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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Britz. >> And today's story is one that found me
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about eight months ago. I was combing through our case suggestions and one of them just jumped out. It was from a
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woman down in Texas named Jolita Wilkinson who wanted help rewriting the false narrative around her sister's
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[music] death. a death that was ruled such a shameful accident in the 1980s in smalltown Texas that her family didn't
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really speak of it. So, she was never able to voice her concerns about a crime scene that she had to clean up. One that
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she believes pointed to murder. Now, part of her submission, I actually want to read it to you. [music] It said, "My
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parents did not want to stir the pot because her past may embarrass the family and her three-year-old son. So I
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told them after they passed I would dig into [music] the truth. They have now passed and I feel it's time to really
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investigate her death being as there are so many coincidences discrepancies and I
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hate that my nephew has lived [music] the past 40 years believing his mom accidentally killed herself
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masturbating. Now this woman [music] came to us believing that her sister might have actually been murdered by a
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known serial killer. But she didn't know where to go from there. So, a few months
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ago, I put one of our reporters on this case, [music] and through our own investigation, we have come to agree
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with Jolita. Her sister was murdered. But maybe not by the roaming serial killer, she thought. [music]
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Because our investigation led us to the case of two other women who died in the [music] same small town. And all these
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women link back to one local man. So let me start with the story of Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac.
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When Jolita was only 14 or 15, her family got a call from the local sheriff's office in Faget County, Texas,
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that her 20-year-old sister Rowena died in her studio apartment over a saddle shop in Platonia, Texas. It was
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unexpected for everyone and only made more shocking by what authorities told [music] them. According to the sheriff's
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office, Rowena had died via suicide by masturbation. The rope around her neck and the dildo on her bed were the clear
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signs that deputies pointed to when breaking the news to her family. But when Jolita and her dad went to Rowena's
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[music] apartment the day after this to clean it out, they saw so much more that
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to Jolita painted a completely different picture of what happened. Now, Rowena had only just moved into this apartment
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recently, so there wasn't much in there to begin with, which only made the stuff
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that was there stand out even more. Pennies littered the floor. There was a broken acrylic nail with blood on it,
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water still [music] in the shower a day later and a literal broken kitchen window with glass on the floor. But
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because it was ruled a suicide, there was a very short investigation. It was case closed basically that same day. And
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Rowena's family was just sort of left to accept what the sheriff said, which Jolita said was like painful and
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embarrassing for them. And even though her dad was seeing some of the same stuff that Jolita did and definitely had
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some suspicions, they just couldn't bear to push for a deeper investigation. >> And also like '8s smalltown Texas, like
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you said, like back when it seems like most people weren't questioning law enforcement like we do now. Like you
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think they must they must know what they're doing. And even if they don't, like how in the world are we normal
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people or whatever supposed to change our minds? >> Exactly. But just because her family
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[music] didn't feel like they could rock the boat back then. And obviously there
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wasn't much Jolita could do as a [music] teenager, that nagging feeling that she
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always had about her sister's death just grew in her as she got older. So when her parents passed away, Jolita knew
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that it was time to get to the truth. So the first thing she did was file a records request at [music] the Faget
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County Sheriff's Office for her sister's case file. And when she got the stuff back, she could not believe what she
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read in there. There was no mention of the pennies, the fingernail, the broken window. What?
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>> Nothing. And sure, like, whatever. Maybe the pennies are nothing, cuz the records
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do show that when the sheriff's deputies arrived that afternoon, they found that
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the door to Rowena's apartment was pushed open and there was this coffee table kind of like slid out of the way.
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And it turns out a friend and neighbor who the one who had actually found Rowena said that she knew the door
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didn't lock. So what Rena would do is she would push that coffee table up against it as her way of like locking
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the door and staying safe. So this woman who found her, her and another woman had
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to actually like force the door open and like dislodge the coffee table. So I mean maybe Rowena could have had like a
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dish of pennies on the table. They get scattered when the door is pushed open. Again, whatever. Even if you write that
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off, it was right near the coffee table where Jolita found Rowena's broken acrylic nail that had blood on it, by
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the way. And Jolita remembers giving that to her dad. Like, you know, I think this might be important.
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>> Her dad said that he gave it to the investigators, but there is no record at all of that in evidence. So, all of this
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stuff she knew was part of the scene because she'd seen it with her own eyes. She had been the one to clean it up. and
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it just wasn't even mentioned in the sheriff's report. But there was something else surprising in the
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reports. There were a lot of things included that she and her family never knew, like the autopsy report, which
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notes that Rowena's fourth right fingernail is missing, which is probably the one Jolita found, but it wasn't
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found right where like [music] Rowena was. And to me, that like points to a struggle that happens like that night,
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right? >> Well, exactly. And listen, this wasn't even a huge apartment. It's basically
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like a studio with a bathroom, this little kitchenette. And Rowena had a couch and two beds [music] in there.
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This like main bed with an iron bed frame, and then this spare bed on the other side of the room. And what's
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interesting is they found Rowena by the main bed. The main bed and the coffee table are on like opposite sides of the
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room. So to me, there's no way to even say like, oh, if she was like did something to herself, like it just came
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off. Like you would expect that if she lost that nail, it' be next to her. So I agree. Like this is just pointing to a
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struggle. Now, when they found her, she was sitting on the floor nude except for
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this thick twist bead necklace and a nylon rope that was wrapped around her neck and then attached to the bed frame.
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Now, she had blood on her left hand and then this they call it like a yellowish gummy substance on her shoulder and left
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arm. And the autopsy report also note scratches on her neck too, which could have been from Rowena trying to like get
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the rope off her neck. Now, the bed sheet on the bed was like bunched up to one side and there was a sex toy on the
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bed along with an open fifth of [music] whiskey that was about like 1/5 full. And there were two pillows, one on top
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of another. And to the side, there was a marijuana roach in an ashtray on the bedstand. But weirdly, her talk screen
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that came back said that Rowena just had normal levels of a drug that she was prescribed and a 07 blood alcohol level.
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So, not a lot at all >> and zero marijuana. I mean, to me, it seems pretty clear someone else was
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there. And you don't even know the half of it yet. Rowena's bed sheets had a large diluted blood stain [music] and a
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small amount of sperm. And she had sperm inside of her. Her pillow cases also had specks of blood on
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them. And there were hairs in her bed sheet that didn't belong to her. I'm sorry. And they just did nothing with
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that. I'm not nothing. I know they tried to do blood typing with the semen and all they know is that the semen on the
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bed sheet belonged to someone with quote H substance which it's like this is like
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a a long sciency thing but basically it could potentially mean type O blood but there weren't enough tests done to even
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rule out A and B. So basically all the blood types are in >> Yeah. And it doesn't seem like it went
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further than that because they said there was no sign of sexual assault. So investigators are like, well, you know,
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all the semen in her and on the bed proves is that Rowena had sex. Might not have anything to do with her death.
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Which sure, one option. Like, okay. >> Okay. >> But you want to say that there were no
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signs of sexual assault, which I guess to me I take to mean like tearing or bruising of her genitals. Fine. You want
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to write off scratches on her neck as self-inflicted cuz I don't know what she had second thoughts. Okay, fine. How
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about we look at the other parts of her? Jolita didn't mention this to me in her
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original email, but when I read it in the autopsy report, I about fell out of my chair. And now is your turn. I'm just
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going to have you read it verbatim. And this is from the autopsy report. >> Mhm. Symmetrical linear bruises are
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present on the inner aspect of both upper arms. The size and aspects of the bruises suggest that they were the
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result of the subject being gripped from behind and the tips of fingers produced
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the four separate symmetrical bruises on each side. Ashley, what? Yeah. Gripped from behind.
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I mean, in my opinion, that's evidence to at least keep the option open that she was murdered. I'm sorry. What are
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police pointing to to say that this is a suicide? I mean, the the dildo on the bed, the bed with the semen. There are
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only three things I can find that I think might have shaped their theory. [music]
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>> Okay, so in the report, there is a mention that investigators found a receipt for an X-ray in Rowena's closet.
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Now, there are no other notes about this or anything, so this is just like a random thought I had
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>> knowing how much they didn't note in their reports. To me, them pointing this
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out at all is odd, right? >> So, I'm wondering if they were like, "Oh, maybe Rowena got like bad medical
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news. Maybe she like would want to take her own life because of that." >> And did they ask the family about this
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to confirm that? >> I don't know. They only wrote that they found the X-ray receipt and nothing
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about followup. So, who knows? But I asked Jolita about this now and she told us that due to a hereditary breast
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tissue condition, both she and Rowena got early mammogs. And Rowena didn't have breast cancer or anything. It was
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like just a precautionary X-ray. So even if they had asked her parents, this was
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well known in the family and should have been easily explained away if they asked.
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>> So the second thing that I think they hang their hat on was a conversation they had with Rowena's boss, this guy
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named Joel, who owned the barbecue place that she worked at. And he tells police
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that Rowena once took an overdose of pills before. Now, Jolita doesn't know what to make of this. She says that she
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asked several people who knew her sister well, including like their aunt, who was
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the Flutonia Town Doctor, if this was true. And nobody else had ever heard of Rowena overdosing before or trying to
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>> then how would Joel know this? >> I don't know. And unfortunately, he died in 2002, so we couldn't like reach out
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to him and ask. Maybe he was close with Rowena. Who knows? But the third and final thing that I believe makes them so
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certain that this was a suicide is the report says there was no sign of forced entry into Rowena's apartment. So I
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think they're thinking if no one got into the apartment then she was there by herself and it had to be suicide. The
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end. But there was signs of forced entry. They just didn't write it down. I mean the window was broken. Also news
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flash. Her door didn't even lock. Like, how can you force entry in a door that's
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not even locked? Like, what are we doing here? >> I know. Like I said, they don't even
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mention the broken glass. Like, it just doesn't exist to them. Now, the sheriff's report does mention something
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about a broken screen in the kitchen, but they say it was pushed out from the inside and that it was broken
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previously, like it wasn't from whatever happened, >> but they don't say how they know this.
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>> Okay. This woman was murdered. And I've kind of never felt more sure of something, Ashley.
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>> I know. I and this is exactly how Jolita feels after she foyers the records. Every instinct and suspicion that she
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ever had was right. She knows in her bones now that someone killed her sister. The question is who? So over the
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next 20 plus years, Jolita is left to just stew in this knowledge that her sister
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never got justice until 2006 when she gets a call from the Texas Rangers and they ask her a pretty
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shocking question. Did Rowena know a woman named Melody Bush? >> [music] >> Jolita has never heard the name Melody
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Bush before. It rings no bells, means nothing to her. But when she asks why they're asking, she gets the shock of
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her life. The Rangers tell her that 6 months before her sister's death, Melody Bush was murdered in the same small
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town. And they think this serial killer named Robert Charles Brown just confessed to Melody's murder. And
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they've begun to wonder, could he have been responsible for Rowena's death, too? So, wait, are they considering
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Rowena's death a homicide? Now, >> this is the weirdest part to me. No, but I I don't know how Rowena's case would
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have come on their radar at all all these years later because she is not listed as an unsolved homicide with the
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department, >> right? Like wouldn't even be in like the batch of deaths they would be looking at
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if they were looking to connect this guy to someone else. >> No. And this is years later. So like in
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my mind there had to have just been like some old-timer hanging around who was like, you know, like I remember this one
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case. >> It was kind of weird. >> It is the only thing I can think of. Like Jolita doesn't even know. But when
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they call her, so they pushed her. They're like, you know, could there be any connection between Melody and
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Rowena? But Jolita really doesn't think so. I mean, she even did her own leg work after this and started asking
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around, but no one seemed to think that they knew each other. But that didn't necessarily rule out a connection,
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especially the more that she came to learn not just about the events leading up to her own sister's death, but about
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what Robert Charles Brown was capable of and the circumstances surrounding Melody
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Bush's murder. Now, all Jolita knows about Rowena's last day [music] comes from Rowena's friend and neighbor, this
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woman named Ruby Cherry and Rowena's manager, who I'm going to call Jessica. That's not [music] her real name.
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Jessica said that Rowena dropped off her son with her and borrowed her truck for
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the day. And Ruby said that she and Rua went out on the town together with a group of friends and they spent most of
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the night at a bar called Stag Club. Well, it turns out that almost 6 months to the day before Rowena's death on
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March 19th, 1984, Melody Anne Bush was partying with her husband Robert Bush in a room at this like seedy motel in
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Flatonia called Antlers In. And there were like two other people there. Well, she and her husband got into an argument
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and Melody left the room and walked around back to the Stag Club, the same bar that Rowena was hanging out in the
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night of her death. And the Stag Club is the last place that Melody has ever seen
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alive. 12 days later, her body gets found a couple of miles north of town off the interstate in this culvert. And
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the Emmy ruled her cause of death as acute [music] acetone poisoning. So, it was definitely a homicide.
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>> An acetone like nail polish remover >> or or it could have been rubbing alcohol. Like it uh rubbing alcohol
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metabolizes into acetone. [music] Now, at the time, Melody's case is never connected to Robert Charles Brown
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because [music] Melody's husband was the prime suspect in her death, >> but authorities never had enough to
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charge him. >> And then Rowena's death is written off as a suicide, >> right? So, it never crosses anyone's
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mind that those two cases could be connected. And people certainly weren't picking up on the fact that they had
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each last been seen alive in the same bar. But fast forward to 2003. That is when the El Paso County Sheriff's Office
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in Colorado get this creepy AF letter from Robert Charles Brown, who is already in jail serving time for two
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separate murders. And I'm going to have a voice actor read his letter. I thought
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long and hard about picking an incident that would not be lost among the many others. A very small town seemed to be
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my best bet. Small towns don't forget such rare happenings. The town I chose is Platonia, Texas. They don't get much
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smaller. The year was approximately 1984 or 1985. A young woman was killed and her body was found near this town. The
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last I heard was that her husband was being charged with her murder. I'm curious as to the eventual outcome.
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Please let me know. Afterward, we may talk some more on this. Texas does like to kill people. That should give you
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something to think about. Robert Charles Brown. Robert had been sending detectives in Colorado a bunch of
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cryptic letters for years. Like one was a handdrawn partial map of the US with numbers in [music] a few states. Like it
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was supposed to allude to the number of victims that he had across the US. And all in all, I think Robert's claiming
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that he killed 48, possibly 49 people. And he wrote the number seven in Texas. And investigators in Colorado believe at
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least some of this. I mean, they know this man is capable of dark stuff. Now, we don't have time to dive all the way
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into him and his story now, or this episode would be like 8 hours long, but I do think the information is really
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important. So, we're doing an entire separate episode on Robert Charles Brown. That's going to be available in
00:19:03
the fan club if anyone wants to dive deeper. Literally, the episode is out already right now if you want to sign
00:19:08
up, crimejunkkey.com. But Colorado authorities are trying to pry information out of Robert to see if
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they can really connect him to some of these cases. But this dude is like playing mind games, and it is clear that
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what he's after [music] seems to be infamy. So, police start piecing together Robert's little clues, seeing
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if they can actually match up to real cases. And they think that his letter about a woman in Flutonia is Melody
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Bush. But it takes a year for them to even get him to write back about Melody. And when he does, Robert writes just the
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following words. >> Flatonia, ether, ice pick. >> But that's wrong. Yeah, we know that the
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Emmy listed her cause of death as acute acetone [music] poisoning, no stab or puncture wounds or
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anything even close to that. >> Did they ask Robert if he used acetone? >> Yeah. And he said that he never used it
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on any of his victims. And detectives are like, "Okay, like maybe he's mistaking ether for [music] acetone,
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whatever." But when asked later by investigators about stabbing her with an ice pick, Robert like doubles down. He
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said yes. He wanted to make sure that he got Melody's heart. So, he stabbed her at least two or three times, which just
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isn't in the autopsy report. But maybe we can't even trust the autopsy report or the Emmy's findings for Melody's
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death at all because this guy, Dr. Roberto Bayardo, was investigated by NBC affiliate KX for literally botching
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autopsies. And we tried to get the report ourselves, by the way, but no one we foyed had a copy of it. Now, we also
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spoke to the lead investigator for the El Paso Sheriff's Office, and [music] he said that acetone was a preservative
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that Emmys might use, and he thinks that this guy who did Melody's autopsy just like maybe confused it and thought it
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was like the cause of death. Like, and the guy's like clearly not good at his job.
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>> Okay, but what about the potential multiple stabs to the heart with an ice pick? I mean, that's actually that's
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hard to miss. >> Yeah. He didn't really have like a straight answer to that one, but like
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you can't say the Emmy got the cause of death wrong and then also say Robert Brown gave you information only the
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killer would know, >> right? Because they don't know how Melody died if they're saying the Emmy
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was wrong about the acetone, >> right? I think it's safe to say that they just don't have any evidence that
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what Robert is saying is true. And it took over 5 months after that ice pick letter for detectives to even get
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to talk to him in person. But when they do, he gives this whole story about Melody with details. He said that he was
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working for a flower delivery company and his route regularly took him through Flutonia. He says he stopped, got a room
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at the Antlers Inn, and then went over to Stag Club for a drink when this drunk woman came in wearing jeans, a blouse,
00:22:06
and she was barefoot. He remembered that the woman said that she and her husband
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or her boyfriend or whatever had gotten into an argument and she thought that he
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had gone to another bar down the street. And the bartender apparently asked Robert to give this woman a lift to the
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other bar. And Robert says, "You know, at first I say no, but then I say, okay." And then as he's driving her, he
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says she started to put the moves on him and they decided to go back to his motel
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room where Robert says they had sex. Then Robert said, quote, "Then I used ether on her, put her out, and then I
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used a ice pick on her." End quote. He said that he went back and forth between his motel room and the stag [music]
00:22:46
club. And after the bar closed, he said that he and the bartender went out to a local truck stop for breakfast. And then
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when he got back from breakfast, he loaded up the woman into his van and drove north across I 10. And then he
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said he dumped her body over a bridge or a culvert. He says he hears this splash
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and that the area was full of tall grass and water and like that's kind of it. >> So that end part like that's kind of
00:23:12
accurate, right? >> Yes. And I will say that the manager at the bar the night that Melody was last
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seen also says some things that kind of back this up too. Her name's Florine, and she told detectives that she
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remembers Melody did walk in around 11:30 p.m. She was unsteady on her feet, like she'd been drinking. Now, she said
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she was wearing a black sweater with Red Hearts, silver pants, but was barefoot,
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so different clothing than what Robert described, >> but still barefoot. >> Mhm. And she said that she knew Melody
00:23:41
pretty well because Melody would waitress there sometimes, and she was always fighting with her husband,
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>> which is right again. And that night, Melody seemed intoxicated and quote spaced out. She told Florine that she
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left because her husband was destroying the motel room. And she apparently didn't order any drinks and just like
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left the bar alone. But Florine did say that she remembered a silk flower salesman that would stop by the bar once
00:24:06
or twice a month back in 1984. He would like pass out these silk flowers to the women. even gave her eight-year-old
00:24:13
daughter some daisies, which is just sickening to think about because both of Robert's later murders were of young
00:24:18
teenage girls. But what Florine doesn't remember is this guy, Robert, being there the night when Melody went
00:24:26
missing. And she never asked him to give Melody a ride and certainly never went out to breakfast with this guy. And
00:24:33
like, here's the thing to know. A lot of what Robert knew and like the parts that
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were like, "Oh yeah, that's the same." that could have been in local papers. [music]
00:24:42
So, he could have just pieced together that information. Like, yeah, he was in the area at that time. Maybe he heard
00:24:49
people talking. Maybe he was reading the news. I mean, when police asked him how
00:24:54
he knew Melody's husband was a suspect, he said he heard it in the bar when he was passing through 3 weeks later. So,
00:25:01
to me, him knowing a couple of right things is not solid evidence to convict him of another murder here. But there is
00:25:08
enough suspicion that he like kind of forever stays linked to Melody's case. Even on the Wikipedia page for him, she
00:25:16
is listed as a possible victim. >> Is Rowena? >> No. Because even after Rangers clearly
00:25:22
were aware of Rowena's death and had to have at least briefly considered it a homicide
00:25:29
>> for it to even be in this conversation. >> Uh-huh. It is still officially a suicide
00:25:35
and has never been connected to Robert Charles Brown. But even if not officially connected for years after
00:25:42
this, Jolita wondered if it could be true. So again, after her parents passed away, she's like, "Okay, you know, now's
00:25:48
the time to find out once and for all." And that's why she reached out to us. And what our reporter Jenna Mel found
00:25:55
may prove that Jolita was right and [music] wrong. Yes, we believe Rowena was murdered. And we too think that her
00:26:04
case might be connected to Melody's actually, but we're not convinced that Robert Charles Brown is the most likely
00:26:13
suspect. There's someone else that had connections to the two women who we find far more interesting.
00:26:23
Let me start at the beginning of our investigation so you know how we got to where we did. So when we started looking
00:26:30
at this case, I wanted to begin with law enforcement's theory, which was that this was a suicide. I see all the same
00:26:36
red flags as Jolita, but like let's at least ask the question, is it possible that Rowena died by autoerotic
00:26:44
asphyxiation? One thing that I found odd was the fact that she still had the twistab necklace
00:26:50
on. And the autopsy report also says that the necklace made [music] like impressions on her neck. Now, the
00:26:57
investigators were thinking that was because the rope was laying over the necklace, which like
00:27:03
>> to me raised a flag. Like when you take off this big beaded necklace, if [music]
00:27:07
you were going to put a rope around your neck. >> Yeah. >> And like when I say big, this isn't like
00:27:11
a dainty necklace. Twisted beads are, if no one remembers them, are like this thick necklace. They were a big thing
00:27:16
back in the 80s, but you could like mix and match lots of these strands of beads
00:27:20
like and literally twist them all together. So, is it possible that she was strangled with the necklace and not
00:27:26
the rope then? Maybe. It's hard to say without seeing any autopsy photos. But in that case, I mean, it would be a
00:27:34
homicide to me. Not a suicide by masturbation, which is the term they had for it back then. Like today, it's it's
00:27:39
autoerotic asphyxiation, but same thing. [music] But that's what they're calling it. Now
00:27:45
I felt like at least in the cases that I've heard of most autoerotic asphixxiation cases are associated with
00:27:51
men but after a little research I found that it does happen among women as well but there have been very few documented
00:27:58
cases. The ratio is like 50 men to one woman according to a study that I read in the American Journal of Forensic
00:28:04
Medicine and Pathology. And prior to 1980, there were only two cases of women who died this way ever recorded and then
00:28:12
a third in 1980. [music] So super rare at the time. >> And do we know anything about whether
00:28:18
she was like into that type of thing? >> So here's the thing. So Rowena was actually married at the time but
00:28:25
separated. And we talked to her then husband. His name's Thomas. So did Jolita. And he told Jolita that he and
00:28:32
Rowena never did anything like that. Now, obviously they weren't together when she died, so we can't say for sure
00:28:38
if she ever tried anything different without him. >> Okay, but hang on. Was her husband ever
00:28:43
looked into? >> Well, he's never investigated as a suspect because like there's no one to
00:28:48
look into [laughter] >> a homicide. >> Even after the Robert Brown stuff, like her case is never reopened, never
00:28:53
reinvestigated. I will say though, even if they had looked into her husband, I don't think he had any answers. I know
00:29:00
Jolita never considered him suspicious and he was forthcoming with us. Turns out at the time that she died, he was
00:29:06
living an hour away. So, for all the reasons you just heard, I don't think this is a suicide [music] or even an
00:29:13
accident. And I don't think her ex was involved. So, we looked into the man that Jolita suspected, Robert Charles
00:29:20
Brown. Interestingly, Jolita and Rowena's husband, Thomas, both remember that Rowena was dating a guy named Rob
00:29:28
about a year before she died. This Rob even lived with her briefly out in San Marcos, Texas when she split with her
00:29:36
husband. So, of course, we're like, do you remember his last name? >> And listen, both of them were like, you
00:29:41
know, this is going to sound crazy, but we remember the last name Brown. And Jolita said she met this boyfriend Rob
00:29:48
once. So she looked at a picture of serial killer Robert Brown and was like, "It kind of looks like him." Oh my go.
00:29:58
But both Jolita and Thomas are the first ones who told us like, "Listen, please do not trust our memories 100% on this
00:30:07
one. Like it is very possible things have gotten twisted up over the years." And Rowena was dating this boyfriend Rob
00:30:14
like several months before her death and they were living together in a totally different town. So it feels like a bit
00:30:21
of a stretch. And Robert Brown is like still around. >> Yeah. Yeah. Like he is in prison for
00:30:28
those other murders like to this day. And as you know from the Robert Charles Brown episode we did, our reporters
00:30:34
wrote to him and when Jen Al wrote to him for this one, she just asked him point blank, "Did you have anything to
00:30:41
do with Rowena Zappilac's death?" And he wrote back, >> "Sorry, I can't help you. I know nothing
00:30:48
about the person you are inquiring about. If I knew anything at all, I would tell you. I'm old and near the end
00:30:55
of my life and have no reason to conceal anything. I am truly sorry. If you would
00:31:00
send me some funds, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance, RC Brown.
00:31:08
Obviously, Jen explained that we don't pay sources and asked him a follow-up question. Did you kill Melody Bush? And
00:31:17
Robert wrote back with the subject line, quote, no pay, no play. >> Do not hide behind that tired old
00:31:24
ephasian. The courts did away with that lame excuse many years ago. If you're interested, send me some funds for my
00:31:31
birthday and some other reason. Adios, Mr. Brown. So, Robert says that he doesn't know Rowena and he won't say
00:31:40
anything about Melody unless we pay him, but excuse me if I don't just take a serial killer's word for it.
00:31:47
>> Right. And not that he couldn't have done one or the other, but I feel like both is such a stretch cuz the MMO is so
00:31:55
so different. I know this is like the hard part to wrap your head around when it comes to him. The different MOS might
00:32:03
actually be one of the reasons I say it was him because like I mean, you know, like now like from our other episode,
00:32:09
dude was all over the place. Like the one victim he claimed to have strangled with shoelaces, claims another one died
00:32:15
cuz he used chloroform. He talks about stabbing. He talks about shooting, blunt force trauma. Like you name the horror,
00:32:22
Robert says that he's [music] done it. So no, like no calling card to link back to him. Like his calling card is like
00:32:30
signature. >> Yeah. And listen, long story, not short, just like long story that we did another
00:32:35
episode on. I'm going to cut to the chase here. The more we looked into Robert and his crimes and his movements,
00:32:41
his mo or lack of mo. Yeah. me and our reporters came to feel that it was unlikely that he had anything to do with
00:32:50
Rowena's murder. But again, there was a murder here. >> So, we started to ask, if not him, then
00:32:58
who else could have done it? And that's when our reporter Jen went back to the beginning because if no one ever
00:33:04
investigated, then every clue was missed by default. And right there at the beginning, she found [music] something
00:33:13
that shocked us. Something that would have been totally missed if she hadn't just been deep in Melody's case trying
00:33:20
to connect everything to Brown. You see, we found out that before Melody went to
00:33:25
Stag Club that night, she, like I said, was with her husband and those two other
00:33:28
people. They're all partying in the motel room. We know Melody starts fighting with her husband about
00:33:33
something and then she storms out. Then the husband told investigators that he went to sleep, didn't wake up till like
00:33:39
6:00 in the morning, found his wife, never came back. And again, I think the husband was always like sus to people,
00:33:44
and as far as I know, never officially cleared as a suspect. >> But then people kind of just like forget
00:33:48
about him and like everything that night once Robert Brown is in the picture. But
00:33:52
what caught Jen's attention was one of the two other people who were with them that night at the motel was a guy named
00:34:02
Cooper Cherry. Now, Cherry is not a name that you read like every day. And it rang a bell for Jen because she spent so
00:34:10
much time digging into Rowena's story. [music] And it was Rowena's friend, Ruby Cherry, from across the hall who found
00:34:19
Rowena dead. >> Little bit too big of a coincidence in such a small town. So, she pulled
00:34:25
records for Ruby. Turns out she was actually once married to Cooper. So, we went back to Ruby's written statement in
00:34:33
the case file from the night that Rowena died, and it turns out she also crossed
00:34:39
paths with Cooper Cherry. You're kidding. No, I'm not. So, in her statement, [music] Ruby basically went
00:34:47
into detail about what happened the day before Rowena died. She said that before
00:34:53
they went out to party, Rowena went with Ruby to drop off Ruby's son with Cooper.
00:34:58
They're divorced by this point, but like that's his dad. So, we know Cooper and Rowena were in the same place at least
00:35:04
once that night. Now, briefly, whatever, like just crossing paths. So, Rowena and
00:35:09
Ruby go out. They're at the Stag Club. They hang out with a bunch of people they know, and Ruby actually lists all
00:35:16
of these people. Nothing weird happened. She said they went home together around
00:35:19
4:00 a.m. The two of them live in [music] these small apartments above that saddle shop. And then Ruby says
00:35:25
that in the morning, Jessica, who was their manager at the barbecue place, she's the one who was watching Rowena's
00:35:31
son, she comes knocking on her door and wakes her up, like I think looking for Rowena because she's got her son. But
00:35:39
Ruby told her that Rowena was probably still sleeping it off cuz they like got in so late. So Jessica leaves. Sometime
00:35:45
after this, Ruby's statement says that she goes to pick up her kid from a sitter's house. So, at some point the
00:35:53
night before or that morning, Cooper needed someone else to watch their kid for him. Where was he? I don't know. How
00:36:02
did she know to go get her kid from a sitter and not from Cooper? I don't know. But after Ruby picks up their kid,
00:36:09
she goes back to Cooper's house and he's got a buddy over, this guy named Bart Moore.
00:36:16
Interesting because if you look back at the list that Ruby gave of the people who were out with her and Rowena at the
00:36:23
bar that night, Bartmore is right there. But she didn't mention that Cooper was out with them, right?
00:36:30
>> No, no, no. She explicitly lists everyone who was out. Cooper's name is not on that list. So, she says that when
00:36:36
she is at Cooper's that next morning, Cooper and Bart ask if they can go to her apartment to use her shower because
00:36:42
they didn't have any hot water. She's like, "Fine, whatever." She leaves ahead of them and got back to her building
00:36:48
just as Jessica was coming back the second time looking for Rowena. And this is when they break in and they discover
00:36:56
Rowena's body. >> Wait, does that mean that Cooper and Bart were they are like above the saddle
00:37:03
shop when they found Rowena? >> I don't know. She doesn't say anything else about them in her statement. I
00:37:10
don't even know if Cooper and Bar ever went to take showers, but it made us think back to that little detail that
00:37:16
Jolita said she noticed when she was cleaning out Rowena's apartment the next day that Rowena's shower was wet, right?
00:37:24
So, like, what if Cooper or Bart did go use the shower but at Rowena's instead? But wasn't Rowena already dead by the
00:37:33
time Cooper and Bart were asking to come shower? Yes, but that is if we're just assuming that Ruby's account is totally
00:37:41
accurate. I mean, there are other inconsistencies in Ruby's story, even in the few pages of reports we have. And
00:37:48
just to be clear, so there are technically three agencies involved. So, you have the sheriffs, the justice of
00:37:53
the peace, and a little later, the Texas Rangers. And it's not like they're all opening up new investigations. All of
00:37:59
these statements happen in the first like 25 [music] days >> and get like put in the same file.
00:38:03
>> Yeah. So, in her own words, the statement put into the sheriff's report says that Ruby woke up or she's woken up
00:38:08
by Jessica at 9:30 in the morning. She goes to the babysitter's house, gets her kid, then back to Cooper's. But the
00:38:14
Justice of the Peace writes in her inquest that Ruby goes to work at 11:00 a.m., not to Cooper's house. Then, in a
00:38:22
Texas Ranger inquest, the officer says Ruby was woken up at 9:00 a.m. by Jessica and then went back inside her
00:38:28
apartment to sleep. nothing about going to work or to Coopers or the Sitters. So, why are the stories different? I
00:38:37
mean, is it sloppy police work by all these agencies if they're not like recording her statement correctly? Like,
00:38:43
sure, that's an option, but it also could mean that Ruby was telling different versions of her story to
00:38:50
different agencies. And if she did, why? Are there statements from other people like anyone else to compare it to? Like
00:38:58
uh like the other people who were out that night or Jessica who found her with with Ruby? So, the sheriff's report says
00:39:06
that they talked to other people, but no other witness statements were included.
00:39:10
So, we started calling [laughter] people. We were trying to reach out to all of the people specifically on Ruby's
00:39:17
list. And our reporter Jen got in touch with a guy named Red Mhalland who was out with them that [music] night and he
00:39:24
told us he thinks Cooper was out with them that night. Okay, but why would Ruby leave that out?
00:39:33
One option is that she forgot or accidentally left his name out. Another option is that she lied because
00:39:42
she didn't want police to know that Cooper was there. Just to play devil's advocate though,
00:39:49
>> my favorite role. >> I know. [snorts] >> If Ruby knowingly lied because something
00:39:54
happened and she was trying to like cover for Cooper, why wouldn't she just leave out all that
00:40:00
stuff about Cooper and Bart and the shower in her own statement? Like, why add them back into the story at all?
00:40:08
>> I know. And like maybe it's because that's the truth and like it like she just forgotten later statements because
00:40:16
that's like the least interesting part of her morning. Or if the later statements are accurate and they like
00:40:22
didn't come over. I don't know. I don't know why you make up that unless you wanted to give them like an innocent
00:40:29
reason for being seen around there, but then you would think you would stick to it. So like it doesn't make sense. And
00:40:36
if we're going to question Ruby at all, this got me thinking about Joel, the owner of the barbecue place where Rowena
00:40:42
worked. >> He's the one that tells the sheriff that she overdosed before, which bolsters
00:40:47
their suicide narrative. >> Well, Ruby worked there, too. >> So, maybe that story about the overdose
00:40:55
could have come from Ruby. [music] >> I don't know, but something just feels really odd about the whole thing.
00:41:04
Now, obviously, we reached out to Ruby to try and get her to talk. She is alive and around, but she has not gotten back
00:41:11
to us as of this recording. We couldn't talk to Cooper himself about it because he passed away in 2023. And we even
00:41:18
tried like Cooper's brothers, his son, which is Ruby's son. No answer. And listen, like when comparing Cooper to a
00:41:27
guy like Robert Charles Brown, Cooper looks like an angel. We talked to one of his other ex-wives. He has three besides
00:41:36
Ruby. And she said that he was kind, religious, and she had never heard of Rowena before. And when we talked to Red
00:41:43
Mhalland, he told us that Cooper and Bart, they played in this band together. They liked to party a lot. But like the
00:41:49
most salacious thing on his record is a possession of marijuana charge that he and Bart got together in 1989.
00:41:57
Other than that, he didn't have anything else. and Bart only had some traffic violations. But I thought it was
00:42:02
interesting that the one like criminal charge Cooper had like he was with Bart when he got it.
00:42:08
>> But it sounds like they were besties. So, we even tried calling Bart several times, but didn't hear back from him
00:42:13
either, which I think is a shame because he was definitely around that night and
00:42:18
that morning. And I think he might remember something important cuz I don't know, like I just I cannot let go of the
00:42:24
fact that something seems very wild about Cooper being around both Rowena and Melody on the nights that they died.
00:42:31
It could be a weird coincidence. It could be something else. My Spidey senses were like, I don't know. Life
00:42:38
feels like something else. And when we kept looking at him like there was also someone else close to him who died.
00:42:45
[music] His first wife named Rhonda Stall. She died in a questionable way back in 1980, less than 10 months after
00:42:54
marrying Cooper. There is literally one newspaper article and an obit about Cooper's first wife's
00:43:02
death. But here's what we know. According to the Victoria Advocate, on a late summer night, Rhonda was driving
00:43:09
toward train tracks on a rural stretch of road between Platonia and Mulun when her car rolled over twice and threw her
00:43:19
from the vehicle. The car actually rolled partly onto the train tracks and was then pushed aside by the train.
00:43:26
[music] Now, state troopers said that Rhonda was probably laying on the ground for half an hour before the train
00:43:33
passed. How they know that? I have no [music] idea. I don't know if maybe somebody like on the train reported
00:43:38
hitting a vehicle and that's like how her body was discovered. But they rushed her to the hospital where she died a few
00:43:44
hours later. And her [music] death certificate says that she died of quote possible intraranial trauma, which is
00:43:50
like head trauma, but no autopsy was done. So they just assume that she died from the car accident.
00:43:56
>> Yeah. And did they say how the car rolled over? kind of like the state trooper thinks that she fell asleep at
00:44:04
the wheel. So like physically no, they just think that this was like an accident. Lot of questions there.
00:44:10
>> But let me try to get this straight. Cooper Cherry is now connected to three women who all died in some sort of
00:44:19
violent way. >> But this is shocking. It seems like no one has a bad word to say about this guy.
00:44:26
Mm-m. It kind of feels he like he's just cursed. >> Yeah, that's an option. Or maybe people
00:44:35
are scared to talk. I mean, it here's the thing. In cases this old, the problem we normally face is not having
00:44:42
any witnesses alive anymore. >> That's not what's going on here. There are so many people who are still around,
00:44:49
>> but for some reason, people in Flutonia are not talking. Only three people got
00:44:55
back to us outside of Rowena's husband and Jolita or really two and a half people got back to us. We we obviously
00:45:03
talked to Red Maholand and then we talked to one of Cooper's ex-wives and we did really briefly speak to Rowena's
00:45:11
boss, the one that we called Jessica. She is the one that found her that day. But when I say briefly, I mean we got
00:45:17
her on the phone for like a minute and I was really surprised that it wasn't longer because Jolita was the one who
00:45:23
told us to call her. She's like, "I talked to her. She remembers everything. She is definitely going to talk to you."
00:45:30
But that is definitely not what happened. >> I imagine it's probably not the easiest
00:45:35
subject to talk about. Ruena's sister, Jalita, asked me to sort of look into Rowena's case. And I mean, she believes
00:45:44
that Rowena was killed, but I'm wondering since since you were there and you you saw everything, like do you have
00:45:51
a personal feeling about that? >> Uh, I do, but you did talk to Rowena's sister. Is that correct?
00:45:58
>> Correct. Yeah, Jelita. Well, she knows she knows everything there is to know about the outcome as far as discussing
00:46:06
anything about what I saw. >> Mhm. >> I won't be able to do that. >> Oh, why is that?
00:46:12
>> Because I've decided not to do it. I don't I don't I don't care to do it. >> You don't care to do it? Um
00:46:19
>> I do not wish to do it. >> Okay. >> I do not wish to do it and and it's and it's personal.
00:46:24
>> Okay. >> Okay. All right. She would be the person for you to talk to. Yeah, I she
00:46:30
suggested I talk to you though. That's the only thing. >> Yeah. And and and that's nice and I
00:46:36
appreciate that, but I'm not going to. >> Okay. Um is it because >> Thank you so much.
00:46:40
>> Is it because you fear? >> No, it's because exactly what I just said. I do not wish to discuss it and
00:46:48
that is all. >> Okay. Because it's an upsetting topic. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. I hear you.
00:46:57
We don't know her reasons for not talking. And when we asked Alita about this, she didn't really understand
00:47:03
either. But Thomas, Rowena's husband, thinks that people might be hesitant to talk because of who they would be
00:47:11
talking about. You see, Thomas told us that if they were going to say anything about Cooper, Cooper is from a prominent
00:47:18
family in Flatonia. like his dad owned a big ranch out in Mulune and they had several oil wells. He sat on the board
00:47:27
of the town bank which was a powerful seat. >> And are there still cherries around
00:47:32
locally? >> Yeah, there are. But I want to be clear, there's nothing that we found to suggest
00:47:38
that Cooper's family would threaten people and we couldn't ask them anything because none of them have spoken to us.
00:47:44
But to understand the implication here, Thomas gave us a little background just like in his own experience and like his
00:47:50
life. So him and Rowena were high school sweethearts when they got pregnant really young with their son Brandon.
00:47:56
Thomas was from a prominent family as well. His dad actually sat on the same town bank board. Like he knows this
00:48:02
world. >> And Thomas was like, "Look, nothing against Rowena, but she was a runaway
00:48:07
and we got pregnant." And I'm betting that that wasn't my dad's idea of a dream life for me. you know, they
00:48:14
weren't happy, but they supported their decision to get married and to do right by his child, and so they supported them
00:48:20
financially when Thomas went to college. And he said Rowena was a good mom and she loved her son. But it did get to the
00:48:28
point where it was all too much. Like Rowena didn't want to grow up so quickly. She wanted to be young. She
00:48:32
wanted to have fun, go out, see other people. She's 20, remember? >> So she and Thomas split up, but they
00:48:38
never actually divorced. Now, he said that he knew most of the people who were out with Rowena that night, but he
00:48:44
didn't know Ruby. He did know Cooper. I mean, they'd partied together, but they're not like best friends or
00:48:50
anything. And, you know, as we were talking to Thomas and he tells us the thing about like their dads being on the
00:48:55
bank board [music] together, like you could see like the wheels start turning in his head and he's like, you know,
00:49:00
>> Cooper was always getting in trouble and like that might not have been a good
00:49:05
look for his dad. So he's like, I could see a world where Cooper doesn't have more of a record because when you have
00:49:12
the right connections, life is a bit easier for you. If Cooper had anything to do with the deaths [music] of Melody
00:49:20
or Rowena or Rhonda, like >> nobody in his family would I mean who, again, this is like the kind nobody
00:49:26
wants anyone to know that kind of stuff, >> right? >> So there's like all this smoke.
00:49:31
>> Mhm. >> But there is no fire though at the end of the day. The one thing that is
00:49:37
excruciatingly clear is that authorities need to take another hard look at Rowena's case. She thinks Rowena's son
00:49:45
Brandon deserves to know what really happened to his mom. Rowena was so young when she died. She was a talented rodeo
00:49:53
rider, a kind, fun person, and a mom just trying to figure out how to give her son a good life. And we believe that
00:50:01
someone decided to cut that life short. and the Wilkinson and Zapelac family want justice. Jolita started a petition
00:50:09
asking Fyet County to change Rowena's death certificate from suicide accident to homicide [music]
00:50:15
because that would then allow the authorities to reopen her case. We are going to include the link to Jolita's
00:50:22
petition in the show notes if you guys want to sign it. And if you have any information on the deaths of Rowena or
00:50:29
Melody Bush, please contact the Faget County Sheriff's Office at 9799685856 or you can email us [email protected].
00:50:40
Come. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com.
00:51:07
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brand new episode.