Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Previously on Murder on Songbird Road. I am Jade's great aunt.
Speaker 1: That's Brenda, the sister of Sheila Beasley, who is Mike's
Speaker 1: mother and Jade's paternal grandmother.
Speaker 2: My name is Bailey.
Speaker 1: Jade's father, Michael is my first cousin.
Speaker 3: When you first heard that it was Julie, was there
Speaker 3: part of your mind that was like, no way, or
Speaker 3: was there part of your mind where you're like that
Speaker 3: totally makes sense.
Speaker 1: My personal opinion is that sometimes people snap.
Speaker 4: We believe the jealousy came in, and we believe she snapped.
Speaker 1: A family member owns a pagan store in Salem.
Speaker 3: They believe in witchery, witchcraft.
Speaker 1: There ain't no good witch. That pagan relative of Julie's
Speaker 1: Brenda is referencing is actually her cousin NICKI.
Speaker 3: Me and my mom run a witchcraft shop.
Speaker 2: We are both practicing pagan's. I don't understand how it
Speaker 2: has anything to do with the trial.
Speaker 5: The people down there associate witchcraft with something evil, so
Speaker 5: they're trying to associate evil with Julie.
Speaker 1: On Lauren Brad Pacheco and this is murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: At the press conference announcing Jade Beasley's murder and Julia
Speaker 1: Beverly's arrest, former Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Zenatti claimed
Speaker 1: Beverly's claim of having encountered an armed assailant clad and
Speaker 1: all black was a fabrication.
Speaker 6: The suspect gave law enforcement an initial report that an
Speaker 6: unidentified male ran for the residence upon her arriving home.
Speaker 6: She said that she left the residence with Jade alone
Speaker 6: in the home for a short time and return home
Speaker 6: to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven
Speaker 6: the story to be false.
Speaker 1: In her nine one one call, Beverly is quite specific
Speaker 1: about what the intruder was wearing.
Speaker 3: Could you tell that color sphereed he was wearing?
Speaker 1: He was a little all black, okay? And how they exited.
Speaker 7: When that person left?
Speaker 1: Did they leave in a vehicle or on put But
Speaker 1: she was quite unsure where they took off running? Which
Speaker 1: way did they go?
Speaker 4: It ran out.
Speaker 1: Julia Beverly's nine one one call wasn't the only one
Speaker 1: of interest on the day of Jade's murder. We've been
Speaker 1: told of two other calls, one specifically mentioned by Renee
Speaker 1: in a previous episode, and this call was made at
Speaker 1: ten thirty for a.
Speaker 8: Suspicious person and no way, yes, this is at ten thirty.
Speaker 8: He was out there belligerent talking about harming somebody, cussing
Speaker 8: and carrying on, and somebody called the cops on him
Speaker 8: and then VYG Go respond and they pretty much got
Speaker 8: the name information sent him on his way. He's wearing
Speaker 8: a black hoodie and duck pants.
Speaker 1: For reasons we'll explain shortly. Renee High Tower and Julia
Speaker 1: Beverly supporters also believe there was another call, one made
Speaker 1: by a neighbor on Songbird Road. My efforts to trace
Speaker 1: this specific call began in January of twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: with Williamson County. However, after weeks of being redirected then
Speaker 1: ultimately ignored by the Record's Division of the Marian Police Department,
Speaker 1: my request finally landed on the desk of Marion City Attorney,
Speaker 1: who I'd like to acknowledge for her helpful, timely and
Speaker 1: professional responses. While the dispatch search she initiated didn't uncover
Speaker 1: the specific call, they explained that their audio files only
Speaker 1: go back eighteen months. They also expressed their belief that
Speaker 1: the call was made to Williamson County rather than the
Speaker 1: city of Marion. They did locate several CAD reports, however,
Speaker 1: which they forwarded. CAD stands for Computer Aided Dispatch, a
Speaker 1: system used by law enforcement agencies to document and manage
Speaker 1: calls for service. These reports provide a detailed timeline of events,
Speaker 1: including when an officer was dispatched, their arrival at the scene,
Speaker 1: and the specific actions they took. They also capture other
Speaker 1: key details and interactions that occurred during an incident. As
Speaker 1: Bob and I scrolled through the Williamson County CAD reports
Speaker 1: from December fifth, twenty twenty, something caught our attention, making
Speaker 1: them far more intriguing than we'd initially expected. And it
Speaker 1: looks like there were two calls there. The police were
Speaker 1: responding to Julie Beverly's call, but it looks like Marion
Speaker 1: police were already en route to a call about a
Speaker 1: male in all black you know, fifty yards on that
Speaker 1: Corey Leak, which is the back road adjacent to Julie's
Speaker 1: next door neighbor, and that very clearly describes a male.
Speaker 1: The first of the three reports lists, under the description
Speaker 1: of Beverly's call notations that Marion units, an ambulance and
Speaker 1: canine units are en route. Then there's this verbatim. Marian
Speaker 1: advised they saw a male wearing a black hoodie walking
Speaker 1: on Buckley about fifty yards westbound off Corey Leak. Julie
Speaker 1: wouldn't have said. She said she didn't know what direction
Speaker 1: he ran often so they're not getting this tip from her.
Speaker 1: But Marian advised they saw a male wearing a black
Speaker 1: hoodie walking on Buckley about fifty yards westbound off of
Speaker 1: Corey League. Julie described what the man was wearing, said
Speaker 1: that he took off on foot the nine to one
Speaker 1: one call very specifically, She's asked which direction did he
Speaker 1: head and she said ran out.
Speaker 3: Her story has always been like she comes into the house,
Speaker 3: she has the scrap with the dude, she goes in
Speaker 3: to go try to get the gun, So she would
Speaker 3: have had no idea which way this guy would have run.
Speaker 3: I mean, what I'm saying is to me, it's important
Speaker 3: if we can find out if in fact they had
Speaker 3: sent officers out to that area based on the other
Speaker 3: call saying a dude just ran through my backyard and
Speaker 3: all black.
Speaker 1: Renee High Tower first heard chatter regarding the existence of
Speaker 1: such a call from multiple sources, including the private investigator
Speaker 1: she hired after the murder.
Speaker 8: It's weird because like with my first investigator, he was
Speaker 8: telling on these things are going on the owns gun
Speaker 8: range and this is where all the marine officers were
Speaker 8: going to cheat, and.
Speaker 6: He's just listening.
Speaker 1: Here's that private investigator, Terry Newman.
Speaker 7: Renee hired me as an investigator to see if I
Speaker 7: could find anything that didn't seem right, and there was
Speaker 7: plenty of stuff that wasn't right. As I was digging around,
Speaker 7: I overheard a group of law enforcement talking about it.
Speaker 7: Of course, that was a thing, you know, that was
Speaker 7: a pretty big deal, a pretty gruesome deal. So there
Speaker 7: was a lot of talk. Maybe some of it was correct,
Speaker 7: maybe some of it wasn't. Maybe somebody was talking and
Speaker 7: just wanted to be that guy that knew more than
Speaker 7: the other guy.
Speaker 2: But I did.
Speaker 7: Overhear one of the officers state to another couple officers
Speaker 7: that we had a nine to one one call before
Speaker 7: that call. What struck me is this description of whoever
Speaker 7: called in. They looking for a person in a dark
Speaker 7: hoodie and dark pants could be sweatpants, could just be
Speaker 7: dark pants running through suspiciously running through backyards, which kind
Speaker 7: of was the description of what Julie gave of her attacker.
Speaker 7: So right away and I think I called Renee up
Speaker 7: and I said, hey, you need to get your attorney
Speaker 7: to subpoena all the nine one one calls in all
Speaker 7: the dispatch offices, you know.
Speaker 8: Wh I immediately tell Theen's second share there's supposed to
Speaker 8: be another call.
Speaker 1: The subpoena the ninem on one calls. It's not in
Speaker 1: the but Renee claims the call did come up again though,
Speaker 1: when she was seated with Julie's defense attorney Terestin, right
Speaker 1: before we were prepping for trial.
Speaker 8: I was in Theen's office talking to her and she
Speaker 8: mentioned she's going through the notes really quick, and she
Speaker 8: said something about another ninmal one call and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 8: what go back? I said, what do you mean another call,
Speaker 8: because you told me you didn't have another call before,
Speaker 8: and she said, well, it was rewire to a non
Speaker 8: emergency call. But this is a call where somebody said
Speaker 8: they've seen somebody running through the yard wearing a black
Speaker 8: hoodie and dark pants and a sche mask, mind you,
Speaker 8: So this is that call. And it was within minutes
Speaker 8: of Julie's yes.
Speaker 1: Another source regarding that elusive call comes from a woman
Speaker 1: named Billy Joe. She's a longtime acquaintance of Renee, who
Speaker 1: started assisting High Tower's efforts for Beverly after her own
Speaker 1: efforts to find her missing brother, one who struggled with
Speaker 1: addiction and homelessness, made her question the motivations and integrity
Speaker 1: of local law enforcement and the police.
Speaker 4: They weren't very cooperative right off the bat did not
Speaker 4: want nothing to do with helping find my brother because
Speaker 4: my brother was an addict. I have another sister that
Speaker 4: gets pulled over. They told her that we need to
Speaker 4: quit looking for my brother. He's a menace to society
Speaker 4: and he's in the bottom of a river. So I
Speaker 4: went to the mayor about it because they weren't very cooperative.
Speaker 1: Just to go back and revisit the initial comment that
Speaker 1: they didn't want to look for your brother because he
Speaker 1: was an addict. Having been to Mary and myself, addiction
Speaker 1: seems to be a pretty big problem.
Speaker 4: It is a very big problem here. Like I told
Speaker 4: you the other day, it's like a whole nother city
Speaker 4: at night here in Mary.
Speaker 1: This is of note because of the rumors Bob and
Speaker 1: I have heard from the start that Jade's murder was
Speaker 1: actually tied to drugs, in particular meth, because of the
Speaker 1: irrational brutality involved. We'll further explore this theory later. Back
Speaker 1: to Billy Joe, what drew you initially to Julie's case?
Speaker 4: Just dealing with the mary And Police Department over my
Speaker 4: brother missing. It questioned a lot of things and Julie's story.
Speaker 4: Knowing how small she is and talking to her, I
Speaker 4: just knew something wasn't that up and that was another
Speaker 4: res and I made sure I went and set through
Speaker 4: trial because I wanted to hear the facts.
Speaker 1: Billy Joe attended every day of the trial, which is
Speaker 1: why she knows that two specific names that appear on
Speaker 1: the CAD reports Bob and I were viewing also appeared
Speaker 1: on the prosecution's witness list. A man named Aaron Luton,
Speaker 1: who will get into in a bit, and another man
Speaker 1: named Kenny Marks, also known as Butch. Butch was living
Speaker 1: in the house next to Beverly's when the murder occurred.
Speaker 1: Billy Joe believes he made that second call because of
Speaker 1: something he told her sister's boyfriend. While the two men
Speaker 1: were driving to work.
Speaker 4: So my sister seventy dates a guy named Stephen and
Speaker 4: they worked at Reynolds's rouffine. I believe it's called It's
Speaker 4: Reynolds something. It's a construction They build buildings and things.
Speaker 4: And Stephen was taking him back and forth to work,
Speaker 4: and he started talking about it. He said there was
Speaker 4: a nine to one one call that there was a
Speaker 4: guy in a mask or a person in a mask
Speaker 4: running through the back yard at that time, and he
Speaker 4: made that call. He said, I made the nine to
Speaker 4: one one call.
Speaker 1: What's interesting is the placement of the backyard of the
Speaker 1: property on Songbird Road where Marx was living, in addition
Speaker 1: to being immediately next to Beverly's.
Speaker 2: Coreyley Roads the one behind side right.
Speaker 1: So if you run through the back of Kenny Marx
Speaker 1: as you end up on Corey Leek aerial views and
Speaker 1: a simple drive by show Butcher's backyard would have been
Speaker 1: a direct path to Corey Leek Road, complete with a
Speaker 1: heavily wooded area and multiple ponds on the way, which
Speaker 1: would have been convenient places to toss a weapon. Why
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have searched those little ponds for a murder
Speaker 1: weapon is beyond wing.
Speaker 2: To get Julie.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like there's nose for them
Speaker 3: not checking the ponds at all.
Speaker 1: But connecting with Butch to verify that call would quickly
Speaker 1: become another rabbit hole. I do have his cell phone number,
Speaker 1: which I got through an anonymous source. That source was
Speaker 1: able to communicate with him, but apparently he is rather
Speaker 1: reluctant to talk about this. We'll be right back with
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road. Now back to Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: We'd reached out to Butch multiple times and in multiple
Speaker 1: ways before attempting to do so in person. In August
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, I knocked on the door of
Speaker 1: the small, one floor home he shares with his sisters.
Speaker 1: It sits atop a five acre flat farmland property that's
Speaker 1: bordered at the back with a heavily wooded area. Climbing
Speaker 1: the two steps leading up to the petite concrete landing
Speaker 1: in the front door, I couldn't help but notice the
Speaker 1: no trespassing sign attached to the white siding with its
Speaker 1: pronounced firearms theme. It wasn't long before I was heading
Speaker 1: back to the car, so the woman answered the door
Speaker 1: first and I asked if she was living here in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and she said she was not, but her
Speaker 1: sister was. I explained that I was a journalist and
Speaker 1: I was looking into the very unfortunate story that unfolded
Speaker 1: next to her, and she went to get her sister.
Speaker 1: That sister was not exactly pleased to meet me or
Speaker 1: flattered by my compliments of the potted rose bush adorning
Speaker 1: her porch. Kenny was there, but she said that he
Speaker 1: was resting, sleeping, and so I inquired as to how
Speaker 1: he was doing in his health, and I left my
Speaker 1: number and my email and said that if it was
Speaker 1: easier for her to talk to me that way, I
Speaker 1: would love to hear from her. And so they grabbed,
Speaker 1: you know, went to grab kind of paper, and I
Speaker 1: left my information with her. Okay, butch never reached out.
Speaker 1: So in December of twenty twenty four, it was Bob
Speaker 1: Moda's turn, and he dressed for the occasion. Last time
Speaker 1: we were here, you looked more like disgruntled former detective,
Speaker 1: and now you look like weekend soccer dad.
Speaker 3: Hey, all right, good, I should have warned my Hey, dudes, well,
Speaker 3: I mean the vans really.
Speaker 1: Kind of the vest gives you a more affable paternal.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's better.
Speaker 3: When I was thinking about my outfit for the day,
Speaker 3: I was thinking about straight up hoodie.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like you want people to feel comfortable, right.
Speaker 1: Clothing choices have been an ongoing source of sarcastic camaraderie
Speaker 1: between us since our initial trip to Marion. When Bob
Speaker 1: shared this critique and you implied that I don't blend.
Speaker 3: I mean like a sword thumb you do, like you
Speaker 3: get that East Coast look to you, woman.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1: I still remain unsure as to how to process that.
Speaker 1: Now back to Bob outside of Butcher's house on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Butch is there and hopefully Butcher's willing to speak.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic, as like a kind of an overstatement.
Speaker 3: I'm pessimistic, but I feel like if we can get
Speaker 3: past the gatekeeper of a sister, that we can get
Speaker 3: them talking.
Speaker 2: We just need to get him.
Speaker 4: Too the door.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll wait in the car, bring this with me.
Speaker 1: If you gesture, maybe not.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, if I gesture, can you get out of
Speaker 3: the car, because I'll ask him if they'd be willing to,
Speaker 3: you know, have us record them.
Speaker 5: Oh he's going to the back door. I would go
Speaker 5: to the front.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Bob?
Speaker 5: Always just looking okay, yeah, I mean there don't not
Speaker 5: trespassed signs pretty much everywhere. Knocking the door doesn't seem
Speaker 5: to be an answer. It is just about noon, so
Speaker 5: people could still be heading back from church. Doors opening,
Speaker 5: all right, and it is the sister that I spoke to.
Speaker 5: Don't see if Bob's having any better luck.
Speaker 1: I didn't have to wait long for an answer. All right,
Speaker 1: Bob is coming back, and the sister was gesticulating a
Speaker 1: lot with her right hand, and I don't know if
Speaker 1: she was giving him directions or telling him where to go.
Speaker 1: I think we're about to find out she.
Speaker 2: Was telling me where to go.
Speaker 3: So I went up to the door, and we parked
Speaker 3: probably about fifty seventy five yards away from the property.
Speaker 3: Walk over there or hear a chainsaw going? I see
Speaker 3: that there's a gentleman in the back, probably about fifty
Speaker 3: yards back into their property with the chainsaw. It looks
Speaker 3: like he cut a tree down, and you know, I
Speaker 3: could see he's got the ear protection on. And I
Speaker 3: was initially going to walk up to him. So I
Speaker 3: walked probably about halfway down the driveway, thought better of it,
Speaker 3: thought maybe I'll go chuck.
Speaker 2: I don't want to surprise the guy.
Speaker 1: No, and then like Texas chainsaw massacre.
Speaker 3: Or he has a piece on him, who knows he's
Speaker 3: not going to hear me coming. He didn't see me
Speaker 3: because I kind of like waved my arms a little bit.
Speaker 2: He was pretty focused on what he was doing.
Speaker 3: So I went up to the house, ranging the doorbell,
Speaker 3: take a couple of stuffs back, as I always do.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be all up in somebody's grill.
Speaker 3: Thirty seconds later, an older gal. I don't know what
Speaker 3: she looked.
Speaker 1: Like when you tad, I recognize her immediately that I
Speaker 1: spoke to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so she was clearly surprised by my presence. I
Speaker 3: then introduced myself. I say his butcher. He says, well,
Speaker 3: that's him in the back saw on wood. She says,
Speaker 3: what do you want? I said, well, we're back again
Speaker 3: and we're investigating what happened over here with your neighbors.
Speaker 3: Like right away, she got very upset. You can see
Speaker 3: it in her face, you could hear it in her
Speaker 3: voice as well, she was agitated immediately. Well, she said,
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about that. It's not something
Speaker 3: that I'm wanting to talk about. I'm a very anxious person.
Speaker 3: That gets me upset. It just brings back bad memories.
Speaker 3: And I said, yeah, you know, I'm trying to be compassionate.
Speaker 3: I understand that, and I'm sure that's true for her.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, well, you know, do you think your
Speaker 3: brother will talk to me? And she says, probably not,
Speaker 3: it'll probably run you off. And I said, well, you know,
Speaker 3: we're really just trying to find out if this girl
Speaker 3: actually did it. And so she did it, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: what about this call that your brother made talking about
Speaker 3: somebody running through the backyard around the time that the
Speaker 3: homicides took place, which I didn't say I would have,
Speaker 3: but she was very I was trying to get as
Speaker 3: much in before I could tell she was going to
Speaker 3: shut the door.
Speaker 1: The exact response to that question was quote, I don't
Speaker 1: know who that was. But it's interesting that she said
Speaker 1: I don't know who that was, right, she doesn't know
Speaker 1: who made the call, or she doesn't know who was
Speaker 1: running through the backyard. But if you look at the
Speaker 1: trajectory and you're running through that, you're going to end
Speaker 1: up on Corey Lee Road.
Speaker 3: Which is the perfect route for somebody trying to get
Speaker 3: out that way, which is towards Marion, towards town.
Speaker 2: You know, that's the direction you're going to have.
Speaker 3: You know you're going to stay off the beaten path,
Speaker 3: especially if you're in the midst of trying to escape
Speaker 3: a murder scene.
Speaker 2: You know, would makes sense that that's the way that
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 3: Now you can see the little from our vantage point,
Speaker 3: you can see the pond right in front of us, right,
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that's it, in front of the big there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Why that pond was not dredged is beyond me.
Speaker 5: Man, pull forward, I want to see I want to
Speaker 5: see our guy.
Speaker 1: All of this begs to question why Butch, who was
Speaker 1: on the prosecution's witness list but never called, seemed so
Speaker 1: reluctant to speak to anyone about what he did or
Speaker 1: did not see the day of Jade's murder. It's also
Speaker 1: interesting to note that the reports we were reading weren't
Speaker 1: Busch's first appearance in police files. In December of twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: Kenny E. Marx was arrested in Marion and charged with
Speaker 1: manufacturing meth and meth related child endangerment in addition to
Speaker 1: other meth related offenses. It's also worth mentioning that his son,
Speaker 1: also named Kenney Marx, is no stranger to law enforcement either,
Speaker 1: having been picked up this past fall on violations sex
Speaker 1: offender registry and possession of meth charges. Given Beverly's consistent
Speaker 1: placement of her alleged intruder's height being around five to
Speaker 1: five it's also of note that the younger Marx height
Speaker 1: is listed by police at five foot four inches. I
Speaker 1: mention this not to suggest any involvement in Jade's murder,
Speaker 1: but rather to highlight that there were known criminals in
Speaker 1: the area matching Beverly's description who do not appear to
Speaker 1: have been investigated. And there's something else that heavily wooded
Speaker 1: area in the back of Butcher's place. Apparently it isn't
Speaker 1: just housing trees and hidden ponds. Here's what her sister's boyfriend,
Speaker 1: Stephen told Billy Joe.
Speaker 4: So, when I was talking to him, he said to me,
Speaker 4: what about the camper in the woods? And I said,
Speaker 4: in what woods the camper where? And he said about
Speaker 4: a year ago. Me and your sister was into it,
Speaker 4: and I didn't have nowhere to stay, So I was
Speaker 4: sleeping in my car and I ran into Kenny March.
Speaker 4: So he told me I could stay out of his
Speaker 4: house and we were out there talking and he told
Speaker 4: me there was a camper in the woods that if
Speaker 4: I wanted to stay there, I could, but not to
Speaker 4: tell nobody because his sister doesn't know that his son
Speaker 4: goes out there and stay. That he has to go
Speaker 4: there at night. Hey, he don't come in and out
Speaker 4: during the day because his sister don't want him on
Speaker 4: the park because he's a sex offender.
Speaker 1: Wow, So there is basically like an abandoned camper in
Speaker 1: the wooded area.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I took it upon myself. Renee actually met
Speaker 4: me out there the other day, and there is definitely
Speaker 4: something out there. If you look directly behind here to
Speaker 4: the right, you can tell there's something there in big trees.
Speaker 1: This blows my mind because if you think about it,
Speaker 1: this is the property that's adjacent to the murder scene,
Speaker 1: with multiple bodies of water, a heavily wooded area, and
Speaker 1: now what we're hearing a makeshift encampment for transient people
Speaker 1: and the police don't check it.
Speaker 4: That's what I can't understand why they didn't look back there,
Speaker 4: why they didn't search any of that back there.
Speaker 1: We'll revisit that later. Back to Bob and the mention
Speaker 1: of Butch on the CAD reports from the day of
Speaker 1: the murder.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it doesn't tell us much like it
Speaker 3: begs the question why is it in here?
Speaker 1: And why is he on the prosecution's witness list?
Speaker 3: Right and never called right? Well, it's the same with
Speaker 3: Aaron Luten. Aaron Luton's the other call that comes in.
Speaker 1: Aaron Luton's name came up early and continues to come
Speaker 1: up in multiple interviews and very prominently on call records
Speaker 1: from the morning of Jade Beasley's murder. A bit past
Speaker 1: ten thirty am, a call comes in about a male
Speaker 1: subject who stormed out of his house screaming about killing someone.
Speaker 3: Here's Bob and Luton is at least reported to be
Speaker 3: out on the street acting a fool, screaming and yelling,
Speaker 3: wearing a blacktop, wanting a blacktop, threatening to kill people,
Speaker 3: saying that he wants somebody to shoot him. When we
Speaker 3: first became privy to that call, were obviously pricked our
Speaker 3: ears up.
Speaker 2: We're like, well, what's us.
Speaker 3: We went to theme, We went to Julie's trial attorney
Speaker 3: and said, what's the deal with Luten?
Speaker 2: Did she dig into this?
Speaker 3: And theene says that she vetted it out and that
Speaker 3: her understanding was that Luton had been picked up because
Speaker 3: we had heard conflicting stories. Initially we had heard that
Speaker 3: he had been left out there acting a fool, and
Speaker 3: then and then later themes as well. What I saw
Speaker 3: from my discovery was that he was ultimately dropped off
Speaker 3: at the hospital.
Speaker 1: But now reading through the call log's timeline, Mata and
Speaker 1: I had new questions and reason to revisit Aaron Luton's
Speaker 1: exact whereabouts during exact times on December fifth, twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: So like I'm scrolling through, it's as an advisor, as
Speaker 3: a mail on the road, screaming and yelling, right, and
Speaker 3: that comes in at ten thirty seven on twelve five,
Speaker 3: So that's the day of and you know, the timing
Speaker 3: fits in terms of when things may have gone down there, Right,
Speaker 3: It's a little early for kind of our purposes in
Speaker 3: terms of what we think things may have gone down,
Speaker 3: But I mean it begs the question if if this
Speaker 3: is the beginning of the episode with.
Speaker 2: Aaron Luton in it, it just keeps going.
Speaker 3: Which is, we're this interesting thing that I noticed in here,
Speaker 3: because when we get down to here, So at ten
Speaker 3: fifty six, received another call on erin that he's screaming
Speaker 3: at groups of people to come shoot him. So that's
Speaker 3: a full twenty minutes after the first call. Okay, And
Speaker 3: then at ten point fifty eight it says one male
Speaker 3: detained and then we get down here, doesn't say what
Speaker 3: they're doing with them anywhere as I'm kind of reading through,
Speaker 3: whoever took them into custody is now transporting them to
Speaker 3: the station, transporting them to a hospital. Because it's interesting
Speaker 3: because here it's.
Speaker 1: Kin a new call. So now we're at.
Speaker 3: Eleven nineteen get this new call, So Marian Police Department
Speaker 3: at eleven nineteen forty three unit I'm thirteen Aaron Luton,
Speaker 3: Dean created, all right, and then you've got twelve thirty
Speaker 3: seven event cleared by recheck, no active units.
Speaker 2: This is where it got a little weird to me.
Speaker 3: So it says that at sixteen eleven comments changed to
Speaker 3: mail take into Heartland for evaluation, but change from where.
Speaker 1: And look at that time period, right.
Speaker 2: Huge gap in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it puts us at four eleven says that he's
Speaker 3: taken to the hospital. So does that mean that this
Speaker 3: comment is changed or is that when the event happened.
Speaker 5: And does that mean they have him in custody for
Speaker 5: hours or does that mean that I don't know. So
Speaker 5: that window if they last were with him at eleven nineteen,
Speaker 5: and then it's not clear as to whether or not
Speaker 5: they left him right, but where was he from eleven
Speaker 5: nineteen until four o'clock? And if he were in that
Speaker 5: state and left, that's the same timeline.
Speaker 1: That would fit with the murder. Right when this episode
Speaker 1: was being edited, I was still awaiting response from Williamson
Speaker 1: County on the multiple requests I'd made for information regarding Luton.
Speaker 1: He was, however, on the radar of both Beverly's defense
Speaker 1: and the prosecution. Here's what Renee was told happened.
Speaker 8: Cindy Gatman, the lead investigator on this, had him at
Speaker 8: the station questioning him, and she said her first question
Speaker 8: to him was do you know anything about the child
Speaker 8: that was murdered out in the country, And his response
Speaker 8: to that question was which one s what?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: And he has a rap sheet that includes burglary, robbery, assault,
Speaker 1: and domestic battery. At the time of this episode's release,
Speaker 1: Luton was incarcerated, having been sentenced to eleven years in
Speaker 1: December of twenty twenty one for attempting to disarma an
Speaker 1: officer who'd responded to a domestic violence call. I've attempted
Speaker 1: to email Aaron Luton in prison multiple times. He's only
Speaker 1: responded once with a subject line pemp that's pimp, with
Speaker 1: the attached message what up, bro?
Speaker 2: I would killed to get into talk to this guy.
Speaker 8: I don't know when he was at the hospital because
Speaker 8: if Cindy Gaman was at the house, and that's around
Speaker 8: because Julie was still at the house of this time.
Speaker 8: When was he at the police station?
Speaker 1: When did you pick him up? If that were true,
Speaker 1: why would he have been brought in for questioning? And
Speaker 1: I've asked for that video. As I was finishing this episode,
Speaker 1: I received documents that state Luton was in an ambulance
Speaker 1: at eleven eight am on the day of the murder,
Speaker 1: arriving at the hospital at eleven twenty six am, ultimately
Speaker 1: being discharged at nine thirty eight pm, which rules him
Speaker 1: out as a suspect. I also received video of the interrogation,
Speaker 1: which happened at the end of July twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: nearly eight months after Jade's murder and Beverly's arrest, while
Speaker 1: Renee's version of his interrogation was off. This is what
Speaker 1: Luton replied when asked about Jade Beasley's murder.
Speaker 6: Where did she get found?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, which who's murdered?
Speaker 1: Where was she in?
Speaker 6: Huh?
Speaker 1: Was she in something?
Speaker 5: What do you mean both?
Speaker 6: I'm just saying, I'm just I've been in a one
Speaker 6: a year ago, twenty a year ago. Okay, just I'll.
Speaker 1: Let you guys speak. Geitman doesn't appear to pursue that
Speaker 1: line of questioning. Still, why was Luton Mike Butch on
Speaker 1: the prosecution's witness list but never called to testify? Murder
Speaker 1: and Songbird Road will continue after the break Here again
Speaker 1: is Murder on Songbird Road? Butch and Aaron aside, we
Speaker 1: had other pressing questions. For instance, the dispatch events summary
Speaker 1: notes that three different officers Welgi, Sloane, and Ward, administered
Speaker 1: CPR to Jade Beasley at the scene, all before ems arrived.
Speaker 1: If the prosecution's timeline is accurate and Jade was murdered
Speaker 1: between nine thirty and ten fifteen am. Why would multiple
Speaker 1: officers attempt CPR on her more than two hours later?
Speaker 1: And why was a metavac reportedly called according to the
Speaker 1: CAD notes, nearly a half an hour after police arrived,
Speaker 1: only to be canceled. Listen carefully to Danny Vaye's report
Speaker 1: on the day of the arrest.
Speaker 9: Zanami says police and EMTs arrived Saturday, shortly after the
Speaker 9: ninety one one.
Speaker 2: Call was made.
Speaker 9: When they got there, they found Beasley with multiple stab wounds,
Speaker 9: and Beasley later died at the scene.
Speaker 1: So Jade Beasley died more than two hours after the
Speaker 1: prosecution alleged Julia Beverly killed her. Then there's this the
Speaker 1: adjacent property, wood, small bodies of water, and known transient activity.
Speaker 1: Why wasn't this area searched or investigated? And why weren't
Speaker 1: any other potential suspects actually considered.
Speaker 6: He said that she left the residence with Jade alone
Speaker 6: in the home for a short time and return home
Speaker 6: to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven
Speaker 6: this story to be false, But did it.
Speaker 1: These questions only added to the larger issues we'd already
Speaker 1: uncovered tunnel vision, a lack of presumption of innocence, and
Speaker 1: even allegations of witchcraft, none of which the prosecution tied
Speaker 1: to motive or concrete evidence. All of this was weighing
Speaker 1: on my mind as I prepared to make this introduction.
Speaker 1: Jason Flom Bob Mada, Bob j Nice to meet you.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: Jason Flamm is a founding board member of The Innocence
Speaker 1: Project and co host and creator of the Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: podcast series, which is credited with helping to free nearly
Speaker 1: two dozen people. It's also inspired legislators in three different
Speaker 1: states that we know of to change laws to make
Speaker 1: the justice system more just. But Flamm is best known
Speaker 1: for his legendary career in the music industry as the
Speaker 1: record executive behind the success of artists like skid Row, Stone,
Speaker 1: Temple Pilots, Lord, Katy Perry, and many more.
Speaker 3: I've been a big admirer of what you do out
Speaker 3: there as a criminal defense guy for a long time.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: I appreciate the fact that you could have probably done
Speaker 3: anything that you wanted with your life after your career,
Speaker 3: and then you chose to do this. Hits me right
Speaker 3: in all the fields. So I was pretty excited to
Speaker 3: meet you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 10: Part of it is trying to make your job and
Speaker 10: people that do the same type of work that you do,
Speaker 10: to make your job a little easier and tip to
Speaker 10: scales of justice somewhere closer instead of being ninety ten,
Speaker 10: like making at least, you know, somewhat of a fairer fight.
Speaker 1: Jason and I met years ago while I was working
Speaker 1: on a podcast called Murder in Oregon. Because Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: was and still is one of my favorite podcasts. I
Speaker 1: picked up a freelance television shoot in New York City
Speaker 1: just to meet him, not knowing he was binging Murder
Speaker 1: and Oregon at the time. We've been friends since. Jason
Speaker 1: Flohm brings a pragmatic and brutally honest take to our
Speaker 1: justice system.
Speaker 10: It's amazing how in America, the land of the free right,
Speaker 10: it's the most incarcerated nation in the history of the world.
Speaker 10: Not only do we have twenty five percent of the
Speaker 10: world's prison population, but we have thirty three percent of
Speaker 10: the world's female prison population. And I would even go
Speaker 10: so far as to say that we reserve the worst treatment.
Speaker 10: There's no lack of horror stories taking place right this
Speaker 10: very minute. In jails and prisons all over the country,
Speaker 10: men's facilities, women's facilities, you name it. But I think
Speaker 10: the idea that we lock women up and remove them
Speaker 10: from their families, their children, right, and we know that
Speaker 10: bond is stronger than anything, and innocent or guilty, we
Speaker 10: don't care, right, We just do it.
Speaker 1: I'd started sending flown background and updates on Beverly's case
Speaker 1: even before we started digging in.
Speaker 10: I can't even think about this case without thinking about
Speaker 10: another Julie from Illinois whose son was murdered, who got
Speaker 10: blamed for it. Right with Julie Ray I'm talking about, right,
Speaker 10: who is one of my favorite human beings and just
Speaker 10: an absolutely remarkable human being. And then there's Michelle Murphy.
Speaker 10: And you know, you have these cases where these women
Speaker 10: kid even Melissa Lucio, right, any of these ones where
Speaker 10: the woman's baby or child is taken from them in
Speaker 10: the most horrendous way. That doesn't apply to Melissa, that
Speaker 10: was just an accident. In many of these cases where
Speaker 10: there is an actual murder, like in Michelle Murphy's case,
Speaker 10: they've lost the thing they love most in the world
Speaker 10: in the most terrifying way.
Speaker 1: For those not familiar with these high profile cases of
Speaker 1: mothers wrongfully convicted of murdering their own children will link
Speaker 1: to their wrongful conviction episodes in the show description.
Speaker 10: And they don't even have a moment to grieve, right,
Speaker 10: because they're taken to the police station. Because here's the
Speaker 10: other theme. They're the ones who found the body, right,
Speaker 10: or they're the ones who are approximate to it. So,
Speaker 10: you know, lazy policing if that's maybe.
Speaker 1: That investigating and prosecuting.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's just like, well, you've found the body. You're
Speaker 10: good for it, right, It's good enough, it's close enough.
Speaker 10: And so I don't know what to tell somebody. Somebody's listening.
Speaker 10: They're like, well, what if I find about it? What
Speaker 10: should I do? I don't know, go to Brazil.
Speaker 2: Unless you want to be the guy.
Speaker 10: It's really bad. But I mean you kind of have
Speaker 10: to call it in. I mean, what are you going
Speaker 10: to like? It's really there's no good answer there. But
Speaker 10: you know, keep track of your movements and you know,
Speaker 10: and call and get a lawyer quick, because you know,
Speaker 10: everyone thinks I shouldn't get lawyercause it makes me look
Speaker 10: like I might be guilty. But no, you need to
Speaker 10: get a lawyer because it makes you look smart.
Speaker 1: Julie didn't lawyer up.
Speaker 3: Not only was she the one to call it in,
Speaker 3: she was the last one to see Jade alive. So
Speaker 3: she had the double whammy where you're automatically the person
Speaker 3: you're it, you know, like they're not doing any work
Speaker 3: beyond that.
Speaker 2: And it's exactly what happened to her.
Speaker 1: And they played heavily into the evil stepmother dynamic on this,
Speaker 1: and race was definitely an issue. We went to Marion,
Speaker 1: and I mean it is a lily white town.
Speaker 3: I didn't see one black person the entire time I
Speaker 3: was there, except at the hotel.
Speaker 1: And aside, Marian is still more diverse than the all
Speaker 1: white jury that found Beverly guilty. Amidst much racially charged
Speaker 1: chatter on social media and local sites before, during, and
Speaker 1: after her trial, post like this one from a Marian
Speaker 1: resident who goes by Chucky quote a black girl killed her,
Speaker 1: so BLM, which stands for Black Lives Matter, and its
Speaker 1: idiot followers are doing anything they can to screw the investigation. Linda,
Speaker 1: who appears to be a white haired grandma from nearby Buckner, Illinois,
Speaker 1: posted I say in all caps hang the bitch. She
Speaker 1: deserves it, and Daniel from neighboring West Frankfurt brought the
Speaker 1: lynching theme fully home with this should give her a
Speaker 1: tall tree and a short piece of rope. Meanwhile, Renee
Speaker 1: High Tower was receiving voicemails like this one, which was
Speaker 1: left by a pre k teacher from a neighboring town.
Speaker 1: Your family's trash, your mixed trash back to Jason Flohm.
Speaker 10: I mean, the whole thing is so nuts and it's
Speaker 10: like it also reminds me a little bit of the
Speaker 10: Christine Bunch case right where the prosecutor in that case,
Speaker 10: Ashley said to the jury and she was convicted of
Speaker 10: murdering her her only child, four year old, we acknowledge
Speaker 10: that we don't have a motive, but that shouldn't prevent you.
Speaker 10: I'm paraphrasing, right, but he said, we admitted we don't
Speaker 10: have a motive, but that shouldn't prevent you the jury
Speaker 10: from convicting, and sure enough they did. So this one's
Speaker 10: like that too. What the hell would the motive possibly.
Speaker 1: Be, Jason, You have no idea? How spot on that
Speaker 1: is because the argument from the prosecution was that they
Speaker 1: couldn't test everything you know, they never presented a motive
Speaker 1: and ultimately they didn't really have any concrete physical evidence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Julie, very much like all of the red flag
Speaker 1: hallmarks of a wrongful conviction. There was an instant presumption
Speaker 1: of guilt. There was tunnel vision, there was trial in
Speaker 1: the community on social media. She was tried and convicted
Speaker 1: in the local news and again held for two years
Speaker 1: almost before she set foot in that court.
Speaker 10: When the forces of prosecution and the whole justice system
Speaker 10: police prosecution in this case, to judge all of these
Speaker 10: people when they sort of conspire may not be the
Speaker 10: right word, but let's use that for lack of a
Speaker 10: better one. To railroad somebody.
Speaker 1: They are literally acting.
Speaker 10: In concert in service of the person who actually committed
Speaker 10: the crime, because the single best thing that can happen
Speaker 10: to that person is that somebody else gets convicted and
Speaker 10: everybody stops looking for them. Right, It's like, hey, you
Speaker 10: hit the jackpot, buddy, you got away with it. Bingo.
Speaker 10: We have this adversarial system right where the prosecution's trying
Speaker 10: to win and the defense is trying to defend their client.
Speaker 10: What we need is an inquisitorial system, right, We should
Speaker 10: all want to get to the truth because whoever did this,
Speaker 10: that's a person we need to really reckon.
Speaker 1: With will lay all of that out going forward, but
Speaker 1: others can and did make the case against Beverly based
Speaker 1: on additional back facts we were about to dissect while
Speaker 1: going through the trial transcripts.
Speaker 11: The lies, to me were the biggest problem because as
Speaker 11: soon as you start lying the law.
Speaker 2: Enforcement and they figure it out.
Speaker 11: Immediately, you're done. In their minds, there's no reason to
Speaker 11: lie about anything other than the fact that you didn't
Speaker 11: and you're trying to cover your tracks.
Speaker 1: On the next Murder on Songbird Road access to the
Speaker 1: initial interrogation video and DNA collection raises new concerns.
Speaker 3: The DNA on the arm, which to me was probably
Speaker 3: the smoking gun in this case, and criticism there was
Speaker 3: a lot of red flags.
Speaker 8: Let me say that if I was training here, I
Speaker 8: would have stopped.
Speaker 1: Me while Julie's friends way in on the delay in
Speaker 1: calling nine one one. I can't even imagine how she
Speaker 1: even got the phone to call. Murder on Songbird Road
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Taylor Chacogne and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research writing and hosting
Speaker 1: by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Matta and
Speaker 1: Lauren Bright Pacheco. Editing, sound design and original music by
Speaker 1: Evan Tyre and Taylor Chicoine. Additional music by Asher Kurtz.
Speaker 1: Archival elements courtesy of WSIL News three. Please like, subscribe,
Speaker 1: and leave us a review. Wherever you're listening, you can
Speaker 1: follow me on all platforms at Lauren Bright Pacheco and
Speaker 1: email the show with thought, suggestions or tips at Investigating
Speaker 1: Murder at iHeartMedia dot com. For more iHeart podcasts, visit
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