Speaker 1: School of Humans. Hello. Oh my god, dude, I'm digging
Speaker 1: out my emergency pack of cigarettes right now. Oh jeez,
Speaker 1: I am like on the edge of my seat, Like,
Speaker 1: what is going on. I'm like I was supposed to
Speaker 1: go to tennis today. I'm walking around just like pacing
Speaker 1: like a caged animal. Hey, guys, I know that we're
Speaker 1: in the middle of season three, but as many of
Speaker 1: you may have already heard, after sixteen years, there has
Speaker 1: finally been an arrest in connection with the murder of
Speaker 1: Rebecca Gold. That's the case that we covered in season one.
Speaker 1: For those of you who have been following the Hell
Speaker 1: and Gone podcast, you'll remember that it all started in
Speaker 1: a small town in the Ozarks just over two years ago.
Speaker 1: I was sitting in Mountain View, Arkansas, in the satellite
Speaker 1: office of the Arkansas State Police investigator, who was at
Speaker 1: that time in charge of Rebecca's case. I looked at
Speaker 1: the shelf and saw the binder with Rebecca's name on it.
Speaker 1: There was literal dust on that case file. Rebecca was
Speaker 1: twenty two years old when she disappeared on September twenty, two,
Speaker 1: thousand and four. A week later, her body was found.
Speaker 1: I've been obsessed with this case for years. My dad
Speaker 1: and sister live in the area, and because my sister
Speaker 1: and Rebecca's sister are close friends, I heard about the
Speaker 1: murder shortly after it happened. Years dragged on, the case
Speaker 1: remained cold, and I never could get past the fact
Speaker 1: that in such a small town, no one was ever convicted.
Speaker 1: This is the case that led me to get my
Speaker 1: PI license and began my true crime obsession and ultimately
Speaker 1: the first season of Hele Gone. We're still waiting for
Speaker 1: the Arkansas State Police to reveal more details, but in
Speaker 1: the meantime, we wanted to share what we know so far.
Speaker 1: On November seventh, twenty twenty, the Arkansas State Police announced
Speaker 1: that forty four year old William Miller was arrested in
Speaker 1: connection to the two thousand and four murder of Rebecca Gould.
Speaker 1: Law enforcement have stated that William or Billy, as he's
Speaker 1: commonly known, was arrested in Lane County, Oregon, after the
Speaker 1: State Police special agent assigned to the case learned that
Speaker 1: he'd returned to his home following an extended stay in
Speaker 1: the Philippines. The Arkansas State Police news release read quote
Speaker 1: a Texas man visiting Izard County in two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: has been arrested and charged with murder first degree in
Speaker 1: connection with the death of Rebecca Christian Gould, whose body
Speaker 1: was discovered sixteen years ago on a hillside off Arkansas
Speaker 1: Highway nine south of Melbourne End quote. So, who is
Speaker 1: Billy Miller? The police announcement regarding the US describes Billy
Speaker 1: as a Texas man visiting Izzard County, which kind of
Speaker 1: makes it sound like he was just passing through town.
Speaker 1: But we quickly discovered that he does have a connection
Speaker 1: to the area. Billy is Casey's cousin. Casey was Rebecca's
Speaker 1: boyfriend at the time she went missing, and she was
Speaker 1: staying at his house when she was murdered. His trailer
Speaker 1: in a remote wooded area near Guyon was the crime scene.
Speaker 1: I've had the chance to talk to some of Billy's
Speaker 1: family members and coworkers and learned that around the time
Speaker 1: of Rebecca's murder, he was living in Texas. He had
Speaker 1: a family there and, according to reports, three children, but
Speaker 1: Billy left the country shortly after Rebecca's murder. Several years ago.
Speaker 1: He went to the Philippines, where he met a local woman,
Speaker 1: got married and had a baby. On social media. There
Speaker 1: are posts of him with his children. He appears to
Speaker 1: have been living there ever since. For several years, he
Speaker 1: worked on an offshore oil field platform off the coast
Speaker 1: of Malay in Equatorial Guinea. Some of his coworkers and
Speaker 1: family members have reached out to me. They said they
Speaker 1: were shocked and I can't imagine what they must be
Speaker 1: going through right now. Though some of his former coworkers
Speaker 1: did describe him as odd. For example, he was caught
Speaker 1: with a coworker's phone and, according to my source, was
Speaker 1: allegedly going through their photos. It's the type of behavior
Speaker 1: that can seem a little strange, but nothing that could
Speaker 1: suggest the horror that would follow. We were told by
Speaker 1: a source close to Billy that after COVID hit, the
Speaker 1: borders to the Philippines shut down, so he came home
Speaker 1: to where his mother lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon. He
Speaker 1: is reportedly told co workers that he bought a ranch
Speaker 1: in Oregon and that he wanted to move his wife
Speaker 1: and family from the Philippines there. So maybe he thought
Speaker 1: the case was over for good. When we started working
Speaker 1: on Hell and Gone, our goal was always to try
Speaker 1: to use the podcast as an investigative tool. We wanted
Speaker 1: to help move the case forward in any way that
Speaker 1: we could, and our only goal was to get justice
Speaker 1: for Rebecca. As you know, the Arkansas State Police said
Speaker 1: this was an open investigation, so we had zero access
Speaker 1: to the case file. We had to create our own,
Speaker 1: and in the beginning we had very little to go on.
Speaker 1: Based on the evidence, we developed a working theory that
Speaker 1: the killer was someone with a connection to the house.
Speaker 1: For me, this wasn't just the fact that the killer
Speaker 1: would know where the trailer was. As we discovered in
Speaker 1: season one, this was an extremely remote location. Whoever was
Speaker 1: involved with killing Rebecca knew where the cleaning supplies were
Speaker 1: and felt brave enough, possibly in broad daylight, to stick
Speaker 1: around and clean up the crime scene. But possibly the
Speaker 1: biggest clue to me was the fact that the bloody
Speaker 1: sheets were found in the washing machine. We're waiting to
Speaker 1: see if the police release any more information that could
Speaker 1: explain what Billy's connection to the home could be. Because
Speaker 1: of the timeline, which we explored in depth in season one,
Speaker 1: we also believed that there could have been more than
Speaker 1: one person involved in the cleanup. So if Billy did
Speaker 1: kill Rebecca and or clean up or move her body.
Speaker 1: Why did he do it? No information has been released
Speaker 1: at this time about a potential motive. We know from
Speaker 1: Rebecca's autopsy that she was struck once or possibly twice,
Speaker 1: something that we always believed suggested that someone was in
Speaker 1: a rage and that this murder was deeply personal. Since
Speaker 1: the ASP have made no comment on Billy's connection to
Speaker 1: the murder, We don't even know if Billy and Rebecca
Speaker 1: knew each other, but he may have popped up in
Speaker 1: the podcast and the fifth thatp was of season one.
Speaker 1: We talked to a source who told us that they
Speaker 1: had seen a man with olive skin or a tan
Speaker 1: and black hair around on the weekend before Rebecca disappeared.
Speaker 1: Our source told us that they saw the guy drive
Speaker 1: up to Casey's property with a woman in the car.
Speaker 1: The guy then got out of the vehicle, which the
Speaker 1: source described as a small blue car with Texas license plates,
Speaker 1: and did some weed eating around the property. Our tipster
Speaker 1: told us that Rebecca came out of the house and
Speaker 1: briefly spoke to this unknown man, and that she seemed
Speaker 1: fine and went back inside. We did try to locate
Speaker 1: this person, and the general description did seem to match
Speaker 1: Billy but it also matched several other people who knew Rebecca.
Speaker 1: With nothing more to go on, we hit a dead end.
Speaker 1: But now I wonder could the mystery man at the
Speaker 1: trailer have been Billy. A new investigator has been assigned
Speaker 1: to Rebecca's case, Mike McNeil of the Arkansas State Police.
Speaker 1: Please contact Mike if you have any information about Rebecca's case.
Speaker 1: He can be reached at Mike dot McNeil at ASP
Speaker 1: dot Arkansas dot gov. That's m I k E dot
Speaker 1: mc n e I l L at ASP dot Arkansas
Speaker 1: dot gov. Since season one wrapped, we haven't stopped working
Speaker 1: on this case, and there have been many others helping
Speaker 1: with a fight to get justice for Rebecca, including local
Speaker 1: journalists George Jared, who he worked with in season one
Speaker 1: and who has been following and covering this case since
Speaker 1: day one, and Jennifer Buckoltz, a private investigator who has
Speaker 1: devoted countless hours to solving this case. So what happens next?
Speaker 1: According to a local newspaper, The Baxter Bulletin, Billy is
Speaker 1: fighting extradition to Arkansas. So now Arkansas officials need to
Speaker 1: file a governor's warrant, also known as an extradition warrant
Speaker 1: to facilitate his transfer back to Arkansas. This could take
Speaker 1: some time, according to some estimates, between thirty and sixty days,
Speaker 1: so once again we have to wait to see if
Speaker 1: he eventually stands trial, to see what evidence the ASP have,
Speaker 1: and to see if there will be more arrests. So
Speaker 1: for now, me and the team, along with everyone else
Speaker 1: including George, Jennifer and many other reporters who've worked on
Speaker 1: this case, will continue to search for answers and work
Speaker 1: together to reveal the full story. But until then, enjoy
Speaker 1: the rest of season three and revisit season one if
Speaker 1: you want to follow our complete investigation into Rebecca's murder
Speaker 1: from the beginning School of Humans