April 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Justin’s life has been shaped by absence—of answers, of explanations, and his father. Now that he’s reaching back, he’s haunted by what he might find: rumors of brutality, inherited darkness, a legacy of violence.
As Gilbert helps Justin trace the moments that defined Jeremy’s path—especially the day he killed Donald Moorehead—Justin begins to confront an impossible question: if Jeremy had been stopped sooner, Leo would not have spent three decades in prison, but would Justin even exist?
This is not just a story about a murder. It’s about what we inherit, what we carry, and the fear that we might be made of the very things we fear most.
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https://lavaforgood.com/bone-valley/
New episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 will be available every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to Lava for Good + on Apple Podcasts to binge the whole season, ad-free now.
Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Every time I hear about my dad is oh, he's
a killer, you know he has He's just straight evil.
I was always scared because, like my biggest fear was
being him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Jeremy Scott was a shadow in Justin's life, always there,
but only mentioned in hush tones. Growing up, He'd hears
stray comments about Jeremy, but the details were always vague.
The hazy mix.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Of fact and fiction, different stories like killing two people,
and one time I was on the impression from all
the information I gathered that he's killed at least twelve people.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Justin also heard bits and pieces about a true story,
the story of the one murder his dad did get convicted.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Of killing this one guy because he was gay.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
He said that, you know, to do try to touch them,
but apparently to do didn't touch them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
He just wanted to rob him for money.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now, Justin wanted to know everything about whose dad was
and what he'd done, as long as it was finally
the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
If you really want to make amends, just you know,
come clean and just open open yourself to yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
There are some things Justin I can tell you about
this murder. Hey, Shan, I can tell you about the
evidence Kelsey and I saw at the Polk County Courthouse.
Don't touch anything, text some pictures and correct that we
(01:43):
saw the blood spattered shirt your dad was wearing the
day he was arrested. It's a Bud Mackenzie t shirts.
That the weapon was a bottle sparkling white grape juice.
That's what it is, okay. The confessions exist on two
black cassette tapes.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Testing Testing one two three four five five four three two.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I can tell you what's in them, and I will,
But there are other parts of the story, parts I
could never have known if your mom hadn't chosen to
share her side of things. She's the one who can
tell you about your dad's final moments of freedom because
your mom was there justin and in a way, so
(02:27):
were you do you?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
My mans laugh to as my feet soru step sorry
in this vasish rage as fish to.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The sliding stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Sold things stop.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Bone Valley Season two, Jeremy Chapter two, Destroyer.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I remember him calling and saying that him and Brian
were coming. They were going to pick me up.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Jamie thought she was done with Jeremy. He broke up
with her after finding out she was pregnant, but the
morning after Halloween, Jeremy shows up in a Chevy Bretta,
Brian's in the front seat.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I knew Brian from high school. He was always kind
of a quiet guy, one of the pie heads, you know,
always hung out with the pie heads that smoked out
under the oak tree. That when I saw him in
that car, he was he just he didn't even look
like the same person. His face was all broke out.
(04:32):
It was really pale. I remember getting in the back
seat and we left.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Jamie turns to Jeremy.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Where'd you get the car, and he said, Oh, it's
Donald's car. Now, Donald, I remember him mentioning Donald before Donald,
I think was the guy that he owned trailer park
trailers or ran a trailer park or something, and Jeremy
would do side jobs for him.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Here's what I look learning from police files and trial testimony,
Jeremy met thirty seven year old Donald moorehead that fall
at a gay bar called Fantasy two thousand. Don gives
him some weed, asks if he wants to make some money,
and Jeremy begins doing handiwork at his trailer. Sometimes Don
would let Jeremy stay overnight if he had no place
(05:20):
to go. Don's friends later testified that Don was paying
Jeremy for sex.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Jeremy denied this, and it was weird. He said, Don
let me borrow his car, and I remember thinking, why
would Don let you borrow his car? He knows you
don't have a driver's license, you've never had one.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Jeremy circles the block a few times. From the back seat,
Jamie notices both boys are jumpy and nervous. Jeremy looks
like he's starting to cry.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
He had spots on his pants. He was wearing this
white and blue shirt and these jeans, and they had
kind of like ragged places, not really holes, but like
real thin ragged places, and there were spots all over it.
And I remember thinking he just bought that shirt not
(06:17):
too long ago, because it was the shirt he got
with the money they gave him when he got out
of prison. He got it from the dollar store. But
it had spots on it.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The spots are dark and red.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
And I think my brain registered what it was.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Jeremy tells her something really bad happened and that he
and Brian have to leave town. They let Jamie out
of the car and they drive off. Jamie is terrified.
She runs inside and calls her friend, Jennifer.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
I remember her calling me, and she was upset. She
was crying, and I thought maybe they had a fight whatever,
But she was telling me that she was worried about Jeremy.
Something bad had happened. Jeremy had told her he'd gotten
into a fight with some guy, and the story was
that the guy was gay and made a pass at him,
(07:16):
and he had grabbed a bottle and he hit him
with it. Didn't know if he knocked him out or
what happened. And they got out of there. So she's
telling me he's telling her all of that, and she
kept saying, I think there's more. I think there's more,
there's more to it. And she sounded scared to me.
And I remember telling her, whatever you do, if he
(07:39):
shows up, don't leave with him, don't go anywhere. I
made her promise, but swear to me, you're not going
to do anything stupid. You're not going to go anywhere,
basically trying to talk her into staying put.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Later that night, Jeremy calls again. He says he wants
her to lay low with him for her few days,
then make a run for Texas in a fresh start.
He's coming back to get her.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I remember going out back, smoking a cigarette and just thinking,
and it was almost like I was trying to think
of a way to get out of it. That couldn't
find a way to get out of it. But I
can remember smoking a cigarette and hearing the car pull
up and my heart just dropping. And I remember walking
(08:30):
around the side of the house and I figured he'd
be sitting in the car. Well, he was already at
the front door, and my grandmother was at the front door. Well,
he had told my grandmother I'm here to pick up Jamie,
so you know, he already told her I was leaving.
So she's like, oh, okay, we'll come back your stuff.
You didn't tell me you were going.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Jamie takes another look at Jeremy. He's still wearing the
bloodstained clothes he had on earlier that morning.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I knew I wasn't coming back, and so people would
(09:19):
ask me, well, why you knew he showed up at
your house in this guy's car and he had blood
on his pants. Why did you get in the car
with him. I was not telling him. No, you don't understand,
and people just don't understand. I wasn't telling him.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
No, Jeremy and Jamie set off in Don's Chevy Barretta.
As they drive, Jeremy talks about his plan. He's got
family about thirty miles away. They can hang out with
them for a few days before hitting the road, maybe
leave Polk County for good. An hour later, they arrive
(09:55):
at a trailer in Davenport. Jeremy's younger brother Royal, is
there with his teenage wife Anna and their baby.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
The baby was walking, so she had to have been,
you know, over a year. And I remember the baby
being in a diaper and just dirty and just covered
in dirt, and the house was dirty, and the baby
was crying, and I wanted to get the baby something
to eat. There was nothing, nothing. There was nothing in
(10:27):
that kitchen. Nothing. And I came out and I said,
there's nothing in this house. What are you going to
give her to eat? And I remember Anne getting mad,
told me, I don't worry about, don't worry about. She's
already ate. She's fine, she's fine, And Jeremy told me
to go to bed.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Back in Lakeland, Jennifer spent the whole night worrying about
her friend.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
I remember getting a yeah, took a shower, my hair
was wet and I was combing my hair, and I
walked out through the kitchen into the dining room, and
on the dining room table was the newspaper, Lakelyn Ledger.
That was normal, and I went over and I grabbed it.
I always liked to read the comics, you know, so
I grabbed it and bang, right on the front page
there's the story about someone found murdered. And the things
(11:14):
that they were saying in the news article were, you know,
pretty much lining up with some of the stuff that
she had told me.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
The headline and the Lakeland Ledger reads Neighbors and Investigators
mystified by Lakeland man found dead and home. Below it,
a photo shows a sheet covered body being wheeled to
a van. Jennifer skims the article, reading that the victim,
Donald Moorehead, died from a head wound and that police
(11:44):
believe his Chevy Burretta was stolen. Jennifer's thoughts jumped to
Jamie's panicked call into Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
So I started freaking out, like, oh my god, he
killed this guy, you know. So I called for grandmother's
house and she was gone. They didn't know where she was.
She'd left with Jeremy. And at that point, I kind
of freak out because I'm reading this, He's obviously murdered someone.
(12:15):
In my mind, obviously murdered someone. And now my friend
is gone, my pregnant friend is gone somewhere with him.
I went and I found my mom and I went
to her crying. I had the paper in my hand
and I took it to her and I told her
what Janie had told me, and I showed her the article.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That same morning, across Polk County, Jamie wakes up in
a trailer with Jeremy and I was starving.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I was so hungry. Now, mind, I'm six months pregnant
and the baby's still crying. That baby was always crying,
and I know she was hungry. You can just tell
she was hungry. I remember coming out and the keys
to that car sitting on this little table thing that
(13:06):
was sitting by the door, and I didn't care what
they said. I was going to get something to eat.
And I knew from sitting in the back seat that
that Center Council thing had a bunch of change in it.
And I grabbed them keys and Jeremy said, where are
you going? I said, I'm going to get me and
this baby something to eat. And I walked out the
door and I made it maybe a block, maybe two blocks,
(13:32):
I'm not really sure, and all of a sudden, all
these cops came flying from nowhere, and I can remember
just sitting there, petrified and thinking. In the back of
my head. The first thought I thought was, I knew it.
I knew it. My gut knew when he picked me up,
(13:53):
I knew it. I knew something was wrong. And I
remember putting my hands up and I'm all getting out
and they all had their guns pointed at me, and
I can remember hollering out the window, I'm pregnant. Please
don't shoot, Please don't shoot. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And
I'm just balling and balling, and they're like, where's where's Scott,
(14:14):
Where's Jeremy Scott, where's it Jeremy Scott. And I'm like,
I'm alone, I'm alone. Don't shoot, don't shoot, Please don't shoot.
And I remember this one cop and he came in.
He grabbed my arm and he held it out the
window and then he opened the door and I can
remember him yanking me out and put me across the hood,
and all I kept thinking about was baby, and so
(14:34):
I was grabbing my stomach and so then they got
really mad, and so they're grabbing my arms and all
I kept hollering was I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And this
one cop got down in my face and he says,
if you care about your baby, where's Jeremy Scott? And
I said, I'll tell you where they're at. I'll tell
(14:55):
you what they're wearing. Just let me get off my baby,
and so he let me stand up. I said, to
that house. I told them, to the scripts of the house.
This is what they're wearing, this is how many people
are there. But I said, there's a baby in the house.
And I remember this lady cop being there, and I
can remember I looked at her and I was crying
and I said, please take some food for that baby,
(15:17):
and she just looked at me and she said what
I said, Please feed that baby and the tea, and
I mean she started crying. They did put me in
the back of the car and they told me they
were taking me to the station and I said okay,
And when they shut that door, I could breathe. It
(15:40):
was like the whole time I couldn't breathe like I
was underwater. And then I think that's when it finally
hit me that I was free, that I was finally
going to get away. And they took me to the
station and they were ask me everything, and I told
(16:01):
him everything, everything I knew, and they were asking me
about calling Jennifer. And then that's when I knew Jennifer
had called the police.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
I was scared and I was upset for her, but
I was also mad at her because she promised me
that she wouldn't go with him.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
She promised me, So Jennifer saved my life. I'm telling
you right now, I still firmly believe if he had
not been arrested, I'd be dead. It was getting more
and more violent each time. And the look when I
(16:42):
first met him, he was intense, and you could just
feel him. By the end, there was nothing. There was
nothing in his eyes, and he would look at you
and you would just feel like ice water. Five four
(17:16):
three two.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
We'll be speaking with Jeremy j E. R. M. E.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Y Scott.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
When Jeremy and Brian are arrested, they eventually tell police
everything that the murder happened. The morning after Halloween.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Night, going back to Halloween.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
That they were drinking and smoking in Don's trailer. Jeremy
knows Don's got hundreds of dollars on him. He wants
the cash and Don's car, and when he sees Don
asleep in the recliner, Jeremy smashes him over the head
with a bottle.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I ain't one time with the bottle, okay, And that's
when he went down.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
He was like then, he was unconscious.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
When Don doesn't die fast enough, Jeremy wraps a telephone
cord around his neck and watches Don take his final breath.
From the tapes, it's clear the murder, like so many
of Jeremy's violent acts, was completely senseless and not well
thought out. He kills Don to give himself time to
(18:21):
search for money. He knew Don was hiding in the trailer,
but the murder didn't bring him any closer to finding it.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Which you couldn't.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
You will don't care what you do. You won't fire again.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You will find nice cook eating.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So Jeremy gave up looking for the cash and left
a fake note on Don's door to buy themselves time
to get away. It reads friend was in trouble in
Orlando went to help him be back in a few days.
Don That's when Jeremy drives over to Jamie's with blood
on his clothes and brings her to the trailer in Davenport.
(18:58):
When police pulled Jamie over in the Chevy, Jeremy hears
a dog from the canine unit. From inside the trailer,
he sees the helicopter circling above. With nowhere to go,
he and his younger brother, Royal Dean, take off into
the woods. Dean's got a warn out for his arrest.
It's an unrelated charge, but he doesn't want to be
(19:20):
thrown in jail either. They wade into a creek, hoping
the water will mask their scent, but the helicopter stays
fixed above them. They sit together on a log and
Jeremy finally tells Royal Dean what he did to Donald moorehead.
They're after me, not you, he says. Watching the scene
(19:41):
unfold through the trees from where they sit, Jeremy sees
the officers putting Jamie in the back of a cop car,
and then he does something that for me looking at
it now, reveals what a complicated and conflicted person he is.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
M M.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
My brother said he was gonna turn him selva Inn,
so that's what he did.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Jamie had nothing to do with this murder, and he
doesn't want her or Royal Dean caught up in it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
He gave me enough time to get away and they
turned himselve In.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
What I know from police records is that Jeremy walks
up the hill toward the waiting detectives. Are you looking
for me? He asks? His voice is calm, almost resigned
to his fate. He's been behind bars ever since. Somebody
(20:44):
told Jamie that you were gonna kill Jamie.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
What.
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Yeah, I gotta take my own life right to kill
her up.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
That's the only girl I ever really loved.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And she was pregnant with Justin at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
On March fifth, nineteen eighty nine, well, Jeremy is locked
up in the Polk County jail awaiting trial for Donald
Moorehead's murder. Jamie checks into the hospital with her mom.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
I was petrified. You know, you see movies about evil children,
like like Damien and stuff, and I'm not gonna lie.
I had those thoughts. I had those thoughts that what
(21:41):
if this kid is just like his father? When Justin
was born. The day he was born, and the way
he was I had a really rough labor. He was
(22:02):
in stress. It was just it was scary. And he
ended up being in the hospital for like six weeks,
and I couldn't hold him and I couldn't touch him,
and I would sit there and I would look at
him and I told I remember telling my mom, this
(22:22):
baby's not gonna love me because I can't bond with him,
I can't touch him. And I can remember him just
looking at me, and my mom saying, you see how
he's looking at you. He knows who you are. And
I just fell so in love with this baby. And
I just knew. I just knew he was mine. I
(22:46):
didn't care who his dad was, I didn't care how
he came. That was my baby, that was my child.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
By the time Jeremy's trial began, his son was six
months old. This trial was not a who done it.
Both Jeremy and his co defendant Brian Hall had already
confessed to killing Donald moorehead. Even though the jury recommended
life in prison, that Jeremy's sentencing prosecutor, John Aguero, convinced
the judge to send him to the electric chair, so
(23:19):
Jeremy was shipped off to death Row at Rayford to
wait for his execution date, and while he waited, he
could not stop thinking about his son.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
He would write, I mean, at first, it was like
almost every day I would get a letter, get a letter,
get a letter. And then I can remember him begging
to meet Justin, begging to meet Justin. I wanted to
meet Justin, and I wouldn't write him back. I wouldn't respond,
and I kept thinking, if I don't answer him, he'll
(23:49):
quit right and he's gone, He's gone. Don't answer them.
But he kept asking about Jestin, and he wanted to
meet Jestin, and I found he wrote down, and I thought, okay,
I'm gonna let him meet Justin. One time.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Jamie drives north to Rayford to visit Jeremy. In the
visitation area, death row inmates are separated from visitors by
thick glass. When Jeremy's escorted in, He's wearing blue prison
pants with an orange shirt reserved for death row inmates.
Jamie is seated on one side of the glass. Jeremy
(24:27):
sits down on the other side.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
I let him see him through. It was like five minutes.
It wasn't very long.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Jeremy can't take his eyes off of Justin, and.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
I remember him starting crying, and I told him, this
is the lonely time you'll ever see your son. And
I think me being able to finally tell him no
without the fear was what I needed. And I remember
(25:00):
leaving and the relief that I felt, and knowing that
I'd never have to see him again, and that it
was just so much relief, so much relief. And I
remember going out and sitting in the car, and I
know I sat there for probably an hour, and I
(25:21):
just cried, and a part of me felt guilty because
Justin was going to grow up without a dad, but
I wouldn't want him growing up with that dad. And
the letter stopped not long after that. They got less
(25:41):
and less, and it wasn't much longer after that that
he finally just gave up and stopped writing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Jamie tries to move on to forget. Every time there's
a change in Jeremy's status, the doc notifies her, like
a few years later, when the Florida Supreme Court overturns
Jeremy's death sentence, citing all the physical and emotional abuse
he suffered, as a child, she's told that his sentence
has been reduced to life in prison. When she gets
(26:19):
these calls about Jeremy, she has to start forgetting all
over again.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I used to have some of his clothes and stuff
that I held onto for a long time. I got
rid of all of that to try to get rid
of demons. And it didn't work. Yeah, I was. I
had a really rough time with nightmares and stuff for
a long time, and that didn't help. It didn't help.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
But then she also has this little baby, and as
he grows up, it becomes even harder to forget.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
From the day he was born, he looked just like Jeremy,
looked just like him, especially when he reached those teenage
years and when he first sprouted up, and when that
voice changed and he started getting the little scruffy hairs,
and oh god, it my heart would just clench, it
(27:21):
would just clench. And see, Justin doesn't have the dark hair,
He's got the blonde hair, so he would look like
Jeremy when I first met him. Sometimes the way he walks,
he's got Jeremy's walk. He walks like Jeremy, and those
blue eyes and you know, the Jeremy I first met,
(27:46):
and it would meet my heart hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
But she doesn't talk about it, doesn't share the hurt
she feels, not with her son as he gets older,
or with anyone else.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
As I'm getting old. One thing I'm realizing humans are
very fragile. They're very emotional creatures, all of us. I'm
a human too.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I promise I fly down to Florida to visit Justin
about a month after our first phone call. First thing
I notice is how much he resembles a younger version
of his father. I've seen Jeremy's mugshots and the photos
taken during his prison transfers when he was around the
same age as Justin. Both father and son have the
(28:29):
piercing blue eyes Jamie talked about. Justin isn't as tall
as Jeremy, but he shares the same thin build. Even
their voices have a similar tone in cadence. The other
thing that stands out about Justin is his nature. He's
a real people pleaser, thoughtful, sensitive. He tells me that
(28:50):
for as long as he can remember, he's yearned for
a strong and stable family.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I did have times when I would see families and
I would, you know, crying my head type thing, because
I would always want to fall here. And that goes
for a mother too, like I wanted a happy mother
type thing.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
There were years when Jamie couldn't care for her son.
Justin spent time living with his grandmother and then an aunt,
while his mom fought to push away her painful past.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
I never talked to anybody about any of this. I
bottled all that up and put it away. Well, the
way to keep it put it away was to do
drugs and to drink and get into these bad relationships.
And it was just recycling and recycling.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Even as she tried to avoid talking about Jeremy at
all costs, he had a way of resurfacing in her life.
Like how in two thousand and five, Jamie got an
unexpected knock on her door.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
When those detectives showed up, it was like somebody he
just took a bandage and just tore it off and
everything just came out. They just said, we need to
talk to you about Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Investigators had just learned that Jeremy Scott's fingerprints were identified
inside the car Michelle Schofield was driving the night she
was killed.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
And as soon as they said that I hit the
floor and I just started crying, and I said, how
did he get out? Because that's been my biggest fear,
is he's going to get out. He's going to find
me and he's going to kill me. And they were like,
oh no, no, no, he didn't get out. We just
need to talk to you. And for him to still
(30:40):
have that hold on me. Sixteen years later, I thought
I was over that. I don't even remember most of
that interview. I'm going to be real with you, I
don't remember a lot of it. And when I left
(31:00):
that interview, and I'm just gonna be honest, I went
on a three week binger and pretty much disappeared.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Justin learned not to ask too many questions about his dad.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
The only time that anything was mentioned it was either
when I was in argument, you don't need to be
like your father, you don't blah blah blah blah blah.
Anytime they ever talked about him is you're not liking
him type thing. So I wonder how much of my
life I followed in his footsteps, because if you keep
telling someone they're not something, they end up being something
like I got to make sure not to do that
(31:41):
with my kids.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
What was it like when you found out you were
going to be a father?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I was scared, I was, I was, well, I'm still scared.
It was just more or less me being scared about
anger issues.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Justin doesn't have a criminal record. He's never gotten into
the kind of trouble Jeremy, did.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know if I'm going to be like my dad?
Which I'm not, because I don't even know what my
dad would be like in a dad role.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The first time Justin heard his dad's voice, he heard
him confessing to a murder.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Because I have to live with this every day.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Can you describe that?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
What does it like to live with them?
Speaker 7 (32:28):
That's not a good feeling this way? Just put it away.
I dreamed, I wake up. I turned over. I said,
I said, a dead body, say next to me. I
see with dead bodies every night when I go to bed.
That's punishment.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Because I was expecting. I was expecting someone cold. I
was expecting like a like someone that really don't care.
And then I heard someone genuinely crying, and so I'm like,
all right, So it makes sense. His name is finally
caught up to him. He was forced to break and
he didn't know how to handle that.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Jeremy can never set things truly right. He can't bring
back the dead or erase the ripples of pain he's
caused for so many. But he can set the record straight,
which he hopes, and Justin hopes, and I hope will
one day help to exonerate Leo Schofield, whose conviction for
(33:29):
the murder of his wife still stands today. Justin wants
to support his dad through this struggle. He wants him
to be honest about his past.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
My dad was a destroyer. I'm a healer type thing,
so in the beginning is the heal what my dad
had broke. And I feel like if I do that,
then I could unlock the power of healing.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
That's how my mind frame works.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Justin tells me he wants to talk talk to his dad.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I want to be able to talk to my dad
because I can't even know how to take the steps
to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
I'm not scared.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
He wonders if this will help him be a better
father to his own son, so he can somedays show
him that even broken pieces can be put back together
in their own way.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
I know that is anything I have to help my dad.
How can I be a father to my son. If
I can't even stand up to my own I.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Tell Justin I'll try to help him. We can definitely
help you with this. We have, We've been corresponding with him.
I'll just tell you right now, but deep down I
was unsettled. Connecting Justin with his father means bringing him
into the chaos of Jeremy's life. I knew what that
was like. But Justin is his son. How would he
(34:46):
respond to getting a letter like this one? Mister King,
I have no hard feelings towards you or to society.
I'll make this short. This will be my last time
writing to you. They are going to lock me away
for a long time. The monster in me is coming
(35:06):
alive one last time. Hope everything works out for you. Goodbye,
that's next time. Own Valley is a production of Lava
for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Our executive producers are Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis.
(35:31):
Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie Paully and Hannah
Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is our sound designer.
Marianne McCune is our editor, fact checking by Danielle Suleman.
Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing and Operations. Our
Social Media director is Ismadi guard Rama, our Social Media
(35:54):
manager is Sarah Gibbons, and our art director is Andrew Nelson.
Additional research production by Kelsey Decker. Additional sound recording by
James Johnson. Own Valley is written and produced by me
Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads
at Lava for Good
Every time I hear about my dad is oh, he's
a killer, you know he has He's just straight evil.
I was always scared because, like my biggest fear was
being him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Jeremy Scott was a shadow in Justin's life, always there,
but only mentioned in hush tones. Growing up, He'd hears
stray comments about Jeremy, but the details were always vague.
The hazy mix.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Of fact and fiction, different stories like killing two people,
and one time I was on the impression from all
the information I gathered that he's killed at least twelve people.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Justin also heard bits and pieces about a true story,
the story of the one murder his dad did get convicted.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Of killing this one guy because he was gay.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
He said that, you know, to do try to touch them,
but apparently to do didn't touch them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
He just wanted to rob him for money.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now, Justin wanted to know everything about whose dad was
and what he'd done, as long as it was finally
the truth.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
If you really want to make amends, just you know,
come clean and just open open yourself to yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
There are some things Justin I can tell you about
this murder. Hey, Shan, I can tell you about the
evidence Kelsey and I saw at the Polk County Courthouse.
Don't touch anything, text some pictures and correct that we
(01:43):
saw the blood spattered shirt your dad was wearing the
day he was arrested. It's a Bud Mackenzie t shirts.
That the weapon was a bottle sparkling white grape juice.
That's what it is, okay. The confessions exist on two
black cassette tapes.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Testing Testing one two three four five five four three two.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I can tell you what's in them, and I will,
But there are other parts of the story, parts I
could never have known if your mom hadn't chosen to
share her side of things. She's the one who can
tell you about your dad's final moments of freedom because
your mom was there justin and in a way, so
(02:27):
were you do you?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
My mans laugh to as my feet soru step sorry
in this vasish rage as fish to.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The sliding stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Sold things stop.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Bone Valley Season two, Jeremy Chapter two, Destroyer.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I remember him calling and saying that him and Brian
were coming. They were going to pick me up.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Jamie thought she was done with Jeremy. He broke up
with her after finding out she was pregnant, but the
morning after Halloween, Jeremy shows up in a Chevy Bretta,
Brian's in the front seat.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
I knew Brian from high school. He was always kind
of a quiet guy, one of the pie heads, you know,
always hung out with the pie heads that smoked out
under the oak tree. That when I saw him in
that car, he was he just he didn't even look
like the same person. His face was all broke out.
(04:32):
It was really pale. I remember getting in the back
seat and we left.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Jamie turns to Jeremy.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Where'd you get the car, and he said, Oh, it's
Donald's car. Now, Donald, I remember him mentioning Donald before Donald,
I think was the guy that he owned trailer park
trailers or ran a trailer park or something, and Jeremy
would do side jobs for him.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Here's what I look learning from police files and trial testimony,
Jeremy met thirty seven year old Donald moorehead that fall
at a gay bar called Fantasy two thousand. Don gives
him some weed, asks if he wants to make some money,
and Jeremy begins doing handiwork at his trailer. Sometimes Don
would let Jeremy stay overnight if he had no place
(05:20):
to go. Don's friends later testified that Don was paying
Jeremy for sex.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Jeremy denied this, and it was weird. He said, Don
let me borrow his car, and I remember thinking, why
would Don let you borrow his car? He knows you
don't have a driver's license, you've never had one.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Jeremy circles the block a few times. From the back seat,
Jamie notices both boys are jumpy and nervous. Jeremy looks
like he's starting to cry.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
He had spots on his pants. He was wearing this
white and blue shirt and these jeans, and they had
kind of like ragged places, not really holes, but like
real thin ragged places, and there were spots all over it.
And I remember thinking he just bought that shirt not
(06:17):
too long ago, because it was the shirt he got
with the money they gave him when he got out
of prison. He got it from the dollar store. But
it had spots on it.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The spots are dark and red.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
And I think my brain registered what it was.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Jeremy tells her something really bad happened and that he
and Brian have to leave town. They let Jamie out
of the car and they drive off. Jamie is terrified.
She runs inside and calls her friend, Jennifer.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
I remember her calling me, and she was upset. She
was crying, and I thought maybe they had a fight whatever,
But she was telling me that she was worried about Jeremy.
Something bad had happened. Jeremy had told her he'd gotten
into a fight with some guy, and the story was
that the guy was gay and made a pass at him,
(07:16):
and he had grabbed a bottle and he hit him
with it. Didn't know if he knocked him out or
what happened. And they got out of there. So she's
telling me he's telling her all of that, and she
kept saying, I think there's more. I think there's more,
there's more to it. And she sounded scared to me.
And I remember telling her, whatever you do, if he
(07:39):
shows up, don't leave with him, don't go anywhere. I
made her promise, but swear to me, you're not going
to do anything stupid. You're not going to go anywhere,
basically trying to talk her into staying put.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Later that night, Jeremy calls again. He says he wants
her to lay low with him for her few days,
then make a run for Texas in a fresh start.
He's coming back to get her.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
I remember going out back, smoking a cigarette and just thinking,
and it was almost like I was trying to think
of a way to get out of it. That couldn't
find a way to get out of it. But I
can remember smoking a cigarette and hearing the car pull
up and my heart just dropping. And I remember walking
(08:30):
around the side of the house and I figured he'd
be sitting in the car. Well, he was already at
the front door, and my grandmother was at the front door. Well,
he had told my grandmother I'm here to pick up Jamie,
so you know, he already told her I was leaving.
So she's like, oh, okay, we'll come back your stuff.
You didn't tell me you were going.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Jamie takes another look at Jeremy. He's still wearing the
bloodstained clothes he had on earlier that morning.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I knew I wasn't coming back, and so people would
(09:19):
ask me, well, why you knew he showed up at
your house in this guy's car and he had blood
on his pants. Why did you get in the car
with him. I was not telling him. No, you don't understand,
and people just don't understand. I wasn't telling him.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
No, Jeremy and Jamie set off in Don's Chevy Barretta.
As they drive, Jeremy talks about his plan. He's got
family about thirty miles away. They can hang out with
them for a few days before hitting the road, maybe
leave Polk County for good. An hour later, they arrive
(09:55):
at a trailer in Davenport. Jeremy's younger brother Royal, is
there with his teenage wife Anna and their baby.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
The baby was walking, so she had to have been,
you know, over a year. And I remember the baby
being in a diaper and just dirty and just covered
in dirt, and the house was dirty, and the baby
was crying, and I wanted to get the baby something
to eat. There was nothing, nothing. There was nothing in
(10:27):
that kitchen. Nothing. And I came out and I said,
there's nothing in this house. What are you going to
give her to eat? And I remember Anne getting mad,
told me, I don't worry about, don't worry about. She's
already ate. She's fine, she's fine, And Jeremy told me
to go to bed.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Back in Lakeland, Jennifer spent the whole night worrying about
her friend.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
I remember getting a yeah, took a shower, my hair
was wet and I was combing my hair, and I
walked out through the kitchen into the dining room, and
on the dining room table was the newspaper, Lakelyn Ledger.
That was normal, and I went over and I grabbed it.
I always liked to read the comics, you know, so
I grabbed it and bang, right on the front page
there's the story about someone found murdered. And the things
(11:14):
that they were saying in the news article were, you know,
pretty much lining up with some of the stuff that
she had told me.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
The headline and the Lakeland Ledger reads Neighbors and Investigators
mystified by Lakeland man found dead and home. Below it,
a photo shows a sheet covered body being wheeled to
a van. Jennifer skims the article, reading that the victim,
Donald Moorehead, died from a head wound and that police
(11:44):
believe his Chevy Burretta was stolen. Jennifer's thoughts jumped to
Jamie's panicked call into Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
So I started freaking out, like, oh my god, he
killed this guy, you know. So I called for grandmother's
house and she was gone. They didn't know where she was.
She'd left with Jeremy. And at that point, I kind
of freak out because I'm reading this, He's obviously murdered someone.
(12:15):
In my mind, obviously murdered someone. And now my friend
is gone, my pregnant friend is gone somewhere with him.
I went and I found my mom and I went
to her crying. I had the paper in my hand
and I took it to her and I told her
what Janie had told me, and I showed her the article.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That same morning, across Polk County, Jamie wakes up in
a trailer with Jeremy and I was starving.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I was so hungry. Now, mind, I'm six months pregnant
and the baby's still crying. That baby was always crying,
and I know she was hungry. You can just tell
she was hungry. I remember coming out and the keys
to that car sitting on this little table thing that
(13:06):
was sitting by the door, and I didn't care what
they said. I was going to get something to eat.
And I knew from sitting in the back seat that
that Center Council thing had a bunch of change in it.
And I grabbed them keys and Jeremy said, where are
you going? I said, I'm going to get me and
this baby something to eat. And I walked out the
door and I made it maybe a block, maybe two blocks,
(13:32):
I'm not really sure, and all of a sudden, all
these cops came flying from nowhere, and I can remember
just sitting there, petrified and thinking. In the back of
my head. The first thought I thought was, I knew it.
I knew it. My gut knew when he picked me up,
(13:53):
I knew it. I knew something was wrong. And I
remember putting my hands up and I'm all getting out
and they all had their guns pointed at me, and
I can remember hollering out the window, I'm pregnant. Please
don't shoot, Please don't shoot. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And
I'm just balling and balling, and they're like, where's where's Scott,
(14:14):
Where's Jeremy Scott, where's it Jeremy Scott. And I'm like,
I'm alone, I'm alone. Don't shoot, don't shoot, Please don't shoot.
And I remember this one cop and he came in.
He grabbed my arm and he held it out the
window and then he opened the door and I can
remember him yanking me out and put me across the hood,
and all I kept thinking about was baby, and so
(14:34):
I was grabbing my stomach and so then they got
really mad, and so they're grabbing my arms and all
I kept hollering was I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. And this
one cop got down in my face and he says,
if you care about your baby, where's Jeremy Scott? And
I said, I'll tell you where they're at. I'll tell
(14:55):
you what they're wearing. Just let me get off my baby,
and so he let me stand up. I said, to
that house. I told them, to the scripts of the house.
This is what they're wearing, this is how many people
are there. But I said, there's a baby in the house.
And I remember this lady cop being there, and I
can remember I looked at her and I was crying
and I said, please take some food for that baby,
(15:17):
and she just looked at me and she said what
I said, Please feed that baby and the tea, and
I mean she started crying. They did put me in
the back of the car and they told me they
were taking me to the station and I said okay,
And when they shut that door, I could breathe. It
(15:40):
was like the whole time I couldn't breathe like I
was underwater. And then I think that's when it finally
hit me that I was free, that I was finally
going to get away. And they took me to the
station and they were ask me everything, and I told
(16:01):
him everything, everything I knew, and they were asking me
about calling Jennifer. And then that's when I knew Jennifer
had called the police.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
I was scared and I was upset for her, but
I was also mad at her because she promised me
that she wouldn't go with him.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
She promised me, So Jennifer saved my life. I'm telling
you right now, I still firmly believe if he had
not been arrested, I'd be dead. It was getting more
and more violent each time. And the look when I
(16:42):
first met him, he was intense, and you could just
feel him. By the end, there was nothing. There was
nothing in his eyes, and he would look at you
and you would just feel like ice water. Five four
(17:16):
three two.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
We'll be speaking with Jeremy j E. R. M. E.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Y Scott.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
When Jeremy and Brian are arrested, they eventually tell police
everything that the murder happened. The morning after Halloween.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Night, going back to Halloween.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
That they were drinking and smoking in Don's trailer. Jeremy
knows Don's got hundreds of dollars on him. He wants
the cash and Don's car, and when he sees Don
asleep in the recliner, Jeremy smashes him over the head
with a bottle.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I ain't one time with the bottle, okay, And that's
when he went down.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
He was like then, he was unconscious.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
When Don doesn't die fast enough, Jeremy wraps a telephone
cord around his neck and watches Don take his final breath.
From the tapes, it's clear the murder, like so many
of Jeremy's violent acts, was completely senseless and not well
thought out. He kills Don to give himself time to
(18:21):
search for money. He knew Don was hiding in the trailer,
but the murder didn't bring him any closer to finding it.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Which you couldn't.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
You will don't care what you do. You won't fire again.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
You will find nice cook eating.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
So Jeremy gave up looking for the cash and left
a fake note on Don's door to buy themselves time
to get away. It reads friend was in trouble in
Orlando went to help him be back in a few days.
Don That's when Jeremy drives over to Jamie's with blood
on his clothes and brings her to the trailer in Davenport.
(18:58):
When police pulled Jamie over in the Chevy, Jeremy hears
a dog from the canine unit. From inside the trailer,
he sees the helicopter circling above. With nowhere to go,
he and his younger brother, Royal Dean, take off into
the woods. Dean's got a warn out for his arrest.
It's an unrelated charge, but he doesn't want to be
(19:20):
thrown in jail either. They wade into a creek, hoping
the water will mask their scent, but the helicopter stays
fixed above them. They sit together on a log and
Jeremy finally tells Royal Dean what he did to Donald moorehead.
They're after me, not you, he says. Watching the scene
(19:41):
unfold through the trees from where they sit, Jeremy sees
the officers putting Jamie in the back of a cop car,
and then he does something that for me looking at
it now, reveals what a complicated and conflicted person he is.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
M M.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
My brother said he was gonna turn him selva Inn,
so that's what he did.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Jamie had nothing to do with this murder, and he
doesn't want her or Royal Dean caught up in it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
He gave me enough time to get away and they
turned himselve In.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
What I know from police records is that Jeremy walks
up the hill toward the waiting detectives. Are you looking
for me? He asks? His voice is calm, almost resigned
to his fate. He's been behind bars ever since. Somebody
(20:44):
told Jamie that you were gonna kill Jamie.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
What.
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Yeah, I gotta take my own life right to kill
her up.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
That's the only girl I ever really loved.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And she was pregnant with Justin at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
On March fifth, nineteen eighty nine, well, Jeremy is locked
up in the Polk County jail awaiting trial for Donald
Moorehead's murder. Jamie checks into the hospital with her mom.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
I was petrified. You know, you see movies about evil children,
like like Damien and stuff, and I'm not gonna lie.
I had those thoughts. I had those thoughts that what
(21:41):
if this kid is just like his father? When Justin
was born. The day he was born, and the way
he was I had a really rough labor. He was
(22:02):
in stress. It was just it was scary. And he
ended up being in the hospital for like six weeks,
and I couldn't hold him and I couldn't touch him,
and I would sit there and I would look at
him and I told I remember telling my mom, this
(22:22):
baby's not gonna love me because I can't bond with him,
I can't touch him. And I can remember him just
looking at me, and my mom saying, you see how
he's looking at you. He knows who you are. And
I just fell so in love with this baby. And
I just knew. I just knew he was mine. I
(22:46):
didn't care who his dad was, I didn't care how
he came. That was my baby, that was my child.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
By the time Jeremy's trial began, his son was six
months old. This trial was not a who done it.
Both Jeremy and his co defendant Brian Hall had already
confessed to killing Donald moorehead. Even though the jury recommended
life in prison, that Jeremy's sentencing prosecutor, John Aguero, convinced
the judge to send him to the electric chair, so
(23:19):
Jeremy was shipped off to death Row at Rayford to
wait for his execution date, and while he waited, he
could not stop thinking about his son.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
He would write, I mean, at first, it was like
almost every day I would get a letter, get a letter,
get a letter. And then I can remember him begging
to meet Justin, begging to meet Justin. I wanted to
meet Justin, and I wouldn't write him back. I wouldn't respond,
and I kept thinking, if I don't answer him, he'll
(23:49):
quit right and he's gone, He's gone. Don't answer them.
But he kept asking about Jestin, and he wanted to
meet Jestin, and I found he wrote down, and I thought, okay,
I'm gonna let him meet Justin. One time.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Jamie drives north to Rayford to visit Jeremy. In the
visitation area, death row inmates are separated from visitors by
thick glass. When Jeremy's escorted in, He's wearing blue prison
pants with an orange shirt reserved for death row inmates.
Jamie is seated on one side of the glass. Jeremy
(24:27):
sits down on the other side.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
I let him see him through. It was like five minutes.
It wasn't very long.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Jeremy can't take his eyes off of Justin, and.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
I remember him starting crying, and I told him, this
is the lonely time you'll ever see your son. And
I think me being able to finally tell him no
without the fear was what I needed. And I remember
(25:00):
leaving and the relief that I felt, and knowing that
I'd never have to see him again, and that it
was just so much relief, so much relief. And I
remember going out and sitting in the car, and I
know I sat there for probably an hour, and I
(25:21):
just cried, and a part of me felt guilty because
Justin was going to grow up without a dad, but
I wouldn't want him growing up with that dad. And
the letter stopped not long after that. They got less
(25:41):
and less, and it wasn't much longer after that that
he finally just gave up and stopped writing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Jamie tries to move on to forget. Every time there's
a change in Jeremy's status, the doc notifies her, like
a few years later, when the Florida Supreme Court overturns
Jeremy's death sentence, citing all the physical and emotional abuse
he suffered, as a child, she's told that his sentence
has been reduced to life in prison. When she gets
(26:19):
these calls about Jeremy, she has to start forgetting all
over again.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I used to have some of his clothes and stuff
that I held onto for a long time. I got
rid of all of that to try to get rid
of demons. And it didn't work. Yeah, I was. I
had a really rough time with nightmares and stuff for
a long time, and that didn't help. It didn't help.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
But then she also has this little baby, and as
he grows up, it becomes even harder to forget.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
From the day he was born, he looked just like Jeremy,
looked just like him, especially when he reached those teenage
years and when he first sprouted up, and when that
voice changed and he started getting the little scruffy hairs,
and oh god, it my heart would just clench, it
(27:21):
would just clench. And see, Justin doesn't have the dark hair,
He's got the blonde hair, so he would look like
Jeremy when I first met him. Sometimes the way he walks,
he's got Jeremy's walk. He walks like Jeremy, and those
blue eyes and you know, the Jeremy I first met,
(27:46):
and it would meet my heart hurt.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
But she doesn't talk about it, doesn't share the hurt
she feels, not with her son as he gets older,
or with anyone else.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
As I'm getting old. One thing I'm realizing humans are
very fragile. They're very emotional creatures, all of us. I'm
a human too.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I promise I fly down to Florida to visit Justin
about a month after our first phone call. First thing
I notice is how much he resembles a younger version
of his father. I've seen Jeremy's mugshots and the photos
taken during his prison transfers when he was around the
same age as Justin. Both father and son have the
(28:29):
piercing blue eyes Jamie talked about. Justin isn't as tall
as Jeremy, but he shares the same thin build. Even
their voices have a similar tone in cadence. The other
thing that stands out about Justin is his nature. He's
a real people pleaser, thoughtful, sensitive. He tells me that
(28:50):
for as long as he can remember, he's yearned for
a strong and stable family.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I did have times when I would see families and
I would, you know, crying my head type thing, because
I would always want to fall here. And that goes
for a mother too, like I wanted a happy mother
type thing.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
There were years when Jamie couldn't care for her son.
Justin spent time living with his grandmother and then an aunt,
while his mom fought to push away her painful past.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
I never talked to anybody about any of this. I
bottled all that up and put it away. Well, the
way to keep it put it away was to do
drugs and to drink and get into these bad relationships.
And it was just recycling and recycling.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Even as she tried to avoid talking about Jeremy at
all costs, he had a way of resurfacing in her life.
Like how in two thousand and five, Jamie got an
unexpected knock on her door.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
When those detectives showed up, it was like somebody he
just took a bandage and just tore it off and
everything just came out. They just said, we need to
talk to you about Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Investigators had just learned that Jeremy Scott's fingerprints were identified
inside the car Michelle Schofield was driving the night she
was killed.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
And as soon as they said that I hit the
floor and I just started crying, and I said, how
did he get out? Because that's been my biggest fear,
is he's going to get out. He's going to find
me and he's going to kill me. And they were like,
oh no, no, no, he didn't get out. We just
need to talk to you. And for him to still
(30:40):
have that hold on me. Sixteen years later, I thought
I was over that. I don't even remember most of
that interview. I'm going to be real with you, I
don't remember a lot of it. And when I left
(31:00):
that interview, and I'm just gonna be honest, I went
on a three week binger and pretty much disappeared.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Justin learned not to ask too many questions about his dad.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
The only time that anything was mentioned it was either
when I was in argument, you don't need to be
like your father, you don't blah blah blah blah blah.
Anytime they ever talked about him is you're not liking
him type thing. So I wonder how much of my
life I followed in his footsteps, because if you keep
telling someone they're not something, they end up being something
like I got to make sure not to do that
(31:41):
with my kids.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
What was it like when you found out you were
going to be a father?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I was scared, I was, I was, well, I'm still scared.
It was just more or less me being scared about
anger issues.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Justin doesn't have a criminal record. He's never gotten into
the kind of trouble Jeremy, did.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You know if I'm going to be like my dad?
Which I'm not, because I don't even know what my
dad would be like in a dad role.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The first time Justin heard his dad's voice, he heard
him confessing to a murder.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
Because I have to live with this every day.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Can you describe that?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
What does it like to live with them?
Speaker 7 (32:28):
That's not a good feeling this way? Just put it away.
I dreamed, I wake up. I turned over. I said,
I said, a dead body, say next to me. I
see with dead bodies every night when I go to bed.
That's punishment.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Because I was expecting. I was expecting someone cold. I
was expecting like a like someone that really don't care.
And then I heard someone genuinely crying, and so I'm like,
all right, So it makes sense. His name is finally
caught up to him. He was forced to break and
he didn't know how to handle that.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Jeremy can never set things truly right. He can't bring
back the dead or erase the ripples of pain he's
caused for so many. But he can set the record straight,
which he hopes, and Justin hopes, and I hope will
one day help to exonerate Leo Schofield, whose conviction for
(33:29):
the murder of his wife still stands today. Justin wants
to support his dad through this struggle. He wants him
to be honest about his past.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
My dad was a destroyer. I'm a healer type thing,
so in the beginning is the heal what my dad
had broke. And I feel like if I do that,
then I could unlock the power of healing.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
That's how my mind frame works.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Justin tells me he wants to talk talk to his dad.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I want to be able to talk to my dad
because I can't even know how to take the steps
to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
I'm not scared.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
He wonders if this will help him be a better
father to his own son, so he can somedays show
him that even broken pieces can be put back together
in their own way.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
I know that is anything I have to help my dad.
How can I be a father to my son. If
I can't even stand up to my own I.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Tell Justin I'll try to help him. We can definitely
help you with this. We have, We've been corresponding with him.
I'll just tell you right now, but deep down I
was unsettled. Connecting Justin with his father means bringing him
into the chaos of Jeremy's life. I knew what that
was like. But Justin is his son. How would he
(34:46):
respond to getting a letter like this one? Mister King,
I have no hard feelings towards you or to society.
I'll make this short. This will be my last time
writing to you. They are going to lock me away
for a long time. The monster in me is coming
(35:06):
alive one last time. Hope everything works out for you. Goodbye,
that's next time. Own Valley is a production of Lava
for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Our executive producers are Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis.
(35:31):
Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie Paully and Hannah
Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is our sound designer.
Marianne McCune is our editor, fact checking by Danielle Suleman.
Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing and Operations. Our
Social Media director is Ismadi guard Rama, our Social Media
(35:54):
manager is Sarah Gibbons, and our art director is Andrew Nelson.
Additional research production by Kelsey Decker. Additional sound recording by
James Johnson. Own Valley is written and produced by me
Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads
at Lava for Good
Host
Gilbert King
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