January 9, 2025 • 60 mins
As lead detective Sgt. Gary Kilgore continues his investigation, the whereabouts of Anastasia’s boyfriend, Justin Bruton, remain unknown. Where is Justin and is he in danger, too? Interviews with Anastasia’s sister, father and mother, reveal more details about the hours leading up to her murder, her friends’ Goth lifestyle and her tumultuous relationship with Justin. Was her death part of a teen suicide pact?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A warning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This episode contains depictions of violence and conversations about suicide
that may be disturbing and triggering for some listeners. If
you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please fast forward to
the end of this episode to find out where help
is available.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
In the early morning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hours of Thursday, October twenty third, nineteen ninety seven, eighteen
year old Anastasia Whitble's fuchen is found brutally murdered in
Lincoln Cemetery. The next day, her friend's eighteen year old
Byron Case, and his fifteen year old girlfriend, Kelly Moffatt,
tell Jackson County Sheriff's investigators they have no idea what
(00:43):
happened to Anastasia after she got out of her boyfriend
Justin Bruton's car on Truman Road and Interstate four thirty five,
And they have no idea where Justin might be.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Is Justin have any places a goes to, like the
cemetery or certain miles of the land, if you have
any special place that he's done.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Not really, I think Barne will probably know that better
than I.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Would, because just don't have any of these places that
he went. Just to think he just stayed at home
and he never flam anywhere really, but I.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Mean that, I remember that.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I know he used to go to coffee shops a lot,
but he stopped.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
Doing that after a while.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Two young people, one dead and one missing for investigators
on a desperate search for answers. The clock is ticking.
(01:48):
I'm Leah Rothman. This is the Real Killer, Episode two,
an act of Death. After speaking with Kelly and Byron
the morning of October twenty fourth, the investigation kicks into
(02:08):
high gear. Detectives need to find out what happened to
Anastasia and locate her boyfriend, twenty year old Justin Bruton.
He's not a suspect, but they definitely have some questions
for him. So Lead investigator Sergeant Gary Kilgore contacts Justin's dad,
John Bruton, who has now made it from Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(02:31):
to Justin's condo in Kansas City. According to police reports,
mister Bruton tells Kilgore Justin has a passport, but he
hasn't been able to locate it. Kill Gore contacts Kansas
City International Airport and speaks with airport police. He wants
them to be on the lookout for Justin in case
(02:51):
he tries to leave the country. Sergeant Kilgore then directs
his attention to finding people who might have seen Anastasia
on the night of Wednesday, October twenty second, the night
she was murdered. So he starts at the Dairy Queen
across the street from Mount Washington Cemetery. That's where Justin,
(03:13):
Byron and Kelly supposedly met up with her. Sergeant Kilgore
learns that Don Wright was working that night and actually
spoke with Anastasia. Here is some of Don Wright's roughly
eight and a half minute audio taped interview. By the way,
the interview took place at the Dairy Queen and the
audios not great.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
She was down here Wednesday night. She was waiting for
a ride and she had asked and then she'd come
back back here and asked her when feminine and I
didn't have one, so my husband got down one, so
I handed to her and she started talking.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To me, and Don Wright says that while Anastasia was
at the Dairy Queen she started her period. Ms Wright
didn't have anything with her, but because she lived nearby,
she called her husband and asked him to drop off
a pad for Anastasia. She goes on to say, she kind.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Of seemed nervous, a little bit upset, and I asked
her what was wrong? She goes, what do you mind
if I asked you question.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Don Wright says that Anastasia was upset because she thought
she had plans with her boyfriend, but there was a
mix up and he made other plans, basically choosing his
friends over hanging out with her. Ms Wright says, Anastasia
used the payphone about four times to call her ride,
which turned out to be her boyfriend.
Speaker 7 (04:35):
And I had one outside to smoke a cigarette in
this I think it was about nine o'clock.
Speaker 8 (04:41):
I'm not for sure, and.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
It's about nine or so and I've seen her. She
ran outside because three people told that there was two
guys and a girl.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Looking for so don Wright says, two guys and a
girl came to pick up Anastasia and she could see
Anastasa I was arguing with one of the guys. Kilgore
asks when was Anastasia at the Dairy Queen that night
and ms Wright says between eight and nine pm, and
she was there until about nine thirty. Kilgore next speaks
(05:15):
with Suleiman Salet, the owner of the dairy Queen. Mister
Salet says he also spoke with Anastasia the night of
October twenty second. Here is some of his roughly six
minute interview. Again, the audio is not great.
Speaker 9 (05:30):
Really was about seven o'clock and she came in seven
seven party singing a room.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
But did you hear anything? Yes, I day was dan.
We'll be telling about that conversation. That she was here
for a long time, So that's.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
A long time, an hour that hour and a half.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
She asked me she could use the restroom on other
public restaurant, but I did never use my restrooms.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
That I can use it.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Mister Salet says he believed Anastasia was on her period.
Now it's hard to hear him in this section, but
it sounds like he says Anastasia asked down right for
a tampon. Mister Salett goes on to say when he
went into the bathroom after Anastasia, there was blood in
the toilet that hadn't been flushed. Mister Salet says that
Anastasia didn't order anything in the.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Hour hour and a half she was there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
She said she didn't have any money, and eventually he
saw two guys and a girl pick her up between
eight thirty and nine o'clock. So it seems according to
miss Wright and mister Salet, Anastasia came into the Dairy
Queen and was there for some time. She talked about
her boyfriend, used the payphone multiple times, got her period,
(06:42):
used the bathroom, and was eventually picked up by two
guys and a girl. Where they differ is what time
Anastasia came in. Mister Salet said it was between seven
and seven thirty. Ms Wright said it was between eight
and nine. The next place anybody he might have seen
Anastasia after they left the Dairy Queen, besides the caretaker
(07:05):
who said he ushered them out of Mount Washington Cemetery
is on Truman Road near Interstate four thirty five. That's
where Byron and Kelly said Anastasia got out of Justin's
car that night. It's also where Justin told Anastasia's dad, Bob,
she got out of the car. So investigators conduct a
canvas of the neighborhood businesses. During their canvas, they encounter
(07:30):
Don Rand, the night mechanic at the Amico Station. Back
in nineteen ninety seven, the Amico Station was pretty much
across the street from the stoplight on Truman Road at
the four thirty five. After seeing a photo of Anastasia,
Don Rand tells police that he saw a young woman
he recognizes as Anastasia walking east across the drive at
(07:55):
about eight thirty pm the night of the twenty second.
Mister Rand says he was about fifty feet away. He
couldn't tell if she was upset or emotional. For investigators,
this might be the first independent corroboration that Anastasia actually
got out of Justin's car that night. By the way,
(08:16):
mister Rand said Anastasia was walking east, which was in
the direction of her house. The next day, October twenty fifth,
Sergeant Kilgore calls Dairy Queen worker Dawn Wright to see
if she might remember anything else.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
She says she does.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Ms Wright says she remembered Anastasia was carrying a brown
purse that night with a zipper top about nine to
ten inches long and eight to nine inches in height.
She remembers Anastasia was wearing light colored blue jeans that
were real baggy. The back of the leg hem would
(08:56):
drag on the floor. She remembers Anastasia was wearing a
sandal type shoe with socks. When asked of miss Wright
is sure Anastasia used the pad her husband brought, she
said yes, The wrapper from it was seen in the
bathroom trash.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
So Don writes description.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Of Anastasia's clothes that night is quite detailed. If she's correct,
then why was Anastasia found wearing very different clothes black
jeans and black shoes? And where did our purse go?
This may be a key piece of information, but it's
the call that comes in just before two pm that
(09:38):
same day that's going to change the course of this investigation.
October twenty fifth, two days after Anastasia's body was found,
(09:58):
Sergeant Kilgore received a call from the Johnson County, Kansas
Sheriff's Department. While on patrol, deputies known as a car
at an abandoned factory in De Soto, Kansas. That's about
thirty miles from Kansas City, Missouri. Although it had been
raining the last twelve hours, underneath the car is dry.
(10:19):
That tells deputies the car had been there for some time.
When they walk around to the side of the building,
they make a gruesome discovery. They see a man lying
on his back up against the building. He has a
severe head trauma. Lying next to him is a black
twelve gage shotgun and one spent round. In the victim's
(10:43):
back pocket, deputies find a wallet and driver's license. It's
twenty year old Justin Bruten. When they run the license plate,
they learned there was a pickup order in regard to
a homicide in Missouri, so they call it in. Deputies
are to the car and in the trunk they find
a box made for a Remington eight seventy shotgun, a
(11:06):
box of Winchester twelve gage slugs, and a receipt from
the Bullet Hole Gun Store dated October twenty third, the
same day Anastasia's body was found. Justin's family is notified.
His death is devastating and a shock to his family, friends,
(11:30):
and the community still reeling from the death of his girlfriend,
Anastasia just two days earlier. Soon, the medical examiner will
rule Justin's death a self inflicted intra oral gunshot wound.
The toxicology report will show no drugs or alcohol were
in a system. Exact time of death unknown, although Justin's
(11:52):
family will later be told. Investigators believe Justin had been
dead for quote at least eighteen hours when he was found.
A couple of days later, investigators go to the bullet
Hole gun store, which is less than ten miles from
Justin's home, and interview the man who sold Justin the shotgun.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
On the twenty third.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
They also obtained surveillance video of Justin in the store. Now,
I have conflicting documentation about the time Justin bought the shotgun.
One report says the timecode on the video has Justin
purchasing the gun between nine to eleven am and nine
twenty five AM. But there's another document that says it
was purchased between ten and ten thirty am. Either way,
(12:39):
this is six or seven hours after Anastasia's body was found.
It should be noted that no one in the public
knew it was Anastasia at that point, though at seven
fifteen am on the twenty third, the Jackson County Sheriff's
Department sent out a media alert saying simply that a
woman's body had been found in Lincoln Cemetery. Stasia wasn't
(13:00):
publicly identified until later that day. Why Justin took his
own life is unknown. He left no note behind. Sergeant
Kilgore needs to learn more about Justin, so Justin's dad
allows him to search the condo. There, kil Gore collects clothes, shoes, books,
(13:21):
a prescription bottle containing three prozac pills, Justin's computer hard drive,
and a greeting card from Anastasia sent to Justin on
September nineteenth, nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Just five weeks earlier.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
In it, Anastasia writes, in part quote, I regret the
way I behaved last Friday.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I acted so irrationally.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I loved being loved by you, and I'm afraid that
because of what I did, I wiped out any and
all of the love you had for me. I know
that now you think of me as an annoying, crazy bitch,
but we both know that I'm not really like that.
You couldn't love an adore person like that. She goes
on to write, please let me know if you ever
(14:06):
want to be friends or even something more. Until you
want to talk to me again, I will be trying
to get my life in order and trying to forget
how much pain I still feel over losing you. Until then,
I will do what it seems you would like me
to do. I will not acknowledge you or talk about
you to anyone. October twenty eighth, five days after Anastasia
(14:33):
was murdered, her fifteen year old sister Francesca and father Bob,
are at the Jackson County Sheriff's Department to speak with
Sergeant Kilgore. Both of their interviews are recorded, how my ka,
I'm like Francesca goes first. Francesca starts by saying, when
(14:56):
she got home from school that day, Anastasia was dressed
and waiting, hoping their stepmom Diane would agree to take
her to meet Justin at Mount Washington Cemetery.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Do you remember what?
Speaker 10 (15:11):
Yeah, she had on my black shoes. Yeah, she kind
of doc Martin that kind of like fully warning we'll
get in.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And she had on.
Speaker 10 (15:31):
Black pants that kind of like flowd at it as
a bomb part of the lake.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She had on a tanker.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
I don't know what kind of shirt her, what she
was because she had her coat on ready to go out.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Remember person underwear in the window.
Speaker 11 (15:48):
She had on a black bow.
Speaker 10 (15:52):
I thought she wanted it back to wear, So I
guess she's gotting on.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Oa did she played?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Now? Now, she she didn't have a lot, but she
left it. I guess.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
The clothes Francesca describes Anastasia wearing that day seem to
match what she was wearing when her body was found,
unlike Dairy Queen employee Don Write's description of seeing her
in light colored, baggy blue jeans, sandals, with socks, and
carrying a purse. Anastasia's clothes will become very important as
(16:33):
we go on. Anyway, Francesca says, about twenty minutes after
her stepmom and Anastasia left, Justin called and he said
he was in Lenexa, Kansas, but didn't say specifically where
he was calling from. Lenexa is the town where Kelly
Moffett lives. Who was with Anastasia, Byron and Justin that night?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And did you have conversations?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, but you can't, I sirs. You want to touch
to Anastasia and I'm like, well, she's not here.
Speaker 10 (17:05):
She's at Mount Washington Cemetery when to meet you.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't know what happened, but I guess the friends
got mixed up.
Speaker 10 (17:13):
We thought that she didn't have a ride to get there,
so he wasn't get a near and moved out.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
And when ixplained it at that time, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
What anything else. Run in a conversation you had with him, Well, I.
Speaker 10 (17:29):
Was mad at him because he wasn't going to pick
her up and she was out there all around lading you.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Francesca says she called her dad and told him that
Justin wasn't going to be able to meet Anastasia at
Mount Washington Cemetery and that she was out there by herself.
After that, between five and five thirty, Francesca says her
stepmom Diane picked her up and took her to get
her hair cut. Francisca says no one was home from
five ish until around six when he got back home.
(18:01):
Then around six forty five, Francesca says she walked to
a church meeting a few blocks away and was there
until around eight thirty, when her grandmother picked up her
and her four year old sister Emma and brought them
back home. So, according to Francesca, no one was home
from around five is until around six, then from six
(18:21):
forty five till around eight forty five. Some time later,
Francesca says the phone rang.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It was Justin.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
Justin May called again, saying that Siananas Desia had gotten
in a fight and she'd gotten out of the car
and she wanted to talk to him when she got
home and Byron was in the backbone and when.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
You show me her viron in the back and.
Speaker 10 (18:53):
Do you know, I'm just saying only Yron in the
backbround and I'll just didn't say high for me.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
But did you say you wanted she got out of gun?
Speaker 10 (19:06):
But she said that they had a fight and she
got out of car.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So what we're fighting about? H?
Speaker 8 (19:13):
What else?
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Did the time?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
She emphasized that we weren't talking. Instead Jo and she
got home?
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Kay m h, what's done?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Not?
Speaker 8 (19:28):
Really?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
We sing a little bit concerned. I mean that she
wasn't home.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Yeah, I guess she was.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
She was.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
We thought that she was gonna walk home or.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
Some say about what time was that he called you.
Speaker 8 (19:42):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
It wasn't that long.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I remember.
Speaker 10 (19:50):
I remember now that he had said that she got
out of cart, like, so she's been out there for
an hour, close to an hour or something. My dad, well,
it kind of I'm closer than I insied, but.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I'm not sure she hadn't appeared.
Speaker 10 (20:11):
He took of this, he had like been I probably
would have put my time when I got home that
he had called and the van had a fight, but
I didn't, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Francesca says after her dad got home and later spoke
with Justin, he announced he was going out to look
for Anastasia. Fran says she went to bed before her
dad came back home that night. Then the next morning,
at breakfast, he told her he'd already gone back out
at five am looking for Anastasia, but again couldn't find her.
Francesca says she went to school, then during seventh period
(20:47):
Latin class, she heard her name called over the intercom
telling her to report to the office.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Went down to the office.
Speaker 12 (20:59):
And anything so people and they take down.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Because she's so emotional. Francesca and Sergeant kil Gore go
off tape for a moment. Eventually kill Gore starts recording
again after.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
That point in time, Did you have any conversations with
chessmin No, none of Do you have any conversations with Byron?
Speaker 6 (21:44):
You know Byron's girlfriends.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
All I know is that her name is Kelly and
she's only fifteen.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
Did any stay as you go to a birthday party
for Kelly?
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah? When is that?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Oh? Either earlier that week about like not not that
long ago?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Did get on stage and tell you anything about the
birthday party.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
It was either I think it was later that night
or something. I was like three o'clock in the morning,
and she came on my own crying, and I think
I'm not sure that if that was the night of
the party or whatever. She came in Survive and was crying,
and she was like real upset about Justin and.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And she was real upset, and I was like, you know,
I was hugging her. I was trying to calm her
down and stuff.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
But did she tell you why she was upset?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Just that he didn't love her anymore and she didn't
know why.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Stuff.
Speaker 10 (22:53):
She's said that she was miserable without him and that
she left him stolen, he didn't love her. She like
was crying for like twenty minutes before I couldn't. I
couldn't take it anymore, as I was like, still have
to sleep, and so I kind of like, I said,
(23:14):
you know, calm down, that hight go bed.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
She left.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I didn't living on Monday or Tuesday night.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
Okay, did there she ever tell you about one suicide?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (23:28):
That night she had mentioned it, but well what ca Yeah,
when she came around crying, She's like she's like I'd
rather die than you know, without you know, without his
loving me and stuff. She she told me, she told
(23:49):
me she had tried acid and that sort of stuff
that I mean she told I mean, she made it
clear to me that she is they going to make
it like a regular habit or anything.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
To know if anybody told you or talked to you
about how your sister died.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Uh, just my parents, Okay, none of your friends or.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Any your Byron's associates to anybody.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
You haven't talked to anybody about it.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I've touched some of her her friends, like.
Speaker 11 (24:27):
Just basically, well, basically, what are they telling They haven't
told me.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Francesca says she spoke with one of Anastasia's friends named
Anna Hunsecker.
Speaker 10 (24:40):
I had emailed her about aunt Stasia's death and m
she knew she finished the email. She says, she calls
it Byron, and Byron had told her I guess the
whole story. I asked her, what did Biden tell you xactly?
And she said that he had told us that she
had been murthered than possibly robbed, and he said that
(25:02):
he and Kelly and she said that he did. Byron
and Kelly had had seen a Stagia's wallet when they
were at a restaurant, and.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
That I mean.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
I asked her if she thought that if he was lying,
I mean, and she said that she didn't think so
because it has been very truthful with her.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
And she said that he seemed very upset.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And then then friend says she spoke with another friend
of Anastasia's named Paige right but then a.
Speaker 10 (25:37):
Tough Page, and she said that she'd seemed Byron like
a couple of days ago, and that he didn't seem
very upset about it, and he was like wanting to
talk about it with her and stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I mean, she I don't think Page were like viron
out player.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
There's something else about.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Well, I really all that.
Speaker 10 (25:58):
Him is that he's, I'm not a very good person.
He had broken into one of his relatives houses or something,
and he'd gotten in trouble for that and got to
send to some detention or something.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
I don't remember. And he had been like thriller involved.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
In drugs and stuff, but that he supposedly hadn't done
him in a while.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Uh, And.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
I don't know, he's he's like he was a lot
older than he really is. I mean, you know, he
didn't know how old he was. He probably think he
was a lot older.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Did you know if he's involved in uh got the Vampire?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
He was, well, I don't know he was.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
He was like if there was like a leader of Bama,
I mean, dealing with God or anything, and parby him.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
So Sergeant Kilgore just asked if Byron was engaged in
goth culture. Just so you know, Byron wore black clothes,
black nail polish, black eyeliner, white face makeup, and his
hair was dyed black.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
By the way, the goth.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Scene is going to end up playing a pretty big
role in this investigation. Kilgore's interview with Francesca concludes soon
after next up as their father, Bob Whitbolsfugen. Bob tells
basically the same story he told the day Anastasia was found.
He learned his wife Diane had dropped Anastasia off at
(27:37):
Mount Washington Cemetery. He came home, talked to Justin, He
went out searching for Anastasia, then eventually got the awful
news that she'd been murdered. Then Sergeant Kilgore asks, have.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
You talked to anybody that's giving you any indications they
were present when.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
She was killed. Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Sergeant Kilgore just asked Anastasia's father, Bob Whipples Fugen, if
he has spoken with anyone who might have been present
when his daughter was killed.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Bob said, yes, he did. Well, here, he continues, I
have to think about the way he worded that.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I address that because I've either hypothesized or thought of
the situations which might have surrounded your death. The situation
that you are asking about now came to mind too,
that such a scenario might have existed because a long
(28:59):
timego old friend of Anastasia's named Paige said, called me up.
I think last Sunday evening or Monday evening she had
spoken with a friend of hers and by the name
of Steve, that Steve had owned Anastasia and also knew Byron,
and that he went to find Byron.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But he couldn't and he found.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
They'd gone somewhere, and that you talked to one of
Byron's friends, another one of Byron's friends, who said that
Byron had knowledge of a gun and that Byron had
given justice justin gun that was loaded, only Justin didn't
(29:46):
know that it was.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
Loaded, and like you know, my jaw was dropping.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Well, what you were telling me was that Byron had
given Justin. Again, Justin didn't know.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
What was loaded.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, and so it didn't go to explain, well, why
would test to point a gun at Anastasia loaded or not?
Speaker 6 (30:04):
This is what Paige's going Dage.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Is telling me that she heard this from her friend Steve,
that Byron had told a friend of his who he
was now Steve was talking to saying.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
That he was there that evening Anastasia was killed.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
When Anastasia was killed, understanding where you're going with this,
it was an accidental shooting.
Speaker 6 (30:25):
That's the implication that it was an accident shooting.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Do you have any any other information about how Anastasia
got well, I other than just your speculation and theory.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
I mean, has anybody offered you any information?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Not that would have direct knowledge, only speculation.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Kil Gore then asks of Anastasia was interested in golf culture.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, she went with the.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Goth book last year.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I know that there are phases with kids, and this
started last year and last year in high school.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
It seemed to give her a sense of identity.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
And I didn't fight it too much.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
I told her that I heard it. You know, she'd
not wear it all the time with the black.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Lipstick and stuff, as I've seen it on other people.
Although I find her attractive, but I don't find her
attractive as she wears a black makeup and when she
pleads refrain, so she would only do it occasionally once
well actually a couple times a week, and it maybe
when she was going out with a friend that she
would have to.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Put this on.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Did she ever discuss suicide with you briefly? Yeah, she
said that she on occasion had tried suicide. She could
never she could never come up with means for doing that,
except that she says, well, you know, I heard people
can take enough drugs even ask for room, and they'd
(31:57):
be sick enough they could die.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
And that's true. Ever attempted suicide, you would think that.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, taking to a razor to your wrists and putting
some scratches there enough to create a little bleeding that
some bandages, gos vantages, you.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Know when she comes and shows you, look what I
did do.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Do you have any advantages? That's I don'tsarily have a
serious suicide attempt.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Did she have some reason for doing it?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Did she cut a rib?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, I think She probably has tried that three on
three different occasions. And she complained that you know the razors,
you know the safety razors. When's the last time is
she trying? If she tried, I don't know about it.
She talked about it.
Speaker 6 (32:46):
As recently as two three weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
She talked to you about cutting her rib Yeah, she said,
would please go out and buy some better razor blades?
Speaker 6 (32:55):
She wanted to cut her wrists?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Would I would she actually cut herself? Would have been
about that same time frame, two weeks ago?
Speaker 6 (33:03):
And where did she do? Is at her house?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
And why did she do that?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I think because she was trying to say that she
was hurting me. You know that she wanted some answers
that she wasn't able to find them, that she was
feeling helpless. And I had directed her to her counsel.
I have a program which has helped me and deal
with difficult situations. And I encourage her to call this
(33:31):
member and set up appointments.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
And she did that.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
She did that as long ago as three and four
weeks ago. I was directing her that way, her mother
was directing her that way.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Was there Anna station familiar with firearms at all? No, no,
did you have firearms in your house?
Speaker 4 (33:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (33:47):
I have no firearms in my house.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
My dad grew up hunter and when many years ago
he passed away, and I didn't want any of those
things around my house.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
And felt no need for them.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
There. You have no no relirearms and that no.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They speak a short time, longer than the interview concludes.
The next day, Kilgore makes contact with Anastasia's friend, seventeen
year old Page. By the way, because some of these
kids were under age at the time, we have opted
not to include their last names, So both Francesca and
Bob said in their interviews that Page may know or
(34:30):
have heard something about what happened the night Anastasia was killed.
It seems the beginning of Kilgore's call with Page isn't recorded.
When the tape starts, kill Gore says, quote, are you
still with me? I apologize for that in his report,
though Kilgore notes what wasn't on the tape that Page
said she had spoken with a guy named Steve Elliott.
(34:52):
Steve Elliott supposedly spoke with some other unknown person who
Byron directly talked to about that night. Again, supposedly, Byron
told this unknown person that that night, he Kelly, Justin,
and Anastasia were in the cemetery and they had a
(35:13):
gun with them. Supposedly, Byron secretly loaded the gun and
handed it to Justin. Justin pointed the gun at Anastasia
and pulled the trigger, not knowing the gun was loaded.
Kilgore and Page's conversation then continues on tape. By the way,
(35:34):
you're going to hear a few beets during their recorded call.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
How would I get hold of Steve rather than where
he works?
Speaker 13 (35:43):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Okay, you don't know where he lives or.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
I don't know where he lives.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
And do you have any idea who this friend of
Byron that he got this information from him?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
No?
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Pick, Do you believe him Steve? Yes?
Speaker 13 (35:58):
Yes, I believe that Byron is a big part of this.
I've had that gut feeling since it happened. I Firon
has always hated Anathasia when I started why because he
thought she was really annoying and he went to school
with her. And I was friends with Firon a long
(36:18):
time ago, and when I started hanging out, I told
I sort of mentioned Anastasia's name, and He's like, oh,
I hate that bitch blah blah. When I was one,
and it was odd to me when the three got
together as like a little group, because then they were
like inseparable, and that's when I started. But I was
(36:38):
not talking to Byron a long time ago.
Speaker 8 (36:40):
Because he just got weird and I didn't trust him anymore.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
And then.
Speaker 13 (36:46):
When Annathasa justin got together, I sort of separated since them,
and I haven't talked to them in a long time.
Speaker 8 (36:53):
I haven't talked to a lot of them in a
long time.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
When's the last time you did talk down stage?
Speaker 13 (36:59):
About four weeks ago?
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Do you remember what you guys talked about?
Speaker 13 (37:04):
Yes, well, I was sort of angry at her, so
I really didn't say anything.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And why were you angry at.
Speaker 13 (37:10):
Because but like last lat the end of last year,
we had a study hall together and she was talking
about Byron. I guess she really liked Byron and was
really close to Byron at the time, and she was
talking to some people about how glad he was, and
I sort of jumped in and said, hey, Byron's an asshole,
and then she she's like, no, he's not an asshole,
(37:34):
and they said, well, yes he is, actually, and she goes,
why do you say that? And I said, because he
sucked around with my head. He liked to play with
my emotions. And he's like, well, everyone likes the fuck
around with your Headpage. This something we do, and that's
why I was sort of angry at her and I
didn't talked to her all summer.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
Okay, dude, are you in the goss? No, I'm not.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Okay, I did go to a cemetery last year.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Okay, Uh, do you know anything about it about the goths? Yes?
Speaker 13 (38:11):
Yeah, I have a lot of I guess say god friend.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay, have you ever heard of the investigators had received
a tip that Byron, Kelly, Justin, and Anastasia had some
kind of goth suicide pact, So kil Gore asks Page
about it.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Okay, have you ever heard of a death pact?
Speaker 4 (38:33):
No?
Speaker 13 (38:34):
I heard of that from.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
One day.
Speaker 13 (38:40):
I was informed of the death pact between I guess
in the state and Byron and Justin. I didn't know
they had it.
Speaker 8 (38:47):
I just I just heard.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 14 (38:51):
Who would do you know anybody that would be able
to tell me a little bit about this? John, I'm
just an old guy, you know, I'm not do stuff
or anythings.
Speaker 13 (39:01):
Guys, I don't know. I really don't know. I never
knew anything about I talked to anybody about.
Speaker 14 (39:09):
Yeah, I've got onto the internet last night looking for
something about I couldn't find anything. Like I said, I'm
just an old guy and I'm not into the fads
and the way young people are doing.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
So I thought I thought I should know a little
bit about it.
Speaker 13 (39:26):
Yeah, goes to the curiosity. What's happening with Siren?
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Well, could you be specific.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
For one?
Speaker 13 (39:37):
I feel like he is a big part of this.
I feel like, well, the thing is, he was always
the third week, he was always the third wheel. He
was always always, always with them, And I totally forgot
about this. Byron and Justin from what I hear, were
lovers at one point.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Oh really, yeah, I forgot about that. How How would
I go about to substantiate them.
Speaker 13 (40:02):
I don't know. I really don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Their conversation is about to wrap up.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
If you do hear anything, please please call me. I
will tell your friends to do so. I need to
get to the truth it is.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
I need to find out.
Speaker 14 (40:19):
How and why Anastasia was killed. Well, I know she's
had someone, she's got some brands. She got family, you know,
we owe it to them, to you, you know, to
find out the truth exactly what happened, and I can
do some help.
Speaker 13 (40:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I reach out to Page to see if she'd be
willing to talk with me, but she declines to participate.
It should be noted that kil Gore does follow up
on Page's information about Steve Elliott. Elliott had supposedly heard
that Byron told some unknown person he secretly loaded the
gun and handed it to Justin. Justin then pulled a trigger,
(41:03):
killing Anastasia, not knowing the gun was loaded. Steve Elliott
tells Kilgore he doesn't know anyone who's talked to Byron,
and from what he hears, Byron doesn't know anything about
how Anastasia was killed.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
As the investigation continues. On October twenty eighth, Justin is
laid to rest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kelly's mom, Deborah, drives
her and Byron to the service. Days later, they attend
Anastasia's funeral. She has an open casket and is cremated.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Soon after.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
October thirty, First Sergeant Ron Kellogg interviews eighteen year old
Abraham Nisley. He was the friend who paged Byron the
night of the twenty second and asked him to come
by and pick up some stuff he had of his
ex girlfriends Tara McDowell. There's no mention of Abraham's interview
being recorded, but there somehow is a trans script of it.
(42:01):
Abraham tells Sergeant Kellogg he paged Byron on the twenty
second around eight eight point fifteen, and Byron called him
right back from Justin's house. He says, Byron, Kelly and
Justin came by and told the story that Anastasia got
out of the car around seven point thirty. Abraham says
(42:21):
the three left his place by eight forty five so
they could get Kelly home for her nine o'clock curfew.
Abraham says the next day, on the twenty third, after
he saw Anastasia's murder reported on the early evening news.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
He paged Byron nine one one.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
When they spoke, Abraham says, Byron was shocked and asked, quote,
where's Lincoln Cemetery. Abraham also tells Kellogg he heard Justin
had a gun but sold it a couple of weeks before.
After Abraham's interview concludes, he's arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant.
(43:02):
November fourth, doctor Thomas Young, the Jackson County Medical Examiner,
releases Anastasia's autopsy report. In it is a description of
what she was wearing. Black Doc Martin's shoes, gray socks,
black dead and pants, a light brown corduroy coat, a
dark gray pullover shirt, a black bra, and black underwear
(43:24):
containing a pad in the pants pockets. There's three dollars
and sixty five cents in bills and change on her body.
There are a couple of small yellow green contusions on
her left knee and a faint yellow green contusion on
her front right lower leg. There are no defensive wounds.
(43:46):
Then the gunshot wound is described. It's a contact gunshot
wound to the tip of the nose. A slight, dark
sooty deposit is noted around the face. The wound track
traveled directly from front to back. A distorted lead bullet
fragment is recovered from the hair of the posterior scalp.
(44:07):
Final cause of death gunshot wound to nose, unknown type
of gun. Also unknown is when exactly Anastasia was killed.
There were no drugs or alcohol found in her system.
A sexual assault evidence kit showed no signs of semen
(44:28):
or evidence of injury. There was blood in her vagina,
but the feminine napkin attached to the crotch area is
quote not stained. The underwear had quote no visible stains
or where. On November fifth, two weeks after Anastasia's death,
(44:58):
her dad Bob brings sarge at Kilgore Anastasia's computer, some
floppy disks, and a few undated letters. Anastasia wrote Justin.
It's unclear if Justin ever read these letters, but in
one of them, Anastasia wrote, in part quote, I feel
I should explain myself from Thursday so as to assure
you that you are not living with a psycho suicidal person.
(45:22):
I don't believe I would have killed myself, well, at
least intentionally. I truly did want to die when it happened.
She goes on to write, there are no words to
describe the pain I felt. Hopefully I will never feel
it again. We obviously have no way of knowing what
Anastasia was referring to. Later that morning, Sergeant Kilgore goes
(45:46):
to the Whipple's Fugen residence and searches Anastasia's room kill
Gore notes in his report that Anastasia's room seemed to
be in the process of being boxed up. Kil Gore
collects some clothes, a videotape of the band The Cure,
and a couple of notebooks. It will take some time
for investigators to go through Anastasia's hard drive. That same day,
(46:10):
Sergeant Kilgore is faxed a letter. It says, in part quote,
I am rather surprised no one from your office has
tried to contact me since I had extensive communication with
her prior to death. It's signed Betsy Owens. That's Anastasia's mother.
(46:31):
Although Betsy had briefly spoken with Sergeant Kellogg the day
Anastasia was found, fourteen days have gone by with no
one from the Sheriff's department asking to interview Anastasia's own mother.
Two days later, Sergeant Kilgore sits down with Betsy, who
is Bob Six's wife. Although Anastasia and her mom, Betsy
(46:52):
talked and saw each other often. Anastasia had been living
with Bob and his wife Diane after she and Justin
broke up that summer. Here are some of Betsy's tape
recorded interview. The audio is not great, but what Betsy
shares is important. Oh and from time to time you'll
hear Betsy refer to Anastasia as Stacy.
Speaker 6 (47:16):
Did.
Speaker 15 (47:19):
I just spoke to her that Wednesday. I spoke to
her Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That Monday, she was a
little bit depressed, not wanting to.
Speaker 8 (47:29):
Live that type of thing.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
What's doing?
Speaker 3 (47:33):
He said, when you spoke with her on Monday or tune,
she did she comment about wanting to still tell.
Speaker 15 (47:42):
Yeah, she but she didn't want anything to do with
blood and that because she's happening to do with anything
that would cause her to believe by cutting her list,
that was about what did she expect.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
But that's not what Betsy's ex husband, Anastasia's father, Bob,
told Sergeant Kilgore. He said that Anastasia had asked him
to buy sharp raisers so she could cut her wrists
as recently as two weeks before her death, about.
Speaker 8 (48:10):
How she wanted to do it with you.
Speaker 15 (48:12):
She originally a remember so before she caught up and
after that, my brothers were described sleeping pills and my
two of my brothers a doctor piving fellows are restricted
drug and just can't get those and they're not going
to give them to you, and because they're not going
to use their license of it.
Speaker 8 (48:30):
And I thought, you know, but she was wanting something
where she could she didn't want to do an act
of death or she did.
Speaker 15 (48:37):
It because she tried her life in her wrist and
she cut her wrist up this direction on the roost.
Speaker 8 (48:46):
This went in prosily in the bakall of May.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Like nine, yeah, this year.
Speaker 8 (48:55):
And when I was talking to.
Speaker 15 (48:58):
Sergeant Kellogg and Bob over the day that I found
out on that Thursday that she died. Oopsidy just laughed
at her when she did that.
Speaker 8 (49:07):
Yeah, I was really applied because I kept trying to
get him to take her to the accountry. I thought
that was an extremely serio. He's more for emotionally the strength.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
Before you know, Illinois her father.
Speaker 15 (49:19):
Yeah, but he should have known and don't like someone
who makes it an active attent pup. I knew that
she just doesn't like blood at all. I mean, should
just go freak out. And she got a little cup
in the times she was a kid, you know, and
she didn't like menstal periods because of bleeding and that
type of thing.
Speaker 6 (49:38):
And you know, she just did not like blood at all.
And did she comment on that period that.
Speaker 15 (49:46):
She okay, Yeah, she asked me that l station to
make a period, supposed to start to drink. Can I
delay it anyhow? If she wanted to delay because she
was going to go out with Justin, And I thought,
you know, sometimes you can delay it by taking an extra.
Speaker 6 (50:03):
Books in hotels.
Speaker 8 (50:05):
I had got myron Worth control pills by for the
bottle blades.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
Too late.
Speaker 8 (50:08):
It was, you know, it was starting a matter of hours.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
It might not work. Yeah, And.
Speaker 15 (50:16):
But she, you know, evidently was planning on going out
and having sex or hoping to have sex with him.
Evidently sex was very important to her for making love
in her knowing that's important.
Speaker 6 (50:29):
I had Evidently he did not.
Speaker 8 (50:34):
Was not have been interested in fact, but I think
he had a lot of depression, had been on coming.
Speaker 4 (50:39):
Sack.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
When do you know this?
Speaker 8 (50:42):
The fact that she told me, She told me he
was on phone sacked, but he hadn't taken it for
about two months.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, but he said sadly the kids were subjected to
suicide early on in their lives.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Bob's brother took his own life in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 5 (50:57):
Want to do yea rest and yeah, but.
Speaker 8 (51:03):
Not because she's something. She had been depressed. She was
starting to pick out.
Speaker 11 (51:07):
But I also know that that's a dangerous to soone
was going to sto that would be you know, uh,
it's when they start getting better you have to really worry.
Speaker 8 (51:18):
But she was talking a little more optimist to tell
you that she was going to do sing.
Speaker 6 (51:23):
So she was happy.
Speaker 9 (51:25):
Her feelings all, whether she was happy or sad, seemed
to be really tied up with Justine and.
Speaker 8 (51:32):
You like a lot of eighteen.
Speaker 11 (51:34):
Also the madly a lot becalled her, she's happy if
they don't call her sad.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
That mine the phone.
Speaker 3 (51:41):
But when she was afraid that he was going to
have to go back and lid falsa.
Speaker 6 (51:48):
But she was also born enough, you know she was.
Then she looked okays.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
The subject then turns to drugs and then.
Speaker 9 (51:58):
She h so what she had tried heroin, and she
had tried powder, cocaine, and she had tried to ask
and just trying different things.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Tilgore then asks when Bessy learned Anastasia was missing. It
turns out Bessy never even knew she was missing.
Speaker 6 (52:16):
I'll call me.
Speaker 9 (52:17):
About ten ten thirty Thursday morning. This kind of pisses
me up. Hey, if a kid didn't show her up,
do I come home?
Speaker 5 (52:27):
You know, let me know, you know.
Speaker 6 (52:30):
He says he tried to call enough the message with
one of the kids. I don't know. The kids aren't
always real good at giving messages.
Speaker 9 (52:37):
But he called me at work and said that for
one thing, he needed the information that he wanted me
to know that Stacy disappeared.
Speaker 6 (52:46):
She didn't come home last night. She had been out
with Chestin and something. She didn't come home, and.
Speaker 9 (52:55):
He had reported it to the police, and someone was
going to be coming by and they wanted pictures and
double records. Well, shit, you know what the particulars were,
and said that Justin said that Stacey had gotten pissed
off and gotten out of the car. There I seventy
and four thirty five and Truman Road, And I thought, so,
(53:18):
I mean, I can see Stacy getting pissed off and
jumping out of car. She's been known to do that before.
But she heads for the nearest telephone in calls. She's
you know, lazy, and she didn't like to walk. That's
why I was curious.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Barely a day after learning her eldest daughter had been murdered.
Betsy says Byron's mom called her, and the day after that,
she says, Byron called.
Speaker 6 (53:44):
And Byron's mother called me on Thursday night.
Speaker 9 (53:49):
To say that Byron had talked with her and said
that Stacey had gotten out of the car or whatever.
Speaker 5 (53:55):
You know.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
No, now I can tell you what Byron said. What
he called me.
Speaker 9 (54:01):
He said, you ought to know that she wasn't sexually lost. Well,
this was Friday night. I haven't talked to anyone. Why
how are they releasing that to some kind of kid,
you know, giving him that information? I mean, that didn't
make any sense us. He thought he was relieving the
mother's mine. So all these people are kind of calling
(54:21):
up and giving these stories. Why you know he talked
to the Sheriff's department. You know, I tried not to
beg the Sheriff's department because I begure you had an
investigation to do.
Speaker 6 (54:30):
And as soon as you knew something, you've let me know.
Speaker 9 (54:32):
Yeah, all these calog had my name and members, so
you know, someone could get ahold of me.
Speaker 6 (54:38):
And I thought, well as.
Speaker 9 (54:40):
Whole if I called my first husband, could you know
it was better if on than one of us were
bugging and you know, bugging the department anyway, And I
thinking with Bob he have some type of learning disability
where he can talk off around something and he got.
Speaker 6 (54:58):
The most important for me that you know needs to
be said.
Speaker 9 (55:02):
So yeah, but I said, well, maybe they're just keeping
things now, you know, you know, asshole saying she was
shot with a high.
Speaker 6 (55:13):
Powered rifle with anthoscope of things. You know, Robert's telling
you that.
Speaker 16 (55:18):
Yeah, he was saying that, or was he basing that
where I think somebody is standing behind it, you know,
a busher or something or whatever, and was shot at her.
Speaker 9 (55:30):
You know, yeah, he could be having all kind of
suffidencies the space to tell you you can go just
in her Byern being bisexual.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
No, well I thought they were just.
Speaker 9 (55:51):
I've never heard that, but that might explain some things,
you know, if he wasn't lit the last to her especially,
and Byran was always it was kill like.
Speaker 6 (56:03):
A triangle there. The Byron was always over there. But
I think if she had thought that Justin was gay,
that she would have you know, she would have pulled
a buck from that. You know, well it pissed her off.
So is there anything else about what you can think of?
(56:25):
That Stacy's told you or anybody else told you that
I should be aware of.
Speaker 9 (56:32):
Well, I could see it being a suicide though, and
then the others seeing what damage occurred and chicken a lot,
you know.
Speaker 6 (56:39):
Or why I don't think I want that. I can
see Stacy's being the leader that she wasn't saying well,
I'll go first. Or do you think something like that
did happen?
Speaker 8 (56:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (56:51):
It's possible. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Sadly, Betsy Owens passed away in twenty twenty four while
while we were producing this podcast. Our sincerest condolences to
her family. Okay, I know this episode is a lot
chasing down leads, gathering evidence, and interviewing witnesses, family and friends.
Is just some of what happened in the investigation in
(57:18):
the first two weeks after Anastasia's death. So far, what
we mainly have are a lot of rumors and speculation,
including an alleged suicide pact and justin accidentally shooting Anastasia
with a gun Byron secretly loaded. And there are conflicting
reports of when Anastasia was at the Dairy Queen, when
(57:41):
she left, and what she was wearing. This investigation is
just getting started and where it's about to go no
one could possibly have imagined.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Next time on The Real Killer.
Speaker 6 (58:01):
Thanks good enough? Is number? You're thirteen?
Speaker 4 (58:05):
Let the number thirteen?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Could a cding not far from Lincoln Cemetery possibly lead
to the killer?
Speaker 9 (58:12):
He looks like a ghost by gad, We must have
come out of that cemetery scared?
Speaker 6 (58:17):
Why does ache?
Speaker 2 (58:19):
And A second attempt to interview a suspect is met
with some strong resistance.
Speaker 3 (58:25):
I book, I mean through mine.
Speaker 6 (58:31):
I mean I can't offer any more information.
Speaker 5 (58:34):
You need not even on my questions?
Speaker 6 (58:36):
Are you afraid to attack me?
Speaker 2 (58:44):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the individuals participating in the podcast. If you,
or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis,
please no help is available. Call or text nine eight eight,
or chat online at the Suicide and Crisis Lifelines website
(59:07):
at nine eight eight lifeline dot org. To see photos,
maps and documents related to this season's story, follow The
Real Killer podcast on Instagram and at TRK podcast on TikTok.
The Real Killer is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia,
(59:28):
hosted by me Leah Rothman. Executive producers Leah Rothman and
Elisa Rosen.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
For AYR Media.
Speaker 2 (59:36):
Written by Leah Rothman, Editing and sound design by Cameron Taggi,
Mixed and mastered by Cameron Taggi. Production coordinator Andy Levine,
Audio engineer Justin Longerbeam studio engineer Graham Gibson. Legal council
for AYR Media. Jonni Douglas, executive producer for iHeartMedia, Maya
(01:00:00):
Howard
A warning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This episode contains depictions of violence and conversations about suicide
that may be disturbing and triggering for some listeners. If
you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please fast forward to
the end of this episode to find out where help
is available.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
In the early morning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hours of Thursday, October twenty third, nineteen ninety seven, eighteen
year old Anastasia Whitble's fuchen is found brutally murdered in
Lincoln Cemetery. The next day, her friend's eighteen year old
Byron Case, and his fifteen year old girlfriend, Kelly Moffatt,
tell Jackson County Sheriff's investigators they have no idea what
(00:43):
happened to Anastasia after she got out of her boyfriend
Justin Bruton's car on Truman Road and Interstate four thirty five,
And they have no idea where Justin might be.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Is Justin have any places a goes to, like the
cemetery or certain miles of the land, if you have
any special place that he's done.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Not really, I think Barne will probably know that better
than I.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Would, because just don't have any of these places that
he went. Just to think he just stayed at home
and he never flam anywhere really, but I.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Mean that, I remember that.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I know he used to go to coffee shops a lot,
but he stopped.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
Doing that after a while.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Two young people, one dead and one missing for investigators
on a desperate search for answers. The clock is ticking.
(01:48):
I'm Leah Rothman. This is the Real Killer, Episode two,
an act of Death. After speaking with Kelly and Byron
the morning of October twenty fourth, the investigation kicks into
(02:08):
high gear. Detectives need to find out what happened to
Anastasia and locate her boyfriend, twenty year old Justin Bruton.
He's not a suspect, but they definitely have some questions
for him. So Lead investigator Sergeant Gary Kilgore contacts Justin's dad,
John Bruton, who has now made it from Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(02:31):
to Justin's condo in Kansas City. According to police reports,
mister Bruton tells Kilgore Justin has a passport, but he
hasn't been able to locate it. Kill Gore contacts Kansas
City International Airport and speaks with airport police. He wants
them to be on the lookout for Justin in case
(02:51):
he tries to leave the country. Sergeant Kilgore then directs
his attention to finding people who might have seen Anastasia
on the night of Wednesday, October twenty second, the night
she was murdered. So he starts at the Dairy Queen
across the street from Mount Washington Cemetery. That's where Justin,
(03:13):
Byron and Kelly supposedly met up with her. Sergeant Kilgore
learns that Don Wright was working that night and actually
spoke with Anastasia. Here is some of Don Wright's roughly
eight and a half minute audio taped interview. By the way,
the interview took place at the Dairy Queen and the
audios not great.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
She was down here Wednesday night. She was waiting for
a ride and she had asked and then she'd come
back back here and asked her when feminine and I
didn't have one, so my husband got down one, so
I handed to her and she started talking.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To me, and Don Wright says that while Anastasia was
at the Dairy Queen she started her period. Ms Wright
didn't have anything with her, but because she lived nearby,
she called her husband and asked him to drop off
a pad for Anastasia. She goes on to say, she kind.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Of seemed nervous, a little bit upset, and I asked
her what was wrong? She goes, what do you mind
if I asked you question.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Don Wright says that Anastasia was upset because she thought
she had plans with her boyfriend, but there was a
mix up and he made other plans, basically choosing his
friends over hanging out with her. Ms Wright says, Anastasia
used the payphone about four times to call her ride,
which turned out to be her boyfriend.
Speaker 7 (04:35):
And I had one outside to smoke a cigarette in
this I think it was about nine o'clock.
Speaker 8 (04:41):
I'm not for sure, and.
Speaker 7 (04:42):
It's about nine or so and I've seen her. She
ran outside because three people told that there was two
guys and a girl.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Looking for so don Wright says, two guys and a
girl came to pick up Anastasia and she could see
Anastasa I was arguing with one of the guys. Kilgore
asks when was Anastasia at the Dairy Queen that night
and ms Wright says between eight and nine pm, and
she was there until about nine thirty. Kilgore next speaks
(05:15):
with Suleiman Salet, the owner of the dairy Queen. Mister
Salet says he also spoke with Anastasia the night of
October twenty second. Here is some of his roughly six
minute interview. Again, the audio is not great.
Speaker 9 (05:30):
Really was about seven o'clock and she came in seven
seven party singing a room.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
But did you hear anything? Yes, I day was dan.
We'll be telling about that conversation. That she was here
for a long time, So that's.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
A long time, an hour that hour and a half.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
She asked me she could use the restroom on other
public restaurant, but I did never use my restrooms.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
That I can use it.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Mister Salet says he believed Anastasia was on her period.
Now it's hard to hear him in this section, but
it sounds like he says Anastasia asked down right for
a tampon. Mister Salett goes on to say when he
went into the bathroom after Anastasia, there was blood in
the toilet that hadn't been flushed. Mister Salet says that
Anastasia didn't order anything in the.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Hour hour and a half she was there.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
She said she didn't have any money, and eventually he
saw two guys and a girl pick her up between
eight thirty and nine o'clock. So it seems according to
miss Wright and mister Salet, Anastasia came into the Dairy
Queen and was there for some time. She talked about
her boyfriend, used the payphone multiple times, got her period,
(06:42):
used the bathroom, and was eventually picked up by two
guys and a girl. Where they differ is what time
Anastasia came in. Mister Salet said it was between seven
and seven thirty. Ms Wright said it was between eight
and nine. The next place anybody he might have seen
Anastasia after they left the Dairy Queen, besides the caretaker
(07:05):
who said he ushered them out of Mount Washington Cemetery
is on Truman Road near Interstate four thirty five. That's
where Byron and Kelly said Anastasia got out of Justin's
car that night. It's also where Justin told Anastasia's dad, Bob,
she got out of the car. So investigators conduct a
canvas of the neighborhood businesses. During their canvas, they encounter
(07:30):
Don Rand, the night mechanic at the Amico Station. Back
in nineteen ninety seven, the Amico Station was pretty much
across the street from the stoplight on Truman Road at
the four thirty five. After seeing a photo of Anastasia,
Don Rand tells police that he saw a young woman
he recognizes as Anastasia walking east across the drive at
(07:55):
about eight thirty pm the night of the twenty second.
Mister Rand says he was about fifty feet away. He
couldn't tell if she was upset or emotional. For investigators,
this might be the first independent corroboration that Anastasia actually
got out of Justin's car that night. By the way,
(08:16):
mister Rand said Anastasia was walking east, which was in
the direction of her house. The next day, October twenty fifth,
Sergeant Kilgore calls Dairy Queen worker Dawn Wright to see
if she might remember anything else.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
She says she does.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Ms Wright says she remembered Anastasia was carrying a brown
purse that night with a zipper top about nine to
ten inches long and eight to nine inches in height.
She remembers Anastasia was wearing light colored blue jeans that
were real baggy. The back of the leg hem would
(08:56):
drag on the floor. She remembers Anastasia was wearing a
sandal type shoe with socks. When asked of miss Wright
is sure Anastasia used the pad her husband brought, she
said yes, The wrapper from it was seen in the
bathroom trash.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
So Don writes description.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Of Anastasia's clothes that night is quite detailed. If she's correct,
then why was Anastasia found wearing very different clothes black
jeans and black shoes? And where did our purse go?
This may be a key piece of information, but it's
the call that comes in just before two pm that
(09:38):
same day that's going to change the course of this investigation.
October twenty fifth, two days after Anastasia's body was found,
(09:58):
Sergeant Kilgore received a call from the Johnson County, Kansas
Sheriff's Department. While on patrol, deputies known as a car
at an abandoned factory in De Soto, Kansas. That's about
thirty miles from Kansas City, Missouri. Although it had been
raining the last twelve hours, underneath the car is dry.
(10:19):
That tells deputies the car had been there for some time.
When they walk around to the side of the building,
they make a gruesome discovery. They see a man lying
on his back up against the building. He has a
severe head trauma. Lying next to him is a black
twelve gage shotgun and one spent round. In the victim's
(10:43):
back pocket, deputies find a wallet and driver's license. It's
twenty year old Justin Bruten. When they run the license plate,
they learned there was a pickup order in regard to
a homicide in Missouri, so they call it in. Deputies
are to the car and in the trunk they find
a box made for a Remington eight seventy shotgun, a
(11:06):
box of Winchester twelve gage slugs, and a receipt from
the Bullet Hole Gun Store dated October twenty third, the
same day Anastasia's body was found. Justin's family is notified.
His death is devastating and a shock to his family, friends,
(11:30):
and the community still reeling from the death of his girlfriend,
Anastasia just two days earlier. Soon, the medical examiner will
rule Justin's death a self inflicted intra oral gunshot wound.
The toxicology report will show no drugs or alcohol were
in a system. Exact time of death unknown, although Justin's
(11:52):
family will later be told. Investigators believe Justin had been
dead for quote at least eighteen hours when he was found.
A couple of days later, investigators go to the bullet
Hole gun store, which is less than ten miles from
Justin's home, and interview the man who sold Justin the shotgun.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
On the twenty third.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
They also obtained surveillance video of Justin in the store. Now,
I have conflicting documentation about the time Justin bought the shotgun.
One report says the timecode on the video has Justin
purchasing the gun between nine to eleven am and nine
twenty five AM. But there's another document that says it
was purchased between ten and ten thirty am. Either way,
(12:39):
this is six or seven hours after Anastasia's body was found.
It should be noted that no one in the public
knew it was Anastasia at that point, though at seven
fifteen am on the twenty third, the Jackson County Sheriff's
Department sent out a media alert saying simply that a
woman's body had been found in Lincoln Cemetery. Stasia wasn't
(13:00):
publicly identified until later that day. Why Justin took his
own life is unknown. He left no note behind. Sergeant
Kilgore needs to learn more about Justin, so Justin's dad
allows him to search the condo. There, kil Gore collects clothes, shoes, books,
(13:21):
a prescription bottle containing three prozac pills, Justin's computer hard drive,
and a greeting card from Anastasia sent to Justin on
September nineteenth, nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Just five weeks earlier.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
In it, Anastasia writes, in part quote, I regret the
way I behaved last Friday.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I acted so irrationally.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I loved being loved by you, and I'm afraid that
because of what I did, I wiped out any and
all of the love you had for me. I know
that now you think of me as an annoying, crazy bitch,
but we both know that I'm not really like that.
You couldn't love an adore person like that. She goes
on to write, please let me know if you ever
(14:06):
want to be friends or even something more. Until you
want to talk to me again, I will be trying
to get my life in order and trying to forget
how much pain I still feel over losing you. Until then,
I will do what it seems you would like me
to do. I will not acknowledge you or talk about
you to anyone. October twenty eighth, five days after Anastasia
(14:33):
was murdered, her fifteen year old sister Francesca and father Bob,
are at the Jackson County Sheriff's Department to speak with
Sergeant Kilgore. Both of their interviews are recorded, how my ka,
I'm like Francesca goes first. Francesca starts by saying, when
(14:56):
she got home from school that day, Anastasia was dressed
and waiting, hoping their stepmom Diane would agree to take
her to meet Justin at Mount Washington Cemetery.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Do you remember what?
Speaker 10 (15:11):
Yeah, she had on my black shoes. Yeah, she kind
of doc Martin that kind of like fully warning we'll
get in.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And she had on.
Speaker 10 (15:31):
Black pants that kind of like flowd at it as
a bomb part of the lake.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
She had on a tanker.
Speaker 10 (15:37):
I don't know what kind of shirt her, what she
was because she had her coat on ready to go out.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Remember person underwear in the window.
Speaker 11 (15:48):
She had on a black bow.
Speaker 10 (15:52):
I thought she wanted it back to wear, So I
guess she's gotting on.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Oa did she played?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Now? Now, she she didn't have a lot, but she
left it. I guess.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
The clothes Francesca describes Anastasia wearing that day seem to
match what she was wearing when her body was found,
unlike Dairy Queen employee Don Write's description of seeing her
in light colored, baggy blue jeans, sandals, with socks, and
carrying a purse. Anastasia's clothes will become very important as
(16:33):
we go on. Anyway, Francesca says, about twenty minutes after
her stepmom and Anastasia left, Justin called and he said
he was in Lenexa, Kansas, but didn't say specifically where
he was calling from. Lenexa is the town where Kelly
Moffett lives. Who was with Anastasia, Byron and Justin that night?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And did you have conversations?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, but you can't, I sirs. You want to touch
to Anastasia and I'm like, well, she's not here.
Speaker 10 (17:05):
She's at Mount Washington Cemetery when to meet you.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't know what happened, but I guess the friends
got mixed up.
Speaker 10 (17:13):
We thought that she didn't have a ride to get there,
so he wasn't get a near and moved out.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
And when ixplained it at that time, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
What anything else. Run in a conversation you had with him, Well, I.
Speaker 10 (17:29):
Was mad at him because he wasn't going to pick
her up and she was out there all around lading you.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Francesca says she called her dad and told him that
Justin wasn't going to be able to meet Anastasia at
Mount Washington Cemetery and that she was out there by herself.
After that, between five and five thirty, Francesca says her
stepmom Diane picked her up and took her to get
her hair cut. Francisca says no one was home from
five ish until around six when he got back home.
(18:01):
Then around six forty five, Francesca says she walked to
a church meeting a few blocks away and was there
until around eight thirty, when her grandmother picked up her
and her four year old sister Emma and brought them
back home. So, according to Francesca, no one was home
from around five is until around six, then from six
(18:21):
forty five till around eight forty five. Some time later,
Francesca says the phone rang.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It was Justin.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
Justin May called again, saying that Siananas Desia had gotten
in a fight and she'd gotten out of the car
and she wanted to talk to him when she got
home and Byron was in the backbone and when.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
You show me her viron in the back and.
Speaker 10 (18:53):
Do you know, I'm just saying only Yron in the
backbround and I'll just didn't say high for me.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
But did you say you wanted she got out of gun?
Speaker 10 (19:06):
But she said that they had a fight and she
got out of car.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So what we're fighting about? H?
Speaker 8 (19:13):
What else?
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Did the time?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
She emphasized that we weren't talking. Instead Jo and she
got home?
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Kay m h, what's done?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Not?
Speaker 8 (19:28):
Really?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
We sing a little bit concerned. I mean that she
wasn't home.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Yeah, I guess she was.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
She was.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
We thought that she was gonna walk home or.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
Some say about what time was that he called you.
Speaker 8 (19:42):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
It wasn't that long.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I remember.
Speaker 10 (19:50):
I remember now that he had said that she got
out of cart, like, so she's been out there for
an hour, close to an hour or something. My dad, well,
it kind of I'm closer than I insied, but.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
I'm not sure she hadn't appeared.
Speaker 10 (20:11):
He took of this, he had like been I probably
would have put my time when I got home that
he had called and the van had a fight, but
I didn't, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Francesca says after her dad got home and later spoke
with Justin, he announced he was going out to look
for Anastasia. Fran says she went to bed before her
dad came back home that night. Then the next morning,
at breakfast, he told her he'd already gone back out
at five am looking for Anastasia, but again couldn't find her.
Francesca says she went to school, then during seventh period
(20:47):
Latin class, she heard her name called over the intercom
telling her to report to the office.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Went down to the office.
Speaker 12 (20:59):
And anything so people and they take down.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Because she's so emotional. Francesca and Sergeant kil Gore go
off tape for a moment. Eventually kill Gore starts recording
again after.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
That point in time, Did you have any conversations with
chessmin No, none of Do you have any conversations with Byron?
Speaker 6 (21:44):
You know Byron's girlfriends.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
All I know is that her name is Kelly and
she's only fifteen.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
Did any stay as you go to a birthday party
for Kelly?
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah? When is that?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Oh? Either earlier that week about like not not that
long ago?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Did get on stage and tell you anything about the
birthday party.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
It was either I think it was later that night
or something. I was like three o'clock in the morning,
and she came on my own crying, and I think
I'm not sure that if that was the night of
the party or whatever. She came in Survive and was crying,
and she was like real upset about Justin and.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And she was real upset, and I was like, you know,
I was hugging her. I was trying to calm her
down and stuff.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
But did she tell you why she was upset?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Just that he didn't love her anymore and she didn't
know why.
Speaker 6 (22:52):
Stuff.
Speaker 10 (22:53):
She's said that she was miserable without him and that
she left him stolen, he didn't love her. She like
was crying for like twenty minutes before I couldn't. I
couldn't take it anymore, as I was like, still have
to sleep, and so I kind of like, I said,
(23:14):
you know, calm down, that hight go bed.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
She left.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I didn't living on Monday or Tuesday night.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
Okay, did there she ever tell you about one suicide?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (23:28):
That night she had mentioned it, but well what ca Yeah,
when she came around crying, She's like she's like I'd
rather die than you know, without you know, without his
loving me and stuff. She she told me, she told
(23:49):
me she had tried acid and that sort of stuff
that I mean she told I mean, she made it
clear to me that she is they going to make
it like a regular habit or anything.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
To know if anybody told you or talked to you
about how your sister died.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Uh, just my parents, Okay, none of your friends or.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Any your Byron's associates to anybody.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
You haven't talked to anybody about it.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I've touched some of her her friends, like.
Speaker 11 (24:27):
Just basically, well, basically, what are they telling They haven't
told me.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Francesca says she spoke with one of Anastasia's friends named
Anna Hunsecker.
Speaker 10 (24:40):
I had emailed her about aunt Stasia's death and m
she knew she finished the email. She says, she calls
it Byron, and Byron had told her I guess the
whole story. I asked her, what did Biden tell you xactly?
And she said that he had told us that she
had been murthered than possibly robbed, and he said that
(25:02):
he and Kelly and she said that he did. Byron
and Kelly had had seen a Stagia's wallet when they
were at a restaurant, and.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
That I mean.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
I asked her if she thought that if he was lying,
I mean, and she said that she didn't think so
because it has been very truthful with her.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
And she said that he seemed very upset.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And then then friend says she spoke with another friend
of Anastasia's named Paige right but then a.
Speaker 10 (25:37):
Tough Page, and she said that she'd seemed Byron like
a couple of days ago, and that he didn't seem
very upset about it, and he was like wanting to
talk about it with her and stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I mean, she I don't think Page were like viron
out player.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
There's something else about.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Well, I really all that.
Speaker 10 (25:58):
Him is that he's, I'm not a very good person.
He had broken into one of his relatives houses or something,
and he'd gotten in trouble for that and got to
send to some detention or something.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
I don't remember. And he had been like thriller involved.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
In drugs and stuff, but that he supposedly hadn't done
him in a while.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Uh, And.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
I don't know, he's he's like he was a lot
older than he really is. I mean, you know, he
didn't know how old he was. He probably think he
was a lot older.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Did you know if he's involved in uh got the Vampire?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
He was, well, I don't know he was.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
He was like if there was like a leader of Bama,
I mean, dealing with God or anything, and parby him.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
So Sergeant Kilgore just asked if Byron was engaged in
goth culture. Just so you know, Byron wore black clothes,
black nail polish, black eyeliner, white face makeup, and his
hair was dyed black.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
By the way, the goth.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Scene is going to end up playing a pretty big
role in this investigation. Kilgore's interview with Francesca concludes soon
after next up as their father, Bob Whitbolsfugen. Bob tells
basically the same story he told the day Anastasia was found.
He learned his wife Diane had dropped Anastasia off at
(27:37):
Mount Washington Cemetery. He came home, talked to Justin, He
went out searching for Anastasia, then eventually got the awful
news that she'd been murdered. Then Sergeant Kilgore asks, have.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
You talked to anybody that's giving you any indications they
were present when.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
She was killed. Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Sergeant Kilgore just asked Anastasia's father, Bob Whipples Fugen, if
he has spoken with anyone who might have been present
when his daughter was killed.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Bob said, yes, he did. Well, here, he continues, I
have to think about the way he worded that.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I address that because I've either hypothesized or thought of
the situations which might have surrounded your death. The situation
that you are asking about now came to mind too,
that such a scenario might have existed because a long
(28:59):
timego old friend of Anastasia's named Paige said, called me up.
I think last Sunday evening or Monday evening she had
spoken with a friend of hers and by the name
of Steve, that Steve had owned Anastasia and also knew Byron,
and that he went to find Byron.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But he couldn't and he found.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
They'd gone somewhere, and that you talked to one of
Byron's friends, another one of Byron's friends, who said that
Byron had knowledge of a gun and that Byron had
given justice justin gun that was loaded, only Justin didn't
(29:46):
know that it was.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
Loaded, and like you know, my jaw was dropping.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Well, what you were telling me was that Byron had
given Justin. Again, Justin didn't know.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
What was loaded.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, and so it didn't go to explain, well, why
would test to point a gun at Anastasia loaded or not?
Speaker 6 (30:04):
This is what Paige's going Dage.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Is telling me that she heard this from her friend Steve,
that Byron had told a friend of his who he
was now Steve was talking to saying.
Speaker 6 (30:14):
That he was there that evening Anastasia was killed.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
When Anastasia was killed, understanding where you're going with this,
it was an accidental shooting.
Speaker 6 (30:25):
That's the implication that it was an accident shooting.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Do you have any any other information about how Anastasia
got well, I other than just your speculation and theory.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
I mean, has anybody offered you any information?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Not that would have direct knowledge, only speculation.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Kil Gore then asks of Anastasia was interested in golf culture.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, she went with the.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
Goth book last year.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I know that there are phases with kids, and this
started last year and last year in high school.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
It seemed to give her a sense of identity.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
And I didn't fight it too much.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
I told her that I heard it. You know, she'd
not wear it all the time with the black.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Lipstick and stuff, as I've seen it on other people.
Although I find her attractive, but I don't find her
attractive as she wears a black makeup and when she
pleads refrain, so she would only do it occasionally once
well actually a couple times a week, and it maybe
when she was going out with a friend that she
would have to.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Put this on.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Did she ever discuss suicide with you briefly? Yeah, she
said that she on occasion had tried suicide. She could
never she could never come up with means for doing that,
except that she says, well, you know, I heard people
can take enough drugs even ask for room, and they'd
(31:57):
be sick enough they could die.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
And that's true. Ever attempted suicide, you would think that.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, taking to a razor to your wrists and putting
some scratches there enough to create a little bleeding that
some bandages, gos vantages, you.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Know when she comes and shows you, look what I
did do.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Do you have any advantages? That's I don'tsarily have a
serious suicide attempt.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Did she have some reason for doing it?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Did she cut a rib?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, I think She probably has tried that three on
three different occasions. And she complained that you know the razors,
you know the safety razors. When's the last time is
she trying? If she tried, I don't know about it.
She talked about it.
Speaker 6 (32:46):
As recently as two three weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
She talked to you about cutting her rib Yeah, she said,
would please go out and buy some better razor blades?
Speaker 6 (32:55):
She wanted to cut her wrists?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Would I would she actually cut herself? Would have been
about that same time frame, two weeks ago?
Speaker 6 (33:03):
And where did she do? Is at her house?
Speaker 4 (33:06):
And why did she do that?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I think because she was trying to say that she
was hurting me. You know that she wanted some answers
that she wasn't able to find them, that she was
feeling helpless. And I had directed her to her counsel.
I have a program which has helped me and deal
with difficult situations. And I encourage her to call this
(33:31):
member and set up appointments.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
And she did that.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
She did that as long ago as three and four
weeks ago. I was directing her that way, her mother
was directing her that way.
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Was there Anna station familiar with firearms at all? No, no,
did you have firearms in your house?
Speaker 4 (33:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (33:47):
I have no firearms in my house.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
My dad grew up hunter and when many years ago
he passed away, and I didn't want any of those
things around my house.
Speaker 6 (33:57):
And felt no need for them.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
There. You have no no relirearms and that no.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
They speak a short time, longer than the interview concludes.
The next day, Kilgore makes contact with Anastasia's friend, seventeen
year old Page. By the way, because some of these
kids were under age at the time, we have opted
not to include their last names, So both Francesca and
Bob said in their interviews that Page may know or
(34:30):
have heard something about what happened the night Anastasia was killed.
It seems the beginning of Kilgore's call with Page isn't recorded.
When the tape starts, kill Gore says, quote, are you
still with me? I apologize for that in his report,
though Kilgore notes what wasn't on the tape that Page
said she had spoken with a guy named Steve Elliott.
(34:52):
Steve Elliott supposedly spoke with some other unknown person who
Byron directly talked to about that night. Again, supposedly, Byron
told this unknown person that that night, he Kelly, Justin,
and Anastasia were in the cemetery and they had a
(35:13):
gun with them. Supposedly, Byron secretly loaded the gun and
handed it to Justin. Justin pointed the gun at Anastasia
and pulled the trigger, not knowing the gun was loaded.
Kilgore and Page's conversation then continues on tape. By the way,
(35:34):
you're going to hear a few beets during their recorded call.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
How would I get hold of Steve rather than where
he works?
Speaker 13 (35:43):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Okay, you don't know where he lives or.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
I don't know where he lives.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
And do you have any idea who this friend of
Byron that he got this information from him?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
No?
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Pick, Do you believe him Steve? Yes?
Speaker 13 (35:58):
Yes, I believe that Byron is a big part of this.
I've had that gut feeling since it happened. I Firon
has always hated Anathasia when I started why because he
thought she was really annoying and he went to school
with her. And I was friends with Firon a long
(36:18):
time ago, and when I started hanging out, I told
I sort of mentioned Anastasia's name, and He's like, oh,
I hate that bitch blah blah. When I was one,
and it was odd to me when the three got
together as like a little group, because then they were
like inseparable, and that's when I started. But I was
(36:38):
not talking to Byron a long time ago.
Speaker 8 (36:40):
Because he just got weird and I didn't trust him anymore.
Speaker 6 (36:43):
And then.
Speaker 13 (36:46):
When Annathasa justin got together, I sort of separated since them,
and I haven't talked to them in a long time.
Speaker 8 (36:53):
I haven't talked to a lot of them in a
long time.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
When's the last time you did talk down stage?
Speaker 13 (36:59):
About four weeks ago?
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Do you remember what you guys talked about?
Speaker 13 (37:04):
Yes, well, I was sort of angry at her, so
I really didn't say anything.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
And why were you angry at.
Speaker 13 (37:10):
Because but like last lat the end of last year,
we had a study hall together and she was talking
about Byron. I guess she really liked Byron and was
really close to Byron at the time, and she was
talking to some people about how glad he was, and
I sort of jumped in and said, hey, Byron's an asshole,
and then she she's like, no, he's not an asshole,
(37:34):
and they said, well, yes he is, actually, and she goes,
why do you say that? And I said, because he
sucked around with my head. He liked to play with
my emotions. And he's like, well, everyone likes the fuck
around with your Headpage. This something we do, and that's
why I was sort of angry at her and I
didn't talked to her all summer.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
Okay, dude, are you in the goss? No, I'm not.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Okay, I did go to a cemetery last year.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Okay, Uh, do you know anything about it about the goths? Yes?
Speaker 13 (38:11):
Yeah, I have a lot of I guess say god friend.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay, have you ever heard of the investigators had received
a tip that Byron, Kelly, Justin, and Anastasia had some
kind of goth suicide pact, So kil Gore asks Page
about it.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Okay, have you ever heard of a death pact?
Speaker 4 (38:33):
No?
Speaker 13 (38:34):
I heard of that from.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
One day.
Speaker 13 (38:40):
I was informed of the death pact between I guess
in the state and Byron and Justin. I didn't know
they had it.
Speaker 8 (38:47):
I just I just heard.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 14 (38:51):
Who would do you know anybody that would be able
to tell me a little bit about this? John, I'm
just an old guy, you know, I'm not do stuff
or anythings.
Speaker 13 (39:01):
Guys, I don't know. I really don't know. I never
knew anything about I talked to anybody about.
Speaker 14 (39:09):
Yeah, I've got onto the internet last night looking for
something about I couldn't find anything. Like I said, I'm
just an old guy and I'm not into the fads
and the way young people are doing.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
So I thought I thought I should know a little
bit about it.
Speaker 13 (39:26):
Yeah, goes to the curiosity. What's happening with Siren?
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Well, could you be specific.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
For one?
Speaker 13 (39:37):
I feel like he is a big part of this.
I feel like, well, the thing is, he was always
the third week, he was always the third wheel. He
was always always, always with them, And I totally forgot
about this. Byron and Justin from what I hear, were
lovers at one point.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Oh really, yeah, I forgot about that. How How would
I go about to substantiate them.
Speaker 13 (40:02):
I don't know. I really don't know.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Their conversation is about to wrap up.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
If you do hear anything, please please call me. I
will tell your friends to do so. I need to
get to the truth it is.
Speaker 6 (40:16):
I need to find out.
Speaker 14 (40:19):
How and why Anastasia was killed. Well, I know she's
had someone, she's got some brands. She got family, you know,
we owe it to them, to you, you know, to
find out the truth exactly what happened, and I can
do some help.
Speaker 13 (40:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I reach out to Page to see if she'd be
willing to talk with me, but she declines to participate.
It should be noted that kil Gore does follow up
on Page's information about Steve Elliott. Elliott had supposedly heard
that Byron told some unknown person he secretly loaded the
gun and handed it to Justin. Justin then pulled a trigger,
(41:03):
killing Anastasia, not knowing the gun was loaded. Steve Elliott
tells Kilgore he doesn't know anyone who's talked to Byron,
and from what he hears, Byron doesn't know anything about
how Anastasia was killed.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
As the investigation continues. On October twenty eighth, Justin is
laid to rest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kelly's mom, Deborah, drives
her and Byron to the service. Days later, they attend
Anastasia's funeral. She has an open casket and is cremated.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Soon after.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
October thirty, First Sergeant Ron Kellogg interviews eighteen year old
Abraham Nisley. He was the friend who paged Byron the
night of the twenty second and asked him to come
by and pick up some stuff he had of his
ex girlfriends Tara McDowell. There's no mention of Abraham's interview
being recorded, but there somehow is a trans script of it.
(42:01):
Abraham tells Sergeant Kellogg he paged Byron on the twenty
second around eight eight point fifteen, and Byron called him
right back from Justin's house. He says, Byron, Kelly and
Justin came by and told the story that Anastasia got
out of the car around seven point thirty. Abraham says
(42:21):
the three left his place by eight forty five so
they could get Kelly home for her nine o'clock curfew.
Abraham says the next day, on the twenty third, after
he saw Anastasia's murder reported on the early evening news.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
He paged Byron nine one one.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
When they spoke, Abraham says, Byron was shocked and asked, quote,
where's Lincoln Cemetery. Abraham also tells Kellogg he heard Justin
had a gun but sold it a couple of weeks before.
After Abraham's interview concludes, he's arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant.
(43:02):
November fourth, doctor Thomas Young, the Jackson County Medical Examiner,
releases Anastasia's autopsy report. In it is a description of
what she was wearing. Black Doc Martin's shoes, gray socks,
black dead and pants, a light brown corduroy coat, a
dark gray pullover shirt, a black bra, and black underwear
(43:24):
containing a pad in the pants pockets. There's three dollars
and sixty five cents in bills and change on her body.
There are a couple of small yellow green contusions on
her left knee and a faint yellow green contusion on
her front right lower leg. There are no defensive wounds.
(43:46):
Then the gunshot wound is described. It's a contact gunshot
wound to the tip of the nose. A slight, dark
sooty deposit is noted around the face. The wound track
traveled directly from front to back. A distorted lead bullet
fragment is recovered from the hair of the posterior scalp.
(44:07):
Final cause of death gunshot wound to nose, unknown type
of gun. Also unknown is when exactly Anastasia was killed.
There were no drugs or alcohol found in her system.
A sexual assault evidence kit showed no signs of semen
(44:28):
or evidence of injury. There was blood in her vagina,
but the feminine napkin attached to the crotch area is
quote not stained. The underwear had quote no visible stains
or where. On November fifth, two weeks after Anastasia's death,
(44:58):
her dad Bob brings sarge at Kilgore Anastasia's computer, some
floppy disks, and a few undated letters. Anastasia wrote Justin.
It's unclear if Justin ever read these letters, but in
one of them, Anastasia wrote, in part quote, I feel
I should explain myself from Thursday so as to assure
you that you are not living with a psycho suicidal person.
(45:22):
I don't believe I would have killed myself, well, at
least intentionally. I truly did want to die when it happened.
She goes on to write, there are no words to
describe the pain I felt. Hopefully I will never feel
it again. We obviously have no way of knowing what
Anastasia was referring to. Later that morning, Sergeant Kilgore goes
(45:46):
to the Whipple's Fugen residence and searches Anastasia's room kill
Gore notes in his report that Anastasia's room seemed to
be in the process of being boxed up. Kil Gore
collects some clothes, a videotape of the band The Cure,
and a couple of notebooks. It will take some time
for investigators to go through Anastasia's hard drive. That same day,
(46:10):
Sergeant Kilgore is faxed a letter. It says, in part quote,
I am rather surprised no one from your office has
tried to contact me since I had extensive communication with
her prior to death. It's signed Betsy Owens. That's Anastasia's mother.
(46:31):
Although Betsy had briefly spoken with Sergeant Kellogg the day
Anastasia was found, fourteen days have gone by with no
one from the Sheriff's department asking to interview Anastasia's own mother.
Two days later, Sergeant Kilgore sits down with Betsy, who
is Bob Six's wife. Although Anastasia and her mom, Betsy
(46:52):
talked and saw each other often. Anastasia had been living
with Bob and his wife Diane after she and Justin
broke up that summer. Here are some of Betsy's tape
recorded interview. The audio is not great, but what Betsy
shares is important. Oh and from time to time you'll
hear Betsy refer to Anastasia as Stacy.
Speaker 6 (47:16):
Did.
Speaker 15 (47:19):
I just spoke to her that Wednesday. I spoke to
her Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That Monday, she was a
little bit depressed, not wanting to.
Speaker 8 (47:29):
Live that type of thing.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
What's doing?
Speaker 3 (47:33):
He said, when you spoke with her on Monday or tune,
she did she comment about wanting to still tell.
Speaker 15 (47:42):
Yeah, she but she didn't want anything to do with
blood and that because she's happening to do with anything
that would cause her to believe by cutting her list,
that was about what did she expect.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
But that's not what Betsy's ex husband, Anastasia's father, Bob,
told Sergeant Kilgore. He said that Anastasia had asked him
to buy sharp raisers so she could cut her wrists
as recently as two weeks before her death, about.
Speaker 8 (48:10):
How she wanted to do it with you.
Speaker 15 (48:12):
She originally a remember so before she caught up and
after that, my brothers were described sleeping pills and my
two of my brothers a doctor piving fellows are restricted
drug and just can't get those and they're not going
to give them to you, and because they're not going
to use their license of it.
Speaker 8 (48:30):
And I thought, you know, but she was wanting something
where she could she didn't want to do an act
of death or she did.
Speaker 15 (48:37):
It because she tried her life in her wrist and
she cut her wrist up this direction on the roost.
Speaker 8 (48:46):
This went in prosily in the bakall of May.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Like nine, yeah, this year.
Speaker 8 (48:55):
And when I was talking to.
Speaker 15 (48:58):
Sergeant Kellogg and Bob over the day that I found
out on that Thursday that she died. Oopsidy just laughed
at her when she did that.
Speaker 8 (49:07):
Yeah, I was really applied because I kept trying to
get him to take her to the accountry. I thought
that was an extremely serio. He's more for emotionally the strength.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
Before you know, Illinois her father.
Speaker 15 (49:19):
Yeah, but he should have known and don't like someone
who makes it an active attent pup. I knew that
she just doesn't like blood at all. I mean, should
just go freak out. And she got a little cup
in the times she was a kid, you know, and
she didn't like menstal periods because of bleeding and that
type of thing.
Speaker 6 (49:38):
And you know, she just did not like blood at all.
And did she comment on that period that.
Speaker 15 (49:46):
She okay, Yeah, she asked me that l station to
make a period, supposed to start to drink. Can I
delay it anyhow? If she wanted to delay because she
was going to go out with Justin, And I thought,
you know, sometimes you can delay it by taking an extra.
Speaker 6 (50:03):
Books in hotels.
Speaker 8 (50:05):
I had got myron Worth control pills by for the
bottle blades.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
Too late.
Speaker 8 (50:08):
It was, you know, it was starting a matter of hours.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
It might not work. Yeah, And.
Speaker 15 (50:16):
But she, you know, evidently was planning on going out
and having sex or hoping to have sex with him.
Evidently sex was very important to her for making love
in her knowing that's important.
Speaker 6 (50:29):
I had Evidently he did not.
Speaker 8 (50:34):
Was not have been interested in fact, but I think
he had a lot of depression, had been on coming.
Speaker 4 (50:39):
Sack.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
When do you know this?
Speaker 8 (50:42):
The fact that she told me, She told me he
was on phone sacked, but he hadn't taken it for
about two months.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, but he said sadly the kids were subjected to
suicide early on in their lives.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Bob's brother took his own life in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 5 (50:57):
Want to do yea rest and yeah, but.
Speaker 8 (51:03):
Not because she's something. She had been depressed. She was
starting to pick out.
Speaker 11 (51:07):
But I also know that that's a dangerous to soone
was going to sto that would be you know, uh,
it's when they start getting better you have to really worry.
Speaker 8 (51:18):
But she was talking a little more optimist to tell
you that she was going to do sing.
Speaker 6 (51:23):
So she was happy.
Speaker 9 (51:25):
Her feelings all, whether she was happy or sad, seemed
to be really tied up with Justine and.
Speaker 8 (51:32):
You like a lot of eighteen.
Speaker 11 (51:34):
Also the madly a lot becalled her, she's happy if
they don't call her sad.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
That mine the phone.
Speaker 3 (51:41):
But when she was afraid that he was going to
have to go back and lid falsa.
Speaker 6 (51:48):
But she was also born enough, you know she was.
Then she looked okays.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
The subject then turns to drugs and then.
Speaker 9 (51:58):
She h so what she had tried heroin, and she
had tried powder, cocaine, and she had tried to ask
and just trying different things.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Tilgore then asks when Bessy learned Anastasia was missing. It
turns out Bessy never even knew she was missing.
Speaker 6 (52:16):
I'll call me.
Speaker 9 (52:17):
About ten ten thirty Thursday morning. This kind of pisses
me up. Hey, if a kid didn't show her up,
do I come home?
Speaker 5 (52:27):
You know, let me know, you know.
Speaker 6 (52:30):
He says he tried to call enough the message with
one of the kids. I don't know. The kids aren't
always real good at giving messages.
Speaker 9 (52:37):
But he called me at work and said that for
one thing, he needed the information that he wanted me
to know that Stacy disappeared.
Speaker 6 (52:46):
She didn't come home last night. She had been out
with Chestin and something. She didn't come home, and.
Speaker 9 (52:55):
He had reported it to the police, and someone was
going to be coming by and they wanted pictures and
double records. Well, shit, you know what the particulars were,
and said that Justin said that Stacey had gotten pissed
off and gotten out of the car. There I seventy
and four thirty five and Truman Road, And I thought, so,
(53:18):
I mean, I can see Stacy getting pissed off and
jumping out of car. She's been known to do that before.
But she heads for the nearest telephone in calls. She's
you know, lazy, and she didn't like to walk. That's
why I was curious.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Barely a day after learning her eldest daughter had been murdered.
Betsy says Byron's mom called her, and the day after that,
she says, Byron called.
Speaker 6 (53:44):
And Byron's mother called me on Thursday night.
Speaker 9 (53:49):
To say that Byron had talked with her and said
that Stacey had gotten out of the car or whatever.
Speaker 5 (53:55):
You know.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
No, now I can tell you what Byron said. What
he called me.
Speaker 9 (54:01):
He said, you ought to know that she wasn't sexually lost. Well,
this was Friday night. I haven't talked to anyone. Why
how are they releasing that to some kind of kid,
you know, giving him that information? I mean, that didn't
make any sense us. He thought he was relieving the
mother's mine. So all these people are kind of calling
(54:21):
up and giving these stories. Why you know he talked
to the Sheriff's department. You know, I tried not to
beg the Sheriff's department because I begure you had an
investigation to do.
Speaker 6 (54:30):
And as soon as you knew something, you've let me know.
Speaker 9 (54:32):
Yeah, all these calog had my name and members, so
you know, someone could get ahold of me.
Speaker 6 (54:38):
And I thought, well as.
Speaker 9 (54:40):
Whole if I called my first husband, could you know
it was better if on than one of us were
bugging and you know, bugging the department anyway, And I
thinking with Bob he have some type of learning disability
where he can talk off around something and he got.
Speaker 6 (54:58):
The most important for me that you know needs to
be said.
Speaker 9 (55:02):
So yeah, but I said, well, maybe they're just keeping
things now, you know, you know, asshole saying she was
shot with a high.
Speaker 6 (55:13):
Powered rifle with anthoscope of things. You know, Robert's telling
you that.
Speaker 16 (55:18):
Yeah, he was saying that, or was he basing that
where I think somebody is standing behind it, you know,
a busher or something or whatever, and was shot at her.
Speaker 9 (55:30):
You know, yeah, he could be having all kind of
suffidencies the space to tell you you can go just
in her Byern being bisexual.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
No, well I thought they were just.
Speaker 9 (55:51):
I've never heard that, but that might explain some things,
you know, if he wasn't lit the last to her especially,
and Byran was always it was kill like.
Speaker 6 (56:03):
A triangle there. The Byron was always over there. But
I think if she had thought that Justin was gay,
that she would have you know, she would have pulled
a buck from that. You know, well it pissed her off.
So is there anything else about what you can think of?
(56:25):
That Stacy's told you or anybody else told you that
I should be aware of.
Speaker 9 (56:32):
Well, I could see it being a suicide though, and
then the others seeing what damage occurred and chicken a lot,
you know.
Speaker 6 (56:39):
Or why I don't think I want that. I can
see Stacy's being the leader that she wasn't saying well,
I'll go first. Or do you think something like that
did happen?
Speaker 8 (56:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (56:51):
It's possible. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Sadly, Betsy Owens passed away in twenty twenty four while
while we were producing this podcast. Our sincerest condolences to
her family. Okay, I know this episode is a lot
chasing down leads, gathering evidence, and interviewing witnesses, family and friends.
Is just some of what happened in the investigation in
(57:18):
the first two weeks after Anastasia's death. So far, what
we mainly have are a lot of rumors and speculation,
including an alleged suicide pact and justin accidentally shooting Anastasia
with a gun Byron secretly loaded. And there are conflicting
reports of when Anastasia was at the Dairy Queen, when
(57:41):
she left, and what she was wearing. This investigation is
just getting started and where it's about to go no
one could possibly have imagined.
Speaker 1 (57:58):
Next time on The Real Killer.
Speaker 6 (58:01):
Thanks good enough? Is number? You're thirteen?
Speaker 4 (58:05):
Let the number thirteen?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Could a cding not far from Lincoln Cemetery possibly lead
to the killer?
Speaker 9 (58:12):
He looks like a ghost by gad, We must have
come out of that cemetery scared?
Speaker 6 (58:17):
Why does ache?
Speaker 2 (58:19):
And A second attempt to interview a suspect is met
with some strong resistance.
Speaker 3 (58:25):
I book, I mean through mine.
Speaker 6 (58:31):
I mean I can't offer any more information.
Speaker 5 (58:34):
You need not even on my questions?
Speaker 6 (58:36):
Are you afraid to attack me?
Speaker 2 (58:44):
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely
those of the individuals participating in the podcast. If you,
or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis,
please no help is available. Call or text nine eight eight,
or chat online at the Suicide and Crisis Lifelines website
(59:07):
at nine eight eight lifeline dot org. To see photos,
maps and documents related to this season's story, follow The
Real Killer podcast on Instagram and at TRK podcast on TikTok.
The Real Killer is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia,
(59:28):
hosted by me Leah Rothman. Executive producers Leah Rothman and
Elisa Rosen.
Speaker 1 (59:34):
For AYR Media.
Speaker 2 (59:36):
Written by Leah Rothman, Editing and sound design by Cameron Taggi,
Mixed and mastered by Cameron Taggi. Production coordinator Andy Levine,
Audio engineer Justin Longerbeam studio engineer Graham Gibson. Legal council
for AYR Media. Jonni Douglas, executive producer for iHeartMedia, Maya
(01:00:00):
Howard
Host
Leah Rothman
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