Speaker 1: It's really scary. I don't know if I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: be back here.
Speaker 2: I'm in Madison County, Arkansas, known locally by its nickname
Speaker 2: Booger County. When I was working on another case down
Speaker 2: here a while back, the Billie Jean Phillips murder, I
Speaker 2: asked a lot of people where this nickname came from,
Speaker 2: by the way, and heard a bunch of different explanations.
Speaker 2: Madison County, like a lot of the Ozarks, was very
Speaker 2: sparsely populated and had very few highways running through it
Speaker 2: until the nineteen sixties. The original road, which was then
Speaker 2: called Highway four twelve to Kingston, was dirt until nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty one. My dad and some other people told me
Speaker 2: that people from Madison County were referred to as boogers
Speaker 2: because they were tough, like a crusty booger on the
Speaker 2: inside of your nose. Other people think it's because of
Speaker 2: the expression it was a booger to get around there
Speaker 2: or to live there, meaning that it was tough to navigate.
Speaker 2: There are also some rumors the nickname has something to
Speaker 2: do with ghosts or spirits or an old moonshiner. The
Speaker 2: point is that everyone seems to know about the nickname,
Speaker 2: but no one really knows how it got started. It's
Speaker 2: just something that has always been that way, and they
Speaker 2: think it will always be that way in Madison County,
Speaker 2: which is the same thing a lot of people say
Speaker 2: about local law enforcement and about what they see is
Speaker 2: the relationship between people who have power and people who don't.
Speaker 2: The Madison County Sheriff's office got a nine to one
Speaker 2: one call in the early morning hours of August fifth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. The caller heard sounds she believed that
Speaker 2: they were coming from a woman who was being raped
Speaker 2: or tortured, but the police never came. Then a few
Speaker 2: weeks later, around September fifth, people were expressing concern about
Speaker 2: Taylor Barksdale, a thirty year old woman who had been
Speaker 2: living in Huntsville and who had gone missing. When police
Speaker 2: finally went into the area of the nine to one
Speaker 2: one call to investigate, more than a month after the
Speaker 2: nine to one one call was made, on September ninth,
Speaker 2: they went out to a residence in Kingston. They found
Speaker 2: Taylor's remains. Side note, I've also been told that the
Speaker 2: rumor about Taylor's remains being found in a hay bale
Speaker 2: or not true. But I have another source who says
Speaker 2: they were present on the day the remains were found
Speaker 2: and they said that it is true. The Madison County
Speaker 2: Sheriff's office is not saying one way or another, and
Speaker 2: I don't want to fuel rumors, so I should make clear.
Speaker 2: We don't know for sure whether Taylor's remains were found
Speaker 2: in Heybale's, but either way, we do know that her
Speaker 2: remains were found on a property in Kingston. Taylor was
Speaker 2: a mother of two young children, someone who was loved
Speaker 2: by her friends and family, and someone who was vulnerable,
Speaker 2: someone who died screaming in a dark field, desperately waiting
Speaker 2: for help that never came.
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast,
Speaker 2: Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing
Speaker 2: as a small town where murder never happened. I've received
Speaker 2: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking
Speaker 2: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families.
Speaker 3: And their communities.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five. Or you
Speaker 2: can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonpod.
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. I talked to Taylor's
Speaker 2: aunt in the last episode. Now that I'm in Madison County,
Speaker 2: I make a plan with her and Taylor's uncle to
Speaker 2: meet up with them. My source, Jay Brown, and I
Speaker 2: meet beforehand, then we head to a local gas station
Speaker 2: to meet with them. Our plan is to go out
Speaker 2: and to get near the area where the caller heard
Speaker 2: the screams and to try to piece together what was
Speaker 2: going on with Taylor between July twentieth, when she was
Speaker 2: apparently reported missing by someone, and August fifth, the night
Speaker 2: she was heard screaming when we believe she was killed.
Speaker 2: Taylor's aunt tells us about her frustrations with the Madison
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's office. Since Taylor's remains were found, a lot
Speaker 2: of people have been expressing their frustrations with the Sheriff's
Speaker 2: office and what they believe is a lack of information
Speaker 2: on social media pages chatting about Madison County. Taylor's aunt
Speaker 2: brings up the fact that in Facebook posts, the sheriff
Speaker 2: mentions he doesn't have enough officers and says that the
Speaker 2: county needs a new jail. And while this might be true,
Speaker 2: many people feel that this is a deflection from the
Speaker 2: real issue. A woman was in distress, a deputy failed
Speaker 2: to respond to her and later lied about it, and
Speaker 2: yet this deputy was allowed to resign. She's asking, quite rightly,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, what does any of this have to
Speaker 2: do with a new jail. She says that even though
Speaker 2: she understands the sheriff wants a new jail, better facilities,
Speaker 2: and more manpower, she believes that his response to Taylor's
Speaker 2: family was unacceptable. She said that her husband is even
Speaker 2: offered to become a reserve deputy.
Speaker 1: And donate one night a week. And we told him
Speaker 1: that you can be a reserve. Yeah, my dad did.
Speaker 1: I told me.
Speaker 4: I said, he's offered to be a reserve. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: that would be an I'm not bragging. We're not reaching
Speaker 4: any means, but I would be willing to let him
Speaker 4: miss the day of our pay and that's big money
Speaker 4: to go reserve that night and stay up all night
Speaker 4: to reserve.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't want it.
Speaker 2: And we talk about our shared outrage that the deputy
Speaker 2: blake Castle admitted to Drew Scott, the officer on duty,
Speaker 2: that he did not respond to the nine to.
Speaker 3: One one call.
Speaker 2: He admitted that on August fifth, so Drew knew the
Speaker 2: next day that blake Castle had lied about taking that call.
Speaker 2: And even when Sheriff Ronnie Boyd did respond, which we'll
Speaker 2: go into in detail later in the episode, it seemed
Speaker 2: to me that a lot of the sheriff's response was
Speaker 2: focused on venting the frustrations that the police officers feel
Speaker 2: and not on what consequences, if any, this deputy was
Speaker 2: going to face. It was just like, you know, how
Speaker 2: about the I mean, I don't know, from my perspective,
Speaker 2: it should have said something like, we're so sorry that
Speaker 2: we failed this victim, and you know, the deputy will
Speaker 2: be thinking about the for the rest of his life,
Speaker 2: the fact that he did not respond to that call
Speaker 2: and someone is dead as a result of his negligent,
Speaker 2: utter negligence.
Speaker 1: I mean, instead of.
Speaker 4: That, we can sare iff, why did he not follow up?
Speaker 4: Would Taylor still be dead or could have he gotten
Speaker 4: to her? She probably would have been. But if you
Speaker 4: would have gone on the fifth, if Drew Scott, who
Speaker 4: wrote the fifth it's it's on there. You signed it.
Speaker 4: You're just as guilty. Sorry, Why didn't you go check
Speaker 4: up on that nine one one call?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he knew.
Speaker 2: We did a foy A request and we got a
Speaker 2: statement back saying that blake Castle, the deputy who was
Speaker 2: the only one on duty in the early morning hours
Speaker 2: of August fifth when the nine to one one call
Speaker 2: came in, did not respond to the nine to one
Speaker 2: one call. Later that same day, when Drew Scott, the
Speaker 2: officer in charge, asked about it, blake Castle was given
Speaker 2: what they referred to in the statement as verbal counseling.
Speaker 3: This means that the sheriff.
Speaker 2: Presumably would have known about the deputy's failure to respond
Speaker 2: to the call on August fifth, and yet blake Castle
Speaker 2: was allowed to remain on duty until September eleventh, two
Speaker 2: days after Taylor's remains were found, he was allowed to resign.
Speaker 2: He wasn't fired. There was no mention of firing him
Speaker 2: or potential criminal charges. So what led Taylor to that
Speaker 2: field where she was on August fifth, alone at night,
Speaker 2: screaming with.
Speaker 3: No one to help.
Speaker 2: Taylor's aunt tells me that Taylor was one of five siblings,
Speaker 2: and that her mother passed away when Taylor was fifteen
Speaker 2: years old. Her father worked long hours to provide for
Speaker 2: the family. I've seen many posts talk about her kindness,
Speaker 2: how she was a great friend, and how much she
Speaker 2: loved her children. At some point, Taylor became involved in drugs,
Speaker 2: and even though we have talked to people who say
Speaker 2: that she was focused on seeing her children and trying
Speaker 2: to find a job in the weeks before her death,
Speaker 2: she continued as so many people do, to struggle with addiction.
Speaker 2: Before the incident on August fifth, multiple sources say that
Speaker 2: Taylor was staying on and off with a man named Kenny.
Speaker 2: We talked to one of Kenny's neighbors, someone who lives
Speaker 2: very close by. She said that Taylor and Kenny fought
Speaker 2: often and loudly. She said that she lived in a
Speaker 2: spot where she could hear everything coming from that residence.
Speaker 2: She heard them screaming at each other often. The neighbor
Speaker 2: also said that she would frequently see Taylor walking up
Speaker 2: and down the road.
Speaker 3: She said she wanted.
Speaker 2: To help Taylor, but she felt totally helpless to intervene
Speaker 2: because Taylor would refuse help. As someone who has had
Speaker 2: people close to me struggle with addiction. I totally relate
Speaker 2: to this, and judging from the calls and emails I've
Speaker 2: gotten a lot of our listeners do too. Then, sometime
Speaker 2: around July twentieth, twenty twenty four, Taylor and Kenny got
Speaker 2: into a big argument, one that apparently resulted in Taylor
Speaker 2: leaving the residence, either because Kenny kicked her out or
Speaker 2: she left voluntarily. Again, we're not sure what happened here.
Speaker 2: That's part of what we're trying to figure out. We
Speaker 2: do know that apparently someone called nine to one one.
Speaker 1: That's well, that's my question.
Speaker 5: We seen, we saw, We have one calls where there
Speaker 5: was three. It was out there midnight nineteenth to the twentieth,
Speaker 5: and there was two. In the last one, there was
Speaker 5: a Taylor Borsdale name in the last call.
Speaker 1: That on July twentieth.
Speaker 2: Apparently one of Taylor's children was in this area, So
Speaker 2: Taylor may have been trying to see her child.
Speaker 3: But that's really just a theory.
Speaker 2: In reality, we don't know a lot about what she
Speaker 2: was doing during those days. Then, at some point, Taylor's
Speaker 2: clothing was found scattered in the Big Clifty area. That's
Speaker 2: about a forty five minute drive from Kingston, but we
Speaker 2: don't know exactly when that happened either. The sheriff referred
Speaker 2: to the clothing on social media in one of the
Speaker 2: Madison County Sheriff's Offices press releases, we don't know why
Speaker 2: her clothes were scattered in that spot or exactly when
Speaker 2: it happened, but it was sometime on or around July twentieth.
Speaker 2: We also don't know how did she get from Big
Speaker 2: Clifty to Kingston, the area where she was seen by
Speaker 2: the nine one one caller. I talked to one of
Speaker 2: my sources, Jay Brown, about the fact that on July twentieth,
Speaker 2: Taylor's picture was on a missing person's website. We're trying
Speaker 2: to figure out who put it there, since he worked
Speaker 2: in law enforcement. He explains the sequence of events.
Speaker 4: So somebody, she's got a missing date of seven, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four.
Speaker 2: At some point a deputy had to tell a dispatcher
Speaker 2: to enter her into ACIC as a missing person.
Speaker 1: Well, it seems kind of quincid. Old. There was a
Speaker 1: nine to one one call.
Speaker 4: That a friend of Taylor's had gotten her from somewhere,
Speaker 4: and she went to this friend's house and slept.
Speaker 1: For a long time, probably coming off of drugs. I don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, they know where I do.
Speaker 4: But when she woke up after sleeping for a long time,
Speaker 4: she wanted to see her son. One of her sons
Speaker 4: lives on Kipper Street, Okay. So she called this dad
Speaker 4: and asked if she could come over, if she could
Speaker 4: bring Taylor over there, and he said yes, So Taylor
Speaker 4: went to his house. I don't know how long she did,
Speaker 4: how many days she stayed with him or what, but
Speaker 4: she stayed with him for a while, slipped up and
Speaker 4: came back high one time, and he kicked her out.
Speaker 4: You gotta go, So I believe that that is going
Speaker 4: to be that timeframe that he kicked her out. But
Speaker 4: she still wanted to see her son. So she's on
Speaker 4: Cooper Street way around Okay.
Speaker 2: Again, we aren't sure exactly what happened. We're not sure
Speaker 2: what the argument was about, but we do know that
Speaker 2: her drug use had Taylor in a dark place, which
Speaker 2: made her vulnerable. After the argument, Taylor was not seen
Speaker 2: by the neighbor at her ex boyfriend Kenny's residence again,
Speaker 2: and then somehow Taylor made her way from her ex
Speaker 2: boyfriend's house to the area where Taylor was hanging out
Speaker 2: in Kingston. Other than Kenny, Taylor was sometimes seen hanging
Speaker 2: out with three mutual friends. They were three men and
Speaker 2: they knew Kenny and Taylor. We know these men's names.
Speaker 2: They're also posted on social media. But we're still talking
Speaker 2: to people and also trying to reach out to these
Speaker 2: mystery men to figure out exactly what happened and when
Speaker 2: they last saw Taylor. One of these men was staying
Speaker 2: in a camper near the nine one one callers property,
Speaker 2: the camper that, according to Taylor's aunt and uncle, was
Speaker 2: moved a few days after her body was found.
Speaker 4: Said that her posessions auver belongings round in the field.
Speaker 6: Then on September the six, someone let them get some
Speaker 6: information or gave them information that she was last seen
Speaker 6: in the Huntsville Kingston area.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, so that's.
Speaker 4: I guess when she's trying to make it click that.
Speaker 5: The Kilston area that now I'm on home cancers.
Speaker 1: Because he still didn't know her.
Speaker 2: After calling nine one one and the lack of police response,
Speaker 2: the nine to one one caller went through social media
Speaker 2: pages to see if she could make a connection to
Speaker 2: figure out who Taylor was. She contacted Taylor's aunt to
Speaker 2: confirm her identity. The nine to one one caller blamed
Speaker 2: herself for not doing more, but Taylor's aunt told her
Speaker 2: it wasn't her fault, that it was the police's responsibility
Speaker 2: to answer the call, not hers. After talking with Taylor's
Speaker 2: aunt and uncle, we head out to an area near
Speaker 2: where Taylor's body was found.
Speaker 1: This is really scary.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm.
Speaker 1: Supposed to be back here.
Speaker 2: We can't get all the way to the spot where
Speaker 2: Taylor's body was found, but we drive to an area nearby.
Speaker 2: It's very remote. We can see bales of hay everywhere.
Speaker 2: We can't figure out how Taylor's remains ended up out here.
Speaker 2: Thinking about the entire scenario is horrific. There are so
Speaker 2: many unanswered questions in this investigation. The county prosecutor, Matt
Speaker 2: Durrett told NWA online, quote, We're treating it as a
Speaker 2: homicide until it's determined it is or isn't. We're not
Speaker 2: assuming anything end quote. Taylor's uncle talks about the lack
Speaker 2: of crime scene tape and this sounds weird, But honestly,
Speaker 2: I'm unsure about who has controlled the investigation because Sheriff
Speaker 2: Ronnie Boyd said in a press release that the Arkansas
Speaker 2: State Police were assisting with the case, but the Madison
Speaker 2: County Record called the ASP to confirm that, and the
Speaker 2: ASP apparently said they were not officially assisting. The sheriff
Speaker 2: later clarified that he had discussed the case with someone
Speaker 2: in the ASP in a more unofficial manner. The release
Speaker 2: says something like the Arkansas State Police have been contacted
Speaker 2: to assist in the investigation, So the wording is a
Speaker 2: little ambiguous, but again, it seemed to Taylor's aunt and
Speaker 2: the rest of the family that law enforcement was not
Speaker 2: being forthcoming with them with information. Jay Brown talked about
Speaker 2: what he had heard about irregularities and evidence collection. He
Speaker 2: claimed that sources told him the Sheriff's department collected evidence
Speaker 2: at the crime scene in a potato chip back.
Speaker 1: That made me laugh. That actually made me laugh. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the story behind that. There is a chat tooo too.
Speaker 5: Okay, he owned property.
Speaker 1: How about testing and see this human blood? I mean sorry,
Speaker 1: I mentioned the back of chips because I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: I've done this job before and I have never in
Speaker 5: my life collected it.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's ever watched law and order knows not to
Speaker 1: do that. You don't even have to be a cop.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: I don't know if the chip bag rumor is true,
Speaker 2: but if it is, it would not totally shock me.
Speaker 2: In the Rebecca Gould case, the local police department had
Speaker 2: to go to Harp's grocery for evidence bags.
Speaker 1: But in that case, the.
Speaker 2: Izard County Sheriff's Department did the right thing in my opinion.
Speaker 2: They immediately realized that they needed help and they immediately
Speaker 2: turned the case over to the Arkansas State Police. And
Speaker 2: in this case, if the Madison County Sheriff's office is
Speaker 2: so understaffed and overwhelmed, I'm wondering why they don't just
Speaker 2: hand the whole case over to the Arkansas State Police.
Speaker 1: Thank you for driving us around.
Speaker 4: This is the kings to the squair and the camp
Speaker 4: is there if that's not yet, but it's right, gotcha.
Speaker 1: So we can plan if you want to be in
Speaker 1: so you can see.
Speaker 5: I'll give you an idea.
Speaker 2: I look that I look on the maps the proximity
Speaker 2: between the nine WI one caller and this location.
Speaker 1: I mean, what she was hearing was a viable call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was reasonable to call for help. Sure, they just
Speaker 1: chalked up to a bunch of junkies were not.
Speaker 6: So said, there's a bunch of junkies were not even
Speaker 6: going out through the mission.
Speaker 4: Oh no, But but this guy says, if it was
Speaker 4: people off their medicine and not in the.
Speaker 2: Saw that, yeah, And he said we always something like
Speaker 2: what really like actually enraged me? Was and he said
Speaker 2: we always we try best to give help to people
Speaker 2: who actually want help.
Speaker 1: Or it was something like.
Speaker 2: That, And I was like, what you think someone getting
Speaker 2: murdered might want some help?
Speaker 4: Because has said if he would have arrested her a
Speaker 4: long time ago and gotten her help, she could be clean,
Speaker 4: then go arrest him.
Speaker 2: We are still reaching out to people. We are filling
Speaker 2: in the blanks of what was going on in Taylor's life.
Speaker 2: We have heard that during some of this time, the
Speaker 2: Taylor spent time in the library. Some people say she
Speaker 2: was applying for a job. Others say she would stop
Speaker 2: in to look for information or to use the Wi Fi. So,
Speaker 2: if anyone out there was in the library in the
Speaker 2: time period between mid July and August fifth, that critical
Speaker 2: few weeks and saw Taylor Barksdale, please reach out. We've
Speaker 2: also been in touch with another person, someone who says
Speaker 2: that she has information about Taylor being at a residence
Speaker 2: on August fourth, right before Taylor disappeared, and this person
Speaker 2: claims that Taylor was there with one of the mutual friends,
Speaker 2: one of the men who Taylor had been hanging out
Speaker 2: with recently. We need to find out if that's true,
Speaker 2: and if it is true whether Taylor and this guy
Speaker 2: left the residence for a few minutes and then came
Speaker 2: right back and basically stayed the night, which is one
Speaker 2: version that we've heard, or if as this woman apparently claims,
Speaker 2: the guy left with Taylor then did not come back
Speaker 2: until after daybreak, and when he came back, he returned alone.
Speaker 2: While we're trying to figure out who these mystery men are,
Speaker 2: what their background is, and what Taylor's movements were on
Speaker 2: the night of August fifth, the Madison County Sheriff's Department
Speaker 2: posted a response on Facebook. Actually, I should say it
Speaker 2: was posted by Madison County Sheriff Ronnie Boyd on the
Speaker 2: Sheriff Ronnie Boyd page. It reads, in part quote, when
Speaker 2: I ran for sheriff, I knew that there were going
Speaker 2: to be a lot of challenges ahead of me if elected.
Speaker 2: There have been a lot of issues from the past
Speaker 2: that still get brought up to this day. I knew
Speaker 2: that I would have some opposition or outright enemies from
Speaker 2: the outsid said, because I knew I wasn't the choice
Speaker 2: for some. But I hope that I've won some of
Speaker 2: those over by my actions of doing what's right and
Speaker 2: trying to improve the quality of law enforcement in our county.
Speaker 3: I know that I've.
Speaker 2: Also acquired some new enemies by not succumbing to requests
Speaker 2: of giving some people special consideration for running a foul
Speaker 2: of the law, and by actually holding people accountable some
Speaker 2: even in law enforcement. I have some very basic guidelines
Speaker 2: that I believe are easy to follow and hold my
Speaker 2: personnel to account.
Speaker 3: Show up ready to.
Speaker 2: Do your job, do your job to the best of
Speaker 2: your ability, do what's right, and treat all people with respect.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: He goes on to talk about the challenges of being understaffed.
Speaker 2: He says the police department would rather work shorthanded than
Speaker 2: to deal with those who aren't striving to meet his principles.
Speaker 2: He goes on to say, quote, I know the recent
Speaker 2: case of what happened to Taylor Barksdale has angered and
Speaker 2: dismayed a lot of people.
Speaker 3: Many of those were already.
Speaker 2: Looking for any reason to go after the sheriff's office
Speaker 2: or me personally. For those who are using this situation
Speaker 2: to further you're already existing personal agreements with a sheriff's
Speaker 2: office or me.
Speaker 1: I find that despicable.
Speaker 2: To say that the incident did not sit well with
Speaker 2: me either would be an understatement. My sympathies are with
Speaker 2: Taylor's family and friends. I wish that I could turn
Speaker 2: back time and create a different outcome, but I know
Speaker 2: I can't. To Taylor's family and friends, I want to
Speaker 2: say that I'm sorry our deputy on the morning of
Speaker 2: August fifth, twenty twenty four, failed Tailor and you, and
Speaker 2: could have potentially saved her life by just responding to
Speaker 2: the call. I have acknowledged his wrongdoing from the start
Speaker 2: and not once tried to cover it up. I will
Speaker 2: not speak on the form of Deputy's behalf, but I
Speaker 2: know that the decision he made is something he will
Speaker 2: have to deal with for a long time, if not
Speaker 2: for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 2: Then he goes on to say quote many of those
Speaker 2: who I see commenting negatively couldn't even pass the background
Speaker 2: check to become a law enforcement officer. They also don't
Speaker 2: have the physical ability, the mental tough nor the moral character,
Speaker 2: and are fueled by emotion, making them incapable of making
Speaker 2: reasoned decisions that are a necessity in law enforcement. Are
Speaker 2: we to count on you to protect and serve others
Speaker 2: in an improve capacity? What have you done to help others?
Speaker 2: Like Taylor end quote. He talks about some of the
Speaker 2: good deeds the deputies have done, and I'm not denying
Speaker 2: there are some wonderful members of law enforcement out there
Speaker 2: and they are working hard to help people and make
Speaker 2: their communities better. I want to stress again this podcast
Speaker 2: is not anti law enforcement. I want to give the
Speaker 2: police officers who are out there doing the right thing
Speaker 2: their credit. I am sure that it is a hard
Speaker 2: job and that many of them are doing their best.
Speaker 2: It goes on, but I'm going to stop there. In
Speaker 2: my opinion, this response is ridiculous. The deputy failed to
Speaker 2: respond to a nine to one one call someone died,
Speaker 2: and after that he lied about it. People are asking
Speaker 2: very legitimate questions. Why was he allowed to resign and
Speaker 2: not fired immediately? And why is he not facing any
Speaker 2: charges himself or disciplined in any way other than a
Speaker 2: verbal counseling. The police are not the wronged party here,
Speaker 2: and if Sheriff Boyd is serious about cracking down on criminals,
Speaker 2: surely the same rules should apply to his own staff member,
Speaker 2: whose own deputy, who has broken the law. The wronged
Speaker 2: party in this is the woman who died and waited
Speaker 2: for help that never came. We're going to continue to
Speaker 2: ask those questions, and since the police are so understaffed,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put out here right now we are
Speaker 2: trying to help them. I know that there are a
Speaker 2: lot of people out there who may be nervous about
Speaker 2: talking to law enforcement, So we're conducting interviews and we'll
Speaker 2: be turning everything helpful we find over to police. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to reach out to the woman who said she
Speaker 2: saw Taylor earlier on the night before the screams were heard.
Speaker 2: We're also going to fill in more of the gaps
Speaker 2: and try to figure out who Taylor was hanging out
Speaker 2: with and who could have wanted to hurt her and why.
Speaker 2: Taylor's aunt said the failure of the deputy to respond
Speaker 2: to Taylor's screams is something she thinks about a lot.
Speaker 1: Why did he not follow up? Would Taylor still be dead?
Speaker 2: So once again I'm headed back into the woods.
Speaker 1: Hot to see the woods. I always end up in
Speaker 1: the woods.
Speaker 5: I hate him.
Speaker 2: That is my fate.
Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts and Miranda Hawkins. Special thanks to Amy
Speaker 2: Tubbs for her research assistance. Noah Kamer mixed and scored
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Solee, Executive
Speaker 2: producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Else Crowley. Listen
Speaker 2: to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart
Speaker 2: True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you are
Speaker 2: interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you
Speaker 2: can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. If
Speaker 2: you have a case you'd like me and my team
Speaker 2: to look into, you can reach out to us at
Speaker 2: our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven
Speaker 2: four four six one four five. That's six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five