Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Previously on Murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 2: I don't think she did it.
Speaker 3: That's Stuart, the biological father of Jaden.
Speaker 2: They've never found a weapon or if the change clothes
Speaker 2: never made sense, still doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: If there was a magic wand waved and Julie was out,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have any reservation whatsoever about Jaden.
Speaker 3: Being with her. No, she loved all her children.
Speaker 1: Nikki says she knows Julia extremely well, even for cousins.
Speaker 3: Even the ones that she didn't give birth to. That
Speaker 3: is one thing that she is extremely good at.
Speaker 1: Beverly suddenly recalled that she actually stopped at Hucks. I said, Julie,
Speaker 1: you got its home, because as of right now, they're
Speaker 1: trying to say you never left the house.
Speaker 3: I called and asked for Carl Gustantine personally. I told
Speaker 3: him that Julie remembered she stopped at Hucks for gas.
Speaker 3: He said, well, I'll have to hear that from her.
Speaker 3: And I said, well, she's already invoked an attorney, so
Speaker 3: you have your information. And he said okay and hung
Speaker 3: up the phone.
Speaker 1: The video from the gas station, what did they claim
Speaker 1: they'd found.
Speaker 3: They got Julian camera stopping at the gas station to
Speaker 3: throw away items in the same area.
Speaker 2: Julie is, there is a incident and this hall was
Speaker 2: made at ten thirty for.
Speaker 4: A suspicious person. In no way.
Speaker 3: Yes, he's wearing a black hoodie and dark pants. We're
Speaker 3: heading to Marian.
Speaker 2: I'm here for it. I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren bred Pacheco and this is murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 1: Julia Beverly sentencing was scheduled for Friday, October thirteenth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, the day before Bob Matta came down from Chicago.
Speaker 1: I flew in through Saint Louis, Missouri, and drove the
Speaker 1: two hours to Marion.
Speaker 3: We connected there in person for the first time.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 2: Hey.
Speaker 1: In person, Mada comes across more like a slightly jaded,
Speaker 1: tough guy than a former defense attorney. He's recording Oh
Speaker 1: we are Yeah, I had a new kid, so it
Speaker 1: took me a while. He's long traded ties for T shirts,
Speaker 1: a beard and a mustache that veers more biker than
Speaker 1: bar exam, a look much more in keeping with his
Speaker 1: additional passion to law and his wife Alison music.
Speaker 3: When we finally crossed paths. In Marion.
Speaker 1: He had just met with Julia Beverly at the Williamson
Speaker 1: County Jail.
Speaker 2: So I get down their typical small town county jail,
Speaker 2: but big structure. It's a relatively big structure. I don't know,
Speaker 2: have you been into a jail.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Pinkneyville where Chris is it basically looks like
Speaker 1: a nineteen sixties high school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one's a little more modern. It's still probably
Speaker 2: thirty years old. But for Mary in Illinois, which is
Speaker 2: extremely rural down here, it was big. Clearly they have
Speaker 2: a pretty good amount of people in there because there
Speaker 2: were several blocks, and you walk in and every jail
Speaker 2: in prison has that smell. There's no other smell like
Speaker 2: a jail or a prison.
Speaker 4: It's bad.
Speaker 2: It's like a weird maple syrup with like combined with
Speaker 2: dirty feet.
Speaker 3: I can't say. It's kind of stress and depression.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's oll that's for certain, Like if that's if
Speaker 2: that had a smell, that's exactly what it would smell like.
Speaker 2: So I get in, give them my creds. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be able to meet with her with suprivacy so
Speaker 2: that we could have like a full discussion.
Speaker 1: Since mod is still a licensed attorney, he was able
Speaker 1: to meet with Beverly in an area that allows a
Speaker 1: degree of privacy, as opposed to a commune visiting space,
Speaker 1: which was conducive to the conversation he planned on having.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to interview her. I wanted to get
Speaker 2: factually what her side of the story was, where it
Speaker 2: wasn't being read through a transcript where I know obviously
Speaker 2: things were not addressed, where things were inadmissible. I'm always
Speaker 2: walking in having defended some pretty awful people in my life,
Speaker 2: and I always can pride myself and be able to
Speaker 2: sense if somebody seems off, I always feel like I
Speaker 2: can pick them out. And I wasn't getting that sense
Speaker 2: from her, you know. And I'm asking her a lot
Speaker 2: of questions, like I wouldn't consider it to be an
Speaker 2: interior Geisha, But I told her, I said, I'm going
Speaker 2: to play Devil's advocate here. I want to pick out
Speaker 2: the things that we know were issues at trial, the
Speaker 2: things that we are going to be concerned with as
Speaker 2: we're progressing through this. We want to address them. We
Speaker 2: can't pretend that they don't exist. And I said, look,
Speaker 2: I don't want you sugarcoating anything, Like if you and
Speaker 2: Mike were in arguments, I want to hear authentically how
Speaker 2: they were, Like, were you guys screamers? Were you dropping
Speaker 2: f bombs in each other? What kind of relationship was it?
Speaker 2: I want to know, because it all matters. She was candid.
Speaker 2: I'd start with the background. I get the history of
Speaker 2: her and Mike, the relationship with her and Jade.
Speaker 1: Matt and I both know that while friends and family
Speaker 1: often paint a sympathetic picture of the accused, some questions
Speaker 1: and doubts can only be addressed by actually sitting with
Speaker 1: them face to face.
Speaker 3: What was she like physically small?
Speaker 2: So she's probably four to eleven diminutive, small, like not imposing.
Speaker 2: My wife's four eleven two, so I'm used to little,
Speaker 2: but she's She's little, sweet, very nice. I start from
Speaker 2: the history of her and Mike from the beginning. When
Speaker 2: did you meet? How old were the kids? Julie's got
Speaker 2: Jaden and Mike had Jade. They were both four years
Speaker 2: old when they met. She goes through kind of like
Speaker 2: the backstory in terms of a cook.
Speaker 3: Right, was a hostess? Yeah?
Speaker 2: They were working at this Benny's, which is an Italian
Speaker 2: spot that they both worked out here and Marion. In
Speaker 2: terms of the relationship, they kind of hit it off.
Speaker 2: They both liked the fact that they had a young kid.
Speaker 2: They felt that that was something that was going to
Speaker 2: make them compatible in terms of being able to, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, we're not going to go out tonight because
Speaker 2: we have kids, you know, that type of thing. And
Speaker 2: so they really kind of connected pretty quickly. The relationship
Speaker 2: blossoms within a year, they're moving in together. I was
Speaker 2: asking her, you know, how was your relationship with Jade. Initially,
Speaker 2: my parents divorced when I was young, and I'm also
Speaker 2: a parent of step children. I used that experiences from
Speaker 2: me being a stepchild to like what not to do
Speaker 2: in terms of being a step parent, you know, never
Speaker 2: forcing kids to say I love you and let them
Speaker 2: just develop organically their feelings for you, and all the
Speaker 2: things that went on with me as a young kid.
Speaker 2: I didn't want those same mistakes, and I wanted my
Speaker 2: kids to grow to love me on their own accord.
Speaker 2: So she did the same thing. She was very thoughtful
Speaker 2: about it. I'm like, how was your relationship with Jessica,
Speaker 2: who was Mike's ex mother of Jade.
Speaker 3: When I said that they never really interacted much.
Speaker 2: They didn't. That was kind of the deal. Anytime there
Speaker 2: were issues with Jade, Jessica would never communicate with Julie.
Speaker 2: She would always go to Mike, which irritated Julie obviously.
Speaker 2: She's like, we're together, they have two kids together, they're
Speaker 2: a blended family, and just Jessica just never would really
Speaker 2: get with her like in terms of interacting. So she
Speaker 2: gave me the examples of situations that had arisen over
Speaker 2: the years. They weren't anything that lasted for long duration,
Speaker 2: kind of like menial type things like there was a
Speaker 2: thing where we'd be running late. I'd give Jade a
Speaker 2: pop tart on the run type of breakfast. Jade wouldn't
Speaker 2: eat it. And then Jade would mention something at school like, oh,
Speaker 2: I didn't eat breakfast. My parents didn't feed me, and
Speaker 2: they were calling Jessica and Jessica's like, oh, why aren't
Speaker 2: you feeding my kid? And she starts like for a
Speaker 2: couple months, like bringing boxes of cereal over, like as
Speaker 2: if they're neglecting the kid. It's like those kind of
Speaker 2: things were going on. So it definitely was never a
Speaker 2: relationship where they were friendly.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like justin aside, this strained, if not
Speaker 1: non existent relationship with Jessica could shed some light on
Speaker 1: the lack of support for Julia in the days and
Speaker 1: hours immediately following the murder. Also know that we have
Speaker 1: reached out multiple times to multiple members of Jade's side
Speaker 1: of the family, and you will hear their take as
Speaker 1: well in future episodes. Back to Bob and his meeting
Speaker 1: with Beverly.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like a battle, which just was like a
Speaker 2: non existent relationship, which to me is strange. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you've got blended families, and Jessica had had another kid,
Speaker 2: so Jade had a half sister, and what had happened
Speaker 2: during COVID when they shut the country down. Kids eventually
Speaker 2: started having them remote and then as it started to
Speaker 2: phase back, giving people the choice you want to send
Speaker 2: your kids back or do you want to stay remote.
Speaker 2: And so that was a sticky issue between Mike and
Speaker 2: Julie because Mike and Julie wanted Jade to finish the
Speaker 2: year just remote, Jessica wantitor back in school in person.
Speaker 2: I guess Mike and Julie ended up having a beef
Speaker 2: about it, and where Mike's like, well, look, ultimately, it's
Speaker 2: not your kid. Jessica's going to have final say so
Speaker 2: over this thing. So I'm like, well, did you harbor resentment?
Speaker 2: Was that something that you would bring up in arguments?
Speaker 2: She's like, no, not really.
Speaker 5: I think that's really interesting because Julie was working at
Speaker 5: home for Hyatt, right, and Mike was working out of
Speaker 5: a house at Cracker Barrel. So if Julie wanted Jade
Speaker 5: to do remote learning, that puts the responsibility on her, right,
Speaker 5: which speaks volumes to their relationship. Right, if you don't
Speaker 5: like a kid, you don't want that kid doing remote
Speaker 5: learning in your house.
Speaker 2: You want him out of the house because you have to,
Speaker 2: you know, police it, right exactly.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with Murder on Songbird Road. Now
Speaker 1: back to Murder on Songbird Road. So, the portrait of
Speaker 1: Beverly as a mother and a stepmother that had begun
Speaker 1: to emerge from our preliminary interviews seems him keeping with
Speaker 1: the fact that the state never presented a motive or
Speaker 1: any testimony that painted Julia Beverly as abusive or violent. Instead,
Speaker 1: they offered a timeline confirmed by her employer's records. Sell
Speaker 1: signals and surveillance footage. According to the prosecution, on December fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, Beverly was scheduled to work from home from
Speaker 1: seven thirty am to twelve thirty pm. While she was
Speaker 1: scheduled to have a break from nine thirty am to
Speaker 1: nine forty five. Beverly was actually logged out of the
Speaker 1: work system from nine thirty to ten fifteen am. It
Speaker 1: is during that forty five minute window that the prosecution
Speaker 1: contends Beverly brutally murdered Jade Beasley, meticulously removing all evidence
Speaker 1: of blood from her person before returning to her home
Speaker 1: office and typing text responses to customer inquiries and complaints
Speaker 1: on social media for an additional fifty minutes. Beverly then
Speaker 1: requested to end her work day early at eleven o
Speaker 1: five am, and was granted time off at eleven oh seven,
Speaker 1: when she logged off Hyatt's system. Beverly left the house
Speaker 1: by eleven thirty six am.
Speaker 3: The prosecution contends that was.
Speaker 1: When Beverly departed with the bloody outfit she wore while
Speaker 1: committing the murder, the materials she used to clean up,
Speaker 1: and the murder weapon, all of this fitting into the
Speaker 1: small bag. She was captured on video discarding at Hawk's
Speaker 1: gas station, where she said she stopped to get gas
Speaker 1: before realizing she'd left her.
Speaker 3: Credit cards at home.
Speaker 1: There are many issues with this narrative, which we will
Speaker 1: address in great detail going forward, but one stuck out
Speaker 1: immediately to both Mada and myself as soon as we
Speaker 1: started reviewing the facts of this case. No blood was
Speaker 1: ever found in Beverly's home office, not Beverly's or Jade Beasley's.
Speaker 1: We will get back to the importance and probability of
Speaker 1: that in terms of the prosecution's theory.
Speaker 3: But back to Bob and I lead up.
Speaker 2: To the fifth of December, which is that horrible day.
Speaker 2: I'm like to start from the minute you open your eyes,
Speaker 2: tell me what happened. I get the background about like
Speaker 2: Jessica had had another child, Jade's half sister, and there
Speaker 2: was a party that was supposed to be taking place
Speaker 2: that weekend. Juliet been told by both Jade and Mike
Speaker 2: that the party was taking place on Sunday. And December
Speaker 2: fifth is Saturday, and she's working that day, and she
Speaker 2: had pushed up her work schedule an hour she wanted
Speaker 2: to get off an hour earlier, and I asked her,
Speaker 2: was there a reason in particular that you wanted to
Speaker 2: reschedule and move that hour up. She's like, no, not
Speaker 2: in particular. Essentially, Mike's out of the house early by
Speaker 2: like seven o'clock. He's working the morning shift at the
Speaker 2: cracker barrel, and at that point it's just Julie and Jade.
Speaker 2: She logs in remotely, key strokes the whole nine yards.
Speaker 2: They know when she's off, you know, they know when
Speaker 2: she's on. They know what she's doing on her computer.
Speaker 2: About eight o'clock, Jade wanders in and she's got like
Speaker 2: an office. It's got a door, and I'm like, was
Speaker 2: the door closed? She's a guy typically will keep it closed,
Speaker 2: and she said, jagging him in, I'm hungry, so we'll
Speaker 2: go make yourself bowl of cereal. He says, okay, close
Speaker 2: to the door. Doesn't hear from her for a couple hours,
Speaker 2: and at some point Jade apparently comes in and says,
Speaker 2: I'm hungry again. Julie's like, why don't we wait till lunch.
Speaker 2: It's an hour and a half. We'll have a nice launch,
Speaker 2: And she said Jade was upset about it, like she
Speaker 2: was frustrated, and she's like, I'm hungry now, I want
Speaker 2: to eat now. Julie's like, what's really going on. You
Speaker 2: can't be that upset because I don't want you to
Speaker 2: eat another bowl of cereal.
Speaker 1: It was at this point, according to Beverly, Jade confided
Speaker 1: in her as to a situation she was navigating with
Speaker 1: a friend from school. We are not diving into the
Speaker 1: specifics of that conversation because it is not our intention
Speaker 1: to sensationalize or exploit dynamics happening within an eleven.
Speaker 3: Year old social circle.
Speaker 1: But it isn't a new window that has come up
Speaker 1: repeatedly in multiple interviews. We mention it now only because
Speaker 1: it could explain the initial misconception that Jade was processing
Speaker 1: something that could have prompted her to contemplate suicide. That
Speaker 1: conversation is also what Beverly says led to the extension
Speaker 1: of the break, which was supposed to last from nine
Speaker 1: thirty to nine forty five AM.
Speaker 2: So what Julie tells me today is that she had
Speaker 2: gone on break coinciding with when Jade's in the room
Speaker 2: with her, and at some point this conversation's proceeding and
Speaker 2: Julie feels like she's not making any headway with her,
Speaker 2: and she stands up and she starts to usher her out.
Speaker 2: She's like, I got to get back to work. My
Speaker 2: break's over. I'm already ten minutes over. Go go, we'll
Speaker 2: talk about it later.
Speaker 1: Mada pressed Beverly on the dynamic between her and Jade
Speaker 1: regarding the conversation.
Speaker 2: She's like, well, I got up when I was trying
Speaker 2: to end the conversation because I couldn't get her to
Speaker 2: leave the room, because I needed to get back on
Speaker 2: and continue to work and get logged back in because
Speaker 2: I'd been out for way longer than fifteen minutes. While
Speaker 2: I'm like, do you remember what time you logged in?
Speaker 2: She said, I think it was ten thirteen. Is when
Speaker 2: I get logged back in and I'm like, okay. At
Speaker 2: some point you stand up and she's like yeah, and
Speaker 2: what are you doing. She's like, well, I'm walking behind
Speaker 2: Jade like this. You know, I'm behind her and I'm
Speaker 2: not pushing her violently. I'm just kind of like, all right,
Speaker 2: you got to go, so you get her out of
Speaker 2: the room. I mean, I'm like, did that devolve into
Speaker 2: a screaming match or you're screaming at her where like
Speaker 2: She's like, no, none of that. Like I was obviously upset.
Speaker 2: I was obviously frustrated. I got her out of the room.
Speaker 2: I told her to go to her room and she's
Speaker 2: like I log back in.
Speaker 1: According to her loggin and keystrokes, we know that Beverly
Speaker 1: then returned to working typing exchanges from ten to fifteen am,
Speaker 1: until she asked to wrap her day early and logged
Speaker 1: off at eleven oh seven. During that window, phone records
Speaker 1: also show that at ten nineteen she receives a silly
Speaker 1: meme text from Jade's father Mike, before replying Wow, ask
Speaker 1: at ten thirty nine if he's already off work. He
Speaker 1: responds at eleven twenty three, she.
Speaker 2: Gets a response that he's scheduled till two, but probably
Speaker 2: going to get off at one.
Speaker 1: An important note, Bevely does not appear to have been
Speaker 1: forthright with the police about the conversation she had with Jade,
Speaker 1: or the fact Jade wasn't happy about ending it when
Speaker 1: Beverly had to get back to work and sent her
Speaker 1: to her room. One could argue that she didn't want
Speaker 1: to divulge the nature of the conversation, or that she
Speaker 1: had disciplined Jade in order to protect Jade's memory. One
Speaker 1: could also argue it was to protect herself. Either way,
Speaker 1: she decides to end her work day early.
Speaker 2: So she says, Okay, I've decided I want to do
Speaker 2: some retail therapy, That's what she calls it. I've got
Speaker 2: a bunch of people on my Christmas list. It's December fifth.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to Walmart. I'm going to shop.
Speaker 2: So that's like at eleven oh seven. And at that
Speaker 2: point I asked her, well, had you text anybody that
Speaker 2: you were going shopping.
Speaker 1: She's like no, So Beverly logged off from work by
Speaker 1: eleven oh seven and sell Tower pangs have her leaving
Speaker 1: the house by eleven thirty six am. Here's how she
Speaker 1: accounted for those twenty nine minutes.
Speaker 3: To Bob.
Speaker 2: She's like, all right, well, I had to get dressed
Speaker 2: because like, I don't have to get dressed to work.
Speaker 2: I'm in my pajamas, I got my clothes on, I
Speaker 2: brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, and I let dogs out.
Speaker 2: They have two decent sized dogs. One's like an Australian shepherd,
Speaker 2: the other's like a rotten mix. So the big dogs.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, and then you leave and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I leave, and I'm like, well, did you remember to
Speaker 2: let the dogs back in? And she's like no. I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: if i'm law enforcement, it's extremely convenient that you've let
Speaker 2: the dogs out in the backyard when all this is
Speaker 2: taking place, whether it's you or an intruder. And I've
Speaker 2: done it. I've left my dog out, you know, if
Speaker 2: I'm in a rush. She claims that she'd just forgot
Speaker 2: to bring the dogs back in when she left.
Speaker 1: This would become another of what Bob and I call
Speaker 1: bad facts for Beverly, as is the fact that Beverly
Speaker 1: left eleven year old Jade at home alone, especially since
Speaker 1: in Illinois it is illegal to leave a child under
Speaker 1: the age of fourteen home alone. This is the highest
Speaker 1: age requirement in the United States.
Speaker 2: And so she's like, all right, well, I tell Jade,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be gone a couple hours. Just play
Speaker 2: on your phone and you know, I'll be back. She's like,
Speaker 2: it wasn't unusual for us to leave Jaden and Jade.
Speaker 2: We'd never leave the little kids. But if it was
Speaker 2: like just a couple hours, like two hour max. We
Speaker 2: would leave the eleven year olds if it was during
Speaker 2: the day. So I'm like, did you invite her? She's like, no,
Speaker 2: I didn't invite her. I want to clear my head,
Speaker 2: so she says, she goes out, gets in the car,
Speaker 2: starts driving.
Speaker 1: Beverly says she was about halfway into her travels when
Speaker 1: she noticed her gas light was on and the car
Speaker 1: was on empty.
Speaker 2: She's at a red light as she opens her bath
Speaker 2: and she says she's got two purses. She uses a
Speaker 2: bigger purse when she's got the babies because she keeps
Speaker 2: diapers in there, and she's got a smaller purse that
Speaker 2: when she doesn't have the kids, she'll just carry the
Speaker 2: smaller purse around where she drops her cards in there
Speaker 2: and ID So, she says, she realizes she doesn't have
Speaker 2: her a debit card there. She continues on to hawks
Speaker 2: pulls in and then at that point she's like, sometimes
Speaker 2: I have to change the kids in the car. I
Speaker 2: had these diapers there, so I pull in and I
Speaker 2: dump these in the garbage. I'm like, so you pull
Speaker 2: up to like a pump and you're using one of
Speaker 2: the garbage cans that they have typically between the pumps
Speaker 2: and she's like, yeah, so then I obviously have to
Speaker 2: go home and get my cards.
Speaker 1: This is when the prosecution contends Beverly dumped bloody clothing, shoes,
Speaker 1: cleaning materials, and the murder weapon, even though the surveillance
Speaker 1: footage from the gas station shows her discarding a small
Speaker 1: bag that easily fit in one hand. It's also of
Speaker 1: note that when her car was seized after the murder
Speaker 1: and placed in storage, it was indeed on empty. Back
Speaker 1: to Bob and what Beverly told him about returning home
Speaker 1: and sitting in the driveway in front of the barn
Speaker 1: situated to the side of the house, scrolling Facebook before
Speaker 1: becoming aware something seemed off.
Speaker 2: She can hear the dogs barking, and not like oh,
Speaker 2: Mommy's home, but like that deeper, deeper bark, like oh
Speaker 2: there's a squirrel or there's another dog, like that real
Speaker 2: deep guttural bark the dogs can get. So she's got
Speaker 2: the dogs barking like that in the backyard and this
Speaker 2: door is ajar. What is going on here? I don't
Speaker 2: know if she's on a high alert, but she feels
Speaker 2: like something is astray, like something seems off to her,
Speaker 2: and she claims that she goes up, she notices that
Speaker 2: the front door is open, the storm doors closed. I'm like,
Speaker 2: and you did not leave it that way. She's like,
Speaker 2: I did not leave it that way, and she claims
Speaker 2: that it's as soon as she pulls the storm out
Speaker 2: open that she notices blood in the living room and
Speaker 2: somebody clad in all black, it's got a mask on
Speaker 2: black gloves comes charging at her and that he's got
Speaker 2: a knife. And I said, okay, where are you locationally,
Speaker 2: She's like, I am literally in the doorway of the house.
Speaker 2: Well what do you do? She's like, well, I put
Speaker 2: my hand up because he's got the knife like above
Speaker 2: shoulder height drawn back. Well what kind of knife is it?
Speaker 2: She's like, well, I don't know. Did it look like
Speaker 2: a kitchen knife, like a chef's knife, like what we
Speaker 2: used to cut vegetables. She's like, yeah, it definitely wasn't
Speaker 2: like a folding knife. So I'm like it was fixed blade,
Speaker 2: just a regular kitchen knife. She's like it could have been.
Speaker 2: I'm like, could it have been one of your knives?
Speaker 2: She's like it could have been. And so she claims
Speaker 2: that this guy comes at her, she puts her left
Speaker 2: hand up. I'm like, what handed are you. She's like,
Speaker 2: I'm right handed, but I had my little purse in
Speaker 2: my right hand, so instinctally I put my left hand
Speaker 2: up and got a cut. And we wrestle around and
Speaker 2: then I get away from him and I make a
Speaker 2: bee line to Mike's bedstand because Mike has a gun
Speaker 2: in there. And while I'm on the way, I hear
Speaker 2: the storm door slam and I'm like, well, do you
Speaker 2: go get the gun? So I never get the gun.
Speaker 2: She's like, I didn't. I didn't. I don't know how
Speaker 2: to shoot it, but I thought if I would get it,
Speaker 2: I could scare him off. I'm like, so, what stopped
Speaker 2: you from getting the gun? I was retelling this story
Speaker 2: to Alison again.
Speaker 1: Alison has Mata's wife and also a criminal defense attorney.
Speaker 2: And Allison's like, I don't care if you heard this,
Speaker 2: like the storm door slam or not. I'm getting the gun,
Speaker 2: whether I know how to shoot it or not getting
Speaker 2: the gun. So Alison had a little problem with that
Speaker 2: part of the story that she didn't just go and
Speaker 2: get the gun. So at that point I said, okay,
Speaker 2: what do you do. Then she's like, well, I go
Speaker 2: to the bathroom. Our bathroom.
Speaker 1: That's when definitely said she rensed her bleeding hands and
Speaker 1: wrapped her left hand with a cloth because of the
Speaker 1: wounds to the side of the hand that took the
Speaker 1: brunt of the assailant's knife.
Speaker 2: Well, did you have to walk by the bathroom that
Speaker 2: Jay was found in in order to get to your bathroom?
Speaker 2: She's like, no, I didn't. What's going through your mind
Speaker 2: at this point, She's like, I have no idea. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I have no idea. And then she says she wasn't
Speaker 2: even thinking. And then she's walking through and then she
Speaker 2: sees the blood in the living room. She says, oh
Speaker 2: my god, Jay, she's walking past the bathroom and she
Speaker 2: hears the water running and she opens the door and
Speaker 2: it's like a nightmare. It's like nothing she's ever seen.
Speaker 2: So I'm watching her reaction and she's telling me this
Speaker 2: story and she starts crying authentically it seemed to me.
Speaker 2: But you never know what the genesis of that is.
Speaker 2: You don't know if it's regret, you don't know if
Speaker 2: it's reliving it.
Speaker 1: What remains problematic for Beverly and was leveraged by the
Speaker 1: prosecution is the amount of time their timeline purports transpired
Speaker 1: between Beverly's return home, encountering her alleged assailant, discovering Jade's body,
Speaker 1: and calling nine one one. That call was made at
Speaker 1: twelve twenty four PM, a full thirty one minutes after
Speaker 1: the state contends Beverly drove up her driveway. We'll explore
Speaker 1: why that amount of time may be misleading later.
Speaker 2: Back to Bob, she says the HWKS video has her
Speaker 2: dumping the garbage at eleven forty eight. Now, she claimed
Speaker 2: at trial that there was some evidence that came in
Speaker 2: that indicated that the clock was off, like that the
Speaker 2: timestamp was off for the video. Now I'm asking was
Speaker 2: it giving you more time or less time? And she's like,
Speaker 2: I can't remember. So we have eleven forty eight, So
Speaker 2: we've got the drive back to the house again seven
Speaker 2: to ten minutes. So that puts us like twelve one,
Speaker 2: twelve oh two, a few minutes scrolling Facebook and then
Speaker 2: into the house. So it's like I was putting the
Speaker 2: struggle minute a couple of minutes, you know, Like it's
Speaker 2: it's twenty eight to thirty minutes like gap from when
Speaker 2: like she gets in there and doesn't do anything. That
Speaker 2: is our biggest issue to me. We're gonna have to
Speaker 2: build these timelines out like hardcore, and it's going to
Speaker 2: have to be through things that we can substantiate.
Speaker 1: Murder on Songbird Road. We'll return after the break. Here
Speaker 1: again is murders on.
Speaker 3: Songbird Roads sources if they didn't sit with that in mind.
Speaker 1: We head to Songbird Road the next morning, after stopping
Speaker 1: for coffee along the way.
Speaker 2: So we're going to start with the field trip over
Speaker 2: to what was formerly Mike and Julie and Jades and
Speaker 2: the rest of the kid's house. I'm curious to see
Speaker 2: the layout. Yeah, I want to see I want to
Speaker 2: see where it's situated.
Speaker 3: I want to.
Speaker 2: Exactly or just like how.
Speaker 4: Close there is to anything, you know, like walking distance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that we're driving out of the commercial district,
Speaker 1: you can see that it's feeling much more rural.
Speaker 2: It's very rural.
Speaker 1: While we were getting coffee, I asked the woman behind
Speaker 1: the counter if she'd heard of the murder that took
Speaker 1: place on Songbird Road. I thought she made it very interesting.
Speaker 1: She said, it's sad, it is, and it is it's
Speaker 1: but she also had her doubts as to whether or
Speaker 1: not Julie did.
Speaker 4: It exactly, And I asked her, what's your source?
Speaker 2: They didn't televise this trial, right, so you're going to
Speaker 2: get people to talk in a small town and you're
Speaker 2: going to get the local news, like those are going
Speaker 2: to be the two sources if they didn't go sit
Speaker 2: in at the trial, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And often they enter mesh.
Speaker 4: Exactly without us product.
Speaker 2: At the end, I kind of asked, well, you know,
Speaker 2: do you think that Julie did it. She's like, I.
Speaker 3: Don't, yeah, and so she has doubts. That's the thing.
Speaker 1: The concept of reasonable doubt has never been properly defined.
Speaker 1: There is no blanket definition of what that means for jurors.
Speaker 2: There is. Every jurisdiction has a different definition for it.
Speaker 2: You get your jury instructions when those are always argued
Speaker 2: between the sides prior to them getting issued to the
Speaker 2: jury when they're getting ready to go deliberate.
Speaker 4: There is no uniform definition of it.
Speaker 1: It was Friday, October thirteenth, twenty twenty three, the same
Speaker 1: day Julia Beverly would be sentenced. It was a cloudy,
Speaker 1: warm day as we made our way through the winding
Speaker 1: rural roads. Halloween decor and some early seasonal tricks were
Speaker 1: on display.
Speaker 2: We get a little TP action. It's Friday night lights
Speaker 2: down here.
Speaker 3: Awesome.
Speaker 4: I mean it's essentially pink houses.
Speaker 2: You know John Mellencamp too. That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 4: A road, we're getting remote.
Speaker 2: We're two miles out.
Speaker 4: We know that the house they disassembled it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a song Bird line. Just blow by it.
Speaker 3: Coming out.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're back here, getting back here alright now we're
Speaker 2: turning on to Songbird Road.
Speaker 3: There's a little.
Speaker 2: Baseball so she told me about this. They used to
Speaker 2: actually play little league games. It's grown over at this point,
Speaker 2: Hoviotly you guys haven't been and there's the old concession stand.
Speaker 2: And so we're two tens of a mile away from
Speaker 2: the house. Over to our left, we've got clearly a farmer,
Speaker 2: some abandoned cars, abandoned cars, got a good another abandoned
Speaker 2: baseball field all grown over for clearly abandoned. All right,
Speaker 2: so this is a neighbor small house carport back.
Speaker 1: There about to re keep off my property sign.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean we're here.
Speaker 3: You can see where the where the house was.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's found that that's the barn. Then should
Speaker 2: we go walk it. I think so, I think we should.
Speaker 3: I think we should.
Speaker 2: I don't want to pull on this little driveway. All right,
Speaker 2: all right, let's go. Let's see what's up.
Speaker 1: It's just like a bit of a makeshift gravel driveway.
Speaker 3: To the right are two.
Speaker 1: Giant, just mine overwhelmed, really mature trees that look like
Speaker 1: they've seen better days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I mean these are one hundred plus year
Speaker 4: old trees.
Speaker 2: Those are old old trees. The rash kind of amazing
Speaker 2: looking trees.
Speaker 1: The two distinct trees that mark the driveway were the
Speaker 1: same trees Julia's cousin Nikki immediately recognized in the social
Speaker 1: media post the day of the murder.
Speaker 4: I don't know that I've ever seen a tree over
Speaker 4: growing vines like that.
Speaker 3: We walked further up the driveway.
Speaker 2: Probably about fifty yards from the road, leads up to
Speaker 2: where I believe Julie would have pulled up. Okay, so
Speaker 2: this is what she referred to as the barn. Now.
Speaker 2: She said that they used to have horses, and they
Speaker 2: used to keep horses in this barn back in the day.
Speaker 2: So she says when she gets back from her huck's
Speaker 2: trip that she pulls up right here, and she says
Speaker 2: that the front door is open, and she notices it.
Speaker 2: At some point they had a fence back here for
Speaker 2: the dogs, which they've taken down. Let's walk in and
Speaker 2: see so and she said there was no access to
Speaker 2: the backyard because there was no gate in the fence,
Speaker 2: and so this would have been the backyard, the fenced
Speaker 2: in the backyard where the dogs wandered and there was
Speaker 2: no access to it. So she would have had to
Speaker 2: have gone into the house to let the dogs in,
Speaker 2: because I asked her, a park here, like you knew
Speaker 2: that you left the dogs out, but I asked her,
Speaker 2: did you text Jade to let the dogs in? And
Speaker 2: she did not?
Speaker 3: All right, So we.
Speaker 2: See what used to be the modular home, the double lie,
Speaker 2: which was obviously removed. So it looks like it was what,
Speaker 2: I don't know, twelve hundred square feet.
Speaker 3: Maybe, yeah, one level.
Speaker 1: The house is no longer there, but the outline of
Speaker 1: where it stood is still visible, as are the remnants
Speaker 1: of what would have been water and electrical access. So
Speaker 1: we still got some of the piping from So this
Speaker 1: is the foundation that they lay.
Speaker 3: It's literally just kind of tarped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tarped and it was cinderblocks. I mean that
Speaker 2: was literally the foundation. So this, if this was the
Speaker 2: front door, this is where it went down with the
Speaker 2: masked marauder for to believe that story.
Speaker 1: Even in the exposed confines of the former homes footing,
Speaker 1: the area feels nestled in an isolating way. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: this is not the kind of neighborhood where you would
Speaker 1: have ring cameras or no way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is rural. We're in farmland here,
Speaker 2: there's no question about it. So if we're looking at
Speaker 2: Songbird Road, got the neighbor to the left facing road
Speaker 2: is probably about the house looks to be about one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty yards, and it's about the same to
Speaker 2: the right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the three are kind of equidistant, almost the three
Speaker 1: closest homes, and neither one is directly across.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're not close to any kind of main thoroughfare.
Speaker 2: So like the concept of somebody walking back here seems
Speaker 2: remote to me.
Speaker 1: You're not getting like casual foot traffic or somebody who
Speaker 1: is zero changed to rob because they think that there
Speaker 1: is something of great value, and.
Speaker 2: The zero chance of somebody just wandering around back here
Speaker 2: you know, because somebody would have had to have known
Speaker 2: that Jade was home.
Speaker 1: Almost a year later, that exchange would come back to
Speaker 1: haunt us. But in this moment, we were walking through
Speaker 1: the remnants of a family's former life, building materials strewn
Speaker 1: with broken bits of dogs, toys, and children's playthings, reminders
Speaker 1: of lives interrupted and one ended.
Speaker 2: So it's a pretty she said. It was about two acres,
Speaker 2: so I'm assuming it goes all the way to the
Speaker 2: back here. This is all their land. Looks like a
Speaker 2: recently cut down tree. It's rural. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 2: so rural that if anybody's screaming in that house, I
Speaker 2: don't know that they're hearing it, because I'd say that
Speaker 2: that closest neighbor, if you're facing the road, it's probably
Speaker 2: about one hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 3: Yeah, on either side. Should stop over there.
Speaker 2: I feel like we kind of should stop over there.
Speaker 2: See if the belt I just heard. I look at
Speaker 2: that bird up there.
Speaker 1: It's a turkey vulture. Wow, it's kind of ominous.
Speaker 2: It's super ominous. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You hear a thump and you look up and
Speaker 3: you see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Wow, that's that's interesting. I've never seen one of
Speaker 2: class like that. It's a good eye, Lauren, you know
Speaker 2: that it's a Turkey culture.
Speaker 1: It lent more than a slightly portentous tone to the
Speaker 1: morning heading into beverly scent and sing. But we had
Speaker 1: one more stop to make along the way.
Speaker 3: Should we have to gas station?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1: The time it would take us to get there was
Speaker 1: only one of the surprises we were about to encounter
Speaker 1: on the next murder on Songbird Road.
Speaker 2: The great aunt ends up giving the victim impact the family,
Speaker 2: the family. There was like an undercurrent of real animosity
Speaker 2: that was religious based in this family dynamic between these
Speaker 2: two different families.
Speaker 1: That being to say that those three children are being
Speaker 1: raised like as if it's vindication.
Speaker 2: Adamantly stated it, turned to Julie and said it with conviction,
Speaker 2: raised as Christians looking directly at her.
Speaker 4: That made no bones about it. Darkness the light.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's what I wrote down.
Speaker 4: They're talking about?
Speaker 3: Are they alleging that this was some kind of murder?
Speaker 1: On Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research
Speaker 1: writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by
Speaker 1: Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound design and
Speaker 1: original music by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chaquoine. Additional music
Speaker 1: by Ashrak Kurtz. Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review.
Speaker 1: Wherever you're listening, you can follow me on all platforms
Speaker 1: at Lauren Bright Pacheco and email the show with thought,
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Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.