WEBVTT - Hopper Road 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.159 Welcome to The piked And Massacre Returned to Pike County, 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:07.880 a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. You've got all 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.720 these scenarios in your head. I think this may have happened, 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.080 or maybe they did this. Every family of a murder 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:16.520 victim does that. You lay in bed and you think, 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.160 what happened? Why did they do this? Who did this? 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:24.360 There's someone out there roaming around that killed two people 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.560 that you could be standing beside in the grocery store, 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:35.320 and that's scary. This is the piked In Massacre Returned 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:40.240 to Pike County, Season two, Episode ten, Hopper Road. I'm 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.760 Courtney Armstrong, a television producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.200 Lydecker and Jeff Shane. Over the course of producing this series, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.440 we've spoken to several members of the road and family. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.239 Because of a gag order and impending trials for the 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.960 Wagner family, they have been unable to go on record, 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:57.960 but earlier this year, one member of the family told 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.800 us that her friend, a piked And resident named Angie Montgomery, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.200 wanted to share a story about her own family and 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.760 a loss they had suffered some years back. Coincidentally, that 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.200 same week, a listener wrote in asking about that exact case. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.240 So for this bonus episode, as we gear up to 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.480 the season finale next week, we decided to look into it. Angie, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.080 perhaps more than most people, can empathize with what the 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.080 Rodents are going through. When we spoke to Angie, she 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.320 had just heard about Jake Wagner's plea deal in the 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:29.240 Roden murder case. This news hit Angie especially hard. She 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.679 told us that she immediately reached out to her Roden 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.600 family friend. I remember texting her. I'm just telling her 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.160 I was sorry. I had to hurt so bad knowing 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.600 that you sat down to eat Christmas dinner with these people, 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.759 you went to church with these people. So I can't 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.000 imagine finding that out. Angie reflected back on the day 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.800 the bodies of eight members of the Roden family were found. 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.120 I think we lost our innocence that day. We lost 0:01:56.120 --> 0:02:00.560 our wholesomeness, our trust, we lost everything. It was like 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.160 you weren't in a daze, this isn't happening, and you're like, 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.560 where am I living? What's going on here? It's crazy. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.080 Angie's bewilderment is, no doubt informed by her own tragic 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.280 loss ten years before the Rodent family was gunned down. 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.119 Her cousin Curtis Francis and his fiance Jennifer Burgett, were 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:22.720 also murdered in Pike County, Andie spoke with producer Chris 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.120 Graves about it. I know this is probably hard, but 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.240 can you describe for me what happened to Curtis and Jennifer. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.040 On December ninth, two thousand and six, Curtis was at 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.040 his friend's house visiting. He had been drinking that day 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.959 and having a little bit of fun, and Jenny had 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.000 came down and told him that he needed to get home, 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:47.840 and he laughed about ten thirty that night and went home, 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.280 and his mother talked to him before he went to bed. 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.640 It was about midnight, I think, and Jenny had talked 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.680 to a friend I think about eleven thirty, so they 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.840 were going to bed. And the next day a nine 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:06.600 one one call came in that Jenny's mother had found 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.720 Curtis and Jenny. They had been shot in their bed. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:17.000 It was horrible. Curtis and Jenny were good people, you know. 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:26.079 It was heartbreaking. It was just a shock. It's unsolved, correct, yes, 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.800 fourteen years unsolved. It's a roller coaster. You go up 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.000 and down. Every day you go up and down. You 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.520 know today is going to be the day something's going 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:44.160 to happen and nothing. Just before their murders, thirty four 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.000 year old Curtis Francis and thirty year old Jennifer Burgett 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.720 were recently engaged couple living in Piked in Ohio. Your cousin, Curtis, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:53.440 can you tell me a little bit about him and 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.720 what he was like. Curtis was a good guy. He 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.680 had a good heart, would help anybody. He was a 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.760 hard worker, lovedy family. He was very loyal, and he 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.240 was a very good person. He was a little bit 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.120 older than me, and we would see each other, you know, 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.200 when we were younger, but we really hung out were 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.920 when we got older, like teenagers and in early twenties. 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.359 During that time, we were pretty close. He was like 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.880 more like a big brother to me. What about Jennifer, 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.400 his fiancee. I'd like to call her a caretaker. She 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.320 liked to take care of everybody. She loved animals, she 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.280 liked to fish. She was a good soul. She had 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.880 a good heart. And what were they like together? They 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:43.120 were a cute couple. They were they would always joke around. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.080 Curtis liked to joke a lot and laughing and things. 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.000 And they were just a normal couple, I guess, hard 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:55.880 working couple. Their murders just before Christmas in two thousand 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.200 and six were a shock to everyone who knew the couple. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.320 Curtis and Jennifer were shot while they lie asleep in 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.880 their home on Hopper Road in Piketon. It was later 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.280 determined that the bullets that killed them were fired from 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.240 a lever action rifle. I assume you guys tried to 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.839 work with the police on this, right, How did that work? 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.039 At first? The families being told Jenny and Curtis's family, 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.400 you know, we don't know who did this, we don't 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.479 know what's going on. You know, that's law enforcement. You 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.560 trust them. If they tell you, hey, we're working on this, 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:27.880 we're going to get them. You know, you got to 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.360 be patient, which everybody understands that you can't solve a 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.920 murder in a day. Sometimes it takes a long time. 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.800 But after fourteen years of being told, going from we're 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:44.120 working on it to not contacting at all, too well, 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.360 we've went as far as we can go with this case. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.560 There's not really anything else we can do unless someone 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:57.640 confesses or you know, something drastic happens that hurts. I 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.000 think there was one article on it when it happened 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.599 a few days after it happened in the local paper, 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.800 and a few other media outlets picked it up and 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.119 did a couple of articles, but after that there was nothing. 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.560 You feel like you're never going to get justice, and 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.880 then you worry about, hey, you know there's someone on 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.920 the loose that could do this to other families, and 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.680 then that turns into kind of aggravation. Why is there 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.080 anything being done? Why isn't this case important? Why is 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:39.520 it my family important? But authorities had no answers. Eventually, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.080 the case that became known as the Hopper Road double 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:49.200 murder when cold. Then in twenty twelve, there was suddenly 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.919 some movement. As part of his Ohio Unsolved Homicide's initiative, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.600 then Attorney General Mike Dwine revived the case, urging anyone 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:01.080 with information to come forward. He caught wind and he 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.080 went on Channel ten news station out of Columbus and 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.320 featured the Hopper Road murders, talked about it. They had 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.520 a deputy from the Sheriff's department and talk about it 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.320 asking for tips. You know, anybody if they have any information. 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.080 We believe they are. There's a person or people out 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.920 there who have information who would enable us to solve 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:27.840 the case. We had gotten a new sheriff and he 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.640 wanted to reopen the case and try to get some 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:33.800 help with it. How did that make you feel that 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.440 you feel like someone was actually paying attention to you? Guys? Yeah, 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.200 we were excited. You know, this is that somebody's going 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.000 to do something. You know, we've got the Attorney General 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.680 in this Something's going to happen. They followed a few 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:53.920 leads and a few tips, but nothing came about. In 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.080 twenty fourteen, the investigation was handed back over to the 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:05.520 Pike County Sheriff's office. Didn't just slin code again. Two 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.160 years later, in twenty sixteen, Jodi Barrd, then an investigative 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.280 reporter at Fox nineteen in Cincinnati, received an email from 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.560 a woman named Paula Horne. It's saying, you know something 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.640 to the effect of my son was wrongfully convicted of murder. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.800 And then she says, I've got information in another cold case. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:27.560 So of course that got my attention. I go and 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.000 meet with this woman and what ended up happening was 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:36.280 Paula Horne's son, Eric was convicted of a separate murder 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.640 in Pike County a few years before Curtain Jenny were murdered. 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.720 He was convicted of murdering Paul Schope, shot him, killed him. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.480 He was convicted of that, but Paula Horne was on 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.360 a mission to have her son, Eric Horne, set free 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.360 from prison. Paula Horne was convinced her son did not 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.959 do the murder, so she pulls this huge box out 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:05.040 of a closet and it stacked full of papers and files. 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:10.559 Paula Horne had collected a massive amount of documentation tied 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.400 to her son's murder conviction, but it was documents within 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.959 this archive pertaining to a different case that caught Jodie's eye, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.920 the murders of Curtis Francis and Jennifer Burgett on Hopper Road. 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.000 As it turns out, Eric Horne knew Curtis Francis and 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:28.959 was with him hours before he was murdered. In this 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.640 box of documents that Paula Horne had were email communications 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:38.320 between the prosecution and Eric Horn's own attorney in their 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.199 plotting how Eric Horne would plead guilty in one case 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:45.960 and the state would use him as a witness in 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.840 the double murder on Hopper Road. Okay, this was essentially 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.480 Eric Horne saying, I will train information about this double 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:58.320 murder for a plea deal in this Paul Shop murder. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.920 So Eric Horne had written out a statement it's called 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.520 a proffer, where he's getting investigator's information in one case 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:11.560 to essentially help him in another. Eric Horn gave this 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:17.120 proffer two investigators somewhere around September of two thousand and night. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.280 So over the next month or so, Eric from prison 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.560 writes his mother a letter and he tells her about 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.680 what happened the night that Kurt Francis and Jennifer Burgett 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:34.479 were murdered. According to his letter, Eric Horne told authorities 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.120 that he was at a house on Wynd Road and 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.680 piked in on December ninth, two thousand and six. That night, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.360 a group including Curtis Francis, had gathered at the home 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.000 for a party. Horn claimed that he left the wind 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.480 Road home at around ten thirty pm and nevisa Curtis 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.880 Francis again. But Horne said that just weeks later he 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.280 ran into a man who was at the party. The 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.280 man told Horn that he was forced to go to 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.080 Curtis and Jennifer's house that night by his housemate, who 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.520 shot the couple over a money dispute. Eric Horne never 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:09.359 admits to having direct involvement with the actual murders themselves, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.480 but Eric Horne wrote in that letter that there was 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.800 a lever action rifle that hung on the wall of 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.520 the Howel's home on Wynn Road, and that after these 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.880 murders happened, that gun was no longer on the wall. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.880 We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:44.880 back in a moment. The files collected by Paula Horn 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.880 contained not only Eric Horne's statements, but accounts from other 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.520 witnesses about the night of Curtis Francis and Jennifer Burgett's murders. 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.440 What I was reading on them was unbelievable. There were 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.760 witness statements out of an investigative file from the Pike 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.840 County Sheriff's Office contained in this box of reds. So 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.240 this box of records contained every document that somebody like 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.839 me could only dream of having. When you start investigating 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.400 a murder that's ten years old at that point in time, 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.640 and what she had in her possession were documents that 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.199 ultimately provided a whole lot of answers for you know, 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.560 kurta and Jenny's family. We went over every shred of 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.920 paper in this case file. I made sure I understood 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.439 who every person was, who these players are, how they 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.880 were connected. My next job was then to go talk 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.880 to the victims' families. So I went to Judy Conley, 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.960 who was Kurt Francis's mother. Jodi Barr revealed some of 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.760 the other statements taken by police and their investigation into 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.440 Kurt and Jennifer's murder to the family. These accounts, however, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.280 seemed to contradict what Eric Horn initially told authorities. Here 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.680 again is Angie Montgomery. One statement is from a gentleman 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.199 whose house Curtis was at the night that he got murdered. 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:07.240 He stated that his brother and his friend, Eric Horne, 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.720 had left after Curtis had left, about ten thirty or eleven, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:16.200 and took a rifle off the wall and went and 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.679 killed Curtis and Jenny, and that they came back with 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.160 bloody clothes, and they got in the shower, took a shower, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.160 got the blood off of them. Took their clothes out 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.400 in the yard and put them in a black trash 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.319 bag and burnt them all at the command of his 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:40.319 mother because apparently Curtis owed the mother's fiance three hundred dollars, 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.840 is what I was told. And then there's another statement, 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.839 and they told the same story that they took a 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:52.199 rifle off the wall, came back bloody, took a shower, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:59.280 burnt the clothes. Eric Horn denies any and all involvement 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.680 in Curtis and Jennifer's murders. Jodi barr knew that the 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:06.080 information he had could help track down Curtis and Jennifer's killers, 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.480 but there was one problem. Jody couldn't get any more 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.200 information from investigators. We can't pull the records in this case. 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.480 They're all under still this is still considered although it's cold. 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.920 It's a pending open investigation, regardless of whether investigators are 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.200 actively working it or not. These are not records you 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.160 can get a hold of under the Open Records Act. 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.760 So what do you have at that point? The only 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.920 thing you have are the witnesses and family members who 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.960 may have been in contact or who may have remembered 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.600 something from back when this began. But I knew there 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.920 was something here. I just had to get somebody from 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.320 the family to work with us, to help us. And 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.280 then all of a sudden, this guy with his huge 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.360 winner jacket walks in from the backyard and he's greasy, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.480 he's been working on a car. And it's Paul Francis. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:59.360 His brother is Kurt Francis. And Judy introduces us and 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.320 tell him why why I am there, and his whole 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.320 demeanor changed. He looked angry, and I'm thinking, Okay, you 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.560 know this is this is gonna be one of those 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.440 where I get, you know, hauled out of the house 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.360 by my collar and my belt loops. And all Paul 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.800 tells me is, let's get in your car. I've got 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.200 something to show you. So Paul and I get in 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.960 the car and we drive from his home over to 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.320 Win Road and he walks me out to the edge 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.640 of the property and he says, this is a well, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.960 and then he starts telling me the story about the 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.520 story that this well told that he just so happened 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:42.920 to find. Paul told Jody that in July of twenty sixteen, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.000 he was doing a plumbing job at the same house 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.320 on Win Road that Curtis was last seen at the 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.920 night of his murder in two thousand and six. By 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.640 this point, the previous owners had moved out. He's doing 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.760 plumbing work, so he sees a waterline running outside with 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.280 an electrical wire running out alongside the pipes. So he's 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:01.920 trying to pull this water line up, and it gets 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:03.800 to a point where he can't pull it up out 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.200 of the ground any longer. So then he just starts 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.680 pulling this electrical wire and it, you know, it snakes 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.800 across the yard and it goes down a hill under 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.520 a pile of jump in the yard, as he described it, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.920 and he digs down and he finds this well shaft. 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:21.280 Paul told me, in the back of his mind, the 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.240 suspicion was that this could hold some sort of answer 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.760 to his brothers and his sister in law's murder. He 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:33.040 told me he had a gut feeling about it. So 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.440 Paul Francis called the Pike County Sheriff's Office in to investigate. 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.720 By twenty sixteen, the department was headed up by Charlie Reader, who, 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.600 as we know, would later be jailed on charge was 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.440 related to corruption and office. At the moment when in 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.480 twenty sixteen. What were you guys his feelings about Charlie Reader? 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.400 Were you hopeful? Yeah, you're hopeful. With every new sheriff, 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.080 he also had his hands full because the Rodent massacre 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:01.560 had just happened. We knew that sources were probably stretched, 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.160 but we also thought the BCI, the FBI, they're already 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.320 down here in our county. That gave us a little 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.240 bit of hope of maybe, hey, they'll the sheriff will 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.080 say something and they'll pick up on this too. We 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.280 were very hopeful that he would do something and something 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.960 would would happen. So the sheriff, Charlie Reader, paid a 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.920 local plumbing company to run a plumber's camera down the well. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:34.639 They were able to capture images of a handgun and 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.840 then this lever action rifle. I mean that is very 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.520 similar to the gun that Eric Horne described in his 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.880 two thousand and eight letter that he sent his mom 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:54.120 from principal. Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll 0:17:54.160 --> 0:18:06.800 be back in a moment. Authorities also found burnt clothing, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.840 a detail relayed and Ericorn's statement this could have been 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.320 the break in the case. The only physical evidence that 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:19.800 we know of was down a well. Shaft, and the 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.639 Sheriff's office was just feet away from being able to 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.720 get their hands on it, bag it, process it, and 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.440 potentially prosecute somebody in the Hopper Road double murder. So 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.919 then they were faced with the task of how do 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.120 we get these guns out of this well. It's an 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.840 eight inch pipe, you know, that goes down into a well. 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.240 So they tried with a magnet, I was told, and 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:49.480 when that failed, they called in a firetruck. The idea 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.280 was to use the fire hose to fill the well 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:53.679 with water, which wouldn't turn lift the guns back up 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.800 to the surface for authorities to retrieve. But things did 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.439 not go as expected. They place the fire hose in 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.199 the pipe and turned the water on. It blew the 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.000 bottom of the well out and knocked like an eighty 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:14.119 foot hole in the well, took the guns with it. 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.520 Sheers off is ultimately ends up getting a welder out there. 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.119 The welder wells of plate over top of this well, 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.119 and that's where it sat since July of twenty sixteen. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:29.159 And you know, here we are years later. The likelihood 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.480 that it's ever recovered, it's not looking very good right now. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:40.800 How did that feel for you guys? Horrible. Um, I'm 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:49.840 gonna get emotional and felt horrible anger. You know this 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.200 is that was probably the biggest break we'll ever get 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:59.960 in that case. In this case. Ever, despite potential evidence 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.520 being lost, Jodi Barr pressed on with his investigation. In 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.520 twenty seventeen, he went forward with a series of reports 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.160 on the Hopper Road double murder case. The Pike County 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.560 sheriff at the time, Charlie Reader, when I was looking 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.160 into this case, told me that he developed a cold 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.000 case unit within a sheriff's office and he had some 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:23.440 season law enforcement officials, investigators, criminal profilers on this team, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.359 and they were looking into the Hopper Road cold case. 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.919 So I got an interview with those four men, and 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.400 I wanted to know more about the well. I wanted 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.520 to tune them about this evidence in the bottom of 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.359 this well. I wanted to know I named all the 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.679 names that were contained in these witness statements. You know. 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.359 I had all four members of this cold case unit 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.359 sitting in front of me in an interview inside the 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.880 Sheriff's office, and all I got from this cold case 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:55.200 unit was no comment. Every question was a no comment. 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.040 Have you been able to develop any type of motive 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:05.280 profile of the suss no comment, so you know we 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:10.840 were at the enter the road. Jody's reporting on Curtis 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.440 and Jennifer's murder also received some pushback from the Pike 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.359 County community, mainly due to his interactions with Sheriff Charlie Reader. 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.040 At the time, the people in Pike County that's seen 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:25.360 Jody's airing of the Hopper Room murders had a different 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:30.960 perspective on mister Barr because of the investigation he did 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.520 at the road and warehouse with mister Reader. Mister Reader 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:39.119 had got on Facebook and had a huge rant aimed 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.760 at mister Barr, and I like to say they drink 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:46.600 mister Reader's kool aid. People were saying, you know, this 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.480 guy's just down here to make the Pike County Sheriff's 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.440 office and Charlie Reader look horrible. And so I had 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.120 a lot of people messaging me saying, I can't believe 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:00.479 that your family would let that guy do a report 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.600 on this case. And you know, he's just a troublemaker. 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:08.040 He isn't even from around here. And I would always 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.000 bite back and say, at least he cares. You know, 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:17.360 he's the only one that cares Jody, and I meanness 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:18.800 with all my heart, and I hope I can get 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:23.919 it out without crimes. He really does care about my family. 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.520 He is in constant contact with me. He has helped me, 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:33.480 he has listened to me cry. He's just as aggravated 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.080 as we are. He's a very caring person and he 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:44.000 and he's a godsend. Jodi Barr's reporting helped raise awareness 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.640 about Curtis and Jennifer's murders, but police were seemingly unable 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.720 to make any progress. Still today, no one's been arrested. Curtain. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.240 Jenny's family have no more answers today than they had 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:57.920 when we rolled out of Pike County for the last 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.320 time and aired the final broad cast into this case. 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:07.560 From your extensive investigation, it seems as though investigators know 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.560 what might have happened to Curtis and Jennifer and who 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:13.879 may have done it. Why do you think there has 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.480 been an arrest, That's my question. I don't know why 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.880 there hasn't been an arrest. I don't know the investigators 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:23.879 just didn't have enough. I don't know what else was 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:27.400 needed to finish his investigation. You've got people in these 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.800 statements telling stories that you know, spell out what happened. 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.880 When you know the people who were identified in these 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.240 statements as having gone to this murder scene committed these 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.760 crimes and came back home. So I don't know why 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:46.040 or what or where investigators are at this point in time. 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.159 This is we're fifteen years down the road and no arrest. 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.560 So as far as the family's concerned, and I talked 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.000 to them regularly still today, I mean, they just they 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.439 feel like this was a miscarriage of not even justice. 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:05.160 They didn't get that far. It's just an incomplete investigation. 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:07.920 You just hope one day you'll be able to finish 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:11.119 the story because at this point, you know, two people 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.720 are dead and it appears that whoever did this is 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:21.399 you know, gotten away with murder. But that won't be 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:23.760 the case if Ai Montgomery has anything to do with it. 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:28.440 You're still on this mission to get answers, to get justice, 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:31.040 and also to make sure that it doesn't happen to 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:34.879 another family. Right. I got my kid up where they 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:36.840 were a little bit older, I had a little bit 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:40.400 of time on my hands, so I started going full 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:43.679 force with getting the Hopper Road cased out into the 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.800 public speaking. I went to the prosecutor, spoke with him 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:50.880 a few times. I went to the sheriff's we had 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:55.240 an interim sheriff when mister Reader got suspended. We're told 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:59.840 just hang on, you know, helps coming, and it never does. 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:03.119 And I noticed that it's always when I get really 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:07.520 rowdy squeaky. Will gets the most grief. When I start squeaking, 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:12.760 I'll get a phone call, hey, you know, just hang on. 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:18.240 I'm going to figure something out, and nothing happens, and 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:22.200 we're tired of it. That's what I get the most 0:25:22.240 --> 0:25:27.439 emotional about is just feeling like nobody cares. And I 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:31.520 can't imagine what curtain Jenny's mom their mothers feel like. 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:35.760 That's another thing that puts the fire under my ass. 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:40.120