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this episode picks up from our last one episode 88 Cold Case so if you haven't heard that one yet you should probably
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go back and listen to them in order this episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for
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everyone if you're in it for Revenge I'm not your person if you're in it to stir up
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something because it's the ex-wife not your person and I usually can tell who the right people are there's a sound
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when I talk to him at first and I know that sound I've had that sound I know the desperation
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after Sheila wysaki became a private investigator to help solve the murder of her college roommate Angie samoda she
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wasn't planning to take on any more cases she'd done what she'd hoped to do but she was inundated with requests from
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other people who'd lost loved ones the first letter was from a mother who didn't believe that her teenage son died
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by Suicide so I'm reading this letter in a course I'm a crier and it just upset me so much and she wrote her name and
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number at the bottom and I called her Sheila looked into the case and found evidence that there were too many
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bullets for suicide to make sense Sheila says her investigation compelled the district attorney to reopen the case
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and from there she just kept going what percentage breakdown who's contacting you is it parents is it
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husbands or wives family members who who's contacting you I would say mainly it's parents even parents of older like
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an adult so if they're missing or they suspect Foul Play A lot of times the moms I used to say only the moms but
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recently I probably had three dads call me which is unusual she's selective about what cases she
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takes sure that her clients understand that they may not like what she finds out
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and she often stipulates that they enter into grief counseling during the investigation
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the worst part she says is telling people no last year alone I gave 101 cases away
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think about that that's 101 people out there how many people are out there there's a bunch that have questions so
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the families know I will go through their case I will work their case but they have to on the other side do the
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things that I ask them to do at any given point if I number one find out that they lied to me were done the
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second thing is if I go through and find evidence that needs to be turned over to
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the police we immediately turn it over to the police what they do with it you never know
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the process to become a private investigator varies from state to state in Tennessee where Sheila lives you need
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to demonstrate that you're working under an investigator who's already licensed and has more experience you take an exam
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send your fingerprints to the FBI and submit to a background check you also need to be quote of good moral
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character and quote not suffer from habitual drunkenness in five states Alaska Idaho Mississippi
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South Dakota and Wyoming the state doesn't require you to do anything special at all
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Sheila says she can't imagine how much harder this job must have been 30 years ago before the internet but she says she
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does things the old-fashioned way too knocking on doors and asking questions I'm lucky the way I look because people
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will open the door to me I've had people escort me out of their homes I've had people and I use that word I've been
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thrown out I've had people open the door in the slammed the door in my face and after going door to door
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you'll find it's amazing what people remember but I have found that nobody's asked them so nobody knocked on that
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door to ask the question and I think that's a mistake I think canvassing the area and seeing what people remember or
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what they don't and then I take a um it's kind of like an octopus I try to find who their friends are because you and I
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both know people talk and if they're in a relationship they're talking if what I find is if they're in any kind of
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a relationship at some intimate level they'll discuss something personal if that relationship ends
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that's a gold mine do you people out do you watch people and follow people of course you have to
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get a pattern so you have to know what their schedule is who they're talking to if they stay inside all day with the
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blinds shut why would you do that if you're pregnant and you stay inside all day with the blind shut and nobody comes
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and goes that's kind of interesting to me are there a lot of women in this line of
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work no no just then one of Sheila's colleagues showed up a man named David Gray who she
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hires to keep her computer and her house secure so I have cameras all over my house
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you do I do you're on TV no not that bad but I do and so one of the things that David's brought you want to tell her
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what it is there you go um do you need this at all no not no I'm good this right here is
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basically a Wi-Fi camera that sits and fits into a um a light fixture well this this is the stuff we don't
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actually know exists but here it is and so this I mean it looks kind of like a light bulb so you wouldn't know it's a
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light bulb and it's got a uh uh a very good um camera built into it and sound so yeah I'm sure people always come over
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here and look around and I'm looking up right now and then you look going yep I know she's got something around but it's
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all over before you hit the driveway you're on TV yeah Sheila told us stories about being intimidated by suspects and
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having police officers show up at her door telling her to back off calling her a liar it's her job to be adversarial
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I'm set up to go in and they're upset with me I walked through the door and I'm saying have you thought about it's
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so a lot of people don't like that I'm not on Christmas card lists of most people I've asked questions about but I
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try to go in with a really okay I just want to know can you help me if you can't I'm going to move on
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David Gray has installed a lot of software to make sure no one can access her computer he didn't want to say too
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much about what kind of software or what kinds of things someone might be looking
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for but he told us that once Sheila had a strange experience where someone took control of her computer remotely and she
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could see them operating her Mouse opening Case Files paper just you know nosy there's a lot of good hackers out
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there and you know with the business that she's in I definitely think she's always a Target
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so every once in a while you'll have him come look I have him come look more than
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every once in a while it's something it's a regular relationship because it's so important and how often are you
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looking at private investigators computers is this a is this a rare relationship I do have a few pis that I
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work with none like Sheila of course this is what we heard for Nashville that there are a lot of private
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private but none quite like Sheila wysocki I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal [Music]
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I'm sorry this is hey Michael hey are you outside okay bye so Mike Michael Kenny so we have two
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mics I don't know how we're gonna do this for one of her most challenging cases Sheila is working with two other
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private investigators Michael Kenny and Michael Sands my name is Michael Sands I
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am a private investigator and I've had my business 18 years a former veteran police captain and U.S army Captain
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helicopter pilot where were you uh where what Police Department I was in a police
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department in Indiana was a captain and a police officer in Texas as well surveillance child custody insurance
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fraud divorce I have women calling up asking you to follow their husbands absolutely and actually over the
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probably about the last five years has been more men calling to follow their wives
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even when we've had somebody trying to verify stayed overnight somewhere I went old school and put a stick or a
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rock on top of the vehicle's tire and took a photo of a date time stamp so if it actually moved or not or a piece of
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uh Scotch tape on a door frame to see if it had been opened from the outside you're still doing that stuff yes
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absolutely being a police officer and a private investigator I tell everybody as a police officer
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it's mainly black and white but as a pi we work in a very gray area we have less
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restrictions and more flexibility and in our business how creative you can be is
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how successful you are he's worked with Sheila for about a year and a half and he says that when he first met her
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he was intrigued I was taken back a little bit then after talking to her we just meshed
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immediately I mean built an immediate friendship and camaraderie what were you intrigued by
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just her being the soccer mom or mature mother and just I loved it I mean just I mean and
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appreciate strong women with my wife being a professional herself and having that you know Drive is is essential his
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wife or special agent the other person working on the case was Sheila is Michael Kenny by the time he
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got there it was a full house three private investigators and David Gray working on Sheila's computer
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before Michael Kenny became a private investigator he used to hire a lot of them for his work as an insurance claims
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adjuster and one day he decided to open his own shop he says it hasn't made him very popular
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well I have eight active death threats that I believe right now I've gotten more than that but eight that I believe
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a lot of times you'll have somebody that uh an example would be there's a car wreck and the the attorney tells them
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they're gonna get a million dollars and we go out and show them golfing all weekend and so that million dollars
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becomes ten thousand dollars and they don't blame themselves they blame me he says social media has changed everything
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about the work I think the world for I think Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook so people will post what they're doing I
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would have not imagined 21 years ago that there'd be websites where people would tell us what they were doing or
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who their family members were or what they drove for instance if it's not coming back to the state I'll tell you
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Michael Kenny taught me to be nice and dumb so when I go in I never know anything and it's amazing how people
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want to tell you things when you're that stupid they want to correct you and tell
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you what really happened and also I go in a lot of times they have mommy issues so I go in and they want to tell me
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what's going on and cry on my shoulder people don't realize like the police May cool off and move on to the next case
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but Sheila doesn't she she'll get focused and she'll lock on and she will not let go until there's an answer
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the reason for their meeting today is to discuss the case of 21 year old Lauren Agee I received a phone call from a
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girlfriend of mine when I was down in Florida recovering from another case and I said I'm not taking cases I'm not
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doing it and she said would you please just talk to the mother and I received an email from Sherry Smith that
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it's heartbreaking when Sheila started looking into Lauren Agee's death she asked Michael Kenny if
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he would put his eyes on it Michael Sands had already been working on the case and then the three of them
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teamed up is this type of collaboration common oh that's the way I do my cases is I
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want to be the dumbest person in the room I don't want to be the smartest person in the room I want people like
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Michael and Michael to come in and tell me what I've missed Lauren Agee died in July of 2015.
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she and some friends were camping on Center Hill Lake in central Tennessee for a wakeboarding event called wake
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Fest wakefest was the weekend of July 24th 25th and 26th 24th was a Friday Lauren shows up with Hannah Palmer
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and they meet up with Aaron Lilly and Chris Stout and they camp on top the cliff
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they were there to party all weekend and it's kind of it's like a X Games is what
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it reminded me of with the giant you know the giant ramps and they're doing flips and it was quite a sight a lot of
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talent but a lot of bikini and booze yeah and there were families there too do what oh a lot of socializing so they
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the way they have it set up is you go to the wakeboard event six miles out from where the cliff
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and the marina and then you come back in and at night time you're drinking and and having a
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great time that Friday night Hannah Lauren another acquaintance Aaron and Chris Stout were
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up there they go to wake Fest on Saturday same same scenarios just rinse and repeat they go to wake Fest come back
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they're um at Fishlips Fishlips is a is a bar restaurant it's a bar restaurant remind you of kind of
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Florida divish and then Lauren goes up on the cliff that night with the group the next morning they wake up and she's
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gone [Music] Lauren's friends said they looked for her but couldn't find her according to
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the statements they gave to the police they thought Lauren may have left the campsite and either gone to find an
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ex-boyfriend or gone ahead to wakefest he had the problem with the whole scenario is Lauren's phone shoes and
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clothing he first come along the phone keys purse everything that she had took up
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there was still there so think about that your girl you're you're a girl your shoes are up
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there your phones the two most important things a girl could have a 21 year old a
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21 year old and it Dawns on you she's missing wouldn't it Dawn on you to make a phone
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call or call the police or alert the Police well the fact that you're climbing a
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mountain without your shoes or in this case climbing down the mountain and then they get on a boat and go to
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wake Fest look at that picture so this is the day after this is the day of that she was
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missing so looking having great time so this is after she had gone missing yes so instead of
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looking for her this is what they're doing and one of his posts was what is it Best Day Ever
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so their best day ever and this girl is Missing do they at that point call the police
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call her mother call anyone to say Lauren's missing nope and then what happens then at 4 30 in the afternoon two
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fishermen find her body [Music] Lauren Agee's body was found in the water not far from the campsite
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the medical examiner found quote predominantly blunt force injuries to the top of the head and slightly right
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side of the head as well as to the back they found multiple fractured ribs the autopsy report concludes the cause of
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death is multiple blunt force injuries contributing to the death is possible drowning the manner of death is accident
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in his investigative report detective Jeremy Taylor wrote Lauren Taylor agey's death is consistent
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with an accident at this time I do not have any evidence to support foul play in the death of Lauren Taylor h e
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so the story was that she fell from she fell yes that was that was the alleged story
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that she had fell from the cliff while they were sleeping during the night that's not true
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I know that's not true look Michael Kenny and Michael Sands together with Lauren's parents do not
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believe that Lauren Fell they've spent the last year doing their own investigation going back and
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interviewing everyone they can find looking at water flow the angle of the cliff drop comparing the autopsy report
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with photographs of Lauren taken at the scene they're also curious about the behavior
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of the friends who are camping with Lauren why didn't they go to the funeral why didn't they call her mom so over
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time and time again we see that the behavior doesn't line up with with a normal behavior of friends and I want to
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be very clear about this location because Michael and Michael have both been up there when I initially took the
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case I thought okay you know somebody probably could have fallen off I have her autopsy pictures I have the crime
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scene photos from the EMTs her injuries do not line up with somebody who fell off a cliff and we took a dummy got it
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the size that she is and again in my investigations you try to reenact what happened we took a dummy and we we did
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it more than once we took it and tried to recreate what the police came to the conclusion of and we couldn't get it to
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make it down the cliff so what do you think happened what do I think happened I can tell you
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what didn't happen she did not fall off the cliff and end up in the second Cove in addition to trying to recreate a fall
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Sheila has hired a hydrologist to look at the way the water flows in the lake and in and out of the coves around the
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campsite there are two very uneven campsites there's the one where Chris and Lauren had a hammock which
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is is insane I mean no one would choose to Camp up here I mean if you did move in any direction you could easily go off
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the very steep side and then you had to go down a little area and walk and climb
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up a Shale Cliff if you will to get to the campsite where the where the tents were or where uh Aaron stayed
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when we were originally told it was understand that she fell out of the hammock off the Steep side of the right
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side of the point this side the very steep side and the water's flowing to the point so anything
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would fall would go to the point and so somehow Lauren made it down the wooded side so she would have had to somehow
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her body would have had to navigate all the way to the water and then go against
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the current to be stuck back in the Cove an impossibility in my personal opinion
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so how do you think she she actually died I mean I think she hit her head or was pushed or shoved or
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um you know a girl with no shoes on who's a girly girl Lauren was a girly girl um
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you know I think there was something that made her I I just I I have my theory but
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um I think that somebody was doing something to her and she probably fought back a little bit and uh her head was
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hit and that's how she died and her body did not fall off that cliff I think someone placed it in that Cove
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after she had died after she had died did the autopsy show that she had been raped
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they did not do a rape kick no rape kit they did not do a rape kit so my scenario of what happened is she
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goes into the medical examiner the police officers said she was drunk and fell off the cliff check off move on
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we spent the day listening to the three of them think through all the possible things that could have happened to
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Lauren Agee this is the strange work of a private investigator testing each part of a police
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investigation imagining alternative scenarios and then seeing if the facts bear them out
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Lauren's parents filed the wrongful death suit against the people camping with Lauren that weekend it's currently
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pending Sheila speaks with Lauren's mother Sherry Smith many times a day the reality of a case like this is it
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takes more investigating so the information that we keep getting and the interviews we keep doing lead to
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something else and I'm still gathering information the court case is in the court system that's
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not what I've been hired to do I've been hired to find out what happened to Lauren
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find out what happened to Lauren for who oh I've been hired to find out what happened that night for Sherry Smith and
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Michael Smith and that's the difference of what cases I take the parents I deal with are the
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ones that want to know what happened it's not about money it's not about the legal it is only about what happened
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that night the truth and they want their daughter's story to be correct not she was drunk and fell off the cliff that's
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not Lauren's story I know she doesn't like it when I use the term pit bull but if if Sheila's
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really on it she won't give up she will keep pursuing that goes for law enforcement if it's your agency she will
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bang on your door as many times we can show yeah it's very thorough made a mistake
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a million mistakes every day of course because the only way you can do an investigation
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is try different things and you never know how it's going to turn out so I've hired a private investigator to go in
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that's younger than I am and would fit into the group and that did not work out well because they wanted to tell
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everybody they were a pi are you kidding me yeah before we left Sheila put out an enormous lunch for her
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team quiche and tuna salad and chicken salad and rolls and Pie we're almost to that point I'm gonna Heat this up a
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little bit in the microwave I hate using the microwave but I have to she wouldn't
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let anyone help her and spent most of the time not eating herself but asking if everyone else had what they needed
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and then we remembered her email address Scrappy mom P.I [Music] you know if I had committed a crime well
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I'd be terrified if I knew you were out there working on it are you gonna do anything
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I know you're around you want to tell me something now do you want to confess criminal is produced by Lauren Spore
00:25:42
Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Johnny Vince Evans matild erfelino is our intern Julian Alexander makes original
00:25:51
illustrations for each episode of Criminal you can see them at this criminal.com where on Facebook and
00:25:58
Twitter at criminal show criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina public radio wunc we're a
00:26:06
proud member of radiotopia from PRX a collection of the best podcasts around if you haven't already check out
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radiotopia's showcase which features original podcast series of all Stripes from emerging and leading producers
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around the world I'm aletson and I am Willie Evans Jr and together we make earthang the greatest podcast known to
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help support the shows you love they even have an in-house podcast librarian I made a little radio public playlist of
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radiotopia I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal foreign [Music]