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Speaker 1: I was blown away because I'm like, why would his

2
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Speaker 1: fingerprint be in the vehicle? Why would that not have

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Speaker 1: been something that had been investigated.

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Speaker 2: When police Captain Cinda Williams ran the Prince that had

5
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Speaker 2: been found in Michelle Scofield's car seventeen years ago, she

6
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Speaker 2: wasn't expecting anything, but there was.

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Speaker 1: A hit, so I ran a criminal history check on

8
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Speaker 1: Jeremy Scott.

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Speaker 2: Now Cinda wasn't really supposed to have run these prints.

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Speaker 2: The Michelle Scofield case is under Polk County's jurisdiction, not

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Speaker 2: Henry County, where she works, but because of her friendship

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Speaker 2: with Chrissy, she decides to look into Jeremy Scott anyway.

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Speaker 1: It felt like it was the right thing to do,

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Speaker 1: and he had an extensive criminal history. And when I

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Speaker 1: say extensive, imediate mostly violent.

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Speaker 2: Crime charges of grand theft, burglary, multiple assaults, arson, and

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Speaker 2: two arrests for murder.

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Speaker 3: Do you mo maness.

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Speaker 4: Left to have my fears.

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Speaker 3: Soruive sormness in this vasty him rage dansish to the

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Speaker 3: word sling stuff to the bone soundings.

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Speaker 5: Stuff so.

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Speaker 2: Bone Valley Chapter five, bam bam, Who is Jeremy Scott?

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Speaker 2: Who is this man whose fingerprints turned up in the

25
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Speaker 2: car Michelle Schofield was driving on the night she was murdered.

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Speaker 2: Kelsey and I wanted to find out everything we could

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Speaker 2: about him. We started filing record requests.

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Speaker 6: We got police reports from both the Sheriff's office and

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Speaker 6: the Lakeland Police Department. They documented dozens of Jeremy's arrests

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Speaker 6: in Polk County, and we were also able to get

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Speaker 6: our hands on Jeremy's psychiatric reports. He was evaluated by

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Speaker 6: psychologists while awaiting trial on a homicide charge.

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Speaker 2: This homicide charge, Jeremy would eventually be convicted for it.

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Speaker 2: We'll get back to that later. But after he was

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Speaker 2: found guilty, several of Jeremy's family members testified, pleading with

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Speaker 2: the judge and jury to spare Jeremy's life, to sentence

37
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Speaker 2: him to life in prison instead of giving him the

38
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Speaker 2: death penalty. Their testimony about Jeremy's childhood and upbringing paints

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Speaker 2: a Scott family portrait that can only be described as

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Speaker 2: chaotic and unstable. We started compiling this testimony and other

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Speaker 2: documents we've been able to dig up, and we were

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Speaker 2: able to make a rough timeline of Jeremy's early life.

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Speaker 6: Jeremy was born in Michigan on April twenty ninth, nineteen

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Speaker 6: sixty nine. According to family testimony, his mother, Linda immediately

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Speaker 6: rejected him when she brought him home from the hospital.

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Speaker 6: Linda didn't want anything to do with him. She was

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Speaker 6: fifteen at the time in using drugs, so she left

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Speaker 6: him with her parents. So Jeremy's grandparents, Arlene and Stacy Scott,

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Speaker 6: they raise him, and Jeremy grows up calling them mom

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Speaker 6: and Dad, and they call him Bam Bam because he

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Speaker 6: liked to hit stuff. But early in works and Stacy

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Speaker 6: struggles with alcoholism, so Jeremy spends much of his early

53
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Speaker 6: years in the care of his aunt Debbie, who's just fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Then one day, when Jeremy was two or three, he

55
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Speaker 2: was left without supervision and was hit by a neighbor's car.

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Speaker 2: His psych reports say that there was significant injury to

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Speaker 2: the right frontal area of his skull. It seems this

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Speaker 2: incident may have left Jeremy with lasting brain damage, and

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Speaker 2: soon after Jeremy's uncle Tom moved in. Tom pretty severely

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Speaker 2: abused Jeremy. He would beat him and call him names.

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Speaker 2: According to his aunt Debbie's testimony, when Jeremy starts school,

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Speaker 2: sounds like he doesn't do very well. He has to

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Speaker 2: repeat kindergarten and he's placed in special education classes.

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Speaker 6: And then we get to the mid to late seventies

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Speaker 6: and the family starts to relocate down to Florida. They

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Speaker 6: were up in Michigan, and they start trickling down to

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Speaker 6: various parts of the state, settle in Perry in the

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Speaker 6: Florida Panhandle, and also in central Florida, Lakeland, Kissimi, Davenport,

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Speaker 6: and Mulberry.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to piece together exactly where Jeremy was and

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Speaker 2: when and who cared for him. He was being passed

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Speaker 2: back and forth between different caregivers, different family members.

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Speaker 6: But at some point he ends up back with his mother, Linda.

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Speaker 6: Jeremy's aunt, Debbie, says that Linda was beating him with

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Speaker 6: belts and with sticks, and the school he was attending

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Speaker 6: at that time took notice. They reported the abuse, and

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Speaker 6: it seems like at that point Jeremy was removed from

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Speaker 6: his mother's care and placed into foster care.

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Speaker 2: After fourth grade, Jeremy stops regularly attending school, and by

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Speaker 2: eighth grade, he's apparently dropped out of school entirely Somewhere

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Speaker 2: in that time he starts getting in trouble with the

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Speaker 2: law too. The first arrest we have on recD is

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Speaker 2: August nineteen eighty It was for petty theft, burglary, criminal mischief,

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Speaker 2: dealing in stolen property, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle,

85
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Speaker 2: all misdemeanor charges. But he was only eleven years old.

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Speaker 2: That's five charges. Around this same time, Jeremy's already living

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Speaker 2: on the streets and he asks his sixteen year old

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Speaker 2: aunt for money, food, and clothes, which she isn't always

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Speaker 2: able to provide.

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Speaker 6: And then in January of nineteen eighty two, he's arrested

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Speaker 6: for grand theft and burglary and those are felony charges.

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Speaker 6: Jeremy was twelve, and this is when things become a

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Speaker 6: little more serious for him. There are some real repercussions.

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Speaker 6: He sent away to Okachobe, the juvenile detention facility in

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Speaker 6: South Florida, so he's in and out of Okachobe between

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Speaker 6: the ages of thirteen and fifteen.

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Speaker 2: After one of Jeremy's stays at Okachobe, he lands in

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Speaker 2: a little in Polk County, just outside of Lakeland. It's

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Speaker 2: called Eagle Lake. From Jeremy's criminal records and police reports,

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Speaker 2: we learn about a murder that took place in this

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Speaker 2: area in nineteen eighty five, when Jeremy was just fifteen

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Speaker 2: years old. So we tried to track down some of

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Speaker 2: the other people whose names we found in the documents.

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Speaker 4: Okay, I'm out here.

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Speaker 2: I'm about to meet with Nancy, and I think her mother,

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Speaker 2: Wilma is here. I'm just gonna walk over there right now.

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Speaker 2: They're sitting on a picnic bench underneath a tree. Nancy

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Speaker 2: and her mom, Wilma, are still living in the area

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Speaker 2: where the crime took place. I called them after seeing

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Speaker 2: Nancy's name in a witness deposition. I was especially interested

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Speaker 2: in talking to them because they said they remember Jeremy. Hello,

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Speaker 2: you must be Wilma. We talked on the phone.

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Speaker 4: Gilbert, Hi, Nancy, how are you.

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Speaker 2: Nancy says she first met Jeremy while he was working

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Speaker 2: the rides at the Florida Citrus Festival in nearby winter Haven.

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Speaker 2: Nancy was around thirteen years old and Jeremy was fifteen.

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Speaker 7: We all went to the fair, and we'd go every

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Speaker 7: single night. What kind of fair was it? It was

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Speaker 7: just a carnival. You had the sea Dragon. You had

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Speaker 7: the Zipper, the one that spends around Himalaya.

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Speaker 2: What was Jeremy Scott doing there?

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Speaker 7: He was actually running the Sea Dragon.

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Speaker 2: And he so he when you were at the fair,

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Speaker 2: liked he would be the guy that would put you

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Speaker 2: on the rides. That was his job.

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Speaker 7: No, he actually was the one that turned it on.

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Speaker 7: It was the mechanical part.

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Speaker 2: So he was basically a carney.

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Speaker 4: A carney.

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Speaker 2: Nancy and her friends would see him every night over

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Speaker 2: the ten days the festival was in town.

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Speaker 7: So when me and the girls got on him, we

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Speaker 7: got an extra ride, like, hey, I got that extra ride.

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Speaker 2: And when the festival eventually packs up, Jeremy sticks around

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Speaker 2: the area.

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Speaker 7: I think he just came into town and decided to

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Speaker 7: stay for a little bit. He was quiet, I mean,

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Speaker 7: like shy, very shy compared to like the average kids.

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Speaker 7: And I mean until you got to know you, you know,

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Speaker 7: I do know he was like maybe slow. I don't

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Speaker 7: know how to better explain him. He just was different,

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Speaker 7: you know. I don't know if it's a disability or what.

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Speaker 2: Because back then, Nancy grew up with the sense that

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Speaker 2: she should protect kids like Jeremy, so she would make

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Speaker 2: sure to include him when she and her friends would

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Speaker 2: play sports and hang around the park. Jeremy would stay

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Speaker 2: over at their house some nights too, he'd crash on

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Speaker 2: the couch.

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Speaker 7: He was polite because it was like he had respect,

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Speaker 7: I guess his best way to say it, because I

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Speaker 7: never saw temper out of him or anything.

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Speaker 2: But then Jeremy stops coming over to Nancy and Wilma's

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Speaker 2: house as often, and Nancy she starts seeing Jeremy with

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Speaker 2: one of her neighbors, an ex con by the name

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Speaker 2: of Smoky Johnson. Smokey picks up Jeremy while he's hitchhiking

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Speaker 2: one day. Smokey is forty six and Jeremy is just fifteen.

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Speaker 7: Honestly, I mean, it's really weird that somebody that much

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Speaker 7: older would be hanging out with me, you know.

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Speaker 2: That spring On April eleventh, nineteen eighty five, Smoky's seventy

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Speaker 2: five year old mother, Juel Johnson, was found dead in

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Speaker 2: a locked trailer behind her house.

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Speaker 7: Well, she lived right around the corner from where we.

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Speaker 2: Lived, right and jul Johnson was just like a sweet

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Speaker 2: elderly woman.

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Speaker 8: I mean, yes, saying that she was a very sweet lady.

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Speaker 7: Now that's what I told different people that I knew

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Speaker 7: quite well, yeah, that.

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Speaker 2: That she's a very sweet lady. Juel Johnson suffered blunt

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Speaker 2: force trauma to the head and she was in the torso,

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Speaker 2: presumably with the twenty two caliber rifle found at the scene.

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Speaker 2: Detective Richard Putnall, the same detective that would work Michelle

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Speaker 2: Schofield's murder two years later, conducts the investigation. Detective Putnall

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Speaker 2: talks to Jule Johnson's son, Smoky, who says that about

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Speaker 2: fifty dollars in rolled coins was taken from the house,

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Speaker 2: as well as some large knives. As far as we

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Speaker 2: can tell, there are no eyewitnesses to the killing, and

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Speaker 2: no one claims to have heard any gunshots. But then

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Speaker 2: detective Putnall interviews two teenage girls in the neighborhood and

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Speaker 2: the investigation takes a new direction. Thirteen year old Lwanda

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Speaker 2: Green and fifteen year old Anne Aldridge tell Detective Putnall

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Speaker 2: that they know Jeremy and they remember seeing him on

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Speaker 2: his bike just hours after Jewel's murder. They say Jeremy

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Speaker 2: had on all new clothes when they saw him, gray jacket,

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Speaker 2: gray shirt, gray pants instead of his usual jeans and

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Speaker 2: t shirt. He also had a bunch of coins on him.

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Speaker 2: He told them that his grandfather just died and left

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Speaker 2: him fifty dollars. He showed the coins and said, this

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Speaker 2: is all I have left. He had a red bag

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Speaker 2: with him and said there's a big knife in there.

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Speaker 2: Not long after Juel Johnson is killed, Jeremy stops by

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Speaker 2: Nancy's place.

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Speaker 7: He just swung by the house to tell us why. Like,

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Speaker 7: the conversation was really really short, not like where he

194
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Speaker 7: was before that, you know, he laughed or whatever. It

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Speaker 7: was just different. He just said that we wouldn't get

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Speaker 7: to see him no more. He was staying away because

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Speaker 7: he was in trouble.

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Speaker 2: After I interviewed Nancy and Wilma at the ballpark, they

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Speaker 2: tell me to follow their car and they'll point out

200
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Speaker 2: Juel Johnson's house. And this is really roll back.

201
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Speaker 9: Here a lot less houses, just a little farmhouse.

202
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Speaker 4: And it's cattle. Yeah, there it is.

203
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Speaker 2: I can see the little shed in the back under tree.

204
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Speaker 2: That's where I think they found the body of jul Johnson.

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Speaker 2: Investigators weren't able to lift any prince from the rifle

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Speaker 2: found at the crime scene. Whoever shot Juel Johnson must

207
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Speaker 2: have wiped down the weapon afterwards, but they were able

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Speaker 2: to lift fingerprints from a coin wrapper and Jewel's broken eyeglasses.

209
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Speaker 2: The Polk County Sheriff's Office compares the prince to Jeremy's.

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Speaker 2: It's a match. Jeremy Scott, now sixteen, becomes the lead

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Speaker 2: suspect in the murder of Jewel Johnson. Three weeks after

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Speaker 2: the killing, Jeremy's arrested and charged with first degree murder.

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Speaker 2: At his arraignement, the judge, who spent years presiding over

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Speaker 2: juvenile cases recognizes Jeremy's name. He tells reporters he wasn't surprised.

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Speaker 2: He says, quote, this was one of those situations in

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Speaker 2: which there was nothing the system could do.

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Speaker 4: Jeremy was in jail, and he was a young man,

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Speaker 4: very immature, very mentally I'm gonna say mentally disturbed in

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Speaker 4: the sense that he had a number of mental illnesses.

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Speaker 4: He was a severely abused child. You know, he was

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Speaker 4: cutting himself quite a bit in the jail.

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Speaker 2: This is Austin meslank who was an attorney with the

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Speaker 2: Public Defender's Office. Meslanic was assigned to represent Jeremy in

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Speaker 2: the murder of Jule Johnson.

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Speaker 4: I mean the state was seeking the death penal to you,

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Speaker 4: because this was before the United States Supreme Court had

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Speaker 4: ruled the juveniles were not eligible for the death penalty,

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Speaker 4: and you know, in Polk County at that time, the

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Speaker 4: state went for the death penalty just about every case.

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Speaker 10: He was young, he was difficult, sometimes he was cooperative,

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Speaker 10: sometimes he wasn't.

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Speaker 2: This is Tony Maloney. She's the investigator from the Public

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Speaker 2: Defender's Office. She was assigned to Leo Schofield's case in

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight, before Leo dropped them and hired Jack

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Speaker 2: Edmund instead. But before all that, back in nineteen eighty five,

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Speaker 2: she was assigned to Jeremy Scott's defense in the Jule

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Speaker 2: Johnson murder.

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Speaker 10: It was hard for him to stay on tasks for

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Speaker 10: any period of time, and then even when he did,

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Speaker 10: it was sort of like, you know, is he really

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Speaker 10: connecting the dots here? Not out of touch with reality,

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Speaker 10: but an inability to calmly control.

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Speaker 2: At trial, the state presents a pretty simple case. They

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Speaker 2: say that while Smokey Johnson is at work, Jewel catches

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Speaker 2: Jeremy trying to steal her rolls of coins. She tells Jeremy,

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Speaker 2: she's calling the sheriff, so he hits her over the

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Speaker 2: head and shoots her with a rifle. But the public

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Speaker 2: defenders did witness interviews and brought in a mental health

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Speaker 2: expert to defend Jeremy at trial, and you put on.

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Speaker 4: A pretty aggressive defense, Yes, we did.

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Speaker 2: Jeremy takes the stand at trial and says that it

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Speaker 2: was Smoky Johnson who killed his own mother. Jeremy says

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Speaker 2: he was a witness to the killing. He said it

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Speaker 2: happened after Smoky and Jewel argued about smoking weed. Several

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Speaker 2: jurors said that they didn't think Jeremy killed Juel Johnson

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Speaker 2: because he didn't seem intelligent enough to remove his fingerprints

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Speaker 2: from the murder weapon. Smokey, on the other hand, had

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Speaker 2: done some time for selling, and he apparently didn't come

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Speaker 2: across too well at trial. That's how in September nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty five, Jeremy Scott is acquitted of Juel Johnson's murder.

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Speaker 2: The state never prosecuted Smoky because of the strength of

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Speaker 2: his alibi. Multiple co workers testify that he was at

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Speaker 2: work at the time his mother was murdered. Juel Johnson's

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Speaker 2: murder is still considered unsolved to this day, but the

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Speaker 2: state of Florida didn't seem too happy about Jeremy's acquittal,

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Speaker 2: so they weren't so quick to release him. While Jeremy

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Speaker 2: was in the jail awaiting trial, he lit his mattress

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Speaker 2: on fire. So after he's acquitted in the Jewel Johnson murder,

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Speaker 2: he's held in the Polk County jail for the arson

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Speaker 2: charge that happened months before. To me and Kelsey, though

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Speaker 2: it seems like Jeremy literally got away with murder, I think.

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Speaker 8: That's sort of a bitch, arrowing a bunch of people's lives.

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Speaker 2: This is Lee Underwood. We reached out to him because

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Speaker 2: he was a close friend to Michelle Schofield's back in

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Speaker 2: the day.

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Speaker 8: She was a very very very special friend of mine,

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Speaker 8: like a sister.

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Speaker 2: It was Michelle who gave him his nickname, Lee the Flea,

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Speaker 2: and she named.

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Speaker 11: Me that.

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Speaker 8: Basically as I was always playing to lead the polis

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Speaker 8: and that name is stuck would mad till today.

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Speaker 2: We tracked Leave the Flee down in Wisconsin, and as

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Speaker 2: we were talking, the interview took an unexpected turn.

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Speaker 8: You didn't know Jeremy Scott, did you. I was in

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Speaker 8: jail with them back in eighty Sorry.

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Speaker 2: We checked this and Lee is a little off on

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Speaker 2: the year based on arrest records. The cops finally caught

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Speaker 2: up with Lee in nineteen eighty five. They locked him

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Speaker 2: up in the Polk County JA on charges of well

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Speaker 2: fleeing police, and Lee tells us one of his cellmates

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Speaker 2: then was Jeremy Scott. Lee was there when Jeremy set

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Speaker 2: his mattress on fire, and he remembers when Jeremy was

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Speaker 2: acquitted of killing jul Johnson.

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Speaker 8: I don't know how he got off of it. He

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Speaker 8: get bragged to everybody in the cell about doing it.

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Speaker 8: This guy was crazy. He'd like make a shank like

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Speaker 8: a jail knife out of a razor right around the jail,

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Speaker 8: cutting people just at random. This kid was crazy and

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Speaker 8: he had a look in his eye just like like

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Speaker 8: he wasn't right.

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Speaker 2: Jeremy is convicted on the arson charge and shipped off

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Speaker 2: to state prison. By the time he's released, it's December

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty. Leo and Michelle Schofield have been married for

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Speaker 2: about four months. They're living in the little trailer near

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Speaker 2: Comby Settlement. They're going to church. Leo's playing music and

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Speaker 2: Michelle has yet to start her job at Tom's restaurant.

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Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott is back on the streets, and this time

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Speaker 2: he's in Lakeland.

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Speaker 8: Hi.

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Speaker 12: I'm Jason Flamm, CEO and founder of Lava for Good podcasts,

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Speaker 12: home to Bone Valley, Wrongful Conviction, The War on Drugs,

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Speaker 12: and many other great podcasts. Today we're asking you, our listeners,

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Speaker 12: to take part in a survey. Your feedback is going

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Speaker 12: to help inform how we make podcasts in the future.

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Speaker 12: Your complete and candid answers will help us continue to

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Speaker 12: bring you more insightful and inspiring stories about important topics

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Speaker 12: that impact us all. So please go to Lava for

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Speaker 12: Good dot com slash survey and participate today. Thank you

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Speaker 12: for your support.

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Speaker 9: Bone Valley is sponsored by Stand Together. Stand Together is

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Speaker 9: a philanthropic community that partners with America's boldest change makers

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Speaker 9: to tackle the root causes of our country's biggest problems,

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00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:26,800
Speaker 9: including the broken criminal justice system. Weldon Angelos is one

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Speaker 9: of those change makers. At the age of twenty three,

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00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,960
Speaker 9: Weldon was arrested for a first time offense of selling

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Speaker 9: weed to a confidential informant. At the time, he was

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Speaker 9: a budding musician spending time with artists like Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Pink,

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Speaker 9: and Gnase. His entire life was ahead of him when

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Speaker 9: he was sentenced to a mandatory fifty five years in

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Speaker 9: federal prison without the possibility of early release. After serving

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Speaker 9: thirteen years, a bipartisan effort led to him getting officially pardoned.

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Speaker 9: Upon his release, he founded the Weldon Project, a nonprofit

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Speaker 9: working to create better outcomes for those still in prison

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00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 9: that funds social change and provides financial aid for all

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00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:14,359
Speaker 9: those who were still serving time for cannabis related offenses.

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00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 9: Weldon Angelos is one of the many entrepreneurs partnering with

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Speaker 9: Stand Together to drive solutions in education, health care, poverty,

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00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 9: and criminal justice. To learn more about the War on Drugs,

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00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,719
Speaker 9: listen to the War on Drugs podcast on Apple Podcasts

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00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:33,640
Speaker 9: or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 13: Let's see, this is just kind of describing Lakeland, how

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Speaker 13: it all came to be.

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Speaker 2: We're at Heide's Eeman's house looking through boxes. Heidi, her

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Speaker 2: sister Wendy, and their parents were living in Lakeland when

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Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott entered their lives. Heidie's parents were professors, her

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Speaker 2: dad taught Greek, and her Mom taught English, and for

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Speaker 2: a while in the nineteen eighties they took in local

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Speaker 2: teenagers they called throwaway kids who'd been kicked out or

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Speaker 2: were living on the streets. The Zeemans offered them a

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Speaker 2: place to stay.

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Speaker 13: My dad was he was a writer. He just wrote,

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Speaker 13: so when he passed away, there were just boxes and

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Speaker 13: boxes of writing. So as I was pulling everything out,

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Speaker 13: I was trying to decide, you know, what was what.

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Speaker 13: And I came across this and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 13: my gosh, like this is the story of all the kids.

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Speaker 13: So it was pretty neat. And then I found Mom's

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Speaker 13: notebook and I was like, oh, this is really cool

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Speaker 13: that they both wrote the kids' stories.

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Speaker 2: The Zeemans first started taking in kids living on the

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Speaker 2: street when Heidi's sister Wendy started dating a boy named

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Speaker 2: Mike Jason.

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Speaker 14: Yeah, I've been on the streets when I was fourteen

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Speaker 14: because my brother and I got didn't get along, so

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Speaker 14: you know, I just felt like I was the black

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Speaker 14: sheep of the family, so I left. I was scared

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Speaker 14: I was going to die. Honestly, living on the streets,

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Speaker 14: didn't know where you're going to eat. You wore the

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Speaker 14: same clothes all the time, and uh, it was struggle.

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Speaker 2: Heidi and Wendy's parents let Mike live with them, and

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Speaker 2: then they start letting some of Mike's friends who also

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Speaker 2: had nowhere else to go into their house.

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Speaker 13: And then before you knew it, it was like, you know,

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Speaker 13: there were so many kids and they just they would.

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Speaker 2: Sleep wherever they could fit at the Zeeman's house, in

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Speaker 2: the garage, on couches or on the living room floor.

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Speaker 2: When they ran out of floor space and couch space,

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Speaker 2: someone might sleep on the recliner.

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Speaker 5: And then I kind of became part of the family.

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Speaker 2: Rob Morales was one of the teens staying at the

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Speaker 2: Zeeman house. Rob also went by spot because you had

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Speaker 2: this one patch of white on a head full of

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Speaker 2: black hair.

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Speaker 5: I flipped on the couch because I didn't have any

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Speaker 5: pits to go. Well, that's where I met Jeremy.

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Speaker 2: It's the summer of nineteen eighty eight, the summer that

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Speaker 2: Leo Schofield is arrested in charged with the murder of

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Speaker 2: his wife Michelle. Jeremy Scott, homeless, finds his way into

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Speaker 2: the Zeman House in Lakeland. He's nineteen years old now,

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Speaker 2: but he's already had a couple of stints in state prison.

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Speaker 2: Spot describes Jeremy as impulsive and violent.

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Speaker 5: Usually every time you know, we met up, we're either

394
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,439
Speaker 5: getting into a fight with someone else, or you know,

395
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Speaker 5: he was always the first to come to gun.

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Speaker 15: He made me nervous.

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Speaker 2: This is Tracy Slaughter that summer nineteen eighty eight. She's sixteen,

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Speaker 2: she's dating Spot, and she and Wendy Zeeman are almost inseparable.

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Speaker 15: That was the Death Leopard summer. And you walk around

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Speaker 15: with your gray boombox and you keep slipping it back

401
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 15: and forth. Wendy and I would walk and we would walk,

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00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 15: and we would walk. We would walk everywhere. And you

403
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 15: had to have your your Bouga Shelle necklace on, and

404
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,920
Speaker 15: you had to have your your black leather like a

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00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,399
Speaker 15: stretchy leer targ type pants that had looked like they

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00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 15: were satiny looking, you know, and then some type of

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00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 15: bright tangerine top or something like that. That was that summer,

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Speaker 15: and I associate all of that with this.

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Speaker 2: This is a summer Tracy would never forget. As Tracy's

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00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 2: hanging out at the Zeeman house, she sees Jeremy coming

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Speaker 2: and going with his friend Cheryl. Cheryl is about ten

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Speaker 2: years older than Tracy, and she has a car. One night,

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Speaker 2: Cheryl takes Tracy and Wendy Zeman out for a ride, So.

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Speaker 15: We went and she bought a bottle of Segrum seven

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00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 15: don't drink it.

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Speaker 16: To this day.

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Speaker 2: Then Cheryl says, we need to go pick up Jeremy,

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Speaker 2: and that's what they do.

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Speaker 15: I knew that I didn't want him to be there,

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Speaker 15: that's all. That was just my feeling, because then Cheryl

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00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 15: also let him drive, and we thought that was odd

422
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 15: because she relinquished her vehicle over to him. And I

423
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,239
Speaker 15: remember when we stopt the be convenience storage by the

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00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 15: second model of Seagram seven.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeremy drops off Wendy and Cheryl at the Zeman house.

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00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 2: He drives off with Tracy for coffee to sober her

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Speaker 2: up before taking.

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Speaker 14: Her home, and then it all just went to help

429
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 14: him there.

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Speaker 2: Tracy tells me that instead of taking her home, Jeremy

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Speaker 2: drives her to a wooded area off a two lane road.

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Speaker 2: It's dark, there aren't any street lights, and very little traffic.

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Speaker 2: She doesn't go into detail, but she makes it clear

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Speaker 2: that Jeremy sexually assaulted her that night. She says she

435
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 2: can remember laying in the sand on the side of

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00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 2: the road and hearing a car drive by without stopping.

437
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 15: I was sixteen years old, and then that was my

438
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 15: welcome into the world.

439
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 2: Around the same time, Heidie Zeman starts noticing that her

440
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 2: sister Wendy is not really acting like herself.

441
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 13: It was obvious there was something wrong.

442
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 2: One day, Jeremy's in the house and the Zeman's here

443
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 2: Wendy scream.

444
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 13: He walked in on her one day in the shower

445
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 13: and she ripped the shower curtain off and started screaming,

446
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 13: and so, you know, we kind of knew that was

447
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:49,959
Speaker 13: such a violent reaction that she had to him. You know,

448
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 13: you could tell something had happened.

449
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 2: Wendy tells her mom that not long before the shower incident,

450
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 2: Jeremy had raped her. Jeremy didn't want to be thrown

451
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 2: out of the house, so we tried to keep Wendy quiet.

452
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 13: From my understanding, he told her that if she if

453
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 13: she told anybody, or if she did anything, he would

454
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 13: kill her. And so I think she was just terrified

455
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 13: fourteen year old girl.

456
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 2: The Zeemans do kick Jeremy out of the house, and

457
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 2: now they're left to figure out what to do next.

458
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 2: They're devastated about what Jeremy did to Wendy, but the

459
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 2: Zeemans as a family, basically decide that they were not

460
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 2: going to report Jeremy's sexual assault. They just didn't want

461
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 2: to expose their fourteen year old daughter to an investigation

462
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 2: in a trial. And Wendy Zeman wouldn't seem to recover

463
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 2: from the trauma that happened so early in her life.

464
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 4: What did she do afterwards?

465
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 13: She never did anything after that. She never went back

466
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 13: to school, she was never ablem beholding job. She got

467
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 13: to the point where she didn't want to leave the house.

468
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 13: I mean, she was just so paranoid about everything and everybody,

469
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,959
Speaker 13: and it just got worse through the years.

470
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 2: And then there's Tracy.

471
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 15: If I say that something I did today was because

472
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 15: of him, I'm allowing him to control my life, and

473
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 15: I'm allowing him to attack me and be ugly to me.

474
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 15: Every single time that I allow him to take part

475
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 15: of my life, I'm not giving him. He's gotten all

476
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 15: for me, he's ever getting from me.

477
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 2: After Jeremy sexually assaulted her, she stopped talking to her

478
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 2: best friend Wendy and stopped going to the Zeeman's house.

479
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 2: She just wanted to move on. Tracy still lives in

480
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 2: Polk County. She's got her own children now, and I

481
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 2: got the impression that she's happily married and doing well.

482
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 2: Her friend, Wendy Zemon wasn't so lucky. Her mental and

483
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 2: physical health continued to decline, and she died of heart

484
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 2: failure in twenty fifteen at the age of forty one.

485
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 2: Tracy had no idea that Wendy had her own traumatic

486
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 2: experience with Jeremy Scott. We were the ones to break

487
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 2: the news to her more than three decades later.

488
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 15: I felt bad after you told me that Wendy had

489
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 15: passed and stuff like that. I was like, maybe I

490
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:23,959
Speaker 15: should have continued being her friend. I didn't know that

491
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 15: he affected her, and she didn't know he affected me,

492
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 15: so you know what I mean. So I kind of

493
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 15: felt I still kind of feel like shit, but there's

494
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 15: none I can do about it. It is what it

495
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 15: is at this point.

496
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 2: So the Ziemans had their hearts in the right place.

497
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: According to their youngest daughter, Heidi, her parents did make

498
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 2: a difference in the lives of some of the kids,

499
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 2: like Spott, who had a successful military career, and returned

500
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 2: to Lakeland to thank mister and missus Zemon for all

501
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 2: their help. But some of the throwaway kids that went

502
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 2: through the Zeeman house weren't as lucky as spot. Many

503
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 2: of the ended up dead or in prison, and the

504
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 2: Zeeman's older daughter, Wendy, paid the price for her parents'

505
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 2: good intentions. Mister Zeeman died a year after his daughter Wendy.

506
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 2: His younger daughter, Heidi, went through his possessions and she

507
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 2: came across all of his papers and writing, as well

508
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,479
Speaker 2: as the journal he was keeping back in the nineteen eighties.

509
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 13: So he starts off with the kids who passed away. Yeah,

510
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 13: so he starts off with Harry, which she was so

511
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 13: attached to Harry.

512
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 16: So Aaron Louis.

513
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 2: Mister and Missus Zemon tried to keep track of them

514
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 2: all to record some details about each life. To them,

515
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 2: they weren't throwaways, they were children who had fallen through

516
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 2: the cracks.

517
00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 13: And then this is the part, like I said, that

518
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 13: talks about Jeremy. When he talks about Jeremy, he even says,

519
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 13: I'm not going to give him his own story because

520
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:08,919
Speaker 13: I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of giving

521
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,759
Speaker 13: him his own story because of what he did.

522
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 2: In his journal, mister Zieman acknowledges Jeremy's troubled life, but

523
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 2: he also goes on to say that Jeremy, upset about

524
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,840
Speaker 2: being kicked out of the house, cut the brakes on

525
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 2: Missus Zeeman's car, But mister Zeeman writes that murder attempt

526
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 2: was not successful. After Jeremy Scott left so much destruction

527
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 2: in his wake, he took off with another boy who

528
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,919
Speaker 2: was living at the Ziemans. His name is Larry Bryan Hall,

529
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 2: but he goes by Brian for a little while. Brian

530
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 2: moves into a small place with Wendy's ex boyfriend Mike.

531
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 14: Jeremy and him were what he's going off in the

532
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,959
Speaker 14: evening at nighttime when Brian stayed at my place.

533
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 2: Mike seems concerned because he knew Brian could easily get

534
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 2: caught up with the wrong people like Jeremy.

535
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 14: He was trying to figure out how to survive, and

536
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,640
Speaker 14: he followed people. I just think he didn't know any better.

537
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 14: He would just do whatever somebody said to do.

538
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: You know.

539
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 14: That was one of the things Brian told me. He

540
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 14: said he was scared of him.

541
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:23,919
Speaker 2: Brian eventually moves out of Mike's apartment and goes off

542
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 2: with Jeremy. But Jeremy and Brian have nowhere to live.

543
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 2: They're staying wherever they can, sometimes in abandoned buildings. They

544
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 2: start breaking into houses together. Spots still in the area too,

545
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 2: and he hears the Jeremy and Brian are hanging out

546
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 2: in downtown Lakeland at night around Lake Morton.

547
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 5: Okay, well, Late Morton used to be a oh I

548
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,800
Speaker 5: gotta put this a gay pickup zone.

549
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 17: Oh, okay, so that was I hate to get graphic.

550
00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 2: It's okay, it's okay.

551
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,080
Speaker 5: So at that time, what happened was anybody that was

552
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,840
Speaker 5: looking to get money, you would hang out at the

553
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:11,120
Speaker 5: lake at night, and then somebody would drive around the

554
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,960
Speaker 5: lake and if they flashed their lights, that meant that

555
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,759
Speaker 5: they were looking. And then you would flash your lights,

556
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 5: which meant that, yes, you were available, so they would

557
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 5: do whatever they wanted, you know, and then they'd pay

558
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 5: you forty or fifty bucks. And then if you stayed

559
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 5: out there long enough, you know, you can get you know,

560
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 5: three or four people at night.

561
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 9: So he was kind of a hustler.

562
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 2: Yes, according to Spot, Jeremy was targeting gay men, usually

563
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 2: he'd rob them, and these men were not likely to

564
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 2: contact law enforcement, not if they had to explain to

565
00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 2: police why they were cruising around Lake Morton. This is

566
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:55,359
Speaker 2: what Jeremy and Brian were up to on Halloween night

567
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight. It's about three am and they're hanging

568
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,759
Speaker 2: out by the lake. Jeremy's been drinking and they call

569
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,839
Speaker 2: a middle aged gay man named Donald Morehead. Jeremy's been

570
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 2: with him before, and Donald drives over to pick the

571
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 2: two teenagers up in his Chevy Bretta. He brings Brian

572
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 2: and Jeremy back to his trailer in Lakeland. They're drinking

573
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 2: and smoking, and Donald ends up falling asleep naked in

574
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 2: a rocking chair.

575
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 11: But the robbery, everything just happened, been such a even

576
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,800
Speaker 11: after all these years, still uncomfortable to you and talk about.

577
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 2: Here's Brian Hall. He's serving a life sentence at Hardy

578
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 2: Correctional Institution. He's thin, sunken eyes, and graying hair. He

579
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 2: tells us what happened in the trailer with Jeremy.

580
00:37:55,520 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 11: Waited until Donald was asleep and was looking for money

581
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 11: and things in the house or the trailer, and then

582
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 11: the last thing I was expecting was that he was

583
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:16,239
Speaker 11: gonna kill him.

584
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 2: Brian didn't go into great detail, but according to the

585
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:24,399
Speaker 2: testimony he gave in court, here's what happened. Jeremy woke

586
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 2: Brian up early in the morning on November first. He

587
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:32,840
Speaker 2: was searching Donald's trailer for cash. Jeremy tells Brian that

588
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:35,919
Speaker 2: they'll need to kill Donald so he doesn't turn them in.

589
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,840
Speaker 2: And then Jeremy picks up a glass bottle of grape

590
00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 2: juice and repeatedly hits Donald over the head with it.

591
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 2: Donald slumps out of the rocking chair, but is making

592
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 2: some gurgling noises, so Jeremy strangles him with a telephone cord.

593
00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 2: Jeremy then wipes down the grape juice bottle and places

594
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:05,920
Speaker 2: it back in the fridge. Brian Hall is the only

595
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 2: person we know of who actually saw Jeremy Scott kill someone.

596
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 11: And he did it in such a way that this

597
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 11: seemed like you had swat a fly. Just just didn't

598
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:27,919
Speaker 11: seem to have any concern or conscience on it.

599
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 2: What were you thinking while you were sitting there and

600
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 2: watching this happen.

601
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 5: It was.

602
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,920
Speaker 11: Just like an out of body experience. I was just

603
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 11: in fear of seeing something that you didn't think someone

604
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 11: was capable of doing It was just a side of

605
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 11: him that I didn't see. Sometimes you find out more

606
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 11: and more as time goes on about people that you

607
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,400
Speaker 11: never knew. You never knew him like you thought you

608
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 11: knew him.

609
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 2: After killing Donald, Brian and Jeremy steal his Chevy. They

610
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:12,240
Speaker 2: take off to a town called Davenport, about thirty miles

611
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:16,919
Speaker 2: east in Polk County. Jeremy's mother and stepfather live there,

612
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 2: and his brother lived close by. But when a police

613
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,399
Speaker 2: helicopter starts circling over the neighborhood, Jeremy runs off into

614
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 2: the woods. Deputies are in pursuit now, and Jeremy surrenders.

615
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 2: He leads them to his mom's trailer, where Brian is sleeping.

616
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 2: The two teenagers are arrested and taken into custody in

617
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:43,919
Speaker 2: early November of nineteen eighty eight. By this time, Leo

618
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,240
Speaker 2: Schofield is sitting in the Polk County jail awaiting trial.

619
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:51,800
Speaker 2: The same prosecutor in Leo's case is assigned to prosecute

620
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott and Brian Hall. The man with the electric

621
00:40:55,680 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 2: chair tie clip. Assistant State Attorney John Aguero. Aguero offers

622
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,720
Speaker 2: Brian a deal. He says he'll take the death penalty

623
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 2: off the table if Brian testifies to what he saw

624
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 2: Jeremy do. Brian takes the deal. He's sentenced to life

625
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 2: in prison and testifies against Jeremy. The jury recommends life

626
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,840
Speaker 2: in prison for Jeremy, but Aguero convinces the judge to

627
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 2: override the jury's recommendation. The judge agrees, and Jeremy Scott

628
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 2: is sentenced to death. A reporter for the Tampa Tribune

629
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 2: is sitting in the courtroom watching Jeremy as the sentence

630
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 2: is read. She writes that she sees Jeremy, who is

631
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 2: handcuffed with his legs shackled, glance back at his crying grandmother.

632
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:51,200
Speaker 2: As Jeremy is led away, he too begins to cry.

633
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,880
Speaker 2: Smokey Johnson was also in the courtroom during sentencing. Smokey

634
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 2: is convinced Jeremy got away with killing his mother, Juel

635
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 2: Johnson and four years prior, so he shows up at

636
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:08,240
Speaker 2: Jeremy's hearing for satisfaction, he says. Smokey tells the reporter

637
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:14,520
Speaker 2: what goes around comes around. A few years later, the

638
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:19,319
Speaker 2: Florida Supreme Court overturns Jeremy's death sentence, citing factors such

639
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:24,280
Speaker 2: as his borderline intelligence, emotional instability, and a childhood rife

640
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 2: with abuse. So, at twenty three years old, Jeremy comes

641
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 2: off death row and begins serving a life sentence for

642
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 2: the murder of Donald Morehead without any possibility for parole.

643
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott is now locked up for good.

644
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,959
Speaker 1: So I picked up the telephone and I contacted Polk

645
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office.

646
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 2: It's two thousand and four. Jeremy and Leo have both

647
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 2: been serving more than fifteen years in prison. When Cinda

648
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 2: Williams finds out the fingerprints in Michelle Schofield's car match

649
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 2: Jeremy Scott sind de seize Jeremy's rap sheet, theft, assault, arson, vagrancy, burglary.

650
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 2: The list goes on topped off by two first degree murders,

651
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 2: acquitted of one, convicted of the other.

652
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,400
Speaker 1: And so I spoke to a sergeant and I told him, listen,

653
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 1: this is something that has come to light here. I

654
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: understand it is not you know, our jurisdiction or our investigation,

655
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,239
Speaker 1: but I need to give you this information because I

656
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: feel it's important. This print was run. It came back

657
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: to an individual named Jeremy Scott. I think you guys

658
00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 1: need to probably look at this. I don't know if

659
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: you've ever looked at it before. Here's the information.

660
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:04,360
Speaker 2: Then she calls Leo's wife, Chrissy.

661
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:09,800
Speaker 16: I couldn't believe it. I was expecting a tow truck

662
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 16: driver and instead they match a killer.

663
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 17: Realistically, what would the case look like had this state

664
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:20,320
Speaker 17: known it at the time.

665
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:24,600
Speaker 2: Scott Kupp hears the news from his wife Cinda that night,

666
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:28,359
Speaker 2: and he's thinking from a legal perspective that Leo would

667
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,400
Speaker 2: never be in prison if these prints in Michelle Schofield's

668
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:35,320
Speaker 2: Mazda had been properly investigated back in nineteen eighty seven.

669
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 17: This prosecutor, this police agency, they knew all too well

670
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:45,960
Speaker 17: about who Jeremy Scott was, and if part of their

671
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:53,320
Speaker 17: initial investigation was the identity of those prints to Jeremy Scott,

672
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:58,400
Speaker 17: that's where the investigation would have gone. I mean, Aguerra

673
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:02,800
Speaker 17: was a good prosecutor. I mean he convicted Leo with nothing.

674
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 17: Imagine what he could have done with Jeremy Scott.

675
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 2: After getting a match on the fingerprints. There's a celebratory dinner.

676
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 2: That's what Chrissy's up to. When she gets a call

677
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 2: from Leo, she doesn't want to tell him anything on

678
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,240
Speaker 2: the phone, though she's going to visit him in the morning.

679
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 2: She wants to tell him in person, so instead she

680
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 2: hands the phone over to Scott Cup. Cup had been

681
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,960
Speaker 2: trying to stay out of Leo's case. He'd only agreed

682
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 2: to represent Chrissy, but now he sees that there's evidence

683
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 2: someone else may have killed Michelle. Until this moment, Leo

684
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 2: and Cupp had never spoken before, and now Cup can't

685
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 2: hide his excitement.

686
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:48,319
Speaker 18: He says to me, I'm going to get you out

687
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 18: of there in ninety days, buddy, my wife was giddy.

688
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 18: He was giddy, and this is my mom's feeling.

689
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 17: I magravated the shit.

690
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,840
Speaker 18: I'm like, you gotta fucking be kidding me, you know,

691
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 18: he sounds half lit. I'm in a prison and my

692
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 18: emotions are now exploding.

693
00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:12,160
Speaker 2: The next morning, Chrissy comes to the prison and meets

694
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:14,400
Speaker 2: with Leo in the visitation room.

695
00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 16: So I sit down and I say, we have a

696
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:22,400
Speaker 16: match on the fingerprints and give him a name. And

697
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 16: at the time, I didn't realize how difficult that was

698
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:33,399
Speaker 16: going to be for him. It was very painful. His

699
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:38,200
Speaker 16: first reaction was to put his head down and cry.

700
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:40,280
Speaker 18: I've had this mantle of a murderer on my shoulders

701
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,879
Speaker 18: for all these years, you know, And to come out

702
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 18: and say, we got the guy's we got him. He's

703
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,319
Speaker 18: forensically linked, we know who it is.

704
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:49,399
Speaker 16: He's a murderer, and.

705
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,320
Speaker 18: All this other stuff, and I'm saying, that's the guy

706
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:54,359
Speaker 18: who murdered my life, you know what I mean.

707
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 17: So there was so much.

708
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 18: It's just it was an explosion of stuff and I

709
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:03,359
Speaker 18: got I was, I was, I was really mad, and

710
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 18: it took me some days too long.

711
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 17: To get control of.

712
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 2: When Sindon notifies the Polk County Sheriff's Office about the Prince,

713
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:32,920
Speaker 2: a new investigation into Jeremy Scott is opened. Two cold

714
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:35,919
Speaker 2: case detectives from the Polk County Sheriff's Office are sent

715
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,040
Speaker 2: to interview Jeremy in prison. They tell him that his

716
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:42,399
Speaker 2: prints were found inside the car of Michelle Schofield, who

717
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:46,760
Speaker 2: was murdered eighteen years ago. They asked Jeremy what he knows.

718
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:50,920
Speaker 2: Jeremy says he doesn't know anything about a murder, but

719
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,320
Speaker 2: if his fingerprints are in the car, maybe he'd broken

720
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:56,360
Speaker 2: into it. He tells them he must have stolen a

721
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:59,120
Speaker 2: half dozen car stereos while he was living on the streets,

722
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:05,120
Speaker 2: but he's clearly shaken. Soon after the detectives leave, Jeremy

723
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:08,560
Speaker 2: calls the only person he's in contact with outside of prison,

724
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:13,279
Speaker 2: his grandmother, Arlene, and this call is recorded by the

725
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 2: Florida Department of Corrections.

726
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:20,280
Speaker 18: Grandma, I want you to listen carefully.

727
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 19: All right, all right, I'm listening.

728
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,120
Speaker 5: Has anybody come tward to you?

729
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:27,480
Speaker 19: What murder? Murder?

730
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 5: Murder?

731
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 19: Who got murdered some girl back in eighty seven, eighty seven.

732
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:34,799
Speaker 18: When we lived on Combe Road.

733
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:39,399
Speaker 5: Yeah, they said they found the girl's body in the lake.

734
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 19: Lor right, Well just tell them you don't know nothing,

735
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 19: and I ain't seen nothing, heard nothing, and just leave

736
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 19: you alone for they coming back. Grandma, Well just tell

737
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 19: him you don't know nothing. But they call him back, Grandma.

738
00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:00,160
Speaker 19: They ain't got no proof, so they got all that

739
00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:05,120
Speaker 19: could have been anybody too, right, What I mean, m

740
00:49:05,239 --> 00:49:09,120
Speaker 19: damn cops. All they do is frame vapl Oh Lord,

741
00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 19: they're prom stupid. I hate god damn cops. Son of

742
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 19: a pictures. I hate them, girl, they come to get me.

743
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 2: Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts

744
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 2: in association with Signal Company Number One. Our executive producers

745
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:44,240
Speaker 2: are Jason Flam and Kevin Wordiskaen Krnhaber is our senior producer.

746
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:49,280
Speaker 2: Brit Spangler is our sound designer. Roxandra Greedy is our editor.

747
00:49:50,239 --> 00:49:54,759
Speaker 2: Fact checking by Maximo Anderson. Our producer and researcher is

748
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 2: Kelsey Decker. Our theme song, The One Who's Holding the Stars,

749
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 2: is performed by Lee Bob and The Truth. It was

750
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:05,800
Speaker 2: written by Leo Schofield and Kevin Herrick in Florida's Hardy

751
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:10,319
Speaker 2: Correctional Institution. Bone Valley is written and produced by me

752
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 2: Gilbert King. You can follow the show on Instagram, Facebook,

753
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 2: and Twitter at Lava for Good. To see photos and

754
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 2: documents from our investigation and exclusive behind the scenes content,

755
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:29,440
Speaker 2: visit Lava Forgood dot com slash Bone Valley