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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. He, uh, put her in trouble again and held it for several minutes.
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He stopped, checked her pulse, and there was a one. Welcome to Season 10, Episode 252 of Sword and Scale.
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A show that reveals that the worst monsters, you guessed it, are real. This month marks the 10th year of Sword and Scale.
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I came up with this idea in October 29th of 2014 on my birthday, by the way. Thank you.
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Thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. Yeah. And now 10 years later, here we are.
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It's amazing. Life is really fucking weird sometimes. I'm your host, Chris. at the Pickneyville Police Department.
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She had reported her youngest daughter, 15-year-old Sydney Stevens, missing over a week ago.
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Now things were getting serious. No one had heard from her. When did you report her missing?
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Monday morning, the 19th, around 7 o'clock in the morning is when I called 911. Is that when you found her missing?
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Yeah. Okay. Do you think she crawled out her bedroom window? No. The way that my house is set up, it's split level, and her room is the entire downstairs.
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Because it's actually on a two-bedroom house, and I also have a 17-year-old daughter.
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Where do you live at? On Water Street, right past the great school when it makes that little jig jog right there.
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Yeah, yeah. And Maggie Folden has her hair shot and all that right there. Behind there is a white house.
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Gosh, I don't know. That's where Jerry and Lois Folden used to live. Uh-huh, old Jerry.
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In case you haven't figured it out, Pinckneyville is a very small town. The kind of place where everyone knows each other.
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In 2010, the town had just over 5,000 residents. We're talking tiny. It was unusual for teenagers to disappear in towns like this.
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In Tracy's modest split-level house, Sydney's bedroom was the entire downstairs floor.
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Okay, so she had basically the run of the downstairs, that split-level. Right. We gave my son the bedroom upstairs because he's the boy and we couldn't have them all share in a room.
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And then the downstairs, because it's pretty good size. I'm going to have to put this on silent.
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This is her, Sidney's dad. Can I please answer this one? Sure. Hello? Tracy's phone was ringing off the hook.
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Sidney's disappearance was making the rounds through their family as well as the small town.
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Sydney had an older half-sister, Dakota, who was 17, and an older half-brother named Zachary.
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Dakota and Sydney were raised together by Dakota's father, until Tracy revealed that Sydney was not actually his biological daughter.
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Sydney found this out when she was just a little girl, and it really rocked her sense of being.
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So you found her missing on the 19th? Yeah, the morning of the 19th. I've told this story so many times.
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Ma'am, I'm sorry. I know. You have to go over it again. I know. It's okay because I went to bed Sunday night about 11.30, quarter till 12.
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She was there. She was in a good mood. She was fine. She had been playing with the dog.
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Her and the dog were sharing string cheese. They were sharing popsicles. Me and her were watching Squidbillies together.
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Let me ask you this, who lives in the house with you? Me and Sydney and my daughter Dakota.
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Okay, and was Dakota at home during that time? No, Dakota had stayed the night at her boyfriend's house.
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And what's his name? Chad Bennett. He lives in Pankyville? He lives with his grandparents out in Charlotte Hills.
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Dakota was out with her boyfriend Chad, so it was just Sydney and Tracy at the house.
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While Tracy was on the family computer, Sydney played with her dog, sharing a popsicle in a cup.
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So her and the dog are both drinking out of this cup. Whatever they do, I know it sounds disgusting, but those two do it all the time.
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She had wrecked her bike on Saturday, because it was like 7.30 Saturday night before Randy even came and picked me up.
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She had wrecked her bike on Saturday and had scratched up her legs and hurt the palm of her hand.
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I mean, and it was just, the palm of her hand was just really bad. She was mad because she wrecked her bike and because her friends weren't home,
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that it was supposed to be home because they were supposed to go camping, and the friends apparently That was on Saturday night she was upset at friends That was Saturday evening Sydney was upset with her friend
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But this wasn't unusual. Sydney was plagued with emotional problems. She lived for drama.
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And most people didn't want it. They knew the things that she had done in the past.
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You know, they just didn't want to deal with it. She was alone. I mean, it was a lot.
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just to be her friend. And she'd have friends for very short periods of time, and then the next thing you know, I never see or hear from them again.
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And I was like, so whatever happened to so-and-so? Oh, well, they did this and pissed me off, or blah, blah, blah,
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or they said this about me or said that about me. It was always somebody else's fault.
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She's a teenager, first of all, and second of all, she's bipolar. Sydney was a moody, sensitive teenager,
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and this was exacerbated by her bipolar disorder. Sydney's mental illness was finally taken seriously
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after Tracy found her in the laundry room of their house with a rope around her neck.
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She was trying to hang herself. Sydney was hospitalized and her whole life changed.
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Tracy was scared to leave her alone. After that, things had gotten really bad again
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which resulted in Tracy having to install a lock on her own bedroom door. Sydney threatened to kill me and was hospitalized for that about two years ago.
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She made threats that she had a plan one night that she was going to slit my throat and then go drown herself in the bathtub.
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Who was going to help her? She was going to do it all by herself, apparently. Sydney also ran away from home often, but she was always found.
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She'd be spotted, or one of her friends would call Tracy. This time, things were different.
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It had been a week. Plus, Sydney left her purse in her bedroom when she vanished,
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and none of her shoes were missing. That didn't make sense. So you're saying she went barefoot?
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Yeah. And I told the police this. I tried to tell them something was wrong, they would not listen to me.
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Yeah, what's her status with her cell phone during this time frame? Are you letting her use her cell phone at all?
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Sydney does not have a cell phone. It's all gone. No, it is all gone. Back in May, she got suspended from school.
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And the end of April, I had surgery. And she got suspended from school. I took her cell phone away from her because she got suspended from school.
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Sydney had been in some trouble lately. Dakota and Sydney weren't getting along.
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Tracy was chalking it all up to the fact that she had two teenage girls under one roof.
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After finishing up on the computer, Tracy decided to go to bed. I told her, I said, well, I'm going to bed.
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I said, you know, I'll see you later. She says, do you have to work in the morning?
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And I said, yeah. And she said, okay. And I said, good night, love you. And she said, good night, love you too.
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What time do you think that was? About 11.30, somewhere right in there. The reasons I can remember that she said love you too is because nine times out of ten, she hates me.
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Because I'm mom. She don't like my rules. She don't like anything. So when she says love you, I can say it and there's times she will not answer me.
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So these times she answered me. So that's how I know she was in a decent mood. Sydney was happy the night before she vanished.
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That's what was so odd. Whenever Sydney disappeared in the past, she had been building up to a manic episode.
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Everyone could tell something was about to implode. This time, Sydney was calm. The next morning, she was gone.
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You know, something's wrong, and I've been telling the police all week long, something with all of this is not right. I haven't stayed at my house Monday night
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and Tuesday night. I feel like I'm being watched and Dakota gets the same feeling. I feel like I'm
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being watched. There's something creepy about my house and neither one of us will go in there
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without each other or somebody else. Why do you think something would maybe happen? I don't know.
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It's just a gut feeling that something's wrong. Another thing Dakota found on her vanity, which is by her bed on the other side of the room,
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she found the stuff on her vanity had been knocked over. Dakota just picked all that up and just kind of sat it back up because it's not a very sturdy vanity
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and it wouldn't take a whole lot to bump it. It's just that real thin. When did she find that?
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That was Monday evening when me and her were looking through Sydney's room trying to figure out if something was missing.
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And is there anything that you can think of who would want to hurt her? If somebody was going to hurt her, would there be anybody in particular?
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Like I said, I know she doesn't have a lot of friends. I know she's made a lot of people mad.
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I know she was into drugs. Who would she have made really mad or been involved with drug-wise
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that would want to do something to her? I don't really know. But the reason Tracy was at the police station was because that morning
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they had found a body. Two men had been fishing in the local river and spotted something
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floating in the creek. When the police arrived, they pulled up the body of a young woman.
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She was waterlogged and banged up. She was unrecognizable The body had ratchet straps tied around her waist at one end and it was tied to a cinder block on the other
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Whoever this was had suffered multiple bullet wounds to the head. The only identifying factor on the body was a piece of jewelry.
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The dead girl wore a silver necklace with a little musical note charm. We've got to try to identify this person we found.
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We hope it's not your daughter. I just have a really bad feeling. The detectives pushed a photograph toward Tracy of the silver music note necklace.
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We found something. You ever seen that before? Remember she now? That was... I forgot all about that.
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That's something she just recently got. And I think she died from there. Do you know which brand?
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No. I don't know. What was that on? I had seen her wear that. But I hadn't really paid attention to whether or not she had been wearing it lightly.
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I don't remember. Was it on a necklace? What kind of necklace? Just like a chain.
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I didn't like... The girl was Sydney. The 15-year-old had been shot in the head,
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then tied to a cinder block and thrown in the river. But who on earth, in this tiny, close-knit town,
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would want to kill Sydney? The End 15-year-old Sydney Stevens had been found shot dead in a creek and tied down in the water.
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The teenager had a history of mental illness and running away. Sydney's mom Tracy had reported the troubled teen missing a week prior and told police that Sydney had a long history of running away in suicide attempts and that she was also bipolar.
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Sydney had lost a lot of friends over the years and had dated some boys in town,
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but her mother couldn't think of anyone who would want to kill her. Starting from the inside and working their way out,
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the detectives soon brought in Sydney's sister, 17-year-old Dakota, for questioning.
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They were only two years apart and hung out in the same social circles, though they didn't always get along.
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Dakota knew her sister. Maybe she could shine a light on her social life. Can you tell me about your and Sydney's relationship?
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Well, we got along great till puberty. Then it was the don't touch my stuff, I hate you, fall off the dicks of the earth kind of thing.
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Typical teenage sister. Yeah. Thanks. But, like, we got along great unless I was on my period or she was on her period.
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Then we absolutely did not want to be around each other. Sure. But other than that, we got along great unless she was trying to take my stuff and we were fighting about chores or something.
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Though the sisters both loved emo music, punk bands, and dressed like your typical small-town teenage goth chicks, Dakota and Sydney were very different people.
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Dakota is, you see her room, there's, yeah, there's dust bunnies all over the place, but everything is lined up, everything is organized.
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Dakota is OCD and she knows you can go in and move something a quarter of an inch and she's
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gonna walk in immediately know that there's something wrong in that room so let's talk
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about Sydney and her disappearing her disappearance is what everybody originally thought it was where
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were you when you were notified of her disappearance and who's your boyfriend okay does he live here
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Yeah. Where's he live at? I don't know his address, but it's the same little subdivision that only lives.
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Okay. Who called you? Texted Chad and said, have you going to call me when she wakes up?
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And he looked me up and said, call your mom in the nap. And she asked if I knew where Sydney was or anything.
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And I was like, no. She was like, okay. And I was like, why? She's like, Sydney's missing again and I can't find her.
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And I texted all my friends. I said, Sydney's missing again. if you see her or know anyone that gets contact with her, just call me or my mom.
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That's why Dakota said she wasn't super concerned. Sydney had gone missing many times.
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In fact, she'd run away just last summer, but was found hiding in the woods when she ratted herself out to a boy she had a crush on.
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Dakota said that on the night Sydney disappeared, she came home briefly with her boyfriend Chad.
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She only saw Sidney for a minute in the kitchen. I went in the kitchen one time to make food,
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and all she said was, why are you putting that in the microwave? Okay. And other than that, she was just Sidney.
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And when you were there from 11, 11.30 to 3, 3.30, did you stay there at the house the entire time?
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Yeah. Did you ever go outside in the yard? No. Anything like that? No. Do you smoke?
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No. Okay, does Chad smoke? Yeah Okay did you go outside For him to have a cigarette No Anything like that Smoked in my room because we didn smoke in my house Now the one home doesn care anymore so Dakota and Chad left and went to meet some of their friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner
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Then they went out and did whatever dumb things teenagers do. Dakota slept over at Chad's house.
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The next morning, Sydney and Dakota's mom, Tracy, called her daughter to tell her that Sydney was missing.
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And you call your mom. Yeah. And like you said, you know, Sidney's gone. Mm-hmm.
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So what time do you go back to your house? I think his grandma dropped me off about noon.
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Chad leaves work about 1.45 and it takes him a little over an hour to get ready.
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And I think she took me and him to my house at noon because he went with us to drop me off.
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Where does Chad work? Gilster's in Chester. Chad and Dakota had been dating for a while now and things were as serious as serious gets in teenage land.
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Dakota was obsessed with Chad. He was her entire world. Tracy was not happy about any of this.
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Chad wasn't exactly the kind of guy you wanted your daughter to be dating. A guy named Chad never is, I hear.
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He was thuggish, moody. He was a troublemaker. And if that wasn't bad enough, he ran his own gang called the P-Town Saints.
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So what's the deal with this? Explain this gang to me that they're all in. I have no clue.
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I find it stupid, and I told them that it's stupid because if you're going to live in a town of 5,000 people where the majority of the people are prisoners, you don't have a gang.
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Right, we forgot to mention that about Pickneyville. Even though the town has about 5,000 people, 2,200 of those residents are actually inmates at a prison.
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But they classify themselves as a gang. I'm not quite sure. I think something happened with the cops and the cops started calling it a gang.
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I don't remember really. well what uh why would you think the cops would classify it as a gang because at first for what
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i understood of it it was just a whole bunch of friends that had each other's back and it was
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just how regular friends are and someone told the cops they were spray painting and getting
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illegal weapons and illegal drugs and then the cops started saying that they were gang after
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they talked to him and they were just like, okay. Well, who's the original gangsters?
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The only ones I knew of were Chad, Carl, James, Nathan, and Billy. Dakota was playing it down, but the P-Town Saints took themselves very seriously.
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Dakota had become the queen bee of their little crew right after she and Chad became official.
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What an honor. See, every one of them know that if me and Chad are together and they call, and then if I say no, that's how it goes.
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That's how it goes, okay. Because I'm Chad's girlfriend and if I don't want him hanging out with someone or it's just supposed to be me and him,
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if they have a problem with it, they can take it up with me and then they... Okay, sure. So you know what that's telling me?
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What? You're the head girl in the gang. Dakota had become instantly cool when she started dating Chad.
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That's what happens when you start dating at Chad. You become instantly cool. Didn't you, ladies, know that?
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She was someone now to be feared and revered. You can be too, ladies. Just go find yourself at Chad.
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Check the phone book. If y'all still know what that is, I guess. But Dakota wasn't always a cool girl.
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When she was little, Dakota was extremely strange. Tracy reported that for an entire year when she was in grade school, Dakota was convinced that she was a dog and insisted that everyone treat her like a pet.
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She didn't speak. She just barked. What is it? Dog kin or canine kin? Animal kin?
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These degenerate furries will stop at nothing. I'll tell you. After about a year of this nonsense, she stopped and went back to being herself again.
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As Dakota grew into a teenager, she became moody and gravitated towards emo and punk.
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She was obsessed with Kurt Cobain and Twilight Brooks, whatever that is. Sydney really looked up to her big sister.
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She wanted to be just like her. I was going to ask you about Chad. How was his relationship with Sidney?
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What did you always pick up on? He didn't like Sidney a whole lot. I mean, he tolerated her because it was his girlfriend's, Dakota's little sister.
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She never really, there was just one or two times that I can remember that they ever even went together somewhere.
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Like if Dakota was going, I don't think Sidney ever went alone with Chad anywhere.
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When you talked to Sidney before, you said that Sidney really liked Chad. She liked him.
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But as far as him liking her, I mean her that he didn't really care for. Why would that be like?
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Sidney was different because of her being bipolar. and she would, Sydney was all about drama.
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And Chad seemed that he didn't want a lot to do with the drama. And I think more than anything, she just kind of got on his nerves.
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Tracy admitted that Chad and Dakota would be annoyed if she asked them to keep an eye on Sydney.
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But the only thing that I think what I was going to say earlier is the only thing that I could think of that Chad,
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why he wouldn't like her, because with Sydney being bipolar, there were times like whenever I'd go to work or if I had plans to go and do something or whatever,
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Dakota wasn't able to go and do what she wanted to do because I would have to have her stay with
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Sydney. Not all the time. There was, depending on how Sydney's mood was and how she'd acted days
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before, as to whether or not I would leave her by herself or if I would make sure that Dakota was
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with her. Then the police got a hold of Chad. So I understand you're Dakota's boyfriend, is that
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right yeah and how long have you and dakota been together well the 20th of this month it'll be a
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year and a half okay so you've been around sydney for a little while during that time frame yes sir
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i didn't really talk to her too much i mean that's just every now and then we'd have little
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conversations like say my old lady was in the shower you know something like that so did you
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and dakota ever hang out with her and her boyfriends or anything no you guys never went
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places together or anything like that? Nope. She was really jealous of me and Dakota
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by what we had because we've lasted for so long and her boyfriends will last for maybe
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a week, if that. Chad claimed that Sydney would go through boyfriends quickly and that he didn't really know
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any of them. Except that time she dated his good friend Carl Dane. That's who was her boyfriend
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that she'd been seeing over the last four, five, six months. Anybody in particular?
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Well, I don't know. She was with my buddy Carl for maybe two weeks. Who's Carl? Carl Dane.
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Carl Dane? Yeah. Because they were together for a little bit, like I said, maybe two, two and a half weeks.
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But I know as soon as her and Carl broke up, she got real mad at him because he's the one that left her because she cheated, whatever.
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And what time frame would that have been in? When would that have happened when Carl was with her?
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That would be before she ran away the first time. The police decided they should get in touch with Carl Dane.
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See if he knew anything about what happened to Sidney. But before they reached him, they got a call from Sidney's older brother,
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who said that when he ran into Carl a day prior, Carl had told him that he witnessed Sidney's murder.
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Carl Dane was a greasy teenager with a shaggy mushroom cut and a red goatee. The cops were familiar with Carl Dane.
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He had been arrested for minor charges over the years, mostly drugs and stealing.
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So they brought him in for, you know, a little chat. I don't know what you know about what happened to Sidney.
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I don't know anything. Did you talk to anybody last night? No, I was not sure. Did you talk to anybody about any of Sidney's family recently?
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I talked to her brother yesterday over at McDonald's. Okay, and what did you tell her brother yesterday at McDonald's?
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Nothing really. He was asking if I knew anything and I said I didn't. So you didn't tell her brother that you witnessed the whole thing?
00:27:38
No. You're sure about that? Yeah, I didn't tell him that. What did you tell him?
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I told him I didn't know anything about it. it well i mean don't you think that's pretty far off from i mean those two statements are just
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the complete opposite aren't they so how can anybody make a mistake about what what you said
00:28:00
i don't know um so did he get mad at you after you talked to him he seemed pretty pissed while
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i was talking to him why did he seem so pissed it's his sister that all this shit happened to
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I do past this. I'm having my sister, too. Carl's story was suspicious, and he was acting sweaty and strange.
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You seem pretty nervous. Is there any particular reason why you're nervous? Not really, no. I don't really like being in cop stations.
00:28:32
Did you use the date, Sydney? Yeah. When? Like March or April. How long? About a week.
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One week? Why did it end so quick? Well, she got mad one day because I didn't take her fishing, and she just left.
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So I went up to school the next day, and I'm like, hey, if you're going to act like I ain't known, we done.
00:28:58
So you broke up with her, and she didn't break up with you? Yeah, basically. So did you ever make any statements to anybody about being mad at Sydney?
00:29:07
I was mad at her for a little bit, but I got over it. Why were you mad at her since you broke up with her?
00:29:13
Just the way she acted. When we were together. Which was how? She didn't get away she got mad.
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Carl said that he and Sidney only dated for a week or so. And that they did normal couple stuff.
00:29:28
The relationship wasn't that big of a deal. Where did you and Sidney go since you were dating at the time?
00:29:34
Set up at the park, you know, not City Lake. No, I'm not at her house. The longer the detectives talked to Carl, the more they realized he was just a
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nervous, lying teenager. Do you remember where you were on Sunday night? The, what was that?
00:29:53
The 18th? The 18th I was sitting at home That a pretty quick answer How do you know where you were that long ago I just remember you know I remember what I doing you know every once in a while
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Carl claimed he was home with his friend James Glazier. Nothing happened. They just hung out.
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Carl wove a story as he nervously tapped his toe and stuttered. What did you hear about what happened to her?
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About her missing? like Monday afternoon. This last Monday or the Monday before?
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The Monday before. Did you find that out? Chad called and was like, hey, you know, Sidney wasn't missing.
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And when did you find out that Sidney was dead? Just a couple days ago, you know, it was on news.
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Nobody told you? You just saw it on the news? Yeah. Nobody's talked to you about it since then?
00:31:00
Not really. After the interview, detectives took Carl back to his grandfather's house, where he'd been living for a while.
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When they walked onto the property, the police were taken through the garage and spotted something jarring.
00:31:14
A pile of cinder blocks and the same orange ratchet straps. The exact same two things that had been tied to Sidney's dead body in the creek.
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They immediately arrested Carl and took him back to the station. Before they even read him his rights again, Carl said this.
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How you doing, Carl? All right. I'm nervous as fuck. Just hang in there a minute, okay?
00:31:49
Man, what do you tell me how many years I've been looking at if I was a guy? What's that?
00:31:55
You know what you've done in many years? I've been looking at it if I was a guy.
00:31:58
If he was a guy? Oh, you're the guy, you mean? We'll talk about that and let Tim come in and we'll talk about it all together, okay?
00:32:06
Show me how you confessed to a murder without actually confessing to a murder. That's how.
00:32:12
What is it you need to tell us? I was the person that killed me. You were the person that killed Sidney Stevens.
00:32:18
Sidney Stevens. And how did you do that? Well, neither of the doors were unlocked, so I climbed up on the porch.
00:32:32
That door was unlocked, so I walked in there. You're talking about Sydney's house, aren't you?
00:32:38
Yeah. Okay. Walked downstairs where she usually was at, and she was there that night.
00:32:45
So I woke her up, told her, hey, let's go. She didn't want to, so I choked her out and got her to the car.
00:32:56
Whose car? My car. Carl spoke quietly as he confessed to kidnapping Sydney out of her bedroom that Saturday night
00:33:04
and stuffing her into his car. When you say you choked her out, what do you mean by that?
00:33:12
Because she passed out. With your hands? Yeah. And she didn't try to struggle or anything?
00:33:19
She tried. Didn't scratch you? Didn't do nothing like that? You're shaking your head no?
00:33:24
No, she didn't. So who else was in the car? Nobody. Okay, so did you try to restrain her in any way?
00:33:35
No, I put her in the trunk, took her to the bridge, shot her a couple times, pushed her off.
00:33:40
What car were you in? The Pontiac. Your grandpa's Pontiac? Did you shoot her while she was in the car?
00:33:46
No. Well, where did you shoot her at then? I'm not really too sure. I didn't see where the bullets hit.
00:33:52
Where was she at? Laying on the bridge. Was she passed out then or was she awake?
00:33:57
She was passed out. Was she still breathing? I didn't see it. It didn't seem like it.
00:34:03
Carl said that after he shot Sidney and threw her off the bridge, he went back a few days later with that ratchet strap and the cinder block
00:34:12
so he could tie it to her and keep her under the water. And how many times did you shoot?
00:34:18
I shot four times. I don't know how many times I hit. Shot four times. With what?
00:34:26
22 pistol. Where's that pistol at? Bottom of the lake. What lake? I'm not too sure. It's somewhere in Pyramid.
00:34:35
Could you show us? I really can't remember where it's at. I went out and got it from my sweater.
00:34:44
Okay. Where did you get the 22 pistol? Found it. Well, I know you didn't find it, but what did that pistol look like?
00:34:56
It looks like an old-time Luger. Okay. Was it a Ruger? Yeah, it's a Ruger. Ruger 22.
00:35:05
Why all of a sudden did you decide to do this at this point? What triggered it? Did you see her somewhere or something?
00:35:13
I don't really know. I just heard she was a snitch. Okay. And is there something she'd snitch on you about?
00:35:20
Nothing I can think about, but I heard she snitched on one of my friends. And who's your friend?
00:35:24
James. James, the one that we talked about being a pot dealer earlier? Yeah. What was his last name?
00:35:30
Blazer. Carl's story wasn't adding up. It would have been very tough for him to handle this operation all on his own.
00:35:40
Not impossible, but it's unlikely. Plus, by his own admission, Carl dated Sydney for a week before they broke up
00:35:50
That's not much of a motive to murder someone Even for teenagers The cops knew Carl was a part of the P Saints when they brought in James Glazier They found out he was also in the gang
00:36:05
James, I know at one time you was part of a gang, right? Mm-hmm. What's the name of that gang?
00:36:12
P-Town Saints. P-Town Saints. Are you still part of that gang? Yes. You are still part of that gang. And what's your affiliation with the gang?
00:36:19
I am the head of the third man. With his childlike speech impediment, James seemed years younger than he actually was.
00:36:32
I mean, he sounded like about 12 and not 17. But in the grand scheme of things, these boys were all still kids.
00:36:44
Their brains were not fully developed yet. And here they were at the police station being questioned about a murder.
00:36:54
That's some great parenting, guys. James took his duty as head soldier of the P-Town Saints very seriously
00:37:02
and told the cops the basic rules of the gang. We don't hit women. We don't lie to each other.
00:37:11
We don't steal from each other. And we'll always say we'll buy each other's side no matter what.
00:37:15
You said you're third in command? Mm-hmm. Who's the two ahead of you? Carl and Chad.
00:37:21
Carl who? Dang. See, how do you mean he's ahead of you? He's second in command. Okay.
00:37:29
And what's his title? Second in command. He's second in command. What's his duties?
00:37:35
He's one higher than me, so he makes sure I do my duties on keeping everybody else in line.
00:37:43
And who's this other guy you're talking about? Chad Bennett. And what's he? OG. And what's that?
00:37:50
He's top original game star. James said he was at Carl's house the night that Sidney disappeared.
00:37:58
In fact, James had been living at Carl's grandpa's house for weeks. Now that the cops had Carl's confession, they knew that James was wrapped up in this too.
00:38:10
To my knowledge, your name has been brought up, and now you're going to be charged and you're not going to leave here.
00:38:15
Now's not the time to play games. Now's the time for the game. Now's the time for the truth.
00:38:20
If you want to talk to us, we're more than happy to talk to you to get to the bottom of it
00:38:25
because that little girl did not deserve what happened to her. I don't know what you're talking about.
00:38:30
I didn't mold a no one. The people that was there with you said you was there and you was in on it.
00:38:36
I didn't do anything. I wasn't no well. I was at Carl's. You was with Carl. You know where Carl is?
00:38:44
I think he's at his mom. No. He's sitting back here. He is in jail. For what? You think he did it?
00:38:52
He is charged with first, he said he did, with first degree murder. When did he do it?
00:38:58
When you was with him. When you was with him. I wasn't with him. He said you was, and you sat here and said you was with him the whole time.
00:39:04
Yeah, for the last three weeks you've been with him. He ain't left his sight. Everything he's done, you've done.
00:39:09
That's when James asked to stop and have an attorney present. The cops agreed and left the room.
00:39:17
After a while, they came back and James changed his mind. He didn't want a lawyer. He was willing to talk.
00:39:25
He just wanted his mom there with him. So they brought her into the room. You need to. I think no matter what, you know what you did and you need to talk to the cops.
00:39:36
And I think that's the only way to keep Carl from hurting you. Okay? Do it. Okay, James. So you want to talk to us now, right?
00:39:49
Yeah, does that mean, like, I do, but... He's scary. James, there's no... You know what the word equivocate means?
00:39:57
No. Well, there's no compromise, okay? In other words, you either want to talk to us or you don't want to talk to us, okay?
00:40:06
Talk. Talk. No. He's 100% sure he's in jail. He can't help me. He's in jail. He's in jail.
00:40:13
He can't hurt you. Okay, he's in isolation. James confessed everything. Carl hadn't done this alone.
00:40:23
Then there was another boy there from the gang. Robbie Mueller. They all drove to Sidney's house in Carl's grandpa's car.
00:40:32
Literal children murdering other children. He told us on the way what he was doing.
00:40:40
And he said if we ever talk, we were dead. Okay, then what did he say? He told you what we were going to do? What did he say?
00:40:47
He told us that we were going to take Sydney and go. He told us we were going to.
00:40:53
And he had the gun down his pants, a .22 pistol. And if we didn't cooperate, he would shoot us on the spot.
00:41:00
When they got to Sydney's house, James and Carl snuck in together while Robbie waited outside as the lookout.
00:41:08
The enemy told me to wake her up and take her up, so I tried. He tried to run and scream.
00:41:13
What kind of tape do you have? I had regular, like, white tape, yes. Okay, and then what happened?
00:41:20
I grabbed up some Tracy's and wake up. Because Tracy woke up, Carl was going to shoot her.
00:41:24
I wanted to kill Tracy. How did you know that Carl was going to shoot Tracy? He told us before we walked in.
00:41:30
He said, no, leave no witnesses. James tried to get Sidney to come with them, but she fought.
00:41:37
I asked her to be quiet. She started walking. and I taped her hands up because Carl told me to
00:41:42
and I started taking them out when she ripped it and told your mom I had to stop her glad they were. Tracy died.
00:41:49
That's when James and Robbie tackled Sydney and choked her until she passed out Then Robbie and Carl dragged her out the door while James pulled the car around They shoved Sidney limp body inside and Carl took over in the driver seat
00:42:06
And then we got back in the car, and Carl told us that if we ever talked, he made this clear he would kill us on the spot.
00:42:14
So who drove? He did. And where'd you guys go? We went down to almost to Cutchtown, down by the bridge.
00:42:23
I closed my eyes, Robbie turned around, and Carl put like four shots at heart. Carl shot Sidney and then gave his instructions.
00:42:33
He pointed to me and Robbie and told us to put your hand, and we did. He told me to kick right here and told Robbie to push right here, and when I did, the whole body went with the head.
00:42:41
James and Robbie kicked Sidney's lifeless body through the rails, and she tumbled down into the water with a splash.
00:42:50
The boys got in the car and left. So then what did you guys do? Went back, buried the gun, buried the clothes.
00:43:01
Where did you bury the gun? We buried it behind the shed, one shed at Carlos' grandpa's house.
00:43:08
Do you know what got the gun? Yeah. Listen to James' reaction here. He's truly shocked that the cops found the gun they buried.
00:43:19
Teenagers can be so fucking short-sighted, literally stupid, yet they think they're so much smarter than everyone else.
00:43:31
Have you noticed? After burying the gun, they buried all the clothes they were wearing along with their latex gloves.
00:43:40
Yeah, nobody will find those. Just like Carl had confessed, they came back a few days later and attached the cinder block and ratchet straps to Sydney's body.
00:43:52
I did not really feel like touching the body. I was hanging anything, so I just wrapped it like right here.
00:43:57
On her arm? Yeah, and threw it in. Well, how did you get to her? She was in the water.
00:44:02
No, she was underneath the bridge and she floated back up towards the land. The detectives wanted to know if Chad knew about this.
00:44:09
After all, he was their gang leader, the original gangsta. Carl and Chad talked about this in front of Dakota?
00:44:45
Yeah, she was sleeping one time, and me and Carl were talking about it. I don't know if Chad was paying attention.
00:44:51
She was in the back on Chad. Well, I think they were sleeping, and me and Carl were talking about it in the front.
00:44:55
You talking about it in the car now? Me and Carl were talking, and Chad and Dakota, I looked back,
00:45:00
and they both had their eyes closed, and I thought they were sleeping. And Dakota?
00:45:05
Ah, well, Dakota had claimed she knew nothing about any of this. even though she was the queen of the P-Town Saints.
00:45:13
But then Tracy said something in passing that stopped the detectives dead in their tracks.
00:45:19
Sidney wrote a lot of things down. Thoughts, feelings, things that were kind of weird, in my opinion.
00:45:28
There had been rumors a while back and somewhere written down in a notebook that Dakota come across,
00:45:38
it said something about at one point in time, Sydney had slept with Chad. Though Dakota played it off like she was
00:45:46
the most confident girl in the world, she was always a little skeptical of Chad when it came to other girls.
00:45:54
Do you ever look at his phone? No. Okay, yes. I was going to say, don't even go there.
00:45:59
Don't even go there. It's only to see who we text, but most of the time it's just text messages from me.
00:46:04
Okay, did you look at his phone that night? No. When was the, when did you look at it?
00:46:08
I've kind of looked at, it's been over a month since I looked at it. Because there's been, I've heard sometimes that he was cheating on me, so I was looking through, I just don't see anything, and I never see anything.
00:46:19
But it was just people trying to start stuff. Sometimes people aren't starting stuff.
00:46:24
Some people, sometimes they just don't know how to go about telling somebody that they know, that they like, that they care about, that this guy could be a creepo and he's messing around on you.
00:46:38
I hope he's not. What would happen if he was messing around on you? I'd be very, very, very upset.
00:46:44
Very upset? Yeah. If Dakota admitted she would be very, very, very upset if Chad cheated on her with another girl, how much rage would fill her if she thought that girl was her own little sister?
00:47:15
The End with bipolar disorder and a history of running away from home. But this time, she'd really gone missing.
00:47:54
She was found dead in a creek, and her ex-boyfriend Carl Dane, along with his friends,
00:48:00
James Glazier and Robbie Mueller had admitted to kidnapping and murdering Sydney.
00:48:06
The boys all belonged to a gang named the P-Town Saints, and the head of the gang, Chad Bennett, also happened to be Sydney's older sister's boyfriend.
00:48:17
Carl, James, and Robbie were all arrested for Sydney's murder. But it was still unclear as to who truly killed Sydney.
00:48:28
James confessed to choking Sydney until she passed out while Carl admitted to shooting her
00:48:34
However, if she was already dead when Carl shot her then James was the one who actually caused her initial death
00:48:43
not Carl The police needed to figure this out if only for the benefit of the family
00:48:51
Sydney's sister Dakota and Chad basically walked free Dakota was arrested briefly for obstructing an investigation
00:49:01
but was released there was nothing concrete tying them to the murder other than the suspected motive and their affiliation
00:49:10
Carl, James and Robbie didn't have any real motive to murder Sydney either other than the fact that they didn't like her
00:49:20
but Dakota had a motive She thought Sydney had slept with Chad and she was sick of the fact that she had to babysit her sister's mental illness all of the fucking time.
00:49:34
While Carl, James, and Robbie sat in jail, Dakota and Chad went on living their lives.
00:49:42
They even talked about getting married. Tracy was beside herself. Because Chad got Dakota something for her birthday that costs over $800 and she thinks it's an engagement ring.
00:49:53
Dakota was about to turn 18 and Tracy knew that her daughter would no longer be under her legal guardianship.
00:50:01
I'm scared to death that she's going to take off and go marry Chad in 12, 13 more days.
00:50:06
Like the police, Tracy also had a feeling that he was behind Sidney's murder plot.
00:50:13
So Tracy asked her boyfriend's daughter to try to talk with Dakota. and I had texted Laura and a couple other family members asking them to please talk some sense into her to not marry this jerk
00:50:28
basically because I've talked to her until I'm purple in the face and it gets me nowhere
00:50:33
well Laura instead of calling to talk to her actually came out to mine and Randy's house this evening
00:50:37
and sat outside for a couple of hours actually at least outside with nobody else around
00:50:45
and she more opened up to Laura than she has with me or anything else. She would say things about Chad and how much his involvement was
00:50:56
and Dakota would either agree or disagree with what she was saying. The cops got Laura on the phone and she relayed what Dakota had confessed.
00:51:08
I said, but if Chad is so innocent, then let the evidence prove that he's innocent and you have nothing to worry about.
00:51:19
I said, but you're sitting here worried right now. So correct me if I'm wrong. And she just kind of looked up and she started bawling.
00:51:28
And I said, you know more than people know you know. And I know that. I said, and I have known that.
00:51:36
and she just, all she'd do is kind of shake her head, yeah, shake her head, yeah, shake her head,
00:51:42
yeah, and I said, now, you tell me, is it fair, you want to keep your boyfriend, but your mom
00:51:50
didn't get to keep her daughter, and I just kind of, and it sounds horrible, because I was crying
00:51:55
too, honest to God, I do care about the girl, but I just kind of kept, and it sounds mean, but I just
00:51:59
kept kind of breaking her down, and breaking her down, and breaking her down, and I said, now look,
00:52:04
let me help you i can help you i can help you have a future you can go to college you can
00:52:11
you know all the reality of things i said or you can keep things the way they are and either end
00:52:17
up in prison because you look like a liar because you're not talking or end up in a mental institution
00:52:24
because it'll fester at you enough you'll lose your mind dakota was a scared little girl pretending
00:52:29
to be tough. So she told Laura she would talk to the cops on her terms. She's like anti-authority 17-year-old kid.
00:52:40
She doesn't want it to be an interrogation on her. And I told her it wouldn't. It'd be polite, questions being asked.
00:52:48
Okay, you know, what about this? You know, and she, it really needs to be anonymous as possible
00:52:55
because she's scared. I think there's more than she even let on to me because she didn't say a whole lot, but she would agree or disagree.
00:53:04
There was a lot more than Dakota let on, and everyone was about to find out. In the fall of 2012 Robbie Mueller decided to give a proffer statement to police clarifying who actually killed Sydney that night and why they all plotted her murder
00:53:24
Maybe Robbie was trying to save his own butt, but maybe he was telling the truth.
00:53:30
The state needed to charge these kids. Sydney needed justice, and this would get them one step closer.
00:53:38
I was by the door, and they walked up to her. James went to put some tape around her mouth and she took it off and stood up and I guess thought it was a joke because she just stood up like normal and didn't act like anything was going on.
00:53:52
And then Carl had the gun pointed at her and that's when she kind of flipped out and James grabbed her and they wrestled to the ground and everything.
00:54:04
and Carl walked over towards me and stood by me. And she was kind of out wrestling and everything,
00:54:13
and Carl told me, help him. And I went over and I put her in a chokehold. Show him. Show him.
00:54:23
And she went unconscious. This is just so sick and vicious. These boys had a rule in their gang,
00:54:32
no hitting women. yet kidnapping and choking a woman until she passed out was somehow acceptable.
00:55:04
Kept it on her for quite a long time. He put her in a chokehold again and held it for several minutes.
00:55:13
And he stopped, checked her pulse, and there wasn't one. It must have been three, four minutes, I'm guessing.
00:55:21
According to Robbie, it was James who killed Sidney with his chokehold. If Sidney was dead when they put her in the car,
00:55:31
then Carl's gunshots were not murder. Robbie also told the cops that the P-Town Saints had some rules everyone had to follow.
00:55:41
Yeah, you're not supposed to talk about stuff over the phone. Not supposed to associate with Sydney, which I would.
00:55:50
That was part of the game's rules, or excuse me, the P-Town Saints rules. You couldn't talk to certain people.
00:55:57
And one of them was Sydney. Yeah. It was unclear as to who made this rule. Dakota, Chad, or Carl.
00:56:04
But it was a rule that the gang had written down on paper and told every member to memorize and follow.
00:56:13
Robbie then said that he heard Chad, James, and Carl planning Sidney's kidnapping and murder.
00:56:21
It was Carl, James, and Chad. I was in my, Chad's truck, and I went and used the bathroom.
00:56:28
I came out, they would stand by his truck, and the only words I ever heard was, tell me what night you want to do it
00:56:33
and I'll make sure Dakota leaves the door unlocked. Did you hear that? I'll make sure Dakota leaves the door unlocked?
00:56:41
James, Carl, and Robbie were all looking at life sentences. If they could prove their involvement,
00:56:49
Chad and Dakota could face the same. The town was disgusted with this savage murder
00:56:56
and the state wanted these bullies to pay. About a week after Robbie's proffer statement, the cops had Dakota back in to talk.
00:57:06
Now, she had dyed pink hair and it was cut short. She looked skinny and sickly as she sat down.
00:57:15
Here's the thing. Jessica tells us that you made a statement about you knew that they were going to try to scare Sidney the night of murder.
00:57:29
Jessica tells us that, okay? Jessica also tells us that you unlocked the door for Chad, the sliding glass door.
00:57:40
Remember on the balcony? She said you guys talked about that. Now you remember when I talked to you about that, you never would admit to me that you unlocked the door for Chad, okay?
00:57:52
I didn't unlock the door for him. Why would Jessica tell you that? Tell us. She has nothing to gain.
00:58:01
She has nothing to gain. She didn't. Because see what? She didn't know. The reason she's saying that is she's saying that you believed that this is supposed to,
00:58:13
what you told her, is that you believed that they were going to come and scare her.
00:58:18
Because of the sleeping deal with Chad. With Sidney and Chad possibly sleeping together.
00:58:23
And hold on, let me finish, and then you can go. While she was briefly locked up Dakota confessed to her cellmate that she had left the door unlocked so the boys could scare Sydney And she did it because her sister had slept with Chad She saying that you did it so that they could come in and scare her not to kill her
00:58:51
And, you know, she's not adding to this. She's saying, you know, she even says in her statement,
00:58:59
and she told me that if she knew that they were going to kill her sister, that she wouldn't have done it.
00:59:06
I mean, that's too detailed. This doesn't make sense with what you're saying. I don't remember telling her that, though.
00:59:14
And this one here, she says that you come in and told how much you hated your sister and was glad that she was gone.
00:59:24
And then she asked me why I was in jail, and I told her what it was for. And I said, well, I think it's, oh, I have a lot to do with my mom.
00:59:32
And she was like, well, why? I was like, well, I was like, my mom thinks that I wanted my sister dead
00:59:36
because she was apparently sleeping with my boyfriend, but I never knew if it was true or not.
00:59:41
That's what I told her. And then she asked me if I believed it. I told her I really didn't know because I knew she had known me before,
00:59:47
but I didn't think that Sidney would want to do that to hurt me. While Dakota was whimpering to the officers,
00:59:54
Chad was down the hall and they were about to arrest him. Do you think Chad is going to protect you anymore?
01:00:01
He wasn't doing it. He didn't win. Well, you know, I think Chad was protecting himself at the beginning.
01:00:09
All those interviews that we conducted with him, and I still think he was protecting you.
01:00:14
But what you have to understand is Chad isn't ready to be arrested right now, too.
01:00:20
One of these days, what's Chad going to tell us? That's going to hurt you down the road.
01:00:25
I had everything to do. And that's what you send in too, but he may say something like that.
01:00:30
Yeah. But you know what? You're the one that's here first right now with us, and you're the one that can make it right first.
01:00:37
Okay. You're the one that's, you know what? You're the one that's been hurting this entire time.
01:00:43
You're the one that's been living with this in your entire time. Can you hold it?
01:00:48
So what is it? What is it? What did he tell you? What did he ask you to do? Okay.
01:00:57
The police pressed Dakota for hours until she finally cracked. It took two years, but she admitted to the truth.
01:01:06
What did you do to that door? Tell me. Huh? What did you do? He told me to walk in the space.
01:01:17
Okay, look at me. Take your hands away from your mouth and look at me. What did you do?
01:01:22
He told me to walk in the door, but he never said walk. and you unlock the door.
01:01:30
Now I want to be purposeful clear on something about this door, okay? You're telling the truth when you say that you left it unlocked,
01:01:37
which Chad asked you to. Is that right? Yeah. And that's the only reason you're telling us that,
01:01:41
because it's the truth. I don't want it to be because that's what we've been talking about the whole time.
01:01:47
Now, is it the truth or not? Yeah. The P-Town Saints had planned Sydney's kidnapping and murder together.
01:01:57
Dakota was aware, even though she didn't know everything. She unlocked the door so they could execute their plan.
01:02:06
James strangled Sydney until she was dead. Carl drove the car and shot Sydney. Robbie was forced to go along at gunpoint.
01:02:17
All the boys together rolled Sydney into the creek and tied her down with a cinder block.
01:02:24
And Chad. Chad allegedly provided the guns Chad organized the plan Chad motivated his crew
01:02:33
But Chad kept his hands clean He was the OG, after all He didn't have to get his hands dirty
01:02:43
He just had to point his finger and say, go 15-year-old Robbie Mueller took a reduced sentence for his proffer statement
01:02:52
He was originally given 26 years, but after some complications with his lawyer, the appeal, and a heartfelt court date where he received Tracy Stevens' forgiveness, he was given a lighter sentence.
01:03:08
He will be out this year. James Glazier got 60 years. Carl Dane pleaded guilty to murder and was given 60 years as well.
01:03:20
But the day before he was supposed to be transported to the prison, he hung himself in a cell.
01:03:29
Chad Bennett was initially arrested for kidnapping, home invasion, and first-degree murder.
01:03:35
But in 2013, all the charges were dropped. The DA filed a no-lay-prosequi, which means he did not wish to prosecute the case at the time.
01:03:46
The reason There weren any witnesses to testify All the living P Saints as well as Dakota refused to testify against their precious leader even though they were offered immunity Dakota Wall was given 26 years on the home
01:04:06
invasion charge. She is now out of prison and living her life. Judging by her Facebook page,
01:04:15
she seems to be doing just great. And by the looks of it, she's even got a new boyfriend.
01:04:20
Sydney Stevens may have been a pain-in-the-butt little sister who required as much attention as the next needy teenager.
01:04:30
But that was Sydney. She was 15. What 15-year-old isn't a bit annoying, moody, and headstrong?
01:04:40
She had an unstable upbringing and a lot of severe mental issues. What Sydney needed was love from her family.
01:04:49
so she would know that there was more to life than the sad little cycle she was stuck in.
01:04:57
Instead, she got neglected, rejected by her big sister, and left downstairs in the basement.
01:05:07
Sidney would likely have grown up and matured into a decent young woman. Maybe she would have found therapy
01:05:14
and tackled her demons head on. Maybe not. We're all imperfect. We all have our own problems.
01:05:25
The point isn't what Sydney could have become. The point is what she never got the chance to try to become
01:05:33
because of her own sister and four displaced, dysfunctional boys who decided to try to prove to each other
01:05:43
just how tough they all really were by killing a defenseless teenage girl. The P-Town Saints were a bunch of children playing gangster.
01:05:57
Now one of them is dead and the other will be in jail until he dies. And Chad? Well, Chad finally got his.
01:06:09
In 2018, he pleaded guilty to the home invasion charge in order to avoid the first-degree murder.
01:06:15
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison Speaking of years, it took eight of them But justice was finally served
01:06:27
Rest in peace, Sidney You didn't find love in this world But maybe you'll find peace in the next
01:06:45
Well, that's going to wrap it up here. Thank you for joining us once again. If you haven't heard it yet, check out Certain Scale Nightmares.
01:07:18
It's available now for free on Spotify, Apple, all the things. And you might like it.
01:07:25
And there's like 30 episodes now, so go check it out. And stay safe. Hey, great show.
01:08:05
Calling to Wayne on the figure debate. So, let me give a little background. I watch a lot of Formula 1, MotoGP, and its base out of Europe.
01:08:14
and all the commentators are English and they say figure. So I'm pretty sure they invented the English language.
01:08:23
So I think you win on this one, Mike. Thank you.