when she noticed this car

11:34

pull up in front of her and a really

11:36

big guy jumped out of the car in

11:38

front of her. Nicole then saw

11:41

another car drive by simultaneously as

11:43

this happened. Nicole

11:45

said the guy never touched her and

11:47

he just immediately hopped back in his

11:49

car and she ran away.

11:51

Nicole is eight years old and Nicole's told

11:54

me that her parents had taught her about

11:56

stranger so she just took off running to

11:58

her house. How far

12:00

away does Nicole's friend live from

12:02

Nicole's house? It was right around

12:04

the corner. It was probably like six or seven houses

12:06

down and Nicole was two houses

12:09

away from her own house. She was walking

12:11

home. She was two houses away when this

12:13

all happened. That's all it takes. Yeah.

12:17

So Nicole seemed to be in really good spirits.

12:20

I think she was scared, but she's

12:22

eight. She obviously had no idea like the

12:24

gravity of the situation and what almost just

12:26

happened to her. She thinks just

12:28

some guy kind of popped out and scared her and

12:30

she ran home and everything's fine. Nicole's

12:33

mom was home when this happened. Nicole's

12:36

dad showed up later. I think

12:38

for them too, like the shock of what

12:40

we were telling them, they

12:42

didn't understand the gravity of the situation. Obviously

12:44

they were so grateful that nothing happened. And

12:47

so thankful that these people, John

12:49

and Susan had intervened and saw what

12:51

happened. But I think they were still

12:54

like, Oh, well, our daughter's here. Nothing

12:57

bad happened. Jamie, did you

12:59

actually tell Nicole's parents how the pursuit

13:01

ended with Joseph taking his own life?

13:04

Yeah. And I think that kind of put

13:06

it all into perspective of this guy was

13:08

up to no good. And my daughter was

13:10

the one who he had targeted. If

13:13

the suspect is dead by the

13:15

time you contact Nicole,

13:18

is there a need for an

13:20

investigation? Absolutely. All

13:23

the detectives are smirking at me. Well,

13:25

it's probably a dumb question. The

13:27

immediate concern is public safety. Like

13:29

Jamie said, normal people don't do

13:31

this. And the fact that Joseph

13:34

committed suicide, he didn't even go

13:36

hands on with Nicole. You

13:38

have this attempted abduction, but why

13:40

is he taking his life now

13:42

that law enforcement is pursuing him?

13:45

What else has he done? Right. And where

13:48

does he live? And is anyone locked up

13:50

in a closet in his house? You have

13:52

to dig in and find out where this

13:55

guy's been, what he's up to, what

13:57

his motives were. And those.

14:00

investigations where you know it's never gonna

14:02

end in an arrest because you have

14:04

a deceased subject, you end

14:06

up doing the most work on. Why is

14:08

that? You have to check every box.

14:10

We're thinking about public safety. So I want to

14:12

know everywhere that Joseph has

14:15

been in recent days and weeks, where

14:17

does he lay his head to go

14:19

to sleep at night? I want to know

14:21

what's in that house and what he's into.

14:23

Certainly going to get on his computer and

14:26

figure out what he's been up to online

14:28

and what he looks at, what he searches

14:30

for. There's so much more that

14:32

goes into this. You just don't

14:34

have a suspect to interview at the end,

14:36

but the investigation is the same. I

14:39

mean, all the things that we do as

14:41

detectives, if you don't do all those things

14:43

and worst case scenario, there's a little girl

14:45

locked up in a basement somewhere and

14:48

you just stopped your investigation because

14:50

suspect killed himself. I

14:53

mean, it just can't happen. Yeah. The

14:55

circumstances really lend themselves to more suspicion

14:57

on my part. I go, like, why

14:59

is this guy anchoring his car and

15:01

blowing his head off? There's

15:04

something bigger out there. So

15:21

what we learned from John and

15:24

Susan is that they lived in the

15:26

neighborhood and they are on

15:28

their way to the store when they

15:30

see what they thought was a suspicious

15:32

vehicle parked near an area where children

15:34

were getting dropped off by a school

15:36

bus. So they thought that was kind

15:38

of weird. But then they watched as

15:40

the suspect vehicle made a U-turn

15:42

and started following what ended up being Nicole,

15:45

who was walking alone. And, you know, it's

15:47

a typical neighborhood street, but she was alone.

15:49

There was nobody else walking down that street

15:51

with her or in sight. So John

15:54

and Susan felt really uneasy about

15:56

it. So they decided, let's turn

15:58

around. Let's go follow the that

16:00

vehicle. So luckily enough,

16:02

the house directly across the

16:04

street from where this happened had

16:06

like the most amazing cameras. So

16:08

this entire attempted abduction was caught

16:10

on camera. When John

16:12

and Susan come around the

16:15

corner to turn to where Nicole had walked off

16:17

to, I see Joseph jump out

16:19

of the car and stand in front

16:21

of Nicole. That's when Joseph

16:23

looks up and sees this car coming

16:25

around the corner. He jumps

16:28

back in his vehicle. John and

16:30

Susan drive by to where Nicole

16:32

had ran and they're yelling out the

16:34

window to Nicole, Hey, did you

16:36

know that guy? Is that your dad? And Nicole said,

16:39

no, I didn't know him. So John

16:41

and Susan were like, Oh shit, you

16:43

turn chase after this guy

16:45

because they just witnessed an attempted abduction

16:47

and this guy cannot get away. And

16:50

you're actually able to watch all of

16:52

this happen on the security footage from

16:54

the house across the street. Yes.

16:57

That's incredible. On

17:00

camera. You see this white Camry

17:02

speeding back through the view of

17:04

the video camera. It's John and

17:06

Susan taking off back after

17:08

this suspect. I love John and

17:10

Susan. You got to listen to

17:12

your instincts. I love that they did that.

17:14

There's so many examples and I'm guilty of

17:17

it myself where you're like, eh, it's

17:20

probably nothing. It's so easy to do

17:22

that. But these folks just

17:24

taking an extra two minutes of their trip

17:27

saved this girl's life. A hundred percent saved

17:29

her life. Absolutely. And whether

17:31

you believe in like coincidence, religion,

17:33

spiritual, whatever it is, what

17:36

happened that day was so amazing

17:39

because Susan did not want to go to

17:41

the store. John made Susan

17:43

go with him. And when

17:45

they left, Susan thought this was weird and

17:47

John was like, eh, it's

17:49

fine. Susan made John turn around. You know,

17:52

so all of this comes together that they

17:54

were in the right spot at the right

17:56

time to save this little girl's

17:58

life. What does

18:00

your investigation reveal about

18:02

Joseph and his lifestyle, etc.? So

18:07

Joseph's vehicle was transported back to

18:09

the police station for us to

18:11

go through it. I went through

18:13

his car personally and

18:15

everything you can imagine that a

18:17

kidnapper would need. He was

18:19

so prepared. There were

18:22

condoms, there were these pre-made

18:24

handcuff zip ties attached to

18:26

the passenger floorboard, like where

18:28

you would move your seat

18:30

back and forth. So I imagine if Joseph would

18:32

have gotten Nicole in the car, he would have

18:34

zip tied her hands, and then there was a

18:36

blanket in the passenger floorboard. He just would have

18:38

thrown this blanket over her to conceal her from

18:40

view. There was duct tape

18:42

on the handles inside the

18:44

vehicle, so you couldn't access the door

18:47

handles. There were knives

18:49

in the trunk. There were garbage

18:51

bags, hand sanitizing wipes, a

18:53

gas can. And then this horrifying

18:56

goat skeleton mask. And

18:59

it had huge horns, like what you would get

19:01

from a Halloween store and you would wear to

19:04

scare people. It was super creepy. It

19:06

sounds like pagan symbology. It's

19:09

a satanic symbol. You know, when

19:11

we did our live episode at CrimeCon last

19:13

summer, I talked about Mitch Bacon. Bacon had

19:15

a tattoo of the same thing. I

19:17

totally picture it. And I think that's

19:19

also the Mitch Bacon thing was in

19:21

my mind, because I know that Paul

19:23

has talked about the imagery that gets

19:25

associated with some of these offenders and

19:27

what they're into. And when Jamie

19:30

said the goat mask, I was like, I

19:32

think I can picture this. It's

19:34

super creepy. But it's informative.

19:36

You know, when I think about this, why is he

19:39

putting the mask on? Joseph is

19:41

now wanting to become this

19:43

creature as he's committing

19:45

this evil act on this little girl.

19:48

You know, so this is how

19:50

in many ways how Joseph is

19:52

identifying internally and that this creature

19:54

is something that he's seeing about

19:56

himself. And he was about

19:58

to commit, you know, all sorts. of

20:00

horrifying sexual acts, possibly

20:02

torture, and Joseph is

20:05

purposely wanting to inflict fear into this

20:07

victim. There is a sadistic aspect, but

20:09

this is also part of his fantasy.

20:11

Yes, absolutely. So pulling all this stuff

20:13

out of the car, it's very surreal

20:15

for me. I've never had a case

20:17

like this before, you know, this or

20:19

the stuff that you hear about, you

20:22

hear on podcasts, you know? But I

20:24

was like pulling all this stuff out of the car. I was like, holy

20:26

shit, like this was bad. This

20:28

could have been so, so, so bad. So

20:31

the next day we find out where Joseph

20:33

is from, about three hours south of us

20:35

is where Joseph lives with his mother, Tina.

20:38

Another detective and I, we

20:40

drive down to Joseph's location.

20:43

Fun fact on my three hour

20:45

drive, any guesses on what I listened to? Probably

20:48

Spice Girls or something. Taylor

20:50

Swift? No, no, people. You're

20:53

so humble. No, I listened to Monster, part one

20:55

and part two. That episode is

20:57

from season two. You went way back. I

21:00

did, I was like, let's listen to this

21:02

episode because it's like very similar.

21:04

This is exactly what was gonna happen

21:06

to my case. And it

21:08

was kind of just a little, it was

21:11

pep. I needed some like motivation. We appreciate

21:13

that. We sure do. So

21:15

Jamie, now you're in the town that Joseph

21:18

is from, where do you start

21:20

once you get there? So now

21:22

we're gonna go talk to family, friends,

21:25

employers, relationships, anybody who can

21:27

give us some background on

21:29

Joseph. From what we

21:31

learn from Tina is that Joseph

21:34

was a loner. He was very

21:36

socially awkward, very standoffish, kept to

21:38

himself. He didn't have any

21:40

friends. He spent a considerable

21:42

amount of time in his room

21:44

playing video games, searching

21:47

the internet for serial killers and

21:49

their victims. Like his Google search

21:51

history was just full of Wikipedia

21:53

from serial killers and then looking

21:55

up all of their victims later

21:58

from digital forensics. exploring the

22:00

dark web for child pornography.

22:03

Tina told me that Joseph battled with

22:06

depression, but he was able to maintain

22:08

a part-time job for a local parks

22:10

and recreation department. Again, they

22:13

put themselves around children, try

22:15

to be around children all the time. Tina

22:18

did not think Joseph was one to ever own

22:20

a gun. She didn't think he liked guns or

22:22

even knew how to use guns. And

22:24

she's never known him to have any sort

22:26

of romantic relationships ever. Did

22:28

anybody say, oh, yeah, he was always

22:30

a weirdo? You know how people sometimes

22:32

say either we never suspected he was

22:34

just plain Joe, or they go, yeah,

22:37

if it was ever going to be anyone in this neighborhood, it's going

22:39

to be that guy. The descriptions like

22:41

loner, outcast, awkward, depressed, plays in

22:44

his room on video games, zero

22:46

friends. To me, those are all

22:48

red flags. Like if you told me

22:50

he did it, I believe you. But I think

22:53

in his family, in his circle, I don't think

22:55

they were thinking much that direction. They just thought

22:57

he was a loner and just socially awkward. And

23:00

Joseph had no criminal history either. How

23:03

is Tina holding up knowing that her son

23:05

had executed himself a day

23:07

prior? She was definitely in shock.

23:10

And I was trying to take it very,

23:12

very gently with her because I also wanted

23:15

to search Joseph's bedroom. And

23:17

so I didn't want to scare her

23:19

or freak her out. It was a

23:21

very sensitive subject because she seemed like

23:23

a very nice lady. And

23:26

her son just died. And I spared her

23:28

a lot of details about what was in

23:30

his car and what he did. Why did

23:32

you do that? I felt

23:35

like for her, she needed to hold on

23:37

to the good memories she had. Her husband

23:39

had died. So Joseph's dad died a few

23:41

years prior after a long battle

23:44

of some medical issues. And so I think

23:46

that's where Joseph started declining. That's what Tina

23:48

said in her mind. I don't

23:50

know. She just seemed really nice. And I just felt

23:52

bad for her, honestly. This was a horrible situation. And

23:55

she was so, so thankful

23:57

that he didn't take Nicole. She acted.

23:59

about Nicole and was like, is that

24:01

little girl okay? And she

24:03

showed a lot of sympathy. So I

24:06

know she wasn't okay with anything that

24:08

Joseph did, but she was very torn

24:10

because her son just died and

24:12

killed himself. And she has no idea what just

24:14

happened. When you asked for

24:17

consent to search Joseph's room, what was

24:19

her immediate reaction? She was fine

24:21

with it. And what did you find? Not

24:24

a lot was in his bedroom. He had

24:26

a computer and desktop in there, but

24:28

we learned that he had pulled the

24:30

SATA hard drives from his computer and

24:32

those were no longer in the computer.

24:35

So he took the memory chip

24:38

basically. Yeah, like the hard drive

24:40

that would contain all of the naughty

24:42

things he was doing on there. Did

24:45

Joseph's mom, Tina, have free access to his

24:47

room? She never went in there. But

24:49

she physically could, right? Yeah, yeah,

24:51

she could have, but she just left him alone.

24:54

What did Joseph's room look like? It

24:56

was fairly clean. It looked like someone spent a

24:58

lot of time in there, but it definitely looked

25:01

like he had cleaned up. And

25:03

when was the last time Tina had seen Joseph? So

25:05

it had been about four days since she last

25:08

saw him. Joseph told Tina that

25:10

he was gonna go rent a cabin at

25:12

the coast, complete opposite direction of where

25:14

my agency is. But her

25:16

understanding was he was gonna go rent a cabin

25:18

for a couple of days and just get away

25:20

and relax. And he was into photography. And

25:23

so that's what she thought he was doing this whole time.

25:26

So that day I'm down in

25:28

this city. During that day, Detective

25:30

Robert, our forensic analyst, was going

25:32

through Joseph's cell phone.

25:35

And so he was able

25:37

to identify a very remote

25:39

cabin that Joseph had

25:42

rented for the past week in

25:45

a very remote area about 45 minutes south

25:47

of my agency and

25:49

where this crime occurred. I

25:51

remember the description of this cabin

25:54

was like, no wifi service, perfect

25:56

for solitude, remote area, no neighbors.

25:59

And so, you know, you're starting to like pick up on, oh my

26:02

God. That's the thing is if you drive

26:04

45 minutes south of our

26:06

city, you are in the middle of

26:08

forest. Truly. This

26:11

is seclusion deep in the woods, right?

26:14

No cell service. I lost cell service when we

26:16

were on the way there. Like it was the

26:18

boondocks, really. So obviously there's

26:20

a huge concern. What we've talked about

26:23

previously that what if there is a

26:25

another girl there? What if there's another

26:27

victim in a cage locked up in

26:29

the basement? What if there's a

26:31

second bad guy? Like what if Joseph had a partner?

26:34

Who knows what's going on? So we obviously

26:36

need to get down to this cabin. Sooner

26:48

or later you'll need to upgrade your

26:50

tech, but you don't have to pay

26:53

full price. We're Back Market, a leading

26:55

online marketplace for refurbished smartphones, laptops, tablets,

26:57

and other tech, all up to 70% less

27:00

than brand new. Each device sold on Back

27:02

Market is tested and restored to perfect working

27:04

condition by industry experts. And they all come

27:07

with a one year warranty and 30 days

27:09

to change your mind. So never pay full

27:11

price for tech again. Visit the

27:13

Back Market app or backmarket.com to save

27:15

up to 70% on your next device.

27:24

Detective Dave from small town Dix here. Let

27:27

me share a personal experience that solidified

27:29

my trust in Simply Safe, the home

27:31

security system I rely on. One

27:34

night I received an alert on my phone from

27:36

Simply Safe. It was a motion

27:38

detection notification for my own home. Thanks

27:41

to Simply Safe's real time alerts, I was

27:43

able to quickly access the live camera feed

27:45

and confirm that it was just a false

27:47

alarm caused by a curious raccoon. The

27:49

peace of mind I felt knowing that my home was

27:51

safe and secure, even when I was

27:53

miles away across town was priceless. Simply

27:56

Safe is advanced home security that puts

27:58

you first. SimpliSafe isn't

28:00

just a security system, it's a

28:03

guardian that watches over my home

28:05

and loved ones with precision and

28:07

reliability. With SimpliSafe, I have peace

28:09

of mind knowing that my home is protected 24-7.

28:13

The easy-to-use system is customizable to fit

28:15

my needs, and the professional monitoring service

28:17

is always there to alert me of

28:20

any potential threats. Whether I'm

28:22

at home or away, SimpliSafe gives me confidence

28:24

that my loved ones and belongings are secure.

28:27

The wireless design and DIY installation make it

28:29

simple to set up and operate. If

28:32

you're looking for a home security solution that

28:34

goes above and beyond, trust

28:36

SimpliSafe. Don't compromise on

28:38

safety. Choose SimpliSafe and experience the

28:40

protection you deserve. Trust

28:42

me, as a detective who's seen it

28:44

all, SimpliSafe is the real deal. Try

28:47

it today and enjoy the peace

28:49

of mind that comes with top-notch home security.

28:52

Right now, get 20% off

28:54

any new SimpliSafe

28:56

system with fast

28:58

protect monitoring at

29:00

simplisafe.com/smalltown. That's

29:03

simplisafe.com/smalltown. There's

29:06

no safe like SimpliSafe. Hey,

29:14

Small Town Fam. It's Yardley. How are you

29:16

guys? Is it hot where you are? It's

29:18

getting really hot where I am. And if

29:21

the summer heat has you worrying about the

29:23

strength of your deodorant, let me introduce you

29:25

to Lume. It's a

29:27

whole-body deodorant, and they're not kidding. It's formulated

29:29

for all the places that get a little

29:31

stinky. So for your pits

29:33

and your bits and your feet and

29:36

your pits. I like the

29:38

Lume Cream deodorant. I never thought I'd use

29:40

a cream deodorant because, you know, they're gloppy

29:42

and sloppy. But this one is lovely. So

29:46

even if this summer has you feeling like

29:48

you're living on the sun, you don't need

29:50

to worry because Lume has you covered with

29:53

up to 72 hours of odor control. So

29:56

make this your freshest summer

29:58

ever. Lume's starter pack. perfect

30:00

for new customers like you.

30:02

It comes with a

30:04

solid stick deodorant, cream tube deodorant,

30:06

and two free products of your

30:08

choice like a mini body wash

30:10

or deodorant wipes, and also free

30:12

shipping. And as a special offer

30:15

for our listeners, new customers get

30:17

15% off all

30:19

Lume products with our exclusive code.

30:22

So if you combine the 15%

30:25

off with the already discounted starter

30:27

pack, you know what that equals?

30:29

Over 40% off their

30:31

starter pack. So use code SMALLTOWN

30:34

for 15% off your

30:37

first purchase at

30:39

lumedeodorant.com. That's

30:41

code SMALLTOWN at L-U-M-E

30:45

deodorant.com. Do it.

31:00

So we located this cabin on a

31:02

very large piece of property, but after

31:04

searching the whole property, we didn't find

31:06

any additional victims. There were no other

31:08

people there. There was no second bad

31:10

guy. It was just an empty cabin.

31:12

Was there any evidence that Joseph had

31:14

even been inside this cabin? Yes. So

31:17

Joseph had been in that cabin for about four

31:19

days prior to trying to

31:21

kidnap Nicole. He had just been

31:23

hanging out there. There were receipts

31:25

of food. He had food everywhere.

31:27

But what was in this cabin

31:30

was the stuff of nightmares. Just

31:33

picturing what was in his car and

31:35

then thinking about this cabin is like

31:37

times 20. It was a one-bedroom cabin

31:40

with like a loft area too. So there

31:42

were two beds, one's up in the loft

31:44

where he was clearly sleeping, and then there

31:46

was a second bed down on the first

31:49

floor. The mattress had been moved

31:51

into the bathroom, which was really weird. I don't know

31:53

why this mattress was in the bathroom because it was

31:55

just standing up on its side. It's not like you

31:57

could lay the mattress down and have someone lay on

31:59

it. I don't know what it was doing in there.

32:01

So we pulled it out and

32:03

I'll spare you the details of everything

32:06

that was found inside the bathroom. But

32:08

it was clear that that's where Joseph

32:10

was going to spend the majority of

32:12

his time with his victim. There are

32:14

more condoms, sex toys of like all

32:16

sizes, weird BDSM

32:19

type objects like a ball

32:21

gag. There was like

32:23

this homemade strangle device, more

32:25

duct tape. There were more

32:27

of those pre-made handcuffs, zip ties.

32:30

And then behind the toilet there was a camera

32:33

which was attached to the tripod

32:36

in the bathroom. The window sill

32:38

had like rope pliers, an

32:40

electric shaver, trauma

32:42

shears. And then in the

32:45

bathtub itself was a sleeping bag, a tarp,

32:47

and a pillow. So

32:49

we're just going through this, obviously picturing

32:51

like what was in store for the little

32:54

girl that got brought here, whoever she was

32:56

going to be. It was

32:58

terrifying, but it also felt kind of fake

33:00

at the same time. Like in my mind,

33:02

I'm like, I've just never seen anything like

33:04

this. This is just something that I feel

33:06

like I would, I would

33:09

see on TV. Like this is just so nuts to

33:11

me. Quick question. Joseph

33:13

has been at this cabin for

33:15

four days. Were you able to

33:17

find out how long he had this cabin

33:19

rented for? I think it was like a week.

33:22

So plan on a few days

33:24

of torture, terrible things were going

33:26

to happen to this little girl. And

33:28

then I think we can

33:30

all assume what's going to happen after that.

33:33

That tarp probably has something to do with

33:35

it. You just see from the items that

33:37

Joseph had in his car. First, he set

33:39

the car up to be able to control

33:41

this victim, to hide to the victim being

33:44

shackled down low and being covered. But

33:46

then to have the knives,

33:49

garbage bags, disposal, possibly the

33:51

ability to start a fire with the gasoline,

33:53

you know, this is to either light the

33:56

car on fire or to help get rid

33:58

of the body. extrapolate

34:00

that to the cabin and all

34:02

the items that are there. Joseph

34:05

has rented this cabin for a week. There's

34:08

more there than

34:11

what is needed for just one little

34:13

girl as a victim. To

34:15

me, it sounds like he may have

34:17

been going to go on a series

34:20

and for whatever reason he didn't get

34:22

a victim for the first four days. Chayby,

34:25

are you able to place any

34:28

movement after he's at

34:30

the cabin? Is he driving around

34:32

to different towns? Because

34:34

it almost sounds like he could be

34:36

out there trolling for victims and just

34:39

never got the right opportunity until he

34:41

ran across Nicole. Absolutely. So

34:43

we were able to build a timeline of

34:45

what Joseph has been doing. And

34:47

so it was about three months prior

34:50

to this whole incident taking place that

34:52

he starts searching for

34:54

Airbnb's in various cities. And

34:56

it's about one month prior

34:58

to when the crime occurred

35:01

that he finally locked down on a city and

35:03

he locked down on this cabin, this remote cabin.

35:06

So Joseph booked and paid for

35:08

this cabin for seven days. He

35:11

started Google searching gun laws in

35:13

my state and the fingerprinting process

35:15

because the very next day after

35:17

those Google searches, he went and

35:19

bought a handgun. About

35:22

a week after he bought the handgun

35:24

is when he checks into this Airbnb

35:26

cabin. And then we start

35:28

seeing payment history for movies. He

35:30

went to the movie theater and he was

35:32

buying pizza. So he was just hanging out

35:35

in this area. He's got notes

35:37

in his phone. One note

35:40

was documenting apparent times and

35:42

locations. So I think

35:45

they were bus schedule drop offs because

35:47

they would say things like 1533,

35:50

this intersection. You think those were

35:52

city buses that he was keeping

35:54

schedules on? They were school buses.

35:57

Creepy. He's just in preparation.

35:59

I think he's building up to what he's

36:01

about to do with Nicole. He's

36:04

on the hunt, he's looking around, but he's also

36:06

planning it. Also found

36:08

on Joseph's camera roll were like

36:10

he was taking photos of unsuspecting

36:12

children for like months, just kids

36:14

walking down the street and Joseph

36:16

would just take a photo of

36:19

them. There was also

36:21

another note in his phone titled

36:23

schedule that seemed to detail what

36:25

Joseph planned on doing once he

36:27

successfully abducted a victim. And

36:29

then the most disturbing part, I

36:32

mean, obviously there were some like sexual things that

36:34

he was gonna do that were horrendous to even

36:36

read. But the most disturbing

36:38

was he included mind games.

36:40

Like he was going to fake a

36:42

car ride and then he was

36:45

going to pretend to leave. Like he's

36:47

mentally trying to play with this little

36:49

girl and scare her. I

36:52

think there were at least two days full of schedule.

36:54

So he was planning for at least two days with

36:57

this girl. So what

36:59

Joseph had done from when he woke

37:01

up to when he attempted to abduct

37:03

Nicole, Joseph was watching several rape

37:06

videos like on his cell phone,

37:08

probably coming from the dark web. And

37:12

then based on his timeline and

37:14

then cameras in the neighborhood, about

37:16

half an hour before the attempted

37:18

abduction, Joseph's vehicle can be seen

37:20

driving around this area. Joseph

37:23

can be seen directly behind a school

37:25

bus in this general vicinity. About

37:27

a half hour later is when

37:29

Joseph attempted to abduct Nicole. The

37:32

fact that Joseph is doing this

37:34

in broad daylight is really bold

37:36

and it gives you some insight

37:38

into where this guy's mind was, how bad this

37:40

would have been. What scares me the

37:43

most thinking about it is that Nicole was on

37:45

her way to a friend's house. Her mom thought

37:47

she was gonna go play with her friend for

37:49

probably a couple hours. And

37:51

so when Nicole gets there, her friend's not

37:53

there and she starts walking home, if Joseph

37:55

had been successful, police would have been behind

37:58

the ball by several, several hours. because

38:00

I bet by the time mom thinks to figure

38:02

out where her daughter is, it's

38:04

been a couple hours, then they're gonna go probably

38:07

do this little search party within the family, then

38:09

they're gonna call police, and now police have to

38:11

figure out, you know, hopefully we

38:14

would go check that person's camera about

38:16

what happened. But then, okay,

38:18

even if we get this camera footage

38:20

of this successful abduction, you don't have a

38:22

vehicle plate, you have a description, but

38:25

Joseph is not from the area. So where

38:27

would we have even started? You know what

38:29

I mean? We would have been hours behind,

38:32

no suspect information, and who knows how far

38:34

away he could have gone. He probably could

38:36

have gone out of the state by then.

38:38

You got a bolo and an amber alert

38:41

with a vehicle description and a little girl's

38:43

description and maybe a clothing description on Joseph.

38:45

Right. A two to three hour head start

38:47

in a vehicle? Jamie's right. Going north or

38:50

south, Joseph could be at a state line

38:52

within three and a half hours. Any amount

38:54

of time that Joseph had a jump on

38:57

law enforcement would have been devastating, especially because

38:59

I think he was gonna take Nicole to

39:01

that cabin he had set up like a

39:03

torture chamber. And the reality

39:06

is with stranger child abductions, you've

39:08

got an hour after

39:10

that child is abducted because typically the

39:12

kids are killed within that hour. So

39:14

by the time law enforcement is even

39:17

notified, Nicole would have been dead. And

39:19

now you're looking for a body. Oh,

39:22

yeah. Very, very scary. So

39:25

after this happened, we sent out a

39:27

release to all law enforcement agencies in

39:30

the state or at least the states

39:33

in our area talking about, hey, this

39:35

attempted abduction just happened. Here's the vehicle

39:37

license plate. Here's the suspect. All of

39:39

his name, his description age, all of

39:41

that. Do you have any similar cases?

39:44

Do you have anything that we should

39:46

know about or that we can help

39:48

you solve? Basically, are there any other

39:50

cases out there? So that's when I

39:52

get contacted by our state's FBI office.

39:54

One of their higher ups is like,

39:56

hey, I'm in charge of these missing

39:58

children abduction type cases. and we

40:00

want to talk to you about your case. A-CAS

40:13

powers the world's best podcast.

40:16

Here's the show that we recommend. Hey,

40:20

everyone, Marcus and Luke here from

40:22

the Football Ramboll. And great news,

40:24

the Euros are finally here. And

40:26

the Football Ramboll is the best

40:28

place to live and breathe it

40:30

all. Every group stage upset. Every

40:33

Penenko. Every Roy Keane glare. You

40:35

do your job. Every inflatable unicorn.

40:37

And every England heartbreak. We'll be

40:39

there. Because we've got Euros fever.

40:42

The Football Ramboll is your ultimate

40:44

companion for the summer. Join the

40:46

original football podcast every single day

40:48

throughout the tournament. Search Football Ramboll

40:50

and hit subscribe. Celebrations.

40:54

This is slightly over the top. A-CAS

40:58

helps creators launch, grow and

41:01

monetize their podcast everywhere.

41:03

a-cas.com. It

41:17

must be a big deal when the FBI reaches out

41:20

and says, hey, we want to talk to you about

41:22

your case. Yeah, I

41:24

was like, I'm so excited. Yes, like

41:26

let's talk to the FBI. We did

41:29

this huge conference call with members of

41:31

our local FBI office and in the

41:33

behavior analysis unit, which I was

41:35

just starstruck. And they read

41:37

all my reports. I

41:40

felt like I was initiated into the FBI for

41:42

a minute. They

41:44

started talking to me all about the

41:46

pathways to targeted violence of violent

41:48

offenders, you know, school shooters or mass shooters

41:50

and how they kind of like child sex

41:53

predators. Like they're not creative. They all just

41:55

kind of fit in a box. They're all

41:57

relatively the same. And so

41:59

they're. talking to me about all these phases of

42:02

these pathways to violence and

42:04

how Joseph was checking every

42:07

single box, such as

42:09

this ideation where he's getting this fantasy

42:11

and he's starting to want to do

42:13

this, the research and planning.

42:15

And he started buying all of these objects

42:18

on Amazon like a year prior. So a

42:20

lot of things we found in the cabin,

42:22

we were able to link back to his

42:24

Amazon account. So in the preparation

42:27

phase, they talk about how that's usually when

42:29

these offenders get this burst of energy. They're

42:32

super excited and they're happy. And

42:34

I was like, that's exactly how

42:36

Tina, Joseph's mother described him was

42:38

that he typically has this glassy look and he's

42:40

depressed and he hangs out in his room. But

42:42

like a week before he left, she's like, we

42:44

were cooking together. He came out of his room.

42:47

His eyes seemed brighter. He

42:49

was in a good mood because he knew what

42:51

he was about to go do. And

42:54

I'm just fascinated taking all of this information

42:56

in. And then they talk

42:58

about the breach, which is recon and

43:00

Joseph planning. And that's him going out

43:03

and scoping out all of these different

43:05

locations and the

43:07

timetables of these bus schedules. So

43:10

and then there are like 90% of these

43:12

offenders have suicidal ideation. So it was no

43:14

shock to them at all that

43:16

as soon as Joseph got caught and anchored

43:18

the vehicle, he killed himself. So it was

43:21

just very fascinating listening to them and talk

43:24

about getting this person's fingerprints and

43:26

blood into the system to see if there's any

43:28

other cases out there that we

43:30

could possibly solve. Joseph lived in

43:32

a couple of different states. He had gone

43:34

on like some road trips previously. You know,

43:36

the FBI said that they're going to help

43:38

me like look into these things and put

43:40

him in their national database. So

43:43

blood and fingerprints were collected at

43:46

Joseph's autopsy and submitted to CODIS.

43:49

I know of at least one agency that

43:51

reached out to me in our state that

43:53

said, hey, this big bushy haired guy broke

43:55

into a house and sexually abused

43:58

a child that was sleeping in her bed. do

44:00

you have the blood and fingerprints because we want to

44:02

test it against our case because we have evidence in

44:05

that case. And so I only have like one agency

44:07

where I know that they've reached out. But

44:09

we have submitted all of that stuff into

44:11

our state lab. And as far

44:14

as I know, based on all of like

44:16

the digital analysis, everything that the FBI did

44:18

for us, at least as

44:20

of now, we haven't found additional victims.

44:23

I'm hoping that because based off all

44:25

of his preparation and his manuscript, I

44:27

think this was Joseph's first time. I

44:30

think at least I'm hoping it was his first attempt

44:32

and he just failed. It's just

44:35

all much too close for comfort.

44:40

Jamie, what became of John and

44:42

Susan? So John and Susan

44:44

were honestly the true heroes of this

44:46

case. I feel like it's every police

44:48

officer's dream to save someone's life. That's

44:50

why we get into this line of

44:52

work. We want to help people. We

44:54

want to save people. Like

44:56

Dave has talked about before, we

44:58

are more reactive than proactive. And

45:00

for this to happen in front

45:02

of these random citizens just

45:05

happened to be on their way to the store. And

45:07

they decide to intervene and chase down

45:10

this person truly saved this

45:12

girl's life. I mean, we all know

45:14

what was in store for her, even

45:16

if she doesn't. But our department recognized

45:19

John and Susan for their actions and

45:21

how they averted a huge tragedy and

45:23

basically changed this girl's life forever. So

45:26

John and Susan were presented with a letter

45:28

of commendation from our small town, who will

45:31

just forever be grateful to them. John

45:33

and Susan were also nominated

45:36

and selected to receive our

45:38

state's Distinguished Citizen Award at

45:40

the annual Peace Officers Association

45:42

Awards Banquet. So this is

45:44

statewide now. This happened

45:46

just a couple of weeks ago. I went

45:48

to the award banquet to represent my department

45:50

and support John and Susan. It

45:53

was incredible. So so many police

45:55

officers in our state got awards

45:57

for being involved in mass shootings

45:59

or they're investigation or whatever. And

46:02

you know, everyone cheers and claps and they give a

46:04

summary of what they did. So when

46:06

this Distinguished Citizen Award is ready to

46:09

be presented, they give a summary of

46:11

this entire case. John and

46:13

Susan went up to collect their award and

46:15

there was a standing ovation. I

46:18

got goosebumps. I started tearing up because

46:20

it was so amazing,

46:22

so well-deserved. Everyone in this

46:24

huge room recognized and understood

46:27

what they did and

46:29

how this saved Nicole's life.

46:32

It was incredible to watch. That's amazing. I

46:34

love that. Yeah. I got the

46:36

goosebumps when you said it. Chicken skin. Good

46:38

God, I hate when you say that. I

46:42

got a little percolempt myself, so. It

46:45

was fantastic. You know, they're talking about

46:48

officers like in these shootings or these

46:50

pursuits, you know, they're giving all

46:52

of these awards and

46:54

everyone's like, yeah, that's cool. And then John

46:57

and Susan get their award and everyone

46:59

just stands up. Just the loudest clapping,

47:01

the loudest applause. Really happy to be

47:03

there. Yeah, that's fantastic. I believe it

47:05

goes back to what Dave was saying

47:07

and what you were saying to Jamie

47:09

about a number of things had to

47:11

come together in order for John and

47:13

Susan to be at the right place

47:15

at the right time. Susan

47:17

didn't want to go to the store. John makes

47:20

her go. John doesn't want to follow the car.

47:22

Susan says we must. And to

47:24

Dave's point about how I think a

47:26

lot of us these days feel like

47:28

should I get involved? What if I'm

47:30

wrong and the person I'm getting involved

47:32

with is furious at me? Do I

47:35

want to handle that? That sort of

47:37

thing. So the fact that they had

47:39

this instinct and just followed it is

47:41

pretty remarkable, I think. And fuck, yeah,

47:43

go guys. That was amazing. I

47:46

think as a police officer, probably why

47:48

John and Susan got such a great

47:50

reception at this awards banquet is because

47:53

us as police officers, we're

47:55

just not used to seeing regular

47:57

citizens intervene. When you have somebody

47:59

who genuinely. and it saves a

48:02

little girl's life in this situation,

48:04

Nicole, that is remarkable to

48:06

us because we're not used to it. Sure,

48:09

I think you're absolutely right. And they could have

48:11

easily just called 911 and stayed with

48:13

the little girl, and they would have

48:15

done the right thing, but... It would have sat on

48:17

the call screen as a suspicious conditions call until

48:20

the next officer was available to go

48:22

do an area check. Or

48:25

until Joseph actually abducts another

48:27

victim successfully, and then it's

48:29

far worse. I'm

48:31

curious, Jamie, how as a

48:34

woman investigating sex crimes and

48:36

child abuse, when women are

48:38

often the victims, where

48:40

does all of that live inside of you?

48:42

I mean, it's a little daunting, you know,

48:44

going out at night, dating, putting

48:47

yourself in vulnerable positions, because I hear all

48:49

of these stories about these women going out

48:51

with their friends on a Friday night, and

48:53

I'm like, I do that. And

48:55

something really bad happens to them. At

48:58

what point could that have been me, you know?

49:01

I see myself in a lot of these

49:03

situations that these women are in, and

49:05

it's almost just like, okay, if it happens, when

49:08

it happens, which is kind of a scary thought,

49:10

because it's just so prevalent. I

49:13

feel very jaded. I feel like everyone out

49:15

there is a sex offender. Would you say

49:17

that since you became a police

49:20

officer, and particularly a detective,

49:22

have your friends said you've

49:24

changed? Have they said, like, you

49:26

didn't used to be that way, you used to

49:28

be more carefree? Yes. I think

49:31

I've noticed it myself, and I pointed out,

49:33

but, you know, even my sister, we're really

49:35

close, will be in a

49:37

situation, and I just automatically think the worst of

49:39

it. And she's like,

49:41

wow, like, I wouldn't have thought

49:43

about that. You're thinking, like, criminals

49:46

and bad people everywhere. But yeah,

49:48

I feel like I've lost some

49:50

of that, like, fun personality, that

49:52

carefree, glass-half-full, optimistic part of myself.

49:55

Maybe it'll come back soon. That's such

49:58

an interesting case, and what I... like about

50:00

it is, first of all, that Nicole is

50:02

safe. And hats off to

50:04

John and Susan. We need more citizens like

50:06

that. But it goes back

50:08

to my question of, if your

50:10

suspect is deceased, how much of an investigation

50:13

is there? And really glad

50:16

and impressed that you just go to the

50:18

mat anyway, because you find out

50:20

all this information about

50:22

this person, which obviously will

50:25

inform other investigations going forward,

50:27

even though Joseph ends

50:29

up having shot himself in the head.

50:33

I just think you can't overstate crossing

50:35

the T's and dot in the I's

50:37

in your line of work in particular.

50:39

So thank you. Thank you. Nice work,

50:42

Jamie. I'm proud of you. Yeah, good job.

50:44

Jamie, absolutely fascinating case. Thank you. Yeah,

50:46

it was great. Thank you. Thanks so

50:49

much for having me. Hey,

50:59

small town fam. So for

51:01

those of you keeping track, you've

51:03

probably figured out that this is

51:05

the last episode of season 14.

51:08

I know. But hey, I have

51:11

a big surprise for you. Instead

51:13

of taking the summer off like

51:15

we usually do to regroup and

51:17

record new episodes, this

51:19

summer, we have something really

51:22

special, really fantastic for you.

51:25

It's called Beyond Recognition, and it's coming

51:27

to the small town Dick's feed on

51:29

July 19. Here's

51:32

a preview. Logan, Soren, hit

51:34

the play button. It's

51:41

a serene September morning in 1935, about

51:45

two miles north of the Scottish

51:48

farming village of Moffat, an

51:51

area known as the Devil's

51:53

Beef Tub. It's

51:55

a beautiful area, despite the name, an

51:57

isolated region of deep ravine.

52:00

rolling green hills and

52:02

massive chunks of rock that punch out

52:05

from the earth like gnarled

52:07

stone fists. The

52:09

River Annan winds through it all,

52:12

flowing out to the sea. It's

52:15

a lonely striking place that

52:17

attracts hikers and nature lovers

52:19

from around the United Kingdom.

52:22

People like 24 year old Susan

52:24

Johnson and her 19 year

52:27

old brother Alfred. Susan

52:29

and Alfred are tourists from the

52:31

Glasgow area just out for a

52:33

morning stroll on a lovely fall

52:36

day. Birds are

52:38

chirping, the skies are blue.

52:41

Then crossing an old

52:43

stone bridge, Susan

52:45

and Alfred stumble upon a brutal

52:48

scene so dark and out of

52:50

place it's hard for them

52:52

to make sense of what

52:54

they're actually seeing. They'd

52:56

gone there on a fishing holiday and

52:59

had been out walking. That's

53:02

Susan's niece, Sheila Livingstone.

53:05

Alfred was her father. But apparently

53:07

Susie had looked over the

53:10

bridge and seen

53:12

what she thought was a woman's

53:14

hand and father had

53:16

scrambled her down into the ravine

53:19

and he had unwrapped one of

53:21

the parcels and seen

53:23

a face looking

53:26

up at him. Except that

53:28

it's not actually a face, not

53:31

anymore. The skin has

53:33

been completely removed so

53:36

have the eyes, the nose, the

53:38

lips, the ears and teeth.

53:41

They've all been cut away. It's

53:43

absolutely unimaginable. Alfred

53:46

stares down in shock at this thing,

53:50

this adult head

53:52

wrapped in a child's onesie.

53:55

Aunt Susie was a very

53:57

talented fisherman and father. was

54:00

a great shot. They slayed

54:02

everything that moved and ate it,

54:05

so that they were quite used to

54:07

things gruesome. But I

54:09

can assure you, they weren't used to

54:11

anything like this. The

54:15

choking stench of decomposition drifts up to

54:17

Susan on the bridge as

54:20

she looks down at her brother. Alfred

54:22

stands up and turns away from the

54:25

rotting head. He gazes

54:27

downstream, hoping his stomach will

54:29

settle. It's not

54:31

going to. What

54:34

he sees are more packages strewn

54:37

about on the grassy banks, arms

54:40

and legs partially wrapped

54:42

in torn cloth and newspaper.

54:45

He notices hunks of something scattered

54:47

among the weeds. He's

54:49

not sure what it is, but the

54:52

flies and maggots have already figured it out.

54:55

Human flesh. The

54:59

Odd Recognition is a new limited series

55:01

coming to the Small Town Dicks podcast

55:03

feed on July 19th. Don't

55:05

miss it. Small

55:15

Town Dicks was created by detectives

55:17

Dan and Dave. The

55:20

podcast is produced by Jessica Halstead

55:22

and me, Yardley Smith. Our senior

55:24

editor is Soren Bajan, and

55:27

our editors are Christina Bracamontes

55:29

and Erin Phelps. Our

55:31

associate producers are The Real Nick Smitty

55:34

and Erin Gaynor. Gary Scott is our

55:36

executive producer and Logan Heftel

55:38

is our production manager. Our

55:41

books are cooked and cats wrangled by

55:43

Ben Cornwell. And our

55:45

social media maven is Monica Scott.

55:48

It would make our day if you

55:50

became a member of our Small Town

55:53

Fam by following us on Facebook, Instagram,

55:55

and YouTube at, at

55:57

Small Town Dicks. We love

55:59

you. hearing from you. Oh, our

56:03

groovy theme song was composed

56:05

by John Forrest. Also, if

56:08

you'd like to support the

56:10

making of this podcast, hop

56:12

on over to patreon.com/smalltowndickspodcast. There

56:15

for a small subscription fee,

56:17

you'll find exclusive content you

56:20

can't get anywhere else. The

56:22

transcripts of this podcast are thanks

56:25

to speech docs, and they can

56:27

be found on our website, smalltowndicks.com.

56:29

Thank you, speech docs, for this

56:32

wonderful service. Smalltown

56:34

Dicks is an Audio 99 production.

56:37

Smalltown fam, thanks for listening.

56:40

Nobody is better than you.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features