Speaker 1: Every time I hear about my dad is oh, he's
Speaker 1: a killer, you know he has He's just straight evil.
Speaker 1: I was always scared because, like my biggest fear was
Speaker 1: being him.
Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott was a shadow in Justin's life, always there,
Speaker 2: but only mentioned in hush tones. Growing up, He'd hears
Speaker 2: stray comments about Jeremy, but the details were always vague.
Speaker 2: The hazy mix.
Speaker 3: Of fact and fiction, different stories like killing two people,
Speaker 3: and one time I was on the impression from all
Speaker 3: the information I gathered that he's killed at least twelve people.
Speaker 2: Justin also heard bits and pieces about a true story,
Speaker 2: the story of the one murder his dad did get convicted.
Speaker 1: Of killing this one guy because he was gay.
Speaker 3: He said that, you know, to do try to touch them,
Speaker 3: but apparently to do didn't touch them.
Speaker 1: He just wanted to rob him for money.
Speaker 2: Now, Justin wanted to know everything about whose dad was
Speaker 2: and what he'd done, as long as it was finally
Speaker 2: the truth.
Speaker 1: If you really want to make amends, just you know,
Speaker 1: come clean and just open open yourself to yourself.
Speaker 2: There are some things Justin I can tell you about
Speaker 2: this murder. Hey, Shan, I can tell you about the
Speaker 2: evidence Kelsey and I saw at the Polk County Courthouse.
Speaker 2: Don't touch anything, text some pictures and correct that we
Speaker 2: saw the blood spattered shirt your dad was wearing the
Speaker 2: day he was arrested. It's a Bud Mackenzie t shirts.
Speaker 2: That the weapon was a bottle sparkling white grape juice.
Speaker 2: That's what it is, okay. The confessions exist on two
Speaker 2: black cassette tapes.
Speaker 4: Testing Testing one two three four five five four three two.
Speaker 2: I can tell you what's in them, and I will,
Speaker 2: But there are other parts of the story, parts I
Speaker 2: could never have known if your mom hadn't chosen to
Speaker 2: share her side of things. She's the one who can
Speaker 2: tell you about your dad's final moments of freedom because
Speaker 2: your mom was there justin and in a way, so
Speaker 2: were you do you?
Speaker 4: My mans laugh to as my feet soru step sorry
Speaker 4: in this vasish rage as fish to.
Speaker 2: The sliding stuff.
Speaker 4: Sold things stop.
Speaker 2: Bone Valley Season two, Jeremy Chapter two, Destroyer.
Speaker 5: I remember him calling and saying that him and Brian
Speaker 5: were coming. They were going to pick me up.
Speaker 2: Jamie thought she was done with Jeremy. He broke up
Speaker 2: with her after finding out she was pregnant, but the
Speaker 2: morning after Halloween, Jeremy shows up in a Chevy Bretta,
Speaker 2: Brian's in the front seat.
Speaker 5: I knew Brian from high school. He was always kind
Speaker 5: of a quiet guy, one of the pie heads, you know,
Speaker 5: always hung out with the pie heads that smoked out
Speaker 5: under the oak tree. That when I saw him in
Speaker 5: that car, he was he just he didn't even look
Speaker 5: like the same person. His face was all broke out.
Speaker 5: It was really pale. I remember getting in the back
Speaker 5: seat and we left.
Speaker 2: Jamie turns to Jeremy.
Speaker 5: Where'd you get the car, and he said, Oh, it's
Speaker 5: Donald's car. Now, Donald, I remember him mentioning Donald before Donald,
Speaker 5: I think was the guy that he owned trailer park
Speaker 5: trailers or ran a trailer park or something, and Jeremy
Speaker 5: would do side jobs for him.
Speaker 2: Here's what I look learning from police files and trial testimony,
Speaker 2: Jeremy met thirty seven year old Donald moorehead that fall
Speaker 2: at a gay bar called Fantasy two thousand. Don gives
Speaker 2: him some weed, asks if he wants to make some money,
Speaker 2: and Jeremy begins doing handiwork at his trailer. Sometimes Don
Speaker 2: would let Jeremy stay overnight if he had no place
Speaker 2: to go. Don's friends later testified that Don was paying
Speaker 2: Jeremy for sex.
Speaker 5: Jeremy denied this, and it was weird. He said, Don
Speaker 5: let me borrow his car, and I remember thinking, why
Speaker 5: would Don let you borrow his car? He knows you
Speaker 5: don't have a driver's license, you've never had one.
Speaker 2: Jeremy circles the block a few times. From the back seat,
Speaker 2: Jamie notices both boys are jumpy and nervous. Jeremy looks
Speaker 2: like he's starting to cry.
Speaker 5: He had spots on his pants. He was wearing this
Speaker 5: white and blue shirt and these jeans, and they had
Speaker 5: kind of like ragged places, not really holes, but like
Speaker 5: real thin ragged places, and there were spots all over it.
Speaker 5: And I remember thinking he just bought that shirt not
Speaker 5: too long ago, because it was the shirt he got
Speaker 5: with the money they gave him when he got out
Speaker 5: of prison. He got it from the dollar store. But
Speaker 5: it had spots on it.
Speaker 2: The spots are dark and red.
Speaker 5: And I think my brain registered what it was.
Speaker 2: Jeremy tells her something really bad happened and that he
Speaker 2: and Brian have to leave town. They let Jamie out
Speaker 2: of the car and they drive off. Jamie is terrified.
Speaker 2: She runs inside and calls her friend, Jennifer.
Speaker 6: I remember her calling me, and she was upset. She
Speaker 6: was crying, and I thought maybe they had a fight whatever,
Speaker 6: But she was telling me that she was worried about Jeremy.
Speaker 6: Something bad had happened. Jeremy had told her he'd gotten
Speaker 6: into a fight with some guy, and the story was
Speaker 6: that the guy was gay and made a pass at him,
Speaker 6: and he had grabbed a bottle and he hit him
Speaker 6: with it. Didn't know if he knocked him out or
Speaker 6: what happened. And they got out of there. So she's
Speaker 6: telling me he's telling her all of that, and she
Speaker 6: kept saying, I think there's more. I think there's more,
Speaker 6: there's more to it. And she sounded scared to me.
Speaker 6: And I remember telling her, whatever you do, if he
Speaker 6: shows up, don't leave with him, don't go anywhere. I
Speaker 6: made her promise, but swear to me, you're not going
Speaker 6: to do anything stupid. You're not going to go anywhere,
Speaker 6: basically trying to talk her into staying put.
Speaker 2: Later that night, Jeremy calls again. He says he wants
Speaker 2: her to lay low with him for her few days,
Speaker 2: then make a run for Texas in a fresh start.
Speaker 2: He's coming back to get her.
Speaker 5: I remember going out back, smoking a cigarette and just thinking,
Speaker 5: and it was almost like I was trying to think
Speaker 5: of a way to get out of it. That couldn't
Speaker 5: find a way to get out of it. But I
Speaker 5: can remember smoking a cigarette and hearing the car pull
Speaker 5: up and my heart just dropping. And I remember walking
Speaker 5: around the side of the house and I figured he'd
Speaker 5: be sitting in the car. Well, he was already at
Speaker 5: the front door, and my grandmother was at the front door. Well,
Speaker 5: he had told my grandmother I'm here to pick up Jamie,
Speaker 5: so you know, he already told her I was leaving.
Speaker 5: So she's like, oh, okay, we'll come back your stuff.
Speaker 5: You didn't tell me you were going.
Speaker 2: Jamie takes another look at Jeremy. He's still wearing the
Speaker 2: bloodstained clothes he had on earlier that morning.
Speaker 5: I knew I wasn't coming back, and so people would
Speaker 5: ask me, well, why you knew he showed up at
Speaker 5: your house in this guy's car and he had blood
Speaker 5: on his pants. Why did you get in the car
Speaker 5: with him. I was not telling him. No, you don't understand,
Speaker 5: and people just don't understand. I wasn't telling him.
Speaker 2: No, Jeremy and Jamie set off in Don's Chevy Barretta.
Speaker 2: As they drive, Jeremy talks about his plan. He's got
Speaker 2: family about thirty miles away. They can hang out with
Speaker 2: them for a few days before hitting the road, maybe
Speaker 2: leave Polk County for good. An hour later, they arrive
Speaker 2: at a trailer in Davenport. Jeremy's younger brother Royal, is
Speaker 2: there with his teenage wife Anna and their baby.
Speaker 5: The baby was walking, so she had to have been,
Speaker 5: you know, over a year. And I remember the baby
Speaker 5: being in a diaper and just dirty and just covered
Speaker 5: in dirt, and the house was dirty, and the baby
Speaker 5: was crying, and I wanted to get the baby something
Speaker 5: to eat. There was nothing, nothing. There was nothing in
Speaker 5: that kitchen. Nothing. And I came out and I said,
Speaker 5: there's nothing in this house. What are you going to
Speaker 5: give her to eat? And I remember Anne getting mad,
Speaker 5: told me, I don't worry about, don't worry about. She's
Speaker 5: already ate. She's fine, she's fine, And Jeremy told me
Speaker 5: to go to bed.
Speaker 2: Back in Lakeland, Jennifer spent the whole night worrying about
Speaker 2: her friend.
Speaker 6: I remember getting a yeah, took a shower, my hair
Speaker 6: was wet and I was combing my hair, and I
Speaker 6: walked out through the kitchen into the dining room, and
Speaker 6: on the dining room table was the newspaper, Lakelyn Ledger.
Speaker 6: That was normal, and I went over and I grabbed it.
Speaker 6: I always liked to read the comics, you know, so
Speaker 6: I grabbed it and bang, right on the front page
Speaker 6: there's the story about someone found murdered. And the things
Speaker 6: that they were saying in the news article were, you know,
Speaker 6: pretty much lining up with some of the stuff that
Speaker 6: she had told me.
Speaker 2: The headline and the Lakeland Ledger reads Neighbors and Investigators
Speaker 2: mystified by Lakeland man found dead and home. Below it,
Speaker 2: a photo shows a sheet covered body being wheeled to
Speaker 2: a van. Jennifer skims the article, reading that the victim,
Speaker 2: Donald Moorehead, died from a head wound and that police
Speaker 2: believe his Chevy Burretta was stolen. Jennifer's thoughts jumped to
Speaker 2: Jamie's panicked call into Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 6: So I started freaking out, like, oh my god, he
Speaker 6: killed this guy, you know. So I called for grandmother's
Speaker 6: house and she was gone. They didn't know where she was.
Speaker 6: She'd left with Jeremy. And at that point, I kind
Speaker 6: of freak out because I'm reading this, He's obviously murdered someone.
Speaker 6: In my mind, obviously murdered someone. And now my friend
Speaker 6: is gone, my pregnant friend is gone somewhere with him.
Speaker 6: I went and I found my mom and I went
Speaker 6: to her crying. I had the paper in my hand
Speaker 6: and I took it to her and I told her
Speaker 6: what Janie had told me, and I showed her the article.
Speaker 2: That same morning, across Polk County, Jamie wakes up in
Speaker 2: a trailer with Jeremy and I was starving.
Speaker 5: I was so hungry. Now, mind, I'm six months pregnant
Speaker 5: and the baby's still crying. That baby was always crying,
Speaker 5: and I know she was hungry. You can just tell
Speaker 5: she was hungry. I remember coming out and the keys
Speaker 5: to that car sitting on this little table thing that
Speaker 5: was sitting by the door, and I didn't care what
Speaker 5: they said. I was going to get something to eat.
Speaker 5: And I knew from sitting in the back seat that
Speaker 5: that Center Council thing had a bunch of change in it.
Speaker 5: And I grabbed them keys and Jeremy said, where are
Speaker 5: you going? I said, I'm going to get me and
Speaker 5: this baby something to eat. And I walked out the
Speaker 5: door and I made it maybe a block, maybe two blocks,
Speaker 5: I'm not really sure, and all of a sudden, all
Speaker 5: these cops came flying from nowhere, and I can remember
Speaker 5: just sitting there, petrified and thinking. In the back of
Speaker 5: my head. The first thought I thought was, I knew it.
Speaker 5: I knew it. My gut knew when he picked me up,
Speaker 5: I knew it. I knew something was wrong. And I
Speaker 5: remember putting my hands up and I'm all getting out
Speaker 5: and they all had their guns pointed at me, and
Speaker 5: I can remember hollering out the window, I'm pregnant. Please
Speaker 5: don't shoot, Please don't shoot. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And
Speaker 5: I'm just balling and balling, and they're like, where's where's Scott,
Speaker 5: Where's Jeremy Scott, where's it Jeremy Scott. And I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'm alone, I'm alone. Don't shoot, don't shoot, Please don't shoot.
Speaker 5: And I remember this one cop and he came in.
Speaker 5: He grabbed my arm and he held it out the
Speaker 5: window and then he opened the door and I can
Speaker 5: remember him yanking me out and put me across the hood,
Speaker 5: and all I kept thinking about was baby, and so
Speaker 5: I was grabbing my stomach and so then they got
Speaker 5: really mad, and so they're grabbing my arms and all
Speaker 5: I kept hollering was I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And this
Speaker 5: one cop got down in my face and he says,
Speaker 5: if you care about your baby, where's Jeremy Scott? And
Speaker 5: I said, I'll tell you where they're at. I'll tell
Speaker 5: you what they're wearing. Just let me get off my baby,
Speaker 5: and so he let me stand up. I said, to
Speaker 5: that house. I told them, to the scripts of the house.
Speaker 5: This is what they're wearing, this is how many people
Speaker 5: are there. But I said, there's a baby in the house.
Speaker 5: And I remember this lady cop being there, and I
Speaker 5: can remember I looked at her and I was crying
Speaker 5: and I said, please take some food for that baby,
Speaker 5: and she just looked at me and she said what
Speaker 5: I said, Please feed that baby and the tea, and
Speaker 5: I mean she started crying. They did put me in
Speaker 5: the back of the car and they told me they
Speaker 5: were taking me to the station and I said okay,
Speaker 5: And when they shut that door, I could breathe. It
Speaker 5: was like the whole time I couldn't breathe like I
Speaker 5: was underwater. And then I think that's when it finally
Speaker 5: hit me that I was free, that I was finally
Speaker 5: going to get away. And they took me to the
Speaker 5: station and they were ask me everything, and I told
Speaker 5: him everything, everything I knew, and they were asking me
Speaker 5: about calling Jennifer. And then that's when I knew Jennifer
Speaker 5: had called the police.
Speaker 6: I was scared and I was upset for her, but
Speaker 6: I was also mad at her because she promised me
Speaker 6: that she wouldn't go with him.
Speaker 5: She promised me, So Jennifer saved my life. I'm telling
Speaker 5: you right now, I still firmly believe if he had
Speaker 5: not been arrested, I'd be dead. It was getting more
Speaker 5: and more violent each time. And the look when I
Speaker 5: first met him, he was intense, and you could just
Speaker 5: feel him. By the end, there was nothing. There was
Speaker 5: nothing in his eyes, and he would look at you
Speaker 5: and you would just feel like ice water. Five four
Speaker 5: three two.
Speaker 3: We'll be speaking with Jeremy j E. R. M. E.
Speaker 5: Y Scott.
Speaker 2: When Jeremy and Brian are arrested, they eventually tell police
Speaker 2: everything that the murder happened. The morning after Halloween.
Speaker 5: Night, going back to Halloween.
Speaker 2: That they were drinking and smoking in Don's trailer. Jeremy
Speaker 2: knows Don's got hundreds of dollars on him. He wants
Speaker 2: the cash and Don's car, and when he sees Don
Speaker 2: asleep in the recliner, Jeremy smashes him over the head
Speaker 2: with a bottle.
Speaker 1: I ain't one time with the bottle, okay, And that's
Speaker 1: when he went down.
Speaker 5: He was like then, he was unconscious.
Speaker 2: When Don doesn't die fast enough, Jeremy wraps a telephone
Speaker 2: cord around his neck and watches Don take his final breath.
Speaker 2: From the tapes, it's clear the murder, like so many
Speaker 2: of Jeremy's violent acts, was completely senseless and not well
Speaker 2: thought out. He kills Don to give himself time to
Speaker 2: search for money. He knew Don was hiding in the trailer,
Speaker 2: but the murder didn't bring him any closer to finding it.
Speaker 5: Which you couldn't.
Speaker 7: You will don't care what you do. You won't fire again.
Speaker 5: You will find nice cook eating.
Speaker 2: So Jeremy gave up looking for the cash and left
Speaker 2: a fake note on Don's door to buy themselves time
Speaker 2: to get away. It reads friend was in trouble in
Speaker 2: Orlando went to help him be back in a few days.
Speaker 2: Don That's when Jeremy drives over to Jamie's with blood
Speaker 2: on his clothes and brings her to the trailer in Davenport.
Speaker 2: When police pulled Jamie over in the Chevy, Jeremy hears
Speaker 2: a dog from the canine unit. From inside the trailer,
Speaker 2: he sees the helicopter circling above. With nowhere to go,
Speaker 2: he and his younger brother, Royal Dean, take off into
Speaker 2: the woods. Dean's got a warn out for his arrest.
Speaker 2: It's an unrelated charge, but he doesn't want to be
Speaker 2: thrown in jail either. They wade into a creek, hoping
Speaker 2: the water will mask their scent, but the helicopter stays
Speaker 2: fixed above them. They sit together on a log and
Speaker 2: Jeremy finally tells Royal Dean what he did to Donald moorehead.
Speaker 2: They're after me, not you, he says. Watching the scene
Speaker 2: unfold through the trees from where they sit, Jeremy sees
Speaker 2: the officers putting Jamie in the back of a cop car,
Speaker 2: and then he does something that for me looking at
Speaker 2: it now, reveals what a complicated and conflicted person he is.
Speaker 5: M M.
Speaker 7: My brother said he was gonna turn him selva Inn,
Speaker 7: so that's what he did.
Speaker 2: Jamie had nothing to do with this murder, and he
Speaker 2: doesn't want her or Royal Dean caught up in it.
Speaker 3: He gave me enough time to get away and they
Speaker 3: turned himselve In.
Speaker 2: What I know from police records is that Jeremy walks
Speaker 2: up the hill toward the waiting detectives. Are you looking
Speaker 2: for me? He asks? His voice is calm, almost resigned
Speaker 2: to his fate. He's been behind bars ever since. Somebody
Speaker 2: told Jamie that you were gonna kill Jamie.
Speaker 5: What.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I gotta take my own life right to kill
Speaker 7: her up.
Speaker 5: That's the only girl I ever really loved.
Speaker 2: And she was pregnant with Justin at the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: On March fifth, nineteen eighty nine, well, Jeremy is locked
Speaker 2: up in the Polk County jail awaiting trial for Donald
Speaker 2: Moorehead's murder. Jamie checks into the hospital with her mom.
Speaker 5: I was petrified. You know, you see movies about evil children,
Speaker 5: like like Damien and stuff, and I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 5: I had those thoughts. I had those thoughts that what
Speaker 5: if this kid is just like his father? When Justin
Speaker 5: was born. The day he was born, and the way
Speaker 5: he was I had a really rough labor. He was
Speaker 5: in stress. It was just it was scary. And he
Speaker 5: ended up being in the hospital for like six weeks,
Speaker 5: and I couldn't hold him and I couldn't touch him,
Speaker 5: and I would sit there and I would look at
Speaker 5: him and I told I remember telling my mom, this
Speaker 5: baby's not gonna love me because I can't bond with him,
Speaker 5: I can't touch him. And I can remember him just
Speaker 5: looking at me, and my mom saying, you see how
Speaker 5: he's looking at you. He knows who you are. And
Speaker 5: I just fell so in love with this baby. And
Speaker 5: I just knew. I just knew he was mine. I
Speaker 5: didn't care who his dad was, I didn't care how
Speaker 5: he came. That was my baby, that was my child.
Speaker 2: By the time Jeremy's trial began, his son was six
Speaker 2: months old. This trial was not a who done it.
Speaker 2: Both Jeremy and his co defendant Brian Hall had already
Speaker 2: confessed to killing Donald moorehead. Even though the jury recommended
Speaker 2: life in prison, that Jeremy's sentencing prosecutor, John Aguero, convinced
Speaker 2: the judge to send him to the electric chair, so
Speaker 2: Jeremy was shipped off to death Row at Rayford to
Speaker 2: wait for his execution date, and while he waited, he
Speaker 2: could not stop thinking about his son.
Speaker 5: He would write, I mean, at first, it was like
Speaker 5: almost every day I would get a letter, get a letter,
Speaker 5: get a letter. And then I can remember him begging
Speaker 5: to meet Justin, begging to meet Justin. I wanted to
Speaker 5: meet Justin, and I wouldn't write him back. I wouldn't respond,
Speaker 5: and I kept thinking, if I don't answer him, he'll
Speaker 5: quit right and he's gone, He's gone. Don't answer them.
Speaker 5: But he kept asking about Jestin, and he wanted to
Speaker 5: meet Jestin, and I found he wrote down, and I thought, okay,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna let him meet Justin. One time.
Speaker 2: Jamie drives north to Rayford to visit Jeremy. In the
Speaker 2: visitation area, death row inmates are separated from visitors by
Speaker 2: thick glass. When Jeremy's escorted in, He's wearing blue prison
Speaker 2: pants with an orange shirt reserved for death row inmates.
Speaker 2: Jamie is seated on one side of the glass. Jeremy
Speaker 2: sits down on the other side.
Speaker 5: I let him see him through. It was like five minutes.
Speaker 5: It wasn't very long.
Speaker 2: Jeremy can't take his eyes off of Justin, and.
Speaker 5: I remember him starting crying, and I told him, this
Speaker 5: is the lonely time you'll ever see your son. And
Speaker 5: I think me being able to finally tell him no
Speaker 5: without the fear was what I needed. And I remember
Speaker 5: leaving and the relief that I felt, and knowing that
Speaker 5: I'd never have to see him again, and that it
Speaker 5: was just so much relief, so much relief. And I
Speaker 5: remember going out and sitting in the car, and I
Speaker 5: know I sat there for probably an hour, and I
Speaker 5: just cried, and a part of me felt guilty because
Speaker 5: Justin was going to grow up without a dad, but
Speaker 5: I wouldn't want him growing up with that dad. And
Speaker 5: the letter stopped not long after that. They got less
Speaker 5: and less, and it wasn't much longer after that that
Speaker 5: he finally just gave up and stopped writing.
Speaker 2: Jamie tries to move on to forget. Every time there's
Speaker 2: a change in Jeremy's status, the doc notifies her, like
Speaker 2: a few years later, when the Florida Supreme Court overturns
Speaker 2: Jeremy's death sentence, citing all the physical and emotional abuse
Speaker 2: he suffered, as a child, she's told that his sentence
Speaker 2: has been reduced to life in prison. When she gets
Speaker 2: these calls about Jeremy, she has to start forgetting all
Speaker 2: over again.
Speaker 5: I used to have some of his clothes and stuff
Speaker 5: that I held onto for a long time. I got
Speaker 5: rid of all of that to try to get rid
Speaker 5: of demons. And it didn't work. Yeah, I was. I
Speaker 5: had a really rough time with nightmares and stuff for
Speaker 5: a long time, and that didn't help. It didn't help.
Speaker 2: But then she also has this little baby, and as
Speaker 2: he grows up, it becomes even harder to forget.
Speaker 5: From the day he was born, he looked just like Jeremy,
Speaker 5: looked just like him, especially when he reached those teenage
Speaker 5: years and when he first sprouted up, and when that
Speaker 5: voice changed and he started getting the little scruffy hairs,
Speaker 5: and oh god, it my heart would just clench, it
Speaker 5: would just clench. And see, Justin doesn't have the dark hair,
Speaker 5: He's got the blonde hair, so he would look like
Speaker 5: Jeremy when I first met him. Sometimes the way he walks,
Speaker 5: he's got Jeremy's walk. He walks like Jeremy, and those
Speaker 5: blue eyes and you know, the Jeremy I first met,
Speaker 5: and it would meet my heart hurt.
Speaker 2: But she doesn't talk about it, doesn't share the hurt
Speaker 2: she feels, not with her son as he gets older,
Speaker 2: or with anyone else.
Speaker 1: As I'm getting old. One thing I'm realizing humans are
Speaker 1: very fragile. They're very emotional creatures, all of us. I'm
Speaker 1: a human too.
Speaker 2: I promise I fly down to Florida to visit Justin
Speaker 2: about a month after our first phone call. First thing
Speaker 2: I notice is how much he resembles a younger version
Speaker 2: of his father. I've seen Jeremy's mugshots and the photos
Speaker 2: taken during his prison transfers when he was around the
Speaker 2: same age as Justin. Both father and son have the
Speaker 2: piercing blue eyes Jamie talked about. Justin isn't as tall
Speaker 2: as Jeremy, but he shares the same thin build. Even
Speaker 2: their voices have a similar tone in cadence. The other
Speaker 2: thing that stands out about Justin is his nature. He's
Speaker 2: a real people pleaser, thoughtful, sensitive. He tells me that
Speaker 2: for as long as he can remember, he's yearned for
Speaker 2: a strong and stable family.
Speaker 1: I did have times when I would see families and
Speaker 1: I would, you know, crying my head type thing, because
Speaker 1: I would always want to fall here. And that goes
Speaker 1: for a mother too, like I wanted a happy mother
Speaker 1: type thing.
Speaker 2: There were years when Jamie couldn't care for her son.
Speaker 2: Justin spent time living with his grandmother and then an aunt,
Speaker 2: while his mom fought to push away her painful past.
Speaker 5: I never talked to anybody about any of this. I
Speaker 5: bottled all that up and put it away. Well, the
Speaker 5: way to keep it put it away was to do
Speaker 5: drugs and to drink and get into these bad relationships.
Speaker 5: And it was just recycling and recycling.
Speaker 2: Even as she tried to avoid talking about Jeremy at
Speaker 2: all costs, he had a way of resurfacing in her life.
Speaker 2: Like how in two thousand and five, Jamie got an
Speaker 2: unexpected knock on her door.
Speaker 5: When those detectives showed up, it was like somebody he
Speaker 5: just took a bandage and just tore it off and
Speaker 5: everything just came out. They just said, we need to
Speaker 5: talk to you about Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 2: Investigators had just learned that Jeremy Scott's fingerprints were identified
Speaker 2: inside the car Michelle Schofield was driving the night she
Speaker 2: was killed.
Speaker 5: And as soon as they said that I hit the
Speaker 5: floor and I just started crying, and I said, how
Speaker 5: did he get out? Because that's been my biggest fear,
Speaker 5: is he's going to get out. He's going to find
Speaker 5: me and he's going to kill me. And they were like,
Speaker 5: oh no, no, no, he didn't get out. We just
Speaker 5: need to talk to you. And for him to still
Speaker 5: have that hold on me. Sixteen years later, I thought
Speaker 5: I was over that. I don't even remember most of
Speaker 5: that interview. I'm going to be real with you, I
Speaker 5: don't remember a lot of it. And when I left
Speaker 5: that interview, and I'm just gonna be honest, I went
Speaker 5: on a three week binger and pretty much disappeared.
Speaker 2: Justin learned not to ask too many questions about his dad.
Speaker 1: The only time that anything was mentioned it was either
Speaker 1: when I was in argument, you don't need to be
Speaker 1: like your father, you don't blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Anytime they ever talked about him is you're not liking
Speaker 1: him type thing. So I wonder how much of my
Speaker 1: life I followed in his footsteps, because if you keep
Speaker 1: telling someone they're not something, they end up being something
Speaker 1: like I got to make sure not to do that
Speaker 1: with my kids.
Speaker 2: What was it like when you found out you were
Speaker 2: going to be a father?
Speaker 1: I was scared, I was, I was, well, I'm still scared.
Speaker 1: It was just more or less me being scared about
Speaker 1: anger issues.
Speaker 2: Justin doesn't have a criminal record. He's never gotten into
Speaker 2: the kind of trouble Jeremy, did.
Speaker 1: You know if I'm going to be like my dad?
Speaker 1: Which I'm not, because I don't even know what my
Speaker 1: dad would be like in a dad role.
Speaker 2: The first time Justin heard his dad's voice, he heard
Speaker 2: him confessing to a murder.
Speaker 7: Because I have to live with this every day.
Speaker 1: Can you describe that?
Speaker 5: What does it like to live with them?
Speaker 7: That's not a good feeling this way? Just put it away.
Speaker 7: I dreamed, I wake up. I turned over. I said,
Speaker 7: I said, a dead body, say next to me. I
Speaker 7: see with dead bodies every night when I go to bed.
Speaker 7: That's punishment.
Speaker 1: Because I was expecting. I was expecting someone cold. I
Speaker 1: was expecting like a like someone that really don't care.
Speaker 1: And then I heard someone genuinely crying, and so I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, So it makes sense. His name is finally
Speaker 1: caught up to him. He was forced to break and
Speaker 1: he didn't know how to handle that.
Speaker 2: Jeremy can never set things truly right. He can't bring
Speaker 2: back the dead or erase the ripples of pain he's
Speaker 2: caused for so many. But he can set the record straight,
Speaker 2: which he hopes, and Justin hopes, and I hope will
Speaker 2: one day help to exonerate Leo Schofield, whose conviction for
Speaker 2: the murder of his wife still stands today. Justin wants
Speaker 2: to support his dad through this struggle. He wants him
Speaker 2: to be honest about his past.
Speaker 1: My dad was a destroyer. I'm a healer type thing,
Speaker 1: so in the beginning is the heal what my dad
Speaker 1: had broke. And I feel like if I do that,
Speaker 1: then I could unlock the power of healing.
Speaker 5: That's how my mind frame works.
Speaker 2: Justin tells me he wants to talk talk to his dad.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to talk to my dad
Speaker 1: because I can't even know how to take the steps
Speaker 1: to talk to him.
Speaker 5: I'm not scared.
Speaker 2: He wonders if this will help him be a better
Speaker 2: father to his own son, so he can somedays show
Speaker 2: him that even broken pieces can be put back together
Speaker 2: in their own way.
Speaker 5: I know that is anything I have to help my dad.
Speaker 5: How can I be a father to my son. If
Speaker 5: I can't even stand up to my own I.
Speaker 2: Tell Justin I'll try to help him. We can definitely
Speaker 2: help you with this. We have, We've been corresponding with him.
Speaker 2: I'll just tell you right now, but deep down I
Speaker 2: was unsettled. Connecting Justin with his father means bringing him
Speaker 2: into the chaos of Jeremy's life. I knew what that
Speaker 2: was like. But Justin is his son. How would he
Speaker 2: respond to getting a letter like this one? Mister King,
Speaker 2: I have no hard feelings towards you or to society.
Speaker 2: I'll make this short. This will be my last time
Speaker 2: writing to you. They are going to lock me away
Speaker 2: for a long time. The monster in me is coming
Speaker 2: alive one last time. Hope everything works out for you. Goodbye,
Speaker 2: that's next time. Own Valley is a production of Lava
Speaker 2: for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis.
Speaker 2: Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie Paully and Hannah
Speaker 2: Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is our sound designer.
Speaker 2: Marianne McCune is our editor, fact checking by Danielle Suleman.
Speaker 2: Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing and Operations. Our
Speaker 2: Social Media director is Ismadi guard Rama, our Social Media
Speaker 2: manager is Sarah Gibbons, and our art director is Andrew Nelson.
Speaker 2: Additional research production by Kelsey Decker. Additional sound recording by
Speaker 2: James Johnson. Own Valley is written and produced by me
Speaker 2: Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads
Speaker 2: at Lava for Good