WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Cass County Three 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:11.325 School of Humans. 0:00:11.765 --> 0:00:14.685 I had info on the Cass County three triple black 0:00:14.725 --> 0:00:19.285 child murder case out of Atlanta, Texas, which is Cass County. 0:00:19.965 --> 0:00:22.725 Three little black girls were murdered about a year ago 0:00:22.885 --> 0:00:26.165 to cold case right now. Had some documentation from the 0:00:26.205 --> 0:00:29.325 police and a judge in Texas also at points at 0:00:29.405 --> 0:00:32.285 him and I have some information with the family, the 0:00:32.325 --> 0:00:35.125 mother and some other witnesses to the murders of these 0:00:35.165 --> 0:00:35.805 three girls. 0:00:36.805 --> 0:00:40.485 It was July twenty ninth, twenty twenty two, just another 0:00:40.645 --> 0:00:44.485 quiet summer night in Atlanta, Texas, a tiny town in 0:00:44.525 --> 0:00:49.005 East Texas. Atlanta is about a twenty five minute drive 0:00:49.045 --> 0:00:52.365 from Texarcana, which is right on the border with Arkansas. 0:00:52.805 --> 0:00:55.485 The sun had just gone down when twenty eight year 0:00:55.525 --> 0:01:00.205 old Shamanique Oliver got a panicked phone call. Shamanique is 0:01:00.205 --> 0:01:03.245 a single mom and a certified nurses aid. She works 0:01:03.285 --> 0:01:07.405 at a nursing home in Texarcana. She later told Nancy 0:01:07.485 --> 0:01:11.045 Grace that it had been a totally normal day. She 0:01:11.205 --> 0:01:14.005 was hanging out with her six children between the ages 0:01:14.045 --> 0:01:16.965 of one and ten years old at home. They watched TV, 0:01:17.285 --> 0:01:20.285 played and ate a meal together while Shamanique got ready 0:01:20.285 --> 0:01:24.365 for a shift. When Shamanique went to work that afternoon. 0:01:24.605 --> 0:01:27.245 She left her children in the care of their babysitter, 0:01:27.685 --> 0:01:31.565 a thirty one year old cousin of hers named Paris Props. 0:01:32.165 --> 0:01:34.725 She and the kids lived in a very rural area. 0:01:36.605 --> 0:01:40.885 The one story home is pretty secluded. There are neighbors around, 0:01:41.085 --> 0:01:43.685 but it's the kind of home where you can't really 0:01:43.725 --> 0:01:47.805 see the neighbors, and it's pretty wild out there. There 0:01:47.845 --> 0:01:51.085 are woods and fields behind the house, and the fields 0:01:51.085 --> 0:01:55.325 are blocked by barbour fences. Shamanique was helping change a 0:01:55.405 --> 0:01:58.765 patient later that evening. She was called to the nurses 0:01:58.765 --> 0:02:03.045 station a little after nine pm, and that's when her 0:02:03.125 --> 0:02:07.605 nightmare began. That's when she found out that three of 0:02:07.645 --> 0:02:12.125 her children, her three middle daughters, nine year old Zayaril 0:02:12.245 --> 0:02:16.125 Robinson Oliver, eight year old of Maya Hughes, and little 0:02:16.165 --> 0:02:19.205 five year old to Mari Robinson Oliver, were all missing. 0:02:20.525 --> 0:02:25.765 Law enforcement found the little girls a few hours later. Unfortunately, though, 0:02:26.005 --> 0:02:30.365 this was not a happy ending. Divers dragged their lifeless 0:02:30.365 --> 0:02:35.685 little bodies out of the neighboring pond. Initially, this was 0:02:35.765 --> 0:02:39.325 described as a drowning in the local media, but months 0:02:39.365 --> 0:02:43.085 later law enforcement in Texas said these three little girls 0:02:43.205 --> 0:02:48.165 had been murdered. The cause of death was exphyxiation. All 0:02:48.205 --> 0:02:51.885 three of these little girls had been strangled. There seemed 0:02:51.885 --> 0:02:55.245 to be a lot of misconceptions about this case. Some 0:02:55.325 --> 0:02:58.445 of them involved local rumors. Some of them involved politics, 0:02:58.805 --> 0:03:02.205 charges of racism, and of police not doing their jobs. 0:03:02.925 --> 0:03:06.085 If you listen to this podcast, you'll know that these 0:03:06.125 --> 0:03:08.045 are a lot of the things that often come with 0:03:08.125 --> 0:03:13.085 investigations in small towns. But once you look past all that, 0:03:13.245 --> 0:03:16.125 at the heart of this case, you have three dead 0:03:16.165 --> 0:03:19.285 little girls whose lives were over before they even started, 0:03:19.925 --> 0:03:23.445 and you have a family and an entire town crying 0:03:23.445 --> 0:03:27.485 out for justice and answers. I said back at the 0:03:27.525 --> 0:03:31.325 beginning that shau Minick's nightmare began on July twenty ninth, 0:03:31.365 --> 0:03:32.445 twenty twenty. 0:03:32.165 --> 0:03:34.365 Two, but she never woke up. 0:03:35.085 --> 0:03:39.165 It's still going on, and in East Texas, there's a 0:03:39.285 --> 0:03:43.365 child killer still out there, and this person could strike 0:03:43.405 --> 0:03:48.925 again at any time. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen 0:03:49.005 --> 0:03:53.245 Gone murder line. Over the past five years of making 0:03:53.285 --> 0:03:56.565 my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, I've learned that there's 0:03:56.645 --> 0:03:59.965 no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. 0:04:00.765 --> 0:04:03.725 I have received hundreds of messages from people from all 0:04:03.765 --> 0:04:06.765 around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder 0:04:06.805 --> 0:04:10.965 that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you 0:04:11.125 --> 0:04:13.165 have a case you'd like me and my team to 0:04:13.245 --> 0:04:15.645 look into, you can reach out to us at our 0:04:15.685 --> 0:04:18.565 Hell and Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven 0:04:18.645 --> 0:04:22.205 four four, six one four five. That's six seven eight 0:04:22.645 --> 0:05:13.085 seven four four, six, one four or five. So to 0:05:13.165 --> 0:05:16.685 find out what happened to Shamanique's daughters, we have to 0:05:16.725 --> 0:05:19.725 make sense of the timeline. We need to go back 0:05:19.765 --> 0:05:22.365 and find out exactly what was going on and who 0:05:22.445 --> 0:05:25.925 was around that day. In her interview with Nancy Grace, 0:05:26.485 --> 0:05:29.645 Shamnique said that while she was getting dressed and preparing 0:05:29.645 --> 0:05:33.565 for her shift, the kids were behaving totally normally. She 0:05:33.685 --> 0:05:35.925 made sure they had something to eat, and they were 0:05:35.965 --> 0:05:41.245 playing and watching TV, just generally messing around. Shamanique said 0:05:41.325 --> 0:05:44.125 that all of her children were close, but that her 0:05:44.165 --> 0:05:48.325 three middle daughters, Syaril, Amaya, and Tamari were the best 0:05:48.325 --> 0:05:51.965 of friends. They liked to do things that all little 0:05:51.965 --> 0:05:54.325 girls like to do. They like to play outside and 0:05:54.405 --> 0:05:57.125 ride bikes together. They also love to hang out in 0:05:57.165 --> 0:06:00.445 the house and make TikTok videos. In the interview with 0:06:00.565 --> 0:06:04.165 Nancy Grace, Shamanique clarified that the last time that she 0:06:04.245 --> 0:06:07.405 spoke to her children was when she called them, and 0:06:07.405 --> 0:06:11.565 that was sometime between five and six pm. She asked 0:06:11.605 --> 0:06:13.685 them what they were going to do. They said they 0:06:13.685 --> 0:06:15.685 were going to stay in the house and finish eating 0:06:15.845 --> 0:06:19.725 and take a bath. Shamnique was adamant about the fact 0:06:19.765 --> 0:06:22.965 that they would not go outside. She said, quote, they 0:06:23.085 --> 0:06:25.205 know not to go outside when it gets dark because 0:06:25.205 --> 0:06:26.205 there's no lights. 0:06:25.965 --> 0:06:28.685 Outside end quote. 0:06:29.085 --> 0:06:31.645 This is an important point because, at least in the 0:06:31.685 --> 0:06:35.605 beginning of the investigation, everything that came out about these 0:06:35.645 --> 0:06:39.325 little girl's disappearance made it sound like just a horrific accident, 0:06:39.965 --> 0:06:42.885 like the three little girls had gone outside, maybe for 0:06:42.925 --> 0:06:46.445 a summertime swim or something, and then somehow gotten into trouble. 0:06:47.045 --> 0:06:49.885 But Shamnique insists it would have been totally out of 0:06:49.965 --> 0:06:52.685 character for any of her children to go outside in 0:06:52.725 --> 0:06:55.885 the dark to a dark field. She's been saying that 0:06:55.965 --> 0:06:59.845 to anyone who would listen from the very beginning. Shamnique 0:06:59.885 --> 0:07:03.845 said her shift normally ended around ten PM, and her 0:07:03.925 --> 0:07:07.165 normal routine was that after she got off work, she 0:07:07.205 --> 0:07:10.285 would drive from the nursing home from work back to Atlanta, 0:07:11.285 --> 0:07:14.245 and again, just to clarify here, we're talking about a 0:07:14.285 --> 0:07:18.805 small town in Texas, Atlanta, Texas, not Atlanta, Georgia. It 0:07:18.885 --> 0:07:22.285 was only about twenty five minutes away, so normally she 0:07:22.285 --> 0:07:25.805 would have gotten home at around ten thirty pm. But 0:07:25.925 --> 0:07:29.845 that night she got that call, and when the call 0:07:29.925 --> 0:07:34.125 came in, it was from her neighbor's home phone. When 0:07:34.125 --> 0:07:37.085 Shamanique picked up her cousin, Paris, who had been staying 0:07:37.085 --> 0:07:38.925 with her at her house and helping her out with 0:07:38.965 --> 0:07:43.365 babysitting while she worked, told her that her kids were missing. 0:07:44.365 --> 0:07:48.125 Shamanique didn't get many details at that point. She said 0:07:48.245 --> 0:07:51.085 Paris didn't specify which kids were missing or exactly what 0:07:51.165 --> 0:07:54.285 had happened. Once she heard that her kids were missing, 0:07:54.365 --> 0:07:57.365 she jumped in the car and said she started driving fast. 0:07:58.325 --> 0:08:01.365 Shamanique was panicking. She called nine to one one and 0:08:01.445 --> 0:08:03.925 at the same time she was trying to call her aunt, 0:08:04.045 --> 0:08:06.725 who she said live nearby. She was trying to see 0:08:06.725 --> 0:08:09.845 if her aunt could meet her at her house. Shamanique 0:08:09.885 --> 0:08:12.405 said at that point she was terrified. She was trying 0:08:12.445 --> 0:08:14.725 to hold it together, trying to get home as quickly 0:08:14.765 --> 0:08:17.325 as she could, and through it all she really had 0:08:17.365 --> 0:08:20.205 no idea what was going on. She made it sound 0:08:20.325 --> 0:08:22.245 like the next events were kind of a blur. 0:08:24.285 --> 0:08:24.645 Now. 0:08:24.725 --> 0:08:27.605 As we know from listening to this podcast, sometimes when 0:08:27.645 --> 0:08:31.325 people go missing, police don't come right away. Sometimes even 0:08:31.365 --> 0:08:34.285 when small children go missing, there's a delay. But fortunately 0:08:34.685 --> 0:08:38.005 that was not the case here. By the time Schamanique 0:08:38.005 --> 0:08:41.725 made it home, law enforcement was already there on the scene. 0:08:41.845 --> 0:08:46.285 There were rangers from the Texas Wildlife Department, Emergency Services personnel, 0:08:46.405 --> 0:08:50.485 and detectives from the Cass County Sheriff's Department. All of 0:08:50.525 --> 0:08:53.725 these people in law enforcement were scouring those dark woods. 0:08:54.205 --> 0:08:58.765 They were looking everywhere for those little girls. When Shamanique 0:08:58.805 --> 0:09:00.845 got home, the first thing she did was check on 0:09:00.885 --> 0:09:04.685 her three other children, who were fine and safe. The 0:09:04.725 --> 0:09:07.765 Texas Game Warden's got the call at around ten pm. 0:09:08.125 --> 0:09:10.685 They knew there were three children missing from a residence, 0:09:11.085 --> 0:09:13.365 so when they got there, they brought the canine unit 0:09:13.405 --> 0:09:18.365 with them. The dog alerted and started walking through those 0:09:18.405 --> 0:09:21.965 backwoods toward a pond. It was a pond that was 0:09:22.005 --> 0:09:25.605 back through the woods about two hundred yards away near 0:09:25.685 --> 0:09:29.485 a neighboring property. Again, this is where it's so important 0:09:29.485 --> 0:09:32.285 to try and clarify a location. And this is why 0:09:32.285 --> 0:09:35.085 it's so important to understand both the dynamics of the 0:09:35.085 --> 0:09:38.485 small town and of the crime scene, because just hearing 0:09:38.485 --> 0:09:41.285 the details on the news, you might think this was 0:09:41.325 --> 0:09:44.325 a local swimming hole or something. But I took a 0:09:44.325 --> 0:09:47.005 look at the footage that was filmed from local news stations, 0:09:47.125 --> 0:09:51.445 and that footage tells a very different story. Shamannique said 0:09:51.605 --> 0:09:54.285 she had lived in that spot pretty much her whole life, 0:09:54.325 --> 0:09:56.245 and she never knew there was a pond back there. 0:09:57.205 --> 0:09:59.125 To get to it, you had to go through a 0:09:59.165 --> 0:10:02.845 barbed wire fence and through a pretty dense wooded area. 0:10:04.085 --> 0:10:06.525 Looking at the pictures, that looked more like a swamp. 0:10:07.405 --> 0:10:10.445 Schamnique said her kids would not have known about that pond. 0:10:11.445 --> 0:10:15.125 As it got later and later, shal Manique became more 0:10:15.165 --> 0:10:17.245 and more frantic. She was focused on one thing and 0:10:17.285 --> 0:10:20.005 that was finding her daughters. She was out back in 0:10:20.045 --> 0:10:23.005 her yard while law enforcement continued their search, and then 0:10:23.725 --> 0:10:26.845 one of the canine dogs alerted and they saw something 0:10:27.605 --> 0:10:31.725 an overturned bike. In pictures in the news reports, you 0:10:31.765 --> 0:10:34.445 can see that it's a purple kid's bike with pink 0:10:34.485 --> 0:10:37.085 petals next to the bike was what looked like a 0:10:37.085 --> 0:10:40.645 blue scooter kind of tipped over, leaning in on the bike. 0:10:42.005 --> 0:10:44.965 After the dog alerted and the police found the bike, 0:10:45.325 --> 0:10:50.285 they saw something else. The dogs were pulling toward that pond, 0:10:50.845 --> 0:10:53.165 and police saw a pair of tennis shoes next to 0:10:53.205 --> 0:10:57.605 the waterline. Then they saw footprints in the mud leading 0:10:57.645 --> 0:11:01.965 down to the water, and the family confirmed a law 0:11:02.045 --> 0:11:05.445 enforcement that that pair of little tennis shoes belonged to 0:11:05.525 --> 0:11:10.125 Shamanique's five year old daughter Tomory. And there was something 0:11:10.125 --> 0:11:13.965 else that was very strange about those shoes. On Nancy 0:11:14.005 --> 0:11:18.605 Grace Shamanique said, Tomorri's shoes quote were found out there 0:11:18.685 --> 0:11:21.845 stacked on top of each other, Chris Crossway, like you 0:11:21.885 --> 0:11:26.685 would pack them in a suitcase end quote. She said emphatically. 0:11:27.005 --> 0:11:28.685 My kids never do that. 0:11:29.125 --> 0:11:29.365 Never. 0:11:31.885 --> 0:11:35.165 Divers went into the water and then in the early 0:11:35.205 --> 0:11:39.085 morning hours of July thirtieth, at around two am, they 0:11:39.205 --> 0:11:45.405 found Shamanique's eight year old daughter, Amaya. Amaya was the first, 0:11:46.005 --> 0:11:50.685 but unfortunately not the last. In the end, investigators found 0:11:50.845 --> 0:11:54.925 all three girls dead in that pond. They pulled their 0:11:54.925 --> 0:11:57.685 little bodies out of the water one by one and 0:11:57.765 --> 0:12:03.965 sent them for autopsis. After hearing that Amaya's body had 0:12:04.005 --> 0:12:07.245 been found. Shamanique had to be taken to the hospital. 0:12:08.485 --> 0:12:11.205 She later learned that she was having a heart attack. 0:12:12.125 --> 0:12:14.525 She had already had one hard episode after her mother 0:12:14.605 --> 0:12:18.485 died from COVID, and now she had lost three daughters 0:12:18.765 --> 0:12:24.565 in one night. After Shamanique's three daughters were found dead 0:12:24.605 --> 0:12:28.925 in that pond, the story made local news. At first, 0:12:29.085 --> 0:12:32.725 the media reports indicated that these deaths were being investigated 0:12:32.765 --> 0:12:37.245 as a drowning, which, while horrific, is something that made 0:12:37.245 --> 0:12:39.925 it sound like it might have been an unavoidable accident. 0:12:40.485 --> 0:12:44.485 But that's not what happened here. Looking back in hindsight, 0:12:44.645 --> 0:12:47.405 I think that these reports might have come out because 0:12:47.405 --> 0:12:49.965 of some comments made early on by the Cass County 0:12:49.965 --> 0:12:54.765 Sheriff's office. Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe told a local newspaper, 0:12:54.805 --> 0:12:57.925 The Gazette, quote, we have no idea what the girls 0:12:57.925 --> 0:13:01.365 were doing there end quote. And then a lieutenant game 0:13:01.405 --> 0:13:05.325 Warden named Jason Jones told a local news station KTL 0:13:06.045 --> 0:13:08.565 that it was unknown whether the little girls were swimmers 0:13:08.645 --> 0:13:12.765 or not. There was another comment made by someone in 0:13:12.845 --> 0:13:15.405 law enforcement about none of the little girls having life 0:13:15.485 --> 0:13:20.565 jackets on, so all of those comments taken together definitely, 0:13:20.645 --> 0:13:23.725 in my opinion, led toward the story being reported as 0:13:23.725 --> 0:13:28.605 a drowning, at least initially. Very quickly, this case was 0:13:28.645 --> 0:13:32.365 turned over from the local police department to the Texas Rangers. 0:13:33.045 --> 0:13:37.565 The officer assigned to that case was named Josh Mason. Now, 0:13:37.605 --> 0:13:42.565 the Texas Rangers are unique organization. Officially, they're the Texas 0:13:42.565 --> 0:13:45.885 State law enforcement units. So like Arkansas has the Arkansas 0:13:45.925 --> 0:13:49.405 State Police, in Texas, they're a little bit unique because 0:13:49.525 --> 0:13:54.965 they have the Rangers. The Texas Rangers originally actually defended 0:13:55.005 --> 0:13:58.245 the frontier back in the eighteen hundreds, and they do 0:13:58.325 --> 0:14:03.245 have a complicated and sometimes brutal legacy. Author Doug Swanson 0:14:03.285 --> 0:14:06.365 wrote about the alleged war crimes that the Texas Rangers 0:14:06.405 --> 0:14:09.205 committed back in the day in his book, which is 0:14:09.245 --> 0:14:14.205 called Cult of Glory, and he told NPR that back 0:14:14.205 --> 0:14:16.965 in the day they did murder a lot of Mexicans 0:14:16.965 --> 0:14:22.085 and Mexican Americans and had a strange idea of frontier justice. 0:14:22.285 --> 0:14:26.205 But over the years, the Texas Rangers have modernized. They've 0:14:26.245 --> 0:14:29.725 actually become one of the country's most elite detective units. 0:14:30.245 --> 0:14:32.965 The Texas Rangers have solved a lot of cold cases. 0:14:33.685 --> 0:14:36.285 It was actually a Texas Ranger who got the notorious 0:14:36.285 --> 0:14:40.165 serial killer Samuel Little to confess, but there have also 0:14:40.245 --> 0:14:43.565 been allegations over the years that in some cases they 0:14:43.605 --> 0:14:47.765 have coerce confessions. Samuel Little did confess to a lot 0:14:47.805 --> 0:14:50.605 of murders, but some of those murders were based on 0:14:50.765 --> 0:14:54.405 very little evidence, and a lot of people believe that 0:14:54.445 --> 0:14:58.845 the Rangers let him confess to crimes even when there 0:14:58.925 --> 0:15:01.165 was not necessarily evidence to back it up, because they 0:15:01.205 --> 0:15:04.285 wanted to close those cases. I'm not going to go 0:15:04.365 --> 0:15:06.525 too far into the weeds on them. If you're interested 0:15:06.525 --> 0:15:09.245 in Texas Ranger history, you can see they've had a 0:15:09.245 --> 0:15:12.485 lot of successes and some controversies, just like many law 0:15:12.565 --> 0:15:15.885 enforcement organizations. I'm bringing this up to make the point that, 0:15:16.085 --> 0:15:18.765 unlike some of the cases I cover, this was not 0:15:19.045 --> 0:15:21.725 a case of just some small town police department with 0:15:21.805 --> 0:15:25.805 no resources doing everything themselves. They did do the right thing. 0:15:25.885 --> 0:15:28.405 They called for outside help, they brought in the Rangers. 0:15:28.765 --> 0:15:31.525 The Texas Rangers were there from day one. When those 0:15:31.565 --> 0:15:35.885 bodies were pulled out of the water. On August second, 0:15:36.045 --> 0:15:40.365 the Texas Rangers released a statement they said, quote at 0:15:40.365 --> 0:15:43.365 the request of the cass County Sheriff's Office the Texas 0:15:43.445 --> 0:15:46.885 Rangers are investigating the drowning deaths of the three juveniles, 0:15:47.125 --> 0:15:51.285 ages five, eight, and nine. The drowning occurred July thirtieth, 0:15:51.485 --> 0:15:54.765 around two am at a private pond off State Highway 0:15:54.805 --> 0:15:58.405 seventy seven. The three siblings had been reported missing around 0:15:58.445 --> 0:16:02.045 ten pm the previous night. This is an ongoing investigation 0:16:02.285 --> 0:16:07.845 and additional information will be released when it's available. Police 0:16:07.845 --> 0:16:11.165 did not give out much information, which is totally normal 0:16:11.205 --> 0:16:14.725 in cases like this. And remember this was two days 0:16:14.765 --> 0:16:18.565 after the girl's bodies had been found. And that statement 0:16:18.605 --> 0:16:22.925 did two things. Number one, it reinforced the public perception 0:16:23.165 --> 0:16:26.485 that these had been drownings. And also, I'm noticing, in 0:16:26.485 --> 0:16:30.965 my opinion, the wordings seemed strange. They said the drowning 0:16:31.045 --> 0:16:34.445 occurred rather than saying the bodies were recovered at two am, 0:16:34.485 --> 0:16:38.045 and whether it was on purpose or not, this later 0:16:38.165 --> 0:16:42.285 caused a lot of confusion. This statement seemed to assume 0:16:42.445 --> 0:16:44.725 a cause of death and also a time of death, 0:16:45.205 --> 0:16:51.205 which is not normally standard protocol in these investigations. For 0:16:51.285 --> 0:16:55.365 the next few months, there was basically nothing on the 0:16:55.365 --> 0:16:58.605 news about these deaths. It was not until eight months 0:16:58.685 --> 0:17:03.245 later that the Cass County District Attorney, Courtney Shelton, announced 0:17:03.405 --> 0:17:06.845 that they were investigating the deaths as a high homicide. 0:17:07.005 --> 0:17:10.565 On March twenty ninth, twenty twenty three, Courtney Shelton said 0:17:10.605 --> 0:17:14.885 in a statement, quote autopsy reports concluded the manner of 0:17:14.965 --> 0:17:19.285 death for all three girls with homicide, indicating evidence of strangulation. 0:17:20.085 --> 0:17:24.565 The girls also suffered lacerations to their faces. Multiple witness 0:17:24.565 --> 0:17:28.125 statements have been obtained, DNA testing is ongoing, and the 0:17:28.165 --> 0:17:33.485 investigation will continue end quote. So now everyone knew that 0:17:33.645 --> 0:17:37.285 three young girls had been strangled and put into that pond. 0:17:37.965 --> 0:17:42.165 The rangers were now investigating the case as a homicide, 0:17:42.205 --> 0:17:48.125 and there was a child killer on the loose in Atlanta, Texas. 0:17:49.565 --> 0:17:52.245 It had been eight months since the all of her sisters' 0:17:52.245 --> 0:17:55.725 bodies were found in a pond. The district attorney had 0:17:55.765 --> 0:17:59.045 announced that the girls had not drowned, as everyone initially 0:17:59.085 --> 0:18:03.245 thought that their deaths were being investigated as homicides, and 0:18:03.365 --> 0:18:07.805 after months of silence, Shone Monique started speaking out. She 0:18:07.965 --> 0:18:10.885 told The Daily Beast that strangers on social media had 0:18:10.925 --> 0:18:14.245 put horribly abusive things. They were writing that she was 0:18:14.285 --> 0:18:16.725 a deadbeat mom. Some of them writing that her kids 0:18:16.725 --> 0:18:20.085 were better off dead. I think at this point a 0:18:20.165 --> 0:18:23.885 lot of people were wondering why she had been silent 0:18:23.925 --> 0:18:27.605 all this time, But it turned out according to Shamanique, 0:18:27.725 --> 0:18:31.445 she told The Daily Beast she suspected foul play from 0:18:31.445 --> 0:18:35.125 the jump. She also said, quote fuck everyone else's feelings, 0:18:35.485 --> 0:18:39.845 I want answers end quote. She wondered, just like everyone 0:18:39.885 --> 0:18:43.645 else did, why investigators had waited so long to tell 0:18:43.685 --> 0:18:47.525 the public about these homicides. It's possible that they held 0:18:47.525 --> 0:18:50.245 information back in the beginning because they were focusing on 0:18:50.365 --> 0:18:53.525 a suspect, trying to make a case against someone, and 0:18:53.565 --> 0:18:56.125 then after several months, maybe they hit a dead end. 0:18:57.165 --> 0:18:58.965 Maybe they thought that they were going to get more 0:18:59.045 --> 0:19:01.845 DNA or other types of physical evidence from the pond, 0:19:02.125 --> 0:19:05.125 and because the little girl's bodies had been there for 0:19:05.165 --> 0:19:09.165 several hours, they weren't able to. This is all just speculation, 0:19:10.045 --> 0:19:12.445 but the bottom line is that there had been months 0:19:12.485 --> 0:19:16.285 with no arrest, months where a child killer was on 0:19:16.325 --> 0:19:22.205 the loose and the public was totally unaware. At the 0:19:22.325 --> 0:19:26.005 end of the press release, the district Attorney asked anyone 0:19:26.085 --> 0:19:28.325 with new information that would help lead to an arrest 0:19:28.405 --> 0:19:32.605 to contact the Texas rangers. So to me, the fact 0:19:32.605 --> 0:19:34.805 that the DA issued this press release and that the 0:19:34.845 --> 0:19:37.805 police made a point of asking the public for information 0:19:38.885 --> 0:19:41.765 means that somewhere there is a missing piece and they 0:19:41.885 --> 0:19:45.565 know someone knows something. So now that we know that 0:19:45.605 --> 0:19:47.765 those little girls did not walk out of that house 0:19:47.805 --> 0:19:51.285 into that pond by themselves, we know that the crime 0:19:51.445 --> 0:19:55.685 could have begun somewhere else, possibly inside the home. So 0:19:55.845 --> 0:20:00.605 what could have happened inside that one story house. Let's 0:20:00.645 --> 0:20:03.245 go back again to the night that the kids went missing, 0:20:03.645 --> 0:20:07.685 July twenty ninth. Ana is at work, she's changing a patient. 0:20:07.765 --> 0:20:10.125 She goes to the nursing station. She gets a call 0:20:10.205 --> 0:20:13.325 from her cousin Paris. And now I'm just going to 0:20:13.365 --> 0:20:16.445 point out something else that she told Nancy Grace, because 0:20:16.485 --> 0:20:20.725 it seemed like even at this point, she wonders why 0:20:20.765 --> 0:20:24.565 he's just now letting her know about this. She also 0:20:24.725 --> 0:20:28.405 wondered why he was calling her from the neighbor's house, 0:20:28.485 --> 0:20:30.125 why he hadn't first called. 0:20:29.925 --> 0:20:31.405 Nine to one to one. 0:20:31.565 --> 0:20:34.165 On July twenty ninth, according to the historical data I 0:20:34.205 --> 0:20:38.565 found on the internet, on that date in Texarcana, sunset 0:20:38.605 --> 0:20:41.645 was at eight eighteen pm. Remember this is the middle 0:20:41.685 --> 0:20:44.085 of the summer, so it didn't get fully dark until 0:20:44.125 --> 0:20:48.365 about thirty minutes after that. Still, it raises red flags 0:20:48.365 --> 0:20:51.485 for me that a babysitter in a small house didn't 0:20:51.525 --> 0:20:56.805 notice three kids were missing until after dark. Later, a 0:20:56.845 --> 0:21:00.565 local news station interviewed a neighbor, a woman named Josephine Webster. 0:21:01.445 --> 0:21:05.085 She told this local news station KTLA that the guy 0:21:05.125 --> 0:21:08.445 presents summably, meaning Paris, who was staying in Shamanique's house, 0:21:09.125 --> 0:21:12.085 came over and asked her for her house phone. So 0:21:13.085 --> 0:21:15.445 I'm wondering the same thing that it sounds like sham 0:21:15.445 --> 0:21:18.805 Minique was why did he get the neighbor to call 0:21:18.885 --> 0:21:20.845 nine one one? Did he not have a cell phone? 0:21:21.165 --> 0:21:23.365 Because the first thing that I would have done if 0:21:23.365 --> 0:21:26.965 I was babysitting and someone's children were missing was call 0:21:27.045 --> 0:21:30.405 their mom right that second. By the way, Josephine said 0:21:30.525 --> 0:21:32.885 she was driving home at around nine point thirty when 0:21:32.925 --> 0:21:36.485 she saw Paris. Now, remember, Shamanique said she got the 0:21:36.525 --> 0:21:37.725 call a little after. 0:21:37.565 --> 0:21:38.285 Nine p m. 0:21:38.805 --> 0:21:40.925 Just a few minutes time difference, But as we know, 0:21:41.085 --> 0:21:45.085 in cases like this, those few minutes, those tiny details 0:21:45.205 --> 0:21:49.285 can be crucial. There are some indications that very early 0:21:49.325 --> 0:21:52.005 on in the investigation. Police were asking some of the 0:21:52.045 --> 0:21:56.165 same questions that Shamanique was, and that rather than focusing 0:21:56.365 --> 0:21:59.565 on sex offenders who were passing through the area, they 0:21:59.685 --> 0:22:04.605 might be focusing on someone much closer to home. Shamanique 0:22:04.605 --> 0:22:07.405 gave Nancy Gray some more details that I believe could 0:22:07.405 --> 0:22:10.885 be crucial to this case. She said that right after 0:22:10.885 --> 0:22:13.525 the authorities told her they found her little eight year 0:22:13.565 --> 0:22:18.525 old Amaya's body, she saw something else. She said that 0:22:18.565 --> 0:22:23.325 the divers pulled some tangled clothes out of the pond. Later, 0:22:23.645 --> 0:22:27.485 investigators showed her photos of what they found. She recognized 0:22:27.485 --> 0:22:31.285 that clothing as jackets that belonged to her children. But 0:22:31.325 --> 0:22:35.405 the strange thing was, according to Shamanique, these jackets were 0:22:35.645 --> 0:22:38.325 ones that her kids had outgrown. She said they had 0:22:38.325 --> 0:22:41.845 thrown them into the trash at home. This again raises 0:22:41.885 --> 0:22:45.485 a huge red flag because that suggests that someone else, 0:22:45.645 --> 0:22:48.845 probably the killer, had been inside the house because someone 0:22:48.885 --> 0:22:51.285 had to fish those jackets out of the trash. I 0:22:51.325 --> 0:22:53.245 don't think that's something the little girls would have done 0:22:53.245 --> 0:22:56.845 on their own. Shamanique said something else that was chilling 0:22:56.885 --> 0:23:00.845 to me. She said the jackets were quote tied together 0:23:01.205 --> 0:23:02.845 like a rope end quote. 0:23:04.405 --> 0:23:06.045 This is getting really dark. 0:23:06.205 --> 0:23:08.525 But this is unfortunately where my mind has to go 0:23:08.645 --> 0:23:10.485 to try and figure out what happened those little girls. 0:23:11.405 --> 0:23:14.885 What were those jackets for? Were they put there to 0:23:15.005 --> 0:23:17.765 tie the girls up, or to tie them together so 0:23:17.845 --> 0:23:22.005 their bodies would sink? Or did whatever bad thing happen 0:23:22.045 --> 0:23:25.045 to them happen first in the house and then somehow 0:23:25.405 --> 0:23:28.005 the killer dragged the bodies out to the pond using 0:23:28.005 --> 0:23:34.165 those jackets. The Cass County DA's press release referred to 0:23:34.205 --> 0:23:37.325 the fact that the little girl's injuries were much more 0:23:37.365 --> 0:23:42.645 extensive than had been initially reported. Local news stations had 0:23:42.685 --> 0:23:46.205 reported that the little girl's spaces were bruised and that 0:23:46.245 --> 0:23:49.765 they had lacerations on their faces, deep cuts and bruises. 0:23:51.405 --> 0:23:56.285 Shamanique gave Nancy Grace more disturbing details. She said that 0:23:56.405 --> 0:24:01.405 investigators had showed her photos of her daughter's bodies. Shamanique 0:24:01.405 --> 0:24:05.125 said that Tamari had what she described as a busted lip, 0:24:06.005 --> 0:24:09.525 but that her nine year old had extensive injuries and 0:24:09.565 --> 0:24:12.725 were not just talking about a few cuts. She said 0:24:12.725 --> 0:24:16.405 that they, presumably meaning the people who prepared her daughter 0:24:16.445 --> 0:24:20.965 for burial, had to quote reconstruct one side of her face. 0:24:21.725 --> 0:24:24.045 It looked like she took a beating on one side 0:24:24.085 --> 0:24:30.805 of her face and it pulled her skin off end quote. 0:24:31.245 --> 0:24:35.045 When the investigators talked to Shamanique, they also broke the 0:24:35.205 --> 0:24:38.525 devastating news to her that they believed that all three 0:24:38.645 --> 0:24:43.285 of her girls had been molested. Now, at this point, 0:24:43.325 --> 0:24:46.325 a lot of people wondered why it took so long 0:24:46.365 --> 0:24:50.325 to release autopsy results. There was some confusion here, and 0:24:50.365 --> 0:24:53.445 I think it's really important to differentiate between what was 0:24:53.485 --> 0:24:56.445 being told to the family and what was being made public. 0:24:57.405 --> 0:25:00.165 Revolt Black News Weekly has been doing a lot of 0:25:00.205 --> 0:25:04.885