Speaker 1: Oh School of Humans.
Speaker 2: It was Halloween night, October thirty first, twenty twenty, and
Speaker 2: twenty two year old Ayisha Jackson was getting ready to
Speaker 2: go to a party. Ayisha was braiding her hair and
Speaker 2: getting into costume while talking to her mother, Laquita Parker.
Speaker 2: Aisha and her girlfriends were doing a purge theme that night,
Speaker 2: so they had hockey masks and slash shirts with fake
Speaker 2: blood on them. Aisha is small in stature, only five
Speaker 2: foot two and one hundred and fifteen pounds, but her
Speaker 2: family said she could fill and light up a room,
Speaker 2: especially when she danced, which she loved to do. Aisha
Speaker 2: had a happy life. She lived in Eldaredo, Arkansas, just
Speaker 2: a short distance away from her mother, her fifteen year
Speaker 2: old brother, Jaiques, and the rest of her family. Aisha
Speaker 2: lived on South Roslawn Avenue in Eldaredo, but because she
Speaker 2: had a couple of break ins at her home recently,
Speaker 2: she was staying in her uncle's house. Her uncle, William
Speaker 2: Parker Junior, is Laquita's brother. William and his wife, Shequila,
Speaker 2: lived on the five hundred block of Stuart Avenue in Eldaredo,
Speaker 2: which was just a few minutes away from Ayisha's house.
Speaker 2: Ayisha had multiple cats and dogs at home, and she
Speaker 2: took great care of all of her animals. Ayisha and
Speaker 2: her mother were very close. They normally spoke several times
Speaker 2: per day. So when Laquita did not hear from her
Speaker 2: daughter at all on November first, by November second, she
Speaker 2: was scared. So early that morning on November second, Liquita,
Speaker 2: her boyfriend Freddie, and Ayisha's brother Jacques, jumped in their
Speaker 2: car and headed to Ayisha's house on South Roselawn. When
Speaker 2: the family got there, they could see immediately that something
Speaker 2: was very wrong. Liquita went in and found her daughter's
Speaker 2: stuff there, including her wallet and cell phone. One of
Speaker 2: Ayisha's dogs was out running around, which was very unusual.
Speaker 2: The place kind of looked like she had just stepped
Speaker 2: out for a few minutes, but Aisha never came back home.
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making
Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned there's no
Speaker 2: such thing as a small town where murder never happens.
Speaker 2: I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the
Speaker 2: country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
Speaker 2: their families and their communities. If you have a case
Speaker 2: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
Speaker 2: line at six seven eight seven four four six one
Speaker 2: four or five. That's six seven eight seven four four
Speaker 2: six one four five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
Speaker 2: On that car ride over to Ayisha's apartment, jack Wu
Speaker 2: said he was hoping that he would walk in and
Speaker 2: just see his sister there, and that the reason they
Speaker 2: hadn't heard from her was maybe just a prank by
Speaker 2: his sister, or maybe a misunderstanding, maybe her phone had died.
Speaker 2: As soon as Ayisha's brother walked in, he knew that
Speaker 2: something was very wrong. He noticed that Ayisha's door was
Speaker 2: unlocked and a little bit cracked open.
Speaker 3: My mother had already said that she had a bad feeling.
Speaker 3: I never, you know, knew you know, too much of it.
Speaker 3: And under my impression my sister is at home, I'm
Speaker 3: going to go over with my sister. You know, when
Speaker 3: I walked up the stairs, I was happy. I'm going
Speaker 3: to see my sister. You know, we're going to talk
Speaker 3: left job around, you know.
Speaker 1: So when we when I walked up the stairs and
Speaker 1: I noticed.
Speaker 3: That I could see something was wrong, but I didn't
Speaker 3: want to think that, you know what I'm saying. But then
Speaker 3: I looked down down the stairs. Their mama how to
Speaker 3: open and she not in there. How house was ramshaped.
Speaker 3: My sister did not like that. She had to twenty
Speaker 3: eaware house like that.
Speaker 2: Inside, Jacques said, the house looked like it had been ransacked,
Speaker 2: but on closer inspection, some of Ayisha's family members believed
Speaker 2: that the scene looked kind of staged, like someone had
Speaker 2: come in and pretended they were trying to rob the place,
Speaker 2: but they didn't really take anything. Things were thrown around,
Speaker 2: but only superficially, and everything of value was still in
Speaker 2: the apartment. Ayisha's purse was lying out in the open
Speaker 2: on her bed, her phone was plugged into the charger
Speaker 2: in the living room, and her animals were all fine.
Speaker 2: Usually Ayisha would make sure to feed her dogs, take
Speaker 2: them out, and put them all in their kennels when
Speaker 2: she left, but one was out, which Jacques said was
Speaker 2: highly unusual.
Speaker 3: Picture of clean house. Right, you got a reclowner, You
Speaker 3: got a black couch, and you have like a little
Speaker 3: end table. It's in like in the middle of the room.
Speaker 3: And then we have like a regular queen sized bed
Speaker 3: with a tall dresser, tall black dresser, and on top
Speaker 3: of that you have clothes and all those dressers. You
Speaker 3: have a TV on top of that dresser as well.
Speaker 3: And everything is clean. Nothing is on the floor. You
Speaker 3: have blankets and stuff like that. Everything is put up.
Speaker 3: You have a dog cage and.
Speaker 4: All of that.
Speaker 3: The bathroom and everything.
Speaker 1: Everything is cleaned up and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: And you know how your sister is, especially when it
Speaker 3: comes down.
Speaker 1: To your animals.
Speaker 3: She's not going to beat her animals with two long
Speaker 3: She either had somebody to be over there and check
Speaker 3: up on the animals or something. Dog is out the
Speaker 3: page and running around. Her animals is loose. None of
Speaker 3: her personal items has took it. But you know that
Speaker 3: this is not the way your sister would have left
Speaker 3: her house. Her phone was neatly placed on the couch
Speaker 3: on the.
Speaker 4: Tasure, Her herds were on the table.
Speaker 3: Her brother was on the table alone with her medicine.
Speaker 1: Oh so her medicine was there too, right.
Speaker 3: So Dan, this is where it gives you a clear
Speaker 3: idea that that's the first ideal.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, something got.
Speaker 3: To be wrong, because she's not just gonna leave her
Speaker 3: personal stuff. You're not gonna leave a while that phone
Speaker 3: in their prayer going go here? Where'd she go?
Speaker 2: Because Aisha was a young woman who had recently gotten
Speaker 2: out of a long term relationship, of course police started
Speaker 2: to investigate the men in her life. Jacques told me
Speaker 2: that he went over and talked with Ayisha's long term
Speaker 2: ex boyfriend, the one she had been with for years
Speaker 2: and recently broken up with. Jacques said, by the way,
Speaker 2: the long term ex was extremely upset, cooperated completely with
Speaker 2: law enforcement, helped search for Aisha, and to my knowledge,
Speaker 2: has never been mentioned as a potential person of interest
Speaker 2: in this case. Aisha had been on dates with a
Speaker 2: few different people in the weeks before she went missing.
Speaker 2: She was being a normal twenty two year old young woman,
Speaker 2: not rushing to jump into a serious relationship after getting
Speaker 2: out of one, living in her own place and enjoying
Speaker 2: her life. And one guy who she did casually date
Speaker 2: was a twenty three year old man named Samaji. I've
Speaker 2: seen the police report, and according to this document, Samaji
Speaker 2: and Aisha had been dating, but that changed in the
Speaker 2: days leading up to her being reported missing. And of course,
Speaker 2: anytime you have anyone who has recently ended a relationship
Speaker 2: and they go missing. Of course, you have to take
Speaker 2: a hard look at.
Speaker 1: All of their exes.
Speaker 2: But contrary to what's been reported in some of the
Speaker 2: media I've seen, when I talked to Ayisha's family and friends,
Speaker 2: they say that her relationship with Samaji was not full
Speaker 2: of drama or serious or anything like that, that it
Speaker 2: was a casual relationship. Basically to their knowledge, they just
Speaker 2: hung out a few times. On October twenty third, just
Speaker 2: a week before Aha and went missing, someone broke into
Speaker 2: Ayisha's house. Now, Ayisha's grandmother, Ernestine, told a local news
Speaker 2: station that Ayisha and Samaji had recently ended things, and
Speaker 2: she also told the reporter something else that was kind
Speaker 2: of alarming. Ernestine said, Aisha told her that she had
Speaker 2: come home and seen men breaking into her house. And
Speaker 2: not only that, Ernestine said, Aisha knew who these men were.
Speaker 2: There were actually two incidents. So the first incident, according
Speaker 2: to Ernestine, Ayisha came home and saw that someone had
Speaker 2: broken in her house.
Speaker 1: Then the second time she came home.
Speaker 2: Ernestine said that Aisha walked in the house, saw two
Speaker 2: guys actually in there, and recognized one of them as Samaji.
Speaker 2: Apparently Aisha call the police. The two men fled the scene.
Speaker 2: Ernestine said that Samaji was quote one of the guys
Speaker 2: that Ayisha identified is breaking into her home. She was
Speaker 2: already in the house when he came in there on her.
Speaker 2: He explained this to us. She told us this ute. Now,
Speaker 2: I should say that other members of Ayisha's family who
Speaker 2: have spoken to have questions about whether that conversation happened
Speaker 2: that way and whether Samaji actually was one of the
Speaker 2: men who was allegedly in Aisha's home that day, But
Speaker 2: we will get to that in next week's episode. After
Speaker 2: the break in, Ayisha's name was added to the police
Speaker 2: patrol list, which means she was supposed to have a
Speaker 2: patrol car drive by her home at regular intervals. And again,
Speaker 2: because of that break in, Aisha was staying with her uncle,
Speaker 2: Liquita's brother William and his wife Shequila. When Aisha went missing,
Speaker 2: the case made local news. And remember this was during COVID,
Speaker 2: so a lot of people were stuck at home watching
Speaker 2: a lot of TV. In November of twenty twenty, an
Speaker 2: old high school friend of Liquita's named Rina Borden saw
Speaker 2: that Aisha was missing. Rena will get a lot more
Speaker 2: involved with this case. Later on November second, after Ayisha's
Speaker 2: mother and brother left her apartment.
Speaker 1: They called the police immediately.
Speaker 2: The police told Luquida that she had to wait forty
Speaker 2: eight hours before her daughter could be reported missing. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm bringing this up because the elder rated police department
Speaker 2: have made statements to other people saying this was not
Speaker 2: the case and that's not their policy. I'm really mentioning
Speaker 2: this because I think it is so crucial for everyone
Speaker 2: to understand that is not the law, that is not
Speaker 2: the rule. You do not have to wait twenty four
Speaker 2: forty eight seventy two hours to report someone missing. So
Speaker 2: if the police tell you that, stand your ground and
Speaker 2: demand that they do it immediately. It's very important. Police
Speaker 2: did not immediately seem to be treating Ayisha's house as
Speaker 2: a crime scene, and her family said they couldn't understand this. Granted,
Speaker 2: Ayisha is above legal age, but why would a young
Speaker 2: woman leave all of her stuff, herself, her purse, and
Speaker 2: everything else at home and just walk out the door,
Speaker 2: leaving it unlocked. Ayisha's mother also pointed out that Ayisha
Speaker 2: had medical conditions, medical conditions that meant that she needed
Speaker 2: daily medication. And she had also left all of her
Speaker 2: medication behind. But after a few days police did start
Speaker 2: the search for Aisha. Captain Harwell the elder Ated Police
Speaker 2: Department said police conducted multiple searches on foot, with drones
Speaker 2: and with all terrain vehicles. Police also told reporters they
Speaker 2: had cadaver dogs looking for Aisha on at least two
Speaker 2: different occasions.
Speaker 1: Weeks went by and there were no arrests.
Speaker 2: Captain Harwell said the department had multiple items of evidence
Speaker 2: that would require submission to the Arkansas State Crime Lab
Speaker 2: for processing, which really does not tell us much and
Speaker 2: we don't know what those items were or.
Speaker 1: If they were given any kind of priority.
Speaker 2: And we know that in the Arkansas State Crime Lab
Speaker 2: if something is not a homicide, there have been serious
Speaker 2: backlogs with evidence testing in the past. Of course, once
Speaker 2: the case made the news, the police and the family
Speaker 2: did get some false leads. The family got several tips,
Speaker 2: including someone that told them Ayisha may be buried in
Speaker 2: a shallow grave in a cemetery near Strong, Arkansas. Police
Speaker 2: from the Union County Sheriff's Office responded to that scene
Speaker 2: with Ayisha's family. They went out there and searched in
Speaker 2: those Woods, but in the end they didn't find anything.
Speaker 2: And then in December of twenty twenty, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: there were two arrests. And this is a strange set
Speaker 2: of circumstances how this all played out.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's been reported.
Speaker 2: On a lot, and we're going to go a lot
Speaker 2: more in depth into exactly what went down with these arrests.
Speaker 2: Next week, one of the men arrested was Samaji, the
Speaker 2: twenty three year old man whom Ayisha had dated. At first,
Speaker 2: this seemed like it could be a huge break in
Speaker 2: the case. Samaji was brought up on charges of capital murder, kidnapping,
Speaker 2: and an enhanced penalty for engaging in criminal group activity.
Speaker 2: This was weird though, because after the arrest, police said
Speaker 2: they still hope to find Ayisha alive.
Speaker 1: So this seems contradictory.
Speaker 2: They're charging someone potentially with capital murder, yet they still
Speaker 2: hoped to find her alive. Then there was another twist
Speaker 2: in the case. News broke that another man had been arrested,
Speaker 2: forty six year old Kenneth Lee. Liquita said Kenneth Lee
Speaker 2: had contacted Aisha's uncle, William, and allegedly told him if
Speaker 2: the family gave him eight thousand dollars he would give
Speaker 2: them information about where Ayisha was.
Speaker 1: It turned out this was all just a big scam.
Speaker 2: Kenneth was allegedly basically blackmailing the family and had no
Speaker 2: information about Aisha, which of course was heartbreaking to her family.
Speaker 2: But eventually the charges against Kenneth were dropped as well.
Speaker 2: Now it was very interesting here because from the statements
Speaker 2: that Captain Harwell was making, he said, the possibility of
Speaker 2: making further arrests is quite possible. We may have another
Speaker 2: person involved. It really seemed like police were leaning into
Speaker 2: a potential theory that there might be multiple arrests or
Speaker 2: that Samaji could face more charges. Another interesting point is
Speaker 2: even though Samaji and Kenneth were arrested pretty much at
Speaker 2: the same time, initially it seemed like there was zero
Speaker 2: connection between them.
Speaker 1: It did not appear that they knew each other at all.
Speaker 2: And I'm flagging this up because, as you'll see in
Speaker 2: next week's episode, William Samagi and Kenneth and how this
Speaker 2: whole scenario played out has not really been reported on
Speaker 2: and is actually fascinating.
Speaker 1: Be patient with me.
Speaker 2: This is a real time investigation, and so I am
Speaker 2: looking into that right now, and I will be giving
Speaker 2: you more details going back to to these arrests. After
Speaker 2: the arrest of Samaji, especially, most people in the community
Speaker 2: believe police were moving forward. And I can see why
Speaker 2: they would think that the victim's ex was arrested.
Speaker 1: It was someone she was involved with.
Speaker 2: Intimately, police have filed potential capital murder charges, so people
Speaker 2: were thinking, well, the police must have evidence. But then
Speaker 2: one month went by, and then two months police had
Speaker 2: still not charged Samaji.
Speaker 1: And again Kenneth.
Speaker 2: The second guy, seemed to be a scammer, someone who
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with Ayesha's disappearance. Samaji's defense attorney
Speaker 2: filed in order to have him released from custody. He
Speaker 2: said that in Arkansas, formal charges had to be filed
Speaker 2: within sixty days of an arrest. So in February of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, police released Samaji and he walked out
Speaker 2: a freeman. At the time, Captain Harwell told the media
Speaker 2: that police just didn't feel they had enough evidence to prosecute.
Speaker 2: He said they would prefer to wait until they had
Speaker 2: more rather than moving forward and risking a loss in court.
Speaker 2: Reporters did ask Captain Harwell if he felt like they
Speaker 2: had made the arrest too quickly, but he said he
Speaker 2: believed the police made the right choice. What he mentioned
Speaker 2: that he had as his ammunition to get the arrest
Speaker 2: was witness statements.
Speaker 1: We're going to get more into that later too.
Speaker 2: Exactly who these witness statements were made by and why
Speaker 2: this went down this way.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's just speculation.
Speaker 2: But my guess is that after they arrested Samaji, police
Speaker 2: thought that they really might have their guy, and if
Speaker 2: he had done something to di Aisha, potentially they could
Speaker 2: apply pressure to him and figure out where Ayisha's body was.
Speaker 2: Captain Harwell basically said that he told the media that
Speaker 2: the main reason that they were unable to prosecute is
Speaker 2: because they did not have a body. They had no
Speaker 2: idea where Ayisha might be, and they were looking for
Speaker 2: help from the public. So the police were openly admitting
Speaker 2: they had no idea where Ayisha was. So months went
Speaker 2: by and months became years. In twenty twenty two, Laquita's
Speaker 2: high school friend, Rena Borden, the same one who had
Speaker 2: seen the news report back in twenty twenty, came into
Speaker 2: the story. Like many people, she remembered seeing the item
Speaker 2: on the news about Ayisha being missing.
Speaker 1: Then she remembered seeing.
Speaker 2: Something on the news about the arrest, so she assumed
Speaker 2: the police were making progress. When Rena saw on social
Speaker 2: media there were still no suspects, she reached out to Laquita.
Speaker 2: At the time, she said she had no idea how
Speaker 2: much this case would consume her life.
Speaker 5: I didn't get involved until like September of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 5: And the reason I got involved was because I had
Speaker 5: gone to eat at a restaurant here in town and
Speaker 5: they had a flower of Ayisha, just like a Facebook
Speaker 5: print out. They didn't really have very information on there,
Speaker 5: and I was just like, oh my gosh, they might
Speaker 5: need some help. I could get flyers and print them
Speaker 5: and distribute them. That's something I could do, you know,
Speaker 5: And that's really all I had the intentions of doing.
Speaker 5: I didn't even reach out to Laquito. I went straight
Speaker 5: to the police department and I was just like, hey,
Speaker 5: just wanted to ask if it was all right if
Speaker 5: I could pass out flyers to local businesses because I
Speaker 5: noticed there wasn't any up And the receptionist went back
Speaker 5: to the Captain's office and then came back. He said,
Speaker 5: be his guest go ahead, and I was like, can
Speaker 5: you give me the flyer to make a coffee or
Speaker 5: do something? And she said, just the one online, I'll do,
Speaker 5: And so that's what I did. I printed up a
Speaker 5: bunch of them and started passing them out, and I
Speaker 5: was looking for Laquita as well, you know, trying to
Speaker 5: get a hold of the mother, just because I didn't
Speaker 5: want her to think. I was wanted to touch base
Speaker 5: with her and say, is it's okay, you know what
Speaker 5: else would you like me to do? Do you want
Speaker 5: me to bring you dinner? You know, something like that.
Speaker 5: So I decided to play a vigil and then that's
Speaker 5: when I brought Joanna.
Speaker 2: And Joanna is a friend of Rena's. Together they started
Speaker 2: printing flyers and trying to help Luquet up get some
Speaker 2: clarity on what was going on with her daughter's case.
Speaker 2: When Rena started to research the case and saw the
Speaker 2: missing person's flyers that were already out there, she noticed
Speaker 2: that most of them said a Usha had been seen
Speaker 2: on the night of November fourth, but she said she
Speaker 2: knew that this was just not true.
Speaker 5: We had a meeting and Lookquita came. She remembered me
Speaker 5: from school, so that took a lot of the you know,
Speaker 5: I wasn't a total stranger to her or anything. And
Speaker 5: during the meeting, she was trying to address the fact
Speaker 5: of the date her daughter went missing, and of course
Speaker 5: me and Joanna's ears are all parked up, and nobody
Speaker 5: else seemed to like kicked on.
Speaker 4: So we knew something was wrong because I was just
Speaker 4: casually reading the flower out loud and I was like, okay,
Speaker 4: so she was last seen November fourth, and someone had
Speaker 4: chimed in and they we were like, well, actually it
Speaker 4: was October thirty first, like with wow, like and it
Speaker 4: was just awkward for a second. So we're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 2: Rina and Liquita started to wonder if the day Aisha
Speaker 2: went missing was wrong after two years, what else could
Speaker 2: have potentially slipped through the cracks, and why was the
Speaker 2: wrong date continuing to be reported. I went back and
Speaker 2: tried to figure this out. I've seen the police report,
Speaker 2: which has a record of Aisha calling to report that
Speaker 2: break in on the twenty third of October, and on
Speaker 2: that report, the officer wrote down that the last time
Speaker 2: anyone in her family had seen her was November fourth,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't note who told him that we're going
Speaker 2: to go way more in depth about this next week,
Speaker 2: because figuring out this timeline is a crucial part of
Speaker 2: this story. But it turns out that that's not true.
Speaker 2: Ayisha's family met meers tell me no one has seen
Speaker 2: Nisha in person since October thirty first, Rena said when
Speaker 2: she started printing the flyers, she found out because of
Speaker 2: this misinformation, she believed that there was not a sense
Speaker 2: of public urgency. Rena has spent almost two years now
Speaker 2: trying to help her friend.
Speaker 5: I'm not an investigator, I'm not an attorney, I'm not anything.
Speaker 5: But I can be a friend, and you know, at
Speaker 5: least get her out of the house, because I'm thinking,
Speaker 5: how does she sit in that house all this that's
Speaker 5: got to be miserable, and then not getting any answers.
Speaker 5: Nobody will call her back to let her know what's
Speaker 5: going on with her daughter.
Speaker 4: You have a son that's around the same.
Speaker 5: Age, yeah, yeah, and I do have a Yeah, my
Speaker 5: son's big part of it too. My son went to
Speaker 5: school with Ayisha, So yeah, that hit me hard. So
Speaker 5: I would take her to lunch, and she was so
Speaker 5: upset about that. The date on those flyers and so
Speaker 5: I just realized nobody's listening to this mom, and so
Speaker 5: I just said, why don't you just sit down one
Speaker 5: day and just tell me the story. You know, I'll
Speaker 5: listen to you tell me the story. And so she
Speaker 5: told me the story, and I email the prior captain
Speaker 5: at the time that was on the case and he said,
Speaker 5: Liquita is correct. You know October thirty first is the
Speaker 5: right day. And I sent an email of where I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 5: well can you change it then? And that he says
Speaker 5: he can't change it because something about he can't make
Speaker 5: changes to our report once they're made.
Speaker 2: So I want to make sure that Ayusha's family, her
Speaker 2: mother and her brother are heard and that we have
Speaker 2: the correct information about this timeline. So what happened between
Speaker 2: October thirty first, twenty twenty and November fourth, we have
Speaker 2: to go back to how will weeen?
Speaker 1: Night?
Speaker 2: On October thirty first, twenty twenty, between one and two pm,
Speaker 2: Liquita went over to her brother's house where Ayisha had
Speaker 2: been staying. She was there to drop off some stuff
Speaker 2: for Aisha.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: Ayisha was staying with William and Shequila at their home.
Speaker 2: My source tells me that there were some other family
Speaker 2: members there at the time. It was Halloween and Aisha
Speaker 2: was heading out with some girlfriends. Her aunt, Shaquila and
Speaker 2: William were also going with them. Ayisha's mother was babysitting
Speaker 2: William and Shaquilla's two young sons, who were elementary school age,
Speaker 2: so Liaquita and William and Shaquilla's kids went back to Liquita's.
Speaker 2: Aisha got ready and got into her costume, the Purge
Speaker 2: costume that she and her girlfriend Shenis and Serenity had
Speaker 2: kind of di wide. They had the slashed white T
Speaker 2: shirts and they'd kind of splashed them with either red
Speaker 2: paint or fake blood.
Speaker 1: A couple of them had hockey masks on.
Speaker 2: So I have a lot of questions about exactly what
Speaker 2: happen that night, but we can fill in some of
Speaker 2: the gaps. We know that at some point the women Aisha, Shenie, Serenity,
Speaker 2: and Shaquila, Aisha's aunt, stopped by the Go Rainbow Food Mark,
Speaker 2: a convenience store located on Junction City Road in Elddo
Speaker 2: we know this because someone took a picture of them there.
Speaker 2: People have told me this could have been taken by William,
Speaker 2: Ayisha's uncle, but we don't know for sure.
Speaker 1: That's not confirmed.
Speaker 2: Either way, though these women looked like they were having
Speaker 2: a good time and ready for a fun night out.
Speaker 2: The photo, by the way, was later posted on Ayisha's
Speaker 2: aunt Shaquila's Facebook page. At around ten pm that night,
Speaker 2: Ayisha's brother Jaiques facetimed her.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: According to Rena, Aisha told Jaques during that phone conversation
Speaker 2: that she was on her way to a Halloween party
Speaker 2: at a bar called The Wheel in Camden, but that
Speaker 2: again has not been confirmed. The bar has apparently claimed
Speaker 2: they were on Halloween night. I have some questions about this.
Speaker 2: Remember this is during COVID and a lot of unofficial
Speaker 2: parties were taking place around town. One of Ayisha's friends
Speaker 2: said that they did go there that night and that
Speaker 2: they were dancing. Ayisha apparently wasn't really dancing with anyone specific.
Speaker 2: They had a good time and the night wound down.
Speaker 2: After going separate ways from her girlfriends, Ayisha headed back
Speaker 2: to the five hundred block of Stuart Avenue, where William
Speaker 2: and Shaquilla lived and where Ayisha had been staying. They
Speaker 2: got there at around two to three am.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: One of Ayisha's girlfriends said that William and Shaquilla were
Speaker 2: talking about a trip to Houston they were going to take.
Speaker 2: Apparently they were going to Houston the next day, and
Speaker 2: they asked this friend of Ayisha's to go with them.
Speaker 2: She claims she said she didn't want to go, but
Speaker 2: apparently Aisha may have wanted to go with them. Aisha
Speaker 2: had previously asked her mom about going to Houston with
Speaker 2: William and Shaquilla. Laqueta told Aisha she didn't need to
Speaker 2: do that, that would basically be too much for her. Now,
Speaker 2: supposedly they were taking this trip to move furniture. Apparently,
Speaker 2: William and Shaquilla were moving out of an apartment in Houston.
Speaker 2: They needed to get the furniture that was in the
Speaker 2: apartment out of there and into a nearby storage unit.
Speaker 2: This story in itself is a little strange to me
Speaker 2: because a why would they go to move furniture in
Speaker 2: the middle of the night, and b why would they
Speaker 2: take a tiny girl to help them do it. So
Speaker 2: now it's the next morning, November first, between six and
Speaker 2: seven am, Liqueta calls Ayisha. Ayisha doesn't answer her cell phone,
Speaker 2: so Liquita calls her brother, William. She asks William where
Speaker 2: Aisha is. William tells Liquita that Ayisha is asleep. Laquita
Speaker 2: tries to call Ayisha several more times throughout that day.
Speaker 1: Ayisha never picked up.
Speaker 2: This was highly unusual because Ayisha always picked up call
Speaker 2: from her mom. At some point, Shaquilla came to pick
Speaker 2: up her two sons, the ones who Liquita was babysitting
Speaker 2: at that time. Liquita said she asked Shaquilla when she
Speaker 2: last saw Ayisha. Shaquilla told her that she had dropped
Speaker 2: her off at home the day before and had not
Speaker 2: seen or heard from her since. Now this was a
Speaker 2: red flag because, she says, when she talked to William,
Speaker 2: he told her he dropped Ayisha off at home. Now
Speaker 2: she seemed to understand Shaquilla was saying she had dropped
Speaker 2: Ayisha off. That day, Laqueta kept calling her daughter's phone.
Speaker 2: She was blowing up Ayisha's phone, but the phone just
Speaker 2: kept ringing out, and each time she called her brother William,
Speaker 2: he tells Liquita, Ayisha's sleeping, or she's in the bathroom,
Speaker 2: or her phone is dead. Liquita was never able to
Speaker 2: connect with Ayisha that day. Finally, at around nine pm,
Speaker 2: William answers the phone again, this time Hell's Aquita that
Speaker 2: they have been back from Houston, Texas for a while,
Speaker 2: and that he had dropped Ayisha off at home. He
Speaker 2: meant the one she had recently rented on Roselin Avenue.
Speaker 2: So I have questions about that again. First of all,
Speaker 2: is it reasonable to believe that between three am and
Speaker 2: nine pm the next night that William and Shaquilla and
Speaker 2: Aisha had driven to Houston, which is about a five
Speaker 2: to six hour drive and back and had time to
Speaker 2: move furniture. I mean, I guess theoretically it's possible, but
Speaker 2: even with no sleep, that is a stretch.
Speaker 1: Also, again, why would they.
Speaker 2: Be taking a five foot two young woman to help
Speaker 2: move this furniture in the first place.
Speaker 5: So to the public, everybody thought that she had done
Speaker 5: to help her uncle moved furniture. A ninety pound twenty
Speaker 5: two year old female went to go help move furniture.
Speaker 2: Later on, it seems like William and shaquilleb said that
Speaker 2: they had both dropped Ayisha off together. And I guess
Speaker 2: it's possible that Liquita mis heard, but as a mother,
Speaker 2: she had instinct with these things, and these discrepancies in
Speaker 2: the beginning can be extremely crucial.
Speaker 1: They need to be clarified now.
Speaker 2: The police have stated publicly that Ayisha did go with
Speaker 2: her family to Texas and that they have confirmed that.
Speaker 2: Captain prim said quote started doing some background, found out
Speaker 2: that she had gone to Texas, supposed to have been
Speaker 2: with a family member. We confirmed she did go to
Speaker 2: Texas end quote. But some of Ayisha's family members wonder
Speaker 2: if that's true. They wonder if Ayisha ever made it
Speaker 2: to Houston at all. Liquita has said that Captain Harwell
Speaker 2: told her that he could not verify that Ayosha went
Speaker 2: to Texas. Rina had a conversation with him in November
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty two. He told her the same thing,
Speaker 2: that police could not confirm that Ayisha had been to Texas.
Speaker 2: I'm going to reach out to the police to see
Speaker 2: if they have any comment on this timeline, and we're
Speaker 2: going to go a lot more into.
Speaker 1: Depth on this next week. Bottom line.
Speaker 2: Many of Ayisha's family members wonder if she ever left Arkansas.
Speaker 2: Ayisha's brother, Jacques has spoken out very publicly on his
Speaker 2: sister's behalf. He has brought up a lot of things
Speaker 2: he says he just does not understand about this investigation.
Speaker 2: He has openly voiced his suspicion of Ayisha's aunt, Shaquilla
Speaker 2: and her uncle William. Jacques said alarm bells started going
Speaker 2: off for him the moment he pulled into his sister's
Speaker 2: driveway on November two. Shaquilla was right behind them with
Speaker 2: her stepdaughter in the car, and Jacques wondered, how did
Speaker 2: she get there so fast? Did she already know that
Speaker 2: something was wrong. Jacques later said that he believed that
Speaker 2: his aunt had been very dramatic, maybe almost overly emotional,
Speaker 2: and after the family went to the police and the
Speaker 2: searches started, Jacques said he started to get more and
Speaker 2: more suspicious, especially after Somaji was arrested and released. Eventually,
Speaker 2: the relationship between Jacques, Shaquilla, and William got more and
Speaker 2: more strained. So your suspicions about Shaquila and her husband happened,
Speaker 2: was that because because the way they were acting, they
Speaker 2: just weren't acting, you know.
Speaker 3: In the middle.
Speaker 5: You know, Chak the rockers time to contribute it. I
Speaker 5: think that his job moved.
Speaker 3: In the middle of an investigation, right, So why I mean,
Speaker 3: why do I mean, why do that?
Speaker 2: Why move? So they moved in the middle of it literally,
Speaker 2: they was in Houston.
Speaker 3: They moved to Houston, and they was up there in Houston,
Speaker 3: and that's to verify and death factual. From what I
Speaker 3: know is from when they was going up there to
Speaker 3: view furniture. On the way up there, they already had
Speaker 3: knew that no furniture was in that apartment. The furniture
Speaker 3: was already stolen, so there was no furniture.
Speaker 1: In that apartment.
Speaker 3: So the trip to Houston was to go up there
Speaker 3: to get the furniture out of the apartment and take
Speaker 3: it to a storage unit. Okay, they never had took note,
Speaker 3: they never got your no furniture up there because there
Speaker 3: was no furniture in the apartment and when the police asked,
Speaker 3: they gave a fast location.
Speaker 1: So for where they were supposedly living.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 2: What Jacques was saying there was that his uncle and
Speaker 2: Shaquilla allegedly gave police a fake address in Houston. If
Speaker 2: that's true, how could that not raise red flags? Now, again,
Speaker 2: this is something that Jacques claims. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's true. The police have never mentioned Shaquilla or William
Speaker 2: as people of interest out all in this investigation. They
Speaker 2: completely deny they had anything to do with Ayesha's disappearance.
Speaker 2: Just want to make that clear. But again, I just
Speaker 2: want to go back to the timeline. Did Ayisha actually
Speaker 2: leave Arkansas and go to Houston? This is a crucial point,
Speaker 2: something we need to figure out. So let's go back
Speaker 2: for a minute and talk about Ayisha's phone. As we
Speaker 2: said before, the phone was left at Ayisha's apartment, but shockingly,
Speaker 2: the police did not immediately take it.
Speaker 1: I really don't get this.
Speaker 2: I mean, Ayisha had called the police multiple times to
Speaker 2: report break ins. She had been put on the patrol list,
Speaker 2: so I really don't get why there was not immediate
Speaker 2: alarm when her apartment.
Speaker 1: Was found like that.
Speaker 2: In the end, Jacques said, Shaquila took Ayisha's phone. Now,
Speaker 2: according to Jaques, this was because Shaquilla apparently thought that
Speaker 2: her son he might be able to figure out the password.
Speaker 2: But Laquita said in the end her family members told
Speaker 2: her they could not get into the phone, they couldn't
Speaker 2: guess the password. Eventually the phone was given to police,
Speaker 2: but that was several days after Ayisha went missing. I
Speaker 2: have also heard rumors that Aisha sent text messages on
Speaker 2: November tewod I wanted to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 2: Rena said that she had discussed this with Captain Harwell,
Speaker 2: and apparently he told her that this came from one
Speaker 2: of Ayisha's relatives supposedly receiving a text from Ayisha after
Speaker 2: November second, and her grandmother potentially getting a FaceTime call,
Speaker 2: and there were supposedly posts on Facebook related to this.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to track down those Facebook posts because figuring
Speaker 2: out when those calls took place and if anyone actually
Speaker 2: saw or heard Aisha would seem to be a crucial
Speaker 2: piece of data we need to figure out.
Speaker 1: Captain Harwell.
Speaker 2: The Elderrated Police Department released a statement asking the public
Speaker 2: to come forward with information. He said, quote, what we
Speaker 2: need at this time is for people to come forward
Speaker 2: and tell us what they know. People don't want to
Speaker 2: get involved, people are scared of retaliation.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 2: I can understand part of this because, as we'll go
Speaker 2: into in more detail next week, a lot of people
Speaker 2: who are potentially connected to this case do.
Speaker 1: Have criminal backgrounds.
Speaker 2: But I just want everyone out there to think about
Speaker 2: this mother, this brother, this family. Imagine if it were
Speaker 2: your daughter who had vanished without a trace, and you
Speaker 2: had no idea what happened. I know that you would
Speaker 2: want someone to come forward. We need for someone to
Speaker 2: come forward with information. Anyone with any information can call
Speaker 2: the Elderrated Police Department at eight seven oh eight eight
Speaker 2: one four eight one to oh. We are going to
Speaker 2: keep going on this case next week. First of all,
Speaker 2: I want to find out if Ayisha ever actually left
Speaker 2: Arkansas and made it to Houston, and if she did,
Speaker 2: where's the proof of that. We also want to track
Speaker 2: down and try our best to answer the question of
Speaker 2: whether there were texts and or calls from Ayisha's phone
Speaker 2: made after October thirty. First, this could give us more
Speaker 2: information about where Ayisha was headed. Or if the conclusion
Speaker 2: leads us to believe Ayisha might have met with foul play,
Speaker 2: then we need to be asking a different question. If
Speaker 2: Aisha was not alive after October thirty, first, who sent
Speaker 2: those text messages from her phone?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben.
Speaker 2: Sale, executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley.
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. It's six seven eight
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