Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Previously on Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 2: I thought she was guilty at first, as I reading
Speaker 2: what the news that.
Speaker 1: In Marion, Illinois, an eleven year old girl brutally stabbed
Speaker 1: death her father's longtime living girlfriend, maintaining innocence, but charged
Speaker 1: with her murder.
Speaker 3: A few hours ago, I charged Julia Beverley, aged twenty nine,
Speaker 3: of eleven three or four Songbird Road, Marion, with three
Speaker 3: counts a first degree murder the murder of Jade Murray Beasley,
Speaker 3: an eleven year old girl.
Speaker 4: Most people that kill have a reason, a motive. There's
Speaker 4: always a motive something, and it doesn't exist here.
Speaker 5: It's scary because the person who did it is still
Speaker 5: out there and nobody seems.
Speaker 1: To carened Pacheco and this is murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: According to Jade Marie Beasley's obituary, the sixth grader was
Speaker 1: remembered as funny, smart and sassy, fond of playing outside
Speaker 1: and swimming. She enjoyed art, drawing, painting, and video games.
Speaker 1: The photo that accompanies the remembrance is the same one
Speaker 1: used by the Williamson County States Attorney when he announced
Speaker 1: her murder, showing a beaming young Jade bespeckled in pink frames,
Speaker 1: her face framed with a golden bob accented with pink highlights.
Speaker 1: She's sporting a pink beaded necklace and garments and a
Speaker 1: matching hue. Jade's obituary goes on to state that she
Speaker 1: loved her friends, adored her pets, and cherished her siblings
Speaker 1: nut before listing surviving family. Missing from that list is
Speaker 1: the woman who considered herself Jade's stepmother, Julia Beverly, although
Speaker 1: Julia's son Jaden, is listed as Jade's brother, but from
Speaker 1: the day of Jade's murder, Jaden's life would be forever altered.
Speaker 6: He wants in living with his mom and his two
Speaker 6: younger sisters. He lived with me in Carverdale, which is
Speaker 6: twenty miles away from Marriam. Pretty much, you know, we
Speaker 6: get to see his siblings not being in the same house.
Speaker 6: It was obviously bad sad for him that it was
Speaker 6: in an entirely different situation.
Speaker 1: That's Stuart, the biological father of Jaden, Julia Beverly's eldest son.
Speaker 1: The weekend Jade Beasley was murdered. Jaden was staying with him.
Speaker 6: Now, I was gonna have him for a weekend, and
Speaker 6: then he was going to go back Sunday afternoon evening,
Speaker 6: I got a call.
Speaker 7: From like DCFS.
Speaker 1: DCFS, for those not familiar, is the Department of Children
Speaker 1: and Family Services in Illinois like.
Speaker 6: Kings Custody right then, so pretty much, you know, he's
Speaker 6: just visiting for the weekend.
Speaker 7: Then he was with me.
Speaker 1: As Will further explain, DCFS would basically prohibit Julia Beverley
Speaker 1: from physically interacting with her children pending the investigation, so
Speaker 1: Renee high Tower would be the one who broke the
Speaker 1: news to her grandson Jaden in person. The night of
Speaker 1: the murder.
Speaker 4: I told his dad that I was coming over that
Speaker 4: I wanted to tell him, and he said okay. And
Speaker 4: I got there and I told him that something happened
Speaker 4: at his house. I said, a man broke in and
Speaker 4: his mom is okay. And I said, budd he hurt
Speaker 4: your mom and he hurt Jade. And I said, but Jade,
Speaker 4: he heard her too bad. So he's looking at me
Speaker 4: and I said, he's looking a little confused, and I said,
Speaker 4: Jade is no longer with us. You can see him
Speaker 4: kind of trying to swallow those tears, you know, And
Speaker 4: that's why I told him, I said, it's okay, it's priging,
Speaker 4: you know. So that's when he just let it out
Speaker 4: and hug me, and he was just crying his arms
Speaker 4: for a little bit, and I told him that his
Speaker 4: mom was going to call him and he could talk
Speaker 4: to her, and they talked for a little bit. I'm
Speaker 4: not one hundred percent on what Julie was saying to him,
Speaker 4: but I could hear a little bit of it. How
Speaker 4: much she loves him, and he's going to stay with
Speaker 4: Stuart for a while until things get figured out, and
Speaker 4: he said okay, and she calmed him down a little bit.
Speaker 1: We will dive much more deeply into this later, but
Speaker 1: Julia Doveley wasn't the only one cut off from her
Speaker 1: two youngest daughters and the son she was unknowingly carrying
Speaker 1: at the time of the murder. Her eldest child, Jaden,
Speaker 1: would lose not only his stepsister Jade and his mother,
Speaker 1: but eventually all access to his younger siblings. So would
Speaker 1: Renee high Tower, their maternal grind who had been petitioning
Speaker 1: for visitation when we first connected back to Stuart. The
Speaker 1: Department of Children and Family Services and Jaden.
Speaker 6: DCFS wanted to talk to him, and I'm like, well, yeah,
Speaker 6: tell him truth, don't lie.
Speaker 7: But there wasn't anything, you know.
Speaker 6: TCFS talked him for like half hour and they were like, yeah, okay.
Speaker 7: Well we'd left to interview.
Speaker 6: But there's no signs or anything of abuse or neglect
Speaker 6: or anything like those lines.
Speaker 1: Which wasn't keeping with all the years Stuart had co
Speaker 1: parented Jaden with Julia Beverly.
Speaker 7: They never had a bad thing to say about his mom.
Speaker 6: He was always you know, she was always nice and
Speaker 6: loving and caring. There was no abuse. We never said anything,
Speaker 6: no mark nothing. I mean even later on then when
Speaker 6: he had his younger sisters and other stuff, he never
Speaker 6: you know, he never had anything bad to say about her.
Speaker 1: Suddenly the sole parent in terms of Jaden's day to day,
Speaker 1: Stuart had to manage the passage of time with his
Speaker 1: young son's relentless optimism that his mother's incarceration was temporary.
Speaker 6: It took two years for the Troy where I mean it,
Speaker 6: it was a drug out so long, and as sometimes
Speaker 6: he was telling people that, oh well, once my mom
Speaker 6: gets out, I'm going back. Even before the trial, he
Speaker 6: was telling friends or his cousin like, well, I'm going
Speaker 6: to go back soon my mom gets out, we're back here.
Speaker 6: There're like, well, I know that's what you want. But
Speaker 6: even if she gets out, nothing will be the same.
Speaker 1: Jaden's father has tried to help him navigate his new
Speaker 1: reality an uncertain future.
Speaker 6: We even talked about stuff like with the news, like
Speaker 6: there's people that are, you know, innocent, locked up and
Speaker 6: then you know years later then they're like, oh yeah, whoops,
Speaker 6: you got the thrown person. Even if your mom gets out,
Speaker 6: it's not going to be the same. It's still it's
Speaker 6: going to be different, you know everything. Kind of like
Speaker 6: try to tell him like your grandma might be too optimistic.
Speaker 7: You kind of need to be in the middle.
Speaker 6: Because I don't think she did it, but you know what,
Speaker 6: if she's been in for so long, it's like there's
Speaker 6: a possibility she doesn't. In his reality, things you're going
Speaker 6: to go back to normals like that will never go
Speaker 6: back to normal.
Speaker 1: If there was a magic wand waved tomorrow and Julie
Speaker 1: was out, you wouldn't have any reservation whatsoever about Jaden
Speaker 1: being with her.
Speaker 7: No not right.
Speaker 6: I mean, like I've told him, it's like I don't
Speaker 6: think she did it.
Speaker 7: They've never found a weapon.
Speaker 6: Or it's like if you step somebody that many times
Speaker 6: you would have blood splatter with you know, like where's
Speaker 6: the change clothes, where's this, where's that?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Never made sense, Still doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: The accusation that Julia Beverly brutally stabbed her stepdaughter is
Speaker 1: particularly nonsensical to Beverly's cousin Nicki, who witnessed not only
Speaker 1: Beverly grow up but eventually interact as both the mother
Speaker 1: and stepmother.
Speaker 5: She loved all her children, even the ones that she
Speaker 5: didn't give her to. That is one thing that she
Speaker 5: is extremely good at.
Speaker 1: Nicki says she knows Julie extremely well, even for cousins.
Speaker 2: She's my maid of honor. He's my best friend. Julia
Speaker 2: has been my best friend since since she was born.
Speaker 5: I am a little bit older, but we grew up
Speaker 5: together and did everything together. We ama staying cheerleading from
Speaker 5: little league, you know, all the way through high school.
Speaker 2: We went to the same high school with each other
Speaker 2: pretty much like every weekend at least. We were also close.
Speaker 5: There was between me and my siblings, and her and
Speaker 5: her siblings, who were seven of us, run around my
Speaker 5: grandma's house all the time, so we.
Speaker 2: All grew up together.
Speaker 1: We were all extremely close, particularly Nicki and Julia.
Speaker 2: We can look at each other and not say a
Speaker 2: thing and know exactly what the other one.
Speaker 1: Is saying, which is why Nicki was the first to know.
Speaker 1: When Julia found out she was expecting her first child, Jaden,
Speaker 1: while still in high school.
Speaker 2: She was really young.
Speaker 5: I think she was about to be eighteen, and she
Speaker 5: hid it from us for a bit because she was scared,
Speaker 5: and then obviously you couldn't hide it. She did it
Speaker 5: on her own for a few years, and still his
Speaker 5: dad kind of came back into the picture and have
Speaker 5: more of a presence. I don't want to say she
Speaker 5: struggle with it, but it's just like any new transition.
Speaker 5: I know that I did whenever I had my first child.
Speaker 2: It's hard.
Speaker 5: It's difficult to do it at such a young age.
Speaker 5: I can't even really imagine. She pretty much had to
Speaker 5: drop everything to become a mom. She was a great
Speaker 5: mom and changed her because you're seventeen and you just
Speaker 5: got to drop all the things that you think are
Speaker 5: the most important. Things in your life, like your daily
Speaker 5: high school life that you think is going to be
Speaker 5: your entire life, or going and hanging out with friends
Speaker 5: on the weekend. Just fully committed to being a mom,
Speaker 5: and she was there doing it on her own with family,
Speaker 5: but on her own, which had to be extremely hard,
Speaker 5: but she loved them compleatly.
Speaker 1: Home video show Jaden as a toddler playing rock band
Speaker 1: with a young Julia Beverley jamming on a small plastic
Speaker 1: guitar as Jaden sings lead. Their energy is loving and
Speaker 1: relaxed and natural, as is the clip of Beverly and
Speaker 1: Jaden still a toddler, enjoying the first flakes of a snowfall.
Speaker 6: So snowball.
Speaker 1: When Nicki and her parents moved from Marion to Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: Beverly eventually followed, living with Nicki for a period of time.
Speaker 2: Jaden was two when she moved out here.
Speaker 5: I had to be like twenty or twenty one, because
Speaker 5: I had met my husband at the time.
Speaker 2: She had Jayden out here, Jesus me, Julie and Jane
Speaker 2: living together.
Speaker 1: And so she went back after a few years.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I would see. I say it was probably
Speaker 2: about a year or so. It was it was just
Speaker 2: a little hard.
Speaker 5: Like we were We were here to help her obviously,
Speaker 5: you know, but it was hard for her, I think,
Speaker 5: just being so far away from her own mom.
Speaker 1: It was soon after Beverly returned to Marion that she
Speaker 1: met and started dating Mike Beasley.
Speaker 5: She was extremely excited when she met him because he
Speaker 5: had a daughter who was the same age as Jaden.
Speaker 5: So she was excited because she being a single mom,
Speaker 5: she thought that it was going to be extremely hard
Speaker 5: to find somebody to be with. So when she met
Speaker 5: Mike and found out that he also had a daughter
Speaker 5: who was the same age, it was almost kind of
Speaker 5: like amazing because their kids good play together, you know,
Speaker 5: and they both kind of have the same situation going on.
Speaker 2: So she was extremely happy when she met him.
Speaker 5: Never Lily voice otherwise with me. Theyble together for eight years.
Speaker 1: She actually came to visit you more than once with Jade.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so she came with Mike and Jade and Jaden,
Speaker 5: and they came a couple times.
Speaker 2: They stayed with my mom one time, and then they
Speaker 2: came out again for our wedding.
Speaker 1: Just tell me a little bit about your observations as
Speaker 1: to how Julie welcomed Jade into her life and their
Speaker 1: relationship dynamic.
Speaker 2: She was obviously extremely, very wealthy.
Speaker 5: When you come in as the girlfriend, you know, she
Speaker 5: never overstepped any sort of boundaries with her, but she
Speaker 5: was very much their always there to talk to you,
Speaker 5: to be supportive of. July treated her like her own,
Speaker 5: buy things for her as if it was her own child.
Speaker 5: Never had any sort of complainants about her. They came
Speaker 5: pretty close.
Speaker 2: To the point.
Speaker 5: I think she would prefer to stay at Mike and
Speaker 5: Julie's house over her mother's house. Just from when I
Speaker 5: was told. She had her own space, had her own room.
Speaker 5: She was included in all family functions, all things the holidays, pictures.
Speaker 2: And things like that.
Speaker 5: So I mean she was very much a part of
Speaker 5: the family, even though they weren't head completing that they
Speaker 5: were family.
Speaker 1: Photos that Renee high Tower has shared appear to back
Speaker 1: up this assertion, as does Julia Beverly's still existing social
Speaker 1: media Her Facebook cover photo, now updated by Renee, boasts
Speaker 1: a banner with hashtag I Stand with Julie. Underneath is
Speaker 1: a clausee of seven photos, four depicting Jadon and Jade
Speaker 1: over the years. One shows a very pregnant Beverly as
Speaker 1: she smiles, her arms warmly wrapped around the backs of
Speaker 1: each step sibling as they bind down to kiss her
Speaker 1: large expectant belly. Julia and Jade are both wearing similar
Speaker 1: shades of bright purple, which pops against the green of
Speaker 1: the grassy background. Another photo shows Jade and Jaden in
Speaker 1: front of a colorfully lit Christmas tree. They appear to
Speaker 1: be around age six, with their arms affectionately draped around
Speaker 1: each other's shoulders. Jaden, the shorter of the two, is
Speaker 1: lifting his head up towards the camera, wearing a wide grin.
Speaker 1: Jade is kicking one leg up to the side in
Speaker 1: a cheeky pose. They're adorable, as are all the siblings
Speaker 1: shown together, especially in photos that depict the two youngest
Speaker 1: girls being proudly and tenderly held by their big brother
Speaker 1: and sister. Jaden and the younger girls all shared Julia's
Speaker 1: broad smile. A deeper dive into Julia Beverly's Facebook history
Speaker 1: reflects the ongoing yearly tradition of posting Jaden's back to
Speaker 1: school photos alongside Jades. Also reflected in past years is
Speaker 1: the blended family's apparent love for somewhat themed Halloween costumes,
Speaker 1: all while juggling a job that, like motherhood, required patients.
Speaker 1: As a customer service representative for Hyatt, Beverly was used
Speaker 1: to diffusing disgruntled people's frustrations in a calm, respectful, and
Speaker 1: efficient manner.
Speaker 2: She was actually incredibly patient, probably more patient than me.
Speaker 2: Motherhood was everything to her.
Speaker 5: I mean, she did work from home, so she still
Speaker 5: had a job as far as like bringing in money
Speaker 5: into the household, I'm pretty sure she was also the
Speaker 5: primary breadwinner, but she worked from home as a way
Speaker 5: to still be extremely present and available to her children.
Speaker 5: Every waiting moment was dedicated for her children.
Speaker 1: It is of note again that Mike and Julie were
Speaker 1: together for nearly eight years and had already purchased wedding bands.
Speaker 1: They had planned for both of their daughters and were
Speaker 1: trying for a third, hoping for a son. Mike shared
Speaker 1: custody of Jade with her biological mother, Jessica. Before the murder,
Speaker 1: there had never been any reports of Beverly being violent
Speaker 1: or abusive to any of her children, including Jade. If
Speaker 1: there had been, it's doubtful that her father would have continued,
Speaker 1: not only to live with Beverly, but to plan on
Speaker 1: having more children with her. Murder on Songbird Road will
Speaker 1: return after the break. Now back to Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: Everything would change when Jade was murdered. Here's Renee's recollection
Speaker 1: of picking up Beverly at the police station the night
Speaker 1: of the murder and the days leading up to her rest.
Speaker 1: Tell me what that car ride back from the station
Speaker 1: with Julie was like.
Speaker 4: Well, she was telling me the story and I was
Speaker 4: just in disbelief and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: You've got to tell Mike. They're under the impression this
Speaker 4: was suicide. And she's looking at me confused, like what
Speaker 4: I was telling her? What was being said to me?
Speaker 4: And I was wont through the story and she's just
Speaker 4: shaking her head and she's crying, and she's telling me
Speaker 4: how this man came in the house and she said
Speaker 4: nobody should ever have to see that. She said, no
Speaker 4: parent should ever have to see that. It was quick ride,
Speaker 4: ten minute ride. We got in the house and she
Speaker 4: sat down and my mom was hugging her, and my
Speaker 4: mom was crying and made her cry some more. And
Speaker 4: then her brother came and he just grabbed her and
Speaker 4: hugged her, and then she lost it again, crying more.
Speaker 4: And then my mom's just sitting there rubbing her back,
Speaker 4: and she just kept saying, I should have just took
Speaker 4: her with me. I should have just took her with me.
Speaker 4: And my mom's telling her, you can't blame yourself, Julie,
Speaker 4: you can't. I can't put this on you. She still
Speaker 4: had the jail uniform on the little jumpsuit they gave
Speaker 4: her because they took her clothing.
Speaker 1: When Beverly agreed to be questioned at the Williamson County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department without a lawyer present, she also willingly consented
Speaker 1: to the collection of DNA from both her person and
Speaker 1: her articles of clothing. We'll dive much more deeply into
Speaker 1: issues with how that DNA was collected later.
Speaker 4: Back to Renee, I got some of my clothes, gave
Speaker 4: her some little sweatpants, stretch pants and leggings and a
Speaker 4: hoodie to wear, and she went in the shower and
Speaker 4: she was in there for a little while. I want
Speaker 4: to check on her, and I can hear her crying
Speaker 4: in there, and she told me after she was in
Speaker 4: their crying because she had blood on the bottom of
Speaker 4: her feet, and when she got in the shower, the
Speaker 4: kind of brought it back.
Speaker 1: This is actually an important detail. Jade was murdered on
Speaker 1: an unseasonably warm day, and Beverly had been wearing flip flops.
Speaker 1: At some point she'd flipped them off and likely walked
Speaker 1: through blood at the crime scene. Back to Renee, she
Speaker 1: got out of the shower, I said, you have to
Speaker 1: tell Mike.
Speaker 4: We ended up driving back to Marion to go to
Speaker 4: Mike's parents house. Called him on the way and said
Speaker 4: we were on and way over and he said, well,
Speaker 4: DCFS just called him. They're about to be here too,
Speaker 4: so you might want to wait a minute. And I said, well,
Speaker 4: we're right down the street. So and we ended up
Speaker 4: pulling up almost right at the same time as DCFS,
Speaker 4: and we sat in the car. It was me, Michael,
Speaker 4: and Julie.
Speaker 1: Quick clarification. Michael is Julie's older brother and an aviation
Speaker 1: mechanic with the US Navy, not to be confused with
Speaker 1: her boyfriend and then fiance, Mike.
Speaker 4: We sat in the car. Cindy Maguire was her name
Speaker 4: from DCFS. She came over to the passenger side of
Speaker 4: my vehicle to talk to Julie, and that's when she
Speaker 4: informed Julie that she cannot see her children, and she
Speaker 4: lost it again and she's like no, She's screaming no,
Speaker 4: because at this point, all she wants to do is
Speaker 4: hug her family, her children. After some tragedy and horrific
Speaker 4: tragedy like this, she wants to hug her children, hug
Speaker 4: Mike and grieve.
Speaker 1: What did they tell her.
Speaker 4: They said that its protocol is how they termed it,
Speaker 4: that she has to have no contact with her children.
Speaker 4: She can have a video visit once a day for
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes and that's it. That's the contact she gets
Speaker 4: with her children until this is resolved. So she had
Speaker 4: a sign of paper to where Mike gets temporary customer
Speaker 4: of the children so they don't become wards of the state,
Speaker 4: and she agreed to let them stay with Mike. She
Speaker 4: asked if she could talk to Mike, and they said, well,
Speaker 4: we're going to talk to him first and then we'll
Speaker 4: see if he wants to come out and talk to you.
Speaker 4: So they were in there for a good twenty thirty minutes.
Speaker 4: Mike came out and as soon as Julie seen him,
Speaker 4: she jumped out of my car. And ran to him
Speaker 4: and hugged him, and he hugged her back, and they
Speaker 4: were both you could see they were both crying. And
Speaker 4: then I can see Julie talking to him and then
Speaker 4: he and this is what me and Michael found really strange,
Speaker 4: is the way he was consoling Julie. His immediate response
Speaker 4: was to hug her, and he did. And then after
Speaker 4: a while he steps away while she's talking and he
Speaker 4: lights a cigarette. And then he's smoking his cigarette and
Speaker 4: he's still close to Julie and then he puts one
Speaker 4: arm around her shoulder, almost like resting his arm, almost
Speaker 4: like he had to do it to put up a front.
Speaker 4: It didn't look like a comforting hug that she needed.
Speaker 4: It just looked like he was just going through the motions.
Speaker 4: And I'm watching this, and I said to Michael, and
Speaker 4: he's like, well, maybe it's because he smoked a cigarette.
Speaker 4: He doesn't want to because Julie don't smoke, you know.
Speaker 4: And I was like no, no, I said, look at
Speaker 4: his options and he was looking away from her, smoking
Speaker 4: his cigarette, and just it was weird. And Julie said
Speaker 4: she was just going through like a brief summary of
Speaker 4: what happened. It was just an odd behavior, consoling her
Speaker 4: for like ten minutes.
Speaker 1: In Renee's opinion, Mike was already doubting Beverly's innocence the
Speaker 1: night of the murder. Subsequent events would reinforce her opinion
Speaker 1: and had even more painful layers to this tragedy.
Speaker 4: They talked, and she got back in the car, and
Speaker 4: she was just upset. And for the next three or
Speaker 4: four days she got to talk to Mike once a
Speaker 4: day for fifteen minutes. On the very first phone call
Speaker 4: she got to FaceTime with the girls.
Speaker 1: Being denied physical contact with her children, compounded by the
Speaker 1: stress and trauma of the murder, was overwhelming for Beverly.
Speaker 1: According to Renee, Mike and the girls were staying with
Speaker 1: his mother, Sheila Jaden remained with his father. Beverly stayed
Speaker 1: with her mother and grandmother.
Speaker 4: She didn't eat anything for two and a half days.
Speaker 4: I finally forced her to eat a sandwich, and she
Speaker 4: probably not even half a sandwich. I made her some
Speaker 4: juice to drink some she had something in her I said, Julie,
Speaker 4: you got it. You can't not eat. She wasn't eating,
Speaker 4: she wasn't sleeping, she wasn't drinking.
Speaker 1: Would you categorize her as in shock.
Speaker 4: Yes, in shock, in horrific grief. I mean, yeah, yes.
Speaker 4: In the four days she was with me, the food
Speaker 4: she ate probably equated to the three fourths of a
Speaker 4: sandwich and a half a cup of liquid in four days.
Speaker 4: That's what she consumed.
Speaker 1: Beverly's already limited access to her daughters would entirely disappear.
Speaker 1: Five days after the murder, when Julia Beverly was arrested.
Speaker 1: Renee had been trying to help her daughter remember any
Speaker 1: details from the day Jade was killed, hoping they would
Speaker 1: vindicate her with the timeline.
Speaker 4: Well, I remember it like it was yesterday. Once she
Speaker 4: left that police station. She was with me for four
Speaker 4: days before her arrest. In that four days, she wasn't
Speaker 4: remembering a lot, and I didn't want to force her
Speaker 4: because I know what she had been through. But she
Speaker 4: would give me little bits and pieces that she could
Speaker 4: put together. It wasn't a clear pay sure, So I
Speaker 4: told her that fourth day, I said, I want you
Speaker 4: to sit down and write everything out that she did.
Speaker 4: Maybe that will trigger some more memories for you, and
Speaker 4: start with the time you woke up. And she started
Speaker 4: writing it a few minutes later. She said, I went
Speaker 4: to Hucks. I had to get gas. This was like
Speaker 4: late morning, and that's when I made that phone call
Speaker 4: to Gustantine to say that she remembered she stopped at Hucks.
Speaker 1: We'll get to the importance of Beverly's recollection that while
Speaker 1: she started out for Walmart, she never got there. Beverly
Speaker 1: suddenly recalled in the days that followed Jade Beasley's murder
Speaker 1: that she actually stopped at Hucks, the closest gas station
Speaker 1: to her house, because her gaslight came on. Thinking it
Speaker 1: would prove her daughter's innocence. Renee high Tower wanted to
Speaker 1: share the information with the police.
Speaker 4: I said, Julie, you got to tell them. You're on camera,
Speaker 4: because as of right now, they're trying to say you
Speaker 4: never left the house. And she's like, I can't. I
Speaker 4: already I already invoked an attorney, so I can't speak
Speaker 4: to them without her. I said, do you want me
Speaker 4: to tell them? And she's like, well, I don't know
Speaker 4: if you can, but I guess. So I picked up
Speaker 4: the phone and I called and asked for Carl Gustantine personally.
Speaker 4: He answered, and I told him that Julie remembered she
Speaker 4: stopped at Hucks for gas and realized she forgot her
Speaker 4: cards at home and then she had to go back
Speaker 4: to the house. He said, well, I'll have to hear
Speaker 4: that from her, and I said, well, she's already invoked
Speaker 4: an attorney, so you have your information. And he said
Speaker 4: okay and hung up the phone.
Speaker 1: That call didn't have the effect high Tower had hoped.
Speaker 4: Within an hour and a half, they were knocking at
Speaker 4: our back door.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with murder on Songbird Road. Now
Speaker 1: back to Murder Songbird Road.
Speaker 4: Cindy Geittman, Carl Gystantine and another officer stepped into my home,
Speaker 4: my mother's home, through the back door. They said they
Speaker 4: were there for Julie and they had a warrant for
Speaker 4: her arrest. A few moments prior to this, we've seen
Speaker 4: comments on Facebook showing her warrant on the judicial page,
Speaker 4: and Julie began to panic at that point, and then
Speaker 4: a few minutes later there was that knock at the door.
Speaker 4: They came in and Julie immediately started crying. She had
Speaker 4: her promise ring from Mike that she immediately took off
Speaker 4: and handed to me. My mother was there. My mother
Speaker 4: seen that they were putting cuffs on Julie and she
Speaker 4: started crying and she said, you guys are killing her.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I just named it because I've you can
Speaker 4: feel my mother's pain at that point witnessing this, and
Speaker 4: Cindy Geatman tells my mother, well, that's what she gets
Speaker 4: for killing somebody. I just can't believe she said that
Speaker 4: to my mother and I I just looked at her like,
Speaker 4: why would you even say that? Why would you say that?
Speaker 1: I have reached out to both Cindy Geatman and Carl Gustantine.
Speaker 1: Both have since retired, as have multiple officers and officials
Speaker 1: involved with the investigation into Jade Beasley's murder and the
Speaker 1: case against Julia Beverly. Geitman and I spoke on the phone,
Speaker 1: and she made it exceedingly clear that she did not
Speaker 1: intend to comment on what would be her first and
Speaker 1: last time leading a murder investigation back to Renee.
Speaker 4: But I found out later when Cindy Geatman walked Julie
Speaker 4: outside to frisk her and check her. Julia had her
Speaker 4: hair in a ponytail with a scrunchy not a ponytail holder,
Speaker 4: not a super tight one, very loose made of cloth,
Speaker 4: scrungey and she grabbed it out of Julie's hair, and
Speaker 4: Julie said she grabbed her hair so hard that it
Speaker 4: yanked her head back, pulled some of her hair out,
Speaker 4: And later I found that scrunchy sitting on top of
Speaker 4: my car with Julie's hair all over it, and then
Speaker 4: put her in the car and took her down to
Speaker 4: the station.
Speaker 1: Well, Carl Gustantine did not respond to my multiple attempts
Speaker 1: to question him about receiving the tip Rene High Tower,
Speaker 1: so she gave him. The police appear to have acted
Speaker 1: upon it.
Speaker 4: After she was arrested. I was furious, so I said,
Speaker 4: I guarantee they're out there searching right now. So I
Speaker 4: went past the guest and there they were searching the
Speaker 4: trash cans somewhere in the dumpster.
Speaker 1: And once they pulled the video from the gas station,
Speaker 1: what did they claim they'd found.
Speaker 4: They said that they got Julian camera stopping at the
Speaker 4: gas station to throw away items, and they see her
Speaker 4: on camera with this bag that could fit in the
Speaker 4: palm of her hand, about the size of a diaver,
Speaker 4: because that's what she had in the bag, a diver.
Speaker 4: She said, maybe there was two in there, but it
Speaker 4: was divers but she could clearly see on the camera
Speaker 4: it could fit in the palm of her hand and
Speaker 4: threw it away and then she went back to the
Speaker 4: house to get her cards.
Speaker 1: The prosecution would contend that the small bag Beverly discarded
Speaker 1: contained the murder weapon, blood saturated clothing, and any material
Speaker 1: she used to clean up any trace of blood on
Speaker 1: her person. None of these items have ever been located,
Speaker 1: not at that Hawk's gas station, nor the dump police
Speaker 1: came for evidence. High Tower continues to take issue with
Speaker 1: how the incentive to search Hucks was portrayed in court.
Speaker 4: There was an officer in trial who testified that he
Speaker 4: went to Hucks and the defense attorney she asked, well,
Speaker 4: what made you go there, and he said, oh, I
Speaker 4: just got a feeling, just got a feeling.
Speaker 1: So they set it up to make it look like
Speaker 1: Julie lied, when it was something that she remembered and
Speaker 1: you gave as a tip, and then they didn't even
Speaker 1: attribute it to Julie or to you.
Speaker 4: Correct So Gustantine was also on the prosecution's witness list,
Speaker 4: and if he would have testified then I could have,
Speaker 4: but they kept him off too.
Speaker 7: He didn't testify again.
Speaker 1: And so they never disclosed where that tip came from.
Speaker 4: Never I've even said this to people on my social
Speaker 4: media platform and I get called a liar and no,
Speaker 4: they found out that she lied, and I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 4: I've got a text message to my sister to prove it,
Speaker 4: time stamped and all.
Speaker 1: You probably would have phone records showing that you called.
Speaker 4: Sure Do and every call is recorded that comes into
Speaker 4: that police station.
Speaker 1: High Tower has indeed showed me text messages and phone
Speaker 1: records that back up her version of that outreach. Again,
Speaker 1: to date, Carl Gustantine has not responded to my multiple
Speaker 1: attempts to reach him. But while Renee's call didn't prevent
Speaker 1: her daughter's arrest, it didn't provoke it.
Speaker 4: The arrest warrant was issued the day before, actually it
Speaker 4: was signed and issued the day before, and they chose
Speaker 4: to arrest her on this day because her first appearance
Speaker 4: it would line up on the same day as Jay's funeral,
Speaker 4: And that was a calculated decision, I believe, to boost
Speaker 4: and bolster the emotional outrage of the public because here
Speaker 4: you have her having her first appearance at the exact
Speaker 4: same time that the funeral is going on, and they
Speaker 4: are a parking a lot away from each other.
Speaker 1: Criminal defense attorney Bob Mada and I connected with Renee
Speaker 1: on a call. Hello, Hey, how are you?
Speaker 4: I I'm good.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna patch and Bob stand by. Hello, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: merging us with Renee. Hold on one second, all right,
Speaker 1: you guys, Bob, Renee, Renee, Bob, so Bob, we have
Speaker 1: some really interesting updates for you. In the press conference
Speaker 1: held five days after the murder, the then Williamson County
Speaker 1: State's attorney states that Julia Beverly's claim she was met
Speaker 1: by a knife wielding massed assailant were proven false, but
Speaker 1: Renee high Tower and Julia's supporters have never stopped looking
Speaker 1: for him. Renee even hired a private investigator to find him.
Speaker 4: My private investigator said that he overheard a dispatcher because
Speaker 4: they come out to his shooting range. He overheard dispatcher saying,
Speaker 4: I thought we were on our.
Speaker 2: Way to the other nine on one call.
Speaker 4: Julie's nine one one call was placed at twelve twenty four,
Speaker 4: so there's supposed to be another call. They subpoena the
Speaker 4: number one calls. It's not in there. However, there is
Speaker 4: a incident out in the same area that Julie is
Speaker 4: at and this call was made at ten thirty for
Speaker 4: a suspicious person and no way, yes, this is at
Speaker 4: ten thirty. He was out there deligerent talking about harming somebody,
Speaker 4: just cussing and carrying on, and somebody called the cops
Speaker 4: on him and then they go respond and they pretty
Speaker 4: much did whatever talk guys the name information sent him
Speaker 4: on his way. He's wearing a black hoodie and duck pants.
Speaker 1: This would spur the first of many rabbit holes. Bob
Speaker 1: and I would go down looking for the knife wielding man,
Speaker 1: and Julia Beverly claimed she encountered. But this tip led
Speaker 1: to a specific man, a man now incarcerated for attempting
Speaker 1: to disarm an officer and arrested multiple times previously, a
Speaker 1: man who, unlike Julia Beverly, has a history of crimes,
Speaker 1: mental illness, and a fondness for hunting.
Speaker 4: Never in a million trillion years which never suspected Julie
Speaker 4: of this ever, not one person. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 4: they thought it was suicide before they even thought about
Speaker 4: Julie until the police said it was Julie.
Speaker 2: I mean, that guy sounds like somebody that we really
Speaker 2: need to look at.
Speaker 4: Yes, man, that is crazy.
Speaker 1: If Julia Beverly didn't kill Jade Beasley, someone else did
Speaker 1: and there was one likely place to start searching. We're
Speaker 1: heading to Marian.
Speaker 7: Yes we are, Yes we are. I'm here for it.
Speaker 7: I'm ready.
Speaker 1: On the next murder on Songbird we travel to Mary
Speaker 1: in Illinois to sit face to face with Julia Beverly.
Speaker 3: She says she wasn't even thinking, and then she's walking.
Speaker 7: Through and then she sees the blood in the living room.
Speaker 1: She says, oh my god, Jay and encounter a community divided.
Speaker 1: The woman behind the desk at Starbucks she said it's sad,
Speaker 1: but she also had her doubts as to whether or
Speaker 1: not Julie did it before heading to the site of
Speaker 1: the murder.
Speaker 7: Should we go walk it?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 7: I think we should. I think we should. All right,
Speaker 7: let's go, Let's see what's up.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Speaker 1: Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting
Speaker 1: by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound design
Speaker 1: and original music by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaqoine. Additional
Speaker 1: music by Ashra Kurtz. Archival elements courtesy of WSIL News three.
Speaker 1: Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review. Wherever you're listening,
Speaker 1: you can follow me on all platforms at Lauren Bright
Speaker 1: Pacheco and email the show with thought, suggestions or tips
Speaker 1: at Investigating Murder at iHeartMedia dot com. For more iHeart podcasts,
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