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Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: On Saturday, November two, twenty twenty four, fifteen year old
Speaker 2: Trip Brazil headed out of his house in Forest City,
Speaker 2: Arkansas on a four wheeler.
Speaker 3: Trip grew up and.
Speaker 2: When he had been hanging around with his uncle and
Speaker 2: aunt that day, His mother, Jennifer Brazil, told us that Trip,
Speaker 2: her brother, and her sister in law went to a
Speaker 2: party at a friend's house. They were in the area
Speaker 2: of Saint Francis County Road four O nine, near Forest
Speaker 2: City after dark and into the early morning hours of Sunday,
Speaker 2: November three, They continued to hang out in a part
Speaker 2: of the woods called Crow Creek, riding ATVs, which are
Speaker 2: also called four wheelers. Trips aunt and uncle were on
Speaker 2: one four wheeler, Trip was on the other. One of
Speaker 2: his friends was also there at some point riding another atv.
Speaker 3: Now it's mostly illegal.
Speaker 2: To ride four wheelers on paved roads in Arkansas and
Speaker 2: in many other places, but out there in the country
Speaker 2: it is a common mode of transportation for teens. His mother,
Speaker 2: Jennifer Brazil, told us that Trip was homeschooled and also
Speaker 2: had a job at a carpet store.
Speaker 4: They love being outside, sweet, respectful kids. He knew how
Speaker 4: to actus his elders. They had been riding fullers all day. Actually,
Speaker 4: his brother and sister. I'm glad that they got to
Speaker 4: send the day with him. Then he went by our
Speaker 4: friend's house, so they were having a party. And if
Speaker 4: it comes back you had alcohol in this system, that's
Speaker 4: not going to shock me. But as far as drugs, no,
Speaker 4: Trip was not a drug user. He told his friends
Speaker 4: to try to stop smoking weeds. Trip was very scared
Speaker 4: of drugs.
Speaker 2: There were police officers near the teens in the woods
Speaker 2: that night. Deputy Tray Bonham and Sergeant David Kenney from
Speaker 2: the Saint Francis County Sheriff's Office had been out there
Speaker 2: responding to a call dealing with a missing eleven year
Speaker 2: old and twelve year old girl and boy from Cross County.
Speaker 2: So Sergeant Kenny and Deputy Bonham got called out to
Speaker 2: an area near Highway three eight because one of the
Speaker 2: missing Cross County kids phones was.
Speaker 3: Pinging in that area.
Speaker 2: Deputy Bynham wrote in his report that while they were
Speaker 2: checking out a residence in the woods, they heard ATVs
Speaker 2: driving around erratically. When they finished up and got back
Speaker 2: to their vehicles, Sergeant Kenney went to.
Speaker 3: Go find those ATVs.
Speaker 2: He was the first one to make contact with Trip
Speaker 2: and his family members. In his report, he said that
Speaker 2: he was talking to the people who were on one
Speaker 2: of the four wheelers, basically telling everyone to slow down.
Speaker 2: As Deputy Bontam approached, he saw one of the four
Speaker 2: wheelers slow down like it was about to stop, but
Speaker 2: then he said, the four wheeler took off and passed
Speaker 2: him at a high rate of speed. The driver of
Speaker 2: that ATV was Trip Brazil. The police started.
Speaker 3: Talking to Trip's aunt and uncle and one of Trip's friends.
Speaker 4: Then he was riding with my brother and sister in
Speaker 4: law who her dad is a state trooper, and the
Speaker 4: cop pulled up to the stop sign and said what
Speaker 4: are y'all doing? They said, oh, we'll just stop riding.
Speaker 4: Looks a little way y'all need to go.
Speaker 3: Sergeant Kenny was interviewed about this incident.
Speaker 5: There's two four wheelers and four individuals there. They all
Speaker 5: looked to be leaked teen's early twenties. As I got
Speaker 5: out of my truck and walked around in front of
Speaker 5: my vehicle, one of the four wheelers took off going
Speaker 5: south on two eighty four. He went a couple hundred
Speaker 5: yards and stopped, looked over his shoulder. I said, where's
Speaker 5: he going. One of the kids popped up and said,
Speaker 5: we don't know, sir. I said, so he's just going
Speaker 5: to leave y'all here. He said, that's what it looks like.
Speaker 5: Will he come back by? And he was approaching. He
Speaker 5: was slowing down like he was going to stop.
Speaker 2: At that point, Deputy Bonham started his pursuit of the
Speaker 2: four wheeler.
Speaker 3: He was trying to pull trip over.
Speaker 2: Sergeant Kenny said he just wanted the driver of that
Speaker 2: ATV to slow down. He said he called out on
Speaker 2: the radio to the driver, telling him to watch the
Speaker 2: hairpin turns on the roadway.
Speaker 3: Trip didn't stop.
Speaker 2: Instead, he turned onto another road, Highway four O nine,
Speaker 2: and sped away, so Deputy Bottom followed him. This high
Speaker 2: speed chase went on up a hill and back down
Speaker 2: a hill. Technically it was a dirt burm, but that's
Speaker 2: how the deputies described it. And that's when something happened,
Speaker 2: something that caused Trip to abruptly stop and jump off
Speaker 2: his four wheeler at twelve forty two am. This is
Speaker 2: the bodycam footage of that chase. In real time. You
Speaker 2: can hear the deputy yell at Trip, but he'd already
Speaker 2: gotten off the four wheeler and was running. Trip was
Speaker 2: wearing a camouflage hoodie, blue jeans, and boots as he
Speaker 2: took off through the woods. In that bodycam footage, it
Speaker 2: looks like he jumped over a barbed wire fence and
Speaker 2: took off across a field.
Speaker 3: Trip didn't stop or turned back.
Speaker 2: He fled into the woods and kept on running, and
Speaker 2: then he disappeared.
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 happens. 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 2: and their communities. If you have a case you'd like
Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at
Speaker 2: six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
Speaker 2: Or you can send us a message on Instagram at
Speaker 2: Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. In that
Speaker 2: police bodycam footage, you can see trips abandoned yellow and
Speaker 2: dark gray four wheeler. Deputy Bottom runs up to the
Speaker 2: barber Ware fence where he stops with his gun drawn,
Speaker 2: but there's no sign of trip. He'd already run into
Speaker 2: the dark woods. So Deputy Bottom goes back to his
Speaker 2: vehicle and gets on the radio. Now some parts of
Speaker 2: this are kind of hard to understand, but he's saying
Speaker 2: that they wrecked and that he had the four wheeler
Speaker 2: he wrecked out.
Speaker 4: I got the fooler.
Speaker 6: I'm good, but we went up the ditch. I said,
Speaker 6: I'm good, but we went up that ditch right there,
Speaker 6: both of us, me and him both.
Speaker 2: The second officer on the scene, Sergeant Kenny, shows up.
Speaker 2: They start talking about what happened.
Speaker 6: There's gonna be a white male on a cam flies
Speaker 6: hoodie and blue jays. Looked like he went off that way.
Speaker 4: Did he roll it or something?
Speaker 6: Hey turned it and jumped off and took off running
Speaker 6: across the field.
Speaker 2: At this point, it doesn't seem like they believed that
Speaker 2: this was a super serious situation. The deputy later said
Speaker 2: that he had followed his partner so that he would
Speaker 2: have backup if needed, but at this point they had
Speaker 2: no weapons drawn.
Speaker 5: He had jumped over the fence and we looked called out, hey,
Speaker 5: come back to the road.
Speaker 7: You've been fire a weapon or anything.
Speaker 5: No sir, No sir.
Speaker 2: Later police were able to figure out through examining the
Speaker 2: four wheeler that the connection to the battery was lost somehow.
Speaker 2: There was damage to the hot battery cable. Basically, something
Speaker 2: happened that made the battery die. This was a high
Speaker 2: speed chase, and both the police and trip went over
Speaker 2: a hill, so it might have happened. Then. The impact
Speaker 2: was enough that the officers did check for damage on
Speaker 2: his truck, but they said they did not find any
Speaker 2: significant damage. It turned out that after Trip came off
Speaker 2: that four wheeler and ran away, he started making phone calls.
Speaker 2: He called his mother, Jennifer, and was also in touch
Speaker 2: with his father, but at some point his phone died.
Speaker 2: Deputy Bottoms secured the four wheeler and Sergeant Kenny got
Speaker 2: a trailer to take it back to the station. Once
Speaker 2: they got there, they were looking for a VEN number
Speaker 2: on that vehicle. Sergeant Kenny said they couldn't find one. Later,
Speaker 2: he said they figured out that the vehicle had been stolen.
Speaker 2: There is nothing else about that in the reports, so
Speaker 2: I need to say I have no idea if the
Speaker 2: four wheeler was stolen or who allegedly stole it, but
Speaker 2: from the reports, it does not look like that was
Speaker 2: the police priority. They were focused on finding Trip. When
Speaker 2: Deputy Bynum and Sergeant Kenny were trying to pull over Trip,
Speaker 2: they said they didn't know who he was, but they
Speaker 2: didn't know his family.
Speaker 5: This late at night would allowed for their waking folks.
Speaker 5: And I know his dad, I know his mom, and
Speaker 5: I know his brother, but I wouldn't know him if
Speaker 5: he walked up and spit on it. And I don't
Speaker 5: know if he recognized me, and that's why he took
Speaker 5: off and wanted.
Speaker 2: To be the chasing Deputy Bonum said that another deputy,
Speaker 2: Deputy Bridshaw, reached out to Tripp's father. This would have
Speaker 2: been at around one am. According to the incident report,
Speaker 2: Tripp's parents said he had still not come home and
Speaker 2: that they were going out to look for him, and
Speaker 2: according to Sergeant Kenney's report, Jennifer was in touch with
Speaker 2: Trip during this time and pleading with her son to
Speaker 2: come out and turn himself in, while at the same
Speaker 2: time trying to calm him down. Both of Tripp's parents
Speaker 2: were trying to reassure him that they were on their
Speaker 2: way to find him. Jennifer said that after Trip was
Speaker 2: thrown off his four wheeler and walked through the woods
Speaker 2: for a period of time, that he called her to
Speaker 2: come and pick him up. So Jennifer and Gil headed
Speaker 2: out to Highway four oh nine to the area where
Speaker 2: Trip was last seen.
Speaker 3: When they arrived, deputies were still there.
Speaker 2: Trip talked to other people too, and one of his friends,
Speaker 2: who was interviewed by police, said that Trip's location could
Speaker 2: be viewed on Snapchat live. At some point Sergeant Kenney
Speaker 2: said that he got Trip's phone number. He said he
Speaker 2: sent Trip a text himself, but Trip never responded. He said, quote,
Speaker 2: I only wanted to tell the kids to not drive
Speaker 2: reckless at night. If he had only stopped, then I
Speaker 2: would have just called his dad. His mother showed me
Speaker 2: a text where I was telling her that he was
Speaker 2: a screw up and apologies to both parents.
Speaker 3: End quote.
Speaker 2: That text was sent at one forty one am, but
Speaker 2: a few minutes after that, sometime around two am, Trip's
Speaker 2: phone went dead. Meanwhile, an anonymous phone call was placed
Speaker 2: to the Sheriff's office.
Speaker 6: We got an unknown anonymous phone call, and the phone
Speaker 6: call whoever it was, stated that he was in the woods.
Speaker 6: He was behind the church on Sec. Four O nine
Speaker 6: in that area.
Speaker 2: Deputy Bonhams said that an anonymous caller told him that
Speaker 2: Trip had been driving the four wheeler. He said that
Speaker 2: some deputies went out to that area behind the church
Speaker 2: and looked for Trip, but couldn't find him. Police talked
Speaker 2: to one of Trip's friends. This is from Deputy Tray
Speaker 2: Bonham's body camp. You can hear him talking to the
Speaker 2: friend asking him if he knows anything about Trip's whereabouts
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 7: Man, you've been bored for a while. He's up.
Speaker 6: Tell me the truth.
Speaker 4: That's the truth. You know what, Trips, I ain't a
Speaker 4: fucking clue with Trip.
Speaker 7: I've been trying to find Trip, my damn hill to him.
Speaker 6: Get the fuck home, not being a dat When I
Speaker 6: say this, ranning, it's rains, ran out of his shoes.
Speaker 6: It's fourteen years old and nobody's seen him or heard.
Speaker 2: Trip's friend shows the deputy where Trip's last location pinned.
Speaker 2: Trip was on Snapchat and his friend used a live
Speaker 2: location video to show the deputy trips last location.
Speaker 7: So look right here, you got where four or nine splits.
Speaker 5: That's four or nine goes two ways.
Speaker 7: That's where it was three hours ago.
Speaker 5: I'm sure that's where he left.
Speaker 7: The fool was right there over there and took off
Speaker 7: front of him for at the end of this day,
Speaker 7: end or one of the others. That's fourteen minute drive
Speaker 7: from here.
Speaker 6: My main concern is if he's hurting.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean the way y'all said.
Speaker 6: He jumps ran from the politics.
Speaker 3: I got Toldkay when he walked in, it's like a
Speaker 3: little brother to me.
Speaker 7: I got his back like I got had my little
Speaker 7: brothers back.
Speaker 4: But in this situation, I tell where my little brother was.
Speaker 4: I have what tripple was. I tell you well, I'm.
Speaker 6: Heard a bug out there. If you hear anything, lemon know.
Speaker 3: Jennifer was also upset that, in her words, that the
Speaker 3: police seemed to be more concerned with securing and taking
Speaker 3: the four wheeler than they were about finding her son.
Speaker 4: I last talked the trip at one, and I made
Speaker 4: it to the woods at two o'clock, where his phone
Speaker 4: went dead and the full wheeler was already gone. There
Speaker 4: were no cops out theirs. I hollered, went in the woods,
Speaker 4: hollowed for trip nothing but within that amount of time
Speaker 4: that foll whelller was already gone. They weren't looking for
Speaker 4: my kids. They wanted the full wheeler. He followed his
Speaker 4: vehicle up on the embankment after the trip, where it
Speaker 4: looked like he could I possibly use the vehicle as
Speaker 4: a deadly weapon. Actually called me and said they got
Speaker 4: the full wheeler because he was hiding. Apparently that's what
Speaker 4: it sounded like. And I said, Okay, I'm coming to
Speaker 4: get you. He said, well, my phone's about to guy.
Speaker 4: I said, I've got your fans location on all my
Speaker 4: way she said, okay, I said I love you. He
Speaker 4: said love you too. So it wasn't like guy who
Speaker 4: was arguing with him or killing him on the feature
Speaker 4: foot when you get home. It was just coming to
Speaker 4: get you. One I got a weird text message with
Speaker 4: another County Talk who at this time we found out
Speaker 4: was not even on night shift. Pe' dayshift, so why
Speaker 4: did you call my husband's phone at one nine? At
Speaker 4: the same time, I got a weird text on my
Speaker 4: phone from Trip and said they got tripped with then
Speaker 4: one until ocock the foiler was gone.
Speaker 2: Jin and her husband kept searching for Trip throughout the night.
Speaker 2: The police search also went on late into the night
Speaker 2: and into the next day. At four twenty am, Sergeant
Speaker 2: Kenney asked the fire department to send out drones with
Speaker 2: thermal and night vision, but they found no trace of Trip. Later,
Speaker 2: Jen posted on social media that she found that suspicious
Speaker 2: the fact that the drones found no trace of Trip,
Speaker 2: even though he was supposed to have.
Speaker 3: Been running through the woods.
Speaker 2: But drones that respond to body heat can have lots
Speaker 2: of obstacles. They don't always work perfectly. They can be
Speaker 2: impeded by trees or outdoor temperature wind, and a lot
Speaker 2: of other factors. At seven twenty am, the East Arkansas
Speaker 2: Department of Corrections brought in their tracker dogs. The dogs
Speaker 2: were released where Trip had been when he fled the
Speaker 2: Saint but they were unable to get a tracking sent
Speaker 2: on him. Then they were taken to the area where
Speaker 2: Trip's cell phone had last panned.
Speaker 3: Still no luck.
Speaker 2: The Arkansas State Police were called in to assist. So
Speaker 2: now you have the ASP, the Saint Francis County Sheriff's office,
Speaker 2: the Game and Fish Commission, and multiple other organizations, plus
Speaker 2: tons of local volunteers. Everyone in that county was looking
Speaker 2: for Trip Brazil. Local news crews were talking to Tripp's family,
Speaker 2: and word got out fast, both on the news and
Speaker 2: on social media, and a lot of people were asking
Speaker 2: how this happened. This was a kid who knew the
Speaker 2: area well, so they couldn't figure out how he had
Speaker 2: gotten lost out there and just disappeared, and why with
Speaker 2: all the people searching for him, he hadn't been found.
Speaker 2: Searchers fanned out all over the area where Trip was missing,
Speaker 2: a part of the woods near Crow Creek. The area
Speaker 2: near where Trip went missing is basically on the edge
Speaker 2: of Crowley's Ridge, which is a continuous range of rolling
Speaker 2: hills that goes from Missouri across eastern Arkansas. The area
Speaker 2: got its name from the first white settler to reach
Speaker 2: the area, Benjamin Crowley. The ridges happened when the Mississippi
Speaker 2: River changed course at one point and kept cutting into
Speaker 2: the terrain, so you have this really unique geographical feature.
Speaker 2: It goes from flat delta country to an elevation of
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty feet really quickly. This terrain can
Speaker 2: be pretty unforgiving even for people who know it well,
Speaker 2: and it's very easy to get lost up there. And
Speaker 2: told the local wrig news channel that she thought that
Speaker 2: maybe Trip would walk back to where he believed he
Speaker 2: had left the ATV, and then because the police had
Speaker 2: taken his vehicle, she said maybe he couldn't find it,
Speaker 2: So she reasoned that he may have started walking into
Speaker 2: the woods, gotten disoriented somehow, and gotten lost. His mother
Speaker 2: said that Trip had last been in touch with him
Speaker 2: in the early morning hours on Sunday, that Trip was
Speaker 2: talking about the police chasing him, that he was scared,
Speaker 2: and that he wanted his parents.
Speaker 3: To come get him.
Speaker 2: She said she believed that Trip jumped off his atv
Speaker 2: and over a barb wire fence in order to escape
Speaker 2: the officer who was pursuing him. She was basing that
Speaker 2: on the fact that near that fence they found Trip's
Speaker 2: hat in his shoe. This was just a few feet
Speaker 2: from where he came off as four wheeler and started
Speaker 2: running from police. They found something else on Monday too.
Speaker 2: Searchers found more of Trip's clothes, his other boot, his hoodie,
Speaker 2: his cell phone, and his wallet, and Jennifer said the
Speaker 2: way that his clothing was found was odd. His sweatshirt
Speaker 2: was lying on some leaves and his phone, wallet, screwdriver,
Speaker 2: and phone charger were laying on top of the sweatshirt.
Speaker 2: So she wondered, why would Trip have left his stuff
Speaker 2: out there in the dark like that, or could something
Speaker 2: else have happened to him? Did someone else leave the
Speaker 2: stuff out there?
Speaker 4: Later well, Monday morning, we mysteriously find his other boot
Speaker 4: and his hoodie and siphon and wallet. It wasn't their Sunday,
Speaker 4: but it was their Monday some reason. His sweatshirts, phone wallet, screwdriver,
Speaker 4: and phone charger were laying on top of his sweatshirt.
Speaker 4: But then he hundred yards up the other side of
Speaker 4: the ridge he found his boots. I don't understand that,
Speaker 4: because if I'm gonna go ahead and take off my
Speaker 4: sweatshirt that I have, I'm going to take off my
Speaker 4: last boot that I had on. Anyway, I'm not gonna
Speaker 4: go further up and then put my boot there and
Speaker 4: then continue to walk. Because we found his boot and hat,
Speaker 4: and they brought dogs in and the dogs never hit
Speaker 4: on anything.
Speaker 2: So now she was thinking that this was seriously odd.
Speaker 2: Why would he start taking off clothes in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night and keep running. And Jennifer said this
Speaker 2: wasn't the first time that Deputy Bonham had gotten into
Speaker 2: some kind of a confrontation with her son and his
Speaker 2: friends over riding four wheelers in that area.
Speaker 4: Just because Tripp had out Randim on the four wheeler before,
Speaker 4: and he told people that he would get him, and
Speaker 4: he made sure that Trip was aware of that that
Speaker 4: he told people. It was supposedly said that this other
Speaker 4: boy he was chasing he pulled up in their driveway
Speaker 4: one day and Trip his name was mentioned in that
Speaker 4: conversation that if he'd seen him again, he would kill him.
Speaker 2: But Deputy Bonham stated in his report that he had
Speaker 2: no idea that the driver who had doubled back and
Speaker 2: passed back by him and turned into a highway four
Speaker 2: O nine was Trip, even when he was close to it.
Speaker 2: On Monday, November fourth, the Arkansas State Police were called
Speaker 2: in to assist. They found Trip's iPhone in the woods.
Speaker 2: It had died, and it was turned over to police
Speaker 2: and taken in for data extraction. Later that afternoon, at
Speaker 2: around four thirty pm, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Speaker 2: officer saw something north of Benner State forty, near the
Speaker 2: two hundred and forty three point seven mile marker. It
Speaker 2: was Trip's body. He was hanging from a tree at
Speaker 2: around four thirty in the afternoon on Monday, November fourth,
Speaker 2: thirty six hours after fifteen year old Trip Brazil got
Speaker 2: into a high speed chase with a police officer in
Speaker 2: Saint Francis County, Arkansas, his body was found hanging from
Speaker 2: a tree. We filed freedom of information requests and we
Speaker 2: were able to get copies of the incident report, though
Speaker 2: parts of it were redacted, probably due to Trip's age.
Speaker 3: I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Cover this case because we get a lot of calls
Speaker 2: from parents and from other family members who believed that
Speaker 2: their loved one did not take their own life, and
Speaker 2: that there was some kind of foul play not suicide involved.
Speaker 2: We wanted to see what we could do to help
Speaker 2: Trip's family get answers. At first, we wondered if Trip's
Speaker 2: four wheeler incident could have been something else, Maybe the
Speaker 2: police truck had hit him, or there was some kind
Speaker 2: of automobile accident. There has been quite a bit of
Speaker 2: publicity in recent years about the so called pit maneuvers
Speaker 2: in Arkansas. That's when police try to stop a high
Speaker 2: speed chase by forcing the other driver into some kind
Speaker 2: of a wreck.
Speaker 3: There have been fatalities as a result.
Speaker 2: Of some of these maneuvers, so we wondered if this
Speaker 2: could have been a pit maneuver. Deputy Bonham was interviewed
Speaker 2: about the police chase and he was asked why he
Speaker 2: was chasing Trip in the first place.
Speaker 7: So we can get some clarifications on one thing. You know,
Speaker 7: of course it would be brought up the reason why
Speaker 7: he was chasing him was because it appeared to you
Speaker 7: he was fleeing from David Kitty. And do you know
Speaker 7: why David Kinny even stopped him for he was just
Speaker 7: was he just doing a welfare check on was there
Speaker 7: a reason for him stime was was there on a
Speaker 7: road that went to voting for admiral for wheelers.
Speaker 6: It was on Highway two twenty four and in the
Speaker 6: area of that neighborhood was driving at the redick speed too?
Speaker 7: Yeah, anxiously And so do y'all think that this person
Speaker 7: they may have been a part of that kid that
Speaker 7: may have been missing his opinion from Cross County?
Speaker 6: Nosha, I don't these two, Like I said, it was
Speaker 6: eleven and twelve.
Speaker 7: Years old, okay, So you just in that area, but
Speaker 7: then ran across to them and decided to check him
Speaker 7: on the reason why I was saying that because it's
Speaker 7: late at night.
Speaker 6: Late at night, how to four. But there's a lot
Speaker 6: of people driving through there at that time. You know,
Speaker 6: someone's intoxicated and stuff like that.
Speaker 7: That give me your reason for chasing him that I'm
Speaker 7: gonna make sure I understood your reason.
Speaker 6: The blue lights and the sirens for the four wheler
Speaker 6: to stop, and it didn't stop.
Speaker 7: Okay, But what was the probable cause? I guess what
Speaker 7: I'm trying to say, the excessive speeds and did you
Speaker 7: clock him on radar? Just no, sir, No, I'm not
Speaker 7: trying you know what I'm saying. That just I won't
Speaker 7: because what the family gonna say is this and that
Speaker 7: another other you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: He said that he estimated that his speed was around
Speaker 2: eighty miles an hour while chasing the four wheeler. Now,
Speaker 2: apparently some four wheelers can get to speeds of seventy
Speaker 2: to eighty miles per hour. The more average speed on
Speaker 2: four wheelers ranged generally from around fifty to ninety miles
Speaker 2: an hour, though again Deputy Bonum admitted that he had
Speaker 2: no way of checking and did not know how fast.
Speaker 3: The fore wheeler was actually going.
Speaker 2: Trip's mom said that he had traveled quite a distance
Speaker 2: from the spot where he left his four wheeler.
Speaker 4: I think they said about sum Orles and it's growth terrain.
Speaker 4: It was Crowley's ruge. I means hold you that you
Speaker 4: couldn't see that was covered up with leaves.
Speaker 2: The police said that early indications pointed to suicide, but
Speaker 2: from the beginning Trip's parents felt that the circumstances around
Speaker 2: his death did not add up. Trip's body was found
Speaker 2: in the middle of some dense woods. He was hanging
Speaker 2: from a tree overlooking a gully. There was a deer
Speaker 2: stand thirty feet south of where the body was found,
Speaker 2: and police figured out that the green rope that was
Speaker 2: removed from Trip's body was actually a ratchet strap. It
Speaker 2: was a match to the green one that was tied
Speaker 2: around the deer stand to secure it to a tree.
Speaker 2: Police cut Trip's body. He was taken to the Morgue
Speaker 2: in for At City, and that's where his mother, Jennifer,
Speaker 2: saw her son for the last time.
Speaker 4: What they're saying, but it's hard to believe that he
Speaker 4: walked up far in the woods and in the creek.
Speaker 4: Did you say he didn't have any damage to the
Speaker 4: bottom of his seat. Nope, none, not a scratch. And
Speaker 4: I walked through those woods for two days and I
Speaker 4: had blisters on my feet and scratches from where Old
Speaker 4: Bob War was laying under leaves.
Speaker 2: His mother wondered why that deer stand, in particular, why
Speaker 2: would he choose that location.
Speaker 4: I didn't get to see him until after he was
Speaker 4: brought back to the funeral home, and the first thing
Speaker 4: I looked at wasn't the bottom of his feet, because
Speaker 4: hesedly went there footed and there was no scratch, no bruise.
Speaker 4: But they had his body to overed up. His doctor
Speaker 4: even came to the house that night and Ris' talking now,
Speaker 4: and she said, it's not who Trip was. Trip was
Speaker 4: a I don't give a f kid.
Speaker 2: She said that she was told that the police officer's
Speaker 2: body camera was recording when Trip's body was cut down,
Speaker 2: and the police told her they found no signs of
Speaker 2: foul play, which Jennifer said she found hard to believe.
Speaker 4: Like, I said, there should be something wrong with the
Speaker 4: bottom of his feet, and I thought for myself that
Speaker 4: nothing was wrong with him. Yeah. Bruising around the eyes, yeah,
Speaker 4: bruising around the neck, between his big knuckle and ring finger,
Speaker 4: there was a big gash like he had been in
Speaker 4: a fight, Like he was fighting. He was putting up
Speaker 4: a fight.
Speaker 2: Now, Trip's devastated family had to try to figure out
Speaker 2: what happened. What would cause a healthy and happy fifteen
Speaker 2: year old to take his own life just because of
Speaker 2: an incident with a four wheeler. Why would he kill
Speaker 2: himself over something that seemed to be so minor. One
Speaker 2: of the questions that I had, and that a lot
Speaker 2: of other people have had in Saint Francis County and
Speaker 2: everywhere else, is how common suicide is in young teens,
Speaker 2: And would this even be something that someone that age
Speaker 2: would do on the spur of the moment like that.
Speaker 2: According to report from the National Library of Medicine, which
Speaker 2: looked at patterns and suicides in the United States from
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine through twenty twenty, In that twenty one
Speaker 2: year period, there were forty seven thousand, two hundred and
Speaker 2: seventeen adolescent suicide deaths, and hanging in exphyxiation is now
Speaker 2: right up there with firearms as having the highest age
Speaker 2: adjusted suicide rates among Americans of every age. Death rates
Speaker 2: for all means of suicide on average increased annually from
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine to twenty twenty, but actually hanging in
Speaker 2: exphyxiation had the largest absolute increase among male and female adolescents.
Speaker 2: In a nutshell, Sadly, this is becoming a more and
Speaker 2: more common choice for teens who may be.
Speaker 3: At risk of suicide.
Speaker 2: The Arkansas State Police took over the investigation into Trip's death,
Speaker 2: and it was not long before rumors were flying on
Speaker 2: social media. Suicide is not a common occurrence in Saint
Speaker 2: Francis County. According to data from the Arkansas Department of Health,
Speaker 2: Saint Francis County actually had zero suicides in twenty twenty three. However,
Speaker 2: we do have to keep in mind there are only
Speaker 2: just a little over twenty two thousand people in the
Speaker 2: entire county, so it is pretty sparsely populated, but suicide
Speaker 2: happens everywhere for children and teens trips age. The causes
Speaker 2: of suicide can be pretty complicated to figure out. In
Speaker 2: around forty percent of use suicides, there is some sort
Speaker 2: of precipitating event like sexual abuse or the death of
Speaker 2: someone close to them, or even things like divorce, But
Speaker 2: that also means that in sixty percent of cases there
Speaker 2: is not an obvious cause.
Speaker 3: So in a lot of these cases, teens this age.
Speaker 2: Can and do make impulsive decisions that can be hard
Speaker 2: to understand. So Trip's devastated family was true trying to
Speaker 2: make sense of why he would do this, and they
Speaker 2: also weren't sure about the police's version of events. Tripp's
Speaker 2: families say there were no mental health issues and zero
Speaker 2: indication that he could be thinking of taking his own life,
Speaker 2: but it turned out that Trip did send another text
Speaker 2: that night. We got more of the Foyer file back,
Speaker 2: and one of the items that we got was a
Speaker 2: picture of a text message that was sent from Trip
Speaker 2: to a family member shortly after he disappeared at one
Speaker 2: forty one am. It read, in part quote, look, I
Speaker 2: love y'all so much, and I'm so sorry to do
Speaker 2: this to y'all. I love you more than anything. I
Speaker 2: guess it took me till now to realize that y'all
Speaker 2: have been great parents to me. I guess I'm just
Speaker 2: a fuck up and I couldn't change that. I wish
Speaker 2: I could have. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: None of this is y'all's fault, only mine.
Speaker 2: I love y'all. I'm sorry I should have stopped. I
Speaker 2: love y'all so much. My phone is about to die,
Speaker 2: so I got to go. I hope this makes it
Speaker 2: to y'all. I never wanted to end this way, but
Speaker 2: I guess it has to end quote. His family reached
Speaker 2: out to him after that to say they were on
Speaker 2: their way, but Tripp never responded, and at some point
Speaker 2: his battery must have died out there. This is such
Speaker 2: a tragic story because I completely understand why Trip's parents
Speaker 2: and many other people in the community may have believed
Speaker 2: that there was some kind of foul play involved, but
Speaker 2: the evidence that we have seen does not support anything
Speaker 2: other than a suicide. It seems as though Trip's death
Speaker 2: was a series of unfortunate events. Each one on its
Speaker 2: own might have seemed small, but taken together, unfortunately, it
Speaker 2: seems they led to a devastating consequence. I wish that
Speaker 2: I had a better answer for Tripp's family, but the
Speaker 2: reality is we may never know why he did what
Speaker 2: he did that night, or what was going on in mind.
Speaker 2: But I believe that Trip's story is important to tell
Speaker 2: because part of this show's mission is helping families get answers,
Speaker 2: even when those answers may not.
Speaker 3: Be what they want to hear.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, there was one death by suicide in
Speaker 2: the United States every eleven minutes. I want to let
Speaker 2: you know there's now a national number that you can
Speaker 2: call for help. It used to be known as the
Speaker 2: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Now it's called the nine eight
Speaker 2: eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. To reach out, you just
Speaker 2: dial nine eight eight and you'll be connected directly to
Speaker 2: a mental health professional. There are versions of this service
Speaker 2: for veterans. There are versions in Spanish. There's also a
Speaker 2: video version for people who may be hard of hearing
Speaker 2: or who use American Sign language. There are also lgbt
Speaker 2: QI counselors. There are versions of this service for everyone.
Speaker 2: Trip's death is an absolute tragedy and I can only
Speaker 2: hope that in some small way this might help someone
Speaker 2: else who's struggling out there to reach out for help.
Speaker 3: I'm Katherine 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. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
Speaker 2: research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camer
Speaker 2: mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by
Speaker 2: Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and ELC.
Speaker 3: Crowley.
Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
Speaker 2: iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: were interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonepod.
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
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Speaker 1: Five School of Humans,