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this episode contains descriptions of sexual violence it may not be suitable for everyone please use discretion
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I wish working as a detective and I was called and myself and my partner went to the where the girl's car was and
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surveyed the scene and we could see where the tire on the car was cut purposely and then we just started going
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door to door and asking questions if anybody saw anything this is David davala a retired detective
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with the Casper Wyoming Police Department around 9pm on September 24 1973 18 year
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old Becky Thompson and her 11 year old sister Amy drove to the grocery store in Casper
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when they came out of the store they found the right rear tire on the family station wagon was flat they used a pay
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phone to call their mother and uh they were in a quandary on what to do and then
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these two guys pulled up and offered to help them the men said they would repair
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the tire and then one of them pulled out a knife they took uh they took them at knifepoint and took them in their car
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and that was the start of a trip through hell for them the two men drove back in Amy 30 miles
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outside of Casper to a place called Fremont Canyon Fremont Canyon is a striking narrow Red
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Rock Canyon with steep walls and a long Bridge the men stopped the car at the foot of
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the bridge on this day it was really The Darkest Night there was no moon or anything and
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there's an area there a rest area it's it's it's it's really way way off the TR you know out of sight and
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everything unless you're driving through there one of the men took 11 year old Amy out
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of the car he walked her to the middle of the bridge Becky was told to lay down in the back seat and couldn't see
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anything when the man returned Amy was not with him both men then proceeded to rape Becky
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and then they took her out of the car they took her to the bridge and walked around the bridge and
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then they went to push her over and she fought so she wouldn't get thrown over she fought but then they were choking
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her and so she figured is she just as well let them push her over and take her chances otherwise they're going to
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strangle her so they pushed her over and as she it's 112 feet up from the bottom of this Canyon
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she hit the water when she came the water wasn't very deep then but she it was deep enough so she stayed there
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she made it to shore she and she couldn't see these guys they were on the bridge
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but she could hear them so she's made it to shore and she did not find Amy she didn't know
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where she was so she she stayed there fearing that they would come down and kill her if they thought she was still
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alive and she stayed there and then just stayed there all night [Music] when the sun came up Becky began to try
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to climb out of the canyon her pelvis was fractured she couldn't move her legs so she moved slowly pulling herself up
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the steep sides finally she got to the top to the highway and there was a couple driving by and
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saw her and they stopped and uh helped her and they took her in their car to Alcova which was about uh
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10 to 14 miles away and there that where they could get to a phone there was nothing out there there was there's no
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phones or nothing anyway they took her to the store and then they called an ambulance an
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ambulance came and the sheriff came and they started that started the investigation
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Casper Sheriff Bill Estes told reporters that you could easily see the path Becky
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had taken because it was covered in blood detective davala was sent to the hospital to try to speak with Becky
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about what had happened she was very coherent and able to give us details on what
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happened she described what the two men looked like and she said that they called each
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other Jerry and Ronnie and we had we were familiar with these two people they were small time hoodlums here in Casper
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so we were familiar with the with who they were so we got some photos and did a photo lineup and she picked
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him out immediately 27 year old Ronald Kennedy and 29 year old Jerry Jenkins were arrested that
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same day a diver was sent back out to Fremont Canyon to start searching for Becky's
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younger sister Amy her body was found underneath the bridge and about three feet of water
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the autopsy found that the impact of the Fall had killed her almost instantly news of the crime spread quickly in
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Casper and while police didn't release the names of the victims or assailants right away it didn't take long for
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people to figure out what had happened to Becky and Amy and who'd done it Casper residents began calling the
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police station desperate for more information it was pretty much a wake-up call probably
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oh because you know we hadn't had any thing like that that I recall uh before that
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any kidnapping and murder so it must have shook the town pretty hard yes it did yeah
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it certainly did detective davala has lived in Casper since he was 19. he describes it as a
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good town full of hard-working people a little bit of that old west feel to it it had always felt like a friendly town
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he raised his kids there one of whom was 11 at the time the same age as Amy but Casper which had always felt so safe now
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felt different I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal foreign of 1974 seven months after Becky and Amy
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were thrown off the Fremont Canyon Bridge the trial of Ronald Kennedy and Jerry Jenkins began
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it was held not in Casper but in Cheyenne the defense had argued that the two men could never get a fair trial in
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Casper the case was just too well known Ron Kennedy and Jerry Jenkins were charged with two counts of rape two
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counts of kidnapping and first degree murder Ron Kennedy lived at home with his mother he was unemployed and had been in
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and out of prison Jerry Jenkins was married with a newborn baby just a few days out of the hospital
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when the crimes occurred he also had a long arrest record almost 20 arrests by the time he was 18 for public
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drunkenness theft and mischief in the months leading up to the trial Becky received threats
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police believe the threats were coming from the defendant's relatives detective davala kept a close eye on her and when
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it was time to travel from Casper to Cheyenne for the trial he escorted her and stayed in the hotel room right next
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door so he could be close now I stayed with the with her all the time actually and uh
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we grew to be friends were you in the courtroom when Becky testified yes I was there during the whole trial
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the defendants were in the room while she described what happened the night of September 24th in detail
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at one point telling the jury that she heard one of them say make sure she's going to die make sure she's going to be
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dead oh it was pretty tough uh you know there were a lot of people in there and some of them were crying
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it was uh you know pretty pretty rough on a lot of people but she did she did an excellent job she pretty much
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did everything a matter of factly an agent from the FBI crime lab testified that hair found in Jerry
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Jenkins car matched Becky he concluded it had been forcibly pulled from her head
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and police officers from the Casper Police Department testified that the tire on the girl's car had gone flat
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because it had been slashed the jury deliberated for just over four hours on April 30th 1974 Ron Kennedy and Jerry
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Jenkins were found guilty on all counts they were sentenced to death and uh however
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uh the year after that this Wyoming legislature abolished a death penalty so they
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were then re-sentenced to life I uh I I I liked the first verdict better after the trial Becky and her mother
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wanted to get out of Casper they went to Mexico where her stepfather was working on an oil rig they stayed
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for a year Becky got a job as a teacher and when they returned detective davala took her under his wing he helped her
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get a job working for the police department Chia she became a meter made she she worked down downtown with the
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police department so I get to see her quite a bit she uh she wrote parking tickets and
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did things like that I talked to her on the phone meet with her once in a while sometimes
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we'd have lunch Becky then got a job selling advertising for a local radio station and detective
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davala thought she seemed to be doing well but she wasn't she made an appointment with a doctor
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and on the intake form she wrote I want to be normal again once a year she had to appear before the
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parole board and tell the entire story of what had happened to her and her sister
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detective devala remember she was terrified that the men would somehow be released
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Kennedy used to come up every year for a parole and Becky would have to say something to the parole board she'd
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have to meet with them and go over the story with them every year which was you know pretty tough on her also she
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was drinking a lot and checked herself into a rehab facility and when she finished treatment she
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seemed to be doing better she was doing well at work she met someone she got engaged and in 1987 as
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she was planning her wedding she asked detective davala if he would walk her down the aisle and give her
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away she asked me if I would do that and I did it was nice real nice I was quite honored
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it was a you know a church wedding and she would you know really looked great in 1990 Becky had a baby a little girl
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named Vale six months later her husband left she started drinking again and she still
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every year had to go before that parole board and tell the whole story all over again
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now I think she always thought about her sister and you know and wondered why she died and she didn't
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and I think she had some uh I don't know if it'd be guilt or what or some remorse about that but that was
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always on her mind and I think some you know some people may have reminded her of that
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what do you mean who well I think sub you know I think maybe they'd bring it up and it would bother her
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she couldn't have done anything different to save her sister [Music] so what happened
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[Music] she went off the same bridge where she had gone off 19 years previously on July 31st 1991 Becky and her daughter
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drove out to Fremont Canyon with a friend if she wanted to go out to the bridge so
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her her friend took her out there and her daughter and it was at night and during the
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time they were there the guy was watching the child and Becky walked out on the bridge and she was
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sitting on the rail and then her friend suddenly heard the Big Splash and Becky was gone she
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was in the water and nobody knows for sure if it was on purpose or if she slept anyway she ended up
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dying in the water her how did you hear I got the word I was working I was the sheriff then and I was at the
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fairgrounds they told me and so I I went out there as fast as I could she was still in the
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water you could it had lights on her and you could see because she had her hair was real real long and you could see her
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hair in the water uh you know it's pretty bad pretty bad still feel bad about it
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uh you know you didn't you wonder could yeah could you have done something better for her
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Becky's funeral was held in the same church where her sister Amy's had been 19 years before
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more than 500 people showed up her body was then buried right next to her sister
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they share a headstone [Music] people in Casper today still talk and know about what happened to Becky and
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Amy Burridge oh yeah yeah the people that were here then yeah they sure do so they haven't been forgotten oh no no
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do you ever go out to that bridge oh yeah I go there a lot once in a while they leave a flower they
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built a bench there with her uh with the their names on it a little place where you can sit
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out there by the bridge Detective davala spoke with Becky's daughter Vale a couple of years ago she
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called to tell him that she was getting married she knew he'd walked her mother down the
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aisle Jerry Jenkins died in 1998. Ron Kennedy is still incarcerated at Wyoming medium
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Correctional Institution he's 71 now they killed her they killed her maybe they killed her
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all the way back when she was 18. yeah they they killed her and just took her 19 years
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foreign [Music] Spore Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Rob Byers matild erfelino is our intern
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special thanks to Eric clay and Ron franzel he wrote a book about the case it's called The Darkest Night Julian
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Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal you can see them at thisiscriminal.com where on
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Facebook and Twitter at criminal show criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina public radio wunc we're a
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proud member of radiotopia from PRX a collection of the best podcasts around shows like ear hustle which brings you
00:18:20
stories of day-to-day life inside San Quentin State Prison produced by those living it
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here's a bit of their first episode of their new season about first experiences in prison I took a lot of deep breaths I
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try to like choreograph my uh hug because I haven't hugged my mom a long time but in the cell but wait wait how
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did you practice how did you choreograph a hug so I didn't know because I haven't
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hugged someone in a long time maybe by then it was 13 years right so I didn't know if my hand goes around her shoulder
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um or her neck I didn't know if it went like diagonally like 245 degree angles and then I was like you know what I let
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her lead like this is your mom right this is my mom and I don't know how to hug my mom so I was nervous about that
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type of stuff did you actually practice hugging somebody else no just like wasn't up for that no go listen special
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thanks to adzerk for providing their ad serving platform to radiotopia I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal
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[Music]