WEBVTT - Combee Critters 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.520 It's eighteen eighty one. Captain J. Francis le Baron of 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.119 the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is surveying Central Florida. 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.600 As he travels up the Peace River in Polk County, 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:18.079 he finds something fossils, tons of them along the sandy 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:23.079 banks of the Peace River, giant shark, teethed whale skulls, 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:29.320 and prehistoric mastadon bones. Captain le Baron collects nine barrels 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.000 worth of fossils and has them shipped off to a 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:38.280 professor at the Smithsonian Institution. A few years later, Captain 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.720 le Baron returns to the region. As he's digging through 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.919 the sandbars of the Peace River amongst the bones from 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:50.520 millions of years ago, he makes another discovery. All the bones, 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.520 all the decomposition had left Central Florida rich in phosphate, 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.200 a mineral left over from the creatures that lived and 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.880 died in an around the ancient sea that once covered Florida, 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.760 and phosphate, it turns out, is a valuable ingredient for 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:14.520 making fertilizer. They called it white gold. There's interest in 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.120 the fossils, but palaeontologists don't get the chance to dig 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:23.480 because the mining companies get there first. Soon, Polk County 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.039 became the self proclaimed phosphate capital of the world, and 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.400 the area was producing three quarters of the nation's supply. 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.360 By the late nineteenth century. Railroad tracks had sprung out 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.240 in every direction across the region, which helped move all 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:44.000 that phosphate. There was a lot of work and not 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.000 enough workers to get the job done, so phosphate companies 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.720 paid a fee to the state of Florida in exchange 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:55.920 for prisoners to fill the labor shortage. Black men arrested 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:00.000 for petty crimes were forced to dig ditches and push wheelbacks. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:05.639 Was full of white rock while underguard. It had become 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:12.400 a new form of slavery. 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.720 This song that called Shove it Over, and it's a 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.800 line in rhythm, pretty generally distributed all over Florida. It 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.320 was sung to me by Charlie Jones on railroad construction 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.480 camp near Lakeland, Florida. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.679 This is Zora Neil Hurston, the novelist who became a 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.120 central figure in the African American cultural revival of the 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.839 nineteen twenties and thirties known as the Harlem Renaissance. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.640 When I get in a land noise, I'm going to 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.160 spread the news about the Florida Boy. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.680 Hurston grew up in central Florida, and in nineteen twenty 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.680 seven she moved to Polk County to collect and record 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.760 stories and work songs from Black Southerners, songs that were 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.800 down from generations. Some of the workers who taught Hurston 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.120 these songs were setting down railroad tracks and working in 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.799 the mines to move phosphate. Hurston described these men who 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.120 worked long, hard hours in Polk County in her memoir 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.320 dust tracks on a road they go down in the 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.200 phosphate mines, Hurston wrote, and bring up the wet dust 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.720 of the bones of prehistoric monsters to make rich land 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.240 in far places so that people can eat. But all 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.320 of it is not dust. Huge ribs twenty feet from 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.200 belly to backbone, some old time sea monster caught in 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.720 the shallows, shark teeth as wide as the hand of 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.360 a working man. It was these fossils tossed to the 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.120 side by mining operations that gave this region its new 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:58.360 name Bone Valley. As the decades passed, phosphate mining evolved. 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:03.200 Instead of convict with shovels, they started using dragline machines 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:08.240 like the one operated by Michelle Schofield's father, David's Palm. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.400 These giant machines excavate the top soil and produce towering 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.040 two hundred foot mountains of white sand called gypsum stacks 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.240 that loom over the Polk County horizon. By the nineteen eighties, 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.799 some of the mines in northern Polk County shut down 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.960 after depleting the soil of its phosphate, and mining operations 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.360 moved further south, but you can still see the scars 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.800 the industry left behind. The mined out areas were left 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.400 to be reclaimed by nature. Dense vegetation grew around these 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.440 deep mining pits that filled with water, which is why 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.919 you see these long, narrow bodies of water in the region, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.560 like the ones in North Lakeland where Leo, his dad 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.200 and friends continue their search from Michelle Schofield. 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:17.960 Do you my maness, I have to have my feet 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:28.240 saw rule deps sarrangleists in this vallyity. 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:49.480 I see relation about a breach das rash to the world. 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:57.760 Who's holding the stars to the warm solding. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:32.719 Store Bone Valley Chapter two comby Critters. It's been almost 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.360 forty eight hours since Michelle went missing. There was no 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.800 sign of her until one of Leo's friends saw the 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.039 orange Mazda just off the eastbound side of I four, 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.760 a major highway that runs through Polk County and connects 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:46.880 Tampa and Orlando. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.000 Now a new wave of panic washes. 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.440 Over Leo as he and his father's speed to where 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.840 the Mazda was seen. A few of Leo's friends and 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:58.480 Michelle's dad followed them there. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.440 We get to the car, We find the car. Obviously 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:04.920 we didn't touch the car. I didn't want anybody to 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.200 touch the car. And we looked at it. We had flashlights, 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:08.960 and you know, obviously it was mine. 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.520 But there's no sign of Michelle. It's nearly midnight. Leo 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.320 knows he needs to call the sheriff to get someone 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.600 out here and quick. The car is right by the 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.760 Polk City exit ramp on a rural stretch of the interstate. 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.280 I didn't even know where I was at. I mean, 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.040 I wasn't lost, but I've never been in this area. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.480 So I went up on the embankment. I climbed the embankment, 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.200 got up on the road, and you couldn't see a 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.760 store from the highway, but I went up anyway to 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:38.720 look and when I get up to that overpass and 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.120 walked just a few feet up behind a tree line. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.360 There was a store up there, and there was a 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.840 pay phone, so I went over there and I made 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.280 a call to the Sheriff's department, and I told them 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.320 that I told him who I was, told him where 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.040 I was, and that we had found the car on 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.280 the side of the road. They asked me if I 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.640 was going to take it home. I said, you're apparently 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.920 not understanding who I am. My wife is still missing. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.840 I found her car, I did not find her. I 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.800 need some help. I'm expecting we'll be right there, mister Scofield, 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:16.560 you know what I mean. And Batman shows up and 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.640 everything gets fixed and stuff, and it didn't work that way. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:28.040 Finally deputies arrive and the crime scene unit is called in. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.800 They start inspecting the car. Some stereo equipment in the 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:38.920 Mazda is missing. Leo doesn't want to waste any more time. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.920 He wants to start searching the area for Michelle. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.920 I told the detective Russell, I'm going to be out 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.040 here in the ditches and in the medium and of 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:50.840 vye for looking for anything. 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.520 But the deputy tells Leo to wait because they're going 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.280 to fly a helicopter over the area at sunrise. So 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.360 Leo and the rest of the search party a few 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:01.640 hours sleep before. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:02.080 Meeting up again. 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.000 I literally am there at daybreak, and so the plan 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:08.400 was to search I four. 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:14.120 They search both sides of the highway, including the Median. Leo, 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.840 his dad, his friends, and Michelle's family cover the six 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.800 plus miles of I four until they reached the exit 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.760 for State Road thirty three. There's no sign of Michelle. 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.240 Nobody that we knew from nobody. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:37.600 This is Michelle McCluskey. She's Michelle Schofield's best friend. It's 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.200 mid morning now. When they come on to State Road 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.599 thirty three, which connects I four, the highway where the 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.160 car was found to Cumby Road, which was Michelle's last 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.360 known location, they decide to split up. Leo's father will 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.800 start searching one end of State Road thirty three. Leo 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.079 and Michelle McCluskey will start at the other end of 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.719 State Road thirty three, and they play to meet Leo 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.920 Senior somewhere in the middle. So Leo and Michelle McCluskey 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:06.840 jump into her boyfriend's pickup truck. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.720 I was just terrified and just really focused on really 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:13.560 trying to find her. 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.960 It's slow searching. They walk a stretch of the road, 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.160 get back in the truck, pull up a bit, get 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:22.080 out and search again. 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.120 One Michelle McCluskey and I were looking in one particular area. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.120 There was a sheriff's car that went by real fast, 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.839 headed down thirty three toward where my father was looking, 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:37.480 and the second car went by. I said, I'm following this. 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:38.319 Something's going on. 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.280 Leo jumps in the pickup with Michelle McCluskey in the 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.040 passenger seat and tries to catch the sheriff's car ahead. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:47.160 In the distance, he. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.800 Sees an eighteen wheeled truck jackknife in the middle of 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.439 the road. Some cars are parked on the shoulder. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.640 I almost turned off because it was so congested. I 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.760 thought it was a car accident. Yeah, I thought this 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.040 was going to be one of things where it turns 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.680 out to be nothing, and I wish that it would 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:04.960 have been. 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.599 Leo keeps driving toward the congestion. A helicopter's on the 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:11.560 ground at the scene. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.959 Somebody's missing, and you come up on a scene like that, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:20.079 and the helicopters sat down and the ambulances there. You 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.280 just know, all of a sudden, nobody has to tell 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:23.760 you what it is, you know. 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.640 I saw my father's truck down there on the side 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.400 of the road and all these other vehicles, and then 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.240 he was coming out of the woods and he had 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.719 his hands in his cover and his face, and I 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:40.400 knew they had found her. And I didn't even stop 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.079 the truck. I mean I slowed down and up, and 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:47.320 I jumped out and went running, and everything was blending 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:48.880 together and going super fast. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.760 Leo jumps out of the pickup and runs along the 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.600 side of the road. Yellow crime scene tape has already 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.880 been tied between a pine tree and a sign that. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:00.720 Reads no dump of rubbish. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.120 The tape cordons off a short sandy road that cuts 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:10.040 through the tree line. Beyond it, Leo sees men in 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.840 suits standing in front of palmetto. 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.319 Bushes, looking down into a drainage canal. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.640 Leo now knows Michelle is back there, and he's trying 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.040 to push past the deputies to get to her. His 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.880 dad grabs him and keeps him from reaching the canal, 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.280 to keep him from seeing Michelle's body. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:38.760 And he kept saying she's gone, And I was trying 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.959 to hold on to some kind of my mind was 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:47.040 doing it, fabricating some kind of possibility that you're not right, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.360 She's not dead. It could not possibly end like this. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.160 I mean, it's just unreal. And it was like my 0:12:56.320 --> 0:13:02.520 whole world was just fragmenting, and I wanted so bad 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.839 to just run back there and just grab her, and 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.880 if I could just hold her, I'd hold her and 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.920 she'd still be alive. And I, you just I can't. 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.360 It can't end like this. It just it can't end. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.920 We look too hard, I've been up too long. I'm 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.800 gonna save her. I mean, it just just I just 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:30.199 lost it. I ended up punching the ground. I was 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:35.240 pulling grass out. I hit the tree, and I kept saying, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.840 she's not dead, She's not dead. And then all these 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.319 people are coming around, and because I'm flipping out, I 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:43.880 end up in between these cars. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.720 The cops come around one side of the car towards Leo. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:50.480 His dad comes from the other side. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:57.480 And I'm telling him, don't touch me, don't come near me. 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.520 I want her out now. 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:01.760 I just want to. 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.599 I ended up just falling down and sitting against the 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.199 front tire of a car. I came in glue. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.160 Michelle's body is floating face down in a drainage canal 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.040 off State Road thirty three near an. 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:22.200 Old phosphate mine. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.760 There's a large piece of plywood partially covering her body, 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.400 resting on her back and legs. She's still wearing the 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.920 red pants she wore to work that day and a 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:39.080 sleeveless white top. Her autopsy would later reveal that she'd 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.600 been stabbed twenty six times, and scrapes on her back 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.800 were consistent with her body being dragged after she was killed. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.800 Officer Richard Kachadorian, who talked to Leo and his father 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.800 the morning after Michelle's disappeared, hears about it. 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:02.320 On the news. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:05.720 I remember coming to work one night and there it 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.720 was on television, and she was found not far from 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:09.840 where I'm sitting right now. 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.360 He feels bad for the Schofields and picks up the 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:18.600 phone to offer his condolences. Leo Senior answers, and. 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:26.440 It was definitely a very peculiar conversation. He talked about 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:27.600 a premonition that he had. 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.480 What Leo Senior told him was so odd. Katadorian decided 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.280 to write an official report about the call. His report reads, 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.440 mister Schofield advised writer that he received a premonition the 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.000 night prior to the discovery of his daughter in law, 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.240 possibly from the Lord, advising him where Michelle could be found. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:50.720 He told me on the phone at night that he 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.840 discovered the body, and the body was in the water, 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.520 and that she was looking at him, and that she 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:56.520 was smiling at him. 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.720 Michelle was smiling, Leo Senior said, as of saying thank 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.520 you for finding me. This is especially odd because Michelle 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.920 was floating face down and had plywood on top of her. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.000 It was strange, and that's how I thought of it. 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:17.480 It became extremely strange, and I got I mean, it 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.440 frightened me to a certain degree. And if you know 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:25.000 that landscape, you just don't happen upon. You just don't 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.000 drive down that road and happen upon anything that's really 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.600 dense vegetation, snake infested water. I mean, do you either 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:36.120 have to know something's there, or somebody directed you there, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.920 or you knew something was in that area. You know, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.080 in hindsight, Gilbert, what I feel he was doing was 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:49.400 confessing that was definitely one of the oddest phone calls 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:50.400 in my life. 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.160 Him Flohm, CEO and founder of Lava for Good podcasts, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.359 home to Bone Valley, Wrongful Conviction, The War on Drugs, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.120 and many other great podcasts. Today we're asking you, our listeners, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.720 to take part in a survey. Your feedback is going 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.919 to help inform how we make podcasts in the future. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.879 Your complete and candid answers will help us continue to 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.919 bring you more insightful and inspiring stories about important topics 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.639 that impact us all. So please go to Lava for 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.720 Good dot com slash survey and participate today. 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:30.439 Thank you for your support. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.159 Bone Valley is sponsored by Stand Together. Stand Together is 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.040 a philanthropic community that partners with America's boldest change makers 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:45.440 to tackle the root causes of our country's biggest problems, including. 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:46.720 The broken criminal justice system. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.160 Christina Dent is one of many entrepreneurs partnering with Stand 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.000 Together to end the War on Drugs, the underlying cause 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:59.080 of many problems such as overincarceration and the criminalization of 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:04.480 addiction communities across the country. 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She's working to end 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.480 the War on Drugs in Mississippi and build consensus around 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.000 the state to help families struggling with substance abuse problems 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.359 find a different path forward than the one they've been given. 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.560 Stand Together has many more stories like this one, as 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.520 it partners with thousands of change makers who were driving 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:51.919 solutions in education, health care, poverty, and the criminal justice system. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.399 To learn more about the War on drugs, listen to 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.879 the War on Drugs podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever 0:18:59.000 --> 0:18:59.920 you get your podcast. 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.080 There is a piece of wood board that was covering 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:09.520 the body. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.000 I do have that, so I bring that out. Just 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:13.720 been reading about it for months. 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:15.160 It's just so funny that it's here. 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.520 Kelsey and I are talking to Shane Kent, who runs 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.800 the evidence room in the basement of the Polk County Courthouse. 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:27.760 Shane's in his early forties with tattoos, engaged piercings. He's 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.600 gonna show us all the physical evidence from Michelle Schofield's murder. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:34.959 How's gonna go down is I'm gonna try to keep 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.359 control out of all the evidence. Sure, I'm gonna be 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.480 the only one handling it. If I'll drop off piece, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.320 let you look at it, examine it, if you want 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.359 to take pictures of it. The only thing that I 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.040 do not recommend any pictures being taken is of the 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.159 victim is any kind of nude, because some of the 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.119 wounds are in her chest and her bare chest is exposed. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.800 So okay, understand, okay, all right, if you want to, guys, 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.480 have a seat, I'll start bringing Okay, thanks. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.159 Every time someone asked to see the evidence from a homicide, 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.200 the state Attorney's office is notified and they can send 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.680 someone down to observe. So we have an armed officer 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.320 with us, and she's going to be watching as we 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:25.040 look through all the evidence. Alright, Kelsey and I sit 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.800 side by side at the table and Shane starts bringing 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:32.240 out the evidence. The plywood that was covering Michelle's body 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:34.960 in the canal where she was found was found on 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.760 top of the body. In that little maps of lakeland 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:45.000 mounted on foam boards, Michelle's time card from Tom's restaurant. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.280 See there's a downy bottle that they found. 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.639 The blood smeared downy fabric soft in her bottle that 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:52.119 was found in the back of the Mazda. 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.960 The downy bottle very much looked like a downy bottle 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.560 from the eighties. You know, it wasn't like the one 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.639 you'd be able to buy at the store today. You know, 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.639 for me, this all happened before I was born, So 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.159 seeing some of that stuff, I was able to like 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.280 better place in time, like, oh my gosh, okay, this 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.840 happened and it was nineteen eighty seven. 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.560 Then Shane brings out Michelle's clothes. Each piece is contained 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:22.880 in a clear plastic bag. 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:29.399 Her jacket, her top, her bra and underwear, and the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.920 red pants that she and more to work. That was 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:38.920 all there as well, no sense And this is the 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.520 gray jacket, the jacket and the top. They'd been slashed 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:49.200 and there was a lot of dried blood on those items. 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.640 I look at Kelsey. We both know what's next. 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:58.680 Shane starts with photos of Michelle as she was found 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.320 floating faced down in the canal under the plywood. A 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:07.760 few more like that without the plywood. Then he brings 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.840 out the photographs from the autopsy. There are pictures of 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.320 her face, her head tilted to one side. She looks 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:21.480 like she could be sleeping, except she isn't, and the 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.440 wounds are horrific. We've been studying this case for months now, 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:31.600 but in documents the crime can feel abstract, with Michelle 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.800 described only as the victim. By this time, we'd met Leo, 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:42.040 some of Michelle's friends and family, and now she's no 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.960 longer some stranger or the victim on an autopsy table, 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.280 and your heart just breaks trying to imagine the pain 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.879 and devastation they felt when Michelle was killed. That's all 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:56.840 I can think about seeing these photos. 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:09.879 That's everything. 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.000 Yeah, that's a pleasant. 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:15.560 Yeah. 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.159 Not a lot of cases are, no, I know. But 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:22.399 I'm gonna need to decompress her. 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:33.080 Yeah, sure, yeah, Kelsey and I aren't saying much. On 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.400 the way back to the parking garage, the summer heat 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.040 is stifling, and it's the end of the work day, 0:23:39.680 --> 0:23:41.239 so there are people all around us. 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:44.720 We get to our car where we debrief. 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:52.920 I mean, I was thinking about her and like the 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.160 pain she must have felt, and how scared she must 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:02.480 have been in those last moments. I think, you know, 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:12.680 there's also the proximity and age I was thinking about, 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:18.600 you know, also like myself and and all of my 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:27.159 friends who are young women and could potentially be in 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:28.280 a situation like that. 0:24:37.359 --> 0:25:00.920 Certa, I can take your time. 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:17.040 Grief and heartbreak overwhelm everyone close to Michelle in the 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:21.119 days and nights after her body is discovered. When it 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:24.280 comes time to arrange her funeral, Leo is in no 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:25.160 shape to help. 0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:28.399 My dad took over everything. I could not make a 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:31.159 solid decision for me for anything. I couldn't decide what 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:33.280 close further where. I couldn't decide what color of the 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:35.359 casket should be, what kind of casket should be on 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:37.879 those things were so fond to me. How do you 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:40.159 decide what kind of casket you put your dead wife in? 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:44.960 But there's one detail Leo does care about. Michelle's dad 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:46.639 wants a closed casket. 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:51.480 Wake, and I just could not leave her without seeing 0:25:51.520 --> 0:25:52.920 her again. I just could not do it. 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:57.240 So Leo makes an arrangement with the funeral home. They'll 0:25:57.280 --> 0:25:59.880 hold the wake with a closed casket, But an hour 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:03.640 or so before they'll let Leo c Michelle one last time, 0:26:04.800 --> 0:26:07.920 the funeral director tells him that to view Michelle, they'll 0:26:07.960 --> 0:26:10.160 need a high necked shirt to cover her wounds. 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:18.399 And I was flabbergasted, was like, what wounds? When Michelle 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:22.720 was murdered? I was originally on the impression all the 0:26:22.760 --> 0:26:28.560 way up until the wake that she was drown and 0:26:29.200 --> 0:26:31.560 that's when my father said they were stab wounds. 0:26:33.680 --> 0:26:37.160 With Leo in his debilitated state, no one had wanted 0:26:37.200 --> 0:26:39.320 to tell him exactly what happened to Michelle. 0:26:40.480 --> 0:26:44.560 Obviously I knew somebody had killed her. Why or how 0:26:45.200 --> 0:26:50.040 was beyond my ability to think. Stabbing her is beyond that, 0:26:51.160 --> 0:26:57.119 you know, it's just beyond that. And for me, that 0:26:57.440 --> 0:27:03.440 was the whole thing. Cast again, relive in it all 0:27:03.520 --> 0:27:08.760 over again, a different scenario, somehow worse than the drowning. 0:27:11.160 --> 0:27:14.200 At the wake, Leo was given the private moment he 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:17.880 wanted to see Michelle one last time. 0:27:19.000 --> 0:27:23.359 And walked into the viewing area. I have never seen 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:26.320 a dead body. I've never been to a wake, I've 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:28.680 never had any experience like that, so I really wasn't 0:27:28.720 --> 0:27:32.320 prepared for any of that. And she was laying in 0:27:32.400 --> 0:27:39.200