[00:00:00] A word of warning this podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong

[00:00:05] language it therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find

[00:00:11] it disturbing hello and welcome to true crime daily the podcast covering high profile and under

[00:00:16] the radar cases from across the country every week i’m your host anna garcia in our case is this week

[00:00:22] did a firefighter really take his own life as his wife says if you listen to the it for you 911

[00:00:30] says that he took his own life after the two of them had a fight police found that

[00:00:34] suspicious so after some digging now police in north carolina say that the grieving widow

[00:00:41] is the one who killed the firefighter and they have charged her with murder but first the

[00:00:48] horrific murder of a young mother in pennsylvania is witnessed by her two young children say

[00:00:54] police the oldest one just four years old and according to police she begged the killer to stop

[00:01:00] she even bit the man in an attempt to save her mother prosecutors say that this tiny little

[00:01:06] witness was not only brave but her version of events is supported by the forensic evidence

[00:01:12] in the murder of her mother it’s an incredible story we are recording this

[00:01:17] on july 6th of 2022 our guest today is sean farrow a criminal defense attorney based in new york he

[00:01:24] is with the law firm of hamilton clark llp and if that sounds familiar to all of you that’s because

[00:01:30] very frequently on this program we have philip hamilton and lance clark the partners

[00:01:36] on this program so sean welcome to the program thank you so much for having me i am excited to

[00:01:41] be here excited to jump into these cases oh we’re thrilled to have you i think at some

[00:01:46] point we’re probably gonna have the whole law firm and then i’m gonna want the paralegals

[00:01:49] and i know you’ve got some stellar interns this summer maybe we could do like a whole

[00:01:54] a case where everyone gets involved and does commentary that’d be kind of fun i would love

[00:01:59] that sounds like a great idea all right all right we’re gonna put that on the books all

[00:02:03] right sean um we’re gonna get to our first case here and it’s out of bucks county pennsylvania

[00:02:08] where two daughters have witnessed the horrific murder of their mother the older one just four

[00:02:13] years old at the time she tried to stop it according to police and it is the woman’s live-in

[00:02:20] boyfriend who has been charged with the murder now the victim here is 31 year old samantha rementer

[00:02:26] who was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in her condo according to north hampton township

[00:02:31] police this happened on june 8th the two daughters sean four and one years old one they were in the

[00:02:40] house the littlest one was strapped into her high chair in the dining room at the time

[00:02:45] you know i i can’t even imagine we know what some of the four-year-old has witnessed because

[00:02:52] she’s been able to share it with police but i mean i don’t know how you undo this damage

[00:02:59] i i don’t think that you can undo this damage i think it’s going to be a long recovery for the two

[00:03:03] of them and my heart goes out to them because you can’t bring that bell you can’t unwitness

[00:03:09] what you just saw and what really stuck out was two things one the one-year-old still stuck in the

[00:03:15] high chair like completely powerless to move to do anything and just stuck watching this and hearing

[00:03:22] this tragedy but then also the four-year-old who answers the door for police covered in blood

[00:03:28] like just words can’t really describe what they experience and just it’s a horrific scene of

[00:03:34] epic proportions for them it really is it’s it’s just incredible and as we get into the details

[00:03:40] in just a minute or two you will be overwhelmed by the scene that the police found themselves in

[00:03:48] because i know you always expect you know you get a call you know you something’s going on

[00:03:52] but the level of this crime scene of the violence is really quite overwhelming and

[00:03:59] it’s very interesting how it was the tiniest of the witnesses and truly victims because they were

[00:04:04] victimized by this horrific violent act um how they were able to help police it’s it’s just

[00:04:10] incredible so police say that thaddeus 35 year old thaddeus mcgrath who would have been the live-in

[00:04:17] boyfriend has now been charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of third

[00:04:22] degree murder police say that thaddeus was vicious they say that he hit samantha with a step ladder

[00:04:30] and then he strangled her with the cord of a lamp in fact police say when they got

[00:04:38] into the condo that the cord was still wrapped around her neck still attached to the lamp

[00:04:45] yeah like the the very notion that he went to these lengths it’s not just a minor tussle that he

[00:04:51] got into or being upset just a little bit he really carried this on to a great degree that

[00:04:58] i can’t even imagine i mean like you said the first he’s going to hit her with the ladder

[00:05:03] sure that does incredible damage but then to take it a step further and if you see from the

[00:05:07] report he strangled her until she turned purple so that she he knew she was dead like that is just

[00:05:15] absolutely egregious behavior and incredibly violent behavior there and to think that again

[00:05:21] these girls four and one years old are hearing all this take place and there’s nothing they can do

[00:05:27] and not only did he lose his self-control which we see a lot in murder scenes where

[00:05:32] he’s lost his self-control but the four-year-old is actually trying to rein him in she’s telling

[00:05:37] him to stop and she’s also biting him to stop and the fact that what this child did and said did

[00:05:44] not jar him into reality to say hold on a second what am i doing i need to stop gives you an idea

[00:05:51] where he was in his head which is a really scary place it shows that he was in a complete state

[00:05:57] of rage and there was nothing that was going to deter him until he finished this job so you know

[00:06:03] as incredible as the details of this case are i do believe that it’s the next part that to me

[00:06:08] um honestly is is so disturbing about what police found and how quickly they reacted so on june 8th

[00:06:15] at approximately five o’clock in the afternoon a few minutes after five police were called out

[00:06:21] to do a welfare check not for the mother not for samantha thaddeus’s own mother called police and

[00:06:29] said my son is suicidal he has threatened to kill himself you need to get there so police

[00:06:37] are on their way to this home to try and figure out what’s happening with thaddeus and try to

[00:06:44] stop him from injuring himself now according to the criminal complaint the police get to

[00:06:50] the door they’re knocking the door isn’t opened for them but police say that they can hear people

[00:06:56] inside they can hear some kind of a wrestling noise so um this is when it gets interesting

[00:07:04] they finally get in to the house and the first thing that they see is what you described a bloody

[00:07:11] four-year-old a four-year-old child covered in blood they quickly find out that she doesn’t

[00:07:16] appear to be injured and then the next thing that they find in the dining room area is the little

[00:07:21] one-year-old girl in her high chair this to me as i was reading the complaint was so stunning

[00:07:28] you know i guess i as a parent i would just grab the child out of the high chair and run

[00:07:35] the police officer took the high chair with the baby in the chair and ran out with it and

[00:07:42] i thought to myself the presence of mine how brilliant a move is this think about it you’re

[00:07:49] you know that not only do you have to save a one-year-old baby but you need to be able to

[00:07:55] safely contain the bait like if you take the baby out of the high chair i was thinking to myself

[00:08:01] my god these police officers are so smart then someone has to hold a baby because you can’t

[00:08:06] like leave a one-year-old because they’re mobile enough to harm themselves maybe the four-year-old

[00:08:12] you might be able to contain and tell her to sit down but you can’t with the one-year-old and i

[00:08:16] thought what presence of mine to literally scoop up the baby and the high chair and take them both

[00:08:23] outside i thought that was a brilliant moment that the police officer exhibited in is such a

[00:08:30] high intensity high high pace environment such as that the presence of mind like you said to be able

[00:08:35] to take the high chair out set the baby down so they can go back and do their job i mean that is

[00:08:40] that is beautiful police work in its essence right there it really is life-saving you know

[00:08:45] nothing but the utmost of respect for that tiny tiny victim making sure that tiny victim is safe

[00:08:52] that this older sister is safe so now we have the children outside of the house and the police have

[00:08:57] to go back in because they’re not done yet so the next thing according to the criminal complaint

[00:09:03] as it’s described they hear moaning coming from one of the bedrooms and that is where they find

[00:09:12] thaddeus now according to police thaddeus shot himself in the face was missing some teeth

[00:09:18] um had seriously injured himself but had not killed himself so they call paramedics

[00:09:26] and they get thaddeus to the hospital and he has survived what’s also interesting is let’s

[00:09:32] not forget the four-year-old the four-year-old is verbal at this time so she actually tells police

[00:09:41] what happened which is shocking to me while all of this is going on i mean the chaos

[00:09:46] right she says to the police quote and she refers to him as daddy and thaddeus is not her father

[00:09:53] daddy killed mommy because she was annoying him and then daddy shot himself accidentally

[00:10:01] yeah that’s pretty accurate spot on and and usually you know young victims

[00:10:09] aren’t always the best or the most accurate storytellers but she just very concisely very

[00:10:14] plainly this is what happened and she’s exactly right and unfortunately she’s exactly right

[00:10:20] yeah yeah it’s it’s just incredible and then she also shared that she tried to get him to stop

[00:10:27] she said to him please stop please stop you’re killing my mom so if anyone out there has any

[00:10:33] question at all that maybe the four-year-old doesn’t know what she saw she absolutely knows

[00:10:41] what she saw she saw the murder of her mother it’s such a shame that someone so young had to witness

[00:10:48] all of this and this is going to stick with her probably the rest of her life

[00:10:52] yeah absolutely and then we’ll find out how much more tragedy these poor children have suffered

[00:10:58] to give you context of the family here these little girls lost their biological father a year

[00:11:07] earlier he’s in his early 30s he died of a heart attack so that means the little one would have

[00:11:15] been about three when her dad died and the other one you know a newborn so think about that a year

[00:11:22] ago they lose their father and a year later they lose their mother they have been orphaned orphaned

[00:11:31] they are now in the care of family and they are as safe as they can be

[00:11:38] with grandparents but this is you know as this case progresses it just it’s just horrific well

[00:11:45] let’s get back to the crime scene which is equally disturbing so in one of the children’s bedrooms

[00:11:51] police find samantha she is clearly passed by now police say that her face was bashed in with the

[00:11:57] step ladder and that she had been strangled with that cord from the lamp amazingly the lamp and the

[00:12:05] cord still attached there in the bedroom here’s what i am very very curious about and i’d like

[00:12:12] your opinion on because we talk about this a lot about confessions and whether they can be used and

[00:12:18] then sometimes defendants have a change of heart and a change of strategy and it’s always like

[00:12:24] what can be used where so thaddeus’s father john mcgrath says that his son called him and confessed

[00:12:34] that the son thaddeus said to his dad i killed samantha and i strangled her don’t forget it

[00:12:41] was his mother who calls police and says the man is suicidal so what do you do with that

[00:12:47] in a criminal case like that is the is is that testimony that original testimony given to police

[00:12:54] that my son confessed is that something that can be used against him i’m leaning towards that it

[00:13:01] might be admissible and the reason why i say it might be immiscible is because it was voluntary

[00:13:08] it was of his own volition he knew what he was doing he could appreciate it in that moment

[00:13:14] and he wasn’t he wasn’t in such a state or such a mindset that he could not appreciate the words

[00:13:21] coming out of his mouth and so i think that under pennsylvania law a confession is going

[00:13:26] to be admissible as long as it’s voluntary and i think that the judges are going to have to

[00:13:30] evaluate that given the circumstances that are presented but it’s one that i think leans towards

[00:13:35] it being admissible for the fact that again he chose to make the phone call he volunteered this

[00:13:41] he wasn’t being pressured there’s no duress coming from police police aren’t even present at this

[00:13:46] moment so this is a completely voluntary act and this is completely his own voluntary confession

[00:13:52] and so that’s kind of the way i’m leading on this one it’s interesting because you know um

[00:13:59] then police finally do interview thaddeus remember he’s taken to the hospital because he’s just tried

[00:14:06] to kill himself so it took a few days before police could interrogate him and thaddeus himself

[00:14:12] according to police has confessed he said that samantha made him mad remember what the little

[00:14:20] girl said she was spot on something that samantha did or said upset him so much that he had to

[00:14:26] grab a stepladder and hit her in the face and then strangle her so it’s like it escalated it

[00:14:34] never de-escalated so and he confirmed thaddeus confirmed that the oldest girl the four-year-old

[00:14:41] and we’re not naming the children because they’re victims of crime here that the oldest girl

[00:14:47] did try and stop him and he remembers that clearly and but he continued to strangle the mother

[00:14:57] so when you have a confession like this presumably he’s been read his rights and

[00:15:01] whether he chose to have an attorney there present or not when you start to have detail like this

[00:15:06] that’s all matching and knowing that in trial things change and people change their stories

[00:15:15] what’s the strength of the prosecutor’s case at this point

[00:15:20] as a defense attorney i think the prosecution has a really strong case because we have

[00:15:24] not just one but two confessions on top of what is already being said by the four-year-old

[00:15:30] how do you come back and combat these two confessions how can we sit there and say that it’s

[00:15:35] an involuntary confession there’s no circumstances that at least to me what i’m saying or hearing

[00:15:41] that point to this being an involuntary confession or being a coerced confession

[00:15:46] as many people would hear so two voluntary confessions that are in great detail about

[00:15:52] what took place you know i’m at a loss of words from a defensive perspective because i’m just

[00:15:57] like what are we going to say to this how do we sit there and counter these confessions

[00:16:03] i don’t see that we have much of anything so the prosecutor i think is in a really good position

[00:16:08] to use these against the defense and kind of you know push us into a corner a little bit

[00:16:14] and what about the four-year-old who’s now turned five it’s so sad she had a birthday

[00:16:18] after her mother was murdered very very sad fifth birthday when you think about it all

[00:16:24] her birthdays are going to be very sad um how do you what what can you do with what

[00:16:32] a four-year-old tells you i i’ve seen many many cases where i’ve always said the children know

[00:16:37] the children saw the children heard you know they can always give context many times they’re older

[00:16:43] they’ll be like eight or ten years old with a four-year-old is any of that do you think going

[00:16:48] to be admissible if this goes to trial they they wouldn’t put her on the stand would they

[00:16:55] uh i mean you’re always hesitant to put someone so young on the stand of course you can

[00:17:00] um you you want to hesitate because again you don’t want to re-traumatize the four-year-old

[00:17:08] i think in a position like this you probably if you can avoid putting her on the stand and

[00:17:13] having her to relive all that you want to do that you want to try to avoid at all calls

[00:17:17] i guess in the absolute necessity if somehow the the case went awry you needed her testimony

[00:17:23] sure you could put her on the stand and then what do you say in defense because you want to

[00:17:28] be careful you don’t want to attack her right she’s four years old she’s a victim herself and

[00:17:32] that’s not gonna look good to us and it’s really hard to counter what she’s saying if it’s just

[00:17:38] plain as day right this is what daddy did to mommy and it’s kind of just left it at that so i think

[00:17:45] in this case i’m not sure that you even question her i’m not even sure you cross-examine her

[00:17:50] i think you kind of just have to leave it as is because it’s just

[00:17:53] it’s too radioactive to use uh for a lack of a better word it is just

[00:17:57] it’s it’s not going to help us nds defense no no and of course we’re waiting on all the forensics

[00:18:03] because the forensics will tell you so much the latter will have a lot of dna and maybe parts

[00:18:10] of her that it should not have and you know the cord itself will also have dna and the scene and

[00:18:20] everything everything plus the confessions and then the little girl’s immediate account

[00:18:27] so it will all tell a story and it will all fall into place but i’m always curious as to what

[00:18:31] you do with this because confessions initially it’s kind of like the 911 calls they can be very

[00:18:37] revealing even when the person is completely lying which is what we’re going to see in the

[00:18:43] next case that these early moments can reveal so much whether the story is told in a truthful way

[00:18:50] or in a way to cover up so um i find this just this to me is like one of the saddest

[00:18:59] saddest cases i i just you know especially since their daddy died a year ago you know

[00:19:04] it’s just it’s heartbreaking it’s one trauma after another another for these girls so this of course

[00:19:11] is not the beginning of thaddeus’s legal issues which i also find very concerning and troubling

[00:19:18] um according to published reports he faces charges of child pornography possession of child

[00:19:25] porn in massachusetts after may 2021 so that would have been about a year ago an arrest a

[00:19:31] year ago thaddeus was under investigation because police officers were tipped off

[00:19:38] by an online cloud service provider allegedly he was uploading images of children that were

[00:19:50] exposing sexual abuse of these children and this account was linked to thaddeus

[00:19:58] it is unclear to any of us right now whether samantha the mother of these two girls had any

[00:20:04] idea that thaddeus was facing these charges and i mean the init the immediate question for me is

[00:20:14] two little girls in this house where he is living were these two little girls victimized

[00:20:21] i i think that’s if that’s not on the first thing on everybody’s mind it should be close

[00:20:26] to the first thing that’s one of the first things i thought of and it’s like these two little girls

[00:20:32] they got traumatized in this moment but have they been traumatized for the last

[00:20:36] you know one year for one kid and last four years for the other child

[00:20:40] i think it’s a very fair question and now you know the investigation i think really begins it goes

[00:20:45] beyond just what happened between thaddeus and this young woman i think now you have to look into

[00:20:50] possible child abuse and maybe more than that and so now we have to take a deep dive into who this

[00:20:57] guy really is and and he might be more of a monster than we think he is yeah

[00:21:04] and he’s already reached that threshold for me so i don’t know how much higher on the monster

[00:21:08] level this guy can go again he is accused he is accused presumed innocent as he goes through

[00:21:16] the justice system but based on the criminal complaint and the details there the police

[00:21:24] details of the scene it certainly is looking like he’s the starring role of monster here

[00:21:31] in this in this family unit now samantha’s father so this would be the grandfather of the children

[00:21:37] who of course is helping to raise the girls right now she’s he is calling the

[00:21:43] four-year-old who’s now five a rock star for trying to save her mother and and i understand

[00:21:53] what that shows of this little girl what her humanity and such a tiny little person was able

[00:22:00] to accomplish but it’s still so very sad it’s it breaks my heart to even think of her reaching for

[00:22:07] this man and biting him in an attempt with the tiniest of little teeth trying to harm this man

[00:22:13] to stop him from hurting her mom yeah i i you know my hats went off to the grandfather in this moment

[00:22:21] because he really took what is and what we’ve said time and time again already a really horrific you

[00:22:28] know traumatic event and he tried to put any positive spin on it that he could and trying to

[00:22:34] at least give her that that moment that she tried and and that’s i think all you can do in that

[00:22:39] moment i don’t think there’s any other words you can put there um but at least he tried to give her

[00:22:46] some positivity some uplifting by saying you tried to stop him so i my hats went off to to

[00:22:51] grandfather for trying to bring some light or some positivity out of this dark time thaddeus mcgrath

[00:22:59] is charged with first and third degree murder endangering the welfare of a child recklessly

[00:23:05] endangering another person and possession of an instrument in crime his hearing is scheduled for

[00:23:12] july 7th of this week so when this podcast drops he will have already had his appearance in court

[00:23:20] we will be watching this case closely our next case is out of north carolina where the wife of

[00:23:26] a firefighter called 9-1-1 to report her husband’s suicide but police now say it was really murder

[00:23:35] year old heather allman is charged with first degree murder she is accused of killing her

[00:23:41] husband mj who is also 37 years old the killing happened on june 25th in randolph county north

[00:23:48] carolina mj had been a volunteer firefighter for 20 years with the seagrove fire department plus

[00:23:55] he also worked as a fire firefighter in the city of asheboro man dedicated as a first responder

[00:24:03] whether he’s paid or volunteer this is the kind of man who dedicated his life to helping others i

[00:24:12] want to be really clear about this no victim you know should ever lose his or her life but it’s

[00:24:18] just it hurts when it’s a mom of two like we just heard it hurts when it’s a first responder you

[00:24:25] know someone who is kind and gives of themselves so we are going to play the 911 tape because i

[00:24:34] think you all need to hear for yourselves what it is that his wife said happened and then what now

[00:24:40] police say happened so we’re gonna play it now uh this was provided by tv station abc 45.

[00:24:48] my husband has shot himself in what road ma’am okay is he is he breathing

[00:24:54] he’s got a pulse but i mean he’s not responsible whatsoever and he needs help we were just fussing

[00:25:00] having an argument and he told me he couldn’t do it anymore so if we’re listening to the 911

[00:25:10] it sounds like that version of events sounds like they had an argument he couldn’t take it

[00:25:17] and he killed himself that’s what it sounds like and you know you want to take she’s making the 911

[00:25:24] call right so you want to take her at face value and she’s the eyewitness so she’s the first person

[00:25:30] you’re going to go to it does seem a little bit odd though and it you know stuck up an antenna

[00:25:35] for me because they got into an argument so he in that moment decided to shoot himself

[00:25:42] anything’s possible i understand that but that one struck me as odd in my years of practicing

[00:25:47] and hearing about suicides and being part of you know attempted suicide cases and all that

[00:25:52] i don’t think i’ve seen one in which a person is like i’m going to kill myself in front of

[00:25:56] especially a loved one that just seemed a little odd for me so right off the bat my antenna stuck

[00:26:01] up but of course i want to give her benefit of doubt because it’s such a serious situation

[00:26:06] you don’t think in the first few seconds that she’s gonna tell any type of lie

[00:26:09] so you take it face value just like okay we got a real situation here i always think in these cases

[00:26:15] where police are alleging that the person calling 9-1-1 and telling the story is actually telling a

[00:26:20] story a lie which is what police claim here it’s always interesting i always think that they’re

[00:26:27] always little bits and pieces maybe of truth maybe they were arguing that’s very possible right

[00:26:34] absolutely and it is possible that someone brought out a gun because clearly someone is dead

[00:26:40] but is it her version of events what we don’t know yet because the case is so early on in its

[00:26:46] investigation we haven’t been given a timeline yet we don’t know approximate time of death and

[00:26:54] then when the call was made right we don’t know if there’s a lag time in there we have no idea

[00:26:59] if the scene was tampered with we have no idea we’ve not been told yet and you know

[00:27:05] every police department is different some give you all the information like in the case we just heard

[00:27:09] where they’re giving you every detail of where the bodies are and and describes everything and

[00:27:13] where the children are in this case we don’t have the details of where the gun was found

[00:27:18] in position you know in relation and position to the body we don’t even know details of where he

[00:27:25] was shot there’s a lot here that has not been made public but the fact that police went from

[00:27:33] suicide to murder in just something like four days tells you a lot i think there’s no question

[00:27:38] about it they were able to piece that together rather quickly and it makes me again question

[00:27:43] her story so as i’m sitting here looking at it to go from she’s a potential eyewitness and victim

[00:27:49] and this is a tragedy for her it’s also that she’s the main suspect within a matter of days

[00:27:54] it tells me that the evidence is is glaring for the police and really points to her now

[00:28:02] police do say that when they arrived on the scene mj was still alive clinging to life

[00:28:09] so and there’s no way i think that we can know for sure whether he had just been shot 20 minutes

[00:28:16] earlier an hour earlier three hours earlier it’s really unclear you know i don’t think we’re gonna

[00:28:21] go into days but i think we still don’t know when was he shot and when she called we don’t know what

[00:28:28] that gap is like but he was clinging to life when the ambulance arrived he was rushed to a local

[00:28:34] hospital but mj did not survive so initially police dealt with this as a suicide for a few

[00:28:43] reasons not only just the wife’s call what’s interesting is that there was another 911 call

[00:28:49] from a neighbor because the neighbor heard all this commotion and mj has an 11 year old son

[00:28:57] and he was apparently we don’t know is was he home at the time of the shooting or

[00:29:05] did he hear something it’s so unclear because all we know and we can tell from the second 911

[00:29:10] call because we can hear the little boy crying screaming that his dad has just killed himself so

[00:29:18] the neighbor you know she wants to know how she can help what’s going on she calls and

[00:29:26] because she’s heard the little boy screaming and the neighbor tells 9-1-1 that um quote i came

[00:29:35] outside and i saw his son just screaming i asked him what was wrong and he told me that his dad had

[00:29:42] shot himself so now you have a second call to 911 from a party that is not involved in any of this

[00:29:50] again reinforcing the suicide version of events so i i can certainly see why they would have looked

[00:29:57] at it but my guess is the minute you walk into one of these scenes you have a pretty

[00:30:02] good gut reaction as a police officer whether the gunshot was self-inflicted or made to look

[00:30:11] or made to look like that yeah i think there’s no question if you’ve got detectives that have been

[00:30:17] on the job for years and they’re trained to look for these type of clues they’re gonna know pretty

[00:30:21] quickly uh whether this was self-inflicted or whether or not this was a homicide

[00:30:26] and it just goes to show you that you know his wife was already starting to lie

[00:30:31] the moment she called the moment she told the son she was already planning this out in her head

[00:30:37] and the fact that it’s not maybe the best laid out plan because we’ve seen on this podcast

[00:30:45] you know months of planning and preparation for the execution of a murder whereas this one

[00:30:52] i don’t know if this one was perhaps more heat of the moment and then oh boy i better

[00:30:57] come up with a good version of events here i don’t know we don’t know that yet yeah i

[00:31:02] think one of the things that i was kind of thinking about was that gun you talked about

[00:31:07] where did the gun come from did she have it on him on herself did he have it on him did she take it

[00:31:13] off i just want to know where the gun came from and and who had possession of the gun uh in the

[00:31:19] moments leading up to the shooting because i think that can tell us a great deal kind of whether this

[00:31:23] was planned out well in advance or whether this was more of a heat of a moment type of thing

[00:31:27] well she has been arrested heather has been arrested she was arrested four days after

[00:31:32] the killing of mj and she’s being held in the randolph county jail without bail and if found

[00:31:38] guilty she could face the death penalty in north carolina and you know a little bit more here

[00:31:46] on the victim and just how everything kind of unfolded at the same time

[00:31:51] so while heather is making one of her first appearances in court on um i believe it was july

[00:31:59] 1st yeah yeah his funeral is occurring at the same time and firefighters in the area lined up

[00:32:08] their trucks as we see oftentimes when um a fallen colleague is honored and as part of the funeral

[00:32:16] procession firefighters all came out to line the streets for for his ultimate um funeral and burial

[00:32:24] while she’s in court so you can imagine this isn’t a really big town there’s a lot going on here

[00:32:30] wife wife is in court uh husband’s body is being driven through the city with firefighters on

[00:32:38] either side it’s it’s pretty amazing it’s it’s been a very hard time for the first responders

[00:32:43] in that community i i can only imagine i know how tight-knit you know our first responders are

[00:32:49] whether it be police ambulance firefighters and so for a tragedy to shrink especially a small town

[00:32:55] you know once again my heart goes out to them i have a couple buddies that are firefighters here

[00:32:59] in new york and again i know how tight they are so you know this is something that’s going to stick

[00:33:04] with a lot of them for quite some time and stick with this town and and it’s you know tragic to see

[00:33:10] this but i’m always proud and impressed and just in awe of just how they all come together and show

[00:33:17] the love they have for a fallen comrade i think it’s very beautiful in spite of the fact that

[00:33:22] they’re facing such tragedy here yeah i know and i don’t know what happens to mj sun the 11 year old

[00:33:30] boy what is unclear from any of the reports is whether heather is his biological mother

[00:33:36] some of you may be wondering that question we can’t answer it for you right now it’s not clear

[00:33:40] also i think because so much of this happened over a holiday weekend and then his funeral was so

[00:33:45] quick there’s a lot going on and and police have just again not shared as many details as sometimes

[00:33:51] some other departments do uh heather is due back in court on august 2nd and just one little thing

[00:33:59] you know i always talk about you know we try our best to honor the the survivors and the victims

[00:34:04] here and you know clearly mj was a kind man in the sense that he was a first responder and he gave of

[00:34:10] himself even volunteered when he in addition to working as a firefighter but one of the neighbors

[00:34:16] said about him that they had chickens and he was always delivering fresh eggs to the neighbors like

[00:34:21] that’s the kind of neighbor i want so i want to leave this instead of hanging on the the horror

[00:34:27] of what’s happened i want to leave it on the nice man who shares fresh chickens with his neighbors

[00:34:32] yeah i mean he really seemed like a lovable person and a genuinely

[00:34:37] great human being who was always going the extra mile for everybody

[00:34:42] that’s the kind of neighbor we all want that’s the kind of people i hope we all strive to be like

[00:34:47] and it’s just like i said it’s a very sad tragic but you know it at the very least there’s so many

[00:34:54] positive memories that are coming to light from all the people in the town that knew him

[00:34:58] and just had an interaction so at least with his life we can celebrate it in a sense that it’s

[00:35:03] just like he was an amazing human being yeah yeah let’s leave that on a slightly higher note today

[00:35:10] it is time for our comment section these are the crime stories you all are talking about on

[00:35:15] social media our producer will updike is here now okay what’s everybody talking about will

[00:35:20] hey anna hey sean so this week we have a case coming out of minnesota now a man

[00:35:25] and a woman were arrested after 10 pounds of meth were allegedly delivered to the wrong address

[00:35:33] so how this all came together is in late june investigators learned that the meth was mailed

[00:35:38] to an elk river this is minnesota remember home and how they found this was a concerned resident

[00:35:44] brought them the box that had been mailed incorrectly so police officers open the box

[00:35:50] they find drugs inside it’s later determined to be to be meth and then now so officers try to put

[00:35:55] things together you know so they they immediately do a search on the recipient who was originally

[00:36:00] supposed to receive this package it led them to 28 year old jessica garrity hope i’m pronouncing that

[00:36:06] correctly uh but she the kicker on this is she had been contacting her building management for this

[00:36:13] package saying she was missing this package this whole time so now authorities you know they have

[00:36:18] who the recipient is they’re trying to put this all together uh to capture in the act they end

[00:36:22] up replacing the meth that was in the box with 10 pounds of salt and they added a gps tracker and an

[00:36:30] alarm system to the box to repackage it and then they give this to jessica’s building management

[00:36:36] and have the building management give it to her now so investigators reportedly witnessed jessica

[00:36:42] picking up the package and the box was later given to another party 24 year old ricardo uh uruguay

[00:36:49] now ricardo was he was arrested now jessica tries to cover her tracks now that she’s been caught in

[00:36:55] the act so she tells officers that ricardo was in between homes at the time and he had just

[00:37:01] asked her to to grab a package for him she was you know just kind of being his p.o box um and

[00:37:06] the two had amen like allegedly met on a dating site around a month prior to all this going down

[00:37:12] so they search jessica’s house they find marijuana there so she is also arrested and the subject and

[00:37:18] both suspects were booked into the shelbourne county jail now they’ve both been charged with

[00:37:23] first degree possession of a controlled substance and they are scheduled to appear in court uh

[00:37:29] early this month but people had a lot to say about this one uh kn said the wrong house i

[00:37:35] would say the same thing which would be a valid excuse if you hadn’t contacted building management

[00:37:41] i think uh there’s a lesson to be learned there right you’re waiting on an illicit like uh an

[00:37:46] illicit package don’t go adding your name to it that you’re looking for it uh dairy and jackson

[00:37:52] wanted to know wonder what kind of salt was used i’m i i’m curious if they just went with classic

[00:37:58] mortons i don’t know if maybe you do a course or salt i say epsom salt that’s me epsom salt yeah

[00:38:04] yeah that’s not i think you can’t go with pink himalayan or i don’t know that people would buy it

[00:38:11] danny a says well they messed up uh yeah not a not a good look not a good look jonna anderson uh was

[00:38:19] wondering about if in this instance you know salt was the drug he wants to know what was it cut with

[00:38:25] butter i’m not sure exactly what you would stomp on salt with if you’re trying to maximize your

[00:38:30] your your products there uh but it is valid uh donia and said i’d be pretty salty if

[00:38:36] i were them which you you gotta think that both of these people were just face-palming themselves

[00:38:42] in a holding because what a way what a way to get caught uh but that is what everybody had to say on

[00:38:48] social media about this one as always if you want a chance to get your comment featured on the show

[00:38:53] go ahead leave those over on our youtube community page you can also leave your comments on facebook

[00:38:57] and instagram uh we’d love to hear from you that you know uh it’s one thing if you’re waiting for

[00:39:04] a delivery from right macy’s or the gap and it hasn’t shown up that’s one thing

[00:39:09] and of course you’re like where’s my package where’s my package but this

[00:39:13] yeah definitely did not help but on the issue of like traveling with salt i recently went

[00:39:18] to indiana on on an assignment on a crime story and i’d hurt my back so i had like a ziploc bag

[00:39:26] of a little bit of epsom salt that i put in my bag and i kept thinking to myself oh my god if

[00:39:31] i get pulled over by tsa but i’m like but it’s just salt even if they pull me over i don’t they

[00:39:36] can inspect it like down to every grain it is but i did think about that i’m like oh my god

[00:39:44] am i going to get pulled over because i have epsom salt in my suitcase would that be a good look

[00:39:49] but no a crime reporter pulled over at lax for traveling with salts because her back hurts yes

[00:39:58] oh will oh will we’ll see you next week will alright he sounds good see ya well sean it

[00:40:05] has been such a pleasure having you on the program i hope that you come back and join us

[00:40:10] i would love to thank you for having me so much uh this is my first podcast so thank you

[00:40:14] yay we love that we love that um you know before we started recording you were sharing with us that

[00:40:20] you’re headed over to the legendary rikers island today to meet with i guess a client i know we

[00:40:27] can’t ask you anything about that but as a crime reporter or anyone who’s like obsessed with crime

[00:40:34] rikers island is like you know this institution that we’ve all heard about what is what is it like

[00:40:43] it is one of the most just demoralizing places to be right like it is just run down

[00:40:52] it’s not taken care of it looks very unkempt um and it just once you go in there most of the

[00:40:58] energy from people whether it be the inmates or the cos it’s just all negativity and you get the

[00:41:04] sense that a lot of people are just on edge and it’s just that the slightest thing the proverbial

[00:41:09] shawl will break the camel’s back like anything can just set anything off and it’s just it’s

[00:41:17] the best way to describe it’s just it’s a complete dump really and i know they try

[00:41:21] not to exaggerate that because i want to be you know be able to paint an honest pitcher but it’s

[00:41:26] like one of those places you just don’t want to go you don’t want to spend any time there

[00:41:30] and so it leaves people regardless of how long they’re there it leaves them more

[00:41:35] broken once they come out because there’s nothing there but just you know

[00:41:42] stress anxiety and exacerbation whatever issues you already had coming in and you know i’m i’m

[00:41:48] talking about having recently seen a a tv series based on a crime and an inmate that was kept there

[00:41:56] and one of the the themes of this is about um how you have to take a bus there like you know

[00:42:03] other prisons because i’ve been to other prisons you know you generally you go

[00:42:06] there you park but in these bigger cities you can’t just just even getting there isn’t easy

[00:42:13] yeah for me i’m gonna have to take uh two different subways and then once i get off to

[00:42:17] the subway in queens and i gotta take a bus uh and that bus will then take me on to the island itself

[00:42:24] and so it’s about an hour about an hour and change to get to rikers

[00:42:28] and it is an island it is an actual island off like you know a couple hundred feet

[00:42:34] away from laguardia airport but it is an actual island with barbed wire all the way around its

[00:42:40] mini alcatraz if you will not so far off from mainland but yeah you’re on an island and

[00:42:45] it’s not always easy for people who don’t have access to cars to get to an island and that bus

[00:42:50] it comes every once in a blue moon wow just amazing just thank you just for giving us a little

[00:42:56] bit of insight into that because you know it’s all part of the criminal justice system it’s all these

[00:43:01] different moving parts about how attorneys get to talk to their clients and where they’re held and

[00:43:05] the different facilities and god and that’s just like your every day so wow that’s amazing sean

[00:43:11] where can people find you if they want to follow you on social media or just get in touch with you

[00:43:16] if they want to find me on social media i finally have a twitter page so they can find me on

[00:43:20] the laws of rugby because i am a rugby player so the lulls of rugby for twitter and for instagram

[00:43:28] you can find me on rugby attorney 11. no way i love that i’m going to follow you

[00:43:36] i’m going to follow you i’m energy news anna with 1n sometimes i talk about crime sometimes

[00:43:42] you know i talk about chihuahuas or what i ate that day you know it just it is what it is

[00:43:46] so you can find this podcast and all of our podcasts wherever you get your podcast

[00:43:51] subscribe to our youtube channel and also sign up to receive our newsletter at truecrimedaily.com

[00:43:57] until next week i’m your host anna garcia and as we always say don’t do crime

[00:44:09] you