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[Music]
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up next
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a young aspiring singer disappears a
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telltale sign of you know someone who
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was running away from something
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she had a history of running away she's
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always come back
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surveillance cameras tell at least part
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of the story
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when i saw the video i started feeling
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very
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confident that we were focusing on the
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right guy
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all they had to do now was to find him
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[Music]
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i wanna love someone that would stand by
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my side
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sixteen-year-old yoshan ashbrook had
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dreams of stardom
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her sister and yoshan used to write
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songs all the time
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different little lyrics and and things
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and they wrote one song called wanna
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i wanna love you but could you
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love me too i i feel so safe
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when i'm with you i wanna love you
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and yo sean sang this song and they um
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really wanted to to get it recorded and
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to do something nice with it
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and she just didn't get the chance to
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finish that and if a singing career
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didn't work out
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she had a backup plan yes sean wanted to
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be an entertainment lawyer she could
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make deals and make everybody happy
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like many teenagers joshan had her share
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of conflicts with her parents
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but they were usually resolved yoshan
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did have a history of running away
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normally she would run away spend the
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night somewhere else and come home the
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following day or maybe two days later
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but after an argument with her parents
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about smoking marijuana
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she left this time for good
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yoshian's parents were very concerned
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about her they were aware that she had
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substance abuse problems
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her parents notified the police called
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all her friends
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and went to all of her known hangouts
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towards the end of the evening
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it was more frustrating because it was
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like we had no other leads we had
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nowhere else to go
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we couldn't think of any other places or
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any other people to talk to
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the next morning electricians working
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for the power company
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spotted a woman's body off the side of
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the road
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outside of tampa florida
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the body was identified as joshon
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ashbrook
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you could see that her throat was cut
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blunt trauma to her face her head
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there was cuts defensive wounds on her
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hands
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yoshan's pants weren't found at the
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scene
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looking at her body being nude from the
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waist down you cannot help
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think that maybe she was sexually
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assaulted
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gosh i don't know how to describe that
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feeling i'm never going to see my
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daughter get married or have babies
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[Music]
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i'm never going to hold her first child
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and i'm never going to see her make her
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dreams come true
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investigators found a single hair in a
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defensive wound
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on yoshan's thumb it appeared that
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this might be the hair from her attacker
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like if she went to grab him
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and when she was fighting him and she
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grabbed him and it just got embedded in
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there
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the hair had the root intact
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about 30 feet from the body refreshed
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tire tracks
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it was obvious that whoever was driving
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that vehicle
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backed into the area and then dragged
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her body into the woods
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the tire tracks were in the sand a
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surface ideal for making
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plaster casts these were so clear
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i could say that there was not any rain
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or had occurred or any damage in the
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environment
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at that time because they were such nice
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clear quality impressions no one knew of
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anyone who wanted to harm your sean
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but for investigators these clues
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were a very good start
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as police search for joshon ashbrook's
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killer
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the medical examiner learned that the
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knife wound
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to her throat was not the cause of death
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the medical examiner explained that the
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suspect
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may have put her in some type of
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wrestling move like a half nelson
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and turned or put extreme pressure on
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her
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which dislocated which broke her neck an
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autopsy found no evidence of sexual
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assault
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in a search for suspects yushan's family
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suggested police interview
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john hanson a 60-year-old family friend
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who lived nearby
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john was an older gentleman he hung out
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at the house all the time with us
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but in my opinion he seemed after a
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while to get too close to the children
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he always wanted to be their friend more
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so than the friends of an adult
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within 24 hours of finding yoshan's body
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investigators went to hanson's trailer
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to question him
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but he was gone we've talked to the park
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manager and some of the neighbors and
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they said they hadn't seen him in a day
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or two
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there was no sign of violence in his
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trailer
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a background check revealed hanson a day
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laborer
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estranged from his wife had no history
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of violence
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a 60 year old man having teenagers visit
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the house and hang around i think it
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does lead to suspicion as to what is
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going on
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so now he is somebody we really want to
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talk to
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while police searched for hansen
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criminalists
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measured the tire impressions found near
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yoshan's body
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those measurements and tread patterns
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were entered into a computer database of
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20
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000 different tires manufactured around
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the world
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there was then seven different
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manufacturer models that could have made
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that entire
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impression at the crime scene different
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manufacturers sometimes
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sell their mold to other manufacturers
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so therefore you would have
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the same mold but yet under different
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manufacturer model names
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all seven of these tire models were for
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larger vehicles which meant your sean's
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killer was driving either a truck
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or an suv
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then police got an important lead from a
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woman
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who saw yoshon the day she ran away
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[Music]
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hi it's yoshon she received a phone call
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from yoshan
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about 8 30 in the morning on july 31st
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she wanted to know if her son was there
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could she stop by sure you can stop by
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yoshan's asked if she could come by and
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drop off a letter
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within minutes a red ford pickup pull-up
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yoshan gets out runs to the door the
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note
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was for the woman's son max who was
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yoshan's boyfriend
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it was i miss you i love you i'll call
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you later
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that type of note she just appeared to
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be in a hurry and
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wanted to leave the woman said the
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driver was a middle-aged white male
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but she didn't get a good look at his
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face she did however
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provide a valuable piece of information
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max's mother provided us with the cell
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phone number that was on her caller id
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when investigators called the number a
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man
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answered the phone we were able to get a
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person on the phone
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he said his name was phillip thompson
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and
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he was asked if he knew anybody of the
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name of joshon ashbrook
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and if he had picked up anybody or knew
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this female
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philip thompson confirmed he and his
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daughter
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had picked up yoshan when she was
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hitchhiking
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took her to her boyfriend's house to
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leave the note
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and then they dropped her off at the
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local walmart
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and that's the last that he had seen of
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her philip thompson agreed to meet
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police
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later that day but he failed to show up
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for his appointment
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investigators looked at that as possibly
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you know
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a telltale sign of you know someone who
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was running away from something
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but police received some troubling news
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the cell phone wasn't registered to
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philip thompson
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it was registered to philip parton a
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convicted
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killer phillip hardin was convicted of a
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murderer
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that he committed in 1987
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in which he strangled a man with a phone
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cord or some kind of
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cord short version was
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that phillip hart was what they call a
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hustler
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a male prostitute he had picked up this
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gay math teacher at a local club
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they went back to the teacher's place
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something happened there
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parton beat him strangled him to death
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with a telephone court
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once he killed him he took his wallet
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money credit cards got into the guy's
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car and drove off
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parton was convicted of second-degree
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murder served six years in prison
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and was released in 1995. police
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believed
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that it was partner they'd been speaking
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to about yoshan
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parton said he and his daughter dropped
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yoshan off
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at this walmart the morning she
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disappeared
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but that's not what store surveillance
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tape
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showed the walmart surveillance video
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shows them pulling in
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at around 8 48 you see
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the suspect you see yoshan and you see
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the suspect's little girl
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they spend 5-10 minutes purchase a
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couple fishing items
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and then they leave get back in the
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vehicle and drive off
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the videotape left no doubt joshon was
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with parton
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a convicted murderer just hours before
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her body was found
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when i saw the video i started feeling
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very
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confident that we were focusing on the
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right guy
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there was only one problem where
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was he
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police searched nationwide for philip
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parton
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a convicted killer who had already
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admitted to police during a phone call
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that he'd picked up joshon ashbrook
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while she was hitchhiking
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investigators learned that parton and
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his daughter were living
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in newport richie florida with a friend
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he'd met in prison he agreed to let him
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live in one of the rooms at his house
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hardin had his daughter patricia with
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him
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so they move in there when questioned
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parton's roommate said he hadn't seen
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parton or his daughter
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since yoshan's murder was covered in the
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local news
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he also said he'd never seen joshon
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ashbrook
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at his house either with a search
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warrant
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police examined the room parton and his
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daughter had been using
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and initially found nothing suspicious
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we lifted up a throw rug that was in
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between the two beds
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and when we pulled the throw rug back
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there was a huge discolored stain
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the stain was about four feet long
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and smelled of bleach it looked like
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someone had recently tried to clean it
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so criminalists lifted the carpet and
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found traces of blood
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underneath which they collected for dna
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testing
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forensic analysts also went over every
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inch of the room they started searching
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and on the wall they found a speck of
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blood
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that looked like it might have been a
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cast off a little teardrop
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the blood on the wall and underneath the
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carpet yielded
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a genetic profile and it matched
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your sean's dna we can say that
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yo sean was killed in that bedroom
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parton's roommate insisted he had
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nothing to do with your sean's murder
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but wouldn't cooperate further i did not
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want to cooperate with the investigators
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nor the state attorney's office very
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belligerence this
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hated authority despised us
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meanwhile the search for philip parton
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wasn't going well
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even though he was in constant contact
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with police
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via his cell phone detective philip
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liked to talk
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he would question detectives as to what
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do you have on me
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why do you think i'm the one that did
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this he was seeking answers
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you have nothing on me the problem was
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parton
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would make a call and then drive away so
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it was impossible to pin down his
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location
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one call came from across the country in
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washington state
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this was just another way of mr pardon
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taunting the detectives
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finally the phone call stopped
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completely but then
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two months after yoshan's murder police
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found
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an abandoned red pickup truck in a
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walmart parking lot
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50 miles away from where your sean's
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body was discovered
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the license plate showed it was parton's
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truck
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but on the truck were four bald tires
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that didn't match the tire impressions
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at the crime scene
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was parton trying to show he wasn't the
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killer by using
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decoy tires and he's got to know we were
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going to
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take tire casts and we're going to know
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what kind of vehicle he was driving
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was pretty smart but if that were the
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case
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parton made a colossal mistake
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in the glove compartment investigators
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found
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three rolls of film when developed
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one picture showed his truck with
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different tires
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one of them was a wild country brand
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tire
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i was able to determine that the tire
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impressions made at the crime scene
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was made by one of seven and one of them
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being the cooper wild country tire
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this became a crucial piece of evidence
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for us in this case
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with the help of an informant police
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found
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pardon's seven-year-old daughter parton
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had dropped her off at a friend's home
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after the murder
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and never came back pardon tells her
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you don't know where i'm at you know
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where i'm going and
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and don't tell anybody take care of my
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child i'll get back with you later on
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he's never seen again parton's daughter
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confirmed yoshan's whereabouts on the
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night of the murder
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and said yoshan never left the bedroom
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she remembered that they went back to
00:14:57
the house where they live
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went into the bedroom and that she and
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yoshan played
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video games and watched tv parton's
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daughter said
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she was asleep in the living room while
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her father
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and your sean were in the bedroom
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when she awoke dushan was gone
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we asked her at what time did yoshan
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leave and she didn't remember
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probably after she went to bed she had
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no knowledge of when they left
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and she couldn't tell investigators
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where her father was hiding
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this guy's pissing me off
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all the evidence in the joshua ashbrook
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murder pointed to one man
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philip parton he was the last known
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person to see
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your sean alive his truck
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once had the same brand of tires that
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left tracks just feet
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from her body his own daughter
00:15:56
put him with the victim the night of the
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murder
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and perhaps most tellingly of all
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when police went to question him
00:16:07
he went on the run but he couldn't
00:16:10
control
00:16:10
his curiosity about the case and called
00:16:14
detectives
00:16:15
from all over the country he was pumping
00:16:17
detectives
00:16:19
as much as we were trying to pump him
00:16:20
for information he ultimately thought he
00:16:22
could beat the system
00:16:23
well in doing that we were able to trace
00:16:26
his phone calls
00:16:29
with a warrant investigators tapped his
00:16:32
roommate's phone
00:16:34
just to see if parton would eventually
00:16:37
call him and that's what he did
00:16:42
when parton called his roommate the
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police were listening in
00:16:47
they traced the call to a pay phone in
00:16:49
fayetteville
00:16:50
north carolina we knew that mr parton
00:16:53
was involved in the air conditioning
00:16:54
business
00:16:55
he had a general area where the phone
00:16:57
call came in from
00:16:58
so we concentrated our search in that
00:17:00
area and that's
00:17:02
exactly where they found him
00:17:05
mr pardon was quite shocked to see
00:17:07
detectives
00:17:09
he was taken into custody on a warrant
00:17:11
upon questioning by detectives
00:17:13
he refused most of the questions that he
00:17:16
didn't confess
00:17:17
remember yo sean if i showed you a
00:17:18
picture
00:17:23
you don't know how many girls i've made
00:17:26
you know so
00:17:27
i'm talking about the one i am talking
00:17:29
about the one that uh was at fritz house
00:17:33
you two were together i'm listening to
00:17:36
you but i
00:17:37
i still don't know but
00:17:41
dna finally told the tale
00:17:44
parton's dna matched dna
00:17:48
on the hair found on yoshan's body
00:17:52
this dna just sealed the deal to see
00:17:55
whether
00:17:55
parton's roommate was involved
00:17:57
investigators searched his suv
00:18:00
and on the front seat found a blood
00:18:02
stain
00:18:03
but a test on the blood stain didn't
00:18:06
match joshon ashbrook
00:18:07
it was dna from the man's son
00:18:11
the roommate also claimed he was at work
00:18:14
in tampa on the night yoshan was
00:18:16
murdered
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an alibi corroborated by his employer
00:18:21
he was obviously in pinellas or tampa
00:18:24
with these people he couldn't have been
00:18:25
involved in her murder
00:18:28
believe parton picked up yoshan while
00:18:31
she was hitchhiking
00:18:34
pardon gained your sean's trust by
00:18:37
having his daughter with him
00:18:39
and by helping her with her errands
00:18:44
the security tapes show the three of
00:18:46
them
00:18:47
went shopping later that morning bought
00:18:50
some fishing gear
00:18:51
and according to parton's daughter went
00:18:54
fishing
00:18:55
later that afternoon parton's daughter
00:18:59
said
00:18:59
they returned to their rented room
00:19:02
sometime
00:19:03
late in the day after dark
00:19:06
parton's daughter fell asleep on the
00:19:09
sofa
00:19:12
parton may have made a sexual advance
00:19:14
towards you sean
00:19:15
which he rebuffed there was a fight
00:19:21
desean grabbed some of his hair and
00:19:24
parton
00:19:25
used a knife to cut her throat
00:19:29
blood spatter got onto the wall but
00:19:32
it was a broken neck that caused
00:19:35
yoshan's death
00:19:38
parton took yoshan's body to the woods
00:19:41
15 miles from her home she had in her
00:19:44
hand
00:19:45
his dna
00:19:48
parton left his tire impression in the
00:19:51
sand
00:19:54
later parton attempted unsuccessfully to
00:19:57
clean the blood from the bedroom
00:20:01
philip parton is an opportunist who
00:20:02
preys on young victims and vulnerable
00:20:05
victims
00:20:06
i would consider him a sick individual
00:20:10
it's hard for the defense to look at
00:20:12
this evidence
00:20:14
and take off in a different direction
00:20:15
saying hey my client's not guilty
00:20:19
philip parton went on trial
00:20:22
for first degree murder he was found
00:20:26
guilty and sentenced to death
00:20:29
i held a lot of anger in and so that's
00:20:31
what got me through the trial
00:20:33
was my anger he would stare at me and he
00:20:36
would wink at me
00:20:38
and um just be as cocky as he could be
00:20:41
the forensic evidence was the case
00:20:44
it was the case her dna in the bedroom
00:20:48
and his dna his hair found in her
00:20:52
finger that's the case everything else
00:20:55
was circumstantial
00:20:56
mr pardon had a tattoo on his body that
00:20:59
said
00:21:00
live free or die and that was his motto
00:21:02
that he
00:21:03
he went by either either let me free or
00:21:06
kill me
00:21:07
and ultimately i think it speaks for
00:21:11
[Music]
00:21:13
itself
