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Speaker 1: It's eighteen eighty one. Captain J. Francis le Baron of

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is surveying Central Florida.

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Speaker 1: As he travels up the Peace River in Polk County,

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Speaker 1: he finds something fossils, tons of them along the sandy

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Speaker 1: banks of the Peace River, giant shark, teethed whale skulls,

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Speaker 1: and prehistoric mastadon bones. Captain le Baron collects nine barrels

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Speaker 1: worth of fossils and has them shipped off to a

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Speaker 1: professor at the Smithsonian Institution. A few years later, Captain

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Speaker 1: le Baron returns to the region. As he's digging through

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Speaker 1: the sandbars of the Peace River amongst the bones from

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Speaker 1: millions of years ago, he makes another discovery. All the bones,

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Speaker 1: all the decomposition had left Central Florida rich in phosphate,

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Speaker 1: a mineral left over from the creatures that lived and

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Speaker 1: died in an around the ancient sea that once covered Florida,

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Speaker 1: and phosphate, it turns out, is a valuable ingredient for

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Speaker 1: making fertilizer. They called it white gold. There's interest in

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Speaker 1: the fossils, but palaeontologists don't get the chance to dig

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Speaker 1: because the mining companies get there first. Soon, Polk County

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Speaker 1: became the self proclaimed phosphate capital of the world, and

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Speaker 1: the area was producing three quarters of the nation's supply.

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Speaker 1: By the late nineteenth century. Railroad tracks had sprung out

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Speaker 1: in every direction across the region, which helped move all

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Speaker 1: that phosphate. There was a lot of work and not

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Speaker 1: enough workers to get the job done, so phosphate companies

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Speaker 1: paid a fee to the state of Florida in exchange

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Speaker 1: for prisoners to fill the labor shortage. Black men arrested

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Speaker 1: for petty crimes were forced to dig ditches and push wheelbacks.

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Speaker 1: Was full of white rock while underguard. It had become

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Speaker 1: a new form of slavery.

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Speaker 2: This song that called Shove it Over, and it's a

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Speaker 2: line in rhythm, pretty generally distributed all over Florida. It

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Speaker 2: was sung to me by Charlie Jones on railroad construction

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Speaker 2: camp near Lakeland, Florida.

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Speaker 1: This is Zora Neil Hurston, the novelist who became a

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Speaker 1: central figure in the African American cultural revival of the

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and thirties known as the Harlem Renaissance.

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Speaker 2: When I get in a land noise, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: spread the news about the Florida Boy.

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Speaker 1: Hurston grew up in central Florida, and in nineteen twenty

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Speaker 1: seven she moved to Polk County to collect and record

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Speaker 1: stories and work songs from Black Southerners, songs that were

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Speaker 1: down from generations. Some of the workers who taught Hurston

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Speaker 1: these songs were setting down railroad tracks and working in

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Speaker 1: the mines to move phosphate. Hurston described these men who

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Speaker 1: worked long, hard hours in Polk County in her memoir

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Speaker 1: dust tracks on a road they go down in the

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Speaker 1: phosphate mines, Hurston wrote, and bring up the wet dust

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Speaker 1: of the bones of prehistoric monsters to make rich land

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Speaker 1: in far places so that people can eat. But all

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Speaker 1: of it is not dust. Huge ribs twenty feet from

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Speaker 1: belly to backbone, some old time sea monster caught in

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Speaker 1: the shallows, shark teeth as wide as the hand of

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Speaker 1: a working man. It was these fossils tossed to the

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Speaker 1: side by mining operations that gave this region its new

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Speaker 1: name Bone Valley. As the decades passed, phosphate mining evolved.

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Speaker 1: Instead of convict with shovels, they started using dragline machines

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Speaker 1: like the one operated by Michelle Schofield's father, David's Palm.

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Speaker 1: These giant machines excavate the top soil and produce towering

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Speaker 1: two hundred foot mountains of white sand called gypsum stacks

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Speaker 1: that loom over the Polk County horizon. By the nineteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: some of the mines in northern Polk County shut down

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Speaker 1: after depleting the soil of its phosphate, and mining operations

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Speaker 1: moved further south, but you can still see the scars

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Speaker 1: the industry left behind. The mined out areas were left

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Speaker 1: to be reclaimed by nature. Dense vegetation grew around these

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Speaker 1: deep mining pits that filled with water, which is why

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Speaker 1: you see these long, narrow bodies of water in the region,

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Speaker 1: like the ones in North Lakeland where Leo, his dad

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Speaker 1: and friends continue their search from Michelle Schofield.

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Speaker 3: Do you my maness, I have to have my feet

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Speaker 3: saw rule deps sarrangleists in this vallyity.

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Speaker 4: I see relation about a breach das rash to the world.

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Speaker 4: Who's holding the stars to the warm solding.

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Speaker 1: Store Bone Valley Chapter two comby Critters. It's been almost

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Speaker 1: forty eight hours since Michelle went missing. There was no

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Speaker 1: sign of her until one of Leo's friends saw the

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Speaker 1: orange Mazda just off the eastbound side of I four,

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Speaker 1: a major highway that runs through Polk County and connects

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Speaker 1: Tampa and Orlando.

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Speaker 5: Now a new wave of panic washes.

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Speaker 1: Over Leo as he and his father's speed to where

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Speaker 1: the Mazda was seen. A few of Leo's friends and

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Speaker 1: Michelle's dad followed them there.

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Speaker 6: We get to the car, We find the car. Obviously

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Speaker 6: we didn't touch the car. I didn't want anybody to

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Speaker 6: touch the car. And we looked at it. We had flashlights,

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Speaker 6: and you know, obviously it was mine.

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Speaker 1: But there's no sign of Michelle. It's nearly midnight. Leo

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Speaker 1: knows he needs to call the sheriff to get someone

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Speaker 1: out here and quick. The car is right by the

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Speaker 1: Polk City exit ramp on a rural stretch of the interstate.

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Speaker 6: I didn't even know where I was at. I mean,

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Speaker 6: I wasn't lost, but I've never been in this area.

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Speaker 6: So I went up on the embankment. I climbed the embankment,

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Speaker 6: got up on the road, and you couldn't see a

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Speaker 6: store from the highway, but I went up anyway to

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Speaker 6: look and when I get up to that overpass and

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Speaker 6: walked just a few feet up behind a tree line.

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Speaker 6: There was a store up there, and there was a

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Speaker 6: pay phone, so I went over there and I made

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Speaker 6: a call to the Sheriff's department, and I told them

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Speaker 6: that I told him who I was, told him where

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Speaker 6: I was, and that we had found the car on

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Speaker 6: the side of the road. They asked me if I

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Speaker 6: was going to take it home. I said, you're apparently

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Speaker 6: not understanding who I am. My wife is still missing.

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Speaker 6: I found her car, I did not find her. I

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Speaker 6: need some help. I'm expecting we'll be right there, mister Scofield,

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Speaker 6: you know what I mean. And Batman shows up and

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Speaker 6: everything gets fixed and stuff, and it didn't work that way.

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Speaker 1: Finally deputies arrive and the crime scene unit is called in.

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Speaker 1: They start inspecting the car. Some stereo equipment in the

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Speaker 1: Mazda is missing. Leo doesn't want to waste any more time.

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Speaker 1: He wants to start searching the area for Michelle.

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Speaker 6: I told the detective Russell, I'm going to be out

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Speaker 6: here in the ditches and in the medium and of

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Speaker 6: vye for looking for anything.

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Speaker 1: But the deputy tells Leo to wait because they're going

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Speaker 1: to fly a helicopter over the area at sunrise. So

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Speaker 1: Leo and the rest of the search party a few

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Speaker 1: hours sleep before.

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Speaker 5: Meeting up again.

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Speaker 6: I literally am there at daybreak, and so the plan

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Speaker 6: was to search I four.

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Speaker 1: They search both sides of the highway, including the Median. Leo,

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Speaker 1: his dad, his friends, and Michelle's family cover the six

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Speaker 1: plus miles of I four until they reached the exit

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Speaker 1: for State Road thirty three. There's no sign of Michelle.

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Speaker 7: Nobody that we knew from nobody.

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Speaker 1: This is Michelle McCluskey. She's Michelle Schofield's best friend. It's

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Speaker 1: mid morning now. When they come on to State Road

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Speaker 1: thirty three, which connects I four, the highway where the

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Speaker 1: car was found to Cumby Road, which was Michelle's last

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Speaker 1: known location, they decide to split up. Leo's father will

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Speaker 1: start searching one end of State Road thirty three. Leo

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Speaker 1: and Michelle McCluskey will start at the other end of

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Speaker 1: State Road thirty three, and they play to meet Leo

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Speaker 1: Senior somewhere in the middle. So Leo and Michelle McCluskey

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Speaker 1: jump into her boyfriend's pickup truck.

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Speaker 7: I was just terrified and just really focused on really

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Speaker 7: trying to find her.

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Speaker 1: It's slow searching. They walk a stretch of the road,

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Speaker 1: get back in the truck, pull up a bit, get

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Speaker 1: out and search again.

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Speaker 6: One Michelle McCluskey and I were looking in one particular area.

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Speaker 6: There was a sheriff's car that went by real fast,

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Speaker 6: headed down thirty three toward where my father was looking,

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Speaker 6: and the second car went by. I said, I'm following this.

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Speaker 6: Something's going on.

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Speaker 1: Leo jumps in the pickup with Michelle McCluskey in the

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Speaker 1: passenger seat and tries to catch the sheriff's car ahead.

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Speaker 5: In the distance, he.

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Speaker 1: Sees an eighteen wheeled truck jackknife in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the road. Some cars are parked on the shoulder.

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Speaker 6: I almost turned off because it was so congested. I

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Speaker 6: thought it was a car accident. Yeah, I thought this

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Speaker 6: was going to be one of things where it turns

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Speaker 6: out to be nothing, and I wish that it would

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Speaker 6: have been.

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Speaker 1: Leo keeps driving toward the congestion. A helicopter's on the

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Speaker 1: ground at the scene.

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Speaker 7: Somebody's missing, and you come up on a scene like that,

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Speaker 7: and the helicopters sat down and the ambulances there. You

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Speaker 7: just know, all of a sudden, nobody has to tell

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Speaker 7: you what it is, you know.

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Speaker 6: I saw my father's truck down there on the side

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Speaker 6: of the road and all these other vehicles, and then

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Speaker 6: he was coming out of the woods and he had

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Speaker 6: his hands in his cover and his face, and I

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Speaker 6: knew they had found her. And I didn't even stop

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Speaker 6: the truck. I mean I slowed down and up, and

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Speaker 6: I jumped out and went running, and everything was blending

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Speaker 6: together and going super fast.

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Speaker 1: Leo jumps out of the pickup and runs along the

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Speaker 1: side of the road. Yellow crime scene tape has already

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Speaker 1: been tied between a pine tree and a sign that.

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Speaker 5: Reads no dump of rubbish.

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Speaker 1: The tape cordons off a short sandy road that cuts

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Speaker 1: through the tree line. Beyond it, Leo sees men in

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Speaker 1: suits standing in front of palmetto.

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Speaker 5: Bushes, looking down into a drainage canal.

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Speaker 1: Leo now knows Michelle is back there, and he's trying

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Speaker 1: to push past the deputies to get to her. His

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Speaker 1: dad grabs him and keeps him from reaching the canal,

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Speaker 1: to keep him from seeing Michelle's body.

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Speaker 6: And he kept saying she's gone, And I was trying

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Speaker 6: to hold on to some kind of my mind was

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Speaker 6: doing it, fabricating some kind of possibility that you're not right,

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Speaker 6: She's not dead. It could not possibly end like this.

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Speaker 6: I mean, it's just unreal. And it was like my

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Speaker 6: whole world was just fragmenting, and I wanted so bad

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Speaker 6: to just run back there and just grab her, and

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Speaker 6: if I could just hold her, I'd hold her and

194
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Speaker 6: she'd still be alive. And I, you just I can't.

195
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Speaker 6: It can't end like this. It just it can't end.

196
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Speaker 6: We look too hard, I've been up too long. I'm

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Speaker 6: gonna save her. I mean, it just just I just

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Speaker 6: lost it. I ended up punching the ground. I was

199
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Speaker 6: pulling grass out. I hit the tree, and I kept saying,

200
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Speaker 6: she's not dead, She's not dead. And then all these

201
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,319
Speaker 6: people are coming around, and because I'm flipping out, I

202
00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:43,880
Speaker 6: end up in between these cars.

203
00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,720
Speaker 1: The cops come around one side of the car towards Leo.

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Speaker 1: His dad comes from the other side.

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Speaker 6: And I'm telling him, don't touch me, don't come near me.

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Speaker 6: I want her out now.

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Speaker 3: I just want to.

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Speaker 6: I ended up just falling down and sitting against the

209
00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:10,199
Speaker 6: front tire of a car. I came in glue.

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Speaker 1: Michelle's body is floating face down in a drainage canal

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Speaker 1: off State Road thirty three near an.

212
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Speaker 5: Old phosphate mine.

213
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Speaker 1: There's a large piece of plywood partially covering her body,

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00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:31,400
Speaker 1: resting on her back and legs. She's still wearing the

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00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:33,920
Speaker 1: red pants she wore to work that day and a

216
00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:39,080
Speaker 1: sleeveless white top. Her autopsy would later reveal that she'd

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Speaker 1: been stabbed twenty six times, and scrapes on her back

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00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 1: were consistent with her body being dragged after she was killed.

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Speaker 1: Officer Richard Kachadorian, who talked to Leo and his father

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Speaker 1: the morning after Michelle's disappeared, hears about it.

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Speaker 5: On the news.

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Speaker 8: I remember coming to work one night and there it

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Speaker 8: was on television, and she was found not far from

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Speaker 8: where I'm sitting right now.

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Speaker 1: He feels bad for the Schofields and picks up the

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Speaker 1: phone to offer his condolences. Leo Senior answers, and.

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Speaker 8: It was definitely a very peculiar conversation. He talked about

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Speaker 8: a premonition that he had.

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Speaker 1: What Leo Senior told him was so odd. Katadorian decided

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Speaker 1: to write an official report about the call. His report reads,

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Speaker 1: mister Schofield advised writer that he received a premonition the

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Speaker 1: night prior to the discovery of his daughter in law,

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Speaker 1: possibly from the Lord, advising him where Michelle could be found.

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Speaker 8: He told me on the phone at night that he

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Speaker 8: discovered the body, and the body was in the water,

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Speaker 8: and that she was looking at him, and that she

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Speaker 8: was smiling at him.

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Speaker 1: Michelle was smiling, Leo Senior said, as of saying thank

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Speaker 1: you for finding me. This is especially odd because Michelle

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Speaker 1: was floating face down and had plywood on top of her.

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Speaker 8: It was strange, and that's how I thought of it.

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Speaker 8: It became extremely strange, and I got I mean, it

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Speaker 8: frightened me to a certain degree. And if you know

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Speaker 8: that landscape, you just don't happen upon. You just don't

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Speaker 8: drive down that road and happen upon anything that's really

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Speaker 8: dense vegetation, snake infested water. I mean, do you either

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Speaker 8: have to know something's there, or somebody directed you there,

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Speaker 8: or you knew something was in that area. You know,

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Speaker 8: in hindsight, Gilbert, what I feel he was doing was

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Speaker 8: confessing that was definitely one of the oddest phone calls

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Speaker 8: in my life.

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Speaker 9: Him Flohm, CEO and founder of Lava for Good podcasts,

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Speaker 9: home to Bone Valley, Wrongful Conviction, The War on Drugs,

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Speaker 1: a philanthropic community that partners with America's boldest change makers

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Speaker 1: addiction communities across the country. As a foster mom, Christina

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Speaker 10: There is a piece of wood board that was covering

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Speaker 10: the body.

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Speaker 6: I do have that, so I bring that out. Just

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Speaker 6: been reading about it for months.

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Speaker 5: It's just so funny that it's here.

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Speaker 1: Kelsey and I are talking to Shane Kent, who runs

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Speaker 1: the evidence room in the basement of the Polk County Courthouse.

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Speaker 1: Shane's in his early forties with tattoos, engaged piercings. He's

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Speaker 1: gonna show us all the physical evidence from Michelle Schofield's murder.

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Speaker 10: How's gonna go down is I'm gonna try to keep

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Speaker 10: control out of all the evidence. Sure, I'm gonna be

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Speaker 10: the only one handling it. If I'll drop off piece,

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Speaker 10: let you look at it, examine it, if you want

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Speaker 10: to take pictures of it. The only thing that I

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Speaker 10: do not recommend any pictures being taken is of the

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Speaker 10: victim is any kind of nude, because some of the

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Speaker 10: wounds are in her chest and her bare chest is exposed.

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Speaker 6: So okay, understand, okay, all right, if you want to, guys,

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Speaker 6: have a seat, I'll start bringing Okay, thanks.

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Speaker 1: Every time someone asked to see the evidence from a homicide,

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Speaker 1: the state Attorney's office is notified and they can send

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Speaker 1: someone down to observe. So we have an armed officer

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Speaker 1: with us, and she's going to be watching as we

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Speaker 1: look through all the evidence. Alright, Kelsey and I sit

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Speaker 1: side by side at the table and Shane starts bringing

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Speaker 1: out the evidence. The plywood that was covering Michelle's body

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Speaker 1: in the canal where she was found was found on

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Speaker 1: top of the body. In that little maps of lakeland

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Speaker 1: mounted on foam boards, Michelle's time card from Tom's restaurant.

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Speaker 5: See there's a downy bottle that they found.

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Speaker 1: The blood smeared downy fabric soft in her bottle that

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Speaker 1: was found in the back of the Mazda.

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Speaker 11: The downy bottle very much looked like a downy bottle

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Speaker 11: from the eighties. You know, it wasn't like the one

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Speaker 11: you'd be able to buy at the store today. You know,

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Speaker 11: for me, this all happened before I was born, So

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Speaker 11: seeing some of that stuff, I was able to like

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Speaker 11: better place in time, like, oh my gosh, okay, this

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Speaker 11: happened and it was nineteen eighty seven.

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Speaker 1: Then Shane brings out Michelle's clothes. Each piece is contained

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Speaker 1: in a clear plastic bag.

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Speaker 11: Her jacket, her top, her bra and underwear, and the

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Speaker 11: red pants that she and more to work. That was

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Speaker 11: all there as well, no sense And this is the

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Speaker 11: gray jacket, the jacket and the top. They'd been slashed

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Speaker 11: and there was a lot of dried blood on those items.

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Speaker 5: I look at Kelsey. We both know what's next.

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Speaker 1: Shane starts with photos of Michelle as she was found

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Speaker 1: floating faced down in the canal under the plywood. A

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Speaker 1: few more like that without the plywood. Then he brings

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Speaker 1: out the photographs from the autopsy. There are pictures of

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Speaker 1: her face, her head tilted to one side. She looks

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Speaker 1: like she could be sleeping, except she isn't, and the

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Speaker 1: wounds are horrific. We've been studying this case for months now,

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Speaker 1: but in documents the crime can feel abstract, with Michelle

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Speaker 1: described only as the victim. By this time, we'd met Leo,

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Speaker 1: some of Michelle's friends and family, and now she's no

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Speaker 1: longer some stranger or the victim on an autopsy table,

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Speaker 1: and your heart just breaks trying to imagine the pain

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Speaker 1: and devastation they felt when Michelle was killed. That's all

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Speaker 1: I can think about seeing these photos.

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Speaker 6: That's everything.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a pleasant.

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Speaker 12: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: Not a lot of cases are, no, I know. But

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Speaker 6: I'm gonna need to decompress her.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, yeah, Kelsey and I aren't saying much. On

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Speaker 1: the way back to the parking garage, the summer heat

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Speaker 1: is stifling, and it's the end of the work day,

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Speaker 1: so there are people all around us.

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Speaker 5: We get to our car where we debrief.

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Speaker 11: I mean, I was thinking about her and like the

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Speaker 11: pain she must have felt, and how scared she must

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Speaker 11: have been in those last moments. I think, you know,

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Speaker 11: there's also the proximity and age I was thinking about,

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Speaker 11: you know, also like myself and and all of my

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Speaker 11: friends who are young women and could potentially be in

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Speaker 11: a situation like that.

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Speaker 5: Certa, I can take your time.

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Speaker 1: Grief and heartbreak overwhelm everyone close to Michelle in the

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00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 1: days and nights after her body is discovered. When it

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Speaker 1: comes time to arrange her funeral, Leo is in no

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Speaker 1: shape to help.

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Speaker 6: My dad took over everything. I could not make a

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Speaker 6: solid decision for me for anything. I couldn't decide what

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00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 6: close further where. I couldn't decide what color of the

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Speaker 6: casket should be, what kind of casket should be on

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Speaker 6: those things were so fond to me. How do you

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Speaker 6: decide what kind of casket you put your dead wife in?

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Speaker 1: But there's one detail Leo does care about. Michelle's dad

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Speaker 1: wants a closed casket.

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Speaker 6: Wake, and I just could not leave her without seeing

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Speaker 6: her again. I just could not do it.

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Speaker 1: So Leo makes an arrangement with the funeral home. They'll

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Speaker 1: hold the wake with a closed casket, But an hour

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00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,640
Speaker 1: or so before they'll let Leo c Michelle one last time,

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00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: the funeral director tells him that to view Michelle, they'll

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Speaker 1: need a high necked shirt to cover her wounds.

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Speaker 6: And I was flabbergasted, was like, what wounds? When Michelle

385
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Speaker 6: was murdered? I was originally on the impression all the

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Speaker 6: way up until the wake that she was drown and

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Speaker 6: that's when my father said they were stab wounds.

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Speaker 1: With Leo in his debilitated state, no one had wanted

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Speaker 1: to tell him exactly what happened to Michelle.

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Speaker 6: Obviously I knew somebody had killed her. Why or how

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Speaker 6: was beyond my ability to think. Stabbing her is beyond that,

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Speaker 6: you know, it's just beyond that. And for me, that

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Speaker 6: was the whole thing. Cast again, relive in it all

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Speaker 6: over again, a different scenario, somehow worse than the drowning.

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Speaker 1: At the wake, Leo was given the private moment he

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Speaker 1: wanted to see Michelle one last time.

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Speaker 6: And walked into the viewing area. I have never seen

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Speaker 6: a dead body. I've never been to a wake, I've

399
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 6: never had any experience like that, so I really wasn't

400
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 6: prepared for any of that. And she was laying in

401
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 6: the gasket, and I told myself that I wanted to

402
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Speaker 6: see it because I wanted to kiss her one more time.

403
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 6: She was so cold. I couldn't do it. Immediately. I

404
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 6: felt her hand. She was ice cold, and she didn't

405
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 6: even look like her. I mean, Michelle without life was

406
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Speaker 6: not Michelle. I did manage to him. It took a while.

407
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 6: I managed to kiss her. It didn't help me. I

408
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 6: kept thinking, I gotta just figure out a way. I

409
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 6: gotta go back. All I gotta do is get back

410
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 6: to this minute, the one I was looking for, instead

411
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 6: of going this way. If I just go that way,

412
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 6: I could have ran into the car, you know, but

413
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 6: just any just that minute, if I could just get

414
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 6: back to there, I could I could make it all

415
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 6: go away. And you can't go back. There's no way

416
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 6: to go back. My life has been chasing that going

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Speaker 6: back ever since.

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Speaker 1: After the wake, there's Michelle's funeral. The church is filled

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Speaker 1: with young people and they've come to remember Michelle.

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Speaker 7: We met in fourth grade, and I don't know, we

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00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 7: just we hit it off like right away, you know,

422
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 7: as little kids.

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Speaker 1: This is Michelle McCluskey. She was Michelle Schofield's best friend.

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Speaker 1: As kids, they did gymnastics in the front yard, listen

425
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: to music, and then as they grew into teenagers, they

426
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: would go the roller skating rink almost every night. They

427
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 1: also played a lot of sports with boys in the neighborhood.

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00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 7: She seemed to be kind of good at almost everything.

429
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Speaker 7: I remember always thinking how strong she was. She could

430
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 7: do things physically that a lot of girls our age

431
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 7: couldn't do. She was kind of rough and tumble, you know.

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Speaker 7: She had an older brother and a younger brother. She

433
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 7: wrestled with them and stuff like that. But she was,

434
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 7: you know, she wasn't like a tough girl or anything

435
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:50,560
Speaker 7: like that. She was very sweet and feminine and like

436
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 7: always liked to do her nails and have her hair

437
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 7: done and that kind of stuff too. When we were younger,

438
00:29:57,640 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 7: they lived in a small mobile home. It was a

439
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 7: single wide mobile home and it was so small, but

440
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 7: Ricky had a full drum set in a living room.

441
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: Ricky is Michelle's older brother. The whole family loved music, playing, singing,

442
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: you name it. Ricky and his father, David, both learned

443
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: the drums. Michelle's grandfather played the banjo.

444
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 7: Of course. Then we started listening to rock and roll,

445
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 7: and if you met her, you would never guess that

446
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 7: she liked heavy metal locks, you know what I mean.

447
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: Kelsey and I reached out to Jesse Saum, Michelle's younger brother.

448
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 5: Today.

449
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: He's an artist and we met him at his studio

450
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: in Port Canaveral. It has big garage doors that open

451
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: onto the marina. Dozens of his metal sculptures hang from

452
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: the walls and ceiling. He keeps a picture of Michelle

453
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: at one of his workstations.

454
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 12: She was she was trying to do more musical stuff too.

455
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 12: You know, she was really good at singing and stuff

456
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 12: like that, and I think she was just trying to

457
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 12: find her voice, you know, and was kind of surprising

458
00:30:58,280 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 12: it because everybody has to work and hear the bill,

459
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 12: you know what I mean. But I think that that

460
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 12: was really her kind of creative the thing that she

461
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 12: how she could express herself.

462
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: Jesse and Michelle went to a lot of heavy metal

463
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: shows together when they were growing up. He's only sixteen

464
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: when Michelle moves in with Leo. He comes home one

465
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: afternoon when he hears that Michelle's body has been found.

466
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 12: I think I had come home, uh, And I think

467
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 12: my grandmother actually told me because I don't think my

468
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 12: dad was there. I was hoping not to witness his

469
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 12: state of being at that moment, because you know, he just,

470
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 12: you know, crumpled.

471
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: We asked Jesse if he thinks his dad, David Soalm,

472
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: would talk to us, but Jesse tells us that his

473
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: dad doesn't even like to talk to him about Michelle.

474
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: It's still too painful. As a matter of courtesy, I

475
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: mailed David a letter telling him what I'm doing and

476
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: offering him the opportunity to speak with me or to

477
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: ask any questions.

478
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 5: But I don't hear back from him.

479
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: In the days following Michelle's funeral, Leo is having a

480
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: hard time processing these new details of his wife's death.

481
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 1: Now he's forced to think about the violence Michelle experienced

482
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 1: in her last moments.

483
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 6: I know Michelle, and there's no way that anybody who

484
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 6: knew her was capable of doing this to her. It's

485
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:41,960
Speaker 6: not possible. And so I'm looking for some monstrous thing

486
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 6: that you can't describe in a human form, you know,

487
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 6: it's just a monster.

488
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: Leo and Michelle's friends are also trying to make sense

489
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 1: of Michelle's murder, and they're trying to figure out who

490
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: might be responsible.

491
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 13: It's a time, you know, we were the suspect of

492
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,520
Speaker 13: a lot of different people. You know, you sit around

493
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 13: in your mind, you try to who could have done

494
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 13: something you know as terrible as that.

495
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 1: This is Dave again, the bass player in Leo's band,

496
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: and his wife Liz.

497
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 6: There was a couple of people that.

498
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 13: We wondered about.

499
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,400
Speaker 14: My first reaction when we got the phone call that

500
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 14: night at the same time that this happened, and just

501
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 14: before there was like five girls in the area that

502
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 14: had been killed. One of them was even right down

503
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 14: here off Comby Road, dumped on the railroad track.

504
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: Comby Road is the street where a lot of teenagers

505
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 1: hang out in Lakeland. A lot of crime happens here,

506
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: a lot of theft fights, sometimes murders. It also happens

507
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: to be where Tom's Restaurant is, where Michelle was working

508
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: the night she went missing.

509
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 15: So my first reaction was, oh, my god, it's got

510
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 15: to be that same guy. He's come over here. So

511
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 15: I just that was my first reaction. It was that

512
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 15: serial killer that had been running around I four corridor.

513
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: But their minds always returned to those closest to Michelle,

514
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 1: and word was getting around about how Leo's dad claimed

515
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: a premonition had led him to Michelle's body.

516
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,919
Speaker 13: The Sheriff's department was looking at that and thinking, yeah,

517
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,720
Speaker 13: that don't sound right, you know, And to be honest

518
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 13: with you, there were times when we kind of suspected

519
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,800
Speaker 13: he may have because there again, at a time like that,

520
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 13: it's such a terrible thing, you know, you try to

521
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,320
Speaker 13: figure out who in the world would have done something

522
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 13: like that, you know, That's what.

523
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 1: The Polk County Sheriff's Office would have to figure out.

524
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,479
Speaker 1: Two experienced detectives were assigned to the Michelle Schofield case,

525
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: Detective Weeks and Detective Putnam. I could try to describe them,

526
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: but it might be better coming from the longtime reporter

527
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: for the Lakeland Ledger, Susie SHOTTLECOTTI.

528
00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 16: I was covering cops then, so I do remember having

529
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 16: a lot of murders going on at that point and

530
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 16: a lot of things that went unsolved.

531
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,840
Speaker 1: Susie has been reporting on the courts in Polk County

532
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: for over thirty five years, and she's married to a

533
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:18,120
Speaker 1: retired detective with the Sheriff's office. She knows just about

534
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: everyone in Polk County. First I asked her about Detective

535
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 1: Robert Weeks.

536
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:30,480
Speaker 16: Oh yeah, Weebel webel. Yes, it's little short guy. He's

537
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 16: kind of built like a wee boy, you know, Weebel's wobble.

538
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: Then I asked Susie about Weeks's partner, Detective Putnall.

539
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,799
Speaker 16: Of God, Richard Putnall doctor deaf. Oh god, he has

540
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 16: the personality of a dial tone. I mean they called

541
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,359
Speaker 16: him doctor Deaf because he was always at a crime scene.

542
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:48,360
Speaker 2: But he was.

543
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 16: He was the typical chain smoking, rumpled suit, tall, lanky detective.

544
00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,319
Speaker 16: I mean, he was just what you would imagine an

545
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 16: old krusty. He smelled like smoke all the time.

546
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 6: Detective.

547
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 2: You know.

548
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 1: Kelsey and I tried reaching out to these detectives without luck.

549
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,000
Speaker 1: We sent email, left phone messages, and knocked on doors.

550
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: It was almost like word had gotten out about what

551
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 1: we were doing. Very few people from the Sheriff's office,

552
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: active or retired, wanted to talk to us. But there

553
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: was one guy. His name is Grady Judd. He's the

554
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 1: actual sheriff now, and it's fair to say that he's

555
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: the face and the voice of Polk County.

556
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,879
Speaker 17: This is a wonderful safe community. I love the people here,

557
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 17: and in turn, the community here overwhelmingly cares for each

558
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,920
Speaker 17: other and looks out for each other. It's a good place.

559
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:49,920
Speaker 1: Sheriff Grady Judd is a white man in his mid sixties.

560
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 1: He wears glasses and a green uniform with his sheriff

561
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: star pinned to his chest. He's known for his campy,

562
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,640
Speaker 1: tough on crime press conferences, which often involved props and

563
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: pictures and often go viral on social media. In two

564
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,439
Speaker 1: thousand and six, his deputies chased someone suspected of killing

565
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 1: a police officer into the woods and shot him dead.

566
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:16,240
Speaker 1: After the autopsy, Judd was asked why deputies fired sixty

567
00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: eight bullets into the suspect. That's all the bullets we had,

568
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 1: and we would have shot him more.

569
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 17: He said, we don't choose to shoot people. They choose

570
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 17: for us to shoot them. And if you choose for

571
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 17: us to shoot at you, we're gonna shoot at you

572
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:34,759
Speaker 17: a lot. That's a guarantee.

573
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:38,960
Speaker 1: When we met him, some Lakeland rappers had just released

574
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 1: a new song, duck in Grady Judd, and they made

575
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: a music video that pokes fun at evading cops in

576
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: Polk County.

577
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:47,200
Speaker 5: The sheriff loved it.

578
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 17: Really we got a boom. And by the way, we're

579
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 17: going to do an encore together. It's already schedule. I

580
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 17: told him. I said, they said, can we do an encore?

581
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,000
Speaker 17: And I said yes, I love it because the first

582
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 17: one I didn't have anything to do with it. They

583
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 17: pulled my clips off the YouTube and this one I'm

584
00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:14,359
Speaker 17: going to have a cameo appearance and they said, can

585
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 17: we can we shoot part of it with your swat

586
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 17: vehicle and I said, well, sure you can.

587
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 1: Jud is so popular in Polk County. He recently won

588
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: his fifth consecutive term as sheriff, running unopposed. He tells

589
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,160
Speaker 1: us he grew up in the Cumby area, that same

590
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,799
Speaker 1: part of Lakeland where Michelle worked and where bodies were

591
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 1: turning up.

592
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 17: They used to call me a Comby critter. When I

593
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 17: was a kid. I'd run around talking about being the sheriff,

594
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 17: and they'd say, they're not going to elect some kid

595
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 17: from Comby Road to be the sheriff. I said, yeah,

596
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 17: they are. They're going to let me. They ain't going

597
00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 17: to elect the Comby critter. Well they did here I

598
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 17: am Grady.

599
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,320
Speaker 1: Judd was just eighteen when he joined the Sheriff's office,

600
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: but since he was too young to legally purchase ammunition

601
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:04,080
Speaker 1: for his service weapon, his father had to buy it

602
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:07,759
Speaker 1: for him. Jud quickly rose up the ranks, and just

603
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: a few years before Michelle Schofield's murder, he was supervising

604
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:15,920
Speaker 1: forty four employees, all older than him. And jud is

605
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: the first to admit that it's a pretty bad sign

606
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 1: when a kid in his twenties is running the criminal

607
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:21,759
Speaker 1: investigations unit.

608
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,799
Speaker 17: You know, I like to think that I'm sharper than

609
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 17: the average bear, but that's just a personal opinion of me.

610
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 17: But the reality is, we should have had people with

611
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 17: institutional wisdom running a criminal investigations division back in the day,

612
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:40,760
Speaker 17: and we didn't. So we had a young, upstart college

613
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:46,160
Speaker 17: kid who read a lot and was intuitive when the

614
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,879
Speaker 17: real mature leaders weren't there.

615
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,279
Speaker 1: In Polk County in the nineteen eighties, violent crime was

616
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 1: rising dramatically, and Grady Judd was alarmed and frustrated by

617
00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: the growing number of unsolved homicides. Back then, they didn't

618
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 1: really have the resources to keep up.

619
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 17: We didn't have DNA, we didn't have cell phone tracking,

620
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 17: we didn't have stores and intersections with cameras.

621
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: On top of that, Grady Judd says they didn't have

622
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 1: many experienced homicide detectives back then, and there were too

623
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:25,320
Speaker 1: many murders for them to handle. They'd start working one murder,

624
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: but then another murder would come along and they'd have

625
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 1: to stop what they were doing to move on to

626
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:32,880
Speaker 1: the next one. The year Michelle was killed, the Sheriff's

627
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,759
Speaker 1: office handled twenty seven homicides, its second worst year for

628
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: murders in a decade. There were nine recent murder cases

629
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:43,799
Speaker 1: that had gone cold, and now detectives from the Polk

630
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office had another killing on their hands with

631
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: very little evidence to go on, making matters worse. A

632
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 1: month before Michelle's murder, Polk County Sheriff Dan Daniels, a

633
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: self avowed white supremacist, was forced out of office by

634
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:03,440
Speaker 1: the governor on the same day Michelle's body was found.

635
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 1: There was an overhaul of the department and massive reorganization underway.

636
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: Many officers in the Polk County Sheriff's Office resigned.

637
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 17: I didn't because my goal was to make this organization better,

638
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 17: not run from a challenge. But it was tumultuous during

639
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 17: those days.

640
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 1: With the Sheriff's department in turmoil, Detectives weeks and putnall

641
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: do what they can with the resources available to them.

642
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 1: The first thing they do is canvas Leo and Michelle's neighborhood,

643
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,440
Speaker 1: knocking on doors, and they begin to hear stories from

644
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 1: neighbors of arguments and loud noises coming from the young

645
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: couple's trailer, but nobody had seen or heard anything unusual

646
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:51,880
Speaker 1: on the night Michelle disappeared until Detective Weeks shows up

647
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 1: at the trailer of Ricky and Alice Scott, who live

648
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: across the street from Leo and Michelle. Ricky didn't see anything,

649
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: but he says he's concerned about his wife getting involved

650
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: in the investigation. Alice, who's in her mid thirties, stays

651
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 1: up late and she's the neighborhood busybody. She's been known

652
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:18,239
Speaker 1: to call the cops on kids for riding bikes on

653
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: her lawn, and she tells Detective Weeks that yes, she

654
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:22,440
Speaker 1: did see.

655
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:24,680
Speaker 5: Something suspicious on the night Michelle disappeared.

656
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 1: She says she heard a noise and looked out her

657
00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: bathroom window. The Schofields pulled up to their trailer in

658
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: the Mazda. She watched as Leo and Michelle went inside.

659
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: Then Alice says she hears a scream. She says she

660
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: stays at the window waiting until Leo emerges from the trailer.

661
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,680
Speaker 1: He's carrying something large and heavy that he places in

662
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 1: the back of the Mazda. He closes the hatch, starts

663
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 1: the car, and away With that single statement, Alice Scott

664
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 1: puts the investigations focused squarely on Leo.

665
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 17: Eyewitness testimony is not your best evidence because people in

666
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 17: a traumatic event, perception can be skewed. They mean well,

667
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,360
Speaker 17: some don't mean well. Some there's an ulterior motive. But

668
00:43:29,520 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 17: for the most part, your eyewitnesses mean well, but they're

669
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:38,239
Speaker 17: scared to death and their perceptions may not be exactly

670
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 17: as it occurred. But if somebody didn't talk, it was

671
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 17: hard to solve a murder.

672
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: Back then, as detectives weeks in Putnall interview Leo and

673
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,480
Speaker 1: Michelle's friends and former roommates, they learned that the young

674
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:57,800
Speaker 1: couple had a volatile relationship. There were stories about loud

675
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: arguments in the trailer, Leo screaming at Michelle, some noises

676
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 1: that sounded like slaps, red marks on Michelle's face, stories

677
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: of Leo dragging Michelle by the hair. As the days

678
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 1: turned to weeks after Michelle's murder, Leo can feel people looking.

679
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:19,040
Speaker 5: At him differently.

680
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: Word is getting out now that there's a witness pointing

681
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,879
Speaker 1: to Leo as the main suspect. At one point, Leo

682
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 1: calls Michelle's dad, David Salm.

683
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 6: He said that he was informed by doctor Weeks to

684
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 6: not have any contact with me until this was over,

685
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:42,239
Speaker 6: that they believed that I did it. And I said

686
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:46,719
Speaker 6: to him, you don't believe that, David, And he said

687
00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:53,320
Speaker 6: I don't know. And I was silent for a few seconds,

688
00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 6: and I said, okay, all right, and that it was

689
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 6: the last time I suppo to him. I understand his pain,

690
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,760
Speaker 6: but when he said that, it really really hurt, because

691
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 6: you should know me better than that. But he needed

692
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 6: something to hang that had on, you know, something to

693
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 6: makes sense, like we all did. But when he said that,

694
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:23,359
Speaker 6: I really really started feeling the way coming down.

695
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:27,399
Speaker 1: And it's not just Michelle's dad who turns his back

696
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: on Leo. Michelle's friends are talking to detectives too.

697
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 7: Michelle was a very very beautiful girl, and she always

698
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:40,279
Speaker 7: dated very nice looking boy And when I met him,

699
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:44,400
Speaker 7: he just didn't seem like the kind of person that

700
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:48,000
Speaker 7: I would think she would be interested in. He was

701
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 7: kind of small bill, kind of grungy, and he just

702
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:55,360
Speaker 7: didn't seem that attractive to me. It just it just

703
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:58,800
Speaker 7: rubbed me weird. I just didn't understand what she was

704
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,719
Speaker 7: so interested about, you know, I don't know.

705
00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: Michelle McCluskey was the maid of honor at Leo and

706
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 1: Michelle's wedding, but she still had her doubts.

707
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 7: I remember not not being sure that it was a

708
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:18,960
Speaker 7: good thing for her and being concerned, you know, but

709
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 7: she just she always convinced me it was okay. If

710
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:25,800
Speaker 7: they were not getting along or she was unhappy or

711
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:27,800
Speaker 7: anything like that, she didn't tell me.

712
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:32,680
Speaker 1: But after Michelle went missing, Michelle McCluskey remembers one moment

713
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: in particular, after her first night of searching for her

714
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:39,000
Speaker 1: best friend, when questions about Leo's started.

715
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:39,120
Speaker 5: To creep in.

716
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,680
Speaker 7: We spent that whole day looking for her and stuff.

717
00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 7: And it was sometime laid into the night, and we

718
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 7: went back to their house and I fell asleep on

719
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 7: the couch and then I heard a noise or something.

720
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 7: I woke up and he was standing in the living

721
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 7: room with the front door open, just kind of looking outside.

722
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 7: And that was the first time that I thought what if,

723
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 7: Like what if he did something to her, and it

724
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:12,400
Speaker 7: made me kind of scared that I was there along

725
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:12,759
Speaker 7: with him.

726
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:18,520
Speaker 1: Soon, Michelle McCluskey would learn that Leo's neighbor, Alice Scott,

727
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: told detective she heard Michelle's scream then saw Leo carrying

728
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:28,320
Speaker 1: something heavy to the Mazda. If that was true, it

729
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,360
Speaker 1: would mean that Michelle McCluskey was sleeping at the crime

730
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 1: scene where her best friend had been violently murdered the

731
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 1: night before by the man she was now.

732
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,360
Speaker 7: Alone with being in the house the next day and

733
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 7: there's no blood, nothing's broken, no holes in the wall, no,

734
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:48,560
Speaker 7: you know, there's no sign that anything like that happened

735
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:53,480
Speaker 7: in their house. So I just thought, well, that just

736
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 7: doesn't make sense. I had decided there was no way

737
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 7: he could have done it because blood would have been

738
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:02,919
Speaker 7: all over the house and it wasn't.

739
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 1: But what Michelle McCluskey didn't know was that busybody. Neighbor

740
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:12,680
Speaker 1: Alice Scott told police that she saw something else. The

741
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:18,640
Speaker 1: day after Michelle Schofield went missing, Leo bringing a carpet

742
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:39,880
Speaker 1: cleaner into the trailer. Detectives Weeks and Putnall continue to

743
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: question Leo, and he can feel the pressure mounting and

744
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:46,800
Speaker 1: because he feels that he has nothing to hide, he

745
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:48,840
Speaker 1: never even thinks to bring a lawyer along.

746
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:53,200
Speaker 6: The fact that you're questioning me about the murder of

747
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 6: my own life was extremely uncomfortable. I've told this story

748
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 6: of zillion times. It doesn't change. I don't have any

749
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,960
Speaker 6: answers to what actually took place because I wasn't there

750
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 6: to be in that position. It's beyond trying to prove

751
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 6: your innocence. It's beyond that there's a sludge that covers

752
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:23,359
Speaker 6: you when you're being questioned for such a thing. We're

753
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:25,960
Speaker 6: not talking about robin a store, or a cocaine charge

754
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:27,719
Speaker 6: or something, and we're not even talking about a murder,

755
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 6: which is bad enough. This is the murder of my wife,

756
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:33,320
Speaker 6: whom I love, and now I'm forced to prove that

757
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 6: to someone I've never met before and obviously doesn't have

758
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 6: any idea who I am.

759
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:44,839
Speaker 1: Leo asked to take a lie detector test. He wants

760
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:49,240
Speaker 1: to prove his innocence, and Detective Weeks obliges. Weeks brings

761
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: in a guy from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

762
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: The examiner focuses on three questions, did you stab Michelle

763
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:03,280
Speaker 1: Leo answers no, Oh, did you stab Michelle with a knife?

764
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 11: No?

765
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 1: Did your mother lie about your activities that night?

766
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 2: No?

767
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 1: The polygraph examiner tells Leo he flunked, tells him, I

768
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:20,040
Speaker 1: think you killed your wife. Armed with the lie detective results,

769
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 1: Weeks and Putnall continue to interview people close to the couple.

770
00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:27,919
Speaker 6: Weeks and his team are going around spreading all kinds

771
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 6: of stuff. My friends are looking at me strange. I

772
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 6: can feel it, you can feel the difference. And on

773
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:35,800
Speaker 6: top of everything, I lost Michelle.

774
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:40,880
Speaker 1: Months pass with Leo as the main suspect, yet no

775
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 1: evidence is turning up that connects him to Michelle's murder.

776
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:46,920
Speaker 1: The clothes he was wearing that night had no blood

777
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: on them. Detectives don't have a murder weapon. They have

778
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:56,480
Speaker 1: an alleged failed polygraph. But polygraph tests don't actually detect lies.

779
00:50:57,000 --> 00:51:01,439
Speaker 1: They really only measure anxiety. The US Supreme Court ruled

780
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 1: that polygraph tests are not reliable and their results are

781
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: not admissible evidence.

782
00:51:06,239 --> 00:51:06,800
Speaker 5: In Florida.

783
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,719
Speaker 1: The detectives have statements about Leo's temper and his relationship

784
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 1: with Michelle, and a statement from Alice Scott, who claims

785
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:19,920
Speaker 1: to have seen something the night Michelle disappeared. Still, the

786
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:22,880
Speaker 1: State Attorney's office is looking over all the evidence and

787
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,600
Speaker 1: they don't think detectives have enough to arrest Leo. Yet

788
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:30,360
Speaker 1: there's other evidence, like the fingerprints found in Michelle's Mazda.

789
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,640
Speaker 1: There were just two sets of prints that were lifted

790
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:36,560
Speaker 1: from inside the car, and when they didn't match Leo

791
00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 1: or Michelle or Leo Senior, the Sheriff's office stops looking

792
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: for possible matches. But what's strange is that Leo and

793
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:47,960
Speaker 1: Michelle's prints aren't even in the car, which they should

794
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:48,960
Speaker 1: have been because.

795
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:49,359
Speaker 5: It's their car.

796
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:52,800
Speaker 1: When I first saw that in the Florida Department of

797
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,440
Speaker 1: Law Enforcements report, I wondered if someone wiped down the fingerprints.

798
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: Crime scene technicians also exact and Leo and Michelle's trailer.

799
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:05,919
Speaker 1: If Alice Scott's eyewitness statement is true that she heard

800
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:09,480
Speaker 1: Michelle's scream then saw Leo carrying something heavy like a

801
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:12,840
Speaker 1: body and place it in the Mazda, that makes the

802
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:18,080
Speaker 1: trailer the scene of the crime. The medical examiner concludes

803
00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: that Michelle lost approximately five pints of blood, but they

804
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 1: don't find anything you'd expect to find in the trailer

805
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: after someone has been stabbed twenty six times. Inside, there

806
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:34,279
Speaker 1: is no blood, just like Michelle McCluskey noticed, and no

807
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 1: signs that the carpet had been cleaned, which there should

808
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,280
Speaker 1: have been if Leo used the carpet cleaner. Alice Scott

809
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:42,960
Speaker 1: claims she saw him bringing into the trailer the day

810
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:49,320
Speaker 1: after Michelle disappeared. Instead, most of Michelle Schofield's blood was

811
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:52,440
Speaker 1: found in the dirt near the canal where.

812
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 5: Her body was discovered.

813
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 1: Nearly half of female homicide victims are killed by their partners,

814
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:02,279
Speaker 1: and the majority of those homicides are carried out by

815
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 1: a male partner, so it makes sense that detectives would

816
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: be suspicious of Leo, but there's no physical evidence connecting

817
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:13,200
Speaker 1: Leo to the crime, so the case stalls for months

818
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: with no arrest. By the end of nineteen eighty seven,

819
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:24,120
Speaker 1: with no new developments, the murder of Michelle Scofield is

820
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:28,160
Speaker 1: going cold. The Polk County Sheriff's Office now has ten

821
00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 1: unsolved murders on the books, but there's a new homicide prosecutor,

822
00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:38,040
Speaker 1: Assistant State Attorney John Aguero. His job is to get

823
00:53:38,080 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 1: the evidence from the detectives and convict someone for the

824
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 1: murder of Michelle Schofield. He's young, smart, and very aggressive.

825
00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 1: Aguero takes a look at the Michelle Scofield case file

826
00:53:50,480 --> 00:53:54,720
Speaker 1: and he thinks he sees something. He reads Officer Kachadorian's

827
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 1: report about his conversation with Leo Senior, and Aguero thinks

828
00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:02,360
Speaker 1: there's something weird going on with the father. A vision

829
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:05,960
Speaker 1: from God led him to Michelle's body in a phosphate

830
00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:08,399
Speaker 1: drainage canal that can't even be seen from the road.

831
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 1: Aguero is certain that Leo's father is somehow involved. His

832
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 1: so called vision from God that called him to Michelle's

833
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 1: body is just too suspicious to ignore, so Assistant State

834
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:26,000
Speaker 1: Attorney John Aguero sends detectives weeks in putnall back out

835
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,160
Speaker 1: for a few more rounds of questioning with Leo, and

836
00:54:29,239 --> 00:54:30,320
Speaker 1: there's a new focus.

837
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 6: No, it's not about me anymore. They're both good cops,

838
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:35,439
Speaker 6: and we're going to talk about my dad.

839
00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:38,480
Speaker 5: But the detectives don't get what they want.

840
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 1: Leo says he doesn't know anything about Michelle's murder, and

841
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: if Leo thought his dad had something to do with it,

842
00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:50,279
Speaker 1: he'd give up any information he had. Not long after this,

843
00:54:50,880 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 1: Leo is a passenger and a serious car crash where

844
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:58,239
Speaker 1: he breaks his neck. He's hospitalized then released, but has

845
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 1: to wear a metal neck brace for a while. He

846
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:06,320
Speaker 1: decides he's done with Florida. By this point, Leo's parents

847
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:10,600
Speaker 1: have moved back to Massachusetts. Leo tell's detective Weeks he's

848
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:14,640
Speaker 1: moving back up north, gives him contact information in Massachusetts,

849
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: and asks the detective to let him know if they

850
00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:22,840
Speaker 1: learn anything new about Michelle's murder. It's now May of

851
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:26,120
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. Michelle has been dead for more than

852
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 1: fifteen months. John Aguero, the prosecutor, is frustrated by the

853
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:35,600
Speaker 1: investigation's lack of progress, so he decides he wants to

854
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:40,880
Speaker 1: talk to the neighbor Alice Scott himself. Alice points Aguero

855
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,640
Speaker 1: to Randy and Mary Laffoon, a neighborhood couple that delivers

856
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: newspapers around Lakeland. Detective Weeks interviewed them both a year before,

857
00:55:50,200 --> 00:55:52,520
Speaker 1: but they said they didn't notice anything unusual on the

858
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:58,800
Speaker 1: night Michelle disappeared. But now under Aguero's questioning, the couple

859
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:02,279
Speaker 1: tells the prosecutor they remember seeing an orange Mazda and

860
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 1: a pickup truck just like the one Leo's senior drives

861
00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:09,919
Speaker 1: they were parked right where Michelle's body was found, and now,

862
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 1: fifteen months later, they say they saw those vehicles in

863
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:18,040
Speaker 1: the early morning hours of February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven,

864
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:23,240
Speaker 1: the night Michelle disappeared. Aguero might not have the evidence

865
00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:26,319
Speaker 1: to charge Leo's senior yet, but with the statements from

866
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,640
Speaker 1: Alice Scott and the Laffoons, he thinks he has enough

867
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 1: to charge Leo. So in June of nineteen eighty eight,

868
00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 1: Leo is indicted for first degree murder, a charge punishable

869
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 1: by death in Florida. Aguero notifies police in Massachusetts and

870
00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:46,239
Speaker 1: he gets on a plane with Detective Weeks to take

871
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:51,719
Speaker 1: Leo into custody. Leo knows they're coming, but before he surrenders,

872
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:54,240
Speaker 1: he goes up to the roof of an apartment building

873
00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:56,800
Speaker 1: he and his dad are painting, and he takes what

874
00:56:56,920 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: could be his last look over the neighborhood he grew

875
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:03,040
Speaker 1: up in. He's just a few stories up and his

876
00:57:03,200 --> 00:57:04,120
Speaker 1: father joins him.

877
00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 6: And of course, I've never been arrested for anything, so

878
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:12,200
Speaker 6: I'm pretty scared. I'm in a panic, and Dad's not

879
00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 6: saying anything. I actually went out on the roof and

880
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:17,080
Speaker 6: I went out and I stood on the edge of

881
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:22,280
Speaker 6: the thing, and I'm not gonna lie. I honestly stood

882
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,360
Speaker 6: there thinking and I should just drop off of it

883
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:27,920
Speaker 6: and be done. You know, I'm not gonna let these

884
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:28,800
Speaker 6: people take.

885
00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:29,320
Speaker 11: Me through hell.

886
00:57:29,920 --> 00:57:32,320
Speaker 6: You know you're not listening to the truth, don't care

887
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:38,440
Speaker 6: about the truth. And my dad said something really crazy.

888
00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:43,480
Speaker 6: He said, if you did it, jump.

889
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:50,160
Speaker 1: Leo's wife has been murdered, his friends have mostly abandoned him,

890
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 1: and now his own family is cracking under the pressure.

891
00:57:55,680 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 6: If all you can think is that I did it,

892
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:02,920
Speaker 6: then obviously you're not caring who killed Michelle. I did

893
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:08,520
Speaker 6: not kill Michelle, And at some point I just decided

894
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:11,000
Speaker 6: I'm going to stand for my wife.

895
00:58:12,760 --> 00:58:15,120
Speaker 1: Leo goes to the office of a local lawyer who

896
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:20,680
Speaker 1: has arranged for the arrest and they wait. Then Leo

897
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 1: notices movement outside the window. He turns to the lawyer.

898
00:58:25,800 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 6: I said that they're outside your window. And the swat

899
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:31,280
Speaker 6: team was outside the window with their rifles, so I

900
00:58:31,400 --> 00:58:35,600
Speaker 6: know they had surrounded the building. And no siner did

901
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 6: I say that they came in the office. They kicked

902
00:58:38,280 --> 00:58:42,040
Speaker 6: them the door, and this came right off in there.

903
00:58:42,680 --> 00:58:47,680
Speaker 6: And weeks was there. Aguero was there, and they picked

904
00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 6: me up, handcuffed me. I told Weeks, you're making a mistake.

905
00:58:56,120 --> 00:59:01,920
Speaker 6: I kept saying that you're making a mistake. He didn't

906
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 6: respond to that at all.

907
00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:08,280
Speaker 1: Leo has brought before a Massachusetts judge who tells him

908
00:59:08,280 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 1: he can fight extradition to Florida if he wants, but

909
00:59:11,640 --> 00:59:15,360
Speaker 1: Leo waves that right. He says he'll go willingly and

910
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 1: gets in a car with the prosecutor.

911
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:19,920
Speaker 5: John Aguero now told of gar.

912
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 6: When we were driving to Logan Airport in Massachusetts, he

913
00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:27,560
Speaker 6: asked me, how do you like the car? We're in

914
00:59:27,640 --> 00:59:30,640
Speaker 6: a red Cadillac, and he said, how do you like

915
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 6: the car? I said, and I like it. It's nice.

916
00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:37,880
Speaker 6: I'm gonna make you drive me back in it. You're

917
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:41,640
Speaker 6: driving me to Massachusetts in a red Cadillac.

918
00:59:45,280 --> 00:59:47,920
Speaker 1: Leo is escorted onto the plane for the flight back

919
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:52,400
Speaker 1: to Florida by Detective Weeks and John Aguero. Leo is

920
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:55,560
Speaker 1: just twenty two years old, and tonight he's going to

921
00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 1: be sleeping in the Polk County jail.

922
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:02,080
Speaker 6: I remember asking we because he sat by me on

923
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:06,680
Speaker 6: the plane and I asked him to not stop looking,

924
01:00:07,320 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 6: to continue looking, and he said why would I do that?

925
01:00:11,840 --> 01:00:16,240
Speaker 6: And I said, because I'm not guilty of killing Michelle.

926
01:00:18,480 --> 01:00:21,720
Speaker 6: And he said, well, if I believe that, you wouldn't

927
01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 6: be here.

928
01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 1: That's when Leo turns to the other man sitting by him,

929
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 1: Prosecutor John Aguero. Leo catches a glimpse of something shiny

930
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:36,720
Speaker 1: on Aguero's tie. It's a tie clasp with some kind

931
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:40,760
Speaker 1: of design. Leo leans in to get a closer look.

932
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:53,600
Speaker 1: It's old, sparky Florida's Electric Chair. Bone Valley is a

933
01:00:53,680 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal

934
01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:01,680
Speaker 1: Company Number One. Our executive ducers are Jason Flam and

935
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: Kevin Wordiska Kornhaber is our senior producer. Brit Spangler is

936
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 1: our sound designer. Roxandra Guidy is our editor. Fact checking

937
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:17,080
Speaker 1: by Maximo Anderson. Our producer and researcher is Kelsey Decker.

938
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:21,320
Speaker 1: Our theme song, The One Who's Holding the Stars, is

939
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:24,240
Speaker 1: performed by Lee Bob and the Truth. It was written

940
01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:28,280
Speaker 1: by Leo Schofield and Kevin Herrick in Florida's Hearty Correctional Institution.

941
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,680
Speaker 1: Bone Valley is written and produced by me Gilbert King.

942
01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:37,440
Speaker 1: You can follow the show on Instagram. Facebook, and Twitter

943
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:41,080
Speaker 1: at Lava for Good to see photos and documents from

944
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:45,040
Speaker 1: our investigation and exclusive behind the scenes content. Visit Lava

945
01:01:45,120 --> 01:01:47,360
Speaker 1: Forgood dot com, slash Bone Valley