Speaker 1: School of humans. These it's not just the victim and
Speaker 1: the victim's family. It's the worst for them, but there's
Speaker 1: also the people who are accused, and it's never cleared
Speaker 1: one way or the other, really, and so they get
Speaker 1: whispered about in town and just the crazy rumors hurt
Speaker 1: a lot of people. When there's no justice done, it
Speaker 1: hurts a lot of people. It hurts the whole town.
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these people. Their children may
Speaker 1: be getting to that age, their kids might be sixteen
Speaker 1: or even older, and so that's got to be hard
Speaker 1: if you saw something like that at a party and
Speaker 1: you never told anyone. And it's interesting because I could
Speaker 1: completely understand being sixteen years old. You're terrified, you're terrified
Speaker 1: of getting in trouble for drinking and you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But that's very different from thirty years later. You've got
Speaker 1: kids who are older, like you know. It's just interesting.
Speaker 1: It's the end of winter and icicles are frozen on
Speaker 1: the gutters of my dad's house in Mountain View. I'm
Speaker 1: on the top floor in the war room, and in
Speaker 1: front of me are two boxes. There's a small brown
Speaker 1: one that looks like an oversized briefcase and a huge
Speaker 1: plastic blue one. These hopefully hold the clues to what
Speaker 1: happened to Janie Ward on September ninth, nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Everything in these boxes was collected by Janie's dad, Ron.
Speaker 1: He died last summer, but I feel like I've been
Speaker 1: talking to him every single day. Weird how things will
Speaker 1: hit you emotionally. You're really you know, you're okay for
Speaker 1: a long time, and then you see something. The autopsy
Speaker 1: photos I saw were war horrific, something that no family,
Speaker 1: you know, father should ever have to see. And then
Speaker 1: you'd see things like all of Ron's correspondence with his attorney,
Speaker 1: me and with the state. And Ron had obviously googled
Speaker 1: how to write a business letter and what to do,
Speaker 1: how to get a notary, how to get a notarized statement.
Speaker 1: I mean he really every single thing in there was
Speaker 1: documented by him, and you could just see how meticulous
Speaker 1: he was and how hard he worked, and right up
Speaker 1: until the end, he had his to do list. Like
Speaker 1: we did with Rebecca's case, In order to figure out
Speaker 1: what really happened to Jane, we need to focus on victimology.
Speaker 1: We have to try to reconstruct what was going on
Speaker 1: in her life. And the days and the hours leading
Speaker 1: up to her death, what really happened at that party?
Speaker 1: And thirty years later, why don't we know the truth
Speaker 1: about how Janie died. I'm Catherine Townsend and this is
Speaker 1: Helen Gone. So yeah, I'm keeping him in the order
Speaker 1: Ron had them in, But then I'm also separable going
Speaker 1: back to the week leading up to the party on Saturday,
Speaker 1: September ninth, nineteen eighty nine. I'm keeping him the same
Speaker 1: folders that Ron had them in, and he was very methodical,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to mess that up, and I've
Speaker 1: put a few aside I think we need to be
Speaker 1: to deal with first that are contradictory. But anyway, we're
Speaker 1: using witness statements from the Arkansas State Police case file.
Speaker 1: The ASP took charge of Jane's case at the request
Speaker 1: of Sircy County Sheriff Kent Griggs. The sheriff had a
Speaker 1: history with Ron and he wanted to avoid any suggestion
Speaker 1: of impropriety. Arkansas State Police investigator Bill Beach got the call,
Speaker 1: he drove to Marshall and started his investigation. And there
Speaker 1: are also contradictory things about out where Janie was. They
Speaker 1: call her Olivia in a lot of the statements because
Speaker 1: her name's Olivia Jane, But I mean most of these
Speaker 1: witness statements spend more time talking about the kegs and
Speaker 1: who collected money at school during the party and who
Speaker 1: was playing the party. By that Wednesday, everyone in the
Speaker 1: junior class at Marshall High School is buzzing about a party.
Speaker 1: It's being thrown by one of Janie's cousins, Jamie Ward.
Speaker 1: Since their names are so similar, will refer to him
Speaker 1: as Jay from this point on. Jay lived at a
Speaker 1: cabin in the woods off of unpaved Zach Road. The
Speaker 1: cabin was owned by Jay's father, Steve Ward. Even though
Speaker 1: Jay is only sixteen, his parents let him live in
Speaker 1: the cabin by himself so he could keep going to
Speaker 1: Marshall High School. Jane's family lived pretty far away from
Speaker 1: downtown Marshall. Janie's mom, Mona, told Bill Beach that it
Speaker 1: was not unusual for Janie to spend the night with
Speaker 1: friends on the weekend. On most Fridays, Jane rode the
Speaker 1: school bus home and then a friend would pick her
Speaker 1: up to go back to downtown Marshall. Ron told Bill
Speaker 1: Beach that the last time he saw his daughter was
Speaker 1: the morning of Friday, September eighth, a day before the party.
Speaker 1: He told Beach that she left home wearing a pin
Speaker 1: striped shirt and stonewashed jeans. We know that Janie was
Speaker 1: excited about the party from an interview her friend Leslie
Speaker 1: did with Bill Beach. It's been an interview of Leslie,
Speaker 1: student died in tenth grade approximately four twenty FM. Leslie
Speaker 1: says Janie spent the night with her on the Friday
Speaker 1: night before the party. Where was last night time? The
Speaker 1: last time Leslie saw Janie was at around four thirty
Speaker 1: pm on Saturday, finish fir on linked she said shirt.
Speaker 1: Leslie just said that Jane borrowed a shirt from her.
Speaker 1: When did you find out which one she bought? Say?
Speaker 1: After it happened. She tells Beach that she discovered her
Speaker 1: missing shirt day after Janie died when she went through
Speaker 1: her drawer to see which one of her shirts was missing.
Speaker 1: It was her deaf leopard one. So we know where
Speaker 1: the shirt came from, but we still don't know how
Speaker 1: she could have been wearing one shirt at the funeral
Speaker 1: home in Marshall and then a different one at the
Speaker 1: crime lab in Little Rock. Leslie also says Janie told
Speaker 1: her she was going to stash her clothes at the
Speaker 1: pool hall so that she could pick them up after
Speaker 1: the party. Was there anything in the time that she's
Speaker 1: fad with you last year it was saying to be
Speaker 1: bothering her INtime that she's concerned bat Nothing as far
Speaker 1: as well she's trying to glory kiss I ran her
Speaker 1: financial tumble. Yes, she get into the air. While Jane's
Speaker 1: at Leslie's house fixing her hair, Jay is at his
Speaker 1: house getting ready for the party. He's setting up kegs
Speaker 1: on the front porch. He's also preparing the PGA pine bunch,
Speaker 1: which stands for pure grain alcohol. He'd taken up money
Speaker 1: at school and he collected around one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: Follow will be a swarm statement of Jamie Ward. Why
Speaker 1: am I oil seventeen? Is that right? When was the
Speaker 1: alcohol purchase for the party? In my hum? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I ain't got it, Jamie. I'd I say that, Well,
Speaker 1: you're under oath, you're not a suspect. Jay is reluctant
Speaker 1: to share who bought the alcohol for the kids at
Speaker 1: the party, but Beach has already discovered it was twenty
Speaker 1: two year old Gary Don, did you go with Gary
Speaker 1: Shnod's Big Flat? Gary Don is a graduate of Marshall
Speaker 1: High School, and it's still friendly with the students there.
Speaker 1: I told you when we started that I talked to
Speaker 1: a lot of people since I talked to you the
Speaker 1: first time. I told you when we started, and I
Speaker 1: tell you you're again in front of your mother, that
Speaker 1: we're not your point fingers, and we're not gonna say
Speaker 1: to somebody specificly college Jane's dead, but that we do
Speaker 1: have to have the trivia because these are unanswered questions
Speaker 1: if we can't leave unanswered to close out this investigation.
Speaker 1: Circe is a dry county, so to get the booze,
Speaker 1: Jay drives with Gary donn the thirty minutes to the
Speaker 1: Junction liquor store in Big Flat, which sits right on
Speaker 1: the border of Circe and wet Baxter County. Ever Clear,
Speaker 1: which is what the kids at the party Jane attended
Speaker 1: were drinking, is one hundred and ninety proof. That's ninety
Speaker 1: five percent alcohol content, making it one of the purest
Speaker 1: and most potent alcoholic beverages available, and Jay tells police
Speaker 1: that along with the punch, he added fruit pieces soaked
Speaker 1: in rubbing alcohol to make it extra strong. I remember
Speaker 1: my high school chemistry teacher lecturing about the dangers of
Speaker 1: grain alcohol. He took a styrofoam cup. This is what
Speaker 1: grain alcohol does to your stomach, he would tell us,
Speaker 1: And when he poured the alcohol into the cup, the
Speaker 1: styrofoam bottom melted instantly. I can't remember what chemical reaction
Speaker 1: caused the cup to melt, but I can remember that,
Speaker 1: far from being deterred by the potential danger, the kids
Speaker 1: in my class had the opposite reaction. Strong plus cheap
Speaker 1: equals a maximum buzz for minimum cost. Shortly after saying
Speaker 1: goodbye to her friend Leslie, Jane heads to the town square.
Speaker 1: They're in the Daisy Queen were the main spots where
Speaker 1: teens would hang around on the weekends. Janie's friend Ron
Speaker 1: Rose is driving around the town square in his truck.
Speaker 1: He's with Kim, another friend. Jane asked them for a
Speaker 1: ride to the party. Should be a swarm statement of
Speaker 1: Ron Dale Rose, twenty years old. This is Ron Rose,
Speaker 1: not to be confused with Janie's died Ron Ward. How
Speaker 1: did how did Olivia act when he first talked her
Speaker 1: out there on the square? Did that she's doing a
Speaker 1: pretty good movie. When she was talking being really happy,
Speaker 1: do you remember anything in particular if she talked about
Speaker 1: what you got to the bar? I really I just
Speaker 1: wondered who all was going to be down there and
Speaker 1: what was doing on? Okay, so you and Olivia and
Speaker 1: Kim went to the party together. Ron says the three
Speaker 1: of them got to the party around five point thirty
Speaker 1: or six pm. Soon after that, more people start arriving.
Speaker 1: Here's Gary Donn, the twenty two year old who bought
Speaker 1: the alcohol, and we in associated with a few people,
Speaker 1: and I seen Jane, and there's more. There's more people
Speaker 1: and went on into the house, went there and there
Speaker 1: was people doing different things. There's people who listened to
Speaker 1: this ORYA. Only there's people in the kitchen, and there's
Speaker 1: some people out there that had ferried out there as
Speaker 1: messing with the There's more people out in the backyard.
Speaker 1: And I'm or less walked on through one housesosiated with
Speaker 1: a few more than people. Multiple witnesses see Janey at
Speaker 1: the party. Some people say they saw Jane drinking the
Speaker 1: PGA punch, chewing on a few pieces of fruit, the
Speaker 1: one soaked and rubbing alcohol. But no one at the
Speaker 1: party is paying close attention to what Janie is doing.
Speaker 1: A lot of partygoers said they talked with Jane, but
Speaker 1: they don't remember what they talked about. People say she
Speaker 1: was sitting on Ron Roses truck's tailgate, or on a
Speaker 1: couch on the front porch, she was leaning against a post,
Speaker 1: or sitting on the rail of the porch. No one
Speaker 1: knows for sure. According to the National Weather Service, sunset
Speaker 1: on September ninth, nineteen eighty nine was at seven twenty
Speaker 1: seven pm, and that's around the time that all hell
Speaker 1: breaks loose. Depending on who you ask, two things happen
Speaker 1: simultaneously or one after the other. Janie falls and someone
Speaker 1: shout that the party is about to get busted by
Speaker 1: the cops. Even though it didn't have electricity, the cabin
Speaker 1: had a phone. It's called a party line, and it
Speaker 1: was a common sight in rural Arkansas during the eighties.
Speaker 1: A party line is a phone line where you're able
Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and listen in on conversations
Speaker 1: happening nearby. If you want to use the phone to
Speaker 1: call out, you usually have to wait for another person
Speaker 1: to hang up and someone at the party. No one
Speaker 1: is sure who heard a neighbor calling the cop on duty,
Speaker 1: Joey Pruett, and telling him a bunch of kids were
Speaker 1: having a party with alcohol. The neighbor also complained that
Speaker 1: the party goers ran her off the road as they
Speaker 1: zoomed up to the cabin. Of all the people at
Speaker 1: the party, only three say they actually saw Janie fall.
Speaker 1: Garyed on a cheerleader named Sarah and Billy, the high
Speaker 1: school quarterback. Sarah said that she was on the porch
Speaker 1: when Janey sort of twisted sideway then just fell on back.
Speaker 1: In Billy's statement, he says, she just came straight back
Speaker 1: like a tree. Gary Donn was socializing on the porch,
Speaker 1: so I looked away, and then I was more or
Speaker 1: less glass back in this in fly. I mean I
Speaker 1: called her in flight, is what I'm saying. I mean
Speaker 1: she was falling when I looked, and I mean just
Speaker 1: happened that quick. This, I mean, all that right there
Speaker 1: we've been talking about happened more or less in just
Speaker 1: a little wat. I mean she fell. I mean somebody hollered.
Speaker 1: Joy Prut was coming, That's what I heard. Joey Prutt
Speaker 1: was the police officer supposedly coming to bust the party.
Speaker 1: But and then people started scattering running by her. And
Speaker 1: that's more or less whenever I really started paying attention
Speaker 1: to her, because I mean, I couldn't get nobody to
Speaker 1: help me. I didn't know if she was knocked out
Speaker 1: or what or really hurt or anything. I knew when
Speaker 1: I got down there and turned her head over, safety
Speaker 1: busted her head over. That's the first thing I did.
Speaker 1: I mean, I try and save our head was much
Speaker 1: the over good. I thought her, she might knock yourself out.
Speaker 1: It's me and somebody lift her up on the porch
Speaker 1: j in the light, because the porch just kind of
Speaker 1: had her face shaving and stuff. It had her shaved
Speaker 1: a little bit, and we raised her up in the
Speaker 1: light where we could really see her, pay attention to her.
Speaker 1: And basically from that, this payple is going wild. The
Speaker 1: thing no one can agree on is how long Janie
Speaker 1: was laying on the ground. Gary don makes it seem
Speaker 1: like it was less than a minute, but Billy said
Speaker 1: it was more like fifteen to twenty minutes before anyone
Speaker 1: moved her. So this is the Billy Harris statement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is brutal. Kim Weddie went over to Janie and
Speaker 1: said she had passed out. I never saw anybody else
Speaker 1: go over to her. I went back in the house
Speaker 1: and talked with Jason, Matthew Brian. She probably laid there
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes before anybody moved her. Me, Jamie, Gail,
Speaker 1: and Gary Donn moved her to the back of Ron's truck.
Speaker 1: I don't think she was ever moved onto the porch.
Speaker 1: Jamie and Gil said she needed to go to a doctor.
Speaker 1: I noticed that's when I came back outside, that she
Speaker 1: had a bowel movement. I could see that her pants
Speaker 1: were wet and she was having a hard time breathing.
Speaker 1: Rose and Kim were in the cab of his truck,
Speaker 1: and Rose said there was no room for Janie except
Speaker 1: in the back. I offered to ride with her in
Speaker 1: the back, but Rose said no, he didn't want any
Speaker 1: trouble with the wall. I offered to get a blanket,
Speaker 1: and he said no, she'd be all right. I believe
Speaker 1: she moved her arm across her chest and we'd put
Speaker 1: her in the truck. She never said anything else that
Speaker 1: I heard. Janie was on the ground fifteen to twenty
Speaker 1: minutes before someone said the police was coming. Everyone just
Speaker 1: thought she was drunk and and passed out. Once everyone
Speaker 1: found out the cops were coming, people started panicking. Gary
Speaker 1: Dahn said, everyone was running around like maniacs. They see
Speaker 1: Janie soil herself. At this point, they know she's in
Speaker 1: serious trouble, maybe dying. The decision was made to put
Speaker 1: Janie into the back of Ron Rose's truck. Ron, Kim,
Speaker 1: and Sherry, another friend, got in the front. They started
Speaker 1: the three mile drive on rural roads to marshall'stown Square.
Speaker 1: At first, no one is sitting in the back of
Speaker 1: the truck with Jane during the rocky ride back to town,
Speaker 1: until Kim opens the window of the truck cab and
Speaker 1: climbs into the back to check on Jane. As Ron
Speaker 1: zoomed down Highway sixty five, he passed another friend, Carla Brightwell.
Speaker 1: She flashed her lights at his truck and when he
Speaker 1: didn't slow down, she thought something must be wrong, so
Speaker 1: she followed him. They ended up at the bank parking lot.
Speaker 1: At this point, Carla said, Ron and the girls were
Speaker 1: arguing about whether Jane was just passed out and whether
Speaker 1: or not they should take her home. I heard somebody
Speaker 1: say she's called, you know, and Dennie Wynn got a
Speaker 1: jacket at somebody's car and put over Jane and someone
Speaker 1: said she hadn't I already seen her move, that she
Speaker 1: fell off the porch, and I kind of thought, right then,
Speaker 1: though she fell off, of course she hadn't moved, you know,
Speaker 1: like all these end runs in my head. So Pam
Speaker 1: and I went over to her, and we were trying
Speaker 1: to feel her pulse, you know, because you know from
Speaker 1: when I said of like, you know, fell off of
Speaker 1: what I thought, maybe she's look for her, that's what
Speaker 1: you bag what I thought. Carla took control. She told
Speaker 1: Beach that she felt for a pulse and thought she
Speaker 1: might have found one, but she since decided that what
Speaker 1: she felt was her own pulse. She picked up Janie's arm.
Speaker 1: It felt cold. I knew enough to know to go
Speaker 1: get somebody that might know what to do, but they
Speaker 1: don't train. You didn't know what to do to pull
Speaker 1: up in a bag of the truck and there's a
Speaker 1: girl lay in there and you don't have a certainty.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't know what to do, true, and
Speaker 1: I need to get help somebody that didn't know what
Speaker 1: they were doing. So Carla had run across the street
Speaker 1: the ambulance service to alert them of Jane's condition. J D.
Speaker 1: Beeson was the ambulance driver and manager of the ambulance
Speaker 1: service at the time. He and his wife, Kathy, a
Speaker 1: licensed LPN, arrived on the scene and would later testify
Speaker 1: that Jane was lying on her right side. In a statement,
Speaker 1: Cathy said, we checked and rechecked for needle marks at
Speaker 1: the request of the sheriff. Coarse sand, dry leaves, and
Speaker 1: small twigs were found at the blouse neck and the
Speaker 1: LEVI waste. Coarse sand was found on the abdomen under
Speaker 1: the bra Cathy said this immediately led her to conclude
Speaker 1: this was a suspicious death, not an accidental death. Another
Speaker 1: employee of the ambulance service stepped in. He stated that
Speaker 1: he noticed something else, a strong odor of alcohol on Jane.
Speaker 1: That's odd because it doesn't match witness statements at the
Speaker 1: party who said that she wasn't drinking heavily. One of
Speaker 1: the paramedics who examined Janie remembers seeing a black back
Speaker 1: def leopard T shirt over a white pinstriped shirt. She
Speaker 1: remembers having to unbutton and roll up the shirt in
Speaker 1: order to get to Janie's body. Meanwhile, many of the
Speaker 1: kids who had left the party congregated at the Daisy Queen.
Speaker 1: All of them were talking about what happened to Jane.
Speaker 1: A lot of them came to the Bank parking lot,
Speaker 1: where a huge crowd gathered around Jane's lifeless body. By
Speaker 1: this point, half the town is there. It even makes
Speaker 1: the evening news, but her parents Ron and Mona still
Speaker 1: have no idea what has happened to their daughter. Jane
Speaker 1: is pronounced dead at eight forty five pm. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back on the night Jane he died. Bill Beach
Speaker 1: interviews four of the people at the party, Gary Dawn,
Speaker 1: Kim Jay, and Ron Rose. He then asked the sheriff
Speaker 1: to send everyone home. Over the next few days, the
Speaker 1: sheriff collects statements from the kids at school. Beach then
Speaker 1: interviews thirty people. Over the next few months, he reinterviews
Speaker 1: some of the key witnesses. As I read through his interviews,
Speaker 1: several things start to bug me. A lot of the
Speaker 1: statements collected from people at the party are incredibly short
Speaker 1: and don't provide much detail, and they spend half the
Speaker 1: time talking about who provided the booze for the party.
Speaker 1: And over the months people's answers change. The cheerleader Sarah
Speaker 1: changes her answers of who she was at the party with,
Speaker 1: and also adds a story about Janie, calling her a snob.
Speaker 1: Gary Don initially said he saw Janie fall, but later
Speaker 1: in a reenactment video done by the Arkansas State Police,
Speaker 1: he demonstrated how Janey was likely to have fallen. It's strange.
Speaker 1: A couple of other partygoers also said they heard a
Speaker 1: thud when Jane fell, and then a statement from a
Speaker 1: police dispatcher named Harold Young throws everything off. Ron, Rose, Kim,
Speaker 1: and Sherry all said they drove from the cabin to
Speaker 1: the parking lot without stopping, but the dispatcher at the
Speaker 1: police station that night said Ron came by the sheriff's
Speaker 1: department at six thirty pm to tell him there was
Speaker 1: an injured girl in the back of his truck. The
Speaker 1: dispatcher's statement was notarized, and he confirmed what he said
Speaker 1: years later during another investigation into Janie's death. So, depending
Speaker 1: on how you read the witness statements and who you believe,
Speaker 1: the time between Janie falling and being in the Bank
Speaker 1: parking lot could either have been half an hour or
Speaker 1: more than ninety minutes. The order of events and how
Speaker 1: much time passed between them becomes one of the most
Speaker 1: hot button issues throughout the last thirty years of investigations.
Speaker 1: We thought having all of these statements available to us
Speaker 1: would be an advantage in figuring out this case, but
Speaker 1: it's leading me to even more questions what could have
Speaker 1: happened in those ninety missing minutes. This is one of
Speaker 1: the recurring questions that the journalists Mike Masterson asks in
Speaker 1: his columns about Jane. After Jane died, the Ward family
Speaker 1: heard plenty of troubling stories about what could have happened
Speaker 1: during that missing time. Well, and that's why Jamie and
Speaker 1: the Brose boy after they've directed to go to the
Speaker 1: macparking lots so Janey could be discovered there. That's why
Speaker 1: they were sitting there debating on whether to take Jennie's
Speaker 1: body to us so Ronnie could take it from there
Speaker 1: instead of them going along with their cover up. So
Speaker 1: they didn't know what to do. Well, they also took
Speaker 1: her to the Mac parking lot because there is a
Speaker 1: car wash there and that's where they redwashed her body
Speaker 1: and marsh they were directed to take hersh her off
Speaker 1: and wait at the bank parking lot until they could
Speaker 1: come and discover her. Did they ever explained why she
Speaker 1: was wet and where her hair was wet and where
Speaker 1: there was sand in her clothes? I mean no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that was never addressed. Yeah, I just rumors and witnesses
Speaker 1: claiming that they washed her now with the water hose
Speaker 1: at the car lot or the car wash in the
Speaker 1: bank parking lot. And when you say witnesses, was it
Speaker 1: people in the official report? Who so it was? This
Speaker 1: is like people talking beyond these missing minutes. What confuses
Speaker 1: me the most is the statements from the ambulance service
Speaker 1: attendants JD and Kathy. First of all, it took Bill
Speaker 1: Beach more than three months to interview them, and that
Speaker 1: was after they requested he talk to them. They were
Speaker 1: so concerned they even compiled their own statements to deliver
Speaker 1: to him. Talked to hit This is an interview you
Speaker 1: that Ron Ward did with j D and Kathy. As
Speaker 1: Beach does his investigation, Ron has started his own would
Speaker 1: you like my opinion? And this is just speculation? Okay?
Speaker 1: I thank somebody throwing the damn river and picked her up.
Speaker 1: Work took to a carb wars and holder or something,
Speaker 1: But the investigators haven't him talked to Cat and I yet,
Speaker 1: and I asked him. I asked Carold Young the other night,
Speaker 1: those investigators question Cat and I. We were the first
Speaker 1: ones on the scene. Jad and Kathy confirmed some of
Speaker 1: the things Ron saw when he saw Janie's body at
Speaker 1: the Morgan Marshall, like the sand and twigs. They said
Speaker 1: they hadn't noticed bruising, but in their notarized statement to
Speaker 1: Bill Beach, they did remark on swelling on Janie's neck
Speaker 1: and shoulder. They also said she was wet except for
Speaker 1: her genital area, which doesn't make any sense because multiple
Speaker 1: witnesses at the party specifically said Janie wet herself. The
Speaker 1: paramedics also noted that Jane had a foamy substance coming
Speaker 1: out of her I bet there was one hundred kids
Speaker 1: over there, and the first thing I did had John Childers.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know him or not. I
Speaker 1: hadn't chase everybody away from the truck. You know, they're
Speaker 1: twenty five feet back. That's the first thing to do.
Speaker 1: While she was checking them. You I feel funny talking
Speaker 1: about this, and funny Ron, I'm sorry. Quick, So then
Speaker 1: Kathy check her he had no radio pulse, she had
Speaker 1: no karate pulse. Her eyes were dialing really large. I
Speaker 1: think we told you about that. And she had no
Speaker 1: visible bruises whatsoever on her body from the way stuff
Speaker 1: the other thing we found on herbs and twigs and
Speaker 1: leaves and sandy gravel, you know, like we told you.
Speaker 1: Stuff down here and the back of the riches here
Speaker 1: and there was poor fans all and she was wet
Speaker 1: as is, like somebody dropped in a river or something
Speaker 1: and picked it back up. As we saw in Rebecca's case,
Speaker 1: memory can be unreliable, and like Rebecca's, Janie's case quickly
Speaker 1: began to become a question of who remembered what people forget,
Speaker 1: and the more time that has passed since an incident,
Speaker 1: the more likely it is for people to incorporate rumor
Speaker 1: into what they remember. This is a phone call between
Speaker 1: Ron Ward and Bill Beach. It was included in the
Speaker 1: original police case file. Cool Roy, Bill Beach. So you're
Speaker 1: doing just fine there you okay, my lieutenant, Come and
Speaker 1: tell me that you had some more names. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: I do, okay. Ron is providing names for Beach to
Speaker 1: follow up on. This phone call is fifteen minutes long. Well,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, though, Ronn, is do you have all
Speaker 1: this documentary? Is it? Would it be offered for me
Speaker 1: to get copies though, so I can compare them. I
Speaker 1: can go through and check the names and compare it
Speaker 1: to what they have told me, you know, And I'd say,
Speaker 1: if there's people that I haven't talked to, that haven't
Speaker 1: been interviewed, and I can go back and I can
Speaker 1: do that, or if it's people that have been interviewed
Speaker 1: that have given contrary and information that I can reinterview
Speaker 1: from what we can tell this call that was included
Speaker 1: in the official police file was very soft. And have
Speaker 1: you got tape conversations with manage people? What I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't expect you'd given the original takes, But it
Speaker 1: would it be possible for some one time to desicateto
Speaker 1: and let me get copies of the duskis ron also
Speaker 1: recorded some calls with Arkansas State Police officers where he
Speaker 1: starts venting his frustration about what he feels to be
Speaker 1: Beach's lack of progress on the case. Ron how are
Speaker 1: you okay? I've been up here all day and I
Speaker 1: talked to Philip Christy and I told him must coming
Speaker 1: and I've been working on some mothers things. He said
Speaker 1: you had take for him. You know what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: Did he beend the merchant who he's worked with me?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know, you know, but then
Speaker 1: feel come over information money now, okaymation you bet, And
Speaker 1: that's that's the only way I will do Okay. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's the investigator. He's wanted to see, he is, He's
Speaker 1: going first to investigate it, and I'm the father. Ron
Speaker 1: is suggesting a trade with the police. He will hand
Speaker 1: his interviews over to them if they will give him
Speaker 1: more access to the information that they've collected. Tensions continue
Speaker 1: to grow when Ron hears about Beach's interview with Gary Donn.
Speaker 1: In it, Gary Donn complains about Ron. Ronnie calls my
Speaker 1: mother all that is not called at one o'clock and
Speaker 1: more than ask her where I was and if I
Speaker 1: was all right? He calls me that already at a
Speaker 1: million becomes old with not has. He says that Ron
Speaker 1: is calling his mother at one in the morning, is
Speaker 1: calling him and has come by his house. Beach even
Speaker 1: says that Gary don can file charges against Ron. Ron
Speaker 1: gets wind of this interview, and has also heard that
Speaker 1: Beach has been asking about him and other witness interviews.
Speaker 1: Ron calls the Arkansas State Police, I understand it. You're
Speaker 1: see ID agent Bill Beats is running around town here
Speaker 1: and get an information and trying to say that I'm
Speaker 1: the one to beat my daughter up. That's the information
Speaker 1: I have a chieve today. I do not appreciate that
Speaker 1: one bit. What's this got to do with my daughter dying?
Speaker 1: And they said I'm beating her up? You know, I
Speaker 1: can't understand this. I really can't. Over all things I
Speaker 1: can understand. You know, this is affecting my family life.
Speaker 1: It's affect of my mind. It works on the people
Speaker 1: in the whole county, the whole state. Everybody's undertune, everybody.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering just what the hell this happened this time?
Speaker 1: You know, mister Beechers, like I go before, said almost
Speaker 1: the lucrous person. I'm not at all real luckily be
Speaker 1: to handle this at all. It's been one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighteen days to day, it's been one hundred and eighteen days,
Speaker 1: he says, and no answers. You'll be right back. After
Speaker 1: looking at Janie's case file, I'm left with plenty of questions.
Speaker 1: Why didn't they put Janie in the front of the truck,
Speaker 1: and if she was in the back, why did no
Speaker 1: one ride with her the entire way and hold her
Speaker 1: hand If she had an in was it made worse
Speaker 1: by riding in the back of that truck? Also? Why
Speaker 1: was she left lying on the ground for so long?
Speaker 1: One sixteen year old kid was insistent and said that
Speaker 1: he needed to speak to investigators the night Janie died.
Speaker 1: He said that Jannie was lying on the ground at
Speaker 1: the party for much longer than a few minutes without
Speaker 1: anyone getting help for her, and that they were focused
Speaker 1: on cleaning up the beer. I get that they were scared,
Speaker 1: but why didn't anyone help her? And why did some
Speaker 1: people hear a thud when she fell? Also why was
Speaker 1: she so wet? One statement said that someone threw beer
Speaker 1: on her to try to revive her. That could account
Speaker 1: for the strong odor of alcohol that paramedics said they
Speaker 1: saw on her. But one witness who was in the
Speaker 1: bank parking lot said they were called water gushing from
Speaker 1: the back of ron Rose's truck. What was the root
Speaker 1: of the truck from the party to the bank parking
Speaker 1: lot In his statement, ron Rose said they decided to
Speaker 1: take Jane there because they thought it would be faster
Speaker 1: than calling for help, and the bank parking lot was
Speaker 1: close to the ambulance service. But why didn't they just
Speaker 1: go directly to the ambulance service? And if we take
Speaker 1: the police dispatcher at his word, could they have taken
Speaker 1: an alternative route? Did they make additional stops? Obviously there's
Speaker 1: a lot we still need to figure out. But what
Speaker 1: we do know is that in the months after Janie's death,
Speaker 1: an environment of hostility is brewing in Marshall. The Wards
Speaker 1: and a growing number of residents are starting to believe
Speaker 1: that no one in the police department is telling the truth.
Speaker 1: Fingers are getting pointed, and any remaining trust between citizens
Speaker 1: and authorities is deteriorating. On December seventeenth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: a little over three months after Jane died, the Arkansas
Speaker 1: Gazette runs a story with the headline teenagers death remains
Speaker 1: a mystery. Parents call investigation a cover up. Rumors are flying,
Speaker 1: So we need to take a step back and turn
Speaker 1: to the one piece of evidence that Mike give us
Speaker 1: some more reliable answers. We need to go back to
Speaker 1: the case file and take a hard look at Jane's
Speaker 1: autopsy and find out what happened at the Arkansas Crime Lab.
Speaker 1: I'm Katherine Townsend and this is Helen Gone. Helen Gone
Speaker 1: is a joint production between School of Humans and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: It is written and recorded by me. Catherine Townsend. Taylor
Speaker 1: Church and Gabby Watts are our producers and story editors.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Brandon Barr, Brian Lavin, and Elsie Crowley
Speaker 1: for School of Humans and Connell Byrne and Chuck Bryant
Speaker 1: for iHeart Our. Field producer is Miranda Hawkins. Theme and
Speaker 1: original score are by Ben Sale, available wherever you get
Speaker 1: your music. Please visit us at helengone podcast dot com
Speaker 1: or follow us on social media. School of Humans