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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. This would have had to have been a pretty bloody scene.
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The body had, like, close to 40-some stab wounds. And so, somebody to see all that would be probably a lot to take in.
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Oh boy, we got a doozy for you today. I think you're going to like it. It's going to feel like the old days.
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This is episode 273 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
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I hate to be that guy, but we do have mouths to feed around here. We're not state-sponsored like that communist NPR.
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So check out our store, store.swordandscale.com. Thank you. About 30 miles south of downtown Chicago is the birthplace of Michael Jackson, Gary, Indiana.
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Nicknamed the Magic City for its technological advancements in the 1960s, Gary is mostly known for being the most significant contributor of steel manufacturing in the United States.
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The city's main steel mill, named Gary Works, is the largest steel manufacturing plant in the country.
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At its peak, the city had more than 200,000 people living there. Since the 1960s, though, Gary has seen a steep population decline.
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What was once a bustling city brimming with innovation has largely become a place of abandonment and rural decay,
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much like a lot of cities throughout the U.S., especially in the last four years.
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It has since been dubbed the most miserable city in America. But plenty of people still live in Gary, Indiana.
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Many people call it home. The population currently sits at about 70,000. Back in the late spring of 2014, the year that Sorensdale started, I might add,
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there was a young woman living in Gary who was excited to share some big news with her family.
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This young lady told her mother, father, and two older sisters that she was pregnant with twins.
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Well, I was with her. I'm the oldest. We're eight months and middle, and Geraldine is eight.
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Okay. So, that's the fifth one, and I have five kids. But Geraldine didn't have any.
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She had some kids. So, she found out that she was pregnant. Next thing she knows, you know, she tells me that she's going to be twins.
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In 2014, 36-year-old Geraldine Jones worked as a census surveyor in Gary, Indiana.
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She'd grown up in a tight-knit Christian family and seemed thrilled to tell her two older sisters, April and Tamiko, that she was pregnant with twins.
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Sadly, that exciting announcement was followed up with some tragic news. A few months later, Geraldine told her sisters that one of her babies had died.
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After Geraldine broke the news about the loss of one of her babies, she seemed to fall into a deep depression.
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Then came the day that Geraldine was supposed to give birth to her surviving baby.
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That morning I heard from her, and then I didn't, that Monday I didn't hear from her anymore.
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So I called my sister, and I was thinking like, well, you know, I called April. April was like, well, she was leaving work trying to get to the hospital.
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But the thing is, she didn't tell us what hospital she was ever at. So by this time, I left work.
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You know, my dad is here, his wife is here, my sister is in. So we're all trying to run around trying to figure out what hospital we might find her at.
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We called up to North Lake. We went out to South Lake because we were already in that area.
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Then we went over to Homework, the hospital, and they had no whereabouts of her.
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Geraldine's family and friends frantically tried to find out what hospital Geraldine had gone to.
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But they never could. Geraldine was missing. Did she ever tell you who the baby daddy was?
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Yeah, we know who thought of us. Who was that? Randy Garrett. Randy Garrett? Mm-hmm.
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For much of her life, Geraldine was unlucky in love. But in March of 2014, her luck seemed to change
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when she met a young man named Randy Garrett. My first time meeting Randy was last year.
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My sister April had gotten married and that was my first time meeting him when he came to the wedding with my sister But that was my first time As far as Tamiko and April could tell Randy seemed like a good respectable guy
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And Geraldine was clearly all in on her relationship with him. Unfortunately, after only a few months of dating, Randy broke things off with Geraldine.
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started out you told me you met her back around March of end of March last year 2014 okay we're
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dating but I started finding out more things about um she was kind of being dishonest about
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something kind of turned me off so things like that just kept adding up and not not jogging so
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kind of set it off. Randy ended the relationship, but he couldn't completely walk away
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from Geraldine. A few weeks after the breakup with her, Randy was told that Geraldine was
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pregnant with twins and that he was the father. How soon after that did she say she was pregnant?
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It had to be, she called me like at the end of that year and told me she was out.
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So that's about three months after you met. After learning that he was going to be a dad, Randy naturally committed himself to the role.
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Even though he had no plans of continuing a romantic relationship with Geraldine, he decided that he was going to be a responsible dad.
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And good for him. We need a lot more of that. A few months after she told everyone about the pregnancy, her sister and friends threw a baby shower for Geraldine.
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And Randy attended. I actually went. It was actually a nice shower. It was a nice shower.
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I think her friends put it on for her. They had it all decorated and she had signs, Garrett's girls.
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I saw it. I'm like, wow. This extravagant baby shower was fun. It was a happy time.
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for everyone involved. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last. A few months later, Geraldine told her sisters and Randy
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that one of her babies had died. Geraldine slipped into a deep depression, and when the day came for Geraldine to give birth to the surviving baby,
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nobody could find her. All of us went to the hotel. I don't know what's going on. Is she okay?
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I don't know. I don't know. I left work early, so it was a big mess today that we thought that she was going to have or had lost a baby.
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We never did find her. 36-year-old Geraldine Jones was missing, and her two sisters, Tomiko and April, were very concerned.
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Meanwhile, about 200 miles south of Geraldine's home, there was another woman who was having problems of her own.
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911, where is your emergency? 10 West Clay Street, Anderson, Indiana. What's going on there?
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I got some random text message from my girlfriend. It kind of came off of suicidal.
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I was just wondering if you could send someone out there to check on it. Are you not in town?
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No, I'm not. I'm in Noblesville. All right. What's your name? Her name's Samantha Fleming.
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Samantha Fleming. Yes. And what'd you say in the text? Something about she was tired of all this shit.
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She didn't want to deal with it anymore. She was talking about her mother. Her mother just came over.
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And it was just kind of totally random. Never been suicidal before, but I prefer to be safe.
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In 2015, 23-year-old Samantha Fleming was living in an apartment with her boyfriend in Anderson, Indiana.
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In March of that year, Samantha gave birth to a baby girl that she named Serenity.
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About a month later, April 6, 2015, Samantha's boyfriend went to the Anderson Police Department and reported that Samantha and Serenity were missing.
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It's my understanding that you reported to the police that your girlfriend was missing your current girlfriend.
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Yes. Okay. And her name is Samantha? Samantha Flanning, yes. Describe her to me. How old is she?
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She's 23. 23. Her age of birth? July 18th, 1993. 23. Samantha and her boyfriend Rainy Stanley had only dated for less than a year.
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And Rainy wasn't the father of Samantha's newborn baby girl. The couple met online just a few weeks after Samantha learned that she was pregnant.
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They quickly became close, though, and moved into an apartment together. After the birth of Serenity, Rainy planned to formally adopt the child.
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How old have you and Samantha been living together? Probably about 8 months now.
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How old have you done her? I did have been probably for about, well we talked for about a month prior.
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So what do you mean you talked? We talked on an online chat app. Okay, so is that how you met her?
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Yeah, that's how I met her. Okay, and did you and her have a child? No, we did not.
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not. Did she just have a child? She did. And when does she have a child? The 24th of
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Mars. And what's this child's name? Serenity. Serenity. Samantha and her baby girl were reported missing. Unfortunately, since Samantha was an adult
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and presumably with her child, an Amber Alert could not be sent out. Just didn't fit.
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Samantha mom began handing out flyers asking everyone and anyone to help her find Samantha On those flyers she wrote the following According to her boyfriend Samantha and Serenity disappeared from their home in Anderson Indiana on Monday 6th around 12 p Samantha left with only a few diapers one sleeper and some formula
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Nobody has had any contact with Samantha. Her wallet was found near 5th Street in Gary, Indiana.
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we suspect foul play. Eventually, the local media picked up on this story and began reporting about the disappearance of Samantha and her baby.
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Tonight on the night feed, Anderson's police are searching for a missing mother and her infant.
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Samantha and Serenity Fleming were last seen Monday morning. 23-year-old Samantha Fleming and her newborn Serenity
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were reported missing by her boyfriend earlier this month. Two Indiana women, Geraldine Jones and Samantha Fleming,
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went missing. They lived nearly 200 miles apart and seemed to have no connection to each other
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at all. The only similarity they shared was that Geraldine was expecting a baby and Samantha
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just had a baby. Weird. For Indiana investigators, this was a baffling case that only became more
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bizarre and troubling as the events unfolded. As the police worked to make sense of things,
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so too did Geraldine's sisters. Ultimately, their paths converged. On the same day, and at about the same time,
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Geraldine's sisters and police investigators came upon a horrific scene. Together, they came upon the aftermath
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of a brutal and senseless murder. The End year old Samantha Fleming and her three-week-old daughter Serenity were reported missing by
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Samantha's boyfriend Rainey Stanley. Samantha and Rainey lived together in an apartment in
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Anderson, Indiana. According to Rainey, on the last day that Samantha went missing,
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a mysterious woman came to his apartment claiming to be a case manager for Child Protective
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Services, which is also known as CPS, if you've paid attention to any episode in the last 10 years.
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And she let herself in. I didn't give her consent to walk into my house. She takes it upon herself to sit down at my table.
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What's her name? Didn't get her name. She just said to her, the case man, to the DCS.
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I told her Samantha was sleeping. She told me I needed to wake her up. No, I ended up going to wake up Samantha.
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Samantha gets up, and then she went on to mention that Samantha had a court date.
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Samantha had been on to you. Has she been here before? No, never seen her before in my life.
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Rainey explained to investigators that Serenity wasn't Samantha's only child. Samantha also had a son named Stephen.
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Before meeting and ultimately living with Rainey, Samantha had dated a different man.
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Allegedly, that relationship was abusive. Supposedly, he held her, her friend, and the baby, Stephen, hostage in his house and wouldn't let him go.
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possibly he beat her I guess he'd done it a couple of times and the cops have been called out
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that time he was what he called criminal confinement was charged criminal confinement for holding her hostage
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with letter bleed after several domestic incidents a court ruled that Samantha and her ex
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were unfit parents so Samantha's son was placed into foster care that ruling left Samantha completely devastated
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She knew that she was and could continue to be a good mother, in her mind. So, she broke up with her boyfriend, moved out of their apartment, and began doing everything she could to regain custody of her son.
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And she has a well-child, a foster career? Yes, because she has to meet certain standards before she can get her son back.
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She has to meet with a therapist, has to meet with a case manager. Given Samantha's child custody situation, it wasn't unusual for case managers from Child Protective Services to just randomly show up at Samantha's home.
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So, Rainey claimed that he didn't find it strange or suspicious that this woman showed up at his door asking to see Samantha.
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Supposedly, this woman told Samantha that there was a scheduling mix-up and that Samantha was due in court later that day.
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She explained that a hearing was going to be held about her son. In fact, a judge could rule that Samantha's son should be released from foster care
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and could go home with Samantha on that very day. Big news. She starts getting everything ready.
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I help her clean out a bottle. She has a couple of bottles to take with her. She gets the pipe.
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She was getting ready to go with her because this lady told her she has a court at 3 o in Gary Indiana She thrives Did you ask what her name was She was taking her girlfriend
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I didn't think to ask her. DCS comes around all the time. It's kind of normal. They're allowed to take her places. I don't think much of it until I got outside.
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What's funny is this lady came in too holding a folder of paperwork. She was acting like she had these papers for a reason.
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something to do with Samantha. So she's trying to look professional. She did a decent job of it.
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She knew more than what you think someone else would know. Okay. But she's talking to you. Do you think she's being legit?
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She sounds legit. She knows a lot about the case. I mean, my understanding is that they won't release that information to just anybody. Does she know about Stephen?
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According to Rainey, this CPS worker knew a lot about Samantha and her case. She seemed completely legitimate and suggested that Samantha should bring her baby daughter to the court hearing.
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And then she said something about, did you have to take the child with you? Yeah, she told her she had to take the child. It didn't look good for the judge.
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Rainey explained that Samantha was excited about the prospect of getting her son back, so he helped to pack a baby back.
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A few moments later, Samantha, Serenity, and this mysterious CPS worker, whoever she was, walked out the door.
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Rainey followed them outside, and it was only after he saw the caseworker's car that he started to think something about this situation.
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It just didn't feel right. The car was a white Ford sedan, which wasn't unusual for a caseworker to drive, but Rainey noticed that the tag on her license plate was expired.
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Now that's odd. Rainey claimed that he didn't say anything about the tag, but he took a mental note of it and later wrote down the license plate number.
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in 2000, because you said it was expired, right? It was expired. And that car has been there, it's white people.
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They said they didn't even renew the plate. The plate's still on the car? Well, they still have the plate.
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They just didn't renew it. They liked it because his wife's a nurse, so they kept the plate.
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And the lady talked to both parties and said, I wonder if I could get the plate number off.
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You could have. When the police followed up on that license plate number, The one that Rainey gave them.
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It led them to a middle-aged couple who clearly had no involvement with Samantha Fleming at all.
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Essentially, Rainey sent the cops on a wild goose chase, which called his story into question.
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Still, the police knew that Rainey was telling the truth about the CPS worker because Samantha and Rainey's neighbor also saw the woman.
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In fact, this neighbor led her into the apartment building. She said she was from CPS and I showed her upstairs.
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She had a paperwork, like, you know, a folder, a briefcase, stuff like that. She was dressed professionally.
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She looked, you know, like somebody who worked for CPS or something. The police also determined that whoever this woman was, she did not work for Child Protective Services.
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The CPS office in Anderson confirmed that there was no court hearings or home visitations scheduled for Samantha Fleming.
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One theory that investigators entertained was that this whole thing might have been orchestrated by Samantha.
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Maybe she arranged to have this fake government worker show up at the apartment so she and her baby could leave and escape another abusive relationship.
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relationship. But Rainey didn't come off as the abusive type, and he seemed to genuinely care
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about Samantha. None of it makes any damn sense. Does she seem like all her, like, meds or anything lately?
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The only thing that's off is the suicidal thing. And like she said, she just needed to vent.
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I called 911 about it, and then I canceled the call. Samantha Fleming went missing on April 6th, 2015.
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And by April 16th, there was still no sign of her and no news about who the fake CPS worker was.
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Meanwhile, back in Gary, Indiana, the family of Geraldine Jones was finally able to find and make contact with Geraldine.
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Both of her sisters had frantically tried to find Geraldine on the day she was supposed to give birth, but they could never find out which hospital she went to.
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after that point uh two weeks later because at this point she wasn't talking to us anymore
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um she had gotten i guess pissed off which i don't understand you know you know i think it
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was weird that we were concerned about somebody having a baby when geraldine first announced that
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she was pregnant she told her family that she was going to be having twins later she told her family
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that one of her babies had died somehow in her womb the other one's fine but this one's dead
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how does that work and that nobody seemed to care that she lost one of her children
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woe is me oh my god you'll never believe how hard it is to be a mother especially if they're
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she wasn't talking to us so all of a sudden then you know she sent out a bad text message to me
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it was a group text that involved my sister my dad me and and she said she didn't mean it but i
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called and told i said well you know i think you sent out that message i said but you know everybody
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that was acting out of being concerned. You know, I told her, I said, you know, that's not a message you send to people
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that's concerned about you. I said, you know, people only act out of being concerned,
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especially if it's a family member and you're having Right. Geraldine made amends with her two older sisters, both of whom were eager to meet their new niece.
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They wanted to see Geraldine's new baby girl. A couple days later, I decided, I said, you know what?
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I called and told her, I said, well, before I go off work, I said, I want to come see the baby.
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So, you know, I went by there, me and my daughters, we go by there. So do you know about when the first time you saw the baby was?
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That Monday. Tomiko visited Geraldine's home and met with the baby. A few days later, Geraldine's older sister, April, did the same.
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She came by, she saw the baby, she played with me, whatever. So after that, we talked every day after that.
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Geraldine reconnected with her family. Her sisters April and Tamiko were thrilled to meet their new niece.
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In a perfect world, this would have been a happy occasion, but this certainly wasn't a perfect world.
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April and Tamiko noticed that Geraldine wasn't acting like herself. She was distant and strange.
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something was clearly bothering her there was also another and much bigger problem
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the baby that Geraldine introduced to her family didn't belong to her in case you haven't figured it out
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that baby belonged to Samantha Fleming In the late spring of 2015, 36-year-old Geraldine Jones told her family that she had given birth to a new baby girl.
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Geraldine named the baby Bella and introduced Bella to her older sisters, April and Tamiko.
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After they met the baby, Geraldine did something strange. She left Bella with her sister April and flew to Texas.
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Geraldine told her family that she was severely depressed and she wanted to be with her mom, who was living in Texas.
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So she left her home of Gary, Indiana, without her baby and flew to her mom's house.
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Once there, Geraldine tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
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Thankfully, her mom was home at the time. She found Geraldine and was able to call for help before the worst happened.
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Anything else y'all need to add? She ever say anything about wanting to hurt herself or kill herself or anything like that?
00:27:41
The thing, I had been sick and I just wasn't able to get there. So I really don't know everything.
00:27:46
And when she lost the baby, she wouldn't contact anybody. Yeah. Not even no family member there, so I can understand that.
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We need babies sometimes. We don't want to be home with nobody. After this failed suicide attempt, Geraldine was committed to a mental hospital in Texas.
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Her mom assumed that the loss of one of her babies and perhaps the postpartum depression
00:28:09
that came with the living baby had caused Geraldine to do what she did. meanwhile back in indiana geraldine's two sisters were starting to realize that this
00:28:20
whole situation was a little weird right when she left did you guys feel like something was
00:28:28
i mean not that but did you guys was you guys still like thinking man something's just wrong
00:28:32
here like this ain't all i didn't think nothing was wrong but i just i was kind of upset because
00:28:37
i was thinking that you know my thing was she had just had a baby and then she didn't took off to
00:28:44
Texas and I said, well, who leaves a new baby? That wasn't my main thing. I was upset that she had left the baby.
00:28:50
Right. I just thought maybe, you know, like people, some women go through postpartum, I thought maybe that was it.
00:28:56
Geraldine's oldest sister, Tomiko, was mostly able to chalk things up to postpartum
00:29:01
depression. But Geraldine's other sister, April, wasn't satisfied with that. Nah, nah, nah, nah,
00:29:10
nah. In an effort to hopefully make sense of things, April decided to go to Geraldine's house in Indiana.
00:29:18
And so then you went to Geraldine's house? Yes. Okay. What were you going there for exactly?
00:29:27
Just an answer. Trying to go with the law. Okay. And then Tomiko showed up. She kind of said this, and she wasn't saying nothing bad, but she said,
00:29:37
April's the one that'll dig for information. I'm the one that just kind of stand by and leave alone.
00:29:41
Yeah, it is, but that's true. April arrived at Geraldine house and she brought along the new baby
00:30:09
A short while later, Tomiko showed up there as well. As soon as they walked in the house, they knew something was wrong.
00:30:16
They found empty bleach bottles scattered on the floor. And there was an unexplainable eeriness about the place.
00:30:23
everything just felt off. And I didn't know it did smell right. Had I known that it might have been something in there, I got my ass out of it.
00:31:01
For April and Tomiko, perhaps the most unsettling thing about Geraldine's house was the smell.
00:31:09
A rank scent of rotting flesh mixed with pungent chemicals and bleach filled the house.
00:31:18
And then like when I came in there and I was sitting there, I mean, you know, like, you know,
00:31:22
when the garbage used to be taken out and it didn't it didn't really smell like garbage it
00:31:28
smelled like something else I said it's a kind of like some dead bear and she said maybe she said
00:31:34
that's what it smells like she just smells like something and it is yeah okay other than the
00:31:41
weird smells or anything out in the house that she deserved well my sisters no and well and once
00:31:49
She pointed out, when I looked down at the table, it was about a bleach. About a bleach?
00:31:53
It was a big tub and all that other stuff in there. It was her first reaction when you walked in.
00:31:58
I was just like, I don't know what it is. Why did you think that? What made you think that?
00:32:03
It's just a lot, just little things. Like what? I mean, just tell her. Whatever you noticed.
00:32:07
Like, your sister noticed stuff. It's just the smell, first of all, didn't smell right to me.
00:32:12
I don't know what body smell like, but it smelled human. April and Tomiko spent some time looking around the house, but they never could locate the source of the awful smell.
00:32:25
A short while later, April left while Tomiko remained at Geraldine's house with the baby.
00:32:32
Where did she say she was going? April went to go wire my nephew some money because he was coming.
00:32:39
He lives in Chicago, but he was just coming home. As Tamiko waited in Geraldine's house, she looked out a window and noticed that a black car was slowly and repeatedly driving by the home.
00:32:53
It seemed like the driver was lost in trying to find Geraldine's address. the police officers.
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And I found them walking. I said, yeah, it looked like maybe they come here. It turned out that the black car
00:33:20
belonged to the lead investigator who was trying to find Samantha Fleming. Through sheer coincidence,
00:33:29
his path had converged with Tomiko. And they both arrived at Geraldine's house on the same day.
00:33:37
At the time, this lady is basically a missing person until we can, you know, prove otherwise and we you know we don't automatically assume something bad so we're
00:33:47
starting on the bottom and we had this blocked number well that blocked number come back to
00:33:52
Geraldine and I just unblocked it the night before so I called her phone and just said hey it's I told
00:33:58
her who I was and what police department I was with she never answered I left it on the voice
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I was just gonna ask her you know I know you're the one that came and that called and you're the
00:34:07
one that came to Anderson to get her you know where is she at were you just trying to help her
00:34:11
get away from this guy? Did you know her from Gary and this was kind of like a setup?
00:34:16
I was thinking maybe she just tried to lure him away from this guy and that Samantha knew about it.
00:34:20
Samantha's still on the run somewhere. A few days before Samantha went missing, Samantha's mom received a
00:34:27
phone call from a block number. When she answered, Samantha's mom spoke to a woman claiming to be
00:34:33
a Child Protective Services case manager. And this woman was fishing for information
00:34:39
about Samantha. When the police unblocked the phone number, it led them to Geraldine Jones.
00:34:48
She was the fake CPS worker. What's so strange, like I said, I was sitting on the couch with the baby,
00:34:56
and I'm talking to her like she's going to talk back. I said, they must be looking for somebody.
00:35:01
Right. But like I said, I had no clue that you were looking for her address. Yeah.
00:35:07
So had you been by there before? No, just that day. I actually come to Gary that day to try to find Geraldine.
00:35:17
When the investigator arrived at Geraldine's house, he met with Tomiko in the driveway, who then led him into the home.
00:35:25
I could smell the smell, you know. You know what I thought it was, and this is my, because I'd never smelled a body before.
00:35:34
Right. So I'm thinking like, okay, maybe it's a dead mouth or something here. Right.
00:35:38
I mean, I smelled dead mice, but that smell itself would have been, uh, that was a lot.
00:35:44
And it was kind of like, it was kind of like a, like I couldn't really tell a hundred percent.
00:35:51
It was because there were some chemicals. Right Well Right Once inside the house the investigator performed a search
00:36:08
and he was able to find what Tamiko and April couldn't. In the back bedroom closet, there was a dead body,
00:36:18
wrapped in plastic and duct tape. the body had been folded in half stuffed into a plastic tote and was soaking in a shallow pool
00:36:30
of bleach unsurprisingly the body was later identified as 23 year old mother of two
00:36:39
samantha fleming and her death was determined to have been caused by multiple stab wounds
00:36:48
this would have had to been a pretty bloody scene the body had like close to 40 some stab wounds
00:36:56
right and so somebody to see all that would be probably a lot to take in you know
00:37:03
just never dealing with that before so you know that's a lot of stab wounds and at this point
00:37:10
the truth of the situation started to become apparent to everyone. The baby that Tomiko and April had been caring for didn't belong to Geraldine.
00:37:24
The baby was Samantha Fleming's missing daughter, Serenity. While disguised as a CPS worker, Geraldine lured Samantha and her baby away from her apartment.
00:37:39
Then, Geraldine stabbed Samantha to death and claimed the baby as her own. The investigators who were working on this case had a basic understanding of what had happened,
00:37:53
but there are still so many questions. Questions that only Geraldine can answer.
00:38:00
Like, why or how did Geraldine choose Samantha as her victim? How did that happen?
00:38:07
What was the connection? between these two women. And obviously, why did Geraldine do all this?
00:38:14
After Samantha's body was discovered, Geraldine was promptly found in Texas and arrested.
00:38:20
A few days later, she was transported back to Indiana where investigators attempted to question her.
00:38:26
All this says right here is that you understand what your rights are. What is that part saying that I'm waiving my rights?
00:38:32
It's not saying you're waiving your rights. It just says you've read the statement and you understand what they are.
00:38:37
that says that we haven't made any threats, coercion, or anything. All this says is that you just understand what they are.
00:38:44
Okay? Okay, I don't think so. Okay, that's fine. Here's what we come down here for, okay?
00:38:51
We come down here to talk to you, to try to get your side. There's two sides to every story, okay?
00:38:57
There's a lot of unanswered questions. I don't want to answer any questions without my turn.
00:39:00
Okay, you don't want to answer anything right now at all? Okay. Unfortunately, Geraldine refused to talk to investigators and give her side of the story.
00:39:12
Smart for her, bad for society. So, in order to make sense of this homicide, the investigators spoke extensively with Geraldine's neighbors, friends, and her two older sisters.
00:39:25
I mean, I know you guys, for the most part, believe that she was pregnant. I did, for all the part.
00:39:32
Okay. Tomiko says she knew she had gained weight, but she wasn't like 100%, you know, never really thought about it, just took her word for it.
00:39:41
Eventually, investigators learned that Geraldine was never pregnant. It was all a lie.
00:40:00
She was a liar. and you should never trust liars. The lengths she went to keep that lie going were baffling.
00:40:09
For nine months, Geraldine repeatedly posted updates on her social media about her fake pregnancy,
00:40:17
which included sharing sonogram photos and updates about her frequent doctor visits.
00:40:22
She was basically mommy blogging without being a mommy. Geraldine purposely gained weight
00:40:30
and accepted maternity gifts from her friends and family. She even let them throw her a fucking lavish baby shower.
00:40:39
What a cunt. Her and the baby's father just was not on the right terms. I was down here for maternity clothes, maternity things.
00:40:47
Whatever, I was doing all those things. You know, and yeah, I mean, she appears to be pregnant to me,
00:40:54
and I never questioned it. April and Tamiko fully believe that Geraldine was pregnant
00:40:59
but there was someone who had some doubts. Geraldine told her ex-boyfriend Randy Garrett
00:41:05
that he was the father. She kept insisting that she was pregnant so I'm like, okay, I don't, you know,
00:41:12
I want to be responsible. If she is, I want to know. So I was saying, okay, I'll go to the doctor's appointment with you.
00:41:19
But every time I would like try to go with her, something would come up. She'd be like, oh, I went yesterday.
00:41:26
Oh, I didn't tell you I went yesterday? or or if I have the appointment she's like okay meet me out there then when
00:41:34
when when I meet out there she might be already out there she's coming out so oh
00:41:38
he had to reschedule he had to he had to deliver a baby or something up we'd always be something she even look very different I mean she looked in the
00:41:48
stomach in the stomach it seemed like her face was getting more fuller did you ever touch her stomach at all no I never really touched this time I never where the sets are stuck But it looked like she was pregnant It really did Geraldine lied and successfully convinced everyone around her that she was pregnant
00:42:09
That much, the investigators knew. But the big unanswered question was, why? Why do you do these things?
00:42:19
What's the fucking point? how dumb are you that you don't realize you're gonna get caught eventually why had geraldine
00:42:28
done any of this you know there's gotta be some underlying things going on and basically everybody
00:42:36
i talked to and it's mainly her family and friends all say the same thing it's to me she's carried
00:42:44
this lie on so far with so many people that it left her no alternative but to finish it and do
00:42:50
In June of 2014, Geraldine told her family and ex-boyfriend that she was pregnant.
00:42:58
Nine months later, in April of 2015, Geraldine needed to produce a baby if she was going to keep this lie going.
00:43:06
Because that's the thing about lies. You've got to keep lying to protect the lie.
00:43:12
But liars are usually pretty short-sighted type people and don't really plan ahead much.
00:43:18
they just plan for you to believe their bullshit that's it, that's the extent of their plans
00:43:24
so Geraldine began hunting when she found a woman on Facebook who had just given birth to a biracial baby
00:43:32
this one checked the box there weren't a whole lot of requirements put it that way
00:43:39
that woman was motive and opportunity motive and opportunity that woman by the way was 23 year old Samantha Fleming
00:43:47
but you already knew that. You know, trying to figure out the connection. I don't think she knew the victim,
00:43:53
and I don't think her and the victim have met. I think Geraldine's smart enough.
00:43:58
She was able to find out about this person either, you know, online, Facebook, whatever,
00:44:05
and had a lot of time to kind of... And I'm just thinking myself the whole time.
00:44:10
I keep thinking, somehow I think Geraldine ran across her herself because she spent...
00:44:15
She put a lot of time and effort into this pregnancy thing. I think she's pretty smart.
00:44:22
I think she's very IT smart. She's able to get in there and Facebook and all this stuff and somehow found this girl.
00:44:30
But she had to know a little bit about her DCS history. And that's where I don't know.
00:44:35
That's right. Samantha Fleming was very active on Facebook. and investigators would eventually come to find
00:44:42
that pretty much everything Samantha was dealing with in regards to regaining custody of her son
00:44:48
was spelled out on social media. Again, more mommy blogging. Mommy blogging can kill folks.
00:44:57
Her Facebook posts and subsequent conversations in the comment sections went into great detail about her situation
00:45:06
and the struggles she was having. Woe is me. Got to tell everyone about it. So, listen up, ladies.
00:45:14
If there was ever a cautionary tale to warn people not to share their personal problems online,
00:45:22
this is it. Pay attention. Geraldine used this information that Samantha posted,
00:45:31
that Samantha had shared online to pose as a CPS worker who was overseeing Samantha's case and take advantage of her.
00:45:43
You see how the Internet works? Are you starting to figure it out? She called the victim's mother two days before this incident happened, anonymous.
00:45:54
And then the mother gave her, because she was claiming to be a DCS worker and knew enough information to make it sound good,
00:46:01
The mother actually gave her the girl's number. So she was seeking her out. And then she called the victim and only said, I'm your new caseworker.
00:46:11
I'm actually the supervisor. The other girl's not, wasn't going to be on vacation.
00:46:16
So I'm taking over. When Geraldine showed up at Samantha's apartment, the details that she knew about Samantha's
00:46:23
case made Geraldine's disguise that much more convincing. Her act was so persuasive, in fact, that she was able to lure Samantha and her baby from her home into her car.
00:46:38
Think about that. Geraldine told Samantha that she needed to appear at a courthouse in Gary, Indiana later that day
00:46:46
because a judge was going to rule if Samantha could get her son back. once Samantha was in the car Geraldine drove three hours from Anderson to Gary
00:46:57
Indiana investigators believe that after they arrived in Gary Geraldine was able
00:47:04
to lure Samantha into her home she may have claimed that she needed to make a quick stop before going to the courthouse who knows what kind of lies
00:47:12
she sold apparently she was very good at it many criminals are when Samantha stepped inside Geraldine's home, she had no clue as to the horror that awaited her. Geraldine
00:47:26
attacked Samantha, stabbing her over 40 times and killing her. Then she wrapped the body in plastic,
00:47:35
folded Samantha into a plastic tub, and filled that tub with bleach. After the murder, Geraldine
00:47:45
and claim Samantha's baby as her own. This story is... insane. If you saw these events play out in a movie,
00:47:56
you'd probably laugh your ass off for it being too unrealistic. It's like something you'd see on the Lifetime Network.
00:48:04
In between reruns of Christmas in July. Maybe not Lifetime these days, maybe more like Oxygen, you know?
00:48:13
The formerly gay network that now just plays true crime all day. Huh. My Nanny is a Serial Killer.
00:48:21
Or, uh, Lethal Soccer Mom. Those kind of titles. Yeah, that sounds kind of like this story.
00:48:29
The major difference is that Geraldine's story is actually true. These are facts. I'm not making them up.
00:48:37
And it's more outlandish than anything that could come out of a Hollywood producer's unoriginal brain.
00:48:43
Given how horrifically absurd this whole situation was, it begged the question. What in the world could possibly drive someone to act this way?
00:48:55
I don't know if it's because of the boyfriend. maybe she couldn't let it go and she was trying to hold on to him so she kept this baby thing going
00:49:03
so then she has to find a baby because the boy the randy guys he said we started dating he goes
00:49:11
i really liked her but then it just seemed like every time i turned around she was lying about
00:49:16
something and it was like one lie after another well you know what that's her though so she had
00:49:21
It's a habit, so I don't know if that's a part of, you know, whatever issue she may have, you know, whatever, but yeah.
00:49:32
The prominent theory about Geraldine's motives is that she was desperate to hold on to her ex-boyfriend.
00:49:39
So, she lied about being pregnant to keep him in her life. Geraldine wouldn't be the first woman to do that.
00:49:48
But when you add the fact that she was also a pathological liar, it made for a very bad situation.
00:49:57
Geraldine's lies painted her into a corner, and for her, kidnapping and murder seemed like a better option
00:50:04
than just coming clean and admitting the truth. She had to keep the lies going to protect the other lies.
00:50:13
Also, according to her sisters, Geraldine was uncompromisingly desperate for attention.
00:50:19
A lot of that going around. And something else that may have motivated her actions was jealousy.
00:50:27
So when April got married, and all of a sudden, I just remember coming down, and Geraldine saying she was pregnant.
00:50:34
And my first mind was, okay, she got pregnant on purpose because April was getting all the attention with her getting married.
00:50:42
So as far as when she told me she was pregnant, I did believe her that she was pregnant.
00:51:12
I wonder if she maybe, you know, was so used to not telling the truth, but getting away with a lot of it, that Randy wasn't putting up with it.
00:51:22
And so it tested her and pushed her to the point where she's like, I'm going to show him.
00:51:28
I'm going to really come up with a baby. It's like everything she did was a lie.
00:51:32
Despite Geraldine refusal to speak with investigators they were able to obtain a pretty full grasp of this homicide by this sick sick sick woman
00:51:46
They had the how and the why. The only thing left to do was to deal with Geraldine.
00:51:54
This truly is a tragic story. Police believe that Serenity, the newborn girl involved in this case, was less than a month old when this all happened.
00:52:01
And now that little girl will have to grow up without her birth mother, 23-year-old Samantha Fleming,
00:52:07
after officers found her body full of stab wounds and stuffed inside of a closet in Jones' Gary home.
00:52:13
That being said, just yesterday morning, Jones was extradited back here to Indiana from Fort Worth, Texas.
00:52:18
I'm told she's currently being held at Madison County Jail. Investigators believe the motive behind the murder and kidnapping was all part of an elaborate plot for Jones to raise Serenity as her own daughter.
00:52:28
And when I say elaborate, I mean it. According to police, Jones posed as a child services worker, faked her own pregnancy and even threw herself a baby shower.
00:52:38
Now she sits in a cell awaiting her day in court. In 2015, Geraldine Jones was charged with kidnapping and murder.
00:52:47
As she awaited her court proceedings, Geraldine made many jailhouse phone calls to her sister, April.
00:52:53
I'm sorry, April. I'm loving you. You're not sorry. Yes, I am. You're sorry you didn't get home, Geraldine.
00:52:58
You're sorry you got caught. No, I'm not. I'm sorry. Well, okay. Then I guess you just deal with it then.
00:53:04
I guess you deal with you being sorry. I don't have anything to say. I don't have anything to say.
00:53:07
I have no compassion. My mind is all effed up. My mind is so messed up from this stuff.
00:53:12
I don't have any... And I'm a compassionate person. But this year, I don't have any words.
00:53:19
Everybody talking about you. Everybody talking about you. Your face on fucking everywhere.
00:53:23
And you just would not stop. You just wouldn't stop. But you know what? That's something you have to deal with.
00:53:28
That's something you have to deal with God with. I can't do anything. I can't do anything.
00:53:31
I can't fix it. I can't cover nothing. I can't do anything. But what I want to do is, I ain't going to go into no debt.
00:53:37
I ain't going to go with nobody with no money. And I'm not going to stress myself out with your ass and all this mess.
00:53:41
I do it all the damn time. I'm always stressing and frustrating myself about some stuff.
00:53:44
And I'm not doing it. For somebody that don't even appreciate nothing and just lie and manipulate and treat me just like,
00:53:50
you treat me and everybody, everybody, girl, you need everybody. And you expect us to go to the same people that you fucking lied to and that's just for you.
00:53:57
fake ass trying to kill yourself get up there and see you you know jordan you are so fucked up i knew you were glad about a lot of shit but i would never think this
00:54:07
in a million years i wouldn't think you would do no shit like this jordan i wouldn't think you'd
00:54:10
be a part of no shit like this not in a million years even but any scam or anything you have ever
00:54:16
i would never think this about you i don't even know who you are i don't know nothing about you
00:54:21
As you just heard, much of Geraldine's conversations with her sister involved April expressing her very justified frustrations with Geraldine.
00:54:32
This went on for some time. Please don't start this fake fucking quorum because I don't fucking feel like hearing that shit.
00:54:38
And I don't fucking feel like hearing a whole bunch of shit. I don't fucking feel like hearing a whole bunch of lies.
00:54:42
I don't fucking hear none of that. Because all you have done the whole entire time is fucking lies.
00:54:47
The whole entire time, that's all you've done. manipulate, lie, and do everybody
00:54:51
all fucked up. You just left everybody out here to deal with this fucking bullshit.
00:54:55
Everything that you fucking said out of your mouth is a lie. Everything. The shit you've done
00:54:59
is so fucked up, Geraldine. It is fucked up and it is so fucked up because you expect me to be
00:55:03
out here trying to get you money to get a fucking lawyer to help you get out. Because you
00:55:07
fucked up. I'm sick of your shit, Geraldine. I'm so sick of your shit. I'm sick of the way you
00:55:13
fucking treat me. I'm so tired of the way you fucking treat me and the shit that you do
00:55:17
people You have no fucking regards no nothing about nobody but your fucking self The shit is so fucked up Even when you say you fucking sorry you fucking lied You sorry you fucking got caught You not sorry you fucking
00:55:29
sorry you fucking got caught. You have fucked the whole family, the family, your friends,
00:55:33
your church, your loved ones, and the people that care about us, that care about your motherfucking
00:55:37
ass, because they care about us. You fuck them too. And you want somebody to do something,
00:55:41
you want somebody to run around begging, they're talking to some fucking debt for a fucking damn $25,000
00:55:45
fucking dollar lawyer to get your ass out and you just keep fucking people and you're still fucking
00:55:49
lying you're still fucking lying i hope you tell one soul the fucking truth because you ain't told
00:55:55
nobody because the shit is fucked up every fucking day can't nobody eat can't nobody fucking sleep
00:55:59
and then the story just keeps up fucking unraveling who does this kind of shit to people who the fuck
00:56:04
does this kind of shit to people jeronee you're fucking a damn year a fucking year jeronee you
00:56:09
fucking lie a whole damn year you fucking lied about this shit and i feel sorry for your ass from
00:56:14
the very fucking beginning. The very fucking beginning I feel sorry for your ass.
00:56:18
If this isn't obvious, April was fed up with her sister. And she eventually told Geraldine
00:56:23
that she was on her own. April, I have, I know I messed up. I did a lot of shit.
00:56:31
But you know from the bottom of my heart that I love you. You know what, Geraldine?
00:56:34
I don't, I can't tell you that I know that. I think you know that. I honestly can't tell you that I know that.
00:56:39
It is so messed up. My head has been spinning and going in all kinds of ways. But you know what,
00:56:43
You got a fucking way up show on it. The love that you have, I don't need it, Jordan.
00:56:46
The love that you have, you are evil and conniving, and you do anything, and it's like you're happy
00:56:50
when shit is all fucked up for other people, and they live in all kinds of shit crazy.
00:56:54
That's the love that you have. Jordan, I don't want that kind. I'll do better in life without it.
00:56:58
How can you say that? I would do better in life without that. How can I say it? That's not true.
00:57:02
I don't think about that. That's not true at all. That's not true at all. I've never acted like that, Jordan.
00:57:08
Never acted like that, Jordan. Jordan, yes, you have. You have acted like that. I messed up.
00:57:14
When I sit back and reflect on stuff, when you love somebody, you don't treat people with two, three people.
00:57:18
That I know is true. You don't let people. In the end, though, April somehow found a way to forgive her sister
00:57:25
and agreed to help her through her upcoming murder trial. I guess blood is thicker than water.
00:57:33
And I love you, Jolene. And you know, no matter what, you feel my sister, I don't care what those are,
00:57:39
I still love you. Like I said, I'm going to do whatever it is that happens. do no matter what you just have to be strong and know that god is doing something unfortunately for
00:57:48
geraldine there wasn't much that april or god himself could do for her geraldine killed a 23
00:57:57
year old mother of two kids and the police found the body in her house in a closet the police also
00:58:07
unraveled all of her lies and could easily prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Geraldine committed
00:58:14
this murder. A potential death sentence loomed over Geraldine, and the best she could hope for
00:58:22
was a deal from prosecutors, which she eventually got. In May of 2018, Geraldine pled guilty to
00:58:29
voluntary manslaughter and criminal confinement. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
00:58:37
Throughout the court proceedings, Geraldine made no statements. And after the plea, her attorney gave a brief statement to the press saying, quote,
00:58:48
The state made the offer and Geraldine was satisfied with it. She's ready to put this behind her.
00:58:55
She's at peace, end quote. Geraldine was at peace Well isn that nice Isn that nice for her
00:59:28
And she said because of my classification, because I guess what I did. But my bunkie was telling me that because of what I did, I mean, because of the charges, that you want to be by yourself.
00:59:40
But I'm thinking like that's sincere. I don't see no TV. I only get out for an hour.
00:59:44
And I was instantly in isolation. Like I'm in one cell by myself. During her calls from jail, Geraldine spent a lot of time complaining about the lousy conditions of the facilities she was transferred to and the poor treatment she received.
01:00:00
It wasn't, you know, yelpable. She probably wanted to speak with the manager or something.
01:00:06
Never once in any of those calls does Geraldine mention Samantha Fleming. Never once does she talk about Samantha's two kids who are now forced to grow up without a mother.
01:00:18
Because of her. She doesn't talk about Samantha's mom or her boyfriend, both of whom were emotionally crushed by the murder that Geraldine committed.
01:00:29
After everything she did. After destroying countless lives for no reason at all.
01:00:37
Geraldine's world still only revolved around one person. Geraldine. You can call this woman a lot of things.
01:00:47
She's a narcissist. She's a pathological liar. She's a killer. But if you want to encompass everything, you only need one word.
01:00:57
Geraldine Jones is a monster. Alright, that's going to do it for another one. thanks again for joining us if you enjoy the show and want to support us there's an easy way to do it
01:01:21
at swordandscale.com and while you're there check out the latest episode of sword scale television if you like true crime it's a pretty good docuseries
01:01:46
Thank you. Thank you.