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Speaker 1: Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan. For those that attend college,

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Speaker 1: when you're there and you first leave home, your life

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Speaker 1: is totally centered in that environment. For many people, it's

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Speaker 1: the first time they ever leave home and you're around

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Speaker 1: new people, you're around new experiences. I don't know, let's

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Speaker 1: face it, you're the captain of the ship at that

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Speaker 1: point in time. It's terrifying, but it is equally thrilling.

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Speaker 1: It's challenging, but it's an exciting time, and you know,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of rote to say that you need to

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Speaker 1: enjoy it because you'll never be in this situation again.

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Speaker 1: Kind of in the academic pubble, if you will. But

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Speaker 1: on Bodybags today, I want to talk about a case,

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Speaker 1: actually two cases that occurred in a university town, and

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Speaker 1: I would have to say that, even by my assessment,

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Speaker 1: probably two of the most horrific deaths that I've ever

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Speaker 1: covered in the news media. Today, we're going to go

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Speaker 1: back in time and we're going to talk about the

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Speaker 1: homicide of Shannon Christian and Christopher Newsom in a little

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Speaker 1: rundown house in East Knoxville, Tennessee. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan,

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Speaker 1: and this is Bodybacks. Dave. I got a full disclosure here.

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Speaker 1: I got to tell you why I wanted to do

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Speaker 1: this case. It was back in twenty eighteen that Eric

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Speaker 1: Boyd was finally indicted. He was one of several people,

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Speaker 1: a member of a crew, if you will, that perpetrated

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Speaker 1: this horrible double homicide. And it wasn't Dave. And we're

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Speaker 1: going to get into this. It wasn't merely a homicide.

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Speaker 1: And I know that, I hope that doesn't sound too

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Speaker 1: terribly dismissive, but he was actually convicted in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: And the reason to talk about this case, first off,

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Speaker 1: it's guy certainly has forensic value, but it affected me.

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Speaker 1: As you know, I cover things on television shows. I'm

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Speaker 1: a talking head on many of these platforms, and I

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Speaker 1: happen to cover this one for the entire time there

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Speaker 1: board case, and to me, it didn't get a lot

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Speaker 1: of traction, but yet it was one of the most

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Speaker 1: horrible cases with the details. I'll put it to you

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Speaker 1: this way. The people that I was covering the case with,

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Speaker 1: who are many of them are seasoned defense and prosecutor

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Speaker 1: prosecuting attorneys. They recoiled.

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Speaker 2: This is the story that began on January sixth, two

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Speaker 2: thousand and seven. Let me just give you the story

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Speaker 2: very quickly, and then we'll get into who Eric Boyd is.

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Speaker 2: It was on the night of Saturday, January sixth, two

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Speaker 2: thousand and seven, Christopher Newsom and his girlfriend Channing Christian.

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Speaker 2: Her name is spelled c cha n n O N

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Speaker 2: Channing Christian. Christopher was twenty three, Channon was twenty one,

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Speaker 2: and they were just enjoying each other's company before they

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Speaker 2: left to go to their friend's house for this birthday party.

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Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, Christopher Newsom was standing outside

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Speaker 2: Shannon's fore runner. She was in the front seat, in

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Speaker 2: the driver's seat, and he's standing there at her door

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Speaker 2: talking to her. They had a place to be, but

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Speaker 2: they were comfortable just with one another. It's after twelve

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Speaker 2: thirty five in the morning, because we know that according

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Speaker 2: to phone records, Shannon spoke to her mother at twelve

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Speaker 2: thirty five that morning, you know, Saturday night, Sunday morning,

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Speaker 2: twelve thirty five am, where Shannon told her mom that

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Speaker 2: they were going to visit a friend, watch some movies,

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Speaker 2: and be home later. And we know that sometime after

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Speaker 2: twelve thirty five am, these four men in that parking lot,

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Speaker 2: approached with guns drawn, shoved Christopher Newsom in the car

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Speaker 2: and took off. They kidnapped them at gunpoint and took

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Speaker 2: them to this rundown rental house where they held this

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Speaker 2: young couple against their will and did the most heinous,

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Speaker 2: horrific crimes. That's what this group of men and a

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Speaker 2: woman by the way, did to this young couple.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they had entered into this confederacy of evil. And

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Speaker 1: backing up a little bit, my understanding at the time

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Speaker 1: is that with this crew, they were being searched for

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Speaker 1: by a drug dealer at some point in time, and

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Speaker 1: it has been offered up. One of the explanations for

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Speaker 1: them targeting these just beautiful kids was that they just

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Speaker 1: happened to be there. They just happened to be there.

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Speaker 1: It was a crime of opportunity. And with both Shannon

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Speaker 1: and Christopher, they're at or forced into Shannon's vehicle which

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Speaker 1: was actually her forerunner, and made to drive to this location.

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Speaker 1: Which now, when you talk to people in Knoxville, and

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Speaker 1: this happened in East Knoxville, Tennessee, there's a name now

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Speaker 1: now that is just synonymous with evil because of what

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Speaker 1: happened in this little house, and the name of the

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Speaker 1: street is called Chipman Street, and it was this tiny

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Speaker 1: white framed house. It looks like you if you had

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Speaker 1: more than two people in this place, you were going

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Speaker 1: to have to shoehorn everybody else in there. It was

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Speaker 1: a tight, confined space where the amazing thing is that

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Speaker 1: there was so much trauma inflicted upon the shown couple

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Speaker 1: that there had to have been screams day.

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Speaker 2: The other part of this is when they were abducted.

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Speaker 2: When they were and they were abducted as a couple,

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Speaker 2: they were in her car, but the four men show

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Speaker 2: up with guns. There was another car following behind them.

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Speaker 2: As these four men with guns pushed them into the

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Speaker 2: car and immediately subdued them and took off. There was

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Speaker 2: another car following them that night, and that's the car

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Speaker 2: that actually later on is where Eric Boyd comes into play.

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Speaker 2: It we'll explain in a minute. But the bottom line

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Speaker 2: on all of this is that while it was a

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Speaker 2: crime of opportunity, this group of thugs had a plan.

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Speaker 2: They needed another vehicle to go about their drug business.

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Speaker 2: You said they were looking that a drug dealer or

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Speaker 2: something might have been looking for them. They needed a

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Speaker 2: car that was not something anyone knew they had this

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Speaker 2: forerunner fit that bill. So they get them back to

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Speaker 2: this rundown place on Chipman Street and immediately they tied

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Speaker 2: them up, they blindfold them. They take them to this

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Speaker 2: residence while they're blindfolded, so they don't know where they are.

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Speaker 2: The home was rented by Lamaricus Davidson Christopher Newsom. Even

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Speaker 2: though we don't know even to this day, there are

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Speaker 2: certain things still not known about this. But what we

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Speaker 2: do know is shortly after the abduction, Christopher Newsom was

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Speaker 2: taken from the Chipman Street home, tied up and shot

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Speaker 2: three times. His body was thrown on some railroad tracks.

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Speaker 2: They put a comforter or a blanket of something over

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Speaker 2: his head. He had a sweatshir wrapped around his face.

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Speaker 2: And we'll get into the very specific about those shots

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Speaker 2: because they actually mean something. I've got a question for

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Speaker 2: you about it, Joe. But then they lit him on fire. Okay,

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Speaker 2: that was Christopher's death. Prior to his death, he was beaten, raped, traumatized,

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Speaker 2: and I don't know if they made him listen to

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Speaker 2: the same things happening to his girlfriend, because she too

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Speaker 2: was raped multiple times, beaten about the head, and Whereas

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Speaker 2: Christopher was allowed to die after a few hours, she

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Speaker 2: was not.

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Speaker 1: She wasn't allowed to die, She was not given that

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Speaker 1: release to escape the pain that faced her and her agony.

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Speaker 1: Shannon's agony went on. It went on for another twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours while she was at the mercy of people

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Speaker 1: that just kind of randomly dropped into her life. I've

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Speaker 1: worked a lot of cases along what are referred to

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Speaker 1: as railway beds, which is kind of the area that

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Speaker 1: immediately surrounds railroad tracks and certainly in the middle of tracks.

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Speaker 1: I've had all manner deaths that have occurred, and I

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Speaker 1: think the reason people are found dead around tracks with

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Speaker 1: some level of frequency, Dave, is that they're isolated. They're

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Speaker 1: hard to get to. Many times you have to walk

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Speaker 1: some distance to get down to the railway bed that's

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Speaker 1: in there. And yeah, I mean people have them that

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Speaker 1: pass outside of their homes, but there are long stretches

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Speaker 1: of railway where there's no homes around it. It's isolated.

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Speaker 1: There's generally foliage that's all the way around it, so

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Speaker 1: it's going to obscure anything that you do. But this

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Speaker 1: I do know, the surfaces that surround them. The environment

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Speaker 1: is very hostile. There's broken glass, a lot of filled

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Speaker 1: gravel that's laying around, broken vegetation, thorns, nails, discarded railway

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Speaker 1: to break things that come off of trains, not to

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Speaker 1: mention the remnants that people leave behind out there. So

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Speaker 1: it's a very austere environment, and certainly I think that

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Speaker 1: it was in this case, and this is where Christopher

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Speaker 1: Newsom was found.

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Speaker 2: They didn't kill Christopher Newsom at the house and then

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Speaker 2: drag him up there and throp him on the railroad track.

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Speaker 2: In reality, Christopher Newsom was not killed at that house.

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Speaker 2: He was actually tortured. He was again raped with objects

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Speaker 2: and beyond, because they had actual proof. He had to

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Speaker 2: have heard what was happening to his girlfriend. Even blindfolded,

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Speaker 2: you could still hear. Surely they weren't just focused on

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Speaker 2: him and attacking him alone. And so he's now being walked.

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Speaker 2: They walk him from the car to these railroad tracks.

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Speaker 2: And oddly enough, there was a dump truck guy who

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Speaker 2: actually noticed the activity going on at the house this night,

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Speaker 2: odd traffic for that time of night, seeing lights on

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Speaker 2: that weren't usually on cars coming in and out, And

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Speaker 2: as Christopher Newsom was being taken away from the house

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Speaker 2: and taken to the railroad tracks. It was noted that

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Speaker 2: he was barefoot.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you also used the t word a little

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Speaker 1: while ago, torture, because that's what this comes down to.

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Speaker 1: This is the same way that you would treat, say,

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Speaker 1: for instance, a prisoner of war, where you strip them down,

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Speaker 1: you're humiliating them, you're dehumanizing them. And certainly you couple

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Speaker 1: that with what's being done in an adjacent area to Shannon,

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Speaker 1: and I agree with you. I think that probably there

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Speaker 1: was an element of torture that was involved. I think

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Speaker 1: from an auditory standpoint. Let's face it, he's a young man.

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Speaker 1: He loves this young lady and can you imagine not

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Speaker 1: being able to protect her. And you're surrounded by savagery

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Speaker 1: at this point in time, and there's nothing that you

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Speaker 1: can do to mute it any way or certainly interdict it.

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Speaker 1: You're at gunpoint they walk you out of the house.

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Speaker 1: There has to be a feeling that comes over an

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Speaker 1: individual as they're headed out this way that this is

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Speaker 1: not going to end up. Well, maybe you're so stunned

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Speaker 1: that you don't have true grasp of reality at that

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Speaker 1: point in time. Part of me hopes that was the case.

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Speaker 1: But this I do know. When they got him out there,

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Speaker 1: and I got to tell you, one of the findings

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Speaker 1: is that when they did his post mortem examination, they

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Speaker 1: noted that he actually had a sock stuffed in his mouth.

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Speaker 1: With any kind of object that is placed into the mouth,

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Speaker 1: particularly something that is as expandable as some type of

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Speaker 1: cloth sock, you have a chance that this thing is

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Speaker 1: going to expand in your oral cavity. And when that

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Speaker 1: begins to happen. First off, he's been traumatized, so he

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Speaker 1: is shallow breathing already, just taking into little gulps of

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Speaker 1: air as best he can, trying to catch his breath.

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Speaker 1: He's got a sock stuffed in his mouth, probably to

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Speaker 1: keep him I'll use that word again, so that he's

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Speaker 1: not going to scream out, he's not going to alert anybody.

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Speaker 1: And as they walk him to this location out in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the tracks. And trust me, these people

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Speaker 1: have been to this area before. They've been out there

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Speaker 1: to these tracks to Lord only knows do whatever it

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Speaker 1: is that they were doing. The medical examiner described Christopher's

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Speaker 1: death from this perspective. Now he dies of multiple gunshot wounds.

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Speaker 2: Let me back up to something.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure.

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Speaker 2: As you mentioned, when the body was found, the body

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Speaker 2: was tied with a belt around the ankles and a

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Speaker 2: shoelace around the left wrist, and that was positioned behind

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Speaker 2: Newsom's back. His head and face had been wrapped with

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Speaker 2: what appeared to be a sweatshirt. Another shoelace had been

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Speaker 2: wrapped around his head and mouth to keep that sock

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Speaker 2: gag together. And there were again now the visible bullet holes. Okay,

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Speaker 2: when they looked at him when they first found it,

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Speaker 2: they saw the one bullet wound to the right side

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Speaker 2: of his head, but there were more bullet wounds than

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Speaker 2: just that one.

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Speaker 1: This brings us to an interesting point. I think when

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Speaker 1: you think about the binding that's going on here, let's

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Speaker 1: face it. We had mentioned how this was a crime.

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Speaker 1: I hate to use the word crime because it is

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Speaker 1: so inadequate to what we're talking about, but it is

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Speaker 1: a crime, nonetheless, And when you think about a crime

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Speaker 1: of opportunity, they were not very well prepared. And I

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Speaker 1: really wonder for the perpetrators as they took this young

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Speaker 1: man out there and they've now got him bound up,

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Speaker 1: they've got this shirt around his face, and you know

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Speaker 1: why they had a shirtground his face, so they'd have

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Speaker 1: to look at him. That's why they have shirtground his face.

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Speaker 1: They've gagged him. They don't want to hear him. You're

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Speaker 1: on this kind of continuum of dehumanization. You've taken away

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Speaker 1: his voice, you've taken away his person in a visual sense,

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Speaker 1: and you're dehumanizing him. You really wonder how long they

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Speaker 1: lingered over the body to think we've already committed something

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Speaker 1: really heinous here. We've raped this young man and maybe

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Speaker 1: have done insertions of foreign objects. His bottom side was

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Speaker 1: just ravaged, according to the medical examiner, tremendous amount of hemorrhage, tearing,

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Speaker 1: this sort of thing. Are they standing there contemplating thinking

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Speaker 1: do we want to go forward with this? Because now

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Speaker 1: if we take the next step, we've committed a homicide.

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Speaker 1: But like you had said, he does wind up sustaining

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Speaker 1: three gunshot wounds. These were not and you know, Chris

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Speaker 1: Rhu was a tall He was a tall kid. He

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Speaker 1: was a robust country boy what he came down to.

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Speaker 1: So when they did execute him, and let's make no

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Speaker 1: bones about this, this is an execution. It's a torture

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Speaker 1: and an execution. He shot three times there's two rounds

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Speaker 1: that are more latterly oriented in his head. But what

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Speaker 1: the medical examiner pointed out is kind of fascinating, said

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Speaker 1: that the coup de gra if you will, the final

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Speaker 1: fatal shot entered the back of his head, had a

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Speaker 1: downward trajectory. So I use the term asymmetrical many times

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Speaker 1: when I talk about victims versus perpetrators. You've got an

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Speaker 1: individual that is in a dominant role, that is standing

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Speaker 1: above him. We have three ways that will classify gunshot ones.

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Speaker 1: Some people will say they're four, but let's just keep

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Speaker 1: it simple. We'll say three. We've got contact, We've got

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Speaker 1: intermediate range, and then we've got indeterminate range. Some people

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Speaker 1: say distant. I like to say indeterminate. So indeterminate means

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Speaker 1: there's no soot deposition, there's nothing, You're not going to

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Speaker 1: have a muzzle abrasion or anything like that. Intermediate range

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Speaker 1: means that you will have some powder deposition around the defect,

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Speaker 1: which is the bullet hole the entrance. And then the

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Speaker 1: next step is contact, and you can have a contact

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Speaker 1: and some people classified as a loose contact or press

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Speaker 1: contact or contact. Those terms are used interchangeably. So when

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Speaker 1: the doctor is examining this wound on the back of

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Speaker 1: this young man's head, she says that this is a

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Speaker 1: contact gunshot wound. She opened that it's consistent with somebody

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Speaker 1: having been standing directly over him. He was either kneeling

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Speaker 1: or laying down. They took the weapon and placed it

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Speaker 1: directly to the back of his head and discharged the weapon.

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Speaker 1: So what you have is the tip of that weapon

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Speaker 1: actually making contact with his hair, his skin, everything. There.

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Speaker 1: You'll have a little bit of searing because you know,

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Speaker 1: if you see a fire and fired at night, you'll

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Speaker 1: see a little bit of flame coming out. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot of heat escaping, now a lot of hot gas.

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Speaker 1: You'll get a little bit of a crispy edge around there,

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Speaker 1: and then you'll have soot deposition that will also occur.

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Speaker 1: And many times you'll get fractures in the skull that

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Speaker 1: are related to the projectile, but they are just as

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Speaker 1: much related to this hot gas being injected into the skull.

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Speaker 1: And what is we all know what hot air does.

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Speaker 1: Hard air expands, right, so as it expands, many times

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Speaker 1: you'll see a fracturing of a skull with these press

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Speaker 1: contact gunshot ones. This I do know this young man

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Speaker 1: who loved this young woman, died blinded by a T shirt,

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Speaker 1: gagged by a sock, and bound up, left in the

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Speaker 1: midst of a complex of train tracks, executed all alone,

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Speaker 1: and then as they left his body there, they set

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Speaker 1: it ablaze. It's horrific as Christopher Newsom's death was, there

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Speaker 1: is one saving element here that I have to emphasize,

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Speaker 1: just in case any of my listeners are curious. When

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Speaker 1: the friends of pathologists did their examination, it was determined

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Speaker 1: that at the time of his death, or at the

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Speaker 1: time that his body was sent ablaze, he was not alive.

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Speaker 1: So that means that they would have done an extensive

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Speaker 1: examination on his lungs to see if there was any

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Speaker 1: fire debris in his lungs, if he had inhalated anything.

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Speaker 1: That apparently was not the case. But I do know this.

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Speaker 1: You were discussing this Dave when they did the rape kit,

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Speaker 1: and people might not understand that. Yes, rape kits are

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Speaker 1: performed on males as well. I've done many of them

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Speaker 1: over the course of my career. They were not able

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Speaker 1: to recover any biological sample, and what I mean is

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Speaker 1: any kind of similar fluid, any kind of sperm, anything

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Speaker 1: from that had been deposited on or within his body,

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Speaker 1: and it's certainly plausible that he could have destroyed that.

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Speaker 1: But Dave, as bad as Chris's death was, while he

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Speaker 1: was being led away and you know, eventually killed, Shannon

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Speaker 1: has been left back on Chipman Street. She's still alive

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Speaker 1: at this point.

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Speaker 2: I know that from the timeline that I was able

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Speaker 2: to pull together because I was kind of curious about

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Speaker 2: when they separated him, when they pulled him away to

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Speaker 2: kill him, get him out of because you know what,

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Speaker 2: at that point, he hadn't been damaged so much that

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Speaker 2: he couldn't become a threat to them. Again, big country boy,

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Speaker 2: an athlete, works in carpentry. He was not going to

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Speaker 2: be a passive figure if given half a chance, and

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Speaker 2: they were afraid of that. That's why they had to

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Speaker 2: strip him down, make him walk barefoot on the railroad

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Speaker 2: tracks to humanize him, kill him, and light him on fire.

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Speaker 2: But at one point thirty that morning, an employee of

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Speaker 2: a business located on next to the Shipman Street home

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Speaker 2: set testified that he saw a fore erunner. Shannon owned

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Speaker 2: and drove a fore Runner. We know that was the

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Speaker 2: card that they were kidnapped and carjacked in as employees

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Speaker 2: saw the car four Runner parked with its parking lights

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Speaker 2: on in front of the Chipman Street house. Behind that

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Speaker 2: was a white car that was also seen earlier behind

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Speaker 2: the fore Runner when they took off and brought him over.

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Speaker 2: The white car later identified as the white Pontiac belonging

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Speaker 2: to Eric Boyd's cousin. Lights were on in the home

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Speaker 2: and the employee testified there appeared to be a lot

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Speaker 2: of activity in the house. This is at one thirty

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Speaker 2: in the morning. The reason I point that out is

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Speaker 2: as you try to figure out, we know she was

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Speaker 2: alone in the house without him. We know that he

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Speaker 2: was taken, but we don't know exactly when he was taken.

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Speaker 2: We do know this that an employee testified that he

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Speaker 2: saw four black men drive by in the Forerunner. He

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Speaker 2: saw the vehicle again at six forty five am park

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Speaker 2: near the house on Shipman Street. At about seven forty

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Speaker 2: five that morning, a railroad employee working on a nearby

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Speaker 2: railroad things saw smoke near the tracks, and it wasn't

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Speaker 2: that Seeing smokes near the track wasn't enough to make

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Speaker 2: somebody go check it out, apparently because it was several

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Speaker 2: hours another five hours before they showed up and actually

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Speaker 2: discovered body was reported on the tracks at twelve twenty

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Speaker 2: four PM. Now, the reason I point that out is

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Speaker 2: from we know, you know, in a twelve hour window.

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Speaker 2: We know that Shannon's talking to her mom at twelve

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Speaker 2: thirty five, and then we don't know from there twelve

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Speaker 2: twenty four when his body, when Christian's body is found

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Speaker 2: on the tracks. So that's a twelve hour window for

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Speaker 2: him from beginning to end, however, and we don't know

359
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Speaker 2: when We know that the fire was on at six

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Speaker 2: forty five, so again a number of hours for him.

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Speaker 2: For Christian Newsom, however, Shannon was going through something that

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Speaker 2: was not letting up.

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Speaker 1: You had mentioned a promise of hope, that there was

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Speaker 1: an inkling of hope. At one point in TOM, one

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Speaker 1: of her attackers actually paused long enough to tell her

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Speaker 1: that they were going to let her go. They were

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Speaker 1: going to let her go with the promise that she

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Speaker 1: would not say anything to anybody. And who knows what

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Speaker 1: the inner workings of that person's mind were at that

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Speaker 1: point in TOM. Why would you tell this to her?

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Speaker 1: But we do know that she had been sexually assaulted

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Speaker 1: in multiple ways throughout this period of time which she

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Speaker 1: was being held in captivity to include vaginally, rectly, and orally,

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Speaker 1: and there is a tremendous amount of evidence that is

375
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Speaker 1: discovered at autopsy per the forensic pathologist of this, one

376
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Speaker 1: of the most layering bits here is that when the

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Speaker 1: examination on Shannon's body was conducted, particularly relative to her mouth,

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Speaker 1: she had been assaulted so brutally this oral soodomy that

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Speaker 1: had taken place that it had actually ripped away multiple

380
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Speaker 1: layers of tissue within her oral cavity. The way you

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Speaker 1: can appreciate this at autopsy day and we have to

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Speaker 1: be able to discern and we have to do this

383
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Speaker 1: for the court. The court wants to know this, the

384
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Speaker 1: public needs to know this is that we have to

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Speaker 1: establish if these injuries did in fact occur worthy something

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Speaker 1: that she had before she was kidnapped, Had she sustained

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Speaker 1: some kind of oral trauma, and if that's the case,

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Speaker 1: then you would note, particularly when you took sections of

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Speaker 1: the tissue from the mouth, you would see that there

390
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Speaker 1: was healing going on. The next phase to that is

391
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Speaker 1: the most critical phase for this is that you assess

392
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Speaker 1: is this fresh and the reason and the way you

393
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Speaker 1: kind of delineate that particularly when you're doing a microscopic

394
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Speaker 1: examination of the oral tissues that you're going to look

395
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Speaker 1: and you're going to note that there is recent hemorrhage.

396
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 1: There's no healing that's going on in there. So you

397
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Speaker 1: know that this trauma that she's sustaining in her mouth,

398
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Speaker 1: which is extensive, is immediately adjacent to this sexual assault

399
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Speaker 1: that she's undergoing, and it go through for hours following this,

400
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Speaker 1: just on and on and on, and this is not

401
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Speaker 1: even touching the assaults that took place in the other

402
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Speaker 1: regions of her body.

403
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Speaker 2: So you can actually determine if a wound is fresh

404
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 2: within a day two days. I mean, you mentioned could

405
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 2: these injuries have taken place before this happened. I mean,

406
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Speaker 2: I know that we're going to talk about a dream world,

407
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 2: weird sequence of events here, but a defense team could

408
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:19,119
Speaker 2: then stand up and say, look, yeah, my guy was

409
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Speaker 2: there when something happened, but she was already like that

410
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Speaker 2: when they kidnapped her. She was already liked that she

411
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Speaker 2: had all these injuries when they were carjacked.

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Speaker 1: A defense attorney worth their salt. I have to say

413
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Speaker 1: this because if defense attorneys do their job, they have

414
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Speaker 1: a specific job. They have to do, and they would

415
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Speaker 1: ask and this is a dangerous question to ask to

416
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Speaker 1: a forensic pathologist on the stand, because a forensic pathologist

417
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Speaker 1: is the court qualified expert that's sitting there. So when

418
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Speaker 1: you ask this question, you're taking a risk. Doctor in

419
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Speaker 1: your opinion, is there any indication that these injuries may

420
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Speaker 1: have occurred prior to her being taken In some circumstances,

421
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Speaker 1: defense attorneys might attempt to impugne the character of her

422
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Speaker 1: boyfriend as well, because they're attempting to defend, and that

423
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Speaker 1: just it just makes people's blood boil. But you know,

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Speaker 1: defense attorneys will do that and they will ask that question.

425
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Speaker 1: But here's flipside of that. If you ask a forensic

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Speaker 1: pathologist that question, they are going to answer it, and

427
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Speaker 1: you will not be pleased with the answer because what

428
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 1: they will say is that, no, these are the indicators

429
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: that we look for in the process of healing, and

430
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: you can see them sometimes within twelve to fifteen hours

431
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Speaker 1: after an injury has occurred, and certainly within twenty four hours,

432
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,119
Speaker 1: and more and more and more the further you move

433
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: away from the injury, the pathologists will say, oh, no,

434
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 1: there was no healing here. This is something that happened

435
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 1: in the immediate and it is immediately adjacent to her death.

436
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: Her body never had a chance to recover from any

437
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: of this, and she wound up this traumatized.

438
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 2: And after being that traumatized in every way one can

439
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 2: be brutalized sexually. These criminals used bleach. They poured bleach

440
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,959
Speaker 2: down her throat. They scrubbed her body with bleach with

441
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:17,920
Speaker 2: brushes so hard that even this cleaning using the bleach

442
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:23,120
Speaker 2: damaged her private parts. Yes, which goes to how sick

443
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 2: these individuals were. They were not cleaning her to clean her.

444
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 2: They were trying to get rid of evidence.

445
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 1: Right, And this is important to remember. If you've ever

446
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,679
Speaker 1: been in your laundry room, you've had to bleach anything.

447
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,879
Speaker 1: You bleach, You splashed bleach on something, and of course

448
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 1: you don't want to get on your clothes. You know

449
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:41,160
Speaker 1: how many times we use bleach and my wife gets

450
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: on to me about this. Don't spray that bleach on

451
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 1: you've got your good shirt on, or you got this shirt.

452
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 1: You're going to ruin that shirt. That's the effect that

453
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 1: bleach has. But when it comes in contact with our skin,

454
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:55,960
Speaker 1: bleach burns. It's not some kind of benign substance that

455
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: gets on to us. And one thing that you would

456
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: see in the these so called cleaned areas. I hate

457
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: to use that term because it implies something with the

458
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 1: human being. They're trying to clean themselves. Now they're trying

459
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: to destroy evidence. Day. That's what this comes down to.

460
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: You would actually see an inflammatory response to an already

461
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 1: traumatized area, the cells, the membranes, you would see this.

462
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,880
Speaker 1: There would be an inflammation dependent upon how how long

463
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 1: she lived. And she did live.

464
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 2: She was alive with the bleach going into the open

465
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 2: cuts on her body that we're still bleeding. They're pouring

466
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,719
Speaker 2: bleach in her mouth, They're pouring bleach all over her

467
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 2: body into open wounds that were bleeding. They're scrubbing these

468
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:43,439
Speaker 2: with bleach, again, not to clean her, but to destroy evidence. Yes,

469
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 2: and she's alive the whole time, and by the way,

470
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 2: saying I don't want to die, telling these people I

471
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 2: do not want to die. I don't want to die.

472
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: The level of inhumanity that this reaches when you begin

473
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 1: to really kind of try to process this case is

474
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 1: something that none of us can perhaps feature I hope

475
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: none of us can. But it's one of those things

476
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: that you begin to see the extent to which this

477
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: goes their attempt to destroy the evidence. But after all

478
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: of this is done to Shannon, they still have a problem.

479
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: They have a living, breathing witness at this point. Remember

480
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: she's still capable at this point in time to vocalize

481
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 1: to plead for her life. I don't want to die,

482
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking all the time. She's probably somewhere in

483
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: her mind she's thinking about Christopher. So what do you

484
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,679
Speaker 1: do with her? Well, the next thing they do is

485
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: they actually take a white plastic bag and put it

486
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: over her head.

487
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 2: Trash bag.

488
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: I've got the impression that it's either a household trash

489
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 1: bag more than likely placed it over her head and

490
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: then contained her within two other bags and then place

491
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: her inside of garbage can. And here's the thing about

492
00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 1: it is she is contained and dound within this garbage

493
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: can to the point where she's contracted so that she's

494
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,360
Speaker 1: in And the forensic pathologists described it like this, that

495
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 1: she was in a forced fetal position. So just imagine

496
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: a fetal position. We all know this, where you have

497
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: a baby with the arms pulled in and their head

498
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: is down toward their knees. She's being down forced. This

499
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 1: is grown one in the bottom of this thing, and

500
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: she's contained in bags, and so she's down in this position,

501
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 1: so that she is in this contracted position, placed into

502
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 1: this small space and covered. So not only are you

503
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 1: in a covered environment in the sense that the space

504
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: that you're in is very small and with limited oxygen.

505
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: By the way, now you're even further compromising her ability

506
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: to uptake oxygen because she's got a bag of her head,

507
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,719
Speaker 1: she's contained within other plastic bags. These things are not permeable.

508
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: You're not going to be able to receive oxygen. They

509
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:03,920
Speaker 1: don't breathe all right, and she's left essentially to die. Now,

510
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: there's two things that we need to think about when

511
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,440
Speaker 1: it comes to her cause of death. The manner of

512
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: death obviously is a homicide. This is an asphixial death.

513
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: But this is what we refer to as a positional asphixia.

514
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: I think in the past I've mentioned positional assixia deaths before,

515
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: but it's literally in a position so that you are

516
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: so tightly compromised in the attitude that your body is

517
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 1: in that your chest can no longer rise and fall.

518
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: You can't expand to uptake oxygen or to excel, and

519
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 1: even if you do exhale, you're going to be rebreathing

520
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: the same air. One hope I think in these circumstances

521
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: is that this led to the condition which we refer

522
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: to as anoxia, which can make the person kind of

523
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: loopy or drunk to a certain degree. The brain is

524
00:30:56,080 --> 00:31:00,239
Speaker 1: being slowly depleted of oxygen, and that she was in

525
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: some way numb to it. But Dave, she was alive

526
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: when they put her in the bottom of that thing.

527
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 2: When you say positional asphyxiation, and that's what she died of,

528
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 2: being asphyxiated. But we know that she lived. Not They

529
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 2: can't guarantee us a certain time, right, But if she

530
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 2: had been discovered in time, could she have survived?

531
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 1: She probably could have. Perhaps, and I'm not even talking

532
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: on the psychological side. She would have borne scars from

533
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 1: this for years to come, just the mere exposure to

534
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 1: the bleach. But here's the one saving grace, Dave, here's

535
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 1: the one saving grace because these perpetrators, these criminals, now,

536
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 1: because this whole crew has been convicted, decided to contain

537
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 1: her body. They left behind the biggest clue of all.

538
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: There was specific DNA that tied these perpetrators. Tied that

539
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: evidence that Shannon's broken body was able to give up

540
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 1: to the forensic scientist and it revealed who actually perpetrated

541
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: this crime. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is bodybags