Speaker 1: Originals.
Speaker 2: This is an iHeart original. This story can be hard
Speaker 2: to hear. There's detailed talk of suicide and violence, but
Speaker 2: we think it's important not to gloss over the reality
Speaker 2: of what happened to Libby Caswell. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2: I'm holding in my hands a green spiral notebook that
Speaker 2: Libby used to document the last few months of her life.
Speaker 2: I got it from her mom, Cindy, who found it
Speaker 2: in the trunk of Libby's car after her death. Thumbing
Speaker 2: through the notebook, a lot of the pages are filled
Speaker 2: with basic adulting stuff, detailed grocery lists, appointment reminders. Libby
Speaker 2: was due for an oil change, and from what I
Speaker 2: can make of her notes, she either was planning to
Speaker 2: or had already gone to a clinic to get the
Speaker 2: depot shot, a form of birth control. Cindy told me
Speaker 2: Christmas was Libby's favorite holiday, and in the notebook it's
Speaker 2: obvious her shopping list for Xavier, who was four, spread
Speaker 2: out over a number of pages. On one page, a
Speaker 2: toy car, air Jordan's, a swing set. On another, fidget toys, chocolate, Peeps,
Speaker 2: Superman pajamas. Libby decorated these lists with sketches of Christmas
Speaker 2: trees surrounded by presence and snowmen. It's unclear if she
Speaker 2: ever bought any of these gifts. She died on December eleventh,
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. Paging through Libby's notebook, I stumbled on a
Speaker 2: date written now incursive, March nineteenth. I realized I'd seen
Speaker 2: it a few times before on Libby's Facebook page, shortened
Speaker 2: to three nineteen. When I asked Cindy about this, she
Speaker 2: told me it was the anniversary of Libby's first date
Speaker 2: with her boyfriend Devin.
Speaker 1: They went with his family. They had a real nice
Speaker 1: blue minivan. First they went to eat, and then they
Speaker 1: went and seen a movie. And I don't remember the movie.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we went to see Where the Wild
Speaker 3: Things Are.
Speaker 2: That's Jamie, Devin's stepmom.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: We were howling like the wild things do at the
Speaker 3: end movie in the theater, and I remember Devin being
Speaker 3: so embarrassed. I remember him telling me and Charlie the
Speaker 3: Dax's who he was going to marry at fourteen years old,
Speaker 3: and we were like, you know, you're so young, and da, da, dad,
Speaker 3: you have so much to go through, And you know,
Speaker 3: then it all started.
Speaker 2: That first date Libby and Devon were only freshmen in
Speaker 2: high school. For the next six years, the number three
Speaker 2: nineteen took on an almost sacred significance to Libby, who
Speaker 2: scrawled it everywhere like an incantation.
Speaker 1: She would do doodles you know of three nineteen eleven
Speaker 1: Devin and Libby.
Speaker 2: Devin loves Sleepy, Laby loves Devon is a fun through win.
Speaker 1: So what she was totally infatuated, however you want to
Speaker 1: say it, totally wrapped up in it.
Speaker 2: The number three nineteen has an entirely different connotation to
Speaker 2: Cindy now, one very far removed from those early idyllic
Speaker 2: feelings of obsession and puppy love, because now that number
Speaker 2: is inextricably linked with the room where police found Libby's body,
Speaker 2: the room at the sports stadium in.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about the room until we received
Speaker 1: our first reports, and then when I saw that, that's
Speaker 1: when I was like, oh my god, it was it
Speaker 1: was room three nineteen.
Speaker 2: Maybe Devon rented that room.
Speaker 1: They specifically asked for that room because of something. Maybe
Speaker 1: it was random. They just got that room, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to know.
Speaker 2: Watch from iHeart Podcasts. I'm Melissa Jelson, and this is
Speaker 2: what happened to Libby Caswell.
Speaker 5: His first inclination was it was homicide.
Speaker 6: He was crying and I said, and I was like, man,
Speaker 6: what happened?
Speaker 1: They asked me my name and it was I Cindy
Speaker 1: Caswell and tuck him.
Speaker 6: A minute to get it out of it, and he said,
Speaker 6: my wife upon herself and.
Speaker 1: My heart just kind of froze.
Speaker 2: Watch God see chapter two undetermined.
Speaker 7: Then undetector Shirley raised department put so.
Speaker 8: Forrmonia, Yeah, okay, once you want to detect his head
Speaker 8: in Okay to his apartment.
Speaker 2: On the evening of December eleventh, twenty seventeen, three hours
Speaker 2: after calling nine one one to report Libby's death and
Speaker 2: then leaving the scene, Devon Martin arrives at the Independence
Speaker 2: Police Department in Libby's car. When he enters the station,
Speaker 2: he's taken into a small, drab room to make a
Speaker 2: formal statement. Although he comes involuntarily, he's immediately arrested on
Speaker 2: a handful of outstanding traffic tickets and read his rights.
Speaker 8: You have right ring silent. Anything you say cannot be used.
Speaker 8: Mansion a courterwall. You eight to talk to him. Thirty
Speaker 8: fourth question and have him president.
Speaker 2: I obtained a video of Devin's interview with IPD through
Speaker 2: a Freedom of Information Act request. The original tape is
Speaker 2: around fifty five minutes long, but for length and clarity purposes,
Speaker 2: I'm using just parts of it and playing some of
Speaker 2: it out of order. In the grainy footage, Devin looks upset.
Speaker 2: He's sweating, jittery, and doesn't seem to know what to
Speaker 2: do with his hands. He thrust them into the front
Speaker 2: pocket of his hoodie. He rubs his face.
Speaker 8: Let's start from the beginning, Okay. Like I said, I
Speaker 8: want you to be detailed. Wants to be honest, Okay,
Speaker 8: because I mean this is a deafitty. Have slow take
Speaker 8: death investigations with her seriously, okay, and what I need how.
Speaker 7: To use the honest.
Speaker 2: Detective Steve Schmidley had been at the motel earlier in
Speaker 2: the night investigating the scene when Devin called nine one
Speaker 2: one for the second time to say he'd talked to police,
Speaker 2: so Schmidley headed back to the station to interview him.
Speaker 2: And here he refers to Libby by her full name,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Caswell.
Speaker 4: She's Elizabeth Caswealthy. I'm doing that son's daughter. Bring to
Speaker 4: get married in March.
Speaker 2: Devin's voice is soft, like he's on the verge of tears.
Speaker 2: It's a little hard to understand what he's saying, but
Speaker 2: he tells the detective he and Libby have a child
Speaker 2: together and they were going to get married in three
Speaker 2: months time.
Speaker 4: Would you guys get would you check into this.
Speaker 2: Mot Devin tells Detective Schmidley that he arrived at the
Speaker 2: sports stadium in early that morning. He was with Libby
Speaker 2: and another friend of theirs, Nick, and they were driving
Speaker 2: in Libby's car, a black forward fusion. Some of this,
Speaker 2: like what time they checked in, police already know from
Speaker 2: accessing motel records, but establishing a timeline of events that
Speaker 2: day is critical, as police aren't sure exactly when Libby died.
Speaker 2: There is an almost fourteen hour period of time between
Speaker 2: when the three friends arrived at the moto all that
Speaker 2: morning and when Devin called nine one one that evening
Speaker 2: that is unknown to police.
Speaker 4: You get there this morning, what do you guys do
Speaker 4: most of day?
Speaker 6: Okay, So my friend Nick hung out with us until
Speaker 6: about maybe maybe eighty nine o'clock in the morning, eight
Speaker 6: thirty when they left and I took a shower and.
Speaker 4: I get out of the shower, and she said she
Speaker 4: was going to take a shower.
Speaker 6: And I remember because we had been up all night
Speaker 6: the night before, and I remember laying on the bed
Speaker 6: and passing out, but fell asleep and I probably woke up,
Speaker 6: and it.
Speaker 4: Was it's probably around eight thirty I think roughly.
Speaker 8: What time do you think you fell asleep on the beat,
Speaker 8: I would say between ten and eleven o'clock ten am
Speaker 8: and eleven am this morning, and then at that point
Speaker 8: you were maimed asleep the entire times that you woke
Speaker 8: up this evening.
Speaker 2: Sir Devin says he was asleep for more than eight
Speaker 2: hours and when he woke up, he noticed Libby wasn't around,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 4: Remember looking she went in the room.
Speaker 6: So I went to take the bathroom and my belt
Speaker 6: was the top of it takes to my belt sitting
Speaker 6: out at the top of the door. And when I
Speaker 6: opened the door, she fell forward and picked her up,
Speaker 6: and her thin was so pale and.
Speaker 7: Her lips were blue.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, man, that's okay.
Speaker 7: Ryan, Oh, I can't believe this, No, this is real.
Speaker 2: Devin gets emotional here. He's just told Schmidley that he
Speaker 2: woke up, looked around for Libby and saw his belt
Speaker 2: peeking out from the top of the closed bathroom door.
Speaker 2: When he opened the door, Libby's body fell to the ground.
Speaker 2: The detective leans back, taking it all in, then starts
Speaker 2: to recap, but Devon interrupts to tell him about something
Speaker 2: else that happened right before he went to sleep.
Speaker 4: Him you got in the shower and you went to bed,
Speaker 4: and we had the orde about my drug use. That's
Speaker 4: what we argue about. That was this morning before you
Speaker 4: went to bed.
Speaker 6: Yeah, right, I.
Speaker 4: Forget out a shower.
Speaker 2: This is information that IPD had already gathered. One of
Speaker 2: the cops spoke to a guest staying in the room
Speaker 2: next door who heard a loud argument between a man
Speaker 2: and a woman. According to Devon, their fight was over
Speaker 2: his continued use of methamphetamine. Drugs were a constant source
Speaker 2: of tension between the couple. Schmidley doesn't seem very surprised
Speaker 2: to learn about Devn's drug use, and it's likely this
Speaker 2: was a pretty familiar story to him. Independence, Missouri has
Speaker 2: a long history with meth which I'll get into later,
Speaker 2: and the sports stadium in It's not a particularly nice
Speaker 2: place to stay in the year later. Up to Livy's death,
Speaker 2: IPD had been called there more than one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty times for theft, assault, and incidents involving drugs. Schmidley
Speaker 2: himself had responded on a handful of occasions. The detective
Speaker 2: doesn't linger on Devin's drug use, but before he can
Speaker 2: get to his next question, Devin pivots again and offers
Speaker 2: some more unprompted information about Libby and her mental state.
Speaker 4: I didn't think she would ever do it.
Speaker 6: You know, she was probably without killing herself the day before,
Speaker 6: but it was like she okays a lot of times
Speaker 6: when she says.
Speaker 7: That, you know, I don't.
Speaker 4: So she talked about killing herself today because the work. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 4: why just because of our situation she set up with.
Speaker 6: We have boss Christy and our son Ashley. I stay
Speaker 6: at christ the other but he presides with her mother,
Speaker 6: and we were going to get everything strange.
Speaker 2: Not still, the custody situation with their son was complicated,
Speaker 2: and I'll get to it later. But the picture Devin
Speaker 2: paints of Libby is of a depressed mother, forcibly separated
Speaker 2: from her son and frustrated by her boyfriend's drug problem.
Speaker 2: Devin's story provides a reason why Libby might have taken
Speaker 2: her own life. Then he offers up his own theory
Speaker 2: for how she did it. Remember, Devin never says he
Speaker 2: actually saw Libby hanging because the bathroom door was closed,
Speaker 2: but he tells the detective that he thinks his belt
Speaker 2: was too long to have kept her feet off the ground.
Speaker 6: I'm really trying to understand it all because there's no
Speaker 6: way she going to hurt herself from the door, you know,
Speaker 6: Like howter she's hung there with my belts long.
Speaker 7: Have been on the dround.
Speaker 2: It's an odd fact. I've puzzled over it too, But
Speaker 2: Devin had an answer for Detective Schmidley.
Speaker 6: So I've been sitting kind of thankfully we're gonna how
Speaker 6: could it have happened?
Speaker 4: I'm taking maybe she put it in the door and
Speaker 4: like chi until.
Speaker 6: She passed out, because went out opened the door, she
Speaker 6: fell forward.
Speaker 2: Devin later tells the detective this is something he'd seen
Speaker 2: Libby do before, put a belt around her neck and
Speaker 2: pretend like she was strangling herself.
Speaker 6: I mean when they were younger, and so she would
Speaker 6: have like you know, we in arguments up and she would.
Speaker 4: Have like she's chunking herself with the belt.
Speaker 2: Actually, Detective Schmidley asked Stephen what he did after he
Speaker 2: found Libby's body.
Speaker 7: Graded her.
Speaker 6: I didn't notice the belt but around her neck until
Speaker 6: after I'd pulled her apartment and she was so sick.
Speaker 7: So I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Now you're fine, You're fine.
Speaker 7: So poor baby?
Speaker 4: Well, oh man, So what do you do at that point?
Speaker 8: Oncebably you assume okay, they break it out.
Speaker 4: I just same Tuesday.
Speaker 6: I try to undo the belt a little bit where
Speaker 6: I keep Field close to something and I think I'm
Speaker 6: taking too much and cut it. Okay, Fields, So I
Speaker 6: cold mourn. How are your shock? And I got in
Speaker 6: the car and I went to my dad.
Speaker 2: Devin's explanation. He was in shock, so he drove to
Speaker 2: his dad's. It might sound bizarre, but in my experience
Speaker 2: as a journalist covering traumatic events, people can act in
Speaker 2: all kinds of unexpected ways. You don't really know how
Speaker 2: you'll respond to a tragedy until it happens to you.
Speaker 2: You may think you'll become act rationally, but when was
Speaker 2: the last time you found a dead body? Schmidly, in
Speaker 2: any case, seems to listen to this story without much judgment.
Speaker 2: He doesn't question Devin's decision to run or express much
Speaker 2: curiosity about where he went. He notes it and moves on.
Speaker 2: But there's another detective in the room who up until
Speaker 2: now has just been listening, and he's more skeptical.
Speaker 7: You see how this looks suspicious at it. That's why
Speaker 7: I'm here.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm here, you know.
Speaker 2: By this point in the interview, Devon has been sitting
Speaker 2: inside a small interrogation room for about forty minutes. This
Speaker 2: is what IPD has learned so far. Devin and Libby
Speaker 2: and another friend, nick checked into the sports stadiumen early
Speaker 2: that morning. After nick Le, Devin and Libby fought about
Speaker 2: his drug use. Devon went to sleep sometime that morning
Speaker 2: and Libby headed into the shower. Devin woke up around
Speaker 2: eight pm, walked over to the bathroom and saw the
Speaker 2: end of his belt sticking out over the top of
Speaker 2: the door. He opened the door and Libby's body fell
Speaker 2: to the ground inside the bathroom. He touched her body
Speaker 2: to see if she was alive, and then panicking, he
Speaker 2: called nine one one and then drove away. Detective Schmidley's
Speaker 2: tone throughout the interview is relaxed and understanding, almost conciliatory
Speaker 2: if he has any real issues or concerns with Devin's
Speaker 2: version of events. He doesn't say anything, but as the
Speaker 2: conversation proceeds, the other detective jumps in Prod's Devin a
Speaker 2: little harder. Classic good cop, bad cop.
Speaker 9: D See how this looks suspicious, Devin, just by you leaving?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to.
Speaker 9: We've investigated a lot of definitely I mean detecta Schmidley
Speaker 9: and I.
Speaker 7: You know, we have a lot of experience, and some
Speaker 7: are very.
Speaker 9: Obvious suicidal you know, suicide deaths, and some are not
Speaker 9: so obvious.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and Jaran Man, I promise you I would not
Speaker 6: I would not ever do anything to harm her physically.
Speaker 6: I would prevent her from being harmed physically with my.
Speaker 7: Now, there is going to be an autosy, you know
Speaker 7: that they can.
Speaker 6: Determine absolutely, and how would actually get the results?
Speaker 9: When do you think that autosy, of course, is going
Speaker 9: to indicate because she had trained herself.
Speaker 7: You see how it's kind of suspicious.
Speaker 9: A little bit because we have witnesses say that you
Speaker 9: are arguing with her.
Speaker 6: That day and like I said we had gotten into
Speaker 6: an argument that morning. Okay, I would not do nothing
Speaker 6: to her in my.
Speaker 7: Wife, I understand.
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to say you're a tout.
Speaker 6: I just I'm trying to explain expressed that you.
Speaker 7: And I understand that.
Speaker 9: I just want to I just want you to know
Speaker 9: that that it's just a little suspicious.
Speaker 7: Of how you reacted, which you know most people would
Speaker 7: stick around.
Speaker 6: Look to be honest with you, I've never had a
Speaker 6: good incouterance police stand.
Speaker 2: Devin is twenty one at the time of this interview,
Speaker 2: and he's no stranger to IPD. By my account, he
Speaker 2: had been arrested around ten times before for various nonviolent offenses.
Speaker 7: You've got to understand that we have a job to
Speaker 7: do and it's not personal.
Speaker 9: But when we have several different factors involving this investigation
Speaker 9: which are suspicious in nature, which you know, I mean,
Speaker 9: I understand your drug ucision everything, but the whole argument thing,
Speaker 9: and then just the way that she was positioned.
Speaker 4: As far as well, that's because I think they're okay,
Speaker 4: and that's.
Speaker 9: Why you're here to explain some of those things that
Speaker 9: we feel that are suspicious nature.
Speaker 4: Yeah, our flights are loud realize it well, obviously.
Speaker 7: Because people heard you.
Speaker 2: The second detective pushes Devin about a claim he made
Speaker 2: earlier in the interview that Libby choked herself in the past.
Speaker 2: Something about this story seems off to him, like maybe
Speaker 2: it's a little too convenient, so he circles back to it.
Speaker 7: But she's tried to choke herself out with a belt before.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and I've had to literally pulled.
Speaker 6: Her, pull her hand off and hit the belt out
Speaker 6: from around her night and yeah, and that is the
Speaker 6: honest truth.
Speaker 9: I mean, do you see And and I've investigated a
Speaker 9: lot of dancer, but I've never seen anybody be able
Speaker 9: to choke themselves.
Speaker 7: Out and kill themselves.
Speaker 4: That's what.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you see what I'm saying because you're going to
Speaker 7: pass out?
Speaker 6: Yes, Cerre first, Yes, Okay, Honestly, I want to see
Speaker 6: if I don't know what exactly, how it.
Speaker 3: Hap m hm.
Speaker 7: So let me ask you a question of it.
Speaker 4: Okay, There's no doubt in my mind that.
Speaker 7: You love her to death. There's no doubt in.
Speaker 9: My mind that you guys, you know, were high grade school,
Speaker 9: middle school to high school sweethearts.
Speaker 7: Okay, but to put this to rest a little bit.
Speaker 9: It's something bad happened that thanks got out of controls
Speaker 9: positive that prompts I.
Speaker 6: Doubt help put my hand on the Bible and I'll
Speaker 6: put it all and everything I love, all my children
Speaker 6: on my son's life.
Speaker 4: I would not never do nothing like that.
Speaker 7: Never. Okay what I.
Speaker 1: Heard in mind that.
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 4: I hope you guys do believe me.
Speaker 6: If you don't, everything forensics figures out will prove me
Speaker 6: that I have.
Speaker 4: I wanted to call y'all and I.
Speaker 7: Would just lived. And you know so I wouldn't have
Speaker 7: done that is worth.
Speaker 4: The truth is.
Speaker 2: Beyond denying any involvement in Libby's death. Devon is adamant
Speaker 2: that he'd never heard her before.
Speaker 6: I've never put I act a pride in the fact
Speaker 6: that I've never put money into on to the woman
Speaker 6: unless you to.
Speaker 7: Stop her from hurt me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's like hold her down.
Speaker 7: Stay. Urge is to call there. That's the only thing
Speaker 7: I've ever done that the girl.
Speaker 2: As the second detective said to Devin, some suicides are straightforward,
Speaker 2: some are not. In Libby's case, there were a lot
Speaker 2: of suspicious facts at play, but Devin seems to have
Speaker 2: explanations for all of them. The weird position of Libby's
Speaker 2: body was because he held her and tried to loosen
Speaker 2: the belt. He left the scene because he was scared
Speaker 2: of the cops and had been using drugs. And yes
Speaker 2: they had an argument, but that's just how their relationship
Speaker 2: was volatile. The interview wraps up just after midnight and
Speaker 2: around the same time i'd he clears the crime scene
Speaker 2: at the sports stadium in but before they do so,
Speaker 2: they check to see if there's any evidence to corroborate
Speaker 2: Devn's story that Libby hanged herself with a belt over
Speaker 2: the bathroom door, and they find something a mark on
Speaker 2: the top of the door. The crime scene tech notes
Speaker 2: that it appears fresh and seems to be about the
Speaker 2: width of Devon's belt. Schmidley has one more person he
Speaker 2: wants to speak with Devon's friend, Nick, the other person
Speaker 2: inside the motel room that morning and possibly the last
Speaker 2: person besides Devin to see Libby alive. At the detective's request,
Speaker 2: Nick comes down to the police station and they talk
Speaker 2: for a few minutes.
Speaker 8: It was just you and Devin Ellis, but their okay,
Speaker 8: any issues?
Speaker 10: No, I mean, she is like very like that's a
Speaker 10: just stressed about herself. She's just like very depressed. She's
Speaker 10: dressed under brass. So she was talking about to hitting
Speaker 10: the suicide and I was like, no, you.
Speaker 7: Know, when did she talk about comment Suicideamorian?
Speaker 5: And I told her.
Speaker 7: He was like, you know, want to do that? I
Speaker 7: talked to her about her kid.
Speaker 2: Nick corroborates most of Devon's story and adds something new.
Speaker 2: He tells Detective Schmidley that Devin called him after finding
Speaker 2: Libby's body. Nick then returned to the motel and the
Speaker 2: two drove together in Libby's car to Devn's dad's house.
Speaker 2: Schmidley wraps up the interview and sends him on his way.
Speaker 2: In his reports from that night, the detective summarizes his
Speaker 2: interviews with both Devon and Nick and writes, quote investigation
Speaker 2: to continue, but I have the case file on Libby's death,
Speaker 2: and after Schmidley's interviews with Devon and Nick and the
Speaker 2: discovery of the mark on the bathroom door, the file
Speaker 2: essentially trails off. There's very little to suggest this initial
Speaker 2: investigation goes any further. This was kind of surprising to
Speaker 2: me because when police first arrive at the sports stadium,
Speaker 2: in it's clear they're treating it as a homicide. There
Speaker 2: are at least a dozen officers at the scene, detectives,
Speaker 2: patrol cops, a crime scene tech, plus various personnel from
Speaker 2: the Medical Examiner's office. But then sometime during the night,
Speaker 2: there's a shift and the focus of the investigation turns
Speaker 2: from homicide to suicide. By the time Cindy is notified
Speaker 2: about Libby's death, the IPD seems to have made up
Speaker 2: their minds.
Speaker 1: The only question they asked the night they knocked on
Speaker 1: our door to tell us our daughter was found in
Speaker 1: a motail bathroom. Was she suicidal.
Speaker 2: The case isn't officially closed that night, though, IPD has
Speaker 2: to wait for the medical examiner to make his own
Speaker 2: determination on how Libby died. As one of the detectives
Speaker 2: told Devin, there's going to be an autopsy and that
Speaker 2: should give everyone more answers.
Speaker 1: Right, they were going to set aside a room for
Speaker 1: us to come and be with her and say her goodbyes,
Speaker 1: and we could stay as long as we wanted.
Speaker 2: A few days after Libby's death, Cindy and her family
Speaker 2: were given the opportunity to see Libby's body in private
Speaker 2: at the funeral home. They planned to do a cremation
Speaker 2: and service for Libby, but wanted a moment alone with her.
Speaker 2: First years later, Cindy's grief is still so raw it's
Speaker 2: hard for her to speak.
Speaker 1: And she just looked so beautiful, you know. They had
Speaker 1: had done her makeup and combed her hair, and she wasn't,
Speaker 1: you know, dressed in anything fancy. It was just, you know,
Speaker 1: she was wrapped in a blanket up up under her
Speaker 1: arms and her arms were folded and her head was
Speaker 1: like it was on a pillow. I talked to her
Speaker 1: and I told her I'm sorry that I couldn't protect
Speaker 1: her and loved her, and then we just kind of
Speaker 1: stayed in there for a little long. Cuner and I
Speaker 1: had noticed that she had some scratches on her forearm,
Speaker 1: really deep scratches, and I noticed her fingernails were broken off,
Speaker 1: and she had a bruise on her nose.
Speaker 2: Cindy told me that Libby always liked to have her
Speaker 2: nails nicely done. She was wearing light orange acrylics at
Speaker 2: the time of her death, but at the funeral home,
Speaker 2: Libby's hands looked raggedy. There was a cut on one
Speaker 2: finger and two of her acrylics were broken off roughly.
Speaker 1: I got my phone out, I took a picture of
Speaker 1: the scratches on her arm, hidden her fingernails.
Speaker 2: Why did you decide to document it yourself?
Speaker 1: I didn't know if you know, if they had documented
Speaker 1: that stuff. So I just decided I would.
Speaker 2: Seeing Libby's body in that state unsettled Cindy, and so
Speaker 2: later when she got home, she decided she would look
Speaker 2: through Libby's car to see what she could find. Devin
Speaker 2: and Nick had been the last ones to drive Libby's
Speaker 2: car after her body was discovered. They later returned it
Speaker 2: to police, and Cindy got the car back the following day.
Speaker 2: It had been so in her driveway ever since. From
Speaker 2: the outside, the car was newly dented, the windshield cracked,
Speaker 2: the dashboard loose.
Speaker 1: She was so proud of that car. I was just
Speaker 1: devastated that her car was in the condition it was
Speaker 1: because she took such good care of her car. It
Speaker 1: was always clean and smelled nice, and so it was
Speaker 1: all very just kind of shocking kind of devastation, you know.
Speaker 1: I just felt so heavy. I thought, how did this
Speaker 1: come to this?
Speaker 2: Cindy had been too distraught to look inside the car
Speaker 2: until now, and what she found surprised her in the
Speaker 2: crevice of the seat, an orange acrylic fingernail. She stared
Speaker 2: at it for a moment, thinking about Libby, her body,
Speaker 2: the police investigation.
Speaker 1: I thought, well, they must have missed this fingernail, you know,
Speaker 1: or I had no idea what I was, why that
Speaker 1: would be there, And I was naive. It wasn't till
Speaker 1: much later, and I thought, why would they not search
Speaker 1: the car?
Speaker 2: Cindy told me she was under the impression that the
Speaker 2: investigation into Libby's death was ongoing. Two months went by
Speaker 2: while she waited for an update from the IPD.
Speaker 1: We tried to call several times to speak with someone,
Speaker 1: and we never got a hold of anybody, and we
Speaker 1: would just leave voicemails. We just didn't understand why they
Speaker 1: just wouldn't talk to us.
Speaker 2: On February twentieth, twenty eighteen, Cindy received her first big
Speaker 2: piece of news in the case, not from one of
Speaker 2: the detectives she'd been trying to reach at IPD, but
Speaker 2: in a letter from the funeral home. Inside was Libby's
Speaker 2: death certificate. The autopsy was complete. The police received the
Speaker 2: autopsy report around the same time Cindy got the death certificate.
Speaker 2: Here's Major Anka, one of the officers who worked on
Speaker 2: Libby's case.
Speaker 5: We had gotten the report back from the medical examiner.
Speaker 5: I can remember I've sitting in my office and Smili
Speaker 5: came in and he was beside himself and said, the
Speaker 5: medical examiner ruled Libby's death undetermined. I go, what do
Speaker 5: you mean they ruled undetermined? He goes, yeah, they ruled
Speaker 5: it undetermined. That was something that really caught us off
Speaker 5: guard because when we get a you know, all of
Speaker 5: our medical examiner reports they come back suicide, homicide, national causes.
Speaker 5: I mean, this was the first undetermined that most of
Speaker 5: us had seen.
Speaker 1: When we received the death certificate and read undetermined, it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, affirmation for me. I can't say relief,
Speaker 1: you know, because there's no relief, isn't that But in
Speaker 1: that feeling of Okay, we know she didn't do that,
Speaker 1: but now there's this horrible reality, you know that the
Speaker 1: person she trusted to protect her, you know, potentially did
Speaker 1: it to or her.
Speaker 2: Cindy was suspicious of Devon, and rumors were circulating in
Speaker 2: Independence that there was more to the story than he
Speaker 2: was letting on. Devon had been released the morning after
Speaker 2: he was interviewed by police, and as we heard earlier
Speaker 2: this episode, he had been hoping the autopsy report would
Speaker 2: clear his name.
Speaker 7: Wouldn't you think that to any Kate Train other stuff?
Speaker 2: But the autopsy report didn't clear Devon undetermined didn't roll
Speaker 2: out homicide, but it didn't roll out suicide either. It
Speaker 2: just meant the medical examiner couldn't really figure out how
Speaker 2: Libby died. It meant that the Independent's police department should
Speaker 2: be looking at other evidence to figure out what happened
Speaker 2: to Libby.
Speaker 1: I was confident that they would launch a full investigation
Speaker 1: at that point.
Speaker 2: Specifically, she thought they would focus on Devon.
Speaker 1: I hope they would be looking at his story and
Speaker 1: corroborating what his story was.
Speaker 2: But that's not what happened. Instead, the IPD told Cindy
Speaker 2: the case was closed despite the medical examiner's ruling.
Speaker 1: In my mind, I go, well, I'm thinking, isn't this backwards.
Speaker 1: Isn't the emmy who decides if he doesn't sign suicide,
Speaker 1: don't they police do an investigation?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 1: And that is when that was my first time that
Speaker 1: I thought something's not right here.
Speaker 2: After the interview with Devin Martin the night of Libby's death.
Speaker 2: IPD did very little to corroborate Devn's story that Libby
Speaker 2: was suicidal, beyond talking to his friend Nick.
Speaker 10: No, I mean, she was like very like just stressed
Speaker 10: about herself. She was just like very depressed.
Speaker 2: And on Devon's other claim that he'd never laid a
Speaker 2: hand on Libby, I.
Speaker 6: Would not ever do anything to harm her physically. I
Speaker 6: would prevent her from being born physically with life my neither.
Speaker 2: IPD made no attempt to interview those who knew Libby
Speaker 2: and Devin best, who could speak to the intimate details
Speaker 2: of their relationship, which maybe would not have been that
Speaker 2: unusual in another case with different circumstances, except for the
Speaker 2: fact that inside the ipd's own files were records of
Speaker 2: over a dozen nine one one calls involving the couple.
Speaker 1: They had so much information about domestic violence between the
Speaker 1: two of them.
Speaker 2: They had it in their hands.
Speaker 1: They knew that.
Speaker 11: So when I opened up the door, I seen Devin
Speaker 11: was on top of it and he was choking her,
Speaker 11: and I got upset. I went out to the Independent
Speaker 11: Police Department where it occurred, and I just told them
Speaker 11: what I had witnessed.
Speaker 2: That's next time on What Happened to Libby Caswell? From
Speaker 2: I Think That Did, from the Rain and Until Keep
Speaker 2: You heard of the Grown.
Speaker 11: Don't Me?
Speaker 2: What Happened to Libby Caswell is written, reported, and hosted
Speaker 2: by me Melissa Jelson, with writing and story editing by
Speaker 2: Marisa Brown and Lauren Hanson. Episodes are edited by Jeremy
Speaker 2: Thal and Carl Catle. Our executive producer is Ryan Murdoch.
Speaker 2: For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Jason English and Katrina Norvel,
Speaker 2: with our supervising producer Carl Catle. Fact checking by Maya Shukre.
Speaker 2: Our theme song is written by Aaron Kaufman and performed
Speaker 2: by Aaron Kaufman and Melisabeth Wolfe. Original music by Aaron
Speaker 2: Kaufman with additional music by Jeremy Thal. Our episodes are
Speaker 2: mixed and mastered by Carl Catle. To find out more
Speaker 2: about my investigation or to send a tip, please email
Speaker 2: me at what Happened to Libby at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening, water Away, five eyes so
Speaker 2: in pieces.
Speaker 10: In pieces, and don't you.
Speaker 2: Allow you until until on Away? Five eyes so in
Speaker 2: pieces and pieces and the