Speaker 1: What you're about to hear is the work of investigative
Speaker 1: journalism that explores one woman's search for answers in her
Speaker 1: son's death. The views and opinions in this podcast do
Speaker 1: not reflect those of I Heart Media previously on Somebody. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you heard two satisfires on the block. So when
Speaker 1: I found out what had happened the first day that
Speaker 1: was reached out to local game bangers, none of them
Speaker 1: took admitts to it. This whole thing is just get
Speaker 1: stranger and stranger by the minute. And so I have
Speaker 1: theories in my head. But somebody covering with Somebody. My
Speaker 1: name is Chaparral Wells. This is a story of my son, Courtney,
Speaker 1: a young black man in a fancy car who wound
Speaker 1: up with a bullet in his back in front of
Speaker 1: a Chicago police station. And it's the story of my
Speaker 1: search for the truth. This is somebody everybody, somebodys every day,
Speaker 1: no bid. So there's this thing that I haven't told
Speaker 1: you about yet. I didn't even tell Allison in the
Speaker 1: Invisible Institute for a long time because when it happened,
Speaker 1: I was told it wasn't important. But it turns out
Speaker 1: it was. When I first met with police just a
Speaker 1: few days after Courtney was shot. I told him about
Speaker 1: a tip I got on Facebook. It was from a
Speaker 1: guy who went by Randall Connieham like the football player.
Speaker 1: The note went like this, good morning, I have to stay.
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry for your loss. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: see if this info may help you. I was coming
Speaker 1: home from the gym back. This guy, Randall lived in
Speaker 1: Belmont Craigen, and the night Courtney died, he saw three
Speaker 1: guys and the Grand Marquis who tossed a pistol. He
Speaker 1: called nine one one twice. He sent me photos along
Speaker 1: with the message, mug shots and a photo of the
Speaker 1: Grand Marquis that showed his license plate. I thanked him
Speaker 1: and brought it all to police. They called the police.
Speaker 1: They told us that they already knew about that, and
Speaker 1: that it was not related. Research and it's not related,
Speaker 1: so this was a separate incident. Correct. They said it
Speaker 1: wasn't connected at all. But I still wanted to give
Speaker 1: them all the information Randall gave me. Anyway, he gave
Speaker 1: me names of the two people that that he saw
Speaker 1: in that vehicle. You um and uh, yeah, that's all correct. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's all correct. So it's the caller calls in immediately
Speaker 1: and this is well after your son was was shot.
Speaker 1: It Detective a Model said Randall's nine on one call
Speaker 1: was way after Courtney shooting. To me, they were like,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, lady, we've already decided that this is
Speaker 1: not credible. We're gonna take your information, but we're not
Speaker 1: gonna do anything with it. I moved on because I
Speaker 1: was grieving. I had to finish bearing my son. I
Speaker 1: was planning Courtney's funeral, and at the time I was
Speaker 1: still thinking police shot my son, And when detectives dismissed it,
Speaker 1: I thought, well, maybe they're right. But I later came
Speaker 1: to find out from those nine one one call logs
Speaker 1: that Randall's first call wasn't way later than courtney shooting.
Speaker 1: It was thirty seven minutes after Courtney was shot. So
Speaker 1: when the first nine one one callers husband Edgar saw
Speaker 1: some gangsters in his alley and a Grand Markeys, it
Speaker 1: reminded me of Randall's tip. Allison and I we went
Speaker 1: back and looked at the picture of the car Randall
Speaker 1: sent me on Facebook two years earlier, and there was
Speaker 1: a Grand Marquis and the license plate started with Z
Speaker 1: four four. Edgar had remembered the first two digits, and
Speaker 1: when I went back to the police report about Elena,
Speaker 1: it said that she saw a license plate starting with
Speaker 1: C four four, C and Z. You know, they sound
Speaker 1: a lot of like So the witness accounts matched up
Speaker 1: in the police never connected the dots. We needed to
Speaker 1: talk to this Facebook tipster, Randall Cunningham, face to face
Speaker 1: to find out who he really was and see what
Speaker 1: else he knew about what happened that night, any details
Speaker 1: that could help us. My name is Allison. I got
Speaker 1: your number from chapperl Wells, the mother of Courtney. We
Speaker 1: texted and went to an address we found for him.
Speaker 1: No one was home, so we left a note. That night,
Speaker 1: we got a call back from Randall's uncle, who had
Speaker 1: found the note. He put us in touch with Randall,
Speaker 1: so we made plans to meet Randall said we could
Speaker 1: catch him after a showing of Black Panther. Bill and
Speaker 1: I waited for Randall in the food court of a
Speaker 1: suburban Chicago mall over pretzels and smoothies. Black Panther is
Speaker 1: a long movie. Finally he came out. Did your uncle
Speaker 1: tell you we tried to reach you? At his and
Speaker 1: then I was like, why are Why are the FEDS
Speaker 1: at the door. So I kind of thought that you
Speaker 1: guys were Feds. I'm like, what's going on here? But
Speaker 1: he told me it was related to the case, and
Speaker 1: I'm like wow. He told us that even though he
Speaker 1: called nine one one twice, he still wanted to reach
Speaker 1: out to Chapparral directly. So, um, Mr Copeland's mother on
Speaker 1: the news, and I felt terrible, you know, and I figured, well,
Speaker 1: why if you know, if there's this type of information out,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't I want to try to reach out. We
Speaker 1: asked him to walk us through what he saw when
Speaker 1: he was driving home that night. From the beginning, I
Speaker 1: was coming home from an export, Jim. It was pretty
Speaker 1: late at night. Um, As I was coming home, I
Speaker 1: noticed individuals in the street and I almost hit him.
Speaker 1: So I kind of looked at him and I could
Speaker 1: tell he was gang affiliated colors and his hat was
Speaker 1: cocked and he kind of threw a sign at me,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well whatever. The guy who threw the
Speaker 1: gang sign looked like he'd been running, like something had happened.
Speaker 1: Randall went to turn onto his street when he noticed
Speaker 1: a car just sitting there a Grand Marquis. Short time later,
Speaker 1: the car starts moving. Randall parked and ran to his apartment.
Speaker 1: He looked out a window and saw that the Grand
Speaker 1: Marquis had driven up the block, then backed up, and
Speaker 1: then up the block again, and then reversed and lit
Speaker 1: it again like they were I don't know what was
Speaker 1: going on, if they were intoxicated or whatever. Randall called
Speaker 1: the cops were on their way. Then he saw a
Speaker 1: guy get out of the car. It was the same
Speaker 1: one who had just thrown gang signs at him, and
Speaker 1: two more guys got out of the car. They quickly
Speaker 1: they tossed a weapon and scurried away. So Randall called
Speaker 1: nine one one again. You probably wouldn't put two and
Speaker 1: two together, um, and they quickly ditched the pistol. I
Speaker 1: heard like a loud thud, you can hear like a
Speaker 1: metal clink, sound like get thrown to the ground. Uh,
Speaker 1: So I actually went out to try to recover it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if the hell came over me. I'm
Speaker 1: a concealed carry holder, so I figured, well, let me
Speaker 1: go see what this is. And there's kids on the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: so you know, I didn't want to. I didn't want
Speaker 1: a kid to find it. But before Randall could get there,
Speaker 1: one of the guys came back to retrieve what they threw,
Speaker 1: and I know it was a pistol because the way
Speaker 1: they were holding it it was shiny. And uh, I
Speaker 1: told the cops, hey, this was the description of the individuals,
Speaker 1: which direction they fled and which way they went and whatnot.
Speaker 1: The cops went up the block to get the guys.
Speaker 1: The gun was gone, but Randall did find an iPhone.
Speaker 1: I actually went through it and uh there's a couple
Speaker 1: of videos of them drinking in a car um and
Speaker 1: then there was a video of them flashing a revolver.
Speaker 1: One was a revolver, the other gun was like a
Speaker 1: nine millimeter. Randall offered to give the phone to police.
Speaker 1: They contacted me and they told me, hey, you know
Speaker 1: what's going on, and they were kind of brief about
Speaker 1: what they you know, what they wanted, and then they
Speaker 1: hung up and then they called back again and I'm like, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: do you want me to come to the station or not?
Speaker 1: And they were like, well no at this time no.
Speaker 1: Uh So that was that and the police never followed up,
Speaker 1: and then Randall lost the iPhone in a move. We
Speaker 1: asked him about those mug shots from his Facebook message.
Speaker 1: How did he know who these guys were? Somebody that
Speaker 1: I knew in the neighborhood. Um, I knew one of
Speaker 1: the individuals in the car. So yeah, I kind of asked, well,
Speaker 1: what had happened? And they said they were questioned and
Speaker 1: then they were they were pretty much released. They never
Speaker 1: he said, he doesn't know the guys personally, but he
Speaker 1: does know of them. I'm not getting affiliated and never
Speaker 1: believed in gangs or none of that, but I did
Speaker 1: believe in, you know, getting crimes figured out and solved
Speaker 1: and you know, making sure justice has served. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's one more thing you need to know
Speaker 1: about Randall. He's a Chicago police officer. Who oh, Allison,
Speaker 1: when you told me that Randall was a cop, I
Speaker 1: was shocked, but you know, I was grateful more than anything,
Speaker 1: because this information was vital. Didn't make sense once he
Speaker 1: found out he was a cop. I thought that, well,
Speaker 1: if he wasn't a cop, he was definitely trying to
Speaker 1: be one because he knew exactly what the words to
Speaker 1: say and and he knew what to give me. So
Speaker 1: the night Courtney died when Randall called this end to nine.
Speaker 1: When one he was still a civilian. He was just
Speaker 1: a guy in the neighborhood reporting what he saw. But
Speaker 1: now he's been a cop for more than two years,
Speaker 1: so we were a little surprised that he was still
Speaker 1: willing to talk to us. I mean, I was just
Speaker 1: so grateful for anybody to give me information. The fact
Speaker 1: that he was a cop. It made me have some
Speaker 1: type of hope that all cops aren't bad. You know.
Speaker 1: I wish there were more Randalls on the Chicago Police force.
Speaker 1: I mean, what if he had never come forward. Without
Speaker 1: him coming forward, we wouldn't be able to connect the
Speaker 1: dots corroborate what Edgar and Elena said about the car
Speaker 1: and the guys inside it. But the frustrating part is
Speaker 1: it has taken us over two years to get here.
Speaker 1: All of this should have been known on day one,
Speaker 1: and it turns out it was all right there on
Speaker 1: the police radio the whole time point because we're sitting
Speaker 1: in the silver Grand Murkey has gone under the car.
Speaker 1: When we asked the city for all the police dispatch
Speaker 1: in Courtney's case, we got about an hour of tape
Speaker 1: back the first twenty five minutes had Courtney flagging down
Speaker 1: Officer block for help, his license plates, his name male,
Speaker 1: his name is Chicole, and Elena calling in. Once you
Speaker 1: get a shot started Fullerton along Long and Fullerton Color
Speaker 1: heard two shots on the block. I got no description.
Speaker 1: But then later in the radio tape there's this for
Speaker 1: thirty five minutes. When we asked why this was believed out,
Speaker 1: the city told us again that it was unrelated. We
Speaker 1: pushed back and had to wait months to get the
Speaker 1: full tape, and when you listen to it, come find
Speaker 1: out it's completely related. A mercury tinted windows, reoccupants circling
Speaker 1: a black twice and then reversed. It may have a
Speaker 1: flat tire, it's double part by the fire. Hydrants demand
Speaker 1: black bread jacket on the corner, flashing gang signs. So
Speaker 1: once again it's up to us to investigate. We really
Speaker 1: wanted to know more about these gangsters Randall saw did
Speaker 1: in this gun. Two of the men actually were arrested
Speaker 1: up the block the night my son was killed. Point
Speaker 1: backcoties were sitting in the silver ground Murkey because he
Speaker 1: drove Vine and appeared to based to a gun under
Speaker 1: the curve. They have since recovered or whatever was thrown
Speaker 1: under there, and they're walking north round. The dispatcher's relaying
Speaker 1: Randall's nine one one call to the police. She says,
Speaker 1: two male Hispanics wearing black hoodies were sitting in a
Speaker 1: granmar key. It appears they threw a gun of the car,
Speaker 1: which they've since recovered, and they're walking northbound. That's too possible,
Speaker 1: fucking westbound on Belton, And then the officer says, got
Speaker 1: two possibles walking westbound on Belding toward Larmie. The police
Speaker 1: arrested two men who were charged with a parole violation
Speaker 1: for associating with game member, which basically me they were
Speaker 1: just hanging out with each other. They were released the
Speaker 1: same day, and the third guy commands blackbread Jacket in
Speaker 1: the corner, flashing signs he got away. We decided not
Speaker 1: to reveal their names because no one has been charged
Speaker 1: in connection with Courtney's case, and we don't know who,
Speaker 1: if any of these guys shot Courtney. What we do
Speaker 1: know is that the police should have followed these leads.
Speaker 1: But when we dug around, we found out that all
Speaker 1: three men Randall saw that night are members of the
Speaker 1: Stylers gang. All of them have been convicted of gun
Speaker 1: offenses and all have done time. They all have really
Speaker 1: long rap sheets. But this is the Facebook video of
Speaker 1: one of the men who was arrested that night. So
Speaker 1: love it's not at the time of Courtney's death, he
Speaker 1: was on parole for armed robbery sinsons. And the man
Speaker 1: that Randall saw a flashing gang size, he's the one
Speaker 1: that got away. He's been arrested sixteen times since. Randle
Speaker 1: and Edgar identified the same type of car, but we
Speaker 1: wanted to see if they'd identify the same men inside
Speaker 1: the car too, So we decided to do something the
Speaker 1: police had never done, a double blind photo lineup. We
Speaker 1: put together a big stack of mug shots to show Edgar.
Speaker 1: We included the mug shots randallson to Chaparl and men
Speaker 1: who look similar to them, plus some random mug shots too,
Speaker 1: And because Edgar remembered someone in the vehicle with long hair,
Speaker 1: we included almost neighbor and other men with long hair.
Speaker 1: By Elena, Hi, are you right baby? Back here? I
Speaker 1: went over to Elena and Edgar's again, Chapel stayed back.
Speaker 1: We didn't want Edgar to feel any extra pressure to
Speaker 1: make an identification. And thank you. I want sorry. We
Speaker 1: got set up in their living room. If it's you know,
Speaker 1: very unlikely that you'll be able to identify anyone, so
Speaker 1: there's absolutely no pressure to do it. Just if I
Speaker 1: brought along one of our summer reporting fellows, Matilda. The
Speaker 1: lineup was double blind because neither Edgar nor Matilda knew
Speaker 1: who was who in the mug shots. We didn't want
Speaker 1: to influence Edgar to pick out certain people. Elena stuck
Speaker 1: around to translate, Okay, gonna send alright, so I'll have
Speaker 1: you both look at them, and Matilda is gonna go through.
Speaker 1: I left the room and they went through the photos
Speaker 1: one by one. Who Edgar said, this one looks like
Speaker 1: him a little bit. Maybe it looks like yeah, bit
Speaker 1: at the photo after photo, No, he said no, He
Speaker 1: said no. Then he turned to the next photo, and
Speaker 1: right away he stopped, well, he thinks that one it
Speaker 1: is because long hair. He landed on the guy with
Speaker 1: the long hair, almost neighbor who lived by the church.
Speaker 1: That one I think is one of them. Edgar picked
Speaker 1: out two other mug shots. He was less sure about these,
Speaker 1: but one of them was one of the guys arrested
Speaker 1: that night. Up the block from rand Okay, that's all
Speaker 1: we had. Thank you very much. Just keeps going and going.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just trying to help the families by answers.
Speaker 1: So Randall and Edgar's accounts we're matching up more and more. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you, take care of h We felt like we
Speaker 1: were getting close to finding out who shot my son,
Speaker 1: so we reached out to Courtney's friend June again because
Speaker 1: we wanted to see if he can talk to some
Speaker 1: of his gang contexts. We were trying to figure out
Speaker 1: if June knew any of the guys and the mug shots.
Speaker 1: When June asked around for us, he told us it
Speaker 1: was like opening Pandora's box. One day, two gang chiefs
Speaker 1: showed up at his door. They said, you've been asking
Speaker 1: a lot of questions. After that, June changed his number
Speaker 1: and moved. When we caught up with him again months later,
Speaker 1: he said he didn't want to have an ear to
Speaker 1: the streets anymore. He wanted to have an ear to
Speaker 1: the stock market because he was all about his cigar business.
Speaker 1: He was done dealing information with June out of the picture.
Speaker 1: We chased a differently the car we wanted to track
Speaker 1: down that Grand Marquis, but it wasn't registered to anyone anymore.
Speaker 1: We did find out who owned the Grand Marquis when
Speaker 1: Courtney was killed. Her first name was Crystal. We didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about her except for her address. So we
Speaker 1: hit the road, so that's it's not that far. No,
Speaker 1: she's pretty close, but within a mile on the way.
Speaker 1: We talked about Courtney, like we always do. He always
Speaker 1: said he was gonna be famous. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is what he wanted to be famous for, but he
Speaker 1: had this this ominous feeling that that he was going
Speaker 1: to die young. You know. I think he had some
Speaker 1: fears anxiety because his father and his grandfather also died
Speaker 1: of heart issues. We're going where so just take a
Speaker 1: little further anyway. The last anxiety attack he had was
Speaker 1: probably about six weeks before he died, and He's like,
Speaker 1: I think I'm having a heart attack. And I'm like, Courdney,
Speaker 1: you're not having a heart attack. If you're having a
Speaker 1: heart attack, you wouldn't be able to sit here and
Speaker 1: tell me to take you to the doctor. So he
Speaker 1: was like, I just keep seeing myself dying because I
Speaker 1: knew it. I knew what it was. I knew he
Speaker 1: was having a panic attack. I told him, you do
Speaker 1: what I told you to do, which is pray. We're
Speaker 1: all here on borrow time. Cordney, you know, not thinking
Speaker 1: in six weeks my son will be dead. That was
Speaker 1: the last serious, serious conversation that I had with Coordiney
Speaker 1: before he died. Crystal Street was lined with matching brick
Speaker 1: two flags. We didn't want to freak her out, so
Speaker 1: we left the recorder behind. We walked up to her
Speaker 1: building and rang the doorbell for her apartment. We waited.
Speaker 1: We were about to walk away when a woman came out.
Speaker 1: It was Crystal. We showed her a picture of the
Speaker 1: Grammar key. She said, yes, that used to be her car.
Speaker 1: We told her about Courtney's murder and that witnesses pointed
Speaker 1: to this car. She said she got rid of that
Speaker 1: car before on Craigslist. We showed her the mug shots
Speaker 1: of the guys. She says she didn't know any of them.
Speaker 1: We were bummed. We had hoped she could tell us more.
Speaker 1: We thanked her and got back into the van. Well,
Speaker 1: I definitely think she's lying. I think she does no
Speaker 1: more than what she's saying, and um she wants to
Speaker 1: make sure that it's not traceable back to her. I
Speaker 1: think when you showed at the pictures that really threw her.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Elsa, I don't know. She seemed
Speaker 1: genuinely caught off guard and surprised, you know, But I
Speaker 1: don't know. Chaparral was right, Crystal was lying to us.
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, we were digging around in some
Speaker 1: court documents and we saw Crystal was listed as the
Speaker 1: girlfriend of the guy who got away from the cops
Speaker 1: that night. They even have kids together. We found some
Speaker 1: photos of him on Facebook. One of the pictures shows
Speaker 1: him at a grave site with one of the two
Speaker 1: stylers arrested the night Courtney died. Now we had evidence
Speaker 1: connecting them to each other and the car. We hadn't
Speaker 1: heard from Randall in a while until one morning, November one,
Speaker 1: he texted me, did you hear what happened on Long
Speaker 1: and Belding. Female executed in front of her kids and
Speaker 1: friend over a car be safe in that neighborhood. My
Speaker 1: stomach dropped. It was the same corner where Courtney was shot,
Speaker 1: and the car was a BMW. It was all over
Speaker 1: the news. This is just absolutely heartbreaking. The victims family
Speaker 1: says she was out celebrating Halloween and was tricker treating
Speaker 1: with her twin sister and two nieces when a masked
Speaker 1: man jumped into their car and forced them to drive.
Speaker 1: Police want to find out why a young woman was
Speaker 1: murdered by a masked man who forced his way into
Speaker 1: the car. We win live at District Police Station in Belmont,
Speaker 1: Craigan with more. The gunman made them drive several blocks
Speaker 1: before he shot and killed one of the women on
Speaker 1: the same street where the gangsters and the grandmar key
Speaker 1: tossed the gun. The gunman took off running to black
Speaker 1: Hawk Park, Styler's territory. Okay, are you there, ye, come here.
Speaker 1: I got on the phone with Chaparral right away. Have
Speaker 1: you seen the news today? Yeah? You know that that
Speaker 1: shooting right back Courtney, right yeah, exactly right by Courtney.
Speaker 1: It was Belden and long right past the church. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the law some like, oh my god, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like, why is here? I told her it
Speaker 1: was a BMW two. Are you serious? This is like,
Speaker 1: just sent my PTSD right off stood way open now.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. We discussed whether we should go to the
Speaker 1: police with what we knew that they don't have that
Speaker 1: information about Elsa. I know they have it, but they
Speaker 1: don't they don't understand its significant. But I just it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like they did the kind of detective work
Speaker 1: at Ethan because I'm thinking, like, if if you know,
Speaker 1: I know my son was gone, but if other girl
Speaker 1: have to die, you know what I'm saying. It's always
Speaker 1: been about preventing things from happening to other people. For me,
Speaker 1: if this is the same person, I'm hoping that they
Speaker 1: were actually follow up. In the end, we decided we
Speaker 1: had a responsibility to come forward if there was any
Speaker 1: chance our findings could help them solve this woman's murder.
Speaker 1: I really didn't want to meet with those jokers again,
Speaker 1: but I sucked it up. Maybe this time if I
Speaker 1: came in with two white journalists, they'd actually listen to me.
Speaker 1: That was the detective model. So we called us that
Speaker 1: something up. Lichal and one of the supervisors from here
Speaker 1: will be contacted. A few days later, me Alison and
Speaker 1: Bill were sitting down with Sergeant Mitchell and the detective
Speaker 1: A Model. They agreed to meet us only if I
Speaker 1: didn't record, but the meeting was on the record. What
Speaker 1: did you think about the police, stipulating that you couldn't record,
Speaker 1: and I wish we would have recorded. I do. I
Speaker 1: promise you I wanted to, I really did. We met
Speaker 1: for about two hours in the same conference room as before,
Speaker 1: but no one walked out on me this time. Sergeant Mitchell.
Speaker 1: He wore a tie and was red faced, as ever.
Speaker 1: Detective a Model wore a pull over. He barely took
Speaker 1: any notes. Here's what happened. We brought in two huge
Speaker 1: binders of documents and we told police what we knew.
Speaker 1: So we walked them through our evidence. Allison started by
Speaker 1: showing them a map. We highlighted the corner of Belding
Speaker 1: and Long by the church where the neighbors heard the
Speaker 1: shots that night. We told him we believe this is
Speaker 1: where Courtney was shot because his friends from broken Glass
Speaker 1: on the street and others. They saw skid marks, and
Speaker 1: is where Courtney usually parked because he'd received tickets there before.
Speaker 1: At this point they said we weren't telling them anything
Speaker 1: they didn't already know, but we kept laying out the
Speaker 1: scene for them. Anyway. We explained that right before the incident,
Speaker 1: we believe Courtney was parking his car. He was on
Speaker 1: his phone, texting Alma, Facebook messaging his friend. He was distracted.
Speaker 1: That's when someone shot him. Courtney turned and ducked, getting
Speaker 1: hit in the back. When Courtney sped off towards the
Speaker 1: police station, a Grand Marquis quickly drove around the block,
Speaker 1: cutting through Elena and Edgar's narrow alleyway with the windows
Speaker 1: rolled down, giving Edgar a good look. Two years later,
Speaker 1: Edgar still remembered the car and the first few digits
Speaker 1: of the license plate. At this point, we showed police
Speaker 1: the two mugshots Edgar picked out in the double blind
Speaker 1: lineup the man with the long hair on his neighbor
Speaker 1: and a second guy, a member of the Stylers gang
Speaker 1: who was arrested that night. And that's when the detectives
Speaker 1: said to each other that they needed to talk to Edgar.
Speaker 1: Then we kept going with the play by play. Right
Speaker 1: after my son arrived at the hospital, Randall spotted the
Speaker 1: Grand Marquis on his block and called. When the guys
Speaker 1: heard the police coming, they tossed the gun under the
Speaker 1: car nearby and took off on foot. But before police
Speaker 1: could retrieve the gun, someone came back for it. Two
Speaker 1: of the guys were arrested. Up the block in release
Speaker 1: without questioning. The third one got away. We gave police
Speaker 1: his name, We gave them a copy of Randall's Facebook
Speaker 1: such about the Grand Markets license plate, the weapon, the
Speaker 1: mug shots. That's when one of the detectives said, you
Speaker 1: never told me this, but I did remember. I even
Speaker 1: have it on tape. I also have some information that
Speaker 1: I received from another Facebook person. Randomly. They told me
Speaker 1: that the night of U the shooting, there was a
Speaker 1: Okay car, it looks like a Grand Market. I have
Speaker 1: that plate number like plenty to number. They said that
Speaker 1: they were looking out their window and they saw them
Speaker 1: throw a gun under the truck. Under the truck, they
Speaker 1: called the police. Okay. None of us were surprised about
Speaker 1: how detectives acted during this meeting. Detective A Model said
Speaker 1: he's seen the video of Courtney outside of the station.
Speaker 1: That much I already knew, But what surprised me was
Speaker 1: he said he didn't think Courtney was being combative. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to make of this. No one had
Speaker 1: their story straight. Was this a cover up? Or are
Speaker 1: they just this damn incompetent. At the end of our meeting,
Speaker 1: they told us they were going to assign new detectives
Speaker 1: to the case and work these new leagues. We all
Speaker 1: hopped in Bill's car in the parking lot to regroup
Speaker 1: to bite my tongue. So many times I felt that
Speaker 1: they were a little bit evasive when they talked about
Speaker 1: the two being arrested that night and why they couldn't
Speaker 1: it was a murder. Why wouldn't you want to investigate them?
Speaker 1: They are known game members there, They have a long
Speaker 1: rap sheet, So tell me why you couldn't pull them
Speaker 1: in for a question and for this murder. Why why
Speaker 1: wouldn't you do that? That didn't makes sense to me
Speaker 1: because they're already arrested. And then you also had that
Speaker 1: nine one one caller who was give me you a
Speaker 1: description of suspects that he's seen in the neighborhood who
Speaker 1: threw a gun underneath a car. So this is when
Speaker 1: they talk about we don't have enough evidence, we don't
Speaker 1: have enough probable calls to pull them over. Hell, you
Speaker 1: get pulled over before busting light in Chicago and they
Speaker 1: question you, They take you off your car, they handcuff you,
Speaker 1: they do all types of stuff. So you're telling me
Speaker 1: that you don't have enough evidence or enough probable calls
Speaker 1: that's bullshit. And I wanted to reiterate to them that
Speaker 1: you know, in so far as they were frequently saying
Speaker 1: that these are leads, not evidence. This is circumstantial, and
Speaker 1: it's sort of like, yeah, I know, I am coming
Speaker 1: to you because another woman was killed in a BMW
Speaker 1: on that corner. Like I'm not saying that this is
Speaker 1: solid evidence ready to go to court. I am saying
Speaker 1: that this is what I know about the case, and
Speaker 1: it's more than what you know about the case. Bill
Speaker 1: noticed something during the meeting. I had turned my face
Speaker 1: away because I was crying, and I didn't want the
Speaker 1: detective to see where you're crying out of frustration. I
Speaker 1: was crying because my son is still dead. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, my son dead. So it's just
Speaker 1: like I must have been. I'm finna get emotional now,
Speaker 1: so forgive me, you know, because I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: every time I get closer, I get a step back.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I'd be like, Okay, you have to stop.
Speaker 1: You have to stop for yourself, for your health, but
Speaker 1: you have to stop for your kids, for your husband.
Speaker 1: Because this, this whole murder has it's like a ticking
Speaker 1: time bond that just like it's floating in my life
Speaker 1: and you're trying to take the millions of pieces and
Speaker 1: put them together, and so parts of me will never
Speaker 1: ever the whole. It's an emotional strength on my family,
Speaker 1: my husband, my my marriage, it's all of this. So
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, I've just been going through it.
Speaker 1: We needed to step away. I hoped that the police
Speaker 1: would finally do their jobs. I think that right now,
Speaker 1: based on us leaving them with the information that we
Speaker 1: left them with, that that they're just gonna appease us
Speaker 1: by passing us off to some new detectives. Nothing is
Speaker 1: going to happen. They're not going to interview, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna follow up, they're not going to even investigate anything
Speaker 1: other than what they've already done. My son will still
Speaker 1: be a co case in Chicago whom all right. So,
Speaker 1: so it's been more than a year since we sat
Speaker 1: down with detectives Chaparral. What's happened in the last year.
Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing. You hear crickets. They haven't called me, haven't
Speaker 1: given me any updates, haven't contacted any of the witnesses
Speaker 1: that we gave them. I haven't heard a peep from
Speaker 1: police We've checked in with Edgar Randall, Elena, all of
Speaker 1: these witnesses and they haven't contacted them. Press three or
Speaker 1: to speak to an operator, press zero. Please speak after
Speaker 1: the town. Hi, Detective Bouch. My name is Chaparral Wells.
Speaker 1: I'm the parent of Courtney Copeland. I was calling to
Speaker 1: get a status update on his case. He was murdered
Speaker 1: on March four. A couple of weeks later after I
Speaker 1: left this message, Allison actually ran into another detectives on
Speaker 1: Courtney's case, detective a model. She bumped into him at
Speaker 1: Sesame Street Live. She was there with her family and
Speaker 1: a model was working security. She said hello and reminded
Speaker 1: him about the case. Two weeks later, a model called me.
Speaker 1: I was at church. I swells this detective a model
Speaker 1: over an area north. I was wondering to give me
Speaker 1: a call back at your earliest convenience. I called him
Speaker 1: back as soon as I got home. Then I hopped
Speaker 1: back on the line with Alison. Okay, Hey, okay. So
Speaker 1: basically his call was based on him wanting to all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you put Corney case in the cold
Speaker 1: case file and make it a profile on their website.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? So he wants to put Courtney
Speaker 1: photo and everything on to the website, stated that they're
Speaker 1: looking for information. Yeah. Did. He said he had not
Speaker 1: talked to Edgar yet, he ain't talked the air girl.
Speaker 1: He basically admitted that he ain't talked the air girl
Speaker 1: and what about Um, so they basically didn't follow up
Speaker 1: on our leads over the last year and now they're
Speaker 1: wanting to all of a sudden put it in the
Speaker 1: cold case unit. M hmm, well, um, how are you feeling?
Speaker 1: I felt like he was going smoke because it was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about your son's case and I've been trying whatever. Dude,
Speaker 1: I'm like and he was like, well, well, if you
Speaker 1: want to meet with me again and we'll go over everything,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I mean we already gave them everything.
Speaker 1: And I was trying to tell him. I said, that's
Speaker 1: why we were wondering why didn't you speak to a
Speaker 1: later subject, because I said, I basically told him, I
Speaker 1: said that information matched Elena club and said a grandma Keith.
Speaker 1: Randall said a grandma Keith, And I said it wasn't
Speaker 1: that far in between from the initial students. So for
Speaker 1: a year and you ain't did nothing. When I watched
Speaker 1: the news, I keep seeing over and over again, whose
Speaker 1: life matter in whose cases matter enough to solve? No
Speaker 1: matter how many times I meet with police, my son
Speaker 1: murder still doesn't seem to matter to them. But this
Speaker 1: whole thing is so much bigger than who pulled the
Speaker 1: trigger on my son. It's so much bigger than Courtney's case.
Speaker 1: Things don't have to be this way, and there's so
Speaker 1: much more I've got to do. Everybody, so by every day,
Speaker 1: no bide these nothing. Somebody is a co production of
Speaker 1: The Invisible Institute, The Intercept, Topic Studios, and I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: and association with Tenderfoot TV. I'm chakral Wells. This podcast
Speaker 1: is produced by Alison Flowers and Bill Heally. Sarah Guice
Speaker 1: is our story editor. Ellen Glover is our associate producer
Speaker 1: for The Invisible Institute. Jamie Calvin is executive producer for
Speaker 1: Topic Studios. Maria Zuckerman, Christie Gressman and Letal Mallard are
Speaker 1: executive producers. Special thanks to Lizzie Jacobs for The Intercept.
Speaker 1: Roger Hodge, Deputy Editor, is supervising producer. Sound designed by
Speaker 1: Carl Scott and Bart Warshaw. Our theme song Everybody's Something
Speaker 1: is by Chance the Rapper. Original music for the podcast
Speaker 1: by Nate Fox of The Social Experiment and Eric Butler.
Speaker 1: Additional reporting by Sam Steclo, Annie When, Kahari Blackburn, Rajie Sinclair,
Speaker 1: Henry Adams, Matilda Voyat, Dana brosos kellerher Francis McDonald, Diana Archmagian,
Speaker 1: Maddie Anderson, Andrew Fan and risa Apintaku. Translation support by
Speaker 1: Benny Hernandez Occampo and Emma Perez. Fact checking by Noah
Speaker 1: Are Jenny Special thanks to Chris Rasmussen, Bennett Epstein, Matt Topic,
Speaker 1: David Bralow, and Julie Wolf. We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Email us at info at Somebody podcast dot com or
Speaker 1: leave us a voicemail at seven seven three to seven
Speaker 1: zero zero one to one. To learn more about this
Speaker 1: case and for links to addition no materials, go to
Speaker 1: our show page at Somebody podcast dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also find a list of everyone we want to think
Speaker 1: there so many people helped us along the way. M