Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Previously on Murder on Songbird Road, I received an email
Speaker 1: approving my request for surveillance footage from Huck's gas station.
Speaker 2: What we were told that she did is exactly what
Speaker 2: it appears that she's doing. Does that mean that she
Speaker 2: didn't do it? Not necessarily in and of itself. Does
Speaker 2: it mean that I don't think there's any way in
Speaker 2: hell that that's what she was disposing of? There absolutely,
Speaker 2: one hundred percent like I would die on that hill.
Speaker 1: The prosecution contends this was after the murder. She would
Speaker 1: have been covered with bloody scratches and bleeding hands. Why
Speaker 1: would she have been out and about in a T shirt?
Speaker 1: My name is Katie, and your relationship to Julie.
Speaker 3: I would consider her best friend. She didn't like blood,
Speaker 3: she didn't like violence.
Speaker 4: Having murderers.
Speaker 3: You're going to be talking about a man nine out.
Speaker 5: Of fun time, at least in the United States.
Speaker 1: We want to address a misconception that many people had
Speaker 1: or continue to have, regarding what was actually found at
Speaker 1: Hucks as opposed to the Southern Illinois Regional Landfill.
Speaker 2: It's the thing that upsets me the most about this
Speaker 2: entire trial, that any of this evidence was admissible in
Speaker 2: any way, shape or form.
Speaker 6: I was removed from the courtroom because I was threatening
Speaker 6: the jury by sitting in the front.
Speaker 1: Row, the all white jury. They were intimidated because I'm black.
Speaker 7: I couldn't do this.
Speaker 1: Renee High Tower Jason Flomp Chicago based attorney Kathleen Zelner
Speaker 1: is one of the most formidable forces in wrongful conviction advocacy.
Speaker 8: I'll flip the bill for that, because if anyone can
Speaker 8: get Julie out, it's her.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: For over a year, Bob Matta and I have been
Speaker 1: deeply immersed in a murder that has only grown more
Speaker 1: controversial the further we've investigated. We've scrutinized the prosecution's case
Speaker 1: against Julia Beverly and her conviction for the stabbing death
Speaker 1: of eleven year old Jade Beasley, a child she considered
Speaker 1: a daughter. Along the way, we've encountered moments that challenged
Speaker 1: our assumptions, shifted our perspectives, and stirred emotions we never anticipated.
Speaker 2: I think probably what struck me the most, frankly, more
Speaker 2: than any thing that we may have uncovered or run into.
Speaker 2: Is meeting Julie and person the first time, because going
Speaker 2: into it, we had dug into the case a bit
Speaker 2: as much as we could in terms of what was
Speaker 2: out there online, but really, until I met her to
Speaker 2: kind of get a sense and a feel for who
Speaker 2: she was and is, I really didn't know, And that
Speaker 2: for me was so important because I think we all
Speaker 2: kind of think that we can look somebody in the
Speaker 2: eyes and kind of be able to discern whether or
Speaker 2: not they're being truthful with us and deciding if this
Speaker 2: is somebody that you want to go to bat for.
Speaker 2: You know, I had an attorney visit, so we weren't
Speaker 2: being monitored, so I knew that she was going to
Speaker 2: be as truthful as she was going to allow herself
Speaker 2: to be, which I felt she was very truthful to
Speaker 2: me about everything that I asked her. And if I
Speaker 2: subtract that out, it makes a big difference on how
Speaker 2: I think I would have construed things that we ran
Speaker 2: into instead of it just being somebody that I'm reading
Speaker 2: about or hearing about, but having my own experience with
Speaker 2: that person. It changed everything for me in the sense
Speaker 2: that I was able to think about her and what
Speaker 2: I thought she would be capable of or not capable of.
Speaker 2: And I don't think that I would have been able
Speaker 2: to do that effectively or with any substance had I
Speaker 2: not actually had that meeting with her the first time.
Speaker 2: I found her to be just an extremely genuine person.
Speaker 2: I really got the sense that I wasn't being snowed,
Speaker 2: she wasn't a fraud. And I walked out of that
Speaker 2: jail that day pretty firmly convinced that this just doesn't
Speaker 2: add up. I mean, for me, that was really an
Speaker 2: AHA moment.
Speaker 1: One of the most impactful interviews for me is one
Speaker 1: you've yet to hear, one that took place many months
Speaker 1: after we began our investigation. I'm always exceedingly sensitive comes
Speaker 1: to questioning miners, which is why, despite interacting with Julia
Speaker 1: Beverly's eldest son, Jaden since our first trip to Marian,
Speaker 1: you haven't heard from him until now. It's crucial to
Speaker 1: recognize the ripple effect of Beverly's conviction on her immediate family,
Speaker 1: and in Jaden's case, those ripples were more like shock waves.
Speaker 1: His entire life as he knew it was torn apart.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me, just in terms of the day
Speaker 1: to day, how much your life changed after December fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty.
Speaker 9: A lot because I had to move schools, move in
Speaker 9: with my dad, miss Jade, missed my mom, miss a
Speaker 9: lot of people. I basically just flipped a lot of
Speaker 9: things upside down, but it completely flipped upside out every
Speaker 9: now and then with Mom, always with Dad, I miss
Speaker 9: a lot of people though, like old friends.
Speaker 1: Jaden is a thoughtful, intelligent young man with a slender
Speaker 1: frame and wide expressive eyes, eyes that, at just fifteen,
Speaker 1: have witnessed far too much heartbreak. He's endured this sudden
Speaker 1: loss of Jade, his entire immediate family and the only
Speaker 1: home he ever knew. And you never got to walk
Speaker 1: back into your bedroom? No, and how did it alter
Speaker 1: your relationship with your little sisters?
Speaker 9: Well, I didn't get to see him anymore, so I'd
Speaker 9: say it was more just like as if I one
Speaker 9: day you stop and left.
Speaker 1: I guess his choice of words is interesting given the
Speaker 1: people who have abandoned him. So would you have considered
Speaker 1: Mike before this happened as a stepfather or just as
Speaker 1: your mom's boyfriend? What kind of family life did you
Speaker 1: guys have?
Speaker 7: I'd consider him a stepfather looking back at it.
Speaker 1: You may remember this detail Renee High Tower shared from
Speaker 1: the day of Julia Beverly's arrest.
Speaker 10: There was that knock at the door. I came man,
Speaker 10: and Julie immediately started crying. She had her promise ring
Speaker 10: from Mike that she immediately took off and handed to me.
Speaker 1: That ring now hangs around Jaden's slim neck. Something I
Speaker 1: didn't realize when I inquired about its significance.
Speaker 9: It was a promise ring for Mike and Mom, like
Speaker 9: a little promise they had between each other, where Grandma
Speaker 9: gave it to me as like a gift from Mom.
Speaker 9: It's just really nice to have something from mom. It's
Speaker 9: like a gift from Mom inside the jail and stuff
Speaker 9: it stands for, like like I made Mom promise to
Speaker 9: like stay strong in the jail and I'll stay strong
Speaker 9: for her and stuff like that. Yeah, it's just really
Speaker 9: nice to have something between us and stuff, like a
Speaker 9: promise ring.
Speaker 7: She's always near your heart, so that ring means a
Speaker 7: lot to you. It does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And why don't you bring it to school.
Speaker 9: Because I'm more just afraid if it gets lost, someone's
Speaker 9: gonna take it and I'd rather just keep it by
Speaker 9: my bad at night.
Speaker 7: Just having it with me is pretty comforting.
Speaker 1: Now a freshman in high school, there is something heartbreakingly
Speaker 1: stoic about Jaden. You get the feeling he doesn't ask
Speaker 1: for much because he's learned not to expect it.
Speaker 9: High school has been going well, though it would be
Speaker 9: a lot better if Jade was here, and stuff and Mom,
Speaker 9: it's harder for me to comprehend certain things, like for
Speaker 9: stuff like death.
Speaker 7: It's for me, it's it feels harder.
Speaker 1: Bob and I were both tremendously impacted by our exchange
Speaker 1: with Jaden, the fact that that kid wears the ring
Speaker 1: Mike gave Julie as a promise ring, and now the
Speaker 1: promise has become that poor little Jaden will stay strong
Speaker 1: for Julie, and Julie has to stay strong for him.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and it rests right above his heart with his
Speaker 11: Shane that's hanging on, you know, significant And you can
Speaker 11: tell that it's not just a meetingless momanteau because he
Speaker 11: was fumbling with it and playing with it the entire time.
Speaker 2: It gives him comfort.
Speaker 1: And he doesn't bring it to school because he's afraid
Speaker 1: somebody will steal it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a sweet kid.
Speaker 1: Renee high Tower's fight for access to her grandchildren was
Speaker 1: very much fought for Jaden's sake too. Here she is
Speaker 1: in an interview from July of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 10: I've been fighting this for three plus years.
Speaker 1: And they will know how hard you fought to be
Speaker 1: a part of their lives.
Speaker 12: And they need to be reacquainted with their brother, who
Speaker 12: hasn't seen them in just amount of times I have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know he's being.
Speaker 13: Kept from them as well.
Speaker 12: Absolutely, I am asking for one day out of a
Speaker 12: weekend every other weekend, and I wanted to coincide with
Speaker 12: the days that Jaden is there visiting with me, so
Speaker 12: he can visit with his siblings and in all.
Speaker 1: Guest of twenty twenty four, nearly four years after Jade's murder,
Speaker 1: Renee and Jaden were reunited with Beverly's three youngest children
Speaker 1: at a local McDonald's. It was the first time high
Speaker 1: Tower had ever met the son Beverly gave birth to
Speaker 1: while in custody of Williamson County. Oh my gosh, what
Speaker 1: was it like to see Thomas for the first time.
Speaker 14: It was amazing and you still feel that connection, even
Speaker 14: though that's my first time medium, and I thought, well,
Speaker 14: that's my grandchild, you know, and it was just amazing
Speaker 14: and just trying to get to know him right there,
Speaker 14: and it's almost like it instantly takes.
Speaker 10: Over from me and what to do.
Speaker 1: The girls Beverly and High Tower had last seen as toddlers,
Speaker 1: were now seven and five years old, were not using
Speaker 1: their names. How have they changed?
Speaker 6: Well, it's like a complete different person because she's got
Speaker 6: a head full hair now and she's moving around and
Speaker 6: she's talking and she's you know, the last time I
Speaker 6: seen her, she was a year and a half and
Speaker 6: she barely had any little peacha claws on her head,
Speaker 6: you know, And just to see her all grown up
Speaker 6: with a little personality, it was just.
Speaker 10: I'm sitting there listening to them talk and watching them
Speaker 10: interact with each other and how they answer my questions,
Speaker 10: and I can already see Julie and every single one
Speaker 10: of them.
Speaker 1: Before that reunion, Jaden was a bit on edge, unsure
Speaker 1: of what to expect.
Speaker 10: Jaden was getting a little anxious. He couldn't he didn't
Speaker 10: even eat his food. He ate his French fries while
Speaker 10: he was waiting. And then once they got there, he
Speaker 10: couldn't touch the rest of his meal. He said, I'll
Speaker 10: take it home, so he couldn't finish his food, but
Speaker 10: wanted to give him a hug immediately, which was really
Speaker 10: She remembers him.
Speaker 3: She remembers him, and she's looking up and she's.
Speaker 1: Like, I have a tall baby brother.
Speaker 10: Oh it was it was nice.
Speaker 3: It was nice.
Speaker 10: She wanted to hug him immediately.
Speaker 3: That was great.
Speaker 1: Renee shared a picture of the kids, the three youngest
Speaker 1: grinning ear to ear as they clutched the giant squishmellow
Speaker 1: stuffed animals Nikki sent to mark the occasion. Jaden smiles too,
Speaker 1: but his carries a weight the others don't. His mother's
Speaker 1: promise ring hangs prominently over his gaming T shirt, a
Speaker 1: quiet reminder of her absence. Oh my gosh, they're beautiful,
Speaker 1: cheesy grins. Oh my goodness, But she can see the
Speaker 1: happiness in the Oh my gosh, I can see Julie
Speaker 1: and all of them, but yes, particularly high Tower has
Speaker 1: continued visiting her grandchildren as aloud, helping them reconnect with
Speaker 1: their eldest brother and gradually reintroducing information about their mother.
Speaker 1: To date, Julie Beverly has yet to see her three
Speaker 1: youngest children in person. She hasn't held her daughter since
Speaker 1: the murder, and has only held her son once for
Speaker 1: a single hour after his birth.
Speaker 3: I have already sent those pictures on the pictures of
Speaker 3: the kids.
Speaker 10: To Julie so.
Speaker 4: She can have that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they are priceless.
Speaker 3: They are priceless.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road, We'll be back after the break
Speaker 1: here again is murder on Songbird Road. It is difficult
Speaker 1: to process what Renee let alone, Jaden, the three youngest children,
Speaker 1: and Julia Beverly have lost, especially in light of the
Speaker 1: issues Bob and I have uncovered in this investigation so far.
Speaker 2: It's hard to fathom. We're both parents, and we're both
Speaker 2: very interactive, loving parents, were very involved in our kids' lives,
Speaker 2: and the concept of having that stripped away with no
Speaker 2: recourse or no seeming recourse or the recourse that exists
Speaker 2: could take decades is incredibly, incredibly powerful in terms of
Speaker 2: trying to wrap your mind around what that might feel like.
Speaker 2: Would I be sitting in there if I was wrongfully convicted,
Speaker 2: if I knew that I didn't do this, Would I
Speaker 2: be getting bitter? Would I be filled with rage? It's
Speaker 2: probably like the steps of grief, like when you learn
Speaker 2: that you're dying, and I don't even know how I
Speaker 2: would function. I've dealt with enough people that have been
Speaker 2: wrongfully convicted to where they always inspire me every time
Speaker 2: that I talk to one of these individuals at length,
Speaker 2: and to see their strength and their ability to persevere
Speaker 2: and to turn negatives into positives is just mind blowing
Speaker 2: to me, really is. And it's like when you sit
Speaker 2: there and you think about Julia and everything that she's lost.
Speaker 2: Both times that we've met with her in person, me
Speaker 2: the first time and then ausin when we went together,
Speaker 2: her positivity just kind of blew me away both times.
Speaker 1: You know who I credit for that, Renee, Because Renee
Speaker 1: has not missed a visit, has not missed a call.
Speaker 1: Her entire life is dedicated to fixing this.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, and that bolsters her daughter in a
Speaker 2: way that she desperately needs it.
Speaker 1: I used to say, I didn't know what my kryptonite
Speaker 1: was until I had children, and it's the biggest fear
Speaker 1: in the world because suddenly your heart is walking around
Speaker 1: outside your body. And I've always said that, you know,
Speaker 1: if anybody wanted to destroy me all they have to
Speaker 1: do is get to my children. That has weighed heavily
Speaker 1: on me when I process how this tragic ordeal and
Speaker 1: questionable investigation has impacted a potentially innocent mother. I look
Speaker 1: at her children and think of what they've missed. How
Speaker 1: important it is to have your mother there in those
Speaker 1: early years. I mean, Renee didn't meet Thomas until he
Speaker 1: was three years old. Those girls didn't, you know, have
Speaker 1: any interaction with their mother or their grandmother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Renee has just been a rock, an absolute rock.
Speaker 2: She just has never faltered.
Speaker 1: And then you have the flip side of it as well,
Speaker 1: which is the loss of Jade and how that has
Speaker 1: impacted Julia's family as well. But most definitely just the
Speaker 1: devastation that's caused to Michael Beasley and his family. There's
Speaker 1: no shortage of victims in this and the fact that
Speaker 1: this wasn't properly investigated to begin with the additional layers
Speaker 1: of heartbreak that heaps on top of this tragedy. It's
Speaker 1: freaking daunting. It's just daunting. Wrongful convictions not only devastate
Speaker 1: the lives of the innocent, but also compound the suffering
Speaker 1: of the victims, families and friends. When the justice system
Speaker 1: fails to ensure accuracy the first time, it creates a
Speaker 1: ripple effect of dysfunction and harm, a misery onion with
Speaker 1: layers of pain and injustice that only grow increasingly rotten
Speaker 1: over time. And when Bob and I were finally able
Speaker 1: to access Jade's autopsy, we faced even more layers to
Speaker 1: that onions. How the then Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon
Speaker 1: Zenati reference to the autopsy in the same press conference
Speaker 1: in which he announced Jade's murder and Beverly's arrest.
Speaker 8: An autopsy was performed on Sunday, and while we are
Speaker 8: awaiting the final autopsy report, initial information from the pathologist
Speaker 8: indicates that Jay Beasley died as a result of blood
Speaker 8: loss from multiple stab wounds. Numerous search warrants have been
Speaker 8: issued and evidence collected during the investigation. A lot of
Speaker 8: evidence has been sent to the Illenwich State Police Crime
Speaker 8: Lab in Belleville for testing, and we will be awaiting
Speaker 8: all of those results.
Speaker 1: We now know a substantial amount of evidence, seemingly anything
Speaker 1: that could have supported Beverly's innocence was not tested, but
Speaker 1: the autopsy also revealed evidence that may have been mishandled,
Speaker 1: and it involved a towel that was apparently tossed into
Speaker 1: the body bag used to transport Jade to the morgue.
Speaker 1: In the autopsy verbatim, a blue beach towel accompanies the body.
Speaker 1: Renee high Tower was unaware of any such towel until
Speaker 1: we shared the report with her.
Speaker 10: I hadn't seen the autopsy report, so I didn't even
Speaker 10: know anything about that, and I have not seen the crime.
Speaker 7: Scene photos because I wasn't allowed in court.
Speaker 1: She then questioned Beverly as to whether she recalled seeing
Speaker 1: that towel at any point.
Speaker 10: I was talking to her about the autopsy reports and
Speaker 10: I said that there was a towel in the body
Speaker 10: bag with Jade.
Speaker 7: She asked, was it a beach towel?
Speaker 10: And I said, I think that's what it stated in there,
Speaker 10: And that's when she said that she's seen that towel
Speaker 10: in the pictures, in the crime scene photos on the
Speaker 10: floor in the bathroom. She said, the thing about it,
Speaker 10: it looked like it was used to clean up with,
Speaker 10: like someone clean themselves off from blood. So she said
Speaker 10: it didn't look like it was laying on the floor
Speaker 10: and got blood on it, like everything else, did you
Speaker 10: know just sitting there and got blood on it. It looked
Speaker 10: like it was picked up and used to wipe blood
Speaker 10: off and then dropped on the floor. The police could
Speaker 10: have used it, who knows, But for it to be
Speaker 10: put in the body bag with Jade is crazy.
Speaker 3: I don't understand that at all.
Speaker 1: When reading through the autopsy report, former Kentucky crime scene
Speaker 1: investigator Katie Hartman, who worked in law enforcement for over
Speaker 1: two decades, was also a bit baffled by the presence
Speaker 1: of the beach towel within the body bag.
Speaker 4: Correct if I'm wrong. You said that they said the
Speaker 4: towel was on the floor of the bag, Yes, yep.
Speaker 4: Do you think maybe when they pulled her out of
Speaker 4: the tub that they included it in there? Maybe because
Speaker 4: she landed on top of it.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: See, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to be good advocate here and think of
Speaker 4: ways that it could have occurred. A med unit who's
Speaker 4: not in forensics could have picked it up and thrown
Speaker 4: it in the body bag with her, But still that
Speaker 4: towel should have still been collected. I've had things put
Speaker 4: in body bags by med units that I had to
Speaker 4: collect even though they really had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 4: So I can only tell you what I would have
Speaker 4: done if I was at the scene. The blue towel
Speaker 4: would have been collected separately.
Speaker 3: Not with the body.
Speaker 4: Never I would You don't throw things in the body bag.
Speaker 1: This blue towel was saturated with blood. So could it
Speaker 1: have been something that Jade had used to try to
Speaker 1: stop the blood or.
Speaker 4: Would it have been someone who did it trying to
Speaker 4: stop their blood from their own wounds? Because it's with
Speaker 4: this many sad wounds, it's not one hundred percent, but
Speaker 4: it's pretty common for the assailants to cook themselves, you know,
Speaker 4: with their hands slipping down. I'm looking at the evidence.
Speaker 4: They did say the clothing that says here a beach towel. Yep,
Speaker 4: Now could that be.
Speaker 12: The blue towel?
Speaker 1: That's the blue towel?
Speaker 4: Okay, So at least it was collected.
Speaker 1: Which conceivably means the towel, along with many other things
Speaker 1: like Beverly's clothing, her nail scrapings, and Jade's electronics, could
Speaker 1: have been and could still be tested. Here's Bob's take.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. I've said that word.
Speaker 15: I don't know how many episodes that I've listened to
Speaker 15: during this world saying that something's unbelievable or unfathomable. But
Speaker 15: every time I say it, I'm here to tell you
Speaker 15: I mean it to me. To have that particular piece
Speaker 15: of evidence jammed in the body bag is beyond comprehension.
Speaker 15: I just don't understand what person that was at that
Speaker 15: crime scene that thought that that was the right thing
Speaker 15: to do. I have never processed the crime scene. I've
Speaker 15: never done it.
Speaker 2: But you know what I wouldn't do is I wouldn't
Speaker 2: jam a bloody towel that was found in the same
Speaker 2: room the victim was killed, at least theoretically, into a
Speaker 2: body bag that was with that victim and then transported
Speaker 2: to wherever she was transported. It's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: What else is crazy? The amount of time it took
Speaker 1: for the then forensic pathologists to turn around Jade Beasley's autopsy.
Speaker 1: Here's Renee high Tower.
Speaker 10: The scene was asking for discovery and that took a
Speaker 10: while in itself as well, and then going through the discovery,
Speaker 10: she's seen that the autopsy was not in there. Scene
Speaker 10: had to file emotion to compel.
Speaker 1: So while the autopsy was performed the day after the
Speaker 1: murder on December sixth, twenty twenty. It wasn't completed and
Speaker 1: filed for another fourteen months on February fourth, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: so it took over a year to turn around the autopsy. Yes,
Speaker 1: did you ever get any reason as to why.
Speaker 3: I did not?
Speaker 1: And whatever happened to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.
Speaker 10: From what scene was telling me she was moving on
Speaker 10: to a new career to be an attorney.
Speaker 1: So another person who has either retired or changed careers. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting because there's no hypothesis as to how
Speaker 1: tall the assailant would have been, or the trajectory of
Speaker 1: the stab wounds or anything.
Speaker 10: Right, she couldn't tell the order of the wounds, nothing.
Speaker 10: It's like she could tell how she died and that
Speaker 10: was it. No time of death, no order the wounds,
Speaker 10: no type of weapon explaining to nothing, no heights of
Speaker 10: the assailant.
Speaker 1: Nothing interesting. Murder on Songbird Road will return after the
Speaker 1: break back to Murder on Songbird Road now, going back
Speaker 1: to another line from the press conference with the then
Speaker 1: Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Sonati.
Speaker 8: When the incident occurred. The suspect gave law enforcement an
Speaker 8: initial report that the unidentified mail ran from the residence
Speaker 8: upon her arriving home. She said that she left the
Speaker 8: residence with Jade alone in the home for a short
Speaker 8: time and return home to find an unidentified male fleeing.
Speaker 8: The investigation has proven this story to be false.
Speaker 1: Given the investigation had lasted all of four days at
Speaker 1: this point, it's interesting to note numerous knife related crimes
Speaker 1: happened before and after Jade's murder and Beverly's arrest. Williamson
Speaker 1: County deputies responded to a call yesterday on Napoleon Lane.
Speaker 15: They found a woman with severe last rations to her neck, shoulder,
Speaker 15: and hands.
Speaker 1: A Chester man is in police custody tonight after officials
Speaker 1: say he stabbed a person in Christopher early yesterday morning.
Speaker 2: Well May I suspected the stabbing someone in Carbondell, now
Speaker 2: behind bars police. A forty two year old aggressively approached
Speaker 2: a woman at Arrowhead Lake this afternoon, wrapped his arms
Speaker 2: around her, told her to be quiet, and that he
Speaker 2: had a knife.
Speaker 1: In Episode three, I mentioned this exchange, which took place
Speaker 1: at the scene of the murder, as one that would
Speaker 1: come back to haunt us.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is rural. We're in farmland here, there's
Speaker 2: no question about it. So if we're looking at Sombird Road,
Speaker 2: we're not close to any kind of main thoroughfare. So
Speaker 2: like the concept of somebody walking back here seems remote
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: You're not getting like casual foot traffic or somebody who
Speaker 1: is zero chains to rob because they think that there
Speaker 1: is something of great value.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the zero chance of somebody just wandering around back.
Speaker 1: Here this exchange, also from the same initial visit would
Speaker 1: do more than haunt us. It would end up serving
Speaker 1: as a premonition of sorts. Yeah, And unfortunately this is
Speaker 1: not the kind of neighborhood where you would have ring
Speaker 1: cameras or no way. Yeah, hindsight is sometimes twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and sometimes it comes with receipts. At the end of
Speaker 1: August twenty twenty four, Bob and I were back and
Speaker 1: Marion again knocking on doors on or around Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: My attempt to reach out by phone to a specific
Speaker 1: address wasn't exactly successful, so the in person attempt fell
Speaker 1: on Bob.
Speaker 2: Corey Lee grow all right, so am I going this way?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: How we get to the.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's songbird. This is exciting now since I'm the
Speaker 1: female who called them, do you want to be the
Speaker 1: one who walks up to the door.
Speaker 2: Sure, I'm gonna lose the shade.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a good idea. Mata and sunglasses
Speaker 1: definitely leans towards a law enforcement state trooper vibe.
Speaker 7: It's this house.
Speaker 11: Where is the right?
Speaker 2: It's here?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, lose the glasses. So it is a
Speaker 1: one floor trailer modular. He's walking up. I would have
Speaker 1: walked up on this one, but I actually called and
Speaker 1: they were not too happy to speak with me. He's knocking,
Speaker 1: he's waiting. There's a car in the driveway, so yeah,
Speaker 1: they may have seen us on the property up the
Speaker 1: doors opening. Gentleman's out of shirt just answered, let's see
Speaker 1: what Bob's got while they're talking, which is good. Up
Speaker 1: the gentleman sitting down and talking. It's a one floor
Speaker 1: trailer that has been reinforced with the foundation string lights
Speaker 1: dangling from the front porch, faded American flag. He's calling
Speaker 1: somebody in from the house. This may be where he
Speaker 1: meets his resistance. Because I called and spoke to I
Speaker 1: believe the daughter gentlemen's lighting up cigarette. I am waiting.
Speaker 1: If he gestures, I will walk over. But up there
Speaker 1: seems to be a woman who's come to the door.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just a flag blowing catching in the window
Speaker 1: when a pause. At this point, we didn't realize we'd
Speaker 1: driven up to the wrong address. Yeah, there definitely seems
Speaker 1: to be somebody who is on the other side of
Speaker 1: that glass door that they're conversing with as well. That
Speaker 1: is definitely longer than I have no information to give
Speaker 1: you a kind of conversation. Bob would wave me up,
Speaker 1: gesturing that I could bring the microphone. As I walked
Speaker 1: up to join them, the woman who was actually the
Speaker 1: man's wife, was sharing details of an encounter she'd had
Speaker 1: with a stranger on the very porch we were standing on.
Speaker 16: Knocking, and he kept kind of like he was had
Speaker 16: both hands on either side of the door, and he
Speaker 16: kept going like this, you know, not banging his set
Speaker 16: on the door, just making emotion and just talking and
Speaker 16: jibber jabbering and talking like he was talking into the door,
Speaker 16: and he wasn't talking to nobody, you know, because I
Speaker 16: was too afraid to answer the door, and I was
Speaker 16: looking out the window, and then the camera was videotaping him,
Speaker 16: and he just kept knocking and knocking and waiting, and
Speaker 16: I was an answering.
Speaker 1: So a shirtless guy, and he looked like he was
Speaker 1: under the influence of drugs or mental health.
Speaker 3: Was yeah, he just he didn't look like he was.
Speaker 16: All with it.
Speaker 14: They were able to observe it.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Do you remember what he looked like? About how tall
Speaker 1: he would have been.
Speaker 16: He's probably a little taller than me. I'm five to three.
Speaker 5: I stayed five to five something like that, kind of.
Speaker 3: Shaved head, kind of like, yeah.
Speaker 2: You say he was the twenties, thirties.
Speaker 16: Maybe probably thirties, early thirties, early to mid thirties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of build?
Speaker 5: Medium build?
Speaker 13: Yeah, medium build, yeah my size. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 5: That it scared me really bad. So, I mean, I
Speaker 5: didn't really know what to do about it. We didn't
Speaker 5: really call the sharp or nothing, because.
Speaker 3: He just left after that. You know, I didn't know
Speaker 3: what to do.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: So he did not and never seen him since since.
Speaker 16: I've every time we leave or go somewhere, I always
Speaker 16: look out because I would somewhat remember his face, you know,
Speaker 16: But I haven't seen him since.
Speaker 13: He definitely looked to be on drug any I'm ashamed
Speaker 13: of it, but I was a former of Matthews with myself,
Speaker 13: and I know a lot of the characteristics of Matthews,
Speaker 13: and thank Jesus, he'd got me a work on it.
Speaker 1: You know, we were standing on a porch that directly
Speaker 1: bordered the property where Jade Beasley was murdered, speaking to
Speaker 1: people who'd bought the house just four days after her murder,
Speaker 1: on the very day that Julie Beverly was arrested.
Speaker 16: We've purchased the house the ninth of December and moved
Speaker 16: in shortly after that the tenth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did anybody ever come and talk to you about
Speaker 1: what happened?
Speaker 3: No, we didn't even know anything about it. I just
Speaker 3: seen the signing anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you call the police after someone came to
Speaker 1: your door?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: No, she was just herself and you know, she was
Speaker 5: too scared to probably and it didn't really know that.
Speaker 3: He didn't do anything, so he left.
Speaker 13: Knocked on the door.
Speaker 16: Yeah, he only knocked on the door, So it wasn't
Speaker 16: like he damaged anything or banged on the door recklessly
Speaker 16: or you know, he just kept knocking you know, so.
Speaker 5: Acting violent, but he was acting very very strange.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have any of the neighbors told you about the family
Speaker 1: that lived there or anything.
Speaker 3: That had happened.
Speaker 5: Yes, the neighbors told us.
Speaker 13: Plus we looked it up, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I looked it up online to see.
Speaker 5: What was about it. It was very, very tragic, and
Speaker 5: it was like, you know, don't.
Speaker 2: Worried that it might be even more tragic than.
Speaker 13: We bought the place.
Speaker 3: We found out about it because.
Speaker 1: Beverly was arrested so soon after the murder. No officers,
Speaker 1: no detectives, no official anyone ever interacted with the new
Speaker 1: homeowners about the brutal murder that occurred next door less
Speaker 1: than a week before they moved in, which is why
Speaker 1: they didn't think to contact anyone when just weeks later,
Speaker 1: on February eighth, twenty twenty one, a shirtless, strung out
Speaker 1: man matching the basic description Beverly gave of her alleged intruder,
Speaker 1: appeared on their porch and started pounding on their door.
Speaker 1: I know that that's the problem everywhere, but.
Speaker 5: Particularly around Yes, it is. He was killing people, killing people,
Speaker 5: and it's an absolute epidemic.
Speaker 1: So was she still had that video because that matches
Speaker 1: the description of the man that Julie Beverly says, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you and I aren't tall men, but like
Speaker 2: five five five six is a short man, right, you
Speaker 2: know what.
Speaker 5: I really wish we knew something about.
Speaker 2: It has been very helpful and I'm very thankful for
Speaker 2: you folks allowing us to int sure. Absolutely absolutely, we're
Speaker 2: happy you were willing to talk to us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it can be very very useful. As we
Speaker 1: continued to talk, the wife excused herself, going inside briefly
Speaker 1: before returning. When she did, she was holding an iPad
Speaker 1: and on that iPad was the video of the interaction
Speaker 1: and the man she just described, Oh my gosh, you
Speaker 1: have it. Hello, Oh my gosh, he has tattoos, he
Speaker 1: would be identifiable.
Speaker 7: Hello, I have a question.
Speaker 16: And he said, oh my god, I remembered I emailed
Speaker 16: it to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just remembered it. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: May I give you my email? Could you forward that
Speaker 1: to me?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: That's like, yeah, I don't even know. See, that's why, like,
Speaker 2: that's why we're knocking on all the new Ones.
Speaker 1: In the video, a shirtless man clad in dark jeans
Speaker 1: and obviously under the influence of serious drugs and or
Speaker 1: mental illness, walks onto the porch, speaking to himself as
Speaker 1: he appears to be working himself up to knock on
Speaker 1: the door. I have question, Hello, Hello, He seems troubled,
Speaker 1: wrestling with an internal conflict. He vocalizes as he paces.
Speaker 2: I have not been here in thirty years and more.
Speaker 1: His right foot swivels out after each knock, as if
Speaker 1: attached by some sort of invisible string to his right
Speaker 1: fist as he knocks. Then he scratches his tattoo covered
Speaker 1: upper left arm as he says this. He then raises
Speaker 1: both hands up as if responding to drawn weapons as
Speaker 1: he leaves the porch, exiting down the stairs and walking
Speaker 1: towards Beverly's former home as he mumbles, I heard after
Speaker 1: exchanging emails and contact info, Bob and I returned to
Speaker 1: the car our mind's racing. Oh my god, Oh.
Speaker 2: My god, wow, Okay, holy moly, that was something else
Speaker 2: that's huge.
Speaker 1: It was February eighth, she said, February eighth, but still
Speaker 1: he said, I haven't been here for thirty years. Is
Speaker 1: what he said he has tattoos that are identifiables.
Speaker 2: Shirtless in February.
Speaker 1: Do we tell Renee?
Speaker 7: I think I think we tell Renee.
Speaker 2: I mean that's incredible.
Speaker 3: Hold On, let me pull over because I got you
Speaker 3: on speaker with the boys. Okay, hold on, give me
Speaker 3: one second.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. So we did some knocking on doors. I
Speaker 1: spoke to Butch's sister. I left my information, but she
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk. Then we spoke to the backyard neighbor,
Speaker 1: who suggested we go to the bar. We thought we
Speaker 1: were at the house, but we were at the house
Speaker 1: to the right, and they answered the door, and the
Speaker 1: gentleman spoke to Bob.
Speaker 2: Very nice, very nice folks, and you know, I just
Speaker 2: start shooting the shit, telling him a little bit about
Speaker 2: what we're doing. And you know, it turns out that
Speaker 2: he bought right right after five days after the thing happens,
Speaker 2: and you know, but I'm still I'm plugging away, right
Speaker 2: And then then he tells me, oh, yeah, I heard
Speaker 2: it had something to do with meth. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I'm like, okay, where'd you hear that?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: He's like oh, He's like, I don't know I just
Speaker 2: heard it around. I'm like, well, I'm like, it's it's funny.
Speaker 2: They say that, you know, we're kind of looking into
Speaker 2: that angle a little bit. And so as we're progressing,
Speaker 2: his wife comes up to the door and they tell
Speaker 2: me a story.
Speaker 1: They bought the house the ninth of December twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: so four days after this all happened, and they have
Speaker 1: a ring camera. And on February eighth, a man who
Speaker 1: matches the height and build of the gentleman that Julie
Speaker 1: says she encountered coming out of her house is banging
Speaker 1: on their door. And keep in mind, when we spoke
Speaker 1: to Julie, she said, no, this guy was like five six.
Speaker 1: Guess how tall this guy was kind shakes yep, and
Speaker 1: the same kind of build, but this time he's not
Speaker 1: wearing a mask. He's obviously out of his mind and
Speaker 1: on drugs or both, and he's shirtless. He has identifiable tattoos,
Speaker 1: and he's banging and saying, excuse me, excuse me, I
Speaker 1: have a question. And then he says, I haven't been
Speaker 1: here for thirty years, but he is irrational. He seems
Speaker 1: like potentially unhinged. And guess what renee? They still have
Speaker 1: the video, really really wow and guess who now has
Speaker 1: the video?
Speaker 3: You yep.
Speaker 1: On the next and for now final episode of Murder
Speaker 1: on Songbird Road, our long investigation leads to shifting presumptions.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't get while you can prosecute or have
Speaker 4: a prosecution without and I'll ask you for.
Speaker 1: And changing viewpoints.
Speaker 13: After listening to the podcast, I've definitely got a different
Speaker 13: perspective of reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1: As Beverly's appeal finds its way to a panel of judges.
Speaker 5: It's just sad to kind of realize, all these years
Speaker 5: later that you know, we may have been misled.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco.
Speaker 1: Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting
Speaker 1: by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound design
Speaker 1: and original music by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chackoine. Additional
Speaker 1: music by Asher Kurtz. Archival elements courtesy of WSIL News three.
Speaker 1: Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review. Wherever you're listening.
Speaker 1: You can follow me on all platforms at Lauren Bright
Speaker 1: Pacheco and email the show with thought, suggestions or tips
Speaker 1: at Investigating Murder at iHeartMedia dot com. For more iHeart podcasts,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.